DISCLAIMER: DON'T OWN FF8, BUT WOULD LIKE TO

Chapter VIII

"What's this Squall?" Rinoa asked with a smile.

"That is a moogle rose." Squall replied as Rinoa pointed to the small white bud growing at the side of the garden.

"A moogle rose?" Rinoa questioned as she bent down to get a better look at the red center it had.

"Yeah, a flower that slightly looks like a moogle." Squall leaned closer in.

"I see. I've never heard of them." Rinoa said.

"That's because their pretty rare. You don't see them very often. You see, the flowers petals are close together making it harder of insects to pollinate. That leads to..."

"It's okay Squall. You don't have to get a scientific about it. It's just pretty." She smiled and touched the smooth, small, white petals on the delicate flower.

"There's a legend about them." Squall now bent down to her also.

"Oh really?" Rinoa just held her position and listened intently.

"Yeah. They say that if you can find one with a pom-pom, it means that a moogle has turned itself into a rose to hide itself. Therefore, if u pluck it, the moogle will come out and grant you a wish." Squall explained.

"That's so cool! I guess this one doesn't have a pom-pom?" Rinoa examined the rose.

"Nope, but I hope that my wish will still come true." Squall stood up as did Rinoa.

"It already has." She leaned into Squall and shared the most innocent kiss Rinoa had ever had with him, and the last.

"Attention! Attention all Balamb Garden level three students! Would all level three students report to the first floor. Students with the id numbers 36510-36599 report to the training center, and students with the id numbers 36600-36680 please report to the front gate. That is all. Thank you." The intercom boomed across the garden as a mischievous voice somewhat like Hyne's.

The echoing voice reached into the infirmary where Rinoa lay asleep. Well, she did until awoken by the ominous voice.

What time is it? What day was it? What week...what year?

Rinoa pondered as her eyes began to flutter. She knew she was in the infirmary, but the question was when she was in the infirmary.

Squall's probably fifty years old now and I've been in a coma for all those years. It's almost like last time, but it was only a few days. Please let everything still be the same as it was when I fell. Please! Don't take the only things that I still have left in this world!

Rinoa clenched her sheets and her eyes squeezed together as if to hold back a tear. She mustered up the courage to turn herself around in bed and look around the room. Everything was the same as it would've been. She gave a small sigh and looked into the fluorescent lights.

The infirmary doors whooshed open as Rinoa heard footsteps clicking on the linoleum floor.

Please don't come over here! Oh please don't!

Rinoa went back into her huddle and almost stopped her breathing completely.

The footsteps clicked closer and closer to her. The became louder and louder. Click, click, click. Closer and closer, yet it seemed endlessly far away for Rinoa.

The clicking came to a halt as she felt a dark figure behind her. The essence of it was corrupted and swelling with intense emotion. The seas have grown dark and powerful.

"Rinoa." A deep and familiar voice broke the eerie silence of which was in the infirmary. The voice she had known all too well and would be happy to hear right now. However, the vibe that she got from it. That dark and evil vibe that she didn't like and always led to something.

Rinoa continued not to move. Her back was turned toward it and her eyes were open, but the figure still thought she was sleeping.

"Rinoa...I know...I screwed up." It said again.

Rinoa still kept still.

"I wish I could take it all back! I would have never done it if I had realized how special you were to me. I guess I just want to say that I'm sorry and I hope you can forgive me someday. I love you so much and can't bare the thought of losing you again."

Rinoa held back her emotions and continuously listened to it. She tried her hardest still not to move or cry.

"You know, that night I first did it...I looked for a moogle rose with a pom-pom to make it all go away for what I had done. But I guess that's just what happens. I was stupid and clueless. I hope that we can start all over again. Just be what we wanted to be and leave it all behind. So I know you can't answer me right now, or even hear me, but I just had to get it off my chest. I thought that this would be the first step to tell you even if you can't hear me."

But Rinoa could hear. Oh so very well.

"Well, I wish I could stay with you all day, but I can't. SeeD training for level three students. But I want to tell you that I love you and I will tell you someday. Someday it will all come out." The figure left it's darkness from her and walked out the infirmary.

Rinoa began to cry and she realized that her worst fears were true.