Wei Yao wondered how he got into these situations. Oh he knew the sequence of events well enough, that wasn’t up for debate, but trouble always seemed to find him even when he went out of his way to avoid it completely. His morning had started off well enough at least, small comfort now as he ran through the rougher parts of Chicago, doing his best to avoid the local thugs that populated the area as they tried to keep pace with his short but quick stride. The problem was that he’d made the mistake of stopping at his favorite hotdog vendor on his way to the bus stop. Apparently the idiots he had curb stomped in self defense just last week had a bit better memory than he would have given them credit for, and they had spotted him from across the street before giving chase. “Oh well, early morning run!” Wei cheered to himself, putting a positive spin on what he knew could become something more long lasting if he didn’t lose his tails. At least he still had his hotdog with him, rather annoying really, he hadn’t had the chance to take even one bite before the shovelheads had run up to meet him. Okay, that might have been a bit harsh, comparing the local thugs and bullies to Vampire the Masquerade level thugs that populated the bugged to Hell game’s streets of simulated Santa Monica, but it still brought a smirk to his face to make the comparison.

His thoughts were derailed when one of his tails displayed an above average level of cunning and jumped out of an alleyway ahead of him. Wei reacted quickly as he threw his hotdog into the air before sliding underneath the lunge from his would be assailant. Ducking under the man’s outstretched arms, he came back up to his feet, reached up, and caught his hotdog without losing a drop of the ketchup he had liberally slathered over the charbroiled length of meat tucked safely inside. “Sorry gotta split!” He called over his shoulder with a jaunty wave. “Normally I’d stay and play, but I got a date!”

“Get his ass!” The leader, a guy with a ridiculously tall, black, spiky mohawk, shouted as he barreled past the goon Wei had already slipped around not moments ago.

“Language fellas!” Even though the wide grin on his face suggested otherwise, Wei was not having fun. Sliding over the hood of a cab as it came to a screeching halt at the last second, he didn’t stop for a moment, knowing his pursuers were still hot on his heels. This had quickly become a regular occurance, far too regular for his liking, and the only real reason they were so hellbent on getting him was simple. Wei just could not stop himself from interfering. Usually he had the sense not to bother them too much, since he knew that that would land him on their hit list. However, one time he hadn’t been able to stop himself when he saw the thugs in question, the same thugs that were currently chasing him, giving one of the local store owners some trouble. No one of real authority or worth ever came down to his part of Chicago, so it was up to people like him to keep the peace, hence his current predicament. He had made it a point to step up for the owner and his family. The thugs he had sent running with their tails between their legs had taken exception to his interference, which in turn had led to a somewhat regular game of cat and mouse.

It was dumb in his mind, here he was running just so that the real trouble wouldn’t follow him. If he wanted to, he could have wiped the floor with them by now and eaten his hotdog, but Wei was no fool. He was good in a fight, but he was a buck twenty when wet at about five foot four inches, and most of the thugs behind him were a bit heavier, more muscular, if collectively dumber. And they’d fight dirty. One at a time, two, maybe three, Wei knew he’d be alright barring some unfortunate turn of events, but the first person to pull a gun and he’d be in a world of hurt. So he chose to do the smart thing and simply outrun his problems. He was really good at that.

Nonetheless he wanted to lose them as fast as possible, otherwise he wouldn’t be able to do anything else today, and he really had far better things to do. With that in mind, Wei spotted his escape when one of the local city buses shot around the corner, and better yet, the driver of said bus knew him pretty well. With a grin tugging at his lips, Wei made a beeline for the bus, weaving through traffic without a shred of fear or hesitation before jumping into the conveniently opened door just as the driver pulled the lever at his side. Jumping to his feet, hotdog still clutched triumphantly in his hand, Wei leaned out the door and waved to the quickly disappearing thugs that he was leaving behind. “Better luck next time!” He cheerfully called out to them.

“Son of a bitch!” The mohawk headed thug roared, before he picked up a loose bit of gravel from the ground, and threw it at the departing, smug Wei.

Wei had all of two seconds to realize there was a small rock heading right for his head before he jerked to the side, luckily back into the bus’s safe interior, but the sudden movement made him loosen his hold on his hotdog. He watched, horrified, as it hit the street and splattered on the hard concrete, its greasy wrapper soon fluttering away in the wind. “You owe me a new hotdog!” Wei shouted back once he had gotten over his shock at losing his breakfast. With a sigh, he turned to the driver and shrugged.

