DISCLAIMER: The characters and likenesses of Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and Sherry Birkin belong to Capcom, Inc. Used here without permission. It is a fictional story made for purely entertainment purposes. Any relation to events or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The events below take place during Xenogears' story "Children of the Seraphs" Chapter 2. The characters of Ryan Davidson, Anna Yamaguchi, and Mark belong to Xenogears. Read the original storyline at Fanfiction.Net.

A slight breeze rustled the curtains in the room as Anna Yamaguchi slipped beneath the covers of her bed. She had left the window open to the winter evening air, while she and Ryan had been out on their date. Though the room was now sufficiently cool, she felt warm, even flushed.

Anna snuggled into the blankets, smiling to herself. She had been pleasantly surprised by Ryan's gentlemanly behavior tonight; he had shown her a side of himself that she hadn't thought possible: polite, sweet...and that kiss on the porch served only to pique her curiosity and interest.

The last person for whom she had felt anything even remotely similar had been Mark. At times, she missed the way that they used to be able to communicate without words, using the psychic link that came with being Seraphs. While her friendship and psychic compatibility with Ryan had been growing for the last several months, Ryan didn't quite have the command of the ability that Mark had shown.

Mark had been her mentor in many things related to their lives as Seraphs. At one time, she had even thought that, perhaps, there could be something more - something intimate - between them. It wasn't to be, though. Mark was gone, and though she still regretted that, she did not regret her new life with Ryan.

Deep in her mind, she felt a tiny voice, prodding her. It felt similar to the mental link that she shared with Ryan; perhaps it was just an unguarded thought of his coming to her as a stray. But it felt too familiar, like some deeper, more primal part of her. At the thought of Ryan, she saw his face in her mind: smiling jauntily, but with a desirable curve to his lips that she hadn't seriously considered before tonight and that kiss. She wondered briefly about what else that mouth could do, when it wasn't spouting sarcasm.

She thought to that little voice: If it happens, it'll be after the third date, that I can promise you.

Anna was very interested to see more of this new Ryan Davidson, but it wouldn't be tonight. She shook her head and closed her eyes. As she rolled over onto her side, she thought, So just go away, okay...? With that, she pulled the covers up to her neck and went to sleep.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Anna kept thinking about Ryan, usually when she was alone. Swimming laps at practice or making breakfast - or other activities when everyone else left her to herself - were prime opportunities for evaluating her relationship with Ryan.

Is that what it is? Anna thought to herself one day while sitting in Café Express, her favorite after-school hangout. The book in front of her hadn't had a page turned in nearly twenty minutes, and her hot chocolate was almost cold. Are we in a relationship now?

One date didn't really make for intimacy by any stretch of the imagination, but she had never felt for anyone else what she found herself feeling for Ryan. The weeks since their date had only made her more aware of her growing attraction to him. She wasn't sure if Ryan had noticed or not; he had lived pretty much the same as always since then.

It wasn't until a few days later, when the two of them were doing homework at the dining room table, that she decided to put her theories to the test.

Chris was out with some of his precinct buddies and wasn't due home until late. Sherry was out all night at a sleepover. Leon and Claire had late reservations at Vong's, on Anna's recommendation for a nice, private dinner. All of that meant that Anna and Ryan would be by themselves for a fair portion of the evening.

Claire passed the table as both of them sat bent over their Japanese homework. "Now, don't do anything we would do if we were home alone," she said with a wink. She went to the door to claim her jacket.

Leon paused in front of the two teenagers, too. "Yeah," he said, and put his hand on the table. "We all know that you're dating right now," he began, and tapped the tabletop. "That you're both teenagers," he added, and tapped the tabletop again. "And that you're going to be sans guardians tonight." He finished his speech, with one final tap of his knuckles against the mahogany. He paused and gave them his sternest look.

Ryan looked at Anna, and they both rolled their eyes.

Claire walked back to the table and grabbed Leon by the elbow. She started to drag him toward the door. "Bye," she called over her shoulder.

"Ja mata," Ryan called after them in Japanese as the door slammed shut.

Anna smiled at Ryan from over the rim of her glasses, but it went unnoticed. He was still looking down at his textbook, mumbling Japanese syllables under his breath as he worked. She prodded him a little with their mental link, being careful not to intrude on him, or let him notice that she was eavesdropping.

Would he be thinking about her? They were going to be alone for at least an hour, and Anna was curious as to what might be going on in Ryan's head at the moment. He was usually pretty guileless - he wasn't afraid of confrontation of any sort, but she had a feeling that their relationship was not a situation he was used to. Could he be planning anything, just waiting for the right moment to make his move?

