Anniversary
A one-shot by Ellipsis the Great
DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…
Summary: RTF-verse. A peek into Hayner and Seifer's lives one year later, as they celebrate the anniversary of the day they defeated the Queen.
Rated: T for language.
Hayner Duncan woke to the sound of a pencil scratching against a piece of paper, and had to fight to keep the fond smile off of his face—it drove the artist (his artist) crazy when he moved before a picture was finished.
"Go ahead and move," came a voice from just beside him, as if its owner had been reading Hayner's thoughts. "I'm pretty much done."
He hummed contently and released the smile, reaching out and instead capturing his bedmate in his arms. Pulling himself closer, he rested his head on his lover's thigh and sighed quietly.
A callused hand reached down and ran through his hair with a gentleness that none would expect from its gruff owner. "Good morning."
"Mm, great morning." He corrected sleepily, yawning and nuzzling his partner's hip.
The man above him chuckled, a thumb caressing his cheek softly.
Finally, he opened his bleary eyes, rolling over with some difficulty so that he could comfortably rest on his lover and look up into the other man's eyes. "What were you working on this time?"
"Just sketching; nothing terribly important." Seifer shrugged.
"I'll never understand why you like drawing me so much." Hayner said, watching Seifer set his sketchbook aside. "I'm not all that interesting, I'm sure."
"You're my favorite model," was the easy reply, followed up my an impish smirk. "And besides—you're so damn cute I can't help myself."
Hayner groaned. "I hate it when you call me cute."
"Well stop being cute and I won't call you that anymore." Seifer sneered.
He snorted—this was an old argument, and one he knew he was never going to win—then sat up and maneuvered himself around until he could sit side-by-side with his bedmate. Then, practically draping himself over Seifer's back, he said, "Lemme see."
Seifer grinned and picked his sketchbook back up, flipping it open to the page he had been working on and showing it to Hayner.
Hayner wrinkled his nose a bit. One of the best and worst things about Seifer's art was just how accurately he portrayed his subject—best because it made his work honest and always looked like a photograph (better than a photograph, sometimes), and worst because no one really wanted to see a picture of themselves drooling into their pillow.
Luckily, this one hadn't caught him drooling into his pillow (though there were a few in this very sketchbook that did), but it did show him hugging the damn thing so tightly it would have long since suffocated were it an animate being.
"See? Cute." Seifer said.
"Stop calling me that." He groaned, burying his face in Seifer's shoulder.
The rustle of paper as Seifer set the sketchbook down. "Is that an order, Your Highness?"
He let out a short, exasperated sound. "I'm not a friggin' prince anymore, Seifer."
And it was true—after they had defeated his mother back on Prydain, Hayner had quickly disinherited himself from the royal line. Snow White, his (very impossibly naïve and altogether perfect) stepsister, had offered to make him Crown Prince, as was his birthright (his mother had been of royal blood, although his father was unknown), but he had quickly turned her down. He hadn't the least bit of interest in being royalty at all, and much less in being the Crown Prince of a world called Granatbaum(1), of all things.
Seifer just let out a snide snicker, letting his head fall back and then kissing Hayner's cheek.
A sigh, then a hesitant question. "Are we going to Balamb Garden today?"
Seifer's playful attitude immediately left. He didn't much like to talk about his home world, for all that it had reappeared (along with most of the other 'destroyed' worlds) after the Queen's demise. It might have been residual guilt for allowing it to be destroyed in the first place (like Seifer hadn't tried to stop it from being destroyed, or something). It might have been all of the confusion from remembering his former life (though Persephone had tried to make the regaining and merging of Seifer's memories as easy as possible, it was still damn hard to wrap his head around). It might have just been all of the ache that came with this day—the day he had helped kill his own father; the day he had died; the day he had gone from being a villain, to being no one of any consequence, to being a hero. It might have been a little or a lot of all of those things.
Whatever it was, Seifer just didn't like to talk about it. Period. End of story.
But this was the first anniversary of this day. And Seifer had—on the anniversary of the day when all of this bullshit had started—expressed a hesitant desire to visit his home world on this day.
"Yeah." Seifer replied finally, his voice somewhat hoarse. "I want…yeah."
"We don't have to go." The statement came out as more of a question as Hayner hugged his boyfriend tighter to himself.
