Rating: R (I tried to keep it lower, but it just wasn't destined to happen - unlike other things [which are responsible for the rating])
Disclaimer: SG characters are (c) MGM (thankie to Morrigan for that :p). FF8 characters are (c) Squaresoft, original characters are mine – ask nicely and I might let you play with them, s'long's you don't break them...
Warnings: SxS - Yaoi (guyxguy) later - if u don't like, don't read. Character death. Maybe angst (I do like to torture my characters sometimes :p), language (prob nothin u aint heard b4, but still...)
~Chapter Nine: Choices~
Squall staggered into the rough cabin just as the first dawn light began to lighten the eastern horizon. There was a single bed and blanket in the corner, and he gratefully laid Seifer's unconscious form on it, pausing only to confirm that the older man was still breathing. Not that he would've minded having to give him the kiss of life, but Squall wasn't entirely sure that he remembered the procedure correctly. He noted, with a cynical smile, that Seifer seemed to have known what condition he would be returning in - if he returned. On a small, three-legged stool by the bed were a phoenix down and several elixirs. Squall sighed, and sprinkled the phoenix down over Seifer, pleased to see his breathing strengthen immediately as he slipped into a more natural sleep.
Squall guessed sleep was the best thing for Seifer right now, much as he wanted to know why on earth he'd gone to such lengths. He turned away, surveying the cabin. There was little in the way of furnishings, or comforts. A small fireplace, the bed, the stool, an oil lamp hanging from the ceiling, and a table. Squall wandered over to the table and laid both hyperion and lionheart down on it. There was an envelope, rather battered and with a corner almost torn completely off. On it, in Seifer's unmistakeable elegant, flowing script, was a single word. A single name. Squall.
Slowly he picked it up. Childlike, he traced the letters with a single finger, wondering, not for the first time, at the beauty of the writing. He could remember how everyone had once teased Seifer for his writing, how the older boy had worked so hard to make his writing more common, eventually resorting to writing left-handed. Of course, later, when Seifer had become the undisputed terror of Garden, he had reverted to using his right hand to write.
Squall realised he was putting off opening the letter, deliberately. There was no way to tell if the contents were good or bad. He turned it over and chuckled. There was no getting away from the fact that Seifer knew him better than anyone else. Scrawled across the back - in his left-hand writing - was an admonition to 'stop pissing around and open the damn letter'. Smiling, Squall did as he was bidden.
The letter inside was in far better condition than its envelope, except for the top corner, which had been ripped - like the envelope. Slowly he unfolded the crisp paper, and began to read.
It was a short letter, although Seifer wasn't a great letter writer, much preferring to talk directly to someone. In essence the contents of the letter were simple.
Ultemecia hadn't been killed in time compression, but had died giving birth. They had defeated an illusion. It got worse. Seifer didn't know much about the child - except it wasn't his - but he did know that there was, or would be, another. Given that he had managed to find all the other sorceresses and ascertain that it wasn't them, the process of elimination had left Rinoa, who had disappeared with Squall shortly after Ultemecia's death, and hadn't been seen since. Laguna - of all people, Squall thought sourly - had managed to locate both of them, and had told Seifer. Squall frowned. Laguna could be an idiot, but there had to be more to that part of the story than Seifer was letting on in the letter. Seifer had reasoned that the only way to get to Squall without alerting Rinoa was to be on the verge of death - a state he had certainly achieved if Squall was any judge - and then hope that Squall made the right choice.
And that was it. Clearly the letter had been written before Seifer began to starve himself, and had been deliberately left with very little information in case, Rinoa, found it.
AN: I somehow get the feeling that behind Seifer's exterior bully, there's a really refined person. So I can see him writing with like, an Edwardian script or something similarly ornate. I also know that both extremes of writing (really crap and unbelievably good) get their writers into a lot of 'bullying' situations, so I guess Seifer's first reaction would be to try and conform, then later, when he's the strongest, he becomes the bully again and reverts to his old writing in defiance... wow, that almost makes sense *shudders* I hate it when I start analysing people... :)
