Chapter Two

Irvine stepped off the train and onto the platform. Thanks to his insane amounts of luggage, he was one of the last of the people to get off. He had also been the last one on. Selphie, his ride to the train station, had overslept and he had a heck of a time getting the heavy sleeper up. Then all the way there she had made him near insane by helping him memorize her train song. He loved the girl, but she never stopped talking sometimes.

But at the moment, that was the least of his worries. After almost two years in Trabia with Selphie, Balamb was sweltering hot. He had gotten used to the constant below freezing temperatures of Trabia, and Balamb was about to have him dead from heatstroke. He wore only a loose T-shirt, jeans and his hat, but that didn't matter. He was hot. And taking the hat off was not an option either.

He adjusted his backpack on his shoulder as he approached an opening in the crowd and saw a familiar face in all of it. "Squall!" He called out, setting down his gun case to wave over his head so that Squall could locate him.

Squall pushed his way through the crowd, making his way to the cowboy-hatted gun case-carrying man on the platform. Squall shook his head, taking two of the three gun cases from Irvine. "How many guns did you have to bring? And how in the world did you get them through security?" Squall chuckled as Irvine struggled to drag the two rifle cases and three suitcases.

He frowned that Squall could somehow find humor in it. Him of all people. "It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. Plus, Selphie was too busy to help me pack... so I had to do it by myself and I'm not good at making the best use of space..."

Squall shoved Irvine's various pieces of luggage in the trunk of his car. The keys of which had been stealthily retrieved while Rinoa was out. The two of them got in the car and as soon as Squall had started the car, Irvine turned the Air Conditioning on all the way to cold.

"Whoa! What's up with that?" Squall asked as he turned it off.

Irvine turned it on again. "I am flipping hot, man. Trabia is below freezing all year around!"

Squall stared at the cowboy, the corner of his mouth twitching upwards in a weird kind of smile. "It's only seventy degrees though..."

Irvine returned the stare, not daunted at all by the stormy gaze. "Go spend two years in Trabia, then come back and tell me you're not about to die of a heatstroke." He said.

Squall just shook his head, started the car and headed down the long dirt road toward Garden. It was autumn, but the leaves had not yet began to change colors. They only did once it started snowing. Even then, it only snowed at night when it was coldest, and it never lasted until noon. They say that they're are only two seasons in Balamb; Summer and December, the only time it ever snowed.

They drove on in comfortable silence, Squall to his thoughts and Irvine to staring out the window. Irvine was a pretty patient man, mostly silent as well. that was why Squall enjoyed his company much more compared to that of any of his other friends. Quistis had a need for constant conversation, even if it was pointless small talk. Selphie blabbered even if nobody listened, and Zell couldn't sit still more than five minutes. Irvine, on the other hand, was a trained sniper. His job required him to sit still without and conversation for hours, and in some cases, days. The two seldom talked as their paths almost never met, but Squall still felt closest to him out of all the people he knew. Other than maybe Rinoa.

"So... how have you and Rinoa been?" Irvine asked. While Irvine could keep silent, he did want to know how his friend's life was going. Little did he know that at the time, that was the wrong question to ask.

"Im' not sure... I don't want to talk about it." Squall sighed. He was still confused about what happened the night before.

"That bad?" Irvine questioned.

"Yeah."

"And you and Selphie?" Squall inquired shortly.

Irvine nodded. "I'm thinking I might... I might make it permanent soon. If you know what I mean..."

There was a bit of an awkward silence, then Irvine grinned. "So, I heard you're going to be Headmaster of Esthar Garden."

Squall grunted. "I'm supposed to keep up being Commander of B Garden and Headmaster of Esthar Garden." He shook his head. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to do it. What about you? Instructor?"

"Eh, Cid talked me into it. I told him little kids weren't really my thing so he said I would teach the most advanced class. He's good."

Squall nodded in agreement. Looked like Cid had been busy lately. Squall wondered who else of the staff leaving the day after had been conned into the job. "Too good."

A few hours and a stack of paperwork after returning to Garden with Irvine, Squall found out about a meeting Cid had arranged for the staff that would be going to Esthar. It must have been in the email he received the night before, the one he'd not scrolled to the bottom of before falling asleep.

Squall shut the door of his office behind him as he walked into the hallway. He briskly made his way to Irvine's borrowed dorm to make sure he knew what was going on. It was likely he hadn't heard of the meeting either. Why was it that whenever something important was going on, he was always the last to know five minutes before it was scheduled to happen?

Squall knocked on the door and Irvine threw the door open quickly. "What? Oh, hey Squall. What is it?"

"There's a meeting for the staff that are going to Esthar in five minutes, come on." Squall practically ordered the cowboy.

