Zellie makes me giggle XP Too bad I don't own him or anything Final Fantasy T.T

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Shades of Red

Chapter Four - Out to Lunch

My week of being served by Irvine finally came to an end. It was great having him spend so much time with me, and I began to get a whole lot better at not being so nervous around him. I was thrilled that I was no longer confined to my room. That is, if Dr. Kadowaki said it was okay for me to walk around, which I was sure she would say so, since my foot felt fine. Though I was glad to be out and about again, I really was going to miss Irvine's visits. Of course, Irvine wasn't the only person that came to visit. Other friends came by my room to see how I was doing. Even Squall checked up on me a couple of times! One person I didn't see all week was Seifer, and that made me ecstatic. As much as he loved to bother me, he never actually came to my room.

Sunday morning, I woke up and eagerly hopped in the shower. I figured I'd call Irvine after my shower, since I didn't need him to help me walk around anymore. My foot was totally back to normal. When I got out, the bathroom was incredibly steamy, and the fogged up mirror distracted me momentarily. I used my finger to draw a big heart across the mirror; and after a momentary pause, I giggled as I wrote Irvine's name in the middle of the heart. I know, I know, it was childish, but it made me smile. I grabbed a towel and began drying myself off as I left the bathroom to get my clothes.

As I stepped out of the bathroom, I stopped dead in my tracks like a deer in the headlights. Irvine Kinneas made himself right at home in my room while I was in the shower! Fortunately, I was drying off my torso at the time, and the towel hung just enough to cover me up, but I was still naked! My brain took way too long to process the situation. At least it felt like it took too long. We just stood there in an awkward silence for a moment before I snapped out of it and quickly dashed back into the bathroom. I wrapped the towel as quickly as a I could and wiped off the mirror just in time to see Irvine appear in the doorway behind me. Letting out a high-pitched squeak, I jumped and spun around to face him.

"Irvine! Y-you scared me!" I stammered. "I didn't expect you here, and I just got out of the shower and..."

"Here's your clothes," he calmly said as he handed me my outfit. I was so nervous, I didn't notice he was holding anything! "I didn't know if you're picky 'bout your boxers or anything, but this was your only clean pair anyhoo."

He brought me my clothes and underwear. I managed to murmur a quiet "thanks" as I took my clothes from him, never taking my eyes off the floor. My face felt so hot, it must have been a magnificent shade of red. But Irvine... He seemed completely unfazed by all this! Well, of course he would. He just sees me as a friend. This was all no big deal to him.

"I'll just wait for ya on the bed," Irvine announced as he left the bathroom, closing the door behind him.

I didn't have an outfit laid out, so Irvine picked this out all on his own. He would have got my favorite outfit for me, I know, but it was dirty. Even the jacket needed to be washed. Hyne, I need to do the laundry, I realized. Irvine gave me one of the many pairs of long baggy shorts I own , but the top was one that I hadn't actually worn in a while. I actually forgot about the thing! It was a green top with very short sleeves and a hood that I don't think was meant to be functional, just fashionable. Does this thing even fit? I wondered as I pulled it over my head. Yeah, it fit, but it was a bit tight. I examined my reflection for a while, and realized that the slight tightness of the top showed off my muscles real nicely. The shirt kept coming up, though, especially when I raised my arms to style my hair in the usual spikes. Man, I'm gonna be pulling that down all day, I thought as I frowned at my exposed belly button.

Not quite sure what I should say to Irvine, I stepped out of my bathroom to find Irvine piling a bunch of my clothes into a large basket. I no longer had to worry about what I should say. There was really only one thing I could say.

"What are you doing?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Provin' to myself that there really is a floor in here," Irvine replied matter-of-factly. "Sittin' in your room all week sure caused this place to get trashed."

"Well, you wouldn't let me get up by myself, so how was I supposed to clean it?"

"You could have made a neater mess." He wasn't serious, was he?

"Okay, okay, we can clean later! Let's go to Dr. Kadowaki's office," I said as I eagerly bounced from foot to foot.

