~*~Chapter 3~*~
Gloomy light drifted through curtains and into the room the next morning. Quistis woke up to the sound of rain falling outside and someone shuffling in the closet. She saw Seifer trying to quietly shuffle through his sparse closet for something. She turned her head to look at the clock beside her. It read 6:00 AM. He finally found what he was looking for, a long black trench coat that looked similar to the grey one she remembered him constantly donning in his youth.
"What happened to your trademark grey coat?" She suddenly asked as she propped herself up into a sitting position.
Seifer not expecting her to up was caught off guard.
"Good morning, I'm sorry, did I wake you?" He couldn't help but smile as Quistis tried to push her tangled hair from her face.
"No, after fifteen years of waking up early I can't sleep past six, besides life is too short to waste away in sleep. Do you know we spend one third of our lives sleeping?" Seifer nodded in amusement as he wore the long coat over his clothes.
"So what happened to the grey one?" She asked again.
"I still have it," he said while adjusting the lapels of his coat. "It's right here." He pulled out the well worn coat wrapped in a garment bag. "As you can see, I've decided to let it retire. It has served me well in the past."
"And now you've decided on wearing a black one instead," she said as she rubbed the sleepiness from her eyes.
"Well, you can't live in the past forever, Trepe."
"You're right you can't," she said weakly.
"Don't worry about it. We've still got the future ahead of us," he said trying to cheer her up. Seeing his last attempted was unsuccessful, he decided to try again. "Tonight I'm going to show you how to have some fun. I bet you've haven't had some fun for a while," he winked and grabbed an umbrella and was ready to leave.
"Where are you going?" Quistis asked curiously.
"I'm going to work, you should go back to sleep. You're gonna need plenty of energy tonight," he winked again. "Besides it's raining right now, so you can't really do much. I should be back by noon, and I expect you to still be here," he said with a commanding tone.
"Where would I go? You said yourself it is raining, and I can't go anywhere," she said innocently.
He laughed, "Nothing could stop you if you really wanted to leave. Now go back to sleep or something. I'll see you later." He waved to her and walked out of the room. A few moments later she heard the front door close shut and the bolt lock.
She laid back down listening to the rain falling on the window, and the roof above her. She was tired and wanted to go to sleep forever. She was tired of her own thoughts pulling her deeper into depression with every waking moment she had. She eventually drifted off into sleep again, woke up after a couple of hours.
She was surprised that she slept in so late. She couldn't remember the last time she slept in till eleven o'clock. After making the bed and washing up, she observed everything in the cabin, and once again looked into his closet again. She found what she was looking for, Seifer's trademark grey coat. She pulled it out and closely observed that the edges and the ends of the coat were well worn, and fringes were found along the bottom and at the sleeves. The coat was clean despite its worn state. She put the coat back in the garment bag and returned it to its rightful spot in the closet.
Buried in the back of the closet was a familiar case with a Hyperion cross on the top of the leather case. Quistis curious pulled the case out. She had never seen the case before. Seifer never seemed to use it since he always carried Hyperion with him. She opened the case to find it empty. The inside was lined with a soft blood red velvet material. Her hand glided over the soft material imagining the gun blade resting in the case. The case was simple and sleek like Hyperion itself.
Hyperion was as much as part of Seifer, as Save the Queen was to her. She thought to herself.
She put the case back to where she found it and pulled out her Save the Queen, and went outside. She didn't care if it was raining. For the past couple months, she had neglected her fighting skills. She released her whip into the wet air with a loud crack, and then swung her whip back to fly around above her head. Again she snapped the whip back with another crack as she attacked an imaginary enemy. She expertly swung her whip around herself and quickly moved with grace as if she was dancing and the whip was her deadly ribbon twisting and snapping at the air and rain with authority.
Quistis had forgotten how free she felt practicing with her whip. She felt stronger and alive again with her weapon in hand. She was reminded of her more active past. She closed her eyes and followed the movement of her extension through her senses. Suddenly she felt her whip wrap around and become stopped by something. She quickly snapped opened her eyes to see that her whip had wrapped around Hyperion, and Seifer was holding it back.
Seifer smirked, "You want a fight, Trepe? Spar with me then."
In response with a flick of her wrist she unraveled Save the Queen from Hyperion, and stood ready for their match. "Ready when you are," she yelled across to him as the rain started to fall louder and harder.
"Ladies first," he said as he gestured with his hand.
