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The first knock on the door didn't rouse the young man.  The second knock made him groan.   The third made his elven companion mutter "just go see who it is..." before drifting back to sleep.

Reiyu carefully removed his arm from under the sleeping red-head, crept out of bed, and went to find his shirt.  He took special care to remain silent, as tonight was one of those rare nights where little Cyrus had actually been sleeping the whole way through, and though he was in another room the adventurer thought it best to be cautious.

Within a few moments he had regained his top and was fairly certain he was wearing some sort of bottoms, so he shuffled down the stairs, into the shop proper, and lurched to the door.

There was a fourth knock, no louder than the rest, and somehow pathetic sounding.

The first thing he was greeted with upon opening the door was about a pound of rainwater blasting across his front and into the store.  The second thing he saw, once his eyes adjusted, was a sopping wet young man standing forlornly on the front step. "Darren," asked Reiyu, "what are you doing out here?"

The youth mumbled something, bottom lip quivering the whole time.

Reiyu sighed, soaked to the bone and unable to hear him.  He reached out and pulled Darren inside by the shoulder, and shut the door behind him. "It's like a hurricane out there, Darren, you should know better than to be doing your...training on a night like this." Reiyu knew full well that, while technically good for his career, Darren wasn't silently slinking around the rooftops every night for the practice.

"I wasn't!" he sobbed, a little louder than Reiyu thought necessary.  "I just....just..."

"Come on, lose the coat and hat.  I'll go find you some towels.  Have a seat on the-"  Reiyu cut himself off, and pointed away from the upholstery and instead towards a wooden stool nearby. "-stool."

As Darren silently obeyed, Reiyu disappeared into the back of the store.  How had he gone from being snuggled up against a voluptuous elven beauty to being soaking wet attending to Darren?

After some time, and some vigorous towelling off, Darren and Reiyu sat down to some mildly warm cocoa.  Couldn't boil the water, the swordsman had insisted, because the whistling would wake the baby.   Darren didn't seem to mind however, and dutifully latched to his mug.

"You feeling better now, little guy?" Reiyu inquired.

"Uh-huh," mumbled the rogue.

"So what were you doing out there?"

Darren's pout became even more pronounced. "B-B-B-BW kicked me out."   It sounded like he could barely hold back from wailing.

Normally Reiyu was a pretty sympathetic guy, but while he considered the youth before him a friend, he still knew better than to coddle him.  "What did you do this time?" he asked in a deadpan tone.

"Nothing!" he retorted, again too loudly for Reiyu's comfort.  Darren realized this a second too late.  "Er...nothing.  Nothing unusual, anyway."

"Mina?  Again?"

"Um..."

Reiyu sighed and cradled his forehead in his palm.  "Darren you have got to get over Mina!  You've never even spoken with her!  I'm not even entirely sure she knows you live in this town!"

"T-t-that's not true, I'm at the library all the time!  And...and-"

"And you don't say a word beyond borrowing or returning whatever book you're pretending to read, right?"

Darren remained silent.

This is the last straw, Reiyu thought.  Ever since he'd first met the young rogue he had been obsessed with the town librarian for reasons no one had been able to figure out.  Reiyu was hoping that living with BW, the rather feisty and cock-sure mage across the street, would've set him straight, but now the new constant in town was that every few days the town would find BW screaming and Darren running for cover.

She had, however, never thrown him out into a storm before.  While he felt bad for Darren, Reiyu also couldn't help being annoyed at him for driving BW that far.  The adventurer had always felt the winged mage was like a little sister to him, and familial or not, Reiyu's big-brother instincts were kicking in.

"You are going to do something about this, Darren.  Not...not now, because it's late and I'm tired and you can't do anything that you don't already do involving Mina at this time of night, but soon.  Tomorrow."  Reiyu's stern tone stung the youth, but he made no word of argument.  "I'll go get you a fresh pair of nightclothes to sleep in.  You're taking the couch and I'm going back upstairs to Sera.  We'll discuss this again in the morning."

"Okay." he whispered sheepishly.

------

"Nnngh, who was it..."

"Darren."

"Was he being creepy again..."

"Yeah.  Go back to sleep."

"...kay..."

------

Sera pounded on the worn wooden door once again.  "Come on, BW, open up!  It's already afternoon and I know even you don't sleep in that late!"

Yet again there was no response.  The elven woman had been standing outside for almost fifteen minutes and was growing impatient.  She huffed, tapping her toes, and glared at the windows of the mage girl's shop to see if there was any movement within.

"Fine," she muttered to herself.  "Old fashioned way."  She pressed a finger against the lock and chanted a weak fire spell.  With a slight 'bang' and a puff of smoke from the keyhole, the door creaked open.   Looking inside, Sera found the the shop completely empty, a rarity for a Friday.  "BW?" she called out.

Receiving no response, she pushed through to the back of the store and climbed the stairs up to BW's bedroom.  She considered knocking again, but frankly she was tired of sitting around waiting for people to answer her and just barged in instead.

BW looked at her hopefully for a moment, face peeking out from a mountain of sheets and blankets stacked on the bed, but her face quickly soured.  "What?" she barked.

"Is that how you're going to treat your best friend when she comes to check on you?"

BW huffed, but she didn't snap back.

Sera sighed in relief.  She gently sat down on the bed next to the BW cone, and patted her...well, presumably her back was around there somewhere.  "How are you holding up? I heard about what happened with Darren."

"That he's a jerk?  That's not news."

Can't argue with that, she thought.  He was a creepy little dude after all.  "I know, but this is what girlfriends do.  We talk about how stupid the boys are and go shopping and eat junk food and all that other typical stuff."

The mountain ruffled for a moment, until suddenly a hand holding a bag of chocolates popped out from under a sheet.   "Third part's covered."  It retreated just as quickly.

"Talk to me, BW.  You know I'm here for you."

Were it anyone else, the cranky mage would've been exploding things by now, but if Darren was the only person in town she could trust to respect her, then Sera was the only person in town she could trust to take care of her.  Sera was her oldest friend, and the first person she had ever met in her short life.

