By NightsDawne
Chapter 7: Oh Brother Where Art Thou?
Irvine crawled through a tangle of vines, for the tenth time retrieving his hat as it fell from his head.
"Why don't you just leave it off?" Seifer stopped to untangle his gunblade from the clinging undergrowth. "Goddamn jungle. Where are we going again?"
"Home, I told you." Irvine flashed a grin back to the blond. "It's not much further."
"And the reason we couldn't take the road?"
Irvine straightened as he cleared the foilage. "Because we never did when we were kids."
"You're totally fucked in the head, Kinneas, I'm convinced of that." Seifer pushed him out of the way so he could get out.
"Hey, you came along. Even payed for the tickets. And call me Irvine. Or Irvy. That's what you used to call me."
There was a long incredulous pause on Seifer's part. "I'm gonna forget that you ever even suggested I called anyone 'Irvy'."
Irvine laughed and picked a twig out of his boot, waving ahead with his free hand. "There it is. There's the orphanage, and the beach and the lighthouse are beyond it."
Seifer looked. "We grew up in an abandoned shack?"
Irvine stretched. "No, dipshit. Look, it's been eleven years. Guess there was a storm or somethin'. C'mon!" He took off for the cottage with his long, easy stride.
"Hey, Irvine." Seifer followed. "You ever call me dipshit again and I'll show you how fast I can kick your teeth down your throat."
Irvine kicked at the dilapidated door and frowned a bit as it creaked off its hinges and collapsed onto the floor inside, sending up a cloud of dust. "The old place really has fallen apart. Watch out for that hole in the--" A sound of a cracking board and a curse came from behind him. "...porch." he finished lamely, turning to see Seifer pulling his leg out of the wreckage. "You okay?"
"I'm starting to think I'm the one who's crazy, following you out here." Seifer grabbed the hand Irvine offered and got back to his feet. "You said it would all come back to me and it hasn't."
"Maybe if ya come inside. Hey, I'll show ya our room." Irvine spun on his heel and stepped over the door, making his way through the livingroom and down the hall.
Seifer shook his head and followed, using a bit more caution. "Were you this much of a pain when you were a kid?"
"Nah." Irvine stopped and pushed at a door, forcing it to open. "I picked that up later on dealin' with Martine. Okay, this is it."
Seifer shouldered Irvine aside and stepped into the room, looking around at the cracked and chipped paint, the only evidence of prior occupancy a bed foundation in one corner. "What about it?"
Irvine gave a tiny sigh of disappointment. "This was our room, Seifer. That was our bed." Seifer turned a glare on him and Irvine put his hands up. "Relax, we were four and five, it was totally innocent. Doncha remember jumpin' on it? We'd put the sheets on around our necks like capes and play superhero?"
Seifer walked further into the room, eyeing the bed. "That sounds kinda familiar." He tilted his head at a burned spot on the floor and crouched down, running his fingers over it. Irvine bit his lip, watching hopefully. Seifer knitted his brow. "Firecrackers?"
"Yeah, you're remembering." Irvine grinned, crossing his arms and leaning against the doorpost.
"I set off a firecracker on the floor and set the rug on fire. And Matron restricted us from tv for a week. So Quisty and Selphie would come in and play tv for us." Seifer looked up, a bit of a smile crossing his lips. "Hey, I do remember, Squirt! You were a midget and you couldn't say my name right."
Irvine laughed. "Yeah, Seifew."
Seifer crossed to the window, looking out at the lighthouse by the beach. "We used to sneak out and go play in the lighthouse after lights out. All four of us in Queen Quisty's court. I was her knight. And you and Selphie were totally crazy about each other." He looked over his shoulder. "You and she..?"
Irvine shook his head a bit wistfully. "Just friends, but it ain't for lack of tryin' on my part."
Seifer chuckled, then turned back to the window, climbing over the ledge and dropping down to the sand below. "There's a cave down there."
