"Look, Seifer, it's a bunny!" The shorter blond said, pointing at a squirrel.

"Right..." Seifer said, mildly amused by the younger's inability to name small mammals. "Hey, Hayner, you see that orange thing? What's that?"

Hayner squinted to see the orange thing. "I'm not sure, Seifer. What is it?"

Seifer shrugged, kicking at the leaves. "I dunno. Why don't we go check?"

"Okay!" Hayner said, grinning. He grabbed Seifer's hand and led him towards the figure in the distance, excitedly jumping around.

(page break)

Seifer woke in a cold sweat, as he slowly recalled the dream, the memory. The day the shit hit the fan.

The orange thing in the distance had been a man in an orange suit-an escaped man from the prison on the outskirts of town.

Who just so happened to have a thing for little boys.

Seifer grimaced as he sat up. He didn't want to remember that day. The day he'd saved his best friend but lost him all the same-that week alone was something he didn't particularly wish to remember.

But remembering was inevitable now, wasn't it? Seifer tried to will away the thoughts.

(page break)

"Go! Forget about me and go, okay?" He yelled at the younger as he was grabbed by the man. Seifer jerked away, lifting his knee only to be shoved down.

Hayner had done as he was told, running had always been Hayner's strong point.

Seifer tried to fight it as long as he could-but it was bound to happen, and he knew it.

Didn't make it any less terrifying.

Hayner ran and got help, but the damage had already been done. Yes, the man was caught, and the story was happy in that sense-but there was still a victim. Not that Seifer would admit the going-ons of that day. No, he had too much pride for that.

Seifer had lied, and said they'd scuffled for a bit and he'd broken free. His attacker had happily agreed to the story-no surprise there.

He'd limped home that day to find his mother on the ground, blood pooling out around her.

It was too late.

Two days later, they arrested his father on charges of homicide.

He was sent to live with relatives, passed around for a bit, and put up for adoption. However, by that time he was fourteen. Figuring no one would adopt him, he ran away.

He hitch-hiked from Babalm Gardens to Twilight Town, where he'd spent his childhood, in hopes of reuniting with his old friend, Hayner Bach.

It was a week-long process, but he got there-only to be disappointed. Hayner Bach had moved away to Traverse Town shortly after Seifer's mother died.

(Page Break)

Seifer sat down at the table, letting his head drop onto it. Arms wrapped around his shoulders, and he let out a content hum.

"Bothered," she said, mild concern in her voice.

"It's nothing, Fuu."

"Hayner?"

Seifer sighed. Fuu always knew what was wrong. He nodded.

"You'll see him again, y'know. I believe that, y'know? Gotta have hope, y'know."

"You don't have to say y'know after everything you say, you know?"

Rai frowned at him, and turned to Fuu, who shrugged and went back to fixing coffee. Seifer let his head fall back onto the table for a minute before standing up and making his way out the door.

He had dropped out of school-never needed it anyways, he had never struggled in any of his classes and usually ended up teaching the teacher more about the subject than vice-versa. Sure, it had made it a bit harder to get a job, but he had his connections-in other words, he banged a few chicks here, and a few there, got no where, and then remembered that before his dad went psycho and killed his mom, he'd owned a big company.

So an awkward visit to the local prison later, and Seifer owned the damn thing. They were the continent's biggest supplier of-you guessed it, condoms.

…

Seifer didn't really want to talk about it.

He was smart enough to run the company without any college-he just never told anyone where he worked, so they always assumed it was some shit job as soon as they learned he'd dropped out-after all, he was only seventeen now.

Today he was going through applications-the few that made it to him after careful sorting, anyways. He was to choose three out of ten to interview, and chose one of those to fit the position of his new secretary.

His last one...well, let's just say Seifer could get out of hand when he was angry.

Funny, he almost felt bad for his former secretary. Almost.

He inwardly mused what would happen if Hayner had coincidentally applied for the position. Without a doubt, he'd at least contact the boy. But, then he remembered that Hayner would only have been sixteen now, (and only just) so the chances of him actually applying were slim to none.

(page break)

Six hours, three applications-with-resumes-attached and a few phone calls later, and Seifer had set up an interview with a girl named Kairi.

As he left Almasy Corps that night, he swore he saw Hayner three times, but each time it had been some kid with blond hair but no brown eyes.

One of those kids may have been a girl.

(PAGE BREAK)

A/N: I'm so cool, neglecting my other stories in favor of writing a seiner.

(And I really ought to learn my lines for the play I'm in. .")

Hope you liked chapter one!

Don't worry, Seifer will be more in character in the upcoming chapters.