(open) my heart is about to jump out of my chest

[flatteries]

Who: Inigo and you!
Where: The upper level of the music carriage
When: Imagination 19/20
What: Inigo thinks he's having a private dance practice moment. Thinks.
Warnings: Probably nothing, will edit if necessary.

---

(open to all)

If you happen to pass through the music carriage today - as people usually do when moving through the train - you may notice something. Either you can hear music coming from the upper floor, drawing your attention, or if you have a good heart, you may instead see an odd little creature sitting on the stairs, swaying from side to side along with the music.

If you decide to go upstairs, the creature certainly won't do anything to stop you, if you can see it. In fact, it seems to happily bounce right after you, following you up.

And upstairs the carriage is mostly empty - except for Inigo standing on the stage, dancing. The music is even more audible now. Inigo is dancing along to the beat, eyes closed, yet he doesn't seem to even come close to falling off the stage, as if he knows exactly where to place his feet. Which he probably does, considering his movements seem to be very fluid, practiced. It's a pretty captivating dance, honestly, and it's easy to just keep watching it without realising the time is passing until the song stops.

It's then that Inigo stops moving too, finally opening his eyes..

.. and therefore finally noticing that he's not alone. He lets out an absolute shriek, staring you straight in the eyes, before his foot slips and he finally ends up falling on the stage.

Temporary elegance gone. There is only a miserable little pile of Inigo on the stage now.

(closed to taiki)

Okay, okay. Maybe he just needs to get used to dancing in front of people. He danced in front of Tidus before, and that was only.. only mildly mortifying, so maybe that's what he should do. Make sure to dance in front of people he feels a bit more comfortable with.

Hence why Inigo gently dragged (read: made puppy eyes at until he gave in) Taiki along here. He said it was fine if Taiki would just sit there and paint or something, do whatever he feels like doing! It's just that Inigo has to get used to having an audience, okay! And Taiki is just about the most gentle person Inigo can think of for this sort of thing.

But thinking of that is one thing. The actual execution of this plan is another thing.

Which is why they're both here now, but rather than dancing, Inigo just sitting there on the stage, slumped over, groaning. His face is buried in his hands.

"Why is it so hard to get started when someone else is looking.." Is he whining to Taiki? To himself? Who knows.

Comments

[blitzcheer]

"No," Tidus answers humouredly, a chuckle in the end of it. "We talked about it, back in that jungle mission! Remember? You said you wanted to! Didn't know if you were feeling any different, now it's not so late."

Because is Inigo getting cold feet over the idea? Even though he's agreeing to it, it doesn't sound very confident for all that talk before! That talk that Tidus is sure that happened- whether or not it was actually Nion debatable, but also not the important part here.

[flatteries]

Wow, Tidus, didn't he warn you that he might not remember half of what they talked about, back there in that tent?

Not that it means it's completely gone from Inigo's memory. He has to stand there, think about it for a moment, the dance completely (though perhaps momentarily) forgotten as he really has to put his one braincell to work on this task.

.. then it slowly starts to come back.

"Ah." Looks like he's remembered. "Yes, I still want to. I mean.. It's nice to share our hobbies with each other, right? That's why I was trying to dance with you too, even though I'm--!"

Inigo cuts himself off mid-sentence, as if it wasn't really obvious that he was about to say shy. Instead he nudges his head to the side, as if to say 'you know'.

[blitzcheer]

Even though-? Oh, oh.

"We're still dancing! It's good. It's good!" Encouragement, encouragement. Tidus lifts out their held hands as if in gesture to themselves, can't really do anything with the other. "Get us moving again. I'm ready!"

Nevermind that small bump, it's over with, and Tidus isn't going to be shy about resuming. Following is easy enough, so long as restarting is for Inigo. Tidus wearing a smile, feeling as his feet get into that good ol' stiff-shuffling. okay, no, it'll get better. some time.

"There's some places in Spira, or maybe there's only the one, but you can swim in it and move and breathe, easy. You don't need to know how to hold it in!" The smile lifts close to a grin, a show of teeth. "I bet you could even do something like this! Do that dance where you hold each other's hand and move in and out?"

Heheh. "You can get pretty romantic in the water."

And the knowledge - the thought, the memory - is keeping the smile on his face rather stuck...

[flatteries]

He's already started to move again, dancing once more, the pace still slow enough for Tidus to keep up-- though he may be starting to gradually speed up. Just a little bit though. It happens so slowly that Tidus most likely won't even notice that they're moving faster, little by little, especially if he's distracted by their conversation.

