Chapter 10.
IIiiII
"So?" Seifer grinned. "What do you think?"
Edea looked around the room at the back that they had repaired. The back wall had been rebuilt by Squall and Raijin. Seifer, Zell and Irvine had fixed the roof, between bouts of bitching at each other. Quistis and Fujin had plastered the whole room. Selphie had sanded the floor, everyone were a bit frightened about letting her operate the sanding machine but she didn't break anything. Rinoa was in charge of decoration, painting and placement of rugs and things.
Edea smiled. "It's looks really good! You did well."
"This is the new dining room right?" Selphie said. She looked back at the step that led into the rest of the house. "I remember the large wooden table we had in here." She gestured, where she remembered it.
"And wooden benches all the way down the table." Irvine added.
"There was door here before." Seifer pointed to where there was now a small cupboard.
"When we finished dinner we would run straight outside to play." Zell said.
Seifer chuckled. "A glass door that you run into one day, thinking it was open." He looked at Zell.
The little blonde blushed.
The others laughed.
"Hey!" He protested. "I was only little!"
"You still are little!" Fujin said.
He put his hands over his head. "That enough reminiscing, everyone always picks on me!"
"That because you did lots of stupid things as kid!" Seifer said.
"Everyone does stupid things as a kid, that's what kids do." Zell argued.
Quistis shook her head at them. "If this going be the dining room we can turn the other one into a large kitchen." She planned.
"And we definitely need a bigger bathroom!" Zell yelled. "It's so hard to shower in there!"
"Well most people shower alone." Irvine pointed out.
Zell blushed. "Shut up Irvine!"
Selphie laughed.
"I agree." Seifer said.
"We knew you would." Fujin said.
He rolled his eyes. "I mean for tall people like me, the shower head is lower than my head so it's not easy to stand up straight in there."
"But it's going to be an orphanage again so all the shower users will be little." Rinoa said.
He sighed. "Well what if I want to visit?"
Quistis rolled her eyes. "We will replace the bathroom don't worry Seifer."
"Whoa!! Selphie yelled leaning her head close to the window to see outside. "Check out that moon! It's huge!"
Rinoa practically shoved her out of the way to get a look. "Oh yeah, werewolf night!"
Quistis rolled her eyes. "It's pretty." She agreed, more calmly then the rest of them.
Selphie jumped back from the window. "Bet it's even better outside!" She run through the door into the dining/living room and out the glass doors followed by everyone else.
It was completely dark out but the lights from the house lit up the yard that they stood in on that clear night. The full moon lit up clearly in a bed of stars with the sound of the sea crashing in the background.
"It's so pretty here." Selphie said, she stood with Rinoa and Quistis.
Fujin had walked to the top of the stairs looking down at the sea in dark. Squall walked up to edge, behind Fujin and Irvine followed him at a distance.
Zell, who stood in the light of the house, toed the ground with one foot. "I guess but Balamb's better."
Selphie wrinkled her nose.
Fujin scoffed. "Balamb smells of fish."
Seifer laughed, he stood behind Zell watching the little blonde's expression turn to one of annoyance.
"It's a fishing town!" He glared at her. "Balamb is nearer to the sea, it's peaceful it's-"
"The sea is just down these steps, how nearer do you want it?"
"I like that you can fall in the sea at home."
She made an amused sound, he couldn't see her very well in the dark so he let it go. "Look at the lighthouse." Selphie said, then turning to Edea she added. "Matron didn't you say you still had the key to the lighthouse? I'd love to have a look around."
Edea bit her lip. "I did have the key for a long time, now I'm not sure where it is."
Selphie's head dropped. "Ohhhh." She said in disappointment.
Edea turned to go back into the house. "Seifer, can you help me with something a minute."
The tall blonde blinked. "Sure." He followed her into the house.
Zell frowned, wondering what was going on but then he was distracted by Irvine yelling something. He looked over to where he had last seen the cowboy but he wasn't there anymore.
"Irvine?" He asked.
"Fujin, are you nuts?" He heard the cowboy say, his voice coming from the stone stairs.
Rinoa skipped excitedly up to the edge followed by Selphie.
"They didn't go down there in the dark did they?" Zell asked. Raijin was over there but near enough for Zell to still see, just about.
Fujin's voice wafted back to them in the dark. "Don't you want to go down there?"
"No! I can't see more than two inches in front of my face."
"COWARD!"
"You tell him Fujin." Squall said.
The cowboy frowned. "Oh good everyone gang up on me then, why don't you go down there?"
Zell, Raijin and girls all stood on the edge and looked down on the stone staircase. Zell could only make out a couple of shadows in the dark, he didn't even know which was which until they spoke. He couldn't see Squall at all with all that black he was wearing, he was just a body less voice.
"I will." Squall said, stepping off the last step and onto the dark beach.
IIiiII
Edea walked into the kitchen waiting for Seifer to follow her, she stopped and looked in one of the drawers.
"Got something for you." She said.
He arched an eyebrow. "Yeah?"
She held out a fist that held something, he put his hand out and she handed him an old key.
He moved his hand closer to look at it and frowned in confusion. "It's a key." He said.
"To the lighthouse." She explained.
He just blinked at her.
She stared at him. "An escape…. For you…. For Zell." She smiled.
"Oh?" He blinked, as it sank in. "OH! You mean- Oh!" He grinned.
