Disclaimer – Fanfiction is what happens when a person doesn't own something, but writes non-profit stories about it anyway. The fans rejoice (or trash it), copyright isn't infringed, and lawyers are unnecessary.

A/N - Here's another little something I wrote during the last year but only just got around to posting. It's been a long year... but I've graduated and gotten a job. Life is hopefully going to be calming down soon enough that I can finish up the projects I meant to be finished with months ago... like the Second Chances rewrite/edit and it's sequel.

Necessary

Squall was wracked by nerves three weeks before the end of term ball. It was the usual celebration for newly graduated cadets and newly appointed SeeD, but Squall was supposed to have a date this time.

He'd gotten away with going stag to the one in December, but Quistis was quite insistent that, given the number of reporters and foreign politicians who would be attending this ball, Squall needed to make an impression. An important part of that impression included having a date, mostly to show that he was capable of having a life beyond work.

If it weren't for the fact that Squall already had someone in mind as his date for the dance, he'd have likely ignored Quistis' advice completely. As long as the job got done, how was his personal life, or lack thereof, the business of anyone but himself? Still, Quistis was harping on it every time he saw her and hinting that, maybe, he should ask Rinoa.

Rinoa was sweet, but annoying. Squall couldn't imagine spending a whole ball with her. Though he'd had a brief crush on her during the Summer when everything had been made intense by the danger, but the one kiss they'd shared in the aftermath had been... disappointing. Squall had done his best to make it clear that all he was interested in was friendship, yet it seemed no one was taking him seriously on that point.

Dragging himself from his thoughts as he reached his destination, Squall raised his hand and curled it into a fist before knocking it against the door. There was no answer so, after a minute, Squall knocked again.

"Just a minute!" could be heard this time, though distinctly muffled by the door.

Relieved, Squall let his hand drop, forcing himself to relax as he waited for the door to slide open. When it did, Squall's mind blanked completely at the sight of Seifer wearing only a pair of pants and an unbuttoned shirt, his hair – a little longer than it used to be – in a disarray. It must have triggered some sort of auto-pilot in Squall's brain, though, because he could hear himself ask if he'd woken Seifer. It was about ten-thirty on a Saturday, so it was certainly possible.

"Not quite," Seifer reassured him. "It's been a long week, so I was catching up on sleep earlier... but I woke up about twenty minutes ago..." there was a pause and then Seifer stepped aside. "Would you like to come in?"

Squall managed to nod and walked inside.

The blond pulled off his shirt and slipped on a white t-shirt. "So... uh... what brings you here?" he asked, putting on the red button-up shirt again.

The red really looked good on Seifer. Shaking the thought away, Squall decided to just get to the point. "Do you have plans for the graduation ball?"

"Hiding here," Seifer responded immediately. "I had to go in December since I finally made SeeD, but I have no intention of enduring that many hours of boredom again without a really good reason."

"Ah..." Squall trailed off uncertainly.

"Some reason you want me there? Or is it that you were hoping I'd be free for a mission?"

"I was hoping you'd agree to go to the ball... as... uh..." Squall felt the words dry up in his throat. Hyne... he didn't even know if Seifer liked guys, much less him.

"As what?" Seifer reached out, placing his hand on Squall's arm. "Are you okay? You seem... off."

"I was hoping you'd agree to go as my date."

"Me?" Seifer's voice sounded incredulous. "But I thought... Rinoa always spends so much time with you..."

"Much of that time she spends laughing off my requests that she leave," Squall responded darkly.

Seifer snorted softly in amusement. "I can imagine. So... you're seriously asking me on a date?"

"Yes."

"Even though having someone who is not only a guy but is the ex-Knight of Ultimecia will probably make the reporters go nuts writing terrible things about you and Garden."

"I don't care what they write," Squall told him, used to the way Seifer would make sure people had thought things through before giving his own answer.

"Okay. I'll be your date. And... uh... there's this restaurant in town I've been meaning to try out... are you free tonight?"

