A/N: After about 5 months this finally came together. My life circumstances have made writing difficult. I hope the next chapter will come more quickly. Also the ArchiveOfOurOwn version of this story is the definitive edition where additional editing passes are made and revisions where necessary. It's simply too irritating to try to edit things in at this point in my life. I also post all my new projects and works there now, I am under the same pen name LastHarlequin. I'd link it but is jealous that their poorly maintained shitshow of a site is losing viewership and therefore ad-revenue. AO3 is a nonprofit and doesn't have these problems this makes me like them better.
When the kiss ended, Fujin found herself held close, so close their bodies were touching. Her unaccountable anxiety still writhing in her chest screaming at her that something was wrong, that something was going to do her terrible harm. It was difficult to imagine what though, so she let the feeling writhe, let it squirm and twist. Her heart pounded and her hands grasped onto this man who had become so important so quickly and yet so quietly that she didn't know when it had happened. She just hoped that he would account her trembling hands to nerves and not to the beast breathing down her neck in her own mind.
Squall to his part seemed at ease. She chose to put all her focus on him, mastering her mind as she had practiced time and again and bending it to the task of examining. His words echoing in her ears, validation of this strange circumstance and assurance that he didn't feel any differently than she wanted to.
Her smile was strained but earnest, but he seemed not to notice, as she held onto him she felt and noticed a tension that hung around him. The poise she had associated with some kind of natural state faded just then. It made his face look younger. There was a softness that had been absent or perhaps hidden. It reminded her that they were only a year apart. But at that moment he looked so much like her junior. It reached all the way to his eyes.
She felt her mouth falling open just a hair. He looked like he wanted to say something but ultimately let it go. Her response was to drop her head down to the crook of his neck, resting her forehead against him. He simply put his hand on the back of her neck while the other arm let her pull away just a little to make the rest more comfortable. They sat like that in silence a while. The squirming feeling never vanished but it did lessen. The pressure from behind the door lessened, no longer bowing the frame. Her heart slowed, her breathing deepened, and she felt like her throat wasn't completely closed anymore.
Her sigh drew a chuckle from Squall, which in turn drew an only slightly hysterical giggle from Fujin. That opened the floodgate to a truly genuine laugh from Squall, which drew another giggle then a sinus clogging snort from Fujin which despite the pain it brough dissolved both of them into laughter. Sitting, tangled in each other just laughing so hard their faces steadily turned red and the space between laughs became longer as they had to gasp for breath.
Once the flood had turned to a trickle neither could look the other in the eye for fear the laughter would return. Her entire body was tingling from the ecstasy of laughter and a decided lack of oxygen. She felt like she'd cried her heart out, then run across a continent; arms and legs leaden. Just sucking in great tidal breaths. Squall recovered more quickly than she could dream of as he sat up with effort and patted her on the thigh.
"Bed." he said, she let her eye roll toward the dark window only realizing a moment later she wouldn't see the sun even if it had risen. He started to move and she struggled to make her limbs obey her. After a few struggling moments she felt Squall's arms loop under her knees and around her back. Standing up he carried her as she speechlessly looked up at him as he deftly maneuvered her head past the door jam and then unceremoniously tossed her still damp self onto the bed where she found the energy suddenly to flail as she hung for an instant in freefall and made a terribly undignified squeak.
Squall's smug smirk did not help her predicament as she sprawled as much as she could to block off the bed with pure petulance on her face. There was a long moment of eye contact and rapid calculation by two very tired brains.
"Fine I'll sleep on the couch." Squall said and stared. Fujin had a few moments to consider this ultimatum before slothfully skootching her way to a more equitable distribution on the bed. She looked back up at him her face softening as his slowly smoothed over into a kind of half-lidded faraway look. They stayed like that for a time before she looked away first, picking the damp undershirt off her skin with a peeling feeling.
"Ick." she said sitting up with a groan turning her back to him as she let her head roll forward and her elbows rest on her knees sitting on the side of the bed a moment.
