Short Fanfictions

1. Rivalry - The Bet

Laughter erupted from Layla's bedroom, before that however, she was invited to a hangout with her friends back from Eruditio. Alpha initiated the hangout since it's been quite a few months when all of them got together in the same place, Bruno was the one who suggested to take it a step further. He insisted that they make the night more humorous and fun with alcoholic drinks, though Saber argued that Harley having a foolish near-death experience wouldn't reflect well with him, they knew Harley was a person who takes bets seriously and would do anything in his power to make even the zaniest bets true- to which many people asked 'how' and 'why' too many times. Bruno still insisted that the mage will be fine to which Lolita replied that Bruno was an aggressive drunk and has once laced a cup of coffee with energy drinks the morning after losing a lighthearted bet to Zilong. So they were restricted to normal food, normal water, and normal soda.

The night was going fine, Alpha was on a sugar high due to being dared to eat 3 packs of sickly sweet candies, and Saber was tirelessly trying to help him recover from the sugar high but other than that, the night was fine; though this wasn't the case of the laugh, the laugh was from a game of 'truth or dare' with the remaining party.

"Okay okay, Harley, Truth or Dare?" Bruno asked with a sly grin.

"Truth." Harley answered

"Okay, I truth you..." Bruno trailed off tapping a finger to his chin, then sat up straight with a serious look on his face- though the mockingly wide smile he wore was still apparent.

"Do you have a crush?"

Harley's cheeks flushed and he locked his eyes to the carpet they were sitting on, seemingly engrossed with it. "No I do not." He finally answered.

Bruno, however, didn't bait the lie and put his hands over his heart in an exaggerated flourish "How offending! L-lying to his b-bro! How could he?!"

Lolita snickered a little at Bruno's acting and put her hand on Harley's shoulder.

"Hey Harley, don't get yourself worked up on simple stuff, it's just a question."

Harley looked at Lolita as if she grew a second head. Layla took hold of his other shoulder.

"C'mon Harls, this is a judge free zone- well probably not with Bruno- but still a judge free zone, I won't laugh, promise!"

Harley sighed "J-just, don't tell anybody else about this."

"Won't say a syllable." Saber reassured him.

Harley thought it over once more and sighed. He turned to face Bruno, face still red.

"It's... erm, I adore.. Cyclops"

Laughter emerged from Layla's bedroom and the word 'Cyclops' was questioningly shouted out loudly. The laughter never ceased which grew the creature's ever growing suspicion. He pressed his head to the slightly askew door and began to hear another voice laced with worry.

"Shush! Cyclops might hear it!"

"Hear what exactly?" An accented voice suddenly spoke up sounding a tad raspy.

Harley shrieked and slowly turned around to face the object of his adoration. His face was to be rivalled with his red Lion Academy batch shirt. He began stammering out a sentence bare of complete meaning. Um's and Ugh's were scattered everywhere and he couldn't understand a thing.

"What?" he asks, completely lost.

"I mean, wh-what I'm trying to say- is that-"

"THAT HE WANTS YOUR SPACE DI-"

Layla elbowed Bruno- quite hard- in the guts, the former doubled over from pain.

"Its nothing, go back to bed, get more sleep, you have a trip tomorrow right? We'll be quieter. Right, Bruno?" Layla glared at Bruno- who was still holding his stomach in pain- gave a nervous smile and a thumbs up.

Cyclops raised his eyebrow and nodded, then slowly walked away.

When the one-eyed fellow was well out of their sight and hearing range, Harley threw himself at her and wrapped his little arms around her. Thank you's were spouted and she was clung onto as if she were to disappear if Harley were to loosen is grip

Eventually, he broke off from Layla and went to sit back down in his earlier position. While Layla doing the same. He shoved the still-pained Bruno to the floor.

"*BEEP* you Bruno!"

At the right time, Alpha beeped, seemingly recovering from his sugar high. Lolita helped Bruno up and sat back down next to Harley, him looking at her as if waiting for a croquet mallet to smash his ribs. Lolita took notice of this and simply said 'he deserved it'.

Bruno soon recovered from the pain and sat back straight, being uncharacteristically quiet.

"Speaking of crushes. I think I know who your crush is." Alpha said, accompanied with an acapella of coughs. Saber tried to wave off the question with the excuse that Alpha were still in a sugar high, but that proved fruitless since Layla already took it as a challenge.

And when you challenge Layla, it was a promise that you'll never be able to pass off as a joke.

"Oh really? Who is it?"

The room went silent for a moment, and without a beat:

"Miya"

Layla never thought much of the archer. All she knew- or at least, thought- about her is that they were rivals. Rivals for the same goal... The spotlight. She hated her with a burning passion, her throat would tighten whenever she was close, she would glare at her whenever she would pass, her stomach dances in knots and her pulse beats faster whenever she talked to her, and her face will flush, red with fury whenever she would touch her, even if it were just a bump in a busy marketplace. But that didn't mean she had a crush on her.

She stood up and put her hands on her hips "Oh pray tell, do you have evidence?" She said, in a mocking tone and a smirk on her lips. Lolita and Saber tried to make the group forget the bet by saying weird excuses. But soon failed when realized that their efforts were fruitless and only time can tell now.

"Challenge accepted! We'll prove it to you by the end of the month!" Harley declared. Bruno agreed with this notion. Lolita and Saber just sorrowfully shook their heads.

"You're on!" Layla said, then went to get her clothes from the foldable sofa, and rushed to the bathroom to change.

Saber was embarrassed "Were not in with this." He said as he and Lolita went off to unroll their sleeping bags. Alpha soon sat up, wary of the silent room infront of him.

"What happened?"

And so; 'Operation: Find Layla has a crush on Miya and vice versa' has commenced.

Notes
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Its canon that they have school batch shirts, sorry guys, I don't make the rules. Also, I'm going with the 'they share a tall ass apartment with each other' headcanon. The reason for the Eruditio gang's absence is out-of-battle missions, like- hell this game's world feels like Remnant from the RWBYverse you can't not at least accept my headcanon that there's a multitude of places to travel here and there. Each with varying languages and ethnicities.

Hope you enjoy my story though, I plan to make this 3 chapters.

Til' then!
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