Adult-FanFiction.org : Final Fantasy

Mind Games	By : danihouse Category: Final Fantasy VIII > Yaoi - Male/Male Views: 942 -:- Recommendations : 1 -:- Currently Reading : 1
Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy or any of the characters represented in the story, and I make no profit from it.

Chapter List
- 1-Mind Games
- 2-2
- 3-3
- 4-4
- 5-5
- 6-6
- 7-7
- 8-8
- 9-9
- 10-10
- 11-11
- 12-12
- 13-13
- 14-14
- 15-15
- 16-16
- 17-17
- 18-18
- 19-19.1
- 20-19.2
- 21-20
- 22-21
- 23-22
- 21
- 22
- 23
Zell grumbled indistinctly to himself as he rolled out of bed. The one day this week he'd decided to sleep in - reasoning to himself that he was probably going to be up until all hours of the morning at Selphie's party, and therefore he deserved a lie-in - and someone had to come knocking at the crack of dawn. He glanced at the clock - well, quarter to nine. Close enough.

"Carmina?" he said with slight surprise as he opened the door. She beamed up at him with a load of books and things in her arms. If he had expected anyone, it probably would have been Miri, Quistis, or Seifer, in precisely that order, but the surprise wasn't unpleasant. "What are you doing here?"

"Did I wake you?"

"Yeah."

"Good," she said, looking positively cheerful that she had managed to ruin someone's morning. She pulled something from the stack of book in her arms and handed it to him. "The new issue of Combat King came out yesterday. And here's last month's issue, which you never even picked up."

"Oh, thanks," he said, taking the two magazines, and trying with limited success to not feel utterly confused. "So you guys are doing home delivery now, is that it?" he asked, with just a hint of sarcasm.

"Not at all. I actually came to deliver a message," she said coolly. "You've got two books overdue. Not that I would normally come round just to harass you about that. It's just that a few students have been asking after that plant encyclopedia."

Zell had to think about it for a moment. He didn't even remember borrowing it. "Okay, I'll... get on that."

Carmina gave him a studying look, with that same smile on her face as though she was enjoying a joke to which he was not privy. "In fact, that's also not the reason I came round," she said, contemplating her nails. "You need to come by the library and have a talk with Miri. She's been nagging my ear off about you avoiding her all week long."

"I haven't done that," Zell lied. "If she wants to get a hold of me, she can just call."

"She said she tried that. She also said she waved at you in the cafeteria and you turned around and walked away," Carmina remarked.

"I must have not seen her."

"Twice."

Zell didn't say anything. Carmina's expression was everything that was smug and satisfied. She was clearly well aware that Miri was waiting on some gossip, and was eager to hear it secondhand as soon as Zell was finished telling the other girl. Fat fucking chance, Zell thought to himself. If Miri thought she was just going to go and blab his sordid little secrets to anyone she pleased, it'd be the last time he ever confided in her.

"She's working today at noon," Carmina went on, rearranging the stack of books in her arm with a breezy casualness. "Bring your books back and kill two birds with one stone. She probably won't even remember about the late fees."

"I'll be sure to do that," Zell replied, shutting the door on her and her self-satisfied grin. He heard her striding away down the hall, the stacked heels of her boots click-clacking on the floor. So Miri was employing her friend to guilt-trip him into confessing, now was she? She had guts. That still didn't make Zell want to have that talk with her.

He supposed he had to look at it from her point of view. He had been utterly panicked and sure of disaster before leaving for Deling City, the last time they had talked. She had been waiting now for more than a month to know how things had gone, and whether or not Zell had managed to keep up all the claims he'd made beforehand - something about not playing Seifer's games and such, he recalled. What a joke. Not only had he played Seifer's game, he had taken it over and beaten Seifer at it to boot. That, he figured, was worth telling her, except for the fact that to do so would be to reveal a lot more about the budding relationship between him and Seifer than he was sure he wanted. Especially as he wasn't as of yet certain of where said relationship was going.

He did a quick search of his room and found the two books Carmina had mentioned. She had said that Miri wasn't working until noon; he could probably pop down to the library right now with minimal risk of seeing her. Now that he was up, he wasn't going back to bed, that was certain. If he went out early in the day and did something productive, it would make him feel like less of a slob for sitting around the rest of the day watching bad telly and eating junk food, which was the plan. With that thought, he hopped in the shower, and then collected his books and rather cheerfully headed down to the library.

