Breaking Free

by Emerald-Latias

[Sequel to Locked Inside] Squall’s finally gotten rid of his past demons, but there’s one still left. When a predicament occurs, Rinoa fears the worst for Squall… and their relationship. [On indefinite hiatus.. Sorry guys!]

2. Chapter II – Paper Notes

Author's Notes – Okay, to be honest, I had written something else for the first part of the author's notes, but since it was a long while back when I started writing this chapter, it no longer holds true (I had been musing about strong winds and snow). However, on a much more sombre note, a dear classmate and friend of thirteen years had just passed away on the 28th of March; it was caused from something that he'd contracted a week prior, and I'd really like to commemorate his memory by dedicating this fic to him.

After he passed, it was a difficult time for me, with the whole realization that he'll never be around to brighten up my- along with many other classmates' days ever again, but with the extra time I had during that week (no teacher dared to give us homework), he inspired me to use the extra time to write some more of this chapter, instead of chewing it all up by moping around, doing nothing. I'm sure if he was still around and talking, he wouldn't want us to be sad, but rather use the time to achieve our goals, such as he did in his short, but meaningful happy life.

Actually, I'm sort of spooked that I can find comfort in some words from Rinoa's speech in Locked Inside's Chapter 7 - before I ever had this sort of thing happen to me.

"(…) When I learned to simply accept it, things turned out for the better. Because I was finally accepting that nobody lives forever and that I should live for life's special moments, and have support from people, rather than trivializing over the point that they'll all be gone someday. Life's too precious to be continuously unhappy in order keep it simple, rather then to be loved by others while they're still around."

Now if I may return to the fic, I'm glad to see that people liked my return into the writing realm again, but trust me, it'll get much better from here on in.

And, for the record, I did change the fic's title; it used to be Contrasting Perspectives, but advice given to me from a person that I greatly respect, I also changed it based on the reason that it wasn't very appealing …or completely fitting for the genre for that matter. Also, I apologize for any confusion that this change might have caused. Sorry about that.

So, with that cleared up, I'll start the chapter now, but first…

- This story has been dedicated to the memory of Alain Raby. You were always smiling to the end. -

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Chapter II – Paper Notes

'Tap…Tap…Tap.'

Their last moment together was brief, to say the least, after catching sight of her father through the glass, Rinoa's eyes misted over and went dry again in the same blink, hands ringing themselves frantically, and lips pursed, dying to say something but were unable to.

"-Sorry…" Squall hastily mumbled.

"No.. it's okay." She assured. "I'll…be fine, see you later."

'But will there be a later… for us?'

She tranquilly opened and closed the door. Stepping outside, her gaze flecked with a faltering courage, always looking forward. Squall's heart panged as her eyes daringly met with his fleetingly and then wavered to the other man's. In the brief instant when they exchanged glances, it was almost if the flickering present in the depths of her eyes were trying to convey a message to him. However, not risking endangering her any further; he refuted to return the signal.

'-Don't worry about me?'

'Put the key in. Turn the engine on.'

'-Was that what she'd been trying to say?'

'Put the clutch in reverse. Back out.'

'-I hope that I didn't get her in trouble…'

'Drive away, far away.'

After the pale blue car escaped the view, Rinoa sighed, preparing for the uncomfortable silence… and the evitable minor scolding lecture. She walked lifelessly, stepping on the asphalt, then on the cement doorstep, emitting a noise, but not registering in her brain. She wandered two steps into her house when a booming 'thud' shook her surroundings.

It was her dad closing the door harshly, face laced with an angry undertone.

"…Here it comes." She whispered flatly to herself. "The whole bleeping rant about the dangers of teenage boys."

"Young lady, where have you been? You know that you're not supposed to leave the house while I'm gone on business trips." Rinoa's brow furrowed as her mindset tried to adjust to his unusually concerned tone.

"Why would you care about what I do? You're elsewhere anyway!" She vehemently disputed.

"Regardless of what you happen to think about me, I do happen to care very much about you." This affirmation had an adverse-effect on Rinoa, infuriating her rather than consoling her.

"Oh, so now you're above the 'she's-always-at-friend's-houses' stage? Who are you trying to impress, Sylvia?"

"-No, it's not that- I…"

"What, is it because a boy brought me home?" At that moment, the General's calm demeanour had finally gave way to an impatient one as his patience vanished from his daughter's various insinuations.

"-Stop for a moment Rinoa. Listen to yourself, just a week or two ago, you would have been downright happy that I'm giving you heck for not being home, and now you're acting like caring for you is the worst thing that had ever happened in your life, what's wrong?"

"It's… nothing." She lied. "I'm just not used to it, that's all."

"Well, I'm just trying to do my best." Her father admitted in a foreign paternal tone, nearly sounding out of context in comparison from his earlier, heavily infuriated low timbre two minutes prior. After this, she started to retreat upstairs, towards her room.

"Bite me." The withdrawing girl diminutively spat with her back turned.

"What was that?"

"Urm.. Nothing."

"Rinoa-" The said daughter uncharacteristically stopped climbing the steps surprisingly, eyeing her father with an intolerant stare from the peak of the stairwell.

"-Yes…?" She stressed.

"Just to tell you, I know enough about Mr. Loire's son to know that he would not do anything inappropriate like those other boys-"

'Guess again General. Squall's not solely about books and cold stares…If only you knew…' She reminisced ironically, tuning him out completely for the majority of his speech.

"-and Rinoa, Sylvia is coming for supper Sunday, just to let you know." He concluded.

"…Wha?" After, she immediately dashed to her room; the carpet underneath her toes never felt so coarse in her life.

'Klu..Klic..Kl-'

"Come- erg…on.. you stupid door! Open! Gah!"

'Crash! Thunk!'

"Argh! Why does everything in this house have to piss me off so much today?" She vented angrily, gathering herself up from the entrance of her room from where she fell.

She weaved through her discarded clothes and various papers strewn on the floor, plopping herself on her fluffy bedspread. Thoroughly defeated, she placed her head on a pillow, and grabbed the nearest soft object – a stuffed lion - and therapeutically gave it a big squeeze.

'I can't believe he invited that woman for supper and not tell me about it until a day prior… Yeah, that gives me a whole lot of time to find an excuse to leave… or at least mentally prepare myself. I don't even know why he's dating her, if he wanted a carbon copy of Mom, all he had to do was wait until technology advanced a bit more.'

At that moment, Rinoa substituted the stuffed lion with a plush dog, fearing that if she hugged the life out of it anymore that it would go big-headed and bug-eyed forever.

'Maybe I'm being a little too harsh, Sylvia's not my Mom's clone, it's just that… Some things are so… uncanny… Her face, little bits in her voice, her piano-playing abilities, even her laugh… Still, even with the major differences that she does have, it's hard not to think that he's trying to replace her sometimes…'

The teary-eyed teenager got up slowly from the soft blue bed. Walking towards her desk, she opened the top drawer and filtered through the numerous books, loose pages and old drawings. Having not found what she was looking for, she repeated the process for the next two drawers. The same result produced.

"Where is it? ……Ah ha!" While rummaging through the pile on top of the desk surface itself, she finally found what she was searching for. Then she bounded back onto the mattress, flitting through the pages.

'Grade nines, staff pictures, school picnic... -Here we are… Grade ten dance photos. Hee, Squall looks the same as ever, still brooding in the corner, hmm… the only difference I can see is that he's gotten an inch or two taller, and maybe a little more square in the shoulders… Oh, I remember this other picture…Ah, it felt as if it were only yesterday when I wore that cream-coloured dress that my father hate-'

Setting aside the yearbook, Rinoa sighed and stood up on her feet once more.

"This is getting pointless. Why am I always turning my thoughts towards my father? The only this does is achieve to make me angrier and angrier each time. And I… HATE THIS! I hate… this sideof me…All I'm ever doing is making myself wish that…"

At that moment, her eyes shifted onto an old jewellery box poised in the left side of her vanity dresser, unconsciously finding herself gravitating towards it. Inside, Rinoa saw a little tarnished gold locket once she had wistfully lifted the chest's top. She opened the trinket's insides slowly and looked upon an old family photo – dating back many years ago.

'Oh. …This was the last gift that my parents gave me, before the accident…' She mused dolefully.

"-It's this kind of thing makes me wish… That I still had this…this magic, this…wonder, and it makes me sad to think about it because…"

'-I know that it'll never happen.'

