Disclaimer: can't be bothered, look at lat chapter…nothing much has changed over the past two weeks in regards to Squaresoft's ownership and their characters...so go figure.

Chapter 11-A Friend in Need

Seifer slumped back against the backrest again, scratching his head. "Did you just say that you were thinking about calling off your engage-"

"Yes." Seifer opened his mouth to say more when Squall continued. "Now I know you're going to try and talk me out of it like a friend should and everything, but please, I need to explain this to you and I don't want you to say anything, hard as that may be for you." After which, Seifer promptly closed his mouth.

Squall sighed nervously before clearing his throat. "Okay, as you're probably thinking, the reason why I'm thinking about calling off the engagement is Rinoa. Yes I know that Louise is everything I could want in a wife and she loves me, well I think she loves me, but if what I was doing was right, I wouldn't be constantly trying to convince myself that it is. When I was with Rinoa…everything just felt right…there was no convincing. I just knew. Now that she's back in my life, I can't forget anymore. I know what I want and if only I wasn't such a stupid dipshit five years ago, I wouldn't be in this mess now.

"But Rin," he continued, "I don't think she'll ever forgive me and I don't think I could ever forgive myself for being so stupid. And the fact that I am engaged keeps slipping my mind, I mean, if this was what I really wanted, I wouldn't be forgetting that I'm getting married, now would I?" Squall looked up at Seifer before continuing. "Don't answer that, you're not meant to say anything. I shouldn't even be thinking about calling off the engagement if I wanted to be with Louise forever, I would not have almost kissed Rinoa if I wanted to be with Louise."

At that, Seifer could not keep quiet. "What? You almost kissed Rinoa?! When did that happen?!"

"This afternoon. Louise wanted me to book her an appointment and I decided to hang around her studio and 'talk' to her, you know, apologise and all that shit. Then all of a sudden I'm playing the piano-"

"You play the piano?"

"Only on special occasions."

"Ah, so seeing Rin was a special occasion?" he smirked.

"Shuttup. Anyway, so I'm playing and Rinoa sits down next to me as if we haven't fought or anything, because she was pretty pissed off when she saw me, and the next thing I know I was about to kiss her."

"About to kiss her?"

"She backed away and reminded me that I was engaged…she actually had to remind me."

"Women are always the sensible ones, aren't they?"

"Shit yeah," Squall replied as he rubbed his forehead. "What the fuck do I do?"

Seifer pondered for a moment, before leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees. "Okay, let me ask you a question. Imagine this for a second: instead of Louise, its Rinoa who you're engaged to. How's that make ya feel?"

Squall gazed down at the carpeted floor, and after a few minutes, a small smile broke out on his face. Letting out a happy sigh, he closed his eyes. "It makes me feel bloody great," he replied softly as if he were talking to himself.

"I guess the only question now is-"

"How do I break it to Louise?" Squall continued, knowing very well what he had to face.

"Right."

"So…how do I break it to her?"

"I dunno," Seifer shrugged. "You know her better than me, this one's all on you."

Squall nodded nervously in agreement. "I know."

- - -

Quistis aimlessly flicked through each channel of the TV. Unbelievable…150 channels and absolutely nothing on, I can't believe we pay for all this crap. At that moment, the phone rang. Tossing the remote control aside, she rushed to the kitchen where the cordless had last been left and pressed the 'talk' button. "Hello?"

"Yeah, hi, I'm looking for Rinoa, would she be available at the moment?"

Quistis grabbed a lolly out of the jar on the table, popping it in her mouth. "Nope, she's got lessons at the moment, would you like to leave a message?"

"Just a sec." She waited as the man on the other end covered the mouthpiece to talk to someone. After a few seconds he came back. "Hey listen, maybe you could help me. Do you live with Rin?"

The blonde haired woman suddenly felt nervous, but gained a little more confidence at the fact that he'd called Rinoa, Rin. "Umm, yeah I do actually. Can I just ask who this is?"

