Chapter 20
Laguna paced back and forth in front of the hood of the truck, nearly blinded by the tears in his eyes. Rinoa had gotten a call from Quistis, and had gone immediately, saying only that Kiros was hurt. Laguna knew very well that Kiros could take care of himself, and he was a world-class badass, so anything that could hurt him enough that only Rinoa could help... it terrified Laguna. It terrified him what would happen to Esthar if Kiros wasn't there. He had no delusions about the fact that Kiros pretty much ran the city, and he himself was just a figurehead. He also couldn't live without Kiros, period. Ward was a great friend, but Kiros was like his brother, his father, his platonic spouse. Laguna very well knew that if he were gay, they'd be together.
He remembered how much he'd hated Tiernan the first time he'd ever met him. He'd felt all the burning jealousy of a single-parent child meeting their mom or dad's new lover. It was one of the few times that Laguna had been deliberately mean to someone, but he'd been unable to face the prospect of this tall, handsome, well-respected man taking Kiros away from him. It didn't help that Laguna had felt like a short, stupid redneck compared to the Estharian surgeon. Ellone had rightly pointed out to him how unfair he'd been acting, that he couldn't give Kiros all the things he needed. She'd also pointed out that maybe this is how Kiros had felt when he'd met Raine. That had been a splash of cold water in the face, and he'd grown to love Tiernan as a member of their family.
But now he felt all that burning, angry possessiveness towards Kiros. What if something happened to him? He remember what he'd said to Squall and his friends about love being the only thing he needed to reach Ultimecia and defeat her, but if Kiros died because of her, love would fly out the window, and Laguna would sell his soul to Odine himself if it meant going ahead in time and ripping her head from her shoulders with his bare hands. He didn't even want to think about what he'd do if he lost Squall.
He looked up into the truck and his gaze met Seifer's. He had the same unshed tears in his eyes, and their gazes held perfect understanding.
"So, what's going on with you and Rinoa?" Zell asked. It was the first thing he'd said in a while. With Laguna pacing outside, the car was filled with him, Raijin and Seifer. That was a lot of hostility crammed into a small area.
"Why?" Raijin asked, the anger in his voice making him sound like a completely different person.
"Rinoa's my friend. I want to see her happy."
"I'll warn her, then. I know how you treat your friends."
"I don't need your holier-than-thou attitude, Raijin. I made a mistake, okay?"
"I'd say. Fucking over your friends so you could fuck Xu. So awesome of you, ya know?"
"Just stop," Seifer said quietly, voice strained and cracking. He grabbed Hyperion opened the passenger door and slid out before either of the other two could protest. He just couldn't listen to them anymore. He couldn't be cooped up in that car, wondering if Squall was dead. Serino peeped and flew after him, shy around the other humans.
"Hey, hey." Laguna glowered at Seifer as he gingerly walked towards the front of the truck.
"I'm fine," Seifer whispered. "I just..."
"I know. But you still shouldn't put weight on your leg."
"I've never been good at following orders," Seifer said wryly, leaning against the hood, Hyperion held like a walking stick.
"I guess we haven't gotten much chance to talk. I mean, about you dating my son."
Seifer opened his mouth, but couldn't think of anything to say. He rarely got embarrassed, but now he definitely was.
"Squall's happy with you. I mean really happy. That mean's you're okay with me for anything. The past doesn't matter. But if you hurt him, I'll kill you."
"Understood."
"Are you going to go back to school, if life ever gets back to normal for you?"
"I want to," Seifer said. "I really like doing that TV deal too, though..." He stopped talking when he felt a vibration through the ground. Serino burrowed against his chest and started peeping and whimpering. Tiamat shrieked in the sky, and everyone had to cover their ears as the she-dragon vanished back to her future realm.
"Is it over?" Laguna asked, squinting against the sky.
"Kupokupo," Serino chattered into Seifer's hair.
"What's wrong?"
"Seifer, get back in the truck!" Odin commanded, suddenly appearing before him. His eyes were burning bright.
"Shit!" Laguna cursed when the ground in front of him exploded upward. In the center of the dust cloud, a hand shot up from underground. The dust clouds coalesced and began forming the shapes of people. "Oh shit," Laguna breathed. "Seifer, do what Odin says..."
Seifer slowly turned around, and saw the shapes of humans taking shape. Undead humans. "Azabaashe..."
They didn't shamble like any movie zombies. Their eyes burned unnaturally with necromancy, and they screamed horrifically. They were the screams of pain and violation. Being creatures of the afterlife, they homed in on Odin. He was able to push them back, eradicating them to dust once more, but something strange was happening to him. He looked like he was getting thinner, more translucent. The screaming got louder and louder, too loud for how many of them there were. It was like the recent magical disturbance hadn't just risen these bodies and their ghostly energy, but had resurrected all the horrors that had been done on them in Adel's name.
"Odin's vanishing," Raijin breathed from within the car. He jerked when one of the undead things slammed their skeletal hands against the door, shrieking in at him.
"Azabaashe is a necromancer. Odin's undead. Whatever power is in the air is affecting him, too. If it turns him..." Laguna raised his machine gun and started mowing through anything that came near them. "Seifer, you gotta get in the car."
"You can't handle them all yourself." Seifer raised Hyperion and rushed at the nearest creature. Putting weight on his leg that way caused fire to shoot from toe to hip, but his body moved fluidly, with memory. It had been a long time since he'd fought like this, and his body craved it. The pain became secondary, and he quickly adapted. It felt so fucking good to slice Hyperion through things. The only thing that would make it better would be if Squall and Quistis were beside him, fighting like well-oiled machines.
He focused just on this, because if he looked too long at the things he was fighting, he saw the humanity in them. He saw the old wounds on their decrepit bodies. He saw the obvious signs of torture. His back and his eyes burned in sympathetic memory. He felt every pin holding his leg together. He felt the fear again, the anticipation of pain, which was almost worse than the pain itself. He smelled his own flesh burning.
Seifer burrowed those feelings as he parried one of the impossibly fast creatures. It, formerly a woman, got his bicep in a cold, iron grip. It hurt more than a bullet wound, almost feeling like immediate frostbite. Her fingers actually began to sink into his flesh, blackening it around her hand. Before any more damage could be done, Seifer cut off the hand with one of the multi-purpose hunting knives he kept strapped to his forearms. He'd never actually used them as weapons before. He'd bought them for slicing through rope and brush and meat for eating when he'd been out in the Centran wilds. Cutting off hands of demonic creatures fuelled by necromancy definitely hadn't been in his mind as a future use for them.
In the truck, Raijin scooted away from the window that the creatures pounded on, then gave it a hard kick with both heels. The door popped open, sprawling the wraith backwards. Raijin's big hand searched and grabbed in the backseat until he got a grip on Seifer's crutches. He didn't have his baton with him, and they'd make a serviceable weapon. He tapped into Quetzacoatl's powers, even though he didn't have the thunder bird junctioned. His compatibility with her was so strong that he didn't necessarily need to be connected to be able to gain some use from her powers. "Holy fucking Hyne, Zell. You coming or not?" Raijin shouted angrily, his tone pretty much screaming 'coward'.
"Okay, so you're the Adel expert... any way to stop this?" Seifer asked Laguna over all the screaming.
"That's the first time anyone called me an expert on anything," Laguna replied, slapping a new magazine into place. "And, honestly? No fucking clue. Rinoa might know..."
"You think this magic might gravitate towards her because she's a Sorceress?" Raijin asked, throat already raw from how loud he had to shout over all the screaming. He smashed one of the undead necromantic monstrosities in the face so hard that it snapped Seifer's crutch in two. "I'm gonna go after her."
