Rating: PG-13 (may change)

A/N: This is pretty dialoge based, but I'll get a little more action in later. It's hard to make being trapped in a tavern really exciting....

Chapter 5: Insatiable

The snow hadn't stopped coming down. Quistis was being told by her forced companions that the blizzard was one of the worst to ever hit Trabia. All she knew was that she'd never seen so much snow in her life. She couldn't believe that it was still falling, that she would have to be trapped with Seifer for the next few days. Anything else she could handle - flash floods, hurricanes, earthquakes - but sitting idly as cabin fever set in?

He was laying on the floor in the corner, his head snuggled down into her pillow. He'd been remarkably quiet and well-behaved. The Seifer she remembered would have thrown every cuss word in the English language (and probably a some from a few others) at her for what was happening. She knew that he didn't appreciate being tied up, and she couldn't blame him, but she wasn't about to give him the chance to prove himself either trustworthy or not. His freedom, relative as that may have been, was not worth her life.

Night was setting in; one more than she had ever intended to stay. She felt tired and couldn't quit yawning. Every once and a while Seifer would try and roll over onto his back, only to roll onto his hands and return to his side. She couldn't tell whether he was asleep or not. Really, she'd always assumed that he'd only be so quiet if he were dead. The steady rhythm of his breathing told her otherwise.

Spreading her arms above her head, she laid across the bed and yawned. Things certainly had changed. He'd changed...she'd changed. Or, at least, people told her often that she had changed. She didn't notice it so much. There was the hair, people always noticed the hair. Honestly, she wasn't sure why she'd decided to cut it. Perhaps it was looking in the mirror every morning to the same face...the same lonely, determined, slightly bitter face. She was always stable, a rock in a sea of chaos, and she grew tired of having to be the rock.

She pulled distractedly at the back of her ponytail, forgetting momentarily about Seifer and Trabia. Her hair had grown since then and was past her shoulder blades once again. She'd cut it level with the bottom of her chin, a pert pixie sort of cut. At first, she'd felt liberated...free. It was something no one expected, and people gaped at her in the halls of Garden. Only weeks later when the strange looks and guarded compliments stopped did she start to regret what she'd done.

Seifer yawned loudly, bringing her out of her reverie. He'd rolled over to his other side and was looking at her now across the darkened expanse of the room.

"Need something?" she asked, feeling impatient with him for no apparent reason. Maybe, she reflected, it was the way he was looking at her. The accusation and anger humming in the depths of his green eyes.

"That depends," he replied, his voice taking on a slightly deeper timbre than usual.

"On what?" She too rolled onto her side, resting her head in hand. Seifer groaned and sat up a little.

"You."

"Oh really?" she snorted. "I suppose you want me to untie you."

"It'd be a nice gesture," he shrugged.

"I'm not going to."

"Why not?"

"I don't trust you." There wasn't really any point in making up excuses. The truth of it was that she wouldn't be able to close her eyes knowing he could run her through with Hyperion at any given moment. Regardless, she knew she probably wouldn't sleep. The least she wanted was to feel relatively safe as she laid awake.

"Ow! That hurt, Quistis...you cut me deep." A low smile spread across his lips. He'd never really been the kind for jokes, he was more the type for mean-spirited name calling and teasing. Subtlety was not one of his strong points. She looked at him for a moment, taking in the man she'd once known, and noted just how much he'd changed.

Not knowing what to say, she didn't reply and the room fell once again into a heavy silence.

"You really volunteered to come after me?" he asked.

"Yeah, I did." It was a half truth -- well, really, a three fourths truth. She had volunteered, but not specifically for the mission she was currently on. She'd basically told Cid to send her away, keep her busy and occupied. Garden was providing her no insight into herself, and she thought maybe getting out would help her discover just what she wanted from the crazy, mixed-up world she was living in.

"Why?" He paused. "I mean...I never really thought you hated me more than anyone else."

"I don't hate you." That was a full, one hundred percent, truth. She'd never really hated Seifer, maybe been annoyed or generally pissed off at him, but she'd never hated him.

"Then why are you here?" he asked, no...more like demanded. He was getting angry again. That was much more like what she remembered. The anger, the simmering violence as he pushed people around and away.

"I don't really have anywhere else to be," she replied, not at all sure why she was even bothering to answer him.

"Trust me, there are a million better places to be," he announced. "Of all people, I would know."

"I'm sure you would," she replied, trying her best to sound cool and collected even as her mind started to whir. "How long have you been here anyway? In Trabia I mean..."

"A few months," he shrugged. "I came up through Esthar, didn't think many people would follow me on foot. Didn't really think it would be too traceable either."

"Why?"

"Come on...the monsters in Esthar? How many people are going to bother?" he grunted.

"I did." She'd never gone through Esthar on foot. Really, she wasn't so much afraid of the monsters but that having to stop and fight so many of them would cause her to fall behind. It would really have been a pain to go through all the trouble only to loose her prey in the end.

