In Who's Name? Chapter 15: Breakfast At Balamb's, a final fantasy viii fanfic

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Characters and universe borrowed from Final Fantasy VIII. Not owned by Gold.

Okay. Be warned. There is subtle sexual humour here. Subtle. Do not ask your parents about it, especially if you're below sixteen. They will be—well, they won't be pleased—and then I should get awfully angry e-mails from your parents.

Oh, and I'm very tired of Rinoa-bashing. She's not a slut. She's not a bitch—and if she is, it wouldn't matter, because there's one in every woman. If there isn't, that woman would get walked all over by others. And she flirts like many people do—knowing she's pretty, she uses it to her full advantage, and that's a smart woman. You'd be surprised how much a woman can get out of a man by fluttering her lashes. Besides, she'd be mighty silly if she didn't know she was pretty.

Title: In Whose Name?

Part 15: Breakfast At Balamb's

"You're late," scolded Selphie.

"Sorry," apologised Irvine, looking penitent. "I spent the night in Seifer's room," he added nonchalantly as he sat down.

The silence at the table was…profound.

Irvine kept his face straight as he spread marmalade on toast. "Quisty was there too." He bit into the toast and chewed with slow deliberation, enjoying his friends' reactions.

Rinoa and Selphie were suffused with blushes. Even Squall's cheeks were tinted red. Zell…well, Zell's complexion could be best described as green.

"Kinneas," said Zell in a strangled voice, "I hope you're not saying what I think you're saying."

"Ménage á trois?" suggested Irvine, happily taking a swig from a frozen Squall's coffee cup.

Squall choked. Rinoa turned purple. Zell, whose face was already a sickly shade, became an even less prepossessing shade of mottled green.

Selphie's face was a study in complete shock and disbelief. "You're bi?" she blurted out. "But you didn't tell me—" she floundered, looking almost miserable. "Irvine? I don't understand…"

Irvine did his best not to look at Selphie's wounded expression and instead helped himself to the scrambled eggs on his plate. "Whew, still warm," he commented matter-of-factly. "Does it make a difference, Sefie? I still love you very, very much, y'know," he said seriously. Then, unable to help himself any longer, he guffawed, dropping his knife and fork.

"What's so funny?" cried Selphie in bewilderment, close to tears.

Irvine was still roaring with laughter. "Your faces—oh, get your minds out of the gutter! Seifer had a terrible nightmare about Ultimecia, I think, and was screaming his head off. Quistis couldn't wake him up, but so long as she was touching him, he was quite peaceful. So we stayed there last night," he concluded, between wild bursts of laughter. "If Quistis hadn't stayed, we wouldn't have had enough sleep. Of course I had to stay too—don't want any rumours about them, do we?" He grinned round.

Across the table from him, Squall blinked. "You didn't call me last night." His voice was emotionless, but there was an undercurrent of something in it.

Irvine looked curiously at him. "I'm sorry, Squall," he said, genuinely apologetic. He had forgotten that Seifer were best friends/enemies/whatever years ago. "It slipped my mind. Quisty seemed to be on top of things—handling it pretty well, I mean—"

Rinoa Heartlilly picked at her food, lost in thought.

What price Seifer? She was still a little bit afraid of him—it was something that would take her a long time to get rid of, especially since he had presented her on a silver platter to the Sorceress whose power he had been in.

She had known him only briefly and they had dated. If dating exclusively for two weeks meant being his girlfriend—then yes, they had been a couple. But not officially. There was no promise made and no statements made to suggest any such arrangement. She had been very much attracted to him. She and Seifer had something in common when they met. It had been their respective good looks that had drawn them to each other at first, but later, when they talked, their own beliefs drew them together.

He had dreams—romantic dreams, he said, but he did not tell her what they were. She remembered the light in his face when he spoke of it. It was a secret ambition he held in the very core of his heart and it would take more than a brief acquaintance to wrench it from him. For herself, she too had dreams, and he was really the first person she had ever confided to, about those dreams. No one else would have understood and she had thought he might. She had wanted to be strong and independent, and break away from her soft living lifestyle. Besides, like him, she too had ideals, and she wanted to do something about them.

They had parted on those grounds, each going their way to achieve their dreams. Although they had agreed to keep in contact, they never did.

Then she had met Squall. Squall was different. With Squall, she felt safe and protected. And she trusted him. Therein lay the vast difference between the two. In Seifer, she saw only memories of danger and death. Even when they had dated, that aura of danger and excitement still hung about him, and it was difficult to know what he would do next, or if you could trust him, really trust him. She knew that he had been in Edea's power, and then Adel's, and Ultimecia's, but it didn't erase her pain or her terror. He had a fire she could not tame. Rinoa Heartlilly had known one thing from the moment she set eyes on Seifer Almasy years ago—he had an unquenchable fire in him, that needed to be tamed, or else it would destroy him, and possibly everything around him.

"Yo, Almasy! Over here!"

Rinoa hid her smile by putting her mug of coffee to her lips. It really was peculiar the way Zell was looking at Seifer now. From zero to hero, Rinoa thought, amused. Seifer was also treating Zell a lot more decently. She remembered sitting through her visit to the infirmary just yesterday morning, struck speechless to hear Zell and Seifer address each other as 'Dincht' and 'Almasy' in almost comradely tones. It was as if the sun had decided to rise in the north. Really, she could almost believe in anything now.

"I cannot believe this," proclaimed Selphie with an enormous grin. "Zell and Seifer are on speaking terms!"

"Yes, marks a great change from the swearing terms they were on," agreed Irvine. "Stay away from that hot dog, Zell, it's mine."

Well, thought Rinoa, that was certainly fast. Selphie seems to have forgiven Irvine for that terrible time he just gave her. Oh, wait—she wasn't wearing that bracelet when she came down to breakfast—ah, there's the gift box. Irvine must have had it with him. A peace offering, I guess. He's lucky Selphie has such a sweet temper. He's also lucky he had that present with him! I wonder where he bought it? It's beautiful. Oh, here's Quisty.

Rinoa nodded and smiled a warm greeting to Quistis as the blonde took a seat near her.

"Why so late this morning, Quisty?" asked Selphie. "Oh, wait—how are you, Seifer? Irvine told us about your nightmares. Are you feeling better?"

Quistis turned her eyes on to Irvine, who promptly choked on his food.

"Oh, no, no, no," he mumbled. "I forgot. Please don't. I don't want to scrub the cafeteria with a toothbrush." He offered Quistis a charming smile. "Forgive me, please?"

"No," said Seifer, folding his arms. "This I have to see—Kinneas scrubbing the cafeteria floor with a toothbrush."

"With a cowboy hat on," added Zell.

For some reason, both found it every funny, and roared with laughter together.

Irvine blinked several times. "Oh, Hyne." He sounded really scared. "This is too unreal. I think I saw Seifer Almasy and Zell Dincht laughing. Together." He put one hand over his eyes. "Quisty, I'm too sickened at the moment to scrub anything with a toothbrush."

Rinoa and Quistis exchanged grins.

"It is bizarre," murmured Rinoa.

Quistis smiled. "It won't last. It never does. Count to five and see."

"Huh?" Rinoa was bemused.

Quistis held up one hand, five fingers outstretched. Five fingers…four fingers…three fingers…two fingers…one finger…zero fingers…

As if on cue, Seifer's voice rang out.

"Get your leg out of the way, chicken wuss. It's in my personal space."

"You're the one in my space, *******," retorted Zell.

Rinoa began to laugh.