The day left Lina with a troubled sleep. Her dreams were catastrophic, but when she woke up sweating the following morning, none of them had lingered. She could only feel those similar cold hands groping at her. Then, she'd see Squall's angry face flash in her mind. What did it mean? Speaking of which, Lina's little crush on Squall had diminished to nothing more than a fairly anticipated conversation here or there. Meanwhile, she found herself suddenly more attracted to Zell. He was handsome, motive driven, nice, and had a generous attitude--though at times she admitted, he was a little too quick to speak. It had all crept on so gradually, that she had barely noticed it.
During class, it came to the point where she had to collect their homework. "Well, what interesting facts did you find on sorceress Gorld?" At the name, Lina fought the cold hands off with an introverted struggle. The room was still, the students quiet; no hands were raised. "No one? Wow...must be hard to gather info on this one," Lina said. "Okay, well I'll give you all one more night." Lina had read countless books on sorceresses when studying to fill this position, but never in any of the documents had she read anything having to do with a Sorceress Gorld. It must have been a hard topic for her students when she herself had never learned about it. Then again, it felt like every time Rinoa picked up books for her, there were always a few pages missing.
"Lina, before you carry on with the lesson, I would like to announce that I have been very impressed with your performance this week. You are now an official Instructor of Balamb Garden," Quistis said. The class cheered and whistle--Balamb deserved this staff member. Lina tried to hide her blush by nodding subtly, but when she looked up she could see Zell in the back of the room smiling and giving her a thumbs up. Afterward, she felt the flush in her cheeks intensify. Without further ado, she settled down the class and continued with the curriculum. Soon, the bell rang and the students left. Lina sat down at her desk and smiled.
"Well, congrats." Lina looked up and saw Zell hadn't yet left the classroom.
"Thanks," she said, feeling her face start to get hot. How awkward was it that he was just standing there? Well, not for long. He picked up his books easily with one hand and headed towards her at the front of the room. She stood and turned towards the doorway--giving Zell the opportunity to examine her flawless profile.
"Hey Lina, do you um... have any plans for tonight?" Zell asked as he approached Lina's side. "I mean...if you're free, then maybe we can go out to dinner or something?" Zell rubbed the side of his arm with his glove, obviously absorbing the awkward moment. He chuckled when he caught her genuinely shocked visage. She looked cute with her eyes all wide like that.
"Um... I uh... Zell, don't you have a girlfriend?" she couldn't think of anything to say except for that. In her mind she pictured Sadie's scornful glare. Lina swept her fingers through a strand of her hair as if it'd help to hide her blush. Her insides were churning--what do they call it? Butterflies in the stomach. Her student was asking her out! I mean, okay, he was older and higher in SeeD rank, but it was still awkward.
"Who... Sadie? No, I kinda..." dumped her. Hard and cold, but Lina was pretending she hadn't been witness to it. "We're not together. Anymore I mean. She had to hang out this one time because Squall assigned it and she took advantage of my down-stage. My um... previous girlfriend was in an accident."
"Oh, Zell, I'm so sorry I didn't know," Lina said, feeling suddenly so foolish for thinking of Sadie.
"Don't be," he said so suddenly that Lina had to resist jumping. To Lina though, this seemed somewhat of a cavil--he lost his previous girlfriend and he seemed so eager to let go? Lina's emotions were all in a farrago. She kept feeling bad because of Sadie, but also sensed that urge to just say yes.
"Um... Zell, I don't know, I mean I don't think I could do that to Sadie," she said. It'd only been one day--he was quick to get over. To her surprise, he subtly grabbed her by the shoulders and looked at her--the eye contact was much obliged although Lina couldn't help but blush until she was sure her cheeks were rosy and hot.
"Lina. I know you have good principals and everything, but don't care about Sadie--just don't. The fact is, her and me, was forced and now it's over. Will you please go out with me tonight?" he said.
"Um..." she found it hard to speak, her heartbeat in her ears and her voice weak. Did she have the guts to turn him down? She surely didn't want to. "Yes, sure... uh why not?"
"Alright!!" he gave her a hug and she flinched. His arms around her with the warmth and the affection were gratefully welcome to her, but she was glowing red hot now. Did she really know him that well? Well enough to share a hug? It didn't matter anymore because there it was. Zell felt her awkwardness and laugh. "Chill out! I'll be at your room at seven tonight." With that, he grabbed his books and dashed out before she could give him any more shocked glances.
