(4,309 words, longest one yet) Ugh, I watched a korean horror movie, I don't think I'm going to get to sleep tonight, I was scared taking a shower because I was alone. I'm stupid aren't I? Downloaded something that took 11 hours and I'm probably never going to watch it again (wasted plenty of broadband I bet) Damn light for downloading it, i should have just watched it on Youtube. But anyway don't worry about me and my future sleepless night right after a night I stayed up to three, enjoy my little puppy.

Disclaimer: i no own ff, i just wish i did (because then Serah would be mine)

Dance against the Wind

Chapter 4: Proposal

Fang groaned as the maid adjusted her dress, it was in the middle of creme and white and wasn't the style she fancied. She wasn't one for extravagance and this dress was the embodiment of it. She did her best not to let her obvious annoyance make it too obvious. Didn't want to scare the slaves, not like they were scared her or nothing; but it was known on not so common occasions that she could lose her temper pretty badly. She actually got along with the darker skinned people than others, found them less racist, considering their circumtances being racist was no more than being a hypocrite.
Most of her fathers slave were actually aware of her secret, some saw that it was a problem, like a mental illness, and some didn't care. They each had their differances, she was just like them in that way, even if for her it was something possible to hide. She got a better life because of that, some were envious, some hated it; a few accepted what life had given them and aknowledged that they couldn't change it. Though despite everything, Vanille had always gotten along with them far better. If you excluded Fang they were the ones that hated it the most what her own father had done to her; making her live in a mental hospital for something that didn't even count as insanity, it didn't even go near it.

She was glad when the maid had finished, so she could be let go. She hadn't wanted to change her dress because in her mind it had already been fine, but no her mother insisted she change into something more suitable for the party. The same party she didn't want to go to, she didn't have a interest in that type of thing. Her mother found her weird for it, but why did she need to care? She was weird.

When she got out of her room Cid greeted her near the door, he had been forced to wait while she changed, he hadn't gone off to do another thing to pass the time because frankly there was no other 'thing'.

"Heh, nice dress." He joked, not meaning it as a compliment at all.

"Oh, most boys would be nicer about it. Why are you still mad about what happened before anyway?" She complained with her hands on her hips.

"Are you so stupid that your mind can't comprehend why I am still angry?"

"No I understand I'm just not use to you acting this way. You're usually nothing like this." She continued her complaining.

"Well aware considering we do happen to be talking about me." He pivoted around after replying.

"Hey!" She yelled at him, "Where are you going?" She folded her arms and raised her eyebrow.

He looked slightly back at her but not fully turning back around, "It's starting soon, I best be getting back to my parents. You've seen my mother angry, it's not something I'd like to deal with if I have a choice." He shrugged and moved over to the curved staircase.

Fang released a sigh pulling her arms closer to her body.

'I hate when people are in a mood, puts me in one,' she thought feeling a little iritated by her friend's bad mood. She flicked the strand of hair that was stubbornly keeping its place in front of her eye and wondered what she would do until the time she had to leave. All the while a grand idea forming in her head.

A smirk crept onto her face, "Wonder if he'd say 'yes' to such a crazy idea?" She said to herself, before going down the hallway to see if it was possible to find something to pass the time.

Fang's mother Awana brushed out stray locks from her face as they sat down in the carriage. She gave her a small smile, not a happy one, but not sad.

"Sometimes I wish your hair would do as it's told." She sighed moving her hands away and sitting straight next to her daughter. She saw her father roll his eyes at his wife's comment, he had the same problem with his hair.

"Don't we all?" She said as a reply. No she didn't care, but she could lie to her mum and say she wished for the same. Her hair wasn't going to do as she wanted, it would do as it wanted to do and she wouldn't have a choice. Just like always.

"Yeah, don't we all." Her mother concluded and brushed some of her hair behind her ear. They were so different it wasn't funny, if it wasn't for the thick Pulsian accents you would not see a connection between the two woman, they didn't even have a resemblance. Sure they both had green eyes, but even they weren't the same shade.

The carriage pulled up at the entrance of the Farron's mansion. Her father stepped out first as the door was opened and took her mother's hand to assist her with getting out. He held out his hand to her afterwards but she declined it and climbed out herself without his help. She struggled with it seeing as she was in heels but she managed. He moved to the side to let her get her feet properly on the ground. She could see up the steps was a man and woman greeting each person as they walked in. When her and her parents came up to them the couple held out their hand in greeting just as they had done to everyone else. It didn't take a genius to figure out who they were, they were master Farron and his wife. She took note of his dark brown hair and her startling blonde hair. From what Fang had heard they had two daughters, with a much more perculiar colour, from seeing their parents she wondered how they had ended up with such a colour.

