The project
The project
"Now class this is a task that I want you to work in pairs for…" Instructor Trepe explained.
Zell sat at his desk at the front of the room praying for dear life. "Please no don’t put us in alphabetical order."
The task was to make a modal of Balamb garden out of whatever material they wanted. He could do that on his own, he didn’t need a partner. B and C were both great letters so why didn’t anyone have a surname beginning with them, that put A and D together and more importantly Almasy and Dincht.
"I’ll put you in alphabetical order."
"NOOOOO!" Zell cried out loud.
The other cadets and the instructor turned to look at him strangely. "Is there a problem Zell?"
The little blonde looked up through his fingers at her, thinking of telling her but last time he did that she put him with the next person in the alphabet so that left him with Wendy Dingle the clingiest, giggliest, horrible girl ever. She followed him around everywhere until the end of their project last time. He shuddered at the memory.
"N-No Instructor I’m fine."
She nodded. "Okay then class go sit in your pairs."
Zell let his head fall to the desk in defeat closed his eyes tightly, he rested on the right side of his head. Seifer grinned and walked across the room to slip into the empty seat beside Zell. The little blonde winced when the desk moved under his head. He opened his eyes to meet a pair of mischievous green ones; Seifer also leant his head on the desk opposite him. What was he doing? And was he getting closer?
Zell jumped up. "AHH!"
Seifer laughed. "Looks like I’m with you Chickie."
"Don’t call me that!"
"Okay chicken-Wuss, Short-ass, Birdbrain."
Zell groaned and rolled his eyes. "So about the project I thought we could make it out of paper-mache."
"Yeah okay, sure whatever."
Zell pointed seriously at Seifer. "No fucking it up!"
"Me? You’re the one that dropped our last one."
"You didn’t help; it was mine to drop!"
"Boys!" The instructor stood in front of them. "Behave or I’ll split you up and you’ll have to work on your own."
Zell perked up. Really? He opened his mouth to tell her that he really wanted to work on his own, but Seifer draped an arm around his shoulders. "Let’s okay we’re best mates really."
She gave them a doubtful look but moved on anyway. Zell knocked the arm away. "What the hell was that? She was going to give us a chance to get away from each other!"
"Who said I wanted to get away from you chickie?"
"You hate me!"
Seifer looked hurt and held a hand to his chest. "Me? Hate you? Who ever said that?"
Zell rolled his eyes. "You are going to help aren’t you?"
"Yeah well work on it tonight if you don’t believe me."
Zell was a little taken back. "O-Okay."
"Great we can meet in your dorm."
Zell frowned. "Hang on a minute why my dorm?"
"What’s wrong with your dorm?"
"Nothing but why not your dorm?"
"We can’t- I mean not you- do you know what that’s do to my reputation if people see you in my dorm?"
Zell glared at him but shrugged it off. "Fine my dorm then at 6:00."
"7:00."
"Fine."
"But one of us has to go to the library to get a picture of garden."
"You’ve lived here for 13 years and you still don’t know what it looks like?"
Seifer sighed. "Chickie I don’t know every little detail, we’ll go together to get one."
"But-"
"Humour me."
The little blonde sighed. "Okay."
The bell rang for the end of the lesson and everyone rushed out. Zell went ahead, getting stuck in the crowds and tripped over Seifer out-stretched foot.
"You Ass!" He yelled from the floor.
"Language, language Chickie." He grinned; watching Zell push himself up as he walked past the little blonde cursed his name.
They took the lift down to the ground floor and headed for the library.
"ZELL!"
"Hey Selphie, we’re off to the library."
"You and Seifer?" He looked puzzled; her friend smiled and was about to explain when Seifer lifted him a few inches off the ground and cuddled him with both arms wrapped around the struggling blonde. "Hey Selphie we’re VERY close friends now didn’t you know?" He nuzzled his chin into Zell’s hair. The shorter boy wriggled and squirmed in Seifer’s grip.
Selphie giggled as Zell finally got away, giving the Seifer a shove backwards. "You two are cute." She giggled.
Zell stare at her as if she had grown 3 extra heads but Seifer just laughed.
"Cute?"
