Natalie allowed herself five minutes of personal reflection before she prepared to return to her world of professional normalcy. After changing into her matching flannel pajama set in the bathroom while Carter set up his laptop for her, she wasn't about to protest as she finally made herself somewhat comfortable. When she returned to the room, he had changed into plaid lounge pants and a grey band t-shirt and was sitting on the bed that didn't hold the waiting laptop.

Leaning against the headboard of the unoccupied bed, she propped the old silver laptop on her knees and booted it up. She was greeted by a desktop filled with cartoon illustrations she vaguely recognized from middle school from a game that other kids used to play on their Gameboys with strange cuddly creatures.

"Password?" she prompted without looking up.

Carter had situated himself on the edge of the other bed, a hardcover book resting on his criss-crossed legs. "DungeonMaster723," he said without a moment's hesitation.

If she had been drinking water, they would have both been soaked as the laugh busted out of her before she could control it. "Please tell me that's not some sex thing. That's way more than I want to know about you."

His eyes widened to an almost comical size as his face grew red. "Wait.. what? No, it's from Dungeons & Dragons. Are you telling me you've never heard of a DM?"

"DM as in direct message? Sure I have."

"No, no." He reached into his backpack again, this time retrieving a large black felt bag. "Come young padawan, I have much to teach you."

"Come what-now?"

"Pada–" He shook his head. "Never mind. Just put the laptop down for a minute. This will be fun."

"I know enough about you to know that your definition of fun and my definition of fun are two totally different things."

"Then give me a minute to show you my fun and you can go back to yours."

Natalie glanced at the laptop in her lap, its cursor blinking just waiting for the password to be entered. She could simply ignore Carter and input the characters that would allow her to return to some semblance of digital normalcy.

"What's the 723 stand for?" she asked as her fingers hovered over the keyboard.

"My birthday," he said casually, but before she could comment another rustle of the bag sent a pile of multicolored dice of all shapes and sizes scattering onto his bed.

"And what, exactly, are those for?"

He shrugged without losing his amused smirk. "One minute of fun and I'll tell you."

Natalie wasn't used to not knowing things, period. Even in school, she'd never been comfortable with the concept of teacher and student. Not knowing things was a weakness and the strange velvet bag had her perplexed. None of this seemed like it had anything to do with dungeons. Or dragons. And it definitely didn't seem to have anything to do with fun.

Glancing between Carter's smile and the waiting laptop, she slowly pressed the screen closed and set the computer aside. One minute. That was all he would get, and only so that she could satiate this uneasy feeling of something being left unknown and get back to more important things.

"Do you want to make your character or use a generic one?" Carter asked as he shuffled through a stack of papers that he pulled from his bag. She stood up and peered over his shoulder, trying to see what was printed on them, but the words and drawings made no sense to her.

"Like the Sims?" Natalie asked as she sat beside him on the edge of the bed. "I always made my own. The pre-mades always looked funny."

"Not exactly. D&D is more like a fantasy video game or jumping into the middle of a Tolkien novel. You'll choose a race, a job class, and assign points to your skills depending on what you want to do in the game."

Natalie scrunched up her nose. "This sounds like a lot of work just to get started. And it's clearly going to take much longer than one minute."

"Fine, fine, then I'm going to give you..." He sorted through the papers one at a time before he pulled one out of the stack. "Damaia, the Tiefling Warlock, daughter of Asmodeus."

"Who's Asmodeus?" she asked as she reached for the paper he handed her.

"The devil."

She scowled at him.

Brushing his hair from his eyes, he gave her a reassuring smile. "Are you telling me you never wished for magical powers to burn your foes into a pile of ashes with demonic fire?"

She arched a brow. "Wait, she can do that?"

"And so much more."

The hint of a smile teased her lips. "Tell me."

