Chapter 6

Meeting Selphie and Irvine

Rinoa jumped into the passenger seat next to Squall. The rain was still pouring onto them, and it hit the bright red paint of the car in little angry droplets. Rinoa frowned at the rain clouds; she was disappointed that they wouldn't be able to ride with the convertible roof down today.

            "So, who are these friends then?" Squall asked, as Rinoa strapped herself in and messed around with Squall's radio until finding a station she liked.

            "Selphie, my best friend and Irvine. We've known each other for years, Selphie works in the same office as me." Rinoa informed him.

            "Oh great, two journalists. My luck just keeps getting better and better." Squall said sarcastically as they drove out of the gates.

            "What have you got against journalists anyway?" Rinoa asked annoyed, flicking her hair back into a knot at the back of her neck. Squall watched her fasten it with a clip before answering.

            "Just don't like them, that's all." He replied, keeping his eyes firmly on the road. Rinoa sighed.

            "Fair enough, but that sounds a bit childish to me." Rinoa said, shifting in her seat until she wasn't facing him anymore. They drove a few miles at a reasonable speed, passing out of the suburbs into the city centre. But Rinoa became worried when Squall pulled the car over to a stop. "What are you doing? Is something wrong? What's going on?" She fired at him.

            "Right here's the deal. I'm going to beat you up, then leave you on the side of the road." Squall said seriously. Rinoa stared.

            "What?" She shouted angrily. Squall laughed.

            "There's a shop over there." Squall said pointing. "Stay here ok." He ordered stepping out of the car. "Do you want anything?" He asked finally. Rinoa shook her head, happy to be rid of him for a few minutes. "Well alright." He said finally, shutting the car door and pulling his collar up to keep out the rain. Rinoa watched him walk to the small roadside store.

            "Total bastard." Rinoa mumbled to herself as she played with the loose parts of her hair to pass the time.

            Squall emerged a few minutes later with a large brown paper bag, Rinoa watched him suspiciously as he came closer to the car. When he opened the door a rush of cold air forced its way in making Rinoa shiver. Squall sat down heavily and threw the bag onto one of the back seats. He was soaking, his hair stuck out in spikes in a few places and Rinoa giggled until the look he gave her made her stop.

            "Was that really necessary?" Rinoa asked smiling. Squall loosened his coat and started the engine. After smoothing down his hair he decided to speak.

            "Yes, I was hungry." Squall answered, pulling out into the fast paced traffic. Rinoa's smile broadened.

            "So, everything revolves around you?" Rinoa asked amused. Squall gave her a confused look but didn't reply. Rinoa gazed out of the window at the cloudy sky. The trip to the train station was longer than she had remembered it to be. Squall reached his hand back to the bag and pulled out about 10 varieties of chocolate bars. Rinoa watched enviously as he began opening them and taking bites. Rinoa's eyes must had effected him in the end, because he offered her the half eaten chocolate bar. When she didn't take it, he threw it onto her lap. Rinoa picked it up and laughed.

            "Yeah, um thanks Squall." She said putting it back into its correct wrapper.

            "What's the matter? You don't like chocolate?" Squall asked.

            "Sure, just I don't share things like this." Rinoa said shyly. Squall looked at her as if she was crazy.

            "Your not going to die just because I bit it before you did." Squall said smiling. Rinoa studied the sweet bar in her hand, and then took a bite. "Oh Hyne Rinoa! Your turning blue!" Squall said sarcastically. Then he hit the button that wound down the window. "Ahhh somebody help!" He screamed at an old lady at the side of the road, who just happened to be walking her dog at the same time they passed. Rinoa hit his arm playfully.

            "Shut up Squall. But this is a bit of an intimate gesture don't you think?" Rinoa said looking at the chocolate bar. Squall suddenly went very quite.

            "It's just a chocolate bar." He said defensively. Rinoa decided to drop the subject. But then decided that it was now or never to ask what was really burning in her mind.

