Rinoa gave a crooked look as Ray gave her the worst pronunciation of her
name yet... Rin Tin. She was lucky this time though. His first attempt came
out a Bino. "What's his full name again?" Seifer grunted, "You call yerself
a friend and you can't even remember my son's name?!" Selphie whined a bit
and lowered her head, "...Sorry." The faintest upturn of Seifer's scowl let
Selphie in on the joke he happened to be playing on her. Seifer broke into
a full menacing grin as he rubbed his arm, "Damn Selphie, yer punches are
getting around to tingling." SLAP! "...Then again...Yer smacks still hurt."
Rinoa was laughing beyond mindless giggling. Tears were in her eyes as she
managed to speak coherently, "You....guys...are great!" She stopped momentarily
to add on to the joke, "...and such a cute couple."
"Rin, you're playing matchmaker with the wrong people." Zell grinned, holding a hotdog in one hand and three in the other. "CHICKEN-WUSS! Glad you could make it! And look! You've brought lunch!" Next thing, Zell found himself with a bun and a dropped grin. All present were enjoying HIS hotdogs. "B-but don't you know how HARD I worked to get those?!" Seifer smiled with a full mouth, "Ypheah...*num*...Amd fwere grfeatfull..."
Zell sniffed and pulled his pride off the floor, taking hold of his son that had been recently chewing on a piece of rubber. Teething. Oh Hyne. "By the way...His full name is Rayden Almasy Dintch." Seifer had managed to choke out his name after finishing off the final mouthful of his stolen breakfast. Zell was a little busy scrunching his nose at his son. The Gun blade Specialist took that moment to imprint it among his everlasting images and memories. Beauty shone in this photograph of the pearl smile and sun-bleached blonde hair against their son's dark green-blue eyes, interlocking with those sea blue eyes that had indeed trapped him in the first place. Zell had a beautiful smile. It was something beyond the great white waters of the mountain springs and more than the Heavenly clouds that were pure in every light. Every time that the Specialist had seen him, the way he sported everything he wore, he'd had a type of glow. And even now in his dark blue flight jumpsuit with the clips running around his waist and over his chest, that blue could never offset the warmth that was there.
All that in thirty seconds or less. What a record. Zell had finally gotten tired of standing, shown by a huff as he sat next to his life partner. His son had lifted his hands to the sky. Such small things that he seemed like a life size toy made to make parents have that flutter feeling all over again. He had to stop and take a breath. The idea of having a son was almost alien to Seifer, yet here he was. . .With his hands reaching towards Seifer. Slowly, he mimicked his son and reached his hands back. Lifting him into the light, he had that same type of laugh and glow his partner did. Only did a quick "ahem" take him out of his day dream.
It was Squall. Hmmm. . .Cold fish. "We need two volunteers to hit the field on the south continent to register the addition of land to the mountain safe reserve. A murder also needs to be accounted for." Seifer sighed. It sounded like one of his mysteries in the making. He was used to this crap. "Alright...I'm going to want a FULL report this time..." He reached over and picked up the pack he'd had with him during the Temple Sake Expedition. Zell's face nearly fell and hung on his breath. One angry eyebrow lifted toward the Martial Arts Expert for again making him feel guilty. "What?" The shorter blonde shook his head, "Nuthin'." Seifer growled and threw his pack on the floor at Zell's feet, "What the Hell is it this time, Chicken- Wuss?!" Handing his bawling son over to Rinoa ever so carefully, he stood straight up to a Zell that had the fire of his soul in his iced eyes. "Hey! How about we do it this way? You shut the FUCK up with that nickname and drop the subject!"
"What Subject?! I don't even know what you're so down about! Evidently, YOU DO! So you should let me in on the GODDAMN secret!!"
"Ahem."
Both glares glanced towards the Highest ranking officer in the Garden. Although, he never rubbed it in, he didn't have to. "Seifer, your boarding dock is 12-A. Be there by noon with a partner. Put that temper under ice." He turned part way before stopping. Such a proud stance to have his hand behind his back and his head down in thought. "Perhaps you should take Zell on this one. Rinoa and I will watch Rayden for you." The tension in the room had slipped out with Squall's exit. Rinoa grinned, "That's why I married him."
Seifer huffed and sighed, very well knowing he was defeated. "Alright...com'on and you'd better not slow me down, Chicken-Wuss." Zell snorted and quickly replied, "Slow you down? Let me remind you who ended up three miles ahead on the Anacondor Eliminate Mission...And who was back there still fuckin' around with some bullshit Squidy things!"' The Gun blade Specialist snorted back and retorted, "Well you weren't the one who took on a fuckin' ruby dragon around the level of eighty-nine ALONE, were you?!" "Hey! No one told ya to go look for it!"
