(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. .author's note. .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
I'm sorry the updates have been slow. My schoolwork gets in the way . . . a lower classman (or, classwoman) doesn't have much of chance to get the good report subjects . Plus, I'm getting shipped away for Christmas AGAIN. At least this year it isn't Thanksgiving too. . .well, wish me luck, this chapter is going to take forever to finish.
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. quistis .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
As Laguna handed me a paper to read, I pondered on my conclusion. It had taken twelve hours to observe, to register, to deny, and then to accept, if with alacrity, this statement. The conclusion was this: Laguna was an extremely busy man.
See, I am a very efficient person, and as a rule, I can do things twice as fast as most people. However, I was stunned by the efficacy of Laguna in his office, managing to juggle the everyday affairs of his country and keep on top of the major issues at hand. He had eaten lunch, held a teleconference, passed seven laws, overruled a controversial trial, and kicked Kiros in the shins twice, ALL IN ONE HOUR.
I marveled still at his assured air. Gone was the rather moronic man of clumsy words and ditzy attitude. Here was a man who knew what had to be done, and did it. Who knew that the future was not ours to see, but that the present was ours to use.
I glanced at him fleetingly before I reluctantly looked back at the parchment in my hand. He had been working on a revised treaty all day between tasks, merely to propose in place of the treaty he had handed to me to look at.
I sighed. I already knew the gist of things just from listening in on the conversations around me, but I leaned in over it anyway, picking around the formal phrases to decipher the words behind it. "So this is the incentive for the assassinations?" I asked casually; if it was, I could already see why.
Kiros pointed out a few lines. "Yup, Galbadia has a lot to gain from this."
That was an understatement, by a long shot. It was a very demanding and slightly threatening document. I shook my head at the audacity of the document's author, which was no doubt Koryu Deling.
Laguna must have seen my small, condescending gesture as something else, because he turned the document back around to face him, and casting a wary eye it, explained. "Esthar's always been seen as stingy by other governments, cause we don't share as much of our stuff as they want."
"They're lucky you share at all," I replied with a raised eyebrow.
To my slight dismay and annoyance, Laguna continued as if I hadn't said anything. "See that desert out there?" He pointed out the window; over the skyline was a line of reddened dirt. I nodded vaguely.
"That little line of dust? That's Esthar," He shook his head. "Our technology is all we have to trade. We rely on that trade. If we give all our technology away at once, we get screwed in the long run."
I coughed; Laguna certainly had . . . a unique way of phrasing things.
I leaned over the document once more, and tapped my nail on a paragraph. "So if you signed this, and all the trades to these countries were cut off . . ." I let my finger slide to a different portion of the paper ". . . and these technologies given to Galbadia . . ."
"We'd be weakened enough - and they'd be strengthened enough - in ten years for them to move in and take over," Laguna declared morosely. "So I can't sign it, and the baddies are still gonna be coming at me." I jerked my head up as Laguna let out a wry, very un-Laguna chuckle. "Sucks to be me, huh?"
At that, my SeeD training took over. "Your decisions are irrelevant." I said in a clipped voice. Laguna looked up sharply, and I hurried to correct my harsh tone.
"My duty would still lie in protecting you," I gently added. My duty, yes.
He maintained eye contact, his hair falling over his face loosely. In a soft, almost regretting voice, he said, "Even you can't catch bullets, Quistis."
I snorted. "I can if I put enough bone in the way."
Laguna's head jerked up, and his eyes widened slightly. "Okay, that was NOT funny." He stood up and glared at me.
"It wasn't meant to be." I gazed levelly back. I had tried to kill myself less than a week ago. Though life was more tempting, death did not scare me.
He snorted, and Laguna's feathery hair blew out at his burst of breath. "So don't . . . just don't . . ." Laguna's mouth stretched strangely in an ill- covered yawn, and his sentence was cut short.
Kiros plucked the treaty off of the desk, and rolled it up abrubtly. Kiros had been responsible for the preservation of Laguna's dignity more times than I could count in the activities of the day. "Hey, 'Guna, you need to sleep sometime," he suggested.
Though Kiros's tone was inflected with 'you don't have a choice in the matter,' Laguna ignored it. He leaned back over the paper he was working on. "Yeah, I'm almost done here," he muttered, avoiding eye contact.
Kiros tapped the rolled up paper on his shoulder thoughtfully. "He's not gonna take a revised anything. With this new Koryu guy, its gonna be all or nothing." He accentuated his final word with a twack on the head to Laguna.
Laguna waved his hand absently over the spot that Kiros had hit. "I still gotta do this. And as I said, I'm almost done."
It was my duty here to protect Laguna, yes. I had known that it wouldn't be an easy job, due to his being Laguna Loire. However, I hadn't been aware that I would need to protect my client from himself as well.
If he didn't get any sleep, how would he keep up the remarkable pace that he had set for himself all day? He would, no doubt, set up the same pace tomorrow. How on Hyne's good earth did he manage?
I placed my hand over the center of his page, causing him to look up at me with a slightly shocked look as I leaned over his desk. "Then you can finish it tomorrow, Laguna," I stated, setting my mouth firmly.
He shifted uncomfortably, and opened his mouth a few times as if to reply, but then he suddenly grinned. "Hey! I didn't hafta remind you to call me Laguna!" His fist pounded the air
I coughed. Oops. Well, if me being a bit more familiar with him made him happy, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. After all, I have a lot of vacation days to use up, so I'd obviously be in his company for a very long time. Well, roughly three months, anyway.
