Talk to a distracted Miranda

The sound of Tom and Sarah's echoing footsteps faded, leaving a growing silence for you to struggle to fill. Typical small talk wouldn't suffice now, you'd just been magically sucked into a insane virtual reality game, after all, you couldn't exactly talk to Miranda about the weather or campus gossip. Nor did you want to make the conversation too heavy. The thoughts of "how will we get out of here, what are we going to do, how long will we be stuck like this," were already swirling like angry clouds over your head, and doubtless Miranda's as well. You didn't want to bring those worries to the forefront of her mind.

Rather than the past, or the future, it seemed safest to talk about the present.

"So, what abilities does your class give, Miranda?" You asked, fighting you maintain eye contact as her robes shifted over her DDs.

"It says I-" Miranda stopped mid reply, her hazel eyes flashing wide. "I er, have a beneficial touch, and I can. . ." She trailed off again.

"What's wrong?" You asked, worrying you had lost the battle to maintain eye contact and that she had noticed.

Miranda's eyes shifted to the door Tom and Sarah just left through. "Can you not hear that?" She asked.

Your brow furrowed. "Hear what?"

"Tom and Sarah, they're being very. . . thorough," she sighed, her cheeks pinkening again.

For a moment you were silent, straining your ears for any sound of debauchery. There was none.

"I can't hear a thing," you said as you turned back to Miranda, "is special hearing a part of your class?"

"No, it didn't say anything about that," Miranda shifted awkwardly on the spot, "but I think I might know what it is."

With one hand, she reached up, and tucked her silky hair behind her ear.

Her pointy ear.

"Oh my god!" Your eyes went wide, "are you an elf?"

Miranda smiled bashfully. "Yeah, I thought it might be interesting to give being something different a try." Something about those sharp ears elevated the loveliness of your crush, accentuating her features and making her look even more refined, elegant and beautiful.

"Does it feel different?" You asked, marvelling at how her new ears seemed to highlight her cheekbones.

Miranda shrugged. "I mostly feel the same, but it said I would be "extra sensitive" to the world, maybe that's why I can still hear them?"

"Still hear them?" You caught on that word, "So they're still going like before?"

Miranda looked embarrassed as she tried to focus on the noise, her eyes widening again. "Yeah, still going. Sarah is being very. . . vocal." Her hands wrung together as her eyes kept wandering to the open doorway, as you suddenly realized that asking Miranda to listen to her best friend getting fucked was probably making her uncomfortable.

"Let's try to ignore them," You said loudly, clapping your hands together, "come on, we can talk over them. So, what does your "beneficial touch" do?"

Miranda seemed to like your idea. "It means I can bless, heal, and repair people or objects," she said, "with the "appropriate" touch."

"Wow," you half-yelled, "that sounds super cool, maybe you could give me a blessing when we leave here?" You floated the last thought like a joke, but you secretly had your hopes tacked to it.

"Maybe," Miranda smiled, and your heart soared.

"What else have you got?" The way you were speaking, projecting your voice and asking obvious questions, reminded you of sports reporters you'd seen on TV, trying to make themselves heard for post-match interviews.

"One said it would make enemies less likely to hit me, I think it was called "beguiling visage," or something like that!" Looking at Miranda, a scrap of cloth over each soft breast, shifting with her every movement and threatening to flash her nipples, you could see why enemies might have been too distracted to hit her.

"That sounds super useful!" You enunciated loud and clear, like you were an example in an English as a second language lesson. "Do you have three class traits like me?"

"I do! The third one is "sanctified body," it means-" She paused midsentence again, her jaw dropping open as she turned her head to the doorway again, evidently having heard something shocking from the other couple. She was quiet for a couple more seconds, blinking in surprise, until she regathered herself to continue. "It means I'm immune to disease and poison!"

"Wow, I hope I don't catch a disease out there!" You replied, even louder than before. "Would you like to hear what my class does?"

Miranda nodded, and listened politely as you explained your own class traits. It felt a little like info-dumping about one of your hobbies, but you knew Miranda preferred it to having to listen to whatever racket Tom and Sarah were making. A couple of times, you saw Miranda's eyes wander to the doorway as she nibbled on her bottom lip, and you made sure to speak a little louder. You didn't want her to be any more uncomfortable than she had to be.

Once you were done explaining what your class could do and why you'd chose it, you thought for sure that Tom and Sarah would be finished. Miranda gasping and eyeing the door even more scandalized made it clear that they had not. From observing the pace of Miranda's hurried breathing, you could get a disturbing approximation of Tom's tempo, something that you really did not want to know.

