Seasonal Romantics
- Casual Banter
(Autumn; September)
Everybody
Becoming too engrossed in your romantic life can lead to the loss of friendships, pondering on this thought, Rinoa Heartilly decided to organise a weekly event in the quad for herself and her friends. This event consisted of them meeting every Tuesday evening to discuss anything or simply, have a little chit chat, maybe even some gossip. Mainly, it was just a way of keeping up the friendships they had built during the whole, "Let's Save the World!" ordeal and Seifer's friendships with most of the group starting once he was allowed back into Garden.
After being with the same people for a number of months, twenty-four/seven it was rather strange not to see them as much as usual and; In a strange way Rinoa felt more freedom once her normal routine returned. Not because she was being held back by her friends in anyway, because she wasn't, but it was just... To be able to go off and do your own thing, go out shopping for a while- buy some fancy dresses, nice shoes- not having to stock up on potions or get weapons updated, not having to worry about having the weight of the world on your shoulders. It felt good, brilliant even. Rinoa smiled.
Today was Tuesday and so, 'Casual Banter' (With thanks to Selphie's excellent name choice for the evening) began. Rinoa, Selphie and Zell were first to arrive, small talk swapping between them. Rinoa got a little excited though when Selphie and Zell declared that they had a big surprise for the group. They're a couple maybe...? They have been spending an awful lot of time with each other. Rinoa shrugged this thought away and decided that they were spending so much time together because missions were scarce. The world was generally at peace now with Esthar and Galbadia on good relations- everything was moving along nicely. Rinoa even heard that her father and Squall's father would be discussing peace ceremonies in a meeting tomorrow. She grimaced at the thought of their two personalities clashing though; the strict and stern, General Caraway contrasting with the laid back, happy-go-lucky, President Laguna.
"This surprise..." Rinoa started, "Any hints?"
Selphie shook her head immediately whilst Zell held his hotdog in front of his mouth, "Here's your only one." Selphie sighed once Zell had made his comment, "...What? Why the sigh!?"
"I told you no hints Zelly!" Looking at Rinoa and shrugging her shoulders, Selphie simply stated, "Men... What can you do?"
"Who knows...? Squall's exactly the same. I thought I'd completely figured him out and then he goes and cracks a joke." The young sorceress fiddled with the grass, "I don't know who he is..."
Whilst Selphie laughed, Zell waved the last quarter of his hotdog in the two girl's faces, "Hey... There's a man sitting right here y'know? I get insulted easily!"
"Boy, Zell. Boy."
"Boy?!" Zell stood up, threw his hotdog on the floor in an attempt to show his anger and then... Immediately regretted it, "Please tell me why I just did that?" He sniffed, picked his hotdog of the grass and finally groaned whenever a big ugly looking slimy slug appeared to have attached itself to the bap, "Damn..." He whispered sitting himself back onto the blanket that Selphie had brought, "I thought I could've eaten it. But look!" He shoved the hotdog with the slug into both Selphie and Rinoa's faces, this ended in Zell receiving three slaps; One from Rinoa, one from Selphie and another one from Selphie because it was fun.
Quistis and Squall both arrived at this point, looking as calm and collected as ever. "Hello!" Quistis greeted, giving everybody a short hug, "Seifer not here yet...?" She was a little disappointed; Seifer had promised her earlier that he would arrive on time. They hadn't really seen that much of each other in a while, Seifer saying that he had something important to do every day. Hmm... With her worrying aside she intended to have good fun tonight, maybe even squeeze some gossip from Selphie and Rinoa.
"Nope..." Rinoa said. After Quistis' hug, she greeted Squall with a small peck on the lips, "Hiya!"
Squall took a seat on the huge blanket as he said his hello's to his friends. "Anybody for drinks?" He asked, whipping a few two litre bottles of Coca Cola, water and Fanta from the bag he was carrying. He also took out a number of bars of chocolate and a big bag of polystyrene cups.
"You've fairly come prepared."
Squall smiled at Rinoa, "I always do."
"You've just made my night!!" Selphie shrieked. She pounced from her spot on the blanket into the bottles of fizzy lemonade, "Cocaaaa-Collaaaaalalala!" She began a very random song which became even more insane when Zell started to make a background beat. Throwing the Coca-Cola into the air Selphie suddenly screeched, "Iiirvy!! Seifer! Hey!"
Looking up from her spot, Quistis was surprised to see Seifer casually chatting to Irvine on his way to the group. Something's definitely up...
"Hey guys!" Rinoa motioned for the two men to take a seat, "Alright everybody's here, so let's get started. Selphie, Zell... Your surprise?"
"Oh yeah!" Zell was about to pull of his t-shirt when Selphie roughly pulled him aside, "What's the deal with you hurting me?"
