As the night went on, Diehard had learned about what Selphie had proposed to Seifer. Diehard had no problem with Selphie at all, in fact he admitted on many occasions that Selphie wouldn't be a bad girl for him. The only obstacle in their way was Cody. Cody was very sensitive about his sister, especially since Irvine broke her heart. Of course, she recovered from their break up, but Cody never did. Never fully, anyway.
"Cody would kill me." Diehard debated as Seifer and he walked out of Quistis' class on their way to the training room.
"He couldn't kill you." Seifer said, "You could kick his ass."
"I know," Diehard said, swinging his weapon of choice on his finger Diehard wielded a spike-chain link with a large steel head lined with diamond spikes. He allegedly smuggled it from some foreign island before he came to the Garden, "but I'd hurt Cody's feelings."
"Who the fuck cares about Cody's feelings?" Seifer asked honestly, opening the doors to the training area.
"Well, I do," Diehard said meekly, "Well, sort of."
Seifer walked slowly, looking for something that he could fight.
"But do you think that I should?" Diehard asked, obviously not wanting Seifer's answer.
"Yes." Seifer replied anyway.
"But this is Cody, you know?" Diehard continued, "He's like our bro. I can't do him like that, that'd be lame."
"You're starting to sound like one of Zell's air boarder buddies." Seifer said.
"Sorry." Diehard said meekly, "But you got to admit, it's pretty low."
"Yeah."
Finally, as Seifer spotted a creature, he heard a soft moan come from further down the place. Diehard looked at Seifer with a confused look.
"What is that?" Seifer asked. Just as he was about to go find out, a plant-like monster came out of nowhere. Seifer sighed, fiercely chopping it with his gunblade.
The monster fainted with the one shot.
"Plant monsters are always the first to die." Seifer said, inspecting some green slime the monster had left on his gunblade.
The moaning continued. Seifer and Diehard listened closely to see if it would continue. It continued, seeming to increase as time went on.
"Who do you think it is?" Diehard asked.
"Not Cody." Seifer said, chuckling to himself.
"Don't be a jackass," Diehard said, "It's obviously a girl."
"I'm sure Zell could make his voice get that high. Just go behind him and say 'boo'."
Diehard and Seifer slowly began to approach where the sound came from. All of a sudden, they heard the rattling of the fence that marked the end of the training room territory.
Diehard flinched, looking in the direction. Just as Diehard and Seifer were about to take another step, they were tapped on the back. Diehard flinched again, grabbing Cody by the neck and throwing him to the ground.
"Shut up!" Seifer, who didn't notice Cody's tap, said. Diehard got off the ground and helped Cody get up. Cody listened closely as he noticed Seifer and Diehard were.
"What are we listening for?" Cody asked in whisper. Just after he asked, the moaning continued.
"Oh, that right?" Cody asked. Diehard and Seifer both nodded exasperatedly. The three of them crept closer and closer until Seifer stopped.
"What?" Cody and Diehard asked.
"I know what's going on here." Seifer said, a snide smile appearing on his face. He pointed to an exposed boot on the ground next to a large group of bushes near the fence.
"That boot could only belong to one person." Seifer said, taking large, quiet steps over to the collection of tall bushes. He summoned a magic power, burning the top of the hedges.
"Oh my God!" Diehard and Cody exclaimed. Squall and Rinoa were unveiled. Squall turned around in horror. His gloved pointer and middle fingers were wet and Rinoa was half naked.
"Well, well, well," Seifer said, crossing his arms and smiling as Rinoa scrambled to get dressed, "Look who's too good for a dorm room?"
"Seifer you idiot, what the fuck are you doing here?" Squall asked through clenched teeth, extremely embarrassed.
"This is a public training room, isn't it?" Seifer asked. Diehard and Cody were still in shock.
"YOU WERE FINGERING HER, MAN!" Cody said in shock, scratching his head.
"Just get the fuck out." Squall said angrily.
"Ok, we'll leave." Seifer said, putting his arms around the shoulders of his friends.
"Why didn't we take pictures?" Cody asked angrily.
"Because that would make this blackmail just too sweet."
Just as Seifer left the training room, he reached into his pocket and located the note that Summer had left him the day before. He had been so nervous the previous day that someone would see him reading the note that he ultimately forgot that he had it at all. He held it between his fingers.
"Hold on guys," Seifer said, stopping in his tracks.
"What is it?" Cody asked.
"I have to...have to..." Seifer stammered, looking for somewhere to go where he could read the note. All of a sudden, he noticed a bathroom, "Take a serious piss."
Seifer ran into the bathroom, followed a little later by Diehard and Cody. Seifer opened the letter in one of the stalls. The ink was a bit smeared, but the letter was still legible.
"Meet me at the Quad at 7. I'd like to know you a little better." Read the letter.
