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Married Life


Rinoa stood looking out the window waiting for her husbands return. Night was drawing in on the dreary day. A thunderstorm threatened to ensue. Fear lay heavy on her heart. It did every time he went out on a dangerous mission. She didn't really know why she was so afraid she knew he was a brilliant fighter...but she also knew there was always a chance...She shook her head pleading herself not to think that.
Rinoa just wished he would hurry home to her and their four-year-old son; she had something really important to tell him. She was grateful for the fact that he wouldn't have to go away again till another big mission came up, since he was the commander he only did the big missions, mostly for Rinoa's and his son's sake.
"Mummy?" Rinoa broke out of her thoughts as her son leaned against her. She wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "When's Daddy coming home? I miss 'im" Rinoa smiled, "I know, Sweety. He should be home soon." They stood there like that for a fair few minutes then a yawn from the child made Rinoa pull back from the window and walk her and the boy to the sofa where they sat down.
The rain began pouring down as Rinoa and her chid fell asleep on the sofa, the youth snuggled up on the upper half of the young woman's body.
Ten to twenty minutes later Squall came through the front door. He couldn't help but smile when he spotted the two people he had been missing for what felt like years fast asleep on the sofa. He went over and knelt down beside the sofa looking at their sleeping faces.
Rinoa still looked like she did seven years prior but with very subtle changes. His son (who he still looked at in awe sometimes and questioned: is he really my son?), Edea had said, looked nearly exactly like he did when he was younger with very small hints of Rinoa in his features.
The child stirred and his blue eyes opened then widened, "Daddy!" he said loudly, throwing his arms around his father. "Shh." Squall whispered gently lifting the four-year-old up into his arms and walking across the room to sit in the armchair. His son snuggled into his chest hugging him tightly. "Why'd yoo leave, Daddy? Why'd yoo always leave? Dont'cha like me an' mummy anymore?"
Squall looked down at him in shock. That was exactly what Squall had wished to ask Ellone if she ever came back to the orphanage, she didn't which was why Squall had turned out the way he had, he didn't wish that for his son, but then again even if he didn't come back, supposing he died in battle, Rinoa would be there to stop that shell forming. No, actually that was one of his greatest fears when entering battles, not being able to return home. It was a foreign feeling to him, one that had formed slowly over the seven years he had known Rinoa, the seven years in which he had a home, a real one.
"Of course I do," Squall said in a quiet gentle voice. "I more than like you and your mum. I..." he paused searching for words that his four year old son would understand. "You two are my most favourite things in the world, nothing compares to you."
The young boy lifted his head to look at his father, "Betta than coffee?" Squall pulled a disgusted face, he hated, absolutely hated coffee. His son laughed, "Betta than sleepin'" Squall nodded, "Better than sleeping, better than sleeping in. I said nothing compares."
Squall talked to him quietly as he held him closely and stroked his hair. After a while the kid yawned and Squall insisted it was time for him to go to bed.
A while later Squall came back downstairs and knelt down in front of Rinoa again. He kissed her cheek and she slowly came awake. "Squall!" she threw her arms around his shoulders holding him tightly. "I missed you" her words muffled in Squall's shoulder. He held her tighter. Time passed and Squall eventually stood. Rinoa followed suit then wrapped her arms around his chest leaning her head on his shoulder. "When do you have to leave again?" Rinoa asked. "I don't know. Not for another four weeks, maybe more, unless XU calls." Rinoa smiled as she looked up into his icy blue eyes "Really?" He nodded and she leaned up and kissed him gently and slowly for the first time in four weeks. Squall smiled down at his beautiful wife for a minute before saying "...Hyne, it's been so long...I missed you...To tell the truth I don't think I'm anywhere near ready to leave you two again. I love you." Rinoa smiled, she never got tired of hearing him say it although admittedly he didn't say it that often, then replied "I love you too" as he leaned in to kiss her passionately. Together they lost themselves in the kiss before heading up to bed.