He didn't know why he was surprised that Carmina had straight-up lied to his face; the first thing he saw when he walked through the door was Miri, standing at the desk with a barcode scanner and a tower of books, giving him a look that said quite clearly that she not only knew very well that he had been purposely avoiding her, but that she had some choice words for him regarding his behavior this past week. He really shouldn't have run away from her, he thought with a pang of regret - although he would have done it now, if that were possible, but their eyes had met and there was no pretending that he hadn't noticed her. So, gathering his courage for the inquisition that was to come, he approached her at the desk.

"Hello, Miri. How have you been?"

"Don't you 'hello, Miri' me!" she said coolly, brandishing the scanner like a gun. Zell shielded his eyes. "You know perfectly well you've been avoiding me and I'm not pleased about it!"

"Sorry," he said half-heartedly, and he held out the two books to her. "I brought you these," he added sheepishly.

She pursed her lips, but took the books and checked them in. "That will be 240 gil for late fees," she said.

"I haven't got my wallet on me."

The line of her lips grew tighter. Zell could see in her expression that she was struggling with the dueling feelings of wanting to be cross with him and wanting to get her questions answered. "You've done your hair differently," he remarked next, going for a change of topic.

She reached up to touch her hair, which was styled in a thick braid that ran around her head, instead of her usual ponytail. "Yes, well. Abus said my ponytail was boring. So I decided to change it up a little."

"Is that the guy you're seeing?" Zell asked.

"Was," she answered with emphasis.

"Well, I think it looks lovely."

"Thank you," she replied, looking mollified by the compliment despite that she was clearly trying not to. "But don't think you're going to flatter your way out of trouble."

"I wasn't trying to," he said, which was mostly true. She didn't say anything further, and for a minute or two, Zell simply stood there watching her check in books. Eventually she looked up at him, her eyes alight with curiosity. "Well, are you going to tell me what happened, or what?" she asked fiercely.

"What happened?"

"You know!" she said, her voice low but intense. "In Deling City."

"Oh. Nothing happened."

"Obviously something happened," she said, giving him the most skeptical look ever.

"Well, I mean... stuff happened," Zell replied with a shrug, trying to seem innocent, a feat he was usually quite good at. From the look on Miri's face, she was not buying it a bit. "Nothing particularly worth mentioning."

"You are lying so bad," she said, but a small grin had appeared on her face. "Did he... you know... find out?"

Zell didn't answer. He gave her the blankest look he could manage, but her expression was quickly growing from curiosity to suspicion. She looked around discreetly, as though scanning the area for eavesdroppers, and when she was satisfied that they were alone, she waved Zell to join her behind the counter. He slipped around to the back, and they both crouched down on the floor, out of sight. Miri took a folded card sign from a shelf that read "out for break, back in 10 minutes" and set it on the counter above them.

"Zell, what happened?" she asked him again, her tone low and conspiratorial. She was smiling, which was a bad sign; it meant she was on to something. "Did he find out about your... your thing?"

Zell almost laughed. His thing. Yeah, Seifer had found out about all his things - and Zell had found out a few things of his own, hadn't he? He was trying to figure out if there was a way to word it without making Miri all red and giggly when he realized it was too late; his lack of an immediate answer had told her all she needed to know.

"He did find out..." she whispered, sounding wondering. "But how? I mean, you didn't tell him? No, he's smart, he probably just figured it out," she went on, talking mostly to herself. Zell gave a noncommittal kind of half-nod, not wanting to either confirm or deny her conclusions. "Well, so then what? How did he react? I mean, was he horrible about it?"

"Erm," Zell said, thinking earnestly. He wouldn't say Seifer was horrible - not in the sense that she meant, anyway. "I guess he was... okay? Not worse than normal, I mean."

"Really? He wasn't, like, disgusted or anything?" she said in a surprised tone. Then she looked even more surprised, as though she had just made a shocking realization. "Or..." she began, trailing off.

Zell still didn't say anything. She was putting it together in her head; he could see it. And there was nothing he could do to stop her. "Or, Zell," she tried again, giving him a piercing look with wide eyes, "did something... did something happen?"

"Well, when you say 'something'..." he replied vaguely. Immediately he regretted it, because his reluctance to give her a solid no was enough to tell her that the answer was, in fact, a resounding yes.

