Authors note: Alrighty then, it seems that there was some confusion in the last chapter. Selphie is Seifer's girlfriend's friend and Quistis is Seifer's girlfriend. That make sense?
Oh yeah just in case any of you haven't read my bio, which I doubt anyone has. You'll see that I share this account with my brother. 'Crossing the line' is my brothers story.
Umm…in some chapters they'll be a part where one of the characters will tell the story so far if you know what I mean. If you don't then there's one at the end of this chapter anyway. I've put it in italics, but you know as well as I do that italics don't always work so I have put brackets around it, and if they don't work I'm screwed.
Enjoy!
Chapter 5
Squall turned around to face the person who had called his name. She stood there with a slight smile on her face, but her eyes seemed to be red and puffed up like she had been crying. She looked at him with her smile widening as she studied his face and tilted her head to the side. "You okay?" she said with a slight giggle. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"
Squall sighed with relief knowing that she didn't know he was a mutant. "I'm okay," he said, facing the front of the car again being careful not to draw attention to the little puddle of blood that was still on the floor from the deer that lay beside his feet, but Rinoa caught sight of it and stepped nearer to him to inspect it.
"That deer…is it going to be okay in the wild?"
Squall looked at her surprised. She'd seen the deer, maybe she could have seen what he had done, but by the way she was talking it didn't seem that she had.
"I don't know," he replied. Walking to his car he opened the door. "Would you like me to drive you home?" he offered.
"Okay." Rinoa said as she nodded her head. She stepped into the car and closed the car door behind her. Squall started the engine up and drove along the road.
Inside the car the only thing that could be heard was the engine as the two sat in silence. Squall glanced at Rinoa to find her looking out the window watching the scenery fly past. She looked distant, like there was something on her mind.
He wouldn't usually have been bothered about someone else's feelings, as he didn't like the idea of carrying other people's burden, but he felt his mouth open and breathed out the words "Are you okay?"
Rinoa turned her gaze to Squall with a slight smile, and then looked back out the window. "It's just Nina…" she said.
Squall turned to Rinoa. "Nina?"
"My soon to be step mum."
"Do you want to talk about it?"
"My mother died when I was a child, my father was so upset…I don't think he ever has fully got over her." She put her hand to her chain and clung onto a ring that hung from it. "He's never been the same since she past away. He just concentrates on his work and when he's not doing that, he drinks. I tried to help him…but he would still drink and then when he was drunk…he'd tell me how much he hated me," she let out a sigh before continuing. "I always told myself that he was drunk and he didn't mean it but…words can hurt."
Squall nodded his head in agreement, he knew, words can hurt. "Is that why you came here?" Squall asked. "So you could get away from him?"
Rinoa shook her head. "No, I couldn't just leave him like that. I wanted to do something to make him happy, just once. I made him go to all these business parties to socialise with a few people. Finally he began to cheer up a little and he even gave up all the drinking. Then one day he came home and told me he had met someone, Nina Richardson. I was happy for him, of course but as time went on things got more serious between them and she started interfering with me and my father's relationship. I felt I felt I couldn't stay there anymore and that's why I came here. To spend sometime away from Nina."
She looked at Squall and watched as he drove. "I'm sorry," she said. "You probably didn't want to hear all that about me."
'I just feel I can talk to you, but I don't know why' Rinoa thought to herself.
Squall pulled the car up by the side of the house where Rinoa lived. Rinoa took off her seatbelt and turned to Squall who was looking at her. "I don't want to go home yet. Would you like to go for a walk?"
"Alright"
~*~*~*~*~
The park, which was usually crowded with children, now looked deserted and spooky in the darkness of the night. There were a few random sounds of owls and other creatures around, but apart from that it was calm and silent.
Rinoa sat down on a swing and Squall took position on the swing next to her. Rinoa looked up into the darkness above her at the stars. She saw a shooting star jet across the night sky leaving a long, white tail in its wake. She looked over to Squall, who had also seen the shooting star. "It's a beautiful night, isn't it?" she said.
Squall nodded his head as he continued to look up. Rinoa sat for a moment in silence before speaking again. "That thing you did to that deer tonight, it was caring."
Squall looked at Rinoa confused. "What do you mean?"
She gave him a slight smile. "That deer…I saw it, it was on the ground bleeding and you…healed it."
