My Father the President
Quistis' eyes fluttered and opened to the whitewash walls of the Garden infirmary. The little cubicle smelled strongly of disinfectant, the sting of the vapors irritating her nose. To her left, a roll of linen bandages had been cut precisely at one part with a mélange of medicinal ointments and creams beside it. She tried to get up, but felt a rather sharp pain shoot through her spine. Looking down, she observed that her body was covered in a hospital gown. Lifting it up slightly, the instructor gasped when she found her entire body bandaged tight, leaving a few hints of pink on the sheets where her back would meet the soft mattress. She brought a palm to her forehead, wiping the sweat off her brow, and was about to stand up when a voice suddenly called her name.
"Quistis. Please lie down."
Quistis turned to the right side of the bed where a stool would be and she found Ouragan looking over her direction with much concern in his eyes.
"Ouragan...ah!" she gasped as she tried to rest her back against the wall. Ouragan suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and braced her back with his arm.
"Quistis, please don't get up," he pleaded her.
Quistis shook her head, trying to get rid of the nauseating feeling lingering in her mouth. "Ouragan, what happened?"
Ouragan helped her lie on her back and softly said, "A Blue Dragon slashed your back rather deeply, so Dr. Kadowaki had to bandage you."
Quistis, now in a lying position, turned to face Ouragan, smiled, and whispered, "Thank you Ouragan."
Ouragan chuckled and held her hand in his and said, "You shouldn't be thanking me you know. Seifer saved you."
Quistis chuckled with him. "Ah! You didn't let me finish my sentence. I was going to thank you for staying with me. I was aware that Seifer was the one who slew the dragon and brought me here. But I just feel so warm and nice right now with you watching over me."
Ouragan blushed. "Oh."
They didn't exchange any words for a moment, Ouragan shyly looking at the floor with Quistis looking at her feet. "So how are you feeling?" Ouragan asked the blonde instructor.
Quistis squinted and sarcastically told him, "I feel like a mummy who recently received a lot of bloody gashes from a blue dragon. No big deal really. I mean every instructor has had a near-death experience with a blue dragon, right?"
Ouragan laughed and interjected, "Yeah, I guess every instructor does have these little visits to the infirmary, but you, Instructor Trepe, are the first one to receive the mark of the Blue Dragon."
Quistis laughed, forcing herself to resist shouting from the pain. "Ouragan, I didn't know you were the type who watched Asian martial arts movies! Where did you get the mark of the Blue Dragon, from Mortal Kombat?"
Ouragan laughed out loud and patted Quistis' forehead softly. "You know, you shouldn't laugh like that. Your wound mind start bleeding from all those jokes. No, and I don't watch Mortal Kombat, for your information."
Quistis had to smile at his concern. He really was her dream guy, sweet and caring. However, he didn't like her as in like-like her. It was sad, but Quistis would much prefer being his friend now rather than be lost to his world forever. She clasped Ouragan's hand and asked, "How much longer am I going to have to stay here?"
Ouragan tilted his head on one side, his bangs covering one side of his face, and answered, "About twelve hours more until you get enough potions to heal the wound completely. Then, you have to get a few more stitches and some disinfectant on that nasty cut." He winked and felt for a little box inside his pocket. Quistis' eyes grew as huge as plates thinking that he had something very, very precious inside that box.
He grinned at her and said, "Luckily for you, I have an Elixir here so you can recover much more quickly." Quistis wanted to frown, but she thought that it would draw attention from Ouragan. "Come on, drink this. It will heal all gashes in an instant. You will feel the pain, yes, but the wound will be healed before you can say "infirmary"."
'Too bad he isn't proposing,' Quistis thought as he pulled out a small bottle of bluish-green liquid. The tall man tipped the bottle into Quistis mouth and she gulped down every last drop. Soon, the medicine had begun to take effect on the blonde's crusty, yet moist gashes. It started when the pain started subsiding, then blood started hardening where it was moist and wet. In a few minutes, the wounds had closed up completely, leaving only a few hints of brown and pink where the scratches had made their mark.
"It is such a shame that Gardens don't have enough elixirs for the job. After all, they are expensive," her friend told her. "Esthar Garden's infirmary, however, has enough elixirs to last you a lifetime. Our students encounter too much of the nasties and crawlies to afford a few hours of pain through measly potions and remedies." Ouragan helped her sit up.
