Astounding Progress Pt. 2

A few minutes later, Percy put the phone down with a heavy heart. "So when they left us today morning… it was to go meet Goren?"

"But isn't Goren an enemy? And if they got into a fight, that means the meeting wasn't arranged beforehand."

Percy nodded his head in realistion. "A break-in? But why?"

"They're coming back right?" Tiara nodded in expectation. "We'll ask them then."

"Not ask. We're going to interrogate them. If they dare do anything to threaten our lives…" He clenched his fists. In reality, it wasn't him, it was just Tiara's life he was worried about. And he didn't even know why.

"Um Percy," Tiara asked shyly.

Percy looked up at her with a raised eyebrow.

"I want to pee. Like really badly."

Percy sighed for the third time that night and stood up. He slipped his arms under her torso and neck and lifted the woman like she was nothing. "You can do everything else by yourself right?"

Tiara happily waved her free hand, "Yep I have this little buddy. The other little buddy is sleeping," Tiara turned her head and pouted at her limp right arm.

Percy tried not to laugh. 'Little buddy… god Tiara you're so innocent.'

Percy closed the door and waited outside it with his back against the wood. He closed his eyes and remembered that the sun had been shining outside when they entered the game. Now it was pitch black and the streetlights were on and guiding the night.

"We broke a record today," he said out loud. "We were in the game for 4 hours."

"Really?!" Her muffled, yet excited voice tuned in from inside the toilet.

"Yeah, isn't that amazing?" Percy sighed with a smile. Had their Connection gotten better? What did that even mean for the both of them? He wanted to think about it then felt ashamed for thinking about it and then covered his face because his cheeks felt hot thinking about why he was thinking about Tiara and their Connection. And why he was always thinking about her.

In the end, he went to the kitchen and ate a banana. At least that didn't need any thinking.

"Tiara you done?" Percy asked while knocking the door. It had been 10 minutes already.

There was silence from inside so Percy decided to wait a little more.

Inside, Tiara was sitting on the closet staring at the tiles. Her happy face mask had dropped the moment Percy had closed the door.

For some reason, the tears didn't stop. It just streaked down her cheeks and she stuffed her left hand inside her mouth to stop the sounds of her crying from escaping the washroom.

"I'm so selfish… I killed him.. Tiara you killed him…" She didn't know how much more useless a person could get. "I couldn't even read the Rules and Regulations… it's all my fault and now…" her eyes widened in shock. "Did something alter inside Percy after his in-game death? But he didn't seem all that different…" She slowed down now and rewinded on how Percy had acted after he had opened his eyes.

Did he get… softer?

"You are different. But I hope nothing happened to you…" Tiara shook her head. "Who am I kidding? Of course something happened to him, I killed him. And that Karmet! Ugh why did I have to trust him? I'm such an idiot."

She cried for a long time, until Percy started to get worried and rap on the door.

"Tiara, can I open the door and come and get you?"

"No!" Her voice broke and she couldn't get the tears to stop.

"Tiara?" Percy asked in soft surprise. "Are you crying?"

"No!"

"Tiara, I told you to let it go! I'm fine, the in-game death didn't do anything to me!"

Tiara felt ashamed that Percy was seeing this side of her. She just wanted to rewind the past and make different decisions now. "But Dr. Zha Huang said differently…"

"Maybe he is wrong, okay! I'm coming in alright?" Percy opened the door and his hands fell to his sides as he saw the mess Tiara was in.

He knelt down in front of her and hugged her tight. She leaned down against his shoulder again, thinking that might be her favorite place to lay her head down on now. "I'm okay, see. Nothing's wrong with me. So please, stop crying."

"In the game…" Tiara frowned and looked at his face. "I couldn't stop thinking about you." She regretted it the moment she said it, but the surprised look on Percy's face kind of erased that away.

"You too?" He breathed.

Tiara raised her eyebrows. "You also…?"

Percy nodded, his heart at ease. He wasn't alone in this.

"Is this what people call love?" Tiara asked with hesitation.

Percy leaned back and laughed. "What, no. It's the system. We are partners right? So it's something related to Connecting and all that."

Tiara looked down, her cheeks red in embarrassment. "Oh. I'm sorry, I just… I don't really know the difference yet."

"It's fine, you'll know eventually."

"You'll teach me?"

"Huh, no. Tiara, love can't be taught. It's an experience."

"How did you learn it then?"

Percy shrugged.

"Ooh, did you love a few women in your life?"

Percy shook his head and laughed as he lifted her up from the seat and flushed the closet before taking her out of the washroom. "Maybe, I'm easy on the eye, you know."

Tiara laughed as he sat her down on the chair. "Self-praise, the art of a fool."

Percy turned around and looked at her with a smirk. "Impressive. I'm making meat omelette again, if that's okay…"

"Yeah!" Tiara nodded and sat patiently on her chair, alone with her thoughts.

In the middle of Percy's little whirlwind in the kitchen, the doorbell rang. Percy and Tiara exchanged a knowing glance.

'Mitchell.'

The man instantly wiped his hands on the towel and stepped forward to open the door.