Don't get me started on the spacing in this chapter. I've tried like... 12 times to replace this chapter with a more spaced version, but for some reason it just won't work. It's just one of those things I guess. Copy it into Word and space it out yourselves if you must.
Do you wanna dance?
The entry hall to the ballroom, that was where class was suppose to meet. Squall was the first to arrive and he flumped down on a sofa, resting his elbows on the edge of the back of the sofa, looking up at nothing. What the hell was going on? Whenever he saw a girl he got all these... weird... desires spinning around him like wild Chocobo chicks. Perhaps he was getting sick? Maybe a side effect from junctioning with Shiva? She was after all an ice GF. Could he be getting a cold? Ice, snow, winter... you catch the flu occasionally, right?
He better swing by the infirmary and get a check. He would have to skip class, but that didn't bother him too much. Not to mention that the infirmary would give him a note to show the instructor. Who was the instructor anyway? He'd forgotten to check.
As Squall pondered over what to do next, the door opened and Fujin entered. What was she doing here? Looking for something or someone? Seifer maybe? Seifer had a to retake a few subjects from last year due to a high absent percentage, so he didn't have to worry about selecting additional classes this year.
Fujin took a seat, sitting much like a boy would. Resting her elbows on her knees, leaning forward, legs far apart and face turned towards the entry door to the ballroom. Perhaps she wanted a word with the dancing instructor? Fujin usually just spoke one word at the time, so it wasn't like she was going to have a long conversation. She was a quiet girl, shrouded in mystery.
Squall vaguely remembers the day she came to Garden, 3 years ago. They'd found her outside the southern gate, bound and gagged. Her left eye bleeding badly and it really freaked out the SeeD candidate that found her. After a 4 daylong coma, she came to her senses and didn't say a word, just shook or nodded her head if even that. After a week, Seifer came by. Not to visit the girl, but to get some junior student patched up (their verbal disagreement on Garden regulations had reached the physical level).
From there, the two hit off and Raijin joined them as soon as he signed up for Garden the same winter. That was all that Squall knew. Keeping track over the social gossip (who's in love with who, who broke up, why they broke up etc) at Garden was not something he bothered investing time on.
The doors opened and a young red haired man in a SeeD uniform came in with a lame looking fellow tagging along. He had a large blood red fluffy shirt; black suit pants and his shoes were so blank and shiny that they could be mistaken for mirrors. His semi long hair was put into a ponytail and guessing its original colour was quite a challenge. Though now, it was reddish-pink like in colour. Guess the moron filter isn't working at Garden, Squall mentally sighed.
Fujin on the other hand looked at the stranger with interest in her left eye. "Here you are, Garden will send candidates to your school as we did last year. The first group will arrive on Friday, 14:30." The SeeD said to the stranger before giving him a polite bow and left, closing the door behind him. "Well, well... lets get going then. Come on you two." The man said as he with a rather peculiar walk involving his toes a lot, crossed the room and opened the double doors to the ballroom.
"Pardon me, but I'm here for..." Squall began, yet the stranger cut him off. "Dancing class, yes? I know. I'm your teacher, Sensei." Sensei supplied. This... dork is going to teach me how to dance? Do all dancers look like that? Am I going to end up like... him? Squall felt the blood drain from his face. Fujin walked past him and bowed slightly to Sensei.
"Don't be shy Mr Leonhart, I don't bite." Sensei smiled. Leave me alone... Squall thought, yet his feet dragged him forward until he was on line with Fujin. He followed her example, but gave Sensei a short and barely visible nod of acknowledgment rather than the traditional bow.
"Now, we'll be focusing mainly on pair dancing, as per request by headmaster Cid. We'll cover the basics of most known and popular dances and from there you pick one dance that you wish to learn better." Sensei explained.
"Question..." Squall said, slightly raising his right hand. "Yes?" "How can I learn to dance one or several pair dances with no partner? And no, if you think I'm going to dance with you, all I'll give you credit for is your colourful imagination and lack of sense of reality." Squall grunted.
Sensei gave him a half baffled half amused look in return. "But Mr Leonhart, you have a partner." "Who?" Squall insisted and if Sensei cracked a joke, someone was going to walk out of here with a broken nose. Sensei, still with an amused look on his face, turned slightly to the left and as Squall traced what he was looking at, his eyes landed on Fujin. "Her...?" He asked Sensei for confirmation as he pointed at Fujin with his left hand. Sensei nodded.