"Ouragan, would you mind...you know...removing it?" Quistis asked as she pointed to the bandage. When she was able to sit up straight, the blanket rolled off her, revealing her slender, toned torso to the green-eyed brunette.
"Oh, you mean, that?" Ouragan asked while blushing heavily. Quistis smiled at her friend's shyness.
"Ouragan, don't be ashamed, please. It won't hurt to help me change, you know. Besides, you can look the other way if you don't want to see me," she declared, smiling slyly at the tomato-red commander.
'Gosh, are commanders heavy blushers or what?' she wondered as she remembered Squall's blushing frequency.
Ouragan looked the other way and slowly undid the bandages off Quistis' back, leaving her creamy skin exposed to his exploring green eyes. "Q..Quis...Quistis."
Quistis covered her breasts with her hand and faced him, turning around completely. Ouragan gasped and stumbled backward. "Ah! You shouldn't do this!" he shyly exclaimed. He covered his eyes with his palms as he lifted a hospital gown and gave it to Quistis. "Your bra is over there!" he pointed to the little cabinet beside her bed. She chuckled at his vulnerability and put on the rest of her garments before turning to him.
"You can open your eyes now," she told him quietly.
"Great..." he breathed heavily.
"Come on now Ouragan, tell me you didn't enjoy that." She knelt down in front of him and pouted sexily.
"I...I...I have to go now." Ouragan stood up and stopped before the door. "I...need your reply today, by the way. It's Monday." He quickly left the infirmary, running very very fast.
Quistis sighed in disappointment and thought, "Why?"
Suddenly, a P.A. blared into the speakers. It was the headmaster. "Will SeeDs Squall Leonhart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt, and S...Seifer? Oh! Seifer Almasy! Now is that right? Yes, Seifer Almasy! Will all of you please come to my office? Squall, please bring Rinoa with you. I need all of you here in five minutes."
Quistis got up, fixed her hair, and left for headmaster Cid's office.
---------------
When everyone arrived at Cid's office, the pudgy headmaster invited them to take a seat on the couch. Ouragan soon appeared before them in his striking Esthar Garden commander uniform.
"As you all know," he began with an authoritative tone, "I invited all of you to further your SeeD education in Esthar Garden, but the meeting we are holding this morning isn't going to be focused on that. About an hour ago, we received a call from President Loire and he was desperate for SeeD help. Now if you would, please turn your attention to the screen in front of you." He pointed to a large, plasma screen that eventually showed a moving image of Laguna.
'Oh great, it's looney tunes reincarnate,' thought Squall as his father's face materialized on the expensive screen.
"Hi everyone! Laguna here! Wait, are all of you guys in there?" he asked with a comical tone.
Ouragan impatiently replied, "Laguna, yes, everyone is here. Now will you please get on with what you want to tell us?"
Laguna grinned and said, "Now Ouragan, patience is a virtue, so please wait for a moment. Uh, now where are my glasses?"
Squall suddenly said, "Laguna, can you please tell us what you've been trying to for the past hour?" Unfortunately, Squall had never warmed up to having Laguna call him son or himself calling him father for that matter. It simply was something he couldn't do with a man who left him for dead seventeen years ago.
"Oh! Son! Okay, umm...so this is what happened earlier." The long haired klutz now wore a pair of thick glasses on the bridge of his nose. Yet the lenses never really made him look older. He still looked like the young, energetic, and clumsy man that he was. "About eight hours ago, Estharian soldiers entered Doctor Odine's lab to find it in a totally devastated state. I mean, if you could just see it right now, you can tell that some really crafty guy who comes up with better ideas than I ever could almost killed him."
Ouragan began tapping his foot on the floor, scowling at Laguna's incessant use of childish adlibs and his very unprofessional manner. "Laguna, what happened to Odine?" he clenched through his teeth.
Laguna read the report in his hand and led his eyes further down the paper. When he found what he was looking for, he exclaimed, "Oh yeah! The Doc was sent to the Intensive Care Unit of the Esthar City Hospital for recovery. He was beat up pretty bad with a couple of uber-gruesome looking claw wounds of his stomach. His lab was destroyed, but at least he is still alive."
Squall shook his head. '"Uber?" How could a forty-five year old man have the courage to say something as cheesy as "uber"?'
Ouragan asked, "Sir, is that all?'
Laguna nodded. "Yup, that's the whole shebang of the report. So are you guys coming here? Cause if you are, that would be so cool! I can show you guys what Esthar is really like. Don't worry, the trip's on me."
