The Pharos at Ridorana: First Ascent
'Gods damnit!'
Balthier hurried down the accursed steps of the Pharos towards Ashe who was picking herself up from the bottom in disorganised fashion.
'Princess?'
He caught her by the shoulders as he crouched down beside her in an attempt to stop her fussing.
He had just watched her fall head first down the flight of steps after rather over-enthusiastically dodging a fiend thrown ball of Firaga.
' Stupid; so stupid.'
Ashe was frantically trying to put herself to rights; she seemed to have completely failed to notice the bleeding gash over her right eye.
' Ashe!'
Ignoring her shoulders in favour of clasping her face in his hands so he could peer into her eyes and check for signs of concussion, he could just imagine the Good Captain's reaction to the scene.
Oh, yes Captain, I allowed the last of the Dynast's Kings descendents, your royal charge, to fall down a flight of stairs to her death while I rooted about in a discarded treasure chest for what turned out to be a paltry Knot of Rust.
'Ashe how many fingers am I holding up?'
He waved two fingers in front of her face and watched her eyes focus and track the movement for all of two seconds before she slapped his hand away.
'For the Gods sake Balthier, be serious!'
The Princess pushed him away with surprising strength lurched to her feet cried out in pain and collapsed in a heap half on top of him.
' My ankle.'
Both hands gripped her left ankle through her boot. Balthier, rooting about in his belt pouches, pulled a potion out and pried her fingers from her ankle to push the little bottle into her unresisting palms.
He looked about him for an fiends, rueing Ashe's suspect strategic planning that had led her to separate the seven of them into two pairs and a threesome to 'cover more ground'.
If the Princess had broken her ankle, as Balthier suspected she had, from its position and the way she held her left leg, then he and Ashe would be covering no more ground than the cold stone of this landing for some considerable time.
' Better?' He asked blandly as the Princess shuddered around a final swallow and winced before imperiously shoving the empty potion bottle back into his hands.
' No.'
She sounded just the regal side of sulky and her fingers immediately went back to squeezing her ankle as he threw the empty bottle over his shoulder and listened for the distant tinkle of broken glass as it shattered somewhere far below them.
Balthier felt the smirk play over his lips, but it was more a habitual reflex; watching Ashe go tumbling down the stairs had disturbed him.
Her choice of attire left her little protection after all, and Balthier considered it a crime against Humekind to have that delicious rear end damaged in anyway.
He pulled his handkerchief out from the reaches of his vest and used it to dab at Ashe's forehead.
'What do you think you are doing?' She jolted like a startled colt when the soft cotton and lace trimmed square of cloth brushed her forehead.
'Doctoring, your Highness.'
He muttered distractedly grabbing a firm hold on her shoulders to keep her still and using the water canteen he was carrying to wet the cloth before wiping the blood away. The potion had knitted her skin back together and left a small scab forming.
Satisfied the cosmetic aspect was dealt with Balthier considered how he was going to tackle the serious injury and the serious impediment of the ever-prickly Princess' pride.
As Ashe distracted herself by poking at the healing scab on her forehead and risked breaking it open again, silly girl, Balthier seized his moment.
With deft hands and supreme confidence, for when you are braving the jaws of the Couerl hesitance is equal to death, he curled one hand under her knees and twisted her around bodily so he could wrap the other arm around her waist and hoist her up into his arms, before depositing her on the fifth step of the staircase.
'Balthier!'
Ashe looked as disgruntled and irritated as a She-Couerl disturbed from a nap and glared at him with all the haughty vehemence she could muster, which was considerable.
' Princess.' He glanced up at her from where he knelt at her feet at the bottom of the steps and let his smirk come out full bloom on his lips.
' It looks like I have you exactly where I want you, hmm?' He purred, completely unable, and unwilling, to resist the temptation to tease her lovely, twitchy, majesty.
Ashe's eyebrows shot up and for a moment her look of stunned outrage was enough to almost make him laugh. Then he rested his hand gently, but firmly, on Ashe's injured ankle. He spoke seriously.
' Princess' choice, Ashe, either I can lay hands on your royal personage and heal you or you can take chances on healing yourself.'
