Chapter Fifteen: Housewarming Party

"Time to Ragna-rock-n-roll!" Zell hollered as he waved the first group of partygoers onto the giant spaceship, then turned to his girlfriend next to him. "Dude, I am so stoked!"

"I can tell," she giggled. "We haven't been to a party like this since your return from the future."

"Yeah…" he replied, his grin fading as he stepped up to his petite sweetheart to gaze into her angelic face. "Man…I can't imagine what it would have been like if we'd failed; no 'us' would really suck."

"I can't imagine it, either," she agreed as she reached up to cup his face with her hand, her fingers absently tracing the lines of his tattoo. "I'm so glad you won."

"Yeah…" he repeated, laying his hand over hers. "It's too bad Rinoa couldn't have laid into Ultimecia a bit, but still…"

"Hey!" a voice called out, and the couple awkwardly broke contact to see Selphie waving at them from the cargo ramp. "We're all on board and waiting for our pilot!"

Zell looked back at his girl with a sheepish grin. "Sorry, Sal Gal."

"It's okay," she replied, fluttering her eyes at him as they headed toward the ship. "We'll do some 'smooching' later."

Zell froze mid-step, his grin shifting from sheepish to goofy as he started walking again. "Score…"

They made their way to the bridge, where Squall and Selphie had already taken their seats; as Garden staff they were allowed in the cockpit, while candidates and SeeDs had to settle for regular seating. Being the saviors of the world certainly came with benefits. "Sorry, sir," Sally said to the commander as she quickly took the pilot's seat.

"Yeah, sorry dude," Zell seconded as he claimed the copilot's seat. "My bad; I was chatting up your captain here and lost track of stuff."

"Don't worry about it," Squall chuckled. "I know you'll be missing out on a lot of 'you' time with shuttling us back and forth. For what it's worth, I really appreciate it."

"Me, too!" Selphie exclaimed, pumping a fist in the air. "Now let's get this show on the road!"

Zell and Sally exchanged smiles as they conducted the pre-flight check and made sure to reach for the same button so they could touch hands. "'Scuse me, captain," Zell said with a wiggle of his eyebrows, causing said captain to blush madly.

"We're..." Sally croaked, still feeling the effects of Zell's touch before clearing her throat. "We're ready for departure, commander."

"At your discretion," Squall told her.

"Yes, sir." With that the huge vessel lifted off, and under Sally's delicate touch it rotated in mid-air before accelerating toward Trabia Garden.

"You know, Squall; I've been thinking…" Zell started, turning in his seat to face two of his best friends.

"Uh-oh…" Selphie said with an impish grin.

"No, seriously," he said, holding up his hands. "You know how this baby is made for space, right?"

"Of course," Squall replied.

"Well, wouldn't it be cool if we could make a ship like this, but one that we could use for exploring space?" Zell's eyes nearly glowed as he spoke, and it was clear to the others that he was excited by the idea. "It'd be like that one show; we could find new planets and see if anyone lives on 'em!"

"You're really on fire about this, aren't you?" Squall asked with an amused smile.

"Well, yeah!" he exclaimed as Sally giggled. "The only problem, though, is how long it would take to get to these other planets. I mean, the Ragnarok is cool and all that, but it'd run out of gas before we got too far; we'd need a way to go really far really fast."

"That makes sense," Squall said, leaning forward in his seat, suddenly intrigued by the idea.

"But see, if we go too fast, we'd end up getting smooshed into whatever ship we're flying, right?" Zell continued.

"Ewwwww…" Selphie groaned, her nose wrinkling in spite of her smile. "Gross, Zell."

"But I think I got a solution," Zell continued. "See, Ultimecia's focus was on time magic, right? And Odine's awesome at copying Sorceress abilities with his tech, right? I mean, he's the one who invented the Draw system, right?"

"Wait a minute…" Squall's eyes lost focus as he pondered his friend's words. "Are you suggesting that we could use Time magic on a ship to somehow make us go places more quickly?"

"Exacatiggly!" Zell chirped with a snap of his fingers. "But I was thinking; what if we could step outside of time? We could go anywhere we wanted in an instant!" He sat up with a smile of pride, only for it to fade at the sight of three pairs of wide eyes staring at him. "What? Did I say something stupid again?"

