A/N: You guys probably want to kill me. I understand. You'll want to kill me even more so when I request that you read over the last two chapters or so, just so you can remember the events that occurred within the story's last day or so. Otherwise, you might not follow what's up. Thanks for bearing with me for so long. For the record, I can't believe I've been writing this thing for four friggin' years, and I'm just barely getting the tenth chapter up.
10. Duplicity and Diamonds
"What happened last night?"
The words froze her in mid-step, eyes darting quickly to the source.
There was latent anger beneath the expression, but his brow was creased in undeniable concern. She didn't want to consider whether or not he'd intended to conceal the worry that had etched across his expression.
Quistis sighed. "Seifer, I just got caught up in work again. I'm sorry. I found... usual things when I went into the office. I didn't notice what time it was until after I got home, and you were asleep." Her shoulders slumped with every sentence, defeated with the inevitable storm that would come.
At least she hadn't exactly been lying. Digging the pointed toe of her sensible pump into the thick white carpet, she let her eyes drop to watch the fibers part, her intention to make coffee utterly forgotten.
The storm didn't come, however.
"This has to stop, Quistis."
At the sound of Seifer's soft murmur, Quistis blinked and looked up. His emerald eyes were downcast, his jaw tense, and a heartbreaking earnestness pulling the corners of his lips into a grim line. He sat sullenly in her office chair, and by the look of it, he'd been sitting there silently since the early hours of morning. She hadn't heard a noise in the house since she'd awoken to find a void in his side of the bed, and had simply assumed he'd left to run his usual array of errands before the club opened.
Here he was, though. Listless and solemn, his unhappiness palpable. The room was thick with a unspoken words and internalized emotions, and Quistis felt like dirt.
"Just... give me a little more time," she whispered weakly, half-terrified that he'd hear the request, and the other half wanting to draw this all to peaceful, if tense, conclusion. "There are things happening, and..."
Seifer raised his gaze to her as she trailed off, the darkness around his eyes painfully visible. He wore thought on his expression, his head tilted in consideration.
"I can only give you so much before my line is reached, Quis," he sighed, slowly standing from the chair as though his legs would snap if he moved too quickly. "Love is never unconditional, babe. Everyone has a line that can be crossed. If not, they have no boundaries, no self-respect."
Quistis stood quietly, absorbing his words as they broke through the defenses that she knew couldn't stand up to the truth he was displaying for her. She simply watched as he stepped closer to her, and lowered her eyes as his fingertips gently brushed her cheek with a remorseful touch.
"I have boundaries," he told her quietly, sadly. "And if you don't, Quistis, there's only so far we can go. If you want my help, you know I'd give it if you'd just ask."
With that, his fingers fell away and the shield of his body exposed her to the garish rays of the morning, leaving her to the impact of his poignant words, and all the truth she didn't want to see.
"Surprise, surprise," Rinoa muttered to find the hotel room just the way it had been left the day before, a surprising sting of disappointment flaring up as she closed the door behind her. The very notion gave her pause, and a tightness in her chest.
Had she wanted Jax to be here, awake, and interrogating her about where she'd been? And for the sake of concern about the thread of a relationship they still had, or an excuse to tell him exactly what she'd been doing all night?
She chuckled humorlessly at the idea that she needed coercion of that kind to be forthcoming. It left a bitter taste in her mouth, and she padded to the bathroom, feeling the need to wash it away, along with any evidence of her deception.
I'm not sorry, Rin.
Kicking off her shoes, she treaded over the cold tiles of the bathroom, and caught her reflection in the mirror. The ghost of a smile still played on her lips at the words that whispered over and over again through her mind, broadened by the sight reflected back at her.
She was far too emotionally invested to objectively determine whether or not she looked as though she'd spent the night – and fair portion of the morning – in the throes of such delectable sin, but it was plain to her. Her hair was still in several fine tangles, and she could smell the scents of stale smoke and sex, hints of Squall's own musky fragrance embedded in her skin.
Biting her still tender lip, she turned to start the shower, not wasting a moment to step in, even as the water was still cold. Gradually, the tangles and damning reminders of the night before were nothing more than secret memoirs, down the drain and never to be shared.
The brunette closed her eyes as to mourn the loss, committing every detail she could to memory. She opened her mouth and breathed in deeply, tastes of tap water and crossed forbiddance on her lips. She smiled, not hearing the door to the hotel as Jax entered, and the springs of the bed as he sat down and waited anxiously for her shower to end.
"You're chipper today."
Squall looked up from his task, properly aligning the bottles behind the bar in order of height, and sent Selphie a half-smile. "This from the city's most pathologically chipper individual? I'm just working."
