Dementia

Series: Fruits Basket
Pairings: Souma Ayame & Souma Hatori

Status: one-shot, complete
Rating: G

Warnings: n/a
Notes: Felt randomly inspired to write a Fruba drabble..... (Weird, na?)

---

There were nights when he dreamt that he led a normal life. One that didn't include having parents who didn't care about him, one that included being loved by everybody. Yet every time he awoke, the dreams dissipated and he would be alone again. Kuramae Mine, his assistant, was a close and dear friend, and together they shared dreams of making his establishment famous and widespread. Still, he had no particular attachment to her. The one person he loved was a part of his own family, actually, and someone he respected too much to ask for a personal, intimate relationship. Someday, he would have to pay for keeping his distance, because that man was also his doctor, and staying away from his doctor only meant endangering his delicate health. Still he stayed away, because he feared that if he were to close the distance between them, he would grow feverish and change. Not that his reptilian form would disgust Hatori, but because he didn't want to remind him of the curse which bound their fates.



Some nights, he would lay awake while he dreamt that his reality was only a nightmare.

Series: Tenjou Tenge
Pairings: Natsume Shin x Natsume Maya
Status: one-shot, complete
Rating: PG-18 (mature?)
Warnings: het (straight) sex, incest, semi-nonconsensual
Notes: My favourite pairing in TenTen, but the fic line spun beyond my control... To sum it all up with one sentence: The siblings have angsty sex. The end isn't very good, because I suck at writing endings, but hope this fic isn't too terribly written. ^_^;;

---

The rain outside poured like kami was pushing over buckets up in the heavens. Laying on his side, half covered by his bedsheets, Shin stared out the window, trying to focus on each drop of falling rain, but it was useless. The drops came down in torrents, and it was impossible to mark where each drop was heading - sideways from the wind, pushed further away from its current position by the other drops of rain, or pulled down by a mass of drops falling straight towards the earth. He hated rainy days, and yet, those showers always happened when his mood went afoul. It was his fault afterall; it was his punishment. Trying to map out where each droplet would land was an endless torment on these nights, but still he tried. These were sleepless nights. He felt so cold, so exposed to the harsh immense world all around him. Even the heater in the house couldn't make him feel warmer, no blanket or pillow could comfort him, yet he still tried. There would be no use in living if he didn't struggle to survive, to protect what was most precious to him.

A tall stream of light fell on the glass window in his dark room, and a small wooden creak contrasted the wet noises of the raging storm. Shin focused his vision on the reflection of the light instead of concentrating on the rain outside. He saw a glimpse of his own reflection, and although it was so far away, the opening and closing of the reflection's eyes were so crystal clear.

"Aniue... are you asleep?" said a small voice, so quiet that if he didn't want to hear it, the rain would have drowned it easily. The pure voice of his little sister - not the youngest, but his dearest - called to him in the darkest of nights.

He turned over on his back and pretended to blink sleepily at the tall figure peeking through the small opening in his doorway. "Not anymore," he replied with a sleepy smile. "What's the matter, storm keeping you up, Maya?"

The hallway light flooded the room for a moment as she stepped inside, then she shut the door quietly behind her. Even with the door closed, her long sweeping hair seemed to illuminate the room, its lavender-tinted strands of platinum catching every bit of moonlight that seeped into the darkness of Shin's room. She wore a white thigh-long nightgown with a low neckline that would be loose if it didn't cling to her full bosom and hips, and yet, the full grown woman tiptoed over to his bedside like a little girl. Maya peered down at her brother's face, and he blinked up at hers.

"I'm not a child anymore, I can sleep through anything, Aniue. I came to see if you could sleep," she said, her bright blue eyes narrowed suspiciously.

He let out a soft laugh, gazing at her face, framed like an artist's portrait by the silky strands of her hair. "Don't worry about me, you silly; of course I can sleep. Now go back to bed," he said tiredly while grinning at his adorable little sister.

