XV – Snow in May

Disclaimer: I don't own Seifer, Fujin or any other FF8 character.

A.N.: So, here we go! Last chapter. Have fun.

He awoke to blinding sunlight that struck through the window. Blinking slightly, he tried to catch glimpses of the room. White walls. White sheets. Tiny. "Damn infirmary!"

"Aha, so that's the nice thank you for all the trouble you caused here, Seifer?" On the other end of the room, Dr.Kadowaki stood with a smile on her face. "I would love to see you ONCE, only ONCE, with less than a scratch down here."

"I would not even go here because of some damn scratch, Kadowaki." Again, Kadowaki giggled slightly. "Not even if it was Fujin or Raijin being forced to stay here?"

Immediately, his eyes were open. "Fuu! Where is she? Is she -"

"She's waiting outside in the hall. And now get out of here. We have some accidents here and we need that room."

Grunting shortly, Seifer watched her leaving the room and got up. For a few moments he wanted to curse her for being that rude, but on the other hand, he realised she was right. He had always played the invulnerable one and now he had to pay the price. An invulnerable one would not mind getting up with that horrible pain in his shoulder.

But Seifer was not invulnerable.

This was going to be a really, really bad day.

His mood even worsened, when he reached the hall. Empty. "What a surprise..." Seifer muttered dourly, while mentally cursing Fortuna once again. She really had some freaky kind of humour.

"LEAVE!" The word struck through his head like a bolt of lightning. Or better yet, the voice that spoke it. Cold as silver, fragile as ice. Glad to be about to watch one of the infamous "Fujin-kicks-ass-literally"-scenes again, he strolled into the hallway. Within a second, his smile vanished.

"Come on, babe, just a drink."

"You'll leave her alone, you hear me?" Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, Seifer approached the cadet. He was wearing one of the official Seed Uniforms, but he obviously didn't deserve it. A short glance at her face told Seifer that this didn't seem to be the first time she had tried to get rid of that idiot. Apparently, she was right about to bite his head off.

"Go back to bed, Almasy." A wicked grin stretched across the cadet's face. "I don't fight against cripples."

Again, anger rose inside him, but Seifer tried to suppress it. Hurting that idiot would only cause a lot of trouble for Fujin. He knew that no one would ever believe that someone had actually molested Fuu, the ugly, heartless bitch, same as no one would ever believe that Seifer had not attacked that damn cadet without a good reason. He also knew that most of this was his fault, or at least the result of his own bad reputation. Why had it taken him so long to realise what a jerk he had been? "You'll still leave her alone, you hear me?"

"Why should I?" Smirking, the cadet leaned over to Fujin again. "Bet you don't have a date for tonight, have you?"

Slowly, his anger turned into pure disgust. What did this damn cadet actually think he was? Unwilling to watch this drama any longer, Seifer went over to Fujin to sneak an arm around her waist. "Damn sure she has one, so get your ass out of here, you hear me?"

Unwilling to believe what he saw, the cadet blinked once, than twice, before he finally caught the glimpses of anger in Seifer's eyes. And – as everyone already knew – there were strict borders when dealing with the boss of the Disciplinary Committee. "Fine." Trying to smile at the picture, he strolled off slowly. "Guess the guys will be very amused to hear Almasy is now dating some freaky albino-bimbo."

>>>

She waited until he had left, before she finally turned around to Seifer again. "Damn, what the heck did you do that for? That guy will be gossiping all around BG about your new albino-freak."

"So what?" Smiling slightly at her amused look, he started to stroll down a few meters of the hall, too, before he turned around again. He had accepted, faced, a lot of his mistakes from the last year's, but still the situation seemed embarrassing to him. "Which albino-freak, Fuu? You mean yourself just because you've got silver hair, ruby eyes and an addiction to "Occult fan"? Is this actually what you think you are? You felt addressed by what that jerk said?"

Trying to evade his gaze, she turned away again. "Negative."

"Then what do you think you are? Who do you think you are?"

She had to admit it was a hard question. She would have used the usual phrase – Fujin Kazeno, second-in-command of the Disciplinary Committee – again, if it hadn't been Seifer asking her. But that way, she was simply lacking words to answer.

"I can tell you who you are, Fujin." As she faced him again, he started to approach her. "You know… up there at Sapphire Lake, when I was half-dead and you still didn't want to leave me, but actually tried to keep me warm…. I guess I noticed some things I had missed for the last years. I know it's not the first time one of those stupid jerks tries to date you, while you are actually nothing but a trophy to them. I always knew about it, but I never thought any longer about it. Well, I had a lot of time to think, up there on that mountain."

As he gave her Hyperion, her face looked even more puzzled than it already did. Seifer trying to apologize was definitely no a normal situation. "You hurt your head up there?"

"No, Fujin, no." Laughing lightly, he stepped behind her and turned Hyperion a bit, so she could see her reflection on the blade. "You know what I see?"

"Fujin Kazeno, your second-in-command?"

"Fujin Kazeno, my ice-made guardian angel. You've been watching me all the time, Fuu. Not just during those few hours, but also during the last years. You've always been trying to make my life as comfortable as possible. And I know it has cost you, Fuu." Carefully, he traced the spot on the blade, where her scarred eye was reflected. "You got that because I was dumb enough to go into my first real Seed exam without any preparation. You got that because I was too careless and I didn't even tell you I was sorry. I only stood there, watching yourself cover your bleeding eye with your hands. I took one look looked at you, said "shit" and told someone to take you to the infirmary. You spent the whole night there and I didn't even come to look after you, only sat in some damn pub, trying to drown my anger because I had not passed the exam. You remember that day?"

Fujin nodded slowly. How would she ever manage to forget THAT?

"I've been a real jerk than, but you just swallowed your pain and anything else. You always did that. Cold as ice. But, Fuu, I've seen how breakable ice can be. I've seen how quickly snow can melt. It hurt you. I hurt you. Really badly, I guess. And that's the point, you see. There are few "ice-people" who manage to get through things like this as good as you did. You're something special, Fuu." He held still for a moment, but than had to laugh again. "You know, actually I would not even mind dating you and having those damn cadets talking about us."

Immediately, her head spun around. "Serious?"

As quickly as it had come, his laughter faded again, until it was nothing but a smirk anymore. There was no anger in her voice. Just some freaky kind of… joy. "Snow in May."

It took her a moment to understand the metaphor. Snow – she. May – spring – and that damn l-word. Quickly, she handed him Hyperion, before she turned to leave. "NEGATIVE!"

"Sure as hell…" Seifer muttered ironically, then tried to catch up. His shoulder still hurt, but pain was irrelevant, as Fujin would have said now. Sneaking an arm around her waist again, he gazed at her slightly-blushed face. "Romantic seaside or Galbadia nightlife?"

She told herself she actually wanted to beat him right away for asking that, but couldn't help giggling slightly. "YOU CHOOSE."

"Well then… BG dorm?" When she stopped and glared at him in rage, he broke into laughter again. "Okay, seaside. Seaside." Watching her fist sink again, he erased the laughter to a smile again.

After all, it was just one night out of thousands.

A.N.: YEEEEEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA! Done it! washes some sweat from her forehead Damn, this chapter really wracked my nerves. Took me ages to come up with an appropriate ending. Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed reading this story. Thanks to all my dear reviewers, especially to charmednwicked who has been reviewing this from the very first chapter up to now. Love you all and see you next time… maybe.

Lover of your story: I don't know f I'll find time to write another one soon, as I'm going to face my exams and pre-exams within the next three months. But if you really want to, I might try. -