Christmas Special

Noctis stared out the window at the huge fat flakes that whipped past the windows, skimming against the glass, the searing light of the headlights giving the illusion that the speeding snow was edged like shards of silver or glass. And for a moment as they crawled through the tunnel of the storm, the tried young prince found himself fearing those gleaming shards of nature.

Noctis gasped as the sudden change from the cold dark of the night to the warm pattern of bricks as they sped into a tunnel. As the lights of the tunnel sped past them, blurring into a line that made noctis's tuned back into what was being said in the front seat.

His driver fiddled with the controls, turning the knobs on the radio trying to pick up fuzzy reception. At the continued static the older man swore and punched the dash, grumbling to himself as he looked back to the road and the tunnel that continued ahead of them.

Noctis was surprised at how dry and unused to speaking his own voice sounded, he asked hoarsely, "What is it, Jeeves?"

Jeeves turned and sighed gently, "oh nothing, your highness." He turned back to the road and heaved a heavy sigh, "It's just that its been snowing like this for hours and its not showing any sign of stopping now…I need to know the weather report but I can't find a station." He gave a tight smile, "It's all right, its nothing to worry yourself about your highness."

Noctis ignored that last part. Everyone always said that, what that usually meant, whether they intended it or not was, "its not a pampered princelings problem but it will effect everything to come". Noctis sighed and tried to relax in the backseat. …tried, he really did, but sometimes NOctis thought, sometimes he just wished that he would trust him enough to actually talk to him. Like a human being…not a figurehead.

They passed out of the safe enclosing bricks of the tunnel and emerged like a bullet from a gun out into the raging storm. Noctis gauged it critically through the glass, his mercurial eyes reflecting the darkness outside. The storm was building if he was any guess, it hadn't even gotten close to its full potential yet, in all his years trying to balance the lives of a warrior and a peacemaker he could read the weather outside like a book. Watching it he suddenly wished that he had asked Jeeves to stop inside the tunnel where there was shelter. At least then they would have been safer than out in this beast.

Noctis turned from the window his dark eyes impassive even as his mind was full of worry, "Jeeves," he murmured.

"Yes, sire?"

"The next town we see or spot of shelter…I want you to pull over and get out."

"But sir—!"

"No buts," the prince's normally cool and polite voice had changed to cold steel and brooked no arguments, "When we find shelter I want you to get out and take it. I will continue home and attend to the treaty. It is urgent and must be seen to soon."

"Sir I—"

"I don't care how you feel about this, Jeeves," Noctis said, his voice and face devoid of all emotion. "Have I made myself clear?"

The older man in the front was silent for a long time. Finally his shoulder's sagged and he nodded, "Yes, sire."

Noctis waited, making sure it had sunk in then he nodded, his dark eyes softer, shadowed, "Thank you, Jeeves."

The snow-haired man nodded stiffly, loyal but unhappy about it.

Oh well, Noctis thought, looking back out of the window. You can't make everyone happy, no matter how hard you try. He smiled bitterly at the dark night, so many storms building tonight.

…

Squall gritted his teeth and ignored the chaos behind him, instead turning his brooding gaze to the windows. He parted the screen and peered out at what the radio had said would be one of the biggest storms of the century. The gunblade master didn't really understand why, he was never one to get stuck on anything, but this storm was making him act like a child seeing snow for the first time. But this wasn't a snow out there, oh no, there were no flakes of snow, each individual beautiful crystals, Squall thought his grey eyes sharpening, this was a storm, plain and simple. Each flake was lost in the streaming silver light in the dark, screaming through the night towards some destination known only to it.

Gazing at it, Squall found himself hoping to all gods that no one got caught out in it. There would be some missing people tomorrow for sure. At the sound of screaming and hollering further in the house Squall cringed and growled. If it did stop which seemed unlikely!

Squall whipped around as Zidane and Bartz raced behind him again hollering at the top of their lungs and tried to get their attention, "HEY! You guys wanna settle down? You're gonna make me even more deaf than I already am!"