"Zell... Come on now." Selphie looked around suspiciously, as if she was keeping an eye out for someone, "We should do this right. It could look loads better if we do it in sync." Zell nodded, "So I'm thinking..."
"You click your fingers and then we show them?" Offered Zell.
"Yeah! That's good. Okay, so something like this maybe...?" Selphie whispered one-two-three then clicked her fingers and the two revealed their tattoo's with a loud 'Ta-Daa!' "Excellent Zell. Let's go do it." When they walked over to their friends, they performed their little routine which revealed Selphie's tattoo on her wrist and Zell's tattoo on his left breast.
The group was silent for a while before Seifer made a sly remark about Zell, "...Moobs." He muttered under his breath. Fortunately, nobody but Quistis heard it. She just laughed silently though.
"Look!" Selphie held her wrist into each of their faces so they could see just exactly what it was, "It's a smiling hotdog!"
"..."
"And mine is a yellow panda!"
"..."
Squall took a sip of water while everybody sat in silence, just staring at Zell and Selphie. He choked as the water went down the wrong way. Spluttering and coughing, he eventually managed to say, "Yours is really small, Selphie."
It was indeed really small. When Zell and Selphie had entered the tattoo parlour, she had said that in all honesty she wasn't too keen on getting a tattoo. She wanted a small one so that if need be, she could get it removed easily. So, Sammy decided that one on her wrist would do nicely and after telling him what it was she wanted, Sammy took pen to skin. The tattoo was an unusual hotdog which had two legs and two arms, one of its arms held an even smaller hotdog into the air whilst the other was resting its hand on its hips. There was a pair of smiling lips on the sausage but no eyes or nose.
Zell's was much bigger than Selphie's covering most of his left breast. The yellow panda sat with closed eyes and its legs spread out, its arms were resting behind its head. Its mouth was wide open with a little bit of drool escaping- it must have been sleeping. Zell had nicknamed the panda, 'Chubby' as Sammy had made it have about twenty bellies. In the words of Sammy it was, 'The cutest little baby panda I've ever seen Zello!' Zell had just smiled, paid for both Selphie and his tattoos then calmly backed away from the parlour.
'"Yeah I know but, it was my first one so I didn't want it to be too big." While Zell showed his to Quistis and Rinoa, Selphie turned her attention to Irvine. "Irvy? What do you think?"
Irvine, who was still having a conversation with Seifer looked at Selphie and gave her a thumbs up, "Lookin' good, Sefie!" She performed a little twirl for him then scrambled toward Zell, Quistis and Rinoa. Irvine continued his conversation with Seifer, "No, no, no! Look, she's you're baby. Treat her with the utmost care! My Manillito is like a king, he's the best."
"But look, how am I supposed to spend any alone time at all with Quistis when she keeps giving me those eyes. I can't!"
Irvine had to hold back his laughter at this point, he had never seen Seifer act like this, snickering he inquired, "How come you're not with her now?"
"... She's sleeping." Seifer replied, plucking a strand of grass from the ground. Fujin and Raijin we're on business in Esthar for a few weeks which meant Seifer had to mind their turtle, Gems. Truth is; he had grown so attached to the turtle that he dreaded leaving it. Gems just put on her best puppy dog eyes and Seifer was under her command, he just ... He couldn't leave her alone when she looked at him like that. Not wanting Quistis to think he was a total loser, Seifer confided in Irvine because he also owned a turtle, which was called Manillito. "That's the only time I get o-." A quiet sort of crying noise interrupted Seifer, he slapped his head when he realised what it was.
"What is that?" Squall questioned looking around the Quad.
Selphie also looked around in search of where the mystery noise was coming from, "It sounds like... Someone's crying."
"Ahh look at the time!" Seifer suddenly stood up, looked at Irvine sadly, said his goodbye's to Quistis and walked away from the Quad. When he was sure nobody could see him, he took the little baby monitor he had installed in the dorm room and turned it off. Immediately, he started to sprint to his room, his Gems was crying.
Once Seifer left, the crying noise vanished and the group continued to their normal banter, Zell was now telling Squall and Irvinehow he found out that the library girl was not as innocence as he had first thought, in fact, when he was just casually strolling through an 'adult' store in Balamb, he seen the Library Girl over at the handcuffs and dressing up section. Squall looked at Zell suspiciously as he bit down on a bar of chocolate, "...And why exactly where you in the adult section?" He stifled a laugh when he seen Zell's face turn the slightest shade of red.
"Well.. You see Squall," Trying to think of a sufficient lie was proving to be difficult and in the end, Zell just decided to tell Squall the truth, "Look at it this way. You have Rinoa, I have nobody. Get my drift?"
Squall half-nodded.
"You know..." Irvine started showing his pearly whites, "I forgot to ask; how was your day with Mandy?"
