Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Final Fantasy Gaiden ❯ Two ( Chapter 2 )

Final Fantasy Gaiden

Chapter 2

(I like my chapters short an' sweet)

by da ClockworkPilot

Thank you so much for reviewing!

At this point I'm going make the identity of Fujin utterly, stupidly obvious for convenience.

The Usual Stuff: I don't Final Fantasy 8, but I do own the action figures of the characters.

Fujin-Raijin Armadodo Almasy was bored.

Very, very bored-with a hormonal, teenage passion.

Choco the chocobo's long leg ticked by on her wristwatch. Rinoa made inventory resupply lists and drank from her "World's Best Wife" mug.

She swore she could feel dust collecting on her eyes.

The sounds of her peers training outside was damn near infuriating. The insects, the birds, (the T-Rexasuars), the soft laughter and shoves and punches and kicks- her hands ached for her bamboo Bo staff, not those flimsy cheapass plastic things that made her practice with.

She knew the other kids in Intermediate Melee laughed at her for not picking a sword or whip or something stupid like that. They placed their money in metal and plastic- she placed her value on the more primal, unprocessed elements. After all, wood was the parent of fire...and wood broke bones easier than most people imagined.

Grinning, she imagined her fingers once again grasped around her solid wooden weapon. Swinging out in her fantasy world, she barely missed Yamato (who was surprising agile for such a tall, lanky, and perverted guy) his stupid vertical ponytail bouncing like a mop end on his head. He was trying to run now, but she was right behind him. She was going to make sure she shattered every bone in his hand so he'd never, ever touch her again...

"Almasy"

She tackled him, awkwardly, dropping her staff to wrap her arms around his legs. He pushed himself up, slipping out of her grasp, leaving her lying on her stomach like an idiot.

"Almasy..."

He was like a Hynedamn snake, fast and slippery. Laughing at her clumsiness, sliding out of her fingers like water. She'd kill him, she snap his spine and bash his deflated brains into his skull and hurt him and kill him and hurt him over and over...

"Almasy!"

The he'd see what she was really capable of...

"ALMASY!!"

"Huh? What?," She sat upright with a start, her trimmed nails digging into her soft leather seat. Hovering ominously above her was a scowling Headmaster Leonhart, greatest of the six heroes of the Second Sorceress War and not a morning person. Her heart was iron-clad hand beating against her chest , "Sir? Headmaster?" Oh shit oh shit oh shit.

"Not ONLY do you disrupt our Garden's educational environment by continually picking fights with other students, but you fail to give me proper respect and attention to owe me as your superior!-"

"Sir, I am so sorry, sir"

"AND you interrupt me-"

Oh, Fuck.

"Sir, please forgive me, sir"

If only I could keep my goddamn mouth shut...

"As I was saying...I am beginning to doubt your potential to become a member of SeeD, in spite of your abilities. Strength and skill are nothing without self-discipline."

"Sir, permission to speak, sir."

His overbearing presence was lifted as he turned away from her, rubbing his forefinger and thumb into barely visible scar tissue across his temple and nose bridge.

He was calmer now, more exasperated than angry, "Permission granted..."

"Sir, this incident is not, I repeat, not my fault. You see, Master Dickweed was trying to..."

Leonhart rolled his eyes and glanced at his wife, "Master Dickweed?"

Rinoa dragged one of the smaller files into the trash can and double-tapped a document with her finger, "Osamu Yamato. He just transferred here from Galbadia. From what I heard, she nearly gave the poor boy a concussion."

Fujin quickly stood up, stretching her thin, well-toned arms over her head," That's simply not true. His skulls way too thick for that!"

Without the slightest warning, without the vaguest hint on the horizon, Headmaster Leonhart, The Lion of Balamb, Savior of the World, burst out laughing. This startled Rinoa more than it could have ever shaken any of the Gardens students. Squall was infamous for his somber and emotionless disposition, earning him the title of "Ice-Heart" among a number of students. Rinoa, despite her continually warm and loving attitude towards her husband, had yet to completely melt his icy disposition. Squall smiled, and kissed her, and whispered sweet nothings in her ear in dark, but he did not laugh. He never laughed.

The younger girl was speechless. The Head Commander was laughing, no simple, gee-that's-funny giggles but try-to-keep-your-balance laughs. Five blinks later, he was sitting down beside Fujin, wiping moisture from his eyes with his black-clad hand.

"Dear Hyne. You are so much like your father." He said in a voice barely above a whisper, "Hyne, do you ever bring back memories." He was leaning towards her now, his sleep depraved eyes staring into her pale blue ones. A sudden, forced intimacy between them occurred. She was afraid he was going to kiss her.

"Look, listen up," he whispered again, louder, more serious, "I'm cranky, I'm tired, and quite frankly, I'm feeling a bit out of it. Stop pulling this shit. I want you to be a SeeD for Balamb, and I'd hate to lose you just because you have a bad temper."

"Really?"

"Yes. Now go to class and get out of my office."

"Sir, yes, sir!"

It was, beyond doubt, the shortest, sweetest ( and surprisingly, the most effective) lecture she had ever been given in her life. She got a slip excusing her tardiness from Rinoa and nearly found herself skipping to Guardian Force Basics.