Sample: Together We'll Mend Your Heart (Final Fantasy VIII)

[tiny_ninja]

Title: Together We'll Mend Your Heart
Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII

Full fic posted here!

Soon the puppies were big enough to to play outside. Rinoa found an abandoned lot for them, fenced in on all sides so the puppies couldn’t run off. Stacks of crates and pallets formed places for them to hide, burning off all that puppy energy.

It was also a great place to train Angelo. The puppies couldn’t take all of her attention, and Rinoa needed to remind her dog that she was important too. She knew the basic commands: sit, stay, lay down. Rinoa wanted to teach Angelo more than just how to play fetch.

She hid items around the lot with different scents on them - one of Watts’ old socks, a bandanna with a spritz of Rinoa’s perfume. “Okay, Angelo,” she said, holding up Watts’ other sock for her to sniff. “Recover!”

Angelo took off, sniffing around the crates and dodging her own children. One puppy swatted at her, only to be reprimanded with a sharp bark. The puppy rocked back on her back legs, barking back.

Angelo bopped her with her nose, a silent, “Don’t follow me.”

She seemed to get the message, running off to join her siblings. Satisfied, Angelo returned to her mission, returning a few minutes later with Watts’ other sock.

Rinoa sat back and watched. Angelo taught her puppies just like Rinoa taught her. Every day, the puppies grew more independent, their personalities shining through. She wanted to develop them all, give them all the love and attention they deserved.

But Zone and Watts were right. This one yard wasn’t going to be enough for five dogs Angelo’s size. Already one of the boys was digging under the fence, wiggling his body through the hole he’d made. Rinoa snatched him, cradling him to her chest. “This isn’t for you,” she murmured in the puppy’s ear. “What are you going to do out there in that big bad world? You’re too young. Stay here and be safe.”

And she froze.

In her voice, she heard her father.

Caraway never looked out for her the way a father should have. He provided her with food on the table and a roof over her head, but never with the emotional support she craved. She’d grown so much since she ran away from home and came to Timber. If she’d stayed in Deling City, if she’d caved and became the perfect daughter Caraway wanted her to be, would she be happy? Would she feel like herself?

Who was she to decide what someone else should be? Even her puppies needed the chance to be free and grow into the wonderful creatures she knew was inside them.

She collapsed her knees, pressing a face wet with tears to the puppy’s head. Angelo laid beside her and licked at her face. “Thank you,” she whispered to Angelo. Her free hand buried into the dog’s fur, grounding herself in this moment.

Rinoa was not her father. She never would be. She would do better, she would know better. She would do the right thing, even if it went against her selfish wishes.

And she would enjoy every last minute with these four babies while they were still in her care.


-


Two weeks later, all of Angelo’s puppies had new homes in the Timber Resistance.

Linette the vet took one of the boys, promising the best care in all of Timber. Two, a boy and a girl, went with the family who lived next to the old Timber Maniacs building. Their mother owned the pub in town and often worked late nights, and having two guard dogs to look after the children would give her some peace of mind. “And they’ll help run some energy out of these little guys,” the pub owner said, ruffling her son’s hair.

And the last puppy, the sweetest little girl, went to the woman who ran the souvenir shop by the train station. “Don’t you worry,” she said, patting Rinoa’s hand, “you can come visit her whenever you’d like. Especially if you stop by with some of those fancy cookies of yours.”

“It would be my pleasure,” Rinoa promised. She leaned in and gave the puppy one last kiss on the head. Then she and Angelo headed back to the Forest Owls’ base, just the two of them, like it was when this first started.

Zone waited for them outside the train, hands in his pockets. He looked nonchalant, but Rinoa knew he was waiting for her. “You doing okay?” he asked.

Angelo leaned into Rinoa’s side. The sun set over the train car, lighting the street in shades of yellow and orange. Rinoa tilted her face into its fading warmth. Off in the distance, a train horn sounded as it departed the station. The hustle and bustle of the town formed a symphony to her ears, even if she could recognize soldiers’ footfalls in the mix.

Perhaps it wasn’t the life General Fury Caraway wanted for his daughter, but it was the life she chose for herself. With her dog, and her friends, and the family she made. Rinoa Heartilly was going to help win this war. Timber would be free. And they could all decide who they were going to be for themselves, not because of someone else’s expectations.

“Yeah,” Rinoa said, “I’m okay. Come on, let’s see what Watts found for dinner.”