It was no friendly disagreement, no civil disobedience... it was a war. Full on, macabre and horrific war. On everyone's homeland no less. They called it the Time War...everyone pitted together to wage war against a woman named Edea(ironically, the headmasters wife) and a million sorceresses, ranking differently, but all extremely powerful. And caught in the best of it were the nurses in the Infirmary. I was one of them. White hat that looked really silly, shorter than should be allowed dresses, and the seeD badge on the back. We had a little patch on the front with everyone else's crest, and no matter who we'd love to tell to suck it up like a man, we had to help everyone and anyone. We had just taken in six men from Esthar and two from Galbadia when one of our own came in. I recognized him from around school and knew he was a loner for the most part...and when he was initiated into seeD there was quite the ceremony...but I was in Timber at the time, and never got to witness it myself.
It was two years later that I transferred to Garden. The war was on the brink of starting then and Headmaster Cid was doing everything to try and prevent it. His attempts failed and six months later we went to war. Everybody against everybody else...it was a neutral battle for a while. Something like a children's game. A few name callings and badmouthings, there were some small tussles, but nothing major. Not until the Iron glove came smacking down on the rest of humanity and the Nurses station got eighteen men missing body parts in one day. Sixteen of them were from Garden. The man who transported them here was Squall, and nobody would have ever guessed that he would wind up a convalescent himself until two weeks ago when an air raid took everybody off guard and twenty six of our men were wounded, seven of them dead on arrival.
He was torn up pretty bad...An existing scar going diagonally between his eyes was torn open again...three ribs broken and fractures to the other nine. His left leg was broken in three places and he had a wonderfully chaotic amount of shrapnel lodged in his back. Luckily, his vitals were fine and the broken ribs didn't puncture his lungs. We put him in with the others who needed more rest than attention and left him to heal up on his own. Everyone else said that's what he would want anyways. But there was something about him that made me want to help. So I'd be the one to check his vitals and I'd be the one to change his bandages and what not. Squall became my charge. Selphie-a girl from Trabia was in here all the time, checking on her husband, who was caught in a pretty bad scuffle a few weeks back- said that I was treating him like a puppy...the other nurses agreed and I was forced to lay back a bit. But there was still something inside telling me that he shouldn't be alone. Maybe it was my sympathy for the fact that he's been alone to long and maybe needed a friend...or at least someone to talk to. It wasn't right to be alone all the time.
Two months passed and I was one of the eight nurses stuck here over Christmas. Everyone else went home...it even seemed that the fighting eased up a bit. The Infirmary was still packed and we still got a good seven or eight men and women every day, but we did the best we could. Word had reached Garden that troops were getting closer to Edea's base, and they had found out that the war was actually being waged by a woman named Adel, who was controlling Edea through sorcery. The headmaster said the only way to get any closer to ending this war was to kill Edea. Squall-who had found a extreme disliking to the man next to him and came to rely on me for conversation some nights-wanted nothing more than to get out and back on the field. But it would be a while before he was going anywhere. His health was beginning to fail him, we think it was the stress put on him from being so banged up. There wasn't much to do otherwise, so out of sheer boredom, I began to decorate the Infirmary festively as I could with what recourses I could find. One day, as I was stringing up some Gauze tape snowflakes, I heard a sort of pathetic attempt at a laugh escape Squalls mouth.
"What??' I asked, turning around accusingly. He shrugged and sat up a little straighter.
"Its crooked..." he noted, nodding to my makeshift garland. I rolled my eyes and scoffed, turning around to adjust it quickly.
"Better?" I asked, turning back around to him, waiting for a nod of approval. It never came but he sighed and put his head in his hand. I figured that was a 'good enough' sign and continued on my way, humming lightly as I went along.
"What is it your doing, exactly?" he asked, his voice strangely closer than it was before. Turning around, I noticed he had gotten up and was standing a few feet in front of me, the wall providing a place to lean on.
"You shouldn't be up, you know. You can mess up your leg again...and anyways. I'm just trying to make the place look a little less depressing than it is. And besides, Zell seems to agree quite nicely." I said, nodding over to the aforementioned annoyance next to Squall, who was stone asleep, mumbling something about hot dogs. I blame the pain medications for that one. Squall scoffed mirthfully and nodded.
"Oh yeah. He's REALLY into it. The enthusiasm is just pouring out of the guy..." he sighed, dripping with sarcasm. I rolled my eyes.
"Humor me, hmm? I"m not used to spending the holidays with a bunch of moaning sick people..." I whined, stringing up another bit of the garland.
"Wow. Affection is a foreign language to you, I see. Good to know you think so highly of us 'moaning sick people'..." he sighed, turning around and heading back to his bunk.
"Oh, come on Squall. I was kidding. Maybe I'm just trying to make the place more festive for all you people. Its so depressing in here. Nobody should be this sad on Christmas." I sighed. I think he may have laughed. Or coughed...or maybe both. Another confusing sigh escaped his lips and I found myself smiling...for what, I wasn't really sure.
"Its crooked. Still" He sighed, standing up again and reaching over my head, he pulled the shoddy decorations off and fixed them.
"Um...thanks..." I mumbled as I contemplated why on earth my stomach just dropped about a thousand feet and my face caught fire. Squall nodded in approval and began shuffling- or rather moping (which is what he normally did) around the Infirmary, fixing things here and there. I think he was just trying to keep busy. Things were quiet for a few minutes, but then surprisingly, he spoke up.
"So, If your not used to spending Christmas with us sickies, what ARE you used to?" he sighed, walking back to me, his insanely blue eyes piercing me...I decided that I hate this man. I shrugged and stepped back a bit.
