Call It Magic : Written by bloodcrie.

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII! (Well duh! :P xD) but just sayin'...

This story was written for Quistis.

My favourite Final Fantasy VIII heroine, whom I think deserves more love than she gets. In a way, this is my gift to her; my wish for her is unconditional love.

And so, Here goes….


Chapter One.

If you wanted to know what 'the others' are doing with their lives these days, I suppose I might recommend you look to those awful celebrity magazines that come out weekly. For 2 Gil, you can purchase a very insightful look into the lives of Squall Leonhart and Rinoa Heartilly; complete with a spread of candid photos compliments of the paparazzi.

In last week's issue of "The Balamb Reporter", Squall was photographed dressed all in black and donning thick black shades, as if trying to disguise himself, as he window shopped in a very expensive jewellery store downtown in Dollet. The headline for these photos being: "Commander set to marry the sorceress!"

But this story is about me.

Quistis Trepe. Ex-instructor.

So despite the rubbish those silly magazines put out there, I happen to know that Squall was actually shopping for a new pair of earrings which I received yesterday as a birthday present. Poor Rinoa had wanted to be the one to take care of the task, but had succumbed to a nasty flu, so she demanded that Squall be a gentleman, and ensure that I got something nice for my birthday.

But something that would turn into the greatest gift I could ever imagine came that day and it was completely unforeseen. I still can't fathom the workings of fate, but it was my 23rd birthday...

And that's where my story begins…


"Happy birthday Quisty!" Selphie burst into my dorm room, carrying a pink gift bag decorated with moogles. She thrust it quickly into my arms and without waiting even one moment for me to gather my very senses, she shrieked at me: "open it! Open it! It's from Irvy and me!"

With my free hand I rubbed my eyes before retrieving my glasses from the nightstand beside my bed. The alarm clock read 7.00 am, and usually I'd still be sleeping, if it weren't for the loud intrusion that arrived at my door five minutes ago.

I mumbled a sigh before I began looking through the contents of the gift bag.

What I found inside took me by complete surprise. I had expected another one of those 'Selphie gifts' like a pair of chocobo slippers, or a brightly colored stationary kit instead I pulled out a long Champaign coloured chiffon dress.

I looked at the flowing evening gown and ran my fingers over the beautiful silken fabric and smiled. "It's…its beautiful Selphie. Thank you very much." And it really was beautiful, I pondered for the moment where I might ever have the opportunity to wear something so fine-looking. Perhaps it would have to wait in my closet until the next SeeD graduation ball, or…

"I suppose you are wondering where you could ever wear such a super-dooper-mega-awesome-sexy-stunning-selphie-picked-it-extravaganza, aren't youuuu!?" Selphie sing-songed as though she had read my thoughts.

I raised an eyebrow in response as I looked at my bubbly friend.

"Well, the next instalment of your birthday gifts will shed some much needed light on the matter, but it's in Zell's hands, I'm sure he'll come find you later" she smiled cheekily, toying with the bouncy curls at the ends of her hair.

I sighed inwardly, wondering what the hell they had planned, before sauntering over to my kitchen and putting the kettle on.

"Selphie, I hope you guys haven't planned anything too extreme…" I began.

"Quisty, don't be such a stick in the mud! You can be so grumpy in the mornings!" she chided at me.

"I'm sorry, I get like that in the early hours of the morning before I've been properly caffeinated" I said forcing a smile. I honestly didn't want to be 'that Quistis'. The Quistis that always stops other people's fun for whatever reason. In this case I was stopping my own fun, without even knowing what it was.

I sipped my coffee and looked at my friend, "Thank you again, Selphie. I love the dress, and I'm sure whatever you and the rest of the gang have planned for me will be lovely as well."

Selphie grinned before rushing over and embracing me in an almost-painful bear hug.

"I just know you will Quisty! Happy birthday again! I gotta go now! I'm going with some of the cadets on a field exam, seeya later"

and she disappeared from my dorm in a similar fashion to the one she came in on.


8.30am sees me contemplating my existence over scrambled eggs and toast and another coffee. The cafeteria was always full of much hustle and bustle at this time. Students choking down breakfast and coffee before attending morning classes. Once upon a time, I would have been instructing one of those classes, before I was stripped of my instructor title. But since the end of the sorceress war, I'm seen wandering aimlessly around Garden. Or I'm seen reading old literature in the library. And that's what my days consist of. I suppose one might say, I've become quite useless in fact.

When I glance up from my breakfast I notice Zell approaching my table cautiously with a large metallic envelope in his hands. And that alone makes me nervous.

"…Quistis" he swallows, before sliding the envelope to me from across the table.

"Um happy birthday!" he smiles, scratching the back of his spiky blonde head.

"Why are you being so edgy?" I ask, fearing the contents of the pretty envelope now resting in front of me.

He plops down on the chair across from me and sighs. "Okay, I'm just gonna tell you. Selphie put me in charge of booking this really fancy place for your birthday. I got side-tracked with this and that, and by the time I got around to actually doing it, the dates were all booked out. So…"

I decided to just bite the bullet and open the damn envelope. Inside I found a voucher for the Galbadia hotel, an all-expenses paid for stay at the hotel and an invitation to an intimate performance and cocktail hour being held at the hotel. In 2 weeks from today.

