Title: Hindsight
Part: prologue/?
Author: Oriana
Rating: PG-13 for now, maybe R later
Disclaimer: Characters and settings and pieces of plot belong to Squaresoft. Everything beyond this point, especially creative ideas, belongs to me. I don't like plagiarism. So don't.
Notes: Wouldn't it figure that my muse decided to bite me (rather hard, as a matter of fact… *rubs ankle*) just as I was preparing to go to Otakon? *sigh * Ah well! I'll get the next part out soon, I promise!
The stone building was crumbling, not exactly the way he remembered it from when he was a small child. What had happened to it beyond natural wear and tear? This sad degradation was obviously not due to the normal course of time. Squall laid a hand on the cool rocks of the outer wall, trailing his fingers as he navigated the fallen branches and boulders. "Matron…?" He called, before remembered that Cid and his wife had gone to Esthar to research the toll that Rinoa's reception of the sorceress powers had caused on Edea's body.
Squall felt his lip curl of it's own accord.
Rinoa…
The bitch had never been aware of the powers she received, not even for the briefest moment. In hindsight, Squall knew he had been a fool. In assuming that Rinoa had been controlled by outside forces as Edea had been, he's set himself up for a shock when she once again attempted to revive Adel. She didn't succeed in her original objective – but she did absorb the other sorceress' powers, adding them to the Ultemicia/Edea powers that she had already inherited.
Squall sighed, the bed creaking as he lowered himself to the old mattress. Her actions had only compounded the problems he was having with their 'relationship' – enough that he had left on this 'extended vacation' without telling her that he was leaving. Quistis and Selphie were the only two who knew where he had gone – Quistis because she was Acting Commander of Balamb Garden while he was away, and Selphie because it would kill her if she wasn't privy to the secret.
His stomach growled, and he ventured back outside to the Ragnarok to get the needed supplies. For some oddball reason, Laguna had insisted after the whole Lunatic Pandora debacle that he keep it for her own personal transport. Strange guy – but Squall wasn't complaining.
*-*-*-*
Squall spread the blankets out on the small bed that he and Seifer had intermittently shared as children. He could have used the much larger mattress in Cid and Edea's room – but he had a rather justified aversion to it after catching them in the act the last time he and the others had visited. The brunette shuddered at the memory – it had been like watching his parents. He put it out of his mind and shucked off his boots and slacks, hanging his precious jacket on the bedpost. The act sparked an immediate sense of déjà vu, and he couldn't stop his smile at the odd familiarity of his actions. If he tried, he could almost call up a memory of a small version of himself going through the same movements.
And if he tried harder, he could picture Seifer and himself as kids, huddled together for warmth on a cold winter night; comforted by the lulling rhythm of the waves breaking and crashing against the beach not far away.