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Maybe this is all the boys needed.

An incredibly dumb distraction. Something to keep their jumpy minds occupied.

And if there's anything this song and dance routine is good at, it's exactly that. Because it starts to speed up, and it just keeps going, making them pump their arms, jump up, kicking up their legs without a break. Now that's a workout.

Inigo isn't realising that though. He's just focused on trying to copy the movements as well as he can, even as sweat slowly starts to drip down his forehead.

The only thing he's able to say while he's still moving is just: "Can you keep up?"

You hanging in there, bro? Pal?

When Tidus isn't thinking about how he must look and just getting into the groove, then whatever he's doing doesn't matter. And he gets out of it what was the purpose in the first place: the fun.

Because keeping up, putting his all in to it, getting to move - those are three of Tidus's favourite things. He doesn't think to glance Inigo's way immediately, but he does take a few in time; to see that he's still doing, but glad he isn't hearing any complaints. If he's not complaining, then surely he's getting into this! Which means Tidus needs to stay focused too.

And hah, asking him if he can keep up!

"You should ask yourself!" he throws out, a friendly kind of bite to it. "I'm gonna dance your socks off!"

By being the best dancer there is!!

Does the dance instructor have an actual scoring system? Probably not, but these two seem to somehow be getting into the spirit of it all the same.

Especially since Inigo won't take that laying down. No matter how worried he is about his actual dancing abilities, they're still the one thing that feel even a little bit like they're his special thing. So..

"You were born a thousand years too late to beat me!"

Pal!!

Though he's definitely going to need a break once this song is done. But is it done yet? No, it just seems to keep going. Or maybe it just feels longer than it actually is, since Inigo's limbs sure are starting to feel the burn, even as he's still moving accurately along with the moves.

"Hah! Show me it, then!"

Tidus loves a competitive spirit, and he loves the burn. There's some delay when they have to switch their moves, but the move sets are forgiving for the most part, easy to predict after a while and when one pays attention to the music along with it.

It's more involved than the warm-up dance session had been, that by the time that the song does finally end, Tidus is putting his hands to his knees, bent over, catching a breath that's finally allowed the chance to be caught.

"Haaa...! Woo!" And up he comes back. He claps once, taking a few steps he has to watch back for, minding not to stumble off the stage.

"How about that!" He may just be throwing out phrases in his rush, but he looks over at Inigo, wanting to see how he looks, his mood. "Well? You got into it!"

Don't hide it!

By the time Tidus looks over at Inigo, the other has already let himself drop to the ground, now sitting on the stage as he catches his breath. It's a lot more intense than the way he usually dances, after all, so he needs a moment over here.

Especially since all the mid-song energy leaves him all of a sudden. It's the usual post-dance confidence crash, but somehow it doesn't feel as bad this time, as his heart still pounds away rapidly in his chest.

".. I did," he slowly admits, sucking in another deep breath, putting his hand on his chest. "But so did you, mister not-a-dancer."

"Hey, if it's shaking my limbs, I told you! I'm a natural!" Truthfully, Tidus wouldn't consider any of what they did dancing (nothing he'd be proud of or be planning to show off, anyway), but he's not going to be bashful about having a good time.

But if Inigo's going down on the floor, then so might as well Tidus, the two higgledies hopping over to the pair, with Gibbers still dancing in the spinning jumps he does to get between them. He waves up his hands, as if proud in their achievements! Or, he's just being a higgledy.

"See? You've just gotta give new stuff a chance! We don't even know what the rest of the dances are yet. Could be something more your style in there."

"Well, this one wasn't so bad either." Even if it was absolutely nothing like what Inigo is used to. Even in the slightest. But he is at least willing to admit as much.

Though for a moment his attention is instead drawn towards Jumblie, as she too moves closer towards the pair until she hops up on Inigo's lap, still dancing back and forth, like she's rearing to go for more! The higgle energy never ends.

It makes Inigo smile a little, and feel brave enough to look over at Tidus and be honest, rather than push everything down.

