It's Thursday night, again, and I'm at Diablos. Again.
Regular job. How boring. Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Squall is there too, and if he were speaking to me, I'd say there was tension in the air. He's not, so there isn't.
Rumor has it that a local folk singer is going to be playing tonight, a chick. This perks my interest; I wonder, vaguely, if it's going to be someone in the group, and if December is aware of what's going on.
December. At my house. Almost every night. When she could have any other guy, she sticks with Seifer fucking Almasy. I want to question it, but you don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
The lights dim at eight, as usual, and a girl steps up to the stage. I do a double-take; it's Rinoa. Her dark brown hair has been bleached at the ends and dyed fire-engine red, and she's wearing all-black.
She sings a few songs, just her and an acoustic guitar, and then takes a breather, walking up to the bar to get a bottle of water. She narrows her eyes at me when I slide it to her, and I see her turn and give Squall a questioning look. Squall grunts and rolls his eyes.
When Rinoa steps back to the stage, she gestures to Squall, who sighs monumentally and follows her. I quirk my eyebrow at December, and she mouths the word "duet" at me. I smirk. Squall's band steps up behind her, picking up instruments I didn't even realize were there.
Zell plays a ripping intro, and then Rinoa comes in with her acoustic guitar. Squall opens his mouth and starts singing.

What can we scrape together
With just the flesh as evidence?
Handfuls of hate
And a bittersweet ambivelance

Rinoa joins in, and I'm surprised; she has a really good voice. I was used to her being a whiny bitch.

Cuz I am pushin' cobwebs
And I'm foldin' into myself
Who will find me under this mean sleep?

Just Rinoa now. I'm ignoring customers, almost mesmerized. The talent. I wish I could sing half as well. Or play guitar half as well. My musical talents were mediocre at best.

How could the clouds tease us into thinkin' it might rain?
How could the need deceive us into thinkin' things might change?

Squall joined in, and he turns to face me.

I had a mean sleep over you
And it hurts comin' back to life

I sense that there might be a rhythm to this song; I think I may have heard it before. But it's beautiful nonetheless. Rinoa stops singing, and Squall sings alone again, looking at Rinoa this time.

You could burn a thousand days
And I would need no other light
You could die a thousand ways
And I'd still love you back to life

She's looking at him, a small smile reaching her eyes and mouth simultaneously. She joins in.

But my need's rising angry
And the loneliness like quicksand
Who will find me under this mean sleep?

How could the clouds tease us into thinkin' it might rain?
How could the need deceive us into thinkin' things might change?
I had a mean sleep over you
And it hurts comin' back to life
I had a mean sleep over you
And it hurts comin' back to life

Zell does another rip on his guitar; even he's better than I am. I frown as both of them sing again.

I am lost to the light
I am molded by the memory
Had to shut down half my mind
Just to still the space you left behind

Cuz I am pushin' cobwebs
And I'm foldin' into myself
Who will find me under this mean sleep?

How could the clouds tease us into thinkin' it might rain?
How could the need deceive us into thinkin' things might change?
I had a mean sleep over you
And it hurts comin' back to life
(Comin' back to life)
(I had a mean sleep)
I had a mean sleep over you
And it hurts comin' back to life