A pause followed, Fujin scratching her nose a little broke the nearly overwhelming silence for a moment. "Forget it, Squall has just left the building." Squall said and turned on his heel, ready to walk out. He'd deal with instructor Xu later on. "WAIT." Fujin said, holding his elbow. Squall just shook her off himself and walked out of the ballroom.
Well out in the main hallway, Squall figured he'd head to the quad for some quiet time. Behind him he could hear running feet, but he didn't turn, wait or even slow down his walk. He wanted to be left alone; his entire body screamed those words out through his body language. "SQUALL." It was Fujin, she sounded different or were his ears playing tricks? Squall shook the idea out of his mind and convinced himself that everyone sounded different whenever they ran and spoke at the same time, or shouted as it was in Fujin's case.
It was a sunny day, the sun being pleasantly warm and a gentle breeze tickled Squall's face as he sat in a bench allowing the calmness of the day sweep away all his troubles. The sound of someone out of breath breathing and slow footsteps shattered the peace and as the fragments of the broken peace ran away like frightened rats, Squall opened his eyes and saw Fujin coming down the stairway.
"Forget it, I'm not dancing. Not with that jerk as a teacher and... you as my so-called partner." Squall pouted. Fujin would probably hate him for it, but he didn't care. He'd rather be hated than loved. Fujin stood over him, her 5' 8" figure looked quite intimating, especially with the sun behind her, creating a dark shadow effect on her face. She seemed to hesitate, uncertain of what to say or do next.
Squall looked away, not caring. No matter what she did next, he'd just suck it up and move on, like he always did. Then it came, loud, stingy, strong and totally unexpected. Fujin slapped him, full palm on his left cheek with all her might. "BASTARD!!" Fujin screamed. She had a rather high voice when she spoke normally, but now she was screaming on the top of her lunges. It almost left a ringing sound in Squall's ears. She took a deep, hic-like breath, as if keeping from breaking down in tears before she ran away. Rubbing life back into his burning cheek, Squall was left in total amazement. "That's a first..." he said to himself.
Squall sat in the infirmary bed. After the shock of getting slapped by a girl for the firs time in his life died out, he'd decided to go to the infirmary as he originally planed before meeting Sensei.
"There always seem to be 10.000 things on your mind." The nurse apprentice said with a gentle smile while she stashed away some Esuna spells. You don't know me... "What happened to your cheek? Did you hurt yourself during training?" the nurse asked.
Squall knew she was just eager to do a good job, but she picked the wrong boy to play nurse and patient with. "...Non of your business." He grunted. "Oh, don't talk rough to me, mister. And as a matter of fact, it IS my business. Now, are you going to talk or am I have to tickle it out of you?" The nurse gave him a wicked smirk.
Touch me and they won't be able to count body parts ... "Well?" The nurse asked again, a little more authority in her voice this time. "Will this be between the two of us?" he asked her. "If you wish." She replied. "Yes, I'd like that." Squall answered.
It took him a moment to choose his words, but he did finally speak up. "I got slapped by a girl." The nurse shook her head slightly as she said: "Oh you teenagers... riding the roller coaster of puppetry" She almost laughed. "Did you two break up?" she asked then.
"...Not really. She wanted me to be her dancing partner in dancing class and I declined." Squall explained. The nurse snorted. "That's understandable. Hell, I'd slap you myself if I weren't on duty."
The automatic doors to the infirmary opened and a pair of angry fast moving feet quickly turned the corner. It was Xu and she was as pissed as a sorceress without her knight. "Nurse... Give us some privacy." She said with an ice-cold voice, her eyes pierced into Squall's face.
The nurse quickly left the infirmary, obviously glad to escape Xu's glare. "Mr Leonhart, I'm going to ask you something very important and I'm going to ask you only once, so pay attention and for Hyne's sake think before you answer, understood?!" Xu words snapped and cracked like a Red Scorpion whip, so Squall just quietly nodded his understanding.
"JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!!?" Words of outrage rang through the walls and nearly shock the windows out of their frames. "I don't understand the question..." Squall replied honestly. Xu bent her fingers like claws and glared at the roof while she tried hard not to scream. "FUJIN!! She's locked herself up in her room, she's crying her eye out and not even Seifer can get through to her." Xu finally barked out. "Not my problem." Squall shrugged. For a moment, he thought that Xu would actually harm him, because she sure looked like it.
"No Fujin, no dancing, no dancing, no Gunblade, no Gunblade, no graduation, no graduation and you'll be kicked out of Garden. ERGO.... It IS your problem, so get out there and solve it or start packing!" Xu spat out and finished of by pointing a finger at the infirmary exit.
Balamb Garden female student dormitory, Squall had never been there. He'd ask Xu to show him the way, but she just glared at him. He figured she was disgusted with his behaviour and didn't feel like pressing his luck any further.
Room #8177 was Fujin's room. Her roommate, Lisa was out on a fieldtrip and wouldn't return until late next week. Squall locked the door leading to the hallway, giving him the privacy he needed to pull this one off. The whole situation was absurd, yet here he stood ready to plead with a girl so that he could become a SeeD.
Didn't he promise sis not to depend on anyone? What would he do? Where did he want to start? He didn't even know what to say. After a while of pondering, Squall leaned on the door and listened. The door was quite soundproof. Not 100%, but still. He could barely make out what sounded like sobbing.
"Fujin..." He began. The sobbing stopped for a moment. "LEAVE!" Fujin shouted with a tear broken voice. What do the guys in those stupid romance novels say? "Say, Fujin... do... do you wanna dance?" He'd spilled the beans. From this point there was nothing but hours with begging, pleading and crawling. Anything, do anything to become a SeeD Squall thought to himself.
The door flung open and Fujin leaped into his arms. Being taken completely off guard, Squall lost his balance and fell flat on his back with Fujin on top. Opening his eyes, Squall noticed that Fujin's face was quite close to his own, not to mention that he felt something hot and wet on his lips.
It took him a moment, but when he finally figured out what the heck was going on, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "DANCE!" Fujin beamed like the sun rising, her eye glittering with happiness and she hugged him tightly. Okay... you can wake me up now. Please? This is a dream... OWH! No, it's not a dream... this is real... I yearn to die...
Do you wanna dance?
The entry hall to the ballroom, that was where class was suppose to meet. Squall was the first to arrive and he flumped down on a sofa, resting his elbows on the edge of the back of the sofa, looking up at nothing. What the hell was going on? Whenever he saw a girl he got all these... weird... desires spinning around him like wild Chocobo chicks. Perhaps he was getting sick? Maybe a side effect from junctioning with Shiva? She was after all an ice GF. Could he be getting a cold? Ice, snow, winter... you catch the flu occasionally, right?
He better swing by the infirmary and get a check. He would have to skip class, but that didn't bother him too much. Not to mention that the infirmary would give him a note to show the instructor. Who was the instructor anyway? He'd forgotten to check.
As Squall pondered over what to do next, the door opened and Fujin entered. What was she doing here? Looking for something or someone? Seifer maybe? Seifer had a to retake a few subjects from last year due to a high absent percentage, so he didn't have to worry about selecting additional classes this year.
Fujin took a seat, sitting much like a boy would. Resting her elbows on her knees, leaning forward, legs far apart and face turned towards the entry door to the ballroom. Perhaps she wanted a word with the dancing instructor? Fujin usually just spoke one word at the time, so it wasn't like she was going to have a long conversation. She was a quiet girl, shrouded in mystery.
Squall vaguely remembers the day she came to Garden, 3 years ago. They'd found her outside the southern gate, bound and gagged. Her left eye bleeding badly and it really freaked out the SeeD candidate that found her. After a 4 daylong coma, she came to her senses and didn't say a word, just shook or nodded her head if even that. After a week, Seifer came by. Not to visit the girl, but to get some junior student patched up (their verbal disagreement on Garden regulations had reached the physical level).
From there, the two hit off and Raijin joined them as soon as he signed up for Garden the same winter. That was all that Squall knew. Keeping track over the social gossip (who's in love with who, who broke up, why they broke up etc) at Garden was not something he bothered investing time on.
