Day 43: Courtyard, Third Shift

[oftemptation]

Once again, Endrance's nurse interfered with his plans. He had been planning to look around the Game Room, but the moment he began to move towards the Sun Room, she had taken him by the arm. "Your family has asked that we make sure you get as much fresh air and sunshine has possible, and you won't get that by staying inside playing video games all

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[oftemptation]

"He did, this morning...I'd been worried about him, after last night's events, though thankfully, the worries were unfounded, for the most part." His eyes might have betrayed that emotion had Endrance not turned away during the last part of the statement. The reason behind the worry hadn't entirely been the night before, but there wasn't any need to bring that up. "I trust you've heard?"

A moment later, however, his eyes widened in surprise. The Forest of Pain? That event had been closed months ago, hadn't it? Endrance didn't remember the details behind it; he had been too focused on 'her' to pay much attention. But rumors had a way of reaching you even when you weren't looking for them in The World, and anyone who spent any time in Lumina Cloth would have heard about Taihaku receiving some type of special item after completing it - and being one of the few who completed it before it was shut down.

"I'm not at all surprised about your comeback...after all, you had someone willing to pull out all the stops to make sure that you would. But...that event reopened? I'll admit to not reading the boards terribly often, but there were a lot of rumors around it..." The question still remained: what actually happened after the Sage Palace title match? He wanted to ask, but it felt strange to do so, as if asking would somehow change things.

A rare smile came over his face when Alkaid said that things had turned out as planned. "That he does...most certainly..."

[constellates]

Alkaid clasped her hands behind her back, partially in hopes that he might not notice the bandages that poked down below her left shirt sleeve. "Heard about what... the zombies?" Her knowing smile was tinged with bitterness. "Impossible not to. Not only were they in this town I keep hearin' about, but they were in this dump with walls as well. Even if he'd gotten a bite or two... I'm pretty sure he'd be fine today. Haseo's a strong man."

She was happy she wasn't wanting to take a huge bite out of whatever came near her anymore. Even if, once upon a time, she had wanted to destroy Endrance entirely, she no longer held nearly as much venom for him as she once had. And definitely not enough to take a spiteful zombie-bite out of him...

Endrance seemed a little surprised that the him-of-the-future was doing Forest of Pain, but that was supposed to be, like, The Impossible Quest or something. She hadn't touched it, but she kind of wanted to.

"Pull out all the stops, huh. Yeah... no surprise there." She grinned fiercely. Of course Haseo cared that much! Even if Atoli had had so much more time with him, and even if Haseo's feelings were completely platonic, they had been friends underneath all that. And that was the power of friendship, or something irretrievably corny like that!!

"Yeah, and the same rumors this time. Impossible to beat, et cetera, but that lunkhead is dragging us all in as he climbs to the top. He'll probably make it if I'm part of his party! Hahaha!"

She started walking over to the pond, picking up a stray stick so that she could swish it about in the water below. Her voice suddenly turned soft. "But.. he saved you, then. You remember how he did it, or...?"

[oftemptation]

Endrance wasn't able to hide the surprise at the fact that the creatures were here, too - but it wasn't just that. The fact that there were still people here last night was a shock, too. For a moment, he wished the group he was with had been here, too. There were safe places here; at the very least the patient rooms should have been safe. "You don't mean that people were waking up here last night just to be attacked...?" He hadn't noticed the bandages on her arm until then, but now they stood out.

"It wasn't the damage from the zombies I was worried about, because you're right, something like that wouldn't have kept him down..." The words came out slowly and reluctantly. "I was more worried after I asked after him on the board here. I could tell something was wrong with Haseo by the way he was writing...and that's when he'd said what happened, and that you were here - or here again. I'm honestly surprised I hadn't known that...a friend of Atoli's had been looking for her, but didn't mention knowing anyone else from The World. I think it was...three days or so afterward that I saw anyone else at all that I knew..."

Going back to The World and what had happened there was a far more comfortable subject, if for no other reason than it required less explanation than anything in this place did. "It really isn't...because that's just the way Haseo is." Endrance turned again to try and hide the faint blush on his cheeks. All thoughts of any future adventuring were pushed aside then as he returned to the memory of what had happened just moments before he'd woken in this place.

"It's the last thing I remember from The World," he said softly. "Of course I remember it...it's because of what he said to me that I've been able to go on. When 'she' was taken from me, I was quite sure that I would wither away like a rose that bloomed too early...because I thought that no one but 'her' could ever need me for anything. 'She' was the only thing I was living for, and without 'her' presence, I didn't have anything, and I couldn't...I wasn't strong enough to find something else on my own. I could only think of hiding, of sealing myself away so that I couldn't...I couldn't lose anything again."

A few rose petals drifted by on a light breeze as he paused to collect his thoughts again. "Haseo gave me another reason to live that day...and melted the ice around my heart as if it were nothing at all. I'll treasure that and keep it close as long as I live..."

[constellates]

"That's exactly what I mean. I had been here before, so I knew the place, but there were complete and total noobs running around and getting attacked! I had to give two whole intro spiels. I felt like I was in Canard." She rolled her eyes. Noobs weren't exactly her specialty, though she had always frowned on PKing them. That was just cowardly. It was a little easier to deal with noobs here than it was in The World, but... still.

She hadn't seen whatever was on the bulletin board, but what he was explaining made her frown. No one had... asked after her? There was no way for her to check now, but shouldn't Badou have...? Or Haseo himself, before he - lost his memory or - was brainwashed or... whatever??

