FFVIII: Origins (1)

[edenbound]

Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Pairing: Irvine/Selphie, implied eventual development of Seifer/Squall
Warnings: None
Chapter: One
Rating: G
Summary: Irvine, Selphie and Quistis come up with a plan.

“The cafeteria is kind of quiet today. I wonder where everybody is?” Selphie wriggles a little in Irvine’s lap to have a look around at who is there, and Irvine puts his arms around her and tries to get comfortable, grimacing a little at her boniness. “I know Quisty will be along soon, her class always finishes early on Wednesdays. She’s got that new boy in there…”

“The troublesome one?” Irvine asks, frowning slightly.

“The new Seifer, yeah,” Selphie says, grinning at Seifer, sitting a few tables away, who just rolls his eyes, already used to the comparison. “He keeps wolf whistling at me whenever he passes me in the corridors.”

Irvine grins a little, leaning up to steal a kiss. “I can see why, darlin’.”

“Flatterer,” Selphie says, smiling brightly. When she spots Quistis making her entrance, she bounces a little and waves frantically, drawing another few creative grimaces from her unfortunate boyfriend. “Hey, Quisty! Over here! I got you a coffee already so you can avoid the queue!”

Irvine tips his hat a little and waves, foregoing the flirtatious wink only because it never gets any reaction from Quistis anyway. When Selphie settles again, he wraps an arm tightly around her to keep her in place, smiling a lazy smile at Quistis when she joins them, sitting down and smoothing her skirt with a sigh. He raises an eyebrow at the expression on her face. “Rough morning?”

“You could definitely say that. I keep having flashbacks to trying to teach Seifer. Failing to teach Seifer, I mean.” Quistis sighs, rubbing the bridge of her nose as if to alleviate a headache. “Of course, he’s not quite as bad, but he’s certainly troubled enough. I wish I could get someone else to take that class, just sometimes, when I need a break…”

Selphie laughs. “Maybe we need another party?”

“We had one last week, Sel,” Irvine points out, but he doesn’t honestly look as if he’s too bothered about the idea.

“Yes, and even Sir Laguna came!”

Quistis laughs softly. “I was quite… pleased to see that. I mean, it could’ve been nothing, and Squall could’ve ignored him the whole time, but I think they’re really starting to get on well now. It’s really nice to see Squall actually interacting with Laguna after refusing to talk to him for months after finding out he was his father. I thought he was going to sulk forever after that, but he even actually smiled.”

“It’d be interesting to find out what happened to all of our parents,” Irvine says, suddenly. Selphie shifts slightly in his lap, twisting to give him a confused look.

“I didn’t know you thought about it at all.”

“It’s kind of hard to avoid thinking about it when you realise that all along Squall did have someone,” Quistis says, thoughtfully. She picks up her coffee for the first time and takes a sip, her eyes on Irvine’s face curiously. “I’d be interested in finding out about my parents, too. I mean, there’s so much I have no way of knowing. I doubt any of our parents are still alive – I mean, there was Adel, and then our own struggle with Ultimecia… it hasn’t exactly been a peaceful time.”

“It’d be interesting,” Irvine says, simply. A few tables away, Seifer looks up, shushing Raijin and Fujin to listen to the conversation.

Selphie claps her hands, grinning. “We could make it a quest!”

“A quest?”

“You know, take some time off, get the old gang all together properly, find a car or two and go off and have adventures! We could visit loads of towns and just look for anybody with our surnames…” Selphie waves her hands in time with her talking, looking more excited than ever and provoking a few more grimaces from Irvine as she wriggles about. “I mean, I know our surnames might not even be right, but it’s worth a try, right? And we could all do with a holiday. You just said so yourself, Quistis!”

“I can’t deny that,” she says, with a glimmer of a smile.

“I’d join you.”

All three of them look up to see Seifer standing there, hands in pockets and a curiously blank expression on his face. He doesn’t seem as tall as he once did, somehow, though maybe that’s something that comes with defeat. He shrugs slightly looking slightly awkward when he realises they're all staring at him.

“Why?” Quistis asks, after an uncomfortable silence that felt long and probably wasn’t.

