Questions to Ask

By Silent Shadow

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A/N: This is a Zellphie if you didn't know, that is Zell an Selphie. Zellphie in my opinion is the cutest couple of them all! I'm ot too big of a fan of Irvine but I don't bash him in this fic. Anyway it's a one shot deal and there isn't much action in it. It's more of just how they're feeling. Well that's it, please review!

Zell sat in the plush train chairs, feeling a bit sleepy but told himself to stay awake. They were going to get off the train soon, still it was hard not to nodd off. He sank down more in the comfortable velvet chairs listening to the rhythmic sounds of the train moving.

The only thing that stopped him falling asleep was the troubles going through his head. The mission, the girl, the home life. It was plaguing him, it has been ever since Squall assigned him the mission. He didn't mind going onto missions, in fact he loved the adventure, but this particular one was going to be strange to put it lightly.

He was use to missions either by himself or with Professor Quistis, and occasionally Irvine. This time he was given Selphie, not that he didn't like her, but it did put him in an ackward situation. When he had first met Selphie he somewhat of a crush on her, his first love he dare say. However Irvine came into the picture, swept her off her feet, and after that Selphie was officially labeled as Irvine's girl. He somewhat resented Irvine for awhile but he got over his anger, but not the feelings for Selphie.

Not to mention usually he was assigned to missions close to him, particularly Balamb and occasionally Fishermen's Horizon. Now he was going to Trabia Garden, which was going to make the 'Selphie situation' plenty more difficult.

Thirdly he wanted missions with action, where he was going to run around a lot, fight, push people back. Be an authority figure. Well he was going to be an authority figure, but this time it was going to be different. Selphie and he are going to Trabia to overlook their building progress, sure Trabia was going fine but they lacked real organization and it was slowly things down. Normally you would think that Squall would send Quistis and himself for such a mission as this, but lately the Garden was swamped with requests.

After Ultimecia's reign had ended, it was like the world was at a standstill, unsure of what to do. Galbadians was in chaos, trying to understand what was going on without their sorceress leader and Seifer, who mysteriously disappeared, and keep a hold of their power.

Timber didn't help either when they started rebelling to get their independence again and another war almost broke out between the two. Many people quit from Seed and left the Garden so there was a shortage of hands to help. So instead of peace after the independence from Ultimecia there was utter chaos. Luckily Squall acted quickly but didn't try to stop everything at once. He was well aware that all of that his 'posse' were tired from the ' not-so-final battle' against Ultimecia.

He sent Rinoa to calm things down with Timber, along with some Seed's in training in the peace and treaty fields. This wasn't going to stop anything with force but it will slow things down until the Garden's regained most of its strength.

He also sent Irvine with her, after threatening to beat the life out of him if he made a move on Rinoa, because he figured since Irvine was a Galbadian, it would help the Galbadia's had a trusted friend from Timber.

He sent a whole squad of Seeds with Kiros to help evacuate people from Esthar who were still under attack from the monsters, with Quistis in charge. He was saving the battle against the monsters for another day.

He sent most of the other Seeds across the world helping out with small towns and such, keeping Zell and Selphie with him in case someone decided to attack the Balamb Garden now that it was the most influential power at the moment. When Trabia Garden called for help he didn't want to send any other Seeds because he didn't trust their leadership and he felt it would be wrong if he sent Selphie alone.

So begins the essential period of restoration right after the period of chaos. Zell mused, 'Squall is practically the leader of the world.' He sighed and jumped up and began to spar an invisible enemy. He didn't like all this quiet thinking.

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Selphie was looking out the train window, barely noticing the colorful landscape as the train rattled on by. Even though she was usually intrigued by the scenery she couldn't pay attention to its rapturous beauty.

'Trabia…'

She wanted to be there, to watch over it closely but every time she set foot there her heart would sink and felt a wave of depression that would swallow her. She looked down at her fidgeting fingers and sighed, she didn't think she could make it through to far in rebuilding without suffering a breakdown.