Shortening her whip, she charged at Seifer. She quickly stooped down and swung her whip at his leg. Seifer evaded her first attack by leaping over her, and quickly rolling back on to his feet. Now that he was behind her, Quistis quickly adapted to the situation by testing her flexibility and leaned backwards, and then releasing her whip again this time to its full length as she swung at Seifer again. The whip only hit air. Quistis pulled back her whip with a loud crack. As she stood back up only to find Seifer had already recovered her last attack, and was charging towards her with Hyperion high above his head. Quistis instantly slid her free onto the loose end of the whip and succeed in using the whip to block Seifer's blow. On his fourth blow, she managed to wrap her whip around Hyperion's blade capturing it within Save the Queen's grasp locking Seifer's movements of Hyperion.
"Not bad, Trepe, but I'm going to win. No matter what," he winked.
"We'll see," she said as she glared into his green eyes and tightened her whip around his blade, and prepared to twist it out of his hand. Instead Seifer grasped the sleek handle of Hyperion with both of his gloved hands and twisted with all his strength. His strength out matched Quistis and caused her to make a twist in the same manner to keep her grasp on the blade with her whip. Before he could throw her into another turn with his blade, Quistis loosened her whip from his blade and quickly pulled away. Just as Seifer was preparing to start attacking again, Quistis cracked her whip once to keep him at a distance then immediately started her attack. She whorled her whip and attacked Seifer with every wave of her arm. Seifer easily deflected every swing from the biting end of her whip.
"This isn't fair, you have the advantage of a long range weapon," he managed to yell across in between each crack and deflecting.
"Well, I thought you said you were going to win this one, no matter what," She yelled back.
"I am," he said self-assuredly and continued to deflect her attacks.
Quistis was getting tired of Seifer's constant deflecting of her attacks, so she wheeled her whip back and whorled it over her head a couple times and swung it at Seifer again.
"Shit," Seifer cursed under this breath as soon as the end of the whip made contact with his gloved hand causing him to drop Hyperion.
Quistis immediately pulled back her whip and ran towards him.
"Are you all right?" she asked. "Take your glove off and let me see."
Suddenly in a split second, Seifer reached out to grab Save the Queen from Quistis's hand. Surprised Quistis immediately jumped back, but Seifer had the end caught the end of her whip in a tight grasp.
"You can never be too careful, Trepe," he gave her a wink and smirked as he started tugging at her whip and trying to pull her closer to him.
"Let go of my whip," she demanded.
"It's only fair Trepe. See I don't have a weapon now. You shouldn't have one either," with each word he spoke he wrapped Save the Queen around his arm and shortened the distance between them.
Quistis tried desperately to figure a way out of this situation, and she hoped that she was strong enough to throw Seifer off balance. She doubted it would work, but decided to give it a try. She waited for him to get close enough to her, and with a pivot of her foot she spun around and tried to kick Seifer off balance, but he already anticipated her move and was too quick for her. Instead he used the length of the whip to wrap her arms behind her back, and caused her to lose her balance on the wet ground and fall into his arms with her arms firmly pinned behind her back.
"I told you I'd win," he grinned as the sun finally emerged from behind the clouds. "See even Hyperion, the sun god, has come out of the clouds to see my victory."
"Well, I'm proud of you Seifer. You finally defeated me. The student has indeed surpassed the instructor." Quistis struggled with her bonds. "Now can you release me?"
"I kind of like seeing you helpless in my arms like this, Trepe. Never thought you'd be in my mercy. Did you?" He said raising an eye brow.
"Seifer," she said sternly. "Let me go. I don't like being "helpless" or in your "mercy" now please let me go.
"All right," he said and released her and returned her whip to her. "You know it doesn't hurt for you to be damsel in distress once and a while."
"It wouldn't hurt if I had a knight in shining armor to save me either," she said as she wiped the water from her face.
"Doesn't my shiny wet black trench coat count as armor?"
"No," she said flatly and headed towards the cabin.
"Ouch," Seifer muttered to himself as he rubbed the hand that the whip struck.
~~~
When Seifer finished changing out of his wet clothes, Quistis came out of the bathroom with a towel wrapped around her head after changing out of her wet clothes. After spying Seifer's gloves on the table, she asked "How's your hand?" She reached for the hand her whip struck earlier. She took his right hand into hers. His skin was surprisingly smooth with few calluses. She noticed a slight purple starting to rise on the back of his hand. She lightly ran her finger over it giving Seifer a slight tingling sensation on the sensitive skin.
"Maybe you should put some ice on it?" she suggested.
"Maybe, but it's nothing really, I can still handle Hyperion with no problem," he held Hyperion out stretched in his hand as proof.
