FIC: Sins of Our Young ~ FFVIII ~ Seifer/Squall ~ Chapter Eight

[batsutousai]

Title: Sins of Our Young
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Author: Batsutousai/batsutousai
Betas: Shara Lunison/tsuki_no_suzu & Shivani/grazhir
Chapters: 8 of 10
Rating: T
Pairings: Seifer/Squall, Irvine/Selphie, hints of Quistis/Rinoa
Warnings: AU, minor canon-fuckery, Rinoa bashing, minor Quisty bashing
Summary: How the game could have gone if the writers weren't on crack and so set on everyone being straight.

A/N: This chapter is pretty much nothing but Seifer and Squall. Some other characters make a brief appearance, but this is all about them coming to terms with their changed circumstances and getting together.
I only hope I managed to keep them IC. *sigh*

I have been wanting to use this chapter title for years. It's been sitting on my list of possible titles since before I had the list. OMG. I have no words for how happy I am to have finally found a chapter for this. *glee*

-0-0-0-
Every Hero Has a Past
Every Sinner a Future
-0-0-0-

"Hey, Commander Lazy-Ass."

Squall sighed and looked up at where Seifer leaned against the door frame of his office, decked out in his favoured outfit and with Hyperion – they'd found it while cleaning up Galbadia Garden – slung across his back. "Aren't you supposed to be in the infirmary?" he wondered.

"Released by the she-lion an hour ago." Seifer stalked forward and placed Revolver on the paper-strewn desk. At Squall's raised eyebrow, he said, "Messenger Girl got it for me when I asked."

Squall picked up his gunblade and carefully rested it against his desk. "I hardly need a weapon to finish this paperwork."

Seifer snorted. "No, but you do need one to spar with me."

"That's assuming I'm even going to. Thanks, but no thanks." He returned to his paperwork, effectively dismissing the taller man.

Seifer blinked once in surprise, then narrowed his eyes, a familiar anger at being ignored bubbling in his gut. "Well," he snapped, "if His Highness is too afraid to get his fat ass handed to him, I suppose we'll just have to forgive him. It's not like we're leaving to escort a homicidal Sorceress to Esthar in a couple days and you're rusty, right?"

Squall clenched his jaw, but refused to rise to the bait. It was bad enough that he'd already been talked into going and leaving his job to someone else for a week–

"I suppose there's nothing wrong with getting your ass handed to you by a girl while on the road," Seifer continued. "Much better than here, in Garden, where everyone will hear about it, right?"

"Excuse me," Squall interrupted silkily, "but which of us usually gets our asses handed to us?" He'd finally looked up, quicksilver eyes burning in challenge.

'Got you,' Seifer thought triumphantly. "You were the one who fainted after our last spar, as I recall."

"And you were the one who lost our last fight," Squall shot back.

"At least I didn't faint like some little girl. 'Oh, poor Lady Squall'!"

Squall stood from his chair and snatched Revolver from next to him. "I'm going to make you swallow your words, Almasy," he hissed, buckling his gunblade in place behind him.

Seifer smirked. "Not from behind a desk you won't, Pretty Boy."

Squall retained enough sense to not try an attack in his office – cleaning up the paperwork wouldn't be any fun – and stalked past his rival to the door, leading the way to the Training Centre. 'Fucking Seifer,' he seethed as he punched the call button for the lift, the brief wait cooling his thoughts enough to realise what he was doing. 'He always does this. I never learn.'

"Don't get cold feet on me now, Princess," Seifer teased.

"I never get cold feet. Seify."

Seifer laughed at that and gave Squall's shoulder a gentle shove as the lift doors popped open. "That was weak, Squally."

Squall grunted and pressed the button for the first floor. Knowing Selphie, she'd already made Seifer like the nickname she'd given him two days ago just by being her usual, cheerful self. Hyne knew it had worked on Squall, and he'd already had a dislike for 'Squally,' what with Seifer using it since they were kids to get a rise out of him.

It was rather nostalgic to be stalking towards the Training Centre with Seifer, Revolver slung over his ass. Squall hadn't realised how much he'd missed this until he had it again and he had a sudden, dizzying moment where he recalled that he'd almost lost it.

"Squall?" Seifer asked as the slighter teen stopped and wavered on his feet. "You okay?"

Squall shook his head. "Fine," he murmured, starting to walk again.

"Liar," Seifer muttered, but didn't press the issue.