"Ah, that's right. You're technically still not supposed to be on that foot until you see Dr. Kadowaki again," he grinned mischievously as he turned his attention from my dirty clothes to me. Before I knew what was happening, he scooped me up into his arms. "I think I should carry you."

"Wh-what!" I sputtered. "Irvine, I'm just fine! Put me down!"

He laughed as he gently flopped me onto my bed. My face felt hot again, but I didn't know if I was blushing. I never really had many reasons to blush, so I didn't know if I did or not. I looked up at Irvine, trying to look annoyed, but when I looked up at his laughing face, I couldn't help but smile.

"C'mon now, let's go," he said. "I'll race ya there."

"Loser buys the winner a hot dog?" I suggested.

"Sure," he agreed.

"Deal?" I held out my hand for him to shake. Suddenly, I got a wicked idea. As he grabbed my hand, I yanked him down on the bed. Just as I was about to jump up and head for the door to get a head start, Irvine pounced. Hyne, he was quicker than I'd thought!

"Oh, no you don't, you little cheater!" he grinned as he pinned me down.

He really thought he had me! Of course I knew how to get him off me. I'm an expert martial artist, and he had me in a very basic grasp. With a swift maneuver I was able to flip Irvine on his back, making him the one who was pinned down.

"That was real weak, Irvine," I playfully teased as I hovered over him.

The thought suddenly occured to me - I had Irvine. On his back. On my bed. Helpless. I could have dominated him then and there if I had wanted to. Oh, Hyne, did I want him badly! Just a kiss? Oh, I wanted to steal at least a kiss! I could feel myself moving closer to Irvine as if my body had a mind of it's own. No, my body was listening to my mind, at least the half that kept screaming, "Kiss him, kiss him!" My reason quickly jumped in and I got a hold of myself before I was too close for it to seem freaky.

"Zell? Are you alright?" Irvine slowly asked.

Shaking my head, I forced myself to snap out of it. "Yeah! Yeah, I'm fine," I replied as I released Irvine. What had I almost done! This was no time to think about it. I wasn't gonna miss an opportunity to get a free hot dog!

"Loser buys lunch!" I suddenly exclaimed as I dashed out the door and into the hall.

"Hey, wait!" I heard Irvine call after me.

I didn't turn around to see what he wanted. There was no way I was gonna even give him a chance of beating me to Dr. Kadowaki's office! I ran down the hall leading to the Garden's central area. Once I got there, I jumped up on the inner ledge and ran along it partly because you move faster when you're on the inside edge of a curve, partly so I wouldn't knock people over, but mostly 'cause I thought it looked pretty darn cool. I didn't look behind me to see how close Irvine was, but I could hear rapid footsteps close behind and screams of people who nearly got run down, or probably were run down, by Irvine.

Of course, I beat Irvine to Dr. Kadowaki's office. There was no way I could lose, even without the headstart!

"You... cheated!" Irvine accused as he panted heavily.

Just as I was about to taunt him, Dr. Kadowaki came up behind me and startled me as she sharply shouted my name, causing me to jump.

"Oh, hi, Dr. Kadowaki!" I innocently greeted.

"I told you to stay off your injured foot until you see me, and here you are, running through Garden!" she scolded. "And you, Irvine! You're supposed to be taking care of him, not encouraging his wild behavior!"

"Sorry, ma'am," Irvine apologized.

"Come here, Zell," she motioned to a chair in her office. "Let me see your foot. I hope to Hyne you didn't make it worse."

She sat there for a couple minutes, poking around at my foot. Irvine stood off to the side, patiently waiting for Dr. Kadowaki to finish. I wasn't really sure why he hung around. My foot was fine now, and he didn't need to help me anymore. I don't think I ever really needed help. I could have managed fine by myself, but it was real nice having Irvine around all the time. Finally, Dr. Kadowaki decided that my foot really was back to normal.

"Really, be more careful!" she instructed as she released me.

"Well, then, let's go!" Irvine said as we stepped out into the hall.

I gave him a confused look. "Go where?"

"Don't tell me you already forgot!" Irvine chuckled. "I owe ya lunch, remember? You beat me."

"But you said I cheated," I pointed out.

