For His Love
Chapter 17
By Pixie158
Disclaimer: *Nothing’s changed…they still don’t belong to me.
For His Love
Chapter 17
By Pixie158
Selphie’s moaning was driving Seifer nuts. He wanted to reach over and pop her in the back of the head, but Quistis was watching him carefully, so he refrained.
"Ohmygoodness, my stomach is killing me. Irvy, please rub it for meeeeee!"
Seifer’s hands tightened on the wheel and he could almost feel his teeth grinding away to little white nubs.
"She can’t help it, Seifer. She’s not doing it on purpose." Quistis’ voice was soft and beseeching, and it worked on him precisely as she had intended. He cast her a quick glance, not wanting to wreck the car and be stranded alongside the road with a wailing Selphie. She’d have Irvine carrying her on his back, he was sure.
"It huuuuurrrrrtttsssssssss so bad….Irvy, rub it softer, that’s too hard and you’re gonna make me throw uuuup!"
Seifer’s left eye started to twitch and Quistis covered her smile with the back of her fingers.
"I’m rubbin’ it Selphie! What else do you want me to do?" Irvine’s voice was nearing a new level of hysteria and Seifer was afraid the poor guy was gonna crack. He knew he would if he had to deal with her day in and day out. Cute or not, she was a real pain in the ass.
"Why did she eat three orders of tiramisu anyway? That stuff’ll make you sick." His voice was low and irritable. Quistis didn’t act at all surprised at Selphie’s behavior.
"You don’t look bothered. How many times has she done this?"
Quistis smiled at him and tried to talk quietly, not wanting Selphie to notice her and ask her to climb in the back seat and help rub her tummy.
"Whenever we eat there, she overdoes it on the tiramisu. Last time I had to hold her hair out of her face while she threw up a five-course dinner. Two courses being dessert number one and dessert number two. But, at least she waited until we were back in our rooms." She smiled ruefully at the memory of Selphie looking at Quistis over the toilet seat, her heart in her eyes, begging her to never, EVER let her eat that much ever again. Quistis had readily agreed, and gently reminded her tonight at dinner not to make herself sick. Selphie had smiled sweetly at her and announced with wide eyes, ‘Oh, I’m okay Quisty, I haven’t eaten all day, and I’m just so HUNGRY!’.
Quistis shook her head, still smiling and noticed that Seifer was sneaking little glances at her from time to time. She smiled to herself, and couldn’t help the blush she felt spreading over her. Things had changed between them since this afternoon and she was afraid to ask him what it all meant, afraid he would say it had been nothing.
"What’s the matter, Quis?" His words were tinged with concern and she knew that they needed to talk, but there was no way she was going to play twenty questions with Selphie in the backseat. Sick to death or not, that girl was a walking gossip column. She’d pester Quistis for weeks if she heard anything juicy.
Quistis glanced over her shoulder at the backseat’s occupants. Irvine was frantically rubbing Selphie’s stomach, his hat pushed back on his head, revealing his perfect profile. Poor, poor Irvine…
She turned back to Seifer and placed her hand on his arm. Her touch practically seared him through his coat and he wanted nothing more than to pull the car over and drag her out into the night. Not likely, with Selphie moaning and chanting in the backseat like she was about to give birth. Quistis’ soft voice broke into his thoughts.
"What a mess. Now we’ll have to make arrangements to pick up the extra car."
Seifer grinned at her.
"I don’t need to make arrangements. I’m gonna drop off the junkie back there and let Irvine deal with her. He can hold her hair back tonight. Then you and I are coming back to pick up the other car. I wasn’t ready to go back to Garden anyway." Quistis was afraid to read anything into his words so she settled for a safe reply.
"You weren’t?" Real inspiring, Quistis.
He flashed her a grin that had her wanting to melt into the floorboard.
"We never got to see the beach today."
Quistis flushed, remembering the events that took place after that conversation.
"It’s getting cold out, you know what the sea air will be like."
He smiled at her prim words. She reminded him of an elementary school teacher sometimes.
"The air is fine. I promise I won’t let you get cold."
The very thought of Seifer keeping her warm had shivers skittering right up her spine. And it also made her a little nervous. She didn’t know exactly how much warming he intended to do, and she was afraid she’d given him the wrong idea when she kissed him in the middle of the street, in front of everyone today. How on earth would that give him the wrong idea, Quistis? It’s not like you jumped into his arms and tried to swallow his tongue or anything.
Quistis would swear to almost anyone that her conscience was a real entity, designed to ensure she lived the life of a nun.
"You shut up!" She hissed.
Seifer glanced at her briefly before turning his eyes back to the road ahead.
"You say something, Quis?"
Quistis smiled brightly, overdoing it just a little. Oh well, it was getting dark, who cared? She was suddenly grateful for Selphie’s distraction.
"Uh, no. I was just thinking out loud." Another brilliant remark Quistis…you should really be writing these down.
Seifer grimaced as Selphie let out another shriek, amazed that the windows didn’t shatter with that last one. Irvine was fanning her with his hat, looking around desperately.
"What are you looking for, Irvine?" Quistis called to him, attempting to speak over Selphie’s whimpering.
