New Recruits

Hi. Welcome to the next instalment of the shoujo-ai chain. For those who don't know what shoujo-ai is, here is a simple equation to remember.

Shoujo-aifemale/female

So, if you're uncomfortable with that, leave now. Go read some other story to your liking. Anyways, to all those who do, enjoy. Let the story commence!

Disclaimer – I own Rayne, Lizzie, Trip, Felix, and the 2 known as Riles, and Yuki. Xenolord owns Maria Despair, Natalya Despair, and Serras. Otherwise, none of the characters belong to me or him.

It was that time of year again. Every year, at this time, there were more new people joining the orders. And not just one class had this problem, all of them did. Dragonslayer, Knight, Ninja…you name it. Even the guardians had more people coming than usual.

And it was also the time of year when the people already having been in the orders for a while had their patience tested. They knew when they saw the first wave of unfamiliar faces that they would have to put up with braggarts and brats, and all sorts of people for months.

It was even worse for some of the heads. And when I say some, I mean that some heads are lucky enough to leave the new recruits to their second-in-commands, or whoever else they could get for the job. These whoever-else's, being Rayne Anasi, the commander of the Pria knights, and Maria Despair, a particularly well-known guardian. They had been forced to do it by the leaders, Tathlin, and Artix (who had received another kick from Lizzie).

No matter how angry or upset these two got about it, they knew they had to. For the sake of Lore, for the sake of all the innocents, for the sake of all their friends, and especially for the sake of the large bonus that they got. So, they stuck to it. At least they had the sympathy of the other heads, especially Aria, Valencia, and Robina. But, sometimes there are recruits who, instead of being interested in the technique, are more interested in the person teaching the technique, as these two and a certain Ranger and Beastmaster are about to find out…

"Rayne! Maria!" The knight and the guardian turned to look. Tathlin and Artix were standing behind them, grinning sheepishly. "Dear god." They groaned in unison. "Please don't tell me there's more!"

Tathlin shook his head. "No, there's just two this time. One's a knight who just got back from her quest and the others a guardian who just got accepted. We want you to meet them separately." He smiled apologetically, and pointed to a corridor (they were inside Castle Rendd). The two looked at each other and sighed. With a salute to both heads, they headed down the corridor.

Once they were sure they were out of earshot, Rayne spoke up. "Pretty much ruins the sparring match, don't it?" Maria laughed quietly. "Yup. Let's hope that these recruits aren't as bad as the others."

Rayne nodded. "There was this one recruit, that when he saw who was teaching him the basics, just grabbed my collar, and said, and I quote 'get on out of here ya little brat, and get the real commander. I'm sure he won't mind if you tell him now that you were playing around.'" Maria tsked, and shook her head. It was like that for both of them. Because of their age, and because of the fact that they were females, people underestimated them, especially Rayne. But then again, that under-estimation caused those who challenged them to their doom.

"Well, by then he was laughing, and it looked like he was the only one who didn't know that I actually am the commander. So, I had to 'show' him. He should be discharged from the infirmary in a few weeks." The two laughed for a few moments, before reaching a split down the corridor. Rayne and Maria turned to face each other, shook hands, and wished each other good luck.

They didn't know how much they would need it.

Rayne's Meeting

Rayne opened the door slowly, to see a girl with sandy blonde hair sitting in a chair in the middle of the room. She had light brown eyes, and Rayne could tell that she was about the same height as Lizzie and Trip. The girl hadn't noticed that someone else had entered the room. Rayne walked over to her, placed her own hands behind her back, and gave the opening speech.

"Hello." The blonde girl finally noticed Rayne. "My name is Rayne Anasi; I'm the commander of the Pria Knights. I'm also sometime referred as The Dark Angel. You can call me by my name, or commander. Could you tell me your name?"

The blonde girl looked at her, and cleared her throat. "I'm Riles." She said, smiling at Rayne. "Well then Riles, starting tomorrow, I will train you and the other new recruits in the art of being a knight, in combat, etiquette, and chivalry." Rayne smiled back at her.

