Author's note – Another chapter done, another to go, I can't wait to write it! Hee!

-Author screams like a little school girl-

Okay, since this will be the last installment of the Locked Inside series, I'm going to make it my job to be really hard on myself to making it up to you readers by writing this last chapter so good that you'll be crying at the end because it's over. And since I didn't know until someone had told me that answering reviews publicly on the chapters weren't allowed anymore, I won't be answering them after the usual author's note like I used to.

However, I'll be happy to answer anything you guys write to me via e-mail (my address is in my profile).

Okay, so since that's been cleared, I think that it's appropriate to start the ending now (Geez… that sounded like an oxymoron…), so…

…Here it is!

P.S : If you find yourself getting depressed that it's going to be over, just read it really slow so it'll last that much longer!

– Just kidding around guys, and ignore the crazy author!

Edit (09/07/06) – Just fixed some typos and formatting errors.

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Chapter VII – Conflict & Absolution

As soon as he marched out of that unbearable hell hole, Squall found his eyes burning from the lie he'd plainly adopted as a simple truth. How dare Rinoa cause him to go through so much anguish, suffering and deceit? Although he knew deep down that the secondary poisoning wasn't intended by any means, the venom he'd mistaken as personal weakness caused him far more effective torment and chagrin than any physical infliction of pain toxin would ever do.

After a moment's reflection, the various bits of the prior unexplainable past became swiftly pieced together and fused to create the simplistic, basic solutions and answers that continued to increase the now-isolated Leonhart's humiliation furthermore and cause his near-breakdown in the desolate corridor. Now, the former burning sensation had shifted into a glassy reserve of unshed tears in the troubled stormy-blue depths of his eyes; much like the foreshadowing dark clouds before the rainfall.

"Squall, thank goodness you're awake!"

'-No, it should be more like, 'You finally woke up, it's about time already!' '

"Something bad has happened!"

'Yeah, and I'm Mr. Sociable…'

"I was afraid that we were going to be stuck inside this room for the whole weekend..."

"I guess Mrs. Edea was too excited about the long weekend and completely forgot about us! Weird huh?"

"… I left my cell at home; I thought I wouldn't need it today."

'No, you had planned it all… And what did you do about Mrs. Edea? Bribe her in smiles?'

"Well, unless if we can find some kind of phone, we'll just have to survive the weekend inside the school."

"Okay… That's not the kind of answer I was expecting, but it'll do. Then I guess we just have to explore the school then make our solution accordingly after we're done exploring. Right?"

'Not the kind of answer you were looking for? Don't make me laugh. It seems to me that it was your stinkin' goal all along – scratch that, making out was the ultimate prize you were searching. Well good luck with that, you'd have better chance with a corpse than with me.'

'She must be slightly scared with anticipation of the possible outcome. Who wouldn't? The phone could possibly not work at all. Hyne, lets just hope that it does…'

'What kind of drugs was I high on to think of that? No..no..no… The question should be why I don't have them now to numb all of this…'

"We're going to have go to Plan B, the phone itself was dead."

'…I'm not going to even answer that one…'

"Squall, were free! Your father and the vice principal found me, so we can finally leave now that I've found you!"

'You know what? I think that was the finest acting I've seen in my life, either that or you'd just stopped trying.'

Even, after he'd been sardonically analyzing everything, it still didn't help ease the pain what so ever, thoughts continued to scathe him and had begun to envelop his entire being in one hazy thought, a single notion that would not stop hurting.

'Despite the dishonesty and everything, I'd like nothing more than to want to hate her forever, but I can't seem to put myself up to it. There's always been something, a figurative spark about her that infuriates me yet pulls me towards her at the same time… In my mind, I was always suppressing it, because I knew that deep inside, it would only bring me the same turmoil and heartbreak when my sister and mother died… but even so, I can still remember all the times during the weekend where even I've confessed that there was something about her kept on… plaguing my thoughts on both sides of the spectrum, but what should I do now? I know that what I do on the outside and think on the inside sometimes end up appearing like two completely different planes of thought - even to myself - …but this time, it's not about appearances or perceptions anymore, it's simply figuring out what I want to do with this situation… and that, I really don't know… Hyne, I wish I knew…'

After that, he got up slowly, not realizing that he'd been sitting down with back against the nearby wall in a deep, trying contemplation the entire time. A moment passed thereafter. He was rubbing his eyes to eliminate the traces of a previous emotion, but it wasn't necessary. They were burning up once more as he saw the subject of his infliction running towards him from the other extremity of the corridor, and he had made up his mind.

"What do you want?" He stated very harshly.

"I've been…trying to find you…and-" She stopped to collect herself and catch her breath as well, "…to explain why I did what I had done to do you. If you'll let me, that is."

"…Fine, but I'm in no position to be forgiving."

'I only want to know what possessed you to have done this. Hyne forbid if I even bother to think about forgiving you.'

"That's okay. I was expecting you to be like this anyway… To start off, I didn't really mean to poison you by that spell, I just sometimes have trouble with casting status and curative spells. Also, in case if you were wondering, that was the real reason why I didn't want to tell you about what I had done when you had first fainted. I knew all along that cure spells were allowed, but I figured that you might have not known that as well and I thought… it would be the best thing to say instead of the truth. I didn't want to scare you."

'Yeah, but you'll lie freely about us being forgotten and locked in by accident…' Squall sarcastically denoted in his head.

"-Getting on with the story, and excuse me if I'm being really forward, because I can tell that you'd had enough of that when we were locked up, but… the only reason I did all of this, I mean put a sleep spell on you and make it seem like we had been both fallen asleep and forgotten was because… in truth, because it was an opportunity to get to know you."

'I don't believe this…'

"Before you think I'm a complete psychopath, let me explain myself better. You and I actually had fallen in and out of sleep a couple of times from the ungodly warm temperature in that empty room, but the difference was that I had woken up when the last bell rang and that's when I heard Mrs. Edea in class. After she was asking that everyone to hand in the tests and whatnot, I overheard her saying that she'd needed everyone to leave 'promptly' because she had to go to an important appointment after school. That's when I realized that she assumed that we had heard the bell and left too. So in a way, we were sort of forgotten."

'So it wasn't exactly a lie, and if we'd actually been sleeping all that time, this would have happened regardless. Still, I can't forgive her for doing all of this, and what the hell went in her head that convinced herself to follow through?'

"-But since you were stirring and about to wake up any moment now, even though it might sound completely and utterly ridiculous, I acted on impulse and put the sleep spell on you and then another on myself. I did this because I've always…I've…always-"

'Okay, why are you stumbling like this Rinoa? You had no problems before, especially with starting off with that lengthy paragraph to possibly start…your- I don't know… Please, just say it; I'm sure that whatever it can't be nearly as bad as you most likely think it is…'

"I've always…had a thing for you," She paused to uncharacteristically look down at her feet for a moment, while Squall eyed her with a perplexed look.

When she finally got up the courage to continue, a trying, almost forced smile was now present on her blush-tinged face.

"…ever since I saw you standing against that wall alone at that one school dance, after I had came to this school in grade ten." The story went a little more flow and ease for Rinoa as she regained her usual confidence, albeit it's deeper contents. "You had always seemed… different from the others… Very introverted and mysterious, but it wasn't just that that intrigued me. I've seen my share of shy and anti-social guys over the years, but with you, I could feel that it was much deeper than that, and… I've come to grow more aware of it during those past days we spent trapped inside the school…"

When she'd been done admitting these secrets to the individual it was intended for, there was a natural pause to transition from the previous subject. Rinoa carefully used this time to see a possible reaction from Squall, but unfortunately, she wasn't able to distinguish anything in that frame of a couple seconds without causing an awkward silence by prolonging it. Her heart would have to wait for its' answer a little while longer.

