(Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy or its characters. This is just for fun.)

Chapter 3 - Give Me a Break!

Woo! I'm here early today!

Rinoa pulled the heavy metal door open and a breathed a sigh of relief.

And not a moment too soon, she thought as fat raindrops began splattering the sidewalk behind her.

She ducked inside as the door shut with a loud clang. She was glad to finally be safely inside, away from any raindrops or sudden downpours. Walking from the bus stop was fun when it was sunny, but when it was dreary and wet, the walk seemed twice as long. She was just glad she'd brought her warm wool coat. It was stiff and scratchy, but it kept out dampness very well. She figured that was a fair trade.

Nice and dry.

Well, she didn't have to worry about the weather any more today, so she began unbuttoning her coat. She looked over her shoulder and checked the clock while she hung up her coat in the closet. She was pleased to see exactly how early she was. She still hadn't gotten used to the public bus schedule yet, but she figured it was better to arrive early than late.

She didn't want a repeat of yesterday.

She could just imagine the smug look on that tall blond's stupidly "handsome" face when he told her that she'd arrived late on her first day. That was uncalled for! Well, sorta. She WAS late, so that was true, but it wasn't her fault. The snark certainly wasn't called for! And he seriously didn't have to mention it as he wasn't her boss. He COULD have been gentlemanly about it. Could've, but wasn't.

And too bad too. It would have been fun to work at an office where there was a terribly handsome and gentlemanly man. It would be just like one of the books she liked to read where the handsome gentleman sweeps the timid yet adorable woman off her feet.

Not that she identified with those fictional women completely. For one thing, she wasn't exactly timid. But the point was that she was upset that instead of a terribly handsome man, there was just a handsome man who was also terrible.

And her interactions with him were backed up by her other coworkers too. They warned her about him. She could just remember the way Zell's eyes flashed rage when talking about him and the way Selphie bounced while contemplating his handsome devilishness. Rinoa wouldn't forget their warnings. She also wouldn't forget how he'd physically cornered Selphie in her own cubicle. Scary.

So even though it was only her second day, she already knew that guy could be trouble with a capital T. All the signs pointed to: BAD BOY, STAY AWAY!

Bad boy?

That was a juvenile term to describe a man like Seifer, but it was a familiar one. It was the sort of term that would be used against a teenager who was up to no good. And Rinoa wasn't in high school anymore, neither was Seifer.

She smiled at herself. Seifer WAS the type of guy she'd love to have dated in high school to upset her dad. 'The general' would have freaked out to see her with a big guy with that much snarky confidence. And his whole physicality just dripped with danger. Blondie definitely was the type of guy her dad would pay to keep away from her. The rage on her dad's face would have been hilarious. That would have been sweet.

She shook her head while she went to sit at her desk. She had to remember that she wasn't in high school anymore, and her dad wasn't here to watch out for her. She lived alone now, and Seifer was kinda scary. She had to protect herself. And she was too old to be playing rebel just in order to test limits with her overly rigid father. Not happening.

She smiled slightly while remembering his vividly intense turquoise eyes.

Well, maybe in another life, another timeline, but not in this one.

Definitely not.

So she'd be on alert about him while being professionally friendly. She didn't want to attract any more of the handsome blond menace's attention than she already had.

Professional. Friendly. No problem.

She was Rinoa Heartilly, the new girl, a professional, a working girl. Working girl? Maybe scratch that one. It sounded kinda prostitutey. Hey, actually so did professional. Huh, why did all these words and phrases have scandalous connotations with working women? She'd just stick with Rinoa Heartilly. She was Rinoa Heartilly, that was for sure. Except for the part where she was Rinoa Caraway, but nobody needed to get into that. Here she was Rinoa Heartilly.

Stop overthinking everything Rinoa. Time to start the day.

Except it wasn't quite time to start the day. She was really, really early. Most of the automatic lights over the cubicles hadn't even turned on yet.

She looked over the semi-dark office, and noticed that she was one of the first people there this morning. Quistis was already in her office working on her computer, but otherwise it was quiet.

Rinoa ran her hands over her skirt as she stared straight ahead while sitting at her desk. This proved to be quite boring, but she didn't know what else she could do. The desk was already clean, so she couldn't even organize it, not that she was the type of person who was into that. She looked down and started going through the desk drawers to see if there was anything interesting them. There wasn't. Back to staring straight ahead.

She looked at the clock.

Tick-Tock. Tick-tock.