"An escape? A gag? A razor blade?" Seifer mumbled.
Quistis giggled, unable to hide her laughter. Irvine looked up, his eyes bright and a little…crazy?
"You’re not gonna flip out or anything, are you Irv?"
Irvine shook his head and Quistis wasn’t real sure that he was capable of intelligent conversation at that point.
"Nuh..uh, nothing…I mean, no! No, I’m fine…hey, Seifer, could you drive a little faster? Just a little, huh?"
Seifer laughed.
"Sure thing, pal…hang on to your hat." He pressed his foot down on the accelerator and shot a mischievous grin at Quistis as she fell back into her seat with the force of their acceleration. The wind was pulling her hair free of its’ confines and she laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all.
The room was shrouded in darkness when he awoke, and he felt a moment’s panic at the unfamiliarity of his situation. He began to relax when his eyes adjusted to the lack of light and he could make out the shape of Zell’s punching bag in the corner of the room. He smiled to himself and stretched languidly, enjoying the feel of the crisp white sheets and the solid warmth huddled beside him.
He turned to wrap an arm around Zell and rested his chin on the top of Zell’s head, his hair hanging into his face in his repose. Squall felt his heart swell at the sight of him lying so peacefully beside him and he rubbed his cheek against his hair, breathing in the faint scent of strawberries. He should’ve guessed Zell would use strawberry scented shampoo. It was typical of him.
Zell stirred slightly, mumbling something in his sleep. Squall pulled him closer into his arms and dropped a kiss on his shoulder. Zell came awake slowly?
"Squall?" His voice was husky and disoriented.
"Yes, Squall. How many other guys have you had in your bed?" Squall was teasing, but as he felt the quick stab of jealousy, he was almost afraid of what Zell’s answer would be.
Zell only snuggled into his embrace and sighed contentedly. Squall experienced a moment of irritation as Zell’s breathing became deep and even again. He’s going back to sleep?
Then he felt a hand on his hip as Zell spoke softly.
"Only you."
This satisfied him, and he became annoyed with himself for even caring. If Zell’s recent performances were any indication, he’d certainly not come into this relationship untouched. He shook his head, clearing the unwanted thoughts when Zell sat up suddenly.
Squall sat up with him, startled.
"What? What’s wrong?"
Zell kicked off the blankets and sprung out of the bed, searching around in the dark room for his clothes.
"I’m starving. Let’s eat."
Squall suppressed a laugh and grunted in surprise as his own clothes came flying at him from Zell’s direction.
"What? You’re not even going to help me get dressed?" Squall pretended to be hurt. It didn’t work; he could hear Zell’s soft laughter as he struggled into his shirt.
"Hey, I took ‘em off, you can at least put ‘em back on."
Squall grinned into the darkness and began to pull his clothes on.
Downstairs, Zell was rummaging through cabinets and muttering to himself.
"…never anything good to eat around here."
Squall peered into the kitchen and saw Zell’s rear end sticking out of a big cabinet while he basically made a mess inside of it.
"Hey, we can always go out for something." Squall suggested.
Zell snorted in amusement.
"Are you kidding me? We aint in Dollet baby. This place is locked up tighter than a frog’s ass after 9 o’clock."
Squall didn’t comment on his analogy, but shrugged and said, "There’s gotta be something in there, move, let me look."
Zell backed away and crossed his arms over his chest.
"Tch, fine. You think you can do better, be my guest."
Squall poked around in the cabinet and sighed. Nothing.
"Isn’t there anyplace that’s open?"
Zell looked up; the excitement in his eyes made Squall want to laugh. He looked like a drunk who just found out it was happy hour, so he must’ve thought of a place to eat.
"We’ll go to the hotel! The restaurant there is open late. We can hang out there for a while." He looked very pleased with himself.
Squall nodded and moved toward the stairs.
"Let me get my jacket." Zell stopped him with a hand on his arm. Squall looked up, surprised.
"I’ll get it, you stay here." He grinned at him before he turned and bounded up the steps. Squall had to smile. It seemed he’d been doing a lot of that lately…
Zell returned holding Squall’s jacket. He moved toward him as if he was going to hand it over, but as Squall stepped forward, Zell pulled the jacket away and pulled Squall close to him instead.
They collided sharply, Squall grunting as he came into contact with the solid wall of muscle that was Zell’s chest.
"Hey…what was that all…"
He didn’t get to finish his sentence as Zell was slanting his mouth over his own, one hand pressing the jacket to Squall’s chest, the other sliding up into Squall’s hair. Squall could feel the cool slide of Zell’s gloves against his skin and he shivered.
When Zell pulled back, he gazed at Squall through hooded eyes and smiled slowly.
"Don’t get too comfortable in those clothes. I’m not done with you yet." He smiled wickedly at him and then he turned to open the door while Squall stood there, staring, still holding the jacket loosely. Zell reached out and grabbed his hand, pulling him out into the night.
"Let’s go, I’m hungry."
Author's Notes: *sorry this one is so short you guys, but the dog must’ve eaten something that didn’t agree with her, because she has REALLY bad gas..and I can’t stay in here any longer…so more good stuff next time~?