He smiled, almost proud. He'd like to take credit for her success with the gunblade; hell, a few months ago he wouldn't have thought twice about it. But she had a natural talent that had nothing to do with his tutilage, and everyone knew it. What would the point be in trying to take her bit of time in the spotlight?
Besides, he rather liked watching her respond to the praises of everyone around them. It was amusing to see her squirm. She hated it, he knew.
It had only been a month, and she was amost surpassing him. He was keeping one step ahead of her. When they fought, it was as equals.
They adjourned after Amy accidentally cut the finger off of the student. She apologized profusely, almost crying. The student eyed her contemptuously and held the finger up to the wound and poured a hi-potion on it. As if by magic, the skin resealed the limb to the hand, and he picked up his gunblade and left the training center.
"I keep forgetting." Amy said, apologetically. "I had a doctorate in nursing, and we didn't have anything that useful."
"It is useful." Seifer replied, jerking his head towards the dormitories. "Go get cleaned up and we'll have dinner in the cafeteria."
"Meet you in an hour." She said, waving and boosting her weapon to her shoulder. Seifer eyed her for a while, and then turned towards his own room.
"Wow, man, you've been really relaxed." Zell said, chipperly. Seifer sighed, resisting the urge to give the Chicken-wuss a slap upside his damn head and instead continuing on his straight path to his room, hoping his noncommunicative mood would clue the idiot in. No such luck, he chattered all the way to Seifer's room.
"Oh yeah, the reason I was supposed to find you is that Squall and Rinoa want to talk to you about something, like right now." Zell said, looking concerned when Seifer put his hand on his door.
Seifer sighed. "I'm covered in stuff from the training center. Let me get cleaned up. Tell them I'll be there in...well, give me twenty minutes."
"Sure thing!" Zell said, skipping off.
He let himself into his room, sighing tiredly. Zell always had that affect on him. It was like Chicken-wuss sucked the energy out of a room by his very presence.
Twenty minutes later, after a quick shower and an even quicker change of clothing (he opted for a normal black T-shirt and black pants today...why, he didn't know, really) he stood outside of Squall's office and rapped quickly. He hated meetings that involved Rinoa; the fact that she'd chosen Squall over him (even if it had sorta been his fault) still rankled in the back of his mind. Generally he covered it up with his usual charming personality (read: he was an asshole) but today he was in a rather good mood. Just like his change of clothing, he wasn't sure why, but he hoped it wouldn't go away by the end of this little meeting.
Not even five seconds into it, he realized it wouldn't. Squall and Rinoa wanted to talk about his current favorite subject: Amy, and how well she was doing on the gunblade.
"You know, Seifer, I think this is doing you good." Rinoa said, smiling. Seifer frowned.
"What?"
"She means you don't have a rod shoved up your ass." Squall said, relaxing only as he did when around Rinoa.
"I wouldn't talk if I were you." Seifer retorted.
Rinoa giggled. Squall rolled his eyes and continued the debriefing.
Half an hour later, Squall excused him, and he walked towards the cafeteria, ignoring the strange looks people were giving him. Black wasn't his color, really.
He stood at the door to the cafeteria, tapping his foot impatiently. Amy showed up after a few minute's tense waiting, during which he'd been the object of quite a few double-takes.
"Wow." Amy said, performing one of those double-takes. "Any particular reason for the change in dress?"
Seifer sighed. "You and everyone else is asking. I'm washing my other stuff." It was the truth, but not all of it. "Come on, let's see if there's anything better than hot dogs today."
"She's pretty much up to speed now, ma'am." Seifer said, stiffly. Cid and Edea Kramer were included in this briefing. Edea and Seifer hadn't had any contact in the year that had passed since the second Sorceress' War. Seifer only wished the distance could have continued. Vivid memories of his stint as her Knight were surfacing, only to be pushed back by himself, firmly.
"Well, then, I suppose there's nothing holding us back." Edea mused. Her long black hair, free now from accoutrements and decoration, hung almost down to the floor from her seated position. Her husband nodded.
"There are a few students who are at a level where they need to pass a field exam." Cid said. He turned to Quistis. "Do we have any assignments coming up?"
She looked at the call board. "A few, sir. There's the riots in Esthar...started about two hours ago, we're dispatching in three. President Loire has requested six teams of SeeD for different areas of the city."
Squall squirmed at Laguna's name, and found himself pinned by Seifer's stare. No one but Rinoa knew about the conversation Squall had had with Laguna Loire after he'd beaten Ultimecia; no one in this room other than perhaps the Kramer's knew that Laguna Loire was his father.
He shook his head and mouthed "Later." Seifer shrugged, and turned back to his polite attention of Quistis.
"That's probably a good start." Edea said. "Anything else?"
"The mayor of Fisherman's Horizon has requested two teams to guard the bridges on the outskirts of the city." Quistis said. "Galbadian soldiers and Esthar soldiers have been spotted on either side of the bridge and he doesn't want the town to become a battlefield."
"Well, there's something we can do about that without dispatching SeeD." Edea said, resolutely. She was still, technically, the ruler of Galbadia; Sorceress powers or no, she'd never resigned the seat. "I'll have a chat with President Loire later."
"Well, then, it'll have to be Esthar." Quistis said.
"We'll post a list of SeeD candidates in an hour." Squall said, standing up. That meant that the meeting was dismissed. Seifer walked out of the room stiffly.
