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Larsa,
What's this we hear about a certain Emperor getting married? And why did we have to find out from gossip on the streets instead of hearing it straight from the chocobo's beak? We were just there last month, you must have already been making plans then!
I hope you know that Vaan and I are frowning very hard in your direction about how you kept this a secret. Hard enough that I'm sure you can feel it even though you're halfway across the continent, so when you get this letter think back and try to remember if you ever suddenly felt like someone was feeling disapprovingly towards you a few weeks ago because that would be us.
Your friend,
Penelo
Dear Penelo,
Forgive me. Negotiations with Ydoran hadn't yet been completed when you visited and I wasn't at liberty to discuss them. Even now matters aren't entirely settled, but it's been decided that the arrangement is agreeable enough on both ends that we may allow our people to know what's coming.
I'm afraid that when you suddenly find yourself an Emperor you often have the feeling that someone, somewhere, disapproves of your actions so there is no time that stands out in particular, but I promise that I feel duly chastised.
And yours,
Larsa
Dear Larsa,
Vaan wants to get a word in before I say anything, and keeps making faces at me to try and make me end this sentence faster, so I'll let him take my pen.
Hey, Larsa! "Negotiations?" "The arrangement is agreeable?" Man, I haven't heard somebody sound less excited about the idea of getting engaged since this guy I know thought about seeing if a seeq would drop this huge debt he owed her if he married her. You sure you wanna do this?
Cause me and Penelo will totally kidnap you again on your wedding day if you want to get out of it.
And could you tell Penelo not to elbow me when I'm trying to do a buddy a favor? Those bony elbows of hers really hurt! Okay, I'll give her back before she does it again.
Don't listen to him, Larsa, my elbows have not gotten bony since the last time you saw us.
But he does have a point. The way you write about it seems like you might as well be talking about trade agreements or something, not your wedding plans. I know that people at your rank don't have much choice about who they marry, but are you happy about this at all?
I hope you are,
Penelo
P.S. You might laugh at us about this, but Vaan and I always kind of assumed that you and Ashe would end up together. Since you already know and at least like each other even if you might never be in love, I mean, and then you and her and... you know, "Gabranth" could all be together, and sometimes you could winter at the castle here and Vaan and I could sneak in to visit all of you. Or sneak you out to spend time in town.
I guess that's just a silly dream though.
Dear Penelo, and also Vaan,
You're both right, I shouldn't act so detached from this matter. If nothing else it will be a ill start for this marriage if I treat my poor betrothed as if she were a business arrangement rather than a bride.
I wouldn't say that I'm unhappy with the match, precisely. I have met her, her being the third daughter Princess Saja if you haven't heard the specifics yet, once or twice before and nothing about her stood out as being unpleasant. But she was so shy that it was difficult to form any impression of her at all beyond that.
No, there was one other thing. I remember that when something struck her as truly funny she'd laugh more loudly than decorum would allow no matter how many people were close by, as if she couldn't help it. She always hid her smile behind her hand when she caught herself, and she'd take the next possible opportunity to hide herself away, but perhaps some day I could be happy with a wife who can laugh like that.
But I'll confess that I wasn't at all prepared for the Senate's sudden search for a suitable bride. I always knew that it would happen one day, of course, but as the youngest child of a father more interested in strengthening the country through conquest than through political maneuvering 'one day' always seemed a good while off. If you'll forgive me for being entirely blunt, I'd thought I would at least be through puberty before it became an issue. Or that I'd at least have a chance to... well, never mind that.
Now all at once I'm the Emperor and my closest possible heir is a cousin whose wife is Rozarrian nobility. You can imagine the reaction in the Senate when they realized that.
As for the matter in your postscript, first let me say that I trust you both understand that everything I write to you is given in the strictest of confidence.
Truthfully, Ashe and I have discussed the possibility before. For the reasons that you've said, for the surety of at least having friendship over the years, if the choice were mine alone to make than she is who I'd marry. I get along with her better than any other woman of 'suitable' rank that I know, and I'm almost entirely sure that the Senate would approve as well if the possibility were brought to them.
However that is neither what Ashe desires nor what she deserves. You know what a long and bitter struggle she's been through to regain Dalmasca's independence. If she were to marry me it would be like giving your nation straight back into Archadia's hands, and that is something that she could not, and should not, do.