Before Lina could even notice, a smile crept onto her face, and oh how wonderful it felt to finally and genuinely smile! She chuckled and rubbed the back of her hand against her cheek--just as she expected! Hot and quite obviously red. She was going on a date with Zell Dincht! THE Zell Dincht! Oh no, what would Sadie say? But who cares what she'd say or do!
Her thoughts were interrupted by a phone ring and it took her a moment to snap out of her little swirl or thoughts and realize that was her cell phone! She scrambled to get it out of her book bag and flipped it open, "Hello?" she asked rather breathlessly.
"Heartilly, you called," a mellow voice sounded from the receiver. " You sounded urgent. I apologize for it taking so long for a response."
"Strife!" Lina sighed with relief. "Thanks for calling back. Look, something weird happened the other day. I guess it was just... well I was standing outside and I guess I blacked out and didn't know what happened, but I woke up kind of... cold, as in my arms numb and everything, and my friends told me that apparently during the interval that I'd passed out I had been in a fight with someone."
No response from the other side. Right, this is was Cloud, he wanted to know what the problem was.
"Um... so I wanted to ask you... During training... have I... I mean... well did I ever do anything strange like that?" she asked. Cloud exhaled deeply into their conversation. "Hey, Strife? You there?" It was a moment later when he responded.
"Yes, actually sometimes you'd fight back with some tactic I've never taught you," he said. This didn't help her much. "Look, when you're good and ready, go talk to your sister. I don't mean now, I don't mean an hour later, but when you think you're ready."
"Ready for what?"
"You'll just know. When you're ready for the truth," Cloud said. Lina sighed this time--Strife always had to be so blunt, somehow like he was suffering and pushing others away from him. She didn't blame him--he'd only told her a portion of his past and that already seemed like enough to change a person. The rest he'd said he couldn't remember, but wasn't that ages ago?
"Alright then. I take your word for it. Call more often, buddy, I miss training sometimes," she joked. She heard Cloud chuckle in the curt way that he did that meant something was amusing him. "Okay, bye Strife."
"Later, Heartilly," she think he said, but there was static at that last moment. Maybe he had said Lina Heartilly, she wasn't very sure, but either way, she hung up and that was that. She thought she probably wouldn't hear from her trainer for at least another two months. At least--maybe depending on his sudden mood. Cloud always seemed to be suffering something new--not even a case of hypochondria, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Either way, she went back to her room and prepared for her--dare she say it--date with Zell. It was hard not to blush at the idea. Standing in front of the mirror, she realized exactly what she was going through with. Zell Dincht and Lina Heartilly on a date. People would take--an instructor and student--two SeeDs--two Duelists. It was hard not to say anything. Wow...I'm seriously going to do this. What if Sadie...? she waved the matter away and focused--tonight, she'd just have fun. That was all she could ask for.
As promised, at seven o'clock sharp, Zell knocked on her door awakening restless butterflies her stomach. She dropped whatever she was doing and peeked over at the mirror for a split second. Yeah, clothes were fine--casual, nothing too dressy, just a jacket over a tank top (non-slutty of course, she made sure of that) and jeans. Okay, yeah.
She opened the door and stepped out to greet him, "Hey." She was rather breathless and her blush made Zell grin.
"Hey there," he said, all smiley and what not. She locked the door and headed out to leave, but Zell stood there smiling.
"Is there something wrong?" she asked. To her immediate surprise, Zell grabbed her wrist and pulled in directly in front of him.
"You got a little tangle in your hair there," he said as he strung his fingers through her hair to loosen the tangle. Lina blushed, whole-heartedly. Sure she'd looked in the mirror--at her clothes, not her hair darn that! "Let's go." They left, Lina quiet, her heart pounding in her ears again and her cheeks still red. A few students gave them curious stares here and there, making Lina's morality suddenly shrink down ten sizes too small. "Come on now, what's to worry about? Well there's this really nice restaurant in Balamb called Nida's Corner. I'm not sure if you've been there since it's pretty new and it's all hidden in some cove where no one would ever look, but it's hecka nice."
