“Quisty, are you all right?!”
Once again,
Quistis was amazed by Rinoa’s and Selphie’s ability to see her before she
entered a room. The two were on either side of her, gripping her arms
tightly, voices filled with worry as they hounded her with questions on her
well-being and comments on Eric’s character. It made Quistis slightly
ashamed that they took Seifer’s word for exactly what it was worth and she
would have questioned it. Her eyes rose, met his, and she forced herself
to hold his jade gaze.
“I’m fine,” she
told them all, small smile pasted on her pretty face. “Now why did I need
to come, thinking about the wedding?”
Rinoa lowered
Quistis into the seat next to her and tilted her head. “Well, I’m
debating between colors for the bridesmaids!”
Oh Hyne.
Quistis shot Seifer a dirty look, who smirked and turned his back on her,
joining the rest of the males in silent laughter. She gritted her teeth
in what she hoped looked like an interested smile and contemplated the death of
one blond gunblader. “Oh?” she asked brightly…as brightly as she could
through her teeth.
Selphie gave her
a strange look and leaned over. “Quisty, is there something wrong with
your jaw? It’s kind of…jutting out. Is it stiff? It looks
like it hurts!”
Quistis stiffened
as she heard the laugher break free from the soon-to-be murdered Seifer.
However, she answered Selphie with,” No, I’m fine. Certain people are
continuing to be a pain in the ass, that’s all.” Naturally, and she
cursed herself, this only made Seifer laugh harder. Selphie looked from
one to the other in confusion, before shrugging and looking at Rinoa, who’d
been carrying on an avid conversation with Lex. “Now what colors are you
deciding on, Rin?”
Immediately she
broke off the conversation-most likely about the same thing-and began her
spiel. “Well, first, I planned on purple for the bridesmaids, seeing as
how I wanted purple rhododendrons. But then I realized that non one would
be able to tell the difference between the flowers and the bridesmaids, and I
want people to SEE my bridesmaids! So of course, purple would make no
sense!”
“Of course.”
“And then, I
thought what about yellow? Yellow’s a pretty color, right? And it’s
springtime, it’s sunny! But I got to thinking that yellow really only
looks good on Selph! And all my bridesmaids must look beautiful!”
“Mmmhmmm.”
Quistis stared forlornly at the table, and crossed her fingers. Maybe Rinoa
would think that she was considering which color to choose.
This was going to
be a long, long meal.
*
*
*
Quistis sank back
in her chair, tiredly. Who knew that discussing bridesmaid dresses was
such hard work? Especially when a woman’s thoughts kept drifting to a
certain male singer. It was hard just keeping herself from murmuring her
thoughts out loud, much less participate in a conversation that she knew would
only get brought up at least three more times in the next two weeks. And
possibly even after Rinoa ordered the dresses. What color did they
“decide” on, eventually?
Lex’s voice came
back to her then. “How about peach,
Rinoa? It’s springtime, the flowers are blooming, the color is subtle
enough not to take attention away from you but it’s a beautiful color.
And in front of the purple would be a striking contrast.” Personally,
the two colors made Quistis think of her battle gear, but since she liked it,
she didn’t say anything.
While the girls
talked about dresses, the males discussed music, a topic Quistis was much more
interested in. So she listened to both conversations with half an ear, a
talent she’d learned to develop as an instructor quite quickly. It seemed
that Rinoa wanted “Eyes on Me” to be played on piano during the procession of
the bridesmaids. But who to play it was a good question. Quistis
thought about suggesting the person on the tapes, but she didn’t know who that
person was. And a part of her wanted him to remain her secret. The
decision that was made, however, entailed only the bridal march be played at
the wedding, by the SeeD band, and then
She sighed and
immediately, Selphie was at her side, worry in bright green eyes.
“Quisty, are you okay? Oh no, we tired you out didn’t we? I’m so
sorry!”
“No, Selph, it
wasn’t you,” Quistis smiled. “Just the bump on the head.”
