#ames

You bit your lip to stop a smile from spreading over your lips at that. The stoic heart throb of Easton Magic Academy was a bunny lover. That moment had humanized him to you. It showed that he wasn’t just some powerful prodigy that only cared about his own agenda, he had a heart that he hid from the world. He told you to keep it, but you ended up washing it and giving it back to him at a later date. It was nice of him, but it felt wrong taking something from a stranger. 

Well he wasn’t much of a stranger after that, since the next project for your class had been raising an animal of your choosing with a partner. It was to teach you about the importance of development in animals and how their environment can dictate their personalities. To your utter surprise, Rayne had claimed you as his partner for the project, not even allowing you a word in the matter. You weren’t too pressed about it though because you didn’t really know anyone else in the class. The two of you worked together quite well. You weren’t as annoying as Rayne had thought you’d be, and he wasn’t as rude as you thought he’d be. 

You found yourself walking down the hallways with Rayne by your side. You found yourself sharing lunch with each other. You found yourself studying with him in your free time or going to his dorm to check in on what you dubbed, your child (bunny) from your previous project. You had even acquainted yourself with his roommate and best friend Max Land! 

So why didn’t you fully think of yourself as his friend? Well…Rayne had a tendency to send mixed messages. On one hand, he’d walk you to your class, and on the other, you wouldn’t see him for a week straight. Of course you knew he wasn’t going to be as present this year, as he had been donned a divine visionary, but he couldn’t warn you about an upcoming mission or task? It stung when you’d either found out from Max when he asked you to take care of the bunny or when Rayne would just mysteriously vanish off the face of the Earth.

But at the end of the day, you still considered Rayne to be your friend. He wasn’t perfect, but you still cared for him and in his unique ways, he cared for you.

One time that he let his feelings shine through was at this moment.

“Are you stupid?” Rayne asked, eyes squinting at you.

You pouted at his bluntness, “But I wanna pet it!” 

Today in your class you were going over rare creatures, at the moment, going over Bunyip’s. It was a beast that was only found in lakes, rivers, or other bodies of freshwater. They were dangerous as their diet was apparently indiscriminate about what their prey was, but you got hooked on their appearance. Perhaps most people would be horrified or put off (particularly by the fact that no one has seen one enough to give a description), but when you heard that it was sometimes described to look like a seal or swimming dog you were caught in a strange love. 

“There’s not even enough evidence that it exists,” Rayne countered. “And if it did, it would kill you without mercy.”

“That’s okay,” You shrugged. “As long as I can claim I got to pet it.”

“You can’t claim anything if you’re dead,” Rayne huffed, but you had learned to read his emotion through his eyes, and they held a slight glimmer of amusement at the moment. 

You paused, as you weren’t sure how to rebuttal that. So instead you crossed your arms with a pout. Moments like these became more abundant the closer you two got. The stoic Rayne Ames became…well still stoic, but he seemed to become more comfortable in your presence. Awkward pauses in your conversations became far and few inbetween, banter started to become natural between you both. Maybe you dramatized yourself a bit, but that seemed to make it easier for him to tease you (in his own slightly condescending way).

Although the moment that you realized his feelings for you ran deeper for you than you realized happened when you were having a terrible day. You woke up annoyed, no particular reason for it, you just felt like it was going to be a rough morning. Of course, how you perceive the day is going to lead to its outcome. You skipped breakfast, not feeling hungry, only to become ravenous in your first period. Your teacher handed back your previous tests and you didn’t do as well as you thought you had. As the teacher went over ways to better scores for the next test, it felt like they were aiming every word at you. When lunch rolled around, it was hard to hide your sour mood in front of Rayne and Max, but it didn’t seem to matter as the two seemed to completely ignore you, only worsening said mood. You knew it was irrational, they weren’t doing anything wrong, maybe you were hiding your feelings better than you thought, but it felt like maybe they just didn’t care.

So you continued on, not even trying to hide scowl on your face. You felt invisible, so why try? You had finally snapped as someone accidentally spilled ink on your paper that you had nearly finished. You felt your eyes well up with stressful tears threatening to fall down your face. You quickly gathered your things, waving off the person as they apologized. You didn’t care that the class had only started ten minutes ago, you were done. The day was almost over anyways, no harm in skipping your last class. You booked it out of the class, ignoring the stares of your peers and the way your teacher looked at you worriedly. You tried your hardest to stop the tears, but it was no use as they started spilling the second you crossed the door frame of your class. Keeping your head down, you rubbed at your eyes as you walked down the halls towards your dorm. 

