The Delinquent
Sorry it took me ages to get this out, my brain sorta froze over and I got caught up in other shit.
How could she explain it? Seeing Squall conscious again was like jumping into an ice cool lake on a hot summer day. The weight that had been on her shoulders was finally lifted and she could breathe again.
Unfortunately just because Squall was now back in action didn't mean they were any closer to being out of this mess but it was a start. The idea that Squall might have a relapse of whatever had happened had already been brought to the discussion but they couldn't worry about that unless it happened. How were they supposed to stop that? Make Squall wear a helmet?
No the idea was ludicrous so the only thing that could be done was pray to Hyne that such a relapse never occurred.
"True as that may be Seifer, it still doesn't help our current situation." Quistis sighed.
Seifer's main concern at this point had been starving to death. Rinoa was somewhat shocked that such a matter would worry him. He seemed like the type of person that would bring up the fact that humans can go for twenty eight days without food.
"Humans can go for twenty eight days without food." Squall said seriously.
Rinoa had a wee chuckle to herself; it seems that her prediction of Seifer being that sort of person had been wrong.
"Well I say we just risk it, staying in here waiting for someone to find us isn't going to work." Rinoa stated.
"What about Irvine and Selphie…" Squall began.
"She's right Squall. Even if we could reach them somehow would you want them to come here?" Quistis interjected.
Nobody would want that, not after the day they'd had inside this place. Squall was beginning to wish he'd never followed his impulse and came here. If he hadn't then neither would have any of the others. Nonetheless, something drew him here and whatever it was it was going to keep on drawing him here.
"It doesn't matter, they've got no idea we're here and to make matters worse there's no cellphone coverage. You could say we're pretty much fucked!" Seifer replied, throwing up his hands to push his point more.
"Fine, we'll go but everyone has to have something to protect themselves with." Squall finalised.
Quistis had forgotten about her weapon when her and Seifer had been trying to get inside the library while Rinoa's had been flung from her hand when she'd been tossed away by the Grat.
Seifer chucked a couple of bits of debris and grinned widely when he found a leather whip with a blade encrusted at the end of it.
"Hey babe…" he called out, obviously referring to Quistis. "We should take this back as a souvenir."
He raised his eyebrows suggestively at her and she rolled her eyes back at him. She snatched it out of his hand and did a pose before tucking it into her belt and walking away.
Seifer chuckled and looked further to his left. He saw, sitting on the ground a very old looking gun.
He picked it up and examined it. It was rusted something wicked and was obviously not going to be much good at this point but still worth a look.
"What have you got there?" Rinoa asked as she approached him.
"A gun, she looks pretty fucked though." Seifer replied.
"We should take it with us; Irvine's into that sort of shit isn't he?" Squall enquired from across the room.
Seifer nodded and passed it to Rinoa, having no plan of hauling that item around with him. Further weapons found was a sort of knuckle-duster that you put on with spikes coming out of the knuckles, a long wooden staff with a white crystal embedded into the top of it and a spear looking thing quite similar to the one that Quistis had had earlier.
"I don't know what damage we plan to do with these…" Quistis muttered.
"Better than nothing." Squall sighed.
He walked towards the entrance, took a deep breath and nodded to Rinoa and Quistis to pull down the cabinet that they had thought was protecting them from the ravenous monsters that lurked outside.
But, somewhat anticlimactically, there was nothing, nothing prowling in the dark, nothing jumping at Squall and nothing stopping them from calmly walking out of this place.
"I thought you guys said that everything was trying to eat me." Squall said.
He turned to the others, wondering if had just been some sort of joke to get him all worked up but one look at there shocked faces proved that theory otherwise.
"There was!" Rinoa exclaimed. "Big ugly green things and a jelly blue thing!"
"Well there's nothing out here now." Seifer interrupted.
"Not that I'm complaining." Quistis laughed.
Without anymore banter they cautiously made there way towards the exit. Rinoa watched Squall out of the corner of her eye, making sure that he wasn't going to have some sort of relapse. The little she knew about Squall's collapse was that he had just fallen over. Quistis was talking to him and the next minute he just fell.
