Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Domestic ❯ Pizzas and Trophies ( Chapter 4 )

Domestic

WARNINGS:

1) I do not own FF8, Squaresoft, or get any profit out of this story

2) Rated PG-13 for violence, language, and sexual content

Chapter 4: Pizzas and Trophies

"He's going to be out for a while," Dr. Kadowaki muttered shaking her head. "Really there should be a limit to how many fights a person can get in. I don't care how many times they get up. If somebody kicks you in the head…"

Zell tuned her out. He currently sat in the Infirmary with his shirt off, as Dr. Kadowaki applied bandages to his cuts and bruises. He looked over to Travis in the bed to the left. He appeared to be sleeping, but he might have been out cold. The kid gave up the consciousness battle soon after Zell forfeited, so the blonde carried him down here.

He lost. No pizza. No trophy. Zell considered it the only fair thing to do though. He already had a spot in the Garden. Squall told him last night. And Azerton deserved it. Sure, Zell could've easily knocked the crap out of him. Actually, he should have knocked the crap out of Wix. But if he had enough strength to go out and attempt to fight Zell in the finals, he deserved to win.

"You're good to go Dincht," Dr Kadowaki muttered after applying what seemed like the thirtieth bandage. "Thanks for not killing Azerton over there."

"Sure," Zell sighed. "See ya." He was beat. The night was going on 100 hours, and his shoulder was definitely jammed. The hallways were deserted. He tiredly walked past the dark Quad and Cafeteria, and then the Dorms came into view. They were lively. Half of the school was out in the hallway discussing the night's events. The blonde passed a small BBQ, a game of poker, and a makeup party to his left. Every person stopped their conversation as he passed by, and stared at him blankly. Soon the entire hallway was quiet. Zell just kept walking. He was too tired to give them any more entertainment today.

"There's Mr. Chivalry," a booming voice came from behind him.

Zell pivoted and saw Wix glaring at him with his two cronies. The blonde shook his head and kept walking.

"Hey I heard…" Wix shouted again, but Zell reached his dorm and slammed the door shut before he could finish.

His room was pitch black except for the moonlight pouring through his bedroom window. The blonde stumbled his way to his bed and collapsed.

(**********)

"You're truly crazy," the cowboy smiled, leaning back in his chair. "Only you would pull something like that."

"Aww…it was sweet Irvy," Selphie cooed.

"It wasn't sweet," Zell muttered, turning red. He quickly stuffed a spoonful of cereal into his mouth.

"What was it then?" Irvine laughed

"It was…an act of respect."

"It was cute."

Zell just shook his head

"Well I won the women's tournament," Selphie smiled happily. "No competition really."

"What'd you get?" Zell asked.

"A pizza and a trophy."

"Dammit!" Zell pounded his fist on the table.

Irvine just laughed. "Oh yeah, along with you forfeiting, the other topic of conversation last night was Wix."

"Really?" Zell mumbled quietly. "What do they want to give him a medal or something?"

"No, actually the opposite. A lot of kids I talked to wanted him expelled.

"That'll happen later today," Zell nodded. With the reminiscing of last night, he looked around the room for familiar faces. McNeese had a swollen lip at the table to their left. He was sitting with South, who seemed in relatively good shape. Two tables behind them, Wix was sitting with not two, but three friends. "Wow," Zell laughed to himself. "And the fan club grows." Thor sat at a huge table of ten or fifteen people. His face was considerably better, but he still looked rough. Looking all over the cafeteria, Zell couldn't find Travis. "Prolly still down in the Infirmary."

"Ding, DING, DING!" chimed the overhead speaker in the cafeteria. The tables went deafly silent, as the voice of Quistis Trepe came over the intercom. "The list of accepted applicants is placed in the Quad. If you are on the list, please report to the library. If you cannot find your name, please exit the Garden by 1500 hours. Thank you!"

Zell never saw the cafeteria empty faster. Children were madly dropping trays and breaking out into full sprints. Irvine started laughing, and Selphie had a face of disgust. They were the only ones still sitting in the cafeteria. It looked like a gigantic tsunami had just hit the room. Food was all over the floor, tables were overturned, and paper was everywhere.

"I'm sort of curious myself," the blonde snickered

"Well you let us know Zell," Selphie said disgustedly. "Me and Irvine are going to stay and clean this up."

Irvine stopped laughing.

"Alright, see ya," Zell snickered. He threw his stuff out and jogged out of the cafeteria. The corridors were jammed. Zell got halfway to the Quad hallway and was met by a mob of people. Using his strength, Zell shouldered his way through the mass. He picked up and moved a few small people, and shoved the larger ones. Finally he made it inside the Quad. There was no way he was getting done the stairs, so he put one hand on the banister and jumped to the lower area. Zell pushed his way through the mass of people hovering around the paper, and finally Zell got to the front. The paper was at least four sheets long.

All SeeDs are welcomed back to the Garden.

Winner of Tournament (Automatic Acceptance + Pizza + Trophy)

Travis Azerton

Selphie Tilmett

The following have also been accepted into BalambMilitaryGarden

TishaAbers

Jack Arlingfar

WulloBeeknet

…

…

…

Wix Kramer

Zell's blood went cold. An anger boiled through his body. He just wanted to hit Kramer right in the nose. Or perhaps Squall. "That can be arranged." He continued to scan down the list and found that McNeese, Thor, and South all made the cut. Feeling a little better, Zell made his way back out of the mob.

"Of course I made it in," Wix said as loud as possible. "Obviously Leonhart saw that nobody could touch me in the hand-to-hand fights."