Rinoa brutally shut the locket's cover closed, and threw it violently against the wall, ultimately killing the nostalgic mood… and the faint whimsical hope that its' memories brought.

"Oh no…" She sobbed.

When she looked backwards after turning her back on the trinket, she noticed that its' edges were fractured, and after she checked to see if the insides were ruined, it was evident that they were. The picture's miniature glass encasing was cracked and its' picture was no longer was untainted; instead, it was split and torn in several places.

"I have to bring this to a repair shop… I can't believe.. that I did this."

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'I can't seem to focus anymore…Better pull over for awhile until these distractions stop swirling around my head so much. Hyne, I nearly hit two cars already…'

Pulling over onto the nearest suitable patch of land alongside the road - a park, Squall precisely used the time to purposefully rid himself of all mental disturbances.

After stepping out and executing all precautions to ensure that the car was indeed locked, and not running, he strolled along the well-established frozen dirt trail. Travelling down the path, Squall eventually passed through a small divide of trees and shrubs, and with his hands in his pockets, the perpetuating chime of his pendant echoed eerily, swaying with his every movement. About a couple of uncomfortable moments later, the bench he sought came increasingly closer and closer into his linear line of vision as he brushed away another tree branch.

As he finally reached the clearing, the pensive adolescent slowed his pace, and leisurely ambled on the well worn earthy streak, with his breath becoming less and less shallow. When he got there, he instantly sat down with his head dropped, hands evenly holding the weight near each temple. The sun unusually gave off some radiant heat to the back of his exposed neck amid the current late winter season.

'So… this is how it is, to be with someone…I almost feel like certain parts…certain aspects inside me have already changed so… effortlessly.. -without me even noticing it…'

He lifted his head up from its' previously slanted position, now gazing at the sun intently with an icy-blue scrutinizing look, thinking beyond the horizon he was eyeing.

'…I wonder how she's doing, her father seemed so cross… At the same time, I wonder why Laguna's been acting so weird-weirder than usual to me, it's almost like-'

He stood up and stormed off, making shattering impacts in the frosted earth with each step.

"-I'm going to kill her for telling!" He shouted loudly, bringing his fists down in rage, scaring the animals within range.

"…Whoa!" Squall gasped right after he suddenly halted.

A little girl in blonde pigtails stood stock-still right in front of him and was staring at him wide-eyed, almost with borderline tears in the gleam of her eyes. As soon as their eyes met, she screamed blue murder at the top of her lungs and ran off through the trail, leaving an enormous dusty blaze in the wake that her tiny legs could muster.

"-MOMMY! Mommy! …I'm s-scared!" She wailed loudly, flailing her arms incessantly without pausing to breathe. "I heard an angry noise, and the man said that he was going to KILL ME! …And I don't wanna go tobogganing no more!"

'Okay… maybe I shouldn't shout death threats anymore…I just might get arrested.' He thought uncomfortably.

With each step afterwards, the dents made in the ground obviously lessened, becoming non-existent before the first fresh print his shoes left, as Squall felt too ashamed to feel angry. When the car was within a close proximity, he fished for his keys tranquilly and opened the door without a trace of emotion. His emotions have already quite possibly landed him into a world of trouble and he wanted to escape this moment without causing another ruckus.

After he sat once more in the vehicle, and then drove off, he found that his mindset had indeed cleared… a slight bit.

'That's the last time I'm saying my thoughts out loud, it never fails to give people the wrong impression…Actually, it usually makes me look homicidal… '

He suddenly slammed on the brakes and stopped at an intersection.

'Now… What am I going to do about him?-'

Squall abruptly halted again as the car in front of him turned onto a side street.

'-Damnit! I've got to stop doing that! Argh..This is going to be a long ride if I don't…'

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Managing to get into the driveway after enduring varied kinds of heavy traffic, the weary teenager automatically turned everything off inside and locked everything on the outside. Trudging out of the automobile, he nearly exhausted himself from his own efforts. Getting to the door and even getting inside the house was certainly going to prove even more difficult. While taking lead-like progressions forward, he no longer had to worry about having to dig for his keys in his deep pockets again to open the entrance door; Laguna had already done that for him and was waiting for him at the opening.

Squall rubbed his eyes with his thumb and forefinger as some last second preparation.

"So, what's the news kiddo, why are we late in coming back?" His dad chirped. It was too light-hearted to classify it as 'inquiring' or 'questioning'.

He rubbed his eyes some more, this time he used the entire palm of his hand.

'You don't even know the half of it…and I'm going to keep it that way.'

"Traffic… too many cars everywhere." He conjured.

"Ah yes…" Laguna mused. "That's the same line I used on my parents when I went on my first date – and it didn't work then neither."

'What, where you like 27? Forget about it.. I don't really care that you know anymore - unless if you don't keep your trap shut.'

"…What's it to you?" He responded acidly.

"Well it's important to know that my son isn't a workaholic robot."

'What about all of those double-shifts you've pulled as of late? Or was that because you've fallen asleep at your desk?'

"…Whatever."

"Heh, I predicted a long time ago that you'd act like this if you'd ever gotten yourself a girlfriend."

"Okay… I'm just going to ignore that and… go into my room, if you don't mind."

"-That's…err.. fine. I'll call you when it's suppertime."

"…Sure."

After Squall had gone upstairs to go into what Laguna assumed to be his room, that same father mumbled something to himself.

"Wow, I was expecting him to blow up or something, usually he doesn't like it when I tease him like this…Maybe Rinoa might be even better for him than I thought. Who knows, maybe I might get more than two phrases out of him yet."

Meanwhile, in his room, Squall also opted to mumble something to himself as well, as opposed to the traditional method of mentally analysing it to bits.

"Ugh… I just hope that everyone won't be as nosy as him. Wait a minute… Why am I doing a monologue? I could have as easily been thinking this instead. …It finally happened; I must have gone completely insane today…"

Right after, the temporarily non-pensive teenager crashed onto his bed and took a well-needed nap without any complications. To Squall, it really felt good not to think about something… for a brief while.

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When Monday inevitably rolled around, Squall didn't seem to have that pressured feeling that he usually experienced whenever he failed to get everything organized and ready beforehand. Instead, he took things at a much slower and relaxed rate contrary to his usual unnecessarily-hurried way of getting ready 10 minutes ahead of schedule. For a moment there, his mind fleetingly reflected upon the notion that he could have been drugged the night before, but then again, he knew that his father wouldn't have had the adequate skills to pull it off. So, as an alternative, Squall simply ruled in favour of this just being a very unusual morning.

It must have been unusual, because he also had the urge to take the bus to school against driving there to top it all off.

After he'd left the house, he calmly strolled towards the designated bus stop corner. Today seemed much better weather-wise compared to yesterday. Whereas yesterday had plenty of continuous whipping winds and a depressing overcast sky all day long, this particular morning appeared to have potential of being like a taste of the not too far-off spring season, with all of its' sunshine, warm breezes, hints of chirping noises in the background and what not. Squall had never been one to like this entirely cheery atmosphere, but the signs of hopefulness were layered on so much that even he could not resist its' innate charm, especially when he took a second to glance upon the impossibly clear light blue skies and the protruding emerald green grasses.

'Hmm, it doesn't look so bad out here… Still, why did I choose to take the bus? I could have drove today, it's not like the car was gone-'

Squall rapidly ended that unfinished thought as the school bus stopped and opened its' doors to let him climb on.

'-I keep on forgetting that this thing comes early, I'm sure I'll think of that answer later.'

Bus stops and pickups came and went; sceneries changing from the more sophisticated neighbourhoods to the poorest and occasionally littered with stops to the more rural places as the stoic adolescent looked on absentmindedly, still trying to find the answer to the obviously unanswered question floating around the grey matter in his brain. But it was a losing battle as his eyelids started to droop lower and lower, eventually transitioning him into a light slumber from his previously comatose state. Luckily for the others, Squall wasn't the type who snored in his sleep.

'Poke…poke…poke…POKE!'

"………Hm?" Squall mumbled drowsily as he lazily opened his one eye while rubbing the other. Since he couldn't withstand the incessant prodding no longer, he finally woke up from his slight cat nap.

'…Is it time to get off the bus already?' He pondered, and then he glanced to verify his hypothesis's correctness.

