Mind Games

“You’ve gotta be shitting me!”

“No,” Squall said calmly, stoic in the face of the veritable tantrum Zell was now throwing in the middle of the hallway as a result of the news he’d just been given - news which, it appeared, was not to his liking. “I’m afraid I’m not, sorry.”

“Squall,” Zell said quickly, half-jogging down the corridor to keep up with the brunette’s long strides. “Come on, this is a joke, right? Well, it’s really not fucking funny.”

Squall kept walking, clearly not wishing to deign to answer that. He seemed, in fact, quite inclined to ignore Zell completely, until the martial artist grabbed him by the arm and forced him to stop, his expression desperate as he went on, “You can’t send me to Galbadia with Seifer.”

“Why not?” Squall inquired, the tone of his voice implying amusement, though no trace of it could be found on his face.

“Why not?” Zell repeated, sputtering. “We... we’d kill each other! Having to work together for a month? You know we would!”

“I’d hope not. I’d like to believe the both of you have better sense than that.” The gunblader was thoughtful for a moment, and then he added, “Consider it a test of your patience.”

The blonde gritted his teeth, but didn’t reply to that. It was less about patience than it was about restraint, he thought, but he couldn’t tell Squall that. The truth was, he didn’t know if he could handle spending four weeks - four long, long weeks, they would undoubtedly be - in close quarters with Seifer, trying to be amiable, when he didn’t know whether he more wanted to punch the ex-knight or pounce on him. And where the fuck had Squall gotten the idea that Seifer would be a good candidate for this mission, anyway? Hyne help whoever had whispered that little bit of advice in the headmaster’s ear if Zell ever found out who it was.

“Can I call personal favor on this?” He whined. “I mean, anyone else would be better!”

“There is no one else,” Squall replied sternly. “Seifer’s the best person for the job. He’s the only person for it, as much as I don’t like it.”

“Couldn’t Irvine send someone from Galbadia Garden? Deling City’s in their jurisdiction, anyway, isn’t it?”

Squall turned, facing the other man for the first time in their conversation, and giving him a very probing look, as though he couldn’t quite figure out why Zell was so desperate to avoid going on this mission with Seifer - and, detached as Squall was most of the time, if Zell had to keep pleading his case in this manner, the brunette was bound to get curious after a while, something Zell wanted to avoid at all costs. “General Caraway specifically came to us because he distrusts Galbadia Garden - a lot of people still do,” he explained, with the quiet, patronizing air of someone lecturing a petulant child. “But even if that weren’t the case, I would not go running to Irvine for help when I’ve got two perfectly capable SeeDs here to do the job.”

“That’s not what I meant,” Zell sighed contritely.

“Besides,” Squall went on, in a rare fit of talkativeness, “Seifer is actually very well qualified for this mission. He’s the only SeeD we’ve got right now who can match you in hand-to-hand combat - he’s the only one who even comes close, you’ve admitted that yourself,” he said pointedly. “Plus, on the few missions that I have sent him on, he’s proven himself to be an exemplary agent... He’s thorough and efficient, not to mention very level-headed in the field, which is more than I can say for some others.”

“Well if that’s the case, why can’t you just fucking send him and leave me out of it?” Zell fairly growled, gritting his teeth - that last had been aimed at him, he knew it, and worse it had been a direct hit. It was pretty obvious that Squall, that nobody trusted Seifer enough to ever send him on any important missions, but Zell also knew that Seifer, when he got serious, could be devastatingly good at what he did, and what riled the martial artist the most about that thought was the idea that he might be shown up by Seifer. Better to suck it up and try to work with the bastard for a month than let his pride take that kind of damage.

“I need the both of you there,” Squall simply replied, and he continued to walk, Zell following after a brief moment.

