ZOMG FFXII DRABBLES
Penelo learns many things while she's fighting for Dalmasca. Penelo-centric, vague spoilers for the members of Team Vaan.
Lessons to Learn
Penelo learns many things while she's fighting for Dalmasca.
She learns kissing from Vaan. Vaan is always there, like a brother, but he's not a brother, and so she kisses him around the corners, while Balthier and Ashe argue over the next course of action. Vaan's lips are dry, and soft, and the kisses are a little bit like home, when Mama and Daddy were still alive, and Vaan still lived with Reks.
Vaan kisses her back sometimes, when he's sleepy-eyed and lazy. Other times, Vaan turns his head away, because he hears Basch's heavy steps, and his cheek is almost as soft as his lips, because Vaan is still very much a boy.
Fran teaches her archery, because Rabanastre was too small a place to even draw much of a breath, let alone a bow. Fran is patient, soft-voiced and tender, almost like the memories of Penelo's mother. Penelo learns to love Fran, because Fran is older than all of them, wiser than all of them, and Fran still finds it possible to love them, with all their hume faults.
Penelo follows Fran with a single-minded idealism, and she remembers how she used to cling onto her mother's skirts. Fran is patient, though, always patient, and lets Penelo cry into Fran's hair on the days that Vaan turns his face away.
Basch tells Penelo that she is small, very small, and so teaches her everything he says he would teach a daughter, if he ever had one. But Basch never had a daughter, and probably never will, and so everything he teaches is filled with the wild-eyed hopes of a boy.
It's through Basch that Penelo learns about childhood, because all in all, Basch is still very much a boy. He's a knight who's never grown up, and so Basch still thinks that he can save the world, and Ashe along with it. Penelo is shuffled in along with Ashe, and Basch treats her like a little broken-winged bird, all rough pettings and gruff lullabies. Penelo can't find it in her heart to wake Basch up, and so she leans on Basch's shoulder, and pretends not to wake up when he kisses her forehead.
Penelo learns about love through Ashe. Ashe is full of love, bright and sharp and like a million pieces of glass. Ashe loves Rasler, her father, her many knights, all two years dead. Ashe loves Dalmasca, in all her fallen glory, and Ashe loves Larsa, with all his skewed logic and dreamings. Ashe even loves Archadia, because Ashe can't help but love anything. Love, though, is very similar to hate, and so Penelo watches Ashe, and learns how easy it is to slit the throat of the people you love.
Ashe smiles at Penelo sometimes, when it's late at night and Penelo wants someone to talk to. Penelo smiles back, and Ashe's fingers are cool and smooth around Penelo's wrist. Penelo loves Ashe, because Ashe loves Penelo, and Penelo wonders if someday Ashe will have to slit her throat, too.
Penelo learns about sex from Balthier, because Vaan is turning his face away more and more, because Vaan is always looking for someone else, something else. Balthier is like a Vaan grown up, refined and recast, and Penelo finds herself brushing against him more and more.
Balthier never looks happy, but he never looks sad, either. He's calculating, full of numbers and ideas that should never work, but somehow, Balthier can make everything work. He kisses her around a corner, and she follows him eagerly, like a puppy desperate to please. He teaches her how to touch, and how to gasp, and how to make the world explode into light and sound, until she feels so alive that she's sure she's dying. Then he teaches her how to cry, and he sends her off gently, a broken-winged bird, to Fran, because Balthier was never a stupid man, and Balthier was never a man to play games when there was something larger to catch.
Penelo learns many things from all of them, and when Fran folds Penelo into her arms, Penelo learns that there are somethings that she was better off never knowing.
Because even homework trumps the Great and Terrible Quest. Larsa-centric, vague spoilers for Team Vaan, shameless fanservice of the Basch/Larsa kind, and fluff.
Number Work
"You've put your letters in the wrong places," Balthier says, and he is leaning over Larsa's shoulder. Larsa does not skitter away, but he certainly makes an effort to bend further over his paper.
"No, no," Balthier continues, and now his finger is pressed on the leather-bound papers in Larsa's lap. "The x should be placed before the z. You've written out the formula wrong, that's why it's not matching up."
"Do," Larsa asks, with all the control he can muster, "you mind?"
Balthier pointedly ignores the question, squatting down next to Larsa, far too close for comfort. "It's really not that difficult," Balthier near chirps, and in a moment the pen is swiped from Larsa's fingers. Larsa stares at his hand in mute horror.
"Like this," Balthier says, "and then this-- And then like this--"
"You've done that wrong," Ashe says with thinly veiled scorn, and Larsa can only stare at his paper in the same mute horror.
"Pardon?" Balthier asks, looking up with a glower.
"I said," Ashe repeats, and now she's pulling the papers and pen from Balthier, "that you're doing it wrong. I do wonder how you learned your numbers."
