a/n: chap 7! i hope you guys are still in the mood to read my fic. hehe. :D anyways, read, review and ENJOY!!
Disclaimer: Tetsuya Nomura and SE owns FFVXIII!! (argh... when are they going to give out the rest of the character names??)
"Oblivious Fate"
By: rorudesu-chan
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Chapter 7: Inverted Impressions, Part II- The Posse
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Right after her Calculus class, the Tenebraean Ambassador found herself sauntering towards the university's library. The fair afternoon weather outside complemented with Stella's mood well enough that she decided to spend her spare time finalizing her book report for Literature class. As she entered the silent premises of the library, its cold temperature paralleled with her liking as she was rather accustomed to the chilly feel of a room stashed with books ranging from hard bounds to paper backs.
The gorgeous blonde looked for a quiet, secluded spot wherein distraction wouldn't be able to get through her. Luckily, she found a favorable area in one corner of the enormous library which she gladly took and there she pulled out her Macbook from her sling bag and plugged it in a nearby socket. Stella began to scan through her assignment, carefully ridding it of any grammar mistakes or typos. After twenty minutes of perfecting her book report, the studious Fleuret grinned with confidence as she saved her final work into her USB which she fully hoped would snatch an A-plus. She stood up and headed towards the printing section of the library and fell in line along with the other students whose priority seemed similar to hers as well. The line didn't look quite long but in case one of the pupils decided to print a fifteen page report, Stella brought along with her an Ipod packed with songs she usually didn't pay much attention to. The Tenebraean diplomat was a self-confessed bookworm and this helped her gain much philosophy throughout her days as a young girl whose real identity and past was yet to be unveiled.
As Stella listened half heartedly to the random songs being played, her blue irises aimlessly wandered around the library's surroundings. Its vast space seemed to be only occupied by a small number of people who had to get some things wrapped up. But among this minute population, the blonde Ambassador suddenly grinned at the sight of the bashful Prince who seemed to be concentrating his attention upon his black Macbook. Stella saw this as an opportunity to get close to the Prince so she hurriedly stepped forward in line since she was the next to have her Literature assignment be printed out.
Immediately after the bubbly student stapled her book report together, she quickly shut her notebook off and shoved it gently inside her sling bag. Pretending to have 'bumped' into Noctis, Stella slowed down her pace as she light footedly walked towards the Caelum Prince. The charcoal haired student felt the presence of someone coming near him but during that time, he felt quite apathetic to care at all. His book report for Literature was to be passed this afternoon at five o'clock and as his eyes averted towards the time in his notebook, he realized that he only had two more hours to go in order to gain a scrupulous grasp of his chosen Shakespearean novel and to make a five page report based on his own understanding and insights towards the literary fiction.
"Hey, mind if I sit next to you?"
Noctis didn't need to turn his head around to see who it was because he already did by that unique, lyrical voice she possessed. The Prince's shyness began to erupt within him again but fortunately, it was quickly suppressed by his cool demeanor. Noctis nodded as he stole a swift look at the blonde haired diplomat who settled down her bag first before sitting on a chair to his left.
"So how's the book report going, Noct?"
"It's going… well."
"May I see?" Stella smirked as her eyes traced upon the blank page of the Prince's Macbook screen. Noctis averted his gaze towards Stella who felt a bit embarrassed since he didn't have a head start on the assignment yet. The vivacious diplomat saw Noctis' cobalt irises staring back at her which she immediately turned away from as she thought that she might've disrupted the Caelum Prince's privacy.
"Sorry."
"It's fine. Here,"
Noctis leaned back into the chair and reached out for the Hamlet fiction which he held before Stella. The ivory skinned Fleuret gave a puzzling look as she received the middle sized book with her right hand.
"What does His Majesty want me to do with it?" Stella teasingly smiled as she flipped through the brownish pages of the novel.
"I'm think you've read the tale of Hamlet before." Noctis' indigo irises restlessly gazed back and forth upon the book and towards his female companion.
"I must've. Why?" The layered haired Tenebraean kept a charming grin as she replied.
"I was hoping you could give me a quick synopsis for Hamlet. That is, if it's alright with you, Stella."
"It is, but do consider my 'debt' to you, paid." The attractive diplomat chuckled quietly as both of them recalled their previous cancelled rendezvous.
"Alright," Noctis smirked in certainty as he shyly averted his eyes away from the Tenebraean once more.
