Teresa let out a low, nervous chuckle when she went through her messages. The first part of the project had FINALLY been accepted. It had taken three tries before the client had been satisfied with the progress, but it meant the second payment had finally arrived. She knew William would be excited when that happened. More importantly, it meant she had a bit of spending money.

She’d managed to finally take over all of China, now the great empress who ruled it with an iron fist, with Lu Bu at her side. She considered playing it as someone else this time, maybe take a role as a ‘sister’ of Liu Bei, but was feeling the urge for something a bit more high fantasy.

She flipped through the list of possibilities before stopping on one in particular. A few weeks back a new game from Spigot Entertainment had been released, Landasy Reality. While, normally, she avoided multiplayer games, the reviews had been incredible. She had a little bit of experience with online multiplayer games, but all of them tended to use more ‘mechanics’ and ‘stats’ when it came to things like hitting or movement, sucking away any of the feeling of reality the game had. Apparently the game was much better, having hit detection similar, possibly even beyond, most offline games. The first of its kind. She’d wanted to get it when it had first released, but it hadn’t seemed right until now. Now that the money had come in, she finally was able to place her order and couldn’t wait to give it a try. She started to download it, impatiently waiting for the alert.

The moment the alarm went off to let her know she could start she reached out and pushed the symbol. The black void she was floating in shifted, lines of white forming with a flat, blue expanse, giving the impression she was standing in a massive, blue warehouse. She drifted to the ground and then options appeared in front of her. Race selection. She glanced over them for a moment. Angel, demon, holy beast, fae, leviathan, dragon. No human was a bit strange, but she guessed they were going for a total high fantasy feel. She clicked on each of them and versions of ‘herself’ appeared a few feet away. Each with minor differences such as starting weapons and style of armor. She cocked an eye, watching them go through some simple poses.

She stopped on the fae for a few moments and let the demo run. Their teleport looked really cool, but using a bow wasn’t something she enjoyed. She flipped between them a few more times before choosing demon. She loved the darker, fiercer look they had. They looked like the kind of race that wouldn’t take grief and trouble from anyone, ever. More importantly, they apparently used the polearms as their weapons of choice. “Yeah. THAT feels more my style,” she said with a laugh, before accepting.

Her avatar was simple enough. It looked almost exactly like her, though it wielded a spear. “Ugh, no,” she said. She flipped through the starting polearms for a few minutes before finally settling on a halberd. From there, she began to adjust her character a bit more. She shortened the hair. She’d played enough games to know that running around with her hair in her face all the time made it harder to fight. The fact it wouldn’t grow in the game meant once it was perfect she wouldn’t have to keep messing with it, either. She altered the hair to a beautiful dark red. She’d always wished she had red hair.

Then she merely made a few modifications to make her appearance a bit less similar to her own, altering the facial structure slightly. Though she suspected the fact the skin was a dark blue would also help hide who she was in the real world. After a few moments, she clicked on the ‘try’ option.

The other her disappeared and her body changed into it. It felt close to how she was, but somehow just a little different. She had a halberd in her hands. Heavier than it had been in her last game. Or maybe she was weaker. She took a few practice swings, spinning the weapon in her grip. Once she adjusted for the weight, however, it felt almost as good as before. She nodded a few times, satisfied. She then clicked the accept button.

Armor came up next and she let out a frustrated growl. “Really? Just let me play the game!” she yelled, but quickly went over them. Heavy felt too restricting, but light felt like she was wearing nothing. She finally settled on the medium armor. It at least felt strong enough to protect her. “Come on, that’s it, right?” she said, clicking accept.

She let out a shriek of frustration when the spell tutorial began. “LET ME PLAY THE STUPID GAME!”

------

“Yeah yeah,” Teresa, now known as ‘Kira’ in the game, said, ignoring the NPC that had spoken to her. Another ‘go to X, kill Y’ mission. She couldn’t believe it. Online games had existed for decades. Yet they were STILL doing generic kill and fetch quests. She was beginning to wonder why she had even bought this stupid game. Her weapon and armor felt comfortable, at least. But she hadn’t been able to USE them yet. The entirety of her adventure so far had been walking around a massive, obsidian city they called ‘Feldusk’. Listening to exposition.

