"Don't Cry, Irvy"

Little Irvine Kinneas was sitting on the beach by his Matron's house. He scraped his knee earlier and got in a fight with Zell. The tears were streaming down his face…he felt so alone. No one was there to hug him and tell him he'd be OK. He just had Matron, and she was usually busy with work. He was truly alone.

"Irvy, what are you doing here?"

It was Selphie Tilmitt. She was Irvine's best friend here, besides for Zell, but he was mad at him. Irvine and Selphie had a lot in common, so they got along well, but Selphie was more outgoing. Irvine was shyer and didn't trust easily. That was brought on by the fact that his parents just dumped him at Matron's house without even saying good-bye. They were never nice to him.

"Hi…Se..Sephie," Irvine tried to say, but he was sobbing.

Selphie sat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't cry, Irvy. What's wrong? If you don't tell me, you'll make ME cry. And you don't wanna do that."

"Look," Irvine said, and he showed her his bleeding knee. Selphie frowned, but then she showed him her knee. She had scraped hers too.

Selphie smiled. "These kinda boo-boos only hurt a little bit." She handed him a Band-Aid. "I always have these, cuz I get boo-boos a lot."

Irvine smiled at her, then he looked out at the ocean. It was so pretty. Then he looked at the Band-Aid in his hand. He was lucky to have a friend like Selphie. It made him realize….although he was alone, he wasn't alone. He had Selphie…and Zell…and Quisty, Squall, Elle, and Seifer too-even though he didn't like him.

"Sephie…" Irvine began, "we're OK!"

"Huh?"

"We're gonna be OK!"

He got up and hugged Sefie tight. Then he went up the stone steps to go find Zell and apologize.

"Hey, Irvy…." began Selphie.

"What?"

Selphie walked up to him and locked his pinky finger together with hers. "We're gonna be friends forever. All right? You promise?"

"….I promise." Said Irvine, smiling. "Friends forever."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A 17-year-old Irvine and Selphie were sitting on the same beach that they made their promise on. He was hugging her tight, and looking out at the bright, sparkling ocean. It never changed. From this spot, it was always beautiful…Selphie was, too, but she was beautiful anywhere.

"Hey Selphie…" Irvine began.

"Yeah?" Selphie asked.

"Remember that promise we made a long time ago?"

"…..Oh yeah! That was when you scraped your knee!"

"Guess I held up that end of the promise, right?"

Selphie broke their hug long enough to look into his eyes. "I guess you did. So did I. Tee hee!"

Irvine kissed her forehead lightly then locked her pinky in his. "From now until the end of time, friends forever and ever."

She shook their pinkies like a handshake. "All right Irvy…and promise me one more thing…"

"All right. Anything."

"Don't cry."