Her eyes widened in shock when he hugged her. "Thank you Matron!" He grinned again. "Have I told you, you're the best Matron ever!"
She laughed and gave him a playful shove as she walked with him back to the glass doors. "Yes, yes now go back outside and see-" She trailed off looking outside into the yard that was once filled with people. "Um…. Where did everybody go?"
Seifer frowned, stepping out into the dark. "Guys?" He called. "Zell?"
"I'll get a torch." Edea went back into the kitchen.
"Hello? Where-?" Seifer started to ask.
"Seifer!" Selphie hissed at him from… somewhere.
He started to walk forward towards the stairway to the beach.
"Seifer." Edea said from the doorway, handing him a torch.
"Thanks." He switched it on, pointing it ahead of him to see the top of Selphie's head for the stairway.
The petite girl turned and came back up the stairs.
"I told you not to go down there." Seifer heard Fujin say as he walked up.
"You did not!" Irvine replied. "You were the one who told him to go down there in the first place."
"No, I told you to go down there."
"Same thing."
"No it isn't."
"Yes it is!"
"What-?" Seifer asked.
Zell came back up the steps. "We were just looking at the lighthouse and sea- well I was then I looked back and- err - well Squall was on the ground so-"
"Something flew at my head." Squall said from the bottom of the stairs. The brunette keep running his fingers through his hair and over his scalp as if he was sure something had done something to him.
Irvine peered at the back of Squall's head. "There's nothing on you darlin' are you sure you weren't just distracted in the dark and-"
"No!" Squall turned to glare at him. "I'm not crazy!"
"I never said that!"
"I was standing with you guys then something flew at me, I know it did."
"What did it look like?"
He shook his head. "I don't know I didn't see it I just felt it."
Edea hurried outside, wrapping her arms around herself as protection from the cold. "Can we talk about this inside? In the warm? I have cocoa." She said.
"And marshmallows?" Selphie asked.
Edea smiled. "Yes and marshmallows."
"Woo hoo!" She punched the air. "Let's go then." She helped Rinoa up the steps as she stumbled up the last one.
"Squall's gone crazy." Fujin announced.
Squall gritted his teeth. "I am not crazy, let's hope next time it aims for your head." He glared into the back of her head as he followed her into the house.
The girls all squashed up on the sofa all four of them fitting on there each holding a cup of cocoa with marshmallows on top.
"I should have brought my gunblade." Squall muttered in the corner by the door, staring out in the dark.
"Squall, honey…." Irvine put his hands on Squall's shoulders and tried to get him to turn away from the window. "Stop looking for monsters in the dark and come and join us."
Squall shrugged off the cowboy's hands. "I am not your honey." He glared at Irvine, but he did follow the other man over to the dining table and took a seat at opposite end from the cowboy.
Selphie got down on her hands and knees, crawling towards the TV. She put a DVD in the machine and then scuttled back to her seat on the sofa.
"What are we watching?" Irvine asked."
"Well we are watching beauty and the beast." She said, gesturing the girls on the sofa and Raijin who seemed happy with whatever as long as he didn't have to move.
The cowboy made a face.
"We could play scrabble." Squall said.
The cowboy frowned. "Are you offering to play with me?" He asked, surprised.
"If you want to."
"Sure."
The brunette got up. "I'll get the board." He announced.
"Hey Zell." Irvine called the blonde. "You want to play scrabble?"
He shrugged. "Sure, just let me go get Seifer."
IIiiII
An hour later.
The girls, Edea and Raijin were engrossed in their movie. The four guys were slumped at the table.
Zell studied his tiles carefully.
Seifer had his head in his hands peering over to look at his boyfriend's tiles, the little blonde quickly covered them. "Hey!"
"What? I can help!"
"I don't need help!"
"Well then hurry up and do something." Squall snapped in boredom.
"I'm concentrating!"
Irvine had his head on the table. "Zell, for god's sake just do something, anything."
Zell waved him off. "I want a good word."
"Shh!" Selphie hissed.
The guys ignored her.
Irvine reached over to turn Zell's tile holder round so he could see them too.
"Hey!" Zell turned it back.
"We can help, you'll be here forever."
"No no I've got it, it's fine." He picked up three tiles and added them to the board. "Mile." He said.
Squall blinked at him. "It took you 15 minutes to get that!"
"I'm trying to win here!"
Irvine looked at the scoreboard. "Zell, you're not going to win, not unless there's a miracle or something."
"Shh!" Selphie hissed.
Squall frowned at her.
"We can't hear the movie, can't you guys take the game somewhere else."
"We're set up here, why don't you go somewhere else?"
She rolled her eyes, not even answering that.
One round later and Zell was struggling for words again. Seifer sighed. "Who's winning?"
"I am." Squall said.
"Who's second?"
"Irvine."
The tall blonde stood from the table. "In that case I'm all scrabbled out for the day."
"But we haven't finished yet." Zell protested.
"Zell we have one more round and you're losing by miles this one round is not going to make the difference."
"But-"
"I'm going to bed…. And you're coming with me."
"Oh." Zell looked at his tiles then back at Seifer. "Oh well okay then."
Irvine shook his head with a smile. "Another game Squally? Just you and me?"
"I'll still beat you."
"We'll see."
IIiiII
TBC