Hey everyone! Sorry it's been so long since I posted. I thought I'd let you guys stew a bit before I let you have the ending. ;) From just the four chapters so far, by the way, there have been fifty-one reviews, twenty favourites and twenty-two author alerts for this story alone. Altogether, it's had one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two page views. :0 Wow. Thanks guys. :)

I know some of you guys would have loved to read some kind of "missing scene" involving Seifer, Squall and smut, but although me and iliyana did roleplay one, I don't like it enough to convert it. I think Mindreader is wonderful as it is, and I hope you do too.

Take care, everyone!

My office is, thankfully, quiet even during the day. People in the corridors tend to hush their voices a little when they're near my office – out of respect, or maybe fear – and their thoughts don't intrude too much, just a hum of background 'noise'. It annoyed me at first, but now it's somewhat comforting. No one can surprise me, and if I don't want to speak to someone, I can leave the office by the other door until they're gone. It's useful, even though the main purpose of the mindreading is no longer an issue.

Still, there is one person whose thoughts I can't hear, and I immediately know it's her when she knocks at the door. Not that she gives me time to escape, sticking her head round the door and smiling at me. "Hey Squall!"

"Hey," I say, smiling back and putting down my pen. I think I know what this visit is about; she must have heard by now that I've caught the girl behind the threats.

She comes in, closing the door behind her and sitting down in the chair in front of my desk. "How're you doing?"

I shrug, just a little, avoiding the hidden question and answering in general, reluctant to talk about the issue with the mindreading no longer being necessary. "There's a lot of work for me to do, but nothing very urgent, now. I'm okay."

"And the mindreading?"

"What about it?"

She gives me a slightly reproachful look, as if she's disappointed in that answer. "Do you have any results yet? And," she smiles, a little slyly, as if knowing the answer to that already, "what about Seifer?"

"I caught the person making the threats," I admit, with a soft sigh, and then smile slightly, sidetracking her with the second issue, "And what about Seifer?"

"Have you decided how you feel about him?" she asks, impatiently, rolling her eyes as if I'm the slowest person in the world. I shrug slightly, looking down at my desk and toying with my pen again.

"We're together now."

"That's great!" She claps her hands, delighted, as if she, single-handedly, is responsible for the whole thing – like it's her pet plan all working out. Still, I suppose she has a right to be excited about it. She likes us both and wants us to be happy, and she did encourage me to think it through. Normally, I'd have pushed it to the back of my mind and ignored it as much as possible. "But," she says, interrupting my thoughts and making me look up at her, "about why I came here in the first place... if you've caught the person behind the threat, I suppose you won't need to read minds anymore."

"I suppose so," I say, with a nod and a soft sigh.

"It'll only take a second," she says, smiling reassuringly. I nod agreement, obediently, even if I think I've had the power to read people's minds too long now to be comfortable without it. It's like a second ear, a way to hear what's going on and figure out a way to deal with it. It... helps me with Seifer, too, helps me know what he wants, how not to annoy him.

She gets up and comes around the desk, placing her hands on my shoulders in the same way as when she cast the spell on me, taking a deep breath, presumably to help her focus. She squeezes my shoulders gently and then steps back. "That should be it."

It's like I suddenly went deaf. I can't hear any 'noise' from the corridor, no stray loud thoughts, nothing to make me blush or cringe or even smile. Nothing. "I think so... thank you." I add the last only because I know that she did the right thing, even if I didn't want to, and someday I might be grateful for that.

"No problem," she says, leaning down to kiss me lightly on the cheek before walking around the desk again, heading out of the room. "I'll let you enjoy the silence now."

I nod and tell her goodbye, and then immediately start working again, determined on working so hard I don't notice what's missing.

--------

I almost start when the door to my office opens, without even a knock, and without a thought to warn me of who it is. I don't, however, and look up with a slight smile at the sound of Seifer's voice. "Hey."

"Hey."

"You hiding from me?" he asks, walking up to my desk and planting his hands on it firmly, leaning closer to me to get into my face. Fuck, I wish I knew what he was thinking still. Is he annoyed with me?

"I've had work to do," I say, cautiously, testingly.

He raises an eyebrow slightly, "I suppose I'm distracting you, then?"

The smirk on his face indicates how little he minds that thought.

