O.O
My computer deleted this file while I was writing it, again...
...Thankfully, I had only written the A/N up to that point. /retarded laugh/ Anyway. Sorry about the slightly overdue update. I'm honestly quite flattered by all of the wonderful comments I've received (and to those who took time to give me some constructive criticism or point out my mistakes, I really, really appreciate it! You're all so smart and observant; makes me feel so silly sometimes...)
Also, those who flatter me shamelessly...I love you so much. RavenMistress...this goes out to you, dear. I like, imploded from happiness at your review. :D
Anyway, the main reason this took so long is because...well, I'm not going to lie; I just totally lost interest in writing chapter 8 because it was at this point where I'm all like, "...ok, so...what now?" I mean, I already had stuff planned for the future, but the problem is all these slower transition points...ANYWAY...I discovered that all I had to do to get interested again was to take this opportune moment, as I have been home alone all day, to be the lazy bum I've always wanted to be. So, after five hours of watching Fairly Oddparents (heh) and one really, really bad strange episode of Naruto (they gave him a HORRIBLE voice!) I am now ready to write!
(Though that whole "sexy jutsu" thing had me seriously rofl... xD)
"I am not so easily beaten, but still...I'm so sick of it all. I want to be myself. I want to be free. That's all. But no one seems to understand that."
-Masami Tsuda
Dancing in Drag
Chapter 8: So He Questions Sexuality
Squall was a very happy camper.
Very, very happy.
Mostly, this was because Rinoa had been too out of it that morning to notice that Squall was not showing off his "figure" or, in fact, making any sort of attempt to look lovely. In his new and explosively feminine wardrobe, the brunette had actually managed to find something to his liking. His outfit consisted of a black, ankle-length skirt, ruffled with light, layered material that flared out slightly, only just enough so that it had no means of sticking to and accentuating his form.
On top, though he wasn't about to risk not wearing his "addition," he still made himself partly comfortable in a black tee-shirt, entirely too large for even two of him to fit into and quite obviously intended for sleepwear. He decided to go all-out with his look and wear a long, black trench-coat of sorts over his ensemble, creating a look not much unlike that of a crazed night-stalking fangirl with some vague, off-handed element of fashion knowledge.
Not that this slightly messed look was bothering him, and he wished good luck to whoever decided it would them, because he was comfortable, content, and happy as a clam.
A very, very happy clam.
Squall was mildly surprised that Rinoa even had the energy to dress up (almost) as nicely as she had the previous day. He was not surprised, however, that, though she had applied cosmetics with an almost alien-like perfection, her expression was tired enough to make all of that foundation, blush, and whatnot, just fall asleep and slide right down off her complexion again. If cosmetics could sleep, that is. Which they couldn't. But thoughts like this usually tended to bound around Squall's head and make him into a bit of an internally hyperactive person whenever he was happy in this way.
"Wow, you sure look happy," Zell bounced into homeroom just a minute before the late bell, narrowly avoiding the sharp, yellow glance that Edea shot at him. No, late students would not be tolerated. He was lucky to be fully in his seat right before the bell.
"Yeah," Squall smiled to himself and twisted a bit of the light skirt material in his finger, delighting in the fact that he no longer felt the impulsive need to cross his legs at the calves. Instead, he kicked his feet forward a bit, earning a bit of an amused look in Zell's gaze, fragmented in depth by shades of cerulean blue.
"Feeling alright?" He chuckled slightly at the slightly annoyed but not truly displeased look on Squall's face.
Honestly…Zell was acting like he knew Squall perfectly. Who was he to assume that Squall had not just been in a quieter mood the day before and was not usually just this happy? Though Zell's assumption was, for the most part, right on target, it still didn't seem the sort of thing that was appropriate for a friend of only about 24 hours to be doing. Then again, people making assumptions about him seemed to just be a fact of life.
...probably is really a girl.
You see him over there?
He's gay! Yeah! ...Huh? Ahha ha! I'm so serious...
...A total fag. I head he tried to rape...in the locker room!
No way! Well, I heard he doesn't even have a...
Look more like a man! Be more like a guy, a masculine, thuggish, football-playing, video-game playing, one-of-the-boys man! Drink beer, watch sports on TV, smoke pot behind your parents' backs, go gang-banging with us some time...why not? It's what we do. It's what us guys do.
And after all of that...after all of it...
Delicate dark brown eyebrows dropped down in a slight frown.
Just look how masculine I am now.
Suddenly, Squall didn't look nearly so happy anymore.
-o-0-o-
"HAAAhhhnn." Yawn. "Man, this is boring. I'm tired. I don't think I got enough sleep. I don't think I should be at school today. Rrrgh, I'm exhausted! It's not right to force me to work this hard!"
In first class, seated next to someone not even remotely as happy as the day previous, Zell turned an anxious look toward his companion and frantically communicated with his eyes that she should quiet down.
After all, all French teachers seemed to have an old crepe permanently lodged up their asses. Undoubtedly, Monsieur S was no exception. Rinoa didn't seem to notice Zell's worried glances, however, and she continued to make small complaints about her personal well-being. The crested blonde had little to say to her after realizing she was too in herself at that moment to realize his concerns for their safety in the cool blue classroom of Madame Shiva's husband.
