Note: If I owned the rights to Final Fantasy VIII I'd be out gloating, not sitting here writing notes about how I don't own them. ^_^
I Forgot Your Name
By Kupo
Chapter Eight: The Morning After
-- The House, Living Room
Rinoa could feel the bright light on her face before she opened her eyes. She could also feel the makings of an intense headache. She groaned softly and tried to look around, but her eyelids were so heavy it didn't seem she would be able to force them up. She felt her head being lifted from the hard floor and rested on something much softer... someone's lap. With what seemed a monumental effort, she finally gazed upward. Fuzzy shapes of dark and light began to come into focus, and Rinoa found herself staring into a pair of concerned blue eyes.
"Squall...?" she questioned softly. She watched as Squall pulled off one of his dark leather gloves and put his bare hand on the side of her face, his eyes communicating how glad he was to see her, and something else... something he wanted to hide.
What's going on? Why am I on the floor? What's he keeping from me? I know him too well for him to be able to keep anything hidden from me.
She gazed up and into Squall's eyes, trying to discern what could have happened that he was afraid to tell her. Then above Squall's head, appeared another pair of eyes almost identical to his, but lightly creased with laugh lines around the edges.
"Hey there kiddo, how you holding up?"
"La... Laguna...?"
Rinoa was still too groggy to be startled, but she was still surprised. She tried to push herself into a sitting position with her hands, but she found her arms to be extremely sore, as if she had been exerting them a good deal recently. She felt a strong hand on her arm, and another on the small of her back as Squall lifted her enough so that she was able to sit up.
"Laguna, why are you here? Squall? Squall, what's going on? What's happened? Why am I on the floor, and why does my head hurt so badly?"
She watched as Squall looked up to his father and they exchanged worried glances.
Oh no... did something bad happen again? Did I... did I do something terrible?
Laguna lowered himself down next to Squall nodded to his son. Squall appeared to steady himself inside and then looked into Rinoa's eyes. Rinoa stared back, hoping that Squall would tell her she was wrong, that nothing terrible had happened.
Squall opened his mouth to speak, but his eyes strayed to behind Rinoa. She felt a sinking feeling in her stomach as she turned to look behind her.
At first, she only wondered when Zell was sitting on the floor. Then she noticed that he seemed to be unable to completely catch his breath. And then she noticed the deep purple marks around his neck... marks that almost seemed like hand-prints. Rinoa began to feel sick to her stomach.
Oh no, not that... tell me this isn't happening... not me, oh please no...
"Zell...?"
Zell looked up and saw Rinoa staring at him, her eyes glistening with tears. He followed her line of sight and knew she was looking at his neck, and he attempted to cover the marks by reaching across himself with his right hand to scratch the back of his left shoulder.
"Zell... what did I do? Did I... hurt you?" she whispered softly, her voice so choked with emotion that it was barely audible. She reached out to Zell in an effort to show him how sorry she was, but Zell reflexively recoiled from the touch that had so recently hurt him.
Rinoa blinked, and a tear slid unbidden from each eye down her face. She withdrew her outstretched hand and clasped it with the other one in her lap and stared down at them. Zell appeared extremely uncomfortable and looked to the two men for help. Laguna stood up and offered a hand to Zell, who gratefully took it, standing with only a small amount of help from the older man. Laguna scratched the back of his head and addressed the room in a loud, overly cheerful voice.
"Hey, so where the heck are Irvine and Selphie? They sleeping late? They better not be getting up to anything suspicious, if you know what I mean!" He winked at Rinoa, who offered him a half-hearted smile, understanding that he was trying to alleviate the tense situation. "So hey Zell, lets go get those two delinquents out of bed!" Laguna crowed, pulling Zell out of the kitchen after him. In the doorway, Zell paused and turned back to Squall and Rinoa.
"Hey, listen Rin... don't worry about this, ok?" Zell said softly. He looked like he wanted to say more, but then decided against it and slowly turned to follow Laguna in the direction of the stairs.
Rinoa turned to Squall, and saw written on his face the same uncertainty that Zell was feeling. To see that fear on the face of the one she loved above all others terrified her.
What have I done?
