A/N:So I just got Final Fantasy XII…yesterday. I know, this makes me a total n00b to the scene, and I'm like three months late. Um, I am not very far at all yet. (Try Nalbina Dungeon. Yeah. I am so aware of how much I lose. I've been having Issues and may have a hell of a time moving on from there.) But I've been wanting to write fanfic for it after reading a lot, and I've gotten very fond of Vaan for whatever reason. Penelo, Fran, and Balthier will all get stuff later when I know them a bit better. Title from Aerosmith's "Dream On," because I love that song and it's fun and fits Vaan in a way I can't explain. Constructive criticism would be fantastic, because Vaan's a tricky little boy.

Dream On

From the very beginning, Vaan wanted to be some kind of special.

Rabanastre is the whole world as far as he knows. The wide city of Rabanastre, in the wider kingdom of Dalmasca, in the widest world of Ivalice. That's the world he grew up in, a world that wasn't meant to coddle or tend you if you got hurt. Even when the King was there, life was tough and unfair and you had to fight to make your dream come true. The harder the dream, the harder you worked.

If you want to be some kind of special, Vaan, Dalan says, you can't just sit up on a balcony with your head in the clouds. Fate isn't going to plop anything right in your lap. Fate's a busy little bitch, don't rely on her.

There's only one thing you can rely on in this world, Penelo says, and that's you, Vaan. Rely on yourself. Make every day count. I believe in you, but you can't let the world get to you. It's going to try to bring you down. Just make sure you don't change, okay?

The girl's right. Don't change, Migelo agrees, even when the world around you does. Keep dreaming, keep reaching, keep working. You'll get there someday. You'll get to all the places you want to go. Now stop talking about those damn pirates and get back down to earth, boy; you've got lots of errands to run today.

But nobody can order Vaan to stop dreaming about some kind of special, some kind of wonderful, some kind of paradise he'd be in someday.

Vaan always wanted to be a sky pirate. He knows his future holds something bright, and being a sky pirate is as bright as it gets. He wants to be great, not just one of the background names, the ones that did something spectacular only every five years to prove they were still alive. He wants to be an illustrious name, a named feared all over Ivalice. He wants his presence to strike fear in people's hearts, to make them hold their jewelry a little tighter to their fat well-fed necks.

Dream on, boy, says Dalan in Lowtown, his voice all high flutes and well-informed guesses. Dream until your dream come true.

He knows he's not just another face in the commoner's crowd, that he's got something in him that's going to get him far. And he's out to prove it.

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