The ride back to Balamb was short, as usual, but still boring as hell alone. Seifer caught a SeeD car back to Garden near the docks. The driver was no one he knew, but the girl was friendly and asked how his mission had gone. He kept his responses vague, and she caught on that it was need-to-know and shut up.

It was still early, so only a few people were in the halls. Students would certainly either be in class, the cafeteria, or the library. Even though the former Disciplinary Committee had been back for a while, the blond still got the occasional stare in the hallways, as if people were surprised to see him there. He'd even learned of a betting pool going on how long it would take him to get kicked out. Rumor had it that someone named Leon had bet that he'd make SeeD.

He made it to the elevator without incident and entered the access code for the third floor. Technically, he wasn't supposed to even know it. The almighty commander had simply told him not to take advantage of the privilege when he'd learned that Seifer had managed to find it out. Seifer was sure that Edea had something to do with that, seeing as she'd been the one to give him the code.

Though, there was always the possibility that Leonhart had a soft spot for him. Seifer would never say they'd bonded since his return, and no matter what he said, Seifer respected his former rival and suspected the feeling was returned. There was an unspoken agreement to return to their former relationship, or at least as close to it as they could.

As always, Xu was annoyed at the sight of him. Whenever possible, Seifer kept their interactions to a minimum. She'd been his most vocal opponent before the whole sorceress thing, constantly reminding him of his inability to pass a simple SeeD test, constantly writing him off as a bad egg. She must have felt that she'd been proven right, because she took every opportunity to bring up his mistakes, touting them as reasons not to give him any more chances.

Seifer took every opportunity to remind her what a fucking bitch she was and a horrible authority figure.

"I know, check my weapon. Blah, blah," he said, beating her to the punch and setting his gunblade on her desk, right on top of the stack of paperwork she was working on. If he cared to have his weapon scuffed, he'd have made sure to make more of a mess of her work. "I'll see myself in."

"I'll get your expulsion papers ready," she called after him as he opened the commander's office door. He sent the bird over his shoulder and closed the door behind him.

"Seifer," greeted the headmaster, who then turned back to the commander. "I'll have Xu notify our contacts and prepare accommodations." With that, Cid lifted himself from the chair he'd been sitting in and left the room.

Seifer plopped down into the recently vacated chair. "I ought to get a medal for not following those bastards, by the way," he told the other gunblade user, casually crossing his legs.

Squall shook his head. "You don't get a medal for simply following orders."

"Yeah, well, considering my stupid ass orders were two completely different things in this case, I better not get points off for only being able to carry out half of them," Seifer replied. "If I don't pass this damn test, I'm leaving."

Squall sighed, shaking his head again. He must have had a headache, or Seifer was giving him one. Serves him right. "You're not leaving, Seifer. We're sending a team to Timber to check it out."

He looked like he had more to say, but he was interrupted by a knock on the door. Before he could say anything, Selphie was poking her head in. "Got a minute?" She bounced in before either man could reply.

"So I looked into that thing you wanted, Squall, and we were right. Someone sent a message right before Seifer left. They knew." Seifer had expected as much, considering they'd cleared out so recently, but a mole?

"Thanks for telling everyone, Selphie," Squall said, looking a bit annoyed, yet used to it. Selphie wasn't as bad as Zell when it came to spilling secrets stupidly, but she just assumed it was fine to tell the golden six pretty much everything. Somehow, lately, that had come to include Seifer. She said that they were practically family, so why keep secrets?

"It was pretty obvious," Seifer told him, waving his hand dismissively. "I mean, they can't have been gone long before I got there. I bet they heard we were on to them way before that."

"Seify, how was your test?" Selphie asked, smiling.

"Didn't I ask you not to call me that?"

"Yep, but it suits you. I can't wait until your graduation! Save a dance for me!"

Squall cleared his throat, reminding the hyper SeeD that this was not a social call. "Graduation isn't for another week. The other examinees haven't even had their test."

Selphie took an excited breath and grinned. "Oh, this is going to be the best graduation ball EVER."

"Dismissed, Selphie!"

"See ya later, guys!" She skipped to the door and twirled out, and Seifer wondered just how she could be so perky at all hours.

Squall massaged the bridge of his nose before returning his attention to Seifer. "Results of the test will be posted later, but Cid and I agree that your performance was satisfactory."

"Oh, you do love me," Seifer said, smirking, but contained his excitement. "Who's on the Timber team?"

"It hasn't been decided. There's a leak, so we're keeping it quiet."

"I get it, don't blab." Seifer stood and stretched. "I take it I have until after the ball before I'm needed."

Squall nodded, and Seifer understood his silent dismissal.

He collected his gunblade from Xu with a grin on the way out.. "You ain't getting rid of me just yet," he told her, winking, as the elevator doors shut. Hyperion on one shoulder, Seifer Almasy walked to his dorm with all the confidence he'd had before Timber and the sorceress. There were more people in the hallways this time, and it suited the blond just nicely. Let them see he was back.

It took me longer than I'd wanted to get this chapter written. This time of year is pretty busy because of school ending, friends leaving, trips being taken, etc.

I'm living in Japan at the moment. As of this week, I've been here for a year! That means that those of us that are going back home are leaving soon, and the new people are arriving. Naturally, a group of us took a trip to climb Mt. Fuji. I got back last Monday and spent the rest of the week trying and failing to pass the Japanese driving test. I finally got it on Friday. Then there were end of term parties for my schools, etc.

Excuses, excuses, really. I do basically nothing at work right now since the students aren't even there. I have no problem reading fanfic at my desk, but writing it is too personal to do in public, no matter how little everyone can read and speak English. Smut? No problem. Writing my own stuff? NO THANK YOU.

The real perk about my job is that I can send a mail to my supervisor at 9pm and ask about taking the next two days off because if I'm going to do nothing at my desk for 8 hours on very little sleep because I went to two work parties on a Tuesday night, I ought to just do nothing while not getting out of bed and save my energy for the entire month of August of doing nothing. Thus, I was able to find time and wakefulness to write again.

Thank you to everyone who has started to read this so far. The writing may evolve as we go along, as I get back into the rhythm after years of writing nothing but academic papers and shitty blog posts. I love getting input, so if you have comments or suggestions, please send them my way in a review or at my tumblr: weremermaid.