"There was a star, shooting through the sky, like that one," Rinoa said, pointing to the sky.

Squall watched as the star lit up and burned its way through the sky. He remembered well.
He looked back at her.

"And… You looked at me, like that." She smiled, enchanted. "I wanted you to ask my name, to come find me after I left. Maybe even kiss me that night..."

He could take a hint, and the time seemed right. They'd each made their feelings clear long ago, and their fruition was overdue.

He took her hand in his and approached her. With the other he touched her lower back, then pulled her close so that their bodies were touching. He had waited long enough, glancing at her full lips and wondering what they felt like.

She heard her heartbeat echoing in her ears. Blood rushed through her body. She felt her pulse beating in her wrists. Her fingers began to tingle.

She'd been kissed before and felt the thrill of anticipation, but something about it coming from him, after all this time, was breathtaking.

He placed his lips on hers, gently for a moment, as they both discovered the sensation.
Then he kissed her over and over, slowly, but increasing the pressure after a while.
His grip on her back tightened, and she snaked her hand around his neck, lacing her fingers through his hair.

She enjoyed the warmth of his lips and his closeness.
He also reveled in the newfound sensation, but decided to release her before desire caused things to go any further. As well as he may have known her, this was getting to know a different side of her, and revealing that side of himself. He wasn't ready to become completely absorbed or exposed.

He loosened his grip on her body, kissed her once more and pulled away. He watched as she took a breath and opened her eyes.

"...I waited a long time for that," Rinoa teased.

Squall grinned. "Sorry about that."

"Don't be," she laughed. "It was worth it."

They held each other for a moment, then dropped their arms to the sides.

"...Still want to go to the training center later?" she asked.

He nodded. "Sure. And soon. This party is…" He almost said something honest, but she eyed him cautiously. "Just… Great. And there's really no reason for me to want to leave at all."

She laughed. "You're good at this deception thing!" She raised a brow. "Are you good at everything, Mr. Leonhart?"

"I'd like for you to think that," he replied.

"You guys, I just can't take it anymore!"

They turned at hearing Selphie's voice at the doorway.
She ran out to them while shoving batteries into her video camera.

"You are too cute. Please, you've gotta do one for the camera."
She held it up to her eye and turned on the power.
"Okay. And… Action!"

Squall and Rinoa stood there - Squall looked highly irritated, Rinoa looked a little embarrassed.

"Here we are with the Commander extraordinaire, our main man, number one, Squall Leonhart," Selphie narrated.

Squall crossed his arms and looked away. "Selphie, I hate those things. Turn it off."

"Oh come on, Squall. It's for keepsake!" Selphie argued. "When you have babies, you'll thank me."

"Babies?" he repeated with disbelief.

Selphie ignored him and continued. "And this, dear ones, this is our lovely young sorceress, Miss Rinoa Heartilly."

Rinoa sighed. "Hi, Selphie."

"Say hello to your dear ones, Rinoa! Do you think they'll have your eyes or his?" Selphie asked.

"Selphie, leave 'em alone," Irvine protested, taking the camera from her hands and holding his hat to his head, ensuring that she couldn't snatch it.

"Irvine! They were just about to do it in front of the camera!" Selphie cried.

"First of all, that sounds… Wrong," he held up a finger. "Secondly, they weren't. Thirdly, I am concerned that you are speaking to fictitious children from the future through the camera. It's weird and it makes me wonder about your mental stability. And finally, that's a bad matchmaker, Sefie," he mumbled the last part under his breath.

"Didn't I say they'd be here?" Quistis said as she emerged. "I said that."

"We've been looking all over for you guys," Zell came up behind Quistis.

"Yeah," Irvine agreed.

"We definitely weren't by the window. We just found you. Just now. Right guys?" Selphie said and turned to the others for support.

"Selphie, no…" Quistis said, shaking her head.

"Bad!" Irvine repeated.

Squall and Rinoa sighed. It may have been simultaneously.

"Come and have a drink with us, Squall," Zell said.

"Yeah. You've been avoiding us all night," Irvine added.

"That's not true," Squall said, shaking his head.

"Okay, you've been avoiding everyone all night," Quistis corrected.

"…Maybe," Squall admitted.

"So let's go," Zell said, leading the way back inside. "This is an open bar event, people."
The others followed after him.

