Chapter 8: A Partner for the Ball

[junkuroki]

"Zacke." She patted him on the shoulder, as if to tell him it's alright to vent his anger. "You're perfectly justified to be angry at those two Opps Girls and what they said. But they are dealing with their own loss...they lost two of their friends while they were helping us retrieve the Ruby. So perhaps they empathised with the girl..."

She sighed. This wasn't going to help him, telling him the bad news about Opps losing two of their members was probably going to make it even worse.

"I'm just saying perhaps they have their reasons for being upset, just as you are. Nobody's right or wrong in this. Give them some time, everyone needs time to handle their emotions. Just as you do."
----

[vanesse]

*hugs Zacke* Hahah fear the power of dramaaaa~~!! XD
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Vanesse, together with Jaime, made her way out of the cafeteria. Her eyes were bitterly glued on the floor as she matched Jaime's pace. She still couldn't let it go. How could they treat death so lightly here? What would they feel if someone came off rude to their deceased? She knew she would've gone off the handle as well. If being a SeeD meant being insensitive to other people's loss then she didn't want that kind of lifestyle. They should understand if they had lost someone.

"Is it so hard to sincerely apologize for the thoughtlessness?" she said to Jaime as they exited the cafeteria. "SeeDs....Sometimes, I don't get them. I wouldn't want other people disregarding my loss, so why would I do that to others?" The gruesome scene of Lawric, Able and Signe's headshot flashed in her mind for a split second, and she had to tighten her grip on Jaime's hand. "It's...just not right."

This wasn't good. She was getting depressed again. She told herself she wouldn't cry anymore.

"We're okay though," she told Jaime in attempt to comfort her too. "We're still all right."

It was easy to spot the elevator once they got out of the cafeteria. It was even easier to spot the commotion that was going on in front of the fountain.

Wait---Commotion?

"Oh look, is that Lawric and Deo over there?" Once they arrived at the scene, Vanesse saw Deo--now wide awake--and Lawric conversing at the fountain. She didn't know what happened but Deo looked a little soaked. Did Lawric soak Deo's face on the water? Was that another technique to wake Deo up? Vanesse's tense face slowly relaxed with a smile. The thought was hilarious. Indeed, she would rather stay here with them.

"Deo!! It's about time you wake up. We've been dragging you all over the place." It was her turn to drag Jaime towards them.

Some stern looking SeeD officials, who came off looking like police to her, were also present at the scene. There seemed to be someone stuck inside the elevator.

"What...er...happened here?" she asked, particularly about the freakish clawing inside the elevator.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Vanesse and Jaime's biting words were mostly directed to him, Hadrian could feel it. And he couldn't talk. For a moment there, he was speechless. He really wasn't cut out for this kind of situation, so he always tend to avoid it and dismiss it as nothing.

Well, sorry for being damn heartless... he thought to himself. He hadn't felt it yet. Being depressed over a loss to the point of exploding over every little thing. He never felt that--not even when he found out his only family was missing.

/Detecting an increase in heart palpitations by .6 seconds./ CQ randomly said.

Why is it you always talk at times I don't want you to? He was starting to get annoyed by the circumstance. Guilt. It was starting to rush through him. He was feeling guilty for how childish he acted, not even remembering that the major part of the Ball---he wanted to ditch--was in honor of the people who sacrificed themselves. He hated this sensation. He surely hated it because it was too troublesome.

The next thing Hadrian noticed, Zacke walked out of the table. It was puzzling for the hacker since he didn't expect that the Opps girls got him too. Jun disappeared next, leaving him, Jax, and Stella at the table. What happened to the happy group that was just here moments ago?

"What's up with Zacke?" Hadrian looked at Jax and Stella as if expecting some sort of answers. In attempt to change the hateful atmosphere, he smirked and shook his head. "Drama....gotta love it."

F*cking drama... He knew he had to do something or else this would start eating him.

[jaimelewis]

Jaime silently agreed with whatever Vanesse was saying about the SeeDs. Van was right, they were thoughtless and caullous, they obviously didn't care about hurting other people's feelings by acting the way they did.

But part of her knew what caused their insensitivity. When she was still a cadet in Balamb Garden before leaving, everyone was constantly expected to treat death as the norm, even their own deaths. This was a high risk job, and if anyone couldn't handle it, they'd fail. And fail she did. And if Team Trinity was the elite of the entire population of SeeDs, they would've been even more accustomed to being numb to dead people here and there, especially if they couldn't put a name to those people. They were just faceless. So maybe it was unreasonable for her to expect them to have more sympathy.

