"WHAT?"
Yuri paused before the door to Brave Vesperia's building, his hand resting on the doorknob lightly. He blinked a couple of times and stared at the wood. After giving a confused look to Estelle, he cautiously opened the door . No one was in the front hallway, save for Repede who had decided to nap in a corner. Yuri quickly crossed the room to one of the four doors on the other side and opened it. This particular door led to the large and quite lavish meeting room where everyone was gathered. Most of the budget for the building went to the room everyone occupied. The walls and wooden floors were polished and shone brightly from the bright torches that lit up the walls. The middle of the room had a long oak table that rested on a bright red carpet. Flynn and his trusted subordinates sat on one side of this massive table while Brave Vesperia and its residents stayed on the other side. Karol stood with his hands on the wooden table. The chair he sat on was toppled behind him. Raven sat on one side of the small boy, the old man appearing unfazed. Rita wasn't in the room. Patty, who had taken the seat next to Raven was holding on to his jacket sleeve rather tightly. Against the far wall, Judith leaned against the wood, completely silent. None of them noticed Yuri and Estelle enter the room.
"Flynn, what do you mean by half the city?" Karol asked, his voice loud and higher than usual.
The commandant leaned forward a bit, placing his clasped hands on the table. "I mean what I said. Half of Zaphias' population in the Royal and Commoner Quarters were wiped out. Lady Estellise, Miss Judith and Miss Patty have informed me on most of the situation. Would you care to fill me in on the rest?"
"Rita might know more. She's smart," Estelle chimed in, making her presence known. She walked from Yuri's side to the table and looked around. "...where is she?"
"I can't look...Yuri, can you find her?" Karol asked, his voice hollow, "I want to keep talking to Flynn. He needs our side of the story."
Yuri gave a half-assed salute and turned to exit the largest room. He was able to catch a glimpse of a strange emotion on Estelle's face for a split second before she turned to face Flynn. The unknown emotion twanged at the ex-knight, but he was able to shake it off. It more than likely had to do with what she just told him. Yuri couldn't linger on it. Finding Rita was a priority right now. The more people they had, the better of a battle strategy they could create. Once back in the main entrance way, he paused. There were only a few places she could have disappeared to. His stomach decided to voice it's opinion loudly to interrupt his thoughts. Looking for people would be hard to do on an empty stomach. He hadn't eaten in a while anyway, and a couple of crepes sounded pretty good to him. He made his way to the small hallway that led to the kitchen. It was one of the last things built after he had reminded the excited Karol that they would need to cook and eat food. At the small table that stood in the center of the room sat Rita, munching on what looked like some kind of dough. She obviously hadn't noticed his presence for she kept writing in her notebook and chomping on that small meal she had. Whatever it was, it looked like raw dough of some sort.
"Hey, Rita. They want you in the meeting room," he called out.
The young mage didn't answer. Did she even hear him? Yuri walked over to her and hovered over her shoulder. Last time he checked her journal entries they proved to be quite amusing. What harm was there in taking another peek? Each page was framed by little cartoon doodles of cats. Sloppy handwriting covered both pages of paper. Quite a few of the sentences were scribbled out or had multiple circles drawn around them. Her handwriting might as well have been a whole different language entirely. Yet...he could still pick out what appeared to be his name a couple of times.
"Aww, is that a love letter to me?" he asked playfully.
Now she heard him. The brunette jumped and slammed her notebook shut. Even before she whipped around to glare at him for invading her privacy, Yuri could see the blush that spread all the way to her ears. He grinned at her, reaching out to stroke her cheek. And surprisingly, she didn't smack him, swat him away or pull away. She sat there with a mixture of anger and shock. It was cute.
"Well was it?" he asked again.
"O-of course not! How stupid can you seriously get?" Rita said quickly, turning back to the table, "I'm doing research. Obviously." She glanced back at him with a sneer. "And no, it has nothing to do with you."
