AN; reviews, comments, and fixes are always adored and appreciated! Also, requests for pairings and prompts/topics remain always open. (: Enjoy!

Time

The Viera weren't a race who placed a very big emphasis on the concept of time, of time passing or time lost or the time taken for something to happen. The Word of the Wood didn't change with time, a constant melody, a song of their race and their home and the lives they lived. Time spans that could give birth to generations of Humes and their kingdoms and could watch them rise and fall, rise and fall, were time spans in which the Wood remained consistent, barely altering in appearance and in it's Word. Viera lived much longer then Humes and the other races; and for every lifespan of a single one of those, a Viera had barely less time to live. All in all, Ivalice was for the Humes- to live out their terribly short lives then to die, for their civilizations to develop and degenerate. The Wood was for the Viera alone, a place where time seemed to stop.

Hence, when Fran first left Eruyt Village and entered into the land considered to be that of the Humes, she was literally shocked at how vital a thing time seemed to be for this loud, destructive race. They were always scurrying around to get to place from place, with a rushed expression that never seemed to fade. They lived quickly, shared emotions freely because they had such little time to do so. Driven towards the desire for wealth and prosperity and a mate, along with the obscure concept they called 'love,' the Humes rushed through their existences- and when the flames of their lives finally burned out, the ashes smoldered down and disappeared to nothing with the same speed in which they had lived. Quick to rise, quick to fall, and new ones to quickly take their place, as if nothing had ever happened.

Among them, she learned what time really was, something the Wood had never wanted the Viera learn of. To know time meant to know of change, and to know of change led to Her children wanting to see where these changes took place. To leave Her leafy embrace, to walk alongside the Humes, to forget Her Word and become deaf to Her voice. She simply couldn't have that. But one of Her children had abandoned her home, had earned her freedom. Outside of Golmore, Fran learned time by watching the changing of seasons- something that didn't occur in the Wood`s constant climate. She watched time pass in the day-by-day changes to the Humes that marked their developing, their aging, while years could pass and she would still look exactly as she did. She saw it in the buildings that rose and airships that were assembled, and very soon crumbled apart and disintegrated into mere dust. She saw it all, and she learned from it.

Everything, for the Humes, was based on time.

It was a fact that she often found herself thinking about- now more then ever- as she stood out on the deck of the Strahl, the bitter wind slashing at her face and throwing snowy hair about her face. The airship was cutting a path towards the Paramina Rift, where rumors said a treasure caravan had been abandoned thanks to a disgruntled Elemental and a raging tempest of a blizzard. She and Balthier had set off only minutes after the rumor had come to their ears. Balthier. Whenever the thoughts of time came to her, mental images of a certain brown-haired, honey-voiced sky pirate came chasing right after. She and the pirate, they were together on borrowed time. He would age in the proverbial blink of an eye, she would remain unchanged, and if their profession didn't take his life, old age would. Fran wasn't one prone to strong emotions- or she hadn't been, in the time before. Before what, she wondered vaguely? Before Balthier seemed more accurate. Now, the idea of losing him, of walking her path alone again, was truly unbearable. For all the Viera intellect, only some shadowed, far corner of her mind recognized that heavy, ill sensation as fear. Pure, unadulterated fear that cut through her thoughts and nearly blinded her. Fear was as uncommon to Viera a concept as time- after all, what did a Viera have to fear? Death? That was just another obscure idea they heard of but didn`t ponder back in the Wood.

Fran was afraid.

"Out here again? It's late. Come to bed."

She was too lost in her thoughts to even hear him. It was only when a pair of strong, familiar, recklessly daring, warm arms surrounded her from behind that she realized she had been shaking ever so slightly. Not from the cold- from her thoughts. Her ears twitched slightly as the familiar sound of his breathing reached them. Everything about him was familiar, as if it had been with her all her life. His hands, his warmth, the scent of coffee and machine oil and gunpowder and something else so uniquely him that she couldn't single it out as anything else. She still wasn't fully used to the open, hands-on way Humes so often displayed their affection, but from Balthier, she had never been able to complain. At that moment, she understood the Humes' desperate scrabble to try and beat time, because with every breath, these moments were running out. She didn't want it to be gone, didn't want to lose this fragile thing she had built and found herself treasuring. She didn't-

"You do know, Fran, how it wounds my terribly fragile ego when you pretend I don't exist."

The faint trembling stopped as his words finally touched those sensitive ears and registered, the sound washing over her and clearing the haze of jumbled, broken thoughts. Fran abruptly realized how foolish she was being. Although she would never admit it, lest she further enlarge that 'fragile ego' of his, Balthier had taught her numerous things- and one of them was to live for each moment, day, with no care for the time passing. Pretend each second was a lifetime instead of each lifetime just a second, the way it had been in the Wood. After all, he couldn't afford to live any other way when he was in such a dangerous line of work. She was not a fool who did not hold onto a lesson once it was learned. So why was she acting in such a manner? Silent for a moment, Fran finally tilted her head back to look up at the sky-pirate holding her, the action causing her head to fall back against his shoulder- she had, for a reason she couldn`t remember, shed her heels before coming out here and without them, they were of perfectly matched height. Garnet eyes blinked at him in a slightly sarcastic, even teasing manner, as she noticed he was as bare footed as she and was wearing no shirt.

"You are not cold?" The Viera finally questioned, her voice low- Balthier only barely caught it over the rush of wind. A smirk slowly curled his lips, but it seemed softer then usual, without the arrogance. "Won't be for much longer," He replied simply. Fran blinked, finding this terribly cryptic- even for Balthier, master of double entendres. Grinning in his cocky, confident manner, he tilted his form towards Fran's and pressed his lips contentedly against hers, one hand steady on the side of her waist. The heat that spread over her made her understand that sly little comment quite quickly. Into the kiss, so small that Balthier might not have even noticed it, she smiled slightly.

For a moment- this moment- she could forget they were together on borrowed time.

For right now, she knew they had all the time in the world.