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Guns and women have always been part of the life of a sharpshooter.
I've never really taken women that seriously. For me, flirting was just another harmless pasttime. I'd make all the ladies swoon over my charisma and suave in an instant, and their hearts broken the next. Maybe it was because I never really understood people that much, or I've grown used to, or because I didn't know what true love was. But then, maybe it was something else---maybe I only did that because I didn't want to be a nobody.
Some people think that I've been on several dates already; that I've slept with lots of women they doubt I'm still a virgin. Let them think what they think. But let me tell you the truth. It is hard to believe that Irvine Kinneas, Galbadia Garden's resident ladies' man, has not yet been on a date and is still a virgin.
Why, you ask? Because I don't know what to do? Oh, I do know how. It's just that I grow bored easily, and shift from my interests from one to another in a matter of time. Yes, I used to believe, half-seriously, that women had an expiration date of one week. One week, and then I'd grow bored of them, and move on to another.
So I never courted a woman. Never dated her, never bedded her, just flirted with her. So that after a week or so, she wouldn't have her heart broken over the fact that I've grown tired of her.
That was me---someone you would surely hate. That was me before I fell in love.
I don't know what it was that hit me. I met her when I was to accompany the SeeDs from Balamb to assassinate the Sorceress. Selphie Tilmitt. I vaguely remembered her from my days in the orphanage. She was a nice and sweet girl who never failed to make me smile. I really liked her, and I even cried a river when she went away. I had never expected to see her until that fateful day.
She hadn't changed much. Aside from the changes brought about by puberty, she was basically the same Sefie I knew and admired from afar. Once in a while I'd flirt with her. Weeks passed and my interest in her still hadn't dwindled. I can't really explain it, but I felt something different from all the other girls I'd met all my life. I felt something that wasn't there with the rest. I cared for her deeply.
It was more than infatuation. It was love, plain and simple.
Whether or not my Sefie felt the same way for me, I don't know. I only hope that someday she will realize my feelings for her. But sometimes I hope not, as she might surely reject me, or say she's already found someone else, and it will hurt me all the more.
I no longer believe that women have an "expiration date". However, I still flirt once in a while, as it's already become something I've grown used to. I don't think it is a vice, as I do not lust for them or fantasize over them. There is only one that I deeply care about.
So, before you judge me and call me all sorts of names, try to understand that there is more to me than meets the eye.
~FIN~
A/N: R/R. No flames please, constructive criticism only. This is for Lenne, who reviewed my fic "Broken Vow" and asked me to write an Irvine fic. I hope you enjoyed it. Please do tell me if I have portrayed Irvine accurately or not! I have based this fic on a quote from a character from the Chinese series "Meteor Garden". MG fans may recognize it. ^v^ Please read my fic, "Broken Vow" too, if you have the time.
