Day 15 - Enemies

A slightly different take than normal. Just imagine- Since their personalities are so different, dont you think that they could've hated eachother in the beginning? Slightly painful to write, but fun at the same time. Also made Leo a bit meaner than I intended to, but I swear, it was an accident.

Longest chapter so far, whoop! The end feels rushed, though. I'm gettign the sneaking suspiscion that this might've fit better in a multi-chapter thing...

-Modern AU-

"I can't stand that stuck-up bastard!" Edward bellowed, punching a wall abruptly. His conversation partner, Volug, remained silent, simply listening to the myrmidon-in-training rant his heart out about his classmate- It was a near-daily occurence by now. The classmate in question? A certain blond noble, specialising in archery- and one of the best students in the grade: Leonardo. He'd told on him for something that he didn't do, being the uptight little shit he is, following the rules but at the same time only his own. How did he do that, the darned teacher's pet? Yes, he usually was pretty thoughtful and almost nice, but as soon as he saw him, he turned into fucking demon-spawn. (Exaggeration intended.)

"That stuck-up, girly-as-fuck bitch!" he swore again, continuing his stream of curses at the other, opening his locker with a bit too much force, the resounding thud drawing the attention of a few others. The brunet shoved his books in hastily, making them spill out of the locker again. The laguz standing next to him could obviously tell that the boy was in a very foul mood, which was rare, so he kept his mouth shut.

Another string of huffs whispered profanity spilled forth as he stooped down to gather up the mess of textbooks. Which happened to catch the attention of the aforementioned blond, who had been strolling by with a professional-looking poker face when he spotted his archenemy- Er, rival, scrambling to get the literature back into a semi-neat pile. He sneered. Volug, on the other hand, bristled, having a good idea of what would conspire next, but Edward was angrier about the situation than he usually was... Yet the canine made no move to stop the archer.

"Why hello, Edward." he drawled, expression disinterested and apathetic, but eyes still having that cold glint of obvious dislike. Was that malice? Maybe. His blue gaze looked down on the myrmidon as if he were a bug he was about to crush with his boot. Said male stiffened, before standing up and turning around, fixating the offender with a glare that didn't fit on the usually happy-go-lucky and optimistic boy's face. Leonardo nearly flinched back. Nearly.

Four words in a completely flat and deadpan tone. "What do you want." It sounded more like a statement than a question, as if he was trying to dismiss the other before he even began speaking. It didn't work, as anticipated. Edward resisted the unbearably strong urge to just drop all the books he was carrying on Leonardo's foot and listen to him scream. Said student simply tilted his head upwards, conveying a regal and superior (in Edward's eyes, conceited) air.

"My, my, how rude. I was just going to ask how you were doing." A pause, the smirk returning to his face. "A little bird told me you got a C in Magical Theory, isn't that true? You're losing your touch."

The brunet snarled in reply, shoving the stack of his books into Volug's arms (who let out a bark in surprise) and stormed over to the other, fists balled. He didn't strike out, however, as they remained at his sides.

"Says the person who failed the twenty-five-minute stamina run. Slowpoke." he bit back. The smirk fell somewhat on the blond-haired boy's face, blue eyes glinting with well-concealed anger. The laguz in the background sighed, neatly putting the books in the locker for his comrade. Here they go again.

"Then again, sports isn't that important, isn't it? You're the myrmidon here. Archers have no need for such."

"Yeah, right. Try saying that when you have thirty brigands chasing you down, screaming for blood. Besides, magic isn't important for swordsmen, either."

A long, slender, accusing finger was pointed at Edward, the archer's other hand resting on his hip in an impatient and outgoing manner. "Oh, really. Wind Edges, Tempest Blades and Levin Swords all function on the basis of magic and require knowledge on it, which you don't seem to possess." the blond scoffed, slightly miffed because what Edward was arguing with did make some sense, he had a point. He could feel himself losing the upper hand, but persisted and continued. "Their extended range gives their wielders a great advantage in combat but you wouldn't know much about that, right?"

That's it, the dumb fuck stepped over the line. The throughly enraged myrmidon lunged for the archer, who attempted to sidestep out of the way, but was still caught in Edward's grip and tackled to the ground with a startled shriek.

In hindsight, the archer realised that it wasn't an especially good idea to piss the brunet off so much, especially since he realised from the beginning that something seemed off about him that day. Their spats usually ended with one of them walking away, fuming, but this situation had not occurred yet. But it was bound to occur at some point. Now the two were grappling on the ground, screaming, kicking, flailing and cursing before Edward succeeded in pinning Leonardo down completely, hands over his head and the not-exactly lightweight myrmidon straddling his waist, rendering the blond unable to move, much less push the other away. A triumphant bark of laughter was heard from the victor of the miniature wrestling match.

"See, P.E. is important! Man, I expected more of a fight from you." he gloated, leaning in for emphasis, much too close for comfort in Leonardo's opinion, but the brown-haired boy obviously didn't care at the moment.

"Don't touch me!" he hissed back, writhing to get out of his grasp. In vain.

"Wow, no wonder you were classed into the archer class so quickly, you're basically a toothpick. You could be mistaken for a mage." Edward leaned in further, noses almost touching. "That is, if you can even use magic. Archers don't have a single magical bow to call their own, right?"

Leonardo swore in frustration, kicking wildly and damning the brunet into every hell in every possible dimension. Which was a lot. Ouch. Ignoring the blond's insults, the myrmidon stood up quickly and walked off.

