A/n: Woo! Chapter two! Thank you to my lovely reviewers! You make my day a whole lot better!

Chapter Two

Selphie bounced down the hallway, headed back to her dorm. The next festival was a coming in a few weeks! She had planned most of it, and knew the party would be awesome. She had a big stack of neon yellow flyers to post all around the school.

Meanwhile… Irvine was heading to his dorm from Cid's office. Who would he pick for the mission? Squall was a given. He was the best SeeD Balamb had (after Irvine, himself, of course). Quistis could not go because she still had to teach. Rinoa… he didn't want to deal with both of them together for that long. They were almost sweet enough to be sickening…

Selphie. He figured that he had planned on taking her from the start. Trabia was her old Garden, after all. She would probably throw a fit if he didn't take her. Besides, he hadn't seen her very much lately.

Lost in his thoughts, he ran into someone. "Sorry 'bout that, miss." He winked.

Selphie beamed up at him. "Quite alright, Irvy. What were you thinking about?"

"New mission, Selph. Cid appointed me as leader."

"Oh! that's great!" She replied.

"Yeah… I guess so." She obviously hadn't heard the news. "Anyway, he told me to make a party of three. Squall is coming… Do you want to?"

"Is that an order?" She asked playfully.

He grinned. "Well, I figured you wouldn't be able to resist…"

She smiled and stepped back from the comfortable place in his arms. She wondered if she could resist him. Most likely… not.

"All right! It's been forever since I got to go anywhere! How long will we be gone?" She asked, thinking of the festival.

"Hmm… I dunno, Sefie. It depends on how long it's gonna take us to finish."

"Oh!" Well, there was always next year. She hid the flyers behind her back. "What's the mission? Are we taking Ragnarok?" She beamed.

"Well…" The last time they took Ragnarok, Selphie demanded to fly it, of course. By the end of the trip, the had all found out, rather unpleasantly, that they had motion sickness. Not that she was a bad pilot or anything. Really.

"You remember that last storm? Well, the Ragnarok was damaged, so they took it to FH for repairs."

"Oh. Too bad then! I love to fly that thing!"

He didn't want to upset her… "Yeah, I know. But… we get to ride a train instead…" He winked.

She gasped. "Really? I love trains!" She jumped up and punched the air with glee, totally forgetting about the Festival flyers. She was going to be on a train, with Irvine! "Yay!"

Irvine grinned. It was amazing how little it took to make her happy. He didn't really understand why it was trains… but that was okay. He looked at the papers now scattered across the floor.

"Sefie, did you drop something?" He reached down to pick them up. The Festival? He had forgotten about it. Selphie was the head of the planning committee.

"Whoops…" She looked down a the scattered papers.

He stood up and handed the stack to her. "Sefie, you don't have to go if you don't want to miss the Festival."

She weighed it out in her mind again. The Festival she had planned for the whole year, or a train with Irvine? She would hate to miss the Festival, but she really liked trains. And Irvine, of course.

"No, I'll go! I don't want to go to the party anyway if you aren't going to be there." So much for being secretive about liking him. But then, Rinoa always said that everyone but him knew anyway. Men could be so dense…

He smiled and ruffled her hair. Maybe he did know that she liked him, and he just wasn't saying anything. Oh well…

"I knew I could count on you, sunshine. Now, we might still get back in time to go."

"Ok." She beamed. "Well, I need to put up the flyers, so, seeya!" She turned to go.

"Sefie."

She turned back around. How she loved her nickname… "Yeah, Irvy?"

He wondered if he should go ahead and tell her about the mission. She hadn't asked where they were going. Irvine didn't want to ruin her good mood. He hated to see her sad, like earlier in the cafeteria.

He would wait until morning.

"We're leavin' early, so you might want to go ahead and get ready."

"K!" She bounced off.

He shook his head, wondering where she got all of her energy from. Squall walked up while he was thinking.

"Ice cream." Irvine realized, grinning.

Squall blinked a few times. "Kinneas, you make me wonder sometimes…"

"Oh, hey commander! Didn't see ya there. Ready for the mission?"

"As ready as I will be. I suppose you told Selphie already?" Squall was disgruntled that Cid had picked the sharpshooter over him. Cid told Squall that it was a sniper job, and Squall had quickly reminded him about the last time they hired Irvine for a sniper job. Cid just waved Squall off.

"Yep."

They started walking toward their dorms. It was a Saturday, so they had no classes.

Irvine was getting tired of the Squall-induced silence as they reached the dormitories.

Just before he started to say something, Squall asked, "You know Rebecca Johnston, don't you?"

Irvine was surprised that he said that so suddenly. But then, Squall was just like that.

When he didn't reply, Squall added, "Back at Galbadia? You don't ever mention anyone from there."

"How would you know that anyway?"

"Cid said you were startled when you heard her name."

"Well, that was the past."

"I know. But don't let it get in the way of the mission. She's killed many innocent people."

Irvine nodded. "I understand."

Squall opened the door. "Good. Well, I will see you in the morning."

"Date with Rinoa?" Irvine asked, grinning.

"Maybe." He walked inside.

oooooo

"…and now I won't have a date for the Festival dance!" Rinoa sighed as she looked in the mirror and brushed her hair.

"Sorry, Rin. Irvine said we might get back in time to go, though." Selphie was jealous because Rinoa was getting ready for her date.

"That would be good. Did he ask you to go with him?" She smiled at Selphie in the mirror.

"No. I told you… he doesn't like me that way."

"Whatever you sa-ay." She replied in a sing-songy voice.

"He doesn't!" Selphie exclaimed, aggravated.

"Well, Sefie," She smirked, using Irvine's nickname for her, "Squall and I think differently. Isn't that right, Squall?" She directed this at the Commander, who had just walked in.

"Yeah, whatever."

"Bye, Selphie!" Rinoa waved as she walked out the door." You don't even know what you agreed to, do you, Squall?"

Selphie shut the door behind them.

"I wish he did like me that way..."

She looked at the framed picture on her mantle. Irvine had bought the frame for her last birthday. It was shiny, and the moment she got it, she knew what picture would go inside.

Edea gave her the picture before she left the orphanage. It was of her and Irvine, playing cowboys and indians, she being the indian, of course.

Edea had been good at snapping pictures without the subjects knowing. Little Irvine and Selphie were captured forever, midconversation, walking back from the beach. He was holding her hand...

Selphie loved the picture. It always made her smile, thinking that maybe one day, he'd hold her hand again.


A/n: Good then! It makes me happy to use "disgruntled"! Next chappie, they'll leave and action will follow! Thanks for reading!