Meanwhile, the Ragnarok set down just outside Edea's newly renovated beach house, and six friends, dressed for a party, departed the spaceship, waved off by their pilot.
"Man," Nida said, " I wish I was going with you. But hey, someone's gotta keep an eye on the Garden while you're gone. Have fun!" Nida waved at them one last time before taking back off in the Ragnarok, and they waved back at him. Squall, who was in a wheelchair, was suddenly pestered by two of the six.
"Come on, Squall!" Selphie shouted, grabbing his arm and bouncing up and down.
"Yeah," a very excited Irvine, who was walking backwards in front of him, and therefore staring him straight in the face, said, "give us the keys!" Squall simply sighed, smiled, and handed the keys over as Selphie and Irvine cheered. Selphie grabbed the keys, jumped on Irvine's back, and he gave her a piggyback the remaining 300 yards to the door. They made it there quickly, and opened the door. Eventually, the others arrived, and were amazed by what they saw.
"WOW!" Zell shouted, upon seeing the finished work. The others felt much the same way- far from being the ruined old husk of a house it was a few months previously, it was a real home, rebuilt, painted, everything. The builders had even added a third bedroom, and the whole place was sparkling and clean. Selphie and Irvine came bounding back out, throwing a beach ball at the remaining four.
"Last one on the beach is making dinner!" Selphie shouted, excitedly. At that, Zell, Rinoa and Quistis dropped everything they were carrying, and ran outside (with Rinoa pushing Squall's wheelchair). Eventually, they were all outside on the beach. It was a bright, sunny day and the ocean was warm. Zell and Quistis wasted no time in stripping down to their swimming costumes and dived right in, while Selphie and Irvine amused themselves with the beach ball. Rinoa unpacked two towels from underneath Squall's wheelchair and spread them on the sand, before stripping down to her bikini and laying on one, in an attempt to get a tan.
"Squall," she said, already relaxed on her towel, "pass me the sun tan lotion, will you?" Squall reached underneath his chair and produced the bottle, before carefully sliding off his chair onto the towel adjacent to Rinoa.
"I can do better than that," he said, squirting some on Rinoa's back and gently rubbing it in. Rinoa undid her bikini top to make Squall's task a little easier.
"This was a lovely idea," she said, twitching a little bit as Squall started applying the cold lotion to her legs. Squall simply shrugged.
"I figured everyone could do with a break. Edea told me a few months ago about her plans for the old orphanage, and as luck would have it, the builders have just finished." He started rubbing the lotion onto the soles of her feet.
"Ah!" She shouted, laughing as Squall started tickling her feet. "Stop it!" Squall smiled.
"Sorry," he said, "I couldn't resist that." He took his shirt off and started rubbing some lotion on his chest. When he had finished, he simply lay there, enjoying the sun.
Meanwhile, once they had grown tired of the beach ball, Selphie and Irvine found the pool that Squall had mentioned to her earlier.
"I don't get it," Irvine, who for this holiday had shunned the cowboy look for a more laid-back look (he even had a Hawaiian shirt), "why can't we just swim in the ocean?"
"Because, silly," Selphie replied, leading him by the hand, "the ocean doesn't have a diving board!" She took off her top and her shorts to reveal the new bikini she'd brought in Esthar, then ran right up to the diving board and dived right in. When she surfaced, her hair had lost some of it's lift and was hanging down slightly. Irvine was so caught up staring at her beauty that he didn't hear her egging him on. Eventually, she splashed him with some water, getting his attention.
"Well?" She asked, impatiently, "Are you coming in or not?" Irvine's attention returned, and he smiled.
"Wait right there," he said, before running off to get changed into his swimming shorts. Unlike Zell and the girls, he'd forgotten to plan ahead. He eventually emerged, and stood on the diving board, ready to jump in.
"Are you ready, Sefie?" He asked. "Watch this!" He took a big headlong dive off the board and made a huge splash in the water, but when he resurfaced, his demeanour had changed.
"Oh no!" He shouted. "I can't believe this!" Selphie was laughing her head off- she'd seen the whole problem. Irvine's shorts had come off when he'd jumped into the pool. Before he could retrieve them, however, Selphie swam over, grabbed them, and jumped out of the pool, running back towards the beach. Irvine climbed out, and with one hand preserving his modesty, ran after her.
"Gimme my shorts back!" He shouted, sprinting across the beach after her, and making Squall, Rinoa, Zell and Quistis fall about in hysterics.
"You gotta catch me first!" Selphie had replied. Eventually, she climbed over a pile of rocks, but slipped, landing backside first on the sand. Irvine caught her and restrained both her arms, until she agreed to drop his shorts. He quickly retrieved them and put them back on.
"Are you alright?" He asked her, helping her up after her fall. She dusted the sand off her backside and replied.