"Sounds kind of familiar, but I don't think I've ever been there," she said softly. Her voice was just now creeping back up on her. She couldn't get that one moment off her mind, when Zell's hand had actually swept past her cheek and she could see his misty blue eyes carefully focused on some random little glitch in her hairstyle.
"Maybe you have, but you just can't remember," Zell smiled at her. He had said that almost as if he could have known she had amnesia, but that would be ridiculous right? Zell must have realized his mistake because quickly, he brushed it off with his next remark. "Well, I mean it happens to me all the time. Go one place, then go back and forget you've been there. Common mental error probably."
"Sure," she chuckled as they arrived to the city where in the distance she could see the sun setting against a flat oceanic horizon. The sky was immersed in a bright orange and it was the most breathtaking sight anyone could ever lay eyes on. "The city looks so beautiful."
"It does doesn't it?" Zell laughed, having already been witness to this gorgeous sight many times before, considering that he lived there. "Come on, I'll take you there." He reached down while she was gazing out across the harbor and grabbed her hand, and when she flinched he only chuckled; thus, he brushed it off and made his actions legit.
The restaurant was more or less underground. Not so much that you had to climb down some trap door to get to it, but a small spiral stone staircase led down to the front door. By the time they'd reached the bottom of the stairs, Lina wondered how any light would possibly get into the restaurant, but upon entering, she discovered the entire room was brilliantly planned from the front desk to the very last table. On the left wall, there were huge windows giving no more than the amazing panoramic view of the ocean and the setting sun and on the ceiling a grand chandelier hung for when night fell.
The waiters showed them to their table which was conveniently right by the grand windows. As Lina took her seat, she found herself unable to take her eyes off the view--the waves, all uniform in direction and style, but each one individually unique from the rest--and in the background the sun was at the point where it wasn't quite visible enough to hurt anyone's eyes when looking at it, but it was still lingering there at the horizon line, orange and pale, threatening the life of the day.
"Wow," she mouthed, watching tentatively the mesmerizing pattern of the waves. She looked around the room--everything was lavishly decorated and although the visage of the restaurant was that of a formal gourmet, the customers were dressed casually and atmosphere was very welcoming. "I've been to Balamb before, but not to this restaurant." She turned back to Zell who seemed to already have his eyes fixed on her. "I mean... usually I'd sit by the harbor with a book or something, but I've never found this place."
"Yeah... it's not very conspicuous. Actually, a guy from Garden opened up this restaurant. Name's Nida, but the funny thing is he's not very noticed there either," he joked. "But hey we all get along." By then, the waiter had come along.
He opened his mouth to speak, but Lina heard different from what he said.
Mr. Dincht, Ms. Heartilly, I'm afraid a Commander Leonhart from Balamb Garden has requested by phone that you return immediately--uh, sir--he mentioned something about time compression.
"What?" Lina asked him suddenly. He glanced at her like she was daft.
"Miss, I said 'May I take your order?'," the waiter said, rather patient but conspicuously annoyed by her strange behavior. "So what will it be for you two?" Lina did not answer and instead, Zell answered for the two of them.
"Just two specials, water's fine," he said, handing the menus back and letting the waiter leave them alone. "You okay?" Lina looked up at him and nodded warily--things in her head just kept getting more twisted from here on.
"I heard something about 'time compression' coming out of his mouth. Did you hear that?" she asked, but Zell shook his head quietly. "I do remember reading, that the SeeDs sent to conquer Ultimecia had to go through time compression. And I remember, Zell, that you were one of them." Zell nodded, blinking as he did so in a way that expressed his understanding for the subject matter. "When that waiter opened his mouth, I heard him say something about time compression, but he knew both of our names."
"Well that's strange, have you asked Rinoa about it?" Zell leaned back and shrugged.
"You mean, Rinoa might know something about it?"
"Yeah, go for it!" he laughed. "Lina, if you have any problems at all, I just want you to know that you can ask me." Lina nodded, blushing violently. Looking into his blue eyes made her heart swoon with any whatever emotion she wasn't used to.
"Thanks Zell, I'm fine," Lina said, looking down so he wouldn't notice so much her blush. He chuckled again and that was that. Dinner passed enjoyable, full of laughter and jokes. Lina absolutely enjoyed her time with Zell; he made her feel like somehow, someway, she had a past.