“Listen,” the blonde tried again, darting in front of the other man to stop him walking away from the conversation, as Squall was prone to doing. “You know I would not ask something like this unless the situation was dire-”

“What situation?” Squall interrupted, looking exasperated now. Zell couldn’t answer, and the brunette took advantage of the silence to add, “If you can give me one reason why you and Seifer can’t work together, I’ll find someone else. One good reason,” he specified.

“I... ah... fuck!” Zell cursed.

“You fuck?” Squall’s lips twitched in what might have almost been a smile. “That would be something.”

“Goddammit, Squall, you’re pissing me off!” Zell roared, and a tightly-knit group of underclassmen moved over to the other side of the corridor as they passed him. Even Squall was making cracks at his expense now? Of course, Zell knew the comment was a joke; the other man would never have said something like that if he thought there was even the slightest chance it could be true. Squall continued walking, looking supremely unaffected.

“You’ll be leaving at six monday morning, then, as planned,” he said in a very final sort of tone, walking back towards the dorms. Zell was left standing in the middle of the corridor, fuming to himself, as students milled past him on their way to class.

“Fuck!” He hissed under his breath, whirling around and stomping away. “Fuck, fuck, fuck me, fuck!”

What was going on lately? Was everyone against him? He paced for a minute or two in the middle of the hallway before realizing where he wanted to go. No, he decided, it wasn’t that everyone was against him; just a select few people who all had the resources, and evidently the desire, to make his life a living hell. And Seifer, the prodigious bastard, had to be behind this in some way or another. It was unlikely that the gunblader had gone up to Squall and suggested himself for this mission - it would be highly suspect, for one, for Seifer to volunteer to work with Zell - he tended to keep his operations a little more covert than that. When it came to his dealings with Zell, Seifer preferred subterfuge; spreading sneaky rumors and making suggestive comments that flew under most people’s radar to undermine Zell’s confidence and drive him into a state of constant suspicion. And what riled Zell up the most was that he was so damn good at it. He didn’t stand a chance against such underhandedness.

So who had been the one to suggest Seifer up for this mission? Someone who knew him, knew he could fight, and had probably at some point seen he and Zell sparring - Zell stopped right where he was. No, it couldn’t be. No matter how good-intentioned she thought she was, there was no way Quistis would have set him up for a situation so inevitably doomed to disaster. But this affair reeked of her interference, and she had been so strange yesterday...

Zell had hardly given their conversation a second thought after she left him after his and Seifer’s fight, but now he tried to think back over what she had said to him. She had seemed to be hinting at something, something she thought Zell would understand without it being said aloud. Something to do with him and Seifer. That must have been how she got the notion that Seifer wanted to be his friend; you’d certainly have a hard time deducing such a thing if you only went off the gunblader’s behavior, that was for sure. She probably thought she was doing Zell some kind of favor by giving him some good old male bonding time with the arsehole. This was a catastrophe.

“Fuuuck me,” Zell groaned to himself.


“Well now,” Miri began somewhat hesitantly, with the air of someone who hadn’t a clue what to say next - though Zell hadn’t expected much more of a response after spilling the entirety of what had gone on between him and Seifer over the past couple weeks, excepting, of course, the disturbingly large and growing amount of dirty thoughts he found he was now having in regard to the gunblader, which he didn’t particularly think Miri would want to hear about anyway. Besides, he wanted to judge her reaction to the idea of it before actually confessing that he was attracted to Seifer - he didn’t much like it himself, but there was no use denying it any longer. It was a problem that needed to be addressed, and the sooner he accepted the fact that he was attracted to a man, the sooner he could go about rectifying it. He waited patiently for Miri to go on, but she didn’t, pursing her lips tightly as though trying not to laugh.

“What the hell is so funny?” Zell asked sharply as she raised a hand to cover her mouth, giving a very unladylike snort as she fought back a giggle.

“Nothing’s funny, I’m sorry. It’s just,” She paused to clear her throat, attempting to seem serious, though her lips twitched with restrained laughter. “That’s some situation you’ve got yourself in, isn’t it?”

