Rinny Leonheart

Summary: AU SQUINOA. Two single parents meet under difficult circumstances, each bearing their own cross. Their sons, each desperate for what the other one has, decide to work together to bring back the missing pieces of their broken family. But can it work when their parents are so reluctant to cross the line?

Mild Seifer x Rinoa and Squall x Quistis references throughout but the story is predominantly Squinoa as that is my favourite pairing ever.

Author's Note: Hello everyone! Here is a nice new story, which has already been completed by the way so don't worry about me going AWOL again haha. This is one of many stories which I have been working on in the past year that I hope you will enjoy reading. A few cliché or overused ideas, a few twists and a completely different angle on pre-existing story ideas which I felt compelled to work on alongside Love at Angels'.

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favour of fair use.

In short; I don't own FFVIII and I never will. I only possess a copy of the game, the authorized walkthrough guide and some related game paraphernalia. I use Squaresoft's (Square Enix) idea for a personal formation of my own creativity. The same can be said for any branded items and song lyric one liners that may crop up in my stories. Thank you very much, now I can breathe easy! XD

Adult themes and situations, strong language, violence.

Teach Me to Love Again

Chapter One: Trouble at Home?

December 4th

Ben Almasy fidgeted in his chair, aware of the scrutinising gaze his teacher was giving him. It was afternoon break time for the rest of the class but Ben was being kept inside for causing trouble. Again.

The clock ticked by, time seemed to drag on forever as his fiery brown eyes glared at the cool blue ones of the adult in the room. It should have been rather intimidating to have a six year old look upon him with such contempt but for Squall Leonhart, it was just another day of teaching Ben.

Having arrived at the school three months earlier, at the start of the new school year, Ben had been a very quiet child to begin with. But after the first week he had begun to act out; ignoring his teacher's prompts to get on with his work, causing disruptions to the lessons and even resorting to physically assaulting another student…

Which was the reason he was being kept in this time, he had somehow gotten upset and lashed out during a science lesson, smacking another boy across the face. Squall had tried to be patient with the boy seeing as he was new to the school and new to the island but there was only so much restraint he could show, especially when his malicious intentions turned towards his own son.

Poor Sabre hadn't done anything wrong; he'd just been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time when Ben threw a tantrum and started throwing his punches out. But after the first strike, Ben hadn't stopped his assault on Sabre, who to his own merit had tried his hardest to protect himself rather than retaliate. After wrenching them apart, Squall had sent Sabre to the first aid office with the teaching assistant and had situated Ben into Solitary. Solitary was the space in the far corner of the room reserved for students to reflect in if they got out of hand, and suffice to say, it was not Ben's first session in there either.

He'd felt wretched at not being able to comfort his son as he left the room in tears with the teaching assistant, but once he was in the school building, he had a priority to deal with the troublemakers first before tending to any victims. Ben just stared at him in a silent challenge, daring him to blink. Squall sighed.

"Ben, you really disappointed me today." He began saying to the young boy. "I understand that you were frustrated with the assignment but that was no excuse to hit Sabre. You could have seriously hurt him, don't you understand that? You can't go round hitting people; it isn't a kind thing to do."

Ben snorted, trying not to laugh. Squall felt his temple vein throbbing. He was trying so hard to stay calm; he could not make this a personal vendetta because his son had been hurt. He had to be fair, try to decipher the route of this bad behaviour.

In the building, he had to be a teacher first and a parent second. That was the most difficult decision for him to make this time, never before had Sabre got himself into any kind of bother so Squall had no experience in dealing with this many emotions at one time. It was taking all his self-restraint not to throttle the cheeky boy sitting opposite him.

"I'm glad that you think it was amusing, I was not impressed." He replied sternly, forcing his rage down to his guts. "In light of this incident; I think it is time I spoke to your parents."

"Yeah right. Good luck with that." Ben sneered at him, not offering any more information. Squall was puzzled; he knew all the names of the children in school who were in foster care or under the watch of social services and Ben was not on the list for either, so what had he meant by 'good luck'?

"Would you like to explain that statement Ben?" he asked calmly. The blonde boy shook his head with a smirk.

"Nope! Can I go now?" he asked rudely.

Had it not been for the fact that Sabre was at the nurse's office, Squall would have told him to pipe down and stay put. But he had to go and check on how he was faring, remind him that at least one of his parents still gave enough of a damn about him.

"Yes, but if I hear that you have been misbehaving out there, you will be in Solitary until pickup, understood?" he said, standing up and walking him to the classroom door. Ben ran down the hallway and out of the building to the playground. Squall sighed again and made his way to the first aid office.

Selphie, the teaching assistant was standing outside the door waiting for him. She turned towards Squall and gave him a smile.

