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Of All the Unlikely Things to Happen	By : lunael55 Category: Final Fantasy VIII > Yaoi - Male/Male > Seifer/Zell Views: 1030 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: don't own Final Fantasy 8 or make profit out of it.

Chapter List
- 2
- 3
- 4
A.N.: Authoress's comments are at the end of the chapter. Usual warnings apply: not my characters, not my native language, unbetaed, yada yada. Oh, and this is rated M, by the way. If you're a young and impressionable lad or narrow-minded adult, don't read this. Unless you want to be traumatized – then proceed.
Of All the Unlikely Things to Happen
Chapter 3
These two words hit Zell like a punch in the guts. Seifer’s boyfriend?! Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hang on, she thought he was... w-with Seifer?! As in... with Seifer?!
Zell gaped from the woman to the gunblade user, whose attitude somehow made the whole situation even more baffling. He just stood very still, listening to his boss’ tirade with the air of someone watching a train driving full speed toward a wall. And that just wasn’t right. Sure, the idea of the two of them being lovers was disturbing, but come on, shouldn’t he look surprised instead of horrified? His boss just assumed they were a freaking item and yet the bastard barely batted an eye!
And then, it occurred to Zell. This was Seifer’s boss. Seifer, who was working in a high-class host bar where popular hosts, like himself, were obviously expected to sleep with their rich patrons. And it didn’t take a genius to realize those spoiled women would not favour for very long a host who turned down requests for sex in exchange for their patronage. Unless the host had a very good excuse. An excuse that would both appease their wronged ego and attract him a fair amount of sympathy.
Like being gay and involved in a long-term relationship with another man.
Zell held his breath. Of course, it made perfect sense. Seifer was way too haughty to sell off his body to spoiled middle-aged women. So to keep his pushy job, he made up a crack and bull story about being gay and having a male lover – which, if the martial artist knew one thing about women, was sure to make him very popular without much effort. All he had to do was to act the part right and poof! He’d instantly become these ladies’ personal dream-come-true gay best friend. So when his boss saw a man coming out of the blonde’s wardrobe, she automatically assumed this was the mysterious boyfriend her dear “Cedrik” had been so artfully avoiding talking too much about in the past few years...!
Hence, Cecily’s friendly attitude and the blonde’s silent horror. Right. Not that understanding what was going on did much to make Zell feel less freaked out about it. And judging from the way his jaw was clenched ever so tightly, Seifer’s mind seemed to be reeling just as anxiously as his. From the corner of his eyes, Zell suddenly saw a flash of something daring lighten the man’s ocean-coloured eyes and his gusts instantly filled with dread. He’d seen that look before – usually right before the bastard decided to front-charge a T-Rex. This couldn’t be good.
Zell fancied he usually knew what to expect from the gunblade user - after so many years of bullying, one could say predicting Seifer’s reaction had become some kind of a defence mechanism for him. But there was no way he could have possibly envisioned what happened next. Or at least, that what he told himself later when he recalled the way he froze up when Seifer’s arm sneaked its way around his waist. Before he even had the reflex to shove him back indignantly, Seifer pulled him to his side protectively and put on his best gay lover act.
“Now Cecily, give the poor man some space, would you? Can’t you see you’re scaring him off? Why don’t you pour yourself a drink while we make ourselves comfortable on the couch? Then we could talk.”
Dumbfounded, Zell stood frozen in the blonde’s embrace and watched as the curly-haired woman happily walked to the couch, completely oblivious to his distress. As soon as she was out of earring range, Zell shoved his ex-bully off him.
“What the fuck d’you think you’re doing?!” he hissed.
“Just play along, Dincht,” Seifer hissed right back.
“No way!”
“Trust me, this is the easiest way out.”
Zell had half a mind to punch him in the face but held back as the talkative woman sat down and started speaking again. Smiling right back at her, Seifer gently but firmly motioned him toward the other couch and Zell had no choice but to play along.
To his dismay, the couch turned out to be so small it was nearly impossible for both men to sit next to one another without their shoulders and tights brushing together. Seifer’s long arm came to rest on the couch over his shoulders to give them both more space, but it did little to make Zell feel more at ease. The gunblade user was too close for comfort, the heady smell of his expensive cologne and his falsely intimate manners making Zell squirm uneasy.