"Aww, damn. I was hoping it did," he sighed sarcastically. He smirked a bit at her retaliation; high-pitched mocking that vaguely sounded like his previous sentence. The mage proceeded to ignore him at this point and reopened her notebook to what he noticed was a different page. He sighed. "Are you going to go back or...?"
"When I'm done here," she answered curtly. Rita picked off a bit more of her food and must have had an epiphany for she began scribbling furiously on her paper. Yuri sighed and decided to take a better glance at the doughy food she was eating. She must have noticed him staring because she stopped writing and observed his confused expression. "..Did you want some?" she asked after a couple seconds.
"I'm confused as to what it is," he answered, keeping his eyes on the plate.
Rita scoffed and pulled off another bit of her snack. "It's chicken, you idiot."
He stared at the plate for a bit longer before giving her a look. "...Are you sure?" he asked.
"Why don't you just try some and see for yourself?" she growled, snatching up the plate. The brunette held the dough-shaped apparent chicken in front of him, as far up as she could currently reach.
Yuri stared at it for a second before lightly pushing away the plate that was nearing his Adams Apple. He leaned down quickly so that he was face to face with the little cat girl before him. He grinned devilishly and moved in, licking her lips for a taste. It took everything he had in his power to not force his way inside and slam her down on the table right then and there. He had his libido under control...for the most part.
Behind those soft lips, he could feel Rita's body tense up. The swordsman gave her lower lip one final and slow run-over before standing up straight to ponder the taste. Rita had never been good at cooking. It wasn't that the food wasn't cooked right, it was the lack of flavor that got the little mage's cooking rights revoked a few times. It was obvious she hadn't improved. But then there was that small underlying taste of a flavor he couldn't quite place. A bit of sweetness mixed with...something spicy? He knew from experience that it couldn't possibly be the bland food she always made...which left the only other choice of...
"Wh-what did you do that for?" Rita stuttered, her face a dark red color.
"I wanted to taste your cooking," Yuri replied simply. It was a lie. A blatant lie. And every part of him wished she would buy it. Though that had a very slim chance. That train of thought was brushed aside. Finally, he got that connection he was looking for. The fire that roared inside him from those few moments of slightly intimate contact threw out his doubts and set his emotions in stone. It wasn't just the ears after all. He returned her stare with a mischievous look before holding out his hand. "Come on. Flynn and the others are waiting. We could really use your genius brain right now."
The compliment seemed to jar her from her thoughts. Rita smirked and her emerald eyes twinkled. "Of course. You guys would all be completely lost without me. I am famous for a reason, you know."
Yuri withheld the urge to roll his eyes at her. She got up from her chair and ignored his outstretched hand. He concealed his disappointment behind a straight face. He let his arm fall to his side as he started to lead the way. He heard her shoes clatter rapidly for a second as she hurried to catch up with him. He smiled inwardly to himself, wishing he could have seen her scramble. The very next thing he knew, his hand was suddenly feeling a bit warmer. Yuri glanced over to find Rita by his side, her face turned away from him and her hand gripping onto his. The grin he had grew wider as he gave her small hand a little squeeze. She grumbled a bit but didn't move away. It was good enough for Yuri. He let her stay and didn't push his luck any further with her. He was lucky enough to do as much as he did already. Besides, he couldn't risk having that dark part of him escaping. He tried to keep it hidden as much as he could and sealed away to the back of his mind. Though the binds on it weren't very tight.
When the two neared the door to the meeting hall, the male pulled away from her, breaking their link. Rita pouted for a second before he opened the door. She immediately regained her normal composure and walked into the room with perfect posture. Yuri smiled and shook his head slightly at her attempt at a tough and large appearance. Rita picked up the chair Karol knocked over and went so far as to slightly push the young boy out of the way to take his place. How arrogant could she get? But that was one of the parts of her that caught his interest in the first place.
The mage plopped down in the seat and rested her elbows on the table. Yuri stood a ways behind her and leaned against the wall. What a nice view of those ears...and her back.
...Dirty thoughts.
