Synopsis:  AU.  The SeeDs were sent on a mission to investigate a “haunted” house where a number of young men had already mysteriously lost their lives.  More importantly, these victims shared very similar attributes which the gang could not dismiss lightly…  SxS yaoi.

Disclaimer:  I don’t own the characters, Squaresoft does. (except for one or two OC’s, but then I bet anyone reading this should know what belongs to me and what doesn’t, whatever…)

Warnings: AU.  R rated S x S yaoi.  Blood everywhere.  Swearing kept to a minimal.  Lemon?  Haven’t decided cuz I don’t want to insert sex scenes simply for the sake of it…

Author’s rambling:  In order to create some distractions for a while before the S x S part gradually plays out in Life Blood… (hard-sell, aren’t I. . ), here comes another story which is truly S x S without any other alphabets in between, although this might not be a very happy one.

By the way, I tend to do AU’s cuz it gives more room for development.  In this story, let’s say the Orphanage Gang are all SeeD’s stationed in Balamb Garden and they never had to fight the war against Ultimecia, and they never met the Forest Owls.  Basically that means I wrote a story with the characters borrowed from FF8, happy?

So here we go!

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So close, yet so far away…

By konekomh

Prologue

Five teenagers made their way noisily through the giant mansion, eating up luxurious carpets under their muddy feet in quick strides.  They stopped in front of a door at the far end and one of them shouted,  “Ian!  The car’s fixed!  Pick up your ass already.  It’s time to go home!!” 

Silence.

The air was heavier than usual.  It seemed as if certain aura had surrounded the room guarding the entrance to a forbidden realm.  The moment they stepped into the proximity they already felt as if they were being surrounded by predatory gazes.  That made them all the more eager to go home, and real quick. 

The dead air stretched on forever, only to be broken by some quiet hissings in the room.  The noise was nearly missed had they not unknowingly held their breaths.

“Ian?”  One of the girls knocked at the door tentatively when there was no answer.  The group shared a confused look and nodded, the girl then proceed to turn the knob.  It was not locked.

“Sleepy head, time to go home now.”  Rubbing the goose bumps off his arms one of the boys hollered as they walked over to the king-sized four-posters bed as if they were blindfolded.  Were it not for the slits of light escaping from the slightly parted curtains they could have stumbled upon the bed without even noticing what was in front of them.

“IAN!!” 

The girl let out a piecering scream and fainted while others stood frozen to the ground.  Lying in the bed was no one other than their now lifeless friend.  His whole body was covered in blood red roses which were blooming to the fullest, looking like they had been feeding nicely from the life fluid of the boy.  A giant cobra entwined itself around the dead brunette under the rose blanket as if he was its most prized treasure.  A trial of dark red ran from the corner of his slightly parted lips, and the most striking of all…

… was a deep scar running diagonally across his porcelain face…

Chapter 1

“Are we there yet?”  Seifer rattled his fingers impatiently over the wheel as he waited for Quistis to read the map.  They have been driving for two days straight from Galbadia and they could still find nothing.

“Beats me.  The kids can only remember where they were before they got lost and that’s basically here.”  At that, the elegant blond pointed at a cross on the map and said, “so we’ve only reached the part where things started to go ‘spooky’ as they put it.”

Seifer sighed, “but it seems things haven’t started going ‘spooky’ as in our case.”

Quistis pushed up her spectacles and glanced disapprovingly at the blond, “be careful what you wish for, Seifer.  Ten groups of people have reported the same story in the past couple of months. Given the consistency I must say they were telling nothing but the truth.”  The ex-instructor glanced worriedly to the back of the van, where Squall was currently curled up in a blanket sleeping soundly.  “Laugh at me for being paranoid but I don’t want their story to repeat on us, you understand what I mean?”

Seifer leaned back against his seat and looked upon the sky, “I know, that’s why I insisted in tagging along even when he pointed his toy at me...”

One week ago

Squall ran to the dormitories after he disembarked from the Ragnorak.  Despite his weariness from the hideous mission he suddenly became totally energized when the vehicle touched down.  It had been two weeks since he last set foot in Balamb Garden and he was already beaming at the prospect of seeing his recently found love.

The brunette breezed past curious glances and punched in the access code he’d already learnt by heart just before he departed for the mission.

“Access.  Denied.”  It chimed.

He cocked his head in confusion.  Calm down.  Your hands are just shaking from all those workouts.  He then took off his gloves and pressed the buttons one by one as he licked his weather-cracked lips.  Easy Squall, easy.

