Just to clear things up, I always write in the third-person. Never first. I can't do it. Just so people stop e-mailing me asking why my perspective is so messed up.

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Fifty Days

Chapter 8: Leave Me Alone!

Quistis walked from the Training Centre slowly, grasping the railing as she walked away from Seifer.

Don't look back don't look back don't give him the satisfaction of looking back-

"Instructor!"

Quistis cursed and stopped walking away. "What?" she asked, as Seifer ran to catch up with her.

"You OK?"

Quistis turned. Did he- "Did you just ask me whether I was OK?"

Seifer held up his hands. "Just a question," he said. "Don't get all prissy, OK? O was just wondering. Sorry for caring," he said moodily, and pushed past her. To his surprise, she actually staggered, and he reached out a hand to catch her. He found himself looking into her eyes. He grinned.

"Getting a little clumsy there, Instructor?" he asked. He felt something prick him in the chest, and looked down. Save The Queen was wrapped around Quistis' hand, and she was holding the tip in her hands. The sharp tip. With sharp things on it. He looked up at Quistis' face.

"Let go of me," she whispered, face a mixture of anger and embarrassments, and something else…

Seifer let go, and the tip was removed. "What's your problem?" he asked, rubbing his chest where the metal had been pressed against him.

Quistis blinked, and then stared at him as if only just noticing him. Then she took a step back. Suddenly she radiated icy calm.

"Seifer. I apologise. I shouldn't have done that," she said.

Seifer smirked, and was about to comment, when she turned and walked away, leaving him stand there in the Training Centre, staring after her. He crossed his arms, taking care to keep the Hyperion's barrel pointed away from him.

Trepe lost her temper…

Well, there's something you don't see every day.

He turned as he heard a noise from the bushes, and a Grat wandered out. He casually shot it, and stepped forward to finish him off, mind already streamlining itself for killing. He still couldn't get the image of Quistis' expression as he had held her.

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Quistis walked from the Training centre and out towards the foyer. She got half-way around before her energy left her, and she had to sit down on a bench. She sat there, holding her head in her hands.

Cid was right. I can't do this anymore…

Shakily she got to her feet and walked to the elevator. She pushed the button for the top floor, and frowned when it refused to work. Then she remembered that it was night, and faculties were shut down. It was why she had gone into the Training Centre in the first place.

Damn it!

"Quisty?"

Quistis didn't turn around. "What is it? Come back to taunt me some more?" she spat. She turned. "Irvy! Ohhyne I'm sorry!" she said quickly, as the cowboy stopped dead and stared at her.

"Geez Quisty, just sayin' hi. No need to get all-"

Quistis held up her hand. "My fault. I've had this conversation about ten minutes ago," she said with a sigh. She moved back down the stairwell to the bench, and Irvine followed.

"Seifer?"

Quistis looked round at him. "How did you know?" she asked.

Irvine raised his hand, and Quistis suddenly noticed he was gripping his rifle. "A little late-night practise never hurt anyone. I saw your little tête-à-tête-"

"It was not a conversation! He was just being annoying!" Quistis said, indignation that anyone would think she and Seifer had anything to say to each other overriding the aching headache.

Irvine smiled. "You two looked like you were getting nice and comfy there though," he said with a sly smile. He stopped smiling as the look on Quistis' face went past 'could-kill' and into '-and-vaporise-your-ashes' territory. "Sorry," he murmured.

Quistis sat back. "Hyne Irvine I'm sorry. I just haven't been feeling all that well recently," she lied to one of her best friends.

Irvine shrugged. "S'OK. I heard about the thing in Esthar. What happened?" he asked.

"Just something Odine was working on apparently. It was too technical for me to understand," she lied.

"That man is seriously weird." He slapped her on the back in what he thought was a comradely gesture. "But you're OK now, so all you have to worry about is Seifer!" he stood and tipped his hat at her. "Don't find yourself falling for him now."

Quistis moved her hand slightly towards her belt.

"Literally I meant!" Irvine said, hastily backing off.

Quistis laughed. "Don't worry about me anymore," she said quietly.

Irvine cocked an eyebrow at her, and then turned with a swish of his long coat on the floor. Quistis sighed dramatically. Oh the drama. Irvine took the hint and moved off back towards his room, leaving Quistis alone in the darkness of the Garden foyer. She felt like punching something as Irvine disappeared around the curve of the large pool, happily swinging his rifle around his finger in that oh-so-cocky way of his.

Now you're lying to your friends Trepe. Way to go.