"At first, I felt very guilty for taking advantage of the position we were in, but when you seemed calm about the situation after you woke up, while we were going downstairs to get to the office, those feelings just… disappeared somehow when I was genuinely surprised that office phone didn't work. I had been convinced ahead of time that I'd have to lie to you about it not working."

'-So that's why she looked strangely relieved when she put the phone down…'

"Then, however, I went really giddy for nearly no reason other than coming to the conclusion that my plan worked and you thought that this was just a really unlucky accident. It's also the reason why I'd been really fanatical with you at first, but as you might know, I toned down a bit since I now knew that being that forward never sits very well with you. And well… I'm sorry that I put you through all this unexpected harm for my own personal gain, I should have taken in consideration your current health from what Seifer must have done to you in that duel. So… that's all that I can say right now…" Rinoa nearly concluded, trying to refrain from telling him that she knew about his mother and sister, because the last thing she wanted was to keep from getting him angrier than he probably was. "I'm just really sorry Squall…"

He stood there, focused onto Rinoa's pleading, bittersweet expression, radiating from the gleam in her eyes, scanning them with a glare, not of malice, but one of secret wondering. In reality, he didn't feel as angry as he thought he would, but he didn't feel sympathetic either, and the part of the tale that was angering him wasn't angering him in what he'd call a 'traditional' sense, but rather in a sense that he couldn't even begin to describe right now. However, whatever it was, caused him to break connection to her gaze and swiftly leave in what he thought to be in frustration.

Rinoa had continued to stand still, not daring to give chase. She'd known that she'd already lost him.

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The day had eventually passed, albeit very slowly. People attended their classes as usual, while others skipped, and generally everyone lived life as normally as they did on any other given Friday. Squall and Rinoa did as well, but to a lesser extent. While Rinoa feigned not having any problems (…and who wouldn't be doing that in her situation? She'd actually summoned up the courage to even tell the infamous Squall Leonhart how she felt and had gotten badly rejected. How would somebody else feel about telling others in her place?) and Squall started to act up and draw back into his former habits of seclusion. Neither one of them was happy, but that was the price they paid since they shared a connection with another human being, and they had both learned the hard way.

After the last bell had rung, the latter of the two gathered up his textbooks, among other things, and left soundly without even a thought. He'd even received news during that period that he had achieved the highest test score of the class and he still left without any emotion. This very recent resolution that he'd made to prohibit himself from feeling things ultimately was starting to worry his classmates, teachers, and furthermore, the school staff.

But alas, he thought nothing of it.

As he sat on the bus, waiting for the ride home, he observed his surroundings very intently. The teenager wasn't in a very good mood to say the least, and his scowl showed it physically to those around him. Even before the long weekend had ever taken place, he'd never been in such a foul disposition without any provocation in his life. But luckily for the others, not a single word was said to him to further the squalor.

'I've had enough; I can't stand the liveliness of this Hyne-forsaken bus any longer. Where's the moron of a driver to get this thing moving? Screw it, I'm walking…'

He immediately acted upon his impulsive thoughts and left his seat and the bus all together, and when the much-older bus driver did show up near the side of the bus to get to the inside, and asked Squall the politely phrased question of, 'So are you going to be on or off today, Squall?' he turned slowly and answered back in a somewhat indecent, 'No, I'm not… and probably never will be.'

"Sorry to hear that. I hope you'll change your mind sooner or later boy." The elderly man cheerily added, oblivious of the coarse tone as the adolescent started to trudge along the sopping wet sidewalks.

After walking in route for awhile, Squall's expression soured further, if at all possible, upon mentally calculating that he would not be home well into the supper hours. An exact 2 hours after he was expected to arrive home if somebody wanted to be very precise about it. But he shrugged it off and figured that his father wouldn't really get worried because he always came much later anyways.

Assuming that the time that Laguna would be home remained the same, Squall estimated that he could manage a little time in the downtown mall along the way; before it got too dark to walk to his house on the other end of the city, that is.

During these times, the walking teen was indeed thankful for his time management and assessment skills, and very much so when he could smell the familiar strangely inviting scent of roasting coffee beans wafting from the Balamb donut shop, meaning that he was very close where his new destination was.

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Once inside, he found solace in the much more temperate artificial climate through the shopping center's entrance doors. Actually, with completely soaked pants and shoes, he'd consider any place dry his asylum. After the initial spell of relief stopped to overwhelmingly soothe Squall's mindset, he started to amble towards the only thing that he liked about the large vicinity of commercial space – the local book store.

Passing by the numerous stores and stands, he'd finally got to the book shop where he browsed around to find a clerk, looking to see if the order he'd placed a while ago had finally came. After waiting several minutes, very impatiently mind you, for the only employee in the store to stop talking with a clueless middle-aged man who didn't know what he should buy his wife, Squall decided to look around at the new-arrival section of the store. Needless to say he wasn't impressed as he eyed the selection for a brief moment before ultimately gravitating to the mystery/suspense section nearby.

'Meh… all there seemed to be there were those completely unrealistic Harlequins and other types of sappy mushy crap.' He pondered pessimistically, while sifting through the thicket of novels. He continued to think on the subject in general.

'Why do people buy into such stupid ideals? Shouldn't authors be a little more creative than that if they're absolutely forced to come in contact with the romance genre? At least add better twists or maybe a deeper plot… Maybe make it a more realistic or something… Nah, continuous heartbreak is the only realistic thing about love anyways… People sure wouldn't want to read depressive things like that, just fantasy worlds they can escape in. I'd better remind myself never to become an author… I've had enough of this. If that damn cashier isn't done with that guy, I'm leaving right now.'

Seeing as the girl had indeed stopped trying to convince the balding confused man to buy a cookbook for his spouse, Squall headed directly to ask her about the order he'd made 2 weeks ago had gotten to the store yet. As he waited while she checked the back room, he stayed somewhat sedentary, looking at the knick-knacks for sale, while tapping his fingers in boredom on the counter. Time passed rather slowly during the wait so the stationary standing position was ditched in favor of roaming around the perimeter near the cashier's station. Which included the right-side current best-sellers' wall, the carrousel of bookmarks and the magazine racks.

While pacing around the said area, his eyes suddenly caught a glimpse of an interesting sight. No it wasn't the female clerk coming back with his stack of books, although that interested him too, it was someone he'd never guess to be in book store (it was looking in the humour section) in a million… no- make that billion years.

And out of curiosity, no, it wasn't Seifer either.

However, that person did prompt Squall to speed up and pay for his miniature library of novels and hurry his pace to get out of the store, so that they wouldn't make eye contact with each other. Just to be certain that he'd evaded her right before leaving, he looked back once. She wasn't in the aforementioned humour section.

He was slightly uneasy about the disappearance, but when he realized that she was right behind him (he automatically looked backwards from hearing a 'thump' behind him), picking up the book she'd dropped, at that very fraction of a second, he was taken by surprise, shell-shocked and relieved at the same time.

