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Chapter 7

By Purple Penguin

Being the commander of garden had its advantages meaning he had a master key to all the rooms including the dorms. Normally he wasn’t supposed to use it unless it was an emergency but he thought Seifer dying was an emergency and no one really had to know except him and Seifer anyway. Night had fallen, he had waited six hours for the blonde to cool down not that he thought Seifer would hurt him in any major way, but he did want his lover to listen to him and not throw him back out again.

Squall put the key in the lock after looking to see if anyone was around and opened the door silently. The room was quiet and dark, he moved through the living room. All the blinds and curtains were closed. For a moment he thought no one was there at all but as he walked into the bedroom a telltale lump in the bed gave him away. Squall could make out the pile of clothing in the corner of the room, untouched. The blonde lay on his side facing the pile of clothing, eyes open and blinking not asleep like Squall had first thought. The brunette sat on the side of the bed behind his lover and shuffled up closer. The larger didn’t even move when he leaned over to look in his face.

“Seifer?” He whispered.

When he didn’t answer instead of forcing him to talk Squall just pressed his chest to his lover’s back and nuzzled his face into the warm neck, arms holding him. The blonde let out a shuddering breath, eyes closing. Squall was shocked to see a single real tear fall from Seifer’s green eyes, the blonde wasn’t the sort to cry. The brunette’s hands moved slightly where they rested on Seifer’s stomach silently telling him that it was okay and he wasn’t going anyway. Squall closed his eyes so he was just dozing, not wanting to sleep just yet.

“Why are you here?”

The brunette paused, thinking maybe he imagined the quiet voice.

“I was worried about you and I thought you might like the company.”

“Worried? Why? What do you know?” The voice tried to sound cold but only managed scared.

“Nothing but I saw Fujin earlier and she acted…. Strange, so I wondered if you were okay. You had the same look in your eyes.”

“What look?”

“Freaked out.” He tightened his hold on the blonde. “Are you okay?”

“Tired.”

“You want me to leave?” He asked, not sure he should give Seifer the choice not wanting to leave the other man alone right now. After all he had made a promise to ghost Seifer not to leave him alone.

“No.” Seifer answered quickly and a surprisingly cold hand covered his own, linking their fingers together.

Squall’s lips twitched slightly and he pressed a kiss into his lover’s jawbone causing Seifer to look over his shoulder at him in shock. Their eyes meet and they just stared at each other until Squall broke the contact and snuggled his face into Seifer’s neck again.

Both guys closed their eyes, dozing lightly until Squall woke up hours later to find the grip on his hand gone slack and he looked over at the peacefully sleeping face.

“Seifer?” He asked to see if his lover was sleeping at deeply as he thought.

The brunette carefully slid to the edge of the bed not wanting to wake the blonde and stood up silently looking back to watch for movement from the sleeping man. Squall’s eyes focused on the pile of clothes that sat on the corner of the room, he moved towards it and knelt down, glancing back at Seifer again. In the silent room he could hear the rain against the glass windows as he moved the trench coat. There was only a slither of light coming from the gap in the curtains. He moved the blue vest into the light eying the dark red-ish brown patch that stained it. He knew it was blood.

He looked back at Seifer, two bright wide green orbs watched him carefully.

Squall stood up slowly, dropping the clothes to the floor again. “Are you okay?”

The green eyes flicked between him and the trench coat. “You’ve seen it, now what? You going to turn me in?”

“No, do you want to tell me what happened?”

Silence and Seifer looked down at the bed.

Squall sighed. “Do you want me to take care of those?” He gestured to the pile.

The blonde nodded slightly, watching Squall swoop up the bundle and disappear into the kitchen.

Seifer rolled onto his back staring up at the ceiling, eyes closing as he sighed then opening again.

Scenes of what happened in Balamb replayed in his head and he wondered if he should tell Squall. He was glad that someone was there and although he would never admit it he had started to care for the brunette. He knew how quiet and uncaring Squall was before and worried if what he had done would scare off the younger man and he didn’t want Squall to leave. The bed dipped under extra weight and the shorter man slid up to him again. Squall’s cooling body pressed to his side, a head fitting under his chin perfectly and one hand taking his own. Seifer looked down meeting the other gaze and opened his mouth to speak but Squall stopped him.

“Sleep now, you can tell me tomorrow.”

The blonde agreed, shutting his eyes and letting sleep come.

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