Chapter Three
The definition of 'Friend'
Real generosity is doing something nice
for someone who will never find out
-Frank A. Clark-
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The unexpected transformation of the weather surprised the residents of Esthar beyond belief. Or maybe it was just the fact that the night before had convinced them that the rain and wind was so determined to stay, that everyone had forgotten Spring had already made its entrance… three weeks ago. But if one just sat down to think about it, they would then begin to understand that it wasn't the sudden change of weather that took them by surprise, it was more so of the fact that Spring was able to gain back control and complete its task, once again bringing sunshine to the people of Esthar.
The birds flew around carelessly, speaking to their own kind in a language only they understood. The children ran around with other children, not caring about the fact that they were strangers to one another and that their mini jeans were giving them the biggest 'wedgie' of all time. Mothers sat back on benches, chatting mindlessly to long-time-no-see friends, or maybe even just passing acquaintances. Just anything that gave them an excuse to stay outside and embrace the warm weather that Hyne had so generously given them.
Everything was simply peaceful and content, well maybe not exactly peaceful with all the exciting screams from the kids and the enthusiastic laughter, but overall, everything was good.
But just like all parties, there always had to be a party pooper, just like all bags of chips, there was always one that was overly burnt.
"You.. Are.. The BIGGEST LYING BASTARD I HAVE EVER MET!" Her high pitched voice caused on-lookers to wince slightly from the shrillness. She had long black hair that reached the middle of her back with a mini skirt and a flimsy top that allowed nothing to the imagination department.
The tall blonde sitting on the bench looked up at the girl towering over him and gave her his best innocent puppy look. "Sarah babe, what are you talking about? Here, come sit down with me and we'll talk it over." He patted the empty space next to him, motioning for her to sit down.
"Oh please, don't give me that look for Hyne's sake! It doesn't work anymore! I saw you!"
The blonde kept going with his charade, "Saw me? Saw me where? Look Sarah, just calm down. We can work this out right now and right here, unless,"
"Unless what!" Sarah snapped.
He smirked, "Unless of course you'd prefer to go back to my apartment and settle things in my bedroom." Just as he finished, he was greeted with a loud slap across his face.
"You never learn do you?" she hissed, while he cupped his left pink cheek with his hand, the word 'surprised' written all over his face.
"Good-bye and good riddance to you Seifer!" and with that, she strode off in her red stilettos, purposely swaying her hips from side to side.
Seifer sat their speechless. It wasn't like he had never been slapped before in his life, and it wasn't like he had never been dumped by a girl. But every time it happened, it never failed to surprise him.
"You know, you can get your arse out here now!" Seifer mumbled as he cautiously rubbed his cheek.
Without looking, he felt the presence of the other person taking up the spare space on the bench next to him. "So how was it?"
Smirking and understanding completely what he just meant, Squall answered, "It was… satisfying to watch."
Seifer turned around and glared at him, "Ha ha, funny puberty boy. Lets see you getting slapped and then you tell me how satisfying it was."
Puberty boy, a nickname labeled to Squall ever since he turned eleven. Such a thoughtful nickname was made up by none other than Seifer himself. Over the years that they have been friends, no, 'friends' just wasn't the best term to describe them. 'Friends' was just a quick and simple answer to dismiss people who asked them how they knew each other. Truthfully, even they weren't quite sure how they would be categorized.
'Best friends' was quite out of line, 'enemies' was a definite no-no, yet 'friends' just didn't sound right. Squall and Seifer were what you would call, night and day, hot and cold. They were complete opposites to each other and that is most likely the reason why they have remained to be what they are now. The closest thing they have in common is that they are both probably very good friends with 'Sarcasm.'
When they were no older than eight year olds, they played with each other… in a bullying type of manner. Throughout all their years in Balamb Garden, they helped each other… through blackmailing. And now with Squall being 23 and Seifer being 24, they spoke to each other… through insults or sarcasm. Even though a lot had changed over the past years for the brunette and the blonde, one thing remained the same, their mutual understanding for each other.
Squall merely shrugged. He leaned back onto the bench as he placed his hands behind his head. Closing his eyes, he began to feel the heat upon his face as the soft wind subtly tickled his face. His hearing was extra attentive with his eyes shut; therefore he was able to hear Seifer still mumbling a string of curses about the incident minutes ago.
Reluctantly, Squall opened his eyes, "Seifer, do you know what I've finally noticed about you after all these long and stressful years of being your friend?" he asked, looking at Seifer now.
The taller blonde next to him smirked, "And what is that?"
