Adventure at Obel Lake

Disclaimers: don't own em, I'm just a spoony bard.

I wanted to make it special for her. It was our one year anniversary and I knew somehow I had to make it up to her, all the times she's said 'I love you' and I simply responded with 'whatever…' It's not that I'm incapable of showing me emotions, I'm just not very good at it. I was orphaned at a very early age and then when I was six I was sent to Garden. But that was all behind me now, or at least it was supposed to be. A year ago I didn't have any friends. Now I have four of the best friends in the world, and a girlfriend I would go to the ends of the world for. And tonight I was going to do it. I was prepared to shed my skin for at last one night and be as romantic as possible. I want to be able to tell her that I wasn't to live forever as long as she is in my arms.


I made myself pull out of my thoughts as I told Cid where I was going tonight. And since he had put me in charge of the Garden I had given him strict orders that no one was to know where I was at and I would be out of contact for awhile. Tonight, and maybe tomorrow.
"So you're finally taking Rinoa out? Good, she deserves to have some time alone with you." He said chuckling. I don't know what he was thinking, but I'm sure it wasn't quite what I was. He was probably thinking along the lines of 'It's been one year huh? Time to nail her.' Okay, not quite in those terms. I think I've been around Irvine too much. What I had in mind was a nice quiet picnic dinner in the sunset, a bottle of red wine, I had thrown a tent and a couple of sleeping bas in the Ragnarok just in case Rinoa wanted to sat y out all night and watch the stars. Maybe see how many we could count. You know the romantic stuff that girls live for. Guys too, we just won't admit it.
"Obel Lake? Used to go there with Edea when we were younger." I waved him off so I wouldn't have to hear about his younger days when he was a chain smoking redneck.
"Look, Cid, I really gotta go. Rinoa's going to be waiting for me."
I walked out of the office, the office he'd told me would one day be mine. Scary thought. I met Rinoa in the parking lot. She was waiting for me with a basket in one arm even though I told her not to worry about anything. Quistis had been nice enough to offer her services as a dog sitter so we wouldn't have to take Angelo with us, thank Hyne.
"Ready?" She asked me. She was in a cheerful mood, I don't blame her. I kinda felt like walking on air myself.
"Yeah, what's in the basket? I told you I'd take care of everything."
"It's a surprise." She said with a smile. We boarded the bird and took off towards the lake. It was nearly evening and we got there in a short time. I set up the picnic while Rinoa wet off to look for berries or something. When se came back she had her duster in her arms like a sack and it was full of wild strawberries.
We sat and watched the sun set while we ate our dinner in silence. I had packed some steaks and we cooked them over the fire. We even had our wine and baked potatoes. And for Dessert? Cheesecake with wild strawberries on top. That was Rinoa's basket. After dinner I pulled her into my arms and we watched the sun set together.
"Time for another surprise" Rinoa said. She walked over to the Ragnarok and pulled out the tent. I set it up for her and she insisted that we leave the rain fly off so we could see the stars.
"Go wait for me in the tent. I'll be in there in a minute."
So I went to the tent and lay down. I closed my eyes for a second to soak in the feeling of being so relaxed. I hard Rinoa unzip the tent and I opened my eyes. She was wearing this sexy little pj set. It was baby doll style with blue laced edges. She looked at me shyly and I smiled. That was one thing I hadn't brought, my pj's. Not that I owned any, I usually just slept in my boxers anyway.
"I didn't bring pajamas." I told her.
"You're not going to wear your clothes to bed, are you?" she asked.
Well, either that, or my boxer." I smiled a little, thinking about witch ones I was wearing today. They had little green frogs all over them.
"Go ahead, I don't mind." She looked out the roof of the tent as I sat up. I didn't bother leaving the tent because she was going to see what I was wearing anyway. I pulled off my jacket and boots. I am so glad that unlike Zell, my feet don't stink. Baby powder does wonders. I pulled off my socks next. Rinoa too, was barefoot. I had to stand up the best I could to take off my pants though. And while I was attempting to do that, I fell over.
Rinoa burst out giggling at me and as soon as I had gotten them off, I threw them at her.
"You know, it's too bad we didn't think to bring our swim suits with us. We could have gone swimming." She wistfully looked out the door to the lake. The water looked cool and inviting. Almost like it was beckoning for us to come try it out. I had a spontaneous idea. One that I wasn't sure if Rinoa would go for. I grinned at the thought and puled off my T-shirt. Then I dodged past her and ran over to the water's edge. I looked back at her and gave her a wicked grin before dropping my boxers and jumping in.
As I surfaced I loose over to Rinoa, who was still sitting in the tent. She had a look of total disbelief on her face and I grinned at her again. She got up, okay, sorta crawled out of the tent, walked over to the edge of the water and looked at the pile that my boxers had made on the ground.
