Summer was on its way, bringing with it warm weather and the free time to enjoy it. The beach was crowded with an array of people: families with small children, couples, people with their dogs, teenagers, the elderly, and just about everyone else in between. Despite its crowded state, the beach still remained a relaxing, calm atmosphere, the various groups adding the pleasant sounds of life and excitement rather than being just a cacophony of noise. It was a nice day to enjoy the warm sand and cool ocean waters, that is until...
“Hey! Give that back; it’s mine! Seifer! Urgh! You are being such a meanie! Squall, make him give it back to me!” Rinoa Heartily practically shrieked in annoyance as her beach chair was stolen from her, her loud, frustrated cries disturbing the peaceful atmosphere the ocean provided. Seifer had taken away the chair that she had brought and was laying on it just as she had been about to. The nerve of that guy. Well, she wasn’t going to put up with it. So, naturally she had turned to Squall to help her get it back. She waited, glaring at Seifer all the while, with her arms crossed across her chest and her foot tapping the sand, for Squall to do something. She waited...and waited...“Whatever,” was his only reply; how typical Squall. Now it was his turn to experience her wrath; how dare he not do anything!
“That’s not fair! He takes away my chair that I brought and doesn’t even ask me if he can borrow it—which he can’t!—and no one is going to do anything about it!” She turned to Squall, the full force of her glare hitting him as her voice rose with each word she said.
He sighed as he looked between the irate brunette before him and the smug blonde lounging across the beach chair that Rinoa had brought. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples as he felt a headache coming on—he knew he shouldn’t have agreed to stick with Seifer and Rinoa while the rest of the group went to pick up some food for them to eat.
“Seifer, just let Rinoa have the chair back. It is her chair and she did bring it. If you wanted a chair you should have bought one yourself.” There. Hopefully that would make everything alright again. Please let Seifer just agree to give the chair back and—
“No! She borrowed my money to buy the danged chair, so until she pays me back; it’s mine.” Seifer thought his argument was valid this time, not that all of his arguments aren’t valid, but even Leonhart couldn’t dispute the fact that he had bought the chair. Besides, it was always so much fun to get the princess angry, and it seemed like he was starting to piss Squall off too, an added bonus.
“Fine, whatever. If you want your chair back, Rinoa, just get it yourself. And Seifer, do you always have to be such a jerk? I know you’re probably getting a big kick out of getting Rinoa mad, but could you both just try to get along for once or at least keep me out of it?” Squall had had enough of their bickering and decided to finally listen to everyone and express his emotions for once in his life. Both Rinoa and Seifer seemed more than a little shocked, though Seifer, of course, was careful to hide that fact.
“Well, Leonhart, it seems that there’s hope for you yet. I don’t ever think I’ve heard you say so much at one time before...and without even taking a breath in between; impressive.” Almasy was once again in control of his reactions, and had, as usual, responded with a smartass remark and his trademark smirk.
“Yeah...I mean, well, I guess...Seifer is actually right for once.” Rinoa, for once in her life, actually agreed with Seifer, though she had been loath to admit it. She had been shocked at Squall’s uncharacteristic display; he was usually so...unresponsive. What had gotten into him? Were her and Seifer really that bad?
“What the hell do you mean ‘right for once?’ I’m always right, and you’d better believe it.” Okay, maybe the ice prince was mad because he and Rinoa were at it again, and if Leonhart was getting pissed off enough to yell at them than it must be pretty bad, but he wasn’t about to sit back and let Rinoa insult him like that. Really, if Squall knew him at all, he would understand.
Squall just shook his head back and forth, letting out a moan of frustration before turning around and walking in the opposite direction as far away from the two banes of his existence as possible. They were so childish and so...so...utterly annoying and...and so many other things that he couldn’t think of at the moment. But whatever else they were, it wasn’t anything good. They weren’t too bad apart. Sure Rinoa could be a bit ditzy and needy at times, and Seifer could be a bit of an arrogant prick, but he could deal with that. Just as long as they weren’t together. Okay, so maybe he had overreacted just a bit to the whole beach chair incident, but it was just the last straw. Before that it had been the great ice cream fiasco, then the Ochu tentacle prank Seifer had pulled (that one had actually been somewhat amusing), then...well, there were too many to count. It was about time someone put a stop to it.
It wasn’t just him that was tired of their endless fighting, everyone was. It would be easy to convince them to help him with a plan to get Seifer and Rinoa to at least behave civilly to each other, or at least not fight. Yes, they would think of something to put a stop to this whole mess and then, finally, he could have a nice, peaceful vacation like he’d planned.
