The sickeningly sweet smell of roses filling his nose was not unfamiliar to him and he knew exactly what it meant.
"Oh... no, no, no, no..." Ragna repeated, knowing that this was something he'd never be able to stop as a wave of blackness took him and transported him away.
Appearing in the field of roses, he muttered quietly to himself before deciding to turn around and get this over with. Surprisingly enough no one was around to greet him. No haughty declaration of him being summoned here, no insult, just silence.
"Hellooo...?" he called out though the only response was the squeaking of bats. "What's going on here?" he wondered. How is he going to get out when 'she's' not here to send him away?
"Hey Rachel!" he called out with frustration. Again, there was no answer. The gates ahead of him were open though... that's a bit of a rarity. For a moment, he pondered whether he should enter or not? If he was caught trespassing, he'd be harmed most likely by Rachel herself or that butler of hers. Then again, what if there was some trouble going on in her castle/mansion/whatever?
Deciding to take the risk, Ragna breathed in deeply and went striding past the gates and straight towards the main entrance. Again, no one stopped him so he decided to knock on the latches of the door and knock. And knock again.
"Geez, where is everybody?" he muttered impatiently, opening the doors himself and surprisingly enough, they offered no resistance.
"Hello! Pizza Delivery!" Ragna called out, his voice echoing through the empty halls. For once, he could actually hear shuffling noises moving about soon afterwards. It wasn't long before a black and red blur passed by him. "Wait!" he shouted as the two blurs stopped and recognized them instantly. The chubby red bat and the chubby black cat that acted as Rachel's servants. "Okay, time out... where's Rachel?" he asked them.
"W-Why are you here?" the bat replied first.
"Yeah! You weren't even called for, last I checked." The cat said soon after.
"Answer the question, dammit." Ragna responded, making a threatening step forwards.
"She's uh..." Gii mumbled, "She's kind of... sick at the moment. Me and Nago are trying to look for something, anything that could help her out."
"So the rabbit is sick huh? Well that's actually quite surprising. I didn't even know she could get sick." Ragna chuckled lightly to himself. "Well, where is she?"
Gii and Nago looked at each other and sighed simultaneously.
"This way." Said Gii, leading the way.
Reaching the room that their Mistress was in, Ragna took a look around. He spotted Rachel laying down on the floor just ahead instead of resting her head on the tea table close by. The cape-like object she normally wore also now removed for some reason.
"Don't wake her up..." Gii whispered, though his warning fell on deaf ears as Ragna stepped forward and poked Rachel's forehead.
He stopped almost immediately and frowned. "They're not kidding. You're burning up." He said quietly. Seeing Rachel this vulnerable was rare enough, but even he knew someone this sick shouldn't be out here. "Hey, you two... where's her bedroom?" he asked, slowly lifting Rachel up in his arms.
"Just past that doorway there." Gii and Nago looked at the open door, and then watched Ragna with curiousity as he carried Rachel into her room and followed them in.
Laying the sleeping Rachel down on the bed, Ragna gave out a quick sigh and grabbed the closest blanket he could find. "You two don't even know how to take care of someone when they're sick are you?" he looked at the two familiars.
"Eh... not really." Gii murmured.
"Whatever. You're lucky I'm around." Ragna said, carefully draping the blanket over Rachel's sleeping form. Just then...
"...Rag...na..."
Ragna immediately turned his eyes towards Rachel's own. She must be half asleep, because she's looking up at him with empty eyes. He froze in his tracks however. Rachel's gesture... is different. It's not the same Rachel who usually appears to him and sharply criticizes his work. No, her gesture is more seductive than anything he's ever seen on her by the way she looked up at him.
"Hey uh... Rachel. You should just rest for a while. I even have a blanket for..." he nervously tried to explain himself. At that instant, Rachel's arms wrapped up around his neck as she made a half-hearted attempt to pull herself up. Her breath is near him and he's intensely aware of how close she is no matter how hard he tried to ignore it.
"H-hey... What are you d-doing...?" Ragna said, choking on his words as they came out. He couldn't breathe or talk properly and he knew that Rachel was half-asleep. The biggest proof is in her drowsy-looking eyes so he had to shake her off him. He had to get away from her but he can't take his eyes off her either.
Her hair streamed down her neck, the ribbons untied. Her lips let out a seductive sigh and her small chest moved steadily closer to his own. Having her body so close to him is making him dizzy.
