In which people dance Mumford 7 6 2001-10-15T18:11:00Z 2001-10-15T18:37:00Z 4 1400 6304 n/a 161 56 9806 9.2720 88

He didn't really know why he'd come. But the moment he saw her he did.

Selphie had broken up with Irvine and brought her along for moral support. Squall looked about for her and saw her and Irvine snogging in a corner of the dance floor. His lip curled in contempt. He'd never do that in public. His eyes drifted back to her, maybe that was why.

He looked at Rinoa, who was fawning over Nida and whispering something in his ear. Whatever it was it made him blush. Squall remembered when that used to be him. They'd never really been any feeling there though. Rinoa wanted Seifer and he'd wanted, well he knew who he wanted.

His eyes slid past Rinoa and focused on the girl sitting behind her. She was staring resolutely at the glass in front of her. Her hair was for once loose and it hid her face in two shimmering curtains. He stood beside her knowing that at any moment she would look up and understand, without words, what he felt.

She didn't look up. He cleared his throat. Her eyes flicked briefly to his face then back to her glass.

"Hi, Squall."

He stood there awkwardly. In his plan she was supposed to understand without words what he felt, and then get up and let him kiss her. It wasn't going to happen.

"Would you like to dance?"

"No, I'm okay," she replied, and flashed a smile at him.

"Please," he said quietly.

"Oh," she said, embarrassed at having misread the situation. "Sure"

She got up and Squall noticed she was shorter than usual.

She noted his bemused look. "I'm going barefoot. The shoes Selphie chose are under the table."

Squall looked at the six inch strappy stilettos under the table and understood. She was wearing a loose fitting long dress, of a shade that matching her eyes. The neckline was ever so slightly "V" but Squall was far to honourable to consider even thinking about looking down it, well maybe not, but he wouldn't actually do it.

He led her onto the dance floor her cool hand palm in palm with his, which were sweating just being near her.

She drifted around him dreamily, quite unlike Rinoa or Selphie who bounded around their partners showing boundless energy. As her watched her he wondered if she were actually here with him or if her mind were somewhere else entirely.

He remembered just after the battle with Ultimecia, he had been called up into Cid's office. He was waiting outside when he heard his name mentioned, he walked up and looked through a crack in the slightly open door. Quistis was sitting stiffly with her hands on her knees while Cid paced in front of her.

"I can see why you were interested in him Cid. He is a good fighter, but he is also anti-social and uncommunicative. He is unable to ask for help and shows poor leadership skills."

"But he defeated Ultimecia."

"Yes, he formed a relationship with Miss Caraway and she brought him out the best in him. However I doubt that now the relationship is over he'll stay like that."

At that point Squall had punched the wall. Ever since they'd broken up he'd been hearing people say that Rinoa was the best thing that could have happened to him and that she'd brought out him out of his shell. Didn't they realise that real reason was that finally Quistis Trepe was treating him as an equal, rather than a student.

"Well, as that isn't going to happen, how would you like the job?" he looked at her hopefully.

"No thanks," she said, looking down and blushing slightly. "As a matter of fact, I came here because of something I wanted to ask you-"

As her looked at her now he wondered what would happen if he told her the truth. That whenever he was around her he developed an awful stutter and couldn't think of anything to say. He'd envied Seifer for that. He was always saying clever things, and in every lesson he and the instructor would be involved in a friendly slanging match, exchanging the witticisms that Squall could never remember when he tried to talk to her. Seifer was right when he'd called him puberty boy.

He wondered if she knew, of course she did. That time on the beach. He'd thought she was telling him she felt the same way. But really she was trying to let him down gently, telling him she felt like his sister, explaining to him what a kid he was to her.

They, him, Selphie, Zell, Irvine, hadn't seen that much of her after the defeat of Ultimecia. He didn't include Rinoa; she was just hanging on here a bit for the glory then going back to live with her father. At the break-up a lot of stuff came out, like that she'd barely been in the Timber Owls two weeks before the mission against the Galbadian president, she'd just had an argument with her dad about getting her belly button pierced.

Quistis had gone back to the friends she'd had before, Xu and the other instructors and older SeeDs. She didn't even go with them when went to almost every city to collect congratulations, except Galbadia, and they all knew why that was.

"-I came here because of something I wanted to ask you," she paused. "I'd like to be transferred to Galbadia."

"Oh," said Cid, unpleasantly surprised.

"Not that anything's wrong here," she assured him hastily. "It's just that I'd like to be with my boyfriend." Her cheeks pinkened in embarrassment as she saw Cid's expression.

"You've kept this quiet," he said smiling, and taking on the father stance that came as second nature to him with most of his younger SeeDs he watched her take on the stance of his daughter.

"I didn't want *certain people*," Cid nodded understanding, "to get hold of it. I only told people I knew I could trust."

That had probably stung more than her relationship with the mystery Galbadian. They'd been through so much together, she'd got him through his SeeD training, they'd discovered they'd grown up together, they'd defeated three sorceresses and she still didn't trust him with one little piece of information.

"What's he like?"

"He's called Coryn. He's a few years older than me, his twenty-first is coming up. He's one of the best instructors there, and," she blushed even more if possible, "I think he's going to ask me to marry him."

"Well, as I'm not going to see you for a while, congratulations."

"You mean I can go?" She had gotten up so Squall could no longer see her face, but he could tell by her voice just how happy she was.

"Yes," then a bit more sternly, "after you've seen this batch of SeeDs through to their exam. When's his twenty-first?"

"In about two and a half months"

Cid relaxed. "Tons of time then."

"Yeah," she said softly, thinking. "Bye and thanks again."

She walked out of the door.

"Hi Squall," she said surprised.

He could tell she was wondering how long he'd been there.

"Congratulations, I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks Squall," she said letting out a relived breath. She still looked a bit nervous though, and Squall wondered if perhaps she didn't want him to know because, maybe, she liked him too.

Looking at her now he realised that this was his only chance before she left to tell her how he felt.

When the dance ended he didn't let go of her hands but instead drew her to him. Then, over her shoulder, he saw someone discreetly enter the hall. He knew instinctively who it was. Coryn.

The man was tall, taller then Seifer, and a lot taller than Squall. His blond hair was longer than Seifer's and more sensibly cut then Squall's. Squall disliked him on sight. He put a finger to his lips, asking Squall not to tell Quistis, then began to creep up on her.

Squall knew he had to act fast.

"Quistis, t-there's s-s-something-"

"Squall are you stammering?" she asked, her eyes laughing.

"- I n-need t-t-to t-t-t-tell you," he took a deep breath and calmed himself, "I-"

"Oh god," she said, delighted, bringing her hands up to her face.

Squall looked up at her and smiled, a rare occurrence. But she missed it. She was looking past him into one of the mirrors hung around the hall.

She spun round catching Coryn's almost successful stealth attack. She jumped up at him flinging her arms around his neck.

"Bye Squall"

They left the hall, his arm around her waist and her head resting on his chest.

"Bye Quistis"