Room 510, Saturday Evening

[angelo_wings]

At the dorms last night, they'd left it that they "needed to talk." And Rinoa had done her best to stall, because there was no way talking could go well. Squall was well overdue for fleeing the other direction. The timing was bad, anyway, for a hundred reasons, and he'd only kissed her because of New Year's. Probably.

On the other hand, Rinoa was horribly impatient, which meant 'stalling' only lasted as long as the next evening before she decided to pound on his door and get this mess overwith so she could go back to being -- mad? Upset? She hadn't decided yet, but when she did, she was totally going to be upset. Or mad. Whichever.

Comments

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"We are," Squall agreed. "I'd like that." He sat there awkwardly, not sure what to say. "Where should we start?"

They were dating now, weren't they? They should... have conversations and things. He wasn't good at that.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa fidgeted. "I don't know," she said.

Oh, look! The emotions were all stirring up.

"Why should I have to start?" she asked, bouncing up and folding her arms. "You're the one that's going to -- get all weird! Everything's already weird! I knew it wasn't going to be this easy! And now you're going to panic again and you're not allowed to do that!"

Squall really shouldn't have let Rinoa start.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"I'm not going to panic," Squall promised her. "I don't panic. When I make up my mind on something, I stick to it."

Something was wrong, but he wasn't sure what.

[angelo_wings]

"Of course you don't," she huffed. "You keep acting like you're crazy about me and then claiming you're not. And you only kissed me because it was New Year's and why are we fighting, anyway!?"

See? It would never work, between them. This proved it. Somehow.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall blinked at her. "I never claimed I wasn't crazy about you," he pointed out. "I just said I didn't want to date." He shrugged. "I don't want to fight. Why are you angry?"

[angelo_wings]

"I don't know," she snapped. "Okay? Maybe I don't know. Because ... because last night was wonderful. And now it's going to get all ruined again and I don't want that. I just ... want to kiss you again."

There. That made perfect sense. So there.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"Then don't let it get ruined," Squall told her. "I don't want it to get ruined, and I'm not changing my mind."

Was she just scared? Squall definitely understood that, at least.

He shrugged and gave her a bit of a smile. "If you want to kiss me again, why'd you sit down over there?"

[angelo_wings]

"Do you still not want to date?" she asked. "Is this a matter-of-degrees thing? Like, you'll kiss me, and save me, but not date me? Or ..."

She scuffed her toes on the ground, awkwardly. "I sat down over here because if I sat down over there, we'd kiss," she admitted. "Instead of talking."

Talking was essential. Look how helpful it was, all this talking they were doing!

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

...

Squall wasn't sure how to take that.

"...Aren't we dating now?" he asked. He didn't know how these things worked. "It's not a matter of degrees," he tried to explain. "I changed my mind, that's all." It was just that simple. "I didn't want to get close to people before, and now I've decided not to be scared of it. Of you."

He shrugged.

"We could kiss now, and talk later?" he suggested. The kissing seemed to work better than the talking, anyway. He wasn't very good at talking.

[angelo_wings]

"You're ... not?" she asked. Okay, she hadn't expected that. "I thought maybe you just got all caught up in the moment."

They were going to talk. Really. She was just happening to come over to sit on his bed, while they talked.

"It's complicated," she said. "You're my Knight. And the timing's all wrong, and ... I think I'm waiting for something to go wrong."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"I did get caught up in the moment," Squall told her. "I was going to wait longer, because of Christian, but everything seemed right."

He lifted an arm to put it around her shoulders. "Of course it's complicated," he said. "Relationships always are. But I've just realized that maybe it's worth it. Of course things are going to go wrong. And when they do, we'll fix them."

[angelo_wings]

"Or you'll just run away," she said, lifting an eyebrow at him. "That's what you always do."

He wasn't running away now. Maybe she was going to lean in a little closer.

See? This was why sitting on his bed had been a bad idea.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"I'm NOT going to run away," Squall insisted. "I don't do that."

Then he leaned in, pulled her closer, and kissed her.

[angelo_wings]

Rinoa closed her eyes and lost herself in the moment, still not sure she believed this was real.

"So ... you ... think we're dating?" she asked. "I mean. We are, aren't we? Except you didn't ask. You should ask. Since you were the one who kept pushing me away for so long."

Rinoa had her pride. Very little, at this point, but it was there.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"You... don't want to date?" Squall asked, a little hurt. "I thought the kissing meant we were. I want to."

[angelo_wings]

Another recalibration. Wow, Squall had no idea what any of this was. Okay. She should have realized that.

"I was teasing," she said, pressing a fingertip against his nose. "Kissing doesn't always mean dating, though. It can just mean kissing. It's usually not dating unless you say it is. And I'm not going to date you unless you ask me nicely, so I'd work on that if I were you."

See, Squall? This was why you didn't date princesses.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

...

So... That was a yes, right? She was just attaching nonsensical conditions to it? It didn't occur to Squall that this was Rinoa being a princess, because he had no idea how normal people worked, anyways.

He frowned at her, not entirely sure what she wanted. "Will you... please date me? I'd like you to."

[angelo_wings]

Normal people made things way less complicated. Rule of thumb.

This was an incoming tackle-kiss. He should have expected that. And if he didn't, he probably wouldn't object.

"Yes," she said. "But that means you have to take me on dates. Real ones. And pretend you like them."

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

He hadn't expected it, but that was mostly because he wasn't sure WHAT was going on, right now. And he didn't object, because kisses were amazing.

"I figured I would," Squall told her, when the kiss broke. "You'll have to tell me where you want to go. And I will like them, if you're there."

[angelo_wings]

"Good," she said. "I want to go to dinner. Or dancing. Or to see a movie, except we sit in the back and make out. And I want to come over when I'm bored and we can watch movies here, or talk, or anything. And you have to take me to the dances and tell me I look pretty and ..."

She was going to interrupt this with more kissing. If he was going to be scared off by the above, now would be a good time to know.

Rinoa was not exactly low-maintenance.

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

Squall was more than familiar with exactly how not-low-maintenance Rinoa was. All of the things she was describing sounded like stuff he got stuck doing anyway, except with more kissing.

He liked the kissing.

"'kay," he managed to get out, between kisses.

[angelo_wings]

So, really, for Squall this was an upgrade. See? He should have caved much earlier.

"Really?" she asked, a little breathlessly. From all the kissing. "You're sure?"

[whateverknight.livejournal.com]

"If I wasn't sure, I'd say so," Squall pointed out. He was usually pretty direct like that.