Rating: R
Disclaimer: No rights to FF8; and, even though the name of one of my characters bares a similar resemblance to something you might order at Wendy's, I own no rights to them either.
A/N: This chapter is...a little senseless and odd. Although it seems relatively irrelevant now, I assure you that there is a reason I wrote this! There's always a reason why I write things the way I do...lol :)
Chapter 6: G.A.W.
Quistis was warm and comfortable, her relaxed body was fighting her waking mind with every fiber of its being, urging her to stay right where she was. Outside, rain was coming down. She could hear it slapping against the window and the roof, running off in little rivulets that trickled down the gutters. Sighing and smacking a little, she drew her knees up and was surprised when she hit something.
Slowly, groggily she opened her eyes and attempted rather ungracefully to focus them.
It took her a moment to recognize the thing next to her as being Seifer. They were both laying on top of the covers, completely dressed, and fairly close together. She had her mouth open and a hissy fit prepared before she noticed that he was laying on the edge of the bed - she was the one laying uncomfortably close.
Flushing with embarrassment, she scooted back over to her side of the bed.
My side of the bed? Wait...when did we decide to share anyway?
Her lethargic mind worked over the situation for a few long moments, and then decided to deal with it later. Nothing had been really hurt by it...they were both the same people they'd been when they fell asleep. The same people who shared mutual sentiments of hate toward one another. A few moments of peace changed nothing.
She sat up with a low groan. Her back and bottom were still sore to the touch, though not as stiff. Cursing the bathroom floor under her breath, she walked over to the mirror, untucking her shirt as she went. She was still wearing the blue skirt and shirt combo that she'd put on back in Deling City. It had only been a day since they'd parted ways with Selphie, Paxx, and Krik, but it seemed like it had been much longer. Distantly, she wondered how they were fairing. Probably much better than she was.
Turning her back to the mirror, she gingerly lifted up the back of her shirt and got her first look at the long, elliptical shaped bruise that now ran across her back at roughly four inches below her shoulder blades.
"Still hurt?" She looked up to see Seifer regarding her from the bed, his aqua eyes still filled with sleep.
"Yeah," she replied and pulled her shirt back down. He yawned and blinked a few times before sitting up.
"I have to start training today," he whined. "Stupid ass idea if you ask me." Quistis didn't reply, she wasn't a big talker early in the morning. She was so used to waking up alone and spending the first hour of her day with nothing but a cup of coffee that her silence had become habitual.
He watched her as she walked over to her bag and dug around for something suitable to change into. She could feel his eyes on her back as if his line of sight were a tangible thing.
"You feeling alright?" he asked.
"Yeah," she shrugged. "Why?"
"No reason..."
There was a long pause as Quistis picked up a button up shirt the color of red champaign.
"How about the ass? That doing well this morning?" Seifer finally broke the silence.
"Mmm," Quistis nodded and reached back into her bag to find something that would go well with the shirt. She had just chosen a black skirt when Seifer began to laugh.
"Damn!" he hooted. "Never would have guessed! You're either pissed - which is a definite possibility - or you're actually pleasant in the mornings. Shit, Quistis...wish it could be like this all the time!" He hopped off of the bed and walked into the bathroom, laughter trailing behind him.
Sleep was still hanging heavy on Quistis, or she would have been more upset by his theatrics. She was, however, beginning to realize that they were just that: theatrics. Seifer was a lot of talk, he always had been. Back when he was her student, she'd learned to deal with his need to talk tough by letting the comments roll off her back. Naturally, that was easier said than done and a number of his snide remarks had made it through to sting her deeply. Back then though, there had been little worry of physical threat. Squall was the only person Quistis could really think of who Seifer had ever actually hurt with his gunblade. Presently, that assumption was faulty. Seifer had hurt people...indeed, had more blood on his hands than anyone.
However, since his return to Garden, Seifer had seemed to revert back to his old ways. He teased Zell, he wreaked havoc in class, he was once again listed as a "gifted, but problematic" student. The return to normalcy was almost unfathomable to Quistis, and she knew there had to be more going on behind Seifer's cocky smiles than he let on. She'd never had the energy or the will to delve into that world...the dark, frightening world of Seifer's mind. Nevertheless, she was fairly certain that he posed no threat to her person...her mind was a different set of affairs all together.
"Where'd you put my uniform?" Seifer came walking out of the bathroom and started shuffling through his things.