Inside the house it was lit up with a great shining silver chandelier hanging from it's position on the roof. The whole room was caught up in it's golden shine, it made for quite the sight. The furniture was positioned on the sides of the room; it consisted of black leather lounges with golden edges and tables drapped in colourful silk made to match with the colour scheme of the rest of the room. She was impressed, That Farron woman really went out of her way to make things perfect this time.

Fang took a look around when her parents left her to converse with a couple of friends they had not seen in a long time. She had doubts she'd recognise any of the guests, she used to spend parties chugging down all the food laid out on the lavish tables with Vanille, even though the redhead didn't eat very much on comparision to her. She missed her sister's company, now this was so boring without her by her side; a lot of things were boring without that girl, try life for example.

She tried her best to keep her thoughts from having an obvious outward effect on her, she didn't want the people that surrounded her asking her what was up. This wasn't her crowd, she wasn't antisocial but she was determined to keep herself quiet around them.

When she looked around again she spotted a minute amount of people that she recognised, most whose names were currently forgotten. She spotted out the group of young women that on many occasions had tried to make her apart of the little group of theirs, she had always been annoyed by their prissy manners and actions. She had gotten sick of them in their first encounter, which did happen to be when she was seven. After them she spotted who she was sure was the Farron's youngest daughter, chatting to a ever growing group of boys. Two stood especially close, it was clear that she knew them well in one way or another. On seeing her a thought passed through the raven haired woman's mind,

'So where exactly is the other one?' but she was quick to leave that thought in the dust, from what she had heard about the older Farron there was not much point in bothering about things related to her. She was 'different' as it had been put by so many. Without actually knowing the girl, or even what she looked like for that matter she liked her for it. Her mind was going in the wrong place for the word 'different' she knew, but at least it meant that she wasn't the only one here that wasn't like all the other morons.

She shook her head, subconsciously she was getting her hope up over something pretty damn stupid. She decided if she was going to do anything it would be to hunt out Cid, that would pass the time.

As she circled the room she kept out a eye for him, growing increasingly impatient, being near this lot of people made her feel like she was getting stupider by just simply the exposer to them all. She released a loud sigh of relief the moment she spotted that dark hair of his. She'd atracted some attention to herself from it but she couldn't really care much for it. She ran over to him at a brisk pace, as she neared closer she began flapping her arm up and down as a greeting and also to get his attention. This didn't actually work until she was right near him, and it wasn't him that noticed, it was Rygdia. The man waved back to her and that was when Cid finally looked up to see her walking over to the duo.

"Why, hello there Fang, so how you been doing?" Rygdia spoke first with a hint of a laugh in his voice.

"Well just dandy Mr messy hair of utter messyness." She joked as she stopped beside them and she folded her hands behind her in a kind of mock politeness to the two boys.

"Hey!" Rygdia yelled pointed a hand straight at her, "Your hair is a mess too! And you're a girl!"

"I know," She ran a hand through the black locks, "But I don't have a choice unlike you, it grows like this." She chuckled from the defeated look she recieved from her comment.

And rolled her eyes with a laugh, it was common for her and Rygdia to get into 'fights' if you could call them that. She usually won, she was plainly better at it. She switched her gaze from the man in front of to the one sitting on the leather lounge besides them.

"And how are you going?" She forced a smile, not expecting him to be in a good mood as he had been in a bad one thanks to her not so long ago.

"Better." Cid said in a forced tone.

She tried to keep up her fake smile, he was still angry whether he was admitting to it or not.

At this moment did Rygdia tweak onto something being wrong between the two, so to state the obvious he asked,

"So, something happen with you two?" He asked clearly innocent of the truth, his curiousity only heightening from the sudden looks his friend gave him.

"Fang, shut up and leave."Cid shot out immediately and made the woman jump,

"Oh don't be like that, he knows about me and doesn't give a shit about it!"

Now that comment peaked his curiosity,

"Oh, now you have to tell me." It would have sounded like a command if he had not broke out laughing half way through the sentence,

"No." Was Cid's reply,

"Just not in such a crowded place." Was Fang's, causing a bad look from the one sitting down.

"No you drunk puppy you are not telling him. and that's that alright?" Hoping to dear Etro that she'd listened to him for once.

But the moment she put her hands on her hips and gave him her best 'Fang' smile did he know for sure that it would not be so,

"I've told him some 'fun' stuff before, today's no different." She smiled evily and took his arm, tugged him off the chair and pulled him with her. As she did so she signalled for the other to follow them along to her yet unknown destination.

