Sometime later, Lina and Zell sat together on the couch in Zell's room. Since Zell's room was generally more spacious than her own, the two of them spent most of their time together there. They were just relaxing, not doing anything in particular besides the usual conversation and jokes. Although it seemed plain, nights like these made them both the happiest. "Oh yeah, Lina," Zell sat up a little excitedly. "I almost forgot to tell you. I'man instructor now!" Zell beamed with utter pride.
"Really!? That's great!" Lina smiled as he gripped her hand with fervor. "Does that mean you won't be in my class anymore though?"
"No, no, no," Zell said quickly. "Not at all, see I signed myself up for the mornin' shift so it wouldn't interfere with your class. I like watching you teach. And also watching you verbally own Seifer now and then." Lina laughed wholeheartedly and leaned back into Zell, smiling heartily. "What?? It's funny!"
"I guess so," Lina chuckled as she lifted Zell's palm up to eye level and randomly traced the lines with her fingers. "Hey, remember when we were in the cafeteria with all the others, and we all tricked Dan into drinking a Sprite with soy sauce in it?"
"Yeah," Zell chuckled. "He thought it was a Coke." Lina laughed at the reminiscence of the memory and looked at Zell with a joking little smile on her face.
"He didn't trust us for the rest of the week," she giggled. "And I don't think he does now." Zell nodded, but shuffled in his seat uneasily for a little bit. The way Lina spoke of Dan slightly bothered him since Dan had seemingly just suddenly jumped into the picture. Also, Lina was always so happy when she spoke about him, as if something about him were really that grand.
"Hey Lina...um...are you sure you don't like him?" It came out kind of awkwardly, but Zell had to get it off his chest. Lina shifted her weight to her right side and leaned against his shoulder, kind of looking at him like it was such a stupid question.
"Zell, I'm sure," she told him reassuringly. Zell stupidly just had to make sure even though she'd tried to quell his concern so many times before. He then did something that was even stupider than making sure she didn't like Dan. He asked her if she liked Nakago or Daccir too. "Zell! You know I love you! Are you...jealous!?"
"I am not!" he shot straight up, but he was blushing and therefore lying. "I just..."
"Zell!" the two of them were now sitting face to face in a direct argument over something stupid like they would have done the first time they met. "There's no need to be jealous of anything!"
"I am not jealous!" he almost yelled. "I just don't like to see other guys trying to hit on you because it makes me nervous!" Lina blinked. Okay, that was the definition of jealousy. "That's not what I mean--" Zell said quickly, realizing his mistake and trying quickly to cover it up, but when he said that, he had to question himself a little bit--was he jealous?
"Yeah...um, I'll talk to you later," she got up from the couch and headed towards the door, but Zell chased her there. "Zell, I don't want to talk to you when you're like this."
"No, Lina...I'm not jealous, really I'm not," Zell said, trying to block the door. Lina looked at him, a seriousness in her eyes, and he finally stepped aside. Lina left down the hallway to her room and Zell went back into his room, wondering what the hell he just did, and how the hell to fix this, because it was her footsteps down the hall that made him realize the love of his life was walking away.