Chapter 10.
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Dinner was…. Interesting. Laguna had chattered on about, god, everything. Questioning Squall about his love life, he had cringed with each question getting lower and lower in his seat. Everyone else found it all very amusing. Laguna told him off for being single still and for not giving Rinoa a chance. Squall had tried to tell him that he didn't think it was would work with her. The constant asking of 'why' made him admit to the whole table that he was gay, though everyone knew that anyway. The annoying president then told him to go get a boyfriend. Irvine had said he was willing then everyone had teased him and laughed and he had this sudden urge to run away.
After dinner Laguna had gone into the kitchen to get the dessert, Kiros had gone too when it looked like Laguna had gotten lost.
Squall had taken that moment to run away or slink away but Irvine had gone with him. "We could go out," The cowboy suggested. "have a look round the city, I haven't been to Esthar apart from during the war and there was hardly time for sight seeing."
"You go out then."
Irvine sighed and put an arm around Squall's shoulders to tug him in the directions he wanted to go in. "I can't go out by myself, that's no fun at all."
"Knowing you I'm sure you'll find some company soon enough."
The arm tightened on his shoulders. "But I'd rather have yours." He smirked.
Squall rolled his eyes, but he didn't shrug off the arm…. Not until they were just leaving the palace anyway.
"Hey guys! Wait up!"
They stopped and Quistis, Ellone and Evan ran towards them.
"You all escaped without Laguna noticing?" Irvine asked.
"I'm not too surprised." Squall muttered.
Ellone dug her elbow into his ribs. "Hey, don't insult uncle Laguna….. Or not when he's not here anyway." She smiled.
"Hey, since when have Laguna and Kiros been a couple?" Quistis asked.
"A while now." Ellone said. "A few months at least."
"I think it's great." Quistis said.
"Me too, they act all teenagery around each other, it's soooo cute." She giggled.
Squall made a face. "Maybe but I could have done without the visual of my dad straddling another man's lap."
Irvine laughed.
The girls chuckled and traded a look.
"That's nothing." Evan said. "My dad's a drag queen at the my local bar back home."
They all turned and looked at him. "Seriously?"
He nodded. "Lucky Avenue is his stage name." He looked up into the strange looks the others were giving him. "You know when you take your pet's name and street name and put the two togeth-" He trailed off, looking embarrassed now. "So….. What were you guys talking about?" He asked, desperate to change the subject.
"So where we headed?" Irvine asked, looking at Ellone. "You know the area, where's a good place to go?"
"Well did you want to go to a club or-"
"No." Squall said.
"Really?" She said. "I would have thought you'd be all into fetish clubs with all leather and belts you wear."
Squall rolled his eyes. "I just like leather okay? What's wrong with that?! I like leather pants they fit in all the right places."
"And they make your ass look grabable." Irvine said as he walked behind Squall.
The brunette turned and looked at him, feeling the need to cover his backside from the cowboy's eyes.
"We could go to the fun fair on the other side of town."
"There's a fair? Here? In Esthar?" Quistis asked.
"Sure, they pop up from time to time, since the war they've been there most of the time."
"How would we get there?" Squall asked.
"Oh they still have the original lifts in most of the city." Ellone explained.
Squall paled. "Original? Oh no not-" He caught sight of the round chair lifts and groaned.
Irvine chuckled. "I rather like them."
"You weren't there when one of those things malfunctioned in the palace once, three hours I was stuck on it and it wouldn't let me get off."
The other three sniggered.
"It was not funny."
"We'll go in shifts." She said, because three people was limit at one time. Ellone, Evan and Quistis got on and the chair thing whizzed off.
Irvine smiled at Squall's dark expression. "If you're afraid you can hold my hand."
The brunette glared at him.
He laughed. "It's a joke, don't worry."
Another chair lift appeared and they got on, Irvine pressed his lips together to stop the smile as the brunette jumped when the lift whizzed off at high speed.
They all meet up just fine at the edges of the fair, which looked huge. You forgot how large Esthar was sometimes. This wasn't even half of the whole city. Squall looked up at the fair. How the hell did his pigeon brained father manage a city this size?
Ellone skipped through the tall iron gates and danced around in front of them as she pointed out things of interest. "There's a Ferris wheel, rides, and the stalls, where you can win stuffed animals and toys and…." She pointed to the gloomy corner. "The physic tent, you have to go and get your fortune read, she's the best." She clapped her hands together in a very Selphie like way.
"Squall!" She tugged him in the direction of the gloomy corner. "You have to get your fortune read, she always gets it right and I want to know what lies ahead for you."
They passed a shooting stall on the way. "Want me to win you a stuffed animal?" Evan said to Quistis.
"Okay." She agreed.
The guns were rifles and they had targets to hit. "I could do that!" Irvine said. He looked at Ellone. "I'll win you too."
She grinned. "Okay."
The boys paid the money and took up a gun side by side, both glancing looks at each other competitively. Squall rolled his eyes.
