Disclaimer: Don't own the characters, Squaresoft does. (I'm too tired to think of something original and/or cute right now).
Authors Notes: Here's chapter 3. I'm finally getting closer to the length of chapters I want, but it's still shorter than I was hoping for. Oh yeah, I got a review that said something like: "Zell looks like a dork when he's trying to be cool," or something to that effect. I'm not sure exactly what was meant by that, but I just want to point out, that's intentional. If you ask me, Zell ISN'T cool. I realise this is a hazardous thing to say in a crowd of Zell fans, but before you finish writing your hate-mail, hear me out. Zell's a funny, hyper-active, non-threatening guy. He's not a tough hard ass like Seifer. He's too nice to be "cool." He's likeable, not popular. Zell is actually my favorite character, I'm not trying to insult him in anyway. But I think it fits that when he tries to be "cool", he just sounds awkward. He's too passionate to be "cool". And a couple times in the game when he tried, he sounded awkward there, too. Anyways, I just wanted to point out I deliberately made Zell out that way. If you have complaints with that, tell me, but I'm probably not going to change it. If I do, I might as well have him write poetry and turn into a ladies man. He's out of character enough, unfortunately. (I'm having trouble keeping him true to character.)
CHAPTER THREE
I made it to room 325. And I stood out in the hallway for about 20 minutes, just staring at the room numbers on the door. And then....I turned chicken and headed for my dorm. Yes, I was ashamed of myself, too. In my dorm, I brushed my teeth again, and combed my hair. I finally got up the courage to go back. So back I went, and stopped in front of the door once again, just staring. This was getting to be a very annoying pattern. I decided to just get it over with. Swallowing nervously, I quickly brushed my hair back with my hand. I knocked sharply on the door before I had the chance to change my mind again. There was a pause, then Lore opened the door.
In a towel.
My eyes went wide, and I clenched my teeth to keep my jaw from falling open. In all the things I had thought might possibly happen when I went to her dorm (most of them having the general theme of me looking like an idiot), this was not one of them. Here was this gorgeous girl in front of me, in nothing more than a towel, and all I could do was gawk. And try to look like I wasn't. I couldn't even remember why I was here. Anything I could think of right now, I would have ended up worse than Irvine.
Irvine. That's why I was here. Now to remember that. I began mentally chanting the name Irvine.
"Hello, Zell!" she smiled. I wavered slightly. That smile just kills me. It melts me right through. Yes, I realise how cheesy that sounds. I don't care. "Would you like to come in?" she continued.
We went in, and she gestured for me to sit on the bed....which, I might add, wasn't helping. This whole visit has been making me carnal bent. She excused herself to go get dressed. i began tapping my foot nervously, looking around the room. There were photographs, letters, posters, the usual things, hung on the walls. Then I saw something white on the floor. Standing up, I moved closer to see what it was. A photograph. I picked it up and turned it over. It was a picture of Selphie, Lore and a third girl I didn't know, posing together in one of the classrooms. Looking at the wall, I saw the thumbtack that had been holding the photo. I pulled the tack out of the wall, and began to hang the photo back up. I hesitated, and studied the photo for a minute. Then- and I really can't explain why- I put the tack back in the wall, and slowly began putting the photo in my pocket. For some reason, I just couldn't let go of it. I don't know what moved me to do that.
The bathroom door clicked open, and I quickly sat back down on the bed. The door opened farther and Lore came out, fully clothed. She still had a baggy sweatshirt that she was practically swimming in. She was wearing jeans, and I briefly wondered how she could stand such heavy clothes in 76 degrees.
"So," she said brightly, sitting next to me. "What's up?" My foot began tapping again. I stared blankly, then blinked. I desperately wished I was never around her in an emergency. Even with her fully dressed, I couldn't think. All of a sudden, it came to me. "Irvine," I blurted out. She looked beyond bewildered and gave me an odd look. I couldn't blame her. By now, she must have thought I was the weirdest guy she had ever met. I probably WAS the weirdest guy she had ever met.
"I-I mean, I came to-to talk a-about what you did to Irvine t-today." She smiled. "It was rotten, I know. But now that Selph can spend more time at Garden lately, I plan on talking with her a lot, which means I'll see a lot of her friends, namely him. So, I just wanted to... let him know where he stood. Gotta keep guys like him in their place."
"He's pretty calm about it. I mean, I think he sort of realised he had it coming."
Relief crossed her face. "Yeah, he seems like a good sport. A nice guy, just a flirt. And I didn't think I could stand him acting like that all the time. Hopefully, now he'll treat me like he seems to with Rinoa and Quistis."
