A/N: Hand into a fist- Static in my head. Now I'm sitting face-to-face with loneliness. What did I expect? Did I see forever in YOU?!?
I've decided I'm going to change Raine's theme song from "November Rain" by Guns N'Roses to to "Three Simple Words" by Finch.
Enjoy- Review if you want, review if you don't, but either way I'm still gonna get to write and have fun :3.
(read that again, why don't you...)
OoOoOo
Sheena dreamed of an angel with pearly, gossamer energy wings rising into the sky. Sheena stood on the earth, taking a few steps back to look up at the nameless figure rising into the heavens, feeling her dread grow with every second they were apart. She fought the panic threatening to bubble to the surface, looking around her as if there might be a staircase handy to let her follow the winged being. Leaping after the figure, she called Gnome and Sylph to her side to nullify gravity and to steer her through the velvet, violet night sky.
When Sheena was finally close enough to grab the angel, it shrank back out of reach and turned around to stare at her with blank, dead eyes. The wind blew from behind the figure, whipping flecks of warm wetness onto Sheena's face. She wiped at her forehead, looking down in numb shock at the crimson smear on her shaking hand. Suddenly, she was on the ground again, kneeling in a sterile white room. The angel groaned, falling into Sheena's arms. It seemed impossible that any body could have so much blood in them- spreading to surround them both, caked under her fingernails... drenching the angel's short, wild hair.
But there had to be a way to stop this... Sheena pressed her hands to the wound, trying to stem the blood flow before any more could be lost. But there wasn't any more. The dry husk in her hands was gone- dead. Cold. The body dried and turned to dust, flying away from her grasping hands, swirling and dancing away through the night. She sat alone in the puddle of blood, tasting salt and rust as her tears washed down her cheeks, residues of blood mingling inside her mouth.
Sheena jerked into wakefulness, a wonderfully rich and meaty smell wafting in from the direction of her kitchen. Her heart heavy from a nightmare she didn't understand, she yawned, rolling off of her cot onto the hard floor, looking around for Gnome. The summon spirit was nowhere to be found. Getting to her feet, she cautiously approached the kitchen to find Matias skillfully handling three sizzling frying pans: bacon, eggs, and pancakes. Gnome- an obese brown cat once more- sat at the low table with a large red kerchief wrapped around his neck, looking cuter than he had any right to be as he waited with large, eager eyes for Matias to serve him a plate.
"Forget Orochi," he gushed when he noticed Sheena. "Marry this guy. He cooks me breakfast."
Sheena didn't dignify that with an answer, waiting at the entrance to the kitchen as Matias turned around with a spatula held in both hands, shuffling his wings awkwardly. The pseudo-angel motioned to the table, holding up an empty plate in a silent question.
"Yeah, sure," Sheena said slowly, moving to the table. Kneeling at her table, she found a place where she could keep Matias in her sight at all times. Dark feathers and scales rattling, the mute in question turned back to the stove. Sheena's stomach rumbled as she watched Gnome slam his face straight into the pile of food on his plate- now that she was fully awake, she could appreciate how good that breakfast smelled. A string of scrambled egg plopped in front of Sheena, breaking her thoughts. She picked it up and tossed it back on Gnome's plate in disgust.
"Can you even eat?" she asked.
"Of course I can," Gnome said, looking up at her and licking his jowls. "I just don't have to in order to survive."
Matias cleared his throat, stepping into the conversation as he held up an egg for Sheena to see. Tired of playing charades, Sheena sighed and opened the mental barrier she had set up against the pseudo angel.
How do you like your eggs? The mute sent her.
Sunny side up, she sent back. No pancakes, please.
"So what now, Sheena?" Gnome asked, hopping onto the table to lick his plate clean. "Do we wait around for trouble to come knocking on the gate? I mean, Martel wasn't exactly being a fountain of information back there. For all we know, Kloitz isn't even the enemy we're going to be facing!"
Matias, hearing the familiar name, tried to make it seem like he wasn't eavesdropping as he added seasoning to the egg and dropped a few slices of bacon onto it, scraping the steaming dish onto a plate and setting it down before Sheena. After cleaning up the utensils he had used, he moved to a corner of the room and sat with his back to the wall, watching the two converse.
