Breakfast was excruciating, sitting opposite Laguna as he was babbled on endlessly. He tried to block it all out and focus on the bowl of cereal he had. How could he be related to someone who ate with his mouth open? Made a mess at the table and nattered on about everything and anything. His friends just look amused, how could they not be irritated by him?

Kiros sat at the head of the table on Squall's left and offered the brunette a reassuring smile when he looked his way. Ward finished eating first and signed something before leaving the table.

Squall shot Laguna a questioning look, silently asking what Ward had said and where he went. The older man either didn't see the look or he didn't know that Squall never voiced these things.

"He's going to see his fiancée." Kiros said.

The brunette glanced at him in surprise and then just nodded.

Laguna sprung to life apologising for not explaining these things. "I forget not everyone knows sign language. You should have asked." He said.

Squall rolled his eyes.

Kiros chuckled.

"What?" Laguna asked, confused.

"Never mind."

"Oh." The president started to say. "There's a party here tomorrow, sort of an official thing but you can come and I bet there'll be a lot of nice girls there for you to meet." He winked at him.

The brunette cast a look at Kiros, catching his eyes. He was a little surprised that Kiros hadn't told his best friend.

"Great." He muttered.

"So you'll come?"

Squall shrugged. "Nothing else to do."

Laguna grinned. "It'll be great; I've invited lots of girls and told them you'd be there."

"Yippee." Squall muttered sarcastically.

His father suddenly looked up at the clock. "Shit! I have a meeting with- with- someone-" He ran to the door then ran back. "Kiros who do I have a meeting with?"

"The major from FH remember? You were going to discuss the train situation between our two cities."

Laguna pointed frantically at him. "That was it!" He ran to the door again and then stopped looking back. "Oh Squall. Kiros told me you were interested in working on one of the ships in the ship yard there's one in port D you can have to keep."

Squall nodded. "Thank.... You." He managed with some effort.

"I was going to take you down there today but I forgot about this meeting, I'll take you tomorrow."

Squall frowned. What was he going to do until then?

"Laguna?" Kiros called. "I can show him if you want?"

Squall perked up again looking expectantly up at Laguna but the president shook his head.

"No don't worry about it plenty of time tomorrow." He finally left and Squall slouched into the seat to sulk.

Kiros stood from the table. "I have to get to work, walk with me?"

Squall nodded.

"What are you doing today?"

"Not a lot from the looks of it." Squall mumbled. "Hoe come you didn't tell Laguna I was gay?"

The dark man looked puzzled. "Should I have?"

"I just thought he is your best friend and-"

"I didn't think it was my place, he's your father you'll tell him when you're ready."

Squall frowned to think about this then nodded. "Yeah." He agreed.

Kiros smiled at him.

"Did you tell your parents?" Squall asked suddenly.

"Yes a while ago now when I was 16."

"Ahh ages and ages ago then."

Kiros raised an eyebrow. "Are you teasing me?"

Squall glanced back with a blank expressionless face. "What makes you think that?"

Kiros folded his arms playfully. "I'm not that old." He smiled.

"Was it bad?"

"Huh?"

"When you told your parents, was it bad?"

The coloured man shook his head. "I didn't have a father and my four sisters thought it was a good thing to be able to compare their taste in men with me."

The brunette smiled ever so slightly, thinking about Selphie following him around when he was the only one to get a kiss from the sexy mechanic who worked at garden for a while, even though all the girls hung around the guy all day.

"Groupies." He muttered.

The other man raised an eyebrow. "Huh?"

"Girls at garden that follow me around in case I randomly fucked a guy in the corridor or something." He rolled his eyes dramatically.

Kiros chuckled. "Teenagers."

"Hey!"

"Sorry." He smirked. "Forgot, you act so old."

The brunette rolled his eyes. "I'll leave now before you insult me anymore."

"Leave to where?"

"My friends expect presents so I'm going shopping."

"Good luck." The older man called as he headed off down a corridor to his office.

The brunette nipped back to his room for a second to pick up something, which he hid by putting on a long black trench coat. The guards at the door saluted him as he headed into town. He lied to Kiros a little, yes he did have to buy presents for his friends but he thought maybe slaughtering a few behemoths would get him in a good mood first. With Lionheart safely hidden away he walked to the nearest exit. He had a hi-potion in each of his four pockets not as much he would normally carry but he didn't want them to be too obvious, he didn't know if the guards would let him go killing monsters even if he was the Seed commander they would probably want a squadron to go with him and that was the last thing Squall wanted.

He exited the city and drew his weapon; giving it a few practice swings as he walked across the barren plains he walked for quiet a while until the city looked like a lump in the distance. Monsters wouldn't go to near the city with tons of guards on the gates with weapons so he'd have to go out to them.

"Here Behemoths." He muttered.

He heard a roar from his right and saw a large beast charge at him, looking for breakfast.

