The Honorary Ball

[raydensharpola]

He kissed her lightly on the lips. He didn't care that she'd slap him for taking liberties but he could argue it was part of getting to know her better.

Reluctantly he let go of her arms.

"You're right, we should save some of the good action for later." He cocked an eyebrow and smirked. "We should actually get back, we've disappeared from the table for quite a while. People might really think we eloped."

[Stella]

"Maybe we should elope" she grinned at him as she pulled away giving him a little wink. At the moment she wasn't even mad about the kiss, after all it was exactly what she wanted.

"But your right..." she sighed, "we should get back to the others... but first"

"And you do owe me another drink after all" she said with a wink as she took his hand and went with him back inside heading for the Trinity tables.

[Zacke]

Zacke stood staring dumbly at the people around him in the aftermath of Squall's lecture. If trying to make him feel like crap was the Headmaster's goal, he had accomplished it. His ego hurt worse than the lingering ache left by Stardust's boot in his chest.

Jun returned to their table and buried her face in her hands, obviously thoroughly embarrassed. Reese got up and said something to Stardust that he couldn't hear--figures he would concern himself with her.

Zacke looked over at Blaze. He hadn't seen her fly into the table, but he'd seen Stardust swing her leg around and heard the crash that followed. Why had Stardust kicked her in the first place? She should have been beating on him, not Blaze. He frowned slightly. Squall stepping in must have extinguished her retaliation--at least temporarily, because she wasn't throwing herself at Stardust yet.

"Hey," he moved around Stardust and Reese, coming up to her. "You alright?"

[raydensharpola]

"Fine..." He smirked at her. "But not today. You've had way too much. Don't pout at me, you did." As they were fast approaching the Trin tables, he slowed her down a tad. "Stella...I want you to be my partner at the candle lighting ceremony." He said, hoping she wouldn't turn him down.

[Stella]

"Of course I'll go with you" she responded right away looking up at him only mildly angry he was banning her from the bar. Unfortunately he was probably right she didn't need any more drink tonight.

"Can't imagine going with anyone else" she responded with a sly little grin rather flattered at the invitation. As usual her thoughts had not wandered that far ahead.

"Just as long as you bring that drink you owe me with you" Stella said with a cute little fake pout her eyes sparkling mischievously. She rubbed her fingers against his flirtingly and winked letting the fake pout fade away as they got closer to the tables.

[jaimelewis]

Jaime started moving for the stage stairs when a loud commotion broke out at the Trin tables. She froze, staring at Zacke, Blaze and Stardust break out into some kind of fight, ending when Squall Leonhart stalked past everyone down the stage and lectured them. Jaime turned back to exchange glances with Van and Deo, lingering longer on Deo as it was his little sister down there who was the centre of the scene. He probably won't be initiating a crying and hugging reunion anytime soon.

She resumed for the stairs again. Nobody seemed to be in the mood for speeches now after what happened...but as she passed Jax by she remembered her earlier attitude.

It sucked.

"Hey Jax." She stopped in front of him. "Sorry for brushing you off earlier. I was cranky. Lawric had just pissed me off and you were in the wrong place at the wrong time...but I guess that doesn't really excuse my behaviour." She grinned sheepishly. "No hard feelings?"

[stardust]

Omg O.O Look at the postage *withers in awe*
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Stardust chose to bite her tongue when Squall Leonhart reprimanded her. Detain me...? That word alone would've scared her, and she would've started straightening up by now. However, situation was different now that Adel was dead and gone. Frankly, she wouldn't give a damn if they expelled her from Garden for what she did. Formally speaking, there was nothing that was binding her here anymore.

Why did she want to stick around with them again? Seemed like not too long ago, she thought she knew why, but now that this happened, she wasn't sure anymore.

The sting in her hands was persistent. She clenched her jaw and glared at her two notorious teammates. She wanted to go anywhere but here--away from Blaze and Zacke. They still hadn't even apologized. The thought made her head overheat all over again.

She sharply turned when she felt someone approach her again. It was Reese. Stardust swallowed, her expression unchanging.

"Do you want to step out for some air?" he said, looking down at her.

Compared to her burning self, Reese was like a breath of frozen air. She felt her fiery temper slowly getting doused. She grunted and nodded, briskly walking ahead of him to get away from the table. She caught sight of the balcony, stopped, and was turned off from the sight of lovers hanging out there. She might as well exit the Ballroom now. Turning around and weaving through the dancefloor, she passed by the people standing guard at the entrance and exited the area.

