Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Home for the Holidays ❯ Chapter 7

Home for the Holidays

 

Chapter 7

 

 

For Darksquall.

 

All Characters borrowed without permission from SquareSoft will be returned, only slightly traumatized, upon request. Written for love, not profit.

 

`Hero' Universe. Hints of Yaoi, much cursing, violence, angst and a cliffhanger. Sorry.

 

 

*

 

There wasn't a lot of headroom due to the sloping roof trusses, but we were all out of the water for the moment. There were some decrepit cardboard boxes, several inches of dust, and 10th generation giant cobwebs. Irvine hunched on a beam, trying not to touch anything. I spotted some rat droppings and felt pretty much the same way.

We were a sorry mix: I had jeans and boots and a soggy medikit over my totally soaked pj's; Squall managed his leather pants and jacket but no shirt; Quistis had simply tied her slinky nightie and robe into a knot and traded her mules for boots. I did notice the glow of her whip at her hip. Irvine and Selphie were sharing a set of festive green pajamas; he had bottoms, boots, and rifle, she had tops, boots and baby. The only one of us fully dressed was Zell, but then he'd said he'd been going out to the truck for something. Probably some secret Yule King surprise he cooked up.

"Status?" Squall asked, taking command again.

I figured I might as well go first. "We're not moving around anymore and hypothermia is a real danger, since most everyone's soaked to the skin."

"Tray and I are ok, but Irvy doesn't do spiders."

"Worried about the water forcing out a wall under us," Zell put in. "We might be better off outside, on top."

"It's still raining, it will make the risk of hypothermia worse." I protested.

"Yeah, but we could get trapped in here if the load bearing walls go or the roof caves in."

Squall said softly, "Quis?"

She said, her voice slightly strained, "I'm not very good in small dark enclosed spaces."

I took the hint and added my light spell to the ambiance. It made the spider webs glitter some, which in turn had Irvine huddling closer to Selphie.

"What was the roof made of?" Squall asked, looking around.

"Clay tile, I think," Irvine offered, trying to distract himself. "Seemed like it was reddish."

"Fireproof, at least. All right, if you can reach a box, see if there is anything in it we can use - to keep warm or to burn." Squall eyed the roof over us. "I can cut our way out with Lionheart, and we can move up there and use Fira to light a fire, as long as we keep it under control."

"As the more or less resident expert on Health, Safety, and Welfare, I should point out that a fire might not be our best bet. We were all eating Irv's chili last night."

Deadpan, Squall replied, "Seifer is in charge of telling us how far to move back if the flames turn blue."

"That's my job," Selphie corrected. "Demolitions, remember? Anyway, I'm the most used to Irvy's chili effects."

"You all stop malignin' my cooking. That was good stuff," Irving protested. "Other than being mild as milk."

"It was delicious," Quistis said longingly.

"Yeah, I wish I had some right now. I'd pour it over my feet." Irvine took a faux swipe at me and I laughed.

Zell and Selphie were up for snooping, so Daddy Irvine was back cuddling Trabian and trying not to get him wet. Quistis held the light for them while I tried to feel Squall up in the name of medical science. I knew he was probably having leg spasms and was too stubborn to admit it, but he slapped me away with an annoyed snort. I guess it did look kind of funny, if anyone was watching. In case they were, I offered him my best leer and got an eyeroll in return.

Taking the hint, I let him go and poked through the medikit. All the meds and most of the potions were history - broken or contaminated. The emergency blankets, splints and some of the sealed bandages looked ok. I resealed the kit and hoped I just wouldn't need any of it.

"Mostly weird old crap," Zell grumbled, echoing my own thoughts. He clarified, "chipped dishes, some appliances from when General Sephiroth last roamed."

"I think these are curtains." Selphie held up some ghastly looking panels in light brown, with abstract blobs of red and orange on them.

"What did they do, decorate in early splatter movie?" Then ones packed in the middle of the box weren't too dusty, though, and they looked like they might be lined and therefore at least offer some warmth.

Irvine laughed a little. "I can see why they hid those in the attic, too afraid to throw them out - someone might trace the ugly things back to them."

"I think my foster parents had curtains like this," Quistis mused. "Only theirs were aqua and olive green and chartreuse."

