Disclaimer: I don't own Dragon Knights. I got bored in summer school art, though, and wrote down that Mineko Ohkami was the greatest artist of all time on that questionnaire that we had to fill out.
Warnings: Swearing. Odd humor. Feminine issues. Shortness in comparison to past chapters. Parts of this were written while suffering from extreme boredom during a short summer trip with no computer access.
A/N: Hehe. The first scene for this was originally going to be the end scene for the previous chapter. Then I decided that I was lazy and would just post what I had. :sweatdrop: So it's in here, instead. Probably a good thing, or this chapter would have ended up being even shorter.
:n:
Rune was sitting on top of the uncomfortable leather Darnia saddle, staring blankly at a less-than-steller sunset, and rather boredly remembering the fact that he was a good ten miles away from the capital.
Why, he wondered, Did it seem like he was always trying so hard to get back to Draqueen? Sometimes he felt as though the whole world was conspiring to keep him away from the castle.
Or at least as though the whole of Dragoon was.
Sighing out loud at this thought, he was startled as another, slightly larger hand slipped over his own.
"Beautiful, isn't it?"
"Uh, yeah," Rune managed to get out, realizing that Santiago must have mistaken his sigh of resignation for one of appreciation.
"It's gorgeous."
Which was a lie, he noted, As while it was a relatively decent spot to see the sunset, it was by no means the romantic seaside lookout of a girl's love-struck fantasies. It was directly off a well-beaten path, one that, even as he sat there, merchant's carts were busily traveling down. It was also partially overlooking the northwestern side of the city of Luwa, so the shoreline was broken in parts by the tops of restaurants, houses, and assorted factories and smoke stacks.
The smell of someone's burnt cooking obscured the sea breeze.
As the murky orange faded behind the foggy cloud cover, Santiago stooped down from where he had been standing next to the riding dragon, deftly plucking up a small yellow flower, one of the many that grew next to the roadside.
He twirled it between his thumb and pointer for a moment, looking at it thoughtfully. The common blossom, with it's five, slightly weather-beaten, petals, was already beginning to droop. Then, turning back to the Dragon Knight, Santiago leaned in close, planting his arms on either side of him, his face an inch from Rune's.
Rune's eyes widened and he recoiled slightly.
Oh. Fuck.
"Uhm... Wh-what...?"
Santiago took a deep breath and, obviously apprehensive and nervous, began to speak.
"Rune... Would you..."
Rune's mind raced ahead of the other's words, filling in the blanks.
Oh, boy.
Oh, man.
Oh, shit.
Not again.
This scene was all too familiar.
Which is why Rune had a comforting and cushioned "No. No thank you. Not at the moment. Actually... Never." on his tongue, readied for the inevitable marriage proposal.
His confidence was suddenly shaken by an unexpected blurting of words.
"Would you have sex with me?"
Wait... What?
Rune stared at the younger man, not yet comprehending what he just heard.
First of all, his mind began to slowly point out, That was an incredibly stupid way to ask. The fighter somehow came across as more nervous than he, Rune, had the right to be. He was supposed to be the freaked out one! Not the guy asking him! And secondly, he realized, This was their first date!
Rune willed his mouth to work, trying to squeeze out his thought-out message.
"...What the fuck? I barely know you!"
Well. That hadn't been exactly what he had been planning on saying, but it seemed to have the desired effect as the other wilted, pulling back and staring at the ground.
"Look," he grimaced, mentally sighing, "Have you ever even spent time with a girl before?" When the Dragon Fighter made no response, he continued, suddenly grateful for all the time he had previously spent in the company of Delte, Tinlett, Silk, and a great number of female water lights. "They... Uh... We don't feel the urge to sleep with you, just because you bought us a meal and took us on a ride."
Especially when we didn't ask for it, he added silently.
"Besides," Rune elaborated, trying to find some way to make this no-interest-in-sex-thing permanent, short of giving away his true predicament. Maybe if he told a little white lie and said he was in the middle of a sex change? "I'm... Not ready for that type of relationship yet. You're a sweet guy," he added in hurriedly, avoiding the kicked-puppy vibes Santiago was giving off, "But I'm not interested."
There was an awkward pause, then Santiago spoke.
"...Is this some sort of female mind-game? Like 'no means no', right?"
Rune deadpanned.
Honestly. Talk about giving a specific gender a bad name...
"Santiago. I would like to go back to the castle. It is late, and I need to meet up with my friends."
