The Kisses and the Bruises

AN: Wow, I really didn't expect this to take that long to write. *Sweat drop* Thanks to everyone who reviewed. This chapter is for you.

~*~

Chapter One: Every Day is Different, But the Nights They're All the Same

Loud cursing coming from another room woke Squall up. He shifted under the soft covers of his bed so that he was now lying on his back. Half listening to the continued cursing, Squall let his mind wander back to the dream he had. The dream was of the stormy night when a young boy was suddenly tossed into his life by a pretty social worker. In a week it would be the seventh anniversary of that night, Squall noted. When he thought back about it, the words he told Garnet sounded more like he was adopting a puppy, not becoming a guardian.

I’ll take him, the words echoed in the back of his mind as he slipped out of bed. Dressed only in a pair of black silk boxers, Squall made his way from his bedroom to the kitchen, where his ‘nephew’ let out another string of colourful curses.

“You’re late,” Squall said leaning against the doorframe, as he watched Irvine run around the kitchen, trying to get his lunch put together for school.

The boy froze and turned to look at Squall when he heard the soft, yet demanding voice of his guardian. He almost dropped the apple that he was about to stuff into his lunch bag as he started at Squall’s bare chest. In a spilt second, he quickly realized what he was doing and turned back to face the counter, succeeding in hiding the slight blush that had crept across his cheeks.

“I know,” Irvine said, putting the apple and the rest of his lunch in his backpack. “I was just about to wake you. I need a ride to school.”

“Yeah, whatever,” he heard Squall say. After years of living with the man Irvine knew that was Squall speak for ‘alright, I’m coming.’

Irvine waited until he heard his guardian’s retreating footsteps before he turned around again and sighed. He did not need that kind of image in his head at this time of the morning, especially when he was going to be late for school. Quickly running back to his room, he ran a brush through his long hair a couple of times before he put in its usual ponytail using his silver elastic. Garden Academy, the private school he attended, required all long hair be pulled back for boys so they looked respectable. With one last look in his mirror he adjusted his uniform’s navy blue tie and tried to smooth out some wrinkles on his white dress shirt before he made his was back into the kitchen to retrieve his stuff for school.

When he retuned to the kitchen Squall was dressed in a pair of old tight leather pants and a faded black t-shirt. He waited impatiently for Irvine, his keys dangling loosely in his hand. “Ready?”

“I think so,” Irvine replied, grabbing his school’s matching navy blazer and he slipped it on and headed for the front door. “It doesn’t matter anyways, we don’t leave now I’m definitely going to be late for school.”

“Hn,” Squall agreed, following the teen outside. He locked the door behind them and got into his car along with Irvine. It took only a second for him to get the car started and he quickly pulled out of the driveway and sped off down the street, leaving behind the empty bungalow that they moved into five years ago.

Minutes later, Squall pulled his car into the school parking lot and pulled up to the entrance. Irvine was glad that they lived so close to the school; he still had five minutes before he needed to get to his first class of the day, thanks to Squall’s speedy driving. He grabbed his bag from the back seat, and was about to get out of the car, when he stopped and turned back to Squall.

“Where’s my kiss?” he asked looking playfully up at his guardian.

Squall looked over to the passenger’s side and half glared at Irvine. “You were late,” he replied. “You don’t get one. Get out or I’ll be late for work.”

“Squall,” Irvine whined. “I’m not leaving until you kiss me.”

Squall sighed, realizing that he’d never be able to get out of it as long as Irvine was still breathing. The boy never once forgot about it, even if it made him late for anything. “Alright,” he said, leaning over and snaking his hand behind Irvine’s head. He pulled the boy closer and placed a gentle kiss on the teen’s forehead. “You should have grown out of this.”

“I know,” Irvine said, he opened the door quickly and hopped out of the car, slinging his backpack onto his right shoulder. “Believe me, I know,” he said more to himself while he winked back at Squall and closed the door. He could hear the window of Squall’s car going down as he walked off.

“Irvine.”

Irvine turned around when Squall called his name. “Yeah?” he asked, tilting his hear slightly to the side.

“No more swearing.”

“Whatever you say,” Irvine said, his lush lips forming into a shy smile; the smile he only showed to his beloved guardian. Squall gave him one last glance and wave as he pulled the silver car away from the curb, leaving Irvine watch the car fade into the distance.

