The Delinquent

It was hard for Rinoa to believe that one day could start so good and just turn to shit so quickly. With those three little words her entire day had been ruined. She wasn't worried though, she truly believed that Lucas would never hurt her.

"What the fuck are you doing here Lucas?" Rinoa said flatly.

"You have to understand Rinoa. This isn't as simple as you keep trying to make it out to be." Lucas stated.

Rinoa leaned against the counter, not really understanding what he was talking about in the first place. What was there to understand? They had broken up and that's all there was to it. He was going to go back to Deling, slut around for a bit and then settle down again. She on the other hand had every intention of living out the rest of her days with her handsome neighbour.

"Lucas, please don't do this again." Rinoa sighed.

"I'm sorry…" Lucas muttered.

Rinoa looked at him curiously, wondering why he was apologising. She supposed it was for barging in and demanding her to 'understand'. That was before she noticed the bat in his hand.

"What are you doing Lucas?" Rinoa whispered.

She clenched the knife tighter in her hand, having every intention of defending herself should he attack her. Now things were getting scary. Thoughts like I should've stayed at Squall's, he wanted me to for fucks sake! Oh no, I have to come home to feed my fucking dog, raced through her head. She glanced at her nearest exit, wondering whether it'd be better to make a run for it.

"This is for your own good, you'll understand. I promise."

Lucas raised his bat and ran to Rinoa. She gasped; readying herself to scream but before a single sound could escape her lips she felt the thwack for the bat against her skull. It was hard to explain what it felt like. She heard a loud smacking sound in her ears and the pain was instantaneously more dreadful than any physical pain she'd felt before.

But she didn't have to endure it for long, for immediately followed after was darkness.

Rinoa cracked her eyes open and attempted to reach up to rub her burning head but found them to be bound. She started panicking and tried desperately to free them but to no avail.

She lifted her head up and found Lucas smiling at her as scenery whizzed by.

"Did you sleep well, babe?" Lucas asked quietly.

"You're fucking mental Lucas! Let me out of this car right now!" Rinoa exclaimed.

Lucas shook his head and indicated to pull over. It was then Rinoa noticed their isolated environment. He'd obviously been driving for awhile out of Balamb but Rinoa still noticed some of the surroundings, she knew she'd been here before.

"I didn't want to have to do this." Lucas snarled.

He pulled out some silver electrical tape and pulled at the tape violently.

"Lucas please no!" Rinoa begged.

She thrashed her body away from his outstretched hands but he still managed to get the tape over her mouth.

Rinoa felt tears at the back of her eyes, ready to pour down her face. She tried in vain to stop the flow of water but as is usually the case, the tears ran freely.

She closed her eyes, not quite believing that this was happening to her. This didn't actually happen to people! And even if it did, did she really expect it to happen to her?

It would make an interesting news story. She could actually picture her headline… Girl Tragically Killed by Ex-Boyfriend… it did have a ring to it.

"Oh no, shhhh. Don't cry Rinoa." Lucas shushed. "This is a good thing…"

Ellone lay on the couch, anxiously waiting for Squall to get up. She'd heard all about what Laguna had seen when he came bouncing into her room. The memory obviously still fresh in his mind.

Laguna had been at the forefront of getting Squall and Rinoa together, he hadn't said anything verbally but he ranted about it all the time.

Luckily for Squall Laguna had to leave soon after he had witnessed the event so he couldn't torment him with it.

She grinned widely when she heard the sound of Squall squeaking down the stairs. Ellone grabbed the remote and switched the television off, not wanting to be burdened with it while she talked to Squall and so that he couldn't change the subject onto whatever was on.

She heard him yawn behind her and smiled even wider, she was too excited about giving him shit.

"Morning," Squall muttered, making his way slowly to the kitchen.

Ellone dived out of her seat and raced to the kitchen, gasping a little when she felt the cold tiles against her bare feet.

"Sooooo…" Ellone began.

"Fuck up." Squall interjected flatly.

"Oh yeah Squall like your ganna get away with this!" Ellone laughed.

Squall rolled his eyes while reaching into the cupboard for some cereal. He grabbed the milk and sugar before settling himself down at the breakfast counter. He began mentally readying himself for what was to come.

"I can't believe you two finally got together…" Ellone continued.

Squall suppressed the urge to smile; it was as if she was mirroring what Selphie and Quistis were going to say. Plus he couldn't quite believe it either. It had happened so quickly he didn't really have time to let it register in his brain.

Rinoa had stayed for about another hour… not a lot of cartoon watching took place.

"… You wait until Raine finds out! She is going to love it! Oh my Hyne please let me tell her!"

Squall shrugged, not really wanting to be the one to endure the painful conversation anyway.

She would no doubt start with how sweet it was, then it'd turn into a lecture about having safe sex and not impregnating anyone. He'd heard it many times.

"So how did it happen?" Ellone enquired.

Squall grimaced; he wasn't really one for in depth details about his love life. What happened in Squall's bedroom usually stayed in Squall's bedroom.

"She dived on me like a wild animal." Squall lied.

