Disclaimer: Contrary to popular belief, I don't own FF VIII.

Authors Note: I am trying a different approach in my writing. There may or may not be any noticeable difference. Please Review!

Rinoa was just staring into his cool calculated bright blue eyes. She felt as if she could gaze into them forever. There was no doubt in her mind that this was the guy from her dreams, she knew it in her heart it to be true. Rinoa couldn't believe how handsome he was, he was even cuter than she could have possibly imagined. His brown locks were hanging in front of his face partially hiding a scar, which crossed his forehead. She had no idea, how long they stood eyes locked, but it wasn't long enough and a voice interrupted their thoughts.

"Rin. Come over her so I can introduce you to everyone." Selphie screamed waving her arms around frantically. Reluctantly Rinoa shifter her gaze to Selphie and smiled trying not to let the disappointment show on her face.

"Sure thing" Came her reply, thankful that she got to move closer to the man from her dreams. Rinoa headed over to the bar, carefully dodging between the crowds of people.

Selphie had a glowing smile on her face and pointed to the guy on her left. Rinoa admitted that he wasn't bad to look at, but he had tough competition. "Rinoa, this is Irvine. Irvine, Rinoa."

Irvine tilted his hat "Nice to meet you. The guy at the bar is Squall and the blonde making a fool out of himself on the dance floor is Zell."

Rinoa looked shyly up at Squall and shyly smiled, and noticed that he was still staring intently at her. This made Rinoa blush profusely. "Hi, nice to meet you." She said trying to keep her voice as steady as possible.

Squall just looked back at her without saying a word. His face betrayed no emotion.

After a few seconds of awkward silence Irvine intervened. "You will have to excuse Squall, he doesn't talk very much."

Rinoa a bit hurt from his lack of response, tried to look like she didn't care. "That's alright I understand".

Just then, the music changed and a much slower song was played over the loud speakers. Irvine grinned at Selphie and held out his hand. "Care to dance?" Selphie nodded her head and let herself be led onto the dance floor by the gracious cowboy. Zell came over and introduced himself to Quistis and Rinoa. He noticed the obvious tension between Squall and Rinoa and knew that he should leave his best friend alone with the girl. He thought that perhaps he should leave them alone so he grabbed Quistis's hand and despite her many protests dragged her to the dance floor.

Rinoa looked around curiously and sheepishly sat down on the stool next to Squall. Being this close to him made her nervous, and she wasn't quite sure what to say.

"So um, Selphie tells me that you are here on business? What do you do?" Squall shifted slightly.

"Nothing very interesting, I would bore you"

Rinoa thought about this and decided not to press him any further, it was obvious that he didn't want to talk about it. *Dammit, what should I say to him? I can't just come out and tell him that I have dreams about him...that just weird.* Unknown to her the exact same thoughts were going through Squalls mind.

Squall picked up his galls and drained the contents and looked at Rinoa. "Look it is really loud in here. Do you want to go out and get some fresh air? It will be easier to talk out there." Rinoa nodded in agreement. Wordlessly she followed Squall out of the noisy bar and onto the icy cold streets.

"Shit, it's freezing" yelled Rinoa, who was still only wearing a dress. "Let me get my jacket from the car." And as quickly as she could she ran over to the car and grabbed her jacket from the back seat. After putting it on, she turned around and saw Squall was staring at her yet again. Rinoa feel the heat rising to her cheeks. .

"Is something wrong?" She gently innocently, in her sweetest voice.

Squall looked into her eyes and realized that he had been staring. "Sorry...umm.... I was lost in my own thoughts." He was now shifting uncomfortably feeling very embarrassed. Rinoa inwardly giggled to herself, he looked so adorable squirming like that.

"Happens to me all the time." Giving him a sympathetic look. They both stood there for a minute as an awkward silence came over the two of them. "Do you want to sit down on that bench over there, she suggested." When Squall shrugged her should she took that for a yes and went over to the bench at the side of the road.

They both sat down on the bench and desperately tried to think of something to say, neither wanting to scare the other of by speaking the words that were closest on their minds.

