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Vaan ran through the streets of Rabanastre the small pouch of gil clenched to his chest and a furiously screaming at him Penelo in pursuit. He laughed as he came to the top of a long staircase, skidding down it and turning the corner quickly, hoping to use the shadows there to hide. It didn’t work, Penelo didn’t bother with the stairs, she simply jumped over the railing and landed on his shoulders. Vaan only stumbled a little as she landed, grabbing her ankles to balance them.
“You give that back Vaan! I actually earned that gil you jerk, and I plan on buying everyone a good dinner with it tonight! Hand it over.” Penelo wrapped her legs around his arms tightly as she spoke and leaned over trying to grab for the bag he was now holding out of reach.
Vaan’s hand not holding the pouch moved from her ankle and gripped at Penelo’s thigh as he stepped forward a bit as her leaning nearly knocked them over. He laughed again, “I know you earned it. You work really hard all the time. You never have any fun anymore! A run is a good way to keep you in shape so you don’t become all flabby sitting behind counters all the time.”
Penelo paused and looked down at his head with disdain before knocking a fist into it. “Ugh! I can’t believe you! I am not going to get fat just because most of my work is exchanging money and items across a counter! Am I suddenly heavier, Vaan?” She got a wicked smirk on her face as she suddenly went limp and draped herself over him, “Am I weighing you down?”
Vaan stumbled a bit before chuckling. “Of course not, if you were, jumping on me would’ve knocked me down.”
“Hmmm, maybe you should train more then.” Penelo smiled near his ear.
“Wait, what, why?” Vaan was clearly confused, stumbling again as Penelo began gently kicking her feet.
“Because while you might have caught me just fine, your balance is terrible.” Penelo chuckled and Vaan sputtered over the insult.
“Hey you two, what are you doing?” Balthier called over to them, waving as he and Fran walked over.
Vaan pouted a bit and handed the pouch back to Penelo as she spoke, “Oh, I was just catching the thief that took off with my hard earned gil.”
Fran chuckled, “Baiting her again Vaan? When will you learn she will always catch you?”
Vaan winced and rubbed his head as Penelo hopped off his shoulders, “Probably never if she keeps hitting me so hard for doing it.”
Balthier rolled his eyes as Fran snorted, “I believe your skull is too hard for that kind of damage.”
Penelo burst out laughing as Vaan looked at his shoes in defeat. He quickly shrugged it off though and looked around at them all. “So, what have you been up to?”
Fran gave him a soft smile and Balthier grinned before motioning for them to follow him. “We finally got the Strahl all fixed up and were looking for the two of you. We wanted to know if you wanted to go on the test flight to make sure everything is as it should be on her.”
Vaan’s eyes widened and his mouth fell open in shock for a moment before the excitement caught up with him. “Really!? You want us to come with you? Can I drive?”
Penelo rolled her eyes and shook her head at Vaan practically dancing beside Balthier. For his part Balthier turned to him with a raised brow and simply said, “No. You cannot FLY it. That’s my job, thank you.”
Vaan pouted as Fran gave a soft chuckle. Penelo skipped up beside him with a smile, “Don’t worry Vaan, someday you’ll have your own ship, and flying it will be your job.”
He turned to her with an uncertain grin, then nodded and gave her a real smile. “Yeah!”
Penelo peeked around him at Balthier, “In the meantime though, we’d love to go with you.”
Balthier smirked at them as they made their way to the airship docks, “I thought you might.”
“You don’t need to speak to anyone before leaving? Let them know we should be back in about an hour?” Fran asked them.
“Oh. Actually, just let me tell Migelo, he’ll let everyone else know where we are if they ask.” Penelo paused and spun on her heel, then smacked Vaan with her bag of gil, “Race you slowpoke!”
“Hey! Why do I have to come?” Vaan whined as he rubbed his arm where the gil sack had struck him, looking after Penelo’s retreating form with puppy-dog eyes.
She yelled over her shoulder, “Because if you don’t, you aren’t allowed to come to the dinner this is buying tonight!”
“That’s so unfair!” Vaan tore off after her to Balthier and Fran’s laughter.
The two watched the teenagers disappear into the bustle of Rabanastre and then gave identical grins to each other before again heading for the Strahl. When they reached the ship Balthier turned and asked Fran, “You think we’ll be invited to this dinner?”
Fran gave him a look, “I’m sure they’d invite us if we asked.”
Balthier deflated a bit, “Do I have to say ‘please’?”
Fran chuckled, “I’m sure Penelo would appreciate it, however, it might make the two of them think you are ill.”
Balthier squinted at her, “Rude, Fran, rude.”
She laughed as she headed inside the Strahl to double check their repairs while they waited for Vaan and Penelo. Balthier simply sat on a nearby crate outside and waited for them to arrive.
