Final Fantasy - All Series Fan Fiction ❯ Until the End of Eternity, and Longer ❯ Chapter Twenty-Five ( Chapter 26 )

LunaticPandora1: aw thanks. *blushes and scratches head* But seriously, Laguna has had some ooc moments in this story, all the characters have, so the last chapter was fun because we finally see him "back to his old self" sort of. And I enjoyed writing him the way that he is most naturally, because that's the part of him that I most adore. But at the same time, I think Laguna amuses me so much, because even in the game, he can be so totally bipoloar! Hehe. He screws so much up and acts so silly, but when you get him down to business, as much as a goof as he is, he always manages to somehow have these moments of genius. I adore that about him. *sorry, went off ranting about her fav ff8 char again*

Well, anyways, I think I shall continue the story now.

*****

"Until the End of Eternity, and Longer"

by: Banshee Puppet

Chapter Twenty-Five

*****

The day before Christmas Eve, December 23rd, and where was Squall Leonheart? Not relaxing at his father's home, enjoying his vacation, that's for sure. No, Squall was in Esthar's business district, Christmas shopping with the ever-tardy Irvine Kinneas. No, he hadn't gotten anyone anything yet either, (though their little group usually did a secret shopper, that still left Laguna and Ellone, besides Zell, who Squall knew was easy enough to please) but that didn't give Irvine an excuse to not remind him and drag him out sooner than this. December 23rd. Yeah, they did this every year, the two of them…even before Bella Maure, Squall found himself out, this late in the holiday season, with the frivolous, pony-tailed troublemaker, buying gifts. He reminded himself that even if he didn't get Rinoa this year, he still wanted to give her a card, at least, since he wasn't allowed to give her anything else, according to Irvine, who had laid down the ground rules of the entire thing their first Christmas spent together. That seemed like forever ago now.

Squall lifted a red dress shirt, crinkled his nose, and put it back down. How was he supposed to know what Laguna would like?!? Of course, he thought the shirt was horrid, far too bright, so Laguna would probably adore it, but he decided to go for something a little less…blinding and wandered a few racks down in the huge department store. He'd lost sight of Irvine some time ago, but he wasn't worried, he knew the cowboy would reappear, bag-laden, in about an hour and ask if he was ready to go. So, abandoned, he went about the task of picking out gifts alone. It had been easy to select something for Ellone, an embroidered silk scarf had caught his eye that he knew she would like, Zell's gift, he'd gotten months ago, a simple gift, but one that would be well-appreciated, a year's subscription to "Black Belt Magazine", which Zell seemed to always have a copy of jammed into his back pocket, but Laguna was proving to be a more troublesome task. What was too personal? What wasn't personal enough? This was his father he was trying to buy a gift for after all, his father. And his father was a particular case. Laguna Loire, the President of Esthar. He could buy the man a nice silk tie, if Laguna wore ties. Cufflinks if he wore suits. Slacks? Jeans? But he'd only ever seen the older men in khakis. Just khakis and short sleeved linen shirts. Whenever he wore one with long sleeves, those sleeves were cuffed above the elbow. It made Squall cold, sometimes, just to look at him. Didn't Laguna ever get cold? Of course he did, he'd seen the man shiver before. But not yesterday, when they'd arrived and he stood barefoot in the snow, little white gems kissing his hair, his nose crinkling when one fell on the tip of it. But this morning, at breakfast, he'd sneezed. 'Idiot. Gave himself a cold. How stupid.'

As he thought, a saleswoman came up beside him. "Can I help you with something sir? Last minute shopping?" she asked happily. She probably wouldn't be half as happy, he figured, but the season brought it out in people.

He nodded briefly at the question. "I don't know what to get him," he frowned, not really sure why he was divulging the information. But…he DID need help, and Rinoa had decided to abandon him to do his own shopping this year. What had the girl picked out last year? He couldn't even recall, it was that impersonal-impersonal enough that even the gift-giver had no idea what it had been. Something trivial and stupid, he knew that much. "I thought, maybe, um, a jacket?"

He didn't care if Laguna hated the things. He'd get himself sick if he didn't wear one. And, well, Laguna whined when he was sick…loudly. …and…often.

"What sort of jacket?" she asked.

"Well…I…um…?"

The sales girl chuckled. "Alright, let's try this another way," she smiled. "Are you close to him? What's he like?"

"An idiot," Squall stated dryly, rolling his eyes before realizing what he'd said. "…or…that is…" he sighed. Hyne, he hated this.

"Ah, I see! So then, you're very close!" she laughed. "That's how I am with my sister. She does some of the STUPIDEST things," she smiled. "So, tell me about him and I'll see if I can help you."

Squall tried to think of a way to explain Laguna, but couldn't find words right away. He looked at the girl with her cherubic little face, probably no more than fifteen, and found that she reminded him of a younger, less bubbly Selphie, but with almost a little bit of Quistis's tendency towards teasing him as well. She was a cute kid. Now, he vaguely noticed her nametag, "Ruvie" and relaxed a bit more. He wasn't sure why, but chocked it up to being overly stressed and the too-contagious holiday spirit. "He never thinks ahead and ends up embarrassing himself a lot," he began. "He's a very kind person though, and everyone loves him even if he screws up constantly. I found him out in the snow in nothing but a short-sleeved shirt and khakis yesterday. And this morning he woke up with a cold. He's absentminded and probably too casual for his own good, but also sort of…elegant." The word surprised Squall. Elegant. Is that really what he thought? Was his father elegant? Not in the traditional sense but…he was, in his way. He never realized he thought about the man that way before. I've never seen him wear anything with sleeves, at least not rolled down, but…I don't want him to get sick, so I thought…"

"Leather," the girl said, interrupting his thoughts. "He sounds to me like leather. Deepest brown, single-breasted and ending just below the hips," she informed him. "Light and soft, so it's easy to move around in, with a silk lining. Let me show you?"