Selphie was the first to blink. "Who are you, and what have you done with Zell Dincht?"

The festivities were already in full swing as Squall and Selphie passed through the auto-doors into Trabia Garden proper. "Wow, look at all the people!" Selphie gushed as they took in the sight. All throughout the large main entryway students, staff, and faculty chatted together happily in groups of various sizes, from two to three people up to what easily appeared to be a dozen. "This is my kind of party!"

"Yeah…" Squall murmured as he eyed the mass of humanity; while he didn't dislike people, he still had a hard time with larger groups; he was definitely planning on being a wallflower as much as possible.

Selphie noticed his less-than-enthusiastic response and gave him a sympathetic smile as she reached over to pat his arm. "You wanna head to your room? I can-"

"Commander!" Headmaster Winn called as he headed up to them with a broad smile and a twinkle in his eye. "I saw the Ragnarok depart, and I had a feeling you'd be here!"

"Hello, sir," Squall replied, dropping his bag to salute the head of Trabia Garden; he also noticed that several of the students nearby had noticed and started toward him. "How have things been since we left?"

"Busy!" Winn replied with a laugh as he returned the salute; apparently, his disposition had made a one-eighty since the pair last saw him. "But in a very good way, of course!"

"That's…good," Squall conceded, feeling a little stupid for having asked in light of all the decorations spread around the Garden.

"Well, I see you have many admirers waiting to greet you, so I'll excuse myself," the headmaster told them. "I just wanted to welcome you back."

"Thank you, sir," Selphie, replied, trying to hold back a giggle at her friend's discomfort at the attention.

"Commander!" a voice cried from somewhere in the mass of people. "Thank you for saving our home!"

"I-" Squall was at a loss for words, overwhelmed as he was by all the attention, so he looked to Selphie for backup and realized… "Thank you all, but Chief Tilmitt here was the one who activated the machinery that restored your Garden."

"Squall…?" Selphie looked up into her friend's face, and her face brightened as she immediately understood. "I…was just glad to help!" she exclaimed as he thrust a fist into the air. "Everyone was working so hard and I wanted to do what I could to help!" She then gave him a wink along with her smile as the crowd's attention shifted to her, and Squall breathed a sigh of relief as she led the group away toward the cafeteria. "Let's get something to eat, and I'll tell you all about it!"

Finally alone, Squall sighed again, then collected his bag and headed off to the quartermaster to find out which room he would be using.

As he followed Selphie into the Quad, Squall grunted in approval at the sight of the massive projector set up at the back of the room, along with the largest screen he'd ever seen set up on the opposite wall. "This is pretty impressive."

"What is?" Selphie asked as they headed toward the back of the room, her voice barely discernible over the din of the groups of chattering students.

"Everything," he replied as he lowered himself to the brown-carpeted floor while she made herself comfortable on an oversized pillow. "I hope this doesn't sound insulting, but Trabia Garden looks so small from the outside that it's hard to believe that it could hold a room this big," he explained, taking in the surroundings as he leaned back on his hands; it wasn't hard to see the whiteness of the walls behind the dark blue – almost black – curtains that had been raised to cover them, presumably to dampen sound as well as mute the walls' stark color.

Selphie took a moment to look around as well, then giggled. "You know, I never really noticed; I guess I've gotten so used to it that it just…is what it is," she finished with a shrug along with another giggle.

Squall opened his mouth to reply before a familiar voice stopped him: "Hey, mind if we join you?"

The pair looked up in surprise to see Zell looking down at them, with Sally at her usual place on his arm. "Sure!" Selphie chirped after exchanging a nod with Squall. "I didn't think you were into this kind of movie though, Zell."

"Tch!" Zell scoffed. "I wasn't before, but Sallerina here has 'broadened my horizons'," he replied, sounding more melodramatic toward the end for emphasis.

"'Sallerina'…" Sally giggled as she took a seat next to her man, who had put himself next to Squall. "You're so funny."

Zell simply wrinkled his nose at her as he grinned from ear to ear before turning his attention to Squall.

