No Matter What

Author's Note: This fic is NOT a copy of Untouchable Love by TiDuS FoReVeR in case any of you think it is. And there is no rivalry between Squall and Seifer, they're really good friends. This is an idea I came up with.

Disclaimers: I don't own Final Fantasy VIII, nor will I ever.

Summary: AU Squinoa. Squall and Rinoa end up sleeping together at a party of Zell's. And Rinoa finds herself pregnant with more problems than she herself realises. And Squall's ex-girlfriend Audrey has decided to ruin things for them, maybe resorting to drastic measures to get what she wants…

Note to all reviewers: Sorry if I don't reply to your questions .net has now insisted on authors just writing their stories, and nothing else. There's a petition going around somewhere against this new rule but I highly doubt the board of .net will take any notice. But sorry, all the same. If your questions need urgently answering, email me. My email address is on my profile page.

Sorry if the POV changes bugged any of you guys, I wanted to get certain opinions into the story and didn't realise that the feelings I put down were so undersized when they were put into paragraphs.

I fucked up at the end of the last chapter! I put: 'The next chapter will take place on the 11th November.' I meant it would take place on the 22nd November. The date for the last few chapters has been the 19th November, so it would be stupid to rewind the story, wouldn't it? Ok, I've had my rant now. Let's get on with the story!

Chapter Fifteen

"Why didn't you tell me!"

Monday 22nd November 8:13 am

Caraway Mansion

Rinoa's Private Bathroom

"Ok, now then. Let's see: 'Remove outer sleeve of syringe and clean area for injection. Position needle for vein visible- Gross!" Rinoa exclaimed. The past four courses of the steroid injections she'd had had been administered by Squall and she had kept her eyes shut until he'd said it was over. Today she would be doing it herself. She was reading the instructions that had come with each set of needles she had been prescribed. She was to have two courses of injections daily for five days, as the doctor prescribed. Frankly, she found the idea of needles disgusting. When she had to have her blood test almost three weeks ago, she'd had to ask the nurses to distract her attention towards something more pleasant. Their idea of distracting her was putting a plastic bird in front of her face, making pathetic excuses for tweeting noises. That was unsuccessful from the very beginning. Rinoa had looked at posters about diabetes and epilepsy that were hanging up in the Treatment Room instead.

She pointed the needle towards her inner left elbow and tried to insert it into her vein. Instead she dropped the needle onto the floor and rushed towards the toilet.

"Ugh! Oooh!" she groaned as the contents of her stomach flew into the bowl.

Only two more months of this left. She thought to herself as tears streamed down her face. She'd never felt this rotten in her life and she hated it.

It's gonna be worth it in the end. I'll be a mum in just over six months. I'll have a beautiful baby and Squall…

She flushed the toilet, wiped her mouth and stood over the sink and picked up her toothbrush and toothpaste and squirted out a small amount onto the toothbrush. She cleaned her teeth and tongue clean of the foul taste of sick. She shuddered as she rinsed her mouth out.

Ring! Ring!

Her mobile was going off in her room. She walked shakily towards her bed and picked up the incoming call.

"Hello?"

"Rinoa, it's me." Squall's friendly voice answered. She smiled.

"Hey, what's up?"

"I'm picking you up, remember? There's no point in wasting petrol if one of us picks the other up every other day. You ready to go?"

"Not yet. I haven't taken my first injection of the day. I can't do it. Can you help me again?"

She heard him sigh. "Alright, but only cause you can't stand needles. I'm outside your house. Just let me up and I'll do it for you."

"Thanks Squall, I'll be down in a sec."

Rinoa hung up the phone and headed downstairs, making sure her hair had no sick in it before doing so.

Squall's silhouette was seen at her front door when she reached the halfway point on the staircase. She opened the door and flung her arms around his neck. He hugged her back.

"Shall we get this over with then?" he muttered into her hair. She nodded and began walking back up the stairs with Squall behind her.

