Reaching Out To You
By: Angel Wings Rinoa
The summer breeze swept through them; it smelled of the sea and grass. The day was bright and perfect. It was almost autumn, the August chill was coming in, but it wasn't too cold. The sun was almost setting making the atmosphere an orange hue with seagulls flying in the sky. Their rhythmic squaking synchronizing with the splash of the sea against metallic comlumns that makes the bridge that joins the west continent with the east continent. Instead of trains passing by with its noisy engines and bustle of poeple, there was peaceful quietness. It wasn't completely deserted, though. There were two people. During a SeeD Mission, they didn't realized that Balamb Garden left without them, One of them, a young lady, looked at the beautiful sight and smiled as she did so. It's perfect......it's like something out of a movie, she thought to herself. The other, wasn't focused on the scenery at all. His mind, as always, was busy thinking of something else.
"Neat, huh?" It's like something from a dream. If we didn't defeat Sorceress Ultimecia this wouldn't exist. Wouldn't that be terrible?" she said while brushing her silky black hair away from her face. "Hey! Rinoa to Squall! Are you in this world, Squall?" she said when she realized that, once again, he's not paying attention to her.
".........Huh? What was that? I didn't hear you."
"Oh, really? I didn't know!" Rinoa said sarcastically with a fake, shocked look.
When he didn't say anything more, she went on, "Sometimes I wonder how you do this. Where do you go off to anyway?"
"........Nowhere." he said dryly.
She was half-laughing while she said, "You are such a bad liar, do you know that? You're still the same. If you don't tell me what you're thinking, I'll just be talking to a wall. I can't read your mind, you know."
"Sorry. Call it a habit."
"Uh-uh. It's not a habit. You do it deliberately." she said while shaking her head.
"......Maybe." they both said at once.
Rinoa couldn't help giggling and shaking her head in annoyance. "You're cute. You get so predictable, but at the same time, you're so random."
"......Whatever."
Rinoa made a exasperated sigh, "Oh c'mon! That was a compliment....more or less. I'm kidding! Talk to me. Have a conversation with me. Get angry at me and say 'go away,' but just say something."
"What is there to say?"
"Anything you want!"
"Like?"
"Squall, you do have a mind, correct?"
"Of course." he said monotonously.
"Then think! You're a very smart guy, I'll give you that! So you can come up with something."
"I don't--"
"--'feel like saying anything right now', right?"
"Yeah."
"You are so.....mean."
"I know."
"That's not what you're suppose to say. Back yourself up!"
"All right. I'm not mean. Satisfied?"
"Good! That's it, but you need more feel into it, though."
"I'm out of here." Squall said while getting up.
"H-Hey! Come back here! Sit down!" Rinoa roughly forced him back. Squall almost had a look of annoyance in his eyes and apparently Rinoa saw the emotion.
"I'm so glad you're showing some expressions." she said while smiling happily.
"I do have feelings."
"I had no doubt about that, but you never show them or you rarely do. Why, Squall?"
"I.......don't want to. I used to when I was young, though."
"Really? You lived in Edea's house right? With everybody else; that must've been nice. What were you like at that time?"
"It's a long story."
"I've got all the time in the world."
"It's pretty boring."
"I don't care. Tell me about yourself."
"If I tell you, will you promise to leave me alone?"
"....Maybe, I'll think about that."
"Fine. The farthest I can remember was when...." Squall reminisced on the days when he was in Edea's orphanage. He couldn't actually recall much that happened because it was a long time ago, but he still remembered a few important things. Rinoa listened carefully as he told of the time when young Seifer tried to run away from the orphanage.
To be continued.....