NOTE: I don't own FF8 or any of the characters in it. If I did, I'd be Squaresoft. If I was Squaresoft, I'd be developing games, wouldn't I? Be rich too. Anyhoo, just please R&R!
BTW: this is the final good version of this fanfic. I'm sorry about the failures that occurred earlier.
Through Their Eyes
A young man sat in his garden. His name was Luke, but everyone called him Watts, after that one incident with the light bulbs in high school. He sat with a filing folder next to him, papers spread on the grass in front of him, a glass of lemonade not far from that. He sat deep in thought, staring at a head-and-shoulders shot of a girl from Deling City. The girl's black hair had blonde highlights, and she had coal black eyes. ~*Maybe we'll get somewhere yet, he thought.
Another young man called out to him from up the street. His name was Markus, but everyone called him Zone from his tendency to sit and stare into space. As he walked along, hands in pockets, he noticed the files around Watts. ~*Maybe he's finally got someone...He pulled his hand out of his pocket and waved. Watts looked up. "Hi Zone!"
"Don't call me that, Watts."
"You call me Watts, sir."
"Don't call me sir, either."
"Sorry sir. I mean Zone. I mean Markus."
"Don't call me Markus."
"What should I call you?"
"Oh fine, just call me Zone."
"Ok, if you say so."
They'd had conversations like this several times. Always the same basic plot. Not always the same names, but they always came out with Watts calling Markus Zone. They grasped hands, glad to see each other again. Watts had been on a mission in Deling City for the past few months, and when you're seventeen (as Zone and Watts were), you miss your best friend.
"Have you found a girl?"
"Yes, sir."
"I said don't call me that. What's the girl's name?"
"Um..." Watts pulled a paper out of his file. "Rinoa Heartilly."
"Wow. Sounds rich."
"General Caraway's daughter."
Zone looked thrilled like Christmas had come early. "The general's daughter?"
"You bet, Zone. She's a total rebel, just about like you an' me."
"Good work, Watts!"
"Thanks, Zone. Here's her picture." He took the head-and-shoulders shot out of the file and handed it to Zone.
"Wow...she looks like a princess, man. Where is she?"
"She said she'd wait for us in Timber."
"Ok. Let's get on board the Raider."
The Raider was kind of a pet name for the train that Zone and Watts had built out of scrap metal. It had been Watts' idea to paint it yellow, but the long spikes on the front were Zone's idea. They would have died before give up the Raider. After admiring their work a few minutes, they hopped aboard.
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
The girl got a soda and sat down at a bench. She wore all shades of blue and black, and she wore a light blue sleeveless overcoat. This was Rinoa.
She looked at her watch, then out at the railroad tracks. They were late. That man, Watts, had said that he was bringing a friend to meet her. She'd been waiting for a half an hour already.
Suddenly a clanking and churning announced the arrival of the Raider. Watts' arm beckoned Rinoa aboard. Hastily she got up, spilling a little bit of soda as she jogged up to and hopped aboard the Raider.
Zone and Watts, having helped her aboard, stood back and looked at her.
"I tolja she was pretty, Zone."
"Yeah, maybe so. I still say she looks like a princess."
Rinoa blushed at these compliments. She tried to look modest and sipped at her soda. "Hi Watts. And you must be Zone." She extended her hand to Zone to shake.
"Yeah, how ya doin." He shook her hand, then turned to Watts. "She'll do. Show 'er her room."
"This way, Princess Rinoa."
Rinoa giggled and followed Watts.
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
After a few months on the open rails, Rinoa, Zone, and Watts were just about as close as two guys and a girl can get. Stuck in a train for months on end makes you get to know people.
One night, in the spring, Rinoa got on board the Raider with a sparkle in her eye, twirling around.
"Ok. Either Seifer slipped her something, or she's in love."
"Shut up, Zone, dear." Rinoa twirled past them.
Zone and Watts looked at each other. "Love."
"So! Who's the lucky guy, Rin?"
"MYOB, Watts."
"No way, Rin, we wanna know now."
"Ok. Seifer."
Laughing deeply, Zone and Watts shook their heads. "No way, you can't fool us, hun, we know you. Who is it?"
