A/N: First off, I must apologise for the long update time. You see, I now have a part time job. I know what you're thinking; isn't that one of the signs of the apocalypse? Well possibly (took me over six months after graduating even get this one), but it means that I have far less time to write now. I'll have more time in April as I won't be trying to do loads of stuff for cosplaying, but I'll try to get an update up during March.

Shuffle or Boogie

When Laguna had invited Squall for a 'guys' night out,' he'd half expected them to end up in some seedy Esthar strip club. So he was pleasantly surprised when Laguna led them into a jazz bar. The lights throughout the establishment were dimmed, letting the stage spotlight outshine them, making it clear who the star of this bar was. In this case, it was a pianist singing as he played a song that, though Squall could not identify, felt vaguely familiar. The room was dark enough for Squall and Laguna not to stick out as people of note, not that the customers here seemed to care. They seemed more engrossed by the live music than they could have ever been by two powerful world leaders.

Laguna guided his guest to the bar at the rear of the room, far back enough for orders and quiet small talk to be made without disturbing the main entertainment. While bar stools lined the counter, small round tables stood closer to the stage with a small candle in each of their centres. It was the kind of place that Rinoa would have liked. It was certainly an interesting change for their meetings.

Laguna stopped by the bar and the barwoman leaned forward to take their order. The president was careful when he spoke to keep his voice low. "A house red and…?" He turned to Squall, waiting for his order.

"A whiskey," was Squall's short reply.

"On the rocks?" the woman behind the bar asked.

"Yes."

"Single or double?"

Before he had a chance to answer, Laguna had replied for him. "A double."

"I'm fine with a single."

"We're out for the night. Have fun, relax. A double," he repeated to the woman, "and we'll make a tab."

She smiled and went about making their drinks, leaving Squall to wonder just how 'relaxed' Laguna intended to get him tonight. He may have had no objection to having the occasional drink, he even enjoyed it, but he wasn't really one for getting drunk. He liked being in control of his body too much. However, he found that when one doesn't get drunk a lot, one tends not to know their own limits. Besides, he didn't think Rinoa would be happy if she woke up tomorrow morning to find him passed out on the floor, that or she'd find it so funny that he'd never live it down. Either way, he didn't intend to find out.

There was a soft clink as his whiskey was placed before him. Laguna lifted his own glass and took a seat on a barstool, twirling to face Squall.

"So, what d'ya think?"

The pianist hit the final cord and a wave of applause swept through the room. The man took a bow and several of the stage-crew rushed forward to move the piano back from the front. Realising that there was a short intermission, people flitted towards the bar and bathrooms and yet, the pleasant atmosphere from before was never broken. It was more like a group of friends playing for each other than anything else.

"It's the kind of place that Rinoa would appreciate more than me, but it's nice."

"Maybe I should have brought Rinoa instead."

"Maybe you should have, but you'd have to put up with her cravings all night."

Laguna's eyes widened. "She's still craving?"

Squall shrugged. "The doctor said it wasn't at all unusual, but she's craving different things now." That and different smells – that had been an unexpected twist.

He turned, picking up his drink and leaning against the bar, ignoring Laguna's grin.

"She must have you running out to get things at all hours of the night."

"Not really, she always seems to have what she wants."

"Handy."

Squall suspected it was less 'handy' and more magical. He wasn't entirely sure how Rinoa was using her sorceress powers to acquire substances to satisfy her cravings, but he was certain that that's what was happening. Unless someone could explain how, in the space of a couple of hours during the dead of night, their cupboards managed to fill themselves with apples. Of course, now it wasn't apples, though he wished it was. He loved Rinoa with all his heart, but he just couldn't watch her eat melted vanilla ice cream poured over oven chips. Oh, and they HAD to be oven chips, not fried or microwaved, oven cooked.

Looking back at Laguna, he realised that the other man had drifted off into a world of his own, watching the people around the stage. "It's changed a lot."

"The bar?"

"What? Oh, no, Esthar. It's changed a lot since Adel was ruler. I mean, the buildings and streets are the same, but the people are completely different. I can't believe I've been president for twenty years."

"Neither can I."