"I'll let you have the first shower." Squall said turning and fumbling with his pockets, a moment later she heard the soft click of a lighter and smelled the smoke beginning. She accepted the small distance this would give them to collect her towel, toiletries, and thoughts as she headed into the tiny bathroom for a quick shower. The warm water washed away some of the feeling that the polluted rain of the city left on her skin, she brushed her teeth, cleaned between her toes, brushed under her nails and washed her hair with mechanical efficiency. Her mind briefly, blissfully empty of other thoughts as she performed the rote action. Stepping out of the shower she wrapped her towel around herself after quickly drying her relatively short hair. She paused though in front of the mirror and brushed her hair behind her ear and looked at her face closely. Now that all the makeup was gone, the sharp white light of the bathroom mirror showed how tired she looked, at least to her own eye. She stood then with her face inches from the mirror inspecting it. Her eye immediately looked at her own blind eye, the milky cornea, the slight off-set of it. She'd never liked looking at it, hiding it, in fact. She brought her hands up and touched the bones of her face, tugging at her cheeks and smoothing down her eyebrows. She took her hands up to her head and moved her hair this way and that a few seconds thinking as she did before letting the still-damp, slightly-stringy mass of aged-silver hair back into her face where it usually rested.
The quiet dripping of the water in the shower was her companion as she stood staring. With a sigh gathered from deep in her chest she let her head fall and turned from the mirror to walk into the apartment barefoot to gather her sleeping clothes. Squall had pulled off his shirt and was standing bare chested looking out the window in the main room pausing her walk for a moment as he brought the gently-glowing roll up to his mouth, inhaled and let out a plume of smoke that impacted the glass in front of him and drifted back around him. It took her a few seconds to speak.
"Yours." despite all she wanted to say that was all she could and poked herself into the closet as he let out a low grunt of acknowledgement.
She walked into the bedroom and sat on the bed in her damp towel until he had safely gathered what he needed and headed into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. She pulled off the towel and tossed it aside before pulling on some loose fitting clothes to sleep in. her face bright red at the momentary temptation to skip that step and simply slide into bed. She turned away from his side of the bed, her face beet red and pulled the covers up over her head, her heart in her throat for a few moments before the temptation had passed and she took a moment to get a grip.
She heard the door to the bathroom open, the slight change in humidity, the smell of the basic soap they both used all heralded a weight settling on the other side of the bed, Squall usually took whatever he was sleeping in with him into the bathroom with him. She never liked the slightly damp feeling this tended to impart to the fabrics in the steam. Squall sat on the side of the bed for a few seconds as Fujin remained curled away keeping her eye firmly fixed on the far wall.
She felt and heard as the sheets lifted and he moved under them sliding. She considered from her slight distance how different it felt after one kiss to want to put her cheek on his chest like she had done for so long it felt normal. She twitched when she felt warm fingers brush her back. She rolled on her stomach to turn her head to look at him, to find him looking at her with a warm smile on his face. His flinty grey blue eyes seeming to almost shine in the darkness.
She took a moment, pressing her face down in the mattress as she considered his unspoken offer. Nothing really had to change, if only to be more honest to what it had already been. She slowly slid over and placed her cheek gingerly on his chest where she had slept so many nights. Though this time there was one small difference as his arm curled around her. Warm fingers resting on her. It wasn't an accident, he wasn't just tolerating her presence. There wasn't really anything in it for him besides her company. She pressed her face into him, her arm snaking around beneath him and encircling his chest. His other hand coming up to rest on her arm.
She found sleep came more easily than she'd have guessed.
She awoke feeling warm, relaxed, and mellow. It was an unusual feeling, normally her sleep was at least a little fitful, a little interrupted. Half-dreamed things chittering in the corners of her mind. Banished for one night at least. She could grow used to this. Waking with someone's arms around her, feeling safe, even when surrounded by enemies.
She took a deep breath, her cheek slightly sweaty where it was pressed against Squall's chest her head lifting up was more like peeling off. Naturally this awakened him, his eyes opening and the rhythm of his breathing hitching. She sat up on one elbow to look up at him. He offered her a sly smile for a moment before rolling over to put his feet on the floor and rising in a smooth action.
"Sleep well?" he asked, likely already knowing the answer. She nodded as he glanced back. The ambiguity that dogged the back of her mind about what this would mean for the way their dynamic functioned was quieted slightly as he stood up and got dressed as he did every day. She huffed, at once relieved and disappointed as she rolled off the bed the other way and scooped up her clothes as he stepped into the bathroom with his daywear. She quickly slipped on her own mechanically her mind already on the day ahead. She swooped to her bag and retrieved the electric clippers before she walked over toward the bathroom door and knocked twice.
