Thank you to my two reviewers! I'm changing the viewpoint for now; this is where the beginnings of a plot start to manifest itself. Sorry if it's a bit rushed, I am writing as often as I can but reviews motivate me- hint hint? Please review!

Politics

Laguna stood in his office. The palace was huge; he still didn't know much of it very well even after living in it for eighteen years. He had an office- well that was a laugh he decided. He didn't do anything really. Unless you counted signing forms and the few direct orders he made like sending that ship to pick up Ellone in the war when Galbadia was after her.

He sighed, he hadn't regretted doing that for Elle but he did regret a lot of things. Raine for one- Squall for another. It was no use trying to be happy that Squall had turned out so well, it hadn't been his doing and that affected him. If he had just gone back to Winhil then instead of being afraid of Raine's reaction it would have been okay.

Shortly before being made President he had wanted to stay in Esthar. Even now it still amazed him that he of all people had been made President. It was a great opportunity at the time; it meant that he wouldn't have to worry about another job or money and he wanted to bring Raine to Esthar but at the time he thought it best he send Ellone to her first so she wouldn't get upset. But at the last minute he had cowardly backed out of telling her about his plans for his family so he didn't go with Ellone and the current situation was the result.

As much as he hated thinking about these things they always came back to him and he hated more and more his decisions then. You couldn't change them as Ellone had proved. What was he doing now? Who was he talking to? Nobody considered answering them. Squall especially wasn't going to. His reaction had showed that much.

What had been unsettling was that after the initial exclamations that it couldn't be true he was silent. Absolutely silent, no questions about Raine or why Laguna had left him and Ellone at an orphanage or anything. He was worried Squall would come to the wrong conclusions about the whole affair and they would probably be even worse than the actual truth. But now he had word that Squall was trying to forget everything. As though it hadn't been worth learning. Laguna had only heard this from Cid and Edea who taken an interest in the matter and Laguna felt jealous- actually jealous of the people who had taken his job of bringing up his children although doubt about his ability to have done so himself was always in his mind.

I guess I don't know if I would've been as good as Raine at bringing them up; she was always telling me off about setting a bad example for Ellone. He tried to think again what his reasons for not fetching them from the orphanage had been. For Ellone it had been easy, he wasn't too trusting of Odine and didn't know if he would kidnap Ellone or not and take her away for experiments again. He wouldn't have been able to go chasing after her if that had happened because as President he had constant security and protection which meant he couldn't leave if he wanted to.

Now for Squall. What were his reasons in that case? The security for one and the environment for bringing him up in- it was politics and debates and boring stuff what life would that have been for a child? For someone who didn't have much to do officially he had a lot of papers to sign. How could he have made time for Squall? But he had for Ellone and he felt he should have tried a bit harder to sort out the mess that was his life. It had also taken him years to get over Raine and he couldn't think clearly in that time. Kiros and Ward had sorted all the political work out for him otherwise he would have been deemed incompetent and been thrown out of office- Squall might possibly have turned out worse if he had been brought up by his father.

Now he was trying to mend all the stupid mistakes and decisions and it wasn't working. He felt if Squall could forgive him- if they could at least start to talk about the mistakes and correct them he would be happy but Squall didn't want to know and that hurt more than anything.

Ellone came in- interrupting his thoughts, she looked pleased. He knew why- she had got lost several times since moving into the place because she didn't know where anything was. He had done exactly the same when he had first started living there but Ellone had the added difficulty having to search for someone. The office had a large window looking over the tall buildings of Esthar. Tall as the average buildings were the palace towered over them easily and he watched the sky that was its original blue again since the lunar cry until Ellone spoke.

"What's wrong?" He heard what she said and was confused.

"Wrong? I don't get it- where'd you get that idea?" He smiled trying to give the impression of complaisance but she had seen his troubled face and wasn't going to let the matter drop.

"Thinking again," she looked through the window as though seeing something fascinating in the horizon of blue buildings and lights. "Too much- something else you have in common." Laguna took a defensive response to what she had said.

"We don't have anything in common. If we did it would be a lot easier but he doesn't even try." It sounded almost as though he was insulting his own son and he frowned. "Forget that, I don't expect him to."

"He hasn't been exactly helping…" Ellone admitted, she was torn, she loved her 'Uncle' Laguna and she loved her 'brother' Squall. She just wanted her family back together but achieving that was another matter.

"I used to be able to stop thinking about it once, before I met him but now it's all I think about. How things could have been." He shrugged and shook off his serious air. He still didn't like serious matters. What am I doing in politics then?

"Don't stop trying Uncle Laguna," Ellone said switching her gaze from the buildings of Esthar to Laguna's face. "He just doesn't know what to think. He'll accept it eventually."

"I don't know Ellone. It's been a long time. Maybe we should forget it and move on."

"I don't want either of you to forget it- Squall has a family and the sooner he realises that the better." Ellone's voice had the finality of tone that Raine's had when she had been arguing with Laguna all those years ago in Winhil. He looked at her surprised.

And it was final, the door opened before Laguna could think of what to say in reply and Kiros and Ward came in followed by another aide who was clutching a handful of papers in his hands. They entered the room and the papers were put on the desk, the aide looked expressively at Ellone who caught his meaning well before Laguna did and started towards the door.

