DISCLAIMER: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII
RATING: K+ – Brief mention of character death
TIMELINE: Throughout the game, spoilers for character relationships
SUMMARY: Laguna Loire couldn't have predicted the way his life would end up.
AN: I started a re-play of VIII today, and was reminded how amazing a game it is. Please review! Even if it's just to pick holes in it, I don't mind!
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How could he have possibly known? His own wife had neglected to mention her pregnancy before he'd gone chasing after Ellone, and he truly thought he would get to leave Esther only a little while after his adopted daughter. The pair of them had come to be his entire world, and yet, for their own safety, he'd had to abandon them.
Never a day passed when he didn't think of going to them. Or having them bought to him. But he would have been distracted, not wholly present in family life, and he knew they deserved better. That they deserved for him to wait to give it all up, so that he could be theirs fully. Again. He could only hold onto hope that they were still waiting when he returned.
Years had passed since he'd last heard either one of them. In a moment of weakness, he sent Kiros and Ward to go see that they were okay, that they didn't want for anything. But he only ended up heartbroken when neither girl could be found.
He never sent them again.
Instead, he waited, praying that some day they would find him.
But he never expected Ellone to bounce through his door some seventeen years after seeing her last, with news that his wife had died not long after he become wrapped up in Esthar politics and he had a son. A son, who'd grown up believing himself an orphan, his sister being sent away for her own safety.
It seemed that life was most definitely a vicious circle.
So when the boy in question was standing in front of him, questioning him on his plans to stop the Sorceress, he was completely distracted. There was so much of Raine in his face, that it physically hurt to look at the boy. He was a reminder of everything he had thrown away in a moment's notice because he decided to play the hero.
When Ellone mentioned that she'd sent Squall back to see how he lived, he found himself suddenly understanding his attitude. For most of the time, he'd been a Galbadian soldier, and it wasn't as if he took everything seriously. He was clumsy and at times a little reckless. Even he wasn't sure exactly why the Estharian's were thinking when they asked him to be President. Selection normally followed a vote, not the murder of the previous one – no matter how evil they were.
He tried to bond with his son, showing of his own sucky card playing skills and resulting in the loss of the only picture of Squall he owned. The card was a stunning likeness – whomever Ellone had commissioned for such a prize was worthy of their talents and the praise it may bring them. He so desperately wanted to tell him the truth behind their relationship, but fear for how he may react stopped him. Even Ellone didn't understand why he hadn't walked out of Esthar, or at least returned to Winhill for a short while before taking up the post.
In the end, Laguna only had himself to blame for how things had turned out. And he hated himself for it. He could only hope that tomorrow would bring him the courage to tell Squall the truth, before tomorrow let him leave his life. This time for good.
