Avoidance:
When Squall woke the next morning it was with tired eyes.
Disentangling himself from the twisted sheets he stumbled into the attached bathroom and splashed cold water on his face in a vain attempt to rid himself of the night's terrors.
Sighing gently Squall stared at his face in the small mirror. Noting the dark bruises the fell in bags under his eyes and the permanent frown that had taken up residence.
Grumbling irritably at his reflection Squall set himself to getting ready for the day.
With nothing happening for the next week, at least until a job came up, Squall had nothing to do but train. Seeking out his blade Squall left the dorms and made a beeline for the training area he had left so abruptly the night before. If he couldn't sleep normally he would just have to tire himself out.
As the heavy metal door lifted so he could duck into the monster-infested rooms beyond Squall let his mind go, detaching himself from the moment and simply let his body wear itself out.
The grats in the first few rooms started to avoid him and Squall came back to himself long enough to decide to move further in. It was always a risk going so far into the training area as they kept a T-Rexaur there for the SeeDs and older students to practice teamwork. Facing it alone would not be pleasant, even in this confined space.
The tougher monsters helped him, and Squall felt himself relax slowly into the familiar motions. Uppercut, trigger, parry, slash, trigger...
And so it continued.
Squall paused for a second before burying his blade into the grat, just enough to note the heavy steps behind him. Even as the grat withered away Squall was turning, just in time to dive out of the way of the swinging tail of the T-Rexaur.'
It wasn't an overly large one, in comparison to the one he and Quistis had run from three days ago it was tiny. But in such enclosed spaces even a small T-Rexaur was a big problem.
Squall crouched low and watched as the lizard monster moved, hoping that it hadn't seen him.
Unfortunately, it's sense of smell was significantly better than its sight. Squall was forced to scramble away from his leafy cover as the T-Rexaur lunged. Thinking quickly Squall cursed, he was in one of the annexes, there was no exit from here but the one he had come in and right now there was a large and very angry lizard between him and that exit.
If he wanted to get out of this one Squall would have to fight the monster, at least enough to weaken it so he could run.
Just his luck, he thought, muttering angrily under his breath Squall readied his gun blade for the fight. Making sure that his junctions were working correctly he stood for a clear view of his target.
Why was it that everything had been going against him lately. First had been the disaster of an exam, then the bloody ball and Quistis and now this. As his anger and frustration bubbled to the surface, despite his attempts to detach himself again, Squall charged towards the T-Rexaur.
Dodging it weak attempt to block him and ducking under the flailing forearms Squall slashed at the monster's neck, firing the revolver of the blade mid strike causing the monster to stumble even as it roared in pain.
Ducking away from the close quarters of the fight and the T-Rexaurs claws, Squall called one of his Blizzard spells and threw the magic at the overgrown lizard. The giant boulder of glass like ice hung in the air for a moment before dropping heavily on the already wounded T-Rexaur, forcing the beasts head into the ground and crushing it with its weight.
As the magic that held the monster together dissipated Squall thought idly that he may have overpowered that spell.
But the path was clear again and the anger that had driven him left. Leaving him strangely empty.
He wasn't given long to ponder his rampant emotions however as a stuttered shout came through the door.
"Sq-Squall!" It was Zell, hair as ridiculously gelled as always and looking irritatingly well rested.
Squall didn't answer, instead he pulled the rag from his pocket that he kept for the purpose and began cleaning the last of the muck from the grats and T-Rexaur from the weapon.
"Dude! You just killed a T-Rexaur by yourself!" Zell sounded impressed.
Squall just felt numb.
"I wasn't that large, as T-Rex's go." He murmured softly as he worked on his blade in the middle of the training area.
Zell was completely flabbergasted at the brunettes calm acceptance of the situation. If he had just killed a T-Rexaur single handed he would either be in Med Bay or shouting it for all to hear. Even if it was small as far as the species went.
"All the same that's pretty impressive, man." Zell finally said as he eyed Squall. Even to the hyperactive blonde the bags under Squall's eyes were becoming increasingly obvious.
"Hey have you had lunch yet?" Zell asked, by way of an invitation.
Squall's head jerked up before looking down again to inspect his watch. Yes, he had been in here for over five hours and even as he thought about it his stomach started to complain of the abuse.
"No. I lost track of time." He said, straightening up and gesturing towards the door. "Lead the way."
Normally Squall didn't eat with company. Normally he didn't have company but at least with others around he was less likely to start jumping at the shadows in the corners, and conversation served to keep his mind from the dreams.
It didn't take them long to enter the cafeteria. Zell never took long in the pursuit of food, especially when the hot-dogs were being served. Squall personally couldn't stand the things and favoured the more palatable vegetable lasagne.
The cafeteria was normally crowded, but as the pair looked around they noticed that it was more so than usual. Few tables had any spaces and those that did didn't seem too inclined to share with the two new SeeDs.
Their problem was solved when Selphie, with energy that rivaled Zell's, waved them over to the table she was sharing with Seifer and his friends.
Squall grimaced slightly at the sight of the tall blond man before quickly schooling his expression into a blank mask. Seifer had been better the last few days, there hadn't even been any digs at Zell that he had noticed and that more than anything spoke of something a little off kilter.
Ignoring the problem of the arrogant blonds behaviour for the time being and simply enjoying it while it lasted Squall sat down on one side of Selphie while Zell took the other, sitting across from Fugin.
