A/N: I need to start including "A/N" for my author notes. Skimming over my older stuff and reading my notes without it makes me feel like I've just been interrupting my writing all the time.
This is something new I have had in my mind since early August, in which I am trying to make last many chapters without half-assing the romance or the ending or everything in between. Actual, decently-lengthed plot that will most likely not include any action, because I can't do action, and this story isn't very action-y if at all. Stuff will happen (obviously) and that is all I can tell you.
... Yeah, not half-assing is going to be hard.
x x x
It wasn't the first time Raven woke up in a room he was unfamiliar with - he got his share of that sometime during the Great War (or was it at the end of it?), when he would wake up coughing with a burning fire in his chest. Men in white had prodded at him and shone lights into his eyes, and if he didn't pass out from the pain, they'd give him something horribly nasty and bitter to drink.
Or maybe it was all the needles putting him to sleep: little prickling sensations in his arms that pinched when he was awake long enough to control his limbs, if only for fifteen seconds.
He remembered voices - fuzzy, discrete, and incomprehensible with a loud hum in the background and an occasional beep, beep, that sliced thickly through the air like water through cheese. There was a screen and lines - he... couldn't see any blastia? He couldn't tell, it was all a blur - and a hard, steely, wine-coloured gaze on him that chilled him to the bone every time time he saw it.
But this was hardly anything like that because... well...
This was the first time Raven woke up in an unfamiliar room, warm, topless, and tied to a bed.
And he wasn't entirely sure whether that was good or bad.
Closing his eyes, Raven breathed in deeply through his nose and counted to ten. Last he knew, he was in one of the bars in Halure. Maybe he passed out and was having some kind of weird, kink-dream involving busty women and lots of bondage? Or something along the lines of that, where people weren't freaked out by his blastia. Oh, how he wished that was the situation!
He opened his eyes.
... Nope, nothing changed.
With another deep breath, he closed his eyes again. How much did he have to drink last night? Did he get plastered and go home with a woman, only to reveal his blastia and have her tie him up and run away? He winced. That sounded like a pretty bad situation. Hopefully she wouldn't return with a frightened mob with pitchforks and torches, calling him a monster and such.
Four hundred ninety-eight, four hundred ninety-nine, five hundred.
His eyes opened and he stared in disappointment at the same textured ceiling from moments ago. Damn. He tugged on the fabric that held his wrists - nope, those knots were pretty tight and well done, did a knight do that? - and tried to move his legs. Couldn't free those either. A closer inspection of the material made the rusty cogs in his brain creak.
Was that a scarf or a sash?
Raven was beginning to feel a little self conscious, even though no one else was in the room. Having his chest exposed made him feel like panicking just a little, never mind the fact that he was tied up in an unfamiliar place. Exhaling out his nose, he shook his head slowly lifted it to scan the room.
There was a small bathroom over in the corner - in the mirror, he could see it had a shower-bath - useful for guests, useless when they were tied up. There were even books on the washroom counter! How many books could a person have?
There wasn't much else to the room except for pale green curtains, a desk, and a large bookshelf crammed full. He tried to focus on the titles, but they blurred and his head pounded, so he dropped his head back down onto the soft, cushiony pillow with a groan lodged in his throat.
He was desperately hoping that those were books on romance, or cookbooks or something, because if they were all about blastia... well...
He was either screwed or really screwed. And there was a difference, because if he was screwed, maybe he wouldn't feel bad about ripping his bindings and running away.
But if he was really screwed-
Distinctly, he could hear voices outside of the room - two, maybe three? - female voices, speaking in a hushed tone. Raven strained his ears, listening carefully.
"- notes. Whatever you can find would be helpful. I know there are some things he didn't..." The voice paused for a few seconds. "Up on Mount Temza? Okay, if you don't mind, I think that would help a lot, thanks."
The floorboards creaked and footsteps passed by the door.