She looked either side of the door then shut them inside the small room. She'd led them down a people-less hallway, away from prying ears so no one would overhear this conversation.

"So can you tell me what happened now?" Said Rygdia from his position sitting on an old chair in the corner.

It looked like this room was not in use at the moment, chairs and tables lay scattered about covered in dust . No one was in this part of the house, the kitchens were down another hallway, and food would have been the main reason for anyone to be travelling down them. For the things that the men do when they go off by themselves and smoke only talking to other men, usually such meetings happened in a library, from her own memories on that subject they did. That too was down another hallway. This place was the best spot to talk and to have no one eavesdropping.

"Fine I'll tell you." She said finally to the waiting man behind her. She took a seat next to Cid, who had his head on his palm, she was about to open her mouth but was stopped by his free hand covering her mouth.

"To be honest I would seriously rather you keep quiet about it." He ordered her, despite knowing her well enough that she was intent on saying it, and when Fang was intent on it you knew all attempts were rendered futile.

She moved his hand away from her, but kept a strong grip on it in the case of a repeat.

"Look, Cid, he's a friend, he's not going to judge you for it." She told him truthfully, he could hear it her voice, and hoped to the goddess she wasn't trying to trick him.

"..." He didn't reply, but she had a feeling he'd believed her this time.

"So what is it Cid doesn't want you saying so much?" Rygdia spoke up breaking the feeling of the moment.

Fang turned her attention back on him after staring at Cid for an extra second.

"That I saw him kissing one of my father's slaves." She stated and waited for him to react.

"Whheewww," He whistled, "That probably took a lot of guts considering what could have happened if Master Oerba found you instead of Fang." He breathed in clearly forcing back a laugh, "Didn't know you liked that kind of stuff."

By now Cid's face had turned to a very deep red.

"It didn't really have anything to do with apperances or anything...I just...really like..."
He failed to finish the sentence so Fang made sure to do it for him,

"Him." She nodded her head to the side with a grin, no-one was sure if she was taking this seiously or not.

"Him?" Rygdia was taken aback by the last part, but wasn't disgusted by any bit. "He kissed a guy?"

Cid's face was not any better, if anything it was worse.

"Yeah, I Really didn't know you were into that kind of thing," He put extra emphasis on the really. I knew about Fang's like for woman, but I had no idea you were on the same team." He shrugged.

"Wait you knew?"

"Yeah," He said it like he had been asked a very silly question. "I thought it was obvious."

"Not for me..." He flopped his head back down.

"Not all things are." Fang stiffled a laugh while giving him a pat on the back.

"One thing though," She began, "What do you see in guys, I don't get it."

"Me neither," Rygdia added.

"'Cause not." Cid rolled his eyes at both of the two who he just happened to be stuck in a room with.

"I mean, seriously woman are like all awesome and curvy and bouncey..."She stopped describing when Cid gave her a look.

"And guys are like...like a stick." She finished, recieving another roll of the eyes.

"You like them or you don't, stop questioning me."

"Fine fine,"She waved her hands and stood up moving for the door.

"Hey where are you going?" Cid asked from the seat.

"Back, if my mother can't see me she'll start to worry, you best come with."

"Yes, right." Him and Rygdia followed her back through the door.

Instead of going back to being stuck in the crowd they sticked near the edge, there was a small alcove, open to the rest of the area. It had the appearance of a small libarary, it was filled with books and a couple chairs on the side. It was in clear view of everything else but far enough away from everyone that everything they said wouldn't be overheard.

Rygdia's face was stuck in a permenent grin, what he'd been told not so long before had come as a shock, he had never expected Fang to say that to him. Most people would have been disgusted by it and thought that Cid had a serious problem, but him...he was laughing about it. Much to Cid's dismay. Who constantly begged for assistence from the girl next to him, but her mind was preoccupied by something else.

Her gaze was directed out to the crowd, focussing on something neither behind her could see. She had gotten bored somewhere in their conversation and looked out at the people chatting to each other non stop. She'd spotted a glimpse of not so normal hair, she knew that it had deepened under the rooms golden light, but she couldn't help but be reminded of her sister. The hair she'd seen for only a second was wavy, but not so much as her sister's. It was so stupid to be thinking about Vanille right in this moment, she bet that the person she had seen didn't look like her sister at all.

"Fang!" Rygdia's voice snapped her out of her trance. She looked over to him to see what he wanted to say, but found it was nothing more than him asking,

"Are you alright? You look like your mind's somewhere else." She looked up dazed at the two men waiting for an answer.