"The hair?" he asked and she knocked again in affirmation. A half minute later he opened the door, his shirt off, sparing this only a glance despite the slight shift in context of the situation. She plugged the clippers into the wall and went through the swift process of cleaning up his head and eyebrow. Today was the last day of their mission for Echt, he may as well look as fresh as he could. Squall stepped out shortly after her as she went to put the clippers away, looking back to see him running his fingers against the grain of the hair at the back of his head idly as he headed over to get his shirt on and prepare to find breakfast, or maybe it was lunch, it hardly mattered, time hardly felt like it passed in this city. Nothing to mark the endless darkness of the city but the chiming of the bells at dawn and dusk. She paused when she realized she literally didn't know how long they'd been in Deling. She could estimate, but the exact day count escaped her. After a moment's consideration she realized it didn't matter. Not really. The ashfall was light today, letting them head out into the low-income areas of the city without trouble and find a place to get food. Today they had headed to a place they had been once before. A little Centran hole-in-the-wall. The proprietor had hair silver like hers though his eyes were a soft black bordering on grey. He spoke with a flinty accent and treated her like a distant cousin. He claimed that any Centran was a cousin to him. The food was good though. All finger food, a clean, warmed, damp towel was provided before the first dish was brought out, to clean your hands. The man's wife would come out with the first dish and he would pour them all a tiny glass of a cloudy beverage that was lightly alcoholic. Just enough to sting. He would spit it back in another cup as he stepped away but he always drank with the first dish. They saw him do it for everybody who walked in. Squall was the one who really wanted to come back here though. It had been his suggestion. The way the food was set up, a large unleavened bread that was soft and spongy and just slightly sour was used as a plate, putting everything else on the bread as a conveyance to the mouth. There was a great variety all cooked to compliment the bread. So different to those who are used to forks and knives.
"Y'think he's actually your cousin?" Squall asked sliding a little envelope of spicy meat into his mouth. Fujin stopped chewing and looked up at Squall questioningly.
"Well, you're from somewhere, probably not Centra itself." He said as he prepared another little package this time with pickled vegetables and rice.
Fujin swallowed and considered over a sip of her drink.
"...CAN'T." she said shaking her head.
"Don't remember any of it?" Squall asked and she nodded.
"Could ask from his side. 'Hey, have any long lost relatives from around eighteen years ago that had a kid' sort of thing." He asked putting it in his mouth to give her time to figuratively chew it over.
"WON'T" she said with a decisive cut of her chin. Squall considered that, they ate in silence for a few minutes while she watched.
"CURIOUS?" She asked looking up at him, he let his hand down and tapped the table thoughtfully, staring at his finger as he did before bringing the fingers back up to his mouth and talking from behind his hand.
"...If you don't care I don't care." he said, and she took a breath before stuffing a pepper in her mouth and chewing on it metaphorically and literally.
She knew that he meant it, Squall wasn't the type to lie casually to save feelings. But she knew the curiosity would get to him. She deliberately didn't consider her parents. They didn't want her, and she didn't need them. She had nothing from them, not a stitch of clothing or anything besides a name that might not even be theirs. The cold aura of the barred door in her mind shook with ominous power. She swallowed with some difficulty and tried to put it out of her mind. The owner swept by a few times to ask about their food and their day. Squall had nothing but praise for the food though he delivered it with a straight face that left the owner slightly puzzled. Amusing Fujin who had grown fairly accustomed to Squall's relatively flat affect, the owner thanked him for his compliments and promised to pass them on to his wife who helped much with the cooking. Fujin for her part kept her opinions brief. It was Squall's turn for a wry smile as Fujin's forceful statements drew small flinches from the owner. He recovered quickly but he was also fairly quick to slide on to other guests.
"I think you scared him." Squall said softly and Fujin snorted, turning up her nose for a moment before mopping up the last of a sweet vinegar sauce with the last of the bread and rice and popping it in her mouth.
The bill was paid quickly and they were back on the street feeling quite refreshed. The thunder shuddered the air as they started to walk and Squall glanced up at the everpresent clouds sniffing the air.