"Okay then, Act One, Scene One…" Stella sat upright in the chair as her delicate fingers opened the book to its beginning chapter.
As the gregarious Ambassador sat beside the introverted Prince, Noctis carefully kept his cobalt eyes straight ahead while making sure to remain attentive as Stella eagerly told the tragic tale of Hamlet. The charismatic Tenebraean couldn't help but notice her companion's feeling of uneasiness towards her and found it, like before, quite hilarious that he was trying to tuck it all underneath a cool façade. Stella tried her best to make Noctis feel comfortable as much as possible while trying to secretly earn his trust along the way. Meanwhile, as the pair continued to discuss the novel within the hushed premises of the university's library, the Prince's droll pals were walking the pathway leading to his current location.
"Hey Lacertus!" Celer, whose hands were rested behind the back of his head, continued to ask his scar faced buddy who was walking ahead of him. "Remind me again why we're going to the library? The air soft grounds are calling to me now."
"Noct told us that he'll be in the library right after class."
"For what? Hmph… I never really thought of him as a book person."
"He said he needed to finish up on something."
"Finish what?"
"Book report,"
"B-book re-report??" Celer brusquely paused in his tracks as he frigidly turned to his glasses wearing friend who responded to his question with a stern pitch.
"Yes, book report." Salsus sneered off his words as he turned to his ruffled haired companion whose face depicted such misfortune.
"Wha--?! How?? When?!" Celer quickly trailed towards Lacertus and Salsus who didn't even stop in their tracks for their frustrated pal.
"Hmm…" The slick haired student darted his eyes towards Celer who clearly felt dread for his Literature grade. "I think the professor told us about the assignment when you fell asleep in his class last week."
"Asleep?? I do not doze off just like that!!"
"Is that so?" Salsus smirked as he touched the tip of his glasses before continuing. "Tell me Celer, what was the book report about?"
"It's uh… about… you know… uhm…"
It took Celer all the way to the library before his head could hatch up his answer, if he really thought it was the right one.
"Ah!! The assignment was all about your vacation experience!!" The mischievous blonde's eyes sparked in delight as Salsus chortled mockingly at his reply.
"Oh yes. You were definitely not dozing off."
"How could you not believe me, Sal?"
As the boys finally arrived before the library's entrance door, Lacertus pushed the handle open and hushed his companions while doing so. The scar faced student examined the vast area as they walked further into the book-filled domain. Celer, who strode ahead of Salsus and Lacertus, beamed his mouth wide as he finally spotted their sedated Prince.
"Hey Noc—umff!!"
Before the air soft addict could call out to Noctis whose fingers were quite busy typing on his Macbook, Celer felt a hand cover his mouth tightly. As if being in a state of almost-suffocation wasn't enough, he was also helplessly dragged within the unlit abyss of the bookshelves. Gathering the strength into his hands, Celer yanked off the grip from his mouth which unfortunately was jerked back again shortly.
"What the hell did you do that for, Lacer—tumff!!"
"Sssh!! Quiet, Celer!"
"This is a library, idiot." Salsus whispered with a jeer.
The blonde boy fought with Lacertus' muscular grasp as he once again heaved the grapple off his mouth. Celer panted heavily before questioning his slick haired buddy's motive.
"This isn't funny!"
"Sssh! Look!"
Beneath the small openings of the bookshelf of 'General Circulation, J-L', the trio looked over with half of their faces partially hidden. Their prying eyes concurrently captured the scenery before hurriedly ducking back down to confer what they all saw.
"Did you see what I just saw, Lacertus?"
"Yeah, I did."
"Noct is with that blonde chick, again!"
"You don't think they're…"
Lacertus and Celer quickly exchanged a restless stare at each other before swiftly rising up again to snoop upon the Prince and the Ambassador.
"Nah, they can't be going out together, yet. Noct isn't the type of guy to make moves like that." Lacertus murmured under his breath as his eyes observed the distance between Noctis and Stella's chairs.
"You're right. I mean, he's so shy that he'd probably ask us to just say 'hi' to a girl for him."
The comical duo seemed to be enjoying themselves as their sniggers seemed to have caught the attention of the Prince whose head slowly turned around and looked at the bookshelf behind him. Celer and Lacertus quickly reacted to this and immediately bent down to conceal their presence.
"Is something wrong, Noct?" Stella spun her head towards the direction where Noctis' indigo irises were gazing at.
"It's nothing." The charcoal haired Prince averted his head away as he finished typing his assignment.
