Just best friends
Chapter 1
Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns all the characters. I don’t own anything.
Just best friends
Chapter 1
Squall walked into the cafeteria an unusual smile on his face. He spotted his friends sitting at a nearby table. Selphie was the first to spot him.
“Hey, you’re surprisingly merry. What happened?”
Squall shrugged. “What? It’s a beautiful morning. Can’t I just be in a good mood?”
“You can’t, it’s scary.”
Squall smiled heading over to the food queue.
It was ten am on Sunday; Squall had just got up. He frowned at what Selphie had said. Why shouldn’t he be in a good mood, there was no work today, he’d had had a lie in and after breakfast the whole group were going down to the beach. He brought two pieces of marmalade on toast and a black coffee. Sitting down at the table he sighed. There was only one thing that could make this day any better.
He looked up at the others listening in on their conversion. Irvine held his newspaper open on the comic strip page.
“YAH! I love Fred Bassett.” Selphie cheered.
“No, Marmaduke’s so much better.” Zell argued.
“Zell, only sad people read Marmaduke.”
“Not true Marmaduke’s cool."
“Not as cool as Garfield.” Irvine put in.
Squall rolled his eyes. His friends really hadn’t got the hang of adult conversions yet.
It was pathetic really.
“Stop being so childish. You’d never catch me behaving like that.
He noticed as Selphie looked up slightly then smirked.
“We’ll see.” Zell said.
Squall frowned, wondering what that meant. He settled back in his chair just as someone jabbed him in his sides knowing he was ticklish there.
He jumped and squealed like a girl so loud that the whole cafeteria turned to look at him.
Squall spun round to glare at Seifer in mock anger, he just chuckled.
“Geez, calm down will ya?”
Seifer sat down beside his best friend, stealing a piece of his toast and earning him a frosty glare.
“What? You don’t want me to go hungry now, do ya?”
“Get your own food.”
“I don’t have to, I can always take yours.”
He reached for Squall’s coffee but it was pulled away from him.
“Fine, fine I’ll get my own.”
Seifer stood ruffling Squall’s hair affectionately.
Quistis tried not to laugh as she watched the scene before her. Squall was just saying he would never act childishly. She sighed. Typical. Just best friends they said, then how come Squall turned into a lovesick schoolboy whenever Seifer was with him. Everyone could see it, and Seifer wasn’t much better. They did everything together and there were rumours that they shared a bed, too. Seifer had sworn there was nothing sexually between them in front of everyone and everyone saw the look on Squall’s face when he said it. He looked like he’d just been dumped. It was heart breaking.
They would make such a good couple, too.
Seifer sat down with the same breakfast as Squall except he had milk in his coffee.
“So... When are we going to the beach then?”
“As soon as you guys have finished eating. Have you brought your trunks?” Selphie giggled.
Seifer smirked. “I’m going skinny-dipping.”
“Yuck. It’s a public beach Seif.”
“Well I haven’t brought my trunks.”
“I’ll have to pretend I don’t know you then,” Squall replied.
Seifer leaned over and put his arm around his friend’s shoulders.
“Well I’m not swimming alone, Squall.”
This got a grin out of his friend. Squall half-heartedly shrugged Seifer off his shoulders.
“Come on. The faster you eat the faster we can go to the beach!” Selphie was grinning from ear-to-ear.
Seifer stood with his toast. “Let’s go then. I can eat on the go.”
“GREAT!” Selphie jumped up followed by Zell. “Come on!”
The other four fell in behind them walking in twos. Irvine with Quistis and Squall with Seifer.
Quisis lay her towel down on the sand settling down with a book, slightly irritated when Zell and Selphie quickly stripped down to their swimming wear, kicking sand everywhere in the process and ran towards the sea.
Seifer and Squall automatically did the same as each other. Both stripping down to their swimming trunks and lay on their backs to sunbathe side by side.
There was only half an hour of silence before Seifer spoke up. He never could stay quiet for long.
“You ever sunbathed nude?” He asked looking at Squall.
“Yeah once, on a deserted beach. Or at least I thought it was deserted until a screaming girl woke me up.”
Seifer chuckled. “Traumatized the poor girl, did ya? What did you do?”
Squall sat up gesturing to his body.
“I asked her if she liked what she saw.” He grinned.
Seifer laughed. “I would have killed to see that.”
“What, the screaming girl or Squall naked?” Irvine asked as he sat beside Quistis handing her an ice cream.