That would show him not to mess with him anymore. Edward could feel the other's glare bore into his back, but heck, nothing could bring him down from this triumph right now.

"We will be doing a small project soon, it will be done in pairs."

Loud cheers rang from the class as the Forging teacher, Daniel, announced this. As soon as the loud whooping died down, he continued with a devilish smile that put all the students in unease. This didn't look good.

"However, I will personally be choosing the pairs." Loud groaning and complaining was heard from the pupils. The brunet continued, unfazed. "The project will be choosing a complex weapon, such as a Killing Edge, Venin Lance or any weapon that gives one a stat boost, making a weapon with similar stats, and then presenting it along with the correct weight and attributes, it's history and from what materials it is made of and so forth. Now, the first partners..."

He rattled down a number of names, putting together people who hardly worked together on purpose like he would always do when choosing pairs, making the grumbling grow larger in volume. He still didn't give a shit.

Meanwhile, Edward was chewing on his nails nervously, hoping he wouldn't end up with a slacker or someone unpleasant or ditzy. Because that would be catastrophic for his grade and would probably result in even more teasing, and he did not want that. Nope. His eyes flitted over to Leonardo, who was staring out the window, uninterested.

That is, until Daniel figuratively set hell loose on the class. Or was it literally? Either way, the class suddenly fell silent.

"Leonardo and Edward, you will be working together." He said with a wink, as if knowing that this wouldn't end well. Ranulf leaned over to Janaff and whispered something into his ear, upon which the hawk shuddered.

The two sat in shocked silence, before both of them leaped up and began yelling, Leonardo pounding his fist on his desk like some kind of judge and Edward gesturing wildly at the blond, both cursing and complaining incoherently and very, very angrily. The teacher at the front just laughed and waved it off, his tone carrying somewhat of a threatening hint.

"If you don't work together, it's a pretty secure F, and I'm sure neither of you want that."

Silence once more, then the two sat down, defeated, but not without a glare at both the blue-eyed man and eachother. Mia snickered in the back as Daniel clasped his hands together with a sweet and misleading smile as if nothing had happened.

"Alright, please find a good weapon to work with, and I look forward to seeing your results!"

The archer slumped against the wall and groaned. If looks could kill, Edward would've died three times already at the least. But they couldn't, and the brunet had an equally sour face at the entire situation. Standing in the hallway and basically forced to carry cordial conversation and not argue, just so that they could get this project over with and never talk to eachother again. Whoop-dee-dingle-doo, this was exactly how he wanted to spend his day. (Not.) Leonardo straightened up a little and crossed his arms.

"So, what're we going to take?"

Edward shrugged. "Preferably a sword." Cue facepalm.

"Well, we could just as well take bows, but I'm sure you would be uncooperative and not want that."

"The only uncooperative person here is you, you weak-"

This really would take a while.

In the end, the two grudgingly decided on a Kard. And now they were sitting in the forges, struggling with a lot of things and yelling at each other almost constantly over the clanging of the other students tools and because Edward pissed Leonardo off again. Something about the wrong temperature and why said blond's face was now covered in soot. And breaking several utensils and wasting steel.

"STRAW YELLOW, EDWARD. AND YOU TURNED THE AIR UP TOO HIGH." the archer yelled, after approximately the second failure in heating the thing up because the brunet was a very impatient person. Which was, of course, bad for forging. Not only that, but they have to get the right attributes as well... This looked impossible, but if the others are managing, so can they. Or, at least, that's what that stubborn myrmidon said after the first try.

Blue eyes flitted over to the instructions. Six units of steel, good Crit, somewhat average Hit Rate. Gods, why did they pick a Kard again?

"I got it, I got it!" Edward exclaimed, taking the steel plate out with a pair of pincers. "Get the hammer!"

It might work this time, though. Leonardo promptly began hammering it out evenly.

"You're doing great!"

"Thanks."

"Excellent work, boys. A good B- on the weapon, you could use this in case of emergency. It wouldn't last all that long though, and the point isn't quite as sharp as it should be, but it works. As for the presentation itself, it was a pretty solid A. You did your research well. That brings you to... A B+. Satisfied?"

Two sighs of relief in complete synchronisation as Edward put up a hand for a high-five, which Leonardo gave without hesitation. Daniel raised an eyebrow in amusement. "I didn't expect such a high grade from you two, to be honest. Congrats. How did it not end in a catastrophe?"

"I didn't want him to drag me down." Leonardo stated, pointing at Edward. Edward did the same thing. "Me neither. We basically had no choice but to put our differences aside for a bit."

"You should do that more often, you two. I have a feeling you'd make a good team in the future."

Silence. The boys glanced at eachother, before both shaking their heads at the same time.

"Nah."

"No way."

The salesman-teacher shrugged with a smile, and ruffled their hair. "Either way, you could say I'm proud. Try to keep that peace a bit longer, eh? Help with things that might not be your forte. Just some advice. You two are dismissed!"

They were ushered out, and after the door shut, Leonardo held his hand out for a handshake. Edward stared at him as if he suddenly grew a second head.

"... Dude, why?"

"Shut up. Just... It was... Alright... Working with you. Now shake it."

"... Haha. Never thought I'd see the day. Ditto."

A firm handshake, and the two parted ways to head home.

The rest of the week was still in front of them, and who knows what might happen during that time, whether they go back to being sworn enemies or not. If it's the latter, then their classmates were in for the miracle of the year.

Looks like we'll have to wait and see.