Remember the twilight before seeking dawn

A lot of things have happened in my life since my last update and most were bad to say the least….but I'm finally back with the latest chapter..

Thank you to all those who reviewed the previous chapter and please Read and Review this one. I really want to know what everyone thinks about this. Well I hope the past month and a halfish went better for you than me and I hope you have a nice day!

"C'mon Squall, can't you take a break from all you hard work?" Rinoa begged as the Garden flew over the Galbadian plains.

Squall looked out the window at the peaceful scenery, "I wish I could Rinoa. I wish I could take you out there and have a day of fun, act like we're actually 19. But I can't."

"Why not?" Rinoa asked with a playful smile as she took a step towards Squall.

Squall looked down at her with an expression that plainly said 'You know very well what,' however she did nothing more but look at him with a curious expression so he answered the question. "SeeD exams are coming up, Cid's officially retired and I still haven't found someone to replace him, plus there are still a lot of open instructor positions. Nobody wants to teach anymore, they all want to be SeeDs and go out to help people."

"Do any of those things have to be resolved today, right now?" Rinoa asked as she put her hands in Squall's.

"No…But there's also this investigation I need to get started on."

Rinoa raised an eyebrow. All the other things she knew about, but this investigation was new.

"There's a rumor of some sort of uprising…Someone or some group wants to take out top SeeD personnel and…resurrect Ultimecia or find some other source of dark magic."

Rinoa saw it as Squall explained this to her. It was only there for a second, but to Rinoa it was permanently etched on his face. A shadow of suspicion.

Rinoa reached and grabbed Squall's face so he was looking straight into her eyes. "Squall Leonhart," Rinoa began in a serious tone, "I am not plotting to kill you or any other SeeD member. I swear it. I love you Squall, I don't want to kill you. Ever."

Squall said nothing in reply, but Rinoa knew very well he believed her and appreciated that she had said it.

"Besides Squall, if I killed you, I would have to kill myself."

"What?" Squall asked, serious concern in his tone.

With a light teasing smile, Rinoa answered honestly, "I couldn't live without you Squall. If something were to happen…I wouldn't keep living."

"Yes you would Rinoa. You're too strong to give up just because of me. I would need you to keep on living, remember?"

"You would need me to make sure you became more than just a memory," Rinoa laughed as she placed her lips on Squall's cheek playfully.

Squall managed to smile lightly, but he still looked too serious for Rinoa.

"You need a break Squall. You need a chance to lighten up and be a teenager. Here, let's leave Zell in charge, and get Irvine and Selphie to go on a picnic with us. It's beautiful outside."

"Do I have to? If I was going to take a break, I'd rather just get a long nap."

Rinoa laughed, "You're so boring Squall Leonhart! You have an hour to get everything ready and then we're going to have fun! Ever heard of it?" Rinoa stood on her tiptoes to kiss Squall before leaving to talk to Selphie about her plan.

"Man, Squall do you ever show emotion?" Irvine asked as he walked out from behind the elevator once Rinoa was out of the headmaster's study.

Squall merely glared at Irvine in reply.

"Alright Alright, cool off man. Anyway, could this have worked out any better? A nice day out on the grounds, away from everyone else? A slight breeze blowing through their hair…I'll just roll down a hill with Selphie and let her find the ring—"

"So you got the rings right?" Squall cut Irvine off, not particularly wanting to hear where Selphie was supposed to find the ring.

"That's what I came here to show you before Rinoa popped up," Irvine said as he reached into a pocket in his trench coat. He pulled out two dark jewelry boxes and threw one at Squall.

Squall easily caught the box and opened it. He stared at the beautiful ring he had specially made for Rinoa. There was a tiny lion and dog sitting side-by-side in the diamond on the silver ring.

"Hey, Squall, you don't think they suspect do you? I mean, it was a little convenient that Rinoa just happened to come up with this picnic idea the day after I finally got the rings."

Squall managed to actually laugh a little, "You really think she expects me to propose? When it was me who said we weren't going to get married for a very long time? This will blindside her."

"Yeah, and I guess nobody would expect me, the constant ladies man to finally settle down."

Squall smirked.

"Woah, Squall, what's the smirk for? You never smirk so this has got to be big."

"Everyone knows you're whipped Irvine. We've just been waiting for you to realize it."

"Hey, hey, Irvine Kinneas is notwhipped. I just want to make my lady friend happy."

"IRVINE!" A voice shouted from the doorway. Quickly, Squall and Irvine shoved the rings into their jackets to hide them. Selphie stormed through the door a second later. "Rinoa and I have been looking all over for you. We are all going in a picnic in 45 minutes and we have so much to do to get ready!"

She grabbed Irvine's hand when she got to him and despite the foot difference in height, she successfully dragged him out of the headmaster's study.

"Yeah Irvine, you're not whipped," Squall said under his breath as he once again took the ring out of his pocket and stared at it, mentally going over his plan on how he was going to finally pop the question to the one person who could inspire him to truly live.

"C'mon Squall just one picture!" Selphie begged as the four walked across the grass with the sunshine on them.

Squall just kept walking, not looking at anyone.

"Squall man, Selphie isn't going to relent. You just gotta give in to the lady," Irvine reasoned.

With no emotion, Squall kept walking away.

"Squall Leonhart!" Rinoa shouted from a good fifteen feet behind him.

Squall kept walking without altering his pace.

"Oh, he's going to get it," Selphie whispered in Irvine's ear as they stopped chasing Squall and moved out of Rinoa's path to him.

"Stop right there Squall! We are going to have one picture together of this day where we're actually having fun."

Squall just kept walking. He saw a particularly soft spot of grass a few feet away that he started towards.

