Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Domestic ❯ Pinnacle ( Chapter 5 )

Domestic

WARNINGS:

1) I do not own FF8, Squaresoft, or get any profit out of this story

2) Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexual content

Chapter 5: Pinnacle

Dawn broke at 517 hours the next day. Zell was up at 430. He was fired up for today. The blonde always liked the idea of being a teacher, but he never followed in Quistis's footsteps. This was mainly due to the fact that he only liked teaching certain subjects. Hand-to-hand combat was one of them. Smiling, Zell threw on a heavy red sweatshirt, and left his dorm.

"Dorm numbers are always helpful," the blonde muttered to himself, as he realized he had no clue where he was going. With no shame, Zell picked a random door and knocked on it. Five minutes passed before a sleepy eyed girl opened the door.

"Hey, you wouldn't happen to know," Zell started, but the door slammed in his face. Undiscouraged, he picked another room. Five doors later, he ran into a familiar face.

"It's 515," a half-asleep Thor muttered. "What do you want?"

"You don't know what dorm Travis is in, do ya?"

"G72," Thor yawned, stretching his arms above his head.

"Thanks."

Thor nodded and yawned, and shut his door.

Turning in the opposite direction, Zell found G72 and knocked four times. Waiting for ten minutes, Zell knocked louder. Finally an extremely tiny red haired girl opened the door.

"Yes?" She asked, looking like she was going to kill Zell.

"Is Travis Azerton here?"

"Yes," she sneered.

"Can you get him?"

"He's still asleep. Like most normal people."

"Go wake him up."

"No, I'm not playing your little prank." She went to shut the door, but Zell caught it and easily overpowered her.

"I'm not some hooligan!" Zell roared loud enough to wake half the hallway. "I'm a SeeD. I'm under Leonhart's orders."

"Oh…" the girl mumbled, looking somewhat frightened.

"Go wake up Travis for me," Zell ordered. Surprisingly the door flew open, and the blonde took a step inside.

"Not on my life," the girl said meekly. "You do it. He doesn't like wake up calls." With that, the small child disappeared into her room.

Shrugging, Zell lightly closed the door and tiptoed to the other bedroom. Travis was buried under the covers with only the back of his head showing. The blonde paused and took a look around the room. The bedroom was half as big as Zell's, but it looked about the same size. Zell's room had his punching bad, T-board, and gun rack. This room was barren. Other then the standard issue bed and dresser, the blonde couldn't find another personal possession.

"Prolly not moved in yet," Zell shrugged to himself. Cautiously, he walked over to the bed and shoved the blanketed mass.

"Yo." Zell tried. "YO."

Travis refused to move.

"Is he dead?" the blonde asked himself. Shaking it off, Zell gave the boy a poke to the forehead, and another loud "YO."

"I told you it was impossible."

Zell jumped in shock, and wheeled around to see the same little girl.

"Didn't you go back to bed?" Zell sneered.

"I'm finding this more interesting."

"Well don't bother to help or anything."

"Don't worry. I wouldn't dare," she giggled.

The blonde shook his head. "YOOOOOOO!" Zell yelled while shaking the boy as hard as he could. There was still no reaction.

The little girl giggled again.

"That's it," Zell said angrily into Azerton's ear. "I know you're awake. Now it's war."

"Where are you going?" the redheaded child asked him, as he stormed past her. She heard the sound of running water, thinking Zell was getting a drink. He came back with a pitcher. "You wouldn't dare," she said, looking at him in terror.

"He asked for it," Zell smiled with half-anger/half-eagerness in his eyes.

The girl closed her eyes.

Never had Zell seen anything move so fast in his life. The moment the cold water touched the covers, Travis bolted out of bed, tripping onto the floor.

"What the fuck!" Azerton glared, half soaked.

"You asked for it!" Zell roared through laughter. "Come on you're behind already."

"You just ruined my bed!" Travis yelled, motioning to his drenched covers. "How the hell am I supposed to sleep in this!"

"It's supposed to be sunny today," Zell shrugged.

Travis just stared at him. He was pissed. Complete and utterly pissed.

Zell tried his best to hold back laughter. This was the most fun he had in a long while. "Come on man, now you're up. Let's go."

Travis continued to glare at him. "I have to get dressed, shower, and eat something," the black haired boy finally said. "Come back at 700 hours."

Zell looked down at his watch. It was 530 hours. "You have ten minutes."

"What?"

"If you don't meet me down in the lobby at 540 hours, I'm going to come and get you."

"You don't have the balls," Travis scoffed.

"Nine minutes," Zell smirked, turning to leave.

The redheaded girl was in a fit of laughter, while Travis just glared at him. Zell saluted goodbye, and headed down to the lobby. The garden was deserted, as the first sounds of morning wafted into the lobby. The blonde sat comfortably on a bench and waited for Travis to show up. Azerton was there at 537 hours. Zell laughed at his quick appearance.