"Another day in paradise." he grumbled. Walking the crowded streets of the city during 'daylight' hours. The rain began to fall, hard and heavy. The thick grey droplets full of ash and the everpresent smog of industry that pumped from the city like blood from a steel heart. They had hours yet until nightfall and work. Their usual pattern was to enjoy lunch, maybe some light training, but to relax before the inevitable trouble of the high-society party. That it so far had only been insults and one minor brush with exposure hardly mattered. They turned into an alley to head back toward home walking past two street toughs talking in hushed voices, nothing unusual. As Squall and Fujin walked past a pair of dumpsters something swept up behind them. The unmistakable sound of a weapon being cocked. At the far end of the alley someone stepped into view blocking the alley and if they turned around Squall was quite sure the two at the other end were blocking the alley similarly.
"This is a toll-way. I'll be taking those wallets, toughs." The male voice said. Fujin gave Squall a sharp look as he stifled a laugh.
"Well? I want your money not your life, but I'll take both if I have to, eh?" The voice demanded.
"No." Squall was carrying a fair amount of cash, not all of it, naturally, but enough that losing it would be more than a small inconvenience if the work that Caraway had in mind wasn't the type he'd be willing to pay for. Which, even odds on that front. Fujin glanced at him without turning around, making a small deferential movement with her hand to let him know she'd follow his lead.
"What? I've got a gun princess! Hand over your wallet or I'll paint the alley with you!" the man said and Squall turned around to face him, watching the gun slowly point right at his face.
"Fuck you think you're doing?!" The tough hissed, his hand holding the gun shaking, just a tremor. The shooter looked like a kid, his face round and soft. Squall regretted what he was about to do. His hand shot out like a viper's strike gripping the rear of the pistol, slipping his finger onto the hammer. He felt the seer release and the spring pressure would have fired the weapon right into his face if he wasn't already blocking the firing pin. The shooter had an instant for his eyes to widen before Fujin's hand shot out palm striking his elbow and reversing it. His scream was easily as loud as the gunshot would have been. Squall twisted the gun out of his hand. At the two ends of the alley the other three accomplices looked on warily. Squall pulled back the slide ejecting a live round and chambering the next while recocking the hammer. The tip of the bullet had been cut off, dumdums. Would cause some very serious damage to flesh if it penetrated it. Tendency to squash on armor and accomplish nothing otherwise. Realistically unless he got shot in the eye he was in no danger.
As the kid fell to the ground gripping his arm just below the elbow that was currently grotesquely out of place. Squall turned the safety on the pistol on and tucked it in the back of his pants.
"I'll hold onto this for you." Squall was watching the two at the other end of the alley when the gunshot went off. He heard a small hiss of pain from Fujin but he didn't turn his head when he heard the plop of small metal things hitting asphalt and the growing puddles. She'd caught the bullet then. If you were ready it was doable especially with her Force. Pandemona was a jittering paranoia engine at the best of times. The toughs at the ends of the alleys scattered, abandoning their compatriot, or maybe prospective in the alley writhing in the murky puddles. Squall nudged the youth with his boot.
"Hey. Hold still." He demanded and the young man looked up at him with terror in his eyes flickering from Fujin to him and back. Squall tried not to remember that look in the boy's eyes that was so much like the looks he'd gotten from the gangers from Braids' group. All the same the boy gasped, his foot kicking with restrained agony as he looked up at Squall trying to hold still.
"This is going to hurt, a lot." Squall said, kneeling down on the boy's shoulder. Who immediately started to fight him as he grabbed the arm that was reversed. Fujin stepped up to put her weight on the other shoulder, holding him down. With one sharp motion Squall returned the arm to the correct direction and then his hands glowed furiously with energy and the torn ligaments and muscles knit back together. The damage undone so quickly that the boy let out of a sharp exhalation of relief and went limp.
"W-what?" he asked looking up at Squall's face. Still being held down.
"I'm going to let you go. This is your wakeup call. I don't feel like killing a kid today." Squall said standing up, Fujin started moving almost at the same time. He paused for a moment as the kid flopped, staring up into the storm, his eyes wide and his chest rising and falling as the rain slowly intensified, drowning out sound and reducing visibility. Squall walked away, shoulders hunched, head bowed. Fujin walked with a similar pose beside him.
