"Failed as an Instructor"
By: Wolfemann and Pink Lemonade
Warnings: R, M/F/M Sex, Voyeurism, Masturbation
Pairings: Quistis/Squall, Squall/Selphie/Zell
Summary: A slightly different (yet, strangely, more logical) take on why Quistis lost her teaching position..
Disclaimers: Don't own 'em. Aren't gonna own 'em. Not making money off of them or saying they're ours. So, hopefully, Squaresoft (who does own 'em) isn't gonna sue us for it..
~~~===~~~
Zell watched incredulously as Seifer and his friends drove off in the last transport, leaving him behind with Squall, Selphie, and Quistis.
"H-Hey!! Not again, man! There goes Mr. Ego...."
Squall sighed heavily at Zell's loud protest, and simply said, "Might as well walk it."
"Well, we don't have to be back right away," Quistis said, frowning slightly at the sudden loss of their ride. On the bright side, it did give her a few ideas.. "Why don't the three of you hang out around town for a little bit, get some rest - you've had a big day. I'll see if we can arrange for a rental or something."
"Sounds good to me," Selphie cheered. "I'm up for some rest, anyway.. There's a hotel here, right?"
"Yeah," Zell piped up. "It's just down the street from home. Pretty good cafe there, too."
" I guess we'll go get a room, then," Squall decided, unwittingly supporting Zell and Selphie's idea of his unofficial leadership.
"I'll see you three later then," Quistis nodded, starting in the general direction of the rental outfit. "Enjoy yourselves - you've earned it."
"See you later, Instructor," Selphie called.
Squall, without a word to anyone, set off towards the already nearby hotel.
"C'mon," Zell said needlessly, starting off after Squall as Selphie fell in behind them.
~~~===~~~
Minutes later, once they'd checked into a room in the room in the hotel, Squall had left and gone off to gather some potions and such, and Zell had gone to make a run for lunch. The temporary solitude was enough for Selphie to begin idly musing on what now seemed surreal to her.
Siren called to her in mild distress, for although she liked her fairly well she was confused at the sudden change of environment, even if it was pleasant. Selphie shivered. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like, living inside such an awful creature. It had been a dizzying sensation, both the effort drawing it took and the unfamiliar sensation of the GF settling in her soul, and if not for the fact that Squall and Zell had been nearly endlessly attacking the winged beast, she didn't know what would have become of her. As it was, a fairly powerful blow from the angered Elvoret had managed to make her fall on the grates rather forcefully, cutting up her legs and doing something quite painful to her right ankle. Thankfully, though, it was nothing a cure spell couldn't pretty much take care of.
She didn't doubt that Squall and Zell were shaken up as well, even though Squall seemed determined to force back any emotion that might intrude on his typical way of life, and Zell probably dealt with stress just by forgetting it. For Selphie, neither one worked. She usually had to do something to make herself forget it and relax, the few times when something actually managed to bother her.
Of course, her usual method would be fairly embarrassing to be caught using, but...
Selphie sighed. The idea had taken root in her, and it was already reasoning with her better sense. /Squall will probably be awhile, and Zell probably won't be able to get his key out if he's carrying lunch for all of us./ Part of her argued, but it's contribution to the debate was washed away by a slight wave of anticipation. /It's more suspicious if I'm as jumpy as I'm going to end up if I don't calm down../
The part of her that had so vehemently insisted she was insane won a small battle, though. Rather than the obvious option of removing her underwear, she slipped a hand down into them, and slowly, teasingly trailed her fingers along her slit. She gasped sharply when she hit her already protruding clit.
She had just convinced herself that she was going to finish herself off before anybody got back, when there was an insistent pounding at the bottom of the door.
Shocked, she drew her hand back in a split second, despite the now insisting ache in her groin. She took a few fast, deep breaths, in an attempt to not sound out of breath. "Z-Zell? That you?" She sat up swiftly, straightening her dress as well as she could.
"Yeah - mind opening the door? My hands are a little full here."
"OK, just a sec," Selphie called back, dashing to the nearest window and opening it, both to rid the room of the musky scent and hopefully remove the now incessant heat, though she assumed that it wasn't actually all that hot. A quick look around proved as satisfactory as it could be without more time, so ran back to the door and opened it- possibly a bit *too* quickly.
Fortunately, Zell had stopped leaning against the door just a moment before.
"Hope you don't mind pepperoni pizza," he said as he walked into the room, apparently not noticing anything wrong. "I figured it was probably simple enough that we'd all be okay with it."
Selphie could have cried with relief, but that wasn't exactly convenient. Instead, she turned to Zell and nodded, then walked over to a small table and moved a copy of Timber Maniacs off of it.
"This is probably better than setting it on one of the beds."
It was just then that a disturbing yet tempting idea struck in her mind, and before she could argue with herself, she found herself saying something. "How long is Squall gonna take?"
