Thup-thup-thup-thup Selphie couldn't quite place the noise she was hearing. She was barely conscious, warm and possibly in bed, except for the fact that she'd stayed overnight at Vern's Diner. Thup-thup-thup-thup. The sound was steady, she was warm and comfortable and it really didn't bother her too much, it was rhythmic and she could easily fall back to sleep to that sound if she wanted too. Selphie sighed a little and dragged herself out of the mire of sleep and froze when she opened her eyes. She supposed that there was any number of ways she could have wound up in the current situation she was in. Her best guess was she'd been shivering at some point after she'd fallen asleep last night. She moved slowly, not sure if Irvine was awake or not, wanting to even know in her state of embarrassment. She slithered backwards slowly, eager to get out of the booth that was suddenly way too crowded for her taste. Irvine opened an eye and stared at her.

"You're gonna get caught on my belt buckle shimmying like that." He said groggily. Selphie froze and turned bright red. She started to say something back, but stopped after she saw that Irvine had already fallen back asleep.

"Sheesh." She whispered as she tried a different method of exiting the booth with much faster results. Selphie looked around the little diner which was still intact. The roar of wind and rain had long since ended and she hazarded a peek outside. The sun was happily on its way into the sky, and the island inhabitants were already starting to come out into the streets for clean-up. Vern came out from the kitchen where he'd been making what could loosely be called breakfast.

"He still asleep?" Vern asked Selphie as he placed something omelet shaped down on the counter for her.

"…Yeah." Selphie replied hesitantly. "Should we wake him up?"

"No, he's only been out for a couple of hours. Stayed up most of the night making sure those windows didn't break."

"Then…How'd he get flat on his back on that booth bench?" Selphie asked between bites of omelet.

"He never got up after we all sat down last night. I fell asleep long before he did and you were out like a light around 10. It's not the most comfortable looking position to sleep in is it?"

Irvine slowly rose into a sitting position on the bench and stretched with several very satisfying pops. He glanced around the diner to assess any damage and turned in his seat to look at Selphie and Vern. "Mornin'" He yawned with more of a southern drawl than he usually had.

"Come eat cowboy. I made eggs." Vern laughed.

"Gotta check outside first." Irvine answered still half asleep.

"The windows are fine. Come eat and then you can get to work."

Irvine grumbled something unintelligible but complied and joined Selphie at the counter. He attacked his eggs with vigor and had finished eating before Selphie was even half way done. "We have any coffee? I feel like I slept between a couple of rocks."

Selphie squeaked, offended by Irvine's harmless comment.

"What?" Irvine asked her as the bell over the door chimed with the entrance of another body.

"OH THANK ZANARKAND!"

Selphie turned around in time to be pulled off her stool and into a tight hug by Tidus. "Oh Selphie you're safe! Thank goodness! I was so worried about you after the weather reports all said that this island was going to be hit the hardest by Donald. SEEELLLLPPPHHHIEEEEEEE!" Tidus squeezed Selphie tighter and swung her back and forth before finally releasing her.

"How…?" Selphie tried to ask but was in too much shock at seeing Tidus in the diner that she couldn't exactly form the right words.

"I borrowed my Dad's bike and motored over here as soon as everything passed. This is like, the third diner I've tried. C'mon let's get back and tell your mom and dad that you're ok. They'll be so happy."

"What about my scooter?" Selphie asked. Tidus and Irvine both glanced at her.

"Better make sure it wasn't hit by anything." Irvine suggested as he gratefully took a cup of coffee from Vern.

"I forgot all about my scooter!" Selphie whined as she brushed past Tidus and went out into the street. Her powder blue scooter was half a block up the street from the diner and not even remotely in working condition. She pushed it gently back down the street to Vern's diner with help from Tidus and leaned it against the curb outside.

"Vern can fix it for you." Irvine said as he leaned over the scooter to get a look at the body damage.

"I can fix it for you." Tidus added with a puff of his chest.

"You ever touch a scooter before?" Irvine asked with a raise of the eyebrow.

"I've been helping my Dad fix his bike for years." Tidus defended.

"That bike?" Irvine gestured over his shoulder to Tidus' father's bike.

"Yes that bike, do you see any other motorcycles around here?" Tidus puffed his chest out a bit more.

"Scooter and bike's are built differently. You could really screw it up if you do something wrong."

"How do you know so much anyway?" Tidus asked with what he tried to make a snarl.

"I'm in automotive classes at the university." Irvine shrugged. "I have a truck that needs constant repairs."

"Well a scooter isn't a truck." Tidus scoffed.

"I know. That's why I said VERN could fix it. He's been riding scooters since before you or I were born."

Tidus shrugged and turned his attentions to Selphie as Vern called Irvine back into the diner.

"What were you even doing out here? Kairi told you the weather was going to be awful yet you came out here anyways. You broken in the head?" He ruffled her hair playfully but Selphie swatted his hand away.

"I had something I needed to do. No big deal." She shrugged and glanced at her scooter.

"What something? You can tell me. I'm your boyfriend right?"

"Yeah I guess…"

"You guess? So I'm only your boyfriend when you feel like it. I see." Tidus huffed.

"No, I didn't mean it like that and you know it. You haven't been so nice to me lately. I'm starting to feel like you don't care," Selphie defended.

"I tell you I love you don't I?"

"Yeah but it's always so empty when you say it. I don't think I believe you anymore. Plus yesterday…" Tidus cut Selphie off.

"My dad's been giving me grief lately Selph. You know how it is. It's been hell since mom died and he's got enough problems without me trying to talk to him about my girlfriend."

"Am I ever going to get to meet Jecht?"

