Another Battlefield

While Hope and my bro were Ransacking the boxes, Hayley was quietly looking at them deep in thoughts.

Because of Pinky, I feel uncomfortable around her, I know I shouldn't worry about it and that Spencer likes me a lot, but I also know that he worries about Hayley and it's clear for everyone how attached Hayley is to Spencer now. After everything she went through, he became her main support in this world, and it's not weird that she ended developing feelings for him again.

Hayley noticed me looking at her and as if she knew what I was thinking about gave me an awkward smile. I need to say something…

"Hey Hayley, ummm do you want the ticket?"

I don't know why they ignored the ticket, it was probably the most valuable thing here, but I wasn't interested in it, I was fine with the powers I got, and I have more abilities to train from my pets.

"No thanks, I got the last one…"

Another awkward silence…

"Hey, look camping stuff!!!"

Hope started to take the things from the box, 4 sleeping bags, a tent, and some random stuff. She took them out and throw each of us one of them. She finally took the tickets and browsed through them.

"Let's see…"

She didn't read them out loud.

"Dibs on this two!!"

"Hey, you can't do that."

"Hope… read them out loud, sometimes random stuff comes out anyway so let's see what we got first."

"Fine… random weapon and agility enhance, the one I didn't want it's a random pet accessory."

"The agility enhance might be useful for anyone so let's wait for Spencer to decide what are we going to do with it."

"Ok… can I open the weapon and see what we get?"

"Sure… Dante, do you want to use the accessory ticket?"

Dante was resting on the couch. With the other pets.

'Let anyone use it, I'll see if I want it later…'

…

"Oh, Cr*p!!"

I turned my head just in time to notice a giant halberd falling from Hope's hands.

"Jajajaj do you still want the weapon??"

"Shut up… why someone tried to mix every existent weapon into one???"

"It looks like a halberd…"

"I know it's a halberd, but it's still weird, this thing is so slow, and I don't think that it excels in anything…"

A large pole was supporting the head, which had a large ax head, with a hammer facing to the other side. The structure ended in a large and thin spike.

Gerhard took it and started to observe it with great attention, it was too big to try it in here anyway, so he is going to practice with it during the daily training this afternoon.

My brother was teasing Hope, so I used the remaining ticket, and a Dark- blue collar with a starry design appeared on my hands.

"Dante do you want it?"

At his side, Paws ears stood up and looked around.

'Give it to paws he wants it~."

"Are you sure?"

Probably Dante noticed too… thanks to my connection I could feel that Paws was attracted by the collar, but I wasn't going to just give it to him because of it, it wouldn't be fair to Dante.

'I always hated collars, so I don't care… and if he wants it, there must be a reason.'

Now that I think about it, I never have seen Dante with a collar.

"Thank you… Paws come here."

Paws stood up from the couch and ran to me. I petted him and put the collar while he happily purred.

After that Hope opened the other box and was making another mess with the books and fruits that were inside. Hayley picked one of the books, and I noticed the next volume of the series I have been following.

"Now we have… random shoes, another random weapon, and Enhanced Reflexes."

From the weapon ticket we got a thick dark-brown shield with green details, we decided to give to Alfred, since he was the only one that could use it… Watson, unfortunately, died during the east war

… Even if he didn't talk we missed him and it was a huge loss for us.

Sadly for Hope, the shoes were a pair of short boots of Hayley's size without any kind metal to help her slide…

When we finished the only thing left were the tickets.

We didn't know how much was going to take Spence to come back, but Dante talked with him about the tickets.

'Spencer says that he is going to upgrade the ability now and to split them whatever you want…"

I wasn't interested in the tickets and Hayley said that she didn't want them either. She got to choose an ability last time, and her ability was pretty amazing already…

After a short discussion we gave the tickets to Hope and Gerhard, Hope got both F-Rank tickets. The reflexes and agility suited both fight styles that she had worked on, as a sniper and as a mid-range fighter like she did when she was taken by the cow. Gerhard gladly took the E-Rank ticket.

"We just need to pray that you don't get Enhanced Intelligence, that would be a waste…"

I couldn't help but giggle at her comment…

We were lucky, and he got a skill called Combat Perception. Unlike Spence, he couldn't ask the system what it does, but when he finishes the upgrade, he might be able to tell us more about it.

Both Hope and Gerhard were excited about the powers and left… Dante went with Hope who has never used those tickets before.

This time Hayley and I were alone… none of us talked, and the silence was only broken by Paws' purring…

Maybe I can leave and go see Spencer… yeah, that makes sense…

As I was about to leave, I heard Hayley's voice…

"Have you thought about what he said?"

…

I knew what she was talking about… we knew how Pinky called each other, but since it never happened with both of us listening to it, we could ignore it and pretend that it never happened.

After the east war, once we were all safe, we both ran toward Spence we were worried about him being injured and so happy that he came back… Hope won that race… Pinky appeared there as we both saw as Hope cried in Spencer's arms.

"The blood bonds are strong Ladies… but worry not! The hero cares a lot about his wives too… I can see it in his eyes and feel the bonds that unite him with you! I can assure you that if he is willing to jump in the maws of the beast to save his own blood, he will do the same for any of you… so don't be jealous! And enjoy the happiness of having him back later, because this is the hero's sister moment!!"

…

Stupid rat…

After that, there was no way to pretend, and the mood was always awkward between us.

Now we are alone, and Hayley is being weird… I hate when I can't avoid a question…

"Of course I have thought about it…"

"And…?"

"What do you mean and…? Are you serious?"

She caught me completely off-guard. Did she really want to?

"I have been thinking… and I can get rid of this feeling… I know he is with you, and I know it's wrong… but I don't picture myself without him anymore… I just can't."

"You… You are serious…"

I was completely astonished… I thought about it but not really thought about it happening… It felt so weird… I could understand what she meant… I can't picture myself without Spencer… I can't even imagine myself without this group anymore… even if things with Hayley are awkward she is one of us, and I don't want that to change but… this is going too far.

Before I could answer her, she kept trying to explain to me, she knew how weird it was.

"I thought about it a lot not only after what pinky said a couple of days ago… even before that… the idea got into my head, and it made me think… would that be really wrong?"

I can't believe this…

"You had your time with him! In a normal world! You got into normal dates, and you had him for yourself… two years!! I want a normal relationship too. I don't want my first real date with you there… I can't! Not now that things are just getting a back to normal!..."

I exploded no I don't want this now… I noticed that I was yelling… so I lowered my voice…

"…tomorrow we finally have a real date… I finally can really enjoy my time with him without danger looming from everywhere… without thinking that it might be the last time I see him … just… not now…please."

I could feel a tear falling down my cheek. Why she had to do this now…

"I-i'm sorry, forget I said anything… I thought that it was a stupid idea anyway…"

I saw Hayley was crying too… was I too rough with her? I didn't like seeing her like this either…

I don't want this now… but would that change…? What should I tell her?

"I…"

…

Spence came out of our room at that moment…

"Rose are you ok?"