The Day Trip

Their hidden passions were searing into each other's lips, his intense infatuation for her boring into her soul. She held on to his arms, wishing that this play of emotions would never end…that is until a loud voice interrupted the light of the moment.

"Squall, Rinoa, we were thinking about going on a day trip to Bergamo and…oh my heavens, what are the both of you doing?" echoed the loud, unmistakable voice of Quistis Trepe. "Hah! I was right, the both of you are in love!!!" she exclaimed with an air of victory.

Rinoa abruptly pushed Squall off her, pulling out one of his eyelashes thus causing Squall to scream in pain. "Ow! What the…?" Squall painfully retorted.

"Uh…" Rinoa said while shifting her gaze from Squall to Quistis. "Squall had a speck of dust in his eyes and I tried to pull it out."

"Yeah, and I'm one stupid blonde. That was obviously a kissing scene back there! Don't give me any of your excuses! I know a kissing scene when I see one! But don't worry, I won't tell anyone, that is if I can keep my mouth shut!" she told them with a wink.

Rinoa tried to protest but Quistis immediately stopped her. "Ah ah! I didn't come here to argue. I came here to see if you wanted to come with us to Bergamo for that day trip. So, what do you think? And by the way Squall, your dad was planning to be the tour guide since he had been to that city so many times. What do you think?"

"Well…uh…yeah. We'll join you in the car in how many minutes then?" Squall innocently asked her.

Quistis checked her watch and answered, "Well, we're leaving in about 30 minutes so you can take your time doing what you want to do." She grinned mischievously at them and left the room before Squall and Rinoa had a chance to rebut anything she just said.

When they were finally alone Rinoa slumped on the sofa and puffed a sigh of relief. Squall inched closer to her and put his arm around her shoulder. "What did you do that for?" he asked her.

Rinoa turned to face him and wondered, "Did what?" Squall pointed to his eyelashes and she suddenly widened her eyes and said, "Oh! I'm so sorry Squall but I got nervous and…"

Squall put two of his fingers on her mouth to shush her. "Ok, I understand but don't pull my eyebrows again ok?" Rinoa nodded and he continued, "Now, about that day trip. Bergamo is a really nice place to go if you want to see some nice old churches and gorgeous medieval towers. Plus, there's a place where we can get some nice gelato too. So, what do you think?"

Rinoa slowly pulled Squall's fingers away from her mouth. "I'm up for it, but I don't have a camera."

Squall smiled and said, "Rinoa, my dad has some of the best cameras in his lab. You may go and choose any one of them that you feel would take the best pictures and my dad would not mind at all." He smiled at her while wrapping his arms around her waist and bringing her closer to his chest."

Rinoa felt dizzy and inched even closer to Squall. "Thank you Squall…I'll do that." Her eyes began to flutter and she fell into his arms unconscious.

Squall shook Rinoa lightly and whispered, "Rinoa. Come on, stop playing games with me." After a few seconds of gentle shaking, Rinoa moved. Her eyes fluttered slightly and she gazed into his ocean blue eyes. "Huh? What? Oh…Squall…I'm sorry, I have these dizzy spells sometimes."

"Ah. Well, we have about fifteen minutes to get there and don't forget that this is a big house," Squall informed her. "It will take us probably five minutes to get to the front door. Plus, I'm guessing that you want to choose a camera too so we'd better hurry so that we won't have to make them wait." He stood and pulled Rinoa up from the leather couch.

Together, they left the room and walked a considerable distance to the lab. As they drew nearer to the lab door, they heard Laguna and Zell talking loudly (very loudly) from the inside of the room.

"Wait! Oh you fool don't put that in there!" the voice of Laguna said from behind the door.

"What do you mean? This stuff is supposed to make it more viscous!" Zell exclaimed.

"Oh shut up! Give me the canister. Give it to me right now before you…oh crap!" ordered Laguna.

As they were just about to open the door, Laguna burst the door open rushing out with Zell following him from behind. "Watch out Squall!!!!!" Laguna screamed as a loud BOOM came from the bowels of the laboratory. Smoke engulfed the entire room as Laguna, Squall, Zell, and Rinoa reentered the now foggy area.

Squall coughed slightly and asked, "What were you doing here?"

Laguna removed the laboratory goggles he was wearing and did a fancy twirl with the instrument in his hands. "Just to clarify one thing…it didn't have anything to do with your violin," he told Rinoa while wiping the dust of his goggles.

Zell, short but proud-looking as always, marched in the center of the commotion and announced, "That's true Miss Heartilly! The good doc and I were experimenting on some kind of fruit-bases varnish and I accidentally added some kind of ionic compound into the stuff. And then…ah!" Zell began screaming in pain when Laguna suddenly held one of his ears and pulled Zell into one corner of the lab.

