By Stormytitan

Uno paced the Trenraka residence's porch and bit the end of his thick thumb nail. Pino came by after about fifty paces and watched the nervous nips at his fattest digit for about four more paces before speaking up in her melodic tones-

"What in all of Spira could be troubling you, Uno?"

Her honey sweet voice jerked his head up from where his downcast eyes had dragged it. He stood still, in his hunched pose, his arm bent to bring his thumb jutting from his fist up to his chewing lips, and stared at her like he forgot how to properly respond. To rescue him a little bit, she laughed and tilted her head a little to the left, "Well, you goof?"

"I's uh," He looked down at his bare feet, the mud from the Moonflow marking the bottom of his flat soles, "Well- Do youse think Sano an' I are friends?"

He was still thinking about that. Afternoon had crept up on the Trenraka house, and Uno still didn't have enough guts to seek Sano out and doubly apologize. First for the night before, then for the incident this past morning.

"Hmm," Pino thought deeply before coming up with a soft smile, "I'm sure you'd know if you weren't. That must mean your friends."

Uno spat out the bit of nail that his teeth ripped off, returning to his pacing of the porch. After a while, his bumbling voice wavered uneasily through the air towards her, "But what if he don't want me as a friend?"

Pino lightly chuckled, her brows arching curiously, "Why wouldn't he?"

Uno spun his eyes in his sockets, searching for something to say, "Uhm, like he's mad at me for eavesdropping on him and his dad…er Captain Hoto."

"Well," Pino peered down at her white robe briefly, looking a little embarrassed herself, before she lifted her chin smoothly and said in a dignified voice, "I suppose in that case Sano would have no friends, since we are all equally guilty of that transgression."

She was obviously referring to the night before. Uno shook his head, "No's, like, I's just did it by myself this morning, again. I didn't mean to but, ah- Sano's been giving me glares all day."

It must've had something to do with the fact that Sano had cried a little that morning, and didn't want any of the boys to know. Uno wasn't going to tell a soul, and he wished he had a moment alone with Sano where he could promise him that; with a pinky swear and an x over his heart, that he'd solemnly never tell no one. But, even in groups, Sano was making it hard to so much as look up at him with his deeply grimacing face.

Pino lowered her shoulders, thinking and observing Uno's honestly defeated look. She offered a tiny smile, "Do you want to be friends?"

After some thought, Uno nodded.

"Then go apologize," Pino waved him off, "Go on, and do it now. You'll feel better if nothing else."

"Okay."

"So why do they call you 'Hoto'?" Sano twisted his nose a sideways, his thin eyes gazing over the heated light of the lowering sun towards his father, "It's a stupid name if you really think about it."

Similar questions had been asked periodically throughout the day, since the Old Man was pretty serious about finally taking up his fatherly duties. Sano, in turn, had a duty himself, being the only kid left for Hoto to finish up raising, to be the guinea pig to his clumsy and awkward parental claims and actions. So, Sano wanted a couple of blanks filled so the already bumpy road of this experiment could run as smoothly as possible. He took advantage of it and asked freely, in front of anyone and no one, to get information out of Hoto.

Hoto shook his head lightly, a dismissive motion, and a slight slant of his mouth showed that a soft smile was settled on his face. This is the way he had answered a few of Sano's inquiries. So far, along with this question, Sano couldn't quite ask Hoto about him and his mother when they were younger and first in love. Though his father didn't seem necessarily put off when asked about them either. Indeed, Hoto just glanced at him, the creases on his face years lighter, less harsh, his eyes twinkling with enjoyment, shook his head a couple of times, then when back to whatever he was doing.

But, apparently that is not how it was going to be this time, with his recently asked question.

As soon as Sano finished up asking about the origins of Hoto's name, Bask piped up with an excited and shrill cry-

"OH~!" Bask's smile cracked his face in half and he clapped his skeletal hands together, all too pleased to share and ready to joyfully answer, "That's because Harlan's old nickname was-Eep!"

Click

The now cocked gun inched closer to the end of Bask's pale nose, "Say another word," Hoto growled, "And it will be the end of that face of yours."