Rinoa looked up at him. "So, Selphie tells me you guys are from Balamb. What's it like there?" Rinoa nearly slapped her forehead, for saying such a dumb thing.

Once again, Squall gave a usual shrug of the shoulders. "It's not bad. I don't really get out that much into the city" *Crap, I've said too much, she's going to think that is weird.*

Rinoa looked at him puzzled "Hmm, you live in Balamb but never really go into the city? Ah. Let me guess you go to Balamb Garden!"

Squall looked at his feet * fuck, what do I say now, I can hardly deny it* "Yes.... I am the commander there." *Why can't you keep your big mouth shut you fool? There was something about her, which makes me want to talk. Hell I never talk this much *

*Geez, he sure doesn't talk much does he? * Thought Rinoa who was a person who normally never stopped. "Wow, that is impressive, and yet you look so young...I mean for being a commander..."

Squall looked embarrassed "Well, I worked hard."

"So I suppose that you are here on some mission. Must be a pretty important one to send the commander himself out."

Squall looked sheepishly, this is getting into dangerous territory. "Not particularly. I am always stuck inside doing paperwork, so would have taken any mission they offered. Glad to get out really."

Rinoa nodded hesitantly "I'm glad you did to!" she shivered.

"You look freezing. Here take my jacket." Squall took of his big leather jacket, with the fur collar and handed it to Rinoa.

"Oh I couldn't. You only have a t shirt on underneath, you will freeze to death."

"I'll be alright."

Rinoa hesitantly took the jacket and slipped it on. The large jacket drowned her, petite figure and she looked really funny. The warmth felt really good and she snuggled up in it, savoring in his warmth. "Thanks" she mumbled.

There was a lot of crashing and banging, and then out of the bar ran Zell, followed by Irvine dragging Selphie by the hand and then lastly Quistis. They ran breathlessly towards Squall and Rinoa and screamed, "Lets go!"

Before they knew what they were doing, Squall and Rinoa were following the others and were pushed into the car Irvine had rented. It was a tight squeeze, but the six of them managed all right. Irvine quickly put the gar in gear and accelerated as fast as he could and sped away from the bar.

"Is anyone going to tell us what that was all about?" Yelled Squall.

Quistis just glared and pointed at Zell who was sitting next to her. "Ask him" she spat.

Zell looked surprised. "What are you blaming me for? Irvine was the one that socked the guy."

Squall sitting on the other side of Zell hit him over the head. "You got into a bar fight? Can I not you alone for ten minutes without you causing trouble."

Irvine turned around from the drivers seat. "Well it wasn't a fight per se. There was only one punch in the entire mishap, and I was the one who got it in." He smiled looking very pleased with himself.

"What brought this punch on then?"

Selphie who was seating in the passenger seat next to Irvine turned around. "Well Zell here, started hitting on this women. Or at least someone he thought was a woman. Anyways, it turned out to be a man, who wasn't very happy at being called babe. Him and a couple of his friends were starting to corner Zell, and before anything could happen, Irvine knocked one of them out cold." At this point, Selphie gazed up at Irvine admiringly. "Well seeing as were outnumbered and not wanting to cause anymore trouble we ran for it. The whole room looked kind of mad..."

Both Squall and Rinoa burst out laughing. "Wha...what about the library girl Zell, forgetting about her already, and for another man." Squall could hardly get out the sentence due to his hysterics. This caused the rest of the car, but Zell, to join in with the laughter and for the next few minutes more Zell was the object of much ridiculing.

Once they had all calmed down from the laughing. "Hey, so where are we all heading now? The night is still young."

Selphie grinned. "Lets go back to our place, hang out there for a bit."

"Sounds like a plan, just point me in the right direction."