Once she was out of the Ballroom did she finally stop feeling overwhelmed. Though she could still hear the faint sounds resonating from it, there was noone in the dimly-lit hallway but her. The serenity made her feel better.

Finally....Away from those lowlifes.... Stardust sat against the wall, crossing her legs. Stupid, stupid lowlifes....

/Yes, yes I know. And they're all inside too. The lowlifes sure like to partaaay./ Diwata said, riding with her antics. /Anyway, let me heal you now./

Stardust looked at each of her palms and pulled some of the shards that were still stuck on it. She could feel the pain slowly diminish as Diwata healed her cuts from within. Her thoughts drifted to Reese. She was about to think that he might have lost sight of her when she heard footsteps coming near her.

Lifting her head, she thought it was a good thing Reese caught up. "Yo," she said quietly. Reese wasn't really close with anyone in the table, so it was expected that he would rather stay with her. She thought it would probably be rude if she left him in there alone just because of Blaze and Zacke.

"Do you want to lecture me too?" She brought her eyes back to her palm.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

Hadrian sat on the side of the steps, his camcorder was back on his left hand and had mercilessly filmed the scene before Squall Leonhart stepped in. Zacke sure had guts. From stripping down to his boxers to giving the psychotic pinkhead a squank, the blonde guy had done it again. Hadrian wondered what was his secret. He had to tell him later that he had captured his epic moment on camera.

After Hadrian had gotten his medal, he had thought of saying something to the 'people', but since there was a bigger scene that was unfolding, he decided to just step down and capture it all on camera. He only stopped filming when Stardust went overboard and sent Blaze flying on a table resulting to Squall coming in between. From there, he thought the scene had stopped being funny, and it would probably be mean and heartless if he still recorded it from there. He wasn't that twisted. Moreover, if you subtract all of those technicalities, Blaze was still his date.

But man...that's quite a scene. Once Squall had left them alone and everything settled down, he put his camera back in his pocket to approach Blaze. She hadn't said nor done anything at all. Hadrian concluded that it was either she was blazing mad, or she was blazing mad. There was no way she wasn't okay.

Zacke was already in front of her, asking her if she was all right. The hacker went beside him to check her out too. "Blaze? Not okay?" Hadrian said, stopping in front of her. "Scandalous, isn't it?" He smirked at her.

"Truth is, after witnessing that, I feel like treating her at the bar, but I guess Blaze here broke her ribs too much, she wouldn't be able to swallow." He glanced at Zacke instead, feigning ignorance. "So how about it, Zacke?"

[vanesse]

There was a commotion just below the stage. Vanesse was still debating whether or not she wanted to be a SeeD and the brawl happened. That definitely was a point that needed to go to "Why-You-Don't-Wanna-Be-A-SeeD" category.

Proudly wearing her medal, Vanesse went down the stage. She didn't know where to go now. Lawric was nowhere in sight again, but atleast Jaime was here, apologizing to Jax this time.

She turned to Deo. "Psst Deoo, your sister was kicked. What do we do?" she whispered to him. "Kick those guys away from her and show her you care for her the most!" She balled her fist. "Go Deo go." She grinned.

[Blaze Sanaku]

Blaze waited silently until Squall was done with his speech of disappointment and Jun had run away from the scene before she got up from the floor. Stardust always got the last hit- always. The regen Jun had cast effortlessly got rid of any physical pain Blaze was feeling but it sure didn't help at all emotionally. She winced when she saw that Zacke and Hadrian had both advanced on her to see if she was "okay."

"NO, ZACKE. I'M NOT FUCKING OKAY!!!! DOES IT LOOK LIKE I'M OK?? I JUST GOT KICKED IN THE CHEST BY A DONKEY" Blaze screeched. She picked up a metal chair lying on the floor and swung it into one of the ballroom pillars. "STARDUST IS A DUMB BITCH.. IDIOTIC--- MORE OF A DIPSHIT-- THAN ANDRE--PINK--PIECE OF --- UGLY--."

Blaze's incoherent shouting was drowned out by the sound of the chair banging into the pillar. She had learned in anger management classes to take out her anger on inanimate objects instead of live ones and the poor pillar was today's decided victim. When the chair ceased to resemble a chair anymore Blaze threw it violently onto the floor and turned to Hadrian.

"I'm not going to the candle lighting ceremony, find someone else!! I don't give a fuck about the dead anyway, they're dead, they don't give a fuck if you're lighting candles or not!!" Blaze shouted, ignoring all the stares she was recieving. She strode towards the exit of the ball, not even bothering to shove Zacke on her way out.

