Disclaimer: Oh for Pete's sake, I don't own Final Fantasy VIII!  Hey, that rhymed give me a dime!  NOW!  It will go towards my 'Buy Squaresoft' fund!

Squall's POV Chapter V

There was only one thing left to do.  And that 'thing' settled fear deep in our hearts and made us tremble in the expectant horror that would wash over us and stain the walls with our blood.  Neither of us knew if we would come out of this 'thing' alive and that frightened us … we did not want to die!  We were young, carefree … in love!

Let's cut the dramatic shit, shall we?

Rinoa was pretty damn pissed at her father and I guess she had a good reason to be.  I can't say much against the man since he's like a mentor to me.  He's never tried to attack me brutally with knives of any sort and he was generally a good guy.  He was scary when he got pissed though … very scary.  And according to Rinoa, he was pretty pissed.

So when I suggested that we pay him a visit and explain in greater detail that we really weren't screwing with each other's minds and that we wouldn't turn into careless teenagers sniffing cocaine on the streets her natural reaction was, "ARE YOU FUCKING CRAZY?"  Calm down, Rinoa, calm down.  I'm sure he won't try and run us over with his Mercedes.  At least not with spiked wheels attached.

My suggestion was recorded, analyzed and rejected by my all-knowing girlfriend who looked as if she was about to keel over dead with shock.  "I like my status as it is now." Was her humble reason.

Unbeknownst to what the fuck her 'status' was I asked her and she replied, "My status is living." I rolled my eyes.  Guess the dramatic shit hasn't been cut yet, at least not in her case.

"Rinoa, right now the man thinks I regularly screw your brains out.  I don't like that image!" I argued and she looked at me as if to say, 'Point?  I need a point!'.  "It's not a true image!  Half the time you say you have a headache!"

She glowered at me and then drawled sarcastically, "Then next time go in the bathroom and jack off."

"Or I could get you Advil!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

"Whatever!"

"Right back at you!" As you can see, I was trying to have the final word.

"Oh, will you shut up?" She scowled.

"No!" I snapped back.  By that time I already knew it was a lost cause, "I'm always the one who has to shut it!  Damn it Rin, I'm sick and tired of shutting up!  You know, we're not even married yet … and you've already started acting like a shrew!  I walk down the halls and people call me 'whipped' and-"
"Ok Squall, ok … no one cares anymore!"

"I do!"

"Well that makes one of us."

"I'm going to kill monsters in the arena and pretend they're you!"

"And while you do that I'll prepare lunch … Kraft Dinner." She uttered the terrible words of bone-chilling horror.  FUCK!  I HATE KRAFT DINNER, WHAT DOESN'T SHE UNDERSTAND?

"Gee, darling … don't wait up for me then."

"Alright, you don't mind if I have Mr. Jake Asselin over, do you?  He's just a pro at oral sex-uh I mean … oral care!  You know, tongue kissing- I mean, teeth … masticating."

"THAT-WAS-SO-NOT-FUNNY!" I roared. 

She smirked, "Did I say something to offend you?"

"How the fuck am I expected to live past 35 years old, huh?  With someone like you, how the fuck am I supposed to survive!?"

"Well, look on the bright side.  You still have fifteen years.  Enough to accumulate money, make me a child, preferably a girl and I mean … 35 … that's not old.  I'm sure I can still hook some guy up and reel him in once your gone."

"HA-HA-FUCKING-HA!" I shouted at her from across the room, looking for my beloved gunblade.  Don't call 911!  I meant my gunblade for the monsters in the Training Center … not to slice her up! "And mark my words Rinoa Heartilly, I will NEVER make you a child!"

"Oh really?  Just a simple reminder that I am in control of the 'pill'."

"Well, then I guess our sexual relations are over." I concluded.
"Oh, I guess that's another solution." … Wait a minute … she doesn't seem to mind.  SHIT!  Is she expecting me to be true to my word?  NO!  FUCK!  SHIT!  PISS!  WHY IS HYNE SMITING ME?!?

I didn't speak for a moment.  Now how the hell was I supposed to get out of this one?  I rubbed my chin for a while expecting her to say something, which she didn't.  She seemed perfectly content with just staring at me happily like a child on Christmas morning.  So, I decided to say something, "Ok, I'm ready to make a deal with you.  If you desperately want to bear my children than first we go see your father and then we can come back here and have sex."

"Ok … how about … N-O.  I can find waaay better-looking, smarter guys than you that have an unmatchable prowess in bed."

Is it just me or do women ALWAYS have the upper hand in arguments?  It's them who wear the pants in the relationship … unless you beat them.  And I wouldn't beat Rinoa.  If abuse was present in our couple she would be the one doing the abusing.  So I got down on my knees like a pitiful puppy and hobbled over to her, then hugged her waist, "Please … please … PLEASE can't we just go see your dad?  Please?  I would feel so much better if we did, Rinoa … please?"

"God, Squall … why?" She sighed, "I don't want to see him for a while, understand?"

"But … but … but PLEASE!" Frankly, I didn't feel like being bitched at by my 'father-in-law' but I didn't want him to secretly plan my murder.  I had respect for the man and I thought (or maybe I was just flattering myself) that the guy had some small amount of respect for me.  I didn't want to lose that.  It … was something amongst men I presumed since she didn't seem to have the slightest idea of what I was talking about.

"Fine, whatever." She snapped, and proceeded to the phone, dialed seven numbers that weren't foreign to me, "Yeah, mom?  Is dad guarding the door with a shotgun?  Does he have a shotgun in easy reach?  Great, excellent.  No, just wondering because my jackass wants to pay a visit.  Yes, I realize that it's my ass on the line, not his." She glared at me, "I don't think he does, though.  Please tell me how he could have reason to-no!  MIKEY GET OFF THE PHONE!  … Mom?  Ok … yeah … bye.  Lock Mikey in the closet.  Ok, bye."

