On the far side of the passengers' deck stood Laguna Loire, staring out the glass windows at the clouds rushing by them. Presumably exhilarated by the excitement of being on board the Ragnarok at last, Squall thought. After all, he knew the way Laguna's mind worked all too well.

It was strange to be in the same immediate area with him. Despite the personal revelations Squall had made over the past few days, he knew they had very little in common. But they had shared a mind for a while, and in spite of everything, that had created a strange sort of bond between the two of them, and he had some questions he wanted answered.

Kiros and Ward stood on either side of the deck, and glanced up as Squall entered. Ward, looking quite strange in his formal robes of state, made a slight wave to him, and Kiros seemed to ponder him for a moment before giving him a slight smile and turning back to his thoughts. They're always right there with Laguna, no matter where he ends up.

With that thought, Squall took a look back at the two who had come with him, and saw Selphie grinning widely, presumably from the close proximity of her "Sir Laguna". Rinoa was there too, watching Selphie with amusement.

Will they... my friends... will they be here for me years from now, supporting me? Like Ward and Kiros support Laguna?

As if she'd heard the question in his mind, Rinoa nudged him. "Go on, talk to him," she urged him. "It's not like he's a stranger. You've been inside his mind."

"Yeah, but..." Squall muttered. Being inside another man's body, walking with the use of his legs, fighting with a weapon that's not your own... it's just too weird. I know I should say something to him... but what am I supposed to say?

Rinoa was waiting for him to finish, but instead he just walked away, towards the place at the front of the deck where Laguna stood watching the clouds roll by. The older man turned his head questioningly as Squall came to stand next to him.

This is so stupid. What am I supposed to say to this guy? I can't think of a single thing that doesn't sound awkward... Suddenly self-conscious, he put his hands inside his pockets... and an idea came to him. Laguna smiled as Squall held up his deck of Triple Triad cards. "Do you play?" Squall asked him.

Laguna shrugged, slipping a much smaller deck than Squall's from his shirt pocket. "All right man," he said with a casual grin, "if you insist. It's been awhile, and I was never very good at it..."

The president of Esthar had a deck of Triple Triad cards in his pocket? Then again, Squall would never have expected a president to dress or speak the way Laguna did either. And with Laguna's happy-go-lucky attitude, he probably shouldn't have been surprised.

"What rules do you use?" Laguna asked him, flipping through his deck and selecting his five.

"Same/Plus, Elemental, and Sudden Death," Squall replied. "Do you know any others?"

"No way, that's plenty complicated for me," Laguna said, apparently comparing one of the cards he'd chosen to another in his deck as Selphie and Rinoa came over to watch the match. "How about a trade rule?"

What kind of cards will the president have in his deck? Squall wondered. Probably only the best, he decided, picking out his five favorite cards. I don't want to lose too many of these, or my strategy's gone. "One," he stated. "Is that good?"

"Sounds great. Well then..." Laguna motioned to one of the passenger seats. Squall spread out the board on the empty tray in front of it, and tossed the tokens to see where the elemental marks would lie. "You can go first if you want." Laguna offered, rolling up his sleeves and hunching down in front of the tray.

Squall nodded and sat down in the chair, since Laguna had basically offered it to him. A quick look over his cards and the elemental marks, and he placed his first card in the lower left corner. Laguna looked at it and did a double-take. "Whoa! I've never seen that one before. Isn't that..."

"Edea," Squall confirmed.

"He won it from Edea herself," Selphie spoke up. "Supposedly there's only one in the whole world."

"So you played cards with her too, huh?" Laguna looked over his chosen five cards, considering his move. "Must have been a little strange, playing cards with the powerful sorceress."

"I guess." Actually it was nice, Squall thought. She seemed like the Matron again, the Matron we used to play with when we were kids. And it was like she didn't believe we could forgive what she'd done so easily... she looked so happy when I challenged her to a simple game.

"Ummm... hmm, okay," Laguna murmured, placing his first card. A Bomb, in the top left corner, which had a Fire elemental mark. He's not so bad at this after all, Squall thought. Good thing I chose my best cards. He considered the four left in his hand, and placed his second card just below the Bomb, flipping it.

"Hey," Laguna said, looking up at Selphie. "That card's you, isn't it?"

Selphie giggled a little bit, a faint red stain appearing on her cheeks. "Yep, that's me! A friend of mine made it."

"Looks nice," Laguna said with an approving nod. "A perfect likeness."

"Thanks," Selphie said, with a huge grin.

"You know, Selphie's a big fan of yours," Rinoa said, turning to Laguna. "She's read all your articles in Timber Maniacs-"

Selphie elbowed Rinoa in the ribs. "Shut up," she whispered, her cheeks growing redder.