“I didn’t get myself in it! Be serious, would you! I really need help!” He replied in a loud, desperate whisper, leaning wearily against the bookshelf next to him and knocking a few automotive repair manuals askew with his shoulder. Miri reached over fussily to straighten them out, still biting back a smile.

“I’m sorry. It’s not funny,” She said quietly. “I don’t know how you expect me to help you, though.”

“I... I don’t know,” Zell sighed sharply, irritated. “I just... need some advice? How am I going to fix this?”

“Fix what?” The librarian was thoughtful for a moment, frowning in bemusement. “I mean, if you can’t find someone else to work with, you’ll just have to go with Seifer and suck it up, won’t you? What else can you do?”

Zell hesitated before answering, biting his lip as he tried to figure out how to explain his predicament to Miri. It wasn’t the working part that he was worried about; he knew that Seifer was capable of professionalism when on the job, and Zell could deal with the ex-knight in a professional atmosphere. It was the downtime he was afraid was going to be a problem - they weren’t going to be at parties all the time, and when they were alone Seifer would be the same arrogant, sarcastic prick - a sexy prick, but still - that he always was. Not only was he incredibly skilled at provoking Zell, but he took great pleasure in it, too, and if it wasn’t a big problem in Garden, where they only ran into each other once a day (once if Zell was lucky,) it would almost certainly be a problem if they were stuck in a hotel room together for four weeks. And sure, Zell could go out during the day, but he couldn’t stay out twenty-four seven; he was bound to see Seifer more than he really wanted to... and the gunblader was aggravatingly adept at riling Zell up, in more ways than one. He would never last a month in Seifer’s continual presence.

“Miri,” he said lowly, shrinking even further into the corner in which they were huddled between two tall bookshelves. “Promise you won’t judge me if I tell you something crazy,” he said.

She looked puzzled, but gave what was probably supposed to be an encouraging smile - would have worked better if she hadn’t still been trying not to smirk, but it was a good effort anyway, Zell decided. “Of course, Zell, you know me. What is it?”

“Um...” He leaned in close to her, dropping his voice as low as he could to whisper, “I think, err... I think I’m attracted to Seifer.”

“You think?” was her immediate reply.

“Well, I... I am attracted to him. For sure.”

“You’re attracted to him for sure,” Miri repeated softly, nodding her head in understanding. Then she asked, “How did you figure that out?”

“That’s not important,” Zell replied as his cheeks flushed hot, recalling the number of dreams he’d been having ever since the day after Rinoa’s party, making him wonder if, despite the fact that he couldn’t remember anything and that there was no evidence to prove it, something had, in fact, happened between he and Seifer - something that his unconscious mind still recalled and brought back to the surface in his sleep. It was something he had been thinking about near constantly since the notion first entered his mind, though he had rather it was all his imagination - the anger he felt at Seifer aside, he found he was somewhat disappointed at the idea that something might have happened between them that he couldn’t remember. He certainly wasn’t going to admit that to Miri, however. “You don’t seem too surprised,” he noted.

“Well, he’s attractive,” the brunette said matter-of-factly, flashing a cheeky smile. She cleared her throat and went on in a more serious tone, “Anyway, I guess I already kind of had a feeling.”

“You had a feeling?” Zell gave a quiet groan; was he really so obvious that she wasn’t even the least bit shocked or repelled by the idea of his liking men? No, not men, he mentally corrected himself, just Seifer. Being attracted to one man doesn’t make me gay.

Miri gave a little shrug, flipping her hair back over her shoulder. “Not like, a feeling... you’re not being obvious, if that’s what you’re worrying about,” she explained. “I just remember, you know, the last time we talked, you didn’t seem exactly against the idea of actually sleeping with Seifer. It was other people knowing that seemed to bother you more.”

Zell considered that lot briefly, and felt a little bit better. It was true - it wasn’t the actual attraction that scared him, but the thought that someone might find out about it, Seifer primarily, but anyone. “You’re right,” he agreed, nodding his head and feeling marginally calmer. Of course it would be clear to Miri; the girl knew Zell almost as well as he knew himself, which is why so often he went to her for advice. That didn’t mean anyone else had suspected anything.

