Original Ao3 Summary:

I said I'd give him a break and that's what I'm doing!

This one is set after chapter 9 of the main fic.

"Dancing one!" Noraxia declared abruptly, pouncing upon him the moment his head poked out of the door to his private quarters, "Dancing one will take this one into town today!"

Ren blinked as he pulled away from her masked face fluttering eagerly in his own. He'd hadn't gotten much in the way of sleep last night and it showed. The bags under his eyes were darkened like a bruise and rimmed with red. Taking a moment to swipe at his face, he awkwardly shuffled around her to close his door.

"O…kay?" He said. Ordinarily he might've asked why she hadn't decided to take Arenvald, given he was supposed to be the one escorting her whenever she left the Waking Sands. But he was far too tired to argue and he didn't have much reason to decline — He didn't really have anything that desperately needed doing today, per se. After all, Minfilia had insisted he take a break following yesterday's mission and he hadn't scheduled any urgent side jobs. And, frankly, he could see that it would certainly be a more pleasant alternative to letting his mind continue to stew over what had happened earlier while practicing his blade swings. And so…

"Okay." He said more firmly, nodding. Noraxia twirled with delight.

Traveling the streets of Ul'dah with the Sylph was an experience, for sure. When unglamoured, her flittering form attracted several awed and somewhat frightened stares from passersby who were more than surprised to see one of her kind at all, let alone spot one idly wandering the streets of a desert city. The mask probably didn't help matters, but he was hardly in a position to tell her off for that.

Now well aware of her propensity for causing a commotion, Joker kept a close eye on her, secretly somewhat grateful for how distracted the act of minding her against the chaos of the city streets was keeping him from memories of the shaking gunblade in his hand.

Of course, there was only so much he could do to keep her out of trouble. Twirling on her leafy wings with her head facing him and her back to the streets ahead as she babbled about a prank she had pulled on Yda involving a live squirrel, she inevitably collided into a Lalafell carrying a pile of boxes that rose far higher than his small body. Joker winced.

The Hyuran man that had been trailing behind them squawked in anger.

"Careful now, you ruffians! These are very expensive!"

"Sorry." Joker said on Noraxia's behalf, helping the dazed Lalafell gather his scattered cargo. Piling them back up into his arms a tad less precariously than before, he raised an eyebrow.

"What is all this?" He said as he helped steady the wobbling servant with a hand against his back. Noraxia floated just above, peering at the colorful boxes with excitement.

"Why, a not-so-small fortune in prizes ably won by yours truly in the Gold Saucer!" Declared the man, hands on his hips proudly.

Evidently expecting some kind of reaction, he eyed both of their puzzled faces with horror, "Ye gads, man─ you might at least try to keep up with the times! It's only the sultanate's newest and finest place of entertainment!"

His exuberant gesticulations nearly clipped the topmost box again. The Lalafell squealed in alarm.

"Thrill to the sight of majestic birds roaring down the straights at the chocobo races! Pit your wits against your peers at the Triple Triad tables! At the Gold Saucer, one can do all this and more─ and if you know what you're about, you'll walk out a wealthier man than you entered!" The man's arms extended widely, his servant backing away before his wayward hands could cause further chaos, "If there's a better place to shake off one's cares after a grueling day of promenading, I've never heard of it!"

…Was this a convoluted setup for a sales pitch? Before Joker could make to excuse himself the excitable man leaned into his face.

"And since this has been my lucky day, I don't see why it shouldn't be yours too! I just so happen to have a spare golden ticket for one free visit, you see. Consider it a gift from one eligible young man about town to another!"

A very puzzled Joker accepted the ticket shoved into his hand, Noraxia vibrating above him with exhilaration.

"Now! This one and dancing one must go to see this land of luxury at once!"

Praying that this man was just yet another eccentric noble with more money than sense and not part of an elaborate if very bizarre scam, Joker led a far too eager Noraxia to the airship landing. They purchased passage to the Gold Saucer from the reception, and, after waiting with a small crowd of fellow vacationers, boarded a public airship much, much larger than the Tiny Bronco.

Joker was relieved to find this one was constructed considerably more with safety in mind. He felt confident enough to take a seat on the deck, Noraxia having shifted to the form of a tiny Spriggan and settling on his lap – much to the joy of a bubbly child next to them.

And as they soared into the empty dunes of the far south of Thanalan, a spectacular sight came into view.