"I dunno," Zell shrugged. "Said he was going to hit the shop near the train station, then head out to the junk shop. Could be hours if the guy running that place talks him into letting him take a look at his gunblade," the short fighter said with a quick laugh. Something seemed just a little out of place - he wasn't sure what, but....
Then it clicked. He hadn't picked up on the slight smell at first because of the pizza in front of his face. But now he was catching the fading odor, and putting it together with a couple other things he'd noticed - the bed being mussed up wasn't too strange, but her dress was more wrinkled than it had been, and the window hadn't been open before. The clincher was one thing he was just noticing now - her fingers were a little damp. He tried to control the bolt impulse that hit him first, and keep calm, with mixed success.
"Uhm - Selphie? Did I." /Come up with something to say that doesn't make a complete ass out of yourself, Dincht../ "Did I come in at a bad time?"
"Maybe, maybe not.."
The expression in Zell's eyes was strangely reminiscent of a deer caught in somebody's headlights, as his mouth worked for several seconds without anything coming out of it.
"Uh - what'd make the difference?"
Selphie sobered a bit at that.
"Zell- calm down."
"Sorry," he said quickly. "Just uhm.... Kinda surprised me there."
"You don't need to apologize," Selphie replied. "My fault... I'll explain, if you like."
"Uhm." Zell took a couple of deep breaths - for him, at least - and tried to calm down. "Y-you don't have to if you don't want."
"Not quite a long story, but you might as well sit down," Selphie did as she'd suggested, and sat down on her own bed.
Zell did as she suggested, picking the bed in the middle and reaching over to grab the pizza.
"We might as well eat while we talk," he said, trying to get back to normal as he set it down and opened the box.
Selphie nodded and grabbed a slice as well, but didn't bite into it for a moment.
"A lot's happened today," she stated the overly obvious.
"Well duh," Zell agreed, chuckling slightly. "Between getting shot at on the way up and running from that thing on the way down, that's not exactly a normal day's work until now."
"And that's sort of the thing," Selphie said. "I kinda tensed up out there, and."
"Stress relief," Zell offered helpfully, after covering for a quiet moment with a bite of pizza.
"That's pretty much it," Selphie nodded slowly.
"I guess shouldn't really be that surprised," he said with a slight shrug. "Just uhm - like I said, wasn't really what I was expecting. Sorta blindsided me."
"I wouldnt've either," Selphie agreed with a slight laugh, finishing off her pizza.
Zell covered for not really knowing how to answer that by finishing his own slice, and hoping she didn't ask why *he'd* responded the way he had.
"Don't take this the wrong way, or anything," Selphie began carefully. "But you looked almost.scared or something."
"Scared? Me? No," he said, trying to figure out some way to cover it without lying about it. "Just...surprised."
"Like I said, I don't blame you," Selphie nodded. "But now that that's cleared up.."
"Yeah?"
Selphie hesitated a moment, sensing something was still amiss, but the little demon that had caused the problem in the first place put the words in her mouth.
"I still need to relax, and I could use some help."
Zell's reaction was much calmer this time, though he still tensed slightly as his brain tried to handle the conflicting thoughts running through it.
"Uhm - maybe we should wait till Squall gets back," he settled on eventually, not really sure why that idea made him much more comfortable with the situation. "After all - he's had a big day too," he finished, his usual cockiness showing up slightly as he winked.
Selphie's eyes widened for a moment, but she settled on words quickly.
"We up for talking him into it," she asked with a slight smirk.
Once the challenge was raised, Zell had to admit that it was more than slightly interesting.
"Depends on how you plan on doing that," he smirked back.
At that moment, as if cued, they heard a key clicking in the door. Seconds later, it opened, and behind it was, as expected, Squall, laden with what looked like more than enough to last five of him a month.
Selphie sprung into action quickly, though her greeting was no different than usual.
"Hi, Squall!"
"Hey Squall," Zell chuckled, turning to look at him. "Why don't you set that down and sit for a bit? It's not like we're about to go into the field for a year or something."
Squall shrugged, apparently not caring.
"Won't have to go into town later, then," he still set the parcels down, though, then sat on his bed.
"Zell got pizza," Selphie informed Squall. "It might not be hot anymore, but it shouldn't be cold or anything."
"Not hungry right now.."
"You okay, man," Zell asked, looking at Squall with a trace of concern. He knew that Squall was an iceberg, but it sounded like he was sick or something now.
"Just tired."
"Ah, c'mon," Zell grinned. "Little workout like that? That's just a warmup!"
".Whatever."
"Neither one of us bites, you know," Selphie informed Squall with a small giggle. "You can talk if you want."
"Maybe he's just got better ideas for how to use his time than talking," Zell suggested.
Squall closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "What's going on?"
"What makes you ask," Selphie asked, acting as if she didn't know what he meant.
