Final Fantasy VIII: Accidental Romance

Zell stared up at the sky, watching the clouds float by from his back. Beside him, Seifer was flipping through that morning's newspaper—Zell thought he had made sure Seifer didn't have one, but he didn't think Seifer was going to let him start frisking any time soon. He sat up and grabbed the paper out of Seifer's hands.

"Hey—" Seifer wasn't fast enough, and Zell chunked it as far away from their blanket as he could manage.

"You shouldn't read those things," Zell said, and ducked Seifer's lazy fist. He grabbed a brownie and shoved it in Seifer's face. "Eat this. Selphie's brownies are great."

Seifer took it, but didn't unwrap it. He looked out over the field. Zell had driven away from everything. There was nothing around them but trees and grass and a lot of food, from his mom and Selphie. Zell was still feeling guilty—only Selphie knew where he was.

He hated not being honest, and he had been doing it for weeks now. He was kind of pissed about it, because Seifer barely talked to him except to insult him. At least that hadn't changed, he guessed.

Seifer put the brownie down without touching it. "You're controlling my reading material as well as my social calendar, too?"

"I know what you were reading." Zell did know, too well, all the articles and letters in newspapers and magazines calling for Seifer to be arrested and executed. Only a protection order from Cid kept it from happening. Zell didn't like Seifer to read the things, anyway. It depressed him and then he wouldn't talk at all, not even to hurl insults. "It's not healthy! Anyway, you don't have to hang out with me. You can always say no."

"I did," Seifer pointed out, "several times. You kept hounding me."

Zell shrugged and fell to his back again. "You looked lonely."

"Ah, pity from Zell Dincht." Seifer shrugged off his coat. "I never thought I'd see the day I sunk so low."

Zell glared at him. "So why do it?"

"Because I have party invitations pouring into my mailbox. Why do you think, genius?" Seifer lay back as well. "At least you're sometimes mildly entertaining, when you're not censoring what I read." He turned his head. "I should be asking you why you waste your precious hero time on me, but I've known for two weeks."

"What the hell are you talking about? I was trying to be nice, what else would I be doing?" Seifer gave him a hard look, and it was familiar enough for Zell to see it wasn't necessarily a nice one. He pressed himself up on his arms as Seifer rose and crawled toward him. It should have looked ridiculous, but Seifer looked annoyed enough that Zell figured he was about to get the crap beat out of him. He felt his heart speed up.

"Oh, you really don't get it?" Seifer had the advantage of weight, but Zell knew Seifer wouldn't be able to hold him down for too many punches. Zell could wiggle out fast enough. "You missed all the signals?" Seifer shoved at Zell's arm and Zell lost his leverage, landing hard on his back. Seifer crouched over him and trapped Zell's hips with his legs, and Zell was cheered. Only a moron spread their legs over a—

"Oh, shit." Zell flushed as he figured out what the hell Seifer was talking about and tried to rise up. "Shit, shit, shit, no, Seifer, you've totally got the wrong idea."

Seifer raised an eyebrow. "Want to test that theory?"

Zell blinked. "Test it?"

Seifer only smiled and bent down, and Zell had half a second to be mortified before Seifer kissed him, nudging his mouth open. Zell squeezed his eyes shut and thought he should maybe punch Seifer in the head or something, except it was hard to care when Seifer touched his face, too, fingers barely grazing but making Zell tremble with it, anyway. His eyes flew open to stare into Seifer's, which were more blue than green today. Zell flushed at the thought, and—and—fuck. Seifer was right.

Seifer pulled away and gave Zell a smug look. "So you finally figured it out. Thanks to me, of course."

Zell frowned, and there was no damn way he was letting Seifer best him. "Figured what out?" He watched Seifer's eyes narrow and tried to keep from laughing. "Guess you didn't do it right," he said, and grinned as he tugged Seifer back down.