Squall gave a curt nod and followed her over to a rack, surpressing a smile at the girl's choice. It was…perfect-just as she'd described it. His father's name was practically etched into it. He could imagine the man in it, this sort of office casual style leather jacket, with a pair of leather gloves and a soft blue scarf hanging in the collar, loose, because Laguna would be hard pressed to remember even bringing the scarf along, let alone wrapping it around his neck, packing snowballs with that haphazard grin and his green eyes shining, an absentminded laugh tumbling out of his stomach. He looked at the jacket reverently. It was impersonal, in it's way, but also, it was just right. And the girl seemed to notice this.

"So, what size is he?" she asked.

"Um…well…that is…I…." Squall thought, struggling to remember some article of clothing with a size in it, but couldn't seem to find one. "He's about the same size as me, but a bit broader around the shoulders," he decided. "More…" he was almost embarrassed to say the next part, but did anyway, since he didn't want the older man returning the article that didn't fit and ending up buying something less practical. "…more muscular, but not bulky. Same height but…not as skinny as me."

The girl nodded knowingly, fishing the right one out of the rack, holding it up in front of Squall's chest and giving an approving nod. "Anything else?" she asked.

"Maybe a…"

"I found it!" a voice cheered as an arm flopped over Squall shoulder, surprising the boy. "The perfect gift for Uncle 'guni! Whether he likes it or not!" Irvine laughed. "You almost done shopping for daddy, tulip?" he asked casually.

Squall shrugged the arm off with a scowl and replied. "Almost. What did you get him?"

"Sweater and scarf!" Irvine all but crowed. "I swear, as old as he is, you'd think we wouldn't still have to babysit him. Squally, your dad sure is a piece of work, you know that, right? And you're just like him, whether you'd like to admit it or not," the cowboy joked, tipping his hat at the girl when he noticed her standing there, watching the dialogue patiently.

Squall ignored him, turning to the sales girl and saying, "…a pair of gloves?"

She chuckled slightly and said, "alright boys, right this way!"

*****

Seifer leaned against the wall and ran cool fingers over his face, listening to the quiet ticking of the watch on his wrist. As many times as he'd patrolled the east wing, that's how many times he found it nearly deserted. A janitor here, a repairman there, but no one constant, no one who made it a habit of being there, no one but him.

So why did Jynx always insist that he patrol this wing, so that she could patrol the north wing. She was like a compass in that way, but, he had a feeling there was something more to it than that. Part of him was curious, part of him wanted to find out. But the other part… 'two more minutes'. He had been standing in the hall for three minutes now, all but actively trying not to think about it-SeeD, trying not to think about how badly he wanted to go back. But, it was Squall's call either way, and the young man was not as forgiving as his father, that is what Seifer had always assumed. At least, he'd assumed that before now, when an image of him swatting Irvine, and another of him giving his father a brief hug, passed through his mind. The kicker though, the kicker was the tiny smirk and chuckle at Laguna's barefoot and totally unprepared state of dress. He was beginning to think Squall wasn't quite what he'd always thought. 'Wishful thinking,' he decided, kicking off the wall. 'One more minute.' His mind counted down the gentle ticks of the arms on the watch's face.

So, Seifer Almsay, once again, made up his mind. He stared down the endless hallway before him, twelve seconds, eleven, ten, and then, turning around, pulled a cigarette out of his pocket and went back the way he came, slowly, pulling out a small silver lighter, and bringing it to the cancerous stick dangling between his lips before putting the lighter away, deciding not to light the cigarette after all. He held the fragile paper-wrapped nicotine between two long fingers, nails slightly yellowed from casual contact with these things and, after a moment's decision, put it behind his right ear. 'Maybe I'll quit, if I'm allowed back in Garden,' he thinks absently. '…maybe.'

*****

Jynx stared at the black and white footage as it walked away from its duties, a sigh hovering on her lips that never escaped. The main security office. She was alone here now, a luxury she'd earned thorough diligence, hard work, and the careful process of instilling fear into her subordinates. It was an art form, really, though she doubted anyone else saw it that way. Anyone except, perhaps, Ultimecia. And contrary to what some might believed, Jynx hated Ultimecia-as much as she hated anyone, anyway, which wasn't actually very much, but…she was not fond of the manipulative sorceress and was glad enough to see her gone. 'Not that it really affects me personally either way,' she thought vaguely.

"So, Mr. Almsay, you've chosen those naïve dreams of yours once again, have you?" she said softly to no one in particular, herself perhaps. "Technically, this was the right choice. However. However, SeeD. That choice has made you, for all intents and purposes, my enemy. Anyone who would use GF, anyone who would bond with one of those demons is…that's a person that I simply can't forgive." 'President Loire, you really have got yourself all tangled up in one hell of a mess, haven't you?' she thought before turning her back on the many-screened console and closing the door on the blonde figure who she'd been watching for the past two minutes, leaving only the lingering darkness of an unlit room between them. She looked at her watch as the second hand ticked onto the twelve resting there and said inaudibly, "it looks, Mr. Almsay, as if your time is up," before heading down the North corridor once again to continue her usual rounds.

*****

So, uhm, yeah, chapter 25. This one definitely caught me off guard. I had no idea it was going to go in this direction when I sat down with it. I also didn't think Seifer would be so involved in the story line. I think it's safe to say, at this point, that I have no clue what's going to happen next. I got carried away and now this lil' ol' story is practically writing herself! So, though I have one or two definite things, for the most part, I'm really at a loss on this one. I'll have to write more soon(so I can find out what happens next! Haha.)

Until next time,

Happy Haunting,

~Banshee Puppet~