Quistis sighed in relief when she was outdoors and in the sun again. Being out of that place was like she was finally breathing again. She wasn't going to deny the fact that that would've been what she would consider one of the worst times of her life.
Putting aside the fact that she had lived a somewhat sheltered life and her personal trauma's might not have been as horrific as other company would've undoubtedly have been.
"Well that was fucked." Seifer stated clearly as he took a seat in the front passenger seat of Squall's car.
He'd been the first one to get to the car, obviously over-keen to get out of this place. Understandably though, it wasn't somewhere someone might want to spend their leisure time.
Quistis and Rinoa sat in the backseat. Quistis lay her head back against her seat while Rinoa pulled her legs up beside her, not feeling comfortable with them on the floor.
Once Squall was seated he turned his ignition and took off down the road. Nobody talked for what seemed like forever. It wasn't that they didn't have anything to say, quite the contrary; it was more the shock of what they'd just been through.
They could even say that worse had happened, disturbing things happened to them all the time and usually it involved someone getting injured. It was just that this was actually scary.
"I wanna go home." Rinoa whispered.
She'd thought of nothing but being safe inside her house since she'd sat in the car. This would've been one of the few times she actually referred to that residence as her 'home'.
"Sure thing Rin," Quistis replied softly.
"Well I think that I can quite confidently say that that is the last time I'm going anywhere with you Squall." Seifer declared.
Rinoa and Quistis laughed in the back, it wasn't really that what Seifer had said was funny, it was more for the fact that they finally felt safe. That little statement seemed to be the moment that most of them realised that.
After Squall losing consciousness, monsters chasing them all through the place and being stuck inside a room that was surrounded by death they could finally release all there paranoia.
Paranoia could keep a person alive; it kept you on your toes and made you aware of everything around you.
The air seemed lighter inside the car now and everyone felt they could talk freely. Atmosphere had been thick with the stink of trepidation before.
Balamb was soon coming into view and before they knew it they were idly driving through its streets.
Rinoa had her head leaning against her seatbelt with a small, dull smile on her face. She was just so happy to be somewhere familiar, somewhere where she was back in control. Because that's what she thought had been taken away from her in those ruins, her control. She couldn't do anything to stop what was going on around her and it had really made her feel small.
She closed her eyes for a second, feeling the sun on her face and letting the calm Balamb aura engulf her.
The entire car wasn't speaking, just staring out the windows.
"Why does this town feel so perfect?" Rinoa muttered.
"What are you kidding?" Seifer exclaimed. "This place is a shit-hole!"
"It's a million times better than Deling's ever been." Rinoa replied.
Squall rolled his eyes; he could already see a potential argument. Quistis just had to take Rinoa's side and the three of them would have at it. As per usual though he was going to be impartial about it and try to pay attention to the road.
His thoughts began to drift as Quistis's voice could be heard, backing Rinoa's side just to bother Seifer. It was such an interesting bond to watch, it really put him off having a relationship though.
He couldn't put all unions it that category, Selphie and Irvine were a completely different kind of relationship. They barely argued and just seemed to be having a blast all the time.
The only time it would really ever stop was if Irvine's wandering eye would get a bit too much for Selphie. Irvine had received many punches to the face for straying too far from Selphie and usually it wasn't her throwing them.
Squall pushed the thoughts out of his mind; he didn't want any of that for himself. Constantly arguing and just waiting for someone to cheat on you, or for you to cheat on your partner. It all seemed like a waste of time; he was fine all by himself. He'd had just as much fun as all of them, if not more.
Life was pretty sweet when you didn't have to answer to anyone, you could live your own life.
Squall smiled, happy to be back in his comfort zone. He was happy, of course he was. His life was fine just the way it was.
Twenty minutes later
Squall smiled once again when he saw his own home down the street. All he wanted to do was to curl up in a little ball somewhere and go to sleep. Its funny how when you really don't want anything to happen the most unbelievable things do.
