(Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or its characters. This is just for fun.)

He closed his eyes for a moment before focusing on the glowing computer screen in front of him. Maybe if he focused hard enough he could block out all the little office sounds that his cubicle walls could not.

Focus, he thought.

Slurp. Gulp.

Tap. Tap.

Creak.

Tap.

Creak.

Tap. Tap.

Gulp.

Tap.

Suck.

Tch. Tch.

Focus.

He tried to not visualize where the sounds were coming from, but he couldn't help it. They were too familiar to him.

He could too easily imagine Zell in his cubicle sipping loudly at his scorched coffee, the liquid gulping down his throat in irregular intervals. Selphie twisting in her swivel chair while tapping her fingernails on her desktop in a quick staccato, almost in rhythm, but not quite. Irvine trying to recline too far in his chair, pushing the cheap office furniture to its limits. Seifer sucking on his teeth, for who knows why.

Didn't these people do any work?

He took a deep breath and raked his fingers through his hair, nearly wanting to pull the brown strands out by the roots.

Squall was going crazy and it was only Monday at 10 am.

But hair pulling was out of the question because that would be unprofessional, and he was a good employee even if he hated his job. He continued to clack away at his keyboard, his inner turmoil unknown to everyone around him.

"Good morning team," Quistis spoke in a clear voice that carried over the gray felt cubicle walls. Her voice had an air of authority and she pronounced each syllable so fully it was like she was teaching a class. In another life she could have been an university professor, teaching upper level classes on biochemistry to giant auditoriums full of students. "We're going to be welcoming a new person into our midst today. I want everybody to make sure and greet the new receptionist... whenever the person decides to arrive," she added with a quick glance at the clock on the wall. Any good student of hers would definitely follow her instructions.

"She better be hotter than the last receptionist," Seifer called out from the cubicle adjacent to Squall's. Seifer probably was never a good student.

Squall shook his head imperceptibly at the comment.

Seifer Almasy, sales representative. He was one of the loudest person in the office, and he just happened to have the cubicle directly across from Squall's. Squall tried to keep his eyes on his work and ignore Seifer, but Seifer wasn't the sort of person who could be ignored. Even the act of ignoring him took up nearly 100% of a person's energy. He just took up more space than a normal person. He projected that he was more than the sum of his parts, and his parts were big enough to begin with as he was one of the tallest people in the office.

Squall couldn't even ignore Seifer's cubicle. It was too noticeable and heavily personalized. And even though the walls were covered, it didn't feel cluttered, it was just filled to the brim with his personality, his Seifer-ness. Photos of Seifer fishing with his friends in different settings were pinned up to a corkboard. A big wall calendar featuring a retro fantasy movie hung beside his computer monitor, and several overly fancy and expensive pens were scattered across the hard desk surface. It was clear whose cubicle it was. He'd marked his territory.

In contrast, Squall's cubicle was easy to ignore as it looked like it belonged to nobody. It was empty of anything personal. Only work related supplies and paperwork were to be found. Nothing to liven up the dull grayness of felt cubicle walls and his computer set up. Even his pens were the basic gray plastic ones that he got from the company supply closet. They didn't work very well and the black ink tended to dry up and get sticky, but that's what the company provided. He didn't think he should question that. It wasn't his business, in more than one sense of the word.

Was he loyal to the company? Did he have to be? He did his job, and he got his paycheck. That seemed to be a fair trade. But if he got up and quit this job, nobody would even know he'd been there based on what he left behind. He could leave at any time. Well, he could if he didn't want to keep earning money that provided him with food and shelter. And he needed those things to live. Too bad Squall liked living just enough to keep coming back to this place and dealing with these people, these characters.

"I hope we don't have to go over our company's sexual harassment policy with anybody," Quistis said in Seifer's direction, "again," she added.

Quistis Trepe, office manager. So many things could be said about her. Smart, beautiful, capable, but she wasn't perfect. Squall knew that firsthand. For instance, he didn't think that Quistis was the best person to be lecturing about sexual harassment policy. She'd done and said things to him when nobody was looking that made him feel very uncomfortable considering she was his manager. His only defense against her had been keeping a straight face and ignoring her on anything that wasn't related to doing his job. He winced at several strange memories and then buried them. Maybe she didn't realize how she came across. Squall tried to give her the benefit of the doubt, it was just easier that way.

And what was wrong with him that he didn't want his beautiful blonde boss flirting with him, or whatever it was that she did?

Squall eyed Seifer across the way. He was picking his teeth again loudly. At least he couldn't talk when he was doing that. Seifer caught Squall staring at him, and raised his eyebrows at him in some kind of challenge. He then picked some piece of food out of his teeth and flicked it towards Squall. It flew and disappeared into the gray high-traffic carpet. Squall turned back to his computer, stone faced.

