AN/ Okay, its been a few years, but I finally got around to reposting this fic. I know it wasn't great to start with, but I figured, just out of what little personal pride I have in these crappy old writings, I could at least shiny them up, fix the grammar, flesh it out, and maybe break the 10,000 word barrier.
It was just another day, like so many others since she'd taken this position. Paperwork, missions, politics, it was the same every day, but she'd never get used to putting people's lives on the line. How a guy like Cid had done it, a man who had raised them, who cared for each of the students and SeeD as though they were all his own children, she had no idea. Quistis herself didn't understand how she did it sometimes either.
Life went on though, and work kept coming; there always seemed to be something she needed to sign. Speaking of, the renowned Balamb Garden headmistress had an urgent folder to get to Esthar. The usual couriers wouldn't be fast enough here, it was far too important for that, so she called for her secretary.
"Hey, Juline? Please deliver those files to the Esthar president, would you? Put it in the urgent tray?" She couldn't express how unbelievably necessary it was to have a secretary on hand, when there was so much to do. Juline would ensure that a SeeD would be summoned to personally deliver the message, without her having to do so herself. Sometimes there was so much to keep on top of, it was impossible to do it all herself.
"Yes ma'am, right away. Oh, and you have a call on the vid phone from Zell."
That was strange, the exuberant blond had been on a short mission to Deling, due back earlier that day. It didn't make much sense for him to be calling when he was supposed to be home already. "Zell? Isn't he back yet? He was supposed to have returned from Deling this morning."
"I know ma'am, but he's on the line."
No point worrying about, just deal with the problem head on. "Okay. Thank you. Dismissed."
The secretary left, and the blonde woman, head of the establishment she was currently residing in, switched on her video phone. "Zell? What's up? I thought you were supposed to be here already."
"Yeah…Well, I found something Quis. Or rather, someone." There was a tremor in his voice, a clear uncertainty and reluctance to report his findings aloud. Used to his stalling tactics, Quistis Trepe cut right to the chase.
"Spit it out Zell." The blonde woman replied tersely, her sharp features showing strain.
"Okay. Here goes. I found Seifer, Quis. I found him here, in DC." Shock rang through his voice, as if he couldn't believe it himself, even though he'd seen him with his own eyes. Judging from the silence on the other end of the line, Quistis was just as shocked as he was. Despite that, he couldn't bring himself to feel any amusement at having silenced the usually long-lectured woman.
After some delay, the ex-instructor, now administrator's voice came through across the line. "He's alive! You found Seifer alive? Hyne, it's been so long…"
"Yeah, I know, but I found him." As if to substantiate his claim, the vidphone was jostled around until a broad shoulder, rough around the edges blond swordsman was within the camera's scope, if somewhat haphazardly. Seifer seemed to be a few inches taller, more tanned, and there was an air of solemn maturity about him. It was in his eyes.
Upon closer inspection, it wasn't too difficult to see the difference in the man. Instead of his usual cocky and arrogant smirk, there was an almost neutral expression. Judging from his initial response to seeing Quistis on the video phone, he was no longer the impatient, recalcitrant troublemaker who enjoyed provoking reactions from his victims. He was wearing a pair of black trousers and a dark green long sleeved sweater, the blonde looked a lot friendlier and didn't stand as much as he had with his trench coat and blood crosses. His hair was shorter as well, slicked back naturally rather than with any kind of gel. He looked more natural, and less confrontational.
He'd been gone so long, dealing with the aftermath of his actions, and now found again, he was a changed man. "Hey Quis." His tone was barely friendly, more reserved, not daring to assume anything about how this would go. Zell had assured him that everything would be fine, but he was still nervous. Despite that, a little of the familiarity he had for them slipped through.
Aware of, but completely ignoring the elephant in the room regarding Seifer's culpability for the sorceress incident, Quistis' response was that of an older sister reuniting with her missing younger brother, not that of the headmistress of Garden and a man with a number of war crimes in his history. "Oh Seifer, we all thought you had died when we couldn't find you. Where have you been?" There was anger as well as frustration in her voice as she spoke. "What happened? Why didn't you return here after time compression?"
The blonde looks rather surprised at the reaction. "I thought you'd all hate me." He admitted quietly, his voice as rough as it had always been, but tempered now, lacking the youthful force behind it. "After all I did. Enough people do. I couldn't face you guys, not with what I was, what I'd done. Even if you guys could have forgiven me, I couldn't do it to myself yet."
Quistis shook her head sternly, sharp blue eyes understanding, but still a touch reproachful. "No Seifer, we don't hate you, didn't hate you. We really missed you, all of us. I'm not saying we weren't pretty pissed at the time, but…" She trailed off; their anger had been understandable, not just because of Seifer's foolishness, but at their inability to get him back on their side, to put things to rights. Everything had spiralled out of all of their control, and they had all suffered for it.
Seifer appeared more than a little shocked at her declaration, clearly not having expected a warm welcome from his family. "…All of you?" Disbelief seemed to be about all he could feel and it was almost shocking to see such an uncharacteristic emotion from the once so self-assured gunblader.
"All of us." She replied firmly.
The conversation was halted as a door burst open behind the Headmistress, and she turned around, to confront the intruder. The tired and concerned face of Selphie was seen on the edge of the camera view; she'd clearly sprinted to the Head's office, and struggled to catch her breath. Unaware of being on camera, or just not giving it any consideration, the worried brunette gasped out a choked sentence that explained everything and nothing.
"I-its Squall."
