This Christmas
The brightly lit flames rising from the warm fire danced along the wooden walls of the small log cabin. The room was empty. Silent. All that could be heard was the soft crackle of the fire every so often. The warmth radiating from the fire gave the cabin a homely look. Outside, star shaped snowflakes covered the once stone, cold ground in a blanket of heavenly whiteness. The snow never ceased here. It constantly sprinkled from the large fluffy clouds up above covering all who walked here in its radiance. Snow. A marvellous sight for all to see. Sadly though, only some cherished this sight.
Here, Trabia, was the coldest place in the world but yet, the most beautiful and since it was the season to be jolly, being in Trabia just added that little spice of jolliness to the atmosphere. The cabin was situated to the very north of the continent. Near the once bustling, Trabia Garden. It was empty now but soon it would be filled with the presence of two young adults; Rinoa Heartilly and her faithful knight, Squall Leonhart.
-
The cafeteria was their main room at Balamb garden, it was a genius invention: A place where you could eat and chat at the same time. Smart, right? Well, that's what everybody thought. A certain bunch of teenager sat at their regular seats, eating lunch. One of them was being harassed by two of the females in the group.
"Shut up, I'm the Hotdog King that's one title you can never take away from me." Zell pointed to himself with one hand while he waved a hotdog at his friends with his other.
"Gross." The instructor, Quistis, slapped the hotdog from his hand causing it to land on the floor. "If you ever wave another hotdog in my face again you will never eat another hotdog in your life." She threatened.
Irvine gave out a short 'oooh!' but was instantly shut up when he received a harsh glare from Quistis.
Zell on the other hand was on the floor, cradling his now diseased hotdog. "Wh-why Quistis?! Why!?!!" He sniffed, "Jessie did nothing to deserve this. She was supposed to join her other friends in my tummy - her other friends Quistis! Not all the stinking germs on the floor." He stood from the floor, turned his back on the group then walked swiftly toward the bin on the other end of the cafeteria. A soft prayer was spoken before the hotdog was thrown into the bin.
"Aww poor Zell… Maybe we shouldn't have been so hard on him about his hotdog obsession. They're like his kids, he even named that one; Jessie or something." Selphie stared at her friend muttering his prayer but then turned her attention back to the group. "So people, Christmas is just round the corner, what you all doin'?"
A few grumbles could be heard from the group which was not what Selphie had hoped to hear. Christmas was a time to spend with your family and since none of them actually had a proper family, including Rinoa as she never regarded General Caraway as being her father, Selphie thought that they may have already arranged something for the group to do together. Well, she was wrong. "None of you have made any plans for us yet?"
They all shook their heads.
"Great... Oh wait, now I get to plan what we can do for Christmas, yay! This actually is great! Thank you, guys!" She stood from her chair, performed a crazy spin then hopped out of the cafeteria, singing along the way.
"Be prepared for a fun Christmas!" Irvine said standing from his seat. "Selphie's never dull, believe me." Winking he turned and followed in Selphie's footsteps.
"Brilliant." Squall stated also standing from his chair, "I've got work to do." He walked away casually tossing a coin in the air whilst doing so.
The others, Rinoa, Zell and Quistis all talked about the normal, everyday things for a while before they all departed each having something to do. Rinoa went to Selphie to see what she had in mind for Christmas, Zell went to the training centre to well, work up a sweat and Quistis had class on the 2F classroom.
-
Posters of popular boy bands covered the small, hyperactive young adults' room. Her small bedroom, was like the suns bedroom. Everything was yellow. Yellow bedclothes, yellow walls, yellow cabinets, yellow everything: You name it. Selphie sat at her desk within the yellow room, biting on her tongue whilst writing short sentences on a page with one hand as her other rubbed her temples. She jumped as her door was knocked.
Rinoa poked her head in with a small grin on her face, "hey!" Casually striding toward Selphie she looked at the page her friend was writing on. "Ideas... Oh I see." Tapping the page in a Phoenix Wright style she stated, "Your ideas for our Christmas's right?"
"Yep!" Selphie bounced from her chair and snatched the page from Rinoa's hand. "You shouldn't be looking at that, it's gonna be a surprise!"
Rinoa eyed her suspiciously, "what if.. I don't like the surprise?"
Selphie shook her head vigorously, "Ooohh, believe me you'll love the surprise!" She looked around her room in search of someone. "You're the only one here, right?"
Rinoa nodded.
"Okay then, I'll tell you, but promise me you won't tell anybody else."
"Promise."
Selphie jumped up and down on the spot, "it involves us, shacking up in a log cabin!"
"..."
"Out in Trabia!" Her friend still seemed to show no interest.
"...A log cabin in Trabia?"
"A big log cabin in Trabia!" She emphasised how big it would be with her arms.
Rinoa thought for a second, "well if it's a big cabin.. Then that makes all the difference. " She said sarcastically. Selphie turned gloomily, saddened by the fact that her friend was not at all impressed with her idea. "So we'll all be spending Christmas together in this log cabin?"
Sniffing Selphie replied, "well that's what I had planned but if you don't like the idea.."
"I was only joking Selphie, it sounds like a brilliant idea!" Rinoa smiled. Selphie was one of the easiest people to fool. After their conversation the two women set to work to find the best place to book a log cabin for a cheap price. They were all on quite a tight budget with the buying of presents, clothes, turkey's, champagne etc. The only one they could actually afford was, 'Moonlight Snow,' but there was a problem with booking with this particular company, the biggest log cabin... "Okay, thank you."
Selphie clasped her hands together, "so it's all sorted?"
"Uhh yeah. One problem though, their biggest log cabin only holds three people."