Now it was Ellone's turn to roll her eyes. He'd said the same thing about his argument with her on the beach.

"C'mon Squall, if you can't talk to me who can you talk to?" Ellone whined.

Squall shook his head and shovelled some of his beloved cereal in his mouth. There wasn't really too much point in withholding his side of things; Rinoa was no doubt going to tell the entire world within a matter of seconds. He was just waiting for the phone to ring and the fact that it hadn't yet was quite worrying.

Usually he could read his friends like clockwork, unless she'd rung Selphie or someone like that, then she'd be held up by explaining every small, minuscule detail.

"Doesn't matter, I'll just go ask Rinoa." Ellone shrugged.

"No you won't. You'll wait until someone tells you like you always do." Squall replied.

Ellone turned quickly and exited the room. Squall started chuckling to himself before he heard the front door open and close.

'She's not actually going to.'

Squall dived out of his chair and raced to the sun room's window. He watched as his 'sis' Ellone walked confidently over to the Caraway residence. He had not expected her to actually do it! Ellone was full of empty threats that she never carried out. That was the big difference between Ellone and Squall, if Squall said he was going to do something, he was doing it.

He didn't look away for a second as Ellone pushed down on the doorbell. She waited there for a couple of seconds, tapping her foot against the wooden balcony.

Squall tilted his head to the side in deep thought. She hadn't left that long ago, it had only been about an hour and a half ago. Nobody would be up at 10:30 in the morning, especially not on a Sunday.

Ellone pushed the doorbell again, rapping hard on the door with her fist while she did so. Squall never realised she was so impatient before.

She waited for a little while longer before making her way back over to her own residence. Squall was glad that Rinoa hadn't answered the door though; if she had it could've been a little bit embarrassing for him. He wasn't looking forward to the amount of shit he was going to get about this.

Mostly from his family but when he was home he liked to relax.

Squall had a satisfied smirk upon his face as she entered the house, his cockiness getting the better of him as he enjoyed one small victory over her.

"Shut your face." Ellone burst out before Squall had a chance to say anything.

Squall lifted up his arms in defence, not intending on saying anything at all. What was the point? It was obvious who had come out the champion of that battle.

"It still doesn't change anything; I will know the story in the end." Ellone declared.

She left it at that and exited the room, going off to do Hyne knows what, Hyne knows where.

Rinoa found herself, finally, in a setting she didn't recognise. She could just see the ruins in the distance before Lucas turned into a forest and it was hidden from sight.

She still couldn't talk, her mouth being covered with tape and moving was restricted by rope tied around her wrists and ankles.

She hadn't known fear until this day, everything that she had been through in her entire life had been nothing compared to this.

Her mother's death had at least been somewhat kind in the fact that she had known it was coming; this was a different kind of fear though. She couldn't even compare the two.

She started moaning again, trying to convince Lucas with her terror to let her go.

"Please don't do this again Rinoa; I want to show you something." Lucas sighed.

Rinoa clenched her eyes closed; she didn't know what to do. All she wanted was to back at Squall's again, back when things were perfect for her.

It had happened only hours ago but now it seemed like it was a far-away memory. It was another great example of how quickly your day could turn to shit.

She heard a loud, shrill, beeping sound coming from Lucas and thanked Hyne. It was his cellphone, if she was loud enough then someone might save her.

He snapped his phone open, pulling out the aerial with his teeth. He glanced quickly at Rinoa before putting it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

Rinoa took her chance and started thrashing around, making as much noise as possible.

"Yeah hold on a sec Marcia." Lucas growled.

He glared at Rinoa, covering the mouth piece with his hand.

"If you don't stop that right now then you won't see anything ever again!"

Rinoa obeyed, not wanting to make him any angrier. She never seen him like this, she'd never seen ANYONE like this! He'd lost it, completely. This was one of those situations that you see on the news and thank sweet merciful Hyne for not giving you psycho boyfriends like that!

"Yeah she's with me." Lucas said as he got back on the cellphone.

Rinoa's heart sank, Marcia, it appeared, knew all about this. How could she do this to her? She was supposed to be her friend! True they weren't exactly as close as before but they'd known each other too long to do something as callous as this.

"Of course she wants to be here!" Lucas screamed.

He threw the phone out the window forcefully and smacked his hand on the steering wheel about five times.

He came to a screeching halt, jolting Rinoa's body forward. She slammed into the dashboard hard and cried out in pain. It would've been nice of him to warn her, or put her seatbelt on when she got in the car.

"Sorry about that babe, I didn't realise that we were here." Lucas said apologetically.

He raced out of the car, opened Rinoa's door and tenderly carried her out.

He sat her down gently on a nearby rock. If it wasn't for the situation she was in she would've taken in the beautiful scenery that surrounded them.

It was a small clearing in between the middle of the forest; grass covered the ground, along with twigs and various branches. The breathtaking party of it was the picturesque pink flowers that were covering the clearing. When the wind picked up the petals would ride the breeze, making the place all the more amazing.

It was the kind of place that would usually only provoke good memories but Lucas had ruined this place for her. How could she enjoy the majestic splendour of it now?

