"You can put me down now,"

"What if I don't want to?" Squall gave Rinoa a small smile

"Well you're going to have to, to open the door," Rinoa returned his smile with an even bigger one.

Defeated Squall set Rinoa on the ground outside there apartment. She stood next to him.

"See, I told you I didn't need to be carried, I can stand on my own two feet,"

She smiled and spun around in a circle, finishing with precise accuracy.

"Take it easy," He grabbed her by the wrist. Rinoa gave him a small smile

"Squall…" she took his hand and guided it to her chest "I'm fine, see? Heartbeat, breathing, it's as if nothing happened,"

"But something did happen!" He removed his hand and beckoned her inside the apartment. He closed the door and turned to where she stood. "Rinoa, it's like you don't understand. You died and all I could do was watch. I could only sit there, holding you until…until you became like a lifeless doll. In that instance I felt so alone and scared. I literally wanted to grab my gunblade and stab it through my che-"

"Squall!" Rinoa grabbed his arms quickly "Please, don't say anything else. I can't stand the thought of causing you so much pain," she buried her head in his chest, as tears streaked down her face "I'm sorry…I always do this to you. I'm so, so sorry, Squall, please forgive me,"

"Rinoa…" he whispered as he held onto her tightly, "I don't care about anything but you. I would face a thousand Omega Weapons if it was just to make you happy. You may think you always cause me grief, but that's not true. What you give me is so much more. Rinoa Heartilly, I can honestly say I have never felt so happy then when you are by my side,"

Hearing this made Rinoa cry even more, she buried her head deeper into Squall's chest, if it were physically possible, and they stood for what felt like forever in each others embrace. Lifting her head so she looked at him Squall peered into Rinoa's swollen eyes. Bending down softly he gave her a tender kiss. It was light in touch and in Rinoa's eyes, perfect. When they parted, she turned her head in deep thought.

Should I tell him? He only wants to protect me. No! If I tell him he'll come and could end up getting hurt! I won't do that to him!

"You okay?" Squall was almost unheard over her thoughts.

She turned to him with a look the same as a child caught doing something bad. She looked away quickly and bit her bottom lip. She released her self from his embrace and walked over to the small kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge; leaving a very confused Squall near the door.

"What's going on?" he asked, eyeing her suspiciously

"Nothing, just getting myself a drink," she shook the bottle "Uh, want one?"

"No…I'm…fine," he stayed looking at her trying to find some answer "You're up to something"

Crap, why am I so bad at lying!

"No…" she shook her head and took another swig

"Yes…yes, you are. I can always tell Little Miss, so you better tell me another wise I'll have to do some interrogations," he crossed his arms, and started walking toward her.

She moved her weight to one side and placed a hand on her hip.

"Oh, I doubt it will be that bad. I'm sure I can get through any 'punishment' you throw at me,"

He wrapped his arm around her waist and put there foreheads together.

"Who said anything about punishment? I have other ways to make you talk,"

She giggled and in one swift movement poured the remaining contents of her drink over his head causing him to back away wiping his face.

"Shame, Doctors orders: 'refrain from tiring activates'," With that she pecked him on the cheek and walked over to the bedroom door. She turned around giggling at the sight of him with a towel over his face, "but, Squall, really, I'm ok,"

He threw the towel onto the counter and crossed his arms.

"Not for long," and then without warning he chased her into the bedroom.

X X X

So much for 'no tiring activates' Rinoa laughed to herself as she curled up next to a sleeping Squall. Well, at least now he'll believe me when I say I'm alright, he basically searched every inch of me just now.

She snorted loudly as the thought entered her brain. She covered her mouth in her best attempt to muffle the noise, but unfortunately it came up short. Squall stirred and awoke with a gasp. Rinoa stroked his chest still trying to hold back any strange thoughts.

"Its okay, I just sneezed that's all,"

"Where's the pig?" Squall asked in his half-asleep mode

"…the pig?"

"Yeah, it was laughing at the donkey…"

Rinoa giggled to herself, it was the first time she'd seen Squall so out-of-it. She was going to use it to her best advantage.

"Well, you see. The pig went to join the rooster who was having tea with the President, oh and Cid was there too, and of course he wore his best tutu-"

"Yeah, of course,"

"And oh yeah, the donkey wanted to know why Zell refused to go out with him, so in the end he decided to go out with Irvine,"

"….Selphie?"

"She's got together with the farmer,"

"Hmm, good…but why was the pig laughing…?"

"Well, uh?" she peered over and saw he had now completely fallen asleep.

Moving out from under his arm she slowly, crept away from the room and walked over to the telephone. Dialling in the number she only had to wait a few moments before there was an answer.

