---Disclaimer: I own nothing of Final Fantasy VIII; everything is © Square.
---Author's Note: |Heart and Soul| is taking a little hiatus for now, just because I'm the author and I can do that. Particularly since nobody likes it anyway, it's not a major loss ;) Probably will end up deleting the poor bugger anyway. Well, hope you enjoy this . . . whatever this will end up being. The first sentence just popped into my head while playing the game, and I decided to go on from there.
~
It would be a typical Trabian winter.
Rinoa leaned heavily on the windowpane, overlooking the barren, snow- covered plains with little apparent interest. She didn't understand exactly why she had come up here in the first place; there were plenty more appealing places to go. But Trabia, she had to pick Trabia. And not just Trabia - Trabia Garden as well, to top off her disgust. Nothing could be worse than spending the rest of her days as a SeeD for Trabia Garden.
Sighing, she pulled away from the window, slamming it shut and leaning against the wall. She surveyed her room with a wrinkled nose; it wasn't exactly like the refined, functional SeeD dormitories that Balamb provided; a hastily-assembled bed was thrown against one wall, while a piece of plywood on two hunks of a split tree trunk was supposed to serve as a desk. Her uniforms were slung over the desk chair, wrinkled and unbuttoned; Rinoa never was one to do housecleaning. The blanket on the bed was off-center as well, something that Selphie's friend Asper never ceased to remind her about.
When she had first arrived in Trabia, Selphie had wired Asper ahead of time to notify her about the young Sorceress' arrival. Mrs. Kinneas had taken the liberty of assigning Asp as Rinoa's official bodyguard, tour guide, and all-around friend. It was one move that was easily accepted on Rinoa's part; she didn't know anyone there. Cid's connections with the Trabian headmaster could only go so far as to have her not take the grueling exam (which included a fight with a blue dragon, something no one was keen on doing), and did not include providing her with brochures on how to get around the overly-crowded Garden. That was another reason she preferred Balamb to this wasteland; a large, room Garden with enough space to fit all the SeeDs and cadets recruited.
Moving across to plop down on the bed, she folded her hands tightly in her lap, glancing around the room. She had been here for half of a year, and it still didn't feel like home the way Balamb had in just those few short months, weeks even. Everyone there had been like family to her; everybody here avoided her, afraid of what she could do to them. The white paint on the walls was chipping, and the single window in the room provided little more than a reminder that she was sealed off from the outside world.
The corner of something was poking out of her desk drawer, she noticed uncertainly. Reaching up, she yanked on the handle to dislodge the whole drawer, and realized with a start what it was. Swallowing a dry sob, she drew it out slowly, holding it out in front of her.
It was a picture, one that she hardly believed that she had dared to keep. It was at the celebration in Balamb after Ultimecia's defeat; she remembered going out shopping in Deling with Quistis and Selphie just to buy a proper, clean outfit for the photograph. All of their clothing was mud-smirched, blood-stained, ripped, torn, disheveled, and damaged in every way possible. Although it had become as much uniform to them as any other required attire, they decided upon something presentable for the occasion, since this picture would be created into a mosaic by the Garden Festival Committee and hung in the Quad for all to see.
He was standing in the center, the barest of smiles upon his face. His hands were in his pockets, chestnut hair falling into his azure eyes. Even Rinoa had to admit that he looked quite impressive in that SeeD uniform; just like the first night they danced together under the stars.
Rinoa herself had one arm looped around his, smiling brightly with her eyes closed and her face creased in happiness. Quistis had convinced her to buy a dark red, strapless dress with a gold chain-link belt draping down the front, something she would always be angry about. The Sorceress thought that she looked positively fat in that thing, and couldn't believe it when Laguna called her 'the best looking woman there'.