"Maybe you could learn something from Squall," Zell suggested with a little yawn in reaction to Rinoa's. She turned her chocolate-brown doe-eyes over to him, slightly red at around the edges with extreme tiredness. Still, she managed to comprehend this comment.
"What do you mean?" She brought her forearm over her mouth and scrunched her eyelids shut in another long yawn before blinking dry eyes at Zell again. "What's...what's…?" She couldn't go on, and was silenced by another yawn. Zell sighed and laughed a bit despite himself, shaking his head and looking away.
"You went to Seifer's party last night, huh?" Zell pursed his lips and glanced back at her, and she lifted a lazy eyebrow, leaning forward on the desk and letting her eyelids drop all the way down for a few seconds before she forced herself awake again.
"Yep," she said, eyes watering as she yawned again and rubbed her eyelids. Falling asleep was not a good idea. "It was a lot of fun."
"Squall was worried about you, wasn't she?" the blonde then asked with a small smile. Rinoa wasn't awake enough to notice that this question seemed to have come out of nowhere, nor was she awake enough to care.
"Sure was. Though, she took so long to get my jacket, I think she probably stopped along the way and got a little lucky...hmmm." She knew herself that this couldn't be true, because, after all, Squall was a guy and wouldn't risk revealing his identity. In any case, sleepy or not, messing with Zell's blonde, malleable head was becoming somewhat of a sporting event to Rinoa.
Cerulean blue eyes flew open.
"Squall wouldn't do that!" he nearly shouted, but restrained his impulses for the sake of keeping Monsieur S at bay. Rinoa gave him an amused, albeit tired look.
"And how long have you known her?" she asked doubtfully. Zell suddenly looked disheartened, but really couldn't find anything to say back. The dark-haired girl leaned her head down in her arms again with a little smile, closing her eyes and ignoring Zell's slight poking of her shoulder.
"I dunno," Zell answered; though he was more mumbling to himself as Rinoa wasn't listening anyway. He scratched the back of his neck and glanced at the back of the dark-haired girl's snoozing head with a bit of a troubled expression. So honestly, he didn't really like Rinoa all that much. And, for some reason, she didn't make him as nervous as any other girl (especially Squall.)
Rinoa mumbled something incoherent without opening her eyes. Surprisingly, Monsieur S was going on with his review lesson, and didn't seem to mind, or perhaps simply didn't notice, that the girl was sleeping. Zell leaned his chin forward on his hands and stared at the whiteboard for a while.
"You two..." he muttered under a tiny yawn, "...sure are different..."
Slowly, his eyelids fell all the way down and he didn't notice the lazy kick of Rinoa's foot against his shin.
-o-0-o-
"Almasy! What's with that face?"
The crystal-blue-eyed, thin-limbed young man jogged over to his "buddy" and clapped him firmly on the shoulder. Seifer, looking a little miffed, turned his forest-green eyes and regarded the auburn-haired boy with very little (if any) amusement
"What?" he asked flatly and Irvine's thin lips stretched in a little smirk.
"You just don't look wonderful, cowboy," Irvine observed with a whistle, gaze traveling up and down along Seifer's tall, well-built frame.
Irvine sometimes wondered how it would be to have muscles built like his blonde companion, because, for the majority of his life, he had been pretty much nothing but scrawny. If he wasn't so easily able to love himself, Irvine would have worn sweats in P.E. to hide his skinny, skinny legs. But Irvine was Irvine, and if anyone could make chicken-legs sexy, it was him. Besides, as he saw it, weight-training was just another way to waste precious time that would be much better spent with females.
"Fuck off," Seifer requested curtly, taken over by a closed-mouth yawn.
Irvine raised the eyebrow on his handsome face, off-handedly remembering to remove his cowboy hat. He set it down with utter gentleness behind the bench, and gave it a wistful, loving smile before looking back up at Seifer.
"My, my," he grinned, cocking his head with a questioning little narrow-eyed smirk. "Why the hostility?"
Seifer didn't bother to look at the other. His gaze traveled idly around the gym, where small groups of friends, not unlike him and Irvine, were wasting P.E. time just talking. Finally, his eyes stopped on a dark-haired boy whom he didn't know very personally, but who had once declared his..."admiration" for Seifer in the locker rooms. It had been the previous year, but how could he ever forget that face that had twisted so in embarrassment when Seifer had told him, slightly uncomfortable, that he was not gay?
"It doesn't matter," Seifer finally responded, narrowing his eyes at that dark-haired boy who seemed to be speaking with a taller, stronger-looking red-haired friend. Scratch that; he was definitely a boyfriend, judging by the way they now apparently had knotted their tongues together. Well, Seifer sighed in his mind, he was glad that kid wasn't likely to be bothering him much this year. What was his name, anyway? The blonde asked himself as Irvine watched him carefully. ...Nida? Yeah, it was Nida...
"MEN."
Coach DoomTrain stomped over to them, his shadow long and imposing. The two "men" turned to look at the huge, bulky...thing, whistle glinting slightly in the gymnasium lights as it hung around his impossibly large, meaty neck. Irvine grinned lopsidedly.
"Hey, Coach DT, looking sharp!" He reached up to tip his hat as a force of habit and a quick grimace shot his handsome face as he remembered his hat was off, and his hand dropped down again quickly. "Heard you got your eyes on a lady," he recovered his look.
