Chapter Ten: Secrets
In the morning, I woke to see Wyvern standing over me with an intrigued expression and I gave a start.
"Whoa! What are you doing?" I blurted and she shied away, eyes wide.
"Sorry, I was about to wake you up. Are you okay?" she explained and strolled to the small balcony and looked out over the docks.
"I'm fine," I said suspiciously and went into the bathroom to clean up. When I got out, Wyvern had disappeared. I became a little frenetic and dashed downstairs to see if she was there, only to find out from the receptionist that she'd left.
The first place that popped into my head where she might go with all these questions she seemed to have after last nights talk was the dock. I ran around the corner to the familiar cobbles to see her near the end quietly sitting looking out to the sea with a distant expression.
I silently approached her and sat down beside her, making her jump terribly. Her body shivered from the sea breeze as she relaxed and she continued to look out toward Dollet and ignored me. I wasn't sure what to say; I wasn't annoyed with her anymore, with her insecurities and questioning.
"Am I such a different person as I thought?... Have I changed that much?... I wonder..." she began with a sad uncertainty. I watched her morose face, her eyes lifeless and melancholic.
The breeze grew stronger and whipped her dark blond hair back and made her eyes water. She tucked her head behind her knees to shield herself and I instinctively put an arm around her and shifted her closer to me to try and keep her warm. Her head snapped up and she stared at me.
"What are you doing?" she asked innocently and I sighed.
"It's freezing out here and you're hardly dressed for it. Come on, let's go," I told her and she got up, letting my arm slide off her shoulders. I stood up with her and we left together, though she still seemed wary and thoughtful.
I knew she was freezing – her body was quivering as she walked, though she tried to control herself. I took my trench coat off – a rare occurrence - and draped it over her slim shoulders.
She looked at me in amazement and snuggled her arms into the too long sleeves luxuriously.
"Thank you, Seifer," she blinked and walked on, my coat almost touching the ground.
As we reached the entrance I stopped and turned to the car hire and I shrugged to myself.
"Wait up, Wyvern," I called to her and she turned and noticed I was several feet behind.
"What?" Wyvern asked her eyebrows furrowing. I pointed to the car hire and her lips pressed together in worry.
"Do we have the money?" she added and I walked up to her and took her shoulders and gave them a gentle shake.
"What happened to the carefree Wyvern of yesterday? Come on – I've got some cash and don't feel like walking through this gale that the sea decided to blow up our way. Come with me?" I finished, let go of her shoulders and held my hand out, holding my breath to see if she, I don't know... trusted me or something.
She stared at my hand and then met my steady gaze, unsure... I began to feel an edge of fear that she didn't trust me, but then she placed her hand in mine and gripped it reassuringly.
"I'm sorry, I'm just out of sorts today, that conversation just made me... think," a smile crept onto her face, "Let's go then, Seif," she smiled playfully and I felt a twinge of distress at the shortening of my name. But it had felt weird coming out of Gaia's mouth, but it sounded... sweet and really... I don't know, right.
Instead of flipping out like I did with Gaia, I grinned and closed my hand over hers before we headed over to the dozing guy in the hiring booth.
"Hey, wake up," I said loudly and made the guy judder awake and rub his eyes groggily.
"Huh, oh customers," he mumbled and scowled at me. I gave as good as he got and returned a cold hard stare.
"I'd like a car," I told him coldly and the guy grabbed a key and placed it on the desk.
"That'll be 100 Gil," he replied. We had an understanding – I don't like you, you don't like me, let's just get this over with for the girl before we say something we regret all round.
"Here," I put the cash down and he shoved the key over to me. I nodded to him and took it, making sure Wyvern was still holding my hand. Feeling secure she still appeared to trust me, I headed to the car and climbed in, which unfortunately required her letting go of my hand.
I drove home, yes home, in silence. I glanced over at Wyvern occasionally, but she was turned away from me, just staring out of the window – out to sea.
"Do you want to go back to Galbadia?" I asked quietly and her head snapped over to mine, which had gone back to concentrating on driving.
Her expression was of disbelief, "How can you think that?! Do you think I would of gone through that hell to get across on that boat for nothing?!" she exploded passionately and I froze in shock.