Quistis had donned a formal black evening gown, draping down to the floor with long gloves up to her elbows. Of course, formal newly-again-appointed Instructor Quistis Trepe, her dress not breaking any standardization rules and always bearing something to cover her fingerprints if need be. That was a typical SeeD. Selphie, however, had gone all-out in a vibrant green dress, the hem an inch above her knees and a gauzy shawl a shade lighter than the actual dress wrapped tightly around her arms. Irvine was clutching at her arm, clad in his usual cowboy garb, while Zell had one fist in the air and the other clapped on Squall's shoulder. The martial artist had taken the more modest approach of his SeeD uniform. Even Laguna was in the picture, the old jacket that Raine had given him draped over his baggy teal shirt that he had recently taken to wearing. His military dogtags shined in the bright lights of the ballroom, black hair loosed from its usual hold.
The picture was all together spectacular - or at least it was on the first couple nights that she had held the copy within the pads of her fingers. But now it was only a painful reminder of what she had left behind - who she had left behind.
Rinoa brushed the tears on her cheeks away roughly, swallowing hard and jamming the picture back into the desk drawer. However, she couldn't stay like that for long. Within two minutes, she had started sobbing again, having fallen backwards onto the bed. She curled into a tight ball on the sheets, trying not to remember everything that was trying desperately to break out.
~
"How are you doing?"
The soft voice and firm hand on his shoulder eased the Commander out of the temporary shock that he had felt after hearing footsteps in the room. He let out a ragged breath and turned around slightly to face Quistis, who had dragged a chair over to the bed.
"No better than Zell or anyone else is," He muttered darkly, tossing his pen back onto the exam that he had been grading. He noticed Quistis glancing around the room, taking in everything from the spotless appearance to the framed picture hanging on a tilt over the desk, a heavy medal weighing it down on the single nail. She took off her glasses, rubbing them absently on the skirt of her uniform.
"Selphie's been treating Irvine like some sort of king since the incident with you three, and I can't say he's not enjoying it," The Instructor said, laughing lightly. The red numbers on the clock had turned to reveal the present time: 12:45 p.m. Technically, Quistis had broken curfew, but few Instructors were concerned with that rule, especially ones who had helped to save the world.
"You call it an incident; I call it a one-way ticket to the mental asylum. I'm going crazy in here! If I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to go out of my mind," He groaned, putting his head in his hands. The comforter wrinkled as he drew his legs up to his chest, grinding his teeth angrily.
"Dr. Kadowaki's orders, Squall. You know nobody can talk that woman out of anything," Quistis said, smiling slightly. "Besides, you three did attack a T-Rexaur unarmed." She put specific stress on 'unarmed', intent to get the point across to at least one of the trio, as the other two had failed to comprehend what she was getting at.
"We weren't completely unarmed; don't give me that," Squall spat, glaring up at her.
"You had no GFs and no magic junctioned," The blonde said seriously, staring hard at him.
"Zell just wanted to test out My Final Heaven, and so we decided to head into the Training Center. Is it our fault that a T-Rexaur was the first monster we came across?" The Commander asked harshly, rolling his eyes.
"You could have escaped, you know," Quistis said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Squall merely 'tutted' loudly and flipped onto his side, facing the wall. "Well, get used to it - it's only been three days, Mr. Leonhart. You have at least another week before Kadowaki lets you get back to your regular duties, and even then she might find something else wrong with you. Do care to remember as well that the three of you can hardly stand," She added before standing and exiting the room.
He wasn't tired. He hadn't been tired all day, and he hardly felt like he needed to stay in this cage of a room - until he stood. Then he collapsed and waited a few hours for someone to come in and make sure he was still there to get him upright. That happened four times on the first day. Four times! Ear against the coarse carpet, legs unmoving, muscles unwilling. It had been like the day when they had walked rather stupidly in and attacked the T-Rexaur without anything junctioned - stupid, stupid, stupid. Lucky that Zell had notified his pig-tailed library girlfriend to bring him a hotdog in the Training Center, or they probably would have bled so much that the once-green grass would have been a vibrant shade of red.
Squall shook his head; he didn't feel like reliving that day. Its rank in the 'Worst Experiences with Pain' chart had to be up at the top somewhere with that ice javelin courtesy of Edea and Seifer's electrocution therapy. The heat was going to drive him insane; even in the dead of night it was stifling. He grabbed the comforter in his fists and tossed it off the bed, rolling onto his back and urging sleep to come to him. After another hour of suffering, he did the only logical thing that would comfort him at this moment:
Raising his heavy hand, he closed his eyes and muttered what he so longed for: "Sleep."
