KHOCWEEK- Friends or Lovers
So one of the prompts in khocweek is “Friends or Lovers” which is fun cus Lila has one!
Bit of both, really– she has an Implied Love Interest!
What this means is that she has someone who she seems to be interested in, and that person fills the spot a lover normally would in a story, but it’s never outright stated or shown that she’s romantically interested (and I’m keeping it that way!)
I’m still working on that design but yeah, this is more or less what I’m going for. I don’t have a name yet either so I kinda just refer to him as Leopardos Guy (since that was his Union).
She was in Anguis, he was in Leopardos. There was suddenly a huge Raid one time and a large number of wielders were called in to help. It was a pretty memorable event.
Anyway, he noticed her during the battle and afterwards, when they were all celebrating at the Moogle Shop, he tried to talk to her. She got flustered but before she could properly respond, her friends shooed him away and told him to hit on someone from his own Union. They never get to talk again after that. The War happens, she survives as a Dandelion (then gets flung forward through time and space). As for him (NOT a Dandelion), it’s a long story, but his Chirithy turns Nightmare and forcibly fuses with him (cus Keyblade War paranoia caused him to freak out and slay his Chirithy; long story).
He stays in the realm of sleep as a Nightmare for all those years until he senses a familiar light outside, which he follows. Turns out it’s Lila! And she recognizes him and the two of them fight and when he gets defeated, he separates from his Chirithy and they make amends before they both die. He dies in Lila’s arms.
Lila up til this point, refused to return to the keyblade life. But this becomes her inciting incident. She realizes the War was sketchy af and the Foretellers were Up To Something (at least, that’s how she perceives it. She doesn’t know Back Cover), and now wants to hold someone accountable for the pain they all went through.
And that’s how her hunt for the Foretellers started!
Despite their bond, despite that he was enough to move her to rejoin the fight, despite that she was the light he followed, despite what they meant to each other, they were never a couple, and her feelings for him are never even confirmed.
Maybe Lila could have really fallen for him, maybe they could have gotten to know each other better, maybe they could have been together (and I like to think in another life, they did), but we’ll never find out cus they never even got to explore that option; their lives were cut short.
We’ll never find out because of the Keyblade War.