"Her"

Kaylia couldn't sleep that night. She tossed and turned in her bed for a good portion of an hour until settling down a bit. Hyne, that was a dumb move. I hope that didn't ruin anything. Hyne, Hyne, Hyne…what do I do now?

"You have problems?" Rinoa's bed was across the room. She had her head propped on her hands.

"Oh, yeah." Kaylia flipped her covers off and sat up against her headboard. "Lots of them."

"Do they involve a certain blonde with a tattoo?" Rinoa grinned.

Kaylia put her head in her hands. "Very much so." She laid back down. "Zell…he's very curious, you know?"

"I know." The raven haired beauty turned from Kaylia. "I was…sort of going out with him at a time."

"Really?"

"Yeah." She remembered the brief relationship they shared. "Without going real deep into it…it was an experience I'll hold in my heart forever." Rinoa grinned. "But you're lucky, you know. That was a problem time. We thought we loved each other. But, you know…not really." Kaylia nodded. "But you and him…wow."

Kaylia nodded. "But…I caught him off guard and kissed him…I scared him. But then he looked so…relieved."

"Guys are like that." Rinoa got up and sat next to Kaylia. "What did you say to him?"

"Stuff about Trabia…" Kaylia trailed off. "I saw him when he visited there."

Rinoa's eyes widened. "Really?"

"Yeah." She slanted her head. "What, is he sensitive about Trabia?"

"Not really…" She lied.

"Cause his eyes…" Kaylia hugged her pillow. "I'll never forget them."

Rinoa felt she needed to know. "Well, Kaylia…Hyne, this is kinda hard to say, but…Zell feels that the bombing of Trabia was his fault."

"No way."

"Yeah. He said something he shouldn't have at the wrong time, and…" Rinoa sighed. "He'll never forgive himself, after the rest of the world has."

"That's too bad." Kaylia looked down at the ring on her bedstand. "I didn't know. Now, I wish I hadn't mentioned it."

Rinoa smiled though. "But Zell…you can see in his eyes his attachment to you. You are so lucky."

"But you have Squall. Isn't he a dream?"

"Yeah. I love him to death. But he's so quiet around people. And his eyes have more in their eyes than love. He's got Garden to worry about. Deep down, I used to be like, so mad with all his responsibilities. But…we're happy and always will be."

"Oh. You two are so nice for each other." Kaylia picked up her ring. "I've gotta go talk to Zell." She stood up.

"You should wait till tomorrow."

Kaylia looked at the door. "…you're right." Rinoa got up and slid back into her bed. "Thanks a lot, Rinoa."

"No biggie." She grinned. "I couldn't sleep, either."

Kaylia laid down and pulled her quilt up to her chin. Tomorrow was going to be a big day.

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

Zell opened his eyes to a new day. His sleep was somewhat irregular that night. The whole Kaylia thing was over his head. He sat up and rubbed his eyes.

"Zell!" A familiar voice yelled at him through the door. Zell got up and opened it.

"Hey, Nida."

Dressed in his usual professional manner, Nida saluted him. "There's a special SeeD meeting in the Headmaster's office. You're expected to be there in twenty minutes. It's somewhat sudden, I know…but it's serious."

"Serious?" Zell grinned. "I'm on it." As Nida left, he hopped into action and quickly got ready.

In twenty minutes exactly, Zell appeared in the Headmaster's office. Also there was a troubled Squall, Rinoa, Seifer, Raijin, and Fuujin (who had all made SeeD only a few months ago, surprisingly enough), Selphie, Irvine, a tired Quistis, Nida, Xu, and a nervous Kaylia. Quistis looked up at Zell. "Zell, you're late."

"Sorry." He slid into a seat next to her. "I was still half asleep."

"Well, you'd better be awake for this." She snapped.

Zell shook his head. Wonder what's going on…

Meanwhile, Kaylia looked around at everyone. "Are meetings always so solemn?"

"This is the first serious one we've had." Rinoa whispered.

Headmaster Cid flung the door open with a folder of papers and an anxious face. "You're all here? Good." He slid into his seat behind the huge desk in the center of the room. "We have a huge problem." Quistis held her head in her hands. "There seems to be terrorist actions that are threatening Balamb Garden, as well as Balamb."

"What?"

"No way…"

"What are we gonna do?"

"Clearly, we need all of you to be on guard at all times. We've been working through the night and have found out that the terrorists are an organization known as the T.L.M., which through further investigation is the Trabian Liberation Movement. We fear that they blame us for the fall of Trabia Garden…"

Zell closed his eyes. No way…

"We need to keep our Garden and Balamb safe. Terrorists are willing to do the impossible for a cause. The students and faculty of Balamb Garden and the citizens of our city are relying on you to look over us."

Kaylia saw Squall glance at her in a furtive manner. He sent a chill down her spine.