"Lucas, it's not too late…" Rinoa began.

She didn't want to take the panicky tactic that had been portrayed before. It hadn't exactly got her anywhere.

"Yes Rinoa! You're completely right!" Lucas said excitedly.

He sat down beside her, resting his head on her lap and looking up at her face. A small smile traced his lips and he softly touched the side of her face.

"That's why I brought you here. I needed you to come to your senses. You may think that we were together for everyone else's convenience but you're wrong. I love you."

Squall sat in the busy café, devouring his hamburger gluttonously. He had Selphie sitting beside him and Zell in front of him. They had been the only ones willing to come down to the café with him.

All the others had either still been in bed, too busy or simply not home.

"Sooooo… what did you do last night?" Selphie enquired her mouth still full with chicken nuggets.

Zell had a huge grin on his face, obviously proud of some personal conquest that had taken place. Women just seemed to gravitate to him. It could've been the toned body with full locks of blond hair and rebellious tattoo running down the side of his face any of these things would warrant female attention.

At first he'd been pretty shy about it; he wasn't used to that kind of attention. He's spent most of his childhood being a bit of a skinny cry-baby but something happened that made him start going to gyms and such. He bulked out and suddenly became a hottie.

Zell took a breath, about to begin his no doubt long story about his night.

"Well, 'bout nine I get a call from that guy Zidane from PE. He tells me about this party going on down by the docks. So I decided to go down and take a look. There were chicks fucking everywhere." Zell began.

Squall rolled his eyes as he took a large bite out of his partially eaten hamburger. He'd heard this story a million times, Zidane was a bad influence… it was actually a little humorous to even think of anyone else being a bad influence on one of his friends!

"And there was this one who was just loving me so I took her out the back…"

"Zell Hyne! We don't need to know! Seriously!" Selphie exclaimed.

"Well you asked 'What I did last night'." Zell retorted.

"Why don't you ask Squall what he did this morning?" Quistis said as she took a seat in the booth.

Squall's eyes widened, he hadn't expected this turn of events. He was hoping to have at least one more day of everyone being clueless to what had happened.

His head began to scheme up something that he could say when the inevitable question was asked. Squall looked around in fear for Seifer's smirking face but found that he wasn't here, thank sweet merciful Hyne.

He glanced quickly at Selphie, whose face could only be compared to a five year old on Christmas day.

"You hooked up with Rinny!" Selphie squealed.

Squall was glad that she was actually right; it would've been actually more embarrassing if she was wrong because then Rinoa would more than likely be with them and things would become awkward for at least half an hour.

"Ding ding ding!" Quistis laughed.

Squall didn't quite know what to say, it was an uncomfortable situation to be in for him. Everyone was staring at him like he'd just won the lottery and he didn't really know what to say.

In the end there was no real point in denying it, it wasn't like they didn't already know.

"How the fuck did you find out?" Squall growled.

"I've just been at your house talking to Ellone. She told me that I needed to give her all the details." Quistis grinned.

Ellone had obviously jumped to conclusions that Quistis had talked to Rinoa, it was quite surprising that she hadn't already.

"When did this happen?" Selphie exclaimed.

"At about eight I heard. Is that right Squall?" Quistis chuckled.

She couldn't get the grin off her face, she didn't want to make Squall feel anxious but she couldn't help herself. These sorts of things happened once in a blue moon and it wasn't like he didn't put his two cents in when she hooked up with Seifer.

"How did I not know? Why didn't she tell me?" Selphie whined.

"You can't keep me here Lucas." Rinoa said gently.

"I know. You're going to come back to Deling with me." Lucas said back lovingly.

Now there was a prospect that seemed too awful to even contemplate. If she could help it she would never go back there again, she was ashamed of the life she'd lived there.

Coming to Balamb was the best thing that had ever happened to her, she couldn't imagine going back to her old life. After everything she'd been through she'd never be the same person again.

"You can't do this Lucas. This isn't supposed to happen." Rinoa burst out.

Lucas sighed, apparently quite annoyed that she just didn't understand. He thought he had made it quite clear exactly what was going to happen. She would come to appreciate it.

"You're wrong Rinoa." Lucas moaned. "This is supposed to happen. I realized something. This is just another test in our relationship. I'm willing to forgive you for your little fling with your new buddies but its time to get serious now."

Once again fresh tears began to well up. She'd tried since they'd stopped to not cry but it was hard. This situation was more than a little distressing.

All she wanted was to be safe again; she had realized just how safe she was in her little town, down her little street, in her little house, with Squall always by her side.

She knew though, if anyone was going to save her it was going to be him. He protected her, he had since the day they'd first met. Whether it be just showing her where her class was or rescuing her from a police ridden brawl, he was always there, and now that he wasn't she felt more alone than she ever had in her entire life.

Done. Mostly everyone pretty much guessed what was going to happen, Rinoa was ganna get kidnapped. Another unexpected turn for me though, she wasn't going to originally but fuck it, I thought I'd drag it out.

Hope it isn't getting a bit too drawn out though, what do you think?