New Seed

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31 January 2015

This is a FFVIII fic by klepto_maniac0. I own no concepts and no characters except the ones you've never heard of, which means they're ones I've made. I freely admit I will take liberties with the FFVIII canon because this is an alternate universe fic. That's why some details are different, some events are ignored, and some people don't exist or act in a different capacity. Ain't fanfic fun?

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Oh my god, I can't believe it

I've never been this far away from home

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Seifer wasn't the sort to blaze through his tests, but one week he was finishing a quiz early and happened to glance up at the front of the desk. To his surprise, Instructor Trepe seemed to be looking at him, or more accurately spacing out in his direction.

Because there was no reason why she'd be looking at him with glazed-over eyes, the end of a pencil between her lips, idly swirling her tongue around the eraser in a distinctly erotic way.

Seifer froze. He had been about to stretch, but seeing Instructor Trepe obviously in the middle of some fantasy made him feel incredibly awkward and he did not want to draw any attention to himself. Not moving a muscle, he glanced from side to side to see if anyone else had noticed what was going on. Nobody was moving. Everyone was concentrating on their consoles, pushing buttons or typing short answers depending on where they were. Seifer glanced at Instructor Trepe again and this time tracked her line of sight. As he'd thought, she wasn't looking at him, but rather at Squall Leonhart.

"Well isn't that interesting," thought Seifer with a silent laugh. He rolled his shoulders instead of stretching and went back to his test, which was suddenly much harder to concentrate on. About four more questions in, Seifer glanced up at Instructor Trepe and noticed that she seemed to be leaning down in her chair and her non-pencil-holding hand was nowhere to be seen.

"No. Fucking. Way."

She was still spacing out and looking directly at Squall Leonhart, and Seifer started to sweat as he became more convinced that Quistis was secretly the biggest freak he had ever encountered. Seifer shifted in his seat as he wondered if Squall had any idea that one of the most desired women in the Garden wanted to do unspeakably dirty things to him. There was no question in Seifer's mind that Quistis Trepe was at least in the top ten—no, top FIVE—and Leonhart should be honored to feature in her filthy imaginings. Of course, he'd probably go "Whatever" like he did to everything, which pissed Seifer off. Why, if Quistis had been thinking about him...

"Jumped-up bitch is only four months older than me and a full SeeD? Life isn't fair, but it does have a way of balancing out... I could probably teach our dear Instructor a thing or two... Ah, fuck," thought Seifer as his display flashed, showing that there were five minutes left in the exam. At once the room came alive with clicking and rustling as people frantically tried to cram in their last, best answers. Seifer was mostly done except for a few multiple choice questions, so he guessed on all of those, tidied up his short answers, and hit 'submit' with twenty-two seconds to spare. When he sighed in relief and looked up, however, he was alone in the room except for Instructor Trepe.

"Fuck," he swore, this time aloud.

"There's nothing wrong with finishing a test last," she told him reasonably, the kindest she'd spoken to him in months. "As long as you finish it well."

"I think I did pretty good," he said with a grin. As he gathered his bag, he said, "The students have been behaving themselves, so there's not much for me to do."

She nodded politely. "Then spend your time well, Seifer."

He nodded just as politely at the dismissal and left, a spring in his step and a grin nearly splitting his face. He sought out Fujin and Raijin immediately and mindful of the Instructor's reputation, took them on a 'walk' to the secret area, which at this time of day was deserted. And then he told them.

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Fujin gasped, her face turning bright red. Raijin hooted and hollered. Seifer threw back his head and laughed.

"I know!" He exclaimed happily. "Can you fucking believe it?"

"No," said Raijin, chortling. "She's always been such a bi—ice queen," he corrected quickly as Fujin glared at him; she had strong feelings about the B-word and other gendered slurs, which was why Seifer and Raijin didn't use them.

"MISTAKE," said Fujin, folding her arms. "MUST BE."

"Well she sure as hell wasn't looking at me," said Seifer, which made Raijin laugh again. Fujin cocked her head.

"WHY NOT?"

"Because she hates me?" Seifer laughed and shook his head, saying, "I know I'm dead sexy and all, but I'm pretty sure I'd know if she liked me that way."

"NOT ALWAYS."

"An' she doesn't hate you," said Raijin thoughtfully, making Seifer look at him. "She's just disappointed in you an awful lot."

"Thanks," said Seifer flatly, though it sailed over Raijin's head. "Though we'll see what she says about this last test. I think I nailed it."

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"What do you mean, I failed?" Seifer asked in a voice trembling with shock.

He found himself in the Headmaster's office with Cid, Xu, and Quistis. Cid looked apologetic like he always did during cases of academic misconduct; Seifer had been at his side plenty of times whenever he had to deal with a disciplinary case, and Cid being such a cream puff meant that Seifer often had to play the hard guy. Obviously that was Xu's role today, not that she didn't enjoy it; she was actively smirking at him, the bitch. She had always hated him for some reason. So Seifer looked at Quistis, who had her arms tightly folded and her lips pressed to a thin, disapproving line.