"He's a big, stupid, annoying, idiot.....jerk!  He was actually complaining about how hard it was to see out the window last night.  As if I'd be sympathetic or something!  And you know which window it was, too! The one facing that stupid library!"   A pointy blanket appendage lunged towards the offending window.  "It's all he ever talks about, all he ever thinks about, all he ever does!  Mina Mina Mina!  I hate them both!"  A chocolate furiously leapt into her mouth, somehow.  "Stupid jerks."

Sera let her vent for what felt like ages.  Eventually the younger girl ran out of things to say and had just started to repeat herself.  Sera cut her off at this point.  "Okay, okay, I get it.  Well, what if I told you that our good buddy Reiyu was going to help Darren iron out his Mina problems once and for all?"

BW cocked an eyebrow at her.  "How? Getting laid didn't fix him and I was certain that would work."

"Well," Sera began, rising to her feet and stepping over to the far window, "it's a lot easier to see out here today.  Come take a look."

Begrudgingly BW began to untangle herself from her fortress of fabric, a task which proved more difficult than necessary due to her large, dark wings.  Soon enough the two red-heads were staring out the window together, into the library...

------

"This will never work!" the youth wailed.

"Of course it'll work, don't you worry!" Reiyu replied, straightening the collar on the shirt he was letting Darren borrow.   He felt it might help if he wasn't dressed like a weirdo rogue for this.

"B-b-b-b-b-but I can't just go in there and talk to Mina!  It's....I mean...what if she-"

"Too late, door's open, in you go!"  Reiyu spun the youth around and shoved him into the library.  "Hello, Mina!" He called in after him, and then came inside and closed the door, making sure to stand in the way of it in case Darren tried to bolt.

The bespectacled woman with the messy hair at the nearby table looked up in surprise.  "Oh, hello Mr. Reiyu, and...um...and your nice friend there."   She wasn't being cute.  Mina seriously could not remember Darren all that clearly.

"Yup, my little buddy Darren.  Say hi, champ!"  Reiyu gave him a hearty slap on the back, propelling him in even further.

"Hi," he squeaked.

"Darren, right, of course, how silly of me!  Are you here to return 'Unlocking the Amazon Within'? It's been a few weeks, I believe."

Darren was glowing red in embarrassment.  As usual he had just been standing around in the library spying on Mina and, upon being caught, insisted on checking out the first book at hand.  And for some reason it was never anything normal.

"Oh...I...uh...thought I did already.   Letmegogetiti'llberightback!" he blurted, turning to dash out the door.

Reiyu firmly held his ground and caught the rogue before he could escape.  "Oh, I'm sure that can wait, why don't you tell Mina what you really came here for?"

"No no no it's okay really I'll just be a minute pleeeease let me go let me go!"

Reiyu's cheerful grin turned menacing.  "Oh, no, I insist!"

Mina, gods bless her, was completely oblivious to the subtext.  That was kind of her thing.  She tended not to notice many things beyond her own current obsessions.   As far as she was concerned these two boys were having a friendly chat.  "Could I help you with anything?" she asked, happily.

Darren gulped. He was doomed either way, so he may as well face the music.  "Um...Miss Mina...I...uh...."

"Yes?" she replied.

"That's....you're...I mean you....and I....well...."

Reiyu's eye twitched.   Unable to contain himself any longer, Reiyu let loose all the details of Darren's sordid activities.  The months and months of midnight stalkings, the constant fake visits to the library, the spyings from BW's window, everything.  He dredged up the full force of Darren's Mina Obsession (patent pending) unto Mina's mental doorstep.  After fifteen minutes solid, he took a breath and stopped.

"And that's why we're here.  You need to talk some sense into this boy."  He dropped into the closest seat.

Darren was frozen stiff.  Fear filled his eyes, wide with the terror of what was to come.  Mina was a mage too, and while he'd gotten used to BW's fiery rage, he wasn't all that used to being electrocuted or shattered into little ice crystals, and Mina had a much wider elemental repertoire than the youth's current partner.

He swallowed hard, waiting for the pain.

Mina laughed.  "Oh, don't be silly.  All that over little old me?  I think I would've noticed.  I'm quite astute, you know."

Reiyu raised a finger to contest this, but he let his arm go limp.  She thought he was kidding.  Good lord.

Darren, bucked by some unknown courage undoubtedly related to not being recently dead, spoke up again.  "It's true that I like you though.  I mean I always thought you were so smart, and pretty, and awesome, and stuff..."

"Aww, come on, don't exaggerate."  She giggled bashfully. She was playing coy to the man who had been obsessively stalking her for the past year!  Reiyu was beyond himself with bafflement.

"No, really!"  He was still beet red, but Darren was, remarkably, still pressing onward.  "It's true!"

"You really mean it?" Mina seemed shocked.  True, in a town with women of Sera's calibre it was hard to compete, but Reiyu had to admit that Mina wasn't even remotely unattractive.

Regardless, the swordsman wasn't certain what to do now.  As the two of them went on, back and forth with the 'really?' 'yes really!' dramatics, he was just flabbergasted at how things had turned out so far.  Had she really not noticed the months upon months of stalking? The spying?  The clockwork appearance of Darren outside the library windows almost daily? The entire town knew about it by now!  How could she-

"How about you come over later tonight and we'll have dinner?" Mina was suddenly asking, snapping Reiyu out of his reverie.

He started silently mouthing 'what' over and over again.

And Darren, in his infinite wisdom, seemed to find nothing odd about this entire situation at all and said "I'd love to!"

"WHAT."

-----

"What?!" BW screamed as she watched Mina lean forward and pull Darren into a tight hug.

Sera couldn't believe it either.  "That's...there's no way it's what it looks like. It can't be.  Surely she's just letting him down gently or something.  I mean Reiyu's not doing anythi-"  Then she noticed.  "Oh...never mind he's just sitting there completely limp and screaming."  Sera turned to look at her young friend, but...

