"Squall, you've never done it before. I'm sure it happens to a lot of people."

Squall and Rinoa sat across from each other on his bed, some guitar music playing in the background of his dorm room. The music was soothing...or at least it would have been if Squall was capable of being soothed.

"It's been ten minutes Rinoa. You keep looking at me like you've been violated." Squall ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

"Okay. Look. You're doing it a little too...excitedly is all." Rinoa sighed. "I keep telling you to just flick your tongue gently against mine. Gently and slowly. It's easy, Squall. You're making yourself nervous over nothing." She shifted towards him, placing a hand on his cheek, stroking it lovingly. She peered into his doubting eyes in an attempt to reassure him. "Take a deep breath. It's just me. Nothing to feel jittery about, alright? Focus on your breathing, listen to the music. And relax."

Squall nodded to himself, tried to feel invigorated by her words. He willed his racing brain to just stop. Tried to force himself not to think about how she had experience—with that asshole Seifer, no less—and he was, well, a novice. And he hated being a novice. At anything.

"Right. It's just you. Just Rinoa."

He shut his eyes, inhaled deeply and then exhaled a shuddering breath. As he sat still, he thought about how much he wanted to make her happy. He wanted to show her that he could be sexy, like she was. Sure, he might not be the most experienced guy on the planet, but he felt that he had something to offer her if allowed himself the chance. He tried to appreciate the guitar music, to let it seep into his bones and alleviate his taut nerves. He opened his eyes and saw Rinoa smiling at him encouragingly. He smiled back, feeling a little more optimistic.

Picking up on Rinoa's cue that it was time to try again, Squall felt eagerness spread within him. No matter how many times their lips connected, it never lost its initial magic. He really did love kissing her. And how could he not? After all, he'd waited all his life for this miracle to happen.

Squall and Rinoa leaned towards one another, the two of them shutting their eyes. They kissed again, their tongues intertwining. The tension in Squall's muscles loosened as he tried his best to mimic Rinoa's actions. He flicked his tongue against hers, wanting to please her by teasing it slowly as she'd described. Feeling like he did better this time, he leaned back and looked at Rinoa hopefully.

"You keep jabbing at my tongue, Squall."

Rinoa's words hit him like a bullet to the heart. Squall placed a hand to his forehead as he shook his head in dazed disbelief. "Sweet Hyne, I can't believe this is happening. I finally get my first kiss and it's a total disaster."

"It's not that bad…"

Squall shot her a knowing look that made her chuckle.

"Okay. Scratch that. It is pretty bad."

"It's. So. Simple," Squall stressed each syllable by pounding his fist against his thigh. "You just touch your tongues together. Even a monkey could probably do that. But I can't. And if I'm this horrible at kissing, I don't even wanna know what's gonna happen when we—" Squall stopped, realizing what he was about to say. Seeing the intrigued look on Rinoa's face, he flushed deeply. "Ah..."

Rinoa smiled at him, amused. Batted her eyelashes. "When we what?"

"This is a nightmare," Squall moaned, dropping his hot face into his hands. At least that way, she might not notice he was blushing. Although it didn't even matter that much. that He'd pretty much revealed to her that he'd thought about them having sex. He just couldn't get over the horror of leaving such an awful impression on Rinoa. "What's wrong with me?"

There was a brief silence as Squall sat in front of Rinoa, unable to show his face to her. When Rinoa did speak, there was a tinge of wry amusement in her voice.

"Well, maybe making out just isn't your thing. We could always stick to having sword fights in each other's mouth instead."

Squall groaned. "That's not funny."