Seifer frowned and closed his eyes for a moment. Coach DoomTrain frowned also, directing his squinty-eyed glare at Irvine.
"QUIET," he spoke, tone heavy. He then turned to the blonde, who was looking slightly irritated. Of course, he didn't really notice, let alone care. "ALMASY. PLAYING DODGEBALL, WE ARE. CAPTAINS, YOU AND KINNEAS ARE."
The auburn-haired cowboy laughed aloud at Seifer's blank expression as the coach thomped away. Irvine shot him a quick, extremely amused look before going off to the centre of the gym, Seifer not far behind. They stood a bit apart, facing the one half of the room.
"I call Nida! (Rinoa was looking for you last night.)" Irvine whispered this last part to Seifer as Nida reluctantly left his red-haired boyfriend to jog up beside the auburn-haired boy. Seifer frowned, but didn't look at the other.
"Calhoun! (Who cares? She's a pain in the ass.)" He whispered back as the red-head, Calhoun, came over to join Seifer's team. Irvine didn't glance at Seifer, either, but his reddish-brown eyebrows rose to the height of his forehead.
"Baker! (Really, now? I think she's more your type, though.)"
Seifer's forest-green gaze shot sideways questioningly.
"McEneaney! (What are you trying to say?)" The blonde's naturally down-turned lips stiffened and the corners of his mouth pinched down even more than normal. Irvine smirked.
"Newsom! (I'm saying I think you should forget the sister and go for sweet little Rinoa.)" Irvine shot Seifer a suggestive grin and the blonde brushed an idle hand through his short, gelled hair, leaning back a bit with an irritated look.
"Gibson! (Shut your face.)"
Irvine's brow line and mouth twitched up at the same time as he restrained giving Seifer another amused look. His myrrh-like blue eyes scanned the crowd of un-teamed boys, trying to decide who to choose next.
"Murray! (Well, I think I see now why you're in such a bad mood.)"
"Hack! (Oh, really?)" The blonde's eyebrow lifted slightly and Seifer narrowed his darkened, stagnant green eyes, flicking his wrist in a gesture for the young man to hurry up. Irvine snorted quietly.
"Chang! (Don't you th-) Yo! Other Chang!" Irvine blew a bit of the wavy hair framing his face away, laughing shortly at the two confused Changs. "(You went for her last night, didn't you?)"
Seifer sneered at him.
"Onuma! (How do you figure?)"
The auburn-haired cowboy grinned and scratched his head idly with a loud, mouthy yawn.
"(Because the only time you act like-) Bieman!" His sentence was cut short by impatient looks from the young men yet unsorted into teams. Seifer glanced at him quickly.
"Wells! (Act like what?)" Irvine smirked.
Wells ran up to his side a bit too quickly, and reached up to shove Seifer's shoulder with a mean look on his face. Both he and Irvine stared at the shorter boy with confused looks, Seifer's leaning more on the irate side, and Irvine's toward amusement.
"Yo!" Wells, a blue-haired individual, said with an odd shake of his head, eyes narrowing at Seifer, "What's with you, man? I see you near my girl again, and that's the end of you!"
Seifer leaned down, such an impressive height that he could turn his head all the way down to stare at this Wells. The blue-headed boy frowned, not able to hide his sudden jolt of fear.
"Who, exactly, is your girl?" Seifer growled under his breath, and Wells swallowed.
"Kim Gray," Wells said, frowning up into darkened green eyes that then sparked in amusement as Seifer pulled away with a short laugh.
"Get your facts straight; I was the one getting stalked all the freakin' way around my house by that bitch." He huffed and gestured down at Wells. "I guess I'm lucky I got away from her, but...man, I can see now why she's so desperate to get into someone else's pants."
"W-What!" Wells' eyes went wide and he raised a fist. "You fat bastard!"
Seifer snorted and turned back to the other boys as Irvine stifled a laugh, pulling Wells back onto his side. The blonde smirked to himself. It was always the girls giving him compliments, and the (straight) guys telling him he was ugly or "fat." Hey, he thought, just because you're all scrawny little rat-asses, doesn't mean a guy with nice muscles has gotta be fat. Why don't you all ask your girlfriends their opinions?
Irvine continued calling.
"Emery! (...Act Like this. The only time you act like a total prick is when you have girl trouble or when you get in a fight with mommy and daddy...)"
Seifer scowled at him.
"Bickson! (Are you kidding?)"
"(Not at all. And I know your folks are out of town...so...) Casasanta!"
"Holmes! (You're off the mark, shit-for-brains.)" Seifer growled under his breath, and if it had been anyone but Irvine, he would have been taken aback.
"Rice! (..Looks like someone needs a nap.)" Irvine mocked with a little smirk, not looking in Seifer's direction.
"Chang! (...It's nothing, okay?)" The tall blonde sighed and gave a dry roll of his eyes as the other Chang tripped over his own feet while jogging over to Seifer's team.
"DeVoe! (I'm sure it is.)" Irvine smirked and leaned over toward his companion. "(But I do wonder why sweet little Squall was so shaken up this morning...)"
Green eyes flickered like flurrying leaves and Seifer turned all the way to stare at Irvine for a long moment. The blonde's hand went up to press against his forehead and a weird look found his face. Seifer opened his mouth as if to say something, but it ended in him just closing it silently again. He shook his head and looked away from Irvine's extremely amused stare.
