Shuffle, Shuffle, Shuffle. Pick a card off the top. Bad card. Shuffle, Shuffle, Shuffle. Pick? Mediocre card. Shuffle, Shuffle, Shuffle. Pick? Card with Zell's face on it. Crumple it up and toss it in the garbage bin.

'Of all the guys to win the triple triad sweepstakes it had to be Zell.'

"Listen Squall I'm not gonna lie its been entertaining and all watching you check out your cards for the past eight minutes but can't we do something else?"

Squall refuses to look at Irvine and starts putting together a deck.

"Want to play instead?"

"Squall do you do anything besides play cards or do missions?"

"Yeah, I lead this Garden to command and ensure the safety of hundreds of students. What do you do?"

Irvine clicks his tongue twice. "Break hearts all around the world. Speaking of hearts, where's Miss Rinoa? I haven't seen her in a while."

"She's been at Timber for the past couple of weeks. It takes time to re-establish a nation's government."

"You know what else takes time? Playing card games. How many years of your life has been wasted on this junk."

Squall stands up to go go work, adjusting the deck onto its holster and then attaches it to his belt. "Say that again and I'll throw you off this garden."

"Pssh you wouldn't dare."

"You're right. I'd order Zell and Seifer to."

"...Couldn't you at least get Quistis to?"

[_]

/Knock Knock/

"Squall." Seifer enters the office with a stack of papers.

"That's Commander Lionheart to you."

Siefer drops the heavy stack onto Squall's desk. He then leans over it to give Squall a harsh look.

"Listen I don't have time for your phony title or secretary duties. As leader of the disciplinary committee I'm a busy man. Find someone else to get your paperwork for you."

Squall takes a paper off the top and glances over it. "Busy? Is that why I get reports of you picking a fight with Zell every other day?"

"He was breaking the rules!"

Squall puts the paper down and grabs his coffee mug. "Listen Seifer I can't promote you if you refuse to cooperate with others."

"No. No, I refuse to hear this from you Squall. You are the last person to lecture me on this!"

Squall puts the mug to his lips before continuing. "Or the most qualified."

Seifer slaps the stack of papers and they fly everywhere. He storms out of the room not looking back. Squall spares a glance at the papers before taking a sip. He then puts the the mug down and gets out of his chair, staring blankly ahead.

"Oh no I can't find my papers. I guess I should leave and go look for them. Maybe ask around if anyone's seen them."

Squall leaves the room, but not before grabbing his deck from the top drawer beforehand.

[_]

"Uh Squall?"

"What Zell?"

"Should you being doing like work or something?"

Squall slams down a card, its total allowing him the victory. The student five years Squall's junior glumly passes him some cards as is custom. Squall however puts his hand out, fingers up palm outward to reject them. The moment all the more surreal as the best out of three match had taken place in the middle of one Balamb's outside halls, occasional student and SeeD passerby forced to move around their playing. ...Well as more surreal as the savior of the world (timeline?) and mercenary company leader schooling one of his mercs-in-training in a card game could be.

"What have you learned today?"

"To never skip class again..."

"No, you learned every decision has its cost. To not overestimate your abilities and..." Zell can see the gears turning in his head. "Never spend your good cards on a random match."

The kids pulls his cards back and organizes them into his holster. He stands back up, smiling and bowing. "Thank you sir."

"You're welcome. Now head back to class." The student barely has time to turn around and leave before- "And stay in your homeroom after classes end. You have hand-to-hand combat training for the next two weeks with SeeD Zell Dincht. Understood?"

The student hangs his head before mumbling a 'yes sir' and heading back to class. Meanwhile Zell is a bit miffed.

"What the- What did I do?!"

Squall shrugs and lays against the wall, arms crossed and eyes closed as if to take a nap. Passerby be damned. Though he barely has time to assume his position as the familiar click of heels echo by. When he opens his eyes, Quistis is there as expected.

"Squall you are three hours behind on your paperwork. Now you're gonna be late for your meeting, not to mention-"

Squall gets up and walks with Quistis back to his office, tuning out and only catching the odd word she says. As they walk he refuses to look back and see Zell's smug grin. Though he tried to avoid it, the grin from Zell's card pops into his head to fill in the blanks. Squall's posture falters ever so slightly.

'I knew this day was gonna be rough'