The Ironic Things in Life
Disclaimer: I don't own the Final Fantasy 8 characters, locations etc.
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Two tall women stumbled towards the Galbadian community centre. One of them was wearing a long flowing dress that had absurd portions of pink flowers blotched across it. She was also finding it difficult to stay upright due to the 5 inch heels attached to her shoes. The other woman had stretched a skimpy top across her chest and completed the look by wearing a skirt that had swirly patterns on it. Both of them had smeared a good portion of make up across their eyelids, lips and cheeks and scarily resembled Galbadian show girls. To put it in simpler terms, they looked like demented creatures of the night.
"ACK!" the one wearing the high heels said.
The other woman simply continued walking and cleared her throat for the drama about to unfold.
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Rinoa absent mindedly flicked through a pile of papers about all the people who had come to the centre to do community service. Next to her, Jessie was painting her fingernails and yawning every two seconds.
This was Rinoa's last day at work before she headed off to her father's place tomorrow and it was turning out to be the most boring day she'd ever had. No one had come in since the morning and Jessie had reported a fake fire so that a cute fireman could come and save them. However, the fireman had been old, fat and didn't seem to find it amusing that he had been summoned to a nonexistent fire.
Just at that moment, the front door banged open and two women walked in. Well one of them walked in, the other tumbled in. The woman, who was wearing a pink flowery dress, clung onto the other woman as if she was about fall over any at any moment.
Jessie stared at them, her mouth unconsciously open and Rinoa realised that she was gawking at them too. It wasn't because of their clothes; it was more to do with their makeup, which looked as if it'd been put on in the dark.
Rinoa quickly cleared her throat and blinked just to make sure that she wasn't delirious, and smiled brightly.
Jessie muttered something to herself which sounded close to, "Homeless, I think."
"How can I help you?" Rinoa asked politely.
The one with long blonde hair cleared her throat.
"I am Gespah and this is my companion…Felicia. We are travelling gypsies who are skilled in the art of palmistry. We seek to read the hand of beautiful young women such as yourself."
Rinoa leapt back and crashed into Jessie who spilt her bottle of nail polish all over the counter. However, Jessie wasn't complaining. She was too busy staring at the two women. Rinoa had leapt back because of the shrieking, high pitched sound that had come out of the woman's throat.
The two gypsies glanced at eachother quickly and Gespah cleared her throat.
"Um, pardon me. I…have an unfortunate cold," she said, her voice still very high.
Rinoa eyed them both warily and stepped forward to resume her place at the counter again.
"And I can help you how?" she asked, quickly glancing at Felicia who seemed to be scratching her bottom.
However, Felicia quickly snapped her hand away when she noticed Rinoa staring at her.
"We wanted to read your hand and tell you your fortune," Gespah explained, clearing her throat again to bring her voice down to a lower pitch.
Rinoa raised an eyebrow and was immediately shoved aside by Jessie who extended her right hand.
"Ok, what do you see in my future?" she demanded.
Gespah looked cynical.
"I did say beautiful young women."
Jessie's eyebrows shot up as she realised what the comment was supposed to actually mean.
"Wait, are you trying to say that I'm not beautiful?"
Gespah smirked at Felicia, but neither of them said anything. Jessie turned to look at Rinoa.
"Did they mean that I'm not…?"
Rinoa rolled her eyes and looked back at Gespah and Felicia.
"Will I do?" she asked, extending her hand carefully.
Gespah quickly grabbed her arm and Rinoa almost fell over in fright.
"You will do perfectly fine," Gespah cackled.
"Um, so what do you want me to do?" Rinoa asked nervously as Gespah stared at her hand.
"Nothing m'dear, just clear your mind and take deep breaths."
"Like you're pregnant," Felicia piped up, causing Gespah to shoot a glare at her accomplice.
Rinoa raised an eyebrow.
"Pregnant breathing?"
"It helps soothe the soul," Gespah hurriedly went on to explain.
Rinoa mutely nodded as she bit her lip. Slowly yet surely she was beginning to get drawn in by Gespah and Felicia's plan
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The two women staggered around the corner of the building, one of them almost tripping over.
"God damnit, Seifer!" Felicia cried out.
Seifer Almasy, or Gespah, turned around and pulled the scarf off his head.
"What the fuck…? Just take the damn things off Kinneas!"
Irvine leaned against the wall, out of breath, and pulled off the high heels that he was wearing.
"You sucked, Almasy. Why the hell were you talking like that?"