Squall figured that had quite enough of blondes for one lifetime.

And did the new receptionist's level of attractiveness even matter? The person mostly just answered phones and greeted people. Hotness not required. And Squall didn't care if the next receptionist was hot to either to Seifer or Quistis. And he certainly didn't care himself. He just wanted to work, get a paycheck, and go to the home he paid for with that paycheck. Like Squall even ventured outside of his cubicle long enough to interact with any receptionist anyway. And they were always coming and going.

Wimbly Donner, the last receptionist. He sure hadn't lasted long. Squall wondered if he'd moved on to new and better things. This place had a high turnover rate for receptionists, that's why the new person was going to be a temp with the possibility of the position being a temp-to-hire. Slight possibility. Nobody was planning on getting too attached, or even trying, except for maybe Selphie. She'd 'friend' the person on social media even if they lasted only a day. Her friend count was sky high.

Selphie Tilmitt, customer service. She was a people person if there ever was one, but she took it to an alarming degree. She was so insistent on being friends with everybody, that even Squall was 'friends' with her on social media. Although she'd made the account for him and he was completely unaware of that fact. Squall Leonhart had one friend on Network Square, and it was Selphie Tilmitt. She figured he could use some kind of web presence. She didn't know his real birthday, so she'd just made up some facts for him. Nobody would notice. Squall certainly didn't.

Selphie was just another one of Squall's co-workers who he tried to ignore as much as possible. She was very unlike Squall in every way. She wanted to interact with people. And she smiled all the time. She probably woke up every day happy to come into work. Complete opposites. Anyways, because of Selphie's personality, she was looking forward to welcoming the new hire. As Squall busied himself with his spreadsheet, she was on the other side of the office getting ready for the new person's arrival with her usual ritual.

Selphie reached into her desk and pulled out a little mesh bundle of candies that were tied together with a decorative yellow ribbon. She'd made herself to be the welcoming committee for all the new receptionists. She had a drawer full of the little gifts. She pranced up to the front desk and plopped the candies right down in front of the switchboard phone. The new employee wouldn't be able to miss it.

She wondered what would the new receptionist be like. She hoped she'd be more fun than the last guy. Hopefully she'd actually be a she, and not a he because she wanted a new girl there to be friends with. There were too many boys there to begin with. Sure, she thought they were cute boys, but she figured a girl would be a nice addition.

"Miss Trepe, when will the new employee be arriving?" Selphie asked sweetly while tiptoeing towards Quistis. Her unattended phone started ringing behind her.

Quistis turned to answer. "Please don't neglect your customer service duties," she said to Selphie. "She'll be here soon enough," she said firmly. Quistis glanced at the clock again. "Maybe," she said under her breath. While the receptionist position had a high turnover rate, all previous employees had actually arrived the first day on the job. Would the new person not even make it that far?

Quistis turned and went back into her office, leaving her team to do their jobs.

Selphie turned and raced back to her cubicle. She snatched up the phone and answered, "Phoenix Company, Revitalize Yourself!" Soon the sound of her conversation floated away on lots of sympathetic noises on Selphie's part. She then walked the customer through the process to get a refund and be sent an envelope full of coupons. She was playing at being naturally sweet, just like one of the company's popular energy bars.

"Do you mind taking part in a very short customer satisfaction survey right now?" Selphie asked in a feminine high pitched voice. She found this voice was her most persuasive. She cooed until the customer agreed. "Okay, would you rate your experience as satisfying OR extremely satisfying?" She waited a few moments while the customer spoke with her. "Yes, those are the only two options." She tapped her fingernails on her desk and nodded her head. Loud squabbling was then heard through her earpiece and Selphie hung up the phone with a huff. "Fine! Don't take part in the survey!" she said in a low bitter growl of barely masked rage.

Irvine got up from his desk and sauntered over into Selphie's area. He leaned onto the wall that divided their cubicles. "Honey, why do you keep bothering people with these surveys? You know Quistis doesn't make us survey anybody," Irvine said. "If she knew about them, she'd probably make you stop." He looked down and nodded his head at her paternally, trying to convince her to see reason.

Selphie straightened her back and held her head high. She didn't like it when smarmy men tried to sway her from her opinions or goals. "First off, don't call me honey. Secondly I take my job seriously. And since I do, I'm surveying them for MYSELF. I want to know HOW good of a job I'm doing," Selphie answered.

Throaty laughter was heard from across the office.

