The morning seemed to come almost instantly; no one was prepared for it. The sun had barely risen, and yet a small group consisting of Squall, Quistis, Matron and Cid had gathered. Goodbyes had been said formally, hugs had been given and they were shipped off like it had been a life or death mission.

Now, they were on a train to Windhill; and frankly, she was wishing she had at least six more hours of sleep. There was almost no one on the train, and those who were, were either daydreaming or asleep.

Quistis shifted uncomfortably. She had never been fond of long rides anywhere. Deciding to distract herself, she dug through her bag until she found her photo album. Squall looked over at her curiously.

"I promised I'd tell you about everyone," She explained, giving him a him a small smile. Carefully, she opened the small book. The first picture was of Selphie; grinning happily with an armful of sunflowers. "That's Selphie. Does she look familiar at all?"

Squall shook his head. "No." He said quietly. "Did I know her well?"

The blonde took a moment to ponder that. "You were friends. Let's see, she transferred from Trabia Garden to Balamb about two years ago now. You also took the SeeD exam with her in Dollet."

"You mentioned Dollet before." He said quietly, "What happened there?"

"You took the SeeD exam there. The mission was to get rid of the remaining G-Army; but somehow you and the rest of your group ended up at the satellite tower. Then, I'm assuming, you must have done something to get one of the G-Army mad; since a few minutes before the ships were leaving your group managed to turn up with a robotic spider on your heels."

"Then what happened?"

She was hoping he wouldn't have asked that. "You managed to get out of there pretty luckily."

"Tell me the truth." Squall said dryly. Damn. She had never been a good liar.

"I saved you." She said quietly. "There were machine guns installed on the SeeD ships, I knew how to use them."

"That's against regulation." He said bluntly. Apparently he still remembered the whole rule book. "You should have let me died."

She shook her head. "I don't think I could have."

"And the consequences..?" He asked quietly, as if he already knew the end result.

"I got fired." The blonde said, "I lost my instructor's licence. I ended up a SeeD like you." And you told me to talk to a wall. End of story.

Squall nodded slowly. "Did you tell me this before?"

"I didn't tell you exactly what caused it, but yes, I told you."

"What did I say?" He asked quietly.

"You didn't care. But you were right, it was my fault. I got myself into the situation, and it really was none of your concern." She forced a smile at him, "That was a while ago though, it doesn't matter now." She sighed and went to go turn the page.

Squall leaned forward and placed his hand over hers, Quistis looked up startled. "I'm sorry." He said quietly, he wasn't sure of what else to say but he had to start somewhere.

She smiled sadly and looked the other way; she wouldn't let her emotions interfere in this. She couldn't let this interfere. Slowly, she pulled her hand free, and she was free to turn the next page.

"This is Zell," A smile crossed her lips, Zell was grinning stupidly in the picture most likely taken the night of the SeeD ball after the defeat of Edea. "He was also in your SeeD group. I suppose he doesn't look familiar either, does he?" Squall yet again, shook his head. "I thought so," She murmured. "He was also in your class, he was into material arts, he still is for that matter." She turned to look at him, he still had a blank look on his face.

The next page was Irvine with his arm slung over Selphie's shoulder. "This is Irvine, the lady killer of the school," She joked. It was wasted. "He was from Galbadia Garden, but he ended up transferring to Balamb in the end. He's engaged to Selphie." She turned to him again. "I suppose there's no point in asking you if you know these people every time I show you someone new. How about you just tell me if you see someone familiar, alright?" He nodded in response.

"What about the girl... the one I saw before?" Squall asked quietly.

"Rinoa?" She flipped through the small book until she came across pictures of the young woman. She watched his expression carefully to see if even his eyes flickered. Nothing. "This is Rinoa." She said quietly. "Rinoa is General Caraway's daughter..." She trailed off, "Please, Squall. Tell me you remember her, even if it's just the smallest thing."

He shook his head, and she felt her heart drop. "Sorry."

She didn't know what to say, she couldn't very well force him to remember, but she couldn't sit there and let his love for Rinoa just disappear either. "No, don't apologize. I know you're trying to remember." She hoped he was, anyways. The train stopped to let more people off and soon it was silent again.

"So weren't in love," He said aloud to himself; she stared at him. What kept on bringing him back to that? He was making it even harder for her to keep denying it; but she knew she would never live with herself if she said yes.

"No, not even close. We were only friends." She forced a smile at him. "You would never consider me that way." You love Rinoa too much to ever think of me that way.

She turned the other way to look out the window trying to ignore any and all thoughts of his questions. Why did he keep coming back to that question? She had never given him a reason to suggest anything other than a relationship of respect.

"Is it alright if I look though this?" His voice broke her train of thought.

"Go ahead." She said, handing over the small book. "There's usually times and dates beside them. It might help you remember if you read them." There weren't many pictures as she wasn't a big camera person. Photos were usually Selphie or Rinoa's job, she usually just asked for doubles for keep sakes.

Her watched beeped. It was almost nine, they'd be there in about half an hour. She closed her eyes content to listen to the engine and the consistent flipping of pages next to her. However, she couldn't let herself fall asleep; she had to get off at the right stop and frankly didn't want to be out in the middle of no where with amnesiac Squall.

Instead, she looked out the window. It looked like it would be a nice day, there were a few clouds, but they weren't grey with looming grey. The horizon zoomed by quickly and it almost hurt her eyes to watch it; but soon they arrived at their stop.

The train personal shooed them off as they almost missed their stop because they were awkwardly gathering stray luggage. The train stop wasn't too far from the small town, it was in walking distance, but it was still a bit uncomfortable walking there and dragging luggage around at the same time.

