Author's Note: Sure, I'm juggling way too many projects here. One I'm trying to finish as an experiment in parody. One I'm writing for myself. And this one. I got tired of explaining Seifer returning, but had another inspiration for a story with him and Quistis. It takes place well after the game, things are normal with the orphanage gang, and that's all I'm going to say on the matter. I've been asked for it. It's for you. Enjoy.

Rating for language and potentially other things…

Also, I don't own anything related to the game, nor do I profit from this.

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Theirs was a friendship that was borne and would survive because of the unique qualities each had, some of which were only present for the other to see or feel. He stood just a little bit taller for her; she wore her hair down for him, releasing tightly reined fragrance and control. He tossed people into fountains who loitered around her classroom discussing her "assets"; she perpetuated rumors that he really did eat junior cadets for breakfast. He had just the right hard words to lift her when she was down; she was the only one who could bring him back to earth. He saved his meager offerings of odd sweetness for her and she showed only him her passions.

Perhaps most importantly of all, their friendship survived and even thrived these past several years because each was virtually the only member of the opposite sex to not make an effort to try to take off the other's pants. They were, willfully or not, completely ignorant of each other's peerless beauty.

They also never, ever, asked the other for help, with anything, ever.

Until one day...

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"Seifer! Seifer, open the door!" Thunder punctuated each of her heavy knocks on his door. The man being summoned set down the paper he was reading and grumbled his way to the door. He punched open the metal slab and turned back to sit in his chair, not a glance or word to his visitor.

Quistis walked in and threw herself on the couch with restive sigh, implicitly begging to be asked what was the matter. She pulled off her shoes and anklet socks, stealing a glance at Seifer, who seemed absorbed in an article about the ways in which the livestock futures markets were set to skyrocket as newer farms were being terraformed and subsidised in Centra. Truthfully, he was tuned in and curious about his visitor's apparent plight, but wasn't about to acknowledge her theatrics.

She scooted down the couch and shoved her foot unceremoniously under his nose.

He threw the paper down and sat up. "Good lord, woman! Buy some new shoes or scrub your feet or something!"

"Oh, don't be such a baby. I only trained two hours today. They can't be that bad. Girls don't stink like guys do."

Seifer made a show of waving his hands in front of his nose and rolled his eyes. "No. They stink differently, but they still stink."

She raised a perfect eyebrow. "If it bothers you so much, do something about it." If she was being perfectly honest, and she wasn't; she didn't have to be for him to see what she wanted, she was tired and a little sore and hoped she could get a rub while she vented her problems to him. He was a good listener when you got down to it. He never interrupted and always had sage words of advice (though she didn't always want to hear them and many were unprintable).

"If it'll improve the smell and get you to spill about whatever the fuck has your panties in a twist so you can get out of here and I can sleep..." He threw up his hands in defeat and ducked into the bathroom to fetch a basin and fill it with soap and sitz and hot water. She offered him a sly smile as he reentered the living room and sat down the basin.

"Wait, this isn't the one you use for your own grubby feet -"

"- I really don't think the person who managed to get her feet to smell like propagator breath should be so picky," he snapped. Kneeling on the floor, he roughly pulled her legs down and slid her pantlegs up with calloused hands, then lifted her feet into the warm soapy water.

Quistis tensed immediately at the contact of the water, but soon relaxed, melting into the couch with Seifer's practiced ministrations drawing the tension out of her body. A feathery sigh escaped her lips and she closed her eyes. She felt truly blessed that she could turn to such a friend, especially after the sordid past they shared just a few years ago. That blessed feeling didn't change that fact that she feared bringing up the topic she was about to with him.

"I'm going on a mission soon."

He grunted. "Yeah? Well, you've been itching to go on one, right? What's the problem?"

She looked away. "I need your help."

Those jaded eyes made their way to her turned face, narrowed. "You never need my help."

"Well, now I do."

"I didn't get called to go on it, so I can't go with you." His fingers were pushing with bruising force into the soles of her feet. She was no normal woman and it didn't really hurt her. He knew she liked it.

"I didn't ask you to."

"Then what do you want?" He hated it when people beat around the bush and he didn't expect it from her.

She looked at him then, watching as he scrubbed gently between her toes and ran a squeezing hand along her shin and calf. "I need you to teach me something."

He laughed, sending some water on the floor as he clutched his chest. "What could I possibly teach you, instructor?"

"You're an instructor too."

Seifer chuckled. "Yeah. I teach classes on 'How to Slice Things into Two or More Pieces in Three or Fewer Steps.' Something tells me that's not what you want to learn. Why don't you ask your instructor boyfriend?"