“Access.  Denied.”

The gunblader scowled.  Strange… it’s not time to change the code yet…  He knocked loudly at the door, which was finally answered by a blank looking blonde after a long quiet wait just before the brunette decided to return to his own room for some much needed sleep.

“Seifer!”  Couldn’t wait any longer Squall pushed the blond into the room and closed the door with his heel.  He immediately wrapped his arms around the taller man’s neck and started to devour his lips like a bee drawn to honey.  “I miss you.”  The hungry boy whispered between much needed breaths and tried to deepened the kiss.

But he got no response.

Brows furrowed together Squall loosened his hold and stepped back to regard the blonde, “Something’s wrong?” 

The taller man remained impassive as he stared at the angel in front of him.  The boy was covered in grime and he looked very tired.  But his eyes shone like the stars in a clear autumn sky and they even twinkled and turned expectant when Seifer laid his hand on the boy’s cheek.

“Nothing.  You must be very tired.  Now go and have a shower so that you can sleep clean.”  At that Seifer lightly pushed Squall out of his room and closed the door with a soft click, leaving a very confused and disappointed kitten stranded in the cold dark alley of a ghetto.

Squall pouted.  What’s wrong?  Remembering two weeks ago before he departed the blonde even promised to hold him in his bed when he came back from the mission, the brunette felt a sudden iron grip in his heart and a lump formed in his throat.  Sparing one last glance at the closed door, he turned and stumbled back to his room, suddenly feeling all the weariness from the past two weeks finally catching up with him.

Squall wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his hand.  He had been working out alone in the Training Centre after the much needed rest.  He couldn’t locate Seifer anywhere in the Garden.  It was really bothering him.  It looked as if the blonde was trying to avoid him ever since he came back from the mission.  Finding his mind swirling in confusion with an imminent headache, Squall resolved to take his frustrations out on the poor T-Rex.  It was not until then he noticed Seifer slipping discreetly into the Secret Area.

What the…

The brunette sheathed his blade and went after the blonde, who was gazing out to the Balamb plain while being totally oblivious to Squall’s approach.

“Seifer?”

Squall winced when he saw the addressee tensed at the call of his name.  Am I that repulsive?

“…”

“I couldn’t find you anywhere.”

After a long pulse, Seifer muttered without turning back to acknowledge the brunette, “You don’t need to.  My whereabouts has nothing to do with you.”

“What do you mean by that?”  Squall’s breath hitched and moved over to the railing by Seifer’s side.  He stared intently at the blonde’s face, trying to decipher what he was thinking.  Yet the usually arrogant man kept his head low, his eyes kept locked on the plain over the distance.  “Was it something I did?”

“It isn’t your fault.”  Seifer took a deep breath and continued, not daring to face his friend, “Look, I think we should face the reality.  Me, you, we are friends.  I mean, we’ve been, and still are, best friends…  I don’t think…”

Squall bit into his lower lip so hard that it drew blood, shaking his head in half amusement, he nervously brushed back his bangs and back stepped.  “You regret it.” 

Seifer’s head bent lower, if that was even possible.  “I guess it was just…  I don’t know…” His knuckles turned white as he tightened his grip on the railings.  “What happened that day… we were both drunk, remember?  We were out of our minds, it wasn’t until you left for the mission it suddenly hit me what I should have done, or rather what I shouldn’t have done.”

“…”

Squall giggled.  To everyone’s surprise, even to Squall himself, he started to laugh despite tears were threatening to break the dam.  “I’m not your fuck toy, Seifer Almasy.  I might be intoxicated but I am not out of my mind.”  He bit it out like cold venom.  I feel so used.  He let out a bitter chuckle as he smeared the tears over his face, not noticing the shock stricken look Seifer was wearing when he finally saw the Ice-prince broke down in front of him.

“You alright?”  Seifer reached out to the brunette, only to be pushed away harshly.

“May I have your attention please.  All SeeDs please report to the 2/F classroom immediately.  I repeat.  All SeeDs please report to the 2/F classroom immediately.”

“Wow, what happened to you, baby?”  Zell hollered and waved Squall over to the empty seat by his side.  The brunette was panting mists and dripping from head to toe.  It looked as if he had dropped himself into the fountain on his way to the classroom.  The truth was he threw himself into the pond in the Training Centre before Seifer could even catch up with him.  He didn’t want anyone to see his tear stricken face right now, not when all the SeeDs resident in the Garden were gathered together at a meeting summoned by the Headmaster himself.