"Hey…yeah, he knows I'm ok now….of course it's still happening tomorrow, it's now or never…no, Yuffie, you made a promise you wouldn't tell anyone…yes Vincent does count! Look, after Squall leaves for the office in the morning I'll ring you and we'll leave…we're going to use one of your hover bikes I saw in Cid's ship…I'm sorry about that but if you're gonna be sick then make sure its not gonna be over me…once we defeat them everything will be back to normal…no, Yuffie I've told you why I'm not telling Squall….its because he's done too much already. I'm not making him do anymore…I don't care, really…yes, fine I'll admit it, I am trying to protect him but if I tell him he won't hear anything of it…well, look, we need our sleep if we're gonna do this so I'll see you tomorrow…yeah, bye,"

Sighing she put the phone back in the cradle.

"…well, look, we need our sleep if we're gonna do this so I'll see you tomorrow…yeah, bye,"

Squall had awoken properly, as soon as Rinoa had left his arms. Gathering his bearings he went to follow her out of the room only to be found eavesdropping at the door. Each word she said put him in utter confusion. Hearing her put the phone down he rushed back into the bed, his eyes closed. He felt the bed shift as she crawled back in. At first she slept close to him but then turned over. He grabbed her around the waist and buried his head in the back of her neck,

"I love you," he whispered

The words made Rinoa tickle; she turned her head slightly to look at him.

"I love you too," she replied softly.

And once again the couple found themselves in the world of slumber.

X X X

Rinoa awoke around noon. This threw her totally off-guard as usually Squall's alarm would have woken her up. Looking behind she was also caught off-guard to see that he was still asleep in bed.

"Squall," she shook him slightly "Squall, you're late for work,"

He opened one eye and looked at her.

"Cid gave me today off; he said he knows how troubling it can be thinking your sorceress is in trouble,"

Rinoa's heart stopped.

Crap, what am I gonna do?

"Don't worry about anything, I'll be by your side all day," he said resting his chin on her shoulder.

Double crap

"I must be the luckiest girl in the world," she forced a giggle

"Well, yeah, you should have known that the moment you met me,"

Rinoa rolled her eyes. She sunk lower into her pillow.

"You weren't planning on doing anything today were you?" he asked, smirking

"N-No, not at all. Lounging around the apartment really, although I need to go food shopping later so you can be by yourself,"

"That's all right; I'll come with you,"

"You don't have to do that; I know you hate shopping,"

"No, really its ok, you'll need help carrying the bags,"

"No, I insist, stay home and I'll get Yuffie to help me with the bags,"

"No, that's not fair on her,"

"Its really sweet but I think you should stay home and relax a bit,"

"I relax enough when I sleep; I want to spend the day with you,"

"But you don't have to,"

"But I want to,"

"But there's no need to,"

"For Hyne's sake Rinoa, what aren't you telling me?!"

"There's nothing, honestly," She started to get up from the bed but he grabbed her wrist forcing her to sit down

"I heard your conversation with Yuffie last night; I know your planning something…to 'defeat' someone,"

Triple crap! ...lie, lie, quick think of a lie!!

"Well…" She stuttered a bit "Ok…I really didn't want to tell you…but me and Yuffie have entered the Triple Triad tournament, so we were gonna hang out today and practise. We were going to go and see if the Queen of Cards was in town, we were hoping she could give us some pointers…because well, we think we'd need them,"

"So…when you said about 'defeating someone'…" Squall started

"We were talking about the Card Club,"

"Then what about the whole 'wanting to protect me'?"

"From the embarrassment, you have to admit I suck when it comes to Triple Triad,"

Squall let out a small snort,

"That's true…ok, ok then what about the hover bikes?"

"I thought we could use them to look for the Queen, Bird's eye view and everything,"

Squall shock his head,

"I'm sorry, I should have trusted you, and it's just…"

"I know…you only want to look after me," She hugged him; burying her head in his neck "…and I wouldn't have it any other way," regretfully she pulled away and stood up "I better start getting ready, me and Yuffie really need to practice,"

"Yeah, you could sure use it,"

Quickly Rinoa grabbed a pillow and hit him with it, poking out her tongue she walked out of the room and into the bathroom.

I'm so going to hell for this. Why does this all have to be so awkward? But no, we have a plan, defeat the "clan" and then hopefully no one will ever have to worry. I feel so horrible, Squall trusts me and now I'm going to throw it back in his face. Oh Hyne please let this go as smoothly as planned, but if it doesn't please look after Squall and the others.

Squall sat on the bed.

Triple Triad my ass. She'd never enter that competition, just last week she told me how she hated playing anyone but me; only because I let her win sometimes. I'll just have to follow her, maybe that Vincent guy can help, if Yuffie's involved then obviously he'd help me. So its settled, talk to Vincent, follow Yuffie and Rinoa and find out what they're up to.

A/N: Sorry to any readers for the slow update. I promise i'll start updating quicker. I'm also writing a KH fanfic but i won't upload that one until i finished it coz i know how annoying it can be waiting for the ending of a story. Please review this story because they'd really help keep me motivated. If i knew my work was wanted i'd update in the blink of an eye. So let me know...ok, peace out and all that jazz thinks i love that song...