Zell sat at lunch with Quistis and the disgusting couple. It was hard to eat with Rinoa physically attached to Squall the way that she was. He smiled at Quistis who was looking like she was having problems eating her food as well. She smiled back at him. He wished that Irvine was there to entertain them. Quistis wasn’t really the talkative type and Rinoa was overly focused on Squall. And Squall was just Squall, him talking would have broken some kind of Balamb Garden law.

            “So, how is Irvine?” asked Quistis. She had noticed Zell’s recent attachment to the cowboy. She hoped that it wasn’t what she thought it might be.

            “He’s asleep,” whined Zell. “He didn’t sleep last night. Just stayed up developing those pictures. They are nice though.”

            Rinoa giggled. “Irvine taking up photography. It’s just so funny you know?”      

            Quistis and Zell watched her. Since he figured Quistis wouldn’t say it, he said “I don’t really think it’s funny...”

            Rinoa smiled. “Well, not like ha ha funny, but odd funny.” Squall nodded, encouraging her to carry on with her reasons why Irvine being a photographer was funny.  Zell really wished that Irvine was awake.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

            Within a few hours, Irvine was rejuvenated. His body was an amazing recoverer from all-nighters. He had just finished getting dressed for the day. He had been extra careful to make sure that he didn’t have any chemicals on him. Finally he was all spiffed up and ready to show his friends and the world his artwork. And then his photos.

            That was when he opened the door and ran into Seifer, literally. It looked like Seifer hadn’t been watching where he was going. But when Irvine looked to see who he had collided with, Seifer smiled purposefully. “Seifer?” asked Irvine. He couldn’t believe that it was him. He had fallen asleep looking at his face twice since developing the pictures the previous night. And here was the man in person, more beautiful and much taller.

            “I came for those pictures that you took of me,” said Seifer, slight anger coming through in his voice.

            “They didn’t turn out,” lied Irvine. He was lucky that he was such a smooth talker. “I’m new at photography.”

            Seifer pushed passed him. If Irvine hadn’t been so surprised, he could have kept Seifer out of his room. As it was, he blew him over like a leaf. He hurried after Seifer as he walked onto the photographs which were all over the floor and on the sofa.

            “NO!” cried out Irvine feeling like Seifer was stepping on him. He grabbed Seifer’s shoulders to pull him away. “Don’t...”

            Seifer glared at him challengingly. “Why?”

            “Because I love them...” said Irvine. He was willing to fight Seifer to death for them. He was so happy that his favorite was safe in his pocket.

            “Why? It’s ME in those pictures!” shouted Seifer, a snarl coming out as he said the words. And Irvine didn’t know how to respond. If it was anyone else in the world those pictures wouldn’t have turned out as beautiful as they did. The pain and the suffering that radiated from Seifer was so genuine. Irvine longed to just reach out and touch that pain that showed in the pictures. When Irvine didn’t say anything, Seifer made a disgusted face. “You are sick!”

            Irvine got angry too. “It’s not like that!”

            “Well what is it like then?”

            “It’s not your body, it’s your soul!” shouted Irvine. He had always been open with his feelings. It was in his nature. Admitting the desires of his heart that were looked upon badly by society was hard though. He felt like an idiot having said it.

            Seifer snorted, his hands going to his hips. “What do you know about my soul?”

            “What I can see in these pictures! And you can’t take that from me!” Irvine was prepared to go hand to hand with the cocky Seifer. But Seifer just stared at him. Then in the most incomprehensible moment of either of their lives, Seifer grabbed the back of Irvine’s head and kissed him. The heat of their anger inspiring their lips to ravage the other’s. Irvine didn’t think. He just kissed. He let his mouth open as Seifer’s tongue licked at the inside of his lower lip. He scratched against Seifer’s upper lip with his own, not breaking off the contact of their tongues. Occasionally, he would feel Seifer’s teeth on his lip and it drove him crazy.

            Seifer peeled his lips from Irvine even though Irvine was grabbing his shirt to keep him close. “Irvine...I’m sorry,” he apologized breathlessly. “I’ve just been so lonely...” Irvine wouldn’t let him finish. His lips softly coaxed Seifer’s into kissing back. The light touching made Seifer press against them again.

