Disclaimer: We don't own Final Fantasy VIII, don't sue…
Like Father, Like Son
Cid looked with a grim face at the phone. Dr. Kadowaki had given him a sheet of paper, and scribbled on it was a phone number. "If you are that concerned, your best bet is to call his father…" she had told him. Cid reluctantly picked up the phone and dialed the number. He waited for awhile then finally a man answered the phone.
"Uh, hi, hold on….Ellone! The cookies are burning!" he screamed. Cid waited patiently for him to return. "Uh yeah?" came the man's voice.
"Is there a Mr. Laguna Loire there?" Cid asked reading off the paper.
"That's me!" he answered cheerfully. "Ellone! The cookies Ellone!"
"Well, I'm calling about your son." Cid started but Laguna interrupted.
"What's wrong? Is he playing nice with the other boys?"
Well actually he's been acting strange lately, we've been thinking that perhaps he would open up to you." Cid started. The man on the other end was silent.
"…Okay." He finally replied.
"Thank you so much Mr. Loire. We won't be sending him on any missions while he is in this state, so you are welcome to our Garden anytime you are able." Cid hung up the phone and sighed. He always hated calling his students' parents, but it really was for his own good.
*Over at Laguna's House*
"Can you save Mr. Gingerbread Man?" Laguna asked pointing to a black heap of deformed cookies.
"Uncle Laguna…" Ellone said slowly, trying to comfort him.
"NNOOOOOOO!!!" he screamed holding the ruined pastry in his hands. "Lord have mercy upon him!" he straightened up, "Well then, you are going to make a new batch." He said. "And if you don't you will be grounded from watching wrestling!"
"No! Please have mercy!" she begged him.
"I know the reason you didn't get up to rescue him was because you were watching the championships. And because of you Mr. Gingerbread Man died!" he said shaking his finger at her.
"But it was Kane vs. The Rock!" she complained. Laguna just shook his head and pointed her into the kitchen. As she got the ingredients ready a second time, he got his jacket and started heading for the door.
"Oh, by the way, who was on the phone?" Ellone asked when she saw that he was leaving.
"I have to go see Squall." She nodded.
"Do you want any cookies before you go?" she asked as she emptied the burnt cookies into a cookie jar shaped like a pig. He shook his head no and walked out the door.
*Back at the Garden…Selphie's POV*
She was very excited! She just received a notice from the office that Sir Laguna was coming to the Garden! And he wanted to see HER! Well, of course, he wanted to see Squall…but for the time being, she was Squall. So needless to say she was happy. She had her autograph pen and notepad all ready when he walked through the front gate.
Laguna was thinking solemnly to himself, [But Squall hates me. I'm the last person he would open up to…but I really do hope he's okay…] When he walked into Balamb Garden he was surprised to see Squall already waiting for him.
Selphie was bouncing up and down. [Yay! He's finally here!] She ran up to him and shook his hand. Laguna looked confused. "Sir Laguna, I'm so happy to finally meet you!" she said smiling. He gave her and awkward glance, then felt her head.
"Squall, do you feel okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine Sir Laguna." She said bouncing. [Oh! He really does care!]
"Why are you calling me 'Sir' Laguna?" he asked, "You can just call me Laguna, or," he looked at his feet, "perhaps even dad." Laguna was amazed to see Squall's jaw drop.
"Can I really?!?" Laguna shook his head yes. "Can I call you father? Or daddy? Pops? How about Popperoo? Oh! Oh! How about this, Old Man?"
Laguna looked confused, "I'm not that old…but yeah, whatever floats your boat." Selphie laughed madly, she then jumped forward and embraced him.
[What is that Cid talking about?] Laguna thought to himself [Squall's perfectly fine! This is how he SHOULD be!] Laguna hugged her back, much to Selphie's liking. "I'm happy to see that you are getting better social skills.
[Smile and nod] Selphie thought, and she did just that. "Can you give me a tour around your garden?" Laguna asked, "I've never been here before and it looks pretty cool!"
"Of course Sir…uh, I mean popperoo." She grabbed his hand and started leading him in the direction of the infirmary. She led him in.
"This is Dr. Kadowaki, she's really nice, she's been doing lots of tests on me lately!" Laguna once again looked confused and he turned to the doctor.
