Disclaimer: I do not own FF8 in any way and all the characters from the
game are not mine.
AN: Hmmmm looking closer I realized that almost everybody had that problem with the uploading thing =P Guess it wasn't just me after all hahaha Anyways, I decided to upload a little quicker this time to make up for last time =) Enjoy.
Chapter 14: It's back to school time again... Rinoa's POV
I was still shocked by the time we got back into the transports. Quistis hustled everybody into three separate transports and I ended up sitting right next to Squall.
I've never seen anybody fight like that before. Squall was terrifying and strangely beautiful at the same time. It's hard to explain but his movements were so fluent and so quick that it made his blade look like a bright blue blur. When he struck, it was like some sort of dance.
Well, he was cute. That was for sure. Basically, he was PERFECT. Most of my friends don't like metasites because they think it's kinda gross to be going out with guys that aren't 100% human. Personally, I'm not too cool about going out with a metasite either...but I'll make an exception hehe...
Squall was silent, he had his eyes closed and looked more or like he was sleeping. I didn't want to disturb him so I just stared at him. I knew how good metasite senses were. Damn that was so embarrassing when that stupid Raijin guy overheard me!
My eye caught a small shiny thing on his chest. It stuck out clearly since he was wearing a black t-shirt. Looking closer I realized that it was a symbol of some sort. Like a lion and it was attached to a chain that hung around Squall's neck.
Squall's eyes snapped open and I quickly jerked back.
"Ummm....Good morning" I smiled a little. Second time I was embarrassed today!
"I wasn't sleeping." He smiled too. It was funny because when he smiles like that he seems like such a sad and lonely guy. But when he's fighting, there's a feeling you get when watching him, a very bad feeling. When he's fighting, you know he won't even think twice about killing you. That's what's scary.
"Well, I was going to apologize for waking you up but I guess there's no need now." I laughed to shake off that crappy feeling you get after being embarrassed.
"You don't have to apologize even IF you woke me up. I saw you looking at this." he said. He held up the necklace that I was looking at a minute ago. Geez his senses WERE good.
"Yeah, it's really nice." I said
"Thanks. I've had it forever." he replied. His eyes looked like he was staring off into space. The smile had long ago faded from his face. Replaced by the usual emotionless expression.
"Does it have a name?" I said. He looked very sad. Like he was fighting to tell me something but had to stop himself.
"Griever." he just croaked out that one word.
"Oh I see. Griever. It's a lion right?" I just wanted to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah, it symbolizes power and courage." he said.
"Cool...kinda like you." okay, I flirt, sue me. I couldn't help it. I just wanted to make him feel better.
He just smiled and didn't say anything. We were nearing the Garden.
Once we got back, we all had to gather in the Quad. There was supposed to be some sort of special announcement. Selphie sidled up beside me.
"Hey Rinny! Where's SQUALL??? teehee" Gosh, the girl liked gossip more than anyone I ever met.
"I dunno, he ran off somewhere." I said. It was the truth...sort of...I had no idea if he RAN OFF or not but who cares?
"He left you behind? Awww how could he?" she said. And she put on a pout.
"Shaddup Selphie." I could feel my cheeks going red again...they did that about 50 million times today.
Just then, Cid walked up onto the stage followed by Squall. Everyone went silent.
"Guess that's where he went." Selphie whispered.
"Hello students. Today is a very special day for all of us." I could see he had a slight smile on his face. Squall remained expressionless. "This as you all know, is Squall Leonhart. He has been with you for the past four months. But up until today, he has hidden his greatest secret from all of you. Squall is a metasite." well DUH.
Squall now dropped his gaze and his startlingly blue eyes were hidden by his long hair. He looked like he was shy.
"Squall has asked me to keep this fact a secret from all of you. Squall was in the Galbadian army before he came here. He transferred here out of his own free will. I trust him and you should all do the same. I'd like you all to refrain as much as possible from asking him questions or talking to him about his powers. I know that it is hard but that is the way I'd like things to be done around here. Squall will still attend all the same classes and everything will be just the way it was. If Squall chooses to tell you about his past then it is alright. But until then, please treat him the way he was treated before this incident."
