Chapter Twenty-Six: The Final Battle
"Ugh…" Squall grunted as he trudged through the door to his quarters. He made his way over to the dark-brown leather couch and half-sat, half-fell into it before leaning back and pinching the bridge of his nose. "What a day…" He'd barely warmed the cushion beneath him before the doorbell chimed. "Argh, I need a 'people break'," he muttered to himself as he got back up and headed to the door and smacked the comm. button. "Who is it, please?"
"H-Hey, Squall," an anxious voice replied. "It's me; it's Selphie. May I come in?"
Squall felt a combination of comfort and anxiety as he pressed the button to reveal his bouncy-haired friend standing on the other side of the door, shifting her weight from one foot to the other as she fiddled with the charms on a necklace she wore, and Squall found himself trying to remember if he'd ever noticed her wearing jewelry before. He stepped aside, allowing her entry, and she gave him a grateful smile as she entered his quarters; he noticed that she also started fiddling with her necklace more vigorously. "Go ahead and have a seat," he told her as he pressed the button to close the doors. "Can I get you some water or something?"
"Water would be great, thank you," she replied as she settled onto the couch, still messing with her necklace, and something about the motion caused Squall's eyebrow to jump as he headed into the kitchenette.
He came back out with a glass of water and held it out toward his guest. "Here you go."
"Thank you," she said quietly as she released the necklace with a hand to accept the proffered beverage; her other hand managed to obscure the charms from his sight, though.
Squall took his seat in an adjacent chair and studied her as she took a sip of her drink; she seemed upset and nervous and excited, all at once. 'Anxious' would be a better word he realized. "So…what's up?"
Selphie's cheeks flushed as she placed the sweating glass on a coaster on the table before her. "I…talked to Rinoa a little while ago."
"I see," he said, trying to ignore an unsettling feeling in his stomach. "What did you talk about?"
"We, uh…talked about you," she said, unable to meet his gaze.
"I see," he repeated, feeling his cheeks heat up. "Well, why did you talk about…?" He gestured toward her, unable to finish his question. "I'm assuming you came to tell me this for a reason."
Selphie fiddled with the charms briefly before answering. "I…just…wanted to be sure that…she wouldn't hate me for…you know….for liking you."
"I hope everything turned out okay," he offered, grateful that he could ignore his own discomfort by focusing on someone else.
Selphie looked down at the necklace within her hand. "She, um…asked me to give this to you."
"What is it?" he asked, leaning forward as she carefully pulled the chain up over her head and held it out to him. Once it was in his hand, though, his heart fell. "Oh…"
"She told me the story behind those," she said as he stared at the pair of very familiar rings that hung from the silver chain. "How she wanted a copy of your ring so she could feel close to you and got Zell to get it from you so he could make a copy for her."
As Squall stared at the rings in his hand, the memories returned, unbidden…
"That's my favorite ring. You'd better give it back."
"I'm sure it is. It's a cool-looking ring. What's this monster on it anyway?"
"It's not a monster. It's a lion. Lions are known for their great strength and pride."
"Hmm...great strength...pride... Kinda like you, Squall."
"I wish..."
"You know, Zell said he'll make me one exactly like it. Who knows, maybe I can become like a lion, too. That'd be crazy, huh!? I mean, everyone might, y'know, get the wrong idea about us."
"You sound like you want everyone to get the wrong idea."
"No no no no no…"
A drop of water fell into Squall's open palm, nearly splashing the rings held within.
"Squall?" Selphie asked worriedly. "Are you okay?"
"Huh?" Squall blinked out of the memories – seemingly from another life – and quickly drew the back of his free hand over his eyes to dry them. "Sorry… Just…remembering."
"I'm sorry," Selphie said softly, "I didn't mean to make you sad. I don't think Rinoa meant to, either."
"I'm fine," Squall replied, more out of habit than anything. "I don't think either of you meant any harm."
"Please don't lie to me, Squall," Selphie said. "I can tell you're hurting."
Squall sighed, chuckling in spite of himself. "You're right. I'm sorry; I guess I'm still not used to people really caring about me."
She reached over to pat him on the knee, and he looked up to her soft smile. "I don't understand that," she admitted with a giggle, "but please believe me when I say that I care about you."
"I think you've proven that sufficiently," he chuckled again, this time with an awkward grin. "Like I said; it's just taking some getting used to."
They sat quietly for several minutes, Selphie nursing her drink while giving her friend occasional glances and Squall alternating his gaze between her and the rings in his hand.
"Did you hear that Zell's going to be meeting with HM about his spaceship idea?" Squall asked, his eyes still on the rings in his hand as he made them move in circles around each other.
"He is?" Selphie chirped, suddenly perking up. "That's awesome!"
"Yeah, I'm sure he'll get HM's approval," he remarked. "I actually think it'd be kinda cool if he could learn from Esthar's engineers; he talked to me about being the ship's chief of security, but I think he'd like being in charge of…" He waved a wand as he tried to find the right term. "…I dunno, chief engineer or something like that."
"He was pretty excited about the movie with the transforming robots," she giggled in agreement. "He might have a knack for that kind of thing; I wouldn't be surprised at all." She blinked a couple of times as her expression became thoughtful. "Well, maybe a little surprised, but it would be a good kind of 'surprised'."
Squall chuckled lightly but said nothing as he refocused on his hand.
