A/N: Here it is, long awaited as it has been. This series of spotlights seemed to be the best way to end such a long running fic, and I truely hope it ties up all those loose ends. This may have turned out to be a very different fiction than it started out as, but I do hope it's still worth the read. So, without further ado, the final chapter.
Laguna sat on the beach with a sigh and a smile on his creased face. Both his children floated and fluttered in the blue, crisp water of the Balamb shore laughing and giggling away. Thanks Raine, Laguna whispered, a single tear threatening to slink down his face.
"Hey, Dad! Pass it over already!" Ciel giggled, as a volleyball careened past Laguna's head and knocked over his ice tea. The tear was forgotten for fits of shrieks and laughter.
"Ahh! Whatcha trying to do, knock off the old man? I got a government that might be opposed to that, y'know!" Laguna said with a laugh. Jogging up across the sand Squall grabbed the volleyball with a twist and a curl a split second before his dad could yank it out of the sand.
"Sorry, Dad. You okay?" he asked, looking at the forgotten tear mark on Laguna's face.
"Uh, yeah. Sand in the eye, y'know?"
"Heh. Yeah. Sure. Hey, um, wanna play volleyball? With us? I mean, Zell and Ciel are kicking my . . . I've got a spot."
Laguna looked hard at his son's body. Scars on his chest wrinkled and moved when he flipped and spiked the ball, healing wounds on his legs faded in the Balamb sun, his chestnut hair flowed messily and damp around his face and the scar between his eyes. By Hyne it was hard to see.
"Where's Irvine, can't he come out and play?"
". . . He went out with Selphie and Rinoa. She doesn't like the beach. . " Squall toed the sand with his foot, Rinoa was still a sore subject, they had broken off their engagement, and both asked for time to think. That was four months ago. They hadn't spoken at all since then. All of their friends had been handling the situation with care, and trying to get the couple back together had been a subtle priority with Selphie.
"Yeah, well, I was finished doing what I was doing anyways, so sure! I'll play!" Laguna said, massaging the back of his neck with his hand. Waving at Kiros, Ward and the several Estharan SeeD candidates, Laguna gave a pathetic little whimper as he jogged up to the net and loosened his button down. Kiros had offered to take the Estharan transfer students out for some field traning at the Beach, and basically guaranteed that the Loire family wouldn't have any run-ins with wily sea monsters. Now, however, Kiros and Ward shook their heads and shared a laugh as Laguna tripped and face planted into the soft golden sand.
"Heh. Kinda slippery here. . . Your serve!" Laguna mumbled to Ciel and Zell. The two of them had become inseparable, the best of friends, and solid buddies. Squall had been given an indefinate furlough from Garden responsibilities, taking missions when he wanted, training and living between Garden, Esthar and Winhill. Ciel and Squall had finished up the Winhill house, fixing the bar and leaving it up and running with the help of Ellone, Seifer, Fujin, Rajin and Quistis. The Bar & Cafe had been renamed "Raine" and had become quite popular for furloughing SeeD's and world travellers.
Another addition to their lives, Ciel had been blossoming, switching her time between the Presidential Palace and Winhill. Soon enough, she was found to have strengths in analytical studies, and had taken to psychology and dancing with an almost supernatural ease. Ciel had also become quite the athelete, and proved that fact with another amazing volley. Squall dove from the back, sending the ball back up into the air as Laguna tapped it over to an awaiting Zell. Bumping the ball up, Zell stepped back, as Ciel sent the ball up towards Zell for another spike from the muscled martial artist.
"Get it, Dad!" Squall yelled, watching the ball move closer and closer to the sand.
"Woa!" Laguna yelped, narrowly missing the ball, as it went mysteriously up, up and back to the opposing side.
"Hey! No fair!" Ciel laughed, as Zell got a ball to the head.
"Yeah. . . OWW!!!!"
Everyone laughed as Seifer dove in to the rescue, tossing his greatcoat out of bounds, and smiling wickedly at everyone.
