A/N: I'm still trying to figure out the tags and what not on this site, please bare with me while I work out the kinks. I'm sorry that I couldn't get this up sooner, but it seems that two jobs makes it a bit harder to do a story then I initially thought. I'll try to update as often as I can so the chapters may be way shorter at times.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the origional game, though the characters I make up, I do own.
Chapter 1 - Current Situations
Seven years later from that day, roughly three years after the defeat of Ultimecia, peace has finally been restored to most of the world and things were slowly getting back to normal. Squall had made commander of Balamb Garden as his friends, no his family, had all had different promotions as well. Quitis had gotten into a junior class men instructor while Selphie and Zell had excelled in their studies and were preparing for their instructor licenses. Irvine and Rinoa were into their third year of SeeD training. Seifer, Raijin and Fujin had not returned to Garden, but the last three years for them have been somewhat of a different path.
It was the week of the Annual Celebration to mark the end of the last war. The SeeD war as it became known as and Selphie was in charge of organizing it again this year. However, on this particular sunny morning, well the sun was just rising as in this case and started to beam through the slits in the curtains and onto the double size bed of the commander's room. Squall began to squirm in his sheets as Rinoa laid her head peacefully on his bare chest. It had been a late night for both of them and they had just fallen asleep two hours ago, after a very long private celebration. Rinoa had her head rested on his bare chest as her arm was wrapped around his waist loosely, and Squall on the other hand had his left arm upon her bare back, and his right over his head on the pillow. His hair was sprawled out all over the pillow as it had grown a bit in the last three years and now rested on his shoulders. His face wrinkled up in his sleep as he was in a deep sleep, his face started to sweat from the dream as it seemed to be flash backs of random events in his childhood. Flashes of images from when he arrived at the orphanage with Ellone, and then flashes of the fights he'd pick with Seifer there. Then there were flashes of the other children at the orphanage and the random events that took place there. All of them whirled around in his mind too fast for him to catch any details on them at this time, but he could catch the mental strains that were growing on his mind. He could feel the pain of being ripped apart or someone was digging through his mental drawers completely and in a hurry to find something. The images were becoming more blurred and rapid. Images spun around in his head and replayed over and over. He could feel the nausea coming on in his sleep and he could feel the rising urge to throw up growing in his cheeks until suddenly he got hit with an image of Ultimecia in Edea's body shooting a large icicle straight at him in slow motion. The feeling of the piercing of the large piece of ice was enough to jolt him awake instantly.
Upon the sudden jerking of his waking up and jolting up into a sitting position with his brown hair falling into his face had caused the sleeping Rinoa to be pushed just over the edge of the bed and fall off of it. She was a bit of a heavy sleeper but when her head made contact with the floor even she woke up to that. The thumping of her head hitting the vinyl flooring had caused her own eyes to shoot open wide as she yelped in pain. Grabbing her head she moved so she was sitting up on the floor. Her naked body covered in light goose bumps as the small draft from the open window had touched her pale skin. She shivered as she glared up at her boyfriend who was still sitting up straight on the bed, panting at the fast-flying images that had came to him just moments ago. He didn't even hear her fall from the bed, or yelp, all he did was hold his head and shake from the memory of the images. Rinoa noticed this and after a moment of sitting there cursing him under her breath and slowly tilted her head to the side. "Squall? What the hell was that for?"
He slowly looked over to her, fear written all over his face as he panted. "S-Sorry..." He stuttered out.
"It's alright. Probably just a bad dream." She looked over at the flashing clock and sighed. "Time for work… Maybe you can tell me about it later?"
He just nodded to her as she got up and headed into the washroom for a nice warm shower. Closing the door behind her she walked over to the bathtub and turned on the water to the shower. Once she had it adjusted to the right temperature she toed into the tub and began to clean herself of the dried sweat from last night, and the cold from this morning. She closed her eyes and allowed the water to run over every curve of her body…
Out in the bedroom, Squall pulled out of bed and walked over to the closet and leaned against the door handles as he opened it. Still trying to ease his troubled mind on the images he lowered his head and used the handles to support his full weight for a few minutes. He then stood up straight and grabbed his white sleeveless T-shirt and black jeans. Walking over to the dresser he pulled open the top drawer, pulled out a pair of gray boxers and walked over to his bed. Groaning as he sat back down upon the bed he leaned over and placed one foot into the hole of the boxers and then the other foot. He got up for a brief moment to pull them up into place before he sat back down on the bed. His eyes trailed over to the white T-shirt and tiredly grabbed it, pulling it close to him as he pulled it over his head and onto his body. The morning sun was now hitting his face as he groaned once more and rubbed the sleep from his eyes and took his pants into his hands. He stood up, climbed into them, and pulled them up. Once the zipper was done up, he grabbed his black leather bomber jacket with the white fur trim collar and slid it over his just average built shoulders. Then his gunblade was next. Taking it from the table he held onto the belt with his left hand as he grabbed his boots with the other hand and walked out of the dormitory room. He didn't really feel like putting it all on at the moment as he was in need of his morning coffee. Carrying it in his hand the steel lion-engraved blade within its sheath he made his way to the cafeteria.