The brunette blew his nose as Headmaster Cid entered, a half amused look directed at the star of the bunch when the SeeDs stood and saluted.  After they had seated themselves Zell produced a towel out of nowhere and wrapped it around the boy.  The tattooed blonde ruffled his chocolate brown hair with another as he tried to dry it a little.  “It’ll be hell if you get ill in this weather.  Now be a good boy and take off your coat.”

Without a word Squall obeyed the command and let Zell mothered him, when Seifer suddenly plopped down by Squall’s side and helped dry him up.  Zell spared a curious glace at the renowned bully but let it pass when Squall didn’t even acknowledge the man’s presence.

“SeeDs, we have received a joint assignment from the governments of Galbadia, Timber and Dollet.  Recently ten groups of people from these countries have gone missing when they went on a trip from east to west, only to return to the area around the Tomb of the Unknown King about a week later with one of them forever gone.  I would like to have a team of six to investigate the case and let me play this video before you decide whether you want to accept the mission.”

“We were going on a car trip from Timber to Dollet.  It was a fine day.  Then all of a sudden it turned all spooky…”

“We went from Dollet to Galbadia.  Without any warning our car broke down…”

“We came to this giant mansion, it was so beautiful…”

“We all heard some strange noise during the night.  We thought it was some mistress of the house singing.  But we never caught a glimpse of her…”

“We were well treated but unfortunately one of us fell ill, possibly from the cold… but he kept on chanting something about princess, knight and sorceress in his sleep, which unnerved us quite a bit…”

“When we were ready to leave, we found him dead in a blanket of roses with a giant cobra guarding his body…”

The pictures then shifted to show the profiles of those people.  It seemed that they came from all walks of life, students, honeymooners, businessmen, soldiers, families on holiday, you name it.  Then the photos of the unfortunate dead of each group were put together.  The whole classroom gasped at the similarity and they turned to regard the boy sitting at the back all wrapped up in a pile of towels.  The victims were all brunettes with bluish grey eyes, some of the last pictures even showed they had a deep, fresh scar running diagonally across their faces when they were discovered dead.

The light was switched on.

“So…” The Headmaster started.

“I’ll go.”  Squall stood up to volunteer, paying no heed to the protests from those surrounding him. 

“Oh no you don’t!”  Zell exclaimed.

“Can’t you see you might very well be the next one if you go?”  Seifer stood to face off with the brunette, who turned to regard the Headmaster.

“We can’t risk you that way.  Something hideous is working behind the scene and their target is apparently someone with brown hair and blue eyes.  They might even have a fetish for the scar down your face.”  Cid reasoned. 

“If their target is people with those features then I’d better go.  Or you won’t have a bait good enough.  Hyne knows how many people drive past that area everyday and it only happened to those that have a brunette with them.”

“You’re getting yourself killed, Leonhart.”  Seifer grabbed his wrist and yanked him for attention.

“Since when my life has become a concern of yours, Almasy.”  Squall retorted coldly.  His shields were back and it was strengthened tenfold.  Seifer flinched at the freezing tone and sighed, “Fine, I’ll go with you.”

“No, you won’t.”  Glares of daggers were stabbing the blonde like the Thousand Needles.

“Yes, I will.”  Seifer crossed his arms and smirked, “You can’t stop me.”

Squall unsheathed his gunblade and pointed it at the egoist, “stay the fuck out of my way.”

“ cough SeeDs, you’re not here to go after each other’s blood.”  The Headmaster walked over and took the gunblade from the blonde’s throat.

Cid sighed, “You both are the best of what we have.  I guess we’ll have to rely on you.”

Back to the present

Squall rubbed his eyes as the constant humming of the engines suddenly stopped.  He pulled back the blanket and moved to the front, “Quistis?  Why did we stop?”  Apparently he purposefully ignored the driver who was the one to stop the engines.

“It suddenly gets all misty and I can’t even see my fingers if I stick my hand out there.”  Seifer explained, ignoring the frosty glares that were sent his way.  “The compass isn’t working as well.  What do you reckon we should do, Leader?”

“Seifer, you don’t need to talk to prove your existence.”

Quistis pinched the bridge of her nose, they are getting at it again, all those bickering.  I thought for a while back then they were finally getting along.  Perhaps we’ll have to wait for a couple of years more then…

If only she knew how right she was…

TBC…

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