Chapter Six
Hopeful

She considered her options carefully when deciding what to wear the next morning. Jeans were a good fallback, but she was trying to make her freaking boyfriend fall for her again … so no. Something more … dramatic was called for.

She pulled everything out of her bag (and tried desperately not to dwell on the fact that the only reason this bag was here was because Cyrus had somehow gotten into her room and gone through all of her belongings …) and spread it out around her room, eyeing everything critically, before her gaze drifted to her favorite mini-skirt, a denim one in jet black. Her eyes darted around the room quickly and found the pale blue v-neck top that she normally wore with it.

Spirits raised, she pulled on the outfit, along with her knee-high boots, and grinned to herself. Maybe the outfit was a little risqué -- (okay, okay, slutty) -- but the first time Squall had seen her in this outfit, he'd gone nearly catatonic. Her smile widened as she remembered the glassy look he'd gotten in his eyes, the way he'd barely been able to form coherent sentences.

It might not be the most ethical decision that Rinoa Heartilly had ever made. But times were desperate. She was desperate. It had only been one day, but being near him again, and not being able to be near him had been hard. Too hard. She didn't want to be here, alone like this.

Especially not … well, knowing that Edea and Ellone were dead didn't help anything. And the fact that she was the prime suspect, was even worse. She wondered how long it would be before that news reached Garden? Sighing, she shook her head and stood up. She only hoped that by that time, she wouldn't be alone any more.

It was a little after ten when she entered the cafeteria, and found it mostly deserted. Garden students were early risers, most of them had probably come and gone by now, depending on what time their classes were. She bypassed the long line and went for the smaller pastry cart. She grabbed a strawberry and cream cheese Danish and a cup of coffee, and turned to find a place to sit. She saw him, sitting alone at a corner table, with nothing but a cup of coffee in front of him.

She shook her head in annoyance. He never ate breakfast, even though she was always telling him how good it was for him. He always just said "Whatever" … and then stole bites of her chocolate éclairs when he thought she wasn't looking. He had a weakness for chocolate, though he always tried to hide it from everyone. "No weaknesses" seemed to be Squall Leonhart's professional motto.

Smiling a little, she turned back to the pastry cart, grabbed an éclair, and headed over to his table. "Good morning!" she said brightly. "May I join you?"

"No."

He didn't glanced up from the paperwork he was perusing, merely grunted his disapproval at being interrupted. He sensed that the intruder hadn't budged. "Did you need something?" he mumbled almost intelligibly.

"No, not at all," Rinoa said, undeterred by his attitude. "I just noticed that you were sitting alone, and I didn't think you'd mind the company. Seeing as you owe me, after all, for almost giving me a heart attack last night."

He finally looked up at that. His eyebrows arched as he took in the sight before him. She'd been wearing sweats the previous evening, so he hadn't noticed just how long and shapely her legs were … but it was hard to miss them now. He was pretty sure that the length of her skirt was not regulation … but he didn't exactly feel any inclination to reprimand her for it. Not right now, at least.

She bit her lip … there was the glassy-eyed look she'd been hoping for. Good, she thought to herself. All is not lost. "Ahem," she finally said, and his eyes snapped up to her face. She was grinning, her eyes twinkling. "So … can I join you? Or are you going to pretend to ignore me some more?"

He finally nodded. "Go ahead," he said, feeling slightly lightheaded.

She sat down across from him, doing that thing that girls did before they sat down when wearing a skirt, reaching around to make sure the skirt stayed position underneath them. He didn't understand why he kept staring at her. It wasn't as though he'd never seen a pretty girl before.

But something seemed different about this particular pretty girl. There was something achingly familiar about the way she smiled at him, the dark sheen of her almost-ebony hair.

She grinned at him questioningly, and he realized he'd been staring. Again. Damn it, this was becoming a habit. One that he didn't need. But part of him thought that if he looked at her long enough, he might figure out why she seemed less like a new student, and more like an old friend.

"Do you like chocolate, Commander?" she asked him suddenly.

"What?" he asked, blinking in surprise at the question.

"Well, this looked so good when I picked it up a minute ago," she said, holding out a delicious-looking chocolate éclair to him. "But I guess my eyes were bigger than my stomach, because I am full. So do you want it?" She waved it in front of his face, leaning over the table as she did so.

As good as the pastry looked to him, it paled in comparison to the view he now had down the dark-haired girl's top. "Squall?" she said after a minute.

Rinoa's brow furrowed. What the hell was his … What was he looking at?

And then she figured it out. Biting her lip, she sat the pastry down in front of him and stood up, satisfied that she had done her job for the morning. "I'll see you at noon, Commander. In the library, right? Enjoy that éclair!" She waved at him over her shoulder, not looking back, but having the distinct privilege of knowing that he was most definitely watching her walk away.

She ran into Irvine on her way out of the cafeteria, a grin still plastered on her face. "Rinoa? What the hell aren't you wearing?" he said teasingly.

"This happens to be Squall's favorite outfit," Rinoa said primly.

"Hmm, I think it looks better on you than it would ever look on him …"

Rinoa giggled. "I'm pretty sure that's not what I meant."