"Well, what else could it be?" Sheena said, thoughtfully spearing a piece of egg with her chopsticks. Not the best tool, but Sheena didn't keep any forks in her house since she hadn't been eating non-traditional Mizanese foods as of late. "If there's a new threat to Aselia besides Kloitz, I'd say we're screwed."
She paused, looking down at her breakfast. "This is really good," she said softly.
Thank you.
Shifting so that he was in her sight again, she turned the attention of the conversation to Matias. "And what about you?" she asked. "For a high and mighty Desian, you're being awfully helpful to me."
I have a score to settle with Kloitz, Matias answered, shaking his scales fluttering angrily. He should have died years ago. Now it is my intention to end him, to send him to where he belongs so his suffering will end.
"All right, then," Sheena said, pushing her half-eaten breakfast aside. "I think this has a very simple solution."
"I'm all ears," Gnome said.
"Bastard or not, I know Genis wants to protect Kloitz. So I'm going to leave Mizuho in Orochi's charge for a few days," she said, "I'll go to Meltokio, sneak into the prison, and kill Kloitz in his sleep. Problem solved- no one has to even know it was me."
Matias clenched his fists but remained silent.
"I was an assassin before I was ever chief," she kept on. "This is easy for me, and if I cut off the snake's head the body will die. There won't be time for this problem to escalate like it did with Mithos and Cruxis..." she added dryly, glancing at Matias "...and the Desians."
We were only a problem for the humans who looked at us with loathing in their eyes, Matias said in what sounded like a defensive tone.
"Tell that to Marble," Sheena said under her breath, but no one heard her. Or if they did, they chose not to comment.
Tok tok tok tok!
Sheena looked up, hearing a sharp rapport at the door. "Who is it?" she called out.
"Orochi," came the familiar, deep voice.
"Hold on a sec," she said, trying to tidy the place as she spoke. "I'll be there in a- Orochi!"
Without waiting for an invitation, Orochi had walked through the door past Sheena and made himself comfortable at the table. "This looks delicious," he declared, helping himself to Sheena's leftovers. Steaming, Sheena walked back into the kitchen with him, noting that he wasn't wearing his traditional shinobi gear today, either. "I hope you don't mind if I...?"
"Nah, I wasn't gonna eat it anyway," Sheena said, waving dismissively at him. "You could have waited for me to open the door," she added. "I could have been naked for all you know."
"You're right," Orochi said, trying to sound admonished around the bacon in his mouth. "That would have been terrible. Did you cook this?"
Matias rattled his wings for attention, since so far Orochi hadn't even noticed the silent shadow crouching in the corner of the room. When his eyes sought out the noise, he froze, almost choking on his food. Leaping to his feet and flipping a knife out from nowhere, he backed off from the figure.
Gnome giggled from his place at the table, slapping one paw in the egg juice on his plate and then sucking on it.
"Calm down, Orochi," Sheena said, sighing. "He won't hurt you. Him and I have a.. deal."
"Him?" Orochi echoed in disbelief, sizing Matias up once the half-elf had gotten to his feet. Matias nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. Still, Orochi would not sit until Sheena snuck up behind him and kicked his feet out from under him, sliding the cushion-chair over so that her fiancée would land comfortably.
"Yes, him," Sheena said, snatching the knife away and holding out the plate of half-eaten food. "Get used to it." Normally she wouldn't have used such harsh words to Orochi, but he hadn't been acting his usual, chivalrous self today. Orochi silently took the plate, polishing it off as he listened to Sheena.
"I'm leaving again for Meltokio," she said. "Once more I see it fit to leave you in charge of Mizuho's affairs."
"But you only returned last night..." Orochi frowned.
"Only because I had to make sure Mizuho was on alert for danger. But my duties as chief now force me to leave once more in order to ensure the safety of my people."
Orochi put his plate aside, standing up. "Then I must speak with you before you go," he said. Glancing at Matias, he added: "Alone."