She was gone.   "BW?" She called.

"Just leave me alone!" yelled a quiet voice from the other side of the room.

Sera's ears twitched a bit, and gave it away as being BW hiding underneath her own bed.  The elf calmly walked back to the bed and dropped to her stomach trying to get a visual of the mage.

BW was latched to her little stuffed bear, whom she had called Oboe for some reason she couldn't fathom, and just lying there dejectedly. With all that wing in the way it looked incredibly uncomfortable.   "Just go away," she sobbed.

"Honey, please, come out from under the bed," Sera replied, a bit more motherly than necessary.

"No!" BW barked.  "I wanna be alone for a while..."  With that she shut her eyes and squeezed Oboe to her chest even tighter.

Sera sighed for the umpteenth time that day.  With little Cyrus spending the day with Mara, the young woman who lived near the inn, Sera was free to spend the entire afternoon trying to coax BW back into the world.  Although 'free' wasn't a term Sera was about to use.

-----

"So she's still under the bed, then?" Reiyu asked, pulling the elven shopkeeper closer.

"And Darren's at Mina's eating dinner," she replied, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.

Together they were watching Cyrus Jr. giggling away in glee as the swordsman bounced him on his knee, holding him steady with his free hand.

"I just don't get it.  Facing your problems head on is what solved everything in my life...that I can remember, at least.  I thought this would work!" Despite his tone, Reiyu did his best to keep up a cheerful appearance so as not to upset the little guy on his knee.

"Don't beat yourself up over this, sweetheart. This is Darren we're talking about. It's gonna be weird-central no matter what you do."

"Don't be like that, Darren's harmless.  He's a good kid, underneath all that neurosis and stalking, honest!"

"Reiyu, I admire your optimism," said Sera, moments before falling asleep on him.

-----

Darren was politely hyperventilating in his chair.  Any moment now, Mina would come back into the room with dinner, and then he'd be having dinner with Mina! This was it!  Years of dreaming and hoping finally becoming reality!

Also it was a damn fine thing that he went to the toilet before coming over so as not to wet himself in excitement. Not...not that that ever actually happened, but Darren wasn't about to take any chances.

"Soup's on!" came the librarian's voice from the kitchen.  Darren took a deep, lung bursting breath in a desperate attempt to calm his nerves.  Instead he looked like a vibrating puffin.  Thankfully Mina took no notice of this and quickly went about setting the table. Finally, Darren was able to ease his palpitations long enough to see what undoubtedly lavish spread Mina had prepared for him.

She had made spaghetti. Nothing wrong with spaghetti, as far as the young rogue was concerned, but he had honestly expected something a bit more grand.  This was Mina, after all.  Mina! The angel given flesh!  Well, presumably it would taste phenomenal, so at least there was that.

"I hope you enjoy it.  I bought the name brand sauce for this one," she presented with an honest smile.

-----

"So what would you like to do now?" asked the librarian.

Darren, who wasn't about to say dinner was bad or anything, was still reeling a little from not being impressed. He was so certain that he would've been!  "Umm, I dunno.  What do you like to do?"  He knew, of course, since he studied her day and night, but it seemed like the thing to say.

"Oh, well, you know.  I like to read, and study artifacts and things like that."   She looked off for a second.  "Oh, of course, I can't imagine that'd be terribly fun for a first date, would it?"

It wouldn't, but Darren's absurdly high ideals about this woman were still in effect.  "It'd be very interesting, I'm sure!" he yelped.

"Really?  Okay then."  Mina's face brightened and she jumped up from her chair rather giddily.  "Follow me into the bedroom, okay?  I've got some things in there that-  Darren, are you okay?  You sound like you're choking."

-----

Darren's hopes and dreams took another hit.  Now he was on Mina's bed (Mina's bed!), and instead of anything particularly racy, he was holding a stack of books about all sorts of ancient dead civilizations and their terrible arts and crafts.   Mina, to her credit, was absolutely enthralled by the subject and was clearly a professional that loved her career,  but Darren was having a hard time following the who's and what's of Old Garbage Vases 101, let alone caring.

"Oh, dear, I've gotten quite carried away again..."  Mina sighed.

Darren couldn't help but yawn, desperately hoping that she think he was as bored as he so dearly was.  "Noooo, no, that's okay, it was...uh...it was great."  He smiled, an awkward, nervous smile that anyone else probably would've been suspicious of.

Mina didn't seem to notice.  "You must be tired, why don't you lie down for a bit?  I'll clean up these books," she said with a grin.  "Won't be a moment!"

He did as he was told, and laid back in Mina's Bed.  It was soft, and pretty comfy, but something was missing.   Mina, mostly.    While he was still unsure of his beliefs in life from talking to her and eating her cooking, maybe something more...intimate would still make up for it all?

He lay still for a while thinking about how he'd even start doing that, when suddenly another body flopped down onto the bed next to him.  "Comfy, huh?  Master Lemnoch actually sent the whole bed here from my old room.  It has the best mattress money can buy, and it always makes me feel at home."

The young rogue gulped, nerves flaring upon realizing he was lying in bed with the librarian now, but he put on a brave face and replied, "C-c-cool."

An awkward silence passed.   "Darren?"

Hearing his name in her voice sent shivers down his spine. "Yes Mina?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl?"

He'd kissed BW, if one was willing to count her as a girl and not just a force of nature.  Which he was, of course, as he had a great deal of respect for the young mage.  Plus she had the most amazing lips... "A few times," he muttered.

"Really?  That's a surprise," she stated bluntly, and then gasped.  "Oh, oh, I'm sorry!  I didn't mean it like that, honest!" She laughed. "You just seemed so nervous all night."

Darren was blushing, partially in embarrassment, partially due to proximity to his dream girl.

And then suddenly Mina gave him a quick peck on the cheek.  "There, no need to be tense."

It was a sweet gesture, but it only served to wind him even tighter, and cause him to glow a deeper shade of crimson.

