Sorry 'bout the delay, my Firewall at home won't let me use the bloody uploader... Seethes Anyway, this has a little Selphie/Irvine smut in it, even though I havn't played much FF8, I think I've got their personalities down pat.
And now there are two, count 'em, TWO flashbacks. I'm sorry! You be the judge to see if they improve the story. I've had crap-all reviews (But the ones I have had are awesome.) so I have no idea whether I'm doing well or not. You decide! Now begin!
Selphie paced the cold marble in the entrance hall, oblivious to the sounds of merriment coming from the ballroom and the giggles, shuffling and occasional moan she could make out from the solar to her right (Tidus had been quick to take to the drink, and had been spending the night directing his attention towards a young Uni student by the name of Quistis...). Her bouncing locks had refused to be straightened at home and hung at her neck, drooping as if they shared their owner's mood while in no way improving it.
"They're late". Selphie spun, cursing herself for not hearing the large double-doors open behind her. A decidedly gothic girl with long ebony hair that reached her waist softly approached her, fishnet stockings giving brief flashes of the bare flesh of her thighs as she took place beside her, looking expressionlessly out into the long driveway. "They said they would come, this is my last toad, I was saving it for them, and they're late." Something approaching a smile reached her lips, a sight that unnerved Selphie no end.
"What are you talking about, Lu?" the Brunette was frightened, trying to ward her fears away with small talk. Her cheerful face was lined with concern, glancing ever so often down the drive, hoping for the glare of car-light.
Lulu gave her a condescending look. "Pratchett, don't worry about it".
"I'm not. The birthday boy's over an hour late and I'm storing all my worry for him, you reckon we should call the police? None of them are answering their cellphones... I'm not even getting a connection on the personal commspheres." Selphie whined, hopping from foot to foot, finally deciding to lean against the wall.
"They have those?"
"Riku does."
"Maybe they're eloping." Lulu smiled again. Maybe tonight will have some entertainment for me after all...
Selphies face froze, absolute terror lit in her eyes as she rushed to Lulu and gripped her shoulders in desperation. "You really think so? Oh my god, oh my GOD, what if they did? We gotta tell everyone, we gotta tell SEED! SHINRA! Where's a landline? Where's a landline!!' Selphie rushed around the hall, hyperventilating and generally making a complete ass of herself while Lulu barely controlled her laughter through her sleeve.
Eventually, Selphie gave up her hysterical madness and slumped against the wall, panting hard and still mumbling the names of Investigation and Search agencies in a spastic stream. Her eyes were still wide in shock as Lulu walked up and stated "I was only joking", though for all the notice Selphie took, she might as well have said that she was planning to nuke the house.
"So anyway, what happened? Did you give the cowboy the slip?" Lulu asked, desperate to change the subject before Selphie had a cardiac arrest. The 'cowboy' in question was an exchange student named Irvine who had left Destiny Islands for Garden in his youth, and who Selphie claimed had been stalking her ever since he walked in her flat at the wrong moment, inquiring after his borrowed Brokeback Mountain DVD.
Not that Selphie would have normally minded, she and him went back to childhood and had never relinquished to anyone else the title of 'bestie' but each other, before they were evacuated from Hollow Bastion. Their chocolate hair was the source of much grief, if it wasn't Tidus and Wakka snipping his hair short whenever he took a catnap, it was Penelo consistently asking to bleach Selphies white-gold, like hers. They were together so often, exploring the silken flow of the river behind the school during their lunch after Irvine had jimmied the gate lock that seperated the grounds and the plains with Selphie's hairpin, or simply sneaking out at night to go stargazing that their friends nicknamed them 'Sold wine', possibly the worst piece of wordplay to ever come from the little town since 'Jack the Pheasant Plucker'. But she was clothed only in silken undergarments and watching an episode of Futurama whilst lying recumbent on the couch with the curtains drawn, and he...
He just stood there. Watching me. Ogling me. His hand still resting on the doorknob, his eyes tracing my every curve, and when he finally met my gaze... He smiled.
And so did I. I never figured out why. I reckon I'd just shown him my teeth, scary lioness Selphie! Rawr!!
