"People don't take to me, Larabie." He sat forward again, retrieving the folder he had perused before. "Take Regal."
"I don't want to take Regal, Seifer." The comment drew his gaze, which she held. "Do you think it's easy for me to ask you to come and see my baby brother? Sure, I know Sal gal would love him to pieces, but--" Janine leaned forward. "Don't ask me why, Seif, but I want you to meet him and him to meet you. Hell. Maybe it's another rush. What if you don't like the little shit? What if he hates you and takes a knife to that damn sexy smirk of yours?"
Again, Seifer pushed away the folder and leaned back in the chair. "Larabie, why the hell would you want to drag my sick and twisted ass to meet your brother? You know how I like to push buttons."
Janine gave a one-shouldered shrug. "Like I said, I don't know. Call it a gut instinct."
Seifer didn't respond. Janine released a slow breath and stood, moving to stand beside Seifer's chair and wrap her arms around his shoulders and nibble his ear. "Come on, big guy. You know you want to get away. Miss Thang can handle the office, and Sal gal can take messages. Just for the day. It'll only take a few hours. I just need to show up for a meal and maybe a little television."
"Larabie." Seifer pushed away the report and turned to face her, green eyes harder than what she'd seen before. As was his expression. "What part of 'no' did you not understand?"
"I understood the 'n' and the 'o' just fine, sir, but it's the two together that are pissing me off." She moved to stand somewhat more in front of him. "I want you to go. You want to go, even though you won't admit it. So, quit being a prick about it and just come on. You'll have a blast."
"Being Head of Network Security has its perks and its shits. Deal with it." He motioned toward the door of his office as he focused again on the report. "Dismissed."
Again, the eyebrow twitched. Especially when her instinct kicked her in the gut and pinched at her brain the same time her temper tried to flare. "Fine." She strode somewhat stiffly to the door of his office and firmly closed it, almost immediately stripping out of her SeeD uniform jacket and tossing it onto the couch to the right of the door. Then she strode back to his desk and leaned her hands against it, noticing that he didn't look up. "Quit purposefully trying to piss me off, Almasy."
Seifer scoffed and sat back down, again retrieving the report.
Janine fought back her temper with a harder shove, swearing several new and not-so-new-words before once more leaning forward with her palms on the desk. "This is a secret as big as any other for me, Almasy. So if you're serious about this damn thrill-chase, then prove it. At one o'clock tomorrow, pick me up in front of Garden and take me to a little house just outside Deling city limits. Ray has a place there where he and his fam raise some kind of animal. He thought it would be good for Danny."
When Seifer didn't look up, Janine reached out and wrenched the folder from his grasp. He met her gaze, eyes narrowed.
"If you aren't there--" She clenched her jaw and then shook her head, straightening as she shoved the report back toward him. "Damn. This kind of pressure is nothing but bullshit. So forget that 'if you're serious' crack. It's a thrill chase. A button to push. Nothing more. If you aren't there, you aren't there. Don't sweat it."
Then she turned and stalked out, wishing she could believe the 'nothing more'.
~*~
Squall set aside the report from the scouts in the Centra region, looking up when the main elevator opened and Seifer stepped off. At the deep scowl on the Security Network Chief's face, Squall breathed deep with a brief thought of Now what and then simply waited.
He came to stand across from Squall's desk, hands behind his back as he stood at ease. "A word, Commander."
Briefly frowning, Squall said "What," before focusing again on his desk and the next report in his priority folder.
"Larabie has requested personal time off. Permission to leave the security section under Ahndra's command and act as security escort?"
Squall blinked and then looked up. "Wouldn't it be better to assign Sally?"
Seifer momentarily clenched his jaw. "Order, sir?"
While Squall had a thought of one particular question to ask, instead, he lowered his gaze to the report and said "Permission granted. Sally can't handle Larabie."
"Yes, sir." Then he simply turned and walked out.
Squall very slightly smiled. No, Sally definitely couldn't handle Larabie. Not like you can anyway, Almasy. He liked the thought of someone pushing Seifer's buttons, and he didn't even care if they all pissed him off or not. Just as long as they got pushed.