"What were they for, to frighten away door to door salesmen?" Irvine bounced Trabian a little.

Squall glanced over. "We can dump the things out and burn the boxes, but it won't give the Fira much fuel. Maybe enough to warm the tiles, some."

"That's all we'd need, if those curtains are at all waterproof. I have two of those foil emergency blankets in the 'kit, we can make a lean to and all huddle together." And should, Zell and Quistis were both visibly shivering.

The only other useful things we found were in a box of old baby clothes. Trabian gained several layers and a small mint green blanket; there was a child's sweater that Selphie squeezed into as well.

We used the rest of the clothes to dry off a little, then each took a panel of the fuckugly curtains. They were heavy and insulated with rubber, which flaked and smelled like an old wino's feet, but that made them slightly waterproof and definitely better than nothing.

 

 

The house was shaking and water was seeping in near the eaves. Squall crawled around the trusses, looking for a place to cut that wouldn't bring several hundred pounds of tiles down on his head. He and Zell conferred, then Lionheart flashed blue. Squall pushed a small section of the roof out of the way, letting it fall to the side. The rain that came in had slowed to a gentle drizzle.

The activity of moving our meager supplies up onto the peaked roof warmed us some. Personally, I was aching all over from the cold and exertion, and I suspected the Yule King had blessed me with a black eye, but since I knew the others were miserable, too, I refrained from voicing my displeasure.

 

 

We discovered tiles are damn slippery and uncomfortable things to try and cling to; it took some serious organizing and a few extra rubber lined curtain panels to even get remotely comfortable. Finally Irvine and I braced ourselves against the support bars and had the others cuddle around us. Selphie used one of Squall's belts to help secure Trabian to her chest, making a snug sack out of the blanket. I handed out the foil blankets and Squall cast Fira on the cardboard, which at least cheered us up a little.

Wearily, Quistis asked, "Anyone know what time it is?"

"About 2, 3 am," Irvine guessed. "It was a little after midnight when Zell woke us up."

"Oh, Happy Birthday, Seifer!" Selphie chirped.

"Yeah, thanks for everything. You shouldn't have. Really."

"Too bad all your loot is underwater." Zell didn't sound too sympathetic.

"Next year, get me something that floats."

"Next year," Squall said firmly, "We'll celebrate at Laguna's Palace and have room service."

"Mmm, that sounds wonderful." Quistis added quickly, for Selphie's benefit, "Not that I wasn't having fun, ah, before..."

"Actually, until the water started rising, this was the best damn birthday I remember." Because I was asleep with Squall in our snug, warm bed. "The Yule thing, I liked that a lot."

"I knew you would. It took a few years to get Squall to loosen up, but he always enjoyed it, too." Selphie flashed a smug grin.

That's right, all those years I'd been in Deling City working as a paramedic, hanging with Fuu and Rai or eating dinner with my boss, Squall had been celebrating with the gang. No wonder he was up on all those 'Yule things'. I turned that over in my mind, trying to see if I was jealous. I finally decided I was more relieved, that Squall had some back up, and that he hadn't been totally alone. I knew Zell had tried looking after him, but Squall wasn't the most socially apt person without me there to translate.

"Thanks, guys," I said, and meant it.

"I'm bummed about your gift, Quis," Zell said. "I really wanted to watch you open it."

"I'm sure it was lovely. Did you make it yourself?"

"Hey," Irvine interrupted with a chuckle. "Now is not the time to be overly truthful. Tell her it was a set of 5 caret sapphire earrings to match her eyes."

"That's what you said you got me!" Selphie scolded.

"No, Darlin', yours were emeralds."

"Just so you all feel like shit, Squall and I had the perfect gifts for you."

"Oh, us too," Selphie said sadly. "All the `Weapons' Monthly' on disk."

Qusitis gasped, "That's what we bought!"

Squall and I exchanged looks and I cracked up.

Zell asked, "Did yours come with the Triple Triad cards?"

Selphie shook her head. "A mod kit and 2 lost issues."

"Well," I said, still laughing, "Were they at least gold plated?"

"With diamond encrusted borders?" Squall put in drily.

"Hells yes, only the best for you all." Irvine nodded. "Even came with a snooty butler to switch disks for you."

