Disclaimer: I don't own ff8 or its original characters. But any OCs that pop up in this I do own lol

A/N: SEQUEL!!!!! Yeppities I promised'yall a sequel to Love never comes easy and this is it!!!!!!!! Ok I will warn you this is a somewhat odd approach to the story. As,as you will see, Squall and Rinoa are not together in it. Shock horror. But…well the summary says it all. THIS IS A SQUINOA This chapter may not seem highly sequelish, but trust me as it goes on you will see why it is a sequel and it will have flashbacks and stuff to the time between the end of the last story and this one yes sum? But you can read it without having read the one before it probably. Alright. Then lets get on with it, read and let me know what you think and if you want me to continue xx

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Rinoa Heartilly sat forward in her chair, the sound of chatter from other tables and the soft music filled her ears and the flames of the candles flickered romantically in front of her.

She knew there had to be a reason her boyfriend had brought her here tonight. Ordinarily on weekday nights they just stayed and ran the pub together, but tonight he had insisted that they go out to the most romantic restaurant in town. He took her hands and pulled them towards him form where he sat across from her

"Rinoa" he said softly "you must know there's a reason I asked you here tonight"

Rinoa nodded

"well..it's just that you're such an amazing person and this past year has been the most incredible year of my life. You make me so happy. Just being around you, knowing you gives me a reason. I love you Rinoa"

"I love you too jay. More than anything"

"And…I want to be with you, forever. What I'm saying Rinoa is…will you marry me?"

Rinoa felt excitement flutter through her whole body. She was completely speechless.

"and I know a year may not seem like a very long time but…I think we're ready Rinoa. I really want to be with you forever. Please say yes" Jay said, his dark eyes full of anticipation and hope.

Rinoa paused for a moment. This had come as a surprise to her. She knew her and Jay were serious, but she had no idea he had been planning to propose. Then again, it was a good thing. It was an amazing thing. He wanted to commit to her for the rest of their lives. And she felt the same way, she wanted to spend her whole life with him.

Taking a deep breath she said "Yes. Yes I'll marry you"

A huge smile spread across Jays face and he leant across the table and kissed her deeply. "I'm so happy" he said, sitting back and taking her hands.

"Me too" Rinoa said barely able to contain her happiness as her new fiancé slid a sparkling ring onto her finger. A beautiful diamond sparkled in the candlelight, nestled between two rubies.

Rinoa couldn't help but smile. In fact she felt like jumping up and down and dancing around. She was engaged. And to the perfect man, her Mr right.

For once everything in her life was going right….

She had met Jay Marquez a year and 2 months ago and it had been an instant attraction. Not surprising since he was absolutely gorgeous. He had thoughtful dark eyes and long dark hair that fell just past his shoulders which he often tied loosely in a pony, with just a few strands hanging here and there. The first time Rinoa ever saw him was on her third day of working in Timber Record shop. She'd been living in Timber for a year and a half at the time but could never seem to stick with a job for too long, so she'd had several different occupations all of which lasted about a day. She just could not find anything she loved. Nothing, at first, was a big enough distraction to take her mind of why she had moved from Balamb, what she had left behind. But after a year and a half she was finally moving on, or at least starting to and the record store job suited her perfectly. It was lively, fun and she was already making friends. But on her 3rd day, things changed completely and for the better. Jay had come to return a CD he had bought and was ever so patient and friendly with her while she took over 20 minutes to return his money because shed never done refunds before

"I'm really sorry about this" she told him as she pushed random buttons on the computer

"it's okay, I'm not in any hurry" he said, talking a strand of dark hair behind his ears "I'm enjoying the spectacle" he said with a little grin. Rinoa was pretty sad when she actually did manage to work it and handed his money over and he left with a huge smile, saying "I should return stuff more often"

Jay was actually the first guy Rinoa had found herself really attracted to since she'd moved to Timber when she was 20 a year and a half before, so she was quite annoyed that she didn't say anything. Like offer him a cup of coffee or something. She watched him head for the exit, but just as he reached it he was stopped by Christina, one of the shop staff, and one of the girls Rinoa had stared to become friends with. Rinoa had made friends pretty quickly at her job and she was lucky in the respect that one of the girls who worked in the shop was a girl she knew from high school back in Deling, Callie Taran.

So she had at least one person to talk to, but she had also made friends with Christina, the bubbly blonde from Esthar who seemed to be permanently happy. So Rinoa was very intrigued when she saw her stop Jay and even more intrigued when she saw her give him a quick hug!