Seifer, sitting directly across the table from Squall looked up in mild surprise as his sparring partner voluntarily came within ten metres of him before looking back at his half eaten sandwich.
"Hey, Squall have you visited the Med Bay yet?" Selphie asked in an effort to start a conversation.
Squall frowned.
"No. Why? Was I meant to?" He asked, he had a suspicion that it was going to be the 'Sorcerer' but Squall honestly couldn't care. The chances of him being the Knight were slim at best and he didn't particularly want the position.
Selphie's smile became a little fixed as she looked at him pointedly.
"No. I just thought you should go say hello to Harry is all." She said before forking a piece of lasagne into her mouth.
"Who's Harry?" Squall asked, thinking that if that was the Sorcerer's name it was a bit anti climactic.
"Did you hit your head or something?" Seifer started from across the table. "Harry is the Sorcerer." The way Seifer said it made the scrawny kid that Squall had seen seem like some sort of messiah. Then again a lot of people thought he was.
"No, I didn't hit my head." Squall replied a little waspishly, already regretting his decision to sit at the same table as the antagonistic blond. "I just didn't see the point in introducing myself to someone I'm not going to have anything to do with." He said with a sense of finality.
To Squall's surprise, and to Selphie's and Zell's as well if their dropped fork and hot-dog respectively were any indication, Seifer relaxed back into his seat and smiled genuinely at Squall. Chuckling merrily at some private joke.
Sending the older man a puzzled look Squall glanced at the others before deciding to shrug it off and finish his lasagne.
"You should go see him though." Seifer said, shocking the others into dropping their lunches again. "He's bored out of his mind and if Kadowaki sees me there again I might not make it out alive." The blond explained.
To Squall's left Selphie smiled happily and nodded her head.
"Sure, we'll pay him a visit. Might take him some books or something as well. No reason to unnecessarily antagonise Dr. Kadowaki." Zell gave his muffled agreement around his mouthful of sausage and Seifer smiled again. Proving to Squall that the world had indeed turned inside out. Seifer was showing some sort of care for someone other than himself.
It was like he had already decided that he was 'Harry's' Knight...oh.
Squall would have laughed at the irony, but he couldn't muster the energy. Well if Seifer wanted to be the Sorcerer's Knight then he wasn't about to get in his way.
Forking up the last piece of lasagna Squall collected his plate ready to leave. His body ached from its abuse that morning and he thought a shower and a nap sounded heavenly.
"What about you Squall, you'll give Harry a visit right?" Zell asked, just as he was standing to leave.
Shrugging his shoulders Squall decided he was too tired to object. "Sure, I'll swing by later."
Returning his tray to the counter Squall namely moved through the Garden to the dorms and made a beeline for his shower. He would have a shower and a forty-winks then he would get Selphie and Zell off his back and go visit the 'bored out of his mind Sorcerer'.
It was with relief that Squall drifted off to sleep and this time didn't dream. For all that his body ached as he lay on the bed the training session had paid off. It was a lot longer than an hour later when his conscious mind started to surface.
The banging on his door pounding in tandem with the throbbing headache in his skull.
Headache, he must have overslept then.
Scrubbing the grit from his eyes Squall stumbled to the door to stop the banging.
On the other side of the metallic surface was an irate Selphie and a supremely uncomfortable looking Zell.
"Where the hell were you?" Selphie demanded the second the door was moving.
Squall still dragging his brain from the recesses of the first decent sleep he had had in days failed to understand what the woman was talking about.
"What?" He asked, running a hand through his hair.
"You said you would go and visit Harry yesterday, where the hell were you?" She demanded again, pausing to take in his tired state.
Finally catching up with the conversation Squall frowned.
"Sorry, I fell asleep."
He wasn't going to offer any more of an apology than that. He hadn't even said that he would visit the Sorcerer yesterday. Just that he would eventually.
Selphie looked like she wanted to rip into him and Squall was having difficulty putting the image next to the Selphie he normally interacted with. But as soon as he answered she paused. Looking him over carefully she narrowed her eyes.
"Are you alright, you still look awful."
Squall raised an eyebrow and she had the decency to blush while Zell fidgeted in the background.
"I'm fine, I just woke up." He stated simply.
It seemed though that the profession of his good health wasn't to have the desired effect.
Even Zell, who had been hovering behind Selphie and watching Squall apologetically looked at Squall in worry.
"You were asleep from lunch yesterday?" The blond asked sceptically, worry lacing his voice. Squall wasn't' entirely sure he was worried. He knew other SeeDs and trainees with weirder sleeping patterns.
"Must've done." Squall muttered retreating back into his room to gather a fresh change of clothes before heading to the bathroom.
As he turned his back Zell and Selphie exchanged worried glances.
"You're still going to visit Harry, right?" Selphie asked, returning to the reason she had been pounding on his door.
Squall groaned internally while he nodded obediently.
"Sure, I'll go see him first thing."
Selphie smiled brightly, even as Zell relaxed and nodded happily.
"Alright then, see you later Squall." And they left, leaving Squall to splash cold water on his face and dress.
Keeping to his promise, not wanting to have Selphie break down his door at some ungodly hour, Squall headed for the Med Bay. May as well get the pleasantries over with as soon as possible.
Not that he had any clue what to say to someone who was a glorified rock when you saved them.