March 4th

Leon awoke with terrible back pain. He had slept all night on his right side where usually in the night he'd alternate automatically. The sun had disturbed him from his slumber and was beating warm against his body. It took him a few moments to gather his bearings and remember where he was. Looking up he saw the dent of Zell's body in the mattress above him. Looking down to his feet he saw Quistis, Irvine and Ellone still asleep in their single beds. He wondered if this was Rinoa's bed before she 'moved out'. Lifting himself out from under the covers he went over to the window and sat in silence watching the world outside. He saw the Bailey miniscule in the distance. He sighed and leant against the wall taking his eyes away from the free world. Then he heard footsteps. The curtain leading to Rinoa's room was being pulled back. He watched as her whole body emerged from behind and walked out as gracefully as ever. As he suspected she was wearing her cloak but this time had different clothes on underneath. She was holding a bunch of papers and Leon could only imagine what was on them. He thought if she had been wearing a suit she'd look like a business woman. As she strode down the stairs her cloak got caught on something and she dropped her papers at the sudden stop.

"Son of a…" she whispered angrily

He didn't mean to but he laughed slightly. The first words he'd heard her say in three years and they were curses. After she picked up the papers she scrunched them together and started to walk away again. As soon as she appear directly in front of him, Leon stood,

"Good Morning, Mrs Leonhart" he spoke softly

Rinoa stopped in her tracks. Slowly he started to walk forward but hearing his footsteps Rinoa covered her mouth and ran through the metal door separating them once again.

"Damn, I thought you got her then!" Leon looked up to see Zell peering down from his bed. Crossing his eyes over the single beds he saw the remaining three had also been observing. Irvine smiled sadly and pulled the covers back over his head, the others following his lead.

X-X-X

After a few hours the others woke properly and got themselves ready for the day. A Zoric had brought them meals on a tray and Leon was surprised to see a worthy meal,

'Must be due to Rinoa's negotiations' he thought

After eating everyone went about there business. Quistis sat on her bed writing in a journal, Ellone and Irvine had got themselves involved in a game of Triple Triad and Zell was sitting on the desk drawing a picture as far as Leon could tell. As for himself he ran a cold shower in the men's bathroom. By the time he'd dried off, dressed and brushed his teeth he had been in there for a good hour. When he entered the main room again he saw Rinoa standing at the bars passing Quistis a handful of papers.

"Number three and seven can wait till last but the others have to been done today," she told her

"Ok, is this the west wing or east?"

"West, we've almost finished the east now so Maleficent wants the rest started on. She's getting all excited because her castles almost being completely rebuilt. I think she's now widening her search for the Key-Bearer,"

"How?"

"She's telling Pete to start plonking Heartless everywhere again. Now he's traveling farther then ever before. He's going to the Great Woods. But anyway Scorpion will be in here in a second to give you your tools and take you over there. The Zorics need a bit more muscle," She started to walk toward the metal door

"Wait what about Squall?" Zell asked "Where's he at?"

Rinoa stopped suddenly one hand on the handle.

"He hasn't been assigned. He stays here," she said quietly and then left, closing the door softly behind her.

"That was strange," Quistis said fiddling with the paper in her hands

"Yeah," Zell agreed

"What was?!" Leon said slightly angered

"That's the most she's spoken to us in about two years, did you hear? She actually carried on a conversation, telling us about Pete and Maleficent,"

The others nodded,

"Seems like Squall's making a difference on her already," Ellone said with a smile in Leon's direction.

He just accepted it and prayed to Hyne she was right.

X-X-X

He sat alone in the room; he'd been there by himself for hours. He flicked through the Triple Triad cards a few times but there was no point in holding onto them if no one was around to play. He observed Zell's picture from earlier and saw it was of a girl, Viola, she was one of the library committee members back in Balamb Garden and Zell's girlfriend for a good few years. When Balamb was attacked and destroyed she was killed right before his eyes. Zell had never forgiven himself for letting it happen and for the first few months in Radiant Garden had walked around as a raving drunk. Eyeing the sketch one more time Leon congratulated Zell's artistic skills as the drawing looked as if she had been modelling. He wondered if he could ask him to draw one of Rinoa.

And just as that thought crossed his mind the metal door opened and she walked in. He noticed her body was slightly slanted to the right as if she was trying to ignore the fact he was in the room. Now he knew was his chance.