"We used to call him 'Hoot' so he switched the last two letters around when he made up his alias," Nanbu leaned casually back into his bent elbows and grinned at Hoto's agitated face, "Aww, Hoot's mad that I told."

"Damn right, I hated that ridiculous nickname," Hoto ignored the snickers and half-hidden chortles from the trainees, including Uno who cautiously approached from the house.

"Then why'd you pick that as your alias?" Sano smiled a bit and lifted his head a little from his shoulders. He enjoyed gathering information, especially on his father now that he had the chance. It had made him feel progressively better as the day drew on, that is, unless Uno showed his bumbling face. Then, he'd remember the morning and feel a prick of annoyance. However, that was forgotten, and he didn't bother making a face at Uno, who was sitting down next to Captain Nanbu to join the unshapely circle of human bodies made in the yard.

"The name just stuck," Nanbu answered Sano with another devilish grin towards a glaring inverted-eyed gunner.

"Why did you call him 'Hoot?'," Jac, finishing up something of a high-pitched giggle, looked at Bask expectantly. Jac never was withheld the answers to his questions.

The Alchemist, now out of the danger of being shot, smiled and patted the top of Jac's orange head, "Because Chicken, he looked an awful lot like an owl with his inverted eyes. Like a barn owl to be exact. So 'Hoot' was in reference to that. Captain Nanbu brought it up first, I believe. When were were all trainees ourselves."

Kodai came down the hill from the house toting a pile of books with him, "I saw Uno's near lateness. Better hurry up in the future, Mydo, or you'll miss part of the lessons."

It was announced sometime around noon that Kodai thought Sano and the rest of them had enough rest and indoor reading. It was time to learn past the petty basics of Black Magic, and nothing was better then to learn by experience. It was apparently also better that it happen at dusk, when the power and calm of the Moonflow was more prominent, making it easier for beginners to focus on the energy of their magic and the elements.

"He made it didn't he? Lay off, Vicorot," Nanbu defended and held out his meaty hand, flicking his fingers commandingly, "What do you got there? I thought we were done with the books!"

A black leather-bound textbook was placed in the Captain's hand. Nanbu lifted it and read the silver lettering on the cover slowly, "Enchantments of Weaponry? Aw, come on-"

"It's a useful skill," Hoto nodded his head, smiling, and looked down at the end of his cigarette as his sulfur match lit it, "I myself use it quite a bit. Have you been helping yourself to my bookshelf, Magician?"

"I believe that was expected." Kodai replied evenly.

"Ha! No enchantments going to help you if you can just beat it down with your good ol' fists," Nanbu grinned, revealing his broad canines brightly in the late light, and lifted his fists up for good show, "Hoto, you know it wouldn't help you any if I went all out on you."

Hoto blinked, his cigarette twitching in his mouth, "Well, we'd never done that and I'd rather not waste my energy proving you wrong."

"That right?" Nanbu confidently leaned forward before bumping Uno in his side, "Well, we'll have to do that one day, won't we?"

Uno rubbed his side with a smile on his face before looking at Sano and Hoto's direction, both mumbling without the other's knowledge, in accidental unison. "Idiot."

"So to begin," Kodai brought all the cadets attention back to him, "First you must-

The attention paid towards this lesson was both intense and fierce as the boys became engrossed to a more precise magic. After patiently waiting, the 'hands on' part of the learning came to them and the teachers handed off their weapons to see how the boys would do.

"Stay to the elemental enchantments, that's closer to your level," Kodai finished before nodding for them to try their hands. In the deep orange light of the afternoon, the boys started to carry out the instructions.

Groto failed to make Nanbu's knife so much as shimmer with any sort of power and he sighed dejectedly before Kodai encouraged him to try again, giving tips on focus. Itgu got agitated and fed up with the complicated words that were difficult to pronounce before he even really began, while Uno slowly fixed his speech impediment to accommodate the words, not even touching Nanbu's shield before he was sure he was saying it right.

