The sun was hanging high and hot in the cloudless blue sky as the group disembarked the train in Deling City. They all squinted as they moved into the light, out of the cool darkness of the train station.
The station was busy as they made their way down the sidewalk toward the bus stop. They all had bags slung over their shoulders. Seifer had found a new motorcycle just in time for the next race so the group had all journeyed to Deling to see the race, leaving the garage in the careful care of Nida, a young man who was going to school in Balamb. He was only sixteen but he loved cars and was a hard worker so the guys didn't feel anxious about leaving the garage in his care.
Rinoa had to go by the newspaper office from the train station and drop off a story she had written. She was going to hang out at the office with Quistis until her friend got off work and then they were going out to eat with Seifer, Squall, and Zell. Sally would have come with them but she couldn't get off work until Saturday. She was going to take the 1 o'clock train and meet them in time for the 3 o'clock race.
As the bus Squall and Zell were going to take pulled up to the stop Squall hugged Rinoa. Against Squall's better judgment and protective wishes, Rinoa was walking from the train station to the newspaper office in the downtown section of the city.
Giving Squall a kiss on the cheek and waving to Zell, she turned away from the train station and the boys boarded the bus, Squall keeping his eyes trained on Rinoa. She rounded a corner, out of sight. He sighed and Zell patted his friend on the shoulder.
"She'll be fine man. She's lived here all her life, remember?" Zell said, trying to reassure his friend.
Squall just nodded absentmindedly, his eyes still staring at the last spot he saw her.
"You've got it bad," Zell commented absently, watching his friend's face.
"I'm falling for her Zell," he said quietly, turning to look his shorter friend in the face. Zell blue eyes widened but he smiled at his friend.
"She's good for you," he replied. "But if you hurt her Quis is gonna kill you," he said.
Squall's blue eyes narrowed and he glared at his friend. "Yeah, thanks for that reminder."
Zell just laughed as the bus began to move.
The familiar bustle of the city was in full swing as Rinoa walked down the sidewalks of her hometown. Busy men in suits and women in dresses were walking quickly and purposefully down the streets, too intent on their work and schedule to appreciate the beauty of the city around them.
Crossing the street, Rinoa, clumsy as always, tripped over a crack in the sidewalk, spilling her papers all over the ground as she hit the sidewalk. A hand attached to an unseen arm extended itself in front of her face. Blushing in embarrassment and gritting her teeth at the pain in her knees, she took the hand and the mystery helper pulled her to her feet. Looking up at the person who was still holding her hand she smiled sheepishly in greeting.
"Thanks," she said, blushing furiously. The man in front of her was gorgeous. He was tall and thin with long auburn hair that was pulled back into a long pony tail. His honey colored eyes were giving her a look of confusion from under a black felt cowboy hat.
"You okay miss?" he asked in a rich drawl. She blushed again and blinked, breaking her stare as an image of Squall floated to the top of her mind.
Pulling her hand gently from his grasp, she kneeled down and started to gather her scattered papers. The cowboy stranger crouched down and helped her again. Handing her a stack of papers, he introduced himself.
"I'm Irvine," he said as she took the stack from his hands.
"Rinoa," she said shortly, still blushing.
"Nice to meet you Miss Rinoa," Irvine drawled, shaking her hand as she shifted her papers.
"Yeah, you too," she said, avoiding looking at him. "Um, I'm late for a meeting. I have to go," she said, looking up the block at the office building that was her goal.
"Not a problem, I have to be going too," the cowboy said, tipping his hat to her as she got back to her feet, hurrying towards the newspaper office.
Brushing himself off, the lanky man moved down the street in the opposite direction after sparing a long look backwards. He continued through the city, out of the downtown section, until he reached the largest house in the city.
He knocked at the front door and the doorman let him in with no questions.
"The general is in his study," the doorman stated, moving to lead the cowboy to the study.
'That's okay, I know how to find it," Irvine said, waving the butler back. The man just nodded and moved back to his spot against the wall.
General Caraway looked up from his mountain of paperwork as the cowboy let himself into the study.
"Irvine," he greeted as the other seated himself in front of the general's large desk. "Keeping out of trouble?" he asked with a smirk on his face.
"Yes sir," the lanky man stated. A picture on the bookcase behind the desk drew his attention and he pointed at it.
"Who's that?" he asked, a curious tone in his voice as he looked at the picture of a dark haired teenage girl.
"That's my daughter, Rinoa," Caraway said slowly, picking up the photo gently.
"Where was she going?" Irvine asked.
The general put the picture down quickly before he answered. "What do you mean, where is she going?" he asked, confused.
"I just saw that girl walking downtown," the cowboy responded, frowning.
"Really?" the older man asked excitedly.
Irvine nodded, still confused. The general pulled a keyboard from a drawer and began to type furiously.
"Why would she be in the city? Did she bring that boy?" he was muttering to himself as he typed.
