I.
The sunlight is just beginning to creep through the half-closed curtains by the time she realizes she's still there. It's beginning to shine in on them, revealing their little resting place. Their small solace away from the rest of the world. A pathetic piece of the universe. It was exposing the both of them for what they were.

His breath coming and going into her back. His arm thrown inelegantly over her body.

She couldn't move. Not only because of his arm keeping her firmly in place. It was almost as if her legs were suddenly made of lead and because of this she couldn't swing her legs over the edge of the bed, walk over to his shed clothing on the Balamb-colored blue floor, steal the wallet and leave. Then again, she didn't necessarily feel bad about this. He hadn't even had the decency to take her back to his home. If he had one... Fuck. Rinoa Heartilly had slept with someone that she knew nothing about. He didn't even ask her if she wanted to go back to her house. Just pulled into the nearest hotel. She did like him though. Or maybe it was just that he hadn't spoken enough for her to know if she liked him or not. He had said the minimal of words necessary through out their whole conversation. Silence soothed Rinoa. She hid the few strands of hair behind her ear and forced herself out of the hotel room bed. She wondered how many people had come to that same hotel room to do exactly what they both had just done. Not make love. Fuck. Simple as that. After a short moment of debate she decided to use the only face towel left to wash up. She leaned against the doorway of the bathroom. The ocean-eyed man was still sleeping, his hand curled into the comforter. His leg hanging half-way off of the bed. Half of his back exposed to the salt air that seemed to cling to everything. Even his body.

She had been assaulted by it when she had arrived. Even in town the water was still evident.

To steal his wallet would lessen the dreamy aspect of it all. Really, Rinoa liked to think that this was some kind of movie-esque situation instead of a quick fuck...which it was probably to him. However, she also knew that her whole dreamy aspect had gotten her in trouble in the first place. Traveling to Balamb randomly without a cent in her pocket.

There's something about stealing someone's wallet. Something that you're not even sure you even like anymore. There's a small moment of "is this person a saint or not?". Have they twelve miracles already under their belt? For some reason though, even after Rinoa craned down, stripped to her underwear, peering into the face of the man she couldn't feel anything. There was nothing radiating from him. No innocence. No passion. This was the most open she had seen him and he wasn't even awake. The most evident thing on his face was that scar. She could still remember his body. The scars. She dared to only trace over them the maximum of once. Only that. She couldn't find anything else though. She had searched. Really searched.

When she finally emerged from the room, her hair swept up into a pony tail, her clothes neatly in place and her smile just as radiant as ever Rinoa was a new person. She sifted through his wallet walking down the stairs. Some gil, various ids, and some post-its. She stuffed the paper into her pocket.

"Oh. Excuse me," she smiled at the woman that she had just bumped into.

The woman gave her a curt nod in return, revealing no emotion what-so-ever.

Rinoa pulled down at the short sleeve of her t-shirt, taking one last glance at the woman. Her neat uniform. Her hair pulled up nicely into a hay colored bun. It must be good to have everything put together so neatly. She must have failed in comparison. "Yes. I would like to check out," she pushed the gil towards the man behind the counter who gave her a gracious smile. It was then that she began having second thoughts about stealing his wallet. It just seemed so barbaric, "can you leave this for the man up there?"

He didn't say anything. He spared some quick glances between her and the wallet on the counter. "Excuse me," she paused before leaving, "which way to the shores?"

He pointed in some vague direction while he spoke. She might as well stop by their famous beaches before making her way back to Deling.

"Did you hear me Squall?" He gave her a nod that she would have been able to see if not for the half-shut bathroom door between them and her not having x-ray vision. He was uncomfortable. He could half-way understand her barging in on him. He could even understand her tracking him down and crossing over their obvious boundaries. "Squall?" she repeated. He grunted in response. When he finally emerged from the bathroom he was fully dressed. "This isn't a joke Squall..."

"You come in here in an unprofessional manner and I think it's a joke...?" he thought to himself, checking the back of his pocket, "Fuck..." he felt his back pocket for his wallet. Of course it would be gone. Why didn't he think? Everything had happened so fast last night. He hadn't had time to think...

"What?" the blonde paused, her hand on the doorknob, waiting for a reply.

"Check over there for my wallet Quistis,"

She did a quick search and he repeated 'fuck' once more.

He tried to conceive an image of her. Dark hair. Button nose.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

The only reason he could remember that is because that's what he thought when he first met her. He could remember a hazy picture. A bar. A jukebox.

Fuck, fuck, fuck.

And this is exactly what he had thought when he had met her: "She's cute Squall. Just talk to her. Do the normal thing, normal people do. She's cute. A button nose. Dark hair. What's your problem?"

He was sickening. He had to tell himself to like someone. Had to force himself. If only he could fucking feel...

"This is great Squall. Cid wants to see you in twenty minutes and your buddy stole your wallet? How are you going to find her?" she crossed her arms in the usual Quistis-way, "wait...don't tell me the black haired girl..."

"Where'd she go?"

"Just was just going down when I was coming up," and before she could even say 'come on. We can still catch her,' he had outrun her. And before the man at the desk could call out to stop the both of them, they were already gone.

An: I've been wanting to do a Final Fantasy AU for a long time now and it finally looks like that time. I had this on my computer and after sprucing it up a bit, I think it came out nice. Now, the rest of it is the hard part. Don't know exactly what way this is going or how far it's going to go but hopefully it stretches out for awhile. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it. Drop me a line and tell me what you think so far.