Chapter Text
Squall walked with his hands in his pockets around the astronomy trail. It was supposed to be a distraction but it only worked so well after already deciding that he had to quietly explain the situation he was in.
He’d hardly gotten any sleep the night before. His conversation with Shiva had gone well all things considered, but that didn’t mean his paranoia hadn’t spiked.
Edea was trying to kill him, and she had access to him. She was in the middle of teaching a course at the university and no one would think it odd if she wanted to check on any of the kids she’d once looked after. At any given time, she was still ready to take in another orphan, or someone in need of a guardian.
To everyone who knew her, or thought they knew her, the Matron was a paragon of motherhood. No one would ever suspect her of daring to harm one of the children she raised. Squall himself might have found it difficult to believe had the information not come from Shiva.
Knowing it was coming meant he could be prepared but it didn’t mean he slept easy.
“You’re sure?” Quistis asked, her voice weak. They’d been speaking quietly to start with but she was hardly even moving her mouth in case someone nearby was trying to eavesdrop on their walk.
“Shiva wouldn’t lie to me.” Was all Squall could answer. “Hide the truth, maybe. Avoid it, probably. An outright lie though? No. She seemed worried. You know, as worried as she can.”
“Which still means something even if she’s not human.” Quistis fought not to roll her eyes. “Shiva’s always doted on you for some reason. She does care.”
“Yeah, i know she does.” Squall muttered, running a hand through his hair and dislodging the locks that were a little longer than how he usually kept it. “All the more reason to trust her on this. At least being suspicious all the time has once again paid off.”
Quistis made a face. “Which i hate, by the way. Just once i’d like optimism to bite at you.”
“I’ll avoid teeth if i can,” Squall said with a sigh. “I didn’t tell you to freak you out. I told you so you can keep an eye out. If something is suspicious then it’s worth noting. I have no idea what she’s planning but i can’t imagine she’d incriminate herself.”
“Yeah, right.” Quistis muttered, nudging against Squall as both of them stepped to the right as a group of three ran past them in a jog. The trail wasn’t exactly crowded this time of day but there were a number of people out.
The weather was nice and natural magic was more soothing than being stuffed in a building with its artificial lights for hours on end. It wasn’t surprising that so many people were making use of the gardens and trails today.
Speaking outside on the trail had seemed smarter than remaining inside anyway. The magic outside the university was rich and constant. That meant it was a good cover for anything they might need to do. Tossing up a small barrier just around the two of them so they wouldn’t be heard by outside sources was just one example though both remained cautious anyway. The fact that their walks were a part of their routine already just continued to keep things discreet.
At this point, Squall would assume that Edea had eyes and ears all over the university. The enclosed spaces would always be easier to monitor.
“Who else are you going to tell?” Quistis asked, “Have you thought that far ahead?”
Squall shrugged a single shoulder. “I told you because you’ll take the information with a clear head. I should probably tell Zell and Selphie… something. Something close to the truth. Just so the Matron can’t use them to manipulate me.” Squall didn’t have many people he considered a friend. He was too hard to get along with. The friends he did have were genuinely good people.
The last thing he wanted was for Edea to corner Zell or Selphie and spout some lies that made it look like they were helping Squall when really they were just doing harmful favors for her.
That meant he needed to keep them alert.
“Probably Irvine, though i might need you there for that one.” Squall muttered.
At the end of the day, it would either help him, or hurt him, that all of his friends had also been raised by the Matron. He thought Irvine in particular might be a difficult one to share this problem with. Edea might not have been a traditional ‘mom’ but she’d filled that role for all of them for at least a short time. He worried Irvine might feel the need to try and protect her.
“He might surprise you.” Quistis said, obviously following along his train of thought. “He’s protective, sure, but he’s not stupid. He’d make his own observations.”
“Hope so.” Squall muttered. He didn’t want to lose one of his few people over this.
“And Rinoa?” Quistis asked.
