A/N: Inspiration for the end section of this chapter goes to pink monkey, thanks.

"Treasure each other in the recognition that we do not know how long we shall have each other."

Zell awoke with a start due to the soft summer wind coming in without permission from his open window. It swept over his bare chest and arms gently; giving him goose bumps despite the warmth of the hot sun peeping in at him through his curtains. He silently cursed himself for being a light sleeper when morning struck. It was only when he turned his head to see if Selphie was awake yet, that he realised she was no longer next to him in his bed.

Maybe she's in the bathroom . . .

Yawning slightly, he called out for her. No reply. Getting up reluctantly, he walked over to shut his window, the bright sun blinding him for a split second before he went to knock on the closed bathroom door.

"Sef? You in there?"

Still no reply.

Zell began to get worried and panicked a bit, his heart beat becoming more rapid.

What if she . . .

Turning the handle, he found the door was unlocked. He also found that Selphie wasn't actually in his bathroom.

Zell felt relieved but also baffled. In the back of his mind, he almost thought that Selphie might've been slumped on the floor in a pool of blood, gasping for air.

Where is she?

Scratching the back of his neck in thought, he remembered that he'd said something last night to piss her off, and vaguely remembered seeing her shadowed form creep out of his room in the early hours.

Zell decided there would be no point in going back to bed, as he was now fully awake and by one glance at his clock, it seemed he had half an hour to meet Rinoa, Squall, Irvine, Selphie and Quistis down by the front gate for their trip to the beach.

After much rooting around through his top drawer, Zell pulled out his swim shorts from underneath a various array of other items. They were black and baggy, with small blue flames stitched around the bottom of the leg in intricate detail.

After slipping them on underneath his trousers, he went to wash and generally do morning stuff in the bathroom. Grabbing a shoulder bag, he stuffed his large fluffy towel into it, along with sunglasses, his Mp3 player and his snorkelling mask, deciding it could be fun.

Zell felt he ought to knock on Selphies door, but upon realising he was already five minutes or so late, chose not to and instead sped it down to the front gates.

He was met by a group of people, all with beach bags. They didn't seem to mind him being late, well, all apart from Quistis.

"Zell!" She stood with her hands on her hips, "You are such a bad time keeper! I can't ever recall a time when you've not kept us waiting!"

"Keep ya knickers on, I'm here now, aren't I, Miss Bossy?"

Quistis looked for something to say back to the impertinent blonde but gave up and settled into an altogether calmer mood now that everyone had turned up.

"Can we go now?" said an impatient Rinoa, tugging at Squalls side, seeing as they were taking his rental car. Not waiting for a reply, they all piled into the old, rusty looking vehicle, which Squall had already removed from the parking lot and placed in front of Balamb Garden.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Dammit, I forgot everyone comes to the beach on their day off," stated Zell with a hint of disappointment as he looked out of the car window.

The beach they had picked was a rather large one just off the edges of Balamb, free from fastitocalon F creatures, with almost white sand and a bluer than blue ocean. The group didn't have much trouble finding an adequate space amongst the other garden students, who were too busy screaming and having fun with each other to notice anyone else. Rinoa and Quistis placed their oversized beach towels on the hot golden sand beneath them and proceeded to rub sun cream on each others back in turn. Naturally, Irvine was staring at them, intrigued and somewhat turned on by this act of female friendship.

Selphie had placed herself on the sand, sitting with her knees loosely bent and her arms resting around her knees. She was nearest to Zell and as far away as possible from Irvine. Although something inside her told her to go and sit next to him, she didn't. Sitting unusually quiet, she surveyed her friends one by one.

Rinoa and Quistis had stripped down and now lay clad in only their bikinis, Rinoa's being black and a bit too revealing, Quistis' being red with a tie neck. They were simply lying there, sunning themselves and gossiping about something Selphie couldn't quite hear from her position.

Squall was sitting on a blue rental deckchair, placed a little ways over from Rinoa. He had on a white t shirt with black ¾ length shorts, which reminded Selphie of the kind Zell would often wear. Squall appeared to be staring towards the ocean, but you couldn't really tell because he had on these big black ski type sunglasses, which reflected almost everything.

Next came Irvine. He wasn't on a chair or a towel, just sprawled out on the sand in between Squall and Zell. He had on a pair of black swim shorts with sunglasses he'd slotted down the waistband, and his hat which was pulled down over his eyes, probably so no-one could see the girls he was obviously lusting after. Selphie found herself lingering over his bare chest. The way the sun appeared to bounce off his lightly tanned skin seemed to hold a magnetism of its own, forbidding Selphie to look away. His chest wasn't overly toned, but it was enough to catch any girls' attention. Only did she turn away from Irvine when Zell appeared to say something to her.

