Awkward Moment

Ahna still looked unsure about what I had just said, and now some of the fire was starting to leave me. I wasn't as nervous about Ahna as I was worried now what she would say or do.

She had chosen to follow me, and Ahna had said she was putting her life in my hands, but that was before I made my declaration. Still, this wasn't going to work if she didn't listen to me.

This world would eat us alive if we just went about our ways without being very cautious. That would mean watching people die, and I think that is what Ahna was going over in her head.

[I don't think she expected this, and I have to admit that I am rather impressed with your thinking. I would have assumed that you would have wanted to be the kind of person that goes out and rescues every Castless that you came upon. So it is rather relieving, even though I think that you are looking at it in the wrong way, to see you being cautious.]

I had lived a life where everything I did was measured by how little of an impact I made on the world each day. For me, this was just continuing on with life, but now I had a direction.

For Ahna, I asked her to become something that went against everything she had probably ever learned.

This would be one of many changes that would come with joining me, but I couldn't be the only one with a say in this. If Ahna was going to trust me with her life, then I needed to give her some say in our choices.

"Do you plan on running from every fight? How will you get stronger? I can grasp why we need to be careful, but I don't think that we need to abandon every person we see in trouble, right?" Ahna said finally, but not turning to me.

Instead, she was looking down at her hands, and I could see that they were clearly shaking.

"No, but I will decide when we fight. I am not saying that we run away from everyone; I do want to save people. In order to do that, we need to be capable of doing so. That means that we both need to be capable, not just you," I said, and that made Ahna turn to me in surprise.

"What do you mean?! You are far stronger than me; just look at this place! The table, bed, cabinet, and door! Look what you did when that person attacked you with magic!" Ahna said, coming up to me and grabbing my hands in hers.

The gesture was highly distracting, but I pushed it all down and looked into Ahna's blue eyes. That wasn't helpful, and I almost forgot what I was about to say.

"All of that was using other people's magic. Alone, I barely can make grass grow," I said, trying to stay calm as Ahna leaned into me.

[Steady now, you are doing good. Women are like wolves, and they can smell the fear on you. If you let her know that she can get to you like this, she might be tempted to try and use it to convince you of something that you don't want to do. While I don't really think that she is the type to do this, I also don't think that you should ever give a woman the upper hand.]

C6, for a… whatever you are, you sure seem to have a lot of human insight. What are you anyway?

This line of thought helped me distract myself from Ahna, as she was still leaning into me.

[I am not a computer program if that is what you mean, but for all intents and purposes, I am in this world. In my world, I look similar to you, but a bit older. In one year, I will be joining you to help you, but I will teach you about the system for now. I will tell you bits and pieces about my world as we go, but telling you too much right now would just confuse you.]

That was fair, but I still couldn't wrap my head around the fact that there was another world outside of this one. I had never heard of anything like it in my entire life, so the concept of it was far outside my ability to comprehend.

C6 was right, and telling me now without me knowing more general information would not be helpful. Then I felt something hot on my face, more like warm air, and then I realized that my eyes were closed.

[Maybe you should just keep them closed and relax. Explaining them right now would not help you out at all.]

I didn't listen, and I opened my eyes just as a closed-eyed Ahna stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips into mine. Dammit, he was right again!

I closed my eyes again, but I was frozen with the feeling of her pillow-soft lips pressing against mine. I had never experienced something like this before, but it wasn't like I had never seen two people kiss.

I had just never done it before, nor had I ever even thought about doing it. Well, maybe once or twice when Helen had been friendly to me, but I had never entertained the idea of it ever actually happening.

Now, there was a princess that was kissing me, by choice.

[I'm just going to toss this out there. Not trying to intrude, but, umm, you could try kissing Ahna back? I mean, you are already there, and if you ever want to experience this again, you had better make her know that you enjoyed it!]

C6 was right, and I just needed to man up or whatever. I tried pressing into Ahna's lips, and I was about to try and take her into my arms when she leaped back from me.

I had my arms out, looking like I was about to grab her, and Ahna was blushing furiously as she fingered her lips.

The two of us had eyes locked, but neither one of us could speak.

[Awkward moment.]