Got Them Moves Like Jagger [Deuce/Irvine/Riley?]

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Alright, so Deuce could think of worse places to be stuck. She wouldn’t have thought so before, but this place wasn’t so bad after all!
Some people had given her odd looks when she’d asked for directions to the Peristylium Suzaku, and some had gotten emotional and told her to leave them alone and that she wasn’t being funny with her questions, but other than that, she couldn’t really complain.
When she’d first laid eyes upon this little village, she’d assumed the worst; some ruin in the middle of nowhere with not a person in sight. All that walking for nothing. Thankfully, there were actually people here… even if they were dreadfully unhelpful and sometimes even a little mean.
Judging from the various responses she’d received, she assumed this had to be a refugee camp of sorts. People whose homes had been taken and who had been forced to find another place to stay. That would also explain the contrast between the fairly modern look the people seemed to have and the ancient look the village itself had. It also explained why some people responded so hostile to her questions and why some villagers seemed to wander around looking surprised at everything they saw. If this had been their home for a long time, they would no longer be surprised at how the buildings and such looked, yes?

Deuce smiled and nodded to herself as she wandered around the village. Yep, that explanation made the most sense. That had to be it.
Her smile quickly faltered at the realization that this was a very, very bad thing for her. If these people didn’t know where the hell they were, how the heck was she ever supposed to get home?
Maybe she shouldn’t have split ways with that Laguna fellow, he’d seemed nice enough, and strong too. She wondered if he was around here somewhere.
She sighed and shrugged. At least she was safe for now… that was something, right?
Reaching in her pocket, she checked her phone again. No new messages, bummer. “Why have a phone if you’re not going to use it?” she muttered irritably as she let her feet lead her aimlessly through the streets. Really, she had no room to judge... she'd missed plenty of phonecalls herself, and people had to leave her messages all the time as well. She guessed it was a Class Zero thing.

Not paying attention where she was walking, she accidentally ran into some small kid.
“Pardon me. Are you okay?” She said with a smile, the kid merely nodded his head and told her it was no big deal before continuing along his way. It was kind of strange, how easily she fit in here… people hardly seemed to notice she was a foreigner at all.
“Right, right. They are all refugees, thus foreigners themselves. Almost forgot.” she thought to herself as she made her way through the crowds of teenagers at this spot. She hadn’t seen many of them in the actual village, maybe they just got fed up with their parents being so down in the dumps all day long. She couldn’t blame them for finding a spot of their own to hang out.
Walking here, she almost felt like she was back home. All these young people, happily chatting about everything and nothing, significant and insignificant… it reminded her of the school’s courtyard. The only thing missing was the uniform, and the occasional red cape.
In this weather though, you’d have to be crazy to wear more clothes than necessary, even Deuce had removed her cape and put it in her bag, which definitely didn't happen often. Deuce was fond of her scarf-cape. But... it was hot, and that scarf threatend to choke her to death here.
It didn’t seem like anyone here recognized it as a status symbol anyway, so it really was just another piece of clothing adding to the scorching heat. Well, scorching heat might be exaggerating a little, but it was definitely warmer than Deuce was used to.

She sighed happily in relief when she found a tree that offered her a shade to cool down in. Good, good, she could sit here for a while and think on her next move.
What did she know so far? This wasn’t Rubrum. She’d heard talk of l’Cie and spotted a large crystal ball nearby though, so she was probably still in Oriens. Of course she was still in Oriens, where else could she be?
She knew there were refugees, so she might be in a country the Milites attacked in the past… or maybe they hadn’t attacked this country yet, and it was just the people who were from another country and… heh?
Deuce scratched the back of her head. This was confusing… and the weather wasn’t helping making her think any clearer either.
Alright, focus! She needed to clear her mind and start fresh, she was obviously in the wrong mood-set to go thinking of complex things like this.
And so another problem presented itself; the only way the brunette knew how to relax was by playing her flute, which was not normally a problem as people back home were used to hearing her songs wherever they went… but would the people here be annoyed by it? It would be disturbing their peace, after all. Not that their chatting was very peaceful and quiet or anything, but still… it might make her stand out, and she didn’t want to draw too much attention to herself.
But… no, she needed to clear her mind. If people got annoyed, she’d just go somewhere else and play there. This was important, it needed to happen, for her peace of mind. Some people had punching bags as stress relief, Deuce had her music.

