A/N: I'm on a roll this weekend! Two new chapters in as many days...sheesh.

Chapter 13: Snowfall in the Morning

Quistis woke the next morning tucked up tightly next to Seifer. Some snow had fallen around them, building up a little wall around their bodies and a sheer blanket across them. He was still asleep, his breathing slow and even. In sleep he looked serene. A shadow of a beard had grown across his jaw line, stubbly and blonde. His hair was longer than it had been back in his days at Garden. The same few pieces still hung over his forehead into his eyes, but it had gained length and curled about his collar in the back.

She sat and watched him sleep for some time, warm and comfortable next to him. His bound hands were tucked up in between them and he was slowly breathing across them. She wasn't sure how he could stand to have his snowlion mittens so close to his face. Her own nose was tingling from the scent of the blue and white fur.

Seifer had transformed into a different person. Years on the run had changed him. Even though he had lost it and attacked her, he'd shown remarkable restraint in not doing so before hand. He had, after all, sat on her floor with his hands tied for days without complaint. That would have never happened with the Seifer of old. Something had changed him more than physically. Smiling a little to herself, she realized that he had finally grown up.

Back at Garden, he'd been only eighteen. He was still immature. He teased, he goofed off in class, he was arrogant and cocky about his own abilities. Everyone felt for the most part that if Seifer could restrain himself long enough to get something done that he would make an excellent SeeD. He was punished, really, for thinking too far ahead and taking control of situations that were to be left to his superiors. Back in Dollet, Seifer should have been a hero. He wasn't mostly because he hadn't the patience to see the situation on the radio tower and had run off in search of other enemies.

Currently, he'd been not only patient with his situation but also patient with her. He'd been right the night before when he'd told her to stop. Chagrined, she realized that she'd acted more in character for him that he had. She'd been stubborn and refused see the logic of his suggestion until it had nearly gotten the both of them killed.

Snow was falling lightly yet, a few big flakes sticking to the outside of her hood. She was hoping that it was just an easy, early morning thing that would pass as soon as the day started to warm. If, that is, the day did warm. There was really no anticipating what the weather might do from one instant to the next. As far as she knew, there could be another blizzard on the other side of the mountains. Neither of them would know until it crossed over the peaks and came barreling down at them.

"Seifer," she nudged him lightly.

"Mmm..." His eyes came open slowly, dark green and hazy with sleep. His gaze locked for a few moments on her, and what she thought for a moment was a smile tugged at his lips.

"We're going to have to get moving," she told him.

"Why?" He snuggled down further into the snow and slightly closer to her, closing his eyes again.

"It's snowing," she replied. "I want to get out of here in case the weather gets worse."

Seifer groaned, rolling over a little to look up at the whitewashed sky.

"Damn," he licked his lips, closing his eyes tightly once again. "Okay."

Neither of them moved, both very comfortable where they were. Quistis wasn't the kind of person to wake up and get up right away in the morning. She liked to lay in bed for a while and let herself slowly come out of sleep. Alarm clocks were her worst enemy. After the long trek they had made the day before, it was ten times as hard to convince herself that they had to peel themselves off of the ground. She was sore from walking and her ankle slightly bruised from when Seifer had pulled her over her snowshoes.

"You first," Seifer chuckled.

"Fine." With a groan of misery, she slowly pushed herself up off the ground. The morning wasn't as cold as the night had been, but it definitely held a bite. Frowning, she tucked her hood closer about her face. Hair was falling out of her loosely bound ponytail about her face, and she shoved it back into the confines of her hood as best as she could with her mittens on.

"Ugh...Hyne," Seifer sat up beside her, although with slightly more effort because his hands were still tied.

"How are you doing?" she asked, motioning to the biding. "I mean...it's not biting into your wrists or anything, is it?" Her sudden concern, she assured herself, sprung from the fact that he had helped her the night before. The least she could do was repay him.

"Hadn't really thought about it," he admitted, his pain having been eased by the cold much of the day before.

Quistis leaned toward him, pushing his mitten down a bit so that she could see his wrist. Under the rope there was a dotted line of red sores. They immediately assailed Quistis with guilt. The underside of the rope was pink, as was the skin in between the spots rubbed raw.

"Seifer..." she blinked slowly. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" he tilted his head.

"For not thinking earlier that it could be hurting you," she replied.

"You're doing your job," he shrugged.

"Right..." She eyed him suspiciously for a moment, and then considered her options. She could loosen the ropes and hope they he didn't particularly feel the need to take them off. She could leave them as they were and let them further eat through his wrists. Or, she could take them off all together and hope that he wouldn't run away. The last option, obviously, wasn't feasible. She also couldn't, in good conscience, let them stay the way they were. That left only one other option.