He left, after that. Just closed the door like nothing happened! When I saw him at Statistics the next day, he just smiled and asked after that bastardbastardbastard DVD! That's most of what I could remember then. Small talk. Gossip. The usual. The creep just goes over me like some porn film and doesn't bother to apologise?! I swore, there and then, that I would pour oil in his bed and set it alight! Haha!
And then I asked him if he wanted to go to the river... He said yes, we made plans, the same-old same-old. He'd bring Buffalo wings, I'd grab some soda and a chillie bin, we'd meet at the swimming hole at 5pm, Wednesday.
And he'd arrived early, that evil-minded little piece of- anyway, I hadn't figured out he was there till I'd heard the splashing and had a peek through a handy willow, hidden from normal sight. He was lying at the top of a metre-tall waterfall, a solid push would have sent him tumbling to the deep pool below. Normally, I would have felt ticked and missing out on such mischief, but something else was drawing my attention.
Not that he was lying there, damming the flow of water and chuckling at the tickling sensation as it passed over his toned belly with his arms crossed behind his contented head, no, he was gloriously, magnificently...
Butt nekkid.
Or close enough to me that it made no difference. Whenever we went on trips like this, he always, ALWAYS wore a shirt. Said he could catch cold, which I never believed for a second, the guy had always been a little porky since he hit puberty and had a problem dealing with it...
But gods, Garden had been good to him, gone were the hints of puppy fat, gone was the scrawny boy I'd remembered... Hello shirtless wonder; hard abs, tight ass and lean muscle, strong and smooth and bulging...
She turned away, trying to forget how she had stared at the lump in his togs. For chrissake, they were friends! When they were kids...
Except they weren't, everything had changed, he had changed.
For the better.
Well, at least he still wore his hat. She giggled a little, trust that goof to stubbornly submit to the urge of pretending to be a cowboy, even in the water... Every little thing he did revolved around his obsession with the Wild Plains of the Calm Lands, if you looked close enough.
"Irve! I'm here!" I cried, trembling a little from the effort to move my mouth from its jaw-dropped status.
"Holy Mother of-!!" He started, losing balance on the edge and plummeting into the chilly depths of the falls. He came out spluttering, cool composition lost as he began a terrorized search for his trusted hat.
I laughed at him, he never ceased to make me laugh. I loved that about him, that silly, gawky side of him that always showed through. I set down the chillie by the bank and picked up his leather accessory from the stones, concealed from him by a boulder in the river. "Looking for this?" Waving it over my head, he started to wade over, determined the regain his prized possession. I immediately hid it behind my back, wagging a finger, "Nonononono, where are the wings? No wings, no hat!"
"To hell with that!" he yelled, flinging himself forward and trying to reach behind me. "Get off! You're getting me wet!", I hadn't said that so much out of concern for my clothes, the weather was calm, the air was warm and dry, they would have dried in minutes. Nope, it was just that I was a teensy bit uncomfortable about having those abdominals near me.
So I was both trying to put some distance between us and tease him from the hat, so I couldn't think much about my feet, I tripped, he fell, and we just so happened to land in a rather intimate sprawl, my arm was pinned behind my back, his hands on either side of my breasts, his hard thigh softly pressing between...
Oh GOD.
He so totally planned that!
But a look at his face said otherwise, he was grinning at me, eyes thinned in what could possibly be a mask of innocence as he whispered, "Please?"
What did he want from me? 'Oh Irvine, you manly studmuffin, take me, take me now!' was NOT going to happen, not now, not ever!
"I mean, I really like it." His eyes went to the side a little. I'll bet he does.
"There's nothing really like it in the world." His cheeks were colouring slightly. Why is he telling me this? Does he think that I'm just going to fuck him because he said it was NICE?!
"And you're making it all crumpled and floppy."
WHAT?!?
My arm was annoying me, I mean, I can't really move the thing, and my hand is all tired from grippin'...
Oh, right, the hat. I gotta get my head out of the gutter.
"You're going to have to get off, Irvy, I can't move."
And so he got to his knees, not seeming to notice anything out of the ordinary. I could swear my face was beet-red. Handing him the flattened article with a huff, I got to my feet and brushed off my cargo pants, picking out the sharp wheat-spears that had lodged in my pants.
"So, where are these wings?"