How the hell had he managed to land himself in a situation like this? Why, oh why, hadn’t Squall picked up Irvine for the damned mission? Why?!
“... prefer it with a lemon zest, but I like mine without it. Not that I usually drink much to start with - But, silly me! Here I am, talking alcohol with you when we haven’t even been properly introduced yet!” the owner of the club berated herself. “I’m Cecily Hay – I own and manage the Mandrake Club. What would be your name, sweetheart?”
“Um,” Zell stammered awkwardly. What was the name on his fake Estharian ID cards again? It was a fairly common name, like Gart or Dird, or... “Anryl. My name is Anryl.”
“And what is it exactly you do for a living, my dear?”
When Zell failed to come up with a quick answer, Seifer stepped in.
“He’s working as a consultant for the military industry,” he answered easily in his charming host persona, laying down his free hand on top of one of Zell’s fists supportively. The tattooed blonde instinctively tensed up at the touch, feeling increasingly pissed off with the whole set-up. Sitting next to one another was one thing, but holding hands? Stupid cover or not, that was going too far!
“Cedrik, I believe the young man here can talk for himself. Can you now, dear?”
Zell tried to ignore the feeling of the skin of his hand tingling warmly under Seifer’s long fingers and regain some sort of composure. “Um, of course, m’dam Hay.”
“Oh, please! Call me Cecily. So, the military industry, is it? That sounds like a pretty exciting job. I bet you can’t talk too much about it, though.”
“Right. It’s... um, very secret. Confidential stuff.” Hyne, he hoped he didn’t look as lame as he sounded.
“So I guess you must spend a lot of time on the road – Cedrik often said you travelled quite a deal.”
“Uh,” Zell stalled, searching frantically his blank mind for inspiration. There was a reason why Zell was never sent on infiltration missions – he was a terrible liar. He liked to think he wasn’t usually so pathetically lame at it, though. But it was hard for him to gather his wits when pressed so close against his childhood bully.
In moments like those, Ma always said saying part of the truth was a better option than outright lying. Somehow Zell doubted that would be a particularly helpful advice given the situation, but it was worth a try anyway. He was out of options anyhow.
“Um, yeah. I travel a lot – never know where the next job is going to take me, what I’ll be doing and how long I’ll be gone.”
“I guess it must be hard to maintain a long-term relationship in these conditions.”
“Well,” the blonde chose his words carefully, “I can’t say I’ve seen much of Sei- Cedrik lately, but whenever we meet, it always feels like we’ve never been apart.” That, in a sense, was true: considering the irritating dick was currently bullying him into pretending to be his lover, he couldn’t say the basic dynamic to their relationship has changed all that much.
“How sweet!” Cecily beamed, and Zell let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I’m really glad Cedrik managed to find such a fine young man as yourself, Anryl. You seem to be an honest lad - I can tell those kinds of things. It’s a relief really to meet you at last, because to be quite frank with you, I have to admit I was starting to doubt your very existence, sweetheart.”
“Cecily!” Seifer made a show of being offended.
“Oh, don’t be so upset, Cedrik, my dear. I never meant to say that I did not trust you, but you have to admit it was starting to look rather odd. You almost never talked about him and we’d never even met him before. I understand that you don’t get to spend much time together because of Anryl’s job, but still! Why the secrecy? When I came here, you were hiding him in your closet! A closet, Cedrik! If I didn’t know any better, I would say you’re ashamed of him.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. We’ve talked about it before, Cecily. Anryl and I just like our privacy, that’s all. You and I both know what the hosting business is like, and this is not what I want for him.”
“Why, you speak as if working in the hosting business was something to be ashamed of!”
“No, I simply mean that I refuse to let people treat my boyfriend as merchandise. I sincerely love you, Cecily, I do. But I also know you, and I will not have you turn Anryl into ‘a sensation’ as well.”
“Why must you be so rude! I’m hurt, you know. To think you think I would take advantage of your lover for something as trivial as business! Have you no faith in me? Or have you already forgotten that it was *I* who introduced you into the highest spheres of the Estharian society? How ungrateful of you Cedrik to treat me so cruelly after everything I’ve done for you!”
