Talking Bushes: Part Five
By. Bento Box
06/17/04
--
The next day Laguna's suite was filled with the cheerful scent of freshly picked and braided flowers as he had brought all of the wreaths he had done back to his rooms. So when Kiros stormed into the main bedroom, he was greeted with the sight of lamps, desks, mantels, doorknobs (actually, he had noticed that before storming in, having crushed a flower or two when he had yanked on the outside handle), so on and whatnot, adorned by long and short wreaths and clumps of flowers.
Laguna was now working on flower arrangements, having spent a majority of the night watching the Central Home and Garden Network. Suzae Franchesca sure knew her home arts and crafts stuff but Laguna wasn't about to be outdone in the art of (.. mutilating, victimizing, traumatizing...) flower arrangement.
Kiros took one look at the room and at said room's occupant and felt his eye twitching speed up.
Clearing his throat, Kiros waited for the other man to look up. When Laguna didn't look up he coughed, loudly. That didn't seem to work either, so giving up on subtlety, he stared, aimed, and chucked a bundle of thick, gray-colored papers at Laguna's bent head.
"OW!" Laguna's reflexes and razor-sharp instincts seemed to come from the same family as Zell's grace and balance because instead of handily deflecting the air-born missile, he ended up knocking over his flower arrangement and clutching at his now protesting forehead.
He glowered (pouted) at the standing, arms-crossed, man. "Whaddya do that for Kiros?"
Kiros glared (mega death glared) at him and pointed at the bundle of paper now lying innocently next to Laguna on the bed.
"What the hell is that."
It wasn't much of a question, as Kiros's voice was deceptively calm and controlled as he continued to glare at Laguna.
Blinking, Laguna released his forehead in favor of reaching for the bundle. The sound of crinkling newspaper being fluffed out and straightened was all there was to hear in the next few seconds, until Laguna let out a surprised shout.
"Hey! That's Zell and me!"
Kiros uncrossed his arms and sighed. At least Laguna seemed to be aware of the situation.
"Hey, I wonder if I can ask them for a copy of the picture... it's such a wonderful shot!"
Kiros nodded, relieved that Laguna was finally understa--"WHAT?!"
The upright mass of papers shifted downwards until Laguna's face was once more visible, along with the confused expression on his handsome face. "What what?"
"What do you mean 'it's such a wonderful shot'?!"
Laguna stared at him with large, hurt, and reproachful eyes. His voice was forlorn as he said, "Don't you think it's a nice shot? They got us perfectly centered and you can even see the flower wreath I made for Zell! It's so pretty--don't you think it's pretty?"
Kiros palmed his face. Taking a deep, calming breath, he composed himself and raised his head.
And was immediately confronted by the sight of a wide-eyed, forlorn Laguna, complete with glistening, tearing eyes. His patience (what little there was of it) snapped.
"For Hyne's sake man, you're not four years old!"
Almost immediately the teary eyes disappeared and Laguna stuck his tongue out, blowing a raspberry at his irate friend. "Geeze Kiros, you need to learn to relax. One of these days you're going to give yourself a coronary."
Count backwards, ten black sheep... do not strangle the President of Esthar... nine black sheep... eight black sheep.. do not strangle... seven black sheep....
As Kiros was finishing up his pacifying mantra, Laguna had gone back to examining the newspaper.
In large, bold print declaring the article's front page exclusive, were the words "PRESIDENT OF ESTHAR'S NEW LOVE AFFAIR!" and immediately beneath that was a picture of Laguna and Zell sitting in the garden clearing. The picture had been taken just as Laguna had leaned over and placed the flower wreath on Zell's head. It really was cute, and Laguna hadn't been kidding about wanting a personal copy of the original.
Of course, the cuteness of the picture seemed to be all Laguna noticed, having bypassed the rather scandalous title and article which eagerly went in-depth on how Laguna had "most likely gone to the Garden to visit his younger lover!" and had been seen "hovering around the younger man for the past several weeks (more photos to be seen in section G4)!"
Deciding that he might as well call up the newspaper staff for a copy of the picture now while he still remembered, Laguna scrounged through the flower wreaths on his bed for the small palm-sized communicator and gave a triumphant "A-ha!" when he finally found the slim, silver-colored device. Flicking the top open, he punched in a few keys, accessed the phone number database and connected to the newspaper's line.
Kiros, finally having finished his mantra, looked up just in time to see Laguna open his mouth and greet the upbeat young woman who worked the front desk for E-STAR GLOBAL. Eyes widening comically, he immediately reached for the communicator and snapped it shut, effectively cutting off the connection and causing the floating image of the blonde woman to fizzle then die out completely.
"Laguna!"
Laguna cringed at the heated ire placed in just his name. Uh oh.. someone's got his panties in a knot..... was the errant thought that ran through his head.
"I'm only going to ask you one more time Laguna." Kiros held up the newspaper. "What." He stabbed at the front page with a long finger. "Is." Stab. "This." Stab, glare.
Laguna gave him a truly baffled look. "It's just a picture of me and Zell, Kiros. Why are you getting so worked up over it? Do you want a wreath or something?"
Laguna picked up a flower wreath, the blue and white petals fresh due to having been picked just that very morning. He gingerly placed it over Kiros's braids and sat back, continuing to stare at his long-time friend in confusion.
Kiros's glare lost its heat and he stared at the oblivious man. He gave an explosive sigh and collapsed on a nearby chair, one that had somehow escaped from being buried under mounds of flowers.