"Raijin!" Laguna called as the burly man shoulder-checked his way past one of the things, then snapped the neck of another one that stood in its way. That didn't exactly help, because it kept moving and latched itself onto Raijin's leg with bony, steel-like fingers. He yelped from the burning pain, stomping on the hand until it became nothing but dusty pulp. The creatures didn't bleed, and instead just turned to dust, sometimes coalescing into new forms and bodies. "Don't be stupid!" He shouted after the large man. "And I know something about being stupid!" He added when he blew a fist-sized hole in the face of one of the undead.
As Laguna, Seifer and Zell tried to contain the sea of rising necromantic automatons, Raijin ran through their arms, stiff with rigor. He felt their burning touch but wrenched away from it. Rinoa had Adel's power in her. What if this was only a small concentration, and there were hundreds more of these things inside? What would that mean for her? What would it mean for Quistis, Squall and Kiros? The doors to the winery were shut, and Raijin shoulder-checked against the unforgiving wood. They swung open, but not before he felt hot jarring in his arm. Probably dislocated his shoulder, but that was irrelevant.
"Rinoa!" He shouted, slamming one of Seifer's crutches against the chests of two of the creatures. They fell back in a big cloud of dust that went straight into Raijin's lungs when he breathed. He stomped on one of their faces and beat the other in the head with one crutch. The wood snapped uselessly and he threw it away, running deeper into the building.
"What's happening?" Rinoa asked, backing up against an old wine keg as the awful, screeching creatures circled around her and Kiros. He kept trying to wave her away and get into the fray to help Selphie, Irvine, Fujin, Jurgen, Quistis and Squall, but she wouldn't allow it. Hell, she wanted to pull Squall out of there too, but Kiros was far more injured, and if she didn't focus on him, he could die from whatever magical infection he'd gotten from Eden when she stabbed him.
"Azabaashe," Kiros muttered, voice reedy and weak. Very unlike his usual strength. It terrified the novice Sorceress.
"Rinoa!"
She looked up from pushing another wave of sorcery into Kiros's wounds. "Raijin...?"
"Rinoa!" He called again.
"Raijin!" She cried loudly when she heard his voice more acutely. She yelped when Quistis's whip cracked very near her, so loud that it actually briefly drowned out the screaming.
Raijin tossed crackling lightning into a cluster of Azabaashe's abominations, following that quickly with a few bashes with the remaining crutch. "Holy shit... Kiros..." Raijin backed up near them, casting quick looks at both. Kiros looked like complete shit, his complexion grey. He was drenched in sweat too, and there were black vein-like marks creeping up his neck and cheeks.
"Laguna..." He rasped out.
"Kicking ass outside with Seifer and Zell. It's not good." His brown eyes briefly slid to Rinoa as he punched the head right off one of the things, the skull becoming a dust cloud.
Squall's head jerked up when he heard Seifer's name. He was barely aware of his surroundings, and it didn't even really connect right now that it was Raijin who said it. His head throbbed from the concussion, the quick movements, and the horrible high-pitched screaming these fucking creatures were making. Trying to concentrate on who said Seifer's name made the room turn upside down. He was only running on fumes and instinct now. Years down the road from now, people would talk about the epic scope of how Squall fought that day, like liquid war and graceful death, but he wouldn't remember it. He'd be amazed that he'd been able to stand, let alone cut through three undead creatures at once. It was almost like being drunk again - a section of his life he'd note with only the scantest recollection.
"They're drawn to you," Raijin told her, catching a pistol thrown at him by Irvine, who noticed his lack of proper weapons. He kept the crutch. It was good for sweeping the hands of the things away from Kiros and Rinoa. "Because of Adel's power, ya know!"
"Adel..." Rinoa breathed. "Kiros, you hear me?"
"My hearing's fine."
"Adel could control Azabaashe, right? She wouldn't have made him her Knight unless she could dominate his power. Did she experiment to gain control of necromancy?"
"Sorcery can cancel out necromancy. A Sorceress's magic is very life based," Kiros explained through fits of coughing, his voice barely audible over the hellish screaming. "It'll take a lot, though." His eyes held a darkness in them that had nothing to do with his blood poisoning. His eyes told her 'more than you might have'. More than you can take.
Rinoa looked up at Raijin beside her, cracking the crutch against the legs of one creature, taking them out entirely. She looked at Quistis and Squall. Hyne, they'd been through so much already. Life just didn't seem to want to give them any breaks. Quistis looked sweaty from her connection with Eden, though she refused to call on the GF's powers. Squall looked glassy-eyed and drunk, though he fought beautifully. Lionheart arced and slashed with lightning-quick motions, and his body moved and parried with sinewy, almost reptilian grace. How could she hesitate to sacrifice when everyone around her was sacrificing so much?
She reached out her hand for Raijin, wanting to touch just a part of him. Her palm found his hip, and she revelled in the warmth of him through his clothing. She wanted him to tether her here in case she lost herself in the magic. She felt her angel wings spring behind her. Rather than using her magic like a physical weapon, she used it more like sound or sonar. She was sure Raijin and Kiros could feel her hands heat up from the magical charges, but it was perfectly safe for them. For the first time, she tapped into the parts of her power that came from Adel. She's always been frightened of that part of herself before this. She'd been afraid the dark magic would corrupt her, too. She could feel that it had a different weight and texture than the rest of her power.
She opened her eyes, which now blazed like dark brown fire, and looked at Quistis. Quisty was like an Amazon. She fought fiercely, her face a still mask of brutality. Quistis was a good woman, but she'd always fought like she knew that darkness inside herself, and had come to understand it. To embrace it. Maybe that's the real reason that Rinoa had never fit in with the rest of the SeeD gang. She'd thought it was because she didn't want to fight in wars, and she really didn't. But maybe it was also because she wasn't comfortable holding up that black mirror to herself.
She then looked at Raijin, and he looked down at her. His brown eyes were full of compassion and trust. She'd been thinking she would have to embrace darkness, and maybe even become it, but Raijin never had. Just because Adel's power was inside her, that didn't mean it was Adel's any longer. It was all Rinoa's. She didn't have to divide herself like the SeeD gang had. She wouldn't use Adel's power to control necromancy. She'd use it to eradicate it.
When she thought that, the power flared stronger in her, finally being accepted by her aura. The creatures screamed louder at the resistance to them. They could feel the pull of Rinoa's power, and immediately all converged towards her to get her to stop. They could feel their link to this world lessening, and they didn't want to give it up. They were like computers - they only knew Azabaashe's programming, and had to do what the necromancy told them, which meant they had to kill Rinoa.
"Don't stop," Kiros whispered to her, looking up into her face.
Rinoa closed her eyes and looked heavenward, fingers digging into Raijin's hip. The creatures' screaming seemed louder to her than the others, nearly deafening enough to break her concentration. Nearly. But not quite. Raijin dropped the crutch and covered her hand with his own, squeezing her delicate fingers tight. The life in his touch beat like a heart in her hand, strengthening her. A tear trickled down her cheek from joy at finding happiness again, in the most unexpected of places.
Quistis felt a magical rumbling through the ground, and then they were all blown back by a sonic blast of power, centred around Rinoa. She instinctively got her arms around Squall, using her own body as a cushion when they fell, so he wouldn't hit his head again. She felt Lionheart cut the side of her leg in the confusion. The screaming grew to a shrill pitch, then vanished instantly, leaving them all with the sense they'd gone deaf. A thick layer of dust settled over all of them.
"You okay?" Quistis whispered in Squall's ear after a long period of silence. They all seemed afraid to speak and break it, in case the whole nightmare started up again.
"I wanna get out of here," Squall whispered back. He was covered in corpse ashes and his ribs and head fucking hurt. All he wanted was to see sunlight again, smell fresh air, and put his arms around Seifer's waist and feel his boyfriend's heartbeat against his chest.
"Kiros still needs a doctor," Rinoa murmured, rising to her feet. He was still breathing regularly, but it sounded thready and laboured. Her own voice resonated at a deeper cadence because of her magic use.
