Okay, so there was supposed to be action. But then this got way longer than I thought it would, so the next chapter's going to have some serious action.

Lady Deathstryke: I was in such a hurry to get my last chapter out I never thanked you for being my only reviewer. So, thanks. It means a lot to know someone is reading my story. I'm so glad you enjoy this is so far. And the Seifer/Quistis stuff starts to pick up quite a bit here.

Okami: Thanks! Too bad Square-Enix got a restraining order, though.

Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy, and I make no money from this. That means I am broke. Suing me in futile. Unless you like lima beans…

Chapter 10: Kidnapped!

"You want to what?" asked Gary, startled, as he looked up at Quistis, Seifer and Zell, who were standing side by side in front of his desk.

"We want to take General Caraway to Winhill after the latest debate so he lies low for a while," Quistis repeated. "It seems to be a reasonable move, and we may all benefit from leaving the scene and returning after a day or two. Besides, he seems to be getting stressed out anyway," she added. Gary frowned at them as he considered their words, his brow furrowed in concentration.

"I'll consider your idea. But why the sudden push?" he asked. "I mean, why are all of you in on this all of a sudden?"

"We just think it will be healthy for Caraway, and a new sight will help us pick up on some clues we might've missed before," Zell said, jumping from foot to foot, a sure sign of annoyance.

"And he did just receive that threatening letter," Quistis said. As much as she hated to even think it, that letter couldn't have come at a better time. It only strengthened their case to get Caraway out of Deling for a while.

"I think this is important because I have a lot riding on this mission," Seifer said. "Screwing it up now is not high on my list of priorities."

"Okay, okay. I'll think about it, and let you know," he said, sighing, as though he were finally realizing you couldn't argue with those three when they were this adamant about something. "Dismissed."

"Sir," they all said, then retired to the living room. Quistis and Seifer immediately beat Zell to the couch, aware that he would take it all up again. Groaning in annoyance, he chose to stand rather than sit in the harsh chairs that hated humans with a passion.

"So, we're going to Winhill," Zell said, glancing out the window. "It's a pretty sweet place, unlike here. All they have here is crowded streets and politicians aplenty."

"That's rude," Quistis said, shocked at his words.

"But true," he grumbled, jumping from foot to foot as he turned away from the window to face her. "So, about this stupid dance tonight. I don't want to go."

"Of course you don't. But you have to," Quistis said, sinking into the soft cushions of the couch. "It's our job, remember?"

"I don't care. I don't want to get shot again," Zell countered.

"Thank you can be the one explaining to Squall why you disobeyed the orders of your commanding officer," Seifer said, smirking. He knew Zell would never, ever do that.

"Okay, okay. But I'm going to hate it the whole time, and complain about it at each and every opportunity," he warned them.

"Good to know," Seifer said.

The dance was definitely a very boring one. Quistis sighed as she sat down at her table, drinking a glass of champagne. It was slightly stale, as they had kept it since the last ball had occurred. And, much to the deep sorrow of Seifer, it was non-alcoholic. She and Seifer had been chosen to go 'undercover' this time, meaning Caraway had set them up with fake IDs and invitations, to work their way through the crowd to find out if anyone was acting suspiciously. Zell hadn't been chosen because he'd received publicity from his injury, and Gary felt that as the leader he should also worry about protection. That had left her and Seifer to do the job. Of course, they had to pretend to have come together on a date, which would explain why they would talk to each other.

Quistis was dressed in a loose-fitting black dress that hung to her knees, tied at the waist with a peach sash. Her shoes were also black, and they had easy to undo straps on them, allowing her to kick them off for mobility incase it was needed. She had chosen to wear her hair down, but the front portion was tied back in a barrette so she could see.

Within the past hour she had worked her way around the entire room, and had met every single stuffy person that was here. Now, unable to take the politics and arguments anymore, she had stepped out onto the small balcony for a breath of fresh air. But she couldn't be absent too long, and after her moment out there was done she walked back into the room, heading toward the table that she and Seifer were sharing.

