A/N: FF8 belongs to Square-Enix. No, this is not the last chapter. -cackles- I'm evil, I know. This is only a teaser, a prologue-of-sorts to the conclusion. And yes, it was planned from the beginning. I found that I had to insert this to tie things up and settle problems with pacing. I hope this second-to-last part of the fic tickles your fancy.

Also, I'm sorry for the long wait. I've gotten re-employed recently and it cuts my spare time by 80 per cent... :( Much thanks once again for those wonderful reviews I really don't deserve. You all make my day.

lessons in ineloquence

#07: r i t a r d a n d o

Footsteps pounded and a door crashed open. Seifer Almasy was rudely and violently awoken from a light dream in which a pair of blue eyes surfaced again and again.

"The hell...? Can't you see that I'm sleeping?"

At first he'd despised the expression that lay in them. Later he came to pity them. He never could relate to that air of measured calm she always had about her. He never could relate to her level of self-repression, the way she bottled everything up within so that only her eyes spoke volumes. For him.

"Oh! W-We're sorry, we're sorry, we didn't realize... Raijin says you never sleep..."

"That's... that's because Raijin sleeps excessively, you dimwits. What is it?"

He'd enjoyed that sense of power he got from being able to read her every thought and every whim so accurately.

"We... wanted to thank you for helping us to pass our SeeD exam."

"You already did that. Three times last week and the day before yesterday, as a matter of fact. Are you two morons? Get lost."

Until he realized the power those eyes had over him, too. He didn't know exactly when that had happened. It just did. His insides ripped in something like fury when those blue eyes lingered on his for only that short little while and then wandered to settle on… something else. They tore him apart everytime.

"And… we thought you might like to take a break b-because you've been looking really tired lately. So we're sponsoring a-a train ticket to your preferred holiday destination..."

That finally got Seifer's attention. He looked from one to the other. The girl was chewing one end of her pigtail in abject nervousness. She was clutching her boyfriend's hand; he still looked as sick and skinny as ever. He wondered if he'd been like them at their age – kids who didn't have a clue of what they were really doing.

Probably.

He had replayed their final meeting over and over againin his mind. He could still recall it perfectly. And unless he was very much mistaken, what he had read from that hatingly-addictive blue gaze was:

Wait. All you have to do is wait.

They were sponsoring him a train ticket to a holiday destination of his choice? Ri-i-ight. He scared the living daylights out of them.

Seifer leant back, threw back his head and laughed. "Alright. Give me Winhill.

(gradually getting slower)