Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or these characters. I also didn't invent pumpkin spice. And here's another disclaimer. I made this in a hurry.
A streetlight flickered overhead. Their shoes tapped as they hurried across the dark pavement in a tight group. They ran at the building, windows glowing in the nighttime. The door slid open automatically with a ding and they entered. Harsh florescent lighting, the smell of ripe bananas, and soft pop-rock from decades ago assaulted their senses.
"When you said we were going to have a 'girls night' I didn't think that we would be spending the evening in a Moogley-Woogley," Quistis said while looking at the well stocked shelves of Balamb's unfortunately named local grocery store.
"Yea, Selphie. I was thinking more along the lines of getting tipsy with girly cocktails at a bar," Rinoa said. She wanted to get a huge tropical drink with umbrellas and pineapple chunks in it. That certainly wasn't happening here.
Selphie's shoulders slumped for a microsecond. "You guys could try planning things sometimes too," Selphie muttered sourly to herself before spinning around with a cheerful smile on her face.
"But this IS a fun girls night! And don't you know that you can have a fun time anywhere? It's totally all in your attitude. It's in your heart," Selphie exclaimed while pointing at her chest. "And anyways, fall is approaching and you know what that means."
Rinoa looked over at Quistis with her dark eyebrows raised. Quistis' shoulder muscles twitched in an almost shrug. They didn't know what she meant. But since it was Selphie, they both knew that they wouldn't have to wait long for an answer.
"Pumpkin spice!" Selphie sang. "Pumpkin spice!" she sang again while grabbing a shopping cart. The wheels squeaked as she turned around to go deeper into the store. Rinoa and Quistis followed her. "It's a fall festival of flavor!"
"Pumpkin spice lattes are good," Rinoa conceded while crossing her arms over herself for warmth in the cold store. "But why are we at the store instead of a coffee shop?"
"Pumpkin spice doesn't just stop at lattes," Selphie said while scanning the aisles. "They can make a pumpkin spice version of EVERYTHING! And most of those things can be found here," she said while waving her arm towards the shelves of the grocery store.
Rinoa and Quistis looked around at the store. There were pumpkin decorations and multicolored corn cobs everywhere. Seasonal displays adorned nearly every aisle endcap. And as Selphie said, there were pumpkin versions of everything.
"And Rinoa," Selphie said while reaching out and grabbing a package from an endcap, "you haven't lived until you've tried... pumpkin spice..." she read the label more closely, "...kale." Selphie stuck out her tongue and threw the package back onto the display.
Quistis laughed lightly while reaching out the inspect the offending package. It crinkled under her slim fingertips. "And it's organic too. For the health conscious autumn-flavored-foods enthusiast," she said.
"Well, I'll skip that one, but I'm sure we can find some good stuff here," Selphie said while shoving the shopping carriage down another aisle.
She danced from place to place, grabbing anything with a pumpkin or a limited edition label on it. The shopping carriage was filling up quickly. She already had found pumpkin spice cookies, cupcakes, ice cream, candy, granola bars, and cereal, but she had heard about new pumpkin spice bagels, yogurt, and chewing gum.
Rinoa and Quistis kept following, quietly disinterested in their friend's version of fun. Rinoa wondered what Squall was doing. Probably combing his hair and practicing looking cool in a mirror when nobody was looking, she figured. Quistis was making to-do lists in her head for when she got back to Garden to kill time.
"Oh wow, I almost forgot. I can get pumpkin spice in a spice jar. That way I can make a pumpkin spice anything," Selphie said. "I'm gonna make a spiced D.I.Y. version of anything I feel like."
Quistis rolled her eyes.
"Come on Quisty, come to the dark side," Selphie teased waving her friend over. "It's spicy."
Quistis just smiled.
The minutes passed and Selphie continued to grab items and throw them into the shopping cart. A glass jar with a ribbon tied around it fell into the cart with a clink. Rinoa saw and crinkled her nose.
"Selphie, I think that was a candle," Rinoa said while approaching her and pointing.
"No, it wasn't," she responded.
"I'm pretty sure it was," Rinoa replied while peering downwards.
Selphie reached into the cart and pulled up the little glass jar. The label had a big pumpkin on it, and it appeared to be filled with a creamy orange substance. Selphie figured it would taste great spread on toast or a pumpkin spice bagel if she found one. She would just ignore that it was probably nearly 100% hydrogenated vegetable oil with trace amounts of spices and artificial coloring.
"No Rinny, it says right here..." she said as she pointed to the label. She squinted at it. "...oh wait, it is a candle. Huh, that was confusing. You gotta admit, it looked delicious though." She pushed some of her brown hair behind her ears.
Quistis sighed loudly and tapped her boot on the worn linoleum floor. This wasn't the evening she had envisioned, but she might as well run some errands now that she was here. The Garden cafeteria and commissary didn't have everything a person could want.
"I'm going to the produce section," Quistis stated. "It wouldn't hurt to get some different types of fresh fruit. The cafeteria rarely has anything other than apples, bananas, or oranges." She started walking away from Selphie and Rinoa as they continued to investigate the pumpkin spice items in the cart. As she walked, her eyes settled on a man with a loose gray sweatshirt pushing a cart heavily laden with cat litter. His hood was pulled up so that his face was in deep shadows, but he seemed familiar.
Quistis walked back and tapped Rinoa and Selphie on their shoulders and pointed down the aisle at the man.
"Was that..." she started to say.