"Say what?" Selphie said, staring at Rinoa. Her friend repeated what she said. "And.. You still booked them? Two big ones? But then.. How are we going to decide who stays in which? Aww Rin! We should just book a different cabin place, where we can all stay in the same room. Come on, let's ring them up and tell them we don't want to stay anymore."
Sadly, Rinoa shook her head. "No refunds Selph." Watching Selphie's reaction was pretty darn funny. Firstly, her friends face sort of twisted into a look of anger then sadness and then finally this really random look as if she was constipated or something. Rinoa chuckled.
"So what exactly did you book?"
Yawning Rinoa responded, "I booked three of the smaller cabins. That means two people can stay in each of them. I figured we could all have.. A romantic Christmas..?" She looked away, embarrassed.
"A romantic Christmas? ... Hmm, a romantic Christmas. Hey, that's a great idea!!" The two women started to shout and jump around, screaming, 'Romantic! Romantic!' everywhere but soon shut up as they heard a knock on the door. "Hello?" Called Selphie.
The familiar scent of Irvine Kinneas filled the room, followed by the good old cowboy hat appearing from behind the door. "Well I'll be, if it ain't my two favourite gals in the whole wide world!" He cooed strolling into Selphie's room and plopping himself on the bed. "So, what're you two ladies up to?"
Selphie grinned and jumped on top of him, screeching, "Romantic Christmas!" -All over the place. Once she had gathered herself, she told Irvine all about shacking up with him, in a 'romantic' log cabin. To be perfectly honest, he seemed even happier than both Rinoa and Selphie put together.
-
Everyday was the same. Wake up, get washed, get dressed, eat breakfast, go to office then work for most of the day. It was a routine that a certain Commander knew of by heart. Scribbling down notes about Gardens finances, Squall looked at the small, metal clock resting on his desk. One o 'clock it read. Only six more hours till I can rest. Great.I suppose one particular person made his routine a little well, a lot more interesting than what it was made out to be..
Barging through the door without knocking could only result in one person. "Rinoa, hey. Something up?" Squall asked not looking up from his notes.
Giggling Rinoa replied, "Knew it was me eh?"
Squall nodded still not bothering to look up.
Singing she said, "Well Squall, I bare great tidings!" She expanded her arms to the ceiling.
Finally looking up he gave her a look of- 'Is there a reason for why you are singing?'
"Get your attention," She replied meekly, "Anyways! I do bring news about our Christmas plans."
"Hmm?"
"How would you feel about shacking up with Zell in a log cabin over Christmas?" He stared at her for a minute waiting for her to laugh or make some kind of gesture that she was only messing around. After about three minutes of complete silence Rinoa began to feel a bit awkward. "Well?"
"You're joking." He turned his attention back to the page resting on his desk. "Your eyes always turn yellow when you lie."
"...Seriously? Are they yellow now? Oh my God, Squall! Are they yellow!?"
"So you are joking!" He looked up at her again, grinning. "Why would they be yellow Rin if you weren't joking?" Stretching he laughed at her. "I am good."
"That was the most pathetic way to trick someone ever!"
"There yellow again."
"Shut up."
They always seemed to crack up at one another - One way or the other, of course most of the time it was just joking around. Their relationship wasn't that complex, they were happy with each other and they didn't need to show it for the entire world. Many people in Garden always seemed to think that they were arguing or were always angry with each other but that wasn't the case: Squall wasn't exactly the most open person in the world, expressing his feelings wasn't on his top five list of things to do, so it was mostly when it was just himself and Rinoa that he would express his feelings and she loved it like that... At times.
Rinoa was.. Well let's, just say she enjoyed certain things at one point and then hated them at another. By Squall not expressing his feelings for her as much as she wanted him to, normally she got pretty angry, but knowing that once they were together and it was only her and him, he would open up to her, that was what made her day. Always having something to look forward to just sprinkled that little special feeling to those boring, ordinary lifeless days.
"Well Mr. Leonhart," stalking toward Squall, Rinoa planted herself on top of his paperwork, she raised an eyebrow, "how would you feel shacking up with little ole me in a log cabin over Christmas?"
Mimicking Rinoa, Squall rose as eyebrow, smirked and leaned forward, closer to Rinoa's face. "Now that Miss. Heartilly, sounds like a bad idea."
She frowned, "I'm being serious."
He rolled his eyes, "I'm not." Receiving a short slap on the arm from Rinoa resulted in Squall chuckling, "'course I'd love to spend my Christmas with you Rinoa. You're my gir-" He stopped in his tracks and mumbling under his breath he stated, "I've been spending far too much time with Irvine."
"Yeah.. You have. 'You're my girl?' That's just... not Squall." She shook her head, forgetting what Squall had just said, "So about Christmas. You're still up for log cabin?" Receiving some sort of grunt which Rinoa knew was a 'yes' and a short wave, she left his room. It still amazed her by how much his personality could change in a split second, not dramatically but still, it changed from time to time. Leaning against Squall's door, she inhaled then smiled. Only Quistis and Zell left. Shouldn't be too hard... I hope. With a slight push of of Squall's door, she wondered along the corridor to find Mr. Dincht.
--
Hey. Just a couple of notes here- The name for the story came from me listening to Wham! - 'Last Christmas' and so I thought hmm.. Well it's this Christmas and not last Christmas so.. Yeah! Bit of interesting stuff there for you to know. Also, there'll probably be about another chapter or two which should be pretty long, before the end of the story.
I hoped you enjoyed this first chapter, hopefully I'll have it completed before Christmas. So anyways, please read and review, thanks! Relyob