He pulled into his driveway and noticed something yellow and glistening in the sunlight.
'What the fuck…' he thought to himself as he quickly exited his car.
Sitting on Rinoa's front porch was Lucas, the epitome of everything that Squall hated. Not to mention the fact that he was obviously going to be begging Rinoa for forgiveness or something which was something that Squall just couldn't have.
"Squall… please. If you care about me as much as you claim to you wont." Rinoa said quietly.
Squall stared at her for a couple of seconds. One side of him wanted to jump the fence and have at him. Just to tear into him like no one he had torn into before. Make him bleed so badly that young children would be pointing and laughing at him for weeks.
"… Whatever…"
He turned and left her, not looking back. It wasn't like he didn't understand, he didn't want Rinoa to go around and beat the living shit out of every girl he'd been with, it was just that he respected Rinoa and Lucas had disrespected her. Not mention the fact that he was a total dickhead and Rinoa's ex-boyfriend.
Rinoa sighed, she knew that Squall wasn't made, probably more disappointed than anything. Rinoa had hoped that Lucas wouldn't show his face, at least not at her house! Not with Squall living right next door. It made having enemy house guests a little difficult.
Now not only did she have to endure a painful session of Lucas whining she had to explain to Squall that nothing was going on.
'Hold up! I don't have to explain anything to him.' Rinoa thought to herself.
She sighed nonetheless, even if Squall didn't ask questions, one of them would. Squall would probably already be on the phone, no doubt talking to Seifer who would tell Quistis and so on and so forth.
Making her way slowly over to her property was like walking down death row. She didn't want to have this conversation. She just wanted it to be clean cut and easy but when you've been with the same person for two years then suddenly cut everything off you had to expect something.
"Rinoa I-"
"What are you doing here, Lucas?" Rinoa cut in abruptly.
Lucas looked up at her from the step he had been sitting on. He looked weary so it was obvious that he'd been there for quite some time.
"I just wanted to talk. I think you owe me that." Lucas muttered.
Rinoa nearly said no but she couldn't. She knew that in reality it had been him that had ended it, not her but how could she? You don't just stop loving someone.
"Alright but if I ask you to leave, you're leaving."
Lucas nodded; he stood and made way for her to pass him. Once inside Rinoa's house she sat down at the kitchen table, actually quite glad to be out of Squall's sight.
She could feel his eyes on her the whole time she was out there but she didn't want to look over at see where he was. His eyes had been burning into her back and she could almost feel his hate wafting over.
Lucas sat on the seat beside her, smiling to himself knowing that Rinoa was finally going to talk to him. He could hopefully bring her to her senses and make her realise that this little charade she was putting on wasn't her. He knew her better than anyone did and this wasn't her.
"I'm listening." Rinoa stated.
"Ok uhhh- I had a big speech ready but now that I'm here I've forgotten it." Lucas chuckled.
Rinoa smiled despite her desire to stay looking annoyed. He being in front of her like this was making all her feelings come back. He was still the same blundering self; he still didn't have the ability to form into words what he really felt. It may have been because he wasn't the brightest crayon in the box but she wasn't there to call him names.
"I- I'm sorry for what happened. I didn't want it to turn out that way." Lucas said downheartedly.
"Yeah well, can't really change it now can we…"
"No Rinoa, your wrong we can!" Lucas exclaimed.
He obviously took what said in a more metaphoric way than she had meant it.
"We've survived worse than this. I love you, Rinoa."
The words struck into her like a scoldingly hot knife. He loved her, she knew that but the question was did she love him enough to try again? Could she honestly say that she could forget everything that had happened in the time she'd been in Balamb and go back to her old life. Because that's what she's have to do.
She wasn't having any illusions about Squall and co. accepting him. Could she honestly say that she'd give up everything for him, all her new friends; her knew life, Squall…
"I'm sorry, Lucas. I can't." Rinoa whispered.
"I'm nothing without you. You're everything to me." Lucas continued.
