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Cowboy Taming	By : lunael55 Category: Final Fantasy VIII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 937 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: Don't own Final Fantasy VIII, don't make money from it

Chapter List
- 1-Cowboy Taming - Chapter 1
- 2-Cowboy Taming - Chapter 2
- 1
- 2
When I started to write this story, I had no idea where I would take it after the initial first chapter. I guess I just liked to toy with the idea of a freaked-out Irvine. It turns out that the rest of the story didn't come naturally to me and although I've worked very hard on this chapter, I'm not satisfied with it. I can't help feeling that Irvine is far too out-of-character in this story. But at the same time, I guess it can't be helped: how am I supposed to write a freaked-out Irvine Kinneas (read: smooth and sexy in all occasions) in-character?
Once again, English is not my native language so if you run into mistakes or ill-phrased sentences, please let me know. But above all, leave comments to tell me what you think of this story so far ;)
o0o0o
Cowboy Taming
Chapter 2
That evening, tension was palpable at the orphanage gang’s usual table as Selphie, Zell, Rinoa and Quistis waited expectantly for a certain auburn-haired man to show up, taking frequent glances at the cafeteria’s entrance in hopes to finally catch a glimpse of him in the sea of cadets coming in. A mixture of anticipation and impatience made Selphie squirm nervously on her seat, Rinoa tap her polished nails on the table in a nerve-breaking manner and Zell shift from one position to another on his chair as they all waited for Irvine to show up. Quistis had mixed feelings about what she guessed her friends had in mind, but at the same time she was way too curious to know what was going to be said not to be there.
When they finally spotted the auburn-aired man entering the cafeteria and joining the queue to get his meal, a palpable rush of anticipation went through the small group. For several minutes, they all expectedly watched the cowboy’s progression through the cafeteria line, wondering how to best confront the cowboy about the latest twist to his relationship with a certain blonde man. But when Irvine finally reached their table and greeted them with his usual enticing smile, they acted as if nothing was going on, chatting about the same kind of things they usually chatted about on mealtimes. But as the seemingly ordinary conversation went on, Irvine looked increasingly puzzled. Quistis glanced at her friends and bit her bottom lip; of course, Irvine Kinneas was far too perceptive not to notice there was something strange going on. Rinoa was giving Irvine one of what Zell liked to call her “too-sweet-to-be-true” smiles, which usually meant that she either needed a favour out of you or that she had been talking in your back moments ago - which were both common occurrences, actually. Selphie was looking quite hyper, but there was nothing particularly strange about a hyper Selphie, especially at this time of the year when she was restlessly recruiting “volunteers” and organizing parties. Their odd behaviour would have been overlooked if it had not been for Zell’s definitely strange attitude – somehow, the loud and straightforward blond seemed secretly immensely amused by something, and that obviously made Irvine feel a little wary.
It didn’t take much time before Seifer showed up and sat next to the cowboy, taking the seat Rinoa was obligingly offering him. The change that occurred in Irvine at the moment Seifer sat beside him was very subtle, but hard not to notice to a trained eye; his charming smile stiffened a bit and his purple eyes avoided artfully the newcomer by sparking a discussion with the tiny brunette sitting in front of him. The rest of his friends though greeted the tall blonde unusually cheerfully; in many ways their behaviour was far more telling than Irvine’s, who acted as if he was too interested in Selphie’s party preparations to take notice of his blonde neighbour. But as they ate their meal, it became obvious the cowboy wasn’t as comfortable as he tried to let on. In fact, he was looking stiffer and more nervous than usual, which truly wasn’t such a surprise, Quistis mused. It would be hard not to get a little anxious with everybody starring at the two of them so intently, or with Rinoa asking all those “beat around the bush” questions – the raven-haired woman seemed intend on – and failing at - making them come up with the subject of their relationship on their own.
At some point, Irvine had to ask.
“Are you guys alright?” He asked with drawl. “You look like you’re holding on somethin’.”