"Yeh, I'm OK." She looked up into his eyes, and he looked down into hers. They moved their heads closer, and were about to kiss, when Zell's voice interrupted the moment.
"YO! You two!" He shouted over the rocks, unable to see the romantic scene unfolding, "Dinner's ready!" Zell had promised them that he'd prepare one of his famous barbecues, and he hadn't let them down. The smell of chicken, burgers and hotdogs hung heavily in the air. The food, naturally, was delicious, and by the time they'd all finished eating, they were too tired to do anything else but lay on the beach and watch the sunset while Zell polished off the leftovers (of which there had been quite a few). They talked, laughed and even dragged the beach ball out for a final appearance of the night, before eventually going inside and settling down to bed. It was kind of an unwritten fact that Squall and Rinoa would get the Kramers' old room, while Selphie and Quistis shared another room, and Irvine and Zell gave the new room a test-run. Squall, however, was having difficulty sleeping, as Rinoa was becoming well aware of.
"Squall, darling," she asked tiredly, "what's up? It's 1 AM." She'd been trying to get some sleep, but Squall was tossing and turning like nobody's business. He turned again, to face her.
"It's nothing," he lied. Rinoa was not impressed.
"Squall," she said, with a slightly stern tone of voice, "don't give me that." Squall turned away from Rinoa for a brief moment. "Is it about your father?" She asked. Squall had finally come clean to all of them about him and Laguna on board the Ragnarok en route to the chalet. His friends were shocked, but had taken it well enough. However, Rinoa's curiosity was not satisfied.
"It's not that," Squall confessed. Rinoa was suddenly hit by an unpleasant thought.
"It's Seifer, isn't it?" She asked. Squall cringed as he heard Seifer's name- he'd been desperately trying not to think of him, but slowly, he'd managed to work his way into Squall's conscious.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said.
"It helps to talk," Rinoa said, trying to coax Squall out of the figurative shell he'd built around himself. Squall sighed- it wasn't going to be easy to persuade her to take 'no' for an answer.
"It's not something I'm proud of," Squall admitted, "not something I want to admit to." Rinoa could detect a very serious tone in Squall's voice- this was something he felt very strongly about. Nonetheless, she hated him keeping secrets from her.
"Whatever it is," she started, "you can tell me. I won't be shocked, or offended. I promise." Squall sighed, and turned round to face her.
"Maybe it will help to talk," he said, before averting his gaze from Rinoa. He's ashamed, Rinoa immediately figures out. Whatever it is, he's ashamed to tell me. She'd got to know Squall a lot in the past few months, and one of the things she worked out quickly was that he had no regrets. He was very rarely ashamed of his past actions, and when he was, it had to have been a whopper of an action for him to bottle it up. Squall began talking.
"When Seifer was torturing me, what he was doing to me was unimaginable. He hit me, cut me, used weapons and magic against me, even poisoned me to make me vomit so he could humiliate me." Rinoa nodded, trying to hide the concern on her face- she'd known Squall was tortured, she didn't really want to hear the details. Squall then averted his gaze entirely from her. "In the end, Rinoa, I'd had enough. If you and Zell hadn't some in the Ragnarok... I'd have given up. I'd have let Seifer win. I just couldn't take any more." Squall's eyes started to well up at this point, and Rinoa held him tightly. I've never seen him so vulnerable! She thought to herself. Usually he was the one immediately pushing his emotions aside and helping her, not the other way round. Squall couldn't contain himself any more, and he started crying. "I just didn't know what else to do..." he wailed. Rinoa looked at him in the face, astonished by seeing the tears running down his normally expressionless features, and put his mind at rest.
"It's OK, Squall," she started. "No-one's perfect. No one's invincible. Not even you. We'd all have broken some time." She looked at Squall again, and could tell that he was far from convinced. She tried a different approach. "Exactly how long was Seifer torturing you before you lost the plot?" She put it that way, hoping that it might make Squall feel a little better.
"I don't know," he answered, still sobbing. "He had a clock in the torture room, near the start, it said half past six, you came at around twelve... five hours, maybe." Rinoa gasped- she'd had no idea it was that long.
"Five hours?" She said, still shocked. "I don't think anyone could have held out that long with a madman like Seifer torturing them." Squall was still unconvinced.
"It's not enough, Rinoa," he said, still sobbing away, "It's the fact that he beat me. He broke me. He's breaking me right now!" Rinoa grabbed him and held him tight again.
"Ssh," she said, soothingly, "You can't let yourself fall to his level. He wants revenge on you. He wants to hurt you. If you keep thinking like this, you'll only end up like him- bitter and twisted. And I won't let that happen." Squall nodded- she was right, as always.
"I love you, Rinoa," he said, quietly into her ear.