She peered around quietly to gauge the overall mood people had. They didn’t seem particularly annoyed. Well… there goes nothing.
Placing the flute near her lips, she started to play a calm song, keeping her eyes open to see if anyone was annoyed. Of the few people that noticed or cared, most seemed to actually smile and nod, assuring her that it was alright for her to continue before returning to their conversations.
A huge weight fell off her shoulders, and she felt her body relax against the tree she was sitting against.
Slowly, she allowed her eyes to fall shut. That way, she wouldn’t be distracted by people moving around near her, and it allowed her to really focus on what she was doing. That was the reason this was such a great stress reliever, it required so much concentration to play a music instrument properly that it drew all your thoughts away from whatever you were worried about before. At least… it had that effect on Deuce.
She’d only been playing for maybe a few seconds, and already she was starting to feel calm. What would she ever do without her trusty flute?

Riley had had the pleasure of being loose from the SeeD ship for quite a while now and that was something that she was happy about. Not that she did not like the job, but it was more of the aspect of freedom than anything. She along with Irvine had been pulled through a portal of some sorts to a way different place than that of their own. Not that she minded been abandoned in a strange with Irvine of all people, but she did in a way miss home. This place was something that had taken her a long time to get used to, but it was growing on her. It was something new and full of unique things to see. She and Irvine had been staying with a girl by the name of Alyssa, she had offered up her home for them to stay at and she was thankful for that, it was mostly because of Irvine that they had got a place to stay, maybe it was his charm. She smiled at herself as she walked around the park looking about. On this particular day there would be the songs of love birds playing in their nests, but she wondered if this plan was actually going to work.

Riley had been at their many of teaching sessions, and this boy Hope, well he had a nack for not being all that bright around girls. But who was she to judge, ever since she had met Irvine she had this knot in her stomach as if it were trying to take her over. She shook her head at that thought and continued to walk, she spotted Hope in the midst of the other kids, she then finally clicked on her own earpiece, only to hear, then already chatting it up. She gave a large smile as she listened in, ”Tree sap? Really. This kid has issues.” She said to herself as Irvine intervened in the boys crisis, already this was turning out to be quite interesting. Riley continued on as she then heard the sound of a flute streaming in her ears, she looked around for the source She smiled at the girl who was making the music, she was good. Riley looked around for the source of Irvine, but spotted no one. But she figured that he did see her because Hope was not too far away. She sat on a small bench nearby, rather close to the girl playing the flute. The people around her were listening to her play and it filled her own ears with a sort of peace, one that she was really not that used to.

Riley sat crossing her legs, left one over the right, she then lightly spoke into her ear piece as then spotted Irvine. “Your two o clock Irvine.” She said as she then leaned back into the bench, then nodding to the girl playing the flute. Riley had a kncack for picking these things out and it was not that hard to tell that the girl was nice, and she did look out of place. But that was what Riley was here for, was for scouting, she was not sure why she had agreed to this play, but she agreed to help. And maybe it was just because Irvine had asked her too. But maybe it was because this kid looked to Irvine like a big brother in a way, and it was something that Irvine had took pride in knowing that he could do such a thing like this. But either way she liked this Hope and she would be willing to help him out even if the circumstances were odd. Her clothes were not of the sort that the people here wore, just like herself and Irvine. She arched a brow at her clothing now, now really noticing it more, it was a uniform. She thought on this as she listened to music, was she lost too? Riley had probably figured this by the nervous looks that the girl was giving out, or maybe it was just because she had stage fright.