"No, I want to…I want to go." Seifer said, his voice gaining confidence as he continued. "I want to meet…visit everyone. And to see…to see their graves." 'Their' meant his mother and father, as well as the woman who had raised him.
"Okay." Hayner said, pulling away with a chaste kiss. "I'll pack some clothes for us and call Cid; see if he doesn't mind taking us. You pack up your portfolio, huh? Show those assholes what they're missing out on."
Seifer laughed and nodded. It was times like this when he was really glad that fate had decided to fuck with his life.
(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)
"Can't believe you're going to fuckin' Balamb Garden today." Cid swore, almost pouting as he flew. "Military assholes like that don't damn well know how to throw a fuckin' party. Now Destiny Islands—there's a world that knows what a party is! Little dancin' girls in them ridiculous grass skirts, fire shows, the whole fuckin' works. Balamb Garden didn't even fuckin' exist when you saved their sorry asses!"
"We know, Cid." Hayner said, and they did—or they sure should have, seeing as how Cid had been on this particular rant ever since they had taken off.
"I think they are old enough to decide where they want to spend this day, Highwind." Vincent Valentine—Cid's pale-as-ever boyfriend—said in that deep and rather eerie voice of his.
"Just don't fuckin' get it." Cid grumbled, momentarily mollified.
"Don't worry about it, old man." Seifer said. "We know what we're doing."
Cid gave him a harsh, annoyed look. "Call me that again."
"Sure thing, old man." Seifer said, chin jutting out in that stubborn way of his. "You getting hard of hearing? Didn't quite catch it the first time?"
With an angry grunt, Cid set the ship on auto-pilot, tore off his seatbelt, and threw himself at Seifer angrily, the two wrestling each other to the ground like four year olds.
"Why do we put up with this?" Hayner asked Vincent, although he looked more amused than anything else.
"Because they would get themselves killed if we did not." Vincent replied dryly.
"Aw, don't say that, Vinny. It's just my good ol' country boy charm." Cid said, fluttering his eyelashes coyly.
"Never do that again." Seifer said, shuddering a bit.
Cid laughed wickedly, punching Seifer once more on the shoulder before standing up. "But I take it back. Fuck Destiny Islands—a Turk party's what we need! Crazy motherfuckers can throw a party that'll make you forget the entire fuckin' week!" He waggled his eyebrows at Vincent. "Remember that booze Reno made? That stuff'd put a kick in your tea like a son of a bitch! And I used to think only Rude's fireworks could pack that much of a punch!"
"We aren't going to a Turk party." Hayner said before Vincent could start reminiscing about the 'good old days' of the Turks—which were decidedly more scarring than any secondhand stories Cid could tell them about 'modern day' Turks like Reno and Rude.
"But military parties are so damn boring." Cid whined.
"You sound like a five year old." Vincent said. "Most unbecoming."
Cid just snorted and muttered darkly to himself.
"You don't have to stay, Cid." Hayner said. "We'll probably stay for a few days, so we can just call when we want to go home."
He turned and gave Hayner a stern look. "You think I'm just gonna go off and leave my boys alone on a day like today?" He asked irritably before turning back to the wheel. "Fuckin' crazy talk."
Hayner could see red blossoming across Seifer's face—although Hayner had grown used to such open affection thanks to his fake parents at Twilight Town, Seifer had never had the chance in either of his lives. Not that they received it altogether often, since Cid had gone back to Radiant Garden after everything had died down, while Seifer and Hayner had opted to return to Twilight Town.
Things there had changed after the Queen's death—Hayner's 'parents' had disappeared, as had Rai and Fuu, and along with them went everyone's memories of everything that had happened. So they had settled in with Seifer as the new art teacher at Twilight High (Miss Astor [or the Blue Fucking Fairy, as Seifer sometimes called her] helped them set everything up) and Hayner at Twilight Town Community College (where he had re-befriended Pence and Olette) to study to be a social worker, of all things.
"Thanks, Cid." Seifer said quietly.
"Don't need to be thanked for somethin' that's second nature." Cid sounded more annoyed than he (probably) was as he reached back and ruffled Seifer's hair none-too-gently. "Fuck's sake."