"I think the stretching thing just kind of threw me off. It always feels so strange to discover things that seem so natural to others, even though I've never even heard of them before." His hand moves to idle pat Jumblie's head over her cute little sunhat. "You'd think I would run out of things to discover after having been here so long, but sometimes it still feels like I don't really know anything."

At least he doesn't seem upset about the words as he says them. That small smile is still present, even as he speaks up about his fussing.

Tidus can understand the higgledies' energies 110%. He'll be rearing to go again before long, but that isn't on his mind as he listens to Inigo. Soft-spoken, telling - in that way where he's attempting to be honest about something that's bothering him. One of those things he can't quite wrap his head around or figure out the words for to start, though Tidus quickly knows what he wants to say.

"Why would you know?" He leans back, with his arms propping him from behind. "That goes for other people too. Hey, you shouldn't get worried because of what I said about stretching before dancing. I don't know what dancers do - I only know what I did to keep fit for blitzball! Everyone's life is different. I'd be just as lost in your world."

He looks away from Inigo, up to the ceiling, over to the higgledies. A smile lifting on his face.

"Know what I learned when I ended up in Spira? Then ending up on this train... sometimes," he says, "you've just gotta accept that nothing makes sense! That way, it doesn't really matter what you know or don't know, right? You're just along for the ride."

Tidus is entirely right in what he's saying. How would Inigo be supposed to know about things that just.. don't happen where he comes from, whether it's due to cultural differences or just the fact that at least half of his life so far has had a total upheaval due to endless war? And yet he somehow can't help the impulse to fuss about it anyway, as irrational as it is. Maybe it's just because he's so constantly worried about what he looks like in the eyes of others.

.. then again, maybe Tidus should be the last person he ought to be worried about that sort of thing with.

He sucks in a breath, hoping to expel some of the nervous energy along with the air when he exhales again and smiles.

"So you're admitting that nothing you ever say makes sense?"

Look. Sometimes dumb jokes are the only way to cope.

He folds his arms in mock offence, a chin tilted up.

"S'worked out so far for me!" Him and his gibberish mouth and beliefs!! You can't take this guy down! But the pouting jut of his bottom lip ceases, and he gives Inigo instead a playful punch to the arm.

"C'mon! Why don't you tell me some things too, hey? About dance, or... things you did back home. Now you've gotta, to make up!"

For Tidus sharing his fitness lifestyle, clearly.

Alright, alright, Inigo figures he at least ought to speak up in return for making that slight jab at Tidus just now. Especially since he knows the other means well, even though it feels really weird to talk out loud about dancing.

Still, his shyness and nerves aren't enough to beat him, especially as Jumblie starts scaling him like he's a skyscraper in the most adorable way possible.

"I don't know how much there is to tell about me dancing! It's not as if I really had the right opportunity to do it a lot back home either." Though for different reasons than here on the train. "The only real option I had was to skip out on sleep, sneak away at night, and hope there weren't any Risen around."

Not exactly the most soothing circumstances to dance under. The look on Inigo's face seems a little distant, as if he can still see it right in front of him, no matter how long ago it's been at this point.

"But I did it anyway, even if it might mean sleeping less when we already had so little time to sleep. Dancing just.. feels helpful to me. It feels so much easier to get my emotions out that way, rather than through words. They always come out so dumb if I try to talk about them instead. It takes me so long to think about what I want to say, but with dancing, I just.. do it."

"Better way to talk, but you won't let people watch you?" He's teasing by making the point, a nudge of his shoulder that doesn't actually reach Inigo, but the gesture is there. The idea of Inigo dancing to speak his feelings - it's a strange sight in Tidus's mind. What did dancing even say? All the dances he knew...

His mind takes him back to Yuna's dances. Sad things. Hardly the best comparison, a fleeting thought before he lets it go.

"You got a lot of it from your mom, right? You never took any classes back then? You know, before things got crazy?"

There was plenty there Tidus figured they could talk about. Probably things that was hard to single out. You don't think about what's a way of life until you have something to bump up against it, show that it isn't the same way for others.

At least he doesn't seem to get too upset at the teasing. Maybe it's easier to go along with it when he's starting to feel better, to just try and shrug it off for once, rather than letting it get him all upset.

