Noire

Body

Author:- Kat

Disclaimer:- I don't own Final Fantasy or Squaresoft or anything in particular to be honest. I do however own a box, but don't take that away from me! It's mineeeee!! And I don't do drugs if that was what you were thinking? Honest!

Notes:- I got another tip for you that has no relevance whatsoever to the fic: it's also not a very good idea to eat a vast amount of food, then run the 1500m during P.E followed by a game of rounders. Take it from me, don't do it. Unless you're forced to run the 1500m of course like I was. Damn P.E teachers....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*= Changes in times, places ect.

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Promises


The oak door of Quistis Trepe's office clicked shut softly, faint footsteps on carpet soon following. The blonde, female, head SeeD walked silently to her desk and sat down. She removed her glasses in order to rub the tiredness from her eyes and sighed exhausted.

She hated her job sometimes, especially on days when she had too many meetings and paperwork to fill out. But it all came as standard when she accepted the job as 'head of operations' at SeeD headquarters.

Quistis leaned back in her chair, picking up one of the papers on her desk and placed her glasses back on, reading through it. It was this week's report on another illegal weapons and drugs trade in the north. Something twinged inside the blonde's mind, reminding her of something when she read the word 'drugs'.

Seifer.

The head of SeeD operations was expecting Seifer. She glanced at her watch; in five minutes exactly she was to talk to him about how things were going with his mission. But she also wanted to talk to him about Fujin.

A SeeD had informed Quistis the other day that Seifer had hit Fujin for a forth time. And as far as Quistis was concerned, it wasn't to happen again after words had been had about the matter.

If Seifer was to carry on abusing Fujin, the silver haired volunteer would have to be forced to give up her place in SeeD in fear of her safety.

Quistis folded the paper she had in her hands several times, wondering at where she might get another volunteer to replace Fujin if she did have to drive her off the team. The blonde leant back forward and threw the paper onto the desk, reaching down past her chair to her handbag. She fumbled around in it retrieved a compact and lipstick.

"Damn foundation..." Quistis mumbled, observing her reflection and rubbing at the tacky concealer she had on. She flipped the top off the red lipstick in her hand and applied it carefully over her lips, pressing them together and pouting.

There was a knock at her office door, which broke the silence in her large office. "Come in!" She shouted and looked at her silver watch again.

Seifer came in and followed the usual routine of standing before Quistis, saluting and sitting in the chair opposite her desk.

Quistis leaned forward onto her desk, resting her elbows on the hard wood and crossing her hands underneath her chin. "Seifer, I'm sure you know why I've called you here today?" The female tried not to sound too annoyed, but kept her voice on the same tone.

"Yeah, 'coz I've been a bad, bad boy," Seifer sighed sarcastically.

"Then I won't have to go through this again with you I will. But, do I honestly need to explain it to you a forth time?" Quistis lowered her hands to the desk surface.

Seifer rubbed his forehead. "Not really, I practically know your lecture off by heart."

"Then why do you persist, Seifer?"

"She-"

"You know very well that Fujin is a volunteer! She joined this team of her own will and she doesn't deserve to be abused!" Quistis cut off Seifer's sentence and left her chair to pace around to the front of her desk.

The blonde female knew the only way to get things across to Seifer was to shout and express actions in a big way. His skull was as big as his ego at times. Which was big.

Seifer groaned and shook his head. "You don't know what really goes on in this operation do you? You don't even know the half of it. All you are aware of is that I'm trying to bring this drug dealing dude to justice with the help of Fujin. But if you-"

"That's not the point, Seifer! The fact is that if you keep on hurting Fujin, she'll have to be let go!"

"You can't do that! She's far too deep into the operation now; taking her away would ruin a lot of things and people would get suspicious. Very suspicious!" Seifer sat forward.

Quistis folded her arms. "Then the only solution is for you to stop abusing her! I had a talk with her yesterday after a SeeD told me you'd hit her again, have you seen the mark on her cheek?! An injury like that is enough evidence to take to the police on the account that she is being abused! Do you think a police involvement with SeeD will help our reputation?"

Seifer stood up and confronted Quistis face to face. It was the same argument that ensured every time that Seifer was called to Quistis' office, but it just so happened that today the head of SeeD operations had decided to see what'd happen if she mentioned the cops.

Quistis stood proud like a peacock, arms folded over her chest and a slight smirk on her face. She was sure that Seifer would calm at her mention, but wasn't prepared for Seifer's next statement.

Seifer watched Quistis' smirk turn as he raised an eyebrow. "Ah, but did you know, my dear elder in the hierarchy, that Fujin is involved with a member of my mission's staff?"

"Zell?" Quistis and slipped away from Seifer's gaze and back to her chair, always uneasy at his titanic 'I'm right and you're wrong' look.

"Yeah, Zell. She's been going out with his right hand woman for a few years now."

Quistis was irritated that Seifer had changed the subject, but wondered at what he was saying. " But if Fujin's relationship is running too deep with the mission, problems could arise," Seifer commented.

"Forget about that for the moment. I'm still more concerned about what you're doing to my volunteer. You have no right to harm her when she does something wrong, I'm sure it's not her fault. Everyone makes mistakes, Seifer," Quistis sighed and rubbed her eyes again. "I know you have a tendency to break promises, but I want you to promise me that you'll not harm Fujin again?"