Rinoa looked to Squall. "Ready?"

He nodded and reluctantly followed her inside.

When they all had a glass of champagne in their hands, Zell lifted his glass. "A toast, to victory!"

"Yeah! To winning!" Selphie agreed.

They clinked their glasses together and drank.

"This crap is cheap, but it sure is good," Selphie commented.

"Guys, I wanna ask ya somethin'," Zell said, placing his glass down. "...Now that all of this is over, and we're going back to our normal lives, are we still gonna hang out?"

"Of course!" Selphie said. "We're friends."

"I know," Zell replied. "But that doesn't mean we're still gonna hang out. I guess… I'm just worried about losin' touch, that's all."

"Destiny holds that our paths will always cross eventually," Irvine said, shrugging.

"Yeah, and we all live here, so it's not like we're never going to see each other," Quistis added, then looked at Selphie, Irvine and Rinoa. "But… What about you guys? What are you going to do after this?"

Selphie shrugged. "I wanna return to Trabia, help rebuild the place. But… I like Balamb. Once I get into the routine of being a normal SeeD, I'll travel a lot, and visit all the time! What about you, Irvine?"

Irvine shrugged as well. "Not sure, haven't thought much about it... Frankly, right before we met I was ready to move on, anyway. Leave Galbadia Garden, see the world. I'd still stay with SeeD, sure, but I'd want to be somewhere abroad. I guess I've already seen almost everything. So what's next? With my entire life ahead of me? I'm not sure. I like the weather in Timber, but no close-by Gardens. There are lots of pretty girls in Balamb, which is a reason to stay. And they're nice, too. Galbadian girls are grumpy. Maybe I'll kick it here. Maybe I'll go where a good-paying position takes me. Maybe, I'll buy a motorcycle and head off into the distance, with no destination."

That sounds kind of cool, Squall thought. He could go for that.

"Motorcycles are kick-ass," Selphie commented.

Apparently Squall wasn't the only one who thought so.

"Enough about Irvine: the mini-series," Zell said and looked to Rinoa. "What will you do, Rinoa?"

"Oh, well," she started, nervously clearing her throat, "I… Haven't really thought about it. I promised the Owls I'd return to Timber..."

"We have yet to fulfill the terms of the contract," Squall realized. "Timber has SeeD assistance until it achieves independence..."

"Oh right, Timber," Zell scratched the back of his head.

Rinoa placed her hands on her hips and gave him an annoyed look. "Um, yeah, Timber," she said.

"I'll talk with Cid about it in the morning," Squall promised. Rinoa nodded with a smile. "Well this has been fun," Squall said, finishing off the last of his drink. "Good party, Selphie." He turned to Rinoa. "You ready to go?"

"Sure," Rinoa nodded.

She finished her drink as well.

"See ya," she said to the others.

No one debated their sudden urge to be alone.
"Have fuuun, guys," Selphie cooed. The group waved the couple goodbye.

Selphie turned back to the others. "So. Cute."

"I hope it works out. I kind of like humorous, kind-of-in-a-good-mood Squall," Quistis said.

"Me too," Selphie gushed.

"Pssh, not me," Zell said, kicking his foot into the ground. "I think it's weird."

"Whatever, Zell," Selphie said, placing her hands on her hips. "We all know that you'd love to have Squall open up to everyone and become your best friend."

"That would be kind of cool…" Zell said dejectedly. "I mean, you know, so I could play with his gunblade."

Irvine laughed hard at that one, and once the others joined him and Zell realized what he had said, he shook his head. He punched Irivne in the arm.

"Fffuck!" Irvine grimaced, rubbing his arm.

"Don't worry about what we think, Zell - you've got your own fish to fry," Quistis said, directing her drink to an approaching Sora.

"Ah man," Zell said, throwing his hands down. "I already made myself look like an ass enough tonight."

"Hey, man, it's cool. We all choke sometimes." Irvine said, placing his hand on his shoulder. "Figuratively and literally."

Zell sighed. "That… Doesn't make me feel any better."

Irvine shrugged. "At least I tried."

When they finally reached the 'secret area,' Rinoa sighed. It was a long journey, even though most of the monsters were already in hiding. Must all be asleep, Rinoa thought, wondering if monsters slept at night, or even slept at all. She'd hoped to fight as little monsters as possible in the coming days.

