Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Cross Sword x Lion ❯ Chapter 6

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

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Laguna sighed as the cramp eased down due to the work of the hands on his leg, he quickly cut off the thought what else they could do if they would just rise slightly higher, in favor for answering the taller man kneeling in front of him. "That's no reason to resign, Kiros." He said as he stood up and moved away from those at the moment too tempting hands. "It's downright ridiculous to leave over something like that.."

Kiros blinked to hide his disappointment as Laguna moved away, denying his fingers the soothing warmth of their task, and struggled to gain a firmer grasp on the lustful thoughts that were suddenly clamoring for his complete attention. Watching Laguna, he'd suddenly been assailed by the idea of what it might feel like to go from massaging the muscles to taking a grasp on both legs...and then lifting them to drape over his own hips as he...'.God..'

But Laguna was speaking then and he managed to snap his attention back to the words, turning each over within his mind as if it was the first time he'd heard anyone speak them. Desperate to keep from finishing the delightful little train of thought that was now centered on the delightful imagery of Laguna's fair-skinned legs twined about his own dusky body. ' Kill me...kill me now. Just let the turbo lift explode and I'll be the happiest casualty in the history of men who've died in stupid ways.'' "Ridiculous.. sir?"

Laguna crossed his arms over his chest as he nodded in response to the short question. "Yes, just because we work together doesn't mean we can't have a relationship." He paused for a moment, unfolding his arms as he turned to walk back to his office. "Now, I want you to make sure that whatever answer we get from Balamb Garden is on my desk tonight, and that those orders you left to file your resignation are canceled. I'm going back to my office now."

Still crouched near the set of the turbo lift, Kiros just stared after the reality of the man who was now crying out his name in ecstasy within his damnably one-tracked mind and came to a sudden epiphany. He had no idea what had just happened. One moment, Laguna was there and he'd still had every intention of resigning...then the cramp...and now Laguna was walking away, calmly giving orders as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened and all of his well meaning intentions had fled.

At a complete loss, the taller man slowly regained his feet, still staring after his friend, and wondered at what point, exactly, he'd lost control of the situation. ' I hate it when he does something like that...'' Walking, senses still in a state of Laguna-induced shock that he'd experienced a few times in the past, and jokingly referred to as the ' Laguna Syndrome', he'd made it back to the secretary's desk to cancel his resignation before it completely dawned on him. '...He said we could have a relationship...'

Youkai hissed as the blow shattered the newly created bones and broke out of the shell of skin and bones, once more serpentine in form, the crimson and ebony scales gleaming in the sunlight as the crimson fluid dripped from them to the ground, staining the few flowers that hadn't been crushed underneath the corpse now laying on the ground beneath him. Considering quietly, he slid away from the useless shell and examined what he had taken from the young sorceress's mind when he had held and tasted her.

A young man came into his mind's eye, dark brown of hair, eyes like storm-tossed waves, a scar across his face.. a name. Squall. How quaint a name. With a bare ripple of power, he shifted his form, the scales blurring this time, the ebony bleeding into pale peach and soon an exact replica of the image from his mind stood there instead of the massive serpent. He stretched briefly, lifting a gloved hand to run it through the loose brown hair before turning to face the direction the young woman had fled in. "Time to get down to business, I think." He murmured quietly, silently pleased with the form and the possibilities that were in the upcoming hunt.

Everything was blurred as she fled, mingled and distorted, both within and without as she pushed her body, ignoring the weakness of shock and the fatigue of the blood loss from her injury to flee blindly across the land. Tears to blur her vision, the conflict of thoughts and emotions to cloud her senses, the scent of flowers and blood mingling into a cloying, sickening perfume in her lungs. And beneath it all, pulsing in time to the frantic beat of her wounded heart...a name...a calling.

Need.

'..Squall..husband...' She fell once, her heel turning on a rock that was hidden in the grasses that hid her path from view, making her flight treacherous, and she cried out softly as she caught herself with her arms. Another stone flayed open her palm, splashing the earth with crimson, but then she was up on her feet, running again, too injured to fly and shocked past all thought but the desperate need to put distance between herself and Youkai.

Youkai calmly walked the distance the raven haired sorceress had placed between them. He didn't need to worry about losing her trail. If the scent of her fear wasn't enough, he also had a convenient blood trail to use as well. He paused once at a place of crushed flowers and a splash of crimson, a rock in the center of it, telling him all he needed to know about what had happened. A faint, vague smile curved his lips as he turned back to continue following her, lifting his voice to call her name in a mockery of the one, who's form he currently held. "Rinoa! Where are you?!"

When her ankle failed her again, leaving her on her hands and knees in a tangle of ebony feathers and crushed blossoms, she'd been to winded to rise again so had remained prone, panting to try and regain her breath. The injury had become a fiery brand, taking her other pain and leaving it as nothing in the face of the constant throb of agony that seeped crimson over her body.

The she caught something on the wind that made her briefly doubt her sanity. Squall...here? Looking for her?? Had he followed her when she fled the Garden...to come here...where he'd given the promise? Pain, grief and fear merged in her mind and she wanted nothing more than to find him, to face what she'd done and find some way to return to what she'd lost. Drawing a shaking breath, Rinoa rose to her feet and cast back her head as her voice rose in a tearful cry. "Squall! I'm here!!"

