"Do you have the time
To listen to me whine
About everything and anything a man wants
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it."
--Green Day
"For When You Return"
Part III
"That's crazy." Irvine Kinneas said.
"Think how great it'll be!" Zell said in reply, totally oblivious to any speck of hesitation
coming from the gangly, jeans-clad man. Irvine crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back
against the wall, eyeing the duo in front of him. He had discarded his trench coat and hat for
a t-shirt and a simple ponytail. A single strand hung down from over his temple and across his
chest -- Selphie's work.
Selphie, incidentally, was the next to speak. "C'mon, Irvine! What else are we going to do?"
Her words jilted and shook as if she were a pile of stones atop of a vibrating tray. This was,
of course, due to the way she bounced up and down on her toes in order to beg him. Her thin
little hands were clasped in front of her chest, her eyes squeezed shut, and her hair danced.
"Pleaaase? For me?"
"And me," Zell piped in, although he wasn't quite as appealing as Selphie was.
"Okay, let's just say that I'm game--"
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried.
Irvine cleared his throat. Her arms dropped to her side and she pulled down a shade of peaceful
quiet. "I mean, yeah... Let's just say that you are game."
Irvine unwound one arm from the other, which remained against his chest, and splayed out his
fingers expressively, palm-up. His mouth opened, calm and cool... Totally prepared to offer a
brilliant reason why the adventure wouldn't work, would fail, would be a waste of time... There
was plenty to work with, but Irvine suddenly found himself speechless, as if an invisible hand
had gripped his tongue.
"Well," He said, closing his fist and re-folding it across his chest with the other arm. "I
guess I am game. Kinda. Sorta." His blue eyes flared up and he twisted a finger in their
direction all of a sudden. "But you're never going to convince everyone else."
"Wanna bet?" Zell asked smugly.
"...No." Irvine replied.
"A challenge?" Squall asked.
"A -real- challenge." Zell said.
Selphie pounded a hand into her fist. Irvine acted as a third posse member, but said nothing.
He had retrieved his hat, and took that moment to pull it down low over his eyes. They were in
the elevator, going down from the second floor. The three of them had followed Squall in and
cornered him there. Selphie had ever-so-cleverly plotted this.
"...I don't know." Squall said.
"Sheesh, is that your answer to -everything-?" Zell huffed.
Squall frowned and tapped the corner of the wall above the keypad, waiting for the blasted
elevator to release him. Selphie saw this and quickly went in for the kill. "Aren't you
-bored-, Squall? I mean, they're going to stick us in -classrooms- when the next term starts...
They may as well clip a ball and chain to each of our ankles..."
The elevator pinged and the door hissed open. Squall strode out without much of a pause or a
glance. Relentless, the trio stayed at his heels. As a unit they made their way down the
staircase. No single footstep could be distinguished for another. At this constant
tap-tap-tapping sound Squall finally looked back over his shoulder and heaved a
defeated-sounding sigh.
"Let me get this straight," He said. "You want us to fly out to Centra..." Out of the corner of
his eye he saw them all bob their heads empathetically. Pursing his lips a little at this, he
took a breath and continued, "...and hunt down some weak Guardian Force in the mountains that
no one, since the dawn of its discovery, cares to capture?"
"Well gee, if you put it -that- way," Selphie said.
"Hey!" Zell exclaimed. "It may not be Ultimecia, but it's something!"
"Besides," Squall said, ignoring him. "Acquiring a Guardian Force is part of the SeeD exam,
isn't it?" This, of course, was a pointed and rhetorical question. "It'd be a little selfish of
us to just run out and take another of those things off the map."
"He has a point," Irvine said.
"...We can put it back when we're done," Selphie suggested meekly.
Zell wasn't so easily swayed. "I checked it out with the Xu beforehand." He said. Xu was
usually the one who dealt with the Guardian Forces, she having the most experience and training
when it came to them. Squall, however, didn't look impressed. Irvine was looking at the ceiling
and Selphie was doing the opposite -- gazing down at her feet.
"What's -wrong- with you guys?!" Zell exclaimed all of a sudden. The image was something better
suited for nightmares. There they were, in a boring air-conditioned training building... and
not giving a damn about it.