“You really know how to start a morning kid.” Daniel Johanson said with a shake of his head as he pulled the door shut once Wei had hopped clear of the stairs.

“Hey, it wasn’t my idea. I’m just so popular around here Danny old boy.” Wei chortled as he fell into the first vacant seat he could find, a sigh of relief escaping his lips now he was certain that he wasn’t in immediate danger.

“So I’ve heard, still I might be a bit too old to go around beating up gang members to win a popularity contest.” Daniel shot back and narrowed his eyes. “You gotta be more careful kid, next time you might not be so lucky.”

“Yeah I know, but until then, I owe ya one….again. What’s the running tab now?” Wei asked, his eyes brightening a little now that he was safe and not about to be turned into Korean street pizza.

“Twelve, I’ve been keeping track.” Daniel droned in response without taking his eyes off the road ahead of him.

“Somehow that does not surprise me.” Wei remarked dryly and shook his head in amusement. Daniel was a good guy, one of the few bus drivers in Chicago he actually liked. All the rest were assholes of varying degrees, and he was fairly sure most of them wouldn’t have let him bum a ride while he was being chased by the local goon squad. Daniel was different though, he’d been where he was now himself or so the stories went. He’d lived in Chicago all his life, had seen the streets become increasingly rougher over the years, and he had a soft spot for the underdogs. It likely helped a great deal that Wei had saved Daniel’s life when the old driver had suffered a heart attack a few years back, and their witty back and forth had come about as a result.

Not that it stopped the old man from giving him lectures. But Wei wasn’t about to complain since Daniel had his best interests at heart, as did his folks, but out here, you learned to protect yourself, or you ended up the victim to one of the many gangs running unchecked through the streets. Another reason why he always visited Laurie, and not she him. He could barely imagine her on her own in the streets here without having a heart attack. Thankfully, she lived in a nicer part of town, in an assisted living place, so the chances of her coming down to his neighborhood outside of some apocalyptic emergency were zero to slim, and two, unlike his folks, Laurie’s parents were a couple of uncaring assholes in their own right, as such, it had once been a struggle for her to get out of bed without assistance, let alone having a life without someone like him or one of her friends stopping by to do their job before she’d been able to get her own place. But that was a whole other thing, one that was blessedly over, and one not worth thinking about lest he give himself a headache, and he had enough of a reason to have a headache thanks to those thugs ruining his breakfast.

“Here kid.” Daniel muttered and pressed some change into his hand while never taking his eyes off the street while also interrupting his train of thought in the process. “Once we’re in a nicer part of town, get yourself something to eat. You can’t run on an empty stomach.”

“Thanks Danny boy. You know one day I’m gonna repay every cent right?” Daniel snorted but nodded sagely in response as Wei reached out to take the change from his old friend’s wrinkled, calloused dark skinned hand.

“I’d miss you if you didn’t have a reason to hitch a ride from me Wei. So you stop that horseshit and just take what you’re given.” Daniel grouched back, but the little smile was hard to conceal from Wei as the money was handed over.

“Now don’t worry, I would still visit you. After all, who else could keep up with your sunny disposition?”

“Are you making fun of me, boy?” Daniel asked, and flicked his gray eyes up to the rearview mirror for a moment as he did.

“Yep.” Wei admitted with a cheerful nod of his head and a shit eating grin on his face.

“Hmph. Maybe next time I’ll let ya hang.” Daniel muttered under his breath, but they both knew the chances of that happening were about as good as the sky falling.

“Right, anyway where is this thing going now? I didn’t quite catch it, you know, when I was running for my life and all that.”

“You can just sit back and relax now, we’ll get to where we’re goin’ sooner or later, or did you have a date with that Laurie girl again?”

“Someone’s gotta watch out for our resident geek.” Wei said and shrugged his shoulders, trying to put it off as him simply being friendly, and in a way that was the truth. But the less said about his feelings regarding Laurie and how he saw her, truly saw her, the better.

“Is that what kids call it these days?” The bus driver asked with an eyeroll and scoffed at Wei. “Whatever, I think you’ll find that the next stop is within comfortable walking distance to your friend. Tell her I said hello at least when you aren’t too busy.”

