Thanks sooooo much for the reviews, all! For your convenience, here's a synopsis of what happened last time, in case like me you are reading too many stories to keep up with them all. I'll save you the trouble of jumping back a chapter :) OOC Squall, but I wanted to have fun!
Yes, Squall does have a plan, scary ne? And yes, he is a bastard for doing that to Rinoa, don't worry, she'll be fine. For once I empathize with the poor girl. I mean sure she's a ditz, but she was just trying to be nice. It's like kicking a puppy. Okay, shutting up now :) Enjoy.



*Last time, on It's the Sunday Morning After...*

Squall's mouth pressed crushingly over hers, and inwardly she yelped in shock. Pulling back, she stared at him with wide eyes for a few moments before a rough voice interrupted her whirling mind.

"LEONHART!" They turned to watch a red faced and thoroughly enraged Seifer striding towards them, gunblade drawn.

*Chapter 4...*


Squall leaped from his seat, his smile returning as he sized up the intruder on his plan. Looking at him Quistis was again reminded of Seifer. There was the same arrogance, and a sense of detached amusement behind that half smile Squall wore. Seifer returned the expression with his trademark smirk, and they stood there for a moment, staring each other down.

It was eerie. In that moment Quistis could have sworn they were brothers, they mirrored each other so distinctly. She shook her head, and cleared her throat, watching as both their heads snapped up. She looked at them expectantly.

"I swear to Hyne, if either of you lays a hand on the other, you'll rue the day." She tapped her fingernails against Save The Queen. Squall and Seifer exchanged a look, and Squall drew his gunblade. He tapped the tip against the floor gently, but left the speaking to Seifer.

"Did we say anything about hands?" Seifer asked, his smirk the ultimate arrogant reply.

"Your ass is grass!" Screamed Squall, jumping at Seifer and slashing at him with his gunblade.

"What the hell was *that*?" Seifer kept up with Squall's strikes one for one, defending himself accurately.

"I always wanted to say that."

"You would, Commander." Taking the offensive, Seifer narrowly missed Squall's jaw line. In turn, Squall put a rip in the knee of his pants. "Stop trying to hit me and hit me!" The gunblades met each other many times, sparking and clanging. Closest to Seifer, closest to Squall, always in each other's personal space.


Quistis rolled her eyes. Unfurling Save The Queen, she watched the boys fight until the perfect moment. Their gunblades were coming together to meet in the middle. Closer. Closer. Snap! Her whip wrapped around both gunblades at the point they met in the air. Hyperion and Lionheart rendered useless, she flicked them at her feet with barely a turning of her wrist. Raising an eyebrow, she turned her gaze to the startled men in front of her, both staring at their hands in awe.

"Now that that's over with..." She looked at Seifer first and brought her whip cracking at his feet. He jumped a bit. Throwing Hyperion into his waiting hands, she dismissed him. "Go, Seifer, I'll see you in a minute." She caught his concerned glance and smiled. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself." He nodded and strode out of the cafeteria, barely catching her last words as she turned to Squall. She threw Lionheart at him, hitting him square in the chest. "And you. Just go." Turning on her heel, she followed the path Seifer had taken to his dorm.

The second she walked in the door Seifer pulled her into a hug that threatened to cut off her air. From his mumbling low in his throat she made out something like 'You came back. Not with him. Me.' infused with joy.


~****~

Squall had a plan alright. He just hadn't thought of what it was yet. But so far it went something like this:

Kiss Quistis. Kill Seifer. To Be Announced.

Not the best plan in the world, granted, but Squall was sure he would come up with something. He fell back on his bed and sighed. His mind raced over Quistis's last words to him. So cold. "Just go." He had gone. What else could he do? He faintly recalled throwing Rinoa's things out of the room into a pile on the floor. Jealous rage flew through him.

Quistis was his. Always had been, always would be. She was not Seifer's to handle, to touch. She had been his first, when he was still younger than this and stupid, oh so stupid. Could it really have taken three years to realize the worth of the blonde girl who hero-worshipped him? He berated himself for not taking the chance when it presented itself, the SeeD graduation ball. She had tried to open up to him and for the sake of his stoic image he had turned her away. For the image of SeeD he had danced with an annoying girl at a ball. For the sake of the 'Perfect Couple' image he had stayed with that girl for three long years, even shared a dorm with her. And now...now...