Zell peered over the edge of the roof. "Wow, hope the poor bastard could swim."

"He must have been pretty cramped, crammed into the box," I added.

"Quiet," Squall hissed suddenly, cocking his head. He always did hear in about the same range as dogs; one of the reasons he and Zell hadn't gotten along so much in the cadet days was Squall never could tolerate a lot of noise. He pulled Lionheart and slid down the slope of the roof a few feet.

A huge clawed paw came out of the water, scrabbling at the only dry spot for miles. Tiles fractured under the pressure and the monster bellowed its frustration. Squall paused, poised to strike, but the current dragged the creature away.

 

 

"Hexadragon," he confirmed, answering our unspoken questions. And here I'd been worrying about rats.

"Shit, I never even thought about the monsters. They'll be swarming any dry spot they can find!" Zell got to his feet, trying to peer out into the darkness. 

"Which would include the village." Quis added, concerned.

"Who's junctioned?" Squall asked quietly.

"Don't use GFs at G-Garden, you know that." Irvine never had liked using magic much.

"I'm still on admin, maternity leave," Selphie added.

"You know we're not allowed to take the GFs from storage unless we're on a mission," Quistis reminded Squall in her best tutoring tone.

Zell grinned. "I have Quez." At Quistis' disapproving gasp, he shrugged. "You know Squall has Shiva. They weren't Garden property anyway, they both belonged to Squall personally."

"I have one, Helios," I said. "But you know," I gestured to the medical symbol hanging around my neck, next to Griever. "no attack spells, only healing and defense."

"Then for the love of Hyne cast an Esuana, this hangover is killing me," Irvine moaned. Quist mmm'd an agreement.

Come to think on it, I had been hitting the nog pretty hard a few hours ago as well. I raised my hand, but Zell beat me to it, and the green sparkles lit the night. Trabian made an ooing noise, distracted from whimpering into his momma's neck.

 
"Oh, you like magic? I can do a light show that will knock your socks off."

Squall was taking all his ammo out of his hyperjunction, even emptying the chambers in Lionheart, and passing the bullets to Irvine. "Go ahead and throw one of your flare spells, Seifer, let's see the lay of the land."

I cast the Flaraga, letting it light up the sky, leaving us all blinking in the brilliant noon day sunlight.

We were alone in a sea of churning brown water. Occasionally we saw the remains of a tree sluice by, and farther out, animals and monsters swimming for their lives. I scanned for anything human, honestly hoping I wouldn't see anyone - that no one but us was caught in this mess.

A chocobo warked pathetically, and Zell, the big softie, cast Float on it. Once free of the water, it ran straight for us, shooting up one side of the peaked roof and looking like it was planning to head down the other and vanish into the night. Irvine whistled sharply and the chocobo broke its stride, tipping its head at him curiously. Irvine worked his way over, forcing the rest of us to rearrange our nest some, crooning soothingly at the bird. It was bloody, soaked, and exhausted, and probably glad to see a friendly human; it didn't take long for Irvine to get his hand on the chocobo's scruff, and lead it over to hunker by the chimney near us as the last of the light faded.

"Domestic," Irvine confirmed. "Come sun up, hit her with a couple more Floats and I'll ride her into town for help." He threw a spare curtain panel over the bird.

"Good job," Squall said, already sounding stuffed up. He sneezed several times; he always was allergic to feathers. I pulled him into my lap and rubbed his legs as a distraction, making squirm irritably. Or maybe appreciatively, parts of me were certainly appreciative of his pert ass rubbing on them.

"How many Floats do you have?" Quistis asked Zell softly.

"About 30."

"I have a full stack," Squall volunteered. "Fuujin stocked me up when I saw her last."

"Worst case, then, you can pass some to Seifer and you can all three chain cast to keep us out of the water." She wrung out some water from her robe.

"Is bobbing along like a balloon an improvement?" Zell wondered.

Selphie and Irvine were talking quietly to Trabian, in that weird instructional tone parents get. "See the chocobo, Traytray? Isn't she pretty? Chock-ah-bowww."

"I don't think swimming is our worst case," Squall said quietly, still looking out into the darkness.