He stared at her expectantly for an answer, but she didn't know what she said, so just stared blankly back at him.

"Hm?"

Zell rolled his eyes and grinned widely.

"I said . . . are you gonna take off you're top or just sit there staring at Irvine?"

"I wasn't-"

"You don't hav'ta explain to me Sef, you can stare at who ya want."

"I know, but . . . oh shove it."

"Shove what where?" Zell wiggled his eyebrows at his brunette friend, fully expecting the elbow he got thrust into his stomach. After this, Selphie looked around to see if anyone was concentrating on her, then whipped off her loose top and mini skirt, revealing a cute yellow bikini.

"Whoo! Strip strip strip!"

Selphie frowned at Zell, making her features scrunch up, "Shut up! Pervert!" She leapt at her blonde friend to make his loud mouth shut up for once. Selphie grabbed his neck in a head lock and clasped her hand over his mouth. Zell tried to laugh, but couldn't do it properly thanks to the hand shutting him up, so it came out in a sort of snort mixed with a squeak. This made Squall look up from whatever he was concentrating on and stare at the hyperactive blonde squirming near him.

Selphie abruptly let go of Zell, pushing him back onto his towel. She didn't want any attention when she was scantily clad. Not that she was shy or embarrassed, just conscious of where eyes might be wondering to, for example, her arm.

"Um, Zell," Selphie began quietly, "Can I borrow your button up shirt so I can put it on over my bikini top?"

"Sure . . . but . . . maybe you should go ask Irvine, I mean, he might get the wrong idea if he sees you in my shirt, coz it's kind of a girlfriendy thing to do and-,"

Selphie glanced over in the direction of where Irvine was laying and began contemplating Zells words. Feeling a burst of braveness in the attitude more like her old self, she walked lightly over to the cowboy and stood above him. No-one but Zell was watching, and even he looked away when Selphie gave him the right kind of look.

Sensing a shadow had fallen over him; Irvine lifted his cowboy hat a little way off his eyes and squinted up into the silhouette rimmed with golden light above him.

Selphie crouched down in front of him, uneasy of his gaze.

"Um, hi Irvine."

"Hey, how's it goin'?"

"Fine . . . yeah, I was wondering . . ."

Oh Gods, this is gonna sound so stupid, he'll think I'm such a dumb freak. Yeah as if he doesn't already . . . This was Zells idea, why the hell did I listen to him?

While Selphies thoughts were waging war in her head, she realised that Irvine was still waiting for her to say something.

"You were wonderin' . . . what?"

"Oh, um, ah forget it . . ."

As she was about to get back into a standing position, Irvine placed his hand on her bad arm. He traced the lines of her cuts, as if they were a thing of beauty and not something that should disgust him.

What's he doing?

"Do you wanna borrow my shirt Sefie? You might get sun burnt or something; I know how sensitive pale skin is . . ."

"Uh . . . okay. Thanks."

"You look great by the way."

Selphie sat there in front of him, mesmerized yet again by enigmatic eyes.

How did he know what I wanted? Maybe he didn't. Probably just guessed. Yep.

"Thanks . . ."

She picked up Irvine's black button up short sleeved shirt and placed it on herself. On Irvine, it was tight and clung to his chest, but on Selphie it was large like her nightshirt and the sleeves came down to her elbows.

Walking back to Zell slowly, she fiddled with one of the shirts brown buttons.

Sitting back down next to Zell, she noticed Rinoa and Quistis were gone.

"Hey, where'd they go?" she asked, pointing in the direction of where the girls stuff lay.

"Went into the sea with the beach ball, I think. They were gonna ask you but then Rinoa said, and I quote, 'she's getting bizaay with Irvine'."

"Ooo-kay. Was he looking at me when I walked back here?"

"Yep, well, more your ass cheeks than you, but then again, any guy would do that. Even Squall."

Upon the mention of his name, the sullen brunette looked down his sunglasses at Zell.

"What was that?"

"Ahh nothin', go chase after Rinoa."

"I don't do the chasing, Zell, she does."

Selphie leaned her head on the arm of Squalls deck chair.

"So are you saying that it's the girls' job? Because if you are, then that's so sexist of you."

Zell laughed, "Don't get on the wrong side of Selphie, man; she'll cut your nuts off if you disagree with anything she says."

"In that case, she cut yours off ages ago."

Selphie left the two boys to talk and went for a walk along the somewhat busy beach, half attempting to spot her girl friends. Walking into the surf, she tried to look for them amongst the people playing in the sea. Giving up, she simply decided to walk the length of the beach, letting the end of mini blue waves slosh at her feet, making them sink into the ashen sand.