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words: 688
tagged: irvine! hope! deuce!
outfit: White SeeD uniform
listening too: --
notes: hope its good!

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As soon as her lips touched the instrument and the music came out, Deuce felt her entire body relax as she allowed the melody to drift her away from where she was now to a happy, safe place in her thoughts. No fears, no worries, just enjoying the sound that she was producing with this simple little object. Soon, the voices around her were drowned out and she was completely alone with her music. This was the state she needed to be in if she was going to make it back home in one piece, calm, relaxed, positive!
As the song carried on, she felt her mood growing lighter and lighter. She stopped worrying about being lost and separated from her classmates and instead focused on the positives; the people here were relatively nice, and the temperature was nice… people didn’t mind her playing the flute, which was also a definite plus. Yeah… things would be alright. Soon, she’d be home to tell her friends about all this, she could already imagine their disbelieving faces. ‘Sucked into a portal to a foreign land? Deuce, get your head out of the clouds.’ by the more serious members of Class Zero, and simple laughter from the less serious crowd who would think she was just making up a story and pulling their leg. She couldn’t blame them either… a portal to a mystical land… she probably wouldn’t believe that story either, truth be told.

The end of the song was drawing near, but Deuce stayed in her lighthearted mood for now. Maybe she wouldn’t even need to play a second song this time. As she played the last note, she dropped her hands – and thus the flute, down onto her lap. Seconds later, her eyes fluttered open but the sudden bright light hurt her eyes a little, and she blinked rapidly a few times as she rubbed the back of her hand over her eyes. Very smart Deuce, nice going she laughed mentally at herself, you’d think after the first oh, hundreds of times, she’d have learned by now. Maybe sometimes, she just got sucked into her music a little bit too far. Oh well… at least she was feeling better now.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted something, and upon landing her eyes on the young man sitting next to her, her eyes merely widened a little in surprise. Someone just randomly popping out of nowhere would probably make an average person jump in shock, but Deuce had had practice with this. She had Ace as a classmate, after all, probably the one guy in the whole wide world who knew how to teleport. In that regard, all of Class Zero had an unfair advantage in these situations; Ace had already numbed them to this kind of shock with his random appearances. In fact, at first, she’d almost believed it was Ace who had appeared beside her. They had similar hair, and since this guy was sitting, they sort of looked like they had a similar height as well.
In a quick glance, they looked quite alike… but upon closer inspection, she realized that it wasn’t him, and she felt a little disappointed. If Ace had been here, he could’ve potentially helped her get back home. At the very least, she wouldn’t have been alone in a foreign land. Still, the disappointment wasn’t bad enough to ruin her mood, and so she curled her lips into a pleasant smile at the boy sitting next to her.
“Hello,” she said simply, not sure what else to really say… what could you say without it sounding really awkward in this situation? Her eyes lowered to her flute and her smile faded a little as she looked back up, “I didn’t ruin your conversation or anything like that, did I? I thought it would be alright to play here…” she hadn’t really specifically asked if she was being bothersome to anyone, and she’d only relied on the looks a few people were giving her, she hoped her music hadn’t distracted this guy from anything important. He didn’t seem too angry though, so she supposed it wasn’t that big a deal.

Riley looked to the girl and then to Hope. She gave a smirk as she listened to what Irvine and Hope were saying. This was going to be some interesting turn out. That was, if Hope, did not fail miserable, but she had faith in him, and she thought that Irvine did too other wise he would not have helped. She panned the area again, it was like they were on some sort of secret mission. She gave a small snort at that thought as she felt someone was behind her. She took in a breath as he, Irvine, placed his arms around her shoulders. This was something that getting confusing to her now. She gave a smirk as she listened to him, muting her own mic. “Well I would agree. Though she seems a bit, out of place don't you think?” She asked as she turned her head slightly to look at him. Much like herself and Irvine, they weren’t exactly in Pulse attire either. She looked at the girl again then with a small nod of her head, “I don't think that she is from here either.” She said to him. Riley gave more thought on this for a small moment but was caught off her guard when something pricked at her ear.