Seifer looked at his watch nervously. It read "7:15." Panicked, Seifer rushed out of the stall and left Cody and Diehard at urinals. He rushed over to the Quad as fast as he could. It was the first time he could remember himself running in years.
As Seifer was running, he hit into Squall Leonhart's shoulder.
"Sorry, Leonhart." Seifer said. He tried to keep running, but Squall grabbed his arm.
"I'm tired of you messing with me." Squall said angrily.
"Not now, Leonhart," Seifer said, pulling his arm back, "Can't you go finger your girlfriend or something? I'm busy?"
With that comment, Squall punched Seifer clear in the face. Seifer stumbled back, but just as he was about to return a blow, Quistis and Rinoa ran to break up the fight. Seifer looked out of the corner of his eye and saw Diehard and Cody running towards him.
"Seifer, how many times do you have to learn?" Quistis asked.
"That bitch started it!" Seifer yelled, trying to charge at Squall. Diehard had Seifer braced in his arms, holding him back from rushing at Squall. He softly whispered into Seifer's ear, trying to calm him down.
"He started it!" Seifer said through clenched teeth to Diehard. Squall gulped, looking angrily at Seifer. Rinoa was on his arm, terrified. Seifer, Diehard, and Cody knew why.
Seifer smiled menacingly, throwing Diehard off him and saying loudly, "He's just mad because I caught him feeling his girlfriend out in the training area!" Rinoa ran down the hall, crying in embarrassment.
Quistis looked at Squall in disbelief for a second. Seifer smiled, breathing heavily.
"Don't mess with me again, Leonhart," Seifer said, wiping a trail of blood from his mouth, "Because I will kick the mother-loving shit out of you if you do." Summer had popped back into Seifer's mind. He looked at his watch quickly. It read "7:37."
"Holy shit! Now I'm late!" Seifer exclaimed continuing to run. Cody tried to run after him, but Diehard grabbed his arm.
"Sorry about this," Diehard said to Quistis, "He's kind of in an emotional fix."
"I know," Quistis said, "I just wish he felt he could confide in me. How can I help him if he doesn't want to tell me anything?"
"Maybe it's not you he has to confide in." Cody said, eyeing her angrily, "You're not the only one who can help him. Hell, maybe he doesn't even need help! Maybe some breathing room." Cody sighed, flashing Squall a dirty look. "And he won't get it with this one always around."
"He messes with me." Squall said, his temper suppressed.
"It's not his fault if you set yourself up for some primo blackmail!" Cody said.
"Stop!" Quistis said, "This isn't going to solve anything. Squall, please go find Rinoa and help her out. I also think it's best if you give Seifer, as you said, some breathing room. Maybe he just wants to be alone. You two seem to hover over him a lot."
"Because we're brothers!" Cody said, "We have to look out for each other!" Diehard looked at his feet, remembering how Seifer referred to Cody's feelings in the training area. He put his arm around Cody's shoulders.
"Maybe she's right," Diehard said softly, "Let's just give Seifer some room." Cody looked at Diehard suspiciously.
"Fine."
Seifer arrived at the Quad as fast as he could, but he wasn't fast enough. He saw the quad empty.
"She left." He said to himself. He closed his eyes and put his hands to his face. He concentrated on the colors that were burned onto his retina.
"Who left?" a voice asked from outside the quad. Seifer perked up when he heard the voice, but he sulked back down when he realized it was Quistis'.
"What do you want?" Seifer asked, "As if I didn't already know."
"Why can't you just talk to me?" Quistis asked her voice sincere.
"Because you wouldn't understand a thing that is going on in my head." Seifer said angrily, walking to the balcony. The sky had gotten dark and stars shown in the sky. He leant down on the ledge, looking down and seeing water pass.
Quistis walked up next to him. For a while there was a long silence. Seifer's mind raced with thoughts about Summer. How he had wanted to see her. He thought of how stupid she must have thought he was. His heart began to sulk as it had a few days ago.
"You know, this reminds me of something." Quistis said. She waited for Seifer to ask "what," but he never did. "That night of the SeeD ball...Squall and I were on this balcony."
"Squall?" Seifer grunted, looking forward, "What were you talking about?"
"I was asking him why he was paying more attention to Rinoa than he was to me." Quistis stated matter-of-factly. Seifer was a bit shaken by this, but he didn't change his expression.
"I never understood why he was so cold towards me," Quistis said, looking up at the stars, "It's kind of weird that I'm trying to get you to do the same in this same place."
"What," Seifer asked, looking at her, "You want me to pay more attention to you than I do Rinoa? Because I don't like either of you."
"Not pay more attention to me, per say," Quistis said, continuing to look at the stars, "Just try to tell me what's been bothering you. Believe it or not, I think I can help you."
Seifer sighed, looking back out at the stars.
"Why would you want to help me, anyway?" Seifer asked, his voice strained with sadness.