"-stelle, do you know where the rest of Alexei's notes are? When Yeager... and his notes cut off after this page, see?" There was a loud shuffle of papers. "... so I'm sure the rest of it's hidden somewhere, like the castle, or maybe even up on Mount Temza with..."
Raven grimaced a little as they disappeared down a set of stairs. The sound of a door opening and closing in the distance hardly registered in his ears.
Goodbye, busty babes and kinky sex.
Better start thinking up what to say in his will now, or...
No, he wouldn't have the time for that. Maybe he'd just beg for his life to be spared...
Slowly, softly, the doorknob began to turn. Raven looked up as a brunette head poked curiously through between the door and the frame. He lifted an arm to wave at her, only to have it jerk to a stop after an inch or two.
"Uh... Hey there, sunshine." He tried to grin, but she just glared and opened the door wider with her back, walking in with a plate and a cup in her hands. "Mind tellin' me what I'm doin' tied up here? Unless... well, I didn't know you were into that kinda stuff, Rita, but I'm-"
She cut him off by letting the plate clatter loudly on the desk, then picked up his shirt and jacket and threw it over his chest. She moved on to untie his ankles without a word. Raven stared blankly at her for a few seconds as deft hands swiftly untied the knots. He was expecting rage and yelling and lots of fire, not... whatever this was. As she freed his arms, he sat up slowly and swung his legs over the bed, rubbing his wrists. Hm, they didn't even chafe. What were those things made of - silk? "Uh, thanks-!"
She gave his face a resounding slap, and he stared at her in shock, dazed, with a hand up to his cheek. She was glaring, but where was the yelling? The threat of a fireball, or a punch, or anything? Not even a warning of 'next time, I'll castrate you'?
He watched silently as she retrieved the cup from the desk.
"Here," she thrust it in his face. The greenish, murky liquid sloshed around inside. "Drink this," she commanded. Raven accepted the cup but gave her a look as if to say 'what is it?' "It's tea, you moron. It's supposed to make your head feel better. Just drink it."
Raven sniffed it and took a sip, making a face, but Rita's stare made him down the rest in one, two gulps. As he stuck out his tongue at the taste, she took the cup from his grasp and stepped towards the desk. Then, she just... stopped. No sound of the cup being put down, no sudden explosive combustion, no raining apocalyptic Ritas...
"Uh... Rita darlin'," Raven stared at her back nervously, throbbing cheek and pounding headache forgotten. Her foot was tapping - sharp and precise. Tmp. Tmp. Tmp. "Yer not... mad at me are ya?"
There was a loud thump of porcelain meeting wood. "Mad?" It sounded almost like an innocent question. Rita's back was still facing him. "Why would I be mad?" He opened his mouth, noted that her foot stopped tapping, then considered his safety and shut it. "Did you think I'd be mad at you for disappearing from the planet for over a year?"
Her voice was quiet and even with a sharp edge to it, and he winced.
"Did you think I'd be mad after telling you to check up with me every one to two months, only to have you stop showing up?"
He couldn't stop himself from blurting out, "You said it would be fine and that there wouldn't be anymore problems!-"
She swivelled around, hands on her hips, leveling him with another glare. "Maybe wouldn't be anymore problems. If you kept showing up, maybe could have already become most likely, or even definitely." She stalked up to him and poked a finger in his chest, hard. "Did you think I'd be mad after every time your name popped up, Dahngrest, Capua Nor, Zaphias, Aurnion, Mantaic, only to have you gone by the time I got there? Everywhere I went and not even a single glimpse of your stupid purple jacket? And everyone I asked had absolutely no idea whatsoever where the hell you were going!"
She emphasized each question with a sharp poke. Raven gulped, staring into eyes that were a startlingly brilliant shade of green. Her hair smelled nice, too, kind of like fire lilies- Too close! Back up, Raven, back up!
Man down!