Squall looks at me once more, and then the band bows. Rinoa claps lightly, grinning. "I want to thank Just Cause, for backing me up, and their lead singer Erick, for doing this duet with me." The audience goes nuts.
Squall comes back to the bar and orders a vodka tonic. This is unusual enough; Squall doesn't drink, and when he does, he sticks to beer. I don't say anything and hand him the drink. He hands me the money (no tip, the cheap bastard) and sits at the bar, nursing his drink.
"Wow, that was a really good duet." December says, coming up and wiping part of the bar off. The audience is rapt, eyes and ears only for Rinoa, and so she has a bit of free time.
"She's a good singer." Squall says. He turns back around, and I see a slight tightening of his mouth.
"You know her?" December asks. She eyes me, and I recall telling her who Squall is.
"That's my girlfriend. Her mother was...a very famous singer." A smile? Is that a smile I see on our dear Lion's face? A small one, if not entirely happy.
"That's amazing." December said. She looked shocked, and then looked at me again. I shrugged and finished making an order, passing it to the customer and ignoring Squall entirely.
"Rage." Squall says, looking at me. I don't acknowledge that he spoke to me.
"Did you get my message?" Squall asks, knowing I'm paying attention anyway.
I nod, and light a cigarette. It's slow right now, and December doesn't give a shit if I smoke behind the bar. She does too.
Quistis comes up behind Squall. "Miller." She said, sitting next to him. "Can I bum a smoke, Rage?"
My jaw almost drops, before I recall that I do, indeed, have a cigarette in there. She smirks.
"I'm just a bass player, Rage. I don't need to worry about my voice." I accept that explanation and extract my pack of cigarettes--Marlboro No. 27's, my favorite brand (1)--and hand her one. She snakes my lighter out of my shirt pocket, lights the cigarette, and hands me my lighter back. Squall snorts and drains the last of his tonic, slamming the cup down and removing himself from the bar.
"Hey, you're pretty good." December says. "What made you decide to play bass?"
Quistis shrugs. "Dunno, seemed like a good instrument. Rage here taught me." I choke; not exactly a lie. At the orphanage Matron had made us play with instruments twice a week (she claimed it stimulated the brain) and I already knew how to play bass, so I tutored Quistis in it, more often than not getting impatient with her and storming out of the room.
December's eyes fly open, and she glances at me. I shrug.
"December, Quistis. Quistis, December. Quisty here goes by Dagger."
December's mouth is hanging open. I know some pretty famous people, for a drug addict from the slums.
"Dagger." She says. Quistis eyes me. I shrug again.
"December knows who Erick is." I smirk.
"Are you two together?" Quistis says, a horrified look on her face.
"Sort of." December replies. "Since last week."
Quistis looks pretty relieved at that. No, Quistis, you didn't inadvertantly cause me to cheat on someone yet again. Calm the fuck down.
"December...well, I suppose I should clue you in on a few things." Quistis says. She sighs. "Perhaps tonight."
"A few things?"
"It involves your bar." Quistis says. "Or else I wouldn't bother."
December looks at me. I sigh for the fifty billionth time that night.
"Dagger, why don't you bring the group over to my place tonight?" I say, cringing at the words. Was I on my side or their side? She smiles.
"I'll try to get Erick to come by." She winks at me and leaves with her Miller in her hand. December looks at me, horrified.
"We won't get into trouble. I promise." I said, hoping I can keep that promise.

It's midnight. The bar is closed; December shut down early so that we could get this shit on the road. We stop at the grocery store and pick up some stuff, and then head over to my room.
"So what kinda ties you have to these people?" December asks, once we're in my room. I put a CD into the craptastical CD player I have, and then sit on my bed, sighing.
fine." I breath a sigh of relief as she withdraws a joint from her bag. We smoke it while waiting for the others, and I feel the pleasant relief of pot seeping through my veins.
"We also grew up together." I said. "Same orphanage. Then we all ended up at Balamb Garden together." I laughed. "Great days. Too bad I can't go back to them."
"Hindsight is twenty twenty." December says. Her cool grey eyes narrow at me. "Why'd you go to the sorceress anyway?"
"I.." I pause. Why did I go to the sorceress? It was the question I didn't want to ask myself, the reason I even started doing this shit.
"I...I wanted to be famous." I said, sitting up. "Remember that movie about fifteen, twenty years ago, about the sorceress' knight?" She nods; of course she does, President Loire of Esthar was in it. "I loved that movie. Matron let us watch it one day--Matron is Edea Kramer, she wasn't all psychobitch then--and I...I just wanted to be a knight for someone, I wanted..." I trailed off, and I notice that my hands are shaking. "I wanted to be known for something great, I wanted someone to treat me like I wasn't a little kid..." I'm shaking again.
December looks stunned. I've never, ever, ever told anyone about my motives regarding aligning with Edea. Not Squall, obviously, but especially not anyone in my current group. Not even Fujin and Raijin.
"You wanted to be great." She whispered. "You wanted to make something of yourself."
"Some great job I did." I smoke the last of the joint and put it out in an ashtray. There's a knock at the door.
December stands up. "I'll get it." She says.

Squall. Irvine, Selphie. Zell. Rinoa. Quistis.
All sitting around me, or standing. In Squall's case, completely uncommunicative and crossing his arms.
I try not to stare, but I really can't help it. Squall's....yeah. There aren't words to describe him accurately.
"So you're saying...that my bar is the local hangout that you're using to integrate yourselves to this society." December looked upset.
I'm not listening. There's a song playing on my CD player. I'm listening to that and trying not to stare at Squall.
Please help me, cuz I'm breaking down
This picture's frozen and I can't get out of here

Believe me
I'm just as lost as you
Believe me, yeah
I'm just as lost as you

Keep it inside, the image portrayed
As if I couldn't stand losing
As if I couldn't be saved, no way
A small confession, I think I'm starting to lose it
I think I'm drifting away
From the people I really need

A small reflection
On when we were younger
We had it all figured out
Cuz we had everything covered
But now we're older, it's getting harder to see
What this future will hold for us
What the fuck are we going to be?

