Disclaimer: If I owned ff8, do you really think I'd waste my time writing fanfics ?
Author's notes: I didn't think I'd actually get this up today. I managed to delay it in every way possible. Once I even deleted half of it. But it's here.
Fatal Misunderstanding
Chapter 6
Quistis walked quickly down the hallway towards the dorms, still trying to believe what Zell had said. She wanted to think it was all a sick joke, but the way Zell had suddenly began crying told her otherwise.
It was all her fault Squall was dead. She had always tried to protect him, like a mother or a big sister. She had always tried to get him to open up a bit, and said she'd be there if he needed her. But she had lied. Squall had obviously needed someone then, someone to help him with whatever problem had been bad enough for him to end his life. But she hadn't been there. No one had. A tear dripped down her cheek as she approached the dorm. Irvine was standing in front of the door, looking confused.
"Rinoa's in there," he told her, "I heard her crying, but Zell told me not to go in. What's going on?"
There was no time for tact. "Squall killed himself," she told him, and Irvine's face paled. Both of them entered the room, locking the door behind them to prevent curious students from walking in.
When they got into the room, Quistis went over to Rinoa, who was sitting on Squall's bed, crying softly. "Rinoa?" Why don't you go down to the infirmary ?" Quistis said gently. Rinoa, too upset to protest, stood up. Her knees gave way and she almost fell, but Quistis grabbed her.
"Irvine, I'm going to take Rinoa down to the infirmary." she told the cowboy, who was staring at the closed bathroom door. He nodded, not meeting her eyes, ands she knew he was crying. She helped Rinoa walk and led her to the infirmary.
~*~
Irvine barely heard Quistis leave. He was still trying to make sense of what she had said. Why would Squall kill himself? It didn't make sense. He had to have proof, or he wouldn't believe it. He reached out and slowly opened the bathroom door.
The sight of Squall's body almost made him throw up. He hadn't been as close to the antisocial commander as Zell, but they had still been good friends. He had looked up to Squall, always admiring the way he could handle anything. But now as he looked at Squall's face, he saw that they had all been wrong. Squall's usual scowl had been replaced with a look of confusion and fear, as if he had suddenly decided not to die. His eyes, which had once shown fierce determination, and never once revealed his true emotion, now, even in death, looked sad and lost. It was as if right before he died, Squall's mask had slipped, revealing the person behind it.
But it was the indignity of having his friend and commander, respected by hundreds, lying in a bathtub in only his boxer that really bothered Irvine. It wasn't right, and it felt disrespectful to just leave him there.
Carefully, Irvine reached down and picked up Squall's body, which lay limp in his hands. He laid Squall on the bed, and folded the blanket over him, making a sort of shroud. "Squall, I'm sorry," he told his friend, mentally scolding himself for talking to a corps, but at the same time feeling it was necessary, "I should have been there. We all should have. Whatever was wrong, you could have told us, we would have understood."
There was a loud banging at the door, "Kinneas! Open this door now!" shouted a voice.
Irvine tried to place the voice, "Seifer?" he asked.
"You're damn right it's me! Now open the fucking door!" Seifer shouted. Irvine unlocked and opened the door, but before he could tell Seifer to go away, the blonde gunblade expert had pushed past him into the room.
~*~
Seifer hoped to god that what he'd been hearing wasn't true. People in the cafeteria had been saying that Irvine was guarding Squall's room because the commander was hurt, or possibly even dead. No one knew anything for sure, but Seifer had to find out.
If Squall was dead, it would ruin his life. Ever since the orphanage, Seifer had regarded Squall as a rival. When Ultimecia had been killed and Seifer came back, hoping to make up for what he had done, Quistis had seen he was sincere and allowed him to stay. Now he was a SeeD, having finally passed him exam. Although they rarely spoke to each other, and neither of them had time for the battles which had been a part of daily life in the past, the rivalry was still there. Without it, Seifer didn't know what he would do.
When he entered the room, Seifer stopped short in complete shock.
He slowly walked over to the bed, where Squall lay wrapped in a blanket. His worst fears had been confirmed.
Spinning around, Seifer grabbed Irvine by the shirt collar. "How the hell did this happen?" he demanded, trying to keep his voice under control.
"He...he killed himself," Irvine told him, and Seifer released the cowboy in shock.
"You're lying," he said, his voice hardly more than a whisper. "You're fucking lying!" But Irvine, who was crying without even realizing it, showed him Squall's wrists.
Seifer turned and left the room, unable to stand it anymore. He and Squall had been fighting ever since he could remember. There had been times where Seifer had said he would kill Squall, and times, when under the sorceresses control, that he had actually tried. But at the sight of his rival's body, lying on the bed, never to fight again, he had realized that he had never really hated Squall. It hurt, to realize something after it was too late to do anything about it.
Seifer's eyes drifted over to Hyperion, lying on a shelf above his bed. How many times had he and Squall been involved in fierce gunblade battles? How many times had he tried to hurt Squall using Hyperion, and never realized that in the end, it would be Squall's gunblade, and not his, that would take his rival's life? Seifer couldn't hold it in anymore. Falling to his knees on the floor, he began to cry.
End of chapter 6
Author's notes: $hit! FFN isn't coming up! So this mite be a bit late, despite what I said earlier. Hopefully not though. LOL, Peewee's Gurl, my best friend (and a really great author too), slept over last nite. We went to bed at 6:30am, and I woke up at nine. Add that to the fact that the most sleep I've gotten any night in the past week is four hours, and you have one very tired author. But I'll still try to have the 7th chapter up tomorrow. There will be AT LEAST eight chapters now, because I'm having fun writing this ^_^