"Well, it seems that you are correct because he keeps, like, looking up from his paperwork to watch you." Irvine stopped, and looked at her critically. "Fun and games aside. How are you doing? I know it's only been a day, but …"

"It's been the longest day of my life. Including the day I got locked in the Sorceress Memorial." She sighed. "What happens if he does fall for me again?" she asked after a long pause. "I mean, that's great, right? But how am I going to convince him that I'm not an evil sorceress who killed his Sis and Matron when the truth comes out? Because it will come out, eventually."

"Rin, that'll be up to him," Irvine said. "It'll be up to him to decide when that time comes. Maybe by then, whatever happened to everybody will be, like reversed or something. Selphie's already warming up to me again." He grinned a little.

"Let's hope so. But at some point, one way or another, he's going to find out. And he'll have to make that decision again … the one about being a Knight. What if he's changed his mind?" Rinoa said, suddenly feeling much less confident than she had been feeling just minutes earlier.

"Look, Rin. We can't predict the future. We just gotta take it day by day, minute by minute, right?"

Rinoa nodded sadly. "Right. But, I mean, maybe I should just … go. Hope he remembers me on his own. That would be so much easier than this." She sighed. "I love him more than I've ever loved anything in this world. And he doesn't even remember me." She fisted her left hand and pounded it against her chest gently, almost as though she were willing her heart to start beating again. "It just freaking hurts. Every time I see him, I just want to walk up behind him and wrap my arms around his neck, and kiss his cheek, like I used to do. But I know that if I do …"

"I hear ya," Irvine said. "I mean, I know it's not nearly the same thing, but when I saw Selphie yesterday … yeah. It hurts." He placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "But leaving isn't going to make it hurt any less, is it?"

Rinoa shook her head. "No, you're right. At least while I'm here, he has to see me. And I'm going to make myself a very visible part of his life from here on out. Eventually, something's going to jog his memory."

"Well, you might not be jogging his mind right now," Irvine said with a smirk, glancing back toward the commander, "but you're definitely giving something a workout."

Rinoa laughed, finally, and, shaking her head, exited the cafeteria. She took comfort in the fact that, if nothing else, at least she knew Squall Leonhart wouldn't be pushing her from his mind any time soon.

xXx

She was already in the library when he arrived shortly before noon later that day. She had (mercifully) changed into a pair of jeans, though she was still (thank Hyne) wearing the powder-blue v-neck from breakfast, and her hair was pulled back from her face in a low ponytail. She was deeply engrossed in a book.

He cleared his throat as he approached and she jumped slightly, setting the book aside. "Interesting?" He inclined his head at the tome. He read the title. "The Complete History of the Sorceress?" He frowned. "That's a pretty heavy subject matter, don't you think?"

She shook her head. "Not really. It's interesting, to me." She had hoped that the book would cause him to remember something, however fleeting the memory might have been. "Do you know about knights?"

Squall shrugged. "Sure. They're the men that have a bond with the Sorceress. They are pretty much the only thing that keep the Sorceress from becoming evil."

Rinoa nodded. "Pretty romantic, don't you think?" At his confused look, she grinned. "I mean, the bond would have to be pretty strong, right? And what's stronger than love? And the idea of it …"

"Yeah, well, we fought an evil sorceress, about seven months ago," Squall said, unsure of why he was telling her this.

"I know. Ultimecia," Rinoa said, leaning forward. "I was happy you won. We all were. Anyway. They say Ultimecia's knight left her and that's why she went crazy." She paused. "Must be pretty powerful, that love thing. Have you ever been in love, Commander?"

Before he knew what he was saying, the word flew out of his mouth. "Once."

Rinoa sat up straight. "Really?" she said, eyes wide.

He placed his hand on his forehead, and doubled over, much like he had done last night, before he'd blacked out. She jumped up and put her arms around him to steady him. To her surprise, he didn't push her away this time.

In fact, he leaned into her, ever-so-slightly, as the image of his darkened dorm room, and that same girl, in a purple dress this time, came crashing into his mind. Frantic, heated kisses and clumsy, fumbling fingers; more nervous than he'd ever been in his entire life, as he whispered the words he so desperately wanted her to know.

Hyne, I love you …

Unaware of the memories he was reliving, she turned her head just an inch so that she could breathe in the scent of his uniform, mixed with the scent of him. This was the closest she had been to him since the night of his birthday party, and she wanted to hold on for dear life.

"No," he finally said, managing to break his ties to the images that had invaded his mind yet again. The pain in his head was finally subsiding, and he was able to stand on his own, but for some reason, he didn't move away from her. "I don't know why I said that. Laguna would say it was the faeries again. No, I've never been in love."

Rinoa nodded. Faeries … That's what they'd called it when Ellone would take them to the past.

Ellone! Was she … could she possibly be? Gods, was Ellone alive?

Standing in the library, her arms still around Squall, and that thought in her mind, Rinoa felt a hopefulness in her heart that she hadn't felt since this whole ordeal had begun.

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A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter. I thought it was high time we had a little teensy bit of fluff. There's been a lot of angsting going on. Oh, yes, there was still plenty of that ... but as Squall/Rinoa fans, I definitely think there's enough here to make you guys happy. XD Because I'm just going to tear it all down in the next few chapters. :p Thanks again to all my reviewers! You guys are great!