OoOoOo
"Well, here we are!" Raine declared, gazing around the Sybak library with a pleased smile. It was unusual behavior, but she had been smiling a lot more recently. Neither Mesha nor Harley could discover what it was that put her in such a good mood. Secretly, Mesha wanted to believe it was because Raine was happy to be with her, but she knew better than to think that.
In fact, Raine hadn't really been paying much attention to her at all since they set out for Sybak. Doubt grew in the girl's heart, and she wondered if it was something she had done or said to make Raine come to her senses and realize someone as beautiful and wonderful as her didn't belong with a fifteen year old. Though she didn't want this relationship to be over before it even began, Mesha grew more and more certain that Raine had gotten over whatever insanity drove her to kiss Mesha that night.
"What exactly are we looking for?" Harley drawled, upset that they hadn't gone to Asgard like he had planned.
"I have no idea!" Raine said with a smirk. "I'm winging it, dear apprentice. For all I know, what I need isn't even here."
"A quest without a plan?" Harley asked. "How unlike the Professor."
"Then perhaps you don't know the Professor as well as you thought," she shot back, though she didn't sound upset. If anything, she sounded playful. Then, turning her back on the both of them, she moved to the desk.
"Hello, ma'am," the librarian said to her. "May I help you find a book?"
"Ah..." For the first time, Raine faltered. She didn't know if she was looking for a book, but the same gut feeling that had brought her here told her that what she needed was in the library. Reaching to the watch on her wrist, she pulled it off and wordlessly put it on the counter.
The librarian looked at it for a long time.
"Dr. Sage must have sent you," she said, softly. Reaching under the desk, she pulled out a key and handed it to Raine. "If you have his watch, he must be dead. I'm very sorry to hear such a respected professor has passed on."
Raine didn't respond, taking the key and holding it tightly in her hand.
"You'll find that key opens his office on the third floor," the librarian continued, managing to get the words around her choked-up voice. "You'll find everything you need in there, in his desk."
Raine did an about face, marching past her students out the door. "You heard the woman," she said. "Let's go see what mysteries Dr. Sage left us."
Perhaps more confused than ever, Harley and Mesha had no choice but to follow their teacher into the main building. "Who is Dr. Sage?" Mesha voiced the question on all of their minds. "A relative of yours?"
"Ah..." Raine stopped to look at Mesha over her shoulder. "Well, I didn't really consider that." Thoughtful now, she looked at the key in her hands. "If that is the mystery I'm supposed to find out... could he possibly be..."
My father?
My grandfather?
A cousin? An.. uncle? Certainly it couldn't be my brother... and if I find out I have another brother I'd forgotten about I swear I'm going to... do something so terrible I don't even know what it is yet.
"Only one way to find out a this point," she said, her steps renewed with curiosity. She walked faster, and her students struggled to keep pace with her.
OoOoOo
"The wedding has a date," Orochi said as soon as they were outside. "Isn't that wonderful?"
"No, it is not," Sheena said with impatience. "Right now the safety of the village is more important than just us, Orochi. I need to get moving."
Sheena turned to walk away with a fiercely beating heart, but he grabbed her hand and pulled her back to him, catching her protests with a kiss. This was so unlike him, it frightened her even more than the thought of their wedding did. She tried to pull away, which was normally more than enough to get him to keep his respectful distance, but today he was demanding. Clenching her hand tightly in his, pinning her other arm within his embrace, he crushed her against his strong frame. He was kissing her. In public. He'd never done that before. Despite the strength in his grip, the kiss was as tender as it had ever been with him, and yet somehow there was something different in the way he tasted. Different, but familiar.
Even though that was impossible, it felt like she was kissing Raine.
She saw Orochi there, but her body told her that it was Raine holding her and kissing her. "Orochi, no," she managed to gasp after she had regained her senses, turning her face away. Orochi only leaned closer, his lips warm and wet against her neck, something hard hiding behind them. Goddess, that was... Raine would do just that with her teeth, too. Just like that, in the exact same spot. In spite of herself, her breath hitched a little when he focused now on her earlobe, the hand that had been holding hers now running down her waist.
Finally free, Sheena shoved him away with all her strength. Her face was five shades redder than normal, and she was trying not to breathe too hard to let him know how he had affected her. It didn't work, though- Sheena could tell he knew exactly the feelings he had evoked in her. "What's wrong?" he asked, honestly hurt. "Why'd you stop it?"
