Of course, the first night they spent together was bound to be some kind of awkward. They'd barely been acquainted, after all, before their l'Cie brands and a common objective – running away – brought them together. Besides, with personalities so forceful as Snow's and Lightning's, who had obviously known each other before this (judging by their constant arguing and just how hard she had punched him the face), it was hard to notice anyone besides those standing at the forefront of things, driving everyone to an uncertain Focus and certain doom. Even after he and Vanille had parted ways with everyone else, however, it was still difficult to really get to know each other between obnoxious machinery stomping around and the constant threat of death. So, in a way, Sazh wasn't surprised when Vanille took the precaution of drawing a line in the dirt between them. Sure, it irked him, because not only did she have the audacity to suggest he might try something, she also automatically claimed that tarp she'd found for herself, but he understood.

He thought about this as he settled down on the ground, listening to Vanille's too-steady breathing that automatically told him she was feigning sleep. Really, where had she gotten even the foggiest idea that he might try… something? Was it something she would have done were she traveling with any, er, member of the opposite sex? Or maybe she'd noticed his… unfortunate slip-up not too long ago (hastily prevented by his trusty chocobo chick, of course, but he supposed that wouldn't make it count any less).

Regardless, he thought as his eyes started to slide shut and exhaustion weighed heavily on his bones, she could draw all the lines she wanted. Crossing that line was the absolute furthest thing from his mind, and next time – Sazh yawned, and the chocobo cooed as it fluttered to the ground and covered its head with one wing – next time, he got the tarp.

What felt like two seconds later, Sazh jolted awake and stared blearily at the chocobo chick. He could feel a body pressed against his, long and solid and trembling, and for a moment he tried to register exactly what could be causing it. With sleep still clouding his eyes, he lifted up a bit to peer over his shoulder. Expecting to see the silly line in the dirt, and his unofficial charge sleeping some-odd feet away on the tarp that she had not asked him if he wanted, he instead saw a tangle of curly red hair and a cream-white shoulder. She was shaking against him, sniffling and whimpering, and he felt a huge pull of sympathy for her – he knew when someone was having a nightmare. Imagine, a girl her age, having nightmares like that…

"Still a kid," he muttered to himself. Sazh settled back down on his arm, regretfully thinking that if only he wasn't too tired to move, he'd get up and use that tarp himself, if she was going to abandon it. He focused blearily on the chocobo, his little head tucked as close to his wing as he was going to get, and tried to drift back to sleep.

"I'm sorry…"

This time, Sazh's eyes opened wide. Well, damn. He was awake now.

"I didn't mean…"

"Vanille?" he whispered, looking over his shoulder again. The girl had curled in on herself even tighter, only the base of her spine still pressed against him, and she was most certainly crying. "Vanille," he tried again, wondering if she was even awake. Probably not.

Vanille whimpered again, curled tighter still, and her curls bounced as she shook her head. Suddenly, she yelped, sitting up in a flash and looking around frantically, wildly. In his surprise, Sazh rolled away from her, almost squishing the chick, and gaped as her gaze focused squarely on him. Her eyes were glazed with tears, her cheeks tracked with them, and she was breathing as if she'd had the wind knocked out of her.

"It's my fault," she said, almost too quietly for him to hear.

Sazh knew better than to reason with someone waking up from a nightmare; right now she wasn't going to listen to any sort of sense, and if she wanted to tell him the sky was green, he'd let her believe it. Still, he couldn't imagine her being guilty of anything, so he searched for words for a moment before saying, "It's okay."

"No, it's not," she replied, and to his horror, she began crying again. He couldn't help but stare at her, watching as she wiped her eyes with dirty hands and streaked marks across her face, and he didn't really know what to do. He'd figured out a long time ago what to do for Dajh, but that was his son, and this girl was practically grown, not to mention he still felt a bit guilty for sneaking an albeit thwarted peek at her while she was climbing around.

"Hey," he tried, in his best comforting voice. "It'll be all right. Everything's fine." Vanille put her hands down and stopped sobbing, looking at him as if she was seeing him for the first time. The depth of pain, fear, and hurt in her eyes surprised Sazh, and all he could do was blink at her – he felt ashamed of himself, almost.

"I didn't mean to," she said, her voice shaking. "I really didn't."

"I know you didn't," he said, surprised at the words as they flew out of his mouth. "I know."

She kept looking at him with those horribly deep eyes, practically begging him for some sort of reassurance, and too swayed to think twice about what he did, Sazh opened his arms just wide enough for her to register the invitation. Vanille seemed to consider him for a moment, unstoppable tears still streaking through the dirt on her face, until hesitantly she shuffled toward him. She didn't put herself in his arms, he'd remember later, she just sat next to him, staring at him with those eyes, and part of him did it because he didn't like her looking at him like that, like she expected him to save her. He couldn't save anyone, and he knew it, and it was probably stupid of him to think that's what she wanted in the first place, so in the end, he didn't really know why he did it.

He just reached out for her, took her shoulder, and pulled her in.

She took hold of him quickly, grasping the back of his coat with one hand and the other was busy strangling his button-up shirt, and he almost automatically regretted this. Not because she was busy soaking his front, which she was, and not because it was altogether unpleasant… which it wasn't. In fact, that was why he regretted it: it felt nice, having her – someone – anyone – next to him like this. It couldn't feel nice, it wasn't supposed to feel nice… but it did. And he couldn't possibly let go of her now, because that would be just plain cruel, but even as something warm blossomed in a spot suspiciously near his heart, he wished he'd never woken up in the first place.

"I'm sorry," she whispered again, her breath fluttering against his shirt, and despite himself, he patted her back gently.

"It's okay," he said, and he patted her again, letting his hand linger against her for just a moment. "It's fine."

They sat there like that for a while, poor Vanille's body twisted so that she could fit against him, and no matter how his mind raged at him and told him that this was in no way okay, he felt comfortable, almost drowsy again, and his body wasn't listening. Only when her breathing evened out and the little hiccupping sobs stopped did he pull away from her a bit and look down – she was falling asleep.

"Hey," he whispered. He expected another jolt, another jump, but instead, she looked up at him slowly, orbs of bright green digging into his soul again, and he felt a surge of guilt. She was so… young. "Why don't you go lay down?" Sazh asked her, jerking his head toward the tarp and the line drawn what felt like years ago by someone entirely different.

"Okay," Vanille murmured, pulling away to rub at her eyes – almost instantly, it almost felt as though Sazh had lost something, and he was staggered by it. He couldn't rationalize it – didn't want to, either, because he really didn't want to think about the implications, but he certainly felt colder. Without another word, she made her way back to her little spot, smudging up the line, and flopped back down on the tarp. Within a few seconds, she was asleep, and Sazh was left to gape at her and wonder what on earth had just happened.

"Like I'll get any sleep now," he muttered to himself, but with a heavy sigh, he laid back in the dirt and stared up at the sky, willing his eyelids to grow heavier. Odds were, she wouldn't remember any of that in the morning… and he couldn't decide whether that was a good or a bad thing.

AN: Sort of pointless, story-elaborating mini-fluff… I did this mostly for fun, since I'm replaying the game. I might end up elaborating on this, making it a small multi-part fic, but for now, this is what I've got. :) I've always loved Sazh and Vanille together, really, for some reason it just stuck with me, so it's a real bummer that there's not more for them out there.

Named for one of the in-game tracks.