By myself but not Alone

"I found the one my heart loves"

Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy 8

Sweet Jesus that took ages! I know, it's terrible and I hate it but I'm really trying!

Caraway sat at his desk; his feet up on the table a coffee in one hand and a couple of sheets of paper in his other. He'd been up for hours looking over the various reports that SeeD's had produced from their missions since Deling's attack. He'd been going through them in alphabetical order, seeing as that's the way they were listed.

He was hoping that whoever had tried to kill Deling would've left a paper trail. Currently he was searching through one Selphie Tilmitt's file. He'd already searched Squall Leonhart's as extensively as he could manage; Squall hadn't mentioned anything to give him any reason to suspect him. Not that he didn't. if anyone would know Squall would be the person, but so far it was just a feeling, not enough to kill hundreds of people.

He nearly choked on his coffee as he read one particular paragraph in Selphie's report.

We had successfully retrieved Quistis from any danger but there were no other survivors. Quistis was badly damaged but nothing that couldn't be repaired. As we ran towards the ship I noticed Miss Heartilly cowering over Zell Dincht as one of the Behemoth was about to strike. It was apparent that we wouldn't be able to save her but Commander Leonhart and I tried.

As we ran some sort of brilliant white light illuminated from Miss Heartilly and dropped the Commander and myself to the ground. As we stood we noticed that the entire Behemoth and their allies had been annihilated.

I know for a fact that Miss Heartilly is not powerful enough to emit such energy and feel that closer examination is required.

Caraway rubbed the bottom of his chin, a habit that he did quite frequently when he was thinking. The cranks in his head started turning and he found himself wondering, wondering what power was held behind his daughter's innocent, fragile form.

Elsewhere

Rinoa held her hands behind her back, her vision was starting to become somewhat impaired and she'd basically lost all sense of direction.

She dived her head down and took a full shot glass on the table in her mouth; she lifted her head up and downed the foul tasting contents of the glass. The table erupted in applause and claps while Rinoa reeled in disgust.

No matter how much she consumed whenever it came to shots she always found herself having the urge to chuck it all back up. Nonetheless she endured, besides she didn't want to throw up all over the table in front of a bunch of people that she'd only drank with once before.

'Yeah then I can always be remembered as the girl who can't handle her liquor.' Rinoa thought as she took a large gulp of her bourbon and coke.

She had to have a chaser; she would quite literally throw up if she didn't.

Soon Selphie, who soon took a handless shot, she wiped her mouth and let out a loud exhale of breath. Rinoa watched as Selphie too grabbed for her drink and took a long swig.

This went on for quite some time. Rinoa could only manage two but Irvine would've had at least four.

"Selphie, howz about we's go and have a dance." Zell said, trying to sit up straight.

Selphie regally, well as regally as she could muster as this point, extended her hand and allowed Zell to lead her to the dance floor. Rinoa took a quick glance at Irvine to see what his reaction to this would be but saw nothing.

No jealousy or resentment, he just continued his conversation with Quistis. Rinoa supposed it was because of the close bond that they all shared, Irvine knew that Zell would never go there out of respect for Irvine and because Selphie was his friend.

'Then again… accidents do happen…' Rinoa thought as she remembered how she and Seifer shacked up together.

An hour later

Zell and Selphie had somehow managed to drag everyone onto the dance floor, including Squall… which was a miracle in itself.

They had divided into groups. Group one consisting of Selphie and Zell, who had remained partners throughout the entire dance, Group two, which included Rinoa and Irvine, Rinoa not wanting to look to desperate decided that dancing with Irvine would make her come off as if she didn't care who she danced with and finally Group three which was Squall and Quistis.

Rinoa found herself glancing over at Squall and Quistis every so often, after hearing about Quistis's former love interest in Squall she couldn't help but look every once in awhile to make sure that it was still all in good fun dancing.

In true Quistis style she danced with elegance and grace, not letting on for a second that she was the drunken mess that she had slowly become as the night went on. Compare her dancing to Selphie's and it was like a different species.