He didn’t seem to be the only one to find everybody’s – and especially Zell’s - attitude puzzling.
“Yeah,” Seifer spoke up, “what’s up with you, Dincht? You look like you just got a blow job. Did you finally get laid or what?”
The comment having been made by Seifer, Irvine pretended not to have heard it at first. Even so, he couldn’t help glancing with surprise at Zell when the tattooed young man only smirked at the direct taunt about his non-existent sex life – a subject he was usually quite sensitive about.
“Speaking of getting laid,” Zell retorted with a sly smile, “how’s your love life, Seifer?”
This quite unexpected twist was greeted by a thick silence as everybody stared at Seifer and Irvine with palpable anticipation. Anxiously, Irvine faked interest in his meal, hoping his neighbour was not gazing at him. But the blonde was not looking his way – he was staring at Zell, a quite familiar guarded expression on his face. He took his time to answer the question, but when he did, he sounded confident and relaxed, the ghost of one of his old foxy grins on his lips.
“Why are you asking? Would you be interested in me or what? I’m afraid to say, I don’t do blondes.”
“Nah, I was wondering because I bet 200 gils with Squall that you’d bang the cowboy before the end of the Summer.”
That sentence fell like a ton of bricks. By the looks of it, had Irvine been eating while Zell had so crudely brought up the subject of Seifer courting him, he would have chocked on his food. The cowboy looked positively aghast. Beside him, Seifer merely seemed amused. “Is that so? Well, thanks for the confidence vote, Dincht.”
“No prob. You better not let me down though, Almassy.”
That seemed to shake the cowboy back to reality.
“What!?!” Irvine cried on a slightly high-pitched tone. “R’ya outta your mind?! There’s now way I’d – I’d – with him!”
“Why not?”
“Why not?! He’s a guy, for God’s sake!”
Rinoa frowned. “Seifer’s above all a person with feelings who should to be treated as such. You can’t say you’ve been acting very nicely to him.” Irvine looked positively flabbergasted.
“Acting nicely?! Why would I? The guy’s stalkin’ me!”
“Well I wouldn’t have to follow you around if you actually let me talk to you,” Seifer piped in with (very obviously fake) sorrowfulness. Irvine’s head snapped around, his purple eyes sending daggers to the blonde. But it took more to deter the sorceress specialist, who greeted the sharpshooter’s glare with an amused smirk. Fuming, Irvine looked away again.
“You could at least try to be civil to him and stop ignoring him,” Quistis proposed.
Irvine was looking increasingly sulky. “You don’t know what you’re talkin’ about and this isn’t your business anyway.”
“How could it not be our business when you act so silly when we’re spending time with you?” Selphie shot back.
“She’s right,” Zell added cheerfully, “Besides, we’re only trying to help you with your love issues, aren’t we?”
Seifer snorted. “By “we”, you mean you too? Geez, I’m all thrilled to have the great confirmed bachelor Zell Dincht give me love advice.”
“Say what you want Almassy, but if I were you I’d take all the help I could get – you don’t seem to have gotten any further forward with the cowboy in the past two weeks. Ever considered the stalker approach might not be the best way to get into a guy’s pants?” With a mischievous smile, Zell turned his attention toward Irvine and bent toward him in prying way. “I’m curious, did the big bad gay guy molest you or something, or are you just scared he’d jump you in public if you were caught together in the same room for more than a minute?” Selphie giggled and Seifer’s eyes went to the ceiling, a small sardonic smile dancing on his lips.
“Zell,” Quistis said warningly.
“Although that’s quite a crude way to put things,” Rinoa eyed meaningfully the smug martial artist, “you’ve got to admit there is some truth in what he just said. I mean, you can’t say you’ve been acting nicely to Seifer. Being harsh and running away really isn’t the way to treat somebody who has feelings for you.”