Awful. Zell balled his fists, "That idiot Seifer seen me with her and totally ruined it! But Irvine... I'm not looking for any one off's you know? I'm looking for a proper girlfriend here!"
"Mandy was proper girlfriend material!" Irvine took one of the plastic cups from Squall's bag and filled it with Fanta, "Oh wait! I see... You don't want somebody you have to pay for?"
"Hold on here a second." Squall interrupted, he wasn't too keen on where this conversation was going. Irvine may have been doing something illegal for all he knew, "Are you pimping out girls?!"
"Shhhhhhhhhhhh!" Irvine whispered, "Of course I'm not! Mandy is my friend, she's looking for love as well but her love costs. Nobody is pimping her out Squall, she just doesn't have a lot of money and makes sure that anybody who she goes out with pays for everything like going to the cinema, drinking, eating. Know what I mean?"
Shouldn't everyman do that though..? Squall thought. He was too much of a gentleman to realise that not all men paid for their dates. Aside from this his nerves eased a bit, "...Right, right." Squall wasn't really that interested in Zell's love life, so he made his way over to the girl's to see what they were talking about. "Hey, again." He greeted, sitting in between Selphie and Rinoa.
Quistis had just finished telling the girl's about how she caught her first fish when Squall arrived. Being the nice person that she was, she decided to save Zell from humiliation and not tell the others about his little run in with Seifer, "Then we just got some apple pie and left. It was a really good day." She smiled, mainly to herself. She hadn't really been out with Seifer since then, and making a note in her head that this had to change she turned her attention back to the group again.
"Aww Quisty. I'm so happy for you!" Selphie piped, inside she actually felt jealous of her friend but she was never one to show jealousy, she was the bubbly, happy-go-lucky Selphie and there was no denying that she liked being that girl but it was hard to keep that up when in all reality you're feeling a bit depressed yourself. In all honesty, Selphie was having the same problem as Zell. She'd dwell on that later though, now was the time to be the bubbly Selphie. "I'd love to have the relationship that you and Seifer have. It sounds so romantic!"
"Romantic...?" Quistis repeated her friend's words under her breath. Quistis looked up to the sky, thinking of how Seifer acted when it was just him and her, "Yeah... I guess you're right. It is kinda' romantic, isn't it?"
After a couple of hours Quistis and Irvine decided to leave, both claiming that sleep was starting to take its toll on them which meant that only Rinoa, Selphie, Squall and Zell were left in the quad. As Zell and Selphie were engrossed in some conversation over Sammy, Squall turned his attention to Rinoa who was quietly sipping on a cup of water. "You enjoy yourself?" He asked picking up a few of the empty cups beside him and placing them into a plastic bag.
Rinoa nodded. She silently finished her water and gave the cup to Squall to place it in the bag, "How about you?"
"So-so."
"Oh really?" She raised an eyebrow, "Why only 'so-so'?"
He smiled sheepishly falling onto his back, "Well... You could haveve spoken to me more." He heard Rinoa's tutting get louder as she appeared beside him.
"You could have spoken to me more." Rinoa countered. She placed her head onto Squall's chest and started to fiddle with his necklace. "Anyway, there's always tonight, right?"
He grinned, "I doubt there'll be any talking tonight."
"Hmm yeah, I'm really tired." She faked a yawn.
He blinked, "..."
"I'm just going to collapse on the bed..."
He blinked again,"..."
"...I might even fall asleep right here."
"Don't go to sleep."
"..." Pretending to be asleep didn't work out to well because it only resulted in Squall flicking water in her face, "Hey!"
He chuckled at her expression, "I told you not to go asleep. Now, come on." Standing up Squall said quick goodbye's to Selphie and Zell then stared at Rinoa who was still lying in the grass. "I'm gonna carry you if you don't get up."
She smiled deviously, "Try."
"Rinoa I'm being serious."
"Go for it."
"...Alright," He bent down and scooped Rinoa up and over his shoulder then made his way out of the Quad and to his dormitory. Rinoa just laughed as she waved goodbye to Zell and Selphie.
"They're in for a fun night." Selphie commented watching them leave.
"Definitely."
No romance really here either. This was just a filling chapter to show what's going on.
Alright so here's an update: I have Irvine's chapter nearly written which will be based around Hallowe'en, Squall and Rinoa's chapter is completed but it's set in December so I can't really post it now... I suppose I could write more about them, it doesn't exactly have to be just one chapter for each coupld... Yeah, I'll do that.
Thanks for the idea's by the way. I tried to write a LagunaxRaine story but I could only manage like... Two paragraphs. :l I'll give it another shot though. A Fujin and Raijin chapter is sounding pretty tempting to me... as well and a Seifer and Selphie friendship chapter too. (Thanks to cerespallas)
But we'll see how that goes. Thanks a ton for everything guys, your feedback is like Heaven. :D Bye!