Disclaimer 5: Judgement day Disclaimer. I'll tell everyone when I own FF8 and Squaresoft, although by then it will already be to late to stop my master plan... For now though, please don't sue.

Knighted

Chapter 5: Cid's Lecture-Part 2

By knighted

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

"Wish me luck" Squall murmured in a slightly brighter than usual monotone. Rinoa was beginning to find that she was noticing these things more lately. It seemed that, slowly, every hour of contact that he had with Rinoa, Squall changed. Not noticeably at first, not at all; in fact it was so slow it would have been perhaps more exciting to watch the movement of a tectonic plate for a whole year, but he was changing. It was inexorable, as if the mere nearness to his 'Angel's' presence was gradually grinding down his barriers. And she was certain, almost certain, that he didn't mind at all. Sometimes she worried, when thinking in her, and indeed his, room at night, whether when he was really more changed whether he would actually be Squall any more-the Squall she loved and cared for-or some stranger who she had inadvertently created. She still woke up sweating at nights sometimes from dreams, now not only of some sort of return of Ultimacia, but also of losing Squall, of being without him or away from him... or him going on a mission and not coming back. He hardly ever went away on missions now, but it did not make her any more comfortable when he did. She knew that he was the best of the Garden, but anything could happen when you're running up a beach of deep sand towards chain-gun posts and there're shells exploding around you. He knew she was frightened; anyone could see it in her eyes. That was why he kept missions to a minimum, but he had been trained from pre-schooling years to fight, and she understood that he had to get out of his be-papered office every once in a while, just like he understood that she didn't like him going away on missions. She shuddered. They could cross that particular hurdle when they came to it.

She drifted down out of her thinking tangent gently to find a heavy hand on her shoulder, and Squall's pale, ice blue eyes lay upon her with a quizzical look.

"It's been two minuets. You gonna wish me luck yet?" she giggled lightly and slapped softly on the wrist.

"Ok, ok commander. I was just planning my move" he smiled and she moved up to meet his lips, finding it hard to draw away before they both got too engrossed and forgot Squall's meeting with Cid.

"See you later" he pushed the panel on the side of the reinforced steel door, and darted into the Headmaster's office. The door shut behind him. Rinoa smiled, putting her fingertips to her lips where she had kissed him. Then she walked back down the corridor to join her friends at breakfast.

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

Squall had to stifle a yawn as he walked towards the Headmaster, who was seated as usual behind his today relatively clean desk. It was important that he saw the Headmaster today, but he wished that he hadn't had to get up so early to please the Head; Cid had always encouraged an early start, and it would be a good way to please him before the young man brought the bad news. In fact, he himself had once promoted early mornings, before the Ultimacia affair. Actually he would actually never have promoted anything at that time. It had been worse for Squall's 'significant other', although at 7:00am in the morning she was anything other than significant. Then again Rin never was a mornings person, he conceded.

He stopped almost exactly two foot in front of the softwood desk, stood to attention, and saluted smartly. Cid nodded approvingly and motioned to the hard plain chair before his desk. Squall smiled inwardly. Score one for me, he thought. Argh! Now I've even adopted Rin's phrasings. And that name... Rin. Where did that come from...? He pondered quickly on how fast things had gone, and then suddenly noticed that his superior was looking at him. The old man chuckled,

"Drifted off there for a second, Commander? At ease, Squall." He reluctantly eased himself more into the wooden chair that was his seat. With Rinoa, what Cid had said would have seemed amusing if it was Rinoa, but without her everything seemed different. Even a quick glance towards each other across a crowded room and they could understand each other's amusement. It might seem silly to her to have their small secrets and ways together, but Squall somehow didn't think so. He was beginning to be able to predict her actions and thoughts-to really get to know her-and sometimes it seemed more than that, as if he could actually tell what she was thinking occasionally. Perhaps it was all part of the bonding in this Sorceress/Knighted relationship thing. He supposed he ought to smile at the man's comment anyway, so as not to be rude if he wanted to ask him this favour.

Cid shuffled some papers haphazardly, as if he didn't really get any of it, and then gave Squall an uncomfortably sharp look. Then he looked down and sighed slightly, leaning back and steepling his fingers as he glanced over his spectacles at his Commander.

"Well? Give it to me straight. What is the bad news?" he was amazed at the Headmaster's directness to the point. Usually the guy would go on for ages in some speech about his open feelings on the matter or what Squall was going to ask him or why he should be here or whatever. Squall straightened up and, taking a deep breath, began.

"We... Miss Heartilly and I, have been thinking, and talking."

"Undoubtedly." Commented Cid dryly "By the way, please call her Rinoa, Squall." He had to stop himself from scowling. How can he just say that, as if it meant nothing...? Sometimes the guy confused Squall. He realised he was overreacting again, and calmed himself.

"Ok then, Rinoa and I have been talking, Sir, about the things Edea told us in the meeting we had a while ago." Squall noticed his phrase, 'a while ago'. Not a year ago he would have stated the precise date, opening time and contents of the 'meeting'. Cid seemed to notice it as well, suddenly smiling wryly.

"...and you came to the conclusion...?" the Headmaster quietly pushed.

"We came to the conclusion that perhaps Garden life might be... too stressful" Squall indicated the word sardonically, as if nothing could be too hard for his 'sweetheart' "for Rinoa." He continued.

