Chapter 1
Disclaimer: FF8 chars aren't mine. I'm just gonna borrow them for a while.. sneaks off with Squall and Irvine :P If you don't like shounen-ai/ yaoi please press the back button now.
Edit: I have revised the whole chapter so that the dialogues are no longer confusing.
He woke up to the sound of the rain. September had come, so had the endless pitter patter of the heavens. He was irritated at how warm it had been before the downpour as he wiped the sweat off his forehead. The dream had visited him again. The visions while he slept were like a relentless itch that he couldn't help but scratch. The clock on the bedside table read 8:15. "Shit. Xu won't be too pleased with this." he thought to himself. Squall had been in a slump in the past couple of months. Rinoa had left him for another guy. Though no one knew who the guy was, the slayer of the evil Sorceress certainly was not happy. The young brunette put on his usual black leather jeans, plain white shirt and black leather jacket. "This is not the time to feel sad and depressed" Squall sighed as he idly fixed his hair using his fingers.
The young Garden leader had several duties to accomplish that day and the depressing downpour was not of any help. As soon as he thought he looked presentable enough, he raced out through the door with the report he finished the night before when crash! The papers he carried with him were all over the floor. "Man. Sorry 'bout that Squall." A very surprised cowboy exclaimed. Squall hurriedly picked up the papers as he hissed "What are you still doing here? I thought you were going back to your Garden today?" Irvine helped the leader reorganize his report and replied "I was 'bout to get on the car to town when Sephie asked me to help her find you and tell you that you're late for a meeting or something." Irvine mused as he massaged a bump on his head as he continued "Anyway, I didn't expect you'd still be in your room." Squall mumbled some inaudible words that sounded like 'I know I'm late you idiot' and dashed off to the 3rd floor office leaving a confused Irvine behind.
"What's wrong with Squall these days? He still ain't over Rinoa is he?" A cheerful Irvine asked as he juggled empty water bottles in the cafeteria in attempt to impress the girls sitting at the next table. Quistis sat across the flirting cowboy. The self-proclaimed Squall expert fixed her glasses as she said "Squall has never trusted anyone as much as he did Rinoa. It will be more difficult to get through him now than ever before. He thought he could finally open up to someone." Little Selphie had been drinking some orange juice beside Irvine. She has been full of energy as usual but the topic made her whine "Yes! Yes! He has been drowning himself with stuff regarding the Garden. He didn't even give me the chance to talk to him after we discussed the theme for this year's ball." The man with spikey blond hair sat in between Quisitis and Selphie and was trying to consume large bites of hotdog as he spoke "I…agr…ee. We…need…to…do something about this." Selphie had enough of Zell's lack of table etiquette as she screamed "You pig!" The cowboy threw one of the empty bottles towards Zell's direction. The fighter caught the bottle…right between his eyes. "Damn you Kinneas!" The man with blond hair man shouted as he stood in his usual fighting stance. "Both of you stop!" Quistis exclaimed. "Squall needs us now. Let's help him through this phase he is in." The former instructor has always been bossy and perhaps, she will always be. Although she once admitted that the love she felt for the gunblade master had been for that of a little brother, the concern she shows for him now may be different with Rinoa out of the picture. The girl in the yellow dress stood suddenly. "Quisty is right. Squall definitely needs help. Let's get him a shrink!" Selphie energetically suggested as she did her anime poses. With eyes wide open at the shock at what the girl just said Zell then argued "A therapist? Are you insane! I don't think he'd tell his own mother he peed in his pants. He'll never agree to that." Selphie thought for a while then finally said "At least I tried." The gleeful girl answered and stuck her tongue out at the hot-tempered fighter. "Wait. I have an idea." The auburn-haired man said as he pulled the front end of his hat downward, covering his face. The excited Selphie smacked him on the head with her nun chucks. "Stop acting so cool and tell us about your plan." The three curious friends exclaimed as they surround the cowboy.
Squall's day had been long, busy, uneventful and tedious. He definitely had better days, he thought. He went through all the paper work like there would be no tomorrow. Although he plays an important role as Balamb Garden's leader he has always made sure that he would have time to do some training. He is still a SeeD after all. He has just killed his 30th monster in the training center that day and it has always been a mystery how the Garden replenishes the monsters the Garden kept for training students. "Weak" Squall thought to himself. No creature will ever match up to the strong Omega Weapon that he defeated but ever since the Sorceress Wars had ended and the young SeeD leader got preoccupied with endless paper work, the young hero did not have the time to do SeeD assignments. Squall would have happily settled for "easy" battles with Ruby Dragons, Tonberries and Marlboros but work simply kept him away from challenging battles. sigh "The thing I'd rather do now is get out of the Garden for a while and fight real battles and do some traveling and maybe…" His thoughts trailed off. "I shouldn't go there. I shouldn't think that. I am over that…I am…Really."
"Having another one of your personal monologues again I see." A female voice said from the entrance of the training area. Squall turned and retorted "Instructor…". Quistis chuckled at the formality of the leader's exasperated tone as she said "When will you ever stop calling me that? It has been a long time since I lost my teaching license." Squall was becoming impatient by the minute so he asked. "What do you want?" Quistis wanted to tease her former student but decided to suppress that urge. "Xu, Headmaster Cid and the students who took the final exam today are all waiting for you in the office." Squall had forgotten that tonight was when Cid would announce who passed and who failed the SeeD exam. Although it was not part of his job to attend such affair, he was still recognized as the Garden's leader and it had been an unwritten obligation for him to acknowledge the new SeeDs. Without saying another word, he walked past Quistis and headed towards the office.
Irvine had been waiting in the hallway to the dorms staring at the concrete floor. It was a cool and pleasant night. The moon was out and there had never been a clearer night sky than this particular night.