Squall frowned.
"Forget it.. I'm going to get some rest."
"Oh, in that case," Selphie bent her head, and, unable to keep a small, amused smile off of her face before she whispered: "Night-night." Squall opened his eyes, only just in time to see Selphie capture his lips gently, but with an insistent pressure at the same time. Worse, or so he thought at the time, he found himself paralyzed, unable to protest. /Do I want to in the first place? Wait, what am I thinking? Of course I do./ He blanked out, though, when what could actually have been called friendly intensified, and, rather than not being able to protest, he found himself obliging, nearly reaching up and grabbing her- which actually wouldn't have bothered her. much anyway. . Zell watched quietly, apparently trying to keep from interfering in Selphie's attempt to get through to Squall - which she seemed to be doing remarkably well.
Honestly, a part of him was trying to build up to being able to take part in this - but he was finding that easier and easier as he watched them.
A few moments after that, Selphie drew back and flashed Squall a bright smile.
"Can you guess now?"
Confusion flashed briefly - maybe for a split second at longest- on Squall's face.
"What's all this about?"
"You're all right," Selphie asked, causing Squall to frown again.
"Yeah."
Selphie looked at him as if sizing him up.
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"You can't be," Selphie stated bluntly. "Squall - two hours ago none of us knew if we were gonna live to see the next day."
"Pretty good odds we wouldn't, actually," Zell admitted, finally piping up.
"We're fine now," Squall reminded them.
"You were worse off than any one of us," Selphie sighed. "We barely all made it out alive, especially you, and it didn't even make you think? You're just going back to acting like nothing bad's ever happened?"
"The only thing about that that matters is whether we passed the test."
"Guess they're right about you being an iceberg," Zell half-grumbled. He didn't like listening to things like that, but it sure as hell seemed right this time.
"Squall," Selphie had grown slightly exasperated herself. "Wasn't there ever. something, anything that affected you? Someone who you cared about?"
Squall's eyes widened, and he sat up, stiffly. Selphie winced, realizing she must have hit a sore spot.
"Squall."
"Don't, Selphie."
"W-What?"
"Don't try and apologize."
"Squall," Zell interrupted, "c'mon man - she wasn't trying to cause trouble."
"That's not it, Zell," Squall clarified, avoiding looking at either of them.
"Then what is it," Selphie asked, not as pointedly as her previous queries were.
"It's- no, don't worry about it," Squall looked almost embarrassed.
"C'mon, Squall - whatever it is, it's not leaving this room. After all - we're all partners, right?"
"It's nothing." /Or it shouldn't be./ "Really."
"It is, though," Selphie spoke softly. "Otherwise you wouldn't have trouble talking about it, right?"
"Don't really want to talk about it," Squall concluded helplessly.
"It's OK, Squall," Selphie assured.
"Sorry if that. thing back there creeped you out, anyway," Selphie changed the topic casually, and Squall was thankful that neither Selphie or Zell seemed determined to pry, even if what they were apparently now talking about was awkward as well.
"I've seen worse things."
Squall's expression was fairly unreadable, and, that noticed, Selphie added something.
"Just," she hesitated, then recalled Zell's earlier wording. "Stress relief. Nothing else.."
Squall seemed to contemplate the situation for a minute, and then apparently made a decision.
"None of this leaves this room, either."
"Not a chance," Zell agreed.
"Of course," Selphie nodded. "Guess we should close this, then." She went to the windowed door by the balcony she'd opened earlier and shut it.
"Yeah."
"Definitely," Zell nodded. "Probably want to pull the drapes too."
"Oh, yeah," Selphie agreed quickly, no more willing to be caught than Zell or Squall, even if it wasn't exactly obvious. She untied the curtains on each side of the door, surprised at how dark it became when the sun was blocked out.
"So," Zell said, just a little nervously. "Where do we start?"
"Square one, last time I checked," Selphie joked, though not meanly.
Selphie turned to Squall, then, who seemed apathetic towards the situation, as usual.
"Lighten up," she told him cheerfully. "Or else I'll have to make you."
Squall replied, but it was with an inarticulate mutter- not exactly something of discomfort, more a placeholder for words he couldn't quite find.
Selphie flopped down beside him quite carelessly, and quite soon found herself in a repeat of her past maneuver, though more successfully if one was to judge visually. Far more successfully, to be accurate. Squall had apparently decided his past restraint was fairly pointless, and while there was still some awkwardness on most scales, by the terms one would class Squall there most definitely was not. However, that might have changed vastly had any one of them known exactly what was going on in the next room..
~~~===~~~
Quistis bit her lower lip as she watched the threesome in the next room through the small surveillance computer she'd gotten from the ship before Squall had gotten back. It had taken three different cameras to get a decent view - the shades had blocked the one she'd set on the balcony and the one she'd hidden on Squall's jacket when she met him on the way back from the shop was buried under Selphie's clothes, but the third was on one of the packages he'd bought, and that one had a perfect shot.
