A/N: Mmm...this was a fun chapter to write.
Chapter 18: The Way of Life
Not surprisingly, Faber took an immediate interest in learning to use a gunblade. The moment he set his eyes upon Hyperion, there was no turning back. Seifer couldn't help but like the little guy. Faber had spirit, and reminded Seifer of himself at the same age. Although Faber leaned more toward the innocent side, perhaps.
"Okay...Hyperion's kind of heavy," he explained, watching the child's eyes travel up and down the length of the gunblade with absolute delight, "so you're going to want to be careful."
"Right," Faber nodded. "Careful."
He smiled as he watched the kid pull on a pair of gloves and smooth his hair back. Seifer had disarmed the gun portion of the weapon, but the blade itself was still sharp, and he knew if Edea caught him letting Faber handle it, he'd get one hell of an ass chewing. Quistis obviously thought that he could do no wrong in Matron's eyes. The sun was just starting to set, and Edea had spent the entire day talking to him.
It had meant a lot to see her again and know that, despite everything, she still loved him as her son. Unconditional love was a mysterious thing. She had no reason he could fathom to feel so deeply toward him. Yet, she did, and without question or reason.
"Okay...you ready?" he asked.
"You bet," Faber nodded eagerly. He couldn't wait to get the gunblade in his hands, and Seifer couldn't blame him.
"Here you go," he tilted it toward him, pivoting it on the point of the blade. The handle was about even with Faber's nose, but he reached out with zest for it anyway. Seifer slowly let go of the weight, not wanting to hurt the child's pride by letting the sudden and unexpected weight of Hyperion knock him over. He knew what personal pride meant to a child, and he respected Faber's right to keep a firm grip on it.
"Whoa...it's heavy," he commented when all the weight was balanced against his little, gloved hand.
"It's been with me for a long time," Seifer squatted down a little to be even with Faber.
"Can I learn to use it?" he asked.
"Someday maybe," Seifer shrugged. He'd started early in his life. It took years to master the gunblade, and Faber was actually about the right age to begin training. Seifer wasn't sure he wanted to lead the kid into a life of fighting. His lifestyle had certainly never brought him anything good.
"This is so cool," Faber gushed, striking a quick, manly pose.
Seifer smiled, genuinely fond of the child. He wasn't exactly known for his affinity with children, and generally speaking he wasn't very fond of them. In fact, he liked to avoid them whenever possible. But, in a way, Faber was his little brother. He was family. And if there was one thing that Seifer felt strongly about, it was family.
"Matron is going to flip if she sees this, Seifer," Quistis announced, making her presence known as she came up behind them.
"Check it out," Faber started showing off for her. "I'm holding Hyperion."
"So you are," she smiled, but gave Seifer a scolding look for handing the child a weapon. It wasn't a toy, he was very aware of that. But he was also aware of the fact that if he denied Faber access to it, the kid would only find a way to get at it on his own, which would be much more dangerous.
"Seifer says I'm going to be a great gunblader someday," Faber grinned widely. He was fibbing, Seifer had said no such thing. But, he didn't say anything about it. A little white lie here and there to boost self-esteem wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
"Wouldn't you rather take up the whip?" Quistis asked, arching an eyebrow. "Why use a big old, heavy gunblade when you could be an expert with a whip?"
"A whip?" Faber looked at Seifer as if to ask if she was serious. "I want to use a good weapon."
Seifer laughed...hard. Quistis was always talking about how underrated the whip was in terms of weaponry. To give her some credit, she was remarkably good with hers, and the sight of her waving the thing about her head sent chills down his back. Still, the whip just didn't inspire the fear a long, menacing blade did. Her nose curled up in distaste, she turned her attention immediately away from the child who had so offended her beloved choice of weaponry.
"He's just like you," she snorted.
"Yep," Seifer smiled broadly, proud of the little guy for some reason.
She rolled her eyes, her hands falling on her hips in the classic sign that she'd had enough.
"Matron wants Faber inside, it's getting dark," she announced, finally delivering the message she'd come to give.
"Hyne...I'm not a little kid," Faber growled, still holding Hyperion up. Seifer took it back from him, and he reluctantly parted with it.
"Sure you are," Seifer replied, giving Faber a little jab with the end of the gunblade as he blazed by on his way inside. He kicked up dust in his wake, and the rest of the children who were still out and about took it as a sign to come in for the night. Like cattle, they followed their chosen leader.
