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All You Wanted
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( So lonely inside, )
( So busy out there, )
( And all you wanted was somebody who cared. )
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-- *Chapter 6: Together Today* --

"When was the turning point for us?"

"The turning point for us? Let me see...."

-- ** --

"So you see," Minako explained, "I think you were right. I can't handle a gunblade."

She said it simply and matter-of-factly, and Instructor Hui did not seemed to be surprised at all. But still, he wasn't going to let her forget. He was a teacher, and he found lessons in everything.

"Minako, I can't let students constantly be changing weapons," he stated.

"I know, but it's only been a week or two since I first got it."

"Exactly. Give yourself some time to break it in," Hui suggested. "The lessons should be helping you. Squall's quite an accomplished gunblade specialist."

"But you see, he's half the problem!" she exclaimed. "We don't get along that well- please let me switch? I already have a weapon in mind."

Instructor Hui seemed to mull over something before nodding and gesturing for her to follow him. He took her through Balamb Garden to the weapon storage room. He pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the drawer. He impatiently told her to hurry it up.

Minako nodded and went to the case, apparently looking for something. When she spotted it, she withdrew it from the case and showed them to Instructor Hui. It was a pair of plain looking daggers.

"Daggers?" Instructor Hui quizzed, looking at her skeptically.

Minako nodded. "I've been reading a lot about them. I think I could-"

"You thought you could handle a gunblade. After this, I won't allow you to switch weapons. You'll never become a SeeD if you keep doing that! Daggers are a close range weapon. When an enemy is out of reach, you'll have to rely totally on magic. Someone casts Silence on you...."

Minako smiled to herself. Instructor Hui didn't know that she was good with daggers. Or, at throwing them anyway. Two days ago, Megan, a friend, had showed Minako her daggers. Minako picked one up and pointed out that it was really light. Megan informed her that those daggers were a higher level model that were optimized for throwing as well as stabbing, should the need for it arise. She also insisted that Minako have a go. Minako obliged, and to her ultimate surprise, she was barely a few centimeters away from the mark Megan had put on her practice board. It was then she knew daggers would have to be her weapon.

She hefted one in her hand and looked around the room. There was a target against one of the walls; she guessed it was for people like Rei, who had a bow as their weapon of choice, to test out the quality of their newly picked weapons. Minako picked up a dagger and weighed it in her hands. Then she gripped it by the blade and threw it from her hand with a lot of force. She watched with a smile on her face- she knew she would hit her target the moment the blade left her hand. It hit the edge of the center mark. Instructor Hui gave her an impressed look.

"If my enemy is long range- I'll throw them," Minako said, smiling.

Instructor Hui nodded, looking slightly embarrassed and even a little peevish.

-- ** --

Ami walked briskly into the Library. She had gotten into a conversation with another student about elemental GFs while she was walking out of a class. The two stayed talking in the hall for so long, before Ami realized it, she was twenty minutes into her study period. She waved goodbye to that person(Deena) and headed for the Library to complete yet another extra credit project.

When she saw Zell standing outside of the library, shadowboxing, she froze and almost turned around. Mentally, she scolded herself.

Ami, stop being so childish. He's just a boy. And you've got work to do! Ami walked in, and she had intended to do so alone, but Zell had waved at her, and he began walking with her.

"Hey!" he greeted. "Whatcha up to now?"

"Another extra credit project."

"Who's it for this time?" Zell quizzed.

Ami replied, "Instructor Trepe. It's supposed to be an essay on the relationship between a GF and its summoner."

Zell scratched his head. "Oh. My relationship with Eden is pretty damn good, if you ask me. I've had it ever since we first got it at the Deep Sea Research Center. Hasn't left me- not once!"

This piqued her attention; she figured she could 'interview' Zell and get some good material for her essay.

"Really? How quickly does Eden come when you summon it?" Ami asked, writing something down on her notebook.

He shrugged and sat down in a chair across from her. "Not long. I'd say...less than 10 seconds, definitely."

"10 seconds?!" Ami exclaimed. "Wow..."

"Yep." Zell brushed his knuckle on his chest, a gesture of smugness. "But you think that's impressive, you should see Eden attack. Eternal Breath is one of the most powerful attacks out there. Non-elemental, too!"

Ami wrote some things down, and Zell was just noticing. Ami looked at him, feigning a suspicious look. She drew her notepad closer to her, and Zell leaned forward in an attempt to see what she was writing.