Turning towards the academy, Irvine’s mind was still on what just happened in the car. He smiled lightly to himself and made his way into the building, letting the memories of his first day of school with his new guardian come flooding back to him.

~*~

Irvine stood beside Squall, his small hand grasping the material of the older boy jeans as he took in his new surroundings. The classroom before him was quite small with twenty or so desks lined in the available space. The teacher sat at her desk at the front of the room, going over some papers while her students worked in their notebooks. The alphabet and posters with sayings that were supposed to encourage children to learn were plastered all over the walls and beside the big green chalkboard.

Squall took a small step just inside the classroom dragging Irvine with him as he knocked lightly on the open door. The teacher glanced up, locking her mixed matched eyes with Squall’s before she noticed Irvine. She smiled kindly as she put down the red pen she was marking with and stood up to meet her guests.

“Hello,” she said, her smile growing. “You may call me Ms Yuna. What can I do for you?”

“My uh –” Squall began, looking down at Irvine. Just what was the small boy to Squall, they weren’t related by blood at all; he was just the kid’s legal guardian. He decided that the best explanation of their relationship was the term Garnet had frequently used to refer to the child. “– Nephew just transferred.”

“Ah yes,” Ms Yuna said. “My new student.” She bent down so she was eye level with Irvine, her eyes, one green and one blue, mesmerizing the boy as he stared back at her. “Hello Irvine,” she said, her soft voice calming the child’s nerves a bit. “Welcome to my fourth grade class. I hope we can be friends.”

Irvine nodded. He moved closer to Ms Yuna, his grip on Squall’s jeans slipping as he became braver and looked behind his new teacher and at the faces of the other children all staring at him.

Ms Yuna stood and looked at Squall “It was nice to meet you …” she trailed off realizing that she didn’t know her visitor’s name.

“Squall,” he supplied. “What time does school finish at?”

“Three-fifteen.”

“Right.” Squall paused. He looked over at Irvine as he was making friends with a little girl with short hair. She giggled madly at the boy while he told a joke to her. “I’ll be back to pick Irvine then.”

“Alright. Good bye,” Ms Yuna said with a slight wave of her hand at Squall’s retreating back. She turned back to her class. “Children, you may all put away your math work and move your desks to form a circle so your new classmate may begin to learn your names.”

Irvine stood back and watched all the other children shuffle all their things into their desks. He smiled when he looked at the girl he was just talking to and she smiled back. He glanced back to the doorway and his smile vanished. Squall was gone! Irvine’s heart pounded in his small chest and his violet eyes grew wide as he began to panic. “S-Squall?” He was afraid that Squall was going to disappear just like his parents.

Ms Yuna noticed that Irvine was frantically looking around the room and she quickly went over to him. “What’s wrong Irvine?” she asked. “Are you alright?”

Irvine continued to search for his guardian, his teacher’s voice doing little to calm him. “Where’s Squall?”

“He left,” Ms Yuna said gesturing to the open door. “He can’t stay in class all day. I’m sure –”

Irvine didn’t stay to hear whatever his teacher was trying to explain to him. He darted out the door, only pausing to look both directions for Squall.

Ms Yuna called after him, but the boy was already running down the hall after his guardian. “Squall!”

The teenager turned paused and turned around at the sound of Irvine’s terrified voice. “Irv –” the man paused when his nephew ran right into him, making him stumble back slightly as the small boy’s arms encircling his waist. “What the?”

Irvine buried his face into Squall’s stomach while his grip around the man tightened. “Where are you going?” he asked after a moment.

Squall awkwardly looked down at the child wrapped around him. He had no idea what to do other than answer Irvine’s question. “Work.”

Irvine lifted his head to look up at Squall and let go of his waist. “Why didn’t you say ‘good bye’ to me?”

Squall continued to stare at the boy. He was about to shrug it off with a ‘whatever’ but when Irvine’s eyes started to water he just offered a quick apology.

“Sorry.”

It seemed to calm Irvine down to the point where he was no longer going to cry, but he was still very upset. “Are you going to come back?” The boy said it so quietly that Squall almost didn’t hear it.

“Yeah.”

“When?”

“When school’s out.” He sighed tracing his finger along the long scar that stretched diagonally from right to left above his nose. It was only then that he realized that this was the first time since Irvine’s parents died that they would be separated. He guessed that Irvine was nervous about being abandoned there and that was something that Squall never planned on doing. “I’ll come to your classroom to get you.”