~
"Rinoa! Hyne girl, how have you been?" The SeeD shouted happily into the phone, leaping up at her desk.
"Fine Xu, how are you?" Rinoa's voice was somber and she smiled only slightly, holding the phone delicately in her hands.
"Agh, same as usual. What else besides typing up and delivering mission briefings? Listen, are you doing okay? Squall was really upset the morning you -" Rinoa abruptly cut her off, not keen on revisiting the morning that she had left them.
"Let's not go there, please. I was just wondering . . . could I come home and visit you guys for a couple of days? I swear I'm losing my mind out here; too much snow for me! I grew up in Galbadia for Hyne's sake; how do they expect me to survive?" Xu laughed openly, wiping her eyes.
"Sure, of course! Stay out here for as long as you want, you know Garden'll always be your home, Rin. Well, train tickets? Want me to wire them to you?" Rinoa shook her head, even though the SeeD on the other end couldn't see.
"Nah, I've got a couple already. Umm . . . Xu? I'm sorta . . . in the Balamb train station right now. I . . . was a little anxious," She confessed, twirling a lock of hair uncertainly. There was a short pause, and then a burst of laughter.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that! Do you want me to send anyone out to get you? I would kill myself if I made you rent a car for three thousand Gil when I could send you a guy for free," Xu said, shaking her head slightly.
"Sure, that would be great. But, Xu?" She asked hesitantly.
"What?"
"Don't tell anyone. I wanna surprise them, alright?"
"Sure! Don't worry, Rinoa; I'll take care of everything."
~
Don't worry, more next chapter. I'll have brief memories of what happened to make her leave sponged in randomly, so don't worry about the lack of plot right now. Expect another chapter soon ;)
Review Button: I am so sad . . . no one has clicked me in the longest time . . . make me happeh, pwease? ;_;
---Author's Note: |Heart and Soul| is taking a little hiatus for now, just because I'm the author and I can do that. Particularly since nobody likes it anyway, it's not a major loss ;) Probably will end up deleting the poor bugger anyway. Well, hope you enjoy this . . . whatever this will end up being. The first sentence just popped into my head while playing the game, and I decided to go on from there.
~
It would be a typical Trabian winter.
Rinoa leaned heavily on the windowpane, overlooking the barren, snow- covered plains with little apparent interest. She didn't understand exactly why she had come up here in the first place; there were plenty more appealing places to go. But Trabia, she had to pick Trabia. And not just Trabia - Trabia Garden as well, to top off her disgust. Nothing could be worse than spending the rest of her days as a SeeD for Trabia Garden.
Sighing, she pulled away from the window, slamming it shut and leaning against the wall. She surveyed her room with a wrinkled nose; it wasn't exactly like the refined, functional SeeD dormitories that Balamb provided; a hastily-assembled bed was thrown against one wall, while a piece of plywood on two hunks of a split tree trunk was supposed to serve as a desk. Her uniforms were slung over the desk chair, wrinkled and unbuttoned; Rinoa never was one to do housecleaning. The blanket on the bed was off-center as well, something that Selphie's friend Asper never ceased to remind her about.
When she had first arrived in Trabia, Selphie had wired Asper ahead of time to notify her about the young Sorceress' arrival. Mrs. Kinneas had taken the liberty of assigning Asp as Rinoa's official bodyguard, tour guide, and all-around friend. It was one move that was easily accepted on Rinoa's part; she didn't know anyone there. Cid's connections with the Trabian headmaster could only go so far as to have her not take the grueling exam (which included a fight with a blue dragon, something no one was keen on doing), and did not include providing her with brochures on how to get around the overly-crowded Garden. That was another reason she preferred Balamb to this wasteland; a large, room Garden with enough space to fit all the SeeDs and cadets recruited.