"I realised something, it wasn't a relationship for us, it was for everyone else. At first it was the start of something but I think we lost sight of who we were. When I was in Deling I was your girlfriend but here I'm Rinoa."
"I can't believe your dumping me for that pasty fuck." Lucas said after a few seconds.
Rinoa was shocked, it had all been fine before and suddenly the conversation was doing a 360.
"It's not like that Lucas and you know it. Things just turned out this way."
"I can't believe that you're just going to end it, just like that."
"Stop being so fucking melodramatic about it!" Rinoa burst out.
"Stop being fucking casual about it!" Lucas retorted.
Rinoa rolled her eyes; she was starting to get sick of this conversation. Thoughts such as, 'it might've been better to let Squall deal with him' and 'I'm so fucking over listening to this shit,' started to drift in and out of her head.
"You can leave now." Rinoa said calmly.
"No Rinoa, I'm sorry it's just that I can't believe that you're doing this!"
"Well believe it Lucas; I'm sick of speaking with you. Leave."
"You can't just dump me! I won't let you!" Lucas cried.
"Is everything alright in here?" a voice from the hallway enquired.
Rinoa turned and had never been so happy to see her father. For once he was actually going to be of some use instead of just being a constant hindrance on her otherwise stimulating life.
"Fine Dad, Lucas was just leaving." Rinoa stated.
Lucas shook his head, grabbed his jacket and abruptly left the premises. But not without giving Rinoa a deadly look that told her that this wasn't over yet. She knew him well enough to know that this wasn't going to just finish now. She had hoped that before he was going to be too ashamed to try anything but now it appeared he was going to be after retribution.
"Are you alright?" Caraway asked awkwardly.
There relationship had been badly damaged lately as well. They barely spoke unless it was to throw around some sort of insult. Rinoa wasn't happy about the way it was but didn't think that she could change it.
"I'm fine. Can you send Selphie up to my room when she gets here?" Rinoa replied.
Not that Selphie had announced her coming yet, Rinoa knew she would. She'd probably be there soon as well.
Caraway nodded and left. Going to wherever it was he spent most of his time.
Ten minutes later
Rinoa had drifted off to sleep, her day being far too stressful for her liking. Plus the fact that she still had a hangover was really killing any energy that she may have had.
She was startled awake with Selphie diving on her bed. She had a stern look on her face and was obviously here to scold her.
"What are you thinking? Inviting a disgusting pig like that into your house!" Selphie began.
Rinoa smiled and stretched her arms above her head. She had hoped to get more sleep than she had received but it was a bit late now.
"And right in front of Squall, how the hell are you two ganna blossom with that bitch hanging around!"
"Selphie stop! It's alright, I told him that it was over and he understood." Rinoa lied.
She didn't want to start anything, if she told Selphie that she was nervous that Lucas was going to do something crazy then she'd tell Squall and Squall would nut out.
"Well I would've thought that he should know that it was over. Squall's absolutely fucking nutting!" Selphie giggled.
"I can only imagine." Rinoa sighed.
"I wonder why he's so angry…" Selphie said slyly.
"Don't start Selphie! I don't need another lecture about how 'meant for each other' we are. All you want is someone that will go on double dates with you and Irvine."
Selphie shrugged, she couldn't deny that. Seifer and Quistis never went anywhere with them as a couple so they weren't any fun. Not that she expected Squall to be any different but Rinoa might be able to coax him.
"C'mon Rin, Squall's hot and he's not ganna make any moves so why don't you just dive on him!" Selphie whined.
"Call me a traditionalist but I don't believe on just 'diving' on people." Rinoa said flatly.
Elsewhere
Squall paced around his room, he had the phone to his ear with Zell on the line.
He'd already talked to Seifer and Selphie so next on his list was naturally Zell.
All he seemed to be doing is making him angrier.
"I couldn't!... because she told me not to… I don't care what you would've done!... this boy just doesn't quit… she better not have… fuck up!"
"Whats got you so angry?" Ellone asked from the doorway.