They continued calling teams without another word to each other.
-o-
"Fess up, Almasy! What happened last night?"
One stiff, bright-red ball flew at Seifer and it grazed his ear as he turned his head out of the way. He forced a foot back and gritted his teeth as he brought his right arm swinging with heavy momentum. This red ball released with a little spin and flew out of his hand, right at the cowboy.
"Why should I tell you?" He narrowed his eyes and quickly hopped out of the way of another ball out of some other direction.
"Hup!" Irvine grunted a bit and pulled up a skinny leg, the ball from Seifer's hand slamming onto the ground where his foot had been. It let out a loud slap and bounced up behind him, hitting one Chang on Irvine's side. Glancing around, Irvine spotted a red ball rolling between the legs of his shouting comrades, and somersaulted by it, curling it up in his elbow and turning, rolling it down his forearm to his poised hand and pelting it at Seifer.
"Come on, buddy!" Irvine yelled, hand flying up to brush away a small sweat on his forehead, another random ball whizzing at him and hitting against the long tail of auburn hair that flew up as his head ducked down. He glanced up apprehensively and grunted again before smirking. "You tried something with Squall, didn't you?" He gave a narrow smirk and a sharp cock of his head as another ball flew past and grazed his neck.
"Keep your ideas to yourself!" Seifer yelled out shortly, hopping over an idle ball that was rolling on his floor and turning quickly to see many of his teammates had fallen. He slid down gracefully and a bead of sweat rolled along his temple as he easily clutched the abrasive material of another ball, jumping back up with a push of his leg and whirling his arm around, releasing the red ball into the air. He panted a bit and dodged a lazy ball coming for his ankle, noticing that the attacks were lessening. "Shouldn't you be worried about that psycho bitch from English?"
"Don't change the subject!" Irvine laughed shortly, smirking as he caught the ball straight in his left hand. He narrowed crystal-blue eyes and juggled it sharply into his right hand, pelting it back with a jolt.
Seifer cursed under his breath and ducked back Matrix-style as the ball bulleted right over his head. He turned with a quick hitch of his ankle, and an idle ball rolled onto the top of his foot. Flicking his ankle sharply and turning his foot up, the ball flew straight up from his foot and into his hand.
They were the last two left, Seifer and Irvine, and it was very obvious why they were always chosen to be the team captains. The other boys watched with increasing interest.
"Getting worn out, Kinneas?" The blonde mocked, chest burning and heart hammering with adrenaline. Irvine was in a similar state.
"Changing the subject!" The auburn-haired young man grunted slightly, eyes darting around quickly for a ball.
"Shut it!" Seifer narrowed his candy-green eyes, putting a foot back as he threw another ball right for Irvine's shoulder.
Irvine spotted a ball on his side and he dove for it, just barely missing the ball that Seifer had thrown just a split-second before. Still crouching on the floor, he mumbled a curse then smiled when he saw that the blonde was busying himself trying to find a ball for himself. This was an opportune moment. He pulled his arm back, poised to shoot.
"You just don't want to admit she doesn't want you!" He yelled out with a wild grin, just catching the blonde's sudden, confused look as his ball flew straight out of his hand, slamming straight into Seifer's face.
Then, there was a long, drawn-out silence, as wide-eyed boys watched the odd picture. The ball had bounced, and eventually rolled, away from Seifer, Irvine was sitting back on his ass, panting and sweating and leaning back, and the whole gym was silent for a split-second.
And suddenly, Seifer blinked the blank look away, a feral glare in his fiery green eyes, and he pushed himself forward off the floor, onto Irvine, with his fist flying into the cowboy's face.
"AH!" Nida shouted, jumping up from his place sitting on the floor, tugging at the Coach's sleeve. "Coach, stop him! The game's over!"
The Coach was silent and watched as Irvine struggled weakly against his face being pounded in. The lanky boy's long limbs were flailing in a way that could only be humorous to someone like DoomTrain.
"Coach!" Nida grunted. He started to run at Seifer and Irvine, but the coach stopped him with a strong arm. Nida turned and glanced at him with an anxious look. "I have to stop them!"
"NO." DoomTrain shook his head slowly, and a grin stretched his wide mouth. "VERY AMUSING, THEY ARE."
-o-0-o-
"That's the one," Selphie whispered to her friend. "She thinks she's sooo cool. What a joke."
The brown-haired girl and her friend sat on yoga mats in the dance room as Squall moved about his small space of the room, making idle circles as he practiced turning. Selphie huffed, kicking her legs once and brushing her hair away vainly. Her friend's gaze traveled back and forth between her and Squall, amused.
"D'yah even know her, Selphie?" the girl asked with a dubious look, and Selphie folded her arms across her chest, narrowing green eyes at Squall.
"Look at that!" she complained, ignoring her friend's question. Her small lips twisted into a scowl. "Just dancin' about when Instructor Trepe isn't even here yet! Like, who does that slut think she is?"
"Mm-hmm," the girl said, bored, closing her eyes halfway and leaning back on her arms. "Yep."
Selphie turned her gaze toward the friend with an irritated look. Her thin brown eyebrows were pulled down in a distant glare.
"Just shut it," she said curtly, and the friend lifted a lazy eyebrow at the rude brunette.