"That kid worships the ground you walk on," Quistis noted as they walked together. She'd relaxed quite a bit since Trabia, and the change in her demeanor was startling. While they were in Trabia she'd had him tied up and would have rather thrown herself into the path of a marlboro than spend an extra second more with him than she had to. Currently, on balmy Centra, she was treating him as if nothing had ever occurred between them. It was like going right back to when they were kids. He liked it. He liked it a lot.
"A lot of people worship me," he retorted, grinning with his characteristic cocky air.
"I believe they're called Satanists," she answered quickly, her wit sharper than usual.
"Come on...I'm not that bad," he shook his head.
The environment of Edea's House had changed their attitudes toward one another. Both of them knew it would only hurt Edea to see Quistis treating Seifer like the criminal he was. He figured her new found fondness toward him was directly related to the fact that she didn't want to upset Matron. Besides, things were peaceful and even pleasant. What reason did either of them have to inject tension into the scene?
"You probably shouldn't be encouraging him to become a mercenary," she announced.
"Why do you say that?" he asked. "You're a mercenary. Part of your job used to be to openly encourage others to become mercenaries as well."
"He's just..." she paused, really thinking over her answer. "I think violence would ruin him."
"Faber is a born fighter," Seifer told her, knowing from personal experience.
"I'm not sure anyone is born a fighter," she shook her head.
They were steadily getting closer to the house, and Seifer found himself once again thinking about Trabia. She'd told him that she was in love with him. He watched her walk ahead of him and made a confused attempt at sorting out how he felt about that. He still wasn't at all sure that she'd meant it. After all, she was still taking him back to Balamb, wasn't she? Just because he'd saved her life, he couldn't expect her to forget everything that had happened.
"Are you coming?" she asked, noticing that he'd stopped.
"Sure."
Edea was shuffling small children every which way when they walked in. Some of them were obviously in need of a bath, and she was making a valiant attempt at herding them toward the bathroom. Quistis offered her help, and took two little girls by the hands to put them to bed for the night. She was good with children, but she always seemed nervous around them like they were going to go nuts and bite off her hand or something. There was a definite lack of exposure to children in her line of work. She was more comfortable, he supposed, facing a monster than a crying baby.
"Seifer," Edea was dragging one very upset little girl toward the bathroom. "Would you mind putting a few kids to bed for me? Thanks, dear." She disappeared around the corner before he had the chance to even formulate a reply to her question, which she's already answered for him anyway.
"Okay..." he looked down at the small faces looking up and him, and he shared in Quistis' anxiety. Two little girls, and one little boy -- Faber had most likely been added to the bath group. The girls were open mouthed, and one of them had a runny nose that she didn't appear to care about. The intimidation they all felt at having a strange man put them to bed was obvious. He wished Quistis would hurry up.
"I guess it's off to bed with you guys, huh?" he asked, leaning down.
The little girl with the runny nose screamed, sending a twitch racing through Seifer.
"Shh...no..." He wasn't sure what to do.
She continued to bawl, the pace of snot coming from her nose increasing as she did so.
"Seifer...what in the world?" Quistis reappeared, and he was so relieved to see her that he could have kissed her. "What's going on?"
"Put the girls to bed, please!" he begged, running over to her. "I got the boy...but geeze, that girl acts like I'm going to kill her."
"That's because your a man," she replied. "All little girls distrust strange men."
He rolled his eyes. He hated it when she treated him like he was an idiot. Thankfully, she took the two little girls, and murmuring softly to them disappeared down the hallway. That left only the little boy. Seifer turned to him, and offered his hand. The boy was hesitant, but he took it anyway, allowing Seifer to lead the way.
With few problems, he got the child tucked into bed. By the time he got back to the main room, Edea was miraculously done washing quite a few of the children, and those had to be put to bed as well. The next hour or so went on in the same exhausting fashion, and Seifer obtained a healthy respect for what his foster mother willingly put herself through. That woman had to have a lot of love in her.
"I don't know how you do it," Quistis said, mirroring his thoughts. Edea shrugged and busied herself by cleaning up after the long day.
"There's only one spare room," she announced as she picked toys up off the floor and shoved them into a blue, plastic bucket. "Although I'm sure Faber would be thrilled if you stayed with him, Seifer."
Seifer and Quistis exchanged glances, and he wondered if she was thinking the same thing he was. Probably not. But, the idea of spending a little quality time in Quistis' bed was appealing.
