Title: Thousand Cranes
Author: Kuri Tessy
Feedback: Yes, please!
Pairings: Quistis/Seifer
Rating: PG/PG-13
Warnings: Angst and Death
Disclaimer: FF8, characters, and other nice things don't belong to me. It's
sad, but true.
Notes: In Japanese class I watched a video on Sadako Sasaki and the story of the one thousand paper cranes. I was touched by the video''s message and got the idea of writing a fanfiction piece about it.
My Thanks: Hi all! Been a while since I last updated, I know, I know, for shame on me. My school seems to want to have priority over my life...(sigh). However, I will not be kept down! I will prevail and write! Whoo! I want to thank all of you who reviewed, you must all know that it's your support that keeps me going. That, and my drive to flesh out this story and touch other people with it. Which, hopefully I will do. I really appreciate you going out of your way to do so. Comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism is always welcome! I like to know how people are responding to the story and how they should think it should progress!
She was walking, but of course she knew that. Her boots were feeling uncomfortably heavy and the sense of a great pressure suffocating her grew gradually. As with all dreams, she didn't know where she was headed, but subconsciously she always had a notion of what she would meet at the end of the road. It wasn't dark, as she had expected, the type of haze that settles in typical reverie fashion. Rather, her atmosphere was quite calm. The type of settling comfort that comes along with returning home, talking a bubble bath, and so forth.
Her surroundings were light, cheerful even. White walls, with adorning wallpaper followed by a single bed. Quilts lined the end, the type that people send you when your ill and the already sent flowers are dying along with you. The type of quilts that are needed for the people that are never quite warm, inside and out anymore.
Quistis strode forth, curious to see who was lying in the bed, the unfortunate soul whoever they were. It is only in people's last moments, when others know there is no hope, that the sickly are made comfortable. As she peered over the bed, Quistis was met with a stinging, consuming feeling of fear and apprehension.
Was her dream trying to tell her something? Did she know who this person was? Partially lifting back the starch covers, Quistis searched the face of the stationary figure. She knew this person. Oh yes, Quistis knew them well. The person was obviously dying, slowly, and excruciatingly.
The skin was stretched tightly over their high cheekbones, the facial features taught and sallow. The once proud lips, so often admired by others were colorless. The most disturbing difference being, Quistis noted, that the eyes were lifeless. The eyes she knew so well, the same ones that held the spark of life, the varying range of the utmost passionate of emotions, were empty. They held nothing and offered no answer to her. She had never fully noticed those eyes before, fully appreciated the depth that they held, the hidden pain and grievances that spoke of a complicated life. She had never noticed, and realized with due certainty, she never would again.
Seifer was slipping away, and Quistis could do nothing about it.
Thoroughly disturbed, Quistis practically all but ran from the room. The false room of comfort, love, and above all, hope. The entire essence of the room clashed with what she knew was Seifer. Granted, she couldn't boast that she knew Seifer, what he did in life, and what drove him to do the things he did. But, like all people that have grown up together, fought together, and fought against each other, the two shared a common bond. The man back in the room, was a shell, he was not Seifer. Quistis realized, in that one moment she looked at him, the room was erasing the very proud image that made Seifer Almasy. So, she ran.
Running in a dream rarely does anyone a bit of good. No matter where you try to direct your legs to move, they'll inevitably get you to another place that you'd rather not go to. Quistis found herself in Centra, more accurately, Matron's house. A landmark in Quistis's mind as a foggy place in her memory of her childhood. As for her adulthood, she had mixed feelings over the structure. Her feet moved not of her own accord. Passing through the brush and navigating the rocks, Quistis led herself to the beach. The same place where she had confessed her love, or perhaps infatuation, for Squall Leonhart. Quistis grimaced at the memory and looked on at the lapping waves. A lone figure stood in the ocean, the water churning against their knees. She knew before seeing his face who it was.
"Quistis." It was his voice, low as usual, but without the hidden sneer behind it.
Quistis approached him. Hadn't he just been sick? But then again, this was a dream, and an odd one at that.