An immensely tall structure, adorned with colored lights, stood proudly among the otherwise drab sands. The "saucer" in question were actually several and indeed golden — domes fitted to look as if they were being held up by, of all things, a giant Sabotender. Joker could even spy a ferris wheel at the very top of its head where a flower would be. He and Noraxia leaned over the airship railing, eyes sparkling with awe at the outlandish sight. Who would've guessed that something like this could be found in the middle of nowhere?

Emerging onto the landing platform with their fellow travelers, Joker peered beyond the line at the ticket gateway. He could already see a domed room adorned in glittering golden decorations, colourful beams of light from stained glass windows sending dazzling sparkles of colour dancing across a floor so polished that it bounced them back along the walls. He spied a man juggling bottles to the awed claps of children and raucous cheers from an audience swarming around a stage where some kind of performance took place.

Passing by, to the delight of the children in line, was the Saucer's mascot, a Sabotender in waistcoat and bowtie, with a star perched over one eye. The children cheered as he performed a strange, stilted dance.

…And okay, he'd admit it: this Sabotender was pretty cute. And considerably less pointy, which certainly made it a lot more tolerable.

When the line had thinned, they were greeted at the front desk by a smiling woman dressed in a tight black outfit, including semi-transparent stockings and false satin bunny ears. Joker tugged at his collar. Apparently some things transcended universes…

Thankfully, she accepted his offered golden ticket without any qualms. Seemed the strange man had actually been genuine. The woman nodded to him as she stamped a card.

"Seeing as you only have one golden ticket you will, of course, need to pay for a second one for your companion— oh, but the cost of entry is half for children."

Joker blinked. Children? He looked to his side. Then looked down. A young Hyuran girl vaguely resembling the one that had accompanied them on the airship was now at his side. With stunning green eyes and fluffy black hair very much like his own, she bounced innocently on her heels next to him, watching him with anticipation.

He raised an eyebrow at her, then smirked, "Alright, an extra ticket for one child please."

When they were let in past the gate, he nudged the girl with his elbow, "You little sneak."

Noraxia giggled, a hand to her mouth.

After exchanging gil for a decent amount of "GP" tokens for use exclusively in the Gold Saucer (a scummy business practice, sure, but what could he do about it?) the two awkwardly peered at a displayed map, doing their best to decipher it. At the Sylph's insistence, their first stop was the game corner. Joker's eyes lit up at the first of the devices on display.

"Crane games!" His exhaustion from a fretful night forgotten, he pressed his hands against the glass, the familiarity making his heart soar, "You know, I'm pretty good at these, actually. I won every new toy they put in the machine at the arcade at Akihabara. Ann and Makoto were so jealous."

He was blathering a bit, he realized, sleep deprivation and excitement loosening his tongue. What he said was probably making no sense at all to the Sylph, but she seemed amused regardless.

"A most excellent use of dancing one's talents." Noraxia giggled. He shushed her, sliding one of his tokens into the provided slot.

Within moments he was cradling a stuffed Moogle victoriously to his chest.

"I am naming him Buchimaru and he is my second son." Joker said, admiring the fluffy faux fur.

Noraxia frowned at it, tottering beside him on her small child legs, "This one does not care much for stuffed one."

Joker shoved the plush doll into her face, "You're just jealous that he's cuddlier than you are."

She pushed it aside with a scowl.

Next they passed by a machine resembling a high-striker, Joker's eyes drawn to the colorful fabrication of a miniaturized crystalline tower.

"Crystal Tower Strikers?" Noraxia read out for him uncertainly. It reminded Joker eerily of the uncanny night he had been pulled to Eorzea. Frowning, he slipped the machine another GP token and hefted the provided mallet against his shoulder. It was heavier than he had expected.

Noraxia watched as Joker brought the hammer down with all his might. The puck went up pretty high, he thought, but still fell noticeably short of striking the bell. He frowned, twirling the handle of the mallet in his hands. So it was gonna be like that, huh?

When he'd finally gotten the bell to ring the payout was at a definite loss when compared to the amount he had spent on repeat tries. He groaned.

"Maybe I should go back to doing pull-ups?"

Their next stop was a simple skee-ball type game where one bounced a rubber ball into a hole at the far end. Thinking it would be an easy way to recoup some of his losses, Joker took aim and tossed the ball. Only for it to bounce at an awkward angle that sent it suddenly hurtling aside in a sharp dogleg. He blinked.

Noraxia took a try, her little glamoured fingers curling around the ball with both hands. With determined eyes she hurled it forwards.

The ball again abruptly ricocheted sideways, sending it completely off-target.

