Squall was pissed. His head hurt.
His hands clenched themselves into fists as he strode furiously down the familiar narrow alley, not bothering to avoid the puddles of mud and filth that collected in potholes in the asphalt. He brought his fist up to the green door and pounded on it, not stopping until it was opened.
"Who the FUCK is there?"
Squall didn't even answer, just pushed himself through the door and grabbed Seifer by the shirt collar, slamming him up against a nearby wall.
"Who were they?" He spat, voice low, as he started unblinkingly into Seifer's strange green eyes. Would he be able to tell if he was lying…?
Seifer was looking confused, and very faintly amused.
"Put me down, Squall. I don't know what you're talking about. Really, that temper. You have some issues."
Squall gave an animal-like growl and let go. No, he wasn't lying. He would have been able to tell, after all. He paced the room, his back to Seifer, who was grimacing slightly and massaging his neck.
"Who were they then?" He mused, running a hand absent-mindedly through his hair, something he did when he was stressed.
"Mind elaborating?" Seifer suggested, swinging the door shut that Squall had left open. He didn't seem to be angry at all.
Squall turned towards him.
"Er. Sorry about the, uh," He waved a hand at Seifer's throat.
Seifer shrugged.
"Hey, its no problem. I've had worse." He grinned. "Not like you could hurt me much anyways, boy."
Squall was silent for a moment.
"Then why did you leave that girl the other night when I threatened you? You could have easily got rid of me."
Squall, who had been expecting Seifer to suddenly remember and get angry at last, was horribly surprised. On the contrary, Seifer's face broke into a wide grin.
"Oh." He said sheepishly, "That."
"Oh, what?"
"Well. I was looking forward to her, you know. But then you arrived, and I figured, hey, why not let you have her instead?" Seifer shrugged, still grinning. "Did you?"
Squall clenched his teeth, glaring darkly at his companion. "No." He said shortly. "I didn't."
Seifer sighed. "Well, it was worth a shot, I suppose."
"Why don't you just leave it!" Squall said loudly, exasperated. "I don't want to kill, okay? Let it be."
"Killing is our nature," Seifer said, patiently. They had been through this many times. "That's what we do. You can't go on living from a bottle all the time. That's not what living is."
"Well then maybe we shouldn't be living!"
Seifer merely sighed, casting his eyes upward.
"What did you come storming in here about, anyway?"
"The girl," Squall croaked, "The girl you, uh, gave to me, that night. I met her, in the hospital. Scared her, I think. Anyways, I've been… dreaming about her." He looked up at Seifer, who was frowning down at him.
"Go on."
"Nightly. There's no way around it. She's always running, in my dream. Looking for something, but she can never find it. And all I can do is watch. I can never move, never shout out, nothing. Just watch her panic and run and look. And tonight, I was out walking, and I saw her on the street. The same girl. So I followed her. She went into this house and I was just about to dismiss it, figuring it was her house, when I heard a scream. So I went in. There were two guys in there, one with a gun. And another girl, I'm guessing it was her friend. They were dragging my girl out, or at least trying to. I…" He stopped, then slowly blushed a deep, deep red. "I thought you sent them."
Seifer looked astonished for a full thirty seconds before bursting out laughing. "You…" He croaked, "Thought that I sent…" He couldn't even finish his sentence for laughing so hard.
Squall was determinedly not meeting his eyes, still blushing.
After a moment Seifer had recovered enough to ask "Why would I do such a thing?"
"I don't know." Squall groaned. "I just thought you still wanted her, were mad at me, I don't know. I guess I wanted someone to blame it on."
"Ah," Seifer said wisely, discreetly wiping a teary eye. "I forget how young you are, sometimes."
"Should I take that as a compliment?"
"Yeah, probably. Take what you can get."
"Right. So, anyways, I got rid of the guys. Got shot in the head. Then freaked out and ran, you know. It was weird." Squall waved Seifer away, who was looking concerned and trying to get close enough to examine his temple, "I'm fine."
"You lost a bit of blood for being fine, if that's all yours," He gestured at Squalls shirt, which was damp from his blood. He hadn't even noticed. "Just let me see."
Squall growled his consent and endured a few seconds of Seifer closely inspecting his head, brushing away his blood-crusted hair to look.
"Yeah, it healed nicely. Pushed the bullet right out. Good blood'll do that." Seifer proclaimed, puffing out his chest and releasing Squall.
"I told you it was fine."
"Yes. Well I didn't believe you, obviously. You're usually not a good judge of these things."
"Whatever."
Seifer turned to throw himself into a nearby armchair, stretching his long limbs out with a sigh.
"Right, so. What are you going to do about it?" He asked, after noisily making himself comfortable.
Squall stared at him, cold blue eyes pleading.
"I don't know." He whispered, amazed at how much that fact frustrated him. He paused.
"What can I do about it? I… I have no idea what's going on."
The blonde shrugged.
"Me neither. These men obviously want her for something. Any ideas?" He frowned to himself as Squall shook his head, then continued. "Well… I really have no clue. The best you can do, if you really are this curious, is just to watch. And wait. Hopefully it'll be clearer soon. I've never heard of anything quite like this before."
Squall nodded, and started pacing, running another hand through his hair. Seifer yawned and straightened up.
"It's getting late." He stated, without looking out the window. "As in early. You won't be getting back to your apartment tonight. You know where the spare bedroom is." He was out of the room faster than Squall's eye could follow. "There's blood in the fridge." His voice called, getting further away.
A door slammed.
Squall sighed.