Squall sighed as he tightened his tie while he waited for Rinoa to finish getting dressed. His black sports coat was lying across the back of a chair in Rinoa's kitchen. Squall was wearing a black dress shirt with a red tie and black slacks and shoes. Nervousness was starting to set in the longer he waited. Compulsively he loosened his tie again. Rinoa grinned at him as she moved into the kitchen wearing a creamy dress that ended right above her knees. A thin silver chain that was holding a gold ring was visible around her neck, the ring resting right above her cleavage, causing Squall to swallow thickly before moving his eyes quickly to her face. Rinoa stood up on her toes, eyes twinkling at him, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Her fingers tightened his tie and used the knot to pull his head down to hers as she put her heels down. He kissed her quickly, his hands sliding around her back to pull her body closer to his. After a few moments he pulled back slowly, keeping her close to him.
"Should we go over?" he asked reluctantly. She sighed and nodded slowly. He stepped back, grabbing his coat and slipping into it before he offered his arm to Rinoa. She slipped her arm through his and straightened his tie one last time with her free hand. He led the way out the door and they set off down the hall towards the new tenant's apartment.
Selphie looked momentarily surprised to see them at her door but she covered it quickly, a well practiced smile sliding in place to hide her shock at their arrival.
"Squall, nice to see you again," she gushed, standing on her toes and stretching out her arms to hug him. Squall stepped back smoothly and stared at her, his meaning clear. Sighing, Selphie frowned and stepped away from him. Rinoa had to bite her lip to keep a smile from breaking onto her face as she watched the interaction. "And you are?" Selphie asked, her voice frosty as she shot a thinly veiled glare towards Rinoa.
Squall stepped forward again, a hand coming around Rinoa's waist. "This, as you already know, is my girlfriend Rinoa. She also lives next door to me, in 29B," he said politely, smirking as Selphie noticeably scowled.
Running her eyes disdainfully over the pair, Selphie stepped back from the door and let them into the apartment. There were people everywhere and from further back in the apartment a stereo could be heard. "Have a good time," she said coldly, barely closing the door behind them before walking quickly away from them. Squall and Rinoa looked at each other and shrugged, dismissing her from their minds. Rinoa absently wound her fingers through Squall's as she looked around the kitchen where their host had left them. People were milling around everywhere and there were several small conversations clumped together around the room.
A tall man in a cowboy hat stood up a little straighter as he stretched up a bit so he could get a better look at the couple that had just come into the apartment. Irvine groaned to himself as he recognized the girl he had been tailing at the race track. If General Caraway found out he had seen her again with that Leonhart guy he was going to be in big trouble when he got back to Galbadia.
Ducking his head back down, he pulled his hat forward a bit so the brim shaded his eyes a bit. If he could avoid encountering the general's daughter or her boyfriend maybe he could keep them both out of trouble. The general really couldn't blame Irvine for not doing anything if Irvine didn't see Rinoa.
The cowboy quickly glanced around the apartment. Spotting Selphie, he excused himself from the conversation he was in and made his way to where Selphie was standing.
"It was good to see you and I'm glad you invited me, but I have to leave. Now," he said quickly.
Selphie frowned up at her friend and ex-boyfriend as she spoke. "What's wrong Irvine?"
"The couple that just came in, I'm in the middle of a job for her father so seeing them is not good for me right now," he hastily explained.
"Squall and Rinoa?" she asked. "Her father is General Caraway?"
"Yeah and he'll be furious if he finds out I've seen them and don't tell him about it."
"Your job concerns them? You don't have to kill them do you?" she asked worried.
He shook his head. "No, Caraway just doesn't like Leonhart."
"You're killing Squall?" she asked loudly.
Irvine clapped his hand over her mouth, hushing her as people turned to look at them. "Shh, no, I'm not killing him. I'm just supposed to break them up." He took his hand off her mouth as he finished speaking.
"So when your job is over, they'll be broken up?" she asked excitedly.
