Chapter VIII

The dark blue sky had few dark masses that could be identified as clouds but the diamond stars lit up the heavens making it seem simply beautiful and nothing else.  The night called for romance in the air unfortunately, its desires were not met.  At least, not in the tiny mass of woods where Rinoa Heartilly and Squall Leonhart were huddled together around a tiny fire that had been attempted by Squall.

"I'm hungry … and you don't have to sit so close to me, I'm not that cold anymore." Rinoa muttered since she didn't quite have the energy to do much else.

"See, I would move away but you're clinging on to me." He tried to put in lightly as though not to anger the frightening creature.  She groaned and let go, edging away.  "I'm sorry, maybe it's my memory but I don't recall doing anything that could really make you hate me to this extent."

"Well, uh … wait … no … oh, there was that … no, that's not it.  OH WAIT … it was … no, that was in third grade, you weren't there.  Come to think of it … I really don't know." Rinoa answered and the reprimanded, "So why do you hate me?"

"I … don't." Squall concluded.

"Oh … oh … ok."

"Well … not that … that … has …"


"Just shut up."

"Now that's what I'm talking about!" Squall stated, "It's the negative energy between you and me.  I think I have a control issue."

"Really?" She arched an eyebrow.

"Actually, I was just making that up."

"Figures."

"So … how're you?" Squall asked randomly, pulling out conversations from hammer space.

"Fine." Rinoa replied.

"Yeah, you know what that stands for?" Squall asked, "Freaked out, Insane, Neurotic and Emotional."


"Isn't that from The Italian Job?" Rinoa questioned.

"Damn, you lowered my creativity skills."

"Uh huh…. NOW TELL ME THE TRUTH ABOUT YOU!" She jumped up on her two feet and snapped at him, "You know about therapists!  By the looks of it, this place doesn't look like it's too technologically advanced.  The scary neighbor farmer doesn't know what indoor plumbing but you do!  You and your 'iron nose' and scientific facts that haven't even come out yet.  You are a glitch in time, my friend and you are going to tell me how, what, when and why!  And I would add where if I thought it made any sense presently!"

"Well, 'what' didn't fit either but you just went straight ahead and threw that one in!"

"Ah shaddup and answer me!"

Squall shut up and began miming out things, "Why you little …" Rinoa hissed vehemently and went towards Squall in a raging tyranny.  He sheltered his head with his arms and shrugged his shoulders.  "SPEAK!"

"You told me to shut up!" He said in his own defense.

"Well, I UN-SHUT YOU!  ANSWER!"

"Listen, you can't let Selphie or Quistis know!  Good for you, you were smart enough to figure it out but anyone else can't!  Just … shut up about it!  Don't even tell Seifer about it … or Irvine.  Especially Irvine, he knows how to aim with a shot gun."

"Why did you keep it a secret?" Rinoa whispered.

"Because you'd think us crazy.  Listen, we come from a place called Balamb … have you ever heard of that?  No … but it's true.  We aren't crazy-"


Rinoa's face vaulted, "I live in Deling." She mumbled, "My father tried at several times to blow up that town you come from because it's 'ugly and worthless to the economy' and that's just completely taking aside the fact that you're an independent region."

"CARAWAY!" Squall yelled and pointed at her, "You're his spawn!  STAY AWAY!" He did a small cross with his two index fingers and backed away from her.

"Last I recall you tried to blow US up … with your stupid SeeD forces and what not-"


"I'M A SeeD!" Squall screamed back.

"So you tried to blow me up!"  She yelled back, "BAH!" She cut him off when he tried to speak, "That's it, ATTEMPTED MURDER!"

"There's gunna be one more!" Squall raised his fist threateningly.

"Hit me, SeeD boy and the first thing you'll know my father's lawyers'll be after your goddamn ass-"

"Because daddy's here to protect you now?"

"No … but, that's completely besides my point.  What happened to before when we were civil?" The last sentence was some sort of whine.

"We were civil?"

"Well five minutes ago we were." She whined some more, "I'm tired and hungry and we're lost and we're … we're screwed."

"That we are."

"Okay, well, here's the plan. I'm going to sleep in that cave out of the rain that's about to poor and you can stay here, by the fire. So, how it works is that I get dryness and you get about-to-be-extinguished-warmth, okay?" She said, completely proud of how smart she could be at times. She had managed to get the longer end of the deal.

"Uh … or I could come in the cave with you and we could make our own warmth."


"GET AWAY FROM ME! YOU STAY OUTSIDE AND POUND ON THE WALL YELLING 'WILMAAAAAAA!'"

"I didn't mean it that way!" Squall tried to put in, "And since when is your name 'Wilma'?"

