The next morning, it was a damp and foggy day with gray skies and icy mist slowly tingling on the roof as Kyle tried to wake up. Stretching, he couldn’t help but yawn repeatedly as he tried to fight the gentle sound of the frozen rain beating on the roof above him. It took a herculean effort of will, and a raging desire to not keep Heather waiting so they could explore the Idiot’s Paradise together, to make himself finally open his eyes and roll out of bed.
Shambling into the guest room, Kyle decided if he was going to have to suffer being awake so early, Sera would just have to join him. Yawning, he didn’t even take time to admire her sleeping form this morning before he was tugging the blankets off her bed. “Hey Sera! Wakey up and get up with me.”
Yawning and rubbing his eyes, Kyle smiled lightly and perked up a bit, feeling slightly better about the morning, as he stared down and watched Sera slowly stretch. She was wearing one of his long button-up shirts to sleep in, and only a single button was still fastened at her navel, holding the two halves of the shirt loosely together in the middle. Her full mounds of soft round flesh were trying to escape from the top, and the bottom was scarcely what he’d call covered; with a nice full view of her hips, thigh, and curvature of her buttocks as she slowly stretched, lying on her side, facing him.
“Mo’ring.” She unabashedly yawned and stretched as she slowly sat up in the bed. Her hair was a rumpled red mess of bed head, with strands poking in every direction in chaotic disarray, and she wobbled unsteadily as she tried to stand; almost falling back on to the mattress in her morning wobbles. “Save me some?” She asked, cryptically as Kyle wrapped an arm around her to catch her, while stealing a long look at the treasures his shirt was barely covering.
“Almost seven,” he answered, somehow knowing exactly what she’d meant. “We were going to log in around eight, and I thought a nice breakfast together would be good for us before we started playing today. You OK to stand up and walk on your own now?”
“I ‘ate mo’rings,” Sera griped while slowly nodding her head up and down, and starting to rub her eyes.
“Then come on downstairs in a moment and join me. I’ll go fix us something quick for breakfast,” Kyle offered.
“’Kay.” Sera promised.
Taking on last, long stare, Kyle unwrapped his arm from around Sera, where he was helping support her. For a moment, he watched her protectively to make certain that she wasn’t going to stumble again while half asleep. It was only when he was certain that she was stable enough to be steady on her own that he turned and went out into the hall and down the stairs to the kitchen.
Rummaging around the kitchen, there wasn’t any sign of his mother leaving breakfast already prepared for them; so it looked like it was up to Kyle to toss together something quickly. Looking in the fridge, he decided to simply fix an oversized omelet for him and Sera this morning. Breaking open a dozen eggs into a bowl, he shredded a chunk of cheese and tossed in half a pound of ground sausage into the mixture and beat it senseless until it seemed all mixed up to him. Turning the stove eye on, he poured a little vegetable oil into a large frying pan and then dumped the whole mixture in his mixing bowl into the pan and started stirring it slowly so it wouldn’t stick to the bottom as it cooked.
Several minutes later, Kyle could only shrug as his omelet turned into a gooey mess of scrambled eggs instead. Yelling, “Sera! You coming?”, Kyle sprinkled a little pepper on the eggs in the pan and then walked over to toss a few pieces of bread into the toaster.
“I’m here. I’m here.” Sera slowly shambled into the kitchen, still wearing nothing more than Kyle’s oversized shirt, and plopped down in a seat in front of the table. “So whatcha fixing?” She asked, while stifling back a yawn.
“Well, it was going to be an omelet,” Kyle admitted, “but now it looks like scrambled eggs. The toast’ll be done in a moment and we can just scoop from the pan and make sandwiches. You want any ‘mater or mayo on yours?
“Nah. I’m not really that hungry anyway,” Sera said, shaking her head from side to side, causing her hair to become even more disheveled than previously.
Kyle winced inwardly while staring at the tangled mess that was Sera’s hair, and began to look around for a brush instinctively, before he was interrupted by the toast popping up. Sighing, he walked over and grabbed the now browned bread from the toaster, and dropped it in a plate before walking over to sit down at the table across from Sera.
Kyle couldn’t help but smile and think that this was a good morning, and he had a lovely view to enjoy while eating breakfast. Other folks might be complaining about the fog and icy drizzle clouding the morning outside, but he was perfectly content to sit and enjoy his meal sitting across from Sera and watching her almost have a wardrobe malfunction all throughout breakfast.
As she slowly started to waken with a hot meal filling her stomach, Sera finally noticed where Kyle’s eyes were locked on her chest. Sighing lightly, she muttered something about perverts which Kyle couldn’t quite make out – and was certain that he probably didn’t want to – and then proceeded to finally do up all the buttons on the shirt she was wearing.
