Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy 8.

The Note

Squall awoke from a much needed slumber, Rinoa lying beside him. He glanced at the clock, which read 6:27 a.m. Perfect, Squall could release some steam by doing some training. He slipped on his usual outfit, looked back at his gorgeous princess once more, and headed to the training center.

As he walked, he contemplated. 'I am so sick of all the media. So tired of all the questions. I just want to be left alone.' His anger levels rose, and he could feel his blood pressure moving in the same direction. This would prove to be quite unfortunate for any monsters that encountered him this morning. He neared the entrance of the training center, speeding his approach.

Upon entrance, he heard gunfire deep within. 'What the? Who else would be training this early? Could be trouble.' He unsheathed his Lionheart, and rushed in. Surprisingly, he spotted his cowboy friend, Irvine, blasting away a couple of grats.

"Serves ya well, ya sons of –"

"Irvine?" Irvine jumped at the sound of his name, and looked back.

"Ah, Squall. What's up?"

"I could ask the same. Why are you training so early?"

"Hey, hey! You make it sound like I'm not the type to train!" he teased.

"That doesn't answer my question," the commander replied uninterestingly.

"Egh. How about we talk it out while battling some T-rexaurs, eh?" Squall was expecting to be training alone, but he figured it might let off some more steam this way. He nodded in compliance.

About three T-rexaurs and sixteen grats later, Squall and Irvine rested on a rock near the back of the training center.

"Phew! What a rush!" Irvine took off his hat and used it as a fan for his sweating face.

"Sure," was the only reply he received from Squall, while deep in contemplation. Irvine saw the need to talk, so he proceeded.

"Ya know," causing Squall's head to shift in his direction, "when we boarded the Ragnarok in Esthar that last time, to go fight in Lunatic Pandora. I knew that the hardest battle we'd ever fought was coming. But, I was happy."

Squall pondered, and realized he agreed, for probably the same reasons that he guessed Irvine did.

"It's like…it was so close to freedom. So close to this long war we'd waged coming to an end. We could all just settle down and be happy. And I could be with…well, with Selphie." Irvine looked over at his friend for some reassurance, certain he'd receive no response for the ever-quiet Squall.

"Yep." The cowboy looked genuinely surprised. "At that same time, all I could think about was how Rinoa would become free from this agony. The threat of evil sorceresses would be gone, the dangers would be gone, and I'd be with her to stay." He looked down, disappointingly.

"Squall, you've changed man." The gun wielding warrior grinned mischievously, prompting Squall to look back up.

"I know. Before I met her…all I thought about was myself. My training. My orders. My life seemed so predetermined. I would be deployed somewhere SeeD services were needed, and I'd do as commanded." He smiled slightly. "But now, I'm the commander, and all I can think about is her."

"So uh, when's the wedding?" This evoked a glare from Squall. Though Squall had definitely opened up more, thoughts of things like marriage were not things he wished to discuss. Then he grinned again.

"I could ask the same of you."

Irvine rubbed the back of his neck nervously. "I ahh, don't think Selphie would go for something like that for a while. She's too…too…fun-loving, shall we say?"

Squall was about to say "I know what you mean," in concurrence with Selphie's energetic personality, before Irvine continued with, "And believe me, I looooove fun." He winked.

'I did not need to know that.'

"So uh, on to more serious stuff. When do you think all of this crap will boil over?"

"No clue, but hopefully soon. If one more reporter makes a remark about Rinoa being a sorceress, I don't think I'd be able to contain a few Rough Divides. I really just want to spend time with her."

Irvine felt sorry for his friend. Squall had done so much over the past few months that it was unthinkable. He had taken part in an assassination attempt, been tortured, prevented missiles from hitting Garden, been promoted to Commander, lead an attack during an inter-Garden war, fought evil sorceresses, went into space, discovered a country that nobody's heard from for 17 years (and spent days walking there, while carrying Rinoa), then lead the final assault on Ultimecia. He had to think of something to help, but…what? Then it hit him.

"Hey, I have an idea." Squall looked up, curiously. "Why don't you take a vacation with Rinoa? Screw the reporters."

Squall was about to protest, but realized that the idea wasn't half bad. "Yeah…but unfortunately, I can't really think of many places to go. Deling City is in near chaos after all that's happened, and probably wouldn't welcome us anyway. Timber would be stressful on Rinoa. Dollet…that's just boring, and there would be reporters there. Winhill, there's not much scenery for a relaxing vacation."

"What about FH?" Irvine suggested. "The people of FH are welcoming, there wouldn't be any reporters, and the scenery is amazing."

"Irvine…that is actually a good idea. I'll suggest it to Rinoa later." He gave his friend a small smile. This made Irvine feel accomplished. Still, it didn't solve his Selphie problem, but as Squall always said, whatever.

"Headmaster Trepe!" a formally dressed SeeD entered Quistis' office, giving a salute.

"Cmon, Xu! Call me Quistis!" she laughed.

"Ha, okay. Quistis," Xu smiled back.

"So what's up?"

"The president of Esthar called a minute ago. He said nothing was urgent, but that he found something you might find interesting." Quistis looked surprised, and Xu handed her a manila folder.

"Laguna?" She opened the folder to see some pictures. "What is this?"

"Well, as you know, Esthar's Lunar Base was destroyed, but some of its satellites remained intact. This photo was taken by its satellites around eight hours ago. This location is near the Centra Ruins, but we, nor they, have any idea what this large object is." Xu pointed to the object in question. "Shortly after the photos were taken, the object just disappeared." A chill ran up Quistis' spine. She didn't want to hear about any weird things going on, not this soon after all that'd happened.

"Hm. I have a guess." Quistis looked confident, crossing her arms.

"You do? What is it?"