Rinoa awoke.
Rain poured, lightning flashed, thunder rumbled.
She looked beside her, panic rising within her as she realised Squall wasn't next to her in the middle of the night. Thunder rumbled and she suddenly had an idea of where he could be.
Climbing out of bed and pulling on one of Squall's shirts she made her way down stairs to find Squall with a frightened four year old. As she entered the room Squall looked up at her. She sat down on the seat next to him and he wrapped an arm round her, their son leaning on Squall's right side.
As she snuggled into his side she said, "Squall, I have something important to tell you." Squall looked at her curiously as she began to stammer and stutter. She was finding this harder than she did the first time. Squall shook his head and turned to look at his son as he continued to listen to her.
With him facing the opposite direction she found the task a lot easier. "Er...Squall, I'm pregnant."
Squall turned towards her, "What?" he asked with the hint of a smile.
"I'm pregnant" Rinoa repeated. Squall wrapped his arms round her careful not to wake up the boy on his other side. He whispered "that's great" in her ear; he felt her shiver and smiled. His fingers entwined in her hair, he shifted slightly, bringing himself closer to her without awakening their son. "How long?" Rinoa shook her head, "I don't know for sure, I found out the day after you left, which gives me a pretty good idea of when" she said fighting a blush, which Squall also found himself doing.
"...Well..." he said slowly, "You can't say that wasn't fun..." Rinoa laughed, Squall said things like that every now and then and well it seemed so against the character she had first got to know, "Squall! I can't believe you would say that in front of your son."
Squall looked to his right then back to Rinoa, "He's asleep. It can't scar him for life."
"I've missed you, I really have." Squall leant down to kiss her.

Squall awoke; looking to his right he saw the green numbers 7:37 flashing on the clocks display screen. At some point last night Rinoa and he had somehow managed to put their son to bed and return to bed themselves, but Squall would be damned if he knew how.
He looked to his left; the vacant space beside him told him Rinoa was up already, so it was her he had to thank for being woken up so early.
It had always been the case with him ever since he and Rinoa first shared a bed back at garden when she had had a series of nightmares over a period of three weeks, as soon as she had woken up and left the room to get changed before returning he was awake. He had never been quite sure why his brain and body insisted on waking whenever she left the bed if she had stayed with him the night before. He never woke up when she entered the room whilst he was sleeping which he would rather prefer; it always made him uncomfortable in a good way (if there was one) seeing her watching him when he first opened his eyes. He guessed it was because it reminded him of the first two months of him meeting her, when he was 17 years and eight months old and Rinoa just 17 and one month.
Sighing he found himself climbing out of bed and pulling on his clothes that had been strewn across the bedroom floor the night before, to be honest he didn't remember that either. His brain was weird that way, once he went passed a certain point of tiredness his memory just seemed to stop recording.
Opening the door he stumbled out onto the landing rubbing at his eyes in the adorable way that was Squall's. Well it had previously been just Squall's but it seemed his son had adopted the trait as Rinoa had pointed out to both him and Edea half a year ago.

Rinoa smiled as she left the bedroom, glancing back to see Squall shift slightly and just before the door fully closed his eyes fluttered open and glared at the clock.
As she started down the stairs she heard a bedroom door open, glancing behind her she saw her son poking his head round the doorframe. Beckoning to him she resumed her climb down the stairs and entered the kitchen to make breakfast.
She had just finished serving the food and was placing it on to the table when Squall stumbled tiredly into the kitchen and took a seat.
"...Rinoa?" He asked.
"Hmmm?"
"...Would it kill you to wake up later?" he paused, "Would it kill you to stay in bed, once you wake up?" He was aware he was being irritable but she was smiling at him so he guessed it was okay to continue.
"Morning Squall. Didn't we try that once before? And didn't the same thing happen every morning?"
"...Well, yeah... But when has that been a bad thing?"
Rinoa smiled at him affectionately, shaking her head she said, "It hasn't nor ever will be. But if we did it your way constantly we'd end up with 20 kids." She walked around the table to come to stand behind him, her hands resting on his shoulders.
"Your exaggerating, I'm not here nearly enough for that." he paused and far more seriously continued, "I spend more time away than I do here, don't I?"
Rinoa leant forward, wrapping her arms round his neck. "Your here enough...Your son loves you, absolutely adores you, you've been here enough."
Squall nodded almost absentmindedly, "I've been here enough for him." It was almost a question. But, Rinoa, have I been here enough for you?
Rinoa almost heard him ask the question, she knew him that well. "Eat your breakfast, Squall. I'll go find our son."

