"C'mon, Raine! Please?"
"No, Genis," said Raine firmly, turning to look down sternly at her younger brother. It was difficult even for humans to stop by Regal Bryant's residence without an invitation, and for a pair of half-elves regarded as Sylvaranti, it would be harder still. "It's impolite to come for a visit when we're not expected. And isn't Presea visiting Ozette this weekend for her birthday?" It was a 'Freetday afternoon, and they didn't have more than a few hours before the sun set behind its veil of dark clouds.
"Can't we at least check?" asked Genis, gazing longingly at the Bryant mansion in the distance. "Even if Presea's off work, we'll still get to see Regal, and I miss him, too. Besides, you're always in a better mood after we see him."
Raine tossed him a sharp glance. She liked to think she was better at hiding her feelings than that, but it seemed she would have to try harder. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"If you say so," said Genis, but from his skeptical tone, he may as well have said I don't believe you. "If we're sent away, then we're sent away, but we won't know for sure until we try. See, this is why you weren't our leader when we were saving the world."
Letting out a short breath, Raine crossed her arms. She couldn't exactly argue with that, but she wasn't obligated to accompany him, either. The last thing Raine wanted to do was interfere with Regal's work, and Genis probably didn't want her to supervise him and Presea. She'd sworn to stay out of his love life, such as it was, but every time she saw him smile at her like that, she wanted to say—
No; she had resolved not to think about that. (Particularly not since Regal was involved, however tangentially.) "Fine," said Raine shortly.
"Yes!" exclaimed Genis, punching the air. "How long—?"
"I'll come get you around sunset," said Raine, inadvertently interrupting her brother. "That gives you a few hours with Presea, but make sure you make yourself useful. You'll be intruding on her time at work, so help her out until she's free."
"Okay!" said Genis, sounding like he would gladly do anything if it meant seeing Presea, and—without further ado—dashed away towards the Bryant mansion, hurrying all the faster as the first drops of rain began to fall. Raine smiled after him a little sadly, thinking of love in all its terrible beauty, and turned her contemplative feet towards the beach.
"Welcome home, Regal!"
He started, just having shut his front door, and removed his raincoat somewhat faster than usual. That was the gradually changing voice of Genis Sage. What is he doing here? Perhaps Presea had invited him over for her birthday, but she ordinarily told him of such plans. More likely, Genis had already been in the area and had seen fit to drop by and see her. (Anyone who couldn't see his partiality to her must have been blind.)
"Thank you," called Regal in return, at a loss for what else to say. "To what do I owe this pleasure?" After a brief pause, he walked towards the dining room, since that seemed to be where Genis's voice was coming from. As he stood in the doorway, he found that he was quite right, and moreover, that Genis had apparently just finished preparing a multiple-course dinner and had set two places at the table.
"Here!" he exclaimed, gesturing towards the seat at the head of the table, and Regal smiled. "For you and Presea," he added, pulling out his chair for him with unrestrained enthusiasm. "I hope you like it." He sounded somewhat nervous, and Regal chuckled. For Genis, he represented the traditionally intimidating father of the girl he loved, but his concern was groundless. Regal respected Genis a great deal, and neither did he have any problem with his attachment to Presea.
"How kind of you," remarked Regal, still standing as he glanced around the table. Genis must have been working for some hours to craft this many mouthwatering dishes; truly, the child was a prodigy in the kitchen. More than can be said for his sister, he thought with an inward sigh, but quickly reprimanded himself. She was talented in almost all other areas, after all. "I hope you'll eat with us?" he added, taking his seat.
Genis blinked a few times in surprise. "Eat with you?"
"Well, yes," said Regal, and Genis smiled a little uncertainly. "You cooked this, after all. You deserve a taste of the meal you prepared so artfully. Where is Presea, by the way?" He turned around to call for her, but before he could say her name again, she walked through the doorway with a small smile on her face.