She leapt on it. "You kissed," she said in a sharp tone, looking almost surprised at her own words. Her grin grew wider, giving her an almost mad look.

"Miri..."

"Oh my god, you did more than kiss," she breathed, staring at him. Her eyes were perfectly round and her jaw dropped slowly lower and lower until she was gawping at him as she processed all this in her head. He didn't deny it, which was confirmation enough for her. "Oh god. Oh shit, oh god, oh shit," she muttered, her voice rising in pitch.

"Calm down, for fuck's sake," Zell hissed at her, hoping very much that she wasn't about to get hysterical. She had that expression on her face as if the conversation was going a whole lot faster than her brain was.

"Oh my god. You guys... you guys... you guys..." she stammered, unable to get the words out. Zell was more glad than not that she couldn't. What she was trying to say was one thing he absolutely didn't need anyone to overhear.

"Yeah, yeah. Settle down. I'll tell you all about it," he said, trying to placate her.

"Oh, god, Zell. I don't think I have the strength."

He wanted to laugh, but somehow didn't think that would go over well. After a few moments, Miri managed to calm herself, and she sat staring at him with her hand over her mouth, looking partly wondering and partly horrified - Zell wasn't sure if he ought to be offended or not.

"Oh my god," she said again quietly, shaking her head. "So what now? I mean... holy shit," she went on, giving a nervous sort of giggle.

"What now? What do you mean?"

"Oh, come on," Miri said sharply. "You know. What's going to happen now? Are you guys, like, seeing each other? Are you in love, or...? Oh, god, what if someone finds out? How are you going to keep it a secret? I mean, how often, really-"

"Miri, please, stop," Zell cut her off, stopping the flood of questions pouring from her - all questions he couldn't have answered for her if he wanted to. What was going to happen now between he and Seifer? Fuck if he knew. He'd been thinking himself in circles all week and hadn't come up with any solid answers. He was going to have to lie. "It's not like that... at all."

Her eyebrows went up in a display of curiosity, but she said nothing. Zell sighed, running his hands through his hair as he tried to put together something legitimate-sounding in his head. "Look, it just... happened. Just once. It was on toward the end of the trip and we were both pretty drunk one night, and it... you know, happened. That's all."

"What, that's all?" she said skeptically. "After all that? I mean, after what you told me last time-"

"I know what I said before, but it's... it's not really like that," he said, somewhat lamely, remembering with some regret the huge deal he'd made out of his extremely unwelcome (at the time) attraction to Seifer. Luckily, he had a tailor-made excuse on hand that was perfect for exactly this situation. "Like... once I had accepted the, you know, attraction, it was easy to ignore. Seifer's personality was definitely more than enough to make me reconsider any... y'know... thoughts that might have crossed my mind."

Miri stared at him, and he held her gaze, wondering if she would buy it. She was a girl, after all, and worse, a psychology student, who would be liable to want to dissect everything he said until she had every detail down pat. However, she was also, interestingly enough, a romantic; he could sell her any story as long as he was properly vulnerable and heartfelt while he did it. The trick was finding the balance between the two - fabricating a story that was equal parts embarrassed honesty and reasonable-sounding bullshit. And lying wasn't exactly Zell's strong point, either.

"I don't believe it," she breathed, but to Zell's relief, she didn't look like she meant it. "I mean, you didn't even, like, want to jump him or anything? All that time?"

"No," Zell said. "Well, maybe a little. But like I said, I could just ignore it. We were fighting so bad most of the time that I really wasn't thinking about... other stuff."

That was a brazen lie; he had, in fact, been thinking about stuff during most of those four weeks, if not predominantly, than at least at the back of his mind. And Seifer was nearly impossible to ignore on any level. The attraction between them was like magnetism - hard to fight, stupid to even try. "I think by the end of the month we were both so fed up with each other that it all just came to a head, and... well, you know what happened," he went on, shrugging. "And then it was over in the morning. We talked and stuff and agreed that we weren't going to make a big deal out of it."

"Wait, wait, wait," Miri interrupted him, and for a second he was afraid she was going to call him out on that last whopper of a lie, but all she said was, "does that mean you guys are through?"

"We're not going to be sleeping together, if that's what you're asking," he answered.

She went very red at this blunt remark, and - to Zell's surprise - looked somewhat disappointed. "Why, what were you expecting?" he added.

