Chapter 4 – What a way to solving problems!

    He read the letter, again and again, tracing his fingers over the blotted spots. Some of them were his; some of them were from the writer. He kept chiding himself for having sullied the paper, thus making the words there almost unintelligible.

    He wanted to get up this instant, and run after his Quisty, to tell her that it was unfair of her to deal him with such a blow, to beg her to return with him.

    But where would he find her then? He had searched all over the continents, hogging the Ragnorak to himself for the sole purpose of his search. Squall and the rest had been quietly supportive, allowing him to act as he liked.

    A strange sense of laziness came over him. He felt sapped of energy, and did not want to move a step… even though something kept urging him to get up and "find Quisty, if you know what was good for you".

   His bum felt as if it were melded with the ground.

    Just then, a few sharps knocks on the door sounded.

    "Seifer, open up this second!"

    It was Zell's voice… surprisingly without the addition of Sefie's screechy one…. which probably meant that she had gone off while he was in his dream-like state.

    Unlike the usual sneer he would affect whenever speaking with Zell, there was only a resigned, abrupt line from Seifer telling him to go away.

    "Seifer! Open up, or I swear you'll have to replace this door of yours!"

    Sure enough, the blows upon the door were hard enough to damage it, not to mention the battering of the eardrums of anyone unfortunate enough to be nearby.

    Unwilling as he was to move, Seifer had no choice but to open it.

     "What do you want?' He asked in an unpleasant, and most certainly unwelcome tone.

    Deliberately ignoring his friend's black face, Zell strode into the room as if it was his, followed by an apologetic Damien behind.

     Seifer slammed the door behind them, and locked it again.

     "Hey Seifer. What's with the harsh temper and sullen expression? Let's go for some 'dogs. Our dear friend Damien over here offers to treat us!" Saying which, he placed a hand on his shoulder.

     "Don't bother. I'm not hungry. Leave me alone, please." Seifer muttered in a low voice.

     "You serious? It isn't everyday that you get an offer from the perpetually invisible Damien, you know?"

     "He's right, Master. You can't survive without at least some kind of nourishment."

     "I SAID I'M NOT HUNGRY! DIDN'T YOU HEAR ME?!!" He shouted furiously. Then his face fell.

     "I'm sorry. But I really have no appetite."

     He ran a hand through his hair, not realising that he was clumping it up with his blood.

     It was only then that Zell had spotted his bleeding knuckle.

     "What's this? You'd better get your cut cleaned, or risk a nasty infection. C'mon."

     "Leave me alone!"

     "Do you know that you're turning more and more like the pre-Rinoa Squall with each passing day? You need a good shakin' up!"

     "What do you expect me to do then? She wrote me this…. THIS!" Saying which, Seifer threw the letter towards Zell.

      His hand trembling, partly from anticipation and an even greater part from anxiety, Zell spread out the piece of paper and tried to read the faint words, some blurred from tear spots while many others covered by redness.

  My Love,

                 I have written this letter to you, as I know you must be in constant worry about my sudden disappearance. I have tried to postpone this for an infinite time because of what it represents… I cannot bring myself to pen this as I still had hopes on our love.

              But now… all hopes are lost as with each passing day, the reality presents itself upon me with painful clarity.

            I ask of you to forget me, as I would do the same to you.

           I have to leave your side, and leave the Garden. Do not ask me for the reason, for it will bring you more harm than good to know it.

        These are cruel words… I know. They inflict the same kind of wounds to me as they would to you… but it cannot be helped… so it would be better that you forget me before the feelings run too deep… before it hurts you too much to forget my existence.

       Farewell, my dearest Seifer, my darling. Even as I leave you, even as I ask you to forget me, please know that for a time in my life, your love was the most precious thing I ever possessed.

Quisty

    Zell looked up from the letter, somewhat relieved that at the very least, Quisty was still alive… and yet what she wrote was indeed disturbing.

     Celestine… maybe your hunch might be accurate after all… He whispered, eliciting a glance from Damien.

    "Get up." Zell pulled on the collar of Seifer's shirt, forcing him to look up.  "Do you think that Quisty is going to be happy if she sees you like this? If you can't pull yourself together, how can you expect her to trust you?"

     "It's NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! Don't talk as if you know everything!" He yelled, swatting Zell's hand away with brutal force.

