CELEBRATING THE HOLIDAY EVERYONE LOVES TO HATE*

[first_seventhe]

Fandom: taking back Valentine's Day since 2008!

So last year bottle-of-shine had a Kissing Battle. The last edition is here (EDITED TO ADD: this is the old battle, not the current one!). It was a lot of fun and might be known around FF-fandom circles as the best Meme ever**.

Pretty much everyone I know is stressed about something, too, so this round of the

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FFIV: Porom/Kain (well you said whoever!!)

[anonymous]

She was so nervous. She hadn't been back to Baron in what felt like ages, because there was always something going on- training, Palom blowing up the dormitory again, the Elder locking them both in the tower for a fortnight trying to get them to settle their differences without the use of destructive magic- and somehow the weeks had turned into months and the months- well, it had been years, hadn't it?

She tugged at the collar of her White Mage robe. It had a tendency to itch against the skin of her neck when she was feeling particularly anxious about something. She fidgeted, and straightened her shoulders only to roll them forward again. Finally, feeling ready- as she ever would be, at least- she went inside.

Cecil and Rosa were there, welcoming her with open arms, and their son- goodness, he was already ten years old? She hugged him, too, even though he'd never seen her before, and he seemed to know who she was anyway (there was something to that saving the world business that kept one's name alive through the years). And then the dancing started, and Rosa was swept away by her husband, and somewhere in the crowd she thought she spotted Edward dancing with his new queen. Porom hung back by the wings, hoping to blend as well as possible, until there was a hand on her arm dragging her out towards the dance floor.

"Wha-?" she started, until she recognized the blue of his eyes and the flash of the Dragoon badge adorning his cape. "Kain?"

"You looked lonely," he commented, spinning her. "Can't stand to have one of Cecil's honored guests standing during the dancing, can we?"

"I suppose not," she said, swallowing hard. Her feet couldn't quite keep up with the moves, even though she knew that she had- at least at some point- been taught the rhythm. She almost tumbled over her feet, wishing that she had Rosa's innate grace. "You look well."

"As do you," he replied, and then his hand was on the small of her back and she bit back the small yelp- however pleased it may be- of surprise that caught in her throat. "It's been too long, hasn't it?"

"Well, there's always something," she started, babbling, words jumbled. She wondered when she'd regressed ten years again. Had she always been this tongue-tied around him? "And Palom can't get enough of playing nasty pranks on the younger students, I can hardly keep him in line enough to-"

The music drowned out whatever she had been saying, and she resigned herself to silence for the rest of the dance. Kain was light on his feet- no surprise there, after all- and she stopped being quite so clunky when she started to remember the steps again. When the music ended, she stepped back and dropped his hands, cheeks flushed.

"Well, I mean, that was very nice and-"

He leaned forward and kissed her chastely, quelling her into silence once more.

"Thank you for the dance," he said, and walked away with a smile.

It took her a full hour to get her heart to stop pounding against her ears.