No Matter What
Author's Note: This fic is NOT a copy of Untouchable Love by TiDuS FoReVeR in case any of you think it is. There is no attempted murder, threats, or bashing of any kind. And also, no rivalry between Squall and Seifer, they're really good friends. This is an idea I came up with.
Summary: Au Squinoa. Squall's the best SeeD in Balamb Garden. Rinoa's the most popular SeeD there. A perfect match. But they're best friends and don't see themselves like that. But deep down they both wish they were. So what happens when after a wild party at Zell's, she comes to him with a problem? And it's his? What will he do? Will they stay friends, or become something more?
Chapter One
First Day Fall Out
September 3rd
Balamb's beautiful sunlight shone through the windows of Garden. Students were excited to be coming back for their senior year. Especially seventeen year old Rinoa Heartilly. She was one of the best in SeeD, and the most popular of all of them. She saw a tall brunette in black clothes walking towards the building.
"Squall, wait up!" she shouted and ran up to the young man. He was seventeen also. He was the top ranking SeeD of garden, and they were best friends.
"Hey Rinoa, what's up? Have a nice summer?"
"You should know! We spent nearly every day together, remember?" she laughed.
Squall shrugged.
"Yeah, whatever. Homeroom's about to start. Shall we go in?"
"Sure thing!" she linked her arm with his and they both headed towards their Homeroom class. They found two seats next to each other free and sat down.
"Who do you reckon is taking us for Junctioning?" Squall asked her, tapping his fingers on the table.
"Dunno. Might be Seifer. Or Quistis. Not too sure. Why? Hoping to get a good grade this year?"
"Nah, I hate Junctioning class. Bores the hell outta me."
"Wanna skip class this afternoon? All we have is P.E. And it's a double lesson."
"Why not? P.E is SO boring. Walk me home after classes end?"
"Sure, as always."
Quistis appeared at the front of the hall. She smirked at the students present.
"Good morning everyone. Welcome to Homeroom. I expect you all have received your class schedules? If not, I have them at the front desk. Now the point of this class is for students to complete any unfinished homework before their respective classes begin. This class is also for announcements of class trips, celebration balls and general announcements from the instructors. And because you are all seniors, you may not be allowed make declarations of parties you will be having. That includes you, Zell. Save it for after classes have finished. And since you have not attended any classes today, you may chat amongst yourselves until the bell."
"Some good news for a change," Rinoa muttered under her breath. Squall smirked at her.
A piece of paper flew onto Squall's desk. It was a paper aeroplane. Squall opened it up. It was an invite to Zell's party this Friday.
"ZELL'S WILD, 'RENT FREE BOOYA RAVE! Dincht Residence, Balamb. Friday Nite September 5th. All RSVPs due within Homeroom. All non-correspondents shall not be permitted to enter. You have to be on the list! BRING YOUR OWN BOOZE! BEERS AND SPIRITS ONLY! NO ALCOPOPS ALLOWED!"
"Shall we go?" asked Rinoa.
"Seriously? You wanna go?"
"Zell's our friend!" Rinoa snatched the paper from Squall's fingers, wrote on it and sent it back to Zell in the back row. Zell punched the air in delight and shouted.
"BOOYA! Won't be party without you Rin! Glad you're coming! Leonheart! The 'rents are gone for the weekend and we're gonna party ALL night long!" (A/N: "'rents" are slang for parents.)
"Rinoa…" Squall groaned. "WHY did you say we're going? You know I hate parties."
Rinoa laughed.
"'Wild-Man-Leonheart, hates parties! There's a laugh! We had one during summer!"
"That was my birthday. That was a different matter. Zell's parties will have alcohol everywhere. Laguna would freak if he knew I was going to a Dincht rave. And so would mom!"
"Can't you call him "Dad", like I do with Caraway? And he won't freak. He brought alcohol to YOUR party! Remember?"
"Whatever." He muttered. Rinoa punched his arm.
"Come on, it'll be fun! You don't want me to go alone do you? All those drunken SeeDs there and me without my best friend who they're afraid of? Please?"
"Fine, I'll come with you. But promise me something."
