Disclaimer: Plots mine, nothing else is

Warning: Sorry I forgot to add these to the other chapters, I hope I haven't upset anyone. This fic contains Yaoi, which means guy-on-guy action, drug use and descriptive scenes (mainly containing blood and guts) that might disturb some people. Do not read if you don't like. Flamers will be used to roast marshmallows on. Not suitable for kiddies.

Chapter 3

There were two things that Seifer first noticed when he woke up. 1) The morphine had worn off, and 2) he was not alone. A quick glance around revealed the intruders – asleep on the couch was his ex-instructor, and sitting in a large chair next to his bed was his former rival and the world's hero, Squall Leonheart. Damn, he really had to work on his skills, that were the second time he woken up to someone in his room without him realising that they had entered. A deadly fault in Seifer's eyes. He looked across to the figure in the chair. A flurry of emotions passed quickly across Squall's face. Surprise, shock, disgust, pity, and a new one to Squalls range, which Seifer had yet to see. Anyone who said that Squall was unreadable obviously didn't pay much attention to him. The emotions were there, you just had to look hard enough. Seifer sat back and waited for the Hero to speak.

Squall was shocked by his rival's appearance. When he and Quistis had come in while he was sleeping, they believed that he wasn't as bad off as they had thought. The fact that Seifer had slept through them entering should of alerted Squall otherwise. Seifer had aged over the year. He looked haggard. His once tame hair was in desperate need of a cut; he had dark bags under his eyes, and had lost a lot of weight. There was something that was different about him. The eyes Squall realised. His eyes were no longer held that spark that made Seifer Seifer, instead they were dull and lifeless, brighten only by a soft glow that emitted from them. The glowing eyes would have been unusual on anyone else, but Squall had grown up with Seifer and was use to the glow, and the only reason why he noticed was because the dullness had enhanced it. Where the glow emitted from Squall had no idea, but the thought of asking Seifer about it did not even cross Squalls mind – despite being thought of as a loud brutish person who wanted everyone to know of him, Seifer was extremely private, especially about his past. Right now, his eyes contained remnants of shock, fear, curiosity, suspicion, gone within a blink of an eye, replaced with a strange new look, bordering on needy, and Seifer fidgeted with his fingers as Squall continued to examine him. Strange behaviour for Seifer, but Squall placed it down to nerves.

Why doesn't he hurry up and say something thought Seifer, fidgeting with his hands. With the loss of the Morphine, the realisation of pain had come back, but more importantly, the craving for the overdue shot pulled at him, tearing at his limbs and muddling his mind until he could not think straight. Just like Ultimecia Seifer thought for a moment. Pain could be ignored – the craving couldn't. Despite being curious as to what Squall and Quistis wanted from him, he wished that they would hurry up and go so that he could take his leave and go and hunt down his next shot of bless.

Impatience was written all over Seifer's face. Squall decided not to push his luck, and made the first move to speak.

"Seifer"

"Squall"

Tension filled the air as the two rivals stared at each other. A soft snore emitting from the couch as Quistis turned and rearranged herself broke the boy's gazes and the tension.

"How you feeling?" Squall asked softly.

"Like shit" Seifer replied truthfully. If it had been anyone else, he would of laughed in their face and told them that he had never felt better in his life. However, this was Squall, and they had seen each other hurt to many times to lie about their conditions, the other would just see right through it.

"You need some more morphine?"

Seifer thought about it. Sure, the morphine would stop the craving for a while, but it would be back, stronger than before. He wanted to get a shot in before that stage. There's nothing worse than crawling across the floor, begging for a shot – it was a pitiful sight and also a great way to be ripped off.

"Na, I'll pass. Where's my stuff?"

"By the dresser". Squall looked shocked as Seifer rose out of bed and headed towards his bag. Seifer was glad that Quistis was still sleeping. He wasn't exactly shy when it came to his body, but she was still his ex-instructor, and he didn't really want to parade around in front of her wearing only a pair of boxers and some bandages.

"You're not planning to leave already! You're still injured and…"

"Oh come off it Squall, quite the concerned act will ya. We both no that you don't fucken care what happens to me" Seifer snapped. Squall caught Seifer with an icy glare, stopping the blonde in his tracks.

"We have been searching for you for nearly a year now, not knowing if you were dead or alive, or how you were going. Your foolish hiding left everyone worried about you, including me, so stop being such an asshole" Squall replied through gritted teeth. By now, Seifer's head was pounding, and Squalls little speech had made it worse. With more strength than what Squall thought the older boy had, Seifer pushed Squall away with one hand, sending the brunette flying across the room, before crashing painfully into the bathroom doorframe. Squall watched silently from his position on the floor as Seifer dressed himself and gathered his things together. It was only when Seifer neared the door did Squall dare to speak.