            "How come you can be really nice, and then the next second you're a mega annoying prick?" Rinoa asked, a smirk on her face although she fought to free herself of it. Squall almost slammed on the brake, and Rinoa felt the car jolt beneath her.

            "You what?" He asked, shocked at her opinion of him. Rinoa looked away quickly.

            "You just seem to do whatever you like, whenever you want." Rinoa continued. Squall smiled.

            "I guess, when you can do whatever you want, you forget that maybe you shouldn't." Squall answered. Rinoa considered this, yes there was a basis of truth there and she accepted his answer.  

            "Like staring at someone." Rinoa said shyly, trying to provoke an argument about his obviously unsought attention at the dance. Squall smiled.

            "Well yes, maybe that was wrong." Squall admitted. "But you shouldn't wear such eye attracting dresses." Squall said jokingly. Rinoa rolled her eyes.

            "Sure, right the dress, whatever you say. You know you can borrow it anytime." Rinoa offered.

            "Well I would, but it looks just lovely on you Rinoa. I wouldn't want to take that away from you by looking even better in it." Squall answered smiling. Rinoa laughed and rolled her eyes. 

            Finally after a long time of silence they finally arrived at the station, just in time to see the train roll in. Rinoa called Selphie's phone and heard the scratchy background sound and her voice at the other end.

            "Hey Selph, we're in the car park. Yep hang on, … oh wait I can see you! Were in the red car in the corner, yeah your looking right at us, yeah keep going. Yep that's us!" Rinoa directed. Squall listened interested in what these two new arrivals would be like. 

            The door opened in the back and Selphie clambered in, Squall got out of his side and helped Irvine with the luggage. Irvine finally joined Selphie in the back and placed his arm around her. Selphie giggled.

            "So, you liked the presidents train I take it!" Rinoa said happily. Squall joined them and started the engine.

            "Yeah It was fantastic wasn't it Selphie baby." Irvine answered. Selphie nodded frantically.

            "Squall, this is Selphie and Irvine. Guys this is Squall." Rinoa introduced. Selphie and Irvine stopped laughing at once.

            "Hi there." Squall said into the silence that followed. 

            "Were off on some kind of road trip for a week, then I've got to get back to work." Rinoa said. Selphie squealed in delight.

            "This is gonna be so cool! So where we going first?" She asked. Rinoa opened her mouth to answer but found that she didn't know.

            "Squall, where exactly are we going?" Rinoa asked.

            "The Penthouse hotel." Squall answered simply.

            "Why?" Selphie asked. Rinoa listened for the answer also, she was intrigued as to why they where going to a hotel on the first day.

            "Because it's the best." Squall said.

            "No she means what for?" Rinoa asked.

            "We need to make a plan for the week ahead, and there is no better place to spend the first day than where were going." Squall assured them.

            "Well sounds good to me!" Irvine decided. Selphie nodded in agreement, but Rinoa looked unconvinced.

            "We better not be spending the whole time lounging around. I want to see places!" Rinoa whined.

            "Oh you will, let's just get a plan done. Besides there's plenty to do at the hotel." Squall said, happy to get the final word in at last, maybe now there would be some peace.

            "Squall! You already booked rooms?" Rinoa exclaimed as they reached the check in desk.

            "Aww Rinny did you want to share a room with me?" Squall asked sarcastically, adding a pretend pout to his performance until it received a laugh from Selphie. Rinoa frowned. "Look I arranged it yesterday. You might have wanted to sleep in a tent tonight, but I don't particularly like sleeping on the floor."

            "Fine." Rinoa said leaving her bags by the desk and wandering off.

            Two hours later Squall managed to find Rinoa again with the help of one of the hotel staff girls. Rinoa had been sulking around the games machines for the past hour and thankfully was still there when Squall went to look for her.

            "Rinoa what are you doing?" Squall asked. Rinoa looked up at him.

            "Just looking about." She replied, her voice small.