"You wouldn't be if you kept your mouth shut," I say with a shrug, and look back down at my work, quickly squiggling my signature on yet another pointless piece of paper. I wonder, just for a moment, if he'll pick up on the fact that his thoughts will no longer disturb me, but I doubt it. Seifer walks around the desk and drapes his arms over my shoulders, pleasant warmth in my rather too well air-conditioned office.

I keep working for only a moment before he distracts me, nuzzling at my ear, making what's on his mind obvious even though I can't hear his thoughts anymore. I sigh softly, still wishing I could hear his thoughts. Since he found out that I could read his thoughts, everything I heard, no matter what it was, I knew that he wasn't hiding things from me. I felt trusted by him, and closer to him than I've ever been to anyone in my life.

It was a scary feeling.

But I still can't be glad that I can't hear his thoughts anymore. I want to know what's going on in that head of his; need to know what he wants, what he doesn't want, what annoys him and what just amuses him about me.

I guess that he wants me to stop working, so I put my pen down and sort out the papers in front of me, snapping an elastic band quickly around the lot and throwing them in the direction of my work tray. Seifer runs his hands down my arms at seeing me do that and nips at me earlobe. "You finished?"

"For today, yeah."

"Good," he says, taking a step back and then pulling me up from my chair. "Now, why the hell were you really hiding in here?"

"No big reason," I say, with a slight shrug, leaning into him as he puts an arm around my waist. He must know that there's something wrong, and it surprises me that he hasn't yet figured it out. Maybe gossip doesn't get around Garden as fast as I thought. But surely someone must've seen me escorting the girl to Quistis' office...?

"Right," he says, obviously waiting for me to say more.

I move closer, leaning my head on his shoulder and huffing softly. "Rinoa came to see me today."

He runs his fingers through my hair, tugging gently at the little snags, raising an eyebrow, "Hmm, and?"

"She lifted the spell, so I can't read minds anymore," I admit, softly, hating it.

"Oh, I see." He brushes a kiss over my forehead and smiles slightly, "So you found the bad guy?"

I nod, seeing no reason to tell him any more about the incident, trusting that he'll find out soon enough, from gossip, or Quistis, or even Rinoa herself. Well, I don't imagine people will tell him directly, but he'll hear it somehow, I'm sure.

"What the hell is up with you? I thought you'd be happy about that..." he says with a frown.

He's perceptive enough to know that something is wrong with me and, somehow, that bothers me. Does it annoy him? Amuse him? Does it just bother him? I wish I knew. I wish I could read his mind always. Just his mind, no one else's, but just Seifer's. I guess that's impossible, though.

"I guess, I just... miss knowing what people are thinking, knowing what they want."

"You've been reading minds too long," he says, shaking his head.

"Maybe. But..." I shrug, and then trail off, silently telling him to drop it, to forget it and talk about something else. Or do something else. I wouldn't mind if he fucked me right here, bent over my desk, again, as long as he stops asking awkward questions. In fact, I'd quite like that.

"But what?" he asks, obviously not understanding my silent messages. He cups my cheek and kisses me softly, and the kiss feels comforting, even if he doesn't know what's going on in my mind.

"Nothing. Just... I'm not sure how... to deal with people now."

"People," he raises an eyebrow, "or me?"

"You, more than anyone, I guess," I say, dropping my eyes to the floor. It's true that I don't know how to deal with him now, but as well as that, I miss the closeness, the trust he gave me by not being anymore careful with his thoughts once he knew I could hear them.

"Sometimes, you are such an idiot." When I raise my eyebrow in question, he just takes my face in his hands, looking into my eyes for just a moment before leaning in and kissing me thoroughly. I blink for a moment, and then close my eyes, leaning closer and kissing back eagerly. He pulls away after a while, too soon for my liking. "You really think I'd be here if you didn't already know how to fucking deal with me?"

"You're only here right now because I read your mind," I say, somewhat doubtfully now, looking up into his green eyes. I never noticed his eyes before all this, but... some overpoetic idiot once said something like 'the eyes are the window to the soul'. It's true. His expression can be anything but his eyes, and his thoughts, never could lie.

"I'd have gotten here sooner or later," he says with a shrug. I snort softly and he cups my cheek again, rolling his eyes. "You need to stop worrying so damn much. It's not like I'm going to run off like some girl if you fuck up."

"Oh?" I raise an eyebrow again, "And what will you do?"

"Kick the crap out of you in the training center," he smirks.

"Idiot."

"Look who's talking," he says with a laugh, leaning in and kissing me again.