The days droned on and before Quistis knew it, the night of the dance had come around.

Zoey had come knocking. As Quistis predicted she would. And she hadn't hesitated to tote her friends along also.

Of course, Quistis was in no mood to dance. Especially not if Seifer might attend, and according to Zoey, there was a chance he would ask her to dance.

Still, he hadn't asked her to go to the dance with her...and that was something she would normally be happy about, yet she wasn't. Maybe he wasn't interested in her, maybe he was suspicious of her.

She'd declined Zoey's persistent begging earlier. Of course, the girl had been dissappointed, but dissappointing Zoey was not on her list of "do not's".

She grabbed her purse and headed for the cafeteria for some tea. Hopefully the place would be remotely empty, and she could drink her tea in peace. Otherwise, it was back up to the small, stuffy, suffocating dormitory. She certainly missed her dormitory in Balamb...

She was down inside the cafeteria two a three minutes later. There couldn't be more than twenty students inside, all scattered throughout the spacious place. She walked to the counter, bought a cup of tea, and took a seat at an empty table, situated quite a way from everyone else in the place.

Taking a sip, she scanned the room. Most of the people in the cafeteria were either dorks, or antisocial, as this was supposedly one of the biggest dances this year at Galbadia.

Just as her eyes passed the door-frame, none other than the ex-knight himself strode in. She smirked. It was just like him not to go to a dance. He always went to the Balamb ones, but that was usually because it was required, what with being head of the disciplinary committee.

He glanced around the room, running a hand through his short blonde hair, then walked to the counter.

So he was ordering something. Great. It was either down here with him, or back up to the stuffy little torture chamber. Before she could make a decision, she saw Fujin come in, Raijin in tow.

So they were here too? Oh, just wonderful. But how could she be so thick headed not to see this coming? Seifer, without his little posse? -Impossible-.

Just then Fujin shot her a glare that could kill Ruby Dragons. What was her problem? Quistis didn't care to stick around and find out. She was leaving. Seifer she could have handled, but she didn't much like the idea of being in the same room with Fujin on a rampage.

She grabbed her cup and headed for the door. Look straight ahead. Not too far...

"Hey Maylee." Seifer said.

She stopped, heart racing. Behind her were Seifer, Raijin, and Fujin. She turned slowly. "Hello Seifer."

"So this is the girl you were talking about, Seifer?" Fujin said to Seifer, but kept her gaze locked on Quistis.

"You're not going to the dance either, eh?" Seifer asked, ignoring Fujin's question.

Quistis glanced at Fujin, then back at Seifer. "Um, no. I was just after some tea."

"Oh, alright" Seifer said. There was an uncomfortable pause, then he spoke up again. "Oh, damn, I forgot. These are my friends, Fujin and Raijin."

Quistis smiled at each. She knew them well enough. Of course, her smile only attracted a slight head nod from Fujin. At least Raijin was polite enough to smile back. "Hello." she replied.

"So what are you just going to go up to your dorm and spend the rest of the night alone?" Seifer asked.

Quistis managed to hold in a groan. "Actually, yes."

"Well why don't you just hang out with us for a while?" Raijin offered.

She managed a smile. "No thanks, I'd better get going. I wouldn't want to...intrude..." she glanced at Fujin. Oh, great excuse Trepe. That sounded very convincing.

"No, please, we'd like to get to know you better." Fujin said, her voice sounding more malicious than friendly.

"I'm sorry, I'm just really tired." she said, and turned around.

"Oh, well see ya." Seifer said.

"Yeah, you too." she said as she walked out the door.

A few minutes later she was up in her dorm. Her very small, shitty dorm.

She sat her cup of tea on the nightstand and laid down on her bed.

Why was Fujin being such a bitch anyway? Maybe she's just jealous. Of course, she never seemed to have a deeper relationship with Seifer than a loyal friend.

Or even worse, Fujin could be suspicious of her? Maybe she recognised her? If she suspected anything...Seifer would know about it. The whole 'posse' would know. Steering clear of Fujin had now definitly become a must.

Seifer, on the other hand, didn't seem to be a threat. Nevertheless, she couldn't risk the mission. But she had to admit, she was dying to find out what Seifer had been up to during the few weeks after Time Compression.

She remembered the meeting that took place, like it had happened yesterday. Oh, the headaches that had brought.

That was the meeting that would decide Seifer's fate. Of course, he wasn't present. It was fairly small, actually. Only her, Squall, Rinoa, Irvine, Selphie, Zell, Edea, Cid, and Martine. Squall came in with full intentions of locking Seifer away, but fortunatly Rinoa persuaded him to have a little mercy on "the poor guy".

Poor guy. Quistis smirked. He didn't look so poor now. He acted like he'd actually grown up a bit. Of course, Seifer Almasy would always be Seifer Almasy.

In the end, he was granted freedom, but on a tight parole. Edea loved him too much to let anyone lock him away. After being reminded of their childhood by Irvine, Quistis couldn't say she didn't care for him either. "Lapdog" or not, he had still been one of them.

Which made things all the more confusing. Did -he- remember where he'd spent his childhood? She wondered how it must have felt...standing up against the only people he thought he could have trusted, alone. Of course, he had Raijin and Fujin, but they didn't have the same connection to Edea that he did.

She was content with how things turned out. It's not what she would have wished, but life will throw rocks at you, and sometimes all you can do is dodge them.