The petite girl put a hand on her hip, and a knowing smirk on her face. "Working? If that's what you call organizing the alcohol alphabetically, then deciding it 'disrupts the aesthetics' of the bar, and then putting them in varying rows from shortest to tallest, and tallest to shortest."
Squall abruptly stopped what he was doing, then dropped his hands and pivoted on a heel. Crossing his arms, he leaned against the back counter and grinned sheepishly. "Well... I just figured I'd help you with prep today. Irvine's dropping in later, right?"
At the mention of her boyfriend's name, Selphie's large eyes brightened. "Yep! But if he finds you going all Feng Shui on his liquor, he's gonna think you're going a little light in the loafers, you know what I mean?" She sent a rather theatrical wink towards him, and a grave nod. "He won't care, but it could affect the kinda clientèle we bring in here, and Irvy hates The Village People."
"Selph, I'm not gay," Squall laughed, knowing she was just teasing him, "Trust me."
"Well," she defended, throwing her arms up dramatically, "just sayin'. It's been a long time since the last time I saw you with a girl, and frankly, darlin', those last few were a li-ttle below your caliber." With a waggle of her finger towards him, she shook her head. "'Trust me'," she mocked, playfully. "How the hell do I know you're not..."
Suspicion crept over her brow, the humor falling comically from her face as she cut her sentence in two clean, largely spaced halves.
"...Unless you got laid."
Quickly, Squall spun around again, hiding the grin he knew he couldn't easily keep disguised.
Selphie was in shock. She was just busting his chops, knowing that Squall had the company of women on and off for periods of time, but never had he outwardly displayed any sort of effect from such an encounter.
"Jeez, Squally, I've never seen you glow like a pregnant woman before. I think congrats might be in order. Who's the other lucky party in this mutation experiment?"
Sighing, Squall shook his head, opening his mouth to send a quip right back in her direction when he was cut off by the sweet, silken timbre of another voice.
"You're pregnant, Squall?"
He spun back around, blinking in surprise. "Rin!"
"When were you gonna tell me?" she asked, a half-hearted smirk on her lips.
Selphie instantly raised an eyebrow, quickly picking up on the sudden tension in the room, as though Squally and Rinoa had completely forgotten they were in public. With a grin, she silently excused herself, pointless as the effort was, and got to cleaning the tables in the front.
Only after several seconds of gazing intensely at one another did it finally occur to Squall that her voice had been thinner than normal, and her expression wore a trace of uncertainty.
Swallowing, he tried to reject the idea that she was starting to have regrets. In spite of himself, however, he found his mouth opening. "What's the matter?"
Her dark eyes slid to the side briefly, peering through the edges of her glasses to make sure there was no one else within earshot. Fortunately, the bar had just opened, and its usual patrons wouldn't be arriving for another few hours once the standard workday ended. Only Selphie was close, and Rinoa was too distraught to be terribly concerned with her presence.
Still, she spoke quietly, her gaze on the bar before her. "Jax..."
Leaning over the bar, Squall rested his arms on the wood, piercing blue eyes immediately looking over her for any sign of physical altercation. He hadn't found out and gotten violent, had he? He couldn't see anything on her face, but the sleeves of her black sweater were long, and her legs were hidden from his sight under the bar. When he finally spoke, his voice was tighter than he would have liked. "What? What happened with Jax?"
"I... I went back to the hotel, and he wasn't there. I took a shower, and when I got out, he was sitting on the bed, waiting for me. He gave me roses, and started babbling to me about how sorry he was and how much he wanted to make everything right, and...." She paused for a moment to shake her head. "I don't think he even realized I hadn't stayed there last night. He was acting so strange. I can't understand how...."
Brows furrowed, Squall stared at her, as lost as she seemed to be about where this was going. Glancing away for a moment, he drew in a deliberate breath in a meager attempt to will away the unwelcome anxiety creeping over him. He wasn't entirely sure he wanted to hear the rest of the story. Fear of Jax finding out? He thought, Or fear of Rinoa recommitting herself to the undeserving prick?
"So he's trying to make up with you...?" he finally mustered, still uncertain about what had shaken her so profoundly. He found his jaw tensing at the idea of their make-up session, but it wasn't exactly unexpected. She was still in a relationship with the guy, after all.
When she didn't answer immediately, he tried again, his voice softening with his increasing concern. "Rin? What happened, babe?"
With all the speed of a clock's hour hand, Rinoa lifted her left arm from where her hands had been clasped beneath the bar, and sprawled her fingers out atop the surface.
Squall's breath caught in his throat, nearly choking in surprise.
A diamond, large and awkward on such a pale and delicate finger, glared smugly up at him.
"He... gave me a ring," she whispered, her voice failing her completely as though she'd just realized it herself.