He sighed. Figures they wouldn't make it easy. He turned to Noraxia.

"How opposed are you to cheating?"

Her glamoured eyes twinkled with the promise of mischief, "Not at all."

And thus they tag-teamed it, Noraxia, having resumed her usual small Sylphic form, fluttering at the end and catching the ball he tossed to her, dumping it directly into the hole. The machine at Joker's end dispensed a selection of tokens with a small trill.

They grinned at each other fiendishly.

After repeating it a couple more times and earning a small haul of ill-gotten GP, the two decided to get while the going was good, just in case someone noticed.

They paused in their escape to admire a golden statue near one of the central plazas, the magnificent figure of a shirtless man, muscles lovingly rendered in intricate detail. Not to mention the… sizeable bulge in the sculpted smallclothes.

Joker blinked, "Think it's to scale?"

The Sylph stared at it with mute wonder.

Tearing themselves away, the two continued their stroll across the reflective floors, Noraxia shifting her form with startling frequency as each new passerby's shape took her fancy. It was uncanny to see her try on new faces with the ease that one would slip on clothes, but the Sylph seemed to be having a blast.

Eventually, they came to a section of shops. Joker had been intending to buy himself brunch— unlike Noraxia, he couldn't sustain himself purely on water and sunlight— but his gaze was instead drawn to a small shelf of what definitely looked like… trading cards?

He tilted his head at them, wondering if they were at all similar to what could be found in his world.

"Oh, you don't know Triple Triad, sir?" The Miqo'te manning the store put a gloved hand to her mouth in exaggerated shock when he asked about it, "And here I'd thought it had begun to take off in the Far East as well. 'Tis practically a global phenomenon these days."

Ren frowned at the vibrant illustrations, "So it's a card game?" He was a bit surprised to see something like that here, although maybe he shouldn't have been. If a dedicated micro-transaction gaming and gambling establishment was a thing then other predatory capitalist practices could flourish too. Especially in Thanalan.

"Indeed!" She clapped her hands together, "One much beloved by children and adults alike. It is based upon the setting and characters of a popular series of novels, 'The Chronicles of Vana'diel'. Still ongoing after twenty-one years and in fact recently saw its eighth main book The Voracious Resurgence printed but last year."

"Oh. That's… nice?" Didn't mean a thing to him, of course. He did wonder what the required reading level for those books was, though.

"But of course," the saleswoman said with a flourish, "What you are interested in is the game itself! Here, consider this."

From beneath the counter she retrieved a decorated box. Elaborate watercolor illustrations of various striking characters adorned the outside, "A basic starter's kit! A deck specifically designed for beginners with an emphasis on balance and easing one into the rules of competitive play. It includes a comprehensive guide on the suggested use of each card and all for a price half of what anyone would ordinarily find elsewhere. Why," She added, running her hands along the lid, "When collating the costs of the cards for sale in singular on the market this set is practically a steal!"

"I— again, that's nice, but—"

"And as a promotion to new customers you will receive a free booster pack in which one five-star card is guaranteed. Sir, if you are at all interested in playing you'd be beyond foolish to turn down this opportunity!"

"I…" he sweated. He didn't need it. He didn't need it.

The saleswoman's eyes twinkled.

He bought the damn box.

"Don't look at me." Ren mumbled into his remorseful purchase, his face buried into the top of the box as they sat at a table. Noraxia, now a Roegadyn woman, turned her head to the glittering ceiling.

"The walking ones' world is full of many perils this one had not conceived."

"We are all slaves to consumerism, yes." Well, too late for it now. He opened the lid. Better at least learn how to play the damn thing.

…Or so he had thought. After failing to glean much from the provided rulebook, he and Noraxia took to simply admiring the illustrations instead, the Sylph particularly enamored with one decorated with a shining golden border.

Their resumed exploration took them to several different featured events, partaking in little bites of just about everything the Gold Saucer had to offer. It was during one such act of experimentation that Joker found himself becoming dangerously fond of betting on Chocobo races. There was just something so captivating about how eager the large birds' eyes looked as they ran head-to-head around winding bends strewn with flashing lights. He had even started to get used to the smell! But he decided to call it after the third race before Noraxia made good on her idle musing to turn all of their feathers bright pink.

Now thoroughly overstimulated by being engulfed in a cheering crowd, the Sylph had begun to jump frantically between a wide variety of body shapes, even as they walked to the paradoxically named Round Square. Smirking, Joker watched her closely. And In the brief space between glamours, when Noraxia's usual Sylph self was visible, he lunged.

