Disclaimer:Story plot is mine, but nothing else is. 'italics' means dream/flashback sequence. rr please!

Chapter 2

"Squall"

Squall looked up sharply from his computer screen to glare at the intruder.

"Yes Xu?

"Cid just called. He wanted to know how you're doing. He said that he'd call back later. Also, you need to read through these and sign them"

Squall looked at the stack of papers in her hands. "What are they for?"

"Mainly budgeting. The budget for Trabia Garden is also in there." Squall sighed and rested his head on his hands. When he accepted the job as acting headmaster, he didn't realise how boring and tedious it would be. All he seemed to do was sign paper after paper, with the pile growing even more with every signature. No wonder Cid was so quick to hand him the reins.

"Whatever. Just stick them somewhere on my desk."

"Oh, and one more thing Squall. Rinoa said to tell you that the ball is on tonight and that you better be ready by six or else."

"Thanks Xu, I'll try to remember that" Squall replied wryly. Squall had been dating Rinoa since the end of the Ultimecia Affair. Squall cared for her deeply, but lately, she had been getting on his nerves. Especially with all the balls she dragged him too. Stretching, Squall took one look at the piles on his desk and decided that it was time for lunch.

The Cafeteria was packed. Fortunately, one of the gang had managed to grab a table, and this was where Squall headed after he had ordered his lunch.

"Hi Squall. Hows work?"

"Boring. Hows classes?" Quistis sighed.

"Their bad, but I've had worse" replied Quistis with images of a certain blonde and his brunette counterpart popping up in her mind. Shortly after the Ultimecia Affair Quistis had her instructors license reinstated, which had pleased her to no end, despite the behaviour of students.

"Mmmmph mp phhhhhhhhm"

"Zell, please wait until your mouth is empty before you talk" scolded Quistis. Zell swallowed the offending mouthful.

"Soorrrry. Hey Squall!"

"Hi Zell, what number hotdog is that?"

"10 and still counting" grinned Zell as he shoved the rest of said hotdog into his mouth and reached to grab another. Squall was sure that it was Zell's eating habits that put him off from eating meat.

"You know Zell, one day your going to make yourself sick eating like that and you'll never want to touch another one of those things again" drawled Irvine as he sat down next to Squall. Zell snorted and replied with a "like hell" as he continued to eat his way through his pile of dogs. Irvine had completed his SEED exam and now resided at Balamb Garden, helping Selphie plan the rebuilding of Trabia Garden between missions. When the budget for the rebuilding was completed, Irvine and Selphie were to leave for Trabia come spring and start with the rebuilding of the fallen Garden. Until then though, Selphie amused herself with the planning of parties, hence tonight's ball. Between her and Rinoa, Squall had seen more dances than he cared to remember.

"Oh Squally Poo!!!"

"Hey Rinoa" Squall said as she sat down on his lap, ignoring the snickers of his mates at his unfortunate nickname that the whole cafeteria now knew of.

"You get my message sweetie?" She purred softly, planting a quick kiss on his check as she caressed his hair. Squall sighed silently at her actions. He had told her countless of times not to show her affections like that in public, but like always, she just ignored him and continued to embarrass Squall. Rinoa had managed to get herself a job working with Dr. K in the infirmary, much to everyone's disbelief. He still didn't understand how she had kept the job for so long, considering that, she caused more damage than good. Most of the time, it was due to her inability to control her Sorceress powers. The gang had learnt to fear their training sessions with her, never knowing what was going to happen to them. One time, Irvine had the poor experience of being turned into a frog, which last for 3 days before some suggested to give him a kiss, like how the fairytale went. Poor Selphie was the undertaker of the job, but Irvine was eternally grateful. The gang spent a lot of time looking up fairytales after that, as that seemed to be the theme of Rinoa's magic. The things that go through the girls' head amazed Squall, but she offered him love and security and he wasn't going to turn that down, despite the lack of feeling he had towards her.

"Yes"

"Good then sweetie. I've gotten your clothes ready and waiting on your bed. Are you planing on going to the training centre before hand? if so make sure you take the time to use that lovely watermelon shower gel I brought for you last week. Quistis what would you be wearing? Maybe I better come around and lend you my tastes and no demin or hats to be worn Zell, Irvine…"

Squall blended out Rinoa's endless chatter. Honestly, when did she stop to breathe? Leaning across to Irvine, he whispered "What is the ball for this time?"

"I think it's for the Cafeteria Lady's birthday and the two thought that it would be a great excuse to through a party," Irvine whispered back.

"Ahhh" and Squall returned to his lunch. Suddenly the heavy weight that had been resided on his legs lifted off of his lap as Rinoa leapt up and screamed "Selllpphhie!" from the top of her voice, hurting the eardrums of all those on a 10m radius.