The doors opened and a young red haired man in a SeeD uniform came in with a lame looking fellow tagging along. He had a large blood red fluffy shirt; black suit pants and his shoes were so blank and shiny that they could be mistaken for mirrors. His semi long hair was put into a ponytail and guessing its original colour was quite a challenge. Though now, it was reddish-pink like in colour. Guess the moron filter isn't working at Garden, Squall mentally sighed.
Fujin on the other hand looked at the stranger with interest in her left eye. "Here you are, Garden will send candidates to your school as we did last year. The first group will arrive on Friday, 14:30." The SeeD said to the stranger before giving him a polite bow and left, closing the door behind him. "Well, well... lets get going then. Come on you two." The man said as he with a rather peculiar walk involving his toes a lot, crossed the room and opened the double doors to the ballroom.
"Pardon me, but I'm here for..." Squall began, yet the stranger cut him off. "Dancing class, yes? I know. I'm your teacher, Sensei." Sensei supplied. This... dork is going to teach me how to dance? Do all dancers look like that? Am I going to end up like... him? Squall felt the blood drain from his face. Fujin walked past him and bowed slightly to Sensei.
"Don't be shy Mr Leonhart, I don't bite." Sensei smiled. Leave me alone... Squall thought, yet his feet dragged him forward until he was on line with Fujin. He followed her example, but gave Sensei a short and barely visible nod of acknowledgment rather than the traditional bow.
"Now, we'll be focusing mainly on pair dancing, as per request by headmaster Cid. We'll cover the basics of most known and popular dances and from there you pick one dance that you wish to learn better." Sensei explained.
"Question..." Squall said, slightly raising his right hand. "Yes?" "How can I learn to dance one or several pair dances with no partner? And no, if you think I'm going to dance with you, all I'll give you credit for is your colourful imagination and lack of sense of reality." Squall grunted.
Sensei gave him a half baffled half amused look in return. "But Mr Leonhart, you have a partner." "Who?" Squall insisted and if Sensei cracked a joke, someone was going to walk out of here with a broken nose. Sensei, still with an amused look on his face, turned slightly to the left and as Squall traced what he was looking at, his eyes landed on Fujin. "Her...?" He asked Sensei for confirmation as he pointed at Fujin with his left hand. Sensei nodded.
A pause followed, Fujin scratching her nose a little broke the nearly overwhelming silence for a moment. "Forget it, Squall has just left the building." Squall said and turned on his heel, ready to walk out. He'd deal with instructor Xu later on. "WAIT." Fujin said, holding his elbow. Squall just shook her off himself and walked out of the ballroom.
Well out in the main hallway, Squall figured he'd head to the quad for some quiet time. Behind him he could hear running feet, but he didn't turn, wait or even slow down his walk. He wanted to be left alone; his entire body screamed those words out through his body language. "SQUALL." It was Fujin, she sounded different or were his ears playing tricks? Squall shook the idea out of his mind and convinced himself that everyone sounded different whenever they ran and spoke at the same time, or shouted as it was in Fujin's case.
It was a sunny day, the sun being pleasantly warm and a gentle breeze tickled Squall's face as he sat in a bench allowing the calmness of the day sweep away all his troubles. The sound of someone out of breath breathing and slow footsteps shattered the peace and as the fragments of the broken peace ran away like frightened rats, Squall opened his eyes and saw Fujin coming down the stairway.
"Forget it, I'm not dancing. Not with that jerk as a teacher and... you as my so-called partner." Squall pouted. Fujin would probably hate him for it, but he didn't care. He'd rather be hated than loved. Fujin stood over him, her 5' 8" figure looked quite intimating, especially with the sun behind her, creating a dark shadow effect on her face. She seemed to hesitate, uncertain of what to say or do next.
Squall looked away, not caring. No matter what she did next, he'd just suck it up and move on, like he always did. Then it came, loud, stingy, strong and totally unexpected. Fujin slapped him, full palm on his left cheek with all her might. "BASTARD!!" Fujin screamed. She had a rather high voice when she spoke normally, but now she was screaming on the top of her lunges. It almost left a ringing sound in Squall's ears. She took a deep, hic-like breath, as if keeping from breaking down in tears before she ran away. Rubbing life back into his burning cheek, Squall was left in total amazement. "That's a first..." he said to himself.