"There will be a free bed and meal here for you Seifer. Just mention my name and you'll be allowed in. When you want to talk, we'll be right here."

Seifer turned and looked at Squall, his eyes empty of emotion. "What ever" and left the room, with Squall lying in a heap on the floor, and Quistis sleeping blissfully.

The last of Seifer's money passed from his hands, replaced with a small bag of powder and several syringes. Sitting in a private part of the park away from prying eyes, Seifer mixed up some powder and water together, sighing in content as he rolled up his sleeve and injected the cloudy liquid into his system. Bliss flowed through him as the drug surged through him, and he closed his eyes and just wallowed in the pleasant feeling, before getting up and moving on. Now that he had relieved his craving, Seifer had more time to review his situation, as well as his confrontation with Squall. Now that was a stupid thing to do. He was planning to return to Balamb Garden. So what does he do, insult and assault the Headmaster, and then take off the first moment that he could. Great first impression. Fuck… and now he was stuck in the middle of the back streets of Esther, with no money, no food, no place to stay and with injuries that continually nudged at his mind. The pain was easy to ignore, but his body could only take so much before complaining. Laguna had got him good. Seifer looked up at the looming building that was the Presidential Palace, visible even from there. At least there, he had a bed and a guaranteed meal. He had enough stuff on him to last a few days, just so his injuries could heal and he could sort out what to do next. Despite Squalls words, he wasn't too sure if he was able to go back to Garden. Oh well, cant do anything about it just standing here. Seifer shouldered his bag and began the long walk back towards the Presidential Palace, and Squall.

"You just let him walk out of here!" Quistis asked Squall, disbelief etched across her face.

"Well, yeah. There wasn't much I could do. He's stronger than I realised. He wasn't even trying when he pushed me across the room. There was no way that I could of stopped him from leaving" muttered Squall as he rubbed his aching shoulder. Seifer had always been stronger than he let on, but he had never used more strength than he needed, and Squall had not realised how much stronger Seifer really was. Squall was just glade that Seifer never used that strength against them during the war. None of them would of came back alive, Squall was sure of that.

"You still should have woken me up, called the guards…anything! We've been looking for the guy for a year with no sign of him, and when we finally find him, you let him walk straight out of the door! Now we're back to square one, and I doubt Seifer would make the same mistake and walk out in front of Laguna again"

"I didn't want him to feel pressured or trapped. That's the best way of losing Seifer. He has to know that he can make his own decisions, only then would he think about returning to Garden. Stopping him would of only sent him running faster."

"But still…"

The bickering SEEDS were quietened by a door shutting and closing, as a tired Seifer let himself in. The two watched in a stupefied silence as the tall blonde dropped his bag on the floor and climbed into bed, asleep within minutes of his head hitting the pillow. Quistis and Squall stared at the slumbering blonde with mouths opened and eyebrows in their hairlines.

"Oookaay then" Quistis said finally.

"I wonder where he went?" Squall said.

"Ahh beats me," Quistis said as she flung her hands up in the air and plonked herself down on the chair. "At least he's back. Now go and get some sleep. I'll watch over him."

"Fine." Minutes later only Quistis was awake, with only her thoughts on the blonde, and his peculiar behaviour.

It was barely six in the morning when Seifer woke up. A quick glance around revealed the two SEEDS sleeping soundly. Quietly he grabbed his bag and made his way to the bathroom, where he quickly showered and administrated himself another shot. 30 minutes later he emerged, greeted but a flustered Quistis, and an equally flustered Squall.

"Seifer! There you are. We thought you did another runner on us," Quistis said to the silent blonde. There was something wrong with the blonde this morning, but she couldn't quite place it. For some who was hit by a car just a few days ago, he certainly looked a bit too happy and healthy for Quistis's liking. The far away look in his didn't make her feel any better. Diffidently strange.

"Lets all go and get some breakfast," she said, breaking the silence." Then I'll like to give you a once over, to see how your healing up" Seifer just gave a little smile and nod, and then headed down towards the dinning hall. Squall and Quistis exchanged worried glances; Quistis wasn't the only one who noticed the difference. Together they followed Seifer down the hallway, each trying to figure out what was up with the blonde.

