I'm sorry to have frightened you all so! Though iliyana can tell you that I got a lot of giggles out of your reactions. If anyone is at all interested in our doings over the past week, I will tell you that we had a lot of fun and wrote a lot of porn. ;D Fans of Stockholm Syndrome, if there are any, should note that if I ever get around to it, there's a regular porn series there. xD

This will be the last chapter, I think. The final chapter/epilogue! Forgive me for wrapping things up so fast, and for any plotholes, but this needed to get finished now. If you find anything, point it out and I'll correct it as best as I can. It's been fun to write – thanks for all the reviews! Did you know that this fic alone has had over a thousand page views? And seventeen favourites! Wow! I heart you guys. ;D

This entire fic is dedicated to iliyana, my dear heart, because it was her idea and because I love her so awfully much. :D

Forgive me for all the sap!

Squall POV

Black fades to grey to a kind of pinkish colour before I open my eyes, shutting them again immediately at the bright light assaulting them. The infirmary. White and clean and safe. Is the battle over?

A quick movement at my side sends adrenaline racing through my body, but the hand that roughly takes hold of mine is immediately identifiable simply by the punishment that only a gunblade's grip can give its wielder's hands. "Squall," Seifer says, his voice rough, "I thought..."

"Idiot," I mutter, opening my eyes a slit again. Seifer moves to block the light and I open my eyes fully, looking up at him. His eyes are red. "Don't tell me you cried."

"Not at all," he says, smirking a little. He leans down to kiss me lightly, his hand tightening around mine. "But fuck, you gave me such a scare, Squally-boy. Just 'love you' and then lights out."

"The battle, did we...?"

Seifer nods, leaning back in his seat without releasing my hand. "It was easy. Chickenwuss helped me get you out of there, but the battle was mostly over by that time. Sel got you with a full cure and then we carried you here. Figure you just passed out from the pain."

"Sel?" I wonder aloud. Since when did he refer to her as anything but 'that girl' or something like that?

"She helped out a lot. You've been out for... three days. I thought..." he sighs, shaking his head. "Enough of that. I suppose you're curious to know what's going on, aren't you?"

I nod slightly, disentangling my hand from his and carefully using both hands as support to lever myself up. I ache, but we all know well that cures just patch a person together. Time is the real healer. I wince at the thought of how bad it might've been a few days ago. Perhaps it's a good thing I was unconscious for so long, whether it worried Seifer or not.

"The President – Laguna," he corrects himself, and I smile wryly. No doubt Laguna demanded that his son's friend and lover call him by his name rather than his title. Seifer clears his throat a little and continues, "declared my innocence on your behalf. He said a lot about my courage in defending you and the spells I cast to protect you. He's a good storyteller when he feels like it. Medea has been imprisoned, pending a trial. I'm to go on trial, too, but it's pretty much confirmed already that I'm innocent. She's informed on the leaders of the group, and they're to stand trial as well, accused of first inciting rebellion and then wrongly pinning blame on me."

Only the part that I've hoped for the most really sinks in for now. What I wanted has come to pass, then. He's proved his own innocence – even made himself a hero. I smile slightly and he scowls at me, rolling his eyes.

Then I remember. "Lionheart – when I fell – did you find - ?"

He shakes his head, frowning. "No. But I'm sure we can go back and find the thing." He reaches for my hand again, squeezing. "I was more concerned with getting you out of there. I didn't even think about your gunblade."

"Moron."

There's a moment of silence, and then Seifer snorts softly. "So I'm a hero for saving the real hero's ass."

"Still a hero."

He rolls his eyes, putting a hand up and placing it on my cheek. "I promised everyone I'd go and disturb them when you woke. Is that okay, or do you need to sleep now?"

"I think I've slept enough."

He smiles, nodding, "I'll go get everyone, then."

Epilogue

"Squall?" Seifer voice echoes through the cavern and I turn to smile at him. He strides up to me, wrapping his arms around my waist possessively and holding me close. "We found Lionheart. We can go now."

"Yeah," I say softly, but make no effort to move.

He doesn't push, just holding me and letting me have the moment for a while before speaking. "What are you going to do about this place? It's practically an invitation for people to use it as a base."

"We'll collapse it. Esthar has the technology, and it's in everyone's best interests."

Seifer hums softly, his arms tightening around me as he rests his chin on my shoulder. "So that's it? It's over?"

"Yeah. You're free to do whatever now, since people view you as a hero for what you did for me." I turn my head, looking up at him, "Thank you for that, by the way."

"No problem," he mutters.

"What're you going to do now you're free to go anywhere?" I ask, almost holding my breath. A part of me knows that because he loves me, he isn't going anywhere without me. A part of me remembers how he was trapped by Ultimecia and that part asserts that I don't want to keep him with me if he wants to be elsewhere.

Still, he doesn't seem trapped. He seems... happy. Happier than I ever remember him being. I don't think he was happy when he was always with Raijin and Fujin, terrorising other students with the disciplinary committee. He wasn't happy living out his romantic dream, either. Dare I hope that he's found something to make him happy?

The day I woke up after the battle, he brought the others in to see me. He fit. There was Zell, bickering with him as always, but without hostility. With the sense that we had the old Seifer back. Seifer from the Orphanage. And Quistis rolled her eyes and sighed at him, but she wasn't cutting and she smiled. Selphie bounced and Seifer ignored her, mostly, with the same comfortableness that, as a group, we've never had chance to feel before. Irvine and Seifer ignored each other, and that was as it should be.

"I was thinking of staying right where I am. With you."

It took us a while to find home. For a while, we all thought of home as the Orphanage. But its not so much the Orphanage as the group. We've fought together now, and now more than even when we fought Ultimecia, we're a group again.

"Yo, Seifer! Get your ass out of there now and bring Squall with you!"

"Shut the fuck up, chickenwuss, you're spoiling a moment!"