Apathy

AN: This little story was written for the prompt 'two miserable people meeting at a wedding AU' with Seifer and Zell as characters.

It came from elliemars, one of the few still active FF8 writers who writes superb FFs, so go check her out!

The first chapter was written as a drabble, but I decided to wrap it up in one or two additional chapters. SO warnings, for this one only slightly bad language, for the next chapters there will be smut!

Have fun!

At least the food was good. Sometimes you had to make the best of a situation and since everything at the wedding depressed him at best and downright angered him at worst, Zell decided to just try everything offered at the banquet, feign a good mood and leave at the earliest possible time which would still be polite. A very good plan. And the crabs were delicious.

He looked around, Quistis was just talking with someone across the room and he couldn´t see Selphie anywhere. With a sigh, he took his full plate and walked over to the balcony. He would stay, but that didn´t mean he wanted to engage and pretend to like it even more than absolutely necessary.

"This is just for smoking."

Or maybe he couldn´t get away from it after all.

"It´s a balcony, I can eat here if I want to!"

The tall blonde with the cigarette grinned like an asshole. No surprises.

"Yeah but when I smoke here, I´ve got a reason, but when you stuff yourself, it looks like you want to get away."

Zell eyed him for a few seconds. Of course that was exactly what he did, but… he didn´t want it to be so obvious.

"No, of course not. The air inside is so bad."

The other one finished his cigarette, not trying to argue the point any more. He sighed when he threw it over the railing. "What´s the problem, screwed one of the bridesmaids?"

Zell almost chocked on his tiny sandwich. That was almost too close to the truth.

"Are you running away from someone? You look so guilty."

The blonde smirked, but it wasn´t really convincing.

"The bride… is my ex. I think she invited me to make me suffer."

Zell almost laughed, but disguised it as a cough. A really bad one. "Yeah, I can see Rinoa doing something like that. What did you do? Did you cheat? Did you insult her? Did you tell her her hair looks stupid?"

"Her hair doesn´t look stupid!"

Or did she break up with you. Maybe the evening could take a nice turn, wallowing in self pity was best in company.

"Obviously she likes you a lot, I mean who invites an ex to their own wedding, eh? Or maybe she just wanted to rub it in and you were stupid enough to come here anyway."

"Says the guy with the fucking face tattoo. Don´t tell me about bad life choices."

Zell snorted. You needed guts to wear a face tattoo, Rinoa´s ex wasn´t even close to that.

"I take it back, by the way. I guess you´re here because no one wanted to screw you."

"Excuse me you fucking hooligan, I was invited by my ex as well. And since we´re friends I came. For friendship."

The blonde laughed and Zell contemplated punching him for a second. The feeling of a broken nose under his fist was always soothing and nice.

"You fucked Rinoa? She really lost every little bit of taste after me, holy shit."

Looked like he would faint from laughing too much. Zell shoved his plate on the railing, getting in the right position to do some harm. He would give him just one more chance.

"Squall´s my ex."

At least he stopped laughing, though the look of horror on his face wasn´t really better.

"How in the name of everything that´s holy did you get it on with that weird bastard?"

How indeed. Zell had wondered about that for a while now, especially when he sat there, looking at the happy couple staring at each other, everyone around him bawling their eyes out and all he could think of was how Squall had never looked at him like that. Maybe he had just imagined it, maybe it hadn´t even happened, maybe he should just leave because he couldn´t take it, everything, and Quistis of all people should understand it. But Quistis always did the right thing.

"Fuck this shit, I´m leaving. Have fun with your hiding place, asshole."

"I´m Seifer."

Zell frowned, trying to pretend to think hard. "And I absolutely don´t care. Have a nice rest of your life."

"How about we both get drunk right now and forget this day ever existed."

He didn´t even argue. It didn´t matter. He wouldn´t feel so alone that way, a good idea after all.

"I know a place not so far away, it´s a bit shabby but you know. Not so frequented."

Two hours later Zell felt perfectly blissful, though everything was slightly wobbly. Seifer turned out to be the perfect drinking partner, no lightweight and a fitting story about Rinoa for everything bad Zell had to say about Squall. Also one for everything good Zell had to say to make up for saying something bad in the first place. He couldn´t badmouth Squall, not on his wedding day. Or ever.

"I… I guess I head home. You need a drive?"

Seifer looked up, his head lying on his arm while he drew circles on the counter. "You´ve got more tattoos than that ugly one?"

Zell kicked him, but it wasn´t very vicious. "What do you care? Do you need a car?"

