At least it wasn't hot in the waiting room. It ought to have been fancier though. A waiting room where people sat and contemplated their lives and how they were going to get them back ought to be very elegant, stately, and somehow much more impressive than beige walls with faded inspirational posters that urged people to be kind to each other.
Yui sat two seats over from him, arms crossed over her chest.
"I'm very good at puzzles," he said, the corner of his mouth trying to twitch into a smile, to get them past this awkwardness.
"Yes! You are," she snapped, standing up, her foot tapping. "You're very clever. You're brilliant and so it makes no sense to me that you'd jump to my defense like I'm some maiden in distress! I can kick your ass, Ziggy Morrow! I can turn Baxter into a mud puddle if I want! I didn't need you risking your life for me!"
Ziggy grimaced, nose wrinkling. "It was just... instinct! I know you can take care of yourself! I know that! How was I to know the railing would fail? I didn't mean to didn't drop kick us down twenty floors! We'll pass this test! We'll be fine."
Yui grunted, her foot still tapping. "We're grown ups now, not little kids, Ziggy. It's not about passing this test. It's about no one has ever seen me! No one sees me! No one has ever seen me!"
"I see you!" Ziggy said, voice elevating. It hurt to see the pain on Yui's face. "I love you!"
Those words stunned them both and they stared at each other. It was one of those moments where Ziggy desperately wanted to pull those words back, chew, and swallow.
He leaned back as she leaned closer, her glare drilling into him. "You love me? I keep you around because you've always treated me like a friend, not a girlfriend. I'm not your girlfriend, Ziggy! When we get out of this mess, we're going our separate ways!"
"I don't get why you're so mad," Ziggy said, hurt. His own anger rose too. "There are a lot of different kinds of love! I didn't say I was romantically in love with you, Yui!" He was, but it's still true that that wasn't what he'd said.
"Jumping in front of me like an idiot? You don't stand up for yourself to Mama and Papa! You take the blame for me and you always have! Watching you hang over the side of the building put everything into better perspective for me. You don't value your own life! You'd better start knowing your own worth. Next time I'm not going to be there to catch you."
"Next," a bland voice called from a door that Ziggy hadn't even noticed. A sign above the door read, 'Avatar Creation, Level One'.
"Me!" Yui said, striding away.
"Wait!" Ziggy said, brows drawing down. "Shouldn't we stay together?"
Still walking, but backwards, Yui held out her arms to the side. "You're better than you think, Zigs Zigs. You can solve this puzzle on your own. I'll solve it on my own. Welcome to the future, lover boy!"
"Yui!" Ziggy came to a stop and reached out to touch the wall where the door had been. "I'll never stop loving you, Yui."
It wasn't like they hadn't had fights before, but this felt different. Being caught between life and death just made things a little more real.
"Next!"
Ziggy puffed his cheeks out, gritted his teeth. He'd loved Yui as a friend long before he'd discovered attraction and romance. Friendship didn't end just because someone fucked something up! He was going to show her!
The door led into a small bathroom sized room with a smiling balloon that welcomed him with an offer of a tutorial. The whole setup was just like a video game. He'd played a million video games in his life and he could manage this one. The console was a touch screen, so he just had to touch the traits he wanted in his avatar. First he had to pick the gender of his avatar and he picked male. If there was even a chance he was going to die, he wanted to die with his eggs in the sack, where they belonged.. Next came class - fighter, mage, rogue, thief, paladin, monk, or peasant? Who would pick peasant as a class? As he debated internally, he reached out to run his finger over them, to maybe just pick with his eyes closed, but his finger could only point at one - thief. So okay, that was true, but there were very good reasons.
In the end, he stepped out of the booth and into a meadow. The air was clean, the sky blue, and nature seemed to have never been introduced to a city. There was a full length mirror to the right and he took a look at his avatar. He was an elf, the tall sexy kind, with long lavender hair, his own unique violet eyes, and a general main male lead in a romance story feel to his appearance. He didn't look like a mouse or abandoned goods at all. He posed, admiring his reflection. He looked like a prince, the of thieves!
He wore knee high black leather boots, pants of a very thin silk, with white shirt with form fitting sleeves, no cuffs, and a vest that matched the pants, but embroidered with silver flowers. If he could get away with dressing like this at home, this would be his style. His hair hung in a long braid, longer hair than he'd ever allowed himself before, but it felt very good, empowering and masculine in a way that he couldn't explain.
Writing appeared on the mirror. "I hope you approve?"
"Oh yeah, this is great!"
"Splendid. Next you will need to find your assigned partner, then proceed to finding the first puzzle. While the amount of time does not matter, the body you are in still has all the needs of a normal body. If it gets killed, you have failed and you will cease to exist. Once you have cleared the first level puzzle, you will receive additional directions."
"Copy that," Ziggy said with a smile. If this was being caught between life and death, this was okay. It was a thousand times better than the call center or being sent off to the military.
Another man came in to view, walking around the mirror, with a couple of apples in his hands. "Hey!"
"Hey," Ziggy said, accepting the apple, but still looking around for Yui. "Did you find your partner yet?"
"I'm Youji and yeah, I found him." Youji was handsome, dark hair pulled into a short ponytail, a sleeveless leather jerkin, leather pants that were loose enough to move well in, but still showed off strong legs, and a short sword hanging from his waist. His eyes were a golden brown and it took a lot of Ziggy's energy not to stare at his face. "What are you looking for?"
"My best friend, Yui. She's here too." Ziggy looked anywhere other than the very pretty man holding out the apple to him. "I think she and I will be partners. We've always been partners."
"Well, buddy, I think it's just you and me," Youji said, turning his hand over to reveal a glowing blue glyph. "See? It matches yours."
Ziggy turned his hand over and the two glyphs did indeed match. They even grew brighter when their hands drew closer. "Yeah. Okay, but if we run into Yui and her partner, I'm going to help her. She's my best friend."
"That's sweet," Youji said, putting the apple in Ziggy's hand. "Being half dead made me hungry. Eat up. I think we're going to have to walk a ways to get to the next town."