This chapter is a little bit of action plot furthering, a little bit of (finally) the romance plot. Smut comes soon, I suppose, and I'll be linking off to that:)

As always, thank you for the nice reviews, and for being wonderful fans. :p Hope this chapter pleases.

My darling wasn't too picky over this, but she may add some more thoughts when I speak to her again, so there may be an edit. But I doubt that the edit will change anything of the plot, so read away. :)

Selphie POV

I jump up as Squall comes out of the infirmary, immediately asking after Zell. "How is he?"

"A little concussed," he says, rolling his eyes in that typical Squall expression. "But he is fine. And we have the information we want, too."

"Oh?"

Seifer looks interested as well, looking up at Squall. He doesn't take his eyes off Squall even when Quistis comes out of the infirmary, nodding, and explaining. "One of the new SeeDs found something that we think is the entrance when she fell. She's got a broken arm, but she should be able to talk to us about it soon."

"That's good!" Seifer winces slightly at the chirpiness of my voice, but he doesn't comment. His eyes are still on Squall. I frown a little, "Seifer, did you get hurt today?"

"What?" He looks at me, startled, "Hurt? 'Course not."

"You seem… distracted."

Squall moves over to him, a look of concern on his face. "You did get hit pretty often…"

"What the fuck? I'm fine, really. I didn't get hit seriously at all." He stands, and their eyes meet for a moment. Squall looks genuinely worried. I wonder why. I'll have to find out later – I'd never ask him actually in front of Seifer, because that'd just be stupid. But it's weird, seeing that he does seem to care about the man he is supposed to hate.

Quistis meets my eyes, apparently thinking the same things, and shrugs. Neither of us would ask him now, and I doubt either of us will quite have the guts to ask him later, either. Squall can be pretty intimidating when he wants to be. That silence counts as intimidation.

The infirmary door opens again and a girl comes out, her arm in a sling. It must be the girl who has the information we need. Poor girl, she looks shy and uncomfortable as she faces her Commander, who doesn't have a single scratch on him.

He attempts a smile – I wouldn't call it a smile, but Squall's smiles aren't like a regular human's. It's something much more subtle. One day, we'll have him smiling like a normal human being.

"Are you ready to talk to us now, or would you like some time alone to rest a little?" he asks her, his voice devoid of emotion, unthreatening. He needs to be a little friendlier, but at least he isn't pulling the old strong and silent act on the poor girl.

"I'm ready," she nods, lifting her chin and chancing a slight smile, still managing to look very serious and small and shy. She'll make a good SeeD someday, I bet, and if people could persuade her, she could be great fun. I offer her a grin, and her smile intensifies a little.

Not many people can resist my grin.

"Come this way, then," Quistis says; all business and seriousness. That girl and Quistis are two chips from the same block, I swear.

But then, Quistis can go wild when she feels like it. I know it; I've seen her at a club.

I bet most people wouldn't believe that though. She was drunk, I'll admit… and that was my fault, but honestly, Quistis needed to have a little fun for once. She lets things get to her too easily, but refuses to show it. She's just around to 'carry out Squall's orders' or something like that, so she says, anyway.

We follow Quistis, Seifer walking beside Squall. They seem so comfortable with each other; it's hard to believe that they used to fight so hard, that there was ever any rivalry between them.

In fact, it looks as if they could end up being friends. I bound up in between them, grinning. They'll hate me for chattering at them – I won't say to them, because they'll just sort of absorb my words and mostly ignore me – but, of course, that's never stopped me.

"Hey! I saw you two fighting. You make an awesome team!"

Seifer ignores me, and Squall shrugs. It's like talking to a pair of walls.

"Tsk, tsk, it's not polite to ignore a lady."

"Lady? Where?" Seifer asks, a glimmer of humour in his face.

"That was an easy one," I scold, "You need to think of something original."

"Sorry, we're all out of the great Almasy humour at the moment," he shrugs, "You'll have to be content with second best."

Squall snorts softly, quickening his pace to walk with Quistis, leaving me with Seifer. "How are you?"

"Great," he says, a little sarcastic, "I'm under twenty four hour guard, I just came off a battlefield and half the world wants to kill me. But I'm fine."

"Good!" I choose to ignore his sarcasm.

He rolls his eyes at me, and proceeds to ignore me all the way to the empty classroom where we all sit down to listen to what the girl has to say.