"Let's go, Laguna, you need to sleep." I headed to the door.
"Er . . . why are you . . ." I turned, to see Laguna still standing by his desk, looking somewhere between bashful and embarrassed. "What are you . . . "
I cursed inwardly as my face heated slightly. I did have to walk him to his room, but honestly, did he have to make a big deal out of it?
I cleared my throat tentatively. "I need to search your quarters." At Laguna's look of profound relief I continued the thread of thought, ticking my fingers. "Explosives, killers in the closet, etc. etc. You understand," I finished smoothly.
Kiros smirked, and ruined my cover-up by leaning over to whisper something in Laguna's ear. I couldn't make anything out, but Laguna's face stained noticeably red, and he muttered something unintelligible as he stumbled out the door behind me.
"What did Kiros say?" I queried.
He winced, and scratched his head, as he always did when he was nervous. "It wasn't exactly . . . erm . . . appropriate?" he ventured quietly, not looking at me.
"What a fine teacher's excuse," I goaded. "I do believe I've rubbed off on you, Laguna."
I blinked after I said that.
What? I hadn't just . . . teased him, had I?
I scarcely tease anyone. ANYONE. I had taken familiarity too far. I had teased a total of eight people in my life, and now Laguna had gone and made himself number nine.
Luckily, Laguna didn't notice my lapse of character. "Er . . . It had something to do with your 'checking quarters' comment . . ." He avoided eye contact, and the air became awkwardly heavy.
I thought about that for a moment, shaking off the thick air's effects, before the implications hit me. ". . . Oh."
"Right . . ." Laguna stopped. His room was right beside me. "Right in there then . . ." He slumped himself against the wall, obviously not planning on going in.
"Right," I muttered awkwardly, before shaking my head and standing straighter. "Wait here."
I opened the door and walked in.
Stepping slowly, I drew my whip out cautiously, just to be safe. I left the lights out; though this might hinder my senses, it would also hinder my opponents. The shadows that the open door cast looked dull and harmless, and I flipped out my flashlight for a more thorough search of the main room.
I admit; I had been curious as to what Laguna Loire's bedroom looked like. Not so much, of course, that I'd dwell upon it, but it certainly wasn't an opportunity I was going to let pass me by. However, now that I was standing right outside of it, I just felt awkward.
Wisely, I decided to do the other rooms, and save the bedroom for last.
I checked the likely places first, drawers, closets, under the couch, the pantry . . . Laguna drank coffee, and kept champagne next to the coffee. Convenient for entertainment . . . but I doubted Laguna did much entertainment in his personal rooms.
Perhaps he'd had a lover at one point? I brushed the thought away nervously; I did not want to have to deal with scandalous mental images while poring through Laguna's bedroom.
Normally, in a mission like this, there would be at least two SeeDs; one for a day shift, and one for a night. However, in the hour that the two shifts overlapped, the two SeeDs would search the rooms of the employer together. Then, it hadn't seemed like such an invasion of privacy.
But this mission wasn't a usual mission. I had put myself willingly and unpaid in this position. I was sifting through Laguna Loire's foodstuffs by choice.
One room left . . . I peered into his bedroom Blue décor, typical color for a male to decorate with . . . but no pictures on the walls. A few framed magazine articles . . . I stepped into the room to read the title of one.
'Well,' the nasty little voice in my head popped up, 'Look at this. You are, by your own choice, in an attractive mans bedroom. What are you going to do about this, Quistis?'
If I had brushed away my first uncomfortable thought, I stomped down furiously upon this one, but I still ended up with a flushed face and an awkward wince.
I sniffed. The air here was . . . different. Not noticeable, normally . . . not quite, but my nerves were jumpy, and my senses were strangely heightened . . .
My boots clicked timidly as I crossed the hardwood floor, and hurriedly checked the room, still slightly flushed. I stepped to the center of the room and frowned. Why did the air still feel strange?
Let me explain something to you. As humans, we have been conditioned by millennia of evolution to not look up, because until recently, nothing was big enough to take us from the sky. Why waste survival senses on something unnecessary?
So I suppose it wasn't completely my fault that I had failed to look at the ceiling.
The man attacked from above, and landed directly behind me.
Instinct born of years of training forced my body to go limp, and I fell solidly to ground, only to roll to the left, coming up in a crouch. The man's knife buried itself in an armoire with a sound thunk, and he released it to face me.
Laguna, if you heard that, please run.
Perhaps he hadn't heard it? I held my whip at the ready, although in such close quarters it would be little use. The intruder attacked me with another knife, yelling horribly.
Well, Laguna had certainly heard that.
I cursed silently; Laguna, with his misplaced sense of chivalry, would most likely burst in to 'rescue' me. Sir Laguna, indeed.
I reached within me for a 'Protect' for Laguna, for when he inevitably bolted into the room.
I dodged another strike, and snapped my whip. My long distance weaponry was useless here . . . I dropped my whip and fell into Zell's favorite fighting dance . . .a moving target, fists up, ready to block.
He didn't come, he stepped back towards the entrance, and behind him, I saw Laguna through the doorway, trying to get a clear shot. I leapt to the side, and my opponent took a grenade out of his bag at the same time as Laguna lifted his weapon to the assassins head.
BANG.
The man fell after one shot from Laguna's pistol. He crumpled to the floor, and I looked at Laguna, the adrenaline still coursing in me. He didn't return my glance. I looked down at the fallen man. In his hand was the grenade.
The pinless grenade.
