Rose
-
TerrisMoon
Selphie's eyelashes were encrusted with solid stickiness, it did annoy her, and so because of her disturbance by the constant itching in those particular areas she woke up. Now Selphie, was no light sleeper to begin with the smallest amount of noise, the smallest feeling of pain, the smallest sound of a tickling whisper could rouse her from her seemingly deep sleep. Smoothing her covers over her body as she sat up, Selphie had just noticed (she tended to be rather temporarily dense when it came to finding out things after she just woke up) that something had been resting underneath her pillow.
"In all of Ifrit…," she never got any further than there, for three people—friends or acquaintances of hers, whichever, had burst into her small dorm that only had three bunk beds that could fit in there. The three aforementioned friends were a blonde-haired female who was wearing glasses and she was the object of both boys' and (sometimes) girls' affections, next, there was Rinoa Heartilly, Squall's sweetheart; her dark hair was swept over her bare shoulder blades and she had this huge grin on her face.
The last person to begrudgingly enter the room with a grim look on her face, was Fujin. And, Selphie was very annoyed to know that her friends had assembled in her room to…to…And why were they there exactly?
"Um, guys," Selphie called softly, Rinoa was the first to stop chatting with Quistis, the blonde-haired girl. The two had their eyes fixed on the young brunette's visage, and they took in everything she was about to say. Her lips parted, they felt dry for the air was arid, and the air conditioner was broken, but who cared about that now…
"Why did you burst into my room," Selphie spat, she paused here glancing at her digital monochromatic clock, "at 5:30 a.m.?" she continued her inquiry. Quistis opened and closed her mouth then swiftly turned on her heel and started a small pointless argument over who should tell Selphie about a certain something. The two girls had visibly panicked, but why? This was certainly strange, was Selphie even awake?
"…Oh no, no, I couldn't tell her, I just couldn't possibly tell her that, hee-haw, ha-ha, hee!" Rinoa guffawed as she tried to regain her composure while declining the offer. Quistis crossed her arms over her huge bust and gave Rinoa a rather daring look.
"Tell her now," Quistis ordered in an even tone, Rinoa cringed.
"TELL…HER!" Fujin shouted or more like repeated shrilly, the dark haired girl was outnumbered and groaned, Quistis was too busy cleaning the imaginary dirt off of her glasses now with a red kerchief and Selphie sat cross-legged on her made up bed. Rinoa stared at the dark unlaced boots and smirked as she stared in a starry-eyed fashion at her friend. She was so going to get back at Quistis and Fujin later on.
"Uh, g—guys wass goin' on?" Selphie slurred, and no she was not on the affects of alcohol. She was nervous. At the sight of Selphie's truly questioning look, Rinoa burst into tears of mirthful laughter and held her ribs as if her sides were literally splitting. But, actually after three minutes of laughing her sides were just terribly sore and so she stopped and looked her friend in the eye.
"Um… we found this under your pillow….ha-ha-ha, hee-hee, ho-ho!" Rinoa replied still laughing in shock and amusement, she produced a single white rose that was wet with dew drops still lightly resting on a few soft petals. Shaking the rose vigorously, Rinoa handed the small flower to the girl who was still shocked. Selphie took it in her hand gingerly holding it and examining it with green eyes alight with fervor.
"Who's it…," Selphie stopped in mid sentence or rather question, as she spotted a white string tied around the thorny thick stem, a single plain card was attached to it. And on the car was a single scrawled message, it read this:
Happy Birthday,
Selphie
Here's to hoping that you stay sweet and feisty
Your friend,
Seifer Almasy
Now, while it seemed almost impossible to write such a long message on such a small rectangular card, Seifer had been clever enough to write it tiny enough to fit most of his message on the front and fit the rest on the back. Yet he managed to make it readable.
"Oh, Seifer," Selphie whispered, she collapsed unto her bed sighing aloud as she stared at the message still. Tears burned at the corner of her eyes and she told her friends that she'd meet them downstairs in a few minutes. The three girls exited the room, leaving a shocked and utterly speechless and emotional girl to weep silently in confusion and joy.
All but a few minutes later, the door was knocked upon and it took a few minutes for the sounds of rapping to register through Selphie's operating brain. Swinging her legs over the side of her bed, Selphie rummaged around in her open set of drawers and found an unused packaged box of mints…she popped one in her mouth.
She crossed the room, staggering slightly; still emotional at 5:38 in the morning and so she swallowed the stinging, numbing minty freshness. She opened the plain white door with shaking ashen white hands and stared at the person leaning against her doorframe There he was. Seifer. Seifer Almasy stood in her doorway and he was still clad in white boxers and he was shirtless to boot.
"Um, uh….haven't you heard of a T-Shirt, I mean the nerve of you, entering my dorm with—with n-no shirt on. Pfft, I-I…," Selphie had found an excuse to mask her clamminess and nervousness. Her heartbeat was fluttering perilously as she noticed how natural sunlight showed the varying tanned shades of Seifer's sun-kissed abs. Damn his hotness, dammit all.
"Selphie?" he called, raising an eyebrow as he eyed the small present she still held in one shaking hand. She'd never let him know…would she?
"…And, and, then you got Fujin and Rinoa and Quistis to burst into my room and give me such a cheesy gift! I-I…Uh, that's so low and romantic, you know I hate roses!" Selphie sighed here, huffing and she felt tears sting in the corner of her eyes again. Why'd she have to be so overemotional during her PMsing, why couldn't she be normal during this time of the month?
Duh, because every girl has your problem, it is normal. Like, what...a...dumbass, she wanted to shut her conscience up too.
"Selphie, I know that roses are your favorite flower, you told me that when you were eight, so don't lie about it now. I also know that dandelions make you break out in hives and plus, they're way too expensive to get during this time of the year. Selph, stop crying," Seifer, without any warning or indication plucked the rose out of her hand and tucked it in her hair. An adjustment here and an adjustment there, and he stood back admiring his measly work.
"See, you look beautiful, you always do. You're my feisty little 'messenger girl'. And, you're obviously PMsing, God, Selph I even know when you go through that…thing that girls your age start goin' through," Seifer cringed at that and laughed at his feeble attempt at a joke. He smiled at her. It was the truest genuine smile she'd seen him give her in all of her eleven years of knowing him. She sniffled and wiped her tears away, green eyes staring into striking sea-blue eyes.
"Keep it," he ordered, pressing soft lips to her forehead, she closed her eyes and breathed in slowly as he drew her close to him. He held her gingerly as if she were a fragile china doll that would break at the slightest tug.
"I will," those simple words were really a seal, a promise of a sort and his eyes forced her own to open.
"Happy Birthday, Selphie"
"Thanks"
"Take care"
"I love you…," darn, she hadn't meant to whisper that so loudly. Seifer's eyes slowly traveled up to meet her soft cherub-like visage. Barely any sharp lines marred the slight perfection of her face.
"What?" he asked, wanting her to repeat her muffled confession….
"N-Nothing," she squeaked, smiling as she pushed him away.
"Right, messenger girl, see ya around," he saluted to her and turned away from her, descending the long flight of stairs.
And Selphie loved him and he'd never know...
FIN
Additional A/N: This is by far my longest one-shot chapter of the "Selfer" pairing to date. Ah, and now their long-lasting friendship is to be doomed…? Or, maybe it won't be doomed, you never know with Seifer or Selphie for that matter. Sooo, unbelievably sorry for the long wait, some things came up and I became distracted after the things that came up passed. Well R&R, and read this through when you're done enjoying the fic. As usual, comments and critical opinions are always appreciated.
Thanks.
- TerrisMoon