Laguna grinned across at him. "I thought you were going to give me more credit." He took a sip from his drink, still with that infernal smile on his face. "Though, to be fair, Esthar isn't the most democratic country; it's had too many dictators and sorceresses for that. Someone tends to come to power and stays there until they lose it and someone else takes it from them. They claim that's why their science and technology is so good, because they have stable rulers. I think they're just trying to justify the past and political system." He turned to look back at the stage. "I never thought I'd be here for so long. Two months, I told Elle, not two decades. I just kinda became president."

"You have to be the only world leader that just happened to fall into the job."

"Says you, Mr. Commander."

"I know exactly how I got this job," Squall countered. "It was shoved on me against my will. I didn't just wake up one morning and realised that I was commander." To this day, he couldn't understand why Cid had made the decision he did. Why him?

"We make quite the pair. I somehow became the president of one of the two most powerful nations in the world, and you became the commander of the most influential paramilitary organisation because you happened to be in the right place at the right time to take a rogue mission. Makes me wonder what your kids are going to do."

Squall's reply was deadpan. "With the way things are going, they'll probably get into space exploration, crash on a distant planet and discover a new species that declare them their ruler."

"Squall, is that a joke?"

No, he was being completely serious, he sarcastically thought. The SeeD gave the other man a level look as the lights dimmed again and people settled down. A violinist stepped onto stage. Standing before the microphone, she spoke a few words about her first piece.

"You know," Laguna leaned towards him, speaking quietly, "I met someone in a bar like this…"

(&)

…It turned out that his first mistake was bumping into the large man, spilling his beer all down the man's front. The second had been mistaking the man's sister for a guy. The third, and last, was trying to explain why neither of these were his fault.

As the bulky siblings and their friends advanced on him, Laguna wondered how he managed to always find himself in these kinds of situations — the kind of situations that left him with grave injuries. Maybe fate truly did hate him or maybe something really good was going to happen to him later in his life and karma needed to balance things out first.

Kiros's voice appeared in his head. 'It's your own fault. If you thought about what you were about to do and say, then you wouldn't find yourself in these situations.'

'Yeah,' Laguna mentally retorted, 'and maybe this wouldn't happen if you hadn't gone and gotten yourself lost.'

The voice remained quiet. However, that still left him with the current, very physical problem. A fist shot out towards him and Laguna watched as it came towards him. His luck really sucked.

But fate seemed to be smiling down on him and, for once, it wasn't the sadistic kind of smile. There was a hand on his upper arm that pulled him out of harm's way. The bulky man, who he mentally called Mister Ugly, stumbled and turned to glare at them.

"What!" was all Mr. Ugly could manage.

"I think our friend here has learnt a valuable lesson." a new voice spoke, his rescuer. The hand moved from his arm to pat him on the shoulder. "I'm sure he's very sorry, so why don't we let the matter lie."

Laguna turned towards the new man. He looked rather out of place in the miners' bar. His brown hair was fairly short; his fringe occasionally falling into his eyes while a thin layer of stubble lined his jaw. He was neither attractive nor ugly. He was leanly built, though not weedy. Not a tall man by any count, but he couldn't be considered short either. Overall, he was an entirely unremarkable-looking man. That was, if it wasn't for his clothes.

A long brown, weather-worn coat was a sharp contrast to his rather untidy smart clothes underneath. A dark blue waist coat was unbuttoned, revealing the sky blue shirt that was tucked in, but the buttons near the collar were undone. He would have looked like a business man, coming to a local bar in order to have a drink after a hard day's work — or he would have if his tailored trousers hadn't been mud splattered and worn at the hem.

He looked more like a messy school boy, but if Laguna looked closely, he could see mended tears in the shirt where the material had been ripped by an object more dangerous than a branch or overly excited child. It was strangely set off by the soft, almost gentle look in the other man's eyes, which were almost as travel-worn as the rest of his face. Maybe it was this that made him seem older than he was, for Laguna knew that this new man had to be younger than him by several years and yet, he seemed so much older than Laguna.

He had to be a traveller. However, why would a traveller, apparently of rather rough terrain, wear a three-piece suit? But then, why was the Trabian miners' bar they were currently in, a jazz bar? Did Trabian miners have a particularly strongly liking for jazz? If so, they could have fooled Laguna.

Mr. Ugly, on the other hand, seemed to have other matters on his mind. "This is none of your business, so stay out of it."