"That was close." Beneath the hideaway of the huge bookshelf, Celer remarked in an undertone as his scar faced friend nodded in reply.
"So what do we do now, Lacertus?"
"I'll tell you what you guys are going to do now. Stop acting like idiots and come out of your hiding." Salsus, who never bent up to pry again, suggested in a shrewd temperament.
"Pfft! You're the one to talk! You didn't even bother to get up and look over to see what's going on."
"Because," Salsus paused before stating his reply in full assurance. "There isn't anything going on between Noct and Stella."
"Oh yeah? Well, if you're so sure of that, why don't you go there and ask?"
"Alright, I will."
Celer inaudibly gasped as his hazel haired pal acted against his rhetorical question. He and Lacertus watched as Salsus hovered over them as he walked out of their hiding place. Immediately, the two ascended to their knees as they pried in once more within the suppression of the bookcase.
As Salsus ambled towards the nearby table, the blonde Tenebraean noticed the incoming presence and turned around to check who it was. The glasses wearing student was greeted by a beguiling smile as he approached the female pupil who now sat alone.
"Hello, Stella,"
"Hello Sal. I'm quite surprised to see you by yourself."
"Same goes to you."
"Oh, Noct is over there." Stella gestured towards the students who fell in a line far across the table. "He's printing out his book report for Literature."
"I see." Salsus traced his eyes to where the girl pointed at and saw the Prince handing his USB to the man in charged behind the printing station.
"I wonder where your other friends are. I always seem to encounter you guys together." The layered hair diplomat naively inquired as Salsus momentarily glanced at bookshelf behind his back.
"They're around."
"Okay then. Why don't you sit down for awhile, Sal? I'm quite certain that Noct will come back any minute now."
"As much as I'd like to wait for him, I simply can't. It would appear that I have a previous appointment with some people that I just can't miss."
"I understand. I'll tell Noct that you dropped by." Stella smiled candidly as Salsus grinned back before turning around to leave the polite Fleuret behind.
As one fourth of the posse walked towards the bookcase before him, Salsus glanced to see if the Tenebraean Ambassador was still looking on. Seeing that Stella had spun around in her chair, Salsus quietly returned to the unlit premises of the bookshelf where the quaint duo fervently awaited his return.
"I was right, as usual."
"It's a study date isn't it??" Celer's eyes widened as he anticipated Salsus' reply.
"He said that he was right, 'as usual', Celer. That means you're wrong." Lacertus contrasted in a hushed pitch.
"It's all for the book report in Literature."
"Oh yeah? How could you be so sure of that?" The ruffled haired student pursued with his own idea as Lacertus calmly listened to another one of their typical arguments.
"I was pretty sure that I saw a Hamlet novel lying on the table and a few sheets of paper that read, 'book report, draft'."
"You could be right. But, what if it was all for distraction?"
"Celer, why are you getting so fret about this whole thing? It's not like Noct will just suddenly decide to see someone behind our backs." Lacertus added in a rather wise tone.
"Oooh!! That lying pain-in-the-royal ass! I can't believe he wouldn't tell us about Stella! Aha!! So that's why he was late for that air soft game against Vittorio's team! He was with Stella!"
Salsus couldn't believe how ridiculous Celer was becoming so he rolled his eyes as he scoffed at him. "This is nonsense. I'm leaving."
"No, wait! You can't go!" Before Salsus could set a foot outside the bookshelf's perimeter, Celer quickly grabbed his collar and dragged him back inside their 'hideout'.
"You say that it was just for a 'book report', I say that it's more than that!"
"You really are pathetic." Salsus smirked darkly as Celer continued to shout out his ideas in a whisper.
"All we need is proof, solid, hardcore proof."
Lacertus raised his eyebrow in puzzlement as he questioned his air soft addicted pal. "What are you planning, Celer?"
The blonde boy revealed his teeth as he smiled cunningly. "Guys, we're going to do a little more of snooping."
"I was wrong. You're worse than pathetic, you're dim-witted." Salsus sneered off as Celer disregarded his fairly truthful remark.
"Alright, listen up! Once Noct and Stella leave the library, we're going to trail them secretly. Got it?"
"Got it!"
"I can't believe you're going with this buffoon's plan, Lacertus."
"Come on, Sal. I'm just as curious as he is. Besides, don't you want to see our shy, little Prince come out of his shell for the first time in seventeen years?" Lacertus whispered his reply towards Salsus whose eyes acidly rotated again.