"Wow, I haven't seen your room for ages." Squall announced as he walked into her powder-blue shaded room and took off his black jacket with the faux fur collar. Rinoa's favourite colour had always been blue, ever since she was a kid. Unlike other girls who changed their favourite colours every week, Rinoa had always adored pale and pastel blue colours.

"I know. The last time you saw my room was when you were thirteen." Rinoa replied as she walked into her bathroom to collect the syringe she'd dropped onto the floor minutes earlier.

"Here," she offered him the needle and he flicked the end of it to make sure there was no air in the needle's passage. If there had been, Rinoa could have had air pushed into her blood system instead of the medicine and died.

"Ok, here it goes. Look at me, not the needle." He coaxed her gently. Her eyes were fixed on his face. His softly chiselled jaw line and ice-blue eyes were more than enough to distract her.

"All done," Squall told her seconds later. Rinoa's gaze was still upon his face.

"Rinoa? You can stop looking at me now."

"I don't want to stop," she replied softly as she edged closer towards him, her eyes closing slowly, and her lips inches away from his own.

Squall dropped the empty syringe onto the floor and pushed his lips into hers. She pulled him back on top of her on her four poster bed. His hands ran through her hair and hers began lifting up his white t-shirt.

"Rinoa…" he moaned into her mouth as she removed his shirt to see his solid six-pack and firm biceps for the first time since that night that had bound them together. It had been dark then, lights out. Sure it was dark this time but Rinoa had the lights on in her room.

Squall suddenly propped himself onto his hands, looking Rinoa in the eyes.

"I… I can't do this- we can't do this," he stammered. Her eyes wiggled and began flowing over with tears. She rolled onto her front, knocking Squall off of her bed and onto the floor.

"Ow! Hyne, you could've warned me you were gonna do that!" Squall groaned as he rubbed his head and his left elbow. He'd hit his funny-bone when he hit her beech wood floor. Rinoa didn't say anything. Instead, she started to cry into her pillows.

"Why…?" he heard her mutter into her pillow.

"Why what?" he asked. Suddenly she shot up from the pillow and glared at him, her eyes burning.

"Why won't you make love to me!" she screamed. "Do I repulse you now because I'm carrying your baby? Can't you make love to me because I'm pregnant? What's the reason Squall? Why won't you!" she shouted at the bewildered young man sitting on her bedroom floor.

"Because… because you might not be pregnant for much longer!" he bellowed at her. Rinoa's face paled.

"What? W-what are you saying? You told me-"

"I know what I told you. I… I just didn't tell you the whole story-"

"Then what is it Squall? The doctor told you to tell me, and what did you do? You lied to me to make me feel better… why did you do that? Why didn't you tell me?" Rinoa sobbed hysterically, burying her face in her hands.

"The doctor… the doctor said that even if you take these steroid injections, the baby's chance of survival is only 10 in 100. What you're doing could be pointless in the end. The baby might not survive." Squall admitted quietly, but loud enough for Rinoa to hear.

Silence fell upon the room; the only sounds were Rinoa's muffled sobs. Squall got up to his feet.

"We… we had better be going to Garden," he mumbled as he put his shirt and jacket back on. "We don't want to be late. I'll… I'll see you downstairs-"

"I'm not going to Garden." Rinoa said, looking up from her knees at Squall. "Not today, not tomorrow, not ever again. If it means seeing you, then I won't go."

"Rinoa, that's ridiculous! You can't give up on your education now!" Squall exclaimed.

"It's my choice! And my baby!" Rinoa shouted. "I can do whatever I please! You have no say in what I can and can't do!"

"It's my baby too Rinoa! I think I have some say in what goes on here!" Squall argued.

"It may be your baby, but whose body is it growing inside of?" Rinoa screeched at him. "Mine! Whose body is it going to develop inside of? Mine! Whose body is it going to live inside of for the next six months? Mine! And who is the one who will give birth to it? I'll tell you who: ME! So you can't say or do anything to change my mind!"