But as they dance, Inigo is staring at that smile. Thinking about it. Pretty romantic in the water. Is Tidus thinking about Yuna? Is Inigo just reading too much into it? He isn't sure, but he wants to be careful all the same with such a delicate topic.

But finding the right words is hard, and so a silence falls for a few moments, only filled up by the song still playing in the background, even now, coupled with their footsteps.

"It sounds like a nice place," he settles on saying. Careful, but meant, because.. "I wish I could visit it."

Because it does sound nice, being able to be underwater without worrying about not having any breath left in your lungs. But also.. he wishes he could have seen Tidus's world. Zanarkand mostly, sure, but even just Spira. Seen the places he's been, the surroundings that made him himself, so very different from Inigo's own in every way.

[blitzcheer]

Any increase in speed goes unnoticed by Tidus, not that keenly aware, and not bothering to be. Movement is movement, and he may be somewhat distracted by his thoughts again - by the waters of Macalania Woods.

"Yeah." And Tidus sounds so, when he first speaks. But his tone dips from the indulgent one that it just was with the reminder of where they were, how they were: stuck without choice, without the means to be free. Still, that didn't have to always be the case, did it?

"Would you? If you could? You have a lot you wanna do after this." Go back to his own world, help Roland with his...

Ah. He lifts his eyes to look at Inigo's.

"Maybe you and Roland could take a vacation there later on."

How about that?

[flatteries]

You should be there with us.

It's the first thought that comes to mind, without hesitation. It's just there in his head instinctively, at the tip of his tongue. It just feels so natural to say, to think.

But it feels like saying it would overcomplicate things, would make this conversation go a whole lot worse. So even though it makes Inigo squeeze Tidus's hand a little as he still keeps dancing, he doesn't say it. Instead Inigo smiles thinly, thoughtfully, like he's at least trying to imagine it.

"I'm not sure if Roland would appreciate me dragging his ac--" Actual, he almost says, but despite that being true, it hurts his heart a bit too much, and Inigo quickly corrects himself. "His biological son around to different worlds."

If Will is even healthy by that point. But Inigo at least does intend on doing something about that too.. Tidus is right, huh. He does have a lot he wants to do.

"I guess I may have to settle for an Aremica beach. But they're probably a lot more boring, huh."

[blitzcheer]

Tidus huffs a small chuckle. "You'd have to ask--..."

...but then he stops. A second spared to think, mouth open - a state that keeps even as the expression around his brow drops. He looks more puzzled, thinking.

"...Can Roland swim?" he asks dubiously, refocusing his gaze onto Inigo. Like, they should know about this, right? If Roland can swim or not? They saw him in the hot springs, Tidus saw him hanging around the beach......





is roland a shameful non-swimmer?

[flatteries]

Don't think too hard, Tidus. Or at least, you can think hard, but keep moving those feet even as you're really using that one braincell up there! Overworking it!

"I mean.."

At least Inigo is thinking and dancing at the same time. Though it's a difficult thought! You can't really call what they did in the hot springs swimming, right, even Inigo could move around in there fairly easily.

"He doesn't.. seem like the type to swim for fun, right?"

[blitzcheer]

He's moving, he's moving! More led by Inigo's movements than ever before when he has to chug this braincell into working, but-!

"Everyone swims for fun," Tidus says, somewhat defensive at the edges. But there's not much of a beat before he realises what he's said, face wrinkling sheepishly.

"Uh, no, that's not it... but the rich business guys swim in their own private pools and hot tubs. And there's some of the hostess bars..." ...but that definitely wasn't Roland's scene.

"He looks like the 'take it easy' kind of guy."

[flatteries]

Wait. Hold on. Inigo is definitely doing some mental gymnastics over here for a moment, trying to figure out why Tidus is getting so defensive about the distinction between swimming for fun and for other reasons.

.. Inigo's brain definitely can't come up with a reason right now though. Especially while he's also focused on the Roland Conundrum over here. He frowns. (But still keeps moving all the same - it comes pretty natural to him, after all.)

"Roland.. isn't a rich business guy though? He's a president."

Not that Inigo knows much about presidents. He's just going by having been told it's like a king, so he's just thinking of his biological father..

"Unless those have private pools too." Modern worlds are weird. But with Inigo's lack of knowledge about them, he has to leave it up to the other to explain whether or not private pools are a president thing too or not.