~*~
Janine looked down at her watch. 12:55. Get your ass in gear, Seifer. And when she felt more than heard the heavy-booted step behind her, she smirked and turned to see the man approaching dressed in a light gray trench coat, black military-issue trousers, and a blue vest with a white cross that spanned the width and length of it. He also wore a thick ID tag on a choker-chain around his neck.
Arching an eyebrow, Janine crossed her arms. "My, my, my. You look good enough to eat in your rebel-wear from the good ole days."
Seifer didn't quip back. He only strode past and made his way to the car waiting off the side of the road.
She tapped her fingers against her upper arm a moment before following after, her door barely closing before he jammed the car in gear and peeled out. Janine decided against mentioning the obvious and just turned on the radio and tried to find a good station. Every once in a while Janine could have sworn that she heard his teeth grind, but she didn't comment, which surprised her. It was what she did. Instead, Janine released a deep breath and crossed her arms before moving her focus out the car window.
"Larabie, what the hell?" Seifer grumbled, almost indecipherable.
Smirking, she didn't look away from the passing scenery. "I don't know, big guy. I've never taken anyone but my friends to meet Danny. Selphie loves him to death. Jax tries to stop by whenever he can to play ball or whatever. Same with Dincht, believe it or not. But the pricks and bastards?" Janine's smile twitched. "Hell no. They just don't get Danny." She felt his sidelong glance but only continued to stare outside. "Maybe I've been wanting to push this button for a while," she admitted. But what button? What rush was she hoping for with this?
Seifer grumbled a bunch of things she couldn't make out, causing a chuckle as she finally focused on him. "Suck it up, Almasy." Then she leaned closer, reaching out to give his inner-thigh a pressure and stroke in just the right location to cause a twitch before he tensed. "I'll make it worth your time, big guy. On my honor as a SeeD."
To her surprise, he pushed her hand from his leg and remained silent.
Annoyance flashed in Janine's mind, but she only briefly clenched her jaw before sitting back and once more crossing her arms. "All right, so you're going to be a pissy old woman."
The entire trip was like that; the drive to Balamb, and then the train trip to Deling. Janine had to keep fighting back the temper-spikes at his continued silence, and as the train drew closer and closer to Deling City, Janine began to think she may have screwed up. The jackass is going to have Danny in tears. And she couldn't understand why Seifer would be acting this way at just going along to meet her brother.
At the station in Deling, Seifer barely waited for her to step down beside him before striding forward toward the car rental. Janine released an annoyed breath, frowning as she followed after him, her fists clenched while grumbling about dickheads who couldn't pull their head out and relax.
Danny would either like the guy and want to be around him 24/7, or he'd hate him and go hide in a corner. Either one wouldn't be a big deal. Seifer was an ass. He had people hating him every day of the week. Sure, this was a kind of surrogate family to her and Seifer had never had one of those outside Garden, but again, there wasn't any pressure to be 'liked' or to 'fit in'. And a guy like Seifer wouldn't care about things like that anyway. He had Garden. He had his job.
Janine halted, blinking as she watched Seifer
's slightly rigid form continue to proceed down the sidewalk toward the car rental. 'Garden is my life.' In fact, Garden had become his family the same as it had become hers. No one else but Headmaster Cid and his wife had stepped forward to welcome him anyplace. And now to be taken to a family like Danny's? He had to be scared near shitless. She had been.
And Janine still remembered when she'd first been taken in. Certain that she'd wake up one day to have them gone, or that they would order her out of the house and onto the street, Janine had finally left first, so the choice to be alone would be hers and not left to someone else. But Seifer? Seifer Almasy never had that opportunity or choice.
Rubbing the back of her neck, Janine hissed "Damn stupid bitch," and then stepped forward.
Seifer had rented the car and now tucked his wallet into the pocket of his trousers as he strode toward the lot where it waited. Surprisingly, her 6' frame didn't make it any easier to catch up to him, so she had to wait until he stopped at the vehicle to unlock her side before she could stand next to him.
"Seifer--"
"Save it, Larabie," he warned in a low voice.