"I'll reveal your true form!" Joker cried, fingers curling under her mask and pulling it off.

Her tiny hands flew to cover her exposed face, "Nooo!"

After teasing her for a few good minutes, holding the mask away as she desperately fluttered after it on her leafy wings, he finally returned it to her, smirking.

Her face was turned from him as she pulled it back on, little body vibrating with anger, "Trickster one is in for it now! Behold!"

And with a burst of glitter she turned to face him anew, now bearing the very shirtless broad chest of Meffrid from the Ala Mhigan camp, and clothed much like the man from the statue. Which was to say hardly at all. She flexed his muscles at him with a wink.

"Well? Does this shape set foolish one's heart aflutter?"

He pushed her into one of the fountains.

Noraxia screamed as a jet of water suddenly launched her glamoured form skyward and up to the second floor. Joker's eyebrows rose high. Well, that was one way to skip the stairs. With a grin, he jumped in himself.

The two returned to Ul'dah some hours later, Noraxia now once again resembling a floating gyshal green and both of them still slightly damp. Joker laughed as he turned his collar up to catch the heat of the afternoon sun. The Sylph flittered beside him.

"I see what you were doing, dragging me out today." He smiled at her as they made their way to the aetheryte plaza, heedless of the occasional stares they received, "You were trying to cheer me up after, well, everything … And it worked. I appreciate it, thank you."

Noraxia shook her head, "Of course dancing one noticed. This one was trying to be discreet."

"You and 'discreet' aren't exactly on the same page, sorry. But that's a charm point!" He added hastily at her pout.

When she'd been appropriately mollified, the Sylph turned her gaze to Thanalan's dazzling afternoon skies, "The world is so vast. This one is so glad elder one Frixio chose this one to see more of it…"

Her eyes grew wistful as she cast her mind to the past, "This one was once convinced walking ones had black hearts and sought only to harm these ones. That all walking ones were like steel ones and were not to be trusted. But Frixio told this one otherwise. Said that many were kind and goodhearted and that this one needed only to see them for this one's self."

Noraxia turned her gaze back to him with a smile. He held out a hand. She giggled, extending her own. He twirled her over his head as he had before. The two grinned as they made their return to Vesper Bay.

That evening, Joker, still on his mandatory break, took to reclining in the refectory at the Waking Sands. He sat glowering at the text printed underneath the vibrant illustrations on the cards he was now very much regretting buying a whole set of. Tataru passed his table, a cup of tea in her hands, as he sighed.

The Lalafell looked surprised at the box he had set down before him, "Is that Triple Triad I see?"

"You know it?" Joker raised a card bearing the image of a small dragon, flipping it in his fingers, "It was sort of an impulse buy when Noraxia and I went out today. Neither of us knew anything about it, but we tried to play a round together anyway."

"Oh I see!" Tataru leaned in eagerly, setting her cup down as she admired the cards he spread across the table, "And what did you two think of it?"

"Well, Noraxia liked the pictures on the cards."

Tataru nodded, smiling wryly, "That's to be expected. What about you?"

"I… liked the pictures on the cards."

Tataru giggled at his sour expression, "Yes, you might not get far with it if you can't read, I'm sorry to say. But I can teach you the basics, if you have the time right now? I'm quite fond of the game myself!" She added at his hopeful expression.

"Do you play it much?"

"I dabble a little." She smiled, "Let's sit down and go through the rule book and then we'll play a practice round or two, shall we?"

Once again, he recognized the invitation for what it was — a kindly offer to distract him from his own mind. And once again it was working. Smiling, he accepted it, adjusting the box before them as Tataru kicked her legs with excitement.

"'Dabble' my ass! What the hell is that?!"

"Apocalypse Nigh Kam'lanaut. His passive Great Wheel effect resets Enmity on play, by the way, so I'm attacking your Apururu."

"That's my only healer, you war criminal! You'd better not be making these rules up."

Original Ao3 Endnotes:

And so began a new lifelong rivalry.

Joker is stupidly competitive and not going to let this slide, but Tataru is the strongest being in the universe, so… unstoppable force meets immovable object?

Triple Triad is extremely basic in canon and uses… characters from the game, for some reason. So for fun I made it something more like Magic The Gathering and made it based around characters from FFXIV's spiritual predecessor FFXI! Did anyone notice that some of the art I drew on the cards for chapter 5's sketch were characters from 11? … Probably not, they're pretty crude haha.