The Ironic Things in Life
Disclaimer: I don't own Final Fantasy 8 or anything related to it.
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Rinoa Heartilly swept her ebony coloured hair to the side and tried to pull up the zipper of the dress that she was currently trying on. Her friend, Selphie Tilmitt, who was carrying a stack of uneven boxes towards a chair, saw Rinoa struggling and awkwardly placed the boxes on the floor before bounding towards Rinoa to assist her.
"Need any help, Rin-Rin?" Selphie asked, bopping around Rinoa's shoulders, trying to catch sight of Rinoa's face in the mirror.
Rinoa turned around and met Sephie's excited face and wondered if Selphie had a knack for doing up tricky zippers. Rinoa and Selphie were in the fashionable and expensive 'Yuna's Boutique' which happened to be the most popular clothes and accessories store in town. Rinoa had chosen to take Selphie instead of Quistis Trepe, to whom she still wasn't on good terms with after discovering Quistis and Seifer Almasy's secret relationship.
It was a beautiful Monday morning and instead of going to work, Rinoa and Selphie had taken the day off to go and look for something that Rinoa could wear to 'The Sorceress' War' movie premiere with Squall Leonhart, the protagonist of the movie, who just so happened to be an up and coming celebrity and the President of Esthar's son.
"…Uh…are you sure you know what you're doing, Selphie?" Rinoa enquired cautiously, becoming scared of the way that Selphie's fingers were wriggling in anticipation.
"Of course I do!" Selphie enthused, turning Rinoa around and taking a hold of the zipper, "Now let me just jiggle…then pull…"
Rinoa closed her eyes in fear and was surprised when Selphie let go of her a second later.
"All done!" Selphie cheered, clapping her hands together.
Rinoa opened one eye, afraid to look and find that quite the contrary had happened, but all she found was that the dress had taken quite a liking to her figure and was hugging it in all the right places. However, in the case of the obstinate zipper, it was done up quite neatly and securely.
"Thanks, Sef," Rinoa said feeling greatly relieved that no harm had come to the beautiful dress which she had finally picked out after hours of searching in the boutique. Selphie had consistently been helping her pick out dresses but they always seemed to be very odd in fluorescent colours, stripes or spots which Rinoa didn't really have a liking for.
"No problems, Rin…you look like a mermaid," Selphie beamed.
Rinoa smiled to herself in the mirror. Yes, she did look like a mermaid.
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"Estharian Presidential Residence, how may I help you?" a woman asked politely on the other end of the line.
"It's Squall. Get me Kiros Seagill on the phone."
"Should I even bother asking whether or not you want to talk to your father instead?" Xu questioned sceptically.
Squall rolled his eyes and made a mental note to himself to get Xu transferred.
"Should I even bother answering that?"
"Squall, you'll never change, you know that? Well, hold on."
Squall listened to a modern version of 'Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec' playing while he waited. 'Fithos Lusec Wecos Vinosec' was a central song in his movie 'The Sorceress' War' and no doubt they had put this song on to promote the movie. The song cut off as Kiros answered his private phone.
"Kiros Seagill."
"Kiros, it's me."
Kiros had the urge to slam the phone down on the basis of what Squall had previously called him for. There was no way that he was going to get involved in one of Squall's crazy requests again.
"Squall, look, I think of you as a son and everything but after what you asked me to do last time…I don't know…you know I can't go around calling up Galbadians…and…"
"Kiros, calm down…I'm not asking you to call up General Caraway this time," Squall reassured, "It's something entirely different…I was just wondering about…my movie premiere…"
Kiros felt a rush of relief hit him and quickly interrupted Squall.
"Squall, it's in two days and as far as I know you still don't have a date to take with you. What are we going to tell the press? That a good looking, celebrity like yourself can't find a single girl to take with you? That's not accep…"
"Kiros, what are you going on about? Hasn't Irvine told you that I've found a date?" Squall cut in feeling confused.
"What? When did this happen? Who did you ask?"
Squall couldn't quite understand why Irvine hadn't told Kiros yet. After all, it was Irvine's job to keep Kiros updated on Squall's life…that's what Irvine was paid to do…
"Rinoa Heartilly."
"Rinoa Heartilly, ok…wait a second…Rinoa Heartilly! The same Rinoa Heartilly who was in the papers with you? The very same one who you got me to call up the Galbadian Presidential Residence for?"
"…"
"Squall, I want you to tell me right now who this Rinoa Heartilly is and don't you even dare lying to me."
Squall let out a sigh.
"She's…related to the Caraway's…."
Squall was met with an icy silence.
"How exactly is she related to the Caraways, Squall?"
"General Caraway is…her father…"
Minutes passed before Kiros spoke again and Squall could've sworn that he had heard Kiros cursing Hyne.
"Squall, you know how Laguna feels about Galbadians. If he finds out that you're date is also related to General Caraway, he'll kill me! Is that what you want?" Kiros demanded.
Squall's grip on the phone slackened as he shut his eyes tightly. How could he make Kiros understand how he felt about Rinoa? But it wasn't simply about his feelings…Rinoa was crucial to his plans. He had to get closer to her in order to find out everything he could about her.
"Kiros, please try to understand…"
"No, Squall, no! I have had it with you and Irvine! You keep this from me for so long and expect me to simply understand…? No…"
Squall took another stab at trying to convince Kiros.
