Life's Lessons on Stress

  ~*~

  I closed the door behind me. Commander Squall and Seifer bent over his desk looking over a three-inch report bound in a heavy-duty press-board cover. I swallowed hard. It looked like one of mine. "Sir?"

  Seifer and Cmdr. Squall both looked up. Cmdr. Squall smiled slightly and motioned to a seat. "Relax, Sally. Have a seat."

  I did, clasping my hands in my lap as I crossed my legs at the ankles and tucking them under the office chair to keep from running away. The tension in the office wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. Maybe the story isn't as negative as Zack is making it sound? It could happen.

  Seifer leaned back in his chair, coffee mug in hand as always, and fixed me with his usual petrifying gaze. Hyne, what did I do to deserve this? I clenched my hands tighter and pushed the thoughts away, clubbing the fear over the head and stuffing it under a box.

  "Sir?" I asked, matter-of-fact. "Was I wrong in one of my reports?"

  Seifer scoffed, and I didn’t know whether to take it as a good or bad sign. "Regal, your reports are so damn right-on that we’ve classified you a spy."

  I blinked, eyes wide. "Sir?"

  Seifer smirked.

  Cmdr. Squall shook his head. "He’s kidding, Sally."

  My smile was slight and very uncertain. "Oh. Ha. Ha-ha." I cleared my throat and adjusted my hands within my lap.

  "Sally," Cmdr. Squall began. He leaned against Seifer’s desk with both hands. "Sally, would your brother keep a big story under wraps if we asked him? If we promised him an exclusive?"

  Seifer rubbed at his forehead and then his scalp. He didn’t look too happy about the subject matter. I looked at Cmdr. Squall. "Well, I guess if you promised him an exclusive." I sent Seifer another uncertain glance before focusing again on Cmdr. Squall. "Zack will do almost anything for a story."

  Cmdr. Squall nodded and then looked over at Seifer. "Do you think it’ll work?"

  "Probably not."

  I cleared my throat, which immediately drew Seifer’s intense gaze. "May I go now, sir?"

  Seifer nodded while motioning toward the door.

  I stood, saluted, and retreated from the office as quickly as possible.

  "Sally."

  I blinked and turned in the doorway, focusing on Seifer’s smirking expression. "Yes, sir?"

  "Good job."

  I flushed and smiled. "Thank you, sir." I exited the office, closing the door behind me with a deep breath. I didn’t know what they could be talking about, but it felt nice to get a ‘good job’ from the boss. Of course, as I sat at my desk and worked on clearing my inbox as well as those projects that Fujin and Seifer assigned, I couldn’t shake the curiosity and confusion as to why Cmdr. Squall and the Head of Garden Network Security--Seifer--had been not only intensely looking over one of my reports, but asking if Zack would keep a story under wraps. None of my reports revealed anything suspicious. None of them even hinted at anything.

  At least, not that I could remember.

  So throughout the rest of the morning, and my relaxing lunch with Zell, and the remaining afternoon, my mind kept going back to the Deling/Trabia Gardens report and something revealed that could warrant such attention. I wasn’t suspicious by nature, so needless to say, I couldn’t think of a single thing. I already fully investigated the correspondence between the two Gardens, and Seifer hadn’t mentioned anything questionable. He hadn’t even pelted me with questions or asked me to do an even greater search regarding any of the dates. Those facts could only lead to one conclusion: nothing to worry about.

  Or else the issue was so phenomenal that Seifer and Cmdr. Squall wanted to keep it quiet as long as possible.

  I pressed my lips together as I tidied my desk and logged off my computer. Sally, don’t be such a doomsayer. Everything’s fine. And if it isn’t, you don’t need to worry about it anyway. Then I made my way out of the office and onto the elevator, pressing the button for the first floor. I could really go for some downtime. I wonder if Zell and Selphie are up for some swimming? Ooo. Maybe we could hoof it to Balamb and have dinner with Ma?

  The thought brought a smile as I stepped off the elevator and headed down the stairs to the main corridor and the dorms. I met Quistis coming out of the library reading some papers printed from the facility they had. She intensely scrutinized the letters, her expression becoming a slight frown.

  "Hi, Quistis," I greeted, a little hesitant. After all, I still wasn’t sure how she had recovered from the nudie pics incident with Zone, or from the fact that it had likely been her report that landed him in Deling Garden.

  Quistis looked up, and the frown dissipated to a friendly smile. "Hello, Sally. Off work?"

