Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII, never have, never will. So please do not sue me =(

The heart is a funny thing and love is a silly emotion. In fact love has the best punch lines and most hilarious jokes. How else can a super model fall head over heels for an obese man who makes her laugh, how else can a woman still return to the same man who has beat her countless times? That "love" could also work the opposite way, how can a man fall out of love with the woman who had done nothing but take care of him while he was down and raised his children? Squall thought of this as he sat alone for the first time in months in his room. Their one and a half year relationship was over. They had dinner that night; he almost knew what she was going to say before she even said it. She had fallen out of love with him. She was going to leave, going back to Deling City.

How could she have fallen out of love? After everything, after how hard she pushed, she didn't love him anymore? This was ridiculous, he was crushed all because a girl he wasn't really interested in at first had just left him and broke his heart.

"How stupid can I be" He thought.

"Squall, please say something to me.." Rinoa whispered. Squall paid their check and rose to leave the restaurant. She followed him out, pleading that he say something to her. "Even if it's to yell, please" tears gathered at the corners of her eyes. He wasn't trying to be rude, he just didn't know what to say to her.

"It's not someone else if that's what you think!" She called after, still following him to the car. He didn't care he just wanted to walk. "Squall, please… I want our friendship to stay in tact." That's when he stopped.

"You broke my heart; your 'friendship' with me will have to wait" He said voice calculating.

"Fair enough.."

He thought about how she cried on the ride home, and the final kiss that shared. He thought about how he didn't want to say anything to her. He felt that if he said anymore, he would beg. He just wanted to save just a little of his dignity.

He wished that she would come walking thought that door, but he knew it wouldn't happen.

~*~

It had been seven months since he came back to Garden. Six months since he moved back. Raijin and Fuujin had came back, so he figured it was the right thing to do. Imagine his surprise when Squall didn't laugh him out of his office that day. As prideful as he is, he even surprised himself by coming back. What he did was the equivalent to someone quitting their job... Spitting in the boss's coffee, then coming back to ask for the job back scratch that, It was worst. The first few weeks were hard, cadets and instructors alike stared and sneered as he walked down the hallways.

If you had asked him last year how he felt about therapy he would have laughed in your face and called it bullshit, but now thanks to Doctor Kadowaki he had a different view of therapy and himself.

Even with the twice a week sessions, he was still rough around the edges, still giving Quistis and Zell the occasional hard time. It was nothing to out of the ordinary, nothing to confrontational; he just enjoyed messing with them. Luckily they were good sports about it.

The friendship that was denied because of jealous personalities was bonded between the two sorcerers' knights. Training no longer ended in injures, conversations no longer riddled with insults. If Squall would forgive and accept him, anyone could.

~*~

It had been about two weeks since Rinoa left, Squall tried to keep himself buried in his work in those days. It helped him keep his mind off of it, but he knew he couldn't just let it ride… he would eventually have to tell his comrades what had happened. No one had bothered him about it so he could only assume Rinoa didn't say anything when she left.

"I'll tell the next person I see.." He said with a groan. Obviously still stalling since he would be in his office all day. Unfortunately just because he wanted to stall that didn't mean life would stand still. The buzzer nearly gave him a heart attack when it chimed.

"C-come in…come in" voice cracking a bit. Please don't let that be Seifer, I'll never hear the end of it. He thought. The door opened and relieved that it was the much shorter Selphie.

She came in, and started talking immediately. Other things were on Squall's mind so it was hard to pay attention to status reports and SeeD audits.

"..Okay, I took care of most of it, I'm going to need your signature here … and here" She said while pointing to a document that was already marked with bright strips of paper signaling where to sign.

"Thank you for taking care of this for me" He started while signing.

"No problem Commander" she giggled "Man, I haven't seen you in ages by the way. How are you?" Selphie propped herself up on his desk like she would normally do and collected the page when he was done signing.

"Horrible, Rinoa left me and I've been trying to quell the pain by locking myself up in here and working my fingers to the bone" he said without changing expressions. 'That was easier then I thought it would be' he thought.

Selphie deadpanned, at first she thought he was joking… Squall doesn't joke like that. She tried to form a sentence. "W.. why.. when?" was all she managed to blurt out.

