12

We stayed like that for what seemed like an eternity, staring at one another while catching our breaths. Seifer was the first to react, his eyes coming back into focus and losing the battle-ready glare they'd been giving me. He stepped back and raised the gunblade to his shoulder, his face inscrutable. I rose to my feet, idly coiling up my whip. I couldn't look at him; I had this funny feeling that if I did I'd run from the room screaming.

"Well, Instructor," Seifer said casually. "Looks like I win this round."

I forced my eyes to look at him, afraid of what I'd find. I wasn't quite prepared for the slight frown that was playing across his features. Even when he saw me looking at him he didn't wipe it away; his brow furrowed more, as if he himself was puzzling over what to do next.

Confused now but not wanting to give any ground I nodded cautiously, glancing around the room as if for support. Nothing, of course; I'd gotten myself into this predicament, it was my duty to go through with it.

There was a growl from Seifer and before I could respond I was shoved roughly backwards against the wall behind me, slamming hard enough to make me catch my breath. Two thick arms stood quivering on either side of my head, one pinning my right arm almost parallel to my neck, the other clenched in a fist to my left. The wall was protected by a mat so mine was a soft landing, but seeing Seifer's face mere inches from mine made me stop wondering why he hadn't been rougher. His eyes searched my face, looking for something - again, I had no idea what. I kept my face neutral, not flinching even as his own came closer.

His gaze flickered low on my face, then back up to my eyes. "I could, you know," he growled, his eyes burning.

He was close enough that his breath grazed my face, and I shivered. I knew what he meant, understood him completely...but it wasn't fear that made me shiver. Something else was clouding my mind, unfocussing the rest of the room around Seifer's face, and I wasn't sure I wanted to examine it very closely. Again his eyes flickered down my face, and I tried to back further into the wall.

He must have felt my withdrawal because his eyes narrowed and grew heated. He stared at me with an unreadable expression, then asked, "Why did you accept the challenge?"

My mouth went dry. His breath smelled of mint and coffee, and it dawned on me just how close he was. I had never willingly let anyone this close before; any others who might have attempted it had been put swiftly and painfully in their place. Every so often a new student would try to impress his friends by putting the moves on Instructor Trepe, but they always came out the loser. Indeed, my mind was going through moves I could use on Seifer designed to inflict maximum damage and humiliation in a relatively short time...yet I just stood there, staring stupidly up at him.

"I repeat, Instructor, why did you accept my challenge if you were afraid of the consequences?"

"Huh?" I hadn't been paying attention to what he'd said, so realizing I'd been asked the same question twice confused me. What was it he wanted again?

His head jerked back in surprise at my answer, the angry look fading from his eyes. They narrowed again, and this time a slow smile played across his mouth. Before I could think of why, Seifer lowered his head and my breath rattled in my throat as he nuzzled my hair, his lips breathing past my ear. Going lower still he trailed his chin and nose down across the unprotected side of my neck, nestling his face in the hollow of the left side of my throat. His lips never moved, never trailed kisses as I had seen Rinoa do to Squall sometimes, but a fierce burning sensation travelled up from my stomach to my chest and I had to bite back a moan. Seifer lifted his head again, and now the ghost of his familiar smirk moved across his lips. His eyes were different, though, a deep burning green I'd never seen before. Of course, I'd never been this close to Seifer either.

Maybe it was the smirk that did it, or maybe I just suddenly realized who it was I was snogging. Reality trickled through my mind, and although it didn't wipe away what was happening to my body my mind finally began to work again. "Will you just get it over with Seifer?" I asked coldly even as my body cried out for much more.

I don't think I meant to be that blunt, certainly not that cold, but it had an interesting effect on Seifer. There was a moment of shock, as if whatever he thought I was going to say wasn't that, then...hurt. Shame. Rejection. Anger. In that order, and all flashing past in an instant. I was close enough to see what it was and understand it.

The hand still gripping my wrist tightened as his face grew cold again, a muscle ticking furiously in his jaw. He looked incensed beyond belief, and I knew that, somehow, I had hurt him personally. Now I was starting to really fear for my safety, but before I could try anything he shoved away from me, picked up his gunblade in one fluid motion, and stalked silently out of the dueling hall. I heard a muffled crash come from the locker rooms, the sound of a distant door slamming, then silence again. I was alone.

I stood for a moment just leaning against the wall, then slowly began to slip down it. I landed hard on my backside (the floor here wasn't protected by a mat), but didn't even register my tailbone's pain as I brought a shaky hand to the side of my neck. What the hell had just happened? One minute I'd been fighting my tail off (I noticed the pain as I thought about "tail"), the next I'd been snogging with Seifer?! How on earth had that happened?

I tried to shake it off, but it was impossible - I had only to bring up my hand to my neck to know what had happened. There were no visible marks, not even any stubble burn as he had been clean-shaven, but I could feel it inside: I knew it was there. And I didn't know what to do about it.

