This is the start to a collection of One-Shots that I find myself writing time after time. At the moment, I am inactive with the progress of my other stories and have decided to go ahead with these out of pure entertainment. Feel free to leave a message if these short stories intrigue you, as they are most likely the closest I will ever come to writing in continuation from the game's end. I usually write Alternate Universes, but then there are some things that take place directly in the game that I'd like to address. That's all.

A Moment in Time AKA Midnight Munchies (hehehe)

We Needn't Say…

Laguna felt it: the notorious nudge at the back of his calf. It would cause his leg to cramp again if the evening continued the way it had.

He was seated across from his guest at a dinner table center to a large dining room of the spacious Esthar Presidential Palace. Glorious angel statues and ornaments of marble stone paved the walls and floors of the room, where a golden chandelier dangled at its ceiling flaunting diamonded jewels that hang from each of the light pillars, but even its glamorous glow would not be enough to spark an interest between the two men.

The president of Esthar and the now legendary SeeD of Balamb Garden, father and son, were together finally, sharing a rather quiet brunch despite their esteemed titles. There was utter silence, except for the scraping of his fork as he mixed the colorful, baked vegetables upon his plate into a rainbow of produce. Across from him, the SeeD's fork dropped piercingly onto a plate of veggies segmented by color, causing the older man to stop his fidgeting with an immediate fright.

Meshing his food together had been a silent escape as he pondered about the lifestyle of his newfound son. After all, who was the young man sitting across from him? How could he believe they shared the same blood? How could he even begin to understand him?

They were total strangers and total opposites.

He had always believed the pen was mightier than the sword, yet his son's gunblade was mightier than words. He had led a life avoiding combat as his son's career revolved around it. He believed his words were always full of passion, yet the actions of his son spoke louder than words.

Laguna stared at Squall, whose eyes were focused intently at his plate with his face resting upon his palm, his mind apparently travelling a mile a minute, and took note of the same brown hair, this boy and Raine's, and the same nose and mouth even; yet the longer he observed their similarities, Laguna realized he wouldn't necessarily take on any of his nor Raine's personality. He would most likely never establish a fatherly relationship with him either.

Looking upon the younger brunet, he winced in sorrow. They seemed to have nothing in common. He would've liked to strike up a conversation, but as many times before, Squall's replies never exceeded more than three words.

How could a man of many words end up with a son whom had none to spare? He was talkative, Squall was taciturn; it was a direct citation from the irony of nature. On such premises, Laguna turned his attention to the past, wondering if he had somehow been present in the teenager's life sooner, would there have been a significant difference in his personality as opposed to present day.

Even more, could it have all been avoided, Squall growing up in an orphanage? Could he have found him sooner, especially after having learned that the young man had spent his childhood at the same orphanage that Ellone had been taken to at such an early age?

Laguna had missed out on so much. Maybe if he'd stayed with Raine a little longer, he would've gotten to know his son more, but then seeing his son's birth would mean losing Ellone, a child who wasn't even his own. She was so cute. He could never forgive himself if the girl had been stolen away from him permanently. He remembered swearing he would find her, bringing her back home so that he, Raine, and Ellone would live together as one family.

Maybe he could go into the past, make a change, head directly to Esthar to find Ellone quickly and head back to Winhill to see the birth of his son: but what of Esthar? Would Adel still reign as ruler, conqueror of all nations? She would continue to wreak havoc to the world and Esthar, and continuously stir fear in the people's hearts, driving the world into a pit of nothingness with her sorcery.

Not in his time.

Finding and returning Ellone would only be step one, and step two would mean defeating Adel, freezing her and holding her captive in space. He would hire a team of loyal subjects to guard her tomb warily, so that she could never escape again. But capturing Adel had happened by chance, there was no way he could be granted the same blessing by a second star in time. Could the powerful sorceress fall for such a childish trick once more? Being lured into a room where a holographic replica of Ellone appeared standing before her where she, at the exact moment, was pushed into a chamber of imprisonment and sealed by Laguna and his faithful comrades.

So he would need time to set things right, but that time would be costly. How costly? Raine's life…

Even if he could go back and set things right, he knew he would never make it in time to be at her side when she needed him most. He had wanted to push everything aside and run back to her, but it was inevitable. He was a leader, a born charismatic leader, and people would undoubtedly follow him wherever he went.

Laguna was a man of passion and had always listened to his own heart.

It was his heart that led him to search for and find Ellone, to love her as his own daughter, to meet so many valuable allies along the way, to defeat Adel, and to realize his importance among a city of those in desperate need of a leader. He had lived his life doing what was right, lived his life for a cause, and in the end, it cost him his one and only love, Raine. But even so, he continued to fight with his heart leading the way. He fought so hard that he eventually met the young man sitting across from him now, and soon realized there was a passion of truth burning deep behind the sternness of his approach, a strong spirit that exacted hers. Behind those cold blue eyes, he sensed a shared fire that eventually saved the world from a second death.

The young man sitting across from him had lead a group, an organization much like his own, to overthrow and defeat a sorceress. It was by his courage and dedication that the world had been saved from an even greater fate than death, eternal silence and stillness of time. In such a case, the only way to bargain freedom would be to depend upon weapons and combat. Squall's gunblade became his pen and his might was his word.

Within that moment, Laguna smiled at the young man sitting across from him, realizing that he was no different than himself so many years ago at heart. Squall was his son, he and Raine's son after all, and it was then that Laguna found one other common trait to which they both shared…

The room had been quiet as both of their minds busied amidst an array of thoughts travelling miles per minute, hoping to find some connection with the other. There were things understood that needn't worth mentioning, so in the silence of time, Laguna found himself sitting, relaxed, enjoying a quiet brunch with Squall. And Squall, reclaiming the fork from his plate once more, looked upon the older man earnestly and displayed a faint smile of his own.

Gradually, the cramp in his leg ceased to exist.