“Will do.” Wei promised, and settled back into his seat with a sigh just as his stomach decided to growl in protest. Shaking his head at how his morning had started, the young Korean man couldn’t help but glance at the window beside him, and suck in a breath when he saw something quite unexpected staring back at him. Blinking his brown eyes rapidly, which did nothing to dispel the illusion before him, Wei felt the color drain out of his bronze, almost golden tone skin as he couldn’t help but let his eyes roam over his own altered reflection.

The first thing he noticed was that his reflexion was, for starters, much more grey skinned than his usual golden tone and above all, far more feminine than he was used to. Not only that, but where he had spiked up, blonde hair, far more practical in size and style than the mohawked moron that had been giving orders to his thugs, the image in front of him was completely bald. And where Wei was unmarked, free from any scars, tattoos, or any blemishes of the like, the gray skinned giant, and she was a damned big woman if he were any judge, was covered in tribal tattoos, scars, and marks from a rough and tumble youth that would have made his own seem pretty tame and full of rainbows and unicorns.

Where Wei’s eyes were a more dull brown, like beaten copper, the goliath’s were glowing amber pools that gave the impression of a keen intelligence and palpable compassion in the warm way she smiled back at him. Dressed from the neck down in an unadorned, if large, white robe that hung from both shoulders, secured by a honey orange cloth band around her waist, the goliath were no shoes or socks from what he could see, favoring instead simple wooden sandals and dull white bandage wraps that went up to just above her calfs. She carried no weapons, but Wei knew from just looking at her that her massive, gray fists were all the weapons she’d ever need, and despite the soft gleam on her face, he had no doubt that if the need came up, she’d drop her pacifist veneer and lay down the hurt.

Funnily enough, he knew who and what he had seen when his altered reflection disappeared with one last eyeblink, but she had thus far only been a product of his imagination. This was the first he’d seen her clear as day as he’d just done, in vivid three dimensional color no less. As a player of all things Dungeons and Dragons, Dragon Age, and a few other awesome fantasy games of the same ilk, his mind and imagination was a little more open to the impossible, but Wei had always been one of the more level headed, rational people among his group of friends. He was a jokester sure, someone that found it incredibly easy to smile, but a dreamer? Someone that was prone to imagining himself as something else entirely? Not so much.

So it was safe to say that this was a rather unnerving occurrence. As far as he was aware, there was no history of mental illness in his family, so most likely or perhaps rather hopefully, that meant that he wasn’t going crazy. The timing would be rather inconvenient after all, he wanted to visit Laurie for a little while before going to Sam and Sammy and playing a little Dungeons and Dragons with and against them, especially since Samantha was giving it a shot for the first time in her life. No way he was going to miss that for nothing short but the end of the world…..or a chance to talk to Jackie Chan, but that was just his nerdy, kung fu loving side talking.

“Wei!” Jerking his head to the front of the bus, Daniel was nodding to the door that he had since opened up. “Go on, get outta here kid. I’ll see ya again.”

“Only because you’re such wonderful company old man. Thanks!” Wei called out as he jumped to his feet and bustled out of the bus, full tilt and his hallucination all but forgotten.

“You’re welcome!” Daniel called out after him and shook his head again as he watched Wei run. “That kid needs to just slow down.” He muttered to himself, but he pushed his concerns to the side as new passengers began to pile on once Wei had left the bus stop, as fast as he ever tended to move even when he had plenty of time on his side.

Wei might have had something to say about slowing down if he’d been present to hear Daniel’s remark, but he was too busy making his way towards the nearest street vendor.

“Hey, what can I get for.... ninety seven cents?! Thanks a lot Daniel.” Wei grumbled when he saw just how much money the driver had given him.

The greying redhead working the cart cast Wei a mischievous grin. “Well, you give me a kiss on the cheek honey, might give you a discount.”

Wei chuckled and smirked at the woman working the vendor before shrugging his shoulders. She was an older woman, with more wrinkles than smooth skin, but he’d seen far worse in his time living in Chicago. “For you, I’d give you the moon for but an hour of your fine company.”

“Flirt.” She laughed and shook her head at his antics. Knowing better than to take him seriously anyway, the older woman gestured to the spread laid out before her. “And they say chivalry is dead in this town. Go on then, help yourself young man, you aren’t getting any younger after all.”

