As the train entered the tunnel, Rinoa looked away from the window, knowing that the darkness wouldn't relent until the train surfaced, almost the very end of the trip. As simple as the extensive train network made travel, the underground tunnels didn't make for very interesting scenery.
She extended an arm and turned on the light, looking around her small private berth. As the daughter of a general, she'd seen better accommodations, but Rinoa had paid for this with her own money, making it a thousand times more valuable in her own mind. Her father still sent her money so she could board at Garden and stay close to her friends, but she did her best to cover her expenses with the money she made by acting as an academic tutor. Growing up, Rinoa saw her tutors more frequently than her father, so she had a passing idea of how to interact with students.
Searching for distraction, Rinoa thumbed through a few of the magazines she'd bought at the station, but, other than a few items of clothing she liked, nothing caught her interest. Drumming her nails against the window, she tried to think of something to occupy her, but nothing came to mind. Her gaze flickered across the compartment to her overnight bag, where she'd stored her phone. She opened the bag and took it out, settling in for a conversation. As she unfolded the phone, she flipped the overhead light off and punched in Squall's number.
She let the phone ring for some time before hanging up and sighing in exasperation, irritated that Squall didn't answer his phone. She dialed Garden again, this time placing a call to Zell's room. After three rings, Zell answered, sleep still evident in his voice.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Zell!"
"Rinoa?" Zell asked in a hushed voice. "Do you have any idea what time it is?"
"Of course I do," she replied. "Do you?"
"Yeah," he answered, "it's like the crack of noon. Much too early to be conscious."
"What's the matter, Zell, didn't you get to bed on time?"
Before Zell could answer, Rinoa heard Seifer's voice in the background, asking, "Who the hell is it?"
"Never mind," she said, "I'll rephrase: didn't you go to sleep on time? Anyway, I'm trying to track down Squall. I don't suppose you know where he is...?"
"Rinoa, I'll be honest with you: it's too damn early. I don't even know where the hell I am. Naturally you tried his room and his office before even disturbing me, right?"
"Why would he be at his office? Wasn't the field exam yesterday? What kind of work is there for him to do? Shouldn't he be taking the day off or something?"
"Rinoa," Zell said, the strain audible in his voice, "you know Squall. He doesn't take time off to eat unless one of us drags him to the cafeteria."
"I guess you're right. I'll try him at his office. Sorry for waking you up, Zell."
She heard an incomprehensible mumble before the line went dead. Rinoa dialed the number for Squall's office, and he picked up before the first ring finished sounding.
"Squall."
"You know, honey," Rinoa teased, "we're really going to have to work on your phone skills."
"Rinoa!" he said, surprised. "How are you this morning?"
"Fine. Bored. This train ride is so incredibly tedious. What are you doing in your office? Why aren't you out relaxing?"
"Seems that Cid decided that I'm the lucky guy who gets to handle all the paperwork for the month. I haven't even gotten a chance to look at my overnight intelligence reports."
"Poor baby," she smiled. "Do you think you can tear yourself away long enough to meet me at the station? I thought maybe we could have lunch in Balamb."
"Yeah," he said, hesitantly, trying to determine how much work he had ahead of him. "Yeah, that'd be nice."
"Great!" she replied. "I should be there in about a half an hour. I'll see you then!"
"Bye," he said, and she could already hear him picking his papers back up as she started to turn the phone off.
As Rinoa got off the train, she could see Squall across the platform, his proud silhouette unmistakable through the crowd. While everyone else scurried around him, Squall stood still, enough so that he looked like a piece of the scenery. His eyes though, betrayed a degree of restlessness, taking in every detail of the station, scrutinizing every shadow and flicker of movement.
He saw Rinoa and headed toward her, cutting his way through the crowd without making contact with anyone. As he neared, he held out his arms and she hurried to him, burying her face in his chest. He held her like that for a moment, and then they parted, Squall smiling down at her.
"Let's get some food," she said, "I'm starving."
* *
They ate lunch at the cafe of the Balamb Hotel. The hotel overlooked the tranquil blue waters of the Bay of Balamb, which glittered and danced in the sunlight. From the terrace of the cafe, they could look out over the water at the boats and the dolphins that skipped among them. The laughter of the children on the beach mixed in with the sound of the waves.