She stood up straight and placed her hands on her hips, suspicion still written across her face. "Liar. I know you can't sleep when it's raining, especially when it's like this." Her gaze left him for a moment and rested on the window, as if she started getting lost in the storm herself. Without a conscious thought, Shin sat up and grabbed her by the wrist towards him. The last thing he wanted in this world was for Maya to get sucked into watching destiny like him, and as long as he was alive, he would not allow her to be drowned by the same weight of fate. Her body collapsed into his grip, and she wound up sitting on the bed with her head pressed into her brother's shoulder. "Ah..." she gasped, suddenly losing her train of thought, then pulled herself upright and away from her brother's form. "Aniue, what are you doing," she stated as a matter of fact rather than posing it as a question.

Thoughts formulated in his mind, but he dared not say anything. He knew she would understand his silence.

"So my Aniue wants me to keep him company for once," Maya said through a snicker. "I'll stay until you fall asleep then." She wriggled her wrist free from his softened grip and ushered Shin onto his back. "You're going to catch a cold if you never cover up," she scolded quietly and pulled the covers over his shoulder, tucking him in. His appearance mirrored her own, except for a few harsher lines here and there that scripted his cheekbones and jawline. She felt a little silly, as if she was tucking herself into bed. Shin was her brother, the one who took care of her after their parents died, the one she knew would love her forever and ever, and yet, every time she looked into his eyes, she felt something different. Ever since it started feeling like that, she would look away and find a way to prove herself wrong, that she didn't feel any different about her brother as she used to as a child. It was so hard, because she felt so heavy when she didn't pull away but felt even worse when she did. Yet still, it was the only thing in this world she would never give up - because he was her precious Aniue.

It took a while before Shin shut his eyes and tried to sleep. Maya held onto his right hand on her lap and gently stroked it once in a while. His sleeping face was so peacful, and so unlike the utterly nonserious or completely too serious expression he wore during the day at school. It pained her to see her brother force himself to wear such a drastic mask each day, but it also angered her because she knew that he did it for her sake. No matter what she said or did, he would never listen. He bore the burden of their relationship solely on himself and would not let her so much as to lift a finger. She was so afraid that he would drown in the darkness without her and not even let her know if it ever happened. Ever since that day he let her glimpse into the horrors of his world, she became more afraid, not because her brother became a monster, but because she was scared that she would not be able to save him. The thought of losing Shin to his darkness and not being able to be with him was the most terrifying thing in the world. Not even her infatuation with Mitsuomi could outweigh the bond she had with her brother, and if he were to ever leave her, she would have to drown alone.

He murmured something incomprehensible in his sleep and shifted slightly, but his hand remained unmoved in hers.

Everything she did during the day to prove to him and everyone else that she could stand on her own only reinforced how much she wished to be by his side. But she knew, that if he stayed with her, she would inevitably burn him. It was an analogy that she never understood in her youth, and didn't understand until recently. Shin had told her that he was a moth, lost in the darkness, and she was his light and his flame, burning so brightly that he couldn't help but be drawn to her. Because the world cannot exist without opposites, the darkness that the moth belonged to needed light to exist. But because the flame was so strong, the darkness was equally so, and it gave the moth the more reason to love the flame, although it would burn him to his death. Maya had argued when she was little, that she didn't want to be the fire that burned her brother and wished to be a butterfly instead. Shin had smiled sadly at her, and she had not understood why. But as time passed, the path revealed itself to her, and there was no way to escape the fates that they were given. There were many paths to their destiny, like the rain storms that her brother would watch, but in the end, each drop found its inevitable destination. Such was their fates, his and hers, but she didn't want to be separated from him. If she were to burn and destroy her brother, she would be left all alone. Without the moth, there would be no more darkness, and without the darkness, the light would fade from existence. This was what she was afraid to tell anyone, especially Shin. If he would continue to try and live a life of slaughtering countless others, the darkness would dim the light that her brother loved so much. It was only a matter of time to see which would go out first. The light or the darkness. If extinguishing her light would allow her brother to live, she would gladly do it, but then he would lose all the goodness in him. In opposition, if oblitering the darkness would mean allowing fate to take its course and burn her brother's life, then she would continue to exist, whether or not the light in her would still be there. Shin gladly took the latter route, taking it into his own hands to ensure that his flame would never go out, but he walked this path alone, pushing Maya away so his darkness wouldn't taint her light.