"I was already on my way." Irvine came out and locked the door behind him.

They took the elevator up and went into the second door in the long hallway. They entered a conference room that Squall had been in many times before. Squall and Irvine took seats at a long table in the middle of the room.

Apparently they weren't that late after all. The only people there were him and Irvine, Cid, and Micah.

When Squall saw Micah across the room, an eyebrow shot up. She was not the same girl he remembered at all. She seemed a lot calmer now, for one. Her hair was shorter and pulled into a neat ponytail. She wore jeans and a simple button up shirt. She looked... better. A lot better. She turned around from where she had stood talking to Cid and caught Squall looking at her.

She smiled and waved at him. "Hello Commander. Long time no see." She said sweetly while sitting down across from him.

Squall coughed slightly and looked down at papers in front of him on the table. The room had filled up while Squall was daydreaming. Quistis now sat beside Irvine and the two were chatting. Squall saw about ten people in the room, not including himself.

Quistis glanced over at him. "I heard about your promotion, Squall. Congratulations." She didn't say it warmly.

Squall said thanks nonetheless.

Cid stood up at the head of the table and called for everyone's attention. "So you've all heard about Esthar Garden's completion. This is a big step for Garden. Establishing trust with Esthar is going to be a good thing for Balamb. For such a small country to make an alliance, or even just connection, with such a big and powerful nation is no small feat. Through Esthar Garden we will be able to establish it faster.

"I've chosen you all to accompany Commander Squall Leonhart, now also Headmaster of the new Garden. Quistis Trepe will be the Headmaster's assistant..." Squall could have sworn her face darkened at mention of her new job. He wondered if she had been conned into the role as himself and Irvine had been.

Micah half-listened to Cid babble off the list of people going to E Garden. He also listed people already there, boring things like that that she didn't need to know.

She wouldn't ever get to do much outside the medical wing of E Garden anyways.

For three years now, she had been working under Kadowaki and going out on missions as a field medic. She had been content with her job, happy actually, but she was rather ecstatic about her new one. She would be head doctor. She would call the shots for the medical wing, and Cid had even mentioned something about how big an influence she would have on doctors all over Esthar. She would get to work with some of the most brilliant minds in the world; as well as use some of the most advanced technology around.

Yeah, she was about to scream, she was so happy.

She glanced over the edge of the papers in her hand at the Comman- Headmaster, across the table. It was silly, but she felt her eighth grade crush coming back. He was no longer the awkward, silent teenager, but a confident, if a bit stoic, and very becoming man.

His stormy gaze flicked toward her and she looked back down at her papers, scanning them and feigning interest. She blushed a little in spite of herself. He was handsome...

Before she knew it, Cid stopped talking and people began rising from their seats. "Meeting adjourned." Cid said warmly.

She sat where she was for a moment, really reading the papers in her hands this time. By the time she had finished, Squall was headed for the door. After a brief internal battle with her fourteen year old self, she decided she would follow him.

She stood up from her chair and ran to catch up with him. She found that he hadn't been in a rush and was only a few feet outside the door. Seeing as she had been in a rush, she nearly ran him over. Well, more like smacked into him. She doubted her petite self would even make him stumble though. "Uh, hey Squall." She said as he turned to look at her. She could have smacked herself for addressing him like that. He was the flipping Commander and Headmaster!

"Hey." He replied shortly.

She scrambled for something else to say. Otherwise, it was going to get awkward real fast. "You remember me? Micah Wright?" She asked.

"I remember."

Ah, Squall. Always was a man of few words... or almost no words at all. "Been a long time, huh?" She said, playing with the papers she still held nervously.

"Yeah."

They slipped into silence for a moment. They could hear people talking in the room over. Heck, with the dead silence they were in, they could have heard someone whispering in space.

She was beginning to think that it hadn't been such a good idea to approach him. They would have to talk eventually though, considering their positions. Why not know each other first? "So, uh, how has your life been?" She asked nervously.

"Good, I guess." What a lie that was. But, what else are you supposed to say when someone asks that? "No, it sucks. My dad is the freaking President of Esthar and it's not like I knew that until I was twenty. My 'girlfriend' hates me for the moment, and I just had another job forced down my throat." Squall figured that wasn't really an acceptable answer. "...What about yours?" He asked.

"Good, good." She nodded. They stood staring at each other for a moment before she said, "Well, it was nice seeing you again." She turned on her heel and walked back into the conference room, trying not to make it look rushed, but failing.

"You... too?" He said as he watched her retreating quickly.

Irvine walked out just as Micah went back in. He quirked an eyebrow at Squall as she passed, pointing over his shoulder to her. "You and Micah?"

