Once Again

A Final Fantasy VIII Fan Fic

Characters and Locations from said game belong to SquareSoft.

By Robertdogwood

Once Again

Chapter Eight

‘The Sweetheart’

‘Squall Makes a Conquest’

‘Xu Makes Amends’

‘Akane’s Date’

‘A Surprise Visitor’

‘The Journey to Dollet Begins’

At the end of two hours, with a short break for supper served by Rinoa’s friend, they had arrived at a decision. Selphie left Zell, Kasumi, and Mishima talking among themselves and traveled downstairs to locate the Forest Fox leader. Selphie discovered Sakura sitting by the kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee.

As Selphie entered the room, Rinoa’s friend held up her cup of coffee as an offer to serve Selphie some. Selphie shook her head. “No, thanks.”

Selphie drew up a chair and sat down. “We’ve come up with our plans,” Selphie explained. “We’d like to stay here tonight, so we can get an early start in the morning, if that’s alright with you.”

“Of course, Selphie,” Sakura quickly replied. “You’re always welcome to stay with us, unless the ‘heat’ is on so bad that you would be in danger remaining here. Things are bad right now, but not that bad. They haven’t made a sweep in about a week. I’m thinking of having my two sons sent back from Winhill, where I sent them to live with a cousin of mine when the initial crackdown began.”

Selphie again thanked her and then explained, “I’m going to remain here in Timber and attempt to work with Zone in locating Watts and Brian, a SeeD who was last seen here in Timber.”

The Forest Fox leader responded, “I certainly hope your associate is hiding with Watts and hasn’t been arrested and placed in the D-District Prison. It’s incredibly difficult to get anybody out of there!”

“I know that’s right," Selphie responded remembering their own experiences in the D-District Prison. ‘Believe you me,’ she thought to herself, ‘you need to do more than just win a Chocobo race to get out of there!’

Selphie continued, “Kasumi, Zell, and Mishima are going to Dollet to search for Shinji, another one of our lost comrades. He was last seen in Dollet.”

The older woman said, “That Mishima! She’s such a sweetheart.”

‘Geez!’ Selphie thought. ‘What is it with this girl that everybody loves her so? I just don’t get it.’

“Well anyway, those are our plans,” Selphie explained, while standing up in preparation of returning upstairs.

Sakura again stated, “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you need, Selphie. But please be careful, when you’re out in Timber. There are plain clothes Secret Police everywhere in town.”

“I will,” promised Selphie. “Well, good night,” Selphie said, heading to the staircase to the second floor. Behind her the Forest Fox leader called out, “Sleep sweet!”

Selphie didn’t know how to respond to that admonishment, but thought to herself, ‘Sleep sweet? Good grief! Everybody who Rinoa knows in this town is weird.’

………………..

A half an hour later, the ‘Rising Sun Dormitory’ manager was saying to Squall, “It is very unusual for us to give permission for a young man and woman to share a dormitory apartment, even in the co-ed dorm, but since you state you are brother and sister I guess there is no major problem. May I please see your birth certificates and I.D.’s?”

After studying them for what seemed to Quistis to be an inordinately long time, the dorm manager looked up and smiled. “Everything appears to be in order,” he said handing them their documents. “I will have the dorm monitor show you to your room. Excuse me, please.”

The dormitory manager leaned down and pushed an intercom button and said, “Will the on-duty dorm monitor please report to my office? Thank you.” He swiveled his chair around and began searching for a specific key on a bulletin board that held hooks for fifty keys. “Ah, there it is,” he said, while reaching for the keys he was searching for.

He swung around and set two keys on the counter. “You each get a room key,” he explained, “But you mustn’t lose them. We have no spares to give you, just our master key.”

“We’ll be careful,” Quistis promised, while Squall looked on stoically wondering how much longer he would have to wait. He wanted to get to their room! A second later Squall lost his impatience when the door opened and one of the most beautiful young women he had ever seen entered the room.

She possessed long blonde hair, a lean attractive face with a little button nose, and a beautifully sculpted figure with a bust line that promised heavenly delights and long beautifully curved legs and was dressed in a macro mini-skirt so short that her sheer panties were clearly visible.