Seifer stood. "Headmaster, with all do respect…" He pointed at Kaylia. "What information do we have that she's not against us?" Kaylia looked at him, bewildered. "Hyne knows she's with them! She just transferred from Trabia. How suspicious is that? She can be filtering all this SeeD information to them behind our backs!"

"I am not with them!" Kaylia shouted, standing. "I've known of the T.L.M., but never -- never -- would I work with them!" She sighed. "The leader of the T.L.M. is the man I hate most. He pressured me into it, yeah, but after I knew what they were plotting, I was out. I came here to get away from them."

Xane. "I believe her." Everyone looked at Zell.

"Of course you would, Chicken-Wuss." Seifer shot at him. "You two are hooked up."

"You stupid--"

"WAIT!" Kaylia screamed. "Stop. Headmaster, please…hear me out."

Headmaster Cid nodded. "Please, Kaylia."

"The T.L.M…they're an organization of students who formed an underground resistance to the reconstruction of Trabia. They wanted to break off and start a new Garden in which they would preach hatred to the world and powerful black magic. But…they started off by plotting against one person. Zell…"

Squall looked at her. "Are you telling us the truth?"

"I'm serious! I swear!" Kaylia sighed. "Don't ask me how they found out about Zell and everything. I don't know. But…they wanted him dead. They blamed him for the decline of Trabia."

Zell's eyes widened. His one stupid mistake came back to haunt him. "I…I don't believe this…"

"Well, do believe it. I came here to get away from them…and protect Zell. If I stayed there, I'd be killed. Xane…he knew how I felt about it."

"Xane…yes, that boy…" Headmaster trailed off. "The notorious leader of the T.L.M. Twenty-two years of age, 6'3", a master of thievery and deception ….and a threat to us." He looked at Kaylia. "Tell me, Ms. Paridisia, how did you get involved with him?"

"A false faith, I guess…" Kaylia sighed. "But we need to keep Zell safe. It's so important that we're able to ruin their first mission. Hyne forbid that they succeed…they'll be unstoppable."

"How about a relocation?" Xu suggested. "If we keep Zell out of reach, we can deal with them."

"Makes sense." Quistis said.

"Hey, do I get a say in what's gonna happen to me?" Zell asked sarcastically. "I'm not going anywhere. I'd rather stay here and help."

Cid sighed. "Everyone can leave. As of now, Zell, any plans for you are suspended until further notice."

Kaylia got up and left the room before anyone else. She was embarrassed and angry, mostly with Seifer. He had no grounds to base his accusation on. Yet…

"Hey."

"What, Seifer?" She asked without even turning around.

She heard him take two strides until his face was by her ear. "You do anything…anything…to hurt Garden--or even Zell…and you'll regret it forever. You understand?"

Her breathing became rapid. "Leave me alone."

"Fine. Just consider yourself warned." He patted her shoulder and walked away from her. She turned around and saw everyone else, sans Nida and Xu, behind her. They had moved to the side to let Seifer, Fuujin, and Raijin pass.

Quistis had a frown on her face. "Kaylia…" She reached out to her.

"Don't even, Quistis…" Kaylia glared at her and walked away.

Rinoa looked at Zell and tapped his shoulder. "Go after her…" She mouthed speechlessly. When he wouldn't move, she shoved him. "Go!" She shouted.

"I-I can't…" His head fell.

For the first time, Squall walked forward. "Zell…go."

"…What?"

"I believe her. Go."

Zell's eyes flashed momentarily before running after her. Squall smiled inwardly. Zell has courage. I don't know what form…but he's got it.

Meanwhile, Kaylia was already far from the rest of the group. She felt so jumbled up because of everything…but she had to do what she had to do. Suddenly, she passed a window that faced Balamb. The bright lights of the small city attracted her to relax at the window. It had her home beat. Until she was five, she was raised in Winhill, which was normally quiet and dormant. Her mother was the silent streets…her father, the velvet night sky. Home life was hard, and she left it behind for the comfort of being alone. When she had finally left Winhill and spread her wings…it was a dream.

"Beautiful." She whispered, and touched the glass lightly with her fingers.

Where in hell is she? Zell had stopped running, and was just silently roaming the halls. He wasn't sure if she even wanted to see him. This is crazy…Hyne. Suddenly, he felt something telling him to walk a little bit further. Normally, he wouldn't, but the hold that this feeling had over him brought him to her window.

She knew he was there. There was an apparent electricity between them. Yet, she didn't turn around. The lights of Balamb were much too appealing, and she was confused with him, anyway.

"What do you want?" She asked him wearily.

Zell tried to hide behind an air of happiness. "Isn't Balamb pretty at night?"

"It's a lot nicer than Winhill…" Kaylia turned around. "Why are you here? I thought all of you were mad at me or something."