Half an hour passed with Maya contemplating silently and watching her sleeping brother. She shivered in her light nightgown, and she decided to head back to her room now that he was asleep. Carefully detaching her hand from his and resting his hand on the bed, she slipped off the edge of the bed and turned towards the door. Unexpectantly, a strong hand darted from under the covers and grabbed her arm, pulling her directly on top of him.

"Maya, it's so dark, I can't see anything!" the desperate voice shouted and alarmed the girl. His other hand gripped her long hair almost painfully, and Maya looked up to see Shin's eyes wide open and staring blankly at the ceiling, his mouth contorted in horror.

"Shh, Aniue, I'm still here. Shh, don't wake Aya," she grimaced from having her hair pulled. Reaching her free hand up to his face, she soothed the side of her brother's face. "I'm here, it's okay," she exhaled, her heart aching from seeing his inner pain scripted across his face.

He murmured "don't leave me..." repeatedly until his heavy breathing returned to normal, and his grip on Maya finally loosened into an embrace. "...... Maya...?" he whispered after a moment.

"Yes it's Maya, it's me. You were having a nightmare," she spoke gently and snuggled into his neck, assuring him of her presence. It was warmer than when she was sitting on the side of his bed although it was an awkward position, being on top of her brother, but he wouldn't let go.

"Don't leave me..." he repeated again, and hugged her tighter.

"Aniue, I can't breathe..."

"Don't leave me..." he chanted again, as if under a spell.

Maya twisted her head for air and then sighed loudly. "Okay okay, I won't leave," she said softly and tried to push away to sit up, but he refused to budge. "I'll sit by your side until morning. It'll be okay, I promise," she reassured him, but he remained silent. Peeking upwards, she could tell that he no longer looked terrified, but his eyes stared at her as if he had not seen her in ages. She began to feel something welling inside her throat, but when she tried to look away, she only found herself falling deeper. She tried to form words, but all that came out was a breathy "Ani..ue..."

"Maya..." was all that she heard before his lips pressed against hers, and a knot inside her heart tightened. She did not consciously expect this, and yet, she did expect it somehow. She thought she would fight back, but she didn't. Instead, his kisses melted into hers, and warm tears trickled down their faces.

She spoke up first, when their lips unlocked for the first time, stammering "na... nani..." until he pushed her head down into another kiss, this time their tongues exploring each other's mouths. He tasted like the strong green tea they had after dinner, and she like minty toothpaste. Maya felt weird, like she shouldn't be doing this, and yet, she desired it too. They weren't the childish kisses they shared every now and then.

His strong arms snaked out from under the blanket and circled Maya, one hand massaging the back of her head and the other feeling its way down her back, then slipping under her nightgown. She wriggled when his hand found her panties and squeezed one of her firm buttocks, and she moan into their kiss. He hoisted her body higher with his lower hand, which then started to peel her nightgown upwards so that her back was exposed to the cool air of the room. When she began to resist, Shin rolled her over so that she was trapped underneath his muscled body, never breaking their kiss. He hungered for it, and his tongue darted eagerly around hers, as if he was searching for something hidden in her mouth. Maya squirmed to break free, but his legs pinned her down firmly as his hands pulled her entire nightgown up past her breasts, which would be pressed against his bare chest if it weren't for the thin bedsheet that separated their bodies. Shin took care of that quickly too and yanked it out from between them in one swift tug. Crystal blue eyes flared open when she felt her brother's naked flesh pressed heavily on hers, but the most alarming thing was the heat that she felt pressed against her thigh. This time, she struggled hard enough to break away from his kiss, but when she tried to yell at him for doing inappropriate things, her eyes melted into his gaze, which she could still see in the darkness. It was a bit intimidating, because he wasn't wearing his eyepatch and his predatorial eyes were slightly mismatched when they were so close, and despite being trapped under his hot body, she felt a cold shiver down her spine.