"I don't know. Maybe..." she trailed off with a shrug, and didn't elaborate. "I guess I was thinking it might be... nice... if you two got together..." she went on a moment later, looking away from him in embarrassment.

"I think 'nice' is the last word I'd use to describe it," Zell said. "It'd probably be horrible."

Miri nodded, but she had a dreamy look on her face that Zell wasn't used to seeing. She was just as bad as Quistis, honestly; she had gotten herself caught up in some kind of romantic fantasy scenario. All the more reason for him to bend the truth for her.

"It couldn't have all been horrible, though, was it?" she asked next, her cheeks still glowing pink.

"I'd say it was about 99% horrible," was Zell's answer. She frowned, and gave him a frosty look as though he had deliberately missed the point.

"But what about... yanno... the sex?" she whispered.

"Oh, Miri, please..."

"I'm not looking for a play-by-play or anything," she was quick to assure him, fanning herself a little with her hand. "Just a yes or no answer is fine."

"Yes or no? What are you asking?" he said.

"Was it good?" she asked, lowering her voice even more, until he could hardly hear the question. When he didn't give her an immediate reply, she went on, "It must have been. I mean, Seifer, you know?"

Yeah, Zell knew all right. "Why does it have to be Seifer? I'll have you know I'm pretty good, too."

"Oh, sweetheart, you don't have to tell me," Miri replied with a smile. She put her hand over her mouth, looking baffled and overwhelmed. "Wow," she said after a while, and they sat together in silence for a few minutes, until she managed to get her thoughts straight. "So, was it," she began eventually, still looking dazed, "was it, like, the best sex of your life? I won't be offended if you say yes."

"To be completely honest... it doesn't really compare to any sex I've had," Zell had to admit, which was entirely true; it had been a whole new experience on a number of levels, sleeping with Seifer. And, yes, it had definitely been the best sex of his life (so far,) but he wasn't going to come right out and tell Miri that, particularly when he was supposed to be convincing her that it was never going to happen again. That wasn't technically a lie, he reasoned, because of course there was a chance that it wouldn't ever happen again - but certainly not if he had anything to do with it.

Miri sat for another minute taking that last statement in, and Zell let her mull it over for a while. "W... wow," she repeated, giving a sigh. "So even after all that, like, you're not going to see each other again? It's just, you know, it seems like a waste," she added sheepishly.

"I wouldn't say that. I mean, there's a load of reasons why it would never work," Zell replied. "For one, we can't stand each other. And it'd be dangerous. But to tell you the truth, I'm pretty much over it," he said, shrugging casually. "I think the one night was enough. Now that we've done it, it's over, that's all."

Miri made a face at him, and he suspected she wasn't entirely buying this, but she didn't call him on it. "That's just... a shame," she said, shaking her head. "I mean it's not like I like Seifer or anything... but... I don't know..."

"What?" Zell prompted when she trailed off. She gave him a hesitant look, as though unsure of whether or not to tell him what was really on her mind. "Go on, say whatever you're gonna say," he added.

"It sounds ridiculous," she began, her expression reluctant and embarrassed. "I guess I had half-convinced myself that you two were... I dunno, might be good for each other. Some part of my brain wanted to think that you guys actually might be a perfect match."

"You read too many romance novels," Zell said, and to his relief, Miri began to laugh. The suddenly panicked beating of his heart slowed a little - thankfully she found the idea more ridiculous than not, because Zell personally thought that one had hit a little too close to home. He had found himself thinking the same thing more often than he liked recently. He couldn't resist, however, and asked, "Um, just out of curiosity... why would you think that?"

Miri gave him a long, studying look. "What, now you wanna listen to my psychobabble?" she said teasingly, raising an arch eyebrow. "I thought you weren't into psychology."

"If you don't want to tell me, that's fine," he replied, which was guaranteed to make her want to tell him.

"It's stupid. I was just thinking that..." She paused, sighed, and then went on, "well, I was thinking about how neither one of you really knows what he's looking for. You're not actively seeking a relationship; in fact, you never do. So I thought, well, maybe it's because you two already have an excellent relationship-"

"Miri, who are you kidding? Our relationship is fucking awful," Zell interrupted. Miri shook her head.