"Couldn't let you guys loose too bad to Chicken-wuss, and Feathers" Seifer had become quite fond of teasing Ciel, she reacted with the same fury as Zell, or Squall would. Rolling her eyes, Fujin gingerly stepped into the fray for the opposing team.
"IMMATURE" Fujin said, tossing the ball to her husband on the other side. Ciel was too busy sticking her tongue out to notice their volleyball game had become a far more public event.
"Who're you callin' Feathers, you dusty squirrel!?" she yelled back, smacking the ball Seifer had served over.
"Yeah! Who're you callin' Chicken-wuss, . . . Seifer!" Zell taunted, getting stuck, and shrugging. Fujin volleyed the ball, sending it over to Laguna, who set it up for his one and only son.
Seifer just laughed, life had been starting to mellow, it had been a year since Ultimecia, and the sins of the past were being swiftly forgotten into the dusty pages of history books and late night tv movies. Even the political scene in Galbadia had been calming down, the entire world it seemed, was settling in for a hefty peace. Work came easy for SeeD, however, clean-up after the wake of the Galbadian attacks had left much of the cities in need of repair, and Garden had become integral in the reshaping of the globe.
After several more volleyball matches and an inevitable tie call, Seifer, Fujin, Zell, Ciel and Squall sat around a hearty camp fire on Balamb's white sandy beach. Laguna had gone off to complete some Presidential business, and the rest of the young adults were enjoying the crackling flames and soft lulling music the ocean's waves provided. Ward and Kiros had brought some food for the gang, and they all sat happily munching the various treats.
Seifer and Fujin had been watching Ciel with interest, especially seeing how quickly her and Zell had become solid friends. She had been with them only a few months and already she had been attracting the kind of magnetic belonging of a Posse of her own, even if she was tenderly uncomfortable with large amounts of people. Her posse was much the same as Seifer, Fujin and Rajin had all those years ago. Now that Rajin had been spending the majority of his time with Quistis, and Garden's mandate of rebuilding the war-torn areas, their trio had become lagging, the cafe in Winhill had become a welcome escape from the lack of their rather large friend. As much as he liked teasing them, Seifer could see how Ciel just seemed to fit with everyone so well. Munching on an apple, Seifer leaned back and scanned the twins and their blonde friend.
"Ciel, why do you like Chicken-wuss so much, anyways?" Squall rolled his eyes, preparing to be the big boy and split apart what could become another explosive situation. Ciel coughed, sputtering her bottle of water, and looking from Zell to Squall in an almost panic. Squall smiled at his sister, so opposite to himself, yet amazingly similar in so much.
"I dunno." Ciel said quickly, hoping the fire had kept everyone from seeing her blush. Zell slumped his shoulders slightly at her answer, Squall could see how much Zell had taken a liking to his twin, and didn't quite know how to handle it yet.
"Yeah you do." Seifer quipped back. "No person whose spent so much time looking at all of us just becomes friends with one of us on a whim"
Squall paused, 'one of us', Seifer and his posse were one of them now, or maybe Squall, Ciel and Zell had become one of them. He wasn't sure. Ciel's cheeks were on fire, she couldn't quite put her finger on why she liked Zell so much, nor any of them save for the fact that she saw so much about their lives including all their secrets, and all the words they whispered into the silence, or the fray of battle when no one else could listen. How could she explain that out of all the people she knew Zell had meant the most, because he felt the most. He might have done a poor job at times of hiding his emotions, but no one, not even Squall could see how much Zell cared about everyone and everything. How could she explain that when humanity was sharing its labours and its ecstasies, she could only see it except for Zell, the closest she came to feeling anything at all was when she watched him, because he was just so. . . human.
When she didn't answer, Seifer raised his eyebrow, he had hit a sore spot, perhaps he had gone too far.
"I like him because he's Zell, and that's enough for me." Ciel smiled at her friend, then at her brother and the rest of the group.
"So there, now pass over those marshmallows, or I'll . . ."
"Throw a flaming piece of kindling at us?" Squall finished, passing his sister the fluffy white confectionary.