Squall shook his head, unsure. “As a sorceress, i’m not sure where her loyalty lies. Not that she has any ties to Edea personally but…i’m still not sure what turned Edea against me in the first place.”
Quistis just hummed. “Okay, maybe. I don’t think killing you is Rinoa’s grand plan though.”
He made a face, not wanting to think about what her words actually meant. He didn’t want to hurt her feelings but marrying her wasn’t something he was interested in.
“We all have a plan, even if some are more vague than others.” Squall muttered. So far, his only plan consisted of staying alive.
“I’ll be there when you talk to the others.” Quistis said. “Impress upon them how important it is to pay attention and not get led astray by flowery language.”
He couldn’t help the smile that twitched at his lips. “If you wanna call it that.”
He hesitated to speak more down the path when it was more crowded than usual. For the most part, people were good about keeping a good pace or moving out of the way when others came up behind them along the trail. Now however, a group of at least twenty people had already formed, lingering around in a loose circle.
“What’s going on?” Squall frowned, peering around a few people but was unable to see.
“Not sure.” Quistis said, but took it upon herself to find out. She pushed her way into the small crowd and gave Squall a path to follow. People were chattering and snickering. Two girls looked more concerned than everyone else. Several people had their phones out and were taking pictures.
“Ooh-kay.” Quistis said slowly after she got to the front. Just off the path, under one of the many trees was a young man. He was on his side, asleep with a book left forgotten on the ground beside him. That was normal enough. More than one person had napped in the grass while studying.
The difference was the raccoon. A medium sized raccoon was curled up against his chest, looking as content as could be.
“What the fuck..” Squall whispered, a thread of incredulous disbelief in his voice. “We need to get that thing away from him before it bites him.”
“Assuming it already hasn’t.” Quistis offered, worry tugging at her brow. If they were lucky, the guy really was just sleeping. She turned and began snapping her fingers, making a shooing motion at the onlookers. “Alright, beat it. It’s a wild animal. Don’t surround it and make it nervous.”
A few would try to argue with her, and they’d learn in about twenty seconds how that was a terrible decision. It wouldn’t take her long to break up the little gathering.
Squall had a different job. He knelt down, just a foot or two of space between him and this guy. He didn’t recognize the blond, but that didn’t mean much given the size of the university. Just because he didn’t have a class with him didn’t mean anything. His jeans were ripped at the knee and his shoes had seen better days. He might have even been a runner given how beat up the soles were. His shirt was a dark gray and was probably clean before all the raccoon hair.
“Hey. Hey.” Squall said, not particularly wanting to put his hands around the raccoon. Magic was an option, but he’d need to be delicate if he wanted to chase the creature away without hurting the sleeping man. He poked the guy in his forehead. “Hey, wake up. Are you alright?”
Blue eyes slit open, looking at Squall in a fog of sleep.
“Yes. Hello.” Squall repeated, “Listen, i don’t want to freak you out, but you need to sit up slowly.”
“Nn…?” His eyes scanned Squall’s face, but he didn’t appear to be awake. “Hn.”
Squall nearly winced at Quistis’ clapping as she got people away. More noise wasn’t exactly what he wanted and the raccoon just stretched and wrapped its little hands around this guy's arm.
“No sudden movements, okay? Everything is fine but you need to move slowly. There’s a raccoon…”
There was a flicker or something like recognition in the blond's eyes but he muttered something along the lines of ‘wisteria.’ Since that wasn’t terribly helpful, Squall tried again.
“Raccoon. I’m going to try to shoo them away, okay?”
“Nhnn…”
“Can you hear me? About the Raccoon?”
“Coon?” He muttered, and didn’t do anything asked of him. He pushed himself up in a strangely graceful move that was odd for someone half asleep. The animal was in his arms, held like a baby. “Just a ra’coon.” he muttered, tapping that raccoon’s noise without hesitation.
Squall stared, wondering what animal related talents this guy had. The gift of gab or some other kind of animal communication? Animal summons? A familiar? Fae touched?
