Title: Alvarna Rhapsody
Author: abernaith
Summary: All of the Alvarnians knew that newcomer Kyle was going to change their lives. They just didn't expect how much change he was going to bring to everyone, especially to the seemingly closed hearts of four young men.
Warnings: This chapter is a K+, despite what the title may suggest.
Further Notes: This is the final installment of Volume I of this series. There'll be a short break before I start posting again (more or less a few days) so I'd have time to plan and polish.
Disclaimer: This work of fanfiction is only for fun and gains absolutely no profit. All characters, environs, and objects used and referred to freely in this fic are properly owned by Neverland Co., et al.

ALVARNA RHAPSODY
A Rune Factory 2 Fantasy!pr0n Production

SIDE STORY: Anatomy Lesson

It was one of those rare days when rain came both unannounced and unwanted.

Kyle could see the window from where he slept. It was pouring so hard out there, and only 6 AM by his clock. He knew from experience that wet weather lasted all day in Alvarna when it came. It visited rarely enough that Kyle came to expect a sunny day when he woke up unless he had paid Alicia to meddle with the weather the day before.

And here he was hoping to experience his first picnic breakfast with Ray out by the waterfall near his home.

The knock on the door came when Kyle would have expected it, had the weather been any friendlier. Standing on his porch, with an impossibly cheery smile on his face, was Ray. He was holding an umbrella in one hand and a picnic basket in the other. Kyle quickly relieved Ray of his heavier load and ushered him inside.

"Tell me, what possessed you to go out in this weather?"

"And a good morning to you too, Kyle," Ray said, in lieu of replying. That too-cheery smile was still stuck on his face.

"Stand closer to the fireplace, will you?" Kyle went on, too absorbed in mothering Ray at the moment to notice the slight mockery.

Ray obediently went to Kyle, who had himself moved closer to the fireplace, and allowed the young farmer to help him out of his smock. Strong winds had blown rain under his umbrella partway through his trek to Kyle's farm, so the young physician-in-training was actually grateful that Kyle had wasted no time in building a big fire using rune magic.

"I'm sure it has come to your attention that outdoor activities are out of the question today," said Kyle.

Kyle set the picnic basket on the floor and stepped up behind Ray, pressing his body against the other man's. He started rubbing his hands up and down Ray's shoulders, purportedly to warm them up.

"We could still do the picnic, in here," Ray replied, turning his head a bit to catch Kyle's eye.

The young farmer wasn't even half-convinced, but he nodded mutely in assent. With a long sigh, he allowed his companion to step away from him and busy himself with the contents of the picnic basket.

Later, sprawled on rug by the fireside, Kyle concluded that rain and a stay-home picnic day wasn't such a bad combination. His head lay comfortably on Ray's lap, while the latter alternated between reading a medical text (which Kyle couldn't help commenting on) and running his fingers through the young farmer's soft, thick head of hair.

"So what time do you need to head back?"

"Mom gave me the whole day off, actually. The clinic hardly sees anyone else but us when it's pouring like this."

"That's great."

"See?" Kyle could hear the smile in Ray's voice. "Today's bad weather turned out to be good for us."

"But what's there for us to do, seeing as we're cooped in here for the day?"

"Oh, I can think of plenty of things I want to do with you."

Kyle was sure that Ray was just teasing him, but he still couldn't stop the blush heating his cheeks. A hand slapped his forehead playfully.

"Silly! I wasn't thinking like that!" Ray said, his tone light as laughter.

"I'd like to draw you, actually," he went on.

"Oh. Okay..."

"So go fix us some hot chocolate while I set up my drawing things."

Then Ray bent down to press a chaste kiss on Kyle's nose. Kyle stood up to do Ray's bidding, a wide grin on his face that Ray could feel from all the way across the room.


Kyle flipped idly through the pages of Ray's sketchbook. It was the first one he'd used, back when they hardly knew each other. There were lots of doodles of insects and rough sketches of trees and shrubs. There were also pages upon pages of impressions of different kinds of leaves, their veined undersides creating fine, white cracks in the shadowy, charcoal clouds. Kyle could only recognize a few by their general shape. While reading the labels, he was surprised to find that the species of grass out in his field turned out to be very different in other ways apart from color, which made them even more unique and beautiful.