"Yeah, you put the ionic compound that would cause all this boom boom and bang bang to happen and what? You announce it to everyone! Goodness knows what our client will think when she knows that the two people she hired to examine her instrument were two bums who didn't know how to mix chemicals in a laboratory. And for heaven's sake you graduated from Princeton! Zell! Don't be such a numbskull!"

"Hey, how should I know that Chromium Chloride shouldn't be mixed into varnish? I've never worked with that stuff before!" he rapidly answered back.

"Well, if you looked into your chemistry books, which I'm sure are extremely sophisticated considering that you went to "Princeton", you would know that Chromium Chloride, when mixed with the substances found in the varnish I prepared would create and extremely volatile, explosive mixture! Why if I…" Laguna was saying until Squall interrupted him.

"Dad!!! Zell!!! Enough!!! I came here to borrow one of your cameras because Rinoa wanted to take pictures in Bergamo. And why aren't you ready yet? Aren't you supposed to be our tour guide?" Squall demanded of Laguna.

Laguna mindlessly replied, "Huh? Oh, about that trip, I won't be coming anymore. You can take the cameras, yes, but forgive me for not being able to come. I was working on one of the varnishes until our Princeton genius here accidentally tipped Chromium Chloride into the vat of sap varnish I was experimenting with. You might as well play my role for now Squall. After all, you've been to that city quite a few times haven't you?" Laguna opened one of the sleek, modern looking cabinets to reveal a myriad of cameras for Rinoa to choose.

Squall protested, "But dad, you promised to take us there."

Rinoa began browsing across Laguna's vast selection of amazing cameras while Laguna explained, "You see, I would son, but there's a problem. That vat was a very delicate experiment I have been working on for seven and a half days now. That is, until genius threw the forbidden chemical into the vat. I really need this for my experiments with Rinoa's violin and I really can't come because clients come before day trips. I'm sorry Squall, but I really wish I could come with you. It just so happens that Princeton graduates aren't very good in chemistry."

"Hey! I heard that!" echoed Zell's voice from the back of the lab. Laguna shook his head and continued, "Well, I have to get back to work now. The good thing is, I still have another vat of unadulterated fruit tree sap in the storage room, meaning I can take two to three days of tree sap collecting out of the schedule. Anyway, have fun and enjoy Bergamo. It's one of Italy's best cities."

Zell began running from the back of the lab while shouting, "Bergamo! Bergamo! Bergamo! Ooh!!! Can I come with them…ah!" Zell fell on his back when Laguna put his hand in front, making Zell trip and fall onto the floor.

"No Zell. You're failure is my failure, and I really hate failures. I may seem like the spontaneous kind of guy but when it comes to failures I get pretty serious, so no hanging out in Bergamo for today," he seethed through his teeth. He brightened up again and asked Rinoa, "So Rinoa, how's everything going? Have you picked a camera that you really like? Don't worry, it has no chromium chloride in it so there's nothing to worry about."

Zell gave out a muffled cry and Rinoa giggled frivolously. "Yes Sir Laguna, and thank you for the camera. But please forgive Zell. I mean, he's not as experienced as you are yet."

Laguna started again and began to say, "Oh, he's experienced all right! He finished second in his class, and that was an Ivy League! Or maybe Ivy Leagues are just airheads and…"

"That's enough dad. Come on Rin, let's go," Squall told Rinoa as he pulled her hand and darted out of the door with her.

Laguna shook his head, sighed, and told Zell, "Come on Zell, let's clean up that mess and start over again. I'll just start with the varnish tomorrow. I'll be checking with the sonics of Rinoa's violin."

Zell got up from the floor and wiped the dust of his coat. He made his way to the janitor closet and grabbed a couple of cleaning tools and went closer to the table with the spilt vat of varnish. Before he began to clean however, he took one of the chemistry books on the shelf and began flipping the pages until he reached the chemical compounds section. He searched the pages for chromium chloride until he found the compound.

"That is strange," he whispered to himself. "Chromium chloride is volatile, but it doesn't react with the substance in tree sap. I wonder…" He put the book back into the shelf and grabbed a microscopic slide. Taking a sample of the spilt varnish, he swabbed a drop of it onto the glass and brought it to the electron microscope.

Squall and Rinoa made their way out of the house to find Quistis and Seifer waiting outside. "Where's Irvine and Selphie?" Seifer asked them while Quistis winked at the approaching couple. Squall blushed slightly while Rinoa answered, "We didn't see them. Didn't you tell them about the trip?"

Quistis said, "We did, but they must still be preparing for it. Where's your dad Squall?"

Squall answered, "Uh, I'll be your tour guide for the day because he can't make it. He was initially going to come but he had to start over with an experiment of his."

"Oh," came the dry response from the blondes. A few minutes later, Selphie and Irvine arrived with a couple of bags.

"Sorry we're late guys!" Selphie cheerfully apologized. "So, where's Sir Laguna?"