“I’m sorry.” Squall said instead. “I didn’t realize they were yours.”
He shook his head, a touch slow to respond. He reached out blindly and tapped his forgotten book, the volume disappearing from sight. The entire motion looked to have been done on auto pilot. “Not.” he said simply. With an obvious reluctance to leave his nap spot, the blond got up, still cradling the raccoon. He crossed the dirt path, stepped over a flowerbed, and walked barefoot across the trail until he was in the grass on the other side.
Curious, Squall followed him, still half worried that the raccoon would slip out of its docile state and attack. "What are you doing?”
“Send off.” He muttered quietly, walking to a tall wall that wrapped around sections of the university. He lifted the raccoon and the little wild animal took their cue. It climbed up the rest of the wall and wandered away, disappearing over to the other side. “Bye~”
Squall watched, wondering what was going on with this guy. When he turned around, something in his expression sharpened. There was the faintest taste of magic in the air, but damn if Squall could pinpoint it.
The blond inhaled slowly and hesitated before attempting to speak. He inhaled again, shoulders straightening. “I’m Cloud.” he said, an intense gaze seemingly only for Squall.
“Oh.” Squall blinked, suddenly hit with a thought that made him a little queasy. This guy reminded him of someone else he knew. They often shifted between confused and alert too. “I’m Squall.” he offered. Cloud appeared young, maybe he was a changeling?
Cloud’s smile seemed genuine and that delight was also painfully familiar. “Are you okay?” Squall asked, glancing down to his arms to make sure there weren’t any bite or claw marks.
“Yes. I’m fine.” he paused. “You were worried about the raccoon? It’s fine. Animals just like me, that’s all. I guess you could say i attract them.”
“Well i’m glad you’re alright.” Squall said slowly, taking in the shift in Cloud’s words. He’d moved from sounds to one word answers to full sentences. He was coherent, and perhaps he really was just waking up. Squall couldn’t help but think it was something else going on. “Does that happen often?”
“You could say that.” Cloud agreed, brushing a blond strand of hair behind his ear which held three piercings, each of which were a stud of a precious gem. That spoke of witch work. What a confusing person.
“Good.” Squall said, tone lazy and drawn out for the moment while he tried to figure this guy out. “Well if everything is okay….”
“You’re kind.” Cloud said abruptly, his full attention still on Squall. It hadn’t wavered at all since he turned around and their eyes had locked. “Most people would have ignored me, or tried to hurt the ra’coon.”
Squall could only agree silently, and wondered how much kindness this guy saw. He was different and people often treated ‘different’ poorly. “Maybe i might have tried to use magic to nudge the raccoon away but i wouldn’t have wanted to have hurt you or the animal.”
“Kind.” Cloud repeated, taking a step closer. It was a little closer then Squall usually liked but he got the impression that Cloud was unaware of the small distance. “You thought things out more than some people would. It’s nice.”
“It’s manners,” Squall said instead, a touch awkward. “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yes, i’m fine.” Cloud said, head cocking to the side. “You smell like magic. Are you a magic user?”
“Yes.” Squall said, ignoring that it was a silly question. This was a university that revolved around magic, so naturally everyone had something to do with it. “I dabble.”
“In what?” Cloud asked curiously, a smile curving his lips. “I’m told i’m wild. The occasional attached animal proves it.”
Squall hummed once, amused despite the strange offering of information. “I’m fairly good with ice spells, and magic weaponry.” Honestly, he had many talents and some of them were either unreasonable or something he didn’t advertise to others.
Cloud’s eyes were crinkling, his good mood honest. “That sounds like fun. Magic usually is in my experience. What kind of magic weapon do you have?”
That was not a question he usually answered, and he wasn’t going to now. That didn’t mean he suspected it to be anything but an innocent question.
“I practice with a few.”