"Hello, Quistis," said a quiet voice in her ear using her real name, causing her to whirl around. She saw Seifer smirking there as he held out a drink for her. She took it after her heart started beating again.

"Don't scare me like that, Seifer!" she hissed quietly, calling him by his real name as well. She swirled the drink around, looking at him for a moment. He cleaned up rather nicely, a thought which caused her to start blushing. Instead, she looked down at her drink, wanting to hide her embarrassment. She was startled to see that it was off-color, which probably meant they had different drinks out now.

"I didn't poison it," he said, laughing slightly as he took a sip from his own glass to prove his point. She smiled, looking back up at him.

"That wasn't what I was thinking," she said, taking a sip to prove her point. He just smirked and took another drink from his own glass. "Hey, this isn't stale." She took another sip, examining the contents thoroughly. "It isn't even champagne."

"I managed to con a guard out of some brandy, so drink it quick before someone tries to take it," he said. She took another sip, less wary of the substance now. Then she drained the glass for good measure, and set the glass on the table.

"That was definitely great," she said as he placed his empty glass beside hers. "Thanks."

"No problem." They were silent a moment, and Seifer watched the dancers move about for a moment. "Want to dance?" he asked suddenly, causing Quistis to look at him rather quickly in surprise. That was the last thing that she had expected to hear tonight, especially from Seifer of all people. Quickly she spoke to hide her confusion.

"Excuse me?" she said, still unsure if she'd heard right.

"I asked if you wanted to dance," he repeated casually, as though he were commenting upon the weather. She looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

"I thought you hated to dance."

"Who said that?"

"All the times you tried to escape from the dancing classes at Balamb seemed to be an indicator of that. Like your chandelier adventure - "

"Let's not get into that, shall we? Now, would you like to or not, Miss Charlotte Ceres?" He extended his hand as he spoke her fake name, and she looked at it a moment. Then, shrugging, she accepted.

"Why not, Mr. Alexander Rusch?" she said, repeating his example of using their full fake names. He closed his hand around hers, and led her out onto the dance floor. A fast paced waltz started up, and they took their positions, both knowing from countless classes what they had to do. After a moment they started to whirl around like the other – she had to say the word – couples. He was good at it, something that surprised her. But then again, if he had to do something, he made sure that he excelled at it above the others.

"I was surprised you asked," she commented as they circled the floor, following the tempo. "It isn't exactly something that I ever thought you'd do."

"I was surprised you accepted," he countered, twirling her out then in again before resuming the pace. "I didn't think you like me enough to say yes." She smiled.

"I guess we all do some odd things," she admitted. "And we even surprise ourselves in the process."

"Yeah, I've certain done that before." he said, and then they lapsed into silence, concentrating on the dance movements. Quistis looked at him a moment, surprised at how peaceful he appeared. It really had startled her that he would have asked her to dance, but it was probably just a part of their disguise. After all, they had needed to come to the ball together as part of the act. Although she wouldn't have been upset if he'd asked her for reasons other than that.

"Quistis?" he asked, causing her to wake from her thoughts with a start. She looked at him, and saw that he was looking at her.

"Yes?" she asked.

"What are you thinking about? You look so serious, like you're trying to solve a calculus problem or something."

"Oh, I was just thinking about what was going on," she said, evading the question. She didn't want to explain to him what she had been thinking.

"Like what?" he asked, and she knew that he wasn't going to give up until she answered. Unable to think of a convincing lie, she chose instead to give him part of the truth.

"I was startled that you asked me to dance," she admitted. "But I guess we need to make this disguise seem real, don't we?"

The dance came to an end, and they stood there a moment. Quistis was watching him curiously, and he was looking back at her. Then, as though they suddenly realized their proximity, they both stepped back a few paces.