"Well," she started slowly, "I ...know he was drugged up today; he punched a nurse. But all the friends I made here are... are idiots and jerks, so it's no surprise that no one asked after me. Atoli's a much nicer person to ask around about." Her face was starting to burn a little with some unbidden frustration, so she turned away as well, kneeling by the pond's water and swishing the stick around, watching as her reflection rippled up and then came back again.

She turned around for a second as the other former Demon Palace Emperor spoke about what he remembered. It was that weird stuff about 'she' and 'her' that had confused Alkaid so much... when Alkaid had tried to get Endrance's attention but he hadn't noticed her, hadn't even batted an eye. Apparently Haseo had done a wonderful job at snapping him out of it, which was admirable. But Endrance was hiding his face as he spoke. And the way he talked... It was...

---Melted the ice around his heart?

Was Endrance... gay for Haseo?! She hadn't seen much of the two of them together since her return, but if it was true then this development was mildly hilarious.

She knitted her eyebrows kind of incredulously. "Endrance. You... uh... like Haseo?"

[oftemptation]

"It's as if they were planning to hurt all of you, or worse..." Endrance's expression grew serious for a moment. He hadn't thought himself lucky at all to wake up in this place during the end of the day, but at least people had been here...and people that knew what was going on. "I wouldn't wish that on anyone." The words surprised him, too. This place was forcing him to open up, little by little, but it was still a little strange nonetheless. It wasn't an apology for what had happened, no, but that wouldn't have been the right thing to say, either.

He turned toward Alkaid then, a frown on his face. That wasn't fair, either. In his opinion, the one thing you were supposed to do for someone you cared about - more than anything else - was to protect them. If you couldn't do that, you shouldn't call yourself a friend at all. "That...it's shameful of them," Endrance said. "After all...if you aren't looking out for someone you care about, can you really call yourself their friend?" There was something else in that statement, too - an implication that if he'd known anything himself, he would have looked out for her. It would have been what Haseo would want, and...that brought the topic around to him again.

This time, there wasn't any way to keep from blushing bright pink - not when Alkaid had just blurted the question like that. He looked away a moment later, but...there was really no sense in hiding it, was there?

"That word isn't strong enough for how I feel. It's something I can't even express in words..." A few more petals drifted by. "I'd do anything at all for him, he needs only to ask me..."

[constellates]

"It's always like that. They're always trying to hurt us, probably put enough strain on our heads and bodies so that we'll believe their little story. We're ... fine, though. No lasting harm done. Some people on the board say the zombie infections are going to come back, but I don't believe it. That kind of thinking is just gonna doom us all."

It seemed like Endrance was getting a little nicer, surprisingly enough. Before, he had only seemed to care about 'she' or 'her' or whatever, as he pranced around with his petals and his cat, using his weird cheat on unsuspecting Demon Palace Emperors and usurping their title... But now he seemed to actually give a little bit of a damn about her, and about other people, too. If this was also Haseo's doing, Alkaid was kind of in awe. The Adept Rogue was kind of a catalyst, but.. to do something like this for Endrance... That was really fantastic of him!!

When Endrance started talking about how the friends she'd made here probably weren't actually her friends, Alkaid turned back to the pool so he couldn't see her face, twisted with... something. Shame, or whatever. With pride came shame. And she was prideful, so... was she shameful, too? Ugh, feelings like that turned her stomach. Stupid her for feeling kind of weird for someone so soon after meeting them. "Well, maybe I'll ask him tonight. Badou... He said he thought I was dead, but if he didn't ask after me, then I don't know what to say. I guess there's no use pouting if I don't know the facts!!" The words came hollow, like she was convincing herself of something.

She slumped over in the cool grass, staring up at the sky. No need to pout, right? No need.

The way he described his feelings, that sounded like way more than just 'like.' Not strong enough? Was it love? ...That was weird. She'd never felt that way for someone online. Sure, there were crushes here and there, but the way Endrance was talking about it just kind of blew her mind, or something. Even though they both knew Haseo in a world that seemed to be offline, she'd never thought about feeling that way toward anyone, ever.

This guy just got weirder and weirder.

"Wow, Endrance. That's.. uh, that's kinda.. wow. Intense, or whatever. Like you and Haseo are in a fairy tale or something, with you as the damsel." She laughed, partially to hide the pain of not being asked after. "Princess Endrance. You're not a fourteen-year-old girl IRL, are you?"

[oftemptation]

Alkaid was right, of course, about that way of thinking, but right at that moment, it just served to make Endrance look down at the bandage on his hand. He had been holding it so it was just out of view, so there wouldn't be any questions about its presence. He hadn't given the fact that the zombies even could infect someone any thought until right at that moment. It was strange, and it made him feel almost as if he should have been worried about it the entire time.

Despite that, he did his best to shrug off the worry as much as he could. "You're right about that..." The events of seven years ago flashed into his head again, and that memory made him nod. "Giving in when it seems darkest means that you won't ever see the light that comes after...so the only thing you can do is keep moving forward." He smiled again, just a little, but the expression didn't stay long, turning into something of a smirk a moment later - not one that was mean, though, not in the least.

"...should we perhaps warn your friend, then? You're a rather intense opponent when you're feeling particularly inspired." A laugh didn't follow, but the intent was there nonetheless.

This place...I never thought I'd think this, but...it's forced me to open up my eyes, and focus on other people, not just what I want to see or to hide from. I think I'm glad for that...I feel almost like I did back then, when there was all that hope...

He was snapped out of the thought a moment later, that moment's teasing making him blush again. "I wouldn't say that...for one, I'm not a teenage girl in the real world, and...well. I wouldn't say what I feel is necessarily returned, either. That doesn't matter so much...as long as Haseo's happy, it doesn't matter if the feelings aren't ever returned."