It only took a few minutes and they go back to the lodge and all piled put of the car and very happy to be out of it as the four in the back had been very uncomfortable. They stepped into the kitchen and Selphie handed around drinks and they went into the living room and sat round talking for a while. Selphie was sitting on Irvine's lap. Squall was amazed at how quickly they had clicked. Squall could never open up that quickly and be that comfortable with a person. Though the image of Rinoa sitting in his lap was rather enticing. They all stayed up talking late, and decided the best course of action would be for the guys to stay over for the night, seeing as there were plenty of bedrooms. It made sense with the car swaps seeing as the girl's car was still in Trabia.

Irvine and Selphie were the first ones to head to bed, though the way they went up giggling and hanging all over each other, the others were not sure if they were actually heading up to get some sleep. After raiding the kitchen and eating them out of hot dogs and beer, Zell decided he needed to sleep. It wasn't long after that Quistis followed.

Squall and Rinoa didn't head up to bed though and just talked for a couple of hours about everyone and everything. Granted it was Rinoa doing most of the talking, but Squall inputted, occasionally. Squall learnt a lot about who Rinoa was and where she came from.

He frowned. "Let me get this straight, your father is General Caraway? The General Caraway?"

"Yes, though I hate to admit that I have any connection to him. I hate the man." Rinoa answered vehemently.

"At least you have a father in your life. It's more than I have."

"I...I'm sorry, I didn't realize."

Squall shrugged. "It's not your fault don't worry. Those are my issues, which I can take care of."

Rinoa pushed him slightly "You know sometimes you have to learn to rely on someone. Let them help you."

Squall grinned and pushed Rinoa back slightly harder. "And you have to learn, to mind your own business sometimes." He raised an eyebrow.

"You big meanie!" She screamed. "Are you insinuating that I am nosey" And she picked up the cushion she had been leaning on and hit Squall over the back of the head.

"Oh so It's like that now, is it?" and he picked up his own cushion and started hitting back. Before long the two of them were attacking each other in a full out pillow.

"Take that" said Rinoa as she threw one of the cushions extra hard at Squalls face. Squall staggered around the room for a bit, and fell to the floor as if he had just been shot. Rinoa stood there laughing at him, as he just lay there. "Come on ya big lump." She taunted. Rinoa walked over to him, with a cushion at the ready and looked down at his still body. His eyes opened, and he swatted Rinoa with the cushion bringing her to the floor with him. Both of them just lay there in hysterics.

Rinoa reached over and grabbed Squall's hand, which sombered them both. There hands were intertwined. The moment was broken when Squall's watched beeped signally the hour, and they realized how late it was. They headed of to bed, seeing as Squall insisted that he had a lot of work to do most of the time.

They headed upstairs and Rinoa took Squall to the room, which he could sleep in. They both hesitated at his door. Neither sure what to say to the other. Rinoa broke the silence. "It was nice meeting you, have a good night." And then she was wishing she could take back those words, as it sounded really stupid.

Squall smiled slightly, which in turned made Rinoa smiled. She thought he looked amazing when he smiled. Squall stroked her cheek and felt her soft skin. He gazed into her eyes and bent down slowly to kiss her. It stared of as a gentle kiss and that was all Squall was intending, but the passion between the two of them grew, and the kiss deepened. Rinoa couldn't believe how soft his lips were and she forgot about everything but him. Rinoa's arms had circled his neck and she began playing with his hair at the back. Reluctantly they both ended the kiss. Neither said a word, as they knew it would ruin the moment. Instead Rinoa just leaned up and gave Squall a quick kiss on the lips, smiled then headed into her room. As soon as she got in, she collapsed on the bed with a huge smile on her face.

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Rinoa dreamed that night, she saw Squall running through the field as normal, and this time it went further, when he fell to the ground, he looked over his shoulder exposing his face for the first time. It was definitely Squall, yet she already knew that in her heart. Squall yelled as a figure loomed over him. It all happened in slow motion, the shadowy figure pulled out a handgun and aimed it at Squalls head. With a deafening roar they fired. Rinoa could see the blood as it went everywhere and could see his lifeless body drop to the floor.

Sorry about all the fluff. I kind of got carried away as I wanted to set up their relationship and get the hard bit out of the way. Reading back, I am not very happy with this chapter because of that.