Chapter VII ~ Happy, Crazy
Squall? Are you going to find me? Come on. Hide 'n' seek is fun! This is no time to cry. Don't be a cry baby like Zell, or else Seifer will pick on you. You don't want that do you?
"Huh..." Squall woke up almost falling out of his chair. Looking around he remembered where he was. In the Ragnorok. He tried standing up but his legs collapsed beneath him. "Ugh... Zell?" Squall called out, but with no reply. "Selphie?" He paused for a moment, but no answer. "Guys!?" Squall helped himself up with the chair and stumbled toward the door. His eyes were filled with fear. He wasn't afraid that they had left him, he was afraid he wouldn't be able to find them. Squall pressed the button that opened the door and stepped on the lift. When it got to the other floor, he looked around the room. There wasn't a trace of anyone being onboard...
Squall continued to walk cautiously around the airship until he found that the lift that goes outside was down. He went over to the control panel for the lift and pressed the up button. The platform arrived and Squall stepped on. Pressing the down button it started moving. The lift landed on the grassy plains outside of Timber. Squall walked for awhile in no specific direction. He stopped near a small circle of flowers and sat down. The last time he'd seen a flower was over a month ago. The flowers were pretty shades of blue and purple, and smelled as sweet as roses. Squall had never really thought about it before, but he really liked flowers.
He picked one of the light blue flowers and just stared at it. He rolled it back and fourth slowly with his thumb and index finger. The light blue color then, reminded him of Rinoa. His eyes grew cold and then he threw the flower behind him. Rinoa was not a thing he wanted to think about. He laid down and put his arms beneath his head. He looked at the clouds and tried to see what shapes they looked like.
One cloud looked like a rabbit that had been stretched out. Another cloud looked sort of like a puffy gunblade. The next cloud he stared at for a couple minutes. He couldn't tell what it looked like. His mind wondered, trying to figure out what it looked like when the clouds turned and formed the shape of a girl. A girl with long hair, blowing in the wind. He watched the girl stand there as if the cloud picture was the most beautiful thing he ever saw. At that moment Squall did something he hadn't down in about a week or two. He smiled. He sat up and smiled up at the sky. The cloud picture faded into the blue of the sky, and Squall started laughing! Squall then started laughing harder, because he was laughing. He couldn't remember a time when he laughed, yet it seemed so normal and familiar to him. Standing up, Squall stopped laughing and looked towards Timber. The plains seemed to stretch on forever. A butterfly flew by and Squall followed it with his eyes. He saw Zell and Selphie running toward him and he smiled as they approached.
"Squall!!! Oh my god!!!" Zell ran over to Squall and hugged him tightly. Squall stood still for a second then hugged Zell back. "I'm so happy to see you smiling!!!" Zell hugged him again as Selphie came up behind him and snickered to herself. Squall and Zell were hugging and smiling. Selphie didn't know how to react to this event so she just joined the hug.
They stopped their very happy and crazy group hug and stood there silently in a triangle shape. "Can you promise me something?" Squall asked finally, to break the silence.
"Sure, what is it?" Selphie asked, willing to give her life for Squall if that's what had to be done.
"Don't," Squall paused," leave me again." Squall looked down then at Zell, then Selphie.
"We won't!" Cheered Selphie doing her victory pose.
"We promise." Zell added and patted Squall on the shoulder. Squall smiled and put one arm around Selphie and one arm around Zell. They both put an arm around Squall and walked back to the Ragnorok. They spent the rest of that day getting items and food in Timber. That was a day they could never forget.