"Seifer, all your responses were identical to another student's," said Quistis, her voice low.

"So I failed because you think I cheated?" Seifer fought to keep his voice under control, but it was nearly impossible with Xu the Bitch smirking at him, Quistis looking at him like he was something on her shoe, and Cid standing there doing nothing. "I'm the Head of the Disciplinary Committee! I chase people down for this shit every day! Why would I do it?"

"Because your grades are awful," said Xu, making him glare at her. "It's not hard to imagine you getting desperate. Failing this written exam means you don't get to the take the SeeD field exam...again."

Seifer gritted his teeth and looked at Cid. "Tell them!" He demanded of the man, who looked away. "Headmaster, you know I wouldn't do this!"

"I agree," said Quistis, making Seifer look at her suddenly. Though she looked at him, her comment seemed directed more at Xu when she said, "Seifer is too proud to cheat. And the consoles have been known to trade answers before. Are you willing to take a retest, Seifer?"

"Yes! Let's do it now!" Better to do it when the material was still fresh in his head.

"Good," said Quistis, straightening her glasses. "The tests are on paper this time and I'll grade them myself. If you'll follow me to the classroom."

Seifer followed, trailed by Xu and Cid. As they walked to the classroom, Seifer fumed and swore at Quistis in his head. Giving him a retest instead of trusting him, who did she think she was? She'd probably fucked up his grades herself when she was thinking about banging Squall Leonhart instead of keeping her eye on her work! And naturally he was suffering. Seifer mentally added another checkmark to "reasons to kick the shit out of Squall" list.

There was another student there when Seifer came into the classroom and he experienced another surge of irritation that he'd been the one called up instead of this dumbass nobody. But wasn't that the life, nobody liked him or trusted him, so despite being head of the Disciplinary Committee and making sure the Garden ran nice and smooth in the halls, Seifer was the one hauled up on his ear.

He was so worked up by his half-imagined persecution that Seifer almost didn't see the way the student paled at the sight of them, though the boy sliding out of his console and falling to his knees definitely got his attention.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" The student wailed immediately, bowing frantically to the four of them. Seifer glanced back to look at Cid and Xu, who seemed stunned. "I didn't know I was stealing his answers, I'm so sorry, don't expel me!"

"...Well," said Quistis, looking back at Seifer. To his surprise, there was a smile on her usually cool face. "I guess that's that."

"I guess it is," said Seifer, cracking his knuckles. The student dropped into a kowtow and held it, trembling. "On your feet, you idiot. Don't be disgusting when you make a mistake. Apologize to the Instructor and the Headmasters for wasting their time."

"Now, now, that's not necessary," said Cid, gratefully stepping into a role he was more comfortable with. To the student, he said, "Come up to my office and we'll talk about this. Seifer, I trust you'll be discreet?"

"Always, Headmaster," said Seifer with a nod. He didn't want to be, but Cid didn't ask many things of him. Xu looked vaguely disappointed as she left with Cid, leaving Seifer alone with Quistis in the classroom.

"So," he said to her. "I'm too proud to cheat?"

"I think so," said Quistis, folding her arms. "You always do things the hard way... But your own way and nobody else's. When I saw your name on the identical tests, I thought there had to be a mistake with the consoles. But then I talked to Xu and she got carried away—"

"—because she hates me."

"—because that's how she is," said Quistis with a frown. "And that's how it all blew up. I'm sorry you went through that."

Seifer exhaled forcefully, but this grievance was too fresh to let go of. "Why didn't you just talk to me first?" He asked.

"I..." Quistis hugged her arm and glanced off to the side, saying, "I didn't want to put you on the spot in case I was wrong."

"So hauling me up was better?"

"No." She sighed irritably and looked at him. "My intention was to match the grades against your usual testing average and compare them to the other student's testing average. Statistically, this would prove whose test answers were most likely the original since students tend to score about fifteen percent above or below their average."

"Wow," said Seifer, leaning back a bit. "All that math just so you don't have to talk to me, huh?"

"Math doesn't lie."

"You think I'd lie?"

Seifer half-expected Quistis to deny such a thing, but to his surprise he saw a hard glint come into her blue eyes.

"Everybody lies," she said in a voice that sent a little shiver down his spine. In a more normal voice she said, "Anyway, it all worked out. Have a pleasant rest of the day."

"What about you?" He asked her, making her look at him strangely. "What are you doing for the rest of the day?"

"I...don't see how that's any of your business, Seifer."

Seifer opened his mouth, but no words came out. In fact, the longer he stood there, staring at Quistis with his mouth slightly agape, the more Seifer realized that he had no idea of what to say or even why he'd asked her about her schedule.

"You're right," he said, shaking his head. "It's not. Sorry."

Quistis looked at him for a moment and to Seifer's surprise, patted him on the shoulder. "Maybe you should take a rest," she told him. Again that rare smile graced her face as she said, "And you did very well, by the way. A perfect score. See you in the field exam."

"Alright," said Seifer, now grinning broadly.