[Ou...Ka...Ki...no, that doesn't look right...] Ryan thought to himself, as he concentrated on his Japanese assignment.

Anna straightened; she hadn't expected that. They were alone, with the whole house to themselves, and he was doing his schoolwork! In a bit of a tiff, she set her glasses on the table and excused herself to the kitchen. She stood with her hands on the table for a second, waiting for him to acknowledge her. But he didn't.

"Ki...Ku..." Ryan mumbled, as he continued through the assignment.

Anna snorted quietly and went into the kitchen, leaving Ryan to struggle with his work alone. She went straight for the refrigerator, without even bothering to turn on the overhead light; she was too preoccupied with thinking about Ryan.

Where did he get off not paying attention to her, anyway? Didn't he like her anymore? She had been so sure of her own feelings, and of his, that this sudden development - or, rather, lack of development - had her stymied.

As she reached for the handle of the refrigerator, her eyes strayed to the kitchen counter. There was a pack of cigarettes lying there - Ryan's cigarettes - as if to spite her. All of her hard work to get him to quit, and this was how he thanked her.

"Ryan!" She shouted, still staring at the pack. "What the hell is this?" When there was no answer from the dining room, she went to the doorway and stood there, arms akimbo. She tapped her left foot on the ground and waited for him to acknowledge her.

Ryan seemed to understand instantly what she was talking about, because his hands flew to his pockets, as they used to when he would go looking for his cigarettes.

"Uh," he began, and she could tell that he was searching for some explanation that might appease her. "I was meaning to throw those out," he offered.

Anna humphed. "I'll do it for you," she muttered through half-pursed lips. As she turned back to the kitchen, she told him: "Remind me to kill you later."

She walked back to the counter and grabbed the pack of cigarettes, nearly crushing them in her angry grip. She threw them into the trash basket next to the sink and sighed. The bent pack seemed to glare up at her, as if to say, Let him live his own life, why don't you?

Anna shook her head and exhaled, trying to get rid of her frustration. She opened the refrigerator and grabbed a can of soda. It hissed as she opened it and took a tiny sip. The bubbles tickled her nose, and she smiled to herself.

She was being pretty hard on Ryan, she realized. She was projecting a lot of her anxieties about their relationship onto him personally, and it made her feel a little guilty. She often forgot that he was still new to his Seraph powers, and coping with being a teenage male surrounded most hours of the day by three women was probably just compounding the problem.

Anna straightened up, then touched the small of her back. All of this tension was getting to her; she hadn't been practicing her yoga enough lately. What she really needed was a backrub. With a smirk, she went into the dining room, making a small show of holding her back. Ryan glanced up at her as she entered.

"Hey, Ryan," she said. "Can I ask you a favor?"

Ryan looked at her quizzically, but he didn't dismiss her. "Uh, sure. What do you need?"

Anna made a face. "I have a pain in my back." She smiled at him. "Can you give me a rub?"

That seemed to really get his attention. He stopped mid-motion, and he dropped his calligraphy brush into his ink tray. He recovered quickly, but not before Anna grinned.

"Uh, sure," Ryan said again, standing and indicating the sofa. "Just lie down on the couch."

Anna did as she was instructed and set herself down on the sofa. She spread her legs out behind her and clutched a pillow to her chest, to keep her head up a little. She got into as comfortable a position as she could before saying, "Okay, I'm ready."

Ryan's weight made the cushions shift slightly beneath her, and she smiled impishly to herself. She felt his hands moving gingerly across her shoulders and back, never straying too far to her more personal areas. When his fingers massaged the small of her back, she gave a grateful groan, and Ryan froze.

Even without their Seraph mental link, Anna could tell that he was nervous. So she was genuinely surprised when he moved his hands under her shirt, to continue the backrub. He kneaded her skin, and she felt her tension start to melt away under his ministrations.

Relaxed like this, she was almost more receptive to their Seraph link than when she was actively concentrating on it. She had come to realize that proximity and physical contact were large factors to successful mental communication, but emotional involvement played a big part, too. The closer she felt to Ryan, the easier it was to pick up on his thoughts. She smiled when one of those thoughts slipped out into the open:

[I could do a better job if she didn't have that bra on.]

"Here," Anna murmured, and reached behind her back. "Let me make this easier for you." She deftly unhooked her bra - the black, strapless one that her friend Jessica had goaded her into buying on her last shopping trip - and tossed it to the floor. It lay there for a long moment, while Anna waited for Ryan to do something.

Finally, Ryan resumed her backrub, but he was much more careful now. His hands were a little clammy, but they felt good nevertheless. He started to pay more attention to the areas that solicited her appreciative moans.

