Title: Closer
Pairing: Quitis/Seifer
Rating: PG-13
Prompt: After the Aftermath - written for the LJ Seifer/Quistis Winter Challenge

Summary: Lost in the Time Compression Quistis and Seifer clung onto one another in order to survive. But they also find a reason to continue existing in a hostile world together.

A/N: Inspired by Inception, "Message in a Bottle" by the Police, romantic clichés involving being shipwrecked and the dreamy songs of Julee Cruise.

After

The sun was fleeting, but its touch still spread warmth across her body as she lay on the field, gazing at the sky dreamily. Gone were her boots, gloves and restricted hair-do. It wasn't a failed instructor that lay on the grass – just a young woman enjoying the sun. She wasn't the savior of the world either, or a SeeD travelling from one fight to another. She was just Quistis.

Beside her lay another person, young man. He too was embraced by the same sun without discrimination. He too inhaled the same sweet scent of Balamb's flower fields. Gone were his emotionless mask and the crude remarks meant to hurt her. Gone was the victorious smirk and restlessness in his spirit. While he lay there with her, he was at peace. He wasn't the Sorceress' Knight, or a failed student. He was just Seifer.

Together they looked at the sky and the retreating sun. Neither felt anxious about its decline across the horizon like they once had. For once they knew that when it returned things would still be the same. For the longest time fear had been there to govern them: Fear of loss, fear of evolution, fear of growing up. Now both their hearts knew that no matter what force was out there to cause them sorrow and heartbreak they would survive. No matter what mistakes were made there was still a future ahead of them.

Quistis turned to her side to observe Seifer. He seemed so concentrated on the clouds and their travels across the blue. Whatever hatred had fuelled Seifer in his futile quest to fulfill his dream of being a knight it seemed to have dissipated. Just like Quistis' own insecurities had vanished and allowed her to move on. Seifer's regal profile seemed so soft now that he was relaxed and without his usual shields – Almost like he was a completely different person.

He glanced at her from his eye corner upon sensing her eyes on him. She'd turned to her side and those sharp blue eyes had him under their scrutiny. Her hair was open on her shoulders and her feet were bare. He'd never seen her like this before – so free. Quistis' melancholy was gone and she was finally allowed to shine. This made her beautiful as she lay in the dying sunlight. But Seifer didn't move or confront her about this; he simply enjoyed the sun on his bare feet and shoulders.

He couldn't quite trace the start of his hunger for her. He knew it'd been a slow process: Getting her to smile again, accept her mistakes and embrace the future. And he'd peeled the misery from her, releasing this beautiful and imaginative woman beside him from her shell of hurt. Her awkwardness had developed into assurance and doubt no longer lingered in her graceful action.

Seifer smiled when he thought about the moment he'd realized he loved her. He'd lain here just like always, watching her stand next to him and look at the crimson moon above them. Quistis' voice had withheld vulnerability that moment, but also strength. She'd made him happy with such simple words:

/ Let's just stay here.

He no longer wanted to leave either. Their world was perfect. It was their haven. But like so many things too good to be true, even this had its downside: They couldn't go home.

Before

The darkness arrived all of the sudden and with it coldness and confusion. It swept them both off their feet and left them falling for such a long time, alone in the dark. The suffocating and intoxicating fear of drifting into nothingness held them tightly in its grip and smothered hope out of them: No screams for their friends, no voices calling out to them. Even memories began to distort and fade away. It was a nightmare that went on and on and on.

Wounded souls were easy to target and lose in the confusion. In the middle of the raging battle as time began to consume reality the ground was lost underneath both of them. Was this space: Emptiness without life, air or sound? Was this Ultimechia's victory and their defeat: A universe where all they could do was worship her for the rest of their days? She could almost hear a distant cry of rage and sadness that resounded and stretched into infinity tormenting her as she fell.

And both of them drifted for a long time only to discover each other by accident.

She was without feeling, drifting in the shapeless river of time and unable to fight it anymore. Something in her eye corner caught her attention though: an intense presence. It was as if she had slept for years and was only now beginning to wake up. He seemed to recognize her form as well, the knowledge of her identity burning inside his head. After being lost for so long in a vast space without gravity, sense or warmth, merely seeing one another suddenly returned their tired minds to their bodies and made them reach for each other.

