Sorry for the massive delay, but my PC had broken utterly. But I'm all back now, and ready to resume my normal update times! ^__^

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Fifty Days

Chapter 19: Forlorn In The Wind

Quistis awoke slowly, trying to burrow as far into the covers as she could to avoid the encroaching light from the window. Her back pushed against something warm, and she turned to see Seifer sleeping next to her again. She smiled and closed her eyes again, falling back to sleep slowly, ignoring the small pain in her head.

She opened them again as someone knocked loudly on the door, and she sighed. A thought occurred to her, and she threw an arm out behind her.

"Ow," Seifer said. "What?"

"Get the door please," she said quietly, smiling.

"Slavedriver," he mumbled, and stood. "One second!" he shouted, and the knocking stopped. He had a pretty good idea who it was, and already he knew she would be tapping her feet in impatience. He got dressed as quickly as he could and opened it to, by this time, a very irate Selphie.

"Seifer! Do you know what time it is?" the perky brunette asked.

Seifer checked his watch and looked back up at her. "Do you know what time it is?" he shot back.

"It's nearly midday!"

"It's a weekend."

"But you promised to help with the Graduation Ball preparations!" Selphie pleaded. "Pleeeeease!"

"Selphie, can you keep it down a little," Seifer said, gesturing back into the dorm.

Selphie clapped her hands over her mouth. "Sorry! I'msosorry! Is Quisty still asleep?"

"Not any more. Morning Selphie," Quistis said sleepily, appearing at the doorway in T-short and shorts. "Could you do this elsewhere please?" she asked quietly, and both Seifer and Selphie nodded, and both noticed how she was making an effort to stay standing. Seifer turned. "Selphie, give me a few minutes," he said.

She nodded. "I'll be the in ballroom when you come to help," she said, and turned to almost skip down the corridor as Seifer slipped an arm back under Quistis' shoulder and helped her back to the bedroom. "Go back to sleep," he said gently.

Quistis accepted his help, but was still ready to argue. "Seifer, its nearly time for your field exam, isn't it?" she asked.

Seifer was silent for a second as he sat next to her. He felt her touch his hand lightly, and he nodded.

"You'll do fine this time," she said confidently. "I believe in you."

Seifer nodded, but still seemed cautious. "What if I don't? What if-"

"You're a different person from the last time you did this," she whispered.

Seifer looked down at her and smiled. What did I do to deserve you?

Nothing, so don't screw this up either.

"Thanks. Means a lot," he replied.

Quistis raised an eyebrow. "Seifer Almasy, thanking someone? Is the world ending?"

"Hey, you already said that," he said, slightly embarrassed. "Stop it already."

Quistis gestured for hi to lean closer, and then kissed him. "You. Will. Do. Fine. Now go pass that exam. I'll see you at the Graduation Ball, in a SeeD uniform."

Seifer nodded and looked around, as if searching for something. "You sure you don't want me to-"

Quistis smacked him on the shoulder. "Go! If you're still here when I get up then I'll have Squall boot you from Garden!"

Seifer held up his hands in submissions and walked from the dorm, closing the door behind him.

"Ready?"

Seifer jumped backwards, heart racing, as Selphie stood next to the door. "Wha- Wher- H-"

"I was waiting for ages!"

"It was five minutes, and you said you were waiting in the ballroom!"

"I sorta lied," Selphie said, blushing and staring at the floor. "Seifer?" she asked.

"Yes?" he replied, knowing what was probably coming.

"You're in love with Quisty, right?" she asked.

Seifer nodded. In Selphie's world of rainbow and knights on horseback, what else could it be?

Selphie pointed at him seriously. "Well, we all think, and we gotta tell you, if you do anything to her, we'll not like it very much," she said.

Seifer nodded. "Yeah, I got the impression of that from Xu," he said. And Xu's threats carried more weight than Selphie's. A few tons more.

Selphie smiled, back to her bubbly self in seconds. "Good! Now come on, we gotta prepare for the ball! Decorations need to go up we don't have anyone for them and food is being set up and It'll gonna be big-"

Seifer allowed himself to be dragged away as Selphie rambled on happily about all the work they still had to finish. If she ever became a building contractor he feared for her client's sense of taste.

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Quistis lay back down on the bed and closed her eyes again. She felt the pain in her head, still insistent, but she found she could ignore it more and more now, as she had something to take her mind off it.

Seifer…

She would never, in a million years, believed she would be in a serious relationship with the man who she and the others had tried to hard to defeat not that long ago. If someone else had told her it she would have laughed, and shook her head in denial.

After he had started to act… different… towards her, she had assumed he had been doing it either in sympathy or guilt, and had dismissed it gently. That had stopped after he had taken her out on her first… well, date… in years.