"Don't you miss it? Just a little... I mean, looking out the window of the Rangnarok and seeing
the ocean spilling out beneath you, the rush of adrenaline as you feel a monster's voice
rumbling across the knots in your stomach. That surge, when you slam your fist into some
creatures hide--"
"--And the way that the feeling of victory can wash every bruise and scrape right off of your
mind," A voice interjected. Zell looked to his left to see that Rinoa had fallen into step
behind him. Her willowy fingers were wound around a green coffee mug, and when their eyes
met a little smile flickered into her irises in that quietly warm way of hers.
Zell flashed a grin at set his arm around her shoulders. "Did I ever tell you that I love you,
Riona? I do." Rinoa beamed and shifted her weight as he playfully shook her back and forth a
little.
"Well, I take it Rinoa is in, then." Selphie said cheerfully. Rinoa glanced over at the girl in
the process of brushing a strand of hair behind one ear, and then looked to Squall and Irvine
curiously.
Squall cleared his throat. "They want to fight some no-name Gua--"
"We -want-," Zell interrupted pointedly. "To face a challenge."
Rinoa stiffened a little under Zell's hold at this -- describing the sensation of battle was
one thing, but actually going through with it... What part of the conversation had she missed?
Zell, misinterpreting the tension for his close-contact, gave her a sheepish little half-grin
and put his hands down into his pockets.
Squall, however, was a little more observant. He watched her eyes until their gazes met, and
they looked silently at each-other until her head rose and fell in the barest glimmer of a nod,
and her lips subtly upturned in a vapor-like smile.
A little terse, Squall crossed his arms and looked at Zell, who was facing everyone but Rinoa.
He could feel Selphie's eyes burning at his cheek on one side, and Irvine's at another. Did they
really need his approval? It was a little bothersome, really, although when he thought about
it...
...It was just a stupid little adventure. Why fret about it?
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried, before he could even say anything. She'd seen the shift in his eyes,
the slackening of his jaw that stated that Squall had given up. Zell broke into a grin and
punched at the air. Squall, however, simply looked at Rinoa's reaction. She pushed out a little
smile and gripped her coffee mug as Zell clapped her on the back -- Squall was offered the
tiniest of winks for his concern-filled efforts, and then Selphie was stealing the show again
with that exuberance of hers, like a blazing aura.
"We've got almost got the whole gang," She said. "Wow, I bet I'm going to get sore calves from
this!" By looking at her peppy face, one would have guessed that she was talking about the
greatest thing on the planet.
"Humph," Zell said, crossing his arms and cocking an indignant eyebrow in her direction.
"You're going to get more than that," As if this prospect were even better. Mind-boggling,
even. Selphie broke into the widest and most radiant of grins. From one side came a vaugely
exhasperated sigh from Irvine.
Selphie playfully stuck her tongue out him, and with little-or-no-hesitation he mimicked her
with an equally twisted expression. She wrinkled her nose at him and returned the smile that
had fallen onto his face.
"...Quistis." Squall was saying.
"Huh?" Selphie and Irvine straightened, and Zell rolled his eyes at them.
"Have you guys talked to Quistis, yet?" Squall repeated. Zell had a smug smile on his face,
having heard him the first time and wanting him to say it again. Squall had complied, although
he cast the other young man a level look in doing so.
"Look at this, isn't it great?" Zell said, once he had everyone's attention. "-Someone- sounds
excited. Don't glare at me like that, Squall. I know what I'm talking about -- I can read
through that monotone of yours better than anyone. You're looking forward to this."
Squall opened his mouth.
"Whatever." Everyone chimed in, as if they held group rehearsals for this sort of thing.
"...Maybe." Squall said flatly.
"Oh, he's a quick one, he is," Irvine said with a little tip of his hat. Squall offered a
sarcastic and tight-lipped little smile in return. Gee, thanks.
"Okay," Zell said, after this small affair had ended. "We've got the easy ones down."
"Easy?I thought Squall was the hard one?" Selphie said.
"Wasn't I the hard one?" Irvine said.
Zell fluttered his hand.. "Nevermind that! You guys were easier than I thought, okay. Lets all
cartwheel for joy." Sarcastic, sure, but only as sarcastic as Zell could get when he was in a
good mood. "Anyway, all we have to do now is saw through the collar that Garden had put around
Qusity's neck, and we're home free."
"Collar? How quaint."
Selphie and Irvine, who had been coughing and pointing over Zell's shoulder at that point, both
turned around quickly and innocently as the clicking of Quistis Trepe's boots came to a firm
halt just behind himself and Riona. Even Squall found a corner to put his attention into.