Larsa can feel his world slowly falling out from beneath him, and he can already hear his tutor's cries of absolute woe.
"How can you even read this?" Ashe is asking in abject horror, and Balthier is trying to pull the book back, and it's all going on over Larsa's head. Larsa ducks into a much smaller ball.
"Simply because my numbers do not contain the same needless frills a princess's might, does not mean--"
"You're both wrong," Vaan cuts in, and Larsa can't hide his whimper.
By this point, the book is lost entirely, Larsa has decided, and he's sure his pen has met a like fate. He shudders faintly to the side, bumps into Balthier's legs, and whimpers again. His tutor, his tutor is going to kill him.
"See," Vaan is saying, and the words are going fuzzy in Larsa's head, "that's the wrong formula. What he's trying to do is this one, that's why the x is where it is. Really, though, he shouldn't have this division. That's where he's going wrong."
A pair of arms pick Larsa up, and Larsa can't stop the mew, nor can he help his arms from wrapping around Basch's neck. He can hear a paper tear, and he twitches again.
"I'm certain," Basch says, and his chest is rumbling beneath Larsa, "that your tutor will not be quite so angry, all things considered."
The sound of the pen snapping is next, and even Basch has a bit of a twitch at that. Larsa clings a little closer.
"Perhaps," Basch says, "a quest is quest enough, without the addition of number work."
Two are two are two, and sometimes you can't tell them apart. ZOMG END-GAME SPOILERS. Larsa/Basch, maybe, zomg *shifty eyes*
Kinderkin
"Your helm," Larsa said.
"My Lord?" Basch asked, standing next to Larsa's chair.
"Remove your helm," Larsa said, looking up from the papers upon his desk.
Basch caught his fingers beneath the rim of his helm, tugging up with an intake of breath. His hair caught and tugged, and then the helm was sliding free. The sun was bright in his eyes, and his skin felt painfully raw in the air.
Larsa pushed back from the desk, rolling up onto his feet. He didn't come up past mid-chest, and Basch looked down at him, watching as Larsa's hands flickered, like broken bird-wings.
Basch took in a gasp, and the fingers gentled on his face. Fingertips slid up over his eyes, curved around his scar, traced his face.
"Sometimes," Larsa said, "I forgot which you are. And which are you, Judge Magister? The elder, or the younger?"
"My Lord," Basch tried to say, and Larsa's fingers were slipping over his lips, into his mouth, around his neck.
"Are you," Larsa asked, and his eyes were strangely dark when he looked up at Basch, "the one who will touch me?"
Lessons to Learn
Penelo learns many things while she's fighting for Dalmasca.
She learns kissing from Vaan. Vaan is always there, like a brother, but he's not a brother, and so she kisses him around the corners, while Balthier and Ashe argue over the next course of action. Vaan's lips are dry, and soft, and the kisses are a little bit like home, when Mama and Daddy were still alive, and Vaan still lived with Reks.
Vaan kisses her back sometimes, when he's sleepy-eyed and lazy. Other times, Vaan turns his head away, because he hears Basch's heavy steps, and his cheek is almost as soft as his lips, because Vaan is still very much a boy.
Fran teaches her archery, because Rabanastre was too small a place to even draw much of a breath, let alone a bow. Fran is patient, soft-voiced and tender, almost like the memories of Penelo's mother. Penelo learns to love Fran, because Fran is older than all of them, wiser than all of them, and Fran still finds it possible to love them, with all their hume faults.
Penelo follows Fran with a single-minded idealism, and she remembers how she used to cling onto her mother's skirts. Fran is patient, though, always patient, and lets Penelo cry into Fran's hair on the days that Vaan turns his face away.
Basch tells Penelo that she is small, very small, and so teaches her everything he says he would teach a daughter, if he ever had one. But Basch never had a daughter, and probably never will, and so everything he teaches is filled with the wild-eyed hopes of a boy.
It's through Basch that Penelo learns about childhood, because all in all, Basch is still very much a boy. He's a knight who's never grown up, and so Basch still thinks that he can save the world, and Ashe along with it. Penelo is shuffled in along with Ashe, and Basch treats her like a little broken-winged bird, all rough pettings and gruff lullabies. Penelo can't find it in her heart to wake Basch up, and so she leans on Basch's shoulder, and pretends not to wake up when he kisses her forehead.
Penelo learns about love through Ashe. Ashe is full of love, bright and sharp and like a million pieces of glass. Ashe loves Rasler, her father, her many knights, all two years dead. Ashe loves Dalmasca, in all her fallen glory, and Ashe loves Larsa, with all his skewed logic and dreamings. Ashe even loves Archadia, because Ashe can't help but love anything. Love, though, is very similar to hate, and so Penelo watches Ashe, and learns how easy it is to slit the throat of the people you love.
