AN: This story is written for irishais!

Takes place eight years after the game and it includes some minor Xu/Selphie and Zell/Quistis. Warnings for some smut in later chapters and some mild violence against monsters.

Have fun!

Quistis woke up with tears streaming slowly trickling down her cheeks. That was new. Blinking a few times, she tried to focus until she finally got up and rubbed the tears away. Her chest felt tight and it was no good. Grabbing a sweater she got out of bed and into the hallway. Thankfully it was only illuminated by a few soft lights, and it was too late for anyone to be around. The only sound were her bare feet on the cold rubber floor. When she arrived at Xu´s door she entered without hesitation. That was a privilege no one else had…

Inside, Xu was sleeping, her breathing slow and steady. Quistis stood next to the bed for a few seconds, slightly shivering although the sweater she had put on was warm and cozy, and contemplated what to do.

"Hey Xu, wake up." She whispered and nudged Xu slightly. Xu grunted and move a bit, but didn´t wake up. "Hey, Xu, it´s me. Xu." Quistis nudged harder until Xu snorted and opened her eyes. It took a moment for her to focus before she shot up with a knife in her hand that stopped dangerously close to Quistis´ throat. "It´s just me."

Xu exhaled and let the knife sink slowly. "You really need to stop that. I was sleeping! It´s… it´s three forty for fuck´s sake!"

"But I had a weird dream."

"I don´t care, I´m not even awake." She lay back down, with her back to Quistis. Quistis didn´t bother with it and lay down next to her, poking Xu in the sides until she moved to make space. She wrapped her arms around her, comforted by her warmth. "Do you remember when we took the SEED exam?"

Xu was quiet for a long time and Quistis felt herself drifting away when Xu groggily grumbled something anyway. "That was ten years ago. Haven´t you forgotten it?"

"Just remembered." She wanted to tell her more, but her mind was so slow and the bed was so warm and… she fell asleep.

Four hours later she woke up sweaty and breathless and immediately pushed the blanket away and got rid of the sweater. Xu turned around, grumbling and messy. "What are you doing? It´s still early you idiot…"

When Quistis felt somewhat cooled down, she looked down at her friend. "Sorry. I just dreamt something and I had to tell you."

"Quis, you can´t come running to me every time you remember some shit from the past. If you wanna stay in my bed you have to fuck me." Xu looked up, irritated. "It could´ve easily waited until morning. You didn´t even tell me what it was about."

Quistis slumped against the wall, feeling the cool surface on her skin. "I was feeling bad. I didn´t want to be alone."

Sighing, Xu moved a bit closer and wrapped an arm around Quistis´ waist. "What was it about this time?"

"SeeD exam. You remember it?"

Xu´s arm twitched. "Some. What about it?"

Quistis huffed, removing a black hair from her shoulder. "Did we study with Seifer?"

Xu sighed dramatically before she rolled over on her back, flopping her arm over her eyes. "We did, it wasn´t your imagination. Is that what made you feel bad?"

Quistis shrugged, removing another hair from the pillow. "Not that it was Seifer. It´s just… It explains why he was so angry at me later."

"Does it? It wasn´t your fault he was a failure…"

Quistis picked up another hair, it was still attached to Xu´s head. She slapped Quistis´ hand away, glaring at her.

"But we were friends. And I forgot." Xu looked at her as if she knew what was coming and started shaking her head. Of course she was right. "Xu, I know you know where he is. Garden keeps track of dangerous people. Tell me."

"No way. What do you even plan on doing, 'hey Seifer, remember we were friends when we were fifteen let´s celebrate the good old times, what was that war even about, eh?' Great idea Quis, I´ll give you his address."

Quistis stared at her for a long time. "How can he be dangerous, he is probably lying in the gutter trying to recover from his addiction to painkillers or whatever. Just give me the address, Xu. I have so many vacation days left. It´s no big deal. Unofficially." She poked her, Xu just grunted and tried to slap the hand away. Quistis was persistent. "Come on, he can´t harm me, you know that. I´m too strong. Gimme the address, Xu!"

