This is the first story I've written myself, so please be kind.

If I owned Dragon Knights Cesia would not exist and Rath would be with Rune, simple as that.

Summary: Rath is a college art student with considerable promise, promise that he doesn't see in himself. When he paints a portrait of Rune, it quickly becomes famous, but Rath wont sell it. Rune may have saved Rath from himself, but now Rath must save Rune from Nadil, who became obsessed with Rune when he saw Rath's painting.

Warnings: Gend-bending (yes, Rune is a girl), rape in later chapters, and possible character death.

Aphrodite's Innocence

Prologue

'No, no, it's all wrong!' He ripped the art from the walls. The art that had been his soul, that he had worked on for so long, it was all wrong! How could this happen? What had happened to all the beauty he had poured into them?

'That's right,' he whispered as he sunk to his knees. 'My paintings can't be beautiful. How can you paint beauty if you've never seen it, never care about? It's all just one huge waste. I should give up.'

Give up. That was something he always said he should do, but he never did. Sure, he would stop for a while, but then he would be inspired and start again. And then, this, he would realize just how horrible his so-called beauty really was.

'I don't know how much longer I can take this.'

Kai-stern waited until the noise had quieted down before he opened the door. He sighed as he saw the mess Rath had created. "I'll never understand why you do this, Rath," the albino said as he walked over to the boy, who was lying unconscious on the floor.

He picked up Rath and carried him to the young painter's room. "Well, at least you're getting some rest."

He turned to go and saw Cernozura standing in the doorway. She looked sadly at the sleeping boy before turning her gaze to Kai-stern. "If you wouldn't mind, Cernozura, his art room needs to be cleaned again."

The maid nodded. "Of course. I'll let Raseleane know. She'll want to look after him.

Kai-stern glance behind him at Rath. "He just exhausted himself again. I just wish I knew how we could help him."

"Don't worry," Cernozura said, smiling softly at him. "You'll figure it out."

The albino watched her go and then sighed. "I hope so," he whispered to himself.

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Rath sat on a bench next to his best friend Thatz. They still had an hour before their next class so they were just hanging around campus to kill time.

It had been a few weeks since Rath had destroyed all his work. The only things he had painted since then had been for class, but they had no spirit, no life.

"So, Gil was talking about your new assignment. Said he was going to use Bierrez as his model."

Rath snorted. "That's a shocker," he said sarcastically.

Gil was another art student who took class with Rath. He was dating Bierrez, who no one knew what he was majoring in. Thatz theorized that he had just picked random classes to annoy people, and Rath had to agree. Bierrez seemed to appear just about everywhere.

Thatz just rolled his eyes. "Do you know who you're using as a model yet?"

"Nope."

"Well, if you can't find anyone, you can always use me!"

Rath just raised an eyebrow at him. He was about to say something when he saw something that caught his eye. "Who is that?" Rath asked, pointing to a blonde with blue eyes. She was talking to Tintlet, another student in Rath's art class.

"Hm?" Thatz turned to look behind him. "Oh, that's Rune, Tintlet's little sister. Good luck getting near her though."

Rath just looked at him questioningly. "Why would I have trouble?"

"Dude, didn't you just hear me? She's Tintlet's little sister, meaning she's Nohiro's little sister as well."

Rath's left eye twitched at the mention of Nohiro's name. Nohiro and Rath did not get along at all, and that was all there was to it. It wasn't that they hated each other; it was that they didn't want to be around each other or even think about the other. If Rune was Nohiro's sister, then he wasn't going to let her anywhere close to Rath.

"Yeah, I'm surprised he even let her come on campus knowing that you were here. Why did you want to know anyways? Aw man, don't tell me…"

"Inspiration."

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Like? Dislike? Please let me know. The chapters themselves will be longer than this, promise. But anyways, it's 2am so I'm going to bed now.