"Oh, I'm sure that's not what you mean." She retorted sarcastically and chose to ignore the last statement.

"Just admit it, human body heat is a great source of warmth and with two people, we'd have more luck at keeping it."

"FUCK OFF!!!"

"Aww… But I don't want to be wet…" Squall whined. As an after thought, he added, "Besides, you never know if there's a bear living in there…"

"Let's see," she started sarcastically as she imitated a balance scale, "Attempted murderer," she sneered as she stuck up her right hand slightly higher than the left, "or imaginary bear." Doing the same with her left.

She continued to imitate a balance for an extended period of time. She wasn't in a happy mood and it was very evident to Squall. However, he wasn't exactly content either. He was not being taken seriously while he was 'gallantly trying to save her life from mortal peril' while trying to skootch his way into shelter.

Slowly, his face muscles began to twitch and all could see that she was hitting a nerve. Except for her. She was too busy making a mockery of him to notice.

"Alright already. I know what you're trying to do and it's not working. You might think that you hold all sorts of 'power,'" he said that using air quotes, "but it's not working. It's well known that men-"

"Excuse me?" she asked incredulously while holding a very large tree branch. "Run that by me again."

"Okay. I take that back. Let's think about this rationally."

"Rationally? Rationality has just left for The Island Closest To Hell!" She snapped.

"Okay. Just forget about what personal issues you have with me and remember them tomorrow. Right now, I just want to sleep.  Not fuck, sleep.  So you don't have to worry about anything at all … except maybe that imaginary bear."

"I shake with fear." She rolled her eyes.  Suddenly, unexpectedly … it began to pour.  Big gushing drops fell down from the seemingly 'clear skies'.  Rinoa and Squall ducked inside the cave, bear or not.  "Why does this always happen?  It's like someone's WRITING our story and having fun making us miserable."

"You come up with the wildest ideas." He mumbled and rubbed his eyes, "I'm so tired, let's just sleep."

"You stay on that end, I'll stay on this end.  Warm or not.  It's called the fetal position stupid."

"Did you just say 'foreplay'?"


"FE-TAL PO-SI-TION."  She articulated the words like a teacher would to a slow children.

"Fecundation?"

"NO!  FUCK YOU!"

"Rather fuck you but anything works."

"Bah!"

They each marched to their separate corners ready to fall asleep away from one another.  The floor wasn't comfortable, anyone knew that but the rocks and dirt were deathly cold from the lack of sun and were conveniently poking their backs because that is just what rocks do.  They shifted for five minutes, founding a less painful position and silence consumed the cave.

Rinoa was having trouble sleeping due to all the noises of the forest. Not to mention it was cold. She would never admit it to anyone and especially not Squall. He'd probably end up suggesting face sucking to take their mind off the pain.

On the other side of the cave, Squall faced the same troubles. Hesitantly, he called out to Rinoa. "Hey… Are you still awake?" He waited thirty seconds for an answer but none came.  "Okay… fine… I take it as a 'no'." And he continued to shift again.

"UGH! Could you stop that?" She yelled.

"Great. Glad that I woke you up."

"What do you want?"

"Tell me, what's so bad about me?"

"Nothing… Aside from being a pervert, trying to kill me and pissing me off all the time."

"Well… You never gave me a chance."

"And who's problem is that?"

"Um… aww…"

"Yeah. Now go to sleep."

They shut up and tried to sleep again. Squall was about to fall asleep when someone wrapped their arms around him and whined, "I'm cold." That was confirmation. It wasn't a dream.

"Excellent." He muttered gleefully.


"What?"


"I said … uh … me too."


"Right."

He pulled her over to the front of him and stretched an arm out for her to rest her head on.  The rain pounded outside.  "I can't sleep through thunderstorms." Rinoa whined slightly.

"This isn't a thunderstorm."


"I'm still scared."

He held her closer as if it provided a source of comfort. "That better?"

"Um… Not really… but thanks." She turned around and gave him a small kiss on the cheek.  Feeling bolder, he kissed her on the lips ever so lightly. She responded and deepened the kiss.

They broke for air and whispered, "Wow …" They stared each other in the eye and Rinoa spoke up first.

"I don't feel so scared anymore."

Silently, they drifted off to sleep, never knowing that they dreamt about each other as they forgot it when the morning came.

Author's Note: We are fucking worms, god save us, this took forever and our creativity is at zero.  Pray for two months at least.  And if you don't review, oh believe you me … we are going to find out where you live and rip your spine from your ass … and beat you with it.  THEN go after you're family.  Do not call CIA … please, we're enough trouble as it is.  REVIEW.  Please?