"Selph-"
"Teacher's pet," Selphie mumbled, leaning forward and glaring across the room at Squall, in his unusual outfit, fixing the way he turned his foot. "Newbie. Faker. Ugly. Homo."
The friend's eyes grew slightly wide and she sat up, glancing at Selphie, who was now staring very darkly at poor, unaware Squall. Squall's short brown hair was bobbing in an odd way as he turned and frustration was growing more and more evident on his face. Selphie seemed satisfied by this.
"Um, Selphie?" the friend asked meekly. Selphie didn't look at her.
"Wot is it?" she asked, small smirk growing as Squall slipped a bit and almost fell on his face. Her thin hands clapped together quietly and she jumped slightly as he stumbled about a bit more. The friend was now fully watching Selphie. Was she sadistic or something? The girl couldn't help but wonder what that poor new kid could have possibly done in one day to make Selphie hate her so. Then again, she reminded herself, Selphie was the type that could hate someone for very stupid reasons.
"What...like...Why are you so mad about her?"
She noticed a burning flame in Selphie's eyes, and it made a chill run down her spine. Selphie honestly looked like an evil person. Someone with truly malicious intent. The brunette gritted her teeth and glanced away from Squall for a moment at her friend.
"I talked to Irvine last night," she said under her breath hotly, lowering her gaze to her palms. The friend hummed and watched her inquisitively.
"That...that heartless bastard..." she looked angrier than ever at this point, "I...we were together last year, and I've been trying to track that dumb shit-face down forever…"
The friend nodded again, wondering how this had anything to do with the new kid. Then again, she knew Selphie was in one of her "moments" and that any attempts to calm down an angry Selphie could be accurately compared to trying to nail jell-o to a tree.
Suddenly, Selphie was staring at the friend, and she looked very anguished.
"I found him last night, and...and do you know what that bastard told me?"
The friend, wide-eyed, shook her head slowly and leaned in, attentive.
"He...he told me..." Selphie looked away to glare darkly at Squall again. "He told me that I'm not hot enough. He said I first need to be as hot...as..."
The friend held her breath and then released it silently, understanding what was next. Selphie's thin brown eyebrow dropped down in a sharp frown.
"...As that ugly whore. I hate that Squall. He ruined everything..."
"Who?" the friend blinked.
Selphie realized her blunder and then considered if she should get her revenge by revealing Squall's gender. After a moment of careful consideration, however, she saw a better way to utilize her knowledge.
"Sorry," she mumbled, watching Squall with a new interest in her eyes, "I meant to say 'she.'"
The friend blinked and nodded with a little hum, glancing over at Squall, who was sitting with his eyes closed at this point, arms hugging his knees to his chest. To her, the new kid didn't really look like someone to hate, but someone to watch from a distance the overwhelming sweetness. And so, that is what the friend did. She watched from a distance.
Selphie, on the other hand, seemed to think, as always, that direct, obnoxious confrontation was the best solution.
"YO! Newbie!" Selphie hopped up and bounded across the room, driving to quick halt when she reached Squall, who was seated alone near the corner of the studio. He immediately dropped his arms from around his knees and turned to look up, a comically irate expression finding his delicate face.
"S-Selphie." He acknowledged in a low voice under his breath, figuring he didn't need to try to sound more feminine, since this crazy girl already knew about him. Though, how she knew, Squall had yet to come to understand.
"Now, you listen to me, and listen to me good," she said sternly, a figurative aura of professionalism surrounding her as she dropped down beside Squall. She lowered her voice, narrowing her green eyes cautiously, and leaned in toward Squall. A bit confused, he leaned to her side as well.
"...So." Selphie frowned intensely at Squall and he lifted a dark brow. The brown-haired girl brought her pointer finger up for emphasis and opened her mouth slowly. "We both know here that you're really a guy..."
Impulsively, Squall's brow pinched down in a deep frown, but his expression softened a bit and he nodded, an anxious glimmer in his silver-blue eyes.
"And, for some reason, though I'm not really sure why," she said with a small roll of her eyes, "my Irvine seems to think you're better looking than I am." She huffed and tapped her foot against the ground, rocking once. Squall's icy-blue eyes widened slightly, and he made a doubtful face. "Her" Irvine? Something about this conversation was looking about to go downhill.
Squall cleared his throat quietly.
"Oh...okay." He mumbled with a tone that suggested she explain to him the point of their conversation.
"Now," she continued, in a more professional tone again, "I'm gonna make this easy. I think you pretty much guessed that I have complete power of you now..." her tone held a little smirk to it, and Squall held in a groan as she continued. "So, this should be easy, right? All I'm saying is...you just stay the heck away from Irvine."
His dark eyebrows shot up, and he couldn't hold in a small laugh.
"Are you kidding?" he asked quietly, relief evident on his feminine face. Her moss-green eyes continued to watch him suspiciously, and Selphie leaned back self-consciously.
"No," she said with a pointed glance. "So are yah gonna do it?"
"Gladly," he leaned in, smiling in a small, but obvious way. He didn't know why he was so happy. After all, Selphie was only asking him to do something that he was planning on doing in the first place.
"Really?" She blinked, then shrugged, looking down at her toes and wiggling them playfully. "Well...we're all good, then. I guess I thought this would be harder coz I thought you were gay."