"Seifer." His name was called as soon as he exited the room, and he turned to see Edea standing before him.
"Ma'am." He replied, automatically.
A sad smile graced her beautiful face. She touched him lightly on the shoulder. "I find that it is best to forget the past, Seifer." Another sad smile. "For it is the past and cannot be changed. Instead, focus on the future, and what it may hold." She smiled once again, this time not so sad. "Perhaps, this Amy girl and what her future may hold."
With that word of advice, Edea turned and walked back into the room. She and Cid would be instrumental in deciding which students would take the field exam.
Seifer frowned, and then a small smile appeared on his face. Edea was right, he knew, and the fact that he had her blessing to forget about his stint as her Knight....
Well, he knew what freedom felt like now.
"Seifer!" A different female's voice called to him. He turned and smiled, seeing Amy running towards him.
"What?"
"The lists for the field exam were just published!" Amy said, grinning, still heading in his direction.
"I know. Do you think you're ready? You better not make me look like an idiot." He said, shaking his finger in mock-threat.
"No, I'm not worried about that." Amy said, pushing his finger out of her way. "You're posted to go with us."
Seifer froze. "What?"
"Come on, look." Amy led him to the nearest wall-display and punched up the list. There, at the top, blinked his name. "S. Almasy."
He felt a pounding in his chest, a sudden dryness in his throat. "Excuse me." He said, walking away from her.
"Just what the hell are you trying to pull, Leonhart?" Seifer said, barging into the room without so much as a knock. Selphie stood behind him, helplessly, and Squall knew that she'd tried to restrain Seifer and hadn't been able to do so.
"I take it that you're referring to the field test."
"Damn right I'm referring to the damned field test!" Seifer planted a hand on either side of the desk and glared at Squall. "Just tell me what the fuck is going on behind my back."
"Language, Mr. Almasy." Edea's voice said, from the side of the room. Seifer looked, and noticed that both of the Kramer's were still in attendance. He colored briefly, but didn't move.
"Actually, Seifer, you'll have to talk to Cid about that." Squall said, gesturing. "He was the one who wanted you on the list."
Cid, however, was not the one who answered. It was Edea.
"Seifer, we decided a long time ago that once you were able to trust yourself, we would be able to do the same." She smiled enigmatically. "We believe that time has come."
"I'm not a student at this Garden anymore." He said, mechanically.
"This is true." Squall replied. "However, you passed the same requisite classes."
"And it says nowhere in the rule book that someone has to be an active student to pass a field exam." Cid explained. "Just that they have to have passed the requisite courses."
"I see." Seifer removed his hands from Squall's desk and stalked out.
"That went well." Squall said.
"Indeed." Edea replied, softly.
"How did it go?" Amy was waiting for him by the door to Squall's office.
"I'm to report for the field exam. Same as you are." He replied. "We'd best get something to eat."
"Done and done." Amy held out two brown paper sacks. "I got them at the cafeteria, it's high-protien and loaded with carbs, good for stimulation in battle."
He smiled. "Come on, let's go back to my room and eat them."
He realized that he'd never brought her to his room as he punched in his code, but pushed that thought away as the door slid open. His eyes widened, however, when he saw what was laying on his bed.
A SeeD uniform. The kind all students wore on the field exam.
"Yeah, I got one too." Amy said, wrinkling her nose. "It has a skirt."
Seifer reached out and touched the fabric, lightly. "I think I'll wear it this time." He laughed. "I kept getting points deducted because I wouldn't wear the uniform."
She smirked. "It won't look right on you."
"I know." He smiled.
An hour and a half later, he joined the other thirty students, in uniform, with Amy, at the front hall. Quistis Trepe was standing there with a list in her hand.
He endured the odd looks. Fujin and Raijin were also in uniform, waiting patiently for their squad assignments. All three of them were assigned to the same squad, under Amy's command.
Amy blinked. "I'm squad leader?"
"Yes." Quistis replied. "Make sure you do a good job. It'll make Seifer look bad if you don't."
"Yes, ma'am."
"This is boring." Amy said, leading the four of them on their circuit.
"BORING." Fujin agreed.
They walked around the area they'd been entrusted to secure. All they'd done was battle looters, drawing spells off of them and then casting stop, so that Amy could wrap plastic handcuffs around their wrists. It took maybe an hour. Now they were on standbye.
Occasionally they'd come into contact with a monster, remnants of the Lunar Cry, which they would draw spells off of and distract until Seifer or Amy could finish them off. It was so boring that Seifer wanted to cry.
Amy sighed and sat down on a sidewalk, her head in her hands. Seifer did likewise, lighting a cigarette and watching the area below them. It wasn't their area to secure, and he'd made the mistake of wandering off too many times to bother with it this time.
A call came in on Amy's radio. "Squad A, proceed to base. Esthar is secured."
"About damn time." Amy said, swearing for the first time in her and Seifer's accquaintance. "Seifer, be sure to finish that before we get to base." She pointed to his cigarette.
He nodded, and the two of them stood up. Fujin and Raijin followed them back to base.
"She said it was boring." Xu told Squall, later that day, while the teams were eating a late night dinner in the cafeteria. "The other three agreed."
"They secured a rather large area and banded every criminal they came across." Squall replied, startled.
Xu nodded. "They also battled a behemoth, two malbaros, and a dozen chimeras."
Squall nodded. "Thank you, Xu, I will report this to Cid and Edea."