Moving across to plop down on the bed, she folded her hands tightly in her lap, glancing around the room. She had been here for half of a year, and it still didn't feel like home the way Balamb had in just those few short months, weeks even. Everyone there had been like family to her; everybody here avoided her, afraid of what she could do to them. The white paint on the walls was chipping, and the single window in the room provided little more than a reminder that she was sealed off from the outside world.
The corner of something was poking out of her desk drawer, she noticed uncertainly. Reaching up, she yanked on the handle to dislodge the whole drawer, and realized with a start what it was. Swallowing a dry sob, she drew it out slowly, holding it out in front of her.
It was a picture, one that she hardly believed that she had dared to keep. It was at the celebration in Balamb after Ultimecia's defeat; she remembered going out shopping in Deling with Quistis and Selphie just to buy a proper, clean outfit for the photograph. All of their clothing was mud-smirched, blood-stained, ripped, torn, disheveled, and damaged in every way possible. Although it had become as much uniform to them as any other required attire, they decided upon something presentable for the occasion, since this picture would be created into a mosaic by the Garden Festival Committee and hung in the Quad for all to see.
He was standing in the center, the barest of smiles upon his face. His hands were in his pockets, chestnut hair falling into his azure eyes. Even Rinoa had to admit that he looked quite impressive in that SeeD uniform; just like the first night they danced together under the stars.
Rinoa herself had one arm looped around his, smiling brightly with her eyes closed and her face creased in happiness. Quistis had convinced her to buy a dark red, strapless dress with a gold chain-link belt draping down the front, something she would always be angry about. The Sorceress thought that she looked positively fat in that thing, and couldn't believe it when Laguna called her 'the best looking woman there'.
Quistis had donned a formal black evening gown, draping down to the floor with long gloves up to her elbows. Of course, formal newly-again-appointed Instructor Quistis Trepe, her dress not breaking any standardization rules and always bearing something to cover her fingerprints if need be. That was a typical SeeD. Selphie, however, had gone all-out in a vibrant green dress, the hem an inch above her knees and a gauzy shawl a shade lighter than the actual dress wrapped tightly around her arms. Irvine was clutching at her arm, clad in his usual cowboy garb, while Zell had one fist in the air and the other clapped on Squall's shoulder. The martial artist had taken the more modest approach of his SeeD uniform. Even Laguna was in the picture, the old jacket that Raine had given him draped over his baggy teal shirt that he had recently taken to wearing. His military dogtags shined in the bright lights of the ballroom, black hair loosed from its usual hold.
The picture was all together spectacular - or at least it was on the first couple nights that she had held the copy within the pads of her fingers. But now it was only a painful reminder of what she had left behind - who she had left behind.
Rinoa brushed the tears on her cheeks away roughly, swallowing hard and jamming the picture back into the desk drawer. However, she couldn't stay like that for long. Within two minutes, she had started sobbing again, having fallen backwards onto the bed. She curled into a tight ball on the sheets, trying not to remember everything that was trying desperately to break out.
~
"How are you doing?"
The soft voice and firm hand on his shoulder eased the Commander out of the temporary shock that he had felt after hearing footsteps in the room. He let out a ragged breath and turned around slightly to face Quistis, who had dragged a chair over to the bed.
"No better than Zell or anyone else is," He muttered darkly, tossing his pen back onto the exam that he had been grading. He noticed Quistis glancing around the room, taking in everything from the spotless appearance to the framed picture hanging on a tilt over the desk, a heavy medal weighing it down on the single nail. She took off her glasses, rubbing them absently on the skirt of her uniform.
"Selphie's been treating Irvine like some sort of king since the incident with you three, and I can't say he's not enjoying it," The Instructor said, laughing lightly. The red numbers on the clock had turned to reveal the present time: 12:45 p.m. Technically, Quistis had broken curfew, but few Instructors were concerned with that rule, especially ones who had helped to save the world.
"You call it an incident; I call it a one-way ticket to the mental asylum. I'm going crazy in here! If I don't get out of here soon, I'm going to go out of my mind," He groaned, putting his head in his hands. The comforter wrinkled as he drew his legs up to his chest, grinding his teeth angrily.