He was finished with images.


~****~

Rinoa was the perfect little princess. When she ordered a man to jump, he asked her how high. When she sat, the world bowed. When she smiled, the world smiled back at her. Always in the spotlight, a private life was something not afforded to a princess. But she had her ways, and most of what went on behind closed doors stayed behind closed doors.

Oh how she wished she had something to hide. Giggling in Squall's dorm at midnight. Kissing in the hallway. Possessive hands on her when those who dared to touch her got too close. But no, even were she not so talented at keeping secrets, she had nothing of the sort to hide, to keep private to herself. All she had was the Perfect Couple, and the Perfect Couple did not exist.

They were experiencing...technical difficulties. Isn't that what they called it now when a bad decision blew up in your face? Yes, technical difficulties. Perfect Squall had malfunctioned. He didn't love Perfect Rinoa. It was all a scam, a mix-up in the wiring. Project aborted, Perfect Couple terminated until further notice.

But Rinoa would bring feelings into it. Hers and Squall's. She didn't care about the looks Squall was giving Quistis the day before, and she didn't care that there was no Perfect Couple. Perfection was their downfall; mistakes could be their salvation. Mistakes could be forgiven when perfection could only be ended. She knew she loved Squall, and she knew that was her only card. She had but one hand to play. Whether or not Squall loved her was irrelevant, his return was all that mattered.

It was selfish, she knew. But unrequited love isn't selfless, like its partner of the two way street. She could only promise herself to make him happy this time, to dive into the abyss of their relationship with no buoy to keep her afloat. He was her everything, and she had to try harder to understand him. Be his friend first and his lover second.

While Rinoa thought this, she arrived in front of her dorm and found a pile of clothing outside the door. Shaking, she picked up one of the pieces and looked at it, stricken. It was a light blue duster. He had thrown her out. It was wrong, wrong, wrong, this wasn't supposed to happen to the little princess.

Her fairy tale to be was shattered, and Rinoa sank to the floor and gave herself up to her one prevailing emotion. She cried.


~****~

If Seifer's mind were a mood ring, it would have been the clearest, purest, deepest blue there is on the planet the moment Quistis came through that door. His heart had clenched for a long minute after he shut the door and he wondered if she wouldn't just go running straight into Squall's arms. He'd been wrong to assume she was that empty-headed. That was a Rinoa stunt, far from normal behavior for a girl like Quistis.

He wondered if she knew he had a method to his madness. Seifer didn't think she was so naive to consider his actions a sort of revenge, but was she? After all, before coming back to Garden he had never made an attempt to show emotion, unless it was contempt. Maybe she simply found it impossible to believe Seifer Almasy had feelings. This of course was a crock of crap; Seifer had feelings in abundance, often more than he knew what to do with. Like Squall, he hid them. The only difference was that Squall hid behind a wall of ice, and Seifer a wall of fire.

Looking down at her serene form wrapped in his arms, he wondered how she could manage to look sexy in a prudish blouse thats only attribute was the first two buttons, left open. Then, inevitably, his mind wandered to what she would do if he took it off her. A sober Quistis was one to be reckoned with when angry, but damn, he was really in the mood to tempt fate...


~****~

Quistis briefly considered breaking out of Seifer's embrace, but the man seemed so *happy* she hated to ruin it for him. Besides, it was kind of nice to be held like that, looked at with those worshipful eyes.

Wait a second...worshipful? She looked up self consciously to find that his expression was...loving. As Quistis's brain slipped into panic mode, she quickly turned her head away and gave in to her thoughts for some time.

She was still really confused about what had happened with Squall in the cafeteria. She had pushed him away, Quistis was sure that had been the right thing to do. She was not without morals, and Squall was Rinoa's boyfriend, no matter how attractive she might find him.

Did she find him attractive still? Yes, that Quistis could not deny. Did she love him? Yes. Shamefully, Quistis Trepe still loved the man who'd broken her heart all those years ago. She let out a despondent sigh.

If Squall had kissed her, maybe it meant he was over Rinoa. Maybe he finally realized that Quistis was the one for him. Maybe they'd get married and have 2 kids and live in a cottage by the sea. Or maybe...she looked up at the green eyed man holding her. Maybe she'd do all those things with Seifer. Quistis stared into his eyes for what seemed like an eternity, the yellow highlights just behind the green entrancing her. It was no use; she was just so confused...

