"Squall, why are you being so unreasonable?" Rinoa asked, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently.
The Commander of Garden simply mimicked her pose and looked down like the floor had suddenly become the most interesting thing of the room. "Because this is ridiculous. I don't want to be here, Rinoa. I have better things to do with my time."
She lifted a delicate eyebrow. "Like what, stamp 'approved' on all the papers Xu and Quistis stick on your desk?"
"Some of the stamps say 'denied', you know." He muttered, focusing on the feeling of the metal wall beneath his shoulder blades rather than the fact that she had caught on to what he did all day in his office.
Usually, this would have at least gotten a giggle out of the lively girl – but today she was dead set on forcing Squall to do her bidding. "Look, you need to learn sometime. Besides, you've complaining about being cooped up in that office ever since you've had an office. Now you finally have chance to get out of there."
He blinked. "I was thinking of something more along the lines of going to Esthar for a while."
"Now why go all the way out there when you have a perfectly good teacher right here?" She obviously wasn't letting him off the hook that easily.
"I can dance just fine, Rinoa." Squall grumbled.
Rinoa rolled her eyes and shook her head. "You mean like when you tripped and stumbled your way across the dance floor at your SeeD graduation ball?"
Squall went silent for a few moments, weighing the chances of getting out of this mess simply by ignoring her. Not likely: she'd just poke and prod at him until he acknowledged her again. He could always run out of the room as fast as humanly possible and hide somewhere until she abandoned the notion of teaching him to dance. Again, not likely: knowing his luck, someone would catch him and drag him back to this cursed room. Plus, it would ruin his image if one of the students saw him cowering behind a trashcan. He could always just give in to her, but where would be the fun in that? "You caught me by surprise, that's all." That sounded like a reasonable answer to Squall.
The girl across from him smirked and offered Squall her tiny hand, palm up. "Then you wouldn't mind showing me." Squall frowned – not unusual considering his typical pessimistic attitude. "There. That's your first problem." Squall blinked and lifted an eyebrow questioningly. "Dancing is happy. Smile." Rinoa commanded jokingly, poking her fingers into his cheeks and pulling up to paint a demented smile on his face. She giggled as he swatted her hands away. "Oh come on, Squall. It's not like I just asked you to go fight Bahamut again." Squall sighed. In all honesty, fighting Bahamut seemed like heaven compared to this. Still, he pushed off the wall and walked out onto the abandoned dance floor, ignoring Rinoa's smug and beaming face as she followed him. He grabbed her right hand in his left, moving his other hand to the small of her back. She gently rested her hand on his shoulder and grinned up at him. "Ready?" She barely waited for him to nod before she started. "One two three," She moved her right foot out to the side, and Squall rushed to catch up, "one two three," he moved his foot back before realizing Rinoa's had gone forward and he lurched towards her, "one two ack!" Their bodies collided and Squall's partner went reeling backwards, arms flailing.
Squall reached out and snatched Rinoa's hand, pulling her back up and into his chest. "Sorry." He muttered as she caught her breath, slipping his right hand under her arm and around her back in a makeshift hug.
"And you said you could dance." She joked before pulling away. He frowned again. "Hey, none of that." She poked his chest. "I told you to smile remember?" She moved the hand already around her down to her waist and readjusted her hand in his. "Maybe we should take this a little slower."
He rolled his eyes. "Rinoa, this is pointless. I don't need to know how to dance."
"What about what you told me when we met in Timber?" She furrowed her brows and tried to imitate his voice. "There may be missions requiring this sort of ruse. It's expected of SeeD to learn various skills."
A half grin slid onto Squall's face. "I think I used the term 'subterfuge'."
"Whatever word you used, shouldn't you set an example for the kids by practicing what you preach?" She wasn't really asking, but she put the question mark at the end so it wasn't nearly as obvious that she was bossing him around.
Surprisingly, he didn't care that she hadn't meant it as a question. Instead Squall just tightened his grip on her hand and looked down at her. "So, which way first?"
She smiled and moved his hand. "Left, right, left." She said slowly, mirroring his feet with a little more grace than he was displaying. "Right, left, right." They repeated the motion, slowly moving in a circle in the center of the dance floor. "See? It's not that hard." He nodded, eyes on the floor watching his feet intently. "None of that. Always look at your partner." She moved the hand on his shoulder over to his chin and pushed up slightly so his eyes met her. "Now aren't I prettier than the floor?" He just smirked and kept trying to stay in step. A few more minutes passed and Squall's feet were sliding along the floor rather than stomping on it like an Iron Giant. "Ready to lead?" He blinked owlishly at her. "Squall, I'm the girl. I'm supposed to follow. You're the one who's supposed to tell me where we're going."
"But you know where we're going. We're dancing in a circle, that's not going to change any time soon." He tried to reason, unsure what exactly he had to lead for.
She rolled her eyes at his answer. "Look, I don't know how it started or why we do it, but the point is that you need to lead." She stopped moving, causing Squall to stumble. "And I'm not going to move until you tell me to."
He looked down at her and lifted an eyebrow. "Move right."
She pursed her lips. "You know what I mean, Squall."
The Commander sighed and moved his feet in an attempt to keep dancing, but Rinoa didn't move. He frowned. "What now?"
She shook her head. "You can't just move your feet. You have to lead."
"What does that even mean?" If his hands were free, Squall would have been tearing his hair out. She sighed and let go of his hand, reaching down to move his hand to her shoulder. "What are you doing?"
"Well, if you don't know how to lead." She looked up with a grin and slid her hand onto his hip. "I'll have to show you." Rinoa took his hand in hers, wrapping her fingers as far as they would go around his. "Now just relax, and let me lead."
"I still don't know what that means." He grumbled as she started to move, applying pressure to the hand at his hip and pulling slightly at the hand she was holding. Without even thinking, his feet moved into step. "How did – ?"
She grinned. "It's all in the pressure. See?" She gently pulled back on his hand and leaned slightly to her right, watching as he moved back with her. "Ok." She readjusted her hands and looked up at him expectantly. "Lead me." Squall moved his hand down to her waist and cautiously wrapped his fingers around hers. He pressed his hand against her hip and tugged on her raised hand, stepping at the same time. When she moved with him, he smiled and moved again. "See? Dancing is happy." She leaned in and rested her head on his shoulder, smiling.
"Sure, Rinoa. Whatever you say." He set his chin on her head and kept moving, trying to keep the steps straight in his head.