"Seifer, what's going on?" She had asked him that question, but she really didn't expect an answer. Quistis had learned early on that she controlled nothing in her dream. And what she wanted to knew and do, wouldn't be granted to her.
Silence met her question. Seifer didn't even respond to her voice or her presence. Instead, he continued his monologue, "Quistis. You left."
Quistis started at the agony that laced his every spoken word. Was he grieving for her?
"Dammit! YOU LEFT AND DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WHY!!" Seifer's broken scream met the heavens as he forcefully threw he hands above his head and shook his fists. The sky darkened, and Seifer's eyes lit with a maddening green fire. But that's what he was, wasn't he? Fire. Quistis watched, awed, as this man challenged his ghosts, daring them to take from him again.
As soon as the amazement had entered her, confusion took its place. Why did he care in her dream, where she was, or that she was not with him. They shared a bond, but really, the walls between them, built and enforced by time, had never let the two become close. The numerous walls being built from him bullying her at childhood, him refusing to cooperate in her class, or from the feeling of Hyperion having bit at her flesh. Pick and choose, any would work as an explanation, Quistis mused. As far as Quistis was concerned, she knew Seifer entirely to well for the person he was on the outside. It hit her then, as for her knowing who Seifer was on the inside, the two might as well have been strangers.
Quistis was drawn out of her thinking when the dream Seifer turned to face her and started to walk out of the water. Staring blankly ahead, his broad shoulders slumped as if he was defeated. The image was beginning to fade but not before Seifer raised his hand as if to touch Quistis's face.
"You left so soon, before I could fully understand what you meant to me."
What does that mean, Quistis cried to herself But, his image blurred and lost its solidness. Wait! Quistis gasped.
"Wait! I still don't know what's going on!" she yelled in a vain attempt.
The fading image was then replaced with the room she had entered in the beginning of her dream. How she loathed that room with every fiber of her being, for the weakly figure of Seifer still permeated the area with his presence. This time, it was different. She stood outside of the door, watching as...herself tended to Seifer. An older version of herself, but not by much. Deep lines of worry and exhaustion haunted her face.
Quistis watched in abject terror as the Seifer's breathing became labored, his skeletal hands clutching as the sheets at every shuddering gasp. The older Quistis, cried in dismay, but quickly stopped herself, opting for a calm facade for Seifer's last moments. His struggle did not last long, and the room's fake cheerfulness faded along with the pretense of hope. With the Seifer that must have meant something to her gone, the older Quistis allowed herself to break down in heaving sobs. Each one more deep and sorrowful than the next.
Again, the image began to fade, and this time Quistis was glad to leave with it. Before the scene completely dissipated from her mind, Quistis heard her older self whisper to her dead companion the same thing that the Seifer at the beach had, "You left so soon, before I could fully understand what you meant to me."
The haze that had been prevalent for the past day finally lifted and released Quistis. Her head felt heavy, and her limbs felt paralyzed, numb. Not unlike the feeling when your foot or leg falls asleep. Her head was nestled on something hard and quite bothersome as her head was repeatedly jarred and slammed against the hard surface. She must be on a train, Quistis groaned to herself. Only the motion of trains had the same annoying jarring motion. Lifting her head up and shielding her eyes from the bright light that invaded the train car, Quistis took in her surroundings. Her wandering eyes met the displeased ones of Seifer Almasy
She couldn't get rid of him in her dream, and now he was still beside her. But, this wasn't the same Seifer that visited her dream. He was healthy, physically and mentally. He didn't look like he was going to die, or was going to collapse from grief. Rather, he looked quite annoyed.
"It's about time you got up." A rather large sneer graced his handsome countenance.
Quistis would have scolded him, but realized that she didn't know what in Hyne's name was going on. The last she could remember was that she was searching for something. What exactly was that something was the problem. Glancing at Seifer, the entire situation dawned on her.
