~Transient Eternity.~

-Chapter 1-

"You're just like Cloud! "

"It's not like that Yuffie…"

"Yes it is! You just keep running away, can't you stop mourning about the past for more than ten minutes!?"

There. He climbed up the stone steps, slowly but sure. He hadn't been to this place in a long time…Radiant Garden or -more likely- Hollow Bastion's castle.

"You just don't get it, leave me alone now" he said, trying to keep his cool over her… quite unpleasant assumptions.

"See, you're running again! I don't recognize you Leon, what's got into you!?"

"… Gone talking to a wall…" he answered sharply.

The petite ninja sighed and was about to walk away when she suddenly stopped dead in her tracks and turned back to him. From his spot leaning against the wall, Leon could see the glint of determination in her grey eyes.

"It's because of her, isn't it?"

Come to think of it, the place hasn't changed all that much. The same stone walls, just a bit more broken. The same houses, most of them burnt to the ground today. The same orphanage he had grown up in before going to the castle…It's all grey now. Yeah… it did change…

He was back in the castle. As he passed the library he remembered her sitting there in a corner among all the books. She used to put them in piles around herself to hide from people who called her for some duties… or just to be able to steal a peek at him when he was looking for her. It did work for the guards; they never found her anyway… But he was never one to fall for the same trick twice.

He was tempted to smile at the memory but he couldn't. He had to keep his resolve and go on until he reached his goal.

"Get out." he gave Yuffie a dangerous glare, one which could melt a whole iceberg.

"Seems like I struck a nerve" she said almost jokingly. He was in no mood for that at this precise moment. He just cast his gaze back to the window, admiring the starry sky through the rainy clouds like he always did ever since that night.

"Why won't you let us help? Tifa, Aerith and I, even Cid is worried about you Squall!"

"Don't…Call me that."

"Why do you care anyway? Just explain!"

"Whatever…"

*she just doesn't get it* he thought

"You're so hopeless!" she burst out, exasperated.

"Now that you finally came to that conclusion, can you please leave" he said in a low tone, trying to keep his temper from rising.

Yuffie's frown just deepened, anger boiling within her.*This guy is just so frustrating* she thought.

Something in him changed after Radiant Garden's fall. He lost her, the love of his life. Ever since then his façade had never failed him. He avoided getting attention from everyone by keeping this calm yet determined demeanor…But…The cold and lonely man who kept everything to himself was still there, she knew it and so did the others. That part of him started showing more and more these days. Her friends had promised to try and talk to him to figure out a way to help. She couldn't find it in her to wait though. That's exactly why she started this conversation when she spotted him leaning against a wall, staring up at the stars with that melancholic look of his upon his face.

But what he had just said…Dammit, she was just trying to help! Why did he keep pushing her and the others away when it came to his problems? It was quite unusual… Her anger just took the lead, and even though she knew that when that happened the worst things always flew out of her mouth, she couldn't help it anymore.

"You're not getting out of this Squall! We're just worrying about you, why don't you let us help? But no…You just HAVE to be the cool, lone wolf who lurks in the dark! What the heck! There, I'll say it: She's…"

"Get out of here Yuffie!" He had had just about enough. Who was she to lecture him about the way he led his life? True he had been distant and…Rather gloomy these days but he always was at this time of the year. It was just the first time Yuffie -and all the others for that matter- had actually noticed. He knew he was about to explode and he had to get her away from him before he said or did anything stupid. Only what he didn't know was that Yuffie had already crossed the line.

"You're so selfish! She's dead Squall! Rinoa is dead! Now move on and…"

"SHUT UP!" his voice was icy cold, infused with venom and pure rage. The short-haired ninja was thunderstruck. She couldn't finish her sentence as he stormed across the room for the door. He clenched the door's handle and barely turned to face her with his cold stormy eyes hidden behind his bangs.

"I know…She's not dead."

He slammed the door behind him.

*I just have to check* he thought, walking straight through the empty halls and corridors of the castle. He passed many closed doors, never tripped on the dusty folds of the long carpet even when his eyes were always directed straight ahead of him, determined. Most of the paintings and chandeliers that once decorated this place were broken down or burnt…What a great job the Heartless (AN/: see notes) did in destroying the whole place…

He froze when he reached one particular room. That's where he had met her all those years ago back when they were just clueless teens. Eight years…maybe more. It felt like it had all happened yesterday.