Seifer shrugs again. “I want to find out about my family as much as anyone. Probably more. I have to have come from somewhere, right? Hell, maybe my family loved me.”

Selphie opens her mouth to say something, and then shuts it again, somewhat sobered by the idea of Seifer wanting so badly to find his family, just in case they loved him. She almost gets up and hugs him, but instead just shifts again on Irvine’s lap and smiles brightly at him. “Well, I don’t mind you coming with us! Zell might be an asshole to you, but that’s no different, right? I don’t think anyone else will mind, I mean, you came from the Orphanage too…”

“I don’t mind,” Irvine says, into the sudden silence. He smiles slightly at Seifer and tips his hat amiably. “But it’ll be interesting to see how Zell reacts.”

Seifer starts to smirk and Quistis rolls her eyes. “We don’t even know whether we can get the time off to go on this quest, you know. I mean, I’m sure Squall wouldn’t object to us trying to find our families, but we are top SeeDs and Garden needs us a lot of the time. I mean, he’d have to find someone to teach in our places, and find new SeeDs good enough to be team leaders, and –”

“No offence, Quistis, but there were plenty of good SeeDs before we all became SeeDs. Just because you’re Squall’s best friends and get the good slots doesn’t mean there are no other SeeDs,” Seifer says, quietly. He looks away then and shrugs. “And anyway, shouldn’t we make Squall come with us? If it’s going to be a whole ‘Orphanage reunion’ type thing? Then it’d be Xu’s job to find people to teach and appoint new team leaders.”

Selphie grins. “Of course! Squall will have to come, it wouldn’t be right to have adventures without him. But how’re we going to convince him?”

Irvine smiles somewhat slyly, leaning back in his seat. “How about setting Rinoa on him? I mean, they split up ages ago, but we know they’re still friends. She has him wrapped around her little finger even now. We just call her up, convince her it’s a good idea, and then she convinces Squall for us. All our problems solved. And I don’t think any of us would object to Rin coming along too.”

“As long as you don’t flirt with her, I’m fine,” Selphie says sweetly, elbowing Irvine gently, more teasing than actually meaning it.

“It’d be nice to see her again,” Quistis says, quietly, a faraway look in her eyes.

“Not that my opinion’s worth much, but I think it’d be nice to have her along,” Seifer says, quietly. He’s still standing up and, impatiently, Selphie reaches up to grab his arm, dragging him along and then tugging him down in the chair she was sitting in before she moved into Irvine’s lap. He moves with a kind of bemused obedience, sitting down comfortably and stretching his legs out – suddenly looking a lot more at home.

“Your opinion is worth as much as anyone else’s, you’re on this quest too,” Selphie says, firmly. She grins a little, clasping her hands. “I like this plan. It’s really… devious.”

“I’ll call Rinoa, then,” Irvine says, with one of his charming smiles.

Selphie gives him a look that’s meant to be accusing. “I’ll give her a call, mister. The quest is my idea.”

Seifer does smirk now, reaching to poke Selphie gently and getting an odd look from Quistis for the easy familiarity that somehow seems more like a gesture from their time at the Orphanage rather than anything more recent. “Besides, from all I’m hearing, you want to lock him up away from the ladies.”

“I’m not that bad, Almasy,” Irvine protests, good naturedly.

“Look in the dictionary under ‘serial flirt’ and you find the name ‘Irvine Kinneas’ listed as the first example,” Seifer says with a shrug. Quistis finds herself smiling at the look on Seifer’s face, finds herself hoping all of a sudden that this will last. She always has wanted that old Seifer back: not the one from before the war, but the one that could be a friend as often as he’d be a bully. The one she vaguely remembers helping her up when she fell, the one who’d beaten up a bigger boy from the town for saying something mean to Zell, the one who’d once been Squall and Ellone’s constant companion.

“Really, I mean it, I’m not that bad. I belong to little Sefie here.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know,” Seifer says, waving a hand and rolling his eyes, “I remember when you were five years old and sneaking into her bed and promising to marry her and all of that. Never did like having Shiva in my head except when I had to be junctioned to train, she was a frigid bitch if there ever was one. And Quez never liked me that much.”

