Chapter 4: A New Day
Quistis watched the former general sleep. She had entered planning on waking her up, but did not enjoy the troubled dreams the other woman was having. She pondered shaking her gently, but wanted to wait. She softly padded forward and sat at the foot of the bed. Apparently, it did the trick as Celes roused slowly.
“Good morning.” Quistis said with a smile. She liked the sleepy look on the general’s face. Oddly, her hair fell into place as she sat up.
“Morning,” was the yawned reply. “How long before we have class?” She noticed that the instructor was all ready in uniform and freshly showered.
“Long enough for you to take a shower and to eat breakfast with me in the cafeteria.” Quistis stood up and went for the door. She paused. “Oh, I brought you a uniform for today. Your usual attire distracts the boys…and some of the girls.” She let out a chuckle as Celes blushed. She went to her desk to go over her lesson plans for the day and wait, before muttering, “…and me.”
The Returner grabbed the uniform, which was a duplicate of Quistis’s, and headed off to the bathroom mumbling. “Well, I can’t help if it’s functional and comfortable… and makes me irresistible.”
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“Lookin’ good, Celes!” Irvine declared as she approached the cafeteria table.
Quistis shot him a look as sharp as the crack of her whip. Irvine flinched and resumed enjoying his biscuits and gravy (yum).
Celes gave Quistis a mocking look of offense. “Are you assuming that I can’t defend myself from this ruffian?” She smiled at the thought that the cowboy resembled a certain king she knew.
Quistis decided to play along. “No, my lady. But it was my honor to defend yours.” She even threw in a curtsy. The blondes burst out laughing at Irvine’s confused look. “Chill out cowboy. We’re just pulling your chain. I think she looks great too.” The instructor laid a hand on the blonde’s shoulder.
Irvine snapped his fingers and sighed. “I lost another one to lesbianism…”
The blondes both took the time to give him questioning looks. Zell plopped down next to him. “Don’t go there, Irv-man!” He laughed. “They might fry you if you’re not careful.”
“Yes, I do believe you’re walking on thin ice. There was a certain magazine left in my mailbox with your name on it.” Quistis said with a hint of trouble.
“So where is Selphie and Fujin?” Celes asked, trying to defuse the situation, after putting the pieces together mentally.
Surprisingly, Irvine answered. “Selphie’s walking with Fujin to class to learn each others’ schedule.” At their looks, “Hey, we’re still friends!” He replied with indignity.
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“So class, what should you do if you’re outnumbered or facing a stronger opponent?” Quistis asked her class. It was one of the younger groups that were old enough not to be considered a form of daycare.
An eager young man stuck his hand in the air. When prompted, he still managed to sound meek as he supplied: “Fight to the death?”
Quistis shook her head. “I’m afraid not. It’s bad not to complete a mission; it’s far worse not to be able to go on any missions ever again.”
Another young man near him gave it a try. “Smoke bombs?”
“Good idea. What else?” Quistis nodded and paced, her boots clunking softly. The class remained silent. She turned to her assistant. “Celes?”
Celes came out of her revelry. “You have several options after retreat: first, you could lure them into a prepared or improvised ambush. You could also keep retreating until reinforcements arrive. Another, more difficult option is to draw them out individually…”
Quistis put a hand on her arm. “We might not want to get into advanced tactics with them yet.”
“Sorry,” she said with some embarrassment.
“Oh, no. It was fine.” The students didn’t fail to notice the looks between the two women.
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“Hey! Stop running in the halls!” Seifer yelled out to a student who seemed intent on pissing him off.
“You don’t want to fall on your face, ya know!” Raijin burst out laughing at his own joke. Then, he suddenly flinched at a phantom pain in his leg. “I’m starting to miss Fujin, ya know.”
Seifer let out a sad grunt. “I do too. She always had a way of threatening a miscreant that I couldn’t match…” The duo sighed. “I don’t know though. If we wanted Fujin back, we’d probably have to recruit Selphie as well…” That sent a shiver down his spine.
“Now that would be scary, ya know!” Raijin laughed. He felt the twinge in leg again.
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Selphie had always been an average student grade-wise, but felt the need to learn new things. This was a quality that Fujin began to appreciate, especially considering that the brunette drew Fujin into many of these activities.
Currently, they were sitting on one of the decks star gazing. It was a stereotypical date for most, but for these two, it was extraordinary. They were sharing a large quilt, yet size wasn’t an issue. Selphie rested her head on Fujin’s shoulder.
She smiled at Fujin’s happy expression. “You know, I used to be really shy a few years back.” Fujin gave her an “are you crazy?” look, which caused the brunette to laugh. “Yeah, I know it’s odd. I wasn’t shy around Squall, Zell and the others, but after I got separated from them I was afraid… I was afraid that everyone would think I was weird or something.”
“NOT…THAT…WEIRD,” Fujin said with a small smirk.
Selphie hit her on the shoulder playful, “You meanie.” Fujin reacted with one of her roguish smiles, which she knew would instantly melt Selphie’s false anger. Selphie pouted childishly, “I can’t believe you know that works on me…” She grinned evilly. “How does it work on your fan club?”
