A.N: Hello all again. Another update, and an important one this time...we're actually getting somewhere now. Oh, and as a warning, this chapter contains wonderfully depressing issues such as suicide, and wonderful actions of semi-stripping and making out.

Now, because I couldn't be bothered responding to the reviews I got through e-mail (because I'm a lazy sod) I shall respond to them here, look for thoust/thine? name below:

YinYangTigress - lol, I'm not sure whether OOC is a must, but each to their own I suppose. And thanks for your offer to act as a Beta reader for me. At the moment, however, I have got a friend proofreading for me...I happened to mention to her, and she said she'd do it for me. But as I said, thanks anyway.

YamiNoKiba - Yeah, I know, Raine doesn't seem like the type to get lost to me, either. I did try to write it to make it as convincing as possible, and explain that there really wasn't a way she could've found her way out, but I know what you mean. As for Genis casting an ice spell...well, I didn't think of that...and that would've utterly destroyed my cunning ploy to get them all away from each other.

Heisui - Thanks much, I'm glad to see that somebody appreciated the painstaking...five minutes that I spent trying to get it sounding right, lol. (That's a joke, to anyone other than Heisui who's reading this). Hope you're not disappointed by this chapter coming up.

Redneckgal - Thanks, I hope that the last chapter did create some sense of suspense...I suspect it did (thankfully) judging by your review. As a said to YinYangTigress, thanks for offering, but I have someone already proofreading now, but I appreciate it.

ChristalSteele - I'm glad to see that someone thinks Raine isn't out of character, it's always good to know. Hope you enjoy this chapter.

BazeIons - Oookkkk, you're slightly scary lol, but it's nice to see someone's on the edge of their seat for the next chapter. And sorry about the delay to updating this.

Big thanks to everybody mentioned above, who reviewed. And I sincerely apologise about the time it took to update this chapter, unfortunately I was on work experience for the past 2 weeks, and when you spend 9 hours or so helping out at a riding school, you tend to be a bit knackered at the end. I'm actually hoping to get this fic finished before I go on holiday, so if everything goes according to plan, then it should be done in about...2 1/2 weeks...OMG, better get writing!

Hope you enjoy this chapter.

Laid Bare

Raine gaped, panted; fell to her knees, gasping for breath as relief washed over her. He was here, she had found him, and he could lead her out.

She had never been so happy to see the man…never found him more attractive at that point in time.

'If only I didn't look so pathetic' she thought sourly, still struggling for breath but watching his every move as he slid gracefully off the rock and approached her.

"Raine? Are you alright?"

She coughed quietly in response, before managing to sputter out the words:

"I'm fine, fine. I just got a bit….flustered when I thought I was lost."

He nodded in understanding as he knelt in front of her, an action that the half-elf found both reassuring and deeply patronising.

"Why did you come out here?" his voice was soft, concerned.

"I was following you," she hissed, anger quickly replacing the relief she had just felt "you and your stupid midnight wanderings! I could have got lost, been missing for days."

The angel looked completely taken aback, and he lent backwards, as if it would protect him from the woman's ire.

"I didn't ask you to follow me."

"No, but I had to didn't I?"

"Did you?"

"Of course I did. One of my friends is going off on midnight rambles!" she stood up abruptly, refusing to have him crouch in front of her like she was a child any longer "I had to know why….there had better be a good reason for this."

He stood, walked away to stand by the edge of the pool. "There isn't. I merely couldn't sleep, and I wished to find a peaceful place where I could think alone for a while."

"That's it?"

He nodded to her over his shoulder.

"And why couldn't you just think in your room?"

"I tend to do a lot of pacing when I'm thinking about…" he trailed off into a different train of thought before completing what he was saying "I didn't wish to disturb anyone….but it seems that I wasn't the only one who couldn't sleep."

"Thinking about what?" her tone was suspiciously light, considering she had just been yelling at him.

He turned to her, casting her a strange look.

"What do you mean?"

"You said 'when I'm thinking about…' and then you trailed off."

The seraph cleared his throat, before straightening his shoulders, but said nothing.

"And you never pace," she continued "unless you're pondering over a particularly personal matter, one that you're uncomfortable with."

Raine tilted her head as she watched him shift from foot to foot, her anger was gone, replaced with curiosity, and she realised that she was suddenly very tired.

