When the crow finally turned down the music with a mental command, it was almost dawn. The infernal Sun started to poke out from underneath the drawn curtains, and even though the general consensus was to leave quietly and promptly now that the party was over, Waverly didn’t really feel like going home yet. She’d experienced too many new things to even think of sleeping, just like on the first day of school, college, or when she’d unlocked [Shapeshifting] for the first time and her parents had taken her out to the Dark Forest for her first (and only) hunt.

She was sitting at the bar, waving goodbye to everyone who passed her and gave her a nod. She knew many, but not all of them, but that was okay. She liked being nice to people, and also there was this sort of connection now. Because they had done something taboo together, she guessed.

She almost wished she could go home with them, instead of going to her parent’s place—

“Do you ever think we got it all wrong, Waves?”

Waverly perked up in surprise, her head turning to find Victor next to her, a glass of some amber liquid in his hands. How long had he been there? She’d been spacing out again.

As the catboy looked at her, he calmly brought his drink to his lips, but then he squinted in that way he did when he noticed something, paused, and said: “Sorry, didn’t mean to startle you…”

“Oh, no, no, it’s fine. What do you mean, wrong?” She was so glad for a new topic to latch on to, that her tail started wagging on its own. …After having betrayed her with its fluffy stillness without her even realizing it. Stupid thing.

“I meant…” he gestured at the air, somehow including himself, the bar, college, Hell, and the world.

Waverly inclined her head for a second, but then she shook it. “No sorry, I still don’t get it. Like, life in general?”

“Yeah, kind of. I’ve been thinking about this stuff all evening. Ever since I got the new XP triggers. All my life, I’ve just been looking for a quiet spot where no one would bother me, you know? I thought I had everything I wanted, and if not, I just had to wait a while longer.”

Waverly nodded. She obviously felt very, very different, but it wasn’t hard to see that Victor needed someone who just listened, so she shut her trap for once, grabbed her drink from the bar to hold it in both hands, turned to him, and let him talk.

“But ever since that the party where we met, I have been wondering. What if there is more out there? If I had stayed quiet on that first night, we would never have talked. I’d never have met my best friend, and would probably just hang out with a crowd of people who were just good enough, you know?”

This time, Waverly nodded harder, because she could totally understand that feeling. She’d never had an issue making friends, but after meeting Victor, the bar for friendship had shifted dramatically. People she’d called friends before were actually more like acquaintances, people you liked to hang out with every once in a while, but who you didn’t need around every day or two.

“And now I keep getting these XP triggers from my vampire side, and they all tell me to do stuff, Waves,” he sighed, turned his back to the bar, and leaned against it, staring up into the darkness beyond the dim chandeliers. It had quieted down, only the dim chatter of the last patrons providing a low platform for their conversation.

“And all that stuff: the duels, the fighting, the banter and being snippy, it’s fun, but it also feels… I don’t know. It just feels—“

“Dangerous?” Waverly provided.

“Yeah,” Victor said.

Waverly turned to the bar and leaned on it, propping up her head with her forearm. She still looked at Victor, and when he turned his head towards her, she said, “You mentioned that party, right? The one where we met? And I think that was kinda interesting because when I was there, and when we met, I’d just made a resolution, or something like it. Did I ever tell you about that?”

Victor shook his head no, and Waverly went on, “Maybe that’s why we fit so well, actually. I’d also always felt like I just kinda fit in, but not really, you know? People in my High School weren’t really as nerdy as I was, and didn’t like maths, or poetry. I mean, it’s the Dregs, what do you expect? They all just wanted to level up and become strong and perhaps get into College on a scholarship to get drafted by a High-Xpac Dungeon. Become elites, you know? But like, Miniboss was where their ambitions ended, but I kinda mean that’s super fine, because…”

She took a deep breath to not fall into that rant again, and she limited herself to, “because the teachers kinda made it clear that’s all we were good for, you know? Better that than Overworld mobs, probably even unaligned, or worse, just fall into monster-on-monster crime.”

Stolen novel; please report.

“Monster-on-Monster crime? Is that even possible?” Victor asked. “Someone tries to mug you, you just walk away. Not like they can do anything about it unless you agree to a duel.”

“There’s ways,” Waverly said, but the topic made her ears flick and her tail twitch, so she got them back on track. “But anyways, I didn’t fit in, so I just kinda made myself fit in, you know? I really like people, and I really like talking, so all I had to do was just listen a bit and learn which topics I could talk about, and which were weird. But then when I had the chance to go to College, I tried so damn hard to get there, because I believed everything would be super different, and I could talk to people about math and poetry and stuff all the time, you know? I mean, the career chances were nice, but for me, it was mostly about finally finding my people.”