“So what you’re really worried about isn’t working with Seifer, but being alone with him so much, is that right?” Miri went on contemplatively. Zell nodded his affirmative, and she thought again for a short minute. “Well, it’s simple: don’t play his game.”

“Pardon?”

“You’re afraid he’s going to provoke you into doing something crazy,” she stated. “So don’t let him provoke you.”

“You don’t think I’d be doing that already if I could?!” Zell hissed, waving his arms wildly. “It’s not as easy as you make it sound, alright?”

“Is he really that good at winding you up?”

“I only wish he weren’t,” the blonde replied bitterly, giving a frustrated sigh. Neither spoke for a few minutes more, until Miri hesitantly broke the silence with a careful question.

“What does Seifer stand to gain from doing this?” She asked slowly, a genuinely puzzled expression on her pretty face.

“The joy of making me suffer?” Zell offered.

“No, really,” the brunette said quite seriously, frowning as she crossed her arms and seemed to really think about it. “I mean, to go so out of his way to bug you? What’s the point?”

“Who the fuck knows what Seifer’s thinking?” Zell said loudly in response, earning a chastising “sshhh!” from someone on the other side of the shelf, and he dropped his voice to add, “Does it really fuckin’ matter? He’s a total dick, he takes pleasure in causing pain to others, that’s all there is to it!”

Miri bit the corner of her lip, her mouth twitching into a grin, but she said nothing. Zell shook his head. “No. There’s no fuckin’ way.”

“Well...” she shrugged.

“You can’t seriously think...” Zell began, but he trailed off. Miri didn’t reply, only smirking and waiting for Zell to go on, and after a long moment, he cautiously ventured, “Quistis did think he wanted to be my friend...”

“That’s one way of putting it, I guess.”

“Oh, come on,” he said exasperatedly. “You can’t really think that Seifer’s in love with me or something, can you? I mean, it’s absurd...”

“I don’t know about that,” the librarian answered, leaning against the bookshelf casually. “Love might be going a little too far, but there’s obviously something that keeps him committed to your relationship if he puts so much effort into bullying you. What you’ve got to ask yourself is, what is Seifer getting from you that he doesn’t get from any of his other relationships?”

“I dunno. The satisfaction of bullying someone weaker than himself?”

“I have a theory, and don’t interrupt, just listen,” she said, a clever little smile at play on her lips. She took a deep breath, pausing for a thoughtful moment before beginning, “What is Seifer getting out of your relationship that he doesn’t get anywhere else? He enjoys the bullying, you said that yourself. It could very well be that he sees it as a sort of friendship - playful, you know. He clearly doesn’t have that sort of relationship with anyone else. That’s what he’s getting out of it - fun.”

Zell tried to absorb this, but it beat him. “Where do you come up with this stuff?” he asked skeptically.

“I’m a psychology major,” Miri said dismissively, waving the comment aside. “Anyway, did you even give it any thought? For someone like Seifer, who gets only contempt and disdain from the whole world, as if he was some kind of monster, the way he acts with you is probably refreshingly normal. Bullying and fighting with you is the only thing he retains of his old life - how he was before the war.”

“I don’t know about all that,” the martial artist said doubtfully, but Miri looked so proud of her conclusion that he couldn’t bring himself to shoot her down. Psychology major or not, she didn’t know what the hell she was talking about - Seifer was a jackass, plain and simple; he liked to bully. That had to be all there was to it. The brunette, however, was giving him a sunny smile and clearly waiting for him to praise her neat, clever little diagnosis, and to avoid having to do so Zell went on, “Anyway, that’s all nice, but it doesn’t really solve my problem...”

“Oh, that’s easy,” she scoffed. “I told you already, just ignore him. Seifer taunts you because your reactions amuse him. Stop reacting and eventually he’ll stop trying.”