It seemed like it was a good 20 minutes before they reached the town and made it to the inn. The inn keeper heard them come in long before they ever made it to the door. "Welcome!" She greeted.

Quistis barely managed a wave, as she was trying to steady her bags at the same time. The inn keeper peered at her, "You must be Ms. Trepe and Mr. Leonheart I presume." They nodded. "Okay, here's your key."

The blonde awkwardly grabbed it, still trying to keep the luggage up right. "Follow me." The woman said walking up a set of stairs.

Great, stairs.

It took them about 2 trips between the both of them to get all the bags upstairs, only to find out there were two beds - with no walls in between.

Talk about inconvenient.

Before either had a change or ever hope of protesting, the inn keeper was gone. She sighed an she hauled her bags over, "Which side you want?" She asked dryly.

He shrugged. "Left." She watched as he grabbed his bags and put them on the bed. It creaked, and for a moment there she was scared it might have broken under the weight. The blonde moved her bags against the bed and sat down.

"No memories yet?" He shook his head. She sighed, maybe this was hopeless. "You want to look around then? We might be here for awhile, we can unpack later."

"Alright." He got up slowly, and ran his fingers through his hair. "Let's go."

She smiled in response.

[ o [ o [ o

As she had earlier predicted, it was beautiful day. Squall had a hard time not staring at everything stupidly as they walked by, but she would occasionally slow down her walking pace or just stop in general allowing him to take his time and look around. "It's so calm here." He said quietly, turning to look at her. She nodded, as they continued walking down the dirt road. "Have I been here before?"

She nodded again. "Awhile ago, though. We didn't stay long though, I believe we went to Esthar after this. It's a shame no one usually comes by here; it's very soothing."

Squall came to stop in front of the flower shop. "You want to go in?" Quistis asked from beside him. He nodded, not even sure why he wanted to go in.

As he opened the door to the small shop he was immediately met with different flower fragrances. What caught his attention though were the white flowers spread across the table. "Ah, hello." An elderly woman soon came into view. "I don't get many visitors now days." The woman grinned, showcasing years worth of laugh lines. "Would you like to buy something for your girlfriend?"

Quistis quickly held up her hands to protest, but Squall seemed to ignore the reference in general. The shop keeper followed his gaze; "The white lilies?" She asked; Squall nodded. "You want them? They're only 50gil."

The white lilies made Quistis feel a bit more hopeful; lilies were Rinoa's favourite flower not to mention the last time they were there, the shop keeper had mentioned Squall's mother when asked about the flowers.

Maybe they were getting onto something there. The blonde stepped forward and paid for them, the elderly woman kept her eyes on Squall the whole time. "Looks so much like her," She mumbled with a sad smile. "Do you want them wrapped?"

Quistis shook her head. "No thank you. That's fine." She took them as is, cradling them in her arms. Squall took one last look at the shop keeper before opening the door for the instructor and leaving with her.

"I guess we should go back and put those in water." Squall said quietly, turning to her. She paused, looked at the flowers, and then turned back to him and nodded. "They suit you."

She smiled bitterly, before turning to head back. "We can go look around after if you like."

He absently nodded, and followed her back. It wasn't like the inn was tourist stop; so they didn't have to wait inline to get to their room. He looked around the small inn while Quistis waited for a vase to put the flowers in. In her defence, she had offered to give him the key while she waited but he had refused.

White lilies. Something about them triggered something very small inside of him. The clinking of glass alerted him that the inn keeper was back with a vase filled with water. "Thanks." Quistis said, putting the lilies in; and carrying it upstairs.

He quickly followed her to in order to be a gentleman and open the door for her. He watched as the blonde set them down on the table; and for a split second - the tiniest little second; it was like her image flickered. It was like a TV with bad reception, it flickered and for not even a second the blonde was suddenly a raven-haired woman in blue; and then again, she was blonde.

He shook his head vigorously; putting a hand up to his head. He needed more sleep. It was probably just stress. Quistis turned back to him in concern, bending down in order to get a look at his face. "Are you alright? You look pale."

He shook his head again. "I'm fine. I just feel a bit sick." It wasn't a total lie, he did feel sick. And scared, he didn't know if he was going crazy or what; he was scared of being alone.

He was scared of being left behind and forgotten because no one would put up with him because he couldn't remember. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't remember anything beyond what he already knew.

And all he knew.. was her. Nothing else seemed to click, not even his own name; where he was from, what he was like… who he was.

"Who am I?" He whispered, people had told him his name, but no one had told him who he was.

The tone of voice broke her heart. He sounded so lost. Quistis knelt down to him. "You're Squall," She said, reassuring him. "You're her lion." A bitter smile graced her lips as she said that.

It was all so confusing! Lion, what did she mean by lion? Who is he? He felt like crying, would he ever remember who he was? What if he stayed this was forever? What if he never remembered?

He watched Quistis get up and he was suddenly filled with an insane fear that she would leave him all alone, by himself with unattainable memories he could never reach. "Don't leave." He croaked out.

She stared at him. "What?" She whispered, confused.

What he she want him to say? Explain how confused how he was? Explain all his irrational fears? Just don't leave me. That's all he wanted to say; but sometimes, four words can seem like the hardest things to say. Especially the three-worded ones.

And he didn't even know how to start. "Don't leave." He said awkwardly.

"I don't understand," She said quietly; although she was trying to understand; she didn't know why he was telling her not to leave. He stared at her, what part of don't go didn't she understand? "I'm not goi-"

She had attempted to say 'I'm not going anywhere, Squall' but that hadn't quite worked out for her. She felt his hand on her wrist, begging her silently to just understand.

"Squall... I won't leave. I promise." He nodded slowly.

And he looked so helpless.

Their lion.

Her lion.