The Ironic Things in Life

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 8 does not belong to me.

--

Seifer Almasy's emerald eyes glittered suspiciously as he studied Zell Dincht's sleeping face. Zell had refused to say anything about what Squall was concocting but had stuck to his story about Squall wasn't trying to get information out of Rinoa.

Seifer couldn't understand this. If Squall wasn't trying to get information out of Rinoa then why was he spending so much time with her? This was a mystery that he had to get to the bottom of.

--

Squall Leonhart had been sitting, petrified, on his bed ever since Rinoa Heartilly had left him in the morning. He wasn't aware of what the time was and he didn't care that his stomach was growling with hunger. The look on Rinoa's face before she had gone had left Squall petrified.

Squall's insides were a tangled mess right now. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what was wrong with him or what was happening but he knew that he had just made a huge mistake. The truth was Squall didn't think that Rinoa would react like that and now he was going to have to find another way to get into the heavily guarded Caraway Mansion.

Squall's insides heaved and he knew that that wasn't the only reason he felt so messed up. Rinoa's sadness was affecting him as if they were one and the same. Or maybe it was his own sadness…he wasn't so sure anymore.

Squall's phone rang and this roused him from his uneasy state of mind. He reached for his phone which was on the bedside table and answered it.

"Hel-" he began to say,

"Squall Leonhart, if I don't kill you, stuff you in a cheap plastic bag and then bury you next to a pile of Moogle droppings then my name isn't Selphie Tilmitt!"

"Selph-" he started to say.

"How DARE you treat Rinoa in that way! I will squash you into the ground! I will make sure you never have children! I will stalk your father!"

Squall found it hard to picture 5 foot Selphie squashing him into the ground but knowing Selphie, he was sure she would find a painful way to keep her word even if that meant hiring a bulldozer and learning to drive it.

"Ok, Selphie, just-" he tried again.

"How could you treat her like this, Squall? How could you use her in this way?"

Squall closed his eyes and took a deep breath. What was he supposed to do? Why was Rinoa making him feel like this? How could he overcome this emptiness he was feeling?

"Selphie, what can I do?' Squall asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the line as if Selphie was trying to decide whether or not to give a little bit of information away. Finally, Squall heard a sigh and Selphie spoke again.

"Squall, you have to go and apologise to her and tell her what it is that you're searching for. She could help you. She would understand."

Squall opened his eyes and considered this. Did he want the past or a future with Rinoa? It was all up to him. He was the only one who could make this decision.

"Ok, Selphie, I'm coming over to talk to her."

"No, you're too late, Squall. Rinoa left a while ago. She's gone back to her father's mansion and she said she won't be coming back."

--

Four hours earlier Elly Caraway had opened the front door of the Caraway Mansion to find her younger sister Rinoa in a terrible state. Rinoa's hair was askew, her clothes were falling out of her suitcase and her eyes were red and tear-stained. Luckily, Elly hadn't panicked. Instead she had hurried Rinoa inside and offered her a tub of chocolate ice cream which had seemed to calm Rinoa down a little bit.

"Men are such pigs!" Rinoa was declaring at that exact moment, "You think they love you and that they're sweet and caring but then they go and do something like this and…"

Elly winced and stroked Rinoa's hair in an attempt to calm her raging and thoroughly devastated sister.

"Ria, honey, why don't you go to your room and get some sleep? It'll help settle you down a little and I'll wake you up when it's time for dinner," Elly suggested gently.

Rinoa nodded and gathered up her things before listlessly progressing up the stairs and out of sight. Elly sighed and lay back on the sofa. She had taken over the maternal role for Rinoa after their mother, Julia, had passed away many years ago. Elly loved Rinoa like a sister and a daughter and it was hard for her to see Rinoa in this condition.

Elly snapped out of her thoughts as the doorbell rang and resounded throughout the mansion. She didn't want to be a burden upon the servants so she always answered the door herself.

She quickly jumped up, strolled to the front door and opened it. Her chocolate coloured eyes fell upon a handsome young man with storm coloured eyes and a sombre expression on his face.

"Can I help you?" she asked, feeling as if she'd seen him before but couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"I'm here to see Rinoa," the young man said shortly as he ran a hand through his brunette hair looking anxious.

Ellone raised an eyebrow. Could this possibly the same man who had treated Rinoa so terribly the night before?

"And who exactly are you?" she enquired.

"Squall Leonhart."

'Oh, Squall Leonhart,' Ellone realised.

So this was the same man who had treated Rinoa so terribly the night before! Ellone realised that Squall looked so familiar because she had seen him in newspaper articles so many times before. He was a movie star, but there was something else about him…something she couldn't quite grasp at that moment.

"Come in, Squall," she said and held the door open for him.

--

Squall couldn't believe that he had finally managed to enter the Caraway Mansion, something that his father had never managed to accomplish before. Now, here he was, at the root of all the trouble that had entered his life. He hated Julia Caraway with a passion and he had a feeling that there was someone else in this house who shared the same feeling, although probably not as strong.

Squall observed the young woman who had invited him inside. She had dark brown hair which was cropped to her ears and soft brown eyes which seemed so kind. She seemed to exude a kind of elegance, grace and warmth that he had never experienced before.

'She must be Rinoa's sister,' he assumed as she passed him a cup of tea and he nodded his thanks.

However, Rinoa's sister didn't resemble Rinoa in appearance at all. Not even in the slightest. Squall was puzzled by this but he realised that not everyone in a family looked alike. Kiros had told him that he resembled Laguna and not his mother, Raine.

"I'm Elisabeth, Rinoa's older sister, but you can call me Elly," the young woman said as Squall sipped his tea, "And for the past few hours I've heard nothing but bad things about you."

