I do not own FF8

Beta:LylyRin

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Chapter One: The Walk of Shame

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It might have been the suppleness of the white bed that had kept her sleep deprived body in its unconscious state for so long despite the crippling migraine and grating sound of an alarm clock going off next to her. Unfortunately for Rinoa, once her mind registered the blaring sound and subsequent mind-altering pain it was next to impossible not to float up from the darkness that had once been her only saving grace.

Her facial muscles twinge at the pain ravaging incoherent morning thoughts and gut simultaneously, as she realized her arm underneath her body had gone completely numb.

Her first mistake was opening her eyes.

Grimacing at the searing light that sliced her mind into two the moment they opened, she shifted slightly in order to look at her alarm clock which was her second mistake. With the number seven follow by the letters A.M. cursing at her in bright bold letters, she felt the first wave of dizziness and nausea roll over her as she tried to hit the snooze button. Only the problem was that her graceful fingers found plastic instead of the snooze button. The button had apparently gone missing since the last time she checked. Confusion swirled around her hazy brain for a moment and only deepened as she finally recalled that she had not yet bought a new alarm clock since moving to Esthar.

Her slow mind had only a millisecond to process the conundrum when the numb arm from underneath her suddenly twitched and then groped her bare breast, giving it a firm squeeze.

That sensation was the catalyst that sparked her full awareness from the dream like state she had been in and then all to quickly did reality it her. The first thing she realized was the bed she slept on was much finer than the ninety-nine Gil closeout mattress she had bought the other day, followed by the fact that she would never in her life ever set an alarm for seven in the morning, nor had she ever had such toned masculine arm that continued to fondle her against her will.

"Hey," spoke a deep sleep altered voice from beside her.

What happened next was something out of a bad movie, except this movie just so happened to be her real life playing out in horrifying slow motion. A frightening scream left her chest as her body instinctively pulled away from the unknown touch. Rolling right off the bed it forced her body to become a victim of gravity as she pulled the covers down with her.

Her next sight was of cathedral white ceilings in a bedroom she did not recognize. That was until a face appeared over the side to look down at her unimpressed with the slightest hint of embarrassment for her.

"Uh- Are you okay?" asked the mysterious man who was most likely inquiring to the many definitions of what it meant to be ok. Physically, Mentally…. None of those she could truthfully answer 'yes' to at that current moment, as a pair of perfect stone cold blue eyes separated by a fading scar petrified her in keeping her position in the tumble of blankets.

The man she was staring at was beautiful. Wait! One wasn't supposed to call a man beautiful. Handsome….? Yes. Sexy…? Absolutely. While he was definitely all of those things, none of those words did him enough justice. Especially when he tightened his jaw in thought like he was doing right now.

His menacing stare released its hold on her as his sculpted arm reached over to the blaring alarm clock in order to cease its angry complaint. His disheveled hair was a wild chestnut brown that was neither too long to be called disorderly and yet not short enough to be proper.

For the love of Hyne, Rinoa chastised herself realizing what her mind was trying to sum up miserably on its own. It was perfect 'drag your fingers through them' sex hair and with that thought freshly in her mind, she realized why that thought was so resounding. She only needed to peer underneath the covers for a second to realize she might have had something to do with that freshly sexed look he was sporting. Her stomach flipped in on itself as the god suddenly disappeared from her view.

Rinoa Heartilly, at the age of twenty-two, on the first night of moving to Esthar... just had her first one nightstand.

Shame wouldn't even cover the range of emotions that sunk into her as she scurried around the floor trying to find the few loose articles of clothing so she could dash into bathroom as the man had his back to her.

Slamming the door shut, her hand trembled as she turned on the light switch to illuminate what simply had to be the biggest bathroom she had ever seen in her entire life. Her eyes trailed along the white modern clean line marble top of the vanity to see her cellphone plugged in its charger.

A knock on the door from behind her made her jump, "Hey Rinoa, are you okay?"

Her eyes widened at the sound of her name coming from his sexy graveled morning voice. It was enough to nearly leave her speechless.

"Rinoa?" The voice called more alarmed this time by the silence from her end.

"Uh, just a second." Her voice called out as her hand quickly turned on the faucet to cover for her as she tried to stop herself from panicking.

Her horrible plan seemed to work as there was a moment of silence from the other side of the door, "I'm going to fix some breakfast. You want something?"

"Uh-huh," she answered as she pulled the cellphone from the wall and marched across the bathroom, furiously dialing. The phone rang repeatedly on the other end before clicking over to voicemail.

