a/n: alright, so this is my attempt to do 30_kisses on Raguna and Bianca de Sainte-Coquille from Rune Factory: A Fantasy Harvest Moon. I decided I'd post here, too, so ... um, here. :D
Title: « unattainable »
Author: alcoholiccoffee
Pairing: Raguna/Bianca
Fandom: Rune Factory
Theme: #26, if only I could make you mine
Disclaimer: Rune Factory © Natsume.
She is sweet, like strawberries. Though she is hardly comparable in any other way, that is the first thing that Raguna compares her to. The sweet yet sour taste of the strawberries he grows in the spring that he shares with the other girls – Lara, Rosetta, and Tori, who giggle with joy at their favorite sweets, grown by this charming new amnesiac farmer boy that Mist has taken in.
It is the doll-like girl who lives in Jasper's manor that reminds him of the fruits. She seems so distant, as though she lives somewhere far, far away and it is only a painting that he's looking at. Pampered, spoiled, they've called her. He sees how this makes sense if only by her appearance and the house she lives in. Her powder blue hair has a healthy sheen to it and he watches in awe as her curls fall into place when the maid puts Bianca's hair into full pigtails in the morning, complete with red ribbon. She wears dresses fitting of royalty – a princess or something similar. They are pastel shades of pink, red, and purple, or vibrant in a plain and simple way. Dresses made from cotton and silk with frills and lace. There is a peculiar accessory on one of her outfits that looks almost like a bubblegum pink tie protruding from a golden brooch on the matching jacket; he enjoys when she wears this because he thinks it makes her look more unique and Barbie-ish than usual.
The princess is always wearing silk white gloves with golden bracelets, undoubtedly decorated with different gems. She lives on the second floor of the mansion. Sometimes Raguna will chat with her maid, Tabatha, when she goes out shopping, though he never intentionally brings her up. Still, Tabatha has nothing much else to talk about; she goes on about how Bianca does this and that, and it fascinates him an indescribable amount. How could this girl be considered 'selfish' and 'prissy'?
The amount of affection in Tabatha's voice is enough to tell him otherwise. Surely, Bianca is more or less… misunderstood. Yes, that's it. She must be misunderstood, waiting for someone to realize that she's not a bad person. She sounds so sweet – sweet like strawberries, he remembers. He feels so confident that she is a kind princess and that something keeps her locked up in that terrible room until every holiday she musters up the courage to walk outside. Instead, she leaves her admirers – Raguna – to look up at her through that window until she finally closes the curtains and retires.
It may be stalking, but to catch a glimpse at Bianca – to watch her lithe and agile movements when she walks around the manor, though closest he gets is peering in from windows across the street, casually pretending to be watering plants on the sidewalk – it's more than definitely worth it in Raguna's mind.
She is stunning and sweeter than strawberries, he decides.
Lara begins to worry for him, wondering why he no longer visits and doesn't bring strawberries up for the girls anymore. She says that she's been down to his farm multiple times, but he's never home. He appreciates her concern immensely, as Lara is also a very sweet girl, but tells her that he's simply been working on a large project. She nods and accepts that, probably expecting something wonderful from him for her.
Rosetta, the tomboyish blondie that ships his crops, finds the strawberries stacking up in the box. This frustrates her, too – "Are you in a pinch for money, Raguna? I love your strawberries, and your company, you know. … of course, I mean, we love your company. Tori and Lara and I. You grow the best strawberries. I would love it if you would show me how to grow them like you do. You know I could come over anytime…"
She went on for a while, complaining about how he never spends time with any of the girls anymore, grabbing at sticks just to get him to spend more time with her. She even scowled once and said, "You've been hanging around Jasper's place a lot more. Don't tell me you've been talking to Bianca. Who can stand her?!" She calmed down after this when Raguna told her that he was simply planting some flowers around the area to make Kardia more beautiful.
In truth, he didn't find it a bad idea to plant some moondrops and toyherbs around the manor to make Bianca's radiance all the more glaringly obvious from the street. As if it were possible to make her more majestic!
Eventually, Raguna found himself scattering the seeds of the flowers over the spare grass near Jasper's mansion. He got Leo to upgrade his watering can using the small amounts of iron he had found in Carmite Cave when not fawning over Bianca and had more than enough water for all of his flowers, which made him immensely happy. It would be such a pain to have to run all the way back to his house just to get more water for such a small flower patch. He would do it, and more than likely gladly at that, but it would certainly be less convenient.