"Nothing. Actually. My mother died when I was younger and my dads a military man. I don't speak to him. I usually just hang around with friends in Timber, but I haven't done that for a few years." I rambled. He nodded and stared at the wall.
"So you go to Galbadia, get hammered and stumble back into your dorm singing Christmas carols at three in the morning because otherwise you'd spend Christmas alone and sad." he summarized. My eyebrow raised and I crossed my arms.
"Nooo... I don't...come home at three...How on earth did you guess that??" I whined. He scoffed again.
"You forget that you and I go to the same school. And you are not the best at sneaking back into campus after curfew. Especially when you are so...SO unbelievably wasted." he mocked, making my face turn red...again.
"Oh, and I suppose your Christmases are any better than mine?" Squall shook his head honestly and sat down.
"Nope. Worse actually. At least you DID something when you were younger. My mother died when I was a kid and I never knew my father. I was put in an orphanage and we never did anything cause the place was poor. Even when I joined Garden, never did anything. Never mattered to me anyhow." he sighed. My mouth was hanging open and I had just realized I was sitting down.
"That's REALLY depressing. You NEVER celebrated Christmas??!" I gawked. He looked at me incredulously and sighed.
"Were you not listening? No. I never celebrated Christmas. Not a big deal" he sighed.
"It is too!" I complained. "Its decided then." I said, very decidedly. "I'm going to give you the best Christmas EVER. Even if it kills me..." I said, standing up and staring at him. The truth was, I had grown strangely fond of Squall...more than fond of him, but it will never get past tolerance with him, so I cant do anything about that.
"But FIRST...I have to check your breaks, see if they're in good enough shape to cast on..." I sighed, walking over to where he sat and moved the bandage off his leg.
"Stand up and walk." I ordered, helping him up and standing behind him incase he fell. He walked with a limp and winced when he stepped down the first time, but other than that, he was fine.
"Okay. Sit down. You're well enough to cast on it. This may pinch, but other than that..." I muttered, sitting down and fixing his leg quickly. His ribs had healed all on their own, so I didn't have to worry that, but his arm needed another week or so.
"You never mentioned you could do that..." he said, in a somewhat condescending tone. I shrugged.
"No sense in telling you if I wasn't able to. Your leg was crushed, if I tried to cure it straight away, there was a high chance that you'd wind up losing that leg." I said, returning to nurse mode momentarily as I handed him a bag with his normal clothes in it and began to head out of the room.
"Get changed, no sense in staying in smelly hospital gowns if your legs fine." I said, coldly I seemed, but unintentional.
The rest of that week could only be described as a blur and the only thing I can really state clear of conscious is that somewhere in that week of annoyances and a very angry Squall, I fell down a hole called love and cant find footholds to climb out of it. However, I think something changed with Squall too. He seemed to tolerate my rambling a might more than normal and I think I might have caught him grinning once or twice, a rarity indeed. Christmas eve came around and I was sitting at my desk, quite caught up in paperwork and discharging patients and whatnot. It wasn't pleasant...but it was something that had to be done. What happened next could only be described as your textbook definition of Amazing. It was about midnight I think and the snow had let up substantially along with the insane noises coming from the battlefield. I sighed and stared out the window, watching the enormous flakes of snow float silently down to the ground as the flashing lights in the sky grew more distant. There was shuffling from Zell's bunk as he finished up his tenth round of solitaire and the distinct fizz of a freshly opened beer. I rolled my eyes and spun around in my chair.
"Zell, don't you think you've had enough beer?" I asked, staring at the near seven cans of beer laying askew on the surrounding floor. Zell shook his head protestant and sighed.
"Nho... I'll tell joo when mes had enorrgh. Not yet..." he sighed, flopping back in his bed and turning on his side, cards scattering everywhere. Squall stared at him in disbelief as he came into the room. Squall was discharged two days ago, but was put back in the next day due to shrapnel to the back of his head.
"I really hate snow." he sighed as he shook the white flakes off his coat and rubbed the back of his bandaged head.
"I'm sure it hates you too." I said, handing him a cup of painkillers.
"Drunk again?" Squall asked, nodding over to Zell as he sat down in my chair and spun back and forth aimlessly. I nodded.
"I wish I knew how he keeps getting that stuff..." I muttered as I grabbed the folder off my desk and shoved it into a pile of about a million others. When I turned around, Squall was on the far end of the room, digging through the fridge and there was a small paper bag on my chair.
"What's this?" I asked, snatching up the bag and opening it a little. With a mouth full of cake, Squall poked the bag with his fork and shrugged.
"Its for you. I figured you'd like it cause its Christmassy and all...plus...Dr. Kadowaki gave it to me. Didn't want it...so its yours." he sighed, flopping down on the bed and opened a can of soda. Inside the bag was a little fake Christmas tree that plugged in and lit up. I smiled.
" Thanks!! Its great." I said. The next part was sheer and unadulterated impulse. I got up from my chair and kissed his cheek. Then my stomach gave out and I had a huge feeling that he was going to rip my head off. The thing is though...he didn't. Instead,he looked me straight in the eyes,and he smiled. Right before kissing me.
Ootay. That's the second one. Sorry they've been slow coming. I've been surprisingly busy. But at least I could get this one up before Christmas...It took me a while to figure out how I wanted to work this one, but I think I got it down good. I hope you like it! I want to thank everyone for sticking with all my nonsense stories and all your amazing reviews. I hope you all have a GREAT Christmas and get a whooollleee lotta fancy doohickies and what...MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Kirra