As much as I love Final Fantasy VIII, I do not own Final Fantasy or any of the characters. This is done just for fun.
Note: Squall's thoughts are placed in italics.
A Knight to Remember - A Final Fantasy VIII Fanfic
Squall switched off the lights and sat in the Commander's office serenely looking out the window. Even though the inky darkness of the night was offset by Balamb Garden's bright blue glow, he was still able to see a few winking stars and a sliver of a crescent moon in the sky. The sun had set long ago, and dawn was several hours away. This was a beautiful moment of quiet peacefulness just for him with nobody demanding his attention as Commander.
He had begrudgingly accepted the position of Balamb Garden Commander only after it was forced on him, and no matter how much he tried, he was never going to be happy about being trapped in an office so much. Being the Commander led to many responsibilities besides paperwork, and the office was so busy during the day he was always being interrupted by someone or something. Even Angelo would sometimes run into his office wanting something, even if it was only a pat on the head. Everybody always needs me, even the DOG needs me. Can't they ever leave me alone for a while? He took his hand and roughed up his hair while sighing and looking over his office. Evidence of visitors that had stopped by earlier in the day littered the edges of his desk. Dog biscuit crumbs. Angelo and Rinoa. Hot dog bun crumbs. Zell. Cherry-flavored lip gloss. Selphie... or maybe Irvine. At least Quistis is professional enough not to make a mess. Sigh.
That's why it was nice to come into the office at night and get a bit of work done in solitude. He had learned to be with people more, but sometimes he just had to be alone to properly recharge himself and think. Thinking too much could be bad for Squall, as being alone with his thoughts could turn one of two ways. He could either be haunted by the past, or be occasionally wistfully nostalgic about it. Tonight he was feeling good, and his thoughts drifted to his amazing accomplishment of helping saving the world from Ultimecia and time-compression. As frightening and dangerous the mission was at the time, he could now safely remember the thrilling energy of the fight and the clear sense of purpose. Squall had many faults, but once he knew that something had to be done, he came through no matter what the cost. Being brought up in a strict military world without knowing the soft caring reassurances of a family made him that way. It had warped his personality and made his natural shyness more of a coldness, but people didn't complain about that much anymore as long as he was able to get the job done. Too bad his job now was being drenched in paperwork and being a public figurehead for Balamb Garden. This is not what he would have imagined or what he would have wished for when he became a SeeD. He was made for fighting.
Squall reached up and touched the dark cold window and leaned his scarred forehead against it. Drawing one last glance at the free and expansive sky outside before turning and leaving his office for the night. He walked down the deserted, poorly lit corridor that housed the administrative offices of Balamb Garden and pushed the down button on the elevator. The elevator was waiting for him with jazzy music playing softly through the speakers that somehow reminded him of chocobos.
While exiting the elevator on the main floor he thought he heard some noise coming from the direction of the Training Center. He walked briskly in that direction to investigate. A frantic young cadet splattered in blood was running down the hall flailing his arms and was clearly emotionally distraught. The Training Center shouldn't be taken lightly, you could get killed there. There were safety guidelines that needed to be followed, especially if you were junior cadet.
"Help! Help me please!" the boy yelled towards Squall.
The Commander grabbed the upset boy by his shoulders and looked him straight in the eyes. "What is the nature of the emergency?" Squall asked directly and calmly.
"I was training with my friend, and we got attacked by a T-Rexaur. We ran away but she got tail whipped and is extremely hurt. I dragged her inside of the corridor, but she still needs help. We weren't prepared, and we don't have anything restorative." The boy sighed looking down, awaiting chastisement from the Commander.
Squall looked down at him sensing his thoughts. "We can talk about official safety guidelines later. The important thing right now it to take care of your friend's injuries." He quickly thought to himself that he also didn't have anything restorative right now, as he was just doing office work. Dr. Kadowaki was probably asleep. An idea occurred to him suddenly, and just as he was about to brush it away he decided it would do in a special emergency, just this once. "Go back and stay with your friend, I'll be there soon," Squall said while turning quickly and heading back to his office.