"Now, I don't remember either of us layin' down any rules for this little competition, so how can ya cheat when there aren't any rules besides 'loser buys lunch'?" he reasoned, and I wasn't about to argue the point. "So, where d'you wanna go?"

"I thought we were just going to eat in the cafeteria," I shrugged.

"If you want to eat here, fine. I know you love those hot dogs, but they do sell hot dogs in town," Irvine suggested with a grin. "I thought maybe you'd wanna get outta here for a change."

"Really!" I was getting way too excited about this. Irvine was going to take me out! Before I got too ecstatic, I quickly reminded myself that this was not a date. "Well, there is this one real nice café that I like," I said more calmly. "Let's go there!" I grabbed Irvine's hand and eagerly began to lead him to Garden's entrance.

My foot was better, Irvine was taking me to lunch, the sun was shining! Nothing could ruin that day. Nothing, except for the 6'2" angry blonde man headed in my direction.

"Eep!" I squealed. "It's Seifer. Maybe he didn't see us! Let's hurry!"

I was wrong.

"Chicken wuss!" he called out. I pretended not to hear him and kept walking. That never stopped Seifer, of course. "Hey, don't you ignore me!" he yelled as he took long strides down the hall to catch up with me and firmly placed his hand on my shoulder.

"What do you want, Seifer?" I asked irritably.

"I don't see you all week and this is how you greet me?" he pretended to be insulted.

"Seifer, if you've got nothin' intelligent to say, which is very likely, I'd appreciate it if you'd just go away," Irvine politely requested.

Seifer looked at him with his death glare. "What did you say to me, Kinneas?" They stared at each other for a few seconds before I decided to stop whatever fight they might start.

"So, where's Fujin and Raijin?" I asked.

"Not here."

"Yes, I can see that," I sarcastically replied.

"Zell, we don't got no time for this," Irvine grumbled as he began to pull me away.

"Well, have fun on your date," Seifer sneered.

"What!" Irvine and I both exclaimed before chaoticly babbling about how it was not a date.

That devilish grin spread across Seifer's face. "Well then, if it's not a date, then you won't mind if I come along," he said as he stepped between us, putting an arm over each of our shoulders in order to push us along.

Both Irvine and I were at a loss for words. We had absolutely no idea as to what Seifer was up to, so we simply walked towards Balamb in silence, trying to think of ways to ditch him. However, it wasn't long before Seifer broke the silence.

"When I hadn't seen you around for a few days, I began to worry, chicken wuss," he said.

"I'll bet you did," I sarcastically replied.

He ignored me and continued. "But I heard that you were okay, just had to stay in your room and off your foot for a while. Could you tell me what happened? I heard you got your ass kicked by a Grat in the training center, but I know there's no way you would let that happen," he said with a mocking tone. "Am I right?"

"Shut up!" I snapped.

"Hey, hey! No need to get touchy," Seifer mocked.

Honestly, it was so hard to not jump Seifer and throw his body in the ocean. But that was illegal, and though I highly doubt anybody would miss Seifer, there would still be consequences to face.

"You know, Zell, you've been acting like a lovesick puppy lately," Seifer observed. "Everybody's noticed. The best way to get those feelings off your chest is to just tell the guy. Am I right, Zell?"

"What the hell, Seifer!" Why was he bringing this up? And in front of Irvine! "What makes you think it's a guy, anyways?" I angrily crossed my arms across my chest.

"Lucky guess," he smirked. "I see you don't deny the fact that you like guys."

That was it. I had to hit him. There was no resisting it. I lunged at Seifer, anxious to feel my fist impacting with his face, but Irvine moved quickly enough to hold me back before I could hit Seifer. I struggled against Irvine for a while. If I weren't in a blind rage, I probably could have easily broken Irvine's grasp, but I was as furious as if I'd had berserk cast on me. Finally, I gave up.

"Come on, Irvine! Let me hit him, just once!" I pleaded.

"Chill, Zell, he's just tryin' to get a rise outta you," Irvine explained, "and you're letting him win!"