Her friend's voice suddenly sprang forth in a recorded reply, "Leave a message after the beep."

Once the tone finished, Rinoa started to lose her cool, "Quistis for the love of Hyne! Pick up the phone! I think I'm in serious trouble... I mean serious as in more serious than ever before and you have to help me get out-"

There was a sudden shuffle of sounds from the other end before a groggy monotone female voice answered, "Rinoa?"

"Hyne, Quistis! I don't know what to do! I'm in some weird man's apartment! I don't remember how I got here or anything for that matter! And I think… No… I mean I know stuff happened last night-"

"Wait… wait what?" Rinoa's roommate stuttered over the phone trying to make sense of her words, "Where are you?"

"I told you I don't know! The last thing I remember was dinner with you and after that it's blank!"

"Oh shit." The heaviness of the situation was finally starting to dawn on her roommate. "Y-you said you had some errands to run before your first day of work so I took a cab back to the apartment."

"I don't remember any of that!" Rinoa cried feeling the tears of panic burn her eyes. "I'm so ashamed right now! How could let something like this happen?!"

Alarm shot through Quistis who normally always could be rely on for having a calm and collected demeanor, "You don't think that man drugged you, do you?!"

All of a sudden, Rinoa found herself laughing which was unnerving to both of them, "I don't know. Does a date rapper offer to make you breakfast in the morning?"

"That's not funny," irritated Quistis snapped back.

"I'm serious, " however the nervous laughter seemed to suggest otherwise. "He's making me breakfast right now while talking to you. Quistis he knows my name and I found my cellphone charger plugged into the sink by the bathroom."

"So?"

"So! That's what I do! It's a part of my nighttime routine. If he drugged me, would I be conscious enough to plug in and charge my cellphone?"

Silence over the phone was enough of an answer for the tears to come for Rinoa, "Oh Hyne, I totally had a one night stand!"

"Ok... Ok, so what if you did? Are woman not allowed to enjoy themselves like a man?" Quistis defended.

Rinoa ran her hand threw her loose black hair, "I can't debate gender equality right now. What do I do?"

"What do you mean what do you do? Get dressed and get the hell out of there!" Quistis responded, her voice sounding like a sledgehammer to Rinoa's brain.

Rinoa leaned against the wall in despair, "Shit, I told him I would have breakfast."

She could hear an exasperated sigh on the other end of the phone, "It doesn't matter what you told him. Just get whatever clothes you can on and get out of there. You hear me?"

"But... I don't even know where I am," Rinoa reminded her in a furious whisper before looking over to a site that made her sick. "Oh Hyne…"

"What? What's wrong?"

"Quistis, his bathroom is larger than our apartment."

"That really isn't that hard to believe, Rinoa." Quistis mocked, after all, they shared what really should have been a one-bedroom apartment for a Moogle.

"I mean… He has a tub the size of both of our beds combined..." Rinoa muttered, failing dismally at clarifying the situation.

Quistis paused for a moment as she tried to piece the importance of it all together, "Rinoa, seriously? That really doesn't matter right now-"

"There's still water in it…" Rinoa stammered on, " The bubbles are mostly gone but there's an empty bottle of champagne and two glasses- I think I'm going to get sick,"

"Focus!" Quistis demanded, "None of that is important right now. Get out and get out now! Once you're outside his apartment call me for directions, okay?"

Rinoa couldn't say anything as she looked at the abandoned site of where undoubtedly most of the disastrous events had taken place.

Quistis called out, "Rinoa?"

"Get out. Call back," Rinoa whispered, repeating it to herself as she hung up the phone.

Her body started to act on auto polite without her having to think any further. Most likely it was a fight or flight defense kicking in but all she could do was think of what Quistis said as her mind repeated it over and over as a mantra.

Get dressed… Get out…

She pulled her black pencil skirt of her hips and searched her dark crimson silk blouse for her bra but came up empty. Panic quickly entered the scene once more when there was no other alternative than searching the bedroom for her missing items.

Unwilling to go out there exposed, she slipped the silk shirt over herself and furiously buttoned it with little regard to which button belonged to which hole. Once covered enough, she turned the water off and unlocked the door waiting to hear any sounds of life before opening the door.

Nothing had changed since her rushed departure. Stepping over the feather comforter, she could finally gather a better understanding of the man she woke up with.. It was safe to say that pretty much lived a completely different life than what she was used too. Everything around her was nicer than anything she could ever afford on her salary.

