Title: Knowing You More

Disclaimer: I don't own FFVIII.

Chapter Eleven: Fight and Rain

Note: Hi! Sorry for being a bit late. School's making me busy. I had to walk home after dismissal! Can you believe that? *Sigh* Actually, I'm not really in the mood to write, but since all of you insist on reading more. . . . If you think it's a bit lousy, sorry. But please understand.

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Quistis plopped down on the ground and sighed in relief. She watched as Seifer struck the bee-like creature one last time with his Hyperion and smile satisfyingly to himself. They had been outside the Garden for almost the whole day. Quistis was surprised that she was completely exhausted from fighting different creatures the lurked around the fields. Usually, she could go on and on in battle and never get tired.

She wiped a bead of sweat trickling down her forehead with the back of her hand.

"That was a lot of work!" she said, panting heavily.

Seifer sat down beside her and nodded in agreement. "I never had these many battles in only one day," he said.

"Never?" Quistis asked. She raised her eyebrows at Seifer.

"Well, in a long time," Seifer said, shrugging. "I'm starved, aren't you?"

Quistis nodded. Then her face fell. "I forgot to pack some snacks for us," she said glumly.

"What?" Seifer asked in disbelief. "How can you forget?"

"I just forgot!"

"I can't believe you! Weren't you aware that we would have a hard day?" Seifer reminded her a bit harshly. "Just a simple thing to remember and you forgot!"

Quistis' jaw dropped down. "Don't you dare talk to me like that, Seifer! Remember, you're still my student!" she shot back.

"No, you're the one who shouldn't shout!" Seifer retorted. "If you continue, I might give you another penalty. So if I were you, I'd watch my mouth!"

Quistis glared at him angrily.

Seifer glared back.

"What are you looking at?" Quistis snapped.

"What are YOU looking at?" Seifer said in return.

Quistis shook her head in disbelief. "Now you're acting all childlike by imitating me, huh?" she said sarcastically.

"Excuse me, but I'm not acting like a child."

"Oh, yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"Yes, you are!"

"No, I'm not!"

"You are! You are! You are! You are!"

"I'm not! I'm not! I'm not! I'm not!"

"Could you please stop?"

"You're the one who started it! You stop it!"

"Oh, god! How can you say I'm the one who started it? To remind you, you were the one who complained and I just jumped in defense -"

"Shut up!"

"You shut up!"

"No, you shut up! You're the one blabbering about some stupid . . . thing!"

"It's not stupid, stupid! It's the cause of our fight right now!"

"Don't call me stupid, loser! At least I don't stay all day in my classroom and wait for my students to come listen to my boring lecture!"

"They may be boring, but you can learn something from them!"

"Yeah, as if the students are taking in what you say to them! They're practically imagining you standing in front of the class naked!"

"Oh, really? Are you saying you're one of them?"

"Yuck! Why would I imagine that? Am I the only one you can think of that's your student? Gee, I must be your favorite!"

"That's way yuckier! What teacher would want you to be their favorite? Definitely not me!"

"Oh, that's like music to my ears! I'm so happy I'm not your favorite!"

"Whatever!"

"Whatever!"

Quistis and Seifer both turned away from each other and folded their arms across their chests. They fumed madly and kept on muttering curses to each other. This went on for almost five minutes.

Suddenly, a loud rumble broke out into the sky, making both look up with alarmed expressions on their faces.

"Looks like it's going to rain," Seifer said quietly.

Quistis nodded in agreement. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know," Seifer said. "Head back to the Garden?"

"But we're like miles away," Quistis said, looking at him. "Can we possibly reach it in time?"

Seifer looked around for a cave or a big tree or something to shade them from the rain that's about to fall. But there was none. He slumped down and didn't say anything.

"Are we just going to stay here?" Quistis asked him. "What if we catch a cold?"

Seifer just shrugged.

Quistis sighed and shook her head disapprovingly. "You're useless, as usual," she said.

"What did you call me?"

Another loud bang of thunder interrupted the fight that was about to break between Quistis and Seifer, followed by a shower of raindrops.

They sighed heavily.

Quistis glanced at Seifer, who was bowing his head low to avoid the drops of rain into his face. She looked away and down on the ground.

The image of Seifer went in her mind. She thought he looked cute, crouching under the rain with his head bowed low.

'Cute?' she thought incredulously to herself. 'What am I thinking? This stupid jerk, the one who's sitting beside her, was cute? Never!'

She glanced at Seifer again and couldn't help smiling a bit. She had to admit, he did look cute.

She shivered as a gust of cool wind passed them, and she hugged her knees to her chest.

What were they doing under the rain? They could have at least hurried back to the Garden, ever though there was small time left.

She stared at the ground for a few moments. That's when she noticed the rain had lessened a little. She looked up and found herself under a long, white coat.

"Can't let you stay under that rain," a husky voice said near her ear.

She looked at Seifer and found him sitting close to her and holding his overcoat above them. She stared at Seifer in surprise.

"It's the least I can do," Seifer said, shrugging. "I'm not very good at apologizing."

Quistis looked down.

"Are you okay?" Seifer asked.

Quistis nodded.

"Good."

Quistis could feel the warmth of Seifer's body beside her. She felt comfortable around him and wanted him to come closer to warm her more. She hugged her knees tightly and rested her head on them.

She was being weird. How can she think of getting Seifer move closer to her? She knew he would be disgusted. And why wasn't she disgusted, herself? Was it because she grew to like Seifer more?

Yesterday, when she asked him on who he was planning to marry, she didn't feel surprised to hear it was her. She felt, for some reason, that it seemed right for him to say he could marry her. After all, Seifer liked her. And she can't deny that she liked him a bit, too.

She sighed quietly and felt Seifer move closer to her.

'Finally,' she thought, smiling a bit.

A whisper spoke in her ear.

"Quisty?"

Quistis turned her head in surprise and was about to ask Seifer why he called her by her old nickname, but came only an inch away from his face.

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Note: So do you guys like it? The fight's a bit corny, but . . . well, I hope you liked it! Please don't forget your reviews!