Good god, they're getting shorter. Pretty soon, they'll be one word each!
Ahem. Enjoy the fic.
Balthier disappeared as soon as the Strahl was set into auto-pilot, leaving Fran to ensure they made it safely back to Balfonheim. An awkward silence fell as he left, no-one really sure what to say, what comfort to offer. Vaan hesitated a moment, took a deep breath, then headed after him.
He found him leaning against the wall in his cabin, looking unbearably defeated. His eyes were dry, but his posture was slumped, as though whatever it was that had held him upright all this time had just snapped, and his eyes, when he looked up, contained such a listless disinterest that it hurt Vaan to see.
Without speaking, the thief walked over and slipped his arms around him, squeezing tight.
"When my parents died," he said after a moment, barely more than a murmur, "Reks just put his arms around me. He didn't tell me not to cry, and he didn't say 'it'll be okay,' or 'they're in a better place.' He just hugged me real tight." He swallowed, digging right into the core of his most painful memory, fighting the tremor in his voice. "And it still hurt. It hurt worse than dying, but.. I felt a little stronger. Like I could deal with it."
There was silence, then. For lack of anything better to say, he leaned his head against the taller man's chest, listening to the beat of his heart, arrhythmic and unsteady. He wondered if he'd made a mistake, if he just wasn't doing it right, because Balthier seemed frozen to the spot, almost petrified, but for the jerky rise and fall of his chest. Then, as he made to pull away, long arms wrapped around his shoulders, holding him almost breathlessly tight.
They stayed like that, time seeming to shrink to nothing more than the feeling of being held. Then someone called, in the corridoor outside, and the moment was broken. Releasing each other, with a sense of mutual awkwardness, they straightened themselves out.
"Thank you," Balthier said at length, the words faltering slightly, but all the more sincere for that. Vaan gave him a solemn little smile. "Don't mention it."
Offering up a smile in return, the sky-pirate held open the door for him. "Well, shall we? We've no time for dilly-dallying, we've a kingdom to save."