Well now the fancy dress I'd been given made sense.

I looked at Zell and smiled. "It's perfect Zell, I'm sure it will be a wonderful night."

"Yeah…but it was supposed to be for today…for your birthday, I'm really sorry Quistis. Selphie is gonna kill me."

I stopped for a moment in marvel at just how wonderful my friends actually are. I certainly hadn't expected to be so spoiled for just another birthday. And so much thought had been put into the gifts, I felt nothing but gratitude. I smiled humbly at the kindness.

"Thank you for everything Zell and I promise I won't let Selphie kill you. I Promise."

Zell let out a sigh of relief and patted me on my shoulder. "I'm gonna go line up for one of those 'breakfast special hotdogs' now. Oh and Squall said he wants to see you in his office. He has the last part of your present. Happy birthday again!" he smiled before joining the line of students.


I take the elevator up to see commander Leonhart.

His office is cold, and he sits at the far end behind a heavy wooden desk, occupied by the mountain of paperwork in front of him, he doesn't acknowledge my existence until I make myself known by giving a small awkward cough.

"Quistis" he says looking up at me, his frown easing.

"Hi Squall. Is Rinoa feeling any better?" I ask. He slumps his shoulders a little and leans back into his chair.

"She was running a fever last night, but she's resting now…hopefully the worst of it is over."

"I'd like to see her, when would be a good time to visit?" I ask him.

"Well…Maybe tomorrow, the last thing I would want is for you to catch whatever she's got…with it being your birthday and all…" I know this is his way of saying happy birthday, without actually saying it. Sometimes he still gets a little awkward. That's just Squall though.

"Quistis, I might as well get right to point" he said, pulling open one of his desk drawers and retrieving a pretty little box.

"I hope you'll find these to be satisfactory. It was a living nightmare purchasing the damn things" he sighed sliding the box over to me.

"A living nightmare?" I wondered aloud.

"Yes" he answered curtly. "I tried to disguise myself as best I could, but those damn paparazzi seem to be waiting around every corner. They're just lucky I didn't have my gun blade with me…"

"…Happy birthday Quistis" he said, and I knew this wasn't easy for him. But it was a true joy to see just how far he had come over the course of the journey. From a sullen teenager who couldn't stand the company of other people, to a highly regarded man who valued his friends and was learning to open up more as the days went by.

I smiled opening the box to reveal a pair of crystal drop earrings, the many facets of which sparkled with a bright aura against the intricate gold of the hooks. They were beautiful, I stood in awe for a moment.

"They were made in Shumi Village; the crystals were crafted into earrings by the artisan. I remembered you enjoyed visiting the village in our travels, so I thought… Well I don't know. I hope you like them, Quistis."

"Squall, they're wonderful. Thank you for being such a dear, thoughtful friend."


On the elevator ride back down to the dorms, I smiled to myself, feeling utterly grateful for how completely spoiled I had been.

I returned to my dorm and stowed my shiny new gift into my dresser before tying my hair into a messy makeshift bun, and throwing on some sweatpants and a casual SeeD t-shirt. Retrieving my trusty whip, I decided to head down to the training centre and do something the least bit productive on my birthday.

This was the only time of day I would spend some time in Garden's training facility. All of the students were busy attending their morning classes, so the forest-like environment was mine to enjoy alone.

I took some deep breaths to centre myself, rolling my shoulders and stretching my muscles.

It wasn't long before Grat after Grat began to leap forward from the shadows, I kept an even pace slaying the monsters, until the sweat started to drip from my brow, and my T-shirt stuck against my skin. Just when I thought I had almost cleared the entirety of the training centre, a final beast dived at me, lashing my wrist with one of its gruelling tentacles. "Shit!" I cursed, glancing down at the blood seeping down my arm. I hastily cast Firaga and finished the monster.

My heart was beating wildly as I paced over to the nearby running stream of water, and plunged the source of my agony into the crystal clear waters. I winced a little as I watched the crimson swirl out of my wound and disappear floating away on the current. Oh this is just great I thought to myself, I was out of cure spells, and was certainly didn't want the lecture I would receive from if I went down to the infirmary.

After a few moments of consideration, I decided to head back to my dorm; the bleeding had slowed enough for me to walk back to my room without leaving a blood trail throughout the halls of Garden.

I paced quickly, eager to get into a hot shower and get this wound properly bandaged up.

The small white envelope that someone had slipped underneath my door would have gone unnoticed had I not slipped over when I stepped onto the damn thing.

"Ouch!" I yelped as my butt hit the cold tiled floor.

Sprawled out on the floor, I grabbed the envelope and ripped it open, assuming it would be a birthday card, but instead finding a hand written letter. That's interesting… I thought getting to my feet and wandering over to my bed to sit down, suddenly forgetting all about my bleeding arm and now sore ass. I salvaged my reading glasses from the night stand and shoved them onto my face and began reading the horribly messy hand writing...


Hey Quistis.