"Yeah." Seifer smiled uncertainly and straightened his beanie. Although his older, broader body made him look even more like a thug than usual when he wore it, he hadn't quite dropped the habit he'd picked up during his stint as Twilight Town Disciplinary Committee Leader. He even wore it when teaching, which drove the principal a little batty (as it had when he was a student there, even if the principal didn't remember him).
"But when this party bores you to tears, don't you dare come cryin' to me." Cid continued, quite comfortable shifting between affectionate and teasing within a span of two sentences. "Might love ya like you're kin, but I ain't your mama and I ain't wiping the nose of a grown man who don't know how to find a good party."
"We get it, Cid, keep your pants on." Hayner said. "Besides…you and I both know the party on Destiny Islands will last at least a week—possibly two, since this is the first anniversary. So once Seifer's made his peace we can go over there, and I'll buy you some of that paopu tea you like so much."
"And whiskey to go with the tea." Seifer added.
"Don't you two try to butter me up. 'M still pissed I gotta spend precious drunk-off-my-ass time on a world that wouldn't know a party if it was Cloud cross-dressing and giving 'em a blow job."
"I never want that mental picture again, Cid." Hayner groaned, burying his face in his hands.
Cid just cackled.
(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)
Seifer sighed, pulled at his collar, and wished like he had never wished for anything before that he had listened to Cid.
It wasn't so much that the party was boring (although it kind of was). He could deal with boring, and it was nice to have a chance to get reacquainted with people from his past life. At a party like the one he knew was going on at Destiny Islands, or any other world that didn't have such a hardcore military-based structure, he wouldn't but hardly have been able to hear anyone, much less get reacquainted with them.
No, his problems stemmed from two things: one, the distinct lack of Hayner, who had said something about going to the bathroom just before they arrived at the party, and who still had yet to make an appearance. Two, the fact that everyone seemed to think that he needed to be set up with any number of girls.
But no matter how many times he told the stupid fuckers that he was taken, and gayer than an LGBT Pride Parade (well, maybe not gayer…), they seemed to either think he was joking or lying or both. He blamed problem number one for that, because if Hayner was around he could 'prove it' like so many people were asking him to without having to worry about being accused of cheating on his boyfriend.
And if Cid came over singing (singing! That lucky, drunk bastard) "I told you so" one more time, Seifer was going to kill him. He would only feel a little remorse for it, too.
"Come on, there's gotta be a girl around here that strikes your fancy." Zell Dincht, who had at some point apparently been this world's version of Hayner to him (minus the sexual tension), said. "Or…were you and Fuujin…?"
"Fuu?" Seifer practically screeched, suddenly very glad that dinner hadn't been served, yet.
"I guess that's a no." Zell said, stifling a laugh. "You got a lot more expressive while you were gone, Seifer. It's no wonder the girls are falling all over you."
"I don't want any girls falling over anything to do with me." He snapped. "I'm gay, and I'm in a relationship, and I'm never gonna live on this damn world, anyway. So they can all fuck off."
"Aah, you're so cold." Zell pouted a little. "And a liar. I know for a fact that you used to date—"
"'Used to' being the key words." He cut the other man off. "I've been gone from this world for almost three years. This world has been gone for almost three years. A person changes in that amount of time. I've changed, and I've…I've found myself in a way that I never could, here."
"And when you found yourself…you found out that you like sucking cocks?" Zell asked unabashedly.
Seifer shot him a disgruntled glare, not deigning to answer.
"Well, that just means more ladies for me!" Zell decided with a shit-eating grin, then waved and walked off like he was planning to go pick up some of the aforementioned ladies (as if he had never had a chance before Seifer showed up and came out, or something).
"The Crown Prince Hayner Myrsina(2) of Granatbaum." Came an authoritative voice—the one that had been announcing peoples' arrival for the past half hour.
"I told you I'm not a crown prince, anymore, Goddammit!" Was his lover's irritated reply (in the tone of someone who had had this same argument countless times before), and he couldn't help but smile when he saw the matching expression on Hayner's face. "And my last name isn't 'Myrsina,' it's Duncan. Fuck's sake."
The announcer ignored him, staring forward stonily and waiting for someone else to come along to announce. Hayner glared for a while, then turned and scanned the room.