"You’d make a nice couple."
"M-Me and S-Seifer?" He shuddered and turned away from the little girl. "I hate the way your little mind works." The taller blonde smirked and followed Zell, he winked at Selphie and pinched the little blonde’s arse as he walked away causing him to jump and punch Seifer in the chest lightly.
"Come on sweetheart."
"Shut up Seifer!"
Zell stirred a bowl of paste in his dorm while tearing a newspaper into strips. The picture of Balamb garden lay spread out over the table in front of them. He had a plastic pot up turned on a wooden board for the basic shape of garden. There was a knock at the door and he dropped the paper. "Finally." He muttered.
He opened the door to a shirtless Seifer. "Where the hell have you been? You’re half an hour late a-and what happened to your shirt?"
Seifer pushed past him into Zell‘s dorm. "We’re going to get dirty."
Zell’s eyes widened. "W-What?"
Seifer smirked. "You know with the paste, we’ll get messy."
"OH! Y-Yeah right!" He turned and quickly scurried into the kitchen again knowing Seifer would follow.
"What’s that for?" You gestured to the upturned pot.
"That’s for the basic shape."
"Garden is not that shape the picture’s in front of you and you still can’t see it!"
"I know! But we can start with that and build on it."
"Uh huh, okay then pass me some paste."
Zell placed all the stuff in the middle so both of them could reach it. The little blonde watched Seifer slap it on anyway he wanted, getting more and more annoyed.
"You’re doing it wrong."
"How am I? It’s not an experiment this is easy."
"It’s not neat."
"So? People aren’t going to see this bit and since when were you such a perfectionist?"
"I like to see things done probably but usually they go wrong."
"Cos you fuck them up chickie."
Zell glared at him and flicked paste at him. Seifer dipped his finger in the paste and ran it down Zell’s cheek causing the shorter man to jump back and wipe it off with his palm. "Yuck! Seifer!"
The large blonde threw bits of pasty paper at him.
"Watch the shirt man." Zell took his shirt off over his head, unaware of Seifer’s eyes trailing over his muscled tan skin. The taller man stared shamelessly until a lump of sticky paste landed in the middle of his chest and slid down to his belt. He looked up meeting Zell’s mischievous eyes with his own smirking face.
"WAR!" He announced grabbing a handful of paste and hurling it at Zell who ducked and flew at Seifer. Paste flying everywhere.
Quistis left Wendy dorm glad to see that her cadets were getting on well with this project, she nearer Zell’s dorm knowing this was one dorm that both partners weren’t working well together. She knew Seifer could be difficult and she hoped Zell could cope on his own if he needed to. She knocked on the door, no answer followed. She tried the door and it opened under her hand. She walked inside, a yell from the kitchen alarmed her and she quickened her pace. Quistis stared in shock, horror and disbelief at what she saw. Both boys were half-naked and lying on the floor Zell was on top and both were covered in sticky paste. Seifer’s hair was full of it and Zell held some in his hand as the pair wrestled on the carpet. She gasped causing both boys to hear her and freeze; Zell pushed himself up from Seifer’s chest and looked over his shoulder.
"In-Instructor Trepe!" He gaped in horror while Seifer slowly started to laugh.
The large blonde ran a hand down the shorter boy’s chest knowing she was watching him, she snapped her eyes away and blushed.
Zell shoved the hand away embarrassed. "I-It’s not what you think this is."
"This is non of my business you don’t have to explain, I should go."
"But Instructor really this is just-" He paused. What were they doing?
He looked back up and she had already gone.
Seifer fell down into the puddle of paste and laughed until Zell glared at him. "That was not funny!"
"Oh it was!"
Zell pushed himself up. "We really need a shower."
Seifer rose to lean on his elbows. "You willing to share?" He winked.
"Ugh!" Zell said in disgust before locking himself in the bathroom.
Selphie pulled up a chair at his table in the cafeteria the next day. She stared at his untouched hotdogs.
"Problem? Let me guess the project’s a mess and Seifer’s driving you crazy?"
The little blonde raised an eyebrow. "How’d you guess?"
"I’m REALLY clever!" She grinned. "So tell me."