Rita leaned forward, pressing against the bed and in between his legs. Whether she didn't notice or didn't care, he didn't know. She jabbed her finger into him again harshly as he tried to lean back. "And then yesterday, you show up unconscious, reeking of alcohol outside the tavern in the rain even though it's still unclear how stable your blastia really is!"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry!" He cried out, bringing his hands up in his defense and cowering behind them. "I didn't mean to- I just- I had unfinished business that I had to- there was a lot of- please don't kill me- I'm sorry!"
There was a long moment of silence as Rita stood straight and crossed her arms, scrutinizing him for an eternity. He dared to open an eye a crack, just for a peek of his impending doom to see how it would end.
Surprisingly, her lips crept up in a hint of a proud, victorious (and yet somehow muchly irate) smirk and she let out a snort. "Well, whatever." She turned around, waving an arm in the air. "You have a bathroom; do whatever you need to do. There's a sandwich here if you're hungry - if you're not going to eat it, put it in the fridge. If you run away again, I'll find you, and I'll kill you. Got it?" He nodded. "Good. When you're done, I'll be in one of the rooms downstairs. I expect you to come see me."
"... So," he started as she began to leave. She paused in the doorway, a hand on the frame. He flinched as he spoke, thinking that he was about to induce his own demise. "... Yer not gonna blast me inta little bits n' pieces?" Her shoulders looked tense, but he wondered if it was just him waiting for that one explosive fireball.
She didn't even turn.
"... I guess not, old man." It was soft and quiet, but firm all the same. She stepped forward and let the door shut with a gentle click.
Raven rubbed the back of his neck in contemplation. There was something... off about Rita. Maybe he'd pushed past her limit of tolerance? Or maybe staying away from her for over a year wasn't quite such a good idea. She didn't even yell at him or raise a hand at him (that slap totally didn't count), or threaten him with mutilation for running without a care in the world for the little rock he had for a heart (except he totally did care).
And maybe it was the lighting, or maybe he just hadn't seen her in such a long time, but she looked paler than he remembered.
He stared at the floor, furrowing his brow. Come to think of it, she did say something about him being passed out in the rain yesterday - but then did she drag him all the way here by herself, getting soaked to the bone? Maybe she had someone to help her... right?
Dammit, now he was feeling pretty guilty.
Hopping off the bed and tugging on the shirt covering his blastia - was it just his imagination, or was the light almost just a bit of a glow now? - and walked into the bathroom distractedly. Maybe he'd give her another apology later...
x
As the door clicked shut behind her, Rita crossed her arms, standing still. Her blood hummed loudly, demanding that she hit something, someone, and that she do it now.
Easy, Rita. Relax, she told herself, though it didn't help much at all. Behind her, she heard soft, padded footsteps, before a door closed and the sound of rushing water filled the air. Shaking her head, Rita dropped her arms and walked down the stairs. She had more important things to think of than some half-naked idiot who was probably using her shower.
Things like finally determining how stable his blastia was and how to make the connection between his and Yeager's. Raven had been dead when his heart had been replaced, but Yeager had been alive, though whether he was healthy or on his death bed she didn't know.
Rita stumbled through an open door, rubbing her temple. Grabbing a pile of scrambled papers, she sat down on the rug and leaned on a bookshelf, flipping through the sheets, deep in thought. The notes mentioned electricity a few times, somehow working with blastia and muscle groups. Apparently, they brought Raven back to life using the electricity created by certain types of blastia. How did his Hermes blastia and the energy react together? How many times did Alexei have to attempt this on other people before they finally managed to get successful reactions?
And how did a living person like Yeager stay alive between the replacing of his heart and the blastia?
... If Estelle's own powers were a direct variation of the Rizomata formula, maybe there was a connection? Something between biological and unliving things? Especially the randomly mixed similarities in Raven's formula and the actual string of...
Wait... maybe...!
Rita shuffled the papers rapidly, ideas running wildly in her head. All those equations in Raven's blastia that had been derived from the Rizomata were jumbled. If she could just figure out the original coding, maybe she could finally complete the conversion process, making his blastia fully functional and able to work without running on aer...!