“Promise?” Irvine asked. His entire body seemed to relax at Squall’s words.

“Yeah.”

Irvine smiled brightly. All thoughts about anything bad happening in the future left him at that moment. “Ok. But don’t forget about my kiss next time.”

Squall frowned down at the kid. “Your what?” He looked up when he heard shuffling down the hall and locked eyes with Ms. Yuna who was standing in her classroom doorway. She gave him a reassuring smile as if she could hear them and knew exactly what Irvine was talking about.

“My kiss,” Irvine repeated slowly, suddenly afraid he was doing something wrong.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Mom and Dad used to give me a good bye kiss on my forehead …” Irvine trailed off, unsure if he was doing something he shouldn’t be.

“Oh,” Squall said, breathing a sigh of relief. He glanced back up to see Ms. Yuna still smiling at him, but this time she wasn’t alone. The little girl that had been talking to Irvine earlier had curiously stuck her head out into the hall to see what was going on and what had happened to her new friend. “Alright,” Squall finally agreed. He knelt down in front of Irvine and gently pulled the boy’s head towards him as he awkwardly placed a kiss on Irvine’s forehead.

After Squall pulled back and stood up, he looked at Irvine who was smiling so brightly at him, that he thought the kid was going to spontaneously combust at any second, the kid looked that happy. He frowned as he watched Irvine turn around in the blink of an eye and race back to the classroom. Ms. Yuna was now giving him a knowing smile as she gave him another small wave and disappeared into her classroom.

~*~

“Earth to Irvine,” a girl’s voice called out and suddenly appeared in front of Irvine. He briefly wondered how she was always able to sneak up on him like that but gave up, quickly realizing that he’d never understand anything the small brunette did.

“Morning Selphie,” Irvine said, smiling at the short girl walking backwards in front of him.

“Oh thank god,” Selphie replied, trying to smooth out the wrinkles of her uniform’s pleated skirt. “I thought you were going to ignore me all day. You know, with the way you were like mindlessly walking and staring into space. It kinda reminded me of a zombie, you know with the whole just walking along - ” She started walking beside him slower and with her arms stretched out in front of her. She shifted her weight from foot to foot unevenly so she was almost waddling like a penguin. “- and the ‘uuuuggggh’.”

“Why on earth are you acting like Frankenstein, Selphie?” A blond boy with a tattoo on the left side of his face said, as he came to walk in step beside Irvine. “Trying to impress the boys, are we?”

Selphie stopped what she was doing and began to walk normally on the other side of Irvine. “Your so mean, Zell,” she said. “And I was supposed to be a zombie.”

Irvine looked from the Selphie to Zell and listened at his two best friends fought with him in the middle. He put an arm around Selphie to comfort her. “Don’t worry, Hun,” he said. “Zell’s just teasin’ you because he likes you. That’s all.”

“Hmph.” Zell replied. “You know that’s about as likely as you liking someone who ain’t your uncle.”

Selphie giggled madly. “Oh yeah, I saw you two love birds this morning when you were making out in your car at the front of the school!” She said excitedly.

“You were doing what in front of the school?” Zell almost yelled.

“Selphie!” Irvine glared at the girl. “We were not making out. He was giving me my kiss. That’s all.” He explained.

“Oh,” Zell sighed.

“Yeah, and it’s still as cute as the first time I saw it when you transferred to our class.” Selphie said, practically jumping up and down. “It makes me melt every time I see it. Aw, Irvy, you’re so lucky. I wish I’d get kissed everyday by the man I’m love with.”

“Selphie,” Zell began. “Are you even in love with anyone?”

Selphie paused a moment and brought her finger up to her lips to think about it. “Well, no. But if I was in love with someone, I’d want him to kiss me every time we’d part like Squall does for Irvine.”

“The only reason Squall does that for me is because when I was ten I wouldn’t leave until he gave me a kiss on my forehead like my parents used to do for me before they died.” Irvine said.

Both Selphie and Zell stayed silent. They were always like that when Irvine mentioned his parents. Since it didn’t happen often they were never really quite sure what to do. Selphie was the first to break the group’s silence though, she couldn’t stand when one of her friends were sad so she decided that it was always up to her to change the subject onto something happier.

“Did you do it last night Irvy?” she asked.

“Do what?” Irvine said, giving the girl beside him a funny look.

“Oh, you know, confess your undying love to a certain scarred hottie.”