  I stopped by the intersection of the library and main corridors. Quistis stopped as well. "Uh-huh. What about you?" I pointed at the paperwork. "Homework?"

  She offered up the papers as she said, "This? No. Just some information I promised to look over." Quistis folded it up and then crossed her arms. "Anything special planned? Or just some quality time with our resident optimist-slash-matchmaker?"

  "Matchmaker?" I asked, eyes wide. "What do you mean?"

  Quistis shook her head, still smiling, and briefly raised a hand. "Don’t worry about it."

  "Oh. Well, I was actually going to ask Zell and Selphie if we could go swimming. If we do, did you want to come?"

  Quistis uncrossed her arms and drew out the papers. She slightly frowned down at them again. Then she lifted her eyes, the frown disappeared as before, and she smiled. "Actually, that sounds like fun. Do you think they’ll mind?"

  I wrinkled my nose. "Of course not. They were your friends before they were mine." I motioned to the cafeteria. "Why don’t you meet us in the cafeteria for dinner at about 5:30. Is that okay?"

  "That’s fine." She lifted the papers. "I better get this finished. Thank you for the invitation, Sally."

  "Sure. See you later."

  Quistis passed me to the elevator. I watched her a moment before turning and heading for the dorms. I shook my head, wondering where I could have gone so wrong in the suggestion of ‘Zone and Quistis’ and feeling miserable because I might have ruined two lives. I sighed and shook my head again--Two arms wrapped me up in a warm embrace, lips touching the back of my neck. I squealed and giggled as my feet left the ground. "Zell Dincht! Put me down!" Sure enough, I was again returned to my own two feet. I smiled over at Zell as he came to walk beside me, interlacing his fingers with mine. "Hi, Zell."

  "Hey there, Meg. How was work?"

  "It went by really fast; of course, I was kind of distracted the entire time with the newest mystery circulating around the office."

  "Mystery?" Zell asked, eyebrow raised. "What mystery?"

  My expression showed complete seriousness. "There’s a pool going on when we’re getting married."

  Zell stopped and leaned back with his infamous, "Wha?" as he blinked at me.

  I nodded. "I know. Marriage is too much responsibility for someone like you. We’d have to get a bigger apartment, and you would have to ask for a raise, and then there’s the--"

  Zell instantly grinned and voiced "Booya!"

  My mouth froze half open, mid-word. I flushed molten and looked away. "That is not what I was going to say," I told him with a sidelong glance.

  Zell laughed. "Don’t I know it? But that was a good one. Married. I’ll have to tell Squall."

  I reluctantly smiled. "Don’t you dare. Then there really will be a pool."

  Zell tugged me forward. "So who cares? Let ‘em do their pool. Maybe we’ll get a good present at the Reception."

  I raised an eyebrow as I looked over at him. "Or maybe we could use the money to get a station wagon, for all the kids," I offered, testing the waters on the continuing joke. What exactly do you expect as a reaction? I almost shrugged.

  Zell laughed again, intercepting one of my glances. "Kids? No way." He wiggled his eyebrows at me with a mischievous twinkle. "Gotta have you to myself for at least ten years."

 
My eyes widened. "Ten years? Zell Dincht! I’ll be exhausted!" He stared at me, slack jawed. "What?" I asked.

  He slowly pointed at me. "I can’t believe you said that."

  "Huh?" I wrinkled my nose. "What’s wrong with what I said?"

  Zell’s ears actually turned pink. "Forget it." He adjusted his hold on my hand and then headed toward our dorm rooms again.

  I frowned in confusion, and then my face flamed. "I didn’t mean it that way," I whispered.

  "Yeah. Kind of figured." He sent me a smile. "So, how did you mean it?"

  I cleared my throat. "I thought you might want to do some traveling and exhibition shows of your fighting style." I met his gaze, eyes wide. "Remember? We talked about it a couple weeks ago. Having tournaments for using the techniques they’ve learned in Combat King? Maybe even starting some schools here and there. I thought you meant ten years of setting that up and touring. Honest."

  Zell’s expression brightened. "Oh yeah! I’d totally spaced it!"

  I giggled and shook my head. "You silly. Why would you forget that? I thought doing something like that was a dream of yours."

  He shrugged. "One of ‘em. I’ve also thought of trying to get on board at C.K. as a reviewer of submissions. Or building up the orphanage again. I’ve also thought about maybe starting a Garden in Winhill. They’re kind of off the beaten path. And then there’s the space station. I thought it would be kind of cool to work up there for a little bit. You know? As a SeeD rep or something?"