"He can't know about this mission."

Seifer raised an eyebrow. "Why not?"

"He wouldn't want me to go on it." She shrugged.

"He is aware that you, you know, helped save the universe as we know it, right? Are you aware? What the fuck is this mission?" Seifer pulled her feet out of the cooling water and toweled her off before dumping the basin in the bathtub.

"Better?" He asked from the bathroom.

"Mm-hmm. What was in that stuff, lavender?"

"Yes. I like lavender. You barge in here often enough, I figure the least you could do is smell like something I like." He sat on the couch end opposite her and she laid her feet in his lap, but not before presenting them for inspection. Seifer sniffed experimentally. "It's an improvement." He rested his hands on her legs in a way that seemed to neither exhibit nor invite intimacy in the two friends.

After drawing in a big breath and staring straight ahead, Quistis finally shared the mission details. "There's a potential big time benefactor for Garden who wants to meet with a SeeD to determine if, or how much, he should donate to our cause. I need to try to get him to politically back us and open his checkbook to write many, many zeros in it."

"…And?"

"And he really has a closet thing for pretty blondes."

He shrugged. "Sounds like a slam dunk then. What's the issue?"

"Seifer, he's not a pushover. I'm going to have to seduce him."

"I'm still not seeing the problem here." Sometimes he just didn't seem to have any empathy.

She ticked off the problems on her fingers. "One. I'm seeing someone. We're talking about infidelity. Two. For being an elite paramilitary woman who's seen and done things few people could dream of, I'm almost painfully boring. Three. I have no idea how to seduce anyone. Four. I can't have sex with this guy!"

He lifted his hands and countered her arguments on respective fingers. "A. It's your job. It doesn't mean anything. SeeDs do it all the time. B. You're not boring, you're reserved. Loosen up and share. I dunno, have some drinks. C. Are you fucking kidding me? Every warm-blooded straight man with a dick in Garden has lusted after you."

Quistis shook her head. "You exaggerate. Not every guy has come onto me."

"Squall doesn't count."

Her lips pursed into a thin white line.

He continued, undaunted. "D. It's the promise of sex that opens the checkbook, not the act itself."

"You see? This is why I need you." She sat up, and sent a pleading look into his eyes. The thunder rumbled quietly through the thick walls and the patter of rain filtered through the slit of the window.

He shoved her legs off him and stood up, pacing around the room. "Fuck no! Ask Kinneas. He doesn't seem to have any trouble getting the ladies."

"That's just it, though. He works to get the ladies, not the other way around. You and I both know I've never worked for any of the attention I receive from the opposite sex and neither do you. You've landed every pretty worthwhile girl in Garden and you made them work for it. I need to know what gets you to cave."

He glared at her as though she had an ulterior motive. "Now you're exaggerating. Ask your boyfriend how you caught him."

"Damn it, Seifer! I didn't catch him and you know it. I gave in to him."

"And this guy won't be one to chase you, huh?" She shook her head. "Fuck. I won't help you. You'll have to do this on your own."

Sitting up now, she bowed her head and held it in her hands. Her voice was muffled and damp. It made him stop his pacing. "Every time I try to open up to or pursue the man I want it ends in disaster. Whom are you trying to kid? I couldn't win anyone's affection. Not when it really matters to me…"

Lightening flashed into the room, this storm having a flair for the dramatic.

Quietly she padded behind him and put her hands on his tense shoulders. He jumped. Golden hair was spilled over her eyes so he couldn't have seen the tears falling, but he knew he could hear them without even turning around. His sigh seemed to expand the room and the breath that took its place seemed to make him fill it.

Seifer delighted in making her more human, kindling emotion and passion, and making her react and think in ways she never felt comfortable doing. But he hated to make her cry.

He didn't want her to owe him anything. That was how friendships changed. That was how they were destroyed.

She sniffled once behind him and took in a ragged breath to talk. "Seifer. I need you. Garden needs the money and the political backing of this guy. I need you to grant me this favor. You're the only one who can."

Seifer quietly shook his head. He was going to regret this.

"Okay. That was a good start. Asking for favors is always a good way to come into someone's graces. Makes them feel important and special, gives them a connection to you."

She smiled at him, her wide blue eyes twinkling. Her arms wended around him and squeezed him tightly to her. She wiped her eyes on the broad expanse of his shirt back. He was always there for her.

Seifer patted her hands. "Woah there, you vixen! You're moving way too fast! I'll never give you my money now: I'd get arrested for soliciting a prosti-"

She hit him. He laughed.

Then so did she.