I'm willing to guess you never would have thought in a billion years that I would EVER be writing you a letter. Truthfully, I never would have guessed it myself. I'm not really the 'letter writing' type. Heck, I don't think I ever even used a pen for anything other than ticking the boxes of multiple choice exams, or drawing genitals all over my text books, back when you were instructor. Good times huh? Well unless that insight into the past didn't give my identity away, It's Seifer here…


before reading another word, I threw the letter on the floor and covered my mouth with my hand in shock.

Seifer Almasy. Over the years, that name had become foreign to me and the man attached to it was nothing more than a distant memory.

But how could I ever really forget? He was one of us. He was a blatant asshole at times, but damnit, he was one of us. A member of this Garden, a SeeD. A Gunblade specialist whose skills could only be rivalled by Squall. But even more than that, we had all grown up together in the same orphanage.

And then witness him become a traitor to us all and fight against us beside the sorceress.

But I couldn't make sense of this. Why now? After all these years, would he be writing me a letter?

I decided to ignore the remaining contents of the letter for the time being. I needed to get myself cleaned up for Hyne's sake. I stripped off, leaving a trail of clothing behind me and stepped into an almost boiling hot shower. I stayed in there for a good half hour, just letting the heat soothe the muscles that ached from my earlier stint in the training centre.

Seifer…

His face flashed in my mind, that arrogant smirk…those self-assured, piercing green eyes. Perhaps I remembered him better than I thought.


I got out of the shower and dried off quickly and bandaged my arm before dressing into a cream knit sweater and some comfortable jeans. There was no way I was going to sit around in my dorm twiddling my thumbs. No. I had to put myself to work, and making some homemade soup for Rinoa seemed like just the thing.

I began dicing the chicken, chopping the onion, and bringing the broth to a slow simmer. Finally I could put to good use those dried herbs I bought on my mission in Winhill a few weeks back. And it wasn't long before a wonderful aroma began wafting all through my apartment.

I put my phone on loud speaker, so I could continue to cook whilst talking and dialled Rinoa's number.

"H- Hello?" said a very, groggy, congested sounding Rinoa.

"Oh hyne Rinoa, you sound awful" I cooed in sympathy.

'Quisty, happy birthday, I'm so sorry I couldn't see you"

"Oh don't be silly, I can't thank you and Squall enough for those beautiful earrings. Thank you for assigning him the mission…the poor man went through hell in a hand basket to get them!" I laughed, recalling his facial expression earlier this morning as he spoke about the paparazzi.

"Quistis, it was bad. I had to hide his Gunblade underneath every pair of shoes I own to stop him from going after them. His mood was horrendous after the whole escapade."

I laughed again. "And to think he went in a disguise of sorts! Haha! Oh he must have been a sight for sore eyes, imagine the pictures in next week's magazines!"

"Hyne help us all. I'll bet if anyone cracks a joke, he'll cut their salary for a month and send them to the Island Closest to Hell with the disciplinary committee for vacation!" she dead-panned.

"Rinoa, I got a letter from Seifer today" I blurted out whilst stirring the soup.

"What…no way" she said sounding downright stunned.

"Yeah…I read it half way through then tossed it on the floor and started making you some chicken soup, I think I had a mild breakdown over it."

"Gosh, I can't believe it, after all this time…So…what did it say?"

"Well as I said I didn't get through the whole thing, he sounded like the same old twit I remember him to be though. Rinoa did he ever write to you?" I asked, remembering that there was a history between them. Though it may have been brief and many years ago, Seifer and Rinoa had a summer fling back in the days of their youth.

"No, never. Not even once. Quistis, I think you need to read it properly if you ever want to get your head around It."

"But he betrayed us all, I'm not even sure how I feel about opening myself up to communicating with someone who committed offences against Garden either."

"I'm sure he has paid severely for his wrongdoings. Quistis just sit down and read the letter from start to finish and when you're ready, let me know how everything goes. I'm always here for you, you know that."

I nodded. She was right, I had to read it, despite the uneasy feelings it gave me. I had to know.

"I will. And thank you Rinoa, for listening to my rambles. I know I overreact and let things get out of proportion sometimes. I'll come and see you tomorrow and bring soup."

"I'll look forward to it Quisty, and good luck" she said gently.

"Get better soon, bye!" I said clicking off the phone.

And so on that day, my birthday. Picking up that messy, terribly hand-written letter, I suppose is where the story truly begins.

And I guess for the longest time I had given up on many things. I had settled into my on little way of living, never really realizing what was absent from my life until it appeared right before my very eyes.


Author's notes: Ba-humbug! So there it is, the first chapter! I hope it was okay! I haven't started a fiction since I was back in highschool, so I suppose my writing style has changed over the years. The idea behind this story has always been there for me though, I love the Quistis/Seifer pairing, as both characters really touched me over the course of the FFVIII story line. I wanted the opportunity to play 'fairy god mother' and grant them both happy endings, because they were both tortured in their own ways in the original story line. So, to any readers out there, if you could do me the honor of shooting me a review with any comments/criticisms (whatever you feel like really) I would be forever grateful for that! Thank you for reading. ^_^ Have a great day!