Squinoa Central

Link to fic on Ao3 because Tumblr is being super weird.

Fandom: Final Fantasy VIII

Pairing: Squall Leonhart/Rinoa Heartilly

Rating: M (depictions of violence, death)

Words: 12,034

Summary: Squall is still in his mandatory recovery week, and what should have been another uneventful day turns out to be anything but when Rinoa has a disturbing dream. Distraught and terrified of its implications, she asks Squall something he is not sure he can agree to, nor wants to. Shocking new revelations about Ultimecia's past and the dangers of being a sorceress (and a knight) further complicate things for them, as their bond is tested yet again.

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I'm so happy to finally be uploading something!! I don't know why, but as much fun as I've had writing it, I was still super nervous to post it for some reason?? Hopefully it was worth the wait!

At a loss for words, she simply nodded. He kept watching her, moving his fingers on her picture. “There’s nothing true in here. The light is made to flatter you. Colors are studied. There’s styling. Make-up is used to mask. This is crafted.” He followed the line of her face on her picture, lingering just above her eyes. A shudder crept along her back. “These are not.” [In which Squall, renowned black-and-white photographer, sees something raw and true he can't ignore in Rinoa's eyes.]

Characters: Rinoa Heartilly, Squall Leonheart

Pairings: Rinoa Heartilly/Squall Leonhart - barely mentioned Seifer Almasy/Quistis Trepe, and hinted Irvine Kinneas/Selphie Tilmitt

Additional tags: Slow Burn, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt, Artist/Muse Relationship, Mutual Pining, Non-Sexual Intimacy, Intimacy, Non-Explicit Sex, Alternate Universe, Photography, Music, Forbidden Attraction, Creative Process as Intimacy, unspoken feelings, Yearning

Chapter: IV. Overexposure: Silence

Written for:

@ffviiiotpfestival - prompt Music makes sense now, by @angelosearch;

@julybreakbingoevent and @julybreakbingo, prompts “Why?” and Offering kindness to someone that isn’t used to receiving it

@monthlywritingchallenges, Golden Hour event (July 2025), prompt Slow smiles, Silence shared, Tangled thoughts, Between goodbye and hello, and “Don’t let it end yet.”

Grad school continues to own my soul but I did manage to do this!

Let's do this? I am really SERIOUS about this!

[FFVIII] Beacon

He makes a sound, kind of disbelieving himself. But they have just traveled far into the future to defeat a Sorceress full of pain and vitriol, and also managed to come back from that unscathed, so he thinks he is allowed to be an optimist, for once.

Title: Beacon Characters: Squall Leonhart, Rinoa Heartilly, Irvine Kinneas, Zell Dincht Pairing: Squall Leonhart/Rinoa Heartilly Written for: a few prompts on this one! First, the request sent by Anonymous: If people can hate for no reason, then I can love for no reason, too; Second, the prompts A wish made at the lighthouse and The feeling of home in each other for the @ffviiiotpfestival; Last but not least, Rising and/or setting sun for the @summersolsticefestival

Yay, my new AU reached another milestone! It's been a slow climb but it seems like it's getting there :D

The story recently reached 10 kudos on AO3, and even though readers are mostly silent about this one, they seem to be there anyway! This makes me happy because for some reason I am obsessed about this story and I want it to do good :)

Third chapter is still on the way, so if you wanna check it out and see was the fuss is about, you can do so on AO3 and FF.net.

The title is inspired by the U2 song, and each chapter's caption is a verse from the song.

In August, we celebrate our moody broody Commander: Squall Leonhart!

The prompt list

All prompts from last year can be used, and there's also a new prompt for 2025: Silence!

ORIGINAL PROMPT LIST

Lone Wolf

Whatever

Commander

Griever

The Sorceress Knight

Promise

Scar

Sis

Triple Triad

Free Choice!

NEW PROMPT LIST

2025: Silence

The creative marathon

To celebrate Squall, we'll have a creative marathon running on August 23rd on our discord server!

In the special channel #creative-marathon we will cheer on each other with writing and drawing sprints to celebrate the character and give the final push for all your creative efforts!

Submissions

Prompts can be claimed and fullfilled through the AO3 prompt meme challenge that you can find here. You can start posting on August 25th. Please tag @ffviiicharacterweek and/or use the hashtag #ffviiicharacterweek on Tumblr so I can reblog you! ONLY if you're not on AO3, please fill in this form too, so I am sure I won't lose your submission. If you need an AO3 invite to join the challenge, please let me know, I still have a couple of those.

source: unknown

His favorite rock music is filling the air, and she probably got herself comfortable as soon as he stepped out of the door; she now wears only a light-blue camisole and some pretty flower-printed panties. She looks… cute. A creature he can’t help but love and be bewildered by.

Characters: Rinoa Heartilly, Squall Leonhart Pairing: Rinoa Heartilly/Squall Leonhart Additional Tags: Domestic Fluff, Moving In Together, Established Relationship, playful banter, Post-Canon, Self-Indulgent Written for: @ffviiiotpfestival, prompt: They've rented their first apartment together and it's moving day by Nixxi.