"We do need to make this disguise real," he said after a moment. "But couldn't I have asked because I wanted to?" And then he was gone, leaving Quistis there, wondering what exactly he meant by that.

Caraway had agreed happily to head out for Winhill, so Seifer was currently packing his few belonging into a bag for the trip. They had decided to move out that evening in the night, so that no one could follow them easily. And for the people that did, a very nasty surprise in the form of four well-trained soldiers would quickly end their efforts.

Instead of taking the trains, as Zell had told them from personal experience that they were easy to snatch, they were going to travel by car to the other end of the continent, where Winhill was situated. The journey was supposed to take about two days, but anything could happen. So they hadn't described any sort of arrival time. They hadn't even booked a hotel, although Seifer was sure that wouldn't be a problem in the tiny town. How they would react to them might be a problem, but they were only going to be there for a little bit. At least, Seifer hoped they were only going to be there for a little bit. However, he had learned a long time ago that things never went the way he wanted them to. Point in case was the chandelier adventure that Quistis had mentioned yesterday, something that he had been trying with all of his might to never ever remember again.

Thinking of Quistis made him pause in his activities. He still wasn't entirely sure what had come over him at the dance last night, first by asking her to dance then what he had said afterward. It was just one of those things that he hadn't thought through too well; maybe people had a point when they said he spoke first and questioned later. He had been questioning it all night and today, and still he had no answer. Quistis had chosen not to mention it to him at all; he supposed his actions had baffled her as well. But at least she hadn't asked about it. How could he possibly explain to her something that he himself didn't have the answer to?

But there was definitely something behind it, and he was afraid of what it meant. But over this mission, and even before he had felt something when he was around her, something he'd never felt with anyone before. And the implications were too bizarre for him to accept. But was he actually falling in love with his childhood friend?

That's going to cause more problems that it's worth, he thought. I can't do this to myself, and I can't do this to her. He'd done entirely too much before and during the Sorceress War. She was having enough troubles with her credentials without being involved with someone like him. Assuming that she even felt the same way, of course. Which seemed highly unlikely, until he looked at the big picture. She did seem worried about them, and they'd been so close as children, and even on rare occasions at Garden, but usually only when there was no one else around. And she had agreed to dance with him.

"Yo Seifer, are you done packing yet?" said Zell, literally bounding into his room. He looked up, startled from his thoughts.

"I will be in a moment. How about the rest of you? Are you all ready?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Zell took a moment to glance around the room, taking in the articles of clothing strewn about and the mostly empty duffle bag. "Hurry up, would you? I want to get this over with."

"Okay, okay. I'm so sorry you can't be bothered to do your job because you have a girlfriend," Seifer muttered as he started to pull the loose shirts and pants off the floor. Zell grimaced at him.

"Hey, at least I have one," he retorted, turning toward the door.

"Who said I want one?" Seifer fired back before Zell could leave with the last word. Zell turned around, a manic gleam in his eyes.

"I do," he stated. Seifer frowned at him.

"And what precisely does that mean?" he asked. But Zell had already exited the room, leaving behind a very puzzled Seifer. He stuffed the clothes into the duffle bag, and then slung it over his shoulder. Now was not the time to ponder Zell's words. They did indeed have a mission to complete.

Quistis looked about the road, carefully scanning for any hint of movement. So far the trip had been silent, almost deceptively so. Someone had clearly been after Caraway's life. Everyone knew that the best time for an attack was to strike while the enemy was still reeling, so why have all of this inactivity? It made her think they had something big planned, and that worried her. This first day had gone smoothly, and that was also suspicious to her. Stop it, she commanded herself. You're starting to sound like Squall, paranoid about everything.

"Uh-oh," said Gary suddenly from where he was driving the car. "We have a problem. There must be a leak in the gas tank, because we're losing gas much faster than we should be."

"Stupid rentals," Zell muttered under his breath. "They never work the way they're supposed to."

"I think we're near a small town," Gary said. "Let's stop there a refuel, then we can continue on our way. Maybe we can even get another car."

