Nothing to Do

Nothing to Do

Disclaimer: Do not own these characters. Have not owned these characters. Will never own these characters. There's sex here with Penelo and Balthier. If that disturbs you or turns you off, then find something else to read. kthx.

**

"I follow a few rules as far as my liaisons go. First, love has nothing to do with this. This is about enjoying each other and our mutual pleasure. At the end of the two weeks, we continue as we have before. Second, I'm going to teach you a special spell to prevent any consequences; you must perform it every time after we're together. Third, while we will definitely be causing a buzz, no confirming that you have been my paramour. The mystique makes it more romantic." Balthier placed his hands behind his head, "Are we clear on those, Penelo?"

"No love. No babies. No telling." Penelo nodded. She still seemed undecided, "What about your "No virgins" rule? Fran told me about that one. She said you were very strict on that one."

Balthier silently cursed his partner, and more over that rule. "That one is more of a guideline. I think I can make an exception this time. Certainly for someone as pretty as you."

"What if I don't please you?" She sat there in her chair, hands clasped together, looking almost nervous, but deciding, and Balthier, walked close to her.

"If it's my pleasure you're worried about, let me assure you that I'll likely enjoy anything you do. Just think it over. Come to my chamber tonight if you decide to come. Goodnight, Miss Penelo." He bent over and gave her a chaste kiss on the forehead. Perhaps the only one he would ever give her.

***

The hesitant knock at his bedroom door came at quarter to eleven, while he read maps and navigational charts by crystal light. When the Strahl was done getting repairs, he had business to attend to. Paper could not depict the ebb and flow of winds, but with the right mind, the routes almost made sense.

"Yes?"

The door opened slightly, just enough for Penelo to slip her small body through. She looked the same as always, body-covering, body-outlining jumpsuit, the twin braids he always wanted to unravel and feel the thickness of her soft hair, and Balthier made a guess, plain cotton undergarments beneath. Function only. The uncertainty in her bearing seemed to have faded, with only a faint trace of blotches from tears. Those...those disturbed him.

"I've decided," she said quietly. "I want to."

"Are you sure?" Balthier asked, folding up the navigational charts and placing them in the drawer of his desk.

"I think so. I--I mean yes. If you want to."

"There's nothing I want more." And, to his surprise, it was true. She stood by the door still, looking nervous and a little afraid, but he still wanted her in spite of, or perhaps because of that. A leading man should know how to soothe his lady's fears, shouldn't he? "Come here, Penelo."

"Here?"

"Next to me. I can hardly seduce you if you're on the other side of the room."

Penelo walked slowly over there, stopping just a few feet away from him, hands clasped behind her back, like a shop girl waiting for someone to give her errand, or a chore to do.

To put her at ease, but also, perhaps for his own pleasure, he decided to oblige her. "All right, now take down your hair. I don't think I've ever seen it unbraided."

She did so, bending her head down as she pulled the bands from the ends of her braids. Then, she let her fingers run through the loosened hair, separating the clumps of her braids into separate slightly wavy strands that hung over her shoulders and almost against her bosom. When Penelo had lifted her face, she had changed. Somehow the soft curls framing her face made her seem softer, more delicate, and yet, more adult.

Balthier liked that. "I approve." Penelo smiled at him, seeming a little more confident in what she had chosen. "Would you let me touch?"

Penelo bent over letting her hair fall to his eye level, as he brushed back her hair and tucked it behind her ears. It was as he expected, skin and hair both, fine and delicate.

"Could you, perhaps, give me a kiss?"

She leaned forward, giving him a peck on the forehead, the same chaste kiss he had given her a few hours ago. Penelo pulled away, smiling, with her eyes brightening just a little bit.

"A real kiss, if you please."

Once again, she leaned forward, and this time she pressed her lips against his, only for a brief contact before Balthier wrapped a hand around her head and pulled her closer, filling some questing need of his to deepen the kiss, and make her pliable lips open to him. He felt the resistance ebb and disappear, as she seemed to get caught in the intoxication of the kiss. Soon, she pressed back against him and he obliged, opening his mouth and inviting her to explore, while he did the same to her.

Their breath fell heavy when they pulled apart. He could hear Penelo's breath deepen, and her lips were painted in a deep blush that betrayed a real enjoyment of that kiss. And his own breath seemed to come rapid as well, and he was damn near sure that he had enjoyed kissing her.

"That's a real kiss?" Penelo asked. She grinned, looked eager to try again, and he supposed he had no other choice but to oblige her.

"That," Balthier said, "is a real kiss. Care to initiate one?"

Penelo nodded, and then leaned forward again, much bolder this time. And so, Balthier made a concession and brought his head up to meet hers, showing his willingness, no, his eagerness to lose himself in her lips. She obliged, opening her mouth to him, and using her tongue to draw his open. They kissed once, twice, many times, while the fingers of his right hand intertwined with her left hand.