'-Nope, there's roughly… 20 minutes left- I recognize that side street. …Hmph, there must be an juvenile idiot behind-'

As he turned his head slightly to glare at the juvenile idiot in question, he couldn't help but eat his words, or in this case, thoughts.

'-Now I know why I took the bus this morning.'

He couldn't help but smirk as he saw Rinoa, the formerly accused moronic prodder, giving him a goofy grin from the seat directly across from his own. After a split-second, he stopped smirking and harshly swivelled his head forwards, avoiding her gaze altogether, breaking into a slight self-induced feverish sweat.

'…What am I going to do now?'

Continuous self-disciplinary notions kept pouring through the troubled teen's mind as he attempted to refrain from giving eye contact with his new girlfriend, attempted being the key word as he occasionally forgot about the unspoken regimen and glanced at her, which in turn, turned into a smile and small giggle on her part and a restrained grin on his.

Restrained was the new key word for that part, since it was only when she giggled that he fully realized what he had done on each lapse, and kept on severely reprimanding himself mentally for each and every occurrence.

'I'm. Driving. Myself. Insane. With. This. I've got to stop forgetting… People might catch on.. This is getting……worse.'

Distracting himself, he pulled out one of the books he had recently borrowed from the library in the bottom of his backpack. Glancing through the pages, he set it down in a matter of seconds.

'This isn't what I remember picking, I must have accidentally picked the wrong one in haste… Rinoa might like this-'

He turned his head ever so slightly only to brusquely bring it back to face the window once more.

'-Damnit! I did it again…Why did I have to turn into a hopeless romantic? Worse of all, I know she wouldn't be too pleased if I ignore her in public, but what am I to do? The thought alone is enough to- Hyne, this is confusing….'

When Rinoa noticed the last time he turned around briefly and fleetingly took a glance at her, her face didn't break into the usual smile or giggle; instead, she frowned and looked towards her own window and peered at his expression indirectly through the reflection cast by the glass.

"Poor guy, I know what going on here…" She whispered near-silently to herself in a spark of insight, still glancing at his distressed mirror-image.

After several minutes had passed and about three minutes before they were scheduled to arrive to the school, Squall found himself trying to distract himself once more with whatever he could find. Although whenever he did manage to find something to occupy himself, it never lasted more than a minute before his thoughts kept drifting towards the lone girl sitting across from him. At least he didn't break his regime by making eye contact.

'Whoosh! Thunk.'

Looking down, Squall noticed a small paper airplane hitting his left shoe, which, by the looks of it, had some writing on it as some small words were peeking out of the folds. Curiosity got the best of him when he saw his name neatly printed among other words on the right wing. Naturally, he opened it up and read it. His gaze immediately softened.

I understand that this might not be so easy for you Squall. Meet me in the library; I've got loads of things to tell you.

Love, Rinoa

P.S – Look ticked off and crumple the note; the people behind me look very suspicious.

As he crumpled up the folded paper and gave her a five-star ultra-frigid glare, Squall noticed that Rinoa was biting her lower lip hard to prevent herself from quite possibly grinning ear-to-ear. Afterwards, when they finally got off the bus, he remarked upon how her bottom lip was slightly bleeding, and that it undeniably had the exact same indentations from her upper teeth. He immediately slapped his hand onto his forehead in sheer exasperation.

'I guess I won't be doing anything like that in the near future, Hyne knows she can't keep a straight face…'

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While trying to walk serenely towards the library as he normally did, he found it increasingly difficult to slow his pace and not raise suspicion among the thirty-or-so students ambling around the same area in the corridor. Nobody, not even Squall himself, ever raced down a hall to just go to the school library…unless if there was a monster fine to be paid before the bell or if a major essay was left completely undone a period before it was due. Seeing as Squall had neither problem resting on his shoulders, he presumed that it'd be best if he didn't speed down the hallway like a crazed maniac.

'…I feel like I'm under constant surveillance here, my head's swimming with thoughts, my palms are all sweaty…But I know that this is worth it, I just have an undeniable feeling that it is…I..know- I just know it. …Phew, I'm almost there, time to escape this crowd. I wonder what Rinoa wants to talk about though…'

A few moments later, after Squall walked into the secluded library, he glanced around the immediate perimeter, saw nothing, looked around the corner, he still saw nothing. Shuffling around the area, somewhat unsure of what to do, he did what came naturally to him as he started to pretend to be reading in his usual spot – the closest chair near the doorway.

Eventually, he stopped pretending as the minutes slowly slipped past.

'…Argh, why did I pick this bland excuse for a book? The whole novel so far has been about a guy trying to figure out who murdered his friend when he obviously knows that his mother did it, you can see it a mile away. Sometimes authors use foreshadowing too much for their own good…and why does it seem like something's always nagging at the back of my…shoulder? Wait a minute, that's not nagging, it's seems to be more like…poking?'

He instantly looked away from his novel, glanced sideways and immediately peered into a set of rich dark brown eyes.

"Squall, you seriously have to stop getting so transfixed into things. I've been tapping your shoulder for nearly two minutes now, and quite frankly, my finger's starting to hurt." Rinoa explained light-heartedly.

"…Sorry."

"It's okay, no harm done. Come on, I really have some things I need to tell you, lets' go down by the fiction section in the corner."

"Sure."

Walking calmly, the pair quietly went towards the aforementioned corner, going down the small set of three mini-stairs to get to the other lower section, where the majority of the books were currently shelved. During their minuscule trek, Squall unconsciously kept shifting his gaze, scanning corner-to-corner. In contrast, Rinoa plainly strode in an even pace whereas the other kept on occasionally pausing, still looking here and there.

'-Klunk!'

The male onlooker had just knocked into a generic library table.

'-Ouch! Why did I turn into a klutz all of a sudden? Can't I go two seconds without smashing into something?'

Then, Rinoa turned and asked serenely, "You okay there?"

"Fine. Just fine." He gritted through his teeth, trying to retain some amount of dignity.

"Oh, okay." She responded. "Well… would it be okay if I just started now? There's a lot of stuff I just have to get off my chest and… no one's here so, it wouldn't matter anyways."

The other adolescent nodded courteously.

"Well, to be quite honest, um… this seems a little too early to be talking about this to you but- …I really need an outlet right now, and I don't… urm, how do I put it? –I don't…… exactly… feel like hearing suggestions from my friends, just… someone to hear me out." Rinoa admitted, to some extent, in an awkward manner, along with the telltale signs - such as looking downwards, tracing imaginary circles in the carpet with her right shoe and the like. Squall's ears instantly perked up at this admission and went to convert the message into several consequential mental notes in his brain.

'Just listen attentively and pay attention, and you won't screw up. That's why you're here; to help her.'

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

"Okay, my father is dating someone new- and before you think that I'm not open to that, it's not true but-" Rinoa caught herself at that point from going too quick and defensively. "…Oops, I went too fast there, heh.."

After a small pause, she continued- albeit a little uneasily. "-Well, the fact of the matter is that… it's not that my father's dating that's bugging me, or that I don't like her, it's just that… sometimes I feel like… he's trying to replace her."

'Replace who? I don't understand…' Squallgave her a merely perplexed stare, issuing no verbal communication what so ever.

"Oh! Sorry about that, what I mean is that… some things, err… some traits that Sylvia– Oops, I forgot to mention that she's the lady that my father's been seeing- Anyways, hers' are practically identical to my mother's! -And I can't help it! It's driving me insane! I feel that he's using her to pretend like mother's still alive!" She shouted unstably.

"-SHHHHHH!" The librarian finally cut in to intervene and cease Rinoa's emotionally-charged rant.

"-Sorry…Didn't mean it…"

'Hmm… Maybe I have an idea to remedy this.' Right now, a thinking look was now apparent on the silent teenager's face.

"Are you… thinking about anything Squall?" She whispered innocently.

"…I know that you said to not give ideas, but I just had one in my head, that's all. Nothing effective though."

"Well, I'd still like to hear it, if it's okay."

No words were spoken straightaway as he stood slightly transfixed, deeply analyzing her facial expression.

"…Didn't you-"

"Don't worry, I said that I didn't want friends giving me suggestions, I don't mind yours." Rinoa explained candidly without reservation.

'That seemed a little forward…'

"Seeing as my father knows about us," He started with an acerbic twist, but dulled it down afterwards, or would have.

"-Before you continue, I'm sorry, but I had to tell him." She rectified.

"-For what reason?"