“It’s a lot easier saying than doing, though,” Zell said dejectedly. “Besides, he’s bound to think something’s up if I stop fighting back.”

“No, I don’t know...” Miri struck a contemplative pose. “Seifer’s very observant, but he’s not long on imagination. You stop fighting back, his first reaction is going to be to think of some new way to get a rise out of you... No pun intended,” she added with a barely-concealed smirk. “I don’t think it would occur to him to wonder why you’re suddenly tuning him out, or to go the step further and try to discover the reason.”

“Hmm,” was all Zell said in response, mulling this over. It all sounded very plausible, but somehow he just couldn’t see Seifer being so blind to what was going on around him - the gunblader was very shrewd and intuitive, there was no doubt about that. If Zell suddenly became passive, he would want to know the reason so that he could circumvent it. Just giving up because Zell wasn’t providing the reactions that he wanted was patently not Seifer.

“I guess I’ll give it a try,” he said with a good deal less enthusiasm than he wished he could muster, and he gave a sigh. “Well, thanks for the advice, anyway.”

“Anytime, sweetheart,” Miri said chipperly, bending forward to place a kiss on his cheek, and she bounded away happily, her dark ponytail bobbing about her shoulders. She stopped at the end of the row and spun around to face him again, and added in a very stern sort of voice, “You know, it really would be nice to see you around here more often than just when you need advice. Keep me in the loop on this one, would you?”

“Sure,” Zell said listlessly, forcing out a smile for her sake, and she trotted cheerfully away among the bookshelves, leaving him alone in the corner, where he remained for a few more minutes, thinking to himself on how utterly hopeless his case was turning out to be. He’d been banking on Miri having something good for him in the way of advice, none of this “don’t play his game” crap. Like he couldn’t have thought of that himself! If he could just let Seifer’s jibes go by, he would have started a long fucking time ago. It was more difficult than just ignoring the other SeeD - he had so much presence, so much charisma, it was impossible to ignore him, and when he got close to Zell, the instructor found himself so desperate to put some distance between the two of them that he often acted before thinking.

He wandered out of the library, quickening his stride as Carmina’s head came poking out from around a nearby shelf calling after him, no doubt with inquiries regarding the mystery person she and the rest of the fucking world thought he was sleeping with. She’d been trying to catch his eye lately, which at least assured him that Miri had kept her word and not spilled a hint of what he’d been confiding to her. He almost felt bad for avoiding her, until he remembered that he had bigger things to worry about - namely, how in the world was he going to survive the next month?


Seifer could feel the familiar, piercing stare of a crimson eye on the back of his neck before he even turned around - which is why he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find Fuujin in the doorway of his dorm room when he finally did, temporarily abandoning the two dress shirts he’d been trying to decide between in packing for his trip to invite his best friend in. “Where’s your partner in crime?” He asked, remarking on Raijin’s noticeable absence as Fuujin strolled into the room, and she gave a scowl - more of one than she usually wore, that is - at the inquiry.

“Getting the luggage,” she said with a dismissive wave of her hand, sitting on the edge of the bed next to a veritable mountain of clothing, that which Seifer had been sorting through the better part of the morning - not that he was usually too picky about what he wore, but he didn’t have a lot of what could be called dressy attire, and he couldn’t wear his SeeD uniform to every stupid party and dinner and conference he’d have to be attending, not least because it would be highly conspicuous. He held up the two shirts for Fuujin’s opinion.

“Blue or gray?”

“Gray,” she decided after a brief period of thought, and Seifer tossed the blue one aside.

“So where are you two off to now?” He asked.

“Nowhere. We’re on base for a few weeks,” Fuujin answered a bit more cheerily. “Which is kind of a shame, now you’re finally getting out of this place for a while.”

“Word travels fast, I see,” Seifer remarked drolly.

