Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Teasing the Lion ❯ Part 2 ( Chapter 2 )

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

Disclaimer: FFVIII and its characters belong to the rightful Squaresoft. Or their scriptwriters and character designer. Whatever….. And Squaresoft, I love you, so don't sue me! (what a lame defense....)

Teasing the Lion

Part Two

A fanfiction by Sumeragi Sakura

"I can't believe I let you and Headmaster Cid talk me into this."

Ms. Trepe walked me along the hallway in her power suit. She was actually wearing her regular SeeD uniform, but in my eyes, that uniform had turned into a power suit once she wore them. I didn't really know this young instructor but by watching her walking from behind, I caught little hints of her personality.

The way she walked -- straightened back, resolute footsteps - showed her as a firm, always-go-by-the-book kind of instructor. The way she talked, all straight to the point, with a distinctive voice, told me that she was practical-minded. Her rigidly tailored uniform and the rigid way she wore them gave her away as a high-maintenance perfectionist.

So, she was basically a tight ass nerd.

Yes, she would be, if she hadn't had that graceful air about her. And that face. Hmm…as an admirer of beauty, I knew one when I saw one. This instructor was one of it. With her china-doll complexion, shiny sandy-colored hair, a full rosy mouth and a pair of brilliant green eyes, she would easily live a career in the modeling industry. So what the hell was a model-material doing in a place like this?

Well, it was probably because she is either a power-hunger or just a girl who loves to kick ass. Bad guys' asses.

"Your request is quite surprising," she said again, still with that clear, sharp tone of her voice. "And these kinds of request have never been granted before. We have a rule that is against it."

We had reached the end of the hallway where there was a junction. Ms. Trepe led me to the right, into another hallway that wound through the Balamb Garden complex. The hallway was bright. Its two sides of the wall were consisted of curvy large panes of glass windows that let in a lot of sunlight. When I looked outside the window, the outdoor complex of the Garden spread before my eyes. Layers and layers of flower garden filled the yard, while in the far distance I could vaguely see the sports courts.

Some giggling sounds distracted me from enjoying the green view of the schoolyard. I turned my glance inside the hallway again, to find a couple of junior student girls were smiling at me, whispering and giggling to each other. When I passed them, I bowed my head courteously and threw them one of my flashy smiles.

Oh, you know, one of those heart-stealing, soul-shuddering and definitely love-inviting debonair smiles of mine. Just one of my collection, actually. It was a kind of a perfectly trained reflex. I did that every time a potential date companion showed up before my eyes.

"Mr. Kinneas, if you don't mind," Ms. Trepe actually had to stop what looked like her unstoppable way of walking and turned around. "We have something to do now. And may I remind you, isn't this something you requested for us to do? And I still have a class to teach in a few minutes. So if you don't mind, can you speed up a little?"

"I'm sorry. Scowl no more, Ms. Trepe. I will be right behind ya'!" I chose another flashy smile out of my smile collection and flashed it to her.

She was not impressed. She raised an eyebrow behind her glasses and crossed her arms across her chest, which happened to be another work of art too, by the way. God's art.

"I'm not scowling," she muttered under her breath, before she turned around again and resumed to her task of leading me.

I smiled one more time to the girls and actually ran a little to catch up on the young instructor. She led me to another two hallways without saying another word and stopped before the door that led into the SeeD's Dormitory, Male Section.

She turned her perfect body at her perfect heels and looked at me.

"There's one more thing I need to ask you. Why Squall?" she asked.

I raised my brow and tilted my head. "I told you before. Squall is my friend. I've met him a few more times before in Balamb-Galbadia Garden Festivals and we became friends. So, since he's the only person I know here in Balamb, and I will feel very comfortable to be with a friend in a new place, I filed this request."

She slanted her eyes suspiciously at me. "Squall doesn't have a friend. And if he does, I think I would know. I'm his main instructor since the day he enrolled to this Garden."

I shrugged my shoulder. "Well, you can't probably know about all of his friends, can you? As if for me, I will never tell my main instructor in Galbadia everything about me."

"Since I am your new main instructor now, I expect you not to hide anything from me, Mr. Kinneas. I won't be able to do my job well if you do."

I blinked. "You're my instructor too? You?"

"Yes. Headmaster Cid had just signed me in this morning."

"Ah, I see….."

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"Oh, no. Of course not, Miss."

She slanted her eyes again at the mention of the word 'miss'. But she didn't pursue the matter further.

"Anyway, back to the matter at our hands. I know Squall. He's not the kind of person who can make friends in Festivals. Well, I don't think he can make friends anywhere. But Headmaster Cid thinks this is a great idea for the boy to have a friend. That's why he bends the school rule a little bit, just for you. So, as Squall's main instructor, and yours too, I'll have to instruct you to….well,….be friends with him. Perhaps with you being around him, you can make him open up a little bit. That will make it easier for us to monitor him. Do you have any questions?"