'Hyne, I swear I'm getting paranoid as the days go by, the moment I see someone look like her I go all panicky and unnerved…What'll happen to me if I actually do see her sometime? Maybe I'm just tired and that this is a sign. Besides what would be the reasoning for having these kinds of palpitations by simply seeing her? I've just got to put my act together and forget about her and what happened and put it in the past. Besides, there's no point in getting all worked up over nothing anyway… I really should have thought this through though… Now it's going to take me twice as long to get home with this load of books to carry. Better get moving or else I won't get home until twilight.'

Continuing on his trek homewards, while dampening his pant legs and shoes furthermore, Squall found it harder and harder to push on like this, not because of the charge he'd been carrying the entire time, that happened to be stowed safely in his black knapsack, but because he felt slightly under the weather (no pun intended) or at the very least, annoyed by the conditions he was subjected to while walking (slush, freezing rain, surprisingly deep puddles, etc.), but as he eventually saw his house looming closer in the distance, he stopped harping on about it. Even if his lower half was starting to really irritate him and his overall mood.

After a while, he did manage to get home… eventually.

After he unlocked and entered through the door, not even a second later his father came through that same door and nearly toppled over him. The best slapstick comedy couldn't even start to compare against the execution in this situation.

"Oops, sorry Squall, didn't see you there. Bus come late?" Laguna apologized.

'It's 5:39 pm you clod, it couldn't possibly be this late…'

"…No, I walked home." Squall replied plainly, void of any emotion as always.

"Oh, that must have been hard, wasn't it raining around 4 o'clock? Why didn't you just take the bus or call someone for a ride if you just missed it?"

"It's not like that, I wanted to walk."

"Okay… Well, to each his own I suppose. I'd rather have you take the bus though… Anyways, I don't suppose you want supper just yet Squall?" He gave his father a peculiar stare for that last remark.

'What do you think?' He thought very crossly in response.

"That's what I thought. Well, you'll have to wait until later; I accidentally squished the groceries…"

Later that night, while trying to finish the last of his math homework at his desk, Squall found that the all-over, cold-like weariness and aches he'd experienced while dragging his feet home earlier was starting to reoccur again, along with some nasal stuffiness. Since this was detracting his mind from math equations, he decided to call it a night.

'I'm not really feeling the greatest… I suppose that I should stop doing homework for now and go to bed…' he lastly thought before dozing off completely.

The lethargy persisted even past the next morning when Squall guessed that it would have stopped by. After he slept nearly all day and was barely capable of doing anything. His father was somewhat concerned about his health, assuming that the medicine he'd taken earlier in the week might have induced other side effects. A quick trip to the doctor's ruled that out, stating that it was just a 'bout of a cold starting up. With that said, once they got home, the freshly-sick adolescent regressed to his bed to sleep for the remainder of the weekend except when he had to go to the bathroom, take some medicine, or eat something. Overall, he wasn't too happy about this happening and embittered his outlook over the next couple of days, including when he went to school Monday.

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The next morning unavoidably came too soon as the teenager slammed his hand to stop the infernal beeping from his alarm. Squall slowly forced himself to get up, knowing that he still suffering from the cold, but well enough to be aware that he'd still have to go to school. He groaned at the prospect of this. Squall had come to learn very quickly that, when he contracted colds, sleep was worth more to him than anything else in the world (You'd name it; he'd still be sleeping in bed).

After he'd gotten out of his room, Squall found it to take at least twice as long to do anything, not because of his symptoms, but because it was rooted from the different things he'd been thinking about. He'd love to say that he was too sick to attend school, but not in his lifetime would he'd be prepared to blow off classes like that. Lying wasn't one of his strong points, nor was missing school for false reasons. It was true that he was still sick, but not enough to warrant staying home. As soon as he went downstairs, the teenager immediately wished that he had chosen to fake his death, since the cheerful attitude and the joshing from his father was enough to drive him insane.

"So how are we feeling today, need to stay home?" Laguna asked cheerfully.

'Oh no… There's no way in hell I'm staying here, next thing I know, you'll be doing puppet shows to cheer me up… I still have nightmares the last time you did that… '

"…Fine, I can still go to school." Squall answered quickly, avoiding any complications that silence would have caused.

"Hmm…You sure? You sound a little stuffed up and look very tired."

"…No, I'm okay."

"Oh well, if you're going to be that adamant about it, just take it easy then."

'Worse come to worse, I'll get everyone else sick then no one else will be at school the next day… Nah, that'd be a good thing.' Squall thought evilly.

After the somewhat sick adolescent couldn't stomach anymore of his breakfast, he traveled upstairs to get his backpack and keys, after passing through the stairs and bathroom, he'd caught a fleeting reflection of himself and noticed the paleness of which his father must have been referring to and got him to thinking for a few seconds.

'That doesn't look good, maybe I should stay home…Nevermind, it'll go away, besides I have that test in Math… But what will people think? Argh…I have to stop doing that! I'm not supposed to think about what others think. It's just so… so…irrelevant, and unnecessary, and I'm only making things worse! Hyne, I hate it when I do that… I've got to let it go…like Friday, then no one will bother me then…everything will be better, it'll just… go away… But why won't it? Why won't I let it? I should really stop doing this.'

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After arriving to the school and entering through its' doors, Squall directed himself towards to the library. While it was nearly a repeat performance from Friday in the manner of how he got there, when he finally got inside, it was the polar opposite. The library was so calm and serene that, Squall had no problems in doing the homework he'd failed to do due to his ailment on the weekend. The only problem was that the rest of the day didn't pass like this at all.

'Okay, Math is done, I've got that extra reading assignment finished for History, I guess I'm all caught up… I suppose I have some time to read something from the library. Maybe something suspenseful…'

As soon as Squall found a novel that deemed to be potentially interesting from the library's computer filing system, he strode forwards and had taken a right towards the English literature section. Swiftly scanning the titles for the book he was interested in, he found several other appealing novels as well. This greatly distracted his search for the original one he was looking for, and before he knew it, the bell had rung.

'Hmm… I should take the green and red ones, no time to find that first book I was looking for… That second one doesn't seem interesting, anything with a jerk as a main character always ends up where he learns to be considerate and falls for the popular girl…On second thought, I'd better put back the-'

At that moment Squall froze, as he saw through the metal shelves, a quiet figure reading intently. When he caught the sight of her, she had realized that the bell had gone off and started to get up from her chair. So, he put a cold look to prevent her from trying to start anything with him. However, every so often it cracked when he felt as if her eyes were looking at his back. But once she sped past him, she was the one giving off false looks of anger; and he knew them to be false because every time she turned back where he couldn't see her face, he heard nearly-silent sobbing in front of him. After this, he wasn't feeling very well, whether it was his cold acting up or something else, he wasn't sure of at the moment.

He also couldn't fully understand why this was happening, with Rinoa acting in the way that she did, and he wasn't about to try and find out today. He had other things, more important things, he had to do.

He walked out of the room silently but found his pace a bit fast and frequently found himself closer than he wanted to be near Rinoa. Tired of the distance (or lack of) between himself and her, he decided to just plainly go on another route to get to his locker. He cursed upon his odd phobia of her when he was nearly marked late (he'd just squeaked in when the bell rang) because the path he took had taken much longer.

"Nice to see you Mr. Leonhart, I was starting to wonder if you well enough to attend class. Please, take a seat now." Mrs. Pine sharply remarked, causing a couple of jerks in the class to laugh at him, knowing about the spell of illnesses that had kept him from several English classes. Squall wasn't amused one bit, but then again, who would be?