"Sounds good to me. We should probably stop for the evening anyway," Seifer said. "It's getting awfully dark out, and I personally don't want to die because someone was asleep at the wheel."

"That sounds excellent," Caraway said. With that sort of vote, there was no argument. They reached the town, and pulled into the small inn. The owner looked up in surprise when five people walked in at 11:00 at night.

"Oh dear," the woman said, jumping up from where she had been cleaning the floor and hurrying over to the desk. "I never expected people to arrive this late. Thank goodness I was still up." Now behind the counter, she pulled out a book and pen, and looked at them. "Five of you?"

"Yes, and only one night," Gary said. "We'd like as many single rooms as possible."

"That can be arranged," she said, quickly tallying up the price. "Your total is 350 for one night, five rooms." Gary passed her the money, and she placed it in her apron pocket, no doubt to deal with it later. She pulled out five keys, each of which had a number on it. "The rooms are all downstairs on the left. Between 7:00 and 9:00 we serve a continental breakfast."

"Thank you," Quistis said. The woman smiled.

"Have a nice night," she said before disappearing into the back. Tired, all five climbed up the stairs and walked into their respective rooms. They were actually quite roomy inside, hosting a bed, dresser, closet, and vanity table. Off to one side was a small toilet, complete with complimentary soap and towels. It wasn't as bad as some of the motels that she'd stayed in.

Unusually wide-awake for this ungodly hour, she walked out a sliding glass door and onto a patio, which was within the depths of a small garden. The air was fresher than it was in Deling, and it was something that she missed about Balamb. Sure, the salty tinge wasn't there, and seagulls didn't cry out, but it was better than the smog and hum of Deling City.

"I see you're up too," Seifer said, causing her to turn around. He was on the patio next to hers. She smiled.

"I couldn't sleep, and it's so nice out. Much better than Deling, don't you think?"

"I really is," he said, inhaling deeply. There was a silence, during which Quistis wondered if she should bring up the events of the previous night. She wasn't quite sure what to make of his actions or his words, yet she got the feeling that he didn't either. Still, she couldn't help her curiosity.

"Seifer, what exactly did you mean last night?" She saw him freeze up for a moment, and then he immediately relaxed, trying to look calm and under control.

"What do you mean?" he asked, and she almost rolled her eyes. Playing dumb wasn't going to get him very far.

"I mean what you said," she told him. He was quiet a moment, and she could almost hear the gears turn about in his head as though he were debating what exactly to tell her, and how much.

"Are you asking me why I said it, or what it means?" he asked finally.

"Aren't they the same thing?"

"No, not really."

"Fine. Then why did you say it?" Better take it one question at a time. She needed to find out what exactly was going on here. He sighed, and then walked over to her patio. He looked at her a moment.

"I don't really know. For some reason I can't grasp, my mind took over and said that. I've been puzzling over it to, and I don't have an answer. At least, not one that I feel I should give you."

"And why not?"

"Just because," he said, and turned to leave. She thrust her hand out, and grabbed him by the arm and spun him around with more force than she thought she possessed. Perhaps it was shock that allowed her to make him turn around so easily, but it didn't matter.

"For once in my life, Seifer Almasy, just once I want the truth," she said, looking him straight in the eye. He looked back at her, unflinching, and suddenly she became acutely aware of her hand still on his arm. She quickly withdrew it, but never broke eye contact. "What exactly is going on, and what exactly do you mean?"

"Okay, okay," he said. He turned his back to her, but he didn't try to leave. She watched him gather his thoughts for a moment. "I honestly don't know why I said that, I was telling you the truth there. It just kind of happened. As for what it means… I can kind of answer that." He took a breath, and continued, never once facing her. "For some reason, as long as I've been alive, I just feel more comfortable around you. It's like…you're the only person I can be myself around. You keep assuming that people do things for some sort of ulterior motive, because you managed to save the world and be a celebrity. But what I said was what I meant. I wanted to ask you to dance, so I did."