"Or even better, I'll throw a flaming marshmallow at you" Ciel laughed, the rest of the gang relaxing again, and sharing a hearty batch of campfire goodness.
"How're you going to do that if I have the marshmallows?"
"Correction, you DID have the marshmallows. . . Anyone have a pointy stick? Mine got all burnt to ash again"
"That's because you left your marshmallow in the fire too long. You've gotta wait until your marshmallow is crispy brown, then whip it out of the fire, before it can light into a lil' candy fire." Zell said, passing Ciel his stick, and spearing a marshmallow onto the end for her. The two smiled at each other, as Seifer whispered in Fujin's ear. Everyone laughed when she slapped him soundly across the chest. The fire crackled in their ears as the group of friends stayed out late into the night, with one lonely figure watching them from a distance.
"Laguna! Out, you mangey chipmunk!" Mrs. Jordan said, smacking Laguna over the head with a pair of pantyhose.
"Ahh! Laguna! It's bad luck to see me in my dress!" Raine screamed and giggled, as Laguna retreated out of the room being chased by the firey woman and her nylons. Yelping loudly, Laguna tripped down a step to regain his composure, and turn with his hand over his eyes.
"I didn't mean it! I just. . . wanted to. . . please tell me those were Raine's pantyhose."
"Of course they were, don't you ever think I would hit you with my own knickers, now Laguna Loire."
"Thank you for small mercies, Mrs. J"
"Laguna!"
"Sorry Raine, I just. . . "
"Yeah?" Raine said, her voice anxious and slightly nervous.
"Well, out with it!" Mrs. Jordan snapped.
"I wanted to . . . Raine?"
"Yes, Laguna"
"I love you! I really really do. I just. . before Kiros finishes getting me into my penguin suit, and parading me to that crumbly fancy building with all the carnations and . . . stuff. . . we're gonna be happy."
"Yeah, Laguna. We're gonna be happy."
Laguna nodded, even as he heard Mrs. Jordan huff with an audible sigh.
"Yeah, I just wanted to promise you that. We're gonna be the happiest people in all of the whole wide universe, y'know?" Laguna massaged the back of his neck, and his knee as he stumbled to sit on the stair.
"I guess that's all I wanted to say. Just, wanted to tell ya. Please don't hit me" as he waited for what he thought was Mrs. Jordan come to shoo him away, a random scarf tugged its way around his eyes. Before the dumbfounded travel journalist could say anything, soft, warm, wonderfully womanly lips found his own, and he knew everything was going to turn out just fine. For as long as they could keep it.
Thursday afternoons usually left the cafe rather quiet, for this particular thursday: completely devoid of business. That suited Squall just fine as today had been deemed 'stock and shock day', the day he or whomever else was on got to order stock and get shocked at how expensive good whole bean coffee was by the pound. Here he was chewing a honey stick and twiddling a pen through his fingers as he read aloud the different blends of coffee he could order. The fact that he was lying on top of the counter chewing products that usually sold for a couple of shiny coins added just that little extra bit of 'don't blame me, I just work here'. To Squall's shock, the door jingled open, and someone or something stood breathing not two footsteps from it.
"Yeah, gimme a second, I'll be right. . ." Squall was interrupted over the lists of dark roast, decaf and organic coffee by a voice that greeted him with the consistency of old, rusty nails on a sofa instead of a chalkboard.
"This is new."
Stopping short is an odd talent: it comprises of the inability to say anything, and a complete paralysis of the human body. Doing this in mid-roll without falling, however, is a genius' talent. Squall was a genius. Even as the honey stick slipped down out of his mouth, an uneasy silence slapped both people in the jaw, cracking and crackling like the static on an old tv in a storm. Time stopped, the clocks halted their infernally annoying tick-tock, and blinking became a luxury out of some dream.
"I.. . shouldn't be here. Funny, I kind of expected . . something, nevermind"
It took Squall all of three bounds to slam the door closed before the insanely nervous woman could exit the cafe. Awkward hands shook their way to locking the door, and flipping the Open sign to Closed, as the chocolate haired Squall silently shook deep in his gut.