Zell's blood boiled again. "I think I'm going to have a word with Mr. Leonhart," he told himself. After escaping the Quad, he made his way quite easily to the elevator. He saw a few people dancing down to the library, and a few others in tears heading back to the dorms. The blonde didn't care either way. His anger level was close to a seven. He pressed three on the elevator, and zoomed up to Squall's office.

"Hey, Zell," Quistis greeted friendly. "Squall's a little busy, so…"

Zell ignored her. He swung the double doors open and marched into Squall's office. "What the hell is this!"

Squall didn't look up. "What?"

"You know why I'm here!" Zell roared. He tried to continually raise his voice, but it was capping out and cracking. "He lost his monster fight, he cheated in the hand-to-hand fight, and knowing his intelligence I don't think he got higher then a twelve on the written portion!" It was supposed to be a very intimidating speech, but Zell ended up sounding like a 10 year old who didn't reach puberty yet.

"It had to be done," Squall muttered, suppressing his urge to snicker. To accomplish this, he refused to take his eyes off the paperwork in front of him.

"NO IT DIDN'T!" the blonde exploded.

"Let me explain how things work," Squall said sternly, dropping his pen onto the desk. "This Garden is still run on Cid's money. Cid still owns a good portion of this Garden. Edea owns a good portion of this Garden. It's their Garden. They created it. They can destroy it. If their child, no matter how obnoxious he is, doesn't get into this Garden, we collapse. It had to be done."

Zell ran out of arguments. He decided his best plan of action would be to just glare at the brunette. Squall picked his pen back up and began scribbling down notes. Zell stood in silence for a few minutes, but then began to feel like a bully. A bully who was getting nothing accomplished. A pretty pathetic bully. A bully who wasn't actually a bully at all; more like a nerd with a gun. A gun that didn't have any bullets. After spending a few minutes thinking about these dumb analogies, Zell gave up and went to leave. "Sorry man. See ya."

"Zell," Squall muttered right before the blonde was out the door.

"What?"

"How well do you know Azerton?"

"Uh…not well. I've never talked to him."

"He'll be happy to see you, take this down to him." Squall reached under his desk and pulled out a pizza and a trophy. "Last I heard he's still down in the Infirmary. Make sure you remind him the SeeD test is coming up soon. I could use another martial arts specialist."

"I think he uses a quarterstaff though," Zell said, scratching his head.

"It's not too late to change," Squall hinted, still looking down at his paperwork. "Especially if you teach him."

"What?"

"Goodbye Zell," Squall muttered, motioning for him to leave.

Zell knew he had worn out his welcome, and obliged. "Ok, see ya man."

Zell reluctantly walked out of the office and back into the elevator. When he reached the bottom floor, he hopped down the steps and walked into the lobby. The Quad was slowly letting out, and now the corridors were extremely packed. Pushing his way through the masses, Zell finally reached the infirmary.

"Hurt again Zell?" Dr. Kadowaki asked, as the blonde walked to her desk.

"Nah…I come baring gifts," Zell smiled.

"Everyone's gone. You should check down at the Quad."

"Travis Azerton?"

"Ah…him I still have," the doctor smiled. "Travis, are you awake dear?"

"Yeah," came a rough voice from the far left corner.

Zell took a step back, as he realized he never heard Azerton talk before, but he quickly regained himself. "Thanks," he muttered to Dr. Kadowaki, and made his way over to the bed. A million beds were still in the Infirmary, but Travis seemed to be the only one there.

"Hey," Zell nodded, sitting on a bed opposite of Travis. "Squall sent me to give you these."

Travis sat up on the edge of his bed and looked at the blonde. His face had improved considerably. The swelling was going down, but his right eye was still a dark black. His chest was half-wrapped with bandages, and his hand was wrapped as well.

"You can keep it. You won the tournament," the black haired child mumbled, staring at the floor.

"Nah…I forfeited. Remember?" Zell said, holding out the pizza and trophy in front of him.

"Wix had me beat. If you think Wix would've beat you in the finals then give it to him."

"I would've murdered Wix," Zell barked, patting his chest. "I would've just gave him a chin shot and then…"

"Keep it then."

Zell just put them on the bedside table and decided to change the subject. "Uh…You didn't go down to the Quad did you?"

Azerton shook his head.

"Well you got in obviously. So did McNeese and South. I don't know if you know them…and somehow Wix got in too. Anyone else you want to know about?"

"No," Travis muttered keeping his eyes on the floor. Silence covered the room, as Zell tried to think of another topic.

"Oh yeah! How attached are you to that Quarterstaff?"

Travis reached under his bed and pulled out what remained of his Quarterstaff. He handed it to Zell.

"Uh…I'll take that as not much. It doesn't matter anyway. Squall was impressed with your fighting skills, so he wants me to teach you to fight with your hands."

"muttur tadis," Travis mumbled into the floor.

"What?"

"Monster tactics," he said looking Zell in the eyes.

"Yeah well monster tactics won you that tournament," the blonde said defensively.

"No, monster tactics won YOU that tournament. I won the tournament on pity points."

"It wasn't pity points," Zell barked, his voice steadily getting louder. "It was an act of respect."

"You're so kind," Travis said sarcastically

Another silence swept over the room, as Zell couldn't think of a good comeback. "This is what Leonhart suggested. If you're not game, I'm sure he can find something else for you to do."

Travis took a breath and brought his gaze back to Zell. "When do we start?"

"Tomorrow," Zell smiled. "I'll get you up." With that Zell stood up and began to leave the Infirmary.

"You forgot your stuff," Travis called, pointing to the pizza and the trophy.

"You won the tournament."

(**********)