Regal's breath caught for a fraction of a second. He knew exactly why Genis was so flustered around Presea; she looked so much like Alicia that it hurt. But Regal had always forced himself to think of her as the daughter he should have had with her, and it had helped him come to terms with their likeness. That didn't stop his initial reaction to her presence, however, and he wondered if it ever would. Alicia was his first and, so far, his only. That much wasn't anything he could help.
"H-hi, Presea," stammered Genis, beaming and blushing at the same time.
"Hello, Genis," replied Presea, looking nonplussed but pleased all the same. "You've been here for hours." She seemed as though she was about to ask why exactly he was saying hello, but Regal simply cleared his throat and gestured towards the food-laden table. He'd leave them alone after dinner, but for now, he would not allow all Genis's hard work to go to waste in favor of some awkward attempts at conversation.
"Shall we eat?"
At the agreed-upon time, Raine knocked at the door to the Bryant mansion, soaked practically through to the skin and happier than she'd been for a long time. Perhaps it was just her name, but rain always helped her forget her problems, of which there were always too many to count. However, most of them came crashing back down again as Regal himself opened the door.
"Hello," said Raine, before he could invite her inside. She could see him sway a little, itching to step aside like the gentleman he was and let her in, out of the weather she so adored. "I'm here to fetch Genis." She didn't want to see Regal, and that was the simple truth of it. He was too tied up in her secret wishes to be human, too closely entangled in feelings she refused to unknot. Though she was able to meet his curious eyes at first, she could not do so for long, and quickly dropped her gaze.
Ever since Regal had so boldly claimed that his notes on Ratatosk were love letters, Raine's heart had beaten just a little bit faster whenever she thought of him… which was more often than she cared to admit. Knowing that such a claim was a lie, that he would never be able to move on from a girl who had died almost twenty years ago, made those few extra pulses excruciating.
Not to mention the difference in the way time flowed for them… but that was another story.
"Please, come inside and stay awhile," said Regal graciously, and stepped aside with something of a bow. After an awkward pause, Raine paced helplessly forward, reluctantly allowing Regal to remove her jacket for her, but she shivered a little as his fingers grazed the nape of her neck, and he hesitated. "Are you cold?"
Had Raine been cold, she was no longer: the heat rushed to her cheeks, and she hoped against hope that her blush would go unnoticed. (If Regal saw it, he didn't say anything, to her immeasurable relief.) "I, ah," she began, but Regal cut her off with a low chuckle—still carrying her wet jacket—and escorted her through his magnificent house. Regal's mansion was about as large as Zelos Wilder's, and more than once, Raine longed to stop and examine some statue or painting a little more closely, just to see which era it was from, but they moved briskly onward.
It took them almost a minute (Raine counted to keep herself occupied) to arrive at their destination. This room, while not the largest in the house, was simultaneously spacious and cozy. Flames burned steadily in the fireplace, casting comfortable ruddy light over a leather armchair and couch situated close by. It was too dim see any details of the paintings on the walls, though a ray of light flooded in from the double doors leading to the adjacent room, in which Presea was playing the piano. Besides that, Genis's delighted comments and her half-pleased denial made a kind of music all their own.
"Here. Please, sit by the fire."
Regal's voice was warm and gentle as the fire and rain as he spoke, gesturing politely to the armchair. As he spread Raine's jacket on the back of a chair at a writing desk in the corner, Raine seated herself obediently, automatically checking her escapes. A large windowed double door led out to a modest balcony, and raindrops were visible from the firelight in the room, splashing into the puddles outside.
"I'll fetch you some tea," Regal was saying, but his rich and pleasant voice seemed distant to Raine's ears. She only nodded once, staring into the fire as he departed, and concentrated on trying to understand her heartbeat.
"Better?"
"Better," agreed Raine after a short and silent pause—Presea had stopped playing the piano, and was now talking softly with Genis. Stirring sugar into her tea, Raine gazed into the fire through narrowed eyes. Regal left his black, and took a cautious sip before carefully observing the woman sitting across from him. In the flickering light, shining gold on her silken silver shirt, she looked well enough (if a little exhausted), but concern rested heavily in her countenance.
