By: Ellipsis the Great
DISCLAIMER: Kingdom Hearts and everything affiliated with it belongs to SquareEnix and Disney. All I own is the plot…
Summary: Sometimes, rules aren't meant to be followed, and promises shouldn't be kept. Seiner.
Rated: M.
Spoilers: None that I know of…
Warnings: Yaoi, a little angst (obviously), and I suppose I should point out that this is AU…
Chapter Eight: My Turn, Dammit
"This is the slam, this is the one; we gonna do it like it ain't been done before. This is the slam, this is the one; we gonna bring it like it ain't been brung! This is the slam, this is the one; we gonna do it like it ain't been done before. This is the slam this is the one; We gonna spring you like you ain't been sprung!" –Tobymac, 'The Slam'
"So you're the one 'protecting' that little bitch, are you?"
I turned the fierce glare I was wearing onto the speaker, one of those ratty looking fellows who is only tough shit when they have a knife or a gun to hide behind.
"The fuck are you talking about?" I asked.
"Hayner March." Another boy dropped down off of a dumpster. "You're the one who's supposed to be protecting him, right?"
"Who the fuck wants to know?" I asked.
"We do." The second guy sneered. "We heard you've been asking about us."
My gaze hardened as I realized who they were. "You're the ones who beat up Hayner, aren't you?" It was more of a statement than a question.
"We're part of the same group." The first one said. "And we aren't done with him yet—he won't get away with beating up our boss so easily. So just tell us where he is so we can finish what we started."
I crossed my arms over my chest. "And if I don't?"
"Then we'll have to beat it out of you." This third voice came from behind me, and when I turned I found it belonged to a big, bulging hulk of a man who was being flanked by three or four more guys.
I cocked my head to one side. "You'll try." I smirked, and without waiting for any more attempted banter from them punched the third guy in the gut. When he doubled over, I brought up a knee and smashed it into his face, then grabbed his hair and used his upward momentum to force him into the wall with a nasty crack of skull hitting brick.
As he crumpled to the ground, I turned on the other two thugs, who had apparently been startled into silence by my display. I gave them a savage grin and cracked my knuckles.
"So, who's next?" I asked.
Part of me (the biggest part of me) wants to lie and say there was an epic battle following this, which ended with me as the unchallenged and unscathed winner except for a few scrapes and bruises that only made me even more dashingly handsome than before.
Unfortunately, I can't. Remember what I said about loser number one? He's only tough shit when he's…yeah. Hiding behind a knife or a gun.
In this case, it was a gun, and the bastard shot me without any sort of speech, which any good fighter knows is just common courtesy.
Rude bastard.
Of course, it's also considered impolite in most places to bring a gun to a fistfight in the first place.
Luckily, I had fought Hayner often enough that a little pain didn't bother me as much as it would some others (okay, a lot of pain, but I was ignoring that, remember?). Also, he was a horrible shot and only managed to hit my right arm just above my elbow.
I shot forward (no pun intended) and pushed his gun arm up, punching him in the neck and thoroughly winding him. I would have done more damage to him, but the second boy chose this time to grab my injured arm and push a finger into the wound.
Fuck, that hurt.
I howled from the pain and punched at him with my left arm, but he moved away, the other guys flanking him and all of them giving me malevolent grins.
"Back off of Seifer, y'know!"
Rai came barreling in out of nowhere, tackling the guy to the ground.
The guy I had been holding kicked me away pretty easily, since my hold had loosened when the other guy attacked, but I just stumbled back into Fuu's waiting arms.
She winked at me. "Gunshot." She explained, tugging on her ear.
"I'm beginning to think that your ears are the best thing God ever created, Fuu." I said as I regained my balance.
She smiled minutely, then kicked the gun away from the guy I'd been holding, who had held it up at us. She wagged a finger at him.
"No cheating." She said, then punched him in the jaw with a rather sickening crunch. Fuu might have looked like a skinny little girl, but she hung out with Rai and me, which meant she could hold more than her own in a fight. Actually, sometimes I thought Rai only fought so well so that he could keep up with her.
But I'm getting off subject.
While Rai dispatched the second guy, the last three goons were closing in on Fuu and me. What followed was several moves that could've been in a movie but are a little difficult to explain on paper. For the sake of letting you know what was going down without boring you, let's just say that I threw Fuu at one of the guys, head butted another, and then we both punched the last guy. It might sound easy enough to you, but again, that was the highly simplified version.
"Is your arm alright, y'know?" Rai asked as he finally let the guy he'd been wailing on crumple to the floor.
