Okay! Let's do this. sorry for the wait, I was playing Kingdom Hearts.
Also, I won't mention Regal because I hate him and he's in jail somewhere because of that.
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"Hm...." A light hum escaped his throat as his eyes opened to the soft light of the room around him. "Where am I, now?" he asked flatly, and attempted to sit up.
"No, lay back down." Raine pushed him back into the long mass of cushion. "You're at my house in Iselia, Dirk helped me carry you here after hearing what had happened."
"...." Yuan took but a moment to register the situation. Raine was sitting on the bed beside him and his wound hadn't been healed by her yet. "I..." he started.
"Are you alright, now? does it still hurt?" she asked, looking down at his wounded area. It was wrapped with bandages almost tightly.
"I... yes."
"That's good to hear." she said with a straight face, reaching forward and touching the bandages with the tips of her fingers lightly. "It... I tried to heal it but it seemed to be rejecting the treatment for a while, but normal gels and medicine seem to be working." she said. Trailing down the binding and unto his waist where it came to an end. "And your legs are damaged, so you shouldn't be walking... if you feel the need to, use those crutches I've prepared." She spread her hand out forward, lightly against him.
Yuan shivered under the feel of it, and reached up and seized her hand with his.
"Oh, I'm... sorry." Raine snapped out of her trance, blinking and trying to pull her hand back away. His grip tightened.
"You do know that you could have left me there... don't you?" he said with a slight struggle. "... Why did you--"
"I wanted to." Raine cut him off. "And... you should rest." she said, "stop trying to get up." as Yuan was pushing against her hands. He was, though, slightly weaker.
"You think you can control me?" he narrowed his eyes, challenged.
"As the one in her right mind at the moment unlike the hasty one in bed, I feel my opinion may have a bigger count. You should let me take care of you for a while."
Yuan opened his mouth to say something, paused, then shut it. He huffed like a child and released her hand, turning around in bed so that he wasn't facing her. "Fine, do as you like."
"Hm..." Raine mused, "It's like I'm taking care of Genis."
"Don't insult me, I'm still stronger than you." he turned his head and looked at her daringly.
"I see..." poking teasingly at the wound in his abdomen. Yuan flinched immediately.
He grabbed her wrist again and pulled it to the side opposite to her. Being dragged forward, Raine put another hand forward and another leg onto the bed.
"N-ah!" failing at concealing the squeal that escaped her when he pulled her further above him.
He obviously didn't mean to do that because he gasped lightly, looking down at the lack of distance between them and up again, his eyes widened and he released her hand. He sprouted wings in a split second, he flew out from under her and into the center of the room with a jump.
Raine lowered herself onto the bed, making an M with her legs which were on either side of her as she craned her neck to look up at him. "..." and she thought to herself quietly.
I get it... she thought, putting a finger to her lips. Yuan seemed to have drops of sweat around his temples and down his neck. He was breathing a bit more than before and looking battle-ready.
"..." she wordlessly understood, "I'll let you rest, then." she slid down from the bed and touched to the floor gracefully. Raine quietly left the room.
He waited for her to shut the door behind herself, and he finally considered landing. When he did, he felt pain shoot up his legs, "Damn!" he cursed, grabbing for the crutches that she left for him. Yuan took a deep breath and went to the window, leaning out of it slightly with his folded arms resting on the sill. He took a deep breath, running his fingers through his hair slowly.
"Oh, you're back." Raine looked to the rest of the group who were standing outside the room.
"P-professor! We heard from Dirk what had happened!" Colette clasped her hands together and bounced on her toes. "A-are you okay?!" she was on the brink of lunging forward at her professor.
"Ah! Alas I was not there to prevent this! Here! Let me kiss away your injuri--ah!---" being pulled back roughly by Sheena, Zelos outstretched his arms, "Nooo! I... I must!" he closed and opened his hands in attempt to grab Raine.
"How shameless." Presea scoffed.
"I'm fine, Colette, thank-you for your concern." she smiled, completely ignoring Zelos, "But Yuan, however... is a little on the vital side." pausing, He can obviously still move... she thought, "...I'm not hurt, at all in fact, but Yuan should get some rest. There seemed to be some sort of magic in that man's attack that nullifies the effect of healing, so you'd have to be stocked with gels and potions if you want to face him." she warned.
