---Disclaimer: I own nothing of Final Fantasy VIII. Everything is © Square.

---Author's Notes: The description of the Clock Tower might be a little off, because I'm still fighting Adel in the game. (x.x) WAIT! WAIT!! DON'T SHOOT! I do know the ending, so all of my facts are correct pertaining to that; I'm not a fraud, I swear it! I have seen the ending! I'm just warning you ahead of time about the sparse description. And please, by all means correct me if I've done something out-of-kilter. Thanks. Oh, and I'm including a quote in the beginning because it fits these too so well ^^

~

They say the rhythm of the earth is interrupted

By the out of the ordinary.

But how can you interrupt,

With something that was meant to be?

~

It was so dim up there. Rinoa could hardly make out Squall standing next to her; he was nervously contemplating the situation at hand, trying to decide if they needed time to prepare before facing Ultimecia or if they were ready. Everybody was worn from battling the Omega Weapon, but they were ready - everyone had been healed to the full extent, and they were ready. Or as ready as they'd ever be. However, it pained Rinoa to see that he was baffled at what they should do; usually he was so 'take-charge' of the situation, commanding the Gardens into battle and sounding so inspirational over the com that day (not that she'd heard it; she had listened to a replay of it from Zell). Finally, he ran a hand through his hair and directed Zell to go in ahead of him. She was about to trail him, but the Commander grabbed her arm.

"What is it?" She asked, genuinely concern. She had never seen that much emotion displayed on his face at once. He knew what he wanted to say, but just looked worried about saying it.

Drawing in a deep breath, he said, "Just . . . whatever happens, in the end - just walk on, okay? Only worry about yourself." It seemed to take a lot of effort just to get those few words out. Rinoa was taken aback, her eyes wide.

"But - you - you guys are my companions, my comrades . . . if I had a choice to run or save you, I would choose the latter, no question -" She began, but he cut her off sharply, his demanding manner back.

"No! Just - just promise me that you'll think about yourself first, okay? I mean, if you have the chance and something bad happens, by all means save us if you can - but if you don't have the time, don't do it. Swear it, Rinoa!" He commanded, shaking her shoulder.

Although she didn't mean it, she nodded. "O - okay. Fine. But if -"

"Go! Just go if you need to. Now c'mon . . . might as well face it now." And, with an incredible sense of dread, the two walked into Ultimecia's awaiting chambers, a huge sense of dread in the pit of their stomachs . . .

~

Rinoa's eyes shot open, but she didn't sit up in bed. That would have woken him up, and, after what Selphie put them through last night, was a bad idea. When Kiros finally hauled their sorry hides up to their separate rooms, shaking his head, it was around four o'clock in the morning. Rinoa had immediately run into Squall's room, and he accepted her warmly - the rest of the night was lost in the vortex of half-drunkenness and delirious babbling. They both had been somewhat tipsy from the 'celebration' that Ms. Mary Sunshine had thrown, although kissing hardly seemed something worth celebrating. Laguna had been miffed that the applause wasn't for him, as well as the celebration; however, he had gotten all the money needed to fund the laboratory, and by the end of the night he was nursing his third champagne and heartily thanking his son and the Sorceress beside him.

Tracing her fingers down his bare chest, she smiled slightly to herself. She never would have expected that Squall Leonhart was a late sleeper; he was so duty-bound, she found herself thinking sometimes that he would wake up at three o'clock in the morning. However, since she had had to wake him up several times in her life, she finally settled that all of his work had driven him mad with exhaustion and caused him to sleep late. Which was fine with her . . . sometimes.

"Welcome back to the world of the living," She said quietly as his eyes opened halfway. He closed them again, turning onto his stomach and away from her. "No you don't. No more sleep for you." She grinned, grabbing his shoulders and hauling him into a sitting position. Squall immediately growled and sank down under the sheets again, covering his head. Rinoa slid off of the bed and yanked the comforter away, making him shiver slightly at the sudden surge of the air-conditioned suite. "You're lucky I feel sorry for you," She said, laughing slightly and tossing the covers back onto the mattress. She hopped back up, and he yawned.

"What time is it?" He murmured, blindly feeling on the nightstand next to him and grabbing the chain to his Griever pendant. Rinoa glanced at the clock on his bedstand; his eyes weren't open, so he wasn't looking at it.

"Around six. I'm surprised you're up this early," She said truthfully, curling against his side. He put his arm reflexively around her; she had gone to bed in her black tank top, forgoing the duster and skirt overlapping the black shorts.

"Well, if you hadn't started . . . touching me, I would've slept longer. Way longer," he said, a hint of anger in his voice. She frowned.

"I thought you liked that," She said, running a hand through his hair.

"I like it when I'm awake, not when I'm sleeping off five gallons of red wine," he muttered, clasping the pendant around his neck. She giggled.

"Selphie's doing, not mine. Go blame her. In fact, you can do it right now; it's time for breakfast! You're father's joining us," She said happily, bounding off of the bed and running into the closet to change. Squall's features froze and took a minute to thaw, and then he shook his head. After that speech last night, the moron deserved his son's company for a half-and- hour, at least. The Commander slid off of the bed and retrieved a clean white shirt from his travel bag, then shrugged into his coat. Rinoa bounded out of the closet, leaping on his back like a child in a pig-a-back ride. Squall let out a genuine "oof" when he felt her sudden weight upon his back, and latched his arms under her legs, lowering her to the ground.

"Off," He said sternly, and she complied, somewhat downtrodden. He rubbed his back where her boot had dug through the leather. "You've gotta stop with the spur-of-the-moment glomping bit you know? At least warn me first." He chanced her a rare smile, and she returned it, somewhat wider.

"May I jump and hang on around your neck, Commander Sir?" She asked, hardly able to contain her laughter as she formally saluted him. He gave her an official-looking nod.

"Yes." She did as she had said, leaping at him and looping her arms around his neck and knotting her legs around his back. He rolled his eyes but rubbed her back nonetheless, starting for the door. Rinoa scrambled off of him and opened it; however, a whole host was waiting in the hall already.

"Roooom SERVICE!" Selphie shrieked, jumping at Squall so forcefully that she knocked him clean off of his feet. Rinoa caught him before he hit the ground, and Irvine tore his wife off of his Commander and slapped her back playfully.

"Now, Sefie, you're committed now. You're not allowed to do that anymore," He mock-chastised, but she just grabbed his hat and darted into the room, leaping on the unmade bed and scowling at the canopy.

"Sir Laguna, how come they got a four-poster? I only got a single!" She complained, folding her arms and frowning at the President as he entered, blushing crimson and rubbing the back of his neck.

"Well - ah, this is actually Squall's room. I . . . ah . . . gave him the suite, since he's my son and all . . . the suite comes with a four-poster, so . . ." Quistis placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder; her hair was braided, and it shocked the two people who hadn't seen it before. Rinoa dropped Squall, who'd she'd been supporting, and the Commander himself closed his eyes and reopened them, as if expecting it to materialize back into its old style. Selphie growled at Laguna's response, but commenced jumping on Squall's bed, happily enjoying the feather mattress.

"Well, we brought room service," Xu said in a more pleasurable voice, wheeling in the cart. Zell was already charging down a plate of hotdogs, and cast a grin around the room before swallowing another whole.

"Great! I'm starving," Rinoa exclaimed, approaching the omelet platter.

So, work and dignity forgotten, the nine of them - Squall, Rinoa, Zell, Quistis, Irvine, Selphie, Xu, Laguna, and Ellone, who showed up a minute after the door closed - spread across the room and wolfed down the room service that Quistis had taken the liberty of ordering. They ended up needing a second cart, and the poor maid that had to bring it up was dumbfounded at the amount of people in the one room, not to mention the President and the Commander of SeeD. After they had finished, Quistis gladly pressed the tab into Laguna's hand, and the six SeeDs dispersed in a fit of laughter as the President scratched his head in dismay.

~

Snow fell softly on the other side of the window, sticking to the glass and frosting over Rinoa's vision of the outside world. Barely three weeks ago she'd been watching it from her torturous room in Trabia Garden, and now . . .

She grinned and traced Squall's cheekbone, making him look up at her. Although his first expression was one of anger at disrupting those SeeD rubrics he was finally grading, it soon melted away and he dropped the pen in his hand to bring it up and run through her hair. She held it there and knelt next to him, leaning her head on his shoulder. He sighed and freed his other hand, scraping back his chair and yanking her into his lap. Rinoa giggled lightly into his chest, curling up against him and grabbing his hand, lacing her fingers in with his.

"I had a dream, which was not really a dream at all . . ." She muttered, and kicked off from the desk, sending the chair spinning around and moving his hand as if they were dancing.

"Oh yeah? And did this unreal dream involve waltzing in a desk chair?" He asked, slightly amused.

"No, in a bar," She replied, kicking the wall and sending the chair spinning into a bookshelf. Squall blanched.

"Really? I had something similar, but it was more of a memory; it was about two weeks after the Ultimecia celebration, and we were in a bar in Deling . . ." He began.

". . . And you didn't know the new dance steps, so we waltzed and Zell laughed at us . . ." She filled in.

