It had been 9 days and the Gremory Peerage were all exhausted from the training they'd put themselves through the past week or so. The two that had been hit the most were obviously Issei and Koneko since they started the strongest so they had to work even harder to improve themselves. However they had done it and both had come out the other side stronger and with a few new abilities each.
It was late evening and the group were relaxing in the living room of the Gremory mansion. Tomorrow would be the day they'd return to face off against Riser Phoenix and his peerage in a rating game to determine Rias' future. Rias stood up suddenly and addressed the group.
"Everyone, i'd like to say just how proud I am of the hard work you've all put into your training, everyone has given 110% and improved themselves by a massive amount. It's late now so i'd like everyone to go to their rooms and get a good night's sleep for tomorrow, it's a big day after all" announced Rias with pride but also a hint of nervousness when remembering just what they were up against the next day, a phoenix, the immortal bird with unparalleled regenerative abilities.
One by one, all the members of the peerage slowly filed out the room towards their rooms followed lastly by Rias who turned off the lights. Everyone said their last goodnights before retiring to their respective rooms.
Issei closed his door and let out a small sigh, the training trip had been especially rough since he'd been following Ddraig's sadistic workout routine. The damn dragon was a hard ass who pushed him to the limit and never let up, but Issei knew it was all for his future benefit and deep down his partner cared quite deeply about him.
(You wish) remarked a sarcastic voice.
"Aww c'mon Ddraig, just admit it, you do care about me even just a little bit" replied Issei playfully.
A deep grumble was all he heard in response from the dragon before Ddraig resumed his earlier nap, snoring a little louder than usual in an effort to annoy his partner for the embarrassment he'd been put through. Issei rolled his eyes at the dragon's immature attempt to get back at his before changing into his pjs and collapsing onto the bed for a well deserved rest.
A few hours of sleep went by for Issei before a particularly vivid nightmare, not unlike his first back in Kuoh, awoke him from his slumber and ensured he was unable to fall back to sleep for a while. He checked the clock on the wall and saw it was 3am, Issei groaned.
"Looks like I'll have to find something to do since I'm not getting back to sleep anytime soon" Issei told himself before quietly opening his window and nimbly jumping to the ground below.
Issei decided to go to the gazebo that was just a short walk away in the fields surrounding the mansion. The path there was paved with stone and the gazebo itself was a large prestigious shape painted a pearl white colour. Once he found himself under the gazebo, Issei sat down on one of the benches and looked up and the star filled sky, it was a beautiful midnight blue with bright white shining stars and even a few shooting stars tinted baby blue in colour. Issei felt like he could just sit here and look up into the sky forever, until a familiar voice called out to him.
"Hey Issei" a certain red head called out.
Issei turned his head and smiled upon seeing Rias walking over to him with a book in hand, apparently she'd had trouble sleeping also and though of reading a book under the night's sky, not a bad idea Issei had to admit.
"Hey Rias, can't sleep?" Issei asked the red head.
"No... i'm too nervous about the rating game tomorrow" Rias admitted with a look of worry.
Issei looked Rias in the eye and saw the worry she hid behind the facade of confidence she had put up for her peerage.
"It's okay to be worried, we're all human... okay maybe that's not the best turn of phrase but you get what I mean" Issei told Rias, stopping himself mid sentence and chuckling while he realised the irony of that phrase to them.
Rias let out a small giggle at Issei's slip before sitting beside him and setting her book down beside her.
"I know, but it's hard to shake this nervous feeling given the stakes of this match, if we lose i'll be married to that pig forever" replied Rias, tearing up slightly near the end.
Issei reached into his pocket and brought out the hankie he carried with him as a reminder of his sister to dry the tears coming from the red head, then looked her in the eyes and smiled.
"Don't worry Rias, we'll all do our best to beat that fried chicken, he won't stand a chance against us" Issei reassured her with a comforting smile.
Rias returned the smile and looked into Issei's eyes, visibly more relaxed. She scooted closer to Issei on the bench and lay her head on his shoulder to which Issei was a little surprised but allowed it since she obviously needed it right now.
"Thank you Issei" Rias said with a small smile.
"No problem, anything I can do to help you i'll gladly perform" replied Issei with a grin.
Upon hearing this, the red headed princess was overcome with happiness and a feeling of attraction towards the man beside her, leaning across his arm she moved her head towards his, closed her eyes and readied her lips. However before she could complete the kiss, Issei's hand moved into the path of her lips and stopped the kiss. Rias reeled back in surprise and looked over to Issei who had a sympathetic look on his face.
"I'm sorry Rias, I- I just-" Issei stuttered.
Rias' eyes began to tear up but she turned away before Issei saw, or so she thought. Issei now knew how Rias felt and it made him feel very guilty because he did like Rias but Raynare was the person he'd fallen for. (Pun entirely intended)
Issei extended a hand to Rias' shoulder to try and comfort her but it was swatted away by Rias before she ran back to the mansion. Issei slumped down onto the bench behind him and sighed deeply. This would affect his relationship with her from now for a while and he had no idea how to fix it, all he could do was hope that she wouldn't lose focus in the game due to this.
After a while Issei stood up with a small groan and decided to return to his room for a couple of hours nap since it was 5am and they weren't returning for the game until 12pm. On the way he was lost in thoughts concerning his feelings about Rias and Raynare, while he did feel something more than friendship with Rias, Raynare had been there to comfort him and she came to the academy to see him when she didn't have to, he just felt a stronger attraction to Raynare than Rias.
"Hopefully I can talk to Rias about this and make sure she's ok before the game, i'd hate for her to lose because I clouded her mind" Issei muttered aloud as he walked along the path.
"Talk about what?" asked a sexy voice.
Issei turned to his right and saw the person he'd just been thinking about.