"Check it out," Squall said, and Rinoa turned to see him holding up a bottle of red wine and two glasses.

"Cool," Rinoa commented.

"Courtesy of the staff at Balamb Garden," he said as he began to open the bottle.

"Really?" Rinoa wondered.

"If anyone asks, yes," he said.

"Squall Leonhart," she placed her hands on her hips. "I would have never guessed. You, a common thief. And an aficionado of wine."

"There's plenty you don't know about me," he said, pouring out a taste of the wine.

He sipped it, then nodded to himself. "Want to try it?" He offered her the glass.

"I'm sure it's fine," Rinoa said, accepting a full glass after he poured it.

They sat down together, Rinoa indian-style.
They sipped on the wine and remained silent for a while.

Squall didn't really like the taste, but he enjoyed how it warmed his body.
He'd always liked the secret area when it was empty. It was the perfect place to think.

"So," he said, the first to break the silence.
She turned to him.
"You wanted to talk."

"Oh," she said, as if she had forgotten.
"Well… I did want to talk to you about… Well… Everything that's happened to us. Everything that's happened between us," she said, placing her hand over her heart.

A broad topic, he thought. "What do you mean?"

"I like you," she shrugged, "and we haven't any time to really get to know each other..."

Not much to know about me. He waited for her to continue, having nothing to say for himself.

"To be honest, Squall, sometimes I'm worried that you don't think well of me..."
Rinoa picked at her nails, summoning up the courage to continue.
"Maybe you think I'm childish for having dreams of Timber's liberation. Maybe you think I'm stupid or crazy to take part in the Forest Owls. Maybe I'm not as strong as you or the others. Maybe I don't have any kind of tactical training, and my skills are rather useless unless I'm in front of a drawing board. I'm loud and impulsive. I got myself thrown into situations where you had to come after me… I was an idiot to try and face Edea on my own, or to try to reason with Seifer… Now I'm forever bound to these powers, and it's because of my negligence. Maybe you think I'm a fool."

She took a deep breath and looked into his eyes sadly, her face reflecting the regret she felt so deeply. He wanted to say something to comfort her, but she held her hand up to still him.

"I want you to know that it's not who I am, you know, deep down. Yes, I was childish and arrogant before… Before everything happened to me. But I've grown up a lot since you've met me, and I want you to know that I've changed." She closed her legs and hugged her knees with her hands. "Maybe for the better."

He thought about that. They'd both grown, they'd both changed. There hadn't been any other option.

"Rinoa," he asked after a while, "why do you think that I don't like you for who you are?"

Though she had not been brave enough to say it directly, she was glad he understood what she was trying to say. Don't like me because of my looks, or because I'm the first available. It was something she feared from the first day they met. They came from two different worlds, and for a long time they didn't agree on anything. They couldn't relate. She remembered at one point thinking he was a monster, a cruel and selfish individual with no gentility. As she grew to know him, she saw him slowly open up and reveal his true personality. Now she felt like she was the monster, trying to force him out of his shell while running loose, leaving him to be the one to protect her.

She placed her glass of wine on the ground beside her. She wanted to answer his question. She wanted to tell him these things instead of just thinking them to herself.

"I'm afraid that maybe you don't really know me."
She hated this feeling, like she was reverting back into her childish state before someone who really didn't need to be wasting his time on her sob story. She was accustomed to his indifference, and braced herself for his reply.

He scoffed and she glanced at him in surprise. "Of course I know you," he said. "I've only spent the last year with you following close behind me. I've been able to pick up on a few things."

"You're just saying that," she pouted.

He shook his head. "I'm not. Don't flatter yourself – I've never done anything just to make someone feel better,"

She laughed. That's probably true. He smiled, glad that he could cheer her up.

He continued with a shrug. "So maybe you are childish, impulsive, amateurish, loud and naïve."

Rinoa frowned at him, hands on her hips.

He gave her a slight grin before continuing, amused at his ability to get to her.
"You are also whimsical, brave, placid, out-spoken and simple. You are who you are. You don't hide from others. You leave yourself exposed to anything or anyone the world has to offer. You aren't afraid of yourself or your life, you embrace it. That, to me, makes you the strongest and most sensible person I know."

Rinoa blinked at the compliment. - You - feel that way?

