A/N: As always, many thanks and chocolates go out to my reviewers: TheAngel'sLover, Althia9, Feeny, koalababay, IH8Abbreviations, Drink. Juice, and chiharu-tanaka. :)

This one is-odd? I don't know what it is. I'm left staring at it in bafflement, because it certainly didn't turn out how I expected. It was kind of like writing a rollercoaster. It started out as one thing, went up into something else, and then left me so dizzy at the end that I wasn't sure which side was up.

Prompt #4 - Desperate

"Well, this is just lovely."

Though Vaan couldn't see a thing in the pitch black, the sarcasm in Penelo's voice was more than evident. Some of her emphasis was lost, however, when she started coughing from the upheaval of dirt and rock that had put them in their current predicament.

Vaan was too busy coughing himself to answer for a moment. When he finally found his voice, his eyes watering from the settling dust, he said, "Wait, I might have a light." He fished blindly into his bag, rustling around, his fingers bumping into extra clothing, a bag of food, and something he wasn't sure he wanted to try to identify. When was the last time he had actually cleaned out his bag? But there was no light. "Nope, sorry. How about some good old fire magick?"

"Not unless you want us both to be burned to crisp. I don't have anything to light on fire! I can't just keep shooting it out of my fingertips."

"We could use your pants. Ow!" Vaan rubbed his neck, which Penelo had just smacked, no doubt trying (and failing) to hit him on the head.

"Why don't we use your pants, Vaan?" she retorted. "Then you can crawl around in a dark cave without them and see how you like it." There was a rustling of cloth, and a moment later, a small lantern clicked on, held aloft in Penelo's hand. "At least one of us is prepared," she said, a satisfied smile on her face.

She shined the light around, and they both fully took in their situation. The cave entrance that they had come in had collapsed, so there would be no going out that way. Fortunately, they did have a map of this series of caves and there was more than one exit. Vaan pulled the map out of his pocket and held it under the light, squinting at it. "No problem," he assured. He started walking forward, Penelo following behind him.

"Yeah, that's what you said last-"

There was a sudden, familiar rumbling, followed by another cascade of rock and dust. Apparently the cavern wasn't quite finished caving in. Vaan was temporarily blinded, not by darkness this time, but by stinging dust in his eyes.

He rubbed them, hacking up dirt again, and in between gasps managed to get out, "Penelo?"

There was no answer. Still scrubbing his eyes, Vaan turned around and his heart stopped. Penelo had only been two steps behind him, but she was half-buried by rock; the light had fallen out of her hand and was lying on the ground next to her fingertips.

"Penelo!" Vaan threw himself down beside her, heart pounding in his throat. "Penelo!"

She groaned, and Vaan breathed again. He grabbed the light and got a better look at her situation; her head was bloodied, but she wasn't as badly pinned as he had thought. Her pack had actually gotten caught under the heavy rock, and Vaan stared it, suddenly dizzy. She had been only inches away from having that large rock crush her back instead of her bag. There were some smaller rocks on her legs. He swiftly, carefully lifted them off of her, half expecting the ceiling to finish crashing down on them, but it didn't. A quick exam of her legs showed they didn't appear to be broken.

"Penelo?" Her eyes were closed, and Vaan called her more loudly. "Penelo! You've gotta stay awake."

"Uhhh…" Her eyes flickered a little, and he encouraged that by talking some more.

"Your head got hit pretty bad, okay? You can't sleep." There was no way he was going to be able to get her bag out from under the hunk of stone on it, so he grabbed one of Penelo's daggers from its cover and cut it off of her, until he could sheath it again pull her entirely away from rubble. "Can you stand?" Vaan tried to stand her on her feet, but she promptly collapsed and he grabbed her before she hit the floor and hurt herself worse. She was barely conscious at all.

Vaan dragged her farther into the cave, hoping to avoid any more cave-ins, before he propped her against the wall and dug into his own bag, holding the lantern aloft while he searched for a potion or an elixir or something, but he had nothing. All the restorative items had been in Penelo's pack.

Gritting his teeth in frustration, Vaan took a deep breath and cast a Curaga spell on her. It didn't do much; he thought some of the scrapes and bruises went away, but it was tricky to see in what little light he had. He used to be better at these white magick spells, but lack of practice had eroded much of their potency when he tried to wield them. He hoped it would at least keep Penelo conscious. She was obviously too dazed to concentrate on magick at all, or she could probably fix herself.

