Prompt: Parental Figure
Characters/Pairings: Raven, Rena, Elsword, Aisha, (Raven x Rena)
Timeline: Shortly after Chapter 1
Genre: Family, Romance, Friendship, a bit of Action


"Some people don't need parental commitment, they will still come out great, but for others, parents can be critical in providing moral and academic guidance."

- Amy Chua


The sounds of the clash of two metals echoed under the stormy sky of Circular Waterway. Not once, twice, but many times. The cycle continued on until the two figures with swords took their distances from each other.

One of them, the red-haired Elsword, wiped the bruise over his cheek for a bit before he rushed at his opponent again. "I'm not done yet!"

His opponent, Raven, on the other hand, didn't seem to be wounded more than the younger swordsman, as visible from his pure and clean white longcoat. As Elsword directed his sword slash on his torso, he promptly moved his long katana to block the incoming attack. Miraculously, even though his katana was against a huge sword (which could qualify as a zweihander even), he was able to hold his ground.

Elsword tried to strengthen himself and push his senior down, but somehow, Raven was not budging any bit. Elsword grunted in slight frustration, using his entire strengths still didn't give him any positive result. That of course made him to resort to alternate method. The Lord Knight quickly pulled his sword back and jumped back to gain a reasonable distance first, before launching his counterattack.

Or at least, that was his plan. Because Elsword was not able to do. Just before he was able to get a proper gap between him and his opponent, Raven had already rushed at him with a shoulder charge, which rendered Els' guard off. Finding his chance at that, Raven didn't stop his barrage of attacks. He simply continued with his slash with more slashes, giving Elsword little to no breather, especially considering his slashes were done in sonic speed.

But it was not enough to defeat him. Like always, Elsword found a way. Instead of trying to block them, he took Raven's hits fully. Yet, he didn't even flinch any bit. Raven was a little surprised at first, but he quickly took notice of it. Elsword was pushing himself by using such two edged move. He might be able to negate incoming pain for a short amount of time, but that simply made him more open for Raven.

With such thing in mind, Raven knew already that Elsword would go with a quick counter attack.

Which he did soon.

"Sonic Blade!"

Elsword quickly made a spin to unleash a shockwave around his standing spot. It was destructive enough to destroy even the ground around him.

Sadly, Raven had anticipated that. Elsword was hitting no one but the cruel air. The Blade Master had already jumped upward to bombard the younger knight with a Shockwave. And unlike Elsword's attack, Raven's hit his opponent straight.

While Elsword had already partway falling to his knee, as soon as Raven landed from his attack, he finished his touch by flashing and slashing through his path. It looked like a simple move, but as soon as he passed through Elsword's figure, hundreds of slashes quickly followed him to damage Elsword. With a pained cry, Elsword slowly fell with butt first to the ground. His power had already clearly depleted, but he still wanted to stand up and fight further. He was a knight, and a knight didn't fall until his sword was off from his hand.

His entire plan was put on hold when Raven's katana was just right before his face. He gulped in terror at the sight before him, especially considering Raven was staring at him like he was a frail, unprotected rabbit to his crow. Should he move even an inch, it was more than clear than his face would be finished in the wrong end of Raven's blade.

It was only after a moment of doing so that Raven pulled his blade back, before he brushed his shoulder from the practically-nonexistent dusts.

"That's it for today."

As Raven sheathed his katana, Elsword could only grunt and groan in frustration. "...I almost had you...!"

To his whine, Raven let out a short snicker, although he quickly covered it up with another straight face so that it wouldn't wound the already-wounded Elsword's pride. "Your responses on vertical attacks are still not decent, Els. Keep in mind that fights aren't merely consisting of brutal and unplanned attacks. Demons are cleverer than you are thinking."

Considering his torn situation, of course Elsword paid no heed to Raven's advice. He kept laying on his spot, whimpering and groaning like a little kid who had their candies stolen. Raven tried his best to hold back from gesturing a clear facepalm from the sight before him. Honestly, he thought Els had grown into a perfect and refined knight, yet some childish traits were still there inside him. Whether that would be good or bad.

Meanwhile, just not far enough from them were the two females of the group. Rena was still tending the boiling pot for their dinner, while Aisha was sitting on the side, paying full attention at the content of the book she was holding. Rena was preparing the plate for everyone when the corner of her eyes captured the previous event unfolded: Raven and Elsword had just finished their afternoon practice.

And resulted in yet another loss for Elsword, which was followed by him acting all childish. Typical.

Rena sighed as she paused her work, her eyes slowly moved to stare at the magician near her. "Aisha, would you please patch Elsword up?"

