Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Lightning. ❯ Chapter, The Twenty-Second: In Which Seifer and Selphie do Their Thing. ( Chapter 22 )

Kitty: Assignments! ARGH! -head explodes-

Eoko: Getting summoner from 1-20 in 3 days on FFXI... very fun. XD

Kitty: Yeah, yeah. Rub it in... Anyway! Seifer and Selphie do their thing in this chapter. I don't exactly remember what thing, but that's okay. I'm sure it's good.

Eoko: Of course, and considering the angst of last chapter, and considering this one's mine, it's probably a lot more comic than angsty. Yay for that.

Kitty: You love the angst. Go on. Admit it. You're a closet angst-whore.

Eoko: I believe I came out of to closet in that regard. But I still tend to lighten it up after.

Kitty: Your comedy is good. I applaud you.

Eoko: Your angst is better. I praise you. Shall we let them read?

Kitty: I think we should. Do you think they even read these...?

Eoko: I dunno... they rarely mention them...

Chapter, The Twenty-Second: In Which Seifer and Selphie do Their Thing.

And then Zell cried. He curled up on the side of the hill, face buried in his hands and he cried. He had hoped with everything he had that Irvine would somehow forget what he had done to him in the past, and only remember his time spent with Rubedo. He was the same person, dammit!

Zell’s fists slammed into the ground, denting it noticeably. He was the same. He was Rubedo. But all Irvine could see was the teasing, and tormenting of his past self. It wasn’t fair… It wasn’t fair! And he knew, deep down, he knew he deserved this.

- - -

Seifer had agreed to meet Zell in Balamb at 1500 hours. In one of Zell’s nervous ramblings he’d mentioned the time he’d pick up Irvine. The taller man had done his best to calm the little blond down.

The thinking was, if it went poorly, Zell would have some time to himself and if it went well, the two would have some time together. For some reason unbeknownst to him he didn’t want it to work out, didn’t think it even could.

He glanced at his clock. He’d already had lunch and spent some time in one of the training rooms, just lifting some weights and making several dozen cadets and SeeDs drool as he did. If he walked to Balamb he should go pretty soon.

After changing into a jade turtleneck and a pair of black jeans, Seifer headed out the door, Hyperion at his side. He didn’t bother with his trench coat today. It wasn’t too chilly out, so he didn’t think he’d need it.

Seifer headed down the street to Balamb, slashing at BiteBugs too stupid to know that attacking him was one of the most idiotic things they could do. BiteBugs really needed to get smarter, but considering the size of their brains, that wasn’t going to happen.

He was about half way to the town when something metallic red and blue caught his eye. He stopped and turned. That was Zell’s Sleipnir. But what was it still doing out here? Knowing Zell, he’d already be in Balamb, waiting for him to show up. Psycho little blond was adamant about being on time unless Seifer did something to make him late.

He turned off the road and headed toward the bike. Then stopped. But why was the bike still there? Had it gone well? Had it gone so well that they had lost track of time… were they…? Seifer started walking again, pace quicker than before.

He was nearly there when he heard the sounds, but they weren’t what he expected. He didn’t want to hear the sounds he expected but he didn’t want to hear these sounds either. He ran the rest of the way, dropping onto the ground next to Zell and pulling the fighter into his arms.

They had met at noon, hadn’t they? It couldn’t have been more than half an hour by the time Zell had taken off the helmet. That left… two and a half hours for his crying to turn to choked sobs and his tears to run out.

Seifer cradled the shorter blond in his arms, whispering to him softly, trying to soothe him.

Slowly, very slowly Zell came out of whatever trance he had been in, moving against the larger body of Seifer and fisting his hands in the jade top. “Seifer…?” It was less than a whisper.

“Shh, shh, Zell. I’m here.” He wanted to say it would be alright, but he didn’t think the fighter would take it too well. “Tell me what happened?

Zell buried his face against Seifer chest, and was only held tighter. “He hates me…” he whispered. “He hates me…”

Seifer rubbed gentle circles on the fighter’s back. “Zell, Zell, shhh. Let’s get you back to Garden and you can tell me exactly what happened, alright?” Zell could only nod slightly.

- - -

“So… So, Seifer, you have to. Please, you have to be my partner for demonstrations. I have 6 more classes and I can’t just ditch them in the training center the whole time. I’m his partner. If I have to demonstrate with him too… I just can’t Seifer, please??”

“Zell, Zell!” Seifer grabbed the pacing blond by the shoulders and threw him onto his bed. “Yes, Zell. Yes. I already said I would. Calm down, please. Just breathe deep and relax for five fucking seconds.”