"We... shouldn't be doing this, Aniue..." her voice drifted off timidly, as if she was afraid of being devoured by the monster lying on top of her.

"Maya..." The voice that she heard was surprisingly calm and composed, and it was the voice of the brother she knew well and loved. It was almost pitch black in the room if it weren't for the dull moonlight that poured in the window, filtered by the rain storm, yet she had gotten used to the darkness of the room. She could see the outline of her brother's face, so well that if she reached out, she could trace all his worry lines with her fingers and smooth them away. "I need you to understand, that after these few days, I will have to go." He pressed his hand pressed against her cheek, trying to calm the quivering blue of her eyes. Indeed, especially in these few nights past, he could feel that his destiny was almost here. Her eyes gazed past his own, seeing straight into his soul, and he allowed her to see the little boy inside, the lost and confused child who wanted and needed to be found. "I don't want to be alone," he begged, and her gaze remained fixed on him even when he squeezed his eyes shut. Tears splattered down on her smooth complexion, wet with her own tears from before, and she pulled a hand free from under his elbow and smoothed back the messy strands of hair matting his forehead.

"I know," she said, eyes searching his scrunched up face, and she pulled his head down into the nape of her neck, stroking the back of his head like a mother with her child. "I'll be with you as always," she whispered into his ear and pressed her cheek against his head. His arms found comfort holding onto her shoulders as he shook into her body with stifled sobs, and she embraced him with her own strength. "I love you, Aniue, and there's nothing in this world that would separate us. Not this stupid fate you speak of, nothing."

He trembled in her arms, and she instinctively pulled the blanket he cast aside over his back, covering the both of them. She rocked him a little, closing her eyes and waiting for her brother to calm. He was like a child sometimes, needing her comfort and reassurance, even though during the day he took the role of her protector. She hated how he made her look weak in public, but nowhere in her heart could she find any resentment towards Shin because of how he was. He might be her older brother, but he was also something more. He was her most cherished person in the whole wide world - he was the one person in the world she loved.

She wanted to hold onto all the happy memories they shared, and she thought about all the antics he pulled as a child and even now. She cradled the larger man in her arms and muttered in his ear. "You know, Aniue, you could at least wear some underwear to bed even if you can't sleep," she mused.

He lifted his head from her neck after he stopped crying. "Maya, you say you love me, but it's not the same way I feel."

She frowned at him, not knowing whether to feel confused or torn that he would say something like that. "I don't care if you don't love me, but you're still my brother."

"No no, Maya, I do love you, I love you more than you know, but it's not the same way you feel about me. To you, I'll always be your brother, but to me..." his sentence drifted to a pause and he looked away painstakenly. "I'll always love you more than a sister. You're my everything," he said, burying his face into the pillow she laid on, his cheek nuzzled against the side of her face.

"Baka," she said as her own tears began to flow. "I love you just the same. It's always been that way, Aniue. How can you say that I don't feel the same?" She squeezed him tightly, and it was her turn to cry. She had yearned to hear those words from Shin all her life, and yet, she was also saddened that he didn't know how she felt as well. "I promised I would be strong so that you didn't have to be all the time. Why, tell me why, do you keep it all to yourself? You won't let me in, why won't you share it with me? How can I stay with you if you keep pushing me away?"

"I'm sorry, Maya, that I can't make you happy, but don't cry. I would do anything to stop those tears," he spoke gently and cupped her face in his hands. Outside the rain poured loudly, but the siblings were deaf to the world except to each other. Shin studied her intently, and he bent down to kiss one of her closed eyes, and then the other, before kissing her lips. She willingly opened her mouth to him, and they tasted the remants of their salty tears mingled with the flavors on their tongues. They remained that way until Shin tugged her nightgown, that was bunched up about her shoulders, up and over her head, breaking their kiss only for that moment. Her raised arms found its way under the covers and encircled his back, and his hands slid down her sides, resting on her voluptuous hips. With one hand, he then moved its way up to cup one of her full breasts while the other assisted his knees in spreading her legs apart. His thumb found her nipple, hardened against his touch as he gently massaged her breast, squeezing occasionally, and his other hand rubbed her crotch through her underwear in small circular motions. The remaining piece of fabric she wore was warm and silky, and the minimal friction caused by his probing fingers gave Maya tingles inside. His fingers found a sensitive spot and honed in on circling it until she moaned heavily into their kisses.