"Apparently she felt that she didn't love me anymore and there was nothing I could do about it… and uh about two weeks ago" Now he could feel it, the pain was back. The pitiful loneliness was clawing its way back to the surface of his heart. He stared down into his lap. He was so focused on not crying that he didn't hear her move towards him. He jumped when he felt her arms around him.

He was expecting her to be loud and be ridiculous, but all she did was hold him. Squall could feel his eyes burning but he didn't want to cry… she just couldn't see him cry. Today was the day of self betrayal as tears dropped onto his pants,

He trembled, but each tear was silent he didn't make a sound, but Selphie continued to hold him. He relived each grueling second of her leaving him, he wanted to stop but the tears wouldn't stop falling.

"Hey.. hey, I know it hurts now but.." Selphie tried to think of thing that wouldn't cause him more pain. "She is a fool for leaving you" Selphie could feel him stiffen, but she just held him tighter.

"Any woman would be lucky to have you as her boyfriend." She followed up with a sweet kiss on the forehead. He sighed loudly and quickly tried to wipe away his tears.

"I'll go try to find you a tissue" she said moving to get up.

"No.. it's fine." Squall now had another problem now. Not only was he depressed but now he was embarrassed as well. He stood up from his chair trying to avoid her eyes, those bright green orbs of optimism. Damn, he looked.

"Have you told the others?" she asks only expressing remorse, not pity.

"No.." He looked away. "T..this is already as embarrassing enough as it is"

"You have nothing to be embarrassed about, it happens to everyone at least once" She even looked down after that.

"I know.." he sighed again "But, could you tell them for me?"

She thought it was a strange request but she could understand. It was written all over his face.

"Okay, the next time I see them I'll tell them" and with that he captured her in a clumsy hug. She was shocked by the abruptness but was touched none the less. She returned his hug. "It will be okay" she spoke softly.

~*~

Selphie left the office, faxed the paperwork, and headed towards the garage. 'Poor Squall' was all that kept running though her mind. 'After all they've been though..'

In the back of the garage there was a another door leading to a smaller garage. Inside there lay a masterpiece, Zell and Selphie's 'baby'. It was an awesome piece of machinery that they had been working on for months. It was code named the Monster. It was a military issue transportation vehicle all decked in the best of the best. Zell was building the engine from scratch, Selphie was working on all the intricate mechanisms in the dashboard and the both of them were responsible for the other odds and ends.

Selphie pulled on her gloves and resumed her work on the steering column. She loved working on this with Zell, in fact she felt like when they were done with this they she build a plane next. It was so easy to lose herself in this project, especially if there was something on her mind.

Zell joined her after his daily duties where done, when he walked past her he playful ruffled her hair and greeted her. She looked up at him and he nearly jumped back.

"Whoa! What's with that face Selph?!" He asked when he saw her expressionless face.

"It's Squall.. Rinoa dumped him."

Zell's jaw seemed to hit the floor. "Why?" Was all he could manage to get out.

Selphie told Zell the sad story carefully leaving out any mentions of his tears or any other moments of weakness, she knew that Squall would probably want to keep that between them. When she finished the story she examined Zell's face, his normal cheery demeanor was also dragged down by this horrible news.

They both talked about how they thought it would never end. Their relationship was a by the book fairytale coupling.. and now it was over.

During their conversation Selphie thought about Squall held onto her and wouldn't let her go. How could Rinoa turn her back on him like that? 'If he was my boyfriend.. if we had gone though all of that together.. I couldn't just leave him' She thought.

After wrapping up for the evening the two devised a battle plan.

"Uh.. I'll tell Quistis and Irvine the next time I see them" Zell said as he pulled off his work gloves.

"That leaves me with Seifer and Nida, Xu is on leave and I doubt she would appreciate a phone call about the commander's love life"

The blonde gave her a good bye hug then left the garage

"I guess I'll tell Seifer tonight on my way back to my room and I'll catch Nida in the morning" She said out loud as she locked up for the evening.

Selphie walked down the deserted hallway, she always thought it was odd how at Balamb most of the cadets adhered to the nighttime lock down. She remembered her times at Trabia, they were always sneaking out after curfew and sneaking back in before they were ever discovered. She remembered the first time she tried to sneak out of Balamb, and got caught by the head of the disciplinary committee himself.

Author's Note: Okay, this is my first fanfiction ever that isn't a once shot and I think it shows but please bear with me. I would like to thank Lanita19 for being an inspiration and encouraging me to post.