[FFVIII] Clean (Seifer + Squall, PG)

[wallwalker]

Title: Clean
Author: wallwalker
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII
Characters: Seifer, Squall
Warnings: None
Summary: Seifer has seen a lot of scars.
Notes: Written originally for fic_promptly.

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Siefer has seen some terrible scars, and he's only ever been a cadet. But everyone's seen what too much combat can do to a person. He's seen ragged cuts, broken bones that never quite healed, missing eyes and cauliflower ears. He's seen worse in their eyes, too, a distant look in their eyes, as if they can never look away from whatever had done it to them.

Siefer pitied them. He knew that pity was the last thing that men like that wanted; they were still warriors, after all. But at the same time, he couldn't respect them enough not to pity them. They'd made mistakes, they'd allowed themselves to be hurt that way. That was why he'd never be a SeeD. A warrior, yes, but he'd never make himself into a mindless killer, the sort who kept looking back at his past and his wounds and could never see his dreams again.

Squall should be grateful, really. Seifer might've marked him, but he'd spared him the worst of the pain. He'd made his cuts clean.