The dorm manager said, “Ah, Kyoko. Good, you’re here. This is Yuji and Madoka. Could you please show them to room 504?”

The young beauty called Kyoko slightly bowed and responded in a velvety voice, “I would be happy to,” and reached out and touched Squall on the arm. “I am most pleased to meet you.”

Quistis spoke, her eyes blazing sparks of anger because of Squall’s passive staring, “We would like to go to our room now! My brother and I are very fatigued!”

Kyoko turned with a slight grin and said, “Of course, follow me please.”

Squall began automatically following the twitching behind of Kyoko out of the dorm manager’s office when Quistis exclaimed, “Yuji! What are you doing? You are forgetting the suitcases and your guitar case.”

When they were finally in front of room 504, Quistis said very icily, “Thank you so much for your effort.”

Kyoko leaned forward toward Squall touching him with her substantial bosom and cooed, “I hope we’ll see more of each other real soon, Yuji.”

“Oh, I’m sure you have in mind to see ‘all’ of each other,” Quistis retorted.

………………..

Once they were safely inside their dorm apartment, Squall and Quistis viewed a green-carpeted, moderately large room with yellow walls. There were two single extra-wide beds, one on each side of the room, two walk-in closets, two large desks with a PC on each and one large easy chair.

“Pretty nice,” Squall commented.

“Are you talking about ‘that’ girl or the room?” Quistis retorted.

Squall turned to her and asked, “Is that what all this is about?”

Quistis responded, “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about how nasty you were with our guide. We’re not here to make enemies, no da.”

Quistis’s face flushed with anger. “The way I was acting! What about you?”

“What about me?” Squall innocently asked. “I wasn’t doing anything.”

“That’s right,” Quistis agreed. “You were just standing there with your mouth hanging open.”

“That girl didn’t affect me at all,” Squall protested.

“Yeah right, Squall,” Quistis replied sarcastically. “Then why did you forget the suitcases and your guitar case?”

“That was a natural mistake. It had nothing to do with that girl.”

“Okay,” Quistis pressed on. “What about forgetting to ask about us getting a room on the first floor?”

Squall pressed the palm of his hand against his forehead. “That’s right. I did forget about that. I’m sorry, Quisty.”

Quistis softened somewhat saying, “Apology accepted. So where’s the bathroom?” she asked, while looking around the room.

“Quistis,” Squall explained pedantically. “This is a dorm. There are no individual bathrooms in dorms.”

Quistis spun and retorted, “So you’re telling me I’ll be using a communal shower room in a co-ed dorm?”

Squall grinned, “Uh, huh.”

“Squall!” Quistis shouted. “Why did you ask for the co-ed dorm?”

“So I could see that blonde.”

Quistis began to slap at him. “Okay, okay,” Squall admitted, “I’ll tell you.” He went on in a serious tone. “I didn’t want us separated, if and when an attack came.”

“I can see that,” Quistis admitted somewhat mollified.

“Oh, by the way,” Squall grinned while saying, “the actual shower rooms and bathrooms aren’t co-ed. They’re on opposite sides. It’s just the main locker room that’s co-ed.”

Quistis pushed him away playfully. “Okay, smart guy. You go take a look around the campus, while I get ready to take a shower.”

As Squall was passing through the doorway he asked, “What's that girl’s name? Koyko, wasn’t it?”

………………..

Seifer, Raijin, and Fujin were seated at a cafeteria table eating dinner. Seifer had an enormous amount of hot dogs on his plate.

“Hey Seifer!” Raijin pointed out, “You got too many hot dogs, no da.”

Seifer responded, “So have me written up.”

Raijin replied, “No da, I don’t even know who the disciplinary committee is and, no da, I wouldn’t do that to you anyway, no da. I just want some, no da.”

Seifer said flatly, “Too bad.”

“Aw Seifer, don’t be that way,” Raijin said and then continued. “So what’s this that Fujin was telling me about you kowtowing to Xu? That doesn’t sound like you Seifer, no da!”

Fujin said, “RAGE!”