"Oh, shit, sorry, forgot to introduce myself. My name's Seifer Almasy, I'm a friend of Squall's."

"Squall? The infamous Squall?"

"Umm…pretty much, I guess. I take it you've heard nothing but bad things about him, then?

"You could say that." At that moment Selphie entered, Irvine following closely behind.

"Hey Quisty, who ya talkin' to?"

"Some Seifer guy," she replied without covering the mouthpiece.

"Seifer Almasy?" Irvine asked as he took a seat on one of the chairs. "Tell him Irvine say's 'hey'."

Quistis raised an eyebrow at him and brought the mouthpiece back closer to her lips. "You wouldn't happen know an Irvine Kinneas, would you?"

"Yeah, I do actually. Why?"

"He say's 'hey'."

"Oh, tell him I said hi as well."

She frowned as she glanced at Irvine. "He say's hi as well. So, wait, if you know Seifer and he know Squall, does that mean you're a friend of Squall as well?"

"Squall Leonhart? Yeah I know the guy-buys a lot of music from the store I work at," Irvine answered, baffled at the stares that he received from both females in the room. "What?"

Quistis continued into the mouthpiece. "Listen Seifer, why don't you drop by our house so we can discuss this in person. Don't worry, Rin won't be home til late, maybe tomorrow, it's the second Monday of the month which means she's going to visit her parents after she finishes work today."

"Alright, so what's your address?"

"12 Cedar Place."

"Alright. I'll see ya in a bit."

"Bye." Quistis hung up and put her hands on her hips. Looking up at the two in front of her she decided to interrogate Irvine. "Why didn't you tell us that you knew Squall?"

"I didn't know I was meant to…why is it such a big deal?"

"You'll find out when Seifer comes in a few minutes."

"Umm…okay."

Seifer put the phone back in its cradle and smirked at his friend. "Well, I've managed to do better than you in something at last. Not only did I get a hold of Rinoa's home phone number, I also found out her address and I'm heading there right now."

"You what?!" Squall asked, surprised, as Seifer grabbed his white coat and headed for the door.

"Don't worry, Rinoa isn't home and won't be home til late or even tomorrow cos she's gone to visit her parents or something."

"So you just got invited like that?" This is unbelievable!

"Irvine's over there for some reason, besides, I wanna meet this chick. If she's a friend of Rinoa's she can't be too bad, now can she?" he smirked.

"You better not let Rinoa see you there, I swear, not only will she hate me even more cos she'll think I sent you, she'll probably kill you as well, seeing as you are my bestfriend and she's not too happy with me."

"I'd say that's an understatement. So anyway, I'll call you when I get home. I won't be there too long."

"Alright. What exactly do you plan to do anyway?"

"Get you and Rin back together."

"But what about Louise?" Squall asked as they started to descend the stairs to the ground floor of the apartment building.

"That's where you come in. Dude, I just want you happy, alright?"

"Alright, but how exactly do you plan to get me and Rin back together?"

They had reached the small carpark of the building when Seifer patted his back. "My friend, if I told you, that would ruin the whole purpose of surprise. Besides, I don't even know yet, I just wanna get Rinoa's side of the story, without actually talking to Rin. Best way to do that: talk to her house mates. Okay, I'm off." He said before getting into his car.

"See ya." And with one last honk of his horn, Seifer drove off.

Should I be worried that Seifer's up to scheming again?

- - -

Seifer breathed deeply before ringing the door bell. After a few seconds, the door opened to reveal a very stern looking woman.

"Hi," he held his hand out politely, "I'm Seifer Almasy."

"Quistis Trepe," she replied, accepting his hand shake rather coldly.

He perceived her hostility, trying to break the ice. "Listen, I know you probably think that I'm here to spy on Rinoa or whatever, but I assure you, I have Rinoa and Squall's best interest at hand."

The blonde haired woman opened the door wider, letting him in and leading him to the kitchen. Upon entering, Irvine stood up, giving Seifer a smile.

"How's it goin', Seifer?"