I stared at her for a while. All I had in mind was just to have some fun in my new school. But this instructor, whom I thought looked even younger than myself, made it sound like this was some kind of an official mission I suddenly had to take. Gods, this surely wasn't the kind of fun I wanted.

"So, are you telling me that you want me to monitor him. Isn't something like this….illegal? I mean, to spy on your students like that?" I inquired.

She waved her little, white hand. "No, don't be silly. Every SeeD members here are being monitored closely. This is our method of education. And it has been proven to be quite effective. Every SeeD members have their own unique traits and specialties. By monitoring their progress personally, we're actually helping them to grow into better SeeDs."

I scratched my not-so-itchy head. "Okay, whatever, Lady. Can we just go to my room now?"

She had a look that said, "Now you're talking" on her face, but said nothing. She opened the door to the dormitory and led us into the den of the boys.

The hallway was half-crowded, filled with SeeD boys who didn't have a class in the morning. Some of them turned to look at us when we passed. I followed Ms. Trepe while looking around me. Some of the people who looked at us spent more time in looking at me. I nodded my head and smiled politely to them, trying to ease my way into the social life of Balamb Garden. There were some of the boys who actually nodded back. And there were some of them who just stared emptily back indifferently. A few of them were scanning me from head to toe and back to the head again, and smiled meaningfully.

Ah, so even here, I would have a blast of fun in "enjoying" my time. Always glad to know that.

"This is it," said Ms. Trepe. "And there's Squall."

I tore my eyes from the smiling boys reluctantly and followed the direction Ms. Trepe showed me. And once again I was dazzled. For the second time in two days, consecutively, I've laid my eyes at the wondrous beauty that was Squall Leonheart.

He stood outside an opened door, talking upsetly to another guy. He was wearing a white, loose T-shirt and a snug-looking pair of bleached jeans. He looked as gorgeous as last night, even without his glorious SeeD uniform. Once again, I feasted my eyes on the beautiful sight of his figure.

"What's going on here?" asked Ms. Trepe, scattering my dazzled reverie into little pieces.

"Squall here doesn't accept the stuffs I have to send to his room, Ms. Trepe," answered the boy who had been talking to Squall. My Squall.

"Why not?"

"What's all this stuff? These aren't mine. I don't want these boxes in my room," said Squall grumpily.

The pretty boy turned at our direction. He looked desperate. He was ready to open his mouth again, when his eyes caught mine and then he froze. I smiled widely. Remembering my pretentious role as his friend, I strode to him and took him into my arms.

"Squall! It's great to see you again! And I've got good news!" I laughed cheerfully, while holding his body quite conveniently close with mine.

"What…?" was all he could utter.

He struggled to push me back, to release himself from my tight embrace. If he was surprised to see me here, which I was certain that he was, he managed to get over it in a blink of an eye. He tried to push away my way-too-friendly arms while eyeing Ms. Trepe with eyes so filled with questions.

"Mr. Kinneas here is right, Squall," said Ms. Trepe, who was watching Squall's struggling effort suspiciously. "We have a good news for you. Well, it's actually good news for all of us."

"What good news?"

"You've got yourself a roommate. Mr. Kinneas here had asked to be transferred into your room. He said, both of you are good friends."

"That's not a good news. He's not my friend," he snapped quickly.

Ms. Trepe turned a suspicious stare at me. I smiled charmingly, while waving my hand in a dismissive kind of way.

"Oh, you know how Squall is, Ms. Trepe. He's always too shy to admit these kinds of personal stuffs."

"I'm not shy. Get off me."

I turned to look at his face, eyebrows raised in surprise. "Oh? You're not? Remember last night? You were blushing like a reaped tomato last night, you know, after the.."

"Okay, I get your point!"

His angry face turned crimson at the mention of the words 'last night'. He gave me one strong push and bent his head down. Ooh…, how much I wanted to hold him and kiss him again, when he was looking as cute as this.

Meanwhile, Ms. Trepe had watched the entire conversation silently. Her beautiful eyebrows were raised at the sight of a blushing Squall. She even blinked several times and almost gaped at the boy. But she managed to regain her perfect composure and went all business-like again.

"Those boxes belong to Mr. Kinneas, Squall. That's his stuff. I have them sent to your room because Mr. Kinneas is moving with you. He's your new roommate," she said, matter-of-factly.

He shook his head, his face still showed a faint trace of blush. "There's got to be something wrong. I've told you before that I never want a roommate. You should transfer him to the other kid's room, those who are used to have roommates."

