Soooo It's been five ever. I'll say way after the chapter, I'm so sorry!

Friday was always grocery shopping day, at least for Rena. She had time after class to buy the necessities for the next week. It was sort of a blessing to not have a roommate; it meant no one to take up space in her fridge or anywhere else. Extra space was nice; it meant extra rooms for storage.

As she exited her apartment, she heard a now-familiar voice say, "Rena?"

"Afternoon, Raven! What brings you out of your apartment?" She locked her door, turning to him. She hadn't seen him in a while-he had cut off most of his long hair. Now it came only to the base of his neck.

"Just grocery shopping."

"Me too…um… I missed doing it this morning, woke up a little late." She looked around awkwardly and rubbed her ear. "Hamel is kind of dangerous at night…ergh," This is not graceful at all. This could have gone better. "Okay, can you please come with me? It's just Hamel is full of giant spiders and I need help." Her face and ears turned bright red. She looked down at the carpet.

"…If you insist." Her ears perked up ad she smiled at him. He was running his hand through his hair. "Nice haircut, by the way." She smiled, and they made their way down the stairs and into the lobby.

"Yeah. Still getting used to it. It feels really light and I still haven't gotten used to the ponytail not…swishing behind me." He shook his head, ruffling his hair more.

"No, I get it. I used to have really short hair. I hated it. I like my long hair. You look good with short hair, if you don't mind me saying." Rena blushed as did Raven.

"…Thank you." They walked out of the building in awkward silence. Rena fiddled with her jacket sleeves and Raven rubbed his neck.

"So…How's it going this week, aside from your haircut?" Rena asked.

"Slow week, dragged on. Lots of meetings with my boss. He's so sure that everything he says is right, and makes a point to tell you exactly what to do even though you know how to already." He ruffled his hair and glared into the distance.

"Yeah, people seem to do that a lot. Not just with cars and motorcycles, but they tend to do that with language too. Arguing like children."

"Ah, right, you're a professor of dead languages,…but why?"

Rena stopped and tilted her head at him. After a few steps he turned to her. Her expression was one of amazement. "Rena?"

"No one has ever asked that before." She just stared at him.

"Huh. Come on, Ears, we have to go before it closes." He gestured. Rena huffed, but started walking again.

"Ears?"

He shrugged. "I don't know, I like it though. You still haven't answered, Ears."

"Fine. You're totally going to think I'm a nerd for this," She sighed. "It was when I first saw the word hamadryas. It was in a language/culture book we had to read. In Latin it means dryad, which is one of my ancient ancestors. It enchanted me, so I learned more, and ended up pursuing it, even in college. Now you know that I am a total nerd." She pushed her hair away from her face.

"Huh. I only have my job because I like working with cars. Also, you take this route every Friday night? That seems a bit dangerous."

"I don't normally. I'm usually around here by three to four-thirty. I just had a bit of paperwork and an alarm that didn't go off, so here I am late. It's a little more dangerous at night, but you're scary so I'm sure it'll be fine-that and you can carry groceries. I might be able to handle myself, but one of these streets is the druggy street." They laughed, getting a few glances. None of the people around them looked like normal, sane people. They were staring, and watching them like hungry wolves. Raven shushed her by putting his arm behind her waist and urging her forward, growling slightly at them.

He stopped growling but only when they got to the supermarket did his arm drop back to his side.

"Sorry about that, Rena. That's just an instinct. Why did we go through that neighborhood?"

"Raven, you have no need to say you're sorry. You are one scary man; you were more helpful than hurtful. I think it was nice of you, plus that neighborhood is the fastest route to the store."

"Thanks, Ears, though you might want to nix this short cut. One day you could get jumped."

They shopped around until Rena had gotten all but one thing from her list. She was searching all around the store running from one end to the other. Raven followed her, walking slowly, looking above where she had looked.

"Rena."

"What?!" she called from the other end of the aisle.

"I found your cupcake wrappers."

She dashed back to him. He reached up and snagged them.

"Of course they're high up! Thank you."

"Is this really all you need? There's not very much here," He examined the contents of the basket; only seven items. "I normally get much more."

"Yes. I only need these things because I get take out a lot, and I'm smaller than you. I don't need as much."

"All right, that's it then. Let's check out."

By now it was around 10:30. The store was going to close in thirty minutes. They went quickly through the checkout with Raven carrying the brunt of the bags. When they got out of the supermarket, his cellphone rang. Rena raised an eyebrow. Who, other than Ara, would ever call at almost eleven o'clock? He paused, an indecipherable look on his face.

"You can take that, I can wait right here so you can have a private call if you wish. Just leave the bags on the ground." He smiled, putting down the bags and walking away with his call. She twiddled with her hair while she watched him walk down the length of the store.

Rena paced back and forth, watching Raven as he talked on the phone. I just wish I had gone shopping earlier. Why, oh why did you have to not pay attention to the alarm! You always wake up on time! Then again, Ara did make you stay up all night talking about how Raven is "Perfect" for you. Making you have to take a nap. Rena had stopped paying attention to what was going on around her, so she wasn't expecting the cold cloth on her face, knocking her out.

Once Raven was done with his call, he turned around, seeing three men drag an unconscious Rena into a black van with no license plate. He yelled and started running towards them. They panicked, but still were able to shove Rena and themselves into the van. They sped away with the groceries on the ground and a note dropped on the pavement:

Raven,

You took mine, so now I have yours. Just try and stop us. This little lady will be fun to torture like you did to my home. You'll never escape me. You should've learned your lesson with Seris. Remember Raven, this is all your fault, you shouldn't have been in command of the Crow Mercenaries.

-Your old pal

Raven crumpled the note and shoved it into his pocket. Looks like I need to talk to an old friend or two. He glared at nothing, picking up Rena's bags and walking home. He was going to have words with an old partner.

So as for an explanation. A week after I posted Chapter 3 I had to rush down to Arizona for a weekend, when I normally write. When I got back I got stuck with writers block and finals all at once. So This one's super lateeeeee. I'm sorryyyyyyy.