"Oh no, I've just made it worse," she said with a giggle.  "Poor thing."

-----

Some time later, Darren was feeling rather off.  Almost disappointed, but he didn't want to think of it like that.  Darren had, in his excitement at finally spending the night with Mina, allowed the young woman to command the entire evening, and something absolutely dreadful had happened.

She was utterly boring. Undoubtedly the things she had to say were interesting to someone in her field, dealing with relics and anthropology, but honestly they were just flying over the rogue's head. And a lot of other things weren't living up to his fantasies either.

Well, she was still beautiful, but Darren had been living in Adratea long enough that sheer attractiveness was starting to feel second fiddle.  There must've been something in the water because every woman in town was certainly gorgeous.

In fact, this was a crushing blow to Darren.  This was what he had wasted months and months of man-hours obsessing over?  She was a nice girl, to be sure, but...

"I'm sorry, Darren, but I think it's time to say goodnight.  It was sweet of you to try to listen to all that stuff about archeology but I know it's all probably just hitting you like a wall of encyclopaedia text," Mina concluded, suddenly.

"Oh...ah, no, it's alright, really.  I loved hearing about, uh, Lenore," he lied.

"Lemnoch, you mean?"

"Ah, that one, yes."

Mina took a deep breath.  "Darren, thank you for a lovely evening.  It was a pleasure to have some company for dinner, but..."

Darren was a bit confused now.   Had he done something wrong in the end?  I mean, getting a name wrong wasn't too bad, was it?

"Oh, how can I put this?  You're just not my type, I'm afraid," she meekly offered, bowing her head in apology.

The rogue briefly thought that's okay, it turns out you're not my type either, but quickly stifled the notion.  "Oh...well, that's okay.  Thank you for dinner, Miss Mina. I really appreciate it."

Mina, however, had been stuck in a thought, and was quietly mumbling to herself again.  "I rather like strong men, and they can carry me to the bedroom...and...oh but scientific too, and..."

Darren quietly excused himself, his world in turmoil.

-----

The young rogue looked up at the stars, lying on his back on top of the mayor's house.  Where had it gone all wrong?  He knew it was silly to expect her cooking to be the ultimate in cuisine, but he had still expected it.  He also knew that he had no interest in anything Mina seemed to focus on, but of course he thought that for some reason anything she said would be beautiful and enthralling.

And to be honest, having been up close to her...curves, for lack of a better term, he was starting to think that maybe sometimes there could be a little too much junk in the trunk after all.  Not at all like BW, who was light and sleek, just the sort of thing a rogue would love.

That said...BW's cooking wasn't that great either, but it was always interesting, for good or ill.  Her tendency to cook in her potion cauldron could lead to some strange after-effects, but it was always exciting at least.

And though he was about as magical as a brick, he at least found that fun to hear about, as he had often dreamed of having magical powers while living under the shadow of his heroic father. Plus BW was always excitedly dragging him into one scheme or another, and he had to admit it was the most fun he'd had in years.

Plus she respected him, which meant a lot to the poor kid.

Well, she used to respect him.  Months of inadvertently brushing her off to spy on Mina must've...

Must've lead to last night.  "Aw, man, I'm dumb..."

-----

A dark, hooded figured toiled in front of an arcane circle hastily scrawled across the floor. Manic hands tossed reagents to various symbols dotting the drawing, glowing with an unhealthy blue light. Twisted cackling emanated from under the cloak, tinged with madness.

"Wait, crap, that's not right."

BW tossed off her blankets and hastily rubbed out the circle with a sleeve, shoving the spent ingredients aside.   If she was going to teach Darren a lesson she had to do it properly.

She was about to reach for the chalk once more when she suddenly heard footsteps on the other side of her bedroom.  Whirling, clumsily as she was still crosslegged on the floor surrounded by bedding, she raised a hand to the intruder intent on blasting them across the wall.

But it was only Darren, standing sadly near the now open window.

She wanted to fire anyway, to scream and yell and curse and hex him for generations to come (assuming he ever procreated), but something stronger overpowered her, and she made an awkward, stumbling dive for the young rogue.

"I'm sorry, BW!" he shouted, assuming she was trying to body-check him back outside.

Instead she tackled him into a desperate embrace.  "You stupid jerk!" she yelled, despite burying her head into his chest.

"I know, I really am," he whispered, carefully raising a hand to stroke her vibrant, messy hair.  "I'm a complete jerk."

BW froze momentarily, terrifying Darren.  "...what happened with you and Mina, Darren?" she asked, menacingly monotone.

Darren, to his credit, didn't even whimper.  He actually spoke rather calmly.  "I realized I had wasted years of my life idolizing someone I didn't really know."

BW remained silent.

"I mean, dinner was nice and all, but...uh, I'd rather spend the time with you."

BW looked up, baffled.  "Seriously?  Your Mina fetish doesn't win out for once?"

Darren looked away shamefully.  "I'm really sorry I've been putting you through this, BW.  You're the only person I have, and I've been a real jerk."

BW didn't say anything. She just put her head back down against his chest and let him hold her for a while.

After a few minutes, she spoke up.  "Wow, you went on a date with Mina and you didn't need a change of pants or anything, huh?"

"Oh come on," he whined.

"Ugh, fine, be that way," she groaned, but with a smirk on her face.  "So...are you over her yet? Seriously it's starting to really tick me off."

Starting to? Threats of explosion were just her being mildly annoyed?  "I am.  I've gotten so much more excitement and fun out of being with you than I ever did wasting all my nights trying to get closer to Mina."

"Good.  Otherwise I was going to turn you into a fruit bat."  She snuggled him tighter.

"Does this mean I can keep living with you?" he asked, hopefully.

She pondered this for a moment.  "Eh, I guess so.  But you owe me. Big time."

"Okay, okay. Just...please don't turn me into anything."

And then, BW leaned up and kissed him.  "Don't worry, you're cute enough as you are."