Hey! He lied to me! Squall told me he was a renegade! How could he? I hate it when people lie to me and I fall for it. Oh Hyne I was made, all those things I liked about Squall were slowly ebbing away like water flowing out of a punctured cup. Cid was still talking but my mind drifted and I only heard his closing words.
"That is all." he said. Squall and Cid walked off the stage and out the Quad.
"Wow, who would've thought huh? Squall was in the Galbadian army." Selphie said.
"Yeah." I replied. I really didn't feel like talking much.
I broke away from Selphie and headed towards the cafeteria. Because of the battle, we had missed most of our classes. It was lunch time right now so we had about an hour to kill before attending the last class of the day, Weapons Training.
Squall still made me mad. He seemed so sincere when he was talking to me. I felt a sick swoop of anger. I didn't even watch where I was going and I almost ran into the person I least wanted to run into. Squall.
"Oh, hey..." he said. I almost literally bumped into him.
"Hey" I gave him my best death glare.
"You wanna go get something to eat?" he asked. I was mad at him, and I really did NOT want to see him. But, I could ask him why he lied to me. I really didn't give a shit about Cid asking us not to bother him.
"Okay" I replied reluctantly.
We walked the rest of the way not really saying much. I ordered my hot dog and he grabbed a Cola from the fridge. Everyone let him go first in line when they saw him. And because I was with him, I got to cut the line and order first as well. When Squall and I arrived at the cashier, the lady gave him a big smile.
"It's okay, Mr. Leonhart, it's on us. You too Ms. Heartilly." she said. The cafeteria ladies have a special skill...they somehow know every single student's name, it's creepy.
"Thanks but no thanks." Squall said. He placed 10 gil on the table and told the cafeteria lady to keep the change. He paid for my lunch too. We went to an open table in a corner and sat down.
"Corners are the best." I heard Squall mutter. PRAACK
He opened up his Cola and took a sip. Then he looked right at me. Right. At. Me. And his eyes carried that same sad look they did when he wasn't fighting. I was just about to scream at him about lying to me when he spoke.
"Rinoa, I'm sorry." he said.
"W-what?" I replied confused.
"I'm sorry I lied to you. I didn't mean to, really I didn't. I just couldn't let anyone know the truth. I didn't want the attention. Please forgive me." he said. Well, what the hell was I supposed to say to that?!
"It's okay. I forgive you." I couldn't help it. I smiled at him and he did the same back. Then I noticed that there were dozens of students watching us.
"Were they watching us the whole time?" I asked Squall. I never noticed them since I was talking to Squall. He nodded.
RIIING
The bell. It was time for Weapons Training. Squall was in my class. We headed to the area together. Neither of us were in our uniform due to the incident at Balamb so we didn't have to change.
Weapons Training was a class where we fought all out. It was one of my favorite classes because the instructor was nice. Instructor Lane was an older lady but she kept in good shape. She was supposed to be an expert swordsman in her day but she retired now and came to Garden to teach. She knew about all the different types of weapons used at the Garden and was an excellent instructor.
"Alright everyone, I'm not going to work you too hard today because you guys already went to fight that metasite. In fact, I'm not going to teach you anything today. All we're doing today is sparring. I'll be pairing you up with a partner and you'll each get the practice version of your preferred weapon. It will be like a real fight and I don't want any of you to hold back." she said. She seemed to be looking straight at Squall the whole time she was talking.
Instructor Lane moved among us and paired us up. I was at the front of the line so I was basically the first one to be paired. As usual, my sparring partner was Selphie. I saw Squall at the end of the line. He was last to be paired and he was paired with Nida, the best fighter in our class. Now this was going to be interesting.
"Hey Rin, how do you think Squall will handle Nida?" Selphie said. We were lining up to get our practice weapons.