Regal did not dare to prod at it. "What are you and Genis doing in Altamira?" he asked, but as he spoke, Genis's laughter sounded from the next room, and her eyes flashed with too many emotions for him to count. Whatever she was thinking about could evidently not be dispelled by her brother's mirth. If anything, that was part of her preoccupation.
"I'm sorry," she began, clearly flustered, and took a sip of tea before meeting Regal's eyes briefly. "We've been doing some work in Tethe'alla to help the half-elves' situations. And Genis wanted to see Presea for her birthday, so I thought…" She trailed off, and Regal waited patiently for an explanation, but received none.
"You seem quite preoccupied," observed Regal, taking another sip of his tea.
Raine set her teacup down without drinking from it, looking up at him and then down at her lap uncomfortably. "I suppose it's obvious," she muttered, clearly embarrassed. The tip of her single visible ear, poking out from under her silver hair, was red, though perhaps that was just the firelight. "Forgive me. I—"
"If you don't want to talk about it, then—" began Regal at the same time, but both stopped abruptly as they realized they were interrupting one another. There was a pause before their eyes met, and Raine's sparkled as she finally allowed herself to smile, though the expression shattered again before more than a few seconds had passed.
"I'm sorry," she said, pensive once more. "It's true, there's been… quite a lot on my mind since we last met."
Regal pressed his lips together at the mention of their last meeting, having kept his thoughts carefully contained until now. It had been at one of the Lezareno parties, which ordinarily weren't anything special. He had sent out the customary invitations to his friends as a formality, but only Raine had actually come, and that had made all the difference. For whatever reason, he had found himself scarcely able to take his eyes off her all evening.
Perhaps it was the tactful and informed way she had engaged Regal and his employees, with exactly the right balance of humor and thoughtfulness. Perhaps it was the fact that she had spontaneously stepped up to help him manage the proceedings. Perhaps it was because they had been alone, so to speak, rather than distracted by all their companions. Perhaps—though Regal did not like to admit this—it was the way she had looked in the little black dress that made them both so uncomfortable, reminding him that she was not only a friend and comrade, but a living, breathing woman with a body as well as a soul.
Ever since then, Raine had appeared in his mind's eye more and more often. He only wished he understood why.
She didn't remind him of Alicia, after all: Raine was neither soft-spoken nor subservient, but capricious. He supposed they were both beautiful, though in entirely different ways. Alicia's eyes were mild and sweet, like light blue wildflowers; Raine's darker gaze held wisdom and midnight mystery. Alicia's pink hair was short and girlish; Raine's was untidily silver. Alicia was petite and docile; Raine was taller, though still almost a foot shorter than Regal, and exuded a quiet power.
So why, if Alicia was utter perfection in his eyes, would such opposite features attract his attention?
"Now you're the preoccupied one," said Raine, not without humor in her voice, and took a sip of her tea, meeting Regal's eyes once more.
The corners of his mouth automatically tugged upwards, eager to prompt one more smile, and he was handsomely rewarded. "Yes, it would seem so," chuckled Regal, and set down his teacup and saucer.
There was a long silence, during which Regal wondered whether it would be too forward to ask what the matter was a second time. Eventually, he opened his mouth, finally daring to ask—but Raine spoke before he could. "Genis and Presea. They… it can't work."
Regal blinked, surprised. "I'm sorry?" Anyone who saw Genis and Presea together could hardly doubt the sincerity of their intentions towards one another, especially in the former's case.
"Now that time flows for her again, Genis will just leave her behind," continued Raine, distantly, as though Regal had not spoken, and her fingers traced her teacup restlessly in her lap. "He knows—I know—it will only end in heartbreak." The sound of Presea's tinkling laugh made its way into the room as if on cue, and Regal smiled contentedly, but the sound seemed to set Raine even more on edge.