"Anything!" She flashed him a warm smile.
"I'm not coming as your date. Just as your friend." Even though I want to. I can't ruin what we have.
"Oh. Ok," Rinoa responded disappointed. She sighed deeply and leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes, as if she were in a state of suspended animation.
If that's what he wants, then I won't press the matter. I hate us being "just friends". I want us to be more than that. He doesn't want to wreck our friendship. And I respect his decision. He already made that clear.
Flashback
It was three days before her seventeenth birthday and he wanted to know what she wanted for her present. She had hugged him tight and whispered into his ear that all she wanted was him. She had kissed him deeply and he pushed her away.
"Rinoa! I thought I said that I didn't want this to happen! I only like you as a friend, nothing more!"
"Why don't you see that I care about you? Do you not like me like that?" she had whispered. She sat on the ground, burying her face in her arms.
Squall had bent down to her eye level and cupped her face in his hands.
"I do like you. But what we have is better than what you want. If we ended up dating, and broke up, how could we go back to being friends? Do you really want that?"
"No," she said, not looking him in the face. "No, I don't."
At her party, she had avoided him completely. She spent her time in her room, refusing to come down because she was unwell. She apologised to her parents and sent her apologies to the guests downstairs. Squall had left, feeling miserable that he had upset his best friend and had ruined her party. She gave him the cold shoulder for three days after her party.
Eventually she forgave him and he took her out as a belated birthday present. He took her to Deling City for a meal and to see a show called "My Fair Chocobo". She had cheered up, but still felt down about their previous conversation.
End Flashback
"Rinoa? Rinoa? Rinoa!"
"Huh?"
She looked over to see Squall looking at her worriedly.
"Homeroom's over! Get up! Did you not get any sleep last night?"
She rubbed her eyes and groaned. Her eyes sized him up and down before speaking.
"Yes, I did get some sleep last night. Thank you." She said coldly. Squall looked surprised.
She's acting like she did when I… oh, she must still be mad at me about that. I can't take it back. She's too valuable a friend to do that to. I love her, I really do. But is it worth ruining our friendship for it? She's my friend, and nothing is gonna change that.
They walked towards their respective classes. He was going to Magic, and she was going to Weapon History.
They stopped at the elevator. His class was downstairs.
"Do you want to meet for lunch?" he asked.
"Whatever." She muttered and headed into the elevator. She felt his hand on her shoulder.
"Have I upset you?" he pleaded. "Can I make it up to you? Buy you lunch or something?"
"No, everything's fine. I just hate being woken up, that's all." She shrugged his hand off, walked into the elevator and pressed the button to go up a floor. The doors closed and the elevator began its ascent to the second floor.
Squall's eyes were focused on her retreating figure.
"You weren't mad because I woke you up." He said to himself. "You're mad because I won't go to Zell's party as your date. I hope you understand that I can't do it. I can see you're mad but-"
"And I can see you're late for class!"
Squall turned to face Seifer, Fujin and Raijin. The disciplinary committee right behind him. And he was dawdling at the elevator shaft. And the bell had rung five minutes ago for the next lesson.
Crap…
"Which counts for a detention after classes this afternoon, I believe." Seifer smirked.
"AFFIRMATIVE." shouted Fujin.
"Aaaw Seifer, can't you let me off? It's the first day back!" Squall groaned.
"I can't allow any students, be they freshmen, or seniors in your case, to be late for their respective lessons Leonheart. Rules are rules. Sorry man." Seifer said with no sympathy.
Raijin handed Squall a detention slip for three o'clock, for an hour.
"Now be off to your lesson, ya know? Or it'll be another day for ya." Raijin threatened.
Squall walked off at a quick pace. He didn't want to fall out with anymore of his friends.
I was supposed to walk home with Rinoa. She's gonna be so pissed about it.
Lunch time, Cafeteria
Squall was in the line for his lunch, musing on what he'd said to Rinoa in Homeroom earlier. She hadn't met up with him after her Weapon History class, so he'd gone to the Cafeteria by himself, hoping to meet with her there.
"Fine, I'll come with you. But promise me something." He had said.
"Anything!" She flashed him a warm smile.