"It is for Trabian and Selphie," I pointed out for his ears only. "No way a baby that small will survive this cold water. Frankly, the only ones of us with any insulation at all are the girls, and they don't have much." Ok, I was a bit softer than I had been as a kid, but I still worked out and was fairly toned. Not to the point of the active SeeDs, of course, but still. "We're a skinny bunch."

"I'm hearing things," Squall said simply.

He didn't mean in the delusional sense. I looked fruitlessly out into the dark. "You want another Flaraga?"

"No, no one here has Encounter None." And the light would attract the monsters, he meant.

"Technically, my oath to Harm None doesn't include Lunar Cry monsters." It didn't even really include animals, a good thing since I was pretty fond of steak.

Squall nodded once and pulled Lionheart, the blade's blue light making him the only visible target. "Incoming!"

I caught the faint evil cackle of Malboro. Cursing, I moved back, casting Protect on Selphie and Trabian. Zell skated down the tiles past me, the silvery blue of Thundaga forming in his fist. The skittering red dot of Irvine's scope moved across the water, settling on a large mass of tentacles agitating foam in the water, while Quistis unfurled her whip and moved off to the side. She wasn't junctioned and would have to take several hits to blow her limit break; I decided to concentrate my healing on Squall, who was, after all, our most powerful fighter. It had nothing to do with our relationship. Really. I was more afraid Renzukuken would collapse the roof.

The Mals started with their usual Bad Breath attacks, which were easily countered by my healing and protective spells. Squall and Zell found a rhythm, helped out occasionally with a wicked flick of Quistis' whip. Irvine was wisely saving his ammo and playing backup, ready to shoot anything that got past them. Nothing did, but just in case, Selphie was curled up small, shielding Trabian with her body.

I thought we'd finished the last of the monsters when a flock of Gayla burst out of the water. One snatched up a weakened Malboro; another dive-bombed for us. Irvine threw himself over Selphie while I ducked, dragging Quistis down with me. The Gayla wasn't after us, it wanted that juicy and bleeding chocobo and the poor critter never had a chance.

Lionheart spat blue sparks and sliced a Gayla up the middle while Zell did one of his lethal spin kicks. Squall caught him just before the momentum and slick, wet tiles could send him into the drink.

Not the slightest discouraged by the loss of their fellows, more Gayla broke water and fanned over us. Zell pitched Tornado and cleared off a bunch of them, but they just kept coming. It was too dark for the hypnotize and head but routine, but the evil bastards have more than one way to inflict pain and loathing. The handbooks call the Gayla's attack "Gastric Juice", but what that really means is the damn things basically puke all over you, spraying stomach acid and some semi-digested bits of whatever they ate last. The smell alone can knock you off your feet.

That shit burns, too, and it hurts like a bitch, in addition to all sorts of lovely status effects. I gagged and cast Esuna on Quistis first, since she had no GF boosting her, she was the most vulnerable of our fighters. Squall, bless him, hit me with a Triple, enabling me to speed up the healing spells.

"Someone hit us with Water and get this crap off us!"

"Can't target friends," Quistis explained tersely, dispatching a Wendigo that was trying to crawl up onto the roof.

I could, due to my old Boss status, if people didn't get too picky; but I didn't have any Water spells. I should have known there'd be drawbacks to this good guy shtick.

The night lit up with the flashes of spell effects, which sadly just attracted more critters. I kicked myself for not pestering Squall more to find out how he suppressed the visual on the Sleep spell. It was crazy; the monsters moaning or roaring and little Trabian cooing with delight at the pretty colors and sparkles. Squall fed a hexdragon to Shiva with Devour; I was busy throwing Esunas and Curagas, hoping we could win by attrition.

A shot from Irvine split the night. I fell back to cover Selphie, trying to figure out where a monster got by our frontmen. It was Zell, who was down on one knee and breathing funny. I slid over to him in the muck, throwing Scan. "Did you take a hit?"

He didn't answer, struggling for air, but the Scan told me Zell had done more than just take a hit, his health was dangerously low and dropping. I threw a Curaga, followed by an Esuna, and another Scan, pleased to see the levels bounce back up.

And plummet again. "Shit."

Quistis moved back to cover us as I hauled Zell further up the roof to where Selphie and Trabian were. Zell grabbed Quistis's hand and she shivered; I could see the hyperjunction from Quez pass to her. Zell fell back with a gurgle, and his health fell to near zero. "Hyne fuck, how much health boost was he getting from his GF's?"

