Let's redo the day now

[You have died.]

[It was **** by environmental hazard. There are no skills to be learnt. No trauma can be displayed.]
[Rewinding time 24 hours...]

Ieva woke up in her bed, and shook her head a little as the reality bent in a spiral pattern before it reshaped itself into her room. Seriously, that regression thing was nauseating. How Lee could withstand it without throwing up was beyond her. Forcing herself to keep whatever was in her stomach in place, she slowly bent and sat up. Iris was floating opposite of her bed, looking at her with a bored expression. The sitting woman took hold of her phone. It was 6:33 in the morning. They regressed just under 2 hours before the moment their talk begun, just as they had agreed to.

The plan was simple: regress some time before the talk begun, to time when hopefully Norma would be asleep, and don't bring up the talk again. This would (hopefully) prevent her from seeing the talk or even its possibility. The more information they could keep away from her, the better.

She slowly got up, completely ignoring Iris who went into the wall and back to Youngwoo. Getting up as early as she did now was not typically her style; she liked to sleep until 8 or 9 at least. But now, she really couldn't just sleep. To be honest, even if she could, she probably wouldn't. She felt reinvigorated after her talk and their small exploring of 12th floor, and intended on capitalizing on that. Yes, she wanted to go and work already.

Well, she almost did that immediately, but... she first had to deal with the matters at hand. Firstly, she needed to call back all the drones. Again, at it. They had been hovering around the building for past 12 or so hours, and she needed to delete all the footage they captured before she'd send them away. In all honesty, she felt like not telling people the exact reason she needed the drones was paying off. Yeah, nobody would know why she did that, and she didn't intend on explaining herself.

Secondly, as she got up, she once again felt the smell of her sweat. She'd been sweating like a racehorse for past hours, and honestly, she needed a shower. Again. Oh well, same thing, different regression, right? At least, that's what she wanted to think.

And thirdly, she was hungry. Really hungry, even. To be honest, it had been nearly 16 hours since she last ate. But well, she could go and eat something after shower. She got up, took some clothes for change, and went to shower first.

Meanwhile

Youngwoo opened his eyes, holding Hilda's hand on her stomach. He smiled ever so much at the sight, feeling his heart beat stronger momentarily. Feeling her warmth, her closeness, her breath on his neck as she was turned to him... yeah, no way in hell would he be getting up anytime soon. There was a weird feeling of accomplishment that he felt right now, and he didn't want to break it.

His mind traced back to what happened before regression. Well, everything went smoothly, really. He got what he wanted, and even more actually. In the end of the day, he spoke with Ieva some more whilst they were moving about the 12th floor. There wasn't much more information being shared between them, mostly it was them just learning about each other's skills, fighting styles and overall capabilities. To be honest, when he tried to train with Ieva, he was surprised at her lack of stamina and strength. In all honesty, considering her... body type, he fully expected her to be able to squeeze at least 4 reps of 20 squats each, but she didn't even manage 2. Similarly, she lacked stamina on long runs and speed on short ones. Whilst having a go with his sword, she became completely exhausted after just a few minutes. But then again, fighting wasn't specialty of tinkerers, so he didn't comment.

Tinkerer's main ability was, well, tinkering itself. If given materials, she was able to create quite complicated technology, enhance weapons' performance, grant enchants to equipment, and so on and so forth. Truly, tinkerers were very usable, and if the group of Hunters was small or inexperienced, they could even be mandatory to ensure survival.

'Every Hunter is given abilities that can be used to conquer the Tower, but they are best used... together.' That was what he realized. Every skill had a reason for its being, and that was the important part. His despised skill, 'Leather Hide Full of Poison', was no different. It had great drawback of debuffing the user when they were hit, but its temperature resistance buff and damage reduction meant it was perfectly suited for a scout. Hilda's 'Ice Dragon Tail Swipe' was an excellent attacking move. The examples could be multiplied further on and on, but that was the main gist of it, and to Youngwoo, it was enough to realize it. No skill was truly useless in a group, especially a small one.

After he noticed Iris floating into the room, he decided to stop his pondering. Instead, he snugged up closer to Hilda. He could feel her heartbeat, synced with his, through her skin. A tiny smile crept onto his face as he felt her move a bit. Hell, she was cute when she was asleep, moving about subconsciously with her eyes closed. After a few movements, she rested her chin on his shoulder.

Her back arched ever so much when she straightened her fingers holding his hand. After she did that, she slowly opened her eyes and blinked a few times. Did he move too much? Well, apparently he did. Too late to ponder on that.

Hilda spaced herself a little from him, and looked at him surprised. Their eyes met, and as she realized her situation, she came back to him a little. Heavens, how could she feel so... safe near that man? She couldn't understand why, but she didn't want to ever let go of him. She put on a small smile and said lazily:

"Morning." Her voice was a little hoarse. She coughed a little to fix the problem. "Did I wake you up?" She asked, and this time her voice was back to normal.

"No... I think it was me who woke you up. Sorry." He replied.

"Don't worry about it... I like waking up early." Said Hilda.

For nearly half a minute both of them were laying in bed in silence. Hilda slowly brushed her hair with a hand and said:

"I don't want to get up."

"Then don't. We can lay a bit more, right?" He asked, combing her hair a bit.

"...I need to check on Ieva." She responded. "I'll be back in 5 minutes." She gave him a peck on his chin and got up. Lifting herself on her shoulders, she made a quick retreat from the bed and stretched lightly as she got on her feet and started walking towards the door. In less than 30 seconds, she was gone, leaving Youngwoo alone with his thoughts.