"I'm not coming as your date. Just as your friend." He added.
"Oh. Ok," Rinoa responded disappointed.
"What'll it be?" asked the lunch-lady in front of him. He snapped out of his trance. He saw Rinoa at the end of the long queue that had formed behind him. She looked very hungry.
"Uh, I'll have a Coronation chicken sandwich with tomato and lettuce, please, a packet of cheese and onion crisps, and a can of Diet Coke with Lime. And also, may I have a BBQ chicken sandwich with cucumber and extra BBQ sauce, a packet of Flaming Hot Monster Munch and a can of Sprite please?"
"That's thirteen Gil all together then love," she smiled and handed him the tray of food.
He walked down the line of hungry students and stopped next to Rinoa.
"I got you some food. Care to join me?"
She nodded in a silent thank you and walked quietly behind him.
They situated themselves at a vacant table near the window. Rinoa ate her food calmly. Squall watched her. She looked at him out of the corner of her coffee eyes. His cobalt ones were boring into hers.
"Do I have something on my face?" she snapped at him.
"No, it just-"
"Then why are you staring?"
"Are you mad at me because of what I said? Have you forgotten what I told you?"
"No I haven't forgotten Squall!" she snapped. "But this is getting ridiculous. We've been best friends for over ten years, our parents are best friends, and everyone thinks we'd make a great couple! Why don't you get it!"
"Because you know I don't want that! Can't you get it through that little brain of yours that we'll never be together like that!" he shouted unintentionally. The entire student body turned around from what they were doing to see the Garden's best arguing. Squall shot them all a death-glare and they returned to their lunches.
Rinoa sat in her seat, not finishing her lunch. Squall continued to eat his, mustering up all the strength he could not to shout at her again.
"I guess you don't want to walk me home then?" she muttered.
"I can't. Seifer gave me detention."
"Whatever," she said and walked off, leaving the remains of her lunch in the table.
"Yeah, whatever." Squall said and threw the remains of both lunches in the bin and stalked off to his locker.
Great, just what I need. He thought sourly. My best friend pissed off at me and a detention on my first day back. This day couldn't get any worse.
He opened his locker and a piece of paper fell out onto the floor. He picked it up and opened it. It was a short note from Rinoa
Squall,
I've decided to go home. Tell Quistis that I am feeling unwell. I'll see you tomorrow.
Rinoa
"Brilliant, she's so pissed at me that she's gone back home." Squall said sarcastically.
Then, he remembered something. Recently someone from Deling had been raped in the alley close to Rinoa's bus-stop.
Luckily, Squall walks the same route as Rinoa to get to his bus-stop so he was always there to protect her if necessary. He always got the bus to Caraway Mansion, same as her. From there it was a twenty minute walk to his house. Unless Laguna picked him up from Rinoa's house on his way back from the D-District Prison.
And she was probably going to walk down that same alley by herself with no weapon.
"Rinoa!"
He grabbed his Lion heart from its holster in his locker and ran from Garden in hopes of catching her before it happened again. He jumped onto the train in the second carriage just as the train was about to go.
I hope I'm not too late. I'll never forgive myself if something happens to her.
Rinoa had walked out of Garden and had headed for Balamb Station. She paid for her ticket with her 75 discount card for Students. This was a special perk, since she wasn't a local resident of Balamb.
"Why didn't I get sent to Galbaldia Garden instead? It's so much closer to home." She muttered as she took a seat in the third carriage.
She had fallen asleep on the journey to Deling and got off at her stop. She had to walk down a dark alley near the shopping arcade before she reached her bus-stop.
"I'm sick and tired of this! I may as well give up and find myself a boyfriend. I can get almost any guy I want!" she shouted down the alley she was walking through.
"You can have me, sweetness," Came a slurred voice from behind her. She screamed as a hand with a wet cloth clamped over her mouth. Soon she fell into an unconscious state.
"Squall..." she murmured before the darkness took her over.
Author's note: Well then? Enjoying it so far? Hope so. 'Cos this has taken me nearly six hours to write this dinky little chapter! Review if you like. Chapter two will be posted soon.
Rinny Leonheart