/"It's worth the trouble,"/ she thought to herself, stifling a groan as she rubbed her clit hard, her eyes focused on Squall as he took Selphie just roughly. She made a couple more adjustments to the picture, so it was focused on the entire reason she'd gone to that trouble, and tried to lose herself in the fantasy.
Unfortunately, she was successful enough that she didn't notice as the door quietly slid open a few minutes later, and a slender figure looked in over her shoulder, his face registering every bit of the shock he felt when he saw her spying on the trio in the next room. Nida started to run down the stairs as the door closed behind him. This was definitely something the faculty had to find out about..
~~~===~~~
The next day, Quistis was in Cid's office, being informed of the results of the test - nothing that surprised her overly much. She was going to have to wait until after the formal announcement to congratulate Squall on taking the number one spot, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem.
"Is there anything else, Sir?"
Cid hesitated a moment, then a regretful look crossed his face.
"Yes, I'm afraid there is."
"It's about Seifer, isn't it," she sighed, more than slightly frustrated. She was surprised, though, to notice Nida and one of the faculty members enter the room.
"You see, Miss Trepe," Cid began. "Nida happened to stop by the hotel yesterday to inform you that the car you requested had been returned, and.."
/"Shit,"/ she thought, her stomach dropping out as she glanced over at the new SeeD. /"Okay, keep cool - it shouldn't be too big a violation if he saw anything, might still be able to cover for it."/
"Yes, sir?"
"He seems to believe that what he saw was.. An invasion of sorts on the privacy of three students of yours."
/"Wonderful."/
"What does he believe he saw," she asked, trying to figure out how much she'd have to explain. If it was just that she had them on the screen, that could be explained as a mistake. If he had details, though....
"They," Nida explained, using the single word to indicate Squall, Zell, and Selphie, "seemed to be," he trailed off and reddened to a dark shade. "Well, I'm sure you can guess what I mean.. And Instructor Trepe was. enjoying the view." The summary was brief and sheepish, but more than enough to pose a problem. The only way to defend herself would be to try and completely discredit him.
And that she wasn't willing to do, to cover up for pulling a stunt like that and getting caught.
"Sir," she said calmly, "may I have a word in private?"
Cid turned to Nida.
"Thank you, Nida, but I think we should respect Quistis' wishes."
"V-Very well, Sir," Nida stumbled on the words, but simply left, the faculty member at his heel.
Quistis waited until the two were out of the room before speaking again.
"Whatever the measures taken, I don't want the three of them to find out the real reason," she said quietly, not even bothering to deny what Nida had said.
"Very well," Cid nodded gravely. "I do believe it is in their best interest as it is. However, Quistis."
"Yes sir?" She knew she was probably about to be thrown out, but she was still strangely relieved, knowing that they wouldn't find out why. He was right - it was in their best interests not to find out. /"Besides - a mistake like this is *not* something I want anybody else hearing about."/
".I must ask you one thing. What were your reasons?"
/"That's a surprise,"/ she thought. Now, if only she had an answer.
"Sir," she started, "for the past year I've been trying to avoid having Cadet Le - Squall," she corrected herself, "find out that I'm interested in him. The regs about instructors getting involved with cadets, after all." She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain the rest of it, and decided there really wasn't any way to.
"I saw a chance to get a look at him, and I took it," she finished, her tone more than slightly disgusted with herself. "Honestly, I didn't really expect things to develop that way, but I took advantage of it when they did."
"I see," Cid sighed. "I wish there were some other way, I really do," there was a long pause. "But I'm afraid you shall have to be stripped of your title as an Instructor."
The expression that crossed her face showed just how surprised she was at that.
"That's all," she asked, before she could stop herself.
"Yes, it is," Cid replied, not too surprised at her shock. "I must ask you, however, not to say a word to anyone as to why you're no longer an Instructor. Nida has been spoken with, and he shan't, either."
"I have no problems with that," she said, nodding as she recovered some of her composure. "What should I say if anybody asks, besides the obvious?"
".This document," he held out an envelope, "should contain all you need to know."
She took the envelope silently, and opened it, skimming over the document silently.
"Thank you, sir," she said, her voice catching slightly. /"Nobody to blame but yourself, Trepe,"/ she admonished herself. "And I'm sorry I put you in this position."
"Don't worry about it, Quistis," Cid replied. "In many ways I don't blame you, but. no, forget it. You are dismissed."
Quistis saluted, and turned to leave the office, heading back to her room before she looked at the paper a little more carefully. She sighed and sat it off to the side, before starting to change for the night's party.
"Failed as an instructor," she said to herself, shaking her head. "They got that right...."