Squall interrupted, "Laguna, we are on a mission. Pleasantries later, okay?"
Baffled by his son's frankness and straight to work attitude, he sheepishly replied, "Okay. But son, if you need anything, don't hesitate to give me a call, okay? By the way, Ellone wants to talk to you later, so can you give me your new phone number son?"
Squall raised an eyebrow. "How can I be sure that you aren't trying to contact me?" he skeptically demanded of the jolly Laguna.
Laguna laughed and said, "As sure as the sky is green and the trees are blue, I'm pretty sure... What is it?... I said it correctly. No, I said the sky was blue and the trees are green. Well you're not listening!" Laguna seemed to be talking to a man beside him, someone whom the group guessed was probably Kiros. Laguna turned back to the group. "So I heard that you are being promoted to SeeD Extreme cadets in Esthar Garden eh? Don't be afraid to come and visit, alright? So that's it. I'll see you guys next week. The Ragnarok is landing at FH soon, so set a course for the city, kay? So, bye!" The screen blanked out and Squall just stared at the floor.
"Squall," Ouragan said as he approached his former pupil.
"What?" he irritably barked at the older commander.
"Don't let your father get in the way of the mission. Focus, alright? I can't let my best gunblader lose his control over some family problem," Ouragan calmly told him.
Squall was thinking about sending the rest of them on this mission, especially after knowing that his father was somehow involved with it. Squall and Laguna were never in good terms with each other. Squall thought his long-lost dad was some kind of nut who graduated from clown school and got drafted into the army by some colossal mistake. Laguna felt that his son was the kind of guy who had a facial muscle disease that gave him a permanent frown and an extreme lack of humor. Polar opposites they were, and the knowledge of being related frightened Squall to the bone. Of course, with Laguna's cheerful disposition, it was no doubt that he would try to make the first move to mend the relationship. The broomstick up Squall's ass, however, was making it extremely hard for them to initiate a friendly non-intimate conversation.
"It's nothing," he shrugged. I'm going up to the bridge to tell Nida to set a course for FH."
Squall left the room with Rinoa following him when Ouragan suddenly tapped her lightly on the shoulders. "Rinoa, don't. He's a bit...edgy right now. Give him some time alone. Squall needs it."
Rinoa wanted to say something but Ouragan cut her off. "He needs to let off some steam by himself. Please understand."
Rinoa nodded and stayed in Cid's office. Taking the seat beside Quistis, she suddenly asked, "Any idea what havoc Squall is wreaking up there?"
-----------------
Squall took the lift to the bridge and saw Nida fumbling for something on the floor. "Nida set a course for FH."
Nida wasn't paying attention to the commander, as he was obviously busy searching for something small. Squall was irritated by the silence and snapped, "Nida, for crying out loud, are you listening?!"
Nida suddenly jumped up at the stern tone of his voice and said, "Oh! Sorry commander! I was just looking for my contacts"
Squall examined the pilot closely and skeptically asked, "Say, aren't you not allowed to operate the Garden without 20/20 vision?"
Nida placed a small piece of flexible plastic inside a cleaning solution he took out from his pocket and said, "Oh, I do have perfect vision sir. These are colored contacts."
Squall stared at him for a moment and asked, "Nida, why are you wearing blue contacts?"
Nida chuckled and said, "Squall, I didn't know you would mind, but these aren't blue contacts."
Squall looked irritated and said, "Back when we were in class, I didn't notice that you had blue eyes. You had brown ones right?"
"Oh no. I always had blue eyes. I just thought that black hair and blue eyes on me looked a bit creepy, so I decided to put some brown contacts to make my eyes look warmer."
Squall tilted his head on one side. "Why?"
Nida blushed and said, "Well, I used to like this girl in class and she didn't like blue eyes."
"And so you put brown contacts?" Squall queried the pilot.
"...Yeah. She said that the black and blue combination looked creepy."
"I see..." Squall muttered. "So set a course for FH and tell me when we are ready to disembark."
Nida saluted him, his other eye lacking a shade of brown, and said, "Yes sir!"
Squall saluted him in reply and stepped on the lift.
'Could Nida be Ouragan's brother?' he pondered as the elevator descended to Cid's office.
