A/N: This is my first FanFiction- wish me luck! Hope you enjoy. This first chapter is set the day before the events of Professor Layton and the Lost Future, but it explains that in a minute. For the purposes of this story, Luke and Flora are both about 15. Possibly some spoilers for Lost Future in later chapters.
I don't own Professor Layton.
It was a normal Friday lunchtime in June, and was the day before Luke Triton and Flora Reinhold would help Professor Layton stop a young man named Clive from destroying London. Of course, they didn't know that yet, so for the moment they were playing Truth or Dare with their friends at school.
It was quite a nice day, so they were sat at a picnic bench outside, spinning a bottle to determine players. Sam, after revealing his fear of the colour purple, spun the bottle to see who his victim would be.
"And… let's see… Alex!" he said happily. "Truth or Dare?"
"Truth. Last time I did a dare you made me lick the radiator in the headteacher's office."
Flora and Luke, having been off that day solving mysteries with the Professor, blinked in confusion then silently decided it was better not to ask.
Back to Sam, who now had a mischievous glint in his brown eyes. "Okay, what is the answer to question 6 on the maths homework?" Everyone laughed.
"But-" Alex tried to protest, then realised how petty it was. "Fine. Let me just look it up in my book… 436." Alex reluctantly revealed. He adjusted his glasses on his head and spun the bottle. "Luke, looks like you're up. Truth…or Dare?" he said in his best dramatic voice, which had the group almost doubled over in laughter.
"Hmm… Dare" Luke said carefully once the hysteric laughter had subsided.
"Being brave for once! Well done! Anyway, dare… erm… hmm. I wasn't expecting that. Erm… I know! Kiss Flora. On the lips." Alex commanded. A murmur ran round the small group of six. Luke and Flora looked at each other stunned, then quickly looked away.
"Hey Al, not sure that counts as a 'gentlemanly' dare. So it's against the rules. Besides, it's not fair on Flora." said Melissa. "Then again, she passed on her last dare, so this could make up for it."
"Umm, I'm not sure that's a dare we want to do" Flora said uncertainly.
"Well, why not? It's only one kiss." piped up their other friend Lucy.
"There's every reason why not!" Luke protested enthusiastically.
"Yeah! Because we live in the same house! Because he's my adopted father's apprentice!" was Flora's argument.
"Because we're best friends! It'd make things… awkward, to say the least." Joined in Luke.
"If you're only best friends, then it shouldn't matter, right?" pointed out Sam.
"Oh come on, you're all ganging up on us! That's not fair! And if that's the case Sam, then you have to kiss Lucy." Luke was getting fed up now. Flora was his best friend! He definitely didn't want to kiss her in a game of Truth or Dare! That would make things awkward round the dinner table that evening.
Sam seemed surprised at that last statement, but quickly smoothed it over. "It's not my turn for a dare. Now stop changing the subject and get on with it!"
They continued like this for a further ten minutes, with Luke and Flora protesting and stalling as the others tried to get them to kiss. Eventually, Luke had had enough. He turned to Flora. "Sorry. I really didn't see that coming when I said dare!" he whispered with a small smile. "Can I talk to you over there?"
"Sure…" she said, giving him a smile in return, albeit just as small as his.
The two teenagers stood up, and she followed him a few metres away to stand next to the wall of the school building, still in sight of their friends but out of earshot.
"Well…" Luke laughed nervously but genuinely. "They're not going to give up, are they?"
She sighed. "Nope. They're not going to let it go easily. What… what do we do?" she asked nervously.
"I guess we have two options. Either we ignore them and put up with them moaning about it for weeks… or we do what they want." He took a deep breath, unsure what his best friend's reaction would be.
She blinked. Of all things, she hadn't expected him to say that… though she wasn't exactly repulsed by the idea. Quite the opposite actually, though until that moment she had only viewed Luke as the Professor's apprentice and her best friend.
Now, she wasn't sure if that was all she felt for him.
"So… which, um… which option do you think?" she shyly asked. She wasn't sure what she thought.
"Second one would save us a lot of hassle. But whatever you want, Flora. A gentleman never pressures a lady into doing something she doesn't want to." Luke grinned.
The small smile on her face grew a little- just a little. "Second one, then."
Luke looked down at her. When they'd first met a little over two years ago, she'd been slightly taller than him. Now, as the growth spurt had hit him, he was having to look down a little to make eye contact with the girl three months his senior. He couldn't help just then but notice how pretty she was, a fact he had known but never really appreciated before. He glanced over to their little group of friends- all staring at them, as he'd predicted. He pulled his gaze back to Flora, and kissed her.
On the lips.
"Shh, I'm trying to hear what they're saying!" said Lucy crossly.
"Stop eavesdropping, Luce! They're having a private conversation, I don't think it's right to listen in on two of our friends." Sam might have had no qualms about asking for answers to homework, but he knew not to eavesdrop.
"Oh shut up, you're watching them too."
"Yeah, but I'm not trying to listen to what they're…" Sam trailed off as what they had all been waiting for happened: the kiss.
Cheering erupted from the picnic bench, mostly Alex and Sam, but Lucy and Melissa both had their parts too. The two people the cheers were aimed at seemed not to notice.
When they pulled back from the kiss, Luke and Flora looked into each other's eyes for a moment, then looked away in embarrassment, almost unable to believe what had just happened. Thankfully for both of them, the bell chose that exact moment to ring. They glanced at each other, made eye contact and quickly looked at the floor again. Flora made a move as if to say something, then thought better of it. Both teenagers were blushing madly. She walked over to the picnic bench, grabbed her bag, and walked off to her next class alone.