Vaan and Penelo came up talking about where to go or what to get for dinner. Balthier’s stomach nearly gave him away. Not that he hadn’t eaten lunch not all that long ago, but the mention of food always made him hungry.
Penelo spotted Balthier as they rounded a stack of crates and beamed at him, “Speaking of dinner, is there anything you or Fran prefer? I hear a lot of Viera don’t eat meat, and can’t recall seeing her eat, though I’m sure I’ve been around for it.”
Balthier blinked, then huffed out a laugh as he stood up. “Well, I usually prefer steamed buns actually, any kind is good. Fran prefers fruits and smoked fish seems to be a favorite. Viera are great hunters, not sure why people think they would only eat plants.”
“Hmm.” Penelo tapped her chin as she passed him on her way into the Strahl.
Vaan shook his head, “Any food is good with me, I’ll eat anything, so I’ve been no help in helping her decide what to do.”
Balthier chuckled and followed him inside, closing the hatch securely before heading to the pilot’s seat. “Everyone ready for this?”
As he began flipping switches and buckling himself in Vaan asked him, “What repairs were you doing? Was the Strahl damaged?”
“Buckle.” Was Fran’s response as she stood at a monitor eyeing various fluctuation as Balthier flipped switches.
Vaan huffed and sat down in a seat, buckling himself in, as Penelo already had. Penelo looked around with her head cocked, “Something seems different.”
Fran smiled at her, “Good.”
The Viera finally took her own seat, satisfied they weren’t going to combust upon take-off, and readied everything at her station should she actually need to co-pilot.
“Right, here we go.” Balthier undocked them and moved them away from the city slowly, the Strahl whirring quietly... much more quietly than it had the last time Vaan and Penelo were in it. “Doesn’t she just sound lovely?”
“What’d you do?” Both teens asked in unison.
Balthier chuckled and Fran smiled, “We repaired the engine after it stalled out on us a few days ago. And upgraded it and a few other things.”
“But what-?” Penelo was cut off by Fran’s raised hand.
“Listen.”
In the quiet Penelo made out the faint sounds of singing, Vaan just looked confused. “Singing?”
Fran nodded and Balthier shrugged, “I’ll have to take your word for it, I’m not very ‘in tune with nature’ like you two are. However, Fran said adding a sprite to the mechanics would do wonders. And the sprite seems to enjoy being in there. Whenever we turn the engines on it gets a free meal. So it agreed to help fuel the thrusters. Makes things much quieter as there’s no combustion going on anymore, the same matter that would usually combust is still going into the tank, however the sprite eats it and then the sprite’s energy is what fuels the ship now.”
“Wow.” Penelo’s voice was awed. “How did you even get it in there?”
Fran smiled at her and winked, “It’s a secret.”
“No fair.” Vaan grumbled, but Penelo just giggled.
Balthier made a circuit around Dalmasca before heading back to Rabanastre. Everything seemed to be working just fine, Fran was in tune with the Sprite enough that she could tell Balthier when to flip a new little switch they installed to ‘feed’ the sprite again so it’s energy levels stayed consistent. All in all the two were proud of their ‘upgrades’.
“I know!” Penelo clapped her hands as she disembarked from the Strahl, “We’ll go to the Sandsea that way each person can order their preference. Plus all of us will fit. I’ll see if Tomaj will let us steal the upstairs! See you three there!”
With that she raced off through the thinning evening crowd. Vaan shook his head, “You guys can head over there too if you’d like. I’m gonna head over and get Migelo and the others.”
He waved and trotted off to his assigned task. Balthier finished making sure the Strahl was locked down, then the two Skypirates made their way to the Sandsea. Just as they arrived a gaggle of kids rushed through the doors, followed by a yelling Vaan.
“Guys! Slow down, you’ll get kicked out before you can be seated!” He rushed in after them, Migelo could be seen further down the street chuckling as he came.
Fran wrinkled her nose, “I had forgotten most of their friends are children.”
Balthier gave her arm a gentle pat, “It’s alright my dear, I’m sure we can stick you as far from most of them as possible.”
Fran sniffed at him and then smiled at Migelo, holding the door open for the man as he reached them. They followed him inside to find that Penelo had indeed gotten the balcony for their little dinner get together. They made their way up and Penelo directed them to seats where their backs were to the wall, and Migelo was on one side of them and herself and Vaan were on the other. Balthier silently congratulated her on her foresight.
“Okay, everyone order whatever it is you want. Tonight is my treat!” Penelo called out as the waiter came to take their orders. Once everyone was settled with drinks and their food was on its way, they devolved into random lively conversations for the remainder of the night. Penelo felt it was money well spent, it gave her friends, at least those who could attend, a chance to unwind and get good food in them. Yes, she was very satisfied with what her hard work had wrought.