Fan Fiction / Zoids Fan Fiction ❯ Bandits ❯ The Ice Prince Begins to Thaw... ( Chapter 11 )

Van: I have a question for you, HealerAriel.

HealerAriel: Fire away, Lieutenant.

Van: Correct me if I'm wrong, but you've never so much as touched a guy, right?

HealerAriel: Uhh...I backfisted a guy in the balls once...

Van: -_-;; Yeah, not what I meant.

Bit: But thank you for sharing. Now we know not to piss you off.

HealerAriel: I'm all-powerful here, numbnuts, you shouldn't piss me off anyway. 'Cause you KNOW what happened when the Animorphs annoyed me.

Guys: Oh yes, we do...

Irvine: But back to the subject... You've never touched a guy in an AFFECTIONATE way, right?

HealerAriel: That is none of your business.

Guys: Humor us.

HealerAriel: *rolls eyes* No, I haven't. Why?

Van: Because you always end up writing these graphic makeout and sex scenes.

HealerAriel: *suspicious glare* Have you been looking through my notebooks?

Guys: *anime hand-behind-head thing* Heh heh heh... Guilty...

Bit: We just wanted to know...how can you write that stuff without any experience?

HealerAriel: Because I am as perverse as I am creative. And I read. A lot. There are some great lemons between you and Leena, actually.

Bit: ^_______^ Oh, hell yes. Maybe I'll ask her if we can act 'em out sometime.

Van&Irvine: Didn't need to hear that...

HealerAriel: Actually, I have to get this off my chest; I was up until 5am Saturday night reading Inuyasha smut-fics. Really, really graphic ones.

Van&Irvine: Didn't need to hear that, either...

HealerAriel: HEY! I can't help it! I've sworn to chastity! I need some kind of outlet...

Bit: You WERE just reading, right? 'Cause, you know, some people-

HealerAriel: *whacks Bit upside the head* PERV! I don't do that stuff! I just read. Reading is fine for me. And if you'll drop the subject, I'll print some stuff out for you about you and Leena.

Bit: *drool* Me wanteeeee....

"Talk about your all-time backfires," Raven grumbled. He'd walked in on Alandria intending to embarrass her so severely that she'd learn to respect and fear him. He'd embarrassed her, alright, but he'd ended up... Well, he was very thankful for his acting skills and the design of his uniform (A/N- ya know, he's got that built-in cod piece thing going on). It was very difficult to be cold and emotionless when he could feel himself getting hard as he spoke. Looking her over had almost killed him.

"I'm not attracted to her," he told himself as the hot water streamed over his muscular naked body (A/N- *drooooooool*). "Seeing any woman would have done that to me. It has nothing to do with her."

***

While Raven was in total denial - er, while he was in the shower - Alandria and her new friend, Shadow, were taking inventory of the kitchen. There was not much in the ways of food. At least, nothing that was still edible.

"That bastard can steal slutty clothes to put me in, but he can't steal food," Alandria grumbled, slamming yet another empty cabinet shut. "What the hell is up with that?"

*Master's hornier than he is hungry,* Shadow growled in reply. Poor thing, it must get frustrating when nobody understands what you're saying. And Raven just bosses him around and yells at him. Oh, uh, back to the subject at hand...

"Hey buddy," Alandria said, petting Shadow's neck, "seeing as how jack-off in there has you fetch everything anyway, would you mind going out and swiping some food? I'm not picky, anything'll do."

*You ask for things a lot nicer than Master does,* Shadow decided, bumping her affectionately with his snout before taking off.

"What the hell are you using my organoid for?" a very nasty voice demanded from behind Alandria.

"I'm not using him," she replied, smirking. "I have genuine affection for him." (A/N- HAHA!...You don't get it, do you? Nevermind.) Feeling very cocky, she turned to face Raven, hands on her hips. "I sent him out for some food, since you obviously couldn't handle that."

"You're such a bitch," the ill-tempered lust object shot back (A/N- Sorry, I'm getting off-topic again). 'Nice choice of clothing,' he added silently, looking her over for the second time that day. 'She doesn't have THAT bad of a body on her...Lord knows, there's worse. Reese had nicer-'

"Why are you staring at me?!" Alandria demanded for the fifth time, shaking Raven out of his vivid fantasies of having Alandria and Reese in bed with him at the same time. Which he would have enjoyed thoroughly.

