Quistis Trepe was fighting sleep as she sat a conference table listening to Xu give a speech about appropriate use of magic on the battlefield. It was meant to be an informational session that would help the instructors teach the information to their students, but as efficient a SeeD as Xu was, she was not a teacher. Her meetings were always dry and rigid, just as you would expect a hardened soldier's meetings to be.
To her left, Zell Dincht sat twiddling his thumbs, his bleach-blonde Mohawk flopping slightly to one side. He had arrived late to the meeting and hadn't had time to properly style his trademark hair. He clacked his nails against the polished wooden surface of the conference table until Xu turned sharply to face him and pursed her lips. He quickly folded his hands in his lap and the petite brunette to his left snickered.
"Something you'd like to share with everyone, Selphie?" Xu snapped.
The brunette sat up straight. "No, Xu. Sorry."
Quistis sighed. It felt like being a cadet again, only less fun. Across the table, the seat normally reserved for Squall, head commander of the SeeDs, was noticeably empty. It wasn't like Squall to miss meetings. Despite how much Rinoa had changed him for the better, he was still a product of a military upbringing and he followed his schedules rigidly.
Zell followed Quistis' gaze to the empty chair next to Xu.
"You seen Squall today?"
Quistis shook her head and spoke softly. "I came straight from my apartment. I wonder if he's sick. He doesn't usually miss meetings."
"Irvine said he saw him and Rinoa leaving at like three in the morning."
Selphie was listening in and she bristled noticeably at the mention of Irvine. Quistis frowned at Zell.
"What? I can't even say his name now? Geez, Selph."
She stuck her nose up and folded her arms over her chest. "I don't know what you're talking about. I wasn't even listening."
Zell sighed and rolled his eyes. "Anyway, you-know-who said he saw Squall and Rinoa this morning heading for the garage."
"What were they doing leaving Garden at that hour?"
"AHEM," Xu cleared her throat loudly. The rest of the room turned to stare at Quistis and Zell. "Should I give the floor to you or may I continue?"
"Sorry," Zell muttered. "It was my fault."
"I don't doubt it," Xu turned back to her presentation.
Quistis was wildly curious about why Squall and Rinoa would have left Garden without notice at three in the morning. Rinoa was certainly more impulsive than Squall, but they had settled into a life of semi-domesticity and something that impulsive was out of the norm. She wanted to press Zell about it, but she didn't want to get snapped at by Xu again. She was lucky she had been given a teaching position again after her first failure; she didn't need to do anything to compromise it.
The meeting mercifully ended fifteen minutes later and everyone hurried out of the room except Nida, who stayed behind to kiss Xu's ass with the goal of a promotion, as usual. Selphie darted ahead of them; probably worried they would seek out Irvine for more information. She had not been handling the breakup well.
"So did Irvine say anything else?" Quistis pried.
Zell shrugged. "He didn't follow them. He was with some girl at the training center."
Quistis sneered. "Already? They haven't been broken up that long."
"You know Irvine," Zell passed over the statement. "I tried calling Squall's cell, but he's not picking up. I wonder what they could have left for."
"Maybe Rinoa's father is ill," Quistis suggested.
"Yeah, maybe, but doubtful. You know how Rinoa is with her dad. I don't know if she'd even turn out for his funeral. I think it's gotta be something else."
"I guess we'll have to wait until they get back. No sense sitting around wasting time wondering, is there? You have a class to teach in half an hour."
"Thanks for keeping me on task, instructor," Zell curled his lip. "I'm going to see Layla before class. Let me know if you hear anything about Squall and Rinoa!" He tapped Quistis' shoulder in what he thought was a gentle fashion, but Zell often underestimated his own strength. Quistis stumbled forward and righted herself before she could fall.
She didn't have any classes to teach on Tuesdays and she hadn't scheduled any meetings besides the one she'd just left, so Quistis found herself full of curiosity and a full day to kill. She briefly considered looking for Irvine, but Zell had admitted that the sharpshooting cowboy probably didn't know much more about it than they did at this point. Perhaps blowing off some steam in the training center would do her some good. She'd been busy training to be an instructor again and had been neglecting any actual frontline battling.