Carter quickly summarized the rules of the game, explaining what each skill and attribute meant in a way that made sense and didn't make her feel like he was talking to her as if she was five. During his tutorial, Natalie began to wonder how often he played these games, and how many times he had taken on the role of teaching new players.

It took a lot to be an instructor, especially one that could teach Natalie something new without her immediately thinking she could do it better despite not knowing the subject. But Carter was patient and thorough and more enthusiastic about a game than Natalie had ever been about anything besides her grades and a higher pay scale.

Soon the minute turned into ten, then thirty, and an hour later Natalie was still enthralled at Carter's ability to weave a tale that involved both dungeons and dragons.

As she picked up the dice to roll her about whether or not she'd be able to hear any approaching enemies, every light in the room shut off while the heater made a terrible clunking noise before dying completely. The room immediately felt colder, and in the darkness, she couldn't even make out Carter's figure on the other side of the bed.

Something inside her deflated as she realized they wouldn't be able to continue playing. Since when did such trivial things entertain her? Was the stress of the day starting to wear on her sanity?

She let out a string of curse words and tried in vain to command her eyes adjust to the darkness as Carter laughed.

"Wow," she said sarcastically. "You really don't take anything seriously do you?"

She felt a movement from the other end of the bed, and although it was dark, she could almost envision him shrugging in that nonchalant way that drove her crazy. "Life happens. In the end, none of us are going to make it out alive. Might as well find entertainment in the chaos."

"So what happens when something truly horrible goes down? Do you just ignore it and laugh that off too? If I turn up dead tomorrow, do I need to worry about you doing standup at my funeral?"

She felt the bed shift again, and then his fingers closed around her hand where it rested on the bed. Though a surprise, his warmth was comforting. "Don't turn up dead tomorrow and you won't have to worry about it." His voice was husky, a faint hint of worry layered over the normal amusement.

Natalie had to clear her throat before she spoke again. Blood was pulsing through her veins at a rapid speed, her heart was in her throat, and she'd suddenly forgotten how to breathe properly. "It's already starting to get cold in here."

It wasn't a lie. The sun had set shortly after their arrival. It was probably nearing 1:00 A.M. and the snowstorm hadn't let up. There was no point in trying to call the front desk. It was clear that the power was out in the entire building if the faint glow of streetlights through their window snuffing out was any indication. If they didn't figure something out, they could very well catch some sort of cold by morning.

"Well, you are in luck. Because not only am I a computer science minor, I had to learn how to survive the cold at my grandparents' house in Minnesota when we visited on holidays. I am the king of insulated blanket forts and cheap hot chocolate."

"You can't make hot chocolate with no pow–"

But her words were cut off as he took both of her hands in his and pulled her to a standing position. Her hands automatically slid to his biceps to help steady herself. His hard muscles strained underneath his tight t-shirt sleeves and she found herself lazily drawing a thumb down one of the veins that bubbled up below it.

He shuddered hard, his entire body shaking. "Sorry, I'm super ticklish," he said, but his voice was hoarse.

Natalie was momentarily thankful for the darkness because there was no way for him to see the beet-red of her face. As quickly as the urge to touch him had come on, she pushed it away with the same speed and intensity. He was her intern. Not only that, but it was the absolute worst time for her to fall for anyone. She didn't need the distraction. She was eligible for a promotion next month and would be damned if anything... or anyone... kept her from it.

But her thoughts trailed off to every time in her life when she'd told herself just that. In high school, when guys had shown interest, she brushed them off to ensure her valedictorian status. Or in college, when her classmates couldn't understand why she didn't attend parties with the rest of them.

Was there ever a right time? How did other people make time to fall in love?

"So that's like the fifth thing you've learned about me tonight," Carter said as he turned on his phone's flashlight app, using the precious little battery he had left, and stripped one of the beds of its blankets and linens. "You're winning so I think it's pretty fair to say it's my turn to even the playing field."

"It wasn't a competition. I never asked."