Kratos seemed to notice this.

"You seem fatigued….you should return to the house."

"A, I can't get out of here without a guide or a machete, and B, I'm not going anywhere until you answer me."

"Why do you think the answer concerns you?"

"I never said it does."

"But you do think that."

"OK, let me sum it up for you," she took a step forward, balled her right hand into a fist and held it up "One, you didn't shout at me even when I over-stepped my bounds earlier today," she flicked her little finger up to mark the number "two, Sheena asked how it's going with 'us two'" another finger flicked up "Three, Zelos, despite the fact that he always makes sexual references to me, never makes them about you, yet he included you in his comment of 'footsie', four, everyone seems intent on getting us to spend more time together, and five, everyone seems to know what's going on except me…as if they're afraid to spoil something for me, or give something away which isn't theirs to give."

Kratos smiled at her monologue, her scientific way of telling him that she thinks he's interested in her. As if it were easy to make a subject as convoluted as love clear cut and scientific.

"And you keep smiling at me! You never smile!"

"I do for those I care for."

"So you do care for me?"

"Apparently so."

"So this personal problem of yours is, in fact…me?"

He nodded "Although I'm not sure 'problem' is the term I would use."

"Oh?"

He cleared his throat, looked up at the moon for a moment "I was…pondering the question you asked earlier."

"About….about the love thing?"

Another nod, accompanied by averted eyes.

"Why?"

The seraph stared at her incredulously, amazed that a woman so intelligent could be so dense.

Realisation dawned on her, and a look of shock painted itself across her face, her mouth hanging open in a less than dignified, intelligent and ladylike manner.

"You…" she didn't seem to be able to find the words.

"I…I care about you, Raine."

The look of shock on her face dropped away "Is that all….just…caring about me?"

"I care about you…" he repeated, stumbling over his words "I care for you."

The statement didn't seem to be enough for the woman and she turned away from him.

"So do Regal, and Zelos, and Sheena…and, well, everyone in our group. Simply caring isn't enough, Kratos. I thought….I thought you felt more than just that for me…"

She walked away from him, heading for the line of trees that marked the boundary between the clearing and the dark, suffocating forest.

"Raine.."

She kept walking.

"Raine!"

'Sorry Kratos, but I need more than just care from you….I thought you…' she shook her head as she walked, her thoughts seeming like that of a love-struck teenage girl to her. The kind of girl that follows a handsome man, swoons if he gives her so much as half a glance, flirts and giggles and waits patiently in the belief that one day he will realise he loves her.

'He obviously doesn't…..' even in her mind, she had difficulty with the word, its massive implications '..love me.'

"Raine!" there was suddenly a hand on her arm, and then Kratos was in front of her, a look of sheer exasperation on his face as he looked at her.

"Gods! I always thought you were intuitive enough to pick up on what people feel about you."

Raine stopped, looked down at his hand, holding her arm "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Exactly what I said! I…"

"You what, care about me?" she mocked "I told you, all my friends care about me, for me…"

He let go of her arm and stood back, pursing his lips as he thought the situation through, before sighing as he conceded her point.

"Fine…they do all care about and for you," He slowly, hesitantly reached down to grasp her hand, stepping towards her and bending his head to whisper in her ear.

"But. would they do this for you? Is this an act of merely caring?"

He pulled back slightly, taking a moment to stare into the pale, questioning blue eyes, then hooked his free hand behind her head, drawing her body towards his and gently, ever so gently and slowly brushing his lips against hers.

Raine tensed against him, not expecting this reaction, and her hand slipped from his grasp. Her mind was too rushed with thoughts to control her body, to make it respond to him, to do…anything other than just stand there, numbly.

His body moved away from hers and she glanced up, his movements jerking her mind back into reality, her body remained paralysed with the force of her thoughts however.

The seraph's head was well and truly down, his face shadowed by his slightly too long hair. His body language screamed disappointment, rejection…hurt.

She watched, frozen, stunned, as he began to move away from her, head hanging, mouth opening to form an apology.

"I apologise, it was too forward of me to…."

He didn't get to finish the rest of the sentence; his lips crushed by the silver haired half-elf's, who had just thrown herself against him, her lips pressed insistently against his.

