Disclaimer: I do not own any Final Fantasy VIII characters or location.
They all rightfully belong to SQUARESOFT but everyone thinks that it would
all be better in my hands, right? *Tumbleweed of silence blows by* Right?
Chapter Twenty-Two
The training sessions were long and brutal. Squall and Caraway were used to it as they frequently went on missions for the agency however Rinoa and Julia had a tougher time keeping up. Even though the two had kept in shape over the past years they had neglected the long forgotten techniques of martial arts.
However, it wasn't quite the training that irritated Rinoa to a point of insanity. It was the amount of people she was living with that was driving her up the wall. For the past six or seven years she had been living a quiet, family life with a maximum of four people in the household which even caused her to blow her stack once in a while. You see, if Rinoa had been chosen to appear on such a show as 'Big Brother' she would most likely murder all the other candidates before the second day.
And she was now trapped with a hefty number of seven people in a distinctly small area. You couldn't leave one room and emerge in another without seeing someone else. She couldn't go anywhere to be alone. Not to mention that she was surrounded by cardboard boxes.
Another issue was food. "I've been doing physical labor all day long and what's for supper? Broccoli!" She poked at it with her fork disdainfully, "Broccoli and tofu!" She didn't even dare touch the tofu.
"You can't fit much in a miniature refrigerator and the stove isn't the best so will you shut your mouth and eat?" Caraway growled from his end of the table.
"Heck no!" His angry daughter replied, "I want some real food!"
"Then why don't you go out and get some!" Her father drawled back sarcastically.
"You know, I think I will!" She rose from the table defiantly and pushed in her chair.
"You leave this table and there will be consequences!" Her father roared, slamming his fist on the table and rising to a standing position also.
"Just like the old days, isn't dad?" And she walked off through the piles of cardboard boxes in the direction of the slate stairs.
"For crying out loud!" The General snapped and rubbed his temples, "I'm sorry I misjudged you Leonheart, you are the bravest man alive to live with that girl!" He stomped off after his daughter.
"Well she isn't that bad if you let her do what she wants." Squall too got up and he too followed the footsteps of his angry wife. Julia and Zell soon got up and pursued them with the children close behind.
When they found Rinoa she was scrounging around in the fridge upstairs, "You could have at least brought up a gun!" Her father's voice scolded from behind her, "And now that you're up here you might as well make some food for everyone."
"My pleasure, where do you keep your arsenic?" She responded with some slight sarcasm apparent, "Not like you have any more food here. Ham . bread . mm, carrots? Oh, can't forget the yummy rice cakes . what are you on, a diet?"
"No, however you might do some good to yourself if you picked up a diet, sweetheart." He snapped at her and she whirled around to face him.
"You just called me fat!" She hissed in disbelief.
"No, I didn't." Caraway replied in an arrogant though innocent voice.
"Indirectly, you did!"
"Not fat, chunky and slow."
"I'M NOT CHUNKY AND I'M NOT SLOW!" She screamed back incredulously, "And what the Hell do you care anyways?"
"Well, when we infiltrate the agency I wouldn't want a slow fighter on my side."
"Fine then, I'll become anorexic!"
"No, please don't." Squall had been watching the feud as well as everyone else. He looked as if he were about to burst in fits of laughter, "You're a pain in the neck when you go without food."
Her glare turned itself upon the poor husband, "You're a pain in the neck when you're breathing! Drop dead, stupidhead!"
"Hey that rhymed, give her a dime." Zell smirked; making Julia bit her lower lip to resist the smile that had provoked the corners of her mouth to turn up slightly.
"I'm going to rip out your spine and beat you over the head with it." She snapped at Zell. "I'm not chunky." She gave a look to her father and began rummaging around the cupboards.
"So . you're just big-boned?" Zell was really pushing his luck. Rinoa grabbed the sharpest knife from the nearby butcher-block and hurled it at him. It whizzed in the air, slicing it with a hiss and it lodged itself just above Zell's hairdo, deep in the wall.
