Where it all Began {Squall}

[Rinoa Heartilly]

Tonight!

She was going to tell him tonight.

Staring into the full length mirror, Rinoa tucked her hair just so here, and smoothed down her outfit there. Why was she so nervous anyway? Squall had seen her looking…much worse than this. It was comical really. “Ooooh! You look amazing Rinny! I bet Squall’s gonna drool all over his suit! He's going to need a bucket for it.” Selphie brought Rinoa out of her serious thoughts with that ridiculous mental image. Still, it caused her to laugh in reaction. And picturing Squall standing there drooling didn’t help her state, and Rinoa started giggling until she collapsed on the bed that Selphie was laying on, half sitting on her friend in the process. Angelo, fired up from all the noise, started barking and bounced on the bed beside them, sticking his face in Selphie’s before he bounded back off. That only brought more giggles from Selphie, and before long, they were tangled up in each other, wiping tears from their eyes. “You don’t really think I’ll need a drool bucket, do you?” “Oh man! Of course you’re gonna need a drool bucket! Look at yo-…well, you might wanna redo your hair, it’s kinda messy.”, she commented lightly. Rinoa pushed her shoulder, stuck out her tongue, and managed to get away from Selphie and actually stand on her own two feet again, on her way over to inspect herself in the mirror.

And started chuckling again. “Sefie, you’re terrible on my hair, you know that?” While she said it, Rinoa was redoing her hair, finger combing it a bit, and glancing from side to side. “Better?” Half turning, Rinoa modeled herself to her hyper friend and received enthusiastic nods in return. “Looks mega-fantastic! I’m telling you Rinny. Drool bucket.” Rinoa smiled at her reflection once more, before taking a glance at the blue dress that she had chosen, or rather, that they had chosen, since Selphie had been along with her at that point too. What would she have done with the spunky girl anyway? Probably wallowing in self-pity over this whole thing. But after tonight, she wouldn’t have to feel like it was some huge secret anymore. She almost felt weak with relief. Squall could and would take care of it, she knew he would.

“Oh man! Look at the time Rinny. I’ve gotta run, Zell’s supposed to be by my dorm in a few minutes.”, the hyper girl burst out, before she bounced off the bed and flew out the door. "By Sefie!", she called after her. Rinoa felt just a little guilty just then, since Selphie had been helping her get ready and keeping her company rather than making her own self look good. But…oh well, she doubted the brunette minded. With one more touch of her hair, Rinoa glanced at the clock by her bedside. Okay, she’d lost track of time as well, since she had ten minutes to get down to the dance and meet Squall by the doors. Woops. Catching up her heels, Rinoa plopped down on the bed and started to buckle them on. After she had settled her feet into them, she was out the door and walking quickly down to the doors to the dance.

Apprehension settled in once again, amazing how easily Selphie could take her mind off her troubles, and how easily they returned whenever there wasn’t some other stimulus to take her mind off the present. But that would all change soon! After all…she would feel better when she told Squall about it. Still, she bit her lip in hesitation to do even that. Ohhhhh! Why were the decisions in life so hard now? Rinoa was surprised that by mulling it over in her head, she had managed to nearly reach the doors without noticing she had done so. She noticed the very man she had been thinking of when she rounded one last corner. It was impossible not to smile, and for a moment her entire face lit up instead of the serious expression she’d had only a few moments before. “Missing someone?”, she asked cheerfully when she had gotten close, slipping her arm to link with his when she did so.

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Words:; 879
Muse:; Great!
Tagged:; Squall
Location:; Doors to the dance
Outfit:; Click!
Notes:; :3
Listening To:;[/b] --

[Morgan Freeman]

No matter what changes Squall had made or was trying to make in his way with people, large gatherings would never be his forte.

And with that thought in mind, he sighed quietly to himself and stared down at the book in front of him, which was completely boring (being about Garden maintenance...apparently he had to read things like this now) but a good distraction. Squall wasn't really nervous about attending this dance that his friends had all had a part in putting together - if he could speak in front of the entire Garden, another dance was nothing - but he couldn't say he was looking forward to the fact that he would likely receive the bulk of the attention at the event. If he was going to go, he wanted to spend his time there with people he knew, Rinoa especially, and hopefully spend most of the night doing whatever amount of dancing she wanted and then making their way to the wall to escape the throng of people. But Squall had what he felt to be an accurate guess that he'd be attracting unwanted attention all night. Having a few donors to the Garden come up and speak to him wasn't really a big deal. But strangers visiting from elsewhere who were...less mature than most of the donors wouldn't be nearly as easy to handle. The thought caused Squall to hesitate from standing from his chair, but after a few more seconds of playing with the pages of the book before him, he ran a hand through his hair and shut it, getting to his feet. Rinoa would hang him or drag him out in the shorts he wore now if he didn't get himself up and start to get ready...and though he knew she wouldn't mind doing as such, he still didn't want to disappoint her. He knew she'd worked hard to get this organized along with some of the rest.

It didn't take him long to get a really quick, unnecessary shower, even if his mind kept him thinking on how the evening would go along. Squall had long since stopped expecting the worst from every situation, so the thoughts weren't completely composed of small disasters in the making. So instead he thought of simpler things, most of them more pleasant, since not having to keep reading that maintenance book was among them. He wondered what Rinoa would be wearing; wondered who had picked out the music and who would be involved in it. He wondered if someone had gotten enough food to feed Zell, too... Squall hadn't been all that much involved in the process, since most everyone had been willing to take it off of his hands. He was curious, too, just to see what plans had been made for the evening.