Oh goody as Selphie would say. He arched back his weapon, bringing it forward just as the monster was in range catching the thing on the side of the head with his blade. The creature stumbled to its right with a cry of pain. Squall continued to strike the monster but that cry had alerted more behemoths to the fight. The brunette cast a Thunderaga stunning the beast then stabbed it between the eyes. The monsters stumped to the floor dead.

Squall let out his breath and pulled Lionheart free. Another roar announced the presence of another behemoth.

"Must be my lucky day." He mumbled then turned to see the small herd coming towards him. "Or maybe not." Great, maybe he had just killed a leader or something.

He started to move back towards the city again maybe he could kill a couple and that would distract them long enough for him to escape back to the city again.

He cast haste, triple and protect on himself just as the monsters neared him and prepared to kill as many of them as possible. The things attacked in a circle to hit the brunette from every angle. Squall fired magic at them, flare spells and ultimas going off left and right to keep them far enough away from himself. Three beasts fell dead after the last ultima spell leaving him with four to deal. He downed a hi-potion in a moment of confusion after one of the bodies fell on top of him.

As he got nearer the city he was out of breath with no time to take any more hi-potions the last four were not happy that he had killed their friends. The guards on the gate saw what was going on and ran out to help him with only their pistols. Squall mentally cursed, were all Estharians brain dead? Those bullets wouldn't make a dent in the tough skin of these behemoths. Were they trying to get him killed? He didn't want to have to baby sit some stupid soldiers.

"No!" He called to the silly soldiers. "You idiots! Run!"

One of the guards watched Squall as he stopped to wave and yell at them a behemoth snuck up on him and pulled him off his feet.

"We've dealt with worse things, you think just because you're a Seed you're better at this than we are, right?"

Squall cast an ultima spell as he scrambled to his feet, which were a little unsteady as he had had a heavy beast lying on them and chewing on his arm. "That's exactly what I mean!"

The guards stayed and fired at some monsters drawing their attention.

"Don't you come crying to me if you get killed!" Squall yelled right before he got hit by deadly claws on the back of the head, neck and shoulders. He went down again blood flowing down his arms.

"Get down!" He yelled to the guards and used the gift Zell had given him.

The guard's mouths dropped as a large dragon appeared in the sky enveloping the behemoths and Squall in flames. When the fires dissipated the monsters were dead and Squall was getting to his feet among the bodies. The brunette leant heavily on his gunblade, which he was using as a crutch.

Squall opened his coat looking in the pockets finding only broken glass. The lining of his coat was soaked with hi-potion, he thought about sucking it out but he wasn't that desperate yet.

"What the hell were you thinking?!" Laguna yelled.

Squall winced. "Don't, I have a headache."

"I'm not surprised your head's full of holes."

Squall sat on the couch in the lounge of the living area within the palace. His back was to Laguna who treated the cuts on his head, neck and shoulders.

"I would have been fine if your stupid guards hadn't got in the way."

They wanted to help."

"Well they didn't, I was trying to stop them getting killed when this happened!" He snapped.

Kiros walked back into the room and handed Laguna some fresh water to bathe Squall's wounds with.

The brunette sighed. "If you allowed magic in this palace we wouldn't be having this problem."

"Magic doesn't treat all your wounds it just covers them up." Kiros stated.

Squall frowned at him. "We've used it for years with no problems."

Laguna made a sound of disapproval. "That's what worries me, I thought you Seeds were trained to avoid this sort of thing."

"What sort of thing? I'm not dying; I got smacked around a bit while trying to save your men! I won't bother next time you tell them that!"

Kiros gave him a look.

"Don't do that?" Squall told him.

"Do what?"

"Looking at me like I'm a child."

The dark haired man blinked. "I didn't know I was."

"You are only 17 maybe you should act like it sometimes." Laguna said.

Squall snorted. "Are we done here yet?"

"Not unless you want to bleed all over the carpet."

"At least you have something to look forward to."

"Like?"

"The party, I invited lots of people your age for you to talk to."

Squall winced. "Forgot about that. Do I still have to go?"

"Yes! Don't you want to? You are a teenager you know, that's what young people do right? Go to parties?"

Squall sighed. "But I can't shower first with my bandages on so I'll smell of monster blood all night anyway."

"You can always apply new ones or I can if you want."

"I'll do it."

"With the eyes in the back of your head?" Kiros asked.

Squall frowned. "I don't like you being so clever."

"Sorry I'll start being silly should I?"

"Get Laguna to give you lessons.

Kiros laughed.

The president looked up when his name was mentioned. "Huh? What did I miss?"

"Never mind." His friend said.

Laguna applied the last bandage. "There, good as new." He patted Squall. "Go and recover.

Squall swung his legs over the side of the sofa and got up slowly, holding his head as it ached.

"Okay." He muttered, leaving the room.

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