Disclaimer: Still not mine. Squaresoft's.
Zell detested the cold. Which was ironic, considering he had an Ice Goddess setting up shop inside him, but she never made him feel numb. This cold did. And it was beginning to make him even more sluggish, and he was wishing he grabbed the thicker jacket, rather than this thinner one, that allowed him more movement incase of a fight. Seifer was in better shape, but only marginally.
Dropping his pack, Zell began rooting around in it, and pulled out the reflective looking blanket, and indicated that Seifer do the same. After looking, and finding a small nook-ish corner of the cave that would fit both of them, he took the thermal blanket from Seifer. "We need to conserve heat. Sit down, back against the stone, legs stretched out." Seifer gave him a wondering glance, but complied, putting survival above curiosity.
Getting comfortable, Seifer melded the snow up against him, for insulation, and nearly jumped when Zell suddenly laid down on him, legs on his legs, back against his chest, and Zell's head just to the side of Seifer's. As Zell pulled the blankets up, Seifer was glad they had at least brought woolen toques, as he already felt a fair bit warmer from the combined body heat of the two. Perhaps, he mused, they might just survive the night.
The fact that Zell didn't say anything else that night registered on Seifer's mind, and he wondered, if perhaps, the younger blonde had something aside from immanent death on his mind. Just as he was about to try and get a short nap, Zell spoke up, startling Seifer. He had assumed Zell was asleep, how long had he been awake?
"Seifer…" So…quiet. Vulnerable. Un-Zellish.
"Yeah?"
"Why doesn't anyone at the Garden like me?" That was hardly the question he was expecting, especially from this person. Squall maybe, Quistis after having a few to many drinks, perhaps, but Zell? It was so wrong it was eerie.
"What the hell are you talking about Zell? You practically have fans around every corner, I on the other hand, have to put up with my lesser complaining about my admittance back into the Garden."
Quiet. Is that a good sign, or a bad sign? Best to be sure. "Seriously Zell, why would you even think that?"
"…If they liked me, why don't like being around me?" And there it was. He felt ignored, that was it.
"Who doesn't?"
"Anyone. Squall never has wanted to just hang out, Selphie and Irvine only want to spend time on each other, nobody else at the Garden wants to be around me, because I'm me. They always to hang around with the hero who helped save the world, or the famous martial artist. They never want to hang around with me, and I'm not even sure that what they do want exists."
Okaaay…probably not the best time for this discussion, but, better to have it then not, I guess. Seifer heaved a sigh. "What about me?"
"You?"
"I hang around with you, now don't I?"
"Well…yeah, but…"
"But? But what?"
"I dunno. I just, you know, never thought we would be friends, after, I mean, you didn't seem to like me for the first 17 years of my life…"
"Well, aren't I now? The past is the past, the future is what we make it. Now, we best try and rest before dawn, because knowing puberty-boy, there will be search parties at first light."
"…Right" Zell was silent after that, but Seifer noticed, as he pushed back into the warmth of Seifer and curled up, that Zell was snoring, just slightly, within moments. Closing his eyes, Seifer drifted into the oblivion that was sleep.
The search party had just passed the blank stretch of land, when the first ball of fire ripped through the ground, scattering snow and slush everywhere. Within moments, rope was lowered, and the two cold SeeDs were hauled up, and taken back to camp.