Final Fantasy VIII: Holding Tight to Loyalty
Raijin plopped down across the table from Fujin. She looked up, a quick flash of red and black, and then back to the notebook in front of her. She had her written exam after lunch, and Raijin had been helping her study for it for the last two months. He wished he felt as ready as she was, but his had been pushed back again. It made him wonder if he was going to remember everything long enough to take the exam.
"How's it going?" Raijin didn't like asking; sometimes it was bad news, like more nasty letters or threats. Fujin had the same air around her no matter her mood was.
"Fine."
Pages rustled, and Raijin stared down at his lunch he didn't want very much. He didn't want to do it, but the decision had been made already. If he didn't tell her, she would hear it from gossip. Raijin wasn't stupid no matter what some of the graffiti on his door said. He knew how that would end for him. "My exam got pushed back again."
Fujin's fingers stilled from their distracted dance on the tabletop. "I see."
"Don't get all mad." It was a waste of time to ask, but he made the effort anyway. "Said I wasn't ready, assigned me more practical work."
"Excuses." Fujin flipped her notebook closed. She lowered her voice and said, "I thought four months would be enough time for them to stop judging us."
"Well, you can't exactly blame them." Raijin pushed his fries around on his place with his fingers, not meeting Fujin's gaze. It was always the same deal with her, silent lectures over guilt and the blood he still sometimes dreamed was on his hands. "We've just got to tough it out, not let them get us down. Hey, you get to take the exam today, you know? We're wearing them down, Fu."
"Leonhart." Fujin said it like a curse, and Raijin couldn't disagree. Leonhart always looked at him like he had seen a ghost. Maybe seeing Raijin everyday reminded him of Seifer. Raijin didn't know, but he was kinda tired of being judged by Leonhart and everyone else, too.
"So we'll have patience, right, like Seifer told us to," he said, even though it was getting harder to follow the advice. It had come with a depressing goodbye, and Seifer had vanished on them, leaving an empty bed in the hotel room and a bunch of unanswered questions. It didn't matter how many times Fujin told him that it was for the best that it look like ties had been cut. Raijin didn't think he would ever stop regretting it, because it didn't just look like they had been.
"Protect each other. Don't give up on your dreams." Fujin didn't even bother to mask the sadness in her voice as she quoted Seifer's last note to them. "He made it sound easy."
"Maybe it was to him, after everything he went through, you know?" Raijin shrugged, and stole Fujin's peanut butter cookie. "Maybe one day when we're SeeDs, we'll see him again. Just cause he said it was permanent doesn't mean we might not run into him."
"Small world." Fujin smiled. "For SeeD."
"And he'd be disappointed if he finds out we screwed it up. Bad reunion news and stuff. So I'll guess we'll just keep on, you know?" Raijin grinned at Fujin's nod, and bit into the cookie, cheered.