The Adventures of RJ & Hunter
By PasifikStar
READ FIRST!
Author's Note: Yes...I'm still doing spell checks and typo editing...bare with me.
Remember, this part of the story is centered around RJ & Hunter. I kind of wanted
to make a whole Sephiroth is still really alive and is after RJ sort story, but I
figured ReCreating Hell is already pretty darn long. What do you guys think? It would
kill the story huh? Yep...I agree.
* All Standard Disclaimers Apply: I do not own Final Fantasy or it's characters.
"Hunter, man, you should've come with us!" one of Hunter's dorm mates exclaimed as they entered the bottom floor of the dorm and caught the blond reading a book on the couch.
"As much as I'd love to, I can't," Hunter mumbled. His voice was deep and masculine as his six foot frame laid stretched on the sofa. His straight blond hair was layered around his face slightly as reading glasses graced the tip of his nose, going over his emerald green eyes. "I need to finish reading this for class."
"You don't need to study," another dorm mate sighed enviously as he fell on the couch opposite Hunter. "You're number one in our class."
"Both academically and in fighting," the first dorm mate added. "Lucky bastard..."
Hunter sighed. "Will you guys shut up," he said. "I have to take that test sooner than you guys."
"Why?" the second dorm mate asked.
Hunter rolled his eyes. "Because I have to go back to Esthar early. My sister's party is Sunday."
"Dude, you have a sister!?" the first dorm mate gasped, his eyes wide open. "Is she hot?"
Hunter's green eyes narrowed as he glared at his dorm mate. "She's thirteen, you damn pedophile," he snapped. "And if I hear you say that again, I'll slice you in half, got it?!"
"Got it..." the other man mumbled.
Hunter stood up, about to go to his room to avoid any more distractions when another dorm mate walked into the room with a cordless phone. "Hunter, some chick is on the phone for you."
"You better pray that the woman you're calling a chick isn't my mother." Hunter hissed dangerously. The dorm mate shook his head.
"Someone named RJ." Hunter's eyes narrowed.
"RJ...?" He walked over and took the phone as the third dorm mate sat on the couch. "What the hell do you what?"
"Nice way to say hello, meany," an annoyed feminine voice replied. He could sense the sarcasm dripping from her voice. "Just wanted to call and say hi."
"Like I said earlier what do you want?" Hunter snorted arrogantly.
"I'm in Balamb," she stated. "You busy?"
"Yes."
"Geez...I guess...you answered THAT pretty quick."
"Well, I knew the answer right away," Hunter retorted. "Why?"
"Because I'm leaving for Galbadia tomorrow and I wanted to see if you wanted to hang out." RJ told him.
Hunter shook his head. "Let me guess...your mommy made you call me?"
"Well, duh, like I would call you willingly," she retorted. Hunter rolled his eyes. "Just say no so I can get on with my life."
"No."
"Bye."
"Bye." Hunter hung up the phone and tossed it to the third roommate. He turned to head up the stairs to go to his room when one of them called out.
"Whose RJ?"
"My parents' friends' kid," Hunter shrugged. "Some spoiled bratty kid from Esthar."
"She sounded cute."
"She's scrawny and complains a lot." Hunter shouted from upstairs. He slammed the door and the three roommates looked at each other.
"So where'd you guys go tonight?" the third roommate asked the other two.
"He dragged me to go with him to some piano recital for extra credit," the first roommate frowned as he looked at the second one. He grinned as he looked at the third. "One good thing, though, the last pianist was a total hottie."
"Definitely," the second one agreed. "What was her name...? Rainy Jules?"
"Raine Julia, man, how can you forget?" the first one scolded. "Damn...she was hot."
RJ stretched her leg high against a wall as she arched her back backwards. Pink ballet slippers were on her feet as she put her leg down and raised her other leg to stretch it. She wore a baby blue leotard with white tights and black leg warmers around her ankles.
