Disclaimer: shockingly I actually don't own ff 8.
A/N; hello! I apologise for the kind of delay on this chapter. I meant to post it sooner but well it kept behaving rather evilly to me. But hahaha finally beat it. So as usual this chapter is for all my reviewers of chapter 13 CrazyTurkey
Draven NightlyXxPhoenix BladexXlilnaychjesh18Zellycat and PriestessEmily. Hope everyone enjoys the chapter. And yes, it is rather dramatic heheeheh. Enjoy!. Peace and light xx
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Trembling, Rinoa turned the handle of the door to Cids office, opening it and revealing her father sitting there at Cids desk. A huge chill went down her spine the moment she saw him.
"ahh Rinoa, please come in. your father is very anxious to see you"
As soon as Rinoa entered the room her father stood up "Rinoa, I'm so glad you're safe!"
But Rinoa knew his concern was completely fake, an act. She knew really he was furious, she could see the anger in his eyes.
"Really" she said sarcastically
Her father turned to Cid "Excuse me headmaster, do you think there is a place where my daughter and I could have some privacy"
"yes, yes of course. Infact, I have a meeting to attend so feel free to use this room. I shall give you your privacy now" Cid said leaving the room and closing the door behind him. And the moment that door shut Rinoa knew exactly what was coming. Before she even had time to process the situation her father hit her across the side of her face and she dropped to the floor.
"You deceitful, conniving bitch" he hissed "did you really think I wouldn't find out where you'd run off to?"
"Why are you here?" Rinoa said trying to hold off a flood of tears "what do you want?"
"I'm here to take you back to Deling"
"I'm not going anywhere with you!" Rinoa protested
"Yes, you are. You're going to go and get your things and then we're leaving"
" I'm staying here" Rinoa said, despite the fact she knew it was probably going to cost her to answer back.
"Don't be ridiculous. Why would you think I'd let you stay here you stupid little girl"
"Why not? Why do you even care where I am, you don't really give one about me."
"And you assume anyone here does.? How naïve. But I have told you you're coming back and you will not disobey me!"
"No. Leave me alone!"
Rinoas father once again hit her, hard, and blood started to trickle from her lip. The pain and tears were blurring her thoughts, but one thought kept coming through clearly 'Squall. Where are you?'
"you never learn do you?" he father boomed "you can never just keep your mouth shut and do what your told!"
"W-why should I do what you say. You're evil, you treat me like…"
"I treat you like you deserve to be treated. Maybe if you grew up a bit, weren't so pathetic and annoying it'd be different. Now, we're leaving"
"No. I'm…I'm not going to do what you tell me!"
Rinoas father shook his head and gave alittle laugh "Then I'll have to force you ut of here"…
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Squall was leaving the class room with Zell and Tanya when they ran into Selphie, just by the elevators.
"Hey Selph, where've you been?"Tanya asked
"Oh I was up at Cids office, so when I came down I thought I'd wait for you guys"
"Uh-ohhhhhh" Zell laughed "Cids office? You got in trouble!!"
"Nuh-uh" Selphie shook her head "I just went up there to show Rinoa where it was"
"Rinoa?" Squall asked, trying to sound casually unconcerned
"Yeh, I just had to take her up there. Her dad came to see her and…"
"Her dad?" Squall asked, panicking suddenly
"Um, yeah"
"What's up Squall?" Zell asked
"They're in Cids office?' Squall asked Selphie
"Yep. What's wrong?"
"I gotta get up there" Squall said heading for the elevator
"Squall, tell me what's going on" Tanya demanded
"I'll explain later" he said before pushing the button that closed the elevator doors.
'Geez, Doesn't this thing go any faster' Squall thought as he waited for the elevator to reach 3rd floor. He knew that ordinarily students weren't supposed to go to Cids office without permission, but he really didn't care. 'I've got to help Rinoa. I promised I would. Just hope I'm not too late…'
Finally with a little ding the elevator doors opened and Squall headed for the office door and knocked loudly on it.
"Rinoa, are you in there?"