Seifer reached up and waved just in time to catch the attention of one of the women Zell had been trying to set him up with, who waved enthusiastically back and bumped into Hayner in her haste to get over to Seifer—followed by a small crowd of other hopefuls.
"Yes?" The girl asked sweetly.
"Um…I wasn't…" Seifer began, holding his hands up defensively.
"Oi!" Hayner shoved his way through the crowd. "Here you are!"
"I should be saying that to you!" Seifer retorted. "You get stuck in the toilet, or something, shit-for-brains?"
"Between the two of us, you're the one with a penchant for throwing himself in pots." Hayner replied easily. "And no, I didn't. I got lost. The place is like a fucking maze."
"It is not." Seifer scoffed.
"You used to live here, dumbass! Of course it isn't a maze to you!"
"Um, excuse me." The girl from before interrupted, putting a hand on her hip. "Who are you?"
"Crown Prince Hayner Myrsina of Granatbaum." Seifer intoned in a passable imitation of the announcer. "Weren't you listening?"
"Fuck off, asshole." Hayner said, elbowing him hard in he stomach, then held out a hand. "Ignore him—I'm Hayner Duncan."
She gave him a confused look. "You're…a prince?"
"A retired prince." He corrected. "Currently, I'm a college student, and this idiot's boyfriend."
It seemed, for a moment, that the entire party had frozen (except, of course, for Cid, who was laughing his ass off in some distant corner of the room).
"B-boyfriend?" Another girl repeated.
"I told you I'm gay." Seifer said defensively, seeing some of the girls' eyes tearing up.
"It's because you're so ruggedly manly." Hayner drawled in his best 'I'm a flaming Homo' voice, fluttering his eyelashes like Cid had back in the Gummi Ship. "They just can't believe it."
"I don't want to hear that from you." Seifer hissed.
"You don't seem like a couple." One of the girls whimpered desperately.
"Well excuse me for not fitting the stereotype." Hayner snorted. "You want me to wear pants that I stole from some middle school girl and go around calling him 'pookie' or some shit? He's already a friggin' artist—that's about as outwardly gay as we get besides the whole we-only-fuck-men thing."
"The whole we-only-fuck-each-other thing." Seifer corrected. A fag hag hidden somewhere in the crowd squealed.
Hayner, on the other hand, ignored him. "It's not like there aren't a hundred other guys here who wouldn't take up with you in a second, if your eggs are dropping so damn fast. Sheesh."
"I'm glad you abdicated. You would be a terrible prince." Seifer said.
"No one asked for your opinion, jackass." Hayner turned on him.
"I don't need to be asked, chickenwuss." Seifer sneered back at him.
The girls watched the two continue to squabble back and forth, trying to decide if they seemed more like an old married couple or two rivals about to tear each other's throats out.
"So you really are gay." Zell suddenly appeared again—girl-less, which may or may not have explained why. There was something in his voice that made it hard to tell whether what he had said was a statement or a question.
Seifer, who had been about two seconds away from decking the love of his life, turned to face his former rival (?), a dry expression on his face. "Dincht…remember that time you got a hot dog lodged in your throat and Leonhart had to save you? And I said it was hard to believe you were having a difficult time eating wieners, because you should have had enough practice by then to be used to it?"
Zell nodded slowly even as he flushed at the odd looks people in the crowd were giving him (a few even took a few steps back).
"Gayer than that."
"Ah." Zell stared for a moment, then turned to give Hayner a rather scrutinizing look. "And this guy is your…"
"Boyfriend?" Hayner offered. "Lover? Fuck buddy? Boss?"
"Chickenwuss." Seifer said firmly, snagging Hayner around the waist and reeling him in. "He's my chickenwuss."
"I hate you, and I hope you die." Hayner hissed.
"You said 'boss.' I take issue with that." Seifer replied under his breath.
"You resemble that remark?" Hayner smirked.
"'Resent.' The word is 'resent.'" Seifer said.
"Resemble." He practically sang.
"Shut up." Seifer mirrored his tone through gritted teeth.
Zell interrupted again, this time by laughing. "Well," He snickered, "it sounds like he's good for you."
Seifer snorted. "He's sure as hell not good for my sanity."
"Good for your ego." Hayner actually giggled.
