I own nothing. Unless you count my cat. (Square owns the characters, I just play with them EG )

Heartache and Savior

Fujin sat on the railing in the 'secret' part of the training center, tears burning her eye. She shouldn't have been there – or even known it existed – but she had heard an upper classman talking about it and today she had reason to seek it out.

Legs hanging over the edge into open space, thoughts ran through her mind of jumping, or even just falling off. No one would miss her – she had no real friends after a year, and Raijin had his nose so far up Seifer's ass he probably wouldn't even notice she was gone.

"Happy birthday, freak-girl," she thought miserably. Her parents had been coming to Garden when their train was derailed and they were killed. When the Headmaster broke the news to her, her brain just shut down and she passed out.

Waking in the Infirmary later, she managed to sneak out while the doctor was tending someone else and run to the training center. She thought maybe she could find the T-Rexaur that was supposed to be there and just let him eat her. Then she saw the door to the 'secret' area and went in to collect her thoughts before being eaten.

"HURTS!" she screamed at the heavens, then gave in to the tears. Gripping the railing to either side, she knew all she had to do was lean far enough. From here, she figured death would be a sure thing. Then the pain and loneliness would be over.

Just a little more, and gravity would kick in and do the job.

Just a little further . . .

A noise behind her intruded on her thoughts. She panicked for a moment when she really did start to fall. Then, from nowhere, hands were pulling her back from the rail to the floor, arms holding her while she collapsed into near-hysterics. Her savior held her tightly, stroking her hair, not saying a word while she cried until there were no more tears left.

Fujin had no idea how long she sat there, unable to move or speak, with too much pain in her heart to live and too much fear in her soul to die. She sniffed and wiped her nose on her sleeve. Then she finally looked up, into the face of the person who had pulled her back from the edge. "You," she whispered, stunned.

Blue-gray eyes looked at her sadly as he gently brushed the hair from her face. He didn't say a word, just pulled her against him and wrapped his arms around her again. They stayed like that until Seifer had to move because his leg had gone to sleep.

The silver-haired girl watched as Seifer stretched his legs and stood slowly. When he turned and offered her a hand up, she didn't take it. As badly as her throat her, she still had to ask, "FOUND. HOW?"

Since she hadn't made any move to get up, he sat back down. "Raijin and I have been looking for you for a while now. He uh … I know what happened, Fujin." She turned her face away and wrapped her arms around herself. He reached over and put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, we couldn't let you deal with this alone. 'Cause you're not, y'know?" She turned to him with such pain on her face he couldn't talk for a minute. He squeezed her shoulder. "You're part of my posse. We're here for you."

Fujin had to think about that one – somebody being there for her … She liked the thought, of course, but was this for real? Raijin – well, he'd always been there, even if it hadn't been so obvious for quite a while now. Seifer – she just wasn't sure. "WHY? SAVED?" she asked him.

He looked a little uncomfortable. "Why'd I save you? Well, um … I just …" He took a deep breath. "Okay, I thought maybe you'd be in here, since we've checked just about everyplace else. Raijin even tore apart the library, after saying it would probably give him hives." Seifer chuckled. "But yeah, anyway, I came in here 'cause maybe you needed to blow off steam and massacre some monsters or something. I heard you yell, and here I am. Didn't wanna see you jump – it'd be a waste! I mean, you're really good, Fujin. I want you on my side. Raijin's a good backup guy, don't get me wrong – big as he is, I know he's got my back. But you, you're smart and a good fighter. I like people who can think for themselves and aren't afraid to say so, unlike Rai, y'know?" They both smiled. "'Sides, he'd kick my ass if he thought I'd let you jump."

Seifer's 'speech' was probably more than he had said to her since they'd met. Fujin threw herself at Seifer and hugged him, grateful that it had been him that found her and not Raijin. Her cousin probably would have said things that made it worse while thinking he was fixing things. She felt Seifer's arm come up around her and looked up at him with a weak smile. "POSSE" she asked, smiling a little more when he nodded. She put her head on his shoulder.

"THANK."