"Kiros, she isn't like a typical Galbadian…I…I really like her…"
Squall felt his face flush a little as he admitted this little piece of information to Kiros of all people.
On the other end of the line Kiros heaved a defeated sigh. He knew how anti-social Squall was and he also knew that Squall had never gotten close to any female. It seemed that Squall's ability to communicate with women had died along with his mother.
"Laguna can't find out about this."
Kiros said this so fast that Squall couldn't figure out what Kiros meant by it.
"Huh?"
"Fine, you can take this Rinoa person but Laguna can't find out under any circumstances. I want her identity and background hushed up, is that clear?"
"Uh…sure…thanks, Kiros, I really appreciate this."
"Ok, well if that's all then I'll see you on Wednesday night…"
"Kiros, that's not why I called," Squall quickly added before Kiros could leave.
Kiros silently swore in his mind and received a sinking feeling in his stomach. He sincerely hoped that Squall wasn't trying to get him involved in some dodgy plan of his. Kiros was ironically reminded of being dragged into one of Laguna's hopeless plans many years ago.
"What is it, Squall?"
"Uh…well, not that I care but…is he gonna be at the premiere too?"
Kiros let out a relieved sigh but then smiled sadly. He knew that Squall was hoping for an affirmative answer and Kiros was afraid that he would have to be the one to break the bad news to him.
"Squall, I'm afraid Laguna won't be able to make it to your premiere but he told me to let you know that he really wanted to be there."
"Oh." Squall felt like something very hard had struck him across the face and for a second he forgot that he was still on the phone. He quickly adjusted his feelings and continued talking with a bitter expression on his handsome face.
"Squall, I'm really sorry…" Kiros said sympathetically.
"No, don't worry," Squall responded sourly, "Where is he anyway?"
"Laguna's out of town on business. He was very vague about it though but mentioned something about going to Timber for the 20th anniversary of some charity called 'Angel Wings'. He said that he wasn't to be disturbed under any circumstances."
"Right, that'd be it, wouldn't it?" Squall questioned angrily.
"Squall, I know how you're feeling right now and I totally understand that…"
"Oh, do you now?" Squall demanded in a low voice, "I suppose it was you who was put into boarding school at the age of 5 because your loony of a father was too busy looking for his beloved daughter to care about you?"
"Squall…"
"Because if you haven't gone through all of that then I don't expect you to understand so easily!" Squall yelled and slammed down the phone.
Breathing heavily, Squall fell back on the soft sofa beside him and tried to calm down a little. He had always tried to act as if anything that Laguna did or said didn't matter to him but he didn't know why this time he had reacted so badly to it.
He realised that he should be used to Laguna bailing on him by now. From what Squall had heard, before he had even been born, Laguna and Raine had had a daughter called Ellone who was the light of their lives. At the age of 3, Ellone had mysteriously disappeared and Laguna had left Raine all by herself to run Esthar in her pregnant state. Laguna was so obsessed with finding Ellone that he ignored Raine and the baby that was on its way. Raine had been extremely distressed at the loss of her beloved daughter and was suffering so much that when she finally gave birth to Squall she died from the stress and of not having Laguna by her side.
Eventually Laguna returned to Esthar a few weeks after Raine's death to resume his presidency and was shocked to find his wife had passed away and had left him a son behind. Laguna was devastated but instead of focusing his attention on Squall, he instead continued searching for little Ellone who he felt was the final connection between him and Raine. Squall was neglected until he turned 5 and was then sent off to Balamb Garden.
Squall was an anti-social but intelligent child who easily became popular as he got older. He didn't like the attention that girls gave him but it was inevitable with his good looks which he had inherited from his father. With dark, floppy hair, slate-blue eyes and a mysterious attitude Squall drew everyone's attention instead of doing the opposite of what he actually intended. His rare skill with a gunblade made him appreciated by Seifer Almasy who he developed a love-hate friendship with. Seifer was the only one who understood Squall without needing Squall to tell him anything and this was acknowledged secretly between both of them. Zell Dincht simply wanted to become friends with Squall, who found it hard to shake him off but accepted his friendship eventually.
Squall had never revealed to anyone, besides Seifer and Zell, that he happened to be the son of the President of Esthar, and after he graduated from Balamb Garden at the age of 17 he returned to Esthar for 2 years. Squall had always blamed Laguna for his mother's death, for not being there for her in her time of need and he would never forgive Laguna for this. It was then that Squall began to find clues to his father's mysterious past and of a woman named Julia Caraway who Laguna seemed to have been connected to. Squall had become obsessed with discovering Laguna's past and for this reason accompanied Laguna to Galbadia. However, Squall took a liking to Galbadia and decided to settle down there permanently and far away from Laguna.
And then there was Rinoa, a person who initially mattered to Squall only because she was Julia's daughter, now meant so much more to him…but thinking about that would give his head a throbbing he did not need right now. What interested Squall right now was this sister of Rinoa's whom Zell had never mentioned before.
A/N: Thanks for your reviews guys. I really appreciate it. I sincerely apologise for the lateness of this update but that was due to my computer crashing (AGAIN!!!) and I re-did this chapter to the best of my ability but it's not exactly the same as the original. Nevertheless, I hope you enjoy it and that it answers a few of your questions. The next chapter will be posted much sooner...I promise! Love you, guys:)