Talking Bushes: Part Four
By. Bento Box
03/24/04

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Tummy contentedly full of hot dogs (he had managed to hit the jackpot--FINALLY!) and two chocolate shakes, Zell had a pleased grin plastered on his face as he waddled (mainly due to his injury, not because he was so full he had trouble walking normally) towards the flower gardens. The hint of freshly blooming flowers greeted him as he drew closer to the entrance.

He felt amazingly great despite all of the insanity that had been going on around him lately. The sun was warm enough without being uncomfortable, and the breeze was cool and pleasant--not too strong or too cold. All in all the day was shaping up spectacularly!

"BOO-YA, BABY!"

A wide range of stares were directed his way at the sudden joyous shout. Zell blushed hotly at the attention, garnering a few more amused looks.

He quickly moved along, head bowed, and still blushing in sheepish embarrassment.

Unlike the library and training areas, the green house was a public access area and so no codes were needed to access all of the areas found within the facility. The building itself was simply put but spacious, with an extremely high ceiling paned over by clear glass. A bed of flowers, ranging from commonly found to exotically grown species, rested in the center of the area. The grass that grew throughout the grounds was roughly one foot tall, providing a more wild-grown look. While the trees found here were tall and would provide ample leverage, their intertwining branches were also slender and the canopy wasn't as thick as the other gardens' (which was actually an outdoors one, with more trees and rocks than flowers) so it would be trickier to find an ample hiding place.

Zell personally thought that calling the place a green house wasn't entirely accurate. The students and faculty members rarely looked after all of the plants, and it was more like an indoors flower garden than anything else. Still, it wasn't all that important so Zell merely shrugged the idle thought away and worried at his lower lip.

Now, where to hide this time around....

Walking forwards through the thick blades of grass and drooping flowers, Zell neglected to watch where his feet were taking him and what he was stepping on. So it's not surprising that Zell's foot was ensnared by a jutting plant root.

With a jerk and a manly man's bellow (which in actuality was more like a high-pitched yelp) Zell toppled forwards from the sudden stabbing pain on his previously uninjured ankle. For the second time in less than a month, his face was pulled downwards by gravity to kiss the ground.

At least he should've been kissing the ground. Instead, he got a face full of cloth-covered warmth accompanied by a loud "Ooof!" which Zell was sure hadn't been his own.

"Ow."

Zell blinked. He didn't think that had been his either.

"Eh? Zell? Is that you?" Zell felt himself being pushed backwards lightly by the shoulders. Bright eyes peered into his dazed ones and it was a beat later that Zell realized that for the second time in a row, much to his chagrin, with Laguna Loire. Who was still clucking at him like a mother hen.

Zell was pushed even further away, and to the side, until he was situated in a graceless sprawl, feet outwards and throbbing painfully. He dimly noted that now both of his ankles were in pain. And was it just him, or had his feet suddenly bloated within the confines of his sneakers? Blinking again, he shook his head slightly. He felt oddly nauseous all of a sudden...

"Zell? Zell? How many fingers am I holding up?" Fuzzy, skin-colored finger blobs appeared before his eyes and he squinted at them, resisting the urge to yell at Laguna to stop waving them around because his eyes were straining which made his head hurt which made him feel doubly nauseous.

"But I'm not waving them around."

Oh. Zell blushed.

Laguna laughed and it was an oddly comforting sound next to the throb, throb, throb of Zell's pounding brain.

"I guess that answers that question! How did you lose your balance?" Laguna peered at Zell curiously which made Zell wish he would stop because he felt himself grow appallingly red (again) underneath the bright-eyed gaze.

"Er... balance?" The gaze was getting to his higher brain functions as well or something, because for the life of him he couldn't recall how he had ended up sprawled all over Laguna this time around.

A smile grew on Laguna's face, and Zell was startled from his gazing by the sudden poke at his side.

"Yes. Balance. You know, the equilibrium of your body as you walk?" Laguna's smile became a grin. "How come you tripped and fell on me?"

Zell's bolts and wheels cranked to life as his brain finally clicked two and two together, linking balance to walk and trip to fall--and why.

"Oh! Oh yeah." He coughed, a muffled and embarrassed sound. "I.... I think I tripped on a root? Or something?"

Sure enough, when Zell craned his head around and Laguna peered over his shoulder, there lay the culprit. The root was protruding out a few feet away from where Zell and Laguna were, and Zell's shoe scuffles from where it had dug into the dirt when he had tripped and fallen were clearly visible.

Painful pangs shooting up his legs and starting from his ankles made Zell yelp loudly and turn his attention back forwards.

Laguna gave him a concerned look, before gently prodding at his ankles once more: left, right, left, and left again. More yelps signified more pain coming from his left ankle, the one of which was already injured from the first fall a few weeks ago.

Laguna game him another concerned look, this time tinged with guilt for causing the unintentional pain. "Both of your ankles this time? Maybe we should get you to the infirmary."

Zell cringed. He really didn't want to go back to the infirmary because the antiseptic smell made him green to the gills. He really disliked anything to do with doctors, needles, and paper-thin nightgowns. But what he really didn't want the most was for Laguna to have to carry him again. One mortifying experience was enough, thank you very much not at all. He told the snickering mental voice (which sounded suspiciously a lot like Seifer) to shut up, and no! He had NOT enjoyed being an invalid or the warmth of Laguna's around him OR the solid strength of his chest!

Oi! No way! Scrunching up his eyes, Zell shook his head vehemently at the full-blow mental guffaws of the Seifer-sounding voice.