“You remember stuff from the Orphanage?”

“Some of it,” he says, shrugging. “We can trade stories sometime, if your brains aren’t all like cheese someone let a mouse at. For now, though, I’d better take my leave. I have an appointment to keep.”

They wait until he’s gone before they all look at each other. Quistis is smiling, just a little. “I think this is going to be really interesting.”

Selphie grins. “You know, I’m starting to see what Rinoa saw in him…”

“Hey!”

---

Ring, ring, ring.

“I’m ignoring you,” Squall says, firmly, to the phone – wherever it is. He doesn’t look up from his work, but doesn’t actually get any work done until the phone stops ringing and he relaxes a little. He starts to sign the bits of paper again, scanning them quickly to make sure he isn’t signing his life away or admitting to whatever terrible scandal. He stretches his legs out and tries to get comfortable, reaching for his cup of coffee only to find that he finished his coffee some time earlier.

And then the phone starts to ring again.

“I’m still ignoring you,” Squall mutters, but this time he starts to ferret among the rustling papers for wherever the damn thing got buried this time. “If this is a reporter, a salesman or Cid, I’m going to hurl the damn thing out of the window… Hello?”

“Squall!”

Squall relaxes again, leaning back into his chair and sighing softly. “Rin.”

“It’s been a while. And don’t say ‘not long enough’, because I know you’re not as mean as that really.”

He can hear the pout in her voice. He sighs and wonders if he could conjure up some coffee just by wishing hard enough. “It has been a while, and no, I wouldn’t say any such thing, if only because you would get upset with me and I still hate it when you sulk, even if you don’t subject me to it on a face to face basis.”

“You’re turning into a grumpy old man, Squall Leonhart.”

“Yes, yes, I’m sure I am. What are you calling about?”

“Do I always have a reason?”

Squall considers it for a moment and then smiles, with just a hint of a teasing edge in his voice that comes out so very rarely, “Yes. Usually. Who’s getting married? Which unlikely couple have got together that I might conceivably be vaguely interested in? Or what unlikely plan do you want SeeDs to support this time? Or who have you found that’s supposedly just perfect for me?”

“That was quite a long speech from you,” Rinoa says, answering with a teasing tone of her own. “Actually, Zone is getting married. Not that I meant to call you about just that, really, but since you mentioned people getting married I thought it might be of some interest. You and the other SeeDs are invited to the wedding, if you want to come. I think you are, anyway. If not, I’ll get him to sort that out.”

“Rinoa…”

“Right, what I was actually calling about. You’re really impatient, you know that?”

Squall sighs softly, rubbing his forehead briefly, feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on – possibly, he thinks, brought on by intensive wishing for coffee, without being adequately fuelled with coffee to begin with. “I can be patient when it’s important, but I do have work to do.”

“Are you saying this isn’t important?”

“Rin…”

“Alright, alright,” Rinoa says, cheerfully. Squall settles down a little, cradling the phone between his cheek and his shoulder, and drags some work towards him to keep scrawling his somewhat untidy signature on the correct lines and in the correct boxes. “Wouldn’t you say you need a break from work, though? Just a little one? I mean, every time I’ve come to see you, you have piles of work all over your desk.”

Squall sighs, sensing a return to the old theme of ‘you’re overworking yourself, you need to take a break’. “A break would be wonderful, but I haven’t time for one. We’ve been through this before, Rinoa. I’m willing to make time for people, but I can’t just go taking weeks and weeks off for holidays.”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re so… apathetic about things, honestly. Have you even tried to talk to him yet?”

A faint flush of colour comes suddenly into Squall’s cheeks, not sure if he's annoyed or embarrassed by Rinoa's obsession with getting him to 'open up to someone'. “No, and I don’t intend to. Things are fine as they are.”

“Mutual ignoring each other? That’s fine? You’re happy with that?”

“No, but…”

Rinoa’s voice gains a whole new level of cheerfulness, as if to deliberately overrule the suddenly sad note in Squall’s voice. “Well, anyway, I have a plan – or, well, a certain someone came up with it, actually – to cheer you up and get you out of the office for a while. I’m sure you’re due leave, anyway, I asked Quistis and you know she has access to all the jiggery-pokery about who gets leave when.”