Breaking away a few seconds later, Raine looked up at him and replied "Shut up." before pushing her lips against his again.

Staggering a few steps back at the force of her body being pushed so insistently against his, Kratos wrapped an arm around the woman's slender waist, the other returning to the back of her head as they kissed.

He smiled to himself when he felt her slim arms slide around him, one encircling his waist, the other pressed against his upper back, her lips still pushed against his and moving slightly now, encouraging him to kiss her more fully.

'Forgive me, Anna, for I have found another whom I love as I did you'

Tightening his already firm grip on her, the seraph pulled his new found love closer to him so their bodies were flush, her soft curves pressed against the hard muscle of his torso.

The professor made a quiet noise of contentment as she was drawn further into his embrace, revelling in the feeling of finally being in somebody's arms, in a grip that was more than just a friendly hug or a familial expression of compassion.

'This isn't just 'somebody' though. This is Kratos….and this is really happening'

Completing that thought, she pulled away from his mouth in a bid to bring more air into her lungs and she let her head fall against his shoulder as she breathed in deeply, trying to saturate her lungs with oxygen.

Leaning against him like that, she could feel the low rumble of his chuckle at her actions vibrating through his chest, and she rolled her eyes.

"It's fine for you, isn't it?Being an angel, you don't have to breathe."

He said nothing in response, just ran his hands up and down her back in a way that made Raine completely melt against him…as if that kiss wasn't enough.

She cleared her throat as she leant against him "So…does this mean…" she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence, still not sure if this situation was what it seemed to be.

"That I love you?" Kratos finished the sentence for her, smiling at her when she raised her head and met his eyes. "It does."

"Really?"

"I wouldn't lie to you about something like this, Raine. I'm not that cruel."

She smiled softly and lowered her head again to rest it on his shoulder once more "I know."

"And I do have to breathe."

The she-elf merely gave him a quizzical glance before murmuring "Really? Well…shall we see how long you can hold your breath for instead?"

He grinned at her statement, a full, true smile, the likes of which she had never seen before. It made her heart swell with affection and pride that he would choose her to bestow that smile upon.

Standing up on the very tips of her toes, Raine pulled his head down and brushed her lips over his in a mirror movement of his actions before.

They met slowly, light, butterfly wing strokes against each others mouths, their kisses becoming heavier, less precise as time trickled by, until they were forcing their lips together, arms crushing their bodies to each other, hands tangled in hair.

Then suddenly, that barrier of lips collapsed and their mouths were open against each other. Hot and hungry and wonderfully wet as tongues slid together, fighting to be further inside that wet heat.

Her hands were everywhere, Kratos' mind registered distantly, tangling in his hair, trailing about his neck, scratching at his back, kneading his shoulders and chest, wandering further down to tease his taut abdomen before pulling up teasingly and sliding around his waist to grip his ass playfully before returning to his chest and shoulders, repeating the stimulating motions all over again.

And Anna had never, never been like this. Never taken the initiative, or had the courage to test out what had pleased him.

Her touches had been warm, naïve and shy and so girlishly innocent that he hadn't minded. But this was what he wanted now. Spirit. Fire. Passion. Strength of will and courage and experience and knowledge and initiative and the one-thousand-and-one other things that this other woman was using to drive him insane, pushing his body to the limits and then dragging him back again, over and over, making him desperate for more.

He had never felt so uncontrolled before, so free to actually engage in this act.

Then her hands were under his cape, sliding the heavy black cloth from his shoulders. It hit the floor with a muffled thud, crumpling into a black puddle as she ran her hands over the pale, exposed flesh of his shoulders and upper arms, relishing the feel of that somehow smooth, unmarked skin.

Her lips had slid away from his mouth and were trailing down his jaw, his neck, nipping at the patches of skin exposed by the diamond gap as his collarbones, in the centre of his chest. Her hands came up to follow the motions, running over the edge of the gaps while her mouth pressed against his once more, her fingers working at his collar to open it, pulling the cloth apart to slide her hands against the freshly exposed skin before moving downwards to release the catch that held the cloth over his chest closed.

Then his hands were coming up, unbidden, unwanted, grasping hers, pulling them away as his lips were pulled back from hers.

She looked up at him, confused, her hands held between his, hovering in front of his chest and the slightly parted material.