"It'll be okay." I said, holding my arm up to look at it. "The bullet went straight through, and it missed all the bones."
"Hospital." Fuu said, holding up her phone and walking out of the alleyway to make the call.
"You better tell her to call a funeral home instead."
We turned to that mammoth of a guy whose ass I'd kicked first, who had apparently woken up and gotten his hands on the gun.
"Which one of you wants to go first?" He asked with a malicious smile.
I scowled at him, clenching my uninjured hand into a tight fist. My other arm was going a little numb by this point, and I was getting just a teensy bit woozy.
And then I gaped as Rai stepped in front of me and held his arms out protectively.
"You can't hurt Seifer, y'know?" He said stubbornly. "Just go away, y'know?"
The guy's smile just widened. "Looks like we have a winner, then!" He pulled the trigger before either of us could react, and Rai fell back into me with a choked gasp.
"RAI!" Fuu screamed as she raced back into the alley, kicking the murderous bully's wrist with so much force that I think she broke it, the gun falling to the floor as he did the same with an ear-splitting scream. She picked up the gun and pointed it at him, only shaking a little. "Back off."
"You won't shoot me." He challenged, sticking his jaw out in a daring manner.
Without hesitating, she shot his right knee. "Back off!" She hissed.
He gaped at her for a moment, then pressed himself tightly against the wall she cocked the gun again.
She turned to us, throwing the gun into a nearby garbage bin and running to Rai's side, taking him from me and cradling him to her chest. "Rai? Oh, Rai…"
"I think he'll be okay." I said as I grabbed one of his hands. "You called the hospital, right?"
She nodded wordlessly, letting out a strangled sob.
"It'll…it'll be okay, Fuu." I said, trying to blink the black spots out of my vision.
"Seifer?" She asked, suddenly giving me a worried look.
I just shook my head, squeezing Rai's hand as the oddly muffled sound of an ambulance reached my ears.
I think she said something else, but even if it was only one word as it usually was I couldn't make it out as I fell back into a dead faint.
o.O.o.O.o
When I woke up…my body was tingling.
And it wasn't the good 'I just got laid' tingling, either. This was the 'oh, shit, I'm on some kinda drugs and I dunno what they are' kind of tingling.
And just so you know, I hated drugs. I'd seen way too many people addicted to that sort of shit to want to get involved with them, especially because being dependent on anything rubbed me all sorts of wrong ways.
Anyhow, I opened my eyes blearily, my head feeling entirely too fuzzy for comfort as it slowly registered the sound of my mom crying nearby.
"Mom?" I rasped as I tried to blink the sleep out of my eyes.
"Seifer!" She exclaimed, and I was swept up into her arms in a way that had my arm throbbing even through the painkillers.
"Selphie, let him go—you're hurting him." My dad's voice chuckled.
"Hush, Zell." Mom snapped without really meaning it, though she did set me down. "How are you feeling, sweetie?"
"'M alright." I yawned. "What do they have me on?"
"I told them you wouldn't want any painkillers." Dad said smugly.
"I said hush, Zell." Mom replied, giving him a stern look. "Oh, Seifer, I was so worried when they called! They said you'd been shot in a fight, and I just…God, I was so scared I was going to lose you!"
"It was guys from the same group that attacked Hayner." I said.
"We know. We're going to take them to jail once they've recovered." Dad said. He was a cop, by the way. "We're hoping that they'll give us the names of the boys who attacked Hayner as part of a plea bargain or something."
"We have to get these kids off the streets." Mom said, a fierce look in her eyes. "I'm not going to let them hurt any more of the people I love!" She kissed my forehead. "I was so proud when they told me you, Rai, and Fuu kicked their asses!"
My eyes widened a little. "How's Rai?" I asked.
"He's out of critical condition and recovering." She said. "He still hasn't woken up, but the doctors say he should wake up within the next few days, and be ready to leave the hospital in a few weeks."
"And Fuu?" I asked.
"Besides being scared to death about you two, she's fine." Mom said, ruffling my hair. "You've made some really great friends, sweetie."
I nodded. "They saved my life, back there. Especially Rai. He stood in front of me when one of the guys held up a gun at us." I felt a knot rise up in my throat. "He'd better not die, or I'll kill someone."
"You'll have to take a number." Mom said. "Those boys sure as hell better hope the police get them out of here before I find out their room numbers."
"They'd better hope I'm not one of the ones that has to transfer them." Dad agreed with an expression that told me he'd like nothing more than that.
"The chief won't let you near them." I chuckled.