===============
I'm sorry guys for the long wait. I was out of town for a week so I wasn't able to update sooner. I'll make it up to you, don't worry. Anyway, thanks for all the lovely reviews. I hope you're all enjoying the story. Next Chapter: Drifting
Quistis' eyes fluttered and opened to the whitewash walls of the Garden infirmary. The little cubicle smelled strongly of disinfectant, the sting of the vapors irritating her nose. To her left, a roll of linen bandages had been cut precisely at one part with a mélange of medicinal ointments and creams beside it. She tried to get up, but felt a rather sharp pain shoot through her spine. Looking down, she observed that her body was covered in a hospital gown. Lifting it up slightly, the instructor gasped when she found her entire body bandaged tight, leaving a few hints of pink on the sheets where her back would meet the soft mattress. She brought a palm to her forehead, wiping the sweat off her brow, and was about to stand up when a voice suddenly called her name.
"Quistis. Please lie down."
Quistis turned to the right side of the bed where a stool would be and she found Ouragan looking over her direction with much concern in his eyes.
"Ouragan...ah!" she gasped as she tried to rest her back against the wall. Ouragan suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and braced her back with his arm.
"Quistis, please don't get up," he pleaded her.
Quistis shook her head, trying to get rid of the nauseating feeling lingering in her mouth. "Ouragan, what happened?"
Ouragan helped her lie on her back and softly said, "A Blue Dragon slashed your back rather deeply, so Dr. Kadowaki had to bandage you."
Quistis, now in a lying position, turned to face Ouragan, smiled, and whispered, "Thank you Ouragan."
Ouragan chuckled and held her hand in his and said, "You shouldn't be thanking me you know. Seifer saved you."
Quistis chuckled with him. "Ah! You didn't let me finish my sentence. I was going to thank you for staying with me. I was aware that Seifer was the one who slew the dragon and brought me here. But I just feel so warm and nice right now with you watching over me."
Ouragan blushed. "Oh."
They didn't exchange any words for a moment, Ouragan shyly looking at the floor with Quistis looking at her feet. "So how are you feeling?" Ouragan asked the blonde instructor.
Quistis squinted and sarcastically told him, "I feel like a mummy who recently received a lot of bloody gashes from a blue dragon. No big deal really. I mean every instructor has had a near-death experience with a blue dragon, right?"
Ouragan laughed and interjected, "Yeah, I guess every instructor does have these little visits to the infirmary, but you, Instructor Trepe, are the first one to receive the mark of the Blue Dragon."
Quistis laughed, forcing herself to resist shouting from the pain. "Ouragan, I didn't know you were the type who watched Asian martial arts movies! Where did you get the mark of the Blue Dragon, from Mortal Kombat?"
Ouragan laughed out loud and patted Quistis' forehead softly. "You know, you shouldn't laugh like that. Your wound mind start bleeding from all those jokes. No, and I don't watch Mortal Kombat, for your information."
Quistis had to smile at his concern. He really was her dream guy, sweet and caring. However, he didn't like her as in like-like her. It was sad, but Quistis would much prefer being his friend now rather than be lost to his world forever. She clasped Ouragan's hand and asked, "How much longer am I going to have to stay here?"
Ouragan tilted his head on one side, his bangs covering one side of his face, and answered, "About twelve hours more until you get enough potions to heal the wound completely. Then, you have to get a few more stitches and some disinfectant on that nasty cut." He winked and felt for a little box inside his pocket. Quistis' eyes grew as huge as plates thinking that he had something very, very precious inside that box.
He grinned at her and said, "Luckily for you, I have an Elixir here so you can recover much more quickly." Quistis wanted to frown, but she thought that it would draw attention from Ouragan. "Come on, drink this. It will heal all gashes in an instant. You will feel the pain, yes, but the wound will be healed before you can say "infirmary"."
'Too bad he isn't proposing,' Quistis thought as he pulled out a small bottle of bluish-green liquid. The tall man tipped the bottle into Quistis mouth and she gulped down every last drop. Soon, the medicine had begun to take effect on the blonde's crusty, yet moist gashes. It started when the pain started subsiding, then blood started hardening where it was moist and wet. In a few minutes, the wounds had closed up completely, leaving only a few hints of brown and pink where the scratches had made their mark.
"It is such a shame that Gardens don't have enough elixirs for the job. After all, they are expensive," her friend told her. "Esthar Garden's infirmary, however, has enough elixirs to last you a lifetime. Our students encounter too much of the nasties and crawlies to afford a few hours of pain through measly potions and remedies." Ouragan helped her sit up.
"Ouragan, would you mind...you know...removing it?" Quistis asked as she pointed to the bandage. When she was able to sit up straight, the blanket rolled off her, revealing her slender, toned torso to the green-eyed brunette.