Zidane and Tidus ignored him and continued racing through the house. Upstairs Squall heard Cloud turn on his heavy metal music, trying to drown out the other two hoodlums as they tore down the upstairs hall, sounding like a herd of elephants. Squall groaned and turned back to the window, resigning himself to a long and irritating night.

From where he was standing at the kitchen counter Cecil asked, "Something interesting happening out there, Squall? You keep looking outside."

Squall replied over his shoulder, "Not really, it's just kind of mesmerizing…you know? The storm…I don't think I've ever seen something so raw and single-minded in my entire life."

Cecil chuckled from where he was making them all a midnight snack, "'Single-minded' huh?" He dusted his hands off and transferred the bread loaf into the oven, closing the door behind it, "Careful there, Squall. You're getting almost poetic there, you'll turn into your father in no time."

Cecil laughed at Squall's comical grimace and Squall turned back to his peephole to the world outside. God it was fierce! Fierce, and beautiful…he thought. Suddenly a flash of movement that wasn't silver streaks caught his eye, he whipped his head towards it and watched. He could have sworn…there!

In a flash Squall had raced down the stairs to the door and had hauled on his coat, Cecil started and scrambled after him, "Squall? Squall? What is going on? What are you—?"

Squall was already toeing on his boots and opening the door when the silverette made it down the stairs. His answer was short and to the point, almost excited, "I saw someone from the window, someone's walking out there in the snow, I'm going to go get them."

Cecil looked aghast, "Are you sure? Oh my! I—Are you sure you should go out by yourself? I mean—"

Squall cut him off, "I'll be fine, Cecil. Be back in a few."

Without another word he was out and the door was shut behind him. Cecil stared at the door not sure if he wanted to be mad or glad that Squall was going out to save the crazy person. Zidane, Bartz and Tidus appeared at the top of the stairs.

Tidus asked, "What's wrong, Cecil? Where's Squall?"

Cecil turned back up to face them and gave a reassuring smile, "Oh, he'll be back in a few, don't worry.

…

Squall trudged through the shin deep snow, shoving it aside with each stride as he searched for the stranger. "Hello?" he called, "Hey! Nutcase! If you can hear me, follow the sound of my voice!" He waved his flashlight at the snow ahead of him and continued forward calling out regularly.

Just as he was about to turn around he saw a flicker of something against the white and dark of the night, something that shone.

He turned and focused the beam of light on it. It was the sheen of the stranger's hair, a blue-black so dark it would have disappeared into the night if it hadn't been for its glossy shine.

The brunette ran forward and grabbed the stranger's shoulder, spinning them around. "Hey! What do you think your—!"

Squall stopped short when he saw the strangers face. It was an effeminate face, a little like Cloud's but younger, the planes of the face still soft with some baby fat. Huge, liquid dark eyes gazed back at him, the pupils dialated so large that the iris was nearly swallowed up, hiding the natural color. Squall noted with some concern that this stranger was extremely pale, a soft, snow-white. And they were probably just as cold, Squall thought, gauging the other's condition. The pale skin was frosted with just a tinge of blue, a sure sign of oncoming frostbite. After a quick inspection he grabbed the stranger's wrist and started back towards the house, the lights a warm, flickering gold he could still just barely make out.

To his surprise he was brought to a screeching halt when the other didn't budge. Squall whirled around angrily about to shout at them and demand that they start following him when he heard the stranger speak.

"I'm not going that way," they said. Their voice was low and husky, almost throaty as though it wasn't used very often.

Squall cocked his head to the side incredulously, "_Excuse_ me?"

The dark-haired stranger repeated themself, "I'm not going that way," they said.

Squall could feel his temper rising. He stalked back over to the troublemaker and hissed through gritted teeth, "Whaddya mean, "you're not going that way'? If you don't go that way you'll freeze to death! You're already part-way there!" He shouted.

Those huge doe eyes were riveted on Squall's face, their unwavering gaze somewhat disconcerting since it was impossible to tell if they were focused on _him_ or nothing at all, "It's not where she's calling them."