"This will continue, until you are ready for your second round in the arena. By then, you wont need my help anymore, and will be expected to be able to hold your own ground. When the time calls for it though, I will probably be leading you and the others into battle. If you already haven't bought some, you can buy armour from Sir Tathlin. Then, you should go to the weaponries and get yourself a standard Blade of Rendd. Breakfast will be at 7 tomorrow, and training will be at eight, and continue until lunch. After lunch, training will start again until 2. After that, you are free to do whatever you want. Dinner will be at 6. You will sleep in the west wing of the castle. It's sectioned off into different parts for each rank. It's quite comfortable. I hope you will be happy here. Now then, do you have any questions?"

Riles, who was hanging onto every word, cleared her throat once again. "Well, commander, it's not as much as a question, but a comment." Rayne gave her a reassuring smile. "Don't worry; you can say anything to me." Riles smiled and nodded. "Well then commander…"

With amazing speed, Riles rand forward and pressed herself against Rayne. "You know, you're really cute." Riles giggled, stared amorously into Rayne's chocolate-amethyst eyes, and started drawing circles on the customized armour of the blushing and stuttering Rayne.

'When I said she could say anything, this is NOT what I meant.' Rayne closed her eyes, and groaned inwardly. 'How do I get myself into these things?'

Maria's meeting

Maria opened up the door to the room. A female, about a year or three younger than her with blue hair and glasses, was sitting on a chair, exactly like Riles. She also didn't seem to notice that someone else was in the room.

Maria walked over to her and cleared her throat. The girl almost jumped out of her chair in surprise. Maria gave a small chuckle.

"Don't worry, I won't hurt you. Well, not unless you give me a reason to. Anyways, I'm Maria Despair. I'll be giving you and the other new guardians some combat and manner lessons. What's your name?"

"I'm Yuki." Maria nodded, and continued on with the speech. "Well then, as a guardian, it is now your duty to protect the innocent, your duty to stand up for those who need to be stood up for and… damn, what was the rest?" Maria reached into her armour and brought out a stack of cue cards.

"Anyways, your duty to stand up for those who need to be stood up for, and it is your duty to eat fried chicken whenever it is available.." Maria smiled, and then quickly frowned. "Wait that's not right…damned Serras…" Yuki laughed silently at the cursing Maria. "Right then, here it is… and to fight injustices everywhere."

"Starting tomorrow, you will need to get up at 6, breakfast is at 7, and…" Maria trailed off, looking deep in thought. "I forget." Yuki sweatdropped, but kept listening to Maria. "I think I have the schedule in here somewhere…" She reached into her armour a third time (yes, she can keep a lot of stuff in her armour) and pulled out a small scroll.

She handed it to Yuki, who looked at it hesitantly. Maria smiled at her. "Don't worry, I can get another one back at the tower. Speaking of the tower, you'll be sleeping in the female dormitories. It's separated into different levels. Now then, you got any questions?"

Yuki shook her head. "Well then, we'd best be off. Just follow me, I know a quick way we can get out of here." Yuki smiled and nodded. Before they left the room, Maria caught a glance from Yuki, which surprised her a lot. Yuki wasn't looking at her hatefully, or if she wanted, to kill her. In fact it was a look that Safiria gave her whenever they saw each other. Maria could tell what it was immediately.

Yuki was looking at her lovingly and adoringly. It seemed that Yuki had a huge crush on Maria Despair, albeit knowing her for about 20 minutes. 'This. Is. Not. Good.' Maria thought, wincing slightly.

"Rayne!" Rayne whipped her head around as she heard her name being called for the second time that day. Maria was running up to her with Yuki in tow. "Yeah Maria?"

"I need you to open up a portal back to the guardian tower." Maria noticed the blonde girl beside Rayne. "Who's this?" Rayne glanced at Riles "This is Riles. Who's that?" Maria did the same with Yuki.

