After thoughts

by Mazzie May

After four years of failure, Leon and Sherry finally beat FFVIII. She poses a question, and off they go again. Set two years prior to Resi Four. Rated T. Kinda funny, but meh.

Author's Note: Here's another one. Funny, but really LOL funny. Just… thoughts.

Summary: After four years of failure, Leon and Sherry finally beat FFVIII. She poses a question, and off they go again. Set two years prior to Resi Four.

Rating: T, I think. For cursing?

After Thoughts

By: Mazzie May

Leon sat on the floor, his back against the couch, his legs hidden beneath the coffee table. Sherry was right next to him, hugging her arms to her chest, chin on her knees. They watched the credits roll.

Leon and Sherry had finally beaten Final Fantasy VIII. They'd been trying for years. But every time they got close, something would happen. Originally, Leon had accidentally saved over their farthest game. After that, they lost the memory card. Once, while Sherry was saving in Ultemcia's Castle, the power went out and the file was corrupted. Later that year, Leon was saving and Sherry accidentally tripped over the power cord. The next year, their Disc Three stopped working. After buying a new game, Sherry dropped Disc One and Leon stepped on it, walking by. Earlier this year, they stopped playing for about a month because Alteria Iris came out, but when the returned to it, they couldn't remember what they had been trying to do, and started all over.

But now! Now's they've finally beaten, after four years of trying!

The control sat in Leon's lap, as he brought his arms back, resting his elbows on the couch cushion. Sherry stared unblinking as the mini scene took place after the credits.

And then it was all over. Almost immediately they began to speak.

"Do you really think things would've worked out between him and Rinoa?" Sherry asked looking over at him.

"What do you think?" He asked, yawning.

"In all honesty, yes. After playing through the game and seeing the way they acted with each other and how she got him to open up more and how he felt real comfortable around her...I definitely think it would've worked." She sat straight. "You?"

Leon shook his head. "Eeeh... Not really. I think after all the adrenalin wore off, Squall would accept all these new emotions, but they wouldn't be so much directed at her." He then added quickly, "Not like I have anyone else in mind."

"Interesting! I was just gonna ask if you did," she laughed a little.

He smiled at her, continuing. "Well, I mean, Squall is still Squall. There are parts of him that can't be changed."

"…Yeah that's true." She tucked her hair behind here ears.

"Personally, I don't think he'd be so ready for a relationship. I think when he finally got some alone time in his room to roll around on his bed and think, one of his favorite pass times, I'm sure," Sherry laughed. "He'd be pretty ashamed and embarrassed about how he acted.

"Yeah he tended to roll around on his bed often when he was doing his thinking" She slid out from behind the table, heading for the PSOne. "Eeehh, I still dunno. I just think that being with Rinoa changed him into a new person that he really liked so I think he would continue to be with her. I mean, at the end of the game it was pretty emotional, when he cried after not being able to find her."

Leon stood up and stretched. "That's the thing though. I mean, yeah he cares, totally. I won't deny that. But Squall fears change. A lot. I think when everything and everyone calmed down and he got his chance to think he'd be upset by how he acted. In fact he might even withdraw more into himself, trying to understand why he reacted like that."

Sherry dropped down in front of the PSOne, turn it off, and removing the disk. "But he has his friends to depend on." She looked around herself. "Where's the case?"

Leon snatched it up off the coffee table and brought it to her. "Here." She smiled at him, taking it. "He has his friends to depend, this is true, but... he knows he can depend on them if he absolutely has to." He turned and headed for the kitchen. "I don't think he'd make a habit of it, you know?"

She opened the case, "Yeah" placed the disk in, "...that makes a lot of sense" closed the case.

Leon continued from the kitchen. "Like, he can depend on Laguna. But do you see him calling Laguna up, saying "I want to spend some quality father-son time with you, Dad."?"

She laughed, shuffling on her knees over to the shelf with all the video games on it. "No, you're right. I don't think that would happen."