Hilda went to door opposite of her room's, but was surprised to see that Ieva's bed was empty. With a little frantic look, she took her steps quickly to the main room, and noticed how her sister was sitting by the kitchen's table, munching on some food. Hearing her arrive, she turned towards Hilda.

"Sup."

"Don't you 'sup' me, Ieva." Replied Hilda, coming closer and placing a hand on her forehead. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm fine. Just a bit of headache."

"Why must you be overworking yourself so much?!" Hilda rose her voice a little. "I-" Suddenly, she stopped, as Ieva got up from her position and hugged her tightly.

"I'm sorry." She said. "I really am, Hilda. I'm sorry for biting more than I can chew, okay? I promise you, I'll tone down with tinkering from now on. I got too excited and carried away, but I won't let that happen again. Just... don't be mad."

"I'm not mad, Ieva... I'm worried. You can't be putting your health at risk just because you want to finish a job. Please, think about yourself as well." They both stopped the hug, and sat down slowly.

"I will. Okay? I promise. Now, don't be a querulous old woman and tell me how was Lee?"

"Lee...?" Hilda looked at her surprised. "No. Don't try to divert attention away from you." She replied sharply.

"Am not. I mean what I said, Hilda." Replied Ieva, letting out a sigh.

"...I'm glad." She formed a tiny smirk. Truly, there was a glint of motherly worry emanating from her.

"So how was Lee?" Her sister immediately threw a question.

"...I don't know what you're talking about." Still, Hilda's face started gaining some red to it.

"Oh, you think I don't know? You guys look cute when you're sleeping together."

"...I thought you were against him?"

"The past be the past, okay? I was suspicious of him because he fit a typical pawn setting, but after some observation and a talk with him, I can confirm that he has nothing to do with 'those people'." She put an air quote on the last two words, but they both knew who she was talking about. "So, I guess he's fine to be around here. And seeing how happy you seemed whenever I talked about him before, I figured you guys slept together. So, you know, can't help but ask."

"...let's not linger on that." Hilda turned her head away. However, Ieva easily noticed how flushed she became.

"Fine, have it your way. I'll be going for a walk before work, so feel free to call me if anything happens. Say hi to him from me once he wakes up."

"Ieva... one last thing." Hilda rummaged through pockets of her pants, and soon took out a small, blueish orb, and handed it over.

"...thanks, Hilda." Ieva quickly pocketed the battery she'd received, and soon took her backpack and left the apartment. "I'll be back in the evening. See ya."

"See you, Ieva." Replied Hilda, and as her sister left the apartment, she let out a sigh. Heavens... she seemed like a different person today, didn't she? She was nice, understanding, it even seemed that she was... content? Now wasn't this a first? Well, so long it didn't affect Ieva negatively, it would be a good thing, no? Well, Hilda hoped that this would be the case.

She went up and locked the door. After she did that, the woman took her steps towards her room. As she opened the door, she saw Youngwoo sitting on edge of bed, ready to get up and start a new day.

"How's Ieva?" He asked, getting up.

"She's... fine, I guess. She says hi." Said Hilda.

"Ah, I see." He nodded.

Youngwoo stepped outside of the room, and noticed how Iris was laying on the couch. When did she get out of sight? Remembering how she reacted yesterday, he realized it probably was around the time Hilda woke up.

"Do you want to eat something?" He heard Hilda's question as she went right past him and entered the kitchen.

"Just some bread would be nice."

"..." She looked at him weirdly for a moment, before she sighed. "Youngwoo, you don't have to be so bashful. Really. We have enough food, feel free to pick something more."

"..." Deciding to not argue with her, he stepped over to the fridge slowly and picked something. In all honesty, he really just wanted bread. He liked bread. Him being a poor E-rank wasn't really the case. Hadn't he eaten well a few days ago to celebrate a break day? Well, not like Hilda could know that. In any case, he took an opened bottle of orange juice and some other things, and after him and his girlfriend prepared everything, they ate a good breakfast.

Honestly... they didn't do much in the day. After explaining that he won't go to floor 13, Youngwoo asked if he could hang around at Hilda's place, to which she happily agreed. They spent their day on watching some things on TV, then Youtube. Over time, the two of them went from sitting position to laying one, Hilda under his arm as she felt his chin on top of her head. Was it not for her somewhat paining shoulder, she would have found this position to be really lovely. Eventually, however, she had to change position.

She wiggled in her position a little, and finally, with a glint of frustration, she got up. Noticing Youngwoo's questioning look, she asked:

"Can you lay on your back?"

"...okay?" He changed his position. "If you wanted to lay down alone, you just had to as-" He suddenly stopped when he saw Hilda step over his stomach.

Carefully, she sat down just above his crotch. There was no sexual intent here. In fact, she simply bent forward, positioning herself on top of him, her legs on outside of his, her nose just below his. Noticing that she was too close to him, she went a bit lower, placing her head on his chest. In a little awkward atmosphere (at least for her boyfriend), they both resumed watching Youtube. In the meantime, Hilda was steadily listening to his quickened heartbeat.

She closed her eyes, and reveled on the feeling of her own heartbeat. This was what she wanted to feel. This is what this man allowed her to feel by just hugging her. For the first time in years, she felt completely safe.

[A/N: Okay, okay, I know. We'll get on with the story in arc 4 and 5. This one was mostly to figure out Ieva/Youngwoo dynamic. And also Hilda/Youngwoo dynamic. And to introduce Idan.]