By myself but not Alone
I am watching the rise and fall of my salvation
Disclaimer: I don't own final fantasy 8
Hopefully I'll be doing this update thing quicker now.
Squall looked longingly at the bar as it began to close, he didn't want this night to end. He was having more fun than he cared to have in good while. He stood, about to inform the clan that it was go time but he felt his head spin and stumbled back a step to trip on the seat and fall on Rinoa.
He cracked up laughing and when the rest of his friends did so too it made his laughter more intense. He tried again, this time mastering the head spin that followed it and managed to just sway a little.
"Right kids, let's go!" he announced.
He walked ahead of the group, a smile set upon his face as he listened to them singing "everybody conga!" over and over again. Picturing in his head what they must've looked like but not actually thinking to look. He was on a mission anyway; he had to concentrate on both walking straight and finding the exit.
Masses of other people surrounded him, most heading to the exit themselves so it wasn't that much of a brain-buster.
All around him he could hear various chatter and was almost bowled over by a fellow party goer as he fell over.
Finally outside he lifted his head to the sky and took in his surroundings; he couldn't do this for long until he was encircled by his friends, all of which thought he was quite insane.
"The hell is wrong with you? We've got a mission!" Selphie commanded dramatically.
She grabbed Squall by the elbow and ran along with him towards the path that led to Balamb Garden.
"Where's everyone else going?" Rinoa enquired when she noticed everyone heading a different way.
"I dunno…" Quistis replied, looking over her shoulder as she did so, "DUMBASS!" She yelled, "YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!"
Squall and Selphie turned back around and ran the other way, acting as if they hadn't done anything while ignoring Zell who lay on the ground in stitches at their stupidity.
"I can see why you like getting Squall drunk." Rinoa laughed as she watched the two teen's run ahead of them.
"I know, he's full on different! I love it!" Quistis replied.
Rinoa felt herself being picked up from behind and looked to see Zell. He twirled her around a bit before putting her back down, apparently just a pointless act on impulse… entertaining nonetheless.
Once outside Balamb town things changed dramatically. She'd soon lost sight of all the people that accompanied her, except her friends that had pulled her along and had also lost sight of Squall and Selphie.
"Where have those two gone this time!" Irvine said the first thing he'd uttered in awhile.
"This time?" Rinoa asked Zell quietly.
Zell shrugged his shoulders and stared at Irvine like he was a madman.
Whoever had said that the walk home was half the fun was only half right. It was enjoyable but Rinoa would've much preferred to party at the club for awhile longer.
All the way Rinoa Selphie and Quistis (once Selphie had come out from her cloak of darkness) had sung old school songs while the boys seemed to disappear.
Quistis explained later that they took great pleasure in trying to defeat monsters on the way and Rinoa did have a go but found that it was hard to hit a monster when you could see two of it.
Surprisingly the others didn't seem to suck quite as bad as Rinoa, bar the fact that they seemed to have trouble keeping on their feet.
Squall swung lazily at a bite bug that he'd been trying to hit for the past five minutes. Even if he had hit it he still fell to the ground and was assaulted by it while there.
He heard a loud crack above him and looked just in time to see the end of Quistis's whip swing back towards her. She winked at him and laughed, he grimaced, somewhat displeased that she had defeated the monster that he had vowed to vanquish.
Once back inside the Garden domain Squall shushed them all, apparently quite afraid of being snapped out by the principal.
Rinoa found this quite comical, the great Squall Leonhart afraid of the Principal like he was ten years old. She refrained from saying anything, seeing as he was carrying her at this point and she didn't want to be dropped.
They all parted ways, Zell Irvine Selphie and Quistis heading for the normal dormitories while Squall and Rinoa headed towards the VIP rooms. Squall being commander got a special room just like Rinoa.
Squall being the Casanova he was walked Rinoa to her door, admittedly it was mainly because his was further down but he didn't exactly tell her that.
"So I guess I'll see you tomorrow." Rinoa said as she opened her door.