"I did it so he wouldn't think of worse things."

"…What did you mean by?"

"I don't know, I could just tell that he found it very odd considering it's you we're talking about."

"Gee thanks."

"No! I meant- argh…sorry, I didn't mean it in that way, that's just the way I figured was going on in his head. By… the way he was talking to us… -and to me when I went downstairs alone. I guess… I should have phrased it differently, what kind of girlfriend am I to say such things?"

"It doesn't really matter Rinoa, but as I was trying to say, I was thinking along the lines of you coming over if you needed to step out for a bit, or something…"

'Hyne, what did I say? That sounded horrible, she's going to laugh at me, thinking that I meant something else again…'

"Okay, but if I do happen to go to your place, would you mind if I bring my Pinwheel? I'm sure that'd kill ti-"

After coming out of his minor trance, derived from the unused protective measures for some possible recoil, they'd both realized something together, vocalizing it in a strange unison.

"Oh crap! We forgot about the advanced S.D class!" They yelled at the same time.

"Okay, that's the last straw! Are you two going to be quiet or am I going to have to kick the both of you out?" The surly ageing librarian bellowed, glaring in their direction.

"…No need!"

"Bye!"

At that point, two hastened blurs rushed past the now-confused bookkeeper. What she didn't know was that they were both deathly late in getting to their first class.

"I'll never ever understand teenagers. Hyne… I hope that I'll get transferred to Balamb Garden soon, these kids are driving me nuts here!"

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'Ding. Ding. Ding.'

While they both respectfully paused to get their things momentarily, Squall couldn't seem to find his equipment and clothes fast enough for his liking. Friday he'd managed to inadvertently get on the teacher's bad side and if he was late today, and it certainly wouldn't help things one bit to get back on his good side.

'Finally! Hyne, it never takes this long to take out my gym bag and Revolver case… This is not looking good, maybe if I explain he'll understand. No he won't, urgh, either way, I'm screwed, I know won't be able to change rapidly enough to make it... Better start sprinting again.'

As he started to go into a dash once more, it wasn't before long that he noticed Rinoa running alongside him.

"Was that the- Three minute- Warning bell?" She asked in-between strides. Squall only managed to mouth a feeble 'Yes', while barely missing the entire lingering football team.

"Do you think- We'll be able to- Change in time?"

"-Not likely." He replied after a slight jump.

"Oh- Great, we'll be- Chewed out- For sure…"

'I'll take the brunt for this; I should have reminded her and myself…' Squall internally moped. A split second later, his thoughts focused on Rinoa as he saw her dodge some other bystanders.

'Oh Hyne, she's not going to miss that one…'

"Hey, watch where you're going!" The random student shouted towards the running female.

"-Sorry, I'm in a hurry!" She briefly voiced apologetically.

"Hey! That's the second time, what's wrong with you people?" He hollered once more.

"Same problem… Very late." Squall weakly justified, picking up speed yet again.

'Crash! Clang!'

Squall had just been catapulted into the air and fell onto his front; he'd missed avoiding another someone who was crouching, possibly to get some fallen textbooks, and produced a massive collision in the process. Needless to say, everyone in the hallway was gawking at the spectacle provided by the two males. Rinoa, however, was not a part of the spectators; she was already too far down to see who caused the clatter properly.

'Argh… Should have been.. looking. Must…urg.. get up.'

Forcing himself to his feet again, it was apparent that he had received some minor nicks and cuts scattered on his hands and face, and was going to have some extensive bruising on his chest later on. Brushing some dust off and mumbling a barely sufficient 'Sorry', he dashed off all over again; this time, he'd made sure that he was aware of the numerous hazards, namely the errant teenage corridor habitants, and actually managed to catch up to Rinoa.

"Were you the- One who fell?" She rasped.

"…Yeah."

"Almost there. You must be in real good- Shape to catch- Up so- Fast. Ever- Went for- Track and Field?"

He smiled at that remark. "Yeah, three years straight."

"Figures." Rinoa breathed.

'D-DIN-NG!'

Skidding into the gym itself roughly after what probably was a fraction of a second later, all eyes were now on the two intruders. Why that was, Squall didn't know, as he previously thought that no further exams had been conducted after his and Seifer's skirmish on Friday. But alas, as he could obviously point out, several classmates from their former S.D class were also present at this time, so, for some unknown reason, the exams must have somehow been carried out.

"Well, looky here…" A taunting voice drawled. Apparently, Seifer made the class as well. After a slight pause, he continued.

"The 'top students' are now on top of the late list! What's next to be on top of? Naah… better not say it, there are virgin ears in crowd." At that point, he glanced over at a certain short blond.

"Hey!" Zell whined, although his voice wasn't the only one that piped up.

"Wow, Seifer I'm impressed, you finally know where to draw the line. For awhile there, I was afraid that you didn't know how."

"Aah, you're ruining my fun Quistis," He chimed, "we can't all be as serious as Puberty Boy over there. He knows I'm only joking, right?"

"Go to hell." Squall retorted; expression still as void as usual.

After he had said his simple reply, the others just roared with laughter. Seifer however, not wanting to be laughing stock for too long, had tried diverting attention by adding a, 'C'mon, lighten up Leonhart, you know it was a joke.', but it didn't work as the others still snickered for a little longer and Squall himself smirked slightly. He knew that he had won. Then, the teacher came in.

"Alright, alright, enough laughing class, come on now, I expect better from an advanced class! Leonhart, Heartilly, why aren't you two changed yet?" The dark-haired teacher insisted.

'Guess I'll have to make something up..'

"Err… We came in late and…"

"Nevermind, save your excuses Squall, I know that you two forgot. This sort of thing happens every year- with all new classes that is... I'll be lenient for today and forgive the tardiness, just change during the announcements."

As Squall left towards the designated male locker room, the noises of the commencing announcements, footsteps and numerous voices persisted to permeate in his ear drums. Then, a very specific fleeting intonation drowned it all out.

"Guess we were lucky, huh?" She whispered momentarily to his retreating backside. For whatever reason, he couldn't seem to smirk or smile as he was increasing growing accustomed to, and instead, a mechanical response ensued.

"Whatever."

"Same old, same old, huh Squall?" Rinoa murmured before finally leaving.

'Yeah, that's the problem.' He pensively thought later on, when he was changing alone inside the locker room.

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"-So what did you get on your exam?"

"Really? He messed up on that technique, I thought it was idiot-proof! You would have done better with my partner."

"-You're kidding! You nearly got hit on the head? Ouch…"

"Sorry I forgot to bring it, is tomorrow okay?"

"-I wonder what we're going to learn… Hope we don't have to run, my muscles are still aching from yesterday."

Passing through the accumulated thicket of people talking around the locker room entrance, Squall squeezed through the central gathering in order to see if the teacher was starting to talk anytime soon.

And he did- after the din had lessened and Rinoa lightly jogged out from the girls' room.

"Okay class, lets' get started, as we are slightly behind schedule. Now, since this is a newly-formed course, to rule out the most probable question, the basic mechanics of this higher class will be nearly identical to that of the standard one. However, you'll actually have partners to practice the movements and drills with." He announced.

'Sounds good so far.'

"But-" Mr. Janis added with a louder pitch, trying to emphasize its' importance. Then, he took a large breath.

"In order to be effective in training, one partner will only last roughly two weeks, so you'll all get a feel for different weapon types. At the end of every partnership, there will be an evaluation, failure to either show up without a valid reason, or three consecutive failing grades will result in a departure from this class. Depending as I see fit, the student in question will either be simply kicked out, or put back into the standard self-defence/weaponry class. Any questions?"

As several hands were raised among the other… nine students, Squall took the time to note the people who made it.

'Besides Rinoa, Seifer, Quistis, Zell and myself, it looks as if…Irvine,…what's her name, the brown haired girl, err- Olivia, another guy and two other girls that I have no clue as to who they are made it. This class might be decent enough, I can already see some interesting duels that could be made against some of those weapons, I don't know how I'll manage against those Katals without hurting the one guy though.'

Zoning back into reality, he paid attention long enough to hear the final two syllables of the last question being answered. He just hoped that none of the issues covered in the enquiries pertained to anything important as he wasn't in the mood to listen.

"Squall? Hell-oo…" Itwas Rinoa waving a hand in front of him; Squall instantly leaned backwards in mild surprise.