She reached out and smoothly separated the keys from his grasp, pushing him back from the car using a firm pressure on each of his shoulders. Seifer's expression went stony as his eyes narrowed. Janine lowered her arms to her sides. "You don't have family, do you?"
His jaw clenched. "Relevance?"
Almasy, don't be an ass, was what she wanted to snap, but instead, she jerked in her attitude and said "You know as well as I do that makes all the difference in the world. I've always been able to be myself around Danny, and the fact that I know he'll love me no matter what fool thing I do makes me feel damn good. A safety, I guess. You not having something like that changes a helluva lot. Garden's been your safety. Am I right? Damn right I am. And you know what? I've been scared shitless myself in the face of something like this. Why else do you think I left after only a month with them? I wanted to be the one to abandon them."
Seifer fisted one hand. "Larabie, you don't know a damn thing."
"But now here you are," she continued, holding his gaze while ignoring the dangerous tint when his jaw muscle clenched, "getting ready to stride into a place where you can't control what they think of you. Here you're going to see the whole 'family' thing and know you're not really a part of it. That you never have been but with Garden, and you almost screwed that to hell--"
Never before had she seen eyes as dark and dangerously hard as when he so very slowly warned, "Larabie, I won't warn you again," in a voice as chilled as death.
"Remembering how you've been left to yourself all these damn years without one person giving a rat's ass whether you lived or died? Hell yeah I know what you're going through because I've been there myself since I can remember, but--" He shot out a hand and took a firm hold of her throat. Janine immediately reacted, her training not allowing anything else, and brought his hand from her throat to immediately catch him by the shirt and pull him closer. She held his gaze, his breath felt on her face. "Babe, some day you need to shove that hell in a box and put it aside. You don't, and you'll never be as good as you can be. I know. I've lived it."
Seifer clenched his jaw so violently Janine could have sworn she heard each and every action. But the look in his eyes behind the rage kept her attention from anything, for she'd seen that look only a few times before. And on men tougher than Seifer Almasy. In fact, she'd seen it in her own eyes more than she cared to admit.
Terror.
Janine slowly released her hold on his shirt and his hand that had gone for her throat. "Let it go. Spit in Fear's eye and just come along. Nobody's expecting anything but that. And I damn-well guarantee you'll see 'family' isn't as terrifying as you think it'll be. It's a pisser, hell yeah, and it makes you feel a whole helluva lot more than you'd like, but it's not bad to see what coulda been. Not one damn bit."
Seifer pushed away from her. He'd never done it before, and she'd expected it a lot sooner. And a helluvalot rougher. So, she let him push her back, immediately stepping forward while still holding his gaze and acknowledging the flash of a warning in his eyes with a slight nod and a whispered, "I know, big guy," before taking his face in her hands and giving him the kind of soft and slow kiss she had always scoffed at before.
Seifer didn't respond the first time, she knew he wouldn't, but when she pulled back slightly and then kissed him the same way again, the tautness of his lips softened and he almost grudgingly responded. Janine smirked and kissed him again, a lot more tongue and force this time as she continued to coax him out of the harshness and near-rage of before. But as in the car, he pushed her hands from his body and stepped back, his face still taut and his eyes dark as he glared down at her. It was completely unexpected. Being pushed back like that, forcefully distanced when she knew that he enjoyed it. It didn't make any sense, but Janine couldn't get pissed at it.
Something just wasn't right.
So instead, she took a moment to wipe the lipstick from his lips and mouth, purposefully not focusing on his expression. Especially not when he again pushed her touch away. What the hell? Seifer roughly took the keys back from her, shoving her out of the way and then unlocking her door before striding around to his own.
Janine hissed, "Shit, Larabie," while getting into the mid-size car and vowing to think twice before pushing those buttons again.
~*~
When they pulled into the driveway of the one-story home with the attached garage, Seifer finally realized that he'd been clenching his jaw since leaving the car in Balamb to board the train. His jaw ached, his hands ached from so tightly clasping the steering wheel from the station to the house, his brain still wouldn't focus on anything, and Janine hadn't said a word since calling him on the whole thing in Deling City.