"Yeah, you think so, but it's not from my point of view. Just because you don't get along doesn't mean your relationship is bad. In fact, you and Seifer are always completely up-front and honest with each other, and you have no qualms about saying what's on your mind or working things out the hard way. The only thing your relationship was lacking was sex, and since you tried that and neither of you found it exactly, well, disagreeable, I thought that maybe..." she trailed off again, looking thoughtful. Then she shook her head again, her expression half-disappointed. "Well, the whole idea was silly; I guess I let my fancy run away with me. But you have to admit, it could have been amazing."

And it's definitely going to be, Zell thought to himself, trying not to grin. If he'd been having some doubts over the past few days, he was past them now. Miri had just perfectly summed up what he enjoyed about his relationship with Seifer - the more he thought about it, the more he was pretty sure that Seifer, despite his litany of flaws, was an excellent match for him, once they got past the head games and started being up-front with each other. The mind-blowing sex didn't hurt his case, either.

He couldn't exactly admit that to Miri, however. "Ah, well," he said, giving her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, "it's okay. You can't get it right every time."

Zell could hear the racket from Selphie's party all the way down the corridor. She had commandeered the ballroom for the event, and Squall, clearly aware that any resistance shown to her would be futile, had let her. The whole quad was decked out in streamers and balloons, and there was a strange glimmering quality to the light that was coming from the ballroom that made Zell suspect she had found a disco ball somewhere. That didn't bode well for anyone's dignity.

He was halfway down the corridor when he was suddenly grabbed by the arm and pulled sideways into a small alcove behind a door; he spun around and very nearly took his assailant's head off before realizing who it was. "Seifer?" he said, lowering his fist.

"Hello," Seifer replied, grinning in the dark.

"Man, what the hell are you doing?" Zell asked, smiling a little as well despite himself. The other man looked as if he was in a good mood - everything from his stance to his expression declared it so - and Zell wasn't going to go and ruin that by pretending to be angry. In fact, he wasn't at all angry - was quite glad to see Seifer, even if the circumstances of this particular rendezvous weren't ideal (why couldn't Seifer just ring him? Sheesh.) But getting pulled into darkened nooks by the gunblader was sort of par for the course by now, wasn't it?

"Thought we could have a chat," Seifer said in response to the question.

"You know, I was about to clock you a good one," Zell said.

"I know."

"Hope it's worth it."

"It always is," Seifer said, leaning in a little bit. His voice, so low it was practically a purr, hit Zell right in his weak flank, and he was suddenly urgently aware of how very much he was craving Seifer - everything; the sound of his voice, the hard press of his body, his lips. Avoiding Seifer for a week had given Zell ample time to run his mind in circles, vacillating endlessly on what he thought he wanted; and now, something as simple as just being near Seifer was enough to clear his doubts on every level. What he had told Miri earlier couldn't have been further from the truth. He was beginning to doubt whether a whole lifetime would be enough to cure him of the lust he was feeling for Seifer.

"Seriously, though, what are you doing here?" Zell tried again, attempting to ignore the fact that Seifer was leaning a bit closer still. He didn't back away - he was through with letting Seifer back him into walls, for one, but he also had no desire to have any space between them - he'd rather it was quite the opposite, in fact. Seifer didn't fail to notice this, and smirked.

"Selphie invited me to her party, I'll have you know," he said coolly.

"Maybe, but I guarantee she didn't do so with the intention that you'd actually show up," Zell replied, giving a little smirk of his own. Seifer shrugged.

"Touché," Seifer said. "Don't worry, I'm not going to crash Selphie's party. Actually, I'm glad I didn't have to go in there to find you. But we do need to talk, and I was getting sick of waiting for you," he explained casually.

This surprised Zell a little - that Seifer would admit that, for one - but he tried not to show it. "Is that so?" was all he said in response, aiming for nonchalance. Seifer, as usual, saw right through it.

"You know it is," he murmured. "Don't play that coy shit with me."

"Don't," Zell said warningly, unconsciously taking a step back as Seifer moved forward, reaching for him.

"Zell-"

"People around," Zell said, shaking his head.

"They're all inside the party," Seifer replied.

"I know that. But if you touch me right now, then I'm probably gonna have to fuck you right here in this corner, and it's a good bet people would hear," Zell said coolly, which was nothing less than the truth. Seifer's smile, which had never for a moment faltered, grew wider.

"Fair enough," he said, backing away.

"So we need to talk. What do you want to talk about?"