Description
The first knock on the door didn't rouse the young man.  The second knock made him groan.   The third made his elven companion mutter "just go see who it is..." before drifting back to sleep.

Reiyu carefully removed his arm from under the sleeping red-head, crept out of bed, and went to find his shirt.  He took special care to remain silent, as tonight was one of those rare nights where little Cyrus had actually been sleeping the whole way through, and though he was in another room the adventurer thought it best to be cautious.

Within a few moments he had regained his top and was fairly certain he was wearing some sort of bottoms, so he shuffled down the stairs, into the shop proper, and lurched to the door.

There was a fourth knock, no louder than the rest, and somehow pathetic sounding.

The first thing he was greeted with upon opening the door was about a pound of rainwater blasting across his front and into the store.  The second thing he saw, once his eyes adjusted, was a sopping wet young man standing forlornly on the front step. "Darren," asked Reiyu, "what are you doing out here?"

The youth mumbled something, bottom lip quivering the whole time.

Reiyu sighed, soaked to the bone and unable to hear him.  He reached out and pulled Darren inside by the shoulder, and shut the door behind him. "It's like a hurricane out there, Darren, you should know better than to be doing your...training on a night like this." Reiyu knew full well that, while technically good for his career, Darren wasn't silently slinking around the rooftops every night for the practice.

"I wasn't!" he sobbed, a little louder than Reiyu thought necessary.  "I just....just..."

"Come on, lose the coat and hat.  I'll go find you some towels.  Have a seat on the-"  Reiyu cut himself off, and pointed away from the upholstery and instead towards a wooden stool nearby. "-stool."

As Darren silently obeyed, Reiyu disappeared into the back of the store.  How had he gone from being snuggled up against a voluptuous elven beauty to being soaking wet attending to Darren?

After some time, and some vigorous towelling off, Darren and Reiyu sat down to some mildly warm cocoa.  Couldn't boil the water, the swordsman had insisted, because the whistling would wake the baby.   Darren didn't seem to mind however, and dutifully latched to his mug.

"You feeling better now, little guy?" Reiyu inquired.

"Uh-huh," mumbled the rogue.

"So what were you doing out there?"

Darren's pout became even more pronounced. "B-B-B-BW kicked me out."   It sounded like he could barely hold back from wailing.

Normally Reiyu was a pretty sympathetic guy, but while he considered the youth before him a friend, he still knew better than to coddle him.  "What did you do this time?" he asked in a deadpan tone.

"Nothing!" he retorted, again too loudly for Reiyu's comfort.  Darren realized this a second too late.  "Er...nothing.  Nothing unusual, anyway."

"Mina?  Again?"

"Um..."

Reiyu sighed and cradled his forehead in his palm.  "Darren you have got to get over Mina!  You've never even spoken with her!  I'm not even entirely sure she knows you live in this town!"

"T-t-that's not true, I'm at the library all the time!  And...and-"

"And you don't say a word beyond borrowing or returning whatever book you're pretending to read, right?"

Darren remained silent.

This is the last straw, Reiyu thought.  Ever since he'd first met the young rogue he had been obsessed with the town librarian for reasons no one had been able to figure out.  Reiyu was hoping that living with BW, the rather feisty and cock-sure mage across the street, would've set him straight, but now the new constant in town was that every few days the town would find BW screaming and Darren running for cover.

She had, however, never thrown him out into a storm before.  While he felt bad for Darren, Reiyu also couldn't help being annoyed at him for driving BW that far.  The adventurer had always felt the winged mage was like a little sister to him, and familial or not, Reiyu's big-brother instincts were kicking in.

"You are going to do something about this, Darren.  Not...not now, because it's late and I'm tired and you can't do anything that you don't already do involving Mina at this time of night, but soon.  Tomorrow."  Reiyu's stern tone stung the youth, but he made no word of argument.  "I'll go get you a fresh pair of nightclothes to sleep in.  You're taking the couch and I'm going back upstairs to Sera.  We'll discuss this again in the morning."

"Okay." he whispered sheepishly.

------

"Nnngh, who was it..."

"Darren."

"Was he being creepy again..."

"Yeah.  Go back to sleep."

"...kay..."

------

Sera pounded on the worn wooden door once again.  "Come on, BW, open up!  It's already afternoon and I know even you don't sleep in that late!"

Yet again there was no response.  The elven woman had been standing outside for almost fifteen minutes and was growing impatient.  She huffed, tapping her toes, and glared at the windows of the mage girl's shop to see if there was any movement within.

"Fine," she muttered to herself.  "Old fashioned way."  She pressed a finger against the lock and chanted a weak fire spell.  With a slight 'bang' and a puff of smoke from the keyhole, the door creaked open.   Looking inside, Sera found the the shop completely empty, a rarity for a Friday.  "BW?" she called out.

Receiving no response, she pushed through to the back of the store and climbed the stairs up to BW's bedroom.  She considered knocking again, but frankly she was tired of sitting around waiting for people to answer her and just barged in instead.

BW looked at her hopefully for a moment, face peeking out from a mountain of sheets and blankets stacked on the bed, but her face quickly soured.  "What?" she barked.

"Is that how you're going to treat your best friend when she comes to check on you?"

BW huffed, but she didn't snap back.

Sera sighed in relief.  She gently sat down on the bed next to the BW cone, and patted her...well, presumably her back was around there somewhere.  "How are you holding up? I heard about what happened with Darren."

"That he's a jerk?  That's not news."

Can't argue with that, she thought.  He was a creepy little dude after all.  "I know, but this is what girlfriends do.  We talk about how stupid the boys are and go shopping and eat junk food and all that other typical stuff."

The mountain ruffled for a moment, until suddenly a hand holding a bag of chocolates popped out from under a sheet.   "Third part's covered."  It retreated just as quickly.

"Talk to me, BW.  You know I'm here for you."

Were it anyone else, the cranky mage would've been exploding things by now, but if Darren was the only person in town she could trust to respect her, then Sera was the only person in town she could trust to take care of her.  Sera was her oldest friend, and the first person she had ever met in her short life.