"He's back? I thought he went out earlier?" Keeping tabs on the guy was a difficult enough job without taking into account his abrasive attitude, but for the most part he was left to his own devices.
"He did…he got hurt Quis. He got super smashed and somebody picked a fight with him. They said some things, and he got upset…" She trailed off; not really wanting to continue, and not really needing to. Everyone could come up with something to fill in the gaps.
"Where is he?" She replied sharply, obviously her patience was running out and this wasn't the first time this had happened.
"Infirmary." She whispered, and the weary face of Quistis Trepe turned back to the screen looking more strained and stressed than Seifer had remembered, but had become rather normal since she'd become Headmistress.
"I have to go. You guys better get back to Garden, we'll talk more later Seifer. Zell, don't tell him anything about Squall." She ordered brusquely, before switching off the screen before either of them could protest and made her way to the infirmary.
"What's going on! Dammit!" Zell slammed his palms against the desk either side of the camera before forcibly calming himself to prevent any more damage.
"What's the matter with Squall?" Seifer asked quietly, his eyes slightly narrowed with concern. He no longer believed the world owed him, or that he deserved to know anything, but with this it was different… it was personal. Despite Quis' orders, he wanted to know.
Trying to suppress his rage, Zell didn't bother to hold his tongue, letting his angry words slip out instead. "He's always pulling stupid stunts like this; goes out and gets drunk, or locks himself away. The bastard."
That didn't really sound like the Squall he knew, though at the same time it did. It was a pretty extreme reaction though, for such an uptight guy, and Seifer couldn't help but ask; "How bad is it?"
Zell just sighed, feeling the anger drain back to helpless frustration. "From the look of Selphie's expression, and the fact that she cares too much about Squall, I'd say he's alright physically, maybe a few bruises or something. That bastard doesn't even care when Selphie gets upset about him. She's the only one who gives a fuck any more." He answered frankly, sounding more tired than Seifer would ever have thought. Clearly whatever was wrong with Squall had been wearing on everyone.
"Why don't you like Squall any more? You used to praise the guy, what changed?" He wasn't going to stand up for stick-in-the-mud, but he didn't run into things blind anymore, and despite his running away, he did try and keep tabs on the old orphanage gang. He wanted to know what was going on.
Now Zell seemed uncertain, cooled from his anger and regretting his outburts. "I better not say anymore or Quis'll have my head. We'll get the next train back to Balamb. It'll be a long journey, but we don't have the Ragnarok any more." Luckily, distracting him with travel plans seemed to work, because Seifer let the matter drop after that.
"Do you know when the next train leaves?" Seifer'd hardly been expecting to go anywhere any time soon, and generally avoided the train station anyway. If Zell was meant to be back by now though, he ought to know when the trains were due, in case he missed the first and needed to catch a later.
"Yeah, the next train should be in a little while, if we can get that, we should arrive in just a couple of hours, if we're lucky." Zell was already moving to grab his gear, already packed. He cast a sideways glance at Seifer to see the blonde man was doing the same with what little he had in the small apartment.
"You sure this is a good time? I don't want to tip Squall over the rail…" Seifer seemed uncertain; he was a lighter for Squall's fuse, and that could go over very badly if things were as bad off as they sounded. He obviously wanted to know more about the commander's condition, but it seemed that Zell was unwilling to divulge any more information.
"Well, I don't think he'll be getting' any better Seif'. All I can say is do whatever you want now, whilst he's stile alive." His look told Seifer that he was being deadly serious.
It didn't reassure him one bit.
The train ride was solemn, with the occasional bit of chat as Seifer caught up with what was going on. The papers had a fair amount right, but military information was always regulated to the public, and he knew he was missing a great deal of the key facts.
When they finally arrived at Balamb Garden, the atmosphere was not at all what he expected. All of the orphanage gang, save for a certain leather wearing brunette, were waiting for him at the front gate, and before he even made it to the intersection he found himself wrapped up by numerous pairs of arms. He hadn't in his wildest dreams expected such a friendly reaction from the people he had hurt and betrayed.
Despite what people thought there was an odd sort of bond between them all, and they all had different links. Unspoken words passed through their seemingly unfriendly comments. Even Zell could see that Seifer cared abut him, just by calling him 'Chicken'.
As Selphie bounded into his arms, apparently tired of giving a one sided hug, and pushing Zell back at the same time and so saving the blond from the tight bear hug he couldn't help but remember his own condescension to these people, yet now, he couldn't be more grateful for the welcome. Over the heads of the short people, he could Irvine tipping his hat towards him from a few feet away, whilst Quistis watched with a somewhat bemused smile near the corner. However, despite the light hearted greeting and happy smiles, it only took a look at his old friends to see the dark rings and worry lines formed on their young faces. He wondered if he looked like that as well. Probably.
"Its nice to see you guys. I see you all missed me?" He couldn't help but be caught up in the excitement and enthusiasm, traces of his old self showing through.
"Lets all go catch up in your room. We have some of your old stuff, but we'll have to take you shopping later." The stern woman seemed much too used to directing people about, but at least she was better at it now, rather than the bossy, sometimes whiny woman she had been when he'd seen her last.
"You sound like my mother already. I hope you let me pick what I want." Seifer teased back gently, knocking her mothering with far friendlier words than he might once have. Heck, if she'd said something like that to him before all this, he'd likely have told her to shove it, like he'd need her help.
They all laughed and smiled in response to his words, but all Seifer could really think of was where his brunet rival could have disappeared off to. However, damned if he dispelled the atmosphere and attitude of his friends by asking about the absent commander.