Love Alia!
Chapter 7
"Contest!"
By MEGAMANX411
After defeating the X-Hunters, or at least three figures that resembled the old foes, X took the time to help fix up the house. He even volunteered to clean the place thoroughly, giving Alia time to relax. If that weren't enough for her, X even offered to bring her reading material, food, and anything else. When she wanted to go over some mission reports quick, X would go back and get them for her. He was always smiling and polite, which Alia never really noticed that much until now. X was always trying to be helpful like this...but it's just that certain situations made it appear as though his intentions were less than noble.
Alia was sitting down on the couch, sipping some coffee, and going over some reading material and mission reports. Although Signas said they weren't allowed to work at all, she snuck a few documents along so she could get something done if she ever had some free time. X, on the other hand, when he finished, he sat down and started to write furiously. Alia eyed him curiously.
"X, what are you writing?" she asked.
X kind of blushed when she asked that, but meekly revealed to her what he was writing. He wasn't to open with himself really, and no one had ever expressed interest in the activities he did to pass the time before. He slowly raised up a notepad with some writing on it.
"Well, it's uh...I mean, it's...it's nothing," X replied.
"You don't need to sound so embarassed X," Alia answered. "If you don't want to show me though, that's fine."
X then felt like he was shutting Alia out, so he quickly tried to redeem himself. But still, he felt like he was either going to feel bad from not showing Alia, or feel horribly embarassed. X sighed quietly, then revealed many more writing elements besides the one that he had beside him. He actually wrote quite a bit, and it was an impressive collection of works thus far.
"This...is kind of a collection. Part of it is about myself, really. I do write down the things that happen to me, and the things I think about. The other thing is I'm writing an originalnovel, but it's not even close to finished," X answered.
"You're writing a novel?" Alia asked, sounding interested.
"Well, yes, but it's really not done...and besides, it's probably not any good," X muttered.
"Well, you know what they say, everyone is their own worst critic. It may be better than you think it is. And when you finish writing it, I'd like to read it," Alia added.
X's face lit up at Alia's proposition. It was enough that she engaged him in conversation, but expressing interest in reading his novel was something he thought was really sweet of her. He smiled warmly.
"Sure, I'd like that too. But I guess I better get back to writing then if I'm going to finish anytime soon," X teased, going back to his work.
Elsewhere, Zero was at a concert. Much to his delight there, one of the guitarists who had participated at a contest there had a little accident so to speak, so Zero was able to enter a special contest being held. He didn't even know about it previously. It was basically a solo showdown, so to speak. Layer chose not to participate, but instead, she just wanted to watch Zero.
That was pretty much the norm all day for them though. Zero would be off doing whatever he wanted, and Layer would just stare at him and sigh. Her affection was painfully obvious, and she was usually blushing whenever she looked at him. Zero, of course, paid little or no attention. That was just Zero's nature. But even if he did take notice, it would probably be much more difficult for Layer to get Zero's affection back. Whenever Zero was serious, he was cold as ice. Especially because of some dark events in his past that he didn't like to dwell on.
Zero looked up on the stage to see that it was his turn to jam. A cocky grin emerged on his face as he grabbed his guitar and jumped on stage. His red armor was shining brightly due to the lighting from the stage, and everyone instantly knew who stood before him. The crowd was mostly comprised of humans, although some Reploids were present. Either way, the majority of people knew who that was on stage. Whether or not they liked him was questionable, of course. Zero was a celebrity regardless. He was a very famous Maverick Hunter.
As Zero played, Layer just watched from the crowd. She was then approached by Pallette. Pallette tapped her shoulder lightly and smiled at her.
"Hey Layer! Enjoying your day with Zero?" she asked innocently.
"Um, yes, I am, very much...thank you," Layer replied, sounding a little embarassed.
"Zero is pretty cute, isn't he?" Pallette added, smirking as she said it.
Layer couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she had the thought that Pallette was trying to set something up between Zero and herself. Pallette did give Layer some strage smiles, and this whole "day out" thing was kind of suspicious from the start. But still, Pallette was a child for the most part. She was innocent. She couldn't have knowningly set that up, it's just childish nature, she assumed.
"Aww, you're blushing Layer!" Pallette exclaimed, her face bright and full of happiness.
Layer only lowered her head from embarassment, but she still felt no ill will towards Pallette. She forced a smile, but then looked back at Zero on stage. She sighed from just looking at him, but she quickly realized that Pallette was still beside her.
"You seem to like Zero! I think that's cute though," Pallette added.
"Pallette, please..." Layer replied, sounding even more embarassed.
"Well, I guess I'll be going, I just wanted to show up to check up on you guys...have fun the rest of the day! Bye!" Pallette exclaimed, walking away and waving at the same time.
Lyaer waved back, but when she turned back around, she then noticed that Zero had finished his run on the stage. He received quite high marks too, which made his trademark grin even bigger. Zero walked off the stage and Layer went over to greet him.
"That was magnificent Zero," Layer muttered, trying to give Zero some compliments.
"Oh, thanks Layer," Zero answered.
"You played very well, I was impressed," Layer added.
"Guess I am pretty good, eh?" Zero answered, still grinning.
Layer immediately blushed and hid her face. She didn't know what else to do. She had to admit it became increasingly hard for her to hide her affection from Zero, and she did want to say something, but she didn't want to be a bother to him. Zero then looked over at her and thought something was wrong because she was looking down at the ground.
"Hey, you alright?" Zero asked, putting a hand on her shoulder.
Layer reeled back, and tried not to get too excited. She smiled humbly, but chose to just shake her head and signal that nothing was wrong. Her face was still red, which made things even more obvious because of her mostly blue armor.
"OK, if you're sure nothing's wrong, then that's good," Zero added, turning away.
Layer sighed again, but the redness left her face and she started following Zero again. He was already heading back to the resort, so Layer thought she may as well accompany him. She kept a pretty reasonable distance, but nothing ridiculous. At the same time, Axl was still in the movie theater. His eyes were glued to the screen, and it was already aways in. Before he knew it, Pallette sat down next to him with some popcorn and a soda. She turned to him and smiled.
"Enjoying the movie Axl?" Pallette whispered, smiling.
"Yeah, it's awesome!" Axl exclaimed.
Of course, he then immediately realized how loud he was, so he shushed himself to make sure he wasn't yelled at. Pallette whispered into his ear about something, and Axl nodded again. He then smiled smugly and turned back to her.
"Have you told Zero already?" he asked.
"No, no...I didn't get the chance to. I can tonight though," Pallette answered.
"You think that it worked...?" Axl asked.
"Yeah, well, in the first case. So that side of the bet is pretty much down already. I don't know about yours though. That looks like it'll be kind of hard. Of course, X and Alia aren't in on this though...it would make things more interesting if they were," Pallette answered.
"Yeah, tell me about it. Well, if things keep going as they are now, it looks like Zero'll be raking in some dough. If we're going to, we better get moving," Axl added.
"Yeah. When we get back to the resort tonight, we'll have to check up on our first experiment and try to see what else we can do," Pallette responded, smiling.
So, it looks like Axl, Pallette and Zero are involved in some kind of plot! But what about Layer? Does she have any idea? And what are Pallette and Axl scheming? Find out next time in Love Alia, Chapter 8!