“Nah, last I checked I was still very much alive.” The hearty laugh that got out of the vendor had Wei grinning widely in response as he soon had himself another heavily loaded hotdog in hand in short order. “Thank you kindly. I’ll get you the rest if I ever see you again.” He said as he left every cent Daniel had given him in the redhead’s box despite her protests to the contrary. He really liked the people here, if you were kind to them, they were kind in return. Not like those goons back in his part of the city. To be fair though, he hadn’t been kind to them either, so maybe he was wrong about that. Whatever the case, Wei was once more in a far cheerier mood as he began to hum a little tune to himself, the bright, morning sun comfortably warm although it was starting to get uncomfortably hot. He was in a far better mood however, so the weather had a lot of warming up to do before he’d let it get him down.

After all, today was the day he was going to finally suck it up and ask Laurie out on a date. Right after the game of course. Probably. Who was he kidding? There wasn’t much point in lying to himself. He had had plenty of chances to tell Laurie how he felt about her, yet he hadn’t been able to say so much as a word in that regard without stumbling over his own tongue like a drunken idiot. He was sure and capable in a fight, or rather when he was running away from one, but talking about his feelings? He was still a rank ametuer in that department, and he was well aware of that fact.

He had even tried to practice in front of a mirror, as long as he didn’t think about her it was fine, but the moment he did he turned into the stumbling fool, which was totally embarrassing truth be told, not to mention frustrating. Still he wasn’t so desperate to make up excuses in front of his friends, who somehow all seemed to know how he felt. He had always thought that he hid the fact rather well, but when he said as much they all had started to laugh hysterically at the mere thought of that suggestion. Well, and then they got the news about Nathan’s parents that had pretty much killed any cheerful thoughts.

The news about their death had been shocking enough to knock every thought about Laurie out of Wei’s head… for about twenty four hours. Even then he’d been pretty subdued about it for a good week or so, but once the shock had worn off, and they were sure that Nathan wasn’t going to do anything….stupid, on his side of the world, things had gone back to some semblance of what they’d been before the tragic loss. Still, if all went well, then tonight would be the first time since then that he would see his friend face to screen. I am trying to distract myself. Wei realised and shook his head, there was no reason to be nervous. No, none at all. Only you alone with your crush, perfectly okay, nothing wrong there.

Wei was so lost in thought he jumped when he felt a familiar, yet somehow always surprising, slap on the ass. His second hotdog of the day went flying from his hand, splattering mustard and ketchup all over his shirt. Spinning around with an only half feigned yelp of shock and loss, he was greeted with the angelic laughter of his dear friend as she clutched at her stomach and bent at the waist as far as her seated position allowed. The massive stain on his shirt only making her laugh all the harder. “Awww! Sorry, I’m terrible, I couldn’t resist!”

Recovering some measure of his composure, Wei was able to put a shit eating grin on his face as he futilely wiped at the mess on his shirt. “Well you’re certainly a far better sight than the excitement I ran into this morning my foxy lady.”

The smile left her face and instead morphed into an expression of concern. “Is everything alright? Did something happen?” Her blue eyes stared into his brown ones, trying to read his mind no doubt.

“No, nothing important just some guys who were sore losers.” He replied with another blinding smile of his own. “Now come on, tell me about your day my little fox.”

“Yeah right, I’m about as foxy as a shopping cart.” She replied moodily, and it almost made him cry. How could she not see how beautiful and kind she was? Still he knew that this was only the beginning as she narrowed her eyes at him after, undoubtedly analyzing each word in his little answer. “Right….so the local goon squad made a pass at you then?” Laurie grumbled and sighed heavily when Wei chuckled sheepishly in response. “One of these days they’re going to catch up with you, you know that right?”

“Yeah, I know.” Wei sighed as he sat down on a bench that was placed before Laurie’s apartment building. The place was a nice, upscale assisted living building, and thanks to a couple of relatives that actually gave a damn about her, she could afford to live in the place. While her parents were still too close for his liking, Laurie had done a great deal on her own to get herself out of their control the first chance she had, because if she hadn’t, he had a very bad feeling that she’d have been in a nursing home, rotting away in some bed from neglect if not outright dead by now. Stupid was definitely not in Laurie’s vocabulary, nor was she weak, despite what she might have believed to the contrary. Her inner strength and stubborn, iron will had seen her taken away from her otherwise neglectful parents and put into the care of an aunt and uncle until she was old enough to take care of herself. Pushing that to the side though, Wei leaned back and met Laurie’s gaze from his spot on the bench. “So, what brings you out on this sweltering hot day in our fair city?”

