Legal mumbo jumbo: I own this story, but not any of the entities it contains. The world and characters belong to Square.

A/N: I had a lot of fun with this one. I was originally going to write just one chapter spanning the whole two weeks before classes started, but this one day hanging out with Irvine and Selphie was just so entertaining that I couldn't stop!

Previously: Matt met the orphanage gang and even had a run-in with Seifer. They had a long discussion about Matt's future in Garden and it was determined that he would enroll to become a SeeD by the end of the upcoming school year. For the next two weeks before classes start, he'll spend time getting to know the gang a little more and see more of Garden and Balamb.

Chapter 3: Back to Balamb

THUMPTHUMPTHUMP

What the…

THUMPTHUMPTHUMP

Ugh… I don't wanna wake up!

I heard a muffled voice come through the dorm door. "Matt! Matt, wake up!" It was Selphie.

I got up out of bed, rubbed my eyes, and walked over to the door, still dressed in just my underwear. I opened it to find her getting ready to knock again.

"Wha… What time…" I yawned before continuing, "is it?"

"It's 9 o'clock sleepy head! Now come on! Irvine and I are taking you to Balamb!"

"Balamb? What for? It's way too early to go into town; I'm not a morning person at all," I whined.

"We need to go shopping! Gotta get you some new clothes, some school supplies," she peeked her head in and took a look around the empty room. All that was in there was a dresser, a desk and chair, and the bed. "And definitely some cool stuff for your room," she finished.

"Hey gimme a break," I retorted, "last night was my first night in here. I came here with nothing, mind you."

"Yeah, I know, I know. Just get dressed so we can go! Irvy will be on his way."

"Alright," I sighed. "I'll be ready in two seconds anyway. I just gotta get dressed and use the bathroom. Want me to meet you guys somewhere?"

"We'll be right outside. Just meet us at the entrance to the dorms! …By the way, take care of that bed head!"

"Huh?"

Selphie simply smiled, then ran off to grab Irvine and I went back in my room. I stared at the bed.

You look so comfortable right now. I could just lie down on you and fall back asleep right away…

I was tempted to go back to sleep, but I knew it was hopeless. Selphie would only come back and wake me up again, and this time she would make sure that I didn't go back to sleep. I couldn't imagine her getting mad, but she must be one hell of a nagger.

I gathered my clothes off the floor beside the bed and got dressed. I walked down the hall to the community bathroom. Each floor of the main dorm had two bathrooms, one for men and the other for women, both at either ends of the hall. I secretly hoped I wouldn't run into any floormates on the way to the bathroom, or see any inside. Once I moved into the suites with their own private bathrooms, I wouldn't need to worry about being stealthy.

No one should be awake at this ungodly hour. I don't care if it is 9am, that's still way too early for me. Especially during the summer!

Thankfully no one was around and I made my way without incident. I really didn't want to have to explain to someone what I was doing here. Everyone on the floor probably knew each other, especially since it was summer and there weren't that many people around, so the few that were hung out together a lot and got to know each other. Plus, it was way too early for me to even think of a good cover story.

I got to the bathroom, drained myself of the nightly urine stockpile, and then went to wash my hands. I looked up in the mirror and saw what Selphie was talking about. My hair wasn't very long, only 4 or 5 inches if you stood it on end, but somehow it still seemed to point in every which way after a good night's sleep. I finished rinsing off my hands, threw some water in my hair, and then headed off to the entrance of the dormitory.

I arrived to find Irvine looking just as sleepy as I was, and Selphie trying to get him to wake up.

"Howdy," Irvine said groggily.

"Heh, looks like I'm not the only one who's not a morning person, eh?" I chuckled.

Selphie pouted at the two of us and then said, "Well maybe some food will wake you guys up. Do you want to eat here or in town?"

"Doesn't matter to me," I said.

Irvine thought out loud, "Hmm. Food in Balamb is really good, but it costs money. Food in Garden isn't so great, but it's free."

"Well I don't want you guys to have to pay for me. I don't have any money at all. Which reminds me, how were you planning on buying stuff for me today?" I inquired.

"Cid gave us some money. Squall told him about the loan thing." Selphie answered.

"Ok sounds good. How about breakfast on me then? Err, on my loan anyways. Is there enough?"

"Yeah, man, there's plenty. But are you sure you want to pay for it? I feel kinda bad." Irvine said, rubbing the back of his neck.

Selphie added, "Yeah you don't have to! Garden food isn't that bad really."

