Seifer sees them on TV, newspapers, on the cover of damn near every magazine in line at the grocery store. Leonhart, lips drawn into a straight line, his uniform pressed and starched and spotless, always speaking words that Seifer knows were written by somebody else that either emphasize his heroism, or work his way out of a scandal; Rinoa at his arm in designer clothes and heavy jewels and not a hair out of place. One week the world owes him their lives. The next, he has to answer to how Garden plans to help pay for the damage caused by the Cry. ("The Republic of Galbadia acted alongside a rogue with no current ties to Garden in resurrecting the Lunatic Pandora and initiating the Lunar Cry. SeeD and Garden claim no responsibility in these damages, but are currently partnering with Deling City to restore damages to the Estharian nation.") He is named among the World's Most Beautiful Men by one gossip rag, while another features a full article on how to achieve Rinoa Heartilly's style, while another broadcasts: "Third War Imminent: Commander of SeeD Under Spell of New Sorceress Rinoa." (It's always the sensationalist papers that get it right, he thinks. The ones nobody takes seriously, and isn't that the way of it?)
He's seen them once in person, just days after it all ended, when he strode into Garden with his head high with plans to tell them he'd rather walk himself to the gallows than let them start a witch hunt. When Trepe of all people intercepted him at the gates and took him, not to Kramer's office but to Leonhart's new apartment, where he sat at a table covered in damage assessments and PR reports and didn't look surprised at all to see who Quistis dragged through the door.
"If you-"
"Full pardon."
"What?"
"A lot of people did things that were out of their control. Now get out before someone changes my mind."
Before Kramer has a chance to voice an opinion, in other words. But Squall saw what Cid would not, and they both knew if anyone looked too closely at what happened during the war someone would notice that Rinoa wasn't just possessed the once. Squall went back to his paperwork and Seifer wanted to protest, that if Leonhart wanted him dead to just do it himself instead of keeping him alive to serve his own purpose, but then he caught sight of Rinoa standing in the kitchen, eyes full of tears, and like as not, if he and Leonhart had ever shared a motive it was with her.
When he sees them again it's a year later and they show up at Wendigo's during a day shift looking as out of place as they can be with their expensive clothes and perfect hair. The rock on Rinoa's finger shines in the dim bar lighting and it's bigger in person than it looked in print, and doesn't suit her at all. They look genuinely surprised to see him, like Garden doesn't know his whereabouts at all times.
"Hey," he says, and doesn't give them the chance to pretend he isn't there.
"Hi," Rinoa says, and takes a seat at the bar. Squall stands behind her with a defensive arm around her waist even though there's only three other people in the whole place; a lesbian couple in a back booth and an old man from FH Seifer likes trading fishing stories with whenever he's in town seated at the other end of the bar. "You work here."
"Nah, I'm just back here stealing the liquor."
Rinoa smiles faintly and Squall, finished with his scan of the building, raises an eyebrow.
"It's a joke, puberty boy." Seifer grins through the dust of the old insult, and pours them each a beer; a dark import for Squall and something golden and local for Rinoa. Then he pours three shots of tequila and slides two across the bar. "On the house."
"We were just-"
"Passing through?" Seifer smirks. They've been living in Balamb for the better part of the time since the war, and he can come up with exactly one reason they'd be 'passing through' this particular alley.
"We're not here for you, Seifer. We didn't even know you would be here." Rinoa always sounds so honest when she speaks, and Seifer almost believes her. Almost.
"Sure. Hey, to old enemies." He lifts his shot glass. Rinoa rolls her eyes at him slightly but smiles, and lifts hers in turn. They both look to Squall, who glances around the bar again before joining. The shot rolls down smooth and he's not sure they deserve top shelf, but it's not like anyone here orders it anyway, and their bourgeois stink might dirty up the stuff the regulars drink.