"You mean that?" she asked.

"It's a failing on me that you have to ask," he sighed.

She smiled at him and kissed his cheek softly, letting her lips linger for a moment. She wanted her kiss to reflect the tenderness she felt.

"That's really nice of you to say, Squall."

He shook his head.
"I'm being honest. Rinoa, you have to stop putting me on a pedestal. I'm not just someone in uniform. I'm damaged, I have issues and insecurities like anybody else. Probably more so. How could you think that I don't see you for who you are? Do you think I'm blind?"

"Of course not," she said, touching his cheek gently. "You're right. It's time I start seeing you for who you are, not just as the dashing guy in the SeeD uniform." She smirked.

"Yeah, that's not me," he said, and she laughed.

They sat there in silence for a while, both finishing their glasses of wine and refilling them, thinking over their lives, their futures, what had happened, what had been said. There were so many things to consider, so many things left unanswered. Rinoa sighed, tired of having so many questions and reaching no conclusions. She decided to voice her feelings.

"I think this is a strange point in both our lives. We're inexperienced in life, but we're strong and have seen the world… Now we're at a crossroad. What do we do after everything else has fallen into place? Where do we go from here? We have feelings that are unfamiliar, but gratifying… I guess… All in all, I really just don't know how to act."

He understood. He could certainly relate to that.

…What's going to happen to us… You and me?" she asked. She decided to come out and say it, tired of beating around the bush. Rinoa was never good at being patient or hiding her feelings.

Squall looked away.

Presently? We'll sit here. I'll overthink what to do. With Ultimecia gone, where do we go? With your powers, my position, what do we do? You'll ask me questions, I'll attempt to find the answer. But I know that you're asking the same thing I am. What's to become of us? ...And I don't know what answer you want to hear.

"Squall," she interrupted softly. "...Tell me."

He sighed. It was about time he said his thoughts out loud, and now seemed to be the right time.

"Rinoa, I'm here because of you," he told her. "Everything I've done leading up to Ultimecia was for you. I wanted Ultimecia gone so that the world could live on, so that we could live on, uninterrupted. Sure, I was contractually obligated to be with you… But I wanted to be with you anyway. I did everything…"

He paused for a moment. Tell her why.

"Because I want to stay with you."

"Squall," she breathed, speechless. "So it's true," she remarked after a while, thinking back to what Quistis and Selphie had said to her earlier that night.

He raised a brow in confusion. "What I said certainly wasn't a lie,"

She laughed and shook her head. "No, I know," she said.

"So you agree, then?" he asked.

She smiled at him. He wanted confirmation that she felt the same way. "Of course. I think," she began, finding some courage of her own, "that I fell for you a long time ago."

"But we have to understand ourselves, before we understand each other, and our..."
What should he call it? Relationship? Bond? Association? Situation?
"Our… Feelings."
He felt a little silly choosing that word, but it fit better for him than any of the others.

Rinoa nodded. "Yeah. I agree. We need time to figure out ourselves before we can take the next step, like making fictitious future babies."

"Definitely," he agreed.

She wrapped her arm around his. "We can still hang out though, right?"

He laughed. "Yeah."

"And kiss?" She was hopeful.

He shrugged. "If you think you can handle it, sure."

She playfully nudged him in the side with her elbow. "You're so mean, Squall. Meany."

"Sorry," he said, but he smiled to himself.

She leaned into him and placed her head on his shoulder, her arms hugging his arm. She felt him flinch a bit at the prolonged contact, but she just stayed there until she felt him relax. He eventually leaned his head onto hers. He felt the urge of sleep calling out to him. There were plenty of things left to talk about. But they'd already covered most of her bases in one night, and both deserved rest after such an evening.

As Sora successfully lured Zell from the rest of the group, Irvine shook his head and smiled.

"Man, I feel so bad for that girl. She's cute."

"Please," Quistis objected, "you think every girl's cute. Besides, Zell will do just fine."

"And even if he doesn't, he probably got a bangin' body," Selphie pointed out.

Quistis thought about that, placing her fingers on her chin.

"Good to know your priorities," Irvine laughed.

"Ugh!" Selphie groaned. "Whatever, Irvine! Like you can go around saying stuff like that about girls but nobody else can say anything chauvinistic? Gah! Seriously, make use of yourself and get some coffee and leave me and Quistis in peace!"

