Part 2.

-

"Wow!" Zell shouted excitedly. "This is great! Isn't this great?!" He yelled at Squall who flinched away from him, turning to glance around at his surroundings.

The place hadn't changed since he had last there, which was almost a year ago. The hotel was tiny with only five rooms for guests. He stared out over the square, his mother's bar was directly opposite the hotel with flowers in the window. Children ran around in front of the houses, a couple of boys bumped into Zell as he mounted the steps at the front of hotel.

Squall nodded faintly. "Yeah, it's nice." He replied quietly, now staring up at the hill behind the town, it was full of flowers. His mother's grave was on that hill somewhere, Laguna had told him so many times but he never actually been to see it.

"Squall?"

He blinked, looking back at Zell who watched him with a concerned expression. "You okay?"

He nodded. "Just thinking."

Zell shrugged and then grinned. "Let's go inside k?"

Squall nodded and followed the blonde up the steps. Zell went up to the desk to check them in while Squall staying with their bags, he came back with the key. Squall frowned briefly, only one key meant only one room. He hadn't wanted to be trapped in one room with the annoying blonde, it was bad enough trying to avoid him at garden. He followed Zell up the stairs to room number three. The door opened and they went inside.

Zell was slightly ahead of him so he froze first and then looked back Squall to see what his reaction would be.

The brunette's eyes widened. "What the fuck?!" He stared at the double bed that sat in the middle of the bedroom.

He turned accusing eyes on Zell. "Did you know about this?"

The little blonde held up his hands and backed away. "I didn't know! They probably booked it before they realized I was going to be here and then forgot." Though he got the idea that Selphie knew exactly what she was doing.

"What the hell was Selphie thinking?" Squall kept staring at the bed in shock, horror. Could this holiday get any worse? He frowned again. "I bet this another stupid matchmaking idea." He looked back at Zell who was backing off even more.

"If it is then I didn't know anything about it!"

"Hmph." Squall grumbled and sat on the edge of the bed.

"Don't you want to explore the neighbour a little?"

Squall gave him a strange look. "No, why would I want to do that?"

"Because it's a new place, it's exciting! Don't you think it's exciting?"

Squall took his shoes and pulled out a book he had been meaning to read for ages but had never found the time back at garden.

"No."

Zell sighed. "Oh come on Squall, just come out with me this once."

"You can explore by yourself can't you?"

Zell frowned and headed for the door muttering something that sounded suspiciously like. "Fine, be an asshole then."

III

Squall had been reading for about two hours almost forgetting about Zell all together when a sound came from outside the door like someone trying to get in.

"Squall?" Zell's voice floated in through the room causing him to groan. "Squall? Did you lock the door? I-I didn't take the key, let me in. It's me, Zell."

The brunette had got up after Zell left and locked him out, wanting to give himself some quiet to read his book.

"Squall!" Zell was beating on the door now. "Let me in!"

There was the sound of extra voices in the background now, probably the neighbours complaining about the noise.

"It's not my fault." He heard Zell say. "I can't get in."

"I'll get you the master key." Another voice said.

Squall groaned and got up off the bed, putting in his bookmark and opened the door. Zell had had his back to the door but he spun round when he heard the lock click.

"Squall!"

The brunette glared at him then turned and walked back to the bed.

Zell followed him, shutting the door behind him. "Why the hell didn't you let me in?! I was starting to think you had had an accident or something."

Squall curled up on the bed again with his book.

The little blonde stood by the end of the bed watching him and frowned, folding his arms. "Well I was going to tell what I did today." He glared at Squall. "But maybe I won't now."

Squall raised an eyebrow. The day Zell managed to keep his mouth shut he expected the world to end. The blonde ran the back of his hand across his forehead, wiping away the sweat.

"I really need a shower." He turned to the bathroom before he added. "'Cause I ran up that hill at the back of village and beat up an old man."

Squall frowned. "You what?"

The blonde turned to grin over his shoulder. "Not really! It was a monster but from the distance I thought it was an old man." He chuckled.

"Oh." Squall looked back down at his book.

Zell walked into the bathroom for his shower then shot back out again all excited.

"You should see the size of the shower! It's huge! I bet you could fit two people in there easy!"

Squall raised an eyebrow. "Yeah?"

"Yeah you could-" He trailed off with a blush. "I mean- not I that I meant that you- me- us- I meant a different two people-I-" He turned, blushing a deep pink and marched into the bathroom.

Squall sighed in relief when the shower finally started up.

