Squall half stood frozen in place as Rinoa started to sing again. Her eyes locked on his, it seemed like her words were directed solely at him, to him, through him, and into his heart and soul. Her words only half registered, but their passion and pain cut his heart into pieces. He knew somehow that he was the cause of her pain. What he did not know, what his heart ached to know and understand, was how he had caused it.
He remained in his frozen state, staring, absorbing the chocolate colored eyes that stared back at him, with fear and pain quivering through them. He absorbed her face, the delicate, almost porcelain vision he had come to adore. Her hair still had its light brown highlights over jet-black, and still fell past her shoulders.
A din of noise cut through his thoughts, and he realized people were applauding. This realization broke his paralysis and let him stand straight up. He never took his eyes off her, but before he could do anything further, she suddenly started backing up and ran off the stage. Murmurs from the crowd began to rise, and Natalie was close after her.
A hand laid itself on Squall's shoulder. He turned to see Irvine standing next to him. "At least we know where she is now."
Squall did not respond as he turned back towards the back of the stage where the two women had disappeared into. Yea, now all we need to know is why. Squall's stomach churned at this. It is my fault, that much is for sure. I need to know. With that Squall started towards the stage, his two friends close behind.
Rinoa raced out the back door of the hotel and randomly ran in a direction on the sidewalk. She did not care that the night was cold, or that she was wearing a formal dress with high-heels. She just had to get away, as fast a possible
Her mind was swirling with thoughts. At first, the shock left her thinking only about his features. His face had grown more angular, more adult-like, and she could not say she did not like it. His beard would have to go though; I hate the feeling of kissing it. Rinoa stopped cold. Where did THAT come from? She shook her head and continued onwards. Squall did grow a beard once, when Rinoa had hidden his razor as a practical joke. Squall had just tried to institute a rule of no facial hair for SeeDs and even Rinoa had to wonder what Squall was thinking. Everyone had felt, including Cid, that it was a personal preference that should not be looked at. Rinoa had pushed him and he finally admitted that he thought it looked less military. So Rinoa had hidden his razor and watch Squall fluster around when he grew the very beard that he should not have had, and ended up being the first person to do KP duty because of his new rule. He rescinded the rule, and Rinoa promptly returned his razor. Squall refused to speak to her for three days. She remembered that the prickly feeling of the hair on his face made her shudder.
Rinoa snickered at this memory despite how flustered she was. Her mind turned back to the image burned in her skull. His face wore a look of complete shock, meaning he had been as surprised to see her as she was to see him, perhaps even more so, considering Squall was the master of emotional control. Rinoa felt slightly better at this. At least he wasn't in there looking for me. Rinoa saw the hurt in his eyes and wondered if he was remorseful for all the hurt he had done to her.
It then occurred to her that he looked exactly like he had in her dream the night before. Take away the beard; he would probably look like the image she saw in her dream a few nights ago. The dreams, they must have been warning me that this would happen. Rinoa shook her head. She was in too much shock to think about that logically right now.
When Rinoa tripped, she finally came back into the real world and realized where she had blindly gone. She was in the park close by. She had blindly run to the only oak tree in the park. She slowly lowered herself onto the ground and picked one of the many flowers she had planted around it. They were the same species as the ones at Edea's orphanage, her silent reminder of the good times she had with Squall. The scent of the flowers touched her nose and left her wanting more. She brought it to her nose and inhaled the scent deeply.
Footsteps broke her from the simple beauty of the scent. She turned her head and saw Natalie sitting down next to her. She wore a light blue dress, with a V-neckline and elbow length sleeves. Below her waist, the garment slowly faded to midnight blue, achieving this color half way down the Victorian-style skirt that went to her ankles. A cream colored sash completed her dress. It was elegant and hid most of her features unlike Rinoa's blue dress which hugged her features quite closely.
Natalie smiled slightly and took Rinoa into a hug. Rinoa did not fight the embrace, and before she knew it, she was leaning into her shoulder crying. "He was there" Rinoa's sob-broken voice was barely a whisper.
Natalie gently stroked Rinoa's hair as she spoke, "I'm sorry, it's my fault they are here."
Rinoa sat up and looked at Natalie with a confused look. "How could it be your fault? I don't understand..."
Natalie sighed, "My father hired them as my bodyguards, someone has been threatening to kidnap me."
Rinoa looked thoughtful for a moment before replying, "Well, I understand the need for protection, but I don't think I can be around him. It's just too painful."
Natalie looked sadly at her friend. "Well I don't see any way to avoid it, Rin. He will be around a lot since they are guarding me."
Rinoa closed her eyes for a moment, "Then maybe we should stop performing until the threat has been taken care of."
