Raine hummed to herself as she wiped down the countertop. It was a happy little tune, a song in her heart. Song in her heart... where did that come from? She stopped the circular motion of her hand and gazed out the window. She saw Laguna chasing Ellone around the yard. Raine tried to hold down the large smile she felt come across her face... but she couldn't help it. Laguna made a flying tackle for Ellone and they both went sprawling in the grass. He pinned her on the ground and tickled her. She giggled and squirmed. She could hear the shrill squeals through the thin glass of the window. Ellone put her tiny feet on her Uncle Laguna's chest and pushed him back. He relented to the small girl's push, and let himself be sat upon and tickled mercilessly. Raine doubted it actually tickled though.

She sighed as she watched the two. Laguna looked to the side, a wide grin on his face, and caught Raine's eye. They stayed like that for a moment, and then Raine harshly broke the gaze by pulling her head to the side. She realized she was blushing immensely, and it made her blush a deeper red.

She jumped and clasped a hand over her heart as Laguna rapped on the window with his knuckles. He did them one at a time, rolling them across the pane. The window was a good bit above the ground, as there was a wine cellar below, so she could only see the upper half of his body. She clamped her mouth shut in an attempt at a firm line, but it ended up being a highly comical smirk. Laguna waggled his eyebrows at her, and she snorted through her smirk. Laguna burst into laughter, and Raine had to turn away, covering her giggles with the back of her hand.

Laguna rapped on the window again. Raine composed herself as much as she could, and turned back to Laguna. She placed her hand on her hip and tapped her foot. Laguna seemed to find that comical, as he giggled slightly. Raine shook her head. For a full-grown man, he was as silly as a ten year old boy. And he had the humor of one. And the grammar of one...

Laguna pointed to the window latch, telling her to open it. He mouthed, 'Open the widdle! I oprimse I don't have something to how at too!' Raine shook her head uncomprehendingly at Laguna. She had no clue what the heck he had just said.

Then, Laguna yelled through the glass. "OPEN THE WINDOW! I WON'T THROW ANYTHING AT YOU OR SOMETHING LIKE THAT!"

The glass was thin and Raine could hear every word he said clearly, but that didn't mean she was going anywhere near that window. It sounded much too suspicious for Raine. She shook her head and shouted at Laguna, "No!"

"AWWE!" Laguna said, resting his forehead on the glass pane and giving her a pouty puppy look. He blinked his eyes rapidly and stuck his lip out unnaturally far. The attempt at batting his eyelashes made it look like his face was having a muscle spasm.

Rinoa shook her head again, now grinning again. He gave her that look, and as dorky as it was, she found it convincing her. She fought it, but the pouty puppy Laguna was too much. "Oh, Laguna Loire, you rascal. What am I going to do with you?" She walked over to the window, and undid the latch. Laguna swung the window open and grabbed Raine by the waist. She screamed as he swooped her down to the ground.

"Hey there, thought you might want to join us." He said with his winning smile.

Standing face to face -much too close- Raine glared at him. He had a grin plastered on his face. She balled her fist and playfully hit him on the chest. "You're mean." She said.

He cocked an eyebrow. "Oh? Is that so? Because, I think, you haven't seen anything yet, my dear Raine."

"I need to go finish cleaning!" She shouted, giggling.

Raine tried to back away, but he grabbed her wrists. She giggled and pulled at his grip, but it was useless. She was weak from all the laughing, she was trembling from the contact, and on top of all that, she had the damn hiccups. Laguna swept her legs out from under her and in seconds, she was swung over his shoulder.

"Let me go." she demanded, trying to swat at Laguna again, but he stopped her short.

"Make me." He said with a laugh.

"I just tried!" She giggled.

Ellone popped up from out of nowhere behind Laguna. "Whacha doing?" she asked, little girl innocence shining in her eyes.

"We're playing a game." Laguna said, keeping a tight hold on the struggling woman and looking at Ellone all the while.

Raine huffed and let her arms go slack. "Uncle Laguna is playing a game. I'm captured."

