Mistakes
Chapter 4: Explosion
"Just leave me ALONE!!" he roared, his control over his emotions diminishing. He didn't care anymore. Nothing else mattered. Squall collapsed against the balcony of the secret area. He was tired from all the disturbances. All those obstacles. He hated it. Why did they have to bother him so much?
Laguna edged towards his son, and his eyes levelled with the crestfallen boy. He could feel his agony and his confusion, and he ached to see his son in this state. Part of him wished he could turn back time, wished that he never met Julia, never agreed to go up to her room. Yet, part of him wanted Julia more than ever. He himself was baffled. Too late to do anything to help, and he sighed, wishing that Hyne would be kinder towards his son.
"Just… go away…" his words were now of a whimper, and it was all he needed to persuade Laguna to leave. He would rather see his son strong and defiant than to watch his son's soul ebb away with forlornness.
Slowly, Laguna picked himself up, turning his back away from his son. Quietly, he left the lone secret area, leaving his son's disconsolate state by the balcony. He had to tell Quistis that Squall was dying in the inside. She would be able to help.
No sooner than he had approached the gate of the training centre, he saw his son foolishly hurl himself to the front of a T-rexaur, determined to strike it down. To the monstrosity, it meant a delicious meal, but to Squall, it meant a positive death, and he certainly knew it, having enough experience with that monster.
Taken aback by his son's sudden reaction, he barely had enough time to recollect himself from his thoughts when he saw Squall being flung across the training centre, the T-rexaur still charging at it.
"SQUALL!!"
The lights were dim at the Caraway house; the General lighted a cigar, spewing smoke from his coarse lips. Waiting for his wife to be back. Obviously, she had known he didn't like her to be back so late, but she had purposely angered him, taunted him. He didn't like that. He wasn't going to tolerate her nonsense. He was going to put a stop to her childishness.
He heard a click behind him, the door opening, revealing a ravishing brunette dressed in a pale yellow knee-length one-piece. By gods, was she beautiful, but Caraway could not care less. He wasn't going to let her good looks ease his boiling temper. He wasn't going to let her tempt him.
"Where have you been, my wife?" He was faking a gentle tone.
"I have been to the opera house." She spoke in monotones.
"Are you sure of that? Didn't you go to the hotel?" He cornered her, raising his voice, "or have you been visiting that lowly soldier of mine? Speak!!"
She was adamant. "Why?? Are you jealous I didn't spend the night with you? Oh, you bought me anyway. I am your wife." She crossed her arms, refusing to look into her husband's furious eyes. Husband? My foot!
He noticed that her hairdo was slightly mussed, her pin skewed. "You have been to that soldier, didn't you? Look at your hair!! He messed it up, didn't he?" He smirked, but deep down he was hoping Julia wouldn't say yes, even though he thought so. Julia must have been with that guy. He couldn't see what she saw in him, and can't she appreciate her husband?
"Aren't you jumping into conclusions? The low-roof car mussed my hair. The pin was trapped and it tore off my hairdo. Why you… don't you trust your 'wife'? Or do you just treat her like a possession you bought?" She was blazing with indignity, having been accused of adultery just because of a lousy pin that was out of place!
"Julia!! You!! Liar!! I don't believe any of your nonsense. I knew you were a whore, right from the beginning when you went to bed with him, carrying his child, Rinoa!! And I took pity on you and her!!" He was belligerent, his restrain breaking. Watching his wife's eyes widen with incense, she raised her arms and struck his face so hard…
She was there, watching the scene. Watching her father explode at her mother, then watching her mother striking his face. She cried from behind the stairs she was hiding at…
"NO!! Don't hit my mom!!" Rinoa screamed into the silent night, jerking up on her bed into a sitting position, perspiring profusely despite the cool midnight air.
You were a whore…went to bed with him…
You were carrying his child, Rinoa…
I took pity on you and her…Her mother? Went to bed with Uncle Laguna? So, it was true after all. She was Uncle Lag… no, her father's illegitimate daughter. Was she really that? Or was it just a dream, or was it a past recollection brought up to light by this incident? Rinoa could not decipher right from wrong.
