A/N: Warning: Fluff ahead. In fact this is mostly fluff. If you wanna skip this chapter out, you won't really be missing out story-wise. Enjoy if, like me, you enjoy fluff!
Chapter Seven
Seifer hated having a permanent migraine. It was irritating as hell, and since there had been two Quistis's in the same time, his head hadn't stopped aching. Wherever he went, cool blue eyes just seemed to follow him around Garden. And it was getting on his nerves. Especially when one of them could have put a stop to the migraines by just telling him what she knew, and the other was causing more migraines by refusing to talk to him, especially about the stuff that he thought was pretty damn important and-
Oh fucking hell I need a cigarette.
Once he'd lit one and the first nicotine-laden breath had filled his lungs, he felt better. A lot less stressed. Hyne, he'd only been in the job two days and already he couldn't wait for retirement. When the first cigarette was gone, he thought better safe than sorry, and lit another one. Just in case the migraine came back.
"You got a spare one of those?" a voice asked. Future-Quistis stepped into the pool of lamplight and took a seat next to him.
He shrugged and handed her the cigarette. "You smoke in the future?"
"Sometimes."
"What happened to worrying about the health risks?"
"Living long enough to get cancer would be a luxury," she commented.
He lit another one for himself and inhaled quietly. "You know more than you're letting on, don't you?"
"Yes."
"And you're not going to tell me."
"No. Especially since what ever I tell you, you go and tell Quistis."
"I didn't- oh. I did. She found you, huh?" he asked.
"Yes."
"What did she say?"
"She wasn't all that pleased I lied to her."
"So she didn't seem…"
"Like she was running for the hills?" She grinned briefly. "No, I think she was just a little perturbed. She'll get over it."
"You sure?"
"You sound anxious, Seifer."
"No…not anxious exactly, but I mean how can you know she'll get over it? No-one came along and told you you were going to end up married to me."
"True. But I had a huge freak-out the morning of the wedding."
"Oh thanks," he commented sarcastically. "Make me feel better why don't you."
"Oh shut up, I still married you didn't I?"
He shivered. "That's weird."
They sat in silence for a while till Quistis finished her cigarette. "I'm going to bed, I think. Have to get up early to take Matron to Centra."
"Look after her," he said.
She turned and smiled softly. "Ever the Knight, aren't you Seifer?"
He didn't smile. "I mean it."
"I know you do. She's my mother too, Seifer."
He nodded, and she turned away. "Quistis?"
"Yeah?"
"Where's Quistis?"
"No idea. She said she had to think some more, and she left. I don't think she's in Garden."
"I should go look for her…should I?"
She laughed. "Is that Seifer Almasy? Nervous?"
"Don't be stupid," he snorted.
She smiled. "Goodnight, Seifer."
It wasn't until the cigarette in his hands had burned down to his fingers without him actually having taken a drag that he moved. Quistis. Find Quistis. Except…where the hell would she be at midnight. Normally he'd try her room, but if she went to think, then he'd hazard a guess at the library. But that was closed. Ok, I'm just going to…look.
It was about two hours later that he finally gave up. Quistis didn't seem to be anywhere in Garden or in Balamb, and he was tired. And couldn't remember why he wanted to talk to her anyway. The most direct route back to Garden was along with bare expanse of white sand that made up the beach, so he decided to walk along it.
It wasn't until he'd almost tripped over her that he spotted Quistis. She was lying on the sand, her head pillowed by her hands, looking up at the stars. He sat down next to her. "Having fun?"
"I've never really looked at the stars, you know?" she murmured. "I mean, I've always known they were there, but there's just such immensity up there. They all look so close, but so far away at the same time. I mean, some of those stars could have burnt out a thousand years ago, and we're still seeing them shine."
He sighed, then lay next to her. "You seriously came out here to stargaze? Never figured you the romantic-poetry-crap type, Quistis."
"I'm not normally. But I was thinking about something she said. She said she hadn't looked at the sky in a year. That life was too short to waste time like that. And I thought that life is too short not to." She turned her head and looked at him. "We're mercenaries, Seifer. Our life expectancy is thirty-five. That means you and me, we've got what, fifteen years to live our lives? Maybe less. Have you ever taken the time to just look at something bigger that this squalid mess down here? Ever seen true perfection anywhere else but up there?"
