Cy tapped his staff on the ground and ring of fire appeared around them- any undead coming too close to the group was vaporized instantly. It looked like it was more of a hassle and a bore than a real challenge to the mage. To his friends, something was obviously up. To Arashi, it was just impressive.

"Could have at least let me gather them first," Ukeru groaned as they began to look in the boxes for anything useful. "How many more of these do you need, Ara?"

"Oh! Um..." Pulling up his quest list, Arashi looked at the paper. "I'm done with these."

"Okay, we can move on to the giant, then," Ukeru nodded.

Arashi's eyes widened. "G-Giant?"

"Just keep your distance." Cy said firmly. "No-one else can revive a dead player."

"Oh, like a level 20 Boss is going to kill us," Ukeru snorted. "I can solo it."

"Ara can't," Huntress told him. "That's what Cy meant."

"Oh," Ukeru commented, before he smiled sheepishly and headed down the hall, the rest of the group following - Arashi at a distance.

--

Arashi stumbled out of the gate- right into the dirt. He still wasn't used to this method of travel. As he got up and dusted himself off- blushing with embarrassment -he saw that they were in some barren wasteland now with bits of wreckage and the ruins of ancient buildings mostly buried in the sand.

He quickly jumped up and moved out of the way, allowing room for the last person - Huntress - to teleport in.

They'd been playing for hours... and he was having far too much fun to stop, even though he had to be up in five hours for a test.

"Wow, another all-nighter...when was the last time?" Voss asked.

"Do you ever sleep Christopher?" Cy asked with a smirk as he looked around and checked his world map display.

"Only when I'm tired." Voss laughed.

"Which is never," Huntress chuckled. "He is constantly telling me, 'I'll sleep when I'm dead!'. Then he complains how sleepy he is the next day."

"You think its adorable," Ukeru teased.

"I do not!" She snapped, her cheeks red.

"She thinks it's annoying when she gets up to go to bed and wakes up without me there." Voss snickered.

"That was TMI." Cy sighed.

Arashi's cheeks turned pink as Huntress flipped Voss off. He wondered if they were actually together outside of the game, but didn't think it was his place to ask.

"Y'all are adorable, I say," Ukreu commented, grinning a little.

"You think everything's adorable." Cy muttered at Ukeru. "Arashi, are you coming or not?"

Cyprian activated a Fly spell and took off.

Arashi looked on in surprise and Ukeru laughed, before taking something out of his bag and handing it over. "Cast that."

Blinking, Arashi cast it and was surprised when he was suddenly on top of a large butterfly. "W-wha-!?"

"I never use that one... just keep it around because its pretty," Ukeru hummed.

"This is a cash shop item!" Arashi cried in surprise, almost falling off of the large bug.

"That I don't use, so it just sits in my inventory," Ukeru repeated. "And now its yours."

He summoned a large dragon and took off after Cy while Arashi looked on in surprise - he'd seen pictures of that dragon on the forums... there were only 5 people who had that mount and those were the 5 Alpha testers!

"Jerks!" Voss called up before he laughed and activated his Dash ability and took off on foot- managing to keep up with the people flying.

Cyprian was just up ahead- his long-coat bellowing behind him in the rushing wind.

Rolling her eyes, Huntress got on her own dragon and took off. Nervously, Arashi followed after them, trying to control the mount and finding that it was a lot like riding a horse... but in the air.

He pushed the bug higher and closed his eyes, smiling... he could actually feel the wind in his hair. He could get used to this!

"...Enjoying yourself?" It was Cy's voice that cut into Arashi's thoughts.

Looking over to Cy, Arashi gave a nod and a small smile. "Yes, very much, thank you."

"You're so polite," Huntress laughed. "See, Chris! Would it kill you to act like that once in your life!?"

"You mean like a fourteen year old girl?" Voss asked. "Are you kidding? He pukes up rainbows and craps teddy bears."

He laughed and Cy rolled his eyes.

"Fourteen year old girls are not polite," Arashi pointed out. "And I do not throw up rainbows or 'crap' teddy bears... I'm polite, not gay."

Ukeru laughed, throwing a hand over his mouth.

"A boy at my school says that I'm so sweet I snort pixie sticks," Arashi threw out there. "Then again, I think he thinks I'm gay, too."

"Being polite is not the same as being gay," Huntress agreed, glaring at Voss.

"Hey, he's Asian." Voss shrugged.

"Oh my God." Cy groaned.

"That also doesn't mean I'm gay," Arashi hummed. "That just means I'm smart." He smiled a little.

"I'm so sorry about him," Ukeru said between giggles. "He's not homophobic or racist... just..."

"A pig?" Huntress offered.

"You're the one that married him!" Ukeru laughed.

"And I wonder why every day," Huntress sighed. "Speaking of that, did you take the trash out, Chris!?"

"Sure." Voss offered. "You make dinner yet Kris?"

"Oh no, don't get involved." Cy groaned to Arashi.

"Its Four in the morning!" She cried. "And we already ate dinner at six thirty... and then you ate again at nine... and again at midnight!"

"I had a feeling they were married," Arashi whispered back to Cy.

"Can you guess whether they have a girl or a boy?" Cy asked.

"Hey, don't just volunteer ALL our info!" Voss frowned at Cyprian.

"Twins," Arashi offered. "One of each."

"You are smart," Huntress hummed, impressed.

"Wow, that's not smart, that's just scary." Voss blinked.

"I was actually just guessing," Arashi admitted, blushing a little. "If you want... I can tell you something about me, so its not really awkward or... something...?"

"It's fine, kiddo." Voss laughed. "I'm just yankin' ya."

"Oh, the kids are up," Huntress hummed. "They're almost old enough to sleep through the night... I'm heading out guys. Chao~!"

She waved, before fading from view in a red portal similar to the ones they used to teleport around.

"I should probably go to bed before mom comes in and yells at me for pulling an all nighter," Ukeru laughed. "Not like I have anything to do."

"Speaking of mom, Kris is gonna ream me if I don't give her a hand." Voss sighed. "I'll catch you guys on the flips side and Uke...make sure you're homework's done."

He shook a finger at the ivory-haired boy firmly and laughed.

"I'm twenty four, I don't have homework!" Ukeru scoffed at him as he signed out. "What a butthead."

He landed his dragon beside the entrance to town and Arashi followed suit with his butterfly, before unsummoning it and landing heavily on his butt.

"You gotta get off it first!" Ukeru laughed, helping him up.

Cy slowly drifted down- floating like a feather to the ground for a landing beside Arashi.

Arashi watched him in awe, before he looked away with pink cheeks.

"You should have enough skill levels to buy some cool new skills and up your heals and stuff," Ukeru commented as he yawned. "Mmm... Cy, can you show him how to do that stuff? Oh, wait... you have a test, man! You should be in bed!"

"I don't like that you know anything about my school schedule." Cyprian replied.

"Helps when my chatty cousin is in most of your classes and goes on and on about how she has a test in the morning," Ukeru snorted.

"As long as she's not going on about me." Cy replied.

"Not since the shipment of exchange students," Ukeru snickered. "Now its all about how cute the Japanese boys are."

"I know, I'm in Advanced Math, remember?" Cyprian rolled his eyes.

"Oh, right," Ukeru snickered. "Is that where you were all day? Scoping out cute Japanese boys, hmmm?"

"I was leveling up since I knew you'd all be watching for cute little newbs, such as him." Cy pointed at Arashi.

Arashi's eyes went wide and his cheeks went pink.

"Did you just call him 'cute'?" Ukeru dead-panned, his face blank.