They knew each other! So when Christina headed back to the checkout with a pile of CDs that needed checking Rinoa couldn't help but ask her about it

"hey that guy you were with, did you um know him?" she asked trying to keep her tone casual

"Which guy?"

"You were just talking to him over there."

"Oh yeh, Jay. That's Jay."

"okay." Rinoa had been hoping for more of an explanation than that

"He's my boyfriends brother." Christina said casually "Why?"

"oh, nothing…I……." Rinoa felt a little embarrassed now.

"She thinks he was hot" Callie said appearing from nowhere, with a pile of CDs

"Callie!!"

"Oh please Rinoa, you were practically drooling over the counter"

"Oh no! do you think he noticed?" Rinoa panicked. Had she been that obvious?

"Don't worry" Christina said "Jay is totally dense when it comes to stuff like that"

"it's like he doesn't know he's gorgeous." Callie sighed

"hey, I know!" Christina suddenly jumped up "It's Zacks birthday tomorrow so there's a big party!"

"Who is zack?"

"Oh, that my boyfriend. Jays brother. So yeh, Jay would be at the party. Whay don't you guys come, and then maybe Rinoa and Jay can get to know each other better. He's single ya know!"

"So are you Rinoa, it's like fate" Callie said with mock seriousness

So Rinoa did go to the party and she and jay really hit it off. In fact they had their first date the next night. Jay was only a little older than Rinoa-she was 21 and he was 23, but still so youthful and fun.

He owned the Auphora pub in Timber-his parents had turned it over to him when he was 21 so they could go off and travel the world. He had one brother-being Zack-and 2 sisters, neither of whom lived in Timber. Rinoa ended up finding out so much about him just on that first date and by the third date they trusted each other enough to tell each other the important things, the secrets. Jay told Rinoa about his childhood-it had not been happy. In his teen years he had acted out a lot, wrong friends, wrong habits.

When he was 19 he was arrested for driving under the influence and crashing his fathers car into the side of a building. But he'd learned from that, he knew he needed to change his life, and thankfully he did. Rinoa hadn't admitted to jay about her childhood, her father and what she had suffered. She had still only ever told one person that. But she told him everything else, she admitted why she had moved to timber, what she had moved from. After that things just progressed so quickly, and it all felt so right. She moved in with him after 6 months and now, after a year they were engaged. And she was happy…blissfully happy.

But that night, after she got back form the restaurant ,she just could not sleep. She lay there staring at the ceiling, doubts starting to creep into her mind. She knew she should know her and Jay were forever. She should have accepted straight away that's that what engagement meant. Forever. But it didn't last time…..

Lat time it wasn't forever, she didn't even make it to the wedding. It all went so wrong.

Rinoa had been engaged to the person she thought was the love of her life, Squall Leonhart. He had proposed to her after a year and a half of them being together, when she was 18 and he had just turned 19. At the time, Rinoa really thought they would be together forever. They were so in love, and had been since they were 17. True, they had not exactly met conventionally, but they'd come through a lot together; her father, the whole business with Seifer. She had run away from Deling and ended up in a pretty dangerous situation, Squall had been the one to save her and she ended up in Balamb garden. But she became involved with Seifer, not realising for so long that Squall had major feelings for her, and she had been repressing her own feelings for him because he was dating someone else. But the everything just seemed to fall into place. Rinoa could remember it all as if it was yesterday, how happy they had been, how much love there was, but she could also remember how it had all fallen apart…..

That's why she moved to Timber. She had to get away from Balamb, put Squall behind her and move on. And it had taken her a while, in fact until she fell in love with Jay, she thought she would never move on. But now she was engaged to jay. She hadn't been to Balamb or seen Squall for 3 whole years. That was then, and this was now. And now she loved Jay

"Squall Leonhart" she whispered to herself "I'm finally over you."

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Sure, whatever you say lol. Muhahahhahaha. Well anyway. Love to know what you think of that. I'll continue if you want. By the way it is gone into in much more detail what happened with squalll and Rinoa in later chaptersHmm all I got to say is, even if some of the stuff in this seemed pointless, its not, it all comes into it later.As I said it gets more sequely soon, there are a few ocs but the original characters are back and main soon. Fear not squall fans, he is in the next chapter! and oh yeh if the proposal seemed kinda similar to the one from Love never comes easy, that was intentional, and …we'll you'll see. hope you like.