"Pity, I missed." She took another knife and twirled it around her fingers, "Maybe I need target practice." Squall couldn't help smiling, she had missed on purpose. She sneered, "You look like you've just soiled yourself."
Zell let out a sigh of relief, "I mean, I knew you wouldn't kill me. Wasn't worried at all." He shook off the terrified feeling and walked towards her, "So I suppose you don't mind being called fat?"
Something hard came in contact with the back of his knees causing him to completely lose balance and fall over, "I'm not fat." In truth, she wasn't. She stood in her 5'4", 124 pounds glory, looming over him. She was healthy, maybe not to the agency standards but compared to most she was in good physical shape. "If you weren't the only one who could work those computers downstairs I'd consider killing you."
"Why . you can't work them?" Zell asked tauntingly.
"Are you kidding me? Rinoa's conversations with computers are 'This program has performed an illegal operation.' 'So who's pressing charges?'" Squall piped in with his usual smart comments.
"Ha-ha, so funny." His wife glared at him.
Everyone in the room was secretly enjoying the teasing, the joking, the empty threats. Maybe in fear that they may never have the opportunity to play around like this ever again, maybe in acceptance that this was how they each communicated their love, their friendship, their trust.
"I've never met someone who took so long making one sandwich." Caraway growled at his daughter.
Rinoa, who (with the help of her mother) was preparing sandwiches, shot him a smirk. A raspy sound was heard from her throat and everyone seemed to turn to her wondering what she was doing. Squall instantly realized that she was 'horking up a lugi' as young kids would say. Caraway soon become conscious of it and he grabbed the meal from his daughter, "Hey, hey, woah!" He snatched it in a swift panic, "I really don't know where the hell you get that attitude."
She just gave him a satisfied look and Squall smiled inwardly. He had taught her how to do that in Dollet; from a bridge they had practiced using people's heads as targets.
Zell cleared his throat, "Well now that we know Rinoa doesn't swallow, she spits ."
Squall who had just taken a gulp from his coke began hacking and coughing, turning red at the ears and cheeks. Julia covered her mouth, afraid to burst out laughing, "Does he have something to be embarrassed about?"
Rinoa glowered at Zell long and hard. To the great surprise of the 'adults', Caraway rubbed his chin in amusement, "Well, I could have gone on without that information."
Alex had enough, he cried out in utmost annoyance, "I never know what you people are talking about!"
***
"Now to test your concentration level." Caraway tried not to smirk, "Rinoa and Squall will go first. I will recite a tongue twister and call out one of your names whilst you are fighting and you must repeat it, got it?"
"No." Squall said immediately.
"Too bad. Go."
Squall blocked incoming punches from his wife with the palm of his hands and when he could, he evaded them. It wasn't long before General Caraway called out, "Squall! How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!"
"I don't know!" Squall answered back.
"Repeat the damn thing Leonheart." Caraway snapped.
"Can't you see I'm busy?" Squall hissed back and in result, Rinoa's kick tripped him onto his knees, "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!" He said as quickly as possible and grabbed Rinoa's leg. She jumped over him, releasing herself from his grip and stepping on his shoulder as a bonus.
"Rinoa! Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?"
"That's not fair, his was shorter!" She accused, dodging Squall's fist by inches.
"REPEAT THE DAMN THING!" The General was getting quite annoyed.
"Peter Piper . picked a . whatever . pickles . how many pickles did he . HOLY SHIT!" She did a back flip, avoiding Squall's swift onslaught of kicks.
"Rinoa! I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch!" Caraway rubbed his temples knowing very well she wouldn't do this one properly either.
"I wish to wash my Iwish wishwash? Why am I doing this!?" She yelled out at her father temporarily turning towards him. Squall took up the opportunity to flip onto his hands and do a helicopter kick at her head that she simply blocked with her forearm.