"Now, ladies and gentlemen, if you'll stop laughing for a moment and turn your attention towards the boards, you'll notice the grid I've drawn here. See the column with the grade percentages in each box? Make note of the numbers in the next column beside the various grade ranges. These numbers are the amount of people whose grade falls under each category. Now, if you'll notice the rows that denote students who have an average inferior to seventy percent, it is downright pitiful. I expect better than this, ladies and gentlemen! We've got to work twice as hard if we're going to change this around by exam time, I do not want to see only six students out of twenty-seven receive acceptable marks!"

A scared student's hand quivered upwards after the speech, and when the teacher allowed her to talk, her question suffered greatly from nervousness. Squall was thankful that he was not one of the people who Mrs. Pine was directing her shouting at.

"…Will there be any extra programs to help… those… who really want t..o… improve if students just can't… figure things out –Not… because they're lazy-"

"Yes, students who genuinely want to improve just have to come see me at lunch. Any more questions? It doesn't have to be only the ones who need extra help. Anyone?" For some reason, Mrs. Pine seemed to be implying for Squall to ask a question. So he did – a very ill-mannered one; he wasn't in a mood to be very polite today with everything going on.

"…Do you intend on giving the class more work?"

"Yes, but only to aid certain people to work on weaker subjects. For example, I'll be giving extra worksheets time-to-time on punctuation, grammar or sentence structure."

His hand shot up again.

"So what are you going to do about the people who don't need it?"

"Well, they'll just have to complete it like the rest of the group." This time he didn't wait to put his hand up.

"…So, you're punishing those of us who are achieving well for no reason?"

"Well even the students who do manage to achieve well, can still ameliorate in some areas like those who aren't."

"But isn't that demoralizing students by classifying them in that way? …They're not all achieving badly because of laziness; some try and just can't get the higher marks." That's when Mrs. Pine had enough of Squall's analyzing, and was very vocal about it.

"Now Mr.Leonhart, that's enough. I've had it up to my ears with your…your… cynical remarks, and I'm surprised you would have said such unpleasant things… Now for the rest of the students, who aren't going to attack my work plan, turn to page 72 and read the short story entitled 'Silence isn't always Golden' by J. A. Nottingsworth. "

'You asked for it… It's wrong to say things like that. Just because they aren't the most high-achieving students, doesn't mean that they're no good…A grade doesn't show everything about your personality and character. It's kind of like the idea of good and bad, it's only different standpoints, perspectives that separate people. Both sides blame one another. There's no good or bad side. Just two sides holding different views.'

After English class had eventually ended, Squall headed for the lunchroom among the others. Nothing really happened during this period, as he sat down, ate his lunch and quietly retreated to take some medicine for his cold, and then started to read his newly-borrowed novels in the library. No dilemmas here.

'Hmm… This is turning more interesting with every page I read. Wonder where it'll go on to next…' He pondered for a little while as he read on. Nothing seemed to interest him more at the moment, and when the first warning bell went off he was sort of disappointed that he couldn't have continued absorbing the materiel on the pages. It got to the point where he decided to read-and-walk along the corridors because he was so enthralled. It was working at first, until he accidentally knocked over someone's schoolbooks, that is.

Out of habit, he reached down to help pick things up automatically, and then, swiftly headed off to his Math class – a test was awaiting him there.

Once inside the aforementioned class, he took his seat as usual, set out the necessary things he'd needed for the calculus quiz when another teacher (a science teacher) came in. He had several photocopies in one hand, with the all-too familiar pink substitute teacher slip along with the attendance sheet clutched in the other. Squall was not amused by a long shot.

'I worked myself ragged last night studying for this test, and the teacher isn't even here? That stack of papers better be the test – or at least part of it…'

"Everyone," The science teacher boomed to catch the classroom occupants' attention, "Mr. Kiren isn't here today because he's sick with the cold that's been going around, so he instructed me to hand out roughly half of the test, seeing as you'll need the special graphic calculators that aren't accessible today. The directions he gave on the work plan indicate that once you are done, hand it in and you'll be free to leave as long as you are quiet outside of the classroom, otherwise, you'll have to stay for the duration."

'Not bad, maybe I'll get some time to read…' Squall pondered as the substitute handed out the pages.

"Okay, begin your tests now. I'll be circulating to make sure there's no cheating."

'This is going to be a piece of cake…'

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40 minutes later, Squall submitted his semi-test and strode out with his things. Sure it was a piece of cake, but it did take him longer than he thought on some questions because he found little errors that didn't pan out at first – but it was nothing he couldn't resolve.

'Okay, I've got… 35 minutes to do something, not nearly enough time to start reading again, maybe I should just-'

"...Squall?" A voice behind him called out loudly.

"Hmm…?" He mumbled, turning around.

"You forgot your pen. I thought I'd return it to you." The speaker, Selphie, explained in an unnaturally calm manner. Then she handed him the black ballpoint pen to him.

"…Thanks - I suppose…where did I leave it?"

"I don't know, Rinoa just told me to give it to you. She's actually the one who found it. Bye!" The brunette answered quickly before hopping down the stairs. Squall paused for a moment and glanced at the pen before following suit.

'This isn't my pen… You're crafty as ever Rinoa, I'll give you that. But it still won't work. I know where you sit at fourth.'

"Squall?" A second someone hesitantly asked; interrupting his train of thought altogether. It was Rinoa.

"…What?" He retorted suspiciously, standing on the first step of the stairwell.

"Selphie… took my extra pen and must have given to you so we'd…talk." Rinoa awkwardly clarified along with a bit of a blush forming on her facial features.

"…Why would she do something like that?"

"I'm not sure, but I think she might have seen you walk away Friday …and a bit of the end of the conversation too…" She added, face reddening furthermore as the uncomfortable silent gap deepened.

'This is very awkward… Better give her the pen and leave.' He thought rapidly.

"…Here." Squall added briefly, while returning the pen to her and swiftly left, leaving no space for any further broken-up conversation. Somehow, if even at all plausible, they both experienced the same pit-of-your-stomach butterflies – at the same time miraculously.

'This isn't how I envisioned spending my free time by talking to people. Maybe I should read that book to get it off my mind…'

After reading for about… two minutes, Squall found it nearly impossible to continue reading in the library. Other evading thoughts, notions and ideas continuously came and went, and all of them related to what happened earlier.

'Why did Selphie do that?'

'-More importantly, why did Rinoa come after me? It's just a pen… Besides, I would have put it on her desk at fourth…'

'The thing annoys me the most is that uncomfortable feeling after I had after I left… Was it- butterflies? What is it about the situation that makes it so unnerving? Wait- no it can't be… So that's what that was? No… can't…I just can't.'

Much later, right before the official 'end-of-third-period' bell tolled, Rinoa had come in briefly to renew her books. She couldn't help but to take a glance at her formerly-imprisoned partner, who had just recently attempted to read once more. As their eyes eventually met for a split-second, the same tension ensued, the same nervous feelings poured in, the same damn everything came flooding back.

Rinoa, the more inquisitive and affected of the two, had enough of this emotional strain going on between them and the additional stress it provided. And most importantly out of all this; she wanted to know why this was, and why that the uncomfortable situations kept happening whenever they saw each other.

But first of all, a library wasn't the best place for finding anything out like this and the setting had to be changed immediately; not after school, not during class – right now was the time it had to be done. So in order to achieve that, she mustered all of the strength and audacity she had and did the deed and basically (but effectively) yanked him out of his chair and dragged him out to the much more desolate adjacent amphitheatre by his shirt collar.

"What the hell did you do that for?" He yelled angrily. Rinoa knew that she'd caught him completely off-guard.

