If there was one thing Raeger had realized since he had been dating Annie, it was that she didn't possess a single jealous bone in her body.
When girls would come into his restaurant and fawn over him while he awkwardly pushed away their advances, Annie would shrug her shoulders nonchalantly. When they'd give him silly nicknames that he didn't approve of or ask to cook their meals especially with his love, whatever that meant, she'd laugh lightheartedly. Even the time that one young woman had begged him to marry her while Annie was sitting right there, she only looked at her with sympathy and later told him how bad she felt for her. The girl never showed up again at the restaurant, so she must have felt really stupid and embarrassed.
It was a good thing. The other serious girlfriends he had prior to dating her would all immediately get jealous and possessive over him whenever they took notice of the female attention he garnered daily. He would accept it begrudgingly because he wanted to make it work, but eventually she'd get sick of dealing with the swarms of girls and try to control him to the point of him having no freedom in who he talked to.
That was when he would break off the relationship. At that point it became exhausting and stressful, something he had yet to experience with Annie. He was grateful for that. Seriously, he was. It meant she trusted him enough not to feel threatened by women who pined for his affection and a good relationship is built off of trust.
He was glad that she never, ever got jealous. Not once, at all.
...Okay, he was lying. He wasn't necessarily happy about it. He had thought having a non-jealous girlfriend would be the perfect thing and it was what he always wanted in one, but it was starting to get under his skin that she would never get jealous, even when she had every right to feel at least a little peeved. The irony wasn't lost on him.
It was mostly the fact that it raised the question: Why? Why didn't it bug her when women flirted with him, even after he would politely explain to them he was happily taken? Did she not feel as strongly about him as he did for her? Did she consider this a casual fling that wouldn't progress anywhere?
He had never felt insecure before. It was always his partner that would feel uncertainty while he would reassure her that he there was nothing to worry about. Yet now, here he was, stewing over the simple fact his lovely sweetheart would never once bat an eyelash at another female yearning for his love.
Maybe it was because, for once, he was the one that was feeling jealous, even if a little bit. Annie was a cute and pretty girl with a warm personality that naturally drew others toward her, including other men. The most threatened he felt was by Klaus, the debonair perfumer that had quite a bit of years on both he and Annie. The guy was charming, good-looking, and sophisticated with a sense of maturity that could only be achieved through age. Not only that, but Annie seemed to enjoy his company quite a bit.
Raeger didn't let it bother him too much, though. He didn't believe Annie would break up with him for Klaus, nor did he think that Klaus was planning anything nefarious to steal her away. It was just one of those those irrational things that he even explained to Annie, to which she giggled and assured him there was nothing between them. It just drove him mad knowing that she didn't feel that way sometimes.
It simply didn't make sense to him. It was confusing and upsetting, then again he was probably just overthinking it. He should be grateful he had such a cool girlfriend.
He should, but for some reason, things didn't work out like that.
It was a little past afternoon and it was just Raeger and Fritz in the restaurant. He had just dealt with the lunch rush and was feeling slightly enervated, so he was having some downtime as he waited for the next crowd to come in, not to mention Annie who said she'd stop by. Fritz decided that he wanted to join him in relaxing, despite not being invited to do so. Oh, well. The kid was annoying, but for some reason he couldn't find himself to fully hate him. His company was alright, in small doses.
In fact, he was one of the few people he could actually consider a friend. Maybe opening up to him wouldn't be such a terrible thing, especially when this 'non-jealous Annie' thing was gnawing at him.
"Hey, Fritz," Raeger began, turning his head over towards the hyperactive redhead sitting at the counter, "Do you think it's weird that Annie never gets jealous?"
"Annie never gets jealous? Huh, I never noticed," Fritz responded, scratching his cheek with his finger as he thought about it, "I guess it is kinda weird, considerin' how many girls you have throwin' themselves at ya left and right. Heck, I'm jealous of that!"
"Yeah, but that's for different reasons." he scoffed, rolling his eyes as he crossed his arms, "I don't know, I just can't help feeling a little paranoid about it. Maybe she doesn't like me as much as I like her?"