"They were all probably true."

Elly gave Squall the ghost of a smile. She was surprised that Squall had so easily accepted his faults.

"Well, Squall, what can I do for you?" Elly asked as she studied his face.

There was something about Squall that was nagging at the corner of Elly's mind. She couldn't quite figure out what it was but she knew that it was something important.

Squall hung his head so that Elly couldn't see his eyes.

"I wanted to see Rinoa," he lied, "I want to apologise for being a jerk and treating her the way I did. I have to see her, please."

Elly's expression softened and she nodded.

"If you really want to make it up to her then I'll get her for you Squall, but don't play around with her. Rinoa's going through a hard time."

Squall nodded in understanding and watched as Elly stood up and disappeared up a set of stairs. As soon as she was out of sight he quickly put his tea aside and jumped up.

Squall knew exactly what he was looking for but he didn't know where to find it. He didn't even know if the thing he was looking for was in the Caraway Mansion at that exact moment. He would have to take his chances and blindly search the entire mansion until he reached his goal.

--

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Zell Dincht cried out as Fujin and Raijin launched their attack on him.

A metre away Seifer Almasy and Irvine Kinneas were silently watching as Zell squirmed and wriggled away from Seifer's posse. Irvine Kinneas was actually 

having a hard time watching Zell getting tortured. He had never wanted to go this far.

"Uh…Seifer, are you sure this is necessary? We might scar him for life or damage his ribs…"

Seifer hadn't taken his eyes off Zell for a while but at Irvine's question he turned to address the anxious man with a sneer.

"Irvine, you're worrying as if we're electrocuting him or something. We're only tickling him after all."

Irvine looked down at the ground sheepishly but decided to keep pushing the subject. After all, nothing said that Seifer was in charge. Irvine had just as much say in this as anyone else.

"Still, Seifer, we can't tickle him forever. If he was going to say something he would've said it by now."

Seifer looked away thoughtfully and decided that Irvine was right. Zell had been under torture of tickling for over two hours and he still hadn't said anything. Then again it was probably difficult to put a sentence together when you were laughing so much. Still, Seifer would have to step things up a little.

"Ok, Fujin, Raijin cease torturing," Seifer ordered his odd companions.

Like obedient puppy dogs, Fujin and Raijin dropped their fingers and stepped back to where Seifer and Irvine were standing.

Seifer strode forward and Irvine did the same so that he wouldn't be forgotten. Seifer glanced back at Raijin and Fujin and nodded.

"Bring in 'Plan B'."

Zell's forehead wrinkled as he watched Raijin and Fujin leave the room. His stomach was still sore from 'Plan A' and yet they were moving onto their next scheme so quickly. Zell realised that Seifer had this planned out exteremely well.

Fujin and Raijin re-entered the room with an object that made Zell's insides squirm in panic.

'No! How could they know?'Zell wondered.

Seifer smirked at Zell as if he knew what Zell was thinking. Raijin and Fujin carried the object up to Seifer, who took it into his hands and stood it upright. The object was like an enlarged skateboard but unlike a skateboard it hovered instead 

of using wheels to move around. It was black with a fiery red zigzag running down it; it was Zell's T-board.

"How…?" was all Zell managed to say, not daring to take his eyes off his prized T-board.

"Well, Zell, Irvine and I have the fortune of unlimited access to you and the girl's apartment as two thirds of the girls are our respective girlfriend's."

Zell's voice trembled as he spoke next.

"I don't understand what Quistis Trepe sees in you, Seifer. You're lower than the dirt on my shoes."

Seifer seemed unaffected by Zell's words.

"Ah, you've certainly gained some backbone since our school days, Zell, but you know what? You'll always be a chicken-wuss to me."

Zell's face turned bright red in embarrassment.

"Don't call me CHICKEN-WUSS!"

Seifer laughed nastily and patted Zell's T-board as if it was an old friend of his.

"Zell, let's get to the point, shall we? I seem to remember that, apart from Squall Leonhart, your other companion was your beloved T-board and upon entering your room we easily found it. Tell us what we want to know and we won't harm it but if you fail to do so…" Seifer brandished his gunblade threateningly.

Zell Dincht gulped. He was well aware how extensive a single scratch from a gunblade was to a human being so if that same gunblade even touched his T-board then the damage would be irreversible.

Seifer moved his gunblade closer to Zell's T-board and tapped it menacingly.

"So, what'll it be, chicken-wuss?"

--

Squall looked into the darkened hallway and saw that a light was on in a room at the very end of the second floor. He cautiously crept towards as a predator creeps towards is prey.

Upon reaching the closed door he was certain that someone was inside. Although it was daylight this hallway appeared to be kept in a dark condition so it was strange that a light would be left on to ruin the atmosphere.

Squall gently turned the door nob and pushed the door open. He looked around and breathed a sigh of relief as he spotted the ageing man seated at a large mahogany desk.

The man looked up to acknowledge Squall and kept his features composed as he addressed him.

"Squall Leonhart, I knew you would come to me one day."

A/N: I seem to be repeating myself for the 40th time but I do apologise for the lateness of this chapter as once again my computer crashed. However, I did get a new computer so everything should be stable for a while now.

I really appreciate all of you who appreciate this story. :D Please continue reading and reviewing and I respect everyone's point of view's whether negative or positive.

So...the plot thickens! Squall has reached his goal but this goal of his stretches further than he can see. I hope this chapter makes for an interesting read and the next chapter tells of Julia and Laguna's past. This story will be ending very soon so perhaps 25 will be the last chapter. We shall see because I don't want to rush anything, rather let it all flow.

Thanks for reviewing everyone! :D