Cecily’s theatrical accusations left the gunblade user largely unaffected. Obviously he’d been on the receiving end of that speech many times before. And by the look of it, the woman was just getting started too. Zell didn’t know what she expected to achieve with this tirade – did she really think she could guilt trip Seifer Almasy, or did she expect him to eventually give in just to shut her up? Because neither were going to happen, he would have told her if she’d bothered to ask. But she probably wouldn’t have listened to him anyway – if she had any common sense, she would have understood by now she was wasting her breath.
Seifer, at least, did not seem to mind waiting for Cecily to tire out. Patience, however, wasn’t exactly Zell’s middle name.
“Actually,” Zell cut in weakly, a little intimidated by the fierce look the petite woman cast on him, “you shouldn’t take it personally, it’s got nothing to do with you. I guess it’s hard to understand for you, Esthar being such a progressive place and all, but what Sei-Cedrik isn’t saying is that the people I work with, they – well – don’t look very keenly on these kind of things. And not just the hosting business thing. The whole... guy dating another guy kind of stuff. They don’t just frown on homosexuality: they simply won’t allow it. If they found out I was gay, I would lose my job for sure. And that’s if I’m lucky – some guys get court-martialed for it. That’s why Cedrik and I have to be... you know, cautious.”
For a moment, the two other stared at Zell in bewilderment - for completely different reasons. Cecily, whose universe clearly revolved around herself and her place in the Estharian society, was obviously dumbstruck by the idea that homophobia was not just an historical concept. Seifer on the other hand seemed surprised Zell came up with something this cunning – or, knowing how bigoted the bastard was, bemused that Zell had thought of this excuse and he had not.
In the case of Cecily, however, amazement was short-live and quickly gave way to outrage.
“This is scandalous! How could these people be so prejudiced?!”
“Well, the military folks have never been known for their progressiveness, dear.”
“How unfair! Anryl, my love, you must simply quit this job! You don’t have to work for such barbarians, sweetheart. I’m sure that I could arrange something for you-”
Or maybe not that cunning, afterall. Clearly, the club owner was a one-track minded person. “That’s- a very nice feeling, M’dam Hay, but I actually like my job quite a lot.”
“Why, but they treat you so unfairly! Surely you deserve better than this!”
Think fast, Zell. “Well, er... You know, the pay is nice and I’m good at it. In fact, it’s the only thing I’m really good at,” the martial artist answered slowly, thinking of his job as a Seed. “I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I wasn’t doing this job. Besides, I couldn’t do a people job like Cedrik - I’m horrible at saying the right stuff at the good moment and things like that,” Zell explained lamely, feeling rather uneasy at how close to home it hit to say this. But now was not the moment to think about it – he had more pressing matters at hands. Namely, reorienting this discussion to safer grounds, and fast.
Seifer seemed to have the same idea. “This is something we actually knew at the very beginning, when we first started dating. Of course, we had our doubts. Anryl being in the military industry, we wondered whether or not we had a future together, and if it was worth the risk. In the end we decided to give ourselves a chance and we’ve not regretted it so far. Of course it’s not always perfect and having to hide can be frustrating at times, but we don’t mind. We love each other. We have since the very first day and we still do.”
“Oh, how very well spoken of you, Cedrik!” Cecily sounded genuinely moved, and Zell felt so relieved at the woman’s short attention span that he forgot to feel sickened by Seifer’s cheesiness. “You make your love story sound so forbidden and romantic! Anryl sweetheart, tell me, how did the two of you meet exactly?”
Startled, Zell said the first thing that came to his mind. “Well, we grew up together.”
“Oh, so you two were young sweethearts then?”
“Hell, no. He bullied me through most of my childhood.” The woman burst out laughing and he felt Seifer shift imperceptibly next to him. He guessed the other man wasn’t quite comfortable with the direction the discussion was headed, but he didn’t give a flying fuck. This “partial-truth” tactic was working fine so far so he was sticking to it, and the gunblader could go get eaten by a Malboro if he didn’t like it for all Zell cared. He was the one who’s put him in this situation to start with, so he only had himself to blame for it.