"I love you too, Squall," she said back into his ear. They fell asleep holding each other. Squall had no nightmares that night.
"Man," Nida said, " I wish I was going with you. But hey, someone's gotta keep an eye on the Garden while you're gone. Have fun!" Nida waved at them one last time before taking back off in the Ragnarok, and they waved back at him. Squall, who was in a wheelchair, was suddenly pestered by two of the six.
"Come on, Squall!" Selphie shouted, grabbing his arm and bouncing up and down.
"Yeah," a very excited Irvine, who was walking backwards in front of him, and therefore staring him straight in the face, said, "give us the keys!" Squall simply sighed, smiled, and handed the keys over as Selphie and Irvine cheered. Selphie grabbed the keys, jumped on Irvine's back, and he gave her a piggyback the remaining 300 yards to the door. They made it there quickly, and opened the door. Eventually, the others arrived, and were amazed by what they saw.
"WOW!" Zell shouted, upon seeing the finished work. The others felt much the same way- far from being the ruined old husk of a house it was a few months previously, it was a real home, rebuilt, painted, everything. The builders had even added a third bedroom, and the whole place was sparkling and clean. Selphie and Irvine came bounding back out, throwing a beach ball at the remaining four.
"Last one on the beach is making dinner!" Selphie shouted, excitedly. At that, Zell, Rinoa and Quistis dropped everything they were carrying, and ran outside (with Rinoa pushing Squall's wheelchair). Eventually, they were all outside on the beach. It was a bright, sunny day and the ocean was warm. Zell and Quistis wasted no time in stripping down to their swimming costumes and dived right in, while Selphie and Irvine amused themselves with the beach ball. Rinoa unpacked two towels from underneath Squall's wheelchair and spread them on the sand, before stripping down to her bikini and laying on one, in an attempt to get a tan.
"Squall," she said, already relaxed on her towel, "pass me the sun tan lotion, will you?" Squall reached underneath his chair and produced the bottle, before carefully sliding off his chair onto the towel adjacent to Rinoa.
"I can do better than that," he said, squirting some on Rinoa's back and gently rubbing it in. Rinoa undid her bikini top to make Squall's task a little easier.
"This was a lovely idea," she said, twitching a little bit as Squall started applying the cold lotion to her legs. Squall simply shrugged.
"I figured everyone could do with a break. Edea told me a few months ago about her plans for the old orphanage, and as luck would have it, the builders have just finished." He started rubbing the lotion onto the soles of her feet.
"Ah!" She shouted, laughing as Squall started tickling her feet. "Stop it!" Squall smiled.
"Sorry," he said, "I couldn't resist that." He took his shirt off and started rubbing some lotion on his chest. When he had finished, he simply lay there, enjoying the sun.
Meanwhile, once they had grown tired of the beach ball, Selphie and Irvine found the pool that Squall had mentioned to her earlier.
"I don't get it," Irvine, who for this holiday had shunned the cowboy look for a more laid-back look (he even had a Hawaiian shirt), "why can't we just swim in the ocean?"
"Because, silly," Selphie replied, leading him by the hand, "the ocean doesn't have a diving board!" She took off her top and her shorts to reveal the new bikini she'd brought in Esthar, then ran right up to the diving board and dived right in. When she surfaced, her hair had lost some of it's lift and was hanging down slightly. Irvine was so caught up staring at her beauty that he didn't hear her egging him on. Eventually, she splashed him with some water, getting his attention.
"Well?" She asked, impatiently, "Are you coming in or not?" Irvine's attention returned, and he smiled.
"Wait right there," he said, before running off to get changed into his swimming shorts. Unlike Zell and the girls, he'd forgotten to plan ahead. He eventually emerged, and stood on the diving board, ready to jump in.
"Are you ready, Sefie?" He asked. "Watch this!" He took a big headlong dive off the board and made a huge splash in the water, but when he resurfaced, his demeanour had changed.
"Oh no!" He shouted. "I can't believe this!" Selphie was laughing her head off- she'd seen the whole problem. Irvine's shorts had come off when he'd jumped into the pool. Before he could retrieve them, however, Selphie swam over, grabbed them, and jumped out of the pool, running back towards the beach. Irvine climbed out, and with one hand preserving his modesty, ran after her.
"Gimme my shorts back!" He shouted, sprinting across the beach after her, and making Squall, Rinoa, Zell and Quistis fall about in hysterics.
"You gotta catch me first!" Selphie had replied. Eventually, she climbed over a pile of rocks, but slipped, landing backside first on the sand. Irvine caught her and restrained both her arms, until she agreed to drop his shorts. He quickly retrieved them and put them back on.
"Are you alright?" He asked her, helping her up after her fall. She dusted the sand off her backside and replied.
"Yeh, I'm OK." She looked up into his eyes, and he looked down into hers. They moved their heads closer, and were about to kiss, when Zell's voice interrupted the moment.