"I'm still blown away by the way he proposed to Miss Sally," Selphie said out-of-the-blue.
"Hm?" Squall grunted, having been pulled from a train of thought regarding the rings he had returned to playing with. "Yeah, he's been a showman for as long as I can remember. Now that I think about it, you've known him almost as long."
"I guess he and Seifer are alike that way, huh?" she mused, her eyes losing focus. "Hey, maybe that's why they didn't get along; they're similar in an annoying way."
Squall burst out into rarely-heard laughter, causing her to giggle along with him. "You could be right," he replied as the laughter subsided. "I'd never thought of that, but…yeah."
"Yeah," she murmured, her eyes crinkling with her smile. Her smile faded, however, as she noticed the time. "I'd better get going; I need to make sure my stuff's ready for tomorrow."
"All right." Squall got to his feet and followed her over to the door. He reached out to press the 'open' button but paused at the sight of the rings in his hand. "Hey, uh…Selphie?"
"Yeah?" She turned bright eyes to his face before tracking his gaze to the palm of his hand. "What's up?"
He sighed as he stared at the rings, then sighed again as he took the chain and, finding the clasp, unhooked it and allowed the rings to drop freely into his hand. "Are you sure you want to be with me?"
Her breath caught in her throat as she realized what he was likely implying. "Y-Yeah; I r-really do."
As he looked into his friend's glistening eyes, he allowed himself to remember their first meeting on the second floor of Balamb Garden, their shared experiences during the Field Exam, as well as the Timber missions and all the way up to their battle with Ultimecia. Even though it hadn't been very long, he felt as though they'd somehow created a bond, starting with their shared embrace in Trabia Garden's cemetery. Even though things had gone so quickly, it seemed like they'd been working on their relationship for a long time. Maybe it's not how long but how intensely we've progressed. His eyebrow furrowed slightly at the thought.
"S-Squall…?"
He blinked out of his reverie, then sighed before reaching down to take hold of her right hand. "Then…I want you to have this." He raised her hand until her fingers were pointed toward him, and tenderly slid the duplicate ring onto her third finger.
"W-Wait, Squall…" she shuddered, though she didn't try to pull her hand away. "A-Are you s-sure about this?"
He briefly glanced away before returning his gaze to hers. "I…honestly don't know how good I'll be for you, but I think I'm starting to understand how…how we complement each other."
He released her hand, and she drew it to her chest to clasp it with her other one as the tears started to flow. "Thank you, Squall; thank you so much."
"Don't thank me yet," he snorted. "Like I said; I don't know how good I'll be for you. We're pretty different… You know, with you being the social butterfly and me being more of a wallflower or whatever it's called…"
She smiled through her tears as she reached out to rest a hand on his face, and was grateful when he let her. "Squall, we're not going to be able to work out all of the details right now; I don't think that's how relationships work. But I do think that over time we can learn how to be with each other. That's what I want. I think we complement each other. I would rather try it and have it not work out than to not try and spend the rest of my life wondering if it could have worked."
He didn't know how to respond, so he simply rested a hand over hers and listened.
"We already have a… What's it called…? Oh! Right! A shared history. I mean, that's how I know we complement each other, right?"
"Makes sense," he replied, chuckling lightly at her confidence.
"So I want to give us a try, 'k?" she giggled, causing the tears to trickle down her cheeks.
He sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time as he examined her bright smile, tears and all. "'K," he finally replied. "Sorry to keep you waiting."
"It's okay!" she chirped, then hopped onto her tiptoes to give him a peck on the cheek. "See you later?"
Squall reached up to touch the cheek she'd kissed, his expression turning serious.
"Squall?" Selphie asked worriedly. "Was that okay? I mean, it was kinda impulsive, so I'm sorry if-EEP!"
What caused her to cut herself off with a gasp was Squall cupping her face in his hands and leaning down to place a tender kiss on her forehead, and her eyes closed as she felt a warmth start to spread throughout her body, starting where his lips still touched her from her forehead down through her neck, through her torso and arms and, finally, to her knees, which promptly buckled. "Whoa!" Squall exclaimed, abruptly breaking the kiss to catch her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," she squeaked, fanning herself. "That…surprised me… But it was awesome."
"Oh. Well…good," Squall replied. He wasn't sure what else to say, so he reached out and pressed the button to open the door to his quarters. "Um…see you later, then?"
"Sure," she said with a light giggle. She started out the door but stopped halfway and looked over her shoulder at him. "Are… Are you free for dinner tonight? At the cafeteria? Or, wherever?"
The way her eyes glistened as she looked up at him from under her eyelashes made the young commander's heart skip a beat. "S-Sure," he managed. "The cafeteria at six would be great, if you're okay with it."
"See you then." With a bright smile and a soft giggle she left his quarters, and as he watched her leave he saw her skip down the hall, eventually disappearing around a corner.
With a heavy sigh, Squall Leonhart closed the door to his quarters, then turned and leaned against it, feeling the weight of his decision. He slid down the door until his butt hit the floor, then started to panic as he realized that he'd lost track of his ring. A quick search of his pockets found it resting snugly in a jacket pocket, and he realized that he must have dropped it in there without thinking just before kissing his dear friend. He held the ring up before his eyes, studying the image of Griever etched into its surface before holding up his right hand to slowly and deliberately slide the ring onto his third finger.