"You could be wasting your time, thinking about the future of the baby! I just told you it might not survive! Don't you get it! It could die-"

"And it could survive! Have you not considered that?" Rinoa glared at Squall, her porcelain white face a hot red in colour and her tranquil hazel eyes a fiery red.

Squall was speechless. He couldn't think of a retort to counter what Rinoa had declared. It was because she was right. There was a chance, no matter how small, and when Rinoa wanted to do something, she went right on and did it. She was determined to make sure the baby survived, even if the chances were slim to none.

Squall leaned over towards Rinoa and grabbed her arm.

"Let me go Squall!" she shouted. Squall just pulled her off of the bed and began dragging her to the staircase.

"Let me go!" she screamed as she struggled to release herself from Squall's grip. Upon reaching the top of the stairs, he swiftly picked her up and put her over his shoulder in the fireman hold. He grunted as she struggled in his arms.

"Rinoa, if you keep this up, I'll end up dropping you down the stairs," Squall warned her as she began thumping her fists on his shoulders. At this point he was down the stairs by ten steps. Only forty more to go until he reached the bottom.

"Put me down Squall!" Rinoa huffed. "I'm not going to Garden!"

"Yes you are," Squall said calmly, accentuating the last word harshly as he continued walking down the stairs slowly. "I am going to take you to my car, put you in the seat, strap you down, drive you to Garden, and take you inside like I am now if you prefer. Or are you going to cooperate and come to Garden and act like an adult? If the baby survives, you're going to have to grow up." He finished slowly. Rinoa stopped struggling and relaxed her body against his. Squall continued walking down the stairs and put her feet on the ground when he reached the last step. When he did so, he received a slap in the face from Rinoa.

"Hey! What was that for?" he asked as he rubbed his cheek.

"That was for lying to me," Rinoa told him. "I don't need half the story; I want the truth next time. And I meant what I said earlier: I'm not going back to Garden. We'll be found out eventually and I don't want it to happen. My hormones are all over the place; someone will notice and tell the Garden faculty. We'll both be expelled and you won't get the Commander position. You've wanted it for as long as I've known you, and that's a long time Squall. I've ruined my life already, I don't want to ruin yours too." She began crying again. Squall stood there watching her. His heart ached. She was still thinking of him; after all she'd been through. She was so unselfish.

"That's what I love about you," Squall heard himself saying. "You always put me before you in any situation." He moved close to her and wrapped his arms around her waist. Her eyes went wide as he leaned in to kiss her.

"Squall I-"

Her sentence was cut off as his lips met hers in a passionate embrace. He pulled back briefly.

"I'll call Quistis and say we're not coming in today. I want to spend some time with you, and continue where we left off, before this argument occurred," he purred seductively into her ear. She shivered as he bit her bottom lip and kissed her deeply. He moved to her neck and began kissing her roughly.

"Let's… go… upstairs," Rinoa uttered breathlessly as Squall continued to kiss her neck. Suddenly, she found herself in the fireman's lift once again and heading up the staircase.

Author's Note: Well, that's chapter 15 done! The ten page lemon (as I promised!) will take up the next chapter along with some extra bits and pieces. Hope you enjoyed it, and sorry it's short, but I have to work dead hard on the lemon to make it my best ever! And I said there would be some lemons, rather than one. And there's gonna be a part later on where you all will hate me for, but you'll love me in the end! And even more when I do the sequel, what's your opinion on that by the way? No-one's said "Fuck yes! Do a sequel!" yet. Doesn't matter really.

Oh, I have good news! My manager has finally decided to give me my pay rise! That's brilliant!

Oh and some of you thought Rinoa was gonna find out something other than what Squall told her, or lack thereof. It was just the parts he'd rather her not have found out.

I just checked my stats before I posted this chapter- 9979 hits! Only 21 hits left until I hit the 10,000 hits mark! Thanks to all of you who have been reading and re-reading this fic! I love you all!

Rinny Leonheart