76.

"I'm moving to Timber," Selphie announces over a plate of cookies.

"What? When?" Zell pauses, and adds, "Why?"

"End of March," she replies, shrugging. "I meant to tell you sooner, but I only just kind of got things figured out. Sorry."

Zell contemplates this over his tea. He's just gotten used to having Selphie around; her presence is good for forcing cheer on a person. At the moment, however, she looks kind of glum.

"You're not upset, are you?" she asks him.

"No, no. Just… surprised."

"I'm not with Garden anymore, so there's not much for me here. When I went back to Trabia over the new year, it was… things just aren't the way they were. I probably won't go back again." She smiles her sunny smile, and shrugs again. "Anyway, Squall and Rinoa are moving to Timber. So I thought, why not go?"

Zell hasn't heard any such thing, but Rinoa confirms it a few days later, when he's over for the once- or twice-monthly dinners that the two girls have been making a concerted effort to get him to join since his mum died. "It's been hard trying to split my time between here and there over the last couple years," she admits, stirring a pot of red sauce while Zell helps in the kitchen; Selphie and Squall are at the table playing cards. "Squall's taking a position at Galbadia Garden, and I won't have to worry about not being able to dedicate enough time to the Owls."

"Well, good luck," Zell says, sincerely. "It's gonna be quiet around Balamb from now on, huh?"

Rinoa gives him a long, thoughtful stare. "Hand me that?" she says, pointing to a plate of chopped vegetables behind Zell on the counter. He passes it over. "You could move, too," Rinoa adds, stirring the vegetables into her sauce.

Zell doesn't answer, thinking about it. But there's nothing really to think about.

"There's a lot to do in Timber. I mean, what are you going to do here in Balamb for the rest of your life?"

"Seifer's not welcome in Timber," Zell says plainly, and Rinoa's expression turns soft.

"Rin'll make sure he's welcome once she's the Mayor of Timber," Selphie chimes in, jokingly, from the other room. Rinoa shoots her a stern look over her shoulder.

"I'm not running for mayor!"

"You don't need to run," Squall adds, shuffling his card deck. "I think the people of Timber are going to vote you in whether or not you want it."

Rinoa huffs, like the idea is ridiculous, but Zell laughs. "I'll be sure to visit, if you guys ever have free time," he promises, and Rinoa reaches out to give him a hug, a wooden spoon still in one hand.

"You'd better! And I'll run out anyone who thinks they can stop Seifer from coming with you," she says fiercely, and Zell knows her personality well enough to know that she means it.

77.

Quistis arrives in town three days before Zell's birthday, taking him by surprise - she claims to be in town to help Selphie get ready for her move, but Zell knows better.

"I don't know how someone who lives such a vagrant lifestyle can have so much stuff," she complains as they're walking back to Zell's place, after spending the last six hours trying and mostly failing to make some sense of Selphie's junk-cluttered flat. Zell only laughs; Quistis loves nothing more than a good organizational challenge.

"So, it's your birthday this weekend," she says in a futile attempt to smoothly segue between topics. "Selphie had an idea…"

"I'm afraid to ask you to finish that sentence," Zell replies.

"She thought we could all go out to Deling City for a night out. You, me, her, and Nida. He can fly us out there and back in the same night."

"Fly us? What, in the Ragnarok?"

"No, he's got his own little personal passenger jet. What, you think he drags the Ragnarok all the way down to the Cape every time I want to go back and forth?" Quistis laughs. Zell knew that Nida was doing quite well for himself in the high levels of Esthar's air force; it seemed like they were treating him well in return. Zell wonders if the pilot is passing on any of that well-being to Quistis; she seems more cheerful lately than she has been in the past.

