I really hate that that's the sound that December woke up to. But hey. you can't have it all, right?
Click. Click. Click.
"...Seifer, what are you doing?"
I froze and looked at her, prostrate, slightly sleepy, and rather confused, lying on my bed.
"Don't call me that."
Click. Click. Click.
"Why? That's your name, isn't it?"
I threw her a dirty glance. "That name's ruined everything I know. Don't fucking call me that, or I'll kill you next." Oops. I hadn't intended to say that.
Click. Click. Click.
"What the hell are you doing?"
"What does it look like?" I demanded.
Click. Click. Click.
"Is that a gunblade?"
I smirked. What, did you think I threw Hyperion out? God, no. That thing cost me more than my life is worth.
"What are you doing with it?"
Ouch. So maybe Hyperion wasn't as well-known as I thought.
"It's my gunblade, Hyperion." I said. Without conscious thought, I reached up and fingered the scar running between my eyes.
"And who are you killing?" She asked. She sat up, noting that she was still wearing her clothes from the day before. Not her shoes, though. I'd taken those off for her and set them next to the bed.
"Jez." Click. Click. Click.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm cleaning my fucking gunblade, woman." Click. Click. Click.
"Why are you going to kill Jezebel?"
"She was Squall's insider." Click. "She's the reason Jake got busted, and she's the reason Diablos burnt down." She winced. I guess she'd managed to forget about that. "She's the reason both of us have to stay inside right now."
"Why?"
"It's daylight, and both of us have been pegged as leaving Diablos while it was burning. Also, I'm guilty of striking the squad leader of the SeeD spies."
"You hit Squall?" She sounded aghast.
I winced. "I might have given him a bit of a love tap."
She sighed and pulled her knees up to her chin. "Why kill Jez....Rage? Why? What will it solve?"
"She's the sort of person who needs to die, December. She only lives to serve herself. She doesn't have any idea of what it means to be loyal to your friends."
"Were you loyal, Seifer? Were you? Answer me, when the fuck were you loyal to anyone in that group?"
I looked directly into her blue eyes. "I was loyal to you."
"Oh, fuck you, Seifer. You don't know the meaning of loyalty." She stood up and put her hands on her hips. "If you did, you'd be in Balamb Guarden right now."
I sighed. "December, sit down, shut up, and do not talk to me about things you don't know the first thing about." I stood up, towering almost a foot above her; a fact which I know didn't please her. "You weren't there, you don't know any of the situation, and you never will."
"Why not?" She challanged, her hands balled up and her arms straight down. "Why won't you tell me? Not trustworthy enough?"
"December, I don't want to talk about it." I turned and peered out my window. "It's getting dark. I'm leaving. You can stay or go if you want." Part of me wanted her to stay, but I wasn't going to tell her that, not directly. "Just remember that the cops are on the lookout for you, too."
With that parting shot, I holstered Hyperion, threw on a trench coat (black, and covering Hyperion nicely) and walked out the door.
As I stepped outside of my hotel, I had to think to myself; where did Jez live?
I realized I had no clue where to find her. She never, ever, ever let anyone know where she stayed, without actually seeming suspicous. I wondered how she'd managed it.
"Rage." I turned around and saw Squall there, leaning against the wall, arms crossed and a blank look on his face.
"Erick." I responded, coldly.
"I can show you where she is."
"How do you know she's who I want?" I asked, glaring angrily at him.
A small smile. "Because I know you." He uncrossed his arms and pushed himself off of the wall with his shoulder. "Follow me."
Wondering why I was, I did follow him. He led me out of the crappy part of town; into almost the rich end. Then he stopped in front of a mansion. "This is where Jez lives, Seifer. She's a rich brat."
"What?" I demanded, my voice harsh in my throat.
"That's how we found out; she got caught by the police and pleaded with them not to tell her parents; that she could give them information on a drug ring if they wouldn't tell her parents." Squall sighed. "You're not going to get in there without dying, Seifer. They have security, former SeeD's who they've hired for safety. You'll never see Jezebel again, because her parents found out anyway and tomorrow they're shipping her off to drug rehab. She'll stay there until she turns eighteen, and then she might end up in prison." He crossed his arms. "I'm sorry if I stole your revenge from you."
I sighed, and then turned around and headed back towards the shit end of town.
"Seifer!" I heard his voice calling me, and I turned, dispite my misgivings.
"No one blames you." His eyes were urgent, as if he was trying harder than anything to tell me something. "You can stop this if you want."