Balthier had often mused about the strange vagaries of healing magick that meant that healing spells cast upon ones self were never as effective as those cast by another.
Something to do with a person's life energy Fran had once told him, but as he was the son of a mad scientist and a product of the most technologically advanced nation in Ivalice; Balthier had never cared to listen too well in any case. He distrusted magick as only a man who had spent most of his formative years in a lab could.
As he saw understanding blanch the Princess' face before a livid blush brought her pretty features into full bloom once more, he found himself rather enjoying the happy circumstance of pernicious fate and magick that gave him the chance to get his promised bounty from the Princess.
'Bastard pirate.' She hissed.
Balthier, though not a bastard in the literal sense, though he might wish he was most days, was nevertheless accustomed to the accusation, given his occupation and chosen proclivities and so her words washed off him like the proverbial water off the ducks back.
' Language Princess, what would Basch say to hear you now?'
Ashe glowered, 'He would not say anything for he should be too busy be-heading you for your impertinence!'
'Princess I hardly call offering to aid a lady with curative magicks as impertinence.' He drawled.
Ashe sniffed and pointedly turned her head away, but as she did nothing else Balthier decided to take her silence as assent and moved his attention to her footwear.
Though it could be argued that he had spent more time than was strictly warranted studying the Princess, his attention using gravitated and remained rooted to her derriere and rarely dropped to her feet.
For this reason he took a moment thinking over the buckles of her metal slipper before he could move on to the good parts.
'Having problems, Balthier? The Leading Man appears puzzled.'
Ashe all but crowed, Balthier smirked.
'Merely prolonging the pleasure, Ashe, a feast devoured in haste is rarely enjoyed hereafter.'
He looked up at her quickly and let the fingers of his left hand dance up the shin of her right leg. Ashe shivered and opened her mouth to form a no doubt scathing retort.
Balthier gently unbuckled her boot before she could speak, yet despite his attempts to support her ankle; he caught the quick breath of pain the Princess could not quite repress.
He decided to concentrate on the actual healing and play with the Princess when she was back at full strength. It was more fun that way.
He examined her ankle and could clearly see the break, he internalised a wince of sympathy, it wouldn't do to ruin his reputation with a display of genuine sympathy and he knew Ashe well enough to know she would appreciate that considerably less than his flirtations.
'Tsk, tsk. You should wear footwear with a smaller heel, Ashe, it might be safer.'
Ashe used her good leg to kick him in the shoulder. 'Keep your wardrobe suggestions to yourself, if you please. It is your fault I fell.'
Balthier gripped her ankle in both his hands, her skin smooth and soft as women's skin usually was and concentrated on summoning white magick to his hands.
' My fault, your Highness?' He murmured distractedly.
' That is not my recollection of events, certainly I didn't force you to perform feats of daring acrobatics in front of a descending staircase.'
'Daring acrobatics?' Ashe demanded outraged, 'I was trying to avoid being incinerated!'
' By throwing yourself down a stone staircase? Yes, Princess, I can see how you came to lead the Resistance with a keen tactical sense like that.'
Ashe opened her mouth to hurl some form of abuse at him, but at that moment his magick finally spilled from his hands into her leg.
He stroked his hands up her shin to her knee and back down to her ankle slowly, enjoying the sensation of her skin moving through his palms, feeling the tingle of magick leave him and enter her, as the healing power spread evenly through her skin seeking to knit together broken bone.
Determined to extract as much pleasure as he could from this unexpected opportunity to fondle the Princess (he was a pirate after all) Balthier let his fingers pitter-patter over her calf and shin, titter over the rounded nub of her knee, skirting the fertile territory of that gorgeous thigh, before pivoting back down her leg, trailing magick as they went.
'Oh.' Ashe breathed, her exhalation taking all her tension with her as she let him heal her, her eyes slipping shut.
Balthier's concentration was soon taken up with his task. Though he disliked offensive magicks and the study of magick in general, he did have something of a knack for healing.
Fran said this was because despite his best attempts to feign the contrary, he was a man who would aid those in need and strove to alleviate suffering.
He much preferred his own interpretation that the use of healing magicks allowed him unparalleled opportunity to enjoy illicit pleasures like this one.
