Seifer couldn't tell what exactly made him wake up. The room was still pitch dark -a sure sign it wasn't morning yet- and his alarm clock hadn't made a sound. No surprise either, seeing as the device informed him it was just close to 5 am. Way too early to get up. Way too early to do anything but turn over and go back to sleep, for that matter.
He was just about to do just that when he realised that his sheets weren't in their usual configuration, and that he was still wearing his jeans, albeit unbuttoned. Recollections of the reason why surfaced quickly enough, bringing him instantly to full alert. There were a lot of things out of the ordinary, but considering the circumstances the fact that he was alone in his bed was unpleasantly familiar.
At that moment, though, he heard the wall-muffled 'thock' of bathroom taps cutting off their supply of running water. Although still feeling sleep-logged it didn't take him long to add one and one. And indeed his eyes, by now adjusted to the darkness of the room, made out a faint shimmer of light creeping over the floor of the hallway. Despite the early hour, it was reason enough for him to get up and check it out.
The blonde blinked against the bright light when he opened the bathroom door. He rubbed his eyes to make them compensate faster for the sudden onslaught, but without much success. The only thing it gained him was the teasing onset of a headache.
"Ah, up and about already?"
Still not able to see straight, Seifer just glared at everything in general. Then he reached to open the cold tap of the washbasin and proceeded to stick his head under the freezing water. A few seconds was enough to do him justice. Hair dripping water all over the place, he felt around for a towel. After a few moments of grabbing air someone pushed one into his hands.
"Thanks," he muttered, drying himself quickly. When he looked up again, he was greeted by a very awake -and not to mention very naked- Squall standing in front of him.
"Not one to get up early, are you?" the brunet remarked, cocking his head.
Seifer shook his head, casually taking in the sight before him. "Not everyone's got a build-in kick starter," he replied with a voice that was still harsh with sleep. "Especially not after what, three hours of sleep?"
Squall smirked faintly. "You're a soldier. You should be used to lack of sleep."
"I am."
A single brown eyebrow arched in silent question.
"Hey, I am!" Seifer protested. "When I have to…"
"Which is not now?"
"I've got no reason to be up at 5 in the morning today, and neither do you."
The brunet gave him a knowing look and then stepped out of the bathroom, flipping on more lights as he went in search of his clothes. Realising what the other man was aiming at, Seifer sighed as he followed into the main room.
"Office hours don't start until eight thirty, y'know," he said sincerely.
Squall, who was already sporting his underwear by now, was preoccupied with salvaging his discarded shirt from the floor. "I know," he eventually replied while dusting the garment off and putting it on. "But I needed a shower and I needed to think. And for me, that combination works very well, regardless of the time."
Seifer huffed and casually fished the pair of black leather pants and belts from their corner. "If you say so. But just so you know, it's considered bad manners to just get up and walk off after a night like this."
The pants and belts jingled as Seifer tossed them in Squall's general direction, but the brunet caught them effortlessly. As he finished dressing himself, Seifer couldn't help but watch him go through the motions. Nimble fingers closed the belts faster than he'd been able to pry them open. He wanted to say something, anything, about what had happened. A joke, a comment. But his mind was numb. Maybe the set look on the other man's face had something to do with that. This wasn't Squall standing in his room. This was the Commander of Garden.
With the last items, the straps of his boots, firmly in place, Squall lifted his head to meet Seifer's eyes.
"I'm not walking out on you," he said, "but I haven't forgotten the reason why I came to your room in the first place, either."
Seifer instantly felt anger and defeat clash hard in his face. He'd been expecting this, but the bliss of the night had almost made him forget everything else that happened yesterday. His stupidly honest confession, Selphie's heart-broken face, Irvine's warning, Squall's distrust… He rubbed his hands hard over his head and down his neck in frustration as he sat down on the edge of the bed.
"I really fucked up good this time, didn't I?"
"Yeah, you did," Squall stated plainly. "But that doesn't mean you're beyond help. There's still room for some damage control."
"Damage control?" He couldn't see how.
But the brunet nodded in affirmation. "The generally accepted theory is that you were possessed, but you had to go claim you weren't."
"I wasn't."
"Now as I see it," Squall continued without paying attention to Seifer's words, "it's likely that Ultimecia intentionally manipulated you into believing you did it all out of your own free will. She rooted that perception of guilt so firmly in your mind that it took me the most of the night to find out that that was exactly what she did."
"Squall, I hate to say this, but… she didn't do that."
"Yes, convincing you to be objective about what she did to you was the hard part. Initially you were too stubborn and too proud to admit that she got the better of you."
Seifer tried to hide his instinctive indignation, but urged by the silent cold of a certain Guardian Force he decided swallow his pride and acknowledge what Squall was trying to do, namely trying to dig him out of the grave he'd dug for himself.
When he didn't respond, Squall cocked his head and crossed his arms before his chest in his trademark stance. "Are you clear on what I'm going to tell Selphie and the others about what you told her?"
After a while, Seifer let out a long sigh. "Oh yeah, crystal. Just tell me one thing."
"Which is?"
"Last night you said you didn't trust me not to lie. And now you order me to. So where does that leave my demonstration of sincerity?"
It was impossible to tell if Squall's features softened or if that was just his imagination.
"It leaves what happened exactly where it should be: between us," the younger man stated. "But if we don't want it to end here, you'll have to play along."
He was right, Seifer knew. Lie to save his ass. Lie to keep Squall close. How fucking ironic… He'd come back to come clean, and now he was yet again forced to resort to bend truths and outright lies to keep his world from falling apart. And like before, there was absolutely no guarantee for success.
"You think they'll buy your explanation?" he finally thought out loud.