"Dr. Kadowaki's orders, Squall. You know nobody can talk that woman out of anything," Quistis said, smiling slightly. "Besides, you three did attack a T-Rexaur unarmed." She put specific stress on 'unarmed', intent to get the point across to at least one of the trio, as the other two had failed to comprehend what she was getting at.
"We weren't completely unarmed; don't give me that," Squall spat, glaring up at her.
"You had no GFs and no magic junctioned," The blonde said seriously, staring hard at him.
"Zell just wanted to test out My Final Heaven, and so we decided to head into the Training Center. Is it our fault that a T-Rexaur was the first monster we came across?" The Commander asked harshly, rolling his eyes.
"You could have escaped, you know," Quistis said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Squall merely 'tutted' loudly and flipped onto his side, facing the wall. "Well, get used to it - it's only been three days, Mr. Leonhart. You have at least another week before Kadowaki lets you get back to your regular duties, and even then she might find something else wrong with you. Do care to remember as well that the three of you can hardly stand," She added before standing and exiting the room.
He wasn't tired. He hadn't been tired all day, and he hardly felt like he needed to stay in this cage of a room - until he stood. Then he collapsed and waited a few hours for someone to come in and make sure he was still there to get him upright. That happened four times on the first day. Four times! Ear against the coarse carpet, legs unmoving, muscles unwilling. It had been like the day when they had walked rather stupidly in and attacked the T-Rexaur without anything junctioned - stupid, stupid, stupid. Lucky that Zell had notified his pig-tailed library girlfriend to bring him a hotdog in the Training Center, or they probably would have bled so much that the once-green grass would have been a vibrant shade of red.
Squall shook his head; he didn't feel like reliving that day. Its rank in the 'Worst Experiences with Pain' chart had to be up at the top somewhere with that ice javelin courtesy of Edea and Seifer's electrocution therapy. The heat was going to drive him insane; even in the dead of night it was stifling. He grabbed the comforter in his fists and tossed it off the bed, rolling onto his back and urging sleep to come to him. After another hour of suffering, he did the only logical thing that would comfort him at this moment:
Raising his heavy hand, he closed his eyes and muttered what he so longed for: "Sleep."
~
"Rinoa! Hyne girl, how have you been?" The SeeD shouted happily into the phone, leaping up at her desk.
"Fine Xu, how are you?" Rinoa's voice was somber and she smiled only slightly, holding the phone delicately in her hands.
"Agh, same as usual. What else besides typing up and delivering mission briefings? Listen, are you doing okay? Squall was really upset the morning you -" Rinoa abruptly cut her off, not keen on revisiting the morning that she had left them.
"Let's not go there, please. I was just wondering . . . could I come home and visit you guys for a couple of days? I swear I'm losing my mind out here; too much snow for me! I grew up in Galbadia for Hyne's sake; how do they expect me to survive?" Xu laughed openly, wiping her eyes.
"Sure, of course! Stay out here for as long as you want, you know Garden'll always be your home, Rin. Well, train tickets? Want me to wire them to you?" Rinoa shook her head, even though the SeeD on the other end couldn't see.
"Nah, I've got a couple already. Umm . . . Xu? I'm sorta . . . in the Balamb train station right now. I . . . was a little anxious," She confessed, twirling a lock of hair uncertainly. There was a short pause, and then a burst of laughter.
"Well, I wasn't expecting that! Do you want me to send anyone out to get you? I would kill myself if I made you rent a car for three thousand Gil when I could send you a guy for free," Xu said, shaking her head slightly.
"Sure, that would be great. But, Xu?" She asked hesitantly.
"What?"
"Don't tell anyone. I wanna surprise them, alright?"
"Sure! Don't worry, Rinoa; I'll take care of everything."
~
Don't worry, more next chapter. I'll have brief memories of what happened to make her leave sponged in randomly, so don't worry about the lack of plot right now. Expect another chapter soon ;)
Review Button: I am so sad . . . no one has clicked me in the longest time . . . make me happeh, pwease? ;_;