"Oh, you mean, that?" Ouragan asked while blushing heavily. Quistis smiled at her friend's shyness.
"Ouragan, don't be ashamed, please. It won't hurt to help me change, you know. Besides, you can look the other way if you don't want to see me," she declared, smiling slyly at the tomato-red commander.
'Gosh, are commanders heavy blushers or what?' she wondered as she remembered Squall's blushing frequency.
Ouragan looked the other way and slowly undid the bandages off Quistis' back, leaving her creamy skin exposed to his exploring green eyes. "Q..Quis...Quistis."
Quistis covered her breasts with her hand and faced him, turning around completely. Ouragan gasped and stumbled backward. "Ah! You shouldn't do this!" he shyly exclaimed. He covered his eyes with his palms as he lifted a hospital gown and gave it to Quistis. "Your bra is over there!" he pointed to the little cabinet beside her bed. She chuckled at his vulnerability and put on the rest of her garments before turning to him.
"You can open your eyes now," she told him quietly.
"Great..." he breathed heavily.
"Come on now Ouragan, tell me you didn't enjoy that." She knelt down in front of him and pouted sexily.
"I...I...I have to go now." Ouragan stood up and stopped before the door. "I...need your reply today, by the way. It's Monday." He quickly left the infirmary, running very very fast.
Quistis sighed in disappointment and thought, "Why?"
Suddenly, a P.A. blared into the speakers. It was the headmaster. "Will SeeDs Squall Leonhart, Quistis Trepe, Zell Dincht, Irvine Kinneas, Selphie Tilmitt, and S...Seifer? Oh! Seifer Almasy! Now is that right? Yes, Seifer Almasy! Will all of you please come to my office? Squall, please bring Rinoa with you. I need all of you here in five minutes."
Quistis got up, fixed her hair, and left for headmaster Cid's office.
---------------
When everyone arrived at Cid's office, the pudgy headmaster invited them to take a seat on the couch. Ouragan soon appeared before them in his striking Esthar Garden commander uniform.
"As you all know," he began with an authoritative tone, "I invited all of you to further your SeeD education in Esthar Garden, but the meeting we are holding this morning isn't going to be focused on that. About an hour ago, we received a call from President Loire and he was desperate for SeeD help. Now if you would, please turn your attention to the screen in front of you." He pointed to a large, plasma screen that eventually showed a moving image of Laguna.
'Oh great, it's looney tunes reincarnate,' thought Squall as his father's face materialized on the expensive screen.
"Hi everyone! Laguna here! Wait, are all of you guys in there?" he asked with a comical tone.
Ouragan impatiently replied, "Laguna, yes, everyone is here. Now will you please get on with what you want to tell us?"
Laguna grinned and said, "Now Ouragan, patience is a virtue, so please wait for a moment. Uh, now where are my glasses?"
Squall suddenly said, "Laguna, can you please tell us what you've been trying to for the past hour?" Unfortunately, Squall had never warmed up to having Laguna call him son or himself calling him father for that matter. It simply was something he couldn't do with a man who left him for dead seventeen years ago.
"Oh! Son! Okay, umm...so this is what happened earlier." The long haired klutz now wore a pair of thick glasses on the bridge of his nose. Yet the lenses never really made him look older. He still looked like the young, energetic, and clumsy man that he was. "About eight hours ago, Estharian soldiers entered Doctor Odine's lab to find it in a totally devastated state. I mean, if you could just see it right now, you can tell that some really crafty guy who comes up with better ideas than I ever could almost killed him."
Ouragan began tapping his foot on the floor, scowling at Laguna's incessant use of childish adlibs and his very unprofessional manner. "Laguna, what happened to Odine?" he clenched through his teeth.
Laguna read the report in his hand and led his eyes further down the paper. When he found what he was looking for, he exclaimed, "Oh yeah! The Doc was sent to the Intensive Care Unit of the Esthar City Hospital for recovery. He was beat up pretty bad with a couple of uber-gruesome looking claw wounds of his stomach. His lab was destroyed, but at least he is still alive."
Squall shook his head. '"Uber?" How could a forty-five year old man have the courage to say something as cheesy as "uber"?'
Ouragan asked, "Sir, is that all?'
Laguna nodded. "Yup, that's the whole shebang of the report. So are you guys coming here? Cause if you are, that would be so cool! I can show you guys what Esthar is really like. Don't worry, the trip's on me."
