Baby Blocks

Day 7: Sunday

Amazing, Squall thought, they showed up. They got together shortly after time compression, then fell apart, sort of, and now this.

The Garden Commander could barely stand to watch the two. They had been holding hands and making goo-goo eyes at each other since he'd come in. He was half-expecting them to jump on top of the table and start going at it. He was glad he hadn't been waiting long. Perhaps, more accurately, he was glad he had been strategically late, so that everyone would already be in there and the meeting could start immediately.

"Morning, Squall," Quistis said. She was something like Squall's second in command in matters related to Garden, since she was leader of the education committee, and that was such a large part of Garden.

"Morning," Squall nodded lazily and set his coffee and documents down on the table. "Nice to see everyone here," he said as he leaned back in his chair, looking around the room at all of Garden's leaders, mostly consisting of his friends and a few other teachers & faculty who rarely said much during these meetings. He had Selphie and Irvine's full attention, but he knew they were holding hands under the table. "Let's get started." He pulled out his top sheet from the folder and held it up. "First thing is... the fire cavern will be closed a week from today for the next few weeks while we let the monsters respawn. Quistis, can you let the students know this? Especially the ones close to their SeeD test?"

"Can do."

"All right. And-" Squall caught Selphie and Irvine staring straight at him. It was weird, like their gazes were synchronized. It disconcerted him. "And the new infirmary wing construction date is set for the fifteenth. So," Squall put down his notes, "Anything new?"

"The Garden Festival budget was cut. Again," Selphie piped up. There was no hesitation in her voice. It was like running Garden Festival was her one purpose in life.

Squall said, "The festival budget gets cut every year. You'd think you'd be used to it by now."

"This time we can barely do anything. We can't afford the band we want, we have to use cheap wood for the stage, the food is gonna be a little more than cocktail weenies and crackers."

The half-asleep blond fighter became alert. "Cocktail weenies?"

"Calm down, Zell."

Squall said, "Sorry, Selphie, but we need that gil for more pressing issues - like room and board and maintaining the training centers."

"All work and no play makes SeeDs go crazy," she pouted.

"Selphie has a point there," Irvine said. That really caught Squall off-guard. Irvine had never said anything like that before. He'd always supported Squall's points, that work and study came first and play later. Everyone in the room knew it too. It just added more artificiality to the room, to their relationship. Even the way he said it sounded synthetic, like he was just saying it to please Selphie.

"I'll see what I can squeeze out of the budget," Squall said after a pregnant pause. "I'll take it up with Cid. How much do you need?"

"We need enough for the band. We don't need the wood stage, do we?" Selphie looked at Irvine as if they were picking out curtains. "Oh, but I wanted a costume contest. I think the band can do just fine on the floor."

"Maybe we can get some sort of platform for them to stand on," Irvine said.

"Yeah, I'd rather have a costume contest than a band, wouldn't you?"

"Well, that depends on what costume you wear."

Selphie playfully hit Irvine, "Oh, you."

Everyone in the room was frozen, watching this exchange. They hadn't seen anything like it for months. It was like time was wiped clean and started over, without anything happening in-between.