Amelia lounged around on the bed in the guest room, having long since lost the AA visor for the Neura Dive gear to the small lamp table. She stared up at the ceiling and tried to parse through the day’s events. She smiled while recalling the tumultuous cheering near the end.

She napped soon after that but woke up feeling suddenly alert. There was no reason for it really. A lot of the time everyone just slept after being in the VRMMO game. AA was a partial sleep substitute but you still had to sleep for real while your brain recharged and your body recovered. Most people preferred to sleep immediately upon exiting the game because it would be weird to split up the substitute from the real thing you had to do anyway.

Now, though, she was feeling too awake to sleep.

She swung her legs off the bed and padded quietly to the door. As expected most of the doors were shut, though she did see that Raven and Elisha had apparently gone out to do something or other. Those two had way too much energy. Forsythe and Hunter were apparently sleeping in their separate ranch rooms or at least appeared to be since both doors were shut. Amelia wondered if they did that because their relationship was still fledgling or because they didn’t want to distress Elisha. She shook her head, deciding it wasn’t any of her business anyway. She was still working up the courage to jump Aidan’s bones, herself.

Entering the living space she was greeted by the back of Aidan’s head. Speak of the devil. He was watching some show he’d pulled off MKC where a group was delving deep into one of the starter dungeons. As she approached he looked back and smiled, dark eyes and mischievous smile.

She hadn’t initially thought he was handsome when they first met in the real world or even really in the game but it wasn’t because he was unattractive. He was starting to fill back out in the shoulders giving him a lean look and his hair was just a little too long to be called short. Amelia decided to mentally defend him by telling herself she’d look like crap too if she’d been stuck in a hospital bed for a year and then frozen.

“I’m processing data,” Aidan said mechanically, crossing his eyes.

“Yeah. Long day.” Amelia padded around the couch, suddenly aware that her shorts were, well, shorts. They stopped well above her knees. She had forgotten to get real pants before she left the room.

On the other side of the couch, she saw that he was actually enveloped in a huge comforter, obviously stolen from his bed in his guest room. When she saw him in it she realized it was actually pretty chilly in the living area. She shivered involuntarily as if just seeing him being warm made her feel cold. He raised an eyebrow and squirmed a bit to offer her a part of the couch and blanket near him.

“Thanks.” Amelia started to pull some of the comforter toward the spot he had indicated and then decided to be brave instead. She pulled the comforter largely off of him, earning a quick startled ‘hey’ from him. He shut up, like she thought he might when she settled into his lap with her feet on the couch and then pulled the comforter over both of them. She turned her head, inches from his, and smiled. “Hi.”

“Hi.” He said, still looking startled.

“You should pay attention to me now,” Amelia said loftily. “I’m an Empress. A very important person and my hood is down.”

“Uh-huh.” He was starting to recover and she was really enjoying the fact he was already toasty warm. “I have to warn you my notoriety rating is probably pretty high. You could get in trouble consorting with a devil like me.”

“I’ll risk it. Everyone has to do what I say, not like it.” Amelia smirked. She leaned in and kissed him, wrapping the arm nearest his chest around his back instead. It was kind of a struggle really since the comforter had obviously been expertly wrapped entirely around him. She grumbled against his lips and she felt his shoulders shaking from soft laughter.

“Mmm. I guess I don’t mind doing what you say.” Aidan said, leaning forward slightly and running his lips over her neck.

She started to chuckle and was thinking of a few things she could have him start doing when they both startled. Raven and Elisha burst through the door as if they were running away from a hurricane. Closing the door behind them and chatting about music, they paused in the living area, staring at Aidan and Amelia.

“Oh. Sorry.” Elisha said as her eyes took in the scene and widened.

That girl, Amelia decided, was too damn smart.

“What’re you guys up to?” Raven, Amelia decided, wasn’t smart enough.

“It’s chilly in here.” Aidan said, remarkably calmly. Amelia’s close vantage point let her see that his skin was starting to color a little bit and his hand which had just started stroking her back under her shirt moments before was laying flat, thankfully all of which was concealed by the comforter.

“Uh huh.” Raven was staring hard now, sensing something was amiss.

“C’mon Raven. We’re going to miss the premiere link posting of the new Jane.” Elisha said, a bit too desperately, making Raven’s eyebrows purse together even more.

Click.