"How the fuck am I supposed to know how fortune tellers talk!"
Irvine's rubbed the sole of his feet which had already become blistered.
"Almasy, if you ever make me do that again, I swear I'll strangle you with a hose!"
Seifer shrugged, and started wiping his make up off.
"Well at least we looked like women and not drag queens."
"Do you think we convinced Rinoa…?" Irvine asked.
A group of teenage boys walking down the street turned to whistle at Irvine.
"Hey, babe! You're looking hot!"
Irvine openly seethed with rage and threw his high heels at the boys who raced down the street in alarm.
Seifer snickered.
"Yeah, you sure got them convinced, Kinneas. I'll have to fight off mobs of boys seeking your heart."
Irvine let out a growl and launched himself onto Seifer.
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"Quistis?" Rinoa said, as the four housemates sat down for dinner.
"Yes?
"I was wondering…how much do you believe fortune tellers…?"
Selphie gobbled down her spaghetti strand with a slurp.
"I totally believe in them," she interrupted, "One predicted that I would wake up naked in a pile of dog droppings and it came…"
"Ok, ok. We get the point, Selphie," Quistis cut off, turning to Rinoa, "Well, logically I don't see how they can predict things that are going to happen, but then again, stranger things have happened."
Rinoa looked thoughtful, and then continued poking through her food.
"Why?" Zell wanted to know.
"Oh, it's just that today when I was at work these weird fortune tellers came in and said all this stuff…"
Quistis raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of stuff?"
Rinoa shrugged as she finally took a bite of her lasagne.
"They said that my life revolved around a dark haired man with storm coloured eyes. Gespah said that the man was desperately trying to seek forgiveness from me and that he would never be at peace until I sincerely accepted it."
There was silence as everyone realised who the dark haired man was.
"Definitely a Geezard!" Selphie exclaimed, causing everyone to stare at her.
"What?" Rinoa asked.
"Gespah….they're related to Geezards!"
"No Sef, Gespah's the fortune teller."
Comprehension dawned on Selphie and she set her mind to calculate some of natures other mysteries.
After a while Quistis spoke.
"Well, I do think you need to be much calmer about this whole apology thing. You really need to control your temper when you see Squall."
Rinoa sighed.
"Squall doesn't make it any easier. He's just so…."
"Titchy…?" Zell offered.
"Gay…?" Selphie suggested.
Rinoa rolled her eyes.
"It was gay wasn't it?" Selphie asked.
Rinoa laughed.
"No, he's just impassive, like he doesn't have any feelings."
Quistis nodded her head sympathetically.
"I can understand that, Rin. So what're you going to do with this piece of information?"
"Well…I guess I can talk to Squall and try to be a bit calmer about it, but if he even dares to blurt another arrogant thing out of his mouth I swear I'll send his dead body to Esthar!"
Zell quickly jumped up from the table.
"Just going to the toilet," he muttered, not noticing Quistis' suspicious gaze.
Quistis met Selphie's eye and slightly tilted her head in Zell's direction. Selphie silently nodded in response.
"I've just gotta go do something," she explained, jumping up from the table and hurrying after Zell.
Rinoa's brow wrinkled as she watched Selphie walk out of the room. There was something going on and clearly she wasn't getting clued in.
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"Squall…?" Zell asked.
"What is it, Zell?"
"Rinoa's gonna do it," Zell said excitedly, "She's gonna apologise!"
When Squall didn't say anything, Zell started to get worried.
"Squall? Squall, you still there?"
On the other side of the door, Selphie Tilmitt rubbed her hands together as her bright green eyes lit up. She hadn't heard the entire conversation but hearing Squall's name was enough to get her imagination into over drive. She couldn't wait to tell Quistis.
A/N: It's been such a long time! Nope, I haven't disappeared off the face of the planet...I went through an annoying few months of adjusting into a new school and doing homework, not to mention getting an internet ban for a month but now I'm back...for the mean time anyways.
This is just a shorter version of the original Chapter 10 that I was supposed to have posted up oh, 4 months ago...sorry! Which leads me onto apologising...I'm so sorry! I hope you like this chapter anyway and I promise you that the next chapter will be much longer and much better.
Now you know what Seifer was planning though...a little strange, disturbing but understandable. More on that in the next chapter.I know that sometimes things seem weird at first but trust me, there's always a reasonable explanation to them coming up. Well keep reading and reviewing.
And thanks to these reviewers.
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