"No, Aniue, don't," she whimpered when Shin's kisses trailed down her neckline. She almost seemed like a trapped maiden under her brother's impossible strength, but she was also there willingly. Her writhing motions egged him on instead of resisted, and her senses ran amok. She tensed noticeably when he peeled off her panties, slowly at first, then almost yanked them away from her legs completely. The cool rush of air was replaced with the heat of his moist breath, and she clamped a hand over her face to suppress making too much noise that might wake Aya two doors down. The sight of her brother, who looked so similar to herself, between her legs was weird yet comforting. The pleasure peaked until the point when it was almost unbearable, and she grasped the top of his head with both hands until he licked her to the point of breaking.

The pain her beloved brother held onto could be eased with the love she gave him, so why not give him all of it? With each breath she exhaled, Shin inhaled. What she gave, he took hungrily, and what he gave, she accepted lovingly. It felt almost natural when he entered her, not that he did so gently either. It hurt inside, but the pain was still very extraneous in comparison to what they both held onto in their hearts. Shin grunted, and with each thrust, she whimpered louder and louder until her brother's name was only word that constantly escaped her lips.

"Maya..." he repeated over and over huskily, leaning down to suckle her breasts as a child would, but continuously plunged in and out of her. She grabbed his head and held him tightly to her chest until she tensed uncontrollably, as did he. She spasmed around his member and crossed her ankles behind his back, pulling him deep into herself, and let out what sounded like a cross between crying and a scream. He groaned into her chest, and for a little under a minute, neither of them moved an inch. Their loud pants softened, and they rolled onto their sides without leaving each other's embrace. Shin remained buried deep inside her, and Maya didn't seem to mind. When she shivered against the coldness that settled in, he pulled his blanket up to cover her shoulders.

"Aniue," she whispered softly against the quiet of the night, as the raging storm outside had cleared up and all was calm again. "The storm's over. You can sleep now."

"I will if you stay here beside me," he murmured, nuzzled between her breasts.

She stroked his hair and kissed the top of his head, holding him close. "Of course I will. Good night."

---

Yet, with fate turning against them and the root of their existences set in stone, he would always be her light, and she the moth, because it was him that continued to pull her in and burn her soul bit by bit. There was no other way she would rather have it, though, because he burned so brightly that she could only follow him wherever he went. Even in death, she would be with him.

FOREWORD: This is an ongoing fanfic. To start reading from the beginning, click here.
Series: Final Fantasy VIII (8)

Pairing: Zell Dincht & Squall Leonhart
Status: part 13 and ongoing

Rating: PG
Warnings: shounen-ai, light Rinoa bashing, violence

Search keyword: ff8_floating
Notes: Oi, the wait grows each time. In regards to gameplay, I always wonder how the unconscious characters "run" around after someone else completes battle. It always did baffle me. Oh and, I inserted funguars in Balamb's training center. I know it's not supposed to have funguars but... eh details. ^_^;;

---

The bouncy brunette sat at a computer terminal in Quistis' old classroom, which was now taken over by Xu. Posting in the Square BBS was her favourite activity, of course besides working on the Spring Festival. Class wasn't going to be in session for another hour or so, and since Selphie didn't have anything in her schedule until dinner with Irvine, she crashed in the nearly empty classroom to waste her free time. Out of all of her friends, Rinoa was the next most frequent poster on the boards. There was a shortage of her posts lately, and Selphie wasn't expecting any posts from the past two days because of what happened at the party. She did her daily round of posting about her day, reading the Spring Festival committee's input about the selection of performers for the upcoming festival, and then reading the rest of Garden's SeeD's recent posts. To her surprise, there was a public announcement from Rinoa on the public community log.