            “There’s no reason to be...” Irvine said as he made his way to licking Seifer’s neck. He heard Seifer’s sigh. He was too invested in it now to stop. He pictured the photograph that was in his pocket. It was the same man. The hurt Seifer was here and Irvine could make him feel better. It was making him high,  just thinking about having Seifer in his bed. He pulled away from Seifer’s neck so that he could look in those eyes. The ocean eyes that were no longer sad, but were filled with raging storms. Irvine didn’t care if he was lost at sea...

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *         

            “I always thought snipers were one-shot guys,” joked Seifer. He was exhausted but happy as the morning sun drove it’s way into Irvine’s room. His broad, muscular chest was the perfect resting place for Irvine’s face.

            Irvine licked on nipple nonchalantly. “I’m not a sharpshooter anymore.” It hurt to say. But the sooner that he got used to the idea, the sooner he could work on his new profession.

            Seifer was saddened by this. Irvine had always been so good with his guns. Though he had seen the tremendous flair he had for photography, a cowboy gunslinger was much sexier to him than an artist. “Why the change of heart?”

            Irvine was about to speak when he heard Zell’s familiar knock. He looked up at Seifer. Zell wouldn’t react very well to Seifer’s being there, especially naked. “You should stay here, for now.” Seifer nodded, closing his eyes to get some sleep.

            Irvine pulled on a pair of jeans, he did own two or three non-leather pangs. He heard Zell’s voice outside the front door. “Irvine! Man, you have to be in! I’m booored!” He smiled picturing Zell doing a nervous dance outside the door.

            Sure enough, Zell was twirling around with his hands behind his head. Irvine smiled. He was still giddy from afterglow, he doubted that Zell would notice. “What can I do for you Zell?” he asked leaning against the door frame.

            Zell felt his jaw go slack. He had never seen the cowboy with no shirt on before. He felt the blush spreading into his cheeks. Head down he said, “Nothing. Just wanted to know if you wanted to take some more pictures or something.”

            It wasn’t easy to say no to Zell. Irvine had been mooching off him for time and affection these past few weeks and it wasn’t really fair to shrug him off. But there was the hottest man that had ever walked in Balamb Garden in his bed. So, he blew Zell off. “Nah, I’m still a bit tired, I think I’m just going to rest up a little more.”

            Zell looked bummed. Then it appeared that he got an idea. He waved goodbye to Irvine as he took off down the hall. Irvine was suspicious, but not enough to abandon his naked comrade. As he reentered his bedroom, he saw that Seifer wasn’t asleep, but looking smugly at him. “Do you have an admirer?”

            Irvine shook his head. “We’ve been hanging around since I haven’t been working lately.” He smiled before grabbing Seifer’s ankles and pulling him further down the bed and closer for a kiss. He was surprised that Seifer didn’t mind. In fact, it seemed that he enjoyed it too much, for he was kissing Irvine the way that he had last night.

            “Seifer, how many times is this?” he sighed into the larger man’s mouth. He could feel his body reacting even though it might kill him.

            He felt a hand reaching down to clamp over his jeans as Seifer counted. “Hmmm, you’ve only had two, I think I need to catch you up to my three.”

            “Funny..” started Irvine and then ending in a choking sound. “I didn’t see you as a sharing type guy.”

            Once again the knock that consisted of three hard knocks and then a small one rang out from the front door. Zell. Irvine could have beaten the crap out of him right there and then, if he didn’t have to go let him in to do it. “Damn him,” he cursed, pulling away from Seifer.

            “I wonder what he wants?” asked Seifer, waving his eyebrows suggestively. Anyone who could be so annoying this early in the morning had to have some kind of motive other than playing cards. That was what he figured anyway. He watched Irvine walked irritatedly leave the room, closing the door behind him. Seifer looked around for the pants he had discarded so long ago.

            “Zell, this isn’t...”

            A hot dog was thrust in his face. “Look what they had at the cafeteria! That has to be more important than sleep!”

