Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII is property of Square Enix.
Far Longer Than Forever
-~-
The first girl he falls in love with has sunshine in her hair and is nine, sticking a wad of gum to the crown of his head. She's saying that her momma doesn't want her to play with him anymore but he's not paying attention, staring at the sunbeams instead; he falls out of it when she kisses him on the cheek with lips a shade identical to the lipstick on her Mother's vanity, and runs off into the sunset of Deling City. He doesn't see her again and too late realizes that he doesn't even have her address or surname or phone number to get in contact with.
But he's nine (and a half, he likes to remind his amused parents) – love is only balloons in the air that float away with him attached, so he shrugs and thinks, Oh well, they'll come back.
There's a lack of girls in Galbadia Garden when he is enlisted at eleven so he pouts, asks his mother why she can't sign him up for dance classes, but the woman just laughs and calls him her mini-womanizer. His father snorts from the other room and gets him a gun the next day. He says he won't have a queer for a child, but Irvine doesn't like guns and wants to remind him that he is not his real father, but one look from the man makes him quiet and he shuffles up to his room. A stack of comic books sits on his desk and he hides the gun away under his bed, feeling dirty.
Irvine doesn't know why, but when he runs into a girl with the brightest green eyes he's ever seen, staring back at him from the other end of the training mat, he freezes and she sneers, "What are you looking at?"
He blinks, swearing he can feel the sea breeze on his face, and grins. "You have very pretty eyes."
And then he wrestles her to the ground and decides that green is his new favourite color.
-~-
He reads that children's memories start at an early age, so his curiosity gets the better of him and he closes his eyes. Nothing comes, no matter how hard he tries to remember – was it a dream? – but he knows something is there, because when his parents take him to the lakes nearby he sits on the sand, staring at the water, and feels an odd sense of familiarity.
(Nostalgia, he decides later. It's a very nice sounding word.)
He asks his parents, but Mother just kisses his head and her husband says he's too young to understand. He protests that he's eleven, Dad, I'm fully mature! but the man just sends him one of his looks, and Irvine seethes.
-~-
He dates a lot during his years in Galbadia, always wary of the strict rules for relationships, and his friends always joke how he goes for their bubbly, brunette classmates. He replies with a smirk that it's even better if they have green eyes because he can just fall into them (his girlfriend giggles). Then Irvine throws back his head and laughs, fifteen and young, saying that he must be haunted by a ghost that refuses to be forgotten.
He finds that remembering is easier as you get older.
-~-
"Is that a sigh of love I hear?" He blurts out before he can stop himself, and she turns away and Irvine literally has to bite his tongue to keep himself from speaking. This was not how he was imagining this – reunion – to be, and he curses himself for being so blunt. He has to remind himself that the girl in front of him is not one of his many girlfriends, but a girl he adored so long, long ago and played Knights and Princess with, and she doesn't remember. No one does anymore, and a small part of him just wonders why and he kind-of-sort-of wants to cry.
"I'll make things right," he promises himself as he watches Selphie sing, and wonders if she ever wonders about who was it that taught her those words.
-~-
Trabia is falling around him, and so are his morals. "What they don't know can't hurt them," no longer applies to the situation because Selphie's friends are dead, and she's making a fucking graveyard in the dirty snow, and they deserve to know. Even Trabia's chilly winds don't help with the heating frustration that spreads through him so much that he just wants to take off his clothes and sit down in the snow; but he's smarter than that, so he takes his gun and polishes it. It reminds him of his father, who he doesn't really love anymore, but the man was calm and cold and this is what he needs to be right now.
-~-
He's only joking about wanting the camera back – he just wants her attention focused on him and not the group of guys calling her over, because Selphie has suddenly become so popular. He's satisfied when she clenches her fists and ignores them, scowling at him, so he takes off his hat and puts it on hers before prancing off to see Matron. He kisses her hand in greeting, gallantly, and she has this odd little smile on her face as he does (he remembers, he and Seifer loved playing Knights back when their island was sanctuary) before waving to Selphie. The brunette grins back and when the camera dies, she drags Irvine off to dance.
He's all too happy to oblige as he holds her in his embrace, one hand placed lightly on her waist as they spin.
"I'm not fragile," Selphie grumbles, so he grins and pulls her closer, so her cheek now rests on his shoulder – she giggles into his jacket, and he smiles.
"My apologies, my lady."
-~-
They're not an official couple – yet – but neither is in a rush, really; Irvine knows he has commitment issues and Selphie admits to never having a serious relationship before. And she wants one, not one him sleeping in her bed and then sneaking off to see some other girl in the middle of the night – and she knows he does (did?) this as she looks at him, ice in her eyes when she speaks. He realizes that she really is fragile, so he kisses her fingers and promises to work on it. She nods after a moment, because for now, it's good enough for her. They're both willing to wait as long as needed.
-~-
Three years later, they stand at the altar and exchange their vows.
"I've loved you far longer than forever," Irvine promises, causing Selphie to flush, and kisses her.
-~-
In this audience, Zell groans, "Finally!" and Squall promptly cuffs him at the back of his head. The toddler in the Commander's lap giggles at Uncle Zell's yelp of pain; moments after the ceremony Selphie pulls Irvine to their dance floors and asks, grinning, if he learned anything from babysitting Squall's spawn and how he feels about having kids. He stares at her for a moment before blanching, and she hits him on the shoulder before sighing.
"Oh well, guess I've still gotta work on you," she jokes, lovingly, and he can't stop smiling the entire night.