"Oh good enough!" Caraway snapped, "A sailor went to sea to see what he could see. And all he could see was sea, sea, sea."
"Why does he always get the easy ones?" Rinoa snapped, taking the offensive.
Squall recited with ease, "A sailor went to sea to see what he could see. And all he could see was sea, sea, sea."
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you wish to wish. Both of you!"
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish ." Squall stopped abruptly as he had forgotten the rest.
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I . I ."
Squall remembered suddenly, letting down his guard, "I won't wish the wish you wish to-" Rinoa's leg crashed against his abdomen sending him flat on his back. Both fighters stopped gasping for air.
Rinoa turned to her father, "I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish but if you wish to continue on with this I'M GOING TO KILL SOMETHING!"
"That . really hurt!" Squall shouted at his wife, he clutched his stomach painfully.
She scowled at him, "Oh take it like a man, and suck it up! This was the dumbest training session I've ever experienced."
"It's May 21st." Julia said out of the blue. Her comment was specifically supposed to hit Squall and Rinoa.
"That was the most random comment you have ever-" Rinoa cut her sentence short, "It is?"
"Mhmm ." Julia replied and pretended to be interested in filing her nails.
"Oh." She glanced at Squall who had stood up and brushed himself off. Her gaze shifted, slightly embarrassed to the wall behind her father.
"It means it's Alessandro's birthday in ." Riana counted off her fingers, "In seven months! Christmas too!"
"Yeah ." Rinoa said absent-mindedly.
"Why in Hyne's name is this relevant?" Caraway demanded an answer. He had a tendency to get aggravated when he couldn't distinctly follow the flow of information.
"Never mind, dad." Rinoa waved away the event, "Where were we?"
***
After much whining, Caraway gave into Rinoa's annoying complaints and let her go up to take a shower. Alex and Riana had both taken their baths yesterday evening so it was judged to be a time waster to send them up. Besides, they possessed no wounds that could infect.
"Don't act happy, I'm sending you up tomorrow." Rinoa informed Alex as soon as she saw him do a little victory dance due to his escape of 'the evil bath'. He only grimaced and crossed his arms in protest.
Rinoa, Zell and Squall went up as the first group. Rinoa was the first to go (and anyone who would have stood in her way would have been transformed to mincemeat). She took her sweet time, enjoying the wonderful feeling of warm, cleaning water once more.
"Why the hell do girls take so damn long?" Zell grumbled, holding his position as a guard near the bathroom door.
"I have a feeling she's doing it on purpose." Squall answered, leaning against the wall.
"You know, if you want to join her in there you can. I won't mind, neither will I mention it to the General." Zell offered but only received a glare from his companion, "No, man! I was being serious. She's your wife . you should get to spend some time with her, I mean . we don't know what'll happen in the agency and all."
Squall didn't answer. Twenty minutes later, Rinoa emerged from the bathroom looking as fresh as a daisy. Zell dashed into the bathroom before Squall could say, "No you fucker, my turn!"
But he soon forgot about his woes and about the inconvenience that there would most likely be no hot water left when it came his turn. He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and grumbled to himself a while. "If it eases your anger, there probably isn't any warm water left for him either." Rinoa smiled.
Squall shook his head, "You're so mean." He approached her slowly. Her hands slid onto his waist and drew him closer.
"Yeah . I know." She replied, her lips brushed against his collarbone and pressed themselves on his neck.
He bent forward and with one hand out of his pocket he raised her face to him and kissed her. When they came to draw apart he renewed the kiss with more intimacy and love, in occasion of an important event that took place on the 21st of May. A memory of great importance . their wedding day.
Sabam: Yeah, my excuse for making it a bit fluffy. This was supposed to be a sort of comedy relief chapter. I feel kind of bad making them go through all these horrendous events. So . a wedding, drinks all around! (Yes I got that from Pirates of the Caribbean). I hope you enjoyed it . and if you did then please review!