--The House, Irvine's Bedroom
"Irvy!"
Gah... let me sleep a minute more...
"Irvy!!!"
One... more... minute...
"IRVINE! WAKE UP RIGHT NOW!"
Irvine groaned as he forced his eyes open. The first thing he saw was a pair of bright green eyes peering directly into his, only inches from his face. Then the previous night came flooding back to him... the party, the shattering glass, the incredible amount of cleaning up that had to be done before any of them could crawl into bed. He had been about to fall asleep when he had heard a light knocking on his door, and had known right away that it was Selphie. She had needed to talk to someone about the events of that night, and they had ended up sitting on his bed talking until they had gotten tired. They had reclined on his pillows, and he had put his arm around her to reassure her while they continued to express their worries about Rinoa's recent behavior. He had been talking for a few minutes when he realized that Selphie had stopped responding, and he had looked down at her face to find that she was asleep on his shoulder. Irvine didn't have the heart to move the girl he loved from his arms, and instead he kissed the top of her head and allowed himself to drift off to sleep as well.
The peaceful look Selphie had worn while asleep was gone from her face. Despite the fact that he was obviously awake, Selphie continued to push on his shoulder while hissing at him to wake up. Finally lifting himself into a sitting position, he held up both hands in defense.
"Hey Sefie, calm down! What's so important that you had to interrupt my wonderful dream about you?"
Selphie ran a hand through her hair, which was still a little messy from sleep. She gestured frantically in the direction of his bedroom door. "Zell and Laguna are out there!! What will they think if they find me here?!"
Irvine shrugged good-naturedly as he slowly got out of bed. "They'll probably say about time"
Selphie shrieked silently at Irvine's joke as she looked around the room for a place to hide. Finally she decided that under the bed was as good as it was going to get on short notice, and as she scooted under she glared at Irvine, who was watching her with a bemused smile.
"Sefie... nothing happened. They'll believe us if we tell them that, don't you think?"
Selphie poked her head out from under the bed and hissed "Irvine! There is no way I am letting Sir Laguna, the president of the most powerful city on the planet, to catch me spending the night in my boyfriend's room!" With those words, Selphie resumed hiding under his bed.
What a way to start the day... never a dull day with my Sefie.
Irvine finally registered the constant knocking on his door and went to answer it. He opened to door to see the cheerfully suspicious faces of Zell and Laguna. He offered his hand to the president.
"Laguna! It's good to see you again! What bring you here so, uh... early in the morning?"
Laguna smiled. "It's good to see you too, Irvine. Why don't you invite us in and I'll fill you in on why I'm here."
Oh Hyne... if I keep Selphie under the bed too long, she'll be pissed!
Seeing no way around the situation, he motioned for the two to enter his room, and ran to grab his desk chair for Laguna to sit in. Laguna held up a hand.
"Don't worry about it, Irvine. If it's ok I'll just sit on your bed...?"
Laguna sat directly above Selphie, causing the bed to emit a loud OOOF. Laguna chuckled. "Maybe if you came out, my little Miss Selphie, we would all be a little more comfortable?"
"Sir Laguna!" the bed said in a horrified voice. "This is NOT what you think!"
Laguna smiled, and then grew serious. "I hope that you can hear me under there then, Selphie. I've got some important news for all of you. First, why I'm here. I got a call from Edea Kramer last night. She was very concerned about what happened here during the party. She felt it would be a good idea for there to be someone here to keep tabs on the situation, and since you're all very important to me, I volunteered right away to come stay with you guys for a bit. Kiros and Ward will be fine running Esthar without me... they're the ones running the show most of the time anyway," he added with a small smile.
"But more importantly, I'm worried about all of you. Edea mentioned what she believed the trouble with Rinoa is, and frankly, I'm worried about your safety. I've seen firsthand what can happen when a sorceress comes to power, and I am afraid that--"
"Don't you compare Rinoa to Adel, Sir Laguna." Selphie had crawled out from under the bed and was standing in the middle of the room. She continued in a calm voice that carried deadly undertones. "Don't you compare Rinoa to anyone like that. Rinoa is the sweetest, kindest, and most gentle person I have ever known. And I won't listen to you for one more minute!"