That night Seifer lay awake in bed, arms pillowing his head, and wondered what the hell he'd been thinking. Alright, so he wasn't exactly 100% when it came to telling if girls liked him, but he knew sure as shit if he liked one of them and he did not like Quistis Trepe in that way. Nope. She was stone cold, strict as hell, and if he wanted to get crass with it, she was not curvy enough for his liking. Most SeeD women weren't, a consequence of kicking ass for a living.

Still... He thought of the way she'd played with that pencil eraser, completely unaware that he'd seen her, and felt a surge of sensation below the belt.

"I bet she was thinking about cake," he thought, nevertheless reaching down to undo his belt. "Or ice cream. It's been hot. She probably wanted to get a popsicle from the cafeteria..."

The sudden banging on his door made Seifer sit up with murder in his heart, shouting "WHAT?!" at the door.

"What yourself!" boomed Raijin, making Seifer roll his eyes and curse. "Come on, why are you in bed already?"

"It's night and I'm tired!"

"You aren't even a liiiiittle interested in kicking some stoners in the secret area? Fujin's got 'em pinned down."

Seifer did perk up at that. There had been an uptick in recreational drug use at the Garden and they'd been looking for a supplier for weeks.

"Okay, you got me," said Seifer, rolling out of bed. "Let's go take some names."

Raijin laughed on the other side of the door.

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Quistis had most decidedly not been thinking about cake that day.

She was single by choice since there were very few men in the Garden, older or otherwise, who could keep up with her intellectually and also appreciate her humor. Nevertheless she daydreamed about romance and other, more heated things. Her secret shame was that she read erotica on the 'Net and had recently begun to post some of her own creations under a nom de plume. To her surprise, people on the other side of the screen actually seemed to like what she wrote. And when she started drawing, oof. She had actually examined her contract when people began offering her money to draw things for them and amazingly, there was nothing in her Instructor contract that said she wasn't allowed to have an 18+ side business.

It was exciting and arousing, but it also meant she had to get creative. Rapidly Quistis decided that she'd rather set the price on her original works rather than obey random desires (some of which were very strange to her; why did so many people enjoy the idea of being eaten so much?), so she began releasing pinups about her own erotic imaginings, changing hair colors and body types so nobody looking at her work would ever imagine that Quistis Trepe was the one drawing all the smut.

And the money just flowed in, which was nice too.

Then one day Quistis was approached by a respected website that specialized in female-driven erotica and was offered a sizable amount for creating a short story for an anthology. Quistis checked with several of her online, erotica-creating friends and decided to go for it, though it did require less sleep and a certain amount of creativity when it came to things like storytelling and art direction.

And then there was the problem of what to actually draw.

When there was no pressure, she could draw anything. But when there was, her mind seemed to dry up. Quistis went back to files of ideas she'd compiled, but nothing leapt at her enough to inspire her. It wasn't until the test administration that she suddenly got a seed of an idea, just almost casually noticing how much space there was underneath her desk.

The students were busy taking their tests, so Quistis chewed on her pencil as she glanced stealthily around to make sure everyone was occupied. Satisfied, she pressed the height adjuster on her chair and slid down a little as the seat eased down with an audible hiss of hydraulics. She measured the space by sticking her legs out and touching her heels to the solid front of the desk. It was very spacious down here. Easily large enough to hide someone doing something they shouldn't.

As she slid down, her skirt rode up a little bit and inspiration struck as Quistis realized she'd encountered plenty of male teacher crush creations, but very few well-done female ones that were more than male wish fulfillment. She started to grin a little bit and plan out her scenario, imagining some handsome student hiding underneath her desk, doing what she wanted... Ooh. Quistis sat up and put on an attentive face as students finished their tests and left, but her mind was already whirling with possibilities. She tried not to be impatient as the last few stragglers turned their work in. Surprisingly, Seifer stayed until the very end. It wasn't like him to have trouble with tests.

"Fuck," he swore as he lifted his head and looked around.

"There's nothing wrong with finishing a test last," Quistis told him. "As long as you finish it well."

Personally she had some doubts about that, though she could admit that his grades had improved a fair amount over the past year. She tried not to inflate her ego about it; he was probably doing well in all his classes, not just hers.

"I think I did pretty good," he said with a grin. As Seifer picked up his bag, he said, "The students have been behaving themselves, so there's not much for me to do."

Quistis nodded politely. "Then spend your time well, Seifer."

He nodded politely back, but not before she caught a glint in his sea-green eyes that she recognized as a bit of mischief, a bit of rogue, and all trouble. As he left, she bit her lip as another bolt of inspiration hit. She only prayed that Seifer or anyone who knew him would not recognize the work she was about to create, because his fictional counterpart was going to get schooled...badly.

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a/n: First foray into smutfic. The version on A03 is considerably more pornographic and I don't normally cross-post, but the problem is that I hate A03's user interface. The stat tracking for this site is so much more rewarding.

For art associated with this fic, check out klepto-maniac0. tumblr. com

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