“Oh yeah,” Zell said pumping his skilled martial artists hands into the air. “That was supposed to be your big night. How’d it go?”

It was Irvine’s turn to be silent. He continued walking in the direction of their first class of the day and didn’t say a word.

“Didn’t go so well?” Selphie asked, pouting a little.

“It didn’t go at all,” Irvine finally replied.

“Aw,” She wrapped her arms around her best friend in a comforting hug. “Poor Irvy. Don’t worry, though. I’m sure you’ll be able to tell him soon.”

“Yeah,” Irvine agreed, hugging the girl back. “I know, because tonight will definitely be the night.”

Zell and Selphie exchanged a knowing look. They knew that Irvine probably wouldn’t be able to work up the courage to confess his love to Squall but they both were going to be supportive. Especially since it had taken him so long for him to tell his two best friends his true sexuality. Oh course they had already known he was gay, but it didn’t matter.

“Of course.” Zell smiled. “You can do it, man.”

“That’s the spirit!” Selphie cheered.

Zell looked down at his watch and his smile faded. “We better hurry up guys, or we’re going to be late for class.”

“Aw,” Selphie whined. “I can’t be late. Professor Trepe said if I’m late one more time she’s going to call home. I’ll get grounded for sure this time.”

“We’ll be fine,” Zell assured her. “We’re almost there and we’ve got two minutes left before we’d be considered late. Besides, Trepe probably has her hands full with the new transfer kid that she probably won’t care if we’re late.”

“New transfer kid?” she repeated.

“Yeah, weren’t you listening yesterday when Trepe announced it at the beginning of class?”

“Selphie and I were both late yesterday morning.” Irvine said.

“Oh right,” Zell said smiling sheepishly. “Well anyways, there’s a ton of rumors floating around about him. He’s supposed to be some real badass that got kicked out of his last school. Oh, and I heard that he failed a grade, so he’s a year older than us.”

“Oh wow,” Selphie said. “Sounds exciting. It’s been so long since this school had a transfer student. I wonder if he’s anything like Vincent Valentine.”

“I don’t think so. The world doesn’t need another guy like Valentine. He’s as bad as they get.”

Irvine and Selphie nodded in agreement as they followed Zell into their first classroom of the day just as the bell rang for class to begin.

~*~

Today was going to be the perfect ending to the perfect day, thought Irvine. Sure, It had started out a little rough this morning when he woke up late and ended up almost not making it to his first class on time, but it got better. Irvine had taken the bus home, instead of his normal walking, so he’d arrive home before Squall. Selphie suggested he make heart-shaped cookies for his guardian to make it easier to confess. The brunet thought that it was a wonderful idea so he started right when he got home.

“This is so easy,” Irvine told himself as he added the correct amount of eggs to the gooey mixture that was supposed to be cookie batter. He wasn’t sure what Zell what so worried about; the blond also thought it was a good idea until he remembered that Irvine doesn’t know how to bake. Irvine figured that as long as he followed the recipe, that it couldn’t possibly be that hard.

After adding the chocolate chips into the mix, Irvine gave it a quick stir with his wooden spoon and decided that it was good enough. He realized that he forgot to pre-heat the oven, a minor set back, but Irvine was determined to do what he had been trying to do for the past year. It was only after he had spent a good ten minutes searching every inch of the kitchen when Irvine came to the conclusion that they didn’t own any heart shaped cookie cutters.

“Damn,” he said. In his search, he also noticed that they didn’t have any cookie sheets to bake the cookies on. Irvine let a long drawn out sigh escape his lips as he realized that he was going to have to shape all the cookies himself and use a regular old backing sheet to cook the cookies on.

Somewhere around shaping the tenth wad of dough into a heart Irvine nervously glanced at the glowing red numbers of the clock from the microwave. It was taking him longer to make these than he first thought. Squall would be home in about fifteen minutes, and he had to find a way to hurry things up, or he’d loss what little confidence he had at the moment and chicken out.

Taking measures into his own hands and decided to speed up the entire process so the cookies would be ready to eat by the time Squall walked in the front door.

~*~

AN: I hope you enjoyed it. Sorry about the semi cliffhanger ending for this chapter ... I was really excited to post the first chapter. ^_^;;

And in case anyone is wondering where the title and chapter titles are coming from, I'm using lines from Great Big Sea songs.

May 1st, 2007:
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