Please never let her know that I've been gossiping about her, but secretly I suspect that if she ever does marry again it will be to Marquis Ondore. Bhujerba and Dalmasca would both be strengthened by the match, and it's one of the few places left after my father's war of conquest that's small enough that she wouldn't need to fear Dalmasca being swallowed by her husband's land. And at least both of her marriages would have love in them, even if it isn't the love of a wife for her husband.
It seems I've written you a novel without meaning to. I hope that it's enough to ease your worries, and make you feel less prone to kidnapping.
Yours fondly,
Larsa
Dear Larsa,
First of all, Vaan wants me to let you know that he thinks the idea of Ashe marrying Ondore is "sick, and wrong, and totally gross, he's like a thousand and I'll never forgive you for putting that picture in my head!" and now he's making vomiting noises. And now he's telling me that I shouldn't be writing about the noises, I should be drawing a picture of him throwing up everywhere, but I'm not going to do that. I'll just give you a blank sheet of paper with the rest of the letter and you can draw your own if you really feel like you're missing something without it.
I don't know what he's so worked up about anyway. I think there must be something in the air in Bhujerba, because he looks really good for his age. Or maybe I'm just used to the people here in the desert, where the sun and the wind and the sand turns your skin into leather before you ever get to his age.
We do feel a tiny bit better for you now. At least you know her, even if it's only a little. And at least what you know of her seems nice enough instead of like she's an awful person who doesn't deserve to be with such a nice emperor. And it's not like we don't understand why it needs to happen. I mean, even down in Lowtown people can try setting their children up with fiances who might help raise their class without paying any attention to who they'd actually love. Even my parents, back when they were still alive, made it very clear to me and my brothers that if we ever tried to get married to anyone who wasn't at least from a merchant family there would be words.
Of course, if my parents were still alive they probably would have already disowned me for letting Vaan talk me into being his partner in sky piracy, so I feel bad for saying it but what they wanted for me doesn't really matter all that much anymore.
The point is, don't think we're looking down on you for having your wife picked for you or anything like that, because we do understand it. Your happiness is just really important to us so we want to make sure you get it, even if we need to kidnap you to make it happen. Still Vaan's threat, not mine, but he was planning to tug my pigtail until I made it for him.
What was it that you wanted a chance to do, hmmm? You can't just start a statement like that and have it go nowhere, and it's both Vaan and I saying that so you'd better beware that you'll have the force of two sky pirates' curiosity on you if you wave it away again.
Curiously yours,
Penelo (and Vaan too)
My friends,
It's rather embarrassing to say, which is why I didn't before. But I suppose that if there's anyone in the world I would be able to confide this in, it would be the two of you.
First let me say, to be sure you don't get the wrong idea about me, that I never intended to run around 'sowing my wild oats' or anything of the sort. Fond though I am of Al-Cid, I have no desire to emulate his life.
But I had always thought that I wouldn't be expected to wed until... I can't think of anyway to phrase it that doesn't sound terrible, forgive me for that Penelo, but until I was old enough to have had a dalliance or two. I'd never be allowed to date the way you think of it, but as long as we did nothing to shame our families a flirtation with a courtier would have been acceptable. Something to give me more than veiled innuendo and crass stories from a few of the more talkative guards to go on for knowing how to keep my wife happy.
As it is I'm afraid that she'll know at our wedding kiss that I have no idea what I'm doing.
Larsa
P.S. Please find enclosed my drawing of Vaan losing his lunch at Ashe and Ondore's wedding. Gabranth helped me to color it in.
There had been a time when Larsa had thought that he'd never again be as tired as he'd been during the weeks that he'd spent plotting with Al-Cid through secret correspondence on how to guide their nations into a peace that neither side truly wanted.
Then he'd become Emperor and thought that he'd learned the true depths to his exhaustion in that first crowded month when everything in the world seemed to need doing all at once. A new Senate chosen to show his people that he intended to respect the ways to the past instead of following in his brother's dictatorial footsteps, and they needed to be both acceptable to the nobility and free of the war-hungry nature that so many of them shared. New Judges Magister, chosen primarily through long study of which soldiers Drace, the true Gabranth, and even Zecht when he went far enough back had recommended in the past for important missions and promotions, with Zargabaath and Basch given final approval of the soldiers on the list of names he came up with. A treaty with Ashe, releasing Dalmasca to her.