Damn it.
Seifer slammed the car into park--he hated automatic transmissions--and roughly opened the door. He heard Janine's door open and close, too, but he could only glare at the white picket fence, the blue shutters on each side of the windows, the porch swing, and the dog house on the left side of the large front yard.
Everything pissed him off.
Janine came to stand beside him, her silence as she stared at the house pissing him off even more. And when he made a move to step forward, she caught him firmly by the arm. It made him see red.
Moving his glare from the house to her brown eyes, he jerked his arm from her hold. "Larabie, if you touch me again . . ." and let the threat speak for itself.
But she didn't comment on the threat. Didn't take the bait or the challenge like he wanted her to. There was no spike of temper in her eyes. No irritation in the tightness of her lips. She only looked up at him and said, "Here are the things to know when meeting Danny, One: He doesn't talk much, doctors call him 'non-verbal', but he knows enough words to get the idea across of what he wants. He mostly points and makes noise. Or physically drags you there. Ray says Danny's gotten worse at doing that instead of trying to 'use his words', as their popular saying goes.
"Two: He loves shiny things, so he'll probably want to touch and hold that ID chain around your neck. He'll obsess about it. Three: Danny has a bad habit of farting and belching in order to get attention." Janine chuckled. "He's a guy, fifteen, so I guess it's not that different from every other guy. It's still damn twisted, though, the way he laughs at it. Fourth and final: If he likes you, he'll be like a wart on your ass. If he's not too thrilled, he'll hide in his corner and just glower at you while giving you raspberries or the finger. He did that to Dincht one time. Then the sick bastard farted and Danny was all giggles. Funniest damn thing I ever saw."
Seifer scoffed and once more stepped forward, Janine's firm touch again felt on his arm.
"You don't have to go in, Seifer," she said simply. "The little shit is my brother, not yours."
Seifer didn't mean to twitch, but it came, heightening the glower aimed down at her. "Like hell, Larabie. You're on probation."
"Y
eah, yeah. We all know how dangerous I am. I've got a warhead in the garage that I plan to use on that monstrosity of a Garden to the south."
The smirk was fought back by a deeper frown. "That type of humor isn't wanted."
She didn't scoff or call him a prick or jackass. She only smirked and crossed her arms as she focused ahead. "I thought it was pretty damn funny." Then Janine shrugged. "Okay. Fine. Be a pisser, but keep the button pushing to low-normal. If I think you're doing it just to piss me off, I'll pull your ass out--sir," she added with a sidelong glance his direction.
Before Seifer could respond, there sounded the slamming open of a door and then a squeal of "Janey!" Dread jammed Seifer in the chest, as powerful as when he had gone to accept the position of Chief of Security for Balamb Garden from Squall. That pissed him off. Seifer Almasy didn't dread anything--He shoved it aside and turned to watch the somewhat short kid run down the flower-bordered walk from the house.
But the black-haired and scrawny 'Danny Larabie' had only gone about four steps when he halted, tilted his head, and then pointed to Seifer and said "Chicken-wuss," as clear as day.
Seifer glowered and looked sharply to Janine when she howled out a laugh. "You're shitting me."
Janine could only shake her head, covering her mouth with one hand as the other held her stomach. She doubled over with laughter, causing a scoff from Seifer as he focused once more on the approaching kid. Danny was grinning and, for all intents and purposes, seemed excited to not only see Janine, but Seifer, too.
That pissed him off.
"Watch your mouth, kid," he said harshly, pulling his arm clear of the firm punch from Janine.
It seemed to Seifer that Danny tried to do just that, going slightly cross-eyed and causing a twitch of eyebrow before Seifer could restrain it. Then Danny again focused on Seifer with those same bright and disgustingly happy hazel-brown eyes and informed, "Nose."
Seifer scoffed and looked away, again dodging a punch from Janine.
"Hey, Danny," Janine greeted, sending Seifer a murderous glare. "Give me some sweetness." Danny gave her a kiss and then licked her face, causing an "Ew, you little shit!" from Janine and another barely hidden cringe from Seifer as he clenched his already sore jaw.