"I- ah – I'm sorry," I spluttered, truly surprised at her outburst and realised I'd hit the brakes and was gaping at her reddening face.
She hid her face in her hands and cried – great huge sobs as if something terrible had happened. I turned the engine off and pulled her instinctively into my arms.
"Hey, hey, don't cry Wyvern. What's wrong?" I gently asked her as she wept and she gulped and tried to form words.
"I-It's a-all f-f-falling ap-apart," she whimpered and I pulled her into my arms.
"What's falling apart?" I probed and she shook as she slid her arms around me and let her head rest against my chest. I felt a strange pang as if she'd fall into pieces if I wasn't there to hold her together.
She snuffled for a minute and hauled in a breath.
"S-Seifer, there are p-people at Garden who are o-out to get me," she leant back and wiped some tears away, "D-Do you understand m-me? T-They've followed me," she shattered and broke down again and I dealt with it as best as I could. I'm not usually accustomed to girls bursting into tears near me, so the best I could do was cradle her awkwardly across the gearbox in my arms.
"Wyvern, I'm not sure what you're talking about – there haven't been any transfers to Balamb since you arrived," I told her and she shook her head vigorously, her crying diminishing.
"I recognised someone here – someone who worked for Galbadia seeking out spies at Garden. They gave me my... my scars," she said shakily and quietened, just staying close to me.
I frowned and my thoughts immediately fell on Gaia without hesitation. Trained on the Galbadian military, recently-ish transferred to Balamb Garden... she fitted the bill alright.
"Gaia?" I whispered, to which Wyvern shuddered and I felt her reluctantly nod against my chest.
"But Gaia is quiet, not some crazed spy hunter who scars people!" I laughed unconvincingly and she cried even harder, which made me feel bad that I'd further upset her.
"Okay, I'm sorry, Wyvern. Tell me about the Gaia you know," I asked quietly and she began to pull herself together with wracking sobs that I swear must of hurt they were so powerful – her whole slight frame shook from them.
She stayed this way for a few minutes until she pulled herself together and tugged herself out of my embrace and sat for another moment in silence, her eyes downcast into her lap and her hands on the sides of her face while her mind appeared to be debating something.
Eventually she turned to me, her beautiful turquoise eyes shining from the aftermath of tears and she lowered her hands to lie beside her legs.
"It's nothing, Seifer. Just forget I said anything," she said shakily and my eyebrows shot up in disbelief.
"What?! You are upset about Gaia – you can't deny it after you cried like that!" I protested and Wyvern mere shook her head and said in a sharper, stronger voice, "No. Seifer, let it go."
I sighed heavily and studied her face for a moment. She looked back at me levelly, her expression carefully emotionless and I shook my head in complete incredulity and continued driving back to Garden without another word exchanged between us.
When we got back, she left without a word – I guess she wanted to be alone, or whatever girls did after they got upset and then tried to deny why they were upset.
All these bloody secrets from me... I wonder what Gaia did that was so terrible. I mean, I know pretty little about Gaia, but she doesn't seem to be the type of person to go around upsetting people for no reason, unless she rubbed Wyvern the wrong way every time they had a conversation like Gaia and me did for a while, probably still would if we had long enough conversations lately.
I strolled to my dorm and did some studying, just to keep in supposed practise, even though I know I can do it – I always do pass it, I think it's becoming some kind of nervous habit. I'm worrying about this whole unsaid thing that seems to be between Gaia and Wyvern that I know nothing about, but by Wyvern's reaction it must be something pretty serious.
Now I think about it, perhaps it's something to do with her Fell Angel? It would make sense – Wyvern appears to be pretty sensitive on the subject.
I give up – I don't have the energy to think about all that right now, even if it is the daytime – I'm tired. I didn't get the best sleep last night with all that mind wrestling just to fall asleep.
I dropped onto my bed and finally got some decent kip.
A few hours later I was woken by a poke with a sharp object, making me move very quickly away from the sharpness and opened my eyes in a hurry to see what was going on.
Gaia stood with her sword pointed at me, looking quite cheerful for Gaia.