Anna purred, secretly amazed that Ryan's hands could feel so good. It wasn't just the backrub, either. Was she only imagining it, or was there the distinct bite of electricity in his touch? Maybe it was only his Seraph powers manifesting themselves, reacting with her own, but she liked to think that it was a different, more primal kind of electricity coming between them.

With that impression in her mind, she took a deep breath and rolled over onto her back. She felt Ryan pull his hands away from beneath her shirt and sit back, to look at her.

Inside her head, Anna was feverishly counting the minutes that they had left. Leon and Claire wouldn't be gone all night, so if she wanted this to happen, she would have to do something now. She tried to imagine how she could make the first move, what she could do to make him come to her, make him love her.

She moved her hands up his arms, to rest at his shoulders. Then she pulled him down to her, and their lips met in a kiss, the same as the one on the night of their date, but also different.

Anna shuddered involuntarily, as she felt a tiny wave of electricity move through her, from Ryan. He'd meant to do that, surely. She responded by parting her lips and pressing her tongue into his mouth, and after a moment, he did the same.

She grabbed his back, holding him to her, and ran her hands along the coarse cloth of his shirt. She felt his hands on her back, too, rubbing and caressing her flesh.

My God, she thought. He's never been like this before! So gentle...so needing. Maybe we should...

She debated in her mind for perhaps another nanosecond, then pushed him away. Ryan gave her a puzzled look, until she took his hand and led him toward the stairs. They ascended slowly, one step at a time, neither of them speaking.

At the top, Ryan stopped her, still holding her hand. "Anna," he muttered, "I know what you're doing."

Oh, do you? Anna thought, rather smugly. But she let him continue.

Ryan went on: "We're not ready for this! What if - you know - something happens?"

She smiled at him. Wasn't that the whole point - to make something happen between them? It seemed like he was just making excuses; was he really so nervous? Maybe he didn't feel as certain as she did. Maybe, he needed to know why.

"I’ve been waiting for someone to do this with," she murmured. "And I’m sure you have, too." She felt her eyes change ever-so-slightly to their Seraph color, as if her powers were reaching out to him, kind calling kind. She continued, speaking softly. "Just by going out with you...having a mental link with you...and most of all, just by knowing you for all this time..." She paused, then touched a hand to his face. "I can see that you’re...the one."

Ryan seemed to understand that. His grip relaxed a little, and his shoulders fell back. She noticed that his eyes, too, had changed to their violet Seraph color.

Anna moved forward, closing the distance between them. She affected a perfect proper Japanese accent and muttered, "Yoake no kohi issho ni shitai." Ryan's brows went up in mild surprise, but when she added coyly, "Ryan-kun," he nearly collapsed.

She knew using that affectionate title would really get his engines revving. She started to pull him along again, with a stifled giggle, but he stopped her once more.

"But what if you - I mean..." He trailed off, as if afraid to say anymore, afraid to ruin any of it.

"I've been on the pill for a month," she assured him. Well, that was basically true. Claire had authorized a prescription for her, though it was still taking Anna some time to get used to the damn things. She had flaked on her schedule more than once in that time, mostly because she had used the noon hour as her scheduled time, and it was a little conspicuous to be taking pills during the school day. Still, she shouldn't have anything to worry about.

So, when Ryan started to mutter his misgivings again, she hooked her hands around his waist and pulled up close to him, her body touching his. She put a finger to his lips. "Dozo, Ryan-kun," she whispered.

Ryan responded by cupping her cheek with his palm. His Seraphic eyes roamed over her, admiring, desiring. As he looked her up and down, a tear ran down his cheek, and she cocked her head at him.

"You're so beautiful," Ryan muttered. "So, so lovely." Then he bent his head to hers and kissed her again, with a newfound and almost immortal passion that she would never have dreamed of him. He turned her around in their kiss, so that they switched places in the hall. He started to back up, towards the door to his room.

Anna felt so light that it was almost like they were dancing into his room. He had to part from her briefly to close and lock the door, and even that short time out of his embrace seemed like a new eternity to her. She wanted to be in his arms forever, where she was safe and loved.

He moved in to kiss her again, but she pushed him away. She slipped her fingers beneath the lip of his bandanna - the one he seemed to wear during every waking moment - and pulled it from his head. "You won't be needing this," she told him as she tossed the cloth away.

Ryan's hand went to the scar at his temple, but she moved it away. She touched the fine line of scar tissue, tracing it with her fingertips. "I like it," she said softly. "It's you."

They both chuckled at that. How human, how Seraph, how beautiful to be young and in love.

