Title: Yggdrasil

Author: Yukari Youkai

Rating: T

Pairing: Bathier/Vaan

Summary: In exchange for a Galbana Lily, Vaan is given the key to change the universe. [AU]

Chapter: 8/?: Your own personal Savior. Reach out and touch me!

Notes: Vaan and Balthier have only been traveling for about four days. I took some artistic liberties and made the SalikaWood take up most of the mountain, so the Mosphorian Highwaste is going to be relatively short. Thanks to Midnight Forever for the beta-ing. 3

"Vaan."

"Mmmmfh."

"Vaan," Balthier repeated, bored but insistent. The blonde rolled over, curling further into himself. Balthier snorted and rose from his seat on the cooling meadow grass, facing the twilight sun. It was getting dark, something both of them had learned to equate with danger. Balthier nudged Vaan roughly with his boot until the boy pushed himself into a sitting position. His hair was cowlick-y and tousled in adorable ways, which made Balthier smooth down his own hair self-consciously.

"'M up, you mother fudding… bleh." The blonde hung his head, tangling a hand in his messy fringe, apparently too tired for words. Balthier told himself he didn't feel even a smidgeon of superiority.

"Vaan, may I suggest you learn to become a light sleeper?" he asked innocently. At this, the boy made another hopelessly sleep-strangled sound (that the Archadian had no way of translating) and waved his hands about in a rather limp manner that was probably supposed to mean something vulgar. Balthier snorted lightly at his display and walked a short ways away to gather twigs and dry leaves.

As he carried them back to their 'camp' (marked only by their sleeping imprints in the grass), his left leg stiffened painfully. He abruptly decided that he would make do with whatever he had gathered and set about to making a fire.

Vaan staggered to his feet piteously and took a swig from his water skin, swirling the water around in his mouth and spitting it out to the side. He stretched, standing on the balls of his feet and letting his hands strain for the sky. Balthier wasn't watching, of course, so he couldn't have seen how Vaan's flimsy vest brushed just above his ribs, exposing more skin than was strictly necessary. No, he was dutifully tending the fire, like any other non-interested person would do.

Vaan leaned back into his heels, frowned at the man in general and walked the few steps of distance between them. "That's not how you make a fire, ya know," he commented. "You won't get warm very fast that way."

"I know what I am doing," the man replied without looking away from the burning pile of sticks.

"Whatever. What's the point of that anyway? We can't stay here that long." As he spoke, the small flame grasped on to one of the larger sticks Balthier had supplied and crackled, sending a few sparks in random directions. Balthier rose, dusting the seat of his pants off, and picked up his travel gear. "What? Wait!" Vaan sputtered. "You're just gonna leave? What about the fire? …Balthier! Stop walking away and answer me! Balthier!!" Balthier continued to travel forward, without any reaction to Vaan's temper tantrum. "I can't STAND you sometimes!" Vaan released a noiseless word of rage and stomped after him without another sound.

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They walked mostly in strained silence. Vaan wanted to yell at Balthier until the cactuars came home, but refrained because It was nighttime, the most dangerous time of day. The myst-monsters, like that horse that kidnapped Thorne, came out for the hunt when the sun disappeared beneath the horizon. No sense in making unnecessary noise. Daylight had become a precious commodity, as it was a time for sleeping and healing up. Vaan would take all the sleep he could get. So that left him the spare moments when it was neither day or night. Considering that, Vaan was usually suffering from an overflow of anger directed at Balthier. Twenty minutes of free time wasn't enough to get it all out, and even if it was, Balthier was always distracting him with something new and profoundly stupid.

Like the fire. Why would he purposefully leave an open fire behind like that? Did he want them to be followed or something? There went Balthier, playing the role of the adult again. And little baby Vaan just had to shut up and take it, right? Wrong. He hated it! He hated Balthier! It wasn't like Vaan was stupid or something; he was already seventeen. Would it hurt for Balthier to talk to him like they were equals once in a while?