"RJ!" a voice called behind her. She arched her back backwards once more and caught sight of one of the girls in her ballet class at the academy. RJ was one of the youngest members of the academy, made up of almost all underworld folk. As a result, she was in classes with people who were older than her grandfather and still looking as young and youthful as she.
"Hi, Rikku!" RJ said. "What's up?"
"You're still practicing?" the blonde smiled happily. "No wonder you're at the top of our class."
"My grandma went to this school," RJ said as she lowered her leg and began to do some stretches for her arms. She winked. "I have to maintain the Heartilly reputation."
"You should've stayed with us a day earlier," Rikku said as she flipped her blond hair over her shoulder. "We got to take a tour of Balamb Garden."
RJ inwardly winced, but didn't show any emotion outside. "Oh really?" she asked casually as she began to practice some arm motions.
"There are some SERIOUS hotties there!" Rikku exclaimed.
"One of my parents' friends' kids go there," RJ said casually. "Maybe you saw him. He's ugly, skinny, and...what else...oh yeah, evil."
Rikku giggled. "No evil guys there!" she exclaimed. "But really, there were some really good looking ones."
"Blah..." RJ said. "I don't need a man!" She began to practice some leaps across the room. "I am happily single!"
"You keep telling yourself that!" Rikku grinned.
RJ closed her beautiful blue eyes as her mid back length, layered dark brown hair was tied in a short pony tail. "So did you get to talk to any of these hot guys?"
"Yeah," Rikku said. "But there was one that we didn't get a chance to talk to. He was busy studying. Real cute. Tall, blond..."
"You really like blondes, don't you?" RJ said. She began to leap back across the room.
"Well, they say blondes know how to have fun!"
RJ grinned. "I like brunettes, thanks," RJ smiled. "So what was this guy's name?"
"Well, he was the dorm mate of that guy who we met at your recital, Wedge," Rikku explained. She watched as RJ made her way to the center of the room and raised her arms. "Wedge said that his name is Hunter. Hunter Almasy."
RJ fell.
"Oh, welcome back, honey!" Quistis' arms wrapped around her son's well built frame as he smiled, embarrassed at the attention his mother was giving him.
"Nice to be back, mom..." Hunter said as he tried to subtly push his mother away.
"Grab your gun blade boy," Seifer said with a cocky grin as he slapped his son's back. "Let's have a little test to see if you can beat me."
"Seifer, he just got back!" Quistis insisted.
"No, mom, it's okay," Hunter said with a grin. He matched his father's arrogant smirk with one of his own. "I can take the old man down."
Seifer smirked even more. "We'll see..."
Quistis sighed and shook her head. "Just don't take too long!" she said as Seifer grabbed Hyperion and Hunter unpacked his own gun blade. They headed for the back yard of their large house.
"You're so mean, Hunter!" a voice piped from the stair case. Hunter looked up and smiled as he saw his blonde, blue eyed baby sister glaring at him. "You don't even say hi!"
"I'm occupied with fighting off the old geezer." Hunter grinned. His father glared at him.
"I'll show you who's the old geezer...cocky little..." Seifer grumbled.
Quistis merely grinned and crossed her arms over her chest. *Like father like son, right, darling?* He shot her another glare and caused her to grin even more.
"Did you bring me anything?" the young girl said as she walked down the stairs dressed in a simple long pink dress. Her hair was held in a pony tail at the base of her neck.
"No," Hunter said. "I'm there for school, not to get you presents, Seraphim."
She wrinkled her nose. "But RJ always brings me back stuff!"
"RJ is only does it to shut you up." Hunter told her. Seraphim growled.
"Don't make me blast you with a fire spell!" she shouted as her brother walked away.
He merely snorted and raised his hand in the air casually. "Go ahead! Your weak spell won't do anything to me!"
"Mom!!" Seraphim shouted. "Hunter's being a jerk!"
Quistis sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. "That's because he's just like your father, dear..."
"Raine Julia!!" Laguna gathered his beloved granddaughter in his arms in a tight hug as tears streamed down his face. "My little baby is back!!"