"It's hanging on the closet door," she replied.
"Oh..." He retrieved the blue and silver uniform and retreated to the bathroom once again.
Outside, Quistis could hear the rain start to come down with more force. The gentle slap of the drops had turned into a drumming. The sky, which should have been blazing with the sunrise, was the same dismal shade of gray as Seifer's trench coat.
"Shit...I look just like those bastards!" Seifer emerged from the bathroom minutes later in full uniform, holding his helmet in his hand. It was a little small, fitting tightly in the shoulders and chest.
"No one would ever recognize you..." Quistis replied, struggling to hold back laughter. The uniform and black hair formed a completely new version of Seifer. It was like looking at one of his relatives...vaguely familiar.
"I'd never live it down if someone did..." he looked down at himself. "Seriously, I look stupid."
"No one will care," Quistis shrugged.
"Pssh," he snorted. "Anyway...I'm off. Since you get to sit around here on your lazy ass all day...maybe you can find some more towels?"
"We'll see," she replied. "Don't kill anyone...and, remember...you're a rookie."
"Yeah, rookie, right," he pulled the helmet on over his head and walked out, slamming the door behind him. Quistis smiled a little before she caught herself and schooled her expression.
"I'm going to actually start enjoying his sarcastic remarks if I don't watch it..." she said to herself, shaking her head. The sarcasm wore thin quickly when it was aimed at all of Quistis' imperfections. When Seifer turned his biting attitude around upon himself, Quistis could see humor in them. Although, she wasn't sure he intended them to be funny.
Outside, the rain was coming down in torrents, splashing in through the open window near the bed. Quistis, blaming Seifer since he'd been the one who opened it, slammed it closed with a good, angry sigh.
There...that's more like it. Don't know what's gotten into me this morning. I must be really desperate if even Seifer's starting not to look so bad...
A little bitterly, Quistis smirked to herself. She was beginning to think that there'd been some sort of terrible mix up when she was born. Amazingly, she'd ended up in a world that didn't seem to want her. It seemed more and more that the Prince Charming she'd been dreaming of since she was a little girl was lost, had gotten eaten by some monster, or had never been born at all. So long she'd been waiting to feel love - to feel loved.
Shaking off her depressing thoughts, she caught her resolve once again and set to putting some things away. Knowing she and Seifer would probably have to leave in a hurry, she didn't bother to hang up their clothes. Instead, she stuffed their bags into the closet, checking once on her whip before closing the doors. With as long as Galbadia had been enemy ground, knowing her whip was nearby was comforting. Seifer's gunblade was tucked away as well.
Been caught on the wrong end of that weapon a few times...
Her relationship with Seifer was a spider web of old ties. She'd been his sister, his peer, his instructor, his enemy, and - most recently - his make believe wife. She wasn't really sure how many of those relationships carried weight anymore. Surely he no longer viewed her as his sister or his peer. He hadn't called her instructor in years, not even out of habit. Enemies - there was a hefty one. They'd fought against each other on opposite sides in what could only be called a war. He'd tried to kill her, and she'd tried to kill him. They couldn't easily forget that.
She was about to leave in search of some towels when someone knocked on her door. Baffled as to who it could be, she hesitantly opened it.
"Hi!" The two women standing on the other side came rushing in past her. One of them, the taller of the two, had a basket in her arms.
"Hello..." Quistis was still holding on to the doorknob.
"We're so glad to have you here!" the shorter woman grinned. "We're the other two wives on the base."
"The other two?" Quistis asked, still trying to comprehend why the other two women were standing in her room.
"Yes, well...there are so few of us, that we like to stick together," the tall women laughed. "You know...kind of a club. We like to call ourselves the G.A.W. - Galbadian Army Wives."
"Oh."
"And you're our newest member!" the short one gushed. The basket was shoved into Quistis' unsuspecting hands and they waited patiently for her to look at her gift.
"Just a few wifely things..." the tall one shrugged. "Things that are hard to find on a military base. Nylons, hair spray, foundation...those kind of things."
"Oh, how nice," Quistis sent them what she hoped was a charming grin. "I'm Quistis by the way."
"Oh! I can't believe we haven't introduced ourselves yet!" the short one raised her hand to her chest, brushing by her ample bosom. "I'm Ann, and this is Pita."
"Nice to meet you," Quistis nodded.