"Penelo?" Vaan cupped her chin in his hand, looking at her eyes, but they were unfocused and it was obvious she was fighting to keep them open. "It's okay; I'm going to get us out of here." He shifted his bag around so it was across his front, and then pulled Penelo onto his back. He tucked her arms firmly around his neck and her legs around his waist, but her grip was almost nonexistent. "Just try to hold onto me, okay?"

There was a mumbled response, but Vaan wasn't sure if Penelo was actually speaking words. Eyeing the light and the map, he bit back a frustrated curse. How was he supposed to carry the light, the map, and Penelo?

He finally hooked the light onto his bag, so it was hanging in front of him (and almost dropped Penelo in the process of attaching it), and then used one hand to support Penelo and the other to hold the map. He studied it for a moment, until he had memorized the way out of the caverns. It wasn't terribly far, but he had no idea what he would do if there turned out to be monsters inside. They hadn't run into any yet, but that didn't mean they wouldn't.

He thrust the map back into his pocket and set off with Penelo in tow, carefully treading on the rocky ground so he wouldn't trip and give her another head injury. As he walked, he talked, only half aware of what he was saying, trying to keep her awake.

"…and then you know what he did?" Vaan waited a moment, but there was no response, and he gave his partner's leg a little shake. "Penelo!"

"Hmm?" Her reply was lethargic and dazed.

Fear coursed through Vaan as Penelo's head lilted down against his back. He hitched her up more firmly, ducking around a stalactite and trying desperately to keep from stumbling on the rocky ground.

"Are you listening to me?"

"Uhhh," was Penelo's eloquent response.

"Penelo, you have to stay awake. Head injury, remember?"

"Not…my fault," she said, her voice more than a little slurred.

"Not mine, either," he said, mostly just to keep her talking.

"Your…idea…explore…" Penelo mumbled.

"Hey, you never know what we're going to find in caves," he pointed out.

There was again no reply, and Penelo's arms loosened completely from their grasp around his neck. "Penelo!"

Still no response. Vaan pinched her leg, hard, eliciting a startled noise from her. Her arms tightened once more, and she grumbled, "Ow…"

Vaan slid around some more rocks on the ground, passing a weirdly shaped stalagmite. "Hey, check that out, Penelo. It kind of looks like Fran's ears." He was still trying to keep from panicking, but he knew that even if he got Penelo out of the caves, he would still have to get her to their airship, which was way over by the collapsed entrance. There were elixirs and X-potions on board, if he could only get there...

"Penelo?"

"Mm."

"You have to talk. It'll help you stay awake."

"Mmkay."

There was silence, and Vaan added, "That means you've actually got to open your mouth." His shoulder felt wet, and when he glanced at it, he realized that it was sticky with blood. For a moment, he wondered how he had gotten hurt, and then he realized with a frightened jolt that it was Penelo's blood, trickling from her head wound. His grasp on her legs tightened and he lifted her up higher on his back again.

"What…talk?"

"I don't care what you talk about, just…pick something."

There was another silence, and Vaan was about to pinch her again when she said, "Got letter…from Larsa."

"Yeah?" So far, so good. They were almost to the other exit.

"Said…coming to Rabanastre..."

Penelo was still mumbling, but he couldn't make out the rest of what she was saying. He didn't care; as long as she was still talking. "Well, we'll just have to show him a good time when he comes, hm? Show him that Rabanastre is a lot better than his boring old Archades."

"Can't…tell…Emperor of…Archades…boring…" Penelo slurred.

"Want to bet?"

"Enough…Tomaj…" Penelo breathed, and then fell silent. Vaan assumed she was trying to tell him that he made enough bets with Tomaj, but he couldn't be sure because at that moment her entire body went limp and he was forced to swiftly bend over and hold her tightly to his back to keep her from rolling off. He had no doubt that she had just slipped entirely into unconsciousness.

He was forced to stop and readjust, dragging her into a rescue hold across his shoulders. Her hair dangled in his face, one braid banging against his nose as he moved as fast as he could toward the exit, part of him fearing that there had somehow been a cave-in or something else that had blocked this way out, too. Relief swarmed over him when he caught a glimpse of daylight-gray, cloudy, rainy daylight, but it was just as beautiful to him at that moment as any amount of sunshine.