Riley gave a slight jump as she instinctively raised a hand of to the side that Irvine was on, she turned her head to face him wondering what had invaded her ear. She looked to Irvine with a shake of her head as she pulled out the twig that was in his hair. “See what happens when you hide in bushes?” She asked with a smirk raising her hand again to pat the other side of his cheek. “People get hurt.” She said with a small snort as she looked back to Hope. “But what I think is that you should not say anything else to him, see what the kid can do.” She told him with a firm nod of her head. “And if you have really taught him anything, then he should not have a problem.” She said with a small smirk. “But do not fear, if he is anything like you, then you wont have a problem either.” Riley told him patting his cheek again just because. And that was truth! She knew first hand how good Irvine was at this, and had in fact knowingly suffered from it every day she had been with him.

But this was not something that she was complaining about. She had a genuine love for Irvine, and she thought that he knew it, but it would come up if anything needed to be said about it and she would not crawl at his feet for acceptance, it was the fact that he gave it to her with her not really having to do anything all. She smiled at this though even with just inches away from her. Riley leaned back more on the bench very aware of Irvine's presence. She then looked back to him, “See, he has it under control.” She said as she watched Hope actually start talking to the girl, she was impressed. But she was also proceeding on the fact that he had really pulled his foot out of his mouth and started talking to her, with no second thought about it, of course she had initiated the conversation, but that did not matter. She gave another smirk as she watched them leaning back in the bench again, knowing that it was just driving him mad. Maybe he would actually move from behind her and sit next to her on the bench instead of trying to kill with unknown twigs about his hair.

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words: 630
tagged: irvine! hope! deuce!
outfit: White SeeD uniform
listening too: Use Somebody - Kings of Leon (Thanks Snow! lol)
notes: hope its good!

img194.imageshack.us/img194/8319/deuce2.png

Alright… so this was kind of awkward. Out of nowhere, a guy had appeared to sit next to her, she assumed so he could enjoy her song, but then again, it could easily be heard halfway across the area as well, so there had to be another reason as well. Maybe he wanted to ask something, or ask her to please not play here anymore because it irritated him. Or maybe he just wanted to befriend her? Maybe he was alone here as well, just like herself and Laguna.
Now he was staring at her with big, shocked eyes, and Deuce wasn’t certain what to do here. Should she just get up and leave? Tell him sorry, but she was meeting with a friend and run like the wind? No, that would be rather rude, and besides, it was entirely possible this guy wanted to make friends but was just too shy to start a conversation. If anyone knew what it was like to be shy, it was Deuce.
Nowadays, it wasn’t so bad, but back when she’d been a little kid, yeah, she’d been really shy and quiet. Thankfully, she’d met and befriended Cinque, whose extroverted nature had rubbed off on her somewhat. And not too long afterwards, she’d entered Class Zero, where she’d met the rest of her friends. Spending so many years together, it was almost impossible to still be shy around them. But new people? She could easily understand how that would be intimidating.