"Well, I think you've already answered one of my questions," Seifer remarked, quirking one eyebrow in an amused expression. "And very eloquently, I might say."

"That's me, mister eloquence," Zell muttered. At that, Seifer laughed, and Zell had a sudden unbearable urge to taste that mouth again - to kiss him hard, to memorize the fit of Seifer's lips against his, to fight him for control, and to eventually, happily, relinquish it. His knees felt weak with how much he wanted it. He briefly entertained the thought of blowing off Selphie's party and dragging Seifer back home with him right this moment - no, bad idea. Selphie would hunt him down - literally, with weapons - if he skipped out on her tonight. He wasn't thinking straight.

Seifer leaned back against the wall, putting his hands in his pockets. "Look," he said after a minute, his smile still present but his demeanor, on the whole, more serious than before. "It occurs to me that neither of us were very clear about things that last night in Deling City-"

"I thought I was very clear, actually," Zell interrupted, and Seifer started. "I like you. For some reason that I can't fathom... but I do. I said as much."

"Alright, fine," Seifer said, "I wasn't very clear, then. It's... not something I'm good at," he added, looking irritated at the fact that he even had to admit it.

"Yeah, I'm aware," Zell said. Seifer gave him a cool look.

"Okay, well. I guess what I'm asking is..." He paused, frowning. Zell waited, acting much more patient than he was feeling at the moment. He knew Seifer was bad at this sort of thing - or any sort of thing that involved honest communication, really - and it was somewhat endearing to watch him struggle through it. "Well, what I mean is, do you want to do this thing or not? Because I do."

"'Do this thing'?" Zell repeated, and he couldn't stop himself from laughing. Seifer looked startled. "Do I want to 'do this thing'? You make it sound like some lame fitness motivational poster."

Seifer gave him a very long, flat look, and Zell was afraid for a moment that he'd pissed the other man off. He probably shouldn't have made fun of him when, really, Seifer was just trying in his own way to do things properly. But boy was he bad at it. A few seconds later, however, Seifer was grinning again.

"Do you always get so uptight when you're horny?" he asked snarkily.

"Yeah, obviously. Where have you been the whole last month?" Zell retorted, matching Seifer's smirk with his own. The gunblader looked pleasantly surprised by his sass, and he stepped forward again, bringing himself closer to Zell.

"So. Uh... a relationship?" he said, sort of a question. Zell pretended to think about it for a couple of seconds.

"Fucking?"

"I hope so," Seifer said. Then he pulled a wry face. "Dating?"

"Hmm," Zell replied, grimacing a little. "Probably not a good idea. Risky."

"Friends?"

"Only in private," Zell said, smiling as he leaned up toward the other man. "We're still going to have to pretend to hate each other in public, you know. At least for now."

"That shouldn't be a problem," Seifer said, and he was nearly on top of Zell now, who suddenly realized that the wall was at his back - so much for not letting Seifer corner him anymore. Not that he minded, not at all, not with Seifer so close to him - definitely not when he could feel the heat from the other man's body, and smell the cigarettes he'd been smoking, and under that, the scent of his cologne, a woodsy, earthy scent. He didn't wear cologne often - or at least, he hadn't worn it often when they were abroad - and Zell had been eternally grateful for that, because it made him want to run his tongue over every inch of Seifer's skin. Although, now that things were all out in the open, he didn't see any downsides to that idea.

"Also, quit hitting me," Seifer went on, his tone teasing.

Zell pretended to consider it. "You drive a hard bargain," he said.

"At least in bed, huh?"

"I'll try, but I've got fifteen years' instinct working against me, you know," Zell said playfully.

"Are you going to hit me if I try and kiss you right now?"

"God, I should," Zell groaned, but instead of doing any such thing, he grabbed Seifer by the front of his coat and yanked him down into a kiss. Seifer met him eagerly, slipping his arm around Zell's back and pulling their bodies flush together. This only went on for a minute or two - or, who knew, five, or thirty? Zell didn't care, he just knew it was too short - before they both pulled back. "This is a bad idea," Zell said.

"I feel like I should agree with you, but I don't want to," was Seifer's reply.

"No, really, quit it," Zell said again, dodging the other man as he advanced again. "I hear somebody coming."

"You do not."

"This kind of shit is why I keep wanting to hit you, Seifer," Zell murmured, and in response, the other man gave him a highly skeptical look.

