A short in site into the general relationship of Balthier and Fran

Timeline: about six months before Balthier had passed the information of Viera Mating rituals onto Professor Seamus

Fran and Balthier had just finished setting up camp on the Phon Cost.

Earlier that day Balthier had found his Viera friend crouched in the corner of her bedroom shaking and clinging to herself.

When he had gone to her and touched her, she had jumped like he had shocked her.

"Fran what's wrong." Bathier had asked her, voice filled with worry

"It is this place." Fran had whispered in a shaky wispy voice. "The city and all its man made things. The cold dead stone of the buildings, the metal…"

Balthier had been confused "It never bothered you before…"

"It seems…" Fran breathed "That I've come into my senses at last…and also my element is coming to the peek of its cycle."

"What does that mean?" Balthier didn't understand and started to become panicked. He had never seen Fran that way before. He was worried, he wanted to help her, but what could he do?

"It is too much to explain. I need to get away from here quickly. Out of the city…" said Fran

"Ok, ok." Balthier nodded "We can go to the Phon Coast then. We can camp there, how's that? The moon will be full tonight. The white beaches and water will be a marvelous sight under the moon's glowing beams. You'd like that now won't you…you always love watching the full moon."

Fran nodded "That would be lovely." She had said, her voice nothing but a breathy whisper.

Balthier had asked if she could hold out for an hour while he made preparations.

"Yes that is fine. I would not go mad tonight." She had told him

Hearing her say that had pushed him to make the preparations in 30 minutes.

Now they were standing on the white sandy beach of the Phon Coast. Fran had gone to stand in the surf letting the pulsing waves wash over her feet. She was much calmer now. She was no longer shaking and as tense as a twig ready to snap. Balthier watched her and wondered if she was really going to be ok. He hoped whatever was wrong with Fran wasn't serious. Once they had cleared the city gates and gone into open air she had at least stopped trembling like a leaf in a windstorm, but there still had been a tension to her. The tension was gone now, but there was still something about Fran that didn't sit right with him and he couldn't quite finger what it was.

She had been away from The Wood a long time; lived in the Hume cities since before he had even been born. Why was it only affecting her now in this fashion? Balthier admitted that there had been times Fran had had a strong desire to be back among nature, but never this strong a desire. It had never been as bad as; if she didn't get away from the city she would go mad. Even though Fran seemed perfectly all right now, Balthier was not put at ease.

She had been with him since shortly before his Father had begun his declined into madness a few years back. She had become a close and dear friend to him. She was one of the only true friends he had. She wasn't his friend just to gain something, the only one that befriended him because she had truly gotten to know him and not just because he was a Bunansa, or because he was his Father's son and might be a connection to furthering a career. Fran had attended the ceremony when he had graduated from the Arcadian Academy of Knowledge and Wisdom not only with honors but also as the youngest graduate in over a decade. That had meant the world to him. His own father had been too predisposed with his work to bother attending. Fran had even attended his Judgeship promotion ceremony as well; youngest to achieve Judgeship ever. The Emperor had been there, he had gotten to shake his hand and everything. His father had, again, been too busy to come. When Balthier talked to Fran about his sorrows she had listened. When he told her he wanted to rebel against his upbringing and change who he had been, she didn't try and talk him out of it, or tell him he was just a spoiled rich boy throwing a tantrum thinking of ways to anoy his parents.

"It's only natural to want to do things you think you should do as appose to things others think you should do." She had told him. "What ever you decide to do, you only need to make that decision the right decision."

She hadn't said, "Make the right decision" she said "make that decision the right decision." So whatever he should decide to do, he should do everything he could to make whatever he chose to do the right choice for himself. Fran new Balthier better than his own father knew him, better than he knew himself. Although…

Balthier came to a realization there on the beach watching his closest and dearest companion as she let the ebb and flow of the tide beat against her. Fran knew practically everything there was to know about him, yet he knew next to nothing about her.

He knew she was Viera and that she had left her village against the laws of her people. She was, as they say, an outcast, unwelcome among her people. He knew that she had lived out in the world of man since before he was born. How long exactly, he knew not, nor her true age. Well, it was rude to ask a lady her age, but still. Other than the obvious, he knew nothing outside of her base personality and little things that he had learned about her from basic interaction, basic interests like her fascination with mechanical things, part of the reason they started to become friends in the first place…But it was only these small simple things Balthier knew. The things she knew of him greatly out weighed what he knew of her. He had asked her questions about the Viera many times before and she would never tell him anything. It was as if speaking about who and what she was, was some great unbreakable taboo. What did Coming into her senses' mean anyway? Maybe now he would at last find out something. Though these were hardly the circumstances he wanted to satisfy his curiously with.

Balthier walked over by where Fran was standing. "Fran? Are you going to be alright?" he inquired

"Yes. Thank you." She answered, her voice clear and unwavering, unlike it had been only but an hour before. "The open air has done much to clear my head."

Balthier smiled. "I'm glad. You had me worried."

"I am sorry to have caused you anxiety." Fran said

Balthier began to open his mouth to ask about what had happened, but before he could say anything Fran turned and spoke.

"Shall we be off to gather wood for tonight's fire?" She said. "The sun will begin to set soon. The night sky will be perfectly clear; prefect for viewing the stars and the moon this night, but that fact also means it will be quite cold as well.

Balthier smiled a rather mischievous smile, his eyes filled with the hints of roguish intent that young men tend to get when their thoughts are anything but pure. "There are other ways one can stay warm under a clear night sky basking in the glowing light of a full moon."

Balthier had never hid the fact that he liked Fran. Liked her in the way a man can like a woman. He had liked Fran in this fashion almost since the first moment he had met her. Balthier's advances on Fran had always been politely subtle and he was never blatantly vulgar or crass. After all, although Balthier was every bit the horny teenage boy, just barely a man, as the next male of his age, his mother had raised him with a decent amount of manners, courtesy and civility. Fran had neither discouraged his advances, nor had she done anything to encourage them. She always thanked him for the complements. But it seemed only a polite courtesy, as if to say "It is proper to say 'thank you' to people on such occasions." Following etiquette out of some book. Other times when he made subtle comments with underling hints of debauchery, as he had just done, she would respond to the comment literally as if she missed the underling hint. Her tone, however, would imply that she hadn't missed the underlining meaning at all, and the look in her eyes and slight smile said that she knew exactly what he was implying. But in spite of all that she would never hint that she had any interest in what he had been implying. And again, she never did anything to discourage him from implying anything else. He didn't know whether she was teasing him, or if she was simply oblivious to the notion of the Hume ways of flirting and courtship. In the end Balthier's courtship of Fran had become nothing more than a rather amusing game.

To Balthier's comment, Fran simply answered, "This is very true." And started to walk off down the beach.

Balthier grinned and shook his head before following after her.