She took a breath and drew him to the bed with a coy smile, as she started to undo her shirt. She left the last few buttons closed, so that she was showing off some skin but not being too brazen about it. She had always heard that mystery was almost as enticing as knowledge, so she waited to take off any more clothes for the moment.

Ryan copied her action, throwing off both his sweatshirt and t-shirt, and tossing them to the floor. He approached her tentatively, as if she were some wild animal that might run away at the slightest provocation.

Anna let him come to her with his slow steps. They might not have all night, but she wanted to enjoy every minute that they had, without rushing things. She reached her hands out to him, and, as their fingers touched, she felt a rush of desire and anxiety. She flattened her palms against his, then linked her fingers with his. She lowered her arms to her sides, to bring him in close.

"I'm for you," she whispered, and he responded with a powerful kiss.

Anna maneuvered backwards toward the bed, stepping blindly as she helped Ryan out of his jeans. He was undressed before she was, so he slid onto the bed, pushing away the covers as he did so. Then, he helped her shimmy out of her pants and underwear, leaving her with only her loose-fitting shirt.

He pulled her toward him, and they slipped into the bed together. They began to kiss again, a little more urgently than before.

Anna moved on top of him, feeling his manhood between her thighs. Strangely, she wasn't nervous. She had never been with a man before, but this all seemed very natural to her. She slid onto him, tentatively. At first, she was startled at how large he felt, but as she took more of him, a little bit at a time, she became more accustomed to him. Without even realizing it, she started to move on him, very slowly.

She hummed and looked down at Ryan's face. His eyes were open, studying her, as if waiting for her to stop. But she didn't stop. Rather, she pushed down further on him. There was no resistance - a painful tree-climbing incident at twelve had prematurely ruptured her hymen - and for that she was glad.

She could actually feel him inside her, and she welcomed him, like a missing piece of herself. They felt good this way, complete. He began to rub her back again, beneath her shirt. She felt his hands move around to touch her breasts, but lightly, as if he felt unsure. She covered his hands with her own and pressed them to her chest.

He kneaded her breasts gingerly, and she moaned in deep appreciation. It was that more than anything that made her move against him, an anxious desire that spread through her from her breasts to her sex. She pulled at the remaining buttons of her shirt; she wanted to feel his skin against hers, every inch of her. She slid the shirt off her shoulders and arms and threw it to the floor. Then, she leaned down to him and kissed him again.

Ryan hugged her close, and after a long moment, he moved to turn her over. Anna rolled with him, and though it was awkward at first, her limber body handled the change easily enough. He moved fully on top of her, and she wrapped her legs around him, her ankles locked behind his back.

They started to rock together more earnestly, Ryan beating a brisk rhythm into her. Anna felt her head meet resistance against the pillow as they moved, and each time her neck arched up, his lips were there, kissing her skin. Their bellies slapped together vigorously, making an almost comical clapping sound.

She opened her mouth but was unable to make a sound. It was extraordinary - he was extraordinary. It was not like what she imagined - there was a low pain but more than enough pleasure to make up for it; it felt strange, but also strong, and right. This was what man and woman had done since time began; it was what had made the walls of her childhood bedroom thump when her parents came home late, and what made the floor beneath Claire and Leon's bed creak when they thought no one else was awake.

Ryan said something - her name - let go in a breathy moan that soon became a cry. "Anna-chan..." He drove hard into her, sending what felt like white flame through her. "Anna-chan!"

"Ryan-kun," she said in a whistling breath. She opened her eyes wide, but she couldn't see. There was just that moment, that one, ecstatic moment, when all she knew was him. "R-Ryan-kun!"

She realized through a haze of thought that that must have been what they called a climax, but to her it felt more like a crescendo, as if she were listening to a symphony - a symphony of light and heat and emotion. She arched up against him, striving for one more moment.

After a long minute, Ryan collapsed against her. He rolled to the side, but entwined as they were, he managed to stay inside her. He was getting smaller, but he still felt nice.

Anna smiled at him gleefully. "Ah!"

[Good.] Ryan thought to her through their mental link. He returned her smile, but he was flushed and panting, and she was certain he couldn't quite speak yet. He kissed her, no longer with the same impassioned need of before, but simply.

It was enough.

You are mine and I am yours, Anna thought as she snuggled against him. We're one.

They wouldn't be able to stay like that all night - she wished that they could, but Leon and Claire would be home soon - but she wanted to enjoy it for as long as possible. There would be time for them to clean up downstairs later. For now, though, nothing could disturb them, and for that, she gave a long, low, contented sigh.

After several long moments, Ryan propped himself up on his elbow. He gave her a devillish grin. "Want to do that again?"

Anna's eyes gleamed. She was going to enjoy this whole relationship thing.