A/N: Please review if you like or have any constructive criticisms.
Disclaimer: I do not own Tale of Berseia or its content, characters, or plot.
"So who's our target?" Velvet asked with a hand on her hip as she followed a relaxed Rokurou through the Davahl Forest. He sighed, knowing she wasn't going to like it. Killing him wouldn't be a problem for her but knowing what damage he already has gotten away with would eat her up. "He's a consul-rank praetor who's pretty corrupt. I've heard his name around town before. Octavious Curr. He's dipped his toes in a lot of horrible things but word is that now he's promising young girls a cure to the daemonblight. All they have to do is sleep with him and he'll give them a vial of the stuff". Rokurou heard the telltale sound of Velvet releasing her therion claw from its bandages. She was seething with anger. He could tell without ever turning around what she was feeling. Though he hated Velvet's torment, he knew this rage would prove useful later.
"How has word not gotten out that he's a fraud?", Velvet asked through gritted teeth. "Well, that I don't know for sure. That's why we're meeting a Turtlez out here. Though they mostly sell goods, some Turtlez will offer to find information for a price. We just have to find the right one. The one I know about led me to the kid's book and when I checked in with the shopkeeper before we left it was to find out where he's set up."
Velvet was impressed with how well-planned this seemingly impromptu errand was. She couldn't wait to find this guy and deliver her own personal justice. She hated the Abbey for giving this creep the power and authority he used to exploit these girls. She hated Artorious for creating the Abbey, an institution built on lies and corruption.
Velvet was still in her own reverie when Rokurou put his hand on her shoulder. At his touch, her heart began to race, immediately bringing her back to the here and now. "Velvet, we'll get this guy. And we'll get Artorious too when we're ready. One step at a time." Velvet got lost in Rokurou's eyes as he promised her justice. She snapped back to realize that these moments of lost control she was having were happening more frequently.
Rokurou reluctantly pulled his hand off her shoulder, mentally berating himself for touching her again. She was like fire - lovely and mesmerizing - but he knew one of these times she would burn him for getting too close. He was actually shocked that it hadn't happened yet. He had become more bold with each time he got close without getting torched and now he was starting to feel downright confident. He knew though, that he was pushing his odds and, once he got burned, his whole life would go up into flames. He couldn't risk her kicking him out of the group. He couldn't imagine what he would do without her and the kid. Although he left Titania with one and only one purpose, he had more goals nowadays. The most important being to keep Velvet and Laphicet alive.
Rokurou turned away and continued walking, now in silence. Before long, they came across a Turtlez in uncharacteristically dark clothing leaning against a large rock. "It's Dark Turtlez. He's known for providing more services than most Turtlez. He's definitely the guy for the job", Rokurou explained before going up to the little guy. "Hey Dark Turtlez" Rokurou said as he flanked him on one side. Velvet took the other side, leaving him no outs with his back against the wall.
"Heyya, guyz. Whatz can i do for yaz?", asked the Turtlez anxiously. "We could use an extra pair of ears," responded Rokurou. "Alrightz, whatz can i be hearing for yaz?" The Dark Turtlez started to sweat, clearly nervous of Rokurou. Velvet held back a laugh as she thought of Rokurou being considered scary or threatening. To her, he was the opposite: comforting and happy-go-lucky. Rokurou told the Turtlez that Curr was their person of interest and specifically his lucrid demonblight cure operations were their concern. The Turtlez hesitated to take the job. "You seez, Octaviuz Curr is one of the realz powerful onez. Hez gotz a lotz of protection. Not a lotz of peoplez or daemonz will talk, ya seez. Fraidz I can't helpz yaz."
The Dark Turtlez made a move to leave and in a flash Velvet's daemon claw was around his neck, pining the Turtlez to the rock behind him. "Well you see, that's not gonna work for me. You see, I will have Curr's head or yours. I don't really want yours but someone will be subject to my rage and I have limited control over who that will be. Are we clear?", Velvet hissed. Rokurou laughed out loud saying "I would listen to her if I were you," snickered Rokurou.
The Dark Turtlez changed his tune suddenly. "Alrightz, alrightz! Callz off yourz hound! I'll do itz!" The Turtlez spoke to Rokurou as if he was the leader and Velvet was just his henchman. Before Velvet could even react, Rokurou got in the Turtlez face and growled "Don't call her a hound, you pond scum. She is worth your respect!". Rokurou's daemon eye glowed and his voice turned gruff. His reaction was so surprising to Velvet that she forgot how angry she was on her own behalf. "Okayz, okayz! I'll givez ya a discontz as my apologiez. Givez me two dayz. Meet mez in Gallez Lake. I'll havez whatz ya needz." Rokurou and Velvet watched the Turtlez go before heading to Stonebury to find an inn.
A tired and ragged Velvet and Rokurou arrived in Stonebury shortly after nightfall. There was only one room available at the inn but Velvet was too worn out to care until walking into the room and noticing the one small bed. Velvet suddenly realized that she would be sharing not only a room but also a bed with Rokurou. She suddenly felt like pre-Therion Velvet, the bashful villager girl who struggled to look a boy her age in the eyes.
