A/N: Sorry to all for the late update, I haven't had much time as of recently to continue. Thanks to all the reviews, keep em coming! As per popular damaned we shall see what happens back at Garden.
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A single leather glove gripped tightly against the cold metal that made up the railing of a guilty balcony. Guilty for letting such a lonely soul drop from it... The wind from the sea below whiped long locks of cinamin and auburn. A stern faced blue gaze stared coldly into the very sea that now haunted his thoughts. Questions rolled through his mind at lightning speed, trying to bring the piece of the puzzle together. Nothing seemed to fit, at least not in his mind.
"Pain..." The voice of the beautiful raven haired girl broke his thoughts and he turn to face her. Dry lines were on her cheeks where tears had once flowed and like everyone else in Balamb Garden she was tiered and worried. "I can feel pain... not physical pain..." She now reached her new husband, looking up at the blue gaze she had found so much comfort in. "...but an emotional pain. Squall she was hurting inside..." she said her eyes welling up once more.
He hated seeing her like this. The once bright and cheerful Rinoa was now aching with pain herself... in fact they all were hurting, wondering how and why. He lifted his free hand and whiped a loose droplet away from her soft face, watching her snuggle her face into his hand. "We can't be sure that she jumped... the evidence we have found sudjests she fell." He said trying to soothe her with words as well as touch. Though he too wished to know the truth... so far Esthar had only been able to tell them so much.
The first clue was the fact that she had taken her shoe's off, someone wanting to jump would not bother with this detail. The second fact was there was no note or indication that she wished to jump. The marks and prints they found indicated that it was an accident... though it still was not enough to convince Squall. He would save face in order to spare Rinoa loss of hope.
The chances of her actually surviving were quite slim, as it had been almost a week since her dissapearance... what a honeymoon. A week of searhcing the clues and the sea's, a week of no word from her or any word of a found person. She was either dead or... "maybe she doesn't remember who she is, maybe thats why there has been no word and why I can't seem to find her pressence!" Rinoa blurted out as if reading Squall's thoughts.
It was genious, if she was alive with no memory then they would have to act fast. She could be in anywhere, though most likely in some place where she wasn't reconized. "We should search all the cities that were in or around our path of flight the night it happened." Squall said looking up over Rinoa, his gaze falling onto the vast deep ocean that surrounded them. She could be anywhere... but if she was alive he would find her, he mentaly swore to find her.
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Life in the small fishing village was an adjustment, only having not known what she was adjusting from it fell together quite simply. It was now a little over a week since her dissapearance, and she still had no clue who she was... other then from the things Seifer told her.
In the mornings she would wake up at the same time as him, waking up this early seemed to come natural to her. She guessed that she had always woken up this early, which made morning routines more beleavable. In an atempt to make herself useful and feel more 'at home' she proceeded to attend to all the household chores. She would cook three meals a day, and oddly enough she cooked quite well. Judging by the way it came so naturaly she guessed she used to do it before. Aside from that she would clean the house, mend things... basically everything but outside work. Yet it was getting boring being in the house alone all day while Seifer went to work... it was even boring when he returned home as he usely showered, ate, pecked her on the cheek then ran off to bed.
So on a day like any other she decided to venture out and see the village, they were running out of food and supplies anyways. And it was not as if she was told to stay in the house all day, right? Well Seifer had told her that he wanted her to rest in the house for a while till she was fully healed... but if she was healthy enough to clean, she figured she was healthy enough the shop.
Throwing on a simple wool turtle neck and a pair of soft fiiting jeans she ventured out of the house with some money in a small pouch she had found in the kitchen. Her hair was tied back in a pony tail, sittin about the middle of her head and only a few strands of hair fell loose.
Fallowing the trail she ventured from the beach cottage and up the hill. It took her a good five minutes to reach what was known as town. It wasn't anything she could ever remember seeing before; this was because she hadn't. Beyond the stretch of where Garden had ventured lay another smaller section of the fishing village that wasn't as up to date in technology as the north side. Yet Quistis would not know this as she could barely remember her name.
It only took her a few minutes to reach the busy market streets of southern Fishermans Horizon. It was definately a fisherman's town, the apperance was a dead give away. Men dressed in tattered jeans and large wool sweaters. Some wore rain tub hats, while others whole jackets. It seemed to be a habbit of their even on a bright sunny day like today. Stalls were set up where people could buy fish, vegetables and other such products. As she walked past one stall she heard two men bickering over who had a better shrimp, to her they both looked the same and it made her giggle lightly. The town was so alive she couldn't help but smile lightly as she walked through and greeted people.
She finished buying the nessesities fairly quickly. One stop for tonights fish dinner, two stops for some vegtables, and a final stop for some fresh fruit she had been tempted with. A full fabric bag in hand she decided she had spent long enough in town, Seifer would be coming home soon and might worry if she wasn't theire.
She was just about to leave when she heard the yelps of a woman not far off in a nearby store. Furrowing her brows she entered the store, which appeared to be a fabric store, and saw an old oriental woman beating a man off with her shoe. The man looked like he was about to beat the woman in the face. "Dirty... Filthy... You get out of my store!" She screamed at him in her heavily oriental tainted voice.