"So why did you choose your class?" You asked, eager to drown out the noise that was disturbing your crush.

Miranda seemed caught off guard by the question, and she took a moment to ponder it, one delicate finger tapping on her chin whilst her eyes kept darting to the door.

"I guess I wanted to pick something safe," she said slowly, "like I said, I've never played many videogames, I don't have any experience with this stuff. I wanted to be helpful, but without too much pressure or danger, y'know?"

You nodded, lacking the heart to tell her that support was often a very stressful role in a lot of games. This one might be different, and there was no point in stressing her out for no reason.

For a moment too long, you were both silent "Whoah," Miranda half laughed suddenly, blinking in surprise as she turned her attention to the doorway again.

"What?"

"Nothing," she blushed, "it just. . . got really fast, is all. I think they're nearly finished." Miranda didn't offer any further clarification than that, instead saying silent and eavesdropping on the climax of the other room's events. "Okay, Sarah definitely just finished," she giggled, eyes sparkling playfully.

"Are they-" you began to speak, but Miranda stopped you, holding a hand out at you.

"Wait, wait," she listened intently, mouth falling open into a stunned smile, "They're both done now, I think. Yeah, it sounds like they're coming back."

"I'm glad that's over," you chuckled weakly, expecting to see the same relief that you felt on Miranda's face.

"Mmhmm," she nodded, inscrutable, "don't tell them that I could hear them, that would be really embarrassing."

"For them, or for you?" You laughed, lowering your voice as you heard footsteps on the way back.

"For everyone," Miranda answered, pulling her hair back over her ear whilst doing her best to not look embarrassed.

The sound of two pairs of feet kept getting louder until the two lovebirds finally swung back in to the main hall. They were both a little pink and sweaty from exertion, but other than that, they were no worse for wear from their little session. Sarah's black one-piece was still in one piece (and as sexy as ever), and Tom's loincloth was back where it belonged, although you noticed it hung a little funny, almost as if it was caught up on something big below it.

"That was a fun test," Sarah purred, throwing her long red hair back before interlocking her fingers and stretching her arms over her head. "I think I'm gonna like it in here."

"I know I am," Tom growled, shamelessly eyeing up first Sarah's ass, and then Miranda's partially exposed breasts.

Your crush did her best not to look at him, turning away and twirling her hair around a finger, even as he swaggered closer to her. You had been about to tell him to back off, when Sarah had interrupted.

"Holy shit!" She shouted, eyes staring into space again, "I got two whole levels from that. Getting to one hundred is gonna be easy!" As Sarah looked into the middle distance, eyes tracing back and forth over some new information that only she could see, Tom turned back to Miranda.

"What do you say, babe," he said as he stepped even closer to her, one thumb resting on the hem of his loincloth, "you want me to give you a couple pumps of XP?"

Miranda scoffed at his absurd suggestion, but you saw her eyes catch on his exposed abs for a second, before she turned her head, still furiously blushing.

Rather than letting Tom make things even more uncomfortable, you decided to jump in. "I'm glad you two had fun testing out each others "abilities", but how about we get out of here and into the game?"

"Ooh, good idea, John," Sarah rubbed her hands together before practically bouncing over to you. She seemed positively brimming with positive energy now, excited and ready for an adventure. "What was it that thing said? We all join hands and then we get into the main world?"

"I think it was something like that, yeah," you said, glancing at her and Tom's hands with not unreasonable suspicion. After what they'd just been doing, you weren't too keen on the idea of holding hands with either Tom or Sarah.

"How about we all put our hands in the middle," you said, reaching your hand out in front of you, directly beneath the light, "like how teams all put their hands in in a huddle?"

Miranda quickly joined you, her soft hand sliding gently over yours. Her skin was like silk and it took a conscious thought to keep from flipping your hand around to grab hers properly. Before you could savour the moment, Tom's big meaty paw slammed down on top of Miranda's delicate limb, completely eclipsing it. That just left Sarah, who reached her hand high over the rest of the stack.

"We're sure we're all ready?" She asked, flexing her fingers and looking each of you in the face. You met her eyes with a nod, and wished she would hurry up. Even from below, you could feel Tom's hand caressing Miranda's.

"Okay," Sarah exhaled, "let's go."

She dropped her hand on top of the stack and, like she was pushing down the plunger of a bomb, the whole world whirled into white one final time.