Rock Bottom
Disclaimer:All Characters belong to their respective copyright holders
I don't own Final Fantasy VIII
I don't own Gundam Seed
I don't own initial D
I own nothing except for the names and places devised by my own mind
Episode Three
Welcome to Dnaletsaw – Pig Central
No matter how horrid the journey, no matter how maniacally unjust the stay and no matter how much one may grow to lament the festering memories of the just-passed vacation; the return trip was always worse, much, much worse. It was the end of the weekend, time for Athrun and his friends to return to the city. Yzak had driven most of them in a Zalacorp company van, given to Athrun by his father as a happy sixteenth birthday gift.
Three members of the group however, were not there. Takumi sped his car down a mountain pass halfway between the lake and the river with Athrun in the passenger's seat while Squall silently sat in the back, wordlessly contemplating the past events of the past unpleasant weekend.
Squall had not thoroughly enjoyed the trip to Noissap – although it had been the highlight of the weekend – and he liked the journey to Dnaletsaw City even less.
Every kilometre of land they covered brought them that much closer to pollution in the land where the rich line their coffers with gold and the poor choke on the stench of their decaying unburied loved ones, now deceased.
They were heading for the land of corruption, Dnaletsaw – Pig City.
As they travelled, the sky got duller and the air got thicker. Eventually, the car came to a stop. The brown haired teen in the driver's seat opened his door. "Bring the car back in about an hour" he said. "Seriously, I'll need it back in an hour... and also, don't tell anyone whose car this is."
"You got it" said Athrun. Takumi got out of the car, closing the door behind him while Athrun slid over to the driver's seat. Without a word to Squall, he quickly turned the car around and sped off toward North end – the commercial district for the upper-class twits to spend their undeserved cash on useless material goods that no-one really needs.
Athrun drove the car through the district and stopped outside a particular shop at the end of a particular street. "Wait here in the car" he instructed Squall before leaving him alone.
Squall just did as he was told and sat still without a word or single outward sign of complaint. He had no objection to this, merely pent-up anxiety. He held no hostile thoughts toward these people and even if he did, he would have hidden them well. He had been trained thoroughly by his past owners.
It must have been at least twenty minutes before Athrun returned... with someone else, a tall slim female. Her long pink hair hung down behind her back and an exquisite golden hair clip held her bangs neatly to one side of her face, keeping them out of the way lest they disturb her eyes or face. While her face and body held a modest beauty about them, something was off. She seemed – in a word – brittle. Her skin was the palest Squall had ever seen and looked as though the gentlest touch by the most careful, loving fingertip would pierce through the fragile tissue-paper that lined her exterior and coated her as any other would be wrapped in their skin.
This was Squall's first impression of the girl. She appeared to him like a forbidden treasure, heavenly and heart-warmingly pleasing to the eye but certainly not something to be touched.
Was this Athrun's friend whom he had mentioned earlier? Certainly not, Squall debated the idea with himself. Such a heavenly creature would have nought to do with the worthless pile of filth seated in the white coupe. He'd be fooling himself to think that someone like that would willingly take care of the Caraway family pet. A bitter smirk appeared upon Squall's features. He was doing it again. He was judging by appearances. Just because someone looked angelic on the outside, that didn't mean they would be the same on the inside. In fact, it was usually quite the opposite. Beauty was skin deep – the more of it one had, the shallower one's soul. History had taught Squall that lesson more than once and he had been forced to learn it the hard way. On top of that, he had never once in his life laid eyes on any evidence to counter his biased belief. Squall's eyes turned cold as he stared at the girl.
She would be no different.
North End was basically an upper-class housewife's dream. A market place with fine jewellery and clothing stores overpopulating the outstretching overcrowded streets farther than the eye could see.
The bottom of North End connected with the top of Main Street and went up to a junction where the road split into two. More shops littered the streets as North End-West led to a large multi-story shopping mall and North End-East led to yet another shopping mall.
The sky-scraping shopping malls loomed overhead of the city's citizens whom had more money than sense; beckoning to them like the desperate cravings of a junkie, corrupting them, consuming them, twisting their mind, screaming like the voices in their heads.
The elevated colossal structures imposed themselves into the clear view of all residents like massive gothic castles towering high above nearby deficient medieval dark-age villages, serving a double purpose as to both cry out to the wealthy but also to stand out as an ever-lasting insult to mock the financially deprived.
Just outside one such shop on the street stood a polished metal bookstand, on which stood many old dusty books, aging and overlooked by passers by. The bookshop galvanized interest in merely one potential customer, a Sixteen year old girl with long pink hair hanging down behind her browsed through the literature on display. All others passed by without even a single glance through the shop window, forsaking it as though it were nothing more than a children's discount toy store.
'Why should we bother to read a book?' This was a common deliberation between North End shoppers. Why should they be forced to perfect their literacy skills? Why should they waste their youth in school getting an education, that's what they had money for.
Silently and swiftly, as though he were taking a Sunday stroll in the park, Athrun approached the bookstore. He grinned when he saw the pink haired girl and quietly crept up behind her. "Hi Lacus" he greeted her.
Upon hearing this, the girl turned around. When she saw the face to match the voice that had greeted her, she smiled and replied with a simple "hi."
"Are you gonna get something?" Athrun asked.
"...No" the girl replied "I'm just looking."
"I don't really blame you" Athrun answered "These books aren't really what you can call 'a great reading experience,' are they?"
"They're not all so bad" the girl answered defensively.
