Of Pickles and Presidents

By: fluffy pantoufle

I've been a bad, bad girl.

I never meant to do it, and I'm still kinda figuring out how to smooth over the edges of a rough situation. But the Winter Festival was so much fun, and there was so much wine, and he was just… Oh, I can't even begin to describe it! Think about the last Garden Festival you've been to, and then multiply it by a BILLION. Balamb Garden hasn't seen a party like that since, since…well, since the one I organized when we whooped Sorceress Ultimecia's butt!

Too bad I can't take the credit for this one, tee hee! I'm still in charge of the regular Garden Festival, but all the winter activities were given to Matron. She spends a lot of time here with Headmaster Cid, which makes sense - I wouldn't wanna spend my time in the orphanage if my husband was in Balamb, not to mention her kids! I've been giving her pointers here and there, but Matron certainly can throw an awesome party all on her own!

Irvy's been away for the past week on a mission with Zell. If he went with anyone else I'd be worried, but Zell is a wonderful guy that'll keep my cowboy in line if he ever got, well…out of line. I don't worry about it too much though, you know? I've been dating Irvy for over two years now, and he's pretty much proved himself to be true blue!

It sorta makes me feel a little worse, though. Two years of kisses and snuggling and train rides, and here I am…with the Estharian president curled up in my rubber ducky bed sheets. I can't even look at him right now because I'm afraid I'll just start squealing, and then Quisty'll come stomping in, and then we'll both be in a huge heap of trouble…

Plus, I don't think my little body was meant to handle so much wine. Eesh. My head feels awful, but I gave my aspirin to Xu and the last person I wanna explain my mess to is her.

Oh, Sir Laguna's such a nice man. He doesn't look his age, and after splitting a bottle of Galbadian chardonnay with yours truly he doesn't act it either! I can't help but wonder if Squall's gonna age so gracefully. Maybe, if he manages to cut out some of the stress! I doubt that it'll happen though - stress and being Commander of a Garden go together, just like Mrs. Moogle cake and warm milk. Rinoa tries to make him laugh, but even after two years it's still pretty hard to do. Even I manage to get him to smile only like…twice a day! That's not impressive, especially since I'm good at cheering almost anyone up - even Fujin!

Sir Laguna only has those cute little wrinkles that show up after a lifetime's worth of smiles, and how can you try to get rid of those? Smiling wrinkles are like a badge of honor!

He even smiles in his sleep! Ah, I took a little peek - I can't help it! Cue the squealing.

No, no…maybe if I bite my lip really, really hard…

Three…two…

Okay. I think I've suppressed all the "tee-hee"-ing until later. I'll just have to stare at myself in the mirror and try not to look at the fact that I can see his arms and chest and - oh!

I really have been a bad girl. Sir Laguna's going to have to wear a turtleneck for the next couple of days. Gee, I hope that he doesn't have to meet any super-duper important world leaders… I wonder what the Galbadian president's stance is on hickeys. Yikes.

This is probably gonna sound ridiculous, but…do you know what it feels like when you have a dream come true? I mean, most people never dreamed of hooking up with the president of Esthar, so maybe this is kind of an unfair question. It feels like getting fifty years' worth of birthday gifts, and a sugar high, and maybe like the after-effects of that wine I drank last night…

It's the most wonderful feeling in all the world. There's an entire meadow's worth of butterflies in my tummy, and I think that they'll spill out my mouth if I try to wake him up or even breathe.

And all I can keep thinking about - all I can remember, really - is how it felt to kiss him. Oh, sweet samba-dancing chicobos! It was so much different than being with Irvy, y'know? Sir Laguna's had so many more years to get it right, I think, and whatever he did paid off!

Tee-hee!

Oh, man! Couldn't help that one.

So, what do you do when you realize that you finally had one of your deepest, most secretive big girl wishes come true? Not only that, but I feel like I should be upset about this and I'm not…and it's scary. I should be mad at myself, right? I should want to slap myself in the face until I re-enter the real world, but all I wanna do is, uh…congratulate myself. Like I just ran the Deling City Marathon or something.

I think that this is gonna be a pickle. Not just any pickle, either - maybe one of those smelly Gyshal pickles that you can only eat if you open every window in your dorm room.

Irvy…what you don't know won't hurt you. Better yet, what no one knows won't hurt Esthar. Or Garden.

Or me.

I just hope that Rinny doesn't barge in before I get one more chance to snuggle with him. Tee-hee!

Haha! This is more of an experimental one-shot than anything else. I love the idea of Selphie/Laguna, almost as much as I'm intrigued by Quistis/Caraway. *shrug* Who knows? Maybe I just like older men, and this is all just running commentary on my real life preferences.

I'm debating whether or not I should extend it into a chapter project, but for now I'm calling it done... That is, unless someone reviews and subsequently insists that I continue!