A/N: So, I managed to get the swimsuit Alpha from the most recent event in Master of Garden, so I was feeling inspired. Here's something short-ish. Also Soulbowl109 kinda inspired one of this with one of their comments.

Disclaimer: I do not own Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs nor The Eminence in Shadow. The only Beta reader here is the elf.

-Cid-

As I lie in my bed, thoroughly exhausted by Alpha once again, I can't help but smile slightly as I tuck her in next to me. I never would have thought things would end up like this all those years ago.

Especially considering how it all began.

The night I saved Alpha, I originally wanted to leave her in the village I rescued her…

Ow. Why does thinking about that hurt?

I kiss Alpha on her forehead before going back to thinking.

Anyway, where was I…

Oh right.

So, that night I had brought Alpha back to my room because the one house in the village had been destroyed. Thankfully no one at home really paid attention to anything I did so it was easy to sneak her in.

I enjoyed how Alpha had been marveling at my room, I'm guessing that elves weren't used to the way nobility lived. Her ears wiggled as she looked around my room, looking over all the toys and treasures I've accumulated over the years.

Eventually the excitement of the events of a couple of hours ago wore off.

"Lord Shadow, where shall I sleep?" asked Alpha with a cute yawn.

I gestured to the large bed in my room.

"After everything you went through, you deserve to rest in a nice comfy bed. I'll just take the couch." I said.

Alpha would then jump up in surprise.

"W-w-what!?" Alpha shouted while waving her hands in front of her, "Lord Shadow I couldn't!"

I put a finger over my lips and hers. "Shush. Everyone else is sleeping."

Alpha nodded and was blushing. I think she might have liked me even back then.

"My apologies… but I can't ask that much of you. I'll take the couch." Insisted Alpha.

Normally I would've just left it at that, but I was still young and running off they high of getting a new friend to play shadow broker games with.

I took a couple of steps backwards before running and tackling Alpha onto the bed.

"Eep!" shrieked Alpha, "L-lord Shadow!?"

I laughed as we bounced up and down.

"I'm the boss, so you do as I say, that's the rules of The Shadow Garden!" I said as I pinned Alpha. I then took a mischievous expression, "Those who don't get punished!"

"Eh? What do you-" Alpha tries to question me before she immediately started to giggle as I tickled her.

I enjoy how she feebly attempts to fight off her laughter before succumbing to my ministrations. Then as soon as I stopped and got off of her she tried to fight back. I fought her off with a pillow, so she grabbed another and sparred with me.

I enjoyed the first slumber party of my new life. I used to have them all the time as a kid in past one. Until everyone else 'grew up' and told me to as well.

Heh, well now I have a new best friend, so neener neener.

Alpha fell with one last pillow to the face. I tucked her under the blanket and got ready for bed myself. I didn't really need to sleep as much as other people, so I just did some mana training while Alpha slept.

However, as I was getting into the groove of things, I had my concentration interrupted by a sniffle.

I turned.

I saw Alpha crying in her sleep.

At the time, I didn't feel so strongly about Alpha, but looking back this is probably where I started falling for her. Because I couldn't find it in myself to ignore her.

I wasn't sure what to do, but I did recall something.

A while ago, one of the maids had told me and Claire a scary story, and because of that Claire slept in my room for a week, hugging me in order to protect me… or so she claimed.

In any case, I did for Alpha what I did for Claire, and I hugged her. Instinctively, Alpha hugged me back, with that same bear grip she had a couple of hours ago. But as I ran my hand through her hair, she relaxed.

Not wanting to trigger her mana overload again, I decided to skip my training and used a quick 'Dormina' to make myself fall asleep.

I should've set something to wake me up though.

Because when Claire came into my room that morning she ripped off the sheets to find me cuddled up to Alpha.

I had mere seconds to tackle Alpha away from a sword strike.

It was just a training one that Momma let Claire carry around, but still.

"Cid…" growled Claire, as I tried to wake up Alpha, "Get away from that little hussy!"

As I did my best to run away with Alpha in my arms, I had to wonder which of the maids taught her that word.

I must have run away for about 10 minutes before Momma and Pops eventually got between us. Or well, really Momma had dragged pops to take a beating from Claire until she got tired.