With Bask's pistol in his lap, Jac held his pale hands over the metal. A few complex mutterings, seemingly effortless in the eased and calm face of the trainee that spoke them, and the gun glowed before a wavering and silvery haze encircled it. With a pat on Jac's head, Bask noted, "Well done. You chose a water enchantment?"

Jac looked at the gun and smiled proudly, "Yep!"

"Now don't everyone expect to get it on the first try." Kodai tightened his grip on his staff, refusing to hand that over to anyone under any circumstances. With a wave of the staff, and some sort of dispel chant, the glow disappeared from the gun after the end of the twisted circlet of his staff shimmered with a purple light.

Jac handed Bask back his pistol and he holstered it at his hip before sitting down cross-legged between Nanbu and Jac, the Alchemist's supposed favorite student now. Jac had been mumbling less and less about favoritism since this happened. No one complained about the change.

Hoto passed one of his twin revolvers to Sano's hand, and leaning closer, whispered, "Try a poison."

"A poison?" Sano looked down at the gray metal, the gun was surprisingly heavy and his wrist dropped with its weight. He shook his head, "I'd rather not."

During the lesson, Kodai mentioned how certain 'effects' could go awry. Elemental spells were simple, and only consisted of a three or four worded spell instead of twelve to twenty like the curses, petrifaction, and poison spells needed.

"Yes!" Uno pumped his fist beside his round belly after Nanbu's shield was surrounded in heat. He grabbed the shield in his attempt to show everyone how he managed a fire enchantment but his skin hissed against the metal and he yelped, bringing his fingers back to his mouth.

"What a fumbler." Hoto smirked, holding no distaste in his mouth as he commented, before turning to Sano, "The poison spell is easier than it sounds. Try it."

Sano moistened his lips, Hoto's 'owl' eyes on him, before holding his lean hand over the barrel.

He cleared his throat, peered at the page that Hoto had turned to, and began to chant low in his throat. A green glow surrounded his hand instead of the gun and he shook his hand in desperation to make it stop.

"Don't worry," His father assured before he instructed, "Touch the gun now. Keep chanting. There, that's it."

A sickly lukewarm feeling slithered from Sano's arm and down around the cold metal. It felt slimy and Sano tried to stop himself from gagging at the sensation, and obediently kept chanting. The revolver glowed before the hammer and chamber flickered and sucked in all the greenish light into their parts until only the round chamber shone in a bright acid-green.

Sano tried to pull his hand away but Hoto reached out and grabbed his wrist, holding it there. His voice was a steadying power as he said "Not yet." Keeping Sano's reeling head from dragging him to the ground. Trying to help out the effort of staying upright, Sano focused on the gun in his hands, his father's hand off to the side of his vision, and watched as the revolver shimmered in a while light as the last syllables of the poison spell came to an end. The brilliance of that light also dimmed, flickered, and sunk into the very metal of the chamber, its color melting into the gray and disappearing from sight.

Sano's vision wobbled a bit before he focused on keeping the bile from his throat from coming up as he came to the end of dirge-like chant. The gun was still this revolting warm feeling before it slowly returned back to it's sleek and dangerous cool.

"Now that-" Hoto released Sano's wrist and looked at the other boys' faces, watching the spell intently"- Is a poison enchantment."

The boys, excluding Itgu who hadn't managed anything yet and was a little sour for it, applauded with little cheers and compliments. Sano took it all in with a half-glazed look before he swooned, his eyes closing, and in one last second he covered his mouth and turned around. Retching, the revolver fell to the moist grass as he caught himself with his hands and knees.

He coughed at the bitter taste before heaving again. A wave of nausea swept over his head and he tried to keep from dizzily falling forward into his stomach acids splattered on the ground. The cheers died instantly, replaced with speechless silence, until Sano groaned at the pain in his throat.

"Sano, youse okay?" Uno reached out his chubby hand and he scooted closer to touch Sano's back, "Whut's the matter with youse?"

"The poison spell takes some getting used to," Kodai frowned at Hoto's somewhat victorious and proud smirk, "I clearly remember advising against such spells as they were above your level."