I stood there, and in the precious seconds it took for my mind to register that, Laguna acted. He grabbed my arms, drew me close to him, and jump- dived over the bed and to the other side.
After that was a deafening noise, a splintering of wood and cracking stone, and short, sharp whistling sounds of shrapnel flying through the air. I don't know what it looked like precisely, because it was very dark . . . for some reason.
Deafening noise, and . . .
Silence. No . . . not total silence, but compared to the chaos just moments before, it was utter stillness. There was still a faint popping of wood, and something was on top of me.
Why was it so dark?
And then I realized; my eyes were closed.
My eyes slit open, and I coughed at the dust and debris still floating in the air. Squinting, I stayed still, not sure if by moving I would trigger an avalanche of broken wood and rubble.
I did, however, shift my weight, and wondered numbly what the warm weight over me was. I opened my eyes completely, fighting the tears that rose from the dust content.
Laguna . . . was . . .
Laguna was . . . on me? Still on me, shielding me from the grenade blow . . . still trying to catch his breath . . .
I was scared, to tell it quite frankly. Not of Laguna, no, he'd never take advantage of a situation like this. I, for some unexplainable reason, trust Laguna. No, I wasn't scared of Laguna, I have confidence in Laguna.
But for the first time in my life, I didn't fully trust myself.
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. .laguna. .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
Okay, so Quistis had been right to check my room, awkward as it may have seemed. I'd probably be . . . well, dead if it weren't for Quistis. And I sort of like living, so that's cool. Of course, Quistis would be dead right now if it weren't for ME, but let's not hash details here, 'K?
Argh . . . my room was in shambles, but I was okay thanks to Quistis, and Quistis was okay thanks to me, and that was all that really mattered right now. I had a few nasty cuts on my back from the shrapnel, but my now demolished bed had taken most of the hit.
A small cough snapped me out of my mental check-over. I blearily shook my head, and a single fact popped up in my mind.
'Hay, Laguna, you do realize you're like, ON Quistis, right?'
Oh.
CRAP.
That whole diving-at-someone-to-play-human-shield gig had a major drawback. Yeah. You ended up in an awkward position with whoever you were shielding, which in training camp had been a big joke . . . here, it was a bit more serious.
See, in case you didn't know, Quistis is a girl. Yup. A woman, really . . . an attractive, young woman. And even if my mind had somehow managed to lay this fact aside, my body had NOT.
I stared down at Quistis, and she stared up at me.
The same damn annoying voice rose up, 'She trusts you.'
Ah, shoot. This was very uncool.
I rolled off as quickly as possible, hissing silently as a fresh burst of pain from my torn up back rewarded my effort. And man, did I pray to Hyne that she hadn't noticed . . . erm . . . anything . . . yeah.
She sat up with a small noise, and turned to me almost weakly. Aw, man . . . I blinked, and looked up away from her, cursing my leg for choosing just now to cramp. I cleared my throat before saying anything, "Er . . . sorry . . ."
Quistis must have been catching her breath too, although probably not for the same reasons as me. Her voice was breathy as she said, "Oh . . . it's quite alright, it was nothing . . ."
We sat in silence for a moment, breathing heavily. I ruefully looked back at my bad. Dang, I liked that comforter . . .
"Laguna?" a voice said softly. I turned to Quistis slowly.
She cleared her throat, and I leaned forward, only to be shot back by . . .
"What the hell did you think you were doing?!"
I blinked, and did a double take at her face. She looked at me with an expression of annoyed disgust, nostrils flaring in indignition.
"WHAT?!" I yelped, scrambling for footing to get up. Had she noticed!? "Er . . . you just said it was . . . I swear, it was an accident . . . well, kinda not really, but . . ." Yeah, just dig yourself deeper there . . . Argh . . .
"Not that!" she snapped, as she stood furiously, and offered me a hand up. I didn't want to think how much the frayed skin on my back would tear if I lifted my arm. But, me and endorphins were really good friends at the moment, so I gritted my teeth and took her hand anyway.
Not good; as I stumbled up, I hit something with my back, and I wasn't able to hold back a strangled cry. DAMN, it hurt!
Quistis's eyes narrowed, and she grabbed my shoulder and turned me around in a single motion. I heard her hissing indrawn breath, and I wondered vaguely how bad it looked before I was facing her again and she was poking me in the chest.
"I'M supposed to be protecting YOU, Laguna Loire!" she fumed. "NOT the other way around!" Her index finger hit me square in the center of my collarbone.
"Um . . . I did kinda just prevent your intestines from being splattered on the wall . . ." I looked at her dazedly, wasn't she forgetting that little fact? I faltered, as she continued blindly.
"I can't protect you if you're dead, Laguna!"
"You can't protect me if you're dead either, Quistis," I said in as reasonable a tone as possible.
It was kinda funny watching Quistis gape like a fish for a few seconds, but then she crossed her arms, and in a huff, muttered, "Don't be so reasonable . . . I'm not used to it."
The room got a lot colder all of a sudden.
Had she believed my moron façade? I normally would have been happy to fool such an obviously intelligen person . . . but instead, I felt strangely depressed. I didn't want her to see me as the klutzy, moronic president of Esthar. I wanted her to see me as Laguna Loire, as Kiros and Ward saw me.
For some reason . . .
That pissed me off.
"Fine," I snapped.
"Good!" she snapped back, glaring at me.
"Yeah!" I countered
"Hmph!" Quistis seemed determined to have the last say, and I was about to reply again when I heard a crunching noise behind me.
