Quistis grabbed her Save the Queen, and attached it to her lowslung belt. She pulled her black gloves on, and examined herself in the mirror. Not for the first time, she wished her hair was dark brown with red, her eyes a deep brown, her stature petite. Slowly she let her blonde hair fall free about her shoulders and struck a typical Rinoa pose. Frustrated with her attempt, she snatched her hair up and jammed the red clip in place. With the same force, she smashed on her glasses, and then held her nose until the pain subsided. She turned away from the mirror, picked up a book, and started for the door. As she opened the door to the hallway, she turned back and crossed her eyes at herself in the mirror, then removed the glasses and shoved them into the case on her belt. Okay, maybe she did like her blue eyes. With that thought and a smile on her lips, she headed for the parking lot. She hoped Seifer was on time.
* * *
Actually, Seifer was quite early. He'd been up, pacing in the parking lot for close to two hours. The Hyperion hung at his side, much more in place under his trenchcoat and quite reassuring. Hearing footsteps in the hall, he calmed himself down and leaned against the wall, totally at ease, sneer in place.
He forgot how great she looked in that pink outfit. It really was her color, well, except for maybe blue. But then, Rinoa always wore blue. He could appreciate the distinction. Maybe a purple or green...Then he violently shook his head. Why was he thinking about COLORS?
"Good morning, Seifer. I'm glad you're on time." This phrase had been rehearsed the entire night before by Quistis. This phrase, delivered in a very polite tone, got under Seifer's skin.
"Good morning, Quistis," he returned, mockingly. "Ready to chaperone another inexperienced SeeD?"
She flushed a dull red, and made no reply. Another SeeD by the name of Khari appeared at that moment, and lead them to the car. They both climbed in back, and stared out the windows, while Khari chattered on endlessly.
Suddenly, Seifer looked up. Had he heard that right? Had Khari said something about Quistis' social life?
"I'm serious, Quisty! Once you get back, you need to go the club with some of us. You never go! And when you do, you don't dance, you just stand in the corner and..." Seifer tuned her out again, focusing on Quistis who was still staring out the window. But he knew she'd heard. Her body was stiff, her head held up high.
"Hey, Khari, give it a rest, huh? Don't you ever stop talking?" Seifer cut in with an annoyed look. "No one cares about Instructor Trepe's social life." Khari fell silent. Nothing from Quistis. Then the car stopped. Wordlessly, Seifer stepped out of the car, and stood looking at the ocean, paying no attention the huge boat.
"Thanks, Khari," Quistis smiled at her friend and stepped from the car. Khari rolled down her window.

"Hey, Quistis, I was serious. When you get back, you should go with us to the club. Maybe a man will make you happy! What about that Irvine guy? He's nice and he's always flirting with you!"
"He only flirts when Selphie isn't around, and either way, he doesn't mean it. He may be a flirt, but he loves Selphie. Besides, even if he was available, he is definitely not my type," Quistis shook her head. "He's too...frivolous."
"What about Seifer?" Khari lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "He's very handsome! Look at his body! And his eyes...If only he would smile, instead of smirk. He'd be a knock-out."
Quistis only shook her head. "Good-bye, Khari." Taking the hint, the girl smiled and drove away. Quistis straightened and turned, then stopped abruptly. Seifer was framed against the ocean, the sun creating an aura around his shape. And it was a very nice shape, Quistis had to admit. He was tall and well-built, and looked quite good in the black and gray he chose to wear. His blonde hair shone in the bright light, and the one piece that wouldn't stay down made him look more boyish. The greenish-blue of his eyes-

WHOA! Quistis stopped herself. She was just letting Khari get to her. Seifer, indeed.
"What are you staring at? I know I’m good-looking, but you could at least try and hide your infatuation," Seifer was now facing her. Quistis tilted her head at him, choosing to ignore his second comment.
"Khari's right, you know," Quistis said musingly.
"What?"
"If you smiled, instead of smirked, you'd be a heart-stopper." Leaving him staring at her, she walked to the boat and climbed aboard, disappearing from sight on the deck.
Seifer cocked his head, and turned toward the dock. Out of nowhere, a memory surfaced. He'd fished there-no, not there, Fisherman's Horizon-once with Raijin and Fujin. He hadn't caught anything. But it had been fun. He smiled at the memory and started toward the boat. Who knew when the GFs would take that one away from him? Stopping, he scanned the dock again, memorizing every detail, before he continued up the ramp to the boat.
The smile had disappeared.
* * *
"WHAT?!" Quistis roared at the captain. Seifer stifled a laugh. He'd never seen a woman roar. He wondered why she was roaring.
"I'm sorry, Miss. But the Garden only reserved the one room. There's nothing I can do," the captain stammered. "All the other rooms are full."
Now it was Seifer's turn to roar. "WHAT?!"