He shifted in his chair. "WE started work on it yesterday but he paste went everywhere, Seifer attacked me and-"
"Wait! He attacked you?"
"With paste, it was a paste fight."
"OH!" She smiled, imagining the two sexy blondes naked and covered in paste.
Zell noticed the look on her face and gave her a slap on the arm. "Get your head out of the gutter, it wasn’t like that... well okay it was like that but we were only half-naked."
Selphie giggled. "So what’s the problem?"
"Instructor Trepe walked in and now she thinks we’re a bit- you know."
Selphie looked innocent. "A bit what?"
He lowered his voice. "Gay."
"OH!" Again she got that silly look on her face and grinned stupidly. "Well you know-"
"Know what?"
"He does like you."
"Who? What?"
She rolled her eyes. "Seifer."
Zell gaped at her like she had three heads for several seconds before bursting out laughing. "That was a good one, you almost had me believing that."
She stared at him. "I’m serious; he likes you its sort of obvious to me."
"Selphie this is Seifer we’re talking about, he hates me."
"Well what does he do or say to you?"
"He-He teases me, trips me up in corridors, he ruffles my hair, calls me names, follows me to lunch and steals my hotdogs and-" He froze. "Oh god he loves me!"
She giggled. "And you’ve just figured it out?"
"Well I never was good at this and I don’t want Seifer to want me."
"Not because he’s a guy?"
"Well no, I mean I guess he’s kind of hot b-but he’s Seifer, he’s bugged me for years."
"Well maybe this time together will be good for you."
"You make us sound like an old troubled married couple."
She smirked. "You’re the one that said ‘us’."
He stared at her.
"Hey, Zell!" Seifer approached their table leaning into talk to the other blonde; Zell leaned back more and more as Seifer leant in. Selphie thought he might fall off his chair soon.
"I’ve had another idea for own project, meet me in my dorm in an hour."
"Why your dorm? Why not the library?"
The larger man frowned. "Because it doesn’t have what I need, I’ll explain later."
Zell looked back at Selphie when the blonde had gone. "Hasn’t got what he needs? What the hell does that mean?"
"A bed?" Selphie giggled.
"Shush! Don’t say that!"
She smiled. "Oh I’m sure you’ll be fine.... and if he does try it on just remember I want full details tomorrow."
"Seifer?" Zell called from the doorway, he pushed open the unlocked door to the other man’s dorm room. He headed for the kitchen only to have Seifer suddenly appear and shove him out again, holding him by the shoulders.
"What the fuck are you-?"
"I have a secret to tell you."
Zell frowned. "What is it?"
Seifer gripped him tighter. "You can’t tell anyone about this, you don’t know what this’ll do to my reputation."
"Seifer-"
"I-I’m the tough guy, the bully... y-you can’t tell anyone please, this’ll ruin me!"
The little blonde gave the distraught blonde a concerned look. "What-?"
The larger man looked him in the eye and swallowed hard. "Zell.... I-I like...to..... bake cakes."
"Sorry?"
"You heard me! I like to bake cakes!"
Zell smiled then slowly grinned.
"Don’t laugh."
"Seifer man... all that build up I thought you were going to say you like dressing as women or something like that."
"What? NO!" He stepped back and let Zell into the kitchen so the blonde could see all the pots, bowls and ingredients.
"Wow you’re a regular Delia Smith aren’t you?"
"Don’t call me that!"
Zell grinned. So anyway what’s the plan?"
"This. We can bake Balamb, make it as a cake."
Zell stared at him. "Cake?"
"Yeah just think we can eat it afterwards and wouldn’t that encourage the instructor to give us better marks if she can eat some of it?"
"Y-Yeah I guess." He paused and nodded. "Let’s do it."
Seifer grinned. Really?"
"Yeah that was a strangely good idea coming from you."
The larger blonde gave him a look. "Yeah whatever Chickie, can you cook?"
"No."
"That’s okay I can teach you." Seifer started to put ingredients in bowls of all sizes and handed one to Zell with a large spoon. "Here mix this up for me."
Zell did all the mixing together and Seifer did the complicated things and told Zell what to do. When it was all done except the last bits of mixing to do, Seifer gave him another bowl. "You’re doing that wrong."
