Love Alia!
Chapter 4
"The Carnival and Alia's Idea"
By MEGAMANX411
X walked slowly beside Alia, hiding his face from her as he moved. It seemed as though he was trying extra hard not to be seen by her, probably out of fear of embarrassment or being smacked. He rubbed his arm nervously, and began looking at the ground kind of sadly. He admitted he wasn't good at these kind of situations, even though he was poetic by nature. X loved to read and write, and he was an artistic person, but he trouble expressing himself at times. Namely in front of the fairer sex, and although Alia had been around for awhile, X still had some trouble getting accustomed to things.
He had gotten to work well with her during missions, but when it came to time off work, that was a different issue. So he decided that his best course of action was to just be polite and refrain from doing anything that might get in him trouble. Alia was also at a bit of a loss when it came to this sort of thing, but she didn't want X to see that obviously. So they both walked side by side to this carnival. Alia decided to break the ice though, the silence was starting to become a burden.
"X, don't you think that Zero's taunting of you as gotten a bit extreme?" Alia asked.
"Yeah...I don't really like confrontations though..." X replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"You should at least stand up for yourself. You shouldn't take that from them," Alia answered.
"What can I do though?" X asked.
"Have you ever thought of getting back at Zero for all of the times he's insulted you?" Alia asked.
"Well...yeah, I guess I've thought about it, my pranks don't usually work out that well, heh..." X replied.
Alia was then struck by inspiration. This day out to the carnival could be better than she originally thought. Zero had raised several levels of Hell with his various pranks, but this time, things could be different. If Alia and X worked together, they might be able to get back at the crimson hunter and finally fight back. This time around, things could be different.
"Hey X, I think I have an idea how we can put a stop to Zero's nonsense," Alia replied.
"I don't know about this Alia..." X muttered, clearly remembering what had happened to him already. "And if it means anything, I'm really sorry about what happened earlier..."
Alia saw X's apology as a sign he could be rational, which was definitely a good thing for her. It was hard enough to get work done with Zero and Axl around, so at least not having to worry about X goofing off was a bit of a plus.
"Apology accepted X. Just think about the idea," Alia replied.
After awhile, X and Alia noticed that they spent quite a bit of time just walking around the fair, not actually riding any rides or anything. X forced a meek little laugh, and then offered to get Alia some cotton candy from a nearby vendor. She agreed, so the blue hunter hurried over. Zero was waiting in the bushes nearby to see how things were progressing. He was inwardly cursing at X's complete lack of initiative...all this time, and he hadn't taken a single move!
That's when it hit him. If he were going to speed things along, he wanted to make sure of something. Namely, how Alia would respond if X were to suddenly become...close. Zero waited for the perfect moment, and aimed a rock at the back of X's head. He quickly hurled the stone which smacked X in the back of the head, sending him forward into Alia. Alia caught X in a quick embrace, and they both blushed and backed away quickly.
X rubbed the back of his head and repeatedly said he was sorry, and Alia said she forgave him and tried to just get over the situation. Zero cursed when he saw that they both didn't make anything out of the moment, but this still left some hope. If Alia didn't get mad, that might mean something...and Zero would find out if his assumption is correct or not. He decided to trail them for the rest of the day.
"Hey X, want to ride on this?" Alia asked, pointing to a roller coaster.
X's face faulted as he looked at the enormous roller coaster, with all of its loops and corkscrews. It was definitely a behemoth of a ride, one that would send any lesser riders to their imminent demise. A sweat drop trailed down X's face as he looked at the ride. Still though, if Alia wanted to ride, he didn't want to refuse.
"Um...well, ok, if you want to go on it," X muttered, forcing himself to walk towards the ride.
"I like to go on this one myself, it's exhilarating. Have you ever been on it?" Alia asked.
X didn't want to appear like a complete wuss in front of Alia by telling her that he never really went on roller coasters, but he thought it would probably be better just not to lie about it. In the end, it would do him more harm than good. He was trying to decide how to put it into words the best way, but he couldn't quite formulate the sentence he desired.
"So have you been on it or not?" Alia repeated.