Shit she saw, Squall thought to himself. He ran a hand through his brown hair, not sure of how to respond. What could he say? He could feel Rinoa looking straight at him, more than likely waiting for him to speak. She took her gaze off him and stared at the ground.
"You're one of them, aren't you?" She returned her gaze to Squall. "You're a mutant."
Squall let out a sigh as he nodded his head. He looked at Rinoa to find her smiling slightly, but it quickly faded to a serious look. "Can mutants do this?" she asked as she looked down to the ground as if she was searching for something. Finally her eyes fell still, her body fell into a frozen stance as her eyes stayed locked on the ground. Squall followed the gaze towards a small stone. Every few seconds it moved slightly, then gradually it raised from the ground and hovered in the air, before falling back to the ground.
After this Rinoa turned back to a shocked Squall. "You're a mutant too?" he asked confused.
Rinoa smiled again. "I don't think so," she began pushing herself backwards and forwards on the swing. "You're a mutant, can you remember being trained as a soldier when you were younger?"
"Yeah."
"The only memories I have are with my family." She stopped swinging. "And besides I can remember hearing about when they wanted to destroy the mutants when I was younger."
Squall looked at her confused. "So how can you do them things?"
"I'm not sure, but I've always been able to do it. I never told anyone though…" she paused for a moment. "I used to do it when I was on my own. One time when I was around five I was in my room lifting things up with my mind, my mum came in my room and saw." She took her eyes off Squall and stared at the ground. "She was really upset. She told me never to do it again for my own safety and if anyone found out it would put us all in danger," she looked back towards Squall. "Could you…help me find out how I got my powers?"
Looking at Rinoa, Squall could see in her eyes she desperately wanted to know who or what she was. Squall smiled slightly. "Of course I will."
"Thank you so much Squall, you don't know how much this means to me." Rinoa stood to her feet. "Can you walk me home?"
~*~*~*~*~
"So are you and Seifer really brothers then?" Rinoa asked as they walked down the street leading to Rinoa and Selphie's home.
"Yeah."
"How?"
"Me and Seifer, we're both made from the same genetic DNA, although they altered our physical appearances. I suppose if we were still soldiers we'd have the same sort of personality but that's changed through the environment we live in."
They stopped as they approached Rinoa's house.
"Thank you Squall," Rinoa said. "It really means a lot to me that I've been able to talk to you."
Rinoa stepped closer to Squall and wrapped her arms around his waist. She didn't expect Squall to react to the hug but to her surprise she felt his arms slide around her. She didn't know how long they stood there but she didn't care, she felt safe in his arms. Rinoa dropped her arms to her sides and faced Squall. She wasn't quite sure what she was doing, but she found herself leaning forwards and placing a kiss on Squall's lips. Without saying a word, she turned around and walked back to the house. Taking one last glance at Squall she smiled and gave him a wave before closing the door.
"Well, well, well," came a happy voice from behind her. Rinoa turned around looking at a smiling Selphie. "Wouldn't have thought Squall was your type but life's full of surprises."
Rinoa rolled her eyes at Selphie's comment. "Selphie, he's just an old friend."
"Oh yeah, that hug was waaay to long for 'just an old friend'"
"Whatever," Rinoa said, giving Selphie a gentle push.
"Hey, I'm just being a good friend and spying on you," Selphie said laughing, and then headed into the kitchen.
"Do you want some hot chocolate?"
"Okay." Rinoa said, following Selphie to the kitchen.
(It was good to finally tell someone about what happened to me when I was younger. I never had mentioned it to anyone in my life, and there I was telling Squall. I always knew there was something special about Squall that noone ever saw. Thinking back on it now, I can remember some people who bullied him mentioning that when they were chasing him, he would run in a room and amazingly it would lock, even though there was no lock on the door. I felt quite honoured that Squall would tell me he was a mutant, it's not like he would have told many people, he's not stupid.
Selphie wouldn't stop bugging me about hugging Squall. I kept telling her that we were just friends. It was sort of the truth, when I hugged him it was intentionally being friendly. I don't think I realised it then but maybe I felt something more, like he was more than just a friend.)
Authors note: Hello it's me again! Incase anyone is confused, Rinoa is not a mutant. It will all be explained in future chapters. Review!