"Oh, I--" Zell, having whirled around to find himself face-to-face with the blonde instructor,
stammered out a reply without really having much to stay. Quistis, who was one to rather enjoy
such confrontations, simply put her hands on her hips and cocked her head expectantly. Riona let
out a low whistle and examined her feet.
"Well, 'collar' is a metaphor, you see."
"Uh-huh." Quistis said dryly.
"...For having a barb up your ass, you know." Her arms had dropped, and Zell quickly lifted his
own, raising his hands defensively. "Kidding, Quisty! I'm kidding! You know I love you! You do,
you do. Don't glare at me like that."
"Look," Selphie said. "Zell's got this great idea..."
"...And doesn't know how keen you'll be on it, you know?" Irvine added.
Quistis looked away the latter two and back to Zell again. Her brown eyebrows rose expectantly.
Zell, realizing that he had just been pushed onto the soap-box, raised his chin a little and
adjusted his t-shirt. "There's a Guardian Force on the Centra continent. I've got an okay for
us all to go out, just like old times, and capture it."
"For strictly educational reasons, of course." He added after a pause, for good measure. This
was Quistis, after all.
"When?" She asked. Monotone. A closed book. Damn.
"Well, um..." Zell scratched the back of his head. "The day after tomorrow. We'll leave really
early in the morning. Like, really early." He eyed her. "But not -too- early, if you're
comfortable with that. Quisty. Dearest."
"Fine." She said. "I've got a meeting at six in the evening. We've got to be back by then."
And, as if time were suddenly an issue now that she had mentioned it, Quistis looked up to
find a wall clock, nodded, and started off on her way.
Zell was too stunned to realize his victory.
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried.
Even Squall couldn't help a little smile.
"What the hell?" Zell said. "Six o' clock? Quistis! You don't arrange a Great Challenge around
a meeting, geez! Quistis! Aren't you listening? Quistis Trepe! Yes, you! Quiistis! Damn it, come
back here! This is a Great Challenge and I -demand- you to take it seriously!"
Irvine watched him run off after Quistis, who hadn't even paused in her departure. He scratched
the back of his head, under the rim of his hat, and nodded quietly to himself.
"To think, in two days that guy is going to lead us into the unknown."
End Part 3/?
To be Continued.
To listen to me whine
About everything and anything a man wants
I am one of those
Melodramatic fools
Neurotic to the bone
No doubt about it."
--Green Day
"For When You Return"
Part III
"That's crazy." Irvine Kinneas said.
"Think how great it'll be!" Zell said in reply, totally oblivious to any speck of hesitation
coming from the gangly, jeans-clad man. Irvine crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back
against the wall, eyeing the duo in front of him. He had discarded his trench coat and hat for
a t-shirt and a simple ponytail. A single strand hung down from over his temple and across his
chest -- Selphie's work.
Selphie, incidentally, was the next to speak. "C'mon, Irvine! What else are we going to do?"
Her words jilted and shook as if she were a pile of stones atop of a vibrating tray. This was,
of course, due to the way she bounced up and down on her toes in order to beg him. Her thin
little hands were clasped in front of her chest, her eyes squeezed shut, and her hair danced.
"Pleaaase? For me?"
"And me," Zell piped in, although he wasn't quite as appealing as Selphie was.
"Okay, let's just say that I'm game--"
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried.
Irvine cleared his throat. Her arms dropped to her side and she pulled down a shade of peaceful
quiet. "I mean, yeah... Let's just say that you are game."
Irvine unwound one arm from the other, which remained against his chest, and splayed out his
fingers expressively, palm-up. His mouth opened, calm and cool... Totally prepared to offer a
brilliant reason why the adventure wouldn't work, would fail, would be a waste of time... There
was plenty to work with, but Irvine suddenly found himself speechless, as if an invisible hand
had gripped his tongue.
"Well," He said, closing his fist and re-folding it across his chest with the other arm. "I
guess I am game. Kinda. Sorta." His blue eyes flared up and he twisted a finger in their
direction all of a sudden. "But you're never going to convince everyone else."
"Wanna bet?" Zell asked smugly.
"...No." Irvine replied.
"A challenge?" Squall asked.
"A -real- challenge." Zell said.
Selphie pounded a hand into her fist. Irvine acted as a third posse member, but said nothing.
He had retrieved his hat, and took that moment to pull it down low over his eyes. They were in
the elevator, going down from the second floor. The three of them had followed Squall in and
cornered him there. Selphie had ever-so-cleverly plotted this.
