002. another time

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There were three things Squall Leonhart feared. Surprisingly.

Losing, long pointless conversations and-

Rinoa loudly stomped into his office, looking the most ticked off he had ever seen her.

He gulped.

And his angry girlfriend.

Squall breathed in quietly, trying not to show his nervousness as Rinoa slumped down on the seat opposite his desk.

"I thought you were getting off early today?!" she said, clearly upset that even when he was supposed to be with her for the remainder of today, he instead put work before everything else.

"...I know," Squall cringed at how ridiculous he sounded right now, "I will be but-"

"But what, Squall?" Rinoa crossed her arms and attempted to glare at him, something he always found funny because it never suited her... but he wouldn't tell her that, especially not now as he was probably in the midst of his death bed. "You promised we'd have dinner together tonight!"

While Squall could feel his irritation building, he knew better than to let it out on Rinoa. Her emotions were not to be played with and he learned that the hard way throughout their year long relationship. He was known for being a cold bastard most of the time, but it was always off limits when it came to the sorceress. He hated seeing her cry, especially when he would be the main reason why she would be.

Rinoa was the only one that could tackle him down. Literally.

"I did..." Squall rubbed his eyes and then sighed, "I'm... sorry. A cadet got injured so I had to deal with that and then Xu suddenly had a stack load of files I needed to go through," he glanced over to the pile that was only half done, the sudden urge of throwing it all away tingling his fingers before he looked back at Rinoa, "I'm sorry, Rin. I hadn't realised the time."

Rinoa locked him against a pending gaze and he only rigidly stared at her, guilt wavering his face as a silent plea for her to forgive him for being such a screw up.

Suddenly, a sneaky smile crept up on her lips and Squall grew skeptical. Before he could say anything else, she got up from her seat and walked around his desk, landing unceremoniously onto his lap as she placed a quick kiss on his lips.

"W-What?" he stammered pathetically, a blush threatening his cheeks.

"It's okay, I forgive you!" Rinoa tightened her hold around his neck, "You know you could've called me, right? You have a phone, Squall! If you told me then, I would have totally understood. Well, maybe yell at you first but overall, I'd be fine with it. There's always Saturday, right?"

Squall was about to have a heart attack. Because what?

He never understood how she could forgive him so easily. She wasn't supposed to! He was the dumbass here!

Hyne. He didn't deserve her. At all.

"Rinoa..." Squall said but paused momentarily. Again, he looked at the stack of files and then back to his girlfriend as she leaned her head against his shoulder with a hum.

The paperwork wasn't going to be done by itself though...

...Maybe he could tell Xu-

"So, do you need my help with anything?" Rinoa asked.

Of course, she shocked him for the second time again in a span of two minutes. Squall blinked incredulously at her. "Huh?"

She smiled and shifted herself off of him. "If you're not gonna be able to have dinner and hang out with me tonight, then helping you here would be better than nothing, right?" Rinoa winked at him and saw the state of his desk, "Squall Leonhart, I never knew you could be such a mess fairy in your own office!" she huffed jokingly and started tidying things up, "The least you could do is sort everything into the right places so you wouldn't have to be so busy and stressed, mister!"

Squall sat there, dumbfounded as he watched her shuffling everything from his desk to their rightful cabinets and shelves in his office. Of course the stack of files he needed to go through were still in front of him but... he couldn't remember a time where his desk was this organised and cleaned. He'd clean it before, but as time passed on and his position as commander grew heavy, Squall just felt... tired all the damn time. He wouldn't even notice the mess until someone pointed it out, like Rinoa had done right now.

Again, he focused back onto the god forbidden stack that was glaring back at him.

He could... do them another time?

Rubbing his gloved hand against his forehead, he glanced at the mini clock stand on his desk.

He could do them another time. They weren't important right now.

Squall pushed his chair back and got up. Rinoa was still busy sorting out his shelf that she hadn't noticed his movement. He smiled and gently took hold of her arm to turn her around. Rinoa stopped what she was doing and blinked at him.

"Squall? What's wrong?" she asked him, her tone completely oblivious that he almost wanted to laugh.

"Let's go," he nodded off towards the door as he laced their hands together.

"Huh?" Rinoa let him pull her along outside his office and into the hallway, "But what about the reports? Don't you want to finish them?"

"Another time," the commander responded, "It can wait."

Because he was tired and felt like absolute shit. All he wanted to do is eat and then lay in bed, with Rinoa.

Rinoa anxiously bit her lip and tugged on his arm for them to stop walking. "But Squall... won't you get into trouble?"

"Nida and Quistis won't say anything and Xu will understand," Squall said and squeezed her hand reassuringly, "Let's go grab some fish and chips and then we can take a walk with Angelo."

Her hesitant eyes quickly lit up. "Really?!" Rinoa wasted no time and pulled him along to the elevator, "Then let's go, let's gooo!"

Seeing Rinoa's excitement caused him to smile again.

Yeah. All of that paperwork can damn well wait.