Seemingly without cause, he suddenly smiled at her joyfully. He seemed… rather happy. Maybe he wasn’t so shy after all? Deuce found herself returning the smile, she couldn’t help it, he seemed like a real sweetheart. One of those kids who would pretend to be really tough, but was actually like the definition of a softy. So cute. Maybe it was just the smile, he had a pleasant smile.
Deciding that smiling at each other indefinitely was going to get them exactly nowhere, Deuce followed up on the smile with a simple greeting. If he was going to make an effort, so would she. She could use some friends in this strange new land. If only so she wouldn’t feel so alone all the time, and if they could help her find a way back home? That would be fantastic!
Another silence fell as he awkwardly looked towards some couple sitting on a bench. Deuce followed his gaze and stared at them for a second before scratching her neck and looking down at her flute. So… a conversation would be nice, right? What to talk about? She didn’t like to admit it, but she’d gotten kind of rusty with these things, this… meeting new people. She was so used to being with her classmates pretty much all the time that she had no idea where to start now that she was sitting with someone completely new, who seemed equally lost.
At times like these, she wished she was more like her classmates. Like Cinque and Cater for example, who were spontaneous enough to take this situation and just… handle it. Like a boss. Though the person she really wanted to be like was Seven. In some ways, their personalities weren’t too different. They were both calm and polite, though Seven wasn’t as open with her affections as Deuce, and Deuce wasn’t as confident as Seven. Well… it wouldn’t be fun if they were exactly the same anyway. The reason she enjoyed going to class each day was because there were so many different personalities amongst their group of friends. Never a dull day.
But right now was not the time to think on it. For now, she just needed to get a conversation started. And as was usually her strategy, she did it by commenting on her flute, asking whether she’d bothered him with it. Why not? It was as good a topic starter as any. Also, she had worried about that… a little. But thankfully, it hadn’t bothered him. Apparently, he’d even enjoyed it. She smiled again as he stammered the words out and nodded her head lightly, “I’m glad you liked it,” She started quietly, shifting to properly face him, “It relaxes me too. I always play when I’m nervous or sad or whatever.”

Deuce couldn’t help but giggle a little when he stared at her with his mouth hanging open like that. And she thought she was bad at talking to new people! He asked her about her school, mentioned something about a place called PallyPolly on Cocoon… what the heck was a Cocoon?
“Um…” she mumbled, looking down at her flute as she tried to come up with a decent response. Cripes, she knew she wasn’t a star pupil like Queen, but she never thought she sucked at geography this badly. Maybe Laguna had been right… maybe, just maybe, she really wasn’t in Oriens anymore. Ever since she got here, all she’d felt was confusion. She didn’t recognize anything, no one knew a thing about Rubrum, they all mentioned places she’d never even heard of but somehow managed to sound almost familiar at times. All those things combined, it would seem Laguna was indeed right. There was no sense in denying it any longer.
But… if she really was in a different ‘world’, that meant Hope would think her a crazy person for mentioning a place that (to him) didn’t even exist. She bit her lip and glanced back up at him. She really didn’t like being all by herself. And he seemed like a nice guy, someone she’d actually want to be friends with, she couldn’t go and screw it up by telling him she was from Fantasyland or some other strange story. ‘Hello crazy person’ she could see him thinking before strolling off in search of normal friends.
“No… not exactly.” She started, smiling awkwardly as she pushed a lock of hair behind her ear, “I’m not from Cocoon.” She assumed Cocoon was some sort of city. She wouldn’t have to say where she was from, right? No, keep it vague. Vague and mysterious.

Riley gave him a smirk, “Of course I am.” She told him mainly to smite the hell out of him. But even if he did know, Irvine of all people could take a joke, unless it was about his about his pride or manhood, whichever he held dearest. She gave a small laugh at this thought. Riley watched as the kid spoke with the girl, he was indeed doing decent now. Nothing really to complain about just yet. She looked around at all the others around them; it was true that they, meaning herself and Irvine were clearly the oldest there. It was kind of disturbing but Riley got over it. It was no sooner than she had freed the stray twig from his hair that she felt his lips on her skin. Riley cleared her throat suddenly sitting up straighter than she was before. Yet she knew this new position would give Irvine more access, and probably more than he needed right now. Then again…no there was no then again. She could really feel the shutter that was released down her spine and she was sure that Irvine had felt it too. But Riley was stronger than she let on, two could play this game and Irvine was just asking for it now.

Riley arched a brow at him saying that he would not have a problem either, “Ohh really? So confident!” She said to him with a smirk. But had he not been so confident things might have been different than they were now. So she was glad for his over confident self. That was pretty much the best thing that she liked about him, personality wise at least. Did she really need to say what she liked about him physically? No, it did not need saying. It was after he was distracted with Hope when she took the initiative. Riley turned her head to face his profile, she let her breath trace around his ear and then back up again, she time she gave the action a small twist, bringing the lobe of his ear into her mouth. She continued on, letting her lips drift behind his ear, “Ohh right about there I believe.” She told him smirking against his skin. Yet she was sure that what she was doing was blocked from view by the top of Irvine’s hat their assaulting each other would not help Hope’s case. But he would have to get used to it.