"Why didn't you say anything?" She retorted heatedly, matching his tone exactly, minus the rage. This managed to alleviate the edge and anger present in Squall's demeanor as it turned to a confused sentiment.

"…Say nothing to what?" He replied, being hopelessly perplexed.

"To all of those things I confessed on Friday for Hyne's sake!"

'I don't know, I guess I was… confused or something…Something was bothering me… but I couldn't do anything about it…It wouldn't come.' He automatically thought in reaction, as opposed to saying anything.

"Squall, just spit it out please… I don't care what it is, just say it, don't think it."

"…I think I was confused, or something… I don't know! Can I just leave now? I don't want to be late for class."

"No, because that wasn't a straight answer, and we're not leaving until I get one. I don't want to still be in shadows about this. I don't care if you just tell that you don't share the same feelings as I do, I just want to know the truth."

'That's not the case Rinoa… I just can't…'

"……I just can't… I can't-" At this moment, Squall found it impossible to look at her face directly. Instead, he opted to drop his head, bangs covering his facial expression somewhat and look at the floor beneath her.

"-I can't accept this."

"What do you mean Squall?" She asked in wondering, her eyes starting to glaze themselves with a crystalline emotion.

"I can't accept… what you've said…" He repeated again, somehow more cryptically than the last time.

"I…I…don't understand you… W-what are you trying to say here Squall?"

'It's that I cannot comprehend why you'd have a thing about me in that way Rinoa. That's what I've been trying to say. Why attempt to try and love someone like me? Simple lust is what I thought you had, not …anything deeper… Lust is normal for teenagers, nothing else… I mean crushes come and go, blinding the lesser qualities… That's doable… but real affection? What's there to love about a recluse hiding his true self away, fearing of getting hurt again? Nothing. There's NOTHING! If I were any different, maybe, or if the accident that took away my mother and sister never happened, I might have been more accepting to this… But, it still stands, as is, I can't, I just damn-well can't…'

Nothing else was said, nothing else was answered. Squall just stood here, eyes pleading with some expression, while his remaining features left almost blank. The warning bell had interrupted their silence, and Squall left slowly and painfully as he did on Friday; leaving Rinoa in the same position, this time with her heart twice-broken.

Five minutes later, after he arrived to the classroom and the history lesson of the day had just begun, Squall inadvertently kept on looking for Rinoa to come in class, because she'd not entered before the bell, the every ten minutes he glanced at her empty seat eventually shortened to seven, then five, and then finally two - until the class had ended.

She never did come to class, and it got Squall to thinking about what he'd said.

'What have I done?…It's not that I just can't accept what she's saying, it's that I won't let myself… I don't want to take the chance of hurting her… Everyone I've ever loved have all gotten hurt… and I can't have that happen again, I'd… fall apart and break down mentally if I went through that… I couldn't take it if it ever were to occur all over…Sorry Rinoa.'

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The next day, Squall literally felt as if he were on the verge of dying as the cold came back, more virulent than ever. He could scarcely breathe because his nose was so thoroughly blocked, he was two shades away from looking like a sleep-depraved cadaver, and he had virtually no energy whatsoever. Heck, he couldn't even keep his balance while standing up for five seconds for Hyne's sake. Although it wasn't in his nature to be so frail and sickly like this at all, but during the once in a blue moon, extremely rare times that he'd fall ill, he usually had it bad. Actually, the last time he was sick like this was when he was 4-years old. Even then, it wasn't even comparable to this.

Needless to point out, he didn't think, say, or do anything during the next two days he'd stayed home re-cooperating. What he'd done for the period of that time was somewhat similar to what he'd done on the weekend but without the physical capacity or even the mental one to force himself to get out of bed half of the time. But when the crippling affliction came to lessen to a bearable state in the late Wednesday afternoon, he eventually came downstairs for more than two minutes and sat down in his living room and read, after managing to tolerate eating a little bit and taking some over-the-counter medicine though.

'This is better; although the stupid medicine is making me restless…It's like I'm tired yet somehow hyper at the same time…If that's even possible…Wonder what they did in school today. Whatever…I should forget about it, I'll be swamped in it tomorrow…' As soon as he'd stopped thinking for a split second, the phone rang, and being the only once there at the moment (His father was working – If anyone could even call it that), Squall got up promptly to answer it.

"…Hello?"

'-Bzzt…' Whoever it was had just hung up on him. Squall didn't care one bit, figuring that it was probably someone who dialed the wrong number or a telemarketer who accidentally called twice after realizing that he'd already suckered Laguna into buying something. His father happened to be bad with handling telemarketers; meanwhile Squall was adept in pissing them off. These days, nobody could find a more different father and son like Squall and Laguna even if they tried.

So in conclusion, the aforementioned teenager spent the whole night reading (and ignoring his father once he came home) and went to school the following day on Thursday. Many took notice of his increased pallor and a few pounds off of his now-slight frame. Some commented to him, while others murmured between themselves, but overall, he didn't care; he was more annoyed than anything. After he'd put away some things in his locker and overheard the morning announcements, his mind shifted to something similar, like how he was treated at the hospital a little while ago (and what was coming up on this Friday's S.D/Weaponry class while he was at it as well).

'This reminds me of that paranoid hospital doctor kept on droning on about to me… If he saw me now, Hyne, I'd be ready to bet a million gil that he'd have three clipboards filled along with a lengthy lecture on 'the dangers of being underweight'…I swear that he's an idiot or something…Besides, it's not like I'm doing this on purpose and it'll come back on. Hmm…I wonder what I'll have to do for that major test in S.D tomorrow… Better not be random partners again… Last time, I almost nailed Seifer in the head because he was being such a moron…'

While retracing his steps to head to the library as he always did in the morning, Squall noticed something peculiar between the trips from his locker to his destination and back. It wasn't the people staring (that never fazed him), but it was rather a lack of a something… actually, more like a somebody who wasn't there. As soon as he noted on the lack of friction today, he knew exactly what the missing link was– Rinoa wasn't here.

'This is weird…' He thought in the middle of the second section of his half-a-test in math. 'Why am I complaining about the lack of tension at school? Have I gone insane? I wonder why she's not here though…'

That last question he sought seemed to vaguely answer itself via overhearing people, mainly her friends, discuss on the subject. The possibilities of her absence were that she was either:

a) Depressed about something that her friends didn't know about and wasn't mentally capable of coming into school.

b) She'd caught the cold that was going around and was too sick to come to school.

c) Or a combination of a) and b), whereas she got so depressed by seeing someone sick that she became mentally incapable to stay at school and went home.

Seeing as she came to school, looking very healthy and did not show any lingering signs of ever being sick in S.D/Weaponry class (and kept on avoiding his gaze too); Squall figured that 'option c)' was most likely candidate for the root of the problem yesterday. It became very apparent after attendance was taken, and class had actually started.

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"Okay, for a certain number of students, today's evaluation will count as your final exam, instead of only counting as a regular evaluation. The reason behind this sudden change is because I've noticed that many of you have mastered - or even surpassed of all of the materiel set for the semester, far faster than I would have ever expected. And by being held back, you won't benefit at all. But the good news is that I'll allow anyone who's eligible; I mean those who passed an exam, to take my advanced class on every first period other than the Fridays reserved for this class, any questions?"

"How will we know if we've gotten a regular test or an exam?" A girl with light-brown hair inquired.