"Gotta go and finish up Squally Poo" Rinoa said as she quickly placed a kiss on the top of his head before bounding off over to Selphie where to two left chattering at 100 miles per hr.

"Whatever" mumbled Squall as he returned to his lunch.

"How DARE she instigate that I have not taste in clothing!" spluttered Quistis as soon as Rinoa had left the building. When Rinoa was around, Quistis was all smiles, but as soon as she left, her claws came out with vengeance.

"Don't worry about her baby. She has this weird idea that if its not blue, its not worth wearing. Its not her fault that she happens to be colour-blind" said Zell placidly as he wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's shoulders.

"You dress lovely," add Irvine

"Yeah, unlike Rinoa" snickered Zell.

Squall just ate his lunch with disinterest. He was never bothered by the fact that his friends continually dissed his girlfriend behind her back. For a moment Squall wondered why that was so. As her boyfriend, he should be defending her until his death, but really, he couldn't care less. It was actually quite interesting to hear what the others said about her, and most of the time he could agree with them. Sure, he wasn't the most feeling boyfriend there was, but Rinoa knew what he was like when they first started dating. Now if only she would stop trying to change him…

"Earth to Squall! Can you hear us from in there?" Squall sighed. Trust Zell to ruin an interesting monologue.

"I'm here and still breathing Zell" Squall said sarcastically. "What more do you want?"

"You opinion for starters" Zell retorted. Quistis nodded.

"We're planning on going to the ball wearing our style, include demin and hats. Want to join in the fun?"

Squall imagined the white tux that Rinoa would of surely laid out for him in his room. No black in Rinoa's wardrobe for him. He suppressed a shudder. "Yeah sure, whatever"

"OH YEAH" Zell whopped loudly. "This is gonna rock!"

Quistis smiled. I'm going to love to see the look on her face when she sees what we're going to be wearing tonight." Irvine nodded in agreement, and then turned his attention to Squall.

"Hey Squall, What's happening the Inter Galactic Delegations coming up?"

"Not too sure yet. I'll have to ask my dad that." Just after the Ultimecia Affair, delegates from the Intergalactic Planetary Traders Association came forward, wanting to open an official spaceport. It would be a great boon for trade, and would open up new options for the people on Squall's world. Sure there was the unofficial spaceport floating around, but they didn't serve the IGPTA's needs. A meeting was to be held between the delegates and the major leaders of the World, including Squall's father, President Laguna of Esther. When Laguna had first revealed his parentage to Squall, he had been a bit skeptic, but Laguna had a way of growing on people, and now the two enjoyed lengthily hats every week. Sure, most of the time it would be Laguna talking while Squall listened, but it was a huge improvement from when Squall was going through his 'talk to the wall' stage of his life.

"That reminds me. I need to talk to my father this arvo. I better get back to my office and get the coffee maker up and running. When Laguna talked, he wouldn't stop until he ran out of things to say, which usually took over an hour. Needless to say, Squall had booked an afternoon a week to be free when he called his father. In that sense, Laguna often reminded Squall of Rinoa. Squall pardoned himself from his friends' presence and returned to his office. Once the coffee maker had finished its magic, Squall made himself comfortable for the lengthily chat that he knew was coming up.

"Presidential Office. How can I help you?" came a nasally voice from the end of the line. "Squall of Balamb Garden for president Laguna please"

"Just one moment" and the hold music came on. Squall planned to personally strangle the person who chose the music with his own bare hands, once he found out who the culprit was.

"Squall! What a lovely surprise! Didn't expect you to call so soon!" came his father's voice. Squall raised an eyebrow. Something was off que with his father.

"Just calling to see how the IGPTA meetings were coming along and to see what mischief you've been up to lately," Squall replied with a smirk.

"Mischief, What mischief, I've done nothing that could be classed as mischief" came Laguna's flustered reply. Squalls smirk grew wider. It was so easy to catch his father out. "Ok father, what have you done this time?"

"Nothing!" Squall sighed.

"You can't fool me. I can feel the guilt radiating off of you from here"

"Oh, I promised Kiros I wouldn't tell you!"

"I'm sure Kiros would forgive you for slipping this once"

Ok ok, the other night I decided that I wanted to find out how I could help the lower class people so we hired a car and cruised around the backstreets when I accidentally ran someone over. He's alright. He's currently residing in the guest chambers," Laguna added in quickly. Squall sighed.

"You know, for a world leader, you're not very responsible" scalded Squall.

"Ahhh, that's not all Squall" Laguna added hesitantly. "You see, the guy I hit was just any guy but…."

"But who?"

"Seifer Almasy" came his father's whispered reply.

"WHAT!"

Squall rested his head on his hands. For nearly a year, the orphanage gang had been looking all over the world for Seifer's whereabouts, but with no luck. One thing for sure, Seifer knew how to hide. Now the hunt was over, because his own father had somehow managed run him over by accident. Talk about a small world.