Gravity returned upon their first touch, as her gloved fingers wrapped around his wrist. But once their eyes met close up, his face filled with hostility and her sincere happiness was replaced by anger. Seeing him reach for his gunblade she grabbed her whip and threw it around his neck, quickly tightening it. The joy and relief vanished and all that was left was a fight, where they both struggled to emerge victorious and live. Maddened by their isolation, each blaming the other party for their current position, they wrestled on top of nothing with the tides of time crashing against them both violently.

Quistis held him tight in the grip of her whip, strangling him and trying her best to contain him with her diminished strength. Seifer punched her, tore her clothes, broke her hair-do and almost her glasses as well, but her grip remained. She had the conviction to hold him down, while he didn't truly have the conviction to hate her enough to hurt her. He wouldn't yield to defeat, but he wouldn't struggle with his full strength either. Perhaps he wanted to be hurt.

Around them nothingness had begun to take shape though: Beneath them ground appeared and around them the cold became less biting. Seifer fought, his strength weakening by the minute, but it wasn't until his weak death rattle that she realized she was about to kill him. Quistis released the whip in terror and began to cry hysterically as Seifer collapsed to the ground losing consciousness.

For some while she could only cry and dig her nails onto her shoulders trying to remember how she'd gotten here. Her mind was weary and her breathing heavy. The grogginess that the long sleep had induced was clouding her thoughts and making them into a jumbled mess. And while she Seifer was the enemy, she couldn't help also knowing that could never kill him.

/ Stop it. You're better than this. Don't you dare cry for him! He would not cry for you. He never did. Seifer enjoyed seeing you hurt. Do you think he would've left and sold his soul to that devil if it weren't so?

Quistis filled her lungs with the freezing thin air around her and dried her eyes to see through the veil of tears. Seifer was still breathing on the ground – Alive. Relief washed over her, calming her and returning her ability to think. She'd beaten him bad and he had hurt her equally, but they were both alive. Despite everything he'd done, didn't Seifer deserve something better than disappearing into the darkness? Quistis thought about Fujin and Rajin, about Edea and Cid and countless others who would grief, if Seifer never came back.

She couldn't just walk away and leave him like this. Realizing this simple truth, Quistis kneeled to him, taking his limp body into her arms and holding onto him with resolve.

It was then that she looked around her for the first time: The blackness had been replaced by a field of grass and a blood red moon above them. They were no longer trapped in nothingness with a sea of distant stars as the only source of light in impenetrable darkness. She recognized this: This was a pale copy of the fields in Balamb and the Lunar Moon she'd seen during the Lunar Rain. It wasn't home, but it was at least better than drifting endlessly in the cold and the maddening silence.

Battered and bloody, she laid Seifer on the grass gently and took hold of his gunblade, moving it where he wouldn't be able to reach it right away once he woke up. Even if she was helping him for now, she was no fool or oblivious to his nature. Seifer reacted to conflict with aggression and with no one else around here he would take it out on her. Yet as she looked at his face, bruises and all, she could feel a tinge of hope in this otherwise desperate situation.

/ I'm not alone. I'm here with him. Even if we're enemies, we're both here. We both exist in the heart of this chaos, this misanthropic wish of a dying sorceress. If I just hold on, we won't disappear or be absorbed. We'll continue living.

An enemy or not he was real – not some hallucination of a fatigue mind. He was here and with him she had a better chance to survive. So she grudgingly tended to his wounds and her own, finding that she hadn't even realized how angry and disappointed she was with her former student. She'd almost taken his betrayal too personally in the past. Shame filled her when she realized how close they had come to killing one another. Surely she should've been more compassionate, thought everything through more rationally? But as long as Seifer stayed unconscious, she only had the option of guarding him in his sleep.

The haunting world around her took some taking used to, but eventually she managed it. She found herself holding onto Seifer's wrist, feeling his steady heartbeat and repeating a mantra that made her believe they could get home together. She would try and focus on her memories of them, back when they'd been just kids or two students at the Garden. She would go through them over and over again.

For a long time she sat on the grass field just like this.

When he finally woke up, the anger in him was replaced by bewilderment. It began when his eyes opened up and she was the first thing he saw: a broken woman holding onto his wrist with a distant expression and the shame of defeat written all over her. Seifer sat up quickly, grabbing her forearm and attempting to curse at her, only his voice was gone. His angry glare was so intense it froze her still. His eyes were veiny and his neck decorated by the mark of her ferocious attack.