The blood left the captain's face. "I-I-I-I'm sorry." Seifer and Quistis stared at each other, then back at the captain, blue eyes filled with fire and ice. "Perhaps you can take it up with G-G-Garden when we arrive at our d-d-destination. But there's nothing I can do," the captain pleaded.
The tone in Quistis' voice made Seifer shiver inwardly. "Oh, believe me, we will." Then her voice changed to one of command. "Our room is where?"
The captain led them to the room, handed each of them a key, and all but ran away. Quistis took a deep breath and opened the door, stepping inside. Seifer followed. Both stopped short.
"This is a SeeD room?"
"I guess we didn't need two rooms after all."
"I should apologize to that poor man."
"Which bed do you want?" Seifer walked over to the bed next to the window and lay down on it. "I like this one." He turned his head to smirk at Quistis. She nodded and sat down on the other one, a good six feet between them. "What are we supposed to do for two days?" Seifer wanted to know, then looked at Quistis. She was reading, her glasses perched on the end of her nose. Sighing, he lay back and kicked off his boots. The Hyperion lay next to his bed within easy reach. He turned toward the window and stared out at the ocean. He was asleep in minutes.
* * *
He awoke some time later, and it was dark out. The stars were easily visible through the big window, and he smiled, enjoying the peacefulness. Times like these were when he was the most happy. Just him and the stars. During these moments, he didn't bother reprimanding himself for his romanticism. The sound of a door opening caught his attention and he turned his head toward it. He sucked in his breath.
Quistis emerged from the bathroom, toweling her hair dry with a small pink towel, a fluffy white robe belted at her waist. She sat down in an oversized green armchair and reached for her book, slipping her glasses on at the same time. It took her no time to become engrossed in what she was reading, and the drying of her hair became more and more absent, until it stopped completely and the towel fell to the floor.
Seifer smiled. He wondered how many times she'd ever dropped her cold commanding facade in front of others, though, technically, he reminded himself, she doesn't know you're watching. Her glasses slid down her nose, until they rested precariously on the end of it. He wondered what she was reading that had her so totally absorbed. Maybe she would tell him. Maybe she would tell him what she was thinking every day for the rest of their lives. Maybe-
Seifer shot up. What am I thinking?! She was his INSTRUCTOR, his chaperone! Not to mention the fact that half the time, he could barely stand her attitude. And here he was thinking about spending the rest of his life with her! What was-Hmmm. A smile crossed his lips. It didn't sound too bad, now that he really thought about it. Quistis was good-looking. She was smart, conversed easily enough. The smile disappeared. She loved Squall still. "Dammit!!!"
The expletive made Quistis jump. The book joined the towel on the floor. Blue eyes wide, she shoved her glasses back up on her nose and stared at Seifer.
He'd forgotten how adorable those glasses were. They made her blue eyes soften, and gave her the illusion of submissiveness, when anyone who knew her, knew her eyes could turn to ice and she was anything but submissive. The blue of them nearly engulfed him. She blinked at him.
"Seifer, you scared me!" she told him, eyes still wide. "What's wrong?"
"I-nothing," Seifer shook his head.
"Nothing?" Quistis blinked again. Then she sighed, tilting her head with her eyes closed, then looked at him again, with a small smile. "Nothing made you curse?"
"Nothing important." Seifer looked around the room, anywhere but at her.
"Oh." Quistis paused, before relaxing back into the chair. "Squall was like that, too. Whenever anything bothered him, he would say it was nothing. 'Whatever,'" she imitated Squall's voice to perfection, even adding the one-armed shrug. "C'mon, Seifer, you can open up and-"
"I'm not like Squall," Seifer cut in. There was silence for a moment.
"No," she said quietly. "I don't suppose you are."
"Quistis," Seifer's sea green eyes were hard, with pain and determination. "Don't compare me to Squall. I'm not him. He's always done what's right, and he's an extraordinary SeeD. How could a troublemaker like me live up to that? I went against everything I was taught. I can't even begin to compare to him."
"Seifer..."
"Please." Quistis' blue eyes widened at that. Seifer turned away, cursing himself for his weakness. "I'm going back to bed."
"Seifer." It was so quiet, he barely heard it. "You proved yourself the moment you asked to be taken in as a student again. We all understood what that did to your pride. Squall is Squall. No one can live up to that. Just live up to being Seifer. I'm positive Seifer is just as great as Squall."
"Quistis," Seifer looked over his shoulder at her, sneer in place. "Not everyone likes false flattery."
Her mouth formed an O, and she dropped her gaze. Silently, she picked up her book and the towel and went back to the bathroom. Seifer cursed himself, before stripping off his clothes and crawling into his bed. He vaguely heard the bathroom door open a little bit later. He distantly heard her stop, and there was a long silence. And then he was asleep.
"I meant it, Seifer. Every word," she whispered.
Pulling off her glasses, she set them on the table and climbed into her own bed, waiting for the nightmares to take hold of her. But they never came. And when she dreamed, she dreamed of sad blue eyes and soft hair. But the hair wasn't brown. It was blonde.