Well, her motives were explained. Plus, it had been just plain funny. I know you all probably think she got a little carried away, but with Irvine, that was probably the best thing she could have done. He only takes hints when they're applied with a sledge hammer. Now he'd realise to leave her alone, and hopefully they could become friends.
We talked for awhile about Irvine, about Selphie, about Selphie and Irvine. I mentioned she had nice form when she flipped Kinneas' over his chair (yes, form in fighting style, get your mind out of the gutter.) Then we got into a whole conversation about fighting. She showed me the gloves she usually wears, and they were pretty nice. Decent gloves, and the colors fit her. Bright neon pink, with a yellow and green stripe running underneath the knuckles. So then I showed her mine, on my hand as always. She grabbed hold of my hand and started inspecting the design. A perfectly innocent move, but it sure wasn't helping my powers of concentration any. There we were, sitting on her bed, very close together, facing each other, and I couldn't even react. 'Zell, how did you get yourself into this?' I thought. She touched part of my hand. Well, the glove, actually.
"This is neat," she said thoughtfully. I looked down and saw she was talking about the picture of fire on the front side of the glove. "It looks cool," she added. She looked up and I realised suddenly just how close we were.
"Um, yeah, that-uh-that, I picked that. I-I liked the picture. But I, um, I h-had to pay more t-to have that, um, added." Boy, around her, I always got to be such a wonder with words. You can really wow the ladies, cantcha, Zell?
She nodded, still holding my hand. I noticed my foot had begun tapping again. "I imagine..." she replied softly. Oh, please, of all things, don't say imagine. I'm imagining a hundred different things I could do with you right now. I think I need the cold shower more than Kinneas.
She looked at my blank, idiot face for a moment, then simply said, "Zell?" Something in her voice just totally pushed me over the edge. Before I even realised what I was doing, I leaned over and kissed her gently. She made a small sound of surprise, and I brought my arm around her waist and my other hand to the side of her face. I pulled away for a second, then kissed her again, deeper this time. She began to relax, putting her arms around my neck. I kissed her more urgently, and she began playing with my hair, making my nerves race. I began kissing along her neck shamelessly. What the hell was wrong with me? I can't say I minded what was happening, but why all of a sudden were my hormones completely out of control? I couldn't even keep my hands off her. Finally, I pulled my head up, brought back to the real world, and jumped up from the bed. It had suddenly occured to me exactly what was going on, and the part I was playing in it. She looked at me with those wide, dark eyes, and I couldn't read her expression. Surprise? Happiness? Anger?
I laughed nervously. "You dumped iced tea on Kinneas for touching you, what are you going to do to me, beat me up?"
She smiled coyly. "The question is, was it worth it?"
I gave a short laugh and scratched the back of my head. My foot was tapping again. "Uh, listen, I'm sorry about that. I don't know what came over me, seriously."
Her smile was replaced with a serious look. She nodded. "Oh yeah, don't worry about it. It happened. Let's just..forget about it."
"Really? You're okay with it?"
"Why let one stupid little thing like that mess us up? We'll just be like we always were. No tension."
I'm not sure why, but I was a little stung by the 'one stupid little thing' comment. I brushed it off. "Oh, that's great. Really, I am sorry."
"Don't worry about it," she assured me.
"I better be going now," I told her.
"You can stay, it's okay."
"No, I better not," 'or I might jump you again' I added silently. "I, um, I was supposed to talk to Squall this afternoon, anyways," I lied. "I'll see you later, at lunch, maybe."
She waved, and I turned to the door.
"Hey, Zell?" she called after me.
I stopped. "Yeah?"
"Does Irvine like hotdogs?"
Ouch. That one hurt. I had felt pretty good about her taking the time to find me a hotdog. I had been so relieved when I saw why she was letting Irvine flirt with her. And now, buying him a goddam hotdog. But all I said was, "Not as much as I do, but I guess he eats them."
"Oh," she answered. "Do you know what his favorite food is, then?"
I was about to tell her tuna salad, which he hates more than anything, but I decided to be honest. If she wanted to buy him lunch, what difference did it make what she bought, really?
"Spaghetti." I said simply.
"Oooh, OK, thanks! See ya, Zell!" I didn't answer. I turned and stalked out of the room.
I walked back to my dorm, getting angrier by the minute. I reached my dorm, and pulled out the key to unlock the door. "Thanks, Irving! I love iced tea!" I muttered bitterly under my breath. After struggling with the key, I raised my first and punched the door open. It hurt like hell, but I paid no attention. Angrily, I raised my voice. "Well, screw the both of you! What do I care, anyways?! They can get married, have 20 kids, and live happily ever after for what it matters to me." It was obviously just that I was upset over competing with Irvine and losing. Freud himself would agree. Lore had nothing to do with it.