It's better this way-

Sure. They'll be so much happier when you suddenly die of whatever it is you're dying of.

She tried to think of an alternative to her own argument, and sank down on the bench when she failed miserably.

What am I going to say what are they going to say what if I don't die what if I do how are they going to react I don't want to do this I don't want to die.

I don't want to die!

She reached into her pocket for the small container of pills and swallowed one as the pain pushed to the forefront of her mind and demanded to be noticed. She wiped a hand across her brow and flicked away the sweat onto the clear surface of the water behind her. She resisted the urge to cough as the painkiller mixture kicked in, and the pain slid to the back of her mind again.

She stood and made her way back to her dorm, pacing slowly. As she came to the archway leading to the dorms she staggered, and would have fell if…

"Instructor, are you drunk or something?"

Quistis didn't even bother to resist as a pair of hands grabber her shoulders and held her upright. "Seifer," she acknowledged.

Another smirk. He had a lot to give out today it seemed. "Instructors being drunk on campus? That wouldn't go down too well with the Commander now would it?" he said.

Quistis cocked a finger at him. Come hither. Seifer leaned closer.

"Yes?"

"The hell with you," she hissed. "The hell with you and your attitude and your worthless comments and your insignificant attempts at humour." She tried to push him away from her, but only managed a small shove. "Get away from me. I'm going to sleep. I'll see you in the morning. What?"

Seifer was staring at her intently. She tried to push him away again, but instead he moved his hands from her shoulders to her cheeks, and just stared at her. Finally he spoke.

"Trepe, are you actually drugged up?" he asked disbelievingly. Quistis succeeded in shaking free of his grip, and Seifer got a good look at her. "Hyne, you really are," he breathed.

Quistis reached into her pocket and threw the bottle at him. He caught it in surprise.

"There. Yes, I'm on drugs. Now just look at the damned packet and leave me alone!" she shouted.

Seifer looked at the bottle, and then back up at Quistis. "These are painkillers. For what?" he asked calmly.

Quistis looked balefully at Seifer, and then snatched the small bottle back, suddenly aware of what she had showed him. "For you and you Hyne-damned attitude!" she snarled, and then stalked off, not looking back at Seifer.

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Quistis stalked away in as a straight a line as she was able, and, mercifully, pulled it off, striding away from Seifer and back to her rooms. She slammed the door shut and just stood there for a few seconds, trying to comprehend what she had just showed the person who hurt people and revealed secrets practically on a daily basis.

No. Oh nonono! Stupid!

She sat down on the bed and looked again at the pill bottle, searching the label quickly for any clues it could give a thief about exactly what they were for. She sighed in relief when she found none, and fell backwards onto the soft mattress.

She had lost her temper.

She had lost her temper.

She had lost her temper.

At Seifer!

She cursed and threw a hand at the light switch, flicking it off without bothering to change first. She crawled under the warmth of the bed and laid her head on the pillow, earning her small relief from the effects of the drugs.

Why me? Why not someone who actually deserves it? Why…

She fell into the darkness of sleep, the question still hanging on the edge of her mind like splinter that she couldn't pull out. She suppressed a sob, knowing if she started crying now she might never stop.

I don't want to die…

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Seifer walked back towards his own dorm, making sure Quistis had already ran into hers. He shot a quick glance at the door as he passed it.

He hadn't expected any of tonight. He hadn't expected Trepe to be out after curfew when she had to teach him in the mornings, he hadn't expected any of what she had said, with a bitterness and pain he could see without words. And he sure as hell hadn't expected to find a small bottle of drugs on her.

He went into his medium-sized dorm without really noticing, mind on automatic. His first thought when he had picked up the bottle had been, he knew, entirely down to form. He had wanted to laugh in her face and taunt her about not being able to stand a little hardship. The second had been to let someone else, someone more important than her, know it, and land her well and truly in it. Then he had looked into he eyes again, and he let these possibilities slide. He had seen eyes like those before, mostly belonging to some poor soul he had been hired to eliminate. They signified a person who knows they're going to die, and doesn't give a damn about what happens in the space between now and that moment. Before the blonde Instructor had turned, Seifer had got a look at those eyes. Then she had turned her back on him, and walked off.

He lay back on his bed and tried to push the thought out of his head. Once he might have taunted her about it anyway, but one thing he couldn't afford to do this time was screw up. At that moment when she threw the bottle at him, he knew he had been that close.

He closed his eyes and tried to get to sleep. Tomorrow. He would think about this some other time. It was probably nothing.

Probably nothing.

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The end of another chapter.