“Somehow, I’m not surprised. But you know what they say about little boys... They bully the ones they like!”
Zell almost choked at the idea and next to him, Seifer chuckled with embarrassment in his lavish host persona.
“To my defense, I was quite young back then.” Their eyes locked, and the palm of the gunblade user’s large hand pressed more firmly against Zell’s. For someone who had known Seifer most of his life, the message couldn’t have been clearer: Keep this going and I’ll make you pay for it.
Zell inwardly huffed. Who did the bastard think he was, threatening him like that? He was in no position to argue. And Zell was no longer a little boy – if Seifer thought he could still bully him into submission with snarky comments and threats of retaliation, he had another thing coming.
The martial artist suddenly had to fight back a mischievous smile. Unwittingly, Seifer had just provided him with the ideal mean to take revenge upon him.
“I bet even back then, Cedrik must have been quite popular with the boys and girls,” Cecily commented obliviously, smiling fondly at her protégé.
“Oh, he was far too wrapped up in himself to notice other people,” Zell answered without hesitation. “The Cedrik I grew up with was no gentleman. He was a real prick. Cocky and vain, and a bully to boot.”
“Really!”
“His two sidekicks apart, nobody wanted to hang out much with him because of his lousy attitude. He thought he was too good for the rest of us anyway. Too good for us, too good to follow rules, too good for our school...” Zell trailed off, working hard to keep venom from his voice at the thought of how Seifer betrayed the BGU. “Too good even to wear the regulation school uniform: he used to strut about the whole school like a peacock with that ridiculous big trench coat of his that screamed ‘look at me, I’m a badass’, like he thought he was the coolest thing alive. Everybody thought he was a moron.” Beside him, the blonde smiled uneasily.
“Cedrik, don’t be embarrassed - who could blame you dearie, with such good looks? But he must have noticed you at some point Anryl, or else the two of you wouldn’t be here tonight.”
“Oh, he noticed me alright. When we were seniors, he kept on thinking up new excuses to follow me around and pester me – some of them even involved campus security regulations. How desperate is that, right?”
The middle-aged woman laughed again and Zell relaxed, unclenching his fists. The small movement made Seifer withdraw his hand and to his surprise, Zell found himself half-missing the feeling of the man’s hand on his own and mentally shook himself for it. This was Seifer Almasy for God’s sake! It was so not the time for his libido to start acting up on him.
“How long have you been together, then?” Cecily asked next.
It was Seifer’s turn to answer. “Three years this week, actually. We were planning to meet up tomorrow at the train station, but he decided to take the morning train from Galbadia to surprise me. Imagine my shock when I saw him in the club earlier!” The words were barely out of the blonde’s mouth that Zell could predict Cecily’s reaction.
“Don’t tell me you’ve taken the morning train from Galbadia? Oh, my dear, you must be exhausted! You should have told me right away, Anryl. And here I am, silly me, keeping you from a good night’s rest!”
This situation, as Seifer no doubt intended, offered them a perfect way out of the discussion. Much to his own surprise, Zell found he didn’t want to put an end to it just yet. Afterall, they still had many questions to ask Seifer. And if his previous attitude was any indication, he doubted Seifer would prove to be very cooperative in filling in the blanks still left in his story. But Cecily, on the other hand, wouldn’t mind clueing “dear Anryl” on a couple of things about her beloved Cedrik – information that would surely prove both useful and educative.
And besides, Zell still had a revenge to extract from his ex-bully. No way he was letting him off the hook so easily – this was just too juicy to pass.
“I’m fine, really,” Zell protested. “I slept a bit on the train, so it’s not so bad. Don’t leave just yet, we’ve barely met. I mean, um, I’ve heard so much about you from Cedrik...” From the pleased look that crossed the woman’s face, Zell had a feeling she had never really intended to leave in the first place anyway.
“Is that so? Now, that’s very nice of you, Cedrik. Though I’m actually surprised– you see, Cedrik has always been most secretive with us. But I guess he must be less tong-tied around his lover...”