Guardian Forces, or GFs, had been an invaluable asset in the fight against Ultimecia, but that came with a price. Having them junctioned to yourself could boost natural abilities in addition to giving you supernatural ones. I miss using GFs, too bad they had side effects. Those side effects included eating away at your memories, hopefully not permanently, but you never know. Balamb Garden had greatly limited their use after Ultimecia, and now there were rules in place for safety. GFs were rarely used except in extreme emergencies or high risk missions. Well, they'd have to do tonight. Squall ran to his office and opened the wooden cabinet that contained the GFs. He speedily looked them over and figured Siren would probably be likely to have some restorative magic stocked. He quickly started heading back down towards the Training Center while junctioning Siren. Sights, sounds, and smells were sharpened in addition to the superhuman burst of energy that came with it. In no time at all he rushed upon the two young cadets sitting in the hallway to the Training Center.
He looked the sad scene over as the nervous boy held his friend. She was bleeding, appeared to have broken legs, and had some weird bruises on her neck. Squall kneeled over the girl and healed her with Siren's stocked magic while instructing the boy to gently straighten her legs. Relief clearly washed over the young girl. Squall used the edge of his sleeve to wipe the sweat off her thankful face. He was feeling pretty great after junctioning and getting to see any kind of action after a boring day in the office. He figured using a bit more magic wouldn't hurt. He cast sleep on her to help her rest. Squall carefully picked her up piggyback style and asked the boy to lead him to her dorm room. Right now, rest would be best for her. He instructed the cadet to take her to Dr. Kadowaki in the morning.
Squall left the dorms feeling invigorated. Why were those two in the Training Center so late and so poorly prepared for fighting? Was it past curfew? He wondered if they weren't training at all while remembering the "secret area" that was often popular with cadets. They looked so young, that's probably not what they were there for. Wait, maybe those bruises were hickeys? He was a bit unsettled by that. Squall himself had been a late bloomer in even thinking about girls, unless Ellone counted. And she sure didn't as she was his adopted sister. His train of thought was veering off into really uncomfortable territory, so he decided to focus on getting Siren de-junctioned.
He made his way back to his office to put Siren back into the cabinet. Squall was about to take the junction off when he hesitated a bit. The feeling of being junctioned was nice and powerful, and he only had Siren. She certainly wasn't the strongest GF there was. He looked over at them all with fond memories. If Siren was this nice, what about a more powerful GF like Bahamut or Eden? During the time with Ultimecia he'd always shared the GFs amongst his friends. Have I ever had them all junctioned on myself at once? What would that be like? No, I can't. That's irresponsible, a bad example, and um, it would probably be fun... It's late, nobody needs to know. I can take them off right away. He half-smiled mischievously to himself and quickly junctioned them all at once. He felt a familiar blast of power, but it was much stronger than he had ever remembered it being before. He felt very different.
He had been a weak and scared child, but nobody would ever call the adult Squall Leonhart weak or scared. But even as capable as he was now, the GFs truly made him feel immensely strong. He looked down at his hands and flexed them feeling energized and wanting to fight something very badly. He felt it would be a shame to waste this moment. I could use them a bit longer, but I need a plan. I can't have anybody catching me doing this. So I can't go to the Training Center... maybe I could go out to the Acauld Plains? By myself? That's even more irresponsible than what I'm doing here already. But I'm junctioned with everything. I'll be perfectly fine. He decided to give into his impulses and looked down at what he was wearing. Luckily he was already wearing boots, jeans, and a t-shirt. His gunblade caught his eye from across his office. He went to grab it and head out.
Since it was getting pretty late, he had no troubling sneaking out of Garden without too many people even seeing him. The sidewalks blurred by as he made his way to the entrance. He was exhilarated by the fresh air that flowed past his face as he continued out into the dark, damp plains and away from Balamb Garden's bright glow. The crescent moon peaked out from some high thin clouds barely illuminating the land. It had rained earlier in the day and he could smell the damp air. Finally he was out of his office and amongst the stars like he had wished to be earlier in the evening. He felt like a lion hunting at night across the plains. Leonhart, you're getting kinda overly dramatic here considering you'll probably only run into a few bite bugs. He shook his head at his silly thought. Okay, time to do some damage.