“That’s probably good. An ace up the sleeve of talents.” Cloud mused, eyes finally shifting away from Squall and Squall realized fairly quickly that he was looking up into the leaves of a nearby tree where a squirrel was making its way across a branch. He was either easily distracted or overly aware of nearby animals. He turned his attention back to Squall. “I like you.”
“Thank you.” Squall said, ignoring the way Quistis nearly choked while she was approaching them.
It was Cloud who moved first though. He raised a hand, pressing his fingers to Squall’s lips lightly. “That’s a bad word. It’s fine with me, promise, but it’s a bad word and you shouldn’t say it.”
Squall was confused for only a split second before he realized his mistake. Shiva had even warned him about thanking the wrong person the night before. At least that did narrow down whatever problems Cloud had going on and confirmed that a fae was involved somehow.
“Oh…” Squall muttered, heart kicked up a touch but Cloud had promised it was fine with him and words tended to hold a deeper meaning where fae were involved. “I’ll remember”
The frown that Cloud had slid into had softened into something more like relief. “I can protect you some of the times, but not all the times. Be careful.”
“I’ll be alright, you don’t need to protect me.” Squall said, knowing this would have been a strange conversation under normal circumstances. The only reason it wasn’t strange was because Squall was still trying to work out Cloud’s possible changeling status. He might have been something else. He might just have a fae curse on him. Maybe he lost the name he was born with and had been given a new one.
All the same, he didn’t get a sense of danger from Cloud. He was just over all, rather sweet even if offering to protect him was a bit of a stretch.
Squall felt a cold prickle at his neck, his hair standing on end like an ice cube was pressed to his skin. It couldn’t be a coincidence that the day after Edea had evidently tried and failed to do something that he was meeting someone so presumably damaged by fae tricks. He needed to talk to Shiva again.
“We’ll see.” Cloud mused, but he didn’t look bothered by Squall’s gentle refusal. His eyes moved to Quistis briefly but he dismissed her quickly. She was standing a few steps away now. Close enough that she could hear their conversation but not stepping into the single bubble of space they were sharing.
“Do you need help going somewhere? Company?” Squall asked, redirecting the conversation. That usually worked for him in situations like this. “I could stay with you for a while.”
“No, i don’t need help.” Cloud said, though his cheeks flared pink. “I can always find my way home.”
“What about lunch?” Quistis offered with a smile. With the raccoon gone, nearly everyone had continued on the trail already. “We could go to the cafeteria.”
He looked at her, his stare borderline rude but Squall took it as Cloud trying to memorize her face. “Caf-e-ter-ia.” he mouthed the word slowly to himself but his head jerked when he recalled the meaning. “Food? I could eat.”
“Then we’ll go eat.” Squall said, knowing he’d have felt guilty just walking away from Cloud. He always had trouble just walking away…
“Okay.” Cloud said, but he hadn’t yet taken a step away from Squall.
Squall turned to head back down the trail, an arm held out to coax Cloud into walking beside him. It worked well enough.
“I’m Quistis.” She introduced herself as she walked on Squall’s other side. “Do you take classes here too, Cloud?”
“Huh?” He blinked slowly and shrugged. “Yeah, sure.”
Well he could lie, that certainly narrowed down a few different fae related speculations. Most fae couldn’t lie, and the powerful ones didn’t even bother. Word games were a thrill for them but Cloud didn’t even seem to try. He just gave the offer most would expect to be true.
“What does your magic do?” Squall asked conversationally. It normally would have been a tad rude but Cloud had asked him a similar question and had mentioned being wild. Cloud just snickered though.
“It makes me hungry.”
“Then we’re going to the right place.” Squall said, exchanging a look with Quistis. She only shrugged and didn’t look bothered. She knew he couldn’t just leave Cloud alone, and why…
“Did you know you smell of wisteria?” Cloud asked, hands in his pockets.
“I didn’t.” Squall said, more or less prepared to answer Cloud’s innocent questions. That’s all it was. Innocent.