The Delinquent

Do Grats have eyes? I dunno, they do now.

Rinoa's actions become frantic as the sound got closer and closer, she had hoped that maybe it had just been passing by but going by her luck that day this was not to be. She remembered hearing something about Grats sense of smell being so fine tuned that they could smell blood in the air from up to a mile away.

She knew that she had blood on her; the only thing that was on her side was that by the sounds of it it was only one Grat.

Rinoa tugged as hard as she could on the ropes but to no avail. The only thing she could think to do was to shimmy around the other side of the tree and pray to Hyne that the Grat's stupidity, which was as well known as its sense of smell, was a lot more severe than she gave Grats credit for.

She could hear her own heart thumping inside her chest and the sound of her breath seemed to be louder than the Grats piercing scream. Her eyes were quite possibly wider than they had ever been before and for the first time since Lucas had came to Balamb she wished he was here.

She held her bound hands in front of her, trying to will herself into thinking of something. She was attempting not to panic but in this situation it was a little hard. Rinoa clenched her eyes together and readied herself for the assault that could possibly kill her.

'That's not a possibility, it's a certainty.' She thought hopelessly.

The Grat came charging into her eyesight, saliva dripped from its open mouth and its beady eyes searched the area for Rinoa.

It slowly approached, cautiously taking ever single step. This was the wilderness and whatever it could be hunting could quite possibly be larger and stronger than the Grat itself.

Rinoa heard the loud screeching Grat call and could help but let out a scream of her own as the sound stabbed into her eardrums like hot knives. It was times like this that someone could use a pair of hands.

That was generally all the information the Grat needed to know. It rushed at the tree Rinoa hid behind, its four tentacles swinging above its head violently.

Rocks and twigs were thrown about mercilessly it's the Grats six legs scuffed across the forest floor. One hit the tree right beside Rinoa and shattered in half. Rinoa only needed a second to decide what she needed to do. She needed to stay away from the Grat long enough to cut her ropes.

A new determination set in and Rinoa flicked the split rock towards her with her foot and grabbed it with one of her hands. She scuttled around the tree as the monster nearly had her in view, stooping the Grat into a trance of idiocy.

Whatever the creature was that hid behind the tree, it should technically still be there. It hadn't run away because its scent was still nearby.

Rinoa hacked away at the ropes grinning from ear to ear as she saw one part of it cut in half.

The Grat shrieked again and Rinoa winced but kept her mouth firmly shut. She couldn't afford to alert the Grat to her position again, that would ruin everything.

She froze when she heard it take a couple of steps, fearing that it was coming around the tree. After a few seconds she went back to trying to slash her ropes.

Seconds ticked by like days and she frenetically ripped at her bounds. Soon one hand was free, which made the job of freeing the other a million times easier.

Then she was free and running. As soon as she began bolting she heard the Grat screech again and take off after her. Her feet were moving at speeds she had realised that she could run, much faster than she had when it was Lucas after her.

She hadn't really believed he'd do anything serious to her until the moment he tackled her though. He'd hit her but she just couldn't accept it.

She still loved him; you can't just be with someone for so long and then suddenly turn everything off. She just didn't love him enough to be with him, and it was more like she felt she had to be with him, she'd been Lucas's girlfriend for so long it was hard to think of herself as anything else.

Her foot hooked under the wedding dress and she feel to the ground hard. She felt one of the Grats tentacles grasp her ankle and drag her towards its wide and gaping mouth. Rinoa noticed that the rock she'd used for the ropes was still in her hand and she thrust it fiercely into the member that was lugging her.

It let her go and she was off, not looking back as the sound of the Grat screaming echoed through the trees.

Rinoa had no idea where she was heading; all she knew was that she wasn't going to stop for anything. For all she knew she was going to run straight off a cliff but anything was better than being stuck in that forest with psycho Lucas.

She darted left as she nearly ran into a caterpillar looking thing and heading straight, only changing direction when a tree got in the way or a random monster appeared out of nowhere.

Considering how many of them were in this forest she was shocked that the Grat was the only encounter her or Lucas had had with any beasts.

Rinoa's dress got caught on a branch that stuck out further than she had anticipated and she heard the loud rip of her dress. She finally stopped, recognising that this dress was really more of a hindrance than anything else. She grabbed the material and pulled on it with all her might, extending the already large tear until it was now a thigh length dress.

It was times like this that she wished she had a pair of sneakers but all she had was one stiletto shoe, the other having fallen off on all of her endeavours to get free.

She kicked the shoe off and wrapped the material she'd taken from the dress around both of her feet. She grimaced down at her rangi'd-up shoes, hating the circumstances that she'd been subjected to.

Without so much as a second thought she was off again. Ahead of her she could see the forest come to an end and the great plains of Balamb stretching out in front of her.

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Rinoa breathed a sigh of relief when she was out in the open again; taking in how wonderful it felt to be free. She couldn't stop for long though, if Lucas saw her then she'd be in BIG trouble.

She saw the oceans waved crashing against the beach and knew that that meant that the road couldn't be too far away. She didn't want to just walk along it though; if she did that then Lucas was sure to find her. Instead she needed to come up with something and quick.

'I've got way more chance if I find the road.' Rinoa thought to herself.

Being lost on the Balamb continent could potentially be worse than being stuck in the forest with Lucas.

She saw something in the distance, it was big a red and heading her way.

'A truck.'

Without a second thought she began running towards it, shocked at how close the road had been.

Rinoa stood in the middle of the road, waving her arms above her head and screamed "STOP" at the top of her voice. Her desperation to get home was as fierce as it had ever been in her entire life. Her entire world was going into trying to make this trucker stop and the trucker, being a human being, did so.