But they weren't, at least not in Balthier's eyes. Vaan wasn't an heir to old money, he wasn't even born in the Archades. All the things that mattered to Balthier, Vaan didn't care about. But somehow, the things that mattered to Vaan made sense to the Archadian. He understood Vaan on some level that he shouldn't have. It didn't make any sense to Vaan how Balthier could be that cool and that infuriating at the same time.

Actually, Balthier was pretty good at being both at once. Vaan scratched his arm absently as he thought about that night, when Balthier had…

Shick.

Vaan snapped to attention, his eyes immediately catching on the moonbeams refracting off the daggers Balthier pulled out. He slowed down his breathing, stopping a good few feet apart from where Balthier stood to make them less of a target. In front of them, a massive darkness moved and grunted, shuffling in their general direction. As it stepped forward, the weak moonlight offered only the bare outline of it. Vaan could barely make it out, but he stretched out a hand nonetheless.

"Fira!" he shouted as a spiraling line of fire erupted somewhere near the bulky shadow's shoulder. It roared as it was struck and stepped forward into the light. Vaan groaned. It looked like a bull standing up… what was the word for it?

"A minotaur!" Balthier muttered in amazement.

"So?" Vaan asked, a little peeved that Balthier had figured it out before him. The man glanced at him from the corner of his eye and then sprinted forward. "Hey!" Vaan staged-whispered. It wouldn't hurt to be cautious. There was no guarantee this thing was alone.

But Balthier ran full tilt for the Minotaur, right in his line of vision. You've got to be fucking kidding me, Vaan thought. The beast raised its massively hairy arm to swipe at him, and Vaan covered him "Blizzard!" The air around the creatures face crystallized and blew into its face, distracting it enough for Balthier to roll under its legs and slice into its back. It roared again, hideously loudly, turning right to the cause of its pain, ready to smack Balthier right into the surrounding forest.

Suddenly, a sprout of fire burned the tip of the minotaur's left ear. "Hey, mino-moron! Over here!" Vaan shouted. "Yeah, that's right! Come and get some!" Balthier used the time the beast was confused to throw his daggers into the nearest tree, sprinting after them, and used them as footholds to spring backward onto the significantly taller minotaur's back. Vaan viciously swung out his axe to incapacitate it at the knees and Balthier pulled out a nice pointy dirk with his free hand. "Hrah!" Vaan cried, throwing his axe away from him. The Archadian readied himself for his chance.

The soft spot is under the throat, you see, Balthier's memory repeated in his father's voice. The mental intrusion stilled him long enough for the beast underneath him to get on all fours. Balthier was so surprised by the motion that he looked up, catching Vaan's eye. The boy's face was pale and stricken. His lips formed the first syllable of his name before the man was hit in the temple by the handle of an axe.

Apparently the foul beastie was smarter than initially calculated. Knowing that Vaan had thrown the axe to hit his midsection, he ducked, killing two serpents with one arrow.

Balthier felt his legs stiffen from the shock, and then loosen. His grip on the dirk slipped, and it fell into the grass. After a spinning, whirling colorless moment, so did he.

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When Balthier opened his eyes, he knew he was dreaming. He was flat on his back, watching the stars dance in the sky. Beside him a fire crackled merrily, and on the other side of that fire, Vaan was curled up on his side. The whole scene reminded him of the first night they had set out for Golmore Jungle. When they hadn't known that the things that went bump in the night were very real and very fixated on eating them alive. It still didn't make much sense to Vaan or Balthier, but they figured once they got to the Viera, all the mysteries would untangle themselves.

At any rate, dream-Balthier sat up. He noticed that his leg didn't hurt, which didn't make sense. Hadn't he had almost got his leg bitten off by a chocobo the very first night they were out on their own? Except it was a little strange, that chocobo. A little more powerful than he remembered any chocobo being. And it had been white --- white like the snow on Bur Omisace, cold and pure.