"Right. Here's what's going on, from my understanding," Rita started, gesturing to Flynn with her hands, "these guys use blastia. They're capable of using magic too, and-"
She was cut off by the knight. "Miss Mordio, we know this. My men and I have encountered the enemy already."
Rita stared at him for a few moments, not moving. She wrinkled her nose at him before letting out an aggravated huff. "That makes things simpler then...I guess," she grumbled. "Saves me a lot of talking." The genius mage cleared her throat and folded her hands on the table. "I'm not even sure how they have the blastia. There are a couple theories...but I really don't want to think about them."
"Please, Miss Mordio. It would be beneficial to hear any insight you have on the matter." Flynn urged, keeping his straight face.
Rita glanced over at Judith before settling her green eyes back into Flynn's. "Apathea were harvested for blastia." Almost immediately, the Krytian woman touched the side of her head, closing her eyes. She relaxed her body after a few seconds with a small smile. Rita took note of the lack of any urgency before continuing. "The odds that any buried blastia in ruins remained there after we converted them at Tarqaron are very slim to none. The only other two blastia remaining are in this room with us," She motioned to both Estelle and Raven separately. "These two. Which is most likely why they've been targeted."
The blonde knight frowned at her, trying to comprehend the information just given to him. "I don't entirely understand...just why is Lady Estellise being attacked? As far as I can see, she's human."
Rita leaned forward a bit, waving her hand slightly. "She is, and isn't. I've found out through lots of researching that Children of the Full Moon are born different than regular people. They have a special code imbedded within their bodies that gives them the properties of a blastia."
"Which is why I can use Healing Artes without a blastia," Estelle chimed in, smiling as if she contributed the most important piece of information.
Rita shot her a small smile before taking a deep breath to continue on. "In the spirit conversion, we used up four Apathea, and Alexei took the rest from any remaining Entelexia when he brought Zaude back above the surface. Judith's Ba'ul is the last known Entelexia remaining, and he's safe and ok. I hate to say it, but I have no idea how they managed to get any blastia."
Flynn, along with everyone else in the room nodded slowly, digesting her information. The room was silent for what seemed like a couple of hours before Raven decided to enter the conversation. "Yeager. Yeager was jus' like me."
The air in the room was filled with a sense of dread. Yuri spoke up first. "We never buried him...we just left him with Gauche and Droite."
"Oh, I hope they're ok," Estelle mumbled nervously, "what if they were captured, or even killed?"
"It would explain how they have blastia, if they got to Yeager's body," Rita added. She looked over at Estelle with a soft look. Yuri noticed and felt a twang of jealousy. "I'm sure they're fine, Estelle. Don't worry," the mage cooed.
Flynn cleared his throat to gain attention. Everyone in the room turned to look at him. "Our best plan of action would be to find the enemy base. From there, we can formulate a plan of action and," he was interrupted by a young voice.
"Excuse me, Flynn," Karol piped up, "it's nice that you're planning things out, but this is my guild building, and I'm the leader."
The knight blinked a couple times. Yuri suppressed a laugh as he watched his best friend get told off by the little boy. Though Karol had scolded him earlier that day for about the same thing. Karol tapped Rita on the shoulder and she moved from his seat without any sort of an apology. Her bit was done after all. She started walking over in Yuri's direction, who greeted her with a smile. She saw it, for she stopped in her tracks to stare at him. Her face flushed and she spun on her heel to march off in the opposite direction. Yuri didn't drop his smile. A little hard-to-get wasn't bad. It would make things more fun. He put his thoughts aside when his name was called.
"What?" he responded casually.
"Yuri, what do you think we should do?" Karol asked him, "I want to be careful...but we can't let these guys go unpunished. Like...like at Mount Temza when we fought Tyson and," he hesitated for a second, "Nan."
"You know what I think, Boss," Yuri said, "find the base, storm right in and kick the leaders ass to the month of Aphelion. And then some."
"Nah, we can't do that. These guys are crafty buggers. A head-on charge would prob'ly get us all killed," Raven added, "what we would need is a bit o' stealth. Goin' undercover an' whatnot."