". . . And Quistis made faces at the back of his head," Squall finished. "Hyne, I'm going crazy." Rinoa laughed and felt his forehead.

"Nah. Everyone's got the flu. We've been in Trabia way too long, you know; I don't know why you've stationed Garden here anyway. I hate this place," Rinoa said, and raised herself on her knees to kiss his scar.

"I told you, it was a trade-off. The Headmaster wanted two dozen of our SeeDs to do some two-week seminar here about Hyne knows what. Xu's handling it, because I'm too dense at this time of year," he said, kicking the wall and sending the chair spinning back to the desk. He grinned, brushing her hair out of her face. "Still . . . how come you didn't get the flu? Everyone else did." He gestured vaguely to the door, and, as if on cue, it burst open, and a red-eyed Quistis came in, followed by a sniffling Seifer.

"Gotta - go ad monitor the SeeBs at Gaden. Swithing shifts with Zell," Seifer sneezed, rubbing his nose on a very worn-looking handkerchief.

"And I have to monitor him," Quistis said, shooting what was supposed to be an exasperated glare at Seifer, but turned out to be more of a fond apprehension. Rinoa turned her head against Squall's chest to stop from laughing, and even the Commander allowed himself a small smirk.

"Yeah, whatever. Just send the other ones back and tell them to PLEASE go to the Infirmary; all of the traveling back and forth between Gardens is killing everyone." Quistis nodded and gave him a failed SeeD salute, then grabbed Seifer's arm and dragged him out of the door. However, by the time it closed, Seifer was entertaining her with a story from when he was doing his public service, and by the time the lift bell pinged, the Instructor was laughing.

"I don't know what you did, but you really changed. Are you sure you're not doing this on purpose, Seifer?" She choked.

"'Course not. Not for dear Quisty, the Ice Queen," he joked, smirking violently. She slapped him on top of the head, but was laughing nonetheless.

Rinoa laughed into Squall's jacket. "She's changed a lot, you know? Did you realize that her hair wasn't in that stupid style that it's been in for . . . a long time?" She asked, looking up at him with eyes full of tears of mirth. He was digging through his desk drawer, and grinned triumphantly as he retrieved a bottle of pills. Rinoa glared at him and snatched it out of his gloved hand, examining the label.

"You really think I'm that dumb? They're for my migraines! Aww, c'mon Rinoa, you're not going to make me suffer with a headache, are you? That's the only stuff that works, despite the fact that it puts me to sleep half of the time that I take it . . ." He went off into a series of mumblings that retreated into inner thoughts as he discussed the habits of his pills with himself.

Rinoa shook her head and scrambled out of his lap, going over to the window and cracking it open. The bottle had landed in the snow, and Squall slapped his forehead angrily.

"Rinoa! That was -" He began, but she cut him off.

"I have a better alternative, and it's NOT what you're thinking, I assure you." His eyes seemed to fall for a moment, but when she climbed back onto his lap, he raised an eyebrow curiously. She put two fingers on his forehead, which only made his brow rise further, and closed her eyes. As pale blue hues emitted from her fingers, he closed his own eyes, and when she drew away, he still did not open them. "Better?" She asked, a smug look on her face. He nodded slowly, but a look of confusion was still on his face.

"Hyne Rinoa, you didn't give me a Sleep spell, did you? Oh, please no, I can't, I have to grade these . . ." He opened his eyes and gestured to the enormous stack of exam rubrics on his desk. She nodded cruelly, and grabbed his hand; yanking him out of his chair and kicking open the door. "This better be close by, 'cause I'm gonna fall and crack my head open in a minute . . ."

"It's the same effect as your headache pills, Squall; you can't blame me," She said wickedly, kicking open the door to her SeeD dorm. Everybody knew that it was against strictest SeeD rules to have a member of the opposite gender in a dormitory, but right now neither of them was thinking about the instruction manual - Rinoa was trying to get Squall onto her bed, and the Commander was trying not to fall asleep and crush her.

"But - it's not as strong as this - you shouldn't use your Sorceress gifts like that, so strong on your Knight . . ." His voice faded, losing its thread as she pushed him onto the bed.

"Listen, I'm leaving you here for a while. I feel like subbing in for you." With a final grin of satisfaction, she slipped his officer's keycard from his pocket and exited the room, locking the door behind her.

Well, at least those exams would get graded.

~

What do you think? Should there be another chapter, or is this one the end? Because either way, it's either going to end right here or next chapter. I would prefer it here, but I'm not so sure. If I get enough positive responses that say another chapter, I'll do it, although it'll be a tad bit short. Well, hope you're enjoying it.