Selphie was basically holding herself up by Zell's collar and every so often he'd nearly fall over and they'd both become a hugging, laughing mess. They were actually quite comical to watch. Rinoa admired them, well admired the relationship that Irvine and Selphie had anyway.

The fact that Irvine trusted her so much that things such as this didn't faze him. Rinoa had been out with guys that should she even accept a dance with other men they'd pounce.

Irvine, surprisingly enough, was keeping his distance, well he had since about five minutes ago… then it seemed his thoughts were preoccupied on other things.

"Whats wrong?" Rinoa enquired.

"What?" Irvine yelled back, unable to hear her over the thumping music.

"I SAID, WHATS WRONG!" Rinoa yelled.

"Oh nothing…"

Rinoa wasn't sure she believed him and soon found that they're party of two had become a party of three. Quistis had joined them and Irvine didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

"Where's Squall?" Irvine shouted before Rinoa had a chance to.

Irvine had a kinda annoyed tinge in his voice; Rinoa wondered wether Selphie and Zell were starting to bother him.

"He went to go talk to that Marissa chick." Quistis replied.

Irvine looked shocked for a second, then almost angry and then finally his eyes settled on Rinoa, who had stopped dancing and was looking quite confused, and grinned reassuringly.

Rinoa smiled weakly back but couldn't get the feeling out of her that something was up. She walked towards where Selphie and Zell were dancing and grabbed Zell by the elbow, pulling him along.

"HEY!" She heard Selphie call out from behind her.

"I'll bring him right back I promise." Rinoa said quickly before continuing her walk towards the booth.

Rinoa knew first hand of Zell's reputation, he was said to be the biggest loud mouth in Garden. But even with that said, he was still a SeeD and that meant that he wasn't exactly going to be easy to crack.

Rinoa knew how to get him though; you had to catch him off guard, so he didn't think about it and make sure that it was only him around.

"Sorry about that Zell but I needed someone to come and talk to me." Rinoa said nonchalantly.

Zell shrugged his shoulders, apparently not really caring about being dragged off the dance floor.

"So hows your night been?" Rinoa asked, ordering another round of shots after she finished saying this.

"Alright, nothing special so far." As if on que Zell looked out on the dance floor and noticed one person missing. "Where's Squall gone?"

"I dunno, Quistis mentioned some girl called Mara or Marina or something." Rinoa replied, purposely screwing the name up.

"Marissa?"

"That's the one!" Rinoa said clicking her fingers.

"Is that slut here?" Zell exclaimed.

"Is she a slut?"

"Yeah. She always wants to get into Squall when he's pissed and one night he got a little too pissed, if ya know what I mean, and kinda just gave in. Ever since that night she hounded him. She doesn't go to Garden so it's not that big a deal but… I shouldn't have told you that!"

"Why? I don't mind, it's not like me and Squall are together or anything."

Rinoa said it as straight faced as she could but she couldn't help but be a little hurt that Squall would ditched everyone to go with that girl… ditched her to go with some slut!

It put a downer on her night and when Zell suggested they get back to dancing she said that she'd be fine on her own and that he should go. Reluctantly he went, not wanting to say anything more that might ruin everything again.

Rinoa sat at the table and took her shots, not wanting to let good alcohol go to waste. She spotted Squall across the room. He appeared to be angry and that gave Rinoa a little bit of hope. He was obviously yelling at the girl and she was obviously not giving up.

The girl, Marissa, had long blonde hair with black streaks though it. She wore a little black leather mini skirt and a crimson red sleeveless top. She had a pair of shin high boots on and her make up was flawless.

Rinoa had to admit; she was beautiful and wondered why Squall didn't just take the opportunity to be with someone like that.

It didn't take long for Rinoa to clue onto why, as Zell had said, she was a slut! It also didn't take much longer after that to realise what Squall was doing. He was trying to make her leave him alone… apparently she wasn't getting the picture.