Unable to speak he demanded answers from her with his eyes. Of course she didn't have any answers for him or herself. The desolate truth wasn't something she keeping from him – no, she was open wide, knowing very well there was nothing she could tell him that would any of this alright again. Quistis shook her head in defeat.

It frustrated him, though he probably knew deep inside that counting on her for answers had been a long shot at best. Still he tried to make sense of this, getting up and looking all around them, absorbing this strange scenery with his eyes. He wanted to understand, he needed to understand why this was happening. He'd been her knight, her savior, so why was he in here with this woman?

Seifer stopped and looked up at the moon, pain all over his face, as he realized there was only one explanation. Quistis rose from the grass as well, walking next to him. She could see his thoughts race faster and faster until he came to a realization. And she was sorry for him.

/ I'm sorry I hurt you. I let fear take hold of myself and attacked you upon sight. But I don't think you'd be here if she didn't want you to be.

It was pride that prevented him from listening to her in the beginning, as he could only rub his neck and remember what it'd felt like when she'd tried to kill him. Once his voice returned they began to argue loudly, often finding themselves reaching for their weapons and throwing insults from one side to the other.

He was so angry at her at first: he hated her condescending attitude, her weakness for Squall and her inability to take action. She was disappointed in him and his choices, despite once considering him to be her favorite student. And they fought endlessly, cursing and yelling at each other.

/ I know you're in a hurry to get back to your precious Squall and superiority complex, but can't you just shut the fuck up for awhile! God damnit Trepe, we're the only people in this world! Can't we at least pretend to get along?

/ You might be happy to be stuck here away from your accusers Seifer, but I had friends there! I had people who cared about me and that's more than you can say! You pushed away everyone who cared about you and chose to destroy everything in your path!

But every time they were ready to walk away, all they had to do was walk apart and the coldness of the outside would reach them. They both came to realize that without their joint strength, there was no order in this hell they were in. Neither was anxious to re-experience the outside and its lonely chaos, even if it meant putting up with one another. And though nothing was forgiven or forgotten, they chose to strike a deal.

/ I offer a truce, my dear Instructor. Being here is better than being out there after all. Perhaps we might even begin to tolerate one another?

/ I find that highly unlikely Seifer. But I do agree that it is no use to part ways now. If we work together we have a much better shot at getting home again.

Desperate for human contact in the chaotic drifts of time they held onto one another despite their unanimous views. Together they carved out a piece of consistency amid the storm: this field and their world. At first it was only lit by the red moon of the Lunar Cry, but eventually the sun came out and with it the wind and the scent of flowers. Their haven gained more and more shape as they fought to remember the real world, believing that they could find home as long as they remembered.

It was like this beautiful place reflected their moods. The clouds would cover the skies when they fought and it would rain when blood was shed, but the sun would also shine whenever they got along. Slowly fights about their next step became contemplation and confession. They no longer preyed one another's weaknesses, but spoke of them freely.

Quistis hypothesized that the Time Compression wasn't over yet, that they were trapped in it for a time that seemed like an eternity while Ultimechia was dying. Seconds could easily be days and weeks and months here.

/ I don't know what happened. We were fighting Ultimechia and I saw Squall tear at her with his gunblade when I suddenly started to fall. The fall went on forever. I've never been so afraid. All I could see was everyone slipping away, our battlefield crumbling and with it my way home.

/ It began once you defeated Adel. As I lay there wounded, the space around me was distorted. Before I knew it I was drifting endlessly. I was completely helpless. I could hear her voice tell me it was the Time Compression that I had helped achieve. Then she laughed.

Time was endless here. They didn't need sleep or food. They hadn't been able to distinguish night from day until the sun came. Their small world was untainted and pure. Its sceneries were the most beautiful places from their memories and they offered both solace while they had tried to explain and understand their predicament. Casual comments had started out as nothing more than forced co-operation, but begun to evolve into conversations. Topics of no importance, but just talking had helped retain their sanity. But it helped relief the tension between enemies and slowly they progressed to topics that were more important in the grand scale of things.