It always amazed Squall on how much Seifer could eat in one sitting. Seifer had already eaten 3 large helpings of bacon, eggs and toast, and was now helping himself to four muffins, and the way that he was already eyeing up the ham and cheese croissants meant that he wasn't about to stop anytime soon.

"Good morning everyone! Oh, you're up already. Feeling any better?" bumbled Laguna as he entered the dinning hall. "Damn" he muttered as he saw the collection of plates surrounding Seifer. "You sure like your food. Well, if you have an appetite, then you must be feeling better! Now where's my Coco Pops?" said Laguna, sitting down next to Squall. Squall just shook his head. His father couldn't even eat the same stuff as a grown-up. I guess that's what you get for having an over-grown kid as your father Squall thought as he watched said father pour himself a large bowl of cereal. "How did you all sleep? Good I hope"

"Fine thank you sir," replied Quistis politely.

"I've told you before, just call me Laguna please. I get enough of the 'sirs' from everyone else. Soon I'll forget my own name" Laguna said jokingly. Squall sighed. Mornings and bad jokes just did not mix.

"You're up early" Squall stated to his father.

"Phhhh. General Caraway called me at 5.30 in the morning, wanting to discuss security measures for the upcoming meeting. He also wanted to me to go and wake you up to talk about the SEED placements, as he heard from Rinoa that you were here. You'd think he'd wait until a decent hour of the morning, but no, he had to get it all done ASAP, mindless of anyone else" grumbled Laguna.

"What's happening that's so big that Esther and Galbadia are organising a joint military venture with SEED?" asked Seifer from his forgotten end of the table.

"Where have you been? Living in a cave?" asked Quistis.

"There's to be a meeting between the Intergalactic Planetary Trade Association and the major leaders of the world. There will be leaders coming from all different kinds of worlds to set up a trade agreement. Its one of the biggest things to happen to our world that's in the name of peace for a long time. Just imagine the things that would be open to us if this agreement is signed." Laguna informed the blonde.

"Well, where I've been hanging, we have better things to worry about than to sit and talk about some weirdos from space organising trade agreements that we'll never see the result of" Seifer snapped

"I could imagine," said Squall sarcastically. "I expect finding the best dumpsters to sleep in would take up most of your time Seifer," Squall added snidely, annoyed at the tone of voice that Seifer used to his father.

"Fuck you" Seifer said as he glared at Squall, then stormed out of the room, leaving the room filled with tension.

"Squall, that wasn't very nice! I thought you wanted him back? Saying shit like that's not going to help."

"She's right you know" Laguna added as he spooned a mouthful of cereal into his mouth. "I suggest that you go and apologise to him." Squall glared at the two before getting up and storming out of the room, leaving Laguna and Quistis to enjoy their breakfast in peace.

Why should I apologise thought Squall as he wondered around the Palace Gardens. He shouldn't have spoken to my father like that. He's a guest here and should behave as such. I can't believe that I've wasted a year trying to find that ungrateful, pig-headed, arrogant, beautiful… whoa, were did that thought come from? Squall stopped and shook his head, trying to clear his head of his new and unwanted thoughts. It was not good to think of his rival in that way. I guess I was a bit harsh on him Squall thought, remembering the hurt look in Seifer's gorgeous eyes that made Squall want to kiss it all away… Squall pushed the thought away, blushing. I'm straight, not gay; I'm straight, not gay… Squall chanted in his head as he tried to get his body under control. Tight leather pants and hormones were not a good mix, especially when the hormones were targeting his rival, who was also a guy on top of that. Getting himself under control, Squall carried on walking. I had better go and apologise, that way, I'll be able to stop thinking about him, and everything will be ok. But he'll have to apologise to my father as well Squall decided, and made his way to Seifer's room.

Seifer paced the length of the room. Stupid, fucken bastard. Like he knows what I've gone through. Sleeping in a dumpster huh? I haven't be that bad off, thank you very much. Dumb-arse prick, with his stupid fucken stuck up ways, fucken beautiful blue eyes and deliciously tempting mouth…lets not go there. I'm meant to be pissed off at him, not lusting after him. That can wait until later. Damn I need a pick up. Trust Squall to ruin my good feeling. Damn ice prince. Who does he think he is, talking to me like that. Seifer glanced towards his bag. Ah, one little shot won't hurt he thought as he grabbed his stuff and sat down on the edge of the bed. Mixing up the powder, he was about to give himself the blessed shit when the door opened…

"What the fuck!"

ok, i'm not to sure if i like the way this chapter came out. This is my first fanfic and i'm just starting to get the feel of it, so feel free to give me any pointers or hints, just go easy on me please! Reviews are always welcome.