Chapter Nineteen: Revelations

"Where is Chief Tilmitt?"

"I don't know, sir."

"I haven't seen here recently, sir."

"I'm sorry, Commander; I'm new here."

"I think I saw her running that way, but after that…? Sorry, sir."

Squall grunted some form of gratitude as he jogged away from yet another dead end. What could have upset the normally-cheerful girl to the point where she had to leave the room the way she did? Squall grimaced as he remembered her attempts to put on a happy front when he found her at her friends' graveyard. "What happened to that when Trabia garden was restored, anyway?" he mused, his pace slowing briefly before he shook his head to refocus.

The distraught young woman looked from the balcony across the snowy landscape of Trabia as she absently pushed a bouncy lock of sandy-brown hair from her emerald eyes, eyes that glittered from the tears that were finally starting to subside.

"Selphie, dear?"

The girl in question jumped at the sudden voice, sniffling and wiping an eye with the back of her hand as she turned to her visitor. "H-Hello, Matron," she greeted, then winced at the hiccup in her voice. "What can I do for you?"

Edea smiled lovingly with her hands folded before her chest at as she slowly approached her 'daughter'. "I think I should be asking you that question, sweetheart. What's the matter? When you ran past Cid and me in the hallway without saying 'hello' we figured that something must be wrong."

"I-I'm sorry," Selphie replied as she tried to fight back the tears that threatened to form once again. "I meant no disrespect."

"Oh, I'm not worried about that right now," Edea crooned as she took the trembling girl into her arms. "Right now, what's important is whatever it is that's troubling you. If it makes you feel better, I'll scold you about your manners later."

Selphie barked a laugh as she allowed herself to snuggle into the familiar bosom. "It's just..."

"I'm sorry, sir; I haven't seen her."

Squall cursed under his breath, his frustration nearing the level of anger as he cursed his ignorance of Trabia Garden's layout. He couldn't think of anyplace else to-

"Commander!"

Squall stopped short as Irvine jogged up to him. "Sorry Irvine, I can't talk right now; I'm looking for Selphie."

The sharpshooter stopped in front of him, panting lightly. "Yeah, that's why I'm here, boss; I know where she is."

Squall flicked an annoyed gaze to the other man. "Where?" he demanded. "Where is she?"

"It's kinda hard to explain," Irvine replied as she turned back to the way he had come. "Just follow me, 'k?"

Squall grunted a sigh as he jogged after him.

"Does it have to do with Squall?"

Wide eyes flicked up to the matron's wise ones. "How…How did you know?"

"Cid and I have been watching," Edea replied as she began to stroke the younger woman's hair. "And we've been talking as well. It's not hard to see how fond of him you've become. Perhaps that fondness was there longer than you realize."

"No…" Selphie said, her eyes losing focus. "I know exactly when it started; when I ran into him on my first day at Balamb Garden."

"You ran into him?" Edea repeated, amused.

"Y-Yeah…" Selphie chuckled as she brought the back of her hand to her eyes again. "All I was missing was the piece of toast in my mouth to finish the trope."

Edea didn't know what a 'trope' was, but decided that it wasn't worth interrupting the girl's flow just to find out. "What happened next?"

"He…asked me if I was okay and showed me the guide board; you know, the one near the entrance?"

"Ah, yes," Edea replied, deliberately keeping her voice warm and inviting even though it came naturally to her. "And you fell in love with him back then?"

"Yeah, but I didn't know it at the time," Selphie admitted as she rested her head on her precious matron's shoulder. "And I wouldn't call it 'falling in love' exactly; it's more like…" She suddenly pulled away so she could look the other woman in the eye, though she held her hands. "I want to be there for Squall. I want to support him. I want to be his smile when he loses his. And, like Sally said; I want to be the soft place for him to fall when he's had a bad day."

"But my dear…" Edea replied, releasing a hand to press hers against the side of her daughter's face, "…that's what being in love is; wanting to be there for the other person, wanting the best for the other, putting that special someone's needs before your own."