"Man, you are totally selfish!" Fritz cried out with an indignant gleam in his eye, "You've got ladies flockin' at your doorstep every day, plus you've got the cutest, coolest girl in the town on your arm, and you're upset that she's not becomin' a green-eyed monster? Totally lame! If you're gonna be like that, at least stop hoggin' all the gals from us single guys, Mr. Greedy."
"...And this is why I don't open up to you. You always end up making it about yourself and complaining," Raeger sighed, though he couldn't deny the slight point Fritz had. Not that he really felt like admitting it.
Just then, the door opened and in walked a pair of girls. They were young, probably early twenties, and definitely new faces for him. One had long brown hair, the other short blond hair. They looked at him with that giddy, school-girl adoration he was accustomed to as they practically skipped over to his location.
"Welcome, how may I help you?" Raeger asked the pair with a friendly smile, turning away from Fritz to give his customers his full attention.
They acted like he was some sort of celebrity, exchanging glances and gushing as they whispered to each other excitedly. It was still a little uncomfortable for him even though he had been dealing with such attention since he was a teenager, but he brushed it off and let out a small chuckle.
They sat down and he handed them some menus. In no time he was writing down their surprisingly fast orders, turnip special and eel rice bowl, then turned around to begin cooking. He offered some casual small talk with the two women, who were being rather un-talkative and a little fidgety. It was peculiar given their previous behavior, but he shrugged it off.
"Here you are," Raeger said amiably, holding up two steaming-hot plates of freshly cooked food. Leaning forward, he placing each plate in front of the respective customer.
After the last plate was set, he was caught off guard when a foreign pair of lips were suddenly pressing themselves firmly against his own and a 'flash!' sound went off.
It took Raeger's fuzzy mind seconds to register just exactly was happening: One of the girls had leaned forward and kissed him while another took a picture. It all occurred so quickly that it was over just as it had started.
"Got it! Oh man, I can't believe you actually did it," the blonde gasped out, grinning widely at the brown-haired girl who was blushing profusely and touching her lips with her fingertips.
"Me neither! Oh my gosh, I never want to wash my lips ever again."
Raeger stood there, frozen in shock, as he stared wide-eyed at nothing in particular. He was incapable of speaking at the moment, so of course Fritz took up the mantle for that.
"Whoa, what the heck just happened?!" the farmer exclaimed, whipping his head around to get some kind of answer from the two ladies, but they were already rushing out the door in a flustered frenzy.
"I...I..." Raeger tried to sputter out an intelligible sentence, but couldn't. He was abjectly mortified and hopelessly bewildered.
Not even a minute passed and Annie came through the door, a big smile on her pretty face as she waved to the two.
"Hey, Raeger. Hey, Fritz. What's up?" Annie questioned as she waltzed her way over to the pair, giving her boyfriend a peck on the cheek as she looked up at him with her big, hazel eyes shimmering.
"Something... ahem, odd just happened." Raeger shakily stated, feeling unworthy of having her sweet presence around after what just took place.
"Odd?" Annie repeated with a frown, knitting her brows together.
"This chick just randomly kissed Raeger out of nowhere!" Fritz blurted out, much to the chef's chagrin.
"Fritz!" Raeger hissed, shooting him a deadly glare.
"Hold up, hold up. What?" Annie inquired as she glanced back and forth between the two.
"Err, well, these two women came in for a meal."
"You mean those two outside, giggling and looking at their phone?"
"Yes. So, naturally, I made them some food," he began explaining, trying to keep his composure intact, "And then, as soon as I set their plates down, one of them suddenly kissed me."
"Yeah, and the other took a picture of it!" Fritz chimed in.
"Anyway," Raeger gritted through his teeth, glaring more daggers at his blabbermouth companion, "That's what happened. I promise that I didn't kiss back nor did I like it. I-I swear, this girl caught me off guard then ran as soon as I realized what was going on. I would never cheat on you."
"Yeah, and didn't pay for their meals, either! Talk about a total dine-and-dash." Fritz added, but then tapped on his chin thoughtfully. "Well, now thinkin' about it, they didn't eat their meal either, so I guess that really doesn't count."
"Oh." was all the farm-girl said back, pursing her lips as she mulled it over. Both Raeger and Fritz held their breaths as they waited, fearing for the worst.
