Oh my! What is this? A Seiner fic? Well, we certainly need more of these, don't we? We'd best get started, then!... after a big, special thank you to my awesome beta, who is made of awesomeness, FinalFallenFantasy, who beta'd this for me. Round of applause, anyone?

Disclaimer: Disclaimed.

Pairings: Seiner, AkuRoku, Pette (Pence/Olette, my name for it)

Read like: "Someone speaking"

'Someone thinking'

Warnings: Malexmale, cliché

Rating: K plus (because, once again, fanfiction isn't too fond of two guys together.)

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Many a time, Hayner had been told the tale of the famous 'Red String of Fate'. Mostly from his mother, really, the woman had been talking about a beautiful young girl who was attached to her soulmate via a red string, by the wonder that was Fate.

Olette talked about it a couple of times, giggling as Pence used – well, tried to use – a red sweet lace to tie their pinkies together. Naturally, both Hayner and Roxas laughed their heads off when the lace snapped in half, Roxas wittily throwing in,

"You guys gonna eat that?" Before a shoe was thrown at his face. Hayner shut up pretty quickly after that, too.

But then Axel and Roxas got together and Roxas jumped the bandwagon. Hayner, the amazing best friend, ripped a handful of red hair out of the pyromaniac's head and handed it to the other blond, telling him to 'make his own damn string, screw fate'. The usually stoic blond was smiling all day after that, though the redhead didn't seem to share the same kind of enthusiasm as his boyfriend.

Hayner didn't believe in the red string of Fate. In his eyes, if you weren't brave enough to go out and get who you wanted, there shouldn't be some person helping you along in the sky. Things just didn't work like that.

~.x.~

It was a cool evening, a light breeze flowing in off the sea, bringing a gentle spray with it. The sun was setting, casting about pinks and oranges like a child's painting, causing the sea to dance with colour. This would have been the perfect time to snap a picture, but, unfortunately, Pence was nowhere to be seen.

The only person enjoying the sunset was Hayner; sea-salt ice cream in hand, partially melted, and a philosophical look on his face. His legs were gently dangling over the edge of the bay, swaying slightly back and forth out of habit. It was peaceful, an unusual – yet not unwanted – change from high school, high school drama, his friends and Seifer. Especially Seifer, who seemed to be everywhere nowadays.

'Even in my thoughts,' the blond mused, a small smile faintly placing itself on his face. It was slowly happening, but the situation with Seifer was calming. Olette had become fast friends with Fuu, Vivi positively adored Axel and both Hayner and Seifer enjoyed pissing the flaming redhead off beyond all degrees of sanity. Not to mention that both blonds, and Roxas, had made it onto the school struggle team (newly formed due to popular demand), meaning that they had to work nicely with each other on an almost-daily basis. This was pleasant news for both groups, as Olette was very much fed up with being the only female out of the five, Axel included, and Fuu was feeling very much the same way. Hayner? Hayner was happy because of his not-too-little crush on the Disciplinary Committee's leader.

'Not-too-little', however, is an inadequate description, as a good many people knew of said crush. Only those too stupid to notice (Axel, Rai, half the school's populace, etc.), those too young to understand (Vivi) and Seifer himself were completely oblivious to this. It wasn't as if it was completely obvious, but anyone with a working gaydar and a slight knowledge of Hayner's personality would pick it up sooner or later. Merely because of the way he was so riled up by Seifer's pathetic, half-wit insults, something that wouldn't have even fazed him if it had come from anyone else's lips, it was quite obvious that something was up. Combine that with his unusual attention-seeking behaviour around the older boy, and ta-da! A crush. An obvious crush, at that.

"Where're your lackeys, 'Wuss?" A deep voice asked from beside the blond, making him jolt from his thoughts and turn to the unexpected visitor. His eyes were met with blue, blue eyes and blond hair, the characteristics ruined by a scar and a beanie, respectively.

"I could ask you the same, Seifer," Hayner replied, a small smile appearing on his face as he returned to the setting sun. (Not very obvious, is he?) There was a shuffling noise beside him, and, in his peripheral vision, he saw the older blond casually sit down next to him.

"So? I asked you first," the elder replied, causing Hayner to roll his eyes.

"Roxas is with Axel, and they're with Pence and Olette. A double date, kinda..." His lips twitched into a frown for a moment at the thought of the double date before smoothing out.

"Fuu is tutoring Rai 'cause of his grades and Vivi isn't allowed out this late," the other responded, and a comfortable pause settled between them. A couple of moments later Seifer turned to the slighter blond, looking to say something serious but suddenly glanced down at Hayner's hand and started smirking. "And here's me thinking you were smart enough to be toilet trained," Hayner jerked his head towards the other, who was looking pointedly at the hand resting on Hayner's left thigh. Looking down, Hayner suddenly realised that not only had he wasted 50 munny on a sea-salt ice cream he had barely touched, but it also looked as if he had peed himself, the melted remains of the ice cream sticking to the crotch of his camos.

