Trickle - 14 - Amazed

[I'm not going anywhere far unless you're with me.]

.

He shook his head 'no', and casually took a drink from his coffee. I set the papers on the table and pulled him aside.

"You didn't get it taken out? Why?"
"She said she didn't have the right tools to do it."
"No. Come on, let's go."

I dragged him by the hand to the infirmary, away from the crowded table.

I felt like a mother screaming at her sick child to swallow a disgusting cough medicine.

.

We entered the Infirmary. Dr. Kadowaki was sitting at her desk speaking to somebody on the phone.

"Mrs. Kadowaki, I need to talk to you. Seif-"

She held up her hand to silence me.

Seifer sighed and sat down in one of the waiting chairs. He began thumbing through a magazine; not to read it, not to look at the pictures but because he felt it was the right thing to do.

I sat beside him, grabbed his hand.

"It's going to be removed Seifer"

I ran my thumb of his knuckles slowly.

He laughed.

"You're more concerned than I am. Don't worry Quisty, everything will be okay."

Quisty, please don't make that a habit.

"Hey now, did I give you permission to call me Quisty…" I thought of a gross pet name to call him. "Sifey, my sweet honey-boo bear?" I spoke to him like I was talking to a child.

"Wow, that's a really scary thing to be called. Please don't ever call me that again."

I laughed.

"You got it."

He laughed and pulled my hand to his lips kissing them.

"Alright Quistis, I'm ready to see you now."

Seifer let go of my hand and I walked to her desk.

"Mrs. Kadowaki, did you know that Seifer has life-threatening poison running through his veins?"
"Yes Quistis, I'm aware of that. I'm the one who gave him the packet to read up on it."
"Well, it says if it's not removed, it can cause death. Why aren't you removing it?"
"Quistis, I'd love to remove it. It's just that when people are poisoned, they usually cure themselves right away. If you wait, especially a day to have it removed, it can require some extensive equipment."
"And you guys don't have that equipment?"
"No…we don't."

I lowered my voice.

"Well, what the hell are you going to do? Just sit back and watch him die?"
"Calm down, calm down…" She pulled me aside so Seifer couldn't see or hear us talking anymore.

"I already explained to him that I'll call and search for a fluid he can drink. Now it might take awhile for it to arrive and it'll be a bit pricey. The thing is he might not even need it. On some people it'll kill them in a day; in an hour. For other people it could take months…years even. And those that are lucky, those that are strong; survive with it."

I looked down sadly.

"And out of all those people that you described, which does Seifer fall under?"

"Strong of course, Seifer is a very strong person."

I nodded.

"Thanks, sorry for all the yelling."

"It's alright Quistis. Don't worry, I see it too. That man has a beautiful heart; he just chooses to keep it hidden from view."

.

Upon leaving the infirmary, Seifer excused himself to the bathroom.

I waited for him, outside of it. Some of my students walked by and asked me where've I've been for so long. I explained to them that I was ill and recovered last night, but had to stay out of the classrooms to catch up on all my paper work. I felt bad for lying to them, but I couldn't say that I was having the time of my life with Seifer Almasy last night. Oh, how I wanted to.

When he returned, he just stood there.

"Before what happened last night, what did you usually spend your time doing?"
"Training, becoming stronger. Exploring the Garden, hanging out with idiots or I'd just simply write."
"What do you write?"
"What I feel."

He pulled his gloves from his pockets and put them on.

Cold, again?

I waited until each finger was placed perfectly inside into each crevice before I spoke.

"Cold again, huh?"
"Yeah."

I grabbed his hand and placed it against mine. The tips of my fingers were placed on the middle of his. I never realized before how big his hands were. It was amazing.

He laughed.

"Your curiosity reminds me of when we were smaller."

I continued noticing the difference in size of his hand VS mine.

"How so?"
"Well, when we were younger, you'd always get so excited when there were little things happening. We'd be playing tag outside, and you'd always try to invent new rules to such a simple game."

He chuckled, pulled something out of his pocket, looked at it, and shoved it back in.

"What is that?"
"A schedule of events happening."
"Happening here, at the Garden?"
"Yeah"
"Well…what's happening?"
"A cook-out, or some crap."

Oh yeah, that's it. I guess we have the Garden Festival committee to thank for that. The new rule for them is to have something-exciting going on once or twice a week.

"I'm sorry Quistis, but I think I'm going to go down to the training center for a bit."

Well, I guess I can't expect him to be near me every second that I breathe.

He began walking away, but I pulled his hand back.

'"Seifer, please don't leave Balamb alone. If you're going to leave again, and be gone forever…will you at least bring me along?"
"I'm not going anywhere far, unless you're with me."

I smiled.

I waited there holding out my hand until our fingers weren't touching anymore. I sat down on a bench nearby, and laughed.

.

"Hey, what are you laughing at?"

I looked up, and saw the bunch I left earlier at breakfast. Selphie was wearing a hat that said "G.F.C" (Garden Festival Committee.) She was also holding flyers.

"You're coming to the cook-out this evening right?" She handed me a neon orange flyer.
"Say yes Quistis, we could all hang out. We haven't done something like that in a long time." Squall added, sitting down next to me.
"Well, I don't know guys; I have a lot of paper work to do."
"Oh man, Quistis, come on!"

Zell reached his down into a bag of potato chips he was holding.

"Do you guys always travel in groups now-a-days?" I laughed.

"Of course we do, we're a family. We all look so good together." Irvine added in putting his arm around Zell and Selphie.

"Of course, some of us look better than others." Zell responded, pushing Irvine's arm off his shoulder.

Rinoa ignored everything going on and joined Squall and me on the bench.

"So are you coming? It's going to be so much fun!"

In the background, Irvine was struggling to get Zell's potato chips from him, while Selphie tried pinning his arms behind his back.

"Get them Irvy!"

Squall looked at them.

"Well, of course, after seeing them behave like this you don't have to come if you don't want to."
"No, no…I'll come."
"Great! We were going to head down to Squall's room to watch a movie; do you want to come? You know, since we haven't done something like that in awhile."

Rinoa asked her voice excited and her eyes searching mine for a response.

I looked back over at Zell who now on his knees picking up the chips that flew from the bag when it was ripped during their struggle to get them. Standing over him was a guard scolding Selphie and Irvine.

"Yeah, a movie sounds pretty good right about now."