Hyne send me a sign.

"Seifer...I have to go for a walk and think. I'll see you later?" He smiled and nodded.

"Sure, lo...Quisty."

As Quistis made her way to the Quad, her thoughts swirled in confusion. Seifer, Squall, Seifer, Squall...the two names ricocheted off the corners of her mind and collided with each other, resonating inside her head. The problem with her decision-making was that there was no rational choice. The sorceress's knight or the angel's boyfriend? There was no clear answer, and for once, Quistis was going to have to think with her heart and not her head.

It irked her.

Quistis was never one to forsake logic or straight thinking, her heart and instincts came next to the common good. Whatever was the right choice was Quisty's choice. It was a system that had never failed her until black and white had faded into shades of gray. She shook her head.

A loud noise caused her to turn sharply on her heel. She turned to see Squall sprawled on the ground, scowling at the imaginary dip in the floor he had tripped over. Suppressing a snicker of amusement, she offered him a hand. When he took it he was still scowling at the ground, trying to find something to blame for his ungraceful debut in the room. When he thought he had put on a good enough show, he addressed Quistis.

"Quistis, I'm sorry about that thing in the cafeteria."

"Don't worry about it Squall. It's not like I've never made a mistake. Life's full of them." She shrugged her shoulders noncommittally and waited for him to confess he was still in love with Rinoa, or something of the like.

"But it wasn't! A mistake, I mean. I don't regret it! I mean, I regret it because it made you mad, but I don't really and..." He stopped for a second and recounted his thoughts. Quistis was so amused she didn't notice how much closer he was coming to her as he spoke. "Alright, what I really meant to say was..." And he kissed her. The feeling he conveyed was not of one unsure, or afraid to hurt his 'angel'. The kiss was determined, a do-or-die testament to what he really meant. When he finally let her go, she was dizzy and more confused than she had been before.

"Squall, I don't think..." He put his finger to his lips and smiled down at her, that Seifer-like half smile again.

"Then don't think." His arms wrapped themselves around her waist and closed what little space there was between them. She wanted to push him away, but he smelled so good, and his arms around her were so reassuring. It was as if nothing besides them existed. She kissed him first this time, and before long they were stumbling down the hallway, kissing as they went.

In front of Squall's dorm, Rinoa's things were long gone. She had run back to Timber in tears earlier when she had found them outside his door. Squall didn't do things in anger without thinking, and Rinoa knew that it was over. Her cards were cold and it was time to leave the table with what she could salvage, her pride. She would not grovel. And so the kissing pair found the dorm empty.

In their heated embraces, Quistis did not think to ask where Rinoa was, in fact it was unlikely she could remember Rinoa's name. Squall's jacket hit the floor, then Quistis's blouse, and in succession every piece of clothing covering the two. Quistis's spinning mind disregarded Seifer, and for once, she was living in the moment.

Whether or not it was the wrong moment to live in never crossed her mind.



~****~

The next morning, she woke up next to Squall. She didn't scream, she didn't carry on. Passively, she stared at him, asleep beside her. Her finger traced the downward motion of his scar, and she smiled. Something, however, was nagging at the back of her mind.

Seifer. And then she was confused again. For those precious three seconds in her hazy brain, all had been clear. But she couldn't deny how her heart raced when she saw the man with a scar matching that of the one beside her. She'd pushed him away, but she enjoyed flirting with him. His arms were heaven itself, but were Squall's better? She didn't know, she couldn't tell and she was scared by her lack of positive confirmation. Quistis had always felt that women who claimed to love two men equally loved neither. Her heart must know whom she truly loved, but it was keeping its secret to itself until she was ready to know.

Quistis, wanting a little clarification, gathered her clothes and stared down at the man on the bed. Her heart leaped but...was it in sisterly adoration or anticipation of his next kiss? It wasn't fair to stay with one or the other until she had this sorted out, so she dressed quickly and slipped out.

Squall did not stir.









Oh yes, more chappies to come, I'm on a roll, but this was getting a little long. ^_^ If you would please review, you'd make me a very happy author!

@ is the new ! :)