The smile that had curved Youkai's lips, now shifted into a quiet smirk as he heard the voice calling out, revealing that his target wasn't all that far ahead of him. He allowed the expression to fade, assuming the stoic look the figure had held when he had examined the memory before as he moved towards the direction the voice had come from. After several minutes he finally spotted her and continued towards her in silence. He would play the game out to its fullest, until there wasn't any more use in it. Using the same voice he had earlier he spoke quietly towards the winged figure. "Rinoa.."

Trembling with relief and a strange mixture of dread, Rinoa just stared at him for a moment, attempting to judge his emotions and mood from the damned stoic mask that she hated...and loved. Then she was flinging her arms around his shoulders, without having been aware of crossing the last few feet between them, as her wings trembled violently behind her. And the words escaped her lips, pouring up from her throat, in an uncontrollable torrent as she began crying against his shoulder. "Squall...Squall I'm so sorry...I didn't mean for...I didn't want to attack either of you like that but it just hurt me so much to find you like that it was like I'd lost my senses and oh god I'm sorry...I'll do anything if you'll forgive me."

Squall stood just behind the massive column that held the Bridge of Balamb Garden, dark eyes scanning the damage done to the window in front of him silently. He listened as the door opened, the chattering giving the owner's identity away without him even having to look. A voice followed the excited delivery of speech, also giving its owner away, the sound lower than the first but not as high as the voice following the first two, voicing questions about what Esthar could possibly want with a bunch of SeeDs, considering its own military force.

Squall turned away from the window and moved around the large column to face the three people now in the large office, he glanced over at Irvine, the grayish jade colored eyes locked with his own gaze and he pulled his eyes away, not liking what he saw in the sharpshooter's eyes. Sometimes, he felt that nobody realized that the tall teen saw more than he let on, he suppressed the disturbance that Irvine's gaze had brought. Turning his attention to the other two, he straightened his mind back into its usual order and spoke. "We'll be heading to our destination first thing in the morning, we'll travel to Trabia by ship, land and then travel to the mountains by chocobo and then head for Esthar. Any questions?"

Zell immediately raised his hand, while subtly pinching Irvine's luscious ass with the other, and began yapping despite the brief pain of Selphie's foot connecting with his shin. "Chocobos? C'mon...not those ball busters again. What about taking the Ragnarok, buzzing in low and dropping hot. Save time and my gonads..."

Selphie shook her head while managing to give Zell her most ferocious glare...which might, on its best day, make a fly quiver in mild apprehension, kicked her friend again and turned a questioning look to Squall. "...you'd have to grow them to bust them, Zelly...but why not use the ship? And just what does Esthar want with SeeD anyway?"

Squall barely kept from rolling his eyes at the interaction, noting with quiet relief that at least one person besides him in this room was going to act in a civilized manner as he watched Irvine ignore Zell, then reevaluated that thought as the gunman wrapped an arm around Selphie, dropping his hat onto her head as well to quiet her down. "One, yes we are using chocobo's, they're cheap, relatively easy to use.. Two, the Ragnarok takes fuel to fly, seeing how we are in Balamb and not Esthar, where such fuel is abundant, we're going to save on what we have for when we actually do need it. Three..I expect you all to behave when we reach Esthar and find out what this mission entails."

Ignoring Zell's sputters, Selphie lifted Irvine's hat just enough so it didn't block her vision and snuggled up against his side. "Good point. Er.. points. And you can count on us, sir, we'll keep Zellers in line."

Zell's reply was a small puff of air and a glare towards the yellow blob of annoyance that was Selphie. ' I will not hit my friends. I will not hit my friends. I will not hit my friends...hell with it, I can get another. I will not hit her in front of Squall, I will not hit her in front of Squall...' With the mantra soothing his temper, Zell managed his best grin and nodded "Sure thing. And I'll make sure Selph doesn't get plastered and blow chunks before the mission like last time."

"Last time Zell. It was cough syrup and I just didn't agree with it. So shut it. Anywho.. when do we leave Squall?"

Squall closed his eyes, praying to whatever gods that were listening for the patience he needed, so he didn't take off both their heads for acting this immature right before what could be an important mission. Thankfully, something up there was listening and he heard Irvine speaking to both of them. "If you both were listening, instead of trying to out insult each other, you would have heard him tell us already.. we leave in the morning..."

Selphie lifted her eyes to Irvine, giving him her best wounded look before crossing them and poking out the tip of her tongue, muttering. "Well I coulda heard him, but I was too busy watching Zell fondle my butt." One of her smaller hands closed around the denim-covered cheek that Zell had so rudely pinched, as if she were reclaiming her territory.

Zell, at least, had the decency to give Squall a sheepish smile. "Right then. Morning. That leaves us plenty of time to chow down and get stocked up. So unless there's anything else...there are a few..ahem..last minute goodbyes I need to make scattered around in the dormitories..."

Squall barely kept himself from rolling his eyes in disgust and turned away from all three of them. "Yes, you're all dismissed, meet at the front gate in the morning."

"Yes sir." Giving a half-assed wave of a salute, Zell cast a little smirk at Irvine and then made his way from the room, his mind already turning to thoughts of food...and the oh so easily impressed cadets that were almost ready to take their final exams.

Selphie was a little more accurate in her salute, even if it did almost knock Irvine's hat from her noggin, then her mind also took a sudden divergence. "Ohmigosh! I have to tell the rest of the committee that I won't be making the meeting tomorrow. EEK! We were going to vote on the finalized budget!! I'll see you two tomorrow!" Then, turning on her heels, hat on her head, she took off at a sprint, tramping down the halls in her single-minded pursuit of the rest of the festival committee members.