Yet number four...I'm on a streak, I guess. Hopefully it lasts, but the real writers know ideas come and go like the weather changes. This story, in particular, has a meaning to it. Read, review if you like. Timshel.

Disclaimer: Square has done a bang-up job of creating some lip-smacking good characters, that I am taking desperate liberties with to appease my growling creative beast trapped deep inside me. I don't own them, as much as you all want me to. It just isn't going to happen. The afore-mentioned company will always have the goods. ::sweatdrop:: It is a cruel, cruel world.

Dedication

To the one who taught me to love again, trust again. The days go by and my love grows for you, sempai. If I ever get lost again, I hope you're the one to find me. Thank you for taking away my pain of loss and teaching me once again how to dream of hope.

The Full Circle

Stormy. There would be rain today, but the fields looked like they needed it. The grass was dry and brittle. It crunched under his feet. Somehow, he was glad he wasn't alone. He turned to see Squall at the bottom of the hill, speaking with Quistis and Ellone. There would always be a first time. This first time meant something.

He stopped at the top of the slow rise and looked down. The stone was fading with time and weathering, but the name was clear. His wife. He could remember her smile, her laughter, even her tears ever so clearly. Some said those things faded with time, but he didn't think so. They had been clear the day he left, and they were clear now as well. He cleared his throat.

"It's been awhile since I've been here. Lots of things have happened since I came last time. It's been...close to two years. I haven't forgotten about you, but...I guess in a way you could say I have you back."

He looked down the hill again, where Squall looked up and caught his gaze for a moment. He murmured a few words to Ellone, and started up the hill to where Laguna was standing.

He buried his hands in his pockets and looked back. "We did leave a legacy to the world, you know. Remember how we talked about wanting our child to be strong? Know where they belonged in the world and have a fierce heart? Well, I guess you could say we got our wish. Sure, he's moody, a bit like you when you were angry at me. Arrogant, but that's getting better, as well. The times he most reminds me of you are when he is with his girlfriend. Quiet, soft, loving. Traits he doesn't let anyone else have. He's just like you were. Beautifu-"

"Laguna?"

He turned. Squall was standing, devoid of armor and attitude, behind him. "Yes." He gestured to the grave. "This is it."

He watched as Squall walked to the stone then dropped down on one knee to touch the smoothness of it. Laguna was startled by his next question.

"What was she like?"

Laguna knelt beside him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "More like you than you realize. She had that automatic sense of right and wrong. You seem to have that."

"I don't guess she had my rudeness."

Laguna chuckled. "When it suited her."

"Ellone says she was nice...strict, but nice."

Laguna had handled plenty of tears from Ellone when she was younger. He didn't know how to handle them from a grown man.

"Yes, very nice. She had a beautiful soul, Squall."

Teardrops landed on letters, ran down. "I didn't know her. It hurts that I didn't even get to know her."

"At least you get to know of her, and me as well..." Laguna trailed off for a moment. "She's part of you. You'll never lose her. And just because you never had knowledge of her, or me...it doesn't mean that you ever lost us."

Squall looked at him carefully. "It's new. New letting people in. New feeling anything."

Laguna smiled slightly. "Well, feeling is better than not feeling at all. Seems to me like you'll be one of the lucky ones that will feel more happiness than anything else."

Squall bent his head low. "I thought I was just like the rest of them. Orphaned. Alone. It's hard to adjust. A really hard thing to get used to."

Laguna nodded. "One day I'm just a regular guy..." At Squall's sharp look he chuckled. "All right, I was a regular guy that just by chance happened to be a president, then the next, I have the job that makes a lot of men go ill. And...I had thought my child had died with Raine...instead of going on. Maybe if Ellone hadn't been so tossed up, so confused, she would've been able to tell me that you weren't just a little boy she loved like a brother who had been left behind...you were my son that I thought I had lost. Maybe if she hadn't told me so late, I would have been able to find you...but it was too late. Those things...can't be changed. What can be changed is now. It's not up to me, not anymore." Laguna swallowed the lump that had begun to form in his throat.

Squall looked at him. "Father..."

~*~

"There's not a lot to be said for this place in a drought." Quistis muttered.

"It's usually beautiful," Ellone pointed out, running her hand over a stray flower that had managed to grow.

"Well, I don't know..." Quistis looked at the sky. "Going to rain pretty soon, thankfully for all the plant life."

"I hope it holds out. Just a little while longer." Ellone murmured.

Quistis nodded. "Although, getting back to Garden will be a good thing. Having Irvine, Selphie and Zell out of the Garden at the same time as Squall is not a good thing. Who knows what kind of kinks Cid is putting is my class schedul...."

Ellone looked up from playing with the flowers at the sudden silence. "Quistis?" She followed her gaze up the slope of the hill.

"Oh...my..."

Quistis smiled. "Well. That's a nice end, isn't?"

Ellone nodded as she stared at the two men in the tight embrace. "Yes. Things seem to have come full circle. Finally."