Rinoa silently pointed out the worse of Kiros's injuries as Raijin lifted the man in his arms, working together with looks and gestured to find a way to transport him with the least amount of pain. Even in this terrible situation, Rinoa felt a thrill at this level of couple-like communication. She hadn't felt that since before they'd all defeated Ultimecia together the first time. Was this how Seifer and Squall felt all the time?
Squall's eyelids began to feel really heavy, and he must have stumbled, because he felt weight against his other side, then an arm looping through his own. Quistis supported his left, and Irvine his right. "Hyne, Squall... you sure know how to fucking fight. It's such a turn on."
"I think I'm going to throw up."
"You don't know how to take compliments."
Squall halted and bowed forward to dry-heave, the stomach contractions sending blinding pain up his chest.
"Oh, you meant it literally." He looked over his shoulder to Selphie, who was watching their rear with Doomtrain, who was in his human disguise. She looked like she wanted to come forward and help Squall somehow, but there was a lot of hesitation in her eyes. The anger and hate in Squall's glare had stabbed her like a dagger, and she still felt the cold burn of it.
When they got out in the sunlight, led by Jurgen, Squall flinched in pain. The sudden light and his concussion did not like each other. Though, after the initial pain, he felt better after being able to breathe in fresh air. It cleared out the cobwebs enough that he pulled his arm away from Irvine. He kept his other arm looped through Quistis's though. He wanted to be near her.
Jurgen kept looking at Kiros, the Vice-President his top priority, even over Quistis. It helped to care for a woman who could kick anybody's ass, and knew the importance of his duty. Jurgen didn't even want Raijin to carry Kiros, but he was the only one big and strong enough to do so. Though he was very lean and willowy, Kiros was a very tall man, and was heavier than he looked. Kiros quietly moaned in pain, trying to quench the noise.
"Hey, look, kupo!" Serino exclaimed. He felt Rinoa's presence before he felt any others. Serino wanted to fly straight to her, like a moth seeing a lantern in pitch darkness. She felt stronger, more powerful, more full of life. From his perch on Seifer's shoulder, he felt the human's hope swell.
Laguna, Seifer and Zell had fought tooth and nail against the undead creatures, though the numbers had been far fewer for them than what the people within the winery had experienced. Seifer's leg was really sore, but he didn't feel any structural damage. Serino's magic, coupled with some light curative spells of his own, helped dull the pain to a sufferable ache. Because Raijin had taken his crutches, he still used Hyperion like a walking cane.
"Oh, shit..." Laguna squinted as they all approached, his eyesight not as good as it had once been. He saw Squall being supported by Quistis and walking a little tipsy, and saw Raijin carrying a bundle, long limbs spilling from his large arms. Laguna slung his machine gun over his shoulder by the strap and ran towards them at top speed, eyes darting between Kiros and his son.
"I'm okay," Squall croaked when Laguna stood between them, terror in his eyes.
Laguna briefly darted to his son and kissed his sweaty cheek, then went over to Kiros, who'd finally passed into unconsciousness in Raijin's arms.
"I did what I could," Rinoa said quietly. "I don't want to teleport him to the city in this condition. It would be too much of a shock to his system. Eden stabbed him with magically toxic blades."
"Kiros..." Laguna trailed off, swallowing a sob as he looked at the blackened veins snaking up Kiros's cheeks like virulent ivy. His skin was clammy and hot when Laguna gently touched his forehead. "Is the ship ready to go?" He asked his intercom in a shaky voice. Now that the necromancy was gone, it worked again.
"Yes, Sir."
"Good. Get ready to leave. Immediately. Go straight to the hospital's landing pad. Page Dr. Murphy-Seagill. Now." He shook his head angrily. "What have you done to yourself?" Laguna whispered to his oldest friend. "How could you be so stupid to leave me alone to take charge?"
Squall gently disentangled himself from Quistis's arm, and walked under his own power towards Seifer, who waited patiently for him. It killed the tall blonde to watch Squall walk like he was drunk again, but Squall seemed very determined, and Seifer wouldn't take that away from him. And he was smiling. Really smiling. The sun shone brightly in the sky, but it was nothing compared to that dorky, beautiful smile that punched Seifer in the solar plexus. As Squall got closer, Seifer saw the tears on his cheeks, though he smiled through them.
"Hi, Kitten," Seifer whispered, though Squall was still too far away to hear him. Lionheart clattered on the ash and dust covered ground at the same time as Hyperion, and Squall dashed across the last few metres between them, and flung himself against Seifer with his arms tight around the taller man's waist.
"She's gone," Squall muttered against the side of Seifer's neck, breathing in the smell of him and feeling his jugular pulse. His own heart hammered in his chest. He knew he was crying from over-emotion and pain and whatever else, but when Seifer's hands cupped the sides of his face, Squall couldn't keep the big smile off his face. "She's gone this time." A long life without the spectre of Ultimecia hanging on them loomed in front of Squall. A life with Seifer. Finally being able to rest. Not having to save the world or run for their lives. Being able to exist quietly together. The boring every day couple hood that he envied in Elle and Roberto. He felt, with such an iron surety, that they'd have that now, and he really didn't know how to deal with that.
Seifer's eyes looked tight around the edges with concern that filled Squall's heart past the point of capacity. How did he deserve this man, after all the shit he'd put him through? Why did Seifer think he was worth it? His face crumpled when Seifer's fingers gently touched the gash on his head that had given him this concussion. Seifer brought him into a firm yet gentle embrace as he wept, and kissed away his salty tears. He felt stupid for crying at nothing in particular, but he knew that Seifer wouldn't begrudge him. He knew it was safe to cry in Seifer's arms.
Quistis waited patiently, giving Seifer and Squall their time alone to reunite, but then ran to them. They welcomed her silently into their embrace, and she felt Squall's back shake with sobs against her chest. Serino landed on her shoulder and shared in the hug, too. His paws wrapped around her neck, and his pom-pom tickled her ear. Jurgen watched them, knowing that he'd have to share her with these two men. Just like she would have to share him with his duty to Laguna and Kiros. It was more than a fair trade-off to be with her. Though he wasn't the over-emotional type, he felt a violent affection for Quistis Trepe that he hoped she felt, too. He didn't say goodbye to her as he escorted Kiros and Laguna to the airship, because he knew he'd see her soon.
Zell watched Seifer, Squall and Quistis embrace, feeling like an outcast. He saw Selphie standing alone in the background too, looking lost and ashamed. Xu had ruined more than just Seifer, Squall and Quistis's lives. They were getting those back, but Zell wondered if their friendship was something he'd lost forever. All for what? To fuck Xu? He didn't try to go over to Selphie, to share in her isolation, because Zell felt like he deserved to be alone right now.
Squall woke up in a post-surgery concussion fog, surprised to see a strange man's face. He was pretty used to waking up in a hospital bed and seeing either Seifer or Tiernan, so this olive-skinned man with round spectacles in front of small brown eyes seemed really out of place.
"Ah. Awake, are we?" The man asked pleasantly, consulting a chart. "I'm Dr. Canterra. I'm the surgeon who worked on your ribs yesterday. Because they'd been broken previously, we had to go in an implant some steel rodding to hold them in place. You'll have to go through some magical therapy, but they should be near good as before. Unless you go and break them again." He'd given this speech to Squall once before, just after surgery, but Squall had zero memory of it.
Squall just grunted, immediately shy around this stranger who was seeing him at his most physically vulnerable. "Where's Tiernan?"
"He's taken himself off active roster for now. He told me to apologize to you, but he's not emotionally fit for duties currently."
Squall's heart jumped in his throat, mind slowly putting pieces back together. "Kiros...?" He asked sleepily. Damn his concussion.
"Alive. But in very serious condition."
"Will he...?"
"Worry about yourself for now, Mr. Leonhart. Your partner is waiting outside. He can stay with you for a while. A nurse or myself will be back to wake you up periodically."