Quistis raised her brows at Selphie's sudden outburst.

Irvine shrugged. "…Okay, sure. See ya," he turned and headed back toward the buffet table.

"…Crazy much, Selphie?" Quistis asked.

"Whatever, he is so annoying." Selphie said, crossing her arms.

"'Kay…" Quistis said, beginning to feel a bit of nervousness in the company of a more-so crazy Selphie.

She decided to change the subject. "So, you wanna go shopping in Balamb tomorrow?"

"Uh, yeah!" Selphie said, as if it were a stupid question to ask.

"I was gonna ask Rinoa if she wanted to come, but she ran off too quickly."

"S'okay. I need to bombard her about Squall bright and early tomorrow. We can ask her then." Selphie clapped her hands together. "Yaaay, girl time!"

"Yes… Girl time," Quistis approved.

Selphie nodded. "We'll go over details at breakfast tomorrow."

"Sure. For now, I'll leave you to hang with Irvine for a bit," Quistis suggested.

Selphie sneered. "Why?"

"Because, I think he's a nice guy," Quistis shrugged. "He's always been nice to you, so you should be nice to him."

"I hate 'nice,'" Selphie said, crossing her arms.

"Come on. I think you were a little harsh earlier. He's just showin' off." Quistis pointed her finger at Selphie. "Don't be too hard on a man's pride - they're sensitive there."

"I guess so…" Selphie agreed, releasing her arms.

"Hey, come on," Quistis said, placing her hand on her friend's arm, "remember, it's a magical night. Let the good times roll."

Selphie found Irvine at a table alone, sipping on coffee.
She smiled at him sadly. She did feel a little guilty.
She hadn't expected him to be alone. She'd expected him to be surrounded by those cadets again, or even by some random female SeeDs from Galbadia. She didn't like the thought of that.
She wondered why she felt that way. She wondered why his interest in other girls made her uncomfortable.
What was it about him that made her feel almost… Homesick?

He waved at her happily and pulled out the seat next to him.
She smiled. She thought it was nice that despite her bitchiness, he was still friendly and welcoming. She accepted the seat and plopped down.

"Want some coffee?" he offered, lifting the pot.

"No way," Selphie declined, "I'm not allowed to have that stuff."

"Ah," Irvine said, understanding and quickly placing the coffee pot back down on the table.

"Listen, sorry if I was a little abrupt a second ago," she apologized.

He raised a brow. "'Abrupt?' I don't know if that's the word I'd chose," he said.

She narrowed her eyes. "What word would you chose?"

"Replacing 'abrupt' with 'crazy' would make more sense," he said. "Then I'd say thank you for the apology, but you're always welcome to be crazy, because you're Selphie and that's who you are. I'd never ask you to change that."
He took another sip of coffee.

She thought of scolding him for calling her crazy, but what the hell, hundreds of people had said that to her before. It didn't bother her. That last part, though…
He liked who she was. No one had outright said that to her before.

"Irvine," she said, "is it true that you remember all of us when we were younger?"

"Of course," he said. "I didn't need the use of GFs or junctioning like everyone else. As a sniper I'm never really in direct combat. I thought we'd covered that already."

She ignored his sarcasm. "Do you think… That we were friends? You and me?"

"I know we were friends," he confirmed confidently. "Why?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Just curious, I guess. I feel this strange closeness between us, even though we haven't known each other that long. When we met, I felt like we were already friends, ya know?"

He nodded. "I sure do."

He reached out and placed his arm around her shoulders. For the first time, she didn't knock it off.

He smiled. "You know, it's nice that you're starting to remember things. Once we've been off the GFs for a while, it'll come back."

She nodded. "Maybe."

"Can I ask you some stuff?" he questioned.

"About what?"

"About your life. About yourself. I thought of you, here and there. I see little things, you know, that remind me of you. I always wondered how you were doing."

Selphie speculated the idea of someone halfway around the world thinking of her when she didn't have a clue of his existence. The idea made her feel special, but also a little sad.

"Well, you know I don't remember much… I headed to Trabia from the orphanage. I lived with a few different foster families around the continent. I finally went to Garden when I was… Nine? I think. A Garden instructor met me while I was in public school, thought I had potential and wanted to sponsor me. I was in Trabia until last year, when I transferred to Balamb."