Squall sat at the table, holding Rinoa's hand. Neither one of them spoke, but he enjoyed her closeness. She watched the children play on the beach, and twirled a strand of her hair around one finger. From observation, Squall understood that something pressing occupied her thoughts. Rinoa, he knew, would speak her mind when she felt ready, and so he waited for her to start the conversation.
"Squall?" she asked, almost murmuring when she spoke.
"Yes?"
"How did the field exam go yesterday?"
"Well," he replied. "How was your visit with your father?"
"The usual. He called me home just to give me a lecture."
"Which one?" Squall asked.
"He feels," she answered, "that my dating you compromises his position in the military." She lowered her voice, imitating General Carraway's authoritarian tone. "'It is not appropriate for the daughter of a general -- a general -- of the Galbadian army to fraternize regularly with a mercenary group such as SeeD. You need to distance yourself from Garden entirely, or you could be jeopardizing my career.'"
"I see," Squall said, smiling. "That always was one of my favorite lectures."
Rinoa's face fell. "I wish it had stopped there. We wound up arguing, late into the night, like we always do, and I thought I was just about to make some progress when the phone rang."
"What's so bad about that?"
"If there's one thing you should know as a commanding officer, Squall, it's that when the phone rings at odd hours, it is never a good sign."
Squall considered this and then nodded his consent.
"Anyway, it seems that last night there was, of all things, a coup."
"What?" Squall sat bolt upright in his chair, wishing now that he'd read the overnight reports on the way to the train station.
"Yep. The President authorized a secret mission of some kind, and it all backfired yesterday. This group of generals got together and decided that he'd wasted enough of the military's resources, so they toppled his administration. Right now, he and all the members of his family are in prison awaiting trial. So anyway, the General goes off to help quell the civil unrest, stabilize the new regime, declare martial law, and he places me under house arrest! 'You make far too attractive a hostage, Rinoa, so I can't have you walking around.'"
"Did he tell you any more details?"
"No," she said. "He just locked me in my room, like always, posted some guards, and left the house."
"Well, Rinoa, maybe he did the right thing. I mean, if the situation exploded, there could have been rioting and all sorts of mayhem. I'm sure he just wanted to keep you safe."
"I know him better than that, Squall. I was born to this life, remember? My whole life, I've been a symbol; I've been like the poster child for all the families that the Galbadian army protects. If something happened to me, my father would lose all that, so he locked me up, away from harm. He's been doing it my whole damn life."
Rinoa's hostility towards her father increased as she spoke. Her voice quivered as her throat constricted. She felt herself shake as a flush of red climbed up her face. She found herself clutching a cloth napkin and twisting it into knots.
Squall walked over to her and held her close, the sound of her sobs muted against his body. He didn't offer any soothing words, knowing that she needed time to release her frustrations. As her tears subsided, she looked up, her face puffy from crying. Helping her rise, Squall put one arm around her for support, using the other to put some money on the table.
His arm still around her, for comfort more than support, they left the hotel, walking up the small hill that led to Balamb's main road. Rinoa stopped and turned her head to ask Squall a question when she noticed that he, too, had stopped walking and started knocking on one of the doors that lined the street.
"How did you...?" she asked.
"I just knew," he shrugged.
The curtain of the nearby window rustled, as somebody glanced out to the street. Then, the door flew open, and Squall and Rinoa found themselves facing a large, cheery woman.
"Squall!" she cried out, pinching his cheeks and making him wince. "Rinoa! How nice to see you! Won't you come in? Can I get you something to eat? What are they feeding you at Garden? I hope that my poor Zell isn't wasting away like this."
"Hi Ma Dincht," they both answered in unison, greeting Zell's adoptive mother with hugs.
"Actually," Squall said, as Ma Dincht pushed them into her living room, "we stopped by to see if Rinoa could use your bathroom."
Ma Dincht turned and looked at Rinoa, seeing the telltale signs of crying in the girl's red eyes and smeared makeup. "Oh, you poor dear," she said, crushing Rinoa to her again. Then, over Rinoa's shoulder, she glared at Squall. "What did you do to her? Have you two been fighting? So help me, Squall..."