"HOME?" she asked and Squall turned without a word, the desire to do anything rather drained out by the sudden reminder of the violence of the place they lived for now. He reached into his pocket, then another patting at his jacket. Fujin pulled the pack of smokes out of her pocket, put two in her lips and lit them both before handing one over. Squall watched her with a placid expression before putting the offer to his lips.
"Killed enough kids." Squall muttered to himself. Fujin wouldn't have heard him if she wasn't practically in contact with his shoulder. She reached up to brush her hair out of her face, the soaked mop plastered down by the ongoing downpour. Fujin held hers by the butt with the lit end pointed to her palm, protecting it from the rain, Squall mimicked her. The heat of the cherry on the end warming his palm as he brought it down. They walked in quiet solidarity. He did watch Fujin discretely fiddling with her empty hand. He reached for her hand pulling the palm up a bit so he could see the small oozing wound streaked across it.
"Caught it?" he asked and she shrugged. It wasn't impossible, but that was still quite the feat. The wound was a drag, where she had snatched something out of the air and it had torn her hand as it moved. She nodded for her part. He let go of her hand and they continued walking.
"You know, I used to like the rain, back in Balamb." Squall commented as they walked, Fujin looked over at him as they walked. She made a small noise in lieu of a real question. He took it as license to continue.
"This though, it's sharp, and fucking cold. Burns the eyes, fuck this city." Squall let out a harsh sound somewhere between a cough, a snort, and a growl.
Fujin sharply nodded. Though, her feelings were more mixed. Afterall she now had some pretty positive memories of this place too. She looked up at Squall in profile a moment his eyes focused ahead. Then gently twined her arm around his he seemed surprised and looked down at her. She looked away. She laced their fingers together, now walking in tandem despite the sheeting rain. The smell of the narcotic smoke was lost entirely in the falling water.
She rather liked the rain too especially here, because it concealed, because it muffled, and because it cooled her burning face.
The final night was at once more frantic but more relaxed. The art show, if it could be so called, had been mostly ignored by everyone. Fujin could easily admit she didn't have an eye for art, but the pretense for this soiree was paper thin. And something would come out of it tonight. Fittingly she found she didn't care, listening for important details with half an ear but watching the stage. Keeping an eye on the stage while only possessing one meant her attention was focused. And Echt noticed swiftly, the energy around Fujin was different.
It wasn't just the change of the warmth of color in her clothing. Echt had spent fairly serious money on Fujin's fitting. An ephemeral transparent purple shawl that rose up over her hair that had been pulled in an elaborate but tight braid that had taken nearly an hour hour to put in. Her hair had been braided with a white gold chain that wove through that sparkled with tiny red stones. Her body wrapped in a layered dress that wove around her, in a muted red darker than her eye. It had long sleeves that draped down to the backs of her hands rings of more white metal sparkling on her fingers emphasising the little color she had in her skin. Her throat was wrapped in a tight choker of white lace with a red stone positioned in the hollow of her throat almost like a collar. The dress ended well before her knees, intended to emphasise her shoes that wove around her feet holding a floating heel to hers. The shoe itself more a sock than anything. Twines of thin material braided up her calves and tied with neat bows. A thin plate of magic stone adhering the heel to her foot along with a thin pad to keep her from being technically bare foot, but it offered no protection aside from dust.
Fujin objectively knew that the ensemble was striking, a work of art, but she could not help but feel ridiculous. It was all so impractical, she felt on display like some over-rich self-important socialite's dress up doll. Which, in a way she supposed she was. An accessory to miss Echt who wore something no less expensive though far more conservative. All the same, others had pulled out the stops where they didn't have a military uniform to lean into. Shimmering dresses, elaborate up-dos. Fujin watched as a steward with a pad of paper walked around, when he finally addressed Echt he asked her for an opinion about who was best dressed. A code if ever there was, and she named a gentlemen who Fujin recalled wearing a military uniform, though one without many medals or distinctions. Fujin slipped slowly at the expensive wine while sticking close to Echt and trying to do more than simply watching Squall croon into the microphone. He seemed to have a little more energy tonight. He made eye contact with her easily. It left her feeling revealed and uncomfortable. Yet time and again she would look up at him only to meet his eyes. Looking at him, looking at her. Just like the song he sang so beautifully.