"Rag...na..." she repeated again.
He noticed her hair that streamed down her neck again, her hands tensing up a bit. His and Rachel's faces were nearing each other. Lured by her captivating lips, he couldn't do anything to resist.
His reasoning was frozen. This was definitely prohibited, he shouldn't have noticed... but such boredom was being destroyed by her proximity to him.
"Rachel..." Ragna whispered. His heart pounded heavily. The sound of his pounding heart reached his eardrums. His head emptied as Rachel's lips pressed against his own. He thought it would only last a moment and his hands came halfway up, intending primarily to push her back as she probed in deeper into his mouth.
At the same moment his fingers made contact with her shoulders, she made an odd little noise into his mouth that's somewhat like a moan and a growl at once. She didn't want to let him go and he was surprised that he was enjoying this.
Watching the two get wrapped up in a fiery kiss, both Nago and Gii looked at them in shock, mouths wide open. They didn't know what they should be doing in this situation. Should they interrupt? Should they forcefully pull the two away?
They didn't have to decide anything though as the space in front of them distorted for a moment as if the air itself seemed to split, Valkenhayn stepping out of the darkness and into the room.
"Madam Rachel, I found the medicine needed to cure you of your ailment. It shouldn't take..." he paused, watching the scene playing out in front of him as his eyes narrowed dangerously.
Hearing that voice, Ragna pulled away from Rachel immediately, displaying speed and quickness he hadn't shown before and fell on his back.
"Hey! Wait a second here, it's not what you think! She started it first." Ragna said quickly, pointing at Rachel.
"Hmm..."
Looking towards her, Ragna muttered something silently... watching her hands lowering as she was went back to sleeping on the bed.
"Taking advantage of Madam Rachel as she sleeps, you are a fiend of the highest order!" Valkenhayn proclaimed, walking over to Ragna and picked him up by his coat.
"Hey! I said it's not what it looks like!" Ragna cried out.
"I may be old, but I'm not blind." The old butler said, walking towards the closest window and flinging Ragna right outside, towards the field of roses that he fell into the first time.
"Crap... crap... thorns!" Ragna continued, shielding his face with his hands as he fell. What he landed on wasn't the field of roses though, but the streets he had been walking in before he got there. Whatever the reason, the old butler must have brought him out. Which begs the question: Who brought him there in the first place?
3 Days Later
A sharp kick to the side brought Ragna out of his sleep.
"Ow! What the hell?" he cried out, getting up and staring down at Rachel. "You... Oh, so you finally recovered did you? So why is your first act trying to injure me?" he asked.
"Don't think I don't know what you did. Nago and Gii told me. You forced yourself on me during my moment of weakness so I have every right to punish you." Rachel glared at him.
"What?" Ragna cried out. "Listen here bunny-leech, I didn't do anything of that sort. You were the one who kissed me first!"
"How dare you imply that?" the vampire replied as a bolt of lightning shot out of her fingers, bringing Ragna down on his knees.
"Hey that hurt!" Ragna shouted as another bolt of lightning struck him. He didn't say anything after that, but merely let the annoyed look on his face fall on her feet.
She leaned forward slightly, tilting his chin up and forced him to stare back at her eyes. "Listen Ragna, if you desperately want me that badly, you will have to work hard for it. Let's just hope that you don't become an old man by the time you impress me." She said quietly, letting her lips move so much closer to Ragna's own before suddenly pulling away. "You were expecting something again weren't you, Ragna? Like I said, you will have to work hard for it." She stated, stepping back and disappearing.
His face turned a heated red, Ragna muttered a curse to himself and allowed himself to fall back. "I'm not after you at all... am I?" he wondered, closing his eyes. He knew her nearly all his life, well over half his life at least. And it wasn't his fault that their lips connected during that one moment a few days ago anyways. So why did he feel so disappointed and conflicted when she pulled away twice?
"Why are you so hard to figure out?" Ragna muttered, getting up with annoyance. Work hard for 'it,' wasn't he already working hard enough as it is? "I bet you're still watching me, aren't you?" Ragna whispered.
And in the distance, a delicate chuckle could be heard.
Author's Notes: Like another story of mine, it's a scene inspired from F/SN. Hope the readers like it! (And we really need more Ragna/Rachel fics... seriously.)