A soldier once caught a boy trying to pick his pocket, grimy fingers fumbling with inexperience at his pockets, and attempting to dart away before he got a good grip, the soldier's purse landing on the ground instead. He had caught the boy's arm and pulled him around, but at the sight of dirt streaked cheeks, wild platinum hair and frozen tawny eyes, he sighed and let him go. The boy stared at him numbly for a few moments, before turning and disappearing into the depths of Lowtown without a second glance.
Sighing again, the soldier bent and retrieved his fallen purse, stowing it back in his pocket. He was getting too soft on them, but it was a child after all, maybe after this the boy will think twice before thieving again.
--
The next time the soldier met the boy again, he didn't even realise. The boy was a year or so older, darker skin with lighter hair and even lighter fingers. Later that night when undressing he realised his purse was missing, and where it was was instead a small red flower bud.
--
Vaan was fifteen when Penelo found him in an airship hanger, sneaking about a docked ship and running tanned and dusty fingers over its hide, as if gentling a beast.
"Vaan!" she hisses, rushing forward and startling him. "I knew you'd be here! If another Pilot finds you with his ship it's on your head!"
"But look at Her," Vaan whispers. "Isn't She the most beautiful ship you've ever seen?"
Penelo had to admit, it was the most impressive, but not impressive enough for Vaan to be arrested for thievery and be taken away. Instead she rushes forward and takes his arm, not his hand, because they were at that awkward age when touches like that could be deemed inappropriate, and pulls him away.
"Revenant Wings," Vaan whispers, reluctantly letting Penelo drag him away, staring over his shoulder. "Wouldn't that be a great name Pen?"
"Yeah, yeah," Penelo grumbles. "Hurry up! The others'll get fed if we don't hurry and we'll only get scraps."
They quickly scurry away, small, fleeting little mice, through the sheet of iron Vaan had pushed through to get into the hanger, and disappear into the streets, as if they'd never come. Convenient timing, one could propose, as at that moment the great metal doorway slides sideways like liquid, and two Sky Pirates waltz inwards to collect their ship, the young man spending just a moment to raise an eyebrow at the dusty handprint on his precious hull, before taking an embroidered kerchief from his pocket and wiping it away.
--
"I'm going to have my own airship," Vaan tells her, as they lie on their backs in the darkness of Lowtown and listen to the drip drip drip of the leaking pipes that lead all the way to the Garamsythe Waterway.
"Yeah, yeah, and you're going to have lots of treasure and wenches and fame and you'll forget all about your real friends," Penelo snorts, but then they both fall very, very quiet, and she feels sad to think it's probably true. She wonders if he'll take her with him when he spreads his wings and disappears into the sky.
--
Vaan doesn't say, and doesn't dwell on the fact, but when Balthier reveals the Strahl in all Her glory to the group, he can only pause for a moment, to give Balthier a fleeting, wondering look. After that all thoughts are dashed away, because he is young and he is alive and there is an airship in front of him and She is beautiful, so why in Ivalice is he still standing around?
He likes to think he gained another point in Balthier's eyes when the Sky Pirate looked his way in the bridge to check he wasn't doing anything annoying, and found Vaan marvelling at the polished leather on the back of the pilot seat, dusty fingers tracing old, old, symbols into the black and then taken away again so Vaan may sit back and marvel.
The man in front of him snorts and looks away, but Vaan can imagine him smirking just slightly and nodding once, in approval.
--
Vaan was fifteen and three quarters when he got his first whipping, and it is nothing compared to the look Ashe gives him as she tells him to be quiet and goes to stand beside Balthier, as if a Sky Pirate with rejected aristocracy is any better than a faithful boy who dreams of open skies.
--
Penelo comes to him in the dark of night.
"Vaan," she whispers, tip-toeing to his bed with the quiet balance of a dancer. "Vaan."
"What is it Pen," he replies. "It's late."
"I can't sleep," she admits, "My room's nearest to the engine and it's really loud."
"What, you want to bunk with me?"
"No!" she snorts, and he laughs too, because they are really good friends and really good friends don't bunk together, unless they're really good friends. "I want to borrow one of your pillows, to block out the noise!"
"Only if you block out your noise," he grumbles, and turns away, completely at ease with the hum of the Strahl, because She is an airship, and he hasn't come all this way to be disturbed by the singing of an airship.
--
Vaan is seventeen when he touches the controls of an airship for the first time, with firm but gentle aristocratic hands enveloping his and manoeuvring them about the gearsticks.
"Land her softly," Balthier says. "Her weighting does take some time to get used to, and I don't want you banking her on the cliffs."
Vaan bites his lip and only nods, once. His hands are trembling and he thinks his shoulders must be to because Balthier pats him on the back (once), and tells him he's doing a fine job. Vaan wonders where this newfound encouragement comes from, but doesn't ask, because, a lot like Balthier, it could disappear as quickly as it came.
He makes a perfect landing, and is amused to hear more than one relieved sigh emit from the crew behind him, Fran tapping her long nails against her forehead temperamentally before disappearing with the excuse of needing a good strong drink.
Balthier smiles and nods, once, and exits the cockpit, leaving Vaan all alone with his legs feeling like lead and his hands trembling so hard Penelo has to help him let go of the controls.