"But this is what I did to the others."
"I know but this is different."
Before Zell could suggest that he start on the washing up and Seifer do it himself, the blonde pressed his chest into the little blonde’s back and a pair of strong arms came around his waist to hold the spoon on top of Zell’s hands. He felt Seifer’s hot breath on his neck as the blonde explained... something, he was having trouble listening at the moment. The heat of the other man’s hand on his own and chest against his back made him feel warm.
"You got it?"
"Huh? What?"
"I said do you understand?"
"Err- yeah I think so."
Seifer let go and backed up, clearing away things and started to do the dishes. Zell pouted in disappointment for a moment before finishing off the mixture, he watched Seifer pour it into a cake tin would he was done and put it in the oven.
"How long does that take?"
"Quite a while, you don’t have to hang around here if you don’t want to. I’m sure you have lot of chicken activities to do."
Zell rolled his eyes. "No I can stay.... what do we do till then?"
"Well..." Seifer stepped closer to him their eyes locked then at the last second he held up a dishcloth. "You can wash up chickie."
The little blonde cursed. "Well you’re helping me, ass-hole." He ran the hot warm over the dirty plates and dishes.
"Zell?"
"Hmmm."
"There was one other thing I wanted to tell you about."
"Yeah?" The little blonde turned, freezing at how close Seifer had got to him suddenly, the taller man leant down a very briefly kissed him. Even though it was only a spilt second thing Zell’s eyes slid closed, he opened them when he realized Seifer had pulled away.
"S-Selphie said.... you liked me."
The taller man blinked, looking worried. "She could tell?"
"Yeah b-but it’s not obvious or anything... you know she’s just... Selphie."
"Do you mind?"
Zell smiled shyly. "No but there is one thing you can do for me."
"What?" Seifer looked suspicious.
"Kiss me again."
The larger blonde’s eyes widened but he did as he was told, smirking as the other mouth opening so willingly under his own. Zell felt his trainers get soggy suddenly and there was a rushing sound. Then he remembered that he had left the tap on.
"Oh shit!" He broke the kiss and turned the tap off, Seifer threw him and towel then went to get another one. Both blondes got down and soaked up the puddle with their towels starting at either end and meeting in the middle. Their noses bumped together as they both looked up at the same time, Seifer grinned wickedly at him and Zell managed a shocked. "EEP!" Before he was pulled to the ground, their minor flood forgotten.
The class sat at their desks with their projects on the tables in front of them; Zell and Seifer sat side-by-side with their cake in front of them. Everyone came round for a closer look, even Instructor Trepe was impressed and surprised, she seemed to think they’d end up killing each other. Where did she get that idea?
The blonde woman gave out a few grades before she got to them. She inspected their cake closely. "Well done boys, very original and well made." She stuck a piece of paper on their desk and moved on. Both boys leaned over to look at their ’A’ grade.
"YESS!" They yelled in unison.
Zell bumped the cake slightly as he jumped up.
"Careful! That took me ages to make!"
"Took you ages? I helped too know."
"You helped? When? This is my project really!"
"You always have to be such an ass-hole."
Seifer reached for the cake but Zell stopped him. "No, it stays in the middle of us!" Zell turned to the group of cadets. "Seifer liked to bake cakes! He’s the next Delia Smith!"
Seifer’s eyes widened. "Zell likes to suck cock! Good at it too, aren’t you Chickie?"
"You ass-hole!"
"Ooh strong words Short-ass!"
Zell glared at Seifer and then flew at him, both blondes wrestling together. The table moved violently, the cake bounced along the surface towards the edge.
"No!" They both cried as the cake fell from the surface and headed to the floor with a squishing noise, their ‘A’ grade card fell down after it to land on top.
Several hours later.
The cake remains lay on a plate on a low table beside Seifer’s sofa where the two blondes lay naked, Zell on the bottom the older boy straddling his waist. The taller blonde dipped his fingers into the cake cream and offered them to Zell, watching his lover suck all the cream off his fingers. Seifer pulled them back making Zell pout.
"Mmmm, pretty Chickie."