Disclaimer: Nope, I still down own any of the following... Final Fantasy (only some of the games and my muses, who are happily rampaging through my mind and traumatizing plot bunnies), Magic - The Gathering (I only owe my ideas for creative application)

...It's time for the next chapter it seems. Due to life going whack for awhile this chapter was delayed a bit. Sorry for the long wait! *thinks* Anything else? A review would be nice *smiles* The traffic option of is all nice, but hearing what you think about this story so far ( yeah - I know, not much action and stuff...) would be even better! Alas - I hope you have as much fun reading it as I had writing it!

SeeDs, Guardians and... Love

The nightmare called shopping

Vinoria-City is an amazing city – even though there hadn't been that much time, we'd already realized this. I had heard once about it's unique appearance, but this… Everything I'd heard was true, at least from what I could see right now. While yesterday there hadn't been much time for discovering the city, today was entirely different.

We made our way through the city, learning of several interesting things, finding out important places and got a map of the different means of transportation. As much as I despised it, we had to go shopping and there was no way around it. We really needed something suitable for the official events we were going to attend along with Juun. Security had said that such events wouldn't occur too often, but I wasn't sure if I should trust them on that. I need a dress… Shit! I can't believe it! Me… and a dress… I didn't like them, because they were so impractical and restricted free movement – at least all dresses I've seen on my short shopping trips.

No one can really imagine me with a dress and I don't wanna think about it… I hardly ever wear one… make that a never… It's been a very, very long time since the last time I'd been forced to wear a dress… Back then, I tried to stay out of everyone's way and succeeded in going unnoticed. Other than that? It must've been a very long time…

Before the hunt for clothes, we got ourselves the other things we needed, because unanimously we had decided to put that off until the end of our shopping tour. I just hoped that we weren't going to need very long for that last task so that we could finally return to the hotel.

The end came way too soon and I had to find myself a dress. What a nightmare! We then decided to separate in order to be able to find ourselves the needed clothes faster.

This wasn't as easy as it may have sounded. True, after selecting some dresses I tried them on, but almost instantly hung them back again, since I needed to be able to move freely, just in case I had to fight. Fighting in a dress is possible, but I don't like it and I've been able to avoid it till now, except for training… Pants are simply way more comfortable… and definitely not so revealing…

My final choice was a long turquoise dress with a long slit at the left side. When I tried it on for the first time, I found out that it fit perfectly, yet I wanted to see if it suited me. Therefore I got out in search of a mirror. What's Seifer doing here? Has he already finished? How'd he find out where I'd been changing?

Said young man was sitting almost directly in front of me and looking at me as if he'd never seen me before. Ok… so he hasn't… at least not in a dress…

"Wow… you look stunning." He sounded amazed and then – he smiled! And I'm not sure if he blushed or not, but then decided that this couldn't be possible. "You should wear a dress more often… darling." The pause was almost unnoticeable. Impressive. So he remembered who we were supposed to be… that's good to know too. "It's a way too rare sight…"

And so is his smile – a real smile. Not a grin or a smirk – a real smile… Still I was left with one question: Had that compliment been serious or not? "Maybe another time… So – you like it?" It was as much statement as it was a question.

Seifer nodded, "It fits you perfectly. Hope to see it more often on you?" I didn't know what to answer, so I left his question standing and used the silent excuse of still needing to see for myself what he had already told me. It was exactly what I'd hoped for… perfect.

A quick glance over my shoulder told me that the shop assistant – whom I'd asked earlier for a bit of help to find a dress suitable for my expectations – had met up with one… no – make that two other shop assistants, who were all staring at us with some kind of hopeful expression on their faces. One was already older and still looking approvingly at Seifer's compliment, while the younger rest… What in the ancestress' name are they expecting from us? Their looks were a bit… distressing. I was panicking a bit inwardly. This was something I didn't know how to cope with.

