A/N: Another chappy is up! Glad you guys liked the 'Nida twist' ^_^ To be frank, I was hardly going to develop that element in the story, but after seeing how much you liked it I planned the story a bit differently and I think it even comes out better! So a big thanks to all of you!
The title of the new chapter was going to be different at first, but during the writing process I was listening to Manson. The song was 'I don't like the drugs (but the drugs like me)'. I stopped writing for a moment and then realized how much the title would fit after a slight alteration… You'll see what I mean after reading the chapter.
One more thing; I want to thank you guys for keeping reviewing this story. It's really rewarding to hear that all the stuff going on in my head might actually interest other people.
Chapter 6: I don't like trouble, but trouble likes me…
- "NIDA?!" yelled Rinoa and Selphie in unison.
- "Shhh! Keep your voices down!" said Quistis.
- "But… How? When? Why?" asked Selphie.
- "We're not together…" said Quistis.
- "So… Nida is the one who makes you do… crazy stuff?" asked Rinoa in a disappointed voice.
- "Yeah…" grinned Quistis awkwardly.
- "How come you never told me?" asked Selphie.
- "I was going to… I wanted to tell you too, but I didn't get the chance to talk to both of you…" lied Quistis "Besides… I don't think I like him anymore…"
- "But… Just a couple of hours ago, you told me you liked him…" said Rinoa puzzled.
- "Yeah, well… a lot of things can happen in a couple of hours…" said Quistis awkwardly. 'What a mess…' she thought.
- "Like what…?" asked Selphie.
- "Well…" began Quistis. "I saw him fooling around with someone, so I thought… the hell with him! I'm not gonna put up with it. There are better fish at sea!" she added quickly, surprising herself with how quick she had come up with that.
- "Yeah, you show 'im!" said Selphie. "You can't let guys play you around like that!"
- "So… It's over then?" asked Rinoa.
- "Yep… No harm done… Better off without him!" said Quistis, in what she thought didn't sound too convincing. "Well… Gotta go! Lots of… stuff to do…" she added taking off.
- "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Rinoa asked Selphie, when Quistis had gone.
- "Yeah… Poor Quisty! She must be really hurt… Honestly, 'better off without him'? That didn't even sound half true…"
- "Tell me about it…"
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Nida couldn't really understand why Rinoa and Selphie were looking at him like that during the rest of the day. Whenever they came face to face with him, they gave him a poisonous look. And when he dared say 'Hi' to them, they just murmured something strange to him, which sounded a whole lot like 'asshole'. But then again, it probably was just his imagination… At least that was what he thought before the afternoon break he took at the cafeteria.
He was sitting on a table, sipping some coffee when the two girls approached him.
- "So…" said Rinoa with arms crossed, shooting him an angry look.
- "Huh?" he said looking up at her.
- "So…" said Selphie in the exact same way, putting her hands on her hips.
- "Is there… something wrong girls?" asked Nida confused.
- "No not really…" said Rinoa maintaining the expression she had. "But remember…" she added, slamming her hands on the table, looking at him square in the eye. "… I'm watching you…"
- "Yeah, we're watching you…" said Selphie putting her finger on his chest.
- "O – K…" he said confused, looking at the both of them.
- "Let's go Selphie…" said Rinoa taking her friend from the arm.
- "Yeah, let's go Rinoa…" Selphie said giving Nida a piercing look before she left.
- "What the hell did I do?" Nida asked out loud.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
It was around 9:30 at night, when Quistis received a call in her room. 'Strange…' she thought looking at her wrist watch. 'No-one ever calls me at this hour…' She put down the 'Weapons Monthly' magazine she was reading and picked up the receiver.
- "Hello?" she said.
- "Instructor Trepe?" asked a male voice Quistis didn't recognize.
- "This is her…" she replied felling puzzled.
- "I'm calling from the library. A student of yours was found outside just a few minutes ago, fighting with two others." said the man. 'Seifer…' Quistis instantly thought. "I'm talking about Seifer Almasy."
- "I see… Is he there with you?" asked Quistis.
- "Yes, I've kept all three of them in here. Are you coming down?"
- "Just give me five minutes." said Quistis hanging up. She sighed and got up from bed to get dressed.
She put a pair of jeans on, a white shirt and left her dorm. Two minutes later she was at the library. When she walked inside, she found a Garden faculty guard standing up glancing at the three students from time to time. Seifer was sitting on a desk alone, with his arms crossed, while the two others were sitting on another. One of them had a fat lip and a big bruise on one cheek, while the other had a really black eye…
- "Instructor Trepe…" said the guard smiling at her. 'Hyne, not HIM…' thought Quistis, looking at the guard who had been hitting on her ever since she had set foot in the Garden.