"If you say so," she walking into the kitchen anyway and took out an ice pack.
"Here you go," she tossed him the ice pack. "Now what shall we eat for lunch?" She thought out loud as she observed the sparse refrigerator.
"You're not going to find anything in there."
"Of course I won't find anything there's only…nothing."
"Well excuse me Instructor, but I being the genius that I am have saved us both from starvation. Cause I bought food on the way back from work." He said lifting up a bag.
"You only have to work half day?" she asked eyeing the bag. "What did you buy?"
"I just got us some chicken sandwiches. Is that all right?" Quistis nodded as she prepared to sit down and eat. "Yeah, I only teach the one class in the morning, for now at least."
"So what do you do exactly?" She asked curiously.
"I teach my student basic fighting skills."
"With a gunblade?" She interrupted. "What kind of school needs to educate children in violence?"
"I'm not teaching violence. It's more like a self-defense class. It's not like we are training these kids to be mercenaries like us. I'm just teaching them to protect themselves against some of the dangers they can encounter in the wild if they wander out to far." He explained.
"Well, if you put it that way. Do you teach magic and spells and guardian forces, and all that other stuff we had to learn?" She asked as she took another bit into her sandwich.
"I only teach a few. Like the vitals of Cure and Healing and stuff like that. I do talk about some of the other powerful spells and attacks, but that's about it."
"Oh okay," she nodded then a smile crossed her lips. "And I thought all that time you were too busy throwing wads of paper and sneering at everyone to listen to a word I said in class."
"Nothing slips pass you. You have to admit I had pretty damn good aim. I always hit Squall square on the face." Seifer chuckled at the memory as he pointed to his right cheek. Quistis couldn't help but laugh.
"So are you ready for tonight?"
"Tonight? What's happening tonight?"
"I'm going to take you to this club in town."
"Why?"
"So you can let yourself lose and have fun."
"I don't know loud music and big crowds?" she shook her head. "I don't think so."
"I guarantee you won't mind the music or the crowds after a few drinks," he winked.
She furrowed her eyebrows, "are you planning on getting me drunk?"
"Why not? I'll take care of you, besides never seen you drunk before."
She scowled, "and you never will."
"Don't be so sure about yourself, Trepe."
"Of course I'm sure about myself. I know how to pace myself."
"We'll see," he winked. "Now I'm going to take a nap." He gathered up the sandwich boxes and threw them into the trash with a thunk. "That fight we had was pretty tiring," he said as he flopped down on the sofa and stretched himself into a comfortable position and fell asleep.
Quistis just picked up one of the books off his bookshelf and sat down in one of the more comfortable chairs and started reading. That last think she remembered reading before dozing off was how to cast a fishing pole when fishing.
~~~
When they got into the club, music was blaring and drumming into Quistis's ear. The club was crowed. It was like the whole town had decided to come to the club tonight. The flashing colored lights shined over the tops of writing bodies dancing to the quick beat of the music.
Seifer held tightly onto Quistis's hand as he led her through the crowd of people towards the bar.
"What do you want to drink?" he yelled over the music.
"Anything," Quistis yelled back.
Seifer yelled for the bartender for drinks, and came back minutes later with 2 glasses in hand and handed one to Quistis. He stood looking at her tapping her feet to the music. She was wearing black hip huggers and a single strap black blouse and around her waist was a silver chain belt that dangled down her side.
Seifer held the dangled end of the belt in his hand. "Nice touch," he commented.
"Thanks."
"Let's dance."
"What?"
He leaned his head in closer to her ear and repeated, "Let's dance."
"Dance?" She immediately shook her head. "I can't dance."
"Come on," he nudged her forward.
"No," she firmly refused.
"I'll dance with you if she doesn't," a reply came from behind Seifer. Her smooth sexy voice matched her physique. She was a beautiful and alluring blond woman. Her dark green dress was snug and accentuated all her curves. She came around to face Seifer, and nonchalantly placed her arms over his shoulders. Her hands then made their way over his chest. "So want to dance, handsome?" She asked as she licked her glossy red lips.
Quistis gave an annoyed look at the woman flirting with Seifer and finished her drink. She rolled her eyes and turned away and came face to face with a rugged looking man whose breath smelled of alcohol.
"Hey blondie lets dance," he placed his hand on Quistis's arm and forcefully pulling her into the writhing crowd. Quistis struggled, but his grip on her arm was firm almost tight.
"Let me go," she continued struggling.