"Hello, Seifer. Thought you should know that we have a revision class that we are forced to attend. Compulsory," she told me and I suddenly sat up, manoeuvring my hand so the blade was pushed away from me. Gaia retracted it and waited for me to do something, so I stood up and stretched.
"Alright, let's go," I said and walked out followed by her swinging her blade playfully, which scared the nearby junior kid into hiding.
We headed to class with small, pointless conversation pretty much nothing – you know, 'you alright?', 'T-Rexaur was murder' shit. I didn't want to probe Gaia about Wyvern and if they knew one another because Gaia is a worryingly unpredictable person, who could potentially have an extremely crazy violent self underneath I may not know about.
So I let it go and sat in my usual seat at the back of the class and once more ignored the instructor and looked at the boards again to have a look to see what they were complaining about now.
- What do you think about the new girl, Wyvern? She looks pretty hot to me – the only thing wrong with her is the amount of time she's spending with that bastard Seifer – Dzad
- C'mon – Dat Wyvern girl isn't dat hot – she's got all those ugly scars on her back, luks like sumfing mauled her. Who'd wanna luk that? – Sacha
- Shut up you two – you have no right to talk about Wyvern, or any girls like that! Get off the forums and get lives for Hyne's sake!!! – Gert
-Shut up and leave us alone, Gert! Go annoy other people! – Dzad
- Oh, screw you guys! You need a life! – Gert
- Wateva – Sacha
I couldn't believe how pathetic that group were – rating the new girl is so old it isn't even entertaining anymore.
I logged off and actually vaguely listened to Instructor Faraday as he spoke when I wasn't in some other world in my head that wasn't the class, but due to my lack of imagination, not much else was in my own little world but blankness.
Sometimes I looked over to see what Gaia was doing only to find her doing what she always did – endless note taking, possibly an inhuman amount of it. How'd she even cram all her notes into her brain anyway? I guess it's just another mystery of Gaia I'll never find out.
I sat through two hours of crap I already knew, so I began to entertain myself with alternatively glaring my worst at Instructor Faraday and writing a few disjointed sentences that mostly compiled of the destruction of the kids in this class in a fiery torment.
By the end of the revision session, I was a foot tapping nightmare.
Gaia gave me a nod as she left and I followed her into the lift. She pushed the button to go down and gave me a questioning sideways look.
"What?" she asked steadily, her eyes narrowing as she scrutinised my expression. I backed off, raising my hands.
"Nothing, just Wyvern mentioned the other day that she thought you looked familiar," I hastily said and Gaia's face flashed with concern for a moment, before becoming carefully more deadpan than usual. She slowly raised an eyebrow and shrugged.
"Don't ask me. I don't recognise her, didn't I tell you I went here because I didn't want to go to Galbadia? Perhaps she saw me in an army procession," she offered and exited the lift, breezing over to the cafeteria. Feeling like a stalker, I went the same way only to see Gaia hastily leave and head to the dormitories.
Intrigued, I entered the cafeteria myself to see what was going on. Maybe she realised she was going the wrong way? But I haven't known Gaia to make many mistakes since I've met her, except missing hitting me during her little target practise.
I saw a perfectly normal looking cafeteria, full of people chatting and laughing – nothing wrong at all.
Wait – except Wyvern was sitting alone eating lunch, I assume.
So, Gaia is lying – she must know Wyvern in some way.
Sighing and putting it aside, I sidled up to Wyvern quietly, but she must have some kind of superhuman hearing because she put her sandwich down and turned to me with an upset look.
"You can just sit down if you want, there's no need to sneak up on me," she said a little coldly and I shrugged, seating myself across from her and looking at her expectantly.
"What?" she frowned, pouting her lips. I stretched my arms so they draped along the back of the chairs and kept my expression, adding raising eyebrows.
"I'm waiting for you to tell me about Gaia and your history that you two seem to share," I told her and her face darkened and she carried on eating. When she was finished, she held my eyes for a moment and stood, shaking her head.
"I can't tell you, Seifer. Just let. It. Go," she emphasized and left as swiftly as she could, not giving me time to follow her.
I've had enough, I give up she's not telling me anything. But if I catch Gaia later at the Training Centre... she might tell me...
With a crafty grin I went back to my room and prepared to get down to the truth.