It was Judith's turn to add her piece. "My, Raven, are you saying we should disguise ourselves as the enemy and infiltrate the base that way?"
"We could try to seduce them again!" Karol grinned, "that seemed to work well last time! Judith, you were amazing!"
The Krytian woman chuckled to herself and placed a hand on her chest, obviously enjoying the memory from the attention she grabbed. Raven nodded in agreement, placing a hand over his chin and stroking his stubble.
"Oh that would be the best sight ta behold...seeing our fine Judith expertly distracting any guards they have...brilliant, my boy, brilliant!" He applauded Karol from his chair., "I'm teaching you well, Karol."
"Like hell that would work," Rita scoffed from her new seat at the farthest end of the table, "that's a stupid idea."
"Are you volunteering yourself, Rita darlin'?" Raven grinned, turning to grin at her.
His comment sent both her and Yuri into a small state of shock. Rita in a sexy outfit. Those five words were enough to jumble his mind like a pile of old christmas lights. His imagination instantly went wild with every possible outfit. He had already seen Estelle and Judith in them, which really didn't help the images in his mind.
"Oh hell no! That's fucking stupid, you sick creep!" Rita yelled, her face a bright red, "B-b-besides, they already know me, s-so it wouldn't work!"
Just as Yuri was about to open his mouth, Raven stole the words he was about to say. "Ya could still do it anyway, ya know. Jus' fer shits an' giggles."
The old man had to duck, for a nearby vacant chair was hurled at his face. Yuri watched with a slight feeling of disappointment. Maybe if he asked her the same question...
"You're a goddamn freak! There's no way I would ever do that, ever!" Rita yelled, and Yuri could have sword he saw the smallest glance in his direction on her beet-colored face. It was too quick to determine if it was a shut-the-hell-up-and-don't-even-repeat-that look or a I-wish-you-had-said-it-instead look. She folded her arms and leaned back in her seat, watching the group.
"Let's save the fighting until we need it against our enemy," Estelle said nervously, trying to keep the peace.
"Her highness is right. We don't have the time to argue and fight amongst ourselves. We need all our energy for the fights ahead," Flynn added. The blonde turned to Karol. "Then, Karol, I would like to formulate a plan with you. We don't know where the base is, do we?"
Before Karol could answer, Yuri interrupted with a yawn. "Have fun, boss. Get me when you've sorted everything out and give me a little recap."
"But Yuri!" the little leader protested.
"Being tired won't help our chances of winning." he said calmly, "We've traveled a lot today and the day before. Dahngrest will be safe if they decide to attack. There's plenty of guilds here that can defend the city."
Karol frowned and exhaled slowly. After a few moments of silence he sighed. "Alright...I guess me and Flynn will just make plans. You're right. All of you need to rest. We don't know how far we'll have to travel."
"Thanks boss," Yuri grinned, moving to Karol and ruffling up his hair, "I know we can count on you."
Karol grinned and pushed Yuri's hand off his head. "I know, I know."
Yuri gave a half-wave before leaving the room. He was soon followed by Raven, Patty, Judith and Rita who each went off to their own separate rooms. All but Estelle. She approached Yuri and tapped him on the shoulder to grab his attention.
"Umm...Yuri?" she asked softly.
Yuri turned his head and raised an eyebrow to show she had his attention.
"Have you, umm...given any thought to what I said earlier" Estelle asked again, her cheeks a light rosy color, "I-I mean, it's ok if you haven't. I'm just curious."
Yuri turned to face her fully and put his weight on one leg. "Estelle, I think we have more important things to worry about right now," he said with a small smile.
"R-right. I'm sorry," she apologized, looking down on the ground.
Yuri shook his head slowly, the smile still on his face. He placed a hand on her head and messed up her hair lightly, "Try to stay focused for me, ok?" he asked gently.
Estelle perked up her head and smiled. "Ok, Yuri. For you, I will."
