Squall came downstairs and had no sooner opened the front door of the hotel than someone ran into him.
He rocked back from the impact then looked down at the fallen body on the floor. "Déjà vu," he commented dryly, and extended a hand.
"What do you mean?" Selphie asked, taking his hand and bouncing to her feet.
"We first met when you mowed me down in the hall before our SeeD exam. Remember?"
"Mowed you down? I seem to recall being the one on the floor that time, too." Her eyes, if anything, sparkled even more brilliantly green under the new-minted gold of her hair.
Squall smiled. "You look like jewelry."
Selphie gaped at him. "Are you feeling okay? You're being nice. You're a great guy, Squall, but you're never nice."
The smile dropped from his face. "This is the reaction I get, and you wonder why I'm never nice?"
"Oh, don't go all stuffy on me. I was just surprised."
"What do you want, Selphie?" His voice was hard.
"I'm sorry. You said something really nice to me, even if I don't understand it, and I act like you're a freak. Tell you what. I look like jewelry, so you can wear me. How's that sound?" She grinned up at him. "I can be a bracelet," she held his wrist and plastered herself to his side, "or a necklace. Would you like another necklace?" She wrapped her arms around his neck and clung there, her feet dangling off the ground.
Squall fought to keep his face stern.
"Ooh! I know! I'll be your new earring!"
Laughter bubbled up and escaped from Squall as he intercepted Selphie's hand on its way to his ear. "You win," he stated.
Blinking with her best effort at innocence, Selphie said, "Were we fighting?" She looked him over and spoiled his attempt at righteous indignation by laughing in his face. "C'mon!" she exclaimed brightly. "We've got a crowd again, and I know you hate the stares."
That said, she scampered up his back, got a grip on his neck, reached one hand down to slap his butt, and ordered, "Ya, mule!"
Desperately wanting to throw her off, or at least rub his forehead in exasperation, Squall decided that getting out as soon as possible was the lesser evil. He walked out the hotel's door, carrying a crowing Selphie.
Once outside he tried to dump her off, but between the arms wrapped around his throat and the legs wrapped around his waist, he couldn't shake her.
"Get off me," he pleaded.
"Nope. Not until we get to talk."
"About what?"
"We need to finish yesterday's conversation."
He shuddered. She'd gotten him to agree to kiss her, which he wasn't entirely adverse to, but only as a surrogate for Irvine, which did bother him some. "Here? Now?" he temporized.
"Not here," she conceded. The street in front of the hotel was not the best locale. "Over by the docks. It's quiet, there."
Seeing no other way out, he went where she indicated. Tucked into an isolated nook, obscured by a parked car and close enough to the water to hear it slosh against the pier, Squall asked, "Will you get off me, now?"
"When you ask so prettily? Of course I'll get you off." Selphie slid down him and slunk around his side to face him. "You're so cute when you blush," she said, grinning.
"If I kiss you, will you go away?" Squall demanded, hand on hip in irritation.
"I said I wanted to talk, Mr. Teapot." She gave him a stony look, all cheerfulness gone from her lustrous emerald eyes. "I didn't realize I was such a burden on your time, though."
She turned to leave. For a brief moment, Squall considered letting her go—the old Squall certainly would have—but he knew that allowing Selphie to leave with that pain of rejection written across her face would be too cruel.
"…Wait," he called to her.
"Why?" She didn't look at him, but she did stop moving away.
He stepped up behind her, gently folded her into his arms, and spoke softly into her hair. "I'm sorry." He kissed the top of her glinting, golden head. "What did you want to talk about?"
"About yesterday." She sighed and nestled herself into his body. "I wanted to apologize for not showing up last night, and to apologize for telling you I would."
"What do you mean?"
"After I left you, I went to talk to Irvine. We got a lot of things worked out between us… and we talked about you."
"About me?" Squall lifted his head to frown down at her.
