In your dreams

John dropped onto his bed, still grinning the grin that he’d not been able to wipe off his face since Matilda and he had gone their separate ways back at the park. She’d not texted him yet, but she was definitely going to, and she’d asked him back to her place and… he’d turned her down. Despite knowing he’d done the right thing by her actions, John slowly curled into a ball and bit his hand, whimpering as he did so.

The sound of his phone buzzing on his desk broke him out of his second-guessing self-pity. Scrambling upright, he grabbed the device and glanced at it, before focusing on the message he’d just received with his full attention - it was from Matilda.

“John. Had a lovely time, but I jump way 2 quickly, that’s y I asked u 2 say no. Gotten burned b4, don’t want u 2 think I’m a slut. Also wanted to make sure u didn’t just want me 4 my body b4 giving it to u ;)”

Her words glowing on the screen seemed unreal. John rubbed at his eyes, cock straining painfully against his boxers as he re-read the last line two or three times to make sure he wasn’t misunderstanding. Taking a deep breath, he set the phone down. How should he reply? He needed to reply quickly… With shaky hands, he picked the device back up and responded.

“Had a great time too. Definitely don’t think you’re a slut. Can’t wait for our next date, foraging sounds exciting! Not expecting anything beyond that though - go at your own pace.”

He hit send before he could second guess himself, then read back over his message. Yea, that should do it - that extra Wisdom was definitely coming into play in how he handled his hopefully soon to be relationship… The phone buzzed again so fast he almost dropped it.

“Gonna go slower than my own pace - that’s why you’re not here rn ;) On that subject tho, r u busy Sunday? Weather should be good for hiking if u want to join and we can then have food at mine after?”

John accepted without any need for conscious thought. Matilda was hot, into him, nerdier than he’d expected, and from the sounds of things, he’d be completing his lose-your-virginity quest a lot sooner than he’d expected. Setting the phone down, he grinned to himself at that fact, before blinking. There’d been an alert when he was in the park, hadn’t there?

One quick glance at his Status later confirmed that he had indeed achieved not one but two of the optional objectives - he’d been on a date, and he’d kissed someone. That was the reason his cock had felt so much more uncomfortable than usual; an extra 2” were now doing their best to break free of his boxers as he thought about what Sunday afternoon might bring. Swallowing hard and trying to will his erection away until such time as he could do something about it, John checked out the other Rewards.

Nothing especially useful in terms of getting on with his other quests - no weapons, nor armor, no gathering equipment - but the blanket would be insanely useful in mundane settings, and the mints… John grinned to himself, the idea of not having to deal with cleanup and the issues of arriving home on Sunday with his hair still wet from a shower was highly appealing.

With the rewards out of the way, he pondered his next move. He’d located a temple site, he’d gotten some of the material - things were looking positive. He did have that weird guy in the suit to worry about, but that wasn’t exactly anything he could deal with right now in any case - even if the man had been up to no good, assuming he was around the same level as Emily, he’d be so far out of John’s reach it wouldn’t even be funny. Far better to focus on what he could control - his leveling, his questing, his temple - and go from there. Matilda wanted to meet on Sunday, which meant unless his mom wanted to do anything he had the entirety of tomorrow to work on gathering resources.

With that in mind, an early start would be good - he could get the bus to town, go on a herbihog killing spree to get the foliage while scavenging any dead wood that Observe flagged as being magical, and then head to the junkyard to try and farm up the rest of the metal. Even if he didn’t manage to get all of it, he should take a big bite out of the objectives, and further investigation of the park Barrier would let him know if tools would be needed for the rest of the enchanted wood.

Considering that a plan, John scrambled into bed - and was just about to fall asleep when his phone buzzed yet again. “Recommend me a story 4 bedtime? ;)” - Matilda’s words made him blink. He’d more or less managed to forget that she was aware of the smut that he wrote… and now she was asking for a recommendation?

For a moment, he didn’t reply - then scrambled out of bed and woke his computer. Texting back, he asked, “what’s your username?” before loading up the site he used to post his stories. Ignoring Matilda asking him why alongside giving him the details, he dug through to the half-finished work he’d been writing the previous weekend. Copying the link, he dm’d it to her, followed by replying to the text, “Check your dms - work in progress for my biggest fan, maybe you can give me some inspiration for how it finishes?”

Climbing back into bed as the computer’s glow faded, John wasn’t expecting a reply. His phone buzzing twice in quick succession definitely wasn’t expected. “OMG! Thanks!” The first message made him smile, but the second one had him staring open-mouthed. A pair of exceedingly ample and very bare breasts peaked out from underneath where Matilda had clearly pulled her top up to snap the picture in the mirror; the message’s caption simply read, “Definitely your biggest fan ;) Here’s some inspiration!”

On the other side of town, Matilda swallowed hard as she **** herself to put her phone on silent and set it down. She was being too forward again, she knew it; he’d think she was some kind of pervert or nympho, and then he’d make excuses and things wouldn’t work and… She glanced at the story he’d sent her - incomplete, a private draft - and paused. He’d sent her part-written pornography. Maybe, just maybe, she could let herself relax a little. And, despite how forward they’d been, he had said no when she’d invited him over, just as she’d asked. Her fingers traced her lips at the memory of their kiss, and not for the first time since she’d left, she bit down on one knuckle at the thought that she’d actively worked herself into the situation of not getting fucked until she couldn’t think straight. But she had to take this slow - it wasn’t just that she didn’t trust herself. She liked John.

No, actually, she didn’t just like, she really, really liked him - sure, he’d seemed cute enough in the canteen in the way that a bedraggled puppy is cute. And the stories he’d written had gotten her through some hard times when she’d been stood up. Or let down. Or just in need of spending some quality time with her fingers. Or… Her train of thought briefly drifted through arousal station en-route to pound-town before snapping back to John. Right, John. He’d been weirdly hot if still awkward when he’d asked her out, he’d written really engrossing tales, and then they’d just walked and talked and he’d been interested in all her hobbies and not just in a ‘I’m going to smile and nod because your boobs are moving’ way. And now she was hoping that one date would turn into many more. And she’d asked him over on Sunday! Her eyes flicked back to the laptop, and she grinned. He’d picked out this story for her tonight, the least she could do would be to see why.

In the chamber she shared with three other novices in Brighton manor, Rebecca shifted awkwardly in her cot. She’d still not had any luck on tracing the sword fragment, and her trailing of John hadn’t turned up any leads. Admittedly, that was largely because she’d failed to keep tabs on him at the end of the day. Asking around a few of the Order that had been out and about indicated that he’d headed towards the park, but whether through timing or through him entering a Barrier, that was as far as her attempts at tracing his whereabouts went. There really was only one option - she’d need to be more aggressive in her pursuit of the man, before someone else stole him out from under her nose.

Rebecca paused at that thought, cheeks flaming as she realized how she’d mentally framed it. ”Thank Gaia I only thought that rather than saying it aloud. I’d never live it down if people thought I was pursuing him in that way! He’s not even that interesting to look at, but he’s the best lead I’ve got on finding this shard!” She rolled over uncomfortably, the rough blanket scraping her shoulder and helping to ground her thoughts. ”I’ll go nose around the park tomorrow, and see what I find,” she mumbled to herself as she drifted off to sleep.