El Farol

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Quistis stared at the night sky it was beautiful indeed. She stood there alone, but not lonely, at the quad's balcony. She enjoyed the smooth breeze that brushed her face and shoulders, she crossed her arms, took a deep breath and leaned on a wall. Being so quiet reminded her of Squall, this was the very same place she had asked him to accompany her to the secret "dating place" inside the training center. She had expected some comforting words from him when she told him she had been demoted from being an instructor, but he remained cold, like the wall she was leaning on. "Only this wall won't leave me," she joked. She giggled to herself and gave a breath of relief. "I'm glad that was a year ago, Squall has evidently changed in a year's time. All thanks to� Rinoa." She brought her head down and smiled to herself.

In the corner of her eye she noticed a few Trepies and a few dancing couples. "Selphie sure has given this Garden Festival a major makeover!" The bright lights had been dimmed, casual wear was allowed and only the identification card was required for entrance. A bar to the left, where she noticed a blonde headed boy, stuffing himself with hotdogs. "As usual Zell, how DO you keep that figure of yours?" And on the stage a live band juiced the festival with cool music, the guitars were fantastic! "How did Selphie ever manage to invite Santana into the festival?" Quistis thought to herself in amazement.

"Heeeeyyy!!! There you are Quisty! Been lookin' all over for you!! Huh? Why so lonely? Selphie asked as she leaned forward.

"Oh, don't worry Selphie, I'm comfortable here."

"Hmmm�" Selphie thought as she placed her index finger on her chin, well anywayzz you better try to enjoy, alright!"

"Alright!" Quistis replied, giving her an assuring glance and a feisty smile as she pointed towards Irvine who was trying to surprise Selphie from the back. "Now, go, go , go and enjoy yourself too!" she said with a grin.

"Aw, c'mon Quisty you spoiled it!" Irvine exclaimed as he tipped his hat and placed his hands on his hips.

"Heehee! Alright Quisty, see'ya!" Selphie smiled and turned around to confront her cowboy. "Ok, Irvine give me it!" she demanded as she cuddled his left arm.

"Uh, give you what?" Irvine replied in a surprised manner�.*silence*� "Aw, man! How'd you know?" he asked as he pulled a Rose from his suit.

"Wow! They're nice!" Selphie uttered as she smelled It.. "Well, I saw you this morning��.

Their conversation trailed off as they walked away.

"Alone again�" Quistis thought to herself. She kept her role as observer and watched the dancing couples. She saw Irvine and Selphie, "They make a nice looking pair." She thought. But amidst the crowd, all the smiles and laughs she saw, one figure, one figure that never failed to stand out . "�Squall" She accepted the fact that he would never be hers but, she allowed herself some admiration from afar. "�hmmm, the perfect couple." She thought to herself as she observed Squall dancing with Rinoa. "I never knew you could dance like that�" she said, as if she were talking to him. She felt content with her role, and decided to give the two some privacy, well away from her eyes.

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Squall stopped dancing and took a moment to look around.

"What's wrong Squall?" asked Rinoa who was happily in his arms.

For a moment he felt like Ellone was watching him, he always felt comfortable, safe, when he knew Ellone was there for him. "Well she isn't here," he convinced himself. "Must've been my imagination," he thought.

"Squall what are your thoughts?" Rinoa asked with a worried look in her eyes.

"It's nothing," said Squall, sounding as casual as he could.

"Oh, Squall� please�" Rinoa pleaded as she brought herself closer to him. "Is there something wrong?"

Squall knew he had to reply, this time, truthfully. "I just felt someone watching me," he replied with a smile and proceeded to wrap his arms around Rinoa.

"Squall, I'll be watching you." Rinoa assured him as she cuddled closer.

"I know�"

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"Give this some thought I'm sure you will know, this is the way it must be," Quistis caught herself singing to the music but decided to let it be.

"Emotions will rise, emotions will flow you bring out the tears in me." She unknowingly closed her eyes to enjoy the music a tad bit more. "Pain never makes me cry, but happiness does, hmmm, hmmm, hmmm," She hummed when she had no lyrics, but still continued the song.

"Wishing it was, yes I'm wishin' it was, wishin it was." She was now swaying her head to the music.

"Well, instructor. I see you can do other things with your voice other than to give boring lectures." Said a tall figure that seemed to have been observing her for quite some time.

"Well, Seifer I'm glad your interested, maybe if I had sung out the lectures before, you might have given interest to them, seeing as though you were bored to hell about it." She replied, taking what he said as an insult. And also to rid herself of a momentary humiliation due to someone having heard her do some singing.

Seifer decided not react as he noticed her face grow a tad bit red. Instead he smiled to himself. He stood there in silence and decided to lean on the wall on the side away from Quistis. He had intended to stay there alone, but he found her. He observed her, and decided to let her finish before giving any compliments. But the thing wrong with him was he always meant his compliments to seem like insults. He felt comfortable now he realized he wasn't the only one alone on the festival.

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It was getting quite late, the Garden Festival was almost ending.

"So, what do we play next?" asked the singer. "Damn, I think I won't be able to talk tomorrow. Why don't we play an instrumental, eh?"

"Yo, Carlos, got any instrumental in mind?" asked the drummer.

"There's only one track we haven't played yet, anyway!" Carlos Santana replied. "And don't let me hear any more complaints!" he snapped as he pointed at the singer. "Remember, whatever song we play, there has to be a guitar and I play the guitar and I ain't complainin, see!"

"Alright, alright! I'm sorry Carlos, you da man!"

"Then let's play El Farol already, it'll be a romantic ending." Proclaimed the drummer.

Carlos a cracked few bones on his fingers and proceeded to do another round of plucks and pushes on his electric guitar.

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Quistis noticed the mellow tune, "This'll send me to bed early, " she said to herself." She decided to close her eyes once more to enjoy the music, this seemed adequate but deep inside she felt a longing to at least dance to one tune before the festival ended. Quistis heard some footsteps but did mind them. "Guess, Seifer's gonna go find himself a dance�" she thought to herself.

"Wanna dance?"

For a split second Quistis, calculated the odds. "Seifer, dance?" she thought. She opened her eyes and saw Seifer in his usual proud look, only he was outstretching his right hand to her and he seemed to hide a bashful look in his eyes.

"You know? Before it ends." He said.

"Why, not?" she replied, hoping she had successfully hidden the shock in her voice."

Seifer smiled, as he took her in his arms.

Quistis was surprised but she felt comfortable as she rested her head on his shoulders.

"Frankly, I never expected this to happen." Seifer said opening up a bit.

"So did I, romantic is it not?" Quistis smiled as she looked up to Seifer.

"Sure is." Seifer replied with a smile. He looked up to the starry sky and felt the comforting breeze oh his face.

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