It wasn't long before he found some enemies to fight. He rushed headlong at a Catcherchipillar and a few bite bugs and swung his gunblade up into the larger monster. It was instantaneously cleaved in two and splattered him messily. Dodging unnecessarily to the side, he swung his blade and killed the bite bugs. Lion Heart and his junctioned strength were no match for the weak creatures. Actually Squall probably could have killed the bite bugs with a tennis racket in his sleep, but he was having fun anyway. Well, that certainly was overkill, but not as much as an overkill as the next one. He smiled and cast Aura on himself and ran onto the next target.
Squall was losing track of time as he was completely caught up in the thrill of battle. Fighting with pretty much every GF he knew of junctioned to himself was admittedly pretty fun, if not the smartest thing in the world. His badly stained clothes were the only concrete indication of how long he'd been fighting. He headed towards the dark forest, and heard a T-Rexaur's roar. Okay, after this, I will definitely go back. Two more, tops. He started to run towards the tree line.
Tail whips, dodged bites, and magical explosions resounded through the trees as Squall expertly battled the T-Rexaur. The magical attacks lit the area beautifully in brief bursts. If anyone was looking on the scene they would of thought that the carnival was in town with all the noise and lights that Squall was generating. After Squall had enough excitement, he recast Aura on himself and let loose on the monster. The fight went very quickly after that. He decided he was done for the evening, and he was pretty satisfied with himself.
Walking back to Garden he felt tired, happy, and free. Fighting had released more tension than he was even aware of. His thoughts drifted towards Rinoa. I loved fighting like this, and I wish she'd been here with me tonight. Together we're pretty unstoppable. My gunblade skills coupled with her sorceress powers are a perfect match. It's like we were made for each other. Maybe it was the influence of the GFs, but Squall was feeling downright emotional, well emotional for him anyways. I wonder if she knows how much I love her. I mean I rescued her from the Sorceress Memorial, and I jumped into outer space for her, but have I ever actually verbally told her in words? His wave of good feelings fueled his resolve to be more forthcoming in his relationship with Rinoa. He was going to tell her he loved her, and that he'd realized his love for her since the incident at the Sorceress Memorial. His hand ran through his sweat and gore soaked hair as he looked up towards Balamb Garden.
A tiny figure was backlit by Garden's nighttime glow. Squall sensed the person was coming out towards him, and he warily stalked off to meet the person in the middle of the plains. His heart leapt in his chest, as his heart must have known it was Rinoa before his eyes confimred it. It wasn't until he was much closer that the person's figure started to become clearly recognizable as Rinoa Heartilly. He swallowed hard and tried to straighten his filthy and torn t-shirt.
"How'd you find me Rinoa?" he said softly to her. He was glad for the darkness, so she couldn't see the embarrassingly obvious lovestruck look in his eyes. She walked up closer to him before answering.
"Well, I noticed your gunblade was gone, and the cabinet where you kept the GFs was also empty. I couldn't find you in the Training Center, so I decided to try the plains. It was pretty easy to find you because there was a trail of squished bite bugs from the Garden entrance up till here. Plus, I think I saw Bahamut fly by. And lots of magical fireworks in the night sky are kinda hard to hide." She smiled up at him.
Squall's earlier emotions were overwhelming him. He reached out towards Rinoa and pulled her close. Before his earlier resolve faded away he leaned in to kiss her passionately. Softly kissing her sweet warm lips was like heaven, and she seemed surprised and happy by his unexpected enthusiasm. It felt like a few breathless minutes had gone by. I'm pretty good at this. It almost feels like this is really familiar and comfortable, almost like I've been doing it for years. I'm a pretty quick learner. Late bloomer, whatever! He pulled away from her quickly to speak.
"Rinoa, I love you. I've known ever since I rescued you from the Sorceress Memorial. I thought you should know too. I'm sorry I haven't told you before," he blurted out quickly while looking down and averting his eyes and awaited her response.