"I'll grab them while you get the soda out. Watch for chiggers!" He joked, I had a phobia over parasites: Ticks, fleas, leeches... They just make me wanna puke.
Opening the bin and pulling a couple of Chi's out of the bottom, I set them on the ground and took off my cargo's and t-shirt to reveal my one piece swimsuit. Normally I'd have just worn a bikini... But I didn't feel secure about flaunting my form after the incident at the flat.
Or was I scared? I couldn't tell.
Something was going to happen today. There was a tension, now, between him and me. And I had no idea of whatever to do. Either way, it was Irvine's move next.
Sitting on the bank, tasting the kiwifruit of the Chi and lost in my little game of politics, I took no heed that the bushes behind me had just rustled.
And then the tickling began. It was horrible! My sides, my underarms, the small of my back, everywhere! Before I collapsed under the onslaught of nerve-wracking giggle fits, I sprung, rolled, leapt into the water. Figuring that Jerkmeister can't get me there, I splashed to the 'steps', a hollow leading down to waist deep water where I could submerge and hide from his evil fingers.
I turned. He was waiting for me at the bank, winking as he opened a container and took a bite out of a wing, face beaming relishment at every chew.
"You're mean!" I whined.
"And you're wet and hungry. Not to mention a hat-hater." he laughed, pointing to his ridiculous headgear. "If you're really hungry... Truce?"
"Whatever."
I approached the bank, when he made no move towards me, I simply lay down and reached for a wing. The slight grease of it was comforting, he'd marinaded it in Satay sauce, said the first morsel that touched my lips.
And then the tickles came back! Was nothing holy?
I couldn't resist, writhing as the fingers came out of nowhere, laughing uncontrollably. He was above me, around me. I put a hand on his chest and tried to push him back.
He stopped.
As soon as I could breathe easily, I took stock of where I was. Pinned under my best friend? Check. Panting from exhilaration? Check. Having my cheek held by aforementioned friend? Che- Wait, what?
"You're mean." I said simply, drunk on nervousness. "Mean and cruel and unfair and I don't like you!"
His hand left my cheek and began softly stroking my neck, his eyes never once left mine. I shivered from the warmth of his hand, fighting the urge to close my eyes.
Still, I had to know.
"So why are you doing this to me?" I pleaded, tilting my head forward, arcing my body closer to his, running a hand over his broad flank to pull him towards me, smiling inside when he drew back on instinct. Looks like I'm not the only ticklish one...
"You really want to know?"
"Didn't I just ask?" Our lips were touching now, voices barely whispers in the still air.
"Well, little miss nosy..." he smiled, placing his other hand under my back, "...I'm thinking it's because I'm in love with you."
"Bingo."
Nothing more needed to be said, our first kisses were tender, sweet and pure as rain, our hands roaming, touching the other, learning what it was to truly know each other.
And then the urge took me, parting his lips to show that I wasn't all light and feathers, shifting my right leg to massage his groin, prompting a low groan from him, stirring my tongue into harsh action. Mouths a flurry, our hands taking a new urgency as they wandered far from where they should have, his hand sliding under my swimsuit to cup my breast, kneeding it and bringing me to moan as his other seeked to undo the straps at the back. All the while, my hands gripped his brown locks while I closed my eyes. After what seemed like hours, the tension of my suit slackened, I let him slip the strings off my shoulders, until finally I was naked, his body poised above me, sweating slightly from our combined heat.
I caressed his face, holding it level to mine, in the slowly darkening dusk, he looked worried, concerned for something.
"You like?"
"Words can't-" He began, breathless.
"Actions speak louder, Irve. Lets get to talking..." I leaned in for another kiss, my left hand reaching down, down...
And he stopped me. Held a finger to my lips. I paused my hand, something was up, something other than what I was seeking.
"If we... You could..."
Oh, right.
"Gotcha. So tonight..."
"Yeah, not that far. Still, there's other stuff." He winked.
"So com'ere, Cowboy..." He leaned in again, I halted my search to grip his back with both hands as with tongue worked a trail down my neck, planting kisses on my nipples, massaging them with his fingers, making me gasp every time he rubbed them. Continuing his conquest, dipping his tongue into my belly button as he went further down...
Downdowndowndown!!
