Chapter One – Wasted Day
The shades were pulled shut, but the sunlight found it's way through every tiny opening the curtains had not covered. The master bedroom had tiny sparkles of light scattered across the dimness of the room. The room seemed as if were early morning.
It was far from morning though. The day was late and the sun was actually ready to leave the sky.
Squall Leonhart lifted his head lazily from his pillow to look at the digital clock across the room.
4:25 PM
The bright red numbers had him squint for a moment, and then he dropped his head back to his pillow. Pulling the satin sheets tighter around himself he laid, staring blankly at the ceiling.
He had been in bed since the night before. He didn't feel like getting up, and he was positive that none of the caretakers would notice his absence in the household. Rinoa had woken up early, and had left the house to run her daily errands without him, leaving the house free of anyone who would disrupt his rest. He was awake now, thinking about the night before, and how it had made their relationship a little worse than it already was.
The night before was an extravagant dinner that they had hosted for a local fundraising organization. Squall had attended; dressed in his casual navy blue business suit, arm in arm with his brand new fiancé. This party seemed a bit different than others she had hosted. He had stood clear of all the arguments and discussion she would get into with the guests. Surprisingly at this party, Rinoa did not ask the usual favor of him to speak in front of the bloodthirsty press about their engagement. He had been forced to do so before, but he had figured this time Rinoa knew not to make thesame mistake again.
Time and time again, he would be asked to make speeches, take interviews, or just talk to the press openly. Not being a big people person, he would continuously stumble over his words, lose his train of thought during an interview, or just be plain rude to the press. He hated public speaking. Rinoa knew it; she had known it ever since he had become commander of SeeD in the beginning, but she always continued to find ways to talk him into it. Last night, however, she didn't dare ask him to. They had been at each other's throats for the past few days, and they had both tried their very best not to get angry at each other while they had company.
'How I would love to tell the media about this… Rinoa, the ….'
Everything had been falling apart…and Squall was first in line to witness it.
'Forget the press, telling everyone countless lies… I have a backstage pass to what might become the next ……'
The party had annoyed him to an extent where he couldn't bare to be a part of it anymore. After quite a few glasses of wine, and one very long conversation with a group of random intellectuals, Squall had retreated to the master bedroom of their mansion, hoping to escape the party that demanded so much attention. After changing into his sleepwear, he had settled himself into bed early, not too long before Rinoa had charged in, hoping for him to re-join the party.
'Yeah… right…'
Giving her a slight wave of the hand that insisted her to host the party for the rest of the night on her own, she slammed the door as he sunk beneath the satin sheets. He was tired, and did not want to be bothered. There had been better parties, and he knew there would be more in the future, so he chose to sit out just this once. Wanting to go to sleep, he hugged the sheets tightly and closed his eyes, hoping the noise and chatter downstairs would soon die down.
It had been one of the longest nights of his life, and he couldn't understand why. It could have been the continuous thoughts racing through his head, or the maybe the loud noise from downstairs. He figured the wine would have made him drowsy, but it came to no avail.
Laying in bed, not sleeping… Squall thought, until the party had finally ended.
Rinoa had come upstairs and left the cleaning to the three caretakers she had hired. Squall had once jokingly called them Rinoa's slaves, but then kept quiet once she had started an argument about it. He never really made a comment such as that to her ever again.
She took a shower and later slid into bed, not saying a word to him. This was a typical night; he didn't expect anything more from her. He wanted it to either stay this way, or get better. He didn't hope for anything worse. She quickly fell asleep next to him, probably more intoxicated than he was. Squall continued to stay awake with endless thoughts running through his head.
After about three hours, he fell asleep.
The next morning he had refused to get up. Rinoa had tried waking him up politely, "Squall, I'm going to go pick a few things up from dad's, then I'm going to get a few things for the house… do you want to come along?" It was utterly phony of her to try talking nice to him, but Squall was a little but pleased that she made the effort. He didn't care though. After letting out a muffled groan from just hearing the sound of her voice, she understood, promptly got dressed and left for the day without even a goodbye.
'Good riddance for today…' he had thought.Presently, it had been almost ten hours since then, and Squall had not attempted to get up out of bed. It was almost evening, and he lay, since the day before, in bed.
'Another day fallen astray… the light of day has been wasted away.'
The ceiling suddenly became uninteresting, and he turned his attention back to the clock. It was almost five, so he decided to pull himself out of bed to eat something. Sitting up, he rubbed his eyes lethargically and pulled over the sheets. Stepping onto the lush carpet, he slowly made his way to the bathroom counter on the other side of the room. The chilled marble tile didn't seem to bother him; he gently rested his elbows on the bathroom counter and stared into the mirror.
'What am I doing….?'
Looking into tired, grey eyes, he winced at the sharp pain that ran across the back of his neck from sleeping too long. He carelessly massaged the area for a moment, and then continued staring in the mirror.