Partially to defend Presea's relationship to Genis, and partially to alleviate Raine's fears, Regal began, "She's happiest when Genis is with her," but fell silent rather than continue as Raine glanced up at him.
"How can he still feel this way, knowing it will end so soon for him?" she murmured, as if to herself. "Even if she spends the rest of her life with him, that only gives them eighty years or so together, and he'll live for centuries afterwards." Raine glanced briefly at Regal before staring at the fire, leaning against the arm of her chair and resting her head on her hands. Sorrow filled her eyes like tears, and he longed to wipe it away somehow, but dared not break the spell that seemed to have settled over her. It felt almost as though he was observing a private conversation, one that he had no right to overhear.
There was a long and solemn silence before she breathed, so faintly that Regal could barely hear over the crackling flames, "We half-elves truly are wretched creatures."
Alarm jolted through Regal as he set down his teacup abruptly, unconsciously clinking it against the saucer too loudly and causing Raine to jump as he rose from his seat. "You say you and Genis cannot afford to live too much in the present, so you think only of the future, which makes the present meaningless. Acknowledge the future you know you cannot change, and enjoy the here and now, which you can."
Regal realized that his fists were clenched with the passion of his argument, and made an effort to relax for Raine's sake; her eyes were wide and contained an expression closer to fear than any he had seen since their journey. However, Raine soon extinguished that spark of wariness and rose elegantly from her position on the armchair, meeting his eyes with a burning gaze. "And living in the past doesn't do anyone any good, either. Acknowledge the past which you've already had, and enjoy the present which you have now."
Raine's words felt almost like a physical blow, and Regal flinched as they hit their mark. Alicia. Even as the name crossed his mind, Raine seemed to understand the magnitude of her words, and shook her head frantically. "I—I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said—"
"You're right," said Regal, accidentally cutting her off, and took a tentative step forward. "Both of us live too much in a time not our own. We could learn a thing or two from them," he added, indicating the ray of light and laughter from the next room, and Raine smiled faintly. As if the sentiment had summoned the music, Presea began playing the piano again—this time a somewhat clumsy waltz. Regal smiled; that had been the piece she had been practicing of late. She never let him hear her practice if she could help it. Genis must be very special to her, if she's playing it for him before she's mastered it.
"Learn from Genis and Presea?" asked Raine, setting down her teacup delicately, and Regal couldn't help but smile uncertainly down at her. "By gallivanting off to have ourselves a carefree little romance? That doesn't seem like us. You live with Alicia's ghost, and I with no one at all." There was something of a curious challenge to her voice, perhaps subconscious, but Regal knew exactly what that dare was. He had never thought that something this painful, between joy and guilt, could thrill through him at the thought of something as simple as a dance.
Bowing his head in thought, he instinctively placing his hands where they had once been bound for sixteen years. The spirit of Alicia hovered before him, reaching as high as she could to brush his cheek—as she did so often in their stolen moments, years and years ago. Before he could so much as whisper her name, however, her presence faded reassuringly into the sound of her sister's imperfect waltz and Genis's appreciative laughter… and the shine of the firelight in Raine's eyes.
Understanding Alicia's verdict, and taking it as his own with a sense of calm and unexpected acceptance, Regal extended his hand haltingly in the unspoken offer of a dance.
Raine took it cautiously, with a small but brilliant smile. "A dance, or something more?" But she did not wait for an answer, allowing Regal to draw her closer and brush his hand down her back. He halted just before he reached her waist, lest she misinterpret his intentions, but even the fact that she did not stop him immediately told him all he needed to know.
Regal was hardly inclined to ask about her past as they danced, slowly and evenly, but it was clear from her tone of voice that something like this had happened before with much more than a mere dance exchanged. (The story of Raine's reluctance to approach the Unicorn had reached his ears, after all.) "A dance," said Regal lightly, twirling Raine once, and smiled at her giddy expression. "A dance… and a promise."