Inside the Training Centre, they came across a group of seven cadets practicing with gunblades, a sharp-eyed instructor watching over them.

"Ooh. Now here's a sight you don't see every day," Seifer commented, a grin in his voice.

"Commander," the instructor realised, snapping out a salute. She shot an uncertain look at the tall blond standing just behind Squall, not certain what to think of the man who was painted as both a villain and a saint in the rumour mill.

Thankfully, mentioning the Commander was enough to get all the cadets to lower their weapons and stare at him in awe, so the instructor's inattention didn't end in any wounds.

The youngest of the cadets, an eleven-year-old boy, realised, "Hey, you're wearing your gunblade!"

"Do you know how sad it is that people are actually surprised to see you with a weapon?" Seifer wondered rhetorically before asking, "And since when has it been part of the curriculum to learn the gunblade, anyway?"

"It's not," Squall muttered.

"We want to be like the Commander," one of the cadets announced. "Gunblades are cool."

Seifer raised an eyebrow at that, then replied, "They're also damn-hard to master. Only overachievers like your Commander bother picking them up."

"Then what does that make you?" Squall wondered bitingly. "Not an overachiever, certainly."

"No, I'm the one with something to prove," Seifer returned with a smug little grin.

"No debate there," Squall muttered, rolling his eyes.

"You're Seifer Almasy!" the eleven-year-old realised. "The Sorceress' Knight!"

Seifer flinched at that label. Half the reason he'd initiated this spar was to forget about his time with Ultimecia. He'd had too much free time in the infirmary to think back on everything he'd done and that had been done to him, and sparring with Squall had always distracted him in the past.

"Ex-Knight," Squall corrected, a sharp bite of reproach in his voice.

The boy flushed and bowed his head in shame.

'My hero,' Seifer thought drily, a little touched by the very Squall attempt to protect him. "No need to bite the kid's head off, Squally. We all knew what he meant." He winked at the kid when he glanced up at him and the boy sent back an uncertain smile.

"If you're both here with your gunblades, does that mean you were going to spar?" one of the cadets asked, looking hopeful. Around her, the others pasted excitedly hopeful looks on their faces as well.

The instructor, too, looked a little hopeful. "It would be a good learning experience," she suggested.

Squall sighed and rubbed at his scar. "...Whatever."

"That means yes, but you'll have to give us room to move," Seifer translated with a grin.

The kids all holstered their weapons and excitedly hurried off to one side, near their instructor. A couple were bouncing a bit, looking like their birthdays had come early.

"No magic," Squall ordered as the two men pulled out their gunblades and got into position.

"Aw, Squally, that takes all the fun out of it!"

Squall raised an eyebrow. "Fine, we can use magic."

Seifer paused at that, recalling that Squall preferred ice spells, then shook his head, quickly back-tracking through his thoughts; ice magic wasn't something he was interested in standing against any time soon, para-magic or otherwise. "Right, no magic."

Confusion, then understanding flashed through Squall's eyes and he nodded. After a breath, he darted forward and to the right, slinging his blade up to deflect the expected return attack of the blond, then jumping back after it had connected. They were both rusty, he realised, and a little slower in their reactions. It was expected, but distressing.

Seifer started forward as soon as Squall was just out of reach of Hyperion's longer blade, feinting left before going right and swinging low. Squall blocked him with his usual accuracy, dancing out of the way so Seifer's greater strength couldn't work against the smaller gunblader.

They continued on this vein for a while, Seifer running in and trying to pin Squall down while the lithe teen darted out of the way and, occasionally, tried a follow-up that Seifer would block with the knowledge of years of training telling him when Squall would try it.

Finally, Seifer managed to pin Squall with an overhead swing and the smaller gunblader bent under the blond's greater strength, shoving back with determination in his eyes for a long moment before he dropped quickly to the ground and spun out of the way, his sudden move giving him the chance to hook the back of Seifer's blade and flick it out of his grasp.

"Fuck, I hate it when you do that," Seifer complained, rubbing at his finger, which had been clasped around the trigger and pulled when he'd been disarmed.

Squall raised an eyebrow and smoothly sheathed Revolver. "Then don't leave yourself open for it."