"You'd probably rather have a quiet night in without us bothering you," Quistis goes on, after Zell doesn't respond one way or the other to her offer. He thinks about it for a few moments. Selphie's idea of a "night out" in Deling City is probably more excitement than he really wants, but at the same time, she and Quistis are obviously trying to make sure his birthday doesn't go uncelebrated - his Ma always did the same thing. So he can certainly sacrifice one quiet evening in the interests of showing his gratitude, especially since Quistis has traveled halfway across the world just to be here this weekend.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun," he says to Quistis, and her face lights up.

"Selphie's going to be in charge, it'll probably be more fun than you can handle," she replies, laughing.

78.

Zell is properly drunk for only the second time in his life. Selphie was determined to pour liquor down his throat, and after dinner and two clubs, Zell has lost both the energy and the capacity to try and refuse her. She drags him by both arms onto the dance floor and makes him embarrass himself, while nearby, Quistis shoots him pitying looks as she and Nida move in slow circles around the floor.

He's having a lot of fun, even though the dance clubs Selphie keeps directing them to aren't really his style. Late in the night, he manages to escape her clutches for a few minutes to slip out the back door for some fresh air. Quistis follows, and sits down beside him on the steps in a narrow alley between two buildings.

"How are you doing?"

"She really never runs out of energy, does she?" Zell asks, exasperated. Quistis chuckles, and puts her arm around Zell's shoulders.

"You should have brought Seifer. I'd love to see her drag him around all night like this."

"I wouldn't inflict that kind of torture on him."

"I hope it was okay that we stole you away like this," Quistis says suddenly, as if she's just had a thought - she's drunk, but slightly less so than Zell, who has been taking the brunt of Selphie's attentions throughout the night. "I mean, I know you said you guys don't really do that kind of stuff, but maybe he had some plans for you?"

"Nah, I doubt it. I think he was glad you guys wanted to do something for me," Zell replies truthfully. "Took the pressure off him having to try and make a big deal out of it."

He falls silent, thinking vaguely about Seifer, while Quistis leans against his shoulder. A few minutes pass before she speaks again. "Do you miss him?" she asks.

"I've only been gone for twelve hours," Zell says, but a little too defensively - because when he thinks about it, he doesn't know the last time he went twelve hours without Seifer nearby. Quistis laughs quietly.

"You looked like you were thinking about him, that's all."

"It's not like missing, exactly," Zell says, sighing. "It's not like I want him here or whatever. It's just… sorta… like it feels unnatural when he's not here."

Quistis starts giggling, and for a long time, she doesn't stop. "Zell," she says eventually, getting a hold of herself. "Zell, that's the definition of missing someone."

She leans against him again, the quiet interspersed with occasional sighs. Their interlude is cut short a few minutes later when Nida sticks his head out the door to announce that it's officially time to bring their night of festivities to a close. "Selphie just puked all over some guy's Galbadian Army regulation boots, so I think it's time we better shift it out of here," he says, extending a hand to pull Zell to his feet, and then helping a wobbly Quistis to stand.

The two-hour flight back to Balamb goes smoothly, except for a brief scare where Nida has to fly low over the water so that Selphie can vomit out of the hatch ("If you throw up in my plane, Selph, I swear I'll kick you out the airlock myself!") They touch down in the fields outside Balamb just after dawn and stagger back into town in the chilly morning mist. They all walk Selphie back to her flat first, and then Nida peels off toward the hotel, while Zell and Quistis head back to Zell's place. Quistis makes a beeline for the couch and flops down on it without even taking off her shoes.

Seifer is asleep in bed when Zell makes it upstairs; he kicks off his shoes and drops his jacket to the floor before crawling in between the covers, still fully dressed but too tired to care. The movement - or perhaps his freezing cold hands - wakes Seifer, and the other man turns to face him, grumbling.

"The fuck have you been doing? You stink."

"Stuff… dancing," Zell says uninformatively, curling up in the blankets. The bed is nice and warm and his head is spinning a little, even though he's mostly sobered up during the long flight back.

"Go take a shower before you get into bed," Seifer says, nudging Zell with his elbow. Zell doesn't move.

"I'm tired."