I snorted. "This is my life, Squall. I'm not giving this up." I left him there, standing outside of a mansion. My hands were shoved into my pockets and I felt tears of frustration beginning in the corners of my eyes.
I turned one last time, to see Squall, just as the first flakes of snow started to fall from the sky.
I stared at the remains of Diablos. With hope, December would get insurance money, and she could reestablish her bar. I would help. I missed Diablos, I missed the atmosphere. And more than that, I think, I missed the security it offered. Now that Diablos was gone, I had no work. No incoming money for Hyne knows how long.
I turned from the burnt hull of the building, rounding a corner. I could hear whispers coming from a dark alleyway near me, and my eyes narrowed. Quistis?
"Come on, Rinoa. Who are we trying to kid?" Definitly Quistis. I peered around the corner.
"Quisty, shut up and kiss me." Rinoa said, leaning towards the taller girl. Quistis looked upset, but she obligingly kissed Rinoa.
My eyes widened and I ducked back to the part of the building facing the street.
"Rinoa, Squall is going to find out."
"Let him find out, Quisty. I love you." Another quiet bit, and then she whispered again. "Don't you love me?"
"Of course, but--" I walked past them at this point, ignoring them. I could care less now, but...no, actually, I couldn't care less, Rinoa was going to hurt Squall and it pissed me off. But I didn't care, I wouldn't let myself care. Instead, I went back to my room, where December was waiting for me.
"Strange, no blood on you. Are gunblades stain repellant, too?" December's voice was wry.
"I didn't get her." I said, softly. I sat on the bed opposite her, facing the wall. "She's not from around here."
"Really?"
"Squall showed me where she lives." It was almost a whisper. I could feel the blood rushing back into my extremities; I really needed to invest in some gloves. "She's from the north part of town."
"The north part--but that's where the millionaires live!" December was on her feet. "You can't be serious, Rage!"
"I can, and I am, December." I sighed and lay back on my bed. "It doesn't matter, she got found out and her parents are sending her to drug rehab tomorrow. Squall thinks she'll be there until she turns eighteen, and then maybe prison."
"So are you killing me next?" She crossed her arms. I laughed.
"December, you're the only friend I have left in this world. Do you really think I'd kill you for saying my name?"
She grinned, and then frowned. "I'm not your only--"
"Yes, you are." I whispered, nonetheless in a tone that conveyed to her that I didn't want her to question it. She didn't.
We sat there for a few minutes, silent. Then I spoke again.
"So, I've been thinking about the Diablos..."
She winced.
"Did you have insurance?"
A pause. "Yes..."
"Did it cover fire?"
"Yes, it did, but the police..."
"Won't admit to starting a fire. That shit's illegal, they'd all go to prison. Just say it caught fire, you can get the insurance money and open up as soon as you can get it rebuilt."
"A point." She thought about it. "I'd have to get an incident report from the police..."
"Which will most likely say that it was accidental." I said. "They wouldn't want to dig their own graves, so to speak."
"You've got this all covered. What if they made it look like.."
"Like you did it?" I laughed. "You have an infallible cover, December. You were here with me, arguing. Remember? I can vouche for it."
"But Seifer, if you go to court, you'll have to admit...who you are."
I sighed. "I know that." Another sigh. "I owe you that much, I think. I got your bar burnt down."
"Seifer, you don't have to do that."
"I'm tired of living a lie, really." I sat up. "Tomorrow's Sunday, but after that, we can go get the stuff from the cops and file the paperwork for you. I think probably a month, with the weather the way it is, tops, for the bar to be rebuilt. Health inspection only takes a day, and you've got an existing permit on the books, so they just have to reissue it. You'll be back in business, December." I grinned.
"Well, you told me my life wasn't over." She sat next to me and held her hands in her lap. I reached over and covered one with mine, and felt her head rest up against my shoulder. Her fingers entwined with mine, and we stayed that way for a long, long time.
I gave my room to Scion, who hadn't been busted. He was pretty out of it when we found him. Hell, I figured, why not? The room was paid up for another two months, and I was moving in with December--not in her room, even though we were still lovers, but in a guest room that she offered me in exchange for working the bar for her. She knows me too well; knows I wouldn't take a spare room for pity. I moved my shit over that Sunday, since there really wasn't anything to do that day; all the offices we needed were closed.
I saw Kelly a few days later. Asriel had gotten busted, but Kelly hadn't, and it was a good thing, really, that the gang had been busted up; Kelly was pregnant. She didn't look too happy about it when I asked her, but she just shrugged. "That's what welfare is for, Rage." I shrugged, we commented on a few things, and then parted.