He could feel through his palms the hot spot of pain that marked Ashe's broken ankle and equally could feel that heat diminish under the cool, soothing flow of magick.
He caressed and stroked her poor beleaguered metatarsal with exceeding, near reverent, care.
Balthier set his fingers, glowing with a greenish white healing glow, to dance over Ashe's surprisingly small foot.
He gave time to her peculiarly large big toe; shockingly inelegant for a Princess but oddly endearing for the fact, and to tickle one finger over her sensitive instep.
Her little hic-cupped gasp, part indignation, part encouragement, spurred him on to bigger and better things.
The knobbly bone of her ankle was as delicate as a bird's and he stroked his palms over that bone tenderly. The ankle was all but mended, only the smallest flicker of aching pain remained to be extinguished.
Smiling to himself as the thought and impulse came to him he leaned his head down towards her foot, still and resting in the cradle of his hand; he rolled his eyes up to look at the Princess.
' Shall I kiss it better, your Highness?'
Ashe was biting her lip, but it wasn't pain that filled her wide eyes, Balthier stroked his fingers over her foot as she fought a silent battle with herself. He had seen her do it enough times to know the signs.
The tiniest of nods, almost an involuntary gesture, but Balthier did not need a written declaration of assent from her Highness.
He ducked his head and laid a gentle, deliberately chaste, kiss upon her formerly broken ankle.
He felt her wriggle her toes, the digits brushing his cheek, as she sighed with pleasure and Balthier took the opportunity to plant another kiss upon her ankle, before releasing her foot and sitting back from her.
' There now Highness, all better.' He chirped.
Ashe opened her eyes with a start and for a moment seemed quite startled.
' Where did you learn to do that?' Ashe demanded.
Conveniently forgetting such mundane niceties as 'thank you'.
Balthier allowed a little smile to play across his lips as he picked up her boot, shifted to kneel on one knee and patted that raised knee for Ashe to rest her royal foot on so he could do as he had promised and put her boot back on.
' Heal, Princess? I would have thought that was obvious, healing by hand is a fairly rudimentary magick, after all.' Balthier grinned.
' Even Vaan can do it, though I wouldn't recommend the experience.' He added with a grimace.
' No one has ever healed me like that before.'
Ashe said as she got to her feet, took a practice step and, satisfied he had done the job properly, started off back up the stairs.
' Your welcome, Princess.' Balthier decided this was as close to a thank you as he was likely to get and so cherished the sentiment accordingly.
Ashe turned back to him on the stairs and looked for all of a second chastened then she turned her head up, flipped her hair (though she lacked Fran's impressive tresses to give the gesture of dismissal real worth) and strode up the stairs.
' I would thank you Pirate except that I have no doubt you are more satisfied with the result than I could ever be.' She called back to him primly.
She turned when she reached the top of the stairs and he was a few steps below her, her expression a powerful and decidedly alluring, mix of regal distain and almost impish mischief.
' I consider my debt paid now Balthier, I have delivered on our agreement as promised.'
Balthier knew the smile that curved his lips was as challenging, nay, combative, as her own.
He dropped into a courtly bow, better he imagined than any courtier of Dalmasca could or would ever muster, but kept his head up so he could meet her eyes.
'Oh, yes, Your Highness, I am quite satisfied with the outcome of our little negotiation, having received everything I asked for.'
He swept up the stairs until he stood just two steps below her bringing them eye level with each other.
' I wonder though, Princess, are you quite so fulfilled? Perhaps you still lack a certain satisfaction, hmm?'
And then, because he could, and because he had not missed the spark of pure, unadulterated lust that darkened her otherwise cold and solemn grey eyes at his words, Balthier leaned in and kissed her icy, mercurial, Highness on the lips.
It was just the briefest of feather light touches, chaste as chaste could be, a brush of lips.
His hands, still holding a slight charge from the healing spell, stroked her cheeks and hair for a second, before pulling back and whispering in her ear.
' I am open to further negotiations Princess, all you need do is name the terms.'
The trap baited Balthier stepped around the suddenly immobile Ashe and continued towards the next flight of stairs and their rendezvous point with the rest of the party, a smile taking up near permanent residence on his lips, which tingled still from that one little stolen kiss.