"What is this? Are my eyes deceiving me? Or are you reading, Ragna?" Rachel whispered underneath her breath.

She was a few feet away from the Grim Reaper. She saw him casually just sitting in an alleyway, against the wall, reading a book. She knew him to be a dimwit. She knew him to be not so very intelligent. So what could have possessed him to be indulging in such an intellectual task such as reading? She must know.

She promptly walked across the street, and on her way to Ragna. That unpredictable and brash manner of his was something that she secretly admired in him. Though she was loathed to admit it.

Once she was within talking distance, she raised her voice to talk to him. "Oh, Ragna… What is this I am seeing?"

"Eh? W-WHA-?! RABBIT?!"

Ragna quickly scrambled to his feet and hid the book behind him. "U-Uh! H-Hey th-there, Rachel! Uh…so, uh… How a-are ya tonight? You look…pretty. Ha…ha…"

Her face tightened at that asinine attempt to complement her. "I see right through your guise, Ragna. I saw you from the other side of the street indulging in reading. You were never one for such an activity. In fact, I will say for this one time that I'm actually impressed with you. How long have you been reading, Ragna?"

Ragna, keeping one hand behind his back to hold the book without dropping it, scratched his chin and thought up an answer. "I dunno. About a week ago?"

Rachel's eyebrows rose in suspicion. He was lying. She knew it. "Hmph. I don't approve of that answer as I'm certain you're trying to deceive me. Please, if you'd simply tell me the truth, you will avoid lighting crashing down on that hollow skull of yours that doesn't contain a brain."

"Yeesh… That one was low, even for you, Rabbit. Look, let's just say I haven't been reading long and leave it at that, okay? I didn't even know it was your nightly Ragna-checkup, or I woulda been more prepared!"

Those eyebrows of Rachel remained risen. "Your response only made me more suspicious, Ragna. Please tell me the truth. You usually don't make an effort to prepare for when I appear. What possible incentive did you have to make you want to prepare for a sudden appearance? And also, why do you have that book behind your back?"

Ragna growled at her. "How's this for a response? Kiss my ass, rabbit!"

"Really? That's all you have?"

Zap!

"Guwaaahhh!"

Ragna collapsed on the ground after being struck by a lightning bolt from Rachel. The book was lying near his burnt body, completely vulnerable and up for grabs. Casually and slowly, Rachel retrieve the book that he was reading and found the title of it.

"Talking and Reading for Dummies."

Her pupils shrunk at the dubious title. "Ragna…you…"

Ragna growled and quickly recovered to his feet. Then, he snagged the book from her hands. "Gah! Are you happy, now? I was reading a book on English!"

"I suppose I should be thankful it was at least nothing salacious…" Rachel cleared her throat. "Ragna… This book…"

He rolled his eyes, "Here we go…"

"…is designed for growing infants."

Ragna scowled at her. "I KNOW, RABBIT! Why do you need to tell me?!"

Rachel pointed at a phrase in the book. It was the title of chapter one. It said, "Nouns for Newbies."

Ragna groaned.

"This is honestly where you thought your starting point should be?" The blonde vampire smirked at him. "You have a lot of explaining to do." She giggled after making that statement.

He rolled his eyes before replying. "Look, I was thinking that since your birthday is coming up soon, that I was going to learn how to talk all nice and fancy like you did. I thought that since I don't know what to give you for a gift, I was going to make one by making myself learn all that basic English-crap, and then move on to some more advanced stuff to finally learn how to say all those fancy words that I can't understand. You happy? You're always saying how I sound like a dog barking and how I don't know how to address a lady. So I thought that this way, I was going to get you off my ass about my English if I learned how to speak like you."

She blinked twice in response to that. He was thinking of her when he was trying to brush up on his English skills? It was a rather…noble of him. She couldn't help but smile at Ragna. Not a smirk, but sincerity, as if she has real pride in him. "Ragna…it's okay."

"Ha, ha… Wait, what? What do you mean it's okay?" Ragna asked, all confused.

She looked straight into his eyes with the softness that also reflected her voice. "Ragna, you don't have to force yourself to change into someone you're not. In fact, you did accomplish your goal. You've impressed me."

Still feeling confused, he asked, "Wait... How? I didn't even get through this book."

Rachel giggled, then continued, "Ragna, you were thinking about me. That's something that's gift enough to me for my birthday. You heard the expression before, did you not? Well, in case you haven't, let me tell you, it's the thought that counts. You clearly have better things to be doing but for you to be thinking of me as you were trying to learn English is…"

Ragna titled his head to one side, still feeling confused, "Uh, Rachel? You're kinda trailing off there."

She gasped, "Oh, was I? Oh, pardon me. Well anyway, I'll tell you right this instant to stop what you're doing. It's unnecessary. You've already done enough." She gave a smile to Ragna.

His eyes widened at her smile. He admitted in his mind that she looked rather cute that way. He let out a nervous chuckle. "Gee! Uh…thanks, rabbit!"

"Hmm… If you really would like to do something for me, however, why not have a night of tea with me?" She asked him, still smiling.

"Ugh. Can you also not be on my ass about table manners and all that crap, too?" Ragna asked as he rolled his eyes.

Rachel giggled at him. "You ask the impossible!"