As good at breaking promises as he was, Seifer knew he would have to promise something to Quistis to make her shut up. As far as Seifer was concerned, he'd blocked out most of the female's lecture anyway since he'd heard it before.

An invisible smirk appeared inside of Seifer and without Quistis noticing, he slipped his hand behind his back and crossed his fingers. "Yeah, ok. I promise."

Quistis smiled and leaned back against her chair. "Well then, that's settled. We'll talk some more later about Fujin's involvement with Zell, but that's it for now. Don't slam the door on your way-"

A loud slam interrupted her sentence. Seifer was out of Quistis' office before she could tell him not to slam her door, which he did on purpose anyway.

"-out" Quistis finished her sentence in the echo of the loud bang and silence.

She sighed, asking herselfut wut whether Seifer would keep his promise or not. He'd broken so many promises before that were important to the missions. She picked up a pen and began to fill in some forms that were due in late.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The weird lighting in Zell's office was reflecting off the glass of the window to create a streak of white across the ceiling in the silence. Squall sat comfortably in Zell's lap, his arm draped around the blonde's neck and his other pulling at a kink in his trousers. He laid his head against Zell's shoulder lightly.

"What's up?" Zell asked softly, bringing his hand to stroke at Squall's hair, his other arm was snaked around Squall's waist.

Squall blinked slowly, his breathing incoherent. "Tired. That's all."

The brunette recapped on all the running about he had done that morning and afternoon: he'd supervised three shipments during the afternoon because Steve and another worker, Chris, had called in sick, and then Squall was rushing around the warehouse checking several boxes were right because they had been miscounted.

He'd also had to shout at Selphie since she thought it would be funny to put Cocaine in Leo's coffee instead of sugar.

All day, Zell had been out, so Squall had been in charge of the warehouse while he was away. When Zell came back, he swore it was hell and said he wasn't going to do it again.

"Awww, darlin'. I'm sorry I had to leave you on your own, but this meeting I had to go to was really important," Zell apologised.

Squall lifted his head, meeting Zell's eyes and smiled slightly. "I know. It's ok, just promise you won't leave me in the warehouse with Selphie again?"

"I promise," The blonde leaned forward and pressed a kiss to Squall's lips. The brunette smiled against the kiss and opened his mouth to allow Zell's tongue access for a round of tonsil hockey.

At that moment and totally as if on cue, Selphie burst into the office.

"Hey, Sir, there's a-woahhhh!!" Selphie sprinted halfway across the carpet but immediately stopped and tried to get her legs to run back out.

Squall and Zell parted hastily at the sudden entrance. Zell glared angrily at Selphie and removed his arm from Squall's waist to point at her. "Oi! What have I told you about knocking?!" He asked, annoyed.

"Um, well, you told me when I joined that you might be doing something...um, important if your door is closed and so I should always knock first," Selphie blushed, her cheeks tinged pink, but she shifted her eyes back towards the door occasionally.

Zell nodded, lowering his hand to Squall's thigh. "And what do you think I am doing?"

"Erm, something important?" Selphie put her hands behind her back and scuffed the floor with her feet. She'd seen the two kissing in public, but never on their owns and she felt embarrassed about invading their personal space. She shifted anxiously on her toes.

Squall smiled to himself and snuggled closer against Zell. He thought it was funny when employees got told off for some reason. But he also noticed Selphie bouncing nervously on the balls of her feet and trying to smile but failing.

"Now, what did you want?" Zell sighed. "Make it quick 'n all."

Selphie jumped back to the door at a shout that echoed throughout the warehouse. "There's a fight goin' on downstairs!! You have to get down there!"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"Fucking hell! Fujin! What happened?!"

Fujin immediately wondered about whether she should've come home or not without putting some concealer or foundation on the mark on her face. Rinoa who was all over her, mothering her like a child, instantly greeted her.

"Rinoa, please don't," Fujin pleaded, stopping her girlfriend from suffocating her in hugs.

Rinoa frowned, gently gliding the palm of her hand over the red mark of Fujin's cheek. "Fujin? What's happened? How the fuck did you get this?"

"I had a hot drink in my hand, I fell backwards and it splashed all over my cheek," Fujin lied. As much as she wanted to, she managed to let the truth about what really happened out. Just one word could fowl the whole mission she was involved in and her career at SeeD.

"Oh, baby. Are you ok?" Rinoa asked, her voice soft and caring.

Fujin nodded gently. She held back the tears painfully; not wanting to recap on what Seifer did to her. "Ya, I'm ok. It doesn't hurt."

Rinoa knew something else was going on, she just didn't know what. But all Fujin's disappearances, the lies she was telling, the days she spent away from home; they were all adding up inside Rinoa. Eventually, it was going to get to a point where she couldn't accept any more lies and just finally asked what the fuck was really going on.

The ebony haired female had her suspicions about where that injury really came from, but nevertheless, Rinoa still comforted her girlfriend and soothed her. She still made her sit down on the sofa in their lounge while she went to retrieve the first aid box and stick the kettle on.

"I'm sorry, Rinoa. I wish I could tell you the truth..." Fujin mumbled, leaning back into the sofa.

Rinoa sidled away from the door to the lounge and back to the kitchen, having heard what her girlfriend had said. A thin tear ran down her cheek. "I wish you could too," She whispered.

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A/N:- Um, not very long I know, but, as usual schoolwork mostly has it's way. Chapters will get longer *snickers*

~Kat