Squall grinned when Dr. Canterra left, Seifer coming in after him. Instead of his crutches, he had a cane, which he leaned heavily upon. He sat down beside Squall's bed, throwing a blanket Quistis had knit across his legs. He winced as the wool rubbed against a bare patch of skin where the undead monsters had touched him. Seifer, like everyone else who'd come face-to-face with them, suffered from hand shaped cold burns that the doctors assured would vanish fairly quickly. Some of the handprints were still black around the edges, and Seifer shuddered whenever he looked at them.
"We really need to stop having dates like this, Kitten." Seifer leaned over and kissed Squall's grinning lips.
"The bed part's nice..." Squall trailed off, starting to feel really sleepy. "Kiros?" He knew the doctor probably hadn't told him the full truth.
"Haven't heard anything. He's 'stable', I guess. But he'd still got a really, really serious fever, and he's in isolation because the poison's demolishing his immune system."
Squall thought unpleasantly of the condition Seifer had been in when they'd brought him back from Fisherman's Horizon. "Quisty...?"
"Sleeping."
"Youshouldbesleepy..." Squall slurred.
"I should be right here." Seifer kissed his boyfriend again, watching as he drifted into sleep. He was perfectly content to just sit there and watch Squall sleep. He was so fucking beautiful, and he was Seifer's. Seifer grimaced in pain as he shifted his weight. When he reached into the pocket of his scrub pants, he pulled out a few walnuts instead of his pain pills. The nuts had been left there by Serino before he'd flown off to sit with a near-hysterical Laguna. Seifer had offered to stay, but Laguna had forcefully sent him back to Squall, saying he needed someone to watch over his son who loved him.
After a while, there was a gentle knock at the door, and Seifer smiled genuinely when Raijin quietly came into the room, clicking the door shut behind him.
"Squall okay?"
Seifer nodded. "He'll be fine. Any word on Kiros?"
Raijin shook his head, silently pulling up a chair to the other side of Squall's bed. He lowered his big body into it, and looked into Squall's sleeping face. He almost looked like a different person when he slept. "He really killed Ultimecia, ya know! She's stuck in a time loop or something now."
"I know," Seifer said, unable to hide the pride in his voice. Why would he want to hide it? Squall was his hero right now.
"What will you guys do now?"
Seifer shrugged, grinning. "I don't know. Anything we want."
Raijin grinned back. "Does being a TV personality play into that 'anything', ya know?"
"Maybe..." Seifer chuckled.
The burly, russet-skinned man looked down at Squall. He had a black eye and a cut lip, but he still looked like a painting. Like a male Sleeping Beauty. "You think Squall will be angry about me and Rinoa? I know they're not together anymore, but..." Raijin's eyes raised to his friend's face, wondering if he'd see anger or jealousy there.
He saw thoughtfulness instead. "I think he still feels protective over Rinoa, but he wants her to be happy. And he has no right to complain about anyone hurting her, because he did enough of that."
"Yeah, but sometimes these things aren't always rational. That's a rational response, ya know?"
"Are you going to seek his permission?"
"Hell no. Just... I'd like us to maybe become friends, since we'll be seeing each other a lot more."
"You like her?"
"More than like, ya know? It doesn't feel like work to be with her. Not like Tia."
Seifer's eyes twinkled. He was happy for Raijin. He got pushed around a lot. By Seifer himself though he regretted every second in hindsight, by Fujin, by Tia. He deserved someone who would see his gentleness for the strength it really was. "How does Fujin feel about it?" Seifer asked, surprisingly warily. Talking about Fujin seemed strange now.
Squall and Quistis were going through the realization that their relationships with their Garden friends, friends they thought would be close to them for a lifetime, were fractured beyond repair. Seifer and Raijin were going through that same thing with Fujin now. Seifer had barely even seen her since Fisherman's Horizon, and it was obvious that she and Raijin had some kind of falling out, though Seifer didn't know anything beyond that.
"Don't really care," Raijin answered truthfully. "She strung me along for years. I always kinda had a crush on her, but she was head-over-heels for you, even though she knew you're gay. So whatever, ya know?"
"She's our friend..."
"She's an assassin."
"So am I," Seifer pointed out darkly, thumb nervously rubbing over Squall's knuckles because of this subject matter.
"Not in your heart you're not. She is. Irvine took advantage of your emotional vulnerability. And you thought you couldn't do any better after Ultimecia. Fujin... she won't stop."
Seifer looked away, and instead concentrated on Squall's sleeping, bruised face.
"So, hey! Did you see Vanessa Guillonio?" Raijin asked, changing the subject quickly. "I kinda wanted to ask for her autograph, but she was in the hospital wing talking to Laguna."
"Oh, yeah. She came to visit Squall, but he was kinda out of it."
"She's got a real cute kid. Why was she visiting Squall?"
"They went to rehab together." Seifer adjusted his weight, and grunted in pain.
"Your meds not working?"
Seifer shrugged.
"You're not taking them," Raijin said. He didn't make it a question. "You think you're getting addicted?"
"I want to get hard sometime this century," Seifer said frankly. "I mean, I look at Squall and feel it and I want to fuck him so bad, but don't have the usual reaction. It's really nice to be with him, doing other things to him. I love sucking his dick, and he makes the most amazing noises when I rim him, but..." Seifer stopped himself. "Is this making you uncomfortable?"
"You know I don't care if you're talking about another dude..."
"I meant because it's Squall, and you're now sleeping with his ex-girlfriend," interrupted Seifer.
"Is he sleeping with her now?" Raijin asked with a raised eyebrow. "Does he plan on it in the future? Not with the way he looks at you." Raijin leaned back in his chair with a big, very male grin. "And, 'sides... Rinoa and I already talked about this, ya know? Afterwards."
Seifer couldn't help but smirk. "That didn't take long. I guess she was just hungry for a boyfriend who didn't turn out to love cock." He cocked a golden eyebrow. "You don't, do you?"
"Pfft," Raijin said with a shake of his head while Seifer laughed. Raijin smiled so widely that his mouth hurt. He hadn't heard Seifer laugh like that in a long time. It's not like there had been much to laugh at, but it sounded so good. It sounded like the Seifer of old. He would have said it sounded like going back in time, but even old Seifer didn't have much cause to laugh like that. He hadn't been happy enough until now.
"I can't really picture Squall as... liking sex, ya know? He doesn't even like shaking hands."
"Oh, he likes it." Seifer grinned at a particularly vivid memory. "He's just shy about physical contact, and masks it behind being a dick to strangers. Hell, he was shy about me seeing him naked for the first time."
"Rinoa wasn't," Raijin confided. Hyne, he'd missed talking to Seifer. About intimate things like this, about nonsense, about the news. About anything. "It wasn't anything like I imagined. Was it like that with Squall? I mean, you thought about Squall a lot longer than I ever fantasized about her, ya know, but.."
"No," Seifer said. "It was better. It was more real." His heart constricted in his chest, and he squeezed Squall's hand tight, stroking his wrist tendon then his palm. If Squall were awake, he'd purr in pleasure at the slow ministrations to his sensitive hands.
"When I kissed her back, where her wings come out, I could taste her magic. I don't think I'll ever forget it. Like eating something spicy, ya know? And her boobs are amazing."
"Squall's too."
Raijin tried to hide his laughter by coughing, but Seifer's serious, deadpan expression made him laugh outright. It hurt his sides, and felt really good.
Squall started stirring, and Raijin tried to gulp back his laughter. "Oh shit." He failed, and started giggling again, which got Seifer going as well.
Squall grunted and opened his eyes, head throbbing. He was used to the sound of Seifer laughing. He loved that sound. But he wasn't used to the sound of Raijin's laughter. He rolled his head on the stiff, medicinally smelling pillow and blinked sleepily, frowning at Raijin, then at Seifer. Their laughter stifled, and the looked guilty about something. "What?"