The room was sterile of color except for the dark exotic wood on the king sized bed and dresser that sat on the far side of the room underneath the largest television panel she had ever seen. The soft window treatment's kept the morning sun like a glow that dusted the room in its calmness. In a strange way Rinoa almost thought it made it seem larger but after stepping around the bed while she looked for her unmentionables, she noticed it was the lack of anything personable that made the place seem endless.

After a few minutes of searching without any luck, she knew she had to just call it a loss and leave without them.

The first few steps out into the hallways were nerve wrecking. There was no way to possibly know what to expect from this man. Did he live alone? Where was he? Did he have any pets that might maul his potential prisoner from leaving their confines? Her endless internal conversation sent chills down her spine as she made her way through. Thankfully, given the fact that everything in this apartment was some sort of off white or beige, it would seem safe to assume that this mystery man was not a dog person. As for the living alone question, it was too soon to say.

The place was large enough to house three small families, yet there were no pictures or decoration around to even hint that this apartment/mini mansion was being occupied. In fact, until she reached the end of the long corridor, there were no sounds of life at all. It was when she saw the apartment door across the open floor living room that she heard his voice call from across the way.

"Do you want some coffee?"

Rinoa twisted to see that off to her left was the gourmet kitchen. Built in stainless steel, it didn't take a genius to figure out that it was rarely used as the naked statue of near perfection dug through the cabinets completely unaware the affect his lack of wardrobe choice had on her. That was until he managed to turn around.

There was no way she could pretend she wasn't having trouble looking away from his body. He was naturally lean, but in no way did that mean he wasn't built. No. In fact it was completely the other way around. She turned into a bumbling idiot when her eyes raked down his front from his rippling stomach muscles, to the most delicious Apollo's belt that carved a deep V down his front until it disappeared into a yet more impressive sight.

Her eyes settled on it and it seemed not to mind the scrutinizing it was receiving.

How could she have possibly forgotten that?

Like a cold splash of water to the face, her mind reminded her where she was when her focus final made its way back to his face. She forced herself to look away in complete embarrassment but the damage of her little trip was done. What the hell was happening to her? Was there something in this country's air that was reducing her mind into an insatiable male teenager? Or was this just the effect of him?

Him? Hyne… she didn't even have a name for him but he certainly knew hers and didn't mind reminding her.

A blink and you will miss it smile crossed his face, "Is everything ok, Rinoa?"

Snapping out of her stupor, Rinoa returned her gaze to his face, and just his facet this time. However, when meeting the intensity of his blue eyes there was no way to mask the heat gathering in her cheeks. He looked amused by it and truthfully she was just rather grateful he couldn't see the other area where heat was pooling.

"Coffee," she mumbled like a zombie looking at its next victim. She mentally slapped herself when she realized that the smirk on his face meant he understood her words as agreeing to a cup.

He turned around to grind some of the coffee beans he had pulled out, "I was supposed to be at work an hour ago but the least I can do for you is to fix you something to eat before I go. Don't feel like you need to rush on my account, though..."

With his back turned, Rinoa took the opportunity to head towards the door to make her escape. It was shameful and embarrassing to be leaving under these circumstances; after all, he was being more than gentleman-like giving the situation. Yet there was no way she could save face in this situation.

Walking into the entry she saw her black clutch thrown into the corner by her black heels. Diving to pick it them up, she could still hear his voice talking from the kitchen as if she were still there and a pain of guilt once more made her hesitated.

Get dress… Get out…. She could practically hear Quistis chastising her hesitation.

Slowly agreeing to the common sense, Rinoa twisted the old fashion knobbed doors to make her escape before her absence would be discovered.

Once in the hallway, she ran up to the elevator and rapidly started mashing buttons as she looked over her shoulder, "Please…Please oh please open."

She heard an electronic ring alerting her to its arrival but it wasn't until the spotless steel door closed that she fell back in a heap on the glass elevator wall in relief. The worse had to be over… Hopefully.

Watching as the numbers on the screen started to fall down from 65th floor, Rinoa looked at the floor buttons that seemed to stop at 60. Confused, she wondered where the buttons from floor 61 through 65 were until it hit her like a ten-ton brick.

Not only was that a penthouse, it was a mega-penthouse! She couldn't even remove her jaw off the floor. The mystery man was handsome enough to be a model or a movie star but to own four floors? No. He had to be someone bigger than that.

Well it was Esthar, she reminded herself quickly. Unlike Deling, Esthar was pretty much a second home to anyone that was someone. So literally, it could be anyone in the world that she just woke up with.

Rinoa shook her head at the thought. Oddly enough that gave her some peace on the situation. She would likely be just another notch in his bedpost that would be forgotten by the next woman that walked by. She was morethan just fine with that.