Warnings: R, M/F/M Sex, Voyeurism, Masturbation
Pairings: Quistis/Squall, Squall/Selphie/Zell
Summary: A slightly different (yet, strangely, more logical) take on why Quistis lost her teaching position..
Disclaimers: Don't own 'em. Aren't gonna own 'em. Not making money off of them or saying they're ours. So, hopefully, Squaresoft (who does own 'em) isn't gonna sue us for it..
~~~===~~~
Zell watched incredulously as Seifer and his friends drove off in the last transport, leaving him behind with Squall, Selphie, and Quistis.
"H-Hey!! Not again, man! There goes Mr. Ego...."
Squall sighed heavily at Zell's loud protest, and simply said, "Might as well walk it."
"Well, we don't have to be back right away," Quistis said, frowning slightly at the sudden loss of their ride. On the bright side, it did give her a few ideas.. "Why don't the three of you hang out around town for a little bit, get some rest - you've had a big day. I'll see if we can arrange for a rental or something."
"Sounds good to me," Selphie cheered. "I'm up for some rest, anyway.. There's a hotel here, right?"
"Yeah," Zell piped up. "It's just down the street from home. Pretty good cafe there, too."
" I guess we'll go get a room, then," Squall decided, unwittingly supporting Zell and Selphie's idea of his unofficial leadership.
"I'll see you three later then," Quistis nodded, starting in the general direction of the rental outfit. "Enjoy yourselves - you've earned it."
"See you later, Instructor," Selphie called.
Squall, without a word to anyone, set off towards the already nearby hotel.
"C'mon," Zell said needlessly, starting off after Squall as Selphie fell in behind them.
~~~===~~~
Minutes later, once they'd checked into a room in the room in the hotel, Squall had left and gone off to gather some potions and such, and Zell had gone to make a run for lunch. The temporary solitude was enough for Selphie to begin idly musing on what now seemed surreal to her.
Siren called to her in mild distress, for although she liked her fairly well she was confused at the sudden change of environment, even if it was pleasant. Selphie shivered. She couldn't imagine what it must have been like, living inside such an awful creature. It had been a dizzying sensation, both the effort drawing it took and the unfamiliar sensation of the GF settling in her soul, and if not for the fact that Squall and Zell had been nearly endlessly attacking the winged beast, she didn't know what would have become of her. As it was, a fairly powerful blow from the angered Elvoret had managed to make her fall on the grates rather forcefully, cutting up her legs and doing something quite painful to her right ankle. Thankfully, though, it was nothing a cure spell couldn't pretty much take care of.
She didn't doubt that Squall and Zell were shaken up as well, even though Squall seemed determined to force back any emotion that might intrude on his typical way of life, and Zell probably dealt with stress just by forgetting it. For Selphie, neither one worked. She usually had to do something to make herself forget it and relax, the few times when something actually managed to bother her.
Of course, her usual method would be fairly embarrassing to be caught using, but...
Selphie sighed. The idea had taken root in her, and it was already reasoning with her better sense. /Squall will probably be awhile, and Zell probably won't be able to get his key out if he's carrying lunch for all of us./ Part of her argued, but it's contribution to the debate was washed away by a slight wave of anticipation. /It's more suspicious if I'm as jumpy as I'm going to end up if I don't calm down../
The part of her that had so vehemently insisted she was insane won a small battle, though. Rather than the obvious option of removing her underwear, she slipped a hand down into them, and slowly, teasingly trailed her fingers along her slit. She gasped sharply when she hit her already protruding clit.
She had just convinced herself that she was going to finish herself off before anybody got back, when there was an insistent pounding at the bottom of the door.
Shocked, she drew her hand back in a split second, despite the now insisting ache in her groin. She took a few fast, deep breaths, in an attempt to not sound out of breath. "Z-Zell? That you?" She sat up swiftly, straightening her dress as well as she could.
"Yeah - mind opening the door? My hands are a little full here."
"OK, just a sec," Selphie called back, dashing to the nearest window and opening it, both to rid the room of the musky scent and hopefully remove the now incessant heat, though she assumed that it wasn't actually all that hot. A quick look around proved as satisfactory as it could be without more time, so ran back to the door and opened it- possibly a bit *too* quickly.
Fortunately, Zell had stopped leaning against the door just a moment before.
"Hope you don't mind pepperoni pizza," he said as he walked into the room, apparently not noticing anything wrong. "I figured it was probably simple enough that we'd all be okay with it."
Selphie could have cried with relief, but that wasn't exactly convenient. Instead, she turned to Zell and nodded, then walked over to a small table and moved a copy of Timber Maniacs off of it.
"This is probably better than setting it on one of the beds."
It was just then that a disturbing yet tempting idea struck in her mind, and before she could argue with herself, she found herself saying something. "How long is Squall gonna take?"