“You seem to be in good spirits about it.”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” he asked with a slight frown, pulling a few things out of his suitcase and rearranging them with the addition of the gray shirt. “I can’t wait to finally get out of this prison to do some real SeeD work.”

“Yes,” Fuujin said pointedly, “with Dincht.”

Seifer paused, looking up from his packing to meet his friend’s inquisitive stare, and he gave her a winning smile. “Even so,” he said coolly, giving an indifferent shrug, “doesn’t change the fact that I’m doing something. And that sure beats the big fucking nothing that I’ve been doing for the past three years.”

Fuujin didn’t answer, her frown deepening in suspicion. Seifer didn’t bother to wonder how she’d found out about his mission, or that he was going to be on it with Zell - she had a way of knowing everything about his life that had long since ceased to bother him. Practiced in the art of nonchalance though he was, Seifer was still having a hard time pretending he wasn’t excited about this mission; not only did he actually get to do some real work for once (well, as close to real work as being a bodyguard to some society princess could be, at least, but compared to some of the pissy little errands Squall had been sending him on lately, it was a dream) but he was going to be spending the whole of it all alone with Zell. Things couldn’t have worked out better if he’d planned it himself. He didn’t know who he had to thank for this wonderful opportunity, although something about the situation screamed Quistis - evidently his playing the wounded lover for her earlier that week had payed off well.

“What are you up to, Seifer?” Fuujin asked sharply.

“What makes you always think I’m up to something?”

She scoffed, as though the very idea that he might not be plotting was ridiculous in itself. “I’ve known you for a long time, and I know when you’re up to no good. Does this have anything to do with whatever you were so gleeful about in Esthar, as well?”

“I gotta say, Fuu, I’m hurt by how little faith you have in me,” Seifer hummed, tucking in a few stray corners, and yanking his hands out of the suitcase just in time as Fuujin reached over and slammed the top shut, seething.

“Don’t bullshit me, now. I’m worried about you is all,” she said, appearing sheepish, but Seifer could recognize one of her guilt trips a mile away. She added, somewhat more demandingly, “You’re way too excited about this mission, and all I want to know is why. It has nothing to do with Dincht, I’m sure.”

He grinned to himself, but didn’t acknowledge the fact that she’d hit the nail on the head. He replied instead, “How did you find out about that, anyway? Isn’t that kind of information supposed to be confidential?”

“There’s only one train leaving for Deling City at six monday, and you’re both on it?” She huffed. “It’s pretty obvious you’re not going there on your honeymoon!”

How well she puts it, Seifer thought privately, only smiling in response to her claim. If only she knew how close she really was to the truth - but it was coming; he could see the gears turning in her head, and in less than a minute she seemed to have hit upon it. She stood abruptly from the bed, one red eye wide and her mouth slightly agape in shock, and she shook her head, more as though trying to deny it to herself than looking for confirmation that what she suspected was really true. “Seifer,” she said breathily.

“What?” He said innocently.

“You can’t be bloody serious.”

“About what?” He flipped the top of the suitcase open again, and Fuujin stepped forward and smacked it shut. She punched him in the shoulder, and then pulled him down to her level by the lapels of his coat, her eye narrowed in anger.

“This is going too far, Seifer, even for you,” She hissed.

“And just what, exactly, are you accusing me of?”

“You know exactly what,” was the quiet, terse answer he recieved, Fuujin’s voice low and deadly. “Even for bullying, this is a bit too much, isn’t it?”

“I’ve no idea what you’re talking about,” Seifer said testily, prying her hands from his coat and rubbing his shoulder - damn, did she ever have a mean right hook. She gave a little shudder, and Seifer thought she was about to hit him again, but at that moment there was a commotion just outside the door and Raijin stumbled into the room, looking first, warily, at Fuujin, who was standing as if poised for battle, and he stopped just inside the doorway, cracking a dubious smile.

“Hey, Seif,” he said.

“Welcome back,” Seifer nodded in greeting.