She scanned this sheet, then the next, checking over the front and back and the little dog-eared corners as her mind raced anxiously. Maybe, just maybe this one-
The notes cut off at the end of the page.
Her hands tightened, crumpling the edges, and the papers crinkled in protest.
Damn that Alexei! She fumed through her nose, grinding her teeth. Where the hell were his notes when she needed them?
Rita slammed a fist down on her thigh, then rubbed her forehead irritatedly, exhaling. She needed to calm down and sort out her thoughts, first...
Maybe there was a connection: bodhi blastia didn't provide magical powers, only strengthened them - made them more prominent. Someone who could maybe create a campfire with blastia, and didn't use it often, could only light a candle without it.
Those who did hone their skills or magic didn't lose all that much, though a little more work was needed for the stronger spells like tidal wave and meteor storm. But Rita had no problems with that, because success needed hard work, and half-assing got you nowhere.
So maybe Raven wasn't entirely dead during the procedure?
... But then what did they do to bring him back to life? Or... keep him alive? Whichever one it was.
If only she could figure out how Hermes' worked with the Rizomata formula, and how Alexei worked it all together on a living person. Maybe she'd finally be able to completely...
No, she was going in circles. That wasn't helping at all.
Quietly, the door creaked open behind her. Rita whipped her head back to see Raven poke his head in between the doorway.
He brought up his hand in a two-finger salute. "Howdy there," he grinned awkwardly. "How's it going?"
She flapped an apathetic hand at him. "Don't just stand there- come inside already and sit down."
He gave the room a glance and opened the door wider, shutting it behind him as he stepped in cautiously. A window with yellow curtains, a calendar on the wall, a huge bookshelf (make that two, one at each wall), a book-covered bed (actually, books everywhere), a desk, and a kitty-bomb named Rita sitting on an oval red- and green-ringed fluffy rug. It looked like it made for cozy seating, but...
He opted for the desk's chair instead, pulling it out and draping himself on its back. Outside, the sun shone brightly through clear skies, signaling that it was sometime around noon. He yawned hugely. "So what's new?"
"You're an idiot, for one, but that's old." She rolled her eyes, scanning over the papers in her hands one last time before putting them down. She wasn't going to get much done when they weren't complete, anyway. "I managed to sort out most of what was left unfinished with your blastia - surprisingly there aren't any signs of misuse or damage," she gave him a sharp glance, crossing her arms, "and there aren't any problems with the conversion formula I set the last time you were here... but that one's not a surprise." She smirked up at him confidently.
That was just like her, cutting right to business and not about normal life. Raven blinked down at her. "So... I'm all good? After one night and you figure I'm entirely fit as a fiddle?"
She lifted a shoulder in a nonchalant shrug. "That's pretty much it, but it's not entirely complete yet. I just need the rest of Hermes' and Alexei's notes before I can put together the final pieces of what will make you live to be an even older blockhead." She lifted a finger. "Also, you're now around seventy to eighty percent more aer-efficient."
"Hm..." He rested his chin on his forearm, looking at her. "So how much longer till this thing can run on its own?"
"I honestly don't know. Like I said, I need the complete sets of notes before I can fit the puzzle pieces together, and even then I'll have to add more of my own equations to the whole thing."
He raised an eyebrow incredulously. "What? You can add yer own stuff just like that without things goin' wrong?"
"I don't see why not," the shoulder lifted again. "That's what I've been doing whenever I had to work on you, besides rearranging the core's data."
"And yer not worried about... y'know, blowin' it up ta pieces?"
"I've been working with blastia all my life," she glared up at him. "You should give my work more credit, old man."
He scratched his cheek. "Well, it's not really that, y'see. I'm not really worried about whatcha do to this little ticker, cause you're Rita Mordio, Genius Mage of Aspio." He waved his arm in exaggerated enthusiasm and she rolled her eyes. "I'm just wonderin' if ya ever worry about the stuff ya do. Like... if it'll ever go wrong, or somethin' like that."
