A/N: Can you believe it? This is the second time I'm writing this chapter. The first time it was almost finished when I somehow erased it from my computer. The same goes for the next chapter. ASFKLJG! D: I hate myself, because now I had to start all over again... And that's why this chapter might be a little... weird? Anyways, I seem to be just in time for Squall Day, so enjoy. ;)

Thanks: midnight cowgirl, RatedRSuperStar87, Cloud's kid 1, MonMonCandie, Faye, LivingDoll14, Ravenscar275x, Ali, and M. L. Ayala, my beta reader.


~ "Quit this rubbish! Why are you avoiding me Rinoa? What's going on? What are you hiding from me?" ~


It had been all silent in the room. Too silent for comfort. Rinoa had almost been able to taste it, as thick as it was, until...

"Rinoa, we need to talk..."

That one sentence practically paralyzed her. There was only one thought that crossed Rinoa's mind at that moment: he was suspecting something. He sounded so serious that that had to be the only explanation. The question was, how in the world did he find out about it? Was her pokerface really that bad or did their friends tell him about it?

"Uhm..." The look in Squall's eyes was so solemn that for a moment, Rinoa didn't know what to say. Since when had his eyes become so depressingly grey, like the silence before the storm? And more importantly, why didn't he look away from her? When she regained her voice again, she asked with a voice that was an octave higher than normally, "Oh? What is it?"

She bit her lower lip. The nervousness in her voice was too obvious. He had probably heard it, too. To add insult to injury, she could feel how the tension in the room increased with every second that passed in pure silence. If she stayed here any longer, then things could get really wrong...

"You have some explaining to do," Squall replied, with a cross of his arms, apparently not planning to look away from her anymore.

Rinoa pointed at herself. "M-me?"

"Yes, you."

Strangely enough, this suddenly reminded her of that famous, and her favorite childhood chanting game about cookies. Who me? Yes, you! Couldn't be! Then who?

Wait... where had that even come from? Rinoa shook her head, trying to get rid of those silly thoughts bothering her. She couldn't use those right now. She needed to focus on what she was about to do instead.

For Rinoa, it felt like Squall's eyes were slowly burning holes into her face, what with the intensity he was staring at her. So she did the only thing she could possibly think of to give herself some time to recover.

"Do you want to drink something?" she asked, quasi-cheerfully, already getting up from the sofa to make a quick dash to the kitchen, her safe haven.

She hadn't set more than maybe three little steps, before Squall expertly took a hold of her upper arm and turned her around (a little harshly, too. That would probably leave her some bruises, but he had no choice) so she had to face him fully. "Quit this rubbish! Why are you avoiding me Rinoa? What's going on? What are you hiding from me?"

His mouth was a thin, firm line and as expected, his trademark frown wasn't missing on his face.

He knows! was all the raven-haired teen could think about for a moment, as she felt how her panic started to rise. He knows, but he just wants to hear me confirming it...

She gulped, averting her gaze. Why was this so difficult?

"Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that..." she admitted, somewhat shyly. "You might want to sit down, though."

She pointed to the sofa near them, still not looking at him. Squall hesitated at first, but eventually did as he was told, his eyes never leaving hers as she took place next to him, not too far away to make it look all awkward (that was the last thing they needed now), but not too close, either. Rinoa silently thanked the gods for that. She needed a little bit space between them thanks to her unpredictable teenage hormones. Things would really get out of hand if she suddenly kissed him, or something. Squall didn't say anything and Rinoa took this as a hint to start talking and explain herself.

Explain myself? I make it sound like I did something terrible... something so wrong that it shouldn't be mentioned at all. What's wrong about falling in love with your best friend?

"Well, truth is that I... I uh..." Rinoa looked around, trying to come up with the right words but failing miserably, "I kinda sorta..."

"Yes?" Squall gently ushered, wondering why she couldn't just spit it out already.

She made him only worry more about her this way. It was nothing for Rinoa to be this nervous. She almost made it look as if she had committed a crime... killed a person, or maybe robbed a bank. He almost had to laugh at that. The last person he always expected to do such a thing was the raven-haired girl sitting next to him. Rinoa was too much of a goody two-shoes to do something that wrong. Yet, it would explain why she had been avoiding him for the past weeks.

Squall just didn't understand. They had been so close for the past years, joined at the hip, but now... Something about Rinoa had changed, he had noticed it right away, even though she probably thought that he hadn't. But how could he not notice it? It wasn't only in the way she looked at him; troubled, almost scared, as if his presence alone terrified her beyond imagination, but she had become quite distant, too, as though she didn't want to have anything to do with him anymore. The question was, why?

Squall had no idea what he had done wrong according to her, but he was willing to apologize for it if he had to. He just hoped that she still wanted to be best friends with him, despite whatever had upset her. Was it his personality? He knew that he sometimes was a little harsh and acted like he didn't care, but if there was one person who knew that he didn't mean it, it had to be her. Perhaps she was fed up with him? No, that didn't make sense at all; Rinoa had been the first person who had accepted him the way he was. She was the first girl he had let in into his life. She meant the world to him, even though she probably had no idea. Sometimes it made him wonder what he meant to her. Did he have a special place in her heart, or was he just another random friend of hers? One she had to live with, whether she wanted to or not?

"I don't really know how to say it," she admitted then, after another few seconds of fruitlessly struggling with her words.

"Take your time. It's Friday, anyway."

