Somewhere In the Park, Sunday, Early Evening, Grouchy Time

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa had heard radio last night, and been astonished to find out that her father had sought out Squall in order to interrogate him. The nerve of that man! He had no right to cause problems with her friends!

And so she had called the hotel and left a very angry message that he was to meet her here, in the park, if he knew what was good for him. Thus missing several nuances of the situation entirely.

One being that he hadn't sought Squall out, and another that there had been no interrogation. But mostly, that he desperately wanted to see her, and would accept an angry Rinoa over no Rinoa at all.

(expecting the father, can be open to anyone!)

Comments

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"We weren't talking about you running away from home," Caraway contradicted her sharply. "We were talking about you being locked away in prison."

He paused for a moment. "...Weren't we?"

[angelo_wings]

"That prison was an improvement over yours," she snapped.

She had been so lonely, in that house. Father ignoring her, mother dead, locked in a little room by herself.

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"You weren't imprisoned, at home," Caraway chastised her. (Although Messrs. Merriam and Webster might disagree.) "I was simply keeping you safe." He sighed. "I should have been around more, I know that, and perhaps more sociable, but I always had your best interests at heart. Was it really so bad?"

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa stared at her father as if he had grown another head.

"Yes?" she said. "You just forgot about me! Mom was gone and you wouldn't even talk about it! It was like you didn't care!"

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"And so I should have... what? Cried a lot?" Caraway glared at her, but there was a vulnerability behind it. "I had an army to run! I had important things to do! My personal feelings had to be set aside for the good of Galbadia!"

And, Rinoa reminded him too much of Julia. It was too painful for him to bear.

[angelo_wings]

"And mine, too?" she said coldly. "After Mom, it was like you didn't want to be bothered with me!"

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"Is that really what you think of me?!?" Caraway looked at her sadly, realizing that it actually was.

"No, I... I just..."

Expressing feelings was hard.

"You have so much of your mother in you..."

She could fill in the rest from there, right? So he didn't make a fool of himself?

[angelo_wings]

"And none of you," she insisted, folding her arms.

Right. His stubborn pig-headedness, that wasn't like her at all.

"So ... what, you ignored me because I was too much like her?"

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"Every time you did something that reminded me of her..." Caraway replied with a sigh. "I... didn't want to remember that she was gone. It hurt too much."

He was opening up here, okay? He was showing her his vulnerable side, which he never showed anyone. She could... try to understand?

[angelo_wings]

"Better to just ignore me and hope that I went away, too," Rinoa said sharply.

It was cruel. But she had also spent the past decade as a lonely little girl with no mother and a disinterested father.

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"I didn't mean to ignore you," her father answered. He'd avoided her. It was totally different. "Besides, I had important work to do."

[angelo_wings]

"You made your priorities perfectly clear," she said. "I'm sure there's important work you could be doing, back home."

Therefore: leave.

[estranged-dads.livejournal.com]

"There is," he acknowledged. His country had fallen apart, his army had run off following the sorceress and Seifer, and the president was dead. There was a LOT of work he could be doing. "And I'm setting it aside for the weekend in order to spend time with you. I had hoped you might appreciate that."