After Montgomery left, we sat around the table eating dinner quietly. The mood vastly different from where we’d been even twenty minutes before. Everyone’s faces were grim. I’m not sure if any of us had really come to terms with the fact that we could die from fighting monsters and diving dungeons. We hadn’t really faced anything that was too challenging for us as a group. And we had only gotten stronger.

  None of us thought of ourselves as being elite or better than anyone else, we weren’t those kind of people. But if what Montgomery said was right then we were the fastest growing team. We were among the best equipped to handle the new realities of what our world had to offer. And instead of feeling inspired and proud, all I felt was depressed that others were so far behind the curve. Disappointment in the rest of the teams was burning under my skin. I didn’t want to have to go bail people out of trouble that they should have been able to deal with. I already had to bail out people who knew they couldn’t stand up for themselves against these new threats.

  On top of that, even if we entered the dungeon tomorrow, according to John we’d be entering a completely different instance of the dungeon. We wouldn’t even be able to bring out the dead or stranded people. They were lost for all intents and purposes I realized. None of their friends or family would get any kind of closure.

  I wondered if anyone would mourn me when it was my time. I didn’t have any family left. My father had passed away when I was little. My mother had joined him when I was in college. Both of them had been only children and their parents, my grandparents, had been gone since before I was born. Mara was my best friend. I’d quickly lost touch with all my friends from high school and college each time I moved away. I was horrible about maintaining connections that required much effort. Hell, I was still Mara’s friend because she wouldn’t let me not be her friend. I hadn’t really even considered John, Oliver, and Ashley more than acquaintances before the world blew up on us and Mara forced us together.

  I shook off the morbid thoughts after dinner. I helped Oliver clean up the kitchen and clear the table. We were quiet as we worked. Both of us seemed preoccupied with our own thoughts. Too deep in our own heads to see the other was struggling too.

  After the kitchen was clean I headed back to my bedroom. I wasn’t in the mood to socialize in the livingroom tonight. I was surprised to find Ashley laying on her side on the bed when I walked in the room.

  “Hey,” she patted the bed next to her. “I figured you’d rather come in here.”

  I nodded my head and climbed onto the bed facing her. When I stretched out there was less than a foot between us. My eyes traced across her face as hers did the same to mine. She arched her brow at me and I shrugged. Leaning forward I pressed my lips to hers. It wasn’t a passionate kiss. Just something to reassure each other that we were still here and still cared. Pulling back I said, “I just didn’t feel like being around the others.”

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  “I hope it’s ok that I’m here,” she whispered.

  “Yeah,” I sighed.

  “Good.” Then she leaned forward and pressed another kiss to my lips. This kiss led to another, and another. Before things became too heated she slowly pulled back from me, a tentative smile graced her beautiful lips.

  Her arm reached out and wrapped around my middle before she pulled me flush to her. She rolled onto her back and I ended up half on half off her chest. A new arm snaked underneath my body to come out the other side and begin rubbing soothing circles on my back.

  I let out a sigh and sank into the comfort she was offering. How long had it been since I allowed anyone to offer me comfort. Mara did, but it was less of an offer of comfort and more of an ambush of a comfort wrecking ball. She would not be denied. Which before this moment I might have needed.

  Ashley was changing me in small and large ways already. It was a scary and exhilarating thought at the same time. I think she had been for a little while now.

  “It’s scary to think that someone with our level of power, or close enough, might have been killed in a dungeon. That could have been us,” she trailed off. Funny how her words echoed my own thoughts.

  “But it wasn’t,” I offered. I rubbed circles on her tummy. The definition of her abs was only a little distracting. “We didn’t even really struggle with the dungeon, even the…c-clowns,” I stuttered.

  “Shhh,” Ashley shushed. “We made it through. You’re ok.”

  I smiled a little, “Thanks.”

  “We’ll be ok,” she smiled back at me. “I don’t feel like we’ve really struggled yet either, and we keep getting more powerful.” She shrugged her shoulders, bouncing my head a little with the movement.

  “Yeah,” I sighed. The space around us was quiet as we each disappeared into our own thoughts. I wondered what dark and twisted paths her thoughts took as my own replayed different scenes from the last few days.

  Goddess, it had only been a few days. It felt like weeks at least. So much had happened, and our lives had been so drastically changed. We weren’t even in the same country anymore.

  I wondered how long would it take to get real help here from the government? Was there even still a government around? I shuddered to think what someone as ambitious as a politician would become with the kind of power I now had at my fingertips.

  “So,” Ashley startled me out of my thoughts a few minutes later. “When were you going to ask me out?”

  I blew a raspberry as I snuggled deeper into her embrace. “When were you going to ask me out?”

  “Ha!” she crowed. “I did!”

  “What?! When?”

  “Like the second week of our first D&D campaign.”

  “Nuh uh!”

  “Yeah, I asked you out for coffee and you blew me off with some excuse. I asked about a different day and you made it clear you weren’t interested.”

  “W-what?” I sputtered. “I don’t remember that at all!”

  “We could ask Mara.”

  “That’s alright,” I hedged. “She would lie for you just to fuck with me.” We both laughed at the truth in that statement.

  After catching my breath I asked, “Did you really?”

  With a sigh, “Yeah.”

  “I’m an idiot sometimes,” I groaned.

  “Oh, I know.”

  “Rude.”

  Ashley pulled me tighter against her. “You like it.” She bent down and placed a kiss on top of my forehead.

  “Maybe,” I placed a kiss on her collarbone. We snuggled into each other, taking what little comfort we could from one another.