The Bleakest Silence

Part 1

By fyre byrd

Seifer was back at Garden. He knew that it wasn't honourable for him to have come back begging Cid to re-admit him. In fact, Seifer was frankly disgusted with himself for doing it, but it didn't take long for him to realize that there was no place for him anywhere else. No one needed an ex-sorceress' knight, who'd been so fucked with in the head that he'd tried to help his sorceress destroy the world. There was no place for a knight of any kind, except perhaps in Garden. So he'd come crawling back to lick Cid's boots and promised he'd lick Squall's too, although he'd like to lick other bits of Squall, this particular arrangement was hardly satisfying. The only people who'd stand his presence were the ones who had the best reason to hate him.

Seifer was eating lunch by himself at a table near Squall's when the blue-eyed gunblader started telling Zell about how Rinoa had dumped him last week. They'd been doing the long distance thing since a little while after the whole Ultimecia affair and Rinoa had finally gotten sick of it. Seifer watched as Zell gesticulated wildly, expressing disbelief that the perfect couple hadn't stayed together forever. Seifer groaned and took another bite of his sandwich.

"Got a problem Seifer?" Zell asked his face flushed.

"Nope, just an observation."

Squall looked over at Seifer disinterestedly and spooned up tomato soup from a styrofoam cup.

"Well?" Zell asked "gonna share with the class or what Almasy?"

"Okay. I don't think that Squall and Rinoa ever qualified as the perfect couple and I think that Rinoa broke up with mister frigidity because she realized that what he really needed was to be anally raped."

Squall got up quietly, grabbed a handful of the fabric of Seifer's shirt and hauled back and punched him in the face, then turned and calmly proceeded to walk away.

"Oh no you don't, ice queen." Seifer growled, knocking his chair over in his haste to catch up with his rival and shoving Squall in the shoulder so that he was forced to turn back around. He actually got in a few good punches before the instructor on duty stopped them. Squall's face, although adorned with a bloody lip, remained as impassive as ever.

Seifer sat in Cid's office, fairly fuming at himself for having returned to Garden, his boots up on Cid's desk whilethe head master went through paperwork and ignored him. Squall was on the other side of the room, looking as though he were perfectly happy to be standing here like an idiot even though both of them were SeeDs, not students anymore. Seifer had the feeling that Cid only put up with them both because they actually worked well together on missions. Seifer could ignore Squall's silences and Squall could handle his impulsiveness.

There was still half an hour left for him to sit here, watching the clock tick and feeling faintly revolted by his own existence. All of Seifer's dreams had been crushed and he was reduced to pleading. None of it put him into too fine of a temper, but he'd promised to be good. Seifer had agreed to be a good boy so that he could come back to this miserable regimented hell hole, but it was all he knew. No wonder he'd followed Edea, Adel, Ultimecia like a starving puppy. He'd been taught to mindlessly follow orders by the best in Balamb.

Cid was supervising this detention because the two of them had fought so many times without being discharged or having their pay cut that it was impossible to pretend that they weren't receiving special treatment. That was just fine and dandy as far as Seifer was concerned. He got even more respect now than he had as the head of the Disciplinary Committee, but at the price of his pride. Luckily, the general school population had no idea that he'd debased himself so much in coming back here. So he'd broken the rules, again. He'd gotten into a fist fight with Squall in the cafeteria over a comment about Rinoa. Seifer could scarcely help himself if the sight of Squall being so goddamned sociable made him want to beat the shit out of the little bastard. At least he wasn't with Rinoa anymore. It had been even worse watching the two of them get all sugary sweet with each other when she came for visits. Rinoa was the only one who could ever get Squall to display any emotion. Well, Seifer had gotten Squall to punch him, so he supposed that counted as an emotional response. Yeah, Seifer was good at making people beat on him.

"Time's up," Cid said mildly, waving a hand towards the door. He liked to pretend that there was nothing extraordinary about his two best SeeDs constantly beating the hell out of each other. Since it never happened in the midst of a mission it was inconsequential to Cid apparently. "See that it doesn't happen again boys," he said, beaming at them like a proud father. What a stupid bastard.

"Yeah, yeah, it's been fun headmaster," Seifer unfolded himself from his seat and stalked out of the office not waiting to see what Squall did. He got into the elevator, glad tht the doors slid closed smoothly before Squall could get in with him. Being in between missions really sucked. Seifer had finally passed the goddamned SeeD exam, surprising everyone. He had surprised himself. It was difficult for him to concentrate anymore, his mind was always too full of images and thoughts that sickened him and made it difficult to think clearly. Seifer headed through the atrium towards the Training Centre, watching young students give him a wide berth. It was the only place that he felt he could keep out of trouble anymore. He chopped at sometree branches that got in his way as he walked into the training area just for the sheer pleasure of it, then carved a swath through the pathetic little monsters that the school provided for his entertainment. He'd just engaged with a T-Rexaur, the only real monster that the Training Centre could boast, when Squall came over and started hacking at the creature too. Seifer gritted his teeth and wished that the stupid Rex could cast confuse on him just so he'd have an excuse to take a few swings at the guy who'd managed to ruin his miserable life without being merciful enough to end it. Seifer didn't use any magic on the creature, preferring to draw out the encounter as long as possible. When the huge beast took a few bites out of him, he refused to cast any cure magic, just slumped there and stabbed again and again at the slavering red skinned beast. A cool tingling feeling slid beneath his flesh anyway and Seifer glared at his unwanted fighting companion for healing his wounds. Being injured helped him to focus on things besides his own deficiencies, but Squall had ruined it now. When the creature was dead, which was too soon thanks to Squall's help, Seifer raised his eyebrow and turned with a hand on his hip to look at the brunette standing beside him.

Return to Archive | next