Hoto patted the back of Sano's head before picking up his revolver, "Good job."

Sano threw the last of his lunch and choked, coughing again at the horrible feeling in his stomach and head, "Ugh…"

"Poison is a bitch," Hoto nodded, seemingly agreeing, before watching Sano tentatively turn and sit woozily back in his spot, "But don't worry. It'll get better and easier. Soon it'll just feel like you touched something repulsive and nothing more. Nothing you can't learn to adjust too."

"Son of a bitch," Sano wiped his mouth before sharply looking out of the corner of his pointed eyes, "You did it on purpose-"

"You got talent," Hoto ignored him and pushed his revolver back into Sano's hand, "Consider that a reward."

The gun fell to the ground in Sano's weak and confused grip without any resistance. He stared at it, wide-eyed, before looking back up at Hoto to check the meaning. Hoto nodded once, before turning back towards the inside of the circle the boys made during their lesson.

"Why would you do that?" Sano asked, pure disbelief lining his voice.

The other boys turned to look at Hoto while the 'instructors' raised their eyebrows.

"Why not?" Hoto shrugged, "I figure since I'm your father I can do well whatever the Hell pleases me."

Sano lifted the heavy gun and looked at it in his hand, the other matching revolver stayed in Hoto's leather holster. He lowered his hand with caution before looking at the others. He expected Jac to frown, as surely this 'favoritism' that grew beyond easily ignored exceptions, but instead he saw a little smile that disappeared when the orange head looked down and started chanting over Bask's boot knife and sparks and light leapt from the blade.

Sano smiled down at his 'prize', thinking inwardly, So this is what they call an inheritance?

Time passed, many book lessons were handed out, and the waiting of Sano's leg soon ended. It healed nicely after the long patient wait of four months and it too soon became time for them to leave.

Sano waited, as did the rest of them, for Mia to come home from her own lessons. Sano remembered his sister always aspiring to be an actress and apparently she had taken steps to be that now. Though the finishing touches were being added to herself so that her first step into her dream career would be a hopeful and a successful one. Mia came up the gravel walkway and smiled a bit sadly.

"I thought you'd have left by now."

"He was waiting for you," Hoto puffed at the end of his cigarette and didn't blink at Sano throwing himself into his sister's arms. It seemed childish to him, but as he reminded himself, the boy was as child.

"Good bye, Sano." Mia rubbed the back of his head, whispering, "Come visit soon, okay?"

His grip tightened around her incredibly thin middle. Somehow he didn't care that all his peers were watching him. Just so long as he didn't cry, which he repressed even the potential of it by smiling into her soft blue shirt and focused on remembering everything about her before he left. Because even if she said, 'visit soon', the promise of it was small if he was to become anything like their father.

"Bye Mia."

Sano slowly let his arms drag away from her before he looked down from her crying face, "Don't cry, Mia."

"Hmph!" She wiped away her tears and lifted up the corner of her mouth, "Who are you to tell me what to do, Little Man?"

Sano chuckled before quickly following after the retreating party, waving behind his back for good measure before he passed the iron gate.

Mia clutched the front of her skirt with her thin fingers, the vague smile of hers lighting a bit more as her brother's face twisted up in anger as their father said something to him. Their words were masked by distance but she could see enough. Harlan's face looked softer, and there was more color in his sallow skin, making the grin with the smoke sticking out from it shine brighter. Sano pursed his lips, rolled his eyes, before smirking against his will as he turned to wave one last time towards her. Mia lifted her hand and waved slowly, tears trickling down her face again.

Despite what she had said to him, he wasn't really a little man anymore.

It was true he had grown considerably, into his body and mind and even resembled a man if it wasn't for his still stunted height, though admittedly tall for his age. He still lacked a few bits of knowledge that would make him a man, and he didn't quite have the maturity to deal with all his problems, but he was definitely not the little boy she remembered in her head.

So much has happened to him, Mia sighed, He didn't want to tell me but I know…

Mia allowed herself to relax as the group finally faded from sight.

He'll be just fine…Dad...you'll take care of him. Won't you?