"This is a direct order from Headmaster Cid himself, Squall."

He frowned. I was certain that he was right now confused, why would the Headmaster himself send him an unwanted roommate? I chuckled softly, trying to hide my amusement from the others. That was the price for hitting me in the belly, Pretty Boy. You would just have to deal with that.

Somehow, the thought of how my existence in his life seemed to be quite a disturbance stabbed a pang of hurt in my chest. But I would do anything just to be in the same room with this boy and a lot more to share a room together. So, for that reason alone, I would be patient and wait for his anger to subside. And after that….After that, he might even want to accept me as a friend. Or perhaps as something more.

Ms. Trepe looked at her watch and shook her head. "Perfect. I'm late for my class. All right, you two, friends or not, I want you to get along with each other. And somehow get Mr. Kinneas' stuffs into the room. I don't want to see them blocking this hallway. And Mr. Kinneas, if there's anything you'd like to ask, ask Squall about it. He's been here longer than you are."

"Yes, Ma'am. That, I will do," I threw my smile at her again.

She was still not impressed. She turned at her heels and walked herself out of the dormitory, after giving Squall a long, silent look. I frowned, What was that? The look shared between the cold iceberg of an instructor and the dead-cold anti-social boy? Did I miss something here?

I turned to ask him about it, but he was already gone. He left me stranded in the hallway alone, while he himself disappeared into his room. Very cute. I wanted to ask him to help me with my stuff, but remembering his initial reaction at the whole "roommate" things, and the fact that he generally hates my guts right now, I thought that I'd better do it myself.

He left the door to his room open, though.

That, I took as a good sign.

So I sighed, picked the biggest box and entered the room, while shoving the other smaller one with my feet. It was a good thing I didn't bring many personal stuffs with me. The Garden would provide the new SeeD uniforms, so I didn't really have to bring many clothes. I hated unnecessary power exertion, even if it was used to carry my own stuffs, really.

I dropped the box near the closet inside the room. I sighed and stretched my body. I took a complete look of the room and found that even though it's not a very large room, it looked quite cozy and snug. And I liked cozy and snug. Right across the door ware large windows. On the left side to the door was a bathroom and on the right side was a closet. I stepped further into the room and saw a pair of single beds and another pair of desks filled the room. On one of the desks, piles of discs were neatly stored. I figured that it was Squall's desk, because the other one was empty.

At the other side of the room, across from the beds, there was a couch and a coffee table, with weapon and arms magazines scattered on it. I whistled happily when I saw the newest edition of this month's Quickshot. I picked it up from the table and leafed through the pages.

"Ha! I knew it!" said I, chuckling happily. "I knew they're going to release the new model of SG79 sometime this year. My friend Vic, from Galbadia, didn't believe me. And that dork thinks that he has better knowledge in guns than me. Hah! What a joke…. Oh, look, they're really going to add that Critical Shot Enhancer. It will surely be a hell lot of fun to try that and blow some Malborough's head to pieces!"

If Squall was at least a bit interested in what I was saying, he excelled in hiding it perfectly. He stood by the windows, leant his back on the wall and crossed his arms across his chest.

"So," I turned to him, "what weapon are you using? Since you buy the Quickshot, I figure that… it's a gun-based weapon?"

He stared at me with his usual deadly cold eyes. Ah, I began to get very familiar with that kind of stare. I had never felt threatened by it before, and now after I got used to it, it actually amused me so.

"How do you know my name?" he asked sharply.

"I asked the brunette girl who talked to you in the party last night. Selphie Tilmitt, if I'm not mistaken."

"What do you want from me?"

I threw the Quickshot back on the table and turned to stare at him. A smirk began to form on my lips. At times like this, lying about my true intention would probably resolve nothing but him being even more upset with me, if that was possible. So I shrugged and laid my truth card on the table.

"I just want to be with you."

Silence. A frightening tension-filled long minute of silence.

"Why? So you can feel me up again the way you did last night?"

I chuckled. "Ah, I'm sorry about last night. The "feel up" part, that is. My mistake, I shouldn't have gone too far. But I'm not sorry for the kiss, though."

He gritted his teeth. A faint cherry-colored blush tainted his marble-white cheeks. I felt my arousal stirred in my pants just by the sight of him blushing. Gods… what was wrong with me? All he did was just stood there and blushed and all I wanted in the world right now was to take him in my arms, ripped off his clothes and taste his flesh on my tongue?

I shook my head in utter disbelief. It was probably the recent lack of sex that got my hormones flying up inside my body like this. It was just that taking care of the transferring procedures and all of its administrative business took most of my time this week. I didn't really have the chance to relax and get laid with anyone.

Hmph….If I weren't being careful, this setback could ruin my reputation.