But now it was almost over. Freedom was within sight. Finally she was being directed out of the city and it was to perform the glorious deed of killing generic monsters. Truly the epitome of original game design.

“Hey, wanna group up?” someone said.

Kira ignored them, heading towards the door.

“Hey! Blue girl!” She paused when she realized SHE was being called to. She glanced over at another demon.

“What do you want?” Kira asked in a far harsher tone than she meant to. Then mentally berated herself when she realized it WASN’T an NPC. It was a person. Another playing the game, just like her. There wasn’t any need for her to snap at them like that.

“Wanna group up? You’re doing the--”

“No,” she said quickly, hoping she didn’t look as embarrassed as she felt. “Thanks. But no. I’m fine,” she said before running out the gate of the city before he could object. The world outside the obsidian city was cold and rocky, with massive stones, hills and caves in all directions, all seemingly made of obsidian. Once she stepped a couple feet outside, she stopped. Her heart was hammering and she felt her anxiety flowing through her, her cheeks burning with embarrassment. She couldn’t believe how rude she’d been. She mentally berated herself. This wasn’t a single player game. There were OTHER people here. She couldn’t let her frustration be an excuse to snap at them. There were--

The thoughts were interrupted when Kira realized running out of the city hadn’t, in fact, loaded a new zone. The guy was now staring at her while she struggled with her own thoughts. She knew she was blushing now and she took off again, leaving him behind. “Stupid stupid! Ugh! This is why you play single player games!” she whispered to herself. No one ever got hurt or upset. Well, nobody real. If you made the wrong choice, you could just reload and start over. But actual people? Actual people were terrifying. It was so easy to say the wrong thing, to make them hate you forever. To let them see just how terrible a person you truly were.

She let out a shriek when she slammed into a massive... she didn’t know WHAT it was. A demon, maybe, but nothing like her. While the demon she was seemed to be heavily based on a human with some horns, tail and heavy makeup, this was something else entirely. It was massive, towering over her by a good ten feet at least. It reminded her a lot of a dinosaur, except its skin was charred black, with red lines running through it. It walked on four legs, with a long, long neck attached to a massive head that looked almost comically large.

When the head turned to her, she could see the head was nothing but teeth. No eyes. No nose. Just a massive, gaping maw with rows upon rows of teeth. The head dove at her.

Teresa stepped sharply to the right, bringing her halberd up and smacking the creature’s face with the side of the blade, using the momentum of her swing to push herself to the side and shove the creature’s face away. She fell to her knees, stumbling from the attack, while the monster shook its head and slowly turned to face her again, baring its teeth. It lunged again.

She rolled to the right, using her momentum to bring herself back and up to her feet. Her heart was pounding, but with excitement now. All of the worry and doubts knocked away. She stepped in, narrowly avoiding another bite. Gripping the haft of the weapon in both hands, she slashed it down, bringing the axe blade of the halberd against the neck of the monster. It let out another roar, a mix of pain and anger, before swinging its head towards her. She twisted the halberd in her hands, digging the base of the pole into the ground and bracing it. The creature’s neck struck the pole and skidded along the ground a few inches, but then stopped.

Her eyes widened. She couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t just the hit detection that was good. The momentum and movements flowed perfectly. She pulled back before leaping forward and pole vaulting, this time leaping OVER the creature’s head. She landed on the back of its neck and, to her surprise, she COULD stand on it. She drove the tip of the polearm down into the neck and twisted it, drawing an angry howl from the beast. She then pointed a finger down. “Right. Let’s see how well this all works. DRAIN!” she called. A beam of black light shot from her finger, into the back of the creature.