Once out of the cave, Vaan was able to quickly determine where they were in relation to where they had left the airship. Clutching Penelo tightly to his shoulders, he hurried through the drizzling rain. It took far longer than he would have liked to reach the airship, and his heart thudded in his chest the whole way. What if he couldn't wake Penelo up? What if she wasn't just unconscious? What if she had-

But he stopped that thought, because he couldn't let himself think that.

Finally, the airship came into sight. He carried Penelo on board; they were both drenched and dripping water everywhere. He carefully set her on the ground, then rested a hand above her mouth. When he felt her breath against his palm, relief crashed over him. He ran to find the extra stash of elixirs, unstoppered one, and forced it into her mouth. She choked on some of it, but managed to get it down, and her eyes blinked open in confusion.

"Vaan?" She sat slowly up, her eyes clear. "Why are we all wet?" There was still a bit of blood on her head that hadn't been washed away by the rain, but the wound was gone. Vaan went to get a cloth, and when he came back and wiped the blood away, she frowned at him. "What happened-were we in a cave-in? I think I remember…" She stopped abruptly when Vaan wrapped his arms tightly around her, pressing his face into her wet hair. Then, softly, she said, "Vaan?" She pulled back and looked at him.

He held up his thumb and forefinger a few inches apart. "You were about that close from being crushed by a pile of rocks."

Maybe not the most comforting thing to say. He didn't know why he was suddenly feeling so shaky about the whole ordeal. This had certainly not been the first-and likely would not be the last-mishap that one of them had gotten into. He and Penelo had scraped through a lot, no matter how careful they were. Even growing up, they had been surrounded by plague and soldiers, and for some reason, had managed to survive when the rest of their families had not. Sometimes he thought that danger just followed them, trying to taunt them and scare them and then letting them get away in the end.

He tried not to think about a time when they might not get away. Everyday was a risk, for everyone, no matter what they were doing. Just because he and Penelo were sky pirates did not mean they wouldn't be in danger if they just sat home all the time. They could get run over by a wayward chocobo. Or their house could crash in on them. Or-

"Vaan." Penelo's insistent voice brought his focus back on her. Her fingers traced down his face. "You're worrying."

"Am not." Vaan took a deep breath and focused on here and now. Worrying would do absolutely nothing. All they could do-all anyone could do-was live a day at a time.

She continued to look at him seriously. "Thanks for patching me up."

He nodded, and then a sly smile crept across his face. "You might not be thanking me when I win our bet."

Penelo's eyes narrowed suspiciously, and she pushed a wet braid out of her face. "What do you mean?"

"You made a bet with me." It wasn't technically true, but what kind of friend would he be if he couldn't tease her after a near-death experience?

"What? I did not."

Vaan simply smirked at her and stood to his feet, grabbing her hands and pulling her up, too, watching for a moment to make sure she was actually completely better. She was perfectly steady on her feet, so he let go of her. "Just because you don't remember it doesn't mean I'm not going to hold you to it."

He turned away from her and hadn't taken more than a step when she said, "What? Vaan! I'm not done talking to you! Where do you think you're going?"

"To put on something dry." He raised his eyebrows at her. "Care to join me? You're pretty wet yourself." His grin became mischievous, and he was fully prepared for the smack she landed on his arm. He caught her and lifted her off her feet.

"You are incorrigible," she told him, but she wrapped her legs around his waist and leaned in to kiss him deeply before he could reply. When she finally pulled away, resting her forehead against his, she whispered, "But I'm still not buying it."

His throat tightened at her heated look, as it flashed through his mind again how close he had come from never seeing her eyes again. His hold on her tightened. "I can be pretty convincing."

She buried one hand in his damp hair and whispered, "You're forgetting I know all your tricks." Her other hand was moving slowly up and down his back, making it difficult to think clearly.

He gazed at her, and the desperation that rose inside of him now was of an entirely different sort than earlier. He tried to give a decent comeback, but all that escaped his mouth was, "Yeah." A moment later he finally found his voice again. "I'll make you another bet."

"You're not so good at this, you know," Penelo whispered in his ear, sending chills down his neck. "You still haven't convinced me of the first one."

"Exactly. I'll bet you that I can convince you."

"You're…betting on a bet? You still haven't even told me what the first one was!"

"Yup."

Penelo leaned back for a moment, still supported on his hips, and a slow grin spread across her face. "You're on. But you're going to have to be very, very convincing."

He pulled her as close as he could and again met her lips with his own. He soaked in the taste and feel of her, kissing her until she was trembling in his arms. Then he gave her a roguish smile and whispered, "I think I can handle that."