"Yeah... I'm free." A small smile made it's way onto Squall's face.

Their first date went pretty well and their first kiss... was awkward. But the second kiss...

Squall couldn't quite help the smile that crept up on his face as he remembered the way Seifer tasted and the warmth of the blond's hands on his skin.

"You're in a surprisingly good mood," Quistis observed, placing a report on Squall's desk. He automatically scowled at her, annoyed with himself for not noticing her come in. "Did you ask Rinoa to the ball?"

"No." Squall gave her a blank look. "I asked someone else."

"Really?" Quistis sounded disbelieving. "Who?"

"You'll find out at the ball," Squall responded shortly, crossing his arms over his chest. Quistis nodded in resignation, dropping the subject.

"So..." Seifer grinned at Squall from where he stood in the doorway. "Ready for dinner?"

"Oh, Hyne, yes..." Squall shoved away from his desk and stood up, hurrying over to the blond. "Quistis came in this morning and assumed I'd asked Rinoa to the ball."

"Why'd she assume that?"

"I was thinking about our date the other night."

"You... were smiling, weren't you?" The blond grinned impishly.

"Yeah..." Squall smiled again, flushing slightly under Seifer's gaze. "I told her I'd asked someone else."

"Did you say who?"

Squall shook his head. "She's always been so nosy. I just... I want this to be ours for a little while before Quistis and the others decide to butt in."

"Basically, you want me all to yourself," Seifer teased.

Wrapping his arms around Seifer's shoulders, Squall pulled the taller man into a kiss. He ran his tongue along Seifer's lips, asking for entrance and groaned as he was admitted, his tongue sliding against Seifer's. Feeling slightly breathless once they broke apart, Squall nodded. "I definitely want you all to myself."

Seifer chuckled. "How about we eat in instead of out tonight?"

Sometimes... well, all the time, really, Seifer had trouble figuring out just why Squall was dating him. He'd tortured the brunet during the war, after all. There had to be lingering hangups over that, not to mention the multiple times they'd fought each other with intent to do more than just maim. Seifer really had been under the influence of Ultimecia's magic during that time, but that was an explanation and not an excuse.

Truthfully, Seifer knew that he was as much to blame for the things he'd done as Ultimecia was. But everyone, even Selphie who had the most reasons to hate him, had forgiven him. And by everyone, he meant his fellow orphans and Rinoa. There were others who'd forgiven him as well, and the full pardons he'd received from most countries in the world – he couldn't go to Trabia without risking life-imprisonment, though he could live with that. But the public at large held him accountable for his actions during the war and Seifer felt he deserved that.

Yet Squall was still dating him. Seifer wasn't about to jeopardize that, since he had such a longstanding crush on his fellow gunblade specialist, but it confused the hell out of him.

Fortunately it seemed that all the time he'd been spending with Squall that week had gone virtually unnoticed. Fortunate in that it provided him with a rather unusual bit of amusement, that is.

"Seifer, join us, man," Dincht waved over his fellow blonde. Having ditched the chocobo-tailfeather hairdo, Zell was no longer in danger of being called 'chicken-wuss' by Seifer. Somehow that led to the two of them finally learning to get along, though they were by no means friends.

Curious as to why Zell was calling him over, Seifer found himself joining Zell, Quistis, Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa for lunch. "What's up?" he asked, plunking down his tray and taking a seat.

"We're trying to figure out the mystery of Squall's date to the Graduation Ball," Selphie chirped. "He's being all enigmatic about it and it's like waggling a carrot in front of these two," she gestured to Quistis and Rinoa. "Personally I'm looking forward to the shock and awe of finding out at the party, but I'm not against a little guessing. So we're pooling our knowledge and placing bets."

"Right..." Seifer smirked, trying not to laugh. "Somehow, Selphie, I don't think Quistis and Rinoa are the only ones who want to know beforehand."

"I'm just surprised we haven't noticed him with this chick yet," Irvine cut in before Selphie could respond. "You don't think it's his secretary, do you?" he sounded a little worried as he offered up that idea.