"Squall has given so much…" Selphie hiccupped, the tears starting to flow again. "And I want to give him as much as he's given to us."

Squall nearly collided with Irvine, who had stopped in front of what appeared to be an alcove along the hallway. "It's easy to miss if you're not looking for it," Irvine said as he pointed down an unusually narrow passage that led off from the main hallway.

"Then how did you know it was there?" Squall challenged.

The sharpshooter gave him an awkward grin. "I, uh... After you hauled ass outta there, I checked the Garden map in the main lobby."

"They have one there?" Squall puzzled. "I never saw it."

"You were probably trying to get away from the masses of admirers," Irvine teased, unaware that his comment was closer to the truth than he would probably ever know. "Anyway, I saw the balcony and figured that's where she'd be."

"Thanks."

"Listen…" Irvine stopped Squall with a gentle yet firm grip to his arm as the latter took a step toward the side hallway. "…I know this'll sound weird coming from me, but…take good care of her, all right?"

Squall half-turned to look back at the ladies' man. "Um, sure, but… Why do you say that?"

"Don't worry about it," Irvine replied, shifting his grip to gently push Squall in the direction of the hallway. "Just do it, all right?"

Squall gave him one more puzzled look, then gave a brisk nod before pulling away to jog down the narrow hallway in hopes of finding his distressed friend.

As he watched his boss hurry away, Irvine crossed his arms with an approving nod. "I know you will, man." He then turned to head back to the Quad, brushing the backs of his hands against his eyes as he left.

"Do you feel better now, dear?" Edea gently asked as her 'daughter' wiped her eyes yet again.

"Much," Selphie giggled, though she still sniffled a few more times.

"I think it's long past time you told him about your feelings," Edea advised, though her tone was still gentle. "Perhaps you could-"

"Selphie?!"

The young woman froze at the familiar voice, terror and longing welling up in her chest and fighting for dominance. "M-Matron…?"

"Now might be a good time, dear," Edea said soothingly as she cupped her daughter's face one last time before moving to the exit from the balcony. "Good luck." Partway down the hallway, she came across Squall headed the other direction. "Good evening Squall. Are you looking for Selphie?"

"Yes, Matron," he replied as he gave his mother figure a hug. "Irvine told me that she's down here."

"He is correct," she replied, stepping aside to make room for her son to pass. "She is on the balcony at the end of this hallway."

"Thank you. Please excuse me," Squall replied, nodding his head in a bow before dashing down the hallway.

Edea smiled to herself as she headed to the main hallway and found her husband waiting for her. "I take it everything went fine," he remarked.

Her smiled was tinged with the sadness of a mother about to give her daughter away to a very lucky young man. "They will be happy together," she declared, though the tremor in her voice was hard to miss.

Cid smiled lovingly at his wife before taking her in his arms to let her grieve the 'loss' of two of her children. Their children.

Squall hesitantly approached the lone figure standing with her back to him by the balcony wall. "Selphie? Are you okay?"

"I'm...I'm fine…" came the timid response.

He carefully reached out and took hold of her shoulder to try and turn her toward him, only to find that she wouldn't budge so he stepped up to her side to try to see her face. "Are you sure you're okay? I saw you running from the party, and you looked really upset."

"You… You saw?" She turned and looked up at him in surprise, and his eyes widened at the wetness he found on her cheeks.

He knew it could only be due to one person. "Irvine did this to you, didn't he?" Squall nearly demanded. "I swear, when we get back to Balamb, I'm going to-"

"NO!" she yelled, her face paler than usual. "Irvine had nothing to do with it, really!"

"Then who did this to you?" Squall demanded, taking her by the shoulders to make her face him. "TELL-!" He caught himself, realizing that he was shouting at the victim, and took a deep breath as he forced his temper in check. "Sorry about that, Selphie. Please, tell me who did this to you."