"Alright Maggots!" Nanbu boomed as he began to pick up the pace, and the trainees hurried to match the heavy and quick beat of his marching feet. Nanbu, quite happily, in fact, overjoyed, announced, "Book worming is over! Once we're back in Bevelle, we're going to kick it up a notch! You're gonna finish up your basic training with the other cadets then graduate under their terms, from there, you'll be put under our charge and continue to be shaped into assassins."

"Oh, how wonderful," Sano grumbled sarcastically, his words going by unnoticed by the shield-toting warrior that continued to march ahead.

"You'll maggots have no free time to yourselves until training is through do you understand? Then you're going to have your own assassin's graduation after all your training with us!" Nanbu beamed as he threw his arms up into the air, before bending them at the elbow and putting them behind his head, "But that's not for several months now."

"Oh," Jac rolled his eyes, "Just great."

"Don't complain," Kodai's robe swept across the dirt of the Moonflow as they got closer to the currently admitting launch pad, "It'll be over before you know it."

Sano caught a flash of something out of the corner of his eye and he smirked, "Something bothering you old man?"

Hoto shook his head, his voice low, "No."

Sano's face fell, not expecting the serious toned answer, "Fine…"

Hoto added a weak sort of smile saying, "Forget it," Before speeding past him and towards the front of the pack with the instructors.

"Huh," Sano sniffed, and slipped into thoughts as he made his way down the dusty path. Itgu watched the revolver sway on clueless Sano's hip and felt a sting of jealousy well up in his chest. Itgu grinned, his hand tightening around the strap of his traveling bag, before he swept in beside the tall boy and drew out the vowels of his words-

"So, Sano?"

Sano slightly flinched, unexpectedly pulled from his thoughts, before he turned his head and sneered at Itgu's suspiciously friendly face, "Yeah, what?"

"Well," Itgu casually hooked his fingers behind his back, knowing what got underneath Sano's skin.

Itgu learned in his orphanage to manipulate others to his liking, it's how he survived, and so far he hadn't met anything that was his 'equal' that he couldn't bend to his will. Though, admittedly, adults were a whole new level. But as far as kids his age, he could make them do anything.

Sano raised a thin brow and waited, before becoming impatient, "What?"

"I was just thinking-" Itgu rubbed his chin, "Remember what happened on the boat?"

"How can you ask that?" Sano leaned forward as they walked, bending his shoulders, and tilted his head with a frown on his lips, "I was recovering from it all this time, if you recall!"

"Yes, Yes, I know," Itgu shrugged, a face of friendship and openness taking up the peachy color that was his expression, "Come on, Sano. I was just thinking-"

"What?" Sano's eyebrow twitched, his mind clearly going over possibilities of what the ever calculating Itgu would want from him again.

Itgu smiled, it was easiest to get the ones that think to much to do what he wanted. All he had to do was keep talking in broken sentences and they filled in the horrible blanks with their imaginations, only leaving a few simple words for him.

"Well," Itgu turned his smiling face, quickly before Sano saw turning it into a frown, and bending his eyes a bit. Convincingly shaking in his arms, he rubbed the imaginary chills, the real ones long since faded from him, "Weren't you scared?"

"Yes," Sano replied without hesitation.

Itgu's frown became genuine, "You didn't look it to me."

"Well," Sano rubbed his forehead, "It was more like a dream to me. I was revolted by the things I saw around me, and I felt fear for sure, but it was detached from me. I could work with it after a while."

"Huh," Itgu leaned forward a bit, "I was dead scared. Bet you think I deserve that."

"No," Sano shook his head, "I didn't."

"Why not?" Itgu looked at the shining revolver and hid his smile, "Why are you being so nice, huh? Usually you're so grumpy."

Sano chewed on his cheek, a heat coming to his face from being called 'grumpy', but it faded as he remembered Itgu trembling on the wet dock, "I don't think anyone deserves that. Terrible things just happen. I, personally, try not to dwell too long on such matters lest I try too dig to deep into myself, erm, it."