"That you choose shit times to meet up and shit places to meet up! Look at us; we're two grown men sitting in a park. People are gonna thing that we're a gay couple or something."
Seifer's smirked not only did not disappear, it widened. Putting on a husky voice he used only for women, he leaned closer to Squall, "Now, wouldn't you want that Squally boy,"
Squall sat there, quite frankly not giving a shit with what Seifer was doing since he was already used to his absurd behavior. "Piss off Seifer!"
Leaning back as though nothing had happened, Seifer retorted, "Hah! You wish Squall, I have my standards, and I'm sorry to say, you don't meet it!"
Squall got up from the bench as he felt that the conversation wasn't leading anywhere, "Yes, and now I'm gonna go home and start crying like a sissy, then I'm not gonna eat and make up dull excuses like 'I'm not hungry.' And then I'll probably fly off to some unknown place and never be heard or seen of again." Squall said, his face straight and his voice monotonous. "So I'm guessing only ladies with mini skirts, a top that could practically rip apart by a simple touch and a big arse could meet your standards."
Smirking as he matched Squall's action, he replied, "I'll surprise you one day, just you wait." Spotting Squall's sports car once he was standing to his fullest height, he began making his way towards it.
"Whatever, so what do you want?" Squall asked as he remembered suddenly why he was spending his free day here with Seifer.
"Long story, I'll tell you in the car. So I heard that you were caught in that traffic jam during that car pile up."
Squall raised one of his eyebrows, "Thanks to you. How did you find out so quickly?"
"Um, Zell," Seifer replied as if it was the most obvious thing on earth.
"Um, what about Zell?" Squall countered as if informing him it's not the most obvious thing on earth.
"Um, Ell,"
"Goddamn it Seifer, just tell me,"
Seifer sighed in annoyance as he stopped in his tracks, "Ell and Zell, of course Zell would know, their names rhyme! How obvious is that?"
The brunette rolled his eyes at his stupidity, not quite sure why he also stopped walking just to listen to Seifer's rambling, "Oh really, I never knew their names rhymed." Sarcasm heavily detected.
"Squall, you must be blind to not see what's going on between your sis and Zell," With that summarized, Seifer walked off ahead of Squall as he stood there and absorbed the new information.
'Well that explains why Ellone practically trips to get to the phone first.'
Snapping out of his thoughts, he jogged up to catch up with Seifer, "So, what did she see Seifer?"
The blonde next to him snickered, "I don't think you'd want to get me started."
"Agree."
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"Quistis, can you find it!" Rinoa cried, nothing else detected in her voice besides panic.
There was a pause. "No, I can't. I've tried your Kitchen all the way to your Bathroom, but I still can't find it."
As tired as Quistis was, she didn't really want to show it, yet at the same time she did for the sake of taking a break. They had been searching for over two hours, but to Rinoa's disappointment, they weren't even close to finding it. Rinoa had stopped half way after Quistis had insisted that she would help her do all the searching while she rested.
Quistis tiredly plopped her long slim frame on the couch causing tiny specks of dust to float around the small living room. Her limbs were exhausted from the amount of positions she forced herself to be in from searching all over the apartment for that small object. From underneath the bed to the top of the fridge, Quistis had searched high and low for it. She wanted nothing better than to simply sit down and have a rest, but then again, she knew how important this object was to Rinoa and understood that Rinoa was in a very desperate situation. Two dilemmas in a day. Oh the joy.
Therefore, not knowing whether to convince Rinoa that she was tired or whether to act as though she was still up for looking for this particular object, Quistis simply sat there and allowed Rinoa to decide. Whatever it was, the blonde was happy to oblige.
Depressingly allowing her smaller frame to fall beside Quistis, Rinoa sighed out loud, as once again causing the dust from the couch to spring upwards. To Quistis, Rinoa had made her decision, and that was generously permitting her to take a break. There was silence for a while as they both watched the tiny flecks of dust dance around along the stream of sunlight shining through the window in the living room. Happy that she was finally able to take a break since the night before when she saw the news and fled through her own apartment door, she turned around to face the Raven haired girl next to her.
But as soon as she did, she wished she hadn't. Immediately, Quistis was able to tell from Rinoa's expression that this missing object meant a lot to Rinoa, and she knew it, all along. But somewhere and something in Quistis, she had tried to block that reminder from her, tried to ignore the signs. She couldn't help but allow the guilt to consume her. Knowing and accepting the importance of this object meant more than just not getting a break. It meant much more.