Seifer glanced at Fujin and replied, “It’s okay,” and then turned to Raijin. “I’ll tell you, even though it’s none of your business. I lust over Xu, I dream of her at night. I can hardly concentrate in class, because of my desire to ravage her over and over!”

Raijin exclaimed, “Seifer, you must be joking, no da! This can’t be true!”

Fujin just smiled. Seifer, finishing the last of his hot dogs, arose and directed, “Let’s move out, people.”

………………..

Rinoa sat in the middle of her bed, dressed in her pajamas even though it was still quite early in the evening. She was sitting cross-legged with a battle tactics textbook in her lap that she was attempting to study, but her thoughts kept escaping to Squall and wondering how he was doing and when shs was going to see him again.

‘Darn that Irvine,’ Rinoa thought. ‘Taking Akane away from me for the evening.’

Rinoa suddenly felt incredibly lonely. She realized everybody she cared about and who cared about her was gone – Squall, Quistis, Zell, and even Selphie who was sometimes impatient with her, but whom Rinoa knew, underneath it all, loved her too.

The only person left to Rinoa with a connection to the events of the past year, except for Irvine who was mostly an irritant, was the pigtail girl. 'Good grief!' Rinoa realized. ‘I don’t even know her name.’

Rinoa was attempting to force herself back into the textbook when a knock came upon the door. Rinoa jumped up and pattered across the room thinking, ‘Maybe Akane broke her date with Irvine.’ Rinoa was nonplussed when she threw open the door and Xu was standing in the doorway. Rinoa took a step backward and stared.

Xu asked, “May I come in or did I come at a bad time?”

“Uh, no. I mean yes, come in please,” Rinoa stammered, suddenly remembering the circumstances surrounding the last time she had spoken with Xu and blushed furiously at the memory.

Xu said, as if she were reading Rinoa’s mind, “We all make mistakes, Rinoa. We all need to be forgiven at some time. In fact, I need to ask for your forgiveness for speaking about you behind your back. Will you accept my apology?”

Rinoa just nodded, but offered a small smile.

“That’s better,” Xu commented and took a seat on Selphie’s bed and indicated she desired Rinoa to sit with her.

After Rinoa seated herself, Xu continued, “I actually dropped in to see how you were holding up with most of your friends and comrades gone from the house.”

Rinoa answered, “Well, just fine Xu.” Rinoa stopped suddenly and then continued, “No, I’m not fine.” One tear ran down her face from the corner of her right eye. “I’m not fine at all. I miss everybody terribly and I’m really glad I’m taking classes because it’s giving me something to do. But worst of all I’m so scared about Squall – and, of course, Quistis too. I just don’t understand why we haven’t heard from them by now.”

Xu replied, “Thanks for being so honest. I think I can relieve your anxiety a little. Before they left, I ran a chaos theory analysis on their mission and one of the highest percentage scenarios was they would become trapped in Galbadia, because of the shut down of all the train service, etc. So in anticipation of that eventuality, I provided them with a false acceptance letter from East Academy University and fake school transcripts to carry with them, in case they needed to run aground there. I truly believe they are fine, because we haven’t experienced any kind of retaliation from Deling City, which we would expect if they had been captured.”

Rinoa, with hope suffusing her face, asked, “So what you’re saying is you think Squall and Quistis are okay and attending the University?”

Xu nodded, “Yes, I’m positive.”

“Oh thank you, Xu!” Rinoa reached out impulsively and hugged Xu, who sat ramrod stiff but she did attempt to return the hug by slapping her hands twice on Rinoa’s back.

Xu stood up. “That’s what I came to say. I now need to go visit Seifer. Good night,” Xu said and exited the room.

“Good night,” Rinoa echoed while she thought to herself, ‘Visit Seifer! Good grief, what now?’

………………..

Irvine purposely arrived at the corridor leading to the training center ten minutes early and was very surprised to see Akane already there waiting for him, as he strode down the corridor.

“Hi,” Akane spoke brightly.

Irvine grinned at the cute teenager, who had quite a nifty little figure Irvine decided right at that moment. “I take it you’re anxious to go,” Irvine commented.

“Right on!” Akane excitedly called out.

“Whoa!” Irvine cautioned. “What do you know about the training center?”

