**UPDATE** March 9 2013:
I've put a poll up on my profile page. I'm hoping you'll please tell me how YOU decide on what stories to read. Results will be viewable (except for any PMs I receive) once I close it. I will also make a special announcement about future plans on my profile at that time.
A/N: So here's that last Femslash February entry (for this year, anyway :P).
It happens any time after chapter 186 (which one character will remember lines from).
"Fo!" A familiar concerned voice startles the Guardian Deity awake late in the morning.
So much for sleeping in today…
"What is it, Baka-Bak?" Voice heavy with sleep, she emerges through the wall of her sanctuary stretching her arms; yawning, irritable, but otherwise resplendent. (Of course.)
"Nothing huge. You've just been kinda… sorta… asleep… a lot, lately?" Up talk. He's up-talking like a wishy-washy sissy. "Some of us were getting a little concerned…"
"I need my beauty rest, Baka-Bak," she smugly assures.
"Ohhh I see," Bak nods sagely.
No you don't, idiot.
Fo watches, amused, as the concept Bak is supposed to have already digested only hits him a moment later: "Hey, wait a minute, no you don't!"
She rolls her eyes while he looks to the side, apparently ordering his thoughts. For such a supposedly smart guy, he's way too easy to mess with, she thinks.
"Are you saying I'm beautiful enough as I am, Baka-Bak?" she presses hopefully, while also squeezing his cheeks and stretching them back and forth in time with his name.
Just because she can.
"Ahm shaying uuu— Leh go!" He croaks, breaking free from the grasp of her pincer attack. Response time? Ten seconds. Fo thinks he can definitely do better than that.
"You were saying, Bak?" Dropping the 'Baka' signals she's ready to get serious.
"Are you sure you're okay? That's all I really wanted to know."
"I'm quite fine, Bak. Are you sure you're okay?"
Okay, well, almost serious.
"I just wanted to check, because I thought it was unusual for you to take time to 'recharge' for so long during the day when you usually sleep at night like the rest of us. We can always recheck your spirit calibration to branch systems and the loca—"
"No, I'm good, really. I've just been 'up' a little late the last few nights. Just some… new 'security measures' I'm trying out. That's all."
"Don't push yourself too hard. Sometimes I think you blame yourself too much for that akuma bursting its way in, back when Allen Walker was training here."
"Well, I am partially at fault for—"
"That system hack and physical intrusion was beyond anything we'd ever prepared for. And that akuma's— Thread's— power was unique. Level Three, but possessing one of the most dangerous attacks I've ever heard of from an akuma. If it was just a regular shooting or mêlée type, we wouldn't have had anything to worry about."
"We were lucky, Bak. Allen… revealed that disaster to be a blessing in disguise."
"'Yes, it was good that Allen could take care of the akuma. Especially since it was sent after him. But you know we've realized since then that we hadn't given you enough to work with. Security systems— you— have been bolstered heavily now. The Earl and the Noah won't be able to pull a stunt like that again so easily. So." He gasps. After running off his mouth for a while like the idiot he is, he finally takes a huge breath here; "Don't. Push. Yourself. Fo."
How, Fo wonders, can a silly man like Bak sound so goddamn authoritative at these times? With that sappy smile on his face, and those nice guy-eyes and… Damnit.
"I know that already, Baka-Bak!"
She retreats suddenly into the wall— only because she's fed up with that moron's foolishness! Not because he was making her emotional or some sappy crap like that…
…Damnit…
oOoOo
"You look better today, Rohfa!" Rikei observes, pleased his colleague is inching back toward being her usual chipper self.
"Much better," Shifu agrees.
Rohfa smiles— she's almost glowing, even. Maybe it's safe to try—
"Been dreaming of—" Allen Walker? No, abort mission. "Never mind."
"Huh?" She puts down her chopsticks, eyeing him quizzically through her glasses.
Damn! She's going to get skeptical if he doesn't say something fast!
'What do you think you're doing, Rikei?' He recalls Shifu's voice from some time ago.
Shifu has caught on, Rikei thinks, judging by his raised eyebrows. He's thankful sometimes for how quick their Korean friend is on the uptake: "Oh he wonders if you were really looking forward to your lunch there. The umm… the steamed dumplings. Right, Rikei?"