"Ok?" I asked cautiously.

"I hate your fucking guts." She replied.

"Ok …" I answered my own question.  And we were on our way.

***

And within the half hour that I got there I wondered why the Hell I even bothered.  The argument wasn't about me, or most of the time it wasn't about me.  It didn't even include me.  It didn't even include anyone else.  Just Rinoa and her father.  It was a pretty impressive fight too.  The scary thing was that neither of them were yelling.  At least for most parts, not till the very end.

"You're eighteen, I still have a responsibility towards you.  Your reputation affects mine.  If I hadn't put food on the table, clothes on your back, money for your required education then I can't say that I didn't deserve all that you put me through but that isn't the case." Caraway accused.  They were on opposite sides of an extended kitchen counter … just like in real debates. 

"So now it's only your reputation that's worrying you?  Then again, it always was … 'Sit up straight, Rinoa' or 'Don't say anything offensive …' that upgraded to 'Don't say anything at all' and that went up to 'Try looking invisible'.  Basically, no matter what I'm doing I'm tarnishing your goddamn reputation." She retorted.  I felt like I shouldn't be there.  It was a fight that concerned only them, "It really bugs you that I was a girl, doesn't it?"  Now I felt like disappearing.

"I really don't know what you're talking about, it makes absolutely no dif-"

"Yes it does.  It all has to do with Uncle Rob, doesn't it?  Eldest is always a boy in this stupid family.  If Stu or Mikey had been a girl you wouldn't have given a flying shit but the fact that I was born first and that-"

"Load of shit." I had never heard the General say 'shit' before and it did kinda take me by surprise.

"Yeah, dad … come on, be honest.  The fucking Caraway heritage, isn't it?  Men first, then women.  Tell me, if we were in the 17 hundreds we wouldn't be discussing right now you'd be giving me cracks on the head.  Tell me honestly!"
"Honestly?  I'll give you as honest as you can take; if we were in the 17 hundreds we wouldn't be discussing right now … I'd be beating you to an inch of your life then I'd tell Leonheart to get over it because there are dozens of girls just like you in the town Cat House."  Do you know how it feels to be a bystander when the blows hit hard like that?

"See, I thought so." She replied stoically, "And it wouldn't matter if, oh let's say, Mikey started dating at fourteen years old because he's a boy … young guy … he's a man at fourteen!  But women only turn women when they're like … what is it?  Thirty-two?  What's it again?  Tell me dad."

"Women become women when I see an inch of maturity in them.  That isn't your case just yet." He snapped back.  This is when things started getting vicious.
"What is it that makes you see maturity in anyone?  Huh?" She was getting really pissed, I could tell from experience, "When is it that people 'mature' to you?  When they get straights A's everywhere?  Specifically, when are you going to see that I have some common sense?"

"When you start asking me things for approval!"

"When I start-" She cried out incredulously and didn't even finish her sentence, she simply moved on to another one, "Bullshit.  Bull-shit.  This isn't junior high, dad!  I asked you approval for Jake … 'Oh he's a wonderful young man, got his goals.' He tripped on acid, got drunk once in a while, shook up things in bars … I knew that and I thought you'd see that … but you looked right through it!  Frankly, at the time I was quite relieved but it wasn't your smartest move, was it?"
Caraway looked pretty fucking shocked, "UNDER MY ROOF, YOU DO DRUGS?"

She rolled her eyes, "Yaaah, I really do … feeling like lighting up right now." I really, really, really hoped he'd sense the sarcasm.

"Rinoa!!  I want an answer now!"

"No, I don't.  I never did.  And it wasn't because my father told me 'If I catch you doing drugs I'll put a lead bullet in your temple.' It was because the teachers brought these big posters in the class that said 'Say NO to drugs!' … I was influenced by black and white posters more than I was influenced on by my own father, you know what that means?  That means you are the shittiest dad to have ever walked the planet."

"Years of working for you to go to the best schools-"
"You were never home, never-"

"Paying for tuition, tutors, books, everything-"

"Only being proud if I got 100%, only-"

"You never listen to anything I say-"

"You never listen to anything I say!"

They glared at each other for a moment, silently.  No one else was in the room except me.  I was … casually leaning against the wall waiting for my turn to speak.  I didn't dare raise my hand though.  "You don't trust me with anything." Rinoa concluded, "I know right from wrong most of the time.  I have to make my own mistakes.  Stop … trying to control everything!"

"Then stop trying to be something you aren't!" Caraway rebounded, "Stop trying to be an adult.  You aren't!"

"Fine, I'm not an adult yet!  But then neither are you a father … Caraway."

The General looked as if he was about to snap out one vicious hit but he bit back and said nothing.  Rinoa turned to me finally, "I need to go back to Dawson, let's go."

"We're not finished this conversation yet."

"We'll resume it when both of us are in right to speak." She answered without looking back.

I had nothing to do with anything that day.  However, I discovered more on the father daughter conflict that had been the source of wonder for some time now.  I had only known this family for a year and three quarters.  So I couldn't really help wondering … what was Julia in all this?

Sabam: As you can see, I'm trying to resolve all the slight problems.  I kinda wandered into Rinoa's persona to discover what it felt like to live in family full of men.  You can say that Joan and Julia are women but Joan is a maid and Julia is a housewife … so how can she really relate if she's studying to become an engineer or something?  Trust me, it'll all be relevant at some point and these 'problems' are sorta inspired by some of my own family situations.  Sorry if you didn't really like … anyways, everyone'll be involved at some point and I won't bother explaining the part that 'Uncle Rob' plays.  Heh … I have a feeling you won't like his children much though.  Please read and review!