"Not too bad, man, what you doing here?"

"Selphie and me been goin' out for six months…ain't it okay for me to drop by once in a while."

"Of course it is." Quistis eyed him suspiciously. "I guess, you're wondering what it is I wanted."

"More or less." She continued to stand, leaning against the bench with her arms crossed as Seifer took a seat beside Irvine at the dining table opposite where she stood. "Well?" she asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Okay first off, just so you guys know, I know both Rinoa and Squall from highschool. I've been there since the beginning and end of their relationship and I've seen Squall suffer. Now, what I want to know is…how does Rinoa feel about, you know, Squall?"

"How do you know that we know anything about how Rin feels about Squall?" Quistis quipped, still not thinking too highly of Seifer.

He raised an eyebrow in response. Still sceptical of me…interesting. I would've thought my magic would've worked by now. "Do you honestly expect me to believe that Rinoa doesn't tell you anything? For one thing, she's a girl, and that's what you girls do isn't it: tell one another everything?"

The blonde woman narrowed her gaze at him. "What's the other thing?"

"You mentioned that Squall was infamous, therefore I come to the conclusion that she has told you things about him, allowing you to form your low opinions of him. So…come on. How does she feel about him?"

Quistis sighed in defeat. "Well ultimately, I know Rin loves Squall, even though she's not willing to admit it openly. But at the moment I think she's pretty pissed off at him, and Squall's a damn fool! I swear, if I ever get my hands on him, there'll be hell to pay."

Seifer observed her fiery anger. "Why do you hate him so much?"

"Because he broke Rin's heart! And he's engaged to Louise and now Rinoa has to act like there's nothing going on between her and Squall."

"Wait," Selphie interjected, "He's engaged to Louise?! When did that happen? How come I didn't know!"

"I dunno…I guess it never came up. You were out with Irvine when she told me I think."

"Well thanks for the update," Selphie said as she pouted, Irvine putting an arm around her shoulders.

"Listen, Selph, why don't you and Irvine go and watch TV. I wanna talk to Seifer."

Selphie sighed, reluctantly, pulling Irvine to his feet and leading him out of the room. "You better tell me everything when he's gone okay?"

"Okay." Once they were alone, she continued to observe him. "So you know Rin from highschool, eh?"

Seifer nodded nervously. Why does she keep looking at me like that?

"Well I'm her best friend, one of them, and I know for a fact that she's never been the same since that Squall broke up with her. Sure she laughs and jokes, but she doesn't have the same spark in her eyes. And I have an inkling that you have a plan, but can I really trust you? I mean, how am I suppose to believe that you'll break up Squall and Louise so that Rin and him can be together."

"Geez…you catch on pretty quick. Though, I never said anything about breaking Louise and Squall up."

"Call it female intuition…is it true?"

"Well, I have nothing to do with Louise and Squall's break up, but as to Rin and Squall getting together…I'm pretty determined to do that."

"Why?" As she asked that, she saw lights turn into the driveway.

Rinoa was about to drive further into the driveway when she saw an already parked car. Concluding that it was Irvine's car, she thought nothing of it, her mind still cursing at her parents' actions. If they had a dinner party to go to, you'd think they'd tell me about it before I drove all the way out there. Well, at least they wrote a note, but still! And they go on about how I used to be irresponsible! Unbelievable. Stepping out of her car she stepped forward then stopped. That's not Irvine's car, its different…I've never seen it before.

Who the hell…?