What it that Zell was getting better at this, or was this woman ridiculously easy to interrogate? “Actually, he’s always been really secretive about his job. He’s never even told me how he got the job here, or what he was doing before.” Beside him, he could feel Seifer shift uneasily again.
“He hasn’t? Oh Cedrik, how very much like you! It’s actually a very interesting story, how he got hired here.”
“Now, it’s an awfully old and boring story-”
“I don’t mind,” the tattooed blonde cut in.
“Anryl,” Seifer gave his would-be boyfriend a smile that didn’t quite reach his ocean-coloured eyes, which held an untold warning. “It’s getting late – I’m sure you’ll get to ask her some other time-”
“Don’t think that I’m not seeing what you’re trying to do, Cedrik. And I won’t have any of it,” Cecily cut him bossily. “I really don’t see why you’re making such a big deal out of this anyway. It’s a very nice story – nothing to be ashamed of.”
“Cecily dear, I don’t-”
“Tatata! Would you believe,” she added to Zell with utmost seriousness, “that someone as good-looking and charming as your dear Cedrik has issues with people saying good things about him? It’s like the silly boy believes being nice is something to be embarrassed of!”
No doubts that in Seifer’s mind, Zell mused, it was.
“He’s always been a bit of a puzzle.” Struck by a flash of inspiration, the martial artist decided to take this whole “pay back” session to another level and laid his hand squarely on Seifer’s knee. Under his hand, he felt the gunblade user go extremely still and for a moment Zell had half a mind to leave it at that, rather embarrassed by his own boldness. Sure, he owed the bastard a payback for putting him through this shit, for the war and for all those years of bullying, but that wasn’t a reason to start groping Seifer Almasy, of all people. And let’s face it, what he was doing was borderline groping. It felt almost as if he was taking advantage of the situation. Well, he wasn’t taking advantage of the situation per see, as this was pretty mild and could easily pass as a “fake” affectionate touch, but taking any steps further would definitely be crossing that line. And it would also kinda be a dead give-away on his homosexuality, and Zell wasn’t sure he was okay with his childhood bully finding out he was gay so soon - especially finding out that way.
On the other hand, it would totally freak Seifer out. That thought alone was enough to make the blonde toss any guilty, awkward feelings straight out of the window. To hell with it, he was going to make the son of a bitch squirm. He owed him that much, after all the trouble the arrogant dick had given him over the years. And Seifer only had himself to blame for pretending to be gay in the first place.
“Anyway,” the club owner went on, “Here’s how I met with Cedrik. I was at the restaurant – I own the Farradigo downtown, a very nice establishment, if you don’t mind me bragging a little. The evening was going just fine when this- ” she had a grimace of distaste, “nasty man barged in and started making a commotion, scaring the poor clients off. I mean, can’t one just handle one’s wife’s adultery without making such a shameful display of oneself? It wasn’t as if he was the first man to find out his wife was cheating on him. But instead of acting like a dignified gentleman, this foul man decided to take it out on his wife in my distinguished establishment – with no thoughts to the ill effects this may have on the Farradigo’s reputation, of course. Can you believe the nerve of some people?”
Zell did his best to look contrite over it. “Some people have no manners.” He then slowly let his hand slide down Seifer’s knee, feeling the side of the man’s leg against his fingers. If possible, the gunblade user went even stiller.
“We tried to have him kicked out, of course, but he started fighting with our waiters – he made such a nuisance of himself, it was quite shocking. We were about to call the police when a diver came out of the kitchens and threw the rowdy lout out of the Farradigo like nobody’s business. I’d never seen anything quite like that before – this mysterious, handsome man hauling the angry ruffian off his feet and dragging him out of the restaurant like he was a mere ragdoll! It made a strong impression on everybody. I knew right then I just needed to have that man working in here, in the Club.”
Distracted by the sudden revelation, the martial artist frowned and his hand stilled. “...You mean to say Sei- Cedrik worked for you as a diver?”
“Unbelievable, isn’t it? Such a waste of a handsome young man, locking himself up in an overheated kitchen washing dishes all night.”
“So you hired him as a host because he kicked some jerk out of your restaurant?” Zell asked bemusedly.
