022 Friends
Title: Dance (Belle of the Ball, part 1)
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Characters: Penelo, Reks, Vaan
Prompt: 022 Friends
Word Count: 818
Rating: G
Summary: It's Penelo's sixth birthday.
The_sandsea table link: http://airelement.livejournal.com/57837.html
It’s Penelo’s sixth birthday. Her parents let her have a party, and all her friends are here. It’s the middle of summer, so all the little girls are dressed in pretty cotton dresses and for tea they’re going to have cold, creamy ice cream and wobbly strawberry jelly.
Penelo giggles when Vaan runs up to her with his brother’s shoe and passes it to her before running off. Then she squeals when Reks tickles her sides until she gives it back.
Everyone cheers when Penelo’s parents bring out the stereo and start playing the normal party songs, the ones that everyone knows the dance to. All the girls jump up and kick their sandals off so they can dance more easily. The boys are huddled up in the corner playing with Penelo’s toy airships, but the girls decide they want this to be a grown-up party and drag the boys out to the middle of the garden to dance.
Penelo jumps up and down in joy as she sees all her friends having a good time at her party. Then it’s time for tea and her parents sit everyone down on a huge picnic blanket in the middle of the garden, and by the time the cake is revealed nearly everyone (except for her brother, who’s fifteen so he has better table manners) has ice cream smeared around their mouths.
When the cake is brought out and everyone sings happy birthday to Penelo, she kneels on the remainder of the jelly in her eagerness to blow the candles out. So her mother takes her upstairs once the cake has been eaten to change her into clean clothes.
By the time Penelo’s been bundled into a t-shirt and shorts, her friends are playing silly games and the stereo is blasting out popular music and her brother’s been bullied into carrying her friends around on his shoulders. She demands to be given birthday bumps, and after that it’s time for her friends to go home.
Reks and Vaan stay, because Penelo’s family are coming round for dinner and she doesn’t want to be stuck on her own with a load of adults. Penelo’s mother has her work cut out trying to scrub the ice cream and the grass stains off their clothes, and Penelo refuses to wear her best party dress until Reks tells her to.
The three children get bored quickly of all the adult talk going on around them - Penelo wants to hang around to be a big girl, but gets so bored that she decides she’s not that big - and search for the toy airships that got put away in a hurry.
Vaan gets roped into telling Penelo’s uncle all about how he wants to be a sky pirate, so Reks and Penelo are left to try and play three sides of an airship war. They give up after a while, and go to rescue Vaan.
They find him curled up asleep on the sofa and spend a few moments giggling before they hear Penelo’s father shout that the barbequed food is cooked and they run off to receive their hotdogs, each choosing to squeeze a liberal amount of ketchup onto their plates.
They both get tired, and end up falling asleep in Penelo’s playhouse. But the adults have had a little too much to drink so they decide to set off fireworks, and both children wake with a start when the first rocket screeches off into the night sky.
Some music is playing, and Penelo suddenly remembers that Reks had to learn ballroom dancing at school. So she gives him puppy dog eyes and pouts, and then threatens to push a toy airship up his left nostril.
The adults point and coo and subtly take photographs of Penelo and Reks ballroom dancing. It’s unbearably cute, especially when they both trip over at the same time and land on the floor in a tangle of ankles and toes.
Reks gets bored after a while, and refuses to dance any more. He’s scooped up by Penelo’s ever-patient mother and lain on the opposite end of the couch to Vaan, who’s making a snuffling sound in his sleep that Reks refuses to believe he makes too.
Penelo wants to keep dancing, but her mother told her not to disturb the boys. So she stands by the stereo, swaying with her arms held out stiffly as she pretends that she’s still dancing with Reks. He was the best dancer she’s ever danced with - alright, the only boy she’s ever danced with - and she’s decided to beg her mother for dancing lessons. When her uncle sweeps her up with a grin and presents her with a rose picked from her mother’s prize rosebush before dancing her all around the garden, she makes a mental note to hit Reks in the morning. On her birthday, he’s supposed to be a proper gentleman.