Xu grumbled some more, pulling the sheets over her head. "It was ten years ago, no one cares about that shit."

"I do, Xu! I have to see him!" Quistis attacked her more furiously until Xu kicked her out of bed. She landed hard on her butt, but it wasn´t the end of it. Two days later, Quistis started planning her trip to Esthar, after she had successfully gotten on Xu´s nerves as much as she could. Ha.

"This is not freaking helpful!"

Xu had given her the GPS coordinates of Seifer´s last known location, but it was somewhere in the middle of the Estharian desert and her phone had lost the signal. Sighing, she got back to her map to navigate the old fashioned way. Technology had come so far, and those new phones from Esthar had so many useful functions that she had almost forgotten how annoying it was not being able to rely on them. The desert plains in Esthar were barely populated, the roads hardly more than dirt tracks, if there even were roads and it was hot and dusty and full of monsters!

It took her exactly 18 hours and 43 minutes to find the damn hut. If she had gotten it wrong she didn´t care, whoever occupied that building would give her shelter or she would murder him for a shower. Not after a night in which a bunch of monsters had banged against her car relentlessly until she got out and killed them all, only for a freaking Behemoth coming running! She only wanted to sleep and feel clean and she almost started crying while she drove over the rubble on the way to the hut. It had been a bad idea after all… Seifer could be anywhere already and she had wasted her vacation on this…

When she stopped her car, she heard it. The sound of chocobos. Her brow started twitching and she knew that this was by far the worst vacation she had ever had. But there was no turning back now, she wouldn´t leave before the next morning no matter what, but… she opened the door, trying to assess if the birds were running freely, but since nothing happened for a minute she considered her chances as good. God, she hated chocobos…

The hut was made of some sort of grey material and looked sturdy enough. There was a generator humming, so it had to have electricity, which was a good sign, and if the birds were in an enclosure, someone had to live here. Quistis eyed the metal door and knocked on it. It made an unholy sound and the chocobos started shrieking. Startled, she looked around, but still safe. Though no one was answering the door. Quistis knocked again, until the door rattled in its hinges. After a few moments of waiting she decided that she could just as well tear the damn door down, she had enough money to pay for it when the owner got back and…

The door was opened and a very tall and very blond man almost ran into her. She took a step back to look at the startled face of… Seifer. And he looked awful, with a disgusting beard and some ratty T-shirt and… sandals.

"Are you trying to break my door, crazy asshole?"

A smile came to her lips. It really was him! "Seifer, I´m so glad to see you. You look so bad."

He eyed her for a few seconds. She almost heard his brain working. "Is that you, Trepe?"

"Yes! My hair´s different." She gestured at her head, her short bob pulled back to a lousy ponytail. Seifer stared at her, not saying anything until she couldn´t bear it anymore. "Please tell me you got a shower in that shack?"

"I… do."

"Oh thank Hyne." She shoved him away and walked inside as if she owned it. Seifer stared at her for a few seconds, mouthing: "You´re welcome, Trepe."

Barely anyone lived in this county of the Estharian plains. The next tiny town was almost an hour away by car. It had to be some random monster banging on the door. When it didn´t stop, Seifer sighed, got up from his cozy spot on the couch, put his laptop away and checked his junctions. Maybe he could kick it and it would run. Maybe the chocobos would eat it. To his surprise he almost ran over a blond woman with huge, blue eyes. It took a while to recognize her, but when she started speaking… Trepe was now all grown up. It suited her.