"Weren't you listening? We're supposed to start now and I'm your partner." She enlightened him furthermore.

"-What?" He stumbled. "Sorry…I wasn't paying attention."

"Yeah, that 'far-off-into-space' look of yours pretty well gave that away."

"…What do we have to do?"

"I don't know; we're going to find that out in a moment." His partner explained plainly. Right now, Squall ran a hand through his hair, unknown to the majority of the school populace; it was actually a nervous tick of his.

'Smooth Squall, very smooth.'

"Okay, before we start on the brand new sets of advanced defensive patterns, we're going to warm up with the last defensive drills we learned in the regular class, but we're going to do them at a much faster speed than usual, to get the heart pumping quicker and blood circulating. And remember, don't compromise accuracy and skill just for speed; they still must still be present, so that means I don't want to see any sloppy performances. As soon as you and your partner are ready, start."

"You ready?" Rinoa asked playfully. Squall nodded, Gunblade slung over his right shoulder.

Defensive pattern five itself was simple, but complex if someone wanted to master its' finer points. Squall, like many other perfectionists, had indeed learned to avoid the common, but subtle errors present in 98 percent of all students' attempts at the aforementioned combination of movements. The whole combo consisted of one upward counter-swipe to fend off the opponent's weapon, then a right side step. After, the defender had to use the broad side of their weapon, facing downwards, to block another oncoming attack, take a step or two backward, and then crouch down with the weapon shielding them perpendicularly and then repeat the entire process. On top of that, there were also variations for those using arms other than your basic sword-type weapons, and Squall knew them all flawlessly.

"Want me to start on the defensive, or do you want to?" She inquired once more.

"…I'll start."

When Rinoa signalled for them to commence the drill, the two went to work immediately without hesitation. She aimed a projectile to his upper body and he hit it away perfectly high into the air, then following through with the side step. Since Rinoa didn't have a close-range weapon, he had to compensate somewhat by dashing to her side faster, sliding almost.

They had a bit of difficulty when he came to block, as his short-changed gliding motion earlier sent him a little too close and the distance between his Revolver's blade and her Pinwheel's disk launcher was almost too short. Although they still managed to pull it off, this caused a bit of a painful vibrating impact upon the blade's broadside. So, in order to remedy this, Squall took two slightly shorter strides backwards, figuring that this would eliminate the need to resort to sliding as opposed to the traditional method of side stepping later on.

Even though this did work, it wasn't the last of their problems.

As they continued the motions, and later on switched defensive and offensive positions, the pair did exactly as they were told by the teacher; going faster than usual without sacrificing precision or ability, but after awhile, something else started happening as they switched once more, after they were instructed to add two extra movements, which in this case, were two fencer-stance hacks.

"Heh, with the way this is going- I'll be a dress size thinner next week!" Rinoa giggled as Squall just sent her projectile flying once again. However, he said nothing in response.

'Side step.'

'Block. Crouch. Block.'

'Hack. Hack. Faster! I need to -Swipe- do this better, Hyne I'm getting –side step- slow…Hmph.'

"Squall?" She sighed. No answer. "Oh no, not this again."

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Rinoa had to endure ten more minutes of this tiresome problem, nearly hitting her cohort on several occasions since she was so dog-tired from going so fast all of the time. Squall on the other hand, didn't take notice of any of this. And when the teacher called for the whole class to take a five minute break, he still took no notice.

'Phew, that was much more challenging; I think I'll really enjoy this class. But right now, I think I'll take a trip to the water fountain, I might have over-exerted myself a little.'

Strolling down the adjoining corridor, the previously-lone teenager was soon accompanied with many other classmates, who must have shared the same trail of thought, much to his dismay. In all, there was a slightly reddened Quistis and Olivia, a droopy-haired and sweaty Zell and a completely exasperated Rinoa. As he took a brief look at the rag-tag group behind him, he figured that they needed the extra water more than he did, so he stopped to let them pass and reverted back towards gym. As he was doing this, he saw Rinoa glance in his direction, eyes holding a small glimmer, smile ready to form despite her obvious weariness, but he never saw any more than that.

The only thing the retreating adolescent managed to see was the gym's dull and dusty door as he advanced towards it.

When he went inside, it was only himself and Seifer inside the gymnasium; and those, other than the ones Squall knew to be at the water fountain, must have conveniently gone into the two locker rooms, or at the very least, somewhere else.

"Well Puberty Boy, I've seen you practice with Rinoa, and I'm impressed. Where you trying to impress her or just trying to tire her out?" He scoffed smugly.

"…What are you talking about?" Squall demanded. "We were only doing what the teacher instructed, and why would you care how we were doing the defensive pattern?"

"Whoa! No need to get defensive there lover boy… But, if you would have taken a split-second to look around, you would have noticed that you two were going three times as fast."

"…So?"

"I'm just sayin'… people were giving you two some pretty odd stares- if you know what I mean." The tall blonde agitated him furthermore by being vague.

'Hmph… I have no time for playing these mind games Seifer!'

Just when Squall thought that he'd finished annoying him, he kept on going. "Heh, I know that look; I can see it from a mile away. You don't like me figuring you out so easily, do you? Are your walls falling down Squally?"

"…Shut up. You're wrong anyway." The other adolescent countered coldly, averting his eyes.

"We'll just see about that, and remember, everyone's going to be watching for that one little slip." He lastly taunted before going out into the hallway.

"Oh, I'm glad you two didn't start brawling again." Squall flinched; it was Mr. Janis coming out from his office by the exit door. Then, he seemingly looked outside the other door, to see if it was all-clear for some reason.

'Did he hear..any…of that?' Squall thought hastily in panic.

"-Now I normally don't talk ill of my students, but I can understand why you'd lose your temper with him around, personalities like Seifer's don't exactly… mesh well others." He divulged while gathering some things scattered about on the bleacher.

"Sir…Why are you talking about this? I mean, isn't it a little…unprofessional?"

"Oh, well I suppose it is actually.. Forget about what I just said." He realized after finally putting things in order. "On another topic, how do you like the class so far, is it any better?"

"Yeah…it kind of is. Less frustrating when you have someone to practice with."

"Yes, I guess that would make it less frustrating. Between Friday and today, I do tend to notice that you and Miss Heartilly seem to connect well when you're practicing together, almost like a spark you might say. But, in all honesty, I had been a little worried at the speed you two were going at though, so in the future, try to slow down. Sometimes your partners might not be able to handle the same intensity as you can, and I don't want to have you both injure yourselves."

"…It won't happen again." He assured the teacher absentmindedly.

'He noticed it too; this is getting bad… Was Seifer actually right?'

"Good. Well the others should be coming back soon, and then we'll start up again."

Almost as if he said the magic words, nearly everyone started to filter back into the gym once more, and Squall internally cringed at this notion, his stance immediately stiffening.

'Here we go again…'

A very significant moment later, Rinoa started sauntering energetically towards him, her face mustering a tiny smile throughout her otherwise tired expression.

"Ready to go again?" She asked exuberantly, surprisingly still full of life.

"……Hmm… What?"

"Oh dear, he must not be feeling right about something…He's spacing out again." Rinoa noiselessly worried to herself.

"Okay," At that point, Squall resumed to his normal attentive self, "-now that you've all gotten warmed up, we'll be doing something extra-special for today's lesson, since everyone had done far better -and faster- than my original expectations. We'll be learning a very unique and rare offensive movement, only learned for SeeD-level combat."

The crowd of students, save Squall and Seifer, automatically awed in prospect of learning this new technique and highly anticipated the details of what the movement entailed.

"As I was saying, seeing as this move can inflict severe bodily harm if used incorrectly or inattentively, you'll take turns in helping your partner practice it solo until I say otherwise. Even if I do come over and find that both partners can execute it properly, you won't be using it on each other; instead you'll practice it against me, since we wouldn't have enough time for everyone to learn the defensive movements as well, and for some liability issues."

After taking a breath and getting out his infamous polished ebony bo, Mr. Janis started to explain the various movements and little nuances in each step of the six-move combination. Squall, like all of the others, gradually, but surely, became enthralled, and ultimately meandered towards the notion of, 'He must have been a SeeD himself before coming here, there's no other way he'd be pulling this off otherwise.'

Eventually, when the teacher ended his demonstration, and before anyone dared to start trying the combo for themselves, some reactive chatter started to float around briefly about what they all witnessed. Contrary to the majority of their classmates, Rinoa bravely dragged Squall away by the hand and dared to be the first ones to attempt the SeeD-rank attack combo.