"How strong was he, Raine?" Sheena asked, curious.
"Not very, we could all take him at once." she said, "But... then again, he did do quite some damage, and we're not exactly experts on his attacks, all we know now is the curse-like side-effect, other than his spells." Putting a folded hand to her lips, she thought, "... He claims his name is Lance. We defeated him but he simply dissipated, His last words were that he was sure that we'll be seeing him again."
"He sounds tough." Zelos put his hands on his hips, "And forcibly trying to take women with him is not cool."
"To tell the truth I only noticed an oppressive or forcible behavior towards Yuan." Raine said, "He seemed to be more focused on meeting me as far as I could tell as first."
"You're sure popular with the guys, Raine." Sheena smirked, catching a quick scold in turn. "I uh..." she scratched her cheek and sweat-dropped, "So do you know why he wants you?"
"Yeah, tell us." Genis blinked.
"We actually haven't found out yet." A voice came from the door behind Raine.
"Yuan, you should be in bed." Raine commanded without turning around. "You shouldn't even be walking now without support like you are now." She could tell, without looking at him that he was being too prideful to give in to his injury.
He decided to ignore her then, "So, everyone's here now?" he walked forward into the group, Raine looked at him, he had put his shirt back on and smoothed out his hair from a few moments ago.
"..."
"Yeah." Lloyd said, "So, are you going to be helping us out, now?"
"Obviously, now that almost all of my men are gone from the base. I would get more recruits if I wasn't certain of my time being wasted when they're all killed the next day."
"Yuan is angry." Presea noted aloud.
"..." Yuan glared in disagreement.
"Hm..." Raine smiled, "Well, I feel I should continue treating his wounds." she said, her normal stoic look returning, "I have a feeling that the curse effect may wear off in time." she said. "And then I can speed up the process--"
"Wow, professor." Lloyd blinked.
"Hm?"
"I'm really surprised that you haven't tried to tie Yuan up so you can study his abnormal wounds while you can already."
Yuan shifted at the thought, actually imagining that, he coughed, crossing his arms and tugging at his collar.
"...." She froze, speechless, as if an idea had just struck her Raine's eyes faded into a light blue-tinted white as she gave Yuan a look. Yuan stood his ground, though feeling uncomfortable under her gaze. He could see it in the way she looked at him.
A yearning curiosity, Desire. Yuan felt slightly overwhelmed by the feeling upon him now. He swallowed.
"My Glamorous Beauty, you can study ME if you want!" Zelos grinned, his voice lowering into a lower growl, he had started unbuttoning his shirt "As long as you want, hon--ow!" getting smacked by Sheena again, he shut himself up.
"Aaaand thanks to Lloyd, something's telling me that Yuan's not going to end up being healed by Raine anymore." Genis sighed and shook his head.
"Heh heh..." Laughing nervously, Lloyd scratched the back of his head.
".........." Raine stared at Yuan, he could have sworn that she was inching closer to him.
"Yes, Raine?" Yuan tried to get a word out of her.
"Marvelous!" she beamed, jumping forward. "Absolutely Genius, Lloyd." she took Yuan's hands in hers, and he felt his face heat up, "With the first-hand data, evidence and effects gathered from the battle we faught: we can try an examination of the cursed wounds to diagnose the source of the problem and maybe a reverse effect or vaccine according to the wounds and the attacks used on him and to what degree..." Her voice was like a fascinated rasp.
Yuan looked into her eyes which were clouded white, he stiffened a little bit by look. It was... how should he put a type of attractiveness she emitted?
"..." Yuan tried to pull his hands away but Raine held onto them tighter, she was in a rush, she looked down at him, at his shirt, she took one of her hands and pulled at his collar while thinking.
"Now, we must start removing the bandages and begin immediately running tests on the central area of damage." Her laugh was almost evil-sounding, as she took the crippled man's arm and dragged him back towards the room.