They talk about the bar for a few minutes, and the weather, and never mention Garden, or the war, or how any of them are doing. A couple new customers who drift in steal his attention and Squall and Rinoa slink into a booth. Seifer sees them leave only when they open the door and the bells overhead announce their departure. Rinoa stops to wave, and Squall nods, the closest to friendly acknowledgment Seifer will get out of him. Under their empty glasses is a twenty gil note.
He drops the note in the open guitar case of a peddler on his way home and sits in his studio apartment eating leftover lo mein and drinking warm beer, and hates them for their pity.
.
They are in the middle of an argument about press releases when there is a knock at the door and Quistis marches in with Seifer. He looks better, far better than he did when she saw him last (when he handed her to Adel like she was a weapon, which, she supposes, isn't far from the truth), and he doesn't see her, his eyes fixed on Squall, whose face has drawn up into something that almost looks bored.
Full pardon. Full pardon? Dammit, Squall. She holds her tongue and fights back tears of anger. When Seifer finally sees her she can only stare, and something apologetic crosses his face.
I don't want your apology, she thinks. We're both guilty.
When he leaves she turns on Squall and they pick their fight up where they left off, because giving Seifer his freedom doesn't change anything. She, Seifer, Edea… It doesn't matter who was behind it, they all committed crimes, and it isn't fair to just pretend she is innocent because Squall wants to see her that way. Now the war is over and she is the Sorceress of this age, and doesn't he understand how much that terrifies her?
Garden, who does not see her as innocent, dresses her up like she is Squall's trophy; a prize he collected in the war, and she has no choice but to play along because they are watching her, and now Squall's future is dependent on how well she plays her part. She grows tired of seeing her face constantly in the news, this fake version of herself she tolerates only because Timber needs her to, and because they will kill Squall alongside her if she shows any signs of "slipping." Rinoa wonders when independence and voicing her own opinions stopped being a human right and became a trait of the Sorceress, and she fantasizes sometimes about proving their nightmares right; razing Garden and going to ground and never looking back.
Their first engagement is perfect. It happens with his mother's ring, tangled one morning in bed on vacation in Winhill. Their second engagement exists solely to steal the first, after Garden finds out; it is punishment for the moment their relationship was just about the two of them and not a scripted act for Garden's good image. Raine's ring sits in a small box at home beside Julia's, and in its place she wears a band of adamantine and a diamond the size of a blueberry, surrounded by bright blue stones. She finds it heavy and ostentatious, like so much of her life since the war.
Days after the engagement party she drags Squall into a back alley of Balamb, one they walk past daily without ever noticing, and into a bar she never knew was there, because she "desperately needs to feel like myself, don't you?"
One look at the bartender and she freezes. Squall presses his hand against her side to lead her back out when Seifer calls out to them and they have no choice but to say hello.
He pours them drinks. He makes jokes. They talk about the weather and the bar and Rinoa looks around and takes it in. The deep scratches on the wooden floor, the dust on the overhead light fixtures; neon signs on the wall advertising the cheap beer she used to drink in Timber, before.
Squall takes advantage of the entrance of new customers to lead Rinoa to a booth and as soon as they sit down she starts to cry. Squall clasps her hands at the center of the table and strokes her thumb and when she mutters "It's not fair," he shakes his head and agrees.
"I want to work in a run down, back-alley bar," she tells him, and Squall laughs, but she repeats it; this isn't a joke. "Because if I did, it would be my choice."
Squall sobers and holds her hands more tightly, and Rinoa watches a drop of condensation move down her glass and pool on the table. "I just want something to be my choice."
"I know," he says, and pulls one hand back and reaches for his glass. "I know."
Squall insists on leaving a generous tip even though Rinoa tells him Seifer would find it insulting. They walk out and Rinoa pauses for just a second when she waves goodbye before leaving the anonymity of the bar, and re-entering the world as Squall's arm-candy without a voice, into a world where Rinoa Heartilly died in space the year before.
Gift fic for irishais