Black strands swung in front of her chocolate eyes, her smile about to break, she stopped. Her blue duster, falling just below her knee, continues to swing, crashing to her black shorts. Hands, pale and shaking, one reached for the two rings around her neck, grasping them for life, the other, through her pocket in search of her key card.
"Tee hee," the raven haired girl winced, whipping out the key card and slipping into the dorm room, before Selphie could find her. Her white angel wings rested on the back of the door, her smile dissolving into sadness. One step, two steps, three she landed hard mattress head first, her face smothered in the pillow. Pale legs crept up the bed, her body pulling itself into a ball, while she fought off the tears.
In a fetal position, her white skin, black hair and blue clothes messed together. He left hand gripped the two sliver rings that dangled around her neck once more, at that same moment the tears started. At first tear by tear, but soon her face was covered in a thin layer of salt and left with short breaths.
"I went through the looking glass..." the words slipped out between the tears and sobs. Her raven colored hair stuck to her cheeks, the blue duster up around her back, she continued to cry, but no more tears would form, but in her throat a thick ball grew.
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She sat in the cafe; alone; thinking deep inside her own mind; but still smiling. Rinoa found her hands stirring around the plate of vegetables with her fork. Chocolate eyes darted up at a tattooed boy making a fuss over the hot-dogs, or lack there of. His baggy blue jeans swished by her; Zell headed for a table in the back and a girl with a pig tail. Rinoa frowned, looking downward at the table; she lost herself again.
"C'mon Selphie, give me back my hat!" Her eyes looked in the direction of the cowboys voice, hoping for some company. Irvine's red hair pulled back in a pony tail, his hands on Selphie's arm, begging for his hat back.
"Tee hee." The girl exclaimed; running towards the back of the cafe, giggling, her hair bouncing up and down; she stopped. "Booyaka!" The raven haired girl jumped and looked behind her, forcing a smile on her face.
Rinoa stood up, swiping a lose piece of hair behind her ear, walking off with much haste. Selphie frowned and Irvene grabbed his hat back, "HAH! I win." The cowboy wrapped his arms around her, "You're my baby doll, you know that?" Selphie who on most occasions would have kissed him at this point, had her attention elsewhere. "What's wrong baby."
Her green eyes glued to the notebook, that Rinoa left on the table, her shaking hand pointed it out to her cowboy. He read the page out loud, "And so I went through the looking glass, stepped into the netherworld, where up is down and food is greed, where convex mirrors cover the walls, where death is honor and flesh is weak. It is ever so easy to go. Harder to find your way back." He bit his bottom lip, and yelled for Zell to come and look.
With in seconds the hyper active boy bounced through the tables to see what his friend need. "Yo. What's happening," the words came with ease, he had spent all day with the girl with the pigtail.
"Look," the only words that the cowboy could speak. The cowboy and his baby doll waited to Zell to finish reading the page, he looked at them.
"It has to be Squall, its always Squall...."
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His scent still strong on his sheets, his room the way it always looked, by the room's appearance it simply looked like he was on a mission. Rinoa sat up, looking at his pillow, a pool of tears soaked through and into the feathers, her eyes closed tight. They opened only after the sharp knocking on the door and screams from the people she thought were her friends.
Two black boots hung over the side of the bed, getting closer to the floor, hitting with a small click, throwing her weight on her legs was the part she wasn't ready for. She stumble, banging her head on Squall's drawers, knocking down a picture of her and Squall from the party.
The frame snapped and glass spread all over the floor, her hands pushed aside the glass, to pick up the picture but not without getting cut. Her almond eyes locked on the picture, it felt like it happened last night, but the picture was faded. The two people long gone, wrapped in each others arms, his feathered leather coat tickling her neck. Lips locked in one moment that she couldn't forget, the night she heard those words from him.
"You-you promised..." Rinoa stood erect, turning around, to glance out the window, the garden flying towards the orphanage. "You promised," she told herself again before running out of the room, dropping the picture and knocking over Zell, Irvene and Selphie. Her black boots clicked along the tiled hallways of Garden.
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Her three "friends" took a moment before rising to their feet. Zell paused at first, but then went ahead, entering Squall's room, where no on but Riona had been for a while. He stood in the door way, eyes scanning the room, finding this all a little too creepy, until her found the broken glass.
Zell walked towards the glass shards, acting much like a secret agent, he began to investigate until the other too came in. "Picture frame," he concluded, but couldn't place what was in the picture or for how long it was broken for.
"Check this out." The cowboy sung in a cocky tone, waving around the picture that Riona had dropped. The other two looked at it then looked down. Worse than those tapes of them, were the thoughts of all of them, but in different manners. "Guys, we need to see what she's gonna do..."
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Rinoa ran out to the edge of the second floor deck, gazing down, she spotted the field. Her hands went for the two rings, focusing her power, she soon found herself in the field with the garden over head. Her eyes shot open as a familiar voice waved through the air, "I told you, you'd find me here."
Her raven hair swung around with her body, eyes all over the place looking for the person in which that voice belonged too. "I'll always be your Knight, always." She ran towards the ghost figure the looked like Squall, right down to the hair messy, but falling in the same place. Her arms extended to hug his figure but went right through him.
"I miss you."
His transparent hand brushed the side of her cheek, "I know."
"Its been a year, since that day...will you ever come back?"
"When the time is right, a Knight can't stay away from his sorcess for too long."
"Is that all I am to you?" She protested, forgetting that he was there only because of their connection.
"Of course not, I love you." His transparent lips placed a kiss on her forehead, even if she couldn't feel it, it made her smile. "Soon." And then his figure was gone just as quick as it appeared.
"Squall..." A storm of pink flower petals surrounded her, "a gift from the fairies" she muttered remembering those where Selphie's words at Trabia her lowest moment, but her old garden was rebuilt and training its own SeeD. Maybe this would be like that for her, just maybe. A single pink petal landed, her palm closing around it, opening to let a white feather be taken by the wind.