"Because I don't like being touched that way," Sheena said firmly, gaining control of herself. Whatever good feelings she had were washed away by the anger of having her personal space invaded.
"No, you do, just not by me," Orochi said with a sigh. "Is it because I'm a human? Or because I'm a man?"
Sheena froze. "What?"
Orochi's dark eyebrows gently rose in a bemused expression. "You thought I didn't know? About you and that half-elf?"
"What half-"
Before she knew what was happening, Orochi had her by the shoulder and slammed her up against the wall of her house. She looked up at him, this time not fighting back. His mouth against her ear, he hissed:
" Do not. Lie. To me."
He clenched harder on her shoulder, one arm behind his back.
Her arms were hanging limp by her sides, his odd behavior all suddenly explained. She knew men well enough to know how they felt ripped apart by deception of this sort, sometimes getting even more affected than women did.
"Orochi," she said finally. "I had- it's true. There was an affair."
His dark eyes narrowed. "I know there was."
She lowered her tear-filled eyes to the ground, making a fist with her hands. But she kept them at her sides. "I'm sorry. I know you don't believe me, but I'm sorry. If you want to hit me, I don't have any right to stop you. Call off the wedding if you like."
Orochi shook his head sadly. "You don't get it, do you Sheena?" he asked, one hand still behind his back. "I don't want to hit you. The thought of hurting you brings sorrow to me." He released her shoulder to wipe away at her tears with his rough, battle-scarred fingers. "And I'm not calling off the wedding. I love you, Sheena. You know that. And isn't love supposed to accept faults as well as the more desirable characteristics?"
Sheena jerked her head up at him, staring in disbelief. But there was no lie in his eyes.
"All I want," he said, finally pulling his hand out from behind his back. In it was a perfect circle, joined by a dainty diamond that shined like a star. "Is for you to accept this, or reject it, once and for all. I want the truth from you, darling. Do you love me, and accept that you made a mistake nine months ago?"
Sheena couldn't answer, looking from the diamond and back to him and back again.
"She left you, didn't she?" Orochi continued softly, stroking her face. "After she was done with you? After she got what she wanted?"
Sheena nodded, slowly, her eyes filling up again. "Yeah," she lied. In truth, she had been the one to leave. And when she came back, Raine had rejected her in anger and betrayal. Sheena had cut off contact with her since, afraid to meet those accusing eyes again. Forcing away those thoughts, she flung her arms around Orochi and hugged him tightly. He had been the reason she left in the first place- guilt at what she had done behind his back, him who had been her friend since childhood, who had treated her as an equal even after the Volt incident, after she had tried to kill his brother like she killed his parents.
"Oh, Sheena..." he said, holding her again, but to comfort her. "My poor Sheena. I'll forgive you no matter what you choose- me, or her."
"What-" Sheena paused to try and compose herself enough to form words, though she couldn't look him in the eyes. "What date did you have in mind, Orochi?"
He rocked her back and forth and didn't answer at first, smoothing his hand against her black hair. "Winter," he said. "Two months from now."
"Winter..." Winter had snow. Snowflakes held memories of sadness for her. "Winter sounds good. I mean... yeah, Orochi. Whatever you want. Anything you want."
He squeezed her tighter in the hug, and because he knew she couldn't see it, he smiled. It was a cruel smile, full of victory and cold...
...maniacal...
...joy.
OoOoOo
The name plate on the desk read "Alexander Sage."
"Well, we know his name now," Mesha said, somewhat disappointed by the average-looking office. She shuffled her feet and looked around at the stuffed bookshelves and chalkboards covered in years of dust. No one had been in here for a long time, and it was apparent.