"Nah." Zell shook his head. "She's dating Nida. He's thinking about proposing, actually."

"Really?" Irvine winced. "Yeah... then maybe he should know that she's been floozing around the bars lately. I haven't done anything with her, but that just makes me one of few who hasn't. Hyne... I thought they'd broken up or something."

"Ah... damn, I don't wanna be the one to tell him," Zell hissed.

"Neither do I." The two teens turned to Seifer.

"I've barely said more than 'hi' to the guy since coming back," Seifer told them. "If he's your friend, then suck it up and tell him yourselves."

"Yeah, besides," Rinoa chirped, "we're here to discuss Squall. I don't think he has a date. I think he thinks I have a date and is trying to make me jealous. That's why I'm going to go ask him to the ball after lunch is over."

"I don't know..." Quistis frowned. "He looked... really happy before I started asking him questions. Like he was thinking of someone..."

"Like me," Rinoa insisted. "We'd have noticed if he was attracted to some other girl, Quistis. The only other person he spends any real time with lately is Seifer."

"Which, I assume, is why I'm sitting here?" Seifer asked exasperatedly.

"Well..." Quistis hedged.

"Of course," Rinoa agreed. "You're always sparring with him," she wrinkled her nose and Seifer couldn't help but think that she was such a hypocrite. She acted like she disdained violence, but she lived at Garden because of the protection it afforded her and she'd once been quite the little 'activist,' going around raiding trains while trying to take the Galbadian President hostage. Seifer honestly didn't see why Squall considered her a friend, but since Seifer had dated her – admittedly, discovering that he was gay in the process – he figured he didn't have much room to speak on the subject. "Anyway, if we'd managed to miss out on him having a secret crush, you'd have noticed... right?"

Huh... was that what I was? His secret crush? Until he asked me out, that is... Seifer shrugged. "What makes you so certain that his date's a girl anyway?"

There was silence. Zell tried to laugh after a moment but the sound choked off. Irvine looked speculative, as did Selphie.

Quistis shook her head. "Squall isn't gay."

"I never said he was," Seifer told her. "But there's always the possibility that he is, or that he's bi."

"That's... that's about as ridiculous as you being gay," Rinoa finally declared.

"Rinoa... we spent that one summer dating and I never even once tried to convince you to have sex with me," Seifer told her. "For a seventeen-year-old guy, given how you look, I'd have to be either asexual or completely gay to be that uninterested."

"You're... gay?" Rinoa shook her head and smiled, giggling. "You're really funny, Seifer. Just be careful who you tell that kind of joke to. Someone else might believe you."

"Dense doesn't even begin to explain what's wrong with you," Seifer muttered, rolling his eyes.

"Dude... are you really gay?" Zell asked. Rinoa snickered.

"Yes. I am. I have a boyfriend who'd attest to it."

Rinoa stopped laughing.

"Who is he?" Selphie asked, leaning in curiously. "Do we know him? Is he hot? Wait, stupid question. Of course he's hot. Is the sex good? Can I watch you make out with him? Or more than make out with him?"

"How did you say all that without taking a breath?" Seifer responded in awe.

"Talent."

"Hmmm..." Seifer gave the copper-haired girl a calculating look. "The best description for him would be sexy, not merely hot."

"Ooooh," Selphie giggled. "Do we know him?" she repeated.

"Since it clearly bothers you not to know," Seifer paused for a moment, "I'm not going to tell you. He's my date to the graduation ball, so you'll see for yourself who he is in two weeks. And Selphie..." he smirked at her, "if you stalk me to find out who my boyfriend is, I'll never help you set up another festival ever again."

Selphie's eyes widened. Seifer had set up the fireworks display for her during the Winter Festival and she'd declared afterwards that he'd done the best job she'd ever seen. "B-but..." she sniffled.

"You can ask around and guess all you want, but no stalking me." Seifer paused and added more seriously, "it's really new, okay? I just... don't want him getting scared off or something."