"Squall, have you gone nuts?" She gently pushed at my Froggy boxers with one bare foot.
"No.' I replied. "You should come in. The water's great, just right."
"Squall Leonheart, are you trying to seduce me?" she said playfully, putting her hands on her hips.
I wiggled my eyebrows at her. "Is it working?"
She leaned over and smacked my arm lightly.
"What was that for?" I pretended to pout.
"You know I didn't bring a suit, I said so not five minutes ago!"
"So take off your pj's and jump in. I won't look, I promise."
"Promise you won't look my behind!"
I cocked my head at her and got as close as I could while still keeping my lower half in the water. "And what a cute behind it is!"
She got this indignant look on her face and folded her arms across her chest. "I am not going skinny dipping." She said it with such authority that I almost burst out laughing.
"Call it a bath then." I said. "Hey, I did it and it didn't kill me."
"I have never seen you do something so… not you before."
"Well, you always tell me I should be more spontaneities. See I listen to you and what happens? I get yelled at for taking off my clothes." I smiled at her and rested my arms across the bank. "You don't have to come in if you don't want to." I told her. "You can always stay on your nice dry land and when we get back you can tell Selphie and Quistis that you passed up the opportunity to get naked with me. Especially that you passed up skinny-dipping."
"It's not that I don't want to come in. it's just…"
"Just that what? Are you afraid of something?' I asked, hoping that if she said yes that it wasn't me.
"Not really. I'm not afraid of anything in that lake. I just… I've never been skinny-dipping before." She looked down at the ground like it was something to be ashamed of.
"Rinoa" I lifted myself out of the water a little bit so I could be eye to eye with her crouching figure. "This is my first time skinny-dipping too."
She smiled and I almost thought for a moment that she was gong to stay up on shore. But she turned her back to me and let myself slide back into the water. If she really didn't want to come in that was okay with me. I just hope she knew that. I started to swim out deeper and I heard a splash. A couple seconds later Rinoa surfaced next to me.
"Well, I suppose if you can go skinny-dipping then I can too!" She smiled at me and playfully pushed my head under water. I wasn't expecting it and as soon as I went under I grabbed the first thing I could get my hands on.
Whatever it was, was soft, round, and fit into the palm of my hand.
I surfaced quickly and let go of the soft object in my hands. Rinoa smacked my hand and I looked at her funny.
"Was that…?" I didn't finish the question.
"Yes!" she turned a cute shade of red.
I felt a little embarrassed. I really should watch where my hands are going. "I'm sorry Rinoa. C'mere." I held my arms out to her and she walked forward and wrapped her arms around me, accepting my apology. And as soon as she did, we both froze. I don't know if it was because it was the first time we'd done something like this, but I think she felt the same electrical jolt when we touched. But whatever it was, it wasn't a bad thing.
I held her there and looked deep into her eyes. She didn't look away, that surprised me a little. I bent my head down and kissed her. Slowly, like the time I kissed her out on the balcony a year ago. She melted into my arms and I held her close as our bare bodies touched together underneath the water. I let her go after that. Afraid I would take it farther than that if I kept her in my arms. She splashed me playfully and we swam around for a couple of hours. Until we were both ready to fall asleep. We climbed out of the water then, both realizing we were still nude. I blushed when she stood there for a moment and looked at me. I wasn't quite sure how to take it. But I was looking too. She was absolutely beautiful. Every curve of her body was accented by the full moon above us. When she realized I was staring to, she blushed and looked away.
I bent down and picked up my boxers. I was still slightly damp, but I pulled them on anyway. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Rinoa pulling her pj's on too.
The night air was chilly and we got back to the tent as fast as we could. I noticed then that Rinoa had only gotten one of the sleeping bags out of the Ragnarok.
"Isn't there supposed to be two of these?" I asked her with my teeth chattering.
"Is there? I only saw one. But you can go get the other one if you want. Or we can share one. It'll be warmer that way." She unzipped the bag and climbed in. I contemplated going after the other bag, but I was cold, it was dark out, and she looked so inviting in that bag.
"To hell with the other bag, scoot over!" I said and climbed in with her. Her skin was warm and I cuddled against her to absorb her body heat.
"Squall! You're hogging the sleeping bag!" She complained as I wrapped the warmth around me.
"I'm cold!" I told her. She wrapped her arms around me then and I held her close. I looked up at he stars and as one of them flew across the sky Rinoa looked over to me and pointed up. What the heck is it that she knows about he sky that I don't? That question has been bugging me since the SeeD inauguration dance. I leaned in and kissed her then. It was a perfect night I thought to myself as I closed my eyes.