She was on a train, going who knows where, with Seifer Almasy of all people! What had happened in the amount of time that she had been eating dinner, to searching for 'something', to this? Quistis could have almost hit herself, she really was asking herself too many questions. Straightening her back and sternly looking at her former student, although she knew she never really had any control on him, Quistis prepared to drag out what was happening from Seifer.
"Oh Hyne, Quistis. You're so predictable. Look, spare me your little lecture," Seifer stretched out his legs and tucked his arms behind his head. Quistis snapped her mouth shut.
"So you think that you can just-" Quistis began, undaunted. Who exactly did he think he was?
"I know that you're wondering where we're going, so on so forth," Seifer waved his hand in a careless manner. Quistis self-consciously frowned when Seifer's calculating gaze drifted over her form and he sent her a sly, knowing look.
"It's simple, really. We're going to Dollet. Now, don't get all flustered! You probably don't even remember the circumstances. I wouldn't expect you to. After all, you've had a lot of trauma lately."
"Seifer! You expect me to believe that I agreed to anything you said? Please. Do tell me too, what trauma have I experienced? I would think that I would have remembered it."
Seifer uncrossed his arms as stared at her, his face contorting into complete seriousness. He scooted toward Quistis, coming closely to invading her private space.
"Quistis, do you even remember what happened after we ate together?"
She tried to remember, really she did. Her mind protested as she searched. She remembered ordering a salad, and not really doing much else. Beyond that, was only flickers of her searching for 'something', and then her dream.
"You don't do you?" By then, Seifer had gotten even closer to her if possible. As if consoling her, Quistis watched as shockingly Seifer picked up her hand.
"Quistis, you were attacked on the way back to the hotel. I was gone for only a few minutes, paying for food. When I came back out, you were gone. Don't get me wrong Quistis, it's not like I was worried or anything, and really, why would I want to save you?"
Quistis snatched her hand away and scowled at that comment.
Seifer grinned, but then put back on the mask of seriousness, "It turned out, however, that the people that attacked you, are the same ones I've been hunting in Deling City for the past year. I had to save you and get you out of there. What type of man would I be if I hadn't?"
With that last comment Seifer gave his most charming, yet sarcastic smirk. Quistis wasn't amused, "So you're telling me that you're some type of bounty hunter?"
Seifer grasped the collar of his trenchcoat, "Ya, you could call me that. But really, Quistis, you just scream 'Seed' to all those who are looking. And a lot of people aren't looking for reasons beneficial to Seed. Basically, you were going to be held for ransom by those people."
This definitely was a serious situation, or at least it was. Quistis wondered to herself, was she really saved by Seifer? Something seemed...off by his story. Try as she might though, she couldn't remember a thing. Quistis sighed in acceptance.
"Why are we on this train then?" He better have a good reason for this one, Quistis grumpily thought.
Seifer grinned in satisfaction at her buying his lie. He relaxed once more into the seats of the train. Fiddling with the case of Hyperion, he did wonder why he had brought her on the train after all. He shook his head, a temporary bout of insanity. Everything would soon be fixed, and he would have more money that he first stole from her. Not his original plan and highly dishonorable, but a man had to resort to any means to get by.
Dollet was a convenient place to take her. Not exactly Balamb, but it would be too dangerous to do what he was planning there. No, Dollet was close enough to Balamb, and more specifically, Balamb Garden. He would get his money, that's for sure.
Quistis tapped her booted foot in impatience. This was going to be a long train ride. She repeated her earlier question, "Why are we on this train then?"
"We're on this train to Dollet because I had to get you out of there. They were going to search for you if I didn't. Couldn't have the happen, could I?" Once more a mocking grin graced his features as he studied her.
Her steel blue eyes flashed. In just a few hours alone Seifer was already pushing her buttons, and doing it well. Seifer decided that he liked it when she was angry, and made a promise to himself to do it more. Besides, she was even more gorgeous when she was mad. And really, why waste a woman's beauty like that, when you could exploit it and enjoy it?
"So just try to relax, Quisty, we're going to be stuck together for a long while."