/ In case you want to know, Rinoa is alright. At least I think she is. I don't think she held any grudge for you…. for giving her to Adel you know?

/ That's bullshit and you know it, Trepe. She might've had hope that I would come back to you before, but after I didn't budge no matter how hard she begged me to let her go, she realized I belonged to Ultimechia and there was nothing she could do to change it.

/ Belonged, Seifer?

/ I'm hardly loyal to her anymore. She did put me in this place, which is pretty harsh treatment for your knight – Especially since it had to be with you.

They observed the borders of their private world, quickly realizing that as long as they were close to one another, the borders held strong. And the more their differences died, more the borders stretched and expanded. At first Quistis tried to keep track of the days, but she eventually questioned even this and eventually just forgot. Her calendar on the field was lost and then she couldn't find it anymore. Seifer mocked her for her need to keep things organized and labeled neatly and dared her to just let go. There was no one here to evaluate their survival, no one to report to. Strangely Quistis responded to his dare and chose to forget.

But the further they got from reality, the less these things had seemed to matter. She found a way to get along with him. He found a way to confide in her. They couldn't hide their true emotions and had no reason to anyway. Underneath the aggression lied the need to be noticed, to be loved. Underneath the insecurities lied a wound made by abandonment and harsh words.

/ I never wanted to be at the Garden! No one came to adopt me and give me a normal childhood. Do you think I had a choice to be a killer? At least she made me feel I was doing it for something more than dirty money!

/ They should've never adopted kids. They saw me as some sort of doll for display. I played my part because I wanted to be loved – I was so damn eager to please. But they were already broken. When I wasn't the silent doll in the corner they wanted but a living breathing person instead they left me.

It took them time to voice these emotions and time to heal. Many suns set in between. Eventually they exhausted their emotions, emptying themselves and after there was nothing more to give, it was time to refill that space that was now empty. Laughter planted a seed in their hearts.

And days together weren't so torturous anymore. There was nothing left to hide, nothing left to pretend for. Sure they could part ways, but the need for company overcame their dislike. Learning to do things together was tough at first but kept getting easier and easier as the world they had brought into existence bloomed in detail and offered them a paradise to get lost into together.

/ I never liked fighting either. But it was better than risking being adopted again. I did my best to be the ace student. Sure I was talented, but I never had any passion for it, so it was all sweat and tears. Looking back, I wish I had done what you did – rebel.

/ I knew nothing else but the Garden – Hated that place. Fujin and Raijin kept me going, but everyone else was set to make me the next star SeeD. I hated feeling caged, so I broke every rule, trying to break free. Looking back that didn't turn out too well.

In the cold of the night he often stared at the sky and the false stars and wondered if it would be better to abandon this falsity and try their chances in the chaos outside. Before finding Quistis he'd drifted endlessly in the cold. His strength alone hadn't been enough to force order inside the Compressed Time, but together they'd been stronger. He thought about the 'outside' with terror and always abandoned the idea of leaving as he watched Quistis dream and tremor in her sleep.

It was Quistis that figured they could draw from their memories. While the fields of Balamb were a constant in their world, other places sometimes appeared as well. They were always void from life, but beautiful in their own haunting way. She would also draw objects, buttheir power was weak at best and not nearly enough to break free from the hell that had entrapped them. As time went on, they seemed to worry less and less about being trapped though.

/ I barely even think about them anymore. Does that make me wicked? It just seems harder and harder to remember anyone but you. Yet you… memories of you are getting sharper. You know we used to play tag by the shore of the Orphanage? We'd run until we were exhausted and Matron would scream after us, worried out of her mind.

/ I know what you mean. I no longer sleep with one eye open. The chaos outside won't break in and whisk us away...And I no longer secretly wish it would. It's strange that I feel more peace at here with you than I ever did anywhere since the Orphanage.

Complacency replaced their fears. Time became meaningful again. And when the sun would set in their world, they would sit together on the grass and she would lean her head against his shoulder as she struggled to stay awake. By then she already knew she didn't need to sleep anymore, but she chose to anyway, clinging onto her humanity at any cost. Still those first few times she did this, surprised him. She wasn't the Instructor locked in her distant ivory tower of power anymore. She was just a confused teen like him. So he would wrap his arm around her until she fell asleep.