Behind him, Squall was shaking his head as Rinoa smiled weakly. "Technically, she's OUR baby..." Rinoa sighed.
"Grandpa...!" RJ gasped. "I can't breath!!"
"Oh! Sorry, Raine Julia!" Laguna blushed and held his granddaughter away at arms length. He smiled proudly as he surveyed her. She had been gone for a few years at a finishing school for the arts.
The same school her grandmother Julia had attended. RJ moved away from her grandfather to hug her mother and father. Squall hugged her proudly and looked her straight in the eye. "Boyfriend?"
"None, daddy."
"Good." Squall asserted.
Rinoa rolled her eyes as RJ giggled. "You're so over protective..." she sighed. "Any cute guys?" she asked her daughter.
RJ smiled. *Same old mom.* "Tons."
"Good." Rinoa grinned. Squall and Laguna both frowned and Ellone snickered, noticing how the father and son mirrored each other's looks.
"Welcome home, RJ," Ellone said as the vampiress reached her. She hugged her and smiled. "You've grown up so beautifully."
RJ blushed and ran her hand nervously through her dark hair. "Thank you." she smiled. Just as her grandfather had foretold, RJ was a spitting image of Julia. Only her eyes were exactly the same as those of Raine, beautiful, clear blue crystals.
"I see you've grown taller than your mom." Kiros said as he and Ward hugged the girl.
"I know, Grandpa Kiros," RJ smiled. "I'm five four!" she giggled. She turned to her grandpa Laguna. "Oh, grandpa, Grandma Raine and Julia spoke to me last night with a message for you."
Laguna jerked his head back, looking surprise. "Oh really?" It had been quite some time since RJ had relayed a message to him from his dead loves.
RJ looked somewhat confused. "They said not to scare away everyone...I don't know what they were talking about."
Kiros and Ward snickered. "I bet I know..." Kiros mumbled.
Laguna blushed slightly, knowing exactly what they were talking about. They didn't want him to scare away all of RJ's potential suitors. But they never said he couldn't scare away MOST of them. He smiled at the realization. It was a small technicality, but one that could put his mind at ease.
"Did you call Hunter while you were in Balamb?" Rinoa asked as Ward and Kiros took her bags and brought them up the stairs to her room.
RJ was being lead to the dinner table for a family dinner with her just her, her parents, her aunt, and grandfathers. RJ nodded. "I did, but he was busy so we couldn't go out," RJ said. *Not like I wanted to.*
"Did you REALLY ask him?" Laguna asked. "Or did you just say that your mother made you call him?"
RJ smiled weakly. "Uh...both?"
"RJ..." Rinoa sighed. "You used to be such good friends with him. Remember when you were ten and he came home from the Garden on summer?"
RJ thought for a moment and then scowled. "We went camping..." she mumbled bitterly. "And he left me in the cave at night and told me to hang upside down like a bat..."
Squall bit his lower lip to keep from smirking. He had been there. Seifer, Irvine, Zell and him took the kids camping. It would be their kid's first camping trip. Seifer's daughter and Zell's son had stayed home, but Irvine and Selphie's daughter Rinny came along. RJ and Hunter had spent the entire trip trying to turn Rinny against the other.
That didn't work as Rinny burst into tears and ran to her father after RJ's eyes started glowing and she tackled the werewolf form of Hunter. He shook his head. They were so violet...
"Trust me, mommy," RJ assured her mother. "The last few years without seeing Hunter have been a blessing to my eyes."
"I heard he grew up quite nice," Ellone said with a sly smile. "Tall, too."
"He looks like his father," Rinoa giggled. "I heard he's going to be at Seraphim's party on Sunday."
"Blah..." RJ stuck her tongue out immaturely. The eighteen year old girl casually swept her hair over her shoulder. "I don't even want to SEE him there. He'll just make fun of me again, you know."
"Hunter isn't as bad as his father, RJ," Squall said casually as he looked back at his daughter. "However I'm starting to think it's in the Almasy blood to be vicious, bitter men."
"Squall!" Rinoa frowned. "Seifer isn't that bad!"