He remembered looking at the endless night sky through the glass ceiling when he saw a light shooting across the sky. That's when their gazes met…

Chocolate brown met stormy blue. Since she kept looking intently at him for so long, he felt like he actually had to look away. He was quite stunned though, when he realized she had made her way to him. He took the opportunity to have a better look at the short girl who kept staring at him all along with her shiny brown orbs. Her dark ebony hair reached down her back to her shoulder blades and had some toffee colored streaks if you looked close enough. She had porcelain skin clashing with her silky looking hair though he did notice the slight rosy tint on her cheeks. She was wearing a short vanilla silk dress that was tied up behind her neck by a thin lace. A lonely ring hung by a silver chain around her neck. She just stood there, probably inspecting him as well. He was forced to wear his military uniform to come here (not that he intended on going in the first place). It was just plain black and uptight. When he looked back at her he clearly saw the playfulness in her eyes.

"You saw it too, right?" she said, her voice nice and sweet. He raised an eyebrow at her not quite comprehending what she meant.

"The shooting star." She explained. He just grunted in response, small talk had never been his strongest point.

"You're not really the talkative type, are you?" she giggled. Still no answer. She extended her hand to him with a smile. "So, hey! I'm Lenore, what's your name?"

"I'm not about to tell you my name if you lie to me about yours." He answered sternly, looking her straight in the eyes.

She froze. Not because the tall brown haired man in front of her had actually talked but more because of the fact that he knew who she was. What she was. She frowned, suddenly finding a great interest in observing the floor… He wanted to kick himself hard for saying that so coldly when she was just trying to be friendly to him. Not many people actually tried to do that. The only thing was that he didn't expect anyone and above all her to make a try and have a conversation with him. He saw a slight frown appear upon her face. He knew he had to say something.

"The name's Leonhart."

She looked up at him with her mouth slightly agape, apparently surprised that he hadn't told her to go away.

"Is that your first name..?" she inquired shyly.

"Nah, it's Squall. Squall Leonhart."

She smiled slightly. "Ok so, let me try this again: Nice meeting you Squall, I'm Rinoa Heartilly."

She extended her hand once more and he shook it this time. She gave him a warm smile and he looked away, trying to avoid meeting those hypnotizing orbs of hers.

"Why did you give me a fake name instead of your real one?"

"Oh…It's just…" she began hesitantly. Should she really tell him? It's embarrassing…No. She had to be honest to him if she wanted the same from him."People tend to think I'm some kind of alien if I tell them straight away who I am. I hate it. I don't want to be considered like that, I'm just like any other people."

"Yeah, it's understandable." He shrugged.

The silence was getting uncomfortable. They kept averting their gazes when their eyes met and shifted uneasily, she felt the need to lighten up the mood.

"Squall…Could you do me a favor?" she asked in a tone similar to the playful one she had a few minutes ago.

"What kind?"

"Dance with me please!" she beamed.

He was puzzled for a second before he was briskly dragged halfway across the room to the dance floor by the raven haired girl.

"I can't dance!"He defended himself, desperately trying to convince her to let him go back to the comfort of the corner of the room. She would hear none of it. Soon they were waltzing (more like stumbling in his case) around the marble dance floor.

After what seemed like to be the greatest ordeal of his life, Rinoa led –dragged- him yet again to a lonely corner of the ballroom. There, she started talking and babbling about all kinds of stuff. He usually wouldn't have been one to pay attention to her for so long but he found himself being quite intrigued by what she said and just kept listening, dropping the occasional question every now and then…Never had he been so talkative…Especially when she started questioning

him about his life. He didn't say anything too personal. He just told her about his training at the castle's academy. How he wanted to become the best soldier there was to protect Radiant Garden and his 'family' back in the orphanage. About all these times when he was found sweating through his suit in the castle's corridors after two extra hours of practice. He told her about his determination to become the youngest gunblade master at the age of 17 and how well he was started on that.

She, on the other hand, started talking about her boring studies in the castle. How she was forced to stay in a room for hours straight to practice some hard spell. She was willing to do it, even if it meant loneliness and being locked up in the castle for so long…It was her job to learn how to protect Radiant Garden. That was the Sorceress' duty.

"Did they even find you?" He asked after she told him a story of hers.

"The guards? Of course not! I'm too good for them. I just spent the whole afternoon reading in a hiding spot I have in the library!" she said in a fit of giggles.

"Weren't you bored?"

"Not at all! I love reading…What about you?"

"I don't hate it. It's just that I don't often have time for that. I spend most of my free time training."

"You do? Don't you hang out with friends sometimes?" she asked a bit perplexed by such an answer. Was he that much of a workaholic?

He gave a bitter chuckle. "You could say I'm quite the lone wolf out here."

"Oh…I see…" she said apologetically."I'm sorry."

"Don't be, it's alright." He said simply. He really did seem not to mind.

There was a heavy silence between the two after that. Rinoa felt bad for saying something like that so carelessly and at the same time was sad about him being so lonely. She stared at the floor for a moment before she came up with an idea.

"Hey Squall…I don't have many friends either you know…" She cursed herself for sounding so hesitant and lame.