Unreasonable or not...their behaviour just smacks of people who don't get out and socialize...don't even have the sense to be mindful of other people's feelings. She pouted, squeezing Van's hand when the other girl tried to comfort her.

She let Van lead her towards the fountain, catching sight of Lawric and Deo sitting at the rim. Deo was wide awake...and dripping wet.

Her attention was further taken away by the hideous sounds that appeared to come from the elevator....which had claws embedding into it every now and then.

"That poor elevator door." She said, shaking her head pityingly at it. "I'm glad it's not an actual living thing. The person inside must have some serious prejudice against it." Jaime went to sat down beside Deo.

"Deo! What happened to you! You decided to take a shower in the fountain? Yuck, they have fishie droppings in there you know?" She deliberately teased him, willing the frustration in her head away and piled up a bright cheery smile at Deo.

[stardust]

HAHA amidst the chaos, Reese and Stardust have their own world inside the infirmary XD
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"Wait--" said Reese. "Thank you... for being here." He looked downward. A smile, a sad kind of smile, colored his face. She had seen him smile on a few occasions, but she had never seen this smile before. It made her smirk. She was about to reply when--- "I should be dead. I know if you weren't here, I would feel different about waking up."

She paused, noting the gentle tone of his last words. It made her glad, but at the same time, she didn't feel the need for him to say that.

"Idiot...." Stardust replied lightly. "You should say you feel glad because you woke up." Letting go of his shoulders, she sat back on the chair. Having finishing the mission and seeing him waking up, it was good she managed to stick around. She had never felt this sense of accomplishment before, and somehow, she wanted Reese to experience the same thing. Afterall, he was one of the reason why she wanted to come back alive.

"You can rest easy now, Adel is gone. All the more reason to say it's glad to be alive."

[raydensharpola]

"Hey," Rayden grinned at Gemma. "It's healthy to live like a fool sometimes. Don't you know that intellectuals usually die of a much younger age?" He shrugged. A commotion at the Trinity SeeD table grabbed his attention. A girl was yelling at his teammates seated there about her dead brother, and people started leaving the table.

Rayden rolled his trolley to the table.

"What happened? Why did everyone leave?" He asked glancing at Stella, Jax and Hadrian. "They missed my presence too much or something?" He said, trying to lighten the dead atmosphere.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

There was a long awkward silence in the table.

Now what...? Hadrian thought, considering the possibilities of him apologizing to those girls. If he didn't come here to hang out, he should've been playing around with the new software he had been developing by now. He was truly dismayed.

All of a sudden, the sound of squeaky wheels could be heard coming towards them. Creasing his brows, he wondered if a person on a wheelchair was going to start a drama with them too. Maybe blame them for having to lose his leg this time. To his surprises, it was just Rayden and his trolley.

"What happened? Why did everyone leave?" the blonde asked, glancing at Stella, Jax and him. "They missed my presence too much or something?"

Hadrian refrained himself from laughing at how ridiculous Rayden's trolley was. Judging from the amount of food on the trolley, the trays wouldn't do much for him anymore. This guy...He has more appetite than my old teacher Bertha and she was 500 lbs...

"I dunno, they had to go to the bathroom. Probably indigestion." Hadrian replied, letting the topic drop. He had no tolerance for another drama this time. "Dude, how did you get a trolley from the cafeteria lady? She never wouldn't even wrap my order whenever I want them for to go."

[Zacke]

"... they lost two of their friends while they were helping us retrieve the Ruby. So perhaps they empathized with the girl... "

Jun sighed softly. Zacke glanced up, meeting her gaze. His anger started dissipating, the ever-familiar feeling of guilt slowly creeping in to take it's place. Of course they did. he thought, feeling like a complete and total jackass. Another familiar feeling for today. These girls, they were just civilians, they weren't trained to deal with this kind of thing... they lived by their hearts, not by a set of dictating codes.

"I'm just saying perhaps they have their reasons for being upset, just as you are. Nobody's right or wrong in this. Give them some time, everyone needs time to handle their emotions. Just as you do."

Time... He thought he'd had enough of it, but apparently there were still some things inside of him that were subconsciously unsettled. This situation had obviously stirred some of it to the surface, and he'd let himself lose it a little. Sort of embarrassing. He looked downward and nodded. Like always, Jun was full of the best advice. Slowly a smile found it's way onto his face, and his gaze raised to met hers again. "Thanks."

