Yuri frowned as he opened the door.

"What happened, old man?" he asked, but he didn't really seem to expect the question to be answered, because he was instantly out the other door and down the hallway, much more frantic than his dry tone and easy stride let on. Raven swayed. Rita barely weighed a thing but she hung in his arms like a sack of meal. Had the room always spun like that?

"Raven!" Estelle's face appeared then, a blurry spot of horrified concern. "You found her! Oh, oh, come with me. Over here, just a step or two."

Yuri was back again, making as if to take Rita, but Raven just stumbled after the pink blob that moved through the inn towards a bed-shaped blob.

He sat Rita down – good thing she was unconscious because she definitely would have been pissed at how heavily she fell – and managed to redirect his own fall into a roll across her to the other side of the bed. All of his breath blew out with the effort of not crushing her and as it was, he ended up with an arm sprawled over her neck and face. He rolled over, every limb weighing eight hundred pounds. The bed was too narrow for both of them and Rita's bony shoulder pressed between his shoulder blades while his feet hung off the edge.

"Wake me when she's better," he slurred, not even bothering to cradle his head. No energy left to try.

"Raven, there's another bed over here," Estelle said, her voice sounding like it was coming from somewhere underground. The steel-capped toe of Rita's boot dug into the back of his calf.

"Move me if you can," was all he could say and that was it. He fell asleep, Rita's pointy, prickly self poking at his back, letting him know that she was there, that he'd brought her back.

Apparently they couldn't move him, but it didn't stop them from moving her apparently. When he woke, the sharp angles of her elbow weren't pushing him off the bed anymore and instead he was sprawled out on his back. There was a blanket that had probably been tucked carefully around him at some point tangled up around his knees and his coat was folded in a neat bundle beside him on a chair. His boots sat underneath the chair, covered in mud and what was probably dried blood.

Across the room, Rita was tucked into another one of the small inn beds. In a chair by Rita's bedside, Estelle was holding the mage's hand, the princess's head resting on her own shoulder.

At the sound of him sitting up, Estelle jerked slightly, as if waking up. She turned and faced him, a bright smile appearing.

"Oh Raven!" she chirped. "You're awake!"

"Mostly," he said, running a hand through his hair and grimacing at the knots there. "How long has it been?"

"You slept through the day. It's almost dinner time now. How are you feeling?"

"I'm alive. How is she?"

"Her leg was broken in two places and she had cracked ribs. I did what I can, but it's still going to take a while for her to recover entirely. But she's okay, I think."

"That's good." Raven pushed himself up and went to stand next to Estelle's chair. She looked up at him.

"Are you hungry?"

He was. There was a pit deep in his stomach that just felt like it was trying to swallow itself. His knees were weak.

"Point me at it." His stomach punctuated the sentence with a rumble.

"Oh, I was going to go get you something. Here, sit." Estelle carefully laid Rita's hand back on the bed and stood. She was almost as tall as him, especially with her heeled boots and his socked feet. Her eyes searched his face, and her hand came up as if to touch it before she thought better of it.

"Sit," she reiterated. "Please keep an eye on her and I will be right back with food for both of you."

"Thanks, sweetheart."

Then she was gone.

Raven leaned on the back of the chair she'd vacated for a moment, staring at the seat. Then he turned it about and straddled the back, his chin resting on his wrists.

"How long you plannin' on sleepin', Rita darlin'? The princess is a bit worried."

Which was of course right when Rita groaned and rubbed the heels of her hands against her eyes.

"Maybe an increase of sixty watts..." she muttered, clearly not awake yet.

The moment she did wake was obvious though. Her palms still digging into her eye sockets, she froze. Raven could see the wiry lines of muscle in her arms leap out.

"Relax, Rita darlin'," he heard himself say. A hand, his hand, reached out and laid itself on Rita's elbow.

Slowly, ever so slowly, her hands balled into fists and lowered from her face. She stared up at the ceiling for a moment, forehead wrinkled and fists on her chest. Then her eyes slid to the side, catching Raven in their gaze.

"Hey, old man," she said, and that was all.

He was still smiling, dammit, a small gentle smile that he couldn't seem to pull into a grin.

"Hey yourself, genius mage. Nearly gave Estelle a heart attack, y'know, sleepin' for three days like that. I'm the only one entitled to being that lazy, huh?"

"Entitled my ass," she muttered. She still hadn't moved. Raven waited.

"Wait, three days?!" She nearly hit Raven with her flailing arms as she exploded out from beneath her sheets.

"Hey, hey! Watch it!" Raven cried, ducking away from billowing fabric and stray elbows. He had been closer than he realized, as he found himself nose to nose with a bristling mage.

"I was out for three days?! Why didn't you guys wake me up?"

