Thursday, June 23: EXAMS DONE. FINALLY. I'm sorry it took so long to get this final chapter up. Physics exams are the worst. I had to just... shut my brain down for the next few days after that, and then when I finally started working on this last chapter, I just had no way to get these words down because I don't need my siblings to be all OMG YOU WRITE FANFICTION? because that's just awkward. Plus my friends were demanding that I hang out and do things with them, and I've been trying to find a job because I'm so lazy and have never had a job before (it's sad, right? 17 and no first job :'D).

x x x

On any other normal day, Rita would have preferred grabbing Raven's face and shoving it in the dirt.

But upon opening her eyes and seeing said face so grim (and the fact that the sky was very, very dark), she had chosen to wake up stretching slowly, revering in the fact that what had felt so real just moments before wasn't actually real.

Once she'd finished giving her eyes a good rub, she sat up and blinked blearily, only to find him gone. For half a second, she'd thought back to her latest dream until her eyes focused ever so much more; there, shadowed against bright flames, was a blur of purple. Her stomach had made a quiet grumbling noise, loud enough just for her own ears. She ignored it.

Raven glanced behind at her direction and patted the ground next to him. There was a question behind her tired eyes as she moved to sit where he indicated, but he'd barely looked at her before setting his gaze back onto the fire.

And thus, here she is, knees drawn up to her chest and wide awake in the middle of the night for no reason. Rita mulls over the benefits (and lack thereof) of the loss of sleep and decides that being awake is definitely better. At this time, she adds, there's more to think of and less distractions. Rather than blastia formulae and aer conversions running through her mind, she finds herself envisioning tan (lean and well-defined, too) muscles surrounding silver tendrils that wrap around a red core-

-that's ripped out by her own hands.

Rita recoils in shock; her stomach groans loudly and she fights the urge to turn and retch. Raven mistakes the sudden jerk of her head as a sign of her falling asleep, but the sound of her stomach tugs the corners of his mouth downwards.

"You hungry?"

"I- wha- huh?" Rita sputters for a second. "No, no, I'm n- it's okay."

"Ya sure? Cause-" Raven stands, but Rita cuts him off.

"No- yes, I'm sure, it's fine. Shut up and just... sit down." Her addled brain causes her to fumble with her words; there's hardly any force behind what she says. "No, wait. Go away or... or go to sleep and let me take watch or something. You're just in the way."

"Ah ah ah," Raven waggles his finger, "you can't pull that one on me." When she gives him a skeptical look, he uses his finger to point down at her. "I know you need your sleep and that I woke ya' up for no reason, but we need ta' talk about somethin', and we can't do that if you're sleepin' and havin' nightmares all the time, right?"

"I... what?" Rita's head jerks up, and she stares at him as though he's grown a leg on his forehead. Raven merely shrugs.

"Y'know, all those nightmares about me that scare ya' so much." Raven mentally nods encouragingly to himself. He hadn't meant to bring up the subject like so, but this... this was good. Make it seem like it's not such a big deal, act casual, don't let anything she says bother him.

"I- how did you- what- but- I don't need to talk to you about this! Go away!" Rita stands up quickly and defensively, flustered by his accurate assumption.

"Ah, that's a topic I wanted to bring up too. Going away, that is. So," he claps his hands together cheerfully, "I'm afraid I can't leave you guys any time soon, but after this is all over I'll leave you alone if ya' want me to."

Rita can only stare at him. "I... you... what?"

Raven nods. "Ya' don't seem ta' like me all that much, and I'm still a fishy guy, right? 'Sides, you tell me to go away all the time. I figure if I leave after helping you guys out, it'll be better for all of us after..."

He makes a slashing motion across his blastia heart, then jerks a thumb in Estelle's direction.

"When I tell you to go away, that's not what I mean! I tell you to go away because you're stupid!" Rita flushes in anger and embarrassment, and her voice rises the slightest notch higher. Why was she telling him this? "You wouldn't be allowed to just up and leave like that anyway - your life belongs to us, and Yuri or Judith would come find you and kick your ass anyway."