"Hey, hey, what're you writing?" Zell asked.

"Nothing," Ami replied, looking innocent.

Zell narrowed his eyes. "Nothing, huh?"

"Yep. Nothing."

He waggled his eyebrows at her, making Ami giggle a little. Then, so quickly that Ami didn't have time to prepare herself, Zell's hand shot out to Ami's knee and squeezed that little piece of thigh just above it. Ami squealed and dropped the notepad, which Zell promptly took up.

"You're terrible!" Ami exclaimed, hugging her knees, which were propped up on the very edge of her chair.

Zell cleared his throat and read, " 'Zell says he's never left Eden once. Eden comes in less than 10 seconds -WOW- when summoned.' Oh. That's it?"

"I told you it was nothing," Ami replied, curling her feet under her and sitting on her knees. She laughed at Zell. "What were you expecting, a diary?"

Zell shrugged. He left the seat across from her for the one right next to her. Ami grabbed her notebook back and gently slammed it onto the table with a soft thud, meaning to make a point and throwing a playful glare at Zell, who only smiled back. The silence kind of got heavy, and Ami noticed that Abby had come in for her shift.

"Zell..." Ami began.

"Yeah?"

"You still come to the Library to see Abby, right?" Ami asked.

Zell looked kind of uncomfortable answering this. He waited several moments before saying, "Yeah. Of course."

Then how come you haven't talked to her in ages? How come you're here with me?

"Why makes you ask?" Zell quizzed.

Ami shrugged. "She...."

"Told you something, didn't she? That's why she was crying that day, right?" Zell finished.

Ami asked carefully, "Do you know why she was crying."

Zell shifted his weight from one side of his body and back to the other before he answered, "No."

Ami looked at him with an eyebrow raised skeptically.

"Is there anything you want to...tell me?" Ami asked. The words felt so odd coming out of her mouth, for a glimmer of an instant she felt like her mother! She smiled at the thought, and Zell seemed to have caught that.

"You do that a lot," he said.

"Do what?"

"Smile. You smile when you think I'm not looking. Its a different kind of smile....ahh...forget it, you don't wanna hear-"

"No. I do. How do I smile, Zell?" Ami asked with a hint of laughter in her voice. She was feeling...

"Well- sometimes you smile, and I swear you're remembering something, and me and my damn curiosity- sometimes I would just kill to know what it is that's making you smile that that. It's stupid..."

"I lost my memory, remember?"

"Tch, whatever...I don't buy that story one bit," Zell reasoned. "You're hiding something, all three of you girls are."

Ami looked slapped. "What would make you suspect that?"

"Sometimes you guys slip. You mention something that you 'used' to do. Once you told me that you've always 'been a good student'. I don't buy any of it," Zell said.

"How long have you..."

"First day I met you. You looked way to together and sure of who you were to be someone who can't remember their past. I know what it's like not remembering, and I know what a person goes through."

Ami turned thoughtful. "All this time and you haven't even asked?"

Zell shook his head. "I figure you'll tell me when you feel like it."

So there. He knows that I've got something to hide, and yet he doesn't ask about it. He waits. For me. When I'm ready, I can tell him everything, and I wonder if he'll still care. I don't see why it should make a difference where I'm from...But that's just great. He's going to hold off his 'damn curiosity' until I'm ready, and he won't pressure me about it all...Zell strikes me as the type who would go to the ends of the Earth for whoever it is that's got his heart. Maybe that's something worth crying over?

"What?" Zell asked suddenly.

"Hmmm...?" Ami replied absentmindedly.

"You're looking at me."

Ami laughed. "I look at a lot of people." Zell narrowed his eyes at her. "What? I'm not casting some sort of Love spell on you or anything."

"That's funny," Zell said. Then, underneath his breath, "I thought you already had."

"Huh?"

"What?"

"You said something."

Zell replied, "Yeah. I said 'That's funny.'"

Ami shook her head. "No. After that. What did you say?"

Zell shook his head. "Nothing. I didn't say anything."

"I heard you!"

"You're hearing things. I didn't say anything."

"Yes you did."

"No I didn't."

"You said something," Ami replied. Zell stopped talking, and Ami thought maybe he was going to tell her.

Instead, he grabbed her chin and kissed her.