"I'm glad you find it funny," Travis muttered. He was wearing a black hoody and long jeans. His chin was sprouting stubble and his eyes were half closed.

"You smell April Fresh," Zell laughed, leading him out of the Garden.

"Shut up."

The blonde laughed again, and led the way out of the Garden. The old man guarding the front gate slept peacefully as they passed by. Sunlight was just peaking over the fire cavern, and the grass was still covered with morning dew. The beach swished calmly in the background, as Zell led Travis out into the grass.

"Ok I'll tell you what," Zell nodded. They stopped ten feet from the Garden. Just close enough to stay out of monster territory. "If you can land a punch on me, I'll let you go back to bed."

Travis glared at him suspiciously.

"Oh yeah here," Zell said, pulling gloves out of his pockets. "These are my old metal knuckles. You can have them until you get something better."

"I can hit you with the gloves?" Travis asked, sliding them onto his hands.

"You can try," Zell said confidently.

"My pleasure," Azerton smirked. And then in a blur he swung.

Zell never saw anything move faster. Ducking his head back at the last second, the blonde felt the glove swish past his eyebrow.

Travis lost his balance with the momentum, and crashed to the ground.

"Not bad," Zell muttered, watching Azerton get up and dust himself off. "Always keep your feet though. When you fall your defense goes to zero. Try again."

Trying to figure his best plan of action, Travis decided on a hook to the midsection.

The blonde was ready this time though. Before the fist could connect, Zell jumped back. He heard the air whiz by, as Travis once again almost lost his footing.

"Better," Zell nodded. "You get one more shot."

Glaring at the blonde, Travis retightened his gloves. Trying not to give Zell any time to think, Azerton swung as hard as he could. He saw the surprise on Zell's face and closed his eyes as the fist was about to crack into the chin. Suddenly his body jerked as if somebody had his arm by a string. The blonde had him by the wrist. It was centimeters away from contact.

"That one would've hit," Zell said in surprise. "Not bad at all."

"Let go," Travis muttered. His shoulder was tight and his arm felt like rubber. Here he was at 600 hours fighting for more sleep time. He was disappointed with himself. Now he knew that he didn't deserve to win the tournament. He couldn't even make contact with the SeeD. Zell would've slaughtered him. He didn't want to fight anymore. It was a waste of his time. "I wonder what he'd do if I just started to walk back," Travis thought to himself. Zell still had him by the wrist, and was smiling while looking him in the eyes. "Let go," Azerton ordered again.

Zell just laughed and did the only logical thing he could think of. He tackled him.

"What the hell are you doing?" the black haired child cried as his body thudded to the ground. "Get off me."

Zell held his hands behind his back and pinned him to the ground.

"You are seriously not right! You're the worst teacher in the world! You don't just go tackle somebody. What the hell does this have to do with anything?"

"Let it all out," Zell laughed. "You're not getting up anytime here soon."

"I'll get up whenever the hell I want," Travis snapped. His shoulder ached worse then before; only adding to his anger. "You know this seriously could have been done at noon! Never get me up again! We'll hold the meetings on my time from now on!"

"This is a great time to be making negotiations."

"Fuck you," Azerton yelled with a mouthful of grass. "I hope you know your drying my bed too! You don't just throw water on people

"This is the most I've ever heard you say."

"Yeah and this is the last time I'm going to talk to you. I'm telling Riene not to answer the door anymore."

"The redhead? Oh, she was petrified of you," Zell laughed.

"Shut up!"

"Aww…do you like her," Zell cooed

"I don't like her!"

"Who do you like?"

"Not you! Get off!" Travis yelled, trying to pull his hands free.

After a few minutes of struggling, Zell noticed Azerton's breathing slow and he stopped fidgeting. "Feel better?"

"I hate you," Travis muttered into the wet grass

"We'll work on kicks tomorrow," Zell nodded, freeing his hands. "If you get good enough I'll see if I can get Thor to tag along."

Travis slowly got to his feet and stared at him blankly. With grass stains all down the front of his shirt, Azerton looked at him in utter amazement. Shaking his head, he slowly walked back to the Garden with Zell.

"I'll see ya at 530 hours tomorrow. You better be ready this time."

"…Ok," was all that he could reply. His normal social level had just peaked to the highest it had ever been. Never had he lost so much energy. He didn't feel this tired when he was in the tournament two days ago. Somehow, he realized he made a connection today. It was the most unorthodox way he ever met somebody, yet somehow he thought he knew Zell a lot better.

"Oh, and don't worry about your bed," Zell mumbled, right before they parted. "I'll have Selphie clean it up or something."

Travis just nodded and headed back to his dorm.

"How'd it go?" Riene asked, as the sweaty Travis walked back into the dorm.

Azerton shrugged, threw off his grass stained hoody and shoes, and collapsed into his soaking wet bed.

(**********)