Squall stood staring out into the night, looking past the fields beside Balamb town to the stars. He was so deep in thought he wasn't aware of two people watching him from inside.
He had made a decision; he had put work before everything all his life, most of the time because he had nothing else. But now, he had Rinoa, he had one son another child on the way, he had a family. He was happy when he was here, but the thing that kept him going on missions, or rather things were that one, he was still terrified of getting too used to them being around in case he lost them and two, because he liked to think he was making a difference, that he was important. But he had now decided, or was quite sure that if he hadn't decided yet he had decided to decide.
The phone rang and Rinoa glanced behind her to the hallway, she held up a finger to her son motioning that she would be back in one minute. Picking up the phone she asked, "Hello?" feeling very depressed all of a sudden. Most probably because all phone calls or most of them anyway, were for Squall concerning work. She was rather put out that he had said four weeks or so and it had barely been one.
"Hello, Rinoa?"
"Who else, XU? Squall, right?"
"Yes, please."
Rinoa walked into the fields to get Squall, which proved to take longer than she had thought. She ended up waving a hand in front of his face before he swatted it away with a small smile.

Rinoa watched as he answered the phone, he was talking too quietly for her to overhear. Then suddenly the conversation stopped and Squall looked straight at her for a while before replying and hanging up the phone. He immediately went into deep thought, which Rinoa quickly snapped him out of.
"When do you leave?" She asked unable to keep the sadness she felt from her voice.
"Well, I have to go into work tomorrow morning and then..." if I change my mind, tomorrow night. "...No...wait, no forget everything I've said."
Rinoa laughed, "Squall, think, then tell me, okay?"
Squall thought then said, "Okay. Don't make any plans for tomorrow...don't make any plans what so ever. And I'm going to work, now I think." Squall then nodded to himself as if confirming that his answer was corresponded correctly with the one in his head.
Rinoa looked distressed, "When will you be back?"
"Late, I think. I'm sorry, but I'm positive you'll thank me in the end." He kissed her, a rare thing, before turning to his son and kneeling down before him. He whispered a goodnight before kissing his cheek and leaving through the front door.
"Mummy, Daddy's leaving again. But he said...that he likes us both more than coffee, more than sleepin' in."
Rinoa smiled, "He does. Trust me. Now off to bed with you. It's late."

Squall entered his house it was pitch-black. Rinoa hadn't waited up. Or maybe she had but had grown too tired, it was 2:30 in the morning after all. He stumbled his way through the darkness and into the front room, switching on the light he glanced towards the sofa. No Rinoa, but a half empty cup of tea stood on the coffee table. He picked it up to find it luke warm, she had only gone to bed in the last hour or so then. He switched off the light and made his way up the stairs.
He stopped at the top of the stairs glancing between his own bedroom door and his son's. Resisting his urge to fall into bed where Rinoa was already fast asleep he made his way into his son's bedroom. Kneeling in the dark beside the young boys bed, he placed his fingertips gently against his face, whispering, "Hey."
The child's bright blue eyes opened tiredly, "Daddy?" he muttered barely audible. Squall smiled at him regrettably for waking him up. "Hey, just wanted to let you know I'm back. Sorry to wake you, go back to sleep." The boy smiled, "You're back? Yoo didn't lie then. We are the best in the world."
Squall smiled, he had been doing that a lot lately and could tell he would be doing it a lot in the future. His family knew he had a warm heart but at Garden, out on his missions, they still believed him a lone wolf, if not quite as much as before.
He hugged his son, whispered his goodnight while messing up the boy's hair and retreated to the door. The young boy watched him, only allowing himself to fall asleep when he noticed that Squall still stood by the door.
Squall shut the door behind him, knowing that what he had just done for his son, Ellone would have done for him if ever she came back. Told him immediately.

Rinoa awoke to Squall shifting his weight into a more comfortable position; she turned to him and smiled. Moving up close to him, her head leaning against his bare chest. She breathed in deep before falling back to sleep, wrapped safely in his arms.