He turned to her with a quizzical look plastered upon his face so she continued, trying to sound a bit more confident.

"I thought that, since we're both lone wolves, we could spend more time being lonely together..?" Damn, it sounded much better in her head. His grayish-blue eyes widened a bit more and he turned his head back to his cup of champagne, apparently thinking about the matter at hand. How she wanted to cast an ultima spell on herself right now… "Maybe…" she shut her eyes tight awaiting the heavy and icy 'No' he was about to give her.

Since he was still deep in thoughts- staring at his cup, with a hand on his temple, frowning a bit- she breathed a sigh.

"Forget it, it doesn't matter…"

"No, I'd like to."

Forgetting whatever he was thinking about, he quickly seized the opportunity, hoping that it wasn't too late. When was the last time someone had actually tried talking to him? Rinoa had given him a chance, he surely wasn't expecting it but she still did. And…There was something about her…Maybe it was just her sorceress powers but he really wanted to spend more time with her…

The young girl was stunned once again. She'd have to get used to it, with a guy so special…He seemed so different yet so close to her. A dark and lonely swordsman and a sorceress…Such an unexpected friendship was surely worth a try!

"Yippee!" she exclaimed, just when he thought he had said something wrong. She jumped into his arms with such force, he had to struggle to keep his balance and not make them both fall to the ground.

Not so used to close physical contact as he was, he found himself turning several shades of red- each being deeper than the previous one- before she looked back up at him with a blush on her face as well.

"Sorry about that, I'm just so happy!" she said with a Cheshire like grin on her face. "So where should we meet? I'm so looking forward to it! I was getting tired of rereading all my books…"

"I thought you enjoyed it."

"Huh? Ah yes but..!"She attempted to defend herself, blushing madly in embarrassment.

He gave a light chuckle. She was soon laughing too.

"Let's make it tomorrow in the entrance hall at three then. Is it alright..?" he suggested.

"Yes!"

A short silence followed and he looked at the great clock above the entrance doors. It was already 10.50. He hadn't realized they had been talking for so long. When he faced her again he realized she was also watching the clock.

"I have to get going" she said a bit disappointed to see such a great evening come to an end. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow then!" She smiled brightly at him and started walking away leaving him motionless on the spot. After a few steps, she turned around to face him again and spoke in a soft tone.

"Squall…I just feel like I have to say it so…I'm glad I met you tonight."

She then stormed out of the ballroom. Squall had yet to process just exactly what had happened to him.

There he was again, standing at the very same place that they had that night, only now when he looked up at the ceiling he saw no glass at all. It had shattered to the ground in a million pieces during the Heartless' attack along with the many chandeliers that once gave a golden glow to the room. The marble dance floor where she had dragged him so long ago… It was stained in dry dark blood and ashes; all the pearls and glass from the ceiling and chandeliers were scattered all around it, not so shiny anymore. The heavy rain went through the broken ceiling and soaked the whole place, Leon included.

He felt the glass pieces crumble under his shoes as he finally got out of his trance and walked away from the ballroom. He passed the vestibule where guests used to wait before they were allowed to go into the ballroom and finally got to the corridor that went along the castle's wall and gave a great view of the back garden. It used to be so colorful… he could see the flowers through some of the also broken windows, they didn't bloom anymore and the once green grass was half burnt. Some trees had fallen down, others were also burnt… In the distance he could see the great maze's hedges where Rinoa used to hide when she was upset. Strangely enough, it wasn't so damaged. Maybe the Heartless didn't manage to reach it. Had he been able to see a bit farther past the maze, he could maybe have seen the field, their flower field…

No time for daydreaming again. Leon kept on going, fearing his resolve would shatter if he didn't. Finally, he arrived at the end of the corridor; he had kept his head down since he went through the ballroom and hadn't noticed he was already there. He placed himself right in front of the dead end's wall and then took eight steps back, there he pivoted to his left and pressed a precise stone on the old wall. Just as he remembered, a complicated star shaped symbol appeared and shone on it before disappearing, the wall vanishing along with it.

Leon walked through and down the stairway leading to his destination keeping his resolve as strong as possible. *No going back now. I just have to go and check…*he thought. The only thing he feared now was that he wouldn't find it in him to leave again when he saw…Her… When he finally reached the bottom of the stairs he had to squint a bit because of the darkness of the large room, the only source of light being an old lamp that went out years ago. He quickly lit it with a lighter he had brought just in case. Even then it was barely any better, but he didn't have to look around for too long before he found who he was looking for.

"Rinoa"

To whoever read this, thank you very much! This is the first story I posted on and I hope you enjoy it, reviews are of course welcome! I won't post the next chapter until I get at least one review (I'm not asking for much) since I have to know if anyone is reading this fic so please, leave a review it's just down below and I would be so thankful to know someone read this!