"Everyone may now proceed with the search for Lance, but do not spread out further than Sylverant until Yuan's healed, actually... don't go any further than the surrounding towns. And also, one must stay behind with Yuan and myself to keep watch around the house's perimeter and be my aid in defense." she spoke smoothly, slowly closing the door behind her, "Presea, you should stay." Her eyes glanced to the side for a moment, "And Genis. The rest of you, goodbye."
"...." Everyone sweat-dropped at her interestingly sudden rush of ruin-mode.
"Man!" moaning, Zelos collapsed forward onto his knees, "I wanted to stay behind with the sexy professor...."
"Come on..." Sheena and Lloyd sighed in unison, dragging him away.
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Feeling inhibited to speak, Yuan simply let her push him to the bed. She made him lay on his back and proceeded to remove his shirt, her hands quickly unlatched the front and tossed it to the side. She wasn't nervous, he thought, she was doing it so calmly but with a hint of excitement in her eyes, she wanted to know everything about the wound now.
Lips parting, the closing again when Raine pulled him forward so he would sit upright. He grunted ever-so-slightly in pain when she did so, she gave a small apology barely above a whisper.
I can undress myself, he thought, he had the urge to say, but he didn't. He almost didn't even want to say anything, as Raine pulled his shirt over his head with ease leaving him almost completely bare.
He had nothing on his upper body except for the bandages. Raine started to unwrap them, keeping him sitting upright. She was sitting on the bed now. Raine leaned forward so that their chests were almost touching as she reached behind him to continue unwrapping, her head beside his shoulder as she worked at the bandages.
"..." Raine noticed how stiff Yuan was becoming, she looked up at him with sympathy, a slight smile.
Having said nothing so far, Yuan looked at his attacker blankly in response to her smile.
"Alright," Raine broke the silence, "Now, I need you to lay down as I take notes, okay?" She readied a notebook and already was scribbling furiously into it.
"... You certainly seem to know what you're doing." Yuan commented.
"I'll figure this out eventually, just be patient." Raine's writing utensil didn't waver, keeping a firm pace. "...Okay."
"You're done?" Yuan blinked, slightly surprised despite his first observation of her at the library.
"No, Now I need to run tests." she said, "On every wound." she waited for him to follow, but only getting another blank look in return, "... you have to take your pants off." she motioned downward.
Yuan hesitated, looking down.
Well that was sudden. He thought, the corner of his mouth twitched.
"A-are you sure that's necessary?"
"Well of course." Raine held in a smirk. "You don't need my help again, do you?"
"No--wait." Yuan held a hand forward as Raine reached for the rim of his pants at his waist. She retracted her hand and put it at her side. She stepped to the floor and leaned against the dresser to the side of the bed. She motioned to the bathroom across the room.
"I'm going to end up seeing you in a few moments anyway but feel free to..."
"...." Yuan stalled, seeming reluctant to go anywhere at first. He glanced from Raine to the opportunity across the room.
"Contemplating your choices? Or do you want me help after all?"
Yuan swung his legs over the edge of the bed and looked at the the crutches. He took them and stood up, making his way towards the other room.
I can't believe I'm listening to her... Yuan thought irritably to himself as he walked.
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meanwhile (Genis and Presea)
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"Still no traces of the enemy." Presea said to Genis who blushed.
"Uh, Yeah!" Genis nodded, agreeing with everything that she said.
"Genis." She had suddenly said.
"Y-yeah?" Genis straightened up when she turned to him. "What is is Presea?"
"You don't have to be so nervous." Giving a calming smile, Presea brought her ax to her side casually. "I'll be obliged to defend you." she said.
"Yeah!" His voice became a little squeaky, flustered and frustrated at himself so that he started internally crying. "I kind of wanted to be the one to..."
"Hm?"
"Nothing!" he put his forearm over his face and cringed.
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meanwhile (Lloyd's gang)
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"Sheena it's hot!"
"Lloyd, I swear to god..."
"But it IS!"
"You two stop fighting, it's making it even hotteeerr!!"
"But I think it's a nice day out--- hey a snake! Te-hee!"