“Waiting on you mostly. The laptop Samantha needed for tonight’s game is in my bag on the back. But just having you here for a bit is a nice change Wei.”

“My pleasure.” He told her with a beaming smile, that soon melted when she fixed him with a firm glare.

“But just to make one thing clear, anything happens to it, and I will hold you responsible. So make sure that no left overs from a party, or whatever they keep in their basement, are spilled over my little wonder machine. Got it?”

“Got it.” Wei promised with a firm, completely sincere nod of his head. He knew better than to piss Laurie off for any reason, even if he wasn’t completely infatuated with her.

“So, is there anything not gang or fantasy related you’d like to talk about?” Laurie asked, which earned a small, choked sound of alarm from Wei’s throat. The hint of a smile that began to tug at her lips he saw before he looked away to hide the blush from her eyes said she was well aware of what she was asking, and knew what he was too afraid to say himself. “Or we could just enjoy the view if you like.” She quickly added at the sight of his noticeable embarrassment, the hint of a grin pulling at the corner of her mouth.

“Y-yeah, the view of our smog filled backyard.” He replied hurriedly before mentally slapping himself. “I meant-”

“It’s fine.” Laurie chuckled before reaching over to put a hand on Wei’s shoulder. “So, beyond being chased by the hoodlums, again, how’s everything at home Wei?”

Glad for the change of subject, even as he tensed slightly from the touch to his shoulder, Wei sighed and smiled tiredly up at the object of his largely unspoken affection. “Dad’s slowing down more and more, arthritis is kicking his ass, but he’s still able to smile even on his bad days. Mom tries not to worry, but it’s been tough on her, seeing him getting old like he is. She’s been pulling double shifts again at the grocer down the street from our place, something I don’t like with all the less than kind neighbors we have in our part of Chicago.” Wei subtly wiped at his eyes before shaking his head with a forced laugh. “Sorry, you don’t need to hear me complaining. How have you been? Sorry I wasn’t able to stop by the last few days.”

“Wei, we’ve been friends for years, if you can’t talk to me or any of the others, then what’s the point? Besides, I owe you and Samantha a great deal from the early days.” Lonely childhood and a couple of useless parents would do that to anyone Wei knew, so it was no surprise that Laurie made it sound like she owed him and the gang a debt she could never repay.

But that was not how Wei saw it, and made sure to remind her of that fact. “Nah, you don’t owe me anything. And you never will.” After a brief hesitation on his part he pulled her into a small hug once he was upright on the bench. “My- I mean our help is free.” It was awkward given their respective positions, but it was no less sincere and warm as they embraced.

“Right, of course, you and the guys. Thank you anyways. So, you going over to see the Sams’?” Laurie asked, equally desperate to change the subject as they pulled apart.

“Yeah, they need at least one guy who knows what he’s doing. Otherwise they’ll get turned into mincemeat before you even have a chance to take a shot at them.” Wei replied with a little laugh and rubbed the back of his head.

“Wei, you have no idea how to play the game either. If you run around like you do in Chicago you will be the reason they get turned into mincemeat.” Laurie couldn’t help but point out with a small chuckle of her own.

“Oh, how you hurt me with your harsh words milady!” He gasped theatrically and moved to clutch his heart. “How shall I ever recover from that?”

She playfully swatted him and gave him a droll look. “You’ll manage I’m sure. If you recover from what I’ll do to your little character is another question entirely, if we ever play together of course.”

Wei chuckled and leaned back on the hard, wooden bench, and crossed his arms over his chest as he got comfortable. At least, as comfortable as he could get anyway. “Still stuck with the B team huh? You know, I could probably talk Sammy into letting you switch sides. And then you would rule all of Fauxrelden by my side, my ruthless Queen!”

“Oh I’m sure you have it all figured it out to the last bloody, murderous detail, but I think I’ll manage just fine with the ‘B Team’.” She retorted, and made air quotes as she did which had Wei grinning up at her from his place on the bench.

“If you say so, just remember that when we come for you.” He replied, his grin widening as they continued their little game.

“Oh yes… scary.” She told him sarcastically and rolled her eyes. “Whatever are we gonna do when the scary newbies show up?”

“I bet that’s what the likes of Saruman and Sauron said when a little halfling and his friends from Hobbiton undid all of their grand designs over the course of three very epic books.”