Though his musings didn´t last long, while he listened to the sound of Trepe wasting too much of his water. This wasn´t good. He had been to stunned to keep her from running into his house, but now he had to think quickly. Why was she here? Obviously Garden would keep track of his whereabouts, but he hadn´t seen a SeeD since the war. The hadn´t considered him a big enough threat anymore, so why now? He tried to remember what he had done lately that could rouse suspicion, but he just didn´t know. And she hadn´t seemed angry. He closed his eyes, checked his junctions, put everything into strength until he reconsidered and put everything into magic. Opening them, he heard the water stopping and decided he was as prepared as he could be. Five minutes later he couldn´t take it anymore. The chocobos were shrieking loudly since they had seen the car, so he went outside and parked it somewhere else. Brought her luggage inside. Tried not to look what was in it, since he was afraid what he might find.

Finally, Trepe came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped neatly around her body. Her legs were still so long and toned and… he shouldn´t get distracted. "Oh, you brought my stuff in! That means I can stay?"

Seifer frowned. This was getting weirder by the minute. "Did you want to stay?"

Trepe gave him a long, long look before she started rummaging in her bag for some clean clothes. Didn't look like combat gear. He let out a breath he hadn´t realized he was holding while Trepe went back to the bathroom to get dressed. When she returned, he eyed her loose shirt with a pale yellow flower print and the knee length shorts she was wearing.

"Trepe, the years have been bad to you. You´ve became a hippie." He shook his head, almost laughing. This was so surreal.

Trepe snorted. "You´re one to talk, I`m sorry your addiction hit you so hard that it isn´t easy for you anymore to take care of yourself. I guess the birds outside are life stock?"

He leaned back on the couch, folding his hands over his stomach. He decided to ignore the nonsense she was spouting and get down to what he really needed to know. "Why are you here? Someone paid to see me dead?"

Her face shifted for a second but she got it under control. Maybe she wondered why he was so relaxed at the prospect of getting killed. She didn´t know he was junctioned of course.

"Seifer, do you remember the SEED exam?"

He squinted. "What? Which one?"

"Ten years ago, the one we did together. I passed."

"Yeah I remember that part." He paused for a second. "Have you forgotten it? Is that why you´re here? Heard that GFs eat memories or something. You know, you could´ve texted me, would´ve been quicker."

She grinned slightly. "I just remembered. I remembered that we had been friends. Before you were a freaking stupid teenager and decided to hate me forever and before… before I was a stupid teenager as well and were too proud of my accomplishment to consider anything else."

He stared at her, how she bit her lip and looked away, looked at the mess in his living room, the magazines lying around and the dishes he hadn´t done from the last few days. He considered justifying himself but it wasn´t even that bad and he hadn´t expected company!

"You know, had it been different I wouldn´t have forgotten it."

"We still would´ve tried to kill each other in the war, Trepe. Get over it. Also, it´s your own fault you came all that way just to hear that. I parked your car on the other side of the house, it was making my birds angry. Do you need some water for the way back?" Please just go, please… There were things he didn´t want to think about, and he had almost forgotten about that time of their first exam. Almost. He wasn´t mad if it was gone forever.

But instead of leaving, Trepe glared at him and finally walked over to a chair, knocking the dirty laundry down on the floor before she sat down. "I´m not going anywhere. I want to know that you are alright and I took ten days off, so deal with it."

Deal with it… he felt the tension ease away, now that he was sure she wouldn´t assassinate him. "So you´re still a SeeD? Haven´t seen an interview with you for a while."

"It´s almost ten years. No one gives a shit anymore. How is your addiction treating you?" She critically eyed his living room again. Sighing, he rubber over his face. Maybe he hadn´t taken care of his hair for a while, but he didn´t look like a junkie!

"I am collecting rare monster parts. Sorry I didn´t dress up for the occasion. Whatever gave you the impression I´m not a recovering addict."

"Why do you live in such a mess then?"

"Because it´s temporary. Have I mentioned that I hunt monsters? I have to move around for that." He paused for a second. "You can absolutely not stay here."

She sat up straighter, her eyes turning icy. "No way. I´m staying. Try making me leave."