"'Sup, Z," Squall chuckled as he exchanged a fist bump with his exuberant friend.

"Yo!" Zell replied, spreading his fingers after the fist bump as though imitating an explosion, drawing a chuckle from his normally-stoic friend.

Sally leaned forward so she could see the others. "Chief-I mean, Selphie; do you know what this movie's about?"

"Kinda," Selphie replied as she absently knotted her fingers. "It's a romance, about a boy who works on a farm and falls in love with the daughter, who falls in love with him as well. He goes off to make money for them, but…" She shrugged. "That's all I can remember from the summary."

"I dunno, man…" Zell said in a mock-warning tone as he leaned toward the other male in the group. "We might be punching outside our weight class, here."

Squall shrugged before patting the floor next to him. "If it's boring, I'll just take a nap."

"Squall!" Selphie scolded with a smile as she playfully whapped his arm. "Are you serious?"

"No," Squall deadpanned. "I'm kidding."

She withdrew her hand with a disbelieving grin. "I really thought you were serious!"

"May we join you?"

The quartet looked up to see... "Hey, J-Man!" Zell greeted, hopping to his feet to fist-bump James, who returned the gesture, albeit awkwardly. With him was Dawn, who gave the group a friendly wave, though she looked a little intimidated, which was understandable given that the group had three senior officers as part of it. "Squall, you cool with more company?"

"Of course. Mr. Barton, good to see you again," Squall greeted, then held up a hand as James brought his own to his head. "Please, don't salute me right now; we're off-duty."

"Of course sir," James replied as he and Dawn sat down next to Selphie, on the side opposite Squall. "Thank you, sir."

"Have any of you seen this movie before?" Dawn asked as she took her man's hand, linking her fingers with his. The others looked at each other before shaking their heads, bringing a smile to her face. "Well, I think that-"

"Hey," Zell interrupted as the lights started to dim. "The flick's starting."

The group all watched the movie with varying levels of interest. Of course, since it had romantic elements in it the women's attention was firmly fixed on the screen. The men, however, were a little more varied; Zell spent most of the movie with his forehead wrinkled, apparently having a hard time following the plot, while James' expression seemed impassive, broken only by the occasional blink. Squall's reactions were a little more nuanced, sitting up straighter during the fights while appearing concerned during the interactions between the male and female leads.

"That was…different," Zell mused as the light came back up. "I don't…hm. I don't know what to think; it seems like there was just as much mushiness as there was action. Loved the sword fight at the top of the cliffs, though."

"It was a…an interesting balance," James concurred, squinting as his eyes adjusted themselves to the new light level. "It had a good flow to it, with the dialogue naturally leading into the action sequences as well as the more…romantic scenes."

"Good grief, you guys," Selphie groaned, wrinkling her nose at the two men; then, she turned to Squall. "What do you think?"

The young commander blinked several times, partly to let his eyes finish adjusting to the higher light level, but also to mull over his friend's question. "I guess I could identify with the foreign mercenary," he replied.

"Well, you both use swords…" Zell noted with a smirk.

"Zell, please let him finish," Sally admonished, though her expression wasn't stern in any way.

"I guess I know what it's like to lose someone you love at such a young age," Squall continued, gesturing to the screen. "He lost his dad when he was, what, ten?"

"And you lost Ellone when you were much younger," Selphie murmured, her eyes unfocused. "And your dad…well, he…"

Squall said nothing, but the dark cloud that suddenly descended over him was hard to miss.

"A-Anyway…" Zell started as he got to his feet. "I love that line that the mercenary dude says when he meets his dad's killer! 'I'm so-and-so…'"

"'Hello. My name is Cecil Murandas. You killed my father; prepare to die'," Dawn quoted effortlessly, drawing amazed stares from the others; even Squall's eyebrows jumped. "What?" she squeaked, the color of her cheeks nearly matching that of her hair. "I've read the book a bunch of times, okay?"

Selphie's gasp sounded almost like a cough. "That was awesome, Dawn! The way you said it took me back to that scene!"

As the others gushed over Dawn's knowledge of the story, Squall's gaze turned inward, and he sighed as he thought about Ellone…and about Laguna.