He laughed as he navigated around her to the other bed and repeated the actions. "It's always a competition with you Natalie. Come on. It won't kill you to open up a bit."

It might, she thought. But she knew he wasn't going to shut up until she did. "What do you want to know?"

Carter dragged one of the mattresses from its bed and propped it against the far wall. "Let's start with the basics. Were you raised in L.A. or did you just find your way there like the rest of us?"

She sat cross-legged on the floor's rough carpet and tried to feel helpful by folding the blankets, even though she had a feeling they would be unfolded soon enough. "I grew up in Bakersfield. So it wasn't exactly a big jump for me."

In the faint glow of his flashlight, she saw him press his lips together and nod. "Makes sense. Why music then? You don't seem like the 'music saved my life' type."

"You don't know me." She knew she was being overly sensitive but for some reason, that she couldn't quite put her finger on, she cared what he thought about her more than she wanted to admit.

"Well, that's the point of the question. To get to know you. If I'm wrong, tell me."

"My dad was a musician when I was a little kid. I was raised in studios and sweaty music venues."

He placed the other mattress at a 90-degree angle to the first one. "See, now we're getting somewhere. Did he play anything I would know?"

She hated talking about this. The band was just big enough that people who paid attention to music knew who they were. And she'd spent too many first dates and too many sleepovers with new friends rehashing what it was like to be her father's daughter. After the day she'd had, the last thing she wanted to do is relive all of the old memories she'd tried so long to forget. When your home is a tour bus and your babysitter is whichever band member isn't high at that particular moment, you tend to lose all the illusions of fame.

But not the love of music, not in Natalie's case anyway.

"No, probably not. But helping out artists like my dad is why I do what I do."

He hummed in agreement with his back towards her. "Hand me the fitted sheet," he said with one arm outstretched behind him. She did as he asked, and he worked in silence for a few minutes, building the most complex blanket fort she'd ever seen before turning around with his arms spread as if he was a winning contestant on a game show. "Voila."

"I mean, I won't lie. It looks great, but will it keep us warm?" She couldn't stop the shiver that coursed through her entire body. The cold was starting to permeate her layers and it wouldn't be long before it was intolerable.

"Trust me," he said. Before she could protest about the meaning of trust, he pulled her into the fort with him, wrapping the comforter around her like a burrito. Deftly climbing in beside her, he shut off the phone's flashlight and put his arms around her. "It's a necessary part of the process. Body heat and all."

"You know, for once, you actually showed initiative and talent. Where was all of this hiding when we were at the office?" Natalie mused in a half-humorous manner as her body finally warmed up.

"I mean, it was there. You just never asked me to make blanket forts. You asked me to do things I'd always dreamed I'd do, but never actually experienced. It's one thing to read about them, to hope to one day do them. It's another to be commanded to do them with no guidance what-so-ever."

She laughed, even though the words touched part of her in ways she couldn't formulate into appropriate thoughts. She realized how much she'd failed the doe-eyed, shaggy-haired eager worker that entered her office a year ago. How much he'd been relying on her to teach him all about their shared world. "Even the coffee order though?"

"I am the king of cheap hot chocolate. I don't drink coffee. Until I met you I never knew a macchiato existed."

"I doubt your hot chocolate comes anywhere near my daily Starbucks."

"I'd love the chance to prove you wrong."

She laughed again, but this time it was a weak huff of a sound. She was warmer and more comfortable than she had been since they left LAX. Exhaustion set in as she allowed her muscles to loosen up. It had been a long, trying day and who knew what tomorrow would bring.

"I could fall asleep like this," she murmured lazily.

"Then do it. We've got nowhere to be right now," Carter responded as he rested his chin on her head and leaned back against the mattress wall, pulling her back with him until she was laying on his chest.

In the last blissfully hazy moments before she fell asleep, Natalie wondered what it would be like to fall asleep like this with someone every night. It could have been the sleep deprivation talking, but she was pretty sure she would be alright if that someone was Carter.