I ended up spending most of the day at the training center, trying to block out the entire miserable day.
Authors Notes: Here's chapter 3. I'm finally getting closer to the length of chapters I want, but it's still shorter than I was hoping for. Oh yeah, I got a review that said something like: "Zell looks like a dork when he's trying to be cool," or something to that effect. I'm not sure exactly what was meant by that, but I just want to point out, that's intentional. If you ask me, Zell ISN'T cool. I realise this is a hazardous thing to say in a crowd of Zell fans, but before you finish writing your hate-mail, hear me out. Zell's a funny, hyper-active, non-threatening guy. He's not a tough hard ass like Seifer. He's too nice to be "cool." He's likeable, not popular. Zell is actually my favorite character, I'm not trying to insult him in anyway. But I think it fits that when he tries to be "cool", he just sounds awkward. He's too passionate to be "cool". And a couple times in the game when he tried, he sounded awkward there, too. Anyways, I just wanted to point out I deliberately made Zell out that way. If you have complaints with that, tell me, but I'm probably not going to change it. If I do, I might as well have him write poetry and turn into a ladies man. He's out of character enough, unfortunately. (I'm having trouble keeping him true to character.)
CHAPTER THREE
I made it to room 325. And I stood out in the hallway for about 20 minutes, just staring at the room numbers on the door. And then....I turned chicken and headed for my dorm. Yes, I was ashamed of myself, too. In my dorm, I brushed my teeth again, and combed my hair. I finally got up the courage to go back. So back I went, and stopped in front of the door once again, just staring. This was getting to be a very annoying pattern. I decided to just get it over with. Swallowing nervously, I quickly brushed my hair back with my hand. I knocked sharply on the door before I had the chance to change my mind again. There was a pause, then Lore opened the door.
In a towel.
My eyes went wide, and I clenched my teeth to keep my jaw from falling open. In all the things I had thought might possibly happen when I went to her dorm (most of them having the general theme of me looking like an idiot), this was not one of them. Here was this gorgeous girl in front of me, in nothing more than a towel, and all I could do was gawk. And try to look like I wasn't. I couldn't even remember why I was here. Anything I could think of right now, I would have ended up worse than Irvine.
Irvine. That's why I was here. Now to remember that. I began mentally chanting the name Irvine.
"Hello, Zell!" she smiled. I wavered slightly. That smile just kills me. It melts me right through. Yes, I realise how cheesy that sounds. I don't care. "Would you like to come in?" she continued.
We went in, and she gestured for me to sit on the bed....which, I might add, wasn't helping. This whole visit has been making me carnal bent. She excused herself to go get dressed. i began tapping my foot nervously, looking around the room. There were photographs, letters, posters, the usual things, hung on the walls. Then I saw something white on the floor. Standing up, I moved closer to see what it was. A photograph. I picked it up and turned it over. It was a picture of Selphie, Lore and a third girl I didn't know, posing together in one of the classrooms. Looking at the wall, I saw the thumbtack that had been holding the photo. I pulled the tack out of the wall, and began to hang the photo back up. I hesitated, and studied the photo for a minute. Then- and I really can't explain why- I put the tack back in the wall, and slowly began putting the photo in my pocket. For some reason, I just couldn't let go of it. I don't know what moved me to do that.
The bathroom door clicked open, and I quickly sat back down on the bed. The door opened farther and Lore came out, fully clothed. She still had a baggy sweatshirt that she was practically swimming in. She was wearing jeans, and I briefly wondered how she could stand such heavy clothes in 76 degrees.
"So," she said brightly, sitting next to me. "What's up?" My foot began tapping again. I stared blankly, then blinked. I desperately wished I was never around her in an emergency. Even with her fully dressed, I couldn't think. All of a sudden, it came to me. "Irvine," I blurted out. She looked beyond bewildered and gave me an odd look. I couldn't blame her. By now, she must have thought I was the weirdest guy she had ever met. I probably WAS the weirdest guy she had ever met.
"I-I mean, I came to-to talk a-about what you did to Irvine t-today." She smiled. "It was rotten, I know. But now that Selph can spend more time at Garden lately, I plan on talking with her a lot, which means I'll see a lot of her friends, namely him. So, I just wanted to... let him know where he stood. Gotta keep guys like him in their place."
"He's pretty calm about it. I mean, I think he sort of realised he had it coming."
Relief crossed her face. "Yeah, he seems like a good sport. A nice guy, just a flirt. And I didn't think I could stand him acting like that all the time. Hopefully, now he'll treat me like he seems to with Rinoa and Quistis."
Well, her motives were explained. Plus, it had been just plain funny. I know you all probably think she got a little carried away, but with Irvine, that was probably the best thing she could have done. He only takes hints when they're applied with a sledge hammer. Now he'd realise to leave her alone, and hopefully they could become friends.
