That night, there's a party the likes of which I'd never seen before in the inn of The Crucifix Staff.

People are cheering and raising Saku on their shoulders. She laughs and cheers along with them, red in the face and looking quite drunk. A party plays a tune I've never heard before, but I find somewhat catchy.

There's a surprising crowd around me, congratulating me, clapping me on the back, thanking me or requesting to be my friends (I turn them all down), one girl even asked me out on a date. I'm so taken aback, I kind of panic and say I already have a girlfriend, but that we're really planning to get married tomorrow and we have a baby on the way. (along with the ever popular tongue bite).

She doesn't look convinced for some reason.

Someone taps me on the shoulder. I can tell it's the deaf elf before I even check. No one taps me on the shoulder, like, ever.

"Hi!" I say, trying to remember how I was able to speak back in the heat of battle. Unfortunately, all linguistic capabilities seem to have failed me. How sad.

Hi. She answers. How are you?

"Um... doing pretty good, I think." It suddenly occurs to me I'm missing something extremely vital. "I'm Hide, by the way. Hide! How about you?"

The realization that we didn't even know each others names becomes quite heavy in the air. I'm Yin. She says, her hands fumbling and her cheeks burning. Yin as in silver.

"Uh..." I try, but starting a sentence with 'uh' usually means it's not going to be a very good one, for me. "Uh... you fought well."

So, I guess that's what I'm going to say? What am I, braindead?

She nods, already looking uncomfortable. This is the part where she excuses herself with a mumbled excuse and I never see her again.

Instead, she holds up a familiar card and makes the sign for friend.

"Friend." I say stupidly. "Uh, do you have any?"

She regards my face with interest as if I'm some being from outer space. I feel all the braincells I'd ever accumulated in my life suddenly spontaneously combust.

No. She says. Which is why I'm asking you to be my first friend.

 And that's the moment when my body decides it's a good time to desist it's functionality and leave me twitching and foaming at the mouth. Or at least, that's how it felt.

"Y... yes." I manage to say, my tongue making some very impressive twists to dodge some very unruly bites. "I... have my card somewhere..."

We have to try tapping our cards several times, because both our hands are shaking. It's strangely comforting to know someone could possibly get nervous around me.

Akemi arrives right as I miss the card for the ninth time and scratch her wrist.

"Oh for..." She grabs my arm and holds Yin's arm, much more gently, I notice, then guides us our cards together. There's a small flash and I feel another name appear on my screen.

"Uh, thanks." I say, scratching my head. "This is Yin." 

"We've met." Akemi says with a smile. "We once went to raid a dragon quest together. Remember that?"

Yin lights up like I'd never seen before. Her signing is so fast that the words scroll over her head at inhuman speeds. Fortunately, I watched a lot of subbed anime as a kid, so I'm used to this.

"She says she does," I interpret, "that she remembers the number of clouds that day and that that was the most fun she'd ever had in her life and that you were covered in dragon saliva after you jumped down its throat."

I raise my eyebrows at her. "Did you check if it was a fire breather before you jumped? That could've ended badly."

"Look, our attacks weren't even scratching its scales, we were low on health, the dragon was laughing at us, and I saw its mouth open, and.." She stamps her foot in frustration. "Look, it hadn't breathed fire up until then, so I thought it was safe to assume..."

"Hold on," I say, checking the crowd. "We're missing someone."

I spot him, shuffling nervously through the background, doing his best to look like a merchant belonging in a crowd of high level warriors. I shoot out my arm and scoop him over to us.

"Whoa!" Aaron exclaims. "What the... who... Oh, hey man."

"Hi, how would you like to friend a few people?"

"Is that a trick question?"

He friends Akemi, which we all agreed was a little overdue, and (a little nervously) Yin, who introduces herself via a notepad (what was I interpreting for then?).

The four of us walk through the crowd until Aaron drags Yin over to the buffet (I can't tell who is more surprised by this) and Akemi excused herself to use the bathroom. I grab a mug of heated cider and step outside to escape the constant friend requests.