Selphie turned her head sideways and looked up to meet his ocean blue eyes. "About you," she confirmed. "I told him what happened after I saw you two kissing." She had the grace to color slightly at the memory of her reaction. "Irvy said that if you were man enough to kiss him for his sake, then he could be man enough to kiss me for mine. But, you know, even though it felt good, it didn't feel right. It was a nice kiss, but there wasn't any magic in it, if that makes any sense. He said it's because he felt like he was kissing his sister, and I think he was right.
"The thing that really got me, though, was what it felt like for just the bare moment when we kissed. I mean," she turned in his arms to face him, "you and me. I felt a spark of something there that I didn't feel with Irvy."
Astonished, Squall floundered for something to say. He was no closer to speech when Selphie continued.
"I told him about that, too. And I said that I really wanted to show up in your room that night, to see if you felt it too."
Squall tried to say something, anything, but Selphie laid a finger on his lips and smiled up at him.
"Irvy," she continued, "told me that it would be really unfair to do that to you. That's when he told me that he had promised to meet you that night—even though he was just teasing you. We agreed to leave you alone that night, and talk to you today, instead. Irvine will probably find you later."
Selphie laughed suddenly, her eyes glowing green with amusement. "It's just as well. When I met Zell to check on Ragnarok's engines he couldn't stop talking about how great you were and how you two were going to hang out later. I can only imagine the mess you would have had with the three of us showing up on your doorstep."
"It could have been worse," Squall muttered, thinking of the riot he'd imagined. At Selphie's quizzical look he shook his head. "Don't worry about it." His expression grew serious. "I don't know what to say to all this."
"Say you felt something, too. Or say you didn't. I just want to know, one way or the other."
"I… I felt something. I just don't know what. There was so much happening yesterday, I still haven't figured it all out, yet."
"Well, then," she replied, warmth rising in her voice, "want to try again?"
Squall started to shake his head in an automatic no, but paused. He looked down at her, looking like a living statue of spun gold and precious gems, and felt her body, soft yet firm, pressed against him. He felt an involuntary tightness between his legs; looking at her, he knew she felt it.
"Can I take that for a yes?" she asked, mischief riddling her face.
Breathless, he nodded and leaned down to her; she lifted her head and their lips met.
Heat coursed from their joined mouths and ignited every part of his body. His nerve endings were sensitive to every brush of her body, every slip of bare skin against his, every whisper of breeze blowing in from the ocean. His ears roared with the rush of blood through his veins, drowning out the noise of the city and the pounding of the waves. He slid his hands down her back, then lifted her, cupping her buttocks where the short dress had ridden up.
He felt her arms over his shoulders, fingers in his hair, and her legs wrapped around his hips, grinding her body into him. He stifled a gasp in her mouth, then another when she moved her hips in a slow circle against his. He gasped out loud and shuddered, weak-kneed, when she kissed down the line of his jaw and sucked softly at the base of his neck.
"So," she whispered, the breath tickling over moist skin and making him shiver, "feel anything?"
"You…" he struggled for breath. "You could say that."
"And could I say what you felt?" she asked him, voice husky with desire.
"I… I don't know." He frowned in thought, then smiled mischievously at her. "You're a lovely girl, my little bellyband, so it could just be garden variety lust."
Selphie laughed in delighted surprise. "Garden variety lust between a couple of SeeDs. I didn't think you even knew what a pun was." She winked at him, so he didn't bother correcting her; he hadn't tried to make a joke. "Bellyband?" she continued.
"You're emerald and gold and wrapped around my waist."
"A little lower than that," she replied seductively. He blushed.
Unclasping her legs, Selphie slid down to her feet. She modestly pulled her dress down and smoothed out the wrinkles. "I'm supposed to be finding you, since you missed Rinoa leaving. Where'd you go?"
"Something came up."
She eyed his pants knowingly. "I noticed."
He blushed a little more.
"I'll leave you to think about it," Selphie said. She leaned in close to him. "I'll think about it, too." After a brief kiss and an overly familiar squeeze of her hand, she was gone.
Stumbling slightly, Squall stepped over and sat on the edge of the dock. He had a lot to think about.