“Good point.” She allowed with a satisfied smirk in his direction and leaned back in her wheelchair. “Just don’t think it’ll be easy.”

“Nothing worth doing is ever easy Laurie, you know that better than I ever could.” Wei solemnly replied before he just as quickly forced cheer back into their conversation. “Besides, you’re a girl worth fighting for.”

“Mulan? You’re really taking this monk thing seriously aren’t you?” Laurie asked with another roll of her eyes, but she was all smiles despite the sarcasm dripping off of her tongue.

“What can I say, it’ll make a man out of me....sort of.” Wei trailed off as he sat up with a wry grin forming on his face once more.

“Right….” She snorted, knowing perfectly well what the true story behind Wei’s character was all about.

“You know, I don’t have to go, I could just Bogart half your Skype link.” Wei stated, changing the subject once more before they strayed into more embarrassing topics. That and it had the desired effect of getting a laugh out of his soon to be Overlordess. “What? It’s the truth and you know it.”

“True, but you don’t have to stick around for my sake Wei. Besides, I have some stuff to do today anyway, and no, I don’t want company during my errands. They’d be incredibly embarrassing enough on my own anyway.” Laurie said quickly and forestalled any of his arguments with that.

“Ah….got it.” Wei said and rubbed the back of his neck in no small amount of embarrassment at what Laurie was insinuating.

“Although, you might actually learn something.....” Laurie trailed off, and chuckled when Wei jumped back and shook his head vigorously at where she was going with her little statement.

“Nope, I’m good, thanks anyway.” Wei hastily replied, his cheeks thoroughly beet red now. Still he didn’t exactly know what to do and thus just stood there and stared at the beauty that was his friend.

“Then… maybe you should get to Samantha’s before you arrive too late?” Laurie suggested slowly and raised her eyebrows in what he guessed was barely contained amusement.

You acted like a total moron in front of her! His brain chose to scream at him in mortification. Thankfully the words didn’t make the journey from his mind to his mouth. “Alright alright, I get the idea. Tryin’ to get rid of me, I’ll remember that.” Wei replied, feigning mock hurt with every word as he staggered back, clutching his heart as if he’d been mortally wounded as well. “But you’re right, I need to get going.”

“Then go, and don’t forget the laptop.” She replied and jerked her hand to the bags on the back of her wheelchair. “I’d get it for you, but you know, I like this seat.”

“It is a nice seat.” Wei agreed diplomatically as he zipped open the bag she had pointed at before pulling out the laptop she was being kind enough to let them borrow for this very occasion. Tucking it securely under his left arm, Wei turned and met Laurie’s gaze with his own. “Well, wish us luck. I have a feeling we’re going to need it before this is over.”

“Good luck, but you won’t need it. I can’t say the same about the rest of your team though.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, beautiful.” He shot back, the last word slipping past his lips before he could stop himself. While all kinds of warning signals began to blare in his mind, he did his best not to show any of that and play it cool with another grin at Laurie.

But once more she proved the far more astute as she grabbed him by the front of his shirt with surprising swiftness, and pulled him down so that he could not help be eye to eye with her. Before he could begin to react, she pressed her lips firmly against his own. When the world stopped spinning and he remembered how to breathe again, Wei could only stare, dumbfounded by what had just occurred. “I’m not stupid, Wei, and I’ve been getting damned impatient with all of this dancing around.”

“N-noted, most d-definitely noted.” Wei stammered out and could only nod his head dumbly as he tried to remember how to speak in complete, coherent sentences. Which was surprisingly difficult considering that it felt like his brain just melted into a puddle of goo. By some small miracle though, he was able to look into Laurie’s big, beautiful eyes without his usual stumbling about and smile, without his trademark goofiness that was normally ever present. “I do have to ask, how long have-”

“Please, I’m disabled, not blind. It’s been apparent since the day I moved out of my parents’ basement several years ago now.” The fact she had literally been in her parents’ basement during her youth was no joke, and if not for the happy accident that it had been a walk out basement, they might not have ever met her when they had. But none of that mattered in that moment as Laurie looked away, her own cheeks turning beet red as she struggled to speak for a change. “But like you I….guess I was nervous, afraid really, of messing up what we had. But Vanessa called a few days ago, said I needed to grab you by the shirt and suck your face off. Well….it seemed to have worked, because I want to do it again, and a hell of a lot more.”