She wasn't very good at leadership, or so she thought. She had once tried to organize the Balamb Garden Festival but it turned out she needed help in order to do it. This time she had no one.

'Not no one,' she told herself, 'I still have Zell.' She looked behind her where he was currently resting in the Seed's special quarters. She didn't think he was going to be much help for her. After she and Irvine became 'friends with benefits' she felt an invisible wall between them.

She remembered when they had first met, both young and naive to the soon becoming of danger. Excited and wanting to become Seeds, both dedicated and full of energy. They were a lot alike but bickered constantly like little kids, it was kind of fun. That was back then, now its like we can't even look at each other. Every time they were together on the road he had a strange look on his face as if he wanted to say something but couldn't.

She wistfully began to remember the fun of their first mission. She mentally hit herself awake from her flashback.

"I'm starting to sound like an old woman looking back on old days," she thought amused. But what really confused herself was the fact that she was doing it in a yearning way, like thinking of could have been between them. She pushed the thought out of her head.

'He has the pig tailed girl from the library' she thought somewhat bitterly. She raised her eyes again watching the blurs of colors, green, brown, blue, and… pink? Selphie sighed and left the window, even that was getting boring. Besides they soon would go underground to pass beneath the water and that was no fun.

She debated whether or not to go in the room with Zell. After a moment of thinking she thought it was stupid to be debating over this since they were still friends. The door slid open for her and she cheerfully waved to him. She saw him kicking the air as he usually does when he is bored. She always thought the way he moved was very graceful but she never told him, she didn't think that he was aiming for being 'graceful'. It just wasn't 'manly'.

"Hi Zellie," she said as she jumped on the chair next to him and began to bounce on the seats, they were a lot of fun to play on.

Zell raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. He continued to punch in the air with a look of tension on his face. They said nothing to each other for a long time.

"Come on say something," she said jumping to her feet, "I'm so bored!"

He stopped for a minute, "What's to say?"

"I dunno," she admitted after considering it for awhile, "whatcha' thinking?"

Zell shrugged and went over to sit next to Selphie, "Nothing really."

"Oh…"

"…"

This was getting no where. Selphie sighed and began to swing her legs. Zell began to squirm in his seat. The uncomfortable silence began to grow, lurking sinisterly around ever corner of the room.

"So, what are you thinking?" Zell said finally leaning back in the sofa.

"It's going to be fun to be back in Trabia!" Selphie said with a wide grin punching the air in somewhat of a victory dance and a signal for upcoming fun or danger.

"You're lying."

"What?" Selphie said confused which turned to anger, "How would you know? What if I am excited?" Zell raised his hands in surrender, he knew better then to piss the spontaneously Selphie off.

"Never mind. I'm wrong then, you are excited to go," he said without enthusiasm, she knew he didn't mean it.

"…" Selphie sighed again, "How did you know?"

"Well usually when your happy you're jumping up and down, squealing, laughing. All you're doing is sitting there with a fake smile on your face and clamping you hands really tight."

Selphie blinked and unclasped her hands, she never would have thought of Zell as observant type, she always imagined him as the act on impulse- loud- ready to fight guy. She looked down at her feet.

"You're smarter then I thought."

Zell didn't know whether to take offense or take it as a compliment, so he decided not to say something. The silence once again came back to haunt them.

"I'm sorry," Selphie said regretfully.

Blinking confusedly, he asked, "Sorry for what?"

"Making you come to Trabia Garden and all. Squall knew I couldn't do it by myself and all so-"

Zell waved a hand to silence her, "No problem kiddo, its kind of nice to have a mission that is quiet. I've been running around a lot you know."

"Yeah I know what you mean," she said… quiet again. All this silence could get on ones nerves but Zell and Selphie were use to it.

Sitting silently and somewhat uncomfortable in the plush seats, they both listened to the rhythmic clanks of the train. Soon the train screeched and the rhythm changed, they were in the underwater tunnel. They would arrive to Trabia soon and still they did not say anything.