"She was heading towards the newspaper office," Irvine offered helpfully.
"Thanks," Caraway said absently as he picked up the phone.
Hello, Deling City Chronicle. How may I help you?
"Is Rinoa…Heartily in the office today?"
She just came in actually. Do you want me to connect you?
"Yes, please," he said before thrusting the phone into the surprised Irvine's hands.
"Did you take anything from her?" Caraway asked Irvine quietly. The cowboy nodded sheepishly, puling a ring on a chain and a wallet from the inside pocket of his long cattleman's coat.
"Tell her she dropped them and find out where she's going to be tonight," he hissed as Irvine put the phone up to his ear with a nod.
Rinoa entered the office, flustered and out of breath. She had barely put her stuff down in Quistis' office when the phone rang. Quistis answered and frowned, glancing up at Rinoa.
"It's for you," she said, extending the phone to her friend.
Rinoa took it and talked for a minute before her free hand shot to her neck in surprise. She thanked the person on the other end of the line and explained how she was going to be at the speedway the following night. After another minute of listening she agreed and thanked the person again before hanging up.
"So, who was that and why did you invite him to the race tomorrow?" Quistis asked with an arched eyebrow.
"Oh, that was some guy I ran into outside. I dropped my wallet and my ring and he wants to meet us at the speedway to give them back," she explained.
"And how did he know you were here?"
"I guess he saw me run in here," Rinoa reasoned.
"So he's gonna meet you at the speedway and give you your stuff back?"
Rinoa nodded, "That's the plan."
"Just do me a favor and make sure Squall or Zell is with you when you go to meet him, okay?" Quistis asked, worried about her best friend's safety.
Rinoa rolled her eyes. "Yes mom," she said sarcastically. "The way Squall's been recently, he probably won't let me go anywhere by myself anyways," she added with a grin.
"What do you mean?" Quistis asked, grinning.
Laughing, Rinoa told Quistis about Squall's reluctance to let her go to the office by herself.
Quistis just smiled and nodded. "You're getting to him," she said, grinning.
"Oh, hush. That's just how he is," Rinoa objected, blushing.
"Yeah, but only with certain people and he does it a lot more with you than with anyone else."
"Squall doesn't treat me that much differently," she objected, her voice telling Quistis that she was trying to convince herself more than convince her friend.
"He loves you!" Quistis exclaimed, pointing a finger at her friend, teasingly.
"No, he doesn't," Rinoa objected, her jaw dropping.
"Squall and Rinoa, sitting in a tree," Quistis sang loudly, laughing.
Rinoa jumped to her feet, blushing bright red. "Quistis Trepe! You stop it!"
Childishly, Quistis ran out of the office, still singing, with Rinoa in hot pursuit. Dodging in and out of the other workers, they ran through the office, laughing and grinning like the kids they were.
Irvine was thoroughly confused when he hung up the phone.
"So, um, why did I just do that?" he asked a grinning Caraway.
"You are going to break up my daughter and the boy she's dating."
"Uh, why?"
"Because he's Loire's son and can't be trusted," the old man stated, turning his computer monitor to show Squall's school, medical, and police records.
"This says that he's President Loire's adopted son, not his real son," Irvine pointed out.
"That doesn't matter. All that matters is that you break them up," the general insisted, starting to get angry.
Irvine shrugged. "Seems mean but you're the boss," he agreed quickly as a vein began to throb in the old man's forehead.
"That's right, I am the boss. And you'll keep that in mind if you don't want certain things to come back and hurt your career," he threatened.
Irvine was a pickpocket and a thief. General Caraway had found out what he was when the cowboy had been caught in the mansion stealing a jewelry box. The crafty general had agreed to hide Irvine's records if the cowboy would agree to do things for him. In addition to being a good thief and pickpocket, Irvine was an excellent shot.
Caraway had gotten the young man a spot in a prestigious Galbadian Army sniper's unit. He would get the thief time off whenever he had a "private" job he needed the young man to attend to. Irvine loved his position in the unit so, in order to keep the job and avoid getting sent to D-District Prison, he had to agree to help the general with whatever was asked of him.
With a sigh the lanky cowboy stood up.
"Anything else?" he asked, turning to go.
The general shook his head and the younger man left. Smiling eerily, Caraway picked up the picture of Rinoa and put it back in its place on the bookcase, laughing to himself.
AN: I'm sooooo sorry for the incredibly long wait for this thing. My only excuse is college - this semester is a lot harder than last semester and I've had to devote more time than I would have liked to doing papers and researching stuff. We just had midterms last week and this next week is Spring Break but I don't know how much writing I'll be able to get done because I'm not going to be around a computer all week. I'll just have to write it by hand and type it up when I get back to school. Hopefully it won't take as much time to get the next chapter of Second Chances up. I can dream...just kidding, I have a basic plot for the chapter already planned out so it shouldn't be hard to write it - I just have to find the time.