The monster stopped moving entirely, its neck going limp and the body collapsing. She let out a shriek, the sudden collapse making her lose her balance and topple off. She hit the ground, hard, before shaking her head. Slowly she began to get up, a smile on her face. “Okay, you know what? THAT was AWESOME! That’s right, you just got your ass KICKED by the great Kira!” she said, turning back to the quickly disappearing corpse. “Let’s see how many more of you obnoxious pains I can kill! Come on, bring it!” she yelled, racing towards the next, nearest creature. A much smaller creature that seemed to be made of fire.

“You’re all gonna DIE!” she yelled with a giddy glee.

------

Kira giggled, ignoring the message that she’d just leveled up again. She couldn’t even see the gates to the city anymore, she wondered how far she’d gone. She supposed it didn’t matter. She was having FUN. A lot of fun. Her eyes locked onto another target a moment later. A weird demon. He was human shaped, except his body was covered in smooth, blue scales. A mace and shield rested on his hips and he was kneeling, picking flowers.

A wicked grin formed on his lips and she rushed forward. Whatever he was, he had to be some kind of boss, or some kind of invasion force. “Die!” she yelled, stabbing her blade into his stomach.

He turned around and stumbled backwards, falling on his butt with a yelp. “Hey! What are you--”

“Mwa ha ha ha! These are demon lands and we don’t take kindly to invaders!” He managed to bring his shield up, though she gripped her halberd tightly in both hands and smashed the axe blade down against the shield to knock it aside. She then stepped in and kicked him in the chest, not allowing him to get up. While he lay there, the air knocked out of him, she jumped and drove the blade down on his chest.

To her surprise, his HP bar didn’t move. “What? Oh, come on! I full on got you, why--”

“Are you new?” he asked, staring up at her.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m--” Her eyes widened and she felt herself flood with shame. She quickly realized that she was still playing a MULTIPLAYER game. Out of the corner of her eyes, she saw a small, flashing menu that had popped up, asking if she wanted to enable PVP. Which meant this was another player. Just like her. She pulled back, her mouth falling open. “Oh my gosh. You’re not a monster. You’re a player. Are you okay? I’m so sorry! I thought you were some kind of special monster or invasion thing. I didn’t realize you were, are you okay?” Her cheeks burned and she kept bowing her head in apology, barely suppressing the urge to turn and run away. Maybe hide under a rock until she melted away from shame.

He, however, just laughed. “No, no, it’s my fault,” he said, before slowly getting to his feet. He rubbed his chest with a cringe. “Heh. Ow. Low stats or not, you hit hard. It’s my own fault. I had PVP on still since I dealt with some… never mind. It doesn’t matter. But I should warn you. I think I’m a bit out of your level range. Good for me, though. Since the way you fight, I don’t think I’d stand a chance without the advantage.”

Kira dug the butt of her spear into the ground and did her best job of hiding behind it. His playful teasing wasn’t helping to make her feel any less embarrassed at all. “I’m really, really sorry for attacking you like that. I just thought you were a monster and… just… I’m sorry. Okay?” She then glanced over to him. She was Kira now. Whoever this guy was, it was obvious he wasn’t a part of the demons. Slowly, she broke into a smile and realized there was possibly a way to salvage this. He had PVP enabled, it meant he probably WAS causing trouble in HER lands. In that case, what was wrong with her attacking him? “Although you’re still trespassing on our lands. And if you had your PVP enabled, that means you were fighting my people, weren’t you?” she asked. She then tapped the acceptance to activate PVP. “Ready yourself!”

“Wait, what? SHIT!” he yelled, bringing his shield up to block her halberd, the tip being deflected by the metal and the shield moving to her right. She loosened her grip, sliding up the shaft of the polearm and let it go with her left hand. She made a fist and punched as hard as she could, connecting with his face and sending him toppling backwards. His shield flew from his grip, though he quickly drew his mace and held it over his head, barely avoiding getting hit by a downward swing of her halberd. “Hey, I don’t want to fight you! I’m sorry, okay? I was just--”

“Too bad, I want to fight you!” Kira yelled back, stepping in and stomping on his right leg before sliding the shaft of the polearm down his mace, twirling it slightly so the curved blade gripped the hilt of his weapon. She then pulled back, hard, yanking the mace from his grip. “You lose!”