These random thoughts served to occupy Squall long enough that the time until the start of the dance had almost completely ticked away, and he had started with his dressing in his formal SeeD uniform. It only made sense for the SeeDs to wear their uniforms to be recognized. While this wasn't a celebration for new SeeDs as it had been the last time, per se, it was still mildly important for the Garden to represent itself well. Squall wasn't about to go saying what people could and could not wear, because he frankly didn't care all that much, but if he had to continue on bearing the title of commander of Balamb Garden, he wanted to make sure he didn't go around everywhere looking like a slob. In other words, this was one of the few times that actually caring what other people thought was not necessarily a bad thing altogether. Squall went to buttoning up the uniform's jacket, sighing lightly to himself again. He was over-thinking this whole event completely.

Shaking his head to himself, Squall finished sharpening up and made his exit, going back to the good thoughts and planning to head to where he would meet Rinoa. He'd be a few minutes early, but she would probably appreciate that.

Once there, he looked into the building to see just who had gathered. The place wasn't nearly full yet, signaling to him that quite a few were going to be a few minutes late, but he did note that the place looked fantastic. The people who were yet to arrive were probably trying to make themselves look nice. No one could fault them for that. But, as he immediately noticed after pacing the small space for a few seconds, no Rinoa quite yet. So Squall, looking to evade getting caught up with anyone just yet, stepped over to the wall at the side and propped his shoulder against it, staring inside.

Had he been counting the seconds, Squall wouldn't have made it to thirty before he heard the click of steps coming up behind him. He hoped he recognized the steps right, because they seemed to be closing in on him until he turned slightly in his place to see the smiling face of Rinoa approaching him. Returning it with his own, more subtle smile, he held out the arm she reached for a little more and pushed up off of the wall to straighten up beside her. "Maybe," he answered her, retaining the smile. "Let me know if you see her." He couldn't stop the sly look from jumping onto his face. It was a rare thing that he came up with what he thought to be a decent tease...but this was one of those rarities. Rinoa had to credit him for trying either way.

Words - 983
Muse - Excellent!
Outfit - SeeD uniform
Notes - ;_; Again I say, thank you.[/size]

[Rinoa Heartilly]

So he was wearing his suit. And smiling! That was definitely a good sign. When events like this happened, Rinoa was never quite sure how well Squall was going to handle it. Of course, it wasn’t like he worried out loud, and he never voiced any opinions, but she had this feeling that he didn’t exactly enjoy them. So she appreciated that he tried to do things like this, and even manage to seem happy to be doing it. While she slipped her arm into his, Rinoa didn’t lose her smile. Instead, she turned her gaze down to his clothing, unashamed about checking him out. “Don’t you look handsome tonight.” If by this time, she couldn’t handle looking at what he was wearing, then they might have a little bit of a problem. He looked…distinguished. Yes, that was a good way to put it. Which was probably expected from someone of his status in the Garden.

“Oh you!”, she burst out when he spoke, before removing her arm from his and lightly giving him a smack on the shoulder. “And here I thought I should get all dressed just for you, and you’re looking for another woman instead?” After that, she made a few ‘tsk’ noises, looking down to inspect herself. “I knew I should have worn that paper bag instead and not spent any money.” What surprised her the most about Squall was that sly smile he was giving her right at the moment. Like he had all sorts of secrets that she should be dying to know. Rinoa knew she shouldn’t be so surprised about it, because he had been doing so much better with loosening up lately, but sometimes she still had to take a step back and be amazed on the difference in his personality. Or maybe just the man she had seen peeks of before were becoming more prominent.

Either way, Rinoa was absolutely thrilled about it. Returning her arm to his, she smoothed out his suit with her opposite hand where her smack might have disrupted it any. He really must be okay with this whole dance thing tonight. And so far, no use for a drool bucket. That was at least a little bit of success, as they wouldn’t have to go get a wad of paper towels to clean him up. Along with that thought, came a slight chuckle. Oh goodness, Selphie was tainting her mind now. And of course, she realized then that she was standing there like an idiot, chuckling over a mental image. Squall was going to think she had gone crazy, so she hastened to try and explain it, even if she hadn’t needed to. “Sefie told me I should have brought along a bucket for you to drool in, because of the dress. Isn’t she silly?” Amusement filled her features, even as she looked over at Squall to see his reaction.

The moment had so captured her that she had momentarily forgotten completely about the problem she had and needed to talk to him about, but it came back then when she glanced over at him. Her breath caught a little bit, her smile waned just slightly. That was right…she had to talk to him about…but did she really? Tonight of all nights? Maybe she could wait until tomorrow. He didn’t need to have his night ruined, did he? Not that…it was really anything to ruin, she supposed. Probably some explanation as to why this was happening that had absolutely nothing to do any sorceresses abilities. She knew she was just coming up with excuses now, but it was so hard to break free from those excuses, that she let her mind run with them.

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Words:; 765
Muse:; Great!
Tagged:; Squall
Location:; Dancy dance
Outfit:; That one I linked!
Notes:; :3
Listening To:;[/b] --