FFVIII: Spellbound (2)

[edenbound]

Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Pairing: Squall/Rinoa
Warnings: Squall POV
Chapter: Two
Rating: PG
Summary: Seifer needs Squall and Rinoa's help. For multi-chapter fics, warnings and pairings are chapter specific.


I knew where to find Seifer when I wanted him. I knew that Fujin and Raijin would let him stay with them, so I wasn't worried about how he was looking after himself down in Balamb. I was more worried about getting all the paperwork I had piling up in my office done. Mornings were never long enough to finish all the paperwork, though, no matter how hard I tried, even though lunchtime never came soon enough.

I ate my lunch with Quistis and Xu, since Rinoa was nowhere in sight. I had to wonder if she was even going to get up that day, but I guessed that she was probably with some other friends. It didn't bother me much. I never am in the mood for company at lunchtime.

Quistis and Xu were talking about ordinary, mundane things. I don't even remember what it was. Gossip about Garden, speculation about when Esthar would contact again about that really good contract... I honestly don't remember.

But when I heard them mention Seifer, and I sat up straight and started paying attention.

“Did you see him, Quistis?” Xu was saying, “I've never seen him look so...”

“So defeated?” Quistis asked, raising an eyebrow, and laughed softly. “He never has been beaten as badly as he was in the war... well, he's never been beaten. Even if everyone believes, or at least, pretends to believe that he was under the sorceress' control, I can't see that he's very happy that everyone knows he was beaten.”

“Still... I think it was more than that.”

“I assure you, Xu,” she said, lightly, as if she knew Seifer better than anybody, “That probably really is all that's wrong with him. He's always hated it when anyone was even slightly better at something than he was. Right, Squall?”

I just shrugged. A moment later I left the table, no longer feeling in the right mood to eat.

Quistis didn't know Seifer half as well as she thought she did. The only people I think might truly know Seifer are his posse, and even with them... well, I think he keeps a lot more hidden than he'll ever admit to. And I didn't think he truly minded being beaten fairly. What he always minded was being beaten when he knew he could do better. And I was sure that he realised that even though we defeated him, we were all pushed to our very limits to do so.

I walked down into Balamb that day. I liked walking – it gave me a chance to think – and I didn't want to bother any of the Garden staff by asking to take a car. Besides, Balamb wasn't far away and the walk gave me a chance to fight a little, keeping in practice.

It was surprisingly easy to find him, too – though that could have been because of the little trail of people leading to him. Groups of people who hated him, protested his release, protested against his innocence.

He was innocent. I hated to admit it, but he had to be. If he had been guilty, he would have faced up to a punishment and admitted all his involvements in the war. But the way he denied it all... I knew that he must have been under the Sorceress' control.

Seifer might be an asshole and he can be a prick, and sometimes he takes things too far, and his arrogance could get on a saint's nerves, but he's honourable. To men like him, honour means everything. Honour and truth and love.

He looked up at me, through the crowd of people, and there was such a look in his eyes, it took my breath away. There were all kinds of emotions there I wouldn't like to try and name, and as I stood there in front of him I felt... naked. Like he was looking right through me.

“What do you want?” I'd asked.

“You,” he'd said, I'd ignored that part, but now -

Now I wasn't sure if he'd been joking or not.

The crowd cleared away quickly when they saw that I was there, perhaps thinking that I would do something to Seifer that they couldn't, punish him somehow. Perhaps they just respected my authority which, though a rather odd thought to me – how can a teenager like me be a Commander? - seems most likely.

“You have a place in Garden,” I said, curtly, crisply, fighting back a storm of emotions that wanted to show themselves, wanting to be as calm and impassive as always while I stood in front of me. I wanted to tell him to stop looking at me like that, but I didn't want to show him that I'd noticed, or that it made me feel so uncomfortable.

“Squall, I - ”

“Report to Xu when you get back, I'll have her assign you a dorm.”

He stiffened slightly at the order and then he relaxed, a laughing look on his face. “Yes, sir!”

I turned away from him quickly and started to walk away, just to get away from that intense look. For a moment, he stayed there, and then he followed me quickly, his boots ringing on the concrete, and grabbed my arm, swinging me round.

“Squall. Thank you,” he said, softly. “I have no where else to go, no one else I want to go to... no one else who would've helped me.”

“Raijin and Fujin were willing to help you,” I said coolly, refusing to look at him.

“Perhaps,” he said, and then released me, shaking his head slightly. “I'll see you in Garden, Leonhart.”

I hurried away.