Zell,
xxx
* *
* *
“Zell!”
Hearing his name, Zell
closed the book and looked up to watch Quistis approach from the sea, her arms
folded across her chest to protect her modesty in her swimsuit.
The older woman pushed her wet hair away from her face and smiled.
She bent down, picked up her towel, and shook the sand off of it
vigorously before settling with Zell on his to dry herself.
“What’re you up to then?”
She nodded at the black book Zell was holding protectively.
“Nuffin’, jus’ writin’ me
journal, baby!” He grinned and
waved the book at her. “In case of
GF induced amnesia.”
“Why?”
She wore a humorous half-frown. “Going
somewhere?”
“No…” He frowned too, a
more serious one than hers.
“So, you’re not going
anywhere, do you even have a GF Junctioned at the moment?”
He shook his head, his blue eyes narrowed in an attempt to figure out
where this was going. “So what
makes you think you’ll forget him?”
“’Him?’”
He looked puzzled.
“Don’t play dumb, Zell.”
Quistis flicked her damp hair at him in mock reproach.
“Him. Squall!”
She pointed across the beach towards the water she had just left, her
finger aimed directly at the chestnut-haired, grey-eyed SeeD commander who
stood knee-deep in the cold sea, scowling darkly at Selphie as she tried to
shepherd him deeper. “If you’re
not going anywhere, what makes you think you’ll forget him?”
Zell blushed, drawing up
his knees across his blue towel and dropping his chin against them.
“What makes you think I was writing about him?”
He rubbed nervously at his calve with the corner of his journal.
“Just a theory I have,
that the only thing that can make you think,” her head disappeared as she
rubbed at it with her towel. “Is
him,” she finished when she emerged.
He stared at her with
pretend fury. “The only
thing? That’s it!
Feel my wrath Quisty!” He
took a playful swipe at her head with his book; half hoping he would hit her so
the conversation would stop before he told her anything.
He had a problem about telling lies in general, but to Quistis it was
damn near impossible.
“Aha!” she chuckled as she
ducked the swinging book. “Diversionary
tactics. Trying to hide something
Dincht?”
“Hide something, what on
Earth would I want to hide?”
“I don’t know,” Quistis
remarked in a manner that said quite plainly that she did know, she just
wouldn’t say. “But you were
staring at him so hard I though he would spontaneously combust!”
The blonde man rolled his eyes.
“Yeah, well,” he snatched
his bag close and shoved his journal inside roughly.
“Jus’ can’t help myself sometimes.”
“Sarcasm?”
Her icy cool eyes fixed Zell’s intense ones in a challenge, and he had
to fight not to look away. Eventually
though, his eyes darted away from hers to Squall, who was now being harassed by
Irvine as well as Selphie.
“I’d say about…forty-five
percent sarcasm.”
“The other fifty-five
percent?”
“Bitter honesty,” he gave
her a wry grin before his eyes moved back to Squall.
“I mean, jus’ look at him.” Quistis
turned her head to watch Squall fending off Selphie and her sidekick who were
engaging in a game of ‘Let’s pull down Squall’s swimming shorts’.
“Sometimes I really can’t help myself.
He’s…he’s… You know what I
mean. You saw it before as well.”
Quistis nodded.
“He’s beautiful.”
Zell nodded. Quistis
knew exactly what he saw; it was the precise word he had used in his journal.
“And on top of that I…I,
jus’” he smashed a fist against the sand and shot her a pained expression, and
she didn’t need him to finish that sentence to know what he meant.
“Really I do…” his wistful tone confirmed Quistis’ speculation and she
nodded, and they continued watching the three SeeDs in the water.
“But he’s such a bastard sometimes.”
Selphie let out something
akin to a battle cry and leapt onto Squall’s back, then Irvine disappeared
beneath the chill water’s unusually calm surface, Squall and the maniacally
giggling Selphie soon followed. A
few seconds and several violent splashes later, Irvine surfaced, waving a pair
of black shorts above his head. He
ran back to the beach, a little hindered by the fact that he was waist deep in
water, waving the shorts back and forth all the way, Selphie followed swimming.
Even in the excitement of their victory she still had more sense than
the Galbadian cowboy, but then, being short as she was, meant she wouldn’t get
far running in the water anyway.