"Wait a minute, Rinoa's going back to Timber?" Selphie exclaimed out loud in disbelief at the monitor. The growing discomfort inside her reached a peak when she finished reading the post, and her pulse raced. What she was afraid of had happened, and suddenly she wanted to cry.


"Selphie! Oh thank Hyne I found you..." the loud voice that invaded the classroom drifted to a pause as the anxious blonde found his way towards her. "Selphie? Why are you crying, what happened?"


The teary brunette looked up at her concerned friend and burst loudly into tears. Zell knelt down beside her and pet her head until she calmed down relatively.


"Hey, what's on your mind? You can tell me," he asked quietly, trying not to draw even more attention to the crying girl. He had wanted to find Selphie to tell him some more about what Rinoa had told her, granted that Rinoa had decided to leave, and he wanted to find out if there was a way to make her stay.


"Remember what we talked about earlier," Selphie spoke between sniffles as she rubbed her hankerchief at her eyes. "Before today's training session."


"Rinoa." Zell nodded.


"She's leaving us," she sniffled again.


"Quistis told me," Zell admitted, "and actually, that was what I wanted to talk to you about. Do you mind telling me what that was all about?"


Selphie swallowed hard at first, then nodded rapidly.


-----


Squall.. I know I wanted to tell you before I left.


The brooding brunette sat in the mess that was his room. The wind howled outside his window, and sometimes it even rattled the window pane, but the solitary figure never heard it once.


I... I want you to understand why I'm leaving.


Words echoed in his head, the words spoken from those soft lips he once kissed.


You knew I fell in love with Seifer?


Lips he would never kiss again. The way they opened and closed to form sweet words, and the way they pressed together to form a sweet smile. Sweet. Perhaps that was what she was to him - a sweet girl.


Look, Squall, I loved you.


Even though they were supposed to be a couple, even though he loved her in return, it wasn't enough to satisfy her. For the first time ever, he began to doubt whether Rinoa loved him in the first place. Maybe she was just being her sweet self and mistook her feelings for him for something more than mere attraction. He knew one thing for sure, however, and that was that he fell in love with her. Squall always took his feelings seriously, and he had tried his best to prove himself to her time and time again. Even when his resolve wavered, his friends were there to cheer him on and make him believe in himself again. Everyone supported their mutual feelings, and it even convinced him to pursue her. Zell, his best friend ever since they were young although he only rediscovered the past not too long ago, also encouraged him and even made Rinoa a duplicate of his ring. Maybe it was the ring that gave her ideas of marriage, and maybe if Zell had never made the ring, none of this would have happen. Surely, if he had never made that ring, Rinoa might have never been his. He had Zell to thank and to curse for his time with Rinoa, and, naturally, he began to focus on his negative emotions. Ironically, he didn't feel any sadness. Tears streamed down his face, but the stoic expression did not change. His thought were in a disarray, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't blame Zell. All he ever did was try to help him and make him happy; there was nothing wrong with that. He couldn't blame the consequences of what happened on Zell's actions because they were well intentioned. Still, he wanted to find something to blame. He didn't know what to feel now that Rinoa was gone. It seemed like the void she once filled was empty again.


Good bye, Squall.


"Squall!!"


He blinked. If he had been paying attention, he would've noticed that Zell had entered his room and was literally shouting into his face.


"What," he replied, sounding a little hoarse.


"Welcome back to the world of the living," the familiar voice spoke quieter than before but rather quickly. "I was knocking for a while and you didn't answer, and the door wasn't locked so I let myself in." Zell paused briefly, as if he was trying to read Squall's dark expression. "Hey, what happened in the time I left, you don't look so good."


Squall didn't answer at first but just looked at Zell's eager eyes. He seemed worried, although Squall didn't care about why he would care at all, seeing how he was the instigator in everything that happened with Rinoa. "Nothing," he finally said, quickly looking away. "Why did you come back," he stated rather than posed his phrase as a question.