"Squall, that's very sweet, but..." A look of confusion blanketed Rinoa's face. She let out a quick breath and pushed some hair behind her ears. She stood there trying to formulate what she was going to say next.
Oh no, is she going to reject me? Did I misread this situation? Maybe she just wants to be friends? His heart ached and he felt like he couldn't breathe. If she rejected him, it would kill him. His blood drained from his face, but the darkness and smeared monster blood hid it.
Rinoa was now holding both of her temples and seemed worried. "Squall are you okay?" she asked in a very quiet voice. Her arms slid down to hold herself tightly while waiting for him to speak. She started rocking back and forth on the tips of her toes.
What type of response to a love confession is THAT? No wonder I've kept to myself all these years. The protection was necessary. Squall was offended and tried to not show it by standing straighter and keeping his face looking as stoic as possible under the bizarre circumstances.
"Yes Rinoa, I'm feeling okay. Actually I'm feeling pretty great tonight. Maybe I was feeling so great that I got a little carried away and said some things I didn't really mean," he said defensively while crossing his arms.
Now Rinoa was looking worried AND hurt. Her mouth opened to speak but quickly shut and then opened again. Her head tilted to the side looking bewildered. One of her hands reached out towards him tentatively, but he purposely stepped back to avoid her touch. Her eyes widened at the slight. Squall saw her predicament and wanted to swoop in and hold her, but he clearly wanted to save as much of his pride as he could after his ill received confession of love.
"Earlier I noticed the GFs were gone. Do you actually have all of the GFs on you at once? Squall, do you even know how old you are? What year it is?"
"Um, it's 1999? And yes, I do have all the GFs junctioned to myself."
She seemed both relieved and worried. "Okay, so you're acting like this because of the GFs. That makes sense, I guess. People don't use them as much anymore. Maybe your tolerance is low, and junctioning them all at once seems kind of extreme. Does that even make sense? You do know that GF junctions can affect the part of the brain that holds memories, right?"
Squall had a vague feeling that some of what she was saying made sense, so he slowly nodded his head.
"I think your brain is a little jumbled up right now, so let me try to straighten you out," Rinoa stated while clasping her hands in front of herself and leaning towards him. She took a deep breath and started up again. "First, I love you too. I love you with all my heart, so please never forget THAT, no matter how many GFs you have junctioned. Secondly, I know you love me too. You tell me all the time with your actions, and even sometimes with your words. Thirdly, I assume other people know you love me because we're married, and our friends were at the wedding." She was about to continue, but stopped as the shock hit Squall.
He looked down and around, and seemed a little bit off balance. How'd I forget something as important as being married to Rinoa? This GF memory loss is no joke. He was having a great night before, but that feeling had faded to a creeping fear.
Rinoa waited for him to get used to the idea of marriage before continuing. "Um, and I guess since you can't even remember that we're married, you probably don't remember our children right now?"
Now he certainly looked shocked and slumped onto one knee, with his arm holding onto the hilt of Lion Heart for support. Rinoa rushed down to his side and gently had him sit down on the damp earth with her. He looked so lost. A wave of sympathy flowed over Rinoa and she held him in her arms as he had gone fairly limp. She lightly tried to position his head in her lap. He seemed to be melting into the ground.
"It's okay Squall. That was kind of a big shock for you right now."
"I just found out I had children. This must have been what Laguna felt like," he said weakly, and in an attempt at some humor.
"Okay! Well, at least I don't have to explain THAT to you!" she said relieved. Rinoa fake wiped sweat off her forehead and huffed in a comical manner. He laughed a bit as the humor was disarming some of his shock. He tried to sit up. "No, why don't you just stay there for a minute. It's nice." She ran her fingers through his grimy hair tenderly.
"I'm sorry. I'm getting blood, guts, and dirt all over your clothes," he said while looking up and trying to catch the glint of her eyes in the moonlight.
"It's okay Squall. Mrs. Leonhart here is no stranger to getting blood and guts out of fabric or leather. Even if I have to use sorcery to do it." He smiled at that, and she felt his mood start to lighten further.
