Cherished

prompt : lullaby
Vaan & Penelo

Disclaimer: I do not own FF12, its characters, settings, etc. These words, however, are mine.

The first day they'd met, Reks had always sung her a song; her lullaby, he called it. Whenever she felt cold and lonely, had dealt with her parents' passing, Reks' passing... She sung it to herself, night and day and she felt at peace.

Vaan, whom she'd gotten to know shortly after Reks had died, had become her most trusted friend. Her best friend. When they moved in together, she thought the nightmares would stop and that she wouldn't feel so alone anymore.

She was wrong. They became worse as she slowly started to let her lullaby slip away from her.

Eventually, Vaan had found out what was troubling her so deeply. "Why didn't you tell me you were having nightmares?" He asked softly, laying down beside her on her bed and wrapping a strong and reassuring arm around her.

"I didn't want to worry you... And I didn't want to bother you." She admitted, staring at the ceiling, at anything but him and what she thought was his disappointed face. He must think her such a child, so weak...

And suddenly, he was singing her a familiar tune.

Gaping, she turned to face him. He was smiling lazily, just humming along, almost seeming unaware of what he was doing and how much it was affecting her. "Vaan!?" She asked incredulously.

"He told me just before you left, almost as if he knew..." His eyes darkened with sadness, not wanting to say the words aloud. "Anyway, he said it seemed to calm you down more than anything else and so he taught me the song, the tune..." Her eyes were filling with tears and he began to feel uncomfortable. What he doing something wrong? Should he have attempted to bring up this kind of memory? "Look, Penelo, I'm sorry..."

"No, no." She said, wiping her eyes and shaking her head. "No, thank you, Vaan."

"Just trying to take care of you." He grinned, thinking nothing of his words. He started humming again and she lay down once more, already drifting off to the soft rhythm and the light caress of sound in her ears.

And even when the nightmares left her, he never stopped singing to her.

"Just trying to take care of you."