Irvine nodded. "I didn't want the assignment but if I don't do it my career is over. It's not all bad though. She's beautiful. I don't think she'll stay single for long after he's gone," he said with a smirk as he looked at the General's oblivious daughter.
"Going after Caraway's daughter isn't a good idea," Selphie warned.
"Well he's basically asked me to!" the sniper defended himself. "And you can't tell me you don't want Squall back," he added with a glare.
"Oh shut up Irvine. You cannot still be jealous about that. You knew from the very beginning that I was with both of you," Selphie shot back.
"Well, excuse me if I didn't expect you to toss me when he finally found out about it and left you," the sniper said back angrily.
"I can't talk to you when you're like this," Selphie said with an angry pout.
The tall cowboy just shot her a withering look. "Well then it's good I'm leaving then!" he said, stomping his way through the crowd and quickly exiting the apartment.
Squall's ears perked up as he heard his name loudly spoken from in the corner of Selphie's living room. Standing up straighter, he peered around the room. He could see Selphie standing with a tall man in a leather cattleman's coat and a black cowboy hat. He saw the tall man shush Selphie and frowned as he recognized the cowboy from the race track.
Rinoa glanced over at Squall as she talked with a short, spiky-haired blonde man named Cloud that lived across the hall from Selphie. Taking Squall's hand, she squeezed and he snapped his attention back to their conversation.
"So, Squall, you grew up around here?" the spiky-haired man asked.
Squall nodded wordlessly, trying to keep his eyes on the cowboy and Selphie.
"Squall," Rinoa prompted, nudging him with her elbow.
"Oh, sorry, got distracted," he apologized. "I grew up in the orphanage here in Balamb and was adopted when I was eight," Squall said, glancing at Rinoa with a tiny smile. She winked at him and grinned.
"Do your parents still live on the island?" Cloud asked curiously.
Squall felt his small smile slip at the mention of his foster parents. "Uh, no, actually my foster father is the president of Esthar," he said uncomfortably.
"Really? Your father is Laguna Loire?"
"Well, foster father," Squall clarified.
"Do you have any interest in politics?" their neighbor asked curiously.
Squall shook his head, looking sideways at Rinoa as she covered her laughter at his awkwardness with a cough. "Not really. I'm actually a mechanic."
"Why didn't you follow in your father's path? I'm sure being the son of the president gave you lots of opportunities. Why not do something else?"
"Well my family sent me to the Garden here but I didn't want to continue that," Squall said simply.
Rinoa frowned in confusion. "What's so special about the Garden? There's one in Deling but I thought it was just a prep school."
Squall looked at her in shock. "Your father is General Caraway and you don't know what the Garden is?"
"Wait a second!" their neighbor interrupted before Rinoa could reply. "Your dad," he said pointing at Rinoa. "…is General Caraway. And yours," he said pointing at Squall, "is Laguna Loire and you two are dating?" he asked in surprise.
Squall turned his attention momentarily from Rinoa to stare at the blonde man. "What's the big deal about that?" he asked.
"Are you serious? You don't know about Julia?" the astonished man asked.
"Mom? What about my mom?" Rinoa asked, frowning.
"Your mother used to date Laguna Loire. They were separated when he left Deling to fight in the war. He got sent away from Galbadia and ended up wounded in Winhill after escaping from Esthar. By the time he managed to get back to Deling, she was with Caraway. It had been years since he had been in the city and she had apparently moved on. The next thing anyone knew, he was back in Winhill with Raine," Cloud explained briefly.
Squall frowned. "How do you know all of this?"
The man shrugged. "I'm Galbadian. It's fairly common knowledge there that Caraway hates Loire. He was always afraid Loire would come back and take her away from him."
"Mom loved Dad," Rinoa objected, frowning angrily.
"And Laguna is happy with Raine," Squall said. "Sometimes unbearably so," he added in a monotone, rolling his eyes.
"I'm not trying to argue with either of you," the blonde man said, raising his hands. "I was just surprised that neither of you knew about the history between your parents."
"Dad never mentioned it," Rinoa said quietly.