Seifer bit the inside of his lip, knowing that Squall would be pissed that Seifer was talking so intimately about him while he was laying there unconscious. He didn't know Raijin well enough yet to not be mortified that Seifer was divulging sexual things about what they did together.
"What?" Squall demanded.
"Nothing," Seifer urged, squeezing Squall's hand. But when he met Raijin's eyes, they couldn't help but dissolve into muffled laughter, Raijin snorting when he couldn't hold it back any longer. That just caused the two of them to laugh harder.
"Tell me," Squall demanded sleepily. "Were you talking about me?"
"Um..." Seifer murmured, not wanting to lie. "I love you."
"What are you telling him?" Squall asked, a slithery tone coming to his voice.
"How hot you are naked."
"What?" Squall tried to sit up, but the room spun. "I fucking hate you."
"No you don't."
Squall glared up at the other man, even though his eyes were closing once more. "No. I don't," he said quietly, smiling as he fell back asleep.
When Squall woke up next, he knew quite a while had passed. The doctors saw he was out of the woods, and let him rest on his own. He probably could have gone to his own bed, but he had a really shitty medical record right now, so they were probably keeping him to make sure he didn't get high off pills, or break his ribs again. His mind felt clearer than earlier, and his headache was only small.
Squall expected to see Seifer looking down at him with love, concern, and maybe even a bit of teasing in his peridot eyes, but instead he saw Laguna, looking tired, frazzled and older. Frailer.
"Did Kiros...?" Squall's mind immediately jumped to the worst-case scenario.
"No. He's strong as hell. He'll be okay, but it will take a while for him to heal." He grinned sadly. "I think we forget that we're not your age anymore. We can't just bounce back."
Squall pondered that his father could have a much deeper meaning with that phrase. "Where's Seifer?"
"Sleeping," Laguna answered. "Don't look so disappointed, munchkin. He needed the rest. He's been sitting here since we came back to the city. He needs to heal, too."
"I'm not disappointed that you're here," Squall answered truthfully.
"Yeah you are. Just a little. But that's okay. I know what it's like to be in love." Laguna frowned. "Thought I, and everyone, appreciates that you finally got rid of that bitch, it was abominably stupid for you to go in there alone."
"I know," Squall answered tartly. "But, I just..."
"You don't think before you act. I apologize, because you get that from me."
"Usually I just over think everything." He looked over at his tired looking father. "Do you ever see Mom?" He blurted out without thinking. He'd over thought this issue hundreds of times, and it was the first real time that he'd really breached this subject out loud.
"You mean... like a ghost?" Laguna asked, scratching his head.
Squall nodded.
"I sometimes get little feelings. Like back when Elle transported you back in time and I called it the 'faeries'. But... no." He sighed, a heartbreaking sound. "I've never seen her."
"I've seen more than just her, but I see her clearest. I've never told anyone that before. Not even Seifer or Quisty."
"Why? You think they wouldn't believe you?"
"I don't know. Maybe." Squall couldn't look at his father right now, because if he did, he was sure he'd start crying. He could feel the tears pressing in the back of his throat. "Maybe I didn't want to see disbelief in Seifer's eyes. Maybe I didn't want to feel like I was crazy. Maybe I thought if I talked about it, that it would stop happening, like a dream. Because I wanted to see her. I want to."
"I don't think Seifer would ever disbelieve anything you said," Laguna said. His voice was thick with unshed tears. It was still hard to talk about Raine, even after all these years. "Not the way he looks at you."
"He'd be angry I didn't tell him. Quisty, too."
"No. Just tell them exactly what you told me."
"Have you ever cared about another woman... since Mom?"
"Sure. Not like I loved her, but... well, that's probably going to be impossible." Laguna grinned. "I still sometimes feel like I'm cheating on her if I notice a woman, but then I think of how silly she'd think that was." He paused. "Your friend Vanessa is nice."
Squall furrowed his brow and looked over at Laguna. "Vanessa? You like her?" He flushed.
"You don't think she's pretty?"
"Well, sure..." Squall felt his cheeks getting warm, talking about women Laguna thought were hot. "Isn't she a little young?"
"Not that young." True, there were quite a few years difference between them, with Laguna just past 50, and Vanessa in her mid-thirties. But Laguna did think she was very attractive, and the fact she had a child made her even more appealing to him. Most men would find woman with a small child to be a turn-off, but Laguna loved her motherhood. The glow it gave her skin, the way she talked to her daughter, the maturity it gave her that had nothing to do with age. He loved the fullness of hips and breasts that came with pregnancy.
He studied Squall, who was looking at him in shock. "Does that bother you?"
"I..." Squall shook his head, eyes wide. Hyne, he looked so much like Raine "I just Huh."
"I'm not asking her to marry me, kiddo."
"I know. It's... it's great," he decided to say. Vanessa had a string of ugly relationship that had been flung out on the front page of every tabloid for years. Her daughter got dragged down into it. While dating the leader of the biggest and most powerful country in the world wasn't exactly shying away from the press, Esthar's embargo on tabloidism did combat that. Laguna could offer stability. He didn't care about her fame. He loved children. Squall's father was a good, good man. Any woman would be lucky to have him. "It's great," he said again, meaning it with every fibre of his being.
Laguna smiled. "You're great. You're the best son a father could ever want."
"Please don't," Squall muttered, wanting to hide his face in the pillow.
"Okay, okay. I'll stop embarrassing you." Laguna stood and bent over Squall, giving him a gentle one-armed hug, then a kiss on the top of his head. "I need to go check on Kiros, anyway."
Squall nodded as Laguna left. Being alone in his room felt kind of strange. Normally, he'd love the solitude, so his aversion to it seemed so alien. He really just wanted Seifer and Quistis with him, even if they weren't saying anything. He closed his eyes and thought about finally getting out of the hospital and sleeping in a regular bed with Seifer. They hadn't actually done that as lovers yet, except for that safe house in Timber. Squall knew that they wouldn't stay in Esthar. Seifer didn't much care for the city because of its lack of nature. Squall, while he wanted to be near his family, also missed the sound of the ocean. Would they go to Balamb, so near Garden again, or would they go to Dollet first so Seifer could finish school or work with DolletTV or whatever? Maybe they'd buy a house together, with an extra room for Quistis when she stayed with them, though they'd probably all just fall asleep in the same bed like a pile of kittens, just like they'd done in the Centra mountains.
His eyes popped open when he heard a small peep. Serino came into the room and lay in the crook of his arm. Squall grinned and stroked his fingers through the thick white fur. "Your aura seems really peaceful right now, kupo."
Squall grinned, closing his eyes again. His concussion made it easy to drift off to sleep. He missed having Seifer and Quistis beside him right now, but he felt far from lonely.
Tiernan, as a medical doctor, knew very well how long the healing process would be for Kiros, if he even healed at all. But that didn't stop him from panicking when days and days went by without any sign of recovery. He knew this was 'normal' for this kind of injury, but his heart didn't know that. He refrained from telling his co-workers how to treat his husband, but it was on the tip of his tongue. He wanted to scream at them for being incompetent, because Kiros wasn't getting well fast enough.
In the four weeks since Eden's attack on him, Kiros had shown brief signs of waking, but still seemed so far away from it. He'd lost a great amount of weight, and looked skeletal, since he'd been so lean to begin with. Each day, Tiernan composed things in his head that he wanted to be the final words to the man who'd given him his life back after Adel had taken it away. Funnily enough, Tiernan hadn't even really liked him much when they'd first met. There had been plenty of sexual tension, though. Immediately, Tiernan had seen this tall, lean man with his skin tone that stood out in a room full of pale Estharians, and wanted him. He'd wanted him with a blinding passion, even if he was Galbadian. Even if he was the companion of that buffoon who'd defeated Adel. Everyone had appreciated what Laguna had done, of course, but there was that worry that they would be replacing one dictator for another. And this time, the dictator wouldn't be a natural leader like a Sorceress, but a potential puppet for the hated Galbadian regime.