Cheers interrupted them before Seifer could find a suitably biting response and the two gunbladers found themselves surrounded by cadets who were gushing about the spar, all talking over top of one another. Squall sighed a bit helplessly, but Seifer grinned and soaked up the attention. One of the kids even got Hyperion for him, struggling under the large blade's weight. The kid's eyes widened when Seifer took his gunblade with a quick, "Thanks," and slung it into place without any apparent effort.

Squall left the kids to Seifer, since adoring fans were more his thing, and joined the wide-eyed instructor a ways back. He frowned down at a rip in his jacket, wondering when Seifer had hit him. At least it hadn't drawn blood, for once. And the rip was small enough that he would be able to patch it with some of the thread he had in his room, rather than having to replace another jacket. 'One of these days, I'll learn not to spar in my favourite clothing.'

"Commander?" the instructor breathed.

Squall glanced at her and dragged her name out of his hazy memories. "Yes, Instructor Birobeam?"

The woman flushed, smiling very faintly. "I know you're busy, but would it be too much to ask if you'd come by to help with this class every once in a while? I don't know much about gunblades, so I can't always help the cadets when they have questions."

Squall looked back over the kids, considering that. "Perhaps," he decided. "However, both Seifer and I will be out of Garden for the next week or so, so it will have to wait."

The woman's excited smile fell slightly. "The Sorceress?" she wondered.

Squall shrugged. "Yes." Rinoa being the current Sorceress was common knowledge in Garden, as was the fact that she would be taken to Esthar to be sealed in a few days. That Seifer and Squall would be going with the others wasn't, necessarily, so well known, but nor was it some huge secret.

"Then... maybe you could stay for a bit today or tomorrow?"

Squall frowned. "Seifer certainly could stay and help, but I–"

"You'll be staying too!" Seifer called, proving that he'd been paying plenty of attention to the conversation, in spite of the huddle of kids attempting to distract him. "They're emulating your fighting style, Princess, not mine. I can tell them how to swing a blade one-handed, but your nancy-pansy two-handed hold is completely beyond me."

"You shouldn't call the Commander 'Princess'," one of the older boys informed the blond man, looking quite disapproving. "It's disrespectful."

"Seifer doesn't know the meaning of the word," Squall replied drily. "And I can't stay."

"Aww..."

Seifer waved the kids down. "Give me a moment with His Highness," he told them before slinging a friendly arm around the slighter teen's shoulder and walking them a few paces away.

Squall tugged out of his hold and hissed, "I have work, Seifer. Some of us understand what it means to have a duty."

Seifer frowned. "You think I don't understand duty?"

"You've certainly never cared before."

"I was never the Knight to a fucking lunatic before, either," Seifer spat, anger making his voice harsh. He softened his tone when Squall flinched, admitting, "Okay, no, I've never cared much for school work, and the DC was always more a way to beat up on our peers than actually improve this sinkhole, but just because I didn't give a fuck doesn't mean I didn't understand the point behind it."

"Then you understand why I need to do my job," Squall whispered, almost pleading.

Seifer shook his head. "I understand that you've been stuck behind a desk for the past week with paperwork while your gunblade rusted in your room. I understand that people seeing you with a weapon at hand makes them think another homicidal bitch is about to bring the world down on their heads, rather than being a common sight. You can't lead these people if you can't even fight, Squall, and that means spending some time away from your desk. Longer than just a ten-minute spar," he added before Squall could mention that little titbit.

Squall rubbed angrily at his scar and growled, "I will have plenty of time to 'train' on our way to Esthar. Right now, I need to catch up on all this paperwork so Cid isn't so bogged down."

"Cid has been running this place just fine since we were kids, he can run it again without you worrying about it," Seifer insisted. "And you're not training on the way to Esthar, not if we're fighting real enemies. If you're not in proper form, you're going to get yourself killed."

"I will not–"

Seifer grabbed the smaller man's shoulders and shook him a bit. "You're a stubborn asshole, but so am I. Do you really want to waste more time arguing with me? Stay and help me with these kids for the next hour of their class, then I'll let you go back to your office and leave you alone until dinner. Deal?"

Squall considered that for a moment, trying to find any tricky little loopholes that would allow the blond to keep him longer, then nodded. "Fine. Why only until dinner?" He shot a narrow-eyed look at Seifer.

Seifer snorted and let go of Squall's shoulders. "Because Kadowaki told me to make sure you eat at least two meals a day. Something about you avoiding food at all costs?"

"I was sick," Squall reminded him.