"Because I know people like you. I believe I'm like you, just not so forward." Quistis said, looking down at the railing.
"Forward?" Seifer asked, "What do you mean?"
"It's just when I get mad I don't show it," Quistis says, "And when I've been hurt I hide it." She looked at Seifer and their eyes met. Seifer for the first time noticed how beautiful a woman Quistis actually was. She was only eighteen years old, but she seemed so much older. It only at this moment occurred to Seifer that he wasn't talking to a superior, but to a peer of his own age. Quistis looked down in embarrassment as Seifer's blue eyes began to get wide at his realization.
"We're not so different." Quistis said. A cool breeze came by, but the cold didn't seem to bother Quistis. "I don't want to be forceful, but..."
"Have you ever felt like you were in love?" Seifer interrupted, leaning his elbows on the ledge.
"Yes." Quistis said softly. She chuckled to herself, "It was so magical. I felt like it could have worked, too."
"What went wrong?" Seifer asked.
"What didn't go wrong?" Quistis said, with a chuckle, "I went wrong, he went wrong...and she went wrong."
"Oh." Seifer said, looking at a collection of stars.
"I always said that if it weren't for Rinoa Heartily, I could have made Squall find his smile."
Seifer laid on his bed, his eyes wide awake. His mind raced with thoughts about Quistis' nostalgia had a strange effect on Seifer. How could he have ever guessed that Quistis could feel love for someone else, let alone Squall Leonhart. The fact that another human being could love someone like Squall was beyond Seifer's train of thought. It seemed like there wasn't enough attention span length in anyone to stand to contemplate that issue.
Seifer began to regret how he had been so disrespectful to Quistis. Not because she was his teacher, but because he realized that she wasn't just a teacher, but indeed she was his peer and she did have feelings of her own. There had always been the joke that teacher's were emotionless and that they lived in the school as Seifer was growing up, as most kids had heard.
I guess that idea had stuck with me longer than I could have ever imagined... Seifer thought to himself, and to think that it would come back to plague me... Damn, I'm complicated. Maybe I could use some help...
During a mid thought about Summer, there was a knock on Seifer's door. Seifer looked at his bedside clock. It read "2:15 A.M."
Who the hell could be at my door at this hour? Seifer thought to himself. He walked up to the door and opened it. Rinoa appeared at his door, meekly waving at him with a cupped hand.
"What do you want from me?" Seifer asked angrily.
"Can I come in?" Rinoa asked.
"No." Seifer said bluntly, "Now what do you want."
"Why can't you just let me in? I don't want to talk about this in the hallway." She said nervously.
"Fine, girlie," Seifer said, "Come on in."
Rinoa came in and sat on Seifer's bed gracefully. Seifer shut the door quietly, then turning to Rinoa with crossed arms. He was wearing a small white t-shirt and plaid pajama bottoms.
"I need to talk to you about what you saw in the training area." Rinoa said earnestly, biting her bottom lip.
"Oh, yeah." Seifer said, "Wait, what happened again?"
"Stop it, Seifer!" Rinoa said angrily, "What happened to that nice guy I met at Garden? You were so polite then? What happened since?"
"I found out that you were the type to fall in love with someone like Squall Leonhart." Seifer said bluntly.
"How could you see that just from the short time we spent together?" Rinoa asked angrily, "There is no way someone like you could feel anything but anger!"
"Someone like me, huh?" Seifer asked, "You don't know a thing about me?"
"I know that you hate the man I love." She said softly, "That's something."
"Maybe one thing," Seifer said, "But it doesn't matter either way. If you want me to keep my lips shut about the whole thing, I guess I will, but only because I don't want you to have to endure the humiliation that Squall should be experiencing. Now can you get out?"
"And your friends?" Rinoa asked nervously.
"I'll tell them to shut up," Seifer said impatiently, "Now can you leave?"
"I didn't want to do it," Rinoa said, "He just kind of sprung on me...I couldn't tell him no..."
"Why not?" Seifer asked, "What was he going to do?"
"Break up with me." Rinoa said, her voice trembling.
Seifer sighed, walking to Rinoa and placing his hands on her shoulders. Rinoa felt Seifer's hands without gloves for the first time. They were surprisingly soft. She expected them to be rough and caliced.
"Don't let him take advantage of you." He said, talking down to her, "Even though I don't like you, I dislike him more than I do you. He' won't get away with anything, I promise you."
"Really?" She asked.
"Yes," Seifer said impatiently, "Now get the hell out."
"Ok." Rinoa said softly, getting up from Seifer's bed and making her way towards the door. She opened it softly.
"Uhm, thanks." Rinoa said meekly. Rinoa waited at the door for Seifer to say something, but Seifer kept silent. She closed the door quietly behind her. Seifer listened for her to be gone, and when her footsteps were out of reach, he shut his light and jumped on his bed. He hugged his pillow with his thick arms and let his mind race.