Stretching around deviously the silence once again to devour them and a single question developed in the quietness of the room. No rational person would feel comfortable asking such a question. Too bad Selphie wasn't a rational person.

"Why are you being so distant?" she asked him breaking the tension in the air. And unfortunately the air replaced it with the stress of the years they had grown apart.

"What do you mean 'me distant'. You're the one that never talk to me!" he said accusingly pointing his finger.

"Nyuh-uh. I never talked to you because you didn't talk to me," she said defensively crossing her slim arms.

"I didn't talk to you because you never wanted to listen to me!"

"I never listened because you never talked!"

They both glared at each other, and soon the looks of allegation turned to looks of incredulous, and then finally they burst out in laughter.

Practically rolling on the ground, they laughed until they cried. Both never knew why, maybe because they needed something to break the heaviness of the room, or maybe it was a way to release the stress, or perhaps they thought it was funny that the bases of their rigidity between themselves was really no ones fault.

When they finally stopped they both were red in the face and gasping up the air they had used.

"Wonder what happened between us," Zell murmured finally as they settled down.

Selphie hoped backed onto the comfortable sofa, slid down, and considered the question, "I don't know. I guess we started to drift off when the battle began to kick up it's only natural."

"Really I think it's when Irvine came."

Selphie looked at him with realization, "You… don't like Irvine?"

Blushing to a nice crimson color, Zell waved her off, "Forget I ever said anything."

"Come on Zell. If we want to be friends then you got to talk to me… about everything," she pleaded and clung tightly to him. She could feel the heat radiating off of him as the blush deepened.

Squirming was pointless, he found himself unable to find a way to escape her iron tight grasp. Giving up with a sigh he settled down and obliged her with an explanation.

"Well I dunno. We use to be real close, well not really real close. We fought a lot but, you know…."

Zell never found it easy to articulate with words to express feelings. Struggling to arrange what he wanted to say the right way his face grimaced as he began to scrutinize the entire vocabulary in his head. Which sad to say wasn't much, although Selphie loved the over excitable spike haired boy he could express himself better with his fists then words.

"I understand," she said smiling, unusually calm, "Go on."

"Well, after Irvine came. You began to spend more time with him," Zell said slowly trying not to stumble on his words, " and well, you stooped sending time with everyone else… you stopped spending time with me."

"I never thought about that way…" she said suddenly as his words settled in her heart, "Now I feel really bad."

"No!" he said loudly surprising Selphie, "Don't think of it that way. I mean you had a reason. You were going through a real tough time and I guess… I'm not very good at talking and stuff, Irvine is really good at that."

For the first time Zell saw an understanding smile cross on her face, it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen. She reached out and gave him a small hug.

"I think your doing a great job."

Zell blushed a bright crimson color and debated whether or not to get out of her arms. He knew that he shouldn't be like this with respect to Irvine but wanted to stay in this position, so he did. Wen Selphie broke apart she giggled at Zell's now burning face unsure how to take it.

It wasn't a secret that Selphie had many an admirer in the Garden, to put it in Irvine's words she was 'hot stuff'. She popularity was skyrocketing almost to the point where she was even more loved then Professor Quistis if at all possible. To Zell she was an unreachable goal and was satisfied with just staring at her but now… now that he was closer then ever and he didn't know if he could go back to be just one of admirers.

Seeing how he was uncomfortable she took his hands into hers, which seemed strange because his callused ones dwarfed her petite. With a strange tension that floated amongst the air settled between them but they managed to stare at each other. The thick anxiety was soon smoothed over to a relative calmness that soothed them. And then… it had changed to a different emotion, so powerful it was obvious to even the simplest of fools.

It was a raw emotion with a strange power backing it up, no words were said because everything was confessed by the way they were looking at each other.

"We shouldn't be doing this," Zell said tearing his eyes off her guiltily, as if he had been committing a crime like he had been undressing her with his eyes. Selphie was thoroughly confused at his sudden behavior, she look at him bewildered at him as he hung his head in shame.

