Leering faces took shape out of the darkness, shrieking their insults in a twisted disharmony of voices.

            Laughing.

            They were all laughing at him.

            All of them were there. Squall, Rinoa, Selphie, Irvine, Zell, Xu, Cid, Matron, Fujin, Raijin, along with a mob of unfamiliar faces clad in SeeD uniforms. The discordant sound of their taunting grated on his ears, leaving bloody trails down his soul.

            "Lapdog!" Zell shouted.

            "Too pathetic to be a knight," Squall sneered, putting an arm around his sorceress.

            "You failed me." This from Edea, who stared at him with evil eyes.

            "You'll only make Quistis miserable," Xu laughed.

            Fujin glared at him. "FAILURE. PATHETIC."

            "Ya really blew it, y'know?"

            "Blow him to smithereens!" Selphie clapped giddily.

            "No," Irvine grinned, "better yet. Look, Seifer. Gaze upon your fate."

            Irvine pointed, and the crowd parted to allow him a clear view. A trail of tiny white pills led up concrete steps to a platform, where sat an executioner's block. A figure stood there, holding a gleaming gunblade, waiting for him. Slowly the figure reached up and pulled off its hood.

            Quistis.

            "No!"

            Seifer sat in his bed, the sheets tangled around his bare legs, drenched in a cold sheen of sweat. He blinked, focusing on the glaring red digits on his alarm clock, and waited while the room stopped spinning.

            Just a dream, Almasy. Taking a deep breath he got out of bed and stumbled towards the bathroom. It's gonna be a long day…

            Quistis drifted her way through the chattering throng of students choking the cafeteria for the morning breakfast rush, expertly balancing her cup of coffee and spilling not a drop as she found herself at the table where Selphie, Irvine, and Zell were already gulping down their meals.

            "Hi Quisty!" Selphie chirped, waving to her friend as Quistis seated herself. "Well?"

            Quistis didn't bother to look over at the young brunette. "Well what?" Her voice was tired, strained, as if she had no heart for the conversation.

            "Did you talk to him yet?"

            "Sort of…"

            Selphie frowned. "Sort of? What does that mean?" Then a look of understanding and sympathy dawned on her face. "Oh, no! He said no, didn't he?"

            Quistis sighed. "No. He didn't say no."

            "Oh. Well…that's good, right?"

            "I suppose."

            A long pause.

            Finally Quistis realized that Selphie was going to continue to stare at her patiently until she explained her comment. "I started the conversation, but I never got to ask him. He got mad and stormed out before I got that far."

            "Oh, Quisty…" Selphie murmured softly. "I'm sorry. Why'd he get mad?"

            Now it was Quistis's turn to frown. "I…I'm not sure. I guess he thought I was trying to break up with him. I mean, I could see how he might have misinterpreted what I said….but he really took me by surprise. Started yelling, and stormed out." Quistis had promised herself she wouldn't cry, but talking to Selphie suddenly made the events seem real. It took much of the blonde SeeD's self control to contain her tears within her brilliant blue eyes.

            Selphie didn't miss the glimmer of wetness, however. She put an arm around Quistis, then glanced up.

            "Quisty, look," she whispered softly. Quistis turned.

Seifer was walking across the cafeteria in their direction. There was something different in his walk, however. Something about the way he carried himself that Quistis had never seen before. It was several heartstopping moments of studying him before it occurred to her what it was.

Uncertainty.

He nodded slightly at Selphie before laying a white rose on the table in front of Quistis. He leaned down, kissed her forehead softly, then walked away.

"Oh, Larana, these are beautiful," Quistis said in quiet wonder, reaching with her free hand to touch a silky white bloom.

"They are, aren't they?" a voice that was not Larana's answered. Quistis turned to view the speaker.

Glass shattered against stone as Quistis's nerves failed her for the span of a heartbeat, the time it took to recognize the figure who had silently joined her and her friend.

"Oh, Quisty, this is the house guest I mentioned earlier," Larana stated, apparently oblivious to the silent exchange going on between the two.

Quistis took a deep breath, trying to find some immediate distraction from the unpleasant thoughts and emotions unexpectedly surfacing. She looked down at the glass she had dropped, and stooped to pick it up.

"Here, Ms. Trepe," Seifer said softly, kneeling down with her. "Let me help you with that."

Quistis was left staring at the rose, feeling more confused than before.  But was that affection? I mean, he just walked away without saying anything…Was this apology? Or is it goodbye?

Her coffee had never tasted so bitter.