She looked from one face to the other. "Fine." She sat down next to Watts at their semi-circle table. "I dunno what his name is. And I'm not in love with him. But he has this bronze hair, and these sea green gray eyes, and he looks like he's lost someone close to him in his life. Like he doesn't want anyone to get close to him again, because he's afraid of losing them. He's so sad...but he doesn't want people to know it." She was staring straight ahead as though to remember his face.
Zone and Watts looked at each other, their eyes saying "But she's not in love with him."
"Rin, I can't believe you didn't even get his name," Watts commented.
She snapped back into the real world. "Well it's not important. Seif'd kill me if I looked sideways at this kid."
"Why?" Zone and Watts loved it when they could get the dirt on Rinoa's boyfriend, so much so that they actually spoke in harmony.
"Well apparently, Seif has this total hate-mode on this kid. He's really great, and cute, and smart, and deep, and funny, kinda like the Drama Star at high school. Not that I like him. And let's face it, Seif's just about equivalent to the quarter back."
Zone and Watts laughed. "You do like him, hun, we can tell."
"Don't call me hun, Watts."
Watts sighed.
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
~*This has got to be the guy! Watts thought excitedly. Standing in front of him was a seventeen year old, bronze hair, light green eyes, stern and yet sad expression. ~*This has GOT to be the one.
By Zone's expression, he was thinking the same thing. However "wussy" he was, Zone still had enough sense to glare at Watts with an expression that read clearly "shut up and let me do the talking", and extend his hand to the stranger.
The stranger nodded. "I'm Squall. This is Zell...and Selphie."
Zone shook hands with Selphie instead. He and Watts held a small conference in a corner.
"It's him, man, this is the guy!" Watts whispered excitedly.
"Keep your voice down! I know it's him. I'm not stupid."
"We gotta get him to talk to Rin again!"
"SHH! Keep your voice down! I know. So what do we do...?"
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
The stranger, Squall, sighed. ~*My first mission and I get sent to work for morons. God I hate it when I work with people dumber than I am…Why did I have to do this? Rebel forces…gimme a break. Sounds too Star Wars for me, thanks... The two "morons" turned to face the group. "Can we please get started?" Squall asked, oblivious to the impatient bite in his voice.
"The princess is still asleep." Zone knew the guy was impatient, he didn't seem all that great. ~*What in God's name does Rin see in this loser? He's a mean guy...Well maybe he acts different to her, he reasoned.
"It's the princess' nap time, sir."
Zone shot him a look that said "DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Aloud he said "I'm sorry, Squall, but would you go wake her up?"
"We're SeeD, we weren't hired to run errands. We're soldiers."
"Are you angry?!" Zone backed into a wall, still a little gun shy after that light-bulb incident.
Squall sighed in exasperation. "Fine, but this is the last time for an errand. I won't do any more."
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
"God it's boring around here without Rin..."
"Watts, shut up. You've been saying that all day and she's only been gone 2 weeks."
"I don't like that guy, Zone. I'm not fooling."
"She does, though, and that's all that matters."
Watts shut up. He was resisting the urge to cry. The only thing that had made the long days on the Raider interesting was Rinoa, and now Squall had taken her off to work with him. Not only was she in danger of being killed in field battle, she could be killed by Seifer or anyone!
"GOD! Why did I let her go?!"
"Zone! Calm down, man! What's the matter?" Watts almost had a heart attack.
After a few moments of waiting, he said softly, "Zone?"
"If she gets killed it'll be all my fault!"
Watts was shocked by Zone's shaky voice. He was always so "emotionally retarded", as Rinoa had called him. Now he sounded close to tears. Almost afraid of what he would see, Watts looked at Zone. Sure enough, his face was hidden, a positive sign he was crying. "Zone, are you ok?"
"Do you think I'm ok? I feel so responsible...what if something happens to her, Watts? It'd be all my fault, and there's no way to undo it."
"That's what you said about the light bulbs," Watts muttered, trying to cheer him up.
"Yeah, man, I remember that. You screwed up the lights on this thing so bad..." Good, it was working. "Well your six looked like a sixteen."
"God that was funny. 'What bulbs are those, Luke?' 'One-hundred sixty watts, Mark.' 'One-hundred sixty?!' 'Here we go...' 'WAIT! Don't flip that switch!'" Zone started laughing.
