Daystar - 3 - Alone

"Well, I was going to explain the mission, but look at them. Mostly everyone is asleep. I don't think we should wake them up. Besides if we told them now, they'd still be groggy, and probably won't even remember it in the morning. When we get to the town, we'll send them to a hotel, and start out fresh in the morning."

Squall leaned forward, and rested his chin on the seat in front of him. The older SeeDs in charge of watching over everyone didn't know that he was still awake. Of course they couldn't see him in the back of the bus. He lowered his eyes at the two girls sleeping in front of him.

One of them had brownish black hair, and was leaning her head against her partner's. She looked just like Rinoa. Oh, how Squall wanted to see her. She'd be on this mission with him. They probably wouldn't be asleep though. She'd be talking his head off, about the most meaningless, yet important things.

He took a deep breath, and sat back into the chair. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see that Nova was fast asleep. Her leather tote bag lay between them. It looked so interesting. He was tempted to reach out, and silently go through it. What was inside of it? Why did she hold it so tightly in public, but so free around him? His fingers were rested on the seat, about two inches from the bag. Placing his hand on top of it, he pulled it away quickly, when the bus came to a sudden halt.

-

"Ahem. Attention SeeDs, we have reached our destination. You will be led to a hotel room, 4 to a room. In the morning, we'll meet in the front of the hotel at exactly 9:30 a.m."

A young brunette with thick glasses stood up from her seat.

"Excuse me. There are usually only 2 beds in hotel rooms. Are you saying we have to share a bed?" Her voice sounded prissy, and from the looks of her, she did seem a bit stuck up.

The instructor nodded.

"OH YEAH!"

Squall turned his head, and focused his eyes on two males sitting in the middle of the bus. They seemed to like the idea of sharing a bed with the female SeeDs.

The mentor up front started assigning rooms to the group.

Nova awoke, and quickly grabbed her bag. She looked at Squall. He arched his eyebrows at her, and laid back into the chair.

"You four in the back...you'll have room number 7"

-

Squall ignored the three SeeDs he was sharing the room with, and laid on the left side of the bed. He stared up at the ceiling, wishing he didn't accept the mission.

Nova dropped her bag on the mattress with a thud. She unzipped it, and began rummaging through it noisily. Squall covered his ears, but the sound of items hitting each other broke through his fingers.

"Do you mind? Some of us actually want to sleep you know."

She didn't say anything, just continued digging.

"Hey!"

Squall sat up, and grabbed her wrists. She looked up slowly, and gazed into his eyes, as if searching for an explanation on why he was so mean.

"I'm sorry, I just..." Her voice was silent.

Idly, she pulled her hand away from his, and out of the bag. She was holding a small picture frame. Even when she placed it on the nearby nightstand under a lamp, which gave a yellow glow, he couldn't make out a description of the picture.

Squall concluded that it must be a picture of someone she had to leave behind. Maybe someone who left her. He felt bad for grabbing her wrist so violently, but he'd feel weird if he apologized.

He watched her remove her shoes, and huddle up on the edge of the bed, staring at the frame. She left a lot of room for him to toss and turn. The other roommates fell asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. It did take Squall awhile to drift off, but he eventually did. The only one in the room that was awake, was Nova, who waited until everyone was sleeping, before she silently cried.