Playing at Marriage

It was a cold day in January. The start of a new year, a new beginning for the people of Garden. Christmas decorations were still scattered around the hallways. Nobody seemed to want to take them down. They had just had the first holiday after the war a group of Garden students were involved in. There had been a lot of death, but the holiday had been a good one and everyone wanted to remember it. A lot of change had come about after the war and the biggest change for the students of Garden was new classes they were required to take or else they would be suspended from SeeD duties, and for others not allowed to take the exam needed to become a SeeD.

Rebecca Holland smiled at her students. She was a new face at Garden, a brand new teacher in charge of one of the new classes. Home economics; all of Garden was required to take the class. The first opinion about the home economics class had been "what's the point? We're training people to be killers not husband and wives..." but things had changed and now, no matter their age, everyone in Garden had to attend the class. Even Seifer Almasy at age eighteen, which Rebecca was now pointing out to the shocked blond.

"What!?" Seifer blared, his face going red in anger and embarrassment . . . no not embarrassment. Seifer Almasy did not get embarrassed! The blond glared at Rebecca, nearly making the poor woman tremble. Everyone knew of Seifer's reputation, though those that did get lucky enough to know the real him, knew that he wasn't as bad as he seemed on the outside. People easily forgot he had been possessed, and though he could be a jerk, he was still only human.

"I'm sorry Mr. Almasy as I was saying, I picked out the pairings randomly and as it is..." Rebecca swallowed. "The boys and girls came out uneven and... t-two boys had to be paired up." She cursed herself for stuttering in front of a student. She was the one in charge here!

Seifer glanced behind him at his so called 'partner' for the class project and saw that Zell looked red in the face as well, but he wasn't making a big scene like Seifer was. Zell just looked shocked.

"Boys it's not as if it's for real..." Rebecca went on. "Please can't you just use your imagination and do this project in a 'what if' sort of mind set?" The tall redhead blinked her eyes, pushing her glasses back on the bridge of her nose.

"Let me get this straight," Seifer smirked at his choice of words, despite the situation. "You want me to pretend I'm married to chicken wuss over there?" He pointed over at Zell, whose mouth was still hitting the floor.

Having a delayed reaction, Zelly? I'm sure he'll react soon enough, Seifer thought, putting his hands on Rebecca's desk, not at all lightly. She jumped.

Some girls and Seifer was sure some boys as well, started to snicker. He turned and glared at the class, at once shutting everyone up. He had that affect on people.

"W-well for the purpose of this lesson... I-I, yes..." Rebecca said, almost crumbling under the heat of Seifer's gaze. Maybe she wasn't ready for the real deal after all; she had only been out of teaching school for a couple weeks. Some students called her “fresh meat.”

"Stop being such a spoil sport," Selphie giggled. She was quite amused by the idea of her friend and Seifer being paired up for the class project. The project was none other then pretending to be married for a month and taking care of a fake baby. Then at the end of the fake marriage, each student had to write a report about what was easy and what was hard about being married.

"Easy for you to say," Seifer glared at the brunette. Selphie just grinned back. She wasn't affected by Seifer's attitude. She was good at seeing past his bully act and ever since the war ended, and it was publicly announced that Seifer had been under possession, some people were witnessing a change in Seifer. It was because of this very war that it had been decided to teach the students important things about life and not just how to kill. Nobody could grasp why learning how to cook and sew and run a family was that important. They hadn't been admitted into the school to learn how to be house wifes after all.

The main reason Selphie was so amused by the lesson was because of Zell. It was only known to a couple people that Zell was very gay. Seifer would probably freak out even more if he knew. Not that Zell would ever be interested in Seifer in a million years. At least Selphie doubted Zell would ever see Seifer in that light, though the brunette had a weird fantasy of him doing just that, and bringing the good in Seifer out of hiding.

