When the trouble begins
If he had to name anything more tedious than the evening he had just had it wasn't possible. He had had to sit through three hours of mindless introductions for representatives of each Government and while he barely had to speak at all the politicians loved talking and took great pains to do so, resulting in the most boring evening of his life. They hadn't even really got round to talking much about peace treaties, just been discussing the current state of affairs within the governments the real reason for their meeting barely came up at all.
He headed back to his hotel. Rinoa had surprised him, turning up the day after he had arrived in Deling City where the peace talks were to be held. She had booked her own room which was enough to shut up Zell and Irvine and when he wasn't in the conference room half-listening to the conversation he was with Rinoa- she insisted she would pay him back for the tour he had given her when she first stayed in Garden. She did this by showing him all the boring sights of Deling city.
Not that he would ever tell her that they were boring though. At least she talked when she was guiding him around the places where tourists visited. He could admit that he was no tour guide and Rinoa was much better at the job than him.
The weather was rarely that bad in Galbadia but today it was trying to rain and as a result Squall's hair was getting quite damp and he would be pestered by Rinoa to wash it when he returned to the hotel. She always bothered about things like that; he didn't really care either way. It was certainly cold though, and to reach the hotel faster he would take a shortcut through an alley, it was freezing and he wanted to get inside as soon as possible.
The sights of Deling the tourists didn't see were the dirty alleys and slums that were a feature of every city. They saw the archway and the presidential residence and caught the slow buses. Squall had been offered transport just before he left the conference but as the heavily congested roads meant he would be faster walking than taking a car it didn't take much intelligence to see which option he chose.
It was ridiculous to travel in a car though, yet for public image the politicians did. A lot of them would be staying in higher class hotels then the one Squall was staying in. They looked down on him he guessed; they certainly didn't want his opinion in debates.
Leaving the conference hall he wondered about Laguna, when he would turn up. He was scheduled to arrive for the conference in a few days. Squall didn't want to be there when he arrived but he had no choice. All he would need to do was turn up at the talks and leave as soon as they were over, he didn't need to stay and socialise. He wouldn't know how to do that anyway, they were completely different classes and they things that mattered to Squall wouldn't matter to the politicians.
He jumped when someone addressed him by his name. He looked around in the direction of the voice and saw Rinoa standing behind him. She smiled. "When did you get here?" Squall asked surprised to see her. She usually waited at the hotel, particularly with this weather.
"There wasn't anything to do at the hotel. It's no fun waiting for over three hours by myself." She added a casual tone to her voice, "plus I was sick of drunks trying to chat me up. Are we ready to go now?"
"You should have stayed out of the bar then."
"What else is there to do?"
Squall followed her as she walked ahead, he wasn't angry about the drunks; he knew she was capable of defending herself if the need arose. He caught up with her and she started to talk about the phone call she had made that day.
"There wasn't much to do; I wondered how everyone was doing so I phoned them today."
"And?" He was trying to keep his mind off the icy temperature made worse by the closed walls of the shortcut they had taken so he spoke more.
"They said things were fine except-," She laughed, "Quistis is a bit overwhelmed with taking over your workload while you're away. And after all that time trying to get you to take part in this mission too." Squall could also see the irony of it, Quistis had been among numerous people who had informed Squall he was behind on his work and now she was experiencing first-hand the difficulties of his job herself. Rinoa at the time of his first receiving a load of work had been annoyed at Quistis for pestering him so much for not making deadlines.
"There was a lot of work though." Squall admitted reluctantly. Rinoa looked at him, a strange expression on her face.
"Do you feel…sorry for her Squall?" She looked amused, Squall knew why, he had been bitter about Quistis and complained to Rinoa repeatedly during the past few weeks about the pressure she had put on him to attend the conference. Witnessing a change of heart in Squall was strange to say the least. When he formed an opinion about someone she had assumed he stuck with it.
"I'm not feeling sorry for her." Squall eventually forced himself to say, "Just admitting I left a lot of work behind that's all."
"Don't feel too guilty then." Squall looked at her, he was confused.
"What?"
"You feel sorry for her don't you? Well I know for a fact that she didn't have half of your workload. I don't know how she had the nerve to call you lazy when she didn't have half the amount to do."
"She probably didn't realise how much there was to do." They had reached the alley through which they would take a shortcut to the hotel; Rinoa was talking about their other friends.
"Selphie says Irvine still hasn't asked her out. I promised her I'd help her when we get back from the conference." Squall looked around, something was bothering him about the alley, usually he would see a couple of drunks, especially at this time of night when they were kicked out of the pubs for drinking too much but today there weren't any.
Rinoa was still talking about the phone call, this time about Irvine.
"And Irvine wanted to ask her out but he's too scared to- those two should stop being scared and just start dating already, Zell's taking up teaching martial arts to the kids in Garden before they start training to be SeeDs and Cid- Squall are you listening to me?" She finally couldn't ignore the fact that Squall was looking around for anyone. He obviously wasn't paying attention to a word she was saying.
"Squall?" She asked, "What are you looking for?"
"It's too quiet here," Squall explained, "there's usually some drunks sleeping in the alley here- wonder where they went." Rinoa laughed.
"You think that's a bad thing? You're paranoid Squall." She looked around and saw nobody. "See? Nothing suspicious lets go." Squall sighed.
"I have a weird feeling Rinoa." Rinoa shook her head and continued forward. She could see the lights of the city through a gap in two buildings ahead. It was strange that the alley was dark and no light shone into there. It wasn't just an alley though, it was a small area where dustbins were waiting to be emptied, the rubbish inside them generated by customers in the stores of the shops on the main street.