Riley could not help but think on the girl not being from her like herself and Irvine. It was like this world pulled people in its airspace and did not want to let them free of it. But this girl was alone. Hope was form here and she had Irvine and vice versa. But she had no one here with her at all. Riley shook her head at this thought and then turned her full attention back to Irvine. Riley let all these thoughts pass, she let her lips trail back around his ear and across his temple. That was one thing that had rubbed off on her, and that was the whole confidence thing again. Because it had not been like this the whole time they had been here. The first few days it had been painful for them both. It was then that she had decided to take the initiative again, dangerous, she knew this. Riley knew deep down that he would deny her, especially at play time. She could not help but smirk at this thought. She passed his jaw line, bringing a hand up to grip at his arm, she let her lips brush across his, and for the moment she was very content.


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words: 619
tagged: irvine! hope! deuce!
outfit: White SeeD uniform
listening too: --
notes: HANDWROTE! this at work : ) now lets see if Irvine can take it.

img194.imageshack.us/img194/8319/deuce2.png

Well… that was unexpected. She’d figured he would say or ask something about the flute, you know, keep that conversation going, but she honestly hadn’t seen this question coming. He wanted to learn how to play the flute? Was that the reason he’d approached her? Even if she wasn’t a native here, she could see that the people here hadn’t lived in this village for very long. It made sense that there weren’t any music teachers around during times like these, but wasn’t that because this really wasn’t the time to be learning something like this? Of course, even this war would come to an end eventually… and it was indeed best to just keep moving ahead with your life rather than keeping it on hold all this time. Sure, why not learn how to do something you enjoyed? But… was it really a good idea to agree to it? Nice though this village looked, it wasn’t home. All her friends and family were waiting back in Rubrum, and she had every intention of going back to see them through this war. Even if she couldn’t do much, she would do whatever she could to support them. Together, they could stop it. Together, they could stop Cid, she knew they could.
“I-I could give you some pointers… sure,” she nodded and awkwardly played with her flute for a few seconds, before following Hope’s gaze towards the… the ‘happy’ couple on the nearby bench. Some people really had no shame, did they? Deuce felt her whole face burning up and quickly lowered her head again, determined not to look at the scene too much, lest she comment on it and sound completely inappropriate and--- wait, they were the ones making out in public! Why should she feel embarrassed? She looked back up to see Hope shrug, and she let out an awkward giggle in response, biting her lip as she did so. Stupid people making her all flustered, this was their fault.

Her relief couldn’t be measured when the subject changed. Anything was better than stupidly lurking in on an obviously private moment. Or a moment that was supposed to be private anyway. Yes, even having to pretend she had any idea what Hope was talking about when he mentioned Cocoon was better than the show that took place before their very eyes. When he mentioned the portals, her eyes widened and she simply stared at Hope in complete shock. He knew about the portals? He knew about the portals! He really did! Shock was replaced by joy as she dropped the flute in her lap and grabbed Hope’s shoulders, shaking him lightly. “You know of them? This is fantastic! I thought… well… it doesn’t matter what I thought!” she let go of him again and thought of the possibility of going back home now.
“I’m from a place called Rubrum, it’s in Oriens,” she told him excitedly, all the embarrassment and shyness quickly washed away by a newfound happiness. “Was your friend from there too?”
Deuce could barely contain her joy, and felt the strongest urge to just throw her arms around Hope and hug him silly. He’d made her so happy by mentioning those portals! There was hope after all then, she could find a way home. It wasn’t just a one-way portal, there were more like it, and they lead to other places. There had to be one that lead to Oriens too, she’d just have to look for it.