He held his right hand out at her, palm out. “Water bomb!” An orb of water appeared in his palm and, for a moment, she stared at it in confusion. Then it erupted, sending her flying backwards. She hit the ground, hard, rolling a few feet and her halberd flying out of her grip. A quick glance at her HP bar showed it at nearly zero now.

“Ow,” she whispered, slowly trying to pick herself up.

“Level difference is rough to beat,” he said with a smile. “I’m sorry. Really. I didn’t come here to pick on a low level player. Are you okay?”

“Yeah. I think. My pride is broken, though. I had you.”

“You definitely did,” he said, picking up his shield and mace. “Where’d you learn to fight like that?”

“Romance of the Three Kingdoms game. Dying to Guan Yu a couple dozen times will teach you a lot. Not a lot of magic in it, though. Ow.” Slowly, she sat up and glared at him. “I guess this means you’re gonna finish me off, right?” she asked. She couldn’t believe all it took was one small spell for him to almost beat her. Another reason to stick to offline games, she supposed. Less likely to randomly die to high level players.

“Why would I do that?” he asked, before walking towards her. He slid his mace and shield back into their respective holsters and then picked up her halberd, offering it to her. “I told you, I didn’t come here to pick on newbies. Besides, you’re really good. It wouldn’t be very fair to beat you after that.”

She took her weapon, slowly leaning on it and pulling herself back to her feet. “Thanks. I play a lot of these kinds of games.”

“Heal,” he said, holding a hand out to her. Her HP almost completely refreshed instantly. “I’m Orion. Nice to meet you.”

“Ohhh, healing magic. That’s useful. I’m Kira, a pleasure. I didn’t know that… you’re a leviathan, right? I saw something like you in the character creation options. I didn’t know you guys got healing spells.”

“We don’t. I’ve leveled up the angel class a bit, though. I’ve been playing for a while,” he said.

“Angel class? But I thought you were a leviathan?”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Listen. You were pretty good back there, really. Would you like to--”

“I’m not looking for a group,” she said, cutting him off. “Listen. I appreciate you not killing me. I guess. But I don’t need your help.”

“Actually I was going to ask if you’d help me.”

Kira blinked a few times, staring at him. “Why would you need my help?”

“Because I’m not used to these lands. The demon zone. There’s a lot of penalties for non-demons too. This area is designed for all of you, after all,” he said with a sigh, crossing his arms. “I could use a guide who isn’t hurt by the terrain penalties. I’m looking for the spawn of some weird monsters. They are made of obsidian, a bit small. Not very high level, but, well...” He motioned around the rocky terrain. “I know they’re in one of the caves and the NPCs don’t give me as much information since I’m not a demon. I’d need someone who can direct me to them or get the information from the NPCs.”

She eyed him for a moment, before sighing. “Fine. I’ll help you out. But then we’re even, okay? Just wait here. And...” She paused, pulling up her map. “One second.” It took her a few seconds to save the location, but once satisfied she nodded. “Okay. I’ll be back in like twenty minutes. What are these things called?”

“Shardlings.”

“That’s a stupid name.”

“I don’t make the game.”

“Still a stupid name. I’ll be back, soon. Just don’t go anywhere.” She stopped when an alert popped up. A friend request from him.

“Here. This way, if anything comes up, you can message me or I can message you. Okay?”

“Yeah,” Kira said, accepting the request. She turned and headed towards the city. Once he was out of sight, she let out a soft sigh of relief. She still couldn’t believe she had attacked him like that, confusing him for a random monster. Still, it had felt so exhilarating to just let go. This was why she usually hated games with leveling. She would have kicked his butt if it hadn’t been for the level difference. She swore was going to kick his butt the moment she got high enough level to actually survive his magic.

------

Kira motioned to a large, gaping hole in the obsidian. Hanging over the cavern was a small, red gem. “There’s your cave. See the red gem over it? That marks it.”