'……I look… dead...'
He rubbed his eyes tiredly, clearing his vision only to see himself staring back. His facial features which were usually very smooth and delicate, looked tired and worn. Dark circles were forming underneath his grey eyes. There was no color to his skin, and his hair fell limp next to his jaw. With eyes half open, he stared at himself; this person.
He stared at this stranger.
'I don't…'
Quickly turning on the sink, he washed his face with ice-cold water, hoping it would wake him up from his dream-like state. He refrained from looking in the mirror once more in hope that he wouldn't scare himself again. Sliding on a pair of blue jeans and a black T-shirt, he sat back on the bed to put on his boots. Lacing them tightly, he scanned the room in a daze.
'I need to get out of here for a little while… I wonder what is going on in town?"
Realizing what he was forgetting, he grabbed his signature leather jacket and casually threw it over his arm. Opening the door, he looked back only once, and then left the room in darkness, as well as silence.
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5:10PM
The house had been quiet until the sound of heavy combat boots down the wood stairs had filled the hall with clamor. Squall passed the dining room where one of the three house caretakers was preparing the dinner table for six individuals in the dining room. Quickly walking to the kitchen to find his keys, he scowled at the thought of another dinner party.
'Hyne, more people to sweet-talk to… more people to give this house the attention it doesn't need...'
In the kitchen, he grabbed his set of keys from the countertop where he had left them yesterday, and headed for the main hall to leave.
The house was enormous compared to any other living space in Deling. Though, the city itself had grown enormously over the past few years. The Leonhart mansion was a part of the new development area in the city, and it was also the biggest, most expensive house in the city entirely. Squall and Rinoa had moved to Deling so Rinoa could be closer to her father. The entire purpose of living in the mainstream city was so she could get better acquainted with her father, whom she hadn't gotten along with in years.
Squall raced through the main hall on his heels and stopped at the door. Swinging it open to make his leave, he had in front of him a very startled face.
Rinoa had her keys in hand in position to unlock the padlock. Staring into her fiancé's tired eyes, she stood in confusion. "Um… hey..."
'Get out of my way'"Hey," Squall forced out monotonously. Rinoa continued to stand in his way, as if she thought he was at the door to greet her. He stood with an uninterested look about him, holding the edge of the door so tightly that his knuckles were white.
'Get… out… of… my…way. Do I need to spell it out for you?'
Rinoa casually threw her keys back into her purse and walked inside so that he would have to be forced back into the house and wait for her to pass before he could leave. Frustrated, Squall backed up to let her through, and then took three quick steps towards the door to make his escape. Freedom drew near.
That was… until a hand grasped his right arm somewhat forcefully.
"Hey, where are you going?" She interrogated. "We are having a press meeting in an hour, and I think you should start to get ready." Letting out a faint, fake laugh, her voice continued to annoy Squall. "What would they think if we brought them in, and we weren't even ready?" she said over exaggeratedly, apparently forcing a smile.
"Would you let go of me please?" Squall asked, strained. Rinoa faintly frowned, then repeated her own words as if he hadn't heard her the first time she asked.
"Where are you going?"
''Where are you going… where are you going… where are you going?' Rinoa the broken record…is it my turn to play broken record too? I guess so…'
"Would you let go of me please?" he repeated as he tugged his arm pensively. Rinoa's frown grew deeper, and her grip on his arm loosened, but not enough for him to suddenly pull free from her grasp. He, too, was slowly starting to glower back at her; his brow tilting ever so slightly inward, as his eyes started to narrow. "Would you?" he asked again, trying to stay calm.
"Where are you going?" She asked for the third time, letting her voice resound in the hall. Then they stood in silence for a moment, until Squall had forcefully pulled his arm away from her, and started down the front steps.
"I'm going out," he said without looking back at her as he paced down the courtyard walkway to the front security gate.
'I'm getting away from you for a while…'
"Where?! Are you coming home for the meeting or not?!" she shouted from the front steps.
Punching in the security code for the front gate to open, he didn't respond. There was no reason to respond anyway since Rinoa had already slammed their front door hard enough for it to echo in the courtyard. The gate slid open slowly and Squall squeezed through once it was open enough for him to do so. The cold autumn air had stung his warm face when he had walked out of the house, but he was pleased that it was starting to pull the lethargy away from his mindset. He took out a black beanie from his jacket pocket and put it on snugly as he walked towards the Deling City Center.
End of chapter one! Please submit a review! I would absolutely LOVE to hear from anyone for CC since this is my first fic, and all... I have chapter 2 ready and waiting, just a few more editing things i need to do before i submit it. Also.. kills some of the italics, and i have tried numerous times to fix em, but it just wont work.. so yeah... I love you all! thanks so much for reading!
Chapter 2 will be up soon!