The slightly disgruntled Dragon Fighter sighed and then nodded, slowly turning the Darnia around to face the road.
:n:
"Hey!"
Cesia looked up from where she was seated on Rath's bed, the Dragon Knight of Fire currently changing in the bathroom, to see an overly cheerful face peek in through the open door.
"Hello, Kitchel."
The female thief slipped into the room, a rather annoyed looking Thats following her, multiple shopping bags in tow.
"So how did the shopping go?"
Kitchel dropped onto the bed next to the fortuneteller, a smug grin on her face.
"Tell her, Thats."
"It was your fault," he complained, "I was going to finish. I just needed one more pair of shoes. And then you spent some of the gold."
Cesia blinked.
"That sounds so weird..."
"But look!" Kitchel gestured to her ear, where a small stone flashed emerald in the artificial lighting inside the room.
"Pretty," Cesia commented.
"'Pretty'? Because of that, I ended up short," Thats continued, glaring at her and her purchase.
The young woman laughed, "Beauty before age, Thats."
It was at this moment that Rath chose to storm out of the adjourning bathroom, wearing a very short black skirt, one of the articles of clothing he and Cesia had purchased that day.
"Goddamnit," he swore, "I hate this."
"Huh?" Thats raised an eyebrow, his rant cut short, "What's up with him?"
Kitchel glanced at Cesia, now stifling a giggle.
She explained, "He started his period today."
The other two blinked at a now quickly flushing Rath, glaring at Cesia.
"Um. Great for him."
Thats half-winced, not able to fully keep the smirk from his face.
"I forgot about that. I didn't think the spell would be that powerful."
"Guess it was," The Fire Dragon Knight snapped irritably, "I'm going to strangle Rune when he gets back."
"No," Kitchel butted in, "You can't do that!"
Rath turned his glare to her, "Why not?"
"It's unfeminine. You need to bitchslap him."
The Knight deadpanned, obviously not thinking highly of that logic.
"'Unfeminine'? But I don't want to be feminine!"
Cesia slipped into the conversation, directing Rath's annoyance away from the other girl.
"Where is Rune, anyway?"
There was a shared uncertain glance, and Thats leaned over, peering out the curtained window where a few stars could be seen winking down at them.
"It's night already. I thought Kitchel and I were the last ones back." He grinned at a sudden thought. "Hey. You don't think he and--" His words were lost, cut off by the loud slamming open of the door, causing the room to shake slightly and its occupants to jump. A small glass figurine fell off a shelf with a crash and shattering tinkle on the wooden floor.
All four turned to stare at the newcomer fuming in the doorway.
It was Rune.
Cesia noted that while he was still wearing her shirt and blouse, they appeared to be much worse for the wear than when she had lent them to him. They were both wrinkled, slightly travel worn and dusty, the skirt sporting a long tear across the bottom hem.
Rath noticed that Rune was leaning on the frame of the door in much the same way he had been holding himself for a good portion of the earlier day. Rune was bent very slightly, as if to stand fully upright would cause too much pain. He appeared to be clutching a stitch in his side.
Kitchel took in his hair, normally smooth and lying flat, but instead messed and tousled. Sweat plastered his golden blonde bangs to his forehead. His face was highly red and flushed, although Rath's room wasn't that far from the castle's entrance.
Thats glanced at him and burst out laughing at the condom stuck to the bottom of the heel of his shoe.
"Shut... Up," Rune ground out between gasps, "That was horrible."
"And yet you look like you had fun," Rath remarked with barely a twinge of sarcasm.
The elf directed a deadly glare at him and continued.
"You all -all of you- owe me. I went on the worst date of my life," And, well, the only, he admitted silently. "I had to make up an excuse to cover for you, and then had to sprint from the stables up to here. At night. Through the castle gardens. Not on the paths."
"Are you sure?" Thats laughed, "You look like you were doing something else. At night. In the castle gardens. Not on the paths."
"Shut up!" The irate elf hissed, his voice rising in pitch. "I have never been so humiliated in my life!"
"...Why?" Cesia couldn't resist asking, tilting her head to one side, long black hair brushing against the bedspread.
If possible, Rune turned a deeper shade of red before stuttering an answer under his breath.
"...What?"
"Santiago asked me to sleep with him."
"What!"
His audience of four stared at him, then at each other, then burst out into mad hysterics.
"It's not funny," Rune sulked, "That was the second time he asked, too."
His response did little but increase their hilarity, causing Rune to loose a little more of his quickly waning grip on sanity. He began to speak again in an attempt to get them to be quiet, almost yelling to be heard.