/ Why do you still sleep? It's not like you can even dream here. Are you that anxious to get a break from my company, Trepe?

/ Honestly, yes. But how can you stay awake all night? Don't you ever feel like closing your eyes and resting for awhile? Doesn't it feel wrong to abide by the laws of this chaos? We're still human Seifer, despite having divine powers here.

/ I still think you're dreaming of me.

/ I still think you're a cheeky moron.

Here he would never have to face judgment for his deeds and she would never have to return to being a SeeD, a mercenary that only lived to fight. She'd been so tired of it by the end. He'd been consumed by his guilt when she'd found him. But their desire to be with their friends hadn't been enough to sustain them here. It'd only been when they'd been able to touch each other that they had gained the ability to shut out the static flow of time. Seifer found himself thinking about this more and more. Why was she the one he'd found amid the darkness?

Quistis would dream up the beach from the Orphanage and smile brighter than before when she sank her toes into the cold water. She would run barefoot across the beach, her golden hair bouncing on her back, as Seifer watched with his hands in his pockets and his own toes sunk into the hot sand. And they would lie on the sand sunbathing and enjoying an endless summer.

/ I wonder if we can dream up other people? Would they be just shadows, or just as they were in our memories? Would it be so terrible?

/ I'm surprised you haven't already tried, Trepe. Surely there's someone whose company you'd enjoy more on a deserted island?

/ I'm… I'm not so sure anymore. I had demonized you, even when I wanted to shake you awake from your vain nightmare. You're not so bad up front.

/ You're not so bad yourself, Trepe. Less heels, condescending looks and a bitchy attitude can work miracles.

She never tried to imagine others in their world. And as their time together became easier to bare time seemed to fly and she began to wake up with anticipation. She would gaze at him from the distance as he swam or searched for seashells on the beach. He'd bring the undamaged seashells to her and they would listen to them together. And her heart would flutter when he leaned in to press his ear against the seashell in her hand. His wet skin would press against her, watering her clothes and cooling down her hot skin. And during those moments the sun would burn with intensity. And they would run together as fast as they could in an attempt to run from the carnage of their red sun.

It was no use telling her heart she shouldn't feel this way, when she'd begun to wake up next to him, comforted by the sight of him each morning. It was no use telling his senses that he could never stand the sight of her self-absorbed face in the past when every time she began singing a song from memory something moved something inside him.

/ How can I spin the bottle if we don't have a bottle? Seriously, I want you to explain this dilemma to me like the ace student you used to be. This is an existential problem.

/ I hate it when you play the instructor. Sheesh, let's just take turns and not worry about some friggin' nonexistent bottles!

/ I never could groom you into a warrior poet, now could I?

/ THAT was your intention? No wonder Squall was so out of it. Seems I really was the lucky one to escape your 'grooming'.

/ Oh, admit it Seifer. You wanted to be groomed by me.

There were days when Quistis would fill their world with things from her wildest dreams: places they had been to and places that had never existed. They would walk these hollow streets in unison and silent admiration. History and fantasy would twirl into one, even impressing Seifer, but sometimes they would also stumble upon places they hadn't thought about consciously. Such a place was the ballroom back Balamb Garden. It simply appeared one day, its shiny floor and majestic pillars reaching for the skies even though there were no walls or a roof.

Music would start to play, a tune vividly etched to Quistis' memory, as it was the same song Squall and Rinoa had danced as her heart had bled. This was all unbeknownst to Seifer though and he'd merely offered her his hand, pulling her into dance after she accepted. He'd danced with many dames that night and drank a lot of champagne to drown his bitter defeat. His memory of the night was foggy, but he remembered thinking Quistis had looked beautiful in her SeeD uniform. Suddenly the song wasn't the same anymore, but a dreamy song that seemed to go on and on.

/ How come you're so good at this? I never saw you do anything else at the graduation parties, besides sip champagne and mope in the corner in your SeeD uniform.

/ You're so amazingly good with flattery Seifer. You probably think I'm completely inexperienced just because you never caught me in the act?

/ Now that is something you rarely hear. That's quite frank. Now shut up, I don't want to hear it.

/ Tsk. Tsk. Are you blushing? You really thought I sat around at my dorm, like an apple waiting to spoil? Haha, Seifer Almasy, you're always the gentleman.