"Not a name I recognize," Raine said, sounding her own disappointment. "When they said he was a professor like me, it made sense. I felt like he could have been someone I admired in my youth. But when I see his name, I feel nothing. No memories stirring." She sat on the desk, the watch in her hand as she sighed, staring at the face. The hands ticked away diligently. "But again, maybe he was someone I knew. I've done the math- If Genis was barely born when we were sent over to Sylvarant, I must have been somewhere between ten to twelve years old. Surely I should have more memories of Tethe'alla from those years." Leaning back, she turned her nostalgic gaze now on the ceiling. "So when I found my mother's diary, added to the fact that the Otherworldly Gate was in the middle of the ocean, I assumed I had been near death by drowning. Not only did that event cause my hydrophobia, but asphyxiation is proven to cause permanent memory loss."
Smiling thinly, she winked at Mesha who turned bright scarlet at the attention. Locking eyes with her, she continued: "Of course, it's only a theory. Miss Zerep?"
"Uh, yes?" Mesha said.
"What do you suggest we... do?"
Mesha, if possible, might have turned even more red. Calm down, girl. You can't take everything she says and turn it into an innuendo. But why did she say it like that? And why now all of a sudden? Why is she acting so weird? And what is up with that watch?
Harley looked at the two, his red eyebrows slowly furrowing in confusion. "Maybe we should look in the desk like that lady said," he suggested when Mesha gave no indication that she was ever going to answer the question.
"Thank you, Mesha," Raine said dryly to Harley, sliding open the desk. There were various papers inside, as well as another watch. It was different from Raine's in few respects, except it was black where hers was gleaming steel. She slid it up her arm to rest next to its brother, turning her attention then to the papers. She shuffled through them while her apprentices waited.
"Well, the papers are his will,"she said after scanning through them. She set them down on the desk in a fan, folding her hands on top of them. "No doubt the woman thought we were here to find out his last wishes."
"They say anything interesting?" Harley asked, since Mesha was still busy trying to calculate the hidden meaning in Raine's words.
"Yes, actually," she said. Harley noticed only then that she was quaking faintly. "They said that all of his treasures and his works regarding the human and half-elf psyche should go to any children he might have had after the point when he had written the will. If he had no heirs, it should go to his twin brother, Kloitz Sage."
Her voice fell into something soft and strange as she looked down at the papers.
"Failing that, they should go to his sister-in-law, an elf named Virginia Sage."
She stopped again. Mesha and Harley looked at the name plate with freshly awakened eyes.
"Or, failing that..." she spread her hands flat on the desk. "His brother's children."
There was silence in the room. Mesha walked over to her side, looking down at the page. "That's not what it says," she said, half in shock and half in confusion. "It says everything should go to his oldest child- that's you, Raine! I mean-" she jabbed at one of the papers fanned out on the table, smiling hugely. "Look, it says it- right there! Oldest child, Raine Sage. Isn't that cool? You have an uncle! I mean, if he gave you that watch when no one was looking, he could still be alive!"
Raine did not share her enthusiasm.
"You're looking at the wrong will, dear," Raine said, pushing aside the paper Mesha had been pointing to. "As you'll see from these other documents, Dr. Alexander was forced to change the conditions of the will. Look at the dates- this one is newer. It even says why things must be changed."
Mesha read where Raine's shaking finger was pointing. When she was done, she instinctively put her hand over Raine's, looking to her with her mouth open in a wordless question. She shook her head, trying again to find the right way to ask... but nothing came out.
"How can that be possible?" she finally managed. "Maybe it's a mistake."
"Well, it's a hell of a mistake to make," Raine snapped, though it was clear she was only angry to deal with her confusion. She shoved the papers away in disgust, looking around her at the notebooks full of Alexander's scribbles and observations.
"What?" Harley ran over to their side of the desk, but Mesha wouldn't let go of the paper. "What does it say?"
"It says I'm dead," Raine said. She gently pried it from Mesha's fingers and handed it to Harley so that he could read the words for myself. "He changed it from me to Genis because I had died only a few months after the will was written, a few months after I had been born." She crossed her arms, letting out a shuddering sigh. "But Alexander must have been quite a slacker. It took him eleven years for him to finally write up the new one, when Genis and Kloitz II were born."
Harley shook his head, handing it back to her. "That doesn't make any sense."
"Yes, we've already come to that conclusion, Harley. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to defy the wishes of my dearly departed uncle and go through all of his work before I hand it over to my brother."
"Hey, if the old fart ain't dead yet, you're technically not breaking any rules."