"Haha! We're definitely going to reveal whatever Noct is hiding fro—"
Celer felt his slick haired friend's gigantic palm drape tightly around his mouth again. Lacertus kept his blonde companion's trap shut as the three of them laid their backs flatly upon the bookshelf. They remained as still as possible as the Prince who was followed by the Ambassador, passed by their 'hideaway'. It took a few seconds before Celer decided to poke his head out to check if the suspected pair was already far enough from where they stood. As his eyes spotted Noctis and Stella outside the library's exit door, he immediately came out of his hiding as he secretly trailed them together with the fairly enthusiastic Lacertus and the highly hesitant Salsus.
The pair walked outside the library with Noctis being a step ahead of Stella as usual. Both held in their hands their own book reports which they agreed to pass together. As the shy Prince ambled on without a word, the convivial Ambassador suddenly broke the silence between them.
"You might like to know that while you were printing your book report, Sal came by."
Upon hearing that, Noctis briefly stopped in his steps as he glanced at Stella who had a sudden questioning look in her eyes. "Did he now?"
"Yeah. I actually asked him to sit down since he might want to wait for you. But he kindly rejected the offer since he said that he still had to go somewhere else."
Noctis smirked as he cleverly suspected his posse's presence earlier. Some people were definitely going to get busted later on. Apparently, his droll pals didn't exactly know what was really going on.
The Prince abruptly turned to the east corner as Stella drew another puzzled look in her face as she questioned her companion. "Where are you going, Noct? Isn't the faculty room this way?"
"I know. But there's another way here. This one's more preferable." Noctis responded sternly as he strolled ahead while Stella kindly sauntered behind him.
By the time the Prince's posse reached the outside of the library, Celer's eyes quickly scanned around to check where their 'targets' have gone off to.
"I think we lost them." Lacertus said as his head turned sideways to search.
"No! How could we lose them? Wait, Sal said that they were doing that book report, right? They must be headed towards the Literature faculty office." Celer turned his feet towards the west wing of the building as he continued to trail upon the wrong path with Lacertus and Salsus.
Meanwhile, on the east side of the building, silence mostly filled the ambience as the bashful Prince walked ahead of the charming Tenebraean. Noctis wanted to be quiet but suddenly felt compelled to start up a conversation.
"I almost forgot to thank you for helping me with Hamlet earlier, Stella."
The blonde haired diplomat, whose blue irises were aimlessly wandering around, immediately locked upon the shy Noctis who ignited a dialogue with guts. Stella smiled charmingly as she replied with zeal.
"You're welcome, Noct."
Thinking that the atmosphere where they were would again sink back to silence, Noctis proved Stella's notion wrong as he abruptly continued with his deep, enthralling voice.
"Which of Shakespeare's novel did you choose?"
"For the book report? Well, I chose Romeo and Juliet." The blonde Ambassador contentedly responded as she seemed to enjoy Noctis' attempt to begin a small talk for the first time.
"Ah, that one."
"I didn't really pick it out on purpose. There wasn't really enough time to be choosy knowing that the deadline was only two days after it was announced."
"So we're the same."
Stella chuckled at their somewhat parallel situation. "Maybe. But I happen to like the story I selected, did you enjoy yours?"
Noctis paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts. "I'm not really a book person, Stella."
"I know." The vivacious Ambassador smiled wittily as the Prince shortly darted his cobalt eyes towards her.
"How can you say that?"
"It's fairly obvious, Noct."
As Stella softly laughed again, Noctis smirked at his palpability towards her. It was revealed to the Prince that Stella knew more of what the Caelum heir tried to conceal. He thought that he was doing a good job of hiding some of his real personality but apparently, the polite Tenebraean still saw through the façade. Noctis was now wondering if Stella also knew about his shyness that he was also concealing underneath a cool demeanor. But as he glimpsed at her with his cobalt eyes, the Prince quickly shoved away the thought as he knew that his bashfulness was perfectly well-hidden to be seen.
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a/n: so, how was this chapter?? Please give me a Review okay? this way, i can know what you guys are thinking regarding the progress of the story so far. special thanks by the way to those who continue to read every update of this fic and to those who are giving me an awesome review everytime they finish a chapter! you guys are part of the reasons why i continue to write this story and upload a new chap as soon as i can. :D
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ooh! *random question of the moment* do you guys want to see more romance between Noctis and Stella in the future updates? i'm currently open minded for any ideas for the succeeding chapter plots... :D