As soon as she heard her own name being called, Aisha quickly turned her attention at the caller, soon giving a displeased look as she comprehended Rena's request. "Why should I?"

Ouch, that was pretty rude of her. Still, it was not like Rena had never heard such response from Aisha. She was used to this. Hence instead of lashing out more order, Rena smiled, albeit it was a teasing one. "That surprised me. I thought after you two had slept together yesterday, you two would—"

Aisha quickly slammed her book close and she quickly stood up from her spot to protest, her face flustering red. "H-Hold it right there, Rena! Stop saying something that could lead to a misunderstanding! W-we were just sleeping next to each other," she gave a pause to emphasize her incoming words. "And unconsciously! We were tired!"

Honestly, it was fun poking fun at Aisha for she would always return her tease with such cute and adorable expressions, but Rena needed Aisha to get to Els quickly… Since knowing Raven, he probably- no, he definitely didn't hold back even in his sparring. Lady knows what kind of injury he had inflicted on the young teen.

"Sleeping next to each other doesn't count as sleeping together?" Rena kept her smile, this time making it worse for Aisha by faking innocent. "Considering me and Raven needed to carry you two back to the inn and you two couldn't even be separated, I think you two had crossed the line of friendship—"

"No, it doesn't! It definitely doesn't count as sleeping together!"

If any, her face was getting redder as her protests intensified. She wanted to counter Rena's words further, but it was already obvious from the smile she was getting: Aisha was not winning this argument. There was no use in keeping this longer when she knew the result already, so she cut the stick short, grumbling in displeasure.

"Ugh, very well, I'll take care of him now!"

A victory for Rena. She gave an approving nod at the purple haired girl as she grabbed the first aid kit from the rucksack and approached the knight, who was idly laying on the ground. That was taken care of.

She returned to her cooking just for a short moment before her ears noticed the approaching footstep. The footsteps were silent but enigmatic, the one that she could easily recognize. It was definitely his.

"You should try to hold back a bit sometimes, Raven."

Rena kept stirring on the food inside the pot as she heard the light chuckle coming from the swordsman just beside her.

"He'll survive," Raven shifted his position a bit before he sat on the log that they used for dining chair. "It takes more than that to knock him out."

Just by that, Rena could tell easily how deep Raven trusted Elsword's strength. Truly, she might had stuck around with Elsword more than Raven, but it still amused her how much deeper the relationship between the two men was compared to hers to Elsword's.

"He could die young if you keep it up, you know."

"If there's anything around that could kill him that easily, I am really interested to see them," Raven added jokingly, putting his sheathed katana to his side. "Besides, if I held back, I was probably the one in his shoes right now. Elsword is strong, Rena."

She wouldn't argue with that. She knew very well how strong Elsword was. If it wasn't for him, the rest of the group would probably have already fallen from the amount of ordeals that they had to fight. Elsword had always pulled them to victory. He, if Rena might dramatize her words, was capable of raising a miracle from point zero. Such was a bless of him.

Subconsciously, Raven thought the same thing as her. He couldn't even count how many times Elsword had already saved him, mentally or physically. It was because of him as well that he could gather enough will to fully stop using his robotic arm and rely merely on his swordsmanship. Elsword was his savior, and that was still an understatement.

They owed so many things to him. Too much that it was already way past uncountable by now.

In unison, the two adults' attentions were undivided at the direction of the Elsword, who was having his wound tended by Aisha.

"Gee, you failed to beat him again," the magician teased as she rolled a bandage over Elsword's wrist. "Nice job, Els."

"Shut up," Elsword grunted, his tone full of resentment. "Bet you won't last even a minute against either me or Raven."

"Well, duh," she scoffed in return. "Raven's a true gentleman. He would never even try to hurt a beautiful lady like me."

Aisha's boast only made Elsword scoff. "I take it you mean 'short hag', right?"

And instantly, Aisha's staff met Elsword's head. Whether he was joking or not, there was still something that Aisha simply could not bear with. That being one of it. Elsword was not reciprocating to her action very wisely in return, certainly.

To hell with patching his wound… To hell with being calm at her… Everything was so on.

As the redhead and purplenette tried to settle things by their unique way, Rena could not help but lightly giggled as she watched the whole things ensue. "It's been a while since they bickered like that, isn't it? I'm glad that they were able to make up. "

"It was way past late," Raven sighed. No, he was not being cynical. He was just being a realist. "They could have talked about it sooner than waiting for years."

"Better late than never, Raven."

Rena's glee answer was more than enough to silence the dark haired swordsman. He could give more arguments, but it was already crystal clear that even if he did that, Rena would counter with another optimistic answer. There was no winning against her when she was like that.