"Hey!" Laguna was surprised, "Why are you leaving Elle?" She didn't even bother to turn around.

"Secret political stuff right?" She said before continuing walking, Kiros explained in further detail to the confused President.

"She wouldn't be every interested in these matters, it's mainly about the science technicians." Laguna glanced at the door Ellone had just exited.

"Well what's wrong then?" Ward pulled a face at his friend's colloquial language as the aide obviously wasn't impressed, but the aide obviously had some common sense and picking up a particular sheet of paper started anyway.

"The government are concerned about the activities of a group of scientists who have resigned their jobs and left Esthar." Laguna had been President long enough to know that a group of scientists leaving Esthar was dangerous. The knowledge of the technicians was highly valuable and would be relentlessly sought after by other nations if it became available.

"And the consequences if Galbadia obtained the technology would be devastating, the only thing that's preventing a war is the advanced technology Esthar has. If we lose that advantage and Galbadia steals the technology we could be facing a war over power." Laguna wondered about all the retired scientists and decided to enquire.

"Well, what about the scientists who don't work anymore- how come these guys are leaving Esthar? Don't they just retire and stay in the city?" The aide sighed.

"I'm trying to explain President Loire," He said clearly annoyed at the interruption, Ward and Kiros were struggling not to laugh. Laguna's formal title was always a source of amusement to them and Laguna scratched the side of his head in embarrassment, muttering, "You don't have to call me that…"

The aide clearly had little or no patience. He slammed the papers on the table hard, the papers were everywhere and he didn't bother to pick them up. He looked around at them all, they were silent. Laguna just about managed to keep a straight face. Kiros and Ward were much better at keeping a straight face than him and Kiros addressed the aide calmly with no trace of laughter. "My apologies, please explain."

The aide still looked aggravated but he sighed picked up the paper with the air of a long suffering servant and explained, "The scientists in question escaped the programme of staying in Esthar. We do feel however that their purpose isn't to sell the information to other governments."

"Then what?" Laguna sat down in the chair behind his desk with his arms folded.

"They expressed concern in releasing the Sorceress recently; they felt it would jeopardize the safety of millions to allow her to live a normal life among the people, let alone living in Balamb Garden."

"Why?" Laguna sat up straight from slouching in the chair. Ellone had been trying to get him to sit properly to improve his posture for ages but he had forgotten.

"Many feel that the Sorceress would not hesitate to manipulate the SeeDs. The general opinion is that she is dangerous, and if she does gain control of the SeeDs who else will fight her?" Kiros intervened; Laguna looked as if he was going to attack the aide. The fact that the Sorceress was none other than his son's girlfriend biased him and he couldn't look at the situation in an impartial light.

"Have they any proof for these allegations?" Kiros asked the aide, "Don't they know her role in defeating Ultimecia?" The aide replied swiftly.

"They believe she will –if not now eventually- become corrupted and revert to the behaviour all Sorceresses. They left we believe because they intend to attempt solving the problem themselves." Laguna looked concerned. He stood up.

"Thanks, you can go now." The aide looked surprised.

"But I haven't described who the missing scientists are." He indicated the papers.

"I guess I can look at them myself. You can go okay?" The aide looked as though he wanted to object but changed his mind.

"I guess- I mean, yes President Loire." He looked at Laguna who was already looking at the papers and walked out of the office.

As soon as the aide was gone Laguna spoke. "Who was that guy?" He put down the report he was holding, "I haven't seen him round here before."

"He's a new aide Laguna; you drove one close to a mental breakdown." Laguna frowned, suddenly remembering who the previous aide in question was.

"That's not true; if you ask me he looked pretty stressed anyway." Ward had an amused expression on his face.

"Ward says 'that stress was you fault and don't even try to deny it'" Kiros interpreted.

"Hey- I wasn't anything but my usual self." Laguna said defensively.

"That was the problem." Kiros said laughing. Laguna chose to give up the argument; he never was very good at them. He just didn't really know how to defend himself, Raine he certainly would never have been able to beat in a dispute. She could think up replies to his comments faster than lightning. Again he found himself missing her.

"Are you okay Laguna? You're quiet, that's not a good sign."

"Ah, it's nothing, just thinking about Raine again." He was slightly embarrassed as though he expected them to laugh at him.

"And Squall too I'll bet." Laguna wondered how Kiros always seemed to know what was bothering him; did Kiros really know him that well?

"Yeah," He admitted reluctantly. "Its like he's trying to forget I said anything at all. I don't get it, I thought he'd be angry, upset or something but trying to forget it? I don't know…"

"It's probably an attempt at dealing with it. It's not going to work though. Just wait a bit longer, he'll ask questions. I'm sure." Laguna shrugged, he still didn't like talking about serious subjects.

"D'you guys know where Elle went?" He asked, Kiros shook his head. "Guess I'll have to go find her myself then." He said. He left the office to go and find Ellone and Kiros and Ward turned to the papers Laguna had left carelessly on his desk. Then they started to read them.

Second chapter done now. Don't forget to REVIEW!