Chapter Text
Aaravi looked at her stats. It was the day after the meteor shower, and Aaravi had barely slept. She spent so much time awake after the meteor shower. Not even organizing her items and abilities. Just... watching Vicky, laying in the grass and drooling as she slept. It was the cutest thing. It made Aaravi's heart do all these weird motions and quivers she both loved and hated, and she was pretty sure it wasn't HP damage or heart disease. Pretty sure.
“Sorting your attacks again?”
“Shut up, Hex!” She had looked over her menus countless times the past few hours, and always and only on one tab – the relationships tab. Hearts showed on both sides, one for their feelings, one for Aaravi's. Most were symmetrical. Two hearts with Damien LaVey, as 'Frenemies', five with Hope as 'Gal Pals', six with Dahlia as 'Bash Buddies'. More abnormally, Coach had 5 Hearts and 'Beloved Student' on his side, and Aaravi only 3 Hearts and 'Reluctantly Affectionate Pupil But Will Never Admit It' on her's, and a series of 0s and 1s for Calculester, with 'FRIEND' in all caps. Weird. But those weren't what she was checking for. She had eyes for only one bar, which had started high and only grown since the beginning of the summer.
Vicky's cute, grinning face showed up opposite her own, an arrow linking the bar of hearts between them. Question marks and gray ambiguity filled Vicky's above seven – while, after a summer of incredible memories, and a little therapy, Aaravi's tenth and final heart had filled in. She felt anxious as she checked her new status.
- ADORING INFATUATION
- +500% social need (Vicky)
- +2000% vulnerability (Vicky)
- +200% smiling when looking at her (Vicky)
- Need for physical affection (Vicky) activated
- Quest Started: Oh My Gods Find A Way To Lay Your Head On Her She Is So Soft I Bet
"C'mon!" Hex whined, exiting the menu before she was finished stressing herself over it, "We're gonna miss tonight's episode of Undercover Final Boss!"
"Shut up! We'll be on the bus before that!"
"Oh, right. Unless you miss it, because you're fiddling with your menus again! " Hex laid the back of their hand against their incorporeal face dramatically. "Then we'll be stuck out here, in an abandoned summer camp, with no tv, no bagel shops, and no friends!" She felt Hex shift and look at her face. "I guess that last one's not a big change for you, huh, Ravi?"
She refused to rise to their bait. She would inflict so much emotional damage with a high-level comeback later. When she was finished crafting it. For the moment, she had higher priorities. "Just... I need some time alone, okay? Go into my spleen and watch Netflix for ten minutes or whatever."
Hex crossed their arms in a huff. "If I start an episode of Real Housewives of Croatia, I'm not coming out until I finish it."
"Go!"
"Fine. But you owe me." Hex swirled back into her head, and she felt a tingle down her spine as they swept away to whatever internal organs of her's they had fashioned into a cozy little home.
Aaravi made certain to catch Vicky before she got to the bus, away from prying eyes or eavesdropping campmates. "Um. Hey there, Vicky."
Vicky gave her the cutest little wave hello, smiling and wiggling her fingers as she did. Dammit! Vicky had inflicted like, ten stacks of blush on her without even saying a word! And Aaravi, despite spending hours finding the materials to craft a +12 Earring of Blush Immunity in preparation, couldn't bear, for some reason, to actually put it on despite all the stats being totally OP.
She made a mental note to make a walkthrough/poem for Vicky encounters later. "It's... I just wanna talk about something, I guess?" She couldn't make eye contact. She knew Vicky would easily crit her. She was good at that. Aaravi rubbed her arm nervously. "It's just... after, y'know, going to prom, and that being kind of cool... and then... all these summer companion quests we've done... together..."
Another two stacks of blush! And self-inflicted at that! She should have known better than to bring up prom. That took away all her stacks of 'Idle Rage' and that was like 99% of her emotional defense. She tried not to think about how cool and beautiful Vicky had looked, or how her touch felt against Aaravi's arm, so soft and tender even though Aaravi was buried in several pounds of chainmail. Or how close they were when they slow danced the night away, or the way she felt when their hands lingered just a few moments when they let go to say goodbye...
Aaravi needed to get back on emotionally steady ground. "Me and Calculester are gonna run a food truck, coming up, and I was thinking we could, maybe, y'know, you and me get together for stuff?" Her heart dropped as she realized how unclear that sounded. "Not as a work thing! Or as a sex thing! U-unless you-uh, if... that's, like... several levels ahead. If we take that quest route. I mean, if you take that quest route! Because obviously you would need to... uh, and if I take that quest route. Not that I'm saying I've already decided! O-or that I won't, I mean..."
Her stacks of blush were self-perpetuating, with a side-status of anxiety. She was totally losing at life. It wasn't some radial quest she could come back to or do a slight variation of. She had one chance with her favorite person in all the world and she was blowing it! Oh, gods, what if Vicky didn't feel the same? What if she said, "Sorry, Aaravi... but we're better as friends." Oh, fuck, what if she said she was already with someone who asked her slightly earlier? Aaravi would ragequit dating indefinitely.
Aaravi finally worked up the courage to actually look at Vicky. Her eyes were big and round and happy and looked like she saw Aaravi as the most precious puppy in the whole wide world instead of a little ball of rage and competitive drive. "D-don't look me like that!" Aaravi crossed her arms, trying to look aggravated instead of afflicted with 'Charmed'. Vicky looked at her another, even cuter way. "Or that!" CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT CRIT! Aaravi wasn't specced for that kind of emotional DPS! She knew then and there that Vicky was going to carry her the rest of the way through the encounter. She almost didn't mind.
Wordlessly, Vicky took Aaravi's face in her hands to make sure she was looking into that verdant, smiling face of her's. Aaravi felt like she was staring at the sun, impossibly beautiful and awe-inspiring and life-giving beyond what human eyes were meant to see. Vicky, audibly choking back tears, bit her lip and nodded.
It happened. Their first kiss together, though not either of their first kisses. It was so, so sweet. Even sweeter than the loot at the end of a grueling 100-level bonus dungeon. It was long, and tender, but... innocent, almost. Aaravi felt a lifetime of quests open up in her log. Most of them in the quest category of 'Make Vicky Happy'. Aaravi felt her final heart fill with several more shades of red, each deeper than the last, and swell up and ache with a desire half-fulfilled. But most of all, she felt Vicky's soft lips against her's, soothing her every fear and injury.
Her hair was so soft, and as Vicky's arms wrapped around her, Aaravi felt like she could just melt into the taller girl. And-dammit, she hated to admit it, but for once being short and smol felt amazing. Her body, coiled with tensed muscle and sinew, gave way to the all-encompassing bliss of not only knowing, but feeling another person care so much and so deeply for her.
Vicky wasn't nearly as leveled as Aaravi was... but Aaravi couldn't deny the utility of being able to reverse her every stack of blush to a positive status. She was the ultimate, no, perfect support, even if she was only situationally useful in dungeons. Vicky gave her something even better than legendary gear or XP or completed quests or even victory.
Happiness.
Breathless, they both drew away, eyes locked with joy and a little bit of surprise. Aaravi couldn't remember ever being happier in her entire life.
"Pog." she said.