"Rinoa" his breath was more of a whisper as he caught the rest of the thousand words deep in his throbbing, useless, clumsy throat. Her eyes. They were scared, so scared and so wide, and the exact mirror of his own. Another amazing invention of the human race was guilt, although not as amazing as love, it still held its place in the pantheon of the most useless emotions he could have been feeling at that one, single moment. Magically, the horror of staring into someone who may very well hate him faded and his thousand words escaped from their prison in his throat.
"I died for you. I would have, at least. If we could really die. I went through Time Compression, Sorceresses, War, battles, dancing, morning sickness, getting shot at by the one man that had a reason to shoot me, and all for. . you. I gave up my life and was ready to do anything I could for you and all I can do is stare at your fingernails" his voice caught in his throat, as he gingerly traced her fingers with his thumbs.
"I've been living the last six months in this tiny town and watched my sister and Zell fall in love, become a posse with Seifer and Fujin and Zell and Ciel, given up Garden, gone on more of a holiday than I've ever been on in my life, and hugged my father. Without the weirdness. Without you. You're it, Rinoa. Laguna was right, if I didn't love you I wouldn't have thrown myself out of a friggin' spaceship. I still love you, and that's the problem. I am incapable of letting you go. I'm. . . please tell me you're not engaged to somebody else right now, because you're crying."
Rinoa was in fact, crying, and her tears fell like rivers across the desert of the Cactars. Slowly, she unclenched her fingers from Squall and beat her head against the doorway softly, in agony. He didn't know what to do. She wrenched her hand away, and punched his chest weakly, tears flowing faster than gravity could pull them down. Soon she was sobbing and crying into his chest as he grabbed her with every muscle in his being, hugged her with his very soul.
"Please. . . please just. . . "
Then, the tears came. As he held her, he too began to cry, not much but silent tears streaking two by two down his face and scrolling over his vision, before quickly drying up before anyone human would realise they were there. All of it, the many wounds, Griever, their child, their failed engagement came rushing back, but it was alright. It was okay, because the more they tried to pull out of the embrace the more one or both of them would cling tighter, re-enter the embrace.
Hours later, Squall and Rinoa sat at one of the tables in Raine's bar turned cafe and drank from a seemingly neverending pot of tea. All that separated them was a couple of cups, a teapot, and one half full box of kleenex as they both found the tea's colour as interesting as a walking, talking, fandango dancing set of teacups.
Looking up from her fandango dancing teacup, Rinoa stared at the scar on Squall's brow.
"Will it ever get better?" her moseying eyes found the rims of Squall's, and sunk in past them to search his blue, wanting eyes.
"Honestly?" He asked, waiting until she nodded.
"I don't know. What I do know is, that I never should have left you alone."
Another awkward look between them, as Rinoa's eyes filled again with tears.
"What happens now? What do we do?" she whimpered, trying not to let the tears fall. Rustling furniture squeaked across the floor as Squall leaned on his knees to cradle the girl. The mother of his never-to-be-born child. May Griever guard him well.
"Come here. Come on." Rinoa shook her head, but Squall simply picked her up in his arms and walked her upstairs, even as her hands pushed him away.
"Please" Rinoa begged, as Squall placed her on his bed.
"Hush, Rinoa. It's alright. I'm not going to harm you. Understand? I never wanted to hurt you"
"I hurt you"
"Yes, you did. You left me out of your scheming and it cost us our child. I hated you, Rinoa, I wanted you to die, but.. . listen to me" he shook her shoulders lightly as Rinoa tried to retreat into the darkness.
"You are not to blame. Yea, it was a stupid, ignorant, horribly maddening thing to do and you did it, but if that is the one horrible, awful, maddening thing you ever do, then okay. Even we can overcome. I might not be a mercenary anymore, but I still own that big and pointey gunblade over there, I can still be your Knight, I can still do that for you" he caressed her cheek with his hand, thumbing her skin tenderly, his eyes set.
