A/n: Thank-you to all reviewers: newbies and regulars. Writers block is a bummer.
"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."
Just as the first rays of golden sun were beginning to peep through the clouds adorning the sky, Selphie had awoke to find herself still snuggled in a certain mans arms.
Being careful not to wake him, she moved gently into a different, more comfortable position, still wrapped inside his tan leather cattleman's coat. With her eyes still half shut in a sleepy haze, she looked around the room slowly, focusing on the other sleeping forms scattered about her.
The first person she saw happened to be Zell, who appeared to be deep in slumber nestled in a sleeping bag. His mouth was slightly agape and his usually gelled-to-perfection hair mussed, with a few blonde tangles hanging down into his shut eyes.
Selphie smiled. Not too far away slept another blonde. Quistis was sound asleep and wrapped in numerous blankets, always the one afraid of catching a cold. Strands of her shiny hair had also fallen into her face, which was bound to happen because she hadn't tied it up in her usual formal style.
In her arms, she clutched a cream king size pillow to her chest, dainty hands occasionally twitching against the fabric, rose-bud pink lips caught in a slight smile.
Selphie couldn't help but wonder who Quistis was dreaming about. Was it a man? Was it someone they all knew? If so, was she clutching that pillow to her chest thinking it was him in her arms?
Settling her eyes upon the large bed, Selphie clearly saw two lumps under the covers, which she presumed to be the still sleeping forms of Rinoa and Squall.
Contented that she was still surrounded by those who cared for her, she relaxed again and sank deeper into Irvine's embrace, but not without looking up at him first. His eyes were shut, leaving long, dark eyelashes to cast spidery shadows upon the skin underneath them. In the first slivers of dim light that had crept in through the curtain gap, Selphie noticed that a pink hue adorned and illuminated his cheeks ever so slightly. Reaching up, she gently swept her small fingers over one of them, noticing how his skin felt like satin and was so soft that after a while, she couldn't even be sure she was still touching it.
Still half asleep, she brought her hand down to where Irvine's hair lay loose upon his shoulders and was not surprised to find that this, too, was silken and without a tangle in sight.
Smiling to herself, she let her head settle back upon his chest and listened to his steady heart. Once again, Selphie searched for a more comfortable position without trying to wake the man under her. Trying to be careful, she shifted her legs around in the space between Irvine's and wriggled about some in his lap, all the while keeping her head glued to his warm chest. The tempo of his heart-beat, which was currently resonating in her ear, had gone from a slow, steady pace, to a louder, thumping one.
Selphie lifted her head and glanced up at the supposed napping cowboy, suspecting that maybe, just maybe, he was not asleep at all and perhaps just feigning it.
Half smiling, half frowning, she said quietly, "Irvine Kinneas."
For around 3 seconds he managed to keep a straight, still 'asleep' face, but a smile soon broke out, shortly followed by his eyes opening slowly and settling upon the girl still snuggled in his lap.
Selphie furrowed her eyebrows and pouted a little.
"I knew you were awake . . ."
Irvine grinned and winked down at her, before his eyes shut and he let out a huge yawn.
Hearing the small brunette in his lap give out a little laugh, he adjusted his loose arms around her waist and gave her a tight squeeze, while burrowing his nose into her soft hair, inhaling its wild scent.
Selphie shuffled around again, before mimicking Irvine and slipping her arms around him as well.
"Do you ever stop movin'?" He quipped sleepily, still nuzzling his face into her neck.
She didn't answer but began wriggling around more inside his arms cheekily, disrupting the way his large coat was covering them both up.
"Hey, you've gone and got us all cold now."
This little statement was followed by Irvine removing his arms from around her and placing his hands upon the sides of her upper frame. Selphie stiffened up when he did this simple action. Irvine smirked, knowing for a fact that this was one of the most ticklish places on Selphies body that he'd found as of yet.
He hadn't even begun to move his hands yet and she had already started to stifle giggles.
As he went to run his tickling fingers up and down her side, she let out an almighty squeal, akin to that of a frightened, oversized mouse, waking up Zell in the process.
He shot up in his sleeping bag, his blue eyes the size of saucers and scanning the room, until they came to rest upon a rather guilty looking Selphie.
