Chapter 4 – The Punishment

Sitting in the waiting room was possibly worse than anything else; Seifer was perched next to him, bouncing his knee in aggravation. "Fucking lamer, making me wait…" Hayner couldn't tell whether he was talking to himself or to Hayner so he remained quiet.

Soon, the red haired male popped his head into the waiting room and waved them over, Seifer stalking straight past him. "Nice to see you again too, Seifer. Bad day?" Seifer just glared at him from his position on the sofa. Hayner slowly walked in, closing the door behind him and joining Seifer on the – wait, sofa?!

"I hope you don't mind, I rearranged the furniture a bit to try and bring you two closer together." The boys said nothing and tried to sit as far apart on the small sofa as possible, but even then, if one moved too much, their thighs would brush. "So, where to begin…" Axel glanced between them, watching the stormy expressions with amusement.

"How about the common ground that you're so fucking obsessed with?" Seifer spat, but Axel didn't even flinch, instead a small smile played on his lips.

"Ah, now which bit would that be? I seem to think that you two have more common ground than you would like to admit" Hayner scoffed and rolled his eyes; choosing instead to fiddle with a bit of lose string coming from the bottom of his t-shirt. "Is there a problem Hayner?" Both sets of eyes were on him and he could say that he had never felt more uncomfortable in his life.

It was like he was stuck between a ferocious lion and an overly friendly hyena, and he was the meat they were after.

"No, not at all" It was Seifer's turn to roll his eyes as he muttered a 'lamer' under his breath.

"Thank you for reminding me Seifer, now I remember what I wanted to start with. The insults need to stop, so I've come up with a punishment plan" Both boys stared at him with confused expressions; punishments?! "Now this isn't anything bad, it's just that every time you insult eachother, you have to say something nice about the other to their face and give them a hug" Seifer's eyes might as well have grown the ability to shoot lasers with the look he was giving Axel. Hayner just froze, he had to say nice things or shut up – and hell, anyone with a brain would know that the latter wasn't going to happen.

"Are you for real, Chickenwuss hasn't got anything good to say about him anyway" Axel scowled and leaned forward so his elbows were resting on his desk.

"Surprise, surprise, Seifer you broke the rule first. So go on, say something nice about Hayner" Seifer clenched his fists and muttered something that neither of the other two understood.

"Could you repeat that please? I don't think Hayner could hear" Seifer turned and glared at Hayner, a false smile on his face.

"I said, he's not as dumb as everyone thinks" Hayner scoffed and looked away in disbelief.

"Well that was a back-handed comment if ever there was one" Seifer shrugged and leaned back, looking ever-so-slightly uncomfortable.

"It's a start Hayner, Seifer just needs some time to be less vicious, now give him a hug" Axel smiled the same fake smile that Seifer had sent him, and wrote something down, leaning back into his seat.

Both boys shot eachother a disgusted look and quickly embraced before flying away from eachother as if burner. Hayner cursed himself for shivering at the elder's touch, he was sure Axel noticed his strange reaction judging by the amused look in his eyes.

"Now that that's out of the way, I think we should focus on the cause of your fighting. I need to understand why it happens before I can help you to stop" Again, there was an awkward silence as both boys refused to talk, staring in different directions.

"It's all Seifer's fault" Hayner felt that he may as well say something or they would just end up here for longer.

Seifer spun around and glared at him, their faces getting dangerously close as Axel was entirely ignored. "How is it my fault, you're the one that throws the first punch!" Before they knew it they were shouting at eachother and before Axel could get around the table in time, punches were thrown and the boys launched at eachother.

They landed on the floor with a thump and began rolling around, trying to get the upper-hand on the other. "Boys!" Axel finally managed to pull them away from eachother, observing the disgruntled but otherwise unharmed boys who stood and grabbed their bags.

"I've got somewhere to be, so I'm leaving" Hayner muttered and walked out of the door, not bothering to hear what Axel had to say. He heard Seifer say something and soon the blonde male was walking next to him on the way home – damn him for living for close to Seifer. "Why are you walking with me, Seifer?" The elder shrugged and remained silent, texting someone.

"Look, this can't keep happening, I cannot get kicked out now. We can fight all we want outside of school and outside of the sessions, but not during them" Hayner was surprised at Seifer's outburst, never had Seifer sounded more grown up and more sincere.

"Jeez, look who's talking, it's because of your asshole behaviour that we fight!" They stopped walking and stared at eachother. Hayner froze; he realised that he had just insulted Seifer and that they were going to have to hug again. "For fucks sake, you've got nice eyes" Once again he cursed himself, why did he let that one slip?

Seifer smirked and stepped forward into Hayner's space. "Is it because they're green?" Hayner hadn't even thought about that when he had said it, but yeah it probably was.

"I don't know they're just intense and shit" The nerves were building up and he slowly backed away as Seifer advanced; he only stopped when his back hit a wall.

Seifer's hands rested on either side of Hayner's head and he sent the smaller male a smouldering look, lips lingering dangerously close to the other's. "You owe me a hug" It was barely a whisper and Hayner remained still, debating whether or not to make a run for it, this was getting too close.

Strong arms moved from their place next to him and pulled him into a toned chest, Seifer chuckling at the embarrassed look on Hayner's face. "You can let go now" Hayner murmured not meeting Seifer's gaze.

"Aw and here I thought you thought I was hot" Hayner spluttered in shock. "Don't think I didn't hear you and your lamer friends talking about me, for the record, you're not too bad yourself. Just don't tell that psycho red head that I said anything and maybe you'll have a shot" With that the elder blonde turned and walked away.

What the fuck had just happened? Was Seifer off his face or did he seriously just say that Hayner was cute? But even worse, he knew that Hayner thought he was hot and no doubt, from now own he would make his life a hell of a lot more difficult.