No, nononononono!
No.
No.
Yes!
"-Selph?"
Selphie repressed a shudder, and turned back to Lulu. "Mmhmm?"
"Are you ill? You just... Blanked out." Lulu cocked her head, "Has something happened?"
"You bet your sweet lilies something happened..." She mumbled, before shaking her head and intoning loudly in the direction of the solar, "I'm just glad that we have somewhere nice and tidy to talk quickly like civilized people do! On a regular basis!" her words echoed in the hall, and for once no sound came from the solar.
"What was that about?" Lulu laughed aloud, noting Selphie's slowly creeping blush and her clenched fists. "Uh... Can you keep a secret?" Selphie covered her face in her hands, aware that the more she had thought about what had happened, the more she realised...
"Lets see if I can guess it first..." Lulu looked at the mosaic on the ceiling as she ticked off her fingers, "... Right, first I mention Irvine..." She placed her finger on her thumb, "... Then you start shouting at the couple in the next room, maybe because the noise is making you think of something..." She pulled out her index with her other index, "Thirdly, you're blushing..."
"You've got it." Selphie sighed, "I don't know how you do it!" She whined, "I spend all this time building up a thing for him and... and I expect it to be some kind of massive revelation when I finally admit it, and you..."
"And I figure it out in less than a minute, go figure." Lulu shrugged, she had never really understood the intricacies of teen relationships first-hand, but even a cretin could have put two and two together.
It's a pity that Irvine isn't a cretin.
"You haven't answered me, did something happen?"
Selphie looked out the window onto the drive again, hoping for a distraction, "No."
"Liar", Lulu smiled, pulling out a wallet from somewhere in the dark depths of her dress. Opening it, she withdrew a length of photobooth pictures that she and the gang had taken during her 3rd year in High school. Tidus was one of the most prominent figures in the first picture, pulling back his ears while Sora held his head back in laughter next to him, holding a sheet of construction paper inscribed He's an elf!! Save Zelda! in bold black highlighter while Larsa looked on bemusedly, the boy of 8 had his eyebrows raised as he leaned back from Tidus' elbows. The next consisted of Selphie, Kairi and Riku with his hair braided in a long ponytail, the girls were simply trying to cram into the foreground while Riku just hung in the back of the booth, close to tears at the torture of his silver locks. The next consisted of Irvine and an old friend of his who had visited from the Junior SEED academy in Gaia, Zell. The both of them had an arm over the shoulder of the other in a comradely gesture, Zell's face tattoo and striking blond hair clashing with the soft leather tones of Irvine's hat and jacket; the bottom of Irvine's personal copy was Autographed 'Here's hoping I get in! Zell'. After Gaia had been consumed by the Heartless Irvine had framed the picture, and it still hung above his desk, illuminated on summer nights by the waxing moon. The next simply held Kairi, Sora, Selphie and Irvine, arms locked around waists in a semi-circle facing the camera. Sora's placard now read Best friends 4eva! While they all grinned, Sora looking relaxed as always, Kairi looking quite happy at being squashed between two cute machos, Selphie gave her trademark 'I'm-happy-and-slightly-insane-and-not-so-slightly-hyperactive' look, and Irvine simply looked bewildered. The last consisted of a... Memento, and was held to the other four by a staple.
Lulu's mind flashed back, her eyes shut as she strived to remember every last detail, the picture was years old, but her memories were fresh...
"Lu, Come on!" The Darse called, dragging my hand towards the booth. I called him Darse as an insult, originally it had grown from 'Ducks arse', a descriptive of his front-spiked hair, but it had become a term of affection as the years had gone on.
"d'nt want to go..." I grumbled behind his back, unaccustomed to his touch, the rough warmth of his skin set my senses on edge, I found herself trying to pull her hand out more than once before ultimately giving it up as futile. At 15, I had found the red-head to be relaxing company, if only for the fact that he never seemed to think and talk at the same time. But now...
I was 16, and I had fallen in love.
"What are you talkin' about, you were the one who said we should take shots, ya?" Wakka sounded puzzled, slightly annoyed. I'd been doing that to him, lately. We'd been having fights, and even though we were only friends, they always seemed to hint at something else, to me. It was like he wanted me to trust him, to know that he would never wish me pain, even though we would argue over the smallest thing.