"Before you go Maria…" Rayne walked over to Maria, and motioned for her to lean down. "I need you to get everyone to meet us tonight. You and I both know we've got some trouble with the new recruits. Don't worry about Lizzie following us; she's off on a quest." Maria nodded, and stood up straight once again.

"Well then." Rayne snapped her fingers, and to Yuki's and Riles' surprise, a circle of white energy appeared. "Later Rayne!" Maria grinned, flashed the peace sign, and leapt through the portal. Yuki stared at the portal, shook her head, and walked through it passively.

Rayne laughed well naturedly. Riles turned to look at her. "Is she a friend of yours?" Rayne met Riles' gaze. "Yeah. I've known her for a bit, now. She's a really nice person." Riles gave Rayne a small smile. "Is she your best friend?" Rayne gave her a questioning look. "I guess you could call her that. But she's not my best, best friend. Um, I think you could call her my third best friend." (I've got more than one best friend.)

Riles' looked at her, obviously confused. "But then who's your first and second best friend?" Rayne smiled at her. "You'll meet them soon enough." Riles nodded, and smiled back at Rayne.

"Now then…" She said, and turned back to the way she was facing before "I'll show you around." Riles latched onto Rayne's arm, giggling madly. "Mmm-kay then." Rayne started blushing again, and sighed. 'I hope this doesn't get any more serious.'

That night, at the pet shop…

Natalya, Robina, Valencia, Trip, and Aria herself were assembled in the pet shop in front of Rayne and Maria. "So what is it you wanted to tell us?" Trip asked, snuggled up to Aria. Robina nodded as attentively as she could, although she was being distracted by Valencia.

"Well…" Rayne leaned down, handed Maria what looked like a few sheets of bristle board and a stand, and came back up with a Rendd Siege Helmet, and a collapsible metal pointer. No one noticed Trip shudder when she saw it.

"Now we've called you here this night, because we've got a little problem." Rayne said, using her tactician/commanding voice. "Well, two problems actually. Those two problems would be…"

Maria pulled the stand towards her, put a sheet of the bristle board on it and blocked it from view. "The new recruits." Rayne finished her sentence ominously. "There are 2 new ones; ones a knight and the others a guardian." Maria moved out of the way to show a page labelled The New Recruits with bolded, very large print.

Rayne took the pointer out and set it on a nearby table. Maria took the board and replaced it for another one with a chibi-fied sketch of Yuki on it. Rayne cleared her throat, picked up the pointer, and whapped it against the sketch. "This one is Yuki. Age: 16. Blue haired, wears glasses. Is generally quiet. She's the new guardian."

"She's hot." Natalya commented suddenly. Everyone stared at her. Maria took the pointer from Rayne's hands and whapped her over the head with it. "What? Can't I say that without everyone thinking I'm a lecher?" Natalya whined, rubbing her head vigorously.

Rayne gave Maria her famous icy glare. "No one touches my pointer." She growled. Maria eeped and handed back the pointer immediately.

Rayne coughed, and stood straight once again. Maria (staying far away from the range of the pointer) picked up the sheet and replaced it again. "Next we have Riles." Rayne whapped her pointer against the sheet yet again, which now had a chibi-fied sketch of Riles. "Riles is the new knight. Age: 13, Sandy blonde hair and light brown eyes, like here in the sketch." Rayne, who had her eyes closed while speaking, opened them and stared at the sketch. "Who drew these anyways?" Maria grinned cheerfully and waved her hand in the air. "I see." Rayne said, eyeing the unusually hyper-active guardian.

"Well, what's the problem with them?" Robina asked, finally able to tear herself away from a disappointed Valencia.

"Well…" Rayne said, scratching her head awkwardly "Yuki and Riles have got the hots for me and Rayne." Maria said flatly. Rayne nodded, and started laughing nervously.

"Well, that is a problem." Valencia said thoughtfully, after getting over her disappointment by a kiss from Robina.

"What should we do?!" Rayne and Maria yelled out, looking panicked.