"Squall, would it be okay if you helped me try this first? It seems really interesting but I didn't quite get the idea of the last couple steps."

'Sure, anything to keep their eyes off me for a change…'

"…Ok." He mumbled nonchalantly, unconsciously scanning the room at the same time.

After Squall had gotten a safe distance clear from Rinoa, back leaning casually against the wall, she got into the beginning stance, toes pointing outward, knees bent and everything.

"…Go ahead." He shot at her, arms crossing in contemplation.

"Here goes nothing…" She nervously mumbled.

She took one fast stride forward, went into a speedy side slide, cartwheeled and pretended to hit the anonymous defender, and then the adolescent gracefully dropped to the ground and used her right foot to hook her imaginary foe's legs to make him/her/it imaginarily trip. Then, she paused.

"Okay, so how does that last part go?"

The brooding partner slowly got out of his previously angled position and went to aid his cohort.

"Hold on…" He stalled while properly creating some distance in between the two of them.

"Aren't you going to guide me through it?" Rinoa quizzically wondered aloud.

"Actually… I'm sort of terrible with words, so instead, I'll be doing it myself to show you."

"Oh. Are you sure you can do it? I mean… it did look kinda complicated…"

"…Positive." Squall responded monosyllabically, still readying himself.

'At least… I think I can, with all of this… energy that I seem to have this morning, I've got to be able to pull this stunt off.'

He thoughtfully paused for a moment to calm his steadily increasing nerves, eyes focusing, adrenaline pumping.

'One. Two. Three-'

As he commenced, Squall seamlessly blended the advancing and sliding motions as if it was supposed to be a single action. Then, he immediately did the broad weapon-wielder's variation of Rinoa's cartwheel; he did a one-handed backwards somersault with his Gunblade firmly secured with his other hand. After a fraction of a second later, he stood erect and forcefully delivered a slash across to what was most-likely the invented perpetrator's abdomen, in succession, Squall mirrored Rinoa's poised decent onto the ground and quite possibly made the make-believe thing trip using the broad side of his weapon. It would have fallen very easily, if by chance, it was alive. No such luck here though.

Gathering all the strength he could, Squall got up from his knees, and while he had that brief instant to spare, he used it wisely to visualise what he had to accomplish next.

'Okay, now I've got to do a … back flip, then a leaping downwards hack then shift the movement into an advancing side strike. That won't be too hard… Wait. -Did I say back flip? Hyne, I just hope that I don't send myself to the hospital…'

Taking a miniscule pause, he unknowingly vaulted his hands behind himself and before he knew what he was doing, he had landed back on his feet a little shakily once more after actually landing the flipping motion, and continued on with the last two moves. Even though he had indeed achieved the hardest part of the whole combo, he still wasn't completely satisfied with himself somehow. Instead of marvelling in his own achievements, he was examining at his severely gashed and bleeding left wrist, caused by a slip during the mid-air transition. Rinoa immediately flocked over to him.

"Wow… that was pretty spectacular Squall, you were right about being able to pull this thing off. Nearly everyone stopped to watch you, even the teacher!" She squealed excitedly. Then she saw his red-drenched wrist.

"Are you …okay?"

"Yeah… I'm.. all right I suppose."

After that, Squall stayed silent and simply walked away, into the solitary boys' change room, uncaring that his hand required some medical attention and he was constantly dripping blood on the gym floor and himself in the process.

Inside, he sat down on one of the benches, clasped his hands together – despite the unimaginable stinging, dipped his head downward and watched the blood trickle down his hands, collecting into a dark crimson red pool onto the tiles.

'Yeah, I'm fine… if you're talking about the cut that is. But having all of those people looking? That's where I'm not fine, what was I trying to do...?'

'-Show off?'

'Maybe.'

'-Prove myself?'

'Possibly.'

'-Impress Rinoa?'

'NO.'

'If anything, I was trying to avoid being near her, giving the wrong impression, causing people to look… But I still screwed that up anyway. Ugh… I hate it when Seifer's right too, about the 'slip' –well… he probably meant something else-, about the people watching… Just about Hyne-forsaken everything!'

He released his hands from their interconnecting hold and uncontrollably pounded against the wooden bench in anger with both fists. He instantaneously recoiled from that action, deeply regretting ever doing it; his left wrist started to writhe further in pain and copiously poured out with even more blood.

'Argh… Stupid! Stupid! STUPID! I might not have sent myself to the hospital, but it looks like I'll be taking a trip to the infirmary if this doesn't stop. Ugh… it looks as if there was a bloody massacre here, better start washing this out…'

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Twenty minutes later, Squall came out, still clad in his blood-speckled gym clothes. He'd just spent two minutes washing out the blood off his hands and forearms, and the other 18 to clean the scarlet-tinged mess he'd made in the locker room. The reason why it took so long was because every time he'd clean a spot, he'd be bleeding all over another place when his make-shift toilet paper band-aids became fully saturated with his AB-type blood. After the time-sapping ordeal, he thanked Hyne that he wasn't a janitor.

Also, another thing he thanked Hyne for was that he wouldn't need to visit the infirmary, as the hemorrhaging had finally ceased late into the twenty minutes, and that'd he just need some anti-biotic cream and a very, very large bandage.

"Erm…Sir?" He solicited to the close-by S.D teacher who was conveniently watching a nearby group.

"Yes Squall?"

"Do you happen to have any large bandages for the gash on my wrist?" The said teacher took the moment to examine the lacerated arm.

"Hmm… bandages yes, but you'll need a really good anti-septic solution too, and that… I don't have. You'll have to visit the infirmary for that. You can go now to get that tended to."

'Damn. No avoiding it now, Dr. Kadowaki will have my head for this; it'll be…two, maybe three, times this month alone.'

"Okay."

'Better wear my other gym shirt. Wait a minute… that's all bloody too. She'll probably think I enjoy getting into all of those messes. Nevermind… Why should I care anyway? Regardless, I really need to start doing some more laundry…'

Exiting the gym, he took one last look of the class. Nobody stared back, as everyone was busy helping their partners or busy trying the complex movements for themselves; everyone except for one that was.

After a ten minute all-inclusive trip to the infirmary, whereas seven of those minutes were spent aimlessly walking around, Squall came back with a huge tan-coloured bandage and a slight lecture-induced migraine and everything. Two seconds later, the bell rang. The no-longer-bleeding-everywhere teenager wasn't very happy at all.

'Oh what marvelous luck I have today! First I cause a HUGE scene by tripping over some oaf in the hallway and again by practicing like a massive speed demon. Then, I get paranoid over what Seifer and the teacher casually mention and, it gets to the point where I can't even help Rinoa, because I'm nervous that I'll give off the wrong impression, so I end up making an even bigger spectacle of myself by doing the damn attack pattern and created a blood bath in the locker room only to waste my time to clean the whole thing up and get harassed by the doctor in the process. What's next?-'

As soon as Squall thought that nothing else could possibly happen to him today, there was Rinoa who ambushed him in the unpopulated gym, abducting him to the also unoccupied, but more private storage room. And no, she wasn't trying to seduce him either. To say the least, Squall was confused as hell about all of this.

"…What are you doing?" He questioned confoundedly.

"I just teenager-napped you so we could talk and not be heard, and because I really need some answers here."

"…Teenager-napped?" Squall intoned sarcastically, trying not to make fun of her too much, but blatantly failed.

"Oh, be quiet you meanie! I only said that because I couldn't say 'kidnapped' because you're not a kid and 'Squall-napped' sounds like I'm putting you to sleep."

"But you are." He voiced daringly, strangely not opting to keep it to himself this time.

"Ooh… Shut up!" Rinoa laughed in frustration, if that was even possible. After that, she became serious though.

"Okay… can I ask my question now?" Squall nodded.

"What I wanted to know was… why were you acting all… strange in class today?"

"Erm…" He paused to look at the ground, searching his brain to find a suitable answer to her question, but couldn't.

"I… don't really know Maybe… I might have been…hmm… subconsciously compensating for something? Nevermind, none of that made any sense…"

"Well, that's okay Squall. I guess some things just can't always be answered I suppose."

'Sorry Rinoa, It just that… I don't think I can deal with a lot right now, and downright admitting like this, is kind of difficult to do at the moment.'

