On the next lazy Friday afternoon, the Ragnarok landed in Magality City, dispelling form the load a happy Lina Heartilly and an ecstatic Irvine Kinneas carrying her two little bags even though she'd insisted she lug them around herself. She supposed he was just trying to be a gentleman by helping her out with her things; after all, Irvine's main goal in coming along was probably just to catch all the attention he could from the girls. Or was it really? "Why did you decide to come anyways, Irvy?" Lina asked. It wasn't very often Irvine decided to follow her around instead of Selphie. Actually, this would be the first time.
"Sei--I... wanna chill out with all the hot Magality girls--you know," Irvine winked in her direction and she chuckled at his sense of humor as well as his stupidity. Luckily, she bought it. Irvine's real reason for coming was Seifer. A few hours before Lina's departure for the city, Zell had overheard a conversation of Seifers' with some lady he didn't recognize. Seifer had mentioned Lina's name and had uttered something about the city of "Magality". It was the way that he said it that frightened Zell to tell Irvine to take care of Lina--that he just didn't care. Or more so, it was like he was hoping something might go wrong.
Lina stood in the middle of a plaza and looked across at the front of the Hitol hotel which her friends had promised to meet her at. In the distance just vaguely by the sidewalk she could make out through the windblown dust two thin figures she distinguished as familiar. She called out, "Amber? Jen?"
Lina saw one of them take a step forward, then cover their eyes and stare in her direction, "Liz? Is that you?" Lina squealed, making Irvine almost jump back, and then charged forward to embrace the two. "Frikken A, it really is you! It's been so long!" Lina nearly jumped on the two of them and squeezed them inside out.
"Holy crap! You guys look great!" Lina exclaimed. She eyed them once, and they seemed like they had not changed much over the past four or five years. Amber still had her vaguely lukewarm smile matching a her stout black-haired hairstyle. Her light brown eyes seemed to have grown a little bit darker however, but perhaps that was just from aging or the twisting of reality memory inflicts after some time. Jen still had her layered black hair, chopped up thin and thick, thin and thick, all the way down to her back. Her eyes were a dull green that could just barely pass off as light brown, just barely. Back then, Lina had thought that Jen was so much taller than she, but now Jen was about a head shorter than Lina. She'd need some time to get used to the sudden transition.
They took their conversation and "catching up" with them to dinner, where Irvine always sat next to Lina, keeping a sharp eye out for any suspicious activity the ever watchful Seifer might decide to suddenly pull. The said, Seifer, happened just to be sitting at a table at the back of the room, sipping coffee from a mug in one hand and leaning back against his chair, his face turned towards the door to await Sarah's arrival.
"Hey, remember that time you were walking with the guy you liked and you walked right into the pole?" Amber laughed recalling the memory. The three girls were almost in tears now from their jokes and their memories. It felt like even the past pieces of even the least significance were a hilarious event one way or another that day.
"I do, I do remember, but it was so embarrassing!" Lina exclaimed, her hand to her forehead as if she could still feel the sting of the sudden contact. "I had a bump on my head for about a week!"
"And who might this guy be?" Irvine butted in. Lina sighed out the laughter cheerfully, then smiled at Irvine; she knew he was only trying to protect her. He was also trying to protect himself from Zell because if Lina ran off somewhere with some imaginary boy from who knows where, it'd be Irvine's head on a platter first thing.
"Irvy...it was in an entirely different world some millions of ages ago, and besides... he wasn't even half the man my Zelly is," Lina told him. Irvine, for some reason did not seem satisfied--in fact, he had suddenly appeared quite evidently depressed. Jen and Amber looked in Lina's direction with raised eyebrows, but Lina only smiled and rolled her eyes. "Or you." And suddenly, Irvine's frown flipped upside down into a wide beam of happiness. Wasn't it amazing how the simplest words could conjure such a great impact. "How about the time when Jen tripped over the cord at the play and ruined everything!" Lina said. Jen smiled, but rolled her eyes towards the ceiling. Even so, the tension between them was barely tangible anymore. Maybe time does heal the damage.
As they continued to chatter away the day, Irvine sat rigid and stiff, only half listening to what they were bantering on about, but otherwise fixing his eyes on Seifer's every movement. If Seifer was up to something, Irvine would make sure he was the one to find out about it first. Seifer only smiled back at him sweetly and then looked towards the entrance.