Excuses, she scolds in her head, all you can think of are excuses.

The archer merely shrugs, wincing on the inside. "Wouldn't you rather have my ass kicked than being around someone who scares ya' in yer' nightmares?"

Rita's temper begins to flare. "If you left, that would just make things worse!-"

"-Shh!" His finger comes up to his lips. "You'll wake everyone up!"

Rita speaks in a more hushed voice, still simmering on the inside and too tired to think. "If you left, the nightmares would get worse and I'd- who said it was you that was scaring me anyway? It's not... I never said... you...!"

Raven just stands there and stares at her, stunned. If he left, and that made things worse for her... "If it's not me, then what is it?" He adds softly.

She... what did she just say? Rita turns pink all the way up to her ears in embarrassment. Why did she say that- and to him of all people!

"I-it's nothing, forget it. I'm going back to sleep." She scratches the back of her head and turns away, but Raven grabs her wrist.

"Tell me."

The tips of her fingers begin to smoke subconsciously as a defensive maneuver, but Raven smothers it with his own hand and reaches for her other. Rita just stares at the ground between them, hiding her eyes beneath her bangs.

"It's not me you're scared of, but something about me?" Rita doesn't nod, but her grip between their hands tighten ever so little.

Something about him, and something about him going away. Hm...

Rita tries to yank her hands free from his, but his grasp is firm and he doesn't let go. He can't see, but there's a hint of panic behind her eyes; here she is, vulnerable and weak and trapped and she can't find a way to escape.

"Rita," she tugs again, "I'm not going to let go; I won't unless ya' tell me what's wrong." She shakes her head. "I'm serious."

Raven is well aware of how distraught he's making Rita feel, but at this point he doesn't care because a little moment of distress to try and fix what's wrong is far better than to let her continue suffering in silence.

As long as her fears go away, it's fine if she ends up hating him.

"It's..." He watches the trembling brunette patiently. "Every time I go to sleep... you're there, and I- your blastia and- and there's blood everywhere..." She takes a shuddering breath, her eyes unshed with tears. "You die- and it's all my fault and-"

Raven pulls her into his chest and cradles her in his arms, stroking her hair. "It's okay, just let it out."

Rita hardly hears him as she clings onto his coat, sobbing quietly. They stand there until her tears subside, and even then neither of them let go. All she can think of is how embarrassed she is, how warm he is, and the way that if she listens closely, ear pressed up against his chest and angled just the right way, she can hear a calm, subtle whirring noise.

All that runs through Raven's mind is Rita - the way her hair smells, the way she covers up embarrassment with anger, the way she taunts him with her cat ears, the way her body fits so snugly, so sinfully, so right against his own-

The way her hair feels under his lips as he kisses her atop her head.

They both pull away from each other without letting go. Raven looks down and Rita looks away; her eyes glimmer in the firelight and her cheeks are flushed pink.

Raven doesn't even think as he dips his head down slowly to kiss her eyelid, then the next, her cheek, the other- her breath hitches-

He hesitates for a moment, a hair's width away from her lips, before his meet hers so softly and so sweetly that Rita wonders if she's even awake at all. His thumb brushes her cheek and Rita stands on her toes, the edges of his coat tight in her grip - and when they break apart and her eyes open, she's still gripping fistfuls of purple. He's smiling, but it's reluctant and his hold on her loosens; Rita's hands tighten.

"We shouldn't be doing this," he starts quietly, almost as if he's speaking to himself. "You're tired and you've been having all those nightmares; it's like I'm... taking advantage of ya' or somethin' that creepy old guys do-"

"If this... if this was something I never wanted," she mutters a threat with pink cheeks and rosy lips, "... then you'd wake up to Estelle trying to heal your ashes."

True enough, Raven finds himself agreeing with her before he stops himself from nodding. He's not supposed to encourage this little sin between them, no matter how much they both want it or not; the only things that need work are his resolve and excuses.

Vaguely, Raven makes a note somewhere in the back of his mind. Just moments go (neither of them can tell how much time has passed - minutes? hours?), Rita was crying about his death; now she was threatening him with it.

