Dead Wrong
He'd thought once that the orphanage gang hated him. He'd really truly believed it, because he'd never given any of them cause not to. Seifer was many things, and proud was at the top of the list. He was so very wrong.
First Zell wormed his way into his everyday routine, sitting with him at lunch. He clung to him like a lifeline, the only familiar thing in a different world. Then one day, he'd brought Rinoa with him, and then Selphie, and before the month was out, he had the whole lot of them chattering around him. Even Squall.
Judgement
Life was good. Except when it suddenly wasn't.
A gang of men from Trabia stumbled across him on the coast, on his way back from visiting Rajin and Fujin, and lucky for them he was unarmed. They set upon him with unforgiving words at first, and then the inevitable fists, and rocks, and whatever else they could grab before he could fight back. He didn't really try. In some small part of his mind, he'd already decided he deserved a much harsher judgment.
Seifer told Squall later, in medical bay three, that he'd fought back. They both heard the lie.
Seeking Solstice
He doesn't remember how he got the black eye, the broken nose; doesn't remember turning up at Zell's door, a plea of "Lemmie stay chicken," on his lips as he falls onto the bed.
He doesn't remember Zell's grimace or falling asleep curled so tightly against the wall that he wakes later with a fierce crick in his neck as well as a hangover.
He doesn't remember the look on Zell's face because he never sees it. Doesn't see how Zell traces lines of defeat etched so deeply even in slumber, or how Zell lays awkwardly on the edge of his bed, aware that their friendship isn't supposed to be this close but unable to even contemplate making Seifer leave.
Excuses
"So you gonna tell me why I woke up to your ugly face this morning?"
Seifer winced through every word at the opposite end of the table, he cradled a mug of coffee preciously. "You always this loud first thing?"
Zell grinned, "You always this wrecked?"
They sat awhile in silence. Seifer looking a little green, Zell slurping down a huge breakfast with abandon.
"I was really drunk."
"Uh-huh."
Silence.
"That's your excuse huh?"
"Yup."
Truth was, he had a good idea as to why he'd picked Zell's dorm over his own, but he wasn't about to admit to it.
Patience
Seifer's time passed slowly, and in such regimented segments he thought he might eventually go mad. As the weeks stretched on, sleepless nights increased and his skin sometimes hummed with nervous tension.
Soon… the Garden whispered.
Soon the classes would be over and there would be the exam and he'd either pass or fail and that would be that. The worry of not knowing what would happen if he failed once again was enough to force him into patience. He settled for the endless re-hashing of subjects he already knew, because the terrifying alternative was to face his uncertain future.