The fact that Stardust got most of the blame from Squall didn't even faze her. A yell from Squall was a yell from Squall. The happiest and funniest moment of her life had changed rather quickly in such a short amount of time and all because of Stardust. No.. it was because of Zacke, that idiot. Actually, she realized she had initated the whole thing. But she had no idea Zacke would squank Stardust for real!

Unsure of who to place the blame on she decided on the Commander. That shit-for-brains commander, what did she ever see in him? He was a dumb old fart that always made the younger kids do all the work.

The hallways were deserted, everyone was at the ball.

Good, Blaze thought, heading back towards her dorm room, because I'm not going back.

When she got back into her room, Blaze sat on her bed with her knees drawn up against her chest. She stared at her empty fish bowl and pictured Stardust's decapitated head inside of it. Her cheeks were wet with tears again but this time they weren't tears of laughter.

---

blaze is a gross emo kid
and .. did we just advance like 3 pages in 1 day?

[Diego Stanton]

Deo's eyes were bulging. "Helllllll no!" he said to Vanesse, pointing to Blaze who was in the middle of a pillar massacre. "I'm not a wild ruby dragon tamer! Do you see a ruby dragon tamer liscence on me anywhere? do you? no!"

Deo had been squeezing his medal so hard that he was making an imprint in his hand. He definitely did NOT want to be a seeD. No way was he going to willingly be a part of this. He was going to go back to the Opps apartment and just sleep and never wake up again. Maybe this was all one huge bad dream, what was happening now.

"Blaze can live the rest of her life not knowing she has a brother, what good is it gonna do for her? She's perfectly fine not knowing I exist!" he reasoned, more to himself than to Vanesse. "and yeah, about the whole seeD thing? I don't think so. Don't tell me you're gonna join this nuthouse." he looked at Vanesse with his eyes pleading her to say no.

[Hadrian D'arcell]

HOLY CRAP. O.O AWWWW BLAZE CRIED? XD HAHA Awwww *huggles* So unexpected. LOL
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Hadrian stood there dumbfounded when Blaze blew up in front of him and Zacke. As expected, she was blazing mad, but he didn't know that she was going to be this mad. Somehow, that was really another unexpected thing. He watched Blaze cause a rampage at the ballroom creating another scene. Hadrian felt like restraining her but chose not to since she was at the point of uncontrollable.

"Wow...she sure is mad, huh?" he mumbled to Zacke who was watching the same scene as him. Hadrian almost jumped on his feet when a metal scrap almost hit him.

"I'm not going to the candle lighting ceremony, find someone else!! I don't give a fuck about the dead anyway, they're dead, they don't give a fuck if you're lighting candles or not!!" Blaze shouted, not caring about anything.

Well, that didn't sound good. was Hadrian's first reaction. He followed Blaze with his gaze as she headed towards the exit like a raging bull. Hadrian sighed and let out a small laugh. He guessed he understood why she was so upset. Stardust did kick her, and she didn't even get a chance to retaliate. That must've been too irritating. Not getting even and all. It was irritating.

Hadrian glanced at Zacke. It wasn't really his thing to go and drag Blaze back here, but he felt kind of irresponsible if he just ignore her and mind his own business like that. Not to mention, he really would look pitiful at the candle-lighting ceremony.

"Tell the others, we'll...be back," he said to Zacke, then headed for the exit to follow Blaze. Once he was out of the ballroom, he chucked a glance at Stardust and Reese at the hallway.

The other psycho. He better stay clear. Swerving at the end of the hall, Hadrian looked around the area. No Blaze.

Where the heck did she go? That was fast. From here, there was only one place to go that he could think of. After that, it would be time to give up and give himself a pat in the back for the effort.


668. He found himself staring at Blaze's sturdy door. Clearing his throat, he moved his ear near the door, listening for any scuffle. Well, this was damn awkward. It was hard to tell.

"Whatever." He pressed the intercom. "Blaze, Uh...it's Hadrian....again." He started, right about now, he figured she wouldn't want anyone coming near her after what she showed. "You're there aren't you?" No answer. Maybe she really wasn't here. "Okay...I'll wait 10 seconds. If you don't answer, I guess I'll just hack into this lock mechanism and check to see if you're really not there," he stated. "You won't know anyway, since you're not there."

She probably isn't there. He stared at the door. Ten seconds.