Irvine took Zell's place while Quis organized Quez and the spells in her head. Zell must have dumped everything he had on her, and I tried not to think about his reasoning. Selphie, meanwhile, was digging through the medikit and came up with a lightstick and one of our only surviving Remedys, which she administered while I searched Zell for wounds or clues.

I knew what was wrong, I was just hoping for evidence to the contrary. Zell was going into anaphylactic shock, probably from an extreme allergic reaction to something the Gayla had puked over us. "Selphie, cover Tray and the 'kit. Squall! Hit me with Water, Zell is going to die if we don't get this crap washed off him."

Unusually obedient, Squall spun and targeted me as an enemy, dousing me with the Water spell. It splashed over onto Zell and Selphie and the baby, of course, but I was the only one who took damage, and even the blast from the spell was countered by the joy of getting that Gayla barf off my person. Or it was until I remembered that as a primarily fire mage, I took extra licks from water and ice damage. Dammit.

Still, I was in a lot better shape than Zell. The Remedy did dick all; I tried another Esuna. The spell helped a little but not enough; alternating with Curaga seemed to keep Zell right on the edge of death, but I couldn't gain any ground and I couldn't stop casting to do anything else. Selphie used up half our potions until I managed to get a second to stop her - they weren't doing any good. She shrugged and dumped the last one on me.

Another Esuna followed mine, I glanced up to see Squall kneeling beside us in the fading sparkles of the spell effects. Quistis and Irvine were standing watch - for the moment it seemed they'd killed or discouraged all the nearby monsters. I let Squall take over casting while Selphie and I pawed through the medikit.

One thing I've learned, magic can't fix every ill. For allergic reactions like this you need epinephrine and dammit, we didn't have any. I looked at the crushed vials and cursed colorfully. An Exlir might have done it - but we didn't have any of those, either.

"Dispel?" Selphie suggested quietly.

"No good, it's for magically induced physical effects like Slow."

"Take over," Squall ordered. I resumed the Esuna/Curaga casting, and he leaned over and passed me some Triples and a couple Regens. He cast another Triple on me and the rapid casting that followed gave us our first breather. I shuffled in the new spells and cast Triple on Squall, just so he could pump spells into Zell three times as fast, too. Between us we got Zell up enough to have time to throw the longer and more complicated Regen.

Panting from all the casting, I fell back and let Selphie and Irvine move Zell into a more secured position. His breath was whistling in his throat and his heartbeat was erratic, but he was alive for the time being.

I realized it was light enough I could see the questioning look Squall flashed at me. False dawn was breaking; the sun would rise soon. The rain had stopped, and the water seemed to have peaked, but we were still stuck on a rooftop with none of the advanced medical equipment I needed to save Zell's life. All Squall and I were really doing was prolonging the inevitable. I shook my head and he nodded once, turning to scan the horizon.

"We could try another distress flare, " Quistis said quietly. "It can't make too much difference, now."

I passed some of the light spells to her, wanting to keep myself primed for healing. At Squall's nod she launched them into the sky, one, two, three, and they broke and dazzled us all. The scene revealed wasn't any improvement from the night before.

Irvine broke into our supplies and passed around breakfast - fruitcake and cola. I made faces but ate it; Selphie actually bounced a little and made happy noises, proving she's as crazy as Laguna. Quistis dropped down beside us, sitting so she, Squall, and Irvine were all facing different directions. I sat with my hand on Zell's throat, monitoring his pulse and breathing, and bolstering the Regen with lesser heals until it ran out. Then Squall or I would recast the Regen and start over. Scan told me it was a losing battle; frankly, neither Squall nor I had a full stack of Regens in the first place and we were bound to run out sooner or later.

The dawn broke, viciously cold and clear, and the sky turned pink and orange with the promise of the new day. Selphie busied herself tending Trabian as best she could; he was understandably unhappy, and she tried singing to sooth him. Quistis picked up the song, an old carol, and soon we were all singing all the Yule songs we could remember. I wrapped Zell in one of the emergency blankets, settling him against my chest, and sang along as I felt his pulse flutter and fade.