And, of course, negotiations for peace at last.
Now, with wedding preparations piled on top of all his other duties, he was at last wise enough not to tempt fate by thinking that he'd never again be so wary. He just thought that he'd never yet been so tired, and only hoped that it wouldn't happen again.
It was late when he was finally free to return to his quarters, as it always was. Even at that hour the palace was full of people, curtsying and bowing at him in the halls as he passed by, but he couldn't manage to do more than nod sleepily at them in return as he passed by.
When he finally reached his rooms he was glad to see a fire burning in his hearth and a hot mug of tea waiting on his desk. Basch must have snuck ahead early to make sure things would be comfortable for him. He did that from time to time, knowing that Larsa had ordered the servants not to worry about having his room prepared for him every night with the strange hours that he kept. Larsa was aware that being babied should be beneath his dignity as an Emperor, but it was pleasant on occasion.
As he took up the cup of tea he noticed a letter sitting beside it addressed in a familiar hand and his face broke into a wide smile. He had thought himself too tired to stay awake for any longer than it took to stagger his way to the bed, but all at once he found a new reserve of energy somewhere within himself. It was easy enough to do if staying awake meant hearing from his friends that much sooner, even if they would be replying to the most embarrassing letter that he'd ever written.
Dear Larsa,
Oh Larsa, you don't need to worry. You already are what a girl needs to be happy.
But maybe we can help you out with at least part of that. In a way that doesn't involve kidnapping.
(Unless you want it to, Vaan wants me to add.)
With love,
Penelo and Vaan
P.S. Turn around.
He turned, and though he would have sworn that he'd neither seen nor heard sign of another person in his rooms with him he was met by lips pressing against his own. His first instinct was to attack in defense of himself, but almost as quickly he recognized Penelo, though her face was so close that he could only make out patches of it, and he relaxed again.
Her lips were a gentle pressure against his, one of her hands a soft warmth against his cheek, the other fumbling until she found one of his then twining their fingers together and holding on tightly. She didn't try to deepen the kiss, just let him grow used to the gentle movement of her mouth on his before slowly pulling away and stepping aside.
Then he only had time to think 'Ah, Vaan's here too,' before his mouth was captured again. Where Penelo's kiss had been gentle and just shy of chaste Vaan's was sloppy and bold. He nipped at Larsa's lip and laughed at the sound he made even as he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into his mouth, and even though the kiss was made slightly awkward by the way Vaan couldn't seem to stop grinning, in a way Larsa found that just as pleasant as Penelo's had been.
"Geeze, it took you forever to get here," Vaan said with another laugh when he pulled away, ruffling Larsa's hair like he hadn't been kissing him just two seconds before. "Do you have any idea how many cups of tea we had to brew to make sure it'd be hot when you got here? I told Penelo to just give up on it, but she had this whole romantic mental picture that she wouldn't give up on."
Penelo was still holding his hand, leaning into his side with her head resting on his shoulder. "You didn't say whether those 'courtiers' you thought you'd have dalliances with would have been guys or girls, so we thought we'd let you try one of each. Hopefully Vaan's boy-mouth didn't gross your out or anything. Or my girl-mouth. Or, um, both of our hume mouths, but if you'd let us know what would make you happier I'm sure we could find someone to help."
Vaan slung one of his arms around Larsa's shoulders, the other around Penelo's, pulling them all into a loose huddle. "Penelo used to date one of Migelo's nephews, so trust us, we wouldn't judge."
"No!" Larsa said, the word coming out in a burst of laughter. "No, that won't be necessary. But thank you for offering. What are you even doing here?"
"You can't tell?" Vaan asked, then stage-whispered to Penelo, "Uh-oh, it looks like all these long nights spent Emperoring are turning his brain to mush."
Penelo smiled at him but answered Larsa instead. "We're going to help you make sure your Princess Saja can't tell anything from your wedding kiss except that she was lucky enough to marry a guy who's a good kisser. We have our whole week clear, Larsa, we can practice as much as you want."
Then she took advantage of the fact that his face was tilted towards her as she spoke and leaned up to give him his third kiss towards the practice that would hopefully, eventually, make perfect.