She was brought back to the day she was prickleboar hunting in the Morgana Woods and literally ran into a young, blonde haired blue eyed man from Tallesin. His name was Rigel, she vaguely recalled. They had spent the afternoon talking about all manner of things before he departed with a kiss on Velvet's cheek and a promise to visit Aball soon. She had just turned 15, he was 17. He was the first person to make Velvet consider "love", the romantic kind, as something she could feel. But the days passed and the daemonblight spread and Rigel never came back to visit. Velvet considered now that he likely fell to the deamonblight at some point and could have easily been one of the hundreds of daemons she ate or slaughtered along this journey. She felt that she should have been sad or remorseful but she knew no love was lost anymore. Therion Velvet was nothing like cute little villager Velvet, playing house with her broken family. She was not the same.
With this thought, Velvet took a deep breath and realized her previous moment of vulnerability was nothing more than a faint, ghost-like memory. She couldn't feel those things anymore. There was no room for love in a shell stuffed so full with hatred and despair. She took her tattered black coat off and hung it over the back of the chair at the desk. She proceeded to sit on the bed and take off her muddy boots.
Rokurou watched, baffled at how little Velvet seemed to care about the one bed, even though the boys and girls had always bunked separately in their group. Rokurou noticed that the strong and willful Velvet had a slight shake to her hand as she became more and more exposed. Her voice quivered slightly too as she told him she was tired and going to get some sleep.
Rokurou smirked and decided to call what he imagined was a well-crafted bluff by Velvet. He turned towards the lantern on the desk, blowing the fire out and plunging the room into darkness. Velvet could hear the creaks of the floor as Rokurou drew closer but she couldnt see anything anymore. She heard the ruffling of clothes falling to the floor. She felt the bed move under the weight of a new presence. She held her breath, unsure of what came next.
Rokurou had taken off his kimono and armor, leaving him shirtless with only his black pants left. He climbed into the bed, very careful not to touch Velvet, who was turned with her back towards him. He listened closely, waiting for her to start breathing again and get comfortable. Just as she was starting to feel safe, Rokurou took a single finger and drew it down her back, starting at her neck and following down her spine until reaching the criss-crossed latice of red lacing that led to the covered part of her lower back. He continued dragging that one teasing finger up and down, crossing over any exposed piece of skin on her back it could reach. Rokurou knew Velvet was awake, but he also knew she was pretending to be asleep, resisting pulling away, or screaming, or beating the crap out of him for the sake of the ruse. Velvet was going mad with emotions as she lay there, quiet. At first she was unbelievably angry at him for waiting until she felt safe to attack but within seconds, she felt a pleasant shiver take over. The foreign touch felt warm and comforting within a minute or so.
Her desire to stop it weakened with each passing minute and before long she wished it wouldn't stop at all. Her breathing grew ragged and, just as Rokurou began to pull his hand away, Velvet grabbed his hand, pulling him over her and turning to lay flat underneath him. As she pulled him over her, his face drew close enough to see her face for the first time. Rokurou looked shocked, utterly unsuspecting. Velvet looked at him in a way he had never imagined she would - with desire. Her eyes glistened with want and expectation. Rokurou never knew that she could feel as he did towards her until that moment. In that moment he knew. He knew that her inaction at the times he touched her, or flirted with her, or toyed with her were not moments of withheld distate. Her fire didn't burn him because she didn't want it to.
Suddenly, Rokurou pulled away and climbed out of the bed. Velvet couldn't see him but she could hear him gather up his clothes and walk out the door. She was stunned. He just spent minutes taunting her, teasing her, bending her to his will and in the moment she gave in, he gave up. Shock became anger and anger became sadness. Soon she realized that becoming a therion didn't change anything. She was still that sad, longing fifteen year old girl waiting for her handsome knight to come sweep her away. But this time, she wasn't waiting for Rigel. It was Rokurou making her feel this way. How could a daemon make her feel so unbearably human?!
Rokurou had left the inn that night, unable to finish what he started. He began idly walking through the deserted town of night. It seemed as if all the people in town, and even the animals, were gone, leaving him alone with his thoughts. He had always felt like one of these days he would push Velvet too far and she would say no. He never expected her to say yes and he hadn't yet prepared a response.
It wasn't that he wasn't serious - he was - but he never even considered the consequences of going down down that path. He knew he could hurt Velvet. Not because he wanted to but because love is as painful and thorny as it is wonderful and smooth. His love could break her.
She was already so close to ruin from loosing her brother, becoming a deamon, being locked up by Artorious, and loosing to Artorious during their first encounter. Any one of those things independently could have destroyed a lesser woman, but she managed to take on all of those tragedies. He suddenly remembered that she was just sixteen. In her little life, so much pain was thrust upon her. In his twenty-two years, nothing compared. Sure, he had a tragedy or two of his own but no single incident was equivalent to what Velvet faced.