Selphie eyed her
suspiciously, but shrugged and threw her arms around the blond. “I’m just
glad you’re okay! That Eric guy is such a jerk!” Then she looked at
Squall. “Can’t you have him expelled or something? For assault?”
Squall shook his
head. “It would go in front of the Garden Faculty and seeing as how Eric
has a spotless record up until now, they’ll just give him a warning.” He
met Quistis’ blue gaze. “Trust me, I checked.”
“Leonhart, that
might be the longest sentence I’ve ever heard out of you,” Seifer smirked and
leaned back on the hind two legs of his chair, his feet resting on the
table. “And all for the Instructor. How touching.” Quistis
shot him a dirty look. “Did I hear you all say peach for the
bridesmaids? That’s going to make the Instructor look like she’s off to
battle. Never was a good color on her anyway. But since she’s not
the center of attention, I guess it won’t matter. It would be hard to get
her to look good in anything.” That was as close to approval that Seifer
Almasy ever came.
Rinoa blinked
rapidly, before glancing uncertainly at Quistis, who stood up stiffly, face
expressionless. Hopefully no one had seen the first wince. Seifer
still knew how to hurt her, but he was the last one who needed to know
that. And just when she thought he’d changed. He saved her, after
all. But of course, she was wrong. “Seifer, you’re just mad that
the person next to you is going to look better than you. Not that it’s
hard or anything.” That’s right, Trepe, sink to his level. She did
that a lot when it came to him. No one else could provoke a reaction out
of her, but he did it with ease.
His green eyes
narrowed. If there was one thing Seifer prided himself on, it was his
good looks. Well, among other things. “If there’s one thing I
always liked about you, Trepe, it was your dedication to honesty. But
that was an outright lie.” His mouth curved into its familiar smirk that
always managed to make Quistis feel an inch tall.
“No, Seifer, I
never lie.” She headed for the door and looked behind her. “I’ll
see you all later. I have things to do.” Okay, so she lied.
But not really! She needed to go to the music room and that was more
important than sitting here sparring verbally with Seifer. She allowed
herself a wicked smile as she passed by Seifer’s leaning chair and didn’t feel
the least bit guilty when she stuck her foot out and took the back legs out
from under him. He crashed to the floor. The group stared at her,
including Seifer, in astonishment. She merely raised an eyebrow and left
the suddenly quiet cafeteria.
Seifer hoisted
himself off the ground and glared at the silent cafeteria. Immediately
they went back to whatever they’d been doing beforehand. His friends did
no such thing, however. His glare grew even fiercer when he saw them
trying to keep straight faces. Which of course only served to have them
break into gales of laughter. Even Squall participated, although his idea
of laughter was a smile. Without a word, Seifer drew Hyperion and pointed
it at Zell, who shut his mouth. The loudmouth martial artist knew when to
value his life. Seifer looked around one more time and exited the
cafeteria, green eyes hard and intense.
Rinoa led the
group prayer, asking Hyne to spare Quistis’ life.
*
*
*
Quistis entered
the music room and sat on the bench thinking. She needed to be in the
right state of mind. She needed to think.
Why did Eric
really want her back? It was true, she hadn’t been that responsive in
bed, but to be honest, Eric didn’t spark any real desire in her. Sure, in
her body, but not in her heart. Well, maybe a desire to be loved but no
desire to join. Is that what it took to really enjoy sex?
Love? Eric was her first and only, so Quistis didn’t know. Or was
sex a meeting of two hearts as well as two bodies? It wasn’t even that
sex was what she was thinking about; it just seemed the most conceivable part
of love. But above all, she wanted love. All parts of love.
And through all the voices in her head, telling her different things, she
determined one very important idea.