Author: Kuri Tessy
Feedback: Yes, please!
Pairings: Quistis/Seifer
Rating: PG/PG-13
Warnings: Angst and Death
Disclaimer: FF8, characters, and other nice things don't belong to me. It's
sad, but true.
Notes: In Japanese class I watched a video on Sadako Sasaki and the story of the one thousand paper cranes. I was touched by the video''s message and got the idea of writing a fanfiction piece about it.
My Thanks: Hi all! Been a while since I last updated, I know, I know, for shame on me. My school seems to want to have priority over my life...(sigh). However, I will not be kept down! I will prevail and write! Whoo! I want to thank all of you who reviewed, you must all know that it's your support that keeps me going. That, and my drive to flesh out this story and touch other people with it. Which, hopefully I will do. I really appreciate you going out of your way to do so. Comments, suggestions, and constructive criticism is always welcome! I like to know how people are responding to the story and how they should think it should progress!
She was walking, but of course she knew that. Her boots were feeling uncomfortably heavy and the sense of a great pressure suffocating her grew gradually. As with all dreams, she didn't know where she was headed, but subconsciously she always had a notion of what she would meet at the end of the road. It wasn't dark, as she had expected, the type of haze that settles in typical reverie fashion. Rather, her atmosphere was quite calm. The type of settling comfort that comes along with returning home, talking a bubble bath, and so forth.
Her surroundings were light, cheerful even. White walls, with adorning wallpaper followed by a single bed. Quilts lined the end, the type that people send you when your ill and the already sent flowers are dying along with you. The type of quilts that are needed for the people that are never quite warm, inside and out anymore.
Quistis strode forth, curious to see who was lying in the bed, the unfortunate soul whoever they were. It is only in people's last moments, when others know there is no hope, that the sickly are made comfortable. As she peered over the bed, Quistis was met with a stinging, consuming feeling of fear and apprehension.
Was her dream trying to tell her something? Did she know who this person was? Partially lifting back the starch covers, Quistis searched the face of the stationary figure. She knew this person. Oh yes, Quistis knew them well. The person was obviously dying, slowly, and excruciatingly.
The skin was stretched tightly over their high cheekbones, the facial features taught and sallow. The once proud lips, so often admired by others were colorless. The most disturbing difference being, Quistis noted, that the eyes were lifeless. The eyes she knew so well, the same ones that held the spark of life, the varying range of the utmost passionate of emotions, were empty. They held nothing and offered no answer to her. She had never fully noticed those eyes before, fully appreciated the depth that they held, the hidden pain and grievances that spoke of a complicated life. She had never noticed, and realized with due certainty, she never would again.
Seifer was slipping away, and Quistis could do nothing about it.
Thoroughly disturbed, Quistis practically all but ran from the room. The false room of comfort, love, and above all, hope. The entire essence of the room clashed with what she knew was Seifer. Granted, she couldn't boast that she knew Seifer, what he did in life, and what drove him to do the things he did. But, like all people that have grown up together, fought together, and fought against each other, the two shared a common bond. The man back in the room, was a shell, he was not Seifer. Quistis realized, in that one moment she looked at him, the room was erasing the very proud image that made Seifer Almasy. So, she ran.
Running in a dream rarely does anyone a bit of good. No matter where you try to direct your legs to move, they'll inevitably get you to another place that you'd rather not go to. Quistis found herself in Centra, more accurately, Matron's house. A landmark in Quistis's mind as a foggy place in her memory of her childhood. As for her adulthood, she had mixed feelings over the structure. Her feet moved not of her own accord. Passing through the brush and navigating the rocks, Quistis led herself to the beach. The same place where she had confessed her love, or perhaps infatuation, for Squall Leonhart. Quistis grimaced at the memory and looked on at the lapping waves. A lone figure stood in the ocean, the water churning against their knees. She knew before seeing his face who it was.
"Quistis." It was his voice, low as usual, but without the hidden sneer behind it.
Quistis approached him. Hadn't he just been sick? But then again, this was a dream, and an odd one at that.