"I fell and… there was a bit of hollow ground beneath me, so since we were looking for tunnels, I listened." She turns to Squall, giving him a weak smile, "I think I heard voices, sir."

"Would you be able to show us that spot again?"

After a moment's hesitation, she nods.

Squall does that thing that he calls a smile. "We won't be asking you to come with us when we actually try to get in. But I want you to take Selphie Tilmitt to see the entrance for her to mark it for us. Could you do that?"

The girl nods and I jump up again, going over to her, putting an arm around her waist and squeezing gently. "Great! We'll wait for your arm to mend a little before we try it, though. What weapon do you have?"

"A gun," she says, shyly, "I have a lighter one I can use one handed…"

"Great!" I say again, starting to feel like a repeating record, "We can go whenever you've rested up and you're ready for it, then."

She smiles and turns to Squall, waiting to be dismissed. He sighs and gives her a salute, nodding. "Dismissed."

"Permission for us to go, too, Commander?" Quistis asks him, teasing gently.

"Get out," he says, pretending to be scowling.

Seifer POV

"You really get on well with them, don't you?" I raise an eyebrow at Squall as the heroes for hire traipse on out. There's a teasing, playful dynamic just starting to show between them, and it makes me curious. He seems close to them, in a way he's rarely, if ever, seemed.

He shrugs. "I guess so."

So much for conversation. Apathetic bastard. Why do I even want to have a conversation with him?

I stand up, "I guess we're going back to your office? Assuming that you're still my guard dog, even though I've been proved right so far."

"I still have to keep an eye on you," he agrees. "But I thought we could stay in here for a while, since I don't have any work to do."

"And do… what?"

"Talk?" he asks, eyebrow raised.

He does things like this? Could've fooled me. "About what, Squally-boy? In case you hadn't noticed, you just blanked the conversation I was trying to start."

"Actually, about something specifically." He bites his lip briefly, the blood bleaching from it for a moment and flooding back in brighter when he stops biting.

Okay, he's not just pretty, he's fucking hot. I admit it.

"Oh?"

"Why were you looking at me earlier?" His eyes narrow a little, sharp and questioning. And, damn me, I can't look away. I don't know when this happened, when I started wanting more of him, but I don't think it's just a momentary thing and, fuck, he picked up on it almost before I figured it out myself.

"Why shouldn't I?" I shrug, try to keep this light. I'm not ready to say anything more, not sure I even want to say anything more.

He shrugs, withdrawing again. "Fine, I'm sorry. Let's go back to my office."

There's almost… disappointment in the way that he says that, and suddenly I can't bear to see it; don't want to waste this chance. What if it never comes again? My hand falls on his arm, restraining him. "Wait."

"Something you want to say?" He raises an eyebrow.

"I was looking at you because…" Because I want to kiss you, touch you, hold you, because I want you. Not that I know why, but I want to. And I'm only telling you because I feel like I should… just in case you might want it too.

How do you say that to someone who you've fought all your life?

"Because?" Does he not know how annoying that questioning eyebrow is?

I use my hold on his arm to pull him closer, determined to get something of what I'm feeling across to him. "Because I want to…"

He's still looking at me with that annoying look, not pulling away as I thought he might have, not yanking his arm free and pushing me away. So I do what comes naturally at this moment.

I kiss him.

I keep my eyes open to watch his reaction. His eyes widen, almost shooting wide open, before falling lightly closed as he kisses back. I wrap an arm round his back, pulling him closer into a loose embrace, giving him space to push me away if he wants.

Why the hell am I doing this?

Amazingly, he doesn't push me away. He pulls me closer, pulling back from the kiss and opening his eyes, looking straight into mine.

I thought the anger in his eyes made me feel at home. But that look, now… I don't just feel comfortable and at home. I feel wanted. By Squall, yes, but in a way, he's always meant a lot to me, more than anyone else. It was important that he thought I was a good fighter, and now…

Shit, I don't know. All I know is, kissing Squall Leonhart feels damn good, and I really should have done this before instead of kicking his ass all the time.

Of all the things I ever envisioned happening, this was not one of them. But it feels… logical. Like it should have happened before.

"You wanted to kiss me?" he asks, uncertainly, without that detested raised eyebrow.

"Yeah." I pull him closer. "Yeah, I did."

"Do it again?" He's smirking slightly now.

"With pleasure."