Disclaimer: I don't own the characters, I do not own the places. I don't own anything related to FFVIII, all I own is the plot.
AN: This is the first time I've really tried to portray Rinoa as a person I like, I've seriously doubted her character for a while. But now I wanted to give her the chance to prove herself, so be ware of some ooc'ness, because I'm not used to writing Rinoa. This is something I've never tried before. I wanted to write something that also had a serious edge to it, not just a hopelessly romantic fic. I don't know if I've succeeded, but I hope you will all enjoy this story. It's been hard to write :)
- Seedlings of a Songbird -
- Chapter one: The beginning of the end -
She leaned her head against his shoulder and looked at her feet. Angelo stared up at her with expectation.
"I think he wants you to feed him."
She sighed. "But it's not even dinnertime yet..."
"If you don't, he'll stand there till you do."
She nodded, knowing he was right.
"Okay, I'll feed him. But no midnight snack later, mister." She said, wagging her finger at the dog with a smile.
She stood up, straightened her blue vest and sat down on her knees to look Angelo in the eyes.
"Right, I'm going to feed you. Will you leave us alone then?"
The dog looked back at her with his sparkly eyes.
"I'll be right back!" she called out behind her.
Squall chuckled and followed her out to the kitchen. He watched her scrape dogfood from a tin can. She smiled at him apologetically when she had set the feeding tray down on the floor.
"Sorry about that."
He smiled back. "That's okay."
He stepped closer and hugged her. She let his warmth surround her as he closed her in his arms. She enjoyed knowing that he had given her one of his rare genuine smiles. It meant that he was in a good mood.
"Where were we?" she heard him whisper in her ear.
She giggled and kissed him.
"Right about here." She whispered back with a cheeky grin.
He leaned in to kiss her again when a sudden beep from his pocket broke the romantic moment. He let her go and reached in his pocket to answer the call.
"This is Squall...yes...okay...yes...fine. I'll be there."
He sighed as he pocketed the little black phone.
"Cid says he needs me to look at something. I'm sorry."
She stepped back, forcing an understanding smile on her face. "No, it's okay. I understand. You're the commander, right? This comes with the job."
"Are you sure you don't mind?" he asked her again.
"Of course. I know you're an important person, I really do understand." She pecked his cheek and shooed him out the door.
"I really am sorry." He said before she closed the door.
"Well, at least this way I can start studying for my test. Go on, mister commander. Your boss is waiting." She said with a grin.
Squall nodded and turned around. She closed the door and let herself fall down on the couch. She let out a deep sigh.
Why was it always like this? As soon as they were enjoying a romantic moment, something would come to disturb it. Either it was Cid, calling for help, or it would be something else. They never really had the chance to try and relax, they never got anywhere at this rate.
She patted the empty seat next to her and Angelo, who had just finished his meal, jumped on and laid his head on her lap. Her fingers played with his fur.
"I need some attention too, you know." She said to the emptyness. "I need an arm around me every so often...I need warmth."
Angelo looked up at her with sad little eyes, as if he understood what she was saying, and then nuzzled his nose deeper in her lap.
She stroked his fur and sighed. Then she reached out for her book on the table and opened it. The SeeD textbook stared back at her coldly and with slight reluctance she began to read. The words only slightly made sense to her as here eyes glided over the page.
Angelo closed his eyes. Rinoa stared at him. Then she pushed the dog from her lap and threw her book back on the table. She stood up and turned on the computer. She slowly clicked on the forum and logged in.
Her eyes searched the screen until she saw a new message.
'I wanted to catch a glimpse of my bluejay tonight. I'll be waiting by her cage.'
Rinoa looked away. She tried to ignore the words that burned their way into her skin from their place on the screen.
She looked at a photograph next to the computer. It was a picture of her and Squall, happy in the garden at the old orphanage. She could still feel the sun from that day on her skin. She closed her eyes for a moment and smiled.
But her fingers already hovered over the keyboard hesitantly. Could she just ignore that feeling or could she ignore those words?