With an accident of epic proportions finally adverted, Kyle finally managed to blink a few times and start to get his brain working again. “Sorry,” he said, laughing lightly. “For some reason, I was distracted this morning, and I didn’t even bother to ask what you’d like to drink with breakfast. Heck, I didn’t even get myself a drink.”
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“Idiot.” Sera stretched and then slowly got up and walked over to the fridge. “Get the cups, I’ll get the juice.”
Kyle got up, went to move over to the cabinet where the cups were stored and stared distracted as he watched his shirt ride up Sera’s back when she bent over to get the juice from the bottom of the fridge. CRACK went his big toe as he stubbed it hard into the cabinet. “Yeouch!!” Kyle hopped backwards, trying to grab his foot with one hand, and tripped over the chair he was sitting in, causing it to clatter to the ground with a crash and him to end up lying dazed and sore on the ground.
“Kyle!” Sera dashed over, sat the Orange Juice on the table, and knelt down to check on him. “Are you alright? What happened?”
“I think I broke my toe,” Kylie groaned, tears leaking from the corner of his eyes.
“And how the hell did you do that?” Sera asked, both confused and concerned, and amused.
“I just did!” Kyle said moodily, as he slowly got up and hobbled over to a different chair to sit in.
Laughing slightly, Sera bent over and righted the chair that had flipped over, but Kyle was too busy caressing his injured foot to enjoy the show. “I thought I was the one who was bad with mornings,” Sera joked as she got two cups from the cabinet and then sat down in the chair Kyle had occupied previously.
“Yeah, well,” Kyle just shrugged slightly, “anyone can stub their toe. At least I didn’t forget to put on a pair of pants this morning,” he grumbled moodily.
Glancing down at herself, Sera blushed slightly. “I couldn’t help it,” she said defensively. “I’ve never been a morning person, and I was up late last night killing wolves for my tribe, in Winter’s Tale. I haven’t been able to play during the week like everyone else, and I didn’t want to fall too far behind.”
“That doesn’t matter,” Kyle told her, reassuringly as the pain in his toe was beginning to settle into a dull throb. “We’re not going to leave you behind or anything. We’ll all catch up together later in game. There’s travel rings at the major cities, and even rings scattered in the wilderness and throughout the land in different spots. All we need to do is find another one of those and then we can all catch up to each other. If Heather could find her way to the middle of nowhere, where I’m currently stuck at, I’m certain there’ll be a way for you to join us as well, sooner or later.”
“It might not take as long as you think,” Sera said with a half-smile. “Last night I killed a wolf that dropped a Scroll of Distant Journeys. It’s supposed to let you travel to anywhere someone in your party, friend, or guild list is. I might be able to use it to travel to you guys. If you think a mostly-naked warrior would be useful in your group. I still don’t have any real armor besides a loin cloth,” Sera admitted, worriedly. “If you’d prefer me to keep fighting till I can get a suit of wolf-hide armor, I’d understand.”
Laughing, Kyle slowly stumbled up and hobbled around the table to ruffle her hair. “We’d love to have you with us. I’m a healer. Heather’s a mage. A warrior would definitely make a world of difference in what we could fight! The only thing,” Kyle said, thinking about it, “is that I’m not certain if you’ll be able to join us. The dungeon we entered had a seventy-two hour lockout for people not in our party. You weren’t with us when we discovered it, so you might not be able to join us in it.”
“Can’t you leave it long enough for me to travel to you?” Sera asked, half pouting.
“Sure can. We’re right at the entrance,” Kyle assured her. “But, I don’t know if you can enter into it with us once you travel to the forest.”
“That’ll be fine!” Sera said brightly. “Worst case, I’ll just die in the forest and find out where the graveyard is for you guys. Then I can hunt there for the next little bit until that timer runs out and collect whatever’s needed so you can make me armor. I’ll just go Seran-crazy on things nearby and murder them until they murder me. All my loot can pile up at the graveyard, and sit there so I won’t lose it when I die. It’s how I was hunting anyway the last time I played. This time I’ll at least be close enough that I can pass all I’ve collected to you so you turn it into something useful for me.”
“Didn’t you ever think about crafting it into something useful?” Kyle asked, curiously.
“Nope. Me Seran! Me man, me fight! Puny woman-girl do sew-sew!” Sera pumped her fist high in the air, giving a loud, “HURRAH!”
Kyle gave a loud wolf-whistle* watching the bottom of her shirt lift as Sera pumped her fist in the air, causing her to blush brightly and turn to head upstairs. “Come on, pervey. It’s about time to log in, and you don’t want to be late.”
“I’m coming,” Kyle told her as he took a moment to put the dirty dishes in the sink. Hobbling as fast as he could with his toe still throbbing, he tried to get to the steps in time to see Sera before she made it all the way to the top, but he was too late. Sighing slightly in disappointment, Kyle slowly worked his way up the steps and to his room and slid on his V-RIG helmet.
It was time to head back to Winter’s Tale!
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Spoiler: Wolf Whistle Kyle