"He's absolutely fine Squall, just a little red on one cheek but that's about it." She told him softly. "We had a cold pack on there for a while, so it shouldn't be red later on."

"Thanks Selphie."

Selphie Tilmitt had been working with Squall since the first day he started, having been at the school a year before, she had shown him the ropes around the school and they were now very good friends. She was a lovely young woman, engaged to the school counsellor for almost a year and expecting their first child in early spring. She would be leaving in February next year just after half term. Squall had yet to hear about the headmistress finding a replacement, but she still had two months to hire someone.

"He's a touch little cookie, not unlike yourself. He seems fine but maybe you should go in and see him. I'll go and get the rest of the students in from the playground." She said, starting to walk down the corridor towards the playground.

"We'll be back in class in a few minutes, thanks for the help; I appreciate you bringing him here for me while I dealt with Ben."

"Speaking of the little tyke; what are you going to do with him?" she called out, as he turned towards the door. He lifted his head in her direction.

"I'll arrange a meeting with Ben's parents and see if we can get to the route of his behaviour. That's all we can do for now." He replied and turned his attention back to the room.

He opened the door and the young boy sitting on the plastic orange chair jumped down and rushed over.

"Daddy!" he cried out, running into the arms of his father. "I tried to stop him, you know I did! Please don't be cross with me; I'm sorry!"

Squall stroked his brown hair back out of his son's face and looked into his clear blue eyes. "It's alright Sabre; I'm not cross with you. You tried not to hit him back and that's good enough for me." He said reassuringly. Sabre gave him a tiny smile and hugged him tighter. "Look, instead of doing the grocery shopping later, how about tonight, we go out for pizza and a play at the park instead? Would you like that, son?" he asked with a smile. Sabre's large blue eyes sparkled with delight.

"Really Daddy? You mean it?!" he asked excitedly. Squall's smile grew larger.

"Of course I do, you silly boy." He said playfully, ruffling his fluffy brown hair. "Let's get back to class."

Being a single parent drained him greatly, he had to play both mother and father to his five year old son and it was not an easy thing to do. When Sabre was a year old, Squall's girlfriend Quistis had packed her bags and walked out on them both, saying she couldn't play happy families anymore. Sabre had not been planned; Squall had just landed his job at Balamb Primary while Quistis was working as a lawyer for a local firm, promoted to partner just days before she found out that she was pregnant.

Their relationship had been rather tempestuous but neither of them felt that an abortion was the best solution and tried to stick it out for his sake. But the arguments became too much and Quistis moved out shortly before their son took his first steps, three weeks after his first birthday.

Sabre was turning six in a month's time, just after New Year. It had been nearly five years since Quistis walked out of their apartment and they had heard nothing from her since. In a way, Squall was glad she had left Sabre in his care; he didn't know where Quistis had gone to, and he did not want to fathom how he would have felt if she had taken their son with her. She didn't even send any maintenance for Sabre's upbringing but he didn't care about the money.

He may not have earned as much as Quistis but the hours were much better suited to raise Sabre on his own. He had the same time off with his son now he was in school, day care fees had taken a massive chunk of his remaining salary for the first two years but once Sabre was old enough, Squall had reserved a place in the school nursery so he could pick him up after his lessons were done.

Sabre skipped alongside his father towards the classroom and pushed the door open for him.

"After you Daddy." he said sweetly, causing a ball of pride to puff up in Squall's chest. He had obviously done his part well without the help of Sabre's mother. He didn't need her to raise their son, he was doing fine on his own, and he liked it. Though sometimes he had wished Sabre had the loving mother he deserved to have. Being raised in a single parent household was something Squall knew all too well from experience and there were things only a mother could do that he himself did not know how to.

He would never start dating, at least not for many years; he had no time for such activities anymore. But sometimes, he wondered if he could ever get back into the game completely after having his heart crushed so harshly. He tried hard to keep Quistis happy, but in the end it hadn't been enough to make her want to stay.


The bell rang, calling for the end of lessons for the day. Squall watched his students collect their belongings from their desks and sit patiently, waiting for him to let them go to their waiting parents outside. He finished writing on the white envelope on his desk, intending to hand it over to Ben's mother or father. He would have given it to Ben himself, but he had trusted him before and the letters did not seem to reach home. He stood from his desk and opened the side door for his students to go through, looking for the person who was collecting Ben that day.

He watched the blonde boy run over towards an elderly lady and made his way across the playground towards them.

"Excuse me?" he called, getting closer to the woman. "Are you Ben's guardian?" he asked.

The woman smiled. "Sort of. I'm Caroline, their next door neighbour, I watch Ben often as a favour to his mother while she is at one of her jobs. Are you Ben's teacher?"

