The four of them walked in to Dakarai’s apartment, on the top floor of a large apartment building. As soon as Roxanne walked in, she ran towards the tap in his kitchen and put her head under it, letting the water flow into her mouth.

“Will she be okay?” Dakarai asked, looking concerned at Julian.

“Unless the food there is known to kill people, I think so.” Julian nodded with a sigh.

“You doing okay, Roxanne?” Cassandra asked.

Roxanne gave a thumbs up as the water flew full force into her mouth and splashed onto her face. Her mouth was still numb, and probably would be for a while. Suddenly, her stomach started making violent rumbling noises. Her digestive system caught up with her.

“Crap.” She whispered. “Dakarai, where’s your bathroom?”

“First door on your right.”

Roxanne dashed out of the room leaving the taps on, and Cassandra followed her, leaving just the men alone with each other.

“So…nice place you got here.” Julian said calmly. It was a pretty cool place. Calming green walls with a pretty large tv, as well as what looked to be a pretty expensive sound system. And behind him was a wall of nice looking right shoes on a clear shelf.

“What’s with the shoes?”

“Eh, collecting them is just a hobby of mine.” Dakarai asked. “I always have a spare lying around for some reason.”

“Legion scars, right.” Julian sighed. “You know, on that topic. I got a question for you.”

“What would that be?”

Julian lifted the hair obscuring his left eye socket, and Dakarai remained unmoving.

“You lost your eye to the New Legion?” Dakarai asked.

“Yeah. First attack they landed, too.” Julian nodded. “So I just wanna know if I can get anything like with that girl.”

“Well, it’s easier to modify a hand then an eye, anyway.” Dakarai sighed. “I don’t think anyone’s asked for something like this before.”

“Well, you’ve done glass eyes, right?” Julian asked. “How hard would it be to modify one of those?”

“Pretty hard, I think. Nothing on the level of the hand mods I’m doing.”

“Okay, what about a disguised glass eye. Like a glass eye that’s secretly a bomb, or something?”

“I don't think I'm okay with putting a bomb in someone's face.”

“It’s more of a weakness thing than anything else.” Julian sighed. “The whole mission where we had to protect the Saoloro bow. Roxanne got her leg broken and Cassandra got strangled. She probably would have died if she didn’t have regeneration abilities.”

“And you couldn’t do anything?” Dakarai asked.

“I couldn’t do shit!” Julian yelled, grabbing Dakarai’s shoulders. “Look, if you have anything to fight with, I’ll take it!”

“Well, an idea for an eye modification just crossed my mind, if I can develop it.”

“Go on.”

“I’ll need to test if it could work, but it shouldn’t be too hard to get a prototype working. First thing tomorrow I’ll mess around in the lab for it.”

“And this is probably gonna sound ridiculous, but what’s your experience with bears?”

“Bears?”

“Well, I fight with an undead bear that I fuel with my magic, right? But the bears arms have gotten weaker every time I reattach them, so I’m wondering if you could put magnets in the middle or something to reattach them easier?”

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“So you want to work with me to create a zombie cyborg bear?”

“In essence, yes.” Julian nodded.

“Well, if you bring the bear to the hospital tomorrow, I’ll see what I can do.”

“Okay, crisis averted!” Cassandra announced as she and Roxanne walked back into the room. “But your better off using the neighbours bathroom for the next…month? Month and a half?”

“Any idea what’s on TV?” Roxanne asked, trying desperately to change the subject.

“Yeah, it wouldn’t hurt to check.” Julian nodded in agreement. Time to spare Roxanne from...whatever's going on.

Dakarai turned on the TV, flicking through the channels.

“Just tell me if you see anything you like.”

“Hey hey hey!” Roxanne yelled out. “Is that Dark Matinee?”

“Oh yeah, it’s on in five. We all cool with that?”

“Sure.” Cassandra and Julian said in unison.

The four of them sat on Dakarai’s long couch. Cassandra leaned on Julian’s shoulder after taking her jacket off. Julian returned the favour by taking his beanie off. Roxanne copied them by leaning on Dakarai’s shoulder.

Then the show came on. The show about two people who met in a dark party and were trying to reunite. But in the current episode, the show’s heroine was caught in another relationship with a man with a secret history of severe tax fraud. If he got caught, she could go down with him.