"Well, now I have to tell you about our children. We have 10 of them, and they're all named Laguna," Rinoa laughed. Now Squall sunk back down and looked shocked again. "SQUALL! I'm joking! They aren't named Laguna."
Squall was already in a somewhat panicked state. Have I ever actually been around any women who have even had children? Edea had lots of children, but they were orphans, not biologically hers.
"Do you actually think I look like somebody who had 10 children!? she said in an exasperated tone. At his silence, she angrily grabbed his hands and placed them all over herself. "Huh, do you?!"
Squall embarrassedly snatched his hands away.
"Oh, now you're all shy and embarrassed. You weren't that shy when we were MAKING those children Leonhart!"
Squall covered his face with his gloved hand and settled his head back onto her lap. "This is all a little bit much for me right now, Rinoa."
She suddenly felt bad for picking on him in his mentally confused state. "Sorry, Squall." Bending down she nuzzled her forehead into the back of his hand. She gently removed his hand from his face, and smiled at him. "Also, it is soooo not 1999 anymore," she laughed lightly at him. "Maybe you should take the GFs off now. Hopefully your memories will come back fairly soon if you've only had them on tonight." Squall went to take off the GFs when Rinoa stopped his hands. "Wait, before you de-junction yourself, lean in and kiss me like an over-enthusiastic teenager again." Squall was happy to do so and drew closer to her, pulling her face towards his.
A few minutes later they were laying on the ground looking up at the stars, laughing lightly at nothing. The night had turned warmer and the damp cool air that was present when Squall left the Garden had all but dissipated. The conversation gradually became easier as they kept talking. Rinoa was enjoying herself as he normally was a quiet person. They were mostly waiting for him to sort himself out. Rinoa did not want anyone else to know about Squall's loss of memory, and he wanted things in his head to clear. He leaned over and propped himself up on one arm while twisting a blade of grass with one hand absentmindedly. "This was fun. Want to sneak out with me another time?"
Rinoa leaned in and whispered, "maybe we could get a babysitter and go to The Island Closest to Hell and really have some fun."
Squall let out a surprised snort of a laugh. "Well, you certainly know what I like. Ah, that's why I married you, at least probably married you. I'm not sure how credible your story is."
"SQUALL! I'm 100% not joking about that!" Rinoa yelled. She glared at him and smacked him in the arm that was propping his body up, making him tip over next to her. "Okay Mr. Commander-Knight Leonhart, your Sorceress orders you to stay out here until your brains get unscrambled enough that you can remember some basic things about your life. The last thing I want the children to see is their daddy coming home covered in monster guts and not being able to remember their EXISTENCE!"
"I'm only kind of teasing you now Rinoa. I'm starting to remember things, but they are very hazy like a faded dream. I'll be able to go back soon. Hopefully before the sun comes up anyways." He started to stand up, and reached down for Rinoa's hand. "Let's go for a stroll back to Garden. I don't want to get attacked by anything out here, although I have a feeling I cleared this area out pretty well earlier." They started walking through the damp grass. Making their way back while holding hands was very relaxing. Garden was eerily silent at this time of night. He didn't see anyone as he made his way back to his office. He pushed open his door remembering that he hadn't even locked it before leaving. Nothing seemed amiss, it was just as he left it.
It took him a minute to fumble with his keys and he had to double check that the GFs got placed safely back in his office cabinet. He normally wasn't one to double check, but he was becoming tired and was feeling the aftereffects of losing so many GFs. Squall placed his mind on autopilot and veered towards his old dorm room.
"Squall, we don't live there, we live in an apartment, remember?"
"Um, yeah, sure. Why don't you lead the way." Squall said scratching the back of his neck trying to remember.
