© 2002 Copyright Original Storyline by Gold (e-mail: goldenstarlight@hotmail.com)

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy VIII belongs to Squaresoft.

This story is a different approach. Forewarned is forearmed: ponderous style ahead.

The Dish: One Angsty Seiftis

Ingredient Two: One Heartbroken Quistis

Nervously, she stared at her mobile phone and shot hopeful glances at her answering machine from time to time. When would he call? Would he call? She had loved him since the first day they met, but child that she was, she only knew that she could not show especial feeling for him—she must treat him as she treated the others. It would be years before they met again, and during those years, she had forgotten him, but when she saw him for the first time in Garden, she loved him yet again. As his teacher, his instructor, she could not show any favouritism towards him. Instead, she became cold and almost scornful towards him, and appeared to favour his greatest rival. In return, she earned his contempt, his hatred, his anger and his derision. If it hurt, she never showed it. It was not her nature to do so. And now, after his return, the best she had from him was a careless nod and a casual greeting, which he could not help, especially as she had been ordered to instruct him into SeeD, and to partner him on almost all his missions.

He loved her best friend, a beautiful, wonderful girl who, unfortunately, belonged heart, soul and eternity to another. She was a sorceress, dark-haired and sweet-natured, one half of Garden's golden couple. He and she—they used to date, a long time ago, and nobody knew much else of their history together. She fell in love with another, and he was lost elsewhere. When he returned, and saw that she was with someone else, he withdrew into himself—not emotionless, but cold, cutting and brooding. He spoke sometimes about her, but not always. Something in him had closed and shut forever with the loss of his innocence, but it would open if only the girl he loved came back to him.

But she was not the girl he loved.

They had called her for a mission, a long one that would take her two weeks. She dreaded it—she had never been away from him for so long and inside her was that eternal fear that he would drift away to someone else in her absence. What little power she exerted over him was fragile. Hyne knew there were enough within and without Garden who would be willing enough to take her place. So she had tried to call him. She wanted to beg him to wait for her…a futile exercise, as she well knew, for he would not understand what she meant. She wanted to beg him and to hurl herself into his arms—wanted him to hold her as if he would protect her from everything—as she had held him so many times before, promising herself that she would guard him with her life and that she would bleed to death for him if she had to. 

The clock struck eleven and still she waited, with little hope. When would he return her calls? Was he deliberately avoiding her? Yes—that must be it. She meant nothing to him. If she died, he would not miss her, because he cared nothing for her. Her soft mouth trembled, and she stilled it, but her eyes were pools of hurt. The clock struck half-past and slowly, she rose to her feet. Her mission was calling her.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * *

It took three weeks.

She stepped out of the elevator, her heart thumping terribly. When would she see him? The mission was a success—but when would she see him? Three weeks—she had missed him terribly, his absence gnawing at her so badly that she had had little rest. The Headmaster was very pleased with the results and she had been paid well—but oh, when would she see him? Ah—there he was—and the brightness that touched her face was blotted out in an instant when she saw the easy intimacy between him and the pretty girl in his arms. Something deep inside her tore apart, and then shattered over and over again, like the sound of a heart broken a thousand times over—

"Quistis! You're back! How was the mission? I heard that it went well! I'm so glad."

She turned her back on him slowly, a lovely smile carefully pasted across her face, to greet the pretty, laughing face of her best friend, Rinoa Heartlilly.

Behind her, he turned as he heard her name, and watched her, his face unreadable, as she passed out of his sight.