I couldn't help but wonder if there was a Hyne, and if he was trying to tell me something.
"I'm only telling you this because I don't want you to get shut down." Quistis was telling December. "I like your bar, I like you." She looked at me. "I don't want either of you to get arrested."
"You're telling me that you're going to bust up our entire group of people? Our friends?" December looked hysterical.
"Friends?" Zell snorted. "Yeah, friends totally get you high all of the time." He looked like he wanted to cross his arms, or shadowbox, or something.
"Those are my friends." I said. "Look, I agreed to bring you guys here so you could tell December. I'm not on your side. I like those people. If I get arrested, so be it."
"Oh, come on Seifer." Squall's voice was sarcastic; I'd never quite heard that tone from him before. "Don't be stupid. You're throwing your fucking life away."
I rolled my eyes. "Because you care so much, right? Get the fuck out. All of you."
"Seifer!" Rinoa exclaimed. There were beginnings of tears in her eyes. Oh, so now both of my ex's are going to try to beat me into submission?
"Squall does care about what's going on!" Rinoa continued. She went to reach for my arm and I stood up and knocked her hand away.
"Out." I said. I crossed my arms and stood over her, forbodingly.
Squall glared at me and took Rinoa's hand and dragged her to the door. The others followed. Quistis looked at me forlornly and shut the door behind her.
December was in tears. "That bar is my sweat and blood, Rage. I can't let it go down in flames."
"Fine. You stop hanging out with them." I said, turning on her. "I'll quit."
"Seifer!"
"Don't fucking call me that." I hissed. "You can leave, too."
She closed her eyes, then stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder, storming out of the room.
I sighed and flung myself on the bed.

I knocked on Jake's door. Nothing.
Odd.
I looked down. And paled. Police line.
I looked at the door again, and then bolted. I ran, my dark jacket billowing behind me as I ran towards the bar.
"Oh, sweet Hyne." I whispered. Diablos was up in flames.
December was standing in front of it, tears streaming down her face.
"Oh, Hyne, why?" She whispered, sinking into the snow that had begun falling earlier that evening. "Why? What did I do to you?"
I sank beside her, instinctively covering her up with my arms. She leaned into me and sobbed.
"My life...my life is gone." She whispered.
"Shhh...no, no it's not." I murmured, holding her head to my chest and rocking back and forth. I craved cocaine; the rush that made me invincible. Right now I seemed very fallible, very weak, and very unable to handle this situation.
"Seifer..." She murmured into my shirt. I just held her. What could I possibly say?
"What are you two doing?" A voice demanded. I looked over and saw Squall, glaring at us. I frowned.
"What the fuck did you jerks do? I asked, harshly. I stood up, leaving December crying on the ground, and strode over to Squall. Backhanded him, which caused him to fall to the ground. His hand was on his cheek, and he stared up at me, amazed to find himself in that position.
"What did December ever do to you?" I yelled, bearing down on him. He scrambled to his feet, and I could see that his fingers itched to draw his stupid gunblade.
"I didn't burn this bar down, Seifer." Squall said, calmly, considering the circumstances.
"Then who the fuck did? I screamed, advancing on him.
"The police did. We tried to stop them." Squall didn't respond. It was Selphie. She walked up behind him. "We even lied, said that we'd never seen December outside of the bar. They didn't believe us."
I stopped. Looked at Squall and then my hand. I turned back towards the bar, now almost finished burning. "Sorry about that." I muttered.
"Apology accepted." Squall said, wryly.
The rest of the group walked up behind him. I could see their shadows on the snow. I didn't turn around to face them. Instead, I walked over to December, helped her up, and began the walk to my room.
"Seifer, wait!" Quistis called.
"Fuck you." I said. I continued on, and when I was done doing what I planned on doing, I'd fucking kill that little bitch Jezebel.

(1) I couldn't help it. This is my favorite brand of cigarettes, so I had to work it in.
"Mean Sleep" is written by Cree Summer, and the duet is sung with Lenny Kravitz.
"Still Frame" is written and performed by Trapt.

I'm not overly fond of this chapter, because it didn't turn out quite like I wanted it to. Any comments?

Just to let everyone know, yes, this will eventually be a Seifer/Squall fic. I love that pairing. And yes, music is a huge part of this fic because the music industry is full of drugs. I'm a stagehand and I've had entirely too much experience with artists who are almost always on...something. Pick a drug, I've seen someone famous on it. The music industry is heavily entwined with the drug culture, so a definite way for the group to get an in with the drug rings of Dollet would be to become musicians.