Fears

Author: Seth

"Everyone's got their fears. Some might seem small or illogical, but in the end they all have the potential to be equally potent."

Rai settled down on his rough but comfortable bed with a sigh of contentment. The day was finally over, he had no missions waiting for him in the morning and for once he didn't have to wear that damned arm to bed. It was finally time for him to get some well deserved-

"OH KAMI, THERE'S HUNDREDS OF THEM!!!"

-rest…

Grumbling, the scarred panthryan heaved himself from his still cold cot and shuffled over to the door. He had a pretty good idea what Shadow was screaming about, but it never hurt to be sure.

Sliding his door open, Rai followed the sounds of frantic banging over to his partner's room. Without even bothering to knock, the silvery headed man creaked Shadow's door open and…

Yep.

Spiders. Lots of them.

It looked as if some sadistic twist of fate had spawned a spider generator under Shadow's bed, and the girl was most definitely not pleased.

Hopping around like a monkey on crack, the young assassin stomped flat every arachnid that got within a foot of her with a vindictiveness she rarely showed even to her enemies.

Unfortunately for the blue haired panthryan, her arch-nemesis had sheer numbers on their side, and if things continued as they were she'd wind up splattering enough of the eight-legged arthropods to carpet her floor.

"Shadow."

"DEATH TO THE EIGHT-LEGGED ONES!!!"

"Shadow!"

"YOU WERE JUST WAITING FOR ME TO FALL ASLEEP SO YOU COULD CRAWL DOWN MY THROAT, WEREN'T YOU!?"

"SHADOW!"

"YOU'LL NEVER GET ME YOU- Wha?"

Pausing mid-stomp, Shadow rotated towards the door.

Frowning, Rai beckoned shortly.

Shadow needed no further encouragement and all but rocketed from the room.

"So what's our plan of attack?!" The cyclopic girl grinned eagerly as Rai snapped the door shut. "We're going to make those eight-legged freaks pay, aren't we? Aren't we? Oh yes we will~" She giggled dementedly in a downright creepy fashion.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai sighed.

"WHAT?! Bu-bu-but if we don't wipe 'em out, they win!" Shadow cried out.

"We aren't going to have a plan of attack." Rai repeated himself, steamrollering over Shadow's outburst. "We are going to get a professional exterminator to fumigate your room tomorrow morning."

"But that's my room!" Shadow whined. "I'm not letting those furry little bastards have it, I sleep in there!"

Rai palmed his face tiredly. It was far too late for this kind of crap…

"And I'm not grinding a couple hundred spiders into my feet, which, you might notice, are bare." Raitou commented dryly. "And I'm not going to get my shoes. Yours look like they need to be burned as they are." He eyed Shadow's gore stained sock-sandal-things pointedly.

"Listen," Rai said as Shadow opened her mouth, no doubt to raise another complaint, "I'm tired, and I want to get some sleep. If you need a place to sleep, then you can use my room." Shadow wavered slightly, and Rai wriggled his bait that crucial bit. "If you can wait until tomorrow to exact your horrible, horrible revenge on them, then there's a bunch of banana's in it for you."

Rai might as well have been able to see all the cogs clicking into place in Shadow's brain.

Hook, line, and sinker.

"Come on, you slowpoke!" The grey eyed girl called as she dashed to Raitou's room. "The sooner we get to sleep, the sooner tomorrow comes!"

Chuckling, Rai followed his companion at a far more sedate pace.

Funnily enough, he found that he didn't mind the whole fiasco all that much. In fact, it was… nice, in a way. His partner's abhorrent fear of spiders was just so… normal. It didn't stem from a horrible childhood, or torture, or death. It was just a simple fear for a simple girl.

Rai smiled. Yes, it was nice, having that small connection to a world of petty concerns. A world he'd left behind long, long ago.