Kiros hadn't hid that he'd been cruising Tiernan, either. His dark eyes burned with the potential of hot, rough, passionate sex, speaking Estharian fluidly, but with a pure Deling City accent. He wore gold liner around his nearly black eyes, and coloured braids in his hair, flying in the face of Estharian polite society in a way that both scandalized and intrigued the then hospital intern. In fact, that night after sharing tense conversation over champagne at a Palace celebration where Adel's bronze statues had been torn down and melted, Tiernan had willingly and quickly gone down to his knees in front of Kiros in a locked private bathroom. He'd relished in sucking him off and feeling Kiros's smooth cinnamon skin under his fingertips. He'd eagerly swallowed his semen and kept licking and caressing until Kiros quickly got hard again, then performed the act all over again. He'd done all this and loved it, but figured he'd never see the foreigner again.
But they'd seen each other several more times. Their conversations became less stilted and more fluid. Tiernan, who'd been horrified by a Galbadian after decades of a cold war between their nations, quickly became fascinated by his stories. He'd grown to crave the sound of Kiros's laugh. They'd come to share each other's bodies every night. Tiernan still remembered how his heart had stopped in his chest for a moment when he'd first heard Kiros say 'I love you'. He'd never thought he'd feel love again after what happened in Penhorn, but it had found him again, and utterly consumed him.
He remembered the day they got married, eloping to Fisherman's Horizon, then sailing around Balamb's Albatross Archipelago for their honeymoon. They'd made love with nothing but sun and sea surrounding them. Tiernan had said in their vows that death would not separate them, that their souls were now one in Hyne's eyes. He knew death better than most people, not only as a doctor, but because of what he'd seen from Azabaashe, but he hadn't given any consideration to the fact that Kiros could die, or even that he would. He seemed like he would live forever, and Tiernan always assumed he would go first, and Kiros would just continue to effortlessly run Esthar.
He couldn't resign himself to the idea that Kiros would go first, and that the city could survive without him. That Tiernan could survive without him. The idea of saying goodbye burned behind Tiernan's eyes. He didn't think he'd ever be able to cry again, what with all the tears he'd already shed, but the tears kept coming. He pressed Kiros's left hand between both of his own, and wept bitterly against his fingers, so warm and brown against the white starchiness of the gloves Tiernan had to wear just to touch his own husband. The tears and snot got caught up in the surgical mask he wore, and he just wanted to rip it off and kiss Kiros's face.
He put Kiros's hand down so he could compose himself. "Remember how we promised we'd go sailing every year after our honeymoon?" Tiernan asked in the dark, his voice sounding small and alone. Like when he'd spoken to the bodies of his parents and friends in the dark of the Penhorn winery, corralled in like cattle by Azabaashe, then left to fend for themselves against his undead creations.
"It turned into every few years. Remember when we sailed up the coast around Grandidi Forest? When we saw the wild chocobos migrating? Your skin got so dark with all that nude sunbathing you were doing. Not that I was complaining," he said with a chuckle, wiping his cheeks, though the tears still fell. "You had that all-white outfit, and it made you look so hot. We swore we'd go back. Or that we'd try sailing around Trabia, or to Dollet. Life got in the way, though." The last time they'd sailed anywhere had been eight years before, and they'd only taken a short trip to Fisherman's Horizon, then back again because neither could take more time away.
"I want that again. Not caring about our responsibilities. Just sailing wherever we wanted. How sexy you looked while working the rigging. The sound of the water as we fell asleep. How salty your skin tasted because of the sweat and the sea water in the air. I wish we'd gone more times. I wish we hadn't said 'maybe next year' so many times." Tiernan raised his face to the ceiling, trying to will away the tears. "I'd take you right now, if you'd just wake up and stop breaking my heart like this. I promise."
He gasped, terrified, by the rattling noise that came from Kiros's chest. His lips were moving, and raspy whispering came from his mouth. "Kiros?" Tiernan exclaimed, leaning over his spouse. Kiros's eyes were slightly open, and his throat worked as he tried to speak. Tiernan's eyes went to the machinery, checking on his vitals.
"Shhh," Tiernan urged, seeing that Kiros's heartbeat was a little too fast. "Just relax." He pulled a penlight from the pocket of his surgical scrubs and examined Kiros's eyes.
Kiros continued to make the rattling whispering noise, fingers weakly scrambling for Tiernan's wrist. "I'm gonna hold you to that promise," Kiros managed to get out, one corner of his mouth cocking up into at tired, weak grin.
"You were awake that whole time?" Tiernan asked, a little angrily. The machines that looked at magical residue in the blood showed a lowered, but still concerning, level in Kiros's system. Tiernan went to his IV drip, and adjusted the medicine level.
"Sorry," Kiros rasped.
"You're apologizing?" Tiernan asked, panting because his emotions were beginning to overwhelm him. As opiates slowly flooded into Kiros's blood, Tiernan bowed forward, his head coming to rest on Kiros's collarbone. He breathed in the sterile, astringent smell of the hospital gown and sheets, with Kiros's natural smell lingering underneath. He wept bitterly, Kiros's fingers weakly squeezing his wrist.
Kiros wanted to say something to comfort Tiernan, to say that he wouldn't let that abomination of Adel's kill him. He wanted to tell Tiernan how much he loved him. But the drugs in his IV were starting to kick in, so he couldn't even properly hold his distraught husband. He could only limply hold his wrist, hoping that Tiernan knew how strongly he felt. As the drugs took him over, he tried to concentrate on the memory of the smell of sea air and salt water, instead of the smell of rotten flowers.
"I'm surprised by how not-awkward that was," Seifer commented, carefully placing his suit jacket over the back of a chair. The way Squall looked in his suit made Seifer want to rip both their clothes off, but the suit was really expensive and had been a gift from Laguna, so he didn't want to ruin it. "I'm really proud of you, Kitten."
Seifer was referring to the dinner they'd just gone to with Raijin, Rinoa, Quistis and Jurgen. Seifer had worried that it would be strange for Squall and Rinoa to have a double-date together where they weren't there as a couple. And, it was also the first chance Squall had to interact with Raijin and Rinoa as a pair. He'd expected a lot of tense silence on his lover's behalf, but he'd been downright pleasant. Well, pleasant for him. Everyone else still had to do all the conversational heavy-lifting for him, but there hadn't been a single 'whatever', and he hadn't batted an eye when Rinoa vaguely mentioned intimate things about her new relationship.
"What were you expecting?" Squall asked, gently batting Seifer's hands away when he started to undo his own tie. Squall started doing it for him, using it as an excuse to stand closer. "Did you think I'd jump across the table and slit Raijin's throat?"
"I'd like to think I would have stopped you before it got that far," Seifer said lightly, though his heart was beating faster.
"Are you still worried I have feelings for her?" Squall asked with raised eyebrows, slowly sliding the lavender silk tie out from the collar of Seifer's even paler purple shirt. He dragged the gesture out so it became intensely erotic. Next, he started to undo Seifer's belt.
"No. But you are very socially moronic."
Squall grunted, but he couldn't really argue. "You think that Quisty is telling Jurgen she's leaving with us?" He threaded the belt out through the loops of Seifer's white suit pants. Hyne, he looked so yummy that the erection that had been threatening to happen all dinner now made itself known again.
"She really likes him," Seifer said sadly. "I'd hate to think she's leaving a good thing just because of us." They were planning on leaving Esthar in a couple of weeks. They'd already rented out an apartment in Dollet's college area, which they would keep while Seifer tried to finish up some of his courses. While finishing his degree wasn't necessary for the television project, he wanted to finish something in his academic career for once. Beyond that, Seifer had commented about building a house in Balamb, giving both Squall and Quistis a stern glare.