"I dunno," Zell shrugged. "Said he was going to hit the shop near the train station, then head out to the junk shop. Could be hours if the guy running that place talks him into letting him take a look at his gunblade," the short fighter said with a quick laugh. Something seemed just a little out of place - he wasn't sure what, but....
Then it clicked. He hadn't picked up on the slight smell at first because of the pizza in front of his face. But now he was catching the fading odor, and putting it together with a couple other things he'd noticed - the bed being mussed up wasn't too strange, but her dress was more wrinkled than it had been, and the window hadn't been open before. The clincher was one thing he was just noticing now - her fingers were a little damp. He tried to control the bolt impulse that hit him first, and keep calm, with mixed success.
"Uhm - Selphie? Did I." /Come up with something to say that doesn't make a complete ass out of yourself, Dincht../ "Did I come in at a bad time?"
"Maybe, maybe not.."
The expression in Zell's eyes was strangely reminiscent of a deer caught in somebody's headlights, as his mouth worked for several seconds without anything coming out of it.
"Uh - what'd make the difference?"
Selphie sobered a bit at that.
"Zell- calm down."
"Sorry," he said quickly. "Just uhm.... Kinda surprised me there."
"You don't need to apologize," Selphie replied. "My fault... I'll explain, if you like."
"Uhm." Zell took a couple of deep breaths - for him, at least - and tried to calm down. "Y-you don't have to if you don't want."
"Not quite a long story, but you might as well sit down," Selphie did as she'd suggested, and sat down on her own bed.
Zell did as she suggested, picking the bed in the middle and reaching over to grab the pizza.
"We might as well eat while we talk," he said, trying to get back to normal as he set it down and opened the box.
Selphie nodded and grabbed a slice as well, but didn't bite into it for a moment.
"A lot's happened today," she stated the overly obvious.
"Well duh," Zell agreed, chuckling slightly. "Between getting shot at on the way up and running from that thing on the way down, that's not exactly a normal day's work until now."
"And that's sort of the thing," Selphie said. "I kinda tensed up out there, and."
"Stress relief," Zell offered helpfully, after covering for a quiet moment with a bite of pizza.
"That's pretty much it," Selphie nodded slowly.
"I guess shouldn't really be that surprised," he said with a slight shrug. "Just uhm - like I said, wasn't really what I was expecting. Sorta blindsided me."
"I wouldnt've either," Selphie agreed with a slight laugh, finishing off her pizza.
Zell covered for not really knowing how to answer that by finishing his own slice, and hoping she didn't ask why *he'd* responded the way he had.
"Don't take this the wrong way, or anything," Selphie began carefully. "But you looked almost.scared or something."
"Scared? Me? No," he said, trying to figure out some way to cover it without lying about it. "Just...surprised."
"Like I said, I don't blame you," Selphie nodded. "But now that that's cleared up.."
"Yeah?"
Selphie hesitated a moment, sensing something was still amiss, but the little demon that had caused the problem in the first place put the words in her mouth.
"I still need to relax, and I could use some help."
Zell's reaction was much calmer this time, though he still tensed slightly as his brain tried to handle the conflicting thoughts running through it.
"Uhm - maybe we should wait till Squall gets back," he settled on eventually, not really sure why that idea made him much more comfortable with the situation. "After all - he's had a big day too," he finished, his usual cockiness showing up slightly as he winked.
Selphie's eyes widened for a moment, but she settled on words quickly.
"We up for talking him into it," she asked with a slight smirk.
Once the challenge was raised, Zell had to admit that it was more than slightly interesting.
"Depends on how you plan on doing that," he smirked back.
At that moment, as if cued, they heard a key clicking in the door. Seconds later, it opened, and behind it was, as expected, Squall, laden with what looked like more than enough to last five of him a month.
Selphie sprung into action quickly, though her greeting was no different than usual.
"Hi, Squall!"
"Hey Squall," Zell chuckled, turning to look at him. "Why don't you set that down and sit for a bit? It's not like we're about to go into the field for a year or something."
Squall shrugged, apparently not caring.
"Won't have to go into town later, then," he still set the parcels down, though, then sat on his bed.
"Zell got pizza," Selphie informed Squall. "It might not be hot anymore, but it shouldn't be cold or anything."
"Not hungry right now.."
"You okay, man," Zell asked, looking at Squall with a trace of concern. He knew that Squall was an iceberg, but it sounded like he was sick or something now.
"Just tired."
"Ah, c'mon," Zell grinned. "Little workout like that? That's just a warmup!"
".Whatever."
"Neither one of us bites, you know," Selphie informed Squall with a small giggle. "You can talk if you want."
"Maybe he's just got better ideas for how to use his time than talking," Zell suggested.
Squall closed his eyes and sighed deeply. "What's going on?"
"What makes you ask," Selphie asked, acting as if she didn't know what he meant.
Squall frowned.