Zell just laughed harder, giving Hayner an approving grin (like they needed his approval, the lamer). "Watch over him for us, will you? He's liable to get himself killed if you leave him alone for even a second."
"Too late." Hayner muttered, yelping when Seifer pinched his hip and pulling away from him angrily. "Ow! That hurt, asshole!"
Seifer rolled his eyes and grabbed Hayner's hands. "C'mon, lamer. Let's get out of here."
What remained of the quickly dispersing crowd watched as Hayner gave his boyfriend a rather ambiguous look, then smiled and nodded, allowing himself to be led to one of the side doors and outside.
Zell crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. "Well, looks like that idiot finally found what he was looking for." He mused to himself, then sniffed the air. "Ooh, I smell hotdogs!"
(PAGEBREAK,Y'KNOW?)
"You've got her eyes." Hayner said, on his knees in front of a grave and looking at the picture sitting in front of it. The woman in the picture was beautiful, but small and fragile looking, her stomach swollen with child (Seifer). One of her hands was on her stomach, obviously caught in the moment of caressing the little life growing within, and her other was held by a man Hayner could hardly believe was the same one he'd met a year earlier. Seifer's father looked like the hero he'd claimed he was, but more than that he looked happy—like a man who would be a wonderful father, and who must have been a wonderful husband if the loving expression on the woman's face was anything to go by.
Seifer was quiet, but his hand snaked out and grabbed Hayner's. Hayner looked up at him, his heart breaking a little, and leaned into the other man's shoulder, putting his other hand on top of their clasped ones.
"If you wanna cry, you can."
Seifer's shoulder shook once under Hayner's cheek, and then a strangled sound escaped from his mouth. Hayner pulled away long enough to wrap his arms around him, tucking Seifer's face into his shoulder.
"Why couldn't he have been like that for me?" Seifer choked out, words muffled. "Why…why did he have to be like he was? What did I do wrong?"
"You didn't do anything." Hayner whispered. "Seifer, you didn't do anything."
"Just once…just once, I…I wanted him to say he loved me."
"I love you." Hayner insisted. By this point, he was crying, too. He put his hands on the sides of Seifer's face and forced him to look up, kissing his forehead. "And Rai and Fuu loved you, and Cid loves you, and Sora loves you…you've got a million people who love you."
Seifer just cried harder, hands reaching up shakily to grasp onto Hayner's shirt.
"Your mom loved you, too, Seifer." He rasped out. "She loved you so much that she gave up her life so you could be here. You're the best thing she ever did, and she thought so, too. Maybe your idiot of a father never understood, but…you were worth dying for, for her. You're the most perfect, amazing thing she and that jerk ever did, you hear me?"
Seifer nodded, but for along time after that the only thing either of them could do was cry.
Berk(3) D. Almasy
1960-2008
Saved Balamb Garden from Galbadian infiltration in 1986.
Father of Seifer Almasy.
Sonya L. Almasy
1962-1988
Loving wife,
Amazing friend,
Courageous woman.
She wanted more than anything to see her son grow up.
The End.
(1) Granatbaum is a German word for 'pomegranate tree.' There's an Armenian version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves where Snow White's name is 'Nourie Hadig,' which in Armenian means 'a tiny bit of pomegranate.' Also, this is a vague reference back to Persephone, who somehow or other seems to have become Seifer's patron goddess. XD
(2) Myrsina is yet another version of the Snow White fairy tale—this time, Greek.
(3) Berk is a name meaning 'birch clearing' or 'firm, solid.' Birch trees (to the Celts, at least) symbolize growth, renewal, stability, initiation, and adaptability. I thought it was a rather ironic name for him. (Also, it rhymes with 'jerk.') And, wow, the jackass finally got a name! WHAT? XDDD No, I don't know what their middle names are…but at least I tried?
A/N: Nearly a year after it's over, I pop out a follow-up story. GO FIGURE, RIGHT? RIGHT?
Lol, but seriously…the first part popped into my head in, like…I dunno, December or something, and the rest has been slowly but surely working itself out. I'm not sure if I like it, but I suppose it's alright. I might try to write a few more of these…but, eh, we'll see what happens. I love this verse! X333
Hopefully you guys enjoyed it!
Loves of love!
-EtheG