"That explosion was worth a mil! After those fixings blew, the windows did...And there's you and me standing in the middle, jackets over our faces to protect them from the glass..." Watts started laughing too.
"I thought we'd never live that down in Timber!"
The only tears on their faces now were tears of laughter. Suddenly someone knocked on the door of the Raider. Wiping his eyes on his sleeve, Zone stood up and opened the door. A girl tumbled into the room as though she had been leaning on the door. It was Rinoa.
"Rinoa!!" Zone and Watts helped her to a seat.
"Hey guys! I'm ok. Just took a tumble there..." She dusted off her knees.
"Are you ok, hun?"
"Watts, I told you not to call me that. And yeah, I'm ok. Why?" She looked up at them and showed that she had a black eye.
"How did that happen?!" Zone looked at the eye and got her an ice pack for it.
"Oh I uh...fell out of bed..."
"No you didn't. The truth, Rinoa." Watts sounded stern but he took Rinoa's hand.
"I-I was on my way to see you and I met up with Seifer in the street...and he was upset that I had joined up with Squall...and he and I yelled at each other and he slapped me and I just ran here."
"Oh Rin! You came to the right place," Watts said reassuringly. Rinoa started crying. This was too much for Zone. He got up and picked up his weapons, two pistols. He walked out.
"Oh god, he's going to kill Seifer!"
"No, hun, he won't kill him. Just give him something to think about. Seifer may care about you but that's nothing to me and Zone."
"R-really?" Rinoa sniffled.
"You bet." He pulled her into a hug.
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
"Oh my god! His arm's broken!"
"Don't stand there, Rinoa, go get help!"
"Where?!"
"Go downtown and ask the first woman you see. They all use first aid here! Just go, girl!"
That was the first conversation Zone heard when he came to. He had come back to the Raider, and passed out. Finally he came to as Rinoa examined his arm and then she ran off.
"Zone! Are you ok, man? I mean, apart from your arm."
"I-" He passed out again.
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~
"God where is that girl..."
"He's in here!" Rinoa's voice rang out. A middle-aged woman climbed aboard, followed shortly by Rinoa. "Over there," Rinoa pointed to Zone.
The woman, known as Mrs. Gunter, inspected Zone's arm. "This was no accident, you two. What happened, Zone?"
Zone woke up. "I went to talk to Seifer, because he hit Rinoa and I don't let anyone do that. I told him that it doesn't make any difference who he was in Garden because this wasn't even Balamb, and he told me about being in charge of the Galbadia Army. I told him that didn't matter either, because this was the real world. I turned and walked away, and he came up with his gunblade raised. I shot it out of his hand and he grabbed my arm and broke it. He said 'now go off to Rinoa. I could have killed you but I didn't.' I fired my gun not two inches from his head, and said 'I could have killed you but I didn't.' then I came back here and I don't know what happened after that."
"We got you in here and tried to wake you up. You wouldn't but we tried." Rinoa's eyes were red, like she'd been crying.
Zone stretched his good limbs and hugged Rinoa with one arm. "I'm okay, hun, it's only an arm. It'll be ok, right, Mrs. Gunter?"
"You bet it will, Zone. Now shut up and hold still so I can bandage it."
~~~~~~~~~~*~*~~~~~~~~~~
As Balamb Garden floated past a few weeks later, Watts spotted Squall and Rinoa on the deck of the Garden. He was about to wave to them when an arm encased in a cast stopped him. "I think they're a little busy, Watts." Zone was smiling, also looking at Garden.
"Oh. Right." Watts laughed, looking closer.
"Seems like yesterday we got her here..."
"I know. Was a long time ago, wasn't it?"
"Yeah. And now she's gone."
"Not for good. I mean they're not married, right, Zone? And she promised she'd come back."
"Yeah. I know. But still..."
"...Still?"
"I have this feeling I'm not gonna see her again."
"...You're really worried, aren't you?"
"No. I'd just like to see her again, ok?"
"I'm sorry, sir." "Don't call me that, Watts."
"Sorry, Zone."
And they stood watching the Garden until finally it disappeared behind the horizon, and they went below decks.