"Forget it.. I'm going to get some rest."
"Oh, in that case," Selphie bent her head, and, unable to keep a small, amused smile off of her face before she whispered: "Night-night." Squall opened his eyes, only just in time to see Selphie capture his lips gently, but with an insistent pressure at the same time. Worse, or so he thought at the time, he found himself paralyzed, unable to protest. /Do I want to in the first place? Wait, what am I thinking? Of course I do./ He blanked out, though, when what could actually have been called friendly intensified, and, rather than not being able to protest, he found himself obliging, nearly reaching up and grabbing her- which actually wouldn't have bothered her. much anyway. . Zell watched quietly, apparently trying to keep from interfering in Selphie's attempt to get through to Squall - which she seemed to be doing remarkably well.
Honestly, a part of him was trying to build up to being able to take part in this - but he was finding that easier and easier as he watched them.
A few moments after that, Selphie drew back and flashed Squall a bright smile.
"Can you guess now?"
Confusion flashed briefly - maybe for a split second at longest- on Squall's face.
"What's all this about?"
"You're all right," Selphie asked, causing Squall to frown again.
"Yeah."
Selphie looked at him as if sizing him up.
"No, you're not."
"Yes, I am."
"You can't be," Selphie stated bluntly. "Squall - two hours ago none of us knew if we were gonna live to see the next day."
"Pretty good odds we wouldn't, actually," Zell admitted, finally piping up.
"We're fine now," Squall reminded them.
"You were worse off than any one of us," Selphie sighed. "We barely all made it out alive, especially you, and it didn't even make you think? You're just going back to acting like nothing bad's ever happened?"
"The only thing about that that matters is whether we passed the test."
"Guess they're right about you being an iceberg," Zell half-grumbled. He didn't like listening to things like that, but it sure as hell seemed right this time.
"Squall," Selphie had grown slightly exasperated herself. "Wasn't there ever. something, anything that affected you? Someone who you cared about?"
Squall's eyes widened, and he sat up, stiffly. Selphie winced, realizing she must have hit a sore spot.
"Squall."
"Don't, Selphie."
"W-What?"
"Don't try and apologize."
"Squall," Zell interrupted, "c'mon man - she wasn't trying to cause trouble."
"That's not it, Zell," Squall clarified, avoiding looking at either of them.
"Then what is it," Selphie asked, not as pointedly as her previous queries were.
"It's- no, don't worry about it," Squall looked almost embarrassed.
"C'mon, Squall - whatever it is, it's not leaving this room. After all - we're all partners, right?"
"It's nothing." /Or it shouldn't be./ "Really."
"It is, though," Selphie spoke softly. "Otherwise you wouldn't have trouble talking about it, right?"
"Don't really want to talk about it," Squall concluded helplessly.
"It's OK, Squall," Selphie assured.
"Sorry if that. thing back there creeped you out, anyway," Selphie changed the topic casually, and Squall was thankful that neither Selphie or Zell seemed determined to pry, even if what they were apparently now talking about was awkward as well.
"I've seen worse things."
Squall's expression was fairly unreadable, and, that noticed, Selphie added something.
"Just," she hesitated, then recalled Zell's earlier wording. "Stress relief. Nothing else.."
Squall seemed to contemplate the situation for a minute, and then apparently made a decision.
"None of this leaves this room, either."
"Not a chance," Zell agreed.
"Of course," Selphie nodded. "Guess we should close this, then." She went to the windowed door by the balcony she'd opened earlier and shut it.
"Yeah."
"Definitely," Zell nodded. "Probably want to pull the drapes too."
"Oh, yeah," Selphie agreed quickly, no more willing to be caught than Zell or Squall, even if it wasn't exactly obvious. She untied the curtains on each side of the door, surprised at how dark it became when the sun was blocked out.
"So," Zell said, just a little nervously. "Where do we start?"
"Square one, last time I checked," Selphie joked, though not meanly.
Selphie turned to Squall, then, who seemed apathetic towards the situation, as usual.
"Lighten up," she told him cheerfully. "Or else I'll have to make you."
Squall replied, but it was with an inarticulate mutter- not exactly something of discomfort, more a placeholder for words he couldn't quite find.
Selphie flopped down beside him quite carelessly, and quite soon found herself in a repeat of her past maneuver, though more successfully if one was to judge visually. Far more successfully, to be accurate. Squall had apparently decided his past restraint was fairly pointless, and while there was still some awkwardness on most scales, by the terms one would class Squall there most definitely was not. However, that might have changed vastly had any one of them known exactly what was going on in the next room..
~~~===~~~
Quistis bit her lower lip as she watched the threesome in the next room through the small surveillance computer she'd gotten from the ship before Squall had gotten back. It had taken three different cameras to get a decent view - the shades had blocked the one she'd set on the balcony and the one she'd hidden on Squall's jacket when she met him on the way back from the shop was buried under Selphie's clothes, but the third was on one of the packages he'd bought, and that one had a perfect shot.