"Ah, well you see, I can't do that. I may not be keen on violence as a solution to all of life's little problems, but," and he pushed back his long coat to rest his hand on the handle of a gunblade, "I have a moral objection to six-to-one fights."

The room went very quiet. The stranger's index finger tapped against the handle of his weapon, while Mr. Ugly tried to figure out if it worth the risk. The tense silence stretched on, making Laguna wonder if he should start looking for cover. He was beginning to really wish that he hadn't left his gun in his room when the bulky man spun round and marched out of the bar, taking his friends and sister with him. With the potentially-exciting spectacle gone, people returned to their own business and the pianist in the corner started playing again.

"Are you alright?"

Laguna turned to his saviour. "Yeah, thanks for that. You really saved my neck back there."

"You're welcome. The local men in some of these Trabian towns are a little sensitive. They're bulky and loud, but at least they tend to know when to back down." The man gave him a curious look. "You're not from around here are you?"

"Noooo. Just stopping through and looking for some information."

"I see. What kind of information? I'm not from these parts, but there's a chance I could help you."

That was unexpected; he didn't think he'd find another visitor in this backwater town. "Where are you from then?"

"Here and there. I'm based in Centra at the moment, but I have to travel a great deal to 'bring home the bacon' in a manner of speaking. My wife stays at home to look after the children."

"A family man."

"Yes and no."

"Yes and no?"

"They're not our kids, we just care for them."

Laguna felt instant approval for this man. Anyone who travelled the world to support his wife and children, who weren't even his, couldn't be disapproved of.

He grinned across at his new companion. "That's perfect. I'm looking for some people. One was kidnapped, a little girl, and the other two, erm, I lost them."

The man raised an eyebrow. "You lost them?"

Laguna rumbled the back of his neck. "Yeah, it's a long story. We were running from this huge…let's just cut the story short and say I ended up battered and bruised and had to be nursed to health in Shumi Village. Which, by coincidence, is pretty much how I met the little girl and my wife in Winhill." Laguna resisted the urge to grin. He loved saying that; his wife.

Rather than seeming concerned or worried at Laguna's 'accident prone' tendencies, the other man just looked amused. "These kinds of things happen to you a lot?"

"Yeah, I guess it does."

"I hope you look both ways before crossing the road."

Laguna paused, trying to figure out if this man was insulting him or merely joking around. The guy looked as happy as ever and didn't seem to be mocking him. However, the man merely continued, pulling out a chair from a nearby table to sit down. "Tell me about this girl you're looking for."

Laguna took a seat opposite him, grinning. "Her name's Ellone. She four and the cutest girl you'll ever meet."

"What happened to her?"

"Esthar. Did you know they're looking for a girl to succeed Adel. Apparently Elle was a good candidate because they took her while I was away. I set off to look for her with my two friends, but it's been seven months now and we're no closer to finding her. I have no idea how to get into Esthar or if she's still with them. She may have escaped since she can be slippery when she wants to and I've heard rumours that soldiers from Esthar, looking for successors, often don't make it home."

"So, you're trying to gather information while looking for your friends."

"Pretty much, but I think I may know where to find my friends."

"I'm afraid I can't help you much with getting into Esthar, but if you think she may have escaped, have you tried looking in orphanages?"

Laguna felt a shudder run through him. His Ellone, in an orphanage? He couldn't think about it. She didn't belong there; she belonged at home with her loving Uncle Laguna and Raine.

"You think she may be in one? Won't she be sent home when they find out she has a family?"

"Perhaps, but I know of an orphanage that picks up children from all over the world, even Esthar. I've never thought to ask how they come to be there, but the Matron may have an idea of how you can enter the country. I'm on my way there tomorrow, I'll be happy to take you along."

Was it worth it? Ellone had been missing for over seven months now and it was driving him crazy. He was supposed to have found her by now and returned home. Instead, he was still running round like a crazy man trying to find his invisible cat. As much as he hated to admit it, he was no closer to bringing his little girl home than he was at the beginning of his journey. He was just stumbling around, waiting for an answer to drop on top on him. So could he really afford to turn down the first possible lead he'd had for weeks? He needed to reunite with Kiros and Ward, but he couldn't ignore a possible end to his troubles without even thinking about it.

"Where is this orphanage?"