"In fact, she scanned all of them we could find, and put the pictures up on her home page," Rinoa continued innocently.

"Shut up already," Selphie warned Rinoa despite a huge grin.

"It's really cute," Rinoa said, a hint of a mischeivious smile appearing on her face. "She's got a special section for them, called-"

She was interrupted by a shriek from Selphie. "Don't tell him that!" she pleaded, covering a laughing Rinoa's mouth with her hands as she began laughing too. "Don't you dare! I'll absolutely kill you!"

Laguna laughed as well as he turned back to Squall and the Triple Triad board. "Ah, girls... anyway..." Shaking his head, he placed his next card, a Wendigo, beside the Bomb that Squall had just flipped.

Okay, so maybe he really wasn't very good at this, Squall thought as he placed his next card below Laguna's Wendigo, flipping it as well. Laguna peered at it. "Nice card... who is that? Someone else you've played cards with?"

"That?" Squall stared down at the card he'd just placed, wondering how to explain that one. "Not exactly. That's... Seifer."

"Seifer Almasy? Commander of the Galbadian forces?" Laguna asked, looking at the card curiously. Squall nodded. "I've never actually seen him," Laguna commented. "So that's our enemy, the guy who's holding Elle. He looks so young..."

"He's about our age," Rinoa told him. "He and Squall trained together in Balamb Garden, as a matter of fact."

"Oh, really? You're old friends?"

"...No." Squall frowned at the memory. "Actually, he's the one who gave me the scar." It wouldn't make any difference even if he had been our friend; now he's Ultimecia's knight. We can't hold back if we meet again.

"I guess that will make things easier then, huh?" Laguna muttered, mulling over his three remaining cards. After some thought, he placed a Granaldo to the right of his Wendigo, flipping it back to his color again. "You know how he fights, but there won't be any tough decisions to make if you meet him up there, right?"

Behind him, Squall heard Rinoa's soft sigh. "I hope we won't," he said honestly. "But we're SeeDs - we'll do whatever it takes." Not wanting to dwell on it any longer, he placed his next card beneath Laguna's Granaldo, not flipping it, but effectively blocking it off.

"Hey, that card's another of your friends, right?" asked Laguna.

Friends...? "I guess so," Squall said after a moment's hesitation. "Irvine's not from Balamb like the rest of us, and I really haven't known him for all that long." Unless you count those days back in Edea's orphanage where we were all together, but I can't remember those. But still... we were together, and we found each other again. We never would have even realized it if Irvine hadn't kept that memory for all these years. Looking up, Squall found that Ward and Kiros had come closer to watch the game over Laguna's shoulder, almost appearing like sentries. They would never be far off, and across from them, peering over Squall's shoulders, were Rinoa and Selphie. "Yeah... Irvine's a friend."

Kiros smirked, looking at the two cards in Laguna's hand and the two open spaces left on the board. "Six to four. Looks like you're in trouble, Mr. President."

"Aww, be quiet," Laguna muttered, placing another card at the bottom of the board. "I know what I'm doing."

A Bite Bug? If that was his best card, Kiros was right. Especially considering Squall only had one card left, and one place left to put it. He placed it, flipping the Bite Bug easily.

Behind him, Squall heard Selphie cheer as Laguna burst out laughing at the sight of the card. "I see you beat Doc Odine, too. Ward, you traitor!" he laughed. "I've been defeated by you?"

Ward shrugged silently with a grin. "He's thinking you were defeated from the moment you chose those cards," Kiros told Laguna. "No wonder you lost all your money in Dollet."

"Hey, it's not like I can help it," Laguna protested. "I haven't played in years... I'm a little rusty, and I don't have any good cards. Well, except the one..." he added, scratching his head self-consciously.

"Squall, we're going back up to the cockpit," Rinoa said, leaning down beside him. Turning his head, he found her dark eyes staring into his. "Now that you've broken the ice, why don't you stay here and get to know him a little better?" she whispered. "He seems like a really nice guy." Without waiting for an answer, she patted him on the shoulder and vanished out the door. "See you later, guys!" she added, leaning back into the room. "Selphie, are you coming?"

"Yeah, Zell can't fly this thing like I can," Selphie added, following Rinoa's lead. "He'll probably crash into a mountain or something... It was really, really cool to meet you, Laguna," she told him cheerfully. "You too, Ward and Kiros! Seeya!" she called as she bounced out the door, waving.

"Nice hangin' out with you too, Selphie, Rinoa," Laguna said, waving back. "Anyway, pick your card," he told Squall, laying his last one on the table.

An Elvoret. Why didn't he use that instead of the Bite Bug? Squall wondered. I guess he really is just bad at cards. "Is this your best card then?"