Ami was stiff at first. She hadn't kissed too many guys before...but this felt so good, she had to loosen up. Zell's tongue pushed past her lips as she gasped. His finger tips moved to the side of her face, they felt so cool against her heated skin. The heat- oh, God, the heat! Ami felt like warmth was seeping out of Zell's body and into hers. It must have been twenty seconds- it felt like nothing to both- when a loud shriek broke them from their little kiss. Ami looked up and clasped her hands to her mouth.

"What's the matter?" Zell asked, hoping to Hyne he hadn't done anything wrong.

Still blushing profusely, Ami shook her head. "Oh, it's not you. It's Abby. I think she saw us. She's got it bad for you."

"But....I've got it bad for you."

Ami froze. Her heart pounded in her chest. Her gaze shifted to knees and...

-- ** --

The next day, Instructor Hui walked into the 2F classroom and took his seat at the big desk in front. He logged into the control panel and logged in as he addressed his students casually.

"Ok, class! Today we'll be starting group projects. I'll set you up in groups of two. Your job is to recategorize the bestiary. For example, you could sort all the animals out by the spells they carry, items they possibly drop- anything except for alphabetical."

Minako groaned. This sounded like fun.

"Now for pairings....Alison Abery with Josh Kennington...Addilon Braber with Kara Benz...."

Minako listened on for her name, swirling her pen around in her fingers lazily. Rei had gotten put with some guy named Jordan and Ami was paired with Sadmi, another brainiac girl.

"Squall Leonhart with Minako Aino." Minako dropped her pencil. She stood up, about to protest, but she saw that smile on Instructor Hui's face. She also noted that there was a hint of myrth in his voice as he called out her name.

He's doing this just to spite me! Rotten Instructor...

Minako did as she was told and sat next to Squall. He looked at her, an obviously amused smile on his face.

They're both trying to get at me. Well...I'll just have to annoy the hell out of Squall until he goes to Instructor Hui and demands that partners be switched.

She smiled back

"Howdy, partner."

-- ** --

That night, Rei found that she couldn't sleep, no matter how hard she tried. She woke up and paced around her room in the darkness. Her foot got caught on something and she tripped, falling flat on her face. Rei stood up on one foot and rubbed her sore ankle. She hopped to the lightswitch and turned on the lights. She had tripped over her bow.

Looking at it guiltily, she exclaimed, "All right, all right! I'll go take you to practice."

Rei. You're losing it. You're talking to a bow. That's not healthy...She giggled as she changed into her Garden uniform.

-- ** --

Rei walked into the Training Center slowly. She had never been there without Seifer, so this would be her first trip alone. She imagined being attacked by millions of Grats and shuddered. She had brought several Remedies with her, so she thought she would be Ok if she used oh....say five of them at once.

She had gotten a sling to hold her bow and quiver behind her, and she took her bow from it now. Knees bent slightly, Rei searched through the Training Center for a creature to practice on. Something beneath a bush moved. A lot. Rei drew back a little. She pulled an arrow from her quiver and put in the bow. It moved some more.

Oh my God. It's coming at me.

Something was emerging from the bushes, something big. Without thinking, Rei loaded an arrow and shot it.

There was a cry of pain.

Seifer stumbled forward, an arrow lodged in his shoulder.

"What the fuck was that for?!" he exclaimed, grasping his shoulder. Blood was seeping out of the wound.

Rei clasped her hands over her mouth as she ran to him. "Oh my God! Seifer, what were you doing there?"

"SITTING!" he yelled. Rei winced. She watched Seifer. He gripped the arrow and, face contorted in pain, pulled it out of his shoulder. It hadn't gone to deep because of the thickness of his trench coat. He dropped the arrow on the floor before casting a few Curagas on himself.

"I'm sorry," Rei apologized. "I thought you were some kind of monster..."

"Close enough," Seifer muttered. He turned around and was leaving, but Rei stopped him.

"It's late. What were you doing in there?"

Seifer turned around and replied, "I already told you. I was sitting. Thinking. Is that all?"

"Why the Training Center?" Rei quizzed. She wanted to keep him there. To protect her.

"Does it matter?"

"To me it does."

Seifer rolled his eyes. "Right there, behind that bush. It's a perfect spot- you can see everyone that enters the Training Center, but they can't see you. It's shady and cool. Does that satisfy you?"

"Do you have sleeping problems?"

"I don't think I'd have a problem sleeping if you let me get back to my bed in the first place," Seifer said meanly. He breifly wondered how she had guessed the exact truth. She that bad habit of reading his mind without knowing it.