Squall looks up from his work to focus on her voice all of a sudden, noting the tone of satisfaction. “What are you plotting, Rin?”

“A take over of Garden?”

“Seriously, Rin? What is it?”

“Seriously, I have an idea for where you could go on holiday,” she says, cheerfully, and he groans in exasperation. She won't let him interrupt, though, speaking a little louder to keep him from getting a word in edgeways. “It's not my idea, really, it's Selphie's, but I think it's a really good idea. You and everyone from the Orphanage – and me, too – need to go and find out about everybody's parents.”

“Ri –”

“We already covered the part about you and the others all being due leave.”

“Rin –”

“And it'd be a good opportunity for you to get out of Garden, so Cid sees he can survive without you for long periods of time.”

“Rino –”

“Stop arguing, okay? Just say yes. Work it however you like, but work it out somehow. They all really want to find out about their parents. And you know you're happier now you've found Laguna, even if you're always moody with him. And you could all do with a holiday – Selphie's telling me that Quistis is getting really overworked.”

Squall sighs softly, wishing harder than ever for more coffee. “Yes. Fine. I'll work it out. If only to stop you nagging at me. You're going to make a really good mother sometime if you ever have kids. A really, really good mother. But it isn't going to be any good. They should be used to the fact that we're orphans. That's why we were in an orphanage.”

“Can't you have a little romanticism and hope for a miracle?”

“There's already been one miracle in the group, I doubt we're that lucky.”

“You're way too pessimistic,” Rinoa says with a sigh. Squall rolls his eyes and finds his pen again, mysteriously rolled off under the desk. For a minute he considers blaming Rinoa for that – even my stationery is in league with you...

“If I'm pessimistic, I'm never disappointed when things don't go right.”

“If the glass is always half empty, you can get a secretary to keep refilling it,” Rinoa says, and then, more teasingly. “A young, handsome, male secretary. Possibly blond.”

“Rinoa.”

“I'll be coming with you on the big quest, by the way, and I hear Seifer wants to go too, so hold that thought on the secretary.”

“Rinoa!”

---

“You look like you need that,” Irvine says, nodding towards the coffee in Squall's hand. He smiles a little and hooks his foot around the leg of a chair to draw it out, flopping into it gracelessly. “Especially with all that work. Looks like that holiday will be a good thing.”

Squall smiles, just a little, sipping his coffee with a slowness that doesn't hide any of his eagerness for the effects. “Soon I'll be taking a big break, so I'm working a bit harder now so Xu doesn't have as much to do when she takes over my office for a month or so. Don't tell Rinoa that, though. She seems to think I should start relaxing now because of the vacation to come. She called you back about it already?”

“Well, you do look like you need it, no offence,” Irvine says, shrugging. “Yeah, or, well, she called Selphie and the ensuing happy shriek nearly burst my eardrums.”

“The things you put up with for love,” Squall says, dryly. “You think we'll actually find anything? Or anyone?”

Irvine tips his seat back a little as he considers that, picking at the edge of the table absently. He keeps his eyes on Squall's face, as if trying to read what he's thinking. “I don't have much hope, no. But at the same time, I want to believe we will find something. I mean, we have last names. They have to have come from somewhere, or we'd've all taken Matron's surname or something. I know Zell took his adoptive parents' surnames, but Seifer never got adopted, and Quistis says the family who adopted her weren't Trepes. So...”

“So maybe there's hope, you think?”

“I don't know.” Irvine shrugs slightly, reaching to steal the last few gulps of Squall's coffee. “I hope, I guess, but mostly I think it'll be just a bit of fun for us all. And, well, it's a bit of a miracle that any of us found our parents, so maybe we've used up all our amazing luck on you.”

“Doesn't it put you off the whole idea? That it's futile?”

“Nah. It'll be a good time, even if we don't find anyone in the end. But, like I say, it'd be good to find out where we all come from, too.”