Squall suddenly heard Rinoa scream, he had turned his attention away from her for a second- looking for something unexpected. He ran forward to Rinoa- and saw a shadowy figure had seized her by the waist- she had no magic junctioned but she was a Sorceress for Hyne's sake, surely she could cast a spell to stop them? Her powers didn't require GFs to be ready to use. Squall ran forward, his mind filled with fear that the attacker would injure her, and regretting that he hadn't been paying attention to her.
What would he do if the attacker had a knife however? He wouldn't be able to help her if he got himself injured and he didn't have his Gunblade or any spells stocked. He wondered desperately, when is she going to cast a spell? When a blinding light filled his vision and he realised she had cast Ultima.
He ran toward her, Rinoa was crying, she had run away from her attacker who was lying on the floor taken by surprise by the force of the spell, she was obviously scared after what had happened Squall stood helplessly, trying to decide what to do, he was a SeeD and he had to bear in mind his training. He could comfort her or stop the attacker from running away. His SeeD instinct took over and he ran toward the attacker who was now getting up groggily and made a half-hearted attempt to escape. Squall seized him by his shirt and slammed him against the wall. The attacker wasn't drunk surprisingly, he was sober if a little dazed from the Ultima spell but otherwise he looked perfectly normal if you could count attacking someone for no reason normal.
"What the hell did you do that for?" Squall said trying to control his temper, he was a SeeD which taught him to control his fear in battles and other situations but anger was something that you could never entirely be free of and he wasn't going to waste his energy calming down for this man. Rinoa was still crying, now sitting on the floor and trying to cry quietly, Squall wanted answers.
"She's the sorceress!" The man said as though that would explain everything. Squall wanted to comfort Rinoa but what the attacker had said made him curious and even angrier at the same time.
"What does that mean? What did she ever do to you?" The man took a deep breath, staring at him obstinately.
"She is the Sorceress- that fact speaks for itself."
"What reason do you have for attacking someone who's done nothing to you?" Another thought occurred to him though, such as how did anyone know the identity of the present sorceress? It had been hushed up shortly after the Ultimecia mission; it was to give Rinoa a chance at living a normal life. She wouldn't hurt anyone but her reputation would cause others to think she might.
"She's a sorceress- its second nature to them! If she hasn't already she will!" Rinoa was standing up now staring straight into the eyes of this man who seemed insane, he had provided no reasons for his actions; he glared at Rinoa, his hatred abundantly clear. She stepped back.
"Let him go Squall." Rinoa spoke for the first time. Squall was surprised, this man was not particularly strong, he couldn't escape without the aid of magic and he obviously didn't have any otherwise he would have used it before now; they should take him to be arrested.
But another realisation was that if he was arrested her identity would be obvious to everyone, it would spread, everyone seemed afraid when a Sorceress was involved.
Squall reluctantly let him go, the man ran off instantly, as fast as he could manage with his injuries. Squall was confused, he turned to Rinoa who shrugged and walked away, her arms folded as though she felt the cold, although it hadn't bothered her previously. Squall didn't understand why she had told him to let her go. He followed her, trying to catch her up. They had left the alley now and were in the blinding glare of the main street.
"Rinoa," Squall called after her. "Rinoa!" He called again as she didn't turn around. She entered the hotel and he followed her. He made it halfway up the stairs when he saw the door to her room was shut and he guessed locked, he was right he discovered as he tried to open the door.
He looked back to the attack. He had watched it through a wall of thought. He hadn't moved until he analyzed the situation and that had nearly killed her. Why did he always have to think- it wasn't always a help.
He tried to talk to her for a bit longer but eventually gave up when she didn't answer and the receptionist threatened to send for security to throw him out of the hotel if he wasn't quiet, and then he went to his own room.
~~~~~~~~~~~
Rinoa was sitting on her bed, considerably calmed down. Her eyes were red and she stood in her bathroom trying to clear her face a bit. Squall had waited for her for what seemed like a long time, he had called to her and she had wanted nothing more than to let him in but something stopped her. She wanted to be alone to think; even though Squall didn't speak much he would be a distraction for her.
Life wasn't fair. She had lost so much in her life, her mother and even her father although he had been as much to blame over their damaged relationship as herself and she had unfairly been singled out to receive the Sorceress powers.
Since the events of Ultimecia she was different, she was wary constantly of being hated and shunned by society because of the powers. She had never consciously used them except in battle situations like that one, when she had had no choice.
She had let him go because if he had been arrested her identity would have been revealed and all the work Cid and Edea had gone to for her anonymity would have been wasted.
Was this what it would be like? It would come out eventually; the press were relentless and cruel regarding the Sorceress, whether she had actually committed a crime or not. Would Squall be able to stay with her after that? His reputation would be at stake too.
But power was supposed to corrupt people and with the power she held she didn't know when she might be misusing it. She had been working so hard to conceal them for the months after Ultimecia. She glanced outside following an urge to do so. She saw Squall's light brown hair, he was leaving the hotel; she fought back her worry and hoped he wouldn't be doing anything like trying to catch the man who had tried to attack her. She knew in her heart the situation could have been much worse, he could have had magic or a weapon and killed her before Squall had a chance to do anything.
She had never seen him so angry though. She remembered how he had slammed the man against the wall with such force she was surprised he hadn't broken an arm or something. There were sides to Squall she didn't know yet.
Curious she decided to follow him to wherever he was going. She checked in the mirror, and made sure she didn't look as if she had been crying. She wasn't entirely certain but if she didn't go now she would lose him.
The night had more surprises yet.
Another chapter over. I am rubbish at action scenes so this isn't particularly good but now the story gets underway. Thanks for the extra review RoMayDrako. I'm glad someone likes my story! This is my first proper fic though; I just hate labels of 'first fic' because it really makes no difference to the quality of the story, it just means those people try to steal all the reviews.
I'm done ranting now; I still don't know what genre this is. I need to make my mind up.