When the door opened, Rinoa had smoothed out her clothing and slipped on her heels and attempted to walk past the doorman with her head held high, despite the smirk on his all-knowing face. Pulling her phone out she quickly melted into the sea of morning commuters as she selected to redialed Quistis's number.

"So how did it go?" Quisits asked as if asking for an ending to a movie rather than the most embarrassing moment of her life.

Rinoa looked around for clues to where she was "By far the worst thing I've ever done. He was standing there in his kitchen, naked, cooking breakfast for me and I just ran out of there like he was a serial killer!"

"That bad huh?" Quistis sighed, "Please tell me that he wasn't forty, married, and full of back hair."

"NO." Rinoa said recalling it, "Not at all. That's what kind of makes it worse. He was gorgeous- I mean as in 'you could bounce quarters off his abs' gorgeous and I treated him like the biggest mistake in the world."

Her mind went back to him standing in the kitchen brew coffee. Something about his casual demeanor towards her was off, but she couldn't place why that kept bothering her, "Now that I'm thinking rationally, I'm thinking I'm the one at fault here. He knew my name like he remembered everything. I'm the one who doesn't even know his name…"

"I wouldn't worry about that too much Rinoa. He got something out of you so of course he's being nice. Had you stayed around longer he would have fed you a line about needing to go to work or something. So where are you?"

She frowned. He did already use that line on her. Of course she didn't think anything of it at the time.

Rinoa finally found a crosswalk that had a street name she could pronounce, "I'm on Lorie and 80th. Any idea where that is?"

There was a significant pause that sent instant dread through Rinoa, "Damn who did you go home with? That is the most exclusive neighborhood in all of Esthar!"

Rinoa rolled her eyes, "I told you, I don't know who it was and I prefer to forget it. So where am I? Please tell me I'm within walking distance because I'm wearing my sex kitten shoes not flats."

"I bet you are," Quistis mocked before growing more serious. "You are too far north to take the subway. There would be no way to make it here and back in time. Oh! I think you could rent a car though."

"Seriously?" Rinoa hit her head with her hand making the men in business suits next to her stare at her. "That's exactly what I need to waste my last bit of funds on."

"I don't see that you have got much choice. Find an ATM and get that Gil out."

"Fine," Rinoa conceded pulling off to a bank of Esthar to swipe her card through the machine

"Of all the people to have a one night stand Rinoa… I would never have guessed it would be you. Was the sex good at lest?"

"I don't even remember that," Rinoa said hearing her call waiting beep.

"Damn, that's rough. If the guy is that gorgeous I would want to at lest remember that."

"Hey hold on a second Qusitis. Someone is calling me," Rinoa flipped her phone to see an unknown number calling her. Pressing the talk button she raised the phone to her ear as she put in her pin number.

"Hello?" She inquired less than friendly.

"Hey… Listen, I'm worried with how you left this morning. Did I do or say something to upset you?"

It took Rinoa a second to place the sexy voice but when she did she nearly dropped the phone as she hung up on him and quickly switched back to Quistis.

"It was him!" Rinoa screamed in the phone as she typed in to retrieve a hundred gill. "Hyne, he even has my number Quistis!"

"Seriously? You gave him your number, Rinoa?"

"Not that I remember but obviously I did while I was out of my freaking mind!" Rinoa winced as the ATM machine shut down on her while spitting out a receipt stating insufficient funds.

Rinoa looked at the two words on the slip in dismay, "What? It says I don't have any money…"

"What?" Quistis voice came from over the phone.

"It says I have insufficient funds." Rinoa repeated reading the fine print, "I just checked my balance yesterday. I had twelve hundred Gil in my account..."

Quistis busted into laughter, "What did you do? Hire a prostitute?"

"I've got to call you back," Rinoa grumbled throwing her phone into her clutch.

Walking through her bank's doors, she waited in line for the most official looking bank teller she could spot. By the time it was her turn, she had done a good job of working herself up that she slammed her ATM card down on the counter in front of him.

"My account says there is nothing in it but I just checked it yesterday and there was a balance of twelve hundred Gil."

The older man had to have been around Rinoa's father's age. He had it all with his greying receding hair and rimless glasses that took notice of her bra-less chest under her silk shirt. Immediately she crossed her arms while the man passed immediate judgment.

"Did you spend it, perhaps?" He asked a politely as one could while mocking the other.

Rinoa leaned in, "No, I did not spend twelve hundred Gil! Are you crazy?! This has to be a mistake."

With one brow raised, the man reached out for Rinoa's card and ID before slowly looking her account up.