"Uh, Squall, can you leave us for a minute?" she asked. "I need to talk to your father."
"Okie dokie!" Selphie replied. She saw that Irvine was in one of the rooms and decided to pay him a visit while they talked.
"Mr. Loire, I'm so happy that you came! We have no idea what's wrong with him, but he's been vandalizing school property, sneaking out of the dorms at night, and just been acting strange in gereral." She opened her mouth as if to say more but was interrupted by a scream that came from one of the rooms.
"AHHHHHHHHH! Get away from me!" Irvine screamed as he ran away.
"But Irvy! I just wanna talk to you!" she said in a whiny voice. Irvine continued to run around the room screaming. "Why don't you love me anymore?" she asked curling her lip to form a perfect puppy dog face.
"Oh God! Help me! Help me!" Irvine continued to scream.
"See what I mean?" Dr. Kadowaki yelled over Irvine's screaming. "I'm sorry but you are going to have to take him out of here, I'm supposed to be giving this young man therapy." Laguna nodded and grabbed Selphie by the arm and dragged her out of the infirmary.
Selphie, being Selphie, couldn't stay mad too long. So she started skipping while they were on their way to the Quad. Laguna joined in, so they skipped linking their arms together singing "Here we go looby loo.."
They finally made it into the Quad. "This!" Selphie started, "Is where the Garden Festival is being planned." She then smiled really big, "I'm on the committee!"
"That's awesome Squall!" Laguna exclaimed looking around the stage. "Oh, and Squall, I need to talk to you…" he started but Selphie held up a hand.
"Wait a minute! We aren't done with the tour!" she grabbed him by the arm and directed him out of the room. "Next is the cafeteria!" she said as he followed her down the hallway. Upon entering the cafeteria she noticed that there wasn't a line for the hotdogs. She immediately jumped in front of the lunch lady.
"Two hotdogs please!" she said smiling.
"Alright…" she said turning around, when she turned back around she gave them their hotdogs. After they sat down at the table and started talking over the hotdogs Zell came running in.
"Are, :::huff::: there :::heave:::: hotdogs left?" it was noticeable that he had obviously ran to the cafeteria.
"I'm sorry, those two were our last ones…" she said pointing to where Laguna and 'Squall' were sitting.
"SQUALL I'M GONNA KILL YOU!!!" he screamed running at him. Selphie laughed like an idiot and Laguna just stared, utterly confused at the whole predicament. Zell then sighed and straightened up, "Oh well…" said going back to the lunch lady, "Do you have any pickles?" she shook her head solemnly.
"I'm sorry, we're out of those too."
"NNNOOOOOOOOOO!" Zell screamed as he ran out of the cafeteria.
"Oh well…" Selphie said stuffing the last of her hotdog in her mouth. "Now we shalt venture into the dorms!" she laughed madly and started skipping out of the cafeteria.
"Darn it, I didn't get to finish my hotdog!" Laguna said picking it up, it didn't matter, he didn't really like hotdogs anyway.
As he walked out of the cafeteria after 'Squall' he noticed Zell sitting on a bench. He felt pity for him and gave him his hotdog. "Here ya go, I hate hotdogs anyway…" Zell looked up with watering eyes. It was like a kid at Christmas.
"Oh! Thank you, thank you, thank you!" he hugged Laguna (and took a bite out of the hotdog at the same time). "I will never be able to…" he stopped in mid sentence and a look of pure disgust swept across his face.
Laguna raised an eyebrow and watched as Zell fell to the ground coughing. When Laguna realized that he was choking he immediately jumped into action. The Heimlich Maneuver, he grabbed Zell and started lifting him by the stomach as he was once taught so many years ago. Finally the hotdog dislodged from his throat it flew across the hall, hitting Quistis in the forehead.
"Gee, thanks again…" Zell started saying, but Laguna wasn't listening, we was doing the innocence whistle and started walking fast, Instructor Trepe started storming over to where Zell was sitting. Laguna while walking away noticed that 'Squall' was jumping up and down outside of the dormitories calling him.
"Pops! Over here!" Selphie exclaimed jumping up and down. He ran to catch up with his son. Laguna thought that this was by far one of the best days of his life. He and Squall never got to talk and now he was treating him like family. It made him feel warm and fuzzy inside.