Chapter Twenty-Two
The training sessions were long and brutal. Squall and Caraway were used to it as they frequently went on missions for the agency however Rinoa and Julia had a tougher time keeping up. Even though the two had kept in shape over the past years they had neglected the long forgotten techniques of martial arts.
However, it wasn't quite the training that irritated Rinoa to a point of insanity. It was the amount of people she was living with that was driving her up the wall. For the past six or seven years she had been living a quiet, family life with a maximum of four people in the household which even caused her to blow her stack once in a while. You see, if Rinoa had been chosen to appear on such a show as 'Big Brother' she would most likely murder all the other candidates before the second day.
And she was now trapped with a hefty number of seven people in a distinctly small area. You couldn't leave one room and emerge in another without seeing someone else. She couldn't go anywhere to be alone. Not to mention that she was surrounded by cardboard boxes.
Another issue was food. "I've been doing physical labor all day long and what's for supper? Broccoli!" She poked at it with her fork disdainfully, "Broccoli and tofu!" She didn't even dare touch the tofu.
"You can't fit much in a miniature refrigerator and the stove isn't the best so will you shut your mouth and eat?" Caraway growled from his end of the table.
"Heck no!" His angry daughter replied, "I want some real food!"
"Then why don't you go out and get some!" Her father drawled back sarcastically.
"You know, I think I will!" She rose from the table defiantly and pushed in her chair.
"You leave this table and there will be consequences!" Her father roared, slamming his fist on the table and rising to a standing position also.
"Just like the old days, isn't dad?" And she walked off through the piles of cardboard boxes in the direction of the slate stairs.
"For crying out loud!" The General snapped and rubbed his temples, "I'm sorry I misjudged you Leonheart, you are the bravest man alive to live with that girl!" He stomped off after his daughter.
"Well she isn't that bad if you let her do what she wants." Squall too got up and he too followed the footsteps of his angry wife. Julia and Zell soon got up and pursued them with the children close behind.
When they found Rinoa she was scrounging around in the fridge upstairs, "You could have at least brought up a gun!" Her father's voice scolded from behind her, "And now that you're up here you might as well make some food for everyone."
"My pleasure, where do you keep your arsenic?" She responded with some slight sarcasm apparent, "Not like you have any more food here. Ham . bread . mm, carrots? Oh, can't forget the yummy rice cakes . what are you on, a diet?"
"No, however you might do some good to yourself if you picked up a diet, sweetheart." He snapped at her and she whirled around to face him.
"You just called me fat!" She hissed in disbelief.
"No, I didn't." Caraway replied in an arrogant though innocent voice.
"Indirectly, you did!"
"Not fat, chunky and slow."
"I'M NOT CHUNKY AND I'M NOT SLOW!" She screamed back incredulously, "And what the Hell do you care anyways?"
"Well, when we infiltrate the agency I wouldn't want a slow fighter on my side."
"Fine then, I'll become anorexic!"
"No, please don't." Squall had been watching the feud as well as everyone else. He looked as if he were about to burst in fits of laughter, "You're a pain in the neck when you go without food."
Her glare turned itself upon the poor husband, "You're a pain in the neck when you're breathing! Drop dead, stupidhead!"
"Hey that rhymed, give her a dime." Zell smirked; making Julia bit her lower lip to resist the smile that had provoked the corners of her mouth to turn up slightly.
"I'm going to rip out your spine and beat you over the head with it." She snapped at Zell. "I'm not chunky." She gave a look to her father and began rummaging around the cupboards.
"So . you're just big-boned?" Zell was really pushing his luck. Rinoa grabbed the sharpest knife from the nearby butcher-block and hurled it at him. It whizzed in the air, slicing it with a hiss and it lodged itself just above Zell's hairdo, deep in the wall.
"Pity, I missed." She took another knife and twirled it around her fingers, "Maybe I need target practice." Squall couldn't help smiling, she had missed on purpose. She sneered, "You look like you've just soiled yourself."