Besides, it was not like Raven could ever get into argument with her.

"What are you?" Raven joked. "Their mother?"

Well, now that he said that… Rena was basically their mother, wasn't she? Whether Elsword and Aisha would argue or giving each other their cold shoulder, the elf lady would always be between them. Rena would stay between them until their problems were resolved, by giving each of them the perfect solution to their troubles. Or if that didn't work, she would unleash a certain Rena-tier fury that would silence them for good.

Raven had to admit, though… She gradually became a lot loftier and sweeter. If he were talking to the two years prior Rena, 'sisterly' would be the perfect word to describe her. But now, she was like a walking saint. Sure, there were occasions where she would get stressed from her troubles, but generally, her personality was maturely soft and angelic. Her motherly instinct had surely been awakened.

So yeah, calling her as their mother was definitely not wrong.

Rena blinked for a short moment before she gave a faint laugh back. "Wouldn't that make you the father?"

This time, it was Raven's turn to blink his eyes in confusion, before he actually grasped what Rena implied and he quirked an eyebrow instead.

"Well… A strict and harsh father, to be more exact." Rena added.

That was the thing that made them so close to each other, without a doubt. They loved to observe Elsword and Aisha, along with their growths. But while Rena treated them with care and love, Raven was strict and he taught them how to live from a lot of perspective instead of being blinded by one way. Rena knew everything, however... Behind all of Raven's strict mentoring, he also watched them with care and kindness. It was just that he couldn't be so open about it.

Raven gave another suppressed sigh as Rena giggled yet again. Honestly, the idea of himself as a father figure to those two was not really fitting. Raven was not even sure how to take care of kids, let alone kids like Elsword and Aisha.

On the other hand…

"You know," Raven extended his human arm to caress Rena's long and silky hair. Even though Rena was a little surprised at the sudden touch at first, she quickly recognized the touch and Raven continued to trail over his finger against her hair gently. "I'm not entirely against that idea."

At this point, he was sure he was already being a hypocrite for saying things about Elsword's relationship with Aisha. He was just like the red-haired knight, who couldn't blurt his feeling for the purple-haired magician. For his own case, it was for Rena—

No, he admitted it. He was in-love with her.

But the only thing that held him back from saying it out loud was his memories. She really reminded him of Seris. Not only the appearance, but her voice, her personality… Everything about her was similar to his dead fiancé, and the last thing that Raven wanted was to put Rena as the substitute for Seris. His heart was still not giving any clear answer to this problem: To forget Seris and move on or not.

Hence for now, this level of romantic gesture was already enough. He was more than content with it.

As his fingers brushed against her hair, Rena's arm movement on stirring the food was gradually slowing. She rarely let people touch her long hair, but even so, Raven's touch was the epitome of gentleness. There was no trace of coldness or cruelness that he often let out on the battlefield. It comforted her.

This might silly coming from her who often teased others about their romantic involvements, but Rena was undergoing a process called 'falling in love' as well. Yet, she knew very well that the person she was in love with was still not able to forget his past experience with his fiancé. That was one thing that she could not help with.

Therefore, she had already determined herself that she would wait until he was able to say it to her. She was an elf, she could live for hundreds of years, and she would wait forever for him.

The archer made a smile to herself before she swirled around to face his surprised face. She then continued by replying his gesture with her own hand. She maidenly caressed Raven's cheek. It was amazing that even though there were a lot of scars around his face, his skin stayed smooth.

"So do I."

Her answer made him smile back at her genuinely.


While the tale of the four companions made its progress, on the other part of the continent, the sands of time was flowing as well.

"Mechanical and movement system, all green. Preparations are complete."

Radiant golden irises snapped open as a figure made a stride, leaving the still-warm throne of the chamber of the New Altera.

"We are to meet up with others. Approximate duration until we reaches the target should not be more than three hours of flying," the statement was followed by the firm gesture of the figure's slender arm, as it made a small movement to the side to command the two mini-robots. "Moby and Reby, let us depart."


As you can see, my take in Raven/Rena relationship is that, compared to Elsword/Aisha, theirs are more… adult and mature. They both realized that they're all over each other, but they take it very slowly because of certain things. Short and sweet settled it best for them, especially when they are in their most altruistic job paths (BM and GA, respectively). Also, I didn't make this chapter as long as the previous one, because I have like... a lot prompts for Raven/Rena.

Next chapter would pull Eve, Chung, and Ara to the stage. Please do look forward to it.

Reviews are always appreciated. Thanks for reading the chapter and merry xmas and happy new year!