She stumbled as she tried to stand, tried to put weight on her bum leg, and Raven did catch a shoulder to the face as she all but collapsed.

"Hey, easy as she goes there, darlin'. I was just yanking yer chain. It's only been like twelve hours. I just woke up m'self. "

Any part of his face that was not already throbbing was quickly added to the fold as she punched his temple. It was weak, but still...

"Idiot! Don't scare me like that! Do you have any idea how much work I have to do?"

Yes, he did, and there was no way in hell he was going to let her get started on it just yet.

"Slow down, genius mage. In case ya ain't noticed yet, yer leg's a bit under the weather there."

"That's what you're for. You can carry me, right?"

She was in earnest, testing her leg by flexing it back and forth before actually looking at him. She mistook his expression of... something, for one of horror.

"Oh grow a backbone already. A little work never hurt anyone. You don't even have to carry me, just... find me some crutches or something. This is a clinic or something, right?" Now she was looking around her surroundings with a bit more interest idly massaging her leg.

"Rita darlin'..."

This time when she looked at him, she mistook his look – this time definitely of worry – for exhaustion. Her nose wrinkled for a second in thought, then smoothed again as her eyes widened.

"Wait... You were the one that came and got me, weren't you?"

He couldn't tell how she felt about that, so he went the safe route and made as elaborate a bow as one could sitting backwards in a chair.

"Raven the Great, at yer service, madam."

She hit him on the head. It was gentle, but her face was livid.

"You idiot! What are you doing up?"

"I've got work to do, love."

"No, I've got work to do. You should be acting like the useless lump that you are and be getting sleep. You look like shit." Her tiny hands pinched with astonishing strength at the bags under his eyes.

"Rita –"

"Seriously, of all the idiotic – I was doing just fine on my own!"

"Didn't look that way to me."

"Shut up. I could have gotten myself out or you could have waited for the army or something."

He could see her hands trembling as she went back to viciously rubbing at her leg.

"Really, what were you thinking? You went in by yourself, didn't you? You could have gotten yourself killed and how do you think I would have felt when someone competent got me out?"

"Rita – "

"And your heart! You know it's not strong enough for exertion like that!"

"My blastia's fine, darlin'. I promised ya I would get ya out."

She talked right on over him, staring at the space where his blastia lay beneath his shirt instead of at his face. She kept massaging her leg.

"What if something had gone wrong and I hadn't been there to fix it?"

"Rita, forget about the damn rock!"

She did meet his gaze then, eyes flashing green and wet. Her mouth snapped shut, something he'd never seen before.

"You're out now," he said firmly. "You're safe."

She snorted, but her shoulders shook more than they should have.

"Idiot, I know that."

He suddenly wanted her to hit him again. Something to make her feel better.

"I wasn't scared, I just... I wondered if that was how it was for Estelle."

Raven felt as though he had been kicked in the chest. Rita still wasn't looking at him.

"Being used, I mean," she continued. "Knowing that they were going to make you do something you didn't want to."

The hand not on her leg curled into a fist and smoke rose from it.

"Hey – " Raven's throat wouldn't work properly. He realized that he had clenched his teeth so hard that his jaw was aching. It was as if he were no longer in control of his body. He could feel Schwann taking over his face, trying to kill the emotions instead of deflecting them as Raven would. Rita's eyes were practically crossed as she stared holes into her lap.

"I didn't recognize anyone. I didn't recognize where I was. I don't know if I could identify any of it ever again. I just –"

"Stop it." Raven forced down the Schwann that would bark like that. Rita's eyes snapped to his face, her cheeks and ears bright red.

"Ya don't need to blame yerself," he said as gently as he could. "Ya did good, kiddo. Ya held out, and yer back now. That's all that matters."

"I'm no good to anyone now though," the mage all but screamed. "I don't know what to do."

"Just be yerself, Rita darlin'. That's who I can to rescue and that's all I was expectin' to get home."

"You're an idiot, you know that? Don't say stuff like that. It's embarrassing it."

The answer was immediate, but her hand stopped digging into her thigh.

"You make it sound like I was some damsel in distress," she muttered in conclusion.

"And what's wrong with that?" Raven spread his arms wide and then drew them nobly to his chest. Schwann never moved much, was always still. Movement could drive him away sometimes. "I'll be your knight in shining armor, m'lady."

She snorted and this time her eyes were dry.

"I can take care of myself, old man."

"Yes, ya certainly can. Figured I'd save ya a little effort though."

A/N: Yup, Raven originally was supposed to be the one who got Rita out of some kind of sticky situation, versus just ultimately being a distraction and letting Rita get herself out. What exactly the sticky situation had been was a bit nebulous at the time, but quite a few of the interactions surrounding this and its results were put into the final product wholesale, even if the way it went down was very different.