"That's a good question." Aria said, tapping her chin. "You could use them to have wild, passionate –"Natalya's sentence was cut off as Rayne whapped her hard on the head. "Do you really want to finish that sentence?" She asked her, her own eye twitching, obviously annoyed.

Natalya whimpered, and shook her head. Rayne and Maria nodded, and looked back to the rest of them. "Any other suggestions?"

"Feed them to wild zards? Trip piped up cheerfully. Everyone stared at her. "Never mind." She said quickly, and returned to cuddling up to Aria. "We could try to get them with a guy." Robina offered. The room was silent for a minute. "Nah." Everyone said, shaking their heads.

"I've got an idea!" Felix popped up out of nowhere, hanging upside-down from one of the ceiling beams in Aria's shops. Everyone jumped back, surprised. "Where'd you come from?" Rayne asked her long time friend, craning an eyebrow at her.

"That's for me to know, and for you to find out." She replied, winking at them mischievously. "She's been living in the loft, helping me out with the animals." Aria told them flatly. Felix sighed, and unfurled her tail from around the beam to jump down from the ceiling.

"Well, what's your idea?" Maria asked her after her heart rate had slowed to normal.

Felix smiled cheerfully, and twitched her ears. "Simple. We use the partner factor!" Valencia blinked. "What's the partner factor?"

Felix grinned. "I was hoping you would ask that." She took the sketch of Riles off the stand, pulled a number of bristle-board sheets from her back, and placed one labelled 'the partner factor' on the stand.

"The partner factor" She began, "Is one of the partners in a relationship." She pulled the sheet off, and replaced it with another one, with some crude stick drawings on it. "This is partner A." She circled one of the stick figures with her claw. "This is the foreigner." She pointed to another stick figure on the sheet. She pulled the sheet off, and replaced it with yet another.

"Now let's say the foreigner takes a liking to partner A, and decides to cozy up to them." The stick figure labelled foreigner was now in what seemed to be a hug with partner A. Felix took the paper again, and replaced it once more. "So, partner be has to come and defend what's theirs." The drawing now showed another stick figure labelled Partner B in front of Partner A, shooing away the foreigner. "Thus, ending the foreigner's pursuit of Partner A." Felix finished, her tail swishing happily. A series of realizing ahhs were heard around the room. "Cat girl is smarter than she looks." Trip said casually. "Thanks, I –HEY!" Felix scowled at Trip. Trip just laughed and waved her off.

"But wait," Rayne frowned, looking worried "What about me? I don't have a partner."

Felix looked at her, and cocked her head to the side. "What about Lizzie? Aren't you madly in love with her or something like that?" Rayne gaped at her, and started blushing. Everyone (except Valencia and Maria) although very, very surprised at Felix's comment, laughed at Rayne's reaction. "So, is it true Rayne?" Valencia gave her a teasing smirk. Rayne went even redder, and started stammering out. "Relax Rayne; take a deep breath."

Rayne took a deep breath, and sighed. "Yeah it's true." Valencia turned to her, and stared her in the eye. "So, can't you just tell her? That'll basically solve the problem." Rayne looked away. "I can't do that." She mumbled sadly. Valencia grabbed her, and forced her to look her in the eye. "And why's that?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't even know if she feels the same way; what if she doesn't? If I tell her, or friendship will be ruined." Rayne answered a sad look crossing upon her face.

"Good point" Felix nodded, a sagely look on her face. "But for Maria, you'll have to tell Safiria what's going on, and she'll help you out We'll think of something else for you Rayne, don't you worry. Well then, I call this meeting to an end!" With that, Felix jumped onto the raft, and into the loft, out of sight. Everyone rolled their eyes, and proceeded to head to back home.

The Next Day…

"Commander!" Riles yelled out, waving at Rayne. Rayne turned around and waved back weakly to her. As soon as Riles got within a metre of Rayne, she latched herself onto Rayne's arm and gave her a hug.

"I missed you commander" She whimpered, looking sadly at Rayne. Rayne sweatdropped; "Um, we saw each other yesterday, Riles."