Squall's smile fell.
"Why?" he demanded quickly. Selphie glanced over, a little confused, and then gave him a doubtful stare.
"Oh, I don't know," she started sardonically, "I guess it might be the whole dressing-up-as-a-girl thing."
The silver-blue eyed brunette opened his mouth to say something, but frowned and shut his lips together silently. His eyes darkened considerably as Selphie watched with veiled interest.
"Even...even if I am gay-" and he stopped, with a very sharp, pointed glance at Selphie, "-which I'm not-" he looked back down at his feet. "...I wouldn't be near him for anything." His mouth twisted in disgust and Selphie sighed loudly with a shrug, standing up and brushing off her short black dance skirt.
"Whatever...yah shoulda realized by now that nobody here really cares if you're gay." She glanced down at his shocked expression with a tiny smile. "I mean, half of the guys here are, anyway. And if that's the reason you're pretending to be a girl, I'd have to say...yah made a pretty funny mistake. Yeah..." She smiled. "...Pretty funny."
"..."
Selphie leaned down and pursed her lips.
"...Though, yah know, yah looked better yesterday. Someone might realize you're a guy without all that makeup."
She then waved and ran off to her friend. Squall watched her go, eyes narrowed and darkened almost to black.
"I..." he breathed hotly, clenching his teeth and fists, "...am not gay."
-o-0-o-
"You found your sister okay last night, I hope?" Zephyr smiled his handsome smile, and, for some reason, just the knowledge that this silver-haired young man was gay made Squall just the slightest bit more uncomfortable.
"Yeah," he answered quietly, eyes flying open as Zell jumped right in his face with a huge grin. The pure-blue-eyed blonde grinned widely and waved erratically at the slightly taken-aback Squall as Seifer walked into the room, apparently ignoring Squall.
Zeph smiled. With Squall at their school, suddenly, every moment was a bit more exciting. And amusing.
The silver-blue eyed brunette nearly choked and stepped back from Zell, hand placed over his heart in aftershock. He donned a slightly aggravated look and glanced at the crested blonde, who halted his hyperactive antics abruptly.
"S-Sorry!" he said, scratching his cheek sheepishly. Squall took a deep breath and nodded.
"It's okay, just...don't...scare me like that..."
"'Eifer!" Zeph called out, jogging a few feet over to a rather angry-looking blonde. Seifer walked over to his seat and set down his sax case, glancing over to see Squall over in the drums section with Zell. He narrowed his candy-green eyes and twisted his mouth up crookedly in a humorless smile, dropping tiredly into his seat.
"Hey," he said roughly, clearing his throat as Zeph watched him curiously.
The teal-eyed boy knew Seifer very well, and he knew not to question the blonde's mood unless he wanted to be pounded into Zeph-dust. Instead, he brought up a better topic of conversation, sitting in the seat beside Seifer and smiling to himself.
"So..." he started with that handsome smile, "did you see him?"
Seifer leaned back in his seat and closed his eyes, the beginning of dark circles forming just barely beneath his eyes.
"See who?" he asked, obviously tired and uninterested. Zephyr only smiled a bit more and leaned forward, turning his head to watch the blonde with a happy look. His hair tumbled along his shoulder as he turned, catching the fluorescent lighting from above, and unintentionally blinding some kids standing nearby for just a moment.
"My boyfriend!" Zeph said excitedly, and Seifer slowly opened one eye at his friend, arms folded behind his head as he leaned his chair on its two back legs.
"Boyfriend," Seifer repeated with a little grunt. "I thought you were making that up."
Zeph made a little fake pout at his blonde friend, poking him in the side and making him sit up with a bit of a ruffled, not-morning-person look.
"Dude, no!" He laughed at Seifer's irritated look. "He took the train from Dollet last night, came to your party!" Suddenly, his slim silver eyebrows rose by a centimetre, and he narrowed his aqua-green eyes suspiciously. "...Which reminds me...Why weren't you even there?"
"I was," Seifer corrected with a lazy glance. "I was just late."
"By 5 hours, right?" Zeph laughed at his green-eyed friend's dubious look. Seifer shrugged and looked away to see Squall walking over. The blonde sat up and let his chair back down on its four legs, unfolding his ankles and bringing his arms down from behind his head. Zephyr's teal eyes lit up as Squall approached, and he waved the brunette over quickly.
"Squall!" He said, and Squall watched him with detached curiosity. "Come here."
The brunette had no choice, really. His seat was next to Zeph and Seifer, after all. Squall slowly walked over, not looking at Seifer once. The blonde didn't look at him, either.
"What is it?" Squall asked tiredly, dropping down tiredly in his seat, already worn out by Zell's overzealous friendliness. He wore that long, layered skirt thing, however, and didn't need to worry about letting anything show. It was really much better than the day before.
"Seifer here doesn't want to believe me," he said with a laugh. "But Eric is real! Just tell him, Squall!" He looked about ready to crack up.
And he would have, until he realized that both Squall and Seifer were looking away, both silent and neither smiling. The platinum-blonde, teal-eyed boy pursed his lips together and his smile fell quickly.
Suddenly, Zeph realized at least who might have been involved in creating Seifer's bad mood, if not why, when, or how.
He laughed sheepishly and his gaze traveled slowly between the two.
"Uh, so, let's practice. Same way as yesterday?"