"Yeah, and drunk, no doubt. What's Tilmitt done to you? You look like shit."

"Aww, you really care," Zell says in his most smartassed tone; his cheek goes unacknowledged by Seifer, who gives a frustrated sigh. Zell snakes his arms around Seifer's waist and curls into the other man's warmth, and Seifer gives up trying to push him away.

"You really are stupid," he says, not sounding like he means it, but Zell murmurs a drowsy agreement anyway before drifting off to sleep.

79.

The flat above the weapons shop is actually pretty roomy, once all of Selphie's crap is cleared out.

"What about any of this furniture, Selph?" Zell asks as he stacks the last of the boxes by the door and looks around the mostly-empty apartment.

"Oh, most of it came with the place. The only bit that's mine is the TV and the bedroom set, but my flat in Timber is furnished, so I can't take it with," Selphie explains, casting a sad, wistful glance over the matching cherry wardrobe, dresser, and queen-size bed. She sighs, and then shrugs, grinning again. "Oh, well. My new place is totally nice! You're gonna have to come and visit and see everything."

Zell, however, is struck by a different idea. "How much have you been renting this place for?" he asks, looking around the place with a little more interest now that it's been decluttered.

Selphie tells him, and then adds, "but, you know, Mr. Halverson has been giving me a discount because I help out around the store sometimes. Like running errands and bringing in supplies, stuff like that."

Zell spends a few days thinking about it before he makes a decision. He can't keep living in his Ma's house forever, but he's not sure whether he can afford to rent a flat; he and Seifer had a pretty good chunk of savings between them when they left Garden, but the longer Zell goes without finding some work, the more that number dwindles.

"I'm fine with giving you the same price I gave the girl, that's only fair," Mr. Halverson says when Zell goes back to inquire about the flat. "To be honest, though, what I really need is some help around here. I've been too old to go out hunting for a long time, and importing monster parts from Timber is a waste of money these days. If you'd be willing to go out a couple times a week and bring in supplies, we can call it even on the flat."

Zell considers the offer with some genuine interest. It's not exactly a full time job, but it would be something to do, at least. He'd always been interested in building things, although his expertise leans more toward cars and machines; but he's always game for learning new things. "Yeah, that works for me," he says. "What else am I gonna do?"

"What about that friend of yours? Is he good for anything?" the old man asks, looking skeptical. Zell laughs.

"Yeah, he'll make himself useful."

80.

Zell is surprised by how few possessions Seifer actually has. Besides his clothes, he brings a couple of boxes of books, his video games, and his gunblade in its case, which Zell is pretty sure hasn't even been opened in years. Another box stuffed in the back of a closet contains what Zell is sure are the only things left of Seifer's from before the war - a couple way-too-small cadet uniform jackets, a Balamb Garden cadet badge, a couple of movies with BGU Library stickers on the cases. A photo album completely devoid of photos, several pages torn away, as though someone went through and violently ripped out all of the pictures. A box with a gunblade servicing kit, some half-filled jars of polish and wax. Another small box with a few pieces of jewelry inside, including the silver necklace that Seifer hasn't worn in years. The writing on it is in some foreign language, and it occurs to Zell that the other man probably doesn't even know what it says or why he has it.

He never thought much about it, but Seifer's dorm room at Garden was always pretty bare whenever Zell saw it - almost sadly so. No pictures of himself or his friends, no posters on the walls. No ugly knick-knacks given to him by someone as a joke gift. Almost nothing personal at all, except what was stuffed in that box and hidden away.

"Do you want any of this stuff?" Zell asks, debating whether or not to just take the box without asking. He's pretty sure Seifer is going to say no, but he doesn't feel like he can just toss it without asking.

"Throw it out," Seifer says without even looking.

Zell hesitates. But he's not about to force the stuff on Seifer. A few moments later, however, Seifer comes back.

"Wait," he says, reaching over Zell's shoulder. He pulls the small jewelry box out, rattling it gently, as though to make sure there's something inside. "I want this."