It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was also the time that Rinoa found Squall standing underneath a tree with his trusty gunblade while Zell, and Irvine clung to a branch for dear life in the same very tree.

Rinoa would have liked to be able to say that this was not a very common sight for the young sorceress. Not that her seeing Squall have someone hiding from him up a tree while he waited like a dog after a squirrel was a common sight, but seeing him upset with their friends to the point of actually chasing after them with his weapon was something that was a little all too familiar for her. That, and it seemed like it had become common practice for someone to always call on her right away to defuse the ticking time bomb that was her boyfriend/knight.

Sorceress's powers be damned. Her ability to control Squall seemed to be what really impressed those around her. All hail the great Squall tamer that was Rinoa as Selphie liked to put it. Rinoa just wished that the overly hyper girl didn't feel the need to say it so loudly, and around so many people. The rumors about her "magical touch" she had over Squall was more than just a little embarrassing for her, but Rinoa dealt with it as well as any nineteen year old girl in her place would.

Which is to say that she would blush madly, and fake an excuse to leave the room. Which made for a lot of mythical paper work that Rinoa claimed to be working on. Even for someone who was a part of the human resource department for the Garden.

Really Rinoa had little hope that she was fooling anyone, but she figured that she might as well try to act like the well bought up young lady that she was suppose to be. What would her father say after all?

Actually on second thought did she even care what her father would say?

She may be on speaking terms with the man, but that didn't mean she still wasn't her own person. Not to say that she hated him anymore, but she wasn't going to let his opinion rule her life if that made any sense. Did it though? Ugh! The whole thing was confusing, and honestly made her head hurt. Rinoa shook her head in an attempt to clear of the confusing matter. Then Rinoa walked up to her almost just as confusing boyfriend. When she was close to Squall she asked him the same question she usually did in situations such as she found him in.

"Okay," Rinoa said. "What happened now?"

There was a clear tone of exasperation in her voice, but if Squall noticed he didn't react to it. Instead he stood his ground without moving an inch. His stone statue impression was very good Rinoa had to admit, though she would never say so out loud. One did not compare their significant other to a statue after all. It just seemed rude Rinoa thought. It also seemed to have gotten her off track again. Rinoa blinked her eyes when she realized that she missed what Squall had said. Now she was the one getting lost in her own head. This had to mean that Squall was a bad influence on her.

"Sorry, what was that," the young sorceress asked. Squall for his part looked at Rinoa with a bit of a perplexed expression on his face before he shrugged then carried on.

"I was saying that I know you're going to tell me that I'm over reacting again right now, but I have every reason in the world to be upset with those two morons right now," Squall said as he pointed a finger over his shoulder towards Zell and Irvine. The two, who were still in the tree, filched when Squall pointed at them as if they were shot at by a gun. Rinoa wasn't sure if she should had been impressed that they seemed to fear Squall so much, or worried about it instead. If she had gave it more thought, she probably would have picked worried.

"Sometimes a person has to make their stand, and I'm making my right now," Squall said to Rinao. He stood there in his what some would call his 'I'm not backing down pose'. Rinoa wasn't fooled though. She knew him better than that, and could tell when he was grand standing even if he wouldn't say so.

"Really Squall! Is this some stupid macho man nonsense you're pulling right now," Rinoa said. For good measure she also jabbed a finger into Squall's chest to get her point across. He may have not filched, but he did look ashamed at her doing so. "I never thought you were the type of guy that would have ever pulled that kind of crap."

"It's not like that," Squall tried to objected.

"No, you listen," Rinoa shouted. "I understand that you're under a lot of pressure here at the Garden, but that doesn't mean you get to act like this just because you're upset. What kind of impression do you think this sets for the people here!? You're their leader, and they look up to you. How do you think it will go over if you keep pulling this kind of nonsense?"

"Rinoa," Squall tried to interrupted her.

"What," Rinoa asked with her hands on her hips in her own 'I'm not backing down pose' too.

"Do you remember the website on the Garden's network were people were writing stories about our love life?"

"Embarrassingly yes I do," Rinoa responded. "What about it?"

The site Squall spoke of wasn't meant as a vicious attack on the two of them as far as Rinoa could tell. It still made her angry though when she saw the amount of people writing, and commenting on their love life. The website was taken down eventually of course, but it was still something that Rinoa had not easily forgotten about.

"Well it turns out that it was those two that thought it would be funny make the website in the first place," Squall said, and pointed again at the two men in the tree.

After Squall said what he did a bead of silence seemed to stretch on forever. One in which a pin drop could be heard for miles.

Even though Rinoa went deadly silent Squall felt the intense storm that was brewing beneath the small frame of the young sorceress near him. Then Rinoa slowly turned her head toward Zell, and Irvine who were still in the tree.

Which was when Zell and Irvine felt the entire tree they were hiding in be uprooted, and lifted into the air. They looked over to Squall, and Rinoa where they saw that the normally easy going girl that was Rinoa Heartilly had her eyes glowing with power, and her hand pointing toward the now floating tree. That was when they knew there were really screwed. They may have made a knight angry, but they just pissed off a sorceress, and as history has taught them that never went well for anyone.

So Irinve made his peace with Hyne, and Zell cried.

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A/N - Just so everyone knows the opening line of this story was borrowed from Mister Charles Dickens himself, and if he wishes for me to not use it then he can always e-mail me to tell me so ;)