A rustle in the underbrush had him sitting up and peering about. This had to be a dream. Neither he, nor Vaan, had weapons or a food pouch. The bush near his foot rustled this time, and he was seized with fear. Vaan was the spell-caster, not him, and even so, neither had weapons with which to channel their battle-magic. He tried to shrink back, or better yet, grab Vaan and run, but fear had rendered him immobile. And out from the bush popped a familiar feathered face: the white chocobo. Balthier felt the back of his neck break out into a cold sweat.

He found himself unable to think beyond that face. The fire, the forest and the stars above him all disappeared, leaving that face, and those eyes. Those eyes that moved closer and closer until he could see the myst that swirled within, hypnotizing…

Maddening.

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As he opened his eyes for the second time, he was enormously grateful for the weak sunlight that made him close them again. It meant no more Ivalice-damned Chocobo with malicious intent. Hot breath ruffled the top of his hair and his bangs. Balthier tried to take stock of

himself, but besides a curious wetness on the side of his forehead and a strip of cloth around his head, he felt just fine. Oh, and the arm stretched across his shoulder blades and the hand buried in his hair. He felt his head rise and fall and the breath moved his hair again.

He turned his head as much as he could without risking a really bad headache. His nose brushed against someone's well-defined abs. Hmmm. Even though he couldn't move enough to make out the person's face, he assumed he was resting on Vaan, who was a bit too close for comfort. Balthier sighed delicately, leaning his cheek against those abs again. It made sense the side of his head was wet; Vaan was as hot as a furnace. Balthier grimaced. Desert babies.

Although, the close proximity explained the sweat, the latter didn't explain the former. Why was Vaan holding him this way, this close? Balthier was sure that the boy was at odds with him, seeing as he went out of his way to put distance between them. If it annoyed Balthier, who was the one instigating it, then it must have been upsetting Vaan to no end. But that was the way things needed to be if Balthier was to make back to the Archades in one piece. He didn't need some desert churl clinging to him when it was time for him to go. Which was why Balthier had a contingency plan. Take the boy to Golmore and then escape to Rabanastre on the first airship out to the Archades. Even if Vaan followed him to Rabanastre, how much plant life was he going to manipulate in a desert? It was a perfect, flawless plan.

No heartfelt associations that made the leaving that much harder. At this rate, Vaan would be glad to see him go.

At least, that's what he thought before he was sideswiped by a vagrant battle axe. Now… he wasn't so sure.

Another hour (or so) passed before Balthier got tired of going over his plan, practicing conversations in which Vaan would try to trap him in (some of them far beyond what Vaan's intelligence was capable of) and how he would get out of them. He had even taken to imagining Vaan's facial expressions during these conversations, and that is where he drew the line. Why should he try to pass time? He was awake, so Vaan should be too. And to HELL if he was going to be considerate of Vaan's sleeping time as if they were friends or… lovers.

Bah, Balthier thought. Turning his face just so. He pursed his lips and began to blow onto Vaan's abdomen, hoping that would wake him. He couldn't really move yet, seeing as his mind and body were still a bit sluggish. (Which explained the hour long think session.) The boy above him shifted slightly, tightening his grip on his shoulders.

"Vaan," he tried, because this was no the direction he wanted the situation to move in at all. Although his voice sounded more like "vaaa…." or a dust mite crying out before it died. "vaaa…" he tried again.

"Mmm." This was getting nowhere. Balthier's expression turned from mildly annoyed to exasperated. If only had the strength to do more than to purse his lips at the situation. Vaan sighed again, simultaneously pulling the immobile Balthier closer and stretching out. Balthier closed his eyes as his face was pulled even closer to Vaan's chest. He was so busy thinking about not thinking dirty thoughts, that he didn't notice Vaan's eyes sliding open, or Vaan laying him on his back and getting up. In fact, when Balthier finally opened his eyes, he was bewildered to find himself alone.

It annoyed him to that he couldn't sit up to look around. He tried to look around by just twisting his neck, but it hurt too much.

After a time, he calmed down enough to hear Vaan moving around. The gentle sound of the grass bending and moving as Vaan otherwise stomped about soothed him. He smiled to himself. Vaan really was a loud, clumsy person.

The exact kind of person he disliked.

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