This fic is being forwarded for Phil, who's currently not on the list. Any
comments and such can be redirected to phil@yogipigs.org, or
aoi_tenshin@hotmail.com.
A F I N A L F A N T A S Y 8 F A N F I C
Tears and Laughter by Philip Chan
------------------------------------------------
Normal disclaimers as usual.
All characters belong to SquareSoft.
------------------------------------------------
"He's all silent and sad. I don't like this."
"Mmm. When Sis was here, he was happy. Now..."
"There's got to be a way of cheering him up, isn't there?"
"How about a surprise birthday party?"
"Dolt! It isn't even his birthday!"
Seifer glared at the little kid in front of him before resuming his watch at
the small boy sitting on the beach, watching the waves with a dispassionate
look in his eyes. Sure, he thought that most of the children here were
whiners, but the group he was with was different somehow. Which was why he
hanged around with them.
"Seifie, don't pick on Zell!" a short girl with piercing blue eyes and long
blonde hair whispered in a harsh tone. 'Seifie' sighed and did a
exaggerated shrug of the shoulders, which caused the others to giggle.
"Hee hee, Seifie's funny!" a girl with a unique curled hairstyle dressed in
a lime-green shirt and darker green overalls tittered.
Seifer smiled a broad grin. Selphie, or 'Sefie', as everyone in their small
group referred to (which made for endless confusion, seeing how much
'Seifie' and 'Sefie' sounded alike) had a rare ability to make anyone
suddenly cheer up simply by being in her presence. However, the ability for
some reason wasn't working on Squall as usual, so they were forced to work
out other means of comforting the silent boy.
"I don't really see why Squally's so sad though. I mean, like, other kids
have left, an' he wasn't too sad about that..." Irvine said with a slight
frown on his face.
Both Quistis and Seifer replied at the same time. "I think..." before they
suddenly stopped and look at each other. Quistis decided that she would be
the one to finish explaining what they had thought of, much to Seifer's
dismay. After all, he was the one who thought of it first, so *he* thought.
<Hmph, Quisty's being bossy again,> Seifer finished off.
"Guys, I think that the reason why Squally is so sad is because Elle really
was his sister." The other children ohh'd, understanding why, but not being
able to explain. After all, in the mind of a child, how would you explain
the feeling of loss after seeing your sister taken away from you?
Selphie stood up from her squatting position and started to move towards
Squall.
"Sefie, what are you doing?" Irvine whispered to her.
"Gonna try to talk to him, Irvy!"
"How? You know how he just ignored everyone. Even Matron." Zell said with
a uncertain touch in his voice.
"The bestest way! Watch!"
The group of four watched as Selphie started to climb over the rocks to the
sandy beach where Squall was, who was still watching the waves rolling in.
==VIII==
Selphie grunted slightly as she leapt over the small crack in the large rock
onto the other side. Just a final leap and she would be on the sand.
However, she tripped over another hidden crack and started to fall.
"Ahhh... oof!"
Squall, who had noticed that Selphie was making her way towards him, had
observed that she was falling and made a snap decision to catch her. After
doing so, he placed her down before moving away from her and sitting down to
watch the waves again.
Selphie gasped as she realized what had nearly happened, and what would
hopefully teach her something about the dangers of climbing rocks which were
too high. Shaking her head to clean her fears out of her mind, she watched
Squall with large crystal-clear blue eyes as she tried to recall her plans
to make him talk. Unable to remember, she finally decided on the most
simplest way of getting a response out of him. Walking up to him, she knelt
down and placed her arms around him in a warm hug. The method apparently
worked, because Squall seemed to tighten up a little before breaking out of
her hug and turning around to face the almost terminally-happy little girl.
"Sefie?"
"Squall..." she said in a subdued voice which meant that she was being
serious. "Please... don't ignore us. I know it's been hard for you..."
Squall's eyes became slightly watery before he immediately blinked back the
tears which were threatening to flow.
"I... I can't cry, 'cus if I do, I won't be strong... a-and... if I'm not
strong... S-sis won't be back for me..." Squall whispered, his voice
starting to break with the effort of keeping his emotions submerged within
him.
"Oh Squally... it's okay... you remember what Matron said, don't you?"
Selphie said in a quiet voice as her own tears started to flow.
Squall attempted to think back. "M-matron said that it's always okay to cry
sometime... 'cus it... it releases the pain from within..."
A tear rolled down Squall's face slowly before dropping off onto the sand,
before another, then another, until he finally started sobbing. Selphie
hugged him again, and Squall put his own arms around her as they cried in
each other's shoulders.