She chewed steadily on her bottom lip as she worked at the knot, easing some slack into the hold it had on him. He let out a long sigh when she was finished, probably realizing for the first time the amount of discomfort the ropes had him in.

"Better?"

"Much," he smiled.

"Alright, let's get moving then." She let him sit for a few moments as she cleaned up their camp, kicking some snow over the dead fire out of habit. Collecting her pack, and securing Hyperion underneath it along her back, she reached for the lead to Seifer's binding.

The day wore on in much the same way that they previous one had. This one, however, seemed to tick by at a much slower rate. Quistis paused after what had seemed hours to glance back at their progress only to see their camp looming in the not so distant background. Snow was still falling, obscuring her vision slightly.

"This is going to be one long day," Seifer announced, reflecting her own thoughts.

Both of them were fairly used to traveling through the Trabian mountains, Seifer more so than she. Neither of them had traveled in quite so much snow before. There was always a lot of snow up above six thousand feet, and they were some distance above that. The snow pack under them was thick, but it was hard and crusted. Newly fallen snow was much more difficult to traverse in. The cumbersome snow shoes made the trip that much more difficult, as did the constant tension between them.

The longer they walked, the heavier the snow started to come down. The longer Quistis looked at the big, downy flakes, the further her stomach dropped. More snow was the last thing that they needed. It was also slightly frightening.

"Does somebody up there have something against me, or what?" she grumbled, casting a glance toward the somber sky.

"Welcome to my world," Seifer said from behind her. He was keeping close behind he, not struggling as much as she was. She knew that, really, she was only slowing him up. It was a remarkable thing that she'd been able to catch up to him at all.

"I'd rather go back to my own," she replied. "Some nice Balamb beaches, sunshine, the sea breeze..."

"Why did you leave in the first place?" he asked. He'd been asking her this question from the first moment that he learned it was she who had been pursuing him. She wasn't exactly sure if he was asking why she had wanted to come after him or asking why she would leave the life she had in Balamb.

"I needed to get away for a while," she shrugged.

"Get away from what?" he frowned. "Friends? Safety? A place to call home and people who love you?"

He had a point, one that Quistis had come to realize after she left. It was easier for her to see the good things in her life once she abandoned them. The small problems that she had didn't seem as severe any longer.

"I suppose I was tired of everyone thinking they knew everything about me," she replied. "All these misconceptions people have about me follow me around everywhere. Because I was an instructor, I don't believe in having any sort of fun. I'm prim, proper, and heartless."

She paused to look up at the mountains for a moment before going on.

"I think a lot of people think of me as untouchable," she replied. "You know...the Treppies, they followed me around and everything but none of them ever approached me. They all sat in the background. And once I wasn't an instructor, and the Treppies grew up, I still held that stereotype."

"The Treppies never approached you because they knew their lives would be in danger if they did," he snorted, sounding a little proud.

"Why is that?" she asked, surprised.

"Disciplinary Committee stayed on top of them," he shrugged.

"Really?" She stopped, turning around to look at him. "You told them to stay away from me?"

"Well...not really," he blushed a little. "We kept them under control."

Quistis was genuinely surprised. She'd not been involved in student life, and thus had little to no idea of what had gone on as far as the Disciplinary Committee was concerned. She knew that Seifer did rule with an iron fist, but it shocked her to learn that he'd used his position of power to keep a thumb on top of the Treppies. She vowed when she got back to take a look at the past records of some of the automated student message boards.

The snow was falling with more zest, and even though Seifer's little confession kept her mind buzzing for the next few hours, she couldn't help but feel concerned. She'd since completely forgotten about Seifer's loosened bindings, her entire focus concentrated on the weather and remnants of the past.

Suddenly the wind picked up, blowing shards of snow painfully into Quistis' face. She blinked hard, shaking her head to clear her vision only to realize that her sudden loss of sight was due to the large amount of loose snow caught up in the gust. Shuddering, she felt Seifer bump into the back of her.

"I think we'd better find some sort of shelter," he announced.

Deciding to take his advice this time around, Quistis nodded. The only problem lay in the fact that she couldn't see and had no other way of finding a safe place to ride out the oncoming storm. They were making their way up a pass, one she hoped was the final one to their destination. On either side of them was mountain, although they were hugging the side of one.

They kept walking for some distance through the blowing snow, neither sure enough of the land to suggest a place to stop. So, onward they walked into the blinding snow. Quistis shivered with the cold and fear. Whether he realized it or not, their survival depended wholly upon Seifer, because she didn't have the first clue what to do.