She wanted to invite him in but knew that if Squall wanted that then he'd say something; he was usually pretty good like that.
"Guess so." Squall replied.
Rinoa went to kiss him on the cheek, not wanting to test fate but as she did Squall caught her lips in his own. Rinoa relished in the moment, not wanting it to end. She found herself wondering what tomorrow was going to be like, would it be the same… would Squall change back to normal…
'Squall's not like that.' Rinoa thought.
She chose to worry about that tomorrow and enjoy right now instead, that's how she'd always lived her life and she wasn't going to change now.
Squall broke away first, he ran his hand softly down the side of her face staring deeply into her eyes.
"Catch ya later." Squall whispered.
"Lataz." Rinoa said back.
She watched him walk away, not actually going back into her room until he was about to go into his own.
Once inside Rinoa leaned against the door and sighed. She had a goofy grin set upon her face and a glazed over look in her eyes.
She did what might be referred to as a "happy dance" and spun around until she fell over. She lay on the ground, staring up at the ceiling in pure ecstasy. That is until the ceiling started spinning.
'Oh Hyne, I'm ganna be sick!' Rinoa thought as she leapt up and ran towards her bathroom.
The next morning…
Rinoa cracked one eye open and glared at the light that shone through the cracks in her curtains. She glanced at the clock and read 9:59. She groaned and lay there for about another fifteen minutes before deciding to get out of bed.
She realised that she was still fully dressed and looked at herself in the mirror. She looked an absolute fright. The right side of her face was all smudge and both her eyes had black eyeliner trailing from under them. Her hair was poking out in various directions and one eye was slightly open more than the other.
She had a pounding headache and her stomach felt more seedy than she'd ever felt before in her life.
Rinoa took what she might consider the longest shower she'd ever taken and was reluctant to get out even after half an hour. She dressed, combed her hair and made her way towards the cafeteria. She doubted that she could eat anything but thought that a coffee sounded nice.
When she got down there she saw three very unenthusiastic looking friends of hers, all sipping at coffee.
"Morning." Rinoa mumbled as she approached them.
She noted the coffee pot beside them and helped herself to the glass.
Sitting at the table were Selphie, Quistis and Irvine.
"Where's everyone else?" Rinoa asked with what little energy she had.
Rinoa chose her words carefully there, she didn't want to come out and say "where's Squall" that was opening herself up for teasing.
"Zell and Squall got sent on a mission this morning, they'll be hating it!" Selphie laughed.
Somehow she still managed to retain some of her exuberance.
"Where?" Rinoa enquired.
"That's classified, we don't know." Irvine replied.
Rinoa nodded and chose not to think about the subject anymore, she was almost glad, it saved the uncomfortable greetings that she was expecting.
"I think they should be back in about a week, this is one of those lay low missions I reckon." Selphie giggled.
Apparently the rest of the crew found this tremendously hilarious as well. Rinoa was somewhat curious as to why this would be funny.
"What?" Rinoa enquired.
"Zell isn't too good at lay low missions. I don't know why they keep sending him on them." Quistis informed.
"I think they want to boost his ability at them." Irvine replied.
Later on that day…
Rinoa's POV
Thankfully I am feeling much better than this morning. Quistis told me to drink orange juice and other citrus things like mandarins. The vitamin C's supposed to be good for you. I dunno, I always just took a Panadol and slept but apparently that's where I go wrong.
"Laying down and doing nothing only increases your sickness, you need to be active." Or so Quistis says.
I personally would prefer to do nothing for the rest of my life and I have made a vow to never drink again but I say that every morning after.
I was kinda upset and somewhat relieved to hear that Squall had been sent out. Don't get me wrong, I'm worried as hell about him, especially after seeing Quistis's mission but at the same time… I don't have to deal with facing what happened. I will though but at least now we have a chance to get our heads straight.
Squall'll be fine! I've seen him fight and have never seen anything like it. It's like watching an artist create a masterpiece. He makes it seem effortless and I can't imagine that he'd have much trouble defeating anything that they throw at him.