Quistis was tired, tired after all those years. And now, after this object went missing, it was almost like an indication that what Quistis and many others had tried to conclude, was once again going to repeat itself. Wanting a break was what Quistis forced herself to want. She forced herself to believe that she was exhausted; she wanted to believe that she was tired. But as much as Quistis hated to admit, she somehow knew she couldn't avoid it anymore. Rinoa couldn't avoid it anymore.
"Hey, cheer up. Maybe you left it at the café and Amy picked it up for you." Quistis tested.
"No, I know it's not at the café," Rinoa replied softly yet sounding very certain.
Quistis frowned slightly, "How can you be so sure?"
Once Rinoa glanced over at Quistis, and hastily averted her gaze on some random object, Quistis sighed silently to herself. Those brown orbs. Quistis loved her brown orbs, it showed so much warmth. But now, she wished she loved them. Rinoa was not one to betray, but her eyes betrayed her. The look that Quistis caught a glimpse of before, confirmed everything. Years of being Rinoa's closest friend didn't just flow down the drain. The confirmation had rid the blonde from all hopes of what was now known to Quistis as the 'inevitable.'
"I," she paused, "Because I don't remember bringing it with me yesterday. I'm, I'm sure I left it at home." There was a great amount of uncertainty in her voice when she said that line of words.
"Okay." Quistis replied, "We'll keep looking for it later." But she didn't give up that easily. She didn't want to give up yet. If only she was able to make Rinoa believe what she tried so desperately to believe or make her believe, then everything would be fine.
Fine. That word had not existed for Rinoa for many years now. It did not exist in her vocabulary, it didn't exist in her mind… and it didn't exist for her.
"Actually, don't worry about it. I-I think I just left it at someone's house." Rinoa said, almost as if she had just realized that searching her entire apartment would lead nowhere anyway.
Quistis hid the disappointment in her failure of her lame attempt of trying to avoid 'it'. But sub-consciously Quistis frowned. Not an angry frown, a frown that expressed worry and discomfort. She hid it immediately when she noticed Rinoa looking at her and gave Rinoa her best fake smile.
"Okay. I hope you find it there then."
Rinoa merely nodded.
'Rinoa, I really hope you've given up on what I'm thinking this is all related to.'
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The once powerful sun was now replaced by a full moon as darkness had fully consumed Esthar. The night air was warm as the wind softly carried the thin white curtains situated at the entrance of the balcony. While the wind separated the curtains, the brightness of the moon was able to make its way into the room, illuminating a small fraction of the large bedroom.
The double doors of the bedroom creaked opened loudly as a tall silhouette walked in without bothering to switch on the lights and without bothering to keep it quiet since it was already well past 12. Closing the doors with a careless crash, Squall walked over to the balcony, not caring about the noise he just made. Not that it mattered anyway seeing that his bedroom was practically miles away from Ellone's and Laguna's.
He leaned over the balcony, taking in the beauty of the peace and quietness of the land that he would one day own. From where Squall stood, he was able to overlook the main garden in the Palace. A soft tired sigh escaped his lips as he ran his right bare hand through his unruly bangs. The newly registered information Seifer provided him with was definitely something he did not need right now, or ever. Left with his own thoughts, Squall recalled the facts Seifer had given him.
"The little midget was spotted on the outskirts of Esthar recently…"
"He's kept it really low; word says he's been wondering around Esthar for a while now…"
"Heard he's got something up his sleeves again…"
Squall remembered the disgust he felt when he heard that.
"The cunning little bastard has returned."
Squall rubbed his eyes as sleep was starting to catch up with him. Pushing himself off the balcony, he made his way into his bedroom, leaving the glass doors opened as he found the cool wind soothing. Using the brightness of the moon as his source of light, he easily walked over to his bedside night light and switched it on.
All of a sudden feeling very tired, he quickly undressed and uncaringly chucked his clothing to the side. As a habit, he was about to take his gloves off when it hit him that he wasn't wearing any. He stared down at his hands for while, wondering why he had forgotten to wear gloves with that outfit that consisted of his leather pants, leather jacket and white t-shirt. As much as it got him thinking, he had to drop it for the time being for his eyelids were threatening to give in.
Squall had never forgotten to wear his gloves, and now that he did forget, it really got him thinking. There must have been something that stopped him from wearing it, but what? He tried to remember, but his brain defied against him as it demanded rest. He had no choice but to leave it until tomorrow, so he walked over to the side of his king sized bed in his boxer shorts and climbed on before switching off the bedside lights.
A bright spark flashed across his mind before sleep claimed him.
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An: Thank you so much for the reviews, they are unbelievably encouraging and heartening. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please leave a review and tell me what you think about it and it'll be greatly appreciated. Thank-you.
[SkyeLight]
lil_ole_meh@hotmail.com