Slowly, Rinoa shifted her body to hug the pillow on the bed, tugging her hair behind her ear with the other hand.
"No, Squall. I don't want you to be my Knight. No more of that. I'm done. I'm tired of fighting, and I'm tired of blood and war, and walking through a mall with Selphie and getting tagged as the 'Girl who should have been frozen'. I'm not here as a Sorceress, I'm here as a woman who can't stop loving you even when she tries. Can't we just be Squall and Rinoa? Nothing more, just you and me? What do we do when the battles are over? We live, Squall. Time to wake up, can we start waking up now?"
Squall weighed her words carefully, leaning across the bed and tossing a sock across the distance to land somewhat beside his dresser.
"No. Rinoa, I woke up months ago, and you weren't there. No we can't wake up. You can, I've been waiting for you. I love you, Rinoa."
Closing the distance between them, Squall took the pillow and cast it aside with an audible thump on the wooden floor. Now that her pillow had been taken away, Rinoa stared at Squall, hurt and scared even as he came the remaining distance to her, grabbed her shoulders with tender fingers and kissed her with all the passion he felt for the girl in his arms.
They fell asleep under the Winhill moon, together again at last.
"Squall!! Twin Squall!! DAD!!" Ciel came careening up the stair, Zell in tow both of them laughing and teasing each other as they bounded the steps at the Presidential Palace in Esthar. Leaping through the door to Laguna's office, past a very surprised intern, the dynamically devious duo lunged into Laguna's office upsetting three days worth of unorganized paper work and the two Loire men who had been sharing coffee and tactical plans.
"AACK! We're under fire!! Attack!" off went the stapler, as Laguna lept from his chair, and knelt behind it flicking staples at his child, even as Squall and Zell got into a wrestling match over the last jelly dougnut. Laughter prevailed, as Ciel tossed her body over the desk and landed unserepticiously into her father's arms.
"Hi, dad. How've ya been?" the ecstatic nineteen year old said. Everyone laughed as they began patching the office back together, and Kiros came in like a bat out of hell.
"Laguna! Are you. . . oh, hello Ciel, Zell. Would you care for some tea with all this destruction?"
"Got any hot dogs?" Zell piped up, still being held in Squall's sleeper hold. Zell reverted to the old flip-him-over and scramble up technique to get Squall off, and the four of them stood in the office in an oddly silent moment as Kiros shrugged out of the door.
"So, besides the sneak-attack on my presidency, what are you two hooligans here for?" Laguna finally said, sitting down on top of a kaleidoscope of paperwork and folders. Squall turned a chair back into the upright position and slopped down into it, thinking hard on what the two friends would want to blurt out. Then it hit him.
"You're not. Don't even, Zell!"
Nodding vigourously, Zell grinned a grin the size of the Ragnarok as Ciel smiled and slapped the back of her neck. Being completely clueless, Laguna watched the action instead. Although, as Zell slipped behind Ciel and put an arm around her, daylight began to glimmer.
"NO WAY!" he shouted, slapping his knee.
"Yes way! We're. . . dating!" Ciel said with a squeal. Squall's hand quickly connected with his forehead as his eyes rolled back. Rinoa was going to be in a squealing fit when he told her about this. Maybe he should let Ciel tell her, they could squeal a continent insane together. Zell's emphatic nodding got Laguna to the shocked place where he actually believed it. Where had this come from?
"Y'know, Ciel and I have been friends for a while now, and we talked about it and decided to give it a try."
"And if it doesn't work, we get to go back to being hot dog eating buddies!"
"Yeah!"
"I don't know what's more exciting, the dating or the hot dog buddies. . ." Laguna said in a whispered voice to Squall.
"I heard that, Daddy." Ciel snarked, putting her hands on her hips. What a day.
Laguna sat alone in his bedroom nursing the dregs of a bottle of port and stared at a random photograph from Raine's box. It was a picture of Raine while she was pregnant with the twins, and her hair had been held back with flowers, she had on a pale yellow dress, and was standing in the field of wild flowers. She was smiling. On the video screen, he had a home movie playing of Raine on their honeymoon in Fisherman's Horizon.