It's all Seifer's and Squall's fault, he grumped. He wouldn't be stuck here, always tripping and falling around Laguna, if it weren't for those two and their suspicious, friend-concerning activities. Zell scowled, not really noticing that his angry scowl looked more like a sulky pout or that Laguna was giving him a strange look.

If Zell didn't want to go to an infirmary, that was all fine and well with Laguna, but if he kept up with his insistent head shakes and indecipherable mumbling,. Laguna was afraid he'd injure himself even more.

Thinking quickly of a way to distract Zell, an idea popped into his head and he beamed as he turned this way and that to find the "accomplice" to his "perfect plan".

Zell's mutters abruptly halted at the sudden weight on his head. Blinking, he peered upwards, and there on the fringes of his peripheral vision were colorful petals.

Tilting the colorful ensemble with his hands, Zell was able to make out--"A flower wreath?"

Laguna, still beaming, nodded. "A flower wreath! It's what I was making when you tripped and fell on me!"

Zell blushed hotly at the reminder of his initial clumsiness. Before he could reply, the clearing suddenly gained two more occupants. Zell felt the nearly tangible shift in the air that told him that he and Laguna were no longer alone, and he just knew the people behind him were the ones he wanted to see the least at this point in his increasingly embarrassing life.

Zell paled, then flushed, then paled again until Laguna thought maybe now was a good time to get Zell to the infirmary. He really didn't look well at all...

".... Chicken wuss??"

Zell cringed, palming his face with one hand and mentally crying, "WHY ME!?"

As carefree and oblivious as ever to Zell's growing horror and embarrassment, Laguna peered around Zell and brought his arm up to greet the two standing men with a wave of his long fingers. "Hiya boys!"

With Zell's back turned towards the two behind him, he didn't see Seifer's already raised brow inch even higher, or Squall's carefully neutral expression. He did, however, FEEL the amusement growing in Seifer and his head bowed, already knowing what was about to come.

"Hey there Laguna." Impish grin. "You and the chicken spending some quality time?" Wicked smirk.

Zell felt a vein in his forehead twitch, but he refused to turn around. He prayed that the flower wreath would go unnoticed. As luck would have it, he had lost all of his own (luck, that is) to Seifer.

Still smiling, Laguna nodded. "Hey Seifer! Actually, Zell just ran into me, but I was making flower wreaths!"

Seifer's brow and lip quirked at that, and he shot Squall a sideways glance. Flower wreath??

Your-impending-doom-in-the-form-of-a-painful-death vibes rolled off of the shorter brunette, and Seifer wisely stepped a few inches away from Squall and redirected his attention back to Laguna and the chicken. Laguna, who was still talking, and the chicken whose flaming red face (Seifer could just TELL even with his back turned) was burning brightly and fiercely.

"--see! Isn't it pretty?" Laguna's smile widened, and he pounced on the oblivious Zell, and maneuvered him so that he was now turned towards Squall and Seifer.

One look at the colorful array of flowers and leaves perched daintily on the chicken's drooping crest was one too many for Seifer and he burst out into a loud and completely uninhibited guffaw.

That damn mental voice definitely had to be Seifer.

Zell scowled (pouted) and crossed his arms over his chest tightly, blue eyes narrowing into dangerous slits at the nearly hysteria-prone blonde before him.

"Shut the fuck up, dickwad!"

Seifer paused, barely controlling his snickers, to give Zell a mocking sneer. "Or you'll wait, beat me to a flowery death, Princess Chicken wuss?"

That set Seifer off again, and it wasn't long before he was doubled over, clutching at his laughter-aching stomach with tears gathered at the corners of his eyes.

A dark, quickly growing cloud of DOOM! was forming over Zell's head, and from their close proximity Laguna could practically feel Zell trembling with finely suppressed anger that was about to blow up any second.

Squall glanced at his hysterically laughing company, the extremely pissed off Zell, and his worried father before he snorted, gave a noncommittal "..............." and stalked off away from the group.

It took several seconds before Seifer noticed he was alone save for Laguna and Zell. Calming slightly, Seifer decided he'd better run after Squall now before he completely lost sight of him.

Smirking at the silently raging blonde on the ground, he smirked, then leered. "Gotta run now. Have fun you two!"

He was gone with a swirl of his jacket, and fading snickers and chortles.

Laguna hesitantly poked Zell's shoulder, who didn't so much as twitch at the touch.

Several beats later, an enraged shout rang throughout the green house.

"I'M GONNA KILL HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

--

Notes: I love you guys, I really do. So to thank you for your patience (and death threats... glowers accusingly at Lonnie...) here's a random blurb I did in the rough (hand-written) draft of the chapter. You can expect comic strips and art. Eventually. grin

EXTRA EXTRA #1

Kiros: You know... if Zell were JUST a year younger, you'd be a PEDOPHILE. muttermutter (Note: Zell's 18, Laguna's 46 )
Laguna: Ehh? What did you say Kiros?
Kiros: ;; Nothing, Laguna.
Laguna: Okay! v snugs chibi Zell plushie
Zell: oO;; inches towards the door
Squall: .................
Seifer: XD!!! BWAHAHAHAHAA! laughing at Squall and Zell Ow, ow, stop!... you two are gonna kill me if you guys keep this up!!... gasping for air... No, wait. It's too fucking hilarious. BWAHAHAHAAAAHAHAHA!!!! XD pounds fist against the ground and rolls around laughing hysterically
Zell: -- KICKS Seifer who continues to laugh
Squall: ...............