Victor nodded, sipping his water, and Waverly briefly feared he’d stolen his thunder, and that she should stop talking. But no, Victor liked her, and she had told herself…

“It was completely not that, though. People were just kinda the same, even though there was a group that loved math, and one that loved poetry, they didn’t really mix, and when I talked to them, they kind of all looked at me like I was going to eat them.”

Victor chuckled meaningfully at that, and the corner of her mouth twitched, even though he didn’t even say the innuendo out loud.

“Yeah, don’t even get me started on talking to them about sex. I didn’t even know zombies could get that red in the face.”

Victor laughed quietly at that, and then he said: “But you said you made a resolution?”

Waverly nod-nod-nodded. “I told myself I wouldn’t go back to trying to fit in.”

“Yo,” Victor said, eyebrows raised. “That must have been kinda scary though.”

Waverly nodded as slowly as she could, holding his eyes. She really wanted to explain it, to talk it out and prove how smart she was, but Victor knew that she was smart, and somehow, letting him make the connection himself felt right.

“…right,” Victor said in a way that told her he had totally gotten it. “Just like my choice was, or is, scary.”

“But,” the Catboy said, eying the empty glass in his hand, “If the scary option is the right one, that would mean that I have been doing all this stuff wrong for the longest time. That makes it even scarier.”

That one Waverly didn’t get. She wasn’t really worried about the past all that much. The future, though… man, that was terrifying. Still, this wasn’t about her right now, so while still slouched over the bar, she extended her left arm to punch Victor on the shoulder and said. “Scarier than to keep doing stuff the wrong way, while knowing what you’re doing is the wrong thing for you?”

That got a smirk out of his gloomface.

“I mean,” he began, sighed, and went on, “I should probably find a way to find out if that’s what I want. You know, before spending years of my life going down a career path that I might hate in the end. Could ask Mom for an Internship, I guess. She wouldn’t say no to that.”

He pulled his Hellphone out of his back pocket and scrolled through it. “Yeah, she’s got an empty slot in her calendar on Wednesday, during Downtime.”

Victor stilled, finger hovering over the screen. He blinked as if he just realized what he was doing, and then said. “Awwww, fuck. I’m actually going to do it, aren’t I?”

Waverly just grinned, showing her canines, and wiggled her eyebrows at him.

“But Waverly! That is haaaaaaarrrrddddd,” he whined, but she knew she got him, so she just wiggled her eyebrows harder.

“Alright fuck it, fine,” Victor said, his fingers flying over his phone. Waverly just watched as he scheduled a meeting with his mom, which was a really funny, but also kind of sad thing to think about.

Victor finally put his phone away, his empty glass on the counter, then interlaced his fingers to stretch. “Should be good. Can ask her about more [Vampire] triggers while I’m at it.”

Waverly’s grin fell off a bit at that. He had two classes, and she only had one. Even if each consecutive class counted progressively less than the highest one, that was still a huge advantage. If they drifted too far apart in levels, chances were slim that they’d get into the same Dungeon after College, even if she got good grades and went on to do her [Dungeon Master]’s degree and the associated class. It would just take too long, and he’d already have much more experience, both in the literal and metaphorical sense, especially if he got an internship this early. They were rare, and people fought hard about them, because of the giant benefits, the least of which was that Dungeons had a crapton of Triggers that you couldn’t get anywhere else.

When she got her College invitations, Waverly had been okay with the rest of the class kind of leaving her behind, because she didn’t really expect to do super well in college anyhow. But when she was kinda doing well, she’d gotten that silly little idea in her head that Victor and her could maybe run a dungeon together when they were done.

His mentioning the fact that he had more triggers than her and that she would lag behind him in levels put a deep gash in that dream.

But then, Victor saw her expression and did a very Victor thing.

He punched her on the arm, smiled that quiet smile of his, and said, “Just promise me you won’t leave me in the dust, yeah?”

“You got two classes, Vic,” Waverly said. “I mean I’ll keep trying to keep up, but…”

“Yeah, but the third class doesn’t really make that much of a difference, so you’ll be fine with two.”

Waverly’s left ear perked up, and she frowned. “Three classes? Why would I have two? What the heavens are you on about?”

“Yo,” Victor said, doing his cat-grin. “Can’t be a [Dungeon Boss] without the class.”

Waverly pushed herself off the bar. “Victor, if you don’t start making sense right now, I will personally get the Arena ready again so I can put you into the ground.”

Victor did that thing where he smiled like a Cat ready to eat a bird, because obviously.

“Ahhh, Waverly, I was just thinking that I should ask my Mother for advice on Vampire triggers, and while I was at it, indulge in the wonderful, timeless practice of nepotism on behalf of my best friend.”

Waverly’s tail twitched.