Fujin’s eyes widened in surprise and blushed, “FAN…CLUB?” She looked at Selphie’s face. “LYING…”
Selphie shook her head and laughed. “Nope. Yours is almost as large as Quistis’s! Celes has one too. Of course, hers and Quistis’s are starting to overlap for obvious reasons.”
“KNOW…TOO…MUCH…”
“Nope, I just pay attention to the students. The girls talk a lot.”
“JUST…YOU…” She had a thought. “ARE…YOU…IN…MY…CLUB?”
Selphie blushed. In a quiet voice, she replied, “I started it…”
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Squall looked up from behind the piles of paper work. ‘Why won’t it go away?’ He inwardly whined. He coughed to get Cid’s attention. “Sir, isn’t paperwork in your area of expertise?”
Cid laughed inwardly. ‘The kid’s got talent. Part of being in charge is being able to push off your work on others. I wonder how long it’s going to take him to figure out to hire an assistant. What does he think Xu and Nida do?’ Outwardly, he took on his instructor’s voice. “Squall, I do believe this is a part of learning how to be in charge of Garden. I also think it is prudent that you learn this while we’re not in a combat situation.” Squall slumped in defeat. ‘A thousand years too soon, kid.’
“You’re right, sir.” Squall sighed and went back to work. ‘Mean old man.’
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Rinoa felt a cold chill decend her spine. ‘What was that about?’ She re-focused her mind on paying attention to her professor. It was hard when it wasn’t Quistis. In her classes, she felt like she was just hanging out with a friend. ‘Probably why I keep asking her to tutor me.’
She grimaced as she noticed her mind drifting off again. ‘What is wrong with me?’
Things got weird when she heard an anguished voice say: “Don’t let them free me!”
‘What was that?’ Her concentration was gone for the rest of the day.
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Celes looked out from the balcony at the stars. It reminded her of her time at the opera. It was fun being the center of attention and not wiping out a whole town. She sighed at the dark memories of Miranda.
Her thoughts brought her back to happier times as she looked back to the stars. She remembered late nights at the orphanage, where after the children had gone to sleep, her and Terra would sneak outside and lay out under the stars.
They would lie there and talk for half the night. Celes would shyly hint at them staying together after all the orphans had been adopted. Terra smiled at her and said that it would be wonderful. They even joked about taking up the offer to look after Relm if Strago needed to retire from that full-time position.
Celes smiled as she thought about the young artist. The last time they had spoken was truly interesting.
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“I used to get irritated when girls would ask me to paint them. Now that I’m famous, I think I like the idea that girls love artists.” Relm said with an explosive grin.
“What about boys?” Celes asked.
The young teen make a noise of disgust. “They made fun of my art and gramps. I’ll get back at them when I have a cuter girlfriend than them!” The surprise on Celes’s face set her into giggles.
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As Celes laughed by herself, she felt the gloom slowly creep back in. ‘How did Cyan do it? How did he deal with losing everything he had ever known?’
A voice from her memory spoke: “I met new people and made myself a new life with you and the others.” She nodded to herself, knowing that he was right. The samurai had spent many hours training her during their journey and she had learned much from him. Locke had been so surprised to see that she was not the helpless girl that she appeared to be.
Quistis came out and looked concerned. “Couldn’t sleep?”
“No, just wanted to see the stars. I was comparing them to the stars I’m used to...that and reminiscing.”
“Might I ask what about?”
“Old friends and what I used to think my future would be like.”
“Really? Would you mind telling me about them?” Quistis said with a combination of enthusiasm and sincerity.
Celes smiled, “Sure.”
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A lone woman walked the streets of Dollet with purpose. Her expression was grim, grim enough to make even the toughest street rabble steer clear of her. A part of it might have been her reputation. She was known for her bar, but she was also known for performing bouncing duties herself with rowdier customers.
She had always been known as a friendly, lively young woman. But recently, something had changed. Something had been lost, or more aptly, taken from her.
She had lost hope; even closing down the bar. Her pain had created a void, leading her to despair.
A week ago, she had received a message of hope. In return, all she would need to do is fight.
She approached a large mansion on the outskirts of Dollet. The owner of the house had a plan. And Tifa Lockheart was going to take any chance available to get her back.
End
Omake: Thanks for the Break
Once again in the Garden cafeteria, a majority of the cast had gathered for snacks.
“That was nice of the author to give us the holidays off.” Celes said, sipping her first cappuccino
“Almost all of them! If I had a student take this many days on an assignment, they would have failed twice over by now!” Quistis huffed.
Irvine laughed. “I’m sure you’re just ready to get to the part where you and Celes start kissing!” Selphie whacked him over the head with her nunchucks.
Squall shifted in his seat. “At least, we get a break from all those yaoi stories.”
All of the males in the room squirmed, except for Zell who was about to take a large bite out of a hotdog. He then noticed Seifer watching him lecherously. The fighter put it down and sighed.
Omake end