"Why did you decide to transfer?"

"My grades were really good, and I got offers from all the Gardens to take the SeeD exam, which would therefore create my allegiance with that Garden."

Irvine nodded. He felt a little guilty about wondering how the heck attention-deficit Selphie got good grades in school.

"Don't look at me that way. I studied my ass off," she cautioned.

He smiled. "Go on."

"I picked Balamb's offer because…" She paused, thinking it over. "Hmm… It's weird. I started using GFs a lot more then, so it's harder to recall… I think I picked it because their scholarship promised more than the one I received for Galbadia."

"I see," Irvine said, then finished his coffee and put the cup back down on the table. "And that was right before we met."

"Right. I was on my first SeeD mission when I ended up at Galbadia Garden. You know how that went," she waved her hand casually and leaned back in her seat.

"How did you like Trabia?"

"Oh, I really liked it. I liked the cold weather, and the snow. All of the students there are so nice, and the Instructors may not be as prestigious as the ones at other gardens, but they were definitely knowledgeable."

"Sure," Irvine nodded.

"And friendly," she continued. "It was easy to get one-on-one time with a professor if you had questions. The festivals were always a lot of fun. I had a lot of friends. It was great. I miss it a lot sometimes, but… As we get older, school changes for all of us. There's a point where it's not the same, and you can't go back." She looked at her hands in her lap sadly. "But… I wanna go back for a while and help rebuild. I owe it to them. I had a great time there."

"Of course," he said warmly. "I understand why." He smiled at her. "It sounds like you've had a good life so far, Selphie."

She felt herself blush a little, very unlike her. "Oh, yeah, totally. I'm always having fun."

"That's great," he said. "I'm really glad to hear that."

She smiled back at him. "So… What about you?"

"Me?" he said, placing his hand on his chest.

"Yeah! What's your life been like?"

"Well," he started, "no one adopted me, so I lived in foster homes for a while, like you. I wanted to bust out of that situation quick-like, so when I was fourteen, I emancipated myself, worked for a year and made about 6,000 gil. I went to Deiling and turned it into 20,000 gil in one weekend. That was enough for my training, plus a little extra. And because sharp shooting is a specialized skill, I was hired by Galbadia Garden."

"Cool story," Selphie said.

Irvine shrugged. "Thanks."

"How did you turn 6,000 gil into 20,000?"

He laughed. "That can be another story for another day."

"Fine, be that way," she huffed.

They sat together for a while, then Irvine yawned.
"Well Sefie, I hope that you'll stop by and hang out with me more often."
He stood and she stood with him.
"As for me, I am exhausted after everything that happened today. I'm gonna call it a night."

"Yeah…" Selphie nodded. She looked around and noticed that most of the guests had already dispersed. She didn't see Quistis anywhere, either. "I think most everyone has."

He smiled at her. "Would you like an escort back to your room?"

"Why, yes," she said, wrapping her arm around his dramatically. "An escort would be quite nice, thank you."

"It is always my pleasure to be in the company of such a fine lady," he said.
She laughed. Dork, she thought.

"It's late," Squall commented as he watched the horizon begin to lighten.

Rinoa still had her head on his shoulder. She had been on the edge of sleep. She looked over at the empty bottle of wine. "Yeah," she agreed.

"Shall we retire?" he asked quietly.

"That sounds good." She lifted herself up on to her feet.

He grabbed the empty bottle and glasses and did the same. She offered to carry them but he refused.

They strolled together through the corridors silently. No one was in the hallway. The sounds of the party had died down. Squall sighed, relieved.

When they reached Rinoa's room, they looked at each other sheepishly.

Though Rinoa had Angelo to keep her company, she still didn't like the idea of being alone. The last few weeks had shaken her, and she wished she could summon the courage to ask Squall to stay. She lacked that courage to do so, and sighed instead.

"So... I'll see you tomorrow?" she said.

Squall nodded in reply. Unsure of whether he should kiss her again, he was pleasantly surprised when she placed a slow kiss on his lips.

"Goodnight, Squall," she said.

"Goodnight, Rinoa."

He watched as she closed the door to her room. He waited, taking in the moment, then turned back to his dorm. As the silence of the hall consumed him, he thought that he wasn't thrilled at the idea of being alone, either.