It sounded like a challenge and he could swear she was disappointed when he didn´t immediately grab his gunblade and try to chase her back to her damn car. Trying to force her would only make her more stubborn. If that´s what she wanted, she could stay. He wouldn´t answer anything about the past, he wouldn´t tell her he barely remembered most of it anyway either and if he ignored her successfully, she would piss off in no time. The desert wasn't that much fun. Besides… he remembered that she hated chocobos. Grinning, he got back to his laptop and tried to figure out where he had stopped. A few moments later, Trepe got up and he heard some noise from the kitchen. Well. Maybe she did the dishes. That would be great.

Quistis shifted around, unable to find a comfortable position. She had thought she could have the couch, but when it got late and Seifer got ready to go to bed, he just told her that she can sleep in her car. Or on the floor. Or get the hell out and drive to the next town, it´s just an hour away. Quistis settled for the floor after Seifer got comfortable on the cough, though she wasn´t sure what was worse... the dirty rug she was sleeping on, the way the couch creaked every time Seifer moved, the fridge that started humming every fifteen minutes or the damn monsters that occasionally bumped against the house. When the sun rose a few hours later, the chocobos started screeching as well and Quistis decided that it was time to stop staring at the wall and get up. Her head was hurting as well, which only made her search for food louder. When she slumped down on a chair with a yoghurt, Seifer sighed and finally got up. He gave her a dirty stare before he slowly made his way to the bathroom.

When he got back he fumbled on the coffee machine and sat down next to her while the machine was gurgling. He looked at her expectantly.v"Good morning Trepe. I see you´re still here."

"I intend to stay longer. I wasn´t lying yesterday." Even the yoghurt tasted weird. She pushed the container on the desk. At least Seifer looked a little more presentable now, though that ratty beard… ugh.

"About that... I understand that you remembered us taking the exam together, as if that was interesting in any way. So… what do you want now?"

"I already told you I remembered we were friends."

He didn´t give the impression that this information was giving him any more insight into her thought process. Quistis bit her lip. It was obvious for her, so she thought it was obvious for anyone else. But it rather looked as if she had to explain it.

"Trepe, last time we saw each other you tried to kill me. I guess you understand that all this is a bit uncomfortable for me? You can shower again before you piss off. Please." He even smiled. She wanted to punch him.

"And you tried to kill me and it is all over and I don´t want to talk about the war, this is not about the war! Not everything is about that damn war!"

His smile turned into a grin, but lucky for him he decided not to comment further.

"Listen, I never stopped using GF. So I´ll forget a lot and I will continue forgetting and I accept that, but that doesn´t mean that I want to forget relationships I have. Or had."

Seifer scratched his ugly beard, looking in a far corner. "You wanna befriend me so you don´t forget we´ve been friends some time ago?"

"Don´t make it sound like it´s stupid!" She grinded her teeth, leaning forward in her chair. This wasn´t going as she had thought it would.

"Oh no, that would be totally rude, right? Your reasoning is just so... interesting that I still don´t grasp why you actually came to Esthar for it."

Quistis leaned back and tried to calm down. Took a deep breath. Seifer looked a bit tense, maybe he actually expected her to assassinate him. As if they would´ve sent her for that… "I already forgot some important people in my life and it was pure chance that I remembered them. I don´t want it to happen again."

"And I don´t get a say in that?"

As if she would give him that easy way out! "And that´s why I´m here for ten days! Actually, just seven days, since it took so long to get here and I have to get back to work on time. So, what did you plan on doing today? Hunting some monsters? I´ll go with you if you don´t mind. And can you give me the wi-fi password? I didn´t get any signal on my way here and you were playing around on your computer yesterday, so I guess it works."

Seifer sat very still for a long time. "I don´t have wi-fi. And I won´t give you my laptop." With that he got up and back to his coffee machine. "You know what, Trepe, you don´t have to get to know me again. And I will absolutely not help you remember shit." He looked up from his cup, an icy stare in his pale blue eyes. Quistis wasn´t particularly bothered by it.

"Mhm. I still need to send a message. Xu will think you murdered me and send a rescue squad. You could just stop being difficult."