"He's a big, stupid, annoying, idiot.....jerk!  He was actually complaining about how hard it was to see out the window last night.  As if I'd be sympathetic or something!  And you know which window it was, too! The one facing that stupid library!"   A pointy blanket appendage lunged towards the offending window.  "It's all he ever talks about, all he ever thinks about, all he ever does!  Mina Mina Mina!  I hate them both!"  A chocolate furiously leapt into her mouth, somehow.  "Stupid jerks."

Sera let her vent for what felt like ages.  Eventually the younger girl ran out of things to say and had just started to repeat herself.  Sera cut her off at this point.  "Okay, okay, I get it.  Well, what if I told you that our good buddy Reiyu was going to help Darren iron out his Mina problems once and for all?"

BW cocked an eyebrow at her.  "How? Getting laid didn't fix him and I was certain that would work."

"Well," Sera began, rising to her feet and stepping over to the far window, "it's a lot easier to see out here today.  Come take a look."

Begrudgingly BW began to untangle herself from her fortress of fabric, a task which proved more difficult than necessary due to her large, dark wings.  Soon enough the two red-heads were staring out the window together, into the library...

------

"This will never work!" the youth wailed.

"Of course it'll work, don't you worry!" Reiyu replied, straightening the collar on the shirt he was letting Darren borrow.   He felt it might help if he wasn't dressed like a weirdo rogue for this.

"B-b-b-b-b-but I can't just go in there and talk to Mina!  It's....I mean...what if she-"

"Too late, door's open, in you go!"  Reiyu spun the youth around and shoved him into the library.  "Hello, Mina!" He called in after him, and then came inside and closed the door, making sure to stand in the way of it in case Darren tried to bolt.

The bespectacled woman with the messy hair at the nearby table looked up in surprise.  "Oh, hello Mr. Reiyu, and...um...and your nice friend there."   She wasn't being cute.  Mina seriously could not remember Darren all that clearly.

"Yup, my little buddy Darren.  Say hi, champ!"  Reiyu gave him a hearty slap on the back, propelling him in even further.

"Hi," he squeaked.

"Darren, right, of course, how silly of me!  Are you here to return 'Unlocking the Amazon Within'? It's been a few weeks, I believe."

Darren was glowing red in embarrassment.  As usual he had just been standing around in the library spying on Mina and, upon being caught, insisted on checking out the first book at hand.  And for some reason it was never anything normal.

"Oh...I...uh...thought I did already.   Letmegogetiti'llberightback!" he blurted, turning to dash out the door.

Reiyu firmly held his ground and caught the rogue before he could escape.  "Oh, I'm sure that can wait, why don't you tell Mina what you really came here for?"

"No no no it's okay really I'll just be a minute pleeeease let me go let me go!"

Reiyu's cheerful grin turned menacing.  "Oh, no, I insist!"

Mina, gods bless her, was completely oblivious to the subtext.  That was kind of her thing.  She tended not to notice many things beyond her own current obsessions.   As far as she was concerned these two boys were having a friendly chat.  "Could I help you with anything?" she asked, happily.

Darren gulped. He was doomed either way, so he may as well face the music.  "Um...Miss Mina...I...uh...."

"Yes?" she replied.

"That's....you're...I mean you....and I....well...."

Reiyu's eye twitched.   Unable to contain himself any longer, Reiyu let loose all the details of Darren's sordid activities.  The months and months of midnight stalkings, the constant fake visits to the library, the spyings from BW's window, everything.  He dredged up the full force of Darren's Mina Obsession (patent pending) unto Mina's mental doorstep.  After fifteen minutes solid, he took a breath and stopped.

"And that's why we're here.  You need to talk some sense into this boy."  He dropped into the closest seat.

Darren was frozen stiff.  Fear filled his eyes, wide with the terror of what was to come.  Mina was a mage too, and while he'd gotten used to BW's fiery rage, he wasn't all that used to being electrocuted or shattered into little ice crystals, and Mina had a much wider elemental repertoire than the youth's current partner.

He swallowed hard, waiting for the pain.

Mina laughed.  "Oh, don't be silly.  All that over little old me?  I think I would've noticed.  I'm quite astute, you know."

Reiyu raised a finger to contest this, but he let his arm go limp.  She thought he was kidding.  Good lord.

Darren, bucked by some unknown courage undoubtedly related to not being recently dead, spoke up again.  "It's true that I like you though.  I mean I always thought you were so smart, and pretty, and awesome, and stuff..."

"Aww, come on, don't exaggerate."  She giggled bashfully. She was playing coy to the man who had been obsessively stalking her for the past year!  Reiyu was beyond himself with bafflement.

"No, really!"  He was still beet red, but Darren was, remarkably, still pressing onward.  "It's true!"

"You really mean it?" Mina seemed shocked.  True, in a town with women of Sera's calibre it was hard to compete, but Reiyu had to admit that Mina wasn't even remotely unattractive.

Regardless, the swordsman wasn't certain what to do now.  As the two of them went on, back and forth with the 'really?' 'yes really!' dramatics, he was just flabbergasted at how things had turned out so far.  Had she really not noticed the months upon months of stalking? The spying?  The clockwork appearance of Darren outside the library windows almost daily? The entire town knew about it by now!  How could she-

"How about you come over later tonight and we'll have dinner?" Mina was suddenly asking, snapping Reiyu out of his reverie.

He started silently mouthing 'what' over and over again.

And Darren, in his infinite wisdom, seemed to find nothing odd about this entire situation at all and said "I'd love to!"

"WHAT."

-----

"What?!" BW screamed as she watched Mina lean forward and pull Darren into a tight hug.

Sera couldn't believe it either.  "That's...there's no way it's what it looks like. It can't be.  Surely she's just letting him down gently or something.  I mean Reiyu's not doing anythi-"  Then she noticed.  "Oh...never mind he's just sitting there completely limp and screaming."  Sera turned to look at her young friend, but...