"Maybe..I am" She mumbled, quiet enough that Rygdia, the futherst away, didn't even here it.

Suddenly her legs forced her upwards, she was still not all in the moment, but she knew what she wanted to do; she wanted to see if she could find that person she'd seen only moments before. She dashed out of the alcove leaving Cid and Rygdia to wonder what she was doing at all.

She moved about each person, being careful not to smash into another that was moving around. The colours swirled in her head as she twisted and turned frantically, not even knowing what she was searching for. Why was she doing this? what was the point? Why had her feet just moved on their own?

She ran a hand through her messy locks, she could feel sweat on her forehead. What was wrong with her, chasing after nothing, damn her mind had gone somewhere completely different from where it truly was. She sighed leting out her emotions, she felt a bead of sweat fall down of her head and land on the creme collar of her dress, yes stupid her.

From being stuck in her thoughts she didn't notice someone running past her, at the last second she made the attempt to dodge, getting her shoulder hit hard by the shoulder of another. That other stopped not far from her to catch her breath. From Fang's position she saw a side on view of the woman. She was wearing a black and burgundy dress, crimpled at the bottom. Blondish-pink hair rested on her shoulder, strands reaching out and sticking to her pale neck. Bright cerulean eyes shown out from her face, glisterning in the light.

Fang found herself stuck in place staring at her with her heart beating fast and a speeding pulse sounding in her ears. She didn't have to be a genius to know it was the mysterious woman that rooted her to the spot. Even with sweat covering her and hair messed up falling from the ribbon that was now only partially tied to her hair, she was beautiful. Fang didn't know how else to descibe it, she was a stunning woman, and she herself was...mesmorised.

She would have stared forever if the woman hadn't run away from the spot, and a hand hadn't touched her shoulder, snapping her away from her trance. Looking away she saw Cid standing behind her, he looked concerned.

"What are you doing?" He asked voice tinted with worry,

Fang looked down, then back to the spot she'd seen the woman, finally before returning them to Cid.

"I'll tell you when I know myself." She shrugged, moving away from a now confused Cid, who after a second continued after her.

A thought that had been circulating hours before returned in this moment, now was a good as time as any to say it, especially now when she knew she had more reason to than ever before.

Fang returned to the room they had been in before she'd dashed off, finding Rygdia was not in there. She looked back to see Cid following after her, but no one else was close to her besides him at the moment. Good.

"Hey Cid?" She said quietly as he entered and sat down on a chair.

"Yeah?" He looked at her suspiciously, she wasn't acting right right now, it was so...un-Fang like.

"I have been thinking about something, I only came up with it today, so forgive me if it sounds crazy." She was rubbing her arm and looking down to the ground feeling obvious uncertainties about whatever she wanted to say.

Cid looked at her as directly in the eye he could from his position, something was off about her.

"Only today? What is it?" He couldn't figure out what had Fang acting this way.

"Well...Will you...um" She struggled to get the words out of her mouth, something was quite definately wrong.

Cid continued to watch her with a waiting expression, for the moment when she got the words out of her mouth.

Fang bit down on her tongue, herself annoyed by how she couldn't get herself to say it. She scrunched up her fists tightly before forcing her mouth to open and say what she wanted to,

"Will you marry me?" She breathed in sharply right afterwards, for holding it in while she couldn't.

Cid looked up at her in disbelief, hardly believing what she had just asked of him. It made sense now why she had had such troubles in saying it, but what it was was just unbelievable.

"Wha..?" He couldn't say a word else. Shock had more than overtaken him.

"Think about it," The raven haired woman yelled at him, "You know that if neither of us get married our parent will force us, you know that don't you!" She stated in a panicking voice, "We would be forced into doing things that we won't want to do because of it, so why not? That way if we do we wouldn't have to live our lives that way."

Cid still looked unsure, she had made a good point, a very good one to be exact. But he was still having troubles getting his mind over what was going on in this very moment. What he choose to do in this moment would change his life, no matter what was his answer. Goddess was he glad that Rygdia wasn't here right now.

"Don't keep me waiting."Fang gripped his hands tightly,

He looked at her directly in the eye, she was dead serious about all of this, that part was clear.

He closed his eyes, making his decision at the last second, "Yes."

Little did they know, that Rygdia was right around the corner listening to the entire conversation.

Done yay, by the way if any one is insane enough to be interested in the south Korean supernatural horror movie I watched in the morning and is still shaking from, it's called White: The melody of the curse.

I'm listening to English music to calm my nerves, Popasia is temporally creepy.

Thanks for 16 reviews and 2,092 hits. This story owns all my others in popularity

Read, review and all that stuff, hope you liked.