"I dunno. Nida's a pretty good fighter. But I don't want him to get hurt too badly since he's a pretty nice guy." I said. It was true, Nida was a good friend of me and I didn't want Squall to totally kick his ass.
"Okay everyone, you can start now." Instructor Lane's voice boomed out.
Selphie and I found a deserted spot in the Quad and started our duel. Neither of us were fighting really hard. We never did. Eventually, my blaster edge smacked into Selphie's head lightly and her nunchucks smashed me on the nose. We both just fell down onto the floor and sat there watching Squall and Nida fight.
"Well, that's as much as we're gonna do today! Let's watch this fight." Selphie said. She stood up and started walking towards Squall and Nida. I followed.
Both Squall AND Nida had practice swords with no sharp edge. They stood about 4 meters away from each other. Squall had his sword resting at his side gingerly tapping the ground. Nida was in full battle stance, his eyes were focused and intense. Then Nida charged with his blade over his head. Squall still stood his ground as Nida quickly moved in.
4 meters....
3...
2...
SWISH!
Squall shifted back at the last second and the dull blade passed by harmlessly. Nida quickly followed up his attack with another swing at Squall's abdomen.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! CLANG!
Finally, Squall brought his blade up and blocked a blow. Nida tried a roundhouse slash but was quickly stopped by Squall who snuck in and grabbed Nida's arm. What happened next I'm not too sure. It looked like Squall sort of removed Nida's sword from his hand and elbowed him. Nida dropped like a stone.
Then Squall dropped both his swords and bent down. He reached out a hand and Nida took it and pulled himself up. He didn't look like he was hurt too bad he grinned at Squall and Squall just smiled a little.
Boy, this was gonna make some interesting conversation tonight over dinner hehe...
AN: Thanks for all your reviews, they mean a lot to me. Hopefully I can upload faster now cuz my computer seems to be doing okay. Encouragement and tips on how to improve my writing are greatly appreciated! Thanks!
AN: Hmmmm looking closer I realized that almost everybody had that problem with the uploading thing =P Guess it wasn't just me after all hahaha Anyways, I decided to upload a little quicker this time to make up for last time =) Enjoy.
Chapter 14: It's back to school time again... Rinoa's POV
I was still shocked by the time we got back into the transports. Quistis hustled everybody into three separate transports and I ended up sitting right next to Squall.
I've never seen anybody fight like that before. Squall was terrifying and strangely beautiful at the same time. It's hard to explain but his movements were so fluent and so quick that it made his blade look like a bright blue blur. When he struck, it was like some sort of dance.
Well, he was cute. That was for sure. Basically, he was PERFECT. Most of my friends don't like metasites because they think it's kinda gross to be going out with guys that aren't 100% human. Personally, I'm not too cool about going out with a metasite either...but I'll make an exception hehe...
Squall was silent, he had his eyes closed and looked more or like he was sleeping. I didn't want to disturb him so I just stared at him. I knew how good metasite senses were. Damn that was so embarrassing when that stupid Raijin guy overheard me!
My eye caught a small shiny thing on his chest. It stuck out clearly since he was wearing a black t-shirt. Looking closer I realized that it was a symbol of some sort. Like a lion and it was attached to a chain that hung around Squall's neck.
Squall's eyes snapped open and I quickly jerked back.
"Ummm....Good morning" I smiled a little. Second time I was embarrassed today!
"I wasn't sleeping." He smiled too. It was funny because when he smiles like that he seems like such a sad and lonely guy. But when he's fighting, there's a feeling you get when watching him, a very bad feeling. When he's fighting, you know he won't even think twice about killing you. That's what's scary.
"Well, I was going to apologize for waking you up but I guess there's no need now." I laughed to shake off that crappy feeling you get after being embarrassed.
"You don't have to apologize even IF you woke me up. I saw you looking at this." he said. He held up the necklace that I was looking at a minute ago. Geez his senses WERE good.