"No really, it's my treat. It's the least I can do. After all, you guys are taking me to Balamb today and showing me around and helping me get whatever I need," I insisted.

Irvine smiled and said, "Well if it's cool with you, then it's cool with us! Alright let's go to the parking lot."

Selphie jumped up and begged Irvine to let her drive, but he only laughed and said he'd rather do it, especially after seeing her fly the Ragnarok.

We got into Balamb about ten minutes later and parked the car near the garage at the town entrance. Selphie led us over to a nearby restaurant and we sat down in a small booth.

She said to me, "I really recommend the fish. Balamb always has good fish!"

"Fish… for breakfast? That just doesn't seem right to me."

Irvine playfully nudged her and said, "Come on, girl, you're too quirky to offer good breakfast suggestions. I'd say go with the basics, an omelet, or a waffle, or something."

I scanned the menu and found something cheap and basic. "I'll stick with eggs and hash browns. And some orange juice, too."

The waitress came by and took our orders, and we sat around chatting and eating our breakfast when it came a short while later. Selphie was excited to get the day going. Irvine said she loved shopping, regardless of whether it was for herself or for other people. I told them I hated shopping and that I want to get this done with as quickly and painlessly as possible. Irvine just shook his head while smiling nervously, as if to say 'you don't know what you're in for'.

We finished our meals and Selphie led us to our next destination: the clothing store. Despite being in a small town, it certainly had a wide range of styles. Within moments of entering, Selphie ran around in a few aisles and came back to me with some various articles of clothing, begging me to try them on.

"No way! I don't want anything eccentric. I'll just go with the basic shirt and shorts."

"Aw, how boring!" She said, disappointed. "At least just try these on? Pleeeeeeease?"

Her puppy-eyes made me cave in and I agreed to try on a few things, one of which being a cowboy outfit similar to Irvine's.

I walked out of the dressing room and said, "Selphie, I don't get your obsession with cowboys. I look friggin ridiculous! …No offense, Irvine." I chuckled.

He was sitting down on a chair, trying to get whatever rest he could. "There's only room for one cowboy around here anyway," he mumbled, his face buried by his hat.

I finished trying on a couple more outfits, but wound up getting a bunch of shorts, a couple pairs of pants, some generic t-shirts, and a nice dress shirt in case an occasion arose that required something more formal, as well as some jackets and sweaters. It was still the end of summer, but Balamb got very chilly during the fall and winter, and on rare occasions it even snowed.

After the clothing store we went to a shoe store. Selphie and Irvine were busy looking at boots while I browsed through the skate shoes, though they didn't call them skate shoes. Instead they were "board shoes". I assumed it was because they used those hovering T-Boards and had no idea what skateboards with wheels were. I picked out some red ones and brought them to Irvine and Selphie. They really wanted me to try on some cowboy boots, but I didn't give in this time. However, I did agree to let them pick out some dress shoes for me, and I wound up going with some basic, shiny black ones.

We then moved on to getting supplies for my room and for classes. Fortunately we had a car with us, so we'd make a trip back to cram some stuff in before getting more. Once we finished getting my toiletries, notebooks, and all that other stuff a college kid (or SeeD I should say) needs, it was time for lunch. The three of us went to a diner, and this time I tried the fish, much to Selphie's pleasure. We found a bench outside that faced the ocean and ate our lunch. The cool sea breeze felt great and I enjoyed the smell of salt water wafting through the air. It was peaceful listening to the water crash against the docks and the occasional cawing of gulls.

I let out a pleased sigh of relaxation.

"Beautiful isn't it?" Irvine said in response to my sigh.

"Yep." I nodded. "I just love these simple moments. Just sitting here watching the ocean and eating some good fish."

We sat there in silence for a little bit longer until Selphie stood up. "I'm done with my food now. You guys can stay here and relax, but I'm going to go look around the shops some more and hang out with the town folk, ok?"

Irvine looked up at her and pulled her toward him. He gave her a quick kiss on the lips and then said, "Alright have fun. Meet us back here when you're done, I don't think we plan on going anywhere."

She ran off back to the main street and left Irvine and I sitting there on the bench alone. He looked at her cheerfully skip back and then turned to me, "She's definitely something."

"Yeah looks like you two have it pretty good."

"I'm so lucky to have her. I really do love her. She means everything to me."

I nodded at him, "Yeah I can tell." Then I turned back to the ocean.

After a few moments of silence, Irvine continued the conversation. "When left your world behind, did you leave anyone behind as well? …If you catch my drift."

"Nah. I'm not exactly the ladies man."

