A/N : i'm back. i am very sorry for the delay, but i am still struggling with the school work and all, but i hope you will keep reading, this is kinda an importnat chapter XD i love ya all guys xxxxx

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Rinoa was so stunned that she felt faint. Squall knew?

"W-what?"

"Your fiancée, Prince Irvine." he said. The distance and the edge in his voice easily gave away that he was not at all happy.

"How did you…"

"how did I know? Please Princess, I am not completely stupid"

"But..I..if you knew, why didn't you say something?"

"I did not know for certain. I had my suspicions. But now, the fact you are wearing an engagement ring, well that is the final clue."

Rinoa looked down at her hand and saw the ring sparkling on her finger.

"Squall, I can explain" she said, still stunned.

" I do not want you to explain." Squall said coldly as he pushed past her to leave.

"Wait, please" Rinoa cried, the words coming out more as sobs.

"Why should I wait? How could you do this to me Rinoa?"

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. But be fair, Squall…" Rinoa searched for the words to try and explain what she had done. She had had her reasons, she just couldn't easily explain them.

"Fair?" Squall echoed "How can you even talk about fair after this?"

"Please, just give me one chance to explain" Rinoa said more forcefully, putting her hand on Squalls chest to stop him walking away.

"Fine" he said, even more coldly "Although I don't think I can forgive you, no matter what you say now"

"Squall, you were the one who went to war, you left me here."

"Well you obviously weren't very concerned." Squall said bitterly

"Of I course I was Squall, but I was lonely and afraid and I thought I'd never see you again, I thought you were dead, I couldn't be alone anymore, I just couldn't. And then Irvine, he was there for me, and I needed some one there. And not only that, I had to think about the kingdom, the pressure from my father, at the time I wasn't even in my right mind, but in that one moment, it seemed as if it was the right choice to make."

Squall ran a hand through his hair in a frustrated manner before slamming his fist against a wall.

"Damn it Princess, do you just not understand? I am not annoyed that you agreed to marry Irvine, I am upset but I understand your reasons. What makes me angry, Rinoa, is that you lied to me. This entire time since I came back, you have been lying to me, you carried on like you loved me, like everything was the same this whole time."

"I do love you" Rinoa interrupted, albeit quietly, " I was protecting you"

"Protecting me?" Squall yelled, "you were manipulating me! You kept me blind about it all because it suited you to. I am not your puppet Rinoa, I'm not a toy you can play with when your fiancé isn't around!"

"It is not like that Squall. I love you and I wanted to tell you, I really did, I just couldn't find the right time, the right words. It was all too hard. I planned every time I saw you to tell you, but whenever I saw you…I just got lost in my feelings and the words just disappeared. I know should have told you Squall, but…but…"

Squall now had his back turned to Rinoa, and was looking out over the balcony into the night. "No. Do you know what Princess? I think this is just what we needed, an end."

"An end?" Rinoa echoed, her voice a broken whisper.

"Yes Princess, an end. How long were we going to carry on? We knew it would never work, but neither of us could bring ourselves to admit it, we couldn't find the strenght to end it. Well now we have our end."

"I don't want this to be the end" Rinoa said weakly.

"Well we don't always get what we want Princess." Squall pushed past Rinoa and went inside the castle, heading in the direction of her room. Rinoa chased after him, calling his name. Even to her the idea of a Princess chasing a guard was ridiculous, it was so different to how he used to insist on being so formal. But she didn't care anymore, that professional distance no longer existed. Still, she knew there would be trouble if anybody saw her running after a guard, tears in her eyes. But she couldn't even think about that then. She couldn't think at all, she felt as if she could barely breathe.

Squall reached his room, but she slipped in just before he slammed his door.

"Please Princess." he said, shaking his head "leave me alone."

With that, he started gathering things from around the room.

"what are you doing?"

"Leaving, Princess"

This was all so familiar. It brought back too many memories. That night…it seemed so long ago. It all seemed so long ago. The party, the ambush, she had been so close to…but he had saved her. Then after all the trouble with her father, he wanted to leave and she had convinced him to stay. Exactly like she knew she had to do now.