"Key word there is 'that' bad," Squall mumbled. "At any rate, if RJ doesn't want to see any boys, that's more than fine with me."
RJ giggled. "I didn't say I wouldn't see OTHER boys, daddy."
"Raine Julia, you're much to good for boys!" Laguna announced proudly. "You should be like your Aunt Ellone and NEVER marry!"
"I do date, uncle-"
"And go on step further and NEVER date!" Laguna added. Ellone rolled her eyes as Rinoa and RJ giggled.
"By the way," Ellone said as she fell into step with RJ and Rinoa. "There are some young men who will be attending Seraphim's party."
"Oh yes," Rinoa nodded. "They're Quistis' friends' children form the Esthar Garden."
"Mom..." RJ whined. "Stop trying to play match maker!"
"I'm not!" Rinoa gasped.
"You heard RJ," Squall agreed with a nod. "Stop playing match maker."
Rinoa sighed. "We're just telling you, RJ. You never really had a boyfriend..." Squall and Laguna both looked relieved at the knowledge while RJ blushed.
Ellone giggled. "RJ...you know...you never really broke up with your FIRST boyfriend." Ellone smiled.
"First boyfriend?!" Squall, Rinoa, and Laguna all exclaimed. They turned and faced the young vampiress.
"Baby, WHEN!?" Rinoa gasped with wide eyes.
"More importantly," Squall growled. "WHO."
"I...I don't know what you're talking about!" RJ gasped, putting her hands up. "Aunt Ellone, I've never had a boyfriend!"
Ellone shook her head. "You forgot? How sad..." Ellone sighed. "Do you remember how we first met?"
RJ thought for a moment and nodded. "Yeah...at the Memorial Ball. I was talking to Eiko and Vivi and Hunter and..." Her eyes went wide. "OH HYNE!"
"WHAT!?" Rinoa gasped.
RJ seemed to turn green as her eyes narrowed and she covered her mouth in disgust. Ellone chuckled. "Do you remember now?"
"Ellone," Laguna said sternly. "Who was RJ's boyfriend!?"
"Uncle, don't you remember?" Ellone smiled. "Who introduced RJ to us as his girlfriend that night...?"
Laguna tilted his head in confusion. "Hunter did..." his eyes went wide. "I thought he was joking!"
"He WAS joking!" RJ exclaimed.
"Oh, it's just Hunter then..." Squall shrugged. "That doesn't count."
"Thank you, daddy!" RJ sighed happily as she hugged her father tightly. "I knew YOU'D understand!"
"He just doesn't want to have relation to Seifer," Rinoa snorted. "I on the other hand would LOVE to be related to Quisty and Selphie."
"Mom!"
"Rinoa," Squall said in a low warning tone. "My daughter is not going to marry Hunter Almasy." Rinoa merely grinned.
"Think whatever you want, Squall," she said. "But who she falls in love with will but out of your hands," as she passed her husband she gently caressed his face. "YOU of all people should know THAT." She winked and continued on their way to the dining room.
Hunter was sitting in his room. He could hear his parents arguing in the other room and rolled his eyes. They were always arguing. But not in the bad way. It was more like a normal conversation to them. Each sarcasm laced remark and bitter drenched word was the equivalent to romantic poetry for other couples.
He and Seraphim had long since grown accustomed to their parents, although occasionally wondered why they even bothered to stay together. He looked around his old room, still kept the way it was since he was a child. He grinned as he looked through the pictures on the wall.
His family. Him and his sister. His aunts, uncles, grandparents. And then there was a little framed picture of him and a cute little vampire girl wearing a frilly dress. *Okay, I have to admit it... she was really cute as a kid...skinny and flat as a board, but cute.*
He reached over to the shelf and found the photo album he had left behind. He had met RJ when he was four, going on five. He'd never seen her before, so he approached her, acting like he knew everything. She merely gave him a look of being unimpressed and said
"Whatever."
Hunter let out a chuckle and said that he liked her and that they should be friends. So they decided to be friends and introduced the vampiress as his girlfriend. Technically she would've been his first girlfriend.