Instead he just shakes his head as Tidus moves on to ask that question.

"Not really for my kind of dancing." Sure, he's had some more formal dancing training as part of being a prince, in case they'd have to dance during diplomatic events, but.. Inigo feels like that doesn't count. That sort of dancing doesn't allow him to express himself in any way. "They don't really have classes for it where I'm from. It's just something that's.. passed down. Or something you have to learn by yourself. I was lucky having my mother, in my case."

Learning a type of dancing from his mother, huh. Tidus tilts his head, a look up taken as thinks about that - nothing so deep or needing too much of it, but when he does...

"I don't know if we had anything like that back in Zanarkand. If you play blitzball, you play the same game, right? You have different moves," so, there was that, "--but there was a whole lot. And it takes a lot to make up a new move." Haha- he starts to smile. "Everyone wants a signature move."

He looks back at Inigo.

"Did your mom have a signature move? A dance move she always did!"

"Are signature dance moves a thing?"

He looks a little amused as he asks it. Sure, they are actually a thing, but it's not like Inigo ever went deep into dance theory. Especially not since he only really ever had his mother to look up to in that regard back home, and even back then he had been so young, that he might not have been able to remember her signature move if she had one.

But rather than lingering on that very specific topic, it makes Inigo think of something else, slightly spinning in Tidus's direction to look at the other with a smile.

"Wait, are you saying you had a signature blitzball move?"

"Sure did!" Now he sounds livelier. Talking about blitzball at all? Tidus is ready! "You'd shoot the ball my way and I'd to a backflip and hit it into the goal! Give it extra speed so the other team can't stop it!"

Is Tidus starting to clench a fist here? Yes. He's proud of it, alright - it's simple, but very effect. ...or would be if he got to use it more in actual action.

Nevertheless, he hasn't forgotten who this was about, and with that fist he unfurls it, gesturing to Inigo. "You could have a signature move too! A cool dance move you can pull off in the middle of any song! Like...a backflip! And then doing the splits!"

It's a silly suggestion, he knows. But Inigo gets his point, right?

Now that's the enthusiasm Inigo loves seeing from Tidus. Not that he doesn't get to see if often, but it's still a treat each time, watching the other's eyes light up. If there's anything that sucks about this whole train deal - and really, aren't there way too many things on that list? - it's the fact that Tidus is being denied the chance to play something that's so important to him.

But at least he can still talk about it at moments like these. At least it's something, even if it's not much.

"You want me to do a backflip in the middle of a dance? Are you trying to kill me?" There's not a single bit of Inigo that sounds upset though. Instead he just sounds amused, like he's about to laugh. (He gets the idea, though. It's just that this is a little too funny to not poke fun at.) "We can't all be backflipping blitzball pros!"

"Then show me what a reasonable dance move is! Slide your hand up your body, give the audience a show of what you've got-"

Tidus mimics the motion as he says it, far from sexy with the two of them sitting down. But up snakes a hand from somewhere close to his belly and up, pressing against his shirt to make it shift, but not the 'show' he talks about.

"--get them coming back for more of that Inigo dance flavour."

Did he have to make it sound like a sexual experience? No, but that's where his brain went first, sorry pal.

"I believe in you. Think about that move to make the fans go wild!"

"Why are you immediately trying to turn it into sex appeal?!"

.. granted, maybe that's also just where Inigo's mind is definitely going when he sees Tidus moving his hand like that, even if the other isn't actually lifting his shirt and showing some skin along with it. But the thought is there, and Inigo's imagination gladly takes it and runs with it, for better or worse.

This is where he'd take something and playfully throw it at Tidus, but it's not like he can throw Jumblie - his sunshine princess! - or any of the dance equipment - he doesn't want to break it - so he just settles for throwing words in the other's direction instead.

"I'm sure you got fans too because of how well you played blitzball, not because you happen to be sexy!"

Edited 2021-07-20 11:06 (UTC)

"Welll, I don't know dancing!" Tidus protests. "It was an example! It doesn't have to be like that."