“Both.” Seifer smirked.
Squall raised his eyebrows.
“This is boring. Squall, come swimming with me.”
“I can’t, I need a tan.”
“Please?” Seifer gave his best puppy dog eyes look. “I won’t bother you for the rest of the day; I’ll buy you an ice cream.”
The brunette sighed. “Okay, but I’ll hold you to the ice cream deal.”
“So...” Irvine began as their friends disappeared from sight. “Do you think they’re fucking yet?”
“Nah, but they will get there eventually I’m sure of it.”
“Hmm. Do you remember when Seifer first arrived back at garden after the sorceress’ war?”
“Yeah, that was strange wasn’t it.
~Flashback~
The gang of heroes including Rinoa stood in Cid’s office as he explained that Seifer wanted to come back to garden.
Selphie was glad to see him. “Seifer. We thought you were dead.”
Seifer’s eyes held regret and sadness. He stared at the floor for a long time. When he did look up he instantly met Squall’s gaze. The SeeD commander hadn’t taken his eyes off his old rival since he arrived. There was a long pause as both young men stared into each other’s eyes. Those who didn’t watch just presumed the look was full of hatred and rivalry, but in Seifer’s eyes there was regret, relief, compassion and confusion. Squall looked very much the same; he too regretted past things.
“Squall?” The headmaster called.
“Huh?... Oh sorry sir.”
“Squall, it’s up to you. Do you think Seifer should be readmitted?”
“You can’t let him back in!” Rinoa cried. “He tried to kill me!”
“Well, Squall?”
“Yeah, he can come back.”
Rinoa was the only one who looked shocked.
“You can’t! I refuse to stay in the same place as a known murderer. Either you tell him to leave or I will.”
Much to everyone’s surprise Squall glanced from Rinoa to Seifer a few times like he was trying to decide between them. He turned to Seifer.
“You can stay.”
Of course Rinoa didn’t leave, she just wanted to test her power over Squall.
“Thank you,” was all Seifer said.
An even bigger surprise was when Squall smiled slightly.
After the meeting, Squall and Seifer shared an elevator on the way down to catch up on the things Seifer had missed.
“Are you and Rinoa a couple now?”
“No, no I don’t like her that way... we’re friends.”
“You’ve done well, Squall.... I’ve lost all my friends.”
“.... You still have me.” He whispered but Seifer heard him.
An uncomfortable silence followed.
Squall stared at the floor nervously. He had Seifer back; he should he happy, he’d always liked Seifer. Between him and Rinoa there was no contest. Sure Rinoa was nice but... It wasn’t the same. With Rinoa, she wanted someone to be her knight, to protect her. Squall also wanted to be protected. He hated being the commander of garden because he wanted to be told what to do, so if there were any wrong doings he wouldn’t get the blame. Seifer wanted to be a knight and Squall was willing to let Seifer be his.
“You’re single then?”
“Yes....” I waited for you. He didn’t voice the last bit of the sentence. He was too afraid to.
“The others will forgive you, Seifer, just give them a little time.”
“Will you forgive me?”
“I already have.”
“Do you want to train with me later?” Squall asked.
“You wanna train with ME?!”
“Yeah why not?”
Seifer gave him a curious smile.
“Okay, you’re on.”
~END FLASHBACK~
“Do you think they’re in love?” Quistis asked Irvine.
“Why are you asking me?! I ain’t a woman!”
Quistis giggled. “No, but you’re the only one here and you must have noticed.”
“Squall and Seifer haven’t noticed.”
“They’re stupid. Anyway, you want to know my theory?”
Irvine groaned. “Even if I say no you’re going to tell me, aren’t you?”
“Yes.” She grinned.
“Go on then, what’s the big theory?”
She sat up, sitting cross-legged.
“I think they love each other, but they don’t want to jeopardise their friendship. So they hide their feelings even to themselves to save themselves any heartache.
Irvine shook his head. “Wow. You should be a Physiologist Quisty.”
“Well, it’s easy to see really. Nobody buys that ‘Just best friends’ crap."
“Friends who are in love.” Irvine mused. “Like us?” He asked hopefully.
She giggled and threw sand at him.
“Let’s play tag team water fight,” Selphie yelled enthusiastically.
“No, because those two will pair up and we’ll lose,” Zell grumped.
Selphie swam over to Seifer.
“I’ll pair with Seifer and you can pair with Squall.”
Seifer grinned. “You get the chicken.”