Which was stupid, of course. How could I trust such an idiot?
Nevertheless, we were only a couple of metres from the booth, if I wanted out, this was the time to say so.
"Please, Lulu? I really wanna do this!" He sounded anxious, was this some kind of trick?
If it was, he couldn't have conducted it, he seemed genuine.
"Fine". That's all I said. That's all that needed to be said.
Right?
So we went in, he was wearing a most unbelievably stupid/happy expression that I had ever had the poor taste to witness, he chose the outline, some sappy, disgusting rose border, and set the timer to fast shot with a one second pause.
And... I did something, I couldn't remember what had happened till I picked up the photoslip.
My eyes went wide, the first was simply him and me, side by side.
The second, he was looking down at our hands, I guessed I had grabbed his.
The third, he was looking like he'd been electrocuted, I had turned around and planted my other hand on his flank. I could dimly remember the feel of his toned side, the way it had shifted, the way he opened his lips and drawn a shocked breath...
The final picture held evidence that I had taken my chance, had leaned forward, had...
My first kiss, and it was with THAT imbecile?!
But nonetheless, there it was. Proof in the print, as it were.
Then he finally came out of the booth, looking stunned. He ran his vision over the pictures, looked me in the eyes, and said...
"Lu, I... can't. Not now. Not with you. I'm sorry, ya?"
I lay in bed and cried for a week. I told everyone that it was the flu. It was a sickness, all the same.
"You girls done standing around?" a familiar sound echoed in the hall.
Speak of the devil...
"What's the deal? You hoping to catch some Selphie-Lulu action before you head home, Wakka boy?" Selphie concluded her taunt with a swiftly risen middle finger, which only brought a smile from the red-head. Lulu rolled her eyes and glared at him, the smile vanishing as quickly as it had begun. "It's not that, ya?" Wakka drawled, choosing to lean on the door to the Ballroom to hide his discomfort, offering the girls a glance at the goings-on inside. A live band (Courtesy of Dyme and his watercloning abilities, he'd left both the clones and an empty spa pool behind as a favour) was ripping the air apart with a strange mix of heavy metal and pop; Lulu caught sight of Barret chasing after Vaan and Ashe; both laughing as Vaan held Barret's metal arm, his trophy, aloft before disappearing from sight. "Penelo got the Party King sticks set up, we're gonna have a game of it!" He turned to Lulu, "'You in?"
"Party King? Sweet!" The door to the solar opened, spawning a grinning and red-faced Tidus. "How many are playing?" he asked Wakka, buttoning his shirt up.
"If you and the girls want in, 10." Wakka looked a little sour as a giggling Quistis could be heard searching for her glasses in the other room. "Jecht ain't gonna like this, scruffy."
"My old man? Screw him!" Tidus declared, thumping his chest once, proudly.
"That's the problem, ya? You're screwed out!" Wakka laughed out, "Blackmail, heh!"
Tidus just beamed, proud nevertheless.
"So, you in?"
"Hell yeah!"
"And you?" Wakka turned to Selphie and Lulu.
"Havn't got a-"
The silence hit them. The clones ceased to play, the jubilant voices of young party goers were halted, even the odd cicada playing upbeat insect calls in the gardens were hushed. Wakka mouthed out a sentence and looked puzzled at the lack of noise. He turned to Tidus, who attempting to speak back, and resorted to finally shaking his head. Lulu motioned for attention, brow creased as she held her right palm up, green lightning arcing to form in a controlled fashion, creating letters which became...
-NO SOUND?-
The others just nodded their heads.
-FOLLOW-
Lulu swept into the ballroom, expecting some fool to be rolling on the floor from such a hilarious prank. Instead, Vaan, Ashe and the others were clearing tables while Barret carried a huge LCD screen from the gaming room and placed it in the middle of the ballroom. Feni was seen hooking up cables and connecting the screen to a squat chassis placed on the recently vacated buffet, giving them a distracted beckon as she attached a keyboard and microphone into the electronic whatever-it-was, swatting away her hip-length ponytail every time she spun around to grab another corded contraption.