The
first words are a dream
Heard
while sleeping
To
take this darkness
From
my heart
The
second words are the wind
Telling
me how to fly
To
the inside of Hyne’s* embrace
By
flapping my wings
Sadness
melts away
Drop
by drop
As
yet another golden apple
Falls
to the ground
A
place with nothing to see
That
is where we return
A
place where we have
Merely
one life to live
Ancient
book of magic
The
moon in its next quiet night
That
makes me shiver sometimes
We
can fly
We
have wings
We
can touch floating dreams
Call
me from so far
Through
the wind
In
the light
The
third words…hmm…
If
you whisper into my ear
I
will unravel your shaking arms
And
encircle them around me again
Despite her “boy
on a string”-someone else’s string or hers? Dare she hope?-, despite not
knowing him, she felt for him. She wanted him to sing. She wanted
him to sing to her. All the time. His voice made her feel warm,
feel wanted, feel…loved. The last one was something Eric never made her
feel. But she liked it. Wanted it to continue.
She wanted him to
love her like she was sure she loved him.
Just who was it
exactly that she loved?
It wouldn’t be
too hard to find out. Just hang around, hide inside the music room.
The corners were dark enough, the closet big enough. But she was afraid,
too. Afraid to find out who it was. Because what if it wasn’t the
kind of person she imagined? What if it was someone like Eric or Seifer
Almasy?
No, she shook her
head violently, clutching the tape to her chest. It couldn’t be.
This person felt way too profoundly about things, conveyed so much
emotion. He was her dream.
She didn’t want
her dream to end badly.
********************************
A/N: “Voices” by Yoko Kanno.
The song is originally in Japanese, but I went ahead and translated it so all
of you oh-so-curious people wouldn’t have to hunt down the translation
^_^ And the “Hyne’s*” means that I changed it from “God’s”.
Sorry! And I’m really sorry about the delay, my significant other and I
were having somewhat of a crisis. But it’s all good now and I love you
all, because I got so many reviews! *HUGS* And now I get to recognize you
all and type even more with my incredibly NUMB fingers.
Sabacat-nyahahahaha, you’ll have to wait!
^_^ But yeah, it’s going to go off and on like that. We can’t have our
hero and heroine getting TOO close yet!
Quistis88-Thank you thank you! And
you guessed right! ^_- Of course Seifer would have to find her, it’s FATE! And
I thought about that right after I posted the chapter, but I was too lazy to go
back and change it!
Angelus-…maaaaaaaaaaaybeeeee ^_^
those are some really good ideas *ponder* we’ll see!
QuistisTrepe1402-yes, he is a
hottie. I’d steal him from Quisty, but I can’t, it would just be so
wrong!
Slice of Zucchini-*jumps around in
excitement* YAY, I’m on a fave authors list! *HUGS* THANK YOU!
Lovexfool-and a wonderful idea that just
might get used ^_^
WolfwoodLover-oh, don’t worry “Iris” will
definitely be used, but towards the end!
Setobsessed-couldn’t have said it better
myself!
Yume-thank you for the compliments! *turns
into a tomato*
Stella Anon-oops *deflate* does this
count as forever? I’m SO SORRY! *begs* please keep reading!
Starwhisperer-yeah, Eric is such a jerk…I
based him off this guy I knew in high school ^_^ They actually share a last
name, MWAHAHHAA
Dragon Princess Isis-I’m completely and
utterly convinced that Seifer and Quistis should have been the main couple in
FFVIII ^_^ Good luck on the story!
Tomoyo-sama-THANK YOU! I’ll try and keep
writing at an insane pace; please forgive my transgression
Megs-of course you are forgiven! ^_^ and I
can’t answer your question cause it’ll give away the story!
Yuna-you and me both, girl! ^_^ thank you
so much!
Kurai illusion-indeed! And yep, Eric is
most definitely a perv *evil grin*
Amy-first time I heard it was when I was
searching for a song for that chapter ^_^ so glad I found it
Lunereid-your wish is my command! ^_-
K-chan-I try, I try!
Cara-HI! YOU CAME! ^_^ aww, don’t hate
Clasyl, she’s just a victim of circumstance…maybe…*evil laughter*
And to anyone I missed, I’m sorry, I love
you! ^_^ Please, eventhough I don’t really like this chappy,
REVIEW
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