"So we decided to go... away." In a fraction of a second, Cid's eyebrows seemed to have disappeared to somewhere on the top of his head, and his eyes widened until they looked in near danger of popping out. He managed to gasp

"L-leave...?" Squall stared. He had seen Cid mad, even shouting, but he had never seen the man so panicked before. Cid stood up shakily

"B-but Squall! You can't just go! Can't you see I need you here to help me? N-no! I... I forbid you to leave. I need you as Commander, to share some of the load." Squall stood up. He couldn't believe the guy. He half shouted at the Headmaster

"What? You dumped this responsibility on me!" half afraid of what his superior might thing of him, he continued, "I never wanted all this damn paperwork! I never wanted to be Commander! Can't you see that?!?! I never-"

He stopped, and noticed that the older man was almost cowering away from him in the corner. Breathing deeply, he looked up at Cid's shocked face

"Anyway, my contract ends in four months time. Who will you run to then?" the large man across from him stood up and looked slightly shifty.

"Yes, well, we'll talk about that later..." Cid glanced to the side, as if some more large, gunblade-wielding young men would start coming out of the walls and berating him.

"It's only a week, anyway." Grumbled Squall embarrassedly, eyes down. It was the first time he'd actually shouted at anyone, apart from Zell who didn't really count, let alone his boss. He looked up and saw the latter man staring again, and Squall braced himself for another outburst, but Cid just hobbled over to his chair and dropped into it, shielding his eyes with his hand. He murmured weakly

"Only a week...? I thought you were going for good!" this time it was his turn to stare. Then slowly, as realisation dawned, Squall slapped his hand to his forehead. In the heat of the moment as he told Cid that they were going away, he forgot one vital detail; it was a holiday. Only a week. Cid had thought that he meant to leave garden entirely. That was something he wasn't going to do for... well he hadn't even thought about it. Cid piped up again

"Go, fine, do whatever you want, I don't really mind." Squall sighed with relief, glad to be allowed to go, turning towards the door. As he reached for the handle the Headmaster of Garden permitted him one last word

"But... Squall? Be careful, will you?"

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

"How'd it go?" whispered Rinoa into Squall's ear as he joined her at a table-for-two in the dining hall at lunch. Squall enjoyed the sensation of her light breath on his face for a moment, having to pry himself away from almost overwhelming desired to kiss her in front of the whole hall right then. Perhaps some other time. For now he answered her.

"Well... it was kind of a shouting match, if I think about it." She looked amazed that her Squall could do anything like shouting, but then her face fell, and Squall's heart ached.

"So... we can't go?" he realised her unhappiness immediately,

"No, no; I neglected to add that it was just a week's holiday-so he thought I was leaving Garden and... everything. For good." Just for a second, Squall was almost sure that he could see a flicker of wistfulness cross her perfect features at his last comment. He wondered... but not now. Concentrate on the present.

"So... we're all set..." he scratched the back of his head awkwardly, wondering what to say. Rinoa smiled at him, his face set in concentration, while her own mind drifted back to her wistful glance which she was sure Squall noticed. She tried to push all wishes to leave garden out of her mind; it was her home, now, there was no-where else to go. And he could not imagine living anywhere else-he couldn't even remember half of Edea's Orphanage because of the effects of the GFs on his memory.

"When are we leaving?" she quietly questioned. He frowned again,

"I don't know... I never really thought about it. When do you think?"

"Well, it's almost summer... why not now? Before the crowds?" Squall pondered this. It often surprised him when Rin spouted bits of information like this, he guessed it was because of his view of her when she was still the 'princess' of the forest Owls.

"...yeh, I guess that's fine. I suppose we can just pack and leave. I don't really want another confrontation with Cid. Maybe we should ask Quistus or Xu to tell him." Rinoa gasped, her fork halfway to her open mouth.

"Commander? But leaving without expressed permission and timing conformations is against-" Squall interrupted her

"-act 1472, chapter 3, verse 14. Yes, I know, but I really can't be bothered to face down the Head again." She smiled, and his heart felt like it was being compressed slowly. When she smiled, all his troubles, worries, everything but him and her just dropped away; it was unimportant.

"Heck, I guess you really are changing." He frowned... a sensation of agrievement came over him at her comment. His heart sank in his chest, and the rest of the world seemed to thump back into place as he descended from the high point she herself had given him

"Do you really have so little faith in me?" he spat bitterly. She was shocked at his reaction

"Squall, no!" he looked up into her eyes, eyes full of pain and pity, and saw that he had caused that pain, that wound to her by his spiteful retort-who cares if she had joked about him, he realised that it was a joke now, that she would never accuse him or insult him deliberately. She looked down at her plate, playing with her fingers. Tentatively her voice penetrated his senses, husky now and deeper

"I can... I can make it up to you..." Squall stared up at her face, the locks of hair falling over her eyes which stared almost seductively up at him, felt a need, a calling so strong that he could hardly suppress it. Slowly, he smiled.

"Well... maybe not now... but, ah, you owe me one; if you catch my drift?" she burst out laughing, a tension released in both their stomachs. For the first time they noticed the stares of the other tables around them, the stares which nonchalantly returned to their plates as he looked round at them. Rinoa covered her mouth with her hands, her delicate shoulders still shaking with surprised laughter at her Knight's comment. She kicked him lightly under the table, and lent over to whisper in his ear

"More time for that later..." she leant back, winking. He grinned at her playfulness, knowing she was only joking. Or was she? Still he could never be sure what was going to happen when he was around her, he thought back to his fleeting anger only minuets ago; his mood was so volatile around her, and he knew that the same went for her. Was she joking? Did he want her to be joking? Those were some of the many questions he asked himself at night as the deep blinds of sleep closed about him, sometimes with Rinoa lying in his arms, her heavy head resting on his shoulder. His smile remained soft as he placed his eyes on hers.

"Maybe, Rin. Maybe..."

Well, I thought that was a good end to a chapter, even if you didn't. Hopefully someone will review this chapter, but if not, I'm just going to keep writing anyway.

Thanks for all your reviews so far, I apologise for my slackness in writing.

Thanks,

Knighted

614537.doc 16/09/04 13:18hrs Theo Lester (Hf) L5th