V’s energy erupted through the store’s door, soft and violent all at once. The magic that had been holding the store hostage from them shattered across the aethernet, hopefully subtly enough that no one would be able to track them to this exact building.

“You have got to teach me how to do that,” Emilia demanded as V hauled her inside.

He was, unfortunately, rather done with her and her bad sense of direction. Not wanting to risk exiting the city via one of the normal exits, as that seemed like a wonderful way to be either arrested by the Risen Guard or swiped up by another Enclave family, Emilia had suggested they search out the home of a friend: Zach.

Regardless of whether the man and his daughter had remained in their home following the collapse of the library—and a quick search with her energy through the house told Emilia they’d probably left—the building would offer a safer place for them to regroup and figure out what to do next. Plus, she had a sneaking suspicion that Zach’s training cavern had an emergency exit. While he hadn’t pointed it out, there had been signs of something extra in the room he’d taught her in.

She hadn’t mentioned the latter reason to V given the man was already inclined to follow her lead, as their only other option had been breaking into a random house. The man had been cooperative until Emilia had gotten turned around… four times. After she led them down the wrong street for the fourth time, he had taken over, methodically leading them through the streets until Emilia found something she recognized. Except, she’d gotten it wrong and accidentally led them down the wrong street for about 20 minutes before admitting she was once again turned around.

V had stopped speaking to her around then, only leading them through the streets until he recognized Zach’s shop—he’d forced her to tell him what the building looked like because he was that done with her.

She didn’t really blame him, but as he shut the door behind them and icily made his way for the hall that would lead deeper into Zach’s home, she could feel herself deflating. She had hoped that once they arrived, the other visitor would relax and forgive her. So far, no go. If anything, he seemed to be growing increasingly angry as time went by.

“Down here,” she practically whispered as she pushed by him and motioned to the trap door that would lead them lower. Hopefully, there was no one following them and learning what they were doing. She had never intended to return to this place, lest she bring problems down on Zach and his daughter. The only reason she’d risked it now was because the city was abandoned, but she knew there were skills in her world that could be used to hide a person’s presence, even if they tended to be highly restricted and difficult to use.

V glanced back at her, blue eyes shockingly empty. He looked conflicted, jaw tensing before he finally spoke. “We should look around for anything useful up here.”

He was right—Emilia knew he was right. Chances were, Zach was never coming back here, and all his items would simply continue to exist here, growing thick with dust and mould as time went on. They should take whatever they could. It still seemed wrong. She didn’t say that, instead watching him head towards a set of stairs and slowly climb them.

Emilia released a long puff of air, bouncing on her sore legs and looking around. List—she needed a list of things they needed!

First things first: food, water, clothing, shower.

That was a list she could live with, although she knew full well that the shower could wait. The idea of a shower though, red as it was liable to be…

“I found some food!” she called upwards, cringing slightly when it occurred to her that she probably shouldn’t be yelling. If there were anyone around, and they had yet to notice them, she didn’t want to accidentally attract them with her voice…

Her voice, that they were unlikely to be able to hear.

“Fucking stars is it hard to alter the way I think,” she muttered as she climbed the stairs, turning a corner and smacking into V’s chest. “Oh, hi,” she said, trying to swallow down the awkwardness of the moment.

He blinked placidly at her. “What are you trying to alter?”

“Huh? Oh! Uhm, that people might hear me, I guess? If I yell or scream…” she trailed off, face scrunching up as she contemplated whether locals were likely to vocalize during sex. That seemed like something to ask… someone. Who, she had no idea. Maybe Zach, if they ever met again. As much as he had sometime found her questions annoying, he had also given her answers for all of them. Plus! He had a daughter! He’d need to get used to having chats about sex… or maybe not, given the platform’s prudish culture.

The man sighed, long and drawn out, the puff of air brushing against her skin. “It takes practice, to change your mindset between raids and the real world—and even different raids.” He ran a hand through his hair, once again dirty from their time spent laying in the rubble of the library before they awakened. It was disconcerting, that they didn’t even know how long they’d been out for. “You get used to it… mostly.”

“I guess you spend a lot of time inside raids?” Emilia asked as V continued down the hallway that the staircase had opened up to.

There were three doors along the hall, the one at the opposite side of the hall was ajar, showing a bedroom that almost certainly belonged to Zach’s daughter. V pushed open another door, revealing Zach’s bedroom.

“Yes,” he replied before entering the room. It didn’t seem like he would say anything more on the matter, instead occupying himself pulling open drawers and looking through what he found.

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Emilia pushed open the last door, squealing happily when she found a bathroom. “Bathroom~ Shower~ My loves~” she cooed, stepping forward to turn the tap. The pipes rattled and a second later—

“Dude.”

“Dude what?” V asked, shockingly close to Emilia.

“Fuck!” she squeaked, slapping a hand to her pounding chest and staring back at the man. “You’re so quiet.”

“Yes,” he agreed, running a finger through the pale pink water. “This is much nicer than the other water I’ve seen.”

“Mood,” Emilia replied, nodding as she reached forward and ran her hands through the water, scrubbing at her dirty hands. She glanced around, trying to find soap, only for V to hand her some. “Thanks,” she muttered, scrubbing the dirt from her fingers and trying to ignore the awkwardness of the moment.