"Seifer, what's going on?" She had asked him that question, but she really didn't expect an answer. Quistis had learned early on that she controlled nothing in her dream. And what she wanted to knew and do, wouldn't be granted to her.
Silence met her question. Seifer didn't even respond to her voice or her presence. Instead, he continued his monologue, "Quistis. You left."
Quistis started at the agony that laced his every spoken word. Was he grieving for her?
"Dammit! YOU LEFT AND DIDN'T EVEN TELL ME WHY!!" Seifer's broken scream met the heavens as he forcefully threw he hands above his head and shook his fists. The sky darkened, and Seifer's eyes lit with a maddening green fire. But that's what he was, wasn't he? Fire. Quistis watched, awed, as this man challenged his ghosts, daring them to take from him again.
As soon as the amazement had entered her, confusion took its place. Why did he care in her dream, where she was, or that she was not with him. They shared a bond, but really, the walls between them, built and enforced by time, had never let the two become close. The numerous walls being built from him bullying her at childhood, him refusing to cooperate in her class, or from the feeling of Hyperion having bit at her flesh. Pick and choose, any would work as an explanation, Quistis mused. As far as Quistis was concerned, she knew Seifer entirely to well for the person he was on the outside. It hit her then, as for her knowing who Seifer was on the inside, the two might as well have been strangers.
Quistis was drawn out of her thinking when the dream Seifer turned to face her and started to walk out of the water. Staring blankly ahead, his broad shoulders slumped as if he was defeated. The image was beginning to fade but not before Seifer raised his hand as if to touch Quistis's face.
"You left so soon, before I could fully understand what you meant to me."
What does that mean, Quistis cried to herself But, his image blurred and lost its solidness. Wait! Quistis gasped.
"Wait! I still don't know what's going on!" she yelled in a vain attempt.
The fading image was then replaced with the room she had entered in the beginning of her dream. How she loathed that room with every fiber of her being, for the weakly figure of Seifer still permeated the area with his presence. This time, it was different. She stood outside of the door, watching as...herself tended to Seifer. An older version of herself, but not by much. Deep lines of worry and exhaustion haunted her face.
Quistis watched in abject terror as the Seifer's breathing became labored, his skeletal hands clutching as the sheets at every shuddering gasp. The older Quistis, cried in dismay, but quickly stopped herself, opting for a calm facade for Seifer's last moments. His struggle did not last long, and the room's fake cheerfulness faded along with the pretense of hope. With the Seifer that must have meant something to her gone, the older Quistis allowed herself to break down in heaving sobs. Each one more deep and sorrowful than the next.
Again, the image began to fade, and this time Quistis was glad to leave with it. Before the scene completely dissipated from her mind, Quistis heard her older self whisper to her dead companion the same thing that the Seifer at the beach had, "You left so soon, before I could fully understand what you meant to me."
The haze that had been prevalent for the past day finally lifted and released Quistis. Her head felt heavy, and her limbs felt paralyzed, numb. Not unlike the feeling when your foot or leg falls asleep. Her head was nestled on something hard and quite bothersome as her head was repeatedly jarred and slammed against the hard surface. She must be on a train, Quistis groaned to herself. Only the motion of trains had the same annoying jarring motion. Lifting her head up and shielding her eyes from the bright light that invaded the train car, Quistis took in her surroundings. Her wandering eyes met the displeased ones of Seifer Almasy
She couldn't get rid of him in her dream, and now he was still beside her. But, this wasn't the same Seifer that visited her dream. He was healthy, physically and mentally. He didn't look like he was going to die, or was going to collapse from grief. Rather, he looked quite annoyed.
"It's about time you got up." A rather large sneer graced his handsome countenance.
Quistis would have scolded him, but realized that she didn't know what in Hyne's name was going on. The last she could remember was that she was searching for something. What exactly was that something was the problem. Glancing at Seifer, the entire situation dawned on her.