"Even if the satellites survived, the Lunar Cry and the presence of Lunatic Pandora have probably caused the satellites to malfunction. I doubt there's anything in the world that large that we don't know of, and Esthar is the only country that has the technology to make something that large disappear. Has to be a malfunction."

Xu saw no errors in her friend's reasoning, and she, better than anyone, knew that more often than not, Quistis was right on target.

"You're probably right…I hope."

"Nonetheless, I'll let Squall take a look. And Zell. For some odd reason, he seems to know a lot of trivia, so he might have an idea." Xu nodded in agreement.

"Well, that was all I had to report. See ya later, Head…Quistis!" the girl walked out of Quistis' office, and the two friends exchanged smiles.

After Squall decided he had enough training, he figured he'd might as well get some lunch. Once inside the cafeteria, he noticed Rinoa in line as well. 'This will be a good lunch,' he smiled.

He walked up behind her and wrapped his arms around her, surprising her.

"Commander Leonhart, what kind of example are you setting for your young cadets? Public displays of affection?" she teased, winking.

"Meh. Screw examples." She smiled at his remark, completely expecting it. He smiled back, lovingly gazing into her eyes.

"I SAID NEXT!" the cafeteria lady yelled. This broke the duo apart temporarily, both blushing.

After both ordered, they took a seat. Rinoa looked at Squall, who was eating very slowly, like he wanted to say something.

"Something wrong, Squall?" Squall looked up.

"Well. I was talking to Irvine earlier, and he had a great idea for us."

Rinoa blushed, and put her hand in her palm. 'Great, please don't tell me that darn cowboy's perverted my boyfriend! Well…that would actually be a good idea…' Her face reddened at her thoughts.

"Uh, something the matter?"

"Oh, heh, nothing," she muttered. "So what was this great idea?"

"Well, we haven't had much time to spend together, and really since we met, our lives have been full of stress. So…why don't we take a vacation?" Rinoa perked up, and considered the idea. He was right. Not once had they been able to just spend quality time together without worry of the future.

"Sure but…to where?"

"How about FH?"

"FH? Squall Leonhart, you want to take me fishing for our first vacation?"

Squall smiled. She had said 'first vacation'. This would imply there will be more vacations. Which meant she had every intention of staying with him. The thought was the most comforting he'd had in…well, forever.

"Nah, not fishing. But the people are welcoming, unlike Galbadians, there won't be many reporters, unlike just about everywhere else except Winhill, but unlike Winhill, there's actually nice scenery."

What he said made sense. "Sounds like a plan to me!" she squealed, smile from ear to ear. "When do we leave?"

"Well, I want to take care of any last minute business today so…how about tomorrow?"

"Are you sure you can just take off like that?"

"There's no imminent world destruction, no havoc wreaking monsters, and no political chaos…except Galbadia, but whatever. So I see no reason not to."

"Then let's do it!"

About an hour later, Squall arrived at the third floor to see to any duties he had for the day, which he hoped were none. He knocked on Quistis' door.

"Come in!" Ever the obedient SeeD, he entered. "Ah Squall! Just the guy I need to see."

'Great. So I do have to do crap today.' "What is it?" he asked.

"Your fa…Laguna called in today." She knew he was still touchy on the whole Laguna being his father topic.

'Even better.'

"Apparently, Esthar's satellites picked up something strange."

'Perfect. Another threat to the planet.'

She handed him the manila folder containing the pictures. He analyzed them intently.

"Where, and what, is this?"

"The location was apparently near Centra Ruins. As far as the large object, we have no idea. Though Laguna said that soon after the pictures were taken, the object just disappeared." Squall became slightly edgy at this comment. "Any ideas?" Quistis asked.

"Satellite malfunction. Judging from the scale, this object is the size of a small town, which we know is not there. And Esthar would be the only country with the technology to make something like that disappear."

Quistis nodded. "That was exactly my conclusion. Well, guess that's one less problem to worry about, though I'd like Zell to take a look at it." Squall nodded. Zell always seemed to know a lot about random stuff. He recalled back to when, on their first mission, Zell gave him a rundown on the history of Timber. Then, he was the only one of the group to know about the Deep Sea Research Center. He might have heard of other geographic 'things', or whatever this was.

"Is that all for today, Quistis?"

"Yes."

"Good. Then…" He didn't really know how to say that he wanted to go on vacation. He knew Quistis had no authority over him, and even if she did, she'd be understanding, yet he still felt uneasy for some reason.

"What is it, Squall?"

"I uh…Rinoa and I want to go on vacation. Tomorrow."

The young headmaster smiled, understandingly. Even if Squall hadn't come up with the idea himself, she'd have forced the two to go anyways. They needed a break! "Not a problem! Who do you want to be Commander as your replacement?"

"Zell will do."

"Gotcha."

Squall began to walk out the door, relieved that he was so close to freedom and relaxation, when Quistis stopped him.

"Oh, actually, there is one more thing." Squall sighed.

"What?" He turned around.

"This came in for you a few hours ago. Someone wrote you a letter, with the word 'Urgent' on the front." Squall walked back to her desk, and took the letter from her. He opened it quickly, getting a bad feeling.

The note was strange. All it said was "Meet me tomorrow. Five a.m." There were coordinates provided. Squall, not being the geography major, did not know the coordinates by memory. He thought it might be some kind of spam. Who would want to meet him at five in the morning? Still, he thought it at least responsible to look up where the location was.

"Quistis, mind if I borrow your computer for a moment?"

"Sure, go ahead." She turned the computer screen around to him, and pushed the keyboard towards him. He clicked on the MAP program, and entered the coordinates provided, and the given location was one he did not want to see.

'Best news of the day.' He recognized the location instantly - it was where he got his scar.