"Naah, my best card's a lot better than that," Laguna said, waving a hand in a non-committal gesture as he turned back to the window. "Go on and take that one if you want, I don't really use my deck anymore."

Squall shrugged and took the Elvoret, putting it in his own deck. "Thanks."

"No prob, it was nice getting to talk to you for awhile," said Laguna. "I've wanted to for a long time now."

Squall had never professed to be particularly sensitive, but there was something in Laguna's voice that sounded suddenly serious. "Why's that?" he asked.

"Oh... things you might want to know, things I've wanted to know, you know..." Laguna shifted uneasily, staring out the window.

"No, actually, I don't know," Squall admitted. What else am I supposed to say? He sounds like he wants to tell me something, but if he wants to tell me something, what's stopping him?

He glanced around to see that Ward and Kiros had taken up their places on either side of the deck again, for all practical purposes leaving him and Laguna alone. When he looked to Laguna, the man had turned his head slightly to look back at him. What is it?

Laguna smiled a little, cautiously. "You're not too good at talking to people, are you, Squall?"

"I don't know..." Squall would ordinarily have left it at that, but... "Maybe it's just that I'm not used to it anymore. Like you and cards."

Laguna shook his head with a laugh. "Nah, I've always sucked at Triple Triad. You're pretty good at it, though."

"Thanks," Squall said simply. What did this have to do with anything?

"So you know," Laguna suggested, turning back to him, "instead of talking, why don't we just play another round?"

Squall couldn't help but feel relieved. "Sure, if that's what you want," he said, picking his cards up off the board. "But if you're no good at it, why would you offer?"

"Hah! I'm going to use my good card this time," Laguna said, clearing the board of his own and choosing his five. "Don't go easy on me, or you'll get thrashed!"

Squall relaxed a little, feeling the tension leave the air. "If you say so," he replied, as he picked out five cards that were just a little weaker than his last hand. "You can go first this time."

"If you insist."

This time, Laguna took a little longer thinking through his moves, and placed his cards a little better, but even Squall's purposely weak hand allowed for more strategy. At least, he thought it did. It was possible, he thought, that Laguna was setting him up for some kind of elaborate combo, since they were down to one card each, and the best that Laguna had used was an Elastoid. Now it was Laguna's move, with only one space left on the board, and his best card was apparently still in his hand. But then, the look on Laguna's face told him that didn't count for much.

"Aw, man..." Laguna muttered. "You got me, no use trying to deny it. You win," he conceded, placing his last card in the corner.

Squall's eyes widened at the sight of it. "That's..."

"Yep," Laguna confirmed. "Elle gave it to me, she had it made by an artisan when I brought her back to Esthar. Not too bad, for not having a picture or anything to work from, huh?"

Squall picked up the card, examining the image on it. He knew the face all too well, though seeing the scar was a surprise. It still startled him when he looked in the mirror.

"Anyway, it's yours now - you won it fair and square," Laguna continued, gathering the rest of his cards from the board. "You'd make better use of it than I would."

Squall was still staring at the card in shock. "Why do you have a card with my picture?"

"Well..." Laguna stood, turning away from Squall to face the window again. "Even though I hadn't met you till just a couple hours ago, I've known you for a long, long time. Back when me and Ward and Kiros got that buzzing in our heads, and we felt all that energy and fighting spirit, we thought it was some kind of magical gift, or whatever. Your spirits brought us luck. When Elle told me what she'd been doing, and... who you were... ah..." His voice trailed off, and he scratched his head nervously again. "None of that's really what you were asking. I think of that card as a good luck charm, I guess."

Squall hesitated, uncertain of what the older man was saying. "You can keep it," he offered. "The game's just for fun, anyway."

"No, no, you won it." Laguna waved a hand at him. "Take it, Squall. It really should belong to you anyway. I don't need a lucky charm anymore. I mean, hey - you and Rinoa and Selphie and Irvine - you and all your friends are going to save the world, and everything's going to be okay. I trust in you guys more than I trust in some stupid superstition."

Squall nodded, slipping the card with his picture into his own deck. It all made sense. "So was that what you wanted to tell me earlier?" he asked. "That you trust us?"

"Yeah, for the most part," he answered. "There's more, but... I dunno. You've got enough on your mind now."

That was certainly true. Gathering up his cards from the tray, Squall turned to Laguna again, and Laguna looked up at him. "Let's talk when it's all done," he suggested. "I have a lot to tell you... Well, if you don't want to hear it, I'll understand."

Why wouldn't I? Squall didn't know what to say to that, so he simply nodded and turned to leave. "Thanks for the game," he added over his shoulder.

"No prob," Laguna said with a shrug. "Take care of yourself in there, Squall, and I'll play you again sometime."