" . . !? "
"Laguna! Oh Hyne, what happened!" Kiros picked his way around the trash with Ward and a few guards. Quistis gave an irritated sigh, but didn't say anything.
"Well, you see . . ." I paused as I felt a Curaga peel silently over the wounds on my back. Smart of Quistis; if Kiros had see my wounds, he'd of freaked and forced me to stay in bed for week, and I really didn't need that right now.
Kiros shook his head. "You see . . . what?" he demanded.
I twitched, and explained slowly. "She was checking around . . . and I heard a shout that wasn't Quistis . . . so I came in, and shot the guy, but he'd pulled the pin on a grenade, so . . ."
"So this idiot, with no regard for his safety, decides to play 'Sir Laguna the Infernally Moronic' and shield me!" Quistis cut in sharply, punctuating her words with slicing hand gestures. "He should have gone for help, not come barging in with no idea of the situation! He-"
Kiros, who had obviously been hiding a laugh, lost the fight with his mirth and began to chuckle.
I leaned over towards Kiros and muttered nervously, "You really shouldn't piss her off . . . "
Quistis glared pointedly at Kiros. "There is nothing humorous in the slightest about any of this," she declared almost haughtily. I didn't think so either, but Kiros did have a weird sense of humor.
He calmed down and said in a soothing voice, "Yeah . . . okay." Kiros paused, and turned to me. ". . . Laguna, where are you sleeping tonight? You can't be thinking of sleeping in here."
Ward shook his head. " . . . " Kiros opened his mouth to translate, but Quistis snapped out, "He'll be rooming in Ward's room, since Ward has the night shift anyway."
I stared at her. Ward stared at her. Kiros did too. How the heck had she known what Ward had meant? Kiros was really the only one who could translate Ward. . .
"Well . . . so, that clears up the sleeping arrangements," Kiros covered smoothly.
I nodded absently, then looked up. "Wait! Where's Quistis sleeping?"
Quistis picked her way over to the door. "In a guest room Kiros assigned me." She looked back at me hesitantly. "It's nearby, don't hesitate to call for me."
Huh? I blinked, and it occurred to me: this was Quistis's apology. Her way of saying she wasn't mad at me, since she couldn't with all the forensics people swarming about the room. And knowing her, I'd probably get amore formal apology later, but for now, this ws all she could offer.
"Yeah, sure!" I grinned cheerfully. My assurance to her. She nodded, looking slightly relieved.
Kiros cleared his throat. "Ward, can you show Quistis her room? I need to talk to Laguna." He looked at me seriously. Crap
Listen, in my experience, the words 'We need to talk' or any derivative thereof is a precursor to REALLY bad news.
I swallowed, and started, "Kiros, I think . . ."
He interrupted. "She wasn't sent here on a mission, Laguna," he crossed his arms and leaned back. "What's up?"
"Er . . ." I swallowed.
Listen, I tell Kiros and Ward everything. They ask, I tell, that's the end of it. We're like brothers, only not as much fighting with each other. Hell, we hadn't fought in years. Disagreed, sure, but never fought.
But in all that time, I had never kept anything from them. Nope, never. Not by lying, not at all. But, if I told Kiros now everything that he wanted to know, I'd be betraying Quistis's trust. Trust is a valuable thing to have, sometimes more valuable than anything else.
I couldn't tell Kiros, no . . . but would it change anything? By not telling him?
"I'm going to tell the truth . . ." I swallowed and looked up, before looking Kiros in the eye. "I'm not comfortable with keeping things from you, Kiros, but I have no choice on this one. It's personal business of Quistis's, not mine."
I held my breath.
Kiros looked at me levelly, and nodded. No words, nothing, but he understood. Yeah, sappier than a Hallmark card, but there really wasn't much else Kiros could do.
We shared companionable silence for the rest of the evening.
As I walked into my temporary rooming that night, I had time to really think about what had happened.
Quistis had . . . well . . . dammit, the woman had turned me on. . . what else was there to think about?!
And I realized . . . I hadn't felt, well, you know, THAT WAY about a woman . . .
. . . since Raine. . .
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. author's note .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
Hey. I need an opinion here-should I begin to post up my FFVII fic? It's a Reno/Yuffie . . . but, if I begin to post it, it might cut into the progression of this one. Writer's Block isn't an issue; it's how fast I can type . . . notice how short my chapters are? There's a reason for that . . . namely, my unorthodox typing method.
More reviewer responses. I already did some of you, so I won't repeat anyone I've replied before. Here's the lucky four-
Crazy Rikku-Um . . . Thank you. You increased my review count considerably in one try. I'm glad you seem to like my story. . . and your personality is strangely similar to your namesake's.
Renoa Heartilly-Oh, goody! We need more Quistis/Laguna's. So thank you for the praise, and if you DO write a fic, I'll be sure to review it. Good luck. (I'm always up for a good Seifuu, and I sense a lot of improvement between your first fics and your more recent ones)
Klepto-maniac0-Just encouragement here, but that's what reviewers are for, hmm? Thank you, it's nice knowing people actually read my stuff . . . stuff . . . . stuff is a very convenient word . . . it refers to everything. . .
PinkOpium-Living proof that anonymous reviewers aren't all bad. Thank you, and yes, these two are also my two favorite characters. They just happen to mesh so well.
Next time, I'll just put up my five favorite reviewers, whether or not I've replied to them already or not. Keep my spirits up, folks, I need it.