"Anyways, I might know what's been bugging you today and… as much as it pains me to say it," She then glanced sheepishly at her hands, "…if you really can't handle being public about us, I'll try and help you get over it. In the meantime, I'll try my best not to act overly suspicious to draw attention… even if I'm not very happy with the whole 'dodge my boyfriend' idea."

"..Okay." He responded awkwardly.

'This is going to be hard on her, I'm almost certain of that. I don't think I'll ever be able to go public about this, but I'll try anyway. Regardless, even if that accident never happened, I'm pretty sure that I still wouldn't be very open person, then again, everyone has some potential to change, so I might have some hope for this...'

"Maybe I'll even doodle decoy 'RH plus another guy's initials' in some big hearts on my binders to help… if you want."

"I think I'll pass on that." He replied flatly.

"Well, we should get out before people start coming back out then, huh?"

"Yeah…"

"See you later then." She said somberly and left right there.

'This isn't good… Not in any way possible...'

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After he had just gotten into his second-period classroom, Squall sluggishly walked towards his seat, and as he approached his vacant desk, he haphazardly tossed his textbooks and other things on to its' surface, halfheartedly sat down and dropped his head and arms onto the aforementioned layer of school supplies. He was so dazed that he didn't even hear the bell ring, or couldn't even to pay any attention to the teacher who had started to drone on about Hyne knows what.

"Okay class, today we'll be-"

'…if you really can't handle being public about us, I'll try and help you get over it. In the meantime, I'll try my best not to act overly suspicious to draw attention… even if I'm not very happy with the whole 'dodge my boyfriend' idea.'

'… I feel so damn guilty for hiding all of this… just because I'm not ready to face the others. Meanwhile, she's being a good sport about the whole ridiculous situation. I feel like such a jerk…'

"-and make sure that you've read all the stories we've covered-"

'I'd like to make this easier for us, but why can't I seem to get rid of those paranoid thoughts of mine?'

"-And be forewarned! I do dock points for spelling errors and poor penmanship in your answers, so please keep your-"

'I'm confused…I can't even keep my head on straight now...'

"Mr. Leonhart, pay attention!" Mrs. Pine screeched. Squall immediately lifted his head. "While you've been dozing off, the rest of the class were reviewing for tomorrow's test! Now how do you expect to pass this if you're not even awake?"

'I was awake, you bat. And besides, when aren't we studying or reviewing for a stupid test…'

At that moment, a few people nearby started laughing.

'Did I say that out loud? Maybe I might have mumbled it or something. Yeah, that's probably it …with all of the oddities happening today. I hope she didn't hear it though..'

"Everyone quiet now, shhhh! Stop laughing! Argh… Squall, I'll need to talk to you for a moment after class."

'…I'm busted.'

The rest of the class dragged on slowly, almost as if time itself refused to pass, but at last, the shrill bell tolled and everyone was finally liberated from this educational nightmare, everyone that was, except for Squall. After the class's size had shrunken from twenty-seven students to only one, Mrs. Pine commenced her 'talk' with the stoic teenager, seated behind her desk while Squall borrowed a closer classmate's place, now sitting adjacent to the bureau and the teacher herself.

"Squall, do you have any idea as to why you've been acting out of turn these last few days?" She inquired with an unusual hint of concern, in contrast to her otherwise stern and vindictive tone.

'Oh, I forgot, she's a part-time psychologist too. This'll be fun.' Squall mentally retorted with the usual dose of sarcasm.

"Not a clue." He untruthfully chimed. Mrs. Pine's scrutinizing gaze intensified while she craned the non-seated portion body towards him, as if she was about to let spill a huge secret.

"Okay, by any chance, are these outbursts payback for… making a scene when I found you unconscious that one day?"

'This is absolutely hilarious, that's quite possibly the furthest thing from the truth… Okay, I better stop mocking her now and give her an answer before she starts drooling on her desk.'

"No…I don't know… I'm not trying to be the class idiot if that's what you mean." Suddenly, Squall somehow felt Mrs. Pine's head deflate. How and why he felt this, well… anyone's guess was as good as his.

"Oh…? Hmm…err - I see," She faltered, trying to regain a little composure, "Well…either way, try not to distract the class any further, even if you don't inherently don't agree with what or how I'm teaching you students. Is that understood?"

"Yes…" He responded indifferently.

"Very well then, you may leave."

As he left, Squall couldn't help but think of one last offensive notion and it was, 'Mrs. Pine, don't quit your day job.'

A couple minutes later, the cerulean-eyed teenager had finally reached his ground-floor locker, wishing that it'd be the end of the day but, fully knew that he was only halfway there.

'Lunch, Math, History, and then I'm out of this place… Hyne, I just wish that everyone else would go away today…'

Squall momentarily broke his thoroughly-sullen train of thought in order to open his locker, and just when he wasn't expecting anything peculiar to happen, something did. That something was 2 or 3 inches in diameter, light blue in color, purple in ink, and had just fallen from the top of his locker.

'-Huh what's this? A paper crane? With today going the way it is, I'm not surprised of anything anymore. Hmm… looks like there's writing on this. Three guesses for who it's from. Guess number one, Rinoa, guess number two, Rinoa, and final guess number three… Rinoa. Bingo, we have a winner!'

He unfolded the second note of the day from Rinoa and read it straight away, like the perplexed individual that he was.

Hey, would you like to have lunch with me outside? I promise we'll be alone with no one watching us. Offer expires 11:05am.

- Rinoa

P.S – I'll be on the benches near my locker, pretending to look through my stuff.

P.P.S – Don't crumple up this note; it took me forever to make the wings just perfect.

'Okay, how could we eat outside in this kind of weather, it's nice but nowhere near appropriate to have a picnic, and there's still some leftover snow on the ground…Then again, it's Rinoa we're talking about here… I guess it couldn't hurt, and it's the least I could do after this morning's catastophe.'

Squall looked at his watch and saw that he only had two minutes to get there, so he quickly took his coat and lunch and sped up his pace greatly to catch Rinoa. The lockers, various murals and flyers became a palette of mixed colours to his peripheral vision, and with his black coat swishing noisily in conjunction with his near-running pace, his direct line of sight was now looking further and further for that distinguishable light blue lock and oak bench with the raven-haired girl on it, searching for that definite surge vibrant colour in contrast to the otherwise mundane hues in the hallway's vicinity. A minute and thirty-two seconds later, he got to that said destination and ultimately got to her in the nick of time; she had been just preparing to get up from her spot.

"So you're taking up my offer after all, excellent… Follow me. Good, you brought your coat, this is perfect! Lets' go!" She exclaimed excitedly. "Oops… Hold on. I got to put this stuff away first."

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As the minutes passed, Rinoa led Squall outside, more specifically towards the snowy, and not to mention very wet soccer field, and then as they had reached the left-hand extremity of the playing area, they took a detour around a crescent of trees, and subsequent to that, they arrived to a shed. …A very old and rusty-looking shed by the looks of it.

Nevermind… the word 'shed' implies a certain amount of dignity, so this was a shack …or maybe a shanty in terms of its'… shabbiness. Squall arched his eyebrows twice for the predicament that he'd gotten himself into.

"C'mon Squall, it's not going to bite, come in. I unlocked the door already." Rinoa enticed, and seeing as he agreed to this little adventure, the male had no choice but to comply, but did so very reluctantly. Once inside however, Squall had changed his mind severely, and mentally lamented on the fact that his father had never taught him about not judging books by their cover, or in this case, sheds by their rust.

The inside of the cabin appeared as if it was probably used for storing desks and chairs during a long-ago age, most likely when the school was much newer and smaller. There were three older, but serviceable wooden desk and chair sets, and it also looked like someone, probably Rinoa herself, had gone through some effort to clean it all up, as the place really sparkled with some of the various infused antique and modern touches. The floor was clean, some of the shelves against the far wall where lined with some recent books, large comforters, and even an extra water bottle or juice box or two. Most noticeable of all, there were some cross-stitch needle-point pictures framed on the right side wall. After Squall had taken his time to take in his surroundings, Rinoa took it upon herself to give a thorough speech of the quaint shed's rich but brief history.

"It took me the better part of Grade 10 to make this place useable; I even had to put my old lock on the outside so that the door wouldn't swing open continuously. Good news is that there's a lock hole on the inside too, so I can make sure that nobody comes in on us. Neat, huh?"