Squall froze for a second and let that sink in. His brows rose and furrowed and he tried to understand what the lost stranger was trying to say.

"What?" He asked, "Who's calling who?"

Those dark eyes never blinked, never wavered. The youth waved a hand at the snow engulfing the world, at the streaking light they created in the shine of Squall's flashlight, pointing after them, in the direction they had been going. "Etro. She's calling them. She'll call all of us when the time comes but for now, it's just those souls."

"Souls?" Squall looked up and followed the direction of the stranger's hand; all he could see was the surrounding black and the streaks of white where the light of his flashilight illuminated the snow. "You mean the snow?" he asked, raising his eyebrows in concern.

"It's not snow." The androgynous stranger looked at him as though he were an idiot and continued, "They're souls, people can see souls you know, if they've somehow become familiar with death. I can see them."

Squall murmured dryly, "Oh, can you now?"

The youth turned and began to head out into the storm following the racing snow towards who knows what. Squall sighed in irritation and bulldozed through the building drifts after them. He grabbed their shoulder and whipped them around his immense irritation spilling over into his voice, "I didn't want to have to do this but you're being ridiculous!" Before the delirious teen could react Leon had clocked them out good and hard and laid them out flat in the snow.

Staring down at the unconscious teenager Squall sighed and grumbled to himself, "Great. Now I have to carry you back inside…dumbass."

…..555555555555555555555…55555555555555555555555…

Everyone crowded around the sofa in the living room to hover behind Cecil and Terra as they worked on bringing 'Squall's Snow-man', as it was becoming known as, back from hypothermia to the world of the living.

Cecil huffed in annoyance as he worked on peeling the stranger's coat off of their shoulders, the fat puffy material soaked from the storm and melting into freezing cold water in the warm house, "Squall," he scolded, propping the wet head of dark hair on his shoulder as he shimmied the arms out of the sleeves, "If you hit any harder I'd be more worried about brain damage than hypothermia! You couldn't hold back a little? Or better yet," The silverette snapped as he cradled the youth's head and examined the blow, "Couldn't you have convinced them to come in _without_ knocking their lights out?"

Squall snarled from where he was pacing behind the sofa, his dark hair plastered to his forehead and neck, "What was I supposed to do? The nut was delirious and was trying to go out into the storm! I don't have time to waste arguing with people who are off their rocker when I'm trying to save their life! Deal with it!"

Terra had slipped off their dark shoes and socks, clearly made for meeting halls and not snowdrifts and had just started on the soaking pants, all of a sudden she blushed and tapped Cecil on the shoulder.

Cecil turned from Squall and asked, "What is it, Terra? Something wrong?"

Terra blushed even harder and cleared her throat, "Erm…maybe you should do the rest, Cecil? I don't think I should take off…his pants…especially…"she mumbled into her hair, "When they're so…wet and …hard to get off…"

Cecil looked a little stunned for a moment then smiled and tried to patch together the suddenly awkward silence in the room, "Yes! Yes! Of course! That's a good idea, Terra, thank you for your help."

She nodded bashfully and stood up to go stand behind Cloud where he was watching next to Firion and Tidus.

Zidane inched up to the sofa and peered down at the young man's face. "You mean it's a _he_?" he asked incredulously.

Cecil had already begun his own inspection, he had finished peeling off the coat and now the business jacket and fancy, black-silk shirt beneath were exposed, also soaked and freezing. He nodded his head and gave a dry smile, "I would say that's an affirmative, captain," he joked.

Cloud came up and looked his fill, finally he said, "Why's everyone so surprised?" he asked, "He looks like a guy to me."

Tidus snorted next to Firion and quipped, "That's because you look like a he-she too Cloud."

Everyone laughed at the glare Cloud sent Tidus's way. Tidus jumped behind Firion and used his long ponytail to steer the taller man's bulk between him and Cloud. They heard from behind the yelping silverette, "Just saying, you're a very pretty man, Cloud, it's a good thing".

Cecil laughed good naturedly and ruffled Cloud's hair, "Don't worry about it," he said soothingly, "You know he's just teasing you."