He started chuckling which was kind of unnerving. "She knows where I am and that you can easily wipe the floor with me. So the answer is still… no." When he walked over to the fridge she finally huffed and decided that she could mope on the couch until there was something better to do.

Despite popular belief, chocobos were in fact creatures straight from hell. They were angry killer birds and everyone who voluntarily got near them was definitely a little bit out of their mind. But apparently, cars where good at scaring off low-level monsters and maybe attracting high-level monsters and for reasons unknown to Quistis that was something they did not want. It was blatantly obvious that Seifer hoped she would just get in the car and drive away before she got on a chocobo, but he had also completely underestimated her determination to do what she had come here to do. She had always been good at that. SeeD at 15. No way she would shy away from a bird! Though it was a really mean bird, clucking all threateningly while she got up on its back and she was sure it made itself extra uncomfortable while they rode out into the desert. Seifer was sitting on the damn thing as if he hadn´t done anything else in his life, sporting another ugly T-shirt and some even uglier hat and still sandals. Living far away from people did that to someone. It was good that she was here, helping him regain a piece of his humanity. And maybe save his fashion sense.

"Where exactly are we going?" Quistis tried to keep her sunglasses on her sweat-slick nose. Maybe the hat wasn´t just a prime example of bad taste but of actual use. Quistis made a mental note to actually use the one she had taken with her on their next trip.

"There are some low-levels I want to look at a bit further north. Came down with the Lunar Cry."

She grunted and they continued riding for almost an hour. It got increasingly hot and her skin started itching uncomfortably, her throat dry and her butt hurting from the damn saddle and she was about to start complaining when Seifer pointed at something a little left.

"There they are. Come on, gimme the chocobo."

Even getting off the bird hurt… she slid down ungracefully, wondering how none of her training had prepared her a bit better for this. Fighting like this would be fun, though she was in a good mood to slaughter some damn monsters. Discreetly rubbing her behind she shot a look at a flat monster, no visible facial features, round body, six legs and some vents on the sides of its body. It was occasionally lowering its body to pick something of the ground, probably had its mouth below. Careful not to get caught in the dry shrubbery around her she walked closer. The way it looked she figured…

"Hey Seifer, what kind of magic does this thing use? Status change?"

He jogged next to her, unsheathing his gunblade. "Don´t know, I´ve just seen it a few times, but I didn´t bother with it. Wanted to get done with my actual order before satisfying my curiosity. Let´s find out."

She eyed him curiously. This wasn´t… "You´ve got a new gunblade."

He looked at it as if he hadn´t even realized it wasn´t Hyperion anymore. "The old one was kinda broken after the war. You know, eight years ago. And I´ve got so many spare items, I can upgrade it as much as I want." He shrugged, turning his attention back to the unknown monster.

"Hm." Quistis eyed the gunblade closer, trying to hide her envy. She had tried to upgrade Save the Queen here and there, but it was rather tedious to get items now that she wasn´t travelling the world extensively anymore. She had been willing to buy items instead of collecting them, but even that was a hard task since Seifer´s colleagues either didn´t get the stuff she needed or didn´t want to sell it. Shrugging, she decided that she was better off anyway. Seifer wasn´t junctioned and therefore he couldn´t even use his fancy weapon to its full extent.

"Just poke it a bit until it reacts, I´m gonna scan it when it attacks."

Quistis nodded and tried to carefully hit it, slicing a leg off in the process. The monster instantly started casting and Seifer got ready. When he raised his hand to cast the spell instead of using an item her eyes widened. That… asshole! She tried to stay calm, but her hands tightened around her whip. "So what is it?"

"Sleep and sometimes confusion. It´s weak, one hit kill. You wanna… what?" He frowned, clearly unaware of his slip.

"And how are you still so coherent after getting hit with sleep?"