"Apparently."

They fell silent for a few moments, Quistis looking at the shadow of her prisoner in the dark. His form was slightly hunched over, his back wrenched in a painful looking arch. Guilt, despite herself, crept across her skin. He wasn't a good man by any means, she had to remind herself of that. Yet, she remembered the boy. He hadn't been evil, he'd been troubled...naughty. She'd never dreamed when she was younger that Seifer would ever end up as he had. Pathetic, broken...sitting tied up on the floor with his hands tied behind his back, waiting to die.

"Would you like a blanket?" she asked, needing to find something to satisfy her guilt.

"Sure," he shrugged. Pushing herself up off the bed, she took off one of the heavy blankets and turned back around to hand it to him. She'd already held it out before realizing that he wasn't able to take it from her.

"Sorry," she blushed. "Sit up a little, I'll wrap you up a bit."

He did as she asked, and she bent down with the fluffy, blue quilt laying like a wet rag in her hand. It felt heavier than it had, more resistant to her movements. She could smell him as she wrapped it around his shoulders and waist. He smelled distantly of snow lion, leather, and snow. There was no hint of soap or shampoo to his essence, even though he looked relatively clean. She sat back a little, looking at his thin face and hooded eyes, and wondered what all he had been through.

"You're so thin." She couldn't help making note of his weight.

"I eat fine," he shrugged. "But I travel a lot."

"Why did you come to Trabia?" she asked. "There are much easier places in the world to live. Islands, sandy beaches..."

"People," he replied. "Most people don't recognize me, at least...not until the bounty was put on my head. Now people know me everywhere I go...except here."

"I think they were surprised that I'm a SeeD," she laughed, remembering the look on their faces when she'd floored Seifer with some thunder magic.

"Probably," he smiled a little. "You don't really look the part."

She flopped back onto the floor, feeling the chill from the floorboards seep up through her clothes and into her flesh. The floor that Seifer had sat on all day long, the floor he was going to sleep on.

"I don't like treating you like this," she announced. "This floor is freezing, and I'm sure you're sore from being tied up. But I can't risk that you might escape."

"Escape to where?" he asked, regarding her with his sandy, aqua eyes. "I don't have anywhere to go, and I don't even have a weapon."

Quistis glanced at her whip laying on the bed. It was too far away for her to grab, which meant that it was too far away for Seifer to grab. She doubted he would be able to use the weapon in the first place, but was she willing to take the risk?

"I couldn't hurt you anyway," he sighed. "Not like that."

His statement snapped Quistis to attention. Was Seifer being sensitive? Telling her that he cared? That was something entirely new, but taking in the rest of the changes that had been forged in him, she wasn't sure she could discount it.

"You have before," she reminded him.

"That was different."

"How so?"

"Have you ever gotten drunk, Quistis?" he asked. "I mean...really, really drunk. Where the whole world tilts around you and you can't even tell up from down anymore? It's sort of like that, only everything is half dream. I could see you, but not really you. I remember most of it, but it's hazy."

"Really?" she leaned back on her hands. "So, you're saying that you were under some sort of mind control?"

"I'm not saying anything," he replied. "Other than I wouldn't run you through."

"Why wouldn't you?" she asked, suspicious. "It would solve all of your problems."

"Only until someone else decided to come after me," he shrugged. "I do remember being with you when we were little...I don't know how much you remember. You were my sister...family."

"I'll untie you." The words popped out of her mouth before she was even really aware that she was about to say them. The guilt was still eating at her. The look in his eyes, the painful sway of his body. He didn't really have anywhere to go...it wouldn't do any harm to just let him have his hands for the night. Comfort wasn't something that would be coming to him in spades, she figured she could at least provide him a little.

"Thank you."

"Be good."

"Understood."

He turned, and she pulled at the knots between his hands. He'd worked on them a bit, but had only been able to turn them inside and out, complicating the rope more. Digging her fingers into it, she worked at the knot for a good five minutes before finally getting it untied. It was too dark for her to see his hands, but from merely holding the rough binding in her own, she was sure that they were hurting him.

"Sleep well, Seifer," she sighed, wondering what was wrong with her.

"I will."

She went back to her position on the bed, the insatiable guilt still eating at her. She couldn't help feeling for Seifer, noticing not only the darkness in him but the darkness in others as they thirsted for revenge. Forgiveness was a rare thing that not many people seemed to possess. She felt sorry for the damned Seifer...knowing all the while that she could have easily done the same for a person she cared about. Squall would have done what Seifer did for Rinoa, maybe his treason was actually an indication of the depth of his loyalty for none other than his mother.

"I think I might read that book tomorrow," he announced, breaking the silence that had fallen between them.

"You'll hate it," she warned him.

"Better than just sitting on my hands."

"Alright."