Kratos met Raine's eyes, bemused and suspicious now, searching for if she had any idea of why he'd stopped. Apparently, she didn't.

This was going to be fun to explain.

She licked her lips as she gazed up at him "Did…did I do something wrong?"

The seraph sighed, dropping her hands.

"No, you didn't, it's…it's me, I'm sorry."

"What you have a problem with what we're doing?...Is it because we're not married?"

He smiled in a grim, miserable way "No,"

"Then..do you not find me attractive?"

Kratos flicked his eyes up to hers, surprised that she would think something like that. He stepped forwards, tilting his head up with his fingers under her chin so he could meet her eyes.

"You're the most beautiful creature I've ever seen."

She blushed, then dropped her head. "It's Anna, isn't it?"

He thought about that, considered the possibility that it was actually that. Which would be so much more understandable, so much more meaningful than the pathetic reason that he didn't want to sleep with her. Not that he didn't….he did, but that involved the action of disrobing, and that was a considerably larger problem.

Briefly, he toyed with the idea of telling her that it was Anna, that he felt guilty about this and that was why he couldn't. But that was a lie, so he couldn't tell Raine that, because she deserved the truth, no matter how pathetic the truth may be.

Besides, maybe this was the time to get over his fears and he thought back to the conversation he had had with her earlier that day:

"I will conquer my fears one day…if the right person should choose to help me."

He sighed heavily again, bracing himself to answer her.

"It's not Anna. It's me, Raine,"

"Then what is it?"

"It's…it's quite ridiculous, really,"

"Tell me."

"I'm uncomfortable about….uh, my body,"

She stared at him incredulously and he laughed self-consciously "I sound like a teenage girl, I know."

"Um….there's nothing wrong with it, from what I can see." Raine trailed her eyes down the length of his torso, analytically now.

"From what you can see," he repeated, and she took the hint, slid a hand around the back of his neck.

"Show me."

Hesitantly, he took her hands in his again, his movements unsure for what had to be the first time in a hundred years.

He slowly guided her hands to his chest, and she took the initiative, sliding her hands under the slightly parted cloth, pushing it away to reveal the flesh of his chest, glancing at his face to gauge his reaction so often that she initially didn't see why he was uncomfortable.

Her hands continued to peel away cloth and she looked down to his chest, suddenly seeing the reason and gasping at the severity of it, making him flinch.

The pale skin of his chest was covered in an abstract painting of long-since-healed scars, testaments to a multitude of agonizing, life threatening wounds.

Stark white lines, somehow paler than the fair, colourless flesh of surrounding tissue were picked out by the silver moonlight that was bleaching the area of colour, interlaced with similar marks of dark, angry red and tender pinks.

The result was a bizarre piece of modern art; distorting the natural contours of muscle and sinew like an optical illusion that no-one could actually see.

Raine ran a finger down the centre of his chest, feeling the ridges of the scars underneath the tip, trailing it down towards his abdomen, and opening the rest of his shirt before slowly pushing it off, until he was standing completely bare-chested in front of her.

His stomach had faired no better than his chest, pitted and lined with scars of battles fought centuries ago.

The half-elf traced a particularly long scar that arched down over his waist to his hip-bone, highlighting the natural curve of his body.

"This is what you were worried about? That I'd find you repulsive?"

He shrugged awkwardly "Not exactly. The appearance is not a problem…it's what they mean and what they show about me."

"That you're a warrior…or a glutton for punishment? Kratos, I already knew that."

Shaking his head, he pulled her hand up to a particular scar, located directly over his heart. A tiny white line, two centimetres long at most, and about the thickness of the very tip of a sword…and she realised what he had meant. Trembling, she examined a scar on his neck, a decisive mark, made with a knife, clearly intended to kill.

He shifted slightly as he stood in front of her, raising his arms slightly to indicate that she look there.

She did so, hesitantly grabbing the hem of one of the long gloves and pulling it down his arm, not entirely sure that she wanted to see the marks underneath. It seemed important to him though, so she continued to pull the cloth down to his elbow, revealing nothing but smooth, flawless skin.

And then they appeared all at once. More heavy scars adorning his forearms, crammed together, overlaying each other. A gallery of different sizes and colours and positions with one common cause. His suicide.