    What a blockhead… Zell muttered to himself.

    He could think of a solution to Seifer's anti-socialism and rapidly-dwindling hope… but the consequences were truly contemptible, which was why he hesitated using it.

    Damien seemed to sense what Zell was going to do, for he mouthed a "no" to demonstrate his disinclination towards using such a method.

     "Damien… trust me on this." He said, and threw back his fist, punching Seifer right in the face.

     "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?" Seifer's eyes were practically spitting fire, which was understandable since Zell had just hit him without warning or reason.

     "Beating some sense out of you, you b@%$#(*&!"

     "Oh yeah? Take this, you a$$#@*&!" Seifer gave him a similarly placed punch as well. "OUCH! DAMN IT!" He gasped as he fully realised the damage that he had done to his fist.

    From an uninitiated and uninvolved onlooker's point of view, it might have looked rather hilarious. There they were, two fully grown young men punching each other until their faces were swollen and their knuckles hurting like hell, while Damien flustered about trying to stop either of them but at the same time wanting to see if it worked.

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    An hour passed by…

    The two SeeDs laid on the ground, out of breath and exhausted with dried blood encrusting their noses. Their faces were swollen to twice the original size. Seifer was in an even worse state than Zell, having to endure the pain of his injured hand as well.

     "Now… didn't it feel much better to let it all out through strenuous physical activities?" Zell remarked, looking at Seifer with a huge, Cheshire-Cat type grin.

    "Shuddup, Chicken-wuss…" He replied in a tired tone, which indicated to all that were present that he was in agreement with Zell's presumption.

     "Yes! I won!" Zell proclaimed with more than a trace of pride, and raised his fist in triumph.

     "No, Chicken-wuss. I beat the living daylights outta you. No matter where we are, and when we do it, I always will… Hahahahaha!" He let out a bout of boisterous laughter, not heeding the indignant stares that were shot his way.

     "Well then… let's ask Damien to be our judge! Who's the winner? You can tell the truth. I'll make sure he doesn't have a chance to retaliate against you!"

     "None of you." Damien replied in a tight voice.

     "Ooooh… Damien's angry! Look at what you did!" Zell conveniently shifted the blame to the other blond.

     "What? You were the one who started the fight!" Seifer showed him a fist to display his reluctance in accepting it.

     *Grrooowwwwwl*

    A sudden rumbling noise loud enough to penetrate the duo's meaningless bickering emitted from one stomach.

     "Err… that would be mine…" Zell muttered sheepishly, his face colouring a little with embarrassment.

    Seifer stared at him wordlessly for a while, and promptly burst into an uncontrollable fit of raucous laughter.

    Damien, too, finally broke his stony expression apart with a noiseless laugh, creating a humorous effect with his shaking body as he tried to keep the sounds from escaping his mouth. But the effort proved to be useless, and before long he was keeling over with shouts of mirth rendering him breathless.

     "Hey… stop laffin'! Damien was s'pposed to treat me to hotdogs an hour ago… but being one great buddy I had wanted to ask you along! Now this! How dare you laugh at me, you ingrate?"

     "Alright, it's ALL my fault… happy now? Let's go then!" Seifer got up from the ground, wincing a little as he looked at his fist, then held out the other good one to help his friend up.

     Zell took it and hoisted himself up, with some pulling aid from Seifer.

    As they walked out of the dorm, Zell turned back to look at Damien, who was lagging behind his Master as he usually did.

    I guess you're right.

     Damien's voice sounded in Zell's mind, while the latter winked at him in response.

     "HYNE! I'm starving! I'm going to the cafeteria first before all the 'dogs are sold out! See ya!" He quipped, and raced all the way towards his favourite place in the Garden (not counting Celestine's dorm, that is...)….

A/N: How was that? I hope you're pleased with it… cos I did a lot of rewriting in this chapter to make it consistent with the changes I had made to the previous chapter. Yep… that letter over there was actually an addition… didn't feature in my original manuscript at all. How was it? I always do badly in letter writing… never knew why…

     Oooh… and Zell's birthday is coming up... next Monday to be precise… and I'll be writing something in commemoration of that. Details in a later chapter but meanwhile… keep your eyes wiiiiide open!

-Water-lily 43

P/S Don't forget to do a review! Thanks a million!