Selphie's POV

I was terrified of telling Mr Barrett that Squall and Cloud were going to have to bail. I made up any excuse (incidentally I told him that their Grandmother had passed away – joke's on him since I knew their Grandma had passed away before either of them were born). He looked at them with understanding and nodded. Ushering the rest of the class through the door silently with a grim expression on his face he greeted us.

The lesson passed by a bit too fast almost. Before I knew it, we were only five minutes from finishing the lesson and from Lunch. I had no doubts as to where the two would go under these circumstances and the second the bell rang I was the first to dash out the classroom door. I pelted towards Garden as fast as I could, feeling a few raindrops fall onto my face though it didn't rain heavily.

Pushing through the bushes, my nose was assaulted by an acrid smell. This wasn't the first time something like this had happened with Squall. I definitely knew better than to ask (since Squall would eventually try to explain anyway). I moved further in and saw Squall and Cloud sitting in a corner further away from the source of the smell.

Squall was leaning against Cloud's side, his head resting on Cloud's shoulder and an arm around his waist. Cloud gave me a doleful smile. Cloud really was a good cousin and an even better friend. He often said that "sometimes silence is the most comforting thing in the world" and I finally understood why. Squall had certainly calmed down, the colour returning to his face and he was certainly acting in a far more complacent manner than before. Contemplating this I plopped myself down next to Squall and cuddled his free side.

The three of us sat there for another fifteen minutes in silence (which would probably be a record for me actually) before Squall scrambled up, looking at us shamefacedly as he did. Following his example, Cloud and I stood up and I gave him another hug before he said "we should probably leave. It looks like it's going to rain" and whilst that may have been true (the sky was starting to look rather ominous), I still thought it was due to the smell that had stagnated the air.

Leaving our usual lunchtime haven for the time being, we headed up to the school. "Follow me" Cloud said and I was surprised to realise that Cloud wasn't heading to catch up with Lenne and Yuna (who were with Kuja and the rest of the Baseball team). He instead headed to the performing arts block, stopping to see Mrs Heartilly to obtain the keys to our music classroom.

I thought this was a good idea – the only way into the performing arts block was to go past the teachers lounge and through a gate so nobody could ever have done it without the teachers knowing. Besides, this meant that Cloud would most likely be playing the piano to try and cheer Squall up (which had never failed before).

We ascended the stairs to the second floor music room and as expected, Cloud headed straight for the piano. "Want to hear the song I've written for the school festival?" he said, a smile plastered onto his face again. I looked at Squall who seemed to have partially returned to his usual self "I'd like that" he said with a slight grin on his face as well. He'd loved hearing Cloud on the Piano and so did I when it came to it.

From the moment that Cloud had struck the first chord, I was enthralled by the music that Cloud had written. The song was slow and his voice sure as he sang. That being said, I felt so unusually saddened by it. When the final notes died, leaving silence in the wake of that song. I'll admit that I had tears in my eyes. The effect it had on me was nothing in comparison to how Squall must have felt.

The profound look on Squall's face said it all. We both knew who Cloud had written that song for. It was for Squall without a doubt. Cloud's face had the smallest trace of a blush on his cheeks though he kept silent. Squall looked at us both with happiness in his eyes and it made the tears threatening to spill fall.

Seeing me with tears running down my cheeks he laughed "That's so mean, laughing at a lady when she's crying" I said though that only made him laugh more and I ended up following suit. The three of us felt so much happier at the moment now that Squall had recovered. We weren't pretending that the problem didn't exist at all, but we knew that it had subsided for the time being.