"Was that you?"
She nodded her head, flushing a delightful shade of red.
"Sorry Zell. Um, I won't do it again."
" . . . How did that not wake anyone else up?"
Selphie shrugged and turned her head to look back at Irvine, who was currently pretending to be asleep again . . . until she elbowed him in the stomach.
"Irvine! You're as much to blame as me!"
Zell narrowed his eyes at Irvine whilst slumping back down into his warm, feathery sleeping bag.
"Yeah, what were you two doin' anyway?"
"He start-,"
"Actually, don't tell me. Anything that involves Irvine in a bedroom with you should be kept quiet."
Selphie frowned up at Irvine, who was laughing and exchanging a knowing glance with his male friend.
Seeing this, she got annoyed. "Hey! We weren't doing anything like that!"
Zell ran a hand through his messy blonde hair and casually replied, "Sure you weren't, Sef."
"We weren't!"
"Yup."
"Look, just because he's the connoisseur ladies man and has half the girls in the Garden drooling at his feet, it doesn't mean I'm your average 2 Gil hooker!"
"Whoa. Chill out Selphie."
"No, don't tell me to chill out, you idiot!"
Zell was a little taken aback by Selphies over-the-top reaction to his and Irvine's little joke and found himself staring at her with an odd expression on his face.
"Don't look at me like that!!!"
The small, enraged female elbowed herself out of the loose embrace Irvine still had her in and pushed herself up off the soft carpeted floor, deciding that she'd had enough of talking to both of them.
"Hey, Sefie, you were keepin' me warm, sugar."
"Well I'm pretty sure you can find someone else to 'keep you warm', seeing as you never hesitated before."
With that she, stepped over the still sleeping form of Quistis and made her way huffily out of Squalls room, without saying a word more.
Zell and Irvine looked at each other, a little uneasy at the state the usually placid girl had left in.
"So . . . I guess she still hasn't forgiven me for that then . . ."
The blonde opposite him simply shook his head back and forth, feeling a little blameworthy for the mood that had arisen so quickly in one of his best friends.
Deep down, he secretly thought that he should go and check on Selphie and maybe apologise, but the presence of Irvine kept him from doing so.
He didn't want him to get the wrong end of the stick, and if Irvine wasn't worried, then surely, he shouldn't be either?
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Selphie slammed the door to her room, making the various photo frames and objects on the shelves wobble and almost fall from their place.
Stepping into the bathroom, she put the plug in the bath and turned the hot water tap on, deciding that she felt rather unclean after spending the night in Squalls dorm. Although it wasn't dirty, Selphie tended to dislike sleep-overs with guys involved, because she was always too conscious of what she might look like when she awoke.
Sitting down on the closed toilet seat, she hung her head down in her hands and sighed, not bothered about the strands of soft brown hair tickling her face. It was still early dawn, but she didn't feel tired at all as she sat and tried to figure out why she was so highly-strung.
Selphie knew she had over-reacted, but at the time, she just couldn't stop herself from screwing at Irvine. Eventually, she put it down to the fact that she was still very angry with him, although his presence had the tendency to calm her down sometimes. After coming to this conclusion, she decided to strip herself and slip into the warm tub of water next to her, which managed to clear her head of all thoughts and worries for the time being. . .
Midday
Quistis sauntered down the main corridor, clutching a large grey ring binder to her chest. It was bulging with papers and essays that needed sorting and marking, which would no doubt make her day longer than necessary and almost certainly more boring.
She came to the end of the hallway, which lead to the main hall where all the conferences and dances were usually held. Pushing open the heavy, ornately decorated doors, Quistis looked around the large hall and spotted Selphie in the corner with a few others students on the festival committee.
Whilst she began to walk towards the small brunette, she admired the labour and embellishment around her, in preparation for the flamboyant annual ball which was due to arrive in a few days.
Upon the walls hung lines of delicate white feathers, which had been threaded onto a black velvet ribbon with all the accuracy and skill of an expert craftsperson. Dotted about almost everywhere, were streams of silver ribbon. Some tied in huge fancy bows, some left to dangle and blow gently in the wind from the air vent, some curled and hanging over the black ribbon and some simply scattered around upon the floor, making it appear as if it had been touched by some sort of magic rain.