"I think Squall is terrified by the idea that he's related to Laguna. I think Squall really doesn't like him." A few cupboards were opened and closed, and Sherry could hear plastic rustling. "How many times did he call him an idiot?"

"Yeah, quite a few times, I believe!" She ran her finger across the PSOne games, locating the 'F' section.

Leon and Sherry had quite the game collection. There was a shelf for each system they owned, and each shelf was in alphabetical order. The case was six shelves high and four feet long. The bottom shelf was reserved strategy guides. They didn't really use them, but they liked the posters. And they never crossed systems. They didn't play PSOne games on the PS2, and didn't play GBA games on the SP. That's just how it was.

"Yeah, Squall was in that man's head and early on decided he didn't like him." She pushed herself up with her hands. "Your ideas make more sense than mine, but –"

"When don't my ideas make more since than yours?" Leon poked his head into view through the door way, grinning like a wicked Cheshire cat.

She made a face, and flipped in the bird. "Oh, shut up!"

He laughed and went back to whatever he was doing. "Anyway!" She said loudly. "I'd still love to believe he'd stay with her 'cause I love 'em together."

"Well," Leon walked out of the kitchen peanut butter sandwich on one plate and peanut butter and banana on the other. "I think he loves her."

He handed her the PB and B. "I do think he loves her. But I don't think he's in love with her."

"Yeah?" She asked before taking a large bite.

"Yeah." He took a large mouthful as well. "And if he is, I don't think he'd voice it for a long while." He swallowed. "That's more trust than he's willing to give at this point and time, you know?"

"Mm, yeah, I guess that's true." She took another bite.

Both she and Leon had mastered talking with their mouth's full.

"Even at the end of the game, he easily believed that he was alone." He looked around him, cursed and stood, heading for the kitchen. "Whereas, everyone else, who trusted each other, were able to find one another."

He disappeared from her view but returned seconds later with napkins. "I think that's what it was." He handed her one. "They stayed together because they believed in each other and trusted each other."

Sherry thanked him for the napkin, and then wiped her mouth, saying, "You're right!"

"Uh, duh, Sher." She threw her waded up napkin at him.

He brought up his hand to block it. "But, anyway, Squall ended up by himself, because he didn't really trust them." He took another bite. "And he gave up, too."

"Rinoa, however," He swallowed. "Who had total faith in him, found him because she believed so much."

Sherry looked at him, skeptically, chewing slowly.

He opened his arms wide. "Well, I mean, if he was really looking for them, wouldn't he have found them?"

She swallowed. "Yeah, most likely."

"And what was it that Quistis said? 'Everyone! Go back to the place where we're all together!" I don't think she meant that in a physical sense.'" He wiped his lips. "Like, she meant, go back to the place where they were all at the same level with each other."

Sherry nodded, finishing her sandwich.

"And, you notice, Squall wasn't there." He went to take another bite.

Sherry threw her napkin, hitting him the mouth just before he took a bite.

"Oh! De-NIED!" She said loudly, laughing.

"What the fu…" he breathed, looking at the napkin on the ground. He tossed his napkin at her, but she brought her arms up in defense.

"Anyway!" he said loudly. "Anyway, to go back to some place you had to have been there. If Squall hadn't been there, he couldn't go back."

Sherry took a moment to think. "Well I couldn't agree more. But really, you think too much." Leon gave her the best Bitch, please expression she'd ever seen.

"Think about what you just said to me."

"What?"

"Who are you, and what have you done with Sher?"

She laughed. "What?"

"I do too much thinking? I was under the impression that I didn't think enough. According to you."

She waved her palms at him. "Okay, okay, you don't think enough when it counts." She smiled at his sour look. "Glad you brought this all to my attention, though."

"Eh, still." He picked up the last bit of his sandwich, and as he was about to eat it, a napkin hit his face again. "Oh, my God, Sherry!"

She laughed and bolted up the stares to her room.

Author's Note: Eehh, just a little something a friend of mine did last night. It was pretty funny. I dunno. Maybe it was a "you had to have been there" story. All I know is that we laughed to hard we couldn't get up the stairs.

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