Heartbreak and Second Love
Chapter 4 - Shower Scene
By Redrum
Thanks again to Jade Maxwell. It's understandable that you were busy. The RW has to come before fanfiction of course, even if it is SeiferxSquall ^_^
Heartbreak and Second Love
Chapter 4 - Shower Scene
By Redrum
[Zell]
Sweat dripped down into my baggy shorts as I take a last swing at my well used punching bag. Rolling my neck to try to relieve some of the tension still there, I grab a fresh change of clothes along with my towel and head to the showers.
I encounter no one in the halls. At such a time of night, I'd even be surprised to see the little boy that runs constantly. He'll sure be a good fighter when he's older; lots of stamina.
I toss my clothes and towel on the long bench and head into the slippery showers. Stepping out of my shorts I toss it into the hamper (most of us just leave our laundry to the cleaning staff. We all have our names on the labels, so they never get lost or misplaced) and turn on the shower closest to the door. Adjusting the temperature, I step into the warm spray.
I sight quietly and tilt my head back, letting the warm water wash away my hard earned sweat and the last of my stress.
[Seifer]
All I want is a relaxing shower and what do I get? Chickenwuss! That's what! Way to ruin a perfectly good day spent training with Squall.
I sigh and step harder on the floor, making sure my bare feet slap on the smooth puddle spotted surface, so Squall can hear me and follow. We'd both been training for several hours, before we ended up in a stalemate. Both of us having pressed each other's gunblade to the others throat at exactly the same time. We called it quits and decided to head to the showers.
He and I have been training for several weeks now, I promised (well... I was 'forced' into it) that I wouldn't take it easy on him, so I didn't. But it was sad to see him go on his knees and put his face in his hands on the first day we started. He was getting frustrated over not being able to always know when I strike before it was too late. I understand his frustrations, since when I first picked up my gunblade, I was barely able to lift it much less hit my target accurately. That's why I envied Squall so much, he was a natural. As soon as he picked up his blade, he was a pent up storm, waiting to break loose from its cage of thunder clouds.
His gunblade is also heavier then mine, that's why he always uses two hands. It also improved his defense and the power of his offence.
Anyway, when Squall gets too frustrated now, I call a break and tell him to keep practicing by himself with me watching. Surprisingly this seems to have worked and he's now as good as he used to be. Sooner or later he'll be better than me because he's forced to rely on all his other senses to the maximum, so he knows when someone is coming and where to attack.
His hearing has improved somewhat, and will probably get even better with a little time. And since he knows this (after numerous times of me drilling it into his head of course; he's still way too self-conscious for his own good.) he's become more confidant in his abilities and he continues to train even when I'm not there (although I really worry about him when I'm not around to at least ward of large batches of monsters). He's stubborn, and I admire his ability to overcome anything that's thrown at him. I don't think he'll ever get totally used to not being able to see when he opens his eyes first thing in the morning. Or when someone suddenly asks 'how does this look?' How's he supposed to answer that? Rinoa seems to be the one that does that most often.
We make our way to the furthest shower heads. I give Zell a death glare -not as death worthy as Squall's of course, but close enough to be effective- when he turns to look. He glares back but turns around and stays silent. Squall knows of course that there's someone there, he just doesn't know who exactly. I turn and adjust two showers for the both of us.
I step into my shower and empty some of the shampoo bottle's contents into my hand, finished with it; I toss it over to Squall. My eyes widen and I turn quickly to apologize for the act. My mouth closes abruptly when I see Squall catch the bottle easily (if a little ungraciously). He pours some directly onto his hair and closes the plastic lid with a 'snap'. He bends over to place it on the wet ground. I quickly avert my eyes from the firm globes presented to me like some fucking offering, and continue to wash myself.
We both quickly finish at about the same time and head into the locker room. I grab the towel in Squall's locker (he told me the combination months ago) and toss it to him. I use the towel in my own locker and quickly rub myself dry.
I put on a pair of form fitting dark grey pants and shrug my red vest over my broad shoulders. I glance over at Squall and smile when I see him wearing baggy navy blue sweatpants and a backwards black sweatshirt.
I close my locker gently (Squall still isn't used to sudden loud noises. And a locker slamming is pretty damn loud and it kind of echoes creepily in the locker room.) and toss both our towels into the hamper. I stride over to Squall and lift his arms. He frowns in confusion. I quickly pull the sweatshirt off, turn it around and put it back on him. He blushes and looks down. I smile and grab his smooth chin, making him 'look' up at me. "Everyone makes mistakes." He shrugs and turns to the right to close his locker door.
He suddenly turns his head to generally look in my direction, and gives a small smile. I chuckle and wrap a casual arm around his slim shoulders, he leans into me and we both make our way out of the locker room.
Just before we shut the door, I hear chickenwuss' shower turn off. He must have been trying to relieve some stress after Rinoa broke up with him. Something about going back to Timber to stay with her 'daddy'. Now that he's lonely and sexually frustrated, he better not try to make a move on Squall. Of course... it's up to Squall whether or not he wants Zell back. For both our sakes though, I hope he doesn't take him back. I don't know what I'd do.