~Sunday Morning After~


Disclaimer: I don't own FF8, nor do I own the song used in this fic. Their owners are Square and Amanda Marshall respectively. Brackets in the song mean it's a voice in the background.
I encourage everyone to download this song off of KaZaA or Morpheus, whatever you use. It's not the same unless you've heard it. (But I daresay it's pretty good anyway)

Quistis woke to the sound of her cell phone ringing. Groggily, she reached over the side of the bed and fumbled around until her hand closed over its familiar shape. Bringing the blue Nokia up to her ear, she answered in a sleepy voice.

"Unnh...Hello?"

"Where are you?" asked the male voice on the other end. It was Irvine, who had helped Selphie drag her out partying the night before. Good question, she thought.

"What time is it?"

"Umm...it's 1:30...in the afternoon."

"Uh..."

"Are you alright?" Quistis looked around her surroundings hesitantly, and then decided to call Irvine back later.

"Hang on." She pressed the 'end' button, and sat up straight. Wincing at the sudden pain in her skull, she lay back on the bed...and noticed it wasn't her bed. But that was the least of her concerns right now, so she focused her attention on what had happened the night before.

She recalled a party, a nightclub called The Black Sun, and tequila. A lot of tequila. That explained the killer headache, but what had happened? She racked her brain nervously. It made her feel strangely vulnerable not to be able to remember her actions from the night before.



I woke up with a killer hangover

Hope it was worth all this pain

(I'd do it all over again)

By the time the party was over

Tequila was my claim to fame

(I couldn't remember my name)



She vaguely recalled dancing with a friend of Selphie's that had recently transferred from Trabia. Jake something. What had happened to her keys after that? She remembered seeing them in her purse before taking the dance floor with him but afterward...who'd taken them? Had she lost them? It was so frustrating Quistis wanted to scream. She wished she hadn't had all those tequila shots. Maybe then she'd be able to remember the events of the party. And she probably wouldn't be in a strange place either.



I was dancing with Jake

When I last saw my keys

That was my first mistake

'Cause what happened to me?

(Oh...)



Quistis looked down and to the side at the shape of her arm covered by the sheer sheet. Squinting her eyes, a difficult feat for someone that hung over, she determined there was something like an inkblot staining her upper arm. Oh well. She was unconcerned, until she took a closer look and saw yellow snake eyes peering back at her from the top half of the "inkblot."



I looked down at my arm, baby

And something's lookin' back at me

And I cannot believe it



Pulling her arm out from under the sheer top sheet, she focused her energy on the blob of color. She realized it wasn't black, it was a mottled green, and done remarkably well in the exact likeness of a...

"OH MY GOD!" She shrieked, staring down at the snake tattoo marring the perfect skin of her upper arm. It was actually very nicely done, a bewitching image of a coiled cobra staring at her with yellow-slitted eyes. But Quistis wasn't exactly in a mood to be admiring her new tattoo. Frantically she licked her thumb with the very tip of her tongue-it felt like sandpaper-and rubbed at the offending reptile. It neither smudged nor faded. "This is insane!" She exclaimed, more quietly this time. Unfortunately speaking wasn't smooth going for Quistis on account of the 'th' sound in her statement. Something hard hit her teeth with a soft click as the sound rolled off her tongue. With new vigor, she let out what would become a common sentiment for her in the next hour or so.

"OH MY GOD!" She stuck her tongue out and felt in the middle of it. Something round and hard met her fingers. She pulled a mirror from the purse that had been discarded to one side of the bed. There it was. A ruby stud. In her *tongue*. She almost fainted, but managed to hang on, dropping the mirror and glancing beside her almost fearfully. It was as she feared. Another figure broke the flat plain of the double bed in half, buried almost completely under the duvet. His back was turned to her. At least, Quistis sincerely hoped it was a he.



Oh my god!

I woke up with a snake tattoo

Oh my god!

And I think that my tongue's pierced too

Oh my god! Oh my god!

It's the Sunday morning after, and baby who the hell are you?

(Ahh....woo-hoo-hoo!)



Blinking hard, which unsurprisingly failed to make the figure beside her disappear, she lay down again. The pain from her movement was tolerable, and she forced her mind back even farther to her evening.

Shapes drifted in front of her and finally settled on a short memory. She was screaming at the DJ, something about turning up the volume for her favorite song. Oh Hyne, she'd made an ass of herself. Wait...now there was a computer...she was...