"I'll be around in a few hours," Squall said to the receiver.

"There's no need for…"

"I'm coming" came Squalls curt reply. "I'll see you soon" and hung up. 11 months he had been looking for Seifer, he wasn't about to let him get away from him again. Now to break the news to Rinoa that he wouldn't be able to attend the ball tonight.

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The news had left Rinoa in tears, but Selphie was able to distract her attentions so that Squall could pack for his trip. As soon as Quistis had heard the news, she state that she was coming as well, and nothing could stop her. Out of the lot of them, Quistis was probably the closest to Seifer after Squall. After all, she did teach them both, and knew them better than the rest of the gang. While packing, Squall went over the questions he had wanted to ask Seifer for months, like, why did he go with the Sorceress in the first place? Why didn't he come back to Garden? Why did he just suddenly disappear, leaving all of his friends, including Fujin and Rajin, in the dark, with no contact to say that he was alive? Squall shock his head. It was pointless going over them now. He'll soon find out the answers. On that thought, he shouldered his bag and headed to the Raganork.

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'The long blade curved upwards, cutting through the people as though they were jelly. People he had known his whole life fell lifeless as the Platinum-haired beauty made his way through the building, leaving behind him a trail of dark red blood from his victims. Up and up he went, and the boy could tell that the final destination would be the 72th floor – his grandfather's office. 'If he's planning of getting the old man, he's a bit too late, Father and Re have already dealt with him' the boy thought to himself. He could still remember see his grandfathers face when he realised that the Turks followed not him, but his son, the loud bang of the guy and the sicking sucking sound as the bullet enter his grandfather's head and came out the other side, bringing a trail of blood and brains out with it. Grinning to himself, the boy crept out of his hiding place to follow the blood soaked warrior on his rampage, avoiding stepping on the bloody mess of intestines and other various organs that littered the ground. The boy hissed in annoyance as he stepped on an unidentified organ, probably the guys' brains from the look of the corpse. Shaking the matter from his shoe, the boy hiked his pants up so that they wouldn't get dirty and made his way up the stairs to his grandfather's former office. When he reached the top floor, he peeked around the corner and into the large office. Lying across the desk was a large, fat man with light blonde hair, slightly balding at the top, pinned down by a large sword, the exact replica of the long sword that the man was holding. Reeve had borrowed the sword from the Museum, and interesting touch that would leave a strange puzzle for the idiots that would have to "invistigate" the murder. One thing for sure, Reeve did have a natural flair for when it came to getting everyone out of trouble, even more so than Tseng. Looking at the sword imbedded in the dead man, the man threw his head back and laughed loudly, sending his long hair shimmering down his back. As idiotic as it sounded, the boy just wanted to reach out and play with the long, silvery hair. Ok, so maybe he had a fetish for long hair, so sue him. But this was no longer the man that he once knew, so he stayed behind the doorframe that he was peering out from. The man suddenly turned and started walking in the boys' direction. Realising that he was about to be caught, the boy glanced around for a place to hide, before…'

YO! Wake up there!" Seifer awoke with a start.

"Hey hey, its ok. You were having a bad dream," said the guy leaning across the bed. He was of a slight build, leaning towards feminine, with large brown eyes, and thick black hair tied back in a ponytail. His whole presence screamed "Goofball!" but there was something about the guy that made Seifer smile. Charisma, the idiot's saviour. He tried to sit up, but was rewarded with a sharp pain up his side. He laid back down and waited for the pain to subside.

"Whoa, you don't want to go do that just yet" the man said, concerned.

"What happened" Seifer managed to croak out. The guy looked sheepishly as he scratched his head while looking down at the floor. All he needed to do was ground his toe into the ground and he would look like a child who had just been caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar.

"Well, we kinda ran you over when my friends and I were out for a drive…" the man finally supplied. "We brought you back here so we could get you some proper medical treatment."

"Ok then, so where's 'here'?"

"The Presidential Palace"

"Eh?" Seifer shook his head, making sure that he had heard right.

"You sure?"

"Positive kiddo." Seifer glanced around. Sure enough, the large room reeked of wealth. Seifer mentally scolded himself for not taking note of his surroundings earlier and returned his attention to the beautiful man on the foot of his bed.

"By the way, my name's Laguna, and these two" he gestured towards to door, "are Ward and Kiros. If you need anything at all, just ring the buzzer and ask for one of us."

Seifer took a quick look at the two men at the door. One was a large, heavy set man that had obviously seen more than a few battles in his lifetime, While the other was a tall, slender man with sharp eyes and deliciously long hair. With that, the three men left Seifer to his thoughts. He lent back into the ultra soft pillow and decided to make use of the luxurious bed that he was currently residing in. Within minutes, he had drifted off into a dreamless sleep.