I woke up some time in the middle of the night with Rinoa's naked body pressed up against me. Wait a sec here, naked? I reached down into the bag to make sure I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't. She was really naked. Of all things, Rinoa naked in my arms. How'd this happen?
"Rin?" I whispered in the dark.
"Squall, you woke up. I was wondering when you were gonna do that. I never got to give you my surprise."
"Surprise?" I asked. I think my mind was starting to go where Irvine's does when he thinks bout sex, because the only thing that even comprehended in my mind was the fact that she was naked. Stupid Squall. Get mind out of bedroom. Not working.
"My surprise. You know, the one I was gonna give you before you decided to go skinny-dipping?"
"Oh yeah. Why are you naked?"
"You just now noticed?"
"No." Couldn't she tell? Was I really that… nevermind. Whatever…
She took one of my hands and kissed the tips of my fingers lightly. I closed my eyes so she wouldn't see the reaction it was giving me. Her nude body, the brush of her lips against my fingers and… oh dear Hyne. That was my neck. She is kissing my neck. My hands involuntarily splayed out over her back and I reached around to touch the breast I had accidentally grabbed earlier. She shifted against me and I rolled over to lie on top of her. That's when I realized that not only was she naked, but she had somehow managed to get my boxers off me while I was sleeping. I whispered against her ear.
"Are you… sure?"
"Squall, yes." She said it softly and I kissed her. Just one of those sweet romantic ones. And I let my instincts take it form there.
I wanted it to be perfect for her. I knew tat girls dreamed of fireplaces and bearskin rugs, and passion. So I let everything go. All the emotion I was holding in, I gave it to her in physical form of love. And when it was over I didn't just go to sleep like I've heard some guys do, I held her in my arms and let her fall asleep against my chest. I watched her until I couldn't stay awake any longer.


I woke up the next morning to find her lying on my chest, watching me sleep.
"Rinoa…" I didn't know how to tell her that she was the only one I'd ever wanted like this, the only one I wanted to make love to one night an wake up in her arms in the morning. But the words failed me, just like they always do. But I didn't have to say anything this time, she already knew. By some unfathomable female way, she knew. And as we packed up our stuff into the Ragnarok and boarded the bird, I took her into my arms and kissed her. Our adventure at Obel Lake was done for now…



Author's Notes:
Aww... how cute,I just love it when Squall does stuff that he shouldn't. I wanna go skinny-dipping too...any takers?