"I'll be meeting with each group and notify them whether they were doing an exam or a normal evaluation. Does that answer your question Ms. Reed?" She nodded immediately, then Mr. Janis scanned some more for any other questions.

"How will the groups be formed if some people aren't doing the same thing?" Selphie obviously asked because she'd only joined last week.

"Well… Ms. Tilmitt, since there are students with various levels of skill; I'll be the one picking the groups. But don't worry; I'll work something out for you, seeing as you are new to the class. Are there any last questions? No takers? I guess I'll start now assigning the groups now."

'Damn, it's going to be random again… Well it's not like I'd want to work with any of these people in the first place… I just hope it's not Seifer again…I don't feel like restraining myself every two seconds from hitting him somewhere painful…'

After the teacher had grouped together most of the students, minus the exempt Selphie, Squall was anxiously awaiting for whom he'd get paired up with amid feelings of nervousness and anticipation. The reason for this was because he'd mentally taken note of all of those picked already, and those who where left was Seifer, that first girl who asked Janis a question, and Rinoa. So essentially, all of those who were left for him to be grouped with was someone who didn't like him, someone who didn't know him, and someone who didn't want to even look at him.

No matter who he stuck was with, he'd end up being screwed over royally.

"Okay, next the next group will consist of…" Mr. Janis paused to write down the names on his list, increasing the tension furthermore.

"Olivia Reed and …" He stopped again when he'd dropped his pencil.

'Come on! Get this over with! You don't need your stinking pencil; there are only 4 of us left! Just choose already!' Squall mentally screamed; he'd gotten fed up of all of the delays by now.

"-and Rinoa Heartilly. So, that leaves …Almasy and Leonhart together…I've got this all written down… Olivia, Rinoa, you may go first." He announced to the dismay of Squall. Now he'd be stuck with Seifer again. Oh joy.

As Rinoa and the other girl prepared to be examined for either the test or a possible exam, the teacher had realized something. Something he'd forgotten about.

"Oops, I'm sorry girls, but I had forgotten that I had accidentally put two people with the same partners again… Olivia you'll be placed with Mr. Dincht and Rinoa, you'll be with Ms. Trepe."

"Umm…"

"What is it Ms. Heartilly?"

"I've already been with Quistis. We were partners for the last test."

"Oh, I'm sorry…" The S.D teacher stopped to apologize for a brief moment, "Then I'll just put you with Mr. Leonhart, I had forgotten that he was already paired up with Mr. Almasy before as well. So Squall, please switch with Olivia and begin when ready."

Both teenagers were kind of stunned by the switch at first. Then, after the initial jolt had subsided, another one had set in – the jolt of them actually having to work with one another. It was so bad that Squall was the one who had to say something.

"…Just do as we did before and we'll be fine, I promise." He quickly whispered to Rinoa.

"-Okay." She rapidly mouthed back before signaling to the teacher that they were ready. "Mr. Janis, we can start now."

"All right Rinoa. Now all you guys will have to do is just perform the drills that I'll be announcing to you in order and your turn will be over. Rinoa, start with defensive pattern number three, Squall, follow her with the according attack drills. -Go!"

As soon as they started, there was an unexplained elegance and smoothness in the execution of their various movements together. To anyone who was watching, this became very noticeable very quickly. It was also undeniable that the sheer dynamics of their pairing was nearly ethereal. It was so evident that, by the end of it, Mr. Janis forgot about waiting to meet with them later as he announced proudly (and loudly), 'Now that was incredible! Squall, Rinoa, I'm giving you full marks for that marvelous performance. Congratulations, you two have passed your final exam with flying colours!'.

Even with their prior awkwardness with each other, with this amount of attention, they momentarily forgot about the troubles between themselves and walked away together from the spotlight. Their faces were both slightly red from embarrassment; the two of them were too humble to be able to bask in it. After their uncomfortable instant, it had been shifted towards another group's as they were next to be subjected to the scrutiny, then Rinoa found a bit of time to make some light conversation.

"I guess…that all of that practice came in handy…" She mumbled sheepishly to Squall, who was formerly watching the subsequent pair, noting the errors mentally as he looked on.

"…I sup-" The currently-replying adolescent was rudely interrupted by an overly loud and obnoxious statement. And it wasn't too hard to figure out where that overly loud and obnoxious statement was coming from.

"Look at the little lovebirds whispering to each other," Seifer mockingly exaggerated, "…are we discussing the details for the shotgun wedding?"

Everyone stopped to stare at the scene that the tall blonde was causing. The loud tone was enough to even get the teacher's attention from evaluating for Hyne's sake. All of the attention was on the pair and Seifer.

"Seifer can you please bothering us…You know as well as everyone else that we didn't do anything like that." Rinoa countered back irritably.

"Well it's hard to think otherwise when the majority of the people here know that the only reason you did so good was because you probably practiced between makeout sessions during that weekend. Am I right Puberty Bo-"

'WHACK!'

Normally, it wasn't in Squall's nature to punch someone hard like that, but today, he had no self-control left anymore in relation to Seifer's irritating jokes. He simply couldn't take it, as it was too much of an insult to be ignored.

…And besides, it was long overdue as retaliation for all of those years of making him suffer anyways.

A minor scuffle followed when Seifer tried to get back at him, but Squall managed to dodge most of it and emerged the winner somehow, albeit receiving a severely bloody nose and after the students and teacher managed to finally separate them.

"I'm very disappointed in both of you," Mr. Janis angrily shouted, "… you two are going to receive a suspension today for fighting like that, and I don't want to hear anything about it. Squall, go get something to stop the bleeding and wait in my office until I come back; and Seifer, follow me. And for the rest of you, class dismissed!"

After the S.D teacher had left with Seifer, Squall followed instructions and went into the locker room to take care of the situation with the bleeding, and maybe change. Since no guy wanted to even be near the most likely livid Leonhart, they all went elsewhere to change or simply waited. However, Rinoa was the only brave soul to enter the same room with him.

For an odd reason however, nobody bothered commenting on why she went into the guys' change room, as they all knew her too well.

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"Squall!" Rinoa shouted once she was inside. At that moment, Squall turned around from the bloodied basin, with a stained ball of toilet paper bunched up in his right hand. His face wasn't still bleeding profusely as it was before though.

"…What are you doing here?"

'I know that you liked the place, but come on…this is a bit ridiculous, even for you Rinoa…'

"…I just wanted to thank you for standing up to him." She said, almost forgetting about their previously uneasy situation.

"…Oh, okay."

"Actually…I also came in here because… I kind of wanted to know…why exactly you did what you did to Seifer? If it's okay with you…" She uncomfortably added. No answer was heard from Squall for a little while, but he finally replied when he gained a little composure and really thought it through.

"…I suppose that I did it because…it felt like an insult to what we had to suffer through… With the uncertainty, lack of energy, hardships, and well… just about everything really."

"I see what you mean…" Rinoa agreed aloud to his justifications, although he did phrase it to make seem like he'd forgotten about her part in their avoidable imprisonment. Maybe there was hope for him after all, and perhaps… it might be the time to ask him about the truth …about both Friday and Monday. Just maybe…

"Squ-"

"…Rinoa, if you don't mind, I'd like to get changed, can you leave please…"

As much as she'd like to stay and watch, she complied with his wishes and left. In her opinion, he went through enough today to last a week. After all, she wasn't the one who had gotten beat up. When she had left, Squall started thinking the last thought for what would be for a long time.