It was the middle of the evening the sun was setting outside, the brunette got up and stood in front of the window gazing out over the square, watching the sun go down. He knew Selphie had some sort of matchmaking idea in her head when she set up the hotel room for them. She had tried and tried with him and Rinoa, trapping them in rooms hadn't worked, sending them out on dates hadn't worked, getting both of them drunk with spiked drinks hadn't worked. In fact with the last idea Squall had thrown up and Rinoa had ended up in bed with an equally drunk Irvine. After that she just gave up on Squall. She moved on to setting Zell up with that library girl, which had worked…. Sort of as far as Squall knew they were still together. He frowned. If Zell had a girlfriend why wasn't he on holiday with her?

The sound of the shower shutting off caught his attention and few minutes later Zell appeared with a large white towel around his waist and another smaller one around his neck. He towelled his hair, rubbing at it till it stuck out in all directions.

"Don't you have a girlfriend?" He blurted out.

"Huh?" The blonde blinked at him. "Oh err- yeah I guess."

"Why aren't you with her then?"

He shrugged. "We're taking it slow." He said.

Squall nodded, watching his friend dry himself with the smaller towel. The little blonde then dropped the large one to pool at his ankles, turning around completely naked to dig in his suitcase for boxers, bent at the waist to rummage through his stuff. Squall suddenly realizing what he was watching and turned away to face the window ignoring the blush that worked its way up his neck and into his cheeks. He knew the short fighter had a nice body he'd seen him before in the showers or whatever and allowed himself a quick glance, shame Zell was a chatty, irritating annoyance. Instead of looking at the sun set he noticed how with the dimming light outside he could see the room reflecting in the glass. He scolded himself and forced his eyes to watch the sun going down not to watch his naked friend hop around the room trying to step into a pair of clean underwear.

"Okay so we- err- sort of had a break up." Squall looked over his shoulder to see that the blonde now had a pair of long denim shorts on.

"Right before we left."

The brunette turned to lean on the wall beside the window.

"We were going too slowly…. She decided to go faster with someone else."

"I'm sorry." He said.

Zell shrugged. "I wasn't that into her anyway."

"Why were you with her then?"

"I seemed a good idea at the time."

Squall frowned. "Why bother?"

"Well I had someone else in mind…." He trailed off sitting on the edge of the bed, leaning down to move his stuff around on the floor.

"Go out with them then."

The blonde winced slightly. "I don't think that would work, we're not really in the same league, you know?"

Squall nodded, pushing off the wall. "I'm going to see if I can find somewhere to eat." He picked up his shoes, putting them on.

"Ooh!" Zell jumped, going back into eager puppy mode causing Squall to wince. "If you're going for food, I'll come! I'm sooo hungry, I could eat a chocobo." He flipped open his case and dug out a shirt, deep blue with a few white stripes down the front.

"You're always hungry." The brunette said.

He put his shirt on and hurried after Squall who was halfway out the door already. Zell continued to go on about food until they found some. A small café a short walk from the hotel, where the two girls working there gushed over Squall all night, the closer they got the more he flinched. They would bring the food over to their table, leaning in close to him and he would lean away.

Zell was muffling his laughter behind his hand. "You could have been a little nicer." He whispered when they left.

"Nicer?" Squall frowned. "If I'd have been nice to them they might have taken it as a 'come on'."

Zell laughed but turned it into a cough when Squall glared at him.

The little blonde sighed contentedly as they walked. "God I'm full, that was the best food ever….. Well not ever 'cause it's not as good as my ma's food."

Off he went again talking endlessly and mostly about food.

Squall sighed heavily and tried to drown it out.

"You're never had my ma's food have you Squall?"

"Hmm?"

"Squall? Are you listening to me?"

The brunette blinked.

"Yes, sorry err-" He tried to think about what the question was. "Um- no I haven't."

"Well you should I've invited everyone around to my house before and everyone except you have showed up."

"I'm been-"

"Busy, yes we know." Zell finished the sentence for him. He sighed and then started off talking again, this time about the pudding he had had and how it was best ever and how they would be well fed there and probably fat by the time they went back to garden.

"You'll never be fat." Squall interrupted. "You're constantly moving."

The blonde beamed at him, obviously taking that was a compliment.

It was late evening by the time they got back to the hotel, they walked the long way around as Zell insisted on walking off their food. Zell let them back into the room, still able to find something to talk about. Squall promptly shut himself in the bathroom at soon as they got to their room to escape.

He heard the TV be switched on while he was in the bathroom and sighed. Thank god. Surely the TV would be enough of a distraction to shut him up for a while at least.

III

TBC