Amelia could almost see it when Raven figured it out. She grinned over at Elisha and waved her covered stump at the couch. Being one-armed, she was always fashionable with the absence by tying on kerchiefs or tying knots in long sleeves to conceal and ‘cutify’, her words, herself. This kerchief was one of the classics, pirate skulls across the black. “Let’s watch it in here. You guys don’t mind...right?”

Aidan sighed and Amelia felt his body relax under her again. “Raven? You know that evil grin doesn’t work on me right? Think very hard about whether or not you want to start an embarrassment battle with me.”

Raven straightened immediately, eyes going wide and amazingly her hair poofing out. She looked like a startled owl. Despite herself, Amelia laughed. Elisha looked a little relieved as well even while Raven cast a tortured and betrayed look at Amelia.

“You w-wouldn’t do anything. Hey, I didn’t mean it Aidan. You wouldn’t do anything in front of Amelia? She doesn’t know how terrible you are and you don’t want her to know!” She started to sound confident near the end but sounded otherwise unsure.

“I can’t decide if that’s her saying she’s sorry or if she’s challenging you?” Amelia wondered aloud.

“I don’t think she knows which one she’s going with.” Aidan’s eyes narrowed, but not dangerously. He was obviously trying to decide what Raven had really meant himself.

“Look just because you guys are necking on the couch…” Raven started, deciding on the attack. Rule One! You could see it in her eyes.

“So there was this one time in Beril,” Aidan interrupted as he half-turned, his eyes finding Amelia and his eyes cooly dancing. “Raven says to me, I never tried but do you think we can take all our clothes of-.”

“STOP!” Raven shouted. “FINE. God.” She frowned. “Stop smiling Amelia. I’ll get you my little pretty, and your little dog too.”

“What?” Amelia asked, not getting the reference.

“What?” Raven asked, shock on her face. “Oh my god movie night.”

“Go.” Aidan interrupted. Raven paused, torn by indecision. Now she wanted to educate Amelia but Aidan sat there perfectly still, his eyes saying any more would be met with swift and merciless story retribution.

“C’mon Raven. Aidan victory.” Elisha started pulling Raven out of the room. The one-armed girl glowered the whole time, resistant to the point of almost looking like Elisha was literally dragging her.

“Will there be inappropriate touchings?” Raven demanded, getting a hand on the wall and pulling her head back into the room before Elisha’s hand appeared on her shoulder dragging her back out of sight.

“If I’m lucky!” Amelia called back exasperatedly. “Go away!”

Aidan sighed and turned back to Amelia. His lips peeled back into a smile and his hand moved up the back of her shirt, stroking up her spine and causing her to shiver. She was glad that he hadn’t been deterred by the girls. She leaned in and put her mouth on his lower ear…

“Why is everyone shouting?” Hunter appeared sleepily in the entryway to the living area wearing a large oversize shirt. She rubbed her eyes, looking like she didn’t even know where she was. Moments later Forsythe appeared, bare-chested and wearing what appeared to be the bottoms to the outfit that Hunter was wearing. Aidan and Amelia stared speechlessly over the back of the couch for a moment.

“Do you think that’s his outfit or Hunter’s?” Amelia whispered very quietly.

“Doesn’t matter,” Aidan replied in answer just as quietly. “Let’s pretend we didn’t see so they’re not humiliated.”

“You mean Hunter,” Amelia replied, not being able to imagine Forsythe ever being embarrassed. She kissed his neck and her hand under the comforter pulled up his shirt from his waistline. She didn’t care at this point and was hoping Aidan could get them to go away.

“Yes!” Aidan turned back to Hunter and Forsythe, looking distressed. “Oh, everyone’s up. Oh good. I suppose breakfast in a few minutes? OR we could all sleep in? I’m still pretty tired myself! We should all sleep in, what do you say?”

“Mm.” Hunter turned her head, tousled hair tumbling gorgeously over the large blue shirt. She gave Forsythe a very groggy and beautiful smile. “Breakfast?”

“Yes.” Forsythe kissed her cheek on his way past and into the kitchen, which, unfortunately, was in plain view of the living room. He disappeared into a pantry closet and re-appeared with an apron. He put it on, and Amelia was barely amused even though it was a new apron that said ‘check out my grills’.

Amelia and Aidan both dropped their heads on each others shoulders in consternation. “Fffffu-.”

“I guess I wasn’t lucky enough for inappropriate touchings,” Amelia grumbled into his shoulder.