When she pulled back from him, it was with a look of new revelation painted on her face. "I liked that," she said, her voice ragged from her breath.

"I'm glad. Do you think you're ready for a new task?" He gestured towards the bed, plush and waiting for someone to get taken upon it.

Most of the previous eagerness had left her. "I think so..." She bit her lower lip, the one he had tugged and played at not even a minute ago.

"Well, we'll just have to make you sure you're ready." Balthier smiled before he added, in complete earnestness, "Remember, you can stop it at any time."

"No, I'm ready." She made her voice sound confident, though it still strained.

He walked towards the bed, with Penelo following right behind. "I'll have to make sure of a few things, first. Would you mind, perhaps, disrobing." He sat at the edge of the bed, attentive, as she hesitantly took heed of the new command.

Penelo's back was to him, as she reached around to unzip the back of her jumpsuit, and began to expose the flesh of her back inch-by-inch. Shoulders had never seemed quite as exciting, nor the back strap of a white cotton bra. The dip of her lower back, around where her waist was most narrow seemed to tease him, especially because the zipper just stopped short of revealing anything below her hips. Her arms left the sleeves, letting the rest of the suede and cotton outfit drop forward. She inched the fabric down her waist and legs, revealing her bottom and thighs, and then, finally the stepped out of her boots, leaving her naked from her head to her toes, except for her underwear, and a pair of matching white socks. And Penelo bent forwards to take the socks off, though Balthier stopped her before she could move her panties and bra. He would take care of those later.

"Now, if you wouldn't mind undressing me..." Penelo joined him on the bed, going behind him to undo the buttons of his vest before sliding off his body, and freeing his shirt to removed, which she took her own sweet time in doing, her hands ready and willing to explore his torso, so different from her own lithe one. She skimmed her hands down his sides while she unbuttoned the shirt. In front of him now, a demure valet wearing nothing but her underthings, she slipped her arms down his and let his shirt pool behind him, though she was sure to pick up and fold it, a woman after his own heart.

And then, she knelt down to take off his boots, lining them up with the side of the bed, and then, finally his trousers. To his disappointment, she did not linger, as she did with shirt, but rather unbuttoned them quickly, averting her eyes from the shaft she revealed, and concentrating on his knees while she slid his pants to the floor. And those she folded as well, placing them under his shirt, and arranging them so they lined up perfectly before she joined him on the bed.

He turned towards her, his eyes caught by and appreciating her nearly-bare body so close to him, though he could not enjoy her downcast eyes studying the pattern on the blanket. "Look at me, Penelo. Really, look at me. You're curious, I think."

"I am..." she admitted, She lifted her eyes, studying him, his face and countenance, his chest and arms, his legs and finally his shaft, semi-erect, ready for whatever they desired. "It's not so scary. I don't know what I was expecting." She giggled a little from nervousness.

"The worst is not knowing." Balthier said, "and in that spirit, there's some things of you I don't know that well either." He half-sat, half-laid against the headboard, and motioned for her to join him. He drank in the sight of her dancer's body crawling up to join him, and snuggling into the crook of his arms, almost in his lap.

Balthier slipped one hand into the top of her bra, feeling her already erect nipples poking at his hands, and he squeezed and pinched them with a gentle touch, and his other hand curled around her back undoing the clasp and loosening her breasts. He slipped it off one strap at a time, enjoying the view of her bosom exposed to him bit-by-bit, and the slight of her nipples, pink and at attention. Unable to resist, he took her left nipple, the one closest to him and took it into his mouth, liking her soft sigh at the attention, and the way she began to relax in his arms.

He left her nipple and kissed his way up her collarbone and neck before capturing her in a kiss, and another one, until she seemed just as relaxed and breathless as she had before. "Just enjoy this, sweetheart. That's want I want you to do. And tell me, where you want me to go..."

"Down?" she said, more a question than a statement.

"Should we see?" Though he certainly did not object to down, he certainly wanted her to be more confident. He cupped his hands around each one of her breasts, measuring them, memorizing their look, their feel, their weight in his hands, before moving down her stomach and further to the top of her panties. He lingered there, played there, around her inner thighs, delighting in how they almost instinctively spread to let him access. He rubbed her through the cotton, and teased her where bare leg met fabric.

Penelo clung to him, making him feel like a force of stability, even as he very deliberately sabotaged her senses, and her sense of anticipation. "Let me know what you like, what you want." One finger slipped through the side of her panties and cupped her folds, taking note of how moist they already seemed, and how warm she was. He pulled it out, looking at the bit of her juices lingering on his finger before giving into the temptation to try the sweetish sourish flavor of her.

"More, please..." This time she sounded sincere and clouded by touches he gave her. Balthier obliged, slipping a hand through the waist of her panties, as she might have pleasured herself had she been the type to masturbate. He should ask.