Concentrating on this and not paying attention to where she was going, Selphie bumped into a rather large figure and almost fell back until the person grabbed her by the wrist and yanked her back to her feet, preventing a long trip down to the ground. Selphie let out a yelp. Whoever saved her from the small amount of pain that falling would've caused, they gave her a great deal more by grabbing hold of her bandaged wrist.

Selphie looked at the person in front of her and came face to face with Seifer, that famous Almasy smirk plastered across his face.

"Well, aren't you going to thank me?"

"No."

"Now that's not very nice."

"Bite me."

Selphie tried to step aside so she could keep walking her route, but Seifer also side stepped so he was back in front of her again.

"Heard you had a bit of a mental problem . . . fell on a razor did you?"

"Get lost Seifer."

"Make me."

"What's your problem?"

"No problem. Where's the chicken, maybe I can start a fight with him, I'm feeling a bit bored and you're no fun."

"I can be fun, just not with dick heads like you, and don't even think about going to pick on Zell."

"Got himself a little body guard has he? How quaint."

"Oh, piss off! Get outta my way!"

"Fiery one, aren't you?"

"I don't need this."

Selphie turned around and walked away from Seifer at a quick pace, not that she was scared of him; she just knew who his friends were, and didn't want to run into them today.

Feeling rather hurt from Seifers cruel words, she was about to give up searching for Rinoa and Quistis when she saw them splashing around, waist deep in the ocean, with a red, yellow and blue beach ball.

Selphie began to wade in when she realised that she would be getting Irvine's shirt wet in the process. Taking the two ends of it, she tied it up into a bow just below her chest, making it into a crop top.

Rinoa spotted her coming towards them and shouted, "Catch!", whilst throwing the ball in Selphies direction. The brunette did as she was told instantly and caught the oversized inflatable ball before it sailed over her head.

"WE saw you talking to Irvine! How's he being with you now?" Rinoa flicked her raven hair over one of her shoulders and took the ball out of Selphies hands.

"He's . . . a bit weird. I don't know. It's odd talking to him now."

Quistis paddled over to the two girls, never one to stand by and let people gossip without her.

Rinoa hung her arm loosely around Selphie and asked, "Do you think you two will ever get back to how you were?"

"I don't know . . . he let me borrow his shirt," Selphies mouth upturned in one corner in a sort of smile. Rinoa returned it with a huge grin and jumped up and down in an excited girly way, making water splosh around her waist.

Quistis frowned a little at her ebony haired friend, probably due to her spraying sea water accidentally onto her face.

"Anyway, let's not talk about him, there're loads of sexy guys out today. It's like, everywhere you turn, you come face to face with a total hottie!"

"Aren't you with Squall?" Quistis pointed out.

"OH, blah, I'm only window shopping."

Selphie giggled as Quistis blurted out, "OH, what about him. He's pretty cute . . ."

The other girls followed their honey blonde friends' gaze until they came to a rather tall, rather built blonde.

"Euw, Quisty! That's Seifer!" Rinoa stated.

"I know that . . . "

Quistis received the oddest look from Selphie, making her feel somewhat embarrassed and small.

"Well, I think he's cute! And Rinoa, you can't talk, you used to date him."

Rinoa flicked her hair behind her shoulders, even though it wasn't exactly falling into her face in the first place.

"In that case, you'd be getting sloppy seconds!"

This comment made Quistis shower Rinoa in a mass of sea water in one swift movement of her arms. Naturally, this made all war break loose, in a water fight sense.

In any other mood, Selphie would've joined in, but she felt far too filled with thoughts and questions over Irvine to be doing something so frivolous. Instead, she told Rinoa that she was going for a swim, and that's exactly what she did.

Diving smoothly underwater a little way from her friends, she swam off to the side and re surfaced a few strokes later, continuing to swim above water.

Being a SeeD, Selphie was a strong swimmer, able to do so for hours, and had good eyesight underwater.

Not really swimming with any destination in mind, she found herself back in the area of water in which she had run into trouble with Seifer. This half of the beach was generally considered the assholes side. It was where the bimbos and jocks of Garden seemed to hang out.

Putting her feet down on the sand ground below her, Selphie found that the water came level with her chest.

Phew, thought I was in deeper.

On this particular beach, people were warned not to go any deeper than over head level, as unknown species of creatures often resided further into the ocean.

What Selphie didn't notice whilst standing there, were the three predators that were slowly swimming towards her.

She got a fright when they lurched up inches in front of her face, trapping her in a small triangle.

"Selphie, aren't you a bit out of your range?" The blonde hissed with a malicious undertone.

It was Celia, unsurprisingly accompanied by her two lap dogs, Amber and Nichi.

"I think she is. . ." Amber piped up.

Nichi glared at Selphie.