The breaks screeching together in front of her was like music to Rinoa's ears and she felt a smile start to cross her lips. It was over, her ordeal was finally over. She could go home, she could see Squall, she could have a shower and try to forget.

Admittedly it was doubtful that even when she did get home that she'd be able to forget, this was the sort of thing that one doesn't just disregard.

"You alright darlin'?" The trucker enquired as he got out.

"I need to get to Balamb." Rinoa sobbed.

-----------------

Zell rolled his eyes as he listened to his friends lecture him about the importance of honesty. He personally couldn't see how he'd been dishonest, it wasn't like they'd asked or anything.

After he'd been "snapped" they'd retreated to Squall's house. Zell had already tried to sway the conversation onto Squall's fling with Rinoa but no one was going to take the line. Apparently they had all the time in the world to give Squall shit about that.

"Just tell us who she is." Selphie whined.

Zell had been quite tight lipped about it, not wanting to damage his reputation or open himself up to anything that they might have to say about this particular female.

"Haven't you figured it out yet?" Quistis scoffed.

Selphie shook her head, no one else was admitting it but they had no idea either.

"It's that girl, Rinoa's friend. I forget her name." Quistis continued.

"What makes you so sure?" Zell accused.

"Well, at first I didn't think so but then I realised that she'd have to be staying somewhere and the obvious place is the hotel. If it was anyone else they would've left with you instead of staying at the hotel wouldn't they? Not to mention she'd attractive and has all the physical features that you're attracted to."

Zell glanced around the room to see this opinion dawn on everyone else, he lowered his head to the ground, recognizing that he really had been snapped out.

"You pog; sleeping with the enemy!" Squall laughed, clapping his hands his hands in a sort of mock congratulations.

"Good on ya mate, she's fine." Irvine congratulated.

"She's all good." Zell finally said.

Zell soon came to the conclusion that hiding her identity was going to help him; it was pretty safe to say that they all knew damn well who she was. His new tactic was to turn this upset into a good thing, if he could explain to them what she was like then they couldn't give him any kind of flavour of shit.

"Then why did you feel you had to hide her physical engagement with her?" Quistis enquired.

"Well…" Zell begun.

"Why can't you just ask a normal fucking question for once?" Seifer interrupted.

Quistis turned her head slowly and glared maliciously at Seifer, it was a look that just screamed I'm going to grab a power drill and plant it into your skull. Then feed your dead body to pigs.

"Don't you start your shit!" Quistis growled.

This was of course going to turn into another classic Quistis and Seifer moment, another memorable flash in there relationship that would be forever entwined in their hearts.

"Oh my Hyne, Rinoa what happened?"

They all stopped any kind of conversation as they heard Ellone's voice echo into the room.

"Where's Squall." Rinoa's voice cried.

Squall was off his bed and down the steps in a matter of seconds. The others close behind him. If it hadn't have been for the situation it actually could've been considered quite funny.

Rinoa leaned against the side of the doorframe; her body was finally giving out on her. The stress and fear that had been pulsing through her brain, the torment her mind had gone through that day finally got to her. She held her head in her hands and bawled her eyes out. Her body slowly slid down and she brought her knees up to her chest, hugging them tightly to her heart, still in an uncontrollable wave of tears.

Squall stopped in his tracks, not able to consol her but not able to just leave her. He clenched his fists by his sides and began breathing quite heavily.

Selphie and Quistis rushed to Rinoa's side, one of them on either side of her. Quistis grabbed one of her hands and began trying to calm Rinoa down while Selphie rubbed her back and leaned her head on her shoulder.

"Rinoa, what happened?" Quistis whispered.

Rinoa let out a loud sob and took a deep intake of breath, making that high pitched squeal people make when they can't breathe.

"Lucas… he," Rinoa began, before stopping to try and catch her breath again. "H-he knocked m-me out and…"

Quistis tore her eyes away from Rinoa and looked over to Squall, his eyes were wide and his face was enraged.

"he t-t-took me," Rinoa finally let out.

She was obviously beyond a mess and it really did break all their hearts to see her like that. Rinoa was sort of the baby, it wasn't a youngest thing, she wasn't after all. It was just that they all kind of looked out for her in one way or another. She was far from any kind of street wise, even though she was getting better; she was still somewhat naive to how the other side worked.

"Where is he Hun?" Selphie said softly.

Rinoa shrugged, "I don't know." She said quickly, trying her hardest to calm herself down. "He said he was going somewhere."

Quistis slowly stood, noticing just how furious Squall was getting. Quistis knew exactly why, Rinoa's face was bruised, she had blood all down one side of her face, and her feet were wrapped in bit of her dress that know had blood from her toes seeping through it.

Not to mention the many bruises she had on her legs from falling over while running and the fact that she had a shredded to shit wedding dress on. That's also forgetting to mention the fact that she was hysterical about Lucas knocking her out, kidnapping her and taking her to some unknown location to do who knows what.

"Squall… are you ok?" Quistis enquired delicately.

"Get me my car keys." Squall seethed.

"I don't think you're in any state to drive Squall." Quistis stated.

Squall's mind was coming up with conclusions that Lucas had raped Rinoa or something like that. As soon as he thought of one bad thing his brain would leap onto something much worse.

"Get me my car keys now!"

Squall barrelled the sentence out like a gun going off, it shook the place. The mad fury in his voice was almost frightening. He'd never felt so much rage in his life

This is beginning to be worse than Shortland St. I don't spose many of you know what that show is.

The ruins haven't got much play lately, things should start happening with that soon cause I gotta start drawing to some sort of conclusion in this fic.