Disclaimer: I do not own Final Fantasy VIII or any of its characters; they are the rightful property of SQUARESOFT. 

~Chapter 13: Aftermath~

She was so close, lying there peacefully.  He knew she wasn't asleep.  Even with her back to him she was still beautiful.  He made up his mind and inched towards her nervously and then slipped his arm around her waist.

"SCORE!" He thought to himself, doing a mental victory dance.  She hadn't pushed him away.

"Squall, what the hell do you think you're doing?" Her silvery voice asked in an icy tone that was so unlike her.

"Shit!  Think fast, think fast!" He though aimlessly, "Don't say 'making a move on you', don't say 'making a move on you'."

"Making a move on you." The stupidity left his lips.

He felt her elbow dig in his ribs and he groaned in pain.  "Sorry…" He muttered.

To his surprise she didn't remove his arm; nor did she order him a ten feet distance from her.  So his arm stayed positioned where it was.  "Maybe I shouldn't push my luck…" He thought to himself.

But then again, he was Squall Leonheart.  "So, would you do anything with me?"

"Hah… No." She replied without hesitation.

"Aw… Why not?"

"Because we're encircled by people, specifically Quistis who has really sharp ears, then there's the small factor that I'm supposed to be acting mad at you, you're engaged, you might have HIV, and did I mention Quistis has sharp ears?"

"So from what I gather you're a virgin." He observed.

"Fuck off!" She hissed and jabbed her elbow, this time hitting his abdomen. 

He rolled atop of her and pinned her arms on each side of her, "Ok enough!  You've given me more bruises that anyone else on this planet and that's saying something!" He hissed at her.

"Aw, poor Squally Wally bruises like a prune." She whispered sarcastically.

He bent down and kissed her on her right cheek and then moved west.  He bent his head up to her and brushed his lips ever so softly against hers. The silky texture caused her to gasp a little.

He opened his mouth, making the kiss more intimate. She hesitated a little at first, but reciprocated the action, her hands brushing the locks of his hair that fell on her cheeks.  So their peaceful ecstasy began.

(Sammy: I did not write the kissing scene… Why?  I can't write romance/kissing scene.  So thank you to Erica for the help, she's always been there for me.  That's why I buy her HOTDOGS! *Shoves another hotdog in Erica's face*)

***

The moon reflected on the clear lake; ripples making it seem alive.  Sounds of crickets and owls and wind were all to be heard.

The serene couple parted slightly and Seifer looped his arm around her waist, drawing her closer.

"Well this is interesting…" Admitted Quistis, blessing the darkness that hid her blushes.

"Isn't it?" Seifer hid his amusement.  Then he let out a sigh of exasperation and turned to the passive lake.

"What the matter?" Quistis inquired, "Are you… Worried about something?"

"Yeah… I'm worried about Rinoa." He explained, "I think she may be in more trouble then what she bargained for."

"What?  Why?" Quistis moved closer to Seifer impatiently, "What would happen to Rinoa?  Why are you worried about her?"

"Well… Our plan is flawed… They… It would take a miracle… It's just impossible." He fragmented his sentence, unsure of what to say.

"What are you talking about?" Quistis nearly shrieked, "We're nearly there, Rinoa's opening up more now… Squall's less of an ass!"

"Yeah… Well, Rinoa… She's no better than Squall in her martial status." Seifer spat disgustedly in the lake, "She's engaged to Melvin."

Quistis' jaw dropped, "Melvin?  You mean… The monkey man?  But… But… Why didn't she tell me?" Her voice detained a tone of misery caused of her best friends lies and betrayal.

"Because she doesn't even know." Seifer said solemnly.

***

"I love you…" He whispered, intertwining her fingers with his own.

"I… Love you too." Rinoa whispered back, letting him kiss her once more.

Squall drew her nearer to him and said, "I promise… I'll tell my dad to cancel the whole Sarah thing just please… don't leave me."

"Your dad?" Rinoa asked, confusion ringing in her voice, "Why your dad?  Can't you do it on your own?"

"No, my dad set this whole thing up… I didn't even know Sarah until he introduced me to her… It's a political engagement."

"Well why didn't you tell me sooner?" She asked angrily, to think that she had kept him at arms length because of this whole misunderstanding.

"I did… You just didn't listen." He grinned and kissed her neck, "You make a lot of funny assumptions."

"Whatever." She grimaced, "I'm going to sleep."

***

"Melvin just wants to hurt me.  He thinks I'm in love with Rinoa, so, just to piss me off, he marries her." Seifer tried explaining, "He doesn't know that Squall's in love with her."