"Not for the past two days," Seifer shot back. "Not unless you've been hiding it again. In which case, I'll just drag you to Kadowaki and leave you in her clutches." He smirked at Squall's disgusted glare. "Come on, brats to teach."

"Asshole," Squall muttered before stalking past the ex-Knight towards the hopeful class. "All right," he called in his 'Commander Voice', "let's see your forms."

Seifer silently patted himself on the back before turning and joining the Commander.

-0-

"Dinner time, Princess," Seifer called as he strode into the Commander's office.

Squall didn't bother looking up from the request he was reading through. "Stop calling me that."

"Would you prefer 'Lady Squall', then?" Seifer wondered, leaning on the edge of the desk and looming between Squall's paper and the overhead light.

"How about just 'Commander'?" Squall replied, flipping on his desk light.

"Mmm... Nah." Seifer dropped back into one of the chairs across from the desk, absently shifting Hyperion out of the way. "How about I sit here and insult you until you agree to put the paperwork away for the night and eat dinner with me?"

Squall sighed and gave the other gunblader a tired look. "Shut up and let me finish reading this and signing off on it, then we can go."

Seifer shrugged and picked a shapeless paperweight off the desk to play with while Squall finished his work.

Finally, Squall put the pen in his catch-all and dropped the request in the outbox before standing, back popping unpleasantly. "Okay, we can go," he announced as he strapped Revolver to his belts.

Seifer dropped the paperweight back on the desk and jumped to his feet. "How the fuck do you manage to sit there all day? I would go insane in here."

"Which is why I am behind the desk, not you." Squall pressed the call button for the lift, then asked, "The cafeteria?"

Seifer shook his head. "In town."

Squall frowned. "Why in FH? There's plenty of good food in Garden."

"Ah, yes, but we're eating with people. A little outing."

"I don't do 'outings'," Squall hissed.

Seifer pushed him into the lift. "Sure you do." He pressed the button for the second floor before Squall could hit the bottom floor, then blocked all further attempts. "Oh, come on, Squally. Live a little!"

Squall huffed and finally settled on just glaring at the blond as Seifer led him down the hall to the deck.

Selphie, Irvine, and Zell awaited them next to the weapons locker, all wearing amused smiles at Squall's disgusted look.

Selphie let go of Irvine's arm and danced forward to take Squall's instead. "Hiya, Squally! We're all going out to dinner. It's going to be sooo much fun!"

Squall sighed and resigned himself to going along with this. Saying no to Selphie would be like kicking a puppy. "Whatever," he muttered, freeing his arm so he could unhook Revolver and hand it over to the smirking Seifer to secure.

They started towards the city with Selphie hanging onto Squall's arm, talking a mile a minute about the Garden Festival planning she had been wrapped up in since they'd returned to Garden. She'd dragged Zell and Irvine in on it, too. Squall had a vague recollection of Zell ducking any mention of the committee during the SeeD ball and was quietly amused at how things had changed.

"Seifer, you should help too!" Selphie added over her shoulder at one point.

"Garden Festivals, I'm afraid, are the one thing I am incapable of doing," Seifer offered with a dramatic sad look.

Squall smirked faintly. "Really? So that trumpet in your room is just for show?"

"Wha–! When the fuck were you in my room?!"

"You can play the trumpet?" Selphie asked, excitedly transferring from Squall's arm to Seifer's. "You should join our band, then! I've been looking for a trumpet player!"

Seifer shot Squall a look that promised retribution even as he grudgingly said, "I suppose..."

"Thanks, Seify!" Selphie hugged his arm. "I have a trumpet player!"

"You know, somehow, trumpet fits you," Irvine commented, humour glinting in his eyes. "Loud, obnoxious and all-too-often the centre of attention."

"Irvy plays the harmonica," Selphie added.

"Fitting," Seifer decided, flashing the cowboy a grin. "Quiet, loner and so very girly. It would probably fit Squally, too."

"Nah, Squall's more of a piano person, I think," Selphie disagreed. "Or maybe another strings instrument."

"Can we stop debating about an instrument I don't play?" Squall wondered a touch bitingly as Zell led them into one of the smaller restaurants that dotted the small town.

A petite waitress rushed over when the door opened, smiling brightly. "The Garden party! Right this way." She led them over to a corner booth, where none of them would have their backs to the door, even if it meant they all had to scoot in together. Selphie ended up in the middle with Squall and Irvine on either side and Zell and Seifer on the outside edges.