"Have you even had a girlfriend? Or… are you just not into girls?" He asked awkwardly.

"Yeah, of course I've had a girlfriend." Then I laughed. "Haha, and no I didn't mean I wasn't a ladies man as in I'm gay, not that I have a problem with that. I'm just saying I don't really go out looking for girls. I've had a few girls have crushes on me, and I've had some of my own, but I dunno. I just don't put myself out there, I'm kinda shy and most of the time I don't really care anyway."

"What do you mean?" Irvine said, tilting his head.

"Well, like… It'd be nice to have someone I could love. And there are rare moments when I feel a little lonely. But most of the time I'm just too independent for my own good. I've only had one girlfriend, and we were only together for a month. I just got bored with her. I never felt like doing anything with her. Towards the end I mostly just felt like sitting at home on my own, rather than go out."

"Ah, I see. Seems like you just have bad luck. Not all girls are like that, y'know."

"Oh I know. But I'm not very outgoing. I'm sure there are plenty of good girls out there for me, but I just don't bother finding them. Maybe I'm waiting for the perfect love that will never come…"

"Cheer up, Matt. You'll be alright, don't get yourself down."

I laughed, "Naw, man. I'm fine. I guess I'm destined to be a bachelor, but I have no problem with that. Seeing other people in love makes me happy, not jealous."

Some small waves sloshed up against the docks and the two of us went back to watching the ocean.

"So how's the SeeD lifestyle going? I remember you saying you enjoyed it." I stopped the lull in our discussion.

Irvine sighed. "Yeah it's alright. I loved it at first, and you will, too. But now I'm starting to realize it's not what I want with life."

"Oh yeah?"

"I mean, it's fun, like I said, traveling the world and fighting alongside your buddies. But I'm too laidback to do that much longer."

"Yeah I know what you mean. I'm pretty easygoing myself. I don't need anything fancy or wild going on in my life to keep me happy."

"Exactly!" He said. "I just want to settle down somewhere, maybe Winhill or FH. Just get a nice, small place and relax, not have to worry about anything or have a care in the world. I've saved up enough money, too. I can totally do it."

"So what's stopping you? If that's what you want, why don't you do it?"

"It's Selphie. I've brought up the plan with her before, but she just shrugs it off. She's too energetic, she always wants to be doing something. Heck, even if we moved off to some small town, you know she'd try and throw a festival there."

We both laughed at the thought.

"Problem is," I said, "only, like, 5 people would show up!"

We laughed some more and then Irvine continued on. "Ugh. I've been playing it off like I'm happy to be doing this ambassador thing, which I sort of am. But I really don't want to be doing this the rest of my life."

"Sounds like you could just use a vacation. And I mean a vacation longer than summer break."

"That's true. I should just take a year off or something. Just rent a place and get lazy and sit around all day, every day. I just gotta convince Selphie, y'know? I support her and everything, and I never want to leave her side. But …." He trailed off.

"But….? But she doesn't exactly support you?"

Irvine slumped over and put his head on his hands and looked out to sea.

"I'm no relationship expert or anything, but maybe you should just talk to her again. Tell her you're serious. Tell her that you've been going around doing what she wants, and it's time she compromises and does what you want. At least for a little while anyway. I'm sure she'll understand. She's so happy-go-lucky and enthusiastic, I think she could handle it without getting all emotional and shit."

He took his head off his hands, crossed his arms, and looked down at his lap. "I've been thinking a lot about it lately, and I figure I'll just talk to her when we get back to traveling. We're heading to Trabia in a couple weeks, she'll be happy to see her old friends again."

"What's happened to Trabia now? It was in shambles when I last saw it."

"Yeah they're slowly rebuilding. Things have gotten a lot better there. It's real nice, you oughta come see it some time."

I smiled, "I definitely will. …Hey! Why not just settle there for a while? Spend this school year over there, help rebuild. I'm sure Selphie will love the idea. You'll be able to settle down in one place and she'll be able to hang out with her old friends for a while. It'll be good for both of you."

Irvine pondered the idea, "I guess I could try that out. The Trabians are nice people and I wouldn't mind hanging around them. …Oh, but I just hope Squall and Cid will sign off on it."

"Oh I'm sure they will. Just tell them your situation, tell them you need a bit of a break."

I sat back in my seat and looked across the ocean, then slowly turned my head and observed town. Off in the distance I saw Selphie in her yellow dress running our way.

I patted Irvine on the back and said, "Cheer up, man, you'll be fine. Here she comes, by the way."