"Oh... okay." Selphie nodded. "I'll leave off the interrogation until after the ball."

"Interrogation?" Quistis echoed.

Nodding sharply, the waif-like girl told them, "I have to make sure this guy is good enough for you, Seifer. He's gotta be someone who'll make you happy and make you finally realize you don't have to keep punishing yourself for what happened last year. Everyone tells me you have this great smile, but the closest I've seen you come to it since everything went to hell last summer is that smirk of yours."

"So... what happens if you decide he isn't good enough for me?" Seifer asked out of morbid curiosity.

"I'll call Fujin, tell her what's going on, and we'll hunt the little bastard with shovels."

"That's... oddly sweet, Selphie. Really." Seifer smiled at her and she bounced happily.

"Awww, that's almost the smile I'm looking for."

"We've gotten off topic," Rinoa sulked.

"You mean the topic of Squall's date to the ball and how he has decided not to share this information with you... possibly because you're clingy and possessive despite the fact that he's made it glaringly obvious you're only his friend." Giving Rinoa a searching look, Seifer added. "If you keep pushing where you aren't wanted, you'll lose what you have with him Rinoa."

"You've got it wrong, Seifer. You clearly don't know anything about straight guys..." huffing, Rinoa stood up and stalked off.

"Squall is going to be so pissed off by the time she's finished," Irvine predicted with a laugh.

Seifer nodded and grinned, rather looking forward to calming the brunet down later... in a manner of speaking.

"So, did you have an interesting visit from Rinoa today?" Seifer asked, settling down beside Squall on the bench outside the training center. They'd been training separately in the center, but Seifer had noticed the brunet leaving and decided to follow him out.

"Interesting," Squall echoed darkly. "That's a good word for it. Hellish would be more accurate."

Seifer snickered. "Is she still convinced you're only pretending to have a date to make her jealous?"

"More now than ever. Also, apparently you're pretending to be gay in hopes of making her jealous and winning her back."

"Because the world revolves around her and no man that has ever met her could possibly be gay or feel anything but undying love for her," Seifer drawled mockingly.

Squall snickered, his dark look softening somewhat. "So... is Selphie going to be stalking us now?"

"I don't think so. I told her that our relationship was new and I didn't want her scaring my boyfriend off. She's agreed to wait until the dance to see who I'm dating. I bet if you talk to her, she'll make the same deal with you concerning your... 'girlfriend.'" Seifer smirked and did finger quotes.

"Does that make you the girl in this relationship?" Squall asked, mock innocently.

"Would you like me to prove just how very much I'm not a girl?" Seifer responded, leaning over to kiss Squall's neck and licking the sweaty skin he found there.

A shudder ran through the brunet's body. "I certainly wouldn't mind," Squall said huskily. "Think one of the private showers is free?"

"There'd better be," Seifer growled, nipping Squall's neck lightly before standing up.

There was a languid sort of boneless feeling that had settled over Squall. He rolled to the side, contentedly letting his head rest on Seifer's chest. He smiled at the feeling of Seifer's arms wrapping loosely around him.

"We've only got a week left until the ball," Seifer murmured sleepily, idly tracing designs on Squall's back with his fingers.

"Selphie is going to be unbearable," Squall responded, gratified by the evidence that his lover was equally lethargic.

"Mmhmm... Rinoa might think we're trying to make it so that she can have both of us at once instead of having to choose," Seifer observed.

"If she tries anything," Squall growled, letting the threat trail off. Rinoa was a sweet girl – he had to keep reminding himself of this – but she wouldn't grow up. 'Sweet girl' was starting to translate into 'bitchy adult.' "She can't have you," Squall finally declared. "You're mine."

"Hyne..." Seifer hissed softly before rolling himself atop Squall, pinning the younger man to the bed. "You have no idea," he nipped at Squall's neck, "how much it turns me on," he sucked on Squall's earlobe, "to hear you sound so possessive," he kissed along Squall's jawline, "about me." Seifer drew Squall into a searing kiss.