But it sparked off so many memories of their relationship. It had been so up and down, it had always been difficult. After the night she had convinced him to stay, she had thought they would have all the closeness she always craved, but it all fell apart again when he had carried out the cruel orders of her father. But once again they grew close at the funeral, that day in the snow. But then he disappeared and she fell ill. Rinoa could still remember how scared she was, how much she wished he was there. Then they both gave in, they were finally together ..until the war, and then Irvine, and now this…

It seemed like something was always in the way, but they had overcome it before and Rinoa prayed they would this time.

Coming back to the situation at hand, Rinoa finally spoke again.

"Haven't we been here before?"

"We have. But this time you will not convince me to stay."

"How? How can you just stop loving me, just like that?"

"I am not leaving because I don't love you, I still do. But you and Irvine…"

"I don't love him, Squall" Rinoa said strongly. Because it was the truth. She liked Irvine, but she did not love him.

"Maybe, maybe not" Squall sighed, "but that doesn't change anything. I love you Rinoa, I love you in spite of this and everything else and I love you too much to stay around while you become somebody else's wife. I know we could never be together, but that doesn't mean I can stand to watch you be with somebody else."

"Squall.." she said tearfully, over come by emotion "please stay."

"I can not Princess, it will be far too hard for me."

"But…but I Love you, doesn't that count for anything?"

Squall had become much less mad, and now seemed upset.

"It does, it counts for so much, but it cant change my mind."

Rinoa knew she needed something that would change his mind, and as she had done so many times she reached out and instinctively pulled him into a kiss.

But this time, it was so different, there was so much more passion.

Maybe they both knew it would be their last, but more so Rinoa was hoping it would be a reason for him to stay.

But the kiss went on leading to a place it had never gone before. It was strong and intense. He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her closer to him. Before she really knew what was happening she was lifting his shirt over his head as he seemed to be undoing the ties on the back of her dress, the soft velvet dress sliding down her skin and dropping to the floor. Rinoa knew exactly where this was going and she felt so many things at once. A little fear, anticipation, excitement, but most of all she felt safe. Squall lay her down on the bed gently, without breaking the kiss until several minutes later. "I love you" he whispered before trailing kisses down her neck. And things went on from there… For the rest of the night Rinoa couldn't even think, she was too busy feeling so many things, but she knew this was exactly what she wanted…………..

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The next morning, Rinoa woke up feeling a mixture of things. Physically she felt tired- the previous night had not involved much sleep- and she also felt a little awkward- as amazing of an experience as it had been it had been her first experience so it was bound to affect her.

But emotionally, she felt amazing. She felt so close to him now, so fulfilled. After waking up a little more, she noticed Squall was gone, though judging by the faint sun outside it was fairly early. Rinoa got dressed and fixed herself up, but as soon as she opened the door she found herself face to face with Seifer.

"Seifer?"

"my, my" Seifer grinned evilly "how do you plan to explain this one? I mean coming out of a guards room in this state? I'd venture to say whatever the two of you were doing crossed the line of your professional relationship."

"Nothing happened" Rinoa lied immediately.

"please Princess, I know exactly what happened. If you want some advice from a humble servant of yours" Seifer said, in a tone more viciously sarcastic than ever before " I suggest you lock doors to rooms in which you intend to carry out such behaviour"

That was it. He knew for sure now.

"I…"

"Oh don't worry about explaining it to me Princess, if I were you I'd save the explanation of prince Irvine…or your father."

Rinoa felt all the blood drain from her face ..this was going to be hell.

"of course.." Seifer continued "I could always keep this information to myself. But that would require something in exchange."

"What do you want Seifer?"

"Well I had it all planned out…but now I know you give it away so easily, I might have to rethink it." Seifer said grabbing her arm.

"Don't touch me"

"You know Princess…you might want to be a little nicer to me. I'll let you know when I've decided what I want. Until then…watch your back, Princess."

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Well i hope you enjoyed that :) please review and let me know what you think and pm me if you want to talk about anything, thanks guys. i'll update soon! x