Irvine: I walk outside onto the balcony to light the cigarette. The alcohol swims inside my head, giving me a pleasant buzz as I lower my cig to the lighter. Technically it's illegal here, but no-one's going to break my balls about it. Tonight I am everyone's hero. A thousand years ago I'd have been wading through virgin dancing girls while the high priest set about sacrificing some prime red steak. Today they let me indulge my vices in peace.

I saw Quisty and Selphie back in the corner with their heads together. Girl-talk. Quisty had her glasses off, and Selphie was giggling and rummaging around in her bag, probably for those tissues she doesn't think I saw her put in there tonight. Quisty gets wound up over the strangest things. Selphie will let her cry, and smile a lot until she runs out of steam, then start the plotting. Quistus Trepe. The mystic chick who gives lectures on things most of us can't wrap even our imaginations round. I'm fairly sure only she was the only one who understood what the hell we were doing back there. I was just flying about by the seat of my pants. If only she had someone to teach her about being Quistus Trepe.

…

Selphie will kill you if you finish that thought. Hey, at least she doesn't watch people and take notes like Squall, right?

I hear light footsteps on the balcony behind me, high heels clicking with a fast, purposeful stride.

"Oh."

Surprise!

"Hello Irvine," Rin sounds like an awkward school-girl trying not to sound disappointed at her parents' birthday present.

"Sorry, I didn't think anyone was out here."

"Hello yourself."

That sounded too curt. Turn around and try to act nice.

I twist around and smile at her.

"Whoa. Who are you and have you done with Rinoa?"

She is looking good tonight. Her black-brown hair is loose and falling back over her bare shoulders. The dress fastens around the neck, a thigh-length cream-white number that I immediately like, and hanging there I can see the chain she carries her mother's ring from. Griever glints on her right hand and around her left wrist is clasped a delicate little silver bracelet.

Rinoa looks down at herself and back up at me when I speak. Normally she doesn't like the little sallies I make when I don't watch my mouth, but this one makes her smile. She seems glad of the distraction for some reason. She puts her hands on her hips and raises an eyebrow at me.

"Flirting already Irvine? Aren't you worried what I'm going to tell Selphie about you?"

I gesture with the cig; "I'm in shock is all. I think this is the first time I've noticed anyone on the team is female apart from Selphie since the Garden Festival."

I was going to continue but I stop there. It's always a mild surprise when you realize you're unintentionally telling the truth. All the girls have seemed a bit different recently and it suddenly dawns on me why. They're at ease. Tonight all problems are strictly personal. I wonder how many people would know how liberating that is. Suddenly here they are; clean, dressed sexily and obsessing about work or boys over the pink gins. And so am I.

…

Wow, this is good beer. I should drink more of it.

She comes up to lean on the balcony next to me, and I hear the heels again. Give me a girl in moccasins any day. I search for something smooth to say and try not to sound annoyed at my interrupted smoke.

"So… get bored of the game?"

"No, I just wanted to leave Squall alone with his dad. He's just starting to open up around Laguna. When Laguna got all worked up over missing that last trick shot I swear he almost smiled."

Strange, she sounds almost put out.

"Squall is enjoying time he's spending with Laguna? Here be miracles."

"Well," she does that over-the-shoulder gesture of hers, then rests her arms more comfortably back on the stonework; "You know Squall, got to be perfect at anything he starts. He hates team games but if it's a skill he can practice himself..."

"Mmm, me and Zell tried to get him into rod-racing last night. He just gave us The Stare."

"Yeah," she said matter-of-factly "I told Laguna he'd go for any game if we all leaned on him at once, and…" she shrugs uncomfortably; "It was what I played with my dad."

I quirk an eyebrow at her; "You steered Squall in here without telling him Laguna was coming? Whoa."

Rinoa cuts me a ferocious sideways look through narrowed eyes.

Oops.

"Are you saying to me that I shouldn't be trying to bring Squall and Laguna back together Kinneas? After all that's happened, after they both nearly died!"

I look away and shift on the balcony. My cig is nearly finished anyway and the stonework is starting to dig uncomfortably into my arms. I'm beginning to want a seat and another drink. I'm not replying to Rin. She's way out of line and she knows it.