"Sounds like you're doing," Seifer began in a loud voice, "NOT TOO GOOD!" Seifer had good hearing. He always had something to say to everything that happened in the office. His vocal chords were pretty great as well. He could scream-talk insults all day long without his voice getting raspy. With those sorts of qualifications he could be a rude radio personality. He noticed everything, much to the annoyance of his co-workers.

And too bad it was such a small office. The cubicles only gave the appearance that each employee was closed off in their own private world, but in reality, most people could hear everything that went on. Even when some employees tried their hardest to not notice anything around them. Specifically, employees like Squall.

Squall rubbed his hand over his forehead and tried to block out Selphie's chatter and Seifer's yelling so he could focus on his glowing computer monitor full of numbers. He always tried to shut out all the office sounds of people working and talking. He couldn't make them go away, but he could reduce them to a dull hum of background noise. Just seven hours away from quitting time. It was just him and the numbers until then. And then he'd be done with one more day in his pointless life of office drudgery, and he could go home to his bare walled apartment and wait until the next day to do it all over.

After a few minutes, the relative office silence was broken again.

"I got dibs on the new girl," Seifer said to everybody and nobody. His loud voice carried, somehow not dampened by cubicle walls at all. He probably was tilting his head back and talking towards the ceiling so his words could bounce through the office.

"No fair, you had dibs last time," Irvine said, several cubes away.

"Uh yeah, Wimbly wasn't my idea of a dream woman," Seifer countered. Seifer often spoke about what his dream woman would be like, even though nobody had ever asked him about it. Body type, personality, and his other preferences were well known, even if some of the characteristics countered each other and changed according to his daily whims.

Selphie's head popped up over her cubicle wall like a chipmunk coming out of a hole. She was the shortest person in the office, as she wasn't even 5'2", so she must have climbed up on her desk or stood on her office chair to get that high. She was energetic and optimistic, so she didn't let something like tall cubicle walls stand in her way.

"Guys! Stop talking like that, it's offensive!" Selphie said, now done with her customer service call. "And why fight over a new girl, when somebody totally super cute is right in front of you?"

"Your hairstyle is a deal breaker," Seifer said without missing a beat, as if he'd thought this through before at great lengths during his downtime at work. "And that's not taking into account your personality, height, or general body," he added insult to injury while counting off Selphie's faults on his fingertips.

Selphie fall back down into her cubicle with a thud and grabbed at her hair with a gasp. She knew Seifer wasn't the nicest person in the office, but that was too far. And she couldn't help that her hair flipped out so much at the ends. It was hereditary from her father's side! She was very sensitive about that fact. Her brothers' hair did that weird flippy thing too, but nobody knew because they kept it super short. She couldn't do that as a girl without looking even worse. She sighed internally. Maybe she could grow it out and slick it into a classy updo like Quistis. She grumbled because she couldn't ever compete with her blonde bombshell of a boss. Maybe she should cut her hair even shorter. Not boy-short, but sorta-short short. Pixie-short? She thought for a moment. Nah, not her style.

"Leave her alone," Irvine said while shaking his head, not that anybody saw him because he stayed in his cubicle resting with his boots propped up on his desk. It was Monday morning, he had all week to work. Or not. Mondays were nearly still like the weekend. Now Tuesdays and Wednesdays, those were Irvine's Mondays. And Thursdays were practically Fridays, and everybody knew that not much work got done on Fridays either. He was just pacing himself for the long week ahead and conserving his energy for the next weekend.

Irvine Kinneas, customer service. He was a people person, but not like Selphie. Compared to her, he was a loner, even if he really wasn't. While still being social, he was much more laid back about his interactions with people. Sometimes that was just what was needed though. He could soothe and be understanding when Selphie failed, not that it happened often. He contributed, but basically Selphie took most of the customer service calls, and that was fine by him.

"Almasy, my office, NOW!" Quistis yelled through her office door. She'd been overhearing the increasingly inappropriate conversation amongst her cubicle dwelling office workers, and she decided to put an end to it before Seifer started talking about women's body proportions in detail.

Seifer smirked. "Yes ma'am!" he said while jumping to his feet. Squall's eyes flicked to the side as he saw Seifer exit his cubicle and stride with confidence towards Quistis' office door. Seifer entered and closed the door behind himself with a slam that reverberated throughout the office.

Now Quistis rated much higher in Seifer's imagination than Selphie. If there was an office beauty queen contest, he'd award her the top prize. Not that Quistis would care, and she was already the office manager. That in its own way was like being the queen of the office, beauty or otherwise.

Raised voices were heard behind the closed door, and the two figures were seen walking in front of the office's internal windows. Seifer went up to the window's mini-blinds and closed them. More raised voices. A few moments later, Quistis pushed Seifer back out of her office and reopened the mini-blinds.