“I know it’s where you go to practice killing real monsters and then you go to the one place open after dinner where guys take you to try to mack on you.”

Irvine was visibly taken aback. “Naw, that ain’t right,” he said. “Who told you that?” he demanded.

“Selphie,” was Akane’s simple answer.

‘That figures,’ Irvine thought, but he replied, “It is a place where young men and women, who are just beginning to spread their wings to fly, can learn more about each other.”

“Yeah, right,” Akane retorted sarcastically.

Irvine muttered, “This is just like having Selphie along,” but spoke aloud, “Let’s get going. Time’s a wasting.”

“Alright!” Akane shouted.

They hiked into the training center that resembled a lush jungle with myriad tall trees of all varieties, large plants and shrubs, and fallen stumps. Irvine paused and pointed past a bridge they were approaching and directed, That's where we’re headed, where that light is coming from. And if a T-Rexaur attacks, since there’s only two of us, it would be wiser to run.”

“Oh, you’re no fun,” Akane whined.

‘Fun?’ Irvine thought. ‘I’ll show you fun!’

They began their run through the training center with Irvine taking point in order to partially protect Akane in case of a surprise attack.

From what appeared as out of nowhere, two Grats suddenly attacked. Irvine instructed, “Be quick! They can put you to sleep.”

Akane sprang forward holding a long, deadly appearing, dagger in her right hand, but Irvine was intrigued to note that she declined to actually use it on the Grat, but instead began to pummel it with sudden kicks, and then chops with her left hand finally culminating in doing a complete forward somersault body slam on the Grat and showing a momentarily flash of pink panties that gratified Irvine, as he blew the other Grat into eternity with his ‘Exeter’.

“What in the hell was that, Akane?” Irvine demanded.

“Just some martial arts my father taught me,” she explained off-handedly. “They won’t let me use them in hand-to-hand combat class, because they said it was too advanced for the class and I might hurt someone, so I thought this would be a good place to get some practice.”

‘Whoa!’ Irvine thought, ‘This girl is sharp!’

A few minutes later, Irvine and Akane stepped into the balcony area that lay halfway through the path that encircles the training center. Akane instantly cooed, “Oh, it’s so pretty,” upon viewing the beautiful night sky and the light shining on the main part of the Garden. There were two couples romantically involved with each other; one couple on each end of the wall, so Irvine guided Akane by her left elbow to the center of the balcony wall.

“So what do thi think?” Irvine asked.

“It’s so pretty,” Akane gushed “But why is this open at night, when everywhere else is off-limits?”

Irvine answered, “The way I understand it is when Cid started the Garden he thought there should be somewhere open late, but in order to keep it a place just for older students, he placed it in the training center. He realized that only upper-classmen, who had achieved a certain level of combat readiness, would even chance coming into the training center.”

“So, Akane,” Irvine continued while reaching down and slipping his right hand around her waist. “What do you think of Arnaz?”

“Oh, he’s okay,” Akane replied, while attempting unsuccessfully to wrest herself away from Irvine’s grip.

“The reason I was asking was,” Irvine began to say, while he slipped his hand inside the waistband of Akane’s skirt and panties and yanked them down to her feet leaving the teenager standing half naked and wearing only shoes below her waist!

Akane made no effort to shield her labia from Irvine’s intense staring and the startled gazes of the other couples on the balcony but, on the contrary, stepped completely out of her skirt and panties and turned to face him with a sweet smile on her pretty face.

Irvine was intrigued to note that her pubic hair was every bit as flaming red as the hair on her head. Akane stepped even closer to the long-haired young man and pulled him down to her in order to passionately kiss him. Irvine returned her kiss in full and Akane jammed her leg up between his legs all the way up to his cock. She could tell he was already hard. Akane rubbed her vaginal area on his trousers directly over his crotch.

“Let’s get you naked,” the teenage girl said huskily, her voice full of passion.

Akane pushed Irvine’s opened long cattleman coat off his body and stepped up on her tiptoes and snagged his cowboy hat. She placed his hat on top of his coat. He had already taken the opportunity to remove his trousers and shirt and Irvine stepped closer to her.

“Everything!” Akane stated, “Before we start or I won’t play.”