V leaned against the counter, arms crossed against his still bare chest. Apparently, he either hadn’t yet found anything worth wearing or had decided to wait until he was cleaner to put anything on.

Somehow, Emilia was almost certain it was the former. She didn’t think the man the type to care about putting clean clothes over his grime, or dirty clothes over his cleanliness.

“I’m not mad at you,” he finally said, eyes glued to her face, although she was patently refusing to look at him, her attention focused solely on her hands.

“It’s fine if you are. I know my sense of direction is abysmal.”

“Yes, yes it is,” he replied, and when Emilia chanced a glance at him, he was smiling slightly. “I don’t handle frustration well.”

“No?”

“No.” V’s hand snapped out to grab her wrists, tugging them away from the water. “Do not rub your wrists raw.”

Emilia looked down at their joined hands, V’s filth next to her pale cleanliness. “We should shower, after we eat, but you should wash your hands before we eat. I found food downstairs. It looks acceptable.” Her eyes flickered up to the man’s, something in them giving her pause.

Soft, affectionate eyes looked down on her, all annoyance gone. “A little dirt never hurt anyone.”

She snorted, her own fingers wrapping around his wrists as she pulled him towards the still running water. “I dunno~” she sighed as she soaped up his hands. “You eat the wrong thing and boom! Sickness.”

Something flashed through V’s eyes, something like amusement, but also not. “You have no idea what the human body can consume and still be okay with.”

“Like?” she asked, using his distraction to clean his hands as thoroughly as she could. Hers had been bad enough, coated with dirt and mystery liquids. V’s were coated in mud and mystery liquids, the substances thick and worked into the folds of his skin and edging under his nails and cuticles. The man really did need a good long soak to get the majority of it off.

His hands shifted within hers, cooperating with her efforts, even if she was sure he wouldn’t have bothered if he were alone. “Maybe one day I’ll tell her about it. Not today.”

When Emilia looked back at him, that mysterious non-quite amusement was gone. In its place, she found a wall that she knew wouldn’t fall, whatever the man had been referring to now safely tucked behind it. “Okay,” she said, shrugging and giving him a small smile. “One day. Ah~ but don’t wait too long! If one of us leaves or the raid ends, we won’t be able to share our secrets.”

It had been meant as a joke, but V seemed to take it more seriously, a frown pulling across his face. “Maybe… we meet up in the real world.”

Emilia blinked at him. She knew that people did that, although it wasn’t something common in one-off raids like this, mostly because there was a general recommendation that you know someone for at least a few months onraid before meeting offraid. Even if she and V stuck together for the rest of the raid—and who knew if they would, regardless of whether they both survived to the end—their 20ish days of friendship would still be well short of that recommendation.

“We… could,” she said, throwing what little caution she had to the wind. If V knew who she was already, she didn’t see much risk in meeting with him offraid. If he didn’t, well, it wasn’t like he’d be able to do much with her false identity, and she could defend herself!

…

And, she could also bring Sil and Beth to defend her.

V watched her with a curious expression, and she hated how hard it was to read the man. She could only assume it was due to her actually having seen his real body, her mind unable to connect the two people but seeing enough of that original person in the other visitor’s avatar for her to be thoroughly unsure of how to interpret the man’s expressions half the time.

“There’s a place,” he said, pulling their hands free of the water and grabbing a dingy looking towel set nearby to dry their hands.

He was surprisingly gentle and diligent as he dried hers, while unsurprisingly brusque and rough with his own. Emilia really wanted to rip the towel away from him and offer his hands the same care he had given hers, but his roughness was efficient, and before she could snatch the towel, he was done. Tossing the towel lazily back onto the cabinet, the man grabbed her hand and dragged her back to the kitchen.

“A place?” she asked, wondering what had made him lose his words so abruptly.

V hummed absently before seeming to spark back into himself. “Ah, yeah. There’s a place I like. It’s a bar, in Roasalia. It’s kinda in a sketchy part of town—sketchy in the very important people from all walks of life frequent the place way,” he clarified, laughing to himself as they reached the kitchen, and he began to dig through the food options.

Having been in the world longer than her, he seemed to have a better idea of what everything was. Occasionally, he pulled an item out of a cupboard or the magic device that seemed to function like a fridge. He’d diligently look over the item, weighing some internal battle before deciding whether they would eat it or not—and if so, which one of them would eat it.

Quickly, the two plates he had pulled out filled with various items, none of which Emilia recognized. Some items went on both plates, but mostly they were only placed on one. The amount of care the man was putting into trying to choose food they would each eat, when it surely would have been easier to give them the same food and just hope it went down easy enough…

“What’s it called?” she asked, leaning against the ledge next to him—too close to him. She really shouldn’t be letting this man and his sweet gestures affect her so. She’d always been a sucker for being taken care of, though. It was the way to her heart, even if just for a night or two.

V looked at her—really looked at her. Debating. He was nervous, too—likely knew this was much too soon to meet even more than she did, given his experience with this sort of thing. If he did know her, what was there to be nervous about, then? That she’d freak when they met? Accuse him of tricking her?

Maybe she would. It would probably depend on her mood and knots and how the rest of the raid went.

“It’s called Korantum.”