Squall noticed that Rinoa was looking troubled and quickly excused them from their neighbor, putting an arm around her waist and leading her into the kitchen.
"Rin are you okay?" he asked, leaning his head down to look into her face. She nodded but he continued to watch her anxiously. "Do you want to go home?"
Rinoa shook her head and look up at him. "My father, he's not going to let us stay together. I know him."
Squall interrupted her quickly. "Rinoa, your father can't stop us from being together," he objected. "I'm not going to leave you just because Laguna dated your mother."
"Squall, no, you don't understand. My father isn't just going to sit back and let us be together. He'll do something to try and break us up," Rinoa explained, her voice rising in pitch as she realized exactly how their parents' pasts were going to affect them.
Something also clicked in Squall's head and he turned quickly to scan the crowded living room. Spotting the tall cowboy apparently arguing with Selphie, he turned back to look at Rinoa.
"Would he possibly get a cowboy to steal your wallet and then ask to meet you alone to get it back?" Squall suggested.
Rinoa frowned as she thought about it. "He wouldn't get anyone to kidnap me," she stated.
"Well, not to kidnap you, just to get you away from me; try and get you to like the cowboy better than me, maybe. Something like that…"
Rinoa gasped and her hands came up to cover her mouth as she realized what had been going on. She looked over her shoulder quickly and spotted the cowboy, quickly understanding the strange man's insistence that she meet him alone and her stupidity in stubbornly playing into his, and her father's, hands.
"Why would he be here?" she wondered aloud. "Do you think my dad might have sent him? How would he know we were coming here?"
Squall shrugged and put his arm around her shoulders. "I don't know. You would know better than me what he might do."
She looked at him seriously, swallowing thickly. "I'm scared of what he'd do Squall. What if he actually tries to hurt you?" she asked, staring up at him.
He pulled her into his arms, hugging her back as she squeezed him tightly. "He can't hurt me Rinoa. I promise you. He can't hurt me."
"You can't say that Squall. You can't promise me that," she said, close to tears.
"Shh, Rin. I promise you, I'll be fine. He can't hurt me," he said again, trying to calm her down.
"How? How can you promise me that?" she demanded.
"I was trained at the Garden," he said simply.
"I don't understand what that means. How does that keep you safe?"
Squall sighed as he explained. "Garden is a mercenary school," he said quietly.
"You're a mercenary?" she asked in shock, pulling back to look into his face.
"Well, I went there and graduated but I'm not a mercenary. I was trained in combat but I never went to war or anything." He paused. "Well, except against Seifer," he clarified.
"Seifer went to Garden too?" she asked. He smirked and nodded.
"Yeah. We were the only gunbladers in our class."
Rinoa frowned. "What's a gunblade?"
"I can show you my Lionheart when we go home," Squall offered.
Rinoa grinned up at him and hooked her fingers around his tie, pulling his head down. "Squall," she said in a chiding voice. "Are you sure we're ready for that at this point in our relationship?" she asked him teasingly, barely giving him a chance to look shocked before she stood up on her toes and kissed him.
As she pulled back slowly, Squall breathed deeply and licked his lips. "Seems like you're feeling better," he commented dryly. She laughed and hit him lightly on the shoulder.
"Oh hush, you," she told him, grinning.
Squall put his hands up quickly. "You were the one who started it," he objected almost teasingly.
Rinoa sobered up as she noticed the cowboy pushing his way out of the apartment out of the corner of her eye.
"We're going to have to do something about this," she commented to Squall, who only nodded silently, following her gaze.
AN: I know! I'm terrible! It's been so long...but I think I needed to take the time - the holidays were really busy and now I'm back at school so I will get time in class to write (cause I don't pay attention in history...or sociology...or Brit Lit...or Spanish...) and I've been working on an overall plot for this story (which I didn't plan when I started...) but anyways...I'm gonna try and work on the next chapters for Apt 29B and Fool to Think (which already has an overall plot) at the same time so I canhopefully get them both out faster...