Itgu's eyes brightened as it widened with the surprise. Sano seemed different, though he couldn't put an exact word for it. He looked at himself then looked ahead of him at the other boys. Then he realized that, despite them always living together, the subtle changes had been unseen as the time slowly crept upon them.

Groto was taller, no longer his meek size, and his head was nearly matching with Uno's height. Uno, with his personal training he got from Nanbu, was bulkier and he himself was more muscled than he remembered. Sano was still incredibly thin, but his arms were taunt with muscles that laid under the tightly stretched skin of his arms and all their stomachs, minus Uno, had shortened closer to their bodies and became ridged.

Their faces were different too. Itgu stared at the skin that had tightened over Sano's cheek bones making his leaner and longer face more noticeable. Even Uno had a more wider face than the bubbly face he used to have, his big eyes had become smaller, along with everyone else's for that matter, and it sunk into their faces a bit instead of sparkling out like a child's did.

It wouldn't be much longer until they were fourteen, and though they had some considerable growing to do in the years to come, Itgu felt like they had all become one step closer to adult hood without even realizing it.

So engrossed he became in his thoughts, that he lost track of his plot to get Sano to hand over the revolver to him.

They stopped in their journey at the Mi'ihen Travel Agency to rest before finishing the rest of the trip the following day. Groto calculated the distance in his head, and was none to pleased with his results on how much travel they were going to cram into that short time.

Itgu was still mulling over the thought of their 'growing adulthood' and decided to look at Jac's changes before he went to bed to think some more. Jac was behind him, talking to Bask, and Itgu couldn't find a casual enough way to approach him.

Itgu started to look at him closely, but Jac shot a red-hot glare his way before jumping into his sleeping bag and bundling himself in it as the chilly air of night starting pressing in.

"Grumpy-puss," Itgu frowned and turned to his own sleeping sack to fall into.

It was autumn all over Spira, and soon enough, it would be getting cold. With a groan, the boys knew it would be even colder up north, their destination entirely.

Hoto poked at the fire, having brought wood from the Moonflow for their own use, and stood straight, placing his hands on his lower back and cracking the places in his sore spine to ease the tension that built up.

He certainly wasn't a young man. He was young when Letalis was born, and his eldest son was 19 when he died nearly 6 years ago. Sano, his youngest son, was going to turn fourteen already once winter came. And though he couldn't be considered elderly, far from it, he was still feeling his age in his body. Most likely from the fact that he didn't take much care of himself to begin with and after news of his wife's death, even less than before.

He had lines on his face, under his eyes and beside the corners of his squinted eyes. His mouth was lined on the outside and he could feel his back and knees creaking when he bent. And though he was doing good in hiding it, he was getting a persistent cough that most likely resulted from his constant smoking.

It wouldn't be much of a surprise to him if he died from the end of a cigarette stick, but it would also be no surprise if the end came at the deadly point of a gun muzzle in the enemy's hands. In any case, he was not going to get a rocking chair ending. His was bound to be much more tragic and probably unsettling violent if the nature of his career was to decide his grand finale.

That was why he handed down one of his twin revolvers to his son. He wrote in his will, an ink blotched document in his front uniform pocket, that Sano would receive the second one upon his death. A true inheritance was what the boy at least deserved from his father and Hoto desperately wracked his brain for something to give up, considering he had nothing to give that Sano wasn't already entitled to.

The 'safe house' was always for his family. It was the Trenraka's through and through, and by the way things were going, Mia was going to raise her family in that place. Sano always had a right to that home though as it didn't belong to Mia alone, though Hoto was sure she'd have no objections to his coming home.

As for anything else Hoto could offer him, it was all just petty things. He didn't own much besides his own skin. He had money, plenty of it, but that could be handed about so carelessly and heartlessly it wouldn't show his actually 'parental' charge of Sano at all. Though that was something Hoto would make sure Sano would get when he passed. After all, he had to do something with the decent fortune he had gathered as a Assassin.