This time she did laugh quietly into the pillows, but it turned into a cough, and she took her hand away from her mouth and saw red specks of blood which she hastily cleaned away, another reminder of the timer in her life. She had almost gotten used to the fact. Almost. She sighed and tried to get back to sleep. She was going to have to think about the Graduation Ball. She was going, even if it killed her.

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"Seifer! Get in here!" Selphie shouted, the exact second that Seifer walked into the ballroom. The place was a mess. Paper and half-repaired lighting fixtures lay strewn across the floor, and a couple of not-exactly-volunteers were painting up a few areas of the gilding on the walls and pillars. Selphie was in the middle of the room talking to a bunch of other shanghaied volunteers

"Okay, so we need to stop the wall paint from running, and- Seifer!"

"Yes?" he asked tiredly, noticing a few of the students were staring at him in the what-the-hell-is-he-doing-here look, and putting on his most dejected face to stem any rumours of helpfulness that would make the rounds.

"You're gonna be painting, 'kay? Get a brush and start with the gold on those pillars over there."

"Selphie, the pillars look fine." And they really did, but-

"Then they gotta look better! This is gonna be perfect, got it?" she said, more vehemently than a Garden Faculty member punishing a student.

Seifer shrugged and took of his jacket, leaving it next to the door, and picking up a brush and bucket and slapping some golden paint on the first pillar he came across. He hadn't been at it five minutes when Selphie wandered over tot talk to him.

"You're doing it wrong. Less paint, less dripping," she indicated.

"Selphie, I'm doing the best I can," he said.

"Well do better!" Selphie almost shouted at him, and Seifer almost dropped his brush.

"Selphie…"

"I'm sorry, I'm just a little tired," she said. "How's Quisty doing?"

Seifer sighed. "Truth?" Selphie nodded. "Truth is, she's getting worse, and Elle and Rinoa can't do anything."

"S'not fair," Selphie said dejectedly. "Shou'da been someone else…"

"Like me?" Seifer asked, semi-seriously.

"NO! Seifer!" Selphie exclaimed.

"Kidding. No, it's not fair. We just gotta deal with it," he said calmly.

"You're so damned cold! Why don't you show any feeling?" Selphie asked angrily. "We're all upset but you never are, and we're her friends!"

"So am I," Seifer said coldly.

"Well we've never tried to kill her!"

Seifer stopped painting and turned to Selphie. "Selphie, I. Care."

Selphie seemed near tears. "Then do something about it! She's sad here, we can tell, even if you can't!"

Seifer stopped, but this time not in annoyance. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"Take her somewhere! Do something! Away from Gardena and Balamb! A surprise, cheer her up!" Selphie said, almost bouncing up and down. Seifer was sure she would have a few suggestions. Her ability to switch from sad to happy when planning something was beyond description.

"But…"

"But nothing!" Selphie said, pointing her finger at him like a schoolteacher.

Or Quistis herself, Seifer thought. "Any suggestions?" he asked nastily.

Selphie missed it. "Yes! Now listen, Cid and Squall takes suggestions about destinations sometimes…"

"What do you think they're talking about?" one of the volunteers asked his friend.

"Who knows? Probably what shade of a shade of a shade of gold to paint the walls," his friend commented dejectedly.

"Almasy never struck me as that kind of guy…"

"Meh. Who cares anymore? Trepe and the others stuck up for him," the student replied, indifferently.

"I Suppose."

"Now help me with this light, or the Instructor'll rip out our eyeballs."

"I hear that," the teen said feverently.

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Seifer only escaped from Selphie's maddening clutches in the late afternoon, and after grabbing some of his assigned coursework walked back to Quistis' – and now his own, he supposed – dorm, opening the door while trying to balance the load of paper on his knees. He was not, he decided, cut out for academia.

The first thing he saw when he walked in was the balcony windows wide open, curtains blowing in the breeze, and for one second thought the worst, before he saw Quistis leaning against the railing, staring out at the Balamb countryside.

"You ever wonder what it would be like?" Quistis asked, the second he walked out to join her.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

She didn't turn to look at him, but held out a hand to the wind, and Seifer shuddered as he saw it was speckled with blood. "No more worries, nothing to be afraid of anymore, no pain, just… nothing?" She tipped her hand, and the red dots fell from her hand, scattered on the wind. "I'm tired of this. Feeling like shit every day, waking up and wondering how badly it's going to hurt."

"Quistis, don't give up-"

"What's the point Seifer, why not a few days earlier?" She stared down at the greenery below. "Seifer, I don't want to be afraid anymore."

Seifer wrapped an arm around her. "Quisty, there are still people who need who. I need you."

"But it hurts," she whispered feebly.

Seifer turned her and wrapped his arms around her, reaching down and kissing her. "Does this help?" he said quietly.

Quistis pulled away slightly, and smiled, tears still in her eyes. "It helps enough," she said, and leaned forwards to return the favour.

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