He met her eyes, glimmering from both starlight and moonlight, and thought, Yeah. I'm seeing it right now. Her skin, always flawless, was now luminous in the silver rays cascading from the heavens, each star giving another light to sparkle in her sapphire orbs. She looked radiant in a timeless way. He didn't voice the thought out loud, instead turning his attention back to the sky. She was right, he reflected. It really was exquisitely beautiful. But he sensed that wasn't what had driven her out here. "Quistis?"
"Mmm?"
"I get that it's pretty and crap like that, but stargazing isn't why you came out here."
She sighed. "You have such an eloquent soul, Seifer." He didn't say anything. "I came out here to try and clear my head. Couldn't do it where there's two of me."
"So have the stars cleared it?"
"No. It's a little less cluttered, but still full. Of one thing, mainly." She wasn't entirely sure what had possessed her to add that onto the end. Because now he was going to ask-
"What?"
-and she'd have no choice but to tell the truth. "You," she said finally.
"Oh." He really didn't have anything else to say. There was nothing to say.
She took a deep breath, then turned onto her side. "Seifer, I just want you to know…"
He faced her. "Yes?"
"That whether…" she gave a small chuckle, "we're married or not, I don't want you to die in four years. I've gotten used to having you around. Commander," she finished finally, a small smile on her lips.
"Would you change it?" he asked suddenly. "If you could?"
"You mean you not dying? Of course I-"
"No, I mean…us being married."
She didn't look away. She didn't blink. Her gaze stayed locked on his. "No," she breathed finally. "Would you?"
Without thinking about it, he did the only thing that seemed natural. He leaned forward, letting his lips graze over hers in a soft kiss that nevertheless both of them felt in their bones. He pulled back less than a fraction of an inch, a small sigh escaping him. "Kinda takes all the spontaneity out of it, doesn't it?"
Suddenly her mouth was on his again as she kissed him again, pouring everything she had into that one moment – that small eternity that was theirs. It wasn't saying she loved him, or that she was anywhere close to that yet. But it was a start. She pulled back after a few moments for air. "Spontaneous enough for you?"
He smirked. "Not bad."
Her smile faded. "Let's just…forget the future. Just live it day by day. So right now, I'm saying that I, Quistis Trepe, like you, Seifer Almasy. And I did before everything got all messed up, so there. That's it."
"Well, I suppose you do owe me a dinner." He smiled at the puzzled expression on her face. "Don't remember?"
--Flashback--
Seifer was slumped at his desk, finishing a quick, though in his opinion rather artistic, sketch on the underside of his desk. Naked chicks were always fun to draw. He almost jumped out of his skin when a cool female voice sounded right by his ear. "Class is over, Picasso."
He spun around to see the less-than-impressed face of his instructor mere inches away from his own. The rest of the classroom was empty. "Where's everybody else?"
"Well Seifer, they were listening to me, and so heard me say 'Class dismissed'. You on the other hand, were not, and so are still here. In time to hear me give you detention."
"What?! You can't do that, I'm the-"
"-Head of the Disciplinary Committee, I'm familiar with the concept," she snapped, all patience gone. "However over-inflated your ego might be about the amount of power you actually do wield, you son of a-"
"Careful, Instructor," he interjected. "You're not allowed to insult students."
"I think I'll make an exception for you, you conceited bully."
"Ice queen."
"Arrogant asshole."
"Frigid bitch."
"Obnoxious bastard."
"Now, Quistis, is that really the way you want to speak to the man who'll soon be your boss?"
Quistis snorted. "Ha! You're not that good, Seifer."
"I'll be there one day," he returned stubbornly.
She shook her head disbelievingly. "The day you become me my boss is the day I buy you dinner. And trust me, that is never going to happen." She scribbled out a detention slip and handed it to him. "Back here, seventeen hundred hours tomorrow."
He took it. "You know if you want to get me alone, Quistis," he said, sauntering to the door, "all you have to do is ask."
The stapler hit the wall a fraction of a second after his head had been moved.
--End flashback--
"I didn't mean I was actually going to buy you dinner-" she started.