“I guess you could put it that way. It’s a very tough business, the hosting business, Anryl. Competition is fierce between hosting establishments and the clientele is very difficult to please. Esthar is a very trendy place, you see, and we are at the mercy of our clients’ ever changing wimps. It’s quite a challenge to adjust in time to the higher society’s sporadic moods, and ever more so to find someone to catch more than the patrons’ fleeting interest...”
Listening to her rant with a distant ear, Zell gently started rubbing his thumb against Seifer’s tight. The blonde shifted uneasily under his hand and Zell had a hard time keeping his eyes on the woman in front of him. Somehow, he could not help but notice how oddly nice the feel of the Seifer’s firm leg was under his hand, and the effect his ministrations were having on the other man were encouraging him rather than deterring him. Deep down, the wrongness of it all – him molesting his helpless ex-bully in front of an audience and, more importantly, his own lack of aversion at the touch of the man – started to make him feel uneasy, but he quelled his doubts down. It was payback, that was all.
“...I knew very well this mysterious, handsome man, with his grumpy allure and silent mystique, would instantly become the talk of all the higher Estharian society, and that he could, with a little grooming of course, become an instant sensation in the business. What I had no way of knowing was that he would turn out to be one of the city’s most seeked-after male host.”
“Sounds like a revisited Cinderella story,” Zell thought out loud, a little disturbed by the mental image that came along with it.
“Oh, but it wasn’t nearly quite that easy, I assure you. You wouldn’t believe how much of a hard time I had getting Cedrik to agree to it – the silly boy didn’t even want to hear about it! It didn’t make any sense – it still doesn’t to me to this day. How can someone who has so much potential end up washing dishes for a living?” the woman said these two words so vindictively it was like the dishes had personally insulted her. “I don’t say if the pay was good, but it wasn’t! The poor dear could barely meet ends with his meager salary and had to work part time in a flimsy convenience store after his shift at the restaurant to pay for his miserable, moldy 2 ½ flat – you know how expensive lodging can be in Esthar. And yet, when I offered him a comfortable, well-paid job in a high-class exclusive establishment like the Mandrake, he turned me down!” Cecily sounded like the mere memory of it still made her feel indignant. “I was bemused. You have no idea how many people come to me everyday, trying to get a chance to work at Mandrake. Some men would readily sell their mother and father for a chance to become a fleeting sensation in the underground hosting society, yet this measly, anonymous diver refused to work for me! It was beyond me.”
Well, “anonymous” is a pretty big word for someone who is wanted as a first class war criminal by pretty much every government on the face of Earth, Zell thought with some irony. No doubts that becoming a “sensation” in the hosting business hadn’t exactly been a thrilling prospect for someone in Seifer’s situation.
“But I’m a very persistent woman, and the silly boy eventually came to his senses,” the owner stated simply, as if the thought of not having her way never quite crossed her mind. “He did good too. He was awkward and gruff at first, but he eventually got over his initial shyness and revealed himself to be deep down the charming, sensitive and caring young man we’ve grown to love here. ”
Zell nearly chocked – there were too many things wrong in that sentence to even start wrapping his head around it.
“I guess you just had to crack a bit his nutshell?” he asked innocently as he slowly ran his hand up the man’s tight, muscles twitching slightly under his touch. Emboldened, the martial artist cupped Seifer’s inner thigh, earning himself an almost inaudible gasp from the other man.
Zell couldn’t resist any longer. Tearing his eyes away from the rambling woman, he glanced up at the gunblade user.
He had to hand it to the guy, he was good. Obviously, catering to rich old women had helped Seifer develop a very impressive pokerface. If it weren’t for the tenseness in his jaw and the way his eyes were oddly fixed on him, nobody would have been able to tell that the blonde man was deeply disturbed. But the martial artist could tell alright. Oh, yes.
Grinning, Zell slip his hand further up Seifer’s tight, brushing his fingers up to his crotch. Seifer shot up like he’d been poked with a cattle-prod.
“Ah! I’ll – help myself with a drink. Anyone want something?”
Cecily smiled obliviously at her favourite. “There’s really no need to get worked up over it, Cedrik. It’s a charming story, my dear.”