"YO! You two!" He shouted over the rocks, unable to see the romantic scene unfolding, "Dinner's ready!" Zell had promised them that he'd prepare one of his famous barbecues, and he hadn't let them down. The smell of chicken, burgers and hotdogs hung heavily in the air. The food, naturally, was delicious, and by the time they'd all finished eating, they were too tired to do anything else but lay on the beach and watch the sunset while Zell polished off the leftovers (of which there had been quite a few). They talked, laughed and even dragged the beach ball out for a final appearance of the night, before eventually going inside and settling down to bed. It was kind of an unwritten fact that Squall and Rinoa would get the Kramers' old room, while Selphie and Quistis shared another room, and Irvine and Zell gave the new room a test-run. Squall, however, was having difficulty sleeping, as Rinoa was becoming well aware of.
"Squall, darling," she asked tiredly, "what's up? It's 1 AM." She'd been trying to get some sleep, but Squall was tossing and turning like nobody's business. He turned again, to face her.
"It's nothing," he lied. Rinoa was not impressed.
"Squall," she said, with a slightly stern tone of voice, "don't give me that." Squall turned away from Rinoa for a brief moment. "Is it about your father?" She asked. Squall had finally come clean to all of them about him and Laguna on board the Ragnarok en route to the chalet. His friends were shocked, but had taken it well enough. However, Rinoa's curiosity was not satisfied.
"It's not that," Squall confessed. Rinoa was suddenly hit by an unpleasant thought.
"It's Seifer, isn't it?" She asked. Squall cringed as he heard Seifer's name- he'd been desperately trying not to think of him, but slowly, he'd managed to work his way into Squall's conscious.
"I don't want to talk about it," he said.
"It helps to talk," Rinoa said, trying to coax Squall out of the figurative shell he'd built around himself. Squall sighed- it wasn't going to be easy to persuade her to take 'no' for an answer.
"It's not something I'm proud of," Squall admitted, "not something I want to admit to." Rinoa could detect a very serious tone in Squall's voice- this was something he felt very strongly about. Nonetheless, she hated him keeping secrets from her.
"Whatever it is," she started, "you can tell me. I won't be shocked, or offended. I promise." Squall sighed, and turned round to face her.
"Maybe it will help to talk," he said, before averting his gaze from Rinoa. He's ashamed, Rinoa immediately figures out. Whatever it is, he's ashamed to tell me. She'd got to know Squall a lot in the past few months, and one of the things she worked out quickly was that he had no regrets. He was very rarely ashamed of his past actions, and when he was, it had to have been a whopper of an action for him to bottle it up. Squall began talking.
"When Seifer was torturing me, what he was doing to me was unimaginable. He hit me, cut me, used weapons and magic against me, even poisoned me to make me vomit so he could humiliate me." Rinoa nodded, trying to hide the concern on her face- she'd known Squall was tortured, she didn't really want to hear the details. Squall then averted his gaze entirely from her. "In the end, Rinoa, I'd had enough. If you and Zell hadn't some in the Ragnarok... I'd have given up. I'd have let Seifer win. I just couldn't take any more." Squall's eyes started to well up at this point, and Rinoa held him tightly. I've never seen him so vulnerable! She thought to herself. Usually he was the one immediately pushing his emotions aside and helping her, not the other way round. Squall couldn't contain himself any more, and he started crying. "I just didn't know what else to do..." he wailed. Rinoa looked at him in the face, astonished by seeing the tears running down his normally expressionless features, and put his mind at rest.
"It's OK, Squall," she started. "No-one's perfect. No one's invincible. Not even you. We'd all have broken some time." She looked at Squall again, and could tell that he was far from convinced. She tried a different approach. "Exactly how long was Seifer torturing you before you lost the plot?" She put it that way, hoping that it might make Squall feel a little better.
"I don't know," he answered, still sobbing. "He had a clock in the torture room, near the start, it said half past six, you came at around twelve... five hours, maybe." Rinoa gasped- she'd had no idea it was that long.
"Five hours?" She said, still shocked. "I don't think anyone could have held out that long with a madman like Seifer torturing them." Squall was still unconvinced.
"It's not enough, Rinoa," he said, still sobbing away, "It's the fact that he beat me. He broke me. He's breaking me right now!" Rinoa grabbed him and held him tight again.
"Ssh," she said, soothingly, "You can't let yourself fall to his level. He wants revenge on you. He wants to hurt you. If you keep thinking like this, you'll only end up like him- bitter and twisted. And I won't let that happen." Squall nodded- she was right, as always.
"I love you, Rinoa," he said, quietly into her ear.
"I love you too, Squall," she said back into his ear. They fell asleep holding each other. Squall had no nightmares that night.