"I wondered all evening." He drank the last bit of his whiskey and closed his eyes. Zell couldn´t do it, though he was tempted. He couldn´t leave him, eventually getting kicked out, he deserved it but Zell was not that kind of an asshole.

"Come on, you can sleep at my place, you heavy motherfucker, might wanna help with your own feet a bit?"

Seifer slurred something he couldn´t quite understand but he got on his feet. Stayed on them until they reached the apartment, a horribly long walk. He was asleep before his head was on the couch.

He woke up with a headache and the taste of death on his tongue. And remembering why he got wasted in the first place. Slowly crawling out of bed, he tried not to fall over his jeans on the way out. Funny how he managed to get rid of them, it was all pretty blurry after he dumped Seifer in his living room… where he still was, snoring and defying gravity, most of his body was already hanging off of the couch. He didn´t feel particularly interested in waking him up and maybe he would already be gone when he got out of the shower. Sounded good.

Twenty minutes later he was still there and he was also still there after Zell came back from buying something for breakfast. Although the thought of throwing bread at him was rather compelling, Zell shrugged it off, finished eating and got ready for the gym. Best way to get the head clear was still a good workout.

Just when he put on his jacket he heard a rustle and shortly afterwards a loud thump. A pained groan. He hesitated, his jacket halfway on. The guy was a total stranger, he couldn´t just leave him there, but he also didn´t want to deal with him. Another loud groan. Rolling his eyes, Zell took the jacket off again and trotted over to the living room.

"I don´t know why your groaning so much, you slept enough to feel good again."

"I hit my head on the floor."

Coudn´t have been too hard, he was lying face down on the carpet. Zell assumed he probably didn´t want to know when he vacuumed the last time.

"Yeah, so I was on my way out and I kinda can´t leave you here all awake, so could you… leave?"

Seifer didn´t move. Maybe he died suddenly.

"You mind if I stay a bit longer?"

Obviously. Rolling his eyes, he walked over to him, absolutely content with picking him up and kicking him out.

"I´m a cop. I won´t steal anything."

"First of all, that isn´t making you any more trustworthy and I just don´t want to… oh fuck it, I´ll be gone for a few hours, I´d prefer not seeing you here anymore later."

Seifer tried waving him off, but his arm was not very responsive. Zell just hoped he wasn´t going to regret it. But then again he felt way too bad to think too much about it.

Late afternoon, some additional food in a bag and he was still there. Lying on the couch, a pillow over his head. First thing he noticed were the clothes he was wearing, T-shirt and boxers. A bit too tight. Looked like Zell´s.

"Hey, thought I told you to piss off and not go through my stuff!"

Some grunted noise, the arm that lay on the pillow lifted it a bit.

"I didn´t go through anything. Saw a closet, found some clothes, put them on."

"Yeah, and where are yours?"

"Washing machine. Didn´t go through your stuff as well, I showered and it was standing there." He waved his hand. "I´ll go when it´s done, okay?"

Zell threw his bags in the kitchen, trying to calm down. He could still kick him out later, right now he just wanted to eat something.

Half an hour and he had prepared two plates, he wasn´t that kind of an asshole. Again. Maybe he should start to become exactly like that. But then again Seifer would stay at least for another half hour anyway, his clothes were still in the dryer.

"You want something?"

Seifer looked up, the pillow finally gone. He just stared at the ceiling.

"You don´t look too well."

"Last night was… awful and I´m obviously not as energetic as you are." He moved over to the counter, not even looking at what he got. Just started eating. "So, Zell, do you have a job?"

"Excuse me? You really got some nerve!"

He waved his fork around, not very distressed. "I mean, you weren´t going anywhere today. That´s all."

"I`m an athlete. Karate. And wasn´t I gone for a few hours just… like just now?"

Now he looked at him, all up and down, trying to see the evidence for that. Zell wanted to stab his fork into Seifer´s eye.

"Ah. Makes sense. I´m not usually hanging out at stranger´s apartments, sorry about that. I´m from Deling City and going back to my hotel room was…"

He looked away, his jaw muscles tense. Zell knew what he meant, the reason he probably was unconsciously okay with him staying. He didn´t want to be alone as well. They had both been invited because they had been close, but neither Rinoa nor Squall realized how fucking awful it was. Not everyone wanted to share their happiness.

"It´s okay, don´t worry about it. Hey, you wanna watch something?"

Seifer shrugged. Slowly chewed his brokkoli.

Maybe he could stay a little bit longer. Maybe Zell didn´t mind a little bit of company. Maybe it wasn´t all that bad that he didn´t know Seifer at all.

Maybe… he was just so completely different from Squall that he made Zell forget him for a while.