"Cid…" started Momma as she held Claire back like one would an angry chihuahua, "who is this…?"

I put on my best mob face (innocent child edition) as I answered, "This is my friend!"

For some reason this made Claire angry.

"You don't have friends!" screamed Claire.

I feel like a lesser man would've had his feelings hurt, however-

"No," I said with the doe eyed look, "you don't have friends. I have her."

Claire started to tear up.

"Cid!" scolded Momma, "That's just because she hasn't attended the academy yet! Claire's too much of a prodigy to fit in with the locals like you."

This did not help Claire feel better, she just started to pout and sit in the corner.

Momma then adopted a pensive look, "…Come to think of it, isn't she an elf? Where did you even find her?"

I remember panicking as children often do when caught and said the first thing that came to mind, "In a box."

For the first time since I met her, I saw Momma's eyes open fully, "…What?"

I floundered, "I went on a walk last night because I thought I heard something and saw what was left of a couple of bandits, I thought Claire did it so I just looked around to see if there was any books or something when I found her in a box. I always wanted a friend and you said that the elf men who come with your friends are their special friends, so I thought it'd be okay to have my own special friend."

I knew full well what my mother meant by 'special friend,' but she didn't know that I knew so when she turned scarlet I did my best to keep my laughter inward. The nearby maids, butlers, Claire, and Pops didn't however.

That's probably why Momma immediately pinched my ears and yelled, "You are not going to have a 'special elf friend!' Have her go home!"

I realized that my joke went too far. If Momma doesn't approve of something, it doesn't happen within the Kagenou territory. As her least favorite child, I had only one option.

I began to cry.

I pulled out all the stops, big shiny eyes, red face, sniffling, quivering lip, and a warbling voice.

"B-but…" I whimpered.

I saw Momma falter slightly, but when Claire came back and glared Momma doubled down, "No, Cid. Let her go. She's not even awake!"

Alpha, who always had my back chimed in, "Um, I'm awake, I just didn't know when to interject."

I let Alpha get down from my arms but she still tugged at my jacket.

"H-Hello." Said Alpha as she bowed slightly. A perfect maneuver on her part as she was in the perfect position to give a puppy dog look to Momma.

I saw Momma chew on her finger to fight down a squeal, and Claire even faltered a bit before forcing herself to be angry again.

"Momma said no!" shouted Claire as she tried to beeline for Alpha, "have her go home!"

Alpha hid behind me and I spread my arms as I covered her, then I started phase two of my teary act.

"N-no! I-I" I faked a sob and started yelling while stomping my feet, "I just want a friend! I want someone who actually pays attention to me and isn't going to beat me up every day!"

Claire flinched at this and some of the hired workers started to leave… okay no they just started to hide so they wouldn't get involved.

"Cid…" whispered Momma.

Then, in my darkest hour, Pops upgraded from being called 'Baldy' in my mind by stepping in front of me and Alpha… for about 5 seconds before he jumped in the air and slammed his head into the ground. As he rubbed his head shamelessly onto the ground before Momma's feet I wondered briefly if this is how he lost his hair.

"You know as well as I do that if we let our boy proceed as is he's going to be eaten alive by the other noble women! We already have the hope of our family in Claire! We should allow him to have a companion! It's our duty as his parents to help him become happy as well isn't it!?" yelled Pops.

Alpha and I joined forces, and hands, as we gave Momma a double puppy-dog eyed stare.

She relented.

I can't help but laugh at the memory of that day.

In the present this causes me to accidentally wake up Alpha.

"Cid?" asked the groggy woman, "What's so funny?"

"Just remembering the day we met. The way pops begged Momma is something I recall from time to time." I mentioned.

Alpha giggled before snuggling into me again.

Heh.

I don't think I'd ever regret saving her.

-Olivia-

As we watched Leon pry Claire off of Alice and Cid, Angie turned to me.

"I hadn't realized that Claire was attached to Alice as well." She remarked.

I nodded. "Mhm. Ever since our adventuring days Claire's always treated Alice like a little sister."