"Hey Ray" greeted Issei.
"Hey, what's going on with you and the princess?" Raynare inquired once again.
Issei sighed heavily and relayed the encounter between himself and Rias to Raynare in a pained tone that told the fallen angel that having to denying Rias' advances like that had hurt the young man greatly, not to mention the princess herself.
"Ise... I'm sorry you were put in that position, I have to ask though, why did you reject her? Do you just not like her that way?" Raynare asked.
"It's not that I don't like her, it's because I have someone in my life that I see that way more than Rias" Issei replied simply.
"I see..." Raynare trailed off before jumping in front of Issei and swaying her hips seductively.
"So who's this mystery crush you have?" Raynare inquired.
"Haha, nice try, i'm not telling anyone that easily" Issei chuckled.
"Aww" Raynare replied while pouting as the two arrived back at the mansion.
Issei said goodnight to Raynare and made his way back up to his room. He closed the window he jumped out of earlier and lay down upon the double bed. Issei thought about his feelings towards Rias and Raynare, while it was a little mixed up, he still knew deep down that he felt a stronger connection to Raynare and could only hope that Rias would come to terms with that without being distracted from the upcoming game.
A few hours later Issei was awoken by shuffling in the hallway which he assumed was one the team making their way downstairs. He looked at the clock and saw it was 10am, deciding to get up, Issei had a shower, dressed himself in a black long sleeved top, black jeans and monochrome sneakers before finally putting on a red trench coat that was short sleeved and went down to his knees.
Issei turned to the mirror and smoothed his clothes while fixing his bedhead. What he was really doing was stalling for time so he didn't have to speak with Rias before the game as he feared a conversation would only make it worse. Begrudgingly he admitted there was nothing else for him to do in his room so he made his way downstairs.
The first person Issei saw was Kiba in the kitchen making some breakfast, Issei smiled at him which was responded to by a wave from the blonde before continuing to the dining table.
Koneko and Akeno were happily discussing their new moves while Asia was quietly eating her food, the blond nun seemed to be distracted by thought however as every time she went to eat the food dropped off her fork back onto the plate.
Issei walked over to the table and sat down next to Asia. The blond nun took a moment to register that someone had sat beside her before she greeted Issei with a smile that he could tell was forced.
"Asia are you okay?" asked Issei, concerned for his friend and comrade.
The nun took a moment to stare at the floor before lifting her head and answering the brunette.
"I-i'm... no, i'm not" she stuttered out, beginning with a lie that she was fine but admitting defeat and telling the truth halfway through her answer.
"What's wrong" asked Issei, now quite worried at what had the usually cheerful and bubbly nun so distracted and upset.
"Well I- it's just-" the nun stammered as she struggled to tell Issei what was bothering her.
"It's okay, you can tell me, is it about the game?" Issei asked in a soothing tone.
"Yes... I- i'm afraid that i'll be forced to hurt someone" the nun replied in a shaky tone.
Issei looked her in the eye for a moment deep in thought. He knew that Asia was a healer at heart so it must have been hard for her to learn offensive spells let alone think about using them.
"Asia, you'll be with Rias since she's the king and needs your protection, I promise you that you won't have to hurt anyone" Issei swore to Asia.
Asia's eyes welled up with tears as she felt a powerful feeling of gratefulness for her brunette friend.
"Thank you Issei, that makes me feel a lot better" Asia told Issei.
"No problem, now try to eat something before we leave, no good trying to concentrate on an empty stomach" Issei replied with a smile.
Issei noticed a flash of red hair enter the room and steeled himself for the conversation that was inevitably coming that would possibly shatter their friendship even more than it had been the previous night.
"Rias I-" started Issei before he realised than she had already sat down at the opposite end of the table with Akeno and Koneko and entered their conversation.
A wave of dread washed over Issei as he realised that her shouting at him for a bit wasn't going to happen, no she was going to bottle up her feelings and at the worst possible moment they'd explode and she'd do something she'd regret for a long time. He knew this exactly because it was all too familiar with his past behavior and the explosions from him had brought severe, long lasting consequences that even today he was suffering from.
Issei racked his brain for a way to have her spill her feeling to him in private so the damage would be lessened but at that moment Raynare came down and sat on his lap which shut down his cognitive thought process very effectively.
"Hey Ise" she greeted a little more than friendly.
"Hi Ray" Issei managed to shortly reply.
"How're you this morning, you looked pretty deep in though about something last night" Raynare asked the brunette.
"It's a little complicated to explain, but i'm working towards resolving the problem" replied Issei in a more confident tone than he felt.
"I've been thinking about last night and I know you have your eyes on someone if you rejected Rias but I just can't put my finger on who it may be since there are quite a few candidates" the fallen woman pondered aloud.
Issei's cheeks suddenly had a light dusting of pink over them and the boy put his hand over Raynare's mouth to stop her from being heard by the others.
"Not so loud Ray!" he said, ironically loud enough for everyone to hear and look over at the two in such an awkward position with Issei leaning over Raynare and his hand over her mouth.
Both of them blushed quite hard at being seen in such a position by the rest of the team and quickly sat straight to avoid any further embarrassment. The rest of the ORC resumed their previous activities pretty quickly with puzzled expressions except a certain red head who muttered a few words quiet enough so that only she heard.
"So it's her".
Hey people, i'm back (again).
Sorry it took so long but i'm in college again now and trying to balance it and learning to drive my own car which is taking up a lot of my free time.
This chapter has been in the works for a while and I know I promised the rating game here but I needed to get this out as it had some emotional setup that I can't do in the fight so I thought i'd get this out and start work on the fight ASAP.
Thanks to everyone who continues to read this story, I'm so sorry for the wait, I hope to try and get the next chapter out sooner. Until next time,
BK out :)