Neither of them were ready to return to Garden just yet, especially not with Xu's trial still going on. Quistis had told Seifer privately that she knew she'd have to be the one to go back first, and then Squall's aversion to it would falter afterwards. Seifer agreed, but he knew that it would still take more than that. Squall would need a huge push to go back, for he wasn't nearly as forgiving as Quistis. Or as practical.
"Quistis would never do anything just for us, or just for him. If he really wants to be with her, he'll have to accept that," Seifer pointed out as Squall tugged on the front of his pants, shuffling them towards the bed. He gently pulled Seifer down on top of him, nudging his cane onto the floor. On top of him like this, Seifer could feel Squall's erection against him.
Seifer began to slowly disrobe Squall, starting by painstakingly unbuttoning his blood-red shirt that so wonderfully brought out the auburn cast of his hair. Squall grunted with impatience, which just made Seifer grin in the way he used to when they'd always be at each other's throats as cadets. He let one fingertip just barely brush over the tip of Squall's left nipple as he slowly trailed his hands down to Squall's waistband, pulling the shirt out.
Squall tried to quickly get out of his clothes, but Seifer used the sleeves of the shirt to keep Squall's arms gently pinned to the mattress, wanting to take his time. As more and more of Squall's torso was bared to him, Seifer felt a tightness in his lower abdomen. He still hadn't gotten a real erection since going off his medication, but there were times, like now, that he felt like one would happen. He didn't want to tell Squall, because if it didn't happen, he didn't want to disappoint him. Or disappoint himself. So instead he concentrated on Squall's body, on how much he loved him, on giving him pleasure, and also frustrating him a bit. That little bit of anger in Squall's eyes was irresistible.
Squall exhaled loudly when Seifer's hands slowly and firmly petted down his thighs while he bowed his head, warm breath washing over one nipple. Squall arched towards Seifer's mouth, but was denied. Instead, Seifer looked up and grinned, breathing a trail down the center of Squall's torso as his hands moved back up Squall's thighs, beginning the slow process of unbuttoning his pants. Squall's erection strained obviously against the fabric, but Seifer made sure not to touch it, causing Squall to curse under his breath, his hips bucking up almost involuntarily. Seifer's tongue came out and quickly scorched a line across Squall's navel. It happened so quickly that Squall wasn't quite sure that Seifer had touched him at all, except for the warm trail of saliva he'd left behind. Seifer then dragged his teeth down Squall's belly, stopping just before his chin touched the bulge in Squall's pants.
"Fuck you," Squall hissed as Seifer's fingers moved up and stopped just below his nipple.
Seifer just grinned again, knowing that even as Squall cursed him out, he loved this. Seifer let his middle finger slide up and stroke across the hard nub of Squall's nipple as his mouth moved to Squall's trapped arm. He finally pulled away the beautiful red shirt, his tongue sliding down Squall's inner forearm, tracing the blue veins laying just under his soft skin. He continued to lick down the line of his arm until his tongue traced the lines of Squall's palm, which caused the man laying under him to moan instantly.
Squall became so distracted by Seifer's tongue slowly tracing the lines of his hand that he didn't even realize that his pants and underwear were now being pulled off his body. He rolled his hips to try and get friction to his cock from any part of Seifer's body he could touch. He wanted Seifer's mouth around his erection, and yet he didn't want him to stop licking his palm. Seifer must have sensed what he wanted, because he did neither, and sat up like a complete bastard. He was still completely and unfairly dressed, and his cheeks had a sexy flush in them. His eyes glinted mischievously.
Squall vaulted himself up off the bed, fingers nimbly working to take Seifer's shirt off. It was brand new, so he at least maintained enough patience to not rip all the buttons off. In the past six weeks since Ultimecia's death, Seifer had started working out like a man possessed. He knew that if he was going back to school, he'd be out in the wilderness again, and needed to be even more fit than he was before, now that he'd have to work harder to get around with his bum leg. The all-over muscle definition had returned, and it made Squall groan with pure, almost savage lust when he finally got Seifer naked.
His eyes looked down at Seifer's penis, still soft. He didn't let himself get disappointed, because he knew that Seifer still enjoyed what they did. He traced the scar where Seifer's right testicle had been. He loved doing that. Not only because it was so very intimate, but because he knew that no matter how much Squall tried to convince him, Seifer would always be sensitive about it. Squall found the scar just as sexy as the rest of him. When his thumb moved over the scar, Seifer's hands none-too-gently cupped the sides of Squall's face, and tilted his head up for a deep kiss. Squall gripped Seifer's hips and slammed them against his own, working his own pelvis to gain stimulation.
Seifer pushed Squall back, making a mocking 'tsk' noise in the back of his throat. Squall's stomach moved up and down dramatically, and his cock twitched against his belly. Seifer dug deep to find the patience to not just assault this perfect man laying with legs splayed and hair hanging in his lust-darkened eyes. He bowed forward and breathed across Squall's nipple again, this time letting the tip of his tongue flick out and caress it. Squall groaned and arched his back, fingers sliding up Seifer's back, tracing the lines, scars and pits of his burn marks. Seifer used one finger to trace a path up Squall's inner thigh, using a feather-light touch to touch between his testicles, continuing the path up the underside of his erection, until his finger reached up to the tip, slick with precum.
Squall was fully and heavily panting by now, his brow furrowed with desire and frustration. He was moaning loudly when Seifer's fingers finally closed around his erection and started stroking him, but he didn't even realize he was making noise. His eyes rolled in the back of his head, and his whole body was tense, aching and arching up to Seifer's body, feeling an orgasm so very close. He knew that Seifer felt it too, and that's why he pulled his hand away from Squall's leaking cock.
"Fuck!" Squall cursed, breath coming out in a whine. "Goddamn you."
Seifer chuckled against Squall's chest, fully taking Squall's nipple into his mouth, sucking on the hard nub. Squall's hips erratically rubbed against him, trying to find any kind of friction, any kind of release from the pressure building in his body, centred around his crotch. Seifer's hand moved past his cock, down under his balls, to touch his perineum. He pressed up against it with his thumb, causing Squall to make a desperate mewling noise. While his thumb continued to press into the sensitive skin, Seifer's fingers danced down around Squall's crack, then stroked around the opening to his body.
Squall, even through his blinding lust and desire to cum, found a tube of lubricant and tossed it down the mattress to Seifer. Seifer none-too-gently bit into his nipple as he lubed up his fingers. He bit just hard enough to hurt in that way that was beautiful pleasure with a stinging edge. He groaned when he felt Seifer's fingers enter him, loving it, but feeling a grim resignation. He wanted it to be Seifer's cock. He wanted to feel that again, that same pleasure with the warm edge of pain, both melding so close together that they could never be separated. He wanted to feel Seifer ejaculate inside him. He wanted to feel owned and used by him, and feel the pure intimacy of looking into his eyes at that moment. His already engorged and swollen cock twitched at the memory and want of it.
Squall was now so far gone in his desire for release that he made involuntary noises of pleasure and desperation as Seifer stroked his prostate from within and without. Squall writhed under the touch, eyelids fluttering under the assault of waves of pleasure. Seifer rolled him over, and his hips immediately started grinding against the sheets. His hands searched for his own cock, but Seifer slapped his hands away, tongue moving down his back as he pinned Squall's hands down against the bed. Seifer bit into the firm swell of Squall's ass as his tongue continued to travel to where his fingers had touched only moments before. As Seifer's tongue slid a slow circle around the tight ring of Squall's rectum, he felt a jolt in his groin. Like a mule kick, his cock twitched, reacting more than it had since that day in the stunted, cold forest in the Centra mountains - where Squall had first said 'I love you'. Where they'd made love for what had almost been the last time.
