Disclaimer: I own FF8. Yup, I really do. *wakes up* Aw, darnit.

A/N: What am I doing?! I know I'm a big Selvine fan and all, and I also want to save Zell for myself for when I finally really meet him someday, but I just thought this story would be kinda cute with these two. So here goes; my first Zelphie!

I sighed as I eyed the totaled quad in dismay. I didn't understand how some jerks in this school thought it would be funny to try out a few particularly dangerous spells in the quad. Didn't they know how much hard work I had put into this? Obviously not.

Well, no use crying over spilled milk, I guess. I had to start cleaning up, thought I knew it would take forever, and I wasn't looking forward to it. Squatting, I began to pick up some splintered pieces of wood.

"You must be pretty upset, huh, Selphie?" I heard Zell ask. I didn't even know he was there! I was so surprised I just said "Huh?" instinctively. "I mean the quad getting ruined and all. I know you worked hard on it," he offered, and began to help clean up. I nodded and resumed my cleaning.

"Yeah, I guess I should mad at who did it, but I'm mostly just sad about the stage. I had it all painted right and everything. Look at it now," I said dismally. I spared the pile of wood which was once a stage a glance as I carried an armful of useless wood to a nearby trash can. Tears formed in my eyes, but I decided that I wouldn't cry. I would be strong.

"I can fix that," said Zell, still crouched down and gathering broken wood. I looked at him hopefully through unshed tears. "You…can? But…it's totally destroyed! You could never fix that," I told him matter-of-factly. I hoped he would say something to prove me wrong. And he did.

Zell emptied his armful of wood into a trash can and approached the stage. A couple seconds later, he turned around to face me. "I'm real good with tools. I can fix that," he said, sounding so sure of himself.

I sniffed, and somehow managed to find a genuine smile. "O-okay, then. Um, thanks," I said, not exactly sure what to say to that. He flashed me a wide, toothy smile. "No problemo!"