"Yeah, I know." He sighed dramatically, then plopped down beside me. "Way to go, though, chickenwuss. I knew I had to have done something right when I raised you."
"You raised him?" Mom asked. "Ha! The only hand you had in raising him was teaching him those ridiculous names! Chickenwuss…hmph!"
Dad just grinned.
"How long was I under?" I asked.
"Only a day." Mom said, then pursed her lips at me. "We had to close the restaurant last night thanks to you! One of our busiest nights, too!"
"Sorry to be such a burden, Mom." I drawled. "Next time I'll be sure to get shot when it's more convenient for you, okay?"
"If you ever get yourself shot again, tell them not to bother calling me because I'll kill you myself." She said completely seriously.
I nodded. "I really am sorry, Mom." I said, putting my hand over hers.
She teared up. "God, I was so scared I'd lost you, honey." She said. "And poor Hayner was beside himself—he and Demyx both blame themselves, for some reason."
I snorted, knowing the exact reason but not entirely certain I wanted to tell her.
"They should be here in a few minutes, actually." Dad said.
"Hayner stayed here all night, would you believe?" Mom asked. "He even punched one of the doctors when they tried to make him leave when visiting hours ended, though we did manage to talk him into letting us take Haven home."
"It was adorable." Dad said in an obvious (but still very bad) impression of Mom.
"It was!" Mom said, reaching across my bed and slapping his arm. "He was holding your hand and everything! I've never seen anything so sweet!"
I blushed.
"Seifer?"
I looked up—Hayner was standing in the doorway, and Demyx was standing behind him. Demyx was holding Haven.
I waved my uninjured arm at him hesitantly. "Hey, lamer."
His jaw clenched, and he strode forward with an expression on his face that made me think he was going to punch me.
"You're an idiot." He said, poking my chest angrily. "You're a sarcastic asshole and you're rude and your temper's even shorter than mine and you've always—always—known just what to say when you want to piss me off." His eyes narrowed. "I should hate you. Things were a lot easier when I hated you. Life was easier. But I don't hate you. I can't hate you."
"Look, Hayner…" I began.
"You shut up, Seifer." He snapped. "You got your chance to rant yesterday, and now it's my turn." He paused, trying to recollect his thoughts. "You're so…you just have to complicate everything, don't you? Didn't it ever occur to you that it would've been just as easy—easier, even—to keep me away from my mom if we were friends instead of always beating me up?"
I blinked.
"You've been confusing me ever since Haven was born. You just…you completely changed. It was like you woke up one morning and decided you didn't feel like being such an ass anymore. I was totally thrown for a while, and then I started thinking about when we used to get along, before my dad left, and it was like the old Seifer—the really old Seifer—was back again. The Seifer…the Seifer I used to be in love with." He looked away from me. "I mean, as in love as kids can be, y'know? And when you blew up at Demyx yesterday…you never changed, did you? It was just me that changed, because of my parents." He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "And then you kissed me the other day, and I…shit. I'm saying all this wrong. I'm not good with words and stuff."
"You don't have to—" I tried to speak again.
"I said shut up." He said, putting his hands over my mouth and glaring at me until I clamped my mouth shut. He released me with another sigh. "I guess what I'm trying to say is that I love you too, you complete and utter dumbass."
I stared at him for a moment, then grinned as his words began registering in my head.
His scowl returned. "And if you ever fucking scare me like you did yesterday again, I'll…I'll shove a gun so far up your ass you'll shoot somebody every time you open your mouth!"
"Only until it runs out of bullets." I said, unable to wipe the undoubtedly goofy grin off my face.
He rolled his eyes. "Moron." He said, then shoved a paper cup at me that I hadn't noticed him holding. "Here. I brought you coffee from home. The stuff they have around here tastes like shit and cardboard."
I kept grinning.
"And I smuggled in some food in Haven's diaper bag." He babbled on, like he usually did when he was nervous. "I don't know how they expect you to get better with the stuff they serve around here, but after all the hell you've put us through I'm not gonna let you die over something stupid like food poisoning."
More grinning.
"I brought clothes so you don't have to go home in that stupid hospital gown." He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. "Although it's about time I saw your ass after all the times you've walked in on me in the bathroom."
Mom giggled. I grinned some more.
"And I brought that book you've been reading because they didn't tell us how long you were gonna stay here—"
"Hayner." I cut him off.
"Yeah?" He asked.
I grabbed his shirt and yanked him down to my level. "Would you just shut up and fucking kiss me, already?"
He did.
End Chapter Eight