I must be a magical guy, he thinks fleetingly before searching for his strongest excuse.

"I'm too old," he mutters both to her and himself. "You're still young. If we... if the world were to see us, you'd ask yerself what the hell yer' doin' with an old fogey like me and-"

"I don't care." Rita bites harshly, yanking on his coat to bring his face close to hers, then in a breathless murmur, "I don't care."

And they both lean in because Rita really doesn't care at the moment who or what sees them; all she's aware of are soft lips and warmth. Raven complies because finds he doesn't care either, nor did he ever want to fight it in the first place; if he's going to hell anyway, he might as well make the best of his life.

Rita's back arches into the kiss as Raven tightens his arms around her. She makes a tiny sound at the back of her throat in frustration - her arms are in the way and for a brief second, she wonders what to do with them before letting go and wrapping them around his shoulders. The heat between them is scandalizingly delicious as he crushes her against him.

They stay like that for an eternity and a second before parting for air. Lips swollen, Rita's brain regains the tiniest bit of sense and she flushes, burying her hot face into the junction where shoulder meets neck. Raven simply gives a deep, quiet chuckle.

In the morning, a little past dawn, Raven wakes up to a dead fire, a sleeping brunette in his arms, and Repede's snout nudging his elbow. He stares blankly at the dog and gives a great yawn before his senses come alert and he catches Yuri's raised eyebrow directed in his way. The archer scrunches up his face, almost as if to say what are you looking at?

The swordsman gives a snort of laughter before rolling the other way in his sleeping bag and giving a wave of his hand.

You've got ten minutes before I wake everyone up.

x

As it turns out, Rita does care what the world thinks. Raven doesn't mind because he knows she's just shy (in which she vehemently denies and gives a quick fwap to the head while he snickers).

He also doesn't mind because now that she chooses to walk behind with him, he can grab her hand when no one's looking. It's rewarding to watch her cheeks turn pink when she turns her head away, even when someone turns their head and she instantly frees her hand, for the pink on her cheeks only darken.

But the most rewarding of all, Raven finds, is when they are absolutely sure all attention is away from them and undivided. During these moments, he grabs her hand and moves in for a fluttery kiss, be it her temple, cheek, hand, or lips.

And she simply turns red - her hand instinctively flexes ever so slightly in the lightest of squeezes.

Because the Adephagos will fall, and none of them plan on dying anytime soon.

Raven smiles, for Rita Mordio's dreams of nightmares come to an end.

x x x

Finally, it's over! When was the last time I wrote 2000 words for one entire scene? Never! I think. All my previous stories had just skipped from here to there and then over there... because I suck at writing long things.

I think half of this story feels rushed, if not all. I'm sorry, but I don't quite know how to fix it. Also, sorry about the unclear points of view; it switches from Tsunderita to Raven to both back to Raven and I don't want to change it because in this final chapter I just don't know how to do it all with just one person's thought process and agfdjkgjdsl.

Also, present tense is hard to do for multiple chapters... kind of...

An important note: if anyone, while reading this, notices anything that is similar to someone else's story (that has been written before this final publish), let me know. I tried so hard to pull romance out of my head because I suck at that too, so I'm worried that if at any time, some of the stuff that came out of my head came from someone else's story and I don't want people to get mad at me ): (also, if there are spelling errors and grammar issues and stuff that doesn't make sense, let me know so I can fix them. my laziness only makes me skim over final works instead of actually checking them.)

Less important note number two: You cannot get past the age difference between these two. I tried, but I ended up using it anyway. It will happen/has happened to all writers who don't want to make Raven a creepy old pedophile. Everyone is probably going to get tired of "I'M TOO OLD FOR YOU." "I DON'T CARE." but maybe we're just going to have to deal with it. I tried not to make it a major issue in here...

And last of all, and most important: I just wanna say thanks to everyone who has continued reading this, has read only the first chapter and decided they didn't like it, reviewed, favourited, alerted, etcetc. You make me happy, even if you don't like my fic.

I write too much in author's notes. Damn it.