"Uh, well, I know it's none of my business but I just heard from Quistis and Selphie that Rinoa..."


"...Rinoa's leaving," Squall interrupted, interweaving in Zell's unfinished sentence.


"That... that's right. Yeah. So, you found out too, huh..."


"Rinoa came by," Squall said curtly.


"Oh..." Zell's unusually quiet voice trailed off, and he slowly moved aside to sit on the bed too. Squall's gaze remained fixed in the opposite direction of where Zell sat, and they sat in silence for a while. The wind howled outside, and rain started pelting mutely on the window at first, then fiercely. Zell shuddered, feeling as if he shouldn't be there at all, but he wanted to make sure Squall was all right. Honestly, he had expected Squall to be upset or sad, but instead, he seemed angry. So angry that he wouldn't even look at him... was he angry at him for some reason?


After a while, Squall turned to glare at Zell, only to find the boy's deep blue eyes staring at him in concern. He cursed under his breath, unable to find the words to tell Zell to leave.


"You know what might help?" he began, waiting to see if the brunette would react to his words, but there was no reaction. "If we went to the training center, you know, work off some steam, because you don't look like you're in a talking mood. I know it helps me when I'm..." he bit his lip, trying to choose his words carefully before his mouth ran off without him. "When I'm," he continued, "Upset... sad... confused? I don't know baby, c'mon please. I can't just leave you in here."


Squall exhaled, realizing that he indeed was confused, and nodded solemnly. Zell literally bounced out of the room and beckoned Squall to follow him out into the hallway. Grudgingly standing up, Squall stomped his way through the room, not caring if he stepped on anything vital, and slammed the door behind him. The martial artist winced but pretended not to notice when Squall looked up at him, as if waiting for him to lead the way. Nearly frightened out of his wits at how disheveled his bestfriend looked, he half-sprinted his way to the training center, with Squall following closely behind, walking with quick yet heavy footsteps.


Zell reassured himself mentally that slaying a couple monsters would help Squall sweat out a few worries, and then maybe not. At any rate, he knew that trying to get Squall to talk out his emotions wasn't going to work very well. If there was one thing he knew about his friend, it was that he enjoyed fighting as much as he did, although the almighty leader never showed it on his face. It was the little things, like the way the lionheart would swing his gunblade over his shoulder and turn a quarter step away from the slain monster, then rock his weapon on his shoulder while he tapped his left foot simultaneously. It was his signal of victory, that he had sucessfully subdued a monster, lightly speaking, and was silently satisfied.


For the first couple of rounds, the two of them handled the monsters well, and with Squall's nearly inhuman strength and speed, no monster they encountered could withstand their combined attacks. It seemed that Squall had relaxed for a while and was getting into the pace of things, until they ran into a T-Rexaur anyway. As usual, the battle was long and hard, and they each took their serving of damage, but Squall began to lose focus as the battle raged on. As horrible a time as it was to start thinking about Rinoa, images of her flashed through his mind at that particular moment. His pace slackened, and his aim began to falter. Soon, it seemed like Zell was left alone to handle the angry T-Rexaur.


"Shit, Squall, are you okay? Think we should call this battle quits and escape?" Zell shouted to his companion, fending the T-Rexaur's attacks and trying to cover for Squall.


The situation seemed surreal to the gunblade specialist. He saw the giantic T-Rexaur looming overhead, and he saw the blonde fighting it with vigor. Squall was tired, exhausted really, and didn't want to be there in the first place. Once again, Zell had dragged him into a situation that might cost him, and recurring thoughts of Rinoa ran through his mind as if they were the last visions he would ever have in his life. As irrational as it may have seemed to him, he started to get angry at Zell. He even let Zell handle the T-Rexaur for the remainder of the battle.


"Hey man, what the hell was up with that? Why didn't you back me up???" Zell yelled at him angrily when the T-Rexaur was finally taken down. "Did you want me to die back there?" He had apparently taken most of the damage in the last fight, and his previous wounds from training sessions weren't fully healed.