"Why are you so pissy all of a sudden?" Rei asked, walking to him.

"I didn't come here for this." He turned around and started walking out again.

"You're not going to your bed, are you?" Rei said, staring at him hard. She was doing it again...

Seifer turned around and stared at her hard, for a long time. He smirked suddenly.

"You know, you look like warrior with that bow. You're pretty good with it, by the way."

Rei laughed.

"Obviously not. I was aiming for your head."

-- ** --

The next day, Minako was in Squall's dorm single.

"Creeps level 30?"

"Yeah," Squall answered. They had decided to categorize their bestiary by spells, which was proving to be harder than they first thought. They were barely on the Death spell. "I already have it. You're not helping by repeating them. Why don't you go to lunch or something and I'll finish it up."

"There you go again!" Minako exclaimed. "You're trying to take this whole project on by yourself."

"Exactly."

"Well- I should let you, but I'm not going to! Why? Because Instructor Hui stuck us together because he thought we didn't get along-"

"We don't."

"- and he thinks we won't be able to pull of a project together-"

"We probably can't."

"- so I'm going to prove him WRONG!"

"Why?"

"You know, you can't do everything on your own."

Squall rolled his eyes. He had gotten this lecture a million times already. And not one of them made a difference. Not'a one.

"If you do- well, you'll live a very lonely life!" Minako pointed out. "And that's the saddest thing in the world."

Squall shrugged. "Whatever."

"Whatever, whatever, whatever! Do you say anything else? Is that your simple solution? When someone says something you can't handle you reply with 'whatever'?"

Extremely exasperated, Squall shouted, "Let me tell YOU something. Everyone- everyone I care about has given me some form of this talk. 'You can't live life alone', they say. Well you know what?! I'm doing just FINE on my own! It's always been that way! Because when it gets down to it, all you've got is YOURSELF. You can't depend on ANYONE because in the end, they won't be there. You'll be alone again..." His tone had shocked Minako into silence. There was a sad, nostalgic look in his eye.

"You're going to grow into an old, unhappy man, Squall," Minako said quietly, "simply because you think what you think. If I lived my whole life thinking that one day Rei and Ami would be gone, odds are, they wouldn't be my friends. And I would have missed out on some of the happiest moments in my life." With that, she left Squall's dorm, making sure to knock something over on the way.

-- ** --

Damn that Minako Aino. She infuriated Squall to the point of screaming, to say the least, and he had the distinct feeling she was doing it on purpose. He stood up and leaned against the wall. He found that place uncomfortable, so he sat down on the edge of his bed. Squall stared at the pile of books Minako had knocked over on her way out for a long time. He placed his head in his hands and his elbows on his knees and thought.

....the fuck....Why won't anyone just let me be? Am I really that bad? No one- no one will understand. No one knows what it's like to see a loved one walk out the door, to just disappear suddenly. No one knows exactly how much it hurts, and how pointless it is to let anyone get close. Because in the end, they're going to lose that person somehow. And then they're alone again and then they can't cope. I'm not going to go through it again. Not a'fucking'gain.

-- ** --

Damn that Squall Leonhart. He was such an asshole! Every movement, gesture and word that slipped out of his mouth was something insanely rude and it made Minako want to smack him something serious. She knew he had a softer side, because when he laughed there was a different glint in his eye. Why he refused to show it was Minako's problem. It annoyed her to no end that Squall was so afraid of opening up to anyone. She had tried to become friends with him when she had first started school. Minako learned very soon that there was no point.

...asshole...If he would just give the human race a shot, he'd be a much nicer person, I'm sure of it. Where does that guy get his kicks? Making other people feel inferior? Hurting them? Selphie said he used to have a girlfriend, well she must've been one helluva girl to put up with him! He's just a jerk. Oh, I'm sure he's in his dorm right now, thinking about what he's done. I should go right back there and give him a piece of my mind!

She found herself at Squall's dorm room again. She started to bang on the door, but it slid open. Squall was there. He looked surprised to see her.

"Oh. You forgot your pen," he said simply, holding up a pinkish colored pen.

Minako looked at him incredulously. "You were going to bring it to me?"

He nodded, giving her a look that clearly said 'So....?'

Minako shook her head. She smiled at Squall and took her pen from his hand.

"Thank you, Squall." She waved goodbye and walked down the hall.

Damn that Squall Leonhart. So utterly complex that it made Minako's head spin.

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End of Chapter 6 |
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