Hands full, he still manages to catch her best he can, laughing as he tilts his head to nuzzle against her unabashedly pleased face. It's still foreign to see the adoration radiating off of her, and it stuns him a little, like too bright sun, but this is light he wants his eyes to adjust to.

"So long as it is in my power, I will always come back," he says gently. He won't make false promises, and he knows Zack didn't mean to leave her, but he knows the depth of that kind of wound, too.

"But I can't very well hold you with all this in my arms. Let me set it down, and then let me look at whatever this is you've got on." As quick as she was, he hadn't seen much of it, and it's only when they disentangle he realizes how very enticing it is.

Balthier isn't one to get turned on with looks alone often, but his pants are tight enough that Aerith is free to see the immediate effects of this outfit. And given how things have changed between them, he doesn't bother trying to hide the way surprise turns to adoration on his features, the mix of her looking so ready to drive him wild and her own adoring expression new and entirely overwhelming. He keeps thinking he can't want her more, and yet here they are.