He opened the photo album. There were so many pictures of him and her over the few months that they had been together while he was still in Esthar. He wondered if things would've turned out differently had RJ been born in Esthar and not at Hell's Gates.
Hunter had heard the story many times of how RJ's parents saved the world with their self sacrifice and therefore served to strengthen the power of Hell's Gates' seal. So when the Leonhearts reappeared, and with a daughter, his parents and uncles and aunts were more than surprised.
It was already known that they were alive at Hell's Gates, so it wasn't a question of how they came back from the dead. It seems that with Adel there, the Gates were strengthened immensely. She was like a keystone to the arch held up by her parents who were acting as pillars of the gates. Rinoa and Squall had a chance to return to their world and raise RJ there.
RJ had told him that she didn't want to leave her grandparents. At Hell's Gates, RJ had developed the ability to talk to the dead and so she was frequently visited by doting grandmothers and a proud grandfather. She also didn't want to leave Sara and Leon and Adel. However, Rinoa and Squall saw it as for the best.
So they were allowed to leave the Gates thanks to Adel of all people. Hunter grinned as he looked through the picture and saw one of RJ covered in mud and looking up, caught at the camera. Part of him wondered how she looked like now.
He had heard his mother on the phone talking to Mrs. Leonheart earlier. It seemed that the vicious little princess was back in town. His mother was gushing about how pretty RJ must look like after several years away.
"Really? Just like your mom? Hahaha! What did Laguna say?" his mother had said. "REALLY? Oh my, I can't wait to see her again..."
*I CAN wait,* Hunter grinned. "She's probably still flat as a board, skinny, and whiny. She still sounded whiny."
They had occasionally called each other over the years after they had stopped seeing each other in the summers. He was a full time student and RJ was at a magic academy and arts academy at the same time. He closed the album and put it back on the floor before turning off the light. He would find out soon enough.
She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled. She really did look like both her grandmothers combined. Not that it was a bad thing. They were both pretty. Her dark hair was swept up into a bun with a few stray bangs over her forehead as garnet earrings hung from her lobes.
She wore a garnet studded choker that really stuck out against her ivory skin. Her dress was an off the shoulder number made of dark red satin and boarded with black lace. She had a heavy black lace shawl around her arms and back that was lined with black and red crystals at the ends. Her hands were gloved with dark red of the same material.
There was a knock on her door. "RJ?" her mother called. "The limo is here, baby!"
"I'll be right there!" RJ shouted. She looked at herself once more and grinned as she looked down at her chest. "Let's see if I'm still 'flat as a board' NOW. Hehehe..."
Dressed in a dark suit, Hunter looked over the hall. His parents were mingling with the elite as they celebrated his younger sister's thirteenth' birthday. Seraphim was wearing a white dress and was floating around the room, flirting shamelessly. Well, at least to him, she was flirting shamelessly. She was actually just talking to some classmates.
"Hunter!" a voice shouted. He turned and smiled, putting down his glass to shake the hand of a spiky haired blond man. "Welcome back to Esthar!"
"It's to be back, Uncle Zell," Hunter smiled warmly. "How are you doing?"
"Doing good!" Zell said energetically. He looked over Hunter's shoulder. "Ah! Looks like Seraphim and Quisty got those hotdogs for me! I'll see you later!"
Hunter grinned as Zell side stepped him and headed towards the buffet table. Suddenly, he heard a lot of commotion coming from the entrance of the hall. Even Zell turned and smiled as he took his hot dog and ran over to the entrance.
"You're back!" someone shouted.
"Hi!" a female voice laughed. Hunter winced.
*That evil laugh...* he thought to himself. *That can only be one person...* He saw someone hugging his parents and his mother and Aunt Selphie gushing over how pretty she was. *A skinny...bratty...spoiled...little...*
"Hunter, look!" his mother shouted as she moved away from the young woman and revealed her. "It's RJ!"
Hunter's face paled. *Holy shit.*