"Squally... I miss Sis Elle too..." Selphie whispered in between her tears.
The two were suddenly both hugged by Quistis, who had decided to help
Selphie.
"sniff Q-quisty?" Selphie murmured.
"It's okay... bossy Quisty here's to make things better..." Quistis said
softly as she slowly rocked the two children like she had seen Matron and
Elle do, with her own tears rolling down her cheeks.
"You know we don't mean that, Quisty," Seifer said as he attempted to hug
the trio. After seeing what Selphie had managed to do, he had decided that
friendship was worth more than pride, and at the expense of acting 'girly',
he had decided to join in. Strange, he could feel a strange pressure in his
eyes.
Two more children joined in the group hug. Squall looked up through his
tears to see Zell and Irvine.
"Squally, we're your friends, remember?" Irvine said as he smiled softly.
"Yeah. If anyone of us hurts, we'll all share the pain. None of us havta
go through it alone!" Zell said, finishing off Irvine's comment. Tears
could be seen easily in the blonde boy's eyes.
"Zelly's right, Squall. If you hurt, then we all hurt." Quistis whispered,
just loud enough for everyone to hear.
"Friends forever, Squall," Seifer smiled as his eyes shined.
"And just remember, Squally, we love you. We'll always be with you, even if
we're not there." Selphie said as she gave the brown-haired boy another
tight hug.
"I-I... thank you..."
"Hey, if Seifer can do this an' still be tough, than so can I!" Zell
proclaimed.
Irvine laughed slightly. "No way! Zelly's always gonna be the crybaby of
our gang!"
Selphie and Quistis giggled despite the fact that they were still crying.
The boys smiled at Irvine's joke. Zell, on the other hand look like he was
ready to start wailing.
"Zell... he's kidding, alright? He don't mean it!" Selphie chuckled.
Seifer smiled evilly at Irvine, who gulped loud enough for everyone to hear.
Whenever Seifer smiled like that at someone, something bad was going to
happen to that person. And it would probably hurt too.
*"DOGPILE IRVY!!"*
Yep, Irvine hated it sometimes when he was right. Irvine eeped as he
realized what was happening and immediately got up and started backing away
from everyone. Zell's face suddenly showed a grin similar to Seifer's, only
it looked more comical than evil. Luckily for Zell, nobody noticed the
expression on his face.
Quistis grinned and released her hug on Selphie and Squall. "C'mon, you
two! Irvy's getting away!"
"Oh please, no more dogpiles!" Irvine pleaded in a whiny voice. What gave
the voice away was the smirk on his face.
*"C'mon, chic...er, Zell! He's getting away!"* Seifer shouted. Zell,
apparently not noticing the sudden change in Seifer's voice, grinned and
started running after Irvine, who had already started to make his escape.
"Nah nah, can't catch me!" Irvine taunted Zell as he kept on dodging each
flying leap Zell was making, with each missed attempt a face full of sand.
Irvine's taunting stopped as he realized that Quistis had now joined in.
Seeing the odds against him increasing, Irvine decided to run.
*"Sefie! Squall! COME ON!"* Seifer shouted as he proceeded to run after
Quistis.
Selphie smiled and pulled Squall to his feet. "Feeling better?"
Squall nodded and wiped his tears away before smiling. "Yeah."
Selphie giggled and pulled Squall with her as she started running. "Let's
go an' catch Irvy!"
*"GAAHHHH! HE'S GETTIN' AWAY!!"*
*"OWW!"* he cried, spitting out sand. *"STAY STILL WOULDYA?!"*
*"HA! SLOWPOKES, YOU TWO!"*
*"TYPICAL! LEAVE A GIRL TO DO ALL THE WORK!"* In the background the
painful splat of a body landing on another could be heard.
*"ACK! QUISTY?!"*
*GUYS! I CAUGHT 'IM!"*
*OLD IRVY DOWN, QUISTY!"*
The two children grinned at each other and immediately followed the sounds
of laughter.
END
==VIII==
Notes
This story doesn't really fit into the FF8 storyline, since it seems to be a
really happy event after Ellone left Squall. Because if this happened, then
chances are, Squall wouldn't be as closed to people as he was during the
start of the game. Oh well, I kinda like this story. Very WAFFy and such.
I might continue the story based on this perhaps. Maybe... what if Squall
and Seifer was pals (and friendly rivals) from the beginning instead of
enemies...
Questions and comments to phil@yogipigs.org.
--Phil