            Zell realized by the aggravated look on Irvine’s face that his teenage crush on the cowboy was irritating to the both of them. Zell couldn’t help wanting to follow around Irvine. It wasn’t his fault, Irvine had been inviting himself along so much that now Zell was used to having him around. He hoped that Irvine would just take the damned hot dog so that he could go hide his embarrassed face.

            Irvine sighed. “Okay, let’s eat. But then I have to get some sleep.” He was hungry, so what did it matter that his secret lover was in the other room? It was Seifer’s fault that he was so hungry anyway. He stepped into the room and glanced at his bedroom door, glad that it was for sure closed. “Yes, Zell these do look like good hot dogs!” he shouted, hopefully informing Seifer of the company.

            Zell didn’t seem to notice anything out of the ordinary about the way that Irvine was speaking. He just jumped onto Irvine’s sofa from the back. He landed with a loud noise and he set his hot dog on the small table in front of him. Irvine just walked around and sat down on the couch. He tried to eat the thing quickly, it tasted good and he was hungry, but Zell was watching him.

            “What is it Zell?” he asked after he finished a big swallow of hot dog.

            “I...I have something that I wanted to...ask you I guess.” Zell was fidgeting more than normal, if that was possible for a human being. His eyes were focused on Irvine, but on his chest region, not his eyes. Irvine nervously set down his hot dog. This couldn’t be a good thing.

            “Well, you know...how we’ve been getting to be good...friends lately right?” said the stammering Zell. Irvine felt a lump in his throat that he was sure wasn’t hot dog. He looked at his recent best friend carefully. Zell’s hair was perfectly done, the gel making it spike in just the right places. His clothes were clean, even his shoes seemed to have less scuffmarks. Zell looked ready to go out on a date, which was what Irvine realized was exactly what he was thinking.

            “Zell...” he warned.

            “Dammit Irvine, I just can’t say this. Here...” With that, Zell closed the distance between them on the couch and put his lips against Irvine’s. The shocked ex-gunslinger sat, he didn’t kiss back, but he didn’t pull away either. This was Zell. He had never thought of Zell in that way. Sure, Zell was cute with boyish enthusiasm, but it was never something that Irvine ever would have been attracted to. He was wondering when Zell would notice that he wasn’t kissing him back when he heard the door behind him open.

            Zell stopped kissing him and they both looked towards Irvine’s bedroom. There in the doorway stood a shirtless smirking Seifer. Zell’s jaw dropped down. “You’re too late Chicken Wuss.”

            Irvine winced, feeling the blow that had just been delivered to his best friend. Zell jumped off the couch instantly, his head darting between the site of the disrobed Seifer and guilty Irvine. “Fuck!” Zell’s anger hadn’t had a chance to hit yet in the shock. Seifer and Irvine seemed like an odd pair to Irvine, so what must poor Zell think? He reached up a hand to comfort the jumpy blonde. Zell dodged it easily, taking a step back, his eyes still on Seifer. “You and that asshole?”

            “Hey, it wasn’t just my asshole!” joked Seifer. Irvine smacked his face with his palm. This was bad. What was it about Zell that brought out this evil side of Seifer?

            Zell had had enough of this shit. He angrily strode past Seifer trying to retain some of his dignity. “Hey Chicken Wuss, you wanna join us?” mocked Seifer. Zell had taken enough abuse from Seifer. Even now, when he was completely alienated from society he was still being a jerk. Zell did something that he had always wanted to do. He pulled back his gloved hand and punched Seifer in the nose. He was a skilled fighter and he had never used it when his temper flared, but Seifer had just pushed too hard this time. He felt bad even as he felt the hard bone beneath his knuckle, but by then it was too late.

            “Oh shit!” exclaimed Zell as Seifer’s grabbed his face in pain. “Seifer...Oh man!”

            “Just go Zell, he deserved it,” said Irvine from the sofa. Zell obeyed him, he wasn’t quite sure why. ‘Let his lover take care of him,’ thought Zell as he left Irvine’s room. He heard cursing from the closed door behind him. He had to get away, this was just too much to handle all at once.

*          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *          *