"...I don't know." Squall said.
"Sheesh, is that your answer to -everything-?" Zell huffed.
Squall frowned and tapped the corner of the wall above the keypad, waiting for the blasted
elevator to release him. Selphie saw this and quickly went in for the kill. "Aren't you
-bored-, Squall? I mean, they're going to stick us in -classrooms- when the next term starts...
They may as well clip a ball and chain to each of our ankles..."
The elevator pinged and the door hissed open. Squall strode out without much of a pause or a
glance. Relentless, the trio stayed at his heels. As a unit they made their way down the
staircase. No single footstep could be distinguished for another. At this constant
tap-tap-tapping sound Squall finally looked back over his shoulder and heaved a
defeated-sounding sigh.
"Let me get this straight," He said. "You want us to fly out to Centra..." Out of the corner of
his eye he saw them all bob their heads empathetically. Pursing his lips a little at this, he
took a breath and continued, "...and hunt down some weak Guardian Force in the mountains that
no one, since the dawn of its discovery, cares to capture?"
"Well gee, if you put it -that- way," Selphie said.
"Hey!" Zell exclaimed. "It may not be Ultimecia, but it's something!"
"Besides," Squall said, ignoring him. "Acquiring a Guardian Force is part of the SeeD exam,
isn't it?" This, of course, was a pointed and rhetorical question. "It'd be a little selfish of
us to just run out and take another of those things off the map."
"He has a point," Irvine said.
"...We can put it back when we're done," Selphie suggested meekly.
Zell wasn't so easily swayed. "I checked it out with the Xu beforehand." He said. Xu was
usually the one who dealt with the Guardian Forces, she having the most experience and training
when it came to them. Squall, however, didn't look impressed. Irvine was looking at the ceiling
and Selphie was doing the opposite -- gazing down at her feet.
"What's -wrong- with you guys?!" Zell exclaimed all of a sudden. The image was something better
suited for nightmares. There they were, in a boring air-conditioned training building... and
not giving a damn about it.
"Don't you miss it? Just a little... I mean, looking out the window of the Rangnarok and seeing
the ocean spilling out beneath you, the rush of adrenaline as you feel a monster's voice
rumbling across the knots in your stomach. That surge, when you slam your fist into some
creatures hide--"
"--And the way that the feeling of victory can wash every bruise and scrape right off of your
mind," A voice interjected. Zell looked to his left to see that Rinoa had fallen into step
behind him. Her willowy fingers were wound around a green coffee mug, and when their eyes
met a little smile flickered into her irises in that quietly warm way of hers.
Zell flashed a grin at set his arm around her shoulders. "Did I ever tell you that I love you,
Riona? I do." Rinoa beamed and shifted her weight as he playfully shook her back and forth a
little.
"Well, I take it Rinoa is in, then." Selphie said cheerfully. Rinoa glanced over at the girl in
the process of brushing a strand of hair behind one ear, and then looked to Squall and Irvine
curiously.
Squall cleared his throat. "They want to fight some no-name Gua--"
"We -want-," Zell interrupted pointedly. "To face a challenge."
Rinoa stiffened a little under Zell's hold at this -- describing the sensation of battle was
one thing, but actually going through with it... What part of the conversation had she missed?
Zell, misinterpreting the tension for his close-contact, gave her a sheepish little half-grin
and put his hands down into his pockets.
Squall, however, was a little more observant. He watched her eyes until their gazes met, and
they looked silently at each-other until her head rose and fell in the barest glimmer of a nod,
and her lips subtly upturned in a vapor-like smile.
A little terse, Squall crossed his arms and looked at Zell, who was facing everyone but Rinoa.
He could feel Selphie's eyes burning at his cheek on one side, and Irvine's at another. Did they
really need his approval? It was a little bothersome, really, although when he thought about
it...
...It was just a stupid little adventure. Why fret about it?
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried, before he could even say anything. She'd seen the shift in his eyes,
the slackening of his jaw that stated that Squall had given up. Zell broke into a grin and
punched at the air. Squall, however, simply looked at Rinoa's reaction. She pushed out a little
smile and gripped her coffee mug as Zell clapped her on the back -- Squall was offered the
tiniest of winks for his concern-filled efforts, and then Selphie was stealing the show again
with that exuberance of hers, like a blazing aura.
"We've got almost got the whole gang," She said. "Wow, I bet I'm going to get sore calves from
this!" By looking at her peppy face, one would have guessed that she was talking about the
greatest thing on the planet.