To both of their great surprise, Rinoa giggled at that. She hadn't expected to be able to do that, but maybe it was just the nerves that made her do so. She knew what he meant by that, though. Squall wasn't really the type to go out on Friday nights and he didn't have homework for the next day, either (since it was Saturday), so he literally had all time in the world... unfortunately.

"Sorry. I just..." She sighed, looking at the palm of her hands so her midnight black hair became a dark curtain that hid her face (just in case she would start blushing, which she knew she would soon. Squall just had that effect on her). "I really, really like you. A lot."

"I guess we have something in common then, because so do I," the brunet male assured her.

Whatever it was that was bothering her, it had to be pretty serious if she brought that up... She hadn't accidentally broken any of his belongings, had she?

Rinoa gave him a sidelong glance, smiling sadly, because he didn't get it. "What I actually meant to say with those words is... Squall, I'm in love with you."

The last five words echoed in his head, driving away all of his other thoughts. He blinked a couple of times, giving the female teen an utterly dumbfounded look. It took him a moment to process this little piece of information and for the longest of times, he was silent. All he could do, was staring at her blankly, which made her almost shrink back into the cushions. Squall didn't notice any of his, his thoughts running a mile per minute. How was this possible; Rinoa had a crush on him? Was that why she had avoided him for the past months?

Then, after what seemed to be ages, he let out a rather dry, "...Oh."

Rinoa had been prepared for the most weirdest reaction, but she certainly hadn't expected to hear such a short, impassive response. Oh? That was really all he had to say after such a long moment of silence? Oh? Here she was, pouring her heart out to him, by telling him her greatest, deepest secret and embarrassing herself, and all he could say was 'Oh?' This made her a little mad at him. A little bit more reaction than that would have been more than welcome. He sounded too uninterested to care this way.

She didn't know why, but she started talking again. It kind of felt as if she felt like she had to explain herself some more.

In a soft voice, she started, "It started only a few months ago, after I dumped Seifer when I found out that he was... you know. I was so sad and done and you helped me forget him so easily. You were just so... so-"

"Rinoa, listen..."

The raven-haired girl abruptly closed her mouth. That was a bad sign. The tone of his voice, stating that he didn't tolerate this, the fact that he interrupted her and the way he paused after those two words, as though he didn't know how to continue, wasn't indicating that he would say something positive. He was probably wondering how he should tell her off without hurting her feelings in the process. Suddenly, she got scared for what she might hear. She wondered if she should get up and just leave the room and never look back to this day again...

"Rin, I'm flattered. I really am. But to be honest, I harbor no feelings for you romantically and it would be unfair to you if I said that I did. You deserve someone who gives you as much love as you give him. I'm really, really sorry... But we're still friends, right?"

So much for hoping for more. Instead, she got a slap in the face, quickly followed by a stab in her side with a blunt knife. Rejecting someone, only to tell them that they still could be friends felt like your dog died and your mom telling you that you could still keep it, despite the fact that it was useless. Rinoa was more than aware of how the tears were already starting to form in her eyes, but she blinked them away rapidly. She would not cry in front of him if she could stop it. She wouldn't lose that little bit of pride that she still had for him if he didn't want her, anyway.

"S-sure!" she choked out, forcing herself to look at him and smile with what felt like watery eyes.

"Good."

Squall really looked relieved that it had all went so easy, without any teardrops in sight (...yet?). He put a gloved hand on her shoulder and squeezed it softly, but Rinoa didn't know what to make of this kind of gesture, so she didn't move at all. Did he feel sorry for her, or was he just glad that this was over with? It was probably a combination of both. Suddenly, she didn't want to be in the same room with him anymore. She didn't need his pity for her. She actually didn't need anything coming from him.

"I really do care about you and I guess I could say that I love you, but just not in that way."

"No, really," she quickly said, raising her hands. She didn't need to hear more, the message had been crystal-clear. "It's alright. I was just..." stupid enough to think that this could become something more... "I'm glad we're friends."

Squall eyed her for a moment, as if he was trying to read her mind, before he spoke, "Me too..."

An awkward silence was what followed, until Rinoa had the guts to break it. "Well, I'm going to do some homework, 'cause I'm falling behind. See ya."

She sent a last smile his way and then got up, heading upstairs.

"Yeah... see ya," Squall muttered, but probably too soft for Rinoa to hear.

He was more than glad that Rinoa wasn't upset about the way this had gone. Who had ever thought that she would like him? He had never even thought about what it would be like if they had a relationship together. It sounded too odd, because he was used to see her like a sister. No sane person started a relationship with his own sister. That was too disgusting for words... Squall shook his head. He shouldn't dwell on it that long.

Little did he know that upstairs, Rinoa wasn't doing her homework. Instead, she was crying, feeling like nothing would be alright anymore...

Squall didn't suspect anything. Not until she didn't show up for dinner, that is. That was when he started to feel a little guilty. Perhaps he had had to be a little more gentle towards her instead of handling the situation with simple facts, but... the fact that Rinoa had a little crush on him had taken him completely by surprise... He still couldn't believe it when he thought about it. It just didn't fit in... well, everything.

Oh well, all she needed was a little time now. She would act all normal again sooner or later, right? He just hoped that that would happen before he would leave this place for a year for his study in Balamb...


A/N: Thanks for reading! :) From now on, they'll both stay the same age (Rinoa 17 and Squall already 18) for the rest of the story. Since I accidentally erased the next chapter, too, it might take me a little longer to upload it. Yeah, if it isn't school, it's my own stupidity that causes my slow updates. But who knows, maybe your reviews make me change my mind? In the next chapter, she will effectively surprise Squall with something...