"AAAHHTHOSEAREPOISONOUS!!" Jumping behind Lloyd, Zelos panted. "Ahh-I mean..." he hesitated, seeing Sheena who was giving him a look of disbelief.
"Since when were you such a pansy?" She glared.
"I've never been to this stupid desert without reihards, okay??"
"Yeah, why didn't we bring Reihards, Lloyd?" Sheena turned to the sheepish swordsman at her side.
"Th-they were at the shop, remember? They broke after that incident."
"What Incident?" Colette blinked.
"when Zelos came up with the brilliant idea to direct us into the hotsprin--"
"H-hey hey!" Zelos cut her off, "It sounded good AT THE TIME, I thought that there would be beautiful women there that day!"
"Uh huh..." Giving him an irritated look, Sheena crossed her arms.
"Look, HOW was I supposed to know that it was senior citizen's day?!" he cried.
"Sheena!" Lloyd groaned.
"Don't even SAY anything, Lloyd." Sheena shot him a glance of spite. "YOU are the one who thought that maybe we should go to Triet."
"B-but it's a nearby town!"
"So don't complain, Damn it!"
"Sheenaaaah!" Zelos whined.
"Zelos?" Sheena sighed.
"It's hOT--- OW!!"
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"I wonder what the others are doing right now." Raine sighed, writing something down.
"Why not ask when they get back?" Yuan sighed.
"..." Raine shrugged. "Alright, so does it hurt when I touch here?" She pressed her fingers to a bruise below his knee.
"Not particularly."
"What about here?" Raine moved her hand upward, passed his knee, just above it. She had detected a flinch, a draw-back.
"Is that a yes?" Raine raised an eyebrow at him.
"It's minor."
"I see." She wrote something in her notebook and nodded. "Since we've already done the chemical-based tests, we only have a little left. Are you ready?"
"I'm fine, just hurry up." Showing a look of defiance, Yuan turned his head away from her and towards the window.
"Alright, I'm actually going to move further up, are you sure nothing hurts?"
"Hn...."
Shrugging her eyebrows with a sigh, a little irritated by his lack of response.
"Okay, here?"
Once he felt her press two fingers to his inner thighs and two to his outer, Yuan jerked his leg away from her hands and nearly fell off the bed.
"Ah..." Raine mused for a moment, "intense pain in the upper leg area."
"No, you simply surprised me."
"I asked if you were ready, you know." Raine tapped her pen against the clipboard with a smile.
"I didn't think you would go that far up..."
"Well, next I still need to..." voice carried for a moment, she blinked to herself.
"To what?"
Her response was delayed, her eyes trailed down, passed his abdomen to the stomach where ridiculously tones muscles were perfectly in place. It's not as though she hadn't ever... seen an athletic man's upper body, but....
Athletic.... Raine mentally repeated to herself. Her eyes glued to him, they had moved up for but a moment and scanned the damage.
"..." Yuan stood in silence, trying to figure out what it was that she was looking at.
"I-I ah." Shaking her head, Raine took a breath and jotted something down on her clipboard. "Sorry, so um, does it hurt here?" She gently touched her hand near his wound, afraid to touch it directly.
Flinching slightly in response, Yuan tried to remain motionless. "Yeah, a bit."
"I see." Raine pulled her hand away and continued writing. "Okay, so from what I've gathered here, We might be able to come up with a reverse solution with these ingredients." she cleared her throat, putting the clipboard forward in front of Yuan so he could see it.
"..." his eyes scanned over it's content, he happened to glance down and notice that there were about thirty other used pages behind it.
That's why it seemed like she kept flipping the page over... Yuan thought to himself, a drop of sweat trickled down his neck.
"I appreciate you being so co-operative." Raine smiled, and stood. "You still have to remain in bed for a while. We'll get the ingredients and try a cure based on what I had read before, how does that sound?"
"Hn..." Yuan shrugged. "I couldn't care less, though you're the one they're targetting."
"...indeed." Raine sighed again and put her clipboard on the table beside him. "...Goodnight."
"..."
With that, she left the room, shutting off the light on her way.
It was then that he realized,, his heart had been beating slightly fater the entire time.
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DONE! HELL yes!!
Okay, review if you would!