Squall broke the surface,
already halfway through a demand that they bring his shorts back, but the two
SeeDs merely danced about on the shore, the shorts held up like a banner,
laughing.
“You’re not the boss here
Squall! Here you’re just a
friend,” Irvine called back. “Equal
treatment! Thems your orders!”
The two blondes seated on
Zell’s towel watched, laughing at Squall’s distress, and Squall glared at them
to cover his embarrassment and the blush creeping across his cheeks.
Irvine was right after all; he said he wanted to be treated just as they
would anyone else. Outside
of Garden, he had told them, rank was irrelevant, and he was just one of the
guys. He had practically asked
for the abuse.
Squall’s grey-eyes caught
Zell’s, and the tattooed man on the beach could see the pleading in them, it
was the closest to a request for help anyone ever got from Squall since Rinoa
had left, and it was usually only Zell or Quistis that saw it.
Zell sighed.
“Selphie,” he called to
the green-eyed cadet currently in possession of the trunks.
“Give ‘em back now.”
“Aww, come on, Zelly!”
He gave her an apologetic
look. “Selphie, don’t be a bitch.
Give ‘em back.”
“Sorry!
No can do!” She grinned
proudly at her deviousness. “I
don’t have them anymore!” She
threw the shorts to Irvine.
“Irve?”
“No way, man!”
The Galbadian’s answer was immediate.
“We got our superior in a real compromisin’ position.
Are you aware of the blackmail potential!”
He laughed, and Zell felt another desperate look from Squall.
Wearily, he began to push
himself to his feet, but Quistis caught hold of his wrist.
“You don’t have to.
It’ll be good for him to suffer a little while longer.”
She grinned, her eyes alive with mischief.
“I know, but it won’t do me
any good to watch him suffer a little while longer.”
He smiled at her and she gave his arm an understanding squeeze.
He stood and brushed sand from his legs, and Irvine took the opportunity
to start running.
Zell was a martial artist,
he was fitter than Irvine, and inevitably he caught up with him.
Unfortunately for squall’s sake, it wasn’t until after he had fed the
shorts to an adamantoise he found dozing behind a rock.
The blonde came walking
back along the beach massaging his knuckles and muttering.
Irvine came walking back along the beach massaging a crack in his skull
and whining.
Selphie danced over to her
longhaired lover. “Aw, Irvy-poo!
You ‘kay?”
“He hit me!”
“Damn right!”
Zell shot the remark back at him over his shoulder as he made his way to
his towel and Quistis, leaving Selphie to her motherings.
“Where are they?”
“Idiot fed ‘em to a
turtle,” Zell stated as he kicked off his trainers.
He pulled his white tank top over his head, carefully so as not to mess
up his hair which was gelled into a crest of vertical blonde spikes.
Zell had a second tattoo on his chest, larger than the one on his face
which reached from his brow and down his cheek, it was a continuation of its
tribal theme, and covered the left side of his chest in spidery black lines.
Zell picked up his baggy denim shorts and headed for the sea.
“Where are you going with
those?” Quistis questioned. If he
gave them to Squall, Zell would have to wear a pair of soaking wet shorts for
the journey back to Garden later.
Zell turned, continuing to walk backwards.
“They’re for Squall, he won’t come out wi’ nuffin’ on.”
“But what will you
wear?” Zell shrugged.
“These.”
He snapped the elastic waistband of his purple swim shorts.
“Zell, wait!”
But he had turned back around and ran straight for the water.
Quistis watched his back retreat into the grey sea, keeping his hair
above the gentle waves. Never one
to miss an opportunity twice, Quistis glanced at Zell’s bag, then took his
journal from it and flipped it open.
She looked up at Zell,
teasing Squall with the denim shorts that were now dark and heavy with the
water they had absorbed, and then back down at the book in her hands.
“Oh, Zell…”
A/N: Ta-da! Confidence
Trickster, chapter one! It’s much
better than my previous attempt, and if you didn’t read or can’t remember my
previous attempt, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
I for one, think this is going to go quite well.
Anyone agree? Disagree?
Don’t care? If you can
answer yes to those first two questions, give me a review.
If a yes to the third, don’t bother.