"Yup." Irvine followed after him, Seifer leading the way down the steps to the beach proper, taking a moment to think before turning the right way to get to the cave. Irvine caught up to walk next to him. "I'm glad I ran into ya in Fisherman's Horizon. Didn't feel right, everyone else rememberin' and you not."
"It's the GFs or something, isn't it? Why didn't it effect you?"
"I didn't use GFs until I joined up with Squall. Only students and SeeDs could have 'em and I wasn't either." Irvine shrugged a bit. "If you keep tryna remember things, it doesn't hit ya so bad. The memories stay there, you just have a harder time gettin' to 'em."
Seifer stuck his hands in his pockets, silent for a moment. "... I was supposed to go get you in Galbadia. We were gonna stick together. Like brothers."
"Hey, it's okay. Probably wouldn'ta worked anyway. How's a six year old supposed ta get all the way from Balamb ta Galbadia on his own?"
"I think I tried once or twice. Couldn't get further than Balamb City before somebody'd take me back." Seifer looked up as they reached the cave, ducking his head a bit to get inside. "I thought it was bigger than this."
"We were just a lot smaller."
Seifer sat down and stretched his legs out in front of him, leaning back against the cave wall. "How come you aren't in SeeD anyhow? You've got the battle skill."
Irvine ducked into the cave and slid down to sit against the opposite wall. "How come you ain't?"
Seifer smirked. "That's a whole different story. Besides, I asked you first, Squirt."
Irvine grinned at his old nickname and looked down, toying with the worn sole of one of his boots, peeling off a loose bit. "I flunked out as a cadet."
"Flunked? So why not take the test now? I'm sure Squall would let you."
"Yeah, he would." Irvine frowned. "Wouldn't make a difference, though."
"Why not?"
Irvine picked up a pebble and tossed it through the cave entrance. "Written exams."
"So? They're easy."
"Not if ya can't read." Irvine threw another pebble, this time with more force.
"You can't read?" There was a note of incredulity in Seifer's voice.
Irvine shrugged. "I can read some. If ya give me enough time. Not well enough ta take an exam. That's why I was so good as Martine's errand boy. No chance of me peekin' in his secret messages."
"I don't get it. How can someone not be able to read?"
Irvine lit up a cigarrette, tossing the pack and lighter over to Seifer. "Can we change the subject? It ain't somethin' I'm proud of. Squall don't even know."
"Okay, okay. Don't worry about him finding out from me." Seifer took a cigarrette and tossed the pack back. "Is that why you left the Garden, though? Just because you were worried someone would find out?"
"Nah." Irvine flicked his cigarrette over his fingers and caught it again. "Man, this feels just like old times. I used ta tell you ever'thing."
"So tell me now. Who am I gonna give your secrets away to?"
Irvine looked up, studying Seifer's face for a moment. "You remember how I used ta talk about my dad bein' a Galbadian soldier?"
Seifer nodded. "That's why you wanted to be one. Thought you'd find him that way."
"Yeah. Go figure, I was a kid. Anyway, I found him."
Seifer smiled. "That's cool. Guess you're not an orphan anymore."
Irvine shook his head. "Not cool. He was there all along. He was here, even. He just didn't want ta be my dad. He told me the other day, acted like it would make everything all right. Not one word about it for seventeen years and Zell decks me and he tells me he's my father."
Seifer frowned. "Headmaster Cid's your father? Shit. Makes sense now. I'd be pissed at him, too. He took me and Squall with him and sent you away. Pretty fucked."
"You got it. It ain't like I need him. I can handle my own life."
"So what now? What're you gonna do with no home, no money, no job?"
Irvine quirked a grin. "Oh well. I'll think of somethin'. Right now, I'm thinkin' of goin' huntin' so we can have somethin' ta eat." He got to his feet, heading out of the cave. "Get a fire ready, I'll be back soon."
"Make it something big, Squirt. I'm starved."