Rita stared at the cover of one of the books lying beside her. Functions of the Heart. "No," she started slowly, distracted, shaking her head and pushing the book away with a foot. "It's useless to worry about stuff like that. Especially if I always check my work twice. Worrying about it would just waste my time."
"Hm..." Raven stroked his chin, glancing at the calendar. March. There were scribbles of little notes and meetings she had to attend. One day had been circled three times with a red marker, the words "Rita's 19th Birthday!" written in flowery writing, "i"s dotted with hearts.
Wait...
"Rita, hun-" she bristled, "what day is it today?"
"... It's the twenty-first." She eyed him skeptically. "Why?"
He gaped at her, aghast. "... You mean, you dragged my keister all the way home on your birthday? In the rain?"
All she did was shrug. "It's no big deal."
"No, but I- your birthday, girl! That's an important day!"
"Like I said, it's no big deal."
Raven sighed with a loud augh, ruffling his hair with one hand. "No, it is a big deal. Look, I'm sorry fer runnin' off fer a long time like that an' makin' you worry about me-" he ignored the glare. Her? Worried? Don't be silly. He continued earnestly, "and fer makin' you drag me here and gettin' ya sick in the process. And fer missin' your birthday, too. 'm sorry."
Rita blinked at him, partially speechless. "It's... nothing, really, don't worry about it. And I'm not si-" she paused for a split second before Raven, who obviously wasn't listening to her, clapped his hands together.
"I know!" He grinned at her. "I'll take ya out drinking! Now that yer nineteen, you're old enough to take your pick at the local bar!" He leaned in like he was telling her a secret with a hand up to his mouth. "An' we can finally figure out what kinda drunk you are. Happy? Sad? Violent? Or are you the flirty, horny typ-!"
Book, meet Face. Face, Book.
"No thanks," she said, tossing the book haphazardly on the floor beside her. Thermodynamics of Aer. She wrinkled her nose. "Alcohol smells gross anyway."
"That stuff's an acquired taste, milady." If she was trying not to look cute, she sucked at it. "Ya can't just chug it down on the first go and think you'll like the taste right away. There's aaaall kinds of drinks out there callin' out ta ya, cryin' "drink me, drink me!" but nooo, you're Rita Mordio, too high n' mighty to give it a taste cause y'think it smells a little."
She gave him an exasperated glare and he snickered. "All right, all right, I'm just teasin' ya, my little kitty cat~! No alcohol fer you, then." He glanced at the calendar again. "But I gotta do somethin' ta make up fer it, y'know? I can't letcha look at me and think I'm the guy who ruined yer nineteenth all the time!"
She raised an eyebrow as if to say 'are you stupid?' "I said it's fine. Normally I'd be too busy to remember what day it was, anyway, and Estelle and Judith made me go out with them, so it's not like I did nothing. Seeing you again is good enough for a birthday present."
Raven wondered if she heard his blastia hum a little in his split-second of a pause before he gave her a seductive grin. "Why, Rita, I didn't know you felt that away about me!"
Rita went red. "Not like that, you idiot! I meant that it means you didn't waste all that time I spent working on your blastia, moron! If you went and died because of a malfunction, that means I did something wrong, and I'd bring you back to life and kill you again!" She threw her hands up in mortification. "Augh, piss off!"
"Nice ta know you care," he drawled, still draped on the chair. The damn thing was comfortable. Too bad for her, but he wasn't moving anywhere. "What about the others? Didn't Yuri and Karol come give you a spectaculartastic day?"
She rubbed her face with one hand, tugging off a pen and the pocketbook clipped onto her shirt. "They had guild things to do back in Dahngrest."
"Right, right, I think I heard that from Harry a while ago." He flapped the sleeves of his coat together, watching her tap the end of the pen on her lower lip three times. "Why hasn't Yuri gone and proposed to the princess yet? I figured he'd have done something by now."