Athrun smiled. "Yeah yeah... listen, do you think you can do me a favour?"
The girl nodded. "What is it?"
"Well, it's not really so much a favour for me as it is for someone else."
"Who?" the girl asked. She had confusion etched in her pale blue eyes. It showed on her quizzically contorted face.
"No-one you know" Athrun assured her.
"Oh..." the girl answered. "How do you know this person?"
"I ran into him at Noissap... or rather he ran into me. Of course none of us know all that much about him... but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to trust him. You've got a lot of room at your place, right?"
The girl nodded, realizing what Athrun was hinting at.
"From what I've seen of him, he's pretty quiet and seems to keep to himself so if you leave him alone, he'll treat you like-wise, I'm sure of it. After all, you're house is so big, you two could go almost an entire day without seeing each other. If you ever get sick of each other, that's more than enough time to cool down, right?"
"I guess" Lacus replied, sounding unsure.
"You see, he's in need of a place to stay... if only for a short while, you may be of some help. Are you interested?"
"...I don't know... I guess..." she finally stated. The internal conflict within her mind was obvious. "You can tell him yes for now but I'd like to meet him before he moves in or anything like that."
"Fine... of course, that's understandable right? You got time right now?"
"Now, where is he? "
"You don't mind?"
"Alright, let's go" she answered in a monotone.
"You don't seem very enthusiastic" Athrun joked.
"...Was this Athrun's friend whom he had mentioned earlier? Certainly not" Squall debated the idea with himself.
Athrun and the pink haired girl approached the car. Athrun got in the driver's seat, then reached over and opened the passenger's side door for his friend. She got in the car and shut the door.
"So whose car is this anyway?" she asked.
"A friend of mine, do you know a guy from school named Takumi?"
"Oh, right" the girl replied.
"Well, it's his car."
Before anyone could continue the discussion any further, they were interrupted by a beep. Athrun reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone. On the screen was a notice to inform him of an incoming text message from Takumi. He pushed a button to bring up the message on the screen.
I need the car back now.
P.S. bring it back full.
He pushed a few more buttons before returning the phone to his pocket. "Alright, I'll drop you off to your place and then I have to go."
Athrun drove swiftly toward the home of his friend in silence. Following his example, Squall silently sat in the back seat. If the two in the front didn't know any better, they would remain oblivious to Squall's presence.
Eventually the car came to a halt outside the tall silver gates of an unnecessarily long driveway leading to a massive mansion home.
"I'll catch up with you on Monday, alright" Athrun said.
"Yeah…" his female friend replied somewhat monotonously and absentmindedly before opening the car door, stepping out of the car and pulling up a lever under the seat, causing it to lunge forward like a serpent striking a deadly blow on its pathetic, harmless herbivorous victim-like prey.
After being instructed to, Squall also climbed out of the car, gently closing the car door behind him to avoid the unnecessary commotion caused by so many people whom so carelessly slam doors with such excessive force that they could easily crush a butterfly. As soon as he had done this, Athrun sped off to return the car while his friend silently watched Squall, examining him like a biologist studies single-celled microorganisms through a microscope.
Much time had passed before she at last opened her mouth.
"So… you are the one Athrun was talking about, the one who needs a place to stay?" she finally said.
Squall merely nodded in soundless response to the question. Was he really prepared for this? He was going from one spoiled rich girl's house to the next, from one hellish situation to the next. Could he face this one? He'd rather sleep in the gutter, playing victim to countless waves of beggars, muggers and thieves.
"Alright, come inside then, I guess."
Squall hesitated, seeming even less enthusiastic that the pink haired girl.
"What?" she asked, noting his hesitance as though she and her home were not good enough for him. Unbeknownst to Squall, the girl contemplated this and her gaze softened. Not out of sympathy but another, slightly more negative emotion.
"It's just that... I've had prior negative experience with the rich... and I don't know if I can take living with another family like the Caraways."
Lacus' eyes widened and she waited for this new scrap of information to settle in its new home in her brain before giving a willing response. "Well... I actually live alone here... and don't worry, I'm not rich."
To this, Squall raised an eyebrow. If this girl was not poor, she was putting on quite a charade.
"I know it's hard to believe."
"You own a mansion in upper-class Dnaletsaw."
"I don't exactly own it. It was my father's home."
"Was?"
"It's not what you think... he didn't die or anything... he just left."
Squall looked away.
"Please... don't apologise or anything..." she requested of him. "I hate it when people do that" she added. Her tone turned to one of bitterness and anger. "They think they have the right to pity me when they don't even know me, they know nothing. How can they possibly understand how I feel, what I think, what goes through my mind every day..." She trailed off and dropped her gaze as she allowed her anger to subside. "I'm sorry" she apologised for her anger. She shouldn't loose her temper like that. This would be the boy's first impression of her.
Squall looked back.
"You don't need to hear this; you don't even care, do you?" She asked. Squall remained speechless. "Anyway... you can come in if you want. My name's Lacus."
"I'm Squall" the brunette told her.
Lacus took a step toward the large gates but then froze dead in her tracks. She turned around. "I notice you don't have any bags or anything... where's all your things?"
"I... don't have any things. Even with the Caraways, I was deemed unworthy for the wastage of family funds. All I have, I have on my person right now, the clothes I am wearing."
"Oh, I guess you can borrow a few things in the house... follow me." Lacus approached the silver gates, unlatched and opened them. She beckoned for Squall to follow her and together, the two passed through the gate and entered the house.