[vanesse]

HAHAHAH and Deo cracks me big time as always XD Nuthouse LMAO
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Vanesse was a little appalled when Deo said he wasn't planning on telling Blaze his real identity. Family was a good thing. Having friends was great and all, but nothing would beat having a family.

"How can you say that? Your sister is all alone here in Garden and---"

"...and yeah, about the whole seeD thing? I don't think so. Don't tell me you're gonna join this nuthouse." She stopped. That was what she needed to hear. If she became a SeeD, they would be put to missions where they would risk their lives. They would be separated from each other since....yeah, they would be put in different missions. And if one of them died, they shouldn't show any emotion and make a big deal out of it because that was what SeeDs do. They were all expendable. The only advantage she could think of was the living expenses.

"Deo, you really rock!" she agreed with him. "Truth is, I'm really kind of iffy in this SeeD business. I mean, I just wanted to eat Jaime's pancakes and live a simple, happy life. I'm not saying that SeeDs don't live a happy..." She looked at the mess Blaze did at the pillar. "...life. It's just that, I want a peaceful environment where everyone can get along," she rambled.

"BUT." Vanesse's face changed from complacent to stern. "I don't agree with you keeping your sister in the dark. If you're too shy, Deo, I can tell her for you." She grinned again.

[Zacke]

ugh Zacke never knows how to just stay out of drama x.x

---

Zacke stared mutely as Blaze erupted at him, and then began viciously beating a chair into the side of one of the ballroom pillars. He didn't move or say a word. She tossed the chair aside and then blew up at Hadrian, before stalking out of the ballroom in an angry emotional mess.

"Tell the others, we'll...be back,"

Zacke felt somehow insulted by the words, and frowned at Hadrian as if he were insane.

"Like hell I am playing messenger boy for you, I'm coming too." he spat at Hadrian and began following, whether Hadrian was listening to him or not. Hadrian might be her date, but--and whether this was a delusional fantasy or not--Zacke considered himself a close friend.

The hacker seemed to know where her room was. Studying Hadrian as he followed, Zacke found himself becoming curious at how deep the relationship between Blaze and this guy actually ran. She had sure been close to him earlier, while they were dancing. Closer than Zacke had ever seen her get with anyone. He wanted to scoff. How the hell did this weird guy manage to snag a dance with Blaze... Maybe it had something to do with his kickass Guardian. He had a frown fixed on his face. Whatever.

/Oh, Zackery, do I sense a bit of possessiveness?/ Iris commented lightly.

"Okay...I'll wait 10 seconds. If you don't answer, I guess I'll just hack into this lock mechanism and check to see if you're really not there," Hadrian was talking to her door. "You won't know anyway, since you're not there."

"Don't be stupid." Zacke said as he approached. "If she's upset, she's not going to open the door for you. And if you open it against her will, it'll be an invasion of privacy that will just upset her more."

He scowled, crossing his arms and leaning his back against the wall next to the door. His scowl softened a bit when he looked away from Hadrian and began speaking. "Blaze, I'm really sorry I acted like such a dumbass." he yelled through the door. He glanced at Hadrian, sort of uncomfortable with him standing there. He looked away again. "I didn't expect her to attack you. Hyne, she's such a fucking bitch." he sighed. "But I'm really sorry."

[Reese]

Reese's gaze fixed on her palms. He hadn't realized she cut herself with the wine glasses. He pursed his lips and frowned slightly, watching her remove the pieces of glass. Diwata was taking care of her. Still, it looked painful...

"Do you want to lecture me too?"

His gaze switched to her face. She was staring down at her palms. His frown deepened, a mixture of sympathy and concern. "No." He said quietly. "I think I'm going to lecture Mercutio later, though. What he did was disrespectful and totally unacceptable."

He leaned against the side of the wall and watched her, finding himself experiencing a vivid sense of deja-vu. It felt like he had been in this type of position with her several times--the aftermath of an explosion, trying to hopefully help her calm down... He had been very abrasive with her in the past, though. Very intolerant. He found that this time, he wasn't frustrated by her outburst. Not really. It just made him a little sad. She took everything so seriously, and Blaze and Zacke--well, they just didn't. To them, everything was just one big happy fucking game.

He stopped his thoughts right there, bringing them back to Stardust. If he thought about those two at great length, it was just going to make him mad. And he wanted to stay calm.

The silence between them was thick in the empty hall.

"Fuck Leonhart." he mumbled, finally. "I'm proud of you."