"You're kidding, right?" Seifer said, leaning back. "I should be saying that to you, with all the fucking runaround you're giving me-"

"God, you're so bloody stupid," Zell groaned, grabbing Seifer by the neck again and yanking him forward into another kiss. This was starting to get irritating. "Is it deliberate?" he asked after another moment or two, when they parted. "I mean, it's like you're trying to misunderstand me. I can't tell if it's on purpose, or if you're just actually incapable of listening to me-"

"Sorry," Seifer interrupted him to say, which surprised Zell; he usually had to work a lot harder to get an apology out of the other man. "Old habits, I guess. Don't tell me you're not struggling with this. The idea that you and I are ever going to get on any better than this, it's..."

"Ludicrous," Zell supplied when the other man trailed off. Seifer just smiled.

"Exactly."

"And yet... here we are," Zell went on, smiling himself. "Makes you wonder what's wrong with us."

"I know precisely what's wrong with me. I'm crazy about you, and it's doing horrible things to my reason," Seifer said quite coolly. "Like convincing me it's absurd to continue standing here talking about this when we could be somewhere else doing... something else."

Zell wanted to come back with an appropriately flip response to that, but his brain had caught on the phrase "crazy about you" and couldn't yank free. Seifer continued to grin.

"Speechless?"

"Little bit, yeah," Zell said.

"Good," Seifer replied, "that's just how I like you."

He crossed the space between them in a step, but Zell managed to unstick his tongue before Seifer could render him any more inarticulate than he had - which would be a feat, indeed. "Crazy about me, you say?" he said wonderingly.

"Well," Seifer said after thinking for a moment, and - to Zell's great pleasure - he looked vaguely uncomfortable, as though regretting that he'd even said it in the first place. "I wouldn't call what we're doing sane by any stretch of the imagination, would you?"

"For someone who's bad at being honest, you sure can be brutally honest," Zell remarked.

"There's no pleasing you, is there?"

"Now that's not true, and you know it very well," he said in response, his voice all but a purr. Seifer's expression was nothing short of predatory as he leaned down close. "Don't," Zell said sharply, ducking back. "Someone could come."

"Let's go back," Seifer suggested.

"I can't," Zell said, with some real regret. "I have a party."

"Skip it."

"I can't."

"One party? You can't skip one party?"

"Selphie's expecting me," Zell explained. "I can't bail on her. She'll hurt me. Literally."

"What's the worst she could do?" Seifer scoffed.

Zell gave him a long, skeptical look. "You're obviously not very well acquainted with Selphie."

"No, I try not to be. It takes some effort. I'm quite proud of it," Seifer replied bitingly. Zell sighed, and pushed the other man back.

"Yeah, I'm sure she appreciates it as well. Look, why don't you just go back and-" Zell began, but he stopped abruptly. The reason for this was because Seifer had suddenly vanished - Zell blinked once, twice, and frowned, feeling confused, but he didn't have more than a moment to wonder about it before another face appeared in front of him to take Seifer's place.

"How's that feel, Mr. 'I'm too good to be friends with anyone' Almasy?"

"Selphie, what the?" Zell stuttered, jumping back from the girl who had just popped up between he and Seifer, who, upon inspection, was now laying on the floor very much unconscious. Selphie grinned, twirling her nunchaku and striking a victory pose.

"I was wondering when you were going to show up!" she chirped, giving Zell a mock-pouty look that was only more unnerving for the fact that she had just knocked out a man twice her size from behind in complete silence. Zell stumbled out of the alcove behind the door, carefully stepping around Seifer's body, and she followed him, bouncing on her heels.

"What are you doing? You can't go around hitting Seifer!" he said, with perhaps a little more vehemence than he meant. Selphie frowned up at him, still twirling her weapon deftly around her hand back and forth.

"Oh, don't worry, he can take it. Anyway, what were you doing out here with him? He's not coming to my party, is he?" she said worriedly.

"You knocked him out," Zell said.

"Yeah, well," she said, shrugging, "it looked like he was bothering you."

"He was, but-" But I wanted him to, Zell thought privately, but he could hardly say that. "But I can handle Seifer. Now he's gonna think I need a girl to stand up for me."

"No one who knows you would think that," Selphie replied, scoffing. Zell tried not to show his relief that she seemed to buy it. Suspicion wasn't in Selphie's nature - thank god it had been her and not Quistis who found him. "Are you coming inside or what? We have beenwaiting for you. Nobody's seen you in, like, ages."