“Don’t I get a say in who I’m paired with?”
“NO.”
Selphie announced the fight on, by flinging herself at Squall, half drowning him in the process. He came up coughing and spluttering. Seifer and Zell were bitch slapping each other.
“I think we’re winning!” Selphie shouted as she tickled Squall.
Squall aside from Zell was the most ticklish person in the whole of Balamb. It was easy to get him to do things just by tickling him.
The shrieking mass of limbs known as Squall desperately tried to get away from Selphie only to swim straight into Seifer. The blonde had a dangerous glint in his eyes, catching his best friend round the waist and pulling him backwards. All the noise Squall was making you’d have thought he was being murderer or something.
The SeeD glanced round looking for Zell finding no trace of him.
“WAIT! Where’s my team-mate gone?!”
“Oh he quit. Said the teams were unfairly matched or something.” Selphie smirked.
Seifer now had Squall held with his hands behind his back and his back pressed against Seifer’s chest.
Squall struggled for all he was worth.
“NO! This isn’t fair! GAME OVER!!”
“But it’s just getting fun.” A voice purred in his ear from behind.
Selphie swam up to them. “You hold him down and I’ll tickle him.”
“NO!”
Selphie started to jab him continuously in the abdomen. Squall squealed pressing himself against Seifer to keep the distance between Selphie and himself.
“LEAVE...ME...ALONE!”
Squall laughed himself out until he sagged against his friend resting his head on Seifer’s chest.
“I think he’s had enough Selphie.”
Seifer looked down at the brunette.
“You okay?”
He released Squall’s wrists and wrapped his arms around him.
“Squall?”
“Tired... too much... laughing.”
He felt Seifer chuckle.
Quistis looked up as Selphie joined them.
“Something happened? You’re out of the water I thought it would take a shark attack for that to happen.”
“We tickled Squall until he collapsed.”
“And you left him out in the sea to drown?!” Zell looked up from his sunbathing.
“Nah, Seifer’s got him.”
“It sounds like he’s a pet the way you say that."
Selphie giggled pointing down the beach. “Aww look!”
The group turned looking amused as Seifer walked up the beach holding the brunette in his arms.
“Aww, you look adorable.” She told Squall.
“Shut up. I just couldn’t be bothered to walk.”
Seifer set Squall on the sand.
“Yeah right.” Irvine whispered to Quistis.
~FLASHBACK~
Squall had cancelled lunch with Quistis for the first time in eight months. She hoped nothing was wrong. They had met everyday since the end of the war, but now Seifer was back and Squall had began to distance himself from his friends again. Even Rinoa had asked him out to lunch, but to her annoyance he’d blown her off to train with Seifer.
Seifer really had changed. He was determined to pass the SeeD exam. He asked Squall for help in training and he was more friendly. This new Seifer was provoking changes in Squall. Positive changes.
Quistis walked to Squall’s dorm to see if he was okay.
She knocked lightly. The door was unlocked which was very unSquall like.
“Squall? Anyone in?”
She stepped inside; Hearing voices she walked through to the bedroom.
At the sight before her, she nearly fainted. Squall lay on his stomach on his bed surrounded by text books and old note books. Seifer sat on the floor equally surrounded. Squall was SMILING and Seifer was grinning like an idiot.
They spotted her for the first time when she gasped in shock.
“Hey, Quisty.” Squall greeted cheerfully.
‘Quisty?’ he hadn’t called her that since they were five.
“Squall, are you okay?”
“I’m fine. Why?”
“First you cancelled lunch and now you’re smiling.”
Seifer chuckled. “You’ve still got the nickname ‘The ice prince’ I heard some of the cadets say it.”
Squall giggled.
Quistis stared in shock. She didn’t hear that. Did she? Did Squall Leonhart just giggle?
Quistis was sure she looked completely silly. She stood there mouth hanging open.
“Quisty? Are you okay?”
“I’m sorry, but I think I just slipped into the twilight zone.”
Not even Rinoa could make Squall laugh. They all thought one little smile on the balcony was a big deal THIS was impossible.
Seifer wasn’t normal either, then again what was normal for Seifer he’d changed so much lately.
“Okay. Who are you and what have you done with Squall?”
The guys chuckled again.
At the time she thought it was a one-off thing. Maybe Squall had be taking drugs or something, but from then on Squall was different around Seifer.
~END FLASHBACK~
END CHAPTER 1.
tbc.
This is only chapter 1 so I can do better.