Disclaimer: I do not own anything that relates to FFVIII.
- Chapter three: Overheard Arguing -
He woke. The fire had gone out and now the sun was shining through the window. He had fallen asleep on the couch. He listened to the birds outside.Suddenly he stood up and left the room. He was on the lookout for the kitchen, because he felt his stomach grumbling. He found his way into a corridor and decided to follow it.
Suddenly he stopped. He heard raised voices. In one of those rooms were two people arguing. He walked closer and listened.
"What do you mean 'what was yesterday about'?"
"You and Zell! I saw how you smiled at him!"
"That's bullshit! Seriously. And besides, as if you'd really mind, as if you've actually got grounds to mind! You're doing more wrong then I am!"
"Oh yeah? Well how about you then. You don't seem to mind going behind the back of one of your friends. You seem quite happy with it!"
"Well don't worry too much about Rinoa, she can handle herself pretty well from what I've heard."
"And what's that supposed to mean?"
"Rinoa is quite happy going behind your back and Selphie's to sneak off with Irvine."
"What the-"
"Yes, that's right, Squall. She's doing exactly what you're doing, isn't that fun." Her voice sounded sarcastic. "So don't worry about her."
"...I thought...I thought she only loved me." Squall stated.
"Well Squall, apparently not! Because if she did, she wouldn't go off snogging Irvine, would she?"
Quistis' voice didn't sound harsh or sarcastic anymore. Instead, it was now soft and sweeter.
"Squall...maybe she doesn't love only you...but I do. I love you. This feeling...right here...you know I love you."
"...and I...well I love you. But...you know how awkward this whole situation is...Everyone always expecting Rinoa hanging from my arm...it gets boring."
"And that's where I come in?"
"...Well...yes. Rinoa's only there for the official stuff...you're there for-"
But Zell never got to hear what Quistis was there for. He had wanted to come closer to the door to listen better, but the floor had squeaked. All he could do was run, before Squall and Quistis had the chance to see him.
He was confused. How could this be happening? What was going on? That Irvine was a cheating bastard, he could understand. What he found harder to believe was that that lovely and innocent Rinoa would cheat on the love of her life. But that solemn, quiet and honest Squall would do that, was more than Zell could handle.
'Quistis...'
He let his head droop. The woman he loved was the secret mistress of the captain of their team, of one of his friends, of the boyfriend of another. He let out a loud scream.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"
He could feel the tears that started to burn behind his eyes and bit his lip to fight them. His hands clenched as fists.
He was startled when he felt a hand on his shoulder.
"Are you okay?" she asked. "Only...I heard you scream."
He rubbed his eyes with his sleeve and nodded. "Yeah..."
Selphie smiled and offered him her hand. "Come on, O'kara told me to get you. He wants us to go to the kitchen and he'll explain the mission to us during breakfast."
Zell nodded again.
"Sure...but, do you know where the kitchen is? I couldn't find it..."
Selphie just smiled. "Come on, this way."
He followed her through the corridors and noticed the walls became more textured and rocky as they went onwards.
"Look." He said to Selphie, as he pointed at the walls.
She nodded. "Yeah, this house has a lot of deep caves. It's integrated into the rocks. So there's no telling how big this place really is."
She opened another richly decorated door and lead Zell into the kitchen. Zell sat down and looked at the others. Squall was happily chatting with Rinoa.
He clenched his hands to fists under the table. His eyes automatically searched for Quistis, but as soon as he saw her golden hair he snapped his head down and stared at the table again.
He only looked up when he heard the door open as O'kara entered the kitchen. Zell focused his eyes on the middle aged man, intent on listening to him.
"I hope you all slept well." O'kara said.
The others mumbled various sounds of agreement.
"Good. Well, you must all be very curious about why I hired you." He sat down at the head of the table.
Zell mindlessly chewed his toast and waited for the older man to continue. O'kara cleared his throat.
"I...am a scientist. And at this moment I am engaged in very secret and dangerous research. I will not tell you what it is about, but I must tell you that other scientists are very curious about what I'm doing here."
He stirred his coffee before continuing.
"Other people want to get their hands on my research and that's why I need you. I need protection from them. The only one I thought I could trust was Cid Kramer, he promised to send me his best and I have faith in his word."
Squall cleared his throat. "So what you're saying...is that Cid sent six of his best pupils to protect one scientist who doesn't even bother to explain his work."
His voice sounded annoyed. Zell assumed Squall was irritated because of the argument with Quistis. Normally Squall wouldn't dream of giving his employer this kind of lip. O'kara seemed irritated as well.
"Captain Leonheart, it is not up to you to question me about my work. You're on a pure need-to-know basis, as agreed on in my contract with Cid Kramer. You will all receive your payment, so I don't see reason for any complaints."
Squall made to stand up, but Quistis coughed.
"You are right, sir. Please excuse our captain for his outburst."
O'kara nodded. "Good. Please follow me."
He stood up and walked out the door. Zell got up first and followed him out the kitchen, soon followed by Selphie and the others. They followed O'kara deep into the maze of stone walls and twisting tunnels.
Zell felt like he was somewhere underneath the ground. But he saw that he was wrong when he recognised the large staircase that lead up to their rooms. It was uncanny that it had taken him this long to get orientated in this house.
He could hear Selphie mutter a question to Irvine. Zell assumed O'kara must've heard as well, because he cleared his throat and pointed at a large dark door.
"This is a door you have no right to open. It leads to my research area. All I want is a constant guard at this door. During the day and during the night. I want guards at the front door and one at the side door that leads to the garden."