"R-right! That's all!" He laughs awkwardly.
'I think you'd better apologize, Rikei. You can't go around making girls cry.' Allen Walker also scolded him, that day. But Lenalee Lee visited too, so it wasn't so bad—
"Oh really? Well, sure, I guess. Why not just ask though, Rikei?"
Oh crap. "Uh… Hahaha… it's embarrassing."
"Embarrassing? Why?"
Why does she have to be so inquisitive!
"He's being such a kid, you know. Wondering about 'comfort food' like dumplings. Next, I imagine he'll ask if you're relieved to be able to speak Chinese again since we returned to the Asian Branch, or if you prefer the beds here or at the European Branch, or—"
"Oh here, definitely." She answers automatically, snatching a dumpling from her bowl.
Score! Thanks, Shifu. You got her off my case. I so owe you, man.
"Why here? You answered so fast. Now I'm curious."
"Yeah." Shifu's got a point. "Call me childish again, but I wanna know too."
"Oh, just…" That was an ungraceful swallow of the food in her mouth. Is she blushing about where she likes to sleep? "It's um… I…"
Wow, she's really flustered—
"FO! WHAT DID I TELL YOU ABOUT IMPERSONATING LENALEE LEE!"
The strained voice of the Branch Head 'booms' in the distance.
"Um…"
"Bak-sama, you are mistaken, this is actually Miss Lee herself."
"Oh my GOD! I'm so sorry, I— Oh my God…"
Rikei just about blows his top at the implications of what he hears from those voices' owners, who are now entering the lunchroom.
Does that mean Lenalee Lee's really here at the Asian Branch again? And Branch Head Bak's even just humiliated himself in front of her?
…
This is my chance!
"Mr. Chang, um, are you okay? Are those hives…?"
"Bak-sama needs to rest, Miss Lee. It is regrettable and it pains me to ask, but please be seated here in our cafeteria, and I shall return as soon as I am able to retrieve you. I'm sure he'll want to apologize properly, you see—"
"O-okay…"
As a near-apoplectic Bak Chang is escorted out of the dining area to receive medical attention, Rikei sees a fabulous opportunity. He won't miss his chance to seize it.
xXxXx
"Welcome back, Rohfa!" When the science department intern finally retires to her bedroom to rest that night— sighing unrestrainedly— Allen Walker is already there waiting, suited up in his dapper Exorcist uniform; a huge grin on his face. "Long day?"
"Thank you… Walker-san. No more than usual, I guess. Something just… threw me off… earlier today." She smooths down her nightgown nervously.
"Care to talk about it at all?"
"Well… no, it's okay."
"You're sure?"
"Yeah'm sure."
"How about something else, then? Oh I know! Remember the time when—"
"I'm sorry," she sighs again. Rohfa's mindful of how she's acting toward her 'guest,' but there is a terrible guilt weighing on her shoulders and she's never been great at hiding her emotions. "I think I'm just going to lie down and go right to bed. Thanks for coming though. It means a lot to me that you—"
"How about I hold your hand while you're falling asleep! That always makes you feel better, doesn't it? I can tell you're upset, you know."
"Umm. Okay. I'll… try… that…"
She hates how uncertain she sounds. The concern shows on Walker-san's face as he stands back to watch her climb into bed. Her apprehensive behaviour is becoming a cause of worry, and that's not what she wanted. Not at all. Maybe, she thinks, she should think about putting an end to these visits. Starting tomorrow, maybe. Or maybe next week, or—
No, she decides. I have to end this now. Right now.
"All comfy, then? Let me know when you're ready."
"F-Fo. It's alright. I don't think I should ask this of you anymore."
"What do you mean?" Allen Walker asks conversationally.
"I know it was your idea in the first place, and I appreciate it so much, having you watch over me like this. But I can't stand doing this anymore. Sure, Walker-san is really hot, and a dashing Exorcist and all, and I've probably got to be mad not to take every chance I've got to ogle him, but that doesn't mean I should be roping you into this."
"Oh no, it's quite alright—"
"No, I definitely don't want a fake Allen Walker in here anymore— n-not that you don't do a good impression though," she adds hastily. "There were many times over the last few weeks that I thought you were really him… But I guess what I really mean to say is that it's not right for me to make you do this. To pretend you're someone you're not for me."