"You…you actually wanted to be around me?" Quistis said, not entirely sure what to do. For this entire mission, and even before it she'd felt strangely drawn to him, something that was happening more and more frequently. But she'd never actually thought that he might even think of her as a friend in return.

"Well, yeah," he said, turning around. "It's like when we were kids, and you were always the one I wanted to hang out with because you were actually my age. I just feel like I can be near you and be myself, and that you're not going to judge me. I don't feel that way any other time. I…I just…" He stopped, looking about for a moment.

"Seifer…" Quistis said suddenly, feeling her breath catch in her throat. "What are you trying to say?"

"I'm trying to say I love you."

He froze, and they both stood there a moment, neither entirely sure how to act. Seifer obviously hadn't meant to say it, and Quistis didn't know how to react to it.

"You….you…" she couldn't say it. He turned around, quicker than before.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking. Just forget I said anything, okay?"

"Seifer, wait!" she said, before he could leave. He winced, and then turned around to face. Not knowing what else to do, she hugged him. He hadn't been expecting this, as he tensed up a moment before relaxing. "I…I think I love you too," she whispered, hugging him tightly. He wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back.

"Quistis, are you sure? You do know who I am, right?" he said.

"I don't care any more about what Garden thinks. Because what you said is right on the mark. I only ever feel like I can be myself when you're near too. And I'm sure that's what love is; being with someone that you're comfortable with. So I don't care what other people think, or even if I get back my license. Suddenly, it doesn't matter anymore."

Seifer placed a hand under her chin, raising her head up to look at him. For a moment their eyes met, then slowly he lowered his face to hers, and kissed her. She was startled only for a moment before she reciprocated the kiss, putting her arms around his neck.

"Well, I was coming to see why you weren't answering your phone, Quistis, but you appear to be in good hands," said a voice from the door. The two teens broke apart and looked over guiltily at a smirking Zell. He has the worse timing in the world, Quistis thought. "Next time, just hang something on the door like everyone else," he said, walking out. Quistis was sure her face was now as redder than a tomato. Seifer also seemed embarrassed.

"Good night," he said, heading back to his own room, but not before placing a quick, final kiss on her lips. Then he was gone.

Breakfast proved to be fascinating the next morning. Quistis and Seifer were pointedly ignoring each other, and Zell had a long, loud fit of giggles every time he looked at one of them. Seifer made a mental note to kill Zell, preferably with something blunt and hard. He eyed the ridiculous Tonberry statue beside the table, which was wearing a goofy grin that made it seem defenseless but was really anything but. They were tough to face, and their King was the one of the worse.

"Did you all have a pleasant night?" Gary asked, oh so naïve to what was going on. Seifer nodded, not trusting himself to speak. Zell was once again laughing hysterically on the floor, and Seifer was wondering how much it would cost him to use the plaster statue to hit Zell, thus ridding the world of two evils in one swift blow. He looked at Zell curiously, but knew better than to question what was going on. "I'll, uh, go get General Caraway," he said, quickly exiting the room.

"What is your problem?" demanded Quistis the moment Gary left. "I would think you're mature enough to handle people kissing by now. I bet you and your girlfriend do it all the time."

"What's it to ya?" he questioned, although he had stopped laughing.

"All I'm saying is stop," Quistis threatened. "That is, if you and your future wife ever want kids." Zell turned a very pale white, and nodded.

"Totally gotcha," he said. "100 percent."

"I'm glad we had this talk," Quistis said. She smiled at him, and Seifer smiled back. Maybe he was starting to get a lucky break in life. All he had to do was finish this mission, and he could be a SeeD. Although he was surprised to realize that the only reason it mattered anymore was because Quistis was in Garden. I'm way different now…

Gary ran into the room, having turned pale as a ghost. "Caraway's gone!" he gasped.

Seifer groaned. He'd spoken too soon.