I'm sorry the updates have been slow. My schoolwork gets in the way . . . a lower classman (or, classwoman) doesn't have much of chance to get the good report subjects . Plus, I'm getting shipped away for Christmas AGAIN. At least this year it isn't Thanksgiving too. . .well, wish me luck, this chapter is going to take forever to finish.
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. quistis .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
As Laguna handed me a paper to read, I pondered on my conclusion. It had taken twelve hours to observe, to register, to deny, and then to accept, if with alacrity, this statement. The conclusion was this: Laguna was an extremely busy man.
See, I am a very efficient person, and as a rule, I can do things twice as fast as most people. However, I was stunned by the efficacy of Laguna in his office, managing to juggle the everyday affairs of his country and keep on top of the major issues at hand. He had eaten lunch, held a teleconference, passed seven laws, overruled a controversial trial, and kicked Kiros in the shins twice, ALL IN ONE HOUR.
I marveled still at his assured air. Gone was the rather moronic man of clumsy words and ditzy attitude. Here was a man who knew what had to be done, and did it. Who knew that the future was not ours to see, but that the present was ours to use.
I glanced at him fleetingly before I reluctantly looked back at the parchment in my hand. He had been working on a revised treaty all day between tasks, merely to propose in place of the treaty he had handed to me to look at.
I sighed. I already knew the gist of things just from listening in on the conversations around me, but I leaned in over it anyway, picking around the formal phrases to decipher the words behind it. "So this is the incentive for the assassinations?" I asked casually; if it was, I could already see why.
Kiros pointed out a few lines. "Yup, Galbadia has a lot to gain from this."
That was an understatement, by a long shot. It was a very demanding and slightly threatening document. I shook my head at the audacity of the document's author, which was no doubt Koryu Deling.
Laguna must have seen my small, condescending gesture as something else, because he turned the document back around to face him, and casting a wary eye it, explained. "Esthar's always been seen as stingy by other governments, cause we don't share as much of our stuff as they want."
"They're lucky you share at all," I replied with a raised eyebrow.
To my slight dismay and annoyance, Laguna continued as if I hadn't said anything. "See that desert out there?" He pointed out the window; over the skyline was a line of reddened dirt. I nodded vaguely.
"That little line of dust? That's Esthar," He shook his head. "Our technology is all we have to trade. We rely on that trade. If we give all our technology away at once, we get screwed in the long run."
I coughed; Laguna certainly had . . . a unique way of phrasing things.
I leaned over the document once more, and tapped my nail on a paragraph. "So if you signed this, and all the trades to these countries were cut off . . ." I let my finger slide to a different portion of the paper ". . . and these technologies given to Galbadia . . ."
"We'd be weakened enough - and they'd be strengthened enough - in ten years for them to move in and take over," Laguna declared morosely. "So I can't sign it, and the baddies are still gonna be coming at me." I jerked my head up as Laguna let out a wry, very un-Laguna chuckle. "Sucks to be me, huh?"
At that, my SeeD training took over. "Your decisions are irrelevant." I said in a clipped voice. Laguna looked up sharply, and I hurried to correct my harsh tone.
"My duty would still lie in protecting you," I gently added. My duty, yes.
He maintained eye contact, his hair falling over his face loosely. In a soft, almost regretting voice, he said, "Even you can't catch bullets, Quistis."
I snorted. "I can if I put enough bone in the way."
Laguna's head jerked up, and his eyes widened slightly. "Okay, that was NOT funny." He stood up and glared at me.
"It wasn't meant to be." I gazed levelly back. I had tried to kill myself less than a week ago. Though life was more tempting, death did not scare me.
He snorted, and Laguna's feathery hair blew out at his burst of breath. "So don't . . . just don't . . ." Laguna's mouth stretched strangely in an ill- covered yawn, and his sentence was cut short.
Kiros plucked the treaty off of the desk, and rolled it up abrubtly. Kiros had been responsible for the preservation of Laguna's dignity more times than I could count in the activities of the day. "Hey, 'Guna, you need to sleep sometime," he suggested.
Though Kiros's tone was inflected with 'you don't have a choice in the matter,' Laguna ignored it. He leaned back over the paper he was working on. "Yeah, I'm almost done here," he muttered, avoiding eye contact.
Kiros tapped the rolled up paper on his shoulder thoughtfully. "He's not gonna take a revised anything. With this new Koryu guy, its gonna be all or nothing." He accentuated his final word with a twack on the head to Laguna.
Laguna waved his hand absently over the spot that Kiros had hit. "I still gotta do this. And as I said, I'm almost done."
It was my duty here to protect Laguna, yes. I had known that it wouldn't be an easy job, due to his being Laguna Loire. However, I hadn't been aware that I would need to protect my client from himself as well.
If he didn't get any sleep, how would he keep up the remarkable pace that he had set for himself all day? He would, no doubt, set up the same pace tomorrow. How on Hyne's good earth did he manage?
I placed my hand over the center of his page, causing him to look up at me with a slightly shocked look as I leaned over his desk. "Then you can finish it tomorrow, Laguna," I stated, setting my mouth firmly.
He shifted uncomfortably, and opened his mouth a few times as if to reply, but then he suddenly grinned. "Hey! I didn't hafta remind you to call me Laguna!" His fist pounded the air
I coughed. Oops. Well, if me being a bit more familiar with him made him happy, I suppose it wouldn't hurt. After all, I have a lot of vacation days to use up, so I'd obviously be in his company for a very long time. Well, roughly three months, anyway.
