at each other in panic.
Drew flailed. “I want to stay and stuff and I’m pretty sure this isn’t how to end a date, but I don’t want to let the guild down.”
“No, it’s fine. See you in Crown of Thorns.”
“We’ll do this again, right?”
“Absolutely.”
They crashed into a hasty, awkward, clumsy approximation of a hug. One of Drew’s hands went into Kit’s armpit and Kit bashed his shoulder into Drew’s chin. But that was sort of where they were so they went with it, and Drew clutched and Kit squeezed—and he couldn’t quite tell in the panic, but he was pretty sure Kit’s lips brushed against his cheek.
Then they ran for it.
Back in his room, Drew tore off his dating T-shirt and flung on his raiding pyjamas, started boiling the kettle for a Cup-a-Soup and logged onto Ella.
Guild Message of the day: Still do not ask Tiff about her date.
[Guild][Solace]: Hi :) :)
[Guild][Heurodis]: Yo
[Guild][Ialdir]: Hey
[Guild][Orcarella]: Hi
Normally he made sure he was already in position outside the instance, but Ella was standing around in front of the AH in the City of Stars. Thankfully he was already well stocked with consumables, so he jumped on a randomly selected flying mount and made for CoT.
On the way, he stared at Solace’s “Hi” with its two accompanying smileys.
It felt weird and nice at the same time because they’d been on a date, and normally when you went on a date with someone you didn’t see them again immediately. He didn’t want to make a big thing about it, but he didn’t want to act like it hadn’t happened either.
To [Solace]: Fancy meeting you here
[Solace] whispers: of all the raid instances in all the MMOs in all the world, you walk into mine
To [Solace]: here’s looking at you kit
[Solace] whispers: !
[Solace] whispers: I can’t believe you went there
To [Solace]: I can’t believe you thought I wouldn’t
[Guild][Heurodis]: okay peons start getting in mumble and getting to cot
[Solace] whispers: You’re getting on that skyship with Victor where you belong. You’re part of his guild, what keeps him going.
To [Solace]: god you’re such a nerd :D
[Solace] whispers: Hey, that’s classic cinema
[Solace] whispers: This is some high class banter you’re getting here.
Drew’s soup water had gone cold, or at least too cold to make soup with, because he’d been too busy flirting and grinning at the screen like an idiot. He flicked the kettle on again and told himself to pay attention this time.
To [Solace]: we’ll always have Steamworks - Furnace (Heroic)
[Solace] whispers: Aww, that can be our dungeon.
To [Solace]: you’re making it really hard for me to hate it
[Solace] whispers: IMPALED!!!
[Guild][Heurodis]: okay we’re waiting on two noobs who aren’t in mumble
[Guild][Heurodis]: you know who you are
Heurodis has invited you to join a group: y/n
[Guild][Solace]: Sorry, I was distracted
[Guild][Orcarella]: Me too
[Guild][Ialdir]: Mmmmhmmmmmm
[Guild][Jargogle]: Mmmmhmmmmmm
[Guild][Heurodis]: less distraction more raiding
Drew pulled himself together, alt-tabbed and fired up Mumble, and his headphones crackled with Bjorn.
“—be tanking. Jargogle and Dave will be providing melee DPS. Ialdir and Mordant will be providing ranged DPS. And I will be providing imba DPS. Our healing team are Solace, Ignatius, and Prospero, assuming Solace is not so distracted that he lets everybody die.”
“Oh no, Bjorn, just you.”
Kit’s voice made Drew tingle a bit. He’d spent a good part of the afternoon listening to it, so it was sort of familiar, but he still wasn’t used to hearing him on Mumble. And, for the first time, Drew realised he had a sense of Kit at least as strong as his sense of Solace.
A softly-spoken, softly laughing boy, with wary eyes and warm hands.
And shit, everyone was running into the instance.
Since they hadn’t downed Vilicus on Monday, they waded through his tormented trash and assembled in the torture chamber. It took them a couple of tries to get into the rhythm of it, but they squeaked through on the third attempt. Drew wasn’t sure if he was distracted or focused, but he was very aware of Solace standing at the back with his shiny wings. They’d raided and played together enough now that he was starting to get that syncronicity thing where you kind of knew when the other person was fine, and when they were struggling, and when they needed you to blow all your cooldowns right the hell now. He’d had a fairly good relationship with Hachiman back in Anni, but it hadn’t felt like this.
Also, he’d never wanted to date the guy.
When they’d finished celebrating the demise of this week’s incarnation of Lady Bloodrose’s favourite torturer, it