"Centra."

(&)

Laguna stared out of the van window as the dull scenery of Centra passed them by. He longed to see a tree, or even a bush, anything but this dull barren wasteland. He looked away from the landscape to turn to his driver. They'd been travelling together for a week now, all the way from that small bar in the middle of nowhere to a van in the middle of nowhere. Not much of a change really – one place was cold, the other hot.

A couple of days ago, his companion had cursed and scooped out his contact lenses. Ever since then, he had donned his small square glasses. It gave him a bizarre look, almost like a gunblade-totting butler. He just looked too respectable to be running round the world wielding such a specialised weapon and working as a jack of all trades.

Above them, the heavens rumbled and the first large drops of rain hit the windscreen, making the sky seem darker than ever.

"Are you sure you won't stay the night?"The driver didn't turn to him as he spoke, keeping his eyes on the rough terrain.

Laguna shook his head. "Nah, if this matron knows nothing then it'd be better if I moved on as soon as I can. I'll take the van back to the town and be on my way. I'll help you unload the stuff from the back first. That's one big shopping trip you did there."

The driver chuckled. "The only other settlement on the island, beside the orphanage, is the one we just left. They're supposed to the last remnants of the people that lived here before the Lunar Cry, or that's what they claim anyway. However, as it's a day's journey by car, it's hard to get supplies from A to B, so whenever I swing by, I volunteer to pick up a load. The orphanage is growing quickly; war makes a lot of children parentless and more local orphanages fill up quickly. Ah, here we are."

Laguna looked back out of the front window to see a large building looming before them. Though 'loom' was perhaps not the right word, though he had expected it to be. When 'orphanage' was used, he'd imagined a large grey, depressing building that felt more like prison than a home. He thought a flash of lightning would illuminate the scene: broken windows in a dark house, whose huge rusty gates were bolted shut to keep the miserable children inside as they worked on their sweatshop products in a concrete courtyard.

While the building was large and grey, vines crawled up the walls, adding a pleasant amount to green to the house and a picturesque feel to the place. There was no concrete playground, but rather a large green space - a welcome change from the brown he'd seen all day - and what appeared to be a walled garden. It was nice, like a country house of a wealthy gentleman.

The car came to a halt near the entrance of the building and the driver peered up at the sky thoughtfully.

"I think it would be best to take the shopping in later. I don't fancy running back and forth in this rain. It should be over soon enough; rain doesn't tend to stay for long in Centra."

Laguna sagged in relief. "You have no idea how glad I am to hear that."

The other man turned to him, surprising Laguna by fixing him with a deadly serious look.

"There is one condition before you enter the house: you must leave your gun here. You will have no need for it and some of these children have seen enough guns to last them their entire lifetime."

Laguna inclined his head in acceptance. "Of course." How could he refuse?

The smile returned to the other man's face.

"Then let's get inside before we get too wet." With that, he opened the van door, making a dash for the shelter of the building.

When they reached the front door, and cover, rather than knocking, the man reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a single key. A second later, he'd slotted it into the door's lock and twisted it open, the door swinging away from them. Laguna remembered that his first impression, once inside, was how wonderfully warm it was, not just in temperature but in spirit. It was more homely than he'd expected.

He didn't have long to dwell on these thoughts when a small head appeared round a nearby door, the faint sounds of music could be heard from within the room. The young girl grinned up at them.

"Mister Cid! Did you bring more food?"

Beside him Cid sighed, taking off his glasses. "That's the only reason they're happy to see me; I bring food."

The girl giggled and ducked back into the room, announcing their arrival loudly. Cid shook his head, pulling out a dry handkerchief from his shirt pocket to wipe the rain from his glasses. More small heads appeared round the corners of the door, expressions varying from curious to happy. Laguna grinned at them and waved. A little girl blushed and disappeared while a boy returned his grin and wave.

"Cid, welcome back."

A young woman, her long black hair swooped into a rushed ponytail, swept forward to encompass the man in a tight hug. Cid returned the embrace, kissing the crown of her forehead.

"Hello, Edea," he said before whispering something in her ear which made her smile softly.

Pulling away from the young lady, but keeping an arm around her waist, Cid turned to Laguna.

"This is my wife and matron of this orphanage, Edea. Edea, this Laguna."