We talked for awhile about Irvine, about Selphie, about Selphie and Irvine. I mentioned she had nice form when she flipped Kinneas' over his chair (yes, form in fighting style, get your mind out of the gutter.) Then we got into a whole conversation about fighting. She showed me the gloves she usually wears, and they were pretty nice. Decent gloves, and the colors fit her. Bright neon pink, with a yellow and green stripe running underneath the knuckles. So then I showed her mine, on my hand as always. She grabbed hold of my hand and started inspecting the design. A perfectly innocent move, but it sure wasn't helping my powers of concentration any. There we were, sitting on her bed, very close together, facing each other, and I couldn't even react. 'Zell, how did you get yourself into this?' I thought. She touched part of my hand. Well, the glove, actually.
"This is neat," she said thoughtfully. I looked down and saw she was talking about the picture of fire on the front side of the glove. "It looks cool," she added. She looked up and I realised suddenly just how close we were.
"Um, yeah, that-uh-that, I picked that. I-I liked the picture. But I, um, I h-had to pay more t-to have that, um, added." Boy, around her, I always got to be such a wonder with words. You can really wow the ladies, cantcha, Zell?
She nodded, still holding my hand. I noticed my foot had begun tapping again. "I imagine..." she replied softly. Oh, please, of all things, don't say imagine. I'm imagining a hundred different things I could do with you right now. I think I need the cold shower more than Kinneas.
She looked at my blank, idiot face for a moment, then simply said, "Zell?" Something in her voice just totally pushed me over the edge. Before I even realised what I was doing, I leaned over and kissed her gently. She made a small sound of surprise, and I brought my arm around her waist and my other hand to the side of her face. I pulled away for a second, then kissed her again, deeper this time. She began to relax, putting her arms around my neck. I kissed her more urgently, and she began playing with my hair, making my nerves race. I began kissing along her neck shamelessly. What the hell was wrong with me? I can't say I minded what was happening, but why all of a sudden were my hormones completely out of control? I couldn't even keep my hands off her. Finally, I pulled my head up, brought back to the real world, and jumped up from the bed. It had suddenly occured to me exactly what was going on, and the part I was playing in it. She looked at me with those wide, dark eyes, and I couldn't read her expression. Surprise? Happiness? Anger?
I laughed nervously. "You dumped iced tea on Kinneas for touching you, what are you going to do to me, beat me up?"
She smiled coyly. "The question is, was it worth it?"
I gave a short laugh and scratched the back of my head. My foot was tapping again. "Uh, listen, I'm sorry about that. I don't know what came over me, seriously."
Her smile was replaced with a serious look. She nodded. "Oh yeah, don't worry about it. It happened. Let's just..forget about it."
"Really? You're okay with it?"
"Why let one stupid little thing like that mess us up? We'll just be like we always were. No tension."
I'm not sure why, but I was a little stung by the 'one stupid little thing' comment. I brushed it off. "Oh, that's great. Really, I am sorry."
"Don't worry about it," she assured me.
"I better be going now," I told her.
"You can stay, it's okay."
"No, I better not," 'or I might jump you again' I added silently. "I, um, I was supposed to talk to Squall this afternoon, anyways," I lied. "I'll see you later, at lunch, maybe."
She waved, and I turned to the door.
"Hey, Zell?" she called after me.
I stopped. "Yeah?"
"Does Irvine like hotdogs?"
Ouch. That one hurt. I had felt pretty good about her taking the time to find me a hotdog. I had been so relieved when I saw why she was letting Irvine flirt with her. And now, buying him a goddam hotdog. But all I said was, "Not as much as I do, but I guess he eats them."
"Oh," she answered. "Do you know what his favorite food is, then?"
I was about to tell her tuna salad, which he hates more than anything, but I decided to be honest. If she wanted to buy him lunch, what difference did it make what she bought, really?
"Spaghetti." I said simply.
"Oooh, OK, thanks! See ya, Zell!" I didn't answer. I turned and stalked out of the room.
I walked back to my dorm, getting angrier by the minute. I reached my dorm, and pulled out the key to unlock the door. "Thanks, Irving! I love iced tea!" I muttered bitterly under my breath. After struggling with the key, I raised my first and punched the door open. It hurt like hell, but I paid no attention. Angrily, I raised my voice. "Well, screw the both of you! What do I care, anyways?! They can get married, have 20 kids, and live happily ever after for what it matters to me." It was obviously just that I was upset over competing with Irvine and losing. Freud himself would agree. Lore had nothing to do with it.
I ended up spending most of the day at the training center, trying to block out the entire miserable day.