“Unless you’re in denial,” Zell piped in sarcastically. “I bet you got molested and you actually LIKED it and it scares the shit out of you, so that’s why you’re acting like a scared teenager.”
“Zell!”
Irvine’s jaw muscles tensed up as he gritted his teeth. For what seemed to be the first time since Quistis’d known him, the easy-going auburn-haired man looked affronted. “You guys suck.”
Everybody stared at Irvine in silence. The seriousness in the coybow’s voice caught everybody by surprise. Getting the carefree and smooth galbadian embarrassed or offended was such a rare occurrence they hadn’t thought he would ever get pissed over something like that. In silence, the gunner got up and walked away, taking his food tray with him.
“Irvy?”
“Hey! Don’t take it like that baby, I was joking.” Dumping his meal in the nearest trashcan, Irvine didn’t look back and left the cafeteria. Seifer glared angrily at Zell and also left. Selphie punched the tattooed man.
“Oww!”
“Zell, that was really mean.”
“Hey, how was I supposed to know he’d be so touchy about it?” The blond said defensively. “Besides, Irvine is far too easy-going to hold a grudge. He’ll be all over it in a couple of hours.”
They all knew Zell was right. It didn’t change the fact that they all wished the blonde had been more tactful; they wished they’d had a lengthier discussion with the two men. But then again, the ladies thought, it might be for the best – afterall, those were probably not the kind of things Irvine wished to talk about in public… And the night was still young.
o0o0o
As eight p.m. came around, a very excited Selphie Tilmitt found herself knocking gently on her friend’s seed room. When no one came to answer the door, she knocked louder, and louder, and louder, until she was literally banging on the door.
“Irvyyyyy~! Open up~!”
The sound of her tiny fist banging repetitively against the metal door echoed in the corridor, attraction some attention from the other male seed residents having rooms nearby.
At long last, the door finally opened up to reveal a gloomy-looking auburn-haired man smiling stiffly at her. “You’re one persistent piece of work, I gotta give you that. The other ladies weren’t half as annoying.”
“Can I come in?”
“Well, you see, I’d rather-” The brunette didn’t wait for the end of that sentence and edged her way into her friend’s room, making herself comfortable on the cowboy’s messy bed. With a sigh, Irvine closed the door, turned around and stared morosely at her.
“You meanie, why didn’t you tell me earlier?!” Selphie said excitedly. “Come on, I want details!”
Irvine merely sighed as he made himself comfortable on the sofa he had managed to cram inside his ridiculously tiny room. “Tell you what?”
“Don’t play dumb with me Irvine Kinneas! What’s happening between you and Seifer exactly?”
At the mention of the blond’s name, the cowboy’s face darkened, a frown marring his handsome features. “There is absolutely nothing going on between us.”
“Oh, come on! There’s no point denying it now. He’s been wooing you for days. Who do you think you were kidding anyway, huh? Did you think we wouldn’t notice the 6”1’ tall blonde following you like a puppy around the campus for two weeks?”
“Since when have you known anyway?”
“Well, lemme see, it took me five days and half to figure it out - but we all felt a little strange at first, we didn’t know really what to think of it so we didn’t talk about it – you must admit it was very unexpected, Seifer and you! Nobody’d seen it coming! I almost couldn’t believe it myself, I thought I was imagining things! But now that I think about it, it was really super obvious, of course. Anyway! I was uneasy with the idea at first, but I’ve thought a lot about it and I think that you’d make a cute couple in the end, and Quistis and Zell do too, although Zell won’t admit it-”
“Woah, breathe, Sephy! Breathe!” Irvine laughed, motioning her to slow down. “You’ve known for over a week but you just decided right now that you can’t wait for details?”
“I told you, I didn’t know what to think of it! Besides, we barely had time to talk about it, you were always on the run. So, what happened exactly?”
The cowboy sighed with mild exasperation. “What d’you want me to say?” He drawled tiredly. “There’s a guy chasin’ me around the campus tryin’ to convince me to go out with him. I don’t know what is wrong with the guy. I told him I was a lady’s man hard and through and that he was wastin’ his time, but he just won’t give up.”