"Harley! Don't talk about Raine's uncle that way!"
Harley turned to Mesha, hands on his hips. "Well, some uncle he is if he's going around telling everyone she's dead!" Raine dutifully ignored both of her students as they started one of their daily squabbles. Taking the papers and studying them again, she tried once more to find some way to make sense of what the papers told her. The problem, she knew, was that she wasn't looking at this objectively. After all, it was upsetting when legal documents declared you deceased for over twenty years.
She decided to start at the beginning. Twin brothers. One married an elf woman. They had a daughter. The daughter died. Eleven years pass, and the couple have more children- twin boys, to be exact.
But.. it still didn't make any sense. She was alive, wasn't she? What a day, when you start to doubt your own existence. Shaking herself out of her reverie, she tuned back into the squabble.
"Listen, what this paper says or doesn't say makes no difference to us," she said, breaking in between them, physically pushing them apart. She looked on either side of her at her students. "We're here in Sybak, the city of scholars where the Imperial Research Academy is located. I say, let's borrow one of the classrooms and have an honest-to-goodness lesson, under a roof."
Mesha didn't believe that Raine was even half as cheerful as she acted, but knew better than to bring up this admittedly bizarre subject. Raine shooed them out of the room, locking it behind her, cheerfully carrying on about pop quizzes and good literature.
OoOoOo
CrRREEeeee...
It was late at night. Raine looked up from her mother's diary as she heard the door squeal open on rusty hinges and Mesha walk through with a steaming mug held in one hand as she closed the door behind her with the other. Her very frame exuded indignation.
"I thought you should know, Harley's planning on pulling the prank of the century tomorrow morning," she stated dryly, pulling up a chair to sit next to Raine at the desk. She was in Alexander's office again, a frown on her face.
"Hmph. Thank you for the warning..." Raine said, turning back into the diary. "What are you drinking?"
"It's chamomile tea." Mesha reached over and set it down in front of Raine. "And it's for you. It's soothing, to help you relax." Her cheeks turned pink and she sat back in her chair again, hands in her lap. "I mean, I know you have trouble sleeping."
Raine's stern expression softened at that and she smiled ruefully, taking the tea. "Thanks," she said again, meaning it this time.
"Nah, it's nothing. Mom drank chamomile all the time, and it just occurred to me that it might help you get to sleep too."
Raine lost her smile, clearing her throat and looking away. "I remember now. The night I visited your house, your father made some tea for me, though I don't know if it was chamomile."
Mesha shrugged. "Maybe, maybe not. I used to tease her about it cause it seemed like she had a specific tea for every occasion." Mesha laughed, folding her hands on the table. Raine glanced sideways at her, seeing that Mesha's gaze was far off in memories. "And because she used to be something of a healer herself, every time one of the villagers came by complaining of something or other, Mom would give whatever medicinal herbs were needed and some tea, and told them if they didn't drink the tea the medicine wouldn't work!"
Raine grinned. "Your mother sounds like someone Lloyd Irving would have feared. I could just see her forcing some nasty-tasting medicine down his throat, telling him it was for his own good."
"Heh, well!" Mesha flushed again. "I've never met Lloyd Irving in person, so I'll have to take your word for it." Raine smiled at her, and wouldn't you know it, her heart starting going crazy again. Why was it that Raine had such an affect on her? Mesha quickly broke their eye contact. She knew she was a lot younger than Raine, and her father had always warned her against getting involved with someone her age while Mesha was still so young. But that was with guys... did the principle apply with girls as well? Her mother had been around to give her the Talk, as had her father, but did wanting to crawl into her arms and kiss count as wanting to actually... you know? And it wasn't like either of them could get pregnant. The fact that homosexuals even existed was relatively new information to Mesha, and there wasn't much you could learn about them from the limited books she had had access to in her village.
Unknowing to her, this deep thought cause a frown to cross her features, and her forehead to bunch in concentration. Raine smiled at this and leaned over to rub her fingers against the wrinkles in Mesha's forehead. "You're much too young to be forming frown lines. What are you thinking so hard about?"
Mesha gulped. "Oh- uh, nothing really."
"Your mind is never empty. Tell me."