Yuri removed his hand from her head and let it drop by his side. "I think staying in Judy's room would be best for you tonight. She's a strong fighter and can do a good job of keeping you safe."
Estelle blinked a couple of times and opened her mouth as if to speak. She must have decided against it and closed her mouth with a small smile. "Yeah. Which way...?" She looked around nervously.
Yuri pointed down a hallway just to the right. "Second room on the left," he said.
Estelle looked back at him. "...And your room?"
"Furthest on the right," he answered, "but I'm going to be sleeping, you know."
Estelle nodded quickly and tried to hide her small blush. "R-right. Umm...I'll see you later then, Yuri. Good night." She bowed her head before walking down the hall to Judith's assigned. Room. Yuri sighed and went off to his own room, thinking about what to do with her would come later. Right now, resting for the battles ahead was much more important.
Yuri Lowell opened his eyes. His vision caught the all-too-familiar ceiling of his room in Brave Vesperia's headquarters. He sat up, his mattress creaking slightly from the shift in weight. It was an old bed, but he didn't mind. It was better than sleeping on the cold dirt. He swung his legs over the edge of his bed and stared at his walls.
"Yuri...? Where are you going?" a voice asked from behind him.
Yuri turned around to find Rita on his mattress a good couple of feet away from him. He felt his heart rate pick up when his dark eyes traveled down her body. She wore her uniform...if that was called wearing anything. The dull pink tie hung loosely around her neck and was the only thing keeping her shirt slightly together. Each button down the front had been undone, exposing her creamy skin and her red undershirt, which was doing a poor job of covering up her small chest. Her apron lay under her knees messily, as if it had been ripped form her body. The black skirt had been disheveled from it's place around her hips and exposed her thigh and the pure white panties she wore.
And to top it all off, she had those godforsaken ears on top of her head.
Yuri could feel the heat rising to his face at an alarming rate. No poker face of his could cover it up. He cleared his throat and asked her, "Rita? What are you doing?"
"You're the one that called me in here, remember?" she replied, her voice strangely sweet, "we started talking about our plans, then we were talking about life...then, you know..." She blushed and looked away, a small smile on her lips.
Yuri was confused. "Are you feeling ok?" he asked, "you never act like this."
The half-naked cat girl frowned. "Of course I am. I should be asking you that question." Her voice went back to normal, how he remembered. That was better. The brunette crawled over to him and took a seat on the edge of his bed. She looked up at him with sparkling green eyes before sighing and resting her head on his shoulder. She meowed as she nuzzled into him gently.
Yuri was, for a rare moment in his life, utterly lost. This wasn't the firecracker he had grown fond of. This was an entirely different Rita. This Rita was sweet and cute...well, she was always that cute. He couldn't deny that fact to himself. Part of him wanted to shove her off and stay away. It could be a trap, or some sort of other strange device to get him to let his guard down. Yet...
"Rita, it would be best if you...stopped that and moved back to the other side of the bed." he said calmly.
The mage pouted and looked up at him. "Why? What if I don't want to?"
He glanced over at her, keeping his face forward. "I mean it, Rita."
"No. You're not the boss of me," she said smugly, snaking an arm around his, "I'm going to stay put."
"I'm warning you, once I lose control, I can't get it back." The male faced her fully this time, his black eyes sharper than usual. "I don't feel like being responsible if you get hurt."
Rita huffed and released his arm, pulling away. Just as he wanted her to. Just when he thought he was safe, the young mage got on her knees on the mattress and leaned into him again, this time putting her mouth right by his ear. "...I dare you," she breathed.
Yuri suppressed a shudder. How in the world did she know about that spot? He reacted quickly, catching her chin with his hand. He brought her face incredibly close to his and stared her down. "Don't say I didn't warn you," he whispered, his black eyes gleaming as they stared at what would soon be his prey. Yuri moved quickly, pinning her down on the mattress in the blink of an eye. He gave her a victorious smirk before moving down to kiss her roughly...
...When a swift knock on his bedroom door woke him up from his dream.