"Go away please" came a male voice from inside the room. Squall knew it was definitely not Cid, so he figured it had to be Rinoas dad. He tried the handle of the door, but it was locked. 'Guessing it wasn't Rinoa who locked that. What the hell is going on in there?'
"Open the door! Rinoa?"
'Help me!" called Rinoas familiar voice from inside the room. Squall could tell from her voice that she was crying as she spoke. He heard the sound of some commotion and then heard her cry out in pain. Presumably her father had decided to try and silence her.
"Open the damn door" called with no luck. Finally, not knowing what else to do he rammed his shoulder into the door, breaking the lock and forcing the door open. It hurt like hell, but he had no other choice.
"who the hell are you?" Rinoas dad hissed at him as soon as he saw him.
He was quite a tall man, and wider than Squall at the shoulders but the grey streaks in his hair gave away that he was quite a lot older.
Rinoa, who was cowering in the corner of the room, suddenly stood up, dashed across the room and threw herself into Squalls arms
"please help me" she cried as she held tightly on to him. She was clearly terrified, and shaking like crazy.
"It's okay, it's okay I'm here" he said to her
"Who are you?" her father repeated angrily
"what the hell did you do to her?" Squall yelled, ignoring the guys question
"None of your damn business! And you still didn't answer my question. What have you got to do with my daughter?"
"I'm a friend"
"A friend huh. She doesn't have Friends. I'm guessing you've got to be the latest boyfriend"
"No. Like I said I'm.."
"Her friend, I know. See I just figured, you actually want to spend time with her, you must be getting something out of it, why else would you want to be around that little…"
" I would not finish that sentence if I were you" Squall said trying to control his temper. 'What the hell gives him the right to speak about her like that. This guy is a lunatic'
The man took a few steps towards Squall and as he did, Rinoa ran around so she was standing behind Squall, protected from her father.
"Stay away from me!" she said tearfully
"you're coming back right now" the man stated
"No, I'm not. I'm not going back with you!"
The man took a determined few steps towards Rinoa but he found himself face to face with Squall.
"I wont let you take her" Squall said "And I wont let you hurt her, not again. I'm not even going to let you near her, I know all about you, what you're like…"
"Oh let me guess. She told you her little sob story about how she had such a bad life blah blah blah." he narrowed his eyes at Rinoa "Never could just keep your mouth shut could you, you whiney little bitch"
Squall, who was now working very hard to fight the urge to snap this psychos neck, said "I recommend you really watch what you say"
The man just laughed "You think I'm going to listen to you. Are you trying to scare me? You're just a kid"
"And you're a raving lunatic"
"You know this really is none of your business. This is between me and Rinoa"
"I'm not leaving you alone with her, you'll hurt her and then…"
"And then what. What exactly do you plan to do?"
"If you hurt her, you don't even want to know what I'll do to you"
"See" the man said glaring at Rinoa "See all the trouble you've caused now."
"Don't blame this on her, this your fault"
Rinoas dad rolled his eyes "Of course it is. Because that's what she told you. I'm the bad guy right? I've never done anything she didn't deserve. Infact I thought maybe she'd learn something, if she'd have known her place.."
"Wait, so what you did to her all those years you were just 'putting her in her place', doing this for her own good? You self righteous son of a bitch"
"look I don't even no who you are, and I frankly don't care. Now Rinoa get you're damn stuff and get come home. Don't make me drag you out of here"
"I'm not…I'm not going with you. I'm staying here"
A look of fury spread over the guys face "How dare you disobey me, you arrogant little bitch! Your mother would be ashamed of you, I, m glad hse never had to see you grow up into this"
Squall saw on Rinoas face how much hurt that comment had caused, probably more pain than any physical attack would have caused. She dropped to the floor and burst into tears. And Squall just couldn't take it. All this guy seemed to do was reduce Rinoa to tears and Squall couldn't stand to see her cry, it hurt him. So without thinking at all of the consequences he reached out and punched Rinoas dad in the face pretty hard.