Finally everything that had just happened seemed to click for Zell, causing the blond to bolt up in his chair. The chair skidded back a few spaces, making a loud screeching sound. "What the bananas?" He grumbled with a blush. It seemed as if he had been dozing off until recently and he still wasn't quite sure what was going on. All he knew was that he had heard his name and Seifer's name and the word marriage.

Seifer rolled his eyes. "Welcome back to Gaia, Chicken Wuss. You are my new wife apparently." The older teenager smirked. "I better get extra credit, or else to make it fair, everyone should be paired up with the same sex."

"I-I'm afraid I can't do that," Rebecca stuttered. "You will have to deal with this situation and if you don't... don't do the project properly, then you will fail and have to repeat this class. You will also be put on restricted duties until you pass. No SeeD duties, no money."

After the war, Seifer had come back a month later, hungry and hurt from only Hyne knew what. He had scared a good many people who didn't believe he had been possessed. Squall and company knew better, having been there. Seifer surprised everyone by asking to be let back into Garden, even agreeing to start from scratch and work his way back up to taking the SeeD test. He really had changed. It was mostly seen in his eyes, though he still acted like a bully with a sharp tongue sometimes. Finally, he had passed the SeeD test.

The last thing Seifer wanted to do was jeopardize that, so with tight lips, he only nodded, before stalking out of the classroom. Rebecca let him go. Truth be told, the young teacher was afraid of Seifer and she wasn't the only one.

Zell set down, his head banging on the top of his desk. Why me? Why me? I'm cursed. He knew better then to make a fuss over the situation now that he had heard what would happen if they failed. That was the last thing he wanted. His ma was so proud of him for being a SeeD, so he did not want to let her down by failing such a simple class and getting suspended from SeeD duties.

Zell looked across the room at Seifer. He was slowly unpacking the things he would be needing for the next month that he would be living with Seifer. Zell never imagined Garden would allow the guys and girls to room together for the sake of the lesson, so he hadn't expected to be forced to move into Seifer's room. He heard that all the 'straight' pairings were being closely watched to make sure nothing improper happened, but nobody even mentioned monitoring Seifer and Zell.

"One bed. Are we supposed to even sleep together?" Zell tried to make conversation. Seifer was after all his... husband now. For the sake of the lesson they were supposed to act like a couple. They even had a fake baby that acted like a real one.

"I'm not sleeping on the floor if that's what you mean," Seifer grumbled. He set down on his bed, placing his face in his hands. He really had no idea how to be in a relationship, even if it was pretend. Seifer never did them. Contrary to popular belief he wasn't a man-slut. He actually had some standards. He would kill first before letting anyone find out though.

"Well neither am I," Zell said through gritted teeth. Seifer was always so difficult. Zell couldn't remember a time when Seifer and his friends weren't fighting about something. Seifer was a real bully. Zell was a good guy, so he would have been willing to let bygones be bygones, but Seifer would never agree to that. They couldn't be friends, could they?

Without speaking, Seifer started to undress and get ready for bed. Zell couldn't help but blush. He had never seem someone nearly naked, even if it was Seifer. The older blond did have a nice body. Zell watched as Seifer got into bed, blinking a few times when the others eyes were turned on him. They seemed to look right to his soul.

"Just get in bed," Seifer groaned.

Zell quickly undressed and climbed into the bed. Both blonds moaned when the fake baby started to cry.

"You feed it," Seifer said.

"Just because you decided I was the "wife" in this marriage does not mean I have to tend to the baby every single time. You feed her. Don't call our child an it." Zell crossed his arms, before turning over onto his side. He smirked, knowing Seifer would not give in so easily. Zell did enjoy bantering with Seifer sometimes.

Quite to his surprise, Seifer got up and went to the fake baby. The doll had a sensor and could feel as Seifer bounced her and fed her a pretend bottle. Zell watched with wide eyes.

"I do not want to fail."

"Since when did you care about your grades?" Zell asked.

"All have you know I've always had top grades in all of my classes. I failed to get into SeeD the first time around for goofing off when I should have been paying attention."

"Top grades? Are you serious?" Zell murmured.

"Not all blonds are stupid."