"We haven't met your husband yet," Ann announced, her chubby fingers playing with her curly hair. "But I thought we should all go out, maybe have a little dinner, to initiate the two of you."
"The two of us?" Quistis laughed a little. "Is he a Galbadian Army Wife as well?"
"Well, of course not," Pita responded well to Quistis' laughter. "But, we couples tend to stick together. Makes living on base a little more...livable."
"Wonderful," Quistis replied, hugging the basket toward her middle. "I'll tell him tonight when he gets back. What time should we expect you?"
"Oh, I'd say around seven," Ann answered. "They usually work pretty late...but, with this rain, they'll stop after dinner. The Galbadian Army is very kind to their soldiers."
"Yes, it seems they are," Quistis nodded, trying not to think of all the mean men she'd seen up the ranks in the Galbadian military. They weren't exactly renowned for their kindness. She guessed that Ann and Pita would have a rude awakening when their husbands went off to war.
"We heard the good news as well," Ann chirped. "How far along are you? We haven't had our first yet...I'm so excited for it though!"
"Oh..." Quistis fumbled. "It's very early yet...only two months or so."
"How wonderful!" Ann grinned a little wider, which Quistis hadn't honestly thought was possible. "Do you have a name picked out yet?"
"No...we haven't talked about it yet..."
"You should," Ann shook her head. "A name is everything, follows the child around their entire life! You really should be picking out a name."
"Oh...we will," Quistis shrugged. "We just...we haven't really been concentrating on that lately."
"That?" Pita tilted her head slightly. "What, you mean sex? Because if you looked in the basket - "
"No!" Quistis could feel herself blushing. "I mean...we haven't been concentrating on the pregnancy."
"Oh!" Pita waved a hand absently through the air. "That! So, you probably won't need the basket for that."
Quistis felt a little lost and more than a little uneasy. It was hard enough to pretend she was Seifer's wife...even harder to pretend she was going to have his child, she didn't think she could deal with discussing their make believe sex life.
"So...um...do either of you know where I can find some towels?" she asked, doing her best to change the subject.
"They didn't give you any towels?" Ann asked, a frown crossing her face. "You'd think they'd have the sense to give an expectant mother some towels! I mean, what if you fell?"
Quistis had to bite her lip to hide the smile that was creeping across her lips.
"We've got some extra ones you can have," Ann reassured her, mistaking her expression as one of worry. "I'm sure Pita has some as well."
"Yep! No worries, this is why we stick together," Pita chimed in.
"Thanks...I appreciate it," Quistis replied. The two smiled proudly, each of them showing off their perfect teeth. "So...what are the two of you doing for the rest of the day?" she finally asked, figuring it would be a good idea to try and build a friendship as quickly as possible.
"Wife things," Ann shrugged. "That man...he gets more things dirty. Sometimes I wonder why I even put up with him."
"That I can sympathize with," Quistis announced, allowing her muscles to relax for the first time since the two had rushed in past her. "My husband drives me crazy sometimes."
"Does yours snore?" Pita asked. "Mine snores...loud. I mean, shaking the bed and knocking things off the wall kind of loud!"
"No, he doesn't snore," Quistis smiled. "He's actually a fairly good sleeper. He just doesn't know when not to open his big mouth sometimes."
"Oh," Ann nodded, and Quistis motioned for them to sit down. "My Greg...he's like that sometimes too. When everything that comes out of his mouth just annoys the hell out of you."
"Exactly!" Quistis perched herself on the edge of the bed. "I just want to smack him upside the head or something."
"Well, obviously there's much more that you love about him that not," Pita smiled, the grin being so different from the previous few that it send shivers up Quistis' spine. "I mean, you're married to him after all, and you'll soon be proud parents."
"Yeah..." Quistis carefully avoided eye contact with the tall, slender Pita. She felt a little guilty, in reality she couldn't think of one thing that she even particularly liked about Seifer. No one was all bad, there had to be a few good qualities to him.
"Well..." Pita suddenly stood up. "You probably have a lot to do today. It was nice to meet you, Quistis."
She looked up, and nodded.
"It was nice to meet the two of you, too," she replied. "I'll see you later tonight?"
"Yeah." Pita's fingers brushed Quistis' arm. "Look through the basket, it's full of goodies."
"I will," Quistis laughed a little, wondering what she really would find in the welcome basket. From what Ann and Pita had indicated, it was a wide selection of everything a wife would come to need. The contents would prove interesting to say the least.