So caught up in your torment, you had forgotten that you shared your last class with Rayne. In your mind, it didn’t matter, yes he was your friend but you knew how seriously he takes his schooling seriously. So when you were suddenly pulled into an empty classroom by said Divine Visionary, you were surprised. Not only surprised, but you felt ashamed. You hid your face as pathetic sobs left your lips. You continued to rub at your face, trying to halt the never ending stream of tears. God this was so embarrassing! You didn’t want him to see you like this, it felt like it ruined how you wanted him to see you. 

Rayne on the other hand felt out of his depth. Emotion’s were something he tried to stay away from. That was until it came to you. You had unknowingly shown him the good in feelings, not just the bad he was used to. In fact, you were so good at making things seem brighter, he had failed to consider that the bad affected you just like it does to everyone. Seeing you sob your heart out didn’t sit well with him, hearing your distressed cries felt wrong. You were always happy, cheerful, a shining smile on your face as you shared something you found fascinating. With all the bad in the world you always managed to find something good, and you shared that with whoever would listen. 

“I’m sorry,” You apologized, still hiding yourself from the stoic man standing across from you. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.”

Rayne’s heart broke, even in a pained state, you still apologized. For what? He wasn’t sure, but he had a gut feeling it was because you didn’t want him to see your own pain. Rayne racked his brain for what to do, but seeing you in such a state made it feel blank, like all knowledge had vanished from him completely. In what he lacked with emotional knowledge, he knew even less in comforting or touch. He was completely out of his element, but he refused to just stand on the sidelines and watch you suffer on your own.

You felt yourself pause as you felt a hand rest on your head. Peeking up through your fingers, you watched in slight wonder as Rayne awkwardly patted your head. Tears were still falling down your cheeks, but your breathing started to even and your sobs diminished. You had been so flabbergasted by Rayne’s actions that he had managed to shock you out of your previous hysteria. 

You felt yourself warm at the gesture, how he went out of his comfort zone to try and comfort you. It was awkward, sure, but it meant everything to you. And against your own wishes, you felt more tears start to fall, this time due to how intense all your emotions felt at the moment. You had never felt so grateful towards someone, so much care and love. Out of your better judgment, you jumped at Rayne, squeezing him tightly as you cried into him. His arms froze awkwardly at his sides, unsure if this meant you were happy or still sad. The way your hands scrunched his robe, or how you squeezed him like your life depended on him. He felt his face warm, unused to such a notion. Slowly and awkwardly, he put his arms around you.

That moment had changed things between you both. You had become a lot more affectionate towards Rayne (though you kept that for either if you two were alone or just small things in public). At first Rayne didn’t know how to react, he thought you were warm before, but now you were like a sun shining down on him. He was even more befuddled as your special treatment only seemed to be aimed at him. Unknown to him, he had become warmer towards you as well. After that incident, he kept a sharper eye on you, wanting to make sure you never cry like that again. You found it odd at first when trinkets would show up randomly. Sometimes it was items with your favorite animal as the pattern, other times it was trinkets with bunnies as the pattern. Which was a dead give away that it was Rayne who was giving the items. 

You both had become pining idiots, much to Max’s amusement. He hadn’t expected to ever see his roommate fall for someone else in such a way. Yes, he knew that deep down Rayne was a softie, but he couldn’t imagine his friend to be in a romantic relationship. Even so, Max was overjoyed at the events unfolding before him. He would watch with a grin as you offered parts of your lunch to the spilt colored haired man, or how in return Rayne would slip an animal keychain in your bag. 

It was amusing for a certain period…but he started to slowly lose hope that either of you would try to take it further. You both were in a comfortable spot in your relationship, so why rock the boat? Even Finn couldn’t deny that his brother might’ve found himself a true companion, a fact that made him happy. All in all, no one could deny the chemistry between you both. Not even you could find a way to wave it off as friendly. You certainly felt a love deeper than you’d like to admit towards the Sword Cane, and it was hard for you to brush off how much he seemed to care for you as well. 