Ashe smiles at Penelo sometimes, when it's late at night and Penelo wants someone to talk to. Penelo smiles back, and Ashe's fingers are cool and smooth around Penelo's wrist. Penelo loves Ashe, because Ashe loves Penelo, and Penelo wonders if someday Ashe will have to slit her throat, too.
Penelo learns about sex from Balthier, because Vaan is turning his face away more and more, because Vaan is always looking for someone else, something else. Balthier is like a Vaan grown up, refined and recast, and Penelo finds herself brushing against him more and more.
Balthier never looks happy, but he never looks sad, either. He's calculating, full of numbers and ideas that should never work, but somehow, Balthier can make everything work. He kisses her around a corner, and she follows him eagerly, like a puppy desperate to please. He teaches her how to touch, and how to gasp, and how to make the world explode into light and sound, until she feels so alive that she's sure she's dying. Then he teaches her how to cry, and he sends her off gently, a broken-winged bird, to Fran, because Balthier was never a stupid man, and Balthier was never a man to play games when there was something larger to catch.
Penelo learns many things from all of them, and when Fran folds Penelo into her arms, Penelo learns that there are somethings that she was better off never knowing.
Because even homework trumps the Great and Terrible Quest. Larsa-centric, vague spoilers for Team Vaan, shameless fanservice of the Basch/Larsa kind, and fluff.
Number Work
"You've put your letters in the wrong places," Balthier says, and he is leaning over Larsa's shoulder. Larsa does not skitter away, but he certainly makes an effort to bend further over his paper.
"No, no," Balthier continues, and now his finger is pressed on the leather-bound papers in Larsa's lap. "The x should be placed before the z. You've written out the formula wrong, that's why it's not matching up."
"Do," Larsa asks, with all the control he can muster, "you mind?"
Balthier pointedly ignores the question, squatting down next to Larsa, far too close for comfort. "It's really not that difficult," Balthier near chirps, and in a moment the pen is swiped from Larsa's fingers. Larsa stares at his hand in mute horror.
"Like this," Balthier says, "and then this-- And then like this--"
"You've done that wrong," Ashe says with thinly veiled scorn, and Larsa can only stare at his paper in the same mute horror.
"Pardon?" Balthier asks, looking up with a glower.
"I said," Ashe repeats, and now she's pulling the papers and pen from Balthier, "that you're doing it wrong. I do wonder how you learned your numbers."
Larsa can feel his world slowly falling out from beneath him, and he can already hear his tutor's cries of absolute woe.
"How can you even read this?" Ashe is asking in abject horror, and Balthier is trying to pull the book back, and it's all going on over Larsa's head. Larsa ducks into a much smaller ball.
"Simply because my numbers do not contain the same needless frills a princess's might, does not mean--"
"You're both wrong," Vaan cuts in, and Larsa can't hide his whimper.
By this point, the book is lost entirely, Larsa has decided, and he's sure his pen has met a like fate. He shudders faintly to the side, bumps into Balthier's legs, and whimpers again. His tutor, his tutor is going to kill him.
"See," Vaan is saying, and the words are going fuzzy in Larsa's head, "that's the wrong formula. What he's trying to do is this one, that's why the x is where it is. Really, though, he shouldn't have this division. That's where he's going wrong."
A pair of arms pick Larsa up, and Larsa can't stop the mew, nor can he help his arms from wrapping around Basch's neck. He can hear a paper tear, and he twitches again.
"I'm certain," Basch says, and his chest is rumbling beneath Larsa, "that your tutor will not be quite so angry, all things considered."
The sound of the pen snapping is next, and even Basch has a bit of a twitch at that. Larsa clings a little closer.
"Perhaps," Basch says, "a quest is quest enough, without the addition of number work."
Two are two are two, and sometimes you can't tell them apart. ZOMG END-GAME SPOILERS. Larsa/Basch, maybe, zomg *shifty eyes*
Kinderkin
"Your helm," Larsa said.
"My Lord?" Basch asked, standing next to Larsa's chair.
"Remove your helm," Larsa said, looking up from the papers upon his desk.
Basch caught his fingers beneath the rim of his helm, tugging up with an intake of breath. His hair caught and tugged, and then the helm was sliding free. The sun was bright in his eyes, and his skin felt painfully raw in the air.
Larsa pushed back from the desk, rolling up onto his feet. He didn't come up past mid-chest, and Basch looked down at him, watching as Larsa's hands flickered, like broken bird-wings.
Basch took in a gasp, and the fingers gentled on his face. Fingertips slid up over his eyes, curved around his scar, traced his face.
"Sometimes," Larsa said, "I forgot which you are. And which are you, Judge Magister? The elder, or the younger?"
"My Lord," Basch tried to say, and Larsa's fingers were slipping over his lips, into his mouth, around his neck.
"Are you," Larsa asked, and his eyes were strangely dark when he looked up at Basch, "the one who will touch me?"