Neither said a thing, nor did either of them move to set up their saxophones. Zeph sighed and pulled his instrument up to his lips, setting his gaze on the notes, and started to play. Neither of the other two showed any sign that they were going to follow. They just sat in silence and listened to Zephyr's awkward playing.
-o-0-o-
"Squall!"
Squall had been the first to stand right as the bell rang for lunch, and Seifer's neck seemed to be permanently stuck sideways as the blonde still glared at the wall. Zeph called out after the brunette and stopped him, pulling him over to the corner for a minute. Seifer saw this as an opportunity to leave.
So he did.
"What is it?" Squall, rather vexed, looked up tiredly and folded his arms. His saxophone case hadn't been opened.
"Um..." Zeph started awkwardly, "Do you want to eat lunch with me?"
Squall blinked slowly, looking away lazily before looking back up into teal eyes. He shrugged slightly.
"Sorry," he mumbled. "I said I'd eat with Rinoa." He started to turn to walk away, but Zeph stopped him again. Slowly, the brunette turned back, silver-blue eyes darkening in an intimidating manner as he glanced back up. "What?"
Zeph crooked an eyebrow at him. "You sure about that? I mean..." the corner of his mouth twitched up just a bit, "...Seifer is going with her, you know."
Squall's eyes widened now and sparked like electric ice, quickly searching Zeph's aqua-green eyes for any sign of a fib.
"Since when?" he demanded quietly, leaning forward by a millimetre. The platinum-haired young man laughed quietly, glancing up to see they were the last kids left in class.
"Since Little-Rinoa-Riding-Hood got a monster crush on the big, bad, blonde wolf." He laughed aloud at his joke. Squall, however, would have found being stuck in a well with five man-eating spiders on one side and Irvine on the other side funnier than this.
"What are you talking about?" He growled, looking slightly panicked. Zeph shook his head and started walking away, waving his arm up as a gesture for Squall to follow him.
Torn, Squall stared after Zeph for a moment before deciding to go after him.
-o-0-o-
"So, tell me about yourself."
The two were seated in a corner at the bottom of a courtyard with small sets of steps and landings in random places. More precisely, they were sitting on the edge of the river-like fountain that ran around the edge of the courtyard. Flowers, declining from the height of bloom as the chilly nip of autumn weather made itself more obvious, were fighting to stay up as long as they could. The water flowed serenely, carrying the soft fallen petals that dotted its surface.
Balamb really did have some beautiful little places, Squall decided, if one chose to look closely enough.
"Hmm." Squall looked up into teal eyes that were studying him intensely, and glanced back down with a frustrated sigh. "I live with my sister. I like to dance. I don't know..." he glanced up again, frowning slightly. "What do you want me to say?"
Zeph laughed his pleasant laugh, and it seemed to reverberate about the enclosed corner's cool stone walls.
"You know, Squall," the silver-haired boy remarked, forking a small bite of plain, buttered rotini into his mouth, "I really have no idea why, but I kinda like you." He grinned, and Squall pursed his lips, looking down at a delicately curled pink petal traveling at a torturously slow rate across the water. It kind of reminded Squall of their current conversation. Slow.
"Okay."
"...So does Seifer," Zeph said at length, and a sharp silver-blue glance was shot in his direction. Squall frowned.
"Who cares?" He asked flatly, and Zeph pulled his fork of noodles away from his mouth just as he was about to bite.
"...Sometimes I wonder..." he started quietly, turning to pick a small pink flower from a vine before gently placing it on the fountain path to float away, "...like, what's the deal with people's hearts? I mean...I wonder what a girl would say if she falls in love and finds out her boyfriend is really a girl, too." He glanced at Squall. "Do you think people's genders determine everything?"
'Coincidence' was the first thing that popped into Squall's head. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling in his stomach and hummed quietly, dipping his finger into the sluice and drawing circles in the water.
"You're asking this because you're gay, right?" he said quietly, not looking up. Zeph was silent for a moment.
"Well...mostly because I'm wondering what you think about it."
The brunette looked up.
"I don't have an opinion." He looked down at the water again. Again, Zeph watched him silently, chewing on a bite of buttered noodles.
"...Do you know what sexuality is?" he asked after a moment, and Squall's gaze shot up to meet his inquisitively.
"I'm not in kindergarten," was the brunette's sardonic reply. Zephyr hummed and put his half-eaten plate down, leaning back and gazing up at the sky, listening to the calm sound of flowing water.
"I know that," the silver-haired boy said quietly. "But can you really define it?"
Squall was silenced. Thick, dark lashes rose up with his gaze, and he watched Zeph soundlessly.
"Yeah," Zeph continued with a short little laugh, "that's what I thought."
"...Okay..." The brunette, though his interest was now piqued, decided not to ask further. Something told him the other young man would explain without him asking, anyway.
"Sexuality is...like...inside your mind. It's all in your mind." Zeph started vaguely, and Squall listened carefully, though he looked away. "It's an internal thing...sexuality...is how you see yourself in society when next to other people. Kind of get it?" He glanced over at Squall, who was frowning very lightly and his pale blue eyes were shining, swimming with quicksilver highlights.
'Yeah,' Zeph sighed silently, 'she's really pretty.'
"I think so. It makes sense," Squall added very quietly, glancing up at Zeph. "...So what's your point?"
