Title: Squall [1/1] Author: Saturn Phoenix Frrosty Rating: G Disclaimer: FF VIII, alas, does not belong to me. Do not sue.

A/N: Please review/contructively criticise! Please! Be honest! :) This is a very short piece, though.

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Ellone stared blankly at the walls of Balamb Garden's library. Squall didn't remember her. He had given no indication of having even the slightest memory of her.

She wasn't sure why she had expected him to - he had only been a small child when she'd seen him last, after all. She wasn't sure why it was so important, either.

When she'd left Squall to live on the White SeeD ship, she'd known it would hurt him deeply. She'd known he would have Edea and the rest of the children at the orphanage, but he'd never quite bonded with anyone the way he had her. The little boy she'd always considered her younger brother had been very attached to her. He'd always trailed along behind her, never more than a few feet away from his beloved "Sis."

Before she left she'd given Squall Raine's Greiver necklace, carefully explaining to him that it had belonged to his mother, and that she needed him to take care of it until she could come back.

Squall had looked up at her and asked, trying his best not to cry at the prospect of her leaving, "You promise you'll come back?"

Ellone had promised that she would find Squall as soon as she possibly could. It wouldn't be long, she had explained, knowing perfectly well it might be years.

The next day she had left aboard the White SeeD ship. She had often cried herself to sleep on the large vessel, but she tried to be optimistic. This was all for the best. And when it was all over, she would find Squall again.

She spent much of the time on the White SeeD Ship just pacing up and down the deck. If only Uncle Laguna were here. He would know what to do, she had often thought, staring out over the ocean. Laguna had found her when Odine had kidnapped her. He would rescue her again. Then she and Squall and Laguna could be a family. But it had been many years before she'd seen either one of them again.

All traces of the young boy she remembered were gone. He was cold and distant now. He seemed to keep to himself. Guiltily she wondered if that was her fault. But not even she could change the past. She promised herself she would try to make it up to him.

She wondered if he had learned anything from the times she had sent him and his friends into the past, or if he had begun to suspect the truth. But she didn't know.

If only Laguna would talk to the young man, explain to him why he hadn't been there, tell him the truth, maybe then Squall wouldn't be so distant. But she knew her "Uncle" Laguna just as well as she once had Squall, and she knew who would not talk to Squall unless he was forced to.

Laguna had thrown himself into his work after Raine's death, and had refused to claim his own son.

She wondered what Raine would have thought of the whole situation. If only she had lived, it would never have existed. But Raine had been killed by Galbadian soldiers shortly after Squall was born. Raine could have convinced Laguna to tell Squall the truth, helped Squall to forgive Laguna. But Raine was dead.

It had been nearly twelve years after she left the orphanage before she'd gotten the chance to see Squall again and in the intervening years, he seemed to have blocked all traces of her from his mind.

He still had the Griever pendent, though.

She had rushed to the infirmiry when she had heard what had happened between Squall and Seifer, who apparently didn't get along any better than they had as children.

"Squall ... so we meet again," she'd said, smiling.

Squall had turned his head and stared blankly at her, trying to figure out if he knew her. Ellone had then quickly left the room before he could see the dismay in her eyes.

She saw him next in the training center, when he and Quistis came to her rescue, though apparently not out of any emotional investment they had in her. She thought it almost might have hurt less, for them not to have come, than for them to have come to save her and not know her.

When she had sent him and his friends to Winhill in the past, it had apparently not jogged any of their memories, and if it reminded Squall of anything, he hadn't confided in anyone. He never did. Though the black-haired girl, Rinoa, seemed to have a crush on him and always tried to get him to talk.

Ellone sighed.

She did hope she could get back in her little brother's graces soon.