Blur

Summary - The fate they wanted us to avoid, what was happening to us now...I couldn't tell what was worse anymore. The only thing I knew was that nothing would ever be the same, that everything would be destined to blur. (Post game, Squall x Rinoa)

Author's Notes – Aah, good to be back. It just felt so weird with not having any writing commitments during those first few days post-Reinventing Me that I just had to immediately start wracking my brains just so I could have a neat little story to write again.

Now that I have the first ten chapters' outlines done, including a boat-load of side notes, I thought it would be appropriate to test the waters first now, especially since this probably won't be as out there as my previous full-length completed works. But hey, you never know where my muse will take me despite the structure.

Alright, enough of my rambling — here's the short, teaser-ific prologue. :)

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Prologue — Bleed

("I was bleeding when it all started...")

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Wednesday, July 7th (Late Afternoon, Day 0)

It was all black.

No colours to be seen, only sounds to be heard and sensations to be felt. Of course the situation he was looking at, or purposely not looking at, could have obviously changed if he'd only open his eyes, but he didn't want to.

It all hurt, everywhere. And obviously, it didn't mean anything good.

His mind was fuzzy; all he knew was the math calculating through his head, roughly estimating that he'd been out cold for what felt like a couple of hours judging by the intensity of the artificial light felt on his eyelids. He also felt the firm telltale feel of infirmary's mattress, the scent of harsh anti-sceptic and bleach permeating his nostrils combined with the faint, yet piercing smell of coppery blood and the solvent-masked unpleasantness of vomit still lingering in the air.

Another piece of information came back to him.

Safety. Someone had gotten him to safety, off of the warmed but hard Balamb city brick road and back in Garden where he should have been all along. Not dead or bleeding to death, but alive.

Just then, his self-centered musings were pulled astray by another, to a more altruistic thought,

…But what about her?

That he did not know with any certainty. It would require opening his eyes and accepting the reality of things, one which he wasn't sure if he wanted to face just yet.

Slowly but surely, his eyes fluttered open despite his apprehension, his sight as fuzzy as his thoughts had been earlier. As they began to adjust to the glaring and harsh lamp light hovering over him, he noted that his surroundings were perfectly Dr. Kadowaki and med intern-free from his bed-furnished alcove from the hazy outlines he could make out at the moment.

Knowing that he was occupying the closest bed to the door, judging by the sight of a rectangular blob right across from him, otherwise known as Dr. Kadowaki's desk, he hazarded a glance to his right to see if she was occupying the other bed through the glass separating both rooms. Just as soon as he leaned on his right side in an attempt to gain a better view of the area displayed through the glass, he was deterred from leaning any further when a wicked jolt mercilessly raced down his entire right side.

In that very instant, he closed his eyes and whatever pain he'd felt earlier was eclipsed in the split second it took for him to mentally string together enough curse words to make a sailor blush. In the subsequent moment it took for that said string of curses to come from his mouth without any sign of restraint, the remainder of the dormant memories of the past while came back to him.

In a serendipitous moment, he dared to open his eyes only to see the good doctor now standing in front of the window he was trying to look through.

"…Finally awake, Commander Leonhart?" she said with a stern gaze and arms firmly crossed; it wasn't a question.

"…It would appear…that way." he groggily answered, carefully raising his left arm afterwards to rub his eyes with his thumb and forefinger as he fought to remain composed through the pain.

"Are you well enough to speak to me for awhile?"

He lowered the hand to his side once again. "Depends on…what the subject is."

"I'm afraid you don't have much of a choice." she told him with a twinge of sympathy that had been previously absent. "I need to know everything if the both of you want to make it through."