"She seems to have wondered into our section of the beach."

Selphie felt unnaturally brave around them and said, "You don't own the beach, I can go where I want."

Celia gave Selphie a pitying look and placed her hands on her hips, in her trademark stance.

"Honey," she said mockingly, "This part of the beach is for the beautiful people . . . and sweetheart, you've got to realise . . . you just aint beautiful."

Nichi laughed, "Oh don't Cel, she might go and slit her wrists again."

"Boo hoo."

Selphie tried to ignore them and break out of the little trap they had her in, but to no avail.

Celia pushed her back and toyed with the edge of Selphies shirt sleeve.

"Hey, this is Irvine's shirt . . . why have you got it on?"

Selphie didn't know what to say so just kept quiet.

"I asked you a question you little freak!"

Afraid that her voice would come out in a whisper, Selphie cleared her throat quietly and said, looking her enemy in the eye, "He gave it to me . . . because he thought I'd get sunburnt."

For reasons unknown to Selphie, all three girls broke out into laughter around her. Cruel, mocking laughs that echoed through her brain, ones that she knew would stay there for years to come.

"Irvine's gone all soppy on us, girls. Well at least we still know he gives a good performance in bed, judging on last nights escapades."

Selphies stomach jumped upon hearing this.

So . . . all that ignoring them in the hallways . . . that's just an act? Does he really go crawling back to them at night? NO! He's not like that . . . he can't be.

Selphie was pulled out of her thoughts by the feeling of someone lifting up her sleeve and ripping the bandages away.

"So this is what you do in your spare time, you sick freak."

Looking over Celia's shoulder towards the beach, she searched for someone she knew to help her out of this mess. All she could see was Seifer, who was watching with great intent as if it was a movie, face plastered with his ever present smirk.

Selphie felt a hand snake through her hair at the back and grab a handful of it, yanking her head back sharply.

She cried out in pain, but still no-one around her even bothered looking at what was going on.

Celia placed her hands on Selphies shoulders.

"You can't just go around taking other peoples men. Irvine's ours now."

The bitchy blonde pushed down on Selphies shoulders, as Amber kicked her feet out and Nichi yanked at the handful of hair, pulling her backwards and under the water.

Selphie made the mistake of crying out just after she went under water. Brackish sea water filled her mouth, making her choke and panic. Her arms flailed about aimlessly, grabbing at nothing. She probably could've held her breath for quite a while in this position had she not opened her mouth, denying her lungs of air and filling them instead with dirty water.

Somebody must've seen all the commotion, but no-one came; not even the life guard.

Selphies lungs were fit to explode and burned for air. She fought for all she was worth to get to the surface, but with three skilled fighters atop her, found it almost impossible.

All she could hear was the rumbling sound of water in her ears and muffled laughs coming from Celia, Amber and Nichi. With all the kicking Selphie was doing, she got worn out rather fast but never once gave up trying to fight her way out of the water. Once or twice she would come close and then get pushed beneath for a second time, only her legs managing to fly up in the air and then splash down violently again.

Selphies underwater vision began to get a little darker and her head started to spin with the need for air. Before her eyes shut and her struggling came to a minimum, she heard a kafuffle above her, along with yelps and splashing and the release of the holds on her.

She felt herself sinking until legs brushed against her and a pair of strong arms reached into the water and lifted her out. Selphie wasn't ever aware of being taken back to shore, she only remembered being in the water, the next minute, she was on land with Irvine's lips on hers and his hand tilting her chin upwards. It was only when she began to breathe and cough up water did she realise that he wasn't kissing her, he was in fact reviving her the old fashioned way.

As Selphies vision went back to being almost normal, she saw all her friends peering down at her with worried expressions on their faces.

She tried to sit up, but got gently pushed back down by Irvine.

Maybe she still needed air in her lungs, but at that moment in time, nothing looked more beautiful to her than the sight of him, rimmed with light, looking down at her with care and some other emotion she couldn't quite read.

His large hand was still placed softly upon her shoulder. Selphie gazed up at him.

"I got your shirt all wet . . ."

Irvine laughed.

"You honestly think I care about that?"

Selphie didn't say anything but turned her eyes away from him.

Zell crouched down next to her and gave her a small hug.

"So much for trying to hide my cuts from people."

"Maybe we should go back now. . ."

"No! I don't wanna ruin everything. I'll just sunbathe for the rest of the day. I'll be fine. Please?"

"Well, if you wanna . . . come on, lets go back to our space."

Selphie got up slowly and tilted her head at Irvine, puzzled at his behaviour,whilst Zell led her back to their stuff. She decided that she would go and visit him later and make a proper attempt to talk, no matter how hard or daunting it may seem . . .