'Why wasn't there as much tension like the other times? Has it passed, or was it only temporary? Okay, I've had enough this. Enough of the same thoughts, enough of the same wondering, enough of the same …everything that I've been doing to myself. Being locked inside like this isn't working anymore…and I truly think that I've outgrown it. Even if I don't like admitting it, I can't keep it in like this and pretending like it's not happening, because it is happening - regardless of anything she does, did or anything else for that matter. I've got to learn to take risks if I want to keep my sanity any longer because what I'm doing is causing me more heartache and complications than the heartache and complications I was trying to prevent. Right now, I've got to take the first and ultimate step; admitting it to myself. Finally admitting that I might actually… '

After reflecting upon that last thought, Squall changed quickly, hoping to catch Rinoa before she headed too far from where he was supposed to be waiting in the teacher's office.

"…Rinoa?" He called out from behind her, outside of the gym door. When she did turn around, she was genuinely surprised.

"Oh…I didn't realize that it was you, Squall. Is something wrong?"

"…No, not really. But I'd like to discuss something."

"What is it that you want to discuss?"

"Well…I was sort of wondering if.. you could… Hmm… how can I say it-" After this, Rinoa knew that something was odd because Squall never stuttered like that, nor did he ever talk to her without a nervous tone either.

"Squall, are you feeling okay?" She inquired, getting more worried about his behaviour.

"No… Not really, listen-" He started to reply in a serious tone, nervousness aside. "…I'll tell you about why I've been avoiding talking to you about those things… if you can manage to find an empty place to meet after school."

"Sure…o-okay." Rinoa said automatically, not fully taking in what she'd just heard. It was as if the dead-serious tone and penetrating stare from his cerulean eyes was almost too intense to believe. But since she knew Squall to be an honest individual when he said seemingly important things like that, she wasn't in the position to question him.

However, with the complications with the only indoor suspension that he'd ever had in his life, Squall wasn't sure if he'd even be able to meet with Rinoa later on. He couldn't be let out until the vice principal was done talking to his father on the phone. Even after the long phone call had ended, the authoritative figure wanted him to speak with him directly in his office.

Fortunately, he had somehow been let off the hook because of what Laguna had told the subordinate principal about Squall's long painful history with Seifer, but it was far too late to talk with Rinoa.

It was 3:05… and school had ended at 2:15.

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Right before suppertime, Squall was working hard to catch up on the work that the teachers gave him, lesson pages and all. Everything took him a little longer because some of the lessons weren't very helpful without the teacher's explanations backing them up. It got so tedious in certain places that he was ready to give up. Until he thought upon the idea of calling someone. But who? The first problem was that nobody shared all of his classes, and secondly, he didn't know most of the people's numbers in the first place. I mean, who'd want to give him their phone numbers?

'Knock. Knock.'

"Don't tell me he forgot his keys again…" He mumbled after going down the stairs, but before opening the door.

"Hi. Can I come in?" A cheery voice asked. However, it wasn't his father's cheery voice greeting him at the entrance.

For the second time today, Squall replied, '…What are you doing here?' directed towards Rinoa. Although this time was indeed in stranger conditions than the last context he'd used that same phrase in.

"Well, seeing as you were stuck inside the office, I thought that I'd come visit you at your house to talk…about it. Is your dad home?"

"…No."

"Oh. What time will he be back by?"

"I don't really know- it always changes day to day… It's usually after five though. –Wait…Can we do this another time, I've got a lot of other things I need to take care of."

"Like tons of homework that you don't understand?"

"…How did you know about that?"

"I had that problem in grade eleven once. I kept on coming late to first, so they suspended me for a day and the lessons the teachers gave me didn't make sense, until I phoned people in my class to explain it. I could help you with your Math and History homework if you'd like. I promise not to go all specific on your papers like we were stuck inside though. What do you say?"

If he hadn't been stuck in the learning rut that he'd been, Squall would have said no to this somewhat embarrassing situation, but seeing as he would kill two chocobos with one stone, he agreed.

"…Okay."

While they were together helping Squall with his homework issues on the dining room table, he noticed that Rinoa's brief, quick-to-the-point explanations started to shorten some more as time went on. He perfectly knew that she was getting very anxious, and that this little diversion was starting to wear very thin, almost see-through even. But he was the one who felt more and more nervous, as he could tell that the time of telling her was drawing ever closer. It was the personality traits derived from his protective shell (that he'd obviously grown very accustomed to) which were causing him to feel this way. It was also the source for him to even consider having cold feet on what he'd planned on doing, but he was determined to stick it out. After all, human relationships aren't always clear-cut, nor were just sunshine and rainbows, were they?

"…So you're all done, and fit to do your Math and History. Anything else you need help on? I trust that the English stuff was hard too, right? I had Mrs. Pine last year and she was no picnic." She jokingly concluded. This was the perfect way to start telling her. Squall had a thinking look present on his face, but he wasn't actually thinking for a change. He was just contemplating briefly on how to phrase the most pivotal moment in his life to date. Once he was confident enough to start articulate the single word to launch a paragraph of an eternity (it was, 'Rin-'), the phone interrupted him.

"-Hello?" He answered hotly, being very close to marching over and killing the person on the other end with the butter knife on the kitchen table.

"Oh, it's you Squall."

"…Duh." It was his hopeless father; the teenager supposed that parricide was now out of the question.

"Okay, even I know that sounded dumb, but half of the time you never answer the phone and-"

"-Get to the point." He cut in acidly.

"Fine. I'm staying overnight at a hotel for a necessary meeting that I had just found out about today."

"Or did you just forget about it… until now?" Squall acerbically added.

"Yes. Are you happy?"

"Of course." He smugly replied.

"I hate it when you do that; you're just like your mother. Well, bye."

'Thank Hyne I at least took after the more competent parent…' He thought cynically.

"Was that your dad, Squall?" Rinoa wondered, since she was out of the loop of the conversation.

"Yes, unfortunately..." He answered as he plucked out the phone jack while talking. This action confused her somewhat.

"Why, is he…coming home now?"

"…No. Actually, he won't be home for a while. Unplanned meeting."

"Oh, I see."

"Rinoa, can you come follow me into my father's office…" He asked nervously, trying to keep this as simple as humanly possible. She immediately nodded her head in agreement, being fully aware of where he was going with this.

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After they taken the few steps to get there, he immediately picked up the picture frame that Rinoa had noticed when she was here the first time.

"…Remember how you had asked about this photo, and it seemed like I was trying to avoid the question?"

At that moment, it felt like the opportune time to tell him about knowing of his sister and mother's demise. Rinoa seized this chance like there was no tomorrow and managed to handle it delicately, trying not to detract of its' seriousness.

"Squall… I have a confession to make." She paused before continuing her somber statement to ready herself.

"…I already know of what happened to your mother and sister. I …figured it out when you didn't say anything. I know that they died and…I'm sorry if my question might have upset you during my last visit."

When he had heard that, his conscious felt much lighter upon realizing that she'd already known about the most vital and most difficult subject to convey into clear speech. Also, since the hardest part of his explanation had been alleviated earlier, it felt kind of good to have off of his chest.

"…It's okay Rinoa. I knew that it was just a simple question, and that you didn't mean anything by it. Actually, when you just said that you'd already known, it made it a little easier… admitting all of this." Squall took a lengthy breath, before continuing on.

"The reason why…I didn't say anything to you on those days was because…I was afraid."

"…Afraid? Why? You could have said no…"

"No, it wasn't as simple as that…The reason why I wasn't saying anything was… I didn't want to hurt you."

"Hurt me? How?"