Fandom: Final Fantasy XII
Characters: Penelo, Reks, Vaan
Prompt: 022 Friends
Word Count: 818
Rating: G
Summary: It's Penelo's sixth birthday.
The_sandsea table link: http://airelement.livejournal.com/57837.html
It’s Penelo’s sixth birthday. Her parents let her have a party, and all her friends are here. It’s the middle of summer, so all the little girls are dressed in pretty cotton dresses and for tea they’re going to have cold, creamy ice cream and wobbly strawberry jelly.
Penelo giggles when Vaan runs up to her with his brother’s shoe and passes it to her before running off. Then she squeals when Reks tickles her sides until she gives it back.
Everyone cheers when Penelo’s parents bring out the stereo and start playing the normal party songs, the ones that everyone knows the dance to. All the girls jump up and kick their sandals off so they can dance more easily. The boys are huddled up in the corner playing with Penelo’s toy airships, but the girls decide they want this to be a grown-up party and drag the boys out to the middle of the garden to dance.
Penelo jumps up and down in joy as she sees all her friends having a good time at her party. Then it’s time for tea and her parents sit everyone down on a huge picnic blanket in the middle of the garden, and by the time the cake is revealed nearly everyone (except for her brother, who’s fifteen so he has better table manners) has ice cream smeared around their mouths.
When the cake is brought out and everyone sings happy birthday to Penelo, she kneels on the remainder of the jelly in her eagerness to blow the candles out. So her mother takes her upstairs once the cake has been eaten to change her into clean clothes.
By the time Penelo’s been bundled into a t-shirt and shorts, her friends are playing silly games and the stereo is blasting out popular music and her brother’s been bullied into carrying her friends around on his shoulders. She demands to be given birthday bumps, and after that it’s time for her friends to go home.
Reks and Vaan stay, because Penelo’s family are coming round for dinner and she doesn’t want to be stuck on her own with a load of adults. Penelo’s mother has her work cut out trying to scrub the ice cream and the grass stains off their clothes, and Penelo refuses to wear her best party dress until Reks tells her to.
The three children get bored quickly of all the adult talk going on around them - Penelo wants to hang around to be a big girl, but gets so bored that she decides she’s not that big - and search for the toy airships that got put away in a hurry.
Vaan gets roped into telling Penelo’s uncle all about how he wants to be a sky pirate, so Reks and Penelo are left to try and play three sides of an airship war. They give up after a while, and go to rescue Vaan.
They find him curled up asleep on the sofa and spend a few moments giggling before they hear Penelo’s father shout that the barbequed food is cooked and they run off to receive their hotdogs, each choosing to squeeze a liberal amount of ketchup onto their plates.
They both get tired, and end up falling asleep in Penelo’s playhouse. But the adults have had a little too much to drink so they decide to set off fireworks, and both children wake with a start when the first rocket screeches off into the night sky.
Some music is playing, and Penelo suddenly remembers that Reks had to learn ballroom dancing at school. So she gives him puppy dog eyes and pouts, and then threatens to push a toy airship up his left nostril.
The adults point and coo and subtly take photographs of Penelo and Reks ballroom dancing. It’s unbearably cute, especially when they both trip over at the same time and land on the floor in a tangle of ankles and toes.
Reks gets bored after a while, and refuses to dance any more. He’s scooped up by Penelo’s ever-patient mother and lain on the opposite end of the couch to Vaan, who’s making a snuffling sound in his sleep that Reks refuses to believe he makes too.
Penelo wants to keep dancing, but her mother told her not to disturb the boys. So she stands by the stereo, swaying with her arms held out stiffly as she pretends that she’s still dancing with Reks. He was the best dancer she’s ever danced with - alright, the only boy she’s ever danced with - and she’s decided to beg her mother for dancing lessons. When her uncle sweeps her up with a grin and presents her with a rose picked from her mother’s prize rosebush before dancing her all around the garden, she makes a mental note to hit Reks in the morning. On her birthday, he’s supposed to be a proper gentleman.