"Laguna, put that down" Raine said with a giggle, her hands over her face, plastering the camera toward her feet.
"Not till I get a good shot of you." Laguna's voice came bubbling from the screen, so much younger than he was now.
"Why?"
"To show our kids someday, so's we can prove how cool we were back in the day"
Raine's laugh came ringing clearly from the speakers,
"You really think so?"
"Yeah, at least we'll watch them again to prove we were cool. See? Nothing to fuss over." A clear shot of Raine giggling away came up on the screen, as she walked closer to her husband.
"Says the guy behind the camera."
"Hah, I can counter that argument quite effectively my sweet." Laguna turned the camera so both of them could be seen, heads touching and sharing a quick kiss.
"Hullo future people! Laguna and Raine Loire here, and couldn't be happier! We were cool once! As is proven by this sexy woman before me. So, be good to your mother, and don't give me too much fuss and yeah, we'll all be happy. Just like now. It'll never end. Nothing really does."
"And now presenting, Mr. and Mrs. Lionheart!" the reverend yelled it over the mass of cheering, excited people as Squall and Rinoa shared their first kiss as a married couple. Another two years had passed in harmony and the world was becoming sweet in it's revelry. The gang was back in the swing of things, Selphie and Irvine had moved on to become top notch SeeD's, Quistis had become Commander of Garden, and Rajin, her constant companion, had been introduced back into the fold of mercenary life, never leaving her side.
The bar had been doing excellent, Ellone, Seifer, Fujin, Squall, and Zell all took a part of the profits, living comfortably enough. Ciel's education in Esthar continued with vigour, and it looked as if she would take a liking into Politics, or something of the sort. The relationship between Ciel and Zell had been passionately rocky at times, which was wont to happen with good friends turned more, but they always made up and got closer because of it.
"Come on, Zell! I think I saw a group of fireflies!" Ciel tugged and pulled at her tuxedo wearing boyfriend, who slipped in his shiny shoes then laughed and followed along. Her dress shone green in the pale moonlight, and it flowed in whisps down to her feet in the breeze. In front of them stood the ghostly form of Griever, a toddler peeking out from behind his massive legs.
"Silly me, no fireflies just Griever." The large grin on Ciel's face salvaged Zell's freaked out shout. Instantly Zell folded Ciel to him protectively and lowered himself on his haunches, until he realised it was just Griever.
"Peace, Zell."
"You gotta stop scaring me like that." Zell said, now gripping his heart.
The apparition waved his hand amicably and bent low to come eye to eye with Ciel.
"Life goes on, little one. We shall now all find our peace. My congratulations to the addition to the Lionhearts." The toddler peeked out from behind Griever's leg again and waved. Ciel waved back with a grin.
"Heya little nefew. You make sure you watch as much as possible, kay? Oh, and if you get bored pitch Shiva and Ifrit against each other, its always good for a few giggles." The brown haired boy smiled and nodded, before skittering back behind Griever's leg as the massive apparition stood and crossed his arms over his chest.
"The peace shall begin, and all find our contentment therein. Farethewell my Princess. Wear your crown with pride. I will always be with you" The voice touched their ears as Griever faded from view, taking the Lionheart boy with him. Zell stood wide-eyed at the fading scene as he swerved his view to Ciel and thought for a moment, she wore a crown of stars.
"Hey! Everything alright out here?" Squall looked on from the Church as Seifer strolled out and asked about the shouts of alarm from Zell.
"False alarm." Zell answered quickly, smiling down at a grinning Ciel.
"Everything's all good." she nodded, looking between the three men with a knowing glint in her eye, "It's all gonna be great"
A/N: This is it, the epilogue and after how many years I've finally finished this fiction. I am sorry it took so long, I've been sitting on this chapter for months but today's the day. For all that have read and enjoyed this story, thank you. Enjoy life, and always make the time to dance. Listen to good music, eat healthy food and don't forget to smile.
God bless, Cursum Perifico.