            "You ok?" Squall asked concerned. Rinoa seemed to tense at this question.

            "No actually I'm not. You took us here without consulting, what if we had wanted to go some place else? It's not even lunchtime yet and we're already ruling this day off as over. And your rude, and you stare at me, you avoided me for a week then try to kiss me, you always…" Rinoa blurted, tears starting to fall down her cheeks.

            Squall stood bewildered, where had all of this come from? Unable to find any words to say to her he wrapped his arms around her back and held her close. It was easy to wear his mask of confidence when he wasn't involved with the person he was deceiving, but the closer they managed to get to him the more he closed off. It had always been this way; he'd never been able to express his emotions to anyone. But somehow the sight of her crying had provoked him enough to comfort her with his arms.

            Rinoa cried into his shoulder, unaware of what had caused such an uncontrollable outburst. The colour in her cheeks brightened as she held onto him, slowly she wound her hands up to the back of his neck and held him tightly as another wave of tears hit her. Squall held her closer, until her tears began to cease.

            "I'm sorry Rinoa." Squall said after a long time of silence, the satisfaction of those words was worth the battle of speaking them, they were right; sorry was the hardest word to say when you meant it.     

            Rinoa looked up at him, her eyes red from her tears and she blinked furiously and attempted a smile. She had dropped her hands to her sides, but he still held her close.

"I'm ok." She said quietly. Squall lessened his hold on her.

"No more tears?" He asked. Rinoa shook her head. "Then lets go and make our plans, yeah?" he said taking her hand and leading her slowly out of the large games room. 

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            Rinoa smiled when she saw her friends. Selphie and Irvine were fighting over which ice cream to share.

            "Irvy I want banana! We always get mint choc chip!" Selphie moaned. Rinoa heard Squall laugh at the side of her.

            "Fine, no mint. How about bubblegum?" Irvine asked, trying to calm her down.

            "Oh yeah! Lets get that." Selphie watched the café staff make up her ice cream from the tubs in front of them; the banana flavour was already forgotten.

            Squall set out a map onto a large table, upon doing this a waiter began to walk over to them. Probably to tell them they couldn't do that here, but he appeared to quickly change his mind half way. Rinoa observed that Squall seemed to have that effect on people.

            "Right, well we are here." Squall said pointing. "Where do you people want to go? We can go anywhere you like." He said once they had all gathered around. 

            Rinoa was aware that the others thought that she should choose, she so she took over the map.

            "I think…" Rinoa began. "We should head for the sorceress memorial." Rinoa said pointing to the corresponding point on the map. Squall looked over her shoulder.

            "Nobody's been there for years." Squall said softly. Rinoa looked intrigued.

            "Then lets be the first!" Selphie shouted. "Oh whoops sorry." She called when she realised she'd disturbed everyone's lunch. "heh hem" She said finally and sat down quickly out of everyone's way.        

            "You really want to go there?" Squall asked.

            "Yeah, I'd like to see it." Rinoa answered. Squall nodded.

            "Ok, fine." He said folding away the map. "Guys do whatever you want, it's all on tab. Here's your room keys, I'll meet you later for dinner in the main dining room at 8." He said making a move towards the door. Rinoa followed him.

            "Squall I want to apologise for earlier, I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I…" Rinoa began.

            "It's ok, Rin." Squall said, touching her arm in a friendly gesture. "I'll see you later."

            Squall walked away leaving Rinoa confused.

            "The meal is formal right?" Rinoa asked as he left.

            "Yes, you guys got things to wear?" Squall asked; his voice level raised because of the distance between them.

            "Yep, I told them to bring posh stuff." Rinoa answered. Squall smiled and held his hand up in sign to show that he was leaving.

            "Remember 8 o'clock!" He said as he disappeared from sight into a side room. Now what was he up to?

A/N: Well there we go! I'll try to keep them out of the travelling mode, I find that hard to write and generally boring. But anyway, thankyou to all of ya who reviewed.

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