"Staring at you?" he snapped. "Why would I put myself through the agony? I don't want to look at you any more than I have to."

*Raven POV*

We just looked at each other for a minute. Maybe I'd gone a little too far. Her expression was unreadable.

"You're not gonna cry, are you?" I asked, not nearly as coldly as I'd meant to. I hate it when girls cry, okay?! It's not like I was going soft or anything. They just look so pathetic when they cry, that's all. Her lips - her full, pretty lips - curled up into a snarl.

"You think I'm just a weak little bimbo, don't you?" she hissed, glaring at me with the utmost hatred. "What, you think you can break me by...by walking in on me when I'm naked, and insulting me?" I was completely taken aback by this reaction.

"N-no, that's not-"

"Well, you've got another thing coming to you," she continued, not even letting me finish. "I don't know what kind of girls you know, but I'm not like that. You will not break me." And with that, she turned on her heel and left the room.

***

"Oh my God," Van mumbled, massaging the bridge of his nose. It was bad enough that Mercutio was universally annoying, but his newest pastime was bound to get Van in trouble eventually. For the past three hours, Mercutio had made a point of trying to irritate someone much higher in rank than Van.

"Hey," Mercutio whispered, standing right beside Colonel Schubaltz, who was looking at some sort of official military...thing with the other important dudes. He was ignored. "Yooooo-hooooo, Karl? Kaa-aaaaarl?"

The Imperial officer did nothing except make an annoyed grinding noise in his throat. Mercutio went with a different approach.

"Karly?" he asked, poking the Colonel repeatedly in the ribs. "Karly-pooh? KAR-LAY!"

By this point, Irvine and Moonbay were taking bets as to how long before the Colonel got sick of the agrivating teenager and smacked him around a little. Van was deciding how to write out his will, because he was as good as dead if his "friend" pissed off a colonel enough.

"Is Mercutio allowed to do that?" Fiona asked Van softly, as Mercutio moved in front of the Colonel and started doing a dance that made him look remarkably like a rabid gopher.

"No-o-o," Van moaned. "Aw, man, my military career is so over."

"Karl, Karl, Karl, Karl," Mercutio chanted, doing a new dance that involved standing in one place, but swinging his knees in and out. Now he looked like a demented lumberjack. "Who's mah Karl, who's mah Karl?" He was still, believe it or not, getting absolutely no attention. He growled.

"Two more minutes," Moonbay hissed. Irvine shook his head.

"Karl's got good control, but Mercutio could piss a monk off. I give him twenty seconds, tops."

"Yeah? What are you betting on that one?" she asked. Irvine smirked.

"Loser buys dinner tonight."

"Deal." She leaned back and surveyed the (A/N- really, really hot) mercenary beside her. "You know, Alandria's got a point. You have a great ass."

"I try."

"KARLY!" Mercutio screeched, throwing his arms around Colonel Schubaltz, scampering like a little monkey onto his shoulders, and sitting there. Then, as the clincher, he knocked off the imperial babe's hat and started picking through his sandy blond hair, pretending to eat a bug every once in a while. Some of the other military dudes started to snort in amusement as Colonel Schubaltz threw the boy off his shoulders, then picked him up by the collar and held him a foot above the ground.

"Yes?" the colonel hissed, narrowing his eyes. Mercutio treated him to a moronic grin.

"Hee hee, I love you, man. Don't kick my ass."

"Show more respect for an officer, BOY," Colonel Schubaltz commanded, dropping Mercutio roughly and offering glares to all of the men below his staus who were laughing.

"You owe me dinner," Irvine informed, patting Moonbay's shoulder and smirking again (A/N- I can't help it, he's so cute when he looks all cocky! 'Course he's cute all the time, but....).

"You're such a jerk."

***

It had gotten dark, and Raven hadn't seen Alandria since she'd stormed out of the room. He wouldn't admit it to himself, but deep down, he was a little worried about her.

'It's not like I care,' he reassured himself as he headed up to the roof, having already checked the rest of the house. His prisoner was standing with her back to him, staring up into the sky. As he got closer, he could see her shivering slightly. It was a little cold out, and she really wasn't wearing much...

Before he knew what he was doing, Raven had pulled off his cloaky-jackety thing and draped it over the girl's shoulders. She jumped at his touch and quickly faced him.

"What are you doing?" she demanded, glaring at him.