Rinoa grinned and watched them leave as shot after shot was made. Selphie looked towards her best friend, tilting her head, "You're smiling! Why?" She looked back and smiled again, "Because they fight like they're married. Kinda cute actually."
~*~*~*~
Muscles howled in strain and sweat poured like rain from the sky. Angry clouds thundered above as the Heavens began to open and Hynes tears fell to the earth. Lightning sailed through the sky, striking the ground around them. A great shadow covered the entire mountain pass, raising the dirt from beneath their feet to flutter about in a whirlwind of encasing earth. All the elements were at work as Quetzecotal crowed her voice from above.
Enemies shuttered and fell in an instant. With the whisper of her wings, she was gone. The rain still fell and the thunder grumbled, but nothing as grand as her performance of the opera in the sky. Zell huffed and sat where he stood, feeling the intoxication of his Lady still hanging in the air. Seifer let his Hyperon tip touch the ground as he kneeled as well. "Well now that THAT'S done and over with. Can we go back to our hotel rooms yet?" Seifer grunted and stood again, taking the canister of water from the rock cliff to take a clear swig of cool mountain rainwater. "No. We have to push past those next two mountains before we can go home.
Zell again sighed, watching his partner stand. His figure was something amazing against the lightning and the sky. A tall frame with darkness underneath him. Black angel wings, the martial arts master could swear, stood out while the lightning glared through the sky. His eyes, green like the fields back home, pearled through the darkness to pierce his soul, even when they weren't directed at him. Seifer. His dark knight now. Cocky attitude. Talk about a lover's quarrel.
Suddenly, eyes were upon him as he stood, brushing the dirt from his shorts and his shirt. The rain was helpful in some ways, but not all ways. A while down the road, after a reassurance from his partner, they had found the bridge they were to cross. . .deeply submerged in water. How nice. Thank you Hyne for you entrusting and all loving help. Just as Zell thought that, the bridge broke away and left them only with a single sturdy line to the other side through freezing water. Oh great. "That'll teach me to open my big mind. . ." He watched Seifer glance at him and think better than to ask.
The rest of the journey was pretty much the same. Find an enemy. Kill the enemy. Take whatever it throws up (You know these monsters have eaten a few lesser people in their days). And move on indeed they did. The mountain snowcaps had begun to melt for the summer, giving them the hardest time of their life on the slopes. Footing was almost next to impossible. Mud gave out under you and squished in your boots. Of course Seifer was always unfazed. He never really had a second mind. It was on one mode. Finish mission.
(To be continued in this chapter but unfortunately work and school have not calmed down yet so it might be a while longer)
"Rin, you're playing matchmaker with the wrong people." Zell grinned, holding a hotdog in one hand and three in the other. "CHICKEN-WUSS! Glad you could make it! And look! You've brought lunch!" Next thing, Zell found himself with a bun and a dropped grin. All present were enjoying HIS hotdogs. "B-but don't you know how HARD I worked to get those?!" Seifer smiled with a full mouth, "Ypheah...*num*...Amd fwere grfeatfull..."
Zell sniffed and pulled his pride off the floor, taking hold of his son that had been recently chewing on a piece of rubber. Teething. Oh Hyne. "By the way...His full name is Rayden Almasy Dintch." Seifer had managed to choke out his name after finishing off the final mouthful of his stolen breakfast. Zell was a little busy scrunching his nose at his son. The Gun blade Specialist took that moment to imprint it among his everlasting images and memories. Beauty shone in this photograph of the pearl smile and sun-bleached blonde hair against their son's dark green-blue eyes, interlocking with those sea blue eyes that had indeed trapped him in the first place. Zell had a beautiful smile. It was something beyond the great white waters of the mountain springs and more than the Heavenly clouds that were pure in every light. Every time that the Specialist had seen him, the way he sported everything he wore, he'd had a type of glow. And even now in his dark blue flight jumpsuit with the clips running around his waist and over his chest, that blue could never offset the warmth that was there.
All that in thirty seconds or less. What a record. Zell had finally gotten tired of standing, shown by a huff as he sat next to his life partner. His son had lifted his hands to the sky. Such small things that he seemed like a life size toy made to make parents have that flutter feeling all over again. He had to stop and take a breath. The idea of having a son was almost alien to Seifer, yet here he was. . .With his hands reaching towards Seifer. Slowly, he mimicked his son and reached his hands back. Lifting him into the light, he had that same type of laugh and glow his partner did. Only did a quick "ahem" take him out of his day dream.