“Erm, Fuu,” Raijin went on, addressing his partner, “Well, I took your luggage over to your room, but I dropped the square one, I don’t know what was in there, but it kind of rattled afterward-”

“RAGE!” Fuujin howled, shoving her way past her cowering accomplice and stomping away down the hall. Raijin watched her go from the doorway, and then turned to stare at Seifer, looking confused and curious.

“Shit, I ain’t heard her bellow like that in months,” he remarked, frowning. “You musta really pissed her off.”

“Yes, I seem to be developing a talent for it,” Seifer sighed, lifting the top on his suitcase as he returned to packing. Raijin shut the door in a very cautious manner, as though still afraid that Fuujin might burst through it at any moment and berate him.

“What the hell did you say to her?”

The gunblader only offered a shrug, gathering up clothes from his bed. Then, with an inquisitive look toward the other man, he said casually, “I see you’re talking again.”

“Oh-” Raijin looked baffled for a moment, then sheepish. “Yeah.”

“Did she really Silence you?” Seifer asked with a half-smirk, nudging open the door of his closet with his foot and unceremoniously dumping the pile of clothes into an open drawer, not bothering with folding or hanging. He jammed a few stray sleeves and pants legs inside and shoved the drawer with his shoulder to close it before turning back around to face Raijin, who was loitering near the bed, his expression decidedly embarrassed.

“So I got drunk once and sorta made an inappropriate comment about President Loire. He thought it was pretty funny, but Fuu didn’t,” he explained abashedly, folding massive arms over his equally massive chest. “If ya ask me, she takes things too seriously, ya know?”

Seifer nodded, but this didn’t seem to be all there was to the story - Raijin looked distinctly uncomfortable at the subject, shuffling his feet and fidgeting where he stood across the room, like a shame-faced little kid. A thought suddenly occurred to Seifer, and after a moment of thought, he ventured to inquire, “Oh, hell, Rai, you’re not, like, in love with her or something, are you?” He laughed out loud, a grin splitting his face, as Raijin blushed, staring down at the floor. Seifer went on, in between snickers, “You’ve got to know that this can’t end well for you.”

“I know! It’s just...” The other man groaned in frustration. “It’s not like I planned for this to happen, ya know?”

“How in the hell did it happen?” Seifer wondered next.

“I dunno,” Raijin said with a sigh, sitting heavily on the edge of the bed, which sank under his weight. “We had this party a few months ago, in Esthar, and she was all dressed up, and I just thought she looked really... pretty,” he concluded awkwardly. “And I guess that’s how it happened.”

“I see,” Seifer replied, hiding a smirk behind his hand, while Raijin stared very determinedly at his feet. Why he was surprised by this new information, Seifer didn’t know - he ought to have seen it coming a mile away; falling in love with Fuu was proprietarily the sort of stupid thing Raijin would do if given the chance. In fact, now that he thought about it, he was a little surprised that it hadn’t happened sooner; the duo had been working exclusively together for a few years now, and Raijin would have had plenty of opportunities to delude himself into thinking he was in love with his partner... and, well, maybe he was, who knew? It didn’t seem likely - Rai was never long on brains, but he tended to be fanciful, a combination that more often than not led him to make stupid decisions - but Seifer had to suppose that anything could be possible. After all, look at his own behavior over the past few weeks - not that he was comparing his situation with Zell to Rai’s being in love with Fuu.

“What the hell am I gonna do?” Raijin broke into Seifer’s thoughts with a whine, and the gunblader had to turn away to hide his grin.

“What are you asking me for?”

Raijin thought about this for a moment, and then nodded, replying dejectedly, “Yeah, you’re right. This kinda thing’s not really your expertise, ya know?”

Seifer’s smile faded just a bit. “No, not really,” he said dully.

“This love thing’s a bitch, ain’t it?” the other man grumbled. Seifer frowned, leaning coolly against the wall, still facing away from the bed, turning his head inward so that Raijin couldn’t see his expression.

“You can say that again,” He murmured.