"That's strange. Oh well, at least you got a free kiss outta the deal, eh?" Annie cheerfully laughed with a wink, appearing to be completely indifferent to the information she was just given.
Both of them let out the air they had been holding in simultaneously, but Raeger couldn't feeling bothered by her reaction, or lack thereof. To him, it basically confirmed that she didn't feel as strongly about their relationship as he did and that hurt more than anything. He felt for her the way he had never felt for anyone else, so knowing she didn't reciprocate broke him.
"Hey, could you guys excuse me? I have to go do something real quickly," she said in a very bubbly tone, spinning on her heel as she strutted out the door.
"Phew, that's a relief, huh, Raeger?" Fritz said with a grin, briefly patting the other male's back.
"I can't believe she didn't care," Raeger murmured, more to himself than anyone else. He ran his fingers through his brown-red tresses and sighed.
"I think I'm going to take my break. I need to go for a walk," the chef announced in a lackluster tone, ignoring Fritz' desperate pleas as he walked over to the door. As always, the younger male trailed behind him like a puppy, probing him for answers that he didn't feel like divulging.
Opening the door, the pair was met with an unlikely scene.
With her back turned to them, Annie stood in front of the two previous customers with her fists balled at her sides and lightly, but visibly, shaking. Between the space of the three there was a broken phone on the concrete, smashed to bits.
"—I swear, if you ever even LOOK at my boyfriend again, nonetheless put your skanky lips on him, the only thing you'll be kissing is your own ass goodbye. Don't think I'll do anything? Try me, bitch. So, do you get me, or do I have to repeat it slower?" Annie growled in a low, dangerous voice; completely opposite to her normal, dulcet way of speaking.
The girls stood there with identical, blanched faces and wide eyes that were filled with flat-out terror. They quickly nodded their heads in sync.
"Good. Now, get the hell out of here before I rip every last strand of hair out of your pretty little heads!" Annie shouted at them, stomping her foot for emphasis and pointing her arm to the left as direction for where they should scramble off too.
"L-Let's get outta here. This girl's totally psycho!" the brunette cried out, grabbing her friend's arm and dragging her along as they ran away from the scene in a hurry.
Annie made a triumphant little 'hmf!' noise and twisted her body around, only to find her boyfriend and his friend standing there in slack-jawed astonishment.
"Annie...?" Raeger said, only capable of blinking at this point.
"Oh, uh, hi." Annie nervously laughed and gave a meek, little wave.
"... What the heck just happened — AGAIN?!" Fritz bellowed out, putting his hands on head as if to keep it from exploding. "Annie, what'd you do?!"
"Well, I... y'know, just made it so those girls wouldn't bother Raeger again." Annie stammered, twiddling with her fingers as she stared at the ground with a beet-red face. "I-I mean, they forcefully kissed you and then took a picture! How could I let that slip by? I had to do something."
"How many times have you done something like this, babe...?" Raeger tentatively inquired, arching his eyebrow at his supposedly-innocent girlfriend.
"Uhh... I dunno. A lot?" Annie timidly admitted, refusing to meet his intense scrutiny. "Like... you remember that girl who asked you to marry her? I kinda sorta told her if she ever came around the restaurant again I'd make her into horse food. B-But to be fair, she kept asking even after you told her you were taken, by the girl sitting right there! That's totally disrespectful!"
As Annie continued on explaining and justifying herself, Fritz leaned over and whispered in Raeger's ear. "Whoa, dude! Annie's totally crazy-jealous!"
"I know." Raeger breathed out, "Hey, Fritz?"
"Yeah?"
"I think I'm in love."
A/N: Bahahahaha, Annie is secretly psycho jealous. Who knew?
I personally think Raeger would be off-put by having a girl who never gets jealous, seeing as he's so used to it. Not that he necessarily wants a possessive psycho; he just wants to know she cares.
Besides, we all get jealous from time to time. I can't imagine some NEVER getting jealous AT ALL over someone they love. It's nice to see, but not when it's excessive and thus becomes controlling. Maybe it's just me.
Sorry for an OOCness. I actually haven't picked up the game in a long time, so I'm trying to remember how they're all like.