- - -

A/N-okay, sorry about the slightly lateness of this chapter. I was kinda busy last night with my formal (equivalent to a prom I guess) and I would've updated but do you honestly expect me to update at 1 in the morning? No didn't think so. Anyhoo, so I'm a little late, but I updated nonetheless…so what y'all think? Dodgy as hell or sufficient enough for another two weeks? Okiedokie…well please please please review, you don't know how much I love your feedback! See! You even get responses!

remote mine-first one to review this time hehehe. Well what happens between Squall and Louise in future cahpters can't be disclosed, but it's taken me a great deal of time to come up with a way to make their situation seem believable, and I sure hope it works! Thanks for the review! ^.^

mariedel-what you think of the formal, dude? Are your feet holding up okay? LoL! Well I came to a conclusion while listening to simple Plan last night before I fell into a nice sleep…I really should've invited S****…I regret not doing that now *sigh* oh well…hows this chapter? Dodged up eh? Oh yeh…GILMORE GIRLS TONIGHT! OC ON THURSDAY! Now all I need is ER n I'll be happy ^.^

Noacat- WOW! Congratulations! You'll be two months married at Christmas! How cool! I'm glad you enjoyed this chapter, and everyone seems to be finding Seifer quite humourous…odd if you ask me, cos I never intend him to be so most of the time…oh well…at least it's a good response! Thanks so much for the review!

Wcigtdniw-aw! I'm touched that you took the time and effort to review (in a way that only you can review ;) .) and it truly ruly is appreciated. Hehehe and it made me laugh, to say the least ^.^ no that song isn't a dancy song..well a slow dance song, but I thought it was nice and its one of my favourites (that's right, I listen to oldies even though I'm a teenager). And yes, that was a typo hehehe but I really can't be bothered changing it…thanks so much for reviewing, and if you want to write a review longer than my chapters…in word, my chapter (this one) is about 6-7 pages…so good luck with that ;) hehehe thanks again!

xRainex-thankyou for the review, no really! THANKYOU FOR THE REVIEW! ^_^

Jolly B-no! you should be feeling 'sorry' for poor Louise not rejoicing that her heart will be broken…umm…yeh hahaha, not that I don't like Louise's character or anything but…SQUINOA FOREVER! Woo! Anyhoo…thanks so much for the review ^.^

Angelprinczess29-you know what? I can't wait til that chapter either! I seriously can't wait! It'll be really exciting, but that isn't for another 2 or 3 chapters yet…oh well…at least you know something exciting will be happening soon ^.^. I read your chapter today and my friend, you really have to update soon or else somebody won't be very happy (that person is my by the way ^.^') lol! Thanks again!

BerlinBrownEyes-no! I would really love to know what you thought, anything at all, I'd love to hear it! but thanks the same for taking the time to review! Thankyou SO much ^.^

SabreHero-umm…'not nice' doesn't sound as bad as 'evil'…that's the difference *shifty eyes*…anyhoo! The only thing I can tell you is that this fic probably won't reach past 16 chapters…so go figure! ^.^ but I'm not too sure, but I hope you can wait that long! thanks for your review!

CTHKSI-me? Corrupt you? I don't think so! Seifer and Louise? Lol! I don't think so! I have plans for Seifer, but it doesn't involve Louise…at least I don't think so…hmm…I shall have to ponder that…thanks for the suggestion! And thanks even more for reviewing!

!~*moonlight chick*~!-hehehe sugar is GOOD! Do not you agree with moi? *nod for me* good! I aint the only one who thinks so. How was this chapter? Was it ok with you? I hope so! Tell me what you think! I really wanna know! Thankyou so so much!

Etherealist- I so know what you mean about the haunting notes…thanks for the review!

Wind Chime Bells- was this chapter any better? I'd hate to disappoint you again ;_; *sniffles* so if I've done anything wrong you gotta tell me so that I can rectify it…aiighty? Goodsy! Thanks for the reivew, though! Constructive criticism is always wlecome ^.^

The Ever Smiling- really? Psycho bitch, eh? We'll have to see about that one ^.^ grounded? Would you believe I've never been grounded! Probably cos my parents don't know the concept of it…which is a good thing! Oh well…thanks for taking the time to review anyway, hope you didn't get caught!

jisAtsU siLENcE- was this update soon enough for you? I hope so! It was the earliest I could do it! anyhoo…thanks for the review!


Please R&R, it is always greatly appreciated! Thanks a bunch and have a great day!
3 e.t.