FFXII: Elemental

[edenbound]

Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Pairing: None
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: Humes are so hard to classify. For the_sandsea.


Fran would like to say she's learnt to read Balthier's moods, but he is a Hume, and as such is annoyingly changeful and hasty. For a Viera, she's adaptable -- that doesn't mean she likes the way he sets his heart on one thing one moment and has completely forgotten it the next. He's even humming now as he finishes calibrating the instruments -- some of them new from their latest stop in Archades' shipyards.

"A week ago, you were morose," she says, and there is a tinge of irritability in her voice -- learned, she thinks, right from Balthier himself, and quite unlike her own black moods that used to come upon her -- moods that were not of the Wood, but from somewhere outside it, or simply from inside herself. "Then you were irritable. And now you are happy. I thought you in love with Ashe, but we're leaving Rabanastre, so -- "

"Don't be silly, Fran, of course I'm not in love with the princess. Or the queen now, I suppose I should say. Nor was I ever. Do sit down and help me plot a course -- I wonder if we should drop in on Balfonheim, or perhaps -- "

"Why were you so intent on coming here, then?"

"Well it certainly wasn't for her. At least not in the way you think. The only woman I'll ever love is the Strahl." He leans over and fiddles with a few more settings, looking extraordinarily pleased. "Sit down, please, Fran."

She sits, after rolling her eyes to heaven as if seeking guidance from above. "Why were you so irritable until we arrived here, then? And where will we go now?"

"Is there anywhere you want to see? Balfonheim could be tiresome -- without Reddas, there will be so much shuffling. Not Archades, we were there last. Bhujerba, perhaps -- I could fancy some Madhu. We could rest."

"We've been doing nothing but," she says, rolling her eyes again. "You evade my question."

"I speak of places we have already been -- somewhere different, perhaps. Any ideas, Fran?"

He is like a man on fire, she thinks, running to find water. Or fire itself, hasty, snatching at life and flaring bright and brief. Or water, running downhill, running swift and uncaring, charting the easiest course. Or air, flowing over and around the Strahl, around her, bearing her up. She is never sure, with Humes. Jote was easy -- thunder, a sign of judgement in the old tales the Wood whispered. Mjrn, water, always in such a hurry. Humes are not so easy. "I do not know. I will think on it."

"Do. For now, perhaps we should turn our hands to hunts -- I hear there is a legendary mark to be found near the Phon Coast. We lack money after our recent upgrades to the Strahl."

"As you will."

"I hate to see things left undone," he says, after a moment when she thinks he has finally chosen something. He looks up and smiles at her. "Putting Ashe on her rightful throne -- it was something I got involved in, and I wanted to see it done. That is all. Now it is done, and we are free, and I have not forgotten my promises to show you the world."

"There is a ruined temple I heard tell of," she says, carefully. She stretches out her legs and glances at him, and then at the maps displayed before her, tapping a long nail against a spot. "The old legends would place it here. We would need to take on extra fuel, just in case."

"Hunts first, then. The Phon Coast it is."

Fire, she thinks, watching him; watching the way the sun glints in his hair. Right now, he is fire: set all aflame by ambitions and desires he probably cannot really voice, snatching at life, at the world, before his brief span ends and it is taken away.

Her lips curve into a smile. Sometimes, he threatens to set her ablaze as well.

Comments

[lassarina]

XD I love that Fran finds weekly mood changes so hard, it really emphsizes her fundamental differnce in outlook.

[threewalls]

I like how their conversations at cross-purposes don't get in the way of them deciding a course, and Fran's affection being half-frustration, half-admiration.