"Damn! Damn!" He cursed, jumping up and rubbing down the wet part of his trousers. It hadn't managed to touch his skin, effectively not warning him about his current appearance. He pointedly ignored Seifer's pathetic snickers, sighing and then sitting down closer to Seifer, careful to miss the newly-formed puddle on the wood. Still hearing the laughter from his companion, he glared viciously at the elder, effectively shutting him up. For the whole of five seconds.

"Is it Olette who tells you when to go to the toilet?" He teased, no true harm intended by his words. Hayner rolled his eyes, upset that the peace he had been striving for was destroyed. Standing up once again, he made his way to leave (probably to go home and mope) but a strong hand wrapped itself around his wrist and pulled him back down, causing him to bump shoulders with the other blond. A flash of anger shot through Hayner's body and he was about to open his mouth to complain but Seifer beat him to speaking. "It was a joke, you wuss. Learn to take one" Hayner scowled at this, quickly freeing himself from Seifer's grasp, even though the large, warm hand felt quite natural there. (Probably just the crush.)

"Yeah, well, if you weren't such a lamer, I wouldn't get offended in the first place!" He snapped, albeit slightly playfully, folding his arms lightly across his chest and trademark tank top. There was a snort from beside him.

"That excuse makes no sense and you know it," the taller blond grunted before adding, "And stop stealing my insults. Get your own!" Hayner laughed at that, shaking his head slightly and unable to rid himself of the smile on his lips. Another comfortable silence enveloped the duo, creating a peaceful atmosphere. After a small while, Hayner spoke.

"You know, it's strange," He began, still smiling wistfully and looking out onto the horizon. "We can never just sit together without picking a fight with each other," The smile drooped slightly, though quickly picking back up again. "And here we are, not having had one punch. Yet," He grinned, glancing to his left and picking up the forlorn popsicle stick from the melted ice cream. He looked at it for a moment, then shook his head and placed it between him and Seifer.

"Yeah, strange," the blond beside him muttered, (Hayner swearing he felt the elder's breath on his neck) a serious expression on his scarred face. Before the younger boy could comment on it, however, Seifer's face lightened and he changed the subject. "Look, it's about to reach it's climax!" He gestured towards the sunset, a slight (and rare) smile casually appearing on his face. Despite the fact that the softer side of Seifer intrigued the other blond, he couldn't help but snort at the comment.

"Dude, you sound like you're talking about sex!" He exclaimed, making the same movement as Seifer had not a moment before, but with the opposite arm. Seifer's left arm and Hayner's right were now outstretched towards the sunset together. A heavy boot found its way to the back of his leg and he winced, refusing to make any other outward sign of distress. Suddenly, and sudden it was, there was a sharp green flash that took over the sky for a second, then retreated completely out of sight; almost as if it had never happened in the first place. Seifer's mouth was held open in awe, knowing how rare the 'green flashes' were, and he stared at where the setting sun had been, looking into the darkness.

Hayner's mouth, too, was held open in awe, but not because of the flash and he certainly wasn't staring at where the sun had been. He was staring at the where the slight gap between his and Seifer's hand had been – the taller blond having dropped it after the flash had gone –, both confused and amazed, with a touch of fright thrown in there. The cause of these emotions? For the second or so that the flash had lasted, a thin, red wire-like thing had hovered between his and the other blond's hands, wrapping around both of their smallest fingers.

"Th-the red string of Fate..." He muttered, eyes going wide in amazement. Seifer seemed to snap out of his trance at this, turning his head towards Hayner with a confused frown.

"What'd you say, Chickenwuss?" He asked, and Hayner shook his head, still gawping like a fish. He now stared down at his hand instead of the sky. A rough push from his crush (soulmate?) snapped him from his trance. He jumped to his feet almost immediately.

"N-nothing," He whispered, gazing at Seifer for a spilt-second then turning tail and running as fast as his legs could take him. With an extra thought for his confused companion, he threw over his shoulder, "Gotta go! See you tomorrow, at school!" Seifer stumbled up from where he was sitting, almost falling due to the speed he tried to stand up with.

"Lamer! Get back here!" He called, but Hayner was long gone. Swearing loudly, the blond stamped his foot heavily on the ground before noticing the popsicle stick on the wood of the pier. He bent down to pick it up, holding it between his thumb and forefinger, a small smirk appearing on his face as he stared at it. "Yeah. See you tomorrow, Hayner," he whispered to no-one in particular.

He walked all the way home with a scheming smirk on his face.

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May/may not be continued. If the mood strikes, yes it will, if it doesn't... sorry. I hope you enjoyed this.