This was the second time today she rescued him from his own emotions. A wave of gratitude swept over him. He swallowed, carefully compartmentalizing the grief and the guilt. This wasn't the time or place to mess around with that kind of crap.

"Jun, do you have a date to this dance?"

[junkuroki]

"Zacke, don't thank me. You had my back several times, I'm just repaying a little of it." Jun smiled back at him. He was still bottling up what was buried deep within him, but even she understood that he might want to go through it himself without her meddling hands. She had said herself, he needed time, so she'd give him time to sort it out. And he probably needed the privacy too, standing in front of the washrooms was hardly the place for confiding in people.

"Jun, do you have a date to this dance?" He asked out of the blue. She opened her mouth slightly in surprise.

"Why are you asking me that? I thought you were going alone? " She shrugged a little too casually. "I'm so empty in that department I don't even know who to ask."

[Lawric]

Lawric grinned at the sight of Jaime and Vanesse approaching. He laughed at Jaime's joke about the fish droppings.

"What...er...happened here?"

He turned to Van. "I'm not really sure who or what is exactly in there, but I guess the elevator got stuck and made it really mad." He looked back at the elevator, laughing a bit. "Kind of makes me wish I had Nauthiz with me even more. No telling what that thing's is going to be like when it gets free... "

[Zacke]

"Hey, call me old fashioned, but it shouldn't be up to you to do the asking." Zacke smirked. "And anyway, you're incredibly smart, genuinely kind, and also really pretty. You probably haven't been asked yet because guys are intimidated by you." He laughed. "Tien Nu hanging on your back can't help, either."

He shrugged. "Anyway, if you happen to get asked by someone, you can kick me to the curb in a heartbeat... I just mean, for the sake of us both not having to go it alone... " he trailed off, looking elsewhere nonchalantly.

[junkuroki]

Jun laughed at Zacke's stream of compliments at her.

"Alright already, you don't have to flatter me. I'll go with you." She shook an index finger at him in a playful manner. "If I was any other girl I would take those to heart. You do have a smooth tongue on you, you know that? No wonder you're such a babe magnet". She laughed again. "I mean, I know you won't have trouble finding someone else to go with you, and you're asking me so I don't have to be alone." She grinned. "Thanks."

[Reese]

HAHA I know XD and awww I love how Stardie calls him an idiot ^.^ it's endearing.

---

"You can rest easy now, Adel is gone. All the more reason to say it's glad to be alive."

Reese stared down at his hands, sitting limply in his lap. Adel was dead? They killed her... they completed their mission. He didn't smile, but he felt like maybe he wanted to. He remembered how much Stardust wanted to bring the Sorceress down. What the witch had done to her village...

Despite all of support he once harbored for Adel, he found that he was glad she was gone from the world. The war must be over...

But...

Suddenly, his gaze shifted over to where Stardust sat. "What about DotNA?"

[Zacke]

Zacke laughed, following her away from the restrooms and back out into the cafeteria. "Smooth tongue? Babe Magnet?" He shook his head. "I don't know if you've noticed, but I seem to have pretty horrible luck when it comes to girls... "

"So do you already have a dres--" Zacke froze in his tracks when a SeeD girl that had crossed paths with them collided with Jun, pushing the contents of her tray right against Jun's pristine white shirt before letting it clatter to the ground.

[junkuroki]

Jun stared down at her white V-neck in horror. It was splattered with an entire plate of what looked like squid ink pasta, with bits of pasta dripping down onto her shoes while the black, gooey sauce was plastered onto the front of her top.

"My shirt!" She quickly pulled the shirt away from her skin, brushing the bits of pasta away with her hand onto the floor, but only suceeded in making her hand dirty and sticky.

"OH I'M TERRIBLY SORRY!" The SeeD who had bumped into her exclaimed, but the tone in her voice was anything but apologetic. Jun glanced down at her with annoyance, and met with a pair of mousy-brown eyes that threw a challenge at her. The cadet then turned her head to smile at Zacke in an affected manner, her eyes gazing adoringly up at him. "I'm always so accident-prone, can't help it when I'm such a petite girl."

"UGH Get out of my way!" Jun rushed past her and Zacke, her face a mask of disgust as she dashed out of the cafeteria, past the group of Opps and into the dorms, dripping bits of spaghetti along the way.

Twenty minutes later, Jun stepped out of the shower in her dorm. She didn't feel like going back to the cafeteria anymore, as the memory of squid ink pasta smeared onto her shirt turned her insides queasy just by thinking about it.

She sat down in front of her computer and turned it on. A blinking message icon at the end of the taskbar caught her attention, and she clicked on it.