"She just said hello." Squall said, turning and walking toward the elevator.

"Oh come on, I saw you stare at her through the entire thing." He said mischievously.

"I did not." Squall denied, he could feel the heat rising to his face. He might have glanced at her once or twice, but she was right across from him. It almost couldn't be helped.

"Sure Squall. Whatever you say." Irvine grinned at Squall and got into the elevator with him. "But you've got to admit, she's pretty cute."

"I have Rinoa, Irvine." Squall said irritably.

Irvine nodded, wondering how long that would actually last. Squall didn't seem so happy when he said it, he also didn't seem sure about it. Things hadn't always been peachy between him and Rinoa. There was a reason she had been referred to as 'Princess'. "Need any help with packing?" Irvine asked as the elevator doors opened.

Squall stuck his hands in his pockets. "I'll be fine. There isn't that much to pack anyway."

"See ya' then." Irvine said as he walked into his room.

Squall walked a bit further down the hall and unlocked his own dorm door. He threw his keys on the table beside the door and threw his jacket on the couch. He didn't have much else to do the rest of the day, other than a bit of unfinished paperwork in his office.

He stretched out on his bed and sighed. He didn't mean to fall asleep, but he didn't wake up until the next morning.

Squall pulled out a length of the clear packing tape, and stuck one end of it to the box, holding it down so that it wouldn't come off. He set the roll of tape on top of the box and reached for the scissors with his other hand. He grabbed them and stuck them in his mouth, picking up the roll again. The tape was doubled over and stuck together now, rendering that piece completely useless. He tried to pull it apart, but his gloves stuck to the tape and when he pulled, his hand slipped out of the glove, leaving him with scissors in his mouth, and glove dangling from a piece of barely sticky tape.

Then someone knocked on the door.

Squall grunted and spit out the scissors. He removed his hand from the one inch of tape actually stuck to the box, and pulled that glove off. Faster than trying to wrestle the one glove from out of it's sticky and clear tape prison. "I hate tape." Squall grunted.

Whoever was at the door interrupted his angry grumblings by knocking a second time. And it was pretty early in the day for even a SeeD to come knocking. Squall was rather tempted to ignore it.

"What now?" He growled to himself and went to answer the door.

He swung the door open and found himself face to face with his greatest fear, Micah Wright. Suddenly he felt very awkward and aware of how... terrible, he looked. He was still wearing the sweatpants and T-shirt he slept in, and he hadn't brushed his hair. The only thing he'd done to it was run his hand through it in frustration. Several times. Come to think of it, he was sure he looked like crap. And there she was, standing in his doorway at seven in the morning, looking all cute in a sundress and a pretty little jacket... Had it come to this? He now thought in terms of 'cute' and 'pretty'?

"Um, hey." Micah said a bit awkwardly. "Did I wake you? Because if I did I can come back later..."

Squall resisted the urge to slap himself on the forehead, turn around, shut the door and pretend it never happened. "No. I was just packing." Micah peeked around him into the room, there was only one box. "I just started..." Squall said, running his gloveless hand through his hair.

"...Would you like some help?" She offered kindly. Micah had done all her packing the day before after the meeting.

Squall sighed slightly. He had no idea how to pack. He'd lived in this room darn close to his entire life... he didn't even know how to tape up a cardboard box. "Sure." He said defeatedly. He opened the door wider and walked away, letting her walk in.

Micah looked around. There was hardly anything to see. A few knickknacks on his his desk and bookshelves, the rest of the space was taken up by SeeD manuals, textbooks, and papers. Most likely things to do with his work as Commander. If there was that much paperwork laying around from the one job, Micah wondered what it would look like with two jobs.

Her heart about stopped beating as she frantically searched the room with her eyes.

There was no television.

"Are you okay?" Squall asked, glancing at her from the corner of his eye where he sat trying to pull tape off the single box without damaging it.

She grew up on television! Even as a SeeD, she had watched cartoons into her late teens. And she was only twenty. "Huh? Oh, fine!" She said as she sat down on the floor across the box from him. "So... You've never moved before, have you?" She guessed.

"No, not really." Squall replied.

She smiled at him. "I can tell." She reached for the tape, shooing his hands away with her own. "Let me help." She ripped the tape expertly, leaving a little square of it on the box. She took the roll of tape from him and ripped off a long piece, sticking it to the box. Then she took another and put it the other way across the top, making a plus sign of the shiny tape. "There you go." She said, beaming at him. "I'm an expert at this. My boyfriend used to move all the time."

How is it she can do that, when I can't? Squall asked himself frustratedly. Then it dawned on him what she had just said.