Rinoa choked back a laugh and tried to extricate herself from her would-be guardian. "It's nothing like that, Ma. I just had a fight with my father last night, and when I was telling Squall about it, I got a little upset."
"Of course you did," Ma returned. "You know where the bathroom is. Take all the time you need, dear. If you want, you can lie down on Zell's bed for a while and collect your thoughts. Just don't tell him you went in his room."
Rinoa shouldered her small overnight bag and went off to recuperate; Ma Dincht grabbed Squall by the arm and pulled him into what Seifer called her "lair" -- the kitchen. The kitchen in the Dincht house had odd properties. No matter how many people she'd already squeezed into the room, Ma could always fit another person around the table. Many holidays passed where Ma Dincht played host to all of her "children," Zell's friends. In fact, Squall didn't think he'd ever entered the kitchen without seeing at least three separate dishes cooking.
Ma sat Squall down and started interrogating him about life at Garden. Most of her questions, centered around Zell: whether or not he maintained a balanced diet, cleaned his room, made his bed, bathed regularly, all things Squall preferred not to consider. As he did his best to stumble through the conversation, though, all he his mind kept wandering back to the news from Galbadia.
* *
Rinoa stretched out on Zell's bed and took a few deep, calming breaths before going to the bathroom to reapply her makeup. Afterwards, she didn't look as put together as she had in the morning, but she at least felt like she could face the world.
She crept downstairs and headed for the kitchen, knowing that, by now, Squall would be ready for a rescue. As much as he liked Ma, Squall felt uncomfortable in any situation requiring small talk. He preferred listening to the conversation and having the option of contributing, rather than the burden of carrying the discussion.
Sure enough, when she entered the kitchen, Squall's eyes lit upon Rinoa as his savior. Ma Dincht turned to face Rinoa and smiled, saying, "Do you feel better, dear?"
Rinoa nodded and replied, "Yes, thank you. I hate to be rude, Ma Dincht, but we've really got to be getting back."
"I understand. You kids are always so busy. But you're not leaving without taking some of my cookies with you."
Of course, it didn't stop with cookies. In short order, she provisioned Squall and Rinoa with enough of her home-cooked desserts to feed a squadron for several weeks -- assuming the squadron didn't include the voracious Zell, of course. Laden with food and charged with the sacred mission of exhorting Zell to call home, Squall and Rinoa took to the streets of Balamb.
By that time, late afternoon slipped away into early evening. The sky raced with brilliant streaks of pink and orange as the sun slid below the horizon. Hand in hand, Squall and Rinoa made their way back to Garden, following the road that led northeast out of town.
About halfway into their journey, Rinoa set down her load of groceries and stopped walking.
"What's wrong?" Squall said, setting his bag down and scanning the immediate vicinity for any sign of trouble.
Rinoa walked over to him and put her arms around his neck. "Relax, tiger," she said, smiling. "I just wanted to thank you for what you did back there." Squall started to ask, but Rinoa started to answer the question before he could utter the first syllable.
"I know you wanted to get back to Garden to follow up on what I told you about my father," she said. "I know it's important to you, but you held off so I could pull myself together. Thank you, Sir Knight." Before Squall could respond, Rinoa silenced him with a kiss, long and lingering.
As they moved apart, their pulses racing more than before, Squall fixed her with his gaze. He kept his hands on her shoulders, but made no effort to hold her. Instead, he held her with his eyes, in that unique way he had. His eyes focused on her and she felt the rest of the universe slipping away. Squall studied her as one might study light or color, as if by looking long enough, he could unravel all her secrets.
Rinoa melted under his scrutiny, as she always did. She fell prey to "the look" every time he used it, something he did without even knowing its effect on her. She first felt its power the night they met. Rinoa had tried flirting with Squall, and encountered the coldest shoulder in existence. She almost walked away, cutting her losses when she caught him studying her with that unwavering intensity of his. She knew, at that moment, that she'd never walk away from him.
He pulled her back to him and gently kissed her on the top of the head. They stood like that briefly, before Squall whispered, "I am now, and always have been, your servant, my Sorceress."