Wait, was that a bug on her leg? She flicked it off herself in a panic. It floated down to the floor. Oh, it was just a fuzzy from her tights. That was a close one.

One minute had gone by.

She checked for more fuzzies. Nothing. She was good, at least for now. But she would have to monitor the situation throughout the day. While these black tights were warm and snuggly, they attracted a lot of lint.

More staring.

She started making a grocery list in her head. She was getting low on milk and cereal.

Grocery List: 1. Milk. 2. Cereal.

Okay, that's it.

Organizing her thoughts didn't take long.

She checked the clock again. Three minutes had gone by.

Too bad I'm getting paid by the hour, and not by the minute, she thought while her eyes grew dull with boredom. She focused on her breathing and tried to relax, but not relax too much. She didn't want to fall asleep.

Actually she DID want to fall back asleep, but she couldn't do that here.

She imagined her warm, fluffy, and invitingly unmade bed back at her apartment. She sighed. It would be so nice to wrap herself up in her comforter and sleep for a few more hours. In lieu of that, she wrapped her blue sweater cardigan around herself tightly and waited. Since she was situated by the front door, she'd get cold air blowing in her face every time somebody arrived. She tried to make herself warm in preparation for that. She even considered putting her jacket back on, but then she decided against it. It could stay in the company coat closet.

She crossed her arms over herself and rubbed her hands over her arms. Warmer. Good.

After what seemed like an eternity, finally others started filtering into the office. Lights started to flicker on. She thought she knew most people's names in her area, but she saw unfamiliar faces too. There were other sections of the little company, and she wasn't sure of everybody yet. She nodded her head at them as they passed. She just hoped that they actually belonged there. Was she meant to the be the gatekeeper or just answer phones? Maybe she should figure out what her duties were in addition to knowing who was who.

She tried to keep everybody's names and faces straight in her mind. She didn't want to confuse anybody, but that was hard because everybody had such unique names. And there were a lot of blond people here. Maybe she could use some mnemonic device or word association to help her remember.

Okay, she took stock of the blonds. Quistis was the only blonde woman, and the manager, so that was easy. She was the manger, and that was like the queen, so she could remember Quistis, queen. No problem. But then there were two blond men, and they were both loud, so that was more challenging. The tall loud bad boy was called Seifer, and the short blond one was called Zell. She could remember that Zell was the one with a hairstyle that was all stuck up with gel. She could remember that. Zell. Gel. That rhymed. Seifer was memorable enough on his own.

Okay now to take stock of the darker haired people in the office. Selphie was the only other girl in the immediate area. Selphie, pronounced like selfie. That made sense, she seemed like a girl who would take a lot of selfies. Also it was easy to remember as she was one of only a handful of women in the office. Irvine had long brownish auburn hair, and the name Irvine was a town she'd heard of. Maybe he'd been there. He had a slight accent, maybe he traveled a lot, she could imagine. And that was everybody. Wait, no, there was one other guy in her area. What was his name? She couldn't remember.

This office had a lot of creative names in it, not that she was one to complain. Considering her mom's name was something normal like Julia, she thought it was weird that she'd been given the name Rinoa. Her mom had taken the old fashioned name of Lenore as inspiration and tried to turn it into something modern and different. It was pretty different. She'd never met another Rinoa. She was the only one.

But she'd also never met another Quistis, Seifer, Zell, or Selphie. Lots of different names.

She smiled. She realized was doing fairly okay at remembering their names. It was only her second day after all.

Rinoa decided that was enough memory tricks for the morning. She'd figure out everybody else's names soon enough. She'd just have to pay careful attention.

It was nearly 9 am and suddenly a flock of people rushed in the door. She practiced their names as they passed by her. There was that dark haired guy who didn't talk, Seifer, Zell, and Irvine. Being able to recall three out of four names wasn't so bad.

Irvine was the first person to break the silence in the office as he came in.

"Hey Selphie, I have a question for ya," Irvine started to say as he walked towards her cubicle. He was stunned to see that she wasn't in yet. "Huh, she isn't here." Irvine couldn't remember a time when Selphie wasn't there first.

"Congratulations Irvine, you aren't the last one to get here," Seifer said while standing in the front of the office.

Irvine laughed. Even he was surprised. It certainly wasn't because he left any sooner. It probably helped that he'd carpooled with Zell today. Zell did not like being late. Irvine just shrugged and walked towards his cubicle for a good sit. Zell and Seifer went to their desks as well. Selphie would get there when she got there.

