Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or any of its characters. I simply own the characters that I created, Ceri.

A/N: Story takes place after the game, assuming that Seifer has been back at the garden permanently for some time now.
Meant to be a nice simple scene; a little Christmas piece.

Enjoy~

Chapter 1 – Lost and Trapped

She blew her nose. Ten seconds later, she needed to blow her nose again. I hate this! It was Christmas, and nature decided to bless Ceri with a special sort of gift – an infuriating cold. She had already used up one whole roll of toilet paper in order to clear up her nasal congestion (tissue paper was too thin), but all efforts seemed to be futile. It simply would not empty out, and the disgusting liquid just kept clogging up her nose as if she was its enemy!

Why did this have to happen now? She was supposed to be out there celebrating with those crazy friends of hers and torturing her stomach by jamming it in with great food! Instead, she was being tortured by her own nose. Her throat was also starting to feel funny to her. All of this had to happen on Christmas. With my immune system, it'd be a miracle if I can heal over night. She didn't even do anything prior that would cause her to catch this. Can this get any worse?

Ceri had been trying to read the magazine in front of her for at least ten minutes now, but she was constantly interrupted by the motion of unrolling more toilet paper, clearing out her nose, and throwing the crumbled, filthy particle into the garbage bin next to her, which was starting to get full again.

Her nose's physical condition wasn't any better. It had already been so scuffed up by the rough texture of the tissue that it was quite red with skin beginning to peel off. In a way, Ceri resembled Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, only more painful. Although, she doubted that his red nose would hurt or that he needed to put lotion on it to keep it from hurting.

As much as she wished to put lotion on her cursed nose, she couldn't possibly do that without blocking her already miniscule method of breathing. Even if the cream did not bother her, each time she blew her nose, which was becoming increasingly frequent, it'd come off, and then the substance would be mixed with what came out. The combination was simply too dreadful for Ceri to deal with.

"ehhhhh…." Ceri dragged out, thinking that perhaps if she voiced her pain that it'd go away. It didn't. If anything, her nose clogged up again. When will this stop? It didn't feel this way last time I got sick, did I? It wasn't that long ago either…Someone needs to help me change this garbage bin. I don't want to move! I wonder if he's done in the kitchen yet…

She turned in order to look in the general direction, but all she saw was an occasional flicker of blond hair and body movement. As she moved a little bit more to try to see exactly what was going on, she heard a loud shout of "Ah! Damn it! freaking…" and other mumblings of the sort. However, just as she was about to move from her chair, she was hit by a dizzy spell.

"Knock, Knock!!" Selphie shouted as she pounded on the door. "I know you're in there, Ceri! I come bearing gifts!"

"…'oming…" Ceri said while reluctantly getting up to let the hyperactive girl in. She really didn't want to deal with anymore visitors now, but Ceri knew that Selphie was probably here since she couldn't make it to their Christmas dinner…potluck…party…or something along those lines. She really didn't want to process anything at the moment.

"Oh Ceri…" Selphie said at the sight of her sickly friend as she entered Ceri's dorm. "Sit! Sit! I'll put down the presents here by the table! I was just dropping by to see how you were. I'm so sorry that you're sick! You're going to miss out on so much at our…" Selphie continued, but Ceri was no longer listening.

Ceri was trying to best of her abilities to blow her nose without being rude, and it was proving to be a very difficult task. She tried to simply wipe the annoying fluid off, but it was only worsening the conditions of her philtrum, what with the rough brushing of the toilet paper and all.

What's worse was that the longer she was sitting there, the dizzier she got. Not only that, she was starting to feel extremely cold as if she could sense her body temperature lower by degrees within minutes. Then, sometimes it would go back up, but she still felt extremely cold. Her entire hand was cold with the tips feeling like ice. This is so bad…Help, please…where are you…?