A/N: Hey guys, what chapter is this?

...No, seriously. I have no clue what chapter I'm up to while I'm writing this. I do, however, know that I now have three reviewers if I count myself! XD Reviews are awesome. Yes, I review my own fic, which is kind of sad. But .. eh. It works. I dunno. I'll stop before I go off on another tangent. Anyway ... random chapter poll #2 - What fandoms do you write in? Do you listen to music while you write? Do you like writing outdoors, at home, or somewhere else? How odd do you find it that my mother is standing outside of my bedroom door, trying to get my attention by fondling a can of salmon? Slightly odd? Not odd? Very odd? Mental patient odd? I need comments here, people. If I have something to reply to, I have more reason to write besides just random plot bunnying. Haha ... bunnying. Look, I made up a word:Sings: You think you can understand everything well understand this you've got me all wrong and there's no chance to get away, I want to lock myself away so I don't have to breathe the same air as you.

... these just keep getting longer and longer, don't they? oO :Backs away slowly:

commencechaptereight

It must've been a long night. He'd warned them, he really had. Given them the twenty-minute mission prep, a few hours for basic training and a few more for research, and a little green brochure that the lady from the copy shop had given him complementarily last time he made an order of 9000G or more. So they knew. Nida had some semblance of an excuse - he, at least, hadn't really volunteered for this, and was probably still nervous. But Seifer didn't. Seifer knew what was going to happen, he'd done it at least ten times. He knew the drill.

So Headmaster Cid was really verypuzzled when Seifer and Nida showed up three hours late with bunny slippers and a complete lack of the driving enthusiasm they'd shown the day before.

The Headmaster had waited on the bridge, fifteen minutes early. A Skylark Armada IV had been rented for the trip - a brand new veichle, the size and shape of a mid-size car but equipped with a special controllable gravity-violating coating and a complete set of standard military weapons. Nida was going to have to learn how to operate the navigational panel and the gravity slider, and Seifer would take weapons. They'd have to pass through a challenging obstacle course to traverse to the next town over the mountains, where a diagnostic would be run on the Skylark to check how well they had done. If all went as planned, Nida would acquire his flying license and Seifer could use the level 6 gunblade - Hyperion - on missions.

But plans have this peculiar habit of not always working.

Seifer had arrived first, although nowhere near on-time. He'd changed into uniform and looked ready at first glance, but his eyes got a glassed-over, slightly stoic look whenever the Headmaster had tried to tell him something that took longer than five seconds, and was decidedly not paying attention to anything around him. After a while, Cid had given up talking to him and sat down to wait for Nida, who arrived an hour later, wearing nothing but jeans, a pair of pink rabbit-shaped slippers, and glasses with thick black frames on them. Seifer had completely ignored him, so Cid just sent him back to get a shirt, muttering something about these kids and their fashion senses.

Nida came back two minutes later wearing a heavily starched white button-down shirt. He kept throwing sidelong glances at Seifer and looking so dejected that Cid didn't have the heart to tell him off for wearing the bunny slippers.

"So ... um ... well," coughed Cid nervously, not sure where to begin. Seifer and Nida were sitting on opposite ends of the obligatory bench, and at Cid's statement, two pairs of eyes had suddenly tured to give him deadly glares. They seemed to have reached an unspoken agreement to try and unnerve their Headmaster as much as possible.

"Are you both ... erm, ready?"

"Sir." Times two. Both in agreeing tones.

Cid began to get the distinct feeling that something wasn't right - you could've cut the tension with a knife. And then - a random thought. "Er - you do both know that you're going on this training mission - together, right?" Two nods. "Together ... as in ... you're going to be in the Skylark at the same time? You were both informed of this, correct?"

The look on Seifer's face showed it all.

"Sir. I'm not sure that's a good idea." He sounded like he was doing his best to avoid pouncing onto the Headmaster and bashing his head into the sleek marble floor.

"Well," began Cid, mustering courage from under Seifer and Nida's fierce glares. "I'm afraid there's nothing I can do about it, Almasy. If there have been problems between you and Mr. Nida, you'd best put them aside at least for now. This isn't just a training mission, it's a test, and an important one at that. Whether or not you can finally become SeeD depends on your grade for this test - and if one of you fails, you both fail."

"That's unfair." Nida looked utterly distraught.

"It's perfectly fair. It's an exercise in team skills, which is something every SeeD needs to learn. In fact, it's probably one of the most important things. You'll never be going on a mission alone."

Seifer looked as he was about to disagree, but then stopped himself. "Of course. Why didn't I think of that?" He turned to Nida, smirking an evil little smirk. Nida's expression was shocked but relatively indescripable, like he'd just been struck in the face with a large wet trout. Oh, holy hell. What's he planning?

Cid tuned out Nida, shifting his attention to Seifer and looking entirely jovial. "Good!" He then herded Seifer and Nida into the Skylark Armada IV - (understatement) Nida with slightly more apprehension (/understatement) - and handed Seifer two thick instruction manuals. "You're on your own for the rest of it - just follow that, they come with maps, and you'll be fine!"

Nida mouthed the words help me out of the window as Seifer leaned across him to close the door. Cid, however, didn't notice, as he had scurried away to his office. Nida whimpered, and Seifer turned to him. "Oi. Make yourself useful." He pushed one of the booklets onto Nida with a rabid grin.

It was a mark of Nida's intense disquiet that his mind was reeling at about 10,000,000 words per second. What? Why's he acting like this? First he's disgusted with me, then he's not talking to me, and now he's just mad! The Headmaster here is mad, too - but Seifer's mad, mad, mad. Mad as a hatter. I wish he'd just yell at me or punch me in the nose or anything, because this is driving me crazy, and I don't think I can act like nothing ever happened like he can -

"Hey, hawk. Will you read your fuckin' thing? We can't get going unless you're navigating. I don't know shit about this stuff." Seifer used his own manual to hit Nida abruptly on the side of the arm, and Nida wasn't sure if Seifer was just being regular Seifer - with his compliments disguised as insults disguised as hatred disguised as flattery - or if he sincerely hated him. He took a deep, calming breath and turned to face Seifer.

"Um. The covers of this book are too far apart. I mean - I - I can work without it."

"Yeah?" Seifer's voice sounded unconcerned and he seemed to be preoccupied adjusting his seat - the controls for sliding it down and back were still on the side, and relatively hard to reach if you didn't know where they were.

"Yeah." It was the only safe response.

"Yeah? You must be pretty good then."

Nida's heart leapt up into his throat and riverdanced there. "Yeah."

ceasechaptereight

A/N: I think this chapter was awesome. O The beginning was kind of awkward to write - I tried to flow from one kind of past tense to another, so I'm not sure how well it worked, and I was trying to use a completely different atmosphere for the end. I HATE atmospheres with a passion. It's really odd, because I didn't want this chapter to be too long, but I keep getting feeling that the end needs something. I'm writing this note before I edit, so I don't know if you'll get that feeling too.

I feel bitchin' right now. :Goes to write a drabble: