Thanks for all the reviews! Here's my next chapter! Rolluprollup, and please don't forget to tell me ur opinion at the bottom!
**
"Quistis…Quistis!"
Seifer Almasy bent over the slim figure sprawled on the dewy grass. Her golden-blonde hair was spattered with a network of intricate raindrops, which grew more prismatic and more beautiful as the dusky rain started to fall. They beaded her eyelashes and lay untouched on her white skin, mingling with the raindrops that dropped from his eyes onto her lovely face. Rain sliding down glass, mixing the colours…
She looked elegant, even sprawled on the grass. Her face glimmered with the lights of the setting sun, which cast its burnished glow over the hills, the tops of the densely packed trees.
It had been three hours since he had staggered, worn but full of adrenalin, his gunblade stained with Jeff's blood. Quistis had been warm and comforting in his arms. For two hours he had staggered on and on, as the sun lowered itself in the sky, from violet to red to pink, as the lights reflected away from Quistis' beautiful, motionless, golden head. Exhaustion had pumped through his body, a strange feeling, a wonderful and fulfilling feeling fuelling him to go on. The feeling…he hadn't felt it before. It made him feel complete.
And, an hour ago he had found this clearing, bluebells carpeting the dewy grass, trees hemming in from all sides. He had lain her slender and delicate frame down, washed her immobile and passive countenance with water from a nearby stream, fanned her with his hands. She hadn't stirred, but her pulse, faint and thready, beat uncertainly at her wrists and neck. Seifer bent over her once more and kissed her rain-studded forehead, nuzzled her cold neck. Why hadn't he told her before?
Quistis, Quistis, Quistis…everything he had done here, it had been for her. Every slash of his gunblade, it had been before. And now, here she was, dead or dying…and…he was helpless. For once, he knew nothing of what to do. What….
I love you.
He saw now the red weal on her cheek starting to swell. He traced it gently with his finger. You found it in the strangest places…
Saw the signs, wasn't rightI was stupid, for a while
Swept away…by you…And now I feel like a fool
Did she ever really know? He closed his eyes to combat the wave of misery that threatened to overcome him. The wind brushed across her face, making it seem as if her eyelashes were fluttering. But, the wind could play tricks, deceive. Nature could deceive so terribly…He looked upwards at the hazy sky, and for an ephemeral second, it seemed as if the burnished, reddish glow of the setting sun had wings, tiny, golden strips of cloud drifting languorously across the purple mist of the sky.
So confused, my heart's bruised Was I ever loved by you..? He looked up at the radiant sunset, and looked down at Quistis' lovely face, and saw no difference there. He leant down and held Quistis' hand gently, tentatively. Out of reach, too far… Music, soft music as the wind blew slowly through the grass, was playing. Out of reach, can't you see We were never meant to be? As Seifer explored Quistis' hand, the shapely fingers, he came across a small object, clasped tightly between her fingers. Gently, but firmly, he prised them open, and saw, astonished, the small paper packet. **Miles away, the man called Nick watches the video of the attractive blonde one more time, in slow motion. He pushes his sandy hair away from his forehead and studies a piece of paper in front of him intently. His face is haggard, unshaven, yet ruggedly handsome, as if he has not shaved for many days. His piercing eyes, however, remain alert, bright, inquisitive. The words scrawled on the paper in shorthand stand out black, blue, confusing.
He reaches for the telephone, and dials a number…
**
"Seifer?"
Quistis Trepe fluttered open her eyes and peered around at her surroundings. It was sometime shortly after the dusk – the moon was in the sky, shedding a network of moonbeams into the small clearing. Her clothes, face and hair were damp with dew and raindrops. She raised herself onto her elbows and winced as a shooting pain hit her ribs.
"Oh…"
She grimaced in pain as she rolled over with difficulty. Her head felt light and groggy, as if she had been breathing too deeply, for too long. She felt a warm weight lying close next to her. She turned her head and saw Seifer lying in the grass beside her, his face damp and haggard, white, pale. A pang of sympathy and pain shot through her – and somehow, this pain was much more difficult to bear.
Was I ever loved by you?
"Seifer…Seifer…"
Looking back on the moment when she was older, she remembered first and foremost the look, of utter abandonment and joy on Seifer's face when he found himself gazing into her, evidently alive, face. She remembered his arms around her, the way he had tried to hide his tears from her. She remembered his faint musky smell, and his lips kissing her face over and over again, and all the while murmuring..
"You came back…you came back…"
"I had to…"
**
"What's in the packet?"
The bustle of the cheery café in the remote village they had happened on (and very unlikely to have heard of Quistis, or to have seen her face), filled their ears as they talked in low, unobtrusive voices over their undrunk cappuccinos.
"Looks like…a salt packet…"
Seifer held it between finger and thumb, and shook it gingerly. He could hear some sort of granules moving around inside, yielding to his touch like sugar or salt. She was right. "Should I open it?"
"Definitely. How can you protect something when you don't know what it is?"
"Canon gave this to me", said Seifer. "They asked me who had it…I knew it was important, but I thought they would never find you…you were the first person that popped into my head. I'm sorry, so sorry…"
And Quistis knew he was, and that was enough. "Open it…"
Seifer carefully tore open the package and tipped out its contents onto a piece of black material from his gunblade case. Salt crystals…? He picket up one with his finger and scrutinised it carefully. Bringing it closer to his face, he licked the small, multi-faceted translucent crystal.
"Doesn't taste of anything."
He glanced at Quistis, and saw that she had an expression of the utmost astonishment on her face. She was looking wonderingly at the handful of crystals she held in her hand. "Seifer…this isn't salt or sugar. They're fucking diamonds."
**
DADADA! Please review if you want a continue! Thanks!