Author's note: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or its characters. This is for the 30 Kisses challenge using list iota. This is set after the game and is slightly AU. Theme 26: A Fight.

Fire and Ice

People were moving away from her as she passed them in the halls. Quistis couldn't blame them. She was quite willing to turn the next person who annoyed her into an icicle. She had been push too far, and a chill pervaded the air around her. Since Ultimecia's defeat, her teaching license had not been restored. Quistis actually wouldn't have cared about that if she hadn't been drafted as the all purpose substitute and teaching assistant. Basically, she was doing all the work the other Instructors didn't want to do. Plus she was still being sent on missions and Squall expected her to help him with the administrative side of running Garden. He claimed he didn't understand how all the paperwork worked.

She was utterly exhausted. She barely did anything that wasn't somehow related to work, and she was sick of it. No one else had this kind of workload, and if Rinoa or Selphie blew off work to spend some time with their boyfriends, they got away with it. The one time she tried, she got a lecture. No, Quistis was not a happy camper. Especially not after the latest news. Quistis had been selected to run an inter-Garden relations committee. She hadn't been given the choice of backing out.

So now Quistis was going back to her quarters to change clothes and then go kill as many things as she could in the training area.

Seifer stormed through the halls on his way back to his quarters, snarling at anyone who approached him. He wanted a shower and a nap. Anyone who got in his way was just going to have to deal with the consequences. He had just gotten back from a hellish mission with a bunch of idiots who had nearly gotten them all killed more than a dozen times. The debriefing had been even worse than the mission. He was exhausted and wanted a real shower with hot water. It would be nice to see his girlfriend as well, but he wasn't counting on that. With the way things were going, he would be off on another mission before she could get away from her work.

In the past six months they'd seen each other for at most maybe two hours at a time. And that was when they were lucky. Most of the time it was just a few minutes caught together. He didn't really blame her. It wasn't her fault that all the work got dumped on her. Of course, Puberty Boy didn't have these sorts of problems. No, he just caused them for other people. When he wanted to take his girlfriend out on a date, no one interrupted him with yet another mission or a stack of paper to sign. Seifer was seriously considering setting Squall's office on fire just to see if that would keep him from handing out more work.

He was definitely planning on lighting any who got between him and his shower and nap on fire.

They ran right into each other. Of course, this wasn't too surprising given the fact that they were heading for the same place at top speed. It didn't help either of their tempers.

"Hyne, woman! Watch where you're going."

"You're the one who ran into me."

"Are you kidding? You ran into me."

"I did not."

"You did too."

Things degenerated after that. Before long the couple was screaming at the top of their lungs at each other, the issue of who had run into whom no longer really relevant. Seifer finally threw up his hands, hurling a small black box at her head.

"Take that!"

Only her good reflexes allowed her to catch it. "What the hell is this?"

"What do you think?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking you!"

"Well, why don't you open it then?"

"Maybe I will."

Quistis carefully opened the black box and started at its contents. Seifer started tapping his foot.

"Well?"

"Is this a proposal?"

"You're the genius. What do you think?"

She took the ring from the box. Holding the ring between her fingers, she considered it before slipping it on.

"Is that a yes?"

"Well, what do you think?" She grabbed his lapels pulling him down for a kiss. When she was thoroughly breathless, she let go.

Seifer brushed his nose against hers. "Yes?"

"Yes."

"So how about a shower and a nap, hmm?"

Quistis relaxed into his arms. "That sounds lovely."

Two minutes later there was a DO NOT DISTRUB sign taped to the door.