He thought for a moment of what their chances might have been if they never befell such tragedy. If they were both normal humans in a world without blight. Some villagers would scoff at a guy his age going after a girl a few years his junior. Some would scoff at a perfectly common village girl being wooed by a Rangetsu warrior. His family would object, passing her off as a needless distraction. No, one thing was clear - they only had a chance because of their tragedy. Their pain and misfortune put them together in a way that never would of happened otherwise. It freed them of their obligations and their doubts. Age didn't matter, nor race, nor background. Because they were daemons, they could love in a way so unlike the way they would love as humans.
But should they love? What if she was interested but not serious, as he was? What if she felt tormented or guilty by being loved or happy? What if they tried it out but they just couldn't last?
As it was now, Rokurou had a family, a purpose greater than the one he started with, and a light fighting through the darkness to reach him. He could keep these things by keeping the status quo. He could continue to love Velvet from afar. Though he knew immediately that this was not really an option. He grew in boldness and desire every day. He couldn't hide it forever.
Could he stop? Could he just give up? He knew quickly this was not an option.
So what was left? He figured that, with no perfect options, that he was better off risking some pain and heartbreak for something good and real. But would Velvet feel the same?
He stayed out all night, thinking of a way to broach the subject with Velvet during the next chance. He worried relentlessly about leaving her, not sure what the right move was in that moment. He could of stayed. He could of kissed her. He could of devoured her very being. But as much as he wanted her, he wanted something real with her - not just a fling. Him leaving was for the best, but would Velvet see it that way?
After hours of contemplation and worry Rokurou fell asleep by Stonebury's little pond, grateful that as a daemon he couldn't feel the cold. Velvet didn't sleep much at all, however, as she worried about the things unsaid between them.
She had half a mind to track Rokurou down and eat him. She wanted to beat the bastard up. She also wanted to kiss him, a feeling that was more clear to her than ever before, though she suspected this wasn't the first time she desired it. She knew that Rokurou had become something wholly confusing to her. Nothing ever made sense around him, even when everything made sense.
When morning came, she knew they would have to talk about it but dreaded it with every fiber in her being. He clearly saw. He saw her desire, her passion, her feelings. She couldn't take it back. Slowly, Velvet dressed and made her way out of the inn. She found Rokurou at the edge of town. She knew his silhouette anywhere.
As she approached, she found he was reading a letter, postmarked from the Dark Turtlez. To get all the information they wanted in a timely manner, he would need help, the letter said. It went onto explain he was talking with one source in Yseult but another in Port Zekson might prove useful. Rokurou glanced over at Velvet, and looked away a little too quickly, and asked if she was up for going.
I promised to help on your errand, didn't I?" Velvet responded with a slight flick of her loosely braided hair. She began walking out of town and towards the Aldina Plains before Rokurou had even returned the letter to the folds of his kimono. He tried to keep up but soon realized that Velvet was intent on staying ahead of him. She clearly wanted her space.
Rokurou followed Velvet through the daemon infested Plains, keeping to his own space and battles but maintaining an ever watchful eye on her. But before long, the beasts were too numerous to fight alone. Velvet was surrounded by deamons and more just kept coming. Rokurou fought through the crowds to reach her and once they were together, hoardes of daemons began to fall.
Rokurou and Velvet were amazing when they were together. They knew each others every move. Rokurou would duck just as Velvet's boot blade flew through the air where his head was and crashed into a wolf's head. Her blades moved with such swiftness that he occasionally marveled at his ability to get out of the way fast enough. There were still a few daemons left when, suddenly, they fled. All beasts ran out of sight.
Velvet looked over at Rokurou, confused. Rokurou realized this could only be caused by one thing. "Dire foe," he whispered. As if Rokurou called him forth, a giant red-haired, dark-skinned monkey seem to appear out of thin air. Rokurou knew that dire foes were manageable with the whole gang but Velvet and Rokurou alone would struggle. These guys were no joke.
As if it were just any other foe, Velvet got to work bringing down it's health. She let her deamon claw rip threw the monkey but got whacked hard and thrown across the field in response. Rokurou used a Mystic Arte, allowing Velvet enough time to recover her health. She hopped back into battle, unfazed.
After a half hour of nonstop battling, the monkey still had a good amount of health but Velvet and Rokurou were running low. They needed to end this quick. Velvet set up to perform a Mystic Arte but the monkey had learned to attack before the arte came out. The dire foe lunged his head forward and bit, sinking his teeth deep into flesh.
But it wasn't Velvet that the foe caught, it was Rokurou. He knelt before her, blood streaming from his chest and stomach, where the monkey's k9s did the most damage. "Rokurou, hang on!" Velvet screamed as he struggled to stay conscious.
The rest of the battle was a blur to them both. The dire foe went down. Velvet, now with a dislocated shoulder and a gash in her thigh streaming blood down her leg, picked up Rokurou and threw him over her shoulder. She dragged them both to Port Zekson's door. She used a discarded wheelbarrow and boxes to push Rokurou into the city disguised as merchandise. Velvet knew they'd never make it to an inn with Rokurou bleeding all over the place but the woods were no place to fix him up. Velvet managed to get an inn room and sneak Rokurou inn without too much hassle.
She laid Rokurou out on the floor so she could evaluate his wounds. He was asleep at this point, but breathing. She dressed his wounds, fed him a few grape gels, and then passed out beside him.