Deciding that it had got to that inevitable stage in the night where the alcohol and the loud, drunken people begin to become just too much to handle (mostly it was just the people, but the effects of the alcohol just seem to make them even more annoying), Squall decided to take a step outside to clear his head. And have a smoke, if he could find somewhere to stand where people wouldn't try to steal his cigarettes (i.e. somewhere away from Seifer). Pushing through groups of the ever-increasing number of people that were crowded in the hall, he made his way unsteadily towards the back door to sit on the step outside. To his annoyance, it seemed that he was not the only person who was fed up of the crowded atmosphere inside and found that the garden was slowly becoming just as busy as inside. Quickly coming to the conclusion that he would never find somewhere to sit alone, he resigned himself to the fact that he would just have to settle to sitting down on the only unoccupied area of the wall surrounding the grass. As he sat down he noticed that the reason that it was empty was that someone had spilled beer on it, but decided that it would do anyway as now that the cold air had hit him he didn't quite feel up to walking around. After waiting for a few seconds to allow his head to stop spinning, he pulled out a packet of cigarettes and a lighter and was just beginning to light one when he heard a familiar voice behind him.

"What are you doing sitting down there?"

Not bothering to look up to see who it was, Squall inhaled on his cigarette and waited a second before replying "Smoking." Seifer had a habit of asking stupid questions.

"Oh have you got a whole packet? Can I have one then," Seifer asked as be picked the packet from where Squall had sat it on the wall, helped himself to one and lit it with Squall's lighter, stumbling to light it first time. He inhaled deeply, pausing slightly for effect, before dissolving into a fit of coughing.

Squall rolled his eyes and waited until Seifer had stopped coughing before he answered 'Yeah, whatever.' No matter how much he tried, Seifer had never managed to get the hang of smoking and obviously didn't enjoy it. Which made the fact that he always smoked at least one cigarette out of every packet that Squall bought even more annoying. Although it was funny to watch him make a fool of himself every so often.

Seifer took another, much shorter draw from his cigarette, careful this time not to have another coughing fit. "So where have you been hiding then? We were meant to be staying together!"

"We were?"

"Well, that was the point, wasn't it? The whole matching costumes and all. Doesn't really make sense unless people see us together."

The party, much to Squall's annoyance, was a fancy dress party. And not just one of those meant to be fancy dress but it doesn't really matter if you dress up or not parties, but one of those no costume no admission parties . And rather than bothering with coming up with a costume himself, Squall had decided to accept Seifer's offer of the two of them going in matching outfits. Even though he knew that he would end up regretting it later. After considering a number of ideas, Seifer eventually settled on the two of them going as Adam and Eve after finding cheap costumes in a joke shop in Balamb. And as it was Seifer's idea, he was the one that got to go as Adam, leaving Squall to go as Eve. For Squall this was far from an ideal situation, but as everyone else seemed to have gone all out he didn't feel that self-conscious. And of course the alcohol helped as well. "We don't need to be together. Everyone knew who I was mean to be and they hadn't seen you."

"Yeah, but it's better if they see us together. It's more impressive that way."

"Whatever."

Seifer threw his not-quite-finished cigarette on the floor. "You're no fun. This is a party, you're meant to be enjoying yourself."

"…"

"Oh, I almost forgot. Someone gave me a great idea for how to perfect the costumes." He produced what looked suspiciously like a permanent marker from his pocket and tried to grab Squall's arm before he pulled it away out of his reach.

"You are not drawing on my arm. You're too drunk."

"Don't be so stupid, I'm fine! I can handle my drink, unlike you. You're the one who's drunk. Don't be such a spoilsport Squall! I'm going to do the same on my arm as well."

Squall looked at him hesitantly before holding out his arm. He was too drunk to argue.

Carefully taking the lid off the pen with his teeth while holding Squall's arm in his other hand, Seifer narrowed his eyes in what looked like an attempt to focus on the arm. Squall vaguely registered this as a bad thing as it meant that Seifer was in fact more drunk than he had previously thought, but didn't let it bother him as now that Seifer was holding his arm he couldn't stop him even if he wanted to. Narrowing his eyes a bit more, Seifer wrote what he could just about make out to be the word ADAM on his arm. Pausing slightly to review what he had written, Seifer frowned and then drew an oddly shaped love-heart round the name. "There you are. Now everyone will know that you love me." He frowned for a second, as if he had just realised what he had said.

"Are you going to do it on your own arm?"

Seifer looked thoughtful for a second and replied "Don't be silly, I can't draw on my own arm that would be too difficult. And you're too drunk to do it. But it works it it's just on your arm. As long as one of us has it."

Squall leaned over and put his head in his hands. "I feel sick."

"Well you better not be sick on me! Just don't think about it you'll be fine."

Squall began to sway slightly from side to side on the wall. "I feel sick."

"Maybe you should go home. You do look kinda funny."

"…"

"How much did you drink anyway? I'm being serious though, you better not be sick on me."

"…"

"Squall? Are you Okay? Do you want to go home? I'll walk you back if you want."

"…"

"Squall?"

Squall stopped swaying and sat up again slowly with his eyes closed. "I'm going home. I can go myself."

"Yeah, and then you'll wake up in the morning in a ditch. Funny as that would be, I am just too nice to let you do that." He grabbed Squall's arm and pulled him to his feet. "But if you're sick on me then I'm just going to leave you to walk back yourself."

"…"

Seifer walked up the steps through the back door, pulling Squall stumbling behind him by the arm. "If I have to drag you all the way back to Garden like this you'll really owe me one. You better let me copy all of the answers to the Assignment for Monday or I'm never helping you again. And you can test me for that test on Thursday as well. And I can't think of anything else at the moment but I'll think of something."