  I watched his different expressions with a softening smile. "Wow. That’s a lot of stuff. And I just want to make it through a day without getting scared spitless by Seifer."

  Zell threw back his head and laughed. "Hey, everyone has a dream."

  I think number one will be marrying you. But there was no way I was going to actually say that. At least, not yet.

  "But that can’t be the major one," he continued. "Graduation was the one you had before, right?"

  I nodded, a little surprised that he remembered. "Yep, and I’ve done that with style. Huh?"

  Zell grinned. "I don’t think you can do anything any other way."

  I flushed, ducking my head lower as I sent him a glance. "That’s a sweet thing to say."

  Zell’s grin didn’t vanish. "Heh heh heh."

  I giggled and pulled my hand from his to give him a firm shove. As usual, he returned the shove and caught my hand to keep me from falling over. This time, however, he scooped me up and over his shoulder like a sack of flour.

  "Zell!" I squealed.

  "Gotcha."

  I released a deep breath and surrendered myself to my predicament with a shake of my head and a sighed, "Zell."

  "So, what’s on the agenda for me and my captive?"

  I rested my elbow against his back to cup my chin in hand as I began scratching his back with the other. Hey. What else was I supposed to do? "I invited Quistis to have dinner with us in the cafeteria. Maybe we could go swimming with her and Selphie after?"

  "Sure! Sounds fun," he agreed. "How’s she doin’ anyway? She okay with the whole break-up?"

  "It certainly seemed like it. Oh, and she said something about a matchmaker. She wasn’t talking about you, was she?"

  "Yeah. I put my foot in my mouth and swallowed."

  I giggled. "Zell, don’t you know by now she likes controlling her own life?"

  "I know, but I can’t help it. I see something and I go for it. It’s an instinct."

  I rubbed his back. "Yeah, an instinct that usually gets you into trouble."

  "You know, that was the weird thing about this time. She didn’t flip. She kinda gave me the look of doom if I didn’t back off, but that was pretty much it."

  "Well, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth. Take it and leave well enough alone, sweetie. I’d like to keep you safe and sound for as long as I can."

  He patted my bottom. "Sure thing."

  "Zell," I scolded.

  "Heh heh heh."

  I shook my head, reluctantly smiling as I did, and itched at his back with both hands.

  "Wow. That feels good. I’ll have to do this more often."

  "Too much of a good thing is never good."

  I flushed and lifted my torso up to twist to the right and look over Zell’s head. Sure enough, Seifer headed toward us. "Oh no," I moaned softly.

  "Sorry, kitten," Zell murmured, and he put me down as quickly as safely possible.

  Being the lower ranking officer that I was, I saluted. "Can I do something for you, sir?"

  Seifer halted in front of us and looked at his watch. It might have been my imagination, but it looked as if he sent Zell a glance. Seifer met my gaze and smirked. "Regal, you need to rephrase that."

  I blinked. "Sir?"

  "If you ask, I will always make sure I have a project."

  I flushed. "Yes, sir."

  "So if you don’t want extra work, how should you greet me in the future?"

  "Um." I cast Zell a sidelong glance that screamed ‘help!!’ But even I knew he couldn’t help me out of this one. I focused again on Seifer, who had crossed his arms. "I, um."

  "Try ‘Hello, sir’," Seifer suggested, and his tone sounded as if he’d burst out laughing any second.

  My blush evolved to lava as my gaze lowered to the floor. "Yes, sir."

  Seifer shook his head, chuckling. "Regal, one of these days. . . ."

  "You done?" Zell asked, expression hinting at growing annoyance.

  "Yeah. I’m done." He passed us. "Have a good weekend. See you Monday."

  Zell raised an eyebrow as he stared after Seifer. Then he shook his head and took my hand to urge me to the dorms.

  I watched Zell’s face, the incident with Seifer surprisingly fading to the background. "What?"

  "I will never get that guy."

  "What do you mean?"

  He shook his head again. "He’s acting way weird."

  "He is?"

  "Yeah. Too damn nice."

  "Huh?"

  "Don’t sweat it. Seifer’s Seifer. There ain’t nothing we can do about it."

  My mouth dropped open, but what could I say? I shrugged. "Fine."

  Zell laughed and wrapped an arm around my waist to pull me close. "Atta girl."