"If you could hurry, " Rinoa said noticing the many stares she was garnering, "I'm running late for work."

Once more the man gave her a strange look as if he didn't believe her, "Ah, yes, Miss Heartilly. I see that you had used your card last night for a restaurant called Simply Green last night for 36 Gil."

"Yes!" Rinoa exclaimed before dropping her voice to a more reasonable tone, "That's right, I did. That's totally legitimate."

"Then it appears that you came into this bank and made a Gil withdrawal for 1160 Gil."

Rinoa jaw dropped, "For what?"

"I couldn't say miss but since you have dipped below our minimum, there was a fee of 25 Gil assessed to your account," the man smirk grew as he looked back to her.

Wincing Rinoa looked down, "So you're saying-"

"So I am saying that as it stands now, your balance is negative twenty one Gil," the man responded with a false smile that spoke how he was rather enjoying all of this, "Would you like to make a deposit at this time?"

Rinoa glared at him and simply reached for her cards before turning to leave with her cell phone in hand. Hitting the call back on her phone, Rinoa could feel the tears rushing up as she wandered the streets.

Once her friend picked up there was no way she could keep a brave face up, "You're not going to believe this. I have no money- no it's worse than that! Not only do I not have a single Gil in my account, but now I'm in the hole twenty-one Gil thanks to last night. So forget being able to afford a car to drive me home so I don't have to do the walk of shame into work, but I can't even afford to buy myself a bra to mask the fact that I just slept with some random guy off the street. What do I do now? Just go at work and hope no one notices?"

Rinoa bit her lip as she wiped away the tears that were slowly rolling down her cheek. Today was supposed to be one of the biggest days of her life. She fought tooth and nail for this job with Mr. Lorie at one of the world's largest news conglomerates. Her future seemed so bright just a few hours ago, but now with this start, a small part of her wondered if this was some kind of sign. It took her a second to realize the lack of response from Quistis.

"Well, say something to me here! I'm having an emotional breakdown on the streets of Esthar and you're acting like a stone wall!" She cried wiping away more tears.

"I can send my driver for you. He can get you anything you may need and drop you off at your work," said a voice so apathetic and cold that it made her stop in the middle of the crosswalk.

Horns started to blare at her, as she looked down to her phone to see that instead of dialing back Quistis, she had it the unknown number from which he called. Groaning she hung up the phone again and started to move out of the cars. She was a horrible person for doing that. Right now if one of those cars hit her it would almost be a merciful act of kindness towards her.

Walking half a block she tried to ignore the vibration coming from her phone as she made her way towards downtown, but unlike last time, it was clear that the mystery man wasn't going to go away so easily this time.

Biting the bullet she raised the phone and accepted the call, "Listen, I already feel horrible that I accidently called you saying all that. It was terrible of me but please…. Please… Just forget my number. Forget me entirely…"

"Don't hang up on me this time," his voice had a hint of authority in it that somehow seemed to sucker her into obeying. "I understand what last night was about and I agree that it is best for all involved to forget what happened and cease communications."

While agreeing with it, Rinoa couldn't shake away the feeling that the coldness in his voice was really anger. She felt so guilty hearing it and knowing that her callousness was the reason for it being there. She just couldn't act like what she did was ok though, because it wasn't. She wanted long lasting relationships, not one-night stands and leading him on anymore at this point would be just as cruel.

"Let's just settle this issue so we both can go on with our lives without each other. My driver can pick you up and assist you in getting anything you need to make it to work on time."

She was good enough at reading in between the lines to understand that he was suggesting he could pay for their transgressions last night.

"I don't want your money." Rinoa replied as softly as she could not to come off ungrateful, "But I did this to myself and I'm not going to have some stranger bail me out- no offense."

There was a moment of silence, "At least let my driver take you to work. It's no inconvenience to me and will allow me to wash my hands of this situation."

Rinoa bit her lips wondering what options did she really have in this case but it was clear that refusing him was going to be difficult as he demanded her location.

"Lorie and 75th. By the fruit smoothie shack that has the yellow curtains," she caved closing her eyes.

"Yes, I know the place. Stay there so my driver can find you," his voice ordered but after a second of silence she could hear voice soften slightly as he finally allowed himself to breathe, "Goodbye, Rinoa."

Before she could even raise her voice the phone went dead. In a way it was almost a perfect ending to their ill-fated meeting. She took a small spot on an old stone bench in front of the smoothie bench relieved to be able to get off her feet. She still had no idea what the mystery brunette's name was, but at least she would not have to thank him in person so he would never have to find out.

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