Rinoa looked at the clock, wondering where Selphie was. It was now 9:15 in the morning, maybe Selphie wasn't coming today. Her switchboard phone started lighting up and ringing. Rinoa picked up the receiver.

"Good morning," she greeted, "Phoenix Industries." The person on the other end explained the situation and Rinoa transferred the call back towards Irvine's customer service line. Hopefully Irvine could handle it without Selphie. She could hear the ringing, but then the call bounced back to her desk. What was Irvine doing?

"Oh, your call didn't go through?" Rinoa said, getting irritated at Irvine. "Maybe the customer service person is briefly away from the phone now," she said into her phone while staring towards where Irvine was clearly sitting. She transferred the call again. The phone rang.

"Irvine! Pick up the phone!" Rinoa called loudly. "Don't make me come over there!"

"It's too early," Irvine complained.

"DO IT!" Rinoa growled.

She's got an edge to her under that sweet exterior, Squall thought. I knew it.

And Squall grinned at the new receptionist's irritation too. Somebody should force Irvine to get a better work ethic, but it shouldn't have to be the new girl. He figured Quistis should be the one to whip Irvine into shape.

While Squall was thinking of Quistis' whipping capabilities, Selphie flounced into the office, the warm smell of coffee and vanilla trailing in her wake. She held a bakery box full of pastries high in the air and a cardboard carton full of flavored coffees in the other.

"Good morning everyone!" she said cheerily.

"Alright FOOD!" Zell said while running up to Selphie. Rinoa thought this seemed to be a somewhat common occurrence according to Zell's reaction. Selphie quickly sidestepped him like a basketball player and pivoted the food away from him.

"No! Rinoa is the new person here, she gets first pick!" Selphie said while holding the pastries protectively. She straightened up and brought the food to Rinoa's desk. "Here you go," she said with a smile. "Choose wisely."

Rinoa looked into the box of pastries and saw an assortment of muffins, danishes, bear claws, and donuts. There were a lot of good choices there. The glazed donuts looked good, but so did the pink frosted donuts covered in rainbow sprinkles. The danishes looked delicious, but too big for her alone.

I don't want to look like a pig, Rinoa thought to herself. Her image with these new people wasn't cemented yet. She wanted to make a good impression. Although she could pack away quite a few pastries, if nobody was looking, but they didn't need to know that. At least not yet.

She reached in a pulled out a muffin at random. It didn't look as decadent as the other options, but it probably had just as many calories, if not more. Oh well, the things she'd do for appearances.

"Oh! You like lemon poppy seed muffins too?" Selphie asked excitedly. "Those are my favorite. Food twins!" Selphie plopped down a vanilla and hazelnut flavored coffee on Rinoa's desk without asking. "This is my favorite too!" She turned back around to the other office workers. "Now you may have a pastry Zell." She offered him the box of pastries.

Zell reached in double handed and grabbed a donut and danish before backing away quickly. He didn't know if Selphie was going to change her mind, so he quickly took a bite out of each of them. "Yea, thanksh Shelphie," he said while chewing. "Good shtuff."

"Coffee?" she offered while tilting her head at him.

Zell looked down at his occupied hands and sighed. He then stuffed the partially eaten danish into his mouth and used his free hand to grab a hot coffee. He nodded his head in thanks and then trotted back to his work area to do some data entry.

"Okay, who else wants some deliciousness?" Selphie called out loud enough for everybody in the vicinity to hear.

Everybody else converged upon Selphie and her treats, eager for some food and another reason to put off working for a few more minutes. Selphie relished being the center of attention, at least vicariously through the food she brought in. Once everybody got what they wanted, she was left holding a half empty box. She then started coming down from her attention high.

She wondered if anybody else wanted anything.

Squall had been listening to everybody chatting and eating pastries instead of working. He both disliked their laziness and envied them for it. Unlike other people, he always had trouble taking time for himself. He couldn't justify it to his brain. He was there to work. That was it. And so that's what he only did.

Although while he was working, he couldn't stop fully stop his imagination. An image of Rinoa eating daintily and getting something like powdered sugar stuck in the corners of her mouth popped into his mind.

He smiled at the thought and relaxed.

Wait, what was he doing?

He rubbed his forehead in frustration, his back muscles suddenly tense. His imagination was getting very active. Instead of imagining what it looked like up there, he could just get up and join everybody. That would be a normal thing to do. He could go get a coffee, nod his head, and then turn back to his desk. Nobody was keeping him away, except himself. But no, of course Squall Leonhart couldn't be normal like that. Instead he was back here like a creeper, imagining Rinoa licking powdered sugar off her dewy pink lips.