Riles looked up at her. "But it felt like years!" Rayne smiled nervously "Alright then." She said, while trying to free her arm out of her grasp. Riles, sad face disappeared instantly, and she giggled and hugged Rayne's arm tighter to her. "But that's alright!" She cheered, and nuzzled her face into Rayne's shoulder. "I know a way that we can make up for it!"

"Y-you do?" Rayne replied, looking rather panicked. "H-how?"

"We can go out today!" she said, leaning in close to Rayne. "W-w-well, I d-don't know, I mean, I, ahh…' Rayne stammered out, by then looking flushed. 'What am I supposed to say?!' She yelled at herself mentally.

"I'm sorry, but she's taken." A familiar voice said. A red blur was seen, and Rayne was suddenly knocked from Riles' grasp and back a few feet. There, in Rayne's arms, being held bridal style was Lizzie.

What was even more surprising than the way Rayne was holding her, was the fact that Lizzie's lips were on Rayne's, locked in a kiss. Riles gaped at the two, obviously shocked. "Wh-who are you?"

Lizzie broke it off grinning at Rayne, who was smiling stupidly at her. "I'm Lizzie; I'm Rayne's best-best friend, and her girlfriend." Lizzie turned and winked at Riles, who sighed and walked off. 'Guess you can't win em all.' She thought.

Lizzie laughed. "That worked well, didn't it? She won't be trying to woo you again." Rayne, still smiling, shook it off. "How'd you know I wanted to get her to stop?" She asked her, looking at her confused. Lizzie laughed and gave Rayne a teasing smirk. "I overheard you guys through Aria's window last night. It sounded like you needed a hand." With that knowledge, Rayne's mind could only focus on one thing.

"How much did you hear last night?" She asked Lizzie, searching her green eyes thoroughly. "All of it." She said simply. "S-so you heard…" "Yeah." Lizzie cut in quietly. "So…"

Rayne was cut off yet again, as she found a certain redhead's lips on hers. "I love you too." Lizzie whispered, and wrapped her arms even tighter around Rayne's neck.

Riles sighed as she played with her straw. 'The good ones are always taken.' She thought wistfully, and sipped her juice. She was startled as she heard another sigh beside her. She looked up and saw Yuki. "Your crush got a girl already?" she asked, looking at her knowingly. Yuki sighed again and nodded. "Turns out Maria has got Safiria as her girlfriend." Riles blinked at her. "The vampire queen?" "The very one." "Ouch." Yuki nodded, and pulled her glasses off to polish them on her shirt. "Looks like were just two single girls." She said, and put her glasses back on to peer at a deep-in-thought Riles dejectedly.

"Well…" Riles said, and drummed her fingers on the table "It doesn't have to be that way ya know…" "Huh?" Yuki stared at Riles. "What do you mean by that?" "Well, we could…" Riled lifted her hands, and touched her two index fingers together. "What's that supposed to mean?" She asked her, staring at her fingers then at Riles.

Riles groaned, frustrated, looked around the inn. Once everything was clear, she grabbed Yuki's collar, leaned over the table, took her glasses, and gave her a kiss. Yuki, although very surprised, eventually relaxed against the other girl, who broke off the kiss a few seconds later.

"I just realized something." Riles said to Yuki. "What's that?" She asked, looking slightly dazed. "How cute the girl I like looks without her glasses." She said, and smiled at her. Yuki blushed slightly, and ducked her head down. "Although…I do love it when she has her glasses on. Makes her look dead smart." Riles grinned at her, and handed her back her glasses. Yuki took them from her, and put them back on.

"So, now do you get it?" Riles asked her, looking at her mischievously. Yuki nodded, and her bluish intensified. "So what do you say?" Yuki just chuckled, leaned in and whispered "How's this for an answer?" before initiating another kiss.

The End

Now, I said Rayne and Lizzie got together when they were 15, after a life-changing, near death experience. I can change my mind, can't I? Anyways, this was life changing anyways. Yuki n Riles got a happy ending, so yeah. Review, or don't review, that's your choice.