'Maybe I can help…'

"Seriously Marissa, I don't want to go there with you. I'm sure that deep… deep down inside you're a very… nice person but I'm kinda here with someone else…"

Squall took a jerk back and caught himself on the wall, he started laughing and Marissa laughed with him. She took the opportunity to wrap her arms around Squall before he noticed and take in a little of his intoxicating scent.

It didn't take that long for him to notice and gentle remove her arm.

"Squally, you know how this is going to end. You're going to take me home and then…"

Once again, timing was perfect when Rinoa approached them. She leaned up against Squall, her back to Marissa, cutting off her sentence wonderfully and wrapped her slender arms around his waist.

His eyes widened and he looked as though he was going to dodge out like he did last time Rinoa got close to him but instead he lifted his hand up and started playing with her dark hair.

They heard a cough behind them and Squall groaned quietly.

Rinoa turned around and gave Marissa a look of surprise.

"I'm sorry was I interrupting something?" Rinoa asked innocently.

"Yes actually you were." Marissa replied, looking furious.

"My bad. Continue." Rinoa said casually.

She removed one of her arms and felt her body being swung to the side by one of Squall's powerful arms and now she was facing Marissa.

Needless to say Marissa left soon after that, leaving with one final, "He's not even worth it girl, don't say I didn't warn you."

Rinoa shifted back to her original position and looked up into Squall's blue-grey eyes. He smiled at her before leading her back to the booth that they had all shared.

Everyone was still dancing and Rinoa was thankful that they got a little bit more alone time before everyone decided to crash the moment.

Rinoa leaned her body up against Squall, relishing in the fact that he neither pushed her away nor turned rigid at her touch like she had seen him do to countless others. But Squall never did to her, he treated her different from a lot of people. She saw a side of him that he was reluctant to show many people and was more caring to her than anyone else… when they weren't fighting.

He began playing lightly with her hair, something she had quite gotten used to, she was beginning to think he was a hair freak but seeing the messy state of his she guessed not. Maybe he just liked hers.

"I've missed you." Rinoa stated quietly.

Squall didn't reply and Rinoa was wondering whether he was freaking out. He was still twisting her hair between his fingers and Rinoa could feel his head still resting on hers so she assumed that he hadn't heard her or something and was somewhat thankful that he didn't, fearful that something like that could alarm him.

"I think I missed you to." Squall replied.

Rinoa turned around, almost feeling insulted.

"Hold up, you think."

Squall grinned and Rinoa swooned at how adorable he looked when he did so.

"Gotta keep ya guessing!" he paused and looked over her shoulder; Rinoa thought he'd be staring at Quistis and the others but apparently not.

"We have an audience." Squall stated, completely changing the subject.

Rinoa went to turn around and look but Squall held her arm and shook his head.

"Geez Rinoa, way to make it obvious." Squall laughed.

Rinoa did the age old yawn and look over your shoulder routine. Squall rubbed his forehead and chuckled but refrained from saying anything.

Rinoa turned back and looked at him. The same look in her eyes that had freaked him out when she had tried to get into him. He had come to recognise it as something she would do when she was planning on doing something she wasn't supposed to. But today Squall had something on his side that he hadn't the first time he'd witnessed it first hand… alcohol.

"Well we should give them something to look at." Rinoa said before scooting closer to him.

She slowly inched her head closer and closer towards his. A smirk slowly settled on Squall's lips and he didn't recoil back as he thought he would if this happened. She placed her lips gently on his, reluctant to deepen the kiss in any way until he did. She knew what Squall was like… you had to crawl before you walked.

Then she felt Squall's hands settle on the bass of her back, crawling up and down her back. She wrapped her arms around his neck and felt something she didn't think she ever would.

"Squall Leonhart!" Rinoa exclaimed with a smile on her face, "Was that your tongue!"

Yeah that's it. I wanted to end the chapter with some sort of sappy kiss thing and I got that but y'know there supposed to be drunk and sappy things don't happen between drunken people very often. I had to add that bit with Caraway at the start because his thing is supposed to be a major part of the story and I barely ever mention him so yeah.