Limelight

by Shanaqui (edenbound)

Summary:

Nida isn't sure if anyone else has noticed the torrid love affair between him and the commander -- actually, the commander himself may not have noticed yet.

Notes:

For argle_fraster.

Part of Sev's claim-a-thon experiment, for this prompt: "FFVIII. Squall/Nida. Nida's often overlooked, and 90% of the time, Squall kind of wishes that he could be, too. When a SeeD mission goes very wrong and leaves most of the team out of commission, Nida has to hop off the driving bus and junction in to join Squall to ~SAVE THE DAY~ in epic (or not so epic) fashions. Any sort of hanky-panky in the Balamb Garden control room A++ fantastic." It refused to be epic, and instead decided to be rather understated, but I like to imagine the heroics Nida performs after the end of the storylet.

Nobody has noticed the blatant love affair between Nida and Squall. Half the time Nida's afraid that's because Squall hasn't noticed, which would be fairly embarrassing. It's true that they haven't got as far as kissing yet, but Squall says more to Nida in a day than he says to the rest of Garden put together in a week, excluding the other heroes, and it's not just planning their navigation. Squall once even brought him coffee -- Nida doesn't really like coffee, but he drank it anyway.

Even before everything had happened, Nida had been drawn to Squall. Maybe it was because their situations were strangely reversed: where Nida longed to show people what he was made of, to step into the limelight, Squall wanted nothing to do with it. Squall was sufficient unto himself -- or so it had seemed then, anyway. The sorceress war taught them all subtlety, and maybe they're going to meet in the middle someday: Nida learned what a terrible thing the limelight could be, watching Squall's face drawn tight, and Squall had learned that he needed people.

And Nida, Nida was one of those people that --

Squall is right there, stepping off the elevator platform, and... glaring at him. He snaps out of the daze. "Sir?"

"Don't call me that," Squall mutters, and then shrugs. "Need your help."

"My help?"

"I know you can fight." Another shrug. "Selphie broke her leg, Zell got a faceful of a Bad Breath attack, and everyone else I trust is keeping the lower classmen out of harm's way. I need you now."

Nida could stand there staring at Squall for a while more, but that's no way to earn Squall's respect (keep it? has he earned it already?). He swallows hard and grabs his weapons -- he's an indifferent SeeD, really, though a good pilot, but even indifferent SeeDs always, always carry their weapons -- "I'm ready."

Squall's eyes can't exactly be described as warm -- there was a reason someone, probably Seifer, nicknamed him the Ice Queen. But Nida feels something there, anyway, something like the look in Squall's eyes when he brought him coffee. "Come on then," Squall says, and steps back onto the elevator platform. Nida scrambles to stand beside him, feels the touch of Squall's shoulder against his like an electric shock.

He can't fuck this up. He's not going to.