in step
by Seimei
...
The road before her feet is long, tall, like the pillar above her home back under the dark of Midgar. Her shadow, too, is long, and the sinking sun on her back provides no warmth.
Nothing is as she once expected it to be. The sky opens up before her and the clouds spin through the blue, like chaos. Her eyes wander the depths, fall through the air and earth, rest on the footprints of the one who walks ahead. His blonde head bobs over the rising hill, and soon he goes out of her sight.
She presses ever onward.
...
"Would you like to dance, Cloud?"
The question comes out of nowhere, though he knows he should have seen it coming. Aeris is a window of thought and emotion, and the girl has been wearing an impish expression ever since the party entered this quaint,lively establishment on the outskirts of Junon. The locals are gathered around the hearth of the tavern, already drunk and steaming, caroling and shaking and clapping – with no instruments of which to speak. None are talented singers, either.
It's not much of a dance floor, but he knows Aeris doesn't care. She just wants to move, and he realizes he wants to keep up with her.
"… If you insist, my friend."