"You're sick," he said again, this time with a thick note of annoyance in his voice.

Annoyance, not hatred. I still had my chance.

"Oh, really? A sicko, am I?" I strode toward him. "Well, you should speak for yourself too."

He tensed up, seeing me approaching him. He dropped his arms from across his chest and took a step away from me. He was wary. I could vaguely sense his reflex snapped and his defensive shield up. I admired his animalistic instinct, by the way.

"What do you mean by that?" he hissed in anger.

I leaped to him, grabbed his fleeting arms and pulled him close to me. He yelped, hit me on the chest with his elbow. I threw him against the wall and pinned him there. His hands were raised to hit me, but I had learnt my lesson. I grabbed them by the wrist and pinned them too against the wall.

The little struggling fight was stopped. We stared at each other with chest heaving and breath panting. I shot an amused glare at him and enjoyed watching how he gritted his teeth furiously.

"If you call me a sick man, than you have to admit that you are one too," I said again, this time whispering. "Because last night, I wasn't the only one who enjoyed the kiss. You. Were. Hard. Like a rock."

I caught him off guard. His gorgeous face, which was now within kissing range from my lips, was burnt with a flush. He was beautiful. How many times had I said these words, I didn't really care. I wanted to say it again and again. Until those words formed a chant, a magical, mystical chant in my heart.

I ducked my face away from the sight of his tempting face. And lips. I felt something tugged in my chest and something else fluttered in my stomach. I didn't know what those were, but I was instinctively certain that those strange sensations were caused by this divine beauty in my arms.

"I wasn't….," he didn't seem able to finish his own words, so he went for the offensive mode instead. "What do you want from me? If you want to do 'this' kind of thing, I'll pass. Find some other guys who likes it. I heard that some guys are doing it in the library. Maybe you should go there instead."

I chuckled softly. "I don't want other guys. I can easily get those other guys. But you're different. I want you, instead."

"You're not going to get me."

"Oh, don't be so sure about it."

"Yeah, you too."

"Don't worry. I'm always sure about the things I do. But I'm serious, Squall. I've laid my eyes on you and decided that I. Am. Going. To. Have. You."

I bent my head over his neck. I kissed his silky skin and bathed my senses with the sweet yet musky scent of him. Gods, he smelled so good…..Even better than how I imagined him to be…. I took another deep breath and practically shivered in bliss.

One more deep breath and I let him go. I quickly turned around and walked away from him.

I just have to walk away from him.

I didn't know why, but I somehow knew that I would be better off being away from him right now. Which was very strange, since a minute ago, all I wanted to do was to have him in my arms.

He didn't say a word. Not even a growl of anger. I turned a little to see his reaction on what I did and was surprised. He was still standing there by the windows, but this time with his back turned on me. He seemed to be gazing out of the window in silence. I figured, he must've had been really angry, too angry, that he couldn't come out with any furious cursing or swearing.

But he didn't say anything else too.

In fact….

In fact, I saw him raising his hand slowly to his neck and grazed his graceful fingers gently over the spot where I had just kissed him. I stood there, found myself bedazzled by this simple, little gesture. He touched his skin and stroked it gently, his finger seemed unsure of what he was doing.

I stared at his figure in disbelief. And utter joy.

I might really have a chance to win him.

I might possibly ha…

He turned around abruptly, stopping my trains of thoughts. He probably sensed that I was watching him and realized what he was doing. He looked awfully mortified at first, and then he hid his embarrassment with anger that radiated clearly from his lean posture. He shot his familiar icy stare at me and I returned it with my familiar amused smile.

"I'm going to take a shower," he muttered rather incoherently.

He walked past me, grazing my fluttering cowboy coat in the process and slammed the bathroom door loudly. I chuckled to myself, overwhelmed with both amusement and surprise.

Oh yes, I thought that my year in Balamb Garden would be very exciting indeed.

[ tsuzuku ]

Sumeragi Sakura's Little Scribbling: ^________^ I knew from the very beginning that writing this fic would be fun. And I was right! This IS fun! *glomps*

I hope you have fun reading it too…

In this story, I picture Irvine as a confident (over-confident sometimes) ladies-man. (er..and boys-man too…^^;…what's the word for that, actually? Boys-man sounds so corny…). And I picture Squall as this cold anti-social kind of guy, who's having a hard time understanding his own feelings, let alone other's. This is how I pictured them in my head, when I was still playing the game. If it's a bit off or OOC, I'm sorry…. *sighs*

Anyway, I hope I can write the next chapter soon. It took me a month to find the time to sit down and write this sequel….T_____T….. I wish I could have more time for writing….

(Last edited: August 11th, 2002, 09:52 p.m.)