Author's Notes: Hey folks. Here you go: Chapter Twenty. Another ten chaps and we'll be done with this fic. I'd've thought that it wouldn't take me this long to upload the complete fic. It's been three months since I posted the first two chaps. I know this isn't a great fic and it was never supposed to be. It's just fun to write and to read, a nice way to pass time and that's all I'm aiming for. Otherwise I would have written the fic completely different. Still I'm very happy that you guys still seem to like it :D
Chapter Twenty: Are you a bad man?
The crossing took three hours which we used to make out some more, carefully avoided by everyone except for a little girl that hopped down from her seat next to her parents after having watched us for one hour and made her way over to us – ignoring the protests of her mother – to tug on Seifer's pants. We parted from our rather innocent kiss to look at her. Seifer's face lit up.
"Yes, dear?" He knelt down before her, smiling broadly. I chuckled silently. I wasn't very good with children, thus I only leaned back against the rail to watch the display before me. The little girl's parents had gotten up as well, though they stayed at what they considered a safe distance.
"Sir, why are you kissing a man?" She asked curiously. She chewed the tip of her finger in shyness.
"Why shouldn't I?" Seifer asked in return, gently removing her finger from her mouth. "Be careful, you might hurt yourself if you do that too often." He said. She nodded in response.
"Mommy and daddy said you shouldn't do that. That's bad." All I wanted to do then was to rip their heads off. It took all my willpower not to glare at the mentioned couple in hatred. By now half the deck was listening closely to Seifer's reply.
"Really? And do you think I'm a bad man? Do you think I'm bad just because I'm gay?" He asked her sweetly, nothing giving away the hurt that he felt.
"What's 'gay'?" She asked, now slightly confused.
"'Gay' means homosexual. It's when a girl loves another girl or when a guy loves another guy. Do you think that's a bad thing?" The little girl's parents made a move to stop Seifer from corrupting their daughter, but one of my looks was enough to make them stop in their tracks. The little girl thought for a while, swaying her hips a little to make her skirt flutter around her. Then she shook her head.
"No, you're not a bad man. You're nice and you have bubblegum. Can I have some?" she asked. Seifer chuckled at her, reaching into his coat pocket where a package of bubblegum was indeed visible.
"Here, you can have it all if your mommy and daddy say it's okay. And thank you for believing your own judgment and not some stereotypical prejudices." The last part was clearly addressed to all the on-lookers who were now either smiling or looking thoughtful. I was surprised though, when she nodded her head again.
"That's what mommy always says. You shouldn't believe what other people say. You should use your own judgment." She sure looked proud that she had memorized and followed her mother's advice, maybe because she had even used the correct word for it.
"Well, that's a little contradicting, isn't it?" This time Seifer looked up to meet the parents' eyes who blushed vividly. The girl wasn't listening any longer as she unwrapped a piece of bubblegum and popped it into her mouth, beaming.
"It tastes like cherry." She announced and I could practically hear Seifer's heart melt.
"I hope you like cherries. But don't eat them all at once, okay?" He patted her head cautiously as to make sure the parents wouldn't kill him.
"You don't eat bubblegum, you chew it." She corrected him in that omniscient tone that only children use. I bet Seifer squealed in joy inside his head. Even I had to admit she was absolutely cute.
"I'm sorry, I forgot. You're right, of course." They talked a little more about this and that. I zoned out after a while, just watching the way Seifer handled her. Her parents seemed to have come to the conclusion that we were no danger to their child. After a while they bade each other farewell and she ran back to her parents. The latter threw us a last wary look before returning to their seat. Seifer got back up, stretching his already stiff muscles.
"Isn't she adorable?" He sighed, turning back to the ocean with a sad expression. I hugged him from behind, leaning my head on his shoulder.
"Yeah. Very unlike her parents." I muttered quietly, still knowing he'd heard me. We didn't talk for the rest of the ride to Esthar. I mused about how much Seifer had opened up to me since the party one week prior. Did he want to have a family someday? When we had almost reached the coast, I asked him a question I had always forgotten to ask him. "Say, Seifer, are you gay or bisexual?"
"Hm? What?" He seemed to have awoken from an inner coma.
"I asked if you were gay or bisexual." I still wasn't sure what I was. Did I still like girls apart from Rinoa? Did I even like Rinoa like that anymore? I guessed not. I hadn't thought about her in that way since I knew she was out of bounds.
"Gay. Always was, always will be. I've never even thought of a girl in a sexual way. I just don't like them. Sure I can tell when she's really beautiful, I can also tell what's hot and what looks really crappy, I just don't get aroused by any of that. It's like examining art. But you're bi, ain't you?" He turned his head to look at me a little more playfully than a moment ago. I grinned at that.
"Actually, I don't have a clue. I'm very sure I like guys a lot but I'm not sure if it's the same with girls seeing as how I've only ever crushed on one girl. Whatever it is, I'll probably always lean more towards guys. And I blame you for that." I chuckled. He made a protesting noise that was swallowed by my kiss before he could fully voice it. He didn't seem to mind.
When we got off the ferry, we saw the family one last time as they prepared to leave in their car. Seifer waved at the little girl, who waved back. To my great surprise her parents nodded in our direction. I returned the greeting before pulling the helmet over my head. I started my music before Seifer could consider saying anything about speed limits. But he just got into my car in silence. I have to admit it pleased me to see the parents' eyes growing large when they saw my car. I was willing to give them reason to prove one prejudice true: People with expensive rides liked to go way too fast.
After Seifer and I got through security and passport check we made our way to the highway. This time I let Seifer determine our speed. He didn't drive much slower than I had though. We reached Esthar City in the evening. The blue glow of the futuristic buildings welcomed us as we left the highway. After we had changed into our party outfits we left our vehicles at some kind of supervised park-and-ride lot that Seifer had checked out via internet yesterday. I had chosen some even tighter fitting leather pants and a metallic blue sleeveless shirt, making sure Seifer started groping my ass before we had even left the parking lot. The guards gave us strange looks. I think we looked very much like a cliché gay couple. Seifer wearing a masculine outfit of loose pants and that shirt from last week and me wearing all this tight-fitting leather fetish stuff. Now where was my make-up to make it perfect? We spent the remaining five hours until we could hit the clubs having dinner at some nice restaurant and sightseeing.