Squall flicked his hand at Selphie. The perky brunette almost looked stunned when she confirmed with a gulp, "You, are taking us?"

Squall fished the car keys out of his pocket and pressed a button, causing a panel on the well-groomed lawn to open and a Peugeot van to come out as well. "Why, is there something wrong?"

Selphie shook her head and said, "No, I was just worried about you leaving us all alone while you go daddly doo out in the city with Rinoa…ouch!" she blurted out when she felt Irvine nudging her at the ribs.

Squall and Rinoa blushed and Squall answered, "Whatever. Get in the car." And everyone did, except that they took all the back seats, leaving the front seats to Squall and Rinoa. When Squall took the driver's seat, he faced the people in the back with a puzzled look and asked, "Ok, what's going on?"

All of them grinned sheepishly and said, "Nothing. We just thought that since we had more things than you and Rinoa did, we decided to take the space in the back."

Squall shook his head for the nth time that day and said, "Whatever." Rinoa entered the car and asked, "Squall, are we ready to go?"

Quistis winked at Squall and he gave out an almost inaudible sigh. "Yes we are Rinoa. Take your seat please." And with that, the gang was off to the Northern town of Bergamo.

Meanwhile, in the lab, Laguna was once again working on Rinoa's Sedizione. After rummaging through a ton of rarely used instruments at the back of the lab, he finally found a spectral analysis meter. After attaching two nodes of the device to the violin, he turned the machine on. His impatience got the better of him, of course, especially when the machine registered a flat feedback. "Zell! Come over here for a moment."

Not a moment too soon, Zell ran to the side of Laguna. "Ok, I know that you designed this spectral analysis meter, but I'm not sure if I'm working it right. Will you take a look at it for me?" offered Laguna as he gave Zell the machine.

Zell took the black device in his hands, examining the controls and the screen. "Uh, doc, I don't know why it's not working, but even if there aren't any ghosts in this room, the "lifeline" sort of thing on front should at least oscillate slightly. There is something very wrong with this thing."

Laguna rubbed his chin as he paced back and forth. He stopped for a moment beside the violin, stared at it, and said softly, "What if the violin is haunted?"

After two hours of driving around the lovely Italian countryside, Squall and company finally arrived at the base of Italy's beautiful mountain town of Bergamo. Parking the car beside one of the area's many hotel's parking spaces, he led the group to a tram that led to the town of Old Bergamo, a town completely different from its more modern counterpart below. Touched only with the technology of lighting and running water, with the addition of a few modern shops and food stops, the town still looked very much like the medieval town that it used to be a few hundred years ago. The streets were still bustling with Italians and tourists eager to see such a lovely, well-preserved city.

Squall first led them to the old church tower in the middle of the town square, a relic so beautiful and strong that it seemed to be impervious to the tests of time. The dark, cavernous walls of the edifice had been erected with the choicest stones and building materials that only made its structure seem invincible with each passing year. Inside, Squall walked through the catwalks of stone and wood, telling the group about its history and such and so.

"So, what do you think of the tower?" he asked them.

Quistis stared at the walls of the tower with much awe. Never before had she seen a structure so old, yet so beautiful. "All my life, I've lived in New York and I've never seen buildings last for more than five hundred years, but this is amazing Squall!" she exclaimed as she felt the cold stone walls.

Irvine held Selphie close to him and said, "I'm impressed Squall" in a very dignified manner. After a few hours of touring the city, along with a couple more tours of the old buildings and a half hour of their time spent on shopping, Squall decided to lead them to one of the city's many wonderful gelaterias.

"Ok, I know that gelato sounds like a strange name for ice cream, but personally, I think the gelato here is much better than most of the ice creams we get in America. First of all because it has more flavor, and second because it tastes so much cleaner and fresher, in my opinion. I think the ice creams from back home have too much cream and milk in them. I especially like the fruit sorbets," he informed them. "So, tell me which flavor you want and I'll order some of this stuff for you."

Selphie and Irvine went for the Straciatella, a creamy vanilla gelato swirled with chocolate, while Seifer went for the Tiramisu. After some very intensive deciding time, Quistis went for an order of More (Blackberry) sorbet, while Rinoa chose the Fragola (strawberry). Squall chose the Raspberry Sorbet for himself, and they all sat at one of the town squares benches, admiring the architecture of old. Fortunately for Squall and Rinoa, each bench held only four people, and before the two could occupy one of the benches, the other four immediately scrambled for one of the benches, leaving the two of them the option of one of the benches in a secluded area of the square.

When Squall and Rinoa took their seats, the other four began giggling silently to themselves. "Oh they look so sweet!" Selphie whispered to Quistis, Irvine, and Seifer.