"Wo- I mean, nice to meet you Edea." The ex-soldier hoped he didn't look too surprised. He shoved his hand forward to shake hers, trying to cover up his slip. This young woman before him now, she was really quite beautiful, even dressed as simply as she was. Of course, she nothing compared to his Raine — no one was. Still, it surprised him that such an ordinary-looking man like Cid could have such a wife; he just didn't get the 'beautiful wife' vibe from him. It didn't help that when he heard his wife was the matron, well, he'd automatically thought that she was an older woman who had managed to catch herself a husband ten years her junior. The fact that this woman was running this place, looking after all these children, when she was still significantly younger than Laguna...it was a remarkable thing.

Edea took his hand and shook it. "A pleasure to meet you."

She didn't seem surprised by his reaction, and ignored the amused, perhaps even smug, gleam in her husband's eyes. While he seemed amused by his reaction, she adopted an air of indifference. Yes, this was a very mature woman for her age. In a way, she reminded him of his own wife. That mature, dependable and strong aura that seemed to radiate from her was so similar to Raine's, but there was something more down to earth about Raine.

Cid continued to talk. "I brought him here so he could speak to you. I think you may be able to help him. However, I need to change my clothes and get a hot drink and then we'll all need to unload the van." There was a collective moan from the children listening to the conversation. "Come on, if we all help out then we'll have the job done in no time."

He strode into the house, telling the children that it was no use hiding — they'd all have to help out.

"So Mr. Laguna, what do you wish to speak to me about…?"

(&)

"…and I believe that you've seen the rest of that conversation."

For a moment, Squall had no idea what Laguna was talking about, and then one of the more fragmented memories that Ellone had shown him appeared in his mind. He had wondered how that fit into everything.

"I didn't know that you'd met Cid."

"I don't know him well. We were just two travellers who happened to cross paths in a snowy bar, who could help one another."

Squall snorted. "It sounds as if he did all the helping."

"Yeah, but it ruins the poetry of the sentence to say it like that."

"If that's the best you can come up with, then you're slipping. It sounds more like the tag line for an appalling teenage romance novel."

Laguna chuckled. "It does, doesn't it? Maybe I should sell the idea and make a bit of money from it."

"Right, because you're clearly desperate for money at the moment." Squall comment dryly. "Your salary is probably more than the entire population of Balamb Town's combined."

"Nah, there's gotta be a few SeeDs living there." Laguna dismissed in a tone that clearly implied that Squall's central point was correct. "My salary's a fraction of Balamb Town with all those SeeDs in there."

"My heart goes out to you."

"So it should, I'm practically on the street."

"My mistake, I thought that huge building we've been staying in belonged to you."

"Nope, it's Kiros' place. He lets me stay there for a small fee."

Squall shook his head, unable to resist the tugging at the corners of his mouth. He finished his second glass of whiskey and placed the glass back on the bar.

"You are a fool and a half sometimes."

Laguna grinned manically across at him. "Sometimes? Squall Leonhart, I do believe that you are warming up to me. Barman…woman," he corrected himself, "another round."

"I'm fine, and I still said you were fool and a half."

"Nonsense, I'm paying. Ah, I may be a fool and a half, but am I a fool and a half full or half empty?"

Squall just stared at him for a moment before he did something unexpected; he burst out laughing. Several heads turned and glared at him. He hadn't meant to do it, he should have just groaned instead, but he couldn't help it. He had been caught off guard with that one. Laguna could not have looked more proud of himself than he did at that moment.

"Hey, I made you laugh. It must have been a better joke than I thought."

"It's not," Squall said, pushing down his laughter, "It's an awful joke."

"I can live with that." The president swooped up his new drink as the barwoman set it down, lifting it up to Squall. "To truly awful jokes."

Squall shook his head again, but picked up his own drink. "To bad jokes. Our lives are filled with enough of them."

End of Shuffle or Boogie

There you go. I hope the length makes up for me disappearing for a while. The flashback part of this was inspired by Cid's line to Squall when he makes SeeD and I thought this would be an interesting route to take with it. That Cid is also a Gunblade master and that's why he's happy to have one join the ranks of SeeD.

So, thanks to everyone who's still reading this fic and an extra big thank you to all those who are still reviewing :D It really brightens my day to see a review in my inbox.