“Did he confess? He did, didn’t he? What did he tell you?”
To Selphie’s surprise, a light-pink blush spread on her friend’s cheeks, and Irvine looked away. “Nothin’ worth mentioning,” he mumbled.
“Ooooh!” The young woman squealed. “So it was a grand, romantic confession! Or… did he say something sexual?!”
She knew she had hit the mark when Irvine’s cheeks turned a little pinker still. “I don’t wanna talk about it Selphie, ‘kay?”
The young woman was momentarily disappointed – she was very curious to know what Seifer could have said to make the shameless tease Irvine Kinneas blush so adorably. But never mind that – she was starting at last to get a full picture of the situation. “So what do you intend to do now, cowboy?”
“Well, I guess I’m just plannin’ to ignore him ‘til he looses interest,” the cowboy answered with a half-hearted smile and a shrug.
“But have you seriously considered going out with him?”
The man’s smile disappeared. “You can’t be serious, can’t you?”
“Well, it’s not like Seifer’s that bad. I mean, yes he’s a guy, but he’s independent, easy-going, smart, fun and you get along with him awfully well. Plus, there was no point denying that he’s quite the looker. I mean, he’s tall and manly and sexy and all. He’s quite a catch, when you think about it.”
“Selphie. He’s a guy. I’m all into ladies, you know that.”
The young woman shrugged. “That’s not such a big deal. You could be interested in both.”
Irvine stared incredulously at her. “In both? No way, that’d be…”
“That’d be what?”
“I mean, I’m very open-minded about gay and bi people, I respect them, but I sure as hell am not one of them.”
He had said he last sentence very slowly, as if explaining something to a slow child, and Selphie had to make huge efforts not to roll her eyes. “Irvy, I know things are a bit different in Galbadia and that people over there have a very conformist idea of masculinity, but being interested into guys wouldn’t make you less virile or anything. And it doesn’t turn you into a weirdo either. There are plenty of gay and bi people in Trabia and people are fine with it. I have a bi friend over there, she’s the sweetest girl, really.”
“Selphie, I know what you mean to say, but I’m really not like that,” the cowboy said on a final kind-of voice. Then, his tone lightened up, “I mean, seriously, can you imagine me datin’ a guy? It’d be ridiculous.”
“I can, but the question is: Can you?”
“What r’ya gettin’ at?”
“Have you ever considered that you could be attracted to Seifer? That could explain a lot of things,” the yellow-clad woman said matter-of-factly, and Irvine gaped at her.
“Attracted to Seifer?! Dear God! I sure as hell ain’t. What the devil put such a silly idea into your pretty head?”
“I know you, Irvine. I’ve known you since we were toddlers. And I think you want him back because you’ve been ignoring him.”
Irvine blinked, looking thoroughly confused. “Sephy, I’m afraid you’re not makin’ much sense.”
Getting up from the bed with a jump, Selphie started to explain her theory. “Usually when you have a clingy, unrequited love, you play it smooth and act like a gentleman. You talk it out with the lady to convince her that it wouldn’t work out. With Nida too, you turned him down really nicely, even if he was a guy and all. And we can’t say that you haven’t had your lot of stalkers: remember the blonde one five months ago? She was a real pain, but you just ignored her efforts and played dumb and she got tired of it after a while. But you’re acting differently with Seifer. At the minute he confessed, you started to avoid him as if you were afraid he’d give you some kind of disease. Why would you do that if it weren’t for the fact that you’re afraid of actually returning his feelings?”
“That’s nonsense!” Irvine said loudly, looking perturbed.
“Is not! Then why else does it bother you so much that if follows you around and hits on you all the time?”
“Because he’s a good friend!”
