Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII/Kingdom Hearts

Pairing: Seifer/Zell (mentions of Seifer/Squall, Squall/Irvine and others)

Warnings: Boy/Boy Love. Don't like it? That's why it's called a warning.

This fic is a companion (and something of a sequel to) 'First Snow'. Events of this fiction may not make sense if you have not read that story first. For those of you who haven't read FS I will say this much: with very few exceptions I prefer the original ff8 characters to their KH counterparts so I will be staying true to a Seifer that's 6'2, a bouncier Selphie, a Fujin that YELLS, etc.

Like 'First Snow' this story is what one might call a 'flashback fic'. The majority of the action takes place in the character's past. The "present" of the story exists within the Kingdom Hearts timeline, the past (bulk of the fic) in an FF8 timeline. That said, I think it will be fairly easy to tell the difference between one and the other.

Standard Disclaimers Apply.

For What It's Worth

Prologue: Void of Course

Hayner rolled the prone figure over with his right left foot.

"Man, he's sure creepy looking," Pence said. "He's so big, and check out that scar."

"…is he dead?" Olette asked tentatively.

Hayner squatted beside the man, brow furrowing over dark chocolate eyes and poked him in the cheek.

"Hayner!" both of his friends declared at his rude gesture.

"What?" Hayner demanded. "You asked if he was dead and I'm checking."

A groan rumbled beside him causing Hayner to stumble backwards in surprise. Embarrassed at the gesture because it made him seem like a chicken, he rolled back onto the balls of his feet and peered down at the large blonde with narrowed eyes.

Seifer groaned and blinked blearily up at the figure hovering over him. "Zell?" he asked, reaching a hand up to lightly caress Hayner's cheek. He frowned as if confused, fingers instinctively reaching to trace the pattern of a tattoo that wasn't there.

"…the fuck?!" Hayner declared, skittering back away from the man who he decided was either really out of it or a complete psychopath. Given the scar and tattered sleeves of his gray trench coat, Hayner was leaning towards the latter.

Seifer groaned and sat up, shaking some of the dizziness off. Where was he again? What was the last thing he could remember? He kind of remembered Zell with a gaping hole through his mid-section, but that wasn't possible, Zell was right here. It must have been a bad dream. He rubbed at his eyes, blinked a few times, turned his head, and frowned. "…you're not Zell," he stated flatly.

"Nice of you to notice," Hayner retorted. "Fall through perfectly solid walls often?" Ah, that was a conversation starter if ever there was one.

Seifer blinked a few times. "…what?"

"The wall," Olette chimed in with considerably better manners. "A huge black hole opened up and you fell through. We weren't sure if you were even alive." She leaned her hands on her knees as she spoke so that she'd be closer to eye level with the man, who seemed intent on remaining seated on the ground for the moment.

A black hole? Seifer thought a moment, why did that sound so familiar? Then he remembered. Everyone had been slaughtered. There was darkness everywhere and a huge monster. Zell had… He squeezed his eyes shut a moment, determined not to let the bile rise into his throat or the pain show on his face. Irvine was slaughtered. Squall was traumatized. There had been a silver haired man he was sure could be blamed for everything. And now…well, now he was here, wherever here was.

"Well, as you can see, I'm alive," Seifer said at last pushing up to his feet with a groan, as if he'd just woken up from sleeping in the wrong position for too long. "Where the hell am I?"

He looked around, not recognizing a damn thing even when he pushed the cloth door out of the way.

"Twilight Town," Pence offered before Hayner could say something abrasive and impossible.

"…that so?" Seifer said. "Silver haired guy with a big sword didn't happen to come through ahead of me, did he?" he asked.

"Noooo…" Hayner replied slowly, deciding that this guy was some kind of lunatic after all.

"No, of course not," Seifer muttered. "That would be too easy. Well, see ya."

Hayner, Olette, and Pence exchanged a look and non-verbally decided not to mention that he shouldn't even be walking around in his condition, let alone doing so without help. It was better if he left and they never saw him again, probably. Hayner doubted they would be that lucky.

Outside, Seifer looked at his tattered coat and cursed. "Perfect," he muttered, fumbling around in his pockets to be sure the rest of his things were present and accounted for. "…shit…" he cursed under his breath. No gunblade. No junctions. Not even a damned potion. His favorite jacket was a mess, and the only thing that seemed to survive the trip was that stupid ass kanji cap. He pulled it out of his pocket and looked at it, eyes getting momentarily fragile before he pulled it on. Stupid or not, it was a gift. It was a memory, and it seemed his memories, somewhat ironically, were all he had left to rely on, and somewhere out there, there was a silver haired man who he owed a rather serious hello. He swore he'd find him eventually, but for now, weaponless, homeless, and without a friend in the world, Seifer found himself wandering aimlessly through Twilight Town for a long time, void of course.

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A/N: There's just something about Hayner that reminds me of Zell. I don't know why, and I don't really know what it is…maybe the big shorts. Regardless, that's why he gets mistaken for Zell at the beginning of this prologue. I can't help it. There's just…something about him.