"Yeah, it's really nice." I said
"Thanks. I've had it forever." he replied. His eyes looked like he was staring off into space. The smile had long ago faded from his face. Replaced by the usual emotionless expression.
"Does it have a name?" I said. He looked very sad. Like he was fighting to tell me something but had to stop himself.
"Griever." he just croaked out that one word.
"Oh I see. Griever. It's a lion right?" I just wanted to keep the conversation going.
"Yeah, it symbolizes power and courage." he said.
"Cool...kinda like you." okay, I flirt, sue me. I couldn't help it. I just wanted to make him feel better.
He just smiled and didn't say anything. We were nearing the Garden.
Once we got back, we all had to gather in the Quad. There was supposed to be some sort of special announcement. Selphie sidled up beside me.
"Hey Rinny! Where's SQUALL??? teehee" Gosh, the girl liked gossip more than anyone I ever met.
"I dunno, he ran off somewhere." I said. It was the truth...sort of...I had no idea if he RAN OFF or not but who cares?
"He left you behind? Awww how could he?" she said. And she put on a pout.
"Shaddup Selphie." I could feel my cheeks going red again...they did that about 50 million times today.
Just then, Cid walked up onto the stage followed by Squall. Everyone went silent.
"Guess that's where he went." Selphie whispered.
"Hello students. Today is a very special day for all of us." I could see he had a slight smile on his face. Squall remained expressionless. "This as you all know, is Squall Leonhart. He has been with you for the past four months. But up until today, he has hidden his greatest secret from all of you. Squall is a metasite." well DUH.
Squall now dropped his gaze and his startlingly blue eyes were hidden by his long hair. He looked like he was shy.
"Squall has asked me to keep this fact a secret from all of you. Squall was in the Galbadian army before he came here. He transferred here out of his own free will. I trust him and you should all do the same. I'd like you all to refrain as much as possible from asking him questions or talking to him about his powers. I know that it is hard but that is the way I'd like things to be done around here. Squall will still attend all the same classes and everything will be just the way it was. If Squall chooses to tell you about his past then it is alright. But until then, please treat him the way he was treated before this incident."
Hey! He lied to me! Squall told me he was a renegade! How could he? I hate it when people lie to me and I fall for it. Oh Hyne I was made, all those things I liked about Squall were slowly ebbing away like water flowing out of a punctured cup. Cid was still talking but my mind drifted and I only heard his closing words.
"That is all." he said. Squall and Cid walked off the stage and out the Quad.
"Wow, who would've thought huh? Squall was in the Galbadian army." Selphie said.
"Yeah." I replied. I really didn't feel like talking much.
I broke away from Selphie and headed towards the cafeteria. Because of the battle, we had missed most of our classes. It was lunch time right now so we had about an hour to kill before attending the last class of the day, Weapons Training.
Squall still made me mad. He seemed so sincere when he was talking to me. I felt a sick swoop of anger. I didn't even watch where I was going and I almost ran into the person I least wanted to run into. Squall.
"Oh, hey..." he said. I almost literally bumped into him.
"Hey" I gave him my best death glare.
"You wanna go get something to eat?" he asked. I was mad at him, and I really did NOT want to see him. But, I could ask him why he lied to me. I really didn't give a shit about Cid asking us not to bother him.
"Okay" I replied reluctantly.
We walked the rest of the way not really saying much. I ordered my hot dog and he grabbed a Cola from the fridge. Everyone let him go first in line when they saw him. And because I was with him, I got to cut the line and order first as well. When Squall and I arrived at the cashier, the lady gave him a big smile.
"It's okay, Mr. Leonhart, it's on us. You too Ms. Heartilly." she said. The cafeteria ladies have a special skill...they somehow know every single student's name, it's creepy.
"Thanks but no thanks." Squall said. He placed 10 gil on the table and told the cafeteria lady to keep the change. He paid for my lunch too. We went to an open table in a corner and sat down.