They were thoughtfully silent as they decided on their food, then fell into an uncomfortable silence after they'd ordered, all of them searching for something to say.

Finally, Irvine asked, "Squall? What would be required for me to make SeeD?"

Squall blinked, surprised. "Not a lot. Why?"

"You want to be a SeeD, Irvy?" Selphie wondered, eyes wide.

Irvine shrugged. "I wouldn't mind getting paid to hang out with you all. How much is 'not a lot'?" He cocked his head around Selphie so he could look at Squall.

The Commander rubbed at his scar thoughtfully. "Normally, you'd have to take both the written and practical exams, then be judged by a board of current SeeDs and instructors. Given that you've already run a couple of SeeD-level missions, I could probably waive both requirements, but I'd want to run it by Xu, first, since she's technically your Headmistress. I can message her tonig–"

"Tomorrow," Seifer interrupted with a sharp look.

Selphie giggled. "Squally's got a babysitter."

"I'm Doctor Kadowaki approved," Seifer agreed with a grin at the only woman in their group.

Squall stared at Seifer for a long moment before stating, "We're already in town. It would be sensible for me to send the message now, rather than making two trips tomorrow."

"Ah, but two trips gets you out from behind your desk twice and you get twice the exercise. I see nothing wrong with this."

"I am going to stop by the inn–"

"No, you're really not," Seifer cut in, narrowing his eyes, all playfulness gone.

"And I suppose you plan to stop me." Squall scoffed.

"Yes." Seifer raised an eyebrow at Squall's disbelieving look. "I'll hit you with a Sleep spell and carry you back if I have to, Squall, but you're not doing anymore work tonight."

"Wha–?" Squall shook his head and forcefully brought himself back under control. "I take it this is another one of Doctor Kadowaki's ideas? Keep me from overworking myself or some nonsense?"

"Nope." Seifer smiled, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Making you eat was her idea, making you train and stop working every once in a while is all me."

"I'm not going to just let you order me around, Seifer," Squall hissed.

Seifer sighed and looked put upon. "Can we skip all the denials and get to the point where you realise that, a, I'm not going to back down; b, I can totally force you to comply with me; and c, I have no compunctions against using said force? Because, really, it would save a lot of time."

Squall glared at him, putting as much venom and hatred into his eyes as he could.

Seifer smiled. "I'm glad that's out of the way."

"Did you just get Squall to listen to you?" Irvine wondered, looking awed.

Seifer shrugged, all smiles. "I'm sure we'll argue about it another six times or so, but, yeah."

"If I wasn't certain I'd get killed for trying it, I'd ask you to teach me."

Squall turned his glare on Irvine, who immediately hid behind Selphie.

"I can't take you boys anywhere," Selphie complained before leaning over and kissing Squall's cheek. "Stop that. We're having a nice dinner."

As if her words had called them, their food arrived and was set out before them with smiles.

Once the waitress and waiter who'd helped her deliver the food were gone, Seifer asked, "So, what's Esthar like?"

Selphie immediately started gushing, completely distracting Squall from the dark glower he'd directed towards his food. That, followed by stories from the gunblade class, courtesy of Seifer, kept them busy and relatively happy throughout the meal. When the bill came, Squall took it before anyone else could and calmly glared down all protestations as he counted out the required gil; as Commander, he was making way more gil than any of them, especially when both Seifer and Irvine were still technically students.

On the way back to Garden, Squall glanced towards the inn, but Seifer draped an arm around his shoulders and shot him a knowing smile. "You can come back tomorrow," he said.

Squall sighed and decided it wasn't worth fighting about.

They all parted ways at the entrance to the dorms. Squall shut his door behind him and quickly changed for bed. He tried to sleep for a good two hours before he gave it up as a bad job and slipped a shirt and his boots on. 'I have way too much work for this. Maybe a couple more hours and then I can try again...' He stepped out of his room, only to freeze in shock.

Seifer smirked at him from where he was leaning against the wall across the hallway. "Hi, Princess."

Squall blinked, then pointed a finger down the hall in the general direction of the cadet doubles. "Don't make me call you out for breaking curfew," he snapped.

Seifer snorted. "I'm not, technically, enrolled, Squally. The only reason I even have a room is because no one thought to toss my stuff or change my room code on me. And because Rai probably refused another roommate, knowing the stubborn idiot. Anyway, when have I ever cared about curfew?"