She hurriedly pulled off the other glove to reveal a similar sight. Line after line after line covered his forearms, most centred on his wrists, clearly intended to sever the fragile arteries under his skin.

Raine grasped his hands and pulled them up in front of him, examining each one to find only the odd scar here and there. A sharp line across his left palm and fingers, where he appeared to have grabbed a sword and the small circular burn from where his exsphere fused to his skin on the back of his right hand were the only marks that seemed anything more than ordinary.

The contrast between his almost perfect hands and the maimed flesh of his forearms drove home the fact that he those wounds had been made by him, specifically to end his life. Raine found herself having to swallow back a wash of bile caused in equal parts disgust and distress at the thought.

She turned his hands over again, analysing them now, instead of the scars, taking the rare moment to learn as much about him as possible whilst he was laid bare, be it literally or emotionally.

Long, pale, calloused fingers wrapped about her own as she traced his palms, finding herself reading his love-line. It wavered for a small portion at the beginning, then solidified and forged on strongly, curving upwards and disappearing between fore and index fingers.

Smiling, she turned their hands over and rubbed her thumbs along the back of his, stroking the surprisingly clear blue veins under his almost pure white skin., before lowering her head to kiss gently at the back of his left hand, then his fingers, then moving to repeat the motions on his right hand.

His fingers uncurled from around hers and brushed her cheek as she kissed the fingers of his right hand, causing her to look up at him.

"You tried to commit suicide." She stated, looking directly into those mahogany eyes.

He nodded once, miserably.

Raine glanced away looking at the surrounding area before turning her attention back to him.

"I don't judge you for it. You lost not one, but two people whom you loved dearly…anybody else would have done the same."

"I should have been stronger," he sighed, his voice wavering "I should have coped with her death better and searched for Lloyd more thoroughly. Instead I ran back to Cruxis like a coward."

"We're all wiser after the events have taken place. You can't be blamed for what you did; you thought your son was dead, with no chance of survival. How many people would honestly believe that their three year old son fell down a cliff and survived? And people have tried to end their lives after something far less dire….most importantly, you didn't go through with it."

He snorted "I would have, given the chance. Look at how many times I tried…Yuan is the only reason I lived through that period. I spent years shut up in my chambers, cutting myself, plotting my own death…"

"But you're here now, alive, with me and Lloyd, and all your friends." She gently tried to lift his hanging head by the chin, so he might look into her eyes as she spoke to him, but he silently turned his head away from her grasp.

"Kratos, look at me," she pleaded, but he didn't respond.

"Look at me," the professor tried again, succeeding in getting him to raise his eyes to hers for a moment.

"Look at me or I leave."

The threat accomplished the task of getting him to meet her eyes and actually hold the gaze whilst she prepared to make her pitch.

"You're not to blame for what happened," she started "Nor could you change it, so you had to deal with it…and you perhaps chose the wrong way of coping in the beginning." She shook her head to emphasize her next point "We make mistakes. Humans, elves, half-elves….non of us are infallible. It's OK to make mistakes."

"My mistake cost her life," he pointed out, interrupting Raine.

"And you paid for it…you were punished for it, and you punished yourself for it…for far too long. The fact that you've suffered for it doesn't make it right, I know, but if you don't learn from it…then it's all meaningless. You were once told by your own son that it's OK to make mistakes, as long as you learn from them, right? So why don't you take his advice?

You've lost your love, you've mourned her and you've punished yourself. Now all you have to do is learn from your mistake. Suicide is not the way out; you know that now…that's all that matters."

A light seemed to switch on behind his eyes, and he finally raised his head to look at her fully.

"You're right, once again, Raine. Forgive me for my actions, please, so that I may finally move on."

She tilted her head in slight bemusement at the request "I'm not sure that you need forgiving, but, if it's what you need, then all is forgiven."

He smiled at her, gently "Thank you."

And there you have it! Proclamations of love...well, one sided proclaimations of love anyway. All shall be concluded in the next 2 chapters. Since this is, as I have mentioned before, my first romance fic, this chapter was a bit awkward for me to write. I just hope it didn't show, and that this was up to scratch.

As always please review...whilst I go an watch my new Blackadder DVDs (Hugh Laurie sigh)