Uncertain Memory: With You
Part Seven - October 4, 1998: Quisty’s Birthday.
DISCLAIMER: Okay I want to say this now and get it over with. I got the story structure for this story from a book called Magic’s Pawn by Mercedes Lackey. She is my goddess author and I love her to death. While I was reading it one night, I got the idea for a prequel to the game and decided to write it because I wanted to give props to my fav author. There were 4 specific scenes that I needed from the book to make this story work.
The scenes are:
1. Savil teaching Tylendel about shielding and their conversation before he leaves.
2. Vanyel overhearing about Tylendel (if you read it you know what I’m talking about).
3. Vanyel seeing Tylendel read a book through the window.
4. Tylendel comforting Vanyel after his nightmare.
I’m really REALLY nervous about posting this because I don’t want flames about me ‘stealing’ Misty’s work. It’s hers, not mine! NEVER MINE! I just own the books and read them over and over cause I love them so much. I’m only doing this because they gave me an idea. All of the aforementioned scenes are hers that I have changed to fit the FF8 world, the rest is my own crappy writing ^_^ I hope you enjoy it all the same because it’s a fic, and I don’t get paid for this anyway. ^_~
Uncertain Memory: With You
Part Seven - October 4, 1998: Quisty’s Birthday.
Quistis smiled as she rode down the elevator from the second floor. Seifer and Squall were standing near the directory discussing something. It probably had to do with her birthday being today. She smirked and waited as the doors of the elevator opened. She stepped off and descended the stairs. The two boys suddenly subsided into silence and Seifer hid something behind his back. She looked back and forth from one boy to the other wondering what was going on.
“What’s behind your back Seifer?”
“Nothing,” Squall spoke for the blonde.
Quistis narrowed her eyes. Were they going to play a joke on her? “What is it Cadet Almasy?” Squall flushed and Seifer paled before glancing at the shorter boy. The two seemed to fidget for a moment as Seifer made his decision.
Seifer held his hand out and Quistis accepted what was in them. It felt like a stack of Triple Triad cards.
She gave the blonde boy a confused frown and took a look at the stack in her hands. Her eyes widened when she realized what she held weren’t cards. They were polaroids—of the two boys in front of her and they looked incredibly… interesting. One was of Squall in the bathroom trying to cover himself with a towel—looking very pissed but quite sexy. There were four more of the brunette then five others of the blonde. In each picture they looked incredibly gorgeous. A shocked Quistis looked up from the pictures at the boys who were still fidgeting nervously.
“Happy birthday.” Seifer smiled shyly, so unlike him.
She burst out laughing right there in the hall. It was too much to take, she couldn’t believe the present she’d gotten—sexy pictures of the hottest guys in the garden and ironically, they were together. She loved it!
“These have to be the best birthday gifts I’ve ever gotten.” She bit her lip trying not to laugh anymore. Seifer looked fearful at Squall, and the brunette looked deadly.
“Yeah, well keep them safely hidden,” Seifer told her, “Or you’ll be answering to him.”
“Don’t worry Squall, they’re safe with me.”
“They better be,” Squall murmured.
“They what?” Quistis asked, her hands empty of evidence. The boys smiled at her playing along to never having seen whatever they had been talking about.
“We’d like to ask you a favor.” Squall coughed.
“Will you take pictures of us?” Seifer asked, continuing what his beau has started.
Quistis frowned. “Like the ones you gave me?”
“Well something a little more…” the blonde trailed off as he thought.
“Intimate?” she finished, glancing around to see that no one else was in the halls.
“Yeah.” Squall sidled up to the taller boy looking a little uncomfortable.
“Enemies,” Quistis mumbled and Squall slid away from Seifer to stand with her. She put her arm around his back and rubbed it. “Relax. I don’t bite.” She smiled when he sighed and smiled back.
“So will you do it?” the blonde boy asked. “Think of it as a bonus to your birthday present.”
“Why I’d love to.” She grinned as Squall put his arm around her shoulders. “I’ll make sure they look perfect so you can remember them.”
“I’ll see you two later then.” Seifer mock saluted and strolled away. The two watched him for a moment before turning back to one another.
“How long did it take him to convince you to do this?” Quistis asked the remaining boy.
“I asked him.”
She blinked and turned to him. “Really?”
Squall nodded. “Well, he surprised me by taking a picture of me right after I’d left the shower,” he shrugged, “but then he told me they were for you so I kinda went along with it. It was actually fun.”
“Embarrassed?”
“Oh, hell yeah.”