Squall could count at least a dozen spars with Seifer that had occurred after curfew, but still... "You should be sleeping."

Seifer nodded. "Yup. So should you, really." He smiled. "I can stay out here all night and sleep while you're working tomorrow, if I must."

Squall scowled. "Who the fuck designated you as my fucking nanny?"

"I did." Seifer's smile widened as Squall's scowl deepened.

Squall took a deep breath, then asked, "Why are you so determined to keep an eye on me?"

Seifer's eyes darkened with memories and pain and he looked for a moment like he was going to give Squall a real answer, but then a door down the hall opened and he was all smugly amused smiles again. "Because riling you up never gets old."

Squall narrowed his eyes and he stepped back into his room. "Get in here," he ordered in his 'Commander Voice'.

Seifer snorted. "You know I don't listen well to orders."

Squall pursed his lips. "Either get in here, or let me go to my office."

"Ooh, bargaining. Now you're learning, Squally. But I don't want to do either of those things." Seifer shot him an amused look. "Care to try again?"

Squall rubbed at his scar for a moment, then pulled a knife that he'd slipped in the back of his sleep trousers and held it in preparation to throw. "How many of these can you duck?" he wondered drily.

"You're really bad at this," Seifer teased, but he still stepped into the room and palmed the door control. "Hey, I can keep a much better eye on you now," he realised.

Squall sighed and dropped onto his bed, absently slipping the knife away. "Why are you keeping an eye on me?"

Seifer blinked, his smile going a little crooked for a moment before he forced it back in place. "I told you, because riling–"

"I will throw you in solitary next to Rinoa if you lie to me, Almasy," Squall snapped.

Seifer shuddered at the thought, then sighed and pulled out the desk chair to sit in, looking exhausted beyond his years. "Can we not talk about this?" he asked in a voice that wasn't quite begging, but fell pretty close.

Squall leaned down to pull of his boots. "You've been irritating me all day, and now you're keeping me from my job; I deserve an explanation for why you're being more obnoxiously persistent than usual." He sat back against the wall, boots left next to the bed, and pinned the blond with an unforgiving look.

Seifer sighed and rubbed at the scar between his eyes in a way that was strangely reminiscent of Squall's usual action. "When Ultimecia was torturing me," Seifer said quietly, "the whole time, the thing that kept me going was the knowledge that you would be the one who would do her in. I kept thinking, 'Squall will come.' 'Squall will get rid of her.' I didn't even care if I was dead by the time you showed up, I just knew you would do it.

"And then, you did." Seifer glanced up at the regretful blue-grey eyes across from him. "You showed up and you didn't even fucking care about her. You came over and you helped me, as serious about getting me out of there alive as you've been about anything and..." He looked away. "I didn't understand why. I still don't get it. Fuck, I tortured you, and I know you said it doesn't matter, that it was war or whatever the fuck, but it did matter. It does. I've never been anything but a fucking asshole to you, and instead of saving the world, like you were supposed to, you saved me."

"You believe yourself undeserving of being saved?" Squall asked quietly.

Seifer snorted. "I walked willingly into her arms. I listened to her lies and I was right there with her, scorning everything I've ever worked towards. Being a Sorceress Knight was a nice kid's dream, but I wanted to be a SeeD so bad and with just a smile from her, I was talking it down like it was nothing. She said she wanted to blow up Trabia and Balamb, to destroy the little monsters before they could become a danger and I was right there next to her. I was the one who said I'd torture whatever information she wanted out of you. I–"

"You're not a nice person, Seifer," Squall cut in, refusing to hear any further self-disgust spewing from his rival's lips. "Neither of us are. We were raised to be murderers and thieves, to live our lives doing the biddings of others, no matter how morally corrupt those requests were. Just yesterday, I approved a mission to send a SeeD out to kill some Galbadian General's mistress because she's with child and he doesn't want to put up with the hassle."

Seifer's eyes widened in disbelief. "You–"

"It's business. We need the money to keep this place afloat, and it's never mattered where the money came from." Squall shrugged. "Maybe Ultimecia has a point and we're just a school for morally corrupt monsters. Maybe the world would have been better off destroying all of us before we really got started. Maybe the world will destroy itself without us here to fight their little battles for them. I don't know." He met the wide green eyes across from him, his own eyes dark with suppressed emotions. "Do I deserve to be saved?"