"So, then pretend to be in love with Sarah!  Then… Melvin could go for her." Quistis was frantic for a solution.

"I'm not the main target here, Quistis!  Don't you get it?  Rinoa doesn't mean jack shit to Melvin.  She's just a bonus he's picking up along the way to his real ambition."

"What do you mean?  He's going to get something out of marrying her?"

"Not specifically him… Maybe his only goal is to hurt me but think about his father… President of Trabia."

"Yeah?  Trabia is a wasteland… The only thing they really do is research and develop weapons."

"And think about Rinoa's father now…"

"He's the General of the army…" Quistis raised her eyebrow.

"The one who buys weapons for Galbadia…" Quistis understood now, "So you mean that…"

***

"What the hell is this?" Quistis poked her plate disdainfully, "It looks horrible… And burnt."

"Yeah, well where I come from we call it pancakes, ok?" Seifer scowled at her over-criticism. 

"Aw, Irvy everything looks perfect!" Selphie clapped her hands in joy at her breakfast.  Since the girls had made breakfast the day before, they had decided it would be the gentlemen's turn today.

Selphie gleefully took of her coffee then, without warning, spat it out all over her breakfast, "What the hell did you put in here??  Dynamite?  Do you not know how to make coffee?"

Zell put on the table of fresh plate of hotdogs, "Straight from the grill." He smiled, "Dig in ladies…"

The thought of frankfurters in the wee hours of the morning gave the girls a nauseating feeling.

"No thanks Zell…" Rinoa winced and looked back to her toast… Well… What she thought was toast. "You aren't expecting me to eat this are you?" She looked up to Squall.

"Well… It's not that bad…"

"Honey…" She said in a sarcastic sweet voice, "These are so burnt that if I poked them, they'd turn to dust!"

"Yeah Squall!" Selphie assaulted him, "You put the bread in the toaster and they pop up on their own … It's like, effortless!"

"I can't believe you dared to criticize our breakfast yesterday, compared to this our food was gourmet cooking!" Quistis threw her hands up in the air.

"Never mind our cooking… I'm sure a pure moron could do better then this!" Rinoa pushed her plate away, disgustedly.

"Oh, this is swerving off subject, Rinoa, but we still need to see proof that you paid Squall his reward for last night." Seifer grinned maliciously.

"I did!" Rinoa retorted, "Right Squall?"

"Ah…" Squall smirked, "I can't remember very well."

Rinoa's face fell, would he dare do this to her?  She already knew the answer.

"Right, so you'll do it again… Just for proof!" Selphie beamed in a malicious way, "And we want it to last at least 15 seconds."

"Oh give me a break!  No!" She snapped.

"Not like it's anything we haven't seen before, Rin." Irvine informed and then began laughing.

"Squall, please!" She turned to him with a puppy-dog look on her face, then remembering a 'secret code language' of their childhood that they had invented in pure fun she added, "E muja oui, ruhao." And then she grinned.

It took a minute to register and then he smiled as well.  The onlookers raised their eyebrows and Seifer finally asked, "What the hell language was that?"

Not replying to his question Squall just grinned from ear to ear and said, "Yeah, she isn't lying… She did kiss me." Then looking at Rinoa he replied a malicious tone, "Bnuja ed du sa… Mydan."

"Ha ha…" Rinoa laughed sarcastically, "Now why don't you try making toast?"

The remaining five looked on in amazement at 'the language that only they could speak'.

"E ruba oui mega du cruf ouin muja fedr ouin duhkia." He grinned as he took the toast off the table.

"Banjand!" Rinoa scowled.

Sammy-Chan: Haa haaa haa… For those who ask you we're SUPPOSED to understand what they were saying.  It's a language from FFX… Called AlBhed.  Basically you can still translate it if you're really curious.  Tee hee.  By the way, I do not own FFX either, just to let you know.  Well, I hoped you like this chapter.  If you want to translate the language here's a site to simplify the task.

You'll want to copy and paste the sentences and chose the option Translate Al Bhed to English:

Love you all!

Beta's Note: My time: *Takes the hotdog out of her mouth* You know that you can choke someone to death like that. Then who'd write your mush detail for you? That was a rhetorical question… Don't answer. Besides, who would edit it? Still rhetorical. But then again, hot dogs are good… You know you're reading FF8 too much when… You begin to act like the characters. Anyways, um… yeah. HOMOPHONES BOOKS MUST BE SENT TO SAM ASAP!!!!!!! You have no idea. But, aside from any grammatical errors, it was cute… No, I'm not high on anything. Is there a law somewhere out there that says that I can't say cute? Course I can! *Storms off*