Moaning under Seifer's renewed ministrations, Squall managed to say, "I think I have some idea."

Seifer tugged uncomfortably at the short jacket of his dress uniform. The collar was stiff and he felt like he looked ridiculous. Other people could pull off the SeeD uniform and look completely professional, but Seifer tended to feel like he was dressing up in someone else's clothes.

"Seifer?"

Turning to face Squall, Seifer swallowed dryly at the reminder that Squall was one of those people who could wear the uniform and look like sex on legs. (Okay, so Squall looked like sex on legs in his usual outfit, but this took it up to eleven.) Squall, however, had this look on his face as he looked Seifer over that made the blond wonder if maybe the brunet saw him the same way. The idea that Squall thought he looked sexy made him feel a lot less ridiculous in the uniform.

Crossing the room in a few steps, Squall drew Seifer into a kiss. "Too bad we can't just skip the ball," Squall murmured when he drew back.

"Quistis would kill you and Selphie would brutalize me with a shovel," Seifer agreed in amusement, pressing another kiss against Squall's lips.

"She is awfully fond of that shovel threat..." Squall trailed off as he felt Seifer start nibbling at his ear. "W-we're going to be late if you keep that up," he breathed out, eyes flickering shut.

"Right..." Seifer pulled back, drinking in the sight of Squall's flushed cheeks and kiss reddened lips. "Let's go, then."

"What?"

"Seifer is my date," Squall repeated, rolling his eyes while Seifer snickered. Quistis looked utterly shell-shocked, but Squall pressed on. "I asked him weeks ago."

"B-but... do you know what this will do to Garden's image?" Quistis squeaked.

"My personal life has nothing to do with Garden's image," Squall insisted and then added, "our clients aren't going to care if Garden's Commander has a boyfriend so long as our work continues to be above reproach."

Seifer grinned a little more brightly at the word 'boyfriend.'

"That's not what I'm getting at," Quistis hissed. "It's... Seifer was Ultimecia's Knight. We know that wasn't your choice," she directed to Seifer, "but the rest of the world hasn't been so forgiving."

Squall could feel Seifer stiffen at his side. Reaching out, he slipped his hand into Seifer's and squeezed tightly. "Quistis... you're going to want to stay away from us for the rest of the evening."

Scowling darkly as Quistis hastily retreated, Squall leaned against Seifer's shoulder. He felt so comfortable with Seifer – like he'd finally found his home after searching for so long, only to realize he could have had it years earlier if he'd been brave enough to reach out to the one constant in his life. Seifer's touch was like fire and passion, yet there was a gentleness as well; Squall had fallen in love with all the facets of Seifer, even the ones that drove him crazy. There was no way he was about to let anyone tell him that he should go back to being alone.

He couldn't lose Seifer. He wouldn't.

"Awww... I guess I don't need to interrogate your boyfriend after all," Selphie teased, bouncing up with Irvine in tow. The cowboy looked amused as he observed the way the two gunblade specialists stood together, hands entwined. Selphie, however, looked like a cat stalking a canary. Her smirk was positively devious. "I need a tape of the two of you having sex."

Squall snorted and rolled his eyes. "No."

"B-but... I can't live without it," Selphie pouted.

"We'll say something really nice at your funereal," Seifer promised.

"What, like 'we're really sorry we withheld sex tapes from the pretty redhead'?"

"More like, 'at least now we know she won't be standing outside our bedroom window with a video camera,'" Seifer shot back.

"The window's too high," Irvine disagreed. "Both your dorms are on the second floor. No... she'd need a complicated pulley system and a motion detector... and something to open the blinds while the two of you are too occupied to notice."

A faint blush painted itself on Squall's cheeks as he glanced at Seifer. Mostly because he really did lose track of the world when Seifer got him in bed. "Stop giving her ideas," Squall grumbled, crossing his arms. He smiled, however, at the sound of Seifer's laughter.