"Shut up!" He snapped. "I only got out of it -or, really, got him to pause long enough to run away- by saying that I really didn't want to end up pregnant like Thats!"
This did the trick.
The room immediately fell still as three of the one demon, fortuneteller, and thief stared at a very red Dragon Knight of Earth.
A smothered snicker floated through the air, cut off as Thats stood, slowly moving forward, his voice low.
"...What."
Rune sweatdropped, remembering belatedly that Thats was in the room and probably would not take to that particular given excuse too well.
"Um... It was his idea?"
Thats took a swing at Rune, his fist hitting the wall an inch away from his ducked head.
"Thats!" Kitchel stood, cupping her hands to her mouth and shouting frantically. "You're doing it wrong! You're supposed to bitchslap him, remember?"
"Fine," he snarled, "Let me try again."
"W-wait!" Rune quickly edged away, hands up in a show of peace. "Why does it matter? It's just for a month. And you're not... You know..." he added in, deciding that avoiding the "p-word" might be the best tactic for the moment. He continued hurriedly, "And I didn't even come up with the idea! It was Santiago's. I just decided that playing along with it would be easiest--" he bit back a yelp, dodging once again.
Gods. This was stupid.
Even though he could see how it might infuriate the other to be the one used as metaphorical bait, Rune felt his voice take on an annoyed tone.
"You've gone in drag before, just for treasure. How is this so much different?"
"Because," Thats moved menacingly forward, now standing even closer and faintly aware that the spectators behind them had broken out popcorn and miniature flags and were fully enjoying themselves by watching the fight unfold.
"Because, it... It implies--"
He cut himself off, eyes widened with shock at the unspoken statement.
"Yes?" Cesia prompted, a handful of popcorn pausing mid-way to her mouth and starting to grin mischievously.
Thats muttered a response, turning halfway around and tensely staring at the ground.
"...It implies I'm fat."
There was an awkward silence, quickly broken by the simultaneous outbursts of laughter from Cesia, Rath, and Kitchel.
As Thats yelled to be heard over the din, at once trying to both backtrack and defend his point, Rune relaxed, sweatdropping slightly.
At least the others would be too amused by the recently gained body image troubles of their friend to bother him too much about his lack of judgment in finding them an excuse.
Rune took the opportunity to slip silently out of the room, leaving to the sounds of mad hysteria, frantic shouting, and someone choking on overcooked popcorn.
He simultaneously shook his head and a lubricated condom off the slightly elevated heel of his shoe.
Rune sighed, "What a day."
:n:
Kat: ...Yeah... Thanks for catching that... I said I was going to reread it and then post(I think...), but I never did get to the rereading bit. :too late at night, but didn't want to wait until the next morning...: So a bunch of stuff never got caught. :rolls eyes at grammar mistakes: When I get bored sometime I suppose I'll just go through and fix everything... :sweatdrop:
Animegoil: I crack up every time I read "no personal hygiene involved". XD But that's pretty true, with a bunch of guys(yuck). Hey, rambling is fun!
Tarinyo's Forest: Wow... Pretty name... XD Hey, in this situation, one can NEVER have too much fun... And that sucks.
Yavie Aelinel: No! No, you didn't! ...Well... You kinda did. But only to prove a point:nods:
The Shadowess: Hehee... Easter eggs are awesome like that. And all the old stories I used to read on had stuff like that randomly, but you never see them anymore... Ah, well.
Kitty2Satan: That name's kinda creepy, actually. o-oa Haha. He should have. XD
Peridot-chan: I know the feeling. It's like... :suddenly remembers: "You WANT the lollypop, but this other kid wants it too, so you go get your daddy, but he gets his daddy and his daddy is this huge-ass wrestling FREAK, and he beats up your daddy and..." :trails off: No? Not like that? Ah, well. Kat! If you're reading this, that was part of some GWing thing I wanted to send to you a couple years ago, but that got deleted. T-T
Happy Stalker Ball: Sweet name. XD I really hope it's temporary. It should be... Right:slightly concerned: I should go check on him... And, yes. Things are too expensive! It should be cheap! Cheap, I say:spazzes:
:n:
By the way, as two times ago I beat the 100 review mark, this time I beat the 100 page mark: just as big a step for me and my usually short chapters. As of now, this fic takes up 105 pages in an appleworks document: single spaced, verdana, size twelve.
Thanks to everyone who's read this far!
...Gah... So tired... :wants to sleep: