Disclaimer-yes well…la la la….Squaresoft owns FF8 and all characters except the Sullivan's yada yada…you know the drill.

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Chapter 11-Revelations

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"Rinoa?" she heard a voice call, it was unmistakably someone she had known and loved for almost five years. Squall!

"Squall? Is that you?" she asked, breathing quickly.

No response.

She took a step forward to the bed.

Crap! She knows its me. "Rinoa, please." He struggled to get up.

"Squall?" She asked again. "Is it…really you…or am I…dreaming?" she questioned quietly, swallowing every few words.

"Yes, it's me," he sighed. Standing up from his sitting position.

"Shall I turn the lights on? Are you alright?"

"Don't bother, Rin. It won't make a difference."

"Difference? What do you mean?" she cried still planted on the spot, not knowing whether or not to rush into his arms, tears on the verge of falling. She had found her love.

"Rinoa, where are you?" The moon had by now shifted and could be seen through Squall's window. A slightly puzzled Rinoa used its light to find her way to Squall. She gently made her way to him over the short distance and took his hand. Rinoa was overcome by an immense change, like she was once again complete. She wasted no more time and held her arms around him, afraid that if she let go he might disappear.

Squall, too, was subdued to distant feelings of passion. How good it felt to be held again-to be loved. "Rinoa, please, don't make this harder for me."

"I don't understand. You've been alive all this time and you never once wanted to tell me?" The tears were, by now, freely flowing down her cheeks.

"Rin, this isn't going to be easy for me or for you, but please listen." They stayed in each other arms, Squall whispering where he sensed her ear to be. "Rinoa, I really did want to come back, but I just couldn't. You don't know how many times I was tempted to call you and ask you to come and get me, but I'd been fighting with myself for so long, so I just decided that my staying away from you was the best. You could go and live your life free of a burden."

"Squall, what burden? You'd never be a burden to me."

"But I would be." Squall paused, trying to swallow the lump in his throat. "Rin…Rinoa, I'm blind."

Rinoa held her breath for a moment, digesting what had just been said. Her Squall blind? His beautiful eyes no longer having the power to see the world.

"You're…you're blind?" she asked in confirmation. Squall's head nodded.

"I can't see a thing. I won't be able to watch any suns rise or set, I'd never be able to see the towns we pass by, I won't…"he paused to take a breath, "I won't be able to see you beautiful face again."

Silence surrounded them.

It was in this moment of silence when Rinoa slowly released her grasp of Squall. She brought her hands up to his face and held it, gently caressing his features. His rough cheeks, the scar and eventually his eyes. She felt the small damage that had been done; the cause of his blindness. She released her hold of his face, resting her arms around his shoulders causing him to bend slightly until their lips made contact. Squall tightened his arms already resting around her hips, pulling her closer to him, relishing in the moment that he had dreamt of for so long.

Reluctantly they both broke apart, still staying within close proximity of each other, foreheads touching and resting on each other.

"Squall, I still love you. Nothing could ever change that."

"I love you too, Rin. That's why I stayed away."

"No," she said shaking her head slightly, "If you did love me the you would have told me, you would've released me of the pain I felt for three years, you would've come back," she cried.

"I wanted to."

"I would've taken care of you, nothing would've changed."

"But I did change. I can't see any more. Do you know what kind of trouble that would've been ? I don't want you to live a life weighed down by me."

"I do."

"What are talking about?"

"Do you think that you were an easy person to live with even before your blindness? Trust me, you weren't. But I got through that, and I'm more than prepared to go through it again, just as long as I'm with you. Will you come back to Garden? Please say yes Squall…for me."

Breathing a sigh, he nodded in slight defeat. Heck, I'd do anything for you Rin... "Alright, Rin."

Satisfied with her answer she took his hand and led him back to the bed. "Come on Squall, let's get some sleep." They both lay on the bed, Squalls arms around Rinoa's waist, her back facing him.

"So what's new at Garden?" he asked in a whisper, determined to listen to her voice as long as possible.

Rinoa shrugged, "Well, Seifer's the Commander now, so you've kinda lost that job."

"That's okay, I never wanted it anyway."

"I know that all too well," she giggled. "Umm, Quistis and Seifer are together, Irvine and Selphie are still a couple, Zell's still into hotdogs, we don't see a lot of Cid any more. We had the Spring Ball just last night, organised by Selphie…" her voice trailing, recalling the event that had happened between her and Brendan.

As if reading her mind, he inquired, "So are you and Brendan…?"

"Hyne no, at least I hope not."

"I heard him saying something about you being able to be his girlfriend last night, but he wasn't sure. What's that about?"

Rinoa bit her lip. Should I tell him? "Well…last night we…we kissed. I told him that it didn't mean anything this morning and it really didn't. it was all in the moment, and I was thinking of you the whole time," she added quickly. "Please don't be angry."

"I'm not angry" Liar! Well...it is kinda my fault though... he thought, instead he said, "It meant nothing. Besides, you didn't know I was alive. And I know that you would never cheat on me…would you?" His response was a nudge in the ribs.

"Is it stupid question time? Of course I wouldn't. And according to Selphie I 'haven't been out for three years'." Squall tightened his hold of Rinoa.

"Am I that hard to get over?" he smiled.

"Could your ego get any bigger? Shuttup now, let's get some sleep."

"Okay, Rin." Then he kissed her head. This is what he had missed the most. Her being with him, the mood she set him in. "I'm sorry," he muttered. He didn't get a response for awhile so he assumed she had fallen asleep.

"Sorry for what?" she asked even though she knew the answer.

"Sorry for leaving you alone and being stubborn."

She turned in his arms to face him. "Apology accepted. As for your being stubborn, I'm used to it." She kissed him quickly then closed her eyes, getting into a comfortable position.