"This is my dorm!" she said leading him into Squall's room, the only thing was that she did quite a bit of redecorating. If Squall had seen it he would have strangled her, wrapped her in a tarp, and thrown her into a bottomless pit. There was a giant shag rug carpet on the floor, a cow print bean bag in the corner with a pink and purple lava lamp going next to it. The bed it seemed was the only thing that she didn't touch.
"Well Squall, I really like your new fuzzy toys collection!" Laguna exclaimed. He immediately ran to the beanbag near a pile of Dr. Seuss books and picked up Snoogans the penguin and started reading out of 'The Lorax'. "I am the Lorax! I speak for the trees! I speak for the trees for the trees have no tongues, and I'm asking you sir, at the top of my lungs."
When he finished reading that he wiped a tear from his eye and started on 'Horton Hears a Who'. Selphie was cuddled up on the bed (she had looked through Squall's book collection, and found an old volume of 'War and Peace' and was trying to understand the first few paragraphs.
"Well…" she said throwing the book across the room. "I'm done. Time for you to see, the parking lot!"
"Oh what fun!" Laguna exclaimed clapping his hands together and jumping up and down. They ran down the hall and for the parking lot.
"And here we are!" she exclaimed.
"Woooowwww." He oogled at the nothing all around him. "Awesome!" he said with his mouth wide open.
"Tag! You're it!" Selphie said tagging him and running away.
"Hey! That wasn't fair! I wasn't ready yet!" he complained. But nonetheless, he chased her. After Selphie was driven into the wall numerous times, and Laguna collapsed of exhaustion, they decided that it was time to visit the training center.
As soon as they entered they heard a battle cry. Selphie was amazed to see Squall fighting a T-Rexaur, and his forehead was bright red, obviously from his nunchukus.
"What do you think you're doing you idiot!?! You're gonna kill me!" she screamed at him.
While dodging the monsters tail he replied, "You are so freaking weak! You need to be leveled up!" he then noticed Laguna. While staring in awe and wondering 'why possibly would HE be here' the monster swung his tail and knocked him clear out.
Seeing this Selphie grabbed Toodles out of his sheath and charged the monster and killed it. She then ran up to Squall and casted life on him. He woke back up and stared at Laguna. "What are YOU doing here?" he spat. Selphie slapped Squall and had a disapproving look on her face.
"Be nice, he's MY daddy!" Squall looked confused and she hugged Laguna.
"Uh…Okay…" Squall said. "Whatever." He walked off. His goal was to find a Grat, just because they were easy to kill and it would be better on his self- esteem. Selphie shrugged and lead Laguna out and into the Library.
"Yay! They have my favorite book!" he exclaimed holding up 'Pat the Bunny'. Selphie jumped up and down laughing.
"That's MY favorite book too!"
"Are you serious?!?" Laguna asked happily. She nodded and gave him a high five.
They had finally finished the whole bottom floor, which left the second floor classroom and all that other good stuff. But unfortunately, Laguna had to go home. He had been at the Garden all day and Ellone would be getting worried thinking 'Oh my God, Squall killed him' because as far as she knew Squall still hated Laguna's guts. He couldn't wait to give her the good news!
Selphie was really sad, she had a lot of fun with him. She was so totally definitely in hog heaven. She got to spend the whole day with Sir Laguna! She decided to go to the cafeteria and eat dinner. Squall wasn't there. She figured he was still training [how boring!]
She went to bed and slept peacefully.
However Squall wasn't so lucky. He was jumping on her bed (the most Selphie-like thing he's done) trying to get the Irvine poster down. When he realized that it wasn't going to happen he realized who must have put it up there.
"Damn you Irvine!" he muttered under his breath. He jumped a little more, a final desperate attempt to get it down. He eventually gave up, but before he changed into his bright pink 'princess' pajamas that he oh so loved (sarcasm people) and he decided to feed Sammy.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * By the way in the strategy guide it gives heights and Irvine is about 4 inches taller then Squall…just some food for thought. So yeah! R&R! We needs new ideas! We are running out! WRITERS BLOCK! We need brain food so pleez R&R, flames and feedback are appreciated!