"Um...well no, not yet anyway. I was planning on riding it sometime," X replied, rubbing the back of his head.
"Heh, I guess you don't ride too many roller coasters X?" Alia teased, seeing through X's faked masculinity.
"You caught me," X responded, smirking.
Zero was nearby of course, eagerly watching how things would turn out. He had a lot of money riding on this experiment, and this was turning out to be quite an investment for him. And if his hunches were right, and if he played his cards right, he might be able to exploit this relationship between X and Alia for some quick cash.
X and Alia slowly got onto the roller coaster, Alia being far more calm about the situation than X of course. The blue bomber nervously looked down to the ground, seeing how high up he was. He nervously gritted his teeth and tried his best to remain calm while in Alia's presence. He took a deep breath in, closed his eyes, and then exhaled. But he was more calmed when he felt Alia take his hand in her own. X looked over at Alia to see her smile casually.
"Relax X, there's no need to be so nervous," Alia whispered, comforting X.
X's face turned red and he looked away from Alia. Needless to say, he was a little embarrassed. He just kept smiling in an embarrassed manner, and tried not to squirm in his seat too much. This wasn't gonna be so bad, it was only a ride. It couldn't really hurt him, and besides, he figured that if Alia could handle it, he could as well. At least, he figured as much.
The ride then came to life, and the roller coaster cars started to ascend higher and higher. It didn't seem all that bad. All they were doing was going up. Of course, X failed to realize that eventually, the ride would rapidly descend.
"This doesn't seem so..." X began.
However, X's words were cut short when he saw that the ride was about to go down. The distance was so ridiculously enormous that X's eyes shot open with shock. The descent was so great it defied almost all reason.
"Here we go..." Alia whispered, smiling.
X tried to remain calm despite what was going to happen, for appearances' sake in front of Alia. He forced a smile again, but it was more obvious this time around. His eyes were still wide from shock, and his smile was clearly fake.
"Y-yeah...t-this looks like f-fun..." X muttered, trying to remain calm.
X let out a scream as they went flying down the tracks, and he felt as though the helmet was going to be ripped off his head as he was hurdling downward at breakneck speed. The roller coaster then suddenly stopped, sending X slamming into the brace that held him down. The ride then went into reverse and flew backwards across the track at an even faster pace. When the ride was finally over, X looked almost catatonic. It wasn't until Alia got off the ride that X finally seemed to come back to life.
"So, have fun?" Alia asked.
"Y-yeah..." X muttered, stumbling around for a bit.
"So, what else do you want to do? We have the whole day to spend here," Alia replied, smiling at X.
X thought to himself how much he enjoyed seeing Alia smile, that definitely made him feel better despite all of the problems he had encountered on this trip so far. And getting out to spend a day with her was just what he needed, or so he believed to be the case. Usually he considered his relationship with Alia to be strictly professional, but doing something just for the fun of it did prove to be just that, fun. He spent the rest of the day with her, enjoying the rides, getting candy and snacks, and just socializing. It was really enjoyable, and at the end of the day, he was really glad that he went with her.
Near the end of the day, when Alia and X were walking back home, Zero trailed them to record the outcome of what had happened during the day. His experiment seemed to be turning out as he planned so far, but he wasn't planning on what Alia was talking to X about.
"So, you still want to try and get back at Zero?" Alia asked, acting somewhat devious.
"You're still thinking about that?" X replied, sounding surprised.
"Well, he did put you through a lot. Maybe it's time you stand up for yourself," Alia answered.
"I suppose you're right...anyway, I'll sleep on it. Deal?" X asked.
"Deal. Hey X?" Alia relied.
"Yeah, what is it?" X asked.
"I had a good time with you today, it was fun," Alia whispered, smiling.
"Yeah, I had fun too. Maybe we should do this again sometime," X answered, smiling back.
By the time X and Alia had finished their conversation, they reached their destination. They stopped for a few moments, looked at each other, and endured a somewhat awkward silence. They both kind of smirked despite the mild embarrassment, said goodnight, and went to their separate rooms.
"The results are lookin' good for this experiment. Now onto experiment 2!"