"Humph," Zell said, crossing his arms and cocking an indignant eyebrow in her direction.
"You're going to get more than that," As if this prospect were even better. Mind-boggling,
even. Selphie broke into the widest and most radiant of grins. From one side came a vaugely
exhasperated sigh from Irvine.
Selphie playfully stuck her tongue out him, and with little-or-no-hesitation he mimicked her
with an equally twisted expression. She wrinkled her nose at him and returned the smile that
had fallen onto his face.
"...Quistis." Squall was saying.
"Huh?" Selphie and Irvine straightened, and Zell rolled his eyes at them.
"Have you guys talked to Quistis, yet?" Squall repeated. Zell had a smug smile on his face,
having heard him the first time and wanting him to say it again. Squall had complied, although
he cast the other young man a level look in doing so.
"Look at this, isn't it great?" Zell said, once he had everyone's attention. "-Someone- sounds
excited. Don't glare at me like that, Squall. I know what I'm talking about -- I can read
through that monotone of yours better than anyone. You're looking forward to this."
Squall opened his mouth.
"Whatever." Everyone chimed in, as if they held group rehearsals for this sort of thing.
"...Maybe." Squall said flatly.
"Oh, he's a quick one, he is," Irvine said with a little tip of his hat. Squall offered a
sarcastic and tight-lipped little smile in return. Gee, thanks.
"Okay," Zell said, after this small affair had ended. "We've got the easy ones down."
"Easy?I thought Squall was the hard one?" Selphie said.
"Wasn't I the hard one?" Irvine said.
Zell fluttered his hand.. "Nevermind that! You guys were easier than I thought, okay. Lets all
cartwheel for joy." Sarcastic, sure, but only as sarcastic as Zell could get when he was in a
good mood. "Anyway, all we have to do now is saw through the collar that Garden had put around
Qusity's neck, and we're home free."
"Collar? How quaint."
Selphie and Irvine, who had been coughing and pointing over Zell's shoulder at that point, both
turned around quickly and innocently as the clicking of Quistis Trepe's boots came to a firm
halt just behind himself and Riona. Even Squall found a corner to put his attention into.
"Oh, I--" Zell, having whirled around to find himself face-to-face with the blonde instructor,
stammered out a reply without really having much to stay. Quistis, who was one to rather enjoy
such confrontations, simply put her hands on her hips and cocked her head expectantly. Riona let
out a low whistle and examined her feet.
"Well, 'collar' is a metaphor, you see."
"Uh-huh." Quistis said dryly.
"...For having a barb up your ass, you know." Her arms had dropped, and Zell quickly lifted his
own, raising his hands defensively. "Kidding, Quisty! I'm kidding! You know I love you! You do,
you do. Don't glare at me like that."
"Look," Selphie said. "Zell's got this great idea..."
"...And doesn't know how keen you'll be on it, you know?" Irvine added.
Quistis looked away the latter two and back to Zell again. Her brown eyebrows rose expectantly.
Zell, realizing that he had just been pushed onto the soap-box, raised his chin a little and
adjusted his t-shirt. "There's a Guardian Force on the Centra continent. I've got an okay for
us all to go out, just like old times, and capture it."
"For strictly educational reasons, of course." He added after a pause, for good measure. This
was Quistis, after all.
"When?" She asked. Monotone. A closed book. Damn.
"Well, um..." Zell scratched the back of his head. "The day after tomorrow. We'll leave really
early in the morning. Like, really early." He eyed her. "But not -too- early, if you're
comfortable with that. Quisty. Dearest."
"Fine." She said. "I've got a meeting at six in the evening. We've got to be back by then."
And, as if time were suddenly an issue now that she had mentioned it, Quistis looked up to
find a wall clock, nodded, and started off on her way.
Zell was too stunned to realize his victory.
"Woo-hoo!" Selphie cried.
Even Squall couldn't help a little smile.
"What the hell?" Zell said. "Six o' clock? Quistis! You don't arrange a Great Challenge around
a meeting, geez! Quistis! Aren't you listening? Quistis Trepe! Yes, you! Quiistis! Damn it, come
back here! This is a Great Challenge and I -demand- you to take it seriously!"
Irvine watched him run off after Quistis, who hadn't even paused in her departure. He scratched
the back of his head, under the rim of his hat, and nodded quietly to himself.
"To think, in two days that guy is going to lead us into the unknown."
End Part 3/?
To be Continued.