"Laguna... you're going to be the death of me," he muttered into his palms. "Look, just do us all a favor and try not to be too friendly, okay? The media's having a field day with this mess."
Laguna blinked, then smiled. "Sure thing Kiros."
Kiros didn't think Laguna really knew what he had just agreed to, and sighed again. It was going to be a long day for Kiros, super PR man.
--
quick note, PR stands for "Public Relations"
--
Seifer none too gently shoved the younger cadet out of his way when the other teen was done stapling the flyer up.
It was good to have minions.
Staring unwaveringly at the innocuous-looking piece of paper, Seifer slowly gave an evil little smirk, which expanded into an evil, huge smile. A evil, huge smile that was terrifying and left the already trembling cadet with knocking knees and even more lines of perspiration.
It really didn't pay, being one of Seifer's minions.
Nodding once in satisfaction, Seifer turned and stalked off further down the hallway. The shorter boy followed him, arms full of duplicates of the flyer he had just stuck up. A staple gun, dangerously close to slipping, dangled from his fingers.
The tall blonde stopped in front of the wall adjoining two classrooms and smirked in obvious delight. The evening classes were still in session but they would be over in another half hour. The students would be streaming out for dinner and many tended to stop and chat in the hallways. Which was exactly what Seifer wanted.
"Perfect." Seifer was practically purring at this point, glee giving him a heady rush.
The cowering cadet beside him shivered and felt sorry for the poor blighter whom Seifer had chosen as his latest victim.
Gesturing imperiously at the wall, Seifer stepped back, crossing his arms to watch the younger man hasten quickly to stick up the flyer. He didn't notice the silent and quiet brunette coming closer, so lost was Seifer in his glee.
--
Squall's normally stoic face adopted a frown. That is, an almost imperceptible downwards tug at the corners of his lips, which would have been unnoticeable by those who didn't know him very well or weren't much of observers (or devoted stalkers).
Seifer didn't seem to have noticed him so Squall chose to remain quiet, curious as to what the taller man was so fixated on. The back of a cadet's head obscured his view momentarily, but Squall was soon able to catch a glimpse of what was on the flyer--a rather nice copy print-out of Laguna and Zell sitting amidst a sea of flowers. A nice picture overall, really, until you got to the bold print with cheesy font beneath the photo.
"PRINCESS CHICKIE AND HIS CRADLEROBBING PRINCE!"
Squall's vision clouded over, suddenly awash in red. All other senses abruptly numbed out, focusing and narrowing down into a finely-tuned rage that made the blood rush and pound in his temples.
He. Was. Going. To. Kill. Seifer.
Flyer up and mischief done for this section of Garden, Seifer turned and proceeded to walk right into a solid body that hadn't been there before.
"Hey! Watch where the fuck yer goin' shithe--"
He got a good look at the person he had smacked into and paled to a rather sickly pallor, an impressive feat with his already pale skin.
"Shit. I meant... heeeeeey Squall!"
He went for a charming smile.
The grim visage on the other man's face didn't lighten up. The only twitching on Squall's face was one caused by his tightly-clenched jaws. And if anything, the face seemed to darken, and you had to know Squall well enough to be able to distinguish between his normally stoic expression to his upset one. And he was beyond upset. In fact, he appeared to be pissed. Very, very, homicidal-mode pissed.
Shit. Seifer's mental voice agree with him too.
"I'll just... take my leave now. I'll catch you later, okay? Okay. See ya!"
There was a streak of white from where the blonde had taken off to, going in the direction from Squall had come from.
Squall's seemingly emotionless mask faltered and his glare intensified a tenth-fold before he took off after the quickly retreating man. He managed a rather dignified, though no less rapid, pace.
"SEIFER!"
Another blonde, shorter and trembling visibly from anger, suddenly appeared directly in front of Seifer and successfully obstructed his path to freedom. Zell's normally fair skin was flushed a hot red and his fang-like canines were bared in obvious fury. This would have been cute if he didn't have a homicidal look in his eyes, no less potent than Squall's silent, ice-cold anger.
Seifer cringed, but refused to give in to the increase of panic rising within.
He made a sharp turn, lunging towards the right and took off down the new path.
ShitshitshitshitshitSHIT!
He had a new furious mental litany to voice the apprehension of his impending doom.
Sometimes, it didn't pay being an evil bastard, not when he didn't have Hyperion within arms distance.
Or at least a few healing potions handy.
"STOP RUNNING YA FUCKIN' COWARD!"
""
Somewhere along the line, Squall had joined Zell.
Thankfully, this was about the same time that Seifer's reserve energy kicked in and he tore down the hall.
--
Notes: Woohoo! Finally! Finished the fifth chapter! Sorry this took so long, but it took me three separate writing times to finally finish this. Sorry about the cliffhanger, but at least we all get to read and laugh (cackle insanely in some cases) over Seifer's demise in the next chapter. That is, if I'm feeling particularly cruel and unusual. :) Till next time! MWA! kisses to all of my faithful readers, especially Verdanii, and my living muse Lonnie
Notes 2: It's the 18th (first finished/uploaded the 17th for those who are confused ) and I just finished editing for the umpteenth time. ; Not a good thing to upload right after finishing at 12 AM only doing a generic spell check--the grammar was atrocious and the structure was pretty off at times. I'm amazed that the people who have read it so far haven't killed me yet for the retarded mistakes I've made. XD Much love to you all--and sorry for not editing thoroughly! Definitely need a good beta reader cuz I'm sure there are even more things I need to fix/edit. . ;