edenbound | FFXII: Flutter

Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Pairing: Basch/Ashe
Warnings: None
Rating: G
Summary: Ashe is of two minds. For ff_flashfic.

Ashe isn't sure how to feel when the news comes to her that Basch's work in Archades is done -- that he's coming to be at her side again. On the one hand, she's glad: she has missed Basch, missed his steady support and his honest counsel, missed things about him which she wouldn't care to admit to missing except in her most unguarded moments. On the other hand -- well, from a purely political view, it's awkward. Things can never be quite as she feels they should be -- but that isn't pure politics, is it? -- and Basch cannot be Basch. Nor can he truly be Gabranth, no matter how well he has stepped into his brother's shoes. For a start, Gabranth is not loved in Rabanastre, even now.

And from the emotional point of view... there have been so few times in her life when she was sure what she felt about him. When she first knew him, it was distantly -- he was a captain, he worked often beside Vossler, sometimes he worked in her personal guard; more often than not, he didn't. And then had come the news, the accusations -- traitor, they whispered, and then she was sure she hated him, sure she would kill him herself given half the chance and oh, but his death at her hands would be long.

But then fate, or chance, whichever wins the day, brought them together again. She grew to rely on him, then, on his strong sword arm and his quick mind, on his deep and unwavering loyalty. And she grew to --

She came to feel for him: that is all she will allow herself to say.

And she will deny until her dying day the flutter her heart gave when she read that Basch was returning to her.