Put in the hot seat, Mesha squirmed. She obviously couldn't tell Raine she was curious to know how lesbians made love, but she didn't want to lie to Raine, either. "Eh... well, I was thinking about you I guess."
"Oh dear." Raine's eyebrows shot up in worry. "Have I been doing something that warrants frown lines lately?"
"No, no. It's more like..." Unable to believe that she was actually saying it, she finished with a mumble: "Things you haven't been doing."
"Oh. I see." Raine pushed Mesha's green hair out of the way and pecked her cheek. "I haven't been paying much attention to you since I found the watch, right? Sorry." Mesha leaned into her, kissing Raine on the lips. Her teacher responded, shifting in her seat so that they were facing each other. Casually resting one hand on Mesha's lap with the other cupping her face, she pressed forward with the kiss, biting down on the girl's lower lip. Hard. Mesha made a small noise of surprise and pulled back, breathing loud.
"Too rough?" Raine guessed. Mesha could only nod, embarrassed. "Hmm." Taking the tea and sipping from it, she spoke thoughtfully. "Understand me, Mesha, that if I ever do something you find uncomfortable or unpleasant, I need you to tell me like you just did."
"Uh.. of course." Mesha nodded. Standing up, she glanced at the clock. "Well... it is kind of late. I should probably head off to bed. Make sure you drink all of the tea and please try to relax. I don't want you to nod off on your Rheiard again, Professor."
As she walked out the door a bit quicker than she had walked in, she stopped when she heard the Professor speak. "...Mesha?"
Mesha whirled around, her hands behind her back like a child being reprimanded. "Yes, Raine?"
Raine paused for a moment before shaking her head and smiling. "Nothing. Good night."
The door closed and Raine sighed, thumping her forehead down on the desk over and over again. Go ahead and add pedophilia to your list of vices, Raine, she thought to herself, disgusted. Fifteen years old. You have to remember that. She's not Sheena.
Well, that was easy enough to remember.
Sighing again, she glanced up at the mug of tea looming over her head on the desk. Sitting up straight, she held it, slowly sipping and relaxing the way Mesha had asked her to. But soon, she almost spilled it when the door swung open again and Mesha ran up to her, throwing her arms around the older half-elf's shoulders and resting her forehead against the back of her neck.
"You think we can sleep together again tonight?" Mesha asked, almost quicker than Raine could comprehend. When she did manage to make out what her student had said, Raine laughed, reaching behind her neck to hold the back of Mesha's head. Twisting in her seat, she kissed her student. Mesha 'mmm'ed happily against her lips, kissing back sweetly with her hands clutching the shoulders of Raine's orange jacket.
"Of course we can," Raine said upon pulling away, "I was just waiting for you to ask."
OoOoOo
"LAND!" Zelos cried, throwing himself on the ground and kissing it, sobbing not-so-quietly. They had finally arrived back at Izoold, but neither Kratos nor Yuan were in the mood for putting up with his theatrics. Hauling him up, they tossed him into the air onto his Rheiard.
"We're not done traveling yet, Chosen," Kratos said. "Don't get too comfortable. Our next stop is Mizuho to re-group with Sheena and lend her our aid."
"Aye, aye, captain commodore lieutenant corporal colonel SIR!"
"Shut up and move, boy," Yuan added, shoving out with one foot at the back of the floating Rheiard to push it forward. Pulling out his own Rheiard, he revved the engine impatiently, looking around him to see if the others had followed suit.
Lloyd made his Rheiard roar in answer, smiling grimly at the blue sky that stretched out in front of them.
"Next stop- Mizuho!"
OoOoOo
A/N: Oh me, oh my! Sorry for the long wait, but as I've said before I'm a little caught up in trying to update Immortal Games regularly. Things got wild in that chapter, but in a bad way. No kisses, more like people getting stabbed and shot and exploded. God, I love my action scenes. Anyway, back to Partners. It took me forever to write this chapter because of the will scene. I had no idea how to go about telling Raine she was supposed to be dead long before Genis was ever born. I think I did an OK job, though- what do you guys think?
And hmmmm! Maniacal... Isn't that a rather familiar adjective?