“That’s what you keep on telling yourself because you don’t want to see that you’re attracted to him and that those things he told you when he confessed reached home. But of course, being the ladies’ man that you are, you feel threatened in your virility and that’s why you freak out for no reason when he gets too close or when he talks to you. Am I not right?”
The auburn-haired man gaped at his friend, looking at a loss for words. “I mean, I don’t want to decide things for you, but you should always be honest with yourself. Weren’t you the one telling me that life was too short not to explore as many possibilities as possible?”
“Selphie…”
The cowboy was looking incredulous and wary. She smiled brightly at him and bent toward him to kiss him lightly on the forehead. “Think about it, will you? And whatever what you decide, you know I’ll always be on your side.” She then waved him goodbye and headed for the door. On the threshold, she looked back at her stunned friend as an afterthought. “Oh, and I want to be kept informed this time! See ya!”
Closing the door behind her, Selphie strolled happily through the corridors toward her own seed room in the women’s wing of the dormitory. She was confident she had said what needed to be said and left the rest into Irvine’s hands. She knew there was no point trying to force Irvine into something; the man was as slippery as water! She just had to wait and see.
This was just so unexpected! Yes, she had bet along with Zell that Irvine and Seifer would end up together, but she hadn’t really imagined that it could happen for real, you know what I mean? But she was seriously starting to think that Seifer and Irvine might just work out in the end. Well! Who could have predicted that Seifer, of all people, would be able to inspire Irvine such feelings? She sure hadn’t! But it was all for the best: Seifer needed someone to share a special bond with and Irvine needed to settle down a bit, and she was staring to think the tall taciturn man could manage the feast of having a serious, steady relationship with the flirty cowboy. Once again, who would have thought?
Selphie couldn’t hold in a giggle as she thought of Irvine going out with a man. That would be so strange, but also cute in a kind of twisted way. She wondered what Irvine and Seifer’s relationship would be like behind closed doors… But she guessed she didn’t really want to know. It was much more entertaining to imagine it, afterall!
With a satisfied smile, she went back to her own room and pushed the matter out of her mind entirely as she applied herself to find the right music list to play on the End of the Semester Party she was organising. With an afterthought, she scolded herself for not having thought of recruiting Irvine to help her out with the party preparations. It wasn’t like Irvine was the best helper she’s had – he spent more time flirting with the other girls of the committee than actually working – but they always needed tall guys like him to install the garlands. She’d try and run into him again the following day.
o0o0o
Selphie was slowly awaking from a pleasant dream involving caramel-flavoured wendigo stuffed toys – it didn,t make much sense, but her dreams never did. Sleepily, she hugged her bed covers closer and was drifting back to sleep when she distinctively heard a sharp, repetitive sound. Knock Knock Knock. With a frown, she turned around and ignored the irrelevant sound.
But it came again. Knock Knock Knock. By then, she was starting to be enough awake to realise someone was knocking on her door. Or maybe she was imagining it?
Knock Knock Knock. No, she wasn’t. Lifting one heavy eye, she decided it was far too dark out for anyone to be at her door. A quick glance at her alarm-clock confirmed it. She hoped the reason why somebody was knocking on her door at 4:58 a.m. was reeaaaaaally good, or else she had a feeling she might not be all that polite to her visitor.
With a yawn, she got up and sleepily made her way to the door. Upon opening it, she found herself in front of a very nervous-looking Irvine Kinneas.
“Irvy?” She asked sleepily. “What’re you doing here?”
Actually, she wasn’t really surprised to find him there. Irvine was the only person she knew who could randomly show up at your doorstep at any hour of the night looking for a place to hide, and because he was a good friend she never had a mind to let him down when he was in trouble, even if he kind of had if coming most of the time. And in trouble, he sure seemed to be, she noticed as an afterthought. He was pale and had rings under his eyes that spoke volumes on his lack of sleeping activities.
“Selphie,” the man growled wearily under his breath. “I.hate.you.
o0o0o
TBC
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Cowboy Taming