This rendition though lacked the pain of his first recitation in the restaurant, the prefunctury nature of the previous versions. This time she felt her heart quicken because she could feel he was singing to her. She fought back a tear at her little revelation, swallowing her heart that hammered, panicked. A certain ecstatic terror rose in her that she pressed down behind a blank mask. Something to be dealt with later, when there was time, when it was less painful, sometime.
The night passed in a blur. The windows secure, the guards vigilant. The energy in the room was tightly strung, like violin strings so taut they would scream if played. Yet in the whirl around her there was an anchor in the eyes on the stage, blue grey and alive. She breathed deep and centered again, repression as smooth as breathing, bottled away to fester for now. Echt's hand around her bicep was tight. A clear sign of displeasure from the prickly woman. Her paranoia paid well however so Fujin accepted being carted about as the voting was collected regardless of the wishes of the empire at large. The power was here in this room. She'd listened to three days of their wheeling and dealing, concessions, buying favor. The web of interdependency required the coordination of such a huge amount of men and material and yet so few hands really controlled it all.
It was eye opening and a little vile to realize just how much gil was floating around this room. She'd casually overheard billions being exchanged from one conversation to the next. A billion gil could put someone up for the rest of their life and comfortably at that. Echt had been offered and eventually accepted thirteen billion for her support for the man she voted for. Thirteen. More than a dozen people could have been set for their entire lives for the value of that bribe. It put bile in her throat. She sipped her wine. And she'd had the nerve to get snippy over one hundred thousand. Fujin's hand flexed, it wasn't her fight. Ultimately if she throttled Echt someone else would take her place. She could kill them all and there would just be more. That thought brought down her whole mood. She drained the flute in her hand and set it on a passing waiter's tray and didn't touch another drop the whole night. She watched the slow moving spiral that began to circle two individuals, a man and a woman both in military uniform, the man was quite a bit less decorated and younger, his brown hair cut close, his smile was easy and he spoke to everyone who approached him. Echt's conversation with him was business oriented discussing her resources and what she could bring to Galbadia.
Fujin watched the man closely, his hands, his clothes, his shoes. Regulation ensamble but new. Well polished shoes, his fingernails were manicured and clean, his hands lacked obvious callusing. He wore a sword at his hip, the basket of the hilt chased in gold and shone. He wore a ring on each hand and a small gold chain around his neck. His black eyes wandered, chasing back to the person he spoke to but would commonly roam taking in what was going on around him in small sweeps. He gestured quite a bit as he spoke, hands in near constant motion. He kept his feet fairly planted though. His arm motions were deliberate and held at some distance from his body giving him a very wide stance. A legacy of someone who was used to top-heavy powered exosuits.
"Miss Echt, I don't think I've been introduced to your companion?" He said with a laugh and testament to the ease of the conversation the older woman spoke in the same familiar tone they'd been using.
"Just a friend who agreed to be my accompaniment, Lee this is the major Trevannah." she said but the man's eyes were sharper and they made strong eye contact for a few seconds before he looked away, his eyes sliding back over her again.
"Lee? Charmed." He said as Fujin blankly stared at him, she offered a bland, empty smile, her hand by her side the other looped around Echt's elbow listening with the sort of passive presence as a resting house cat. Just favor trading, like this whole event was for the last three nights, people showing off their wealth with ostentatious clothing and snide comments. It put Fujin off but still she dutifully committed what she heard. These people were a threat to a united Galbadia and a peaceful west after all. She only dreamed that when the time came, she'd get in on the action there. Even as she thought it though, her stomach twisted. Was that really what she wanted to be doing? When they finished this mission did she really want to live more of this life, killing children and stalking the night like a lunar monster? Her mind split, one half diving deeper and deeper into this question imagining a future outside SeeD, outside the endless violence and paranoia, while the other half passively listened for important details they could feed back to Garden. A Garden that took in the poorest, the dispossessed, the unfortunate and turned out soldiers with no past. Kids, really, for whom their parents were blurry nothings, empty spaces that crowded their nightmares. Or was that just her? Before she realized it they were walking out of the building.