"A promise?" asked Raine, clearly surprised, and looked up to search Regal's expression. It was the first time she had looked him full in the face since her challenge, only now, her countenance was much gentler. "I assume you mean to say you won't live in the past so much anymore." Regal nodded smilingly as they revolved. "Then allow me to make you a promise in return. I won't think too much about the future." She hesitated, closing her eyes. "Not for as long as you're a part of it."
Regal chuckled, leading another spin. "One part or another," he murmured, still unsure of his final decision, though felt himself falling more and more each moment: his hands tingled where they touched hers. "A dance and a promise. That's all."
Presea's waltz halted abruptly mid-step, followed by a quiet and unintelligible comment from Genis. As they stopped moving together as if in a daze, Regal discovered that his hand had found its way automatically to Raine's waist during the dance, despite its initial reluctance. With this discovery, he became suddenly and painfully aware of their proximity. Her body was just close enough to his that he could practically feel their hearts throbbing together in a frantic beat, unmatched by any song Presea could play.
Clearing his throat, Regal released Raine's waist and hand and stepped away from her, but she continued to study his face mildly from that distance. It seemed almost as though she was turning over each of his numerous flaws in the open, and Regal was the one who could not meet her eyes this time. He settled on staring into the flames, wondering where this new path would lead, and how quickly.
"Let's go for a walk," said Raine softly, after a long pause, and glanced wistfully out the window into the rainy darkness; the city, every light lit, glittered in the distance. Regal smiled a little to think of the way her eyes lit up at the prospects of walking with her name falling all around, and dipped his head, offering his arm to the woman at his side.
Here I am in the here and now, and this is my choice.
Some said the city's ordinarily jubilant nightlife was exceeded by none, but one wouldn't have known it from the way it looked now. A soft and soothing mist drifted down from the clouds, and only a few people were out on the streets, mostly hurrying from one building to another in an effort to avoid the rain. Regal and Raine, however, walked at a calm and deliberate pace, ignoring the cool drizzle falling from the clouds—feeling warm and dry in one another's company.
Keeping a gentle hand on the crook of his elbow as they took their stroll, Raine chanced a glance up at Regal, all her past bravery gone. Now, he seemed quite as brilliant as the lights of the city surrounding them, and it was difficult to look at the man she adored. He walked with as much authority as usual, yet his ordinarily solemn expression was one of serene joy.
Regal evidently sensed her eyes on him and turned his towards her, pausing a moment to smile at her. He really had a wonderful smile, reflected Raine as she returned it happily. It was a pity he seemed to find so little reason to do so whenever she saw him.
"You're blushing," observed Regal, sounding something between curious, apologetic, and amused, and turned toward her uncertainly. After glancing up, surprised at his remark, Raine turned her gaze aside self-consciously. However, she was stirred out of her embarrassment as his hand caressed her cheek gently.
She froze, a chill running through her that had nothing to do with the rain, and dared to look up once more. He gazed down at her with such politely tentative affection that she could hardly speak, though managed a single, feeble reminder. "Only a dance and a promise. You said…"
Regal smiled respectfully and dropped his hand back to his side, but Raine longed to seize it again and bring it back. "A dance and a promise," he agreed, meeting her eyes. "And yet, we never sealed our understanding." There was a deferential suggestion in his words, one that asked permission, begged her pardon, and apologized all in a few inflections.
Raine smiled spasmodically, remembering the roughness of friction against walls and floors—and the rippling gratification that followed—and bowed her head ever so slightly in recognition of a drastic shift in courtship from her past lovers. She could expect no such impulsive passion from Regal, nor would she want to. This was entirely her decision, and he would respect whatever choice she made.
The lights of Altamira glistened in the puddles on the slick black street as Raine glanced up once more with renewed determination. Regal was waiting patiently, though worry flickered faintly in his eyes. "A dance, a promise… and a kiss. We have an accord."
Regal's countenance softened into something very like affection, and he bent down without further ado, Raine standing childishly on her tiptoes to help close the distance. As their lips met, Raine swayed a little, but smiled into their kiss: Regal's arm was curled gently around her waist to keep her securely in place.