“What red gem?” Orion asked.

“Right there!” she said, pointing towards the red gem clearly suspended above the entrance. “It’s glowing. You can’t see it?”

“It looks like just another cave to me.”

“Oh. Sucks to be you, then,” she said, stepping into the cave. Once inside, everything seemed to shift to shades of gray, though the darkness faded away. “Whoa. That’s disorienting.”

“What is?” he asked.

“I guess I can see in the dark. Cool.”

“Only in demon lands,” Orion said quickly. “Leviathans get it as a racial trait, but the other races can see if near their home.”

“Well, that’s annoying,” Kira said. “I guess that means we don’t need torches, at least. Come on. Why do you need these things, anyway?”

“I need a ring they drop. It gives a life drain effect to the wearer.”

“Like my drain spell?” Kira asked.

“Yeah. It’s a rare drop, though. A bit of a pain in the butt to farm. Worth it though.”

A part of the cavern’s walls seemed to crumble, the obsidian falling away from it. The crumbled pieces began to slowly rise up, forming an orb of the dark stone. “Here we go!” Orion yelled, running forward, his mace in hand. The shard creature shot out a few shards at him, which he deflected with his shield. He then swung his mace at it, smashing some of the stones.

Kira chuckled, charging in and running around him, skidding to a stop behind the creature and stabbing into the mass.

“Wait! Don’t!” he yelled, but she ignored him.

The spear point of the halberd buried itself deep in the creature and she quickly yanked it back. However the monster’s HP bar only went down a small fraction. “What?”

“This is a much higher level monster than you,” he said, before lifting his mace overhead. “Freezing crusher!” he yelled. He brought the mace down on the creature and it was enveloped in ice. When the ice shattered, the creature followed suit, beginning to dissolve into red sparkles.

Kira’s fists clenched. A small alert popped up, telling her that her demon level had gone up. However she couldn’t help feeling furious. “I can’t believe this! I’m too low level for THIS too? That’s stupid! I can’t even hurt these things! Ugh.”

Orion gave her a small, apologetic smile. “I’m sorry. If you could just stay behind me, I could protect you? I don’t--”

“Not a chance! I didn’t come here to hide behind you! I’m going to fight, just as much as you are!” she said, stomping a foot down. “Even if I CAN’T do much damage, there’s no way I’m going to avoid a challenge just because it’s a bit higher level than me.”

He stared at her for a few moments before giving a small nod. “Well okay. There is a way you can still contribute. Even when low level.”

“Oh?” she asked, spinning her halberd once, before jamming the butt of it down into the ground. “Well? Get on with it? Some special skill you have?”

“No. Weak points. Almost all non-boss monsters have them. When you hit them in the right area, it’ll do massive damage. In most cases when near their level it will kill them. Even with the level difference it should still do pretty high damage.”

Kira nodded. “Right. Where’s the weak point?”

“I don’t know. You’ll need to find it. Each type of monster tends to have different ones. For these? I’d guess probably the core. Though, if they attack you you’ll probably get--”

“If they attack me, then it’ll mean you are terrible at keeping them focused on you. You have the shield, so you just keep them off me and I’ll finish them off. Got it? Now come on, let’s go!” she said, before turning around and racing off. Level advantage? Bah. She didn’t care about that. She’d just have to be that much better.

“Wait!” he yelled, running after her. She ignored him, only stopping when a new obsidian monster appeared. This time it went right at her, launching its shards. She ducked under them, however, narrowly avoiding the sharp spines and staring at it. The outer layer was rotating, spinning shards of obsidian.

But true enough, at the very core she could see a small, somewhat darker, sphere. She swung her entire body to the right, avoiding more shards, and using the momentum to swing the axe blade of the halberd into the creature. It slashed through the obsidian, the blade cutting deep into the core. The creature’s HP bar decreased rapidly and she quickly yanked the polearm back. “HA!” she yelled. It readied another assault, though before she could even try to avoid it, Orion was between her and it. She heard the clattering sound when the shards bounced off the shield.