"I sold my clothes on Ebay?" Puzzlement filled her voice. What the hell had she been thinking? *Had* she been thinking at all? Speaking of clothes...where were hers anyway?

She glanced again at the guy beside her, still hidden by the covers, and winced. This was not her, not Quistis Trepe, the Ice Queen, the voice of reason in her group of friends. Why had Irvine and Selphie let her go off with some strange guy?



I remember yelling, "Hey DJ!"

"Jack the volume, I love this song!"

(And then it all gets hazy)

And my clothes are selling on e-bay

(Click me)

And I don't know what I'm gonna put on

(Where were my friends to save me?)



After the Ebay experience, Quistis's brain shut down like a password-coded safe. Nothing else was available to her after that computer's glare. She had passed out, and obviously, given the situation, come to at some point. But what had gone on that evening was a mystery.

She had a vague sense of having had the time of her life, but alcohol would cloud your judgment in that area.



I blacked out I came to

And it's all such a blur

Had a blast, I assume

But I'm really not sure



Taking a better look at the room, she found in tastefully decorated. It wasn't a SeeD room; at least, not like one she had ever seen. On second thought, it was awfully similar to Squall's SeeD dorm. Not the way it was decorated, but the size and layout of the room suggested a high-ranking SeeD. It had a kitchen; she could see it through the doorway, and a bathroom, its door also open.

She wasn't a high rank SeeD anymore. Not a prestigious Instructor. And certainly not as valued in battle as Squall or Seifer. Well, she'd always thought she could take Squall down, but Instructors didn't exactly get chances to prove themselves as SeeDs. Why would they want to? They had secure jobs. Leave the mercenary work to the mercenaries. But she didn't have that anymore. And as yet the opportunity hadn't presented itself for her to rise in rank. Her thoughts drifted to Seifer, a newer addition to SeeD's forces.

He had shown up on Garden's doorstep three months prior, mumbling something about taking the test one more time. A scan done by Rinoa showed that he had no memory of the sorceress war, or being Edea's knight. They had never enlightened him. Nobody deserved to live that way. So he was back, and he was *higher rank* than her. After three months. It was sickening; he was on Cid's favorite list like Quistis never had been. He must have a room like this, like Squall's and like whoever this person is.



Exactly where I am now, baby

Wake up and tell me your name

(Excuse me)

'Cause this is insane!



She groaned softly. Did she really want to know who lay under those covers? She kicked the sheets away from her feet angrily, and the sound sleeper beside her fidgeted a bit. She glared at his back.

"Oh my god...how did I do this to myself?"



Oh my god!

I woke up with a snake tattoo

Oh my god!

And I think that my tongue's pierced too

Oh my god! Oh my god!

It's the Sunday morning after, and baby who the hell are you?

(Oh my god! Oh my god!)



Suddenly she had a sharp image invade her mind. Breaking glass. Oh great, now she'd destroyed something. She should go to the nightclub and apologize for any damage she might have caused. The whole night was like a horrible amusement park ride that went where it would without asking her opinion.

Struggling until she had unknotted the sheets from around her, she located her clothing and got dressed. She was just preparing to leave when she realized she could not just prance out of this room and expect her dignity to stay intact. She was leaving a high level SeeD's room. In the same clothes she had been wearing the night before. And not particularly modest clothes either. A black halter and leather pants weren't exactly the type of statement she tried to make on a normal day. It was too bad that it wasn't early in the morning. She had no hope of sneaking across Garden to her dorm.



My alter ego took over and took me on a fantasy ride

You can take me anywhere twice

But the second time will be to apologize



She turned around and stared at the figure cuddled in the covers. He was her only way out. She had to wake him up. Make him help her solve their dilemma.

Tentatively, she reached out and poked him. He didn't stir, and so she started shaking him lightly and talking to him, hoping to bring him out of the depths of sleep.

"Hey..." She shook him a little harder. "Wake up...Oh please wake up!"



Oh my god!

I woke up with a snake tattoo

Oh my god!

And I think that my tongue's pierced too

Oh my god! Oh my god!

It's the Sunday morning after, and baby who the hell are you?

Oh my god!

I woke up with a snake tattoo

Oh my god!

And I think that my tongue's pierced too

Oh my god! Oh my god!