Squall interrupted, "Laguna, we are on a mission. Pleasantries later, okay?"
Baffled by his son's frankness and straight to work attitude, he sheepishly replied, "Okay. But son, if you need anything, don't hesitate to give me a call, okay? By the way, Ellone wants to talk to you later, so can you give me your new phone number son?"
Squall raised an eyebrow. "How can I be sure that you aren't trying to contact me?" he skeptically demanded of the jolly Laguna.
Laguna laughed and said, "As sure as the sky is green and the trees are blue, I'm pretty sure... What is it?... I said it correctly. No, I said the sky was blue and the trees are green. Well you're not listening!" Laguna seemed to be talking to a man beside him, someone whom the group guessed was probably Kiros. Laguna turned back to the group. "So I heard that you are being promoted to SeeD Extreme cadets in Esthar Garden eh? Don't be afraid to come and visit, alright? So that's it. I'll see you guys next week. The Ragnarok is landing at FH soon, so set a course for the city, kay? So, bye!" The screen blanked out and Squall just stared at the floor.
"Squall," Ouragan said as he approached his former pupil.
"What?" he irritably barked at the older commander.
"Don't let your father get in the way of the mission. Focus, alright? I can't let my best gunblader lose his control over some family problem," Ouragan calmly told him.
Squall was thinking about sending the rest of them on this mission, especially after knowing that his father was somehow involved with it. Squall and Laguna were never in good terms with each other. Squall thought his long-lost dad was some kind of nut who graduated from clown school and got drafted into the army by some colossal mistake. Laguna felt that his son was the kind of guy who had a facial muscle disease that gave him a permanent frown and an extreme lack of humor. Polar opposites they were, and the knowledge of being related frightened Squall to the bone. Of course, with Laguna's cheerful disposition, it was no doubt that he would try to make the first move to mend the relationship. The broomstick up Squall's ass, however, was making it extremely hard for them to initiate a friendly non-intimate conversation.
"It's nothing," he shrugged. I'm going up to the bridge to tell Nida to set a course for FH."
Squall left the room with Rinoa following him when Ouragan suddenly tapped her lightly on the shoulders. "Rinoa, don't. He's a bit...edgy right now. Give him some time alone. Squall needs it."
Rinoa wanted to say something but Ouragan cut her off. "He needs to let off some steam by himself. Please understand."
Rinoa nodded and stayed in Cid's office. Taking the seat beside Quistis, she suddenly asked, "Any idea what havoc Squall is wreaking up there?"
-----------------
Squall took the lift to the bridge and saw Nida fumbling for something on the floor. "Nida set a course for FH."
Nida wasn't paying attention to the commander, as he was obviously busy searching for something small. Squall was irritated by the silence and snapped, "Nida, for crying out loud, are you listening?!"
Nida suddenly jumped up at the stern tone of his voice and said, "Oh! Sorry commander! I was just looking for my contacts"
Squall examined the pilot closely and skeptically asked, "Say, aren't you not allowed to operate the Garden without 20/20 vision?"
Nida placed a small piece of flexible plastic inside a cleaning solution he took out from his pocket and said, "Oh, I do have perfect vision sir. These are colored contacts."
Squall stared at him for a moment and asked, "Nida, why are you wearing blue contacts?"
Nida chuckled and said, "Squall, I didn't know you would mind, but these aren't blue contacts."
Squall looked irritated and said, "Back when we were in class, I didn't notice that you had blue eyes. You had brown ones right?"
"Oh no. I always had blue eyes. I just thought that black hair and blue eyes on me looked a bit creepy, so I decided to put some brown contacts to make my eyes look warmer."
Squall tilted his head on one side. "Why?"
Nida blushed and said, "Well, I used to like this girl in class and she didn't like blue eyes."
"And so you put brown contacts?" Squall queried the pilot.
"...Yeah. She said that the black and blue combination looked creepy."
"I see..." Squall muttered. "So set a course for FH and tell me when we are ready to disembark."
Nida saluted him, his other eye lacking a shade of brown, and said, "Yes sir!"
Squall saluted him in reply and stepped on the lift.
'Could Nida be Ouragan's brother?' he pondered as the elevator descended to Cid's office.
===============
I'm sorry guys for the long wait. I was out of town for a week so I wasn't able to update sooner. I'll make it up to you, don't worry. Anyway, thanks for all the lovely reviews. I hope you're all enjoying the story. Next Chapter: Drifting