"Corners are the best." I heard Squall mutter. PRAACK
He opened up his Cola and took a sip. Then he looked right at me. Right. At. Me. And his eyes carried that same sad look they did when he wasn't fighting. I was just about to scream at him about lying to me when he spoke.
"Rinoa, I'm sorry." he said.
"W-what?" I replied confused.
"I'm sorry I lied to you. I didn't mean to, really I didn't. I just couldn't let anyone know the truth. I didn't want the attention. Please forgive me." he said. Well, what the hell was I supposed to say to that?!
"It's okay. I forgive you." I couldn't help it. I smiled at him and he did the same back. Then I noticed that there were dozens of students watching us.
"Were they watching us the whole time?" I asked Squall. I never noticed them since I was talking to Squall. He nodded.
RIIING
The bell. It was time for Weapons Training. Squall was in my class. We headed to the area together. Neither of us were in our uniform due to the incident at Balamb so we didn't have to change.
Weapons Training was a class where we fought all out. It was one of my favorite classes because the instructor was nice. Instructor Lane was an older lady but she kept in good shape. She was supposed to be an expert swordsman in her day but she retired now and came to Garden to teach. She knew about all the different types of weapons used at the Garden and was an excellent instructor.
"Alright everyone, I'm not going to work you too hard today because you guys already went to fight that metasite. In fact, I'm not going to teach you anything today. All we're doing today is sparring. I'll be pairing you up with a partner and you'll each get the practice version of your preferred weapon. It will be like a real fight and I don't want any of you to hold back." she said. She seemed to be looking straight at Squall the whole time she was talking.
Instructor Lane moved among us and paired us up. I was at the front of the line so I was basically the first one to be paired. As usual, my sparring partner was Selphie. I saw Squall at the end of the line. He was last to be paired and he was paired with Nida, the best fighter in our class. Now this was going to be interesting.
"Hey Rin, how do you think Squall will handle Nida?" Selphie said. We were lining up to get our practice weapons.
"I dunno. Nida's a pretty good fighter. But I don't want him to get hurt too badly since he's a pretty nice guy." I said. It was true, Nida was a good friend of me and I didn't want Squall to totally kick his ass.
"Okay everyone, you can start now." Instructor Lane's voice boomed out.
Selphie and I found a deserted spot in the Quad and started our duel. Neither of us were fighting really hard. We never did. Eventually, my blaster edge smacked into Selphie's head lightly and her nunchucks smashed me on the nose. We both just fell down onto the floor and sat there watching Squall and Nida fight.
"Well, that's as much as we're gonna do today! Let's watch this fight." Selphie said. She stood up and started walking towards Squall and Nida. I followed.
Both Squall AND Nida had practice swords with no sharp edge. They stood about 4 meters away from each other. Squall had his sword resting at his side gingerly tapping the ground. Nida was in full battle stance, his eyes were focused and intense. Then Nida charged with his blade over his head. Squall still stood his ground as Nida quickly moved in.
4 meters....
3...
2...
SWISH!
Squall shifted back at the last second and the dull blade passed by harmlessly. Nida quickly followed up his attack with another swing at Squall's abdomen.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH! CLANG!
Finally, Squall brought his blade up and blocked a blow. Nida tried a roundhouse slash but was quickly stopped by Squall who snuck in and grabbed Nida's arm. What happened next I'm not too sure. It looked like Squall sort of removed Nida's sword from his hand and elbowed him. Nida dropped like a stone.
Then Squall dropped both his swords and bent down. He reached out a hand and Nida took it and pulled himself up. He didn't look like he was hurt too bad he grinned at Squall and Squall just smiled a little.
Boy, this was gonna make some interesting conversation tonight over dinner hehe...
AN: Thanks for all your reviews, they mean a lot to me. Hopefully I can upload faster now cuz my computer seems to be doing okay. Encouragement and tips on how to improve my writing are greatly appreciated! Thanks!