Yea not creepy at all. Maybe he should talk to a professional or something.

Talk? Ha!

"Hey, you want something?" Selphie asked while popping in his cubicle unannounced. Squall jumped up in his chair with a start. "Maybe you didn't hear, but I brought in some super yummy treats?" she said in a questioning tone while noticing his tension. She gave him an inquiring look.

Squall swiveled around in his chair to look directly at her. She stood there in her dark mustard yellow dress and harvest orange tights, holding a pastry box and some coffees. While he stared at her, he noticed the warm smells of sugar, vanilla, and coffee coming in with Selphie. It smelled good and homey, like a long time ago when his mother used to bake. His mind glazed over like the donuts in the box.

Too much time had gone by since she'd asked him a question.

He shook his head suddenly. "No, I don't need anything," he said. He turned back towards his computer. He started typing in random numbers. He could delete them after she left. She had to leave soon, right?

"You sure you don't need anything?" Selphie asked in a low voice.

He needed lots of stuff, not that he'd admit it. And Squall was tempted because everything smelled so good, but he ignored it.

"I'm sure," he said while not turning to look at her anymore. He got started on his long day of work.

"Okay," she said, "If you change your mind, I'll leave the leftovers out for you in the break room." She turned around and left his cubicle.

What was wrong with him? Couldn't he just say yes without feeling stupid?

No.

Rinoa stepped sideways as she exited the bathroom stall, the door banging loudly behind her. She smoothed her hands over her skirt and sighed as she stepped towards the sink. It was nice to have a little break, even if it was just a quick bathroom break. She'd been at work for only a few hours and her back was stiff from all the sitting. Her job was so boring that she actually had been looking forward to her bathroom break. Oh yea, toilet time. Really exciting!

She actually was jealous of the other workers, at least they had stuff to do. Her job mostly entailed sitting on her butt and doing nothing. What was relaxing for a Sunday afternoon made for a really boring weekday.

She caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror. That morning had been rushed because she wanted to be early, and she hadn't double checked her appearance before leaving for work. Now was a good time to check.

She looked at her reflection with scrutiny. Smooth dark hair and a fresh complexion reflected back at her. She was relieved that her hair looked nice and neat. Her eyeliner wasn't even smudged. Somehow in her morning rush she had lined her upper lashes with delicate grace. That was a rare feat even on a good day. Each eye looked big and brown and well defined. She suddenly felt pretty. Luck was on her side today.

She smiled at herself with satisfaction. Her white teeth sparkled back at her. Mostly white.

Wait! What was in her teeth?!

She leaned forward, her genuine smile turned into a forced grimace of panic. What was that little black thing? Was that a poppy seed stuck between her two front teeth? Had anybody noticed? Ugh, it must have been from those lemon poppy seed mini-muffins Selphie had brought in that morning.

She dislodged the offending black speck with her tongue. Maybe nobody had noticed. She calmed down.

She grabbed the faucet and turned it on. Cool water sloshed in the basin as she reached for the soap. She pushed on the dispenser and it squirted a big glop of clear liquid soap, narrowly missing her outstretched hand and getting her shirt.

That wouldn't be what I need today, she thought to herself. I gotta look professional.

She quickly lathered up and the irritating chemical smell filled her nose. Offices never splurged on anything nice smelling. There was only industrial strength stuff that would strip her hands and chap them.

Maybe I should bring in some lotion. I could keep it in my desk drawer. Something nice smelling too. Maybe lilacs? Or something citrus? Maybe...

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

A loud screeching siren sounded, giving her heart a shock. She jumped.

Is that the fire alarm?!

She started trying to rinse her hands. The water splashed everywhere in her hurry. It puddled around the sink and soaked part of her blouse and skirt.

"The building is on fire! The building is on fire!" she repeated to herself.

She kept trying to rinse off her the harsh smelling soap, but it wasn't rinsing clean. Why was this taking so long? Why'd she care? The building was on FIRE!

She didn't have time to dry her hands. She just shook out her semi-soapy hands and splashed herself even more before turning to run out of the bathroom. Her wet hands slipped repeatedly on the doorknob. She grabbed it with all her strength and finally got it to open.

