Squall's POV:

"I got his back, you know that!" Seifer said. He was standing behind me now, his hands sending waves of pure, fiery warmth through my body like waves of electricity. I didn't notice my head had tilted to rest on his arm, his other hand stroked my face, and before I realised I'd kissed his hand.

He pulled a chair next to mine, wrapped his arms around me and I leant towards him, strange that I could feel so safe in such unfamiliar territory though that thought didn't bother me for long. I felt his face nudge into the back of my head, his breath eliciting tingles of pleasure through my spine. I heard a cough from somewhere above me and realised that Quistis was looking at us with a rather amused look on her face.

I felt my face burn crimson and heard Cloud laugh as the colour rose. I smiled awkwardly and Seifer looked much the same. "If you want, Quistis and I can leave" Cloud joked. "Would you?" Seifer joked, laughing aloud and we all followed suit. It was relaxed here right now, that was for sure, though I couldn't help be confused about my relationship to Seifer.

I did things without thinking and while I was glad that he didn't get angry about it, I couldn't help but feel that I was getting myself too attached. It will be worth it, after all, he's going as slowly as you want, remember? and even as I said it I knew it was true. Seifer was content to go at my pace though I knew he must want to go faster than I was prepared.

It only made me love him all the more. I had never felt like this with Cloud. With Cloud, I guess I always knew subconsciously that it was more that I wanted what I couldn't have. With Seifer, my very essence seemed overjoyed that he reciprocated my feelings for him. I began to believe that my life was actually worth living again.

Now that was a feeling that I hadn't felt in years.

Seifer's POV:

He kissed my hand. Gods, if it weren't for my sister and Cloud being here, I think I'd have grabbed him and began kissing him rather forcefully right there! I can't say that I didn't want it. I mean, I'd never taken a relationship so slowly in my life. Normally I'd have already had "whoever I wanted at the time" by the end of three days… it'd been almost three weeks since I made my feelings known to Squall and while he seemed to return them, he seemed to want to take things very slowly.

Never before was there a need to take things slowly in a relationship, after all, most of the time, I was just after the sex. Never before had I actually felt for a person, what I felt for Squall either now that to think of it. Honestly, I was actually starting to be glad that I'd left Galbadia. My life here was quite good, I had more good friends here than I ever did in Galbadia and it was only after everything happened that I realised the only people I could really call friends there were Roxas and Axel.

Here I also had someone I could honestly say I loved as well. I was in love with Squall; no doubts remained in my mind about that. I wasn't going insane with the lack of sex like I though I would, I was now content to just hold him and be held and from everything I could tell, he also liked it as well. He was worth the wait though. I think that if he'd asked, I'd wait forever so long as I could stay with him.

Besides, if things got desperate, I always had my right hand. Way to go for spoiling the mood I told myself. God I am a sick puppy.

Quistis' POV:

I must say I was impressed at Seifer. Since school last year, he'd changed a lot and I was proud of my little brother for that. Back home (I should say, our old home) Seifer had been so much different to what he was like these days. Before, he had been cruel. He was the stereotypical "jock" who assumed that he was better than everyone else and acted in a manner befitting of such behaviour.

For longer than I cared to remember, he had been an ass. He had been leader of a gang of students who were mainly from the football team and various other cliques, the types of sheep who wanted to hang around the "big bad wolf" so to speak. Most of those people were going along with it since they knew they'd be able to injure and threaten most people and anyone with half a brain would know not to mess with them.

Seifer had been responsible for the hospitalisation of a boy in the grade lower than ours. Who'd been pushed off a second floor walkway, constant fights between other groups of people, victimisation of a lot of students and was responsible for many a broken heart, created from the sheer amount of people he had slept with.

But that was it. To every one of his followers, Seifer was charming though he was seen as public enemy number one by his victims. I will admit that he had never intentionally hurt me, though I was sure that if I hadn't been his sister I may have been. However, the same can not be said of most of my friends. He had hurt them all on many occasions since I was part of the "Nerd population" as his friends used to say.

I can't honestly say I was surprised when he was cast off his pedestal though. He'd made far too many enemies and even his "friends" were thinking he was too arrogant and powerful for his own good. I don't think that Seifer would ever forget just how some of his closest friends betrayed him and how a girl named Rydia, who had somehow announced herself as his girlfriend, had destroyed him for ever at Galbadia High.

"Vengeance is a dish best served cold" I remember her saying just before the rumours spread. Until Rydia found out, nobody except me knew that Seifer was bi and had slept with other guys. None of them were ever game enough to tell since they'd immediately become the newest victim of their 'friends'.

I knew about Seifer's rather ambiguous sexuality. Indeed it was hard not to, once you became accustomed to hearing the moans from the room next to mine when he had his "friends" stay for an evening. When Rydia had managed to convince herself that Seifer was her boyfriend and that their relationship was exclusive, I told Seifer that he should do something then. In his pride, he ignored me and let her continue to think that she was special.

Of course, after a few weeks she (as dense as she was) began to figure out a few details. She figured out that Seifer was "cheating" on her (I use that term loosely since he'd never agreed that they were going out) and that he had slept with guys as well. One day she confronted him about it and he blew her off, saying that their relationship had never been official and that she wasn't "worth a second go".

Little did he know that she had been acquiring evidence to back her case against him to most of his friends, including ways of destroying some of the people he was closest to in the process. She had stolen my journal and had also obtained rather questionable photos of his closest friends - Roxas and Axel the only two I liked and thought were decent – so after his little speech, she began playing her games.

She'd stolen from a teacher and had framed Seifer. Most of the faculty were convinced of his guilt while his friends praised his daring. Of course, Rydia wasn't satisfied by muddying his name where it had already been dirt. She set about turning most of his followers against him. The worst of it was that she had the proofs required to do so.

It soon became public knowledge that Seifer had had sex with guys. It also became known that I was a Lesbian, something that only my closest friend and partner, Fujin knew and that Roxas and Axel had been lovers for two years. She had provided the base works for what had come after. Seifer's followers turned on him after finding out his sexuality; they also turned on Roxas and Axel who were almost immediately ostracized and in Roxas' case - beaten.

Seifer's suffering which Rydia had engineered was slow and painful. Some people had initially wished to deny it, though the proof was irrefutable. Those who had been amongst his strongest supporters, now spoke out against him more than anyone else. Soon, every piece of "dirt" on Seifer that had ever existed was made known to the entire student body and it was not taken kindly to.

He didn't just fall from his pillar. He was torn off because of one woman. Before long, the arrogant, cocky, vain brother I knew was gone. Instead there was a man who was victimised and tormented to breaking point. "Hell hath no fury as a woman scorned" was a phrase he had learned the hard way.

Since then, he had changed. He still showed vestiges of his former behaviour, even now, though they were barely noticeable any more. Mom and Dad had noticed the change and had praised him. I had to give him my praise as well and I knew the reason for his change. Here in Balamb, he was away from it all. He had been burned by the fire he had started there.

Here, he and I had made friends who were more than just a good influence on him. They were honest and kind and they already knew about his sexuality and most of his past and they accepted him.

It was also my belief that his love of Squall was something which had kept him on the "straight and narrow" however, I doubt that that particular fact was known by our parents and I was certainly not going to be the one to tell them the truth regarding Seifer's reform.