"Rin, there's now way to know how long that will be. This could go on for weeks, or months even. We'll lose our jobs if we do that."
Rinoa gave a half-hearted laugh at that remark. "Natalie, we both know you don't NEED a job. Your father is the wealthiest and most successful business man in Galbadia."
"Yeah, and you're the President's daughter," Natalie retorted. "You don't need the money anymore than I do."
"That's different, Natalie."
"Really? How so?"
"I don't want anything to do with my father or his money or his title."
Natalie shook her head at Rinoa, "I don't want to be dependent on my father's wealth any more than you do, Rin. If we stop performing, that's exactly what will happen." She paused for a moment before continuing, "And whether you want to hear this or not, eventually you two are gonna have to face Squall and settle things between you one way or another. You've been practically calling to him with your songs anyway."
Rinoa wiped a few tears from her cheeks before speaking. "I just don't think I can face him, Natalie. Not right now, maybe not ever. Seeing him tonight hurt so much..."
"Then will you at least explain what I did to make you leave?"
Rinoa jumped at the voice and stood up quickly turning around. Squall was standing no more than five feet away. His face was his normal emotionless mask, but Rinoa could read dozens of emotions through his eyes, emotions which she never saw before. A bit further back behind him stood Irvine and Zell. Irvine's face was unreadable from this distance, but Zell's clearly had surprise and a hint of gladness. Rinoa mused that he most likely was happy to see his long missing friend and hoped that lion and angel would be reunited happily. Vain hope, but hope still.
Rinoa's attention went back to Squall and centered. She was able to get a much better look at him now that he was much closer. Before it seemed like a dream, or a hallucination or maybe a vision, but now she could see him in the flesh, and details were a lot sharper. For one, his body was more built. The changes to his face from growing up were sharper now. He appeared exactly like he had in her dreams, at least the two she had recently that were almost vision like.
Squall noticed several changes to Rinoa too, ones that he had been in too much shock before to register. Her body's curves were more defined and her hair a touch longer. Her shimmering dark blue dress hugged her features, and somehow made her appear more seductive. He had seen her in shorter dresses, most notably the graduation ceremony, but this one was different.
Neither estranged lover could find their voice for minutes as they examined each other. None of the bystanders dared interrupt the strange reunion. Zell and Irvine were both thinking that Squall would split them in half with his gunblade if they tried to. Natalie on the other hand did not interrupt because the confusion and mind racing thoughts she had when Rinoa had first noticed Squall in the club were rushing through her head again, trying to analyze and find a picture of truth between the two widely disparaging stories that she had been told.
Rinoa's eyes were almost shimmering in tears, and she brought her hand to her necklace, grasping her mother's ring. Squall noted with a certain amount of sorrow that his Griever ring was noticeably absent from the necklace. Rinoa finally found the voice to utter a single syllable, in a shaky, almost inaudible voice, but it was enough. "Squall?"
Neither of the two knew exactly who started it. One moment they were staring at each other, the next second they were flying into each other's arms. Zell noted with a certain amount of pleasure that it was highly reminiscent of when Squall had saved Rinoa from being frozen in the Sorceress Memorial.
The two stayed locked in their embrace for an eternity. Nothing penetrated their reunion. The world could have imploded around them and their minds would not have registered it. Squall's gloved right hand ran through Rinoa's hair. His lips chanted her name softly over and over. Rinoa's arms hugged his jacket tightly, and her face was buried in the fluff of the collar, tears streaming readily out.
One eternity, one mere tick of the clock, one lifetime, one second passed. Then a second, and a third. Nothing moved, nothing stirred, and nothing made any sort of sound. It was as if Hyne herself had cast silence and stop on all things surrounding the two reunited lovers.
Finally, Rinoa pulled away slightly from Squall and stared into his eyes again. She couldn't help but lose herself in the stormy blue orbs that brought back so many memories. She leaned in to kiss him like so many times before, but caught herself at the last second. She stared into his eyes again and pulled him close to feel the connection to his body, heart and soul she still had and she had desired for three years. Then slowly, reluctantly, she broke off and whispered "Squall... please... don't see me again...."
She broke from his grasp and fled.
Author's notes: SORRY FOR THE DELAY!!! School hit me harder than I thought it would. Also, I had a problem planning out this story and its sequel. It appears that I don't have enough material to make the second story, so I reworked my notes to merge them into one story... looks like about 5 chapters or so. The third story has now become the second. Also, while talking with one of my beta readers, I got this great idea for a new installment after all of this, and the excitement of working out a sketch distracted me further :P. So it will be a trilogy like I wanted ;) anyways, chapter 11 is done and I'm working in chapter 12. Once my plans for this installment are finalized, I'll start posting a bit faster.