The charging Seifer certainly did catch Squall off guard, but he reacted quickly and leaped to the side just as Seifer brought his gunblade down and fired off a blast into the ground. In midair, Squall grabbed his gunblade staked into the nearby ground and brought it up into a ready position. Seifer wasted no time in attacking again, and although the flurry of blows confused Squall, he wasn't about to ask questions in the middle of a battle. Squall raised his gunblade horizontally to defend the second overhand blow from Seifer, and although he succeeded in that, the force of the blow and the resulting lock of the two blades sent Squall sliding backwards in the sand. Finally, the force from Seifer was too great, and Squall fell to the ground, instinctively covering his head. He waited for the finishing blow from the rogue Seifer, but it never came. In it's stead was Seifer's gloved hand, helping Squall up from the sand.
"Never, ever let your guard down," Seifer said to the crowd of stunned trainees. Squall had a novel's worth of expletives to call Seifer, when he realized that the hand signal that Seifer had flashed him earlier meant to be prepared for an attack. It was typical SeeD procedure, and Squall had forgotten it. Seifer continued:
"During this session, you are going to fight like you absolutely mean it. Fight as if your sparring partner was, say, a Galbadia Garden student, or something like that." That got a reaction from the group of students, and they immediately began to break up into pairs to begin training.
"Come on, Leonhart. We don't want to set a bad example by just sitting around idly."
"I guess you're right." Squall stood up, again keeping his emotions in check. As much as he wanted to do to Seifer to pay him back from the surprise attack, he had to remain professional about it. It was the only way to become a SeeD, after all. Both men stood with their gunblades at the ready, but this time, it was Squall who struck first. Seifer deftly parried the blow sideways, and returned with an attack of his own. The exchange of blades continued for awhile between the two, just as attacks were exchanged between the trainees. Squall was getting tired, though, and was about to pack up the expedition and head back to Garden.
"Hey Seifer. Wanna head out?" On the other side of the clash of gunblades, Seifer shook his head no. Damn, Squall thought. He's tireless!
"Then, at least, do you wanna rest for awhile? I'm getting tired." Instead of saying anything, Seifer simply put his gunblade down, and sat in the sand. Squall followed suite, but not before announcing the break to the students.
"Alright, you guys. Take a quick break. We'll resume sparring in a few minutes." The group all put their weapons down and sat in the sand. Squall could hear a few snippets of conversation being carried on the wind, but nothing of importance-mainly news of what was going on at Garden. A few minutes passed, but Squall hardly noticed, as he again found himself lost in his thoughts. Seifer took the initiative and stood up:
"OK. Now we're going to practice weaponless training. I know only a few of you are specialists in that type of combat, but it's still a good skill to have, especially if you're caught without your weapons-kind of like how Leonhart was during his surprise attack."
A rustle of laughter could be heard through the crowd, but Squall still stood, keeping his anger in check. He picked up where Seifer left off, trying to keep his mind off of Seifer's insults:
"I'm sure you all know at least the basics of hand to hand combat, but what if you're caught against armed opponents? The last thing you want to do is stand still and be gunned down like a beached Fastitolacon, so you want to keep moving. Seifer and I are going to demonstrate some techniques to keep you as small a target as possible, and to efficiently take out an armed target at close range. But for Seifer, it's just going to be training to 'introduce' himself to a woman before she can see his face. Right, Seifer?" Seifer clearly reddened at this remark, and it wasn't because of the heat of the sun. Squall continued:
"Now, Seifer is going to demonstrate this technique to you all. It's a simple tackle, taking the target down at the midsection and effectively knocking the wind out of them, leaving you in a position to arm yourself with whatever they have. If you move fast enough-"
All at once, Seifer slammed into the midsection of Squall, picking him up and carrying him down several meters on the beach. One of the students screamed, and there was a general uproar from the students as they began to run for garden to get help. Only a few remained, watching Seifer rain down what appeared to be punches on Squall's face. It was only a matter of time before they too ran back to Garden to alert the instructors of what had happened.
But what really did happen? That was the thought that traveled through Squall's head many times. Sure, Seifer had effectively speared Squall and pushed him far across the beach. And sure, it had hurt like hell. But the point where the students started screaming and running for the garden was where it got confusing. Seifer was half straddled across Squall and was slamming his fists as hard as he could into the sand next to Squall's head. Seifer stopped when he was sure all of the students were gone, and then smiled at Squall.
"What the hell is this, Seifer? Some kind of a-"
"Shhhhh," Seifer said, tracing his fingers across Squall's lips. Squall almost instantly relaxed, feeling a strange comfort from the touch of his rival. What...what is this? Why do I feel this way all of the sudden? he thought as Seifer began caressing his face.
"Seifer?"
"What is it?"
"Why?" Seifer thought a bit about the question, but decided to keep Squall in the dark for a while. He smiled again at Squall and lay down on the sand. Squall repeated the question.
"Why, Seifer?"
"Just relax, Squall. You're way too uptight. Just enjoy the ocean with me." Squall sat up and then leaned back on his hands, staring out at the lull and crash of the waves against the shore. He felt something on his lap, and found that it was Seifer resting his head against Squall's thigh. He felt strangely at home, and moved one of his hands to Seifer's head, rustling his hair. They stayed that way for what seemed an eternity, and finally Seifer rolled his head over and saw the silhouette of Quistis Trepe coming over the first hill of sand.