The two of us stood up and walked in her direction, meeting her halfway. She came back with a few bags of her own and had a huge grin.

Irvine looked at her bags and said, "Hey Sefie, I thought you said you were just going to look?"

Selphie just grinned. "Yeah, well you know me! Anyways what should we do next? Anything else you need, Matt?"

I did a quick mental checklist and couldn't think of anything to buy, but there was one thing I needed. "Well now that I think of it, I could use a haircut."

Irvine and Selphie looked at me confused. They were used to long hair, but for me, touching my eyebrows was too long. We found a barber shop and I went in and sat down. I asked for a buzz and within 15 minutes I was out of there. My even shorter hair surprised Selphie and Irvine even more. She came up and ran her hand over the soft, freshly-cut hair and giggled.

"Irvine feel how soft and short it is!"

He reached forward and instead of being gentle like Selphie was, he shook my head vigorously and laughed, "C'mon let's get outta here! And I hope you plan on joining the Galbadian Army with that kind of haircut."

After the quick stop at the barber, we headed back to the car and drove towards Garden. It was late afternoon and the sun was beginning to touch the horizon. I looked out the back window of the car and saw the glimmer of the sun reflecting off some of the buildings in Balamb. Suddenly Irvine slowed down the car and pulled it to the side of the road.

"Why are you stopping?" I asked.

"I saw you looking out the window. I figured we might as well stop, nothing much to do in Garden anyway. Might as well hang out here for a bit," Irvine responded.

Selphie jumped out of the car and happily exclaimed, "Ooh wow! So pretty!"

Irvine walked over to the trunk and pulled out his gun and Selphie's nunchaku. They wanted to be prepared in case any monsters stumbled upon us in our moment of relaxation.

The three of us sat down on the grass, facing towards the sunset over Balamb. Irvine set his gun down between us, and Selphie sat down in his lap. He put his arms around her and rested his chin on her head.

We sat there for a while in silence, just watching the sun set. Occasionally Selphie would giggle when Irvine tickled her and then they'd steal a kiss or nuzzle. Then they'd look over at me embarrassed. I'd laugh and tell them it didn't matter and I wasn't watching. At one point I looked over and saw Irvine's gun next to me. He saw me looking at it, then looked up at me and winked.

"I've never shot a gun before, strange as that sounds." I told him.

"Go for it, man. I don't mind."

"Really? Sweet! Just make sure I'm holding it right and all that. I don't want to hurt myself." I said excitedly as I stood up.

I picked up the gun and pointed it off towards the beach. Irvine examined my stance and told me to go ahead. I fired the shotgun and jumped a little at the sound. Firing that gun made me feel full of power; seeing the small explosion at the end of the barrel, feeling the gun recoil and the force flowing through my hands and arms.

I turned around to Irvine and grinned widely. He saw that I obviously enjoyed it.

"Now try and hit something! Let's go find a Bite Bug," he beckoned.

We walked away from the car for a bit and strolled through the plains. Selphie was ready with her nunchaku, seeing as how I had Irvine's weapon and he was defenseless. Even though it was only a small bug, we still wanted to be prepared.

Eventually we came to one hovering on it's own near the edge of a small forest. I aimed, took a deep breath, and pulled the trigger. A burst of blue goo flew everywhere and the bug was demolished.

"Whoa shit, that was awesome!" I shouted.

"Haha, yeah it's pretty fucking cool, huh?" Irvine acknowledged.

While I was busy reveling in my victory, a large caterpillar suddenly came bounding out of the forest and knocked me on the ground.

Oh shit, not this again! Why does this always happen to me!?

The caterpillar was on top of me, trying to bite at my face. I held the barrel of the gun with one hand and the handle with the other and was using it to force the monster's head away from mine. Selphie immediately ran over and started bashing it with her nunchaku. I had monster spit all over my face and was beginning to get over the initial fright and I became angry instead, as adrenaline flowed through my veins. Eventually the Caterchipillar got distracted by Selphie and backed off for an instant. At that moment I quickly pointed the gun at its head and hit it point-blank. Green slime and guts flew onto my arms, face, and clothing, and the monster slumped over to the side.

"Eww, sick!" I said as I stood up and wiped myself off.

Selphie came over and brushed some off my back and I returned Irvine's gun as he brushed more guts off my shoulders. We walked back to the car and laughed over the brief encounter. Irvine started up the car and we headed back to Garden. I looked forward to cleaning up and hanging out with the rest of the gang for the remainder of the evening.