"What about..." Zell paused, turning to glance back at Seifer, who was laying prostrate on the floor in the corner. "What about Seifer?"

"What about him?"

"Selphie," he said sternly. He was probably sticking up for Seifer more than was natural, but if Selphie had her way, she'd likely leave the gunblader there for Garden Faculty to find in the morning and not think twice about it. She pouted again.

"Oh, just leave him. He'll wake up eventually. I didn't hit him that hard."

She grabbed his arm and pulled him toward the door, but he shook her off. "You go ahead," he said, trying to look both nonchalant and irritated that he even had to deal with this. "I'm just going to make sure he's alright."

"Well, he's probably going to be out for a while. I've got sleep junctioned," she cooed, but Zell waved her off, and without further argument, she retreated into the party. Zell waited until the door was firmly shut behind her before he approached Seifer, checking twice to make sure the hallway was deserted. Although, when he thought twice about it, maybe he'd have been better off going inside with Selphie - the very last thing he needed was for Quistis to hear about this, not when Zell hadn't yet had a chance to have a talk with her about what had happened before he'd left for Galbadia. There was a conversation he was dreading almost as much as he had the one with Miri. Well, he'd have to take his chances; but still, he prayed that Selphie didn't happen to mention the fact that she had come upon him rather intimately secluded in a corner with Seifer. He didn't have any explanation for that.

At least Selphie had good timing; another thirty seconds squeezed into that little nook with the other man and they'd probably have been tearing at each other's clothes. He knelt down beside Seifer, gingerly touching the lump that was already forming on the back of his head. Selphie hadn't held back - not surprising, despite her insistent claims that she didn't hold a grudge - Seifer was going to have a wicked headache, if nothing else. Maybe it would be kinder to let him sleep, but Zell didn't know what he'd do with him in the meantime. He rolled Seifer onto his back, and shook him gently by the shoulder.

"Seifer," he said, shaking him harder when his first efforts proved unsuccessful. "Seifer, wake up. Hey."

There was no response. Zell sighed. "Hey, wake up," he said, slapping the other man across the face.

"Stop it," Seifer grumbled, blinking awake. He shoved Zell's hand away. "What are you doing?"

"Oh, you're awake," Zell said dully.

"What the hell just happened?"

"Selphie clocked you a good one on the back of the head," Zell answered. Seifer pushed himself into a sitting position, reaching a hand up toward his head. "I wouldn't touch it," Zell warned him, "It's pretty ugly."

Seifer made a pained noise, sitting back against the wall. "That girl," he said, scowling. "And you're wondering why I don't go out of my way to be friends with her?"

"Give her some credit. You were practically molesting me against the wall," Zell replied, smiling a little. Seifer didn't seem amused.

"I won't make the mistake of doing that again."

"Too bad," Zell said, which at least eked a half-smile out of the other man. They sat in silence for a few moments more, Seifer clutching his head and making quiet hurt noises as he tried to gather his wits.

"Don't you have a party to get to?"

"You gonna be alright if I go?" Zell asked mildly. Of course Seifer didn't need him there to take care of him or anything, Zell knew that quite well; but he was anxious to not have their encounter end on a bad note after all the breakthroughs they'd made already tonight. Seifer just gave him a mean look and waved him away. "Do you want me to kiss it better?"

"I will break any part of you that touches me."

Zell tried not to snicker. "There's the old bad-tempered Seifer I'm used to," he said teasingly. "So can I come by later?"

This caught Seifer's attention, and he looked up, still massaging his temple with one hand. "You can come by now," he countered, a hint of a smile on his lips.

"You've got a headache."

"I'll take something," he said dismissively.

Zell just grinned, leaning in a little bit. "I'll come by later. After the party's over."

"How long?" Seifer asked. Zell thought.

"Two hours."

"I'm not waiting up all night for you."

"Oh, you'll be up all night," Zell said, pushing himself to his feet and smiling down at Seifer, who, despite the pain, was looking nothing less than smug now. "One way or another."

"Is that a promise?"

"More of a threat," Zell said, and the last thing he saw before he slipped through the door into the ballroom was the grin on Seifer's face. Not that Zell could help grinning himself. Things were looking better than they had all week, hell, all month. Of course, he still had to get through Selphie's party unscathed...

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Mind Games