As Cloud went to stand by Light, Cecil asked the room at large, "Hey could someone help me get these wet things off of him, we need to start warming him up as soon as possible."

All the girls except Lightning started blushing or inching forward, Terra piped up in alarm, "Maybe this should be a guy's job, what do you think?" she asked. "I mean, after all, he is a guy and well, I'm not sure how he would feel being undressed by a girl, I mean, I know that I would be so embarrassed I'd feel horrible so maybe we should—!"

"Hey, chill!" Lighting said, slapping her arm out at an angle to stop Tifa from prowling forward to, 'help'. "Relax, Terra, I'm sure we can let the guys handle this one."

The strawberry-blonde glanced around trying to find someone to pin down for the job. Her eyes fell on Squall and she barked, "Hey, Leonhart! You found him. Why don't you help him get better?"

Squall looked up a little startled, "Huh? Why me?"

Lightning held up her hand in a talk-to-the-hand manner. "You found him," she said, waving away his excuses, "You should help him."

"But—!"

"Come on, Squall," Cecil interrupted his hands already busy stripping off the dark jacket and unbuttoning the silk shirt, "The longer we dither the longer he's freezing, he's in bad enough condition as it is!"

With minimal grumbling Squall stooped awkwardly, one knee braced on the couch alongside the young man's body and the other leg kneeling on the floor. Resigning himself to the role of baby sitter, Squall reached up and began stripping the dark-haired teenager of his pants.

Just as he started to peel them down sharp angular hipbones, swearing like a sailor at the unfortunate fact that wet cloth tends to stick to wet skin, Terra squealed and raced out of the room, her face tomato red, Prishe right behind her laughing at her face. A little startled he stared at Tifa, who was a little too close, hovering over his shoulder and practically salivating, "Er…" he coughed awkwardly, "Something for you?"

In a rare moment of compassion _and_ tact, Lightning reached over and collared the irrepressible Tifa and began dragging her out of the room, "Come on you," she smirked, "We've got better things to do and you're making the poor boy uncomfortable."

Tifa whined and pleaded but Lightning never relented for a second. Finally she managed to haul Tifa out of the room and upstairs to where the rest of the girls were waiting, Yuna followed and closed the door behind them.

Zidane whistled and crossed his arms behind his head, "Woohee! I'd say Tifa's got a thang for our new friend, eh Bartz?" He elbowed his best friend in the ribs.

Bartz grinned and shoved his hands in his pockets, rocking back and forth on his heels, "I'd say so! After all, she's been sulking about Cloud batting for the other team for a while now." He continued over the noise of Cloud's abrubt squeak and said, "She must like thin, femmy guys!"

The Oliver/ Onion, shook his head and sighed, chuckling and the inane little comments that started bouncing all over the place after that. He held up his hands and started walking out the door after the girls, calling back over his shoulder, "Enough! I'm leaving before you scar my oh so innocent ears!" When he was a few steps down the hall they heard him say much to Cloud's embarrassment, "Oh and stop traumatizing Cloud! You're half the reason he is emo!"

At the badly hidden mortification on Cloud's face Firion smiled gently and patted him on the shoulder, saying encouragingly, "Don't worry, Cloud. We love you anyway."

Cloud choked on his own words then, turning the same color Terra had just a few minutes earlier. Without one more word he turned on his heel and disappeared down the hall.

Cecil looked up from where he was slipping an old sweater of Light's over the young man's head. He frowned at Squall and gestured towards the black boxer's still stuck to the young man's body, he said dissaprovingly, "Come on, Squall, we have to get him out of his wet things! Stop beating about the bush!"

Squall stared at him for a minute then said, "I'm not getting him naked until somebody gives me some pants to put on after!"

Zidane shot up and yelled, "I've got the perfect thing! Wait here! DON'T MOVE till I come back!"

The blonde monkey/cat boy raced down the hall way and up into his room, Bartz hard on his heels.

They were back in seconds, brandishing a pair of blue, fleece, pyjama bottoms that had pictures of tiny black cat's all over them. Zidane grinned at Squall and said, "This seems to fit, don't you think?"