With her mind made up, she headed for her apartment amongst the cadet dormitories to change into her training gear and grab her chain whip, Save the Queen, for a nice long session in the training center.
"Almasy, get up," Fragey was knocking his nightstick on the bars of Seifer's cell to wake him.
He had been passed out since they'd thrown him in after his phone call the night before. Now he was up with a start. He sat straight up, grabbed his head, and vomited on the floor beside his bed. His head felt like someone had stuck it in a vice, his heart pounding in his ears. Beneath the pain of his hangover his wounds ached worse than the day before.
"Fuck me," he groaned. "I feel like death."
"You've got visitors," Fragey said with a mixture of surprise and annoyance.
Seifer looked up and tried to remember what stupid decision he had made the previous night. The answer was immediately clear.
Standing in front of the cell, short of stature at only five feet and eight inches, but fearsome nonetheless, was Squall Leonhart. He still wore his characteristic leather jacket with the feathered collar. His gunblade hung at his hip and his arms were crossed tightly over his chest, his stormy grey eyes trained on Seifer. Next to him stood Rinoa Heartilly, as beautiful as Seifer remembered, maybe even more beautiful for being in love.
"Look at you," Squall spat. "This is pathetic, Seifer."
Seifer struggled to stand up, but his bad leg gave way beneath his weight and he fell to his knees, narrowly avoiding slamming his face into the hard iron bars of the cell door.
"What are you doing here?" he croaked.
"You called Rinoa last night. Or do you not remember?"
He vaguely remembered thinking it was a decent idea to call Rinoa for bail money. At the time he must have conveniently forgotten she was probably still with Squall.
"So what are you doing here?" Seifer said again.
Squall squatted down to Seifer's line of vision. "Do you honestly think I'm going to let my fiancée come all the way to Dollet to see a known traitor to Garden under the supposed guise of posting bail for him? Why the hell do you think I would trust you that much? I don't trust you at all. And for good reason," he scoffed.
"Well I didn't ask you to come and post bail for me, commander." Seifer tried to sound threatening, but he wound up retching again, which ruined the effect.
"I came to see for myself if you were really in jail. I didn't say we would post bail."
"Oh, Squall, please," Rinoa said. She placed her hand gently on Squall's arm. "We can't leave him here."
"Forget it," Seifer growled. "I don't need your fucking pity. If you just came here to feel bad for me just fucking forget it. I'll figure it out myself."
Rinoa frowned. "Have you even got any money, Seifer?"
"Fuck off. Who cares?"
"Anywhere to stay?"
"You wasted a trip here. You should have hung up on me," he slumped against the cool concrete floor and grabbed his throbbing head.
"Listen, you worthless sack of shit," Squall reached through the bars and grabbed Seifer by the neck. "If it weren't for Rinoa you wouldn't have anyone here to bail your sorry ass out so stop being such a prick and be thankful you even have one person willing to reach out to you." He dropped him and backed away from the cell.
Rinoa knelt down and peered in at Seifer in his sorry state. "Listen, Seifer. We'll post your bail, but only under one condition. You have to come back with us to Balamb. Cid might not let you into Garden, but we could get you a nice cozy place to stay and maybe get you clean and back on your feet. I hate to see you like this. You can do so much better. But we can't force you to take the offer, you know. I won't accept a compromise. Either we walk away from here and leave you to figure this out on your own or you come back with us and try to fix yourself up."
Seifer shook his head. "I can't go back to Balamb. I'm an outcast there."
"You could have a chance to redeem yourself," Rinoa suggested.
He continued to shake his head. "Cid and Edea would have to see me like this…I couldn't. I…" he leaned forward and threw up again.
"Why even give him the choice?" Squall grumbled. "He won't go willingly."
"It's important that he makes the decision on his own," Rinoa replied. "Come on, Seifer. What's it going to be?"
"If he's not on campus he'll just run back to Galbadia first chance he gets," Squall said. "We'd have to convince Cid to let him stay on campus until he's at least sober."
