Truths: Masking Tape

"Love isn't as painful as masking tape."

Basch

"Compensation – is that what you want?" Basch turned to look at Balthier, they all did. He merely smirked and took a step closer to Ashe, greediness glinting in his eyes. In all respects, Basch liked Balthier enough. He was a gentleman when he chose to be, and had been a useful ally this past while. Regardless, he could not deny that the man was a sky pirate – he should not be surprised by that look. That did not keep him from hating it.

"Straight to the point, aren't we? I like that." Brief revulsion stretched across Ashe's face – it was obvious she did not like his tone. To be matter of fact, Basch wasn't fond of it, either. "Compensation? How about the ring?"

"This?" There was panic in her voice, and her right hand flew to touch it as though shielding it from his stare. "Isn't there something else?"

"No one's forcing you," he said, holding out his hand. There was a stagnant silence in the room, and Basch wondered if everyone else was praying that Ashe would decline. Did Balthier realize what he was asking for? Did he understand what that ring meant to Ashe? He almost had to use all his concentration to keep himself in the same place, with the same expression on his face.

Still, he couldn't help a curl of his lip as Ashe took off her ring and set it on his palm. He looked at it for a moment before closing his fist, tucking it away somewhere. Basch didn't see. He only had eyes for the princess.

"I'll give it back to you," he said lightly, as if it was of no consequence. "As soon as I find something more valuable." The rest of the conversation, he missed. There wasn't much else said, but he had lost himself, looking at that now bare finger. Anger bubbled up inside him, an anger he couldn't really explain. For a moment, he passed it off as righteous anger from a knight's standpoint – that was Dalmascan property he had just pocketed, considered a royal jewel.

Basch couldn't delude himself like that for long, and he was left to consider a new idea as he followed Ashe out the door into the Muthru Bazaar. The others hung back for a moment, but after just a second Balthier practically strutted down the steps and came to stand beside him. It took a lot of will power to look at him normally, and when Vaan appeared at the top of the steps, he bluntly rattled off some information about Kerwon before Balthier took over. Once they had finished, he beckoned Fran, and they were off, perhaps to the Sandsea. Penelo took Vaan's hand and dragged him away, saying something about a "Migelo". That left Ashe, still looking distant, and himself.

Basch was used to being the man in the background: silent, tough, and always listening. For the most part, he never minded, either. One gained quite a bit of information by staying quiet, and he was usually content to watch from afar. He knew Ashe or any of the others would approach him should they need his help, or any advice. Being a knight meant that you were all muscle and no voice, doing your duty without complaint.

Now, seeing the sad look on her face, more than ever Basch wanted to lash out and punch something.

Stress had been piling on top of him the past few days – first it had been being arrested for the third time in a while, then he had been forced to face down his once-best friend and be a hand in his death. It still weighed heavy on him, ate at him in a way most terrible. He could not forget the years they had spent together in service to Dalmasca, to King Raminas, to Princess Ashe. Many had said that there had never been a more deadly team, a more loyal pair of friends.

As much as it pained him to admit it, there had been a gap between them when Vossler had died. When they had been reunited, Basch had not exactly expected to be welcomed with open arms. He knew Dalmasca pictured him a traitor, a king-slayer, and he had not expected Vossler to see him any differently. For a while after, however, he had been able to trick himself into thinking things would be exactly the same as when he had been taken away.

However, Basch was not stupid. He had caught the way Vossler had talked to her, the way she was willing to drop any argument at his whim. He had seen the way he glanced at her, and the way she had looked back. He had recognized the way she stood, how she clasped her hands, the way she stared up at his face. Having known them both for many years, Ashe since she was a girl, he could hazard a guess at what they had both been feeling. Now that Vossler was dead, he could never be sure, but he was positive that he had loved her. Not only that, but regardless of how she may deny it, he was equally as positive that Ashe loved him back.

Even though he regretted Vossler's death, and would never be at ease with it, he couldn't help feel some sick kind of satisfied. Though his friend was dead and gone, his jealousy still lingered. Having once been able to pry a smile off the young Ashe's face with just his presence, he couldn't help but feel replaced.

Now, Vossler was sadly forgotten. His anger was directed solely at Balthier, though he hoped it would fade later. The gods knew how hard it had been to maintain a straight face while he watched Ashe remove perhaps her most precious possession and hand it to a pirate. There was no doubt that he was a man of his word, and a shade away from being friend to them all, but at the moment Basch loathed everything about him. He was sure neither he nor the princess had believed his promise to return it.

Looking lost in her thoughts, Ashe slowly began walking through the bazaar, Basch quickly at her heels. People jostled around them, but he managed to stay just behind her right shoulder, and even over the murmurs and shouts of the crowds, he heard her sigh. She walked slowly, and he waited until he caught up in just a step to speak.

"Balthier has been truthful thus far," he said, catching her attention. She continued to rub her finger absent-mindedly, not looking at him.

"I know very well that neither of us trust him with this particular promise." So she had seen. He had to withhold a chuckle – she was more observant than many of them gave her credit for. Still, despite the fact that she was right, he had to remain optimistic – if only for her sake.

"We can hope." The little smile she gave him made his heart lurch unexpectedly, and he had to swallow the rushing feeling before words he would regret could spill from his lips.

How much she had grown in the two years since his imprisonment. He could remember when she was barely thirteen, headstrong in a way sometimes irritating. That aspect, he was happy to note, had not changed, but after Rasler's death she had grown abnormally soft-spoken and mild. Now, she had made the switch from a widowed princess to a spitfire warrior queen, a change her father would have been proud of and a change he was sad to have missed.

When they had met again on the Leviathan, he had been completely surprised. All he had been able to manage was a slightly breathless "Majesty" – he was face-to-face with, not a girl, but a woman, and her slap had proved it. Through their travels, he slowly came to like her new personality more and more, until he realized – a moment too late – that his admiration had gone too far. What was more, scandalous and shameful, he realized that he did not quite care.

He knew he should have been rejecting every pang of his battle-worn heart, avoiding his thoughts like a plague, but in the Dynast-King's tomb he had realized something. By now, Basch was convinced, and all he could do was give up lying to himself. Though it was a disservice to not only Lord Rasler's memory, but to King Raminas and Dalmasca itself, and it went against everything he believed in as a knight… Basch was beyond a suppositive stage, a what-if mindset. He loved her.

"I cannot help but think we did something wrong," Ashe was saying. "There may have been something we could do." Again, Basch had to call for his best straight face. For that moment, he had forgotten.

"There is little that would have saved him," he said. "Vossler was a good man, and his devotion to…" She looked at him. It wasn't often that he stumbled. "…His devotion to Dalmasca was unending. However, how could we have been able to trust him again?" Now, Ashe's look turned to that of surprised. Basch knew he was being blunt. "There would always have been doubt."

"Doubt that would only weaken the resistance." It was obvious that she agreed with him, but after saying this Ashe fell into a deeper silence than before. Silently letting out a breath that could be classified as a sigh, Basch joined her in that quiet. As they meandered through Rabanastre with a sort of aimless air, he let his thoughts carry him away. He did not doubt himself when it came to his resilience, and regardless of whether or not she returned his feelings – ever – he would continue to serve and protect his queen. After all, with first Rasler's death, then Vossler's, he couldn't say he would blame her for staying distant from any sorts of relationships for a long time.