- "Mr. Patton…" said Quistis, forcing back a smile. "What happened here?" she asked.
- "I was on patrol when I heard commotion. I ran out in the hallway and found these three fighting. Almasy had already thrown one of them down and was punching the other when I arrived." said the guard.
- "Who's your Instructor?" Quistis asked the two male students.
- "Instructor Davis." replied one of them.
- "Why didn't you call her too Mr. Patton?" asked Quistis.
- "Well it wasn't really their fault… It was your student who was beating them up, so I thought he's the one to blame…" said Mr. Patton. Seifer gave him a really evil glare.
- "I'll be the judge of that Mr. Patton." said Quistis crossing her arms. "Seifer, what happened?" Quistis asked her student.
- "Nothing…" he said looking away.
- "Nothing?" said Quistis. "Very well… Jake? Andrew?" Quistis said turning to the two others.
- "Nothing…" they said in unison.
- "I see how this is going to be…" said Quistis sighing. "You two get back to your dorms this instant. I'll bypass this incident, but if I ever hear you've gotten yourselves involved in anything like this again, you can be sure you won't be this lucky…" The two students silently left the library. "Mr. Patton? A private word?" she said to the guard.
- "Of course…" he said delighted.
- "Seifer, wait for me in here…" she said turning to him. Seifer simply nodded.
Quistis walked outside to the hallway with the guard.
- "About this whole incident…" began Quistis.
- "Yes?"
- "Surely we could… forget about it?" she asked in a mincing manner, twirling around a lock of her let down hair.
- "Oh, Miss Trepe… I don't know…" said the guard hesitantly.
- "Please…?" she asked, driving a finger down the cleavage of her shirt. The guard swallowed roughly as he followed her finger with his eyes.
- "Miss Trepe…" he said, sounding a little less hesitant.
- "Quistis to you…" she said, giving him a really promising look.
- "Quistis… If anyone finds out, we'll be in real trouble…"
- "No-one has to find out… Welch and Moreno aren't stupid enough to say anything, Almasy won't either and if neither of us does…" she said smiling.
- "*Sigh* Just because it's you…" he said smiling back. "Hey, maybe sometime we could…" he began.
- "Great! I have to go back to my student. Good night!" she said sprinting back in.
- "…go out some time…" he said to himself, once Quistis had gone back in.
Back in the room, Seifer was leaning onto the wall next to the door smoking a cigarette. Quistis didn't see him when she walked inside. Puzzled, she walked over to the desks, to look for him.
- "Quite the act you put up out there…" he said. Quistis turned around to look at him.
- "Don't you think you've broken enough Garden rules for the night? I didn't think you'd have the balls to smoke in here as well…" she said crossing her arms.
- "Instructor…" he said taking a whiff "Such language…" he added exhaling the smoke.
- "Don't play smart-ass with me Seifer. What happened before?" she asked walking towards him.
- "I told you… nothing." he said.
- "I might have covered for you just now, but if you don't spill it I'll gladly inform the headmaster about your little… meeting tonight." she said raising an eyebrow.
- "Go ahead and do it…" he said taking another whiff. "See if I care…" he said looking away.
- "You don't?" she asked, stopping right in front of him.
- "No…" he said looking at her. "I care about nothing. Let alone this stupid Garden…"
- "Oh please!" said Quistis exasperated. "'I care about nothing'? How clichéd is that?"
- "What do you mean 'clichéd'?" he asked narrowing his eyes.
- "I'm talking about the whole I'm-a-rebel-I-respect-nothing-I-care-about-nothing image. Don't you think I've already seen enough of them?"
- "Get - off - my - case." he said angrily.
- "Spill it Seifer!" yelled Quistis.
- "What do you want to hear, huh?" he yelled back, throwing down his cigarette. "That people are still calling me 'the Sorceress' lap dog'? That I can't get rid of the image of the asshole no matter what I do? FUCK THIS PLACE! FUCK EVERYONE!" he yelled, turning around and kicking the wall. He put his hands on the back of his head and sighed deeply. "You have no idea what it was like… being controlled by her. Unable to think for myself… You have no idea what it's like now…Having to redeem myself for something I never intended to do…" he added.
- "Then tell me. Talk to me…" she said.
- "Yeah, right…" he said turning back around. "Why would you even listen?"
- "Because I want to."
- "Why?"
- "Not all people think you're an asshole Seifer…"
- "And I suppose you're one of them?" he asked in disbelief.
- "If you haven't figured that out already, then I was really wrong when I thought you had the slightest amount brains…" said Quistis. Seifer smiled and laughed lightly.