I sighed in agreement, followed by a dirty glare at Seifer, who had a very smug grin on his face. The arguement ended there, for the moment, as the three of us continued towards Balamb in silence. Finally, we made it to town, and Seifer still had not left.

"Why are you still following us, Seifer?" I groaned.

"Because I'm hungry," he simply answered.

"Well, you're payin' for yourself," Irvine firmly stated.

"Irviiiine!" I whined.

"Come on, Zell, you can clearly see there's no gettin' rid of him," he sighed. "May as well just suck it up." He leaned towards me and whispered, "Maybe he'll go away if we ingore him."

I silently and grumpily led Irvine and Seifer to a small café near the hotel. There was a great view of the ocean, plus great food and service! We arrived a little after lunch time, which was the time when it was most crowded, so there were a few tables left open. We got the usual service - waiter asked what we want before we even opened the menu, waited forever to get our appetizer, and had our meal (I had hot dogs) arrive before we could finish the appetizer. Oh, of course, the waiter asked how we were doing when all three of us had food in our mouths, therefore unable to reply. Surprisingly, Seifer acted somewhat human throughout the meal.

Finally, our bill came. Seifer gave the money he owed to Irvine, who had offered to take the bill to the cashier. I didn't think much of it at the moment, but the second Irvine me alone with Seifer, I had that sinking feeling in the pit of my gut. Seifer scooted his chair closer to mine and leaned in.

"You know, chicken wuss, I'm actually getting kind of jealous," he grumbled. "I don't like admitting it, but it's true."

"Wha?" I wasn't sure how to react to that statement, so I ended up just giving him a blank stare.

"You've got your little cowgirl of a boyfriend now, so I hardly get to see you," he explained. "If you're never around, who am I gonna pick on?"

What the hell was this now! He was getting sentimental about bullying! No, there had to be something else behind it.

"Irvine's not my boyfriend!" I said a little too loudly. I checked my volume and continued, "Besides, I'm sure it won't be too difficult to target a new victim."

"No, you're wrong," Seifer sighed. "At least, I thought I was just getting frustrated 'cause there was nobody to release my anger on, but I thought that sounded kind of stupid."

"You and me both." I started getting real nervous and upset as to what could currently be going through Seifer's head. This was crueler than any bullying he could have done. I was getting furious, and no longer was able to hold my temper.

"You had your chance, Seifer!" I yelled as I angrily stood from my seat. "But you fucked that up real good, didn't you?" I stormed away from the table. Irvine was on his way back to his seat, but I grabbed his arm and dragged him behind me.

"Whoa, Zell, what is your problem!" he exclaimed.

"I can't take Seifer anymore!" I replyed hysterically. "I just can't take it! He's just so... He's unbelievable!"

Irvine and I hurried back to Garden in silence. I was too preoccupied with angry thoughts about Seifer, and I think Irvine was too confused and scared to get me angrier to say anything to me. I hoped to Hyne I was completely misunderstanding what Seifer was trying to say. The closer we got back to Garden, the more I was able to convince myself that I did misunderstand. Soon enough, my anger had completely gone away. I'm just not an angry person, especially when Irvine's around.

"Thanks a bunch for lunch!" I exclaimed with a giggle when we returned to Garden.

"Any time, Zell," Irvine replied with a sweet smile.

"What? You mean we're going to race on a regular basis?" I gave him a confused look.

"No, no!" he lauged. "I meant buy you lunch." When my face heated up and I didn't reply, he quickly added, "You know, 'cause we're, like, friends an' all. Friends do that for each other."

"Right, I knew that!" I nervously chuckled. Oh, Hyne, did Irvine just say he wants to date me! No, it's probably just another misunderstanding. I thought there must be something wrong with me, since it seemed to me that I was just hit on twice in a row. Well, maybe not hit on, but it seemed like a couple confessions or something.

"Well, thanks a bunch, man!" I energetically bounced and playfully punched his arm.

"Aw, it's nothin' really," he replied while rubbing where I hit him.

I had such a wonderful week, despite my twisted ankle. It was sad to think that this was probably the end to regularly spending quality time with Irvine. I didn't know it at the time, but I would have been greatly comforted by knowing how wrong I was.