He cared for these flowers lovingly, tending to them before even his own crops. When he got up at six in the morning, the first thing he would do was pull on some clothes and grab his watering can, then head down to Third Street.
It was when he finished watering these crops one day that he knew that he had nothing to give Bianca.
Even if she should ever be close to meet him and to know him, he would be unable to offer her anything. What could he give a princess who could have anything and everything she wanted already?
There was nothing he could do. The only thing he had was his company in this situation. The other girls loved his crops and his occasional rare find in the Carmite Cave when he visited every so often. Mist enjoyed hearing of the bag of 'phantom crop' seeds he had found stashed in an ant hill and Tabatha thought his kindness towards monsters was commendable.
But Bianca – Bianca was royalty, precious, and, perhaps, yes, spoiled.
Immediately he recoils from this thought, stepping backwards and sliding his gloves off and on his hands in a nervous habit. Even after all his gazing at her and knowing that the chances of them being together were slim to none, he wanted to believe that they would get married eventually. With this realization, he knew that his chances diminished significantly. There was nothing charming or useful about Raguna – it was all in his head that they would live together one day, hand in hand. He imagined what she would look like laying next to him and on their wedding day, bouquet, veil and all. He imagined their kisses, the first and the one that sealed their 'I do's.
Bianca on the beach.
Bianca when she is sick.
Bianca wrapped in his arms.
Bianca and their child.
Bianca on the farm.
Bianca cooking lunch for him.
Did Bianca even know how to cook?
Oh, none of it mattered to him. He wished it would happen, whether she actually knew how to cook or not. He knows that perhaps Felicity or Mist, maybe even Rosetta, would be more suited to this life. He knows that what he seeks is not just another wife or a farm girl that would gladly do her part in a family. It is the captivating and untouchable daughter of Jasper, the rich, fat man who would only allow a man to look at her if they do Jasper favors first. This is the reason that Raguna cannot find himself knocking on Jasper's door, asking quietly, "May I see Bianca?"
He should be bringing Jasper delicacies from his kitchen to create a friendship with him so that he may be introduced to her officially, but that makes his heart beat too hard and he quickly shakes the thought of his head. Even if he were introduced, he is too much of a coward to say anything – and what, precisely, would he say to a princess?
He doesn't even remember his past. He can't remember what he's said to the other girls in his life or even what he's done. How embarrassing it would be, if on their wedding day a girl he married long a go showed up. Bianca would never forgive him – never give him a chance to explain! And who wants to marry a boy who can't remember his own wife, after all?
She would hate him then, and his chances with this wonderful girl would be thrown away – dreams ripped away from his hands just as they were seconds away from becoming reality.
Things have been made delightfully awkward due to his amnesia. Bianca might allow him the honor of feeling anything for him and pity him. Her attention would be such a lovely thing. Even though she would still be so far away, she would be closer. She would know he was there and know about him. What he looked like, his past – as much of it as he could tell, at least.
And the only part of it that he could tell was that he had amnesia. So Bianca would know his whole life story, if he could just get the damn girl to pity him. He would be so much closer to being less of a dreamer and more of a spinner, who would make it sound as though Bianca was truly in love with him – in his head, of course. Oh, what a fool he would be if he actually told the villagers about him and her, married, where she cooked and he worked, and they had a precious daughter.
No, that wouldn't do at all. It was just a fantasy that he loved to play out in his head, loved almost as much as Bianca herself – if what he felt for Bianca could even be called love. He had never met the girl. He didn't know anything about her other than the small basics that everyone knew.
Infatuation.
But god was that infatuation and general fascination powerful.
It made him angry – it made him furious – that he had not even given her a cookie on the Spring Festival, though he had given every other girl, including Sharron and Mei, one (two, in some case). Could he not call the obsession he had with her – oh, he would openly admit it was obsession now – feelings? He was no less than an inch from her when he gave Tabatha a light brown cookie, baked to perfection with chocolate chips sprinkled on top, with a cheery smile. The maid's cheeks began to turn a light shade of pink and he smiled wider, imagining that shade on Bianca, but he walked by without a second thought.
He had baked a cookie for Bianca, too – it had been in his refrigerator for the longest time when he simply fed it to the birds.
It made him so upset seeing that cookie there, not being given to Bianca, not in Bianca's hands, not being eaten slowly and politely by Bianca. Instead, he threw it to the birds in crumbs and prayed to god that it would never come back again to haunt him and remind him constantly of his cowardice and his failure – of his creepy demeanor and the fact that Bianca would never love him, especially not if he could never actually speak to her.
