Erm, so I REALLY like Black Forest Gateau and a conversation I had with a friend about 'happiness' sorta inspired this. And before you assume, no not a boyfriend :P

Happiness

Rinoa licked her index finger before swallowing her last bite of black forest gateau and putting her saucer down on the coffee table in front of her.

Picking up a cushion from beside her, she placed it onto Squall's lap and lay her head down on it. With her knees up in the air, she adjusted her short dress to cover as much of her legs as she could and looked up to Squall's face as he placed his own plate on the table, albeit a bit awkwardly.

"I want another piece." Rinoa giggled expecting the brunette's rolling eyes any minutes.

"You had your piece and I gave you half of mine." Squall's exasperated reply came out.

Laughing, Rinoa put her hand to his cheek feeling the stubble of his facial hair.

"I wanted you to buy two boxes." She said referring to the dessert she had scoffed a second ago. "One for me and one to share with you."

"They only had one left, unless you wanted pavlova." Squall responded.

"Eww, I hate pavlova." Rinoa pulled a disgusted face. "I like black forest gateau, just eating it makes me all warm and happy." She beamed at him from his lap.

Looking down into her chocolate brown eyes Squall let the smallest of smiles run across his face.

"Well you know what they say, happiness comes in three;" Squall lowered his head towards Rinoa's lips, "Ice-cream, toasted cheese-"

"Ooh, toasted cheese. I haven't had that in years." Rinoa interrupted. "I think the last time I ate it was on a cold winter day in Deling. It had snowed that day and there was like nothing in the fridge apart from some bread and a small square wad of cheese."

"Hm." Squall replied and sat back up.

"Back then Dad and I got along, I remember the staff had all gone home, Walter was due back with the shopping so Dad and I had to make do with what we had. It wasn't much, but as we sat there in front of the fireplace and ate our toasted cheese, I never felt happier than being with him in that moment." She said sadly.

Sensing the sensitivity of the subject, Squall brushed back Rinoa's hair with his fingers, playing with the strands and feeling the silkiness under his fingers.

"He was still a father figure then, someone for me to look up to; he still had time for me and took notice of what was happening in my life." She said somewhat bitterly.

"He does now." Squall added.

"I know, but he kind of stopped when I turned sixteen." She said, her eyes looking deep into the ceiling as if she could see her father in front of her. "He wasn't even concerned when I started hanging around with Seifer; I think he thought I was going through a rebellious phase. So he ignored the sneaking out, the coming home at all hours."

"Wild girl, were you?" Squall couldn't help but comment. He wasn't jealous; Rinoa was carefree and impulsive, but she had respect for herself and Squall knew she wouldn't have gotten into anything that she would have regretted later on.

"If you call sitting with Zone's Mum watching Antique's Road show wild, then yeah I guess I was." Rinoa sighed. "Seifer was busy at Garden so he left before curfew."

"Well, he was a vigilant member of the Disciplinary Committee. But I doubt him breaking curfew was on the top of his list." Squall replied slightly in disbelief.

"No he didn't care about curfew. But after we talked through every plan we had about freeing Timber, the conversations kinda became dry." She replied frowning.

It had occurred to her many times, that maybe she wasn't always good at holding conversations. Marrying Squall had made that seem all the more believable; they hardly talked every second of the day. But then again, each longing look they cast on each other said much more than any word they both expressed.

"You can't always be fixated on the past, Rin." Squall advised her speaking from experience.

"I know." She smiled at him. "But you know, some times I just wish Dad and I hadn't gone through that, I think that's why it's so hard to just go back to normal with him now."

"True… but if you didn't go through all that, you wouldn't have met Seifer, which means you wouldn't have met Cid, and then you and I wouldn't have met." Squall smiled back at her. "Things happen for a reason, there's always some good that comes out of every misery. You just gotta roll with the punches."

Nodding to Squall, she closed her eyes and allowed him to keep brushing her hair back. It felt nice having his hand stroke through the softness of her hair, it made her feel warm and drowsy and she sighed in pleasure of it.

