Disclaimer: The very talented people at Squaresoft own these characters; I'm just borrowing them for a little bit. Buy their games, and give them your money!

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At an Arm's Length. . .
A Final Fantasy VIII Story

Chapter 9: Mirror Crack'd

"H- hello?"

"Goood morning, Quistis Trepe!" A sing-songy voice could be heard on the other end.

Quistis stared down at the mirror, still in her hand. The glass is cracked.

"Quistis? Are you there?'

"Oh – Selphie! Yeah, I'm sorry. . . I don't think I'm fully awake yet."

"Oh, don't worry about it. You've still got an hour before we leave. Irvine's complaining because I woke him up early, too. . ."

The blonde ran her finger carefully over the looking glass's broken surface. It was missing a few pieces from when she had thrown it.

Selphie continued enthusiastically, ". . . and I just figured, that if you needed a little extra time, I could get Irvine to pick up breakfast for you in the cafeteria and then help you with your bags."

"That would be really helpful, Selphie," Quistis answered into the phone as she looked at the patterns the sunlight created on her unmade bed.

"O.K., then…"

Quistis continued to survey her room. How *did* this room get cleaned up? I sure as hell don't remember doing it. As her eyes traveled from the bed to the closet, she saw a flash of dark hair in her mirrored closet door. Great, now I'm seeing things, she grimaced to herself.

"Quistis?"

"Umhm."

"I just asked you when you'd like me to tell Irvine to drop by your room."

"Sorry. I just kind of spaced out."

"That's cool. It just means that you really must need this vacation," Selphie giggled into the phone. "I'll tell him to stop by in half an hour."

"Sure thing."

"See you in a bit," the chipper girl answered. CLICK.

Quistis returned the phone's handset to its receiver.

"O.K., Trepe. Get a hold of yourself. You probably just need this time off." Great. Talking to myself is a *sure* sign of sanity.

*****

She quickly made the bed and hopped into the shower. By the time Irvine knocked on the door, she was fully-dressed, and all that was left to do was dry her hair and put on her make up.

"Lovely 'do, there, Q," the cowboy said as he crossed the threshold of her room and, in two steps, was seated at her kitchenette's breakfast bar.

"Just because your girlfriend is a morning person, you don't have to take it out on me!"

He started, until he realized she was half-joking. "I'm going to help myself."

"Sure. I've just got to dry my hair and gather the rest of my bath supplies." And she disappeared, again, into the bathroom.

Irvine took this opportunity to cram half of a bagel into his mouth and take a good look around Quistis' quarters. He didn't really have many opportunities to see what the girls' rooms looked like. Well, except for Selphie's, he smirked to himself, wolfishly.

Quistis' room was kind of what he expected it to be. A little messy, but basically, pretty well organized. Man, she has a lot of stuff, he lifted a few books from the stack resting on her desk. He smiled warmly as he noticed the Valentine's Day violets on a slightly shaded part of the window sill and moved his attention to her dresser.

You can find out a lot about a woman by looking at her dresser.

Everything in its place. Perfume: Water's Edge. Jewelry box. Closed. Mustn't open it. Hm. What's this? He carefully reached to pick up the broken hand mirror, but it slipped from his hands. Shoot, now it's all over the floor.

He bent down to retrieve it, and, hopefully, clean up the mess. No pieces. But there are pieces missing from this. He looked under the dresser and the bed, and finally walked over to the small wastepaper basket by her desk. Nothing. He stood up to his full height, took off his ever-present hat and scratched his temple, glancing for a split second at his reflection in the room's one full-length mirror.

He did a double-take.

What the…? Her room was clean, he imagined it always was, but the room reflected in the closet's mirror was the closest thing he could imagine to a disaster. My room times ten.

He blinked. It was gone. Replaced by the reflection that was supposed to be there.

"Irvine? What are you doing?"

He turned slowly to face her, "Um, nothing?" He looked down at his hands. He was still holding the broken hand mirror. 

Instead of anger, all he saw was anxiety. Why is she so jumpy? "I'm sorry. I broke this. I should know better than to snoop –"

She shook her head as if she was trying to clear it and moved toward the kitchenette and the waiting breakfast. "No, I accidentally broke it last night. I just think I need a break from this place."

He sat down next to her and patted her on the shoulder. "All in good time, Kiki."

She practically choked on her bagel, as her eyes met his with lightening speed. "What did you just call me?"

"Oh, just a little nickname you used to ABSOLUTELY LOVE back in the day," he teased mischievously.

"One that I absolutely loved or one that made me want to absolutely throttle you?" She took another bite of bagel.

A slow grin overtook the young man's face. "O.K. I'll admit it. . . the latter. You never really let most of us call you by a nickname."

She swallowed her sip of orange juice. "You say 'most of us' as though I did let someone call me by a nickname."

Damn, I said too much. Irvine gulped uncomfortably, as his breakfast companion narrowed her incredibly blue eyes – dead on me. Time for a change of subject.  "We'd better get going, if we're going to make the train to where they've been repairing Ragnarok. You have everything?"

"Let me cram the last of my stuff into my train case," she said distractedly, moving to place the items in their designated compartment.

Good save, moron, Irvine chided himself. I have a feeling this trip is going to be a test for all of us — for Quistis, if she remembers, and for Selphie and me, if she doesn't.

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Next week: Arrival in Esthar
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Author's Notes: Huge props go out to my very kind repeat reviewers -- sabacat, Quistis88 and seyenaidni, and plus, greetings go out to AW. Oh, God. I am so sorry about the cliffhanger… it's just a baby one, and I restrained myself for almost 10 whole chapters!! (But I didn't know ff.net would go down.) ^_^

To those concerned, I haven't forgotten about Seifer. He's going to rear his rather handsome head. . . sooner or later. (This whole story is an exercise in patience and anticipation. It IS going somewhere, so pay attention to the clues.)

A plug for my web site: Between chapters, feel free to check out: http://www.absolute-0.com !