The four tables along the side of the hall (for the buffet and drinks) had been given equally as much attention and had been draped with a silver material, with a black lacy overlay with hung down to foot above the floor.
"Selphie, you've done a wonderful job here! It's breath-taking!"
"Thanks Quis, but I doubt any of the people will even notice."
"Sure they will. Well, maybe not people like Seifer or-,"
"Is he coming?"
"Isn't everyone?"
Selphie sighed for what must've been the fiftieth time that day, and began to chew on her bottom lip. Quistis noticed and cocked her head to one side in concern, leaving her long blonde hair, which was still loose, to move graciously over her back.
"Are you okay, Selphie?"
"Hm? Oh. I think so. I'm just thinking, that's all."
"Anything you want to talk about?"
Selphie twiddled her fingers together nervously and glanced back at her fellow festival helpers, who looked busy with making last minute preparations to the lighting.
"I'll be alright. I need to get back and help them."
"Okay, drop by my room later if you want. Keep up the beautiful work."
"Thanks, I will."
Quistis turned her back and walked back out of the hall, looking upon all the décor as she did so. Before going out of the doors, she called out, "Only three more days to go! It'll be such fun!"
Selphie waved to her blonde friend and feigned a smile. Fun wasn't the word that she would use for the upcoming event.
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Today was volunteer day for most of the older students in Balamb Garden. This meant that all students over the ages of sixteen had to help out in pairs with various things like sorting papers, helping out in the library and helping the instructors teach the younger years.
Zell had been assigned the latter. Children really weren't his thing, and here he was, stuck in a class full of about fifteen seven to eight year olds, waving their hands and creating unwanted noise.
He already had a headache, due to all the drinking done last night, and whats worse, the person he was put with to complete the pair was Seifer Almasy.
At present, Zell sat off to the side up the front of the class room, tapping his foot impatiently on the floor and occasionally giving his enemy a few evil glares. Seifer himself seemed unfazed and got up to go to a little girl who had her hand up in the air.
"What is it?"
He peered down at the small blonde girl sitting in her seat and chewing on one of her plaits.
"No, I don't want YOU, I want him."
The youngster pointed over to where Zell was currently seated and continued chewing on her hair. Seifer kept his sight on the young girl, no expression at all on his face. She just looked up at him with big green eyes, which would have appealed to other people, but not the resident bully. He had absolutely no time for cutesy little children and such annoying habits like hair chewing.
"Look, if you've got a problem with your work, I can solve it. He's crap."
Ignoring him completely, the timid little girl pushed her seat out, and walked over to Zell, asking for help with question number five.
Seifer walked back to his seat, clenching his jaw and staring at Zell as he smiled and took the pencil from the child, writing something down for her; probably the answer to whatever simple question appeared unsolvable.
Zell ushered the cute blonde kid back to her seat, completely blanking the scowling gunbladist in the corner. In the back pocket of his jeans, his pager began to buzz.
Upon pulling it out, he realised it was Irvine paging him. The message read;
Hey, Rin says we're all goin out agen 2nite. Back 2 Dollet niteclub. 8 til L8/ meet in car park. Irvine. Ps: bring Sefie 4 me.
Glancing at the clock hung on the light blue wall behind him, he appreciated the fact that he only had to endure one more hour of childish screams and the creepy feeling of Seifer giving him death glares.
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Squall parked the car on the opposite side of the road to the nightclub. It wasn't a standard Garden Issue car like they usually had to use to get places. This time, it was a racy black Ferrari, with brown leather seats and silver lined doors. Squall had borrowed it from his father, Laguna, for the night, with much reluctance on his part. The whole group had to squeeze together quite a bit to all fit in, but no-one seemed to mind.
There wasn't any queue at all outside the blue neon lit double entrance doors, making them think that maybe the club wouldn't be as packed as it had previously been. Its appearance was rather deceiving, as they soon found out once they stepped inside, that it was just as packed, if not more, as the last time they came here.
Rinoa and Squall scooted off to the bar to order everyone their first drink of the night, pushing their way through the crowds of bobbing people as they went.