Thankfully Seifer seemed to know what they expected and came to my rescue – if you could call this a rescue. Confidently strolling over – isn't there anything to make him lose his composure? Then again… Right now I was grateful, because my nerves definitely were on their hind legs… It's laughable. Really. I can face down an oncoming wave of monsters without flinching, but I back down when faced with three shop assistants? …Then again – I'm pretty sure we didn't cover this during our lessons! Maybe we should…?

My thoughts were running in circles, abruptly stopped when Seifer carefully took hold of my arm – knowing full well how dangerous it can be to startle a fighter that will react when taken unaware to any actions as a perceived thread first and attack, asking questions later – and brought me flush against his body. THAT was more than enough to catapult me out of my mindscape and back to reality.

Unsure of what I was supposed to do I stood still, forced myself not to stiffen up completely, panicking and waited, hoping that he would take pity on me and give me at least some hint as to what I was supposed to do. The shop assistants' looks felt almost as if they were hot lances piercing my back. Again my nervousness threatened to close my throat and I desperately wished I had at least a weapon in my hand or even better – that I was on a battlefield!… Everything but being here and…

"Calm down before you hyperventilate.", came unexpectedly Seifer's soft whisper.

But…! I sighed. His assessment was sadly very much correct. So I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and tried to relax muscles that had become way too tense in too little a time. One breath… another… and another. Finally I calmed down a bit more. All of this progress was almost destroyed when I heard his next sentences and nearly choked as a reaction.

"C'mon – put your arms around me and close your eyes. Lean against me and lemme do the rest."

What?! But before I could react any further he continued.

"These ladies here want a floor show it seems. Let's give them something they can dream of, hmm?"

Ergg…what? Brain shutdown. Must restart… Come again?!

Again he bowed his head down to whisper in my ear, "Normal human interaction really isn't your thing little Ice Queen, ne?"

Had we been alone in this room without any onlookers I would have glared at him and challenged him to a fight, but here? Sad as it was I couldn't even glare at him or give him a retort and was left with no other option than doing exactly what he said… and hoping that it would work.

Taking another deep breath, I slowly closed my eyes while breathing out and let myself rest completely again him, bringing my arms up to encircle his upper body, all the while trying to hide myself with him as protection and human sized cover. I knew that this would earn me a lot of teasing later, but right now I just wanted to vanish. Apparently what he did pleased them enough to let us go after what seemed endless hours later, but was in reality at most only a few minutes.

"Hey…! Come on – I know I'm irresistible, but you can let me go now… they are gone." This time it was clearly a tease, but not aimed to harm and quite friendly said.

At his words I nearly jumped back, but retained enough sense to do a quick check of our surroundings, before I let him go and stepped away, only to quickly flee and change back – I wanted my other clothes back and to forget this episode! The dress was still too unfamiliar to me… I wanted everything to be as it had been before I had tried it on and Seifer had seen me… and before the shop assistants from hell had harassed us with their silent pleading and refusing to let us go without appropriate compensation. But thankfully I hadn't needed to worry… Nothing had changed. Seifer apparently also wanted to forget this experience as soon as possible. Or did he…?

Half an hour later we'd finally bought everything we needed, taken a bus back to the hotel and were on our way to the lift when…

"Hey – look at that! Is that a panorama lift?" Seifer had found another lift to our floor… And it was a panorama lift – there was no doubt about that. The chance to use it and enjoy the sight of the city and the land was not something we could resist and thus chose this way of getting up to our rooms.

I feared that he would bring up the events of our last shopping stop, but thankfully he had enough sense to keep quiet and let me enjoy the sight. I wanted to get away from here as soon as possible, forgetting. But… A mental snort. As if! Seifer wouldn't let me and he would bring it up sooner or later.

Liked it? Hated it? Found mistakes, strangeness or other stuff that's not making sense that I haven't found (or that makes perfectly sense to me)? Let me know what you thought of it ^^

*points at the shiny green review button* Come on - you know you just want to press it! *grins*

Authors notes: For all of you who are waiting for Squall to come in - sorry, but that'll take a couple of chapters more. Seeds, Guardians and... Love is intended to be a long story and for now Squall isn't ready to come in yet. But he will.