by Kira (mikilicious_babe@hotmail.com)
Author's Notes: A friend requested something Squall and Rinoa-oriented, and this is what came out. ^^ Enjoy!
How did she convince him to do these things?
Heaving a dramatic, bored sigh, Squall planted a hand to his hip, leaning lazily against the wall as lidded eyes regarded the girl. She sat his desk, arms folded on its top, eyes narrowed in concentration. He wondered if she realized that when she was focusing on something, she tended to poke her tongue out from her mouth, its tip pressed to her top lip. He doubted she did, or she would have known how absolutely ridiculous she looked.
Somehow she had convinced him to work with her on this, the latest movement in her grand scheme formulated one evening when there was nothing left to amuse her. Try as he did to tell her he had better things to do -- the Garden was still floating endlessly around an ocean, after all -- she kept insisting that he loosen up and have some fun. Writing love letters and addressing them to the library girl from Zell, he had replied, was not his idea of fun.
"Okay, an~d done!" Rinoa held up her love letter triumphantly. "Here, you read it and tell me what you think."
He rolled his eyes but obliged her request, knowing that if he refused, she would spent the rest of the day following him around and complaining about how mean he could be. Gripping the paper in hand, he glared down at it, eyes skimming the writing briefly. It seemed like a lot of pathetic woes and declarations of puppy love to him, not to mention used far larger words than Zell had in his vocabulary...
"It's fine," was all he said, however, not bothering to tell her his criticisms. That, too, would earn him an afternoon of having his ear talked off and his lesser qualities shoved into his face.
"You should rewrite it," Rinoa said.
Squall stared at her blankly. "Why?"
"Because I have cute hand-writing, of course! Zell would never write this neat and bubbly."
He paused. She was right. Her i's and j's were dotted with ridiculous hearts, and her sentences ended with bubbles. Zell would never do that. His hand-writing was more like chicken-scratches.
"Here," Rinoa said, shoving a clean sheet of paper and a pencil at him. She stood up and, gripping his arm, tugged him to sit down at the desk. "Sit here and write it for me."
He did. He did not know why, but he did, writing it quickly and without much regard for whether or not his own pitiful hand-writing would make sense to anyone but himself. Rinoa stood at his shoulder, arms folded behind her back. Every so often she would lean forward on her toes, nearly pressing herself into his back to get a better glimpse of the letter. He never bothered to brush her away.
"That looks great!" Rinoa exclaimed when he was done and had submitted the paper for her approval. "It's kinda smudgy, but it's a boy's hand writing, after all."
Squall did not have the capacity of mind to feel the least bit insulted. Better smudged boy hand-writing than flowery girl hand-writing.
"Let's go deliver it now!"
She seized his hand and was dragging him from the dorm room before he had the chance to argue. She had learned her way around quickly, he noted, as she pulled him along, winding through halls as though she had been in the Garden her entire life. But then she was always like that... Rinoa slipped in and out of new environments and feelings with an ease that could be envied. Still, Squall was not sure it was something he wanted, to wear his emotions so clearly for anyone to see. He did not envy it.
Reaching the library, she poked her head in, casting a suspicious look around while Squall sighed, wondering again if she ever did realize how ridiculous she could be. Apparently deeming it safe to enter, she skipped inside, and waved for Squall to follow.
She folded up the letter and rested it neatly on the librarian's desk. "There," she said. "She'll see it there for sure."
"Sure," Squall agreed. "Can we go?"
She stuck out her tongue. "Fine, we can go." He had already turned and begun to walk away when he noticed that she was not following. Pausing, he stopped and look over his shoulder to where she stood, nibbling at her lower lip.
"What?" he asked.
"I was just thinking," she began, "what if somebody else finds it? And they think Zell wanted to give it to them? It's supposed to go to that girl he likes..."
Squall shrugged. "I don't think anybody runs the desk but her. She'll find it."
"Are you sure?"
"No, but what's the point of worrying?"
Putting her hands to her hips, Rinoa shook her head sadly. "Squall, you just do not understand love at all." She looked up at him, a fierce gleam in her eyes. "Zell really likes this girl! Even if she doesn't like him back, then at least he can say he tried, right? Life's not worth living if you don't take chances, you know?"
She really believed those words, Squall thought absently. She said it with such a fierce passion -- she had to believe it. He did not know how she did it, living from moment to moment, every choice a reckless one that could have her killed. Like when she had taken it upon her own shoulders to confront the Sorceress Edea. She had not been thinking. She never thought.
"Zell's not the one taking the chance anyway," he said dismissively, turning and walking away. "You're taking it for him."
"It's still a chance!" Rinoa retorted. He heard the sound of her feet padding quickly across the hall as she jogged to catch up with him. "You never take chances. You wouldn't know." She said it haughtily, and emphasized her point by sticking her nose in the air, walking with her arms folded and eyes closed, as though he were no regard of hers.
"Door," Squall intoned quietly.
"Don't try to apologize."
"No, I mean there's a door there." He took her by the elbow and moved her out of the way of the hall door, forcing her to walk in front of him. She blinked at him over her shoulder a moment before smiling and letting out a sheepish laugh.
"Oh, um... oops."
Shaking his head, he continued to walk, Rinoa matching his strides with her own much longer ones, forcing to take larger steps to keep up with his lazy lope.
"It's not a bad thing you don't take chances, you know," she said after a moment. "I didn't mean it like an insult. You're just always so... so structured, you know? You wouldn't know you're only seventeen."
"I've got too much responsibility to play around like you do."
"You've gotta allow some free time to yourself. You're gonna like... explode or something."
He lifted his head and stared at her blankly. Rinoa giggled.
"Well, you know what I mean..."
Sure, he knew what she meant. But she did not realize what he was saying. Or maybe she did, he had no idea. Rinoa had never had a responsibility like his before, though; she did not realize exactly what it meant to be weighted down as he was. The lives of everyone on the Garden were in his hands, and at times it was little more than he could bear...
"I just don't want you to be too hard on yourself," Rinoa said, interjecting into his thoughts.
He glanced back at her. "... sure. Thanks."
She smiled brightly. "Good!"
They continued to walk, shoulder to shoulder.
"Hey Squall?"
"What?"
"Would you ever write me a love letter?"
"... no."
"Squall! You big fat meanie!"
Fuming as she was, she did not see him smile.