Squall and crew utterly disappeared from Dollet. I wasn't surprised, and neither was December, but even a month later I heard disappointed murmurs about the missing band Just Cause.
I did have to testify to court.
"Could you state your name, age, and affiliation to December Harbin?" The High Inquisitor, as I thought of him, asked me. Really, he was just the prosecuter, but I had to try to keep myself in a good mood.
"Seifer Almasy, twenty years old, and she's my girlfriend." I said, keeping my face straight. There was a titter; when the prosecution had called me up they'd just said Rage.
Even the prosecutor was shocked. "Can you provide proof of identity, Mr. Almasy?"
"I can." I said, fishing out my ID--my real one, not the fake one that December had gotten for me when I first met her. I handed it to him. It was my old student ID from Balamb Guarden, but it was real.
"Ahem." I could see him visibly calm himself down. "And where, Mr. Almasy, where you on the night of November fifteenth?"
"In my room at the City Center Inn."
"And where was Ms. Harbin?" He asked.
"She was with me. We'd done some shopping and were talking."
"And what happened?"
"We had an argument that lasted for about thirty minutes." This was a teensy stretch of the truth, but not by much. It covered the time that Squall and his group had been there.
"And she left?"
"Yes sir."
"To go start the fire?"
"No, sir, the fire chief estimates that the fire was started almost when we'd gotten to my room."
"And why should we believe a notorious liar?" I saw the sneer on his face and wanted to punch him. Instead, I looked at him, blinked, and spoke.
"I'm not lying, sir."
"He's not lying!" I heard a voice exclaim. My eyes widened. It was Selphie Tilmitt. She had jumped up from the back of the room. "I was there!"
"Order!" I could hear the tittering of the people in the courtroom. This was just a regular insurance fraud hearing; no one expected one of the people famous for the saving of the world to pop up.
"Very well, Mr. Almasy, you can step down." The High Inquisitor said. He looked at the judge. "Could the prosecution call Selphie Tilmitt to the stand?"
I gulped as I stepped down and sat next to December. Her eyes, too, were widened.
I was almost afraid for poor Selphie; she looked kind of like Jacks compared to me--a tiny kitten next to a heartless murderer. But she sat at the stand, bravely.
"Could you please state your name, age, and affiliation for the record?" The prosecutor asked, sweetly.
"Selphie Kinneas." I bit down on my lip, hard, causing myself to bleed. I swore under my breath, and I heard December laugh lightly. "Age eighteen. I met Ms. Harbin while working undercover in Dollet."
"And why were you in Mr. Almasy's apartment on the night of the fifteenth of November?"
"Seifer was keeping my actions a secret by not telling you that I was there." Selphie said. "He was asked by my squad leader, Squall Leonhart, and the headmaster of Balamb Garden, Cid Kramer, not to tell anyone of what occured involving our group." A lie, a bland-faced one, but she pulled it off well. "He was just keeping his promise when he didn't mention my participation."
"Participation?"
"Seifer and December went shopping, and then met me at his place. I told--" And I noticed that she was going to make it seem as if only she had been there. "--her that her bar was being used as a focal point in an undercover drug investigation. She got really upset, kinda understandably, and then her and Seifer started arguing about whether he should quit or not." I wondered how she'd learned of that. "He'd just started working there, you know, and he worried that he'd bring the bar down with him."
No one understood that, but the prosecutor didn't seem to notice. "And what time did Ms. Harbin leave the room?"
"She left at the same time I did, at about twelve forty five AM, morning of the fifteenth. The fire chief does say that the fire started about twelve fifteen, so it's almost impossible that she was the culprit."
The prosecutor seemed to deflate; he'd been hoping to catch Selphie in a slip-up. He excused her from the stand, and as she walked past us December shot her a grateful glance. Selphie waved a little, and I could see a ring on her finger. I smirked.
Thirty minutes later the verdict came in, and it was unanimous; not guilty on all charges of insurance fraud, and the insurance company was to pay double for doubting an honest claim. I hugged December to me, extatic, and I could feel her fingers pressing into my back, clutching at me. "I'm alive again." She whispered, happily, tears streaming down her face. "I'm alive."
"So am I." I whispered. "So am I."
What do you think? It's not the end; I've got a chapter or two left in me. I think this chapter's pretty good for having no music in it whatsoever! I needed to let Seifer be Seifer and not Rage. Do you think I did a good job?
Edit: I went through and changed something. I accidentally called the prosecutor the persecutor. Did anyone notice?