The squeak of a door opening brought me out of my thoughts and I looked up to see someone come into the dueling hall. For an instant, I was deathly afraid it was Seifer and we'd start again on this whole confusing scenerio...but it wasn't.

"Are you alright Quisty?" Ellone asked softly, concern evident in her eyes as she hurried over to my side.

* * * *

"Well," the older girl exclaimed after I'd told her the story. A pause, then a lower, "Well ..."

I hadn't intended to tell Ellone what all had happened, but she'd caught me at a really bad time. Few things shock me; I pride myself on being totally inflappable and able to take up any challenge, but this completely blindsided me. When I started speaking it was in jerky half-mutterings, an easy signal that something was wrong; when Ellone confronted me about it I tried to deny it, but she told me if I didn't say anything she'd ask Seifer was had happened. She's apparently passed him while trying to find me, and put two and two together.

There was no way I was going to let him give his side of the story, but it still took her threatening to get the truth by whatever means necessary before I spilled my guts. As she was as powerful as a sorceress and had time to tweak in her hands, I decided talking would be easiest.

Now we both sat there against the wall, each unsure what to say next. As the silence stretched, my mind began pulling interesting tidbits out of supposedly thin air. The more I thought about it, I realized I couldn't remember a single time when Ellone had critisized Seifer. Zell, Selphie, and Irvine had talked a lot about him, mostly disparaging things; Squall very rarely spoke of the blond, and Rinoa steered clear of the subject. I myself hadn't exactly been vocally critical of him, but that was because it was my job to stay impartial; Hyne knew what I'd been thinking about him. But Ellone, even when she'd been around us during those times, had never participated in the talks; if anything, she'd tried to stop us or change the subject whenever it turned to Seifer-bashing. Unfortunately, she divided her time between Garden and Esthar so wasn't always there, leaving us to get comfortable joking at the expense of the blond man.

"I think," Ellone started and I looked eagerly at her, but she lapsed again into silence. It might have been amusing at any other instance just how desperate I was for guidance right at that moment, especially that of an older woman. Of course, she was older only by five years but when you're nineteen, a difference in age like five years might as well be a lifetime. I felt anything but amused, however, as I waited avidly for whatever she might be able to tell me.

Ellone glanced at me, then sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time since we'd gone quiet. "I think," she said slowly, "that I'm not the one you should be asking for answers. I myself have never been in any relationship this, um, complicated, and I don't know if I could help you right. See if you can run it by Matron Edea; she may have a bit more experience in matters of the heart."

I visibly deflated, my shoulders slumping forward just a bit. I'd have to tell someone else now? While I loved Matron, no doubt about it, somehow telling her my love life was like...like...I don't know, but just wrong. She was like a mother to me, and who wants to tell their mothers about boys they'd been snogging.

"I'm sorry I couldn't help you Quistis," Ellone said, looking a bit crestfallen herself, "but I have something I've been wanting to ask you too. Have you noticed if Zell is acting peculiar?"

"Zell?" What could be the matter with Zell?

"Yes, well, he'd been acting a bit..." She waved her hand around delicately, searching for the word. "Depressed lately. Do you know why that might be?"

Zell, depressed? Funny, I hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary and told Ellone so. She nodded, but implored me, "Could you keep a close eye on him? I haven't been able to talk to him as much as I used to lately, and whenever I do...I don't know, he just seems sad. Please keep an eye on him Quistis, and talk to Matron about your problem. I'm sorry I had to saddle you with more worries."

I waved it off. "No problem, you know me: I thrive on these kinds of things." Indeed, her telling me her suspicions of Zell had taken my mind almost totally off of Seifer. It was a relief not to worry about why I'd acted like that and have something else to think about. "Actually," I added, standing up, "it's about lunch time and they should all be in the cafeteria. Care to accompany me there?"

"Sure," she replied softly, taking my proffered hand to help her to her feet. "It's been a while since I talked to everyone together."

We exited the dueling hall, chatting casually about business in Esthar and Balamb, both Seifer and Zell momentarily forgotten. That is, until I stepped out and saw Seifer standing at the far end of the hall, leaning against a wall. I stopped, my brow furrowing, but before I could do anything he pushed off the wall and turned down the corridor next to him, disappearing from view.

*

Wow, I ended it without a cliffhanger!! That's a first in this fic, but if I ended where I'd wanted to this would be WAY too long. :) Anyway, I do hope ya'll like it, I'll try to get the next chapter out soon. :D

On another note, if you are interested in keeping up with this fanfic (as Author Alert no longer works unless you pay money), when it's updated or new chapters are added, I've developed a mailing list from Yahoogroups that announces when I've done anything to the fic - that way, you won't have to keep checking this fic page to know if it's been updated or not! :) If you're interested, just go to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QK_fanfic and sign up. It's not self-promoting or anything, it's mostly a newsletter-type thing (right now it's free discussion for members but if people don't like that just let me know and I'll change it to only me posting the new stuff). I just thought I'd give you guys the chance to keep watch on this fic a bit easierly (um, is that a word? *grin*). Thanks again!!! :-)