Irvine glanced around the balcony area self consciously. He observed the one couple had already left and the other couple stood dumbfound with their mouths agape staring at him and Akane.

Irvine offered that little wave of his at them and suggested, “Enjoy the show.”

And then he shimmied his red bikini briefs down over his hips to the floor and stepped out of them. Irvine stood with his seven inch erection poking out in front of him. He heard the girl in the corner gasp and complain, “That’s it! I’m getting out of here.”

As she ran across the balcony on the way out to the Training Center followed by her boyfriend, Irvine couldn’t help but notice she glanced back at him and smiled. He looked back at Akane who was wearing a stern countenance upon her usual playful features.

“Shorts!" she demanded, holding her right hand out palm up.

The would be cowboy handed his underwear to her. Before Irvine could move, Akane said, “And now your boots too.”

He wasted no time pulling them off and stood completely nude in front of the half dressed young woman. As Irvine finally reached out to embrace her, Akane stepped forward and quickly kneed him hard in his erection!

Irvine fell to his knees screaming. “Why did you do that?” he was finally able to gasp.

Akane laughed while pulling her skirt and panties on. “Selphie told me what to expect from you and also how to handle it. I’m leaving! Are you coming?” she laughed again, while picking up all of Irvine’s clothing and scurrying to the entrance with it.

“Hey wait!” Irvine called out, still half in agony from her attack. “Don’t take my clothes. How will I get back to my room?”

“That’s your problem,” Akane laughed at him. “You should have thought of that before stripping me half naked in public without asking.”

And she turned and was gone! Irvine was still laying flat on his back in great pain, his penis hadn’t completely given up hope yet but was resting at half mast.

‘Oh God,’ he thought. ‘I’m not Rinoa. If I get caught going back to my room naked, they’re not gonna be amused and think I look cute. They’re gonna treat it as a sex crime.’

Two female upper-classmen that Irvine knew slightly entered the balcony area.

“Hey, could you help me, please?” Irvine called out.

When they turned and got a good look at him attempting to stand, lurching around, stark naked with a half of an erection, one of them screamed and they both took off running and never looked back.

‘Oh God,’ he thought again, as he began to stagger to the doorway with the help of his weapon as a crutch. ‘I hope I don’t run into any T-Rexaurs. I’m gonna bag that little bitch if it’s the last thing I do.’

………………..

Zell, Kasumi, and Mishima decided it would be safer to not leave as a group, but individually instead. Zell had already left and Mishima was going to wait about fifteen minutes before leaving. She went upstairs to the bathroom to perform some last minute toiletries, because she was uncertain how many days they might be on the road before reaching Dollet.

The Forest Fox leader had gone out and the daughter was upstairs straightening the bedrooms leaving Kasumi and Selphie alone downstairs.

Selphie was uncertain as to the correct method to broach this sensitive subject with Kasumi, but reached a decision to plunge ahead anyway. “Kasumi,” Selphie questioned, “How well do you know Mishima?”

"Fairly well. She was my roommate for a while. Why do you ask?”

Ignoring the question, Selphie asked, “What do you think of her?”

Kasumi didn’t hesitate. “She’s a sweetheart!”

Selphie thought to herself, ‘Not again! What’s with this girl that everyone thinks she’s a sweetheart?’

Mishima returned from the second floor and appeared absolutely gorgeous having applied a touch of makeup expertly with just a hint of eye shadow and a touch of perfume behind her ear, Selphie noticed with a sinking in her heart.

Mishima crossed the room and explained, “I’m going now. Wish me luck.” And she gave Kasumi a hug and a quick kiss on her left cheek and did the same with Selphie, who was so stunned she couldn’t respond. Mishima closed the door gently on the way out with a little wave back with her hand.

“Okay, Selphie!” Kasumi demanded, “What’s up here with you and Mishima? You jealous or something?”

Selphie started to laugh. “No, I’m not jealous for me.”

“What in the world are you talking about?”

Selphie asked, “Do you know the young woman who has a crush on Zell?”

Kasumi considered the question for a few seconds and then responded. “Yeah. It’s the pigtail girl, isn’t it? What is ‘her’ name?”