Laughter filled the void inside their hearts. Playful banter became their way of pushing the limits of their relationship, to test the waters. But as time passed neither of them no longer feared sinking. They knew they had someone to trust, someone who would pull them back to the surface.

Their world reflected their emotions. It would rain one day, making them hold onto one another and look into the rain from their shelter. There was no end to the rain, because it felt so good just to be there together, skin on skin. He would brag about his achievements back when he'd still been a student and she'd debuff him, knowing these tall tales quite personally as his Instructor. But either of them no longer felt like mercenaries and knights they'd been. Their minds were in flight, their hearts believing in this world more and more, because they no longer wanted to escape.

/ You make me feel like a damn 15-year-old.

/ Young and stupid? Completely oblivious to fashion… or even a decent hair-cut?

/ And what was wrong with my hair-cut exactly?

/ I like this better. You can sink your hand into it. Just. Like. This.

/ What are you doing with my hair? And my cheek – oh and that's my lip… You want me to shut up again, don't you?

Kissing didn't change much, except ground their reality more firmly within the Time Compression – and make Seifer realize he'd had a crush on the teacher for a long time. It made sense in retrospective of course. He'd hated Squall with a passion for being able to get her attention without much attempt, so he'd done his best to get it as well – whether he got it through inexcusable behavior or not. But as he kissed her, none of that mattered anymore.

He pushed her down aggressively, finally realizing those feelings that had been tormenting him. Everything here might've been just an illusion based on their desires, but this was real. They were real and this friction between them had always been there, underneath the surface. He wanted to scratch away the paint, the pretense and find the real. Right now he was definitely breaking skin.

Seifer had put his mark on her a long time ago and nothing could erase it anymore. It was powerful, the feeling of being connected, this addiction to him. They had been here for so long; they barely even recognized themselves anymore. But this felt better than anything before: The way he stroked her sides, searching for anything to release her from her dress, the way he would stop between kisses to enchant her with his sharp eyes as if he was asking for permission.

The grass was soft beneath them, the wind was gentle and even the rain had begun a softer rhythm. She pulled his shirt away, running her fingers across his chest where the faint scars he'd obtained as Ultimechia's general were still visible. She caressed them, accepting his past with soft butterfly kisses. He observed her calm on the surface whilst inside his veins his blood was boiling. There were no echoes here of anyone else but them. No haunting memories, just simplicity.

He freed her from her dress, realizing quickly that she had her own battle scars too. He'd never really paid any attention, always assuming the good instructor was too important to stain her hands. She pulled him closer again, planting a kiss on the scar on his forehead and laughing into his ear so carefree and happy. She sure now that he was the reason she still existed within compressed time. He established her and she established him and because of this they had been able to anchor one another and survive.

They had all the time in the world here. Neither was an inexperienced and overly eager teen anymore. He made an effort to put his appreciation of her into motion and action. They kissed for the longest time, blood rushing through the bodies as their arousal only grew. At a time he would've blamed his hormones, and she her need to be loved. Now they just wanted this to last.

Seifer didn't have words for this. For him his actions with the opposite sex had always been about satisfying his needs. This was different as all he could think about was her. He wanted to please her. For Quistis this was sweeter than anything before. She'd gotten her fair share of admiration and fumbling blindly towards ecstasy, but this was determined, a pre-meditated decision that neither had needed to voice when the moment had come upon them.

After

Quistis sometimes wondered how long they had been here, building sand castles together and gazing at their imaginary sun. They'd run across the grass fields with bare feet, playing tag, just like when they'd been kids. It was all like an endless summer vacation from their troubles. Even Seifer laughed heartily at their games, at her blowing dandelion seed heads to float in the air. Quistis would run to the shore and tip him into the beach, getting him wet, but the water would never be cold.

She wondered if these days were really weeks and months and years. She wondered if time no longer moved, but stood still and they were the only things causing it to ripple. Too much happiness and too many perfect days after their painful start together were finally making her doubt and question this world. She had more here than she had ever had before, but even that couldn't keep her mind at bay. If this had once been a nightmare that had changed into a dream, would it one day change back into a nightmare?

Holding onto her hopes and fears, she faced another day with him in bliss – And another after that.

It wasn't long after that she forgot to fear again. She had already forgotten to miss her home a long time ago.

-fin