"... WHAT?" Opera's eyes widened at the unearthly sight. The shot of personally mixed gin she was merrily chugging down went flying in the direction of a hapless Roger Huxley, who instantly burst into flames. Nobody seemed to noticed his agony, however. The audience was as aghast as the Tetragenes.
"But... uh... how could...", Deis murmured, putting on special glasses and carefully analyzing the sight. The sorceress raised an eyebrow and scratched her head.
Margarete, by her turn, simply snickered, maliciously playing with a pen in her left hand. She certainly seemed to take it very well. "Oh, wow. This is a surprise, honey. Anything you care to tell us about that?"
Yuri, comfortably (and looking rather posh, by the way) dressed in speedos, simply stared blankly at Hix's face, as if he had seen a ghost. Tengaar's sweetheart himself had turned into an unhealthily bright shade of red, also wearing speedos, but seemingly getting a lot of attention - unlike you'd expect.
Alice, who until that moment seemed highly confident and comfortable, broke down into a giggling fit. Nobody could tell if her fit was due to horror or amused surprise, though. Probably a mixture of both.
"Alright, ladies, you all seen enough. Have you reached a consensus yet?", Tengaar growled. She held a glowing Earth Rune in her right hand, subtly nodding to what could happen if they didn't come to a decision quick. Even so, she had a sly smile in her face, coyly eyeing her boyfriend with a triumphant semblance. It was pretty obvious that she was having fun, but even that had its limits, after all.
Opera, Margarete and Deis glanced at each other, then sighed and shook their heads. Opera coughed, picking up her gin mixture again. "AHEM. Well, I believe so. In face of the... overwhelming evidence, we have no choice but to declare Hix the winner of the Speedo Surprise contest. Now, excuse us, as we have... some urgent business to attend to. Right, Deis? Margarete?"
The snake sorceress winked. "Right-o."
Margarete let out a laugh, and coughed merrily.
Then, the three hurriedly left.
"They're probably going to spend the next week writing three cons worth of fanfic after that", the Warrior lady snorted.
"Hey, Alice. You done embarassing me here?"
Hearing her boyfriend's annoyed voice, Alice facepalmed, and stared blankly at Yuri. The Harmonixer just shrugged.
He grunted. "I guess that's a 'yes', then. I swear, if it isn't Edge, it's this."
Then, he left as a bevy of enthralled fangirls went after him. As for Hix, he had ran away in shame a while ago, and was probably hiding from the shameless paparazzi that inevitably entailed. Things were kinda messy, to say the least, and the Duelling League tabloids would have gossip for weeks after this.
Finally, the young cleric glanced at Tengaar vengefully, but sighed and gave in. "Okay, I admit. You win. But how come nobody ever knew about Hix's... um... well..."
"Oh, that?", Tengaar snickered and turned to Alice with a cynical grin. "Honey, I stick with Hix for three reasons. First is that I'll make him grow an actual spine or my name is not Tengaar. Second, he's still pretty adorable. Third... well, it just became public. But, as for that being kept a secret... heh. I'm pretty possessive, y'know. Wouldn't let that come out without good reason."
"Then... why. We could have just fought this out normally in the arena, y'know. Winning a Duelling League match hardly sounds like a good reason!", Alice haughtily fumed.
To that, Tengaar smiled. "Well. Y'see, I think that the unique opportunity of one-upping your friggin' luck with landing Yuri in the love lottery is more than reason enough. Don't get me wrong, I love Hix, but you're Yuri Hyuga's sweetheart. I think just about every woman here wished she could be you at some point unless you count those Mystic freaks and Lelei, those are just loony. Plus, a woman can have her fun."
The cleric then deflated. She shook her head, her thoughts nearly uttering an aura of defeat. Then, she sat back and blinked, finally accepting the circumstances. "... you have a point. Oh well, I guess I can claim my moral victory at least, no?"
Tengaar snickered and shrugged happily. "Sure. My man still has the better speedos, though."