Zell let out a sigh of relief, "I mean, I knew you wouldn't kill me. Wasn't worried at all." He shook off the terrified feeling and walked towards her, "So I suppose you don't mind being called fat?"
Something hard came in contact with the back of his knees causing him to completely lose balance and fall over, "I'm not fat." In truth, she wasn't. She stood in her 5'4", 124 pounds glory, looming over him. She was healthy, maybe not to the agency standards but compared to most she was in good physical shape. "If you weren't the only one who could work those computers downstairs I'd consider killing you."
"Why . you can't work them?" Zell asked tauntingly.
"Are you kidding me? Rinoa's conversations with computers are 'This program has performed an illegal operation.' 'So who's pressing charges?'" Squall piped in with his usual smart comments.
"Ha-ha, so funny." His wife glared at him.
Everyone in the room was secretly enjoying the teasing, the joking, the empty threats. Maybe in fear that they may never have the opportunity to play around like this ever again, maybe in acceptance that this was how they each communicated their love, their friendship, their trust.
"I've never met someone who took so long making one sandwich." Caraway growled at his daughter.
Rinoa, who (with the help of her mother) was preparing sandwiches, shot him a smirk. A raspy sound was heard from her throat and everyone seemed to turn to her wondering what she was doing. Squall instantly realized that she was 'horking up a lugi' as young kids would say. Caraway soon become conscious of it and he grabbed the meal from his daughter, "Hey, hey, woah!" He snatched it in a swift panic, "I really don't know where the hell you get that attitude."
She just gave him a satisfied look and Squall smiled inwardly. He had taught her how to do that in Dollet; from a bridge they had practiced using people's heads as targets.
Zell cleared his throat, "Well now that we know Rinoa doesn't swallow, she spits ."
Squall who had just taken a gulp from his coke began hacking and coughing, turning red at the ears and cheeks. Julia covered her mouth, afraid to burst out laughing, "Does he have something to be embarrassed about?"
Rinoa glowered at Zell long and hard. To the great surprise of the 'adults', Caraway rubbed his chin in amusement, "Well, I could have gone on without that information."
Alex had enough, he cried out in utmost annoyance, "I never know what you people are talking about!"
***
"Now to test your concentration level." Caraway tried not to smirk, "Rinoa and Squall will go first. I will recite a tongue twister and call out one of your names whilst you are fighting and you must repeat it, got it?"
"No." Squall said immediately.
"Too bad. Go."
Squall blocked incoming punches from his wife with the palm of his hands and when he could, he evaded them. It wasn't long before General Caraway called out, "Squall! How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!"
"I don't know!" Squall answered back.
"Repeat the damn thing Leonheart." Caraway snapped.
"Can't you see I'm busy?" Squall hissed back and in result, Rinoa's kick tripped him onto his knees, "How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood!" He said as quickly as possible and grabbed Rinoa's leg. She jumped over him, releasing herself from his grip and stepping on his shoulder as a bonus.
"Rinoa! Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers. A peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked. If Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers, where's the peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?"
"That's not fair, his was shorter!" She accused, dodging Squall's fist by inches.
"REPEAT THE DAMN THING!" The General was getting quite annoyed.
"Peter Piper . picked a . whatever . pickles . how many pickles did he . HOLY SHIT!" She did a back flip, avoiding Squall's swift onslaught of kicks.
"Rinoa! I wish to wash my Irish wristwatch!" Caraway rubbed his temples knowing very well she wouldn't do this one properly either.
"I wish to wash my Iwish wishwash? Why am I doing this!?" She yelled out at her father temporarily turning towards him. Squall took up the opportunity to flip onto his hands and do a helicopter kick at her head that she simply blocked with her forearm.
"Oh good enough!" Caraway snapped, "A sailor went to sea to see what he could see. And all he could see was sea, sea, sea."