She'd completely forgotten about Squall's outburst at her earlier. He was her brother after all; he wasn't going to be nice to her all the time.
"I'll ring you back." Squall said to Zell before hanging up the phone.
Squall threw the phone on his bean bag and sat down on his bed.
"Lucas is at Rinoa's house!"
Ellone had been kept up to date with the whole Lucas situation by Squall. She was a very easy person to talk to.
"So?"
"So? So! Do you not listen!"
"Don't get angry at me. They went out for two years Squall; do you think she's just going to forget all that?" Ellone said wisely.
Unfortunately didn't have the desired effect and it only made Squall worse. Now he had thoughts in his head about them getting back together, he hadn't thought about that before.
He'd been more worried that he was going to start on her again and he wasn't gong to be there to stop him. Now the reality of what really might be happening in there got the better of him. Two years was a long time to give up on a relationship.
"Thanks a lot Ellone, you can fuck off now." Squall snapped.
"Now Squall your being stupid. If you trust her than it wont worry you. Besides it's not like she's your girlfriend anyway." Ellone said before she left.
Squall grimaced at the words; he hated the thought of having all these emotions and nothing to show for it.
Meanwhile
"So…" Rinoa began; she really wanted to know what Squall said. "Did he say anything interesting?"
"Why do you ask?" Selphie replied casually.
Rinoa didn't reply, she just shrugged her shoulders and continued staring out the window. She strategically didn't look out any of the windows facing Squall's house, Selphie would take that as a sign.
"He just ranted that Lucas was a piece of shit… what was it?… he said something quite good… OH YEAH! 'Lucas is nothing but a two-bit, son of a bitch, rat, bastard.' I thought that was quite good." Selphie said mimicking Squall perfectly.
Rinoa chuckled; she could imagine Squall going into a rant like that. He always seemed to get a bit excited when he was mad.
"I feel bad; I sorta blackmailed him into it. I told him that if he cared about me he wouldn't."
"Rinny how could you! You know how he is about things like that. You're really making things hard!"
"Oh I'm sorry I'm not keeping to your little soap opera." Rinoa replied sarcastically.
"Well don't let it happen again, you're fucking everything up!"
Rinoa was actually quite used to hearing about Selphie's big plan for them; Quistis was in on it too. She wasn't sure if Squall knew anything about it, she didn't want to just come right out and ask him. She could just imagine that conversation… "Hey Squall, has Selphie told you about her big plan for you and me to get together?"
No thankyou, it was a touchy subject as it was.
"I wonder what everyone's doing…" Rinoa said, changing the subject dramatically.
"I dunno, I was going out of my mind before!" Selphie exclaimed.
"Why's that?" Rinoa yawned.
"I couldn't find anyone! Everyone had just disappeared off the face of the earth! Where were you guys anyway?"
Rinoa opened her mouth to reply and then closed it again. Not really sure what she should tell Selphie. Selphie had a bad habit of overdramatising everything so something like her day would make Selphie loose the plot.
"We went to those old ruins, just a road trip. It was kinda random…" Rinoa replied.
She was really keeping up with her deceiver attitude today. She really didn't like lying to Selphie but she didn't want to be the psycho one that told Selphie that they were attacked by monsters all afternoon and Squall had an out of body experience.
"Ow, that would've been fun! Why didn't you get me?" Selphie moaned.
"Sorry Selph, like I said it was pretty random."
Selphie dropped it after that, there wasn't really much she could do, what's done it done.
Elsewhere
Squall grinned widely when he heard the car pull up his driveway; he'd been waiting for ten minutes for this to happen. The doorbell rang and without waiting for anyone to answer the door flung open.
Squall slid down the stair rail and landed expertly on the ground. He'd had quite a few years practise. Waiting rather impatiently in the lounge was Irvine, Zell and a very aggravated looking Seifer.
"This better be fucking worth it." Seifer growled.
"Yeah aye, I was sleeping!" Irvine whinged.
"That shit-pig Lucas is back. He was just right in my territory!" Squall exclaimed.