Within moments she was in the office hallway. The siren was still blaring in her ears, and lights were flashing. Where was everybody? She started to run down the hallway before she realized she was going the wrong way. In front of her stood an industrial metal door that led into the warehouse. Above there was a white light that was flashing rapidly, and the screeching continued. She wasn't used to this new place yet. She turned and ran towards where she thought the front door was when she tripped on her shoe and nearly went flying face first into the dull gray high-traffic carpet. She hobbled the rest of the way to the door.

Rinoa ran outside to the parking lot, breathing heavily. The rest of the employees were already gathered outside in a group. Everybody seemed really calm considering there was a fire.

That should have been her first clue.

She noticed Zell and Irvine arguing with each other while Selphie turned her back on them, tapping her foot impatiently. Quistis stood nearby with a stopwatch in her hand with Seifer standing over her shoulder. That other guy stood a small ways apart from them, closer to the parked cars than his coworkers.

How'd they all get out of the building so quickly? And how did they have the forethought to all be wearing their coats? And they needed them today. A damp and chilly wind was blowing, she could even feel a couple of raindrops. She could smell the salty ocean air on the breeze. Fast moving heavy gray clouds foretold of even worse weather that was coming later.

The cold outside air chilled Rinoa. The fact that she'd gotten herself wet in the bathroom wasn't helping her stay warm either. It seemed like a thousand small needles were poking wherever she was wet. And she didn't bring a coat, she hadn't time. It was a fire! She limped along towards the her coworkers, fixing the back of her shoe on the way.

"Good job everybody, our department got out of the building the fastest," Quistis said. "IT and the warehouse aren't accounted for yet."

"This isn't a competition, is it?" asked Irvine, tipping his broad brimmed hat against the raindrops. "Aren't fire drills meant to be about safety?"

Fire drill! Of course this was a fire drill! Rinoa thought. She had been subjected to many fire drills during her school years. She just had never thought of a workplace doing them. She felt so stupid.

Rinoa looked down at her hands. A tiny bit of soap suds was smeared on her wrist still. She wiped it on the back of her skirt. She was already wet, but now she felt extra silly too. She stepped away from the group of her coworkers and stood apart, nearer to the quiet dark haired man. She wrapped her arms around herself to try and stay warm. She rubbed her hands over the thin sleeves of her blouse trying to generate some heat. She hoped they didn't have to stay outside long.

She's going to freeze out here, Squall thought while he looked over at Rinoa. His eyes scanned over her as she hopped from foot to foot. She wiped at her face where a raindrop had just fallen.

"You're wet," he said while looking at the large and obvious wet splotches on her skirt and blouse. He wondered how her shirt had gotten soaked.

"Uh yeah," she started to explain. "I was just going to the bathroom and..." Squall's eyebrows raised. "I mean I was IN the bathroom, washing my hands when the fire alarm went off. I guess I made a mess while trying to hurry." She gave him a slight side smile that mostly looked like an apologetic grimace of sorts. She started to shiver.

Squall stared at her. She looked so cold and pathetic... and cute.

"I didn't know that this was just a drill. I thought that maybe the building was on fire, for real," Rinoa said. "If I'd known it was just a drill, I would have stopped to grab my coat. Or at least I would have kept my coat with me at my desk."

"Fire drill was scheduled for today," Squall said. "The inter-office email sent out a warning to everyone yesterday."

"Oopsie," she said while hugging her arms around herself.

Ack! I never learned how to check my office email! I should have just let Selphie show me how to do it yesterday. Dumb! Dumb! Dumb! Rinoa screamed in her head. This humiliation could have been easily avoided.

A bitterly cold and damp wind blew straight through her. Her seemingly warm and fuzzy black tights did nothing against the onslaught of the strong sea wind. She shivered in the chilly air and looked at the ground dejectedly. Raindrops started falling in greater frequency. She felt miserable and stupid.

Suddenly she sensed movement in the corner of her eye. She lifted her head and caught sight of a jacket being offered to her. She saw that her coworker had taken off his jacket for her. He continued to hold out his arm to her.

"Here," he said.

Rinoa stared at his outstretched arm and looked longingly at the warm jacket. Should she take it? She didn't know this guy. It was a kind gesture, but also kind of a personal one too. What if he was a bad boy like Seifer? It WAS a black leather jacket.

She hadn't given him much notice before, so she looked up at the man's face inquiringly. Dullish blue gray eyes that were lined by dark lashes stared back at her. She noticed that he had a well shaped face and even features that were framed by longish medium brown hair. While she looked at him, it just dawned on her that he was fairly good looking. He wasn't handsome in an aggressively masculine and flashy way like Seifer, but it was more of a quiet and subtle attractiveness.