Barret stomped back to the keyboard, his massive hands looking more at ease to crushing the hardware than using it. As he switched on the monitor and started up the computer, he would occasionally hold his surrendered metal arm into the air, apparently reading the small screen that showed up on his wrist before shaking his head. The monitor came to life, only showing the words RECEPTION FAILING, TRY AGAIN LATER.
Softly, by degrees, sound entered back into the world. Barret looked grim, the kids had confused expressions, and Feni appeared downright livid and uttered a red-hot stream of profanities, teeth bared at the unforgiving sentence.
"What's going on?" Quistis shot from the back. Feni got to her feet and swiped off Quistis' glasses, snapping them in half and removing the glass to create two rings of metal. Before she could register the what had happened, Feni stormed off to the spiral stairway that led to the second story.
"The hell was that?" Quistis cried, looking around as if to find the answer tucked in a corner.
"First things first, Quiche-"
"Don't call me that."
"Whatever, we're getting a signal from Riku's cellphone and we wanted to hear the little girls voice the best we could, so I set off this beauty-" Here he pulled a glowing blue orb of silence materia from his jacket "- to give us a bit less of a background, know what I mean? Second, Feni took your glasses to... there we go. IT'S BACK, FENI! Took her damn time..." He roared at the ceiling as the screen changed to RECEIVING SIGNAL, PLEASE STAND BY.
"Those cost me a hundred!"
"Don't kid yourself, you only wore them for the looks."
After typing instructions into another, smaller square of information, Barret lay back and let the wash of teen chatter fill his ears.
He turned as Feni leapt down the stairs, slipping on the last and skidding on her butt to the buffet, polishing the marble as she went. "You sent the feed?" She asked, refering to the feed pulse that supplied microwave energy to the cellphone, preventing any sudden disconnections.
"Just waiting for a good, strong signal."Barret smiled, amused by Selphie hopping from foot to foot and informing everyone that this sounded soooo black-op.
"Good, kids; SHADDUP!" She whinged at the throng as the screen faded and displayed a fuzzy face. "Is anyone getting this?" a sweet, worried voice sounded from the other end. It wasn't familiar.
"Who is this?" Barret rumbled into the microphone.
"This is officer Tike of the Island Patrol, whose cellphone is this?"
"It belongs to a Master Riku D, is he or any of his friends around there anywhere? They were supposed to be at a party tonight" Barret's face deepened, the soft light of the clones and the chandelier above made him look more a glacier than a man.
"We came across the wreckage of an abandoned van, a burning cottage, and this. No people, I'm afraid." The face paused, Lulu swore that it smiled before continuing, "We didn't find any tracks, apart from signs of a scuffle around the van, so we're thinking that they were attacked by Heartless. They went into the cottage after, but they didn't come out. Any ideas?"
"They're safe, don't worry about it. I'll fill you in, we're at 13 Phase Road. See you there." Feni chimed in, leaning in uncomfortably to Barret and speaking into the mic before hitting the disconnect button. The screen tuned out, and the tension in the room mellowed.
"Mind explaining yourself, little lady?" Barret growled, he hadn't enjoyed the little goof clambering over his shoulders to get to the keyboard.
"Simple, Naba's going to try doing a distance shift."
"Huh?"
"See, uh... Have any of you taken trips on the new transit system between here and Radiant Garden?" A score of nods indicated this was so. "Well, it can't make instant jumps between two points on the same world, just two points between other worlds, you following?" Slightly fewer nods. "Try and keep up. Well, since he can't just teleport 'em right here, he's moved the kids to another world where they can recover, and after he's taken a break, he'll move them back here, but in the house. Hopefully." She sighed. "If he was injured, then he wouldn't have bothered forming a breach barrier to prevent a universe with a higher energy density pouring energy, in this case heat, into a universe with a lower density. That would have been what set the cottage on fire."
"So... Sora and the rest are on another world?" Irvine piped up.
"Better than that, cutie." She took a breath for dramatic effect, "You see..."
"... They've gone to Heaven."
My first cliffhanger! Woot! Now, if I don't get some reviews... I'll... I'll... Sulk. And it's not like you know about it, but if any freakin' whiney emo finds out someone has been more of a wuss than they have, they kill themselves for real, so no matter what happens, we all win, yeah?