Seeing the look on his face, Micah quickly corrected herself. "Um, ex-boyfriend. We didn't even really date that long. He found out I was SeeD and that was the end of it... He's not too fond of the SeeD's work." Micah twisted a strand of her hair nervously, mentally kicking herself for having created another awkward moment.

"Oh, well that's nice- well not nice for you obviously. But... yeah." He stopped himself there and grabbed another box, busying himself with packing. I feel like Laguna. He shook his head. Where the heck had that weird thought come from? Squall moved over to one of the many bookcases lining the wall and began shoving books in the box haphazardly.

"No!" Micah said, scooting over to sit beside him, once again pushing his hands away from his work. "You don't just throw books in a box like that, it'll be too heavy to lift." She explained, taking them out one at a time.

Squall cocked an eyebrow at her. He swept the many books off the shelf into the box with his arm, they landed in the box with a small crunch as a tin can of pencils was smushed. He stood and lifted the box with ease, though it was full with books.

Micah smiled shyly, ducking her head and hiding behind her hair. "Well it might be easy for you, showoff. But you have to think of the movers..." She said.

Squall set the box down again, the corners of his mouth twitched upward in an awkward little smile. "Fine, we'll do it your way."

"Okay!" She said, clapping her hands together. "Do you have any stuffed animals or anything to put in with the books?" Her eyes widened a bit at what she asked. "Uh, or, uh, blankets, or uh... anything light?" She bit her lip.

Squall chuckled. After a second of thought, he walked into his bedroom, motioning for her to follow. She stood up and walked after him, trying not to blush. She was such a klutz with words.

He opened his small closet and reached into the farthest corner on the highest shelf up. Before she could see what he had, he spun around with his hands behind his back. "I have never shown anyone this." He deadpanned, a voice as serious as if he were sending someone to their death. "Not even Rinoa." Micah had forgotten... he still had a girlfriend. "You cannot tell anybody that I kept this!"

She nodded eagerly. "Come on, show me what it is. It can't be that bad." She watched as he pulled his hand out from behind his back and held out with both hands...

A little stuffed lion.

Micah's eyes lit up and she walked forward, bending down to examine it. It was well-loved, that's for sure. A little gold, almost turned gray from wear, lion. With a half of a raggedy mane and cute little black button eyes. Mismatched buttons, mind you.

She squeaked and looked at Squall with a serious face. "Can I hold him?"

The man nodded and she gingerly took the toy. She examined it up and down, analyzing every little patch and stitch on the animal. She grinned up at Squall. "How long have you had this?"

He shrugged as he took it back, playing with the well-preserved remains of a yarn mane. "Ever since I can remember. It used to have a tag with a name on it... but, well, I tore it off." The marker on the tag had long worn off when he took it off. He had always puzzled over it, trying to read what the smudges said. He knew now that the name on it had been Squall Loire.

"Well, I can honestly say, I've never known a guy who kept a stuffed animal up until they were twenty." Micah said.

Squall looked down at his feet, hiding embarrassment.

"It's not a bad thing!" She said fixing her mistake. "I think it's sweet." She smiled.

"Just don't tell anybody about him, uh, it. Okay?" He almost sounded like he was begging her.

She rolled her eyes. Squall and his pride. It wouldn't be the end of the world for people to know the man to own a stuffed animal. "Okay, I promise I won't tell anyone."

"Thanks." He said quietly, setting the small childhood toy gently into the box back in front of the bookshelf.

An hour later, they'd gotten all the books packed up along with what clothes Squall wasn't taking in a suitcase. All thanks to Micah, of course. Squall still hadn't figured out how to use the tape, much to Micah's amusement.

Micah was scolding him about not wrapping the breakables before packing them when the phone rang, sparing Squall of her 'wrath'.

He got up from the floor and answered without looking at the caller ID. "Commander Leonhart."

"Squall! Th-They tried to k-kill me!" Rinoa shouted through the phone and her sobs.

Squall's expression took on one of concern. "Rinoa? What happened? Are you okay? Where are you?" He asked anxiously, waiting for the crying girl on the other end to answer.

"This is all your fault!" Rinoa shouted angrily.

"Whoa, calm down! Did you get hurt? Where are you at, Rinoa? Answer me, come on!" Squall looked apologetically at Micah.

"Back at my apartment!" She sobbed.

"I'll be right there." He flipped the phone shut. "She never freaking answered if she was okay." He muttered. "Hey, Micah, thanks for the help, really. But I have to go."

She nodded and stood. "I understand. I hope Rinoa's alright. I guess I'll see you tomorrow?" She grabbed her jacket off the back of a chair and walked to the door while Squall walked back to his bedroom. He had never gotten dressed.

"Yeah, see you then."