"No!" Zell shook his head. "Everyone is mad at Seifer. We saw what he said to you. That wasn't really fair, ya know?"

"Tell me about it. Has he always been an arrogant little jerk?"

"Yeah." Without much thought, he tucked a few strands of her silvery hair behind her ears. "So…what did you say about Winhill?"

Kaylia smiled. "Hometown. It was nice for a while, but my family kinda sucked. My best friend, Kael, took me under his arm and we lived in the streets for awhile. He was a mediocre thief--and about five years older than me--so we got by. But I had big dreams of going to a Garden, so as time passed, we got together all we had and went to Trabia." She sighed. "Kael is a member of the T.L.M. now."

"Guess you've put all that stuff behind you?"

"Uh-huh. Why dwell on it?" Kaylia laughed. "I'm just another girl with no family that went to a military Garden. Luckily, I wasn't stuck in an orphanage or something."

"Whatever happened to your parents?"

"Dead."

"Oh." Zell looked at Balamb. He could almost see his house from where they were standing. "Do you want to go there?"

"I'd love to."

He smiled. "Later today?"

Kaylia's face glowed in happiness. "You'd really take me?"

"Sure. My mom lives there. You two would totally love each other."

"Oh, thank you Zell!!!" Kaylia hugged his neck. "This is going to be so much fun! I love you!"

"Ah…air…" He choked. Kaylia let him go. "I'm long overdue for a visit to Ma anyway. Unfortunately, she never writes or anything. She knows I come to see her all the time."

"It's nice that you're close with your mom."

"Hey! You guys!" Irvine stood a few feet from them. "C'mon."

The two blondes looked at each other. "We'll be right there!" They said at the same time.

"All right…suit yourself." Irvine smiled and left.

Kaylia rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I guess I'll see you later?"

"Yeah…I guess so." Zell started to walk away. "Meet me here. OK?"

"OK." Kaylia watched Zell leave before going to find Rinoa in their room. It was still early in the morning, and only a few students were up.

"Hey…Rin?" Kaylia opened her door and walked in. "You here?"

To her surprise, Selphie bounded to her. "Kaylia! Guess what? I'm staying over!"

"That's great!" Kaylia sat on her bed. "Where's Rinoa?"

"In the bathroom." Selphie looked at her curiously. "What happened?"

"What do you mean?"

"Between you and Zell. I know something happened. You can tell, cause you don't look like you did when we left the meeting."

"Well--"

"Well what?" Rinoa came out of the bathroom and sat next to Kaylia. "Are you OK from before?"

"I'm fine. I was just telling Selphie that…I'm gonna go to Balamb with Zell."

Selphie and Rinoa squealed. "That's so cool!" Selphie laughed. "You're gonna have so much fun!"

"Wait, wait, wait…" Rinoa smiled. "What are you gonna wear?"

Kaylia shook her head. "I don't know…"

"WELL, although SeeDs have big military-beat-up-the-bad-guy lives," Rinoa began, "some of us still like to act like thirteen year olds."

"We're gonna help you get ready." Selphie took some of Kaylia's hair.

"You really…don't have to…" Kaylia said softly as the two girls started to fool around with her hair. "I can do it myself."

"But we want to!" Rinoa mock frowned. "This is what friends do."

So, for the next three hours, Rinoa, Selphie, and Kaylia played music and gave Kaylia a total make-over. At two o' clock on the dot, Kaylia was made up, dressed, styled, cleaned, perfumed, and ready.

She looked in the mirror for the first time, since Selphie and Rinoa wouldn't let her. "Wow. This is really nice."

Selphie had done her hair into a tight bun with Kaylia's hair sticks. A few pieces of blonde fell out accidentally, but it only made it look more pretty. She had also done Kaylia's face with light make-up, but just enough to make her shine.

Rinoa, on the other hand, did all the clothes. In the end, Kaylia wore a pink halter top with black pants. She also wore her simple black boots, which wasn't Rinoa's idea, but she couldn't do anything about it.

"That looks so good on you." Selphie said. "It's 'cause you're tall."

"Yeah. Mrs. Dincht is gonna love you." Rinoa smiled.

Kaylia nodded. "I've really gotta hand it to you guys. I like this a lot."

"Zell'll like it too." Selphie giggled.

"Well, I guess I should get going…" Kaylia hugged both of them. "Thanks so much."

"This is what we love to do." Rinoa laughed. "Have fun."

As Kaylia walked out the door, Selphie and Rinoa gave each other a high five. "Maybe this is just what Zell and Kaylia need." Rinoa grinned.

"Rinoa!"

"I'm only joking. But anyway…"

"What?"

"Let the games begin!"

Selphie laughed at her. "What the heck do you mean by that?"

"Hmm…I don't know. But I'm sure it'll have some purpose…"

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