In all the commotion, nobody noticed a young woman slipping through the front door of the business. The door's jingle was barely audible. She stood sheepishly with her hands folded in front of herself, waiting for something to happen. After some muffled yelling, Quistis' door opened again, with a flushed faced Seifer leaning on the doorframe heavily.

"Um excuse me, I'm the new worker," the young woman stated, while walking towards Seifer. He had an authoritative air about himself, apparently his own office, and he was dressed smartly in a white dress shirt and red tie. The young woman just assumed he was the office manager. "Are you Quistis Trepe?" she asked.

Seifer's face fell. "Do I look like a lady to you?" he asked with an edge to his voice.

Zell Dincht snickered from the back of the room without stopping entering data. He'd been laying low all morning, just glad Seifer's loud mouth wasn't directed at him this time.

"Um no, I didn't know Quistis was a lady's name. It's so unique that I've never heard it before. I didn't know who to expect," she said. "I've only met Mr. Kramer at my initial interview," she explained.

Cid Kramer was in charge of hiring and firing. If he was better at it, maybe he could get a receptionist that stayed longer than a few weeks, but he wasn't. Maybe this person would be a better fit than the last guy.

Quistis gave Seifer's back a firm push to dislodge him from her doorway, and he lurched and tripped on the ends of his polished oxford dress shoes. She walked up to the new woman. "Actually, I'm Quistis Trepe," she said while introducing herself. "You must be Rinoa Heartilly, the new receptionist."

Squall had been trying to ignore the people around him, but the sound of the new receptionist's voice awakened a sense of curiosity he didn't realize he still had. He thought he'd outgrown his curiosity a long time ago when he was a child. Her voice sounded so smooth and sweet with a bit of dark velvet underneath. Slightly timid, but not mousey. She could use force, but only if her miss-nice-girl routine didn't work first. At least that's what he imagined.

When did he get such a rich imagination and when did he start imagining things like this? Was the new girl going to take up residence in his brain?

He shook himself, took a sip of his coffee and tried to come to his reasonable senses. Tried and failed. Her voice was soothing after all the irritating sounds of the morning. He wanted to see if she looked as nice as she sounded. He couldn't believe that he actually wanted to get involved with what was happening currently in the office, even if just a little bit. But he had to satisfy his curiosity before he could focus back on his work. He was just that curious. There would be no harm in a quick peek.

Curiosity is what killed the cat.

Squall quietly raised himself out of his chair and stuck his head outside of the cubicle to take a look. All he could see was Quistis standing before a person, but Seifer's giant back was obstructing his view. He figured that Seiffer was probably towering over the new person to assert his dominance, or some stupid macho garbage like that. If so, she had Squall's sympathies. Couldn't these people tell she was new and nervous and needed air to breathe?

Since when did Squall care so much about his fellow office workers?

Rinoa Heartilly took a slight step back to distance herself from Seifer. Just enough for comfort, but not too far that it would seem like personal slight against him.

But if she did, he would have deserved it, Squall thought

Squall finally got a good look at her. She was a young woman somewhere between petite and average height. She was wearing basic office worker clothes for a woman. A simple black pencil skirt, black flats, and a black camisole with a lacey sky blue shirt to go over it. Nothing out of the ordinary, but his heart beat faster, ever so slightly nonetheless. He assured himself that his pulse had picked up because he was worried for her and sympathetic towards anybody starting a new job. First days were rough. He tried to remember his first day working here.

File not found.

He was still sympathetic though. His reaction certainly wasn't because of the way her long dark hair contrasted against her porcelain skin. And it wasn't because of her sweet heart shaped face with large brown eyes and soft pink lips. It certainly couldn't be those things, he lied to himself.

Okay, so maybe she was his type, a lot of woman in the world were. He wouldn't use the term dream woman like Seifer would though. That would be going too far. But he liked dark hair and brown eyes, and those were pretty common. Not that her looks really mattered. She might be rude or already have a boyfriend. Maybe both. Okay, maybe that didn't matter either. She was the receptionist, she might not even last a week. Or if Seifer was going to be his usual self, she might not even last the day. Better not get his hopes up, that was the only way he could handle a job like this. Or a life like his.

That was Squall Leonhart's motto. Don't get your hopes up.

He settled back into his cubicle where he continued to crunch numbers. His heart rate steadied. Time to soldier through the rest of the week. The glowing computer screen reflected in his nearly dead blue-gray eyes.

Author's notes: In a conversation with Ssnakey-B, he mentioned something about imagining Squall having a boring job like data entry or something. Then I got an idea for a boring office worker AU romance. Please read and review. Reviews make me very happy and motivate me to write more.