It's dark and cool outside, snowflakes drift around me in a kind of slow, hypnotizing waltz. I catch one on my tongue and sip my cider, the steam rising in the air.

Outside, the sound of party and music are muffled, making the silence all the more peaceful. The snow twirls down, but I don't feel the slightest bit cold. A snowflake lands on my nose and I blow it off.

On an impulse, I pull out my inventory card and drop it in the snow. The screen displays a certain leather bound, battered looking book.

I tap it and select materialize.

The thick volume lands heavily in my hands and the golden letters on the cover glisten in the faint moonlight: The Ways of the Ancient Elven Empire.

I brush some snow off the cover and flip through it. , there's a chapter about their history and culture. Nothing that I could care less about, in other words. The book is renowned all over the world among elves for the amount of powerful spells and high level combos contained inside.If one had a high enough level, they could easily become a match for a boss on their own.

Right now isn't the time to practice, but gained several levels during the boss fight and am hoping that there are some new moves at my disposal.

The door opens again and Akemi steps out, something steaming in her cup and a bowl of broth in her hand. It smells strangely... exquisite.

"What are you doing, sitting here all alone?" She asks, grinning down at me. I realize it had been a long, long time since any girl has grinned at me.

I grin back, with much less confidence.

The warrior lays her bowl down next to me. "Can I sit down?"

I scoot to the side and gesture to the spot I was just sitting at. "Pre-warmed" I announce.

She laughs, rolling her eyes, and sits in the snow.

We sit there in silence for some time. Akemi sticks out her tongue and catches a snowflake on it, she sighs. "It feels almost like the real world."

I blink. "You're already nostalgic? We've only been in here for, um... a week. Wow."

"It sounds a lot longer than you think when you actually say it." She agrees with a sad smile.

There's a brief pause, during which I sip my cider again, staring into space and feeling my life flash before my eyes.

"Hey, Hide."

"Y... yeah?"

"Did you ever have a crush on anyone in the real world?"

I spill my cider into the snow, due to having suddenly enthusiastic hands. It lies there, steaming.

"Um... no! Why?" I answer very, very hastily and unsmoothly.

"No reason." She answers simply, settling herself into a more comfortable position and yawning.

I frown. "Um... that can't be right. I mean, you actually asked me that for no reason?"

She scowls. "Don't do that."

"What?"

"When someone says 'no reason'." She says. "Don't say that there is a reason.'

"Uh... okay?"

She rolls her eyes. "You really are clueless. Honestly, what would you do without me? 'You still need to teach me stuff'?' Really!"

"You heard that?" I splutter, feeling and army of fire ants creep up my face.

"Yes, actually." She answers, looking out to the dark snowy night sky and breathing a puff of mist into the air. "It was a nice thing to say. Although I'm not sure about the choice of words."

"Uh... thanks." I think about it carefully for a second. "Or, should I be thanking you? Should you be thanking me?"

"Stop. This is a nice place to stop." She suggests sharply.

"Okay." And I sink into silence.

This time it's a particularly awkward silence.

I scratch my head because there's nothing else to do with my hands.

"Your back still hurt?" I ask.

"A bit." She admits, arching her back and giving me a very gratuitous view of her chest through her shirt. I suddenly feel the vivid urge to jump up onto a roof and run away. "I'll probably be fine in a few days, anyway."

"I... I see."

More silence.

"You know," I say, breaking the second very heavy lack of sound, "during the boss battle, I didn't want to fight. I was scared. I wanted to run and hide, but something made me... not do it. I'm not sure what, and I'm... well... I'm a little scared."

Great, bore her with your idiotic, cowardly problems. How much of a moron can I be?

I'm mentally agonizing over my stupidity, when suddenly, she speaks up. "Did you want to protect anything?"

This is not what I was expecting. "What?"

"Did you," she repeats, "want to protect anyone?"

"Uh..." I think about it. "I... I guess."

"And who was that?"

"Everyone there, I guess." This is a lie, of course. I was about to give up and die. Who was I trying to protect?