Hoto smiled, he hadn't stressed over such affairs in a long while. He set things up after each child was born, adding their names that his wife choose to his will right along side the spidery written Kotone. He was more then prepared for that child that was never born and made no mistake in erasing the poor child's existence from his heart, feeling a strangling cringe upon doing so. He was more than ready to add the baby to the documents but luck never allowed it.

And unfortunately, as his two eldest sons died, he had to do the same with them and his beloved wife's name as well, like he had done to the child in his heart. Erased them. Now only Mialyn and Sano remained on the document, entitled to anything and everything that they would've split with their siblings.

He had gotten rid of the home in Bevelle that he had set up for Kotone, knowing all too well his children wouldn't visit him. So that no longer was available to give away though now he wished he had, a want to give it to Sano growing inside him. After all, was the boy expected to live with his sister the rest of his free life?

Hoto also wished a 'free' life for Sano and continued, even then as he looked at the dancing orange flames, to think over the possibilities that laid for Sano ahead. Death was threatening him at so many corners and he wasn't sure he could protect him from them all. The thought that Sano would die scared him, as it would any parent, but Sano's danger was much more real and closer than his son would ever guess.

It was already becoming evident the place that he had allowed his son to put himself in was no proper position at all. Hoto didn't wish any harm on his son, naturally, but harm came whether he wanted it to or not. He had placed Sano under the care of two, not just one, but two trusted and capable comrades to bring him home safely and they ran into, of all things, a Sin Spawn.

Vicorot lost a hand and Sano was lucky to have his foot. That Miss Pino who Nanbu associated himself with was very talented. Sano didn't have any gruesome scars nor did he have any difficulties walking, and Hoto thanked Lady Luck, the only deity he truly believed in, that the boy showed that he was blessed with more luck than he ever had himself.

"Captain Hoto?" Pino herself sat beside him, her white skirts pulled up in her hands. The boys had all fallen asleep earlier, all but two, a thin one and a very fat one, who continued to whisper between their sleeping bags. Pino hushed them kindly, advising against their conversing as it was an earlier up and late to lay down type of day tomorrow.

Eventually, after much waiting on the White Mage's part, the two started to breath evenly and dream.

"Miss Pino," Hoto finally answered as they finally went to sleep. He took no particular notice to the beautiful woman that sat beside him facing the fire. Pino was young and soft, with a beautiful face that made even Vicorot feel a bit of stirring. But Hoto felt nothing, having totally shut off that part of him years before with the death of his only love.

"Uhm," She sought the proper words, polite tones escaping her round lips, "You seem awfully deep in thought, Captain…"

"Gloomy, you mean?" Hoto fixed his face to loosen a bit.

"That's not what I meant!" She blushed, though earlier he had been just that, a dark-faced gargoyle looking over the fire and towards the boys laying in sleeping sacks.

Pino blushed a little harder as she smoothed out her skirt, Hoto chuckling easing her embarrassment only slightly.

After some time, her eyes lifted to look across the stretch of grass past the fire, her crystal blue eyes watching Nanbu move across the field with Bask and Vicorot to catch the breakfast they'd prepare the night before so the boys could eat while on the road. Her eyes were locked on the last spot of the Captain's broad back long after he was out of sight.

Hoto finally took full notice of the girl beside him then and smirked, "Uno isn't going to like that."

"Like what?" She shook her head and forced her gaze towards the other, "Captain, sir?"

"Just calling me Hoto is fine," His eyes crinkled a bit and he let out a raspy chuckle, "I'm talking about the way you're looking at Captain Nanbu."

A blush, much richer a hue than her usual pinkish self-consciousness, crept onto her cheeks, "W-what way do you mean Cap-?!"

"You're a White Mage, aren't you?" Hoto interrupted her with a lifted his brow, and amused tone.

"I am, a retired Yevonite, but I am a White Mage, now and forever," Pino raised her head with a proud air,

"I live as a White Mage should, taking care of those wounded and-"

Hoto interrupted again with a smirk on his lips, "Staying chaste?"

"Ah! You tease too harshly Captain!" Pino rose to her feet and the redness in her face heightened, "Aren't you a man the same age as Captain Nanbu? And you complain about being old, what am I to think of that? I will just naturally think Nanbu is old too. Therefore for me to have feelings, even if I wasn't a White Mage and promised to stay chaste, would be-!"