She went on talking, but Zell was hardly paying attention to her, his eyes following the tall blonde instead as he retreated to the minibar. From the other end of the room, Seifer shot him a look full of promises of painful retribution and the martial artist had to fight back an irresistible urge to snicker. Hyne, who would have thought poking Seifer Almasy could be so much fun? Feeling cheeky, Zell raised a playful eyebrow at him and patted the space next to him invitingly. For a second, Seifer stared at the martial artist with both confusion and surprise, like he was seeing him for the first time. It did not last, however, as he quickly pulled himself together and went back to the couch with the same smooth casualness he had used on the Club’s patrons merely half an hour ago. Except this time, he made sure to sit as far away as possible from Zell and crossed his legs to deter him from groping. The martial artist had to stifle a snort as he focused his attention back to Cecily.
“...was actually quite concerned about people finding out back then. In a way it was an endearing sight, such a handsome, confident man being so guarded about his sexuality. To be honest, at first I encouraged him to keep quiet about his preferences – I thought clients wouldn’t see much appeal in a man who couldn’t flirt back with them. I even tried to convince him to make an effort,” Cecily admitted unblushingly, and Zell felt uneasy at the thought of exactly what kind of “effort” the club owner was referring to. “But eventually the word got out, and to my surprise he somehow got even more popular. Pretty faces gain and lose favor quickly in the business, but Cedrik never lost the patrons’ favours, and they always went back to him when they grew tired of the newest sensations. Oh, he’s never been number one, but he’s been in the top five for longer than any other host in the business, and I have found that in the long run, durability is far more profitable than short-lived success.”
The woman said the last sentence in the same manner a horse owner would speak of an underdog stallion which turned out to be her best racer, like Seifer was a walking investment of hers.
“But here I am, talking nonstop, I was nearly forgetting you just got out of the train,” Cecily suddenly added with exaggerated guilt. “You must be exhausted, my dear boy. You should head back home and rest now.”
Zell was not very good at reading social clues, but he could tell the difference between a suggestion and an order, and that was clearly the latter. “You’re right, I could do with a hot bath and a warm bed just about now.”
“Good. Then I’ll ask Gerard to drop you both at Cedrik’s on my way home.”
Zell’s mind stopped right on track and started backpedalling. Whoa, hang on, drop *them* at Cedrik’s? No way, that was so not what he enrolled for...! Quicker on the uptake, Seifer flashed his boss an embarrassed smile. “Oh, don’t go through that trouble, dear. We’ll find our way back home on our own, really.”
“Don’t be silly, you’re coming back with me in the limo.”
“That’s a very nice offer, m’dam” Zell piped in, “but I don’t want to be a bother...”
“I already told you, call me Cecily. And you don’t bother me at all, sweetheart. It’s on my way home.”
“We appreciate it,” Seifer tried another approach, “we really do, but we had something different in mind for our anniversary-”
“Would you want me to drop you off somewhere else instead?”
“No, what I meant was that, you see, we sort of had planned to have a romantic walk along the Neo-Galbadian district-”
“Nonesense, why walk when you can take a limousine? The Neo-Galbadian district is overrated anyway.”
“But-” Seifer stammed, “But if you drive us home, we’ll have to go get the car tomo-”
“Then I will ask Gerard to pick you up tomorrow and drive you around town. You’ll have dinner at the Farradigo, of course, then Gerard will drive you back to the Club for your shift and you will retrieve your precious car after close down as usual. Consider it a present for your anniversary.” Cecily answered back with decisiveness that left no space for debate. “Now that this is settled, let’s get you back home already, shall we?”
Both men stood frozen and eyed each other helplessly.
Dear Hyne, what had they gotten themselves into?
To be Continued...
AN: Sorry it took me so long to update. Consider this a belated Christmas/NYE present. I tried to make the groping scene somewhat “hot”, but I’m not sure I pulled it off. I hope you all enjoyed it anyway :3
The ending of the chapter was edited out and added to chapter 4, in case anyone’s wondering.
I also revisited the two other chapters and changed a couple of things in the past few months – mostly discussions. Have a look at them?
Comments are both welcome and appreciated :)
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Of All the Unlikely Things to Happen