Ellone's eyes widened, and her face broke into a very Laguna-like smile. "Run, Raine! I'll get monster Laguna!" She pulled a toy sword seemingly from nowhere and whacked Laguna on the knuckles of each hand. "Ow!" He shouted, withdrawing and sucking on his fingers. Raine was dropped onto the ground. She landed on her back. She sat up and laughed at Laguna and Ellone's antics. Then Laguna remembered his part in the 'game' and chased after little Ellone. He made silly monster noises and chased her around the yard.

Raine sat leaning up against the house watching Ellone trying to hit Laguna with the toy sword. Laguna ducked and rolled to avoid it, but she caught him on the head or on the stomach a few times. The poke in the gut sent him rolling on the ground.

"OW! Oh, Ellone, YOU GOT ME!" He said, rolling on the ground pretending he was a dying monster. Ellone cheered and put her foot in his chest in triumph. She looked down on Laguna and gasped.

Raine gave Laguna a quizzical glance and he smiled at her. He shrugged as well as he could with Ellone pinning him onto the grass.

"Raine!" The girl shouted, pulling her foot off the man's chest and dropping to the ground beside him. Laguna resumed his 'dead' facade.

"What is it?" Raine said in mock emergency as she crawled through the grass to the three year old.

When did she become so involved in the game as to stain her jeans? Ashe ignored the nagging thoughts in the back of her mind and knelt beside her charge.

"This wasn't a monster! It was Prince 'Guna! He got turned into a monster by the evil queen." She threw her hands in the air. "I can't bewieve I killeded him!"

"Oh no! Hoe could we not have seen? What do we do now?"

"Well," she stood on her tip toes to reach Raine's ear, even though she was on the ground. She whispered the five words in her ear that Raine had been wondering if they'd come in. "You have to kiss him!"

Laguna snorted and his face turned a shade of deep red. Raine gulped, her heart pounding. She tried to think up an excuse... but there was none, really.

"Elle, I think maybe..." She could practically see the lightbulb that popped up over her head. "I think you have to kiss him!"

Laguna smirked and his chest heaved up and down, indicating he was holding back laughter.

Laguna sure did suck at playing dead. "Yes! That's it!" Raine shouted. "It won't work if I kiss him! You have to do it, Princess Ellone!"

The girl giggled and pecked 'Uncle' Laguna on the cheek. Laguna sat up with his arms outstreched and groaned. Raine smacked him on the arm. "You're a prince, not a mummy, you dork."

"Oh, sorry. I was dead, I didn't get the memo."

Raine rolled her eyes.

Hours later, after the rush of customers, and long after Ellone had taken a bath to rid her hair of the gras and gone to bed, it was just Laguna and Raine.

Laguna sat at the bar with a notebook, tapping his pen on the paper. Raine sat on the countertop behind the bar, swinging her legs and sifting through old photos of Ellone.

Laguna threw his pen onto the paper and leaned back in his chair. Raine glanced up at him and he smiled.

"You know, Prince 'Guna, that was quite the game you played today. Do you two always do that?"

He shrugged. "Most of the time it doesn't involve kissing a beautiful princess-"

Raine went wide-eyed at him.

"No, no, no, no! I meant, I didn't mean you! I meant, Elle, even though, I mean, you're beautiful too, but! That's not what I meant, wait a second, let me start over. Ugh." He grimaced and rubbed his leg. "Pretend I never said a word."

Raine smiled at him. "It's okay, I know what you meant." she blushed a little and opened her mouth to speak, but clamped it shut and turned back to the photos.

Laguna put his elbows on the countertop and let his hair slide over the blush in his own face. "Yes."

"Y-yes what?"

Laguna rose from his seat and headed for the door. Only when his hand touched the doorknob did he respond. "Yes... You're beautiful."

A/N: Whoa! A one-shot that doesn't have song lyrics in it...! WHOA TIMES TWO! Something happy! I can't believe it. Yeah, I know it's not my best work, but I've really been sucking at getting anything happy to come out of my head. I hope you enjoyed this really bad and super sappy Laguna and Raine fic! (I've always wantedto write something like this! :3)

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