"Let's go, Laguna, you need to sleep." I headed to the door.
"Er . . . why are you . . ." I turned, to see Laguna still standing by his desk, looking somewhere between bashful and embarrassed. "What are you . . . "
I cursed inwardly as my face heated slightly. I did have to walk him to his room, but honestly, did he have to make a big deal out of it?
I cleared my throat tentatively. "I need to search your quarters." At Laguna's look of profound relief I continued the thread of thought, ticking my fingers. "Explosives, killers in the closet, etc. etc. You understand," I finished smoothly.
Kiros smirked, and ruined my cover-up by leaning over to whisper something in Laguna's ear. I couldn't make anything out, but Laguna's face stained noticeably red, and he muttered something unintelligible as he stumbled out the door behind me.
"What did Kiros say?" I queried.
He winced, and scratched his head, as he always did when he was nervous. "It wasn't exactly . . . erm . . . appropriate?" he ventured quietly, not looking at me.
"What a fine teacher's excuse," I goaded. "I do believe I've rubbed off on you, Laguna."
I blinked after I said that.
What? I hadn't just . . . teased him, had I?
I scarcely tease anyone. ANYONE. I had taken familiarity too far. I had teased a total of eight people in my life, and now Laguna had gone and made himself number nine.
Luckily, Laguna didn't notice my lapse of character. "Er . . . It had something to do with your 'checking quarters' comment . . ." He avoided eye contact, and the air became awkwardly heavy.
I thought about that for a moment, shaking off the thick air's effects, before the implications hit me. ". . . Oh."
"Right . . ." Laguna stopped. His room was right beside me. "Right in there then . . ." He slumped himself against the wall, obviously not planning on going in.
"Right," I muttered awkwardly, before shaking my head and standing straighter. "Wait here."
I opened the door and walked in.
Stepping slowly, I drew my whip out cautiously, just to be safe. I left the lights out; though this might hinder my senses, it would also hinder my opponents. The shadows that the open door cast looked dull and harmless, and I flipped out my flashlight for a more thorough search of the main room.
I admit; I had been curious as to what Laguna Loire's bedroom looked like. Not so much, of course, that I'd dwell upon it, but it certainly wasn't an opportunity I was going to let pass me by. However, now that I was standing right outside of it, I just felt awkward.
Wisely, I decided to do the other rooms, and save the bedroom for last.
I checked the likely places first, drawers, closets, under the couch, the pantry . . . Laguna drank coffee, and kept champagne next to the coffee. Convenient for entertainment . . . but I doubted Laguna did much entertainment in his personal rooms.
Perhaps he'd had a lover at one point? I brushed the thought away nervously; I did not want to have to deal with scandalous mental images while poring through Laguna's bedroom.
Normally, in a mission like this, there would be at least two SeeDs; one for a day shift, and one for a night. However, in the hour that the two shifts overlapped, the two SeeDs would search the rooms of the employer together. Then, it hadn't seemed like such an invasion of privacy.
But this mission wasn't a usual mission. I had put myself willingly and unpaid in this position. I was sifting through Laguna Loire's foodstuffs by choice.
One room left . . . I peered into his bedroom Blue décor, typical color for a male to decorate with . . . but no pictures on the walls. A few framed magazine articles . . . I stepped into the room to read the title of one.
'Well,' the nasty little voice in my head popped up, 'Look at this. You are, by your own choice, in an attractive mans bedroom. What are you going to do about this, Quistis?'
If I had brushed away my first uncomfortable thought, I stomped down furiously upon this one, but I still ended up with a flushed face and an awkward wince.
I sniffed. The air here was . . . different. Not noticeable, normally . . . not quite, but my nerves were jumpy, and my senses were strangely heightened . . .
My boots clicked timidly as I crossed the hardwood floor, and hurriedly checked the room, still slightly flushed. I stepped to the center of the room and frowned. Why did the air still feel strange?
Let me explain something to you. As humans, we have been conditioned by millennia of evolution to not look up, because until recently, nothing was big enough to take us from the sky. Why waste survival senses on something unnecessary?
So I suppose it wasn't completely my fault that I had failed to look at the ceiling.
The man attacked from above, and landed directly behind me.
Instinct born of years of training forced my body to go limp, and I fell solidly to ground, only to roll to the left, coming up in a crouch. The man's knife buried itself in an armoire with a sound thunk, and he released it to face me.
Laguna, if you heard that, please run.
Perhaps he hadn't heard it? I held my whip at the ready, although in such close quarters it would be little use. The intruder attacked me with another knife, yelling horribly.
Well, Laguna had certainly heard that.
I cursed silently; Laguna, with his misplaced sense of chivalry, would most likely burst in to 'rescue' me. Sir Laguna, indeed.
I reached within me for a 'Protect' for Laguna, for when he inevitably bolted into the room.
I dodged another strike, and snapped my whip. My long distance weaponry was useless here . . . I dropped my whip and fell into Zell's favorite fighting dance . . .a moving target, fists up, ready to block.
He didn't come, he stepped back towards the entrance, and behind him, I saw Laguna through the doorway, trying to get a clear shot. I leapt to the side, and my opponent took a grenade out of his bag at the same time as Laguna lifted his weapon to the assassins head.
BANG.
The man fell after one shot from Laguna's pistol. He crumpled to the floor, and I looked at Laguna, the adrenaline still coursing in me. He didn't return my glance. I looked down at the fallen man. In his hand was the grenade.
The pinless grenade.