Zell, Irvine, Quistis and Selphie headed over to one of the large pine tables in the corner, sectioned off from all the other ones. Irvine slid in next to Selphie, blocking her off from the other two rather rudely, although he didn't mean to.
"Why does Rinoa always pick the student night?" Quistis asked, shouting a little over the loud beat of the music in the background.
"Probably 'cause the drinks are cheaper, and she likes to get piss-faced," Zell shouted back with a wide grin covering his features.
Selphie glanced around the table at her friends. Quistis was wearing a black shirt-dress, which was very figure hugging, and went down to just above her knees. It had a large lapel and buttons all the way down, although the first few top ones were undone, showing a pale slant of skin down to her cleavage.
Selphie hadn't really put much effort in, because she hadn't really felt like going out in the first place. She agreed to gosimply because she didn't want her friends to say she was a spoil-sport. She wore a white, three-quarter length sleeve top, with a v neck, and a delicate brown, ruffled knee length boho style skirt, which matched her brown slouch boots. Her hair was left in its usual style.
Irvine, on the other hand, had his auburn locks loose and spilling over his shoulders, with his black cowboy hat perched atop his head, as usual. He was wearing a tight white t-shirt with black bootleg jeans.
Selphie noticed Squall and Rinoa coming back with drinks and alerted them to the others.
"It's about time."
This little quip had come from the sharpshooter beside her. She frowned, but not so anyone noticed.
Why does he always aim to get drunk?
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After about an hour and a half of ordering in drinks and sitting around laughing about past things, everyone apart from Quistis and Selphie, were completely off their heads with alcohol. Quistis was the one assigned to drive home, so only had one alcoholic drink so far, making sure she stayed under the limit. Although being sober, she still sat laughing and listening to Zells drabbling, occasionally looking over at Selphie and rolling her eyes at the drunken fighter.
Selphie had no choice but to join in with their insane conversation, of which the topic was certain questions of 'what would you do if', or turn and talk to Irvine. Rinoa and Squall were a lost cause, seeing as both their mouths were currently occupied on each other.
Quite some time ago, Irvine had decided to drape one of his arms around Selphies small shoulders, which she didn't mind all that much at the moment. She looked up at him and found him gawking at their two friends getting off, on the other side of the table.
Looking over herself, trying to find out what Irvine seemed so captivated in, she found that she couldn't actually see Rinoa's hands. Upon wondering where they were, she shook her head vigorously and decided she didn't want to know.
Turning back to Irvine, she raised her voice and said, "If they wanna do stuff like that, they should go get a room."
Irvine simply looked down at her and smiled with a hint of mischief glimmering in his purple eyes. He brought his other hand up and ran his fingers through Selphies butterscotch coloured hair.
Uh-oh . . .
"Irvine, I,-,"
He placed his index finger upon her slightly open mouth, silencing her.
". . . Sefie, you're so beautiful. I love you . . ."
Of course, as soon as those words were spoken, all rationality fled from Selphies brain, and she no longer contained the strength in her arms to push him off, nor did she want to.
All her world consisted of now, was Irvine closing in on her and pressing his soft lips firmly against hers. He was every bit as good of a kisser as she remembered, and became lost in the feel of his firm chest pushed up against hers and his strong arms wrapped protectively around her small form.
Just when Selphie thought it couldn't get any better, Irvine gently slipped his tongue into her mouth, and massaged hers with his. She could taste the alcohol on his breath, along with something else that tasted like toffee, but she didn't mind, because he was finally kissing her and it sent chills all the way down to her toes.
When they broke apart, Selphie was aware that she was grinning like an idiot. Usually, she would've blushed at kissing in such a public place with all her friends watching, but she didn't care, because for the first time in ages, she felt truly happy.
"I'm goin' up on the dance floor, you comin' babe?"
Giggling, she replied, "No, my head's still spinning."
Irvine simply smiled and winked, before slipping out of his seat and disappearing of into the crowd of dancing bodies.
"Wow, Selphie."
This came from Quistis, who had her head held slightly to the right and was playing with the rim of her glass which rested upon the table top.
Selphie took a deep breath and smiled back at her fair-haired girl friend.