Squall reached out and looked at the waist band critically, "You'll sure this'll fit him?" he asked, gesturing to the prone figure, "After all he's more Cloud's size than your's Zidane, who's pants are these anyway?"

Zidane waved a hand nonchalantly, "Oh they'll fit, don't worry I know Cloud's waist size and these would fit him." At everyone's stare of 'do-i-want-to-know?' Zidane grinned and said, "I got him something for Christmas similar to this that requires knowledge of his waistline, I know these'll fit."

Squall looked at them again, that was a really narrow waistline, shrugged and started to peel off the boxers. He did his job quickly and efficiently, slipping the boxers off and the pyjamas on in record time and noted with some surprise that, yes indeed, they did fit the kid. Pretty well, too.

Tidus whistled and said, "Man we need to feed Cloud more! That's just plain unhealthy!"

Cecil placed a hand on the young man's forehead and felt his temperature, he nodded. "We're on the right track now," he said. He turned to Light and Kain and said, "I need you guys to bring me the blankets from the closet and someone," he said looking at Firion and Tidus, "Needs to fill some hot water bottles…pronto!"

As everyone went about their business Cecil stood and gestured for Squall to come sit where Cecil had been a moment before. As Squall went to the head of the couch, Cecil said in a no nonsense tone, "For now I just want you to lie next to him on the couch and help warm him up, that should be gradual enough that he won't go into shock."

As Squall inched his way onto the couch with the younger kid Zidane and Bartz asked Cecil, "Hey, what do you want us to do?"

Cecil laughed and gave them both noogies as he went out the door into the kitchen where Tidus and Firion could be heard clanging about and trying to find the 'hot-water bottles', "Stay out of too much trouble- that or keep Tifa busy, I don't need her under my feet either!"

With that, Cecil disappeared into the kitchen and the two hyper-active knuckleheads zipped off upstairs to find the girls. Leon lay awkwardly on his side, one arm thrown over the other man in an effort to warm him up.

With nothing else to do Squall found himself studying the strange young man who had quite literally wandered into their lives. Everything about him was a mystery. No car, no ID card, no licenses, no keys no nothing in his pockets, only the knowledge that he spoke their language as well. He could be anybody, Leon thought sourly, watching those pale lips part with every chilled breath, a thief, a murderer, a deserter, a sociopath…or just a plain wacko, he thought, thinking of what words they had exchanged.

Absently, the scarred swordsman trailed his finger along one sharp cheekbone, the skin still slightly chilled but warming up nicely. The younger man stirred and Squall froze, his eyes fixed on the other's face. Very, very slowly, those dark eyes opened, long blue-black lashes casting shadows on defined cheekbones. For a moment, they stared at one another, completely silent, nothing but their breath between them.

The younger man tilted his head slightly, as though trying to get a better view of his couch-mate. Slowly and shakily one thin hand came up to Squall's face and traced his scar, startled and a bit disconcerted Squall fought the urge to lean away, instead focusing on how those pale fingers trembled against his skin, and thinking of how much of the young man's energy the simple act used. After a brief moment of tense contact, the quaking hand dropped to the dark-haired man's chest and he breathed heavily, his eyes sinking shut even as he murmured something, more of a series of sighs than actual words.

Squall just watched him, not convinced that he was sleeping as soundly as he looked until he heard Cecil behind him, "Poor thing, he's exhausted. Who knows how long he was out in that weather by himself."

Squall got up when he saw that Light had brought some blankets in the room and made way for the taller warrior. He turned to Cecil and nodded seriously, "Yeah…pretty long, I'd say. At least for someone to get that delirious I'd think he'd been out there at least for a few hours."

Firion came in to stand behind Light, his golden eyes thoughtful, "I wonder where he came from? Why he was out in the snow," he mused.

Light spoke in his usual practical way, "I expect he'll tell us when he wakes," he said, straightening up from where he had been tucking the blankets around the prone figure.

"Yeah," Squall said, "maybe."


End file.