"Oh?" asked Clarice as she walked up to the two of us, "I've never seen it for myself. And that book about you and Leon doesn't really mention anything about the two of them aside from how good Natsume thinks they look."

I nod, "Natsume said she didn't want to distract too much from the narrative she had been crafting with me and Leon, so she cut out a bunch she had about Cid and Alice. But yeah, I can think of a couple of stories about the two from our adventuring days."

The girls stare at me, clearly interested, so I started with the few short stories I remembered.

Back when we had been on the way to get Luxion…

I'd often see Cid just lounging about. There wasn't much to do on the ship most of the time anyway, but I still had fun just spending time with everyone.

However, even though Cid would lounge about, Alice wouldn't

"Alice…" whined Cid, "I'm thirsty, do you think you can make tea?"

And with that alone Alice would somehow have the tea ready with a table before he could finish his sentence.

No way.

Mhm. She takes her time now, but I think because of the way she and Cid met, she used to be really desperate to earn his approval.

That's right, Alice was originally rescued by Cid.

Right. You know it's kind of funny though. Because whenever she'd do something like that, Leon would often point out-

"Where did she get that?" he would ask, "I checked this entire ship we don't have a tea table like that."

Oh my gosh, really?

Yeah, and then, Claire would go, "I dunno, she just kinda does that sometimes."

Then Leon would make the funniest face as he complained that it didn't make any sense! *giggle*

Claire was just used to the way Alice would interact. But that's not all, sometimes, the boys would do stuff together, and Alice would get super pouty!

What? Alice, pouty?

Haha, yeah! Whenever Cid wasn't spending time with her she'd try her best to at least be near him, but that's not really healthy, so Leon would ask us to distract her whenever he and Cid were either goofing off or getting food.

And when that happened, Claire would step in to try and distract Alice so she wouldn't run off after Cid…

Although I had to be the one to stop both of them when the boys wanted boy time.

What, were they afraid of catching cooties?

No, but Cid never had a positive male role model according to Claire, so he was all for hanging out with Leon.

What about his father? Last I heard he was in good health.

Cid's dad is the reason he came up with the idea of asking out Alexia by groveling on the ground.

Ah… yeah Leon must've been the coolest person he knew… and for as much as I like Leon, I can't say he's the best role model to have… no offense.

None taken, I know that my Leon is a bit of a scoundrel. He certainly was back then. It was what Alice would complain about when the boys were gone.

What did you girls get up to then?

It really depended on what the weather was like, but Claire made sure to act like she was in charge whenever Leon was gone. Sometimes she'd have Alice braid her hair, and I'd braid Alice's, but mine was too short. Other times we'd practice magic, or play with cards. I'm glad we only ever bet stuff like cookies and crackers because I swear that Alice was somehow reading our cards.

Huh, never took Alice for the type. Come to think of it though, did Alice only ever serve Cid?

Mostly, yeah. Though she also did clean the ship. I offered to help sometimes but by the time I got a few feet mopped she'd have the rest of the ship done. Leon and her took turns cooking, although Alice was a lot better at it.

Oh? What was the difference?

Leon… cooked like how you'd think a guy would. Mostly meat, with a few sides. It wasn't bad but I don't think it was exactly as healthy as it was filling. Alice however, would make stuff you'd swear were made professionally! What's weird is that she'd swear she's not the best cook she knew.

Hehe, Claire would get angry at her whenever Alice would say stuff like that though.

"Hey!" nagged Claire as she'd pull at Alice's cheeks, "stop looking down on yourself! You're starting to make me feel bad with how much better you are at all that stuff than me!"

Alice would usually look for me to help, but I'd just look away, since I kinda felt the same way at the time.

Now though…

I look over to Alice and Cid as they run away from Claire attempting to hug them again as Leon held on to her in attempt to slow her down, "Now I see that Alice's just as silly as the rest of us!"

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A/N: Hope you enjoyed this short Omake. I had a poll on QQ to decide for some other drawings, I'll work on those over the weekend and insert them into the chapters they took place in. This was a vote for which "CG" I'd create. One for the Cid x Alpha lemon and one for the Leon x Claire and Deirdre lemon was what won. I'll try to color them, since I know how to draw and color naked people (at least to a level I'm satisfied with).