Irvine watched in shock as Selphie calmly crossed the room and exited, closing the door softly behind her.
It looked like she was crying... poor Sefie...
Laguna was visibly distressed by Selphie's reaction, but he continued. "Edea has given me some instructions and a list of things to watch for. I'd like to have some time to talk to Rinoa alone today, as Squall is telling her right now. If you could go find Selphie and ask her to get dressed, I was thinking that I would give you four a few hundred Gil and you could go have a big breakfast, on me. What do you say?"
Irvine shrugged. It probably wouldn't be a bad idea to get out of the house... and who could turn down free breakfast? He motioned for Zell to help him find Selphie. As they left the room, Irvine noticed the dark bruises on Zell's neck.
"Zell! What happened to you, man?"
Zell shrugged in an embarrassed way and began to relate the morning's events to Irvine.
-- The House, Kitchen
"And so I think you should take it easy this morning, Rin... ok?" Squall asked. He looked across the table to Rinoa and squeezed both of her small hands in one of his larger ones. It had take a good twenty minutes for her to relax after he had told her what had happened, and she still looked stricken.
Maybe I shouldn't have told her everything... this stress can't be good for her...
"And Laguna's here... I'm sure he will take good care of you... I'll tell him to cook you something good to eat... his cooking must be better than mine, right?"
His attempt to joke with her elicited a small smile, and Squall was relieved. He stood up and held his arms out.
"And if you don't mind... you haven't given me a decent hug all day..." He watched as Rinoa pushed her chair back from the table and walked to him. She put her arms around him and as he held her he could feel her body trembling next to his. A wave of concern washed over him and he wanted nothing more than to protect her from the world outside their door.
Not too long ago I would have been terrified of these feelings. I owe so much to this girl in my arms. Rinoa... I'll protect you forever.
However, time intruded on them, as it always did. Hearing footsteps on the stairs, he pulled away and brushed the last tear from Rinoa's cheek. Selphie came bounding into the kitchen, and without one word pulled Rinoa into a tight hug, and whispered fiercely into her ear: "We love you Rinoa" and then turned and left the kitchen, following Zell, who waved on his way by the kitchen but had decided it would be best to just continue out to the car. Irvine popped his head into the kitchen to say hello and to let Squall know that they would meet him in the car.
Laguna entered the kitchen and pulled out his wallet, handing several bills to Squall.
"Treat those friends of yours well, kid" he admonished.
Squall raised an eyebrow at his father and nodded to Rinoa.
"I'll see you in just a little bit, ok Rin?" he said, trying to reassure her. He turned to leave.
Swallow your pride, Leonhart
Turning back, he quickly kissed Rinoa on the lips, choosing to ignore the smile that broke out across Laguna's face. He quickly crossed the kitchen floor and, as was his custom, did not look back. Getting in the driver's seat of the car, he was overcome with a sense of foreboding.
Please.. let it be alright when I get home...
Wooo! Longest chapter I've ever done! I am going to hug myself now!
*hugs*
And where would I be without my lovely, lovely, lovely reviewers?
DemonRyu- thanks for your review! Teehee... but I'm not gonna tell you why she went to Zell first! You're gonna have to wait and see! Hope you liked this chapter!
bembem- thanks! hopefully you will think that it has a nice middle and end to it, too! please let me know what you think of this chapter after you have read it ^_^
Karla3- I was so scared of the monkeys that I updated right away! And thanks for your idea about the rating, which I think it what I am going to do from now on, just post a little disclaimer! If I have time later, I will try and go back to redo chapter 7 to include what I cut out before. What did you think of chapter 8? And keep those monkeys away from me! ^_^
SpiritDragon- *dedicates chapter 8 to you* You are gonna give me such a big ego!! Hehehehe. I'm scared that I will let you down, now! Let me know what you think of this chapter, I hope that I didn't disappoint you! ^_^
The Real Rikku- I'm really really really really really really glad you like it! *hugs* please review and let me know what you think of chapter 8!
You too can appear in my thank you section, just review! ^_^ I read and listen to every single one! I'll e updating again soon, I seem to be on a roll. Until then, Te amo~ Kupo.