After Rinoa took the lead, they quickly made their way to their home. They carefully and quietly opened the door. The apartment was simply decorated and Squall could see Rinoa's personality everywhere in the apartment. As Squall scanned the living room he could see that Selphie was completely asleep on their couch. Her little legs were slung over the back, her knee-high socks were halfway falling down her calves, and her boots were sitting beside her. Rinoa went over and shook her lightly. Selphie smiled sleepily and nodded at Rinoa and Squall, putting her finger up to her lips in a motion of silence while pointing towards the children's bedroom. She sat up on the couch, pulled up her socks, and hastily placed her boots on. She then got up, brushed herself off, gave them a thumbs up, and then slowly bounced out the front door while waving goodbye.
They were left in an awkward silence once Selphie left. Squall shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, unsure of what to do. "Would you liked to take a peek at them?" Rinoa whispered while grabbing his hand and pulling him towards the children's bedroom. On her way down the hall she pointed out a hanging framed photo of them on their wedding day while giving him a "see, I told you so" kind of look. He just smiled down at her in amusement and gave her a pretend eye roll. Rinoa carefully opened the door, and he took a peek into the darkened room. The light from the hall illuminated the room slightly and showed it was pastel yellow and decorated in a chicabo theme. He could see two little twin beds in the room, with a small child in each. Definitely just two, not ten. Not wanting to wake them up, they slowly shut the door again.
"Okay, I don't know about you, but I seriously need to get some rest tonight," Rinoa sighed.
As Rinoa turned he followed her into the their dark bedroom. Although the power of the GFs had made him happy for a short time he couldn't help smiling at the joy he saw lingering on Rinoa's face after looking in on their sleeping children. After clumsily bumping into the edge of the bed he walked through the room until he found the door to what was probably their bathroom. Once inside, he shut the door and got undressed figuring that Rinoa would never let him sleep anywhere in their home covered in all that grime.
After Squall spent a few minutes in the shower, Rinoa wandered into the bathroom. She was going to begin her usual nighttime routine of washing her face, brushing her teeth, and getting undressed, but she abruptly stopped as she felt a weird tension in the air. She couldn't help turning to Squall as she saw the look on his face through the glass shower door. It was priceless. Even through the steam, it was apparent that he was blushing from awkward embarrassment and tried unsuccessfully to cover himself with soapsuds and the fluffy loofah he was holding. For a moment she had forgotten that he didn't have his all his memories back yet. "Don't worry, I won't look," she said while covering her eyes with her hands and clearly peeking through her fingers while laughing. She was almost going to remove all her clothing and change into a nightgown, but she could tell that Squall was still feeling the effects of the GFs, and though she would enjoy teasing him, she loved him and did not want to keep embarrassing him too much. Rinoa found that she quite enjoyed toying with his scrambled brain, but the guilt was starting to catch up with her. She got up and made a motion to leave after quickly brushing her teeth.
"I'm going to change in the bedroom, so you better give me some privacy," Rinoa said jokingly.
After he was done cleaning up, Squall changed into a t-shirt and shorts and walked back into the bedroom announcing his presence before entering the room. The bedside lamp illuminated Rinoa as she was sitting up in the bed twiddling her thumbs and deep in thought. A book sat in between her legs opened but unread. Squall thought she looked amazingly beautiful in an ivory nightgown that was reminiscent of the dress he first saw her in at the SeeD graduation dance. At least I still have THAT memory. Somehow her nighttime lingerie actually covered more leg than that mini-dress. That doesn't seem right. He shook the odd observation away.
Slightly embarrassed at staring at Rinoa for so long, and not really knowing where Rinoa wanted him to sleep, he started walking towards the living room supposing he would just sleep on the couch until his memories returned. He mumbled, "I'll just spend the rest of the night on the couch," as he grabbed a pillow and looked out towards the hall. He didn't want this evening to get any weirder than it already had been. He didn't wait for a response but started slowly walking toward the open bedroom door.
"I saw you looking at my nightgown, Squall. I know it's your favorite. You have told me more than once," Rinoa said. She was hoping he would remember. He could hear the amusement in her voice.