I stood there, and in the precious seconds it took for my mind to register that, Laguna acted. He grabbed my arms, drew me close to him, and jump- dived over the bed and to the other side.
After that was a deafening noise, a splintering of wood and cracking stone, and short, sharp whistling sounds of shrapnel flying through the air. I don't know what it looked like precisely, because it was very dark . . . for some reason.
Deafening noise, and . . .
Silence. No . . . not total silence, but compared to the chaos just moments before, it was utter stillness. There was still a faint popping of wood, and something was on top of me.
Why was it so dark?
And then I realized; my eyes were closed.
My eyes slit open, and I coughed at the dust and debris still floating in the air. Squinting, I stayed still, not sure if by moving I would trigger an avalanche of broken wood and rubble.
I did, however, shift my weight, and wondered numbly what the warm weight over me was. I opened my eyes completely, fighting the tears that rose from the dust content.
Laguna . . . was . . .
Laguna was . . . on me? Still on me, shielding me from the grenade blow . . . still trying to catch his breath . . .
I was scared, to tell it quite frankly. Not of Laguna, no, he'd never take advantage of a situation like this. I, for some unexplainable reason, trust Laguna. No, I wasn't scared of Laguna, I have confidence in Laguna.
But for the first time in my life, I didn't fully trust myself.
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. .laguna. .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
Okay, so Quistis had been right to check my room, awkward as it may have seemed. I'd probably be . . . well, dead if it weren't for Quistis. And I sort of like living, so that's cool. Of course, Quistis would be dead right now if it weren't for ME, but let's not hash details here, 'K?
Argh . . . my room was in shambles, but I was okay thanks to Quistis, and Quistis was okay thanks to me, and that was all that really mattered right now. I had a few nasty cuts on my back from the shrapnel, but my now demolished bed had taken most of the hit.
A small cough snapped me out of my mental check-over. I blearily shook my head, and a single fact popped up in my mind.
'Hay, Laguna, you do realize you're like, ON Quistis, right?'
Oh.
CRAP.
That whole diving-at-someone-to-play-human-shield gig had a major drawback. Yeah. You ended up in an awkward position with whoever you were shielding, which in training camp had been a big joke . . . here, it was a bit more serious.
See, in case you didn't know, Quistis is a girl. Yup. A woman, really . . . an attractive, young woman. And even if my mind had somehow managed to lay this fact aside, my body had NOT.
I stared down at Quistis, and she stared up at me.
The same damn annoying voice rose up, 'She trusts you.'
Ah, shoot. This was very uncool.
I rolled off as quickly as possible, hissing silently as a fresh burst of pain from my torn up back rewarded my effort. And man, did I pray to Hyne that she hadn't noticed . . . erm . . . anything . . . yeah.
She sat up with a small noise, and turned to me almost weakly. Aw, man . . . I blinked, and looked up away from her, cursing my leg for choosing just now to cramp. I cleared my throat before saying anything, "Er . . . sorry . . ."
Quistis must have been catching her breath too, although probably not for the same reasons as me. Her voice was breathy as she said, "Oh . . . it's quite alright, it was nothing . . ."
We sat in silence for a moment, breathing heavily. I ruefully looked back at my bad. Dang, I liked that comforter . . .
"Laguna?" a voice said softly. I turned to Quistis slowly.
She cleared her throat, and I leaned forward, only to be shot back by . . .
"What the hell did you think you were doing?!"
I blinked, and did a double take at her face. She looked at me with an expression of annoyed disgust, nostrils flaring in indignition.
"WHAT?!" I yelped, scrambling for footing to get up. Had she noticed!? "Er . . . you just said it was . . . I swear, it was an accident . . . well, kinda not really, but . . ." Yeah, just dig yourself deeper there . . . Argh . . .
"Not that!" she snapped, as she stood furiously, and offered me a hand up. I didn't want to think how much the frayed skin on my back would tear if I lifted my arm. But, me and endorphins were really good friends at the moment, so I gritted my teeth and took her hand anyway.
Not good; as I stumbled up, I hit something with my back, and I wasn't able to hold back a strangled cry. DAMN, it hurt!
Quistis's eyes narrowed, and she grabbed my shoulder and turned me around in a single motion. I heard her hissing indrawn breath, and I wondered vaguely how bad it looked before I was facing her again and she was poking me in the chest.
"I'M supposed to be protecting YOU, Laguna Loire!" she fumed. "NOT the other way around!" Her index finger hit me square in the center of my collarbone.
"Um . . . I did kinda just prevent your intestines from being splattered on the wall . . ." I looked at her dazedly, wasn't she forgetting that little fact? I faltered, as she continued blindly.
"I can't protect you if you're dead, Laguna!"
"You can't protect me if you're dead either, Quistis," I said in as reasonable a tone as possible.
It was kinda funny watching Quistis gape like a fish for a few seconds, but then she crossed her arms, and in a huff, muttered, "Don't be so reasonable . . . I'm not used to it."
The room got a lot colder all of a sudden.
Had she believed my moron façade? I normally would have been happy to fool such an obviously intelligen person . . . but instead, I felt strangely depressed. I didn't want her to see me as the klutzy, moronic president of Esthar. I wanted her to see me as Laguna Loire, as Kiros and Ward saw me.
For some reason . . .
That pissed me off.
"Fine," I snapped.
"Good!" she snapped back, glaring at me.
"Yeah!" I countered
"Hmph!" Quistis seemed determined to have the last say, and I was about to reply again when I heard a crunching noise behind me.
