VII – Rain

Disclaimer: I don't own Seifer, Fujin or Raijin or other FFVIII characters. They belong to Squaresoft. But I own Kyte Foda.

A.N.: A biiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiig "thank you" to all my reviewers – you guys are great .

Dawn sent its weak light over the lands when Seifer returned back to BG. It had been a lousy night all together. The memories of what had happened before had spoiled everything.

He noticed that something was wrong immediately, as he saw the students whisper in each others ear, while glaring at him in something like fear.

"Seifer! Seifer we have a problem, ya know." Out of breath Raijin beat his way his way through the crowd and sighed as he finally reached his boss. "Is it about Fujin? What the hell happened here, Raijin, where is she?"

"Well, that's the problem, ya know. Fuu's gone."

"Gone? What do you mean, she's gone?" Completely awake now, Seifer grabbed him by the lapels and lifted him, shook him as if it would shake the answer out of him. "She was at the infirmary yesterday evening when I left and now you tell me she's gone?"

Not at all surprised by Seifer's flash of temper, Raijin stayed calm. "We don't know anything here, ya know. She must have left after 1 am, because that's when all but Kadowaki left the infirmary. Well, and Kadowaki… she's unconscious. A hit to the head. Really must have hurt, ya know." Shocked now, Seifer let him go again. "Fucking hell, that's bad. Any idea where she might have gone?"

"If we had, don't you think we would have gone out to look for her already, Seifer Almasy?" He watched the emotions flicker on his students face. Surprise, anger, pure annoyance. "What a pity she left. She was one of my best students. And I wanted to apologize for yesterday and now she's gone." A short but smug smirk stretched across Foda's face. "Combat session has been postponed to 2 pm today. Be sure to be in time, Almasy."

"Be sure to fry in hell, Foda." Was all Seifer muttered in response, as Foda turned to leave. He wasn't going to attend even one damn lesson before he found her. "Raijin, you're staying here. Keep your eyes open and watch Foda. I'm going to Balamb, see if anyone knows anything. And, Raijin, you'd better watch your back. Lord knows what that damn Foda is capable of."

>>>

She felt empty except for the tears and fears. Her mind lingered in a state of emptiness.

She had lost track long ago. Time, places, nothing mattered. Not even the cold rain on her skin could stir her.

The arm still hurt, but she tried to ignore it. How the hell had Foda known about it? It was past, long ago. She had been a child then.

Again, her read eye roamed the streets around. It had been farther in the north, where winter never ends. A small village. Too small to appear on most maps. It seemed too far away now.

She had to find it. Whatever Foda knew about her, she had to destroy it. She hoped they would understand. Seifer. Raijin.

By the time he finally gave up, Seifer was sure to have searched whole Balamb for her. Rain hammered down on his coat, but couldn't soak through it. He knew Fujin wore other fabrics. Fabrics that would catch the rain and hold it. She hadn't had any money to take with her, so the hotels were out of reach. And she certainly wasn't stupid enough to stay overnight with some shady bastard on the prowl for young female students. Knowing that she still was somewhere in those alleys stung more than the rain on his face.

Shaking his head, he climbed the stairs up to the railway station. Night already spread across the lands, so it was quite useless to continue now, anyway. When he finally lifted his head again at the end of the stairs, his heart seemed to stop beating completely.

It was a cruel sight. Her hair same as her clothes had been pressed to her body by the rain, clinging so tight you could see every curve of it. Her legs hung over the edges down to the rails, while her red eye kept gazing into the night. Only the short wincing of her fingers on the asphalt told him she had seen him. She looked lost, lonely, tired, sad, hopeless, almost suicidal.

"If you jump down on those rails when the fucking train comes in, I'll jump right after you and we'll be shred to pieces, so you'd better get your feet back on the asphalt." In a few moves she did so, but her gaze remained in the night. "Question. Private."

He glanced around, then nodded. "Sure. Go ahead." The streets were empty. With all the rain outside, hardly anyone left his warm home now. Only crazy or desperate people. Like his Fujin.

"Past. Want to forget. Can't. Reminders. What do?" It was a hard one for her, he knew. Her past. She wanted to forget it. Even Raijin seemed to be a bit traumatised. And now "beast", Foda, came, the reminder, so she couldn't forget. "Kill reminder." When she stared at him in suspicion, a short laughter left his mouth. "Come on, Fuu! That's just fantasy. We both know that. I don't want to see any of our committee ending up in prison. Although the idea of killing him is quite tempting." Determined to hold her attention, he slipped out of his coat and hung it around her small shoulders. "Three sizes too big, but who cares?" Anything to keep her from the rain that now felt to him like ice nails. "Let's go back to BG first. You need some medical treatment and a BIG cup of hot chocolate. And then, me, you and Raijin will sit together and find a way to kick Foda's ass from here right back to Mars where he belongs, okay?"

The smile that flashed across her face was short, weak and easy to miss, but he knew better. He had learned to catch even those short smiles in his memory. She smiled so rarely. "Just we three, I promise."

>>>

The rain was still torturing the ground, when she sat in Seifer's dorm, a cosy woollen blanket around her shoulders and a cup of hot chocolate in her hands. Her shivering had stopped, at least outside. Inside, she still felt like she was going to break right away.

On the other end of the room, Seifer lay sleeping on his bed, facedown. As far as she knew, he hadn't even got one minute of sleep in about 40 hours. What no one told her, but she knew all too well, was that some of that fatigue was her fault.

Raijin seemed to be the perfect opposite. He kept rushing in and out, chasing away nerve-wracking what's-going-on-with-her-students and arranging and rescheduling plans and conversations. Frankly saying, she had never known that her naïve brother could handle so much under such a pressure. She owed him.

"Seifer still sleeping?"

"Affirmative." Yes, even knights needed some rest. "Plan." To regain Raijin's attention, she slammed her cup on the table. "Hometown. Go find." Immediately, Raijin's eyes widened. "Ya sure? We don't even know exactly what its name was, ya know."

"Snow." Because the shivers didn't stop, she took another sip from her hot chocolate. "Far north. Much snow. Mountains. Forests." With every time she thought about it, the picture got clearer. She knew what it looked like. She just didn't know its exact name or location. "Pack things. Leave tomorrow. Inform headmaster. Come with me?"

"Sure as hell we're going with you." From the other end of the room, Seifer send them a tired, but unbreakable steel gaze. "Don't you think we're leaving you alone after all you went through here, Fujin."

A.N.: Uhm… read and review:)