"Come on I'm not gonna hurt you," he said leaning close to her ear. His face lingered by her neck and took a deep breath. "You smell nice."
With disgust Quistis used her free hand to shove him away. "I said 'no' creep!" she exclaimed. The man suddenly grabbed both of her arms tightly and looked into her eyes with anger.
"No one says 'no' to me,' he growled.
"Let her go," a firm voice came from behind Quistis.
"Who the fuck are you?" he barked.
"I'll be the fucker who smashes your face into the wall if you don't let my girl go right now!" Seifer demanded.
The man angrily let her arm go leaving a red mark of his hand around Quistis's white skin.
"You all right?" Quistis nodded.
"I'm fine. Just a little grossed out by that snake." She shrugged as still felt the man's breath on her neck and shuddered.
"I'm sorry I got distracted."
"How could you not. Look at her!" She glanced back at the bar where the blond bombshell was still standing and working on her next prey.
"Forget about her. Let's dance." He didn't wait for her to protest and dragged her deeper into the crowded dance floor.
When they got deep enough into he crowed, Seifer stopped and started dancing and moving to the pulsating music.
"Come on Trepe. Don't just stand there! Move! Feel the rhythm," he yelled to her over the music. He leaned his body closers to hers.
"Seifer I--"
"Don't give me that bull shit of not knowing how to dance. I know you can dance. I've seen you dance before." She gave him a look of surprise at his declaration.
"Well I guess I don't have to hide it from you anymore," she said sarcastically. By now the music and the drink she had earlier was seeping into her body and her body was starting to sway to the beat. She took a step and raised her arms above her head and started to sway her hips and body to the music.
Seifer stepped closer to her and placed his arms around her waist to keep the surrounding men away from her. She automatically put her arms around his neck. "I didn't know you could dance either."
"Well you learn something new everyday," he winked. "So are we having fun?"
She smiled and raised her eyebrows, "What do you think?"
"Well of course you are having fun. You've got me for company."
She nodded, "Thanks."
"I thought you needed some letting loose," he continued.
"Shhh…," she place her fingers over his lips to quiet him. "Let's not think about anything right now. Let just dance."
Quistis let the beat of the music and lights fill her mind. Her body moved with the dancing wave of the crowed. With Seifer next to her they swayed and danced in the midst of writhing bodies. They moved and danced together as one.
They danced until they were thirsty and longed to gather some fresh air, and get away from the heat generated by their dancing.
"It's so much better out here," was the first thing Quistis said as they came out of the club. She stretched her arms out and took a deep breath of the cool night air.
"And much quieter too," Seifer added tugging at his ears. "Damn every time I leave the club I can't hear a damn thing."
"Huh?" Quistis pretended to not hear him. "I'm sorry my hearing is impaired at the moment," she laughed as she led a small chase towards the direction of the car.
As Quistis ran through the small ally way, she ran into something. Suddenly felt something smooth, metallic and cool held beneath her throat, and her hands were held firmly behind her back behind her. She could feel the heavy breath of the man who captured her graze her neck.
"Did I tell you 'you smell good'?" the familiar voice whispered into her ear. His breath and rough unshaven chin rubbed against her soft neck sending chills through her body.
"Quistis!" Seifer yelled as he saw the captured woman.
"Oh look blondie here comes your
boyfriend."
"Let
her go now, or I'll decorate these walls with your brains," Seifer growled with
controlled anger.
"Still acting like the tough guy?" With a jerk of his head a group of five men came out of the shadows ready to charge at Seifer. "This dance is mine, and you won't interfere this time. Get him boys!"
"Shit!" Seifer cursed under his breath. He wished he had Hyperion with him. He looked back at the men surrounding him. At least these guys looked unarmed. At least he hoped they were unarmed.
"Let me go!" Quistis screeched and she struggled under the rugged man's grip. She felt the dagger drawn closer to her throat, and she felt a sting where the dander had cut her. She winced at the dagger cutting into her skin with every move she made. She was helpless, and Seifer needed her help. What could she do?
Just as if Seifer read her mind, he turned towards them and charged at the man and Quistis. The man was surprised by the sudden attack and loosened his grip on Quistis of a split second giving her enough time to escape from him. Just as Quistis got away from the man, Seifer pounced on the man and was wrestling on the floor with him. The remaining three henchmen were about to attack Seifer just as Quistis swung a chain across one of the men's face.
"I'm your opponent now," she said and dashed at the men with light speed knocking one by one down off their feet with her chain leaving them all groaning in pain on the floor. She put her chain belt back around her waist and turned her attention back to see Seifer now on top of the man holding the dagger across the man's throat.