"Rinoa, please talk to me," He walked over to the bars watching her walk toward her room; eventually meaning walking past him "No ones here…if there's something wrong with you I need to know.," She stopped slowly as she reached the entrance; he was now as close as he could get without actually touching her "For the past three years I've been without you and now its like you're still gone. I don't care if you have a wound or scar…it would just mean you joined my club," he heard a small laugh "I miss your smile, I miss your eyes and your voice," to his surprise he started to choke up a bit "I miss the way you would sing all the time and how you would moan at me for not putting the toilet seat down…" he saw her wipe her cheek and noticed her hands came out glossy. He reached inside his trouser pocket and produced a hanky. Gesturing it toward her with his left hand, she timidly took it and wiped her face "I miss your cooking and the way you'd always wipe my face if for some reason I'd missed my mouth. I…I miss the way you'd give me a kiss each morning when I woke up and each night before I went to sleep. The way you could make me feel better about any situation, you'd calm my nerves and make me believe everything is going to be ok. But most of all I miss you, everything about you…" he stopped as he had to wipe his own silent tear

"I miss you too," he heard her say. It came out as a hoarse whisper "I miss you so much, these last three years have been hell. I've seen you a few times and each one I had to stop myself from going to you. When I saw that Memorial stone I would have died then and there. Although I was away from you I couldn't bear the thought of you dead. I always thought if you were alive then hopefully everything would find a way to solve itself and we'd be back together one day. But that was before…"

"Before what…please Rinoa, I don't care what's happened I just want to know your ok,"

"No, Squall I'm not ok. I've changed and it's not for the better. I have to hide my face because of it and I hate living in the darkness but it's the only way I can protect everyone I love. No one should be near me, not when I'm like this"

"Please, remember what I vowed to you? For better or worse and even if we weren't married I would still stick by that. I'm your knight and no matter what I'm here to protect you,"

For the first time she had turned toward him. His arm was still reaching out of the bar and slowly he felt her left hand circle his own. Her touch was cold and foreign to him but he accepted every moment of it. He held her hand tightly and rubbed his thumb against the rings. She returned the pressure; rubbing her thumb against his own wedding band and kept the other hand on the wall as if trying to stop herself from falling.

He remembered they had words engraved on each of the bands insides and without even thinking he whispered them to her,

"My Angel"

That was it, the thing to make her sob loudly; she now used her right hand to wipe her eyes with his hanky. But still through all the tears and sobs she managed to reply,

"My Lion"

Slowly she removed her hand from her face and grabbed the top of her hood. Her hand was shaking as she started to pull it down but just as Leon was about to see her face clearly a loud bang caused her to stop as the others entered the room back from their days work. Quickly she whipped her hand away and ran into her room.

Leon cursed his friend's bad timing but only in his head. They stood dumb-founded as they watched their friend storm into the lavatory and slam the door shut.

"Oops"

X-X-X

Rinoa hadn't emerged from her room for hours. He still cursed secretly about the whole situation. In less that forty-eight hours he had managed to get her to speak to him and just as she was about to remove her hood they were interrupted and she was scared off. Although his friends had apologised he still wasn't willing to tell them about their conversation. It was way to personal and frankly none of their business. He lay on his bed thinking about how great it was to feel her and for her to be so close he could smell her. It had changed over the years. She used to smell of lavender where now she smells like roses. He closed his eyes and tried to feel it all again. But just as he was peaceful a loud gong echoed through the castle. Zell hopped off of his bed with a thump and ran to the window. Leon sat up defensively.

"Yup, just as I thought…tonight's the night people. The moon's more orange then a moomba,"

"Orange? You mean the ceremony…?"

Everyone nodded.

Just then two portals opened from the wall outside the cell. Two hooded Zorics emerged and went toward Rinoa's room.

"They're her servants, Isis and Pebble," Quistis whispered "They also look after her if she's wounded or sick. They respect her greatly and would jump off a cliff if she told them too,"

A conversation could be heard from the room but the words only came out as murmurs. Then as expected a hand pulled the curtain back. Isis walked out first, then Pebble with Rinoa walking in the middle. She was now wearing a long black dress that skimmed the ground. There were no arms but the dress shaped around the breasts. As the others had told her she still wore her navy hood. As she walked Leon noticed she wasn't wearing shoes and as her bare feet touched the ground he smiled as he remembered Aerith saying she had extremely small feet. He'd never noticed before but it was true. On her right ankle was a tattoo of an iris. The blue flower had two vines around the edges and twisted beautifully. She had got it when she was twenty-one on the fifteenth year memorial of her mother's death. Iris's had been her favourite flower.

So Leon watched her gracefully walk past and leave the room without a word.

It was a few hours before he heard the door go again. He had tried to ask what took place in the ceremony but nobody could describe it easily. He watched as Isis opened the door and held it open. For this time Rinoa did not elegantly walk in she was on a stretcher being carried by two male Zorics; Pebble following closely. Impulse took over and although Leon had been warned of this moment nothing could have prepared him for it. He ran to the bars yelling her name. Zell and Irvine tried to hold him back but struggled. Pebble ran over and scolded him.

"Sorceress Rinoa needs her sleep. If she is disturbed during her regeneration process then she could forever be scarred. Please be quiet!"

Leon stopped fighting his friends and walked over to his bed. He didn't say another word for the rest of the night and luckily for him, his friends respected his decision.