She shook her head and felt her fingers type a reply. She felt a litlle tear in the corner of her eyes but ignored it as she bit her lip.
"So what does it mean?"
"We're not sure. We're not even sure about where it came from."
Squall studied the drawing. It had been pasted over the Garden logo outside. "Probably just some prank. One of the students must've though it was funny."
"I don't know, sir. We'll check it out."
Squall shook his head. "Leave it for the Disciplinary Comittee. That's their thing. And let them check with the festival committee too. It might just be one of Selphie's ideas."
The boy nodded and saluted. Squall sighed and sat down in a chair. He looked at Cid, who was staring pensively at the ceiling. He felt Squall's eyes on him and looked back.
"What is it? Something the matter?"
"Well..." Squall said slowly. "I was wondering why...why you called me up for this. Couldn't the Disciplinary Committee have handled this?"
"I thought it would be good for you to know more about what is going on in your Garden. You seem to be less involved with what goes on every time I see you. Don't you want to know what happens here?" Cid said calmly.
"I do...But that doesn't mean I have to know about every little prank or incident like this, does it?"
Cid sighed. "I suppose not. But as long as you're in charge of Garden you ought to have at least a little idea of what goes on. I mean, for all we know, this innocent little drawing is someone's raddical statement about something." He said with a wry smile.
"I'm going to delegate this on to someone else." Squall muttered. "Not of garden!" he added quickly. "But I'm going to let someone else take care of this and let them report back to me. Talk to my delegat about anything that's got to do with this...'radical statement', call me if it gets out of hand. I'm too busy to do it myself."
Cid looked at him. He wondered what had made Squall so short tempered today. Perhaps he had called him up at a bad moment.
Squall stood up. "Can I go now, sir? I have plans, you see."
Cid nodded. "Yes, you can go. Oh, and Squall, Take the drawing with you. If you see Selphie, ask her if this is one of her promotion stunts."
Squall took the poster and saluted before leaving. He walked through the coridors, wondering about what to do next. He could go to Balamb quickly to buy some flowers for Rinoa. That would make up for his having to leave so abruptly.
She had said that she understood and that she didn't mind, but he knew that she didn't like him being called away so often. He wandered over to the main Hall, but when he got there, he saw that Selphie was intstructing some first year students to put something up.
"Selphie!" he called out.
She looked up and waved at him.
"Oh hey Squall." She said merrily.
"What are you doing?" he asked, pointing at the banner she was holding on to with one hand.
"Oh, nothing much. We're checking to see what kind of banners we can hang up. Just testing. These are blank."
"Oh..." he looked at the banner and then at the drawing. "Do you have a theme planned? You know, for this year's festival?"
"We're still thinking about a theme, actually. It's really hard, though. No one's thought of one yet."
He gave her the drawing. "So this isn't yours?"
She looked at it. "Hmm, can't say I've seen this before. But I do like it, it's really good! Hey, perhaps this is a good theme for us!"
She jumped up and down excitedly.
"Thanks, Squall! You just gave me an idea! Come on guys, we'll do that later. We need to get back to the Quad."
Squall watched her skip away with the drawing in her hand.
"Oh well, I'll get it back tomorrow."
He let out a sigh and yawned. He let his feet walk him to his dormitory. He was looking forward to go to sleep with Rinoa in his arms.
Once he was inside his own dorm, he threw his jacket over the back of a chair. He looked around, but Rinoa wasn't there. On the desk he found a little note.
'Hey Squall, I went to study at the library. Angelo was distracting me. I don't know what time I'll be back, so don't wait up. I'll join you as soon as possible. Hug and kisses, Rinoa.'
Squall sighed. So much for falling asleep with her in his arms. He laid down, pulled the covers up to his ears and closed his eyes and as he stifled a yawn, he fell asleep.
This was just an introduction, it'll get a more tense soon Please let me know what you think so far because a review is just the press of a button away ;)
Love, raven55