Kyle understood the love for detail that Ray showed in his drawings. However, he knew that Ray's appreciation for the smallest of things was to a far higher degree than his own. It proved how deeply sensitive the young amateur artist can be, although this far from defined Ray's entire personality. Ray was also strong and very disciplined. He was neat in all his ways. He was always so calm, so patient, so giving. He was so very different from—

Kyle's hand froze halfway through turning a page. He didn't want to think of Barrett, but it was too late now. He knew he should stop fretting or Ray might catch on to his mood. He needed a suitable distraction so he tried to focus on the book before him. On the open page, rendered in simple lines of charcoal, was a sketch of himself cutting grass in his field. Guilt sank in his gut like a heavy stone.

"What's the matter, Kyle?" Ray's voice shook Kyle from his gloom. The young farmer turned his head toward his companion and gave what he hoped was a convincing smile.

"Your old sketches brought back memories, that's all. Say, are you drawing already?"

"Mm, just a practice sketch to get my hand warmed up."

Kyle got up and went to Ray's side of the blanket. He perched his chin on Ray's shoulder to get a better look at his sketchbook.

It was a sketch of him, rather unfinished. His body was but a long shadow stretched out on the rug. Kyle presumed the rough shapes in the background were the beginnings of a hearth. Ray had drawn the outline of his face in profile but had yet to fill in his features. For a moment, Kyle wondered what Ray had seen in his face. How long had he been watching his face?

"It seemed like a good subject, but I got distracted," said Ray, breaking into Kyle's thoughts. He was pointing at Kyle's arm in the drawing. It was obviously unfinished, and it seemed that Ray was having some particular trouble with it.

"I couldn't get the angle right. I kept on thinking about how the bones of the arm should be arranged, and that just added to my confusion," continued Ray. "Human anatomy is my biggest weakness, you see." The young physician-in-training sighed.

"But that wouldn't do, doctor," said Kyle, mock-condescending.

It took a moment for Ray to follow up, but he made up for it when he showed the stern mask of a grave physician.

"No, it wouldn't do at all," agreed Ray. Kyle thought he'd have pulled it off had not the spark of mischief in his eyes betrayed him. "Tell me, young man, would you care to donate your body to science?"

Kyle's eyes lit with laughter; all his gloom now forgotten. "For the sake of science; why, there is no nobler deed!" He offered up his arm to a smiling Ray.

Ray took Kyle's wrist in one hand and set his other hand on Kyle's shoulder, feeling for the bone with clinical precision. His hands were very gentle, and it came to Kyle then that Ray was really shaping up to be a good doctor.

From the shoulder bone, he let his hand trail down Kyle's bicep.

"This is your humerus."

Ray's voice came out oddly hushed. Kyle fought down a giggle; it seemed the young physician-in-training took his medical studies seriously.

Midway down Kyle's arm, he pressed his thumb down on the inside of the elbow.

"That's where the bone ends, and where the other two begin."

He bent Kyle's arm so the hand was level with its shoulder, then ran a finger from Kyle's wrist down to the tip of his elbow.

"The radius..."

His finger traced a slightly different path back up to Kyle's wrist again.

"...and the ulna."

His thumb began drawing lazy circles on Kyle's wrist.

"Here are your carpal bones..."

His fingers traveled up Kyle's palm, feeling for the bones beneath the work-roughened flesh.

"Your metacarpal bones..."

He spread his fingers wider, letting each of his digits trail a path up Kyle's calloused fingers.

"And your finger bones, the phalanges..."

Kyle could no longer tell whether Ray's voice had gotten too soft to hear or his own hearing was simply failing as his brain surrendered to the onslaught of physical pleasure triggered by Ray's innocent touch. All Kyle knew by then was that his hand felt warm from Ray's delicate ministrations. He let his fingers close over Ray's own. He saw the flash of surprise in Ray's eyes, but it faded away in another moment. Ray closed his own fingers over Kyle's and drew their joined hands to his lips for a soft, gentle kiss.

Eyes closed, he whispered to their entwined fingers, "And that's the end of our anatomy lesson for today."

-%-