"Have you ever..." his question trailed off as he traced a single finger around her clit and her hold, reveling in the shuddering breaths she gave.

She shook her head. "Never...I didn't understand. Show me...please." Her request faded to a small sigh as he rubbed her clit.

"I'll be more than happy to." And he would, in the way that she seemed to melt from the pleasure of his touch, in the way that her folds became wetter, and turned her panties damp from arousal. "If you have an itch, just tell me where to scratch it."

"Up...no...just down a little bit." He followed, taking in her every reactions, when she moaned, when she quieted, when she leaned into his touch or pulled away, and he took those lessons from his life of seducing women and applied them, relying as much on his instinct as on her verbal commands, until he settled into a rhythm that gradually drove her to quietness, as she lifted her body up to meet his hand and he applied the sensations until she surrendered with an arched back and a little gasp of pleasure.

It had taken his share of patience, but the amazed-dazed-happy expression on her face, and her total relaxation had been worth it. He slid the finger that had been working on her clit into her hole, taking note of the lubrication there, and the way her sighs continued.

"I think I'm ready," she whispered in his ears and this time, she sounded ready.

And Balthier certainly was. His body had begged to take her, to slide her panties down her bottom and toss them aside, and place her on top of him, inside of her. He obeyed his urges now, sliding her panties down her legs and down to the floor beside the bed.

"Climb on top of me." The instructions caught in his throat, harsh and ragged, while the sight of her pleasure continued to arouse him.

She did so, the very core of her lingering over his shaft, waiting to engulf him. And Balthier wanted nothing more, nothing more than to watch as she gave herself to him, her first lover. She towered over him, beautiful and innocent and eager to please him. Slowly, she lowered herself onto him, gasping at first in pleasure as the head of his shaft touched the rim of her, and then pain as he came into her tight folds, forcing them to expand for his invasion, though at least her activity as a dancer had rid her of her actual virginity so she was spared that much again. And finally, as he settled inside her, she finally seemed to adjust to pleasure again.

"How are you doing?" It seemed a ridiculous question to ask so politely, when all he wanted to do was lift his body and go deeper inside her until he found his own release. Yet he did, because even if he didn't want to be too good, and ruin her for other lovers, he wanted it to be as good for her, as it would be for him.

Penelo sighed and adjusted, experimentally squeezing around him. "It's starting to feel good, actually." Without him telling her took she moved again, this time up and down, and laughed as the pleasure made him sigh, and made him wish he could convey how much he enjoyed that.

"Keep doing that, love."

Each time moved, she paused to savor the new sensations, until she mercifully sped her pace up, sending waves of intense pleasure coursing through his whole body, and now he clung to Penelo as the center of the storm, as she became caught in the pleasure as well. His eyes remained intent on her face, and the way the joy of her exertion came through. A blush that started in her cheeks spread across her face and down her chest, turning the area into her bosom a beautiful rosy color, and that image imprinted on his mind as he closed his eyes and began meeting her motions faster and faster, and sending them both off into another world together.

And when his body gave out, he leaned into her, cradling her back as he found his release and felt her shudders of pleasure again. His eyes opened, Penelo, a vision of young goddess gleaming from exertion, her loosened hair hanging over her face and looking so sensual, and searching for something.

His previous vow to not be too good aside, Balthier obliged, rubbing her clit while he cooled down inside her. This time her climax came quick, prompted by the first one and then the extra stimulation of their lovemaking. She bent down to kiss him again, this time as a thank you, as she lifted herself off of him, and lie down on the bed beside him.

"So, you were ready?" Balthier asked, as a feeling of smugness came over him. His hand trailed down her body again, casually this time, to reassure himself of her reality.

Penelo nodded. "It was nice. I'd like to do it again."

"Trust me, we will. Many more times." When she rolled off the bed, stopped her, "If you wouldn't mind...I think you should stay with me tonight."

She nodded and laid back at her side, curled against him, hand running idly over his chest and stomach. "I need to show you something." Over her womb, and where she could see, his hands made a movement while he chanted a spell, he knew never showed up in Penelo's spell book. "Got that?"

"Yes." She imitated the motions and said the spell again, while Balthier corrected the small mistakes. And then performed it again when she had the motions and words perfect. "So now...nothing will happen."

"Well, it's not guaranteed, but it hasn't failed me yet. Just say it after every time we make love." He pet her as they lapsed into a comfortable silence.

"Hey? If love has nothing to do with this, how come you call it making love?"

"For the next two weeks, we're lovers, and that means we make love. Now, it's not going to last beyond the time when Vaan's done trying to sire the queen's heir, but we will enjoy each other's body and company until then." To him the words sounded false, although at least Penelo nodded and seemed to believe him.

He turned down the lamp, falling asleep with the though of her right next to him, falling asleep as well. Nothing to do with love, he told himself. Nothing at all.