"…Well, going through two family deaths at the same time was truly an extremely horrible experience. Since it happened when I was only five, it felt like I'd be never happy again, once it actually sunk in that… they were really gone. So in order to make sure that I'd never go through that again, I promised myself to-"

"-never become close to anyone ever again, so you'd never have to go through it ever again… even if it meant that you'd never be… happy?" She uncannily predicted. For the first time in his life, he smiled at her assumption, even though it wasn't a direct smile; he was looking at the held picture.

"Actually, you're only half-right, that's what I… used to think. As a little child, people assumed that this new distant nature that I had developed would eventually go way as time passed on, when I'd learn to accept their deaths, but I never did. As I grew up, that initial thought grew …into two separate thoughts. The first one was obviously the 'I don't want to get hurt again', but, the second one was… more of a, 'I don't want anyone to get closer to me because everyone I've ever been close to have all gotten hurt, and I don't want to harm them.'."

"Now I understand. This explains everything…" Rinoa thought aloud, but before she could say any more, he clarified the details further.

"Actually, the last thing I said wasn't exactly accurate…"

"-What do you mean by?"

"…You know about that second thought?" He asked, while putting down the photo and finally looked at her, square in the eye. This was the most difficult thing he'd have to do, seeing as her eyes nearly recoiled from his serious tone and gaze.

"Yes."

"Well…" He couldn't maintain the connection with her face and dropped his head ever so slightly, to avoid looking at her own emotionally-charged gaze. If he would have tried to do this before, even it were only a day ago, there would have been absolutely no way he'd ever be able to pull off even saying two syllables to her shadow. But today, he managed to succeed beautifully in articulating his emotions in a complete and coherent way – even if he was saying it to her neck.

"The truth is that… I only started contemplating of that second thought after you'd told me everything on Monday. It was… the first time I'd thought of someone other than myself. My problem was always, 'I don't ever want to be hurt again', but when I first heard about what you'd done to me on that Friday, I jumped to the conclusion that you'd hurt me and proved my point right, and that I'd always end up hurt if I'd ever tried to get close to someone. Well, that was before you explained yourself, but when you did, I was confused because I wasn't angry, just frustrated for some reason. I just couldn't understand why I couldn't hate you for what you did. But the truth was…"

At this moment, Squall finally looked at her deep brown eyes and said,

"…because I realized later on that…my true feelings about you didn't care about what you'd did, and… that's why I couldn't answer you on Monday, because it was right after I'd left was where I started caring more about not hurting you rather then to avoid getting myself hurt."

"…So what you meant was that, you didn't answer me straight because you liked me but couldn't accept it yourself since you thought, that by becoming close to me, you'd be afraid that I'd…get hurt?"

He nodded, agreeing with her interpretation. Then, she resumed talking, fully aware of what she was going to say next was as dangerous as poking a sleeping Ruby Dragon with a pointy stick.

"Squall, you've got to realize that just because half of your family died on you at a young age, doesn't mean that everyone you'll ever become close to will get hurt… I'm sure that it was just an unlucky incident, nothing more. As for your fear of getting hurt again, you just have to let it go. It's only natural to have highs and lows in your life. People don't live forever - whether you want them to or not, and you've… just got to accept that."

"-But I can't! I can't bear being taken away from everything like that again! Don't you see?" He countered vehemently.

"But you didn't lose everything! You actually have a father who loves you! When my mother died… I was the one who lost everything, not you. My father…he stopped caring and loving me, like a father should have done, after she'd died in an accident. But thing was, I had done the exact same thing you did when she…was no longer here. I stopped talking to people, I ignored them… I essentially cut them off for the same reasons you did… But you know what? It didn't work."

She paused to refrain herself from crying in front of him, the memory of her mother's death was far more potent than she'd ever guessed. After she'd rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, she felt well enough to go on.

"It didn't work because the agony from not being able to be with the others hurt. It hurt ten times more than the thought of the pain that their eventual deaths would bring. When I learned to simply accept it, things turned out for the better. Because I was finally accepting that nobody lives forever and that I should live for life's special moments, and have support from people, rather than trivializing over the point that they'll all be gone someday. Life's too precious to be continuously unhappy in order keep it simple, rather then to be loved by others while they're still around."

Squall stood there transfixed from everything that Rinoa had just said. The big surprise was mainly the simplicity of it all.

'I kept on worrying about the worst things about the future, and never on the good things that come from the present… I think that…now, I'm fully ready to let go of this and take that first step. Thank you Rinoa, thank you so much…'

When he was done thinking, Squall unknowingly did two things on impulse that he'd never thought he'd ever do in his life. First, he leaned towards her and embraced her very securely like a broken man finding out that it would turn out alright for him in the end. Second, was that when she wriggled out of from his arms, he was actually taken aback, and eyed her with a very perplexed stare and thought, 'Why did you do that?'. But her reasons weren't as simple as that.

"Before you do anything like that, there's still the matter of you actually answering my question." She jokingly insisted, with a broad smirk present on her face. Squall was happy to oblige to continue the amusing charade.

"…Whatever."

"And…just to remind you, we're not leaving until I get a straight answer." When Rinoa tried to act super-serious, her emerging grin kept on ruining the airs she was supposed to be portraying. So she ended up giving Squall a comically irate look - instead of a regular irritated one.

"…Fine." He said in mock-protest, keeping the setting somewhat alive.

"I don't want to still be in shadows about this. I don't…hee… care what you tell me, even if you don't share the same feelings as I do, I …I…just want to know… k…now… the…pfft… truth."

It was a good thing that Rinoa didn't need to say anymore, because she was cracking up badly. Bad enough whereas, it wasn't at all serious anymore, but it didn't matter regardless. Squall was serious enough during the entire time to compensate for the both of them anyway.

"…Do you really want to know?" He enticingly prompted. Soon, an indisputable grin formed coyly on his features.

"Sure. Why not." Rinoa agreed, after regaining some real composure, not knowing where he was going with this.

'Well, if you really want to know, I think that…'

He gently took hold of her left hand, pulled her closer to himself, and, when she was expecting another hug- he kissed her so delicately and romantically on the spot that, for once, she was the one who barely believed what was happening, and not the usual other way around. Even after it was over and their lips had parted, she saw him in the same formerly- unheard of smile that she'd come to adore within the first split-second of seeing it.

"You look… so much better when you smile." She mentioned shyly, along with a healthy blush on her face.

"…I think that it might have been long overdue." He managed to squeak in, before she was the one hugging him tightly.

Their embrace had kept an untainted seriousness until Rinoa playfully whispered, '…and who knew that you were such an excellent kisser-' in his ear, causing some parts of his face to redden as well to evenly match hers. Several moments passed thereafter in which they shared an uncomplicated, silent bond together, and the only thing that broke in their encirclement, was its' mere silence.

"...I love you Rinoa."

And from that moment on, neither one of them were locked inside ever again.

-The End-

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End of story comments – Well, that was a surprise; I'd thought that this was going to end up as the shortest chapter and it ended up being the longest! Go figure…

So, that's the end of the Locked Inside series, I hope that you thoroughly liked that last chapter, enjoyed the places where I've made fun of myself and the story (if you can find them…) and the title's dual meaning. Also, I'd like to send my thanks to everyone those taken the time to read my story and as well to those who've helped me make it better.

This is the last time I'll be saying this but…keep on reviewing with ideas, comments or anything you guys have to say!

Thank you guys so, very, very much!

-Sincerely, Emerald-Latias