"Isn't Rinoa's house her territory?" Zell interjected.
Squall glared at Zell, not believing that he interrupted him with such a stupid comment. Of course Rinoa's house was his territory; anything in this town was his territory.
"Sometimes I wonder how the fuck you get dressed in the morning." Squall said flatly. "Of course Rinoa's house is my territory; this whole fucking street is my territory!"
"What are you a dog?" Irvine laughed. "Did you piss on the side of every lamppost?"
"Just shut the fuck up! You all know what I mean! He is openly mocking me."
Squall paused for effect; he had planned his speech from ranting and raving in his room to himself. He really did see it as a sign of impertinence.
"So what are we ganna do?" Seifer enquired.
"Nothing yet, I have to wait till he leaves." Squall replied.
"I don't think this is a good idea." Zell burst out.
Everyone looked at him incredulously; of course it was a good idea! It was that much more unbelievable by the fact that it was Zell who had said it. Usually he would be the one rallying everyone up; in fact usually he'd be the worst one out of all of them!
"What do you mean you don't think this is a good idea!" Squall retorted.
"Well, it's clear that you don't want to get him now because Rinoa doesn't want you to, otherwise I reckon you'd already be scrapping. If Rinoa doesn't want you to do this then shouldn't we respect her wishes?"
It was like some sort of miracle, an experience so rare that you had to pinch yourself just to accept that it was real. Zell had a moment of pure wisdom.
That didn't necessarily mean that they agreed with him…
"She doesn't know what the fuck she wants." Seifer stated.
"Now now Seifer," Quistis said from the doorway, they'd all been far too busy talking to even notice her. "No reason to stop being a lady."
"Why are you here!" Seifer exclaimed.
She was like a disease that followed him around everywhere, the fact that she had the same friends as he did really was a pain in the ass!
"I was invited! You didn't pick me up!" Quistis snarled.
Seifer smirked; it wasn't his fault that he was an arrogant prick sometimes.
"Y'know, it's no wonder that her parents hate you." Irvine laughed.
Seifer glared at Irvine, everyone knew why Quistis's parents hated him. He was… uhhh… lower class shall we say.
"Why do we keep changing the fucking subject?" Squall grimaced.
"Chill out soldier, I was thinking of a stealthier way of getting your vengeance for his blatant insolence…" Quistis began.
About a fifteen minute drive away
Lucas stood on the white sand that lined Balamb's ocean. It was a clear day so he could faintly see the peaceful town of Fishermans horizon. He picked up a stone and threw it aimlessly out into the sea, hoping that the gentle crashing of the waves and calm serenity of that sea atmosphere would compose him. He had hoped that his talk with Rinoa would've gone a lot better than it did but it was too late now.
Lucas closed his eyes tightly to try and forget all the bad memories of his 'vacation'. Some vacation it had turned out to be.
'I can't go home knowing that I'm leaving her like this…' he thought to himself.
He sat down on the slightly damp sand and hugged his knees under his chin. His mind was now on things other than how badly his talk with Rinoa had gone.
'This isn't her… she needs to remember who she is, but how?'
He needed her; she may have thought that their relationship was a sham but he knew it was real. He loved her and couldn't let her forget that she loved him too.
They had been happy even after she'd moved to Balamb. Things just changed, suddenly she wasn't emailing him anymore and when she did it was very short and very brief. She barely rang and txting seemed to have become a thing of the past.
'All because of him,'
It was all Lucas could blame it on, it wasn't her choice, she'd been sucked in by them. Her natural charm would've seen to it that she had a lot of friends but she'd been dragged into the wrong one.
He needed her to go back to how she was, he needed her to come back to Deling… he needed her.
'I'll have you, Rinoa. I'll save you.'
I don't know why I can't just end this fucking story! Every time I go to write some sort of lead up to a conclusion I decide that I've got way more to write! This will end at some point I promise its just ganna take awhile.
I've finally figured out what I'm doing with the ruins portion of the story though and the Lucas side of things is starting to come together in my head as well.