"Cid might not go for it," Rinoa bit her lip. "I don't think he'd allocate an entire apartment for a non-SeeD castout. But maybe…"
"What?" Squall leaned forward.
Seifer listened to them discussing his own fate as though he weren't lying there next to a pool of his own vomit. Admittedly, he did need the help. The idea of giving up alcohol was incredibly unappealing, but so was the idea of being thrown into D-district prison or back onto the streets to get stabbed by a stiletto again.
"Well, it's just that Quistis has that extra room after Truda transferred to Galbadia Garden. If she was willing…I mean, she has the most open schedule of any of us too. Maybe we could talk to her about helping out with this?"
Squall laughed unexpectedly. "Yeah. Because Quistis always kept such a good handle on Seifer when he was her student."
"It's different though. Isn't it? Seifer, what if you stayed with Quistis for a while? She's got a spare bed and I'm sure she'd share her food with you."
"Trepe? Yeah, that sounds appealing," Seifer rolled his eyes. "Nothing like living with a frigid ice queen to sober you up."
Rinoa pursed her lips. "Let's see what Quistis says."
Quistis had just stepped out of the training center to get some water and rest for a few minutes when her cell phone began to ring. She fished it from her pocket and flipped it open without checking the caller ID.
"Hello?"
"Quistis? It's Squall."
"Hey, where are you? Irvine told Zell he saw you and Rinoa leaving Garden at three in the morning. Is everything okay?"
Squall sighed. "Not exactly. We're in Dollet."
Quistis' eyebrows furrowed, "Dollet? Why Dollet?"
"Uh…Rinoa got an…interesting call last night from an old friend. You want to say hi to Quistis?"
"Fuck off," She heard Seifer Almasy's muffled voice sound on the other end.
"Seifer?" It had been a long time since she'd heard that voice.
"It's kind of a long story. Well, maybe not. He's in jail for getting drunk in public one too many times. He needs bail so he called Rinoa. Rinoa won't post him bail unless he agrees to come back to Garden and get clean."
"Hyne," Quistis swore. "Does Cid know?"
"No, and that's the thing. If he's really going to get clean, we'd need him to stay on campus. Have someone that could keep an eye on him and help him through the process. Cid will never go for Seifer getting his own apartment and definitely not for having a dorm with a cadet. But then Rinoa and I thought, you know, you have a spare bedroom…"
"Oh absolutely not!" Quistis shouted. "No way. I am not taking that…that insufferable…there's no way. What makes you think I'd be suitable to help him anyway? You know how well we got on when I was his instructor and that wasn't nearly as serious as trying to get someone sober. Hyne, Squall, what are you thinking?""
"Quistis," Rinoa had snatched the phone from Squall. "If you were here you'd agree to this. He's…look it's really bad. You wouldn't even have to take him on permanently you know. Just long enough for us to convince Cid to let him stay and get clean. You know, rehabilitate. He hasn't even agreed to it himself, but if he does, wouldn't you at least give it a shot?"
The idea of letting Seifer Almasy sleep in the same apartment as her was repugnant. She couldn't stand the man when he was sober, she couldn't imagine him as a drunk. Besides that, he had made his dislike of the entire Garden fairly clear when he betrayed everyone to join the sorceress. Even if he had been defeated, she wasn't entirely sure she believed he wouldn't try to gut her in her sleep. Bringing Seifer back to Garden seemed like the worst idea she'd ever heard.
"Please, Quistis?" Rinoa pleaded.
It was hard to say no to Rinoa. She was so kind-hearted. Only Rinoa would be willing to take another chance on someone like Seifer Almasy.
"I'll try it out," Quistis sighed in exasperation. "But if I think for one second that it's not going to work out, you better have a backup plan."
"Thank you so much, Quistis. We'll keep you updated okay?"
The line went dead and Quistis pocketed her phone. She sat on a bench in the hallway leading to the training center and thought about what she had just agreed to. Helping Seifer Almasy get sober was going to be a thousand times harder than being an instructor, and she could barely manage that.
Defeating an evil sorceress seemed like a walk in the park in comparison.
A/N: Thanks for the reviews. Here's some more. Enjoy!