Seifer rolled his eyes dramatically. Had he really thought she would let this pass? That he stole a GF? "How did you get it? That was sloppy, I expected better of you." With a flick of her wrist the monster was done, sliced in half and bleeding a muddy green into the sand.

"And suddenly you don´t want to be friends anymore, eh?" He grinned, but it didn´t reach his eyes. Quistis noticed the tight grip on his weapon and sighed silently. It could´ve been so nice.

"You know Seifer, being friends with criminals just takes more effort."

"I found it."

"But I can´t just put aside my duty as… excuse me?"

He gestured wildly with his gunblade in her direction. It was making her tense. "I found the GF. You can check, it´s not one of Garden´s."

"How…?" Was that even possible? He couldn´t draw it without a junction and actually fighting a GF without any extra help… you had to be crazy! Or very, very good.

"Fought it, won, it´s mine now. I used items. You know, my job."

She stared at him for a second before she cast scan. He was right, it was a GF she didn´t know, strong on magic and junctioning. She almost laughed at that, remembering his stats from teaching days. Not quite his thing, but if it worked… "How in Hyne´s name did you manage that?"

"Now now, Trepe, I may have fluked my exam a few times, but it´s not as if I don't know how to fight. Right?"

Right. Some very unpleasant past encounters with him were proof of that. Deciding that they were done with the talking, Seifer inspected the corpse, pocketed some stuff and then started slicing off a few pieces. It was incredibly disgusting.

"Mind telling me what you are doing?"

"What do you think? Feed it to the chocobos, we kinda need dinner."

Quistis looked back at the birds, deep in thought. "What?"

"Oh, have you forgotten? Are the GFs so bad that you actually forgotten some of the boring shit you made us study? 'An easy test to see if monsters are edible is to feed them to a chocobo. Chocobos only eat meat that doesn´t harm them and humans can eat anything a chocobo eats as well'" He looked at her expectantly, as if she would start reciting text books. If she ever learned that, she had rightfully forgotten about it.

"Survival training. Guess you missed that day." He tossed her a leg. She almost cut off his hand with her whip.

He knew that she knew how he tried to get rid of her. It annoyed him to no end that that wasn´t enough to make her leave, somehow activating that part of her that just wanted to piss him off. She didn´t even realize that she was contradicting her agenda with that, making sure he wouldn´t help her shit with remembering some past great moments and especially not trying to go back to those times. The little he could recall he still knew that he had been highly disappointed that his two new frien… acquaintances had managed to pass the exam and he hadn´t. And instead of trying to spare his feelings, Trepe had found out what a bitch she could be.

And besides that… There was just no way that she really wanted to hang out with him. Even if she didn´t have any hard feelings left from the war (impossible), completely believing that most of it was Ultimecia´s fault (ridiculous), ignoring that he had tried his best to ruin her career as a teacher (doubtful) there was simply nothing that connected them.

Except for the orphanage. He read about it, how they had saved the world through the power of friendship and how they all felt some kind of personal revelation to find out they used to hang out as five year olds. And that he was the only one missing from their tiny sect of fate praising friendship addicts. He just thought that Trepe of all people would be above that. Besides Leonhart and maybe Dincht she definitely had reason to hate him. Maybe not as much as the Trabia girl, but still. With Trepe, was personal. And here she was, occupying his precious little life, questioning his choices (especially his clothes, but who was the one getting a nasty sunburn?) and disturbing the peace. He found out he liked the peace. He had to tell Raijin asap. It wasn´t all that hard outrunning her for some private time with his laptop, city dweller had pulled a muscle in her butt. And it was so satisfying to watch.

AN: Fyi… I did some research and I had in mind that sometime during the game it was stated how often Seifer failed the exam but it was just 'a lot of times' and I thought maybe some faninfo thingie said how old Xu is but nada, so I made her two years older than Quistis. Considering Garden let 15 year olds fight in wars and 17 year olds teach soldiers I guess Xu´s rank in the game is reasonable for someone who is 20. Also that way they all could take their first exam together for story reasons!

See you next time!