Selphie replied, “Oh, don’t go there. I can never remember her name either. Anyway, it seemed perfectly apparent to me yesterday that Zell has suddenly forgotten all about her, once he laid eyes on Mishima and I want to know what kind of person she is.”

Kasumi reassured Selphie, “Mishima would never do anything to breakup somebody else’s relationship. Anyway, she isn’t even interested in a relationship at this time. She just likes to hang out with a group of close friends.”

Selphie thought that sounded vaguely familiar, but couldn’t remember from where and when.

“I sincerely hope you’re right, Kasumi, because I could never forgive myself if I helped make plans that would end up breaking that pigtail girl’s heart – SeeD mission or not!”


………………..


As Xu was standing by the long conference table in Cid’s office in anticipation of the morning staff meeting that was scheduled to begin in five minutes, she was startled to hear the sound of the elevator arriving at the third floor. She knew no one had been summoned to Cid’s office and it was unusual for anyone to arrive voluntarily at this time of day. She was even more startled a second later when Edea stepped out of the elevator.

“Permission to come abroad, Xu?”

Xu nodded seriously, then quickly crossed to her and offered a quick hug. She took Edea by the hand and led her to the front of Cid’s desk. Cid, as usual, was preoccupied with his papers and had files laying everywhere.

Xu announced, “Cid, there’s someone here to see you.”

“Hmmm,” said Cid, as he continued writing, finally glancing up.

“Oh!” he exclaimed, “What are you doing here, Edea?”

Cid flushed and said, “I’m sorry. I was just surprised. I meant how are you, Edea?”

“I’m fine, Cid. And you?”

Cid answered, “Oh, you know me. I’m doing the best I can.”

Cid stepped around from his desk and embraced Edea, who finally returned it.

“Actually,” he admitted, “I’ve been very lonely. Very lonely indeed.”

Cid took Edea by the hand and led her to the door of his apartment. He informed Xu, “Staff meeting will be starting a little late this morning,” and then he led Edea into the apartment and shut the door softly behind them.

Xu turned and smiled at Fujin, who offered thumbs up.

………………..

Zell, Kasumi, and Mishima met outside of Timber and started off on their long trek to Dollet. They decided to stay off the main roads as much as possible to avoid Galbadian Army vehicles and other government officials, including the much-dreaded Galbadian Secret Police. They set off on a brisk pace, which they realized they would need to maintain as much as humanly possible, due to Dollet laying two hundred miles to the Northeast.

Zell thought to himself ruefully the same trip by train would take a couple of hours but, of course, the train was a bullet train, which traveled over a hundred miles per hour.

Kasumi suggested, “We might as well follow the railroad tracks as much as possible. The trains aren’t running anyway and, if one does come through, maybe we can hitch a ride on it somehow.”

Zell replied, “Trying to play hoboes on a Galbadian Army train might just be a trifle dangerous, eh Mishima?”

“Oh, Zell! You haven’t changed a whit!” laughed Mishima. “Let me see your gloves,” she demanded. “Very nice,” she commented. “What are they called?”

“They’re called ‘Ehrgeiz’, cool huh?” answered Zell. “Let me see yours.”

Mishima held out her gloves. “They’re called ‘Premium Heart’ and I just got them.”

Zell went on, “That looks like an awesome weapon on your shoe. I wish I had one of those.”

Kasumi listened with some amusement as they walked double-time with Zell and Mishima comparing weapons and fighting styles.

Zell said excitedly, “You know ‘Dolphin Blow’! Oh man, that’s great! Here, let me show you ‘My Final Heaven’.” Zell proceeded to shadow fight displaying the moves of ‘My Final Heaven’ dancing all around her as light as a feather and throwing himself high in the air with a laughing Mishima mimicking his every move.

“Zell! Mishima!” Kasumi had to shout to allow herself to be heard over the noise Zell and Mishima were making. After finally getting their attention, Kasumi admonished, “I’m glad you all are having a good time, but this isn’t a nature walk. You’re causing a commotion and you need to cool it. Now let’s go.”

Totally chagrined, Zell and Mishima muttered their apologies and began walking double-time again.