Double Take
Chapter 2
Disclaimer: All places, characters are not mine, nothing here is mine, everything belongs to Squaresoft.
Double Take
Chapter 2
The Ragnarok was leaving in half an hour to take Squall and Zell to Winhill. The brunette had a duffel bag open on the bed; he picked up his mobile from the chest of drawers. He looked around at Zell and when he thought his boyfriend wasn’t looking he tossed it into the duffel bag. The blonde saw the movement and whipped round staring suspiciously at the bag, he looked inside and picked out the phone.
“Squall, we’re going on vacation. The point is to get away from garden.” He poked his lover in the chest with the phone. “I’m sure garden will survive without you for two weeks.”
The brunette pouted. “What if there’s an emergency and they need to contact me?”
Zell wrapped his arms around his lover’s neck. “Nothing will go wrong, trust me.” They kissed lightly, breaking apart when Irvine barged into their room with knocking.
“Hey love birds, time to go.”
The couple collected their stuff and walked past him.
“Aren’t you taking your phone?” The cowboy asked. He didn’t think Squall could live without that thing.
The commander looked at the floor. “I’m not allowed.”
Zell grinned as Irvine made the ‘Whipped’ sound and motion. The cowboy hid his laughter behind a cough when Squall turned a glare on him that would not only kill him but bury him too.
Their ship stood outside garden everyone stood around waiting to say goodbye. Seifer hadn’t shown up, not that anyone was surprised. Quistis hugged Squall as soon as he arrived and Selphie launched herself at Zell. The little blonde had to try and pry her off.
“S-Selphie... I-I....can’t....breathe....”
She pulled back looking sheepish. “Ooh sorry, but we’ll miss you so you’d better come back.” She looked stern. “No leaving us and moving into Winhill for good.”
Zell smirked. “Do you really think Squall could live without garden?”
The commander frowned as everyone laughed at him and fussed over him. He hated all the attention. He folded his arms looked bored. “Can we go yet?”
Everyone took pity on him and they helped the couple file onto the Ragnarok.
“BYE!!! We’ll miss you!!” Selphie screamed. The other had to pull her out of the way as the ship powered its engines and took off.
“Oh, I’m really going to miss them.” The cowboy draped an arm over his girlfriend’s shoulders and led her back inside. Quistis patted the short girl on the shoulder. “I’m sure they’ll be back before you know it.”
“Are they gone?”
The blonde girl looked up at a high ledge where Seifer sat. “Yes, you should have come to say goodbye.”
The blonde shook his head.
“What’s the matter with you!? They’ll be gone for two weeks, I know you’ll miss Squall.” Selphie frowned at her friend.
He looked away from her to stare off into space.
Irvine spoke up then. “Hey, we’re going to get some breakfast do you want to join us?”
Seifer didn’t bother looking down at him, he just kept staring into the distance. “I’ll going to stay here for a bit.”
“Okay, well bye.”
Silence.
The tall blonde leant back on the wall and sighed. Selphie was right, he would miss Squall. Maybe he did act like a bastard around the brunette, maybe he never said more than three words to him but he did love Squall. He regretted all the things he’d done to drive the brunette away from him, for now everyone was happy, everyone had someone to share their life with, except him. He couldn’t just move on like Squall had because he was still in love with the brunette. He didn’t know how or when he would get over Squall or if it was even possible. He was so jealous of Zell, he had been of Rinoa too but it was worse with Zell because he could see how much they loved each other, it wasn’t just a passing thing like Rinoa was, they would be together for a very long time maybe forever.
So where did that leave him? Pining away for an ex he could never have? Seifer was way too proud to ever admit any of this of course.
Squall stared up at garden. It looked so big from the outside. He could never command this thing alone, he was second in command at the moment, second to Seifer and he hoped it would stay that way. He needed Seifer.
He studied garden for a minute. Had something happened while he was away on his mission? He noticed the large chunk that was missing from the quad; the ground around the base was broken and full of craters. Garden was always immaculate so had something happened?
He smiled slightly despite he worries, he always thought that garden would fall apart without Seifer, maybe he was right. He’s known the blonde since he was ten when they both arrived at garden it wasn’t long before they was good friends and at 15 they became lovers. Seifer was his everything. He took a deep breath and walked into garden, his heart full of fear.
