As he held her in his arms, he wondered how he had gotten himself to this point.
He had a beautiful young woman pressed up close and the hero-worship of hundreds of SeeDs across the world. He had a group of amazing friends and a father he didn't know he had. He'd been reunited with his sister.
And still, he was miserable.
Oh, he tried to smile for Rinoa, and he held her hand and let her show him off. There was nothing insidious about the way she liked to hang on her arm, it just made her feel good to be able to have some sort of proof of his affection. And as much as he hated it when people stared at him, or talked about him, it didn't bother him as much as it used to.
No, there wasn't a single thing he could rightly complain about in his life, and yet there was just something wrong.
Maybe it was the lack of an over-loud braying laugh in the halls, or the flash of blond hair around the corner atop a too-tall frame. Maybe it was the lack of bone-biting spars in the training center, or the teasing remarks.
But it wasn't there, and it didn't seem right.