"…Nice."

"I figured that you'd like it. Well, we'd better not let our lunches go to waste. I'll just lock this…up now and…there we go."

'Going to all this trouble just so we could be together? Strangely enough, it somehow makes me feel lucky about this…'

Lunch was a relatively uneventful affair, just a few side comments shared amongst the bland, common denominator which most people referred to as eating. Nothing really perked up anywhere until after they where both done. Maybe this was due to the fact that for some strange and possibly hormone-induced reason, lover boy over on the chair by the door couldn't help but occasionally glance at his frontward-facing companion, one Rinoa Heartilly. Even the lover boy himself couldn't explain why that was either.

'Why do I get these sudden fits of attraction out of nowhere? This is really embarrassing…and it only seems to happen when no one else is around too… Maybe I'm just very apprehensive in public, or their opinions right now might...quite possibly affect me too much at this point to be.. open about this whole thing… Hyne, I haven't been so confused since I was five… and that's what's been aggravating me the most out of this outrageously sudden situation…I wish that there was something, if anything, to take my mind off this…'

"Do I have something in my teeth?" The single girl across unexpectedly blurted out.

"No."

"Then… why are you looking at me like that?" She wondered teasingly, her dark eyes surveying his expression extra-hard with a smile starting to dance across her mouth.

"...I don't know.. Being alone together is... kind of a nice change, rather than having to constantly watch what I do or don't do all the time."

"I guess… that would be a relief I suppose," Rinoa said demurely, "-but… how do you manage it everyday?"

"I… normally don't worry about that, but today… I felt like I was under some kind of microscope."

"Hm…Do you suppose that you're just feeling a bit paranoid today because of us… being together?"

Squall stood stock-still, not saying the slightest peep.

"Oh, so that's what it is then… Well, if that's the case, try it from this angle, just pretend that I'm just another face in the crowd and that you want nothing to do with me. Would that help?"

'No, because I want you to be someone with me..' He thought automatically.

"No, that wouldn't work well…" He half-heartedly admitted. "I'm just… having a bit of trouble… letting go, that's all…"

"-Letting go of what? What people think of you? Don't let them bring you down; you'll always be a million times better than what they can possibly ever think of you."

"I know, it just… hard."

"Well, as I've said before, until you're ready, I'll be waiting for you when they disappear, then we can be together and happy."

"You'd… do that?" Rinoa nodded.

'Thank you.'

"You're welcome." She replied almost uncannily. "Now I do believe that you still owe me a little something from our last little date if I'm not mistaken."

"You… want to go to the movies?" Squall obliviously guessed.

"Nooo… I meant a kiss Squall."

"But… we're at school."

"Oh Squall, you've got to learn that the PDA doesn't apply here, but if you're that adamant about it, stand over there. That's where the cabin isn't technically on any school grounds."

'-And she knows all of this why? It's almost like a conspiracy here, but it's kind of my fault as well… Regardless, it was never really was the PDA that's been bothering me…'

Squall immediately looked at his soaking shoe and kept his gaze there.

"No Rinoa, I meant that it's…kind of new.. for me." He phrased very awkwardly.

"Yes, I kinda figured that, but you know what?" His eyes immediately darted up.

"…What?"

"You've gotta start somewhere. …Or else your next kiss won't be until that senile old granny snogs you when you're forty." She teased.

"…Very funny. Did I ever tell you about how much I despise it when people bring that up?" He countered dryly.

"So? Prove me wrong."

'Oh, I'll prove you wrong alright.'

Squall got up, and went around the desk he'd been using while the other stood up. Then, he approached the now-standing girl, inched closer and delivered a small kiss to her… on the cheek. Rinoa went slightly pink and fidgeted away from him on the spot.

"There you go," He concluded devilishly with an evil grin, "-a kiss, just like you wanted."

'I can play your game too Rinoa… You're not the only one with a strategy here, just remember that.'

"Ooh… You're a clever one Squall, but then again, that's what makes you… well you."

"…Whatever."

"Anyways, this was nice," Rinoa commented, and then she checked her watch. "Oh drat, I though we had some more time! We'd better go or we'll be late. Would you like to come back tomorrow?"

"Sure."

"Then it's a date."

After both adolescents had grabbed their respective things, Squall stepped aside when Rinoa approached the door and maneuvered the key into her thumb and forefinger. Then, she started to worm the key into the older lock's grooves and its' specific indentations. Soon, she started to wriggle more fervently and began to noticeably fret more and more.

"…I can't… seem to.. get this lock… to open……it's stuck."

'Not this again...'

"Come on you stupid lock…Open!" She forcibly rumbled. Squall started to get a little bit anxious and panicky at this point.

"Rinoa…let me try to open it."

"NO!"

"Why not?" He barked.

"Because if you do it wrong, the key will get stuck." She fired back fiercely.

"What's the worst that could happen if I tried?"

"Well…uh… we'd have to ram the door! And… I don't want that!"

"And why would that matter…" The taller of the two drawled impatiently.

"Because I've been going here every Monday for the last two years and it's like…tradition! You wouldn't want me to break tradition because the door broke now would you?"

"A door is fixable Rinoa, and we couldn't possibly stay stuck in here just because of a stupid piece of rectangular lumber. Hell, I'll even repair the damn thing if I have to."

"No, we're staying in here and that's final." She concluded.

"Rinoa, you're being completely insane-"

"-Pfft…pft.. Ha, hah, aha, ha, ha…"

"…What's in Hyne's name is so funny?"

"You..you.."

"-You what?" He irritably spat.

"You… fell for it. I was only joking." Rinoa joshed, Squall instantly looked away from dire embarrassment.

'How could I have been so gullible? Urgh…I feel like such a fool.'

"Squall… Squall? I'm sorry; it was only supposed to be a small practical joke…But I admit that I probably went a little too far there… but I couldn't really help my self you know, since… you were taking this so darn seriously." She apologetically confessed. Squall turned his head back, face now gazing at her directly.

"Yeah… I've been known to do that… a lot." He disclosed sheepishly.

"So that's why I always find it so fun to tease you!"

"Okay…Shouldn't we be trying to get to class by now?"

"Oh…right, right." She mumbled before unlocking the door and opening it. "Urg… the door… won't budge!"

"…I'm not falling for that one Rinoa." Squall stated firmly.

"No, I'm not kidding about this, I can't make it open. The cold temperature must have messed up the door's hinges somehow. Look."

When Rinoa pushed hard against the door with both hands, with her knees forcing her weight forward and everything, Squall knew that she wasn't lying.

"Stop for a moment." She stopped immediately and looked at him with a lost little girl look present in her eyes.

"What do we do now?"

"I'll try pushing it and if that doesn't work, we'll have to attempt opening it together. Is that okay?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Using the leverage of his heavier and sturdier frame, Squall tried the same method that Rinoa had attempted earlier to try and dislodge the immovable door. However, despite the extra force implied, the door remained frozen in place. In another consecutive attempt, he shifted his technique from a frontward pushing motion to one where he was pressing against the door with his back and leg muscles. To no avail, that didn't work either, so, a fed-up Rinoa took it upon herself to charge into the door beside Squall to get it open.

'Crack! Swing! Thunk. Thunk! Ooof!'

"Sorry…"

With the severity of the additional vigour caused from Rinoa's forceful tackle, the door swung open so violently that Squall instantaneously fell onto the surrounding snow, and then Rinoa sorta fell on top of Squall who then said 'Ooof!'.

'Step. Step. Step.'

"Rinoa? …Squall? …What are you guys doing here together...lying on top of each other like that?" A mysterious voice questioned.

While Squall uselessly tried to reposition his sights to see who it was, Rinoa awkwardly jolted off from their compromising position and turned a deep crimson red after identifying the two interlopers.

"Oh…Hi Selphie… Hi Quistis…" She mumbled uneasily.

'Oh great, now the Moomba's going to get out of the bag for sure…' He lastly thought before final moment of his perfect little secret had just been shattered. Deep down, he internally knew that it wouldn't be the same for them… ever again.

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End of Chapter Comments – Wow, this is now officially the longest chapter of my writing career - ever.

Exhausted? I'm not. I'm just glad that I finally finished this stupid thing after a month and a half of a whole lot of nothing. Well I hope that it was worth for you guys. As always, review with whatever you people have to say!

Thanks a bunch!

-EmeraldLatias