"I'm sorry."

Rinoa's started to play with her mother's ring, twisting and looping the chain around her hand; "Irvine, it's just watching the two of them down there…

Ah. It's going to be one of those heart-on-sleeve conversations. I stub out my cig end irritably.

"…I thought it could almost be like making up with him. Like, if I could do it for Squall I could do it for me. I thought I would be happy seeing the two of them together, but it made me feel worse!"

This last ends in a hiccupped sob as Rinoa comes up off the balcony lip and wraps herself around my chest, while I bring a startled arm up around her shoulders, still half thinking I'm being attacked. She feels light against my chest, soft and warm, and I feel my protective instincts bubbling away, wondering where we'll woolen blankets and big mugs of hot soup at this hour. Then I get another picture, of Squall walking in and seeing this, and I flinch at the empty door.

Damnit… this isn't what I want. This goes beyond our nodding friendship; Rinoa is hijacking Selphie's crying-on-shoulder privileges, and it took me too long to get her believing I'd stopped chasing tail.

This last thought makes me gently disengage myself, though in truth by now she is just drying her face on my shirt. I settle for an awkward pat on the shoulder to cover the moment.

"Sorry Rin, but Selphie..."

She has a last sniff and flicks her hair out of her eyes. I get a watery grin; "Keeps you on a short leash, yeah."

There is an awkward pause in the conversation, neither of us is really sure where to take it from here. I tap out a new cigarette from my packet. I feel I need it.

Rinoa breaks the silence while I light it; "Irvine, you were at Galbadia Garden when you trained, weren't you?"

"Yah, at the proper military academy, not like the rest of these slackers."

"Do you remember General Caraway much? What was he like?"

I remember a tall, gaunt man with a tanned craggy face sporting Rinoa's eyebrows.

"He inspected us a few times when he was representing the Galbadian army," I say slowly "Checking up on their investment for them I suppose. He took us out on maneuvers a few times too. He was quite strict about parades, appearances, stuff like that, but I got the idea he was a good commander to have."

"A good commander," Rinoa laughs humorlessly "You sounded just like him then, that fucking rating everyone by their military skills, that was him every time."

That gets to me I have to admit- as if I'm anywhere near as anal as Rin's father! However I take a drag on the cig and exhale before I reply. Cool guys don't snap back.

"Rin, I only met your father four times in my entire life, and every one of those was a military mission or a training exercise. What did you expect me to know about him? That he needs work on his table manners?"

Rinoa slides down onto the floor and, keeping her legs together, rests her head and arms on the platform of her knees. Good thing this floor is polished black marble.

"I don't know," she says "Its just he treats me like a child. He always thinks he knows what's best for everyone and he's so used to getting his own way that when we have an argument, he just tells me what to do and what to think! He's so stubborn… what? Why are you laughing?"

I pull my hat off and shake out my hair. Meeting Rinoa's eyes, I flutter my lashes at her and clasp my hands together entreatingly. Pouting, I pitch my voice high;

"Like me, like me, like me!"

Rinoa blushes very prettily, you know.

"That bastard," an unwilling smile crooks her face "When did he tell you about that?"

"Aah, we got drunk in the Balamb hotel when we holed up there one night and I asked him how you'd met."

"It was the first time I had champagne," she pulls a face "I think I got a little drunk."

"Yeah…" I settle down for once in my life and try to remember what I'd been about to say; "…look Rinoa, I don't know anything about your problems with your dad," I trace a circle vaguely through the air with the cig "I've never known anything about fathers, never needed to know about one either."

"Never needed to know? Don't you want to know who your parents were then?" she asks, looking up quizzically.

"Not particularly," I say "Why go raking up old tragedies? I'm sure they did their best for me, whoever they were. But I don't feel the need to go looking for them. It's Squall you should be talking to; he's the only one of us in the same situation."

"He hasn't solved it any better then I have!"

I inhale the last vapors of the second cig. Only one left in the packet now, and you can't buy them here.

"No…" and maybe it's that last cigarette, but I feel inspiration steal through me with the smoke "…but I can think of a spiky-haired blond tekninja who has; in fact he's off to see them tomorrow."

"Zell?"