"Calm down," Hoto's smoky voice hummed and he raised his hands into the air, "I'm merely commenting on what's before my very eyes. Besides," He laughed softly, his voice rough, "What does age matter with love? I'm a bit of a romantic, and though I have no feelings anymore in myself, I find a bit of warmth in seeing it in others."

"I'm a White Mage," Pino said sadly and lowered her defensive shoulders. The pride she had for her job moments before seemingly vanished.

"That you are, and you are young," Hoto nodded his head before lowering his hands slowly, "But don't totally dismiss your feelings only because of some silly rule of a religious party you're not even in the official ranks of anymore. Loosen up."

"No, the White Mages take their vows for life. They are to be pure so the magic-"

"Trust me, nothing will happen to your magic if you were to think some thoughts about Captain Nanbu," Hoto paused and the scarlet flush settled over Pino's entire milky face. Hoto reached into his pocket and brought out his cancer stick that was sure to be his demise if his job would permit. Lighting it up, he puffed and coughed before chuckling in his throat at Pino's flustered face.

"Your magic still worked wonderfully well for Sano," Hoto blew out excessive smoke and he looked up out of the corner of his falcon shaped eye, "And on the trip up to Luca, and all that time at the Moonflow, you kept getting 'rosy-cheeked' when Nanbu would get a little bit close to you. Nothing was affected pertaining to your White Magic, I would bet."

"And who is to say I'm not just being proper? A lady so used to men would seem like-"

"Ms. Pino, why do you continue to argue when you know the truth as well as I?" Hoto tapped the end of his cigarette, "Come on and tell me otherwise if I'm wrong. But as a man once in love I know what it looks like as well as I recognize my own hand. You may not have done anything with the honorable Captain but you damned well thought of it. Not that there is any shame in that, but stop denying that such things exist, even in a young White Mage's mind."

Pino snapped her mouth shut and sat purposefully beside Hoto. The other men had yet to return and were still far from sight, with this, Pino felt a bit of confidence in speaking.

"And to say that I do? Will I be condemned?" Pino lowered her head, "I'm not to feel this way. It is against all that I've learned…"

"Learned where?" Hoto scoffed, "Yevon? They have done nothing for us. Pino? What is so evil about love? It's as pure as any 'white' thing on this planet. But Yevon has gotten it into the White Mage's mind that it's dirty and to feel too much of it yourself is to be unclean. But Pino, I'm telling you it's far from it."

Pino permitted herself a weak smile, "And you are confident in this?"

Hoto nodded, "More over. Love gave me more in a few short moments than Yevon had in a lifetime, still counting on the latter."

Pino sighed lightly, but her chest was still crestfallen, her delicate chin still pressed against her neck, and eyes still downcast.

"Look," Hoto tapped his cigarette again, taking time in choosing his words, "I understand what the Monks were trying to make you into. After all, it wouldn't do at all to have a bunch of whores roaming the temples and putting their hands on wounded vulnerable men. But love, not lust, is two things that shouldn't be chalked together like they do."

Pino's smile grew and she lifted her chin, scanning for the others, "You're are wise, Hoto."

"Old age has its benefits," He joked and puffed on his cigarette more, "What more do I do with it but share my knowledge that I've obtained?"

"Thank you," Pino sweetly whispered as the first three dark shadowed silhouettes came into view. "Thank you so much."

"It is of no sacrifice to me," Hoto waved the gratitude away, "I wasted nothing on the effort as I was just sitting here anyways."

"You should share your knowledge with your son," Pino picked at her nails, "So that he'll know."

"Ah," Hoto nodded, "I'll make sure to do that."

"Eh? Hoto, Pino, What's so interesting to talk about that got you two smiling?" Nanbu made it into the light of the fire and grinned broadly, "Mind telling me?"

"Just a chat," Hoto shrugged.

"Yes," Pino sighed sweetly and stared up at Nanbu, "Just talking to spend the time."