Nothing more was said.

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Iona Sullivan walked from the kitchen where she had breakfast cooking. She firstly knocked on Brendan's door then went in.

"Brendan. Wake up. Breakfast is almost ready. Get cleaned up."

"Ok, I'll be out in a sec," he responded without moving or opening an eyelid. She went and closed the door behind her. Next was Rinoa. Following the same procedure she knocked and walked in, surprised when she saw the bed was empty, the blankets a little crumpled. Must've gone for some exercise, she seems like the athletic type. Without another thought of Rinoa's whereabouts she crossed the hall, knocking on Squall's door quickly. She walked in.

"Squ…" was all she had said when she saw Squall and Rinoa together sleeping in each other's arms. They look so sweet together! She quietly walked out and closed the door behind her, smiling to herself. Not wanting to disturb them she called from outside the door, "Steve! Get up! Breakfast is almost ready." She was careful to use his alias, seeing that Brendan could've been listening.

Rinoa was the first to open her eyes, though it wouldn't have made much difference to Squall. "Come on Squall, we better get up. Breakfast smells good." She tried getting up but Squall's arms restrained her. "Squall let go, I'm kinda hungry."

"Stay awhile, let Brendan go first, he'd find it weird if he saw you coming out of my room."

"How do you know that he'll see?"

"'Cause his room is next door to mine."

"How did you know that?" she frowned.

"He used to keep me up at nights because he'd play his damn guitar."

Rinoa laughed, "You really don't like him do you?"

"Despise him."

"Well I'm going out, I don't care if he sees." Squall released her. She walked to the door and opened it almost colliding into Brendan. "Oh, good morning," she said before closing the door and quickly walking into the bathroom. Wasn't she in the other room? I saw her sleeping in the other room. That's Steve's room...

He stepped back as he saw the door swinging back. "Good Morning, Steve."

"Oh hey, Brendan. Is the bathroom taken?"

"Yeah, Rinoa's in there." Though you probably knew that, seeing as she just came out of the same room!

"Oh, I see. Thanks." That said he retreated back into his room. When he heard Brendan's footsteps disappear down the hallway he went back outside of his room and knocked on the bathroom door. "Rin, hurry up!" The door opened promptly.

"Fine, fine, I'll change after breakfast." She kissed him quickly and made her way to the kitchen. Brendan was already seated at the table eating what looked like fried bacon and scrambled eggs.

"Smells good, Mrs Sullivan."

"Thankyou Rinoa," she smiled. "Have a nice sleep last night?"

Rinoa blushed at the question. "Oh, yes thanks." Brendan saw the blush and wasn't sure of how to interpret it. Did she and Steve...? No way! Rinoa would never do that. It's totally a misunderstanding. Maybe she went in to wake him up. That must be it.

"When can you start working?"

"Oh, well I'll have to think about it. Could I get back to you in about a week?" I still have to discuss it with Squall.

"Sure, whenever you're ready," she smiled.

Squall came in shortly afterwards. "Morning Mrs Sullivan."

"Good morning, Squall. Would you like breakfast this morning?"

"No thanks. I'll just have some orange juice, though."

"Sure thing." Iona nodded. She went and poured him a glass, placing it in front of him. He felt along the table, careful not to knock anything over.

Brendan watched thoughtfully and tried to make a joke, "What are you, blind or something?" he said with a laugh. He got a glare from his Aunty.

"Uhh, yes actually I am, Brendan." Brendan stopped his laughing and looked at his aunt who was shaking her head.

"Oh, I didn't mean any offence." Shit! How the hell was I suppose to know he was blind. I just thought he was the loner type, the way he hung his head, and his hair hid his eyes most of the time.

"None taken," he replied nonchalantly. Moron! Can't he figure things outs for himself? Or does he need to be spoon fed all the time?

Rinoa watched with interest and was on the verge of laughing, herself, at Brendan's ignorance. Finishing her breakfast she excused herself, "Well, that was delicious Mrs Sullivan. I have to change though, I'll be back to help wash the dishes."

"Oh don't worry Rinoa, I'll be able to take care of it." Rinoa smiled then departed to her room. Iona took Rinoa's plate and started washing. Suddenly Brendan turned to Steve. "Steve, I'm sorry if this is all a misunderstanding, but I saw Rinoa coming out of your room this morning. To be blunt, I don't appreciate you hitting on my girlfriend." Girlfriend? My girlfriend? Did I just said that?

Girlfriend? Are you dreaming, buddy? First you make fun of me...ok accidentally...then you call Rin your girlfriend! That's going past the line! "Well, Brendan, I don't appreciate you calling my fiancee your girlfriend," he stated through gritted teeth

Brendan was struck dumb.

After a moment of silence Brendan managed to spit out, "Rinoa is your fiancee? I didn't even know she was engaged. She did have a boyfriend…but he died…"he said mostly to himself, shaking his head in the process.

"Well, I'm very much alive."

"Then you must be…"

"Squall Leonhart." Iona answered for him.

A/N-well…I thought that leaving that cliffhanger was a little…er…cruel, so I decided to update…not really all that difficult considering all I hafta do is upload it. I've already written up to chapter 13!! All read to be uploaded…I wrote them all in advance because I have exams coming up and its much easier to copy, paste and upload than it is to write a whole chapter then copy, paste and upload. I'm sure all of you know exactly wat I'm on about…I apologise if you don't. well, thankyou for everyone who's still showing interest…your reviews sure do brighten up my day and gives me new motivation to continue…anyhoo…that's was a really round about way of saying…please review!!! Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and as you probably expected…there will be a lot of Squinoa fluff in the future from here on in! but its not all bad ;) the story is far from over…I assure you. Thanks again!! luv y'all!!