"Yes I am, I'm Mr Leonhart. I was hoping I could speak with Ben's mother or father about an incident today. Could you give this letter to either of them for me?" he offered the envelope towards her and she placed it into her handbag. Ben scowled at the envelope, knowing that he wouldn't be able to dispose of it this time.

"Oh Benny, you haven't been naughty have you?" she scolded the young boy. "Your mummy won't be too happy about that, will she?"

"S'not my fault." He huffed, stalking over to the playground apparatus. The woman leaned over to Squall and spoke in a hushed voice.

"I'll get the letter to his mother for you. I take it this is not the first time you have wanted to contact home about his behaviour?" she whispered. Squall nodded.

"I cannot say anything more, student confidentiality and all but thank you for realising that I do need his parents to read the letter. Please tell them that I urgently need to speak with them face to face on the matter, if it's not too much trouble."

The woman nodded. "You have my word."

She turned in the direction Ben had rushed off to. "Benjamin! Come down from there now, we need to take you home." She called softly to the boy hanging from the monkey bars. The boy scowled again and jumped down with a thud. He made his way to her and glared at his teacher when he reached her side. Squall pretended not to see this.

"I shall see you in the morning Ben, have a nice evening." He said, turning on his heels and walking back into the classroom.

Sabre was stood by the door, waiting patiently for his dad to return.

"Do you have a staff meeting today Daddy?" he asked shyly. Squall shook his head with a cheeky smile and ruffled his son's hair fondly..

"Nope! This time, I'm all yours, now let's go to the park and work up our appetite for dinner!"


In a small house on the other side of Balamb town, a young woman with dark hair and deep brown eyes looked over the letter she had been given by her neighbour half an hour earlier. Her son was sitting nearby with his dinner in front of him. He kept his head down, he knew she wasn't going to be happy with what she was about to read.

"Dear Mr and Mrs Almasy,

I am writing this letter to inform you that your son Benjamin has been displaying some rather aggressive behaviour since the start of term, and it has been escalating beyond control. We had an incident today whereupon he lashed out during a science lesson and attacked one of his classmates. I have attempted to contact you before by sending letters home, but they do not seem to have reached you. I would like to meet with you to discuss his conduct during school hours, at a time to suit you. Please contact the school secretary to arrange a meeting.

Sincerely, Mr Leonhart."

She finished reading aloud and took in a deep breath.

Dark brown eyes fell on the blonde boy sitting at the table opposite, staring into his dinner plate. She cleared her throat, causing Ben to look at her.

"Is this true, Ben? Did you really attack someone in class today?" she asked sternly.

He looked sheepishly at her but answered with a cocky tone. "Yeah I did, so what?"

"'So what?'" she repeated slowly, feeling her temper rising. "Benjamin Cedric Almasy, how can you just sit there and act so blasé about something this serious?!" she asked exasperatedly. "I know you weren't happy about moving here but there is no reason to behave like this!"

"It's a dumb school and I don't like anyone here. Nobody wants to be my friend." He replied sulkily.

"Are you at all surprised, when you act like that?" she said loudly, quickly quietening down. "Ben, sweetheart," she began softly. "I know we've had a lot happen this year but you can't behave like this. Darling this was supposed to be a fresh start, away from all the bad memories of Deling City. Could you try, for me, to be a good boy?"

"Hmph! You are the one who made us move, I didn't want to go in the first place." He muttered. She tried to stay calm and spoke softly to him.

"Baby, we had to, we couldn't stay there-"

"No! You couldn't stay there!" he countered, shoving his plate off the table. It smashed on impacting the wooden floor, sending the remains of his dinner flying across the ground.

"Ben!" she gasped, getting up from her seat and picking up the shards of porcelain from the floor. "Look what you've done!"

"I don't care! I don't like this house, I don't like my school and I don't like you!" he shouted, pushing back his own chair. "I wish it had been you who had died instead of Dad!"

He ran from the room, stomping his little legs harshly on the stairs. He slammed his bedroom door upstairs while his mother was frozen on her spot on the floor. A tear trickled down her face and she tried to wipe it away. But then another fell, and another. She buried her face in her hands and began to sob.

After a few moments, she stopped her tears and proceeded to pick up the mess her son had created.

"At times like these, I wish it had been me too." She whispered sadly to herself.

Author's Note II: What do you think?! I wrote this almost one year ago amongst a few other stories and thought it was about time I posted the first chapter. It's a very different take on my usual stories, having my beloveds paired off pre-story to others but there is a method to my madness I assure you. Thanks for reading!

Completed: 25/09/2013. Posted 21/08/2014.