Wow bro, really! Tidus felt proud of that move that he swears he's seen a dancer do in the past! But then Inigo's got to focus on the sex appeal, and ugh! And please keep the higgledies out of this - they are having a fun game of tag around the stage.

But he eases, continues - not wanting Inigo to get the idea that he's thinking dancing = sex. "But I guess the dance being your own is its signature move. You and your family's." Family, that does remind him, a small huff under his breath. "I tell you the fans always wanted me to show them my old man's famous move? Did I show you it? You hit the ball, then you jump up and spin."

Sound familiar? He doesn't know why he would have shown it, but who knows - he does remember showing Romeo some, back when they had that entire beach to play around on.

While Inigo isn't too sure if Tidus showed him that particular move before - he doesn't think so, though - he does remember them having spoken a bit about the topic Tidus brings up. About Tidus more or less living in his father's shadow. It makes what Tidus is saying now a little less surprising to hear, but still..

Inigo can only imagine what he himself would have felt if people looked at him, only to ask him to imitate his father.

"Really?" There's a slight sound, like a low whistle. "They come to you asking for your dad's move, instead of your own? What, are they too good for backflipping or something?"

He laughs, raises his hands as he shares, "He was a showman, what can I say! No one's done the move since, and he made a big deal out of everything! It was the 'Sublimely Magnificent Jecht Shot Mark III'." His mouth is pulling, unable to keep off from his face how - yes - goofy it is, though he shares the name with a faux-awe and cadence.

"If that was a move in your family, the fans would wanna see it too! 'When are you gonna do it next? Is this the game?'" Words he's heard plenty, the excited tone in the questions echoed as he repeats a time long gone.

"Maybe I'll show you it sometime. We can go in the sports gym and bounce the ball off the wall."

"Bouncing a ball? With me present? I know how that's going to end."

He's learned from experience, okay!! But it sounds more like a joke than anything else, not a real protest. He's kind of curious, so he wouldn't mind seeing Tidus's own move, or his dad's. Inigo will survive if a ball hits him.. probably, anyway.

There's a slight moment of quiet. Inigo is mostly thinking while still watching the higgledies run around, before saying: "I didn't know your dad was the type to make up embarrassing move names like that."

There's a second before he chuckles, a scoff of a sound - but then, it's worth more apparently by the real chuckling that creeps up his throat, like he's being tickled by the remark.

"The fans loved it, you know," Tidus voices like a warning, but the ridiculous grin he wears doesn't go along with it. He looks away after a moment, the smile softening, but still playing on his face.

"He could get away with it. Jecht - he was loud and he'd get in your ears, telling the world about how great he was. If you heard him talk about it, you wouldn't think it was stupid 'cause of the way he'd sell it. He had everyone loving him when I was a kid. I saw some reruns of his old matches, the interviews he had. --You can do that," he explains, taking the moment to consider their differences. "Like the movies in the movie car? You can watch them again. And people would have interviews with famous people, or about anything."

And there were plenty of his dad. He'd rarely go out of his way to watch the interviews, but there'd be replays, some kind of look back on who he was as a blitzer, the blitzball shows that would just have some footage.

You couldn't escape blitzball - and he couldn't escape his old man.

"Annoys me," he huffs, but without any real effort; without that smile wiped off from his face, "--just thinking about it!"

For someone who's had as complicated of a relationship with his father as Tidus has, he sure seems to know a lot about him, Inigo thinks. Not that it's bad, it's just.. That's always what shows Tidus cares, isn't it? That he remembers the little things, just like how he remembers to explain to Inigo what an interview is in the middle of his story. That he can speak about his father like that, even now.

That he can say it annoys him, while huffing and smiling at the same time.

It makes Inigo smile just looking at him.

"Interviews, huh?" Inigo repeats, as if trying to grasp the concept. "Now I kind of want to see those." The interviews with Tidus's dad. Just to see what he was like, if Tidus's impression of him is spot on. "And more importantly, I can think of another blitzball star whose interviews I'd like to see. If you're not half of a dork in those as you actually are, I'm going to say you're cheating!"

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there's so many threads i never got notifs for!!!

suffer

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