The fair-haired young man smiled and looked back up at the pale sky.
"Now, listen to this." Zeph started again. "Questioning your sexuality has to be more than just wondering if you like someone of your own gender. Isn't it questioning sexuality when a cheerleader is suddenly in love with a geek? Or when a princess falls for a pauper instead of the prince?" Zeph's smile widened just a bit. "Isn't it questioning sexuality when a Montague falls for a Capulet?"
"...It is?" Squall wondered, trying to see what the other was talking about. He could see it...just vaguely, though.
"Oh, yes." Eyelids came closed over teal eyes and Zeph smiled even more. "If sexuality is how you see yourself in society, then suddenly realizing you're close to someone who you've typecast as just not being the kind of person that could be with you...is questioning your sexuality."
Squall blinked.
"Oh..."
"Isn't it interesting?" Zeph brought himself back to a normal position and picked up his plate of noodles again. "Just the way we've set ourselves in believing that a popular girl can't go out with the geekiest kid in the A/V club, we've set ourselves in believing that a guy can't go out with another guy. That's all it is."
Squall hummed and dropped his finger back into the water, swirling it around and soaking in everything that the silver-haired young man had said. Granted, he had said a lot, but it was a pretty simple idea.
"Yeah...that's cool." Squall smiled slightly and looked up. "But you know, I never said I disapprove of you being gay or anything."
Zephyr laughed.
"I wasn't discussing my situation," he explained. "I was helping you with yours."
The brunette opened his mouth to say something, but words lost him again. He frowned up at Zeph questioningly, wondering what, exactly, he was trying to say.
"Listen..." The teal-eyed boy leaned in slightly, lowering his voice. "...About Seifer..."
Squall leaned away with a quick, impulsive roll of his eyes. "Stop while you're ahead," he mumbled.
"No, seriously..." Zeph leaned in a bit more. "Maybe you didn't notice, but he really doesn't have any real friends..."
The brunette stared at Zeph, confusion evident on his face. He lifted an eyebrow slightly as he considered this.
"What about Irvine?" he asked quietly, and Zeph resisted the urge to snort.
"If I had a million bucks for every time they had any sort of connection with any meaning whatsoever..." the teal-eyed boy said with an odd look on his face, then a laugh, "Well...I'd be living on the streets."
Squall hummed in acknowledgement and let himself laugh shortly.
"Well...you're his friend, aren't you?" the brunette asked.
Zeph glanced away quickly, and this struck Squall as somewhat suspicious. The platinum-haired young man cleared his throat and shrugged slightly.
"Actually, that's not something I'd care to explain at this point," he said, indicating he was cutting that branch off their conversation right then. "Just take my word for it."
"..."
"Well...with that aside...honestly...I don't think I've seen Seifer really smile...for, what, two years now? This might seem wrong of me, but all I'm saying is...if you could find it in yourself to question your sexuality and warm up to a 'stuck up prick' like him..." He sighed and looked away. "I think you'll find something that you wouldn't expect."
Squall's eyes narrowed slightly and he frowned, but Zeph continued.
"Maybe I shouldn't be asking you this, but I really think he needs someone like you."
"What are-"
"And," he cut off, "I think you'll realize you need it, too."
This was all too much. Questioning sexuality to go for someone with a disagreeable personality was one thing, but Zeph didn't realize the fact that Squall was also a guy. Even though, Squall argued in his mind, Zephyr had been trying to make the whole point that there was no difference between the types of questioning, he couldn't help but think that there was. There was just that nagging uncomfortable feeling inside Squall.
Besides, he wasn't gay.
"Zephyr..." he glanced up apologetically into the teal eyes that were shining dimly with hope. "...I'm sorry."
Zeph was silent for a moment and then leaned back with a half-hearted sigh.
"...I see," he said at length, picking up his plate and dumping it in the empty courtyard's garbage bin, "Thanks for listening, anyway."
The brunette nodded slowly, watching as the fair-haired boy slowly walked over to the glass doors only a few yards away and pushed inside the high school, disappearing from his vision behind the pale tinted glass.
Squall leaned on his arm and watched as a small, perfectly shaped purple petal drifted along, slowly going on its lonely way...
-o-0-o-
Weird way to end a chapter, I know.
I'm so happy is done...but, like, OOPS...coz this update took me 16 days, and it's really short, too.
Well, 8,000 words might be long for some people, but it's pretty short for me. I'm purposely not writing super long chapters all the time, though, because if I set that sort of goal, chapters would just keep getting longer and longer, and eventually you wouldn't be getting updates for like, months at a time. xD
Though, when you think about it, the basic plot content of one of my 8,000-10,000 chapters is the same as if someone else would write it in 1,000 words. I mean, if I had someone else do a re-write of this story so far, it could probably all be done in like, 5,000 words. But, I have my own writing style, I suppose, and it's not going to change.../sigh/
BTW, Didn't you love it when Seifer's face got smashed by the dodgeball? XD
REVIEW:D (And please do tell me if you understand what Zephyr was talking about with sexuality. I mean, I have this wonderful theory that I had Zefie try to explain, but it didn't seem to me to come out right! Ughh.)
Zephyr: The basic idea is, EVERYBODY IS BISEXUAL/throws confetti/
Squalmasies aweigh!