“Not very patient, are you?” he asked.

Kira’s confidence wavered. Was she going too far again? “I mean--”

“It’s fun!” he said with a laugh. “If you feel comfortable fighting like that, then let’s do it!” he said, smashing his mace against the creature. Her cheeks burned, but she couldn’t help smiling.

“Yeah. Let’s go. We’re going to slaughter these caves.” She dashed around him, driving the halberd down on the creature again, striking it clear in the core. This time, her weapon cleaved all the way through it and the creature stopped, beginning to fade away into red sparkles. Not waiting, she turned and raced deeper into the cave. Behind her, she could hear the leviathan laughing while he struggled to keep up.

She didn’t know how many of those monsters they had slain in the end, though she did know her level had risen a few times. She didn’t understand WHY this game had so many types of levels, though. Her weapon, her race and her character level all seemed to be different things. However, after a few dozen kills she could finish them off in two strikes and had even learned a new skill, cleaving strike. When she cleaved through one there was a light clatter, a small, red ring dropping to the ground.

However, before Orion could grab it, she snagged it.

“What? HEY!” he said. “That’s why I came here!”

“I guess you were just too slow, hm?” she asked, smirking at him. She idly toyed with the ring. She didn’t know why she felt the need to tease him like this. Though she was still frustrated that he beat her, she wondered if she could take him with her new levels. “After all, I worked just as hard. No, harder. For the ring. I put myself on the line. So what are you going to do for it? Or do you want to try and fight me for it? This little expedition has given me quite a few levels now. I might be a bit harder to kill.”

Orion sighed, staring up at her. “Please. I promised a guild mate I’d get it for her. She’s new too. She was going to try and come here, but she doesn’t have the ability to see in the dark, since she’s an angel character.”

Kira froze in place. As much fun as it was to tease him, she didn’t really want the ring so much as payback. But even teasing him now felt overly mean if he was doing it for someone else. “Oh. I thought it was for you. Really? For a friend?” she asked, staring at it for a few moments before she tossed it to him. “Fine. Here. Sorry.”

He caught it and after a moment it disappeared. “It’s okay. And I appreciate it. Really. You’ve helped me a lot. Though, I gotta say. I didn’t expect you to be a loot ninja.”

“A what?”

“Don’t play a lot of MMO’s, do you?”

“Not if I can avoid it. I tend to prefer single player games, but this one seemed special. I’ve played single player games that weren’t as responsive.”

He nodded, reaching out his hand to her. “I see.” He stared at her for a long moment, not saying anything. She started to feel a little nervous, wondering why he was just watching her. Had her joke gone too far? Finally, though, he spoke up again. “There are going to be a lot of things that are different here, nothing like a single player game. But it can be a lot of fun if you give it a shot. So, since this is your first game like this, would you be interested in joining my guild?”

Kira barely resister the urge to make a face, quickly raising her hands and shaking her head. “Err, no. Sorry. You seem nice and all but I don’t want to get locked into playing with a bunch of random people. I’ve got a lot going on in real life, I don’t have time to come to meetings and that kind of stuff.”

“You won’t have to,” he said firmly. “It’s just a guild. We can play together when we want, but you won’t be obligated to do anything. There’s just a few of us right now, anyway. Besides, games like this are a lot more fun if you help each other out.”

“I don’t need your help.”

“Some of us might need yours. Besides, you’re fun to play with. I don’t meet a lot of new players who run in spear swinging when they’re out leveled. We could use more of that kind of energy.”

Kira felt a fresh surge of embarrassment. She didn’t think it was that big a deal, she just liked running around. It made things funner than just waiting patiently for the world to come at her. “It’s not a spear. But fine. If you want me in that badly, I’ll join. For now. But you owe me. Twice, now.”

“Twice?”

“Well, I let you have the ring, didn’t I? So you owe me for that, too,” she said with a smirk.

He chuckled, shaking his head. “Fine, fine. Here,” he said before tapping on the air.