"You were protecting everyone?" She asks, and something in her voice tells me that maybe she's not altogether convinced.

"Y... yeah." I answer, trying to look her in the eyes. "Why do you ask?"

She stays silent for a bit, then says in a surprisingly cheery voice: "It's nothing! Come on, lets just enjoy the snow for now, alright?"

I guess that's not such a bad idea. The snow drifts down like petals from a flower. The trees. The park. The picnics. The tree.

Suddenly, a weight thuds against my shoulder.

I glance over and almost rocket into the frozen sky.

Akemi is passed out on my shoulder, fast asleep. How on earth she can fall asleep so fast is beyond me. I almost lay her in the snow, but remember what she had told me earlier during the battle. When someone falls on you, you catch them! Especially if they're a girl!

Besides, she'd probably catch a cold if I let her use the snow as a pillow.

I sigh. After all, having her on my shoulder isn't actually completely unpleasant. It's kind of... warming, if somewhat a bit uncomfortable. I take her and lay her head in my lap, presumably a more comfortable position for both of us.

The battle must really have taxed her. The wound, most likely.

I sit there, Akemi snoring softly. I never noticed that she snored. The sounds of the party still muffled against the walls.

The door opens and I hear a voice calling out "Hey Hide, where'd you get to, man?!"

It's Aaron, though no one else would call me by my name like that, anyway. The man in question rounds the corner with Yin in tow, a grin on his face.

"There you are! What are you doing skipping out on the..." He stops when he spots Akemi snoozing in my lap.

Yin stares, a hue of red slowly creeping up her cheeks. She starts to sign, then stops, then starts going on and off, trying to say something. The words bird, fool, frying pan are spelled over her head.

"Well." Aaron says finally, his eyes blazing in the way they do when he's bludgeoning skulls. I don't see any clubs, but I'm not taking any chances either. "This is unexpected, Hide."

I look down at Akemi, then Yin, who is so flustered her hands are shaking, which makes her gestures unreadable, seemingly signing cow cork, then Aaron who has crossed his arms and is tapping his finger on his elbow, his eyes still on fire.

"This... this isn't what you think it is, whatever it is you're thinking." I stammer, suggesting calming down the situation.

"Oh? That's disappointing, I thought you had finally manned up for once."

"Um, for once?"

Yin seems to calm down and signs What is going on?.

"I'm not too sure. I mean, she fell asleep next to me, that's all."

Her eyes take on an understanding look. She clasps her hands together. Friends?

I nod.

She considers me carefully, then raises her pinky and hovers her right hand over her left, making a caressing motion with it. She is important to you, right?

I nod again, this time a little confused.

She holds up her pinky again, then strokes her left palm with her right. You think she beautiful?

"What?"

So beautiful?

"What?!"

Yin makes an inquisitive sound that's somewhere between a fish gupping for air and a toddler.

 finish my incredibly intelligent and discernible sentence in the most intelligent manner I can muster. "Guh."

"What she say?" Aaron asks, his eyes no longer blazing, but flickering.

"Um... she's asking me if I think she's beautiful."

He raises his eyebrows. "And?"

"Well... not specifically, I dunno, I guess that she's... cute? In her own way. Yeah, uh-huh." I'm satisfied with my answer, good days work. "Why are you guys grilling me like this?"

Yin sighs and signs you are mean.

"What? How?"

She just sits down and watches the snowflakes.

"Seriously," I say in desperation, staring at them both, "what am I missing, here?"

"Shut up, doofus, you'll wake up sleeping beauty." Aaron says. He taps Yin on the shoulder and writes in her notebook let's go back inside... I stop seeing what he tells her after that.

They rejoin the party, leaving me alone with Akemi.

"Tepeo." I say. A warm light envelops her, which makes her curl up in her sleep and sigh, as if something inside her has melted which, given the circumstances, makes perfect sense.

She really is pretty cute, I only now realize just how much. Maybe everyone's a little cuter, when they sleep.

My eyes close and I enjoy a moment of silence and peace.