Disclaimer: Squaresoft owns the characters and settings.
AN: Nope, not dead yet.
Smack
Smack
Smack
The punching bag bounced off the backboard, and then swung lazily back to its resting position. Zell stared at it. For some reason, it was easier to just watch it than to lift his hand and strike it again. He'd never noticed how vivid the red was before, and the texture. And…Zell closed his eyes for a moment, just to rest them. As he got back up, rubbing his side, he glanced around to make sure nobody had noticed him fall asleep in the middle of the day – in the middle of training, at that. Giving a shifty eyed glance around the room, he picked up his towel and bag, and moved back to the showers, where he swiftly got the water running hot, and stepped in, relaxing.
After being woken rather…uncomfortably…from his impromptu sleeping position on the shower floor when the water turned cold, Zell had gotten up and out, and after getting dried and dressed, wandered out and took a stroll around the Garden.
Beautiful day, bright warm sun, cool ocean breeze…all this day needs to get better is… Zell's mind slipped through the possibilities; what did the day need? Something sweet, but that was a given…food, of course…Seifer? Naturally… Friends. That was it. Zell turned off the path, and towards the cafeteria; He had supplies to forage and plans to make.
Seifer paused before the door. Behind it, lay Zell and the others. Slamming back a pair of headache pills, the blonde fixed a faint sneer upon his face, and opened the door, and strolled in, glancing over the scene. A blanket, and even a picnic basket, Zell must have found one somewhere in the kitchen. Selphie in Irvine's lap, laughing at whatever not-quite-witty saying the man had just whispered to her. Squall and Quistis sitting, talking about recent business, boring, Seifer had no doubt. And there, was Zell, piling into the food. Striding over to Zell, Seifer sat, and in a smooth motion reached out and snatched a sandwich before it could meet its fate with the blonde-hole next to him.
"Seifer…three men to the next dispatch, or five cadets?" Seifer blinked as Squall called over a question, looking down at a report. Quickly composing himself, Seifer replied off-handedly, "Two men, and two cadets. Let them learn from experience." Squall nodded, and turned back to Quistis, but Seifer noticed, (with a degree of self-satisfaction) that Squall made four marks on his page.
Zell, having finished his feeding for the time being, leaned back into/onto Seifer, and engaged the others in small talk for a short time, before stretching an arm out, and grabbing a ball from his bag. Eyes sparkling, he grinned, "Lets play some ball."
Later
Zell, Irvine, and Quistis managed to pull a small win out from the other three, Zell himself being in nearly three places at once, just pouring off energy. Afterwards, still bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet, Zell went around gloating. As soon as his boyfriend had turned his back, Seifer reached to his pocket and grabbed a few more pills, and threw them back, murmuring about how his head was going to kill him.
That Night
Fast asleep, Zell was held securely in the larger, slumbering Seifer's arms, a grin on his face. Within the otherwise still and quiet room, only one creature was stirring, and she resided within the mind of the blonde.
Shiva paced her mental realm. While still organized, it no longer was pristine, the goddess apparently neglecting much of such duties, as she worked the larger, grander, and far more important task.
She sat within her throne of clear ice, pale blue fingers digging a gouge into each armrest, as she sent her mind out, out of her comfortable domain of Ice and Order, into the domain of Fire, of Anger, Passion and Love; Seifer's mind.
She had made many such forays. Nightly, even. Slowly, she slipped from Zell's consciousness to Seifer's. Carefully, she stepped within his mental defenses, and brutally, replaced the burning fires within his mind, each representing an aspect of Seifer, with cool, perfectly shaped ice.
It was slow work. It was long work. It was methodical work, but Shiva did it. She did it because, if she could not have Zell, she would ensure someone who loved him as she did would. And how better to ensure that, than to transform this mind, into a state similar to her own? Replace his anger with coolness, his passion with compassion. It was slow, but she could already see the result of her work. Seifer's mind, originally a room of hellfire and rampaging thoughts of flame and heat, now had a pillar of collectedness, of logic. In time, she knew she could replace it all entirely, and ensure that Seifer would always be there for her Zell. In all the ice, for all the reflective surfaces, she never once noticed the gleam of madness within her own reflections eyes.
Seifer awoke with a murmured groan of pain. Cursing and glancing to make sure he didn't wake Zell, he let another curse out as he felt wetness below his nose, and put a finger to it. Blood. Sighing, he slipped out of the bed, and moved into the bathroom, and took care of his nosebleed. Flicking off the light as he left the small bathroom, Seifer slipped back into bed, maneuvering the deep sleeping Zell, so he was resting his head on Seifer's chest, just below his shoulder, and then reached down, pulled up the blankets, and wrapped his arms around Zell, and just watched him sleep, the rise, the fall, and the rise again of his compactly muscled chest. The way his tattoo looked in the shadows. Brushing a hand over Zell's cheek, and pushing back loose hair, Seifer took a breath, and whispered the three words that expressed how he felt about Zell. And he could have sworn that Zell smiled.
AN: Hah! A chapter, AND I found how to make a forum for this story at www.fanfiction .net/f /743240/ (remove the spaces) Its been a very productive day for me! ..and Sorry for not updating for so long!