Sapphire eyes looked up at the taller man then to the side. He really was flipping out and he couldn’t even control it at all. “Sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, Zell. Just calm down.”

“I’ll try.”

“Roll over,” Seifer said, kneeling on the edge of the bed.

“What?” Zell blinked up at him.

Seifer shook his head, chuckling lightly. “Roll over so I can rub some of that tension out of your back, alright?”

“Oh.” Zell did as he was asked, rolling onto his stomach. He folded his arms beneath his head as Seifer shifted his weight to settle over Zell’s smaller body.

Large, strong hands worked their way over Zell’s back and deep into his tight muscles. He was tense, very tense. It had probably been building up every since he’d made the arraignment to meet with Irvine and show him who he really was. Hyne, he was tight. Seifer was very tempted to just start beating the knots out of his muscles. Who knows, Zell might have even enjoyed it, being the little sadomasochist that he was.

- - -

How…? How? How, How, How?!

Irvine mentally screamed again and again and again as he tore from the plains and back into Garden. How could the man he cared about, who made him see the truth in himself, who made him happy about that truth… how could his Rubedo be… be… be…

“Irvine?” Selphie blinked as Irvine strode by, fury emanating off him stronger than his trademark cologne. And she got nothing. She turned and headed after him. “Irvy?” Nothing…

The cowboy marched himself right back into his room, Selphie slipping under his arm and through the opened door, not being noticed. He fell onto his bed and started to beat the living shit out of his pillows.

“Irvine!” Selphie raised her voice a few decibels to gain the man’s attention.

“Selphie?? How did you get in here?” He turned to look at her, utterly flabbergasted.

She cocked a brow at him. “Through the door, under your arm.”

He looked at his arm and at the door like it wasn’t possible, then back to her.

“What’s wrong with you? You look like you’ve emptied your cartridge but still think you can take on the Galbadia Army.” Two little fists came to rest on two little hips.

Irvine let out a long, suffering sigh. “Remember Rubedo?”

Not good, not good, not good. Don’t say you know. Don’t say you knew! You didn’t know it was Zell! Selphie mentally prepared herself. “I think I remember you mentioning him, yea. What about him?”

“He were great. He were so great I opened myself up to him. So much I realized something’ I’d, like, never known before. That I like men. That I’m gay.” He smiled weakly up at Selphie. He knew she’d understand. She supported Seifer and Zell all the time, too much if you asked some people.

“Well, that’s good isn’t it?” She chewed nervously on her lower lip.

“You’d think… you’d think it would be, but it ain’t. I got to see him. Finally got to after waitin’ all this time, and I was, like, so happy, and then… and then everythin’… it was like I got hit with Time Compression again, right in my heart and gut.”

“You found out…” Selphie lifted a hand to smack herself in the head, hard.

Irvine stared at her. “What did you say?”

“Nothing!”

“Did you just say “you found out”? I found out? Found out what?? Did you know?!”

Selphie started backing up, smartly, in the direction of the door. “I, uh… well, I knew… I knew Zell’s middle name was Rubedo… I knew… that he drove a Sleipnir… and I… may have talked to him and Seifer-” She squeaked and ducked from his lunge at her, scurrying to the side.

“You were in on this too?? You knew they were doing this to me!?”

She dashed to the other side of the room, using her smallness to her advantage to get away from Irvine. “They said they’d stop teasing! They said they’d leave you alone!”

“And break my heart?! Was that part of the plan too?”

Selphie stared, and narrowly avoided getting full body tackled. She yelped and grabbed Irvine’s shoulders, pushing him back and pinning him to the wall. “You were so happy talking about Rubedo.”

“Rubedo doesn’t exist! He’s Zell! I hate Zell!”

Selphie leaned her head down and hit Irvine square in the chest with it as her hands were busy. “Rubedo exists in Zell Dincht, just as the very name sits between the two. There’s a thin line between love and hate, cowboy, and I think you’re in the air and don’t know where to land.”

The hyper-gone-serious brunette let go of Irvine and left, only to hear the words ‘I hate him!’ ring out behind her, through the metal door and half way down the hall.

“I hate him…” Irvine whispered to himself, the room suddenly feeling very quiet. “I hate him… it was all a game… he used me… he fooled me… he played me… he probably had cameras, has pictures… he’s going to make my life hell, I just know it…”

- - -

Why can’t he understand? Why can’t he see even the smallest, tiniest hint of what I was doing with him? Why couldn’t he see I was genuine? That I wanted to be there, that I wanted to see him… Why couldn’t he see that I care… why can he only hate me…?