Squall Audition

Squall wished there was a wall between him and the rest of the world that would permanently follow him everywhere he went on days like today.

It was all Squall could do to think up what to do to keep himself covered, considering his only means to do so was the towel that Rinoa had found for him and the tiny sack of food he was carrying also at her behest. Fidgeting would not be a strong enough word to describe the ten or eleven times Squall had moved the towel in his arm since they’d walked out towards the beach together. Still Squall didn’t feel as if he was shielded enough from wandering eyes set atop mostly-naked bodies, and in spite of the fact that he’d mentally informed himself that he needed to stop acting ridiculously, Squall cut his eyes at another group of them that he thought had glanced in his way and shifted his arm forward to keep the towel before him as a buckler against…whatever their purpose was in looking his direction. Squall had made a life of hiding behind uniforms, jackets...to have had someone actually talk him into wearing beach-suitable clothing for a trip to the beach was almost a miracle, but he’d never promised the one that talked him into this situation that he was going to be comfortable.

And she, the one convincer, wasn’t managing to make him any more comfortable. Squall felt her hand find his, and again his eyes shifted to her, only making it as far as her legs, before he immediately brought his eyes up to her face, blinking a few times before he made an awkward attempt at meeting her smile. The closest Squall had ever been to anyone in a swimsuit would be the covers of the magazines that Irvine usually left strewn around his room. Squall usually ended up trashing them or kicking them under the bed if he couldn’t be bothered making it as far as the trash. For Squall to be in the company of a girl – a very pretty one, if he knew how to judge how pretty someone was (and he probably didn’t) – who was wearing…fewer clothes than he was used to, especially what she was apparently concealing, constantly managed to make his neck light up red, as it managed to do yet again before he looked forward once more. Squall had always known he was not cut out for big social areas like beaches. He’d just never known how much.

Feeling another squeeze on his hand, Squall glanced Rinoa again only to see that she was distracted by something to the opposite side of him. For a few seconds, he wondered if the way he was acting was bothering her. He brought a hand up to run through his hair, wondering if he could say anything that might put her at ease to think he was going to manage to enjoy himself. Squall didn’t mind being here altogether, and he wasn’t going to attempt to be sour grapes the whole time only because he never thought he’d be comfortable with having no attire to hide behind. Deciding against saying anything, though, Squall only answered Rinoa’s closer step to him with one of his own, easing her arm a little closer towards him as his best idea of what to do. At least if the staring people saw him so close to a companion, they would find less of a reason to stare. Regardless, Squall avoided looking at them anymore, instead following their steps in the sand and again thinking of ways not to compare the scene to the magazine covers. Ugh, he really didn’t want to compare anything to those magazines…

Rinoa seemed to notice his actions, as her attention and smile returned. Squall managed to provide a more genuinely pleasant expression than before, before his eyes turned down again, glancing at the phone clipped to the waist of…these trunks he was wearing. ”I let Quistis and Selphie know,” he answered, giving a slight shrug. ”I still don’t know how to use this thing right, so who knows whether or not they got the message.” Obviously, Squall didn’t feel the same way about the other two women as he once had – they were his friends now, and he respected and cared as such – but a little part of him couldn’t help but hope it ended up being just him and Rinoa while they were here, both because he was getting comfortable enough with Rinoa now to make their time one-on-one worthwhile…and because he didn’t want to have to deal with any of the other women he knew showing up in swimsuits. Squall squinted his eyes shut at the thought, before flicking another glance to Rinoa and following her hand.

”Mmhmm,” came his answer to her question as he started to lead their way over. ”If you say so. I’ve never been to a beach, remember?”

Rinoa...everywhere she goes, creepin'

2/2 approvals