She was on a train, going who knows where, with Seifer Almasy of all people! What had happened in the amount of time that she had been eating dinner, to searching for 'something', to this? Quistis could have almost hit herself, she really was asking herself too many questions. Straightening her back and sternly looking at her former student, although she knew she never really had any control on him, Quistis prepared to drag out what was happening from Seifer.
"Oh Hyne, Quistis. You're so predictable. Look, spare me your little lecture," Seifer stretched out his legs and tucked his arms behind his head. Quistis snapped her mouth shut.
"So you think that you can just-" Quistis began, undaunted. Who exactly did he think he was?
"I know that you're wondering where we're going, so on so forth," Seifer waved his hand in a careless manner. Quistis self-consciously frowned when Seifer's calculating gaze drifted over her form and he sent her a sly, knowing look.
"It's simple, really. We're going to Dollet. Now, don't get all flustered! You probably don't even remember the circumstances. I wouldn't expect you to. After all, you've had a lot of trauma lately."
"Seifer! You expect me to believe that I agreed to anything you said? Please. Do tell me too, what trauma have I experienced? I would think that I would have remembered it."
Seifer uncrossed his arms as stared at her, his face contorting into complete seriousness. He scooted toward Quistis, coming closely to invading her private space.
"Quistis, do you even remember what happened after we ate together?"
She tried to remember, really she did. Her mind protested as she searched. She remembered ordering a salad, and not really doing much else. Beyond that, was only flickers of her searching for 'something', and then her dream.
"You don't do you?" By then, Seifer had gotten even closer to her if possible. As if consoling her, Quistis watched as shockingly Seifer picked up her hand.
"Quistis, you were attacked on the way back to the hotel. I was gone for only a few minutes, paying for food. When I came back out, you were gone. Don't get me wrong Quistis, it's not like I was worried or anything, and really, why would I want to save you?"
Quistis snatched her hand away and scowled at that comment.
Seifer grinned, but then put back on the mask of seriousness, "It turned out, however, that the people that attacked you, are the same ones I've been hunting in Deling City for the past year. I had to save you and get you out of there. What type of man would I be if I hadn't?"
With that last comment Seifer gave his most charming, yet sarcastic smirk. Quistis wasn't amused, "So you're telling me that you're some type of bounty hunter?"
Seifer grasped the collar of his trenchcoat, "Ya, you could call me that. But really, Quistis, you just scream 'Seed' to all those who are looking. And a lot of people aren't looking for reasons beneficial to Seed. Basically, you were going to be held for ransom by those people."
This definitely was a serious situation, or at least it was. Quistis wondered to herself, was she really saved by Seifer? Something seemed...off by his story. Try as she might though, she couldn't remember a thing. Quistis sighed in acceptance.
"Why are we on this train then?" He better have a good reason for this one, Quistis grumpily thought.
Seifer grinned in satisfaction at her buying his lie. He relaxed once more into the seats of the train. Fiddling with the case of Hyperion, he did wonder why he had brought her on the train after all. He shook his head, a temporary bout of insanity. Everything would soon be fixed, and he would have more money that he first stole from her. Not his original plan and highly dishonorable, but a man had to resort to any means to get by.
Dollet was a convenient place to take her. Not exactly Balamb, but it would be too dangerous to do what he was planning there. No, Dollet was close enough to Balamb, and more specifically, Balamb Garden. He would get his money, that's for sure.
Quistis tapped her booted foot in impatience. This was going to be a long train ride. She repeated her earlier question, "Why are we on this train then?"
"We're on this train to Dollet because I had to get you out of there. They were going to search for you if I didn't. Couldn't have the happen, could I?" Once more a mocking grin graced his features as he studied her.
Her steel blue eyes flashed. In just a few hours alone Seifer was already pushing her buttons, and doing it well. Seifer decided that he liked it when she was angry, and made a promise to himself to do it more. Besides, she was even more gorgeous when she was mad. And really, why waste a woman's beauty like that, when you could exploit it and enjoy it?
"So just try to relax, Quisty, we're going to be stuck together for a long while."