She was gone.   "BW?" She called.

"Just leave me alone!" yelled a quiet voice from the other side of the room.

Sera's ears twitched a bit, and gave it away as being BW hiding underneath her own bed.  The elf calmly walked back to the bed and dropped to her stomach trying to get a visual of the mage.

BW was latched to her little stuffed bear, whom she had called Oboe for some reason she couldn't fathom, and just lying there dejectedly. With all that wing in the way it looked incredibly uncomfortable.   "Just go away," she sobbed.

"Honey, please, come out from under the bed," Sera replied, a bit more motherly than necessary.

"No!" BW barked.  "I wanna be alone for a while..."  With that she shut her eyes and squeezed Oboe to her chest even tighter.

Sera sighed for the umpteenth time that day.  With little Cyrus spending the day with Mara, the young woman who lived near the inn, Sera was free to spend the entire afternoon trying to coax BW back into the world.  Although 'free' wasn't a term Sera was about to use.

-----

"So she's still under the bed, then?" Reiyu asked, pulling the elven shopkeeper closer.

"And Darren's at Mina's eating dinner," she replied, nuzzling her head against his shoulder.

Together they were watching Cyrus Jr. giggling away in glee as the swordsman bounced him on his knee, holding him steady with his free hand.

"I just don't get it.  Facing your problems head on is what solved everything in my life...that I can remember, at least.  I thought this would work!" Despite his tone, Reiyu did his best to keep up a cheerful appearance so as not to upset the little guy on his knee.

"Don't beat yourself up over this, sweetheart. This is Darren we're talking about. It's gonna be weird-central no matter what you do."

"Don't be like that, Darren's harmless.  He's a good kid, underneath all that neurosis and stalking, honest!"

"Reiyu, I admire your optimism," said Sera, moments before falling asleep on him.

-----

Darren was politely hyperventilating in his chair.  Any moment now, Mina would come back into the room with dinner, and then he'd be having dinner with Mina! This was it!  Years of dreaming and hoping finally becoming reality!

Also it was a damn fine thing that he went to the toilet before coming over so as not to wet himself in excitement. Not...not that that ever actually happened, but Darren wasn't about to take any chances.

"Soup's on!" came the librarian's voice from the kitchen.  Darren took a deep, lung bursting breath in a desperate attempt to calm his nerves.  Instead he looked like a vibrating puffin.  Thankfully Mina took no notice of this and quickly went about setting the table. Finally, Darren was able to ease his palpitations long enough to see what undoubtedly lavish spread Mina had prepared for him.

She had made spaghetti. Nothing wrong with spaghetti, as far as the young rogue was concerned, but he had honestly expected something a bit more grand.  This was Mina, after all.  Mina! The angel given flesh!  Well, presumably it would taste phenomenal, so at least there was that.

"I hope you enjoy it.  I bought the name brand sauce for this one," she presented with an honest smile.

-----

"So what would you like to do now?" asked the librarian.

Darren, who wasn't about to say dinner was bad or anything, was still reeling a little from not being impressed. He was so certain that he would've been!  "Umm, I dunno.  What do you like to do?"  He knew, of course, since he studied her day and night, but it seemed like the thing to say.

"Oh, well, you know.  I like to read, and study artifacts and things like that."   She looked off for a second.  "Oh, of course, I can't imagine that'd be terribly fun for a first date, would it?"

It wouldn't, but Darren's absurdly high ideals about this woman were still in effect.  "It'd be very interesting, I'm sure!" he yelped.

"Really?  Okay then."  Mina's face brightened and she jumped up from her chair rather giddily.  "Follow me into the bedroom, okay?  I've got some things in there that-  Darren, are you okay?  You sound like you're choking."

-----

Darren's hopes and dreams took another hit.  Now he was on Mina's bed (Mina's bed!), and instead of anything particularly racy, he was holding a stack of books about all sorts of ancient dead civilizations and their terrible arts and crafts.   Mina, to her credit, was absolutely enthralled by the subject and was clearly a professional that loved her career,  but Darren was having a hard time following the who's and what's of Old Garbage Vases 101, let alone caring.

"Oh, dear, I've gotten quite carried away again..."  Mina sighed.

Darren couldn't help but yawn, desperately hoping that she think he was as bored as he so dearly was.  "Noooo, no, that's okay, it was...uh...it was great."  He smiled, an awkward, nervous smile that anyone else probably would've been suspicious of.

Mina didn't seem to notice.  "You must be tired, why don't you lie down for a bit?  I'll clean up these books," she said with a grin.  "Won't be a moment!"

He did as he was told, and laid back in Mina's Bed.  It was soft, and pretty comfy, but something was missing.   Mina, mostly.    While he was still unsure of his beliefs in life from talking to her and eating her cooking, maybe something more...intimate would still make up for it all?

He lay still for a while thinking about how he'd even start doing that, when suddenly another body flopped down onto the bed next to him.  "Comfy, huh?  Master Lemnoch actually sent the whole bed here from my old room.  It has the best mattress money can buy, and it always makes me feel at home."

The young rogue gulped, nerves flaring upon realizing he was lying in bed with the librarian now, but he put on a brave face and replied, "C-c-cool."

An awkward silence passed.   "Darren?"

Hearing his name in her voice sent shivers down his spine. "Yes Mina?"

"Have you ever kissed a girl?"

He'd kissed BW, if one was willing to count her as a girl and not just a force of nature.  Which he was, of course, as he had a great deal of respect for the young mage.  Plus she had the most amazing lips... "A few times," he muttered.

"Really?  That's a surprise," she stated bluntly, and then gasped.  "Oh, oh, I'm sorry!  I didn't mean it like that, honest!" She laughed. "You just seemed so nervous all night."

Darren was blushing, partially in embarrassment, partially due to proximity to his dream girl.

And then suddenly Mina gave him a quick peck on the cheek.  "There, no need to be tense."