Squall shrugged. "Anyone who saw you at Lunatic Pandora knows she'd been messing with your mind. And if you really were the evil bastard they say your are, you'd take advantage of the Court's decision not to prosecute for lack of evidence, instead of telling everyone it really was all your fault."
Seifer smirked. Somehow Squall could make the most unlikely stories sound plausible. Everyone always seemed to believe what he said, regardless of what he was saying. No small wonder that he'd been dubbed Garden Commander even before he had become a legal adult.
In the silence that now fell, Squall glanced at the door a few times. Seifer recognised it, wishing he could ignore it and knowing he couldn't. Feeling defeated, he gave in.
"You should go. Curfew'll be over soon."
Squall nodded, but didn't move.
"C'mon, you were in such a hurry to get out. Now go already."
"I thought you didn't want me to leave?"
Green eyes meeting grey ones, Seifer saw the Commander's mask of duty falling away and, for just a moment, he could see the vulnerable young man behind it. He got to his feet and closed the distance between them.
"I don't want you to leave," he said softly, their bodies inches apart but not touching.
Squall leaned in just a fraction, his breath stroking Seifer's bare chest. "But I have to," he whispered.
"Yeah, you have to…"
For a few heartbeats they stood frozen in time, but then Squall recomposed himself and took a step back, becoming Commander once more.
"Get some sleep while you can. Your training schedule will continue as normal, so expect an instructor here by nine."
Seifer nodded solemnly as Squall made for the door. But in that motion, Seifer's eye caught something that made him smirk. "One thing, sir," he started, waiting for the brunet to stop and turn.
"What?"
He pointed at Squall's chest. "You might what to hide that before anyone starts asking awkward questions."
Stepping out into the hallway with the door of Seifer's room shutting behind him, Squall tried hard not to blush as he tucked his pendant back in his shirt. Seifer was right, things would be difficult enough without having to explain that little detail. Still it had never felt so right to wear it as it did after tonight.
A genuine smile came to his lips at the thought of the blonde's fingers exploring his body. It had been so unlike anything he'd ever experienced before, and as far as he was concerned he wanted nothing else for the rest of his life. Or rather no one else… His smile disappeared again when he reminded himself of the obstacles they'd have to overcome to even get a shot at a life close together: Xu, Rinoa, Quistis, Selphie. Come to think of it, maybe falling for a man was the smartest thing he could have done. All of his problems seemed to originate from women anyway. Speaking of which…
He ran his fingers through his wet hair, looking left and right down the hall. Right meant going up to his office for an early start, no doubt getting tackled by any one or all of the aforementioned women the very moment they noticed he was in. And left meant going back to his dorm to get a change of clothes while explaining to Rinoa where he'd been all night. Neither option was particularly appealing. For a moment he debated a third option, namely going back to Seifer to cuddle up and get some more rest before facing the day.
But the decision was taken out of his hands when someone called his name. Startled, he looked up.
"You're up bright and early," Quistis Trepe remarked as she halted in front of him.
He gave her a blank look. "Whatever."
She chuckled briefly, but then set her face straight. "I was hoping you'd start early today. There's a matter we need to discuss most urgently."
"Let me guess: Selphie's accusations towards Seifer?"
Quistis cocked her head nervously, telling him he hit the nail on the head.
He nodded. "I know about that. And that is actually why I'm standing in front of his dorm at this hour. There were a few suspicions I wanted to discuss with him."
"And?"
"Suspicions confirmed beyond reasonable doubt. I'll brief you in full later this morning, but if you don't mind, I'd like to get some fresh clothes first."
The blonde pushed her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. "I see. Shall we say, in your office at seven?"
"Make that eight. I'll probably have to explain an enraged Rinoa where I've been and that's might take more time than I'd like."
"No doubt it will…" Blue eyes squinted a fraction. "Till eight o'clock then. Later."
As Squall watched Quistis walk away, he couldn't help but get the impression that convincing her of his explanation was be much harder than he'd like. Setting off in the direction of his own room, he mentally prepared himself for what would no doubt grow to be a continuous line of hefty discussions dominating the next few days. He cursed under his breath as he rounded the last corner and started punching the access code to his dorm even before coming to a full stop. If the brief exchange just now was anything to go by, it would be a very, very long day…
The door slid open, instantly smothering him in waves of toxic fumes emitting from the room. The distinct sweetness of the odour, though, told him it was nothing more alarming than an overdose of perfume. Although on second thought that was alarming enough. Not coming home that night had probably been a very good call…
Once inside, the perfume was backed-up by all the fluffy girly things he'd come to hate so much: so-called romantic music playing at low volume, scented candles –fortunately all burned up– and red roses, by now mostly wilted, scattered all over the place. There was no doubt in his mind who was responsible for this, or why.
Quietly he peeked around the corner of the bedroom door. He wasn't surprised to find the fairytale decorations continuing here, including what appeared to be pink silk sheets on the bed. He sighed. You'd think that by now she'd know how much he hated this kind of stuff. The fact that the culprit herself lay dozing on the bed in nothing more than a very see-through negligee wasn't helping his opinion of her either.
Oh yes, spending the night with Seifer had been a huge improvement on what had been waiting for him here.
He sneaked into the bedroom, hoping he could retrieve his uniform from the wardrobe without waking Rinoa up. With a hand on his belts to keep them from giving him away he crossed the two steps to the wardrobe and with his free hand he opened the door. Somehow he managed to take his uniform from the coat hanger without making too much noise. On the bed, Rinoa stirred. He froze, but when her slow breathing stayed that way, he carefully closed the door again and turned to make his way out.
Of course, that was when he had to trip over a previously undetected vase of red roses standing on the floor. The crash of shattering ceramic was enough to wake the dead, let alone a stood-up Sorceress. Squall managed to catch himself before he fell, but a fleeting glance at the bed told him he was in over his head anyway.