"Sir yes sir."
"And you are not allowed to leave this house. You would draw too much attention to yourselves if you went into the village. You're all new faces, you see. It would raise some questions and that's exactly what I don't need."
"Sir yes sir."
"So if there are things you need...talk to me and I will arrange them to be brought to the house."
"Sir!"
"Oh, and I will have to go out tonight. I always do on a Friday night. It would raise some questions if I didn't show up."
They didn't even bother to agree with him. He employed them, so he was right. O'kara nodded satisfied.
"Good, now, any volunteers? Because I'd like to continue my work right now..."
He looked at Squall, who turned to the others.
"Irvine, you and me can cover the front door. Rinoa, you stand guard here and Quistis can cover the side door."
"Err...Squall? What about Zell and me?" Selphie said.
"You two rest. That way we'll have some fresh guards for tomorrow."
Zell nodded and didn't wait any longer to get out. He walked to the walled garden and sat down under a tree. He closed his eyes enjoying the warm sunshine on his face.
He felt someone slide down next to him, he didn't have to look to know who it was.
"Hey Seffie." He said. "What are you doing here?"
"I know something's wrong and you're not telling me. What happened to the times when you told me everything?"
He didn't respond. He just recalled what he had heard that morning. It didn't matter that he loved Quistis anymore. Because he knew now Quistis could never truly love him back.
"Come on, Zelly. You trusted me with your deepest secrets. And I always told you everything. So why are you shutting me out now?"
"Because...I can't tell you..."
"You used to be able to tell me everything." She remarked dryly.
Zell opened his eyes, but didn't look at her. Instead, he stared at an extremely mouldy brick in the wall ahead.
"I- I can't tell Quistis how I feel about her."
"Why not? I thought you decided you could."
"That was before I knew she loves Squall."
Selphie didn't respond and Zell kicked himself mentally.
"...Quistis loves Squall? How- How do you know?"
Zell sighed. Why couldn't he just keep his big mouth shut?
"I accidentally overheard her talking to Squall this morning. She told him she loved him..."
"And...what did he say?" she asked carefully.
Zell could feel her face had gone pale.
"What did he say, Zell."
"He- he said that Rinoa was there for the official stuff and that Quistis-"
"He loves Quistis."
"I never said that." Zell retorted.
"But he did say that Quistis was there for fun." Selphie argued back.
He just nodded. What else could he do? Selphie was silent. She didn't even cough. Zell felt the need to shrug of this heavy silence, but couldn't think of anything else to talk about.
"So that's why I can't tell Quistis I love her. What's the point? She doesn't love me, that's for sure." He concluded
Selphie stared out in front of her, her lips moving silently.
"Selphie?" he asked worriedly.
"I can't believe...Squall...you know, Zelly, you should tell Quistis how you feel. Maybe, when she knows about it, she'll leave Squall alone. She probably wants the attention and the only way to get it is to ruin Squall and Rinoa's relationship."
Zell looked at her. "...so I should tell Quistis?"
"Yes."
He saw Selphie's eyes. Somehow they weren't as sparkly as usual. Then again, he had just told her that one of her friends was a cheater. He understood how she felt. And now, more than ever, he wanted to tell her about Irvine. But how could he. Not now.
And maybe...just maybe...if he told Quistis, then Squall would go back to Rinoa and maybe then Rinoa would stop seeing Irvine and then he wouldn't have to tell that sweet little face about that horrible stuff.
They sat there in silence for a while. They didn't need to say anything to comfort each other. Zell felt relieved having finally told Selphie a bit of his burden. Zell always felt relieved when Selphie was around, she always seemed to know what to say or to do to make him happy.
"Do you remember...that day at the beach?" he said.
She nodded. "Yeah. You told me...about how you lost your brother...how you missed him...How you thought you'd never feel happy again."
"Then you told me that I was acting stupid."
"Because you blamed yourself for what happened. You told me that you saw him fall down from that tree every single night in your dreams."
He nodded. "...yeah. Do you...remember how you cheered me up?"
She nodded and smiled. "...I had you busy all day searching for feathers..."
"And bits of string..."
"And we begged Seifer to give us that round thing he had found on the beach the day before."
"And then you told me to sit still and wait. I was only allowed to think happy thoughts. And you tied everything together in a knot."
She laughed at the memory. "Yeah! It was supposed to be a dream catcher, wasn't it? It was supposed to stop you from having that bad dream again...did it work?"
He smiled. "Yup. I never dreamed of my brother again...and that day at the beach...it was always one of the happiest memories from my youth."
"You know...that was when we swore we'd never keep a secret form each other...wasn't it?"
"Funny how we forgot."
Selphie shivered as a cold gust of wind blew over the high garden walls.
"I'm glad we can both remember it now..." she said with a soft smile. "Come...let's go inside. It's getting cold."
Sorry it took so long to update guys!!! Gomen!! I was a bit busy with schoolwork (and lost of it) Well, as promised, I'd like to dedicate this chapter to the first person who reviewed...but seeing as how only three people reviewed at all, I guess this chapter is for all three of them.
Rinny-san: Glad you like it this much :)
Yunie-star-Tidus-cutie: Well, I'm really really glad you like it this much. And I liked your review a lot, it was funny.I hope you liked this chapter too :D
Lucentia: I do intend to keep going :D I't only got eight chapters in total, so won't take long to finish :)
Well guys, please a round of applause for Dark Angels for her beta-work. And I hope she'll email the next chapter back to me soon so I can post it. I hope to see you all at the next chapter!!!!!!
-Raven55