Seifer shook his head, wordless.

"I don't believe in labels like 'good' and 'evil' or 'right' and 'wrong'," Squall continued. "I believe in 'comrades' and 'enemies' and 'clients'. You've always been more a comrade than an enemy, even when I was hanging on that wall in that prison. Maybe we were on separate sides, but that's never changed the fact that I wouldn't–" Squall choked on his own words, uncomfortable with baring his soul, but Seifer had told him his darkest thoughts, and he deserved this truth. "We've always been together," he whispered, trying a different angle, "so much that I can't imagine a life without you there, irritating me and goading me into stupid duels when I'm supposed to be doing something important, like class work or sleeping or–"

Seifer reached out and pressed a finger to Squall's lips, a strange look in his eyes. "Don't," he breathed, half-pleading.

Squall pulled the finger away from his mouth. "You're worth saving to me," he whispered.

Seifer closed his eyes for a long moment before standing from the chair and kneeling on either side of Squall's thighs on the bed. "Damn it, Squall," he murmured before leaning forward and pressing his lips against the smaller teen's. "Damn you," he murmured again before pressing another kiss against Squall's lips.

Squall was stunned into inaction for a long moment, but before Seifer could pull away from the second kiss, he regained control of his limbs and reached up to bury his hands in gelled blond hair and pull it back to him while he pressed up. One of Seifer's hands went to the wall to brace them while the other grabbed the back of Squall's neck in a bruising grip, angling both their heads to deepen the kiss and invading Squall's mouth with a tongue intent on conquest. Squall refused to give up so easily, pulling warningly on Seifer's hair even as his own tongue fought back, jabbing and pressing and slowly entwining as they both relaxed, neither in control.

Seifer was the one to pull back first, breathing hard and pressing his forehead against Squall's, their scars matching each other perfectly. The hand at the back of Squall's neck loosened and brushed up through the shorter hairs, earning a shudder from the smaller teen. "Fuck," he breathed.

Squall shuddered again at the feeling of Seifer's breath mingling with his and he brushed his hands through the gelled locks, soothing over the disarray he'd thrown them into when he'd pulled at them. "Stay here," he whispered.

Seifer gave a breathy laugh. "You're never getting rid of me now, Squall."

"...Good," Squall decided, angling his head just enough to brush his lips against Seifer's.

Seifer pulled back and got off the bed so he could unhook Hyperion and pull off his coat and boots. He paused for the briefest of moments before tugging his vest off as well, then he returned to the bed, motioning that they should both lay down.

Squall pulled his own shirt off and tossed it towards his hamper before moving to join Seifer under the covers the elder teen had pulled back. The knife from the back of his trousers was slipped under his pillow and he heard Seifer laugh as he mirrored the action with his own knife.

Seifer wrapped an arm around Squall's waist and drew the lithe teen closer, pressing them chest-to-chest. Their too-pale ice wounds were chilling reminders of their troubled pasts, but neither of them flinched back from the cold, instead pressing closer together to share heat around the uncommon cold.

And, somehow, it worked.

-0-0-0-

-0-0-0-

A/N: I finally got them together!! XD (Compared to Zyxt, this was like pulling teeth, I swear. It certainly took longer! Ahahahah... *shifty eyes* Didn't help that Shara was sitting here, staring at me and going, 'Slaaaaaaash...' XD)

~Bats ^.^x

Chapters:
1 - Hiding Betrayal ||| 2 - Trying to Please Them All
3 - Every Little Earthquake ||| 4 - Faraway Reflections
5 - Guilty By Association ||| 6 - Clouds Are the Future
7 - Sins of Our Tongue ||| 8 - Every Hero Has a Path, Every Sinner a Future
9 - Gather Your Strength ||| 10 - Forever's Never Too Long

..

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

They'retogetherthey'retogetherthey'retogether- *happy dance* Ehem. Don't mind me. I'm easily distracted by explosive emotions and ~passion~ *nods*

Also: Commander Leonhart teaching a bunch of cadets about gunblades. *snickers* I approve! He'd be hopeless with kids ♥ The thought is somewhat heartwarming indeed.

Thanks for the update~

Miva

[batsutousai]

LOL. Yeah, I was doing a happy dance of my own when I finally got them together.

XD I dunno if I feel worse for the kids or Squally, honestly. (But I'm sure Seifer's standing there laughing his ass off at the whole bit.)