"Why does he always get the easy ones?" Rinoa snapped, taking the offensive.
Squall recited with ease, "A sailor went to sea to see what he could see. And all he could see was sea, sea, sea."
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish, but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I won't wish the wish you wish to wish. Both of you!"
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish ." Squall stopped abruptly as he had forgotten the rest.
"I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish but if you wish the wish the witch wishes, I . I ."
Squall remembered suddenly, letting down his guard, "I won't wish the wish you wish to-" Rinoa's leg crashed against his abdomen sending him flat on his back. Both fighters stopped gasping for air.
Rinoa turned to her father, "I wish to wish the wish you wish to wish but if you wish to continue on with this I'M GOING TO KILL SOMETHING!"
"That . really hurt!" Squall shouted at his wife, he clutched his stomach painfully.
She scowled at him, "Oh take it like a man, and suck it up! This was the dumbest training session I've ever experienced."
"It's May 21st." Julia said out of the blue. Her comment was specifically supposed to hit Squall and Rinoa.
"That was the most random comment you have ever-" Rinoa cut her sentence short, "It is?"
"Mhmm ." Julia replied and pretended to be interested in filing her nails.
"Oh." She glanced at Squall who had stood up and brushed himself off. Her gaze shifted, slightly embarrassed to the wall behind her father.
"It means it's Alessandro's birthday in ." Riana counted off her fingers, "In seven months! Christmas too!"
"Yeah ." Rinoa said absent-mindedly.
"Why in Hyne's name is this relevant?" Caraway demanded an answer. He had a tendency to get aggravated when he couldn't distinctly follow the flow of information.
"Never mind, dad." Rinoa waved away the event, "Where were we?"
***
After much whining, Caraway gave into Rinoa's annoying complaints and let her go up to take a shower. Alex and Riana had both taken their baths yesterday evening so it was judged to be a time waster to send them up. Besides, they possessed no wounds that could infect.
"Don't act happy, I'm sending you up tomorrow." Rinoa informed Alex as soon as she saw him do a little victory dance due to his escape of 'the evil bath'. He only grimaced and crossed his arms in protest.
Rinoa, Zell and Squall went up as the first group. Rinoa was the first to go (and anyone who would have stood in her way would have been transformed to mincemeat). She took her sweet time, enjoying the wonderful feeling of warm, cleaning water once more.
"Why the hell do girls take so damn long?" Zell grumbled, holding his position as a guard near the bathroom door.
"I have a feeling she's doing it on purpose." Squall answered, leaning against the wall.
"You know, if you want to join her in there you can. I won't mind, neither will I mention it to the General." Zell offered but only received a glare from his companion, "No, man! I was being serious. She's your wife . you should get to spend some time with her, I mean . we don't know what'll happen in the agency and all."
Squall didn't answer. Twenty minutes later, Rinoa emerged from the bathroom looking as fresh as a daisy. Zell dashed into the bathroom before Squall could say, "No you fucker, my turn!"
But he soon forgot about his woes and about the inconvenience that there would most likely be no hot water left when it came his turn. He shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and grumbled to himself a while. "If it eases your anger, there probably isn't any warm water left for him either." Rinoa smiled.
Squall shook his head, "You're so mean." He approached her slowly. Her hands slid onto his waist and drew him closer.
"Yeah . I know." She replied, her lips brushed against his collarbone and pressed themselves on his neck.
He bent forward and with one hand out of his pocket he raised her face to him and kissed her. When they came to draw apart he renewed the kiss with more intimacy and love, in occasion of an important event that took place on the 21st of May. A memory of great importance . their wedding day.
Sabam: Yeah, my excuse for making it a bit fluffy. This was supposed to be a sort of comedy relief chapter. I feel kind of bad making them go through all these horrendous events. So . a wedding, drinks all around! (Yes I got that from Pirates of the Caribbean). I hope you enjoyed it . and if you did then please review!