Rinoa quickly got up, and grabbed Squall's hand stopping him as he was leaving to step into the hallway. She came around to face Squall and wrapped her arms around him in a big hug and buried her face in his chest. She took his hand and gently led him to the other side of the bed. "No, you always sleep beside me Squall. I can't sleep well when you're not here." Whenever he was away on a SeeD mission, although they occurred with less and less frequency, she could never sleep easily. "This here..." she paused and patted the side of the bed opposite to where she was sitting earlier, " is where you should and will always sleep, Squall Leonhart."
She was using his full name, so he knew Rinoa meant business. And one should never infuriate a sorceress. So he pulled back the sheets and sat down on the bed. He could see that Rinoa had been waiting patiently for him to finish with the shower in order to turn off the lights. She closed the book she had been trying to read, placed it on the nightstand, turned off the lights, and snuggled down under the sheets.
"Things will be clearer in the morning," Rinoa said convincingly. "You yourself have told me stories of others that have had similar memory loss. The memory loss is temporary, right?"
That single word temporary allowed Squall to relax and release the tension that had been in the back of his mind since learning he was married to Rinoa. His head would probably be much clearer in the morning.
Squall changed positions to lay on his back beside Rinoa. Words did not need to pass between them as Squall turned and looked deep into her eyes. I love you.
"I love you too, Squall," Rinoa said while staring into his eyes. In a whisper Rinoa said, "Squall you'll always be my knight, no matter what. Let's go to sleep, I'm sure you'll remember more in the morning and we are both truly exhausted."
As Rinoa turned over on her side Squall instinctually, as if he had done it thousands of times before, put his arm underneath Rinoa's head and nestled up behind her. After a few minutes, he leaned back and brushed away her jet-black hair, gently placing a kiss at the base of her neck. A few minutes later Squall once again was going to speak to Rinoa, but he realized that she was already breathing in a way that indicated she was fast asleep.
Squall had too much on his brain so although his body was tired, his mind was awake. He turned away from Rinoa and looked out the window into the clear night sky. Although he had lost his memories he was certain of this. I may not know much that is going on right now, but being here is where I belong.
As he started to fall asleep, a few past memories came flooding back and jerked Squall wide awake. Rinoa awoke suddenly thinking that Squall was having his reoccurring time-compression nightmare . "It's okay Squall, I'm here. You're not alone anymore," she said while rolling over to hold him.
"I'm fine, I wasn't having a nightmare. I hadn't even fallen asleep yet."
"Oh are your thoughts keeping you awake tonight? As long as you are thinking. What do you think of us having a third child? Laguna is a nice name. It would be a very pretty name for a boy OR a girl," she teased sleepily while trying to playfully kiss his increasingly angry face.
"Rinoa, let's make a new rule. Nobody is allowed to mention Laguna while in our bed, EVER! Wait a second, that isn't a new rule, that's an OLD rule. I think I've had this conversation many times before... maybe as recently as THIS MORNING!" Squall coldly glared at her while starting to regain the rest of his memories, his fists clenching at the edge of the sheets.
"Oh good, you are getting your memories back!" Rinoa said excitedly while trying to cuddle up with a very ticked-off looking Squall. "I was sort of getting used to the confused Squall, but this is good too. As long as you are feeling back to your old self..." she trailed off while running her hands through his hair and kissing his tense neck. Squall continued to glare icily down at her while she was kissing her way up to his stony face. The earlier mention of Laguna was still making him seethe.
"Seriously Rinoa!" Squall started to grapple with her and push her away while continuing arguing as he heard crying from the other bedroom. "Wait, Lily is having nightmares again!" Good, I'm actually remembering names now. I didn't want to have to ask about my own kids' names. It's not like I'm Laguna. Man, now I can't stop thinking about him! He sighed and instinctively switched into heroic-Squall-rescue-mode and dashed off leaving a very forlorn looking Rinoa nearly falling facedown in their bed. She pushed herself back up, waiting for her back-to-normal grouchy Squall to return.
"WHATEVER!" Rinoa huffed while tightly crossing her arms in frustration and irritably kicking all the sheets completely off the bed as she heard the commotion continue from the next room. This was still going to be a very long night.
The end
I wrote this for fun with my husband. Hopefully some readers will have at least a fraction of the fun we had while writing it.