Selphie choked back a sob. "I did."

Squall opened his mouth to promise vengeance on the perpetrator, then blinked as her words sunk in. "Wait…. You did?"

She nodded as a fresh stream of tears started to flow. "I'm sorry to worry you, but when I saw Kara talking to you…? It just got to be too much."

Squall shook his head, completely confused. "I'm…sorry, I don't understand; what got to be too much?"

"Squall…" She somehow sighed and chuckled at the same time before drawing a deep breath as she reached out to rest a hand on his cheek. "I want to be there for you," she told him, starting what had become her mantra of sorts, "I want to support you. I want to be your smile when you lose yours. I-I…" She sputtered into awkward giggles at the sight of his shocked expression. "I-I want to be the soft place for you to fall when you've had a bad day."

Squall's wide-eyed expression was otherwise unreadable as he stumbled backward a couple of steps, his hands dropping from her shoulders as one made its way to his forehead. "Wh-What are you saying?"

"Oh Squall, you big oaf," she giggled sympathetically through her tears. "You've always had trouble with stuff like this, haven't you?" She closed the distance between them to lay a hand on his chest. "Squall? I just wanted to tell you how I feel; I don't expect you to do anything right now except listen, okay?"

"O-Okay…" Squall managed through the tightness in his chest.

Feeling emboldened by his response as well as having the weight of her confession removed from her shoulders, she took another step toward him. "Do you remember my first day at Balamb Garden? When I accidentally ran into you on the second floor?"

Due to the turmoil of his thoughts, it took more effort than usual for him to remember. "Yeah; it was a long time ago, but yeah, I do."

"That was when it started, even though I didn't realize it until recently," she explained as she gazed up into his puzzled expression. "And as we fought alongside each other in Dollet and during the Timber mission, and-"

"Wait…Wait a minute," Squall protested, holding up a hand and trying to get some kind of control of the conversation. "If you've felt this way all along, then why did you go along with pushing me and Rinoa together?"

Selphie suddenly cast her gaze to the floor, absently tapping the toe of one of her shoes against the concrete. "Well… Like I said, I didn't realize my own feelings at the time. I remember feeling a flutter when Irvine tried to hit on me on the way to Deling, but…it wasn't the same as how I'd feel when I'd think of you. And then, when you let me lead the team to the missile base…"

Squall twitched as he remembered the relief he felt when Selphie crawled out of the wreckage of the Galbadian war machine back at Fisherman's Horizon. "I…believed that you could do it."

"For all the good it did," she scoffed, glancing to the side with a frown, but she quickly returned a smile to his face. "Anyway, my point is that it wasn't any one thing that caused me to…to…"

"I think I get the idea," Squall replied softly, guilt nagging him over all the potentially missed cues. "Sorry if I was dense."

"You weren't," she replied, her brown curls waving with the shake of her head. "It just took me a long time to figure myself out, so I'll understand if you need time to think about this."

Something about the way she looked at him, the glitter in her emerald eyes… Squall cleared his throat. "Thanks for…for being so open with me. I'll, um…do my best to-"

Squall's communicator chirped, ruining the mood, and Selphie giggled at his annoyed expression as he reached inside his uniform jacket to press the button on his communicator. "Squall here."

"Hey, boss?" Irvine's voice sounded from the communicator. "Could you come back to the Quad, like, really soon?"

"Is something wrong?" Squall asked as he exchanged a worried look with his friend.

"Not…exactly…" Irvine replied evasively. "Just that something big's about to go down and you won't want to miss it."

"Acknowledged," Squall replied, switching the worried look for a puzzled one. "Selphie and I will be there in two."

"We'll hold the fort until you get here," Irvine replied, sounding amused. "Kinneas out."

"Leonhart out." Squall tapped his communicator again to close the channel, then jerked his head toward the exit. "Let's go."

"Right behind you, you big stud," Selphie replied, giggling as his stride faltered as they ran from the balcony and headed to the Quad.