It was Squall. Hmmm. . .Cold fish. "We need two volunteers to hit the field on the south continent to register the addition of land to the mountain safe reserve. A murder also needs to be accounted for." Seifer sighed. It sounded like one of his mysteries in the making. He was used to this crap. "Alright...I'm going to want a FULL report this time..." He reached over and picked up the pack he'd had with him during the Temple Sake Expedition. Zell's face nearly fell and hung on his breath. One angry eyebrow lifted toward the Martial Arts Expert for again making him feel guilty. "What?" The shorter blonde shook his head, "Nuthin'." Seifer growled and threw his pack on the floor at Zell's feet, "What the Hell is it this time, Chicken- Wuss?!" Handing his bawling son over to Rinoa ever so carefully, he stood straight up to a Zell that had the fire of his soul in his iced eyes. "Hey! How about we do it this way? You shut the FUCK up with that nickname and drop the subject!"
"What Subject?! I don't even know what you're so down about! Evidently, YOU DO! So you should let me in on the GODDAMN secret!!"
"Ahem."
Both glares glanced towards the Highest ranking officer in the Garden. Although, he never rubbed it in, he didn't have to. "Seifer, your boarding dock is 12-A. Be there by noon with a partner. Put that temper under ice." He turned part way before stopping. Such a proud stance to have his hand behind his back and his head down in thought. "Perhaps you should take Zell on this one. Rinoa and I will watch Rayden for you." The tension in the room had slipped out with Squall's exit. Rinoa grinned, "That's why I married him."
Seifer huffed and sighed, very well knowing he was defeated. "Alright...com'on and you'd better not slow me down, Chicken-Wuss." Zell snorted and quickly replied, "Slow you down? Let me remind you who ended up three miles ahead on the Anacondor Eliminate Mission...And who was back there still fuckin' around with some bullshit Squidy things!"' The Gun blade Specialist snorted back and retorted, "Well you weren't the one who took on a fuckin' ruby dragon around the level of eighty-nine ALONE, were you?!" "Hey! No one told ya to go look for it!"
Rinoa grinned and watched them leave as shot after shot was made. Selphie looked towards her best friend, tilting her head, "You're smiling! Why?" She looked back and smiled again, "Because they fight like they're married. Kinda cute actually."
~*~*~*~
Muscles howled in strain and sweat poured like rain from the sky. Angry clouds thundered above as the Heavens began to open and Hynes tears fell to the earth. Lightning sailed through the sky, striking the ground around them. A great shadow covered the entire mountain pass, raising the dirt from beneath their feet to flutter about in a whirlwind of encasing earth. All the elements were at work as Quetzecotal crowed her voice from above.
Enemies shuttered and fell in an instant. With the whisper of her wings, she was gone. The rain still fell and the thunder grumbled, but nothing as grand as her performance of the opera in the sky. Zell huffed and sat where he stood, feeling the intoxication of his Lady still hanging in the air. Seifer let his Hyperon tip touch the ground as he kneeled as well. "Well now that THAT'S done and over with. Can we go back to our hotel rooms yet?" Seifer grunted and stood again, taking the canister of water from the rock cliff to take a clear swig of cool mountain rainwater. "No. We have to push past those next two mountains before we can go home.
Zell again sighed, watching his partner stand. His figure was something amazing against the lightning and the sky. A tall frame with darkness underneath him. Black angel wings, the martial arts master could swear, stood out while the lightning glared through the sky. His eyes, green like the fields back home, pearled through the darkness to pierce his soul, even when they weren't directed at him. Seifer. His dark knight now. Cocky attitude. Talk about a lover's quarrel.
Suddenly, eyes were upon him as he stood, brushing the dirt from his shorts and his shirt. The rain was helpful in some ways, but not all ways. A while down the road, after a reassurance from his partner, they had found the bridge they were to cross. . .deeply submerged in water. How nice. Thank you Hyne for you entrusting and all loving help. Just as Zell thought that, the bridge broke away and left them only with a single sturdy line to the other side through freezing water. Oh great. "That'll teach me to open my big mind. . ." He watched Seifer glance at him and think better than to ask.
The rest of the journey was pretty much the same. Find an enemy. Kill the enemy. Take whatever it throws up (You know these monsters have eaten a few lesser people in their days). And move on indeed they did. The mountain snowcaps had begun to melt for the summer, giving them the hardest time of their life on the slopes. Footing was almost next to impossible. Mud gave out under you and squished in your boots. Of course Seifer was always unfazed. He never really had a second mind. It was on one mode. Finish mission.
(To be continued in this chapter but unfortunately work and school have not calmed down yet so it might be a while longer)