For His Love

Chapter 1

By Pixie158

Squall stared blindly out into the night. His beautiful features marred only by the frown he wore. Still breathing heavily from the battle, Squall leaned on his gunblade, resting a bit. Zell bounced over, barely out of breath, a huge smile on his face. "Best moves I’ve seen in a while Squally-Baby!" he shouted-and thumped Squall on the back, almost sending him sprawling.

Squall straightened up slowly, scowling at the hyper blonde boy who stood grinning at him just a few steps away. Squall rolled his eyes and said…

"Whatever…" a soft voice came from behind Squall. He turned his head and glowered at Quistis as she made her way over to the two boys.

"Really, Squall, you must think of something new to say!" Quistis said with a little laugh. Zell began to shadowbox as he spoke, "I’m not sure you should have said that Quisty, he may stop talking altogether!"

Squall hefted his gunblade onto his shoulder and shook his head at his friends. "C’mon you guys, it’s getting late."

Quistis linked her arm though Zell’s as they followed Squall back to the garden.

Squall opened the chest at the foot of his bed and carefully deposited his gunblade. After locking the trunk and sliding the key under the rug beside the bed, he stood, stretched, and began shrugging out of his jacket. As it was sliding off his shoulders, he heard someone knocking on his door. Tossing it onto a chair as he passed through the kitchen, he heaved a sigh. What is it now? He wondered. He walked slowly towards the door, his footsteps heavy.

But when he opened the door~he smiled. Rinoa stood in the doorway, arms linked behind her back, her dark eyes shining. She tilted her head to one side and her long dark hair swung in a shimmering curtain against her arm. When she smiled at him, Squall felt the impact throughout his body.

"I know it’s late", she began hesitantly, "but I was on my way back to my room so I thought I’d stop in and say goodnight." Squall caught her hand and pulled her gently into the room. Rinoa smiled as she glanced around his room. Everything was in its place. One could almost believe the rooms were unoccupied. Squall had virtually no personal effects in his dorm. He took a bottle of water from the refrigerator and glanced up at Rinoa. "Want something to drink?" he asked. She shook her head slightly, "No thanks, I can’t stay."

He frowned slightly at her words, and moved to stand beside her. "Well, I’m glad you stopped by."

Rinoa moved in closer to him and rose on her tiptoes to touch her lips to his. Squall stepped back the second she pulled her lips away. He appeared flustered, uncomfortable. Rinoa’s eyes cast about the room nervously as she backed up toward the door. "O-okay", she stammered, "well, goodnight." Squall remained rooted where he stood. Almost inaudibly he murmured, "See you tomorrow."

Rinoa closed the door behind her softly and Squall visibly relaxed. He ran his hands through his hair and sighed in frustration. What the hell was the matter with him? Rinoa had been hinting for weeks that she was ready to take their relationship to the next level. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to…Hyne knew that he had imagined a hundred times what it would be like to take her to bed. To touch her body, to feel her moving beneath him…Squall shook his head as if to wipe the thoughts out of his mind. Dreaming about it wouldn’t make it happen, and he knew that Rinoa would only be so bold when it came to pushing him into making the first move.

For some unfathomable reason, Squall felt intimidated. Even though he knew she was every bit as innocent as he was, intrinsically he felt unprepared and more than a little apprehensive. How would he know when the time was right? Why do I think so much? he asked himself. Why can’t I be like other guys when it comes to this stuff? Irvine would never have this problem…and Seifer, well Seifer never had to think about it. Women came to him. No questions. But thinking about Seifer only reminded Squall that he’d known Rinoa first, and they hadn’t discussed her relationship with Seifer. He wasn’t sure he could stand hearing about it.

Squall strode back into his room and pulled his jacket back on. Although he was tired in his bones, he knew sleep would elude him tonight.

As he strapped his gunblade on his hip, he heard pounding at the door. He winced at the loud noise. That can’t possibly be Rinoa…could it? Maybe she’d waited for him to make his move long enough…

Just the thought of Rinoa pounding down the door in unrequited sexual frustration was enough to bring a smile to Squall’s lips.

"All right, already…keep your shirt on," he joked. Pulling open the door, expecting to find his ladylove smiling back at him, his easy smile quickly transformed into his usual guarded expression when he saw Zell staring back at him through the doorway.

Squall’s features tightened in response to the look in Zell’s eyes. It was almost…predatory. But the look was gone almost as suddenly as it had appeared and Zell’s familiar grin was back in place. "Hey Squall, I saw Rin leave, figured you were still awake for a reason…wanna head over to the training center for a little while?"

Squall’s lips turned up in an imitation of a smile, genuinely glad for the distraction.

He motioned to his gunblade. "You read my mind…let’s go."

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