"Zell!" Rinoa whispered-yelled down the aisle in excitement. "Zell, is that you?"
The man's head turned at the sound of Rinoa's voice, but then he shook himself and tried to ignore them. He pushed the heavy cart with ease and started off into a light jog. The girls hurried to catch up with him. Rinoa put in a burst of speed and reached to grab at his shoulders. She felt hard muscles underneath. If it wasn't Zell, it certainly was somebody training to be a SeeD.
When the man felt her overly familiar grasp, he stopped and turned. His hood fell backwards to reveal his tattooed face and blond hair. His spiked hair was only slightly deflated by wearing a hoodie.
"Zell, you're a crazy cat lady! And you've been hiding it from us," Selphie gasped dramatically. "And somehow you've been hiding your hoards of cats from us too. Which I personally feel is a shame. I'd love to play with some kitties, especially if I'm not the one on litter duty."
"Okay, you caught me," Zell said with sarcasm. "I'm sure there is no other logical explanation other than that."
Quistis raised her eyebrow at him. "So what is your other logical explanation?" she asked. "You are in a grocery store late on a Saturday night with at least 200 pounds of cat litter."
Rinoa giggled while covering her mouth. Zell shrugged at them before explaining himself.
"It's for my Ma!" he exclaimed while throwing his hands up in the air.
"All of it?" Quistis asked.
"And her friends," Zell said. "Cat litter is really heavy, and they ask me to help deliver it to them regularly. What's heavy to them is nothing to me," he said as he flexed his bicep that was hidden by his baggy sweatshirt. "I'm just trying to be..."
"A good boy," Quistis finished with a smile and a sympathetic look. They all smiled at him sweetly as if he was the cutest thing in the world. Zell was just too sweet. No matter how many muscles or face tattoos he got, he just couldn't seem menacing to them. It was adorable.
"Who's a good boy?" Selphie asked while she batted her eyelashes at him, green eyes twinkling. "You are," she said quietly while petting his head. Zell tensed, trying not to show how ticklish he was.
"Aw, that's really sweet Zell. I didn't know you did that for your mom and her friends. That's so thoughtful," Rinoa said. Quistis nodded her head.
"Yea, well I do this a lot, but this is the first time I've ever been spotted," he said. "I'm always afraid of bumping into somebody I know from Garden while I do this."
"Why?" Selphie asked. "There's no shame in being a crazy cat lady. Well, except that you aren't a lady, and you probably don't want people to think you're crazy. And I guess it implies that you are lonely too. And the sheer amount of cat litter you're buying implies that you are really super-duper lonely. So lonely that you have to own a shockingly high number of cats to fill the holes you have inside you..." Selphie trailed off. "No shame."
Zell sighed and looked at Selphie's cart, wanting to deflect attention from himself. "What are you guys doing here? And what's all that weird stuff?"
"I'm stocking up Zell. These are high demand, limited edition items," Selphie said. "Pumpkin spice," she added with emphasis while patting the cart proudly.
"Ugh, pumpkin spice. Why do girls like that so much?" he asked.
"Hey Zell, don't knock it till you've tried it," Rinoa defended. "A pumpkin spice latte is delicious, warm, and comforting." She looked over at Selphie's cart. "I'm not so sure about these other things though." Selphie stuck her tongue out at her and then smiled.
"My ma makes a great pumpkin pie, but that's as far as I'm willing to go," Zell said. "Anything else is just a marketing ploy to get you to buy things you normally wouldn't, and in large quantities."
"A delicious marketing ploy," Selphie corrected.
"And stocking up?" Zell asked Selphie. "Don't you still have Valentine's candy that you haven't eaten?"
"You can't get heart shaped candy year-round Zell. I can't eat all of it until there is more available," she explained while putting her hands on her hips. "And besides, I can't eat all of those little hearts. They are just so cute."
Quistis shook her head. Time to take charge. "Are we about done here? Why don't we take ten minutes and finish up. We can all leave together and then go out for a drink. Rinoa perked up.
"But Quisty, I have frozen items here. What about my ice cream?" Selphie asked. Quistis sighed.
"We'll finish up and meet at the front of the store in ten minutes. Then we'll drop off the cat litter with Zell's mom and her friends. And I'm sure she wouldn't mind you putting your ice cream in her freezer for a couple of hours. Then we'll all go out for drinks," Quistis said.
Rinoa raised her arms and shook her fists in the air. It still wasn't too late to get a fun tropical drink tonight. Yes!
"Your treat?" Selphie asked with a bounce.
"Ten minutes," Quistis repeated.
Within twenty minutes they were done shopping, maybe now they could go out and have a fun girls' night, with Zell included. The door made a little dinging sound as it slid open. Hot and humid Balamb air hit them in the face as they exited the store and went into the dark parking lot with their shopping carts.
"Ah, I love autumn," Selphie said while taking a deep breath of muggy air and throwing her arms around Quistis and Rinoa. She hugged them tightly. "It's the greatest time of the year. Brisk."
The end.
This was made for the Successor Challenge 2017 extension. The prompt was 'pumpkin spice latte.' This is based on what I do with my husband at the grocery store when pumpkin spice season comes around. There are a lot of good and bad things with that flavoring. And yes, I have heard there was pumpkin spice kale somewhere. No thank you! And I named the grocery store Moogley-Woogley because I saw a grocery store named Piggly Wiggly when I was on vacation once. I love seeing the weird names of local grocery stores. Please read and review.