"Ow, stop with the shoe you crone, don't make me..." but before he could finish the tall blonde stepped in. "Is there a problem sir?" She asked with a stern icey face. The man looked up, his hazel eyes looked at her for a moment as the old lady ceased beating him with a shoe. "Yes... well, no." He sputtered out. "Then I sudjest you leave this lady alone and be on your way." She said in a normal voice, feeling bigger then him even she was shorter.
He snarled but obliged and stepped out of the store, bell ringing as the door opened then closed. "You get big thanks!" Quistis looked away from the door and down at the woman who was bowing to her in thanks. "There is no need..." but before she could say anything the woman was poking at her clothing. "You so beautiful, why you wear such ugly clothes?" Quistis was a little taken aback, beautiful? Ha! Wait... why did she disbelieve that? She had a husband didn't she? "Um... well, you see I lost all of my clothing, I've been ill for the last little while and unable to buy clothes." A quick summary... to be honest all she knew was what Seifer told her. He had told her that she had sold most of her clothes during the war as all she needed was a uniform... the remaining clothes went missing when he moved here, thinking she had died. It made sense, why keep some one's clothes if you didn't think they were coming back?
"Oh! You Seifer's wife!" The woman said with glee.
"You know about me?" She asked with curiosity, Seifer didn't seem like the spread it around the town type.
"Ms. Ling knows all, no secrets from me!" She said giving her a toothy grin, only it wasn't so toothy. Most of her teeth were missing, then again so was most of her hair. The hair that wasn't was heavily white painted. "You come tommorow when I open and I give you good deal on clothing. Beautiful woman should not be wearing man clothes! Tommorow ok? Now me close, bye bye."
Quistis tried hard no laugh as Ms. Ling all but pushed her out of the store. Tommorow it was then, she wouldn't mind coming into town more often. It beat sitting around to house trying to figure out who she was. Nothing had seemed to out of place yet... yet being the key factor.
On her way back home Quistis noticed the same guy who had been bothering Ms. Ling standing close to the docks with a few other burly men like him self. Something shivered through her spine when they all turned to look at her. She turned her head and quickened her pace a bit, not wanting any trouble from them.The way they were looking at her she doubted they wanted a friendly pinic on the docks.
They didn't follow her, which she thanked Hyne for. They were probably just a bunch of trouble making fisherman... then again that Oriental woman wasn't to sane herself.
With that thought in mind she walked up the balcony and placed a hand on the door to open it. "Where were you?" She jumped and gasped, turning to see Seifer on the far end of the balcony. He was sitting on the swining chair looking out at the waves crashing on the beach.
"Oh Seifer, I didn't see you there..." she said dropping her hand from where it had clutched her sweater. "I went into town to pick some things up." She knew he said that he wanted her to rest, but if she stayed locked up inside anymore she would go crazy.
He looked up, his burning emerald eyes staring her down. Her spine shivered once and she frowned at him. "Why didn't you wait till I got home?"
"Because I was bored and I had no idea what time you were getting here!" She retorted, knowing that if it continued down this road their could be an arguement. For some reason she felt it wouldn't be their first...
"Quistis you know you're not well, you could have got lost ro even hurt for that matter!" He said standing up and walking over to her.
"I'm well enough to take a short walk into town! And what's going to happen, I'm going to get beaten by a fish weilding lunatic?" She asked folding her arms, though it was difficult with the faberic bag.
"That's not the point!"
"Then what is the point?"
If some one reconize's you I'll be screwed, that's the point. "I... I just don't want to loose you again."
Her face softened as she tired looking up into his eyes."Seifer..."
"I know it's hard for you, not to remember... but think what it is like for me..." Oh you dirty lier Seifer. "I'm the man who's loved you for god know's how long, and you don't remember anything we've been through." You shouldn't be filling her head with lies...
Her arms dropped to her sides and she turned her face away from him, "I'm sorry..."
"Don't be, it's not your fault..."
"I won't go into town with out you, ok?" She said quitely looking back at him, trying to get a response.
He stared at the ground for a moment, hating him self with a passion. He wanted to tell her the truth, but if he did not only would she hate him but he would be on his way to death row. Looking up he caught her eyes, those beautiful blue eyes... wait beautiful, this was Quistis Trepe we are talking about. Cold, stern, Ice Queen from Balamb. Yet in the past few days he had seen the real Quistis... she smiled, she laughed, she was real. This was a Quistis with out barriers, even if she didn't know who she was. Was he falling for Quistis Trepe? No... he couldn't be. He just found her attractive!
"Ok." He said stretching his hand out to take the bag from her. He opened the screen door and let her walk in, sighing after she was out of ear shot. This wasn't fair to her, he owed her his life... then again he had pulled her out of a cold wet death. He should tell her the truth, set her straight... Maybe if he contacted some one from Garden and told them they wouldn't deam him a punishment...
Yes, it was the right thing to do, and the new Seifer was all about doing what was right, right?