"You're the one who wanted to fight. I didn't even want to come," Squall spoke coldly and glared back at him.


"I thought this would be good for you, and if you really didn't want to come, why didn't you just SAY so, huh???" Zell loomed dangerously close to Squall's face, so close that Squall could smell the sweat dripping down his face.


"Whatever," he grumbled and walked away, not caring to continue the pointless argument. He had always been an iceberg before Rinoa came along, and now that she was gone, there was no reason why he couldn't assume his previous personality again. In fact, he wanted to.


"Whatever, FINE! See if I care!" Zell spat out and ran ahead of Squall towards the entrance of the training center.


Squall followed, but the distance between them increased as Zell was running at full speed. Suddenly, he heard a battle up ahead. Despite that it was just the training center and the monsters there were of relatively low levels, Squall instinctively ran to catch up with Zell.


"Just leave if you don't wan't to be here, I don't need your help. I can finish these guys off by myself," Zell growled, attacking one of the two funguars.


Squall sneered inwardly, sure it was only two funguars, but he joined the battle anyway, not that he had a choice really. In his moment of distraction, the funguar Zell didn't slaughter attacked the brunette with a confuse attack. Stars exploded in front of his eyes and the world spun rapidly around him, which caused him to fall on his knees. From outside the haze that clouded his mind, he heard a distant voice call to him, but he couldn't tell what it said. When he managed to get to his feet, he lashed out and tried to hit the funguar, and when his blade connected with something, an odd sensation rushed over his gloved hands. He was sure that he had taken down the funguar, but he felt a fire attack wash over his body just a moment later. When his confuse state finally wore off, the gunblade specialist whipped out his final attack and killed the surprisingly high-level funguar in one blow. He slumped down to his knees and winced from the burns, but overall he wasn't too injured. After pulling a potion from his back pocket and downing the nasty liquid in one gulp, he looked around for Zell. Instead of seeing blond, he saw red. A lot of it, and it was puddled all around Zell. Squall's eyes widened, and the bloody mess in front of him took a while to register in his mind.


"Zell.....?" he stuttered, dropping his gunblade and reaching out a hand towards the figure which lay a few feet away from where he knelt. There was no response, not even a slight movement. "Zell......? What have I done...? Zell.....?"


No matter how hard he tried, his outstretched hand could not reach him. He let out a scream at the top of his lungs, but the sound was confined within the training center. When he could finally stand up again, he went over to the limp body and picked him up. What he saw was not a pretty sight, and the brunette swallowed hard, trying not to lose himself to nausea. He cradled the unconscious boy in his arms and ran as fast as he could out of the training center.

---

Footnote: Ooooh man, this is so uncharacteristic of my stories, my my...

It has come to my recent attention that I actually have readers...! I love you guys, thank you for reading! And I sincerely apologize for the incredibly slow progress of my Floating (FFVIII) fic in particular. School is absolutely hectic in terms of stress, and I never was a prolific writer to begin with. ;_; I promise that I'll finish the next part as soon as possible! Thank you for being so patient with me. ^_^ Meanwhile, I'll be churning out small drabbles for the ZellxSquall (or reverse) pairing until then.

Series: Final Fantasy VIII (8)
Pairing: Zell Dincht & Squall Leonhart

Theme: 30 Kisses #16 - Invincible; Unrivaled
Status: one-shot, finished

Rating: G
Warnings: your own imagination?

Notes: Use your imagination for an alternate picture of what's going on. ::grin::

---

One swift stroke, then another, and another. He gasped, the grip between gloved hands intense but steady. His quickened heartbeat, and his senses ran wild. Every movement accounted for and felt. His blood pumping rapidly, and his mouth dry from excitement. Heat flared from every inch of his body. His mind blank, and his thoughts unaccounted for except for the moment right then and there. Waiting, and waiting.


Dizzy, but focused. Hard, but willing.


Then BAM! The kiss of death finally delivered.


"BOOYA!!!"



His head hurt. Sometimes, fighting with Zell was more than exhausting. But always exhilarating, and nothing short of incredible.