/"It's worth the trouble,"/ she thought to herself, stifling a groan as she rubbed her clit hard, her eyes focused on Squall as he took Selphie just roughly. She made a couple more adjustments to the picture, so it was focused on the entire reason she'd gone to that trouble, and tried to lose herself in the fantasy.
Unfortunately, she was successful enough that she didn't notice as the door quietly slid open a few minutes later, and a slender figure looked in over her shoulder, his face registering every bit of the shock he felt when he saw her spying on the trio in the next room. Nida started to run down the stairs as the door closed behind him. This was definitely something the faculty had to find out about..
~~~===~~~
The next day, Quistis was in Cid's office, being informed of the results of the test - nothing that surprised her overly much. She was going to have to wait until after the formal announcement to congratulate Squall on taking the number one spot, but that wouldn't be too much of a problem.
"Is there anything else, Sir?"
Cid hesitated a moment, then a regretful look crossed his face.
"Yes, I'm afraid there is."
"It's about Seifer, isn't it," she sighed, more than slightly frustrated. She was surprised, though, to notice Nida and one of the faculty members enter the room.
"You see, Miss Trepe," Cid began. "Nida happened to stop by the hotel yesterday to inform you that the car you requested had been returned, and.."
/"Shit,"/ she thought, her stomach dropping out as she glanced over at the new SeeD. /"Okay, keep cool - it shouldn't be too big a violation if he saw anything, might still be able to cover for it."/
"Yes, sir?"
"He seems to believe that what he saw was.. An invasion of sorts on the privacy of three students of yours."
/"Wonderful."/
"What does he believe he saw," she asked, trying to figure out how much she'd have to explain. If it was just that she had them on the screen, that could be explained as a mistake. If he had details, though....
"They," Nida explained, using the single word to indicate Squall, Zell, and Selphie, "seemed to be," he trailed off and reddened to a dark shade. "Well, I'm sure you can guess what I mean.. And Instructor Trepe was. enjoying the view." The summary was brief and sheepish, but more than enough to pose a problem. The only way to defend herself would be to try and completely discredit him.
And that she wasn't willing to do, to cover up for pulling a stunt like that and getting caught.
"Sir," she said calmly, "may I have a word in private?"
Cid turned to Nida.
"Thank you, Nida, but I think we should respect Quistis' wishes."
"V-Very well, Sir," Nida stumbled on the words, but simply left, the faculty member at his heel.
Quistis waited until the two were out of the room before speaking again.
"Whatever the measures taken, I don't want the three of them to find out the real reason," she said quietly, not even bothering to deny what Nida had said.
"Very well," Cid nodded gravely. "I do believe it is in their best interest as it is. However, Quistis."
"Yes sir?" She knew she was probably about to be thrown out, but she was still strangely relieved, knowing that they wouldn't find out why. He was right - it was in their best interests not to find out. /"Besides - a mistake like this is *not* something I want anybody else hearing about."/
".I must ask you one thing. What were your reasons?"
/"That's a surprise,"/ she thought. Now, if only she had an answer.
"Sir," she started, "for the past year I've been trying to avoid having Cadet Le - Squall," she corrected herself, "find out that I'm interested in him. The regs about instructors getting involved with cadets, after all." She paused for a moment, trying to figure out how to explain the rest of it, and decided there really wasn't any way to.
"I saw a chance to get a look at him, and I took it," she finished, her tone more than slightly disgusted with herself. "Honestly, I didn't really expect things to develop that way, but I took advantage of it when they did."
"I see," Cid sighed. "I wish there were some other way, I really do," there was a long pause. "But I'm afraid you shall have to be stripped of your title as an Instructor."
The expression that crossed her face showed just how surprised she was at that.
"That's all," she asked, before she could stop herself.
"Yes, it is," Cid replied, not too surprised at her shock. "I must ask you, however, not to say a word to anyone as to why you're no longer an Instructor. Nida has been spoken with, and he shan't, either."
"I have no problems with that," she said, nodding as she recovered some of her composure. "What should I say if anybody asks, besides the obvious?"
".This document," he held out an envelope, "should contain all you need to know."
She took the envelope silently, and opened it, skimming over the document silently.
"Thank you, sir," she said, her voice catching slightly. /"Nobody to blame but yourself, Trepe,"/ she admonished herself. "And I'm sorry I put you in this position."
"Don't worry about it, Quistis," Cid replied. "In many ways I don't blame you, but. no, forget it. You are dismissed."
Quistis saluted, and turned to leave the office, heading back to her room before she looked at the paper a little more carefully. She sighed and sat it off to the side, before starting to change for the night's party.
"Failed as an instructor," she said to herself, shaking her head. "They got that right...."