She opened her eyes and found him looking down at her attentively. Even though they had been together for a whole year, his craving for her still left her breathless and heart racing. She looked deep into his icy blue eyes making out all the flickers of the grey specks in his iris. It still amazed her how beautiful his eyes were and how calm and tranquil she felt by just looking into them.

For Rinoa, happiness came in three; Squall, Squall and Squall. In that order.

"Squall," She whispered to him as he lowered his head once more.

"Yeah?" He whispered back as their nose brushed against each other.

"I want more gateau." Rinoa whined.

"Aaah." Squall breathed against her. Rolling his eyes he pulled his head back as she jumped up and sat down on his lap wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing his cheek. "You just ruined a perfectly good moment, but whatever makes you happy."

"You make me happy!" Rinoa chirped.

"You sure about that, Princess? I think desserts come first on your list." Squall retorted bitterly and patted her thighs as indication for her to get off.

Following him into the kitchen, Rinoa skipped along behind him and hopped onto the countertop as Squall cut her another slice of cake.

"I eat cake for the yummy taste. You make me happy, I don't need anything else." She replied cutely as he handed her the creamy treat.

"Sure, you say I'm the only thing you need now and the next thing I know you'll be asking for a Chocobo." Squall rolled his eyes.

Rinoa eyes immediately widened as an idea came to her mind.

"You're not getting a Chocobo." Squall sternly pointed a dessert fork at her.

"Oh c'mon Squall! It will be fun; we can start our own Chocobo farm and rear them!" She excitedly cried.

Squall just shook his head and leant against the wall as Rinoa took three huge bites and finished her cake.

"All gone!" She cried and showed him the empty saucer.

Squall just breathed a chuckle and watched as Rinoa washed her dishes. She was strange at the least; mad on desserts without a thought of people calling her greedy, had a bizarre sense of humour and even weirder future plans for the both of them. Chocobo farm. He thought to himself shaking his head.

Night time and Squall and Rinoa lay in bed covered in pitch blackness. Her head nestled in between the crane of Squall's neck she gentle caressed his arm, feeling both the smooth toned muscled skin and the softness of his cotton t-shirt.

"I meant what I said before." Rinoa spoke breaking the long silence between them since they had lain down.

"What?" Squall asked, not knowing whether she was talking about the gateau or the Chocobo farm.

"I'm the happiest when I'm with you." She said seriously.

He tightened his grip on her and sniffed her hair in affection.

"Feeling's mutual." He replied with the same earnestness.

"Hey Squall." She responded to his reply.

"Yeah." He answered as Rinoa lifted her head from his shoulder and rested it on her spread out hands on top his chest. She faced him directly and tried to make out the features of his face in the darkness, though as hard as it was with the huge shadows cast over their bed.

"You said happiness came in three; Ice-cream, toasted cheese and you didn't say the third." She said.

"You mean, you interrupted me before I could say the third." Squall retorted.

"Sorry." Rinoa grinned against him.

"Ice-cream, toasted cheese," He finally answered while playing with her hair again, "and love." He said determinedly.

She smiled at him with genuine happiness. A year ago and she'd never have imagined such a conversation with Squall, nor him giving an honest answer to what made him happy, if such a thing existed. She felt good that she shared a part of his happiness, but more elated that she was one third of it.

"It's a good thing we got all three of those in stock." She replied.

"Sure is." He agreed.

"Mmm, I love gateau." Rinoa said dreamily.

Squall groaned again and grabbed a pillow from behind him smacking her with it.

"You and your gateau." He said with pretend aggression.

They tackled each other on the bed, hitting each other with their pillows, wrestling to get on top of each other for better aim and laughing from their childish antics. Managing to get her pinned onto the bed Squall tickled Rinoa's sides vigorously causing her to cackle in laughter and kick out in reaction. Not liking the painful physical contact Squall jumped up from the bed and looked at her mischievously.

"I'm going to go finish off that gateau!" He said evilly and ran out of the room.

"No!" Rinoa screamed behind him. "Squall that's mine! You can't have it…" She continued to cry as she ran down the stairs after him. "Squall don't eat it all… I'll share it with you…"

I love gateau :)