            Without really thinking about it, Seifer found himself wandering into the practice gym. In his mind, this was not necessarily a bad thing; physical exertion could be just what he needed to sort out his thoughts.

            And it's not like I can run and beat up Puberty Boy anymore. Seifer sighed softly. He had just reached the practice mat and shed his trenchcoat when he realized he wasn't alone in the gym.

            "Hey, man," a volatile ball of energy named Zell Dincht waved. Since Quistis had managed to convince Seifer to stop calling him Chicken Wuss—to his face, anyway—his relationship with the tattooed martial artist had improved greatly, although Zell still annoyed the hell out of him.

            As much out of habit as anything else, Seifer kept his tone neutral and civil. "Zell. In here for practice?"

            "Nah. Just trying to work off those last five hotdogs." Zell grinned at him, but frowned as he took a closer look at Seifer's face. "Man, you look like hell."

            "Thanks." Seifer saw no point in keeping the sarcasm out of his voice after that comment. "You're looking crappier than ever, yourself."

            "No, I mean it. You look terrible. You sick?"

            Seifer frowned. He had not come here to chat with Chicken Wuss about his problems.

            That's right, the little voice in his head spoke up. You don't need to talk to anyone. That's why you don't have any friends. Oo, the Great Seifer Almasy. You're such a jackass, he probably wouldn't care anyway. He is just a Chicken Wuss.

            Just to spite that damned voice, Seifer sat down slowly on the bench. "Me and Quistis had a fight."

            Zell blinked. He hadn't really expected the Great Seifer Almasy to actually want to talk to him. Better mark this one on the calendar. "What about?"

            "I…uh…I thought she was trying to break up with me. She started talking about how SeeD's die young, and how every day was precious and all that crap."

            Zell smacked his forehead. "You idiot. She wasn't trying to break up with you!"

            "I started to wonder that myself…She seemed really upset this morning in the cafeteria. She tried to stop me from leaving…so I thought maybe I was…that she meant something else."

            Zell bit his lip. He knew what Quistis had been trying to tell him…but he wasn't sure if he should spill it and ruin it for her. "Why don't you go ask her?"

            Seifer stared at him. Did Chicken Wuss just say something that made sense?

            After a long moment, Seifer stood up. "Yeah. That's what I'll do." He strode out of the gym without another word or glance at Zell.

            "Well," Zell sighed softly to the empty gym. "Guess that's twenty bucks I owe Selphie."

            Knock knock.

            Quistis groaned, flinging a pillow in the general direction of the door. "Go away!"

            "Quisty?" Selphie's sing song voice pierced the steel construction. "We know you're in there!"

            Quistis sighed. "What do you want, Selphie?"

            "Let us in! We're the cheer brigade, come to cheer you up!"

            Quistis rolled her eyes, but realized from previous experiences that Selphie could and would camp in front of her door until she let them in. As expected, poor Irvine stood behind her carrying an armload of snacks, soda, and…video tapes?

            Selphie bounced into the room and immediately made herself comfortable on Quistis's sofa. Irvine gratefully dumped his load onto the coffee table, trying not to let anything spill out onto the floor. Quistis sat down beside Selphie with a resigned sigh.

            "Well, what is it this time?" she asked. "Chick flick? Hard action with a whole cast of really 'hot' guys?"

            "Nope!" Selphie grinned, selecting one of the tapes and handing it to Irvine. "Home movies! Tee-hee!"

            Fear clutched Quistis's stomach. "Of?"

            "The graduation ball, of course! Who can forget getting to see Seifer in a uniform!"

            "Ah." That was actually not one of the worst things Selphie could have brought, although Quistis was quite certain seeing Seifer would probably do more to make her cry than cheer her up. Especially on that day.

            But Quistis was definitely not prepared for the graphic display of nude bodies that suddenly appeared on her television screen.

            Seifer paused outside of Quistis's door, taking a deep breath to gather his thoughts. He lifted his hand to knock on the door when he heard something.

            "Oh, my god, Irvine!"

            Quistis's voice. Shrieking at the top of her lungs.

            There were more sounds….He pressed his ear against the door.

            Anger boiled in Seifer's heart as understanding dawned on him. Irvine, of all people! Well, fuck you, Quistis. I hope you have a good fucking life. He stormed off down the corridor.

            "Irvy!" Selphie shrieked after regaining her hearing from Quistis's shout in her ears. Irvine was frantically pushing buttons, but some demon had possessed the VCR. Finally he simply pulled the plug.

            A long, tense silence ensued, broken finally by Selphie's nervous giggle. "Well, Quisty, did that make you feel any better?"