He still hadn't officially met her by the time the Moonlit Eve came around in Fall, and again found himself on Third Street, outside of Jasper's mansion. Now he planted charm blue flowers outside of her window, constantly mumbling something or other to himself. He found that he couldn't help it – all of the thoughts that had built up in the past two seasons came tumbling out, though rather incoherently. Crop charts, schedules of shops, thoughts on the bachelorettes, little bits of Melody's ranting that had stayed in Raguna's mind ever since she started talking to him during afterhours, Bianca fantasies.
It could be said that he simply loved autumn and found it a good time to vent or he was going insane, his obsession finally catching up with him.
He decided his goddamn mumbling was a terrible thing when Bianca stepped down the front steps of the mansion with her hands folded on the Moonlit Eve, perhaps about to go out for a walk or to join her date on the top of Mt. Gigant.
The latter made his heart sink at the very thought – oh, god, has someone else already stolen her heart? Is that why she's so uninterested in everything? The highlight of her day is seeing that boy. Perhaps that boy's some prince that rides around the countryside, searching for his perfect match, his soulmate, and he has found her in Bianca.
Raguna would never be able to compete with that.
She looked at him curiously and waved. "Hello, sir. Are you alright?" Raguna was frozen like a deer in headlights, so she raised an eyebrow and tried to look him in the eye. "I know you. You're the. The farmer boy. I went to your house, didn't I? Oh, I remember that. Such a small, terrible house. Have you fixed that, yet?" With no reply still, she folded her arms and sighed. "Surely you know it's rude to ignore a lady. And what – what in the world are you doing planting flowers on Daddy's land? Daddy doesn't like anything if it's not edible – with the exception, of course, being Tabatha and I."
Finally, Raguna stopped the continuous stream of water on one patch of charm blues and placed his watering can down next to his feet. He straightened up and brushed his hand through his messy brown hair for a second and shrugged. "I though that Kardia needed more character." Even he was shocked that he hadn't stuttered once. It had taken him a while to actually reply and to process the fact that Bianca was talking to him – knew who he was, because he was, more or less, 'the farmer boy', right?
Bianca cocked her head to the right and closed her eyes. "Oh, how true. What a sad little village, so devoid of life and character. I'd much rather live in the city."
Again, Raguna's heart sank. He liked farming. He wanted to marry her and live here with her, in his oh-so terrible house. It wouldn't be so small for so long – he was saving up to get a house expansion, knowing that Bianca wouldn't dare live with him unless he at least fixed it up somewhat. Not to mention Ivan wouldn't sell him a double bed until his house was larger.
In the silence that followed Bianca's statement, both of them thinking for a short while, Raguna extended a hand and followed up with a sheepish grin and, "Hi. I-I'm Raguna. New farmer boy, but you knew that."
It took her a while to realize that he had spoken to her, as though he wasn't even worth her time. When she did notice, she just stared at his hand and then turned her gaze towards the stars. She spoke dryly and apathetically. "Bianca de Sainte-Coquille."
Raguna withdrew his hand and instead stuffed them in his pockets. Finding a bag of charm blue seeds, he began toying with it just to keep him occupied as he considered what the others had said. She did seem a bit like a prude, it was true, but it was probably just a bad day. He remembered that it was Moonlit Eve today and Bianca didn't seem to be going anywhere in a hurry. It was nine at night. Any girls who had a date would've been gone by now, certainly.
She must've been distressed because she didn't have a date, of course. And why would she when she's got her pretty face up in that mansion all day?
"Moonlit Eve, huh?" he asked, wondering if she would confirm his suspicions.
"Oh, what a silly holiday, don't you think?" She covered her mouth with a gloved hand and giggled.
Shrugging, he looked over at the mountains and thought he saw a witch hat – Melody and Camus, maybe. He smirked at this. "I don't know. It's a nice holiday for couples."
"Well, it would seem that's no good for either of us, else you would be up there already, hn?"
And it was then that Raguna acted on impulse. Having her speaking to him was more than he could bear with the knowledge that a relationship was impossible. They were simply too different – him being 'the farmer boy' and Bianca being 'the princess'.
Their nicknames for each other explained the entire thing better than he had realized until now.
So he took two daring steps forward and kissed her on the cheek – just a slight peck.
She was shocked. She was blushing. This made Raguna chuckle, and then he grabbed her hand and bowed.
"I really should be going." Grabbing his watering can, he dashed towards his house, out of the town, away from Bianca – and possibly Jasper's – sight. He didn't want to go back to Third Street ever again. Not to get through to the plaza, not to visit Mayor Godwin (or Felicity, who he was considering marrying instead), and definitely not to visit Jasper's mansion.
