It starts in Trabia. She will later forget the memory of her first Solstice, but the tradition of the Longest Night has been there, she is told, as long as the school has been open.
There is little sun the day before, and night falls shortly after lunchtime. A senior cadet, chosen by their peers, lights a candle as the sun drops below the horizon, and Selphie joins the parade of students as they march onto the grounds. The candle is used to light a fire that will blaze until the next sunrise, and through the night there is dancing, feasting, and finally just waiting, in the quiet hours before dawn.
Selphie knows she stays awake all night that first year, as she will do every other year on the Longest Night, up to the year before she leaves to take the SeeD exam, and she is the one who is chosen to light the candle.
.
Night falls later in Balamb than Trabia, if only by an hour, and it passes with little ceremony.
In the years that come, there will be the Winter Festival. It's not the same as the blazing fire of Trabia, but it's a celebration, and there are always a few who wait out the night on the grounds, tucked under blankets as the candles burn low, who greet those who have slept with cries of "Joie!" and cheer when the first lines of orange break through the sky.
But the first year, it is Selphie, alone in the quad. She breaks away from her friends as they walk towards dinner, unwilling to let the sun set without capturing some of its light, without that promise that day will return.
She never makes it to dinner. Rinoa finds her first and offers her a thermos of hot soup, followed shortly by Quistis, with blankets and her deck of cards. Then Zell and Irvine, and finally, just as the moon is rising, Squall takes a silent seat beside Rinoa and puts his arm around her, and the six of them look between each other. It's the first time they've truly gathered as a group, since the war. The first time that missions, and leave, and their own personal demons have given them a night of peace to sit, and just be. There are countless other nights of the road that pass between them, nights of exhaustion and pain, nights of laughter, nights of terror. Nights they never want to relive, save for those fleeting feelings of togetherness.
They don't sleep. They take turns, running to their rooms for food, for drink, for extra layers of clothes. Rinoa pulls the flame from the candle into a small fire on the grounds, and Squall glares at any faculty who walk by, and in the long, dark hours, they bid the world farewell, and watch together as it is born anew.
One of my favorite headcanons is Selphie's tradition surrounding the Longest Night. I think this has made an appearance in at least three other fics by now, it might as well get its own little one-shot.
Happy Solstice, to everyone in the northern hemisphere! After tonight, we welcome back the sun!