“So, then what?” she asked, drawing him down to sit on a bench.
“Well when I was taking the pictures of him, I got the idea. I thought it would be nice to have reminders of us together, you know? Like when we go on missions and stuff.” Squall chuckled. “When I asked him about it, he got all soft…” His gray eyes became unfocused as he remembered. “He gave me this smile and said ‘I knew there was a reason I loved you.’ He’s never said it before.”
“You are lovers and you haven’t even used the word?” Quistis whispered and giggled. “That’s so cute.”
“Shut up.” Squall grinned, trying to hide his embarrassment.
“Look, I know it might be uncomfortable having me there, but you know what? I’ve never seen a couple that was as devoted as you two,” she admitted.
“Really?”
Quistis nodded. “You two do everything in your power to keep your relationship together while keeping a wall of ignorance between yourselves and the rest of the world. I don’t know how you do it.” She shook her head in awe. “Your friendship amazes me. It’s like you guys have protection from Hyne; like you’re soul mates.”
Squall thought on that for a moment, letting the idea roll around in his brain. “I’ve never heard it put that way before.”
“Well it doesn’t matter. As long as you two last, there’s still hope for me to get a boyfriend.” The blonde cocked her head at him. “Can I practice flirting with you?”
“As long as you don’t ruin my ice cold reputation.”
She laughed. “I wouldn’t dare.”
Later that night:
Quistis looked around the hall to see that no one at all was around. She sighed and pressed the buzzer to Squall’s room as she relaxed and waited for one of the boys to answer. She figured that they would do this in Squall’s room to make him more comfortable, but she wasn’t totally confident with the conclusion.
Seifer opened the door and smiled. Bingo. “Just in time,” he told her and stepped aside for her to walk in. He closed the door behind her and let her admire his toned body. He wore only boxers.
“Damn I’m jealous,” she muttered then looked back into his eyes. “In time for what?” she then asked with a frown.
“Go look.” Seifer pointed to Squall’s bedroom.
Quistis shrugged and followed the path she was given. She stopped in the doorway to see a slightly rumpled Squall dozing in the sheets on his stomach. She cocked her head to the side as a smirk tugged at her lips. She had a pretty good idea of what they had been doing before she arrived.
“Seems like I’m a little late.” Quistis put her hands on her hips and narrowed her eyes at Seifer.
“Nah.” Seifer winked. “He’s all cuddly right after the fact.”
Squall turned over and eyed the blondes. “So?”
“It’s so cute!” Quistis giggled and he rolled his eyes muttering something about girls and the word ‘cute.’
“More like hot.” Seifer crawled into the bed with the brunette.
“Hm. Maybe you’re right,” she mused aloud taking the camera out of its holder.
“Here.” Seifer tossed his boxers at Quistis when he was covered with the sheet.
“Do I get to keep them?”
“No.” Squall glared at her and smirked. “Mine,” he told her and wrapped his arms around the blonde possessively.
“Now, we’ve got this straight. Not a thing about this goes out of this or my room,” Seifer stated in all seriousness.
“You can trust me Seifer. I wouldn’t lie to you.” Quistis nodded at him and stepped forward to put a hand on his cheek. “I care about you two far too much to let this fall apart.” She smiled at them. “This is only for you.”
“Just for us.” Squall kissed his shoulder and rubbed his back.
“Just for us,” the blonde agreed and pecked Squall on the tip of his nose. A flash enveloped the room—nine left.
As the time wore on, the boys became more and more comfortable with Quistis. One pictured showed Seifer above Squall, smiling down at him with the sheet covering anything below their waists—it always did. Another picture had Squall sitting in front of Seifer, the blonde kissing his shoulder as he looked off to the side. As the film wound down, Quistis took one last picture of Squall lying on Seifer’s chest—both of them seemingly asleep.
The boys looked at the exposures and smiled at her. She could just feel the happiness seething from them. It was sickeningly cute and made her snicker.
“What?”
“You guys are so queer.” She laughed harder as they gave her odd looks.
“What do you expect Quisty? We are lovers,” Seifer replied and rolled his eyes as Squall muttered a curse or two.
“You’ll understand when you fall in love,” Squall murmured. The way he said it made her stop and look at him. His voice was hushed yet confident.
Quistis stood next to the bed. “I’m sure I will.” She kissed Seifer on the forehead and Squall on the cheek. “As long as someone likes me back.”
“You’ll find someone Quisty, I guarantee it.” Seifer winked and she waved nonchalantly as she walked out the door brushing the comment out of her mind.