“I see.” There's silence for a moment and then Squall looks up, smiling just a little. “I spoke to my dad about it. He's enthusiastic about the whole thing. Says he'll give us help where he can, though I don't know what he thinks he can do.”

Irvine smiles his easy smile. “Maybe we'll end up needing that support.”

Squall raises an eyebrow, remembering a few occasions when Zell and Irvine needed a bit of a hand before after going out in Esthar. “Nobody is dragging me into a bar and getting me drunk.”

“Why, Squall, would we do that?”

Squall smiles a little more, perhaps with a teasing age. “Yes, you probably would. I know Selphie wants to ply me with alcohol so I open up, and I think Rinoa has a few devious plans involving alcohol and me. Not,” he says, quickly, when Irvine raises an eyebrow, “to do with her. She just wants me to loosen up and let people see my emotions.”

“I see. She does have a point. We're not out to get you, Squall.”

“I know.”

Irvine smiles a little, leaning back in his seat and looking Squall over for a minute. It's true that he has relaxed, somewhat, and Irvine only needs to think over the conversation in the past few minutes to know that he does betray more of himself now, does allow himself to have actual conversations. He remembers the way Squall was at first, not responding to anything he said – whether he was making a pass at him or just trying to be friendly. This is definitely an improvement. Once upon a time he'd even thought Squall hated him – for not being a SeeD yet, for being a little too emotional.

He was quite surprised, somehow, to find out he was wrong. He still hasn't quite gotten used to it, but it seems more natural now. “Selphie really is pretty excited about the whole quest idea.”

“I knew she would be,” Squall says, shrugging slightly.

“Thanks for going along with it, for her sake, anyway.”

He shrugs a little, and Irvine decides not to press. There's something Squall half wants to say, he can tell that much, but if he's not ready to say it straight out, Irvine isn't the one to push. Rinoa might, Selphie might, Quistis probably would, and Zell would be too tactless to realise he shouldn't push. He's pretty much content to wait for the rare moments Squall lets himself be vulnerable.

Not to say that he isn't interested in finding out what's beyond all the leather and belts and frosty attitude. He's willing to bet he isn't half so frosty somewhere inside.

And, of course, he can still remember a little kid with misty grey eyes, always following his sister about.

“I didn't think you'd come along even if you did decide it was workable,” Irvine says, after a moment's silence. He looks up at Squall, catching a surprisingly soft look in his eyes. “Why did you decide to come? Or should I ask 'how did Rinoa blackmail you into coming?', instead?”

“The latter would be more accurate, I suppose,” Squall says, his voice trailing off a little. He shrugs and shakes his head, huffing softly. “I miss getting out of the office, anyway. I haven't been training in weeks.”

“Don't you spar with Seifer?”

Squall looks up quickly, as if expecting Irvine to be teasing or something. He takes a moment to respond, narrowing his eyes a little. “Not anymore. Neither of us have the time.”

Irvine remembers something else about the Orphanage, too. He remembers that if anyone was Squall's constant companion apart from Ellone, it was probably Seifer. He's always thought it was kind of a pity the way that turned out. “It's a shame. You could be good friends.”

“So Rinoa keeps telling me,” he replies with a somewhat forced smile.

“Well,” Irvine says, recognising some of Squall's discomfort, surprisingly clear on his face, “I need to get going. I guess you have plenty to be getting on with, with all that work and whatever arrangements you need to make for the trip. And Selphie'll be missing me.”

“So you hope,” Squall says, teasing a little, smiling a little more naturally.

Irvine raises an eyebrow slightly as he gets up, tipping his hat. “Yeah, so I hope. You're awfully pessimistic and cynical about love, aren't you? Any particular reason?”

He shrugs. “Do I need a reason?”

“There usually is one, somewhere along the line, even if you don't remember what it is anymore.” Irvine shrugs slightly. “Well, have fun with all the paperwork.”

Squall watches Irvine go, and then glances at his coffee cup, inspecting the bottom of it as if he could read his fortune from the sludge left there. All he can tell, of course, is that the cafeteria coffee tends to be crap and too hastily made. He sighs softly. Irvine was right about all the work he has to do. And even more right about not even knowing why he doesn't like love anymore.