It's the Sunday morning after, and baby who the hell are you?



Finally the groggy man turned over and sat up, looking straight at her and smiling. Quistis's quick intake of breath was heard by both of them, and caused the man's smile to grow. He flopped onto his back.

"Weren't sure who I was, were you?" Quistis shook her head, tight-lipped. Hyne was a cruel, cruel deity. She collapsed beside the man in his bed, sighing as if her heart would break.

"I am so screwed." The man chuckled, and she hit him on the arm lightly. "Don't laugh, I am. I have a snake on my arm you know."

"I know."

"And a stud in my tongue."

"I know, I thought it was sexy." She smacked him without force again, mumbling to herself.

"You would." She turned to look at him. "How am I supposed to get out of here, dressed like this, without all of Garden knowing what happened within seconds?" He extended his arm and wrapped it around her waist possessively.

"Well...you could stay. It's Sunday. Day off, remember? We could kill some time." He raised an eyebrow and smirked at her.

"Gah..." She got out of the bed for the second time that afternoon and looked around. "I need an excuse in the worst way. C'mon Seifer! Think!"

"You got caught up in the charm of your favorite student and simply couldn't tear yourself away." Quistis laughed in spite of herself.

"Great, that sounds like a plan." Seifer lazily drifted out of bed and into his clothes.

"Hmm, so let's see. You don't want people to see those clothes because they're the same as you were wearing last night, and you don't want them to know what we know."

"Exactly." She glanced around furtively. "Where's my hair clip?" Seifer held four pieces of black plastic under her nose. "Lovely."

"Well, then there's only one thing to do." He sidled up to her and removed his trenchcoat from his shoulders, putting her arms in the sleeves and balancing its weight on her smaller frame. She looked at him questioningly.

"Which is?" Seifer smirked wickedly.

"This." He propelled them both out of the door, snapping it shut behind them, and dragged Quistis by the hand in the direction of her dorm room.

"Seifer!" She urged in a whisper, " What are you doing? Why don't I just wear a giant sign labeled 'Property of Seifer Almasy'? Even Selphie could see through this!"

"Hmm...I like that idea..."

"What idea," she hissed.

"That sign idea. 'Quistis Trepe, Property of Seifer Almasy'...It has a ring to it!" He frowned. "Something's missing...oh yes! 'Touch and answer to Hyperion'." He smiled, pleased with himself. Quistis just rolled her eyes.

"Well if I can just get back to my dorm, we can forget this ever happened." Seifer stopped short, causing Quistis to run into him from behind.

"What if I don't want to forget?" He turned around to face her.

"Seifer what are you stoppi...huh?"

"I said, what if I don't want to forget?"

"Can't we get me in my dorm before discussing this?"

"I want to discuss it now, Quistis." His face darkened ever so slightly. Quistis sighed.

"Seifer, I was drunk and I really don't..."

"Remember? Let me refresh your memory." Seifer's arm snaked out and pulled her to him, closing the small space that had been there before. His mouth descended on hers, hard and demanding, before the kiss softened just a touch as he drew back from her. She stared at him.

"I...I..." For once she was at a loss for words. She refused to speak aloud the one that was bouncing back and forth in her head at the moment. "Wow." Damn. Way to go, Quistis. What wouldn't I give for obedient vocal chords? She winced at Seifer's satisfied smirk. He continued dragging her down the hallway.

"Thought so." When they arrived at her dorm, miraculously unseen by anyone, she stood in the open doorway regarding him for a moment. He kissed her again suddenly, gentler this time, full of something she couldn't place. "I'll see you tonight at eight, right here. Real date this time." He winked at her and turned to go when she found her voice.

"Seifer, your coat." She started tugging at the arms of the gray trenchcoat. He smiled at her.

"You keep it. I like seeing it on you." And with that he strode down the hallway, whistling a nameless tune.

Quistis closed the door behind her and leaned against it.

"That is the *last* time I drink tequila." But she couldn't help the little part of her that looked forward to the coming night.



Where am I?

What am I?

Who am I?

How did I?












More? Delete and give death to it? Please take a couple seconds to tell me if you care for another chapter, and if you liked this one ^_^ Tried my best to un-cliche the Quistis-gets-drunk-wakes-up-with-Seifer plot I've seen a lot of as of late. But this song is killer and I just HAD to use it ^_^.