You found yourself in a conundrum. You had never been in a situation like this before. Where you had feelings for someone and the person actually seemed to reciprocate. But as always, you managed to find a problem. Was Rayne looking for a relationship? He was busy as ever as a Divine Visionary, and that didn’t seem like it was going to slow down. Could it even work? Maybe it was for the best if you two just stayed friends. While Rayne on the other hand never expected to feel like this for anyone. He hadn’t expected to fall for anyone, it wasn’t in his plans for the future, nor would it benefit him in his goal to make the world a better place for orphans. Yet now, when he thought of the future, it seemed bleak if you weren’t by his side. 

Both of your paths seemed like it was going to stray. You wanted to become a wildlife expert of some kind, while he already had his career. A Divine Visionary and a scientist, how would it work out? (Yes, you were both so in love with each other y’all are already thinking that far ahead). 

Yes, Max found your pining amusing, but he also started to get tired of how hopeless you both were. You both clearly cared for the other deeply, it was time for one of you to push things further. So, Max decided to talk to you first, as you seemed to be the easier of the two to push things forward. What he hadn’t expected was how deep your anxiety ran. He could only sit there sweating as you continued to rant a seemingly never ending list of possible problems that might happen. 

“What about tomorrow?” Max asked, cutting you off before you could go further into how you may both be trapped in a loveless marriage.

“What?” You asked, unsure what he meant by that.”

“If you both were together, what do you think would happen tomorrow,” Max clarified, brown eyes filled with warmth. 

You paused, not having thought of that, “Uhm…I guess what it's like now.”

Max smiled, “So why shouldn’t you confess?”

You stammered, heart beating erratically at the anxiety that filled you, “Be-because what if it goes wrong?”

With a sigh he retaliated, “And what if it doesn’t? You have to just take it a day at a time.”

Pausing once more, you realized the anxiety you tried to work on before had overtaken you. You had a problem with overthinking the future, you had even sought help to combat it. They had told you the same thing: ‘it’s not healthy to obsess over the future like that. Just take it a day at a time’. Thinking over the situation once more, you groaned. 

“Your right,” You grumbled, head falling onto your arms. 

Instead of teasing you like he normally would, Max only smiled at you gently. You were a friend of his after all, and everyone struggles with something. You really cherished Max, especially when he helped you come up with a plan to confess. 

There you stood, just as planned, Rayne was alone in the dorm. Max had left so you two would have privacy. Gathering all of your courage, you knock on the prefect’s door. Your heart felt like it was slamming against your chest. You couldn’t help but feel ridiculous. You were holding a bunny plushie, face feeling aflame. The door opened, Rayne’s stoic face, though it seemed like his eyes slightly lit up when he realized it was you. He let you in, as it wasn’t unusual for you to visit. Your eyes landed on your shared pet rabbit, it hopped towards you and you couldn’t stop yourself to lean down and pet it. Rayne watched on, trying to ignore how his heart skipped a beat at the sight. He found you as cute as a bunny, but he wasn’t sure how to express that. 

Standing back up, you inhaled a deep breath. A serious look fell across your face, but it was hard for Rayne to take you too seriously as you now not only held a rabbit plush, but your pet rabbit. 

“I really like you and I think we should date,” You stated, holding the plushie out towards Rayne. 

He stared at you, his brain felt like it was short circuited. You both stood there, watching the other, warmth overtaking the both of you. Suddenly, your serious face turned into one of horror. Had you really just confessed like that? You felt your face flame up, shoulders rising to hide you. That was close to how you had first asked someone to become your friend (they did become friends with you, but didn’t let you live down how awkwardly you asked). That was when you had vowed to never ask someone to be your friend, every time it was someone making friends with you. So why had you trusted yourself to confess? 

“I-I mean, uh,” You stumbled, eyes darting around to try and salvage it.

“Okay,” Rayne finally spoke, accepting the bunny plush. You had managed to leave him speechless, but he quickly snapped back, ending your fumbling. 

You blinked with wide eyes, “Wait, really?” Yes, it was hard to deny how well you both got along, how you both treated the other like they were special, but you hadn’t actually expected him to say yes. Maybe he would let you down nicely, saying he wasn’t ready for a relationship, or that he just wanted to stay friends, but you weren’t going to complain. 

Rayne nodded in response, “I…like you too.” 

“Cool,” You nodded, unsure how to continue. Like stated before, you hadn’t expected it to get this far. You pet the rabbit in your arms, trying to calm your racing mind. What do people do after becoming a couple? It didn’t help that Rayne had just continued to stare at you, making your heart race faster. 

Once again, Rayne patted your head awkwardly. Yeah, it seemed like you both had to figure out what to do.