'She's still pissed about that remark earlier, isn't she?' Raven thought, wincing slightly. He hadn't meant to hurt her...well, not really. Reese had never gotten so defensive when he insulted her. But, that was Reese, and Reese was a little unbalanced anyway.

"I thought you might have been cold," he said emotionlessly. Alandria turned away from him, clutching the warm fabric around her.

"Why do you care?" she snapped. "You're nasty to me the rest of the time." That stung more than Raven had expected it to. Honestly, he was beginning to like Alandria. It took guts for her to try to steal the GenoBreaker, fist fight with a man wanted for mass homocide, and maintain her dignity after being looked at when she was completely naked. Raven soon found himself doing something else he never expected.

*Alandria POV*

He rested his hands on my hips and pulled me close so that my back was pressed against him. Adrenaline started pumping through my system - what was he doing? I could feel his hot breath against my ear. He was really scaring me now. My mind was screaming at me to run, but I couldn't move.

"What do you say, we call a truce?" he whispered, his breath tickling my ear and sending shivers down my back. I hated what he was doing, why was my body reacting so differently than my mind? I wanted to escape, to hit him, anything! But I was still frozen, just like I'd been that morning. I started to shake violently, and not because of the cold.

"Am I scaring you?" he mocked, fingering the buttons on my dress. "If I'd known that this was all it would take, I'd have done it sooner." That bastard! He'd been TRYING to scare me?! I whipped around and slapped him across the face, anger allowing me to move again.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" I screamed. He caught my arm before I could administer the punch I'd been preparing. He pinned my arms behind my back and roughly pulled me against his chest. I glared up at him with absolute loathing. " I hate you!" I spat, struggling against him as hard as I could. He tightened his grip on me until it was almost painful.

"You've got guts, little girl," he teased. "I'm bigger and stronger than you, and you fight me anyway. I like that in a woman. Now how about that truce? I'll be nice to you, you be nice to me."

"Go to hell!"

"Wrong answer," he said, holding me even tighter. "Care to try again?"

"Fine!" I spat, once I was convinced that I couldn't escape his hold on me. He released his grip, now resting one hand in the small of my back, one under my chin.

"Good girl." He smirked. Something sparkled in his eyes as he looked down at me, slowly tilting my face upward. Was it my imagination, or was his smirk slowly turning into an honest-to-God smile? 'Why doesn't this boy smile more often?' I wondered. 'He's so adorable when he smiles, it makes a girl want to cry!'

"I didn't mean what I said before, about not liking how you look," he whispered, his face inches away from mine. I opened my mouth to speak. No sound came out. I felt my eyes flutter closed as his warm lips met mine in a softer kiss than I would have assumed such a man capable of. My first kiss. Once I got over the fact that Raven was kissing me, I realized with a shock that... Raven was kissing me! My eyes snapped open and I jerked away.

"What's wrong?" he asked, arms around my waist.

"You take me hostage, you look at me naked, you insult me constantly, then you apologize and kiss me, all in less than forty-eight hours? What the hell?!" I demanded. The famous Raven smirk reappeared.

"If memory serves, you were kissing right back," he informed, "so apparently you didn't mind." Okay, so it WAS a pretty nice kiss... But this was RAVEN! The all-around bad guy!

"Of course I minded!" I lied. "You can't just-" He shut me up by kissing me again. 'Okay, maybe he can...' I admitted silently, starting to run my fingers through his long, soft hair. 'Um, what am I doing?' I asked myself. 'This is Raven; as in, the bad guy. Why am I letting him do this to me?' I yanked away again.

"NOW what's bothering you, woman?!" he groaned. I couldn't help but smirk.

"Oh, so I've been promoted from 'Girl'?" I mocked. A splash of pink appeared on his pale cheeks. He was BLUSHING?! I made the big, bad Raven blush!

"You're trying my last nerve," he growled, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Aw, you mean no more kisses for me tonight?" I asked. His cheeks turned pinker.

"That was a fluke," he snapped, beginning to walk away. "Shadow brought the damn food you asked for, by the way. Do something useful with it." I followed him, sensing the chance to annoy him more.

"That would be the Raven way of asking me to make dinner?"

"JUST DO IT!" he roared. Somehow, him being all pissed off amused me.

"Aren't you the sweet one," I teased, tickling him. He slapped my hands away angrily. I laughed. He was so much fun to irritate, I couldn't help it!

"I'll go make dinner now," I surrendered, still giggling.