A small box appeared in front of her, a guild invite. She snorted when she read the name. “You’re called the ‘Knights of Solar’?”

“It’s really bright and sunny where I live.”

She rolled her eyes again but clicked accept. She tapped through her menu to bring up the guild information. “Only four of us? You weren’t kidding about it being a small guild. How do you say this? Ervent? Is there a fancy way of saying that? It’s--”

“No, you said it right. And fine, now that I owe you, what do you want, Kira? Gold? Weapons?”

“Gosh, no. You’re a lot better at taking damage than me. So what I want is simple. You’re going to be my shield and help me level up. At least until I’m almost your level. Then we’re going to have another fight. So come on, let’s go.” She started walking towards the exit of the cavern, a smirk on her lips.

Orion nodded, walking besides her. “You’re a bossy one, aren’t you?” he asked.

“Is that a problem?”

“Nah. You’re just a real demon.”

Despite herself, she laughed, lifting a hand to quickly cover her mouth. “Oh my gosh. Please tell me that’s the only one you have.”

“Nah. I’ve always been a spear-ited user of dad jokes and puns. You could say I’m obsidian-cessed with them at times.”

Kira let out a loud groan, unable to stop the smile and light snickers from bursting out. “Oh dear heavens. Please tell me you’re not THAT much higher level than me. I don’t know how many bad jokes I can take. Maybe I should have you just levi me alone.”

“It’s too late, you’re in the guild now. It wouldn’t be ice of me to go until I paid you back, anyway.”

She let out another groan. “Oh gosh. That has a terrible ring to it. Although, for reference. It’s a halberd. NOT a spear. Spears only have the pointy bit. This is way heavier and I can chop things with it. Or hook things, like I did with your mace. You really need to work on your grip before our rematch. Otherwise you’ll just bomb again.”

That time, he groaned.

------

Teresa let out a low moan, slowly reaching up and taking her headset off. She’d been playing for hours. On the up side, William hadn’t shut her off this time. She slowly got to her feet and stretched. She couldn’t believe she’d spent the whole day playing that game, she really let the time get away from her.

Slowly, she put her equipment away and walked out into the front room. Something smelled incredible, though she couldn’t put her finger on it. Something spicy. William was watching a movie, though once she came out he paused it and gave her a gentle smile. “Hey, babe. I got dinner, curry.”

Teresa nodded, giving a small smile. “Thanks. I uhhh… I kind of let time get away from me today. I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine, I’m used to it. Did you have fun?”

“Yeah. I actually needed to talk with you.” She felt a knot tighten in her stomach. “So my payment came through today. But I spent a bit of it.” She sat down next to him, giving a small smile.

His smile disappeared, replaced by a concerned frown. “How much?”

“I uhhh… I bought this game. Landasy Reality. It seems pretty fun, and I’d read a lot of good reviews. I thought I’d give it a shot.”

“Oh, that’s all?” he asked, the smile returning

She felt the knot loosen in her stomach. “Oh, yeah. Just that. You’re not mad, are you?”

“Eh. I wish you would have asked me first. But if you want a game from time to time? It doesn’t bother me. You don’t need to ask permission.”

“Thanks. And thank you for dinner, did you make it?”

“Nah, James brought it to work today for the team. He insisted I bring you home some. It was pretty good, you’ll like it.”

Teresa nodded, leaning in and resting against him, before pushing up and kissing his cheek. “Thanks a lot. For everything. And for not getting mad.”

“Hey, it’s okay. Just don’t go spending all our money, okay?” he said before gently reaching down and tickling the back of her neck, making her shriek and tug quickly out of reach. He laughed and leaned over, gripping her by the side and yanking her right back besides him. “I can’t keep supporting you if you spend all our money, okay?”

Teresa nodded, staring up at him. Slowly, she leaned in and pressed a soft kiss on his lips, closing her eyes and allowing herself to revel in the moment. She always loved times like this. She couldn’t imagine anyone else ever treating her the way he did.