FLASHBACK (follows the flow of the game but not the exact conversation)
Caraway: The sniper team will wait with the crowd in front of the Presidential Palace while the Gate team will wait for the arrival of the Sorceress' Car. Good Luck.
As Quistis' team went off to their designated post, the leader and the sniper waited for the parade to begin. The Sorceress, the city's honored guest, talked about stuff that bored Irvine to death. "Sure is a big event. Look at all the people and the beautiful women." The cowboy commented. Squall tried to ignore the cowboy as he ranted on about the specific qualities he liked in women. Sensing that the brunette was not listening he said "Hey Squall. Can I ask you something?" No response. Squall gave him the silent treatment. Irvine responded to the gesture by giving the other man his sad imitation of Puss-in-Boots' cute look in Shrek 2. "Tch. You're an embarrassment to Galbadia Kinneas…sigh Fine, make it short. What's the question?" Irvine felt he had broken a wall between him and Squall, but knowing how unpredictable Squall could be most of the time, he wasn't going to be too optimistic. "You like that Rinoa chick do you?" The team leader covered his face with a hand and shook his head in disbelief as he replied "That's a stupid question. We should be concentrating on our task to eliminate the Sorceress." And that was that. End of conversation with Mr. Killjoy. Irvine was still hoping to find traces of an answer by looking at Squall's facial expression but unfortunately the gunblade master could easily keep a straight face. The answer was pretty obvious to the sniper but somehow, he still wanted to hear it from Squall himself. "I'm just curious, Squall. You don't have to get all serious coz of this. Hey, wait a minute…isn't that…"
A young girl in blue appeared on the stage where the special guest made her speech. Without warning, the Sorceress summoned two beasts that were going to attack the poor senseless girl. "Squall, Rinoa is in trouble!" No response. "Isn't she your friend? Aren't you gonna to help her out?" the sniper cried out. Still no response "Squall!" Irvine shouted. "The gates aren't open yet." The leader finally said. The sound of the drums making a bizarre rhythm made the spectators restless and filled with excitement. The Palace gates opened and the dancers clad in colorful ethnic-like costumes commenced their dance. The parade had begun, Seifer and the Sorceress in the middle of it. The people present there were in such awe at the wonderful presentation before them. They were too preoccupied with the parade and the fireworks to notice the two men as they entered the Palace gates.
The sniper team, after saving the frightened Rinoa, eventually made it to the specified place on the carousel. When the time for them to act came, Irvine was freaking out. "He likes her. I know he does and maybe…maybe even more. Damn it, this ain't the right time to think about this. I have a job to do and people are depending on me." The cowboy thought. Squall could see the anxiety in the sniper's demeanor so he asked"Don't tell me you're getting the jitters…?" Squall shattered the hit man's little world. Irvine looked at the leader's determined eyes and abruptly turned away as he continued in his silent contemplation. "Although I had to persuade him to help Rinoa out with those Iguions, he would have saved her even if I had kept quiet." "I…I…I can't. I'm sorry. I can't do it." "His lips…" "I always choke like this…" "His eyes…" "I try to act cool, joke around but I just can't handle the pressure…" "His entire being…" Squall eventually convinced the other man to shoot. "Damn it. Why me?... Why him?" Irvine whined in his head. Bang!
END OF LONG FLASHBACK
The auburn-haired man was not exactly sure why he volunteered to do this knowing that he would be the last person who could ask favors from the feared hero. "I really screwed up during that job in Deling." The gunslinger sighed. "But you were able to convince Squall to try to cheer me up back in FH after Trabia went boooom! That should count for something." The hyperactive girl's voice echoed in Irvine's head. "Tch. I have always had that soft spot in me somewhere for little Sephie…I definitely should have left Balamb Garden when I had the chance this morning." The sound of footsteps made Irvine's heart skip a beat. "He's coming." He thought.
Seeing the dark figure come into the light, Squall stopped in his tracks. "Why are you still here Kinneas? I thought you were supposed to report back to Galbadia today." Trying to act cool again, the taller man replied "Nah, I can stand another day or two here. You'll probably be missin' me like crazy the moment I board the train headin' for Galbadia 'coz that's the second time you asked me that today." The tired leader raised a brow at that remark and waved a hand at the cowboy as if to dismiss the topic. "Seriously Kinneas, what do you want?" Seeing Squall was not interested in making small talk he said"Can't take a joke eh? Fine, I'll get straight to the point then." The taller man cleared his throat. "Well, you see the gang and I…I mean Quistis, Zell, Sephie and I…we are all concerned about you." "Isn't everybody?" Squall sarcastically thought. "You're always mopin' around. You work and train. That's all you ever do now since she left." The cowboy paused and tried to reorganize his thoughts. Squall, getting more impatient by the moment roared "And the point of this conversation is?" Finding the right words, Irvine retorted "We just want you to cooperate with us during the ball tomorrow night." More annoyed than ever, Squall hissed "What made you think I would do such a thing as 'cooperate' with you?" The optimistic man scratched his head as he said "We all promise to give you a life time guarantee to never bother you again. All you have to do is be there for the duration of the ball." The tired leader got suspicious about the condition but the benefits were way too tempting. Squall wanted to be left alone. The leader finally said "I accept. Just make sure you keep your end of the bargain." The sniper saluted as he said "Sure."
The night went on with the gradual setting of the moon and the silent slumber of the stars as the darkness awaited dawn's embrace. What does the dawn have in store for the one who dreams those unrelenting dreams? As the dawn gently took hold of the night, a voiceless laughter escaped the sleeping cowboy's lips.
Author's Notes: Better? I hope so. It took me some time to revise this even though I only made a few changes. Thanks to Ionai for the constructive criticisms. I'll definitely do better next time. Comments and reviews are very much appreciated. Thanks for reading:D