“So what, all the proof he’s a criminal is behind that door?” Julian asked, watching the girl approach the door.

“Yeah.” Roxanne replied, leaning forward with her eyes glued to the screen. “Come on…come on…”

The girl was about to open the door, only for the man to dramatically grab her wrist and twirl her against the wall, looking into her eyes with a devilish grin.

“No! No! Come on, it’s right there!”

“So he slammed her against the wall, and we’re just gonna ignore that?” Cassandra asked.

“It’s romantic!” Roxanne yelled.

“I mean…okay?”

The two continued to play up everything, including the time they got into the bedroom.

“Ah, so that’s why the miracle guys are so into this show.” Julian mumbled as the admittedly extremely hot people got undressed.

“Okay, how does a leg bend like that?” Cassandra asked.

“Maybe she’s flexible?” Julian mumbled.

“Don’t get any ideas. If she doesn’t pull a muscle doing that it’ll be a miracle.”

The episode ended with the two on a date, the credits playing as the woman heard the voice of the man she met around the corner.

“Wait, what?” Roxanne yelled, pushing down on Dakarai’s shoulder. “That’s how it ends? But he’s right there!”

“Guess we’ll have to wait for next week.” Julian replied.

“But…but…come on!”

“Well, that was entertaining, but I’m pretty tired.” Dakarai announced with a yawn.

“Same here.” Julian nodded trying to match the intensity of his yawn. It was a decent attempt. “So what are the sleeping arrangements?”

“Well, I only have one bed, but I could put a blanket on the couch if it’ll suffice.”

“Yeah, that’ll be good.” Cassandra replied with a thumbs up.

“Would the three of us fit?” Julian asked, looking at the couch. He was the tallest, so he’d be at bottom. Then with Cassandra next to him. And then Roxanne on top of Cassandra? That just sounds uncomfortable.

“I mean, how big is your bed?” Roxanne asked.

“It’s a…standard double bed.” Dakarai replied, glancing at the other two.

“And how cold does that bed get?” Cassandra asked while silently chuckling to herself.

“It's pretty warm and condensed here…so not very.”

“Oh, right. Well, I mean…if something happens to my leg, wouldn’t it make more sense for you to be close by?”

“Well, I mean…if we need the space, then sure. You can sleep in my bed.”

“Excellent.” Roxanne said calmly as the two of them went into his bedroom. A relaxed place with the same colour walls as the other place. There was a bed in the centre of the wall with blue bedsheets. Next to it was a wardrove, and above it was a shelf with some books on building.

“Nice place.” Roxanne said.

“Thanks. I try to keep it clean.” Dakarai replied. He undid his ponytail, letting the dreads flow around him.

“Oh yeah, mind if I get into some sleeping clothes?” He asked.

“Oh! Yeah, go ahead.” Roxanne yelled out.

Sleepwear. She forgot about sleepwear. She could sleep in her underwear, maybe? On the first date? Wait, does this even count as a date?

“Sorry, but you happen to have anything I can wear going to bed? I left my stuff back on the airship.”

“Oh, sure. Just check the drawer. Haven’t done laundry in a while, though. So sorry if the choices suck.”

Roxanne dug through the choices. One was a dark purple pair of shorts, they’d work fine. But there was only one shirt. A light purple shirt that just had ‘nasty girl’ written on it in black letters.

“Is this the only thing you have?” Roxanne asked.

“Probably.” Dakarai sighed. “Look, my brother gave it to me as a joke.”

“I mean…okay?” Roxanne turned her back to Dakarai and took off her clothes, replacing them with the ‘nasty girl’ shirt. She felt really stupid wearing it. Something about the shirt just felt so…nasty. The word was right in front of her, and she was too tired to describe it better. She then put on the shorts, hoping that Dakarai wasn’t looking.

She turned around, and Dakarai was shirtless. Surprisingly well built for a guy who hangs around a lab all day. She turned around again. She’d be getting into a bed with this guy.

“Well, I’m ready for bed.” Dakarai yawned. “Night.”

He turned off the lights and hopped into bed, and Roxanne hopped in with him. She tried getting into a good position. Eventually she had her back right against Dakarai. He didn’t say anything, so she went to sleep with one word in her mind.

Progress.