"Looks like we've got some competition, Rin," Squall said, cradling his girlfriend in his arms. Selphie had been unaware that they had seen. She thought they would be too entwined in each other to notice what she and Irvine were doing.
Looking around, she noticed that Zell was no longer with them.
"Hey, where's Zell gone?"
Quistis giggled behind her hand and answered, "He got sick of all the couples kissing, so he went off to find some fun."
After about ten minutes of talking about what had just happened, Selphie announced that she was needed the toilet and would be back in a minute.
As she walked off, she could see the top of Irvine's hat amidst all the happy people on the dance floor, and smiled to herself before entering the neon pink toilets.
Selphie gave herself the once over in the mirror, before getting her hairbrush out of her small shoulder bag and brushing the stray hairs back into place. Rummaging in the depths of her bag, she brought out a pink candy flavoured lip balm, slicking a bit on her lips before giving herself a smile.
When she was done in the garishly lit rest room, she went back out onto the dance floor and decided to look for Irvine.
Oh, there he is . . .
Selphie smiled to herself, remembering his words to her as she got closer to him.
But, something was wrong. He wasn't dancing, and he had his back to her.
Huh, what the . . .
It was when she got a foot closer to him, pushing her way through all the other people in the club that she noticed he was holding someone. Holding someone, and kissing them as he had done her less than fifteen minutes back. Not just anyone, in fact, it was Celia.
Selphie didn't have the sense to walk away. Instead she was frozen to the spot, all the music and other people drowned out from around her. Now all she could focus on was him kissing Celia. Walking forward, Selphie hit Irvine around the back of the head before it finally got to her and she ran back off into the toilets, crying her eyes out.
She darted into an empty toilet cubicle and sat down on the closed lid with her head in her hands. It felt as though she was she was going to cry out her insides or be sick. Neither happened. She just continued to cry deeply with the image stuck in her head of what she had just seen. Even with her eyes open, it was all she saw.
Someone came out of the cubicle next to her. Selphie could hear whoever it was turn on the tap and use the hand dryer in the corner. Selphie hadn't shut the door properly, but left it open a foot. Before she could act and close it, it was pushed open to reveal a girl about the same age and height as herself, but with loose black hair, which hung crinkled just past her shoulders.
Selphie recognised her as the girl who worked in the library and the same girl that Zell had a crush on, and vice-versa. She had taken her hair out of its usual style and put it in a much better one.
"Are you okay?"
Of course I'm not!
Selphie sobbed even harder, but shook her head up and down in a 'yes' motion. She wasn't about to tell a stranger what had happened.
"Are you sure? Would you like me to get you a glass of water?"
" . . . N-no, thank you. Just leave me alone, please."
This was all Selphie managed to get out before continuing to sob. When the girl had given her one last concerned look before she had gone, Selphie reached into her bag and brought out a plain silver tin. Though her vision was blurred due to tears, she opened the lid fine, reaching in to pull out one of her biggest razors.
Once again, all sense had fled from her brain. She couldn't believe that one could experience such a change of emotion within a couple of minutes. Going from ecstatic to manic depressive in such a short amount of time was too much for her. Irvine saying he loved her, and then witnessing him kissing her bully was too much for her as well.
Selphie rolled up the four wooden, beaded bracelets she had on her wrist, covering her previous attempt at suicide. The scar beneath them was still as red as when she had first done it, and had only healed slightly at the edges. She figured that it wouldn't be too hard to open it up again, if she just pressed the blade in deeper and harder.
Selphie heard the main door to the girls toilets get flung open with quite some force, before she saw a rather sobered up Zell standing in front of her. The library girl had obviously told him what a state she was in.
"Selphie! Stop it!"
Looking up at her friend with wide, red rimmed eyes, she dropped her razor to the floor and broke down into tears again. Zell bent down next to Selphie and wrapped his arms around her, letting her sob into his shirt.
"Zell . . . he . . . he was . . . kissing her."
"Ssh. I know. Don't cry. Come on, let's go. We'll get the train back to Balamb."
Selphie picked up her bag off the floor and stood up on wobbly legs, with Zells arms still around her. They walked out of the rest-room and after telling Quistis that they were going, they left the club, with what seemed a rather bitter end to night out on the tiles.