They had five targets to hit, the better the shot the better the prize. Irvine hit the first two dead in the centre. Evan followed his example and did the same. The cowboy then hit the next three dead in the centre. Evan hit the next three but was off by a tiny bit on one of them only half a centimetre. The cheap stall owner marked him down on then.
"What?!" He stared at him. "It's almost perfect!"
The fat balding man behind the counter shrugged. "Not perfect enough." He walked over to Ellone and dropped a huge white fluffy rabbit into her arms, the thing dwarfed her and she stumbled for a second trying to hold it.
"Thanks." Irvine said, cheerfully grinning.
Squall gave him a look. "Don't." He said.
"What?" He grinned. "I never said anything."
"Good."
Evan was still arguing with the man. Irvine admitted the guy had a point. "Who else are you going to give the huge prizes to?" Irvine added into the argument. "No one else is going to get that close."
"You did."
"Yeah but we're Seed! I'm sharpshooter!" He pointed to the targets that he had hit. "I do that everyday!"
The man grumbled and untied another large rabbit and flung it at Quistis. "Thank you." She said.
Both guys grinned looking smug as they walked off with their prizes. Squall bad been standing a few feet away during all this with his arms folded waiting impatiently. "That was strangely nice of you." He said as the cowboy came into hearing range.
He shrugged. "Yeah well I'm nice sometimes."
Ellone dragged Squall over to the fortunes tent and pushed him inside. He went in and quickly came back out again. "There's a creepy woman in here."
Ellone rolled her eyes. "There's the fortune teller, go and sit down and she'll talk to you."
The brunette frowned then disappeared back inside again. Irvine wanted to go in too but he wasn't allowed as everyone's destiny was private apparently.
Squall paused behind the empty chair. The woman opposite had her face covered by a black veil, she wore a dark purple and black dress, she even had thin black gloves on. "Sit down, my child." She gestured to the chair.
Squall perched on the edge of the chair gingerly. She started to shuffle a pack of cards in her hands. The brunette frowned sceptically.
She pulled a card from the pack and placed it on the table. "You will meet someone here today, someone you haven't seen for some times, someone who means a great deal to you."
He frowned. "If you mean Ellone, I've already meet her."
The woman ignored the comment and places another card next to the first. "Hmm this is interesting." She paused.
"What?" He asked.
"You see a lot of death in your life don't you?"
Squall blinked. "Not really…. Well maybe."
She put down some more cards only stopping to 'oh' and 'hmm' between the them. Finally she looked up at him. "The one you long for is not meant to be."
He frowned. "What does that mean?"
She looked back at her cards. "That is all I am told."
He scoffed and got up to leave.
"If you follow on your current path only misery will find you there." She added.
"I don't have a current path, I'm a Seed I go where I'm sent."
She didn't say anything else so he left.
"Well?!" Ellone asked, grinning with excitement.
"Crazy old bat, she talks in riddles."
Ellone shook her head. "She's not crazy, she knows everything."
He fell into step with Irvine who had been waiting for him.
"Well my current path will lead to misery." Squall repeated.
She stopped walking altogether. "What? That's terrible."
Irvine scoffed. "I doesn't mean anything."
"I does! It-" She hurried after them. "You have to change your path."
"I don't have a path as I tried to tell her!"
"No one can read someone else's destiny." Irvine said. "If we even have a destiny. It's all crap."
"Oh! And the one I long for is not meant to be." Squall said. "I don't long for anyone."
"Unless she meant Rinoa." Irvine said. "You did want her at some point and obviously that wasn't meant to be because you're gay."
Squall frowned. "Maybe."
Ellone bit her lip worriedly.
"Where did Quistis and Evan go?" Squall asked.
"They wanted to go on the Ferris wheel." Irvine explained. "We're meeting them up there now."
They walked in the direction of the Ferris wheel. "What did she tell you that came true then?" Squall asked Ellone.
"She said I would find great happiness in the form of a handsome stranger here at the fair."
"And have you?"
She flicked her hair self-consciously. "Well err not yet but-"
Both guys scoffed.
"I will though!" She protested. "It's only a matter of time."
They went to the Ferris wheel and waited for Quistis and Evan to finish their ride, while they waited a young guy came up and asked Ellone to dance with him on the stage that everyone was dancing on opposite the Ferris wheel.
She stuck out her tongue at Squall for saying she wouldn't find anyone there and gave him the giant rabbit to hold.
"Hang on!" He protested. "I don't want to hold this!"
She didn't listen though and disappeared off to dance.
Squall sighed, looking down at the toy in his arms. "Just because she danced with a guy does not mean that woman was right, one dance is not great happiness." Irvine pointed out.
"I know that." Squall agreed. "She's a weirdo."
"A freak." Irvine agreed.
"Doesn't know what she's talking about."
They stood together and watched the Ferris wheel go round.
III
TBC