A good-bye is only painful if you know you'll never say hello again

Unknown

"Remember me," she whispered, her lips tickling the side of his face as the warm air of her voice kissed his ear gently.

"How could I ever forget," his was soft, a whisper to match her own but retaining its trained edge even in its silence.

It was consistent. A steady constant, just like he was, just like she had come to rely on.

"I mean it," she whispered as her face drew impossibly closer, her lips now dancing near his ear lobe. Yet in spite of it all her voice became softer, more desperate, and even to harder to hear.

But the feeling remained…no the feeling grew!

"But if anything," she paused for a moment, a sudden unsteadiness in her words as she spoke, "if worse comes to worse, come back to me," her arms, which had been rather firmly seated around his neck beforehand, seemed to tighten and what was once firm became tight as a the quivering in her breathing hitched its normal cadence. "Come back to me," her voice dropped impossibly lower but with a firmness in its next speech, "alive."

There was a heavy silence between them, comfortable mind you but heavy nonetheless.

He would break the silence; he would answer.

"I know."

(xXx)

Squall would stand on the aft watch deck staring at the horizon till the Balamb pier disappeared, then till sun started to set, until finally the moon had risen to full mast centered in the sky, its luminance accentuated by the violet back drop of the darkness of space. Where the stars, unhindered by the pollution and lights of man, would mingle in the background like diamonds placed on display on the velvet sheet of the sky.

Irvine would later comment one day off handedly, that he saw him, Squall, there that night, clutching something close to his chest with an unreadable expression on his face before laughing a bit boisterously about how all his faces were unreadable. But as he would settle down his voice turned sincere, a sorrowing to its usual jovialness, as he'd finish his thought.

"His face was unreadable but his eyes were telling. They shown brighter then the moon that night I reckon."

(xXx)

Rinoa stood on the pier just till the ship was gone before she turned away, running past several stragglers that had decided to remain just as long as she but opting for a more memorable walk down depressions lane. She'd nigh broken the door off the hinges of the Garden duty vehicle before it would finally open and throwing herself in before slamming the door shut to hide herself inside.

She rested her head on the steering wheel; ebon black bangs framing the sides of her face as the car was suddenly filled with the sound of her unsteady breathing. One might assume it from the sudden sprint to the car but then it could've just as easily been because of the departure of her soul as well.

They wouldn't know, she didn't even know why so either. All she knew was it hurt and the farther and farther that ship went the more and more the pain in her chest grew. She felt cold, yet hot, and stretched thin. And the harder she tried to breathe the harder it was to breathe.

Knight's didn't forget…did they? Would he?

And the more she blinked, the more tears would follow.

(xXx)

PAIN

mental or emotional suffering or torment

a/n: so after a year in total hibernation and almost 4 years in complete back burner-ing (word?) I jotted down a few sporadic thoughts and pieced them together into this little thing. Looking back at to what BS (hah) really was I have no idea just wtf I was doing at the time. That's not to say that I know what I'm doing now, because I really don't, but I do feel that I've marginalized my thoughts and found just what it was I was looking to create (or at least begin to create) when I molded this little drabble, so to speak. Nevertheless BS (haha) will never be an epic story on a grand scale (something I envisioned 5 years ago) but rather a story told in sensible snippets or drabbles. Therefore please do enjoy my resurrection (both literally and literature-ly so to speak) for the time being and I look forward to continuing on with you, the readers.

- ark12