This will give him heaps of time to work out exactly what he intends to say to me when he gets back as well because I cant imagine that he'd thought of it before.
Well I also learnt something new today that I didn't know before. All of my friends actually have jobs… I was shocked! I thought that they just loafed around all day waiting for a mission but apparently I was wrong!
According to Irvine, on various times in the week he is a trainer for future sniper users and also travelled to Dollet on occasion to pick up any goods that the Garden may have ordered. I was also told that Irvine usually took Zell with him on these missions and they made a weekend of it.
Quistis was a part time instructor, building herself up to the real thing I'm told but she's treated like a normal teacher anyway. As she put it "sometimes Squall comes in handy."
Selphie on the other hand was a different case completely; I'd already been with her on one of her jobs. She took junior cadets on field trips and training sessions. This was only when all the other teachers were unavailable or under staffed, which was apparently often. She also volunteered to help all the junior teachers teach the children basic weaponry. It was usually just to show the kids that even a pipsqueak can be great, to boost their morale.
Zell substituted for the martial arts professor two periods of the week when the teacher had to go abroad to Galbadia for lectures. I was told that apparently this was considered an undemanding job because all the martial arts cadets were extremely dedicated people.
And lastly Squall was commander of Balamb Garden… obviously. It sounds so magic when you say it like that doesn't it? Like I'm hooking up with the Commander of Balamb Garden Squall Leonhart! Excuse me. The handsome, enigmatic, fetching, fine, perfect Squall Leonhart… Commander of Balamb Garden... Sorry… I'll stop now.
Anyway.
Since this morning only Selphie and Quistis didn't have anything to do. They applied for the days off because they wanted to have a day to get over any hangovers that may occur. I was told that SeeD's don't generally have too many days off during the year, they're sposta be really dedicated to their work.
Me and the girls are on our way to the beach anyway, to soak up the sun and fall asleep on the sand. Naturally nobody's admitting that that will happen but I cant imagine we'll be the water too long before we loose what little energy we have and then we'll go to sunbathe and get horribly horribly burnt when we fall asleep.
We spot the beach and are thankful to be able to get out of the car, all this movement was just getting to me.
Quistis pulled up and we walked down towards the water. I lay my towel out flat on the sand while Selphie does the same and Quistis takes off her sandals.
Selphie is the first in the water, diving in and falling beneath it, not caring to check how cold it was.
I head towards the water first and sit down in the waves; I love the feeling of waves crashing against me, besides I can't imagine that I actually want to do a lot of swimming.
I turn to see what's taking Quistis so long. She's taking her hair out and she then she flings her hair out of her face. It reminds me of those cheesy hair commercials on TV.
She then starts walking towards the water, delicately and smoothly… retaining her cheesy hair ad credibility.
She stares at me and gives me a funny look. I turn back to the waves and chuckle to myself.
"What?" Quistis asks, placing one hand on her hip.
"Nothing." I reply.
I think I weirded her out. That would've weirded me out if someone did it to me. I can't help it; I'm not right in the head right now.
Quistis glides into the water, slowly and smoothly walking out into the ocean. Once it's up to her waist she dives under and comes back up.
I look towards the horizon and immediately block my mouth and hold my hands out in front of me as a particularly large wave came closing in.
Deciding that this is no longer a good idea I walk out towards where Selphie and Quistis are. Selphie's doing handstands underwater and Quistis is just swimming around. I imagine that usually more is happening, especially if the boys were here, but I don't really have enough energy to do much of anything either.
Selphie surfaced and looked at me and Quistis.
"I'm going back, I can't be bothered."
I'm horrified, that was one sentence that I never expected to hear from Selphie, apparently unfazed by this Quistis just replied.
"Yeah I tend to agree."
Mighty SeeD's crumble at nasty hangover!
I must admit though, I can't really be fucked either.
"Yeah aye."
I didn't really know how to end that but I figured they've got hangovers so there's not really a lot of action to write about.