At the same time, he wanted to go back and see Bianca. His obsession had not been erased by such a simple act and he found himself still in the denial of reality. After Moonlight Eve, his obsession slowly came back, stronger than ever. She was too beautiful in the moonlight, too cute amongst the flowers. One small kiss on the cheek changed the entire game plan. It made her blush, red like the tomatoes her father enjoys. More importantly, it seemed to make her smile.
Just a little bit.
She was adorable in such a dazed state, bemused and bewildered, processing it just as Raguna had to process her arrival. Though her shock wasn't quite what he'd call 'returning feelings', as anyone will be… surprised if you randomly kiss them, it made him noticeable. It made him something in her life. It gave him the attention that he wanted from her, or perhaps it would make her avoid him. He hadn't left his farmland and downwards in days, finding no need to go up to the town. He had no idea what Bianca was up to, or if she had told anyone.
It was several days later when Raguna finally headed to Kardia for the Wool Contest. He could not participate, not having Woolys (though he had seen them in Toros Cave), but he enjoyed watching the village in its celebration and the contestants as they presented their prized objects. On this holiday, the finest wool would earn the owner the respect of all the villagers. Camus entered every year, and Melody was cheering him on brightly. They seemed closer, and Raguna was pretty sure he was right when he saw Melody's witch hat on the mountain.
On the right side of the plaza, his attention turned to Bianca, wearing his favorite dress. He half-expected to see her light pink parasol that she usually brought along with her on holidays, but then remembered it was fall already. There was no need for things to hide her from the smoldering heat of the sun. The cool breezes were quite nice enough.
She was standing next to Tabatha, as usual, with her father somewhere up in front.
He wouldn't confront her. He wouldn't want to upset her, after all.
Instead he waited patiently until the contest was over. Neumann was declared the winner and Felicity looked particularly cheerful, since she helped around his farm and all. Of course, he could care less about the two – much like Sabrina, who he had heard was Neumann's ex-wife. Ouch.
The plaza cleared out fairly quickly. Most villagers retired to prepare and eat dinner at six. Bianca was one of the few who stayed behind, and he could pick out that Tabatha was going to go start dinner and would bring her back to the manor at seven.
It was then that Bianca saw him in the center of the plaza, and she strolled over with a pout on her face, though her hands were folded in front of her again. He didn't smile, and, frankly, he couldn't. He thought, at first, that she was going to slap him and make him apologize. He thought that she would cause a scene in the plaza, but, instead, she whispered, very incognito, "Do you always kiss girls and then run away, leaving them clueless and possibly unable to sleep for several days? Do you know how unnerving that is?"
He tried to respond, getting out a few letters but nothing much when she took a step forward and continued. "And, you know what really gets on my nerves, sir? You didn't even do it right."
"W-wh—"
"You didn't do it right." She crosses her arms again. "You didn't kiss me right." Sighing, she grabs his hand and plays around with his gloves, looking towards the sky. "So you have to do it again."
"You're not making any damn sense, Bianca." He squints as though it'll reveal what she means. "I didn't kiss you right, so I have… to do it again? What?"
Bianca sighs and moves her hands to massage her temples. "I mean, you have to kiss me again. The right way. On the lips. And no running away afterwards."
"If that's what you want."
"Well, I couldn't very well let you get away with not even kissing me right."
She keeps emphasizing 'kiss', impatient.
So he does.
He does and he is lost in the moment, lost in her and her adorable way of everything. Gingerly, lightly, both knowing full well that this is just another kiss.
But this kiss is right. She said it herself.
He's still not sure what to think of her marching up and demanding a kiss to be corrected. There are so many strange things about her – strange things all around, really. After this he wants them to return to their quiet normalcy. No more kisses in the park, no more planting flowers for her – stalking her. Normal.
He's got work to do and she's got.
What does she have?
She's a spoiled, selfish prude who lounges around all day, free to do whatever she wants, never to work a day in her life, who thinks that she can just walk up to him and demand a kiss. He knows that he can't have her anyway – different lifestyles and different needs – but he will pretend that he does have her for however long this lasts, this … relationship he has with her. It's hardly a relationship in the first place – it's just a kiss, isn't it? Would Bianca think it was just a kiss?
Of course she would. She would think it was just a correction, spoiled little doll she is, and that's, in one way or another, alright. That's fine with him, who would gladly be used and abused by this girl if it meant that he could kiss her again and again.
And now he can swear he tastes her unattainable sweetness, too, like strawberries.