"I still get the last dance," Seifer growled at the man.
"Seifer, lets go," she said pulling Seifer off the man and they headed toward the car.
"Question. How did you manage to kick those guys' asses? With your bare hands?" He asked as they got in the car.
Quistis smiled proudly. "With my belt."
"You're belt? That little chain?" Quistis nodded.
"Yup, apparently small chains leave a nasty little mark across the skin. I'm surprised how strong this belt is. I think found my new favorite accessory."
After a couple minutes Seifer pulled the car in the drive way. Quistis stood by the cabin door waiting and noticed Seifer stumbling out of the car.
"Seifer, are you all right?" she asked with concern as she ran up to him, and found him hunched over and his hand covering his right side. "What's wrong?"
"I'm all right," he said as he tried to straighten himself up, but only succeeded in groaning in pain. Quistis reached out to give him support and felt something wet and warm on her hands.
"You're bleeding!" She exclaimed finally noticing the smell of blood on Seifer. "Why didn't you tell me? We should get you to a hospital."
Seifer shook his head and headed towards the cabin. "I'm fine. It's nothing just a flesh wound." He reassured her.
"I doubt it. It could get infected." She wrapped her arms around him, and led him into his bedroom. "Lie down, and let me see how bad it is," she commanded after helping him remove his coat. Quistis carefully rolled up his black shirt revealing the stab wound. She furrowed her eye brows. "It doesn't look too bad," she finally said observing the wound closer. "When did this happen?"
"I don't know. It happened so fast. Probably when I fell on that guy that had you," he said trying to recall the fight.
"Well can you manage to take off that shirt while I go and get some alcohol and towels to clean your wound?"
"I'd never thought I'd hear you asking me to take of my shirt."
She glared at him, "I'll let that 'flesh' wound of yours to get infected if you don't watch your mouth."
"Now you wouldn't do that to your savior."
"Savior?" She scoffed. "More like klutz. What kind of hero gets injured from falling on a knife," she muttered as she went out of the room, and returned moments later with a small basin of water, towel and other medication. She placed the basin on the night stand and wet the towel.
"This might sting a bit," she dabbed the towel around his wound.
"Might sting my ass! It fucking hurts," he winced. "Ow, easy on the dabbing there nurse, are you trying to kill me with pain?"
"Stop whining," she wrung the towel in the basin and resumed cleaning his wound. The cut on Quistis's neck caught Seifer's eye. He reached his hand out and lightly trailed his finger over the dried blood on her neck.
Seifer's touch caused Quistis to freeze and her cut tingling under his feathered touch.
"He hurt you," he said his hand still touching her.
"Oh it's nothing," she reached her hand over her neck and moved away his hand. "It will heal in a couple days."
"I'm sorry you got hurt," he turned his head away from her.
"I'm sorry you got hurt," she replied continuing to dress his wound. "Even though it's not as bad as I thought, still it's going to take more then a couple of days for you to be completely healed. I wish I had some cure spells to heal you with," she sighed.
"Don't worry Trepe. I'll be fine. You'll see tomorrow I'll be up and ready tomorrow."
"I doubt it. Besides you shouldn't be doing anything strenuous either. Now get some rest." She finished dressing his wounds, and walked out of the room.
~~~
She leaned closer to the mirror inspecting the cut on her neck. She ran her fingers along it and sighed. It was just a minor cut, but when the man had her in his grasp she was helpless, and she hated feeling helpless. Fortunately for her Seifer was there to help her out. If only someone could help her out of her inevitable deadly fate. She desperately wanted to forget this lurking phantom of hers, and Seifer succeeded in doing just that even if it was just a couple of hours. He helped her feel alive again. He taught her how to smile again, but that one fact was never far from her mind.
She walked out of the bathroom. She had changed into her sleepwear and headed toward the couch to sleep. Just as she pulled the blanket over her body, Seifer yelled from the bedroom.
"Are you sure you don't want the bed?"
"Of course, what kind of question is that? You're injured and deserve to be a bit more comfortable. Now go to sleep I'm tired," she yawned as she lay down.
"Quistis?"
"Hm?" she responded as she started to doze.
"Nothing never mind." He said after thinking for a bit.
"Okay," she yawned again, "Good night Seifer," She stretched her body to full length to be more comfortable and fell asleep.
A/N: I finally got around updating this. I hope the fight scenes made sense. I've been trying to work action descriptions; hopefully they come across clearly to you guys. Hope you guys enjoy it!