It was a sweet gesture, but it only served to wind him even tighter, and cause him to glow a deeper shade of crimson.

"Oh no, I've just made it worse," she said with a giggle.  "Poor thing."

-----

Some time later, Darren was feeling rather off.  Almost disappointed, but he didn't want to think of it like that.  Darren had, in his excitement at finally spending the night with Mina, allowed the young woman to command the entire evening, and something absolutely dreadful had happened.

She was utterly boring. Undoubtedly the things she had to say were interesting to someone in her field, dealing with relics and anthropology, but honestly they were just flying over the rogue's head. And a lot of other things weren't living up to his fantasies either.

Well, she was still beautiful, but Darren had been living in Adratea long enough that sheer attractiveness was starting to feel second fiddle.  There must've been something in the water because every woman in town was certainly gorgeous.

In fact, this was a crushing blow to Darren.  This was what he had wasted months and months of man-hours obsessing over?  She was a nice girl, to be sure, but...

"I'm sorry, Darren, but I think it's time to say goodnight.  It was sweet of you to try to listen to all that stuff about archeology but I know it's all probably just hitting you like a wall of encyclopaedia text," Mina concluded, suddenly.

"Oh...ah, no, it's alright, really.  I loved hearing about, uh, Lenore," he lied.

"Lemnoch, you mean?"

"Ah, that one, yes."

Mina took a deep breath.  "Darren, thank you for a lovely evening.  It was a pleasure to have some company for dinner, but..."

Darren was a bit confused now.   Had he done something wrong in the end?  I mean, getting a name wrong wasn't too bad, was it?

"Oh, how can I put this?  You're just not my type, I'm afraid," she meekly offered, bowing her head in apology.

The rogue briefly thought that's okay, it turns out you're not my type either, but quickly stifled the notion.  "Oh...well, that's okay.  Thank you for dinner, Miss Mina. I really appreciate it."

Mina, however, had been stuck in a thought, and was quietly mumbling to herself again.  "I rather like strong men, and they can carry me to the bedroom...and...oh but scientific too, and..."

Darren quietly excused himself, his world in turmoil.

-----

The young rogue looked up at the stars, lying on his back on top of the mayor's house.  Where had it gone all wrong?  He knew it was silly to expect her cooking to be the ultimate in cuisine, but he had still expected it.  He also knew that he had no interest in anything Mina seemed to focus on, but of course he thought that for some reason anything she said would be beautiful and enthralling.

And to be honest, having been up close to her...curves, for lack of a better term, he was starting to think that maybe sometimes there could be a little too much junk in the trunk after all.  Not at all like BW, who was light and sleek, just the sort of thing a rogue would love.

That said...BW's cooking wasn't that great either, but it was always interesting, for good or ill.  Her tendency to cook in her potion cauldron could lead to some strange after-effects, but it was always exciting at least.

And though he was about as magical as a brick, he at least found that fun to hear about, as he had often dreamed of having magical powers while living under the shadow of his heroic father. Plus BW was always excitedly dragging him into one scheme or another, and he had to admit it was the most fun he'd had in years.

Plus she respected him, which meant a lot to the poor kid.

Well, she used to respect him.  Months of inadvertently brushing her off to spy on Mina must've...

Must've lead to last night.  "Aw, man, I'm dumb..."

-----

A dark, hooded figured toiled in front of an arcane circle hastily scrawled across the floor. Manic hands tossed reagents to various symbols dotting the drawing, glowing with an unhealthy blue light. Twisted cackling emanated from under the cloak, tinged with madness.

"Wait, crap, that's not right."

BW tossed off her blankets and hastily rubbed out the circle with a sleeve, shoving the spent ingredients aside.   If she was going to teach Darren a lesson she had to do it properly.

She was about to reach for the chalk once more when she suddenly heard footsteps on the other side of her bedroom.  Whirling, clumsily as she was still crosslegged on the floor surrounded by bedding, she raised a hand to the intruder intent on blasting them across the wall.

But it was only Darren, standing sadly near the now open window.

She wanted to fire anyway, to scream and yell and curse and hex him for generations to come (assuming he ever procreated), but something stronger overpowered her, and she made an awkward, stumbling dive for the young rogue.

"I'm sorry, BW!" he shouted, assuming she was trying to body-check him back outside.

Instead she tackled him into a desperate embrace.  "You stupid jerk!" she yelled, despite burying her head into his chest.

"I know, I really am," he whispered, carefully raising a hand to stroke her vibrant, messy hair.  "I'm a complete jerk."

BW froze momentarily, terrifying Darren.  "...what happened with you and Mina, Darren?" she asked, menacingly monotone.

Darren, to his credit, didn't even whimper.  He actually spoke rather calmly.  "I realized I had wasted years of my life idolizing someone I didn't really know."

BW remained silent.

"I mean, dinner was nice and all, but...uh, I'd rather spend the time with you."

BW looked up, baffled.  "Seriously?  Your Mina fetish doesn't win out for once?"

Darren looked away shamefully.  "I'm really sorry I've been putting you through this, BW.  You're the only person I have, and I've been a real jerk."

BW didn't say anything. She just put her head back down against his chest and let him hold her for a while.

After a few minutes, she spoke up.  "Wow, you went on a date with Mina and you didn't need a change of pants or anything, huh?"

"Oh come on," he whined.

"Ugh, fine, be that way," she groaned, but with a smirk on her face.  "So...are you over her yet? Seriously it's starting to really tick me off."

Starting to? Threats of explosion were just her being mildly annoyed?  "I am.  I've gotten so much more excitement and fun out of being with you than I ever did wasting all my nights trying to get closer to Mina."

"Good.  Otherwise I was going to turn you into a fruit bat."  She snuggled him tighter.

"Does this mean I can keep living with you?" he asked, hopefully.

She pondered this for a moment.  "Eh, I guess so.  But you owe me. Big time."

"Okay, okay. Just...please don't turn me into anything."

And then, BW leaned up and kissed him.  "Don't worry, you're cute enough as you are."