"Squall!" Rinoa cried, sounding pretty shocked
"you little bastard!" her dad yelled while blood dripped from his nose
"oops. Sorry" Squall said sarcastically
"You think you're so clever? I can press charges against you for assault you know."
"you know what, you do that. You call the police and tell them I hit you. I'll tell them why, how seriously do you think the police would take you abusing your daughter her whole life?"
Rinoas father was about to speak when Selphie and Zell dashed into the office an instructor and a few eager students in toe
"What's going on, we heard the yelling all the way downstairs!" Zell said "Hey who's this guy"
"Rin, are you okay?" Selphie asked noticing her friend crying. She ran over to her and hugged her.
"What is going on? The Instructor asked
"One of your students assaulted me" Rinoas dad stated angrily
"Squall.." the instructor sighed
"I didn't have a choice, he deserved it"
"it wasn't his fault" Rinoa sobbed "he was trying to help me"
"I'm going to get you out of here okay" Selphie said leading her friend to the elevator
"Good" the instructor said
"Just one thing" Rinoa said weakly before leaving "please get him" she pointed at her father "out of here, and don't let him come back"
"I think you should leave" The instructor said to Rinoas dad "And Squall, I'll wait for headmaster Cid to deal with you….."
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It had been a couple of hours since the whole incident when Rinoa finally worked up the courage to go and see Squall. She had no idea what to say, how to thank him for what he had done for her, and she also had no idea whether or not he'd got in any kind of trouble over the whole thing. Nervously she raised her hand an knocked quietly on his door.
After a few seconds later he called out "Yeh, who is it?"
"Um, it's me, Rinoa"
The door opened and Rinoa found she actually couldn't look at Squall for some reason, so she dropped her eyes downwards immediately.
"what's up?" he said
"can I… come in?"
Squall gestured for her to go in and then shut the door behind her.
"Are you alright?" she asked him.
"I guess"
"Did you get…into trouble?"
"Yup, suspended actually, I got suspended"
"But you were only trying to help me"
Squall shrugged "Cid didn't really see it that way, plus its not the first time I've been in trouble lately. I've been hauled in twice for attacking Seifer and now your Dad, I'm lucky I didn't get kicked out"
"I'm so sorry Squall, this is all my fault" Rinoa looked like she was about to cry. "Nothing you can do now. So how are you? Is your dad gone?"
"Yeh, he's gone. And I'm…I'm gonna go too I think"
"you're going back with that psycho??"
"No. I'm just not staying here anymore"
"Don't be ridiculous. You can't leave"
"Why is it ridiculous?"
"Where would you even go?"
"I don't know Squall I just…" she sat down on the edge of his bed and out her head in her hands " I just can't stay here"
"Why not?"
"Because I have done nothing but cause trouble since the moment I got here" Rinoa realised that she had infact failed in controlling her tears, as they were now dripping down her cheeks.
"That's not true" Squall said sitting next to her
"Yes it is. I mean look at you, I got you suspended"
"No, you didn't I got my self suspended"
"But it was because of me"
"Don't blame yourself, I don't blame you"
"I…I still cant believe you punched my dad"
"It's not like I had a choice, I…" Squall said defensively
"No, I mean, I was just surprised. No ones ever stuck up for me like that before"
Squalls placed his fingertips on one of the bruises that had appeared on Rinoas cheekbones "Does it hurt?"
"Not really, I'm kind of used to it". It was not until then she realised just how incredibly close to Squall she was leaning. She could feel his breath on her face.
"I should…I should go" she said
"Rinoa…don't leave" Squall said seriously
"Why?"
And not having any other answer to give Squall leant down, brushed a few strands of hair away from her face and kissed her……..
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Omg! He kissed her. Damn she's so lucky hehe! So how will Rinoa react? it may not be exactly how you'd think. But come on, did you really think I'd tell you in this chapter I'm a cliff hanger bitch!hehehehe So keep reading, theres only 2 or 3 chapters to go! Please let me know what you think. Thanks y'all, peace and light xx