Her hair was whitened and her skin wrinkled by age, but her eyes were still as beautiful as ever, he thought, as he watched her standing in the garden, slightly windswept as she tried to rescue the few white flowers that would grow in this season. They'd been a gift, he remembered, from his late father, Laguna Loire. Poor old man, had lost his sight and his mind in his old age, but he'd never stopped smiling. It didn't hurt to think about him anymore, and all the other people that they'd lost over the years. He knew they were in a better place now.

He realized that he himself wasn't young anymore, and it wouldn't be long before he turned that corner and left the world behind. It saddened him a bit. He loved his life here, in this little house in Winhill, with the love of his life always by him. He knew it hadn't always been this way. He remembered clearly the times when he'd shunned other people's company, when he'd thought he needed no one but himself. It'd been so hard then…everything had been so hectic, and he'd been rushing around, full of the excitement of the moment. He knew he couldn't do that anymore.

But he didn't need to. All he needed now was the sun and the scent of the flowers and her smiling face in his line of vision, the happy sound of her voice as she bustled around the house, even if he couldn't really hear what she was saying. Just the sense of effervescent youngness and sweetness she had about her wherever she was, that was enough for him. It was so simple now to see…he didn't need anything else. He sat down in his chair by the fire and kept watching out the window. She wasn't there anymore. He turned and looked around, but she must have gone inside.

            Slowly, he stood up, the pain in his bones causing a thrumming ache in various parts of his body. He sighed, and quietly walked down the hallway, seating himself on the bed in his room. He heard her moving around in the living room, but she sounded busy, so he simply sat and thought. He thought about the time when he'd been young, when he'd almost lost her to the sorceress memorial. He'd been such a fool then! If he hadn't gone and saved her…he bit his lip and sighed. Well, he had, so it didn't matter. All that mattered was that she was all right and here with him. Nothing else in the world was important right now, nothing.

When they'd made that oath by Edea's house, he'd known he would keep it. It was so long ago, but he'd known at that moment that it would be forever. He'd risked his life to save her, and if she'd become a sorceress, he would be her knight, and fight for her no matter what happened. Now he regretted that he didn't have children. He wouldn't be around much longer…and she'd need someone to protect her. He smiled. Not that she wasn't rather good at protecting herself, like the time when she forced Irvine to take her back and save the others. She'd always been so full of sweetness and flames…

The door creaked upon slowly, and she walked in, her dress swishing around her ankles as she moved. She was carrying some kind of blue cloth in her arms. "Squall," she said, her beautiful eyes shining, "Look what I found buried in the closet!" She unrolled the cloth. "It's that old duster I used to wear all the time when we were young. Look, it's got all these holes in it now." She shook her head sighing. "How I loved that thing. I feel like…like maybe I have holes in me, now, now that I've gotten older. Where's it all gone, love? Where've our lives gone? I feel like it was only yesterday that everything was new and beautiful…"

                        He stood up and enfolded her into his arms. "But everything still is beautiful, and I still feel young…because I have you, Rinoa. It's been a beautiful life while it lasted, hasn't it?" And love, he thought, really is all that matters.