He smirked. "But you said it. And I thought you never said anything you didn't mean."
"Well I don't, but-"
He heaved a mock sigh. "Well if you want to ignore an opportunity to get me alone, Instructor, then I suppose you don't have to buy me dinner."
She rolled her eyes but smiled anyway. "I want to sleep out here tonight," she said quietly after a while.
"Too bad we'd freeze," he pointed out.
"'We'? I wasn't aware it was a 'we' issue. Can't have the Commander catching pneumonia now. Squall would be devastated."
He snorted, then stood up and offered her a hand. "Come on. Let's get inside."
"You go on ahead," she said simply. "I'm going to stay out here a while."
"Why?" he asked curiously.
Because in there I'd suffocate, she thought. She didn't say it. Instead she sighed. "Really, Seifer. Go inside. I'll follow soon, I promise."
"There's no arguing with you, is there?"
"Nope."
He smirked. "I'll tell Matron you're out past your bedtime."
"It didn't work when I was six years old, Seifer, it's not going to work now."
"Worth a shot. Night, Quis."
His footsteps, already muffled by the sand, faded away quickly. Quistis sighed, then sat up, looking out at the ocean. Only the white crests were visible as the waves broke slowly, almost languidly. She touched her mouth gingerly, her lips still tingling slightly. She gave a little giggle, then buried her head in her hands. "Oh Hyne, I'm losing my mind."
--
The morning after, Edea, Irvine, Selphie and future-Quistis were all sat on a transport, speeding its way to Centra. Edea was dozing, covered up with Irvine's coat, and the three SeeDs were doing what any good SeeDs would be doing – checking their weapons. Selphie was standing a little further apart from the others to make sure she didn't accidentally garrotte someone, going through some exercises. Irvine was sat opposite Quistis, and once he'd made sure he had enough ammo, he sat watching her clean Hyperion from under brim of his hat. Irvine wasn't stupid – he just preferred to observe more than he liked to talk, and Hyne knew Selphie talked enough for the both of them – and he could see the care that future-Quistis was putting into the care of that weapon.
The cloth stroked lovingly up and down the gleaming blade with smooth strokes, the woman holding the gunblade doing it with an absorbed, wistful smile on her face. She loved that weapon. "You love him, don't you?" he asked.
She looked up, a wary expression on her face. "What do you mean?"
"S'ok," he added from under the brim of his hat. "I won't tell anyone. Still don't get all this time-travel crap though. I mean, how can there be two of you in the same time anyway?"
Quistis smiled. "People don't understand time, it's not what you think it is."
"What is it?"
"Complicated."
"Then explain it."
"Alright…From a non-linear, non-subjective linear point of view, time is really just this big ball. A big ball of…wibbly-wobbly…timey-wimey…stuff."
He raised an eyebrow. She smiled. "I told you it was complicated."
"Remind me not to ask next time."
They fell into silence for a while till Selphie came back, wiping beads of sweat from her forehead. "Are we nearly there yet?"
Quistis smirked and moved to the computer, which was taking them there on autopilot. "Almost. A few more minutes. I'll wake Matron."
A few moments later, they stepped out, blinking in the harsh morning sunlight. "Where to now, Matron?" Quistis asked.
Edea pointed. "This way. There's a cave in the next cove. We just have to get through the monsters to the back-"
"Monsters? Powerful?" Selphie asked. She sounded eager rather than scared.
She nodded. "I'm afraid so, yes. But if we want the medallion, that's where we have to go."
"Better get going then," Irvine said. "After you, Matron," he added.
Quistis went ahead of Edea, with Selphie and Irvine following behind. When they came to the cave, all of them stopped. A huge wound in the rock wall of the cliff, gaping menacingly and threatening to swallow them. The black hole seemed to leech light from the world, and just going in there would require more courage than most men had.
Selphie voiced what they were all thinking. "Whoa."
Her voice broke the trance, and Quistis took the opportunity to load a few more bullets into her gunblade. "Come on. Let's go."
--
A/N: I know I said I wasn't going to update again for the rest of summer, but I found time. Anyway, enjoy, and, as always REVIEW!
Oh, and the quote from Dr Who - I don't own. The BBC does.