Squall sat in the infirmary bed. After the shock of getting slapped by a girl for the firs time in his life died out, he'd decided to go to the infirmary as he originally planed before meeting Sensei.
"There always seem to be 10.000 things on your mind." The nurse apprentice said with a gentle smile while she stashed away some Esuna spells. You don't know me... "What happened to your cheek? Did you hurt yourself during training?" the nurse asked.
Squall knew she was just eager to do a good job, but she picked the wrong boy to play nurse and patient with. "...Non of your business." He grunted. "Oh, don't talk rough to me, mister. And as a matter of fact, it IS my business. Now, are you going to talk or am I have to tickle it out of you?" The nurse gave him a wicked smirk.
Touch me and they won't be able to count body parts ... "Well?" The nurse asked again, a little more authority in her voice this time. "Will this be between the two of us?" he asked her. "If you wish." She replied. "Yes, I'd like that." Squall answered.
It took him a moment to choose his words, but he did finally speak up. "I got slapped by a girl." The nurse shook her head slightly as she said: "Oh you teenagers... riding the roller coaster of puppetry" She almost laughed. "Did you two break up?" she asked then.
"...Not really. She wanted me to be her dancing partner in dancing class and I declined." Squall explained. The nurse snorted. "That's understandable. Hell, I'd slap you myself if I weren't on duty."
The automatic doors to the infirmary opened and a pair of angry fast moving feet quickly turned the corner. It was Xu and she was as pissed as a sorceress without her knight. "Nurse... Give us some privacy." She said with an ice-cold voice, her eyes pierced into Squall's face.
The nurse quickly left the infirmary, obviously glad to escape Xu's glare. "Mr Leonhart, I'm going to ask you something very important and I'm going to ask you only once, so pay attention and for Hyne's sake think before you answer, understood?!" Xu words snapped and cracked like a Red Scorpion whip, so Squall just quietly nodded his understanding.
"JUST WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU THINKING?!!?" Words of outrage rang through the walls and nearly shock the windows out of their frames. "I don't understand the question..." Squall replied honestly. Xu bent her fingers like claws and glared at the roof while she tried hard not to scream. "FUJIN!! She's locked herself up in her room, she's crying her eye out and not even Seifer can get through to her." Xu finally barked out. "Not my problem." Squall shrugged. For a moment, he thought that Xu would actually harm him, because she sure looked like it.
"No Fujin, no dancing, no dancing, no Gunblade, no Gunblade, no graduation, no graduation and you'll be kicked out of Garden. ERGO.... It IS your problem, so get out there and solve it or start packing!" Xu spat out and finished of by pointing a finger at the infirmary exit.
Balamb Garden female student dormitory, Squall had never been there. He'd ask Xu to show him the way, but she just glared at him. He figured she was disgusted with his behaviour and didn't feel like pressing his luck any further.
Room #8177 was Fujin's room. Her roommate, Lisa was out on a fieldtrip and wouldn't return until late next week. Squall locked the door leading to the hallway, giving him the privacy he needed to pull this one off. The whole situation was absurd, yet here he stood ready to plead with a girl so that he could become a SeeD.
Didn't he promise sis not to depend on anyone? What would he do? Where did he want to start? He didn't even know what to say. After a while of pondering, Squall leaned on the door and listened. The door was quite soundproof. Not 100%, but still. He could barely make out what sounded like sobbing.
"Fujin..." He began. The sobbing stopped for a moment. "LEAVE!" Fujin shouted with a tear broken voice. What do the guys in those stupid romance novels say? "Say, Fujin... do... do you wanna dance?" He'd spilled the beans. From this point there was nothing but hours with begging, pleading and crawling. Anything, do anything to become a SeeD Squall thought to himself.
The door flung open and Fujin leaped into his arms. Being taken completely off guard, Squall lost his balance and fell flat on his back with Fujin on top. Opening his eyes, Squall noticed that Fujin's face was quite close to his own, not to mention that he felt something hot and wet on his lips.
It took him a moment, but when he finally figured out what the heck was going on, his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "DANCE!" Fujin beamed like the sun rising, her eye glittering with happiness and she hugged him tightly. Okay... you can wake me up now. Please? This is a dream... OWH! No, it's not a dream... this is real... I yearn to die...