She decided that the look he was giving her didn't seem friendly, but it didn't look dangerous either. She wondered if she should take his coat. If she took it, she might end up smelling like his cologne or something. That was oddly personal for a nameless, and attractive, stranger.

He wouldn't be nameless if you had a better memory, Rinoa chastised herself. She'd been staring for a touch too long. She better just do something, and soon.

Rinoa nodded her head at him and took the coat from him. She slipped on the well-worn black leather jacket and instantly melted into it. It was such a relief after the horrible chill that had soaked into her bones. The satin lining felt so nice and soft, and it all was pre-warmed too. She ran her fingertips over the supple leather. She didn't know much about leather, but it seemed to be quality. And the fluffy white fur at the collar tickled her nose as she ducked her face down into it against the wind. So warm.

Yes, yes, yes, this was the right decision. She kept enjoying herself, oblivious to her surroundings.

And normally she'd be offended at fur, but today she was loving it. Fur was murder, or something. Her warm and hazy brain tried to remember the slogan she used to yell at rich fur-wearing woman in Deling City during the winter. Well, it would be rude to launch into an anti-animal-cruelty tirade right now when he had just been kind to her. She looked over at his weirdly blank yet handsome face and decided it was probably fake fur anyways. Nobody that attractive could be cruel to animals.

Well, maybe Seifer.

She pushed the thought of Seifer out of her mind. She was having a moment and she wanted to enjoy every second of it while she could.

She sighed. She wanted to live in this warm snuggly coat.

Huh? Squall thought to himself as he continued to observe Rinoa. He kept himself perfectly still to avoid startling her. What in the world was she doing?

Rinoa looked up and suddenly realized something. He'd been staring at her the whole time she'd been cuddling luxuriously into his coat like it was her new best friend.

He was going to think she was weird!

Rinoa suddenly straightened up and stopped petting the fur collar. She tried her hardest to look normal after whatever she'd just been doing. She hoped she hadn't made any silly faces, or worse, weird noises. And what had she just been doing? Where was she just touching? She decided to just stand still and act normal.

They stood there for a few minutes in silence, waiting for the fire drill to officially be over. Squall stood there in a white collared button down shirt, seemingly impervious to the chilly wet wind.

"Uh, aren't you cold?" Rinoa asked, feeling guilty at being wonderfully warm in his black leather jacket. Her cheeks pink from warmth.

"Okay, we can all head back in now," Quistis called out to everybody.

"I'm not cold," he lied. Maybe it wasn't exactly a lie. He hadn't been wet like she'd been. Since he was dry he could tolerate the cold better than she could.

"And I can go to the bathroom without wetting myself," Squall added while turning and walking back towards the building.

Rinoa stood there and gaped after him. Was that a joke? Rinoa wasn't sure, but she flushed with embarrassment until even the tips of her ears felt hot. Her whole body was warming up a lot since she'd interacted with that strange quiet man.

What just happened? she thought.

Once everybody had filed back into the office, she was the last person to go back into the building.

Squall sat down at his desk, shoulder muscles tense.

What was that?! What did I just say?!

He ran his fingers through his hair and shook the moisture out. The cold still clung to his skin like a damp blanket, but his face burned and his heart beat in his chest noticeably. He stared straight forward at the unadorned gray wall before him.

He'd felt so awkward just standing near her all that time during the fire drill. No cubicle wall stood between them. He didn't have to imagine anything. He could observe her normally.

Yea, normal.

She was wet and practically making out with his jacket. That wasn't normal.

Breathe in.

It was interesting to watch though.

Did he imagine all that?

Breath out.

If that was real, he was getting jealous of his own coat.

If that was imagined, maybe he should see a professional.

Breathe in.

This was his safe and boring little world where nothing notable or abnormal happened.

Breathe out.

Everything is okay. You're at your desk now.

He felt slightly relieved at being in the relative safety of his cubicle. Although right now he wished it had four walls instead of three.

Seifer leaned out of his office chair and whispered. "Hey, I saw you talking to the new girl. Didn't you hear that I called dibs on her?" he joked.

Make that four walls and a roof. Completely sealed off.

Squall ignored him, like always, and Seifer eventually went back to work.

How am I going to get my jacket back now? Squall wondered to himself.

Author's Notes: I had fun writing this chapter. Please read and review.