He stopped his train of thoughts suddenly. What was he thinking? Just because she wasn't spitting on him and saying how much she hated him didn't mean that she liked him. Being civil wasn't being in love. He was planning his own execution with the way he was thinking. Quistis would never want to be with him, and why would he want to be with her anyway? Dammit...he didn't.
Quistis blushed a little and looked back at Edea.
"That would work very well, thank you."
That answered his question. She obviously hadn't been thinking the same thing he had been. No problem, he'd never really been considering it anyway. Right?
"Goodnight, Matron," Quistis smiled and gave the other woman a warm hug.
"Goodnight, Quistis," Edea replied, then went through the same ritual with Seifer. He hadn't anyone say goodnight to him with a hug in a very long time. In those moments, he would have been perfectly happy to live the rest of his life the same way as that one day had gone. Sitting in a place he called home, with a child who adored him, a woman who would always want him around...and Quistis. He dared not think what exactly she brought to the picture.
He followed her down the hallway, needing to get his things. They both had set their stuff down at the end of the hallway when they'd arrived, neither sure where to put it. Of course, the clean freak that Edea was, she hadn't been able to allow them to stay there. So, she'd moved their bags into the spare bedroom and set them on top of the bed. They both walked into the room with long, tired sighs.
Seifer had been through one of the most emotional days of his life. He didn't think coming back was going to effect him quite so much. He'd been humiliated when he'd started to bawl right then and there. He'd been even more embarrassed when Quistis and Faber walked in and saw him blubbering like an idiot. Seifer was not a man who cried. Honestly, he couldn't remember the last time that he had. Quistis hadn't said anything about it, but he knew that she'd seen him.
"I've got to find a boat to take us to Balamb," she announced. "I'm going to go out tomorrow and find the schedule of departing ships and see if I can book passage on one of them."
"Alright." So, she hadn't given up on taking him back. Always loyal to her job, and she was going to get the mission accomplished.
"Here...I think all of this is yours." She handed him a bag that had his trench coat slung over it. He set it down on the bed and started to dig through it, looking at all the contents.
"This isn't everything," he replied, shaking his head.
"What do you need?" she arched an eyebrow.
"My toothbrush." She paused and looked at him. "What? I always brush right before bed."
"Well...I don't know where it could be, everything else here is mine," she shrugged.
"You're kidding me...you forgot my toothbrush?"
"I took everything out of your room," she insisted. "If you had it with you, it's in there."
"Well..." he looked down dejectedly at his bag once. "Let's check all of the bags again." Quistis rolled her eyes, but obediently started emptying out the contents of her bag. Seifer did the same with his, searching for the object among rolled up socks and shirts.
"Hyne, Seifer, I don't know where it's at," she grumbled. Even as she spoke, she lifted up a sweater and the toothbrush fell to the floor. Seifer pounced on it like it was made of a precious metal.
"Knew you were holding out on me," he said, nudging her with his elbow.
"Right, trying to kill you slowly via tooth decay," she replied.
"You've done stranger things," he pointed out. "Besides, I'd think you'd want to be kind to my mouth. It saved your fingers, after all." She groaned, arching her back a little.
"You're never going to let me forget that, are you?"
"Probably not."
Their lives, he realized, were suddenly very domestic. He'd put children to bed with her, they'd joined forces to find his lost toothbrush, and amazingly, he didn't mind it at all. In fact, it was kind of nice. He'd never had anything even remotely like it before, and it felt like a gift.
"Goodnight, Seifer," she shook her head slowly, but smiled.
"Goodnight, Quisty," he smiled back.
He fought the urge to lean down and kiss her, but as she looked up at him (he was sure her expression would have qualified as expectantly) it became progressively more difficult. Still, it nearly knocked the breath out of him when she stood up on her toes and pressed a light kiss to his mouth instead of the other way around. As she lowered herself back down onto flat feet, he blushed furiously. Had Quistis Trepe just kissed him? The woman who was taking blood money for his head? The woman who hated him with a passion and had tied him up on her floor for days? That same woman had just kissed him?
His head spun. But, it stabilized soon enough that he was able to catch her licking her lips. A cue to him that, whatever she might tell him come tomorrow, she'd enjoyed the little peck.
Grinning, he took her chin in his hand and placed his own goodnight kiss (tit for a tat anyway). His was all together less chaste, but she didn't pull away. As he slowly ended it, loving the taste and sound, he would have been hard pressed to admit that this wasn't the life he wanted. Even as he made his way to Faber's room, her kiss seemed to follow him. He settled in knowing the way life ought to be, and wanting that simple thing more than anything else in the world.
