A/N: Thank you again to my reviewers: Destatikai, lucin--now Drink. Juice :D--eolhcsullivan, and IH8Abbrieviations.
I worked on this prompt in between editing my co-written original manuscript (I probably should have just focused entirely on editing, seeing as I have to finish so I can have it ready to submit to my publisher, but Vaan/Penelo are just eating my brain). I decided, for future reference, that it might not be such a good idea to go back and forth between the two when I mention Ashe at all, because it just so happens that for five years now, "Ashe" has been an older, male fairy character in these original novels, for much longer than I've known Ashe, Queen of Dalmasca. Trying to switch my brain between Ashe-older-male-fairy and Ashe-teenage-queen can be a little awkward in my head sometimes. ;)
And…on with the next prompt. I'm not doing so terribly as I thought I might--already got seven out of the fifty done, and it's only been a week! Huzzah!
Prompt #21 - Stutter
Penelo lay shivering in the tent she was sharing with Ashe and Fran, her blanket wrapped around her like a cocoon. Everything but her eyes and nose was completely covered, but she was still freezing. She had lost feeling in her fingers and toes hours ago, despite her gloves and boots. She wasn't sure how Fran, who hadn't even bothered to purchase any warm clothing at the bottom of the Paramina Rift, could possibly be alive, let alone sleeping so peacefully.
She had no idea how long it was actually going to take to get all the way up to Mt. Bur-Omisace, but this was only their first night camping out and she was ready to turn around and head back until she reached the Golmore Jungle. Marlboros and hellhounds were starting to look quite inviting in comparison.
She huddled further under her blanket, to little avail. Even Ashe was managing to sleep, and though she was covered in every possible thick piece of clothing she'd been able to get her hands on, Penelo was still mildly flabbergasted. They were from the same climate, after all; so why wasn't Ashe shaking like crazy?
After a while longer, Penelo finally gave up. She wanted to be warm, and she wasn't getting warm here. Disentangling herself from her blanket, she snatched it up, took a deep breath, and plunged out of the tent. The icy wind sent a shock through her, sucking her breath out of her lungs. It was so cold that she wouldn't have been surprised if she had frozen solid right there, but somehow, she made the dive across the short space to the men's tent. She let in a blast of snow when she pushed into it, causing Balthier to roll over, and Basch to bolt upright, reaching instinctively for his sword. Vaan half sat, blinking at her.
Basch lowered his hand when he saw Penelo, shaking like a leaf at the entrance to the tent. "Penelo? Are you well?"
"J-j-just f-f-fine," she stuttered. "S-sorry to w-w-wake you." Without further explanation, she crawled over to Vaan. Silently, he unwound his blanket from around himself and lifted the edge of it so she could slip underneath it. She spread her own blanket on top of both of them, and then curled up against Vaan.
Basch looked at them for a moment, as if considering speaking, but then lay back down.
Penelo was a little warmer now that she had Vaan and two blankets, but she wasn't actually getting any of the body heat he usually exuded, being that they were both wearing thick clothing. Still, it was better than it had been before.
Not enough to get her to stop shivering, though, and Vaan kept opening his eyes to frown at her, either out of concern for her or because he was annoyed that she was keeping him awake. He finally yanked off his gloves, grabbed her hands, and before she could protest, he pulled hers off, too. "Gods, your hands are like icicles," he whispered as his hands, somehow warm, touched hers.
To her further surprise, he pulled her hands up underneath his layers of shirts and pressed them against his stomach, letting out a hissing breath when her freezing skin made contact. Though Penelo was still shivering, she felt strangely hot as her fingers tensed against Vaan's muscles, and especially when his hands worked their way under her jacket and stopped on her back, on top of the bodysuit she always wore. Though there was still a layer of clothing between his hands and her skin, his touch sent a shudder through her body that she didn't think had anything to do with the cold.
"Well, that's why you're freezing," he muttered to her. "Didn't you take this off before you stuck on all your warmer gear?"
"N-n-no." Penelo flipped her hands over so that the backs of them could get warm on Vaan's skin. "I thought th-that the m-m-more clothes I wore, the b-b-better."
Vaan sighed in her ear. "That bodysuit was made to be worn in a desert, Penelo."
"S-so?"
"So don't you remember Migelo talking about the shipment of cloth he got that rejected heat?"
"N-no."
"Hm. Oh, that's right. You weren't there that day."
"Y-y-you remember something about cloth?" she asked disbelievingly, teeth chattering harder than ever.
"Only because he went on and on about it and that's when he gave me that outfit--" Vaan poked her in the back "--and told me to give it to you."
"…and you c-couldn't have mentioned this earlier?"
"I didn't think about it! It's just--clothes. Who cares what they're made out of?"
Though they were speaking in undertones, Penelo darted a look over toward Basch and Balthier, afraid they would wake them. "I d-d-do, when I'm traveling through a b-b-blizzard!"
"That's why I'm mentioning it now."
Had Penelo not been so grateful for the warmth of his skin under her hands, she might have stuck her tongue out at him. She was also a little afraid her tongue might decide to freeze that way if she did, so she kept it in her mouth. "I d-d-don't know. W-wouldn't my other c-c-clothes keep the heat in?"
"I don't know. There's only one way to find out."
"Vaan, if y-y-you are suggesting I s-strip right now--"
"You're still shivering."
"I'll w-warm up."
She felt him shrug. "Okay."
Ten minutes later, Penelo's hands and arms were warm, as was the one part of her back where Vaan's hands rested, but the rest of her could not seem to get rid of the chill. She started thinking that maybe Vaan did have a point about her outfit.
Ten minutes after that, she was still too cold to care about anything but getting warm, so she decided to give Vaan's theory a shot. She sat up and made him hold a blanket in front of her, blocking her view of Basch and Balthier. His eyes were screwed shut as she worked as quickly as she could to get her desert outfit off of herself. They were both shuddering and probably half-frostbitten by the time she had managed to redress herself in only her warm clothes, and she hastily shoved her arms back up Vaan's shirt while they huddled under the blankets. His hands again found their way onto her back, this time touching her skin, and she reflexively jerked when she felt how cold they were. "Ahh! N-now whose hands are l-l-like icicles?"
"Yours aren't s-so w-w-warm, either," Vaan reminded her.
She plastered herself to his body and pressed her cheek against his, greedily absorbing any warmth he had to offer. Gradually both of them stopped shuddering and shaking, and Penelo finally began to feel comfortably sleepy.
"You know," Vaan murmured, half-asleep, his face pressed against her neck, sharing in what little heat she had to offer in return, "we'd probably be a lot warmer without any clothes at all. Ow!" he complained when Penelo pinched him.
Penelo's face burned, and she was glad Vaan couldn't see it. "Don't push your luck."
"Hey, I'm not the one who crawled in here to steal my warmth."
"I'm not the one who suggested we get naked."
"Ungghh…will you two please hush or go get your own tent?" Balthier groaned from the far side of the tent.
Penelo suppressed a giggle. "I think Balthier could do with some extra warmth," she said in a loud whisper.
"Maybe Ashe would be available," Vaan added.
Basch sat straight up next to them and gave them a warning look that could have melted half the snow on the Paramina Rift. Instead of sobering them, it made both Vaan and Penelo burst into laughter.
Balthier muttered something about "immature" and "teenagers."
Penelo smiled vaguely, her eyes closing, and breathed a contented sigh against Vaan's cheek as she drifted off to sleep, wrapped snugly--and warmly--in his arms.