"Thank Hyne this thing is over. I suppose you and your boy will be wanting the rest of the sum." Echt said primly as she walked to their transportation back to her villa a few blocks away. Fujin slid into the car easily.
"YES." Fujin said sharply as the chauffeur closed the vehicle and began to drive. There was an undercurrent of anger in Demelza, a simmering fury that she kept carefully bottled as Squall appeared at their destination, the bag containing their weapons over his shoulder. He was still in his suit, looking out of place as anything with his cool confidence, roguish haircut and sharp expression.
"Miss Echt." He said as they walked by into the house, the two SeeD falling into step behind her.
"I suppose it was worth the peace of mind. Fine, take your money." She said, sliding into her desk and pulling out an envelope that had the amount owed pre-counted. Fujin took it when it was offered to her then licked a finger and started counting. It was still pretty incredible to Squall to watch how fast she could count even as her lips parted moving slightly while she worked. Echt looked mildly insulted to Squall, but she was wise enough not to say anything. A short time later Fujin tucked the envelope into her dress then looked down at the incredibly fine and expensive garment and back up to Echt.
"CHANGE." Fujin said and it took Demelza a few moment before she perked up. "Oh, yes, your clothes are in the room next door down on the left. Then kindly get out of my house, I wish to get to sleep. I have an empire to run." she said subtly smugly. The insult drifted by both Squall and Fujin and they exited the room.
"BURN?" Fujin asked quietly as they entered the next room. Squall looked back through the wall where they hadn't heard Echt leave yet and frowned thoughtfully.
"I don't think it'll help anything, but I won't stop you." He said and Fujin snorted a bit of laughter out her nose. As she reached back around behind herself finding she could barely touch the knots that held the garment in place. She swallowed the thickness in her throat shyly glancing over at Squall who was looking around the room lost in thought. She reached out and brushed his sleeve with two fingers which instantly snapped his face to her, concern written in his expression.
"ASSIST?" she asked, her face starting to color. Squall stood frozen a few moments eyes wide.
"Undressing?" he asked and she nodded. Turning around she pointed between her shoulder blades at the elaborate knots along the back of the garment holding it tight to her. Squall's hands were warm but he did struggle with the knots, unwilling to damage the doubtlessly artisanal dress. She could feel the little tugs and pulls as the ties came loose freeing her bit by bit from the first layer, letting her arms free, then Squall finally turned around as she removed the blouse-like upper section leaving her in her bra with the envelope poking out as she unwrapped her hips and thighs. She set aside the dress then unbound her legs from the strange, ungainly 'shoes' she'd been wearing. Squall in the meantime had stipped out of his suit and already put back on his street clothes. Having much less effort involved in removing his outfit. She envied the simplicity of male fashion. They were both dressed back to the clothes they had come in with nary more than a few stolen glances at each other. The energy was quite different between them even as Fujin slid her eyepatch into place. They'd changed in parallel enough times, but it felt different in some undefinable way. They left the Echt Villa quickly after that. Fujin started to head for their flat, but Squall steered them differently, deeper into the downtown, despite the light rain.
"DIRECTION?" she asked him and he frowned then sighed.
"Caraway wanted something from me. You're free to head back… but it probably concerns you too." He said by way of explanation and Fujin considered that a moment, the subtext. The General didn't know they were working together, the rogue and the Commander both in the same room for three days. She recalled Squall talking about it, but it hadn't seemed terribly important until now.
"COMING." Fujin picked up the pace to walk beside him, shoulders brushing as they walked.
The brooding gargoyles of the Caraway Villa soon towered, the gates heavy and the walls marked by small cameras all along its length. Squall reached out to push the button on the intercom.
"Flower delivery for the General." Squall said, drawing a questioning look from Fujin that he studiously ignored. She shrugged as the gate buzzed and a motor pulled the heavy metal out of the way. As they walked past it the gate slid back into place and they approached the door that was already opening beyond the tiny garden that occupied the space between wall and the fortress-like house, which had gone to weed with neglect. Squall paused looking at the garden and seemed to sag slightly as he headed in.
"No rest for the wicked." He muttered.
Not my longest chapter but I'm hoping to drag it back from the ever lengthening that had been happening. I always treasure reviews and comments, I'd love to hear what you think worked and what didn't. I promise you reading one makes my whole day.