This is my first fanfiction I hope you'll enjoy it! All characters belong to Squaresoft. Please send any comment to tinytoon@libero.it P.S.: sorry, it's not the best English you have ever heard, but I'm Italian! If you find mistakes, about grammar, lexis and so on, feel free to send any e-mail to help me correcting them. Thanks. Dedicated to Silvia and Alessia What do I mean to you? - by Rinoa Heartilly Rinoa walked through the small bridge, towards the Secret Area. She suddenly felt sad, looking around her. "This place remembers me too much. Here I had my first date with..." She couldn't think his name. It was still too painful. "If you can call that a date". She smiled sadly and sighed, remembering that time, the first time he had asked her to do something together. Shall we train together? That wasn't exactly a date, but maybe for him it have had this meaning. Surely, she would have always remembered it as her first date with the man of her dreams. He had looked so embarassed that time, putting his gunblade on his shoulder, as he was trying to hide his emotion. She sighed, reaching the balcony and looking up at the sky. It was so blue and the stars were shining. Clouds were covering the moon and a soft wind was blowing. It was a perfect night and a perfect place for a date under the stars with the man you love. "It's all so perfect. If only he would be here." But he wasn't there. He had left her, without saying no word, to explain her why he was doing that. Rinoa felt her eyes wet, but held back the tears. The wind blowed her hair and she felt cold, wishing he would have been there, to hug her, to warm her, but he wasn't there, she thought. She embraced her elbows, trying to warm herself. But she could do nothing for her heart. It was still blooding. "Oh, God, why, why? My only sin is to love him. Why am I feeling such a great pain?" She grabbed her necklace and felt the ring. There was only her mother's ring now. He had wanted the Griever ring back. Rinoa felt the tears in her eyes and couldn't help crying. -Do you still have my ring?- -Yes, I do. Why?- He had looked away, avoiding her eyes. -Can I have it back, please? It is very important to me.- She sighed."And I, Squall? What do I mean to you?" Rinoa thought, wiping away a tear. She had heard steps behind her and she didn't want noone to see her pain. She suddenly felt a jacket on her shoulders. "Are you warm enough? It's a cold night." She didn't answer. "Squall?" "Rinoa? Can I talk to you please?" She didn't turn towards him. She didn't want him to see she was crying for him. "Sure" She answered. Her heart started beating fast, and she couldn't help it. "Why are you so sad?" He asked. His voice was so sweet and sad, too. Rinoa felt her eyes wet again. "Why do you ask me it?" She said, her voice broken up. "Because I care for you." Rinoa burst into tears. She was unprepared to that simple answer. He suddenly hugged and held her close, fondling her back, conforting her. She closed her eyes, pressing against him, enjoying his embrace. But she didn't stop sobbing. "Stop crying, angel, please. It's tearing out my heart." "Do you really want me to stop crying? Do you really care for me? Why did you leave me? Why did you hurt me so badly? Can't you really imagine what a great pain I'm feeling?" She pulled him away, as if she had realized only in that moment he was hugging her. "Please, Squall, don't make things more difficult than they are." "What are you talking about?" He asked, frowning. She didn't answer. "Rinoa, I can't understand. Will you please explain me?" Rinoa finally looked at him, for the first time since he arrived. "What do you think about me? I mean, am I... your enemy?" "Why are you saying that?" "I'm a sorceress, and you are a Seed. Seeds destroy sorceresses. So..." "Rinoa, I will never destroy you. I will never fight you. In every battle, against every enemy, I will be defending you, because I'm your knight. I chose to be with you, though you are a sorceress. This was my first real choice. I don't regret it. I will never regret it, because I feel it's a right choice." "But you're a Seed..." "Seeds fight only evil sorceresses. And you...you're an angel. You will never be evil. I know that." He tenderly stared at her eyes. "So I'm not an enemy for you?" She asked, tilting her head, hopefully. "I can't think of you as an enemy. I can't." She turned towards the sky. "Well, that's good. Maybe I can be a friend for him and love him silently." "Do you consider me...a friend?" "Rinoa, you can't be a friend for me.I can't consider you a friend:" Rinoa felt a knife in her back at his words, but turned towards him. "What do you mean?" He sighed. "When you were out in the space, I felt...I felt I had to save you, not because you were a friend of mine, not because I promised your father I would have taken care of you. And when I fought against Ultimecia, I did it only because I didn't want you to be possessed again. I thought that if Ultimecia had possessed you and made you do something terrible, the world wuold have thought you were evil and I couldn't stand it. That's why I don't believe to be a hero. Everything I did during this whole Ultimecia thing, I did it not to lose you. I never thought about the world's safety. I did that all for you only." Rinoa frowned. What was he trying to say? "What I want to say is..that..." He cleared his throath. "I'm in love with you. That's the reason for which I can't think of you as an enemy or only as a friend." He was looking at her, now. She stared at his green-blue eyes ans saw he was telling the truth. She burst again into tears, but this time they were tears of joy. He hugged and kissed her, sweetly, slowly. "Oh, Squall, you're so cute!" She whispered, looking at him. "I love you." He said, simply, wiping away her tears. "I love you too." They hugged again. he skimmed her lips, making her long for another kiss. She closed her eyes and rested her head on his shoulder. "Squall, why did you want the ring back?" He smiled, maybe for the first time in his life. "Because I want you to have it this way." He took her hand in his one and snaked the ring in his ring-finger. "Will you be my girlfriend?" Rinoa sobbed, disbelieving. "Oh, you silly, you made me worry so much!" "Why?" "Well, when you wanted your ring back, I thought you didn't love me. And then I looked for you, but I couldn't find you anywhere...so I thought you had left me." "Well, this ring was too large for your slender finger" He said, kissing her hand "So, I got it smaller" She smiled, pressing against him. "What a fool I am!" "You're not a fool. You are my beautiful sweet darling." He kissed her, more fiercely. "So, what do you answer? Will you be my girlfriend?" "Yes, I will." She buried her face in his chest, hearing his heart beating. She suddenly frowned. "What about the future, Squall?" "I will love you forever." "Oh, be serious! I'm a sorceress, and you are a Seed." She said, sighing. "One day you could have to fight me." "I said I will never fight you and I'll never change my mind." "But..." He silenced her with a kiss. "Stop thinking about the future. The here and now, it's all that matters. Stay with me forever." "I will." She smiled. Her wish had become true. He was here, hugging her, warming her body and her heart. They heard some thunders. A storm was arriving to spoil their moment. "The sky is jealous" He joked. "I stole the brightest star from it and I'm holding it here, in my arms. And I won't let it go easily!" Rinoa looked up at him and smiled, her heart full of joy. "Well, I'm holding the sun. Maybe it's envious!" She said, pointing up. As she did that, the Griever ring shined. They both looked up at the sky and saw a shooting star crossing it. Rinoa glanced at him. "Our star" She whispered, tilting her head. Squall pulled her closer and took her breath away with a kiss, careless of the rain falling around them. THE END Well, I hope you liked it! Please, send a comment! I need them not only to correct mistakes (sorry, I've already said I'm not English, I hope I didn't make many mistakes!) but also because I'm writing a much longer fanfiction and I wuold like to know your opinion about this one before I send the other one. Thanks for having read it and... see you soon! P.S. Don't worry if I don't answer to your e-mail, it's because I'm studying for exams, writing the fanfiction and so i'm very busy. Don't worry, I will read them all!!!!