- "Why do you even bother Quistis?" he asked crossing his arms. "I'm a lost case…"
- "So? Let me torture myself. Didn't you just say how you don't care about anything?"
- "Well… Not anything…" he said looking down at his feet.
- "You're not really saying you care about me, are you?" asked Quistis, lowering her head, trying to look at him in the eye.
- "Hey, I said I might care about a few stuff, but let's not push it…" he said grinning.
They both laughed. Seifer took out his pack of cigarettes and took out another one.
- "What are you doing?" asked Quistis.
- "What does it look like I'm doing?"
- "Don't light that."
- "Oh c'mon… You want one too?" he asked raising an eyebrow.
- "Of course I don't!"
- "You've never smoked? Not once?"
- "I didn't say that…" said Quistis, kind of offended.
- "So you have…"
- "Alright, so I have… But I've never smoked in here. It's against the rules." she said. Seifer took out another cigarette and with a small flip, he turned it over and handed it to her.
- "There's always a first time for everything…" he said giving her a devilish grin. Quistis looked at it tempted and then at him.
- "I'm really starting to get lenient with you, aren't I?" she asked taking the cigarette.
- "Isn't your favorite student worth a bit of leniency?" he asked mockingly, taking out his lighter.
- "My only student…" said Quistis, putting the cig between her lips.
- "Yeah, yeah… We've been through that joke already…" said Seifer smiling.
He lit his cig and then lit Quistis'. He was surprised to see that she was quite familiarized with smoking; she didn't cough or anything.
- "Are you a regular smoker Instructor?" he asked, sort of impressed.
- "I may smoke one or two per week. But definitely not a regular… It really narrows down your stamina you know…" she said looking at him meaningfully.
- "I know. Well don't think I'm a heavy smoker either… Just a pack per day or so…"
- "That's too much for a soldier Seifer. Cut it down to half a pack. At least."
- "I'll try…" he said, although Quistis didn't think that was even remotely possible. There was a minute of silence. Then Seifer spoke again. "By the way…" he began.
- "Hmmm?" said Quistis.
- "Thanks." he said looking down.
- "For what?"
- "Well y'know…" he said shrugging.
- "No I don't."
- "For… saving my ass tonight… Thank you." he said looking at her. He looked sincere, but even if he wasn't, Quistis was really pleased that he actually thanked someone for once.
- "You're welcome Seifer." she said taking a last whiff from her cigarette. She threw it into the nearby garbage can and so did he. "Shall we?" she asked motioning with her head towards the door.
- "Yeah, let's go."
They both walked down the hallway and towards the dorms. The Garden was totally silent at this time of the night. The only sound heard was the trickling water in the fountains. Both Quistis and Seifer were really silent on the way back. When they were almost at the dorms, Seifer broke the silence.
- "So… That guard's really hot for you huh?" he said smirking.
- "*Sigh* Don't start with that…" said Quistis impatiently.
- "OK, OK… But it seems to me like you've really had your choice of men these days…" he said still smirking. Quistis gave him an 'oh please!' look. "I'm serious… What about those guys today? Five, were they?"
- "Uhh… Sometimes I really feel like I could kill Selphie… That's me here…" she said stopping outside the door of her dorm.
- "Y'know… I really can't blame them…" he said looking at her in a strange way. "Your hair… When you let it down like this…It's really… pretty." Quistis blushed and felt her heart starting to pound faster. "Good night Instructor." said Seifer leaving.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Seifer squirmed around in bed that night; he couldn't sleep. He kept thinking about what Quistis had done earlier. She had actually covered for him. If she hadn't, he would have been kicked out of the Garden that instant. He had to admit that no matter how much he played hard to get, he badly wanted to become a SeeD. But then again, if she hadn't they would have stripped her from her license again. So she was trying to save her own skin. 'Idiot.' thought Seifer. 'Did you really think that there could be a person to actually care about you out there? Since when was anyone interested about you?'. 'Why not both?' said a distant voice in his head. 'What?' he thought. 'Both' said the voice again. 'Save both your skins.'. 'Both huh?' he thought. 'Yeah… Why not?'. He opened up the top drawer of his nightstand and pulled out his journal, scribbling a few random thoughts on it, including those about Quistis…
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
A/N: Who's got the upper hand now, huh? Y'know I'm kinda sorry for poor Nida, God knows what Rinoa and Selphie would be capable of doing to him… o_O Anyway, once more I want to ask you guys if you'd like to see a FF8 pirate story. Tell me so I can start working on it… or not.
ON THE NEXT CHAPTER OF 'LOVE CONQUERS ALL':
It's time for the Garden Summer Festival Selphie's been preparing. That's all I've got to say… ;-)