When he probed Squall with his tongue, a quick in-and-out, Squall moaned and made the most heavenly noises that Seifer had ever heard. Those noises caused his cock to kick again, blood flowing again in an almost painful rush. The feeling of his penis hardening shocked Seifer enough that he stopped all ministrations on his lover's body. He regained himself quickly though, and continued to lick Squall's asshole, his tongue fully moving inside. On one hand, Seifer wanted to use this first erection in so long to milk more pleasure from Squall's body, but he knew that a couple pumps from a hand, or a couple licks from a tongue would cause him to blow. So instead he decided to be a little devious. He got Squall's hands pinned with only one of his, and used the other one to jerk off the now raging erection between his legs.
Hell, he'd actually missed jerking off. It was kind of silly, but it was like seeing an old, familiar friend that he'd been separated from for a long time. His tongue now fully moved within Squall, and he gasped when he felt a quick, surprising release. His semen felt hot and sticky against his hand, more than usual. He hadn't had any kind of release in weeks and weeks, so it had built up. Or maybe it just seemed like more because of the absence. His cock dwindled in his hand a little, but didn't fully go soft. How could it when he was touching Squall like this, when Squall was moaning and panting like that?
Seifer continued to push his tongue into Squall, working his jaw and tongue to produce more saliva. Squall was so distracted by being rimmed that he didn't even consider to look that Seifer actually had an erection. He didn't notice when Seifer reached for the lube again and coated his cock, now rock hard again. All he felt was Seifer's tongue darting in and out of him and his strong hands holding Squall's wrists down in gentle restraint. Squall tried to struggle out of the grasp, wanting to relieve the pressure of his erection, but Seifer tightened his grip, fingers replacing his tongue. Seifer's mouth now closed around Squall's left testicle, then his right.
He started kissing up Squall's spine, nipping and tugging at the taut flesh with his teeth, relishing in the taste of Squall's sweat. Squall tried to lower his hips to the mattress, wanting some sort of friction, some sort of way to end this stalemate, moaning freely and loudly. But Seifer again stopped that. He reared up to his knees, pulling Squall up with him. He didn't really intend for it, but the motion caused his erection to rub against Squall's inner thigh, then up against the underside of his scrotum. Squall was so fargone that he didn't notice at first. When he did, his back stiffened in surprise, and he forced himself out from under Seifer's grip and turned around.
He looked down at Seifer's erection, hard, slick and shiny, dripping precum. He looked up at Seifer's face with shock on his own. Seifer just grinned sheepishly and gave a shrug. Squall stared at him with something like anger, all the while his lower body tightening as if saying 'I want that thing inside me. Now.' Seifer had been busy, his cock slicked and ready to go.
"You fucking bastard," Squall ground out angrily, crawling forward and getting his thighs around Seifer's hips, keening desperately when his cock rubbed against Seifer's. He groaned in frustration when Seifer firmly gripped his hips and shoved him backwards, so he wound up on his back with legs spread wide. "Goddammit, fuck me!" Squall panted. He tried to reach for Seifer's erection, but the other man gripped his wrists and splayed them, crucifixion style, out to the sides. "You want me to beg?" Squall asked, eyes dark with lust and anger.
"Kinda," Seifer grinned, his own voice thick and gruff with want. He spread Squall's legs wider with his thighs, letting his cock rub between his ass cheeks, against the lubricated, slightly opened entry to his body.
"Fuck me," Squall hissed. "Fuck. Me."
"That's some really shitty begging," Seifer commented dryly, though his whole body shook and his brain had to work really hard to override his body's desire to just bury himself balls-deep inside Squall's body.
"Fucking goddamn asshole," Squall cursed under his breath, not even knowing what he was saying. "Fuck! Please! Please!" He thrashed against Seifer's grip, hips rolling and trying to get Seifer's cock exactly where he wanted it. He made an inhuman mewl. "Seifer..." That one word had more desperation in it than nearly anything he'd ever said.
"Please..." Squall begged again, any words following dying in his throat as Seifer pushed into him in one single, slow thrust. His mouth opened in a silent wail, the muscles and tendons of his neck pulled tight as his head arched back. He felt his rectal muscles yielding in a delicious, heavenly burn, Seifer making the strangled groan that was stuck somewhere in his own throat. Seifer gave a few more slow, experimental thrusts as he found a rhythm and let Squall's body adjust. Squall's toes curled in the sheets as Seifer's thrusts got harder and faster, hands still pinning Squall's wrists down.
Seifer could feel the strain in his leg as he thrust harder and harder into his boyfriend. But he didn't care. Let his leg hurt. Everything else felt like heaven. His hips were slamming against Squall's roughly as he threw everything he had, months of sexual frustration, into the motions of his hips. He thrust harder and harder, knowing that Squall could take it. Hell, that Squall wanted it. He'd almost forgotten how fucking good it felt to have Squall's internal muscles gripping him like a hot fist, to hear Squall moaning like that, to feel his one remaining testicle pulling up towards his belly with the anticipation of release. He even felt the same ghostly reaction in the testicle that Astor had taken away from him.
Even though he'd just come, he felt another orgasm impending, and nearing quickly. He finally relinquished his grip on Squall's wrists and pulled out as he flipped the other man over with a fair amount of roughness. He then bowed over Squall and thrust back into him eagerly and almost viciously.
Squall cried out, but in pure ecstasy. Now that he was on his stomach, Squall rubbed and humped his hips against the mattress, finally getting some stimulation to his aching cock. Seifer was definitely not being gentle with him and he'd probably be kind of sore tomorrow, but he didn't care. Hyne, he did not fucking care. He knew that Seifer would stop if he said to, or if Seifer heard any pain in the noises he made. Squall trusted Seifer not to hurt him, and Seifer trusted Squall to know his own body's limits. It was so fucking intimate that it made tears sting his eyes.
His hand moved between his body and the mattress, finding his own penis. He just couldn't take it anymore, and he needed to come. His internal muscles constricted and jerked around Seifer, who made a noise that was so sexual and animalistic and masculine that it, more than any stimulation his gave himself, was what caused Squall to finally fall off that edge into a hard, nearly painful orgasm that blacked his vision and made his ears ring. He felt his own semen, hot and sticky, smearing against his stomach as he writhed and humped against the erection that was still thrusting hard into him.
Seifer felt Squall's orgasm all around him, in how his skin glistened and dripped with sweat, how Seifer could smell the sex in the air, how his normally milky complexion was red and flushed and his skin felt hot under the touch. How his internal muscles coiled and constricted and jerked all around him. By now, his thrusts were so dramatic that he was pulling completely out, then diving back in up to the hilt. When he came, it nearly shocked him. Of course he hadn't forgotten what it felt like to have an orgasm, but it felt like he had. That tension starting in his scrotum, moving up his ass to his back, shooting up his spine like an electrical current. His leg muscles strained and his blood boiled with the need for release. He couldn't hold himself up as the waves of euphoria, like punches to his stomach, caused him to collapse on Squall's sweaty back. He moaned into Squall's equally sweaty hair, loving the masculine, salty smell of him. Squall found his hands, and Seifer squeezed back tight as he rode the waves of pleasure, a helpless passenger in his own body.
Seifer's grip on Squall's hands lessened as he raggedly breathed into the back of his neck. Squall's ears still rang, like he was underwater. When he tried to move his head, he got dizzy from the lack of blood. He was still panting and moaning quietly, unable to control the noises he made as the orgasm washed through Squall's body like aftershocks. He felt that Seifer on top of him was shaking and shivering just as much as he was.
It took a long time before either of them could move, let alone speak. What was there to say, though? Their bodies had said everything, and they were content to just lay there, with Seifer's weight pressed down on Squall, their sweaty skin drying as their breathing slowly regulated. Both their hearts still raced and pounded against their ribcages. But their accelerated heartbeats really didn't have anything to do with orgasm anymore. Even as they both breathed normally, their hearts still beat fast. Just from being near each other.