She scribbled something down rapidly and snapped it shut. "... I think he's waiting for all those old farts from the Council to drop like flies and be replaced by people who actually have some sense in them. Even if he does all that crap with Ioder's title offer, they're going to find a way, someway, somehow, to make all his efforts useless while they're still alive." She shrugged. "It might happen soon or a couple years from now. Who knows?"
"Huh." Was all Raven said. She had a point; he'd never bothered to think too much about that.
Thanks a lot, Schwann, First Captain of the Imperial Knights, for your wonderful, unshared insight on relationships between royalty and common-born people. You were a big help. Really.
"... So where are Estelle and Judith now? Thought I heard you talkin' ta them this morning..."
"They left before I came up and untied you." She said, patting her head to fiddle with her goggles. They weren't there. Damn. Where were they?
Oh yeah, she lost them somewhere in the house a few days ago... "They had stuff to do elsewhere, so I just asked them for a couple of things while they were there."
"Oh, so what, yer gonna tie me up every night to make sure I don't run away again? Until they come back here?"
"No!" She scowled, blushing. "I only did that because I figured you might run off again!"
A laugh bubbled out of his lips. "That's still pretty kinky if ya ask me-"
"Shut up!" She groped around for something, anything to throw at him. She picked up a book, weighed it, then let it drop back down. It wouldn't do much damage with his arms blocking his face like that. The heavy thump it made with the ground was satisfying enough, anyway. "I'm going to the castle in a week or two, anyway, and you're coming along with me whether you like it or not!"
He snickered again. "Relax, don't worry, I'll go with ya and escort you like a gentlemanly prince - even though I'm not really a prince, but I'm close enough." He gave her a thumbs-up before she scoffed at him. She scratched at her cheek - her damn hair was tickling her face again, and she didn't have her goggles to hold it back.
He watched her, eyes softening for a minute as she tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and furrowed her brow in thought. The last time he saw her had been roughly one year ago, and now she-
Then, just like that, he slapped his hands down on the wood with a grin as she jumped. "Hey, tell you what, I'll get outta yer hair for a while and make you somethin' ta eat. Like... lunch, or a birthday cake or somethin', and you can do some more thinkin' while I'm at it, since you like it so much. Yeah?"
She glanced askew at him before her stomach gurgled. She blushed faintly. "... Yeah, sure, thanks."
With a great stretch, Raven hoisted himself off the chair and toward the exit. He heard shuffling behind him, and just as the door was mostly closed, she spoke up. "... Hey."
"Hm?" He looked over his shoulder to see her standing. She scratched the back of her head, pink staining her cheeks. Her mouth opened, then shut, pink cheeks darkening.
"... Thanks for not being dead," she finally ground out, tersely.
If he were anyone else, he might not have heard the message.
Welcome back, loud and clear.
"It's good to be back." He said softly, smiling at her.
And as he shut the door behind him, he rubbed his collar tiredly with one hand, smile faltering. He closed his eyes, face twisting into a cruel, mocking smirk.
A year wasn't long enough at all.
x x x
A/N: All that petal-counting Raven did for Sicily worked out for the best, eh? Also, the drinking age where I live is nineteen, so Rita is now legally able to consume alcohol in here. Also don't know when her birthday is, so I just slapped down what I thought was a spring-y day. It was either March or May, but I liked March better.
Also, did you see my little face-book pun there? It was totally unintentional. I didn't even realize it until after I typed it up.
Most of this was completed maybe a week ago. I had to do some tweaking, though, because it just needed it. For now, I have the whole storyboard/plot planned out in my head, even future events that will probably happen in future chapters. Like, say, the end, and bits of the middle and in between those two as well.
Now I just need to figure out how to go about things while writing them out.
Thanks for reading, and for all reviews! Now I just need to stop talking so much in all my author notes.