" . . !? "
"Laguna! Oh Hyne, what happened!" Kiros picked his way around the trash with Ward and a few guards. Quistis gave an irritated sigh, but didn't say anything.
"Well, you see . . ." I paused as I felt a Curaga peel silently over the wounds on my back. Smart of Quistis; if Kiros had see my wounds, he'd of freaked and forced me to stay in bed for week, and I really didn't need that right now.
Kiros shook his head. "You see . . . what?" he demanded.
I twitched, and explained slowly. "She was checking around . . . and I heard a shout that wasn't Quistis . . . so I came in, and shot the guy, but he'd pulled the pin on a grenade, so . . ."
"So this idiot, with no regard for his safety, decides to play 'Sir Laguna the Infernally Moronic' and shield me!" Quistis cut in sharply, punctuating her words with slicing hand gestures. "He should have gone for help, not come barging in with no idea of the situation! He-"
Kiros, who had obviously been hiding a laugh, lost the fight with his mirth and began to chuckle.
I leaned over towards Kiros and muttered nervously, "You really shouldn't piss her off . . . "
Quistis glared pointedly at Kiros. "There is nothing humorous in the slightest about any of this," she declared almost haughtily. I didn't think so either, but Kiros did have a weird sense of humor.
He calmed down and said in a soothing voice, "Yeah . . . okay." Kiros paused, and turned to me. ". . . Laguna, where are you sleeping tonight? You can't be thinking of sleeping in here."
Ward shook his head. " . . . " Kiros opened his mouth to translate, but Quistis snapped out, "He'll be rooming in Ward's room, since Ward has the night shift anyway."
I stared at her. Ward stared at her. Kiros did too. How the heck had she known what Ward had meant? Kiros was really the only one who could translate Ward. . .
"Well . . . so, that clears up the sleeping arrangements," Kiros covered smoothly.
I nodded absently, then looked up. "Wait! Where's Quistis sleeping?"
Quistis picked her way over to the door. "In a guest room Kiros assigned me." She looked back at me hesitantly. "It's nearby, don't hesitate to call for me."
Huh? I blinked, and it occurred to me: this was Quistis's apology. Her way of saying she wasn't mad at me, since she couldn't with all the forensics people swarming about the room. And knowing her, I'd probably get amore formal apology later, but for now, this ws all she could offer.
"Yeah, sure!" I grinned cheerfully. My assurance to her. She nodded, looking slightly relieved.
Kiros cleared his throat. "Ward, can you show Quistis her room? I need to talk to Laguna." He looked at me seriously. Crap
Listen, in my experience, the words 'We need to talk' or any derivative thereof is a precursor to REALLY bad news.
I swallowed, and started, "Kiros, I think . . ."
He interrupted. "She wasn't sent here on a mission, Laguna," he crossed his arms and leaned back. "What's up?"
"Er . . ." I swallowed.
Listen, I tell Kiros and Ward everything. They ask, I tell, that's the end of it. We're like brothers, only not as much fighting with each other. Hell, we hadn't fought in years. Disagreed, sure, but never fought.
But in all that time, I had never kept anything from them. Nope, never. Not by lying, not at all. But, if I told Kiros now everything that he wanted to know, I'd be betraying Quistis's trust. Trust is a valuable thing to have, sometimes more valuable than anything else.
I couldn't tell Kiros, no . . . but would it change anything? By not telling him?
"I'm going to tell the truth . . ." I swallowed and looked up, before looking Kiros in the eye. "I'm not comfortable with keeping things from you, Kiros, but I have no choice on this one. It's personal business of Quistis's, not mine."
I held my breath.
Kiros looked at me levelly, and nodded. No words, nothing, but he understood. Yeah, sappier than a Hallmark card, but there really wasn't much else Kiros could do.
We shared companionable silence for the rest of the evening.
As I walked into my temporary rooming that night, I had time to really think about what had happened.
Quistis had . . . well . . . dammit, the woman had turned me on. . . what else was there to think about?!
And I realized . . . I hadn't felt, well, you know, THAT WAY about a woman . . .
. . . since Raine. . .
(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·. author's note .·'´¯)¸.·'´¯)
Hey. I need an opinion here-should I begin to post up my FFVII fic? It's a Reno/Yuffie . . . but, if I begin to post it, it might cut into the progression of this one. Writer's Block isn't an issue; it's how fast I can type . . . notice how short my chapters are? There's a reason for that . . . namely, my unorthodox typing method.
More reviewer responses. I already did some of you, so I won't repeat anyone I've replied before. Here's the lucky four-
Crazy Rikku-Um . . . Thank you. You increased my review count considerably in one try. I'm glad you seem to like my story. . . and your personality is strangely similar to your namesake's.
Renoa Heartilly-Oh, goody! We need more Quistis/Laguna's. So thank you for the praise, and if you DO write a fic, I'll be sure to review it. Good luck. (I'm always up for a good Seifuu, and I sense a lot of improvement between your first fics and your more recent ones)
Klepto-maniac0-Just encouragement here, but that's what reviewers are for, hmm? Thank you, it's nice knowing people actually read my stuff . . . stuff . . . . stuff is a very convenient word . . . it refers to everything. . .
PinkOpium-Living proof that anonymous reviewers aren't all bad. Thank you, and yes, these two are also my two favorite characters. They just happen to mesh so well.
Next time, I'll just put up my five favorite reviewers, whether or not I've replied to them already or not. Keep my spirits up, folks, I need it.