My First Disclamer (I'm so excited): I do not own or hold any of the rights to Final Fantasy 8. FF8 is the property of Squaresoft. I do not own any of the characters from FF8, nor the original storyline of the game. Etc. But soon, oh so soon it will be mine... the forces are in place now, waiting... for the perfect moment... to strike.

Knighted
Chapter One: Dreams

By Knighted

"Squall?" he was woken by a faint, fearful voice timidly whispering into his ear. "Squall... wake up..." he groaned and opened his eyes. At first he thought he was dreaming. A beautiful young woman was leaning over him, her cream-highlighted black hair hanging down, framing her face, in Squall's opinion, perfectly. He wondered what this girl was doing in his room... suddenly he realised that the girl was crying, small droplets of salty water running slowly down her smooth cheeks to fling themselves down onto his bed covers.

He also realised that it was Rinoa.

"Rin?" he said urgently, a pain already growing in his chest at the sight of her sorrow, mingled with the clutch of panic. What had happened? Was she hurt? His sat bolt upright in his bed, swinging his legs over the sides, the cover falling from him.

"Rinoa? Are you ok... what's wrong?"

The 18-year-old girl shivered and moved closer to the slightly taller man.

"I..." now that she thought about it, it seemed much more stupid.

"I had those dreams, a-again..." Squall sighed, pulling her into a tight embrace, comforting and warming. Of course, what else could it have been? She wrapped her arms around his back, closing her eyes and snuggling close to the heat of his body. He slowly sat down on the bed, turning her round and placing her on his lap before lying down on the bed, so that they both looked up to the blank ceiling of the Commander's room, laying her on top of himself and placing a light kiss upon her raven hair. She closed her eyes and moved into a more comfortable position. After a while just lying with each other, Squall spoke.

"...Was it the same one?"

She mutely nodded... then shook her head.

"Rinoa... I don't understand. Was it different?" he questioned quietly.

"It was the same dream, but..." she breathed deeply "different... no, clearer than it was before..."

"Clearer?" he pressed.

"I... I saw her face... her face... Ultimacia's. She was surrounded by darkness, but..."

Squall pressed his face into her silky hair, breathing another sigh, taking in her scent.

"...They're becoming more potent..." Rinoa nodded again.

"Then we've got only one choice..." the woman wrapped in his arms twisted her head, looking up at him in silent questioning. He began to stroke her soft hair, reassuring her.

"We're going to have to ask Cidd and Edea" As much as he hated asking his boss, the headmaster of Balam Garden, for advice he didn't know what else to do, and he was the only person on the planet who had experience of what the Sorceress and Knight were going through. Because Rinoa was a Sorceress. He didn't worry about the fact that Rinoa was a sorceress, but the fact that all her predecessors had in someway been harmed by their powers; either in falling to the temptation to use them for domination, or being used, as in Edea's case, by some other sorceress. And, somehow, these dreams seemed to be some sort of side effect of her powers. Or dream; it was the same one, over and over again, every night for the past three and half weeks.

Rinoa was still staring up at him, smiling as he woke out of his reverie.

"You drifted off again" she giggled.

"Sorry" grunted Squall, embarrassed by his daydreaming. Rinoa laughed again, and he felt a tingling sensation down his spine as the music of her voice played over him. He smiled down lovingly at him. The young sorceress thought of how far they had come in one year, but it still amused her when Squall got lost in one of his thinking tangents.

Squall looked at the alarm clock on his bedside table, a half-joking present from Cidd, given to him on his 19th birthday because he seemed to require more sleep these days with Rinoa around; the others had formulated reasons for this which really did not amuse him. The clock read 5:06am. Not much point in getting up then, he thought. Rinoa was still looking up at him and, at a strange impulse, Squall lowered his head and kissed her softly on the lips, tasting the salt from her tears bittersweet against the background of her lips. He broke off, and saw his target looking at him with a mixture of amazement and adoration. He attempted to carefully move his aficionado off him, placing his hands around her slim waist and slowly shifting her to the side, noting with a jolt in his midriff the smooth texture of her skin under his fingers. She looked at him slyly, seeming to read his mind. He quickly blushed and deposited her, almost leaping out of the bed in his effort to escape the predicament.

He proceeded less anxiously to his bathroom, opening the door and looking back at the flowing form of the person lying on the bed. He turned back to the room, but the voice from his room stopped him.

"Squall?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you." The young man looked puzzled as he turned back to her.

"For what?"

"For being here."

Cheesy as hell, I know, but it'll get better! This chapter may have been a bit short but I'll make the other ones longer, when more stuff starts to happen. Pls read and review (just click the lil button down there, ya know).

Thanks,

Knighted