A group of girls gave him an odd look as he walked through the main gate. Several people stopped to look at him. Why was wrong with them? They’d all seen him before.
A girl stood in front of him. “Sir? What happened to your face?”
He frowned. What did she mean? He didn’t feel any pain, maybe he had a cut or something. He stopped at a window to study his reflection in the glass. He didn’t see a difference; he ran a hand over his face to check for blood or pain. There wasn’t a mark on him; he shrugged deciding that the girl had imaged it. Squall continued into garden but he stopped when he heard a thud of feet hitting the floor from somewhere above.
“What the hell are you doing here? Did you forget something?”
The brunette froze and smiled in relief. He knew that voice. He turned to see Seifer, his beautiful Seifer standing with a hand on his hip watching him quizzically.
“Where’s lover boy? Did you get bored of him already?”
Squall wasn’t listening to the words, he slowly moved forward towards his lover, not really believing what he saw, why Seifer really alive? Was this just a dream?
“Why aren’t you answering me? Squall, what are you-”
Squall threw himself at the blonde, wrapping his arms around his waist. “Oh I’m so glad you’re alive.”
Seifer sat on the wall with his eyes closed. He slowly opened them, deciding he’d been there for too long. Someone caught his eye as they passed him, his eyes went wide and he had to do a double take. Irvine and the others had said Squall had left didn’t they? The blonde jumped off the wall as he studied the back of the person, he had the hair, the jacket and the leather pants. It was Squall. Why had he come back? They’d only been in the air for a few minutes.
“What the hell are you doing here? Did you forget something?”
As Squall turned to face the owner of the voice, Seifer was caught off guard by the un-Squall-like expression on his face. He showed relief, shock and affection in his eyes, Squall didn’t usually show anything in his eyes or on his face. He was an emotionless block of ice usually.
“Where’s lover boy? Did you get bored of him already?”
Nothing. Not even the famous Squall glare. A comment like that would normally get a reaction even if it were a small one. Maybe he imaged it but he thought Squall’s hair was a little longer than normal, it hung in his eyes and covered the scar.
“Why aren’t you answering me? Squall what are you-”
Seifer froze in shock, horror and confusion when Squall threw his arms about the blonde holding him, hugging him. “Oh I’m so glad you’re alive.”
What the hell? The blonde didn’t know what to do. If it was anyone else he would have thought it was all a joke but this was Squall, he didn’t know what jokes were.
“S-Squall?”
The brunette looked up and smiled, a real genuine smile.
Now that Squall’s hair had moved, Seifer could saw one big difference.
“Squall, what did you do to your scar?”
The brunette frowned, puzzled. The blonde ran a finger down between his eyes, feeling the smooth unmarred skin. The shorter man nuzzled into the blonde’s fingers.
“What happened to you?” He returned the gesture, stroking the scar lightly. “Who hurt you?”
“You did.” Seifer’s another arm unconsciously wrapped around the brunette.
Squall shook his head. “I would never hurt you; you know that, right?”
“Squall are you okay?”
Again the brunette smiled and tightened his grip. “I am now that I’ve found you.”
“Okay, things are getting too weird.” He broke away from his ex-lover. “Where’s Zell? Didn’t he come back with you?”
“I thought he’d be here, I haven’t seen him.”
“But he went with you to-”
“No, he didn’t go on the mission remember?”
“Mission?”
“To the island closest to hell, are you okay? You were in a bad way last time I saw you. What happened?”
Seifer shook his head in confusion. Maybe he’s lost his memory, he thought they had gone on a mission to the island closest to hell once, maybe he’s forgotten everything else. But what about the scar?”
Seifer rubbed his temples. “I’m getting a headache.” He needed to speak to the others.
“Come on, I have to go speak to Quistis, you can wait in my dorm.”
He didn’t want to take Squall into a cafeteria full of people there would be too many questions. He steered Squall in the right direction. Much to his surprise the brunette didn’t argue he happily sat on Seifer couch. The blonde shut the door, rubbing his head.
“It’s going to be one of those days.”