Meanwhile up in the top floor of the Garden a young cloaked woman walked up to the Headmaster's office and knocked lightly upon the door. "Headmaster Cid?" Her voice as soft and gentle as an innocent child yet firm enough to demand the attention that she desired. The old large round belly man, who was 5' 6" in height. He turned around gracefully as his wife at an inch shorter with raven black hair and golden eyes did the same.
She was dressed in a simple blue gown while he wore black dress pants, a white long sleeve dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a burgundy vest over top. They both looked upon the cloaked woman and smiled instantly as Edea got up from her seat and walked over to the girl. "Selene! Oh child you've must have had a long trip today. Come on in..."
"Thank you." She smiled and removed her cloak, her long blonde hair flowing into the cloak and the hood of it. The blonde girl smiled and took Edea's hand as Cid walked over to shake her hand once as well. Selene shook both of their hands as she walked into the office more. The headmaster went around the room, drawing all of the blinds closed while the ladies made themselves comfortable. So they can begin their long talks of the afternoon in solitude.
Back in the cafeteria Squall had now finished going through the line for his morning black coffee, and he wasn't exactly lucky when he got the last of the post since that is where all of the grounds are. He ignored it however and had shifted his gunblade in its sheath and his boots with his white socks inside them, to his right hand, while his left hand held onto his mug firmly filled to the near top with steaming black coffee. He started to make his lazy way to the closest table that he musters the energy to walk to and sit down. Then again he also had a severe hangover as well. He made his way halfway there when he saw out of the corner of his eye, the hyper energetic brunette with large over exaggerated curls coming from the sides of her head and her bright green emerald eyes. She was waving at him frantically and started to call him over.
"Squall! Squall! Over here! Come over here!" Selphie waved as she yelled over the bustling noises of the normal breakfast bunch in the cafeteria on a Friday. Selphie was sitting with everyone else that had gotten up by now. Well everyone except for Rinoa and all of them except for Selphie was groaning and cowering at her high pitched hyper voice as they held onto their mugs. The commander groaned and dragged his feet over towards his friends and sluggishly sat down and placed his coffee on the table and the rest beside him under it. Selphie sat down and in her normal cheerful manner.
"Morning! So how did you two sleep?" Selphie greeted him as he sat down.
Squall simply shrugged it off and took a sip of his coffee, shaking his head at the after taste of the drink. "None of your business..." He mumbled to her.
Quitis couldn't help but to snicker as she looked as professional as can be for a weekday but she too was suffering from a bit of a hangover even though it was as bad. Irvine and Zell however. They decided a different action. Zell quirked an eyebrow as Irvine began the verbal assault.
"Of course it's none of our business. I mean hyne you two just making a shit load of noise where anyone can hear you from miles away." Irvine smirked as he sat back, wrapping an arm around Selphie.
"Oh definitely." Zell perked up as well. By this time everyone at the table was snickering while Squall's face was starting to turn light shades of pink.
"Come on Zell weren't those two right at it in the corner booth of the bar?" Irvine pushed on while Selphie's eyes widened at the mental images.
"Yeah... No kiddin' there Irvy. Those two didn't care who saw them last night." Zell began chuckling as well as the rest of the group at the table, while Squall's face turned bright shades of red. From anger and embarrassment both as he crossed his arms and began to brood.
However, at the same time a set of light footsteps could be heard coming up from behind Squall. Causing the table to silence as the person that the steps belonged to spoke. "Who didn't care about being seen?"
A/N: I know... A cliffhanger. I'll try to get the next one up in two weeks time and hopefully it'll be longer.