"Fancy a Dance?" (Final Fantasy VIII fanfiction)

[deemoyza]

Title: Fancy a Dance? (2,737 words)
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Rating/Warnings: General Audiences / No Warnings Apply
Character(s): Quistis Trepe, Irvine Kinneas
Summary: As part of a bet with Xu, Quistis attends a masquerade ball in Deling City. She's enjoying herself and the anonymity afforded by the concept, until she bumps into one of the last people she'd expect to see there.
Notes: Written for trickortreatex

"You've got to lighten up," Xu had told her time and again, "especially in this line of work. None of us know which assignment could be our last, and you don't want to die without having lived a little, right?"

Quistis had brushed off this advice for years, but after the events of nearly two years ago, she could no longer deny that Xu was right. Watching reality melt away around her, not knowing if she would return to the proper place, let alone time, forced her to confront her mortality in a manner far more intimate than armed conflict, and left her with a restlessness she could not explain. She settled back into a routine at Balamb Garden, her instructor's license reinstated, and tried to become the poised, staid SeeD everyone thought they knew again, yet she was hungry for new experiences. Practically starving for them.

She indulged this hunger in individual pursuits at first: refining her airship piloting technique under Selphie's tutelage, learning how to play the piano (never again would she be embarrassed as she was at Fisherman's Horizon!), and taking up cross-country skiing during an extended visit to Trabia Garden.

"Not a bad start," Xu said, "but what about really pushing yourself out of your comfort zone?"

Quistis grinned. "I have heard of a practice of skydiving from slow-speed airships."

Xu narrowed her eyes. "Why do I get the feeling that you'd actually enjoy that? You'd come back insufferably smug, wearing it like a badge. Or, you'd be a gory mess on the ground. But that's not what I mean."

"What, then?"

"When are you going to let yourself be frivolous? Do something just for the sake of it, and not because it might be useful later on? I'm well acquainted with Brave Quistis and Smart Quistis. I wanna see Silly Quistis. Or, better yet—" Xu opened her desk drawer and rummaged through it, pulling out an envelope, from which she produced a card— "how about Fancy Quistis?"

Quistis took the card, a simple ivory half-fold with gold trim and an embossed G on the front. Opening it, she read: You are formally invited to the 67th Annual Galbadia Harvest Moon Masquerade Ball – Galbadia Hotel Ballroom – Deling City – October 28th, 7:30 PM. Quistis set the invitation on Xu's desk and slid it back to her. "Absolutely not."