"SQUALL LEONHART!" Rinoa called out loudly while Irvine shook his head and Selphie clapped her hands, excited for the action.

Rinoa continued heatedly and she began to storm after Squall, "Squall! Turn around right now! You are not going to ruin this day be going into one of your emo stages! Squall, you never just have fu—"

Squall's walking figure suddenly collapsed onto the ground, unmoving.

Selphie, Irvine, and Rinoa abruptly froze.

"Squall, that's not funny man," Irvine called out to Squall's prone figure.

There was no response from Squall as he lay on the grass.

Rinoa let out a scream, "SQUALL!" and she quickly ran towards the body of the one person she could never live without.

"Squall, Squall, Squall," she repeated as she slid onto the ground next to his body and began touching him, searching for a pulse, for any sign of life. She tried casting healing spells. "Squall, please wake up," she whispered, almost crying.

Suddenly, Rinoa felt herself be pulled onto Squall's body and heard his extremely rare laughter.

"Squall Leonhart, that was not funny! I know you don't really know how to crack jokes, and I'm glad you tried, but that was horrible!" Rinoa half-cried, half-yelled.

"It made you not mad though, didn't it?" Squall whispered quietly.

Rinoa glared at Squall, suddenly the tears were dry. She punched him, hard, right in the gut. "Nope," she said stubbornly as she got off Squall and sat up on the grass.

Squall sighed after he flinched at the pain in his stomach. Then he did something, he very rarely did, he sat up so he was even with Rinoa, and kissed her passionately right in front of Irvine and Selphie.

Both Squall and Rinoa preferred to keep their relationship known, but not completely obvious. They were not a couple to start making-out in public, in fact they very rarely touched in public. However, anyone around them could always tell there was something of some sort going on between the two.

Irvine bird-called after a little while and Squall pulled away.

"That made you not mad right?"

Rinoa nodded as she smiled her soft smile and stood up, her hand reached out towards Squall to help him up.

With a very small smile of his own, Squall took her hand, accepting her help.

"Alright, fine. I'll agree to one picture," Squall said finally after much begging.

Selphie glared at him still, "And will you smile?"

Squall kept a stony silence.

"Well then Squall, if you want to play it that way." Selphie cleared her throat, "RINOA! SQUALL WILL BE IN THE PICTURE BUT HE WON'T SMILE!" She yelled out to Rinoa who was trying to cook their picnic lunch a ways away.

In just a few seconds, Rinoa was already at their side, smiling at Squall. Even though Squall was arguably the most powerful fighter in the world, this smile of Rinoa's sent a shiver of fear through him.

Rinoa took a step closer to him, morphed her threatening smile into a sweet one, and just like at the ball where they had first met she said, "Oh I get it. You won't smile for someone you don't like. Look into my eyes, you're-going-to-like-me, you're-going-to-like-me." Rinoa took a pause before genuinely grinning at Squall, just a few centimeters from his face, "Did it work?"

Squall simply smiled at her in reply.

Rinoa turned to face Selphie and placed a reassuring hand inside of Squall's. "He'll smile in this picture for you."

It was just a simple picture. Everyone takes pictures of days with friends. However, Selphie and Irvine were mesmerized by it as they waited for hell to come when they had to protect Rinoa from Seifer and the others.

To anyone who didn't know the four people in the photo, it would look normal, like there was nothing special. To Selphie and Irvine, however, it was proof how far everyone, especially Squall, had come since they had all first met just two years before.

Irvine was holding Selphie off the ground. She had one arm around his neck and the other extended, her feet were kicking playfully. Both of them had broad smiles on their faces, they truly were two of the happiest people back in those days.

Rinoa and Squall stood next to them. Rinoa was laughing at Irvine and Selphie with a hand over Squall's hands, whose arms were wrapped around her. Squall had put both of his arms around Rinoa, protectively. It was as if he wanted to always keep her near to him, always keep her safe from the dangers of the world. But he wasn't pulling her in, he was leaning away a little, as if to put a small wall up between them.

Rinoa though, obviously didn't have the patience for that. Though Squall wasn't pulling her in, she was leaning softly into him. She was pushing his boundaries, inserting herself into his walled-up world, and Squall didn't mind.

He was smiling, just like Rinoa had said he would. Squall was doing something he hated: he was showing in his eyes and on his face, just how content he finally was with his life. He was admitting he was happy.

There they were, just two young couples, smiling in a picture together. And to anyone else, they would have seemed just like any other two couples.

Back then, they would almost be considered normal.

How things had changed.

When his world finally stopped spinning, he was standing a few feet away from Rinoa, surrounded by flowers.

They had been transported back to the flowerfield, their flowerfield, where at just 17 they had made the promise that they had both clung to over the years.

Rinoa said nothing as she stared at the man in front of her. His red hair was quickly changing to brown and lengthening. It grew so it covered part of his face as he shrunk down in height. His eyes transformed from their green color to the blueness she had loved so much. Finally, a long scar that was such a part of him appeared across his face.

"I promised you if you came here you would find me," the man whom she had only seen in her dreams for so long said seriously to her.

In one second, without any hesitation, without any thought that this might merely be some imposter or another cruel dream, Rinoa closed the distance between them and kissed him in a way she had never kissed him or anyone before.

He returned the favor in his own way.

Rinoa managed to smile into his lips after a few moments of liplocking.

Even if this did turn out to be another cruel dream, she would never take it back. This was the most alive she had felt in ages, and finally the world was how it should have always been.

Finally, Rinoa was with Squall again, and even if it lasted only a second more, she would be forever grateful she got that last glorious moment with Squall in the flowerfield after so long apart.