[fic] Carbon Made - Chapter 2

[crankyoldman]

Fandom: FF8
Characters/Pairings: Rinoa, Laguna
Summary: In Esthar, isolation wasn't just from other countries.
Notes: In which some of the supernatural elements start to peek in. And some of the reason why Rinoa would be in a nation of people paranoid about sorceresses. Maybe it's a little thin, but I don't care. FF8, unlike FF7, has so many plotholes and unanswered questions I can pretty much go nuts. XD Also, Laguna. God, I forgot how much I just wanted that man to be my next door neighbor.

And yes, I like playing with light. XD Next chapter features dream conversations!



Had to be the sunglasses, and the wide-brimmed hat she'd gotten as well. Maybe it was because she wasn't wearing blue, but a pale-yellow cream that was something like a dress she once owned, only more modest. There was a little girl in her that could pretend she was a movie star on a retreat, that normally she was followed by cameras and groupies, but she'd decided to slip past the veil of anonymity for a while.

And here, walking along the light-saturated streets with probably the world's last honest journalist, she felt calm. Which was kind of funny, considering they'd practically wanted to burn her at the stake the last time she was here.

"And over here is... well, I'm not sure what it is, but it's kind of pretty."

About ten minutes ago, she got the feeling Laguna had no idea where he was going. Not that she minded, part of her hoped they'd get a little lost, just so she could hear him ramble on about 'the giant knitting needles' and 'corkscrew stuck in the ground'. Estharian art was very mechanical like that.

"Laguna?"

The first time she'd met Laguna in person she realized who he was. They had a similar... well, aftertaste. Rinoa still had a hard time describing that thing all people had, which she noticed more as she actually tried to focus on things. There were other similarities too, which Squall denied vehemently. She let that issue go, after all, she wasn't exactly close with her own father. So she'd kept in contact with Laguna for him.

Well, and Selphie. The monthly Laguna letters had allowed them to get along maybe more than anything.

"Yup, what can I do for you?" He'd been fiddling with what looked like a water fountain of some kind, and a small part of it came off in his hand. He set it back down and looked away from it innocently.

"Am I... making things difficult, being here?"

He scratched the back of his neck in a gesture she knew quite well from someone else.

"Well, like I told, ah, the Garden people who called... Dr. Odine and anyone else like that got put in jail, so the only people that know who you are... well, are me. And my advisers. I made them pinky swear not to let it out."

Rinoa knew that she wouldn't have been allowed outside of Garden without some kind of setup. She had to admit, her first thought when she decided she needed something was to leave a note and take the first train to Timber, but she wasn't sixteen anymore. No, she couldn't just run off like that. It was bratty and immature, and being around people that grew up the instant they hit puberty had been... humbling. Maybe a little disturbing. Ellone had given her the idea that the last place people would expect her would be Esthar, considering their paranoia and history.

But that wasn't what she was asking. "No, I mean... for you."

When Laguna looked serious, the subtle smile lines of his face got deeper, and it was obvious he wasn't quite the man from the dreams, the one that Ellone had remembered so well. The fact that her mother was her amulet of sorts for years was proving to be a really morbid thing. What was Julia Heartilly really, if the mere mention of her, even subtly, caused people so much pain?

But that look didn't last long. "Of course not. What guy wouldn't want to spend some time with a pretty girl?"

She smiled under her hat. "Thank you."

"Anytime. Now. Where were we on the tour..."

"We'd just passed the giant corkscrew and you were about to get to the lime green can."

Of course it wasn't completely safe here. They couldn't account for everything. But she was glad for that, because allowed some... risk. Rinoa couldn't know what she was made of if there wasn't a some kind of uncontrolled element.

"Right! And next is the... wait. We were here already."

She laughed. "Maybe we just got a little turned around?"

"I could have sworn we were... let's go this way."

---

It was kind of creepy how Esthar could seem so abandoned at noontime. So different from where she grew up, and even Timber--people always bustling about, going about their lives. It had been all a frightening blur last time, and now... it really was a nation of isolation. Where people were even isolated in their own lives, their own homes. Rinoa knew why they'd latched onto Laguna so well then, as he was the exact opposite. That comfortable everywhere-everyplace, a kind of human tornado that managed only to rearrange lawn furniture.

But it wasn't entirely quiet. There was someone.

"Hey, I just saw someone, I'm going to ask them for directions, ok?"

He was sitting on some kind of dry fountain, map splayed out. Maybe he'd find the way, but it couldn't hurt if she asked this person, who was walking slowly on the other side of an alleyway. Rinoa was already off in that direction, before Laguna could even answer. If Angelo had come with her, she might have been able to send him ahead, but she'd left him with Zell because he said he'd take good care of him...

For someone moving so slowly, this stranger still seemed so far off. Maybe she just had to yell for them, let them know she was there. Rinoa took a breath.

"Excuse me! I have a question!"

The scandals of her childhood had been scrapped knees while running with the local "riff-raff" as the imperial General had always put it. Rinoa was running now, and it was strange how the figure didn't seem to get closer--though now that she'd gotten a good enough look, she could see it was a woman. Her long white-blonde hair was tied back in a sort of braid, and she had an umbrella to ward off the searing sun.

"Excuse--" the woman rounded the corner and Rinoa finally seemed to be catching up. Estharian architecture must have been full of optical illusions or something like that, it was the only way to explain it. Oh, it had been too long since she'd run like this, hat in hand and hair trailing behind her like a comet's tail, skirt rustling around her like sea foam.

"Ha! There you--" She was back in the square, Laguna still sitting trying to decipher the map and looking just like she'd left him.

He looked up. "What's wrong?"

Rinoa looked around. "I... I think I just saw someone. I went chasing after them and..." she trailed off into just a breath, almost an exasperated sigh.

Laguna looked more puzzled than he had been looking at the map. "You were only gone for a moment, I figured you saw something interesting."

"I was going to go ask someone I saw for directions," she said. Funny, she didn't feel winded at all, considering how much running she'd just done.

"I didn't see anyone." Laguna was nice enough he wouldn't ask if she was feeling alright. There was nothing more that bothered her these days as people asking if she was feeling alright with that look on their faces that clearly said she was loony.

She looked at the ground, and dug her toe into the pavement. "You have any idea where we are now?"

"No, but I just remembered I had a radio!"

Maybe there were other reasons why Ellone had suggested this place. Despite the warmth, it almost made Rinoa shiver.