“Well, what’s stopping you?” Wei asked, a small, wide grin beginning to form on his face once more that soon mirrored the one that nearly split Laurie’s own.

“I have some… appointments remember?” She asked and lowered her head uncomfortably, apparently still embarrassed about that.

“Ah right of course I remember. See? My brain still works.”

“I can see that.” She told him, amused by his antics as she laughed quietly again. “Come on Wei, I’m not going anywhere any time soon. We’ll have plenty of opportunity to continue where we left off… later. We can go as slow as you want, before we get to.... other stuff.”

“Huh?” Wei muttered dumbly, still partially stunned from her astonishing, exciting, and slightly terrifying bluntness.

“So much for that brain.” Laurie muttered with an eyeroll and pinched the bridge of her nose. “I basically told you that I want to see you later after I was finished with my business.”

“Oh….right.” Wei responded once she had essentially spelled it out for him. Tightening his hold on the laptop under his arm, he managed a goofy, lopsided grin and rubbed the back of his spiky, blonde hair with his free hand. “W-well then, I’ll see ya later then. Yes, definitely, most definitely later.”

“Dork.” She told him fondly and grinned at him. “Go on, better get going before you’re late.”

“Me? Late? Sweet lady you wound me!” Wei protested and clutched at his heart once more as he began walking backwards away from Laurie. The sound of her laughter followed him as Wei once more found himself running down the sidewalk. I don’t know what the hell just happened, but I like it.

He didn’t know how long he had walked until he realised that he was humming a happy tune. He had probably been doing so since he left Laurie to her appointments, but when he realized he’d been humming for the better part of ten minutes, he only shrugged and kept going. The few people he passed gave him strange, curious looks, which only intensified when Wei’s response was a wide, beaming smile that almost split his head in half.

It wasn’t until he was a few houses down from Samuel and Samantha’s house that Wei heard someone ask if he were high. He only chuckled and shrugged, “if being high on life qualifies, then most definitely.” Still, he tried to suppress the grin that began to hurt his face with its intensity. If he showed up at Sam’s like that, they would take one look at him and they’d know what happened, and then they’d pester him about it the whole time. He’d never hear the end of it, and they had enough things to tease him about already as it were.

Thankfully, he was brought back to reality pretty quick when he found himself situated in Samantha’s basement, about to tell the group about his character after finding out Laurie was not only going to be a part of the festivities, but that they’d be playing alongside Samuel and a few of his friends, which naturally meant Laurie, Vanessa, and Sebastian. Not only that, but Wei was sitting not ten feet away from the head of Critical Role, if one counted a stable Wi-Fi connection and a computer screen as sitting ten feet away from the famed voice actor and Dungeon Master for that particular group anyway.

“Well, we’re waiting.”

“Oh, right right.” Wei said and shook his head to clear it of any lingering cobwebs. Now was not the time to geek out. “Anyway, her name’s Lokta, a goliath monk that has recently left her monastery to expand her knowledge, experience the world, but also to chase down those that murdered her mentor. Her old tribe of fellow goliaths, the same people that had left her to die in the city they had foolishly attacked when she was much younger, but instead of slaying her along with the few survivors that had been left behind, the people of the city took her in. She didn’t give them a reason to regret it, and became a mostly valued part of the city and its people as a result.”

“Huh. So not only are you playing a female version of Grog, but you’ve gone all Korra with her while you were at it. Not bad. But I gotta ask, why a goliath?”

Wei shrugged before leaning back into the couch after setting his character sheet down. “Because it’s different from what I usually play which is your typical pointy eared elves or your boring humans. That and they tended to be a little rough around the edges.”

“Right, nobody piss off the seven and a half foot monk, guys. Okay then, that brings us to the last member of Sux Alotica, as your other buddies have named you.” Their DM happily informed them as his eyes kept darting to the side of his screen, reading off messages from the side of some unseen document or messenger program. When he frowned and a visible shiver swept through him, Wei had to wonder what he’d seen. “Yeesh, I might have to start placing bets on these guys. Some of their stuff is downright terrifyin’. This ought to be quite the experience though. Anyway, Nathan, you’re up.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask what they’ve been sending your way.” Nathan muttered none too quietly before he cleared his throat in an effort to prepare himself for the task ahead.

Next Chapter: Chapter 4:  The Tiefling Fighter