"Why not," she demanded angrily, "Why can't we be together?"

Together, it was a simple enough word but she was it with such intensity and the word seemed so odd to them that it literally almost made Zell fall of his chair. Together was the forbidden word, it never was to escape from anybody's lips during times of war unless your name happens to be Rinoa or Squall. No one was bold enough to say together because with times of such violent actions, together was a promise that could be broken. Only Selphie was brave enough to say those words.

"Because," Zell's mind trailed off to find any excuse, "You and Irvine…"

Selphie laughed absurdly at the thought, "You think me and Irvine…" Another set of giggles escaped from her mouth se she couldn't end the sentence. Zell looked at her as if she was crazy, which wasn't too far from the truth.

Noticing the look on Zell's face Selphie decided to explain, "Yeah I guess you could say we are above the friendship line but it'll never last."

Zell looked even more confused.

"It's not like Irvine thinks we'll be together forever either. We talked about it before, it would be stupid to be commit ourselves to each other. It's not like I don't like Irvine and vice versa, its just that well… can you imagine him with one girl? It would be cruel of me to do that to him, Irvine doesn't need a girl, he needs the chase."

Zell looked at her absorbing the information when finally realization dawned on him. She was free, he liked her, she liked him, it was to good to even think of the possibility.

"So you want to be," he cleared her throat in a nervous manner, which sounded strangely like an elephant bellowing in pain, "together?"

Selphie laughed heartily, "Well aren't you romantic? But yeah why not." Selphie didn't really mind it their relationship was just not one romantic scene after another like Squall and Rinoa's, actually she proffered not to, to much romance would get boring. Selphie smiled happily and rested her head oh his chest getting herself in a comfortable position.

Zell at first was ackward with the intimate position but found it strangely satisfying. He looked down on Selphie's young but maturely pretty face and brushed a strand from her closed eyes. Listening to the rhythmic sound of the train cluncking away and Zell's tempo of Zell's heartbeat she found herself being lulled to sleep.

The closer she was to sleep the more images blurred in her head, Zell and her finding a hidden GF in the ruins, him pleading her not to use it. Zell leaving the orphanage, there were screams from her and cries of him because neither wanted to be separated. Her growing up at Trabia, happy but not content… something was missing. Her meeting Zell and Squall again. The defeat of Ultimecia and the upcoming future at Trabia.

A strange distortion of the train's movement signaled that they were now above the water and something came to Zell's attention.

"Your wearing your yellow dress," he noted her and she made a slurred sound as if to confirm that she knew it.

"It's too cold out for you to only wear that dress," he said frowning.

This time Selphie spoke words he could understand, "I'm fine, I like the cold."

Not being satisfied he took of his jacket and carefully slid it on her, which took some effort since she somehow had fallen asleep on his lap.

"Thanks," she said gratefully still half-asleep, "But now you will be cold."

"I would rather I get a cold then you," he said chivalrously making Selphie giggle.

"How noble of you," she said in as serious voice as she could muster being half-asleep.

"We're going be there soon."

"That's good."

"You ready to face Trabia?"

"As long as your there."

"…"

She could tell that he was emitting redness from his once pale face. She did sort of a half laughed (she was still half-asleep) and buried her head in his shoulder. She began to fall into sleeps embrace and another image flashed in her head.

The desruction of Timber and when she returned to see it. She was happy to be back and see no one was seriously hurt but she couldn't stay there for long. She didn't have any strength on her own. She remembered living there and not being content. Was she content now?

She heard Zell's heartbeat slow as he too began to slumber, yes she could say definitely she was content now. Maybe now she could stand up to seeing the horrors of a dying but hopeful Trabia.

This next year promised to be the most interesting of them all.

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AN: Well this seems a bit dull, no? I really wanted to write a Zellphie but this is all I could some up with, sorry. Anyways… Zellphie for life! I hope you like it.