"NO!! I don't want to be his daughter!!" her sudden shout pierced the air just as Irvine started knocked impatiently on the door of her dorm. She heard whisperings between Quistis and Irvine, and felt the worry in their murmurs.
"Rinoa!! Are you alright? Open the door, Rin!!" His voice was urgent, almost pleading. "Look, I'm gonna break the door unless you open it Rin, either way, I'm coming in."
Asking Quistis to step back, he was about to charge at the door when he saw the petite figure stand leaning against the doorframe, her face pale as the waning moon.
"Squall… I…" Her eyes were brimming with tears, she felt like a broken angel without her wings. No, she can't do that to Squall. She can't let him down like that.
"Hush, hush, you can't cry now. Squall needs you badly." He was at the Infirmary.
The jarring sounds of the CRO beeping woke him up to the flashing lights of the infirmary. His chest hurts, his ribs were poking him and he felt bruises all over. Momentarily, he forgot he had courted death fighting the T-rexaur. Feeling a slight warmth over his right arm, he realised it was Rinoa.
"Rinny…" The edges of his lips curled slightly as he saw his angel rest on his arms. He felt no pain now, not when her presence can cure his wounds. Never mind incest. She was never his half-sister. He certainly did not acknowledged it in the first place.
Wait, how did she know he was there? Dammit. Laguna. Him again. Quistis and Irvine too. He wondered who else knew. Perhaps Ellone. Perhaps the whole Garden, talking about his "miscalculated move", or maybe that Rinoa had drugged him unconsciously, only to try bringing him to his death. He winced at the growing pain in his abdomen, where the T-rexaur had jabbed its claws in, his arm twitching, waking the sleeping woman beside him. Damn again.
"Hi sleeping beauty. Had a nice sleep?" he teased the sleepy face, and saw her shake her curls off to the sides. She had a long time adjusting her bearings.
"Squall!! You had us worried!!" she admonished the bed-ridden Squall, and mockingly shook her head in a superior manner, her finger ticking him off. He smiled at her laughing eyes, and wondered when was the last time they had ever been so… carefree. He knew right outside the Infirmary were a long line of meddlesome cadets waiting for the latest update of the Headmaster and his sorceress. But he didn't care. Perhaps it was right he got injured. At lest here they were free in their world.
"Dr. Kadowaki said you are fine already, after the Curagas Quistis cast on you, and the stitches on your chest. Just don't move that much, and AVOID T-rexaurs. Please, I can't afford another heart attack."
"Fine, miss Heartily." Sheer mockery.
"Now what did I tell you about talking back to nurses." She stood at a commanding posture; her hands jabbed at her slender waist, her nose wrinkling like an old maid.
He shrugged. "Meanie," she teased.
"Rinoa." She then beamed him, and he wished for no other peace.
She sat at the stool, watching him fall asleep under the swirling fan in the Infirmary. Thinking about the dream, she suddenly felt that it was nothing. Forget incest. She never meant Laguna as her father. It was just a dream. Something she construed. Caraway had raised her, no matter how impossible he was. Her dream was nothing but a small hurdle. Haven't they crossed bigger hurdles? Haven't they? She decided the dream was nothing she needed to tell Squall.
Incest. Who cares anyway?
He was peeping at her muttering away on her own, sitting on the stool beside the bed. He wasn't asleep; he was just resting, but she couldn't tell the difference. Never mind the difference. He watched his half-sister… no, not half-sister. They had been closer than that. Space, Ragnarok, Time Compression, Ultimecia. They were tens of thousands more difficult than the one problem they had now. Never mind incest. They weren't sisters or brothers. They were each other's soul mate. They shouldn't be bothered by such trivia matters.
Incest. Who cares anyway?
Author's Notes: No!! This isn't the end yet… I haven't thought of a suitable ending, and I still have some explaining to do. I hope it wasn't too cheesy, I think I overdone it… =