"If I get my way, no." Tidus growled.

"But you've met my parents. Is your dad so wretched and horrible that I can't even say hello once?"

"Can we not get into this now Selphie. You know I have my reasons for wanting to keep you away from him."

"Like you'd ever tell me what those reasons are." Selphie scoffed. "Maybe you should just forget about giving me a ride home. I'll walk."

"Nuh-uh, no way. I'm not leaving you alone in Hick-town." Tidus said as he grabbed Selphie by the arm.

"Hey buddy, take a hint!" Irvine exclaimed as he pulled Tidus away from Selphie. Tidus glared at Irvine who dropped his hold on the boy, not keen on causing any further trouble.

"She's my girlfriend-" Tidus growled.

"She's her own person." Irvine growled back.

"Stop this right now!" Selphie interjected as she stepped between the two. "Tidus I think you need to clear your head. Go home. I don't want to see you until you can think clearly without getting all possessive of me. Go on. Go." Selphie pointed down the road to the bridge that led off the island and wiggled her finger. "If you refuse I'm dumping you."

"Yeah well not if I dump you first!" Tidus hollered at her.

"Fine by me! Blitzball and your ex-girlfriend are so much more important anyway. I hope she's fat and ugly when you find her….with rotting teeth!" Selphie turned on her heel and stormed back into the diner. Tidus scowled at her retreat and glowered at Irvine who looked rather amused by Selphie's words. Tidus stormed over to his dad's bike and started it up. As he readied to take off Irvine put a hand on the handlebars and cut the ignition.

"WHAT! I'm trying to leave."

"Look, if this is the end all fight between you two I'm sorry. Take my advice and call it quits between you and Selphie before things get worse. It sounds like she'd rather it be that way anyhow."

"Yeah well….You don't know me….or my life…or…"

"Are you trying to talk tough partner?" Irvine asked. Tidus blushed and puffed out his chest a bit.

"I'm going. Tell Selphie it's over." With that Tidus roared the bike back to life and took off down the hill and over the bridge to the main island. Irvine waved nonchalantly after him and shouted "Grow a pair" as Tidus drove out of sight.

"He really just left, didn't he?" Selphie whimpered as she came out of the diner carrying her things. "We always fight over little things, I don't get it. He…He broke up with me." She dropped her things and stared down the road.

"I..erm. Sorry." Irvine offered. He almost felt guilty for what had happened. Almost.

"No, forget about it. How long do you think it'll take Vern to fix my baby?" Selphie asked as she shook her head and picked her things up off the sidewalk.

"The diner's closed on Sundays; he could probably get it done in a day." Irvine admitted. "Not much we can do today though, gotta clean up after Donald."

Selphie nodded slowly and glanced up the street where a large palm tree had fallen across the road and people were already dragging it away. "Can you take me home? That is, if it isn't too much trouble?" She asked. "My mom is probably worried sick and-"

"No need to make excuses little darlin' just let me tell Vern we're going." Irvine disappeared into the diner and reemerged seconds later wearing a cowboy hat and twirling a set of keys. "My truck's a bit of a ways away, I usually walk to work."

"I don't mind." Selphie mumbled.

"Lemme help you with some of that." Irvine offered his hand to Selphie who kept her things to herself.

"I can carry it, it's not a big deal."

"You sure are calm for someone who just got dumped after a hurricane." Irvine said casually as he led the way down an alley that opened up into the parking lot of a small apartment complex. "Well at least none of these trees fell over." He said with relief and unlocked the doors on a beat up red truck. Selphie climbed in and twiddled with her things in her lap while Irvine coaxed the truck to life. "There you are sweet heart." Irvine cooed as the engine roared. "Buckle up, she ain't so gentle most days and I can't have you getting' hurt."

Selphie fumbled with the lap belt and managed to get it to click into position before the heaviness of what had just happened hit her. "He dumped me." She whimpered as Irvine pulled out of the parking lot and onto the main road. She couldn't decide if she wanted to cry or if she was so angry that she wanted to scream, her body settled on pitiful sounding hiccups which eventually turned into blubbering with a side of hiccups and occasionally a weird sounding gargle slash cough.

Irvine sat silently next to her as he carefully maneuvered the debris in the road and wondered if there was anything he could say that would help or if it would just make her crying worse. So he focused on the road and let it run its course and began asking for directions once they crossed the bridge to the main island. Eventually, through garbled lefts and one pathetic sounding 'turn right here' he made it to the gated neighborhood Selphie lived in. One of the gate doors had been blown off its hinges and was hanging open as a wrought iron mess of tangled bars in what was probably supposed to be an intricate design with a crest on it. At least, that was what Irvine had to assume because the intact gate was fairly ugly in its own right. He drove past the mangled gate and down several streets with names like "Crabclaw" and "Way to Dawn" and with houses that were identical, even in the damage they had taken from the storm. Irvine guffawed and tried to point out the ridiculousness of the houses and street names to Selphie but she refused to look anywhere but forward.

"Take the next right." She mumbled as they rolled past the neighborhood fitness center.

"What next?" Irvine asked as they crawled down the street. Selphie pointed at the closest house on her side and Irvine stopped in front of the driveway. Selphie began to open the door, but Irvine pushed the lock button. "Hey look, don't be a stranger alright? The diner, it ain't goin' away any time soon and I expect to see you in there more often." He gave her shoulder a hesitant pat and she smiled weakly at him.

"Sure. See you around Irvine." She pulled the lock on the door and slipped out and quickly disappeared inside her house.

"See you." Irvine mumbled as he turned the truck around and began the task of trying to find his way out of the neighborhood.