I'm asking you to deny yourself and be something you're not. I haven't seen you show it, but you're a much better actor than me, Fo. I think maybe it might hurt you a little bit that I've had you doing more and more over the last few weeks…
"I don't mind, you know. Really I don't, I—"
"You don't have to talk like him anymore you know," Rohfa giggles despite herself.
"You sure?" 'Walker-san' says in Fo's voice.
"Yeah." The melancholy returns to her face and voice again in full force, and she knows it shows by the look on 'Walker-san's' face. "I'm sure I don't need 'him' here any longer."
Allen Walker's appearance blinks out and Fo comes into view in front of her eyes. "So ya really want me to just leave? Because I'll go, if that's what you really want…"
"No! Don't go yet, Fo. I want you to stay. I mean, you don't have to stay but if you'd like to, if it's okay with you… I… I don't want to 'force' you."
"Huh?" Rohfa is truly amazed at what looks like an expression of genuine confusion on poor Fo's face. "I don't get it."
"Umm. Do you think you could stay a little longer? Just until I fall asleep?" After a moment, she adds for good measure: "As you?"
"You want me here?"
"If… only if you don't mind. I really don't want you to have to stay if it bothers you. And—"
"Sure, why not?" Fo throws her arms up breezily. "I've got nothing better to do."
Was that sarcasm? "Shouldn't you be sleeping in your—"
"I can sleep later. It's what I've been doing lately, anyway," she shrugs.
"And um… you don't— it's not— um…"
"If you can't sleep without me here, then who am I to deny you~?" she teases, sounding bored. "Or maybe you've got plans to sneak Shifu or Rikei up in here~"
"WHAT?!"
"Haha! Now that's the spirit," she laughs.
A spirit looking for the 'spirit' in me, huh?
"Ah ha, well at least you're smiling a little." Fo's grin makes Rohfa's smile grow wider.
"Well really, I—" And now her smile falters again. She wants Fo to do as she pleases, but she's doing a terrible job of trying to convey that to the Guardian Deity herself.
"It's OKAY, Rohfa," Fo assures in the most authentic, gentle and persuasive voice she's ever heard from her. "I want everyone in this place to feel safe. And YOU! I've… been worried for you, damnit."
"You have?"
"What kind of security am I providing all of you, if there are people are so scared they're missing sleep to nightmares?"
"I've burdened you—"
"No you haven't, science girl. You've helped me realize things. Important things. I've been here a long time, but I've hardly thought of my job as being much more than keeping the wrong ones out, the right ones in, and eliminating any threats from within. But you, you showed me there's more to it than that. You've made me want to create a sense of security. For everyone here. That was you who did that…"
"Fo, I'm so sorry—"
"You sure you're not a Chang? Not related to Bak in any way? At all? 'Cause for such a smart girl normally, you're developing an idiot streak all of a sudden."
"Hey!"
Fo slaps a hand to her forehead. "You've got nothing to apologize for, stupid."
"Oh," Rohfa sinks under her covers a bit, embarrassed. "So then um…"
"Answer honestly: you want me to stay, or not?"
She's not doing very well with words now, so Rohfa pushes back the covers and decides to try something else.
Fo must have caught the change in the air as she tilts her head questioningly.
Steeling herself, Rohfa steps out of bed, takes a couple of barefoot steps toward Fo, and slowly wraps her arms around the spirit's midsection. "Thank you, Fo. Can you stay?"
"Want me to hold your hand like before? I still won't tell anyone."
"W-well if it's okay with you, do you think you could lie in bed with me for a while, just to— and just stay near until I fall asleep?"
Fo nods assent, not a trace of mockery in her demeanour.
Rohfa knows immediately that she'll sleep better than she has in weeks.
End.
A/N: Did you guess which lines were from chapter 186? I bet you could tell. It's Rikei's remembrance of Shifu saying "What do you think you're doing, Rikei?" (reminds me of "What are you doing, Dave...?" lol...) and Allen's "I think you'd better apologize, Rikei. You can't go around making girls cry." Because Allen's such a gentleman and all, right? Pfft. I used the version on Mangareader. (Odd. I couldn't find an original group's watermark on it, just now!)