"Oh quiet Selphie, they will find out that we're up to something if you talk this loud," Seifer mouthed to her. "But it's a good thing that this bench holds only four people," he continued after taking a lick of his Tiramisu gelato. "Mmm! This gelato's good!"

Quistis added, "Well, they do look good together, but I have to admit that it's a bit mean of us to exclude them like this. Do you think they suspect anything?"

"Nah. Rinoa's too naïve, but I guess Squall would be pretty pissed off at us if only he chose too. But I guess they're pretty oblivious to what we're doing," said Seifer.

Meanwhile, while they were talking, Rinoa and Squall were in the back, enjoying their moment together in Bergamo. They had already finished their gelatos, and Rinoa felt serene and peaceful watching the townspeople pass by. Squall put his arm around her shoulders, and slowly pulled her closer to him. She leaned her head against his shoulder and spoke to him.

"Squall, I'm afraid," she said softly. "I don't know what to do anymore. This violin will ruin my life as a performer. I can't go on knowing that I will kill someone when I play my music."

Squall rubbed her back consolingly while telling her, "It's alright, don't worry about it now. My dad will take care of everything. That I can promise you. And since we're supposed to be relaxing today, you shouldn't worry yourself. Just enjoy Bergamo and we'll worry about your violin when we get back." He kissed her forehead lightly and saw a pigeon land in front of them. Breaking his cone into pieces, he offered the food to the bird. Rinoa smiled slightly and did the same with her cone. She then saw the four in the bench in front of them engaged in what seemed like a very interesting conversation.

"Say Squall, what do you think they're talking about?" she asked him.

Squall looked at them and wanted to laugh. He more or less had an idea that they were gossiping about him and Rinoa, but then he decided to make an excuse about it. After all, he didn't want another one of his eyebrows pulled off. "I guess they're talking about their gelato. I mean look at that," he told Rinoa while pointing at Selphie. "She has an empty cone on her head."

Rinoa laughed and said, "Oh Squall, I didn't know you could be funny at times."

"But I am funny," he answered back. "Well, at least I am sometimes."

Rinoa faced him with one of her warm smiles and said, "Yes you are, but I wish you could be less serious around other people. I mean, you shouldn't feel like La Scala's musical director at all times unless you're around me. You can only spend time with us for so long, and then that's it. You should at least enjoy the time that you get to spend with us."

"Well, yeah, but I'm pretty content being silent around others. Just think about what would happened if I opened to them like I did to you. They would start feeling goofy around me, and I can only go so far as being all nice and "Oh how do you do?" around other people. It's not like I don't want them to be all cute and "eeeh…" around me, but it just doesn't feel right to have a relationship like that with every person you meet on the streets" Squall said.

"I know Squall, but then, why did you so willingly open up to me then?" she inquired of him.

"You're different Rinoa. I feel like I could trust you more than I could other people."

"Squall, I just came into your life recently like they did. I am not more different than they are."

"But Rinoa, you don't seem to get it. It seems to me like I had already known you before."

"What do you mean Squall? I don't understand."

"I had a dream once Rinoa, that you were in the fields, and I was looking for you. I could vaguely remember the words that I had spoken to you before that, but then I do know that it was you in my dreams. We made a promise, don't you remember?" he told her while taking one of her hands.

"I…I've only met you now Squall. I don't know how this could have happened but…I don't know. I really don't know Squall. But…"

"But what Rinoa? Don't you feel the same way with me?" he asked her affirmatively.

"Well, I do, but I wouldn't know what to say about that dream. If I had already had it, I may have forgotten that I had dreamt of you. But if there is one thing I know, I care for you Squall, I really do. You have been so nice to me even though you met me only recently."

The both of them didn't notice Selphie taking their picture holding hands. Rinoa continued, "I wish there were more people like you Squall, people who don't let money and glory get into their heads. People who are down to earth and are willing to help others. Don't you think the world needs more of those people now?"

"Of course Rinoa, but you really think I'm one of those men?" he asked her.

"From seeing how you've been acting around others, yes I do think you are. Why do you think I've fallen in love with you?" came her very direct question.

Squall didn't know what to say, so he took the young woman in his arms and hugged her gently. "I love you too," he told her.

And that was all he told her as they all gazed at the beautiful sunset of Bergamo, holding Rinoa close to him as the townspeople passed by, the men bringing bread from the local boulangeria, the children running around with their little toys and cups of gelato, and the women with bags of groceries. Another day was over, and another was yet to come, but that day, Squall Leonhart never felt happier. He had finally found love.

I apologize to my readers that this chapter took long enough, but I my writing skills had been stagnant for quite some time. I hope you did enjoy this chapter, and do take the time to write a review for it. I have another story entitled Secrets in the Dark, and if you do have the time, read that one too. It follows the storyline of FF8 quite nicely, and it is very different from this one in the sense that it isn't an AU story. The next chapter will be entitled "The Paganini Letters"