Seifer enjoyed the first fifteen minutes of the ball despite their very short-lived argument with Quistis. She was right about Squall's decision to have Seifer as his date making a very big statement. They had no idea how the reporters would wind up spinning things and things could wind up looking very bad for Garden.

Squall knew this. Seifer wasn't entirely convinced Squall understood all the ramifications – he didn't give a damn about other people's personal lives unless they were his friends, so he didn't understand why someone might consider the personal life of a stranger theirs to critique – but Squall had made his choice the morning he'd asked Seifer out to the dance. So Seifer had this rather irrational belief that things would wind up turning out okay in the end.

Then Rinoa walked up and everything went to hell.

She demanded a dance from Squall. When he declined in favor of dancing with Seifer, she told Seifer to buzz off and dance with his own boyfriend. She'd thrown in words like 'assuming you weren't lying about that' and 'Squall doesn't need to feel obligated to the guy who tortured him in D-District'. That was about when Seifer started feeling queasy.

Not one to take insults lying down, Squall gave Rinoa the polite version of 'leave my boyfriend alone, bitch' and blew off D-District as something that ought to be lain at the feet of Ultimecia and not Seifer, something that the brunet pointed out Rinoa had agreed with when it suited her. When she attempted to accuse him of leading her on, Squall told her that she was making a scene and if she didn't stop then security would probably kick her out.

Suffice it to say, Rinoa froze the punch bowl and was escorted out. Her father apologized for her behavior to both Squall and Seifer – the blond had been a little too dazed by the inclusion to do anything other than accept – and then followed the raven haired girl out, presumably to ream her out for being an idiot and embarrassing him on their first social outing as a family in years.

The journalists, of course, had flocked to the spectacle, which only made Seifer feel worse. Trabia hated him, after all. This would make relations between Garden and Trabia more difficult and probably cause all sorts of trouble for the effort to rebuild Trabia Garden. Then, of course, there were the people who still believed that being homosexual was a sin against Hyne and that the increasing acceptance of it across the globe was a sign of the end of days. There were also Sorceress Worshipers who'd likely condemn Squall for not immediately capitulating to everything their 'goddess' demanded of him.

The sudden panic running through Seifer had been obvious to Squall. He pulled Seifer out to one of the balconies a few minutes later and dragged the taller man into a kiss.

"Are you okay?" Squall asked, running his fingers lightly through Seifer's hair.

"Better now, at least," Seifer muttered. "That was... intense."

"The kiss or Rinoa's temper tantrum?" Squall teased.

"Both." Seifer sat down on a bench and gazed out into the dark for a moment. "Quistis has a point about our relationship causing problems for Garden, you know."

"I know," Squall sighed and sat down next to Seifer. "I'm more worried about causing problems for you, though."

Seifer blinked and then laughed quietly. "I'm the one that's the problem, Squall."

"I'd rather resign from Garden than lose you," Squall muttered, looking down as picking at the hem of his jacket as his cheeks flushed.

Blankly, Seifer asked, "what?"

"If my relationship with you causes too many problems for Garden, then I'd rather resign and keep being with you than keep my job and lose you." Squall paused and added, "I worked hard to become SeeD, but not because it was something I wanted. It was just... what was expected of me. Becoming Commander wasn't something I wanted either. It was just dropped on me. Sometimes it feels like my whole life has been directed by other people's image of who I ought to be, which is probably all kinds of ironic. Being with you is my choice, Seifer. I love you. I want to be with you. I don't care if that disappoints other people; my life is not theirs to control. The only person who can stop me from being with you is... well... you."

Unable to think up an adequate response, Seifer leaned in and kissed Squall, trying desperately to convey just how deeply the other man's words affected him. When they pulled away, Seifer brushed some of Squall's hair out of his face and then asked, "dance with me?"

A/N - I tried having it continue on, but it wouldn't cooperate. What's there was cute enough, though, that I figured it would be fine as is. :)