Damage control.

The silence stretched on, growing increasingly more awkward as neither girl spoke. A part of me, the small part that was annoyed at Annie and Sophie for eavesdropping on such an important conversation, was tempted to let the girls stew a little, but that quickly changed when I stopped being a dramatic ass and properly looked at the two of them.

Sophie looked away as I glanced at her, her stiff posture speaking of her nerves. As for Annie? The poor girl refused to look at me, eyes locked on the floor and her hands clenched into fists. I felt like the world’s biggest asshole when I realised that she was subtly shaking. Alarmed, I triggered analyse on the pair of them.

‘Do they think I’m going to do something rash now they know my secret?!’ I thought, internally wincing as I saw just how badly shaken Annie was. ‘Defiant but terrified? Is she convinced I’m going to hurt her because of what she knows!?’ Dropping any pretence of the wise old master disappointed in their students, I immediately tried to reassure them both.

“Ladies, I’m not mad. Hell, whilst I would’ve preferred to tell you on my own terms, it was more than likely I would’ve told you both anyway at some point.” I said, my voice as soothing as I could make it. Sophie’s tense posture relaxed somewhat, the redhead breathing out a small sigh of relief. Meanwhile, Annie peeked up at me through her pale blue bangs, a small spark of hope in what I could see of her eyes.

“I’m sorry if I scared you both. Can you forgive me?” Holding my arms out, I waited, a smile forming on my face when Sophie immediately accepted my silent request for a hug, jumping forward and wrapping her arms around me.

“You scared me, ya dummy!” She said, burying her face in my shoulder. Stroking her back soothingly, I looked towards Annie, giving her a hopeful smile.

“I promise I’m not going to hurt you because you found out, Annie. This morning has been… nice. I’ve enjoyed the time the three of us have spent together, and I’d hate to lose you as a friend. That being said,” I hastily added, “if you wanna cut and run from the weird multidimensional magic man, I promise there’ll be no repercussions. I’d totally understand.”

Annie straightened up, a searching expression on her face as she looked me deep in the eyes. Finding nothing but my complete sincerity and an utter lack of guile in my expression, she visibly relaxed, hesitantly stepping forward to join the group hug when I held my arm out invitingly for her.

I held both girls, continuing to soothe the pair as I quietly asked a few questions. They’d apparently been worried about my sudden meeting with Cameron and had both decided to listen in from the start, pretty much watching the whole thing.

“Apart from that one bit.” piped up Sophie after she’d finished explaining what she’d heard, nudging Annie when the blue-haired girl gave the redhead a confused look. “Y’know? When the book started floating? It was, um, really creepy, so we totally wandered off for a bit.”

“Yeah, what she said.” added Annie, nodding emphatically as she caught on. “Didn’t see a thing past that point until we saw a flash. Looked back just in time to see magic happening.”

A soft whine from behind had me looking over my shoulder, realisation dawning when I saw my beautiful tutor with her head in her hands, a look of utter mortification on her crimson face. ‘Ah,’ I thought, hiding my grin, ‘they totally saw the kiss. I should probably feel bad about that.’

“Shouldn’t we be worried about this thing that’s about to happen?” said Cameron, clearly eager to change the subject.

“Mmmm, you’re going into danger, right?” asked Annie. She fished in her bag, pulling out a small pendant by its chain. “You should take this. Maybe it’ll give you a bonus like that dumb sticker you’ve got on?” She waited for me to hold my hand out before dropping it onto my palm, the silvery metal of the chain pooling around the dull metal of the pendant. Curious, I cast Identify.

Smiling widely, I put on the necklace, sighing happily as the bonuses took effect. “Thanks Annie,” I said, beaming at the blue-haired girl in my arms, “this’ll be a great help!” She simply nodded in response, showing her satisfaction with my reaction to the gift by snuggling closer into our hug, the last of her tension finally leaving her.

As if waiting for us to sort our interpersonal drama out, a new quest window chose that moment to open. My eyes flicked over to it, scanning the contents. Sophie opened her mouth, intent on asking a question, but was quickly hushed by Cameron, who recognised my faraway look for what it was. When I looked back, it was to see several pairs of curious eyes watching me. Shrugging, I read the notification out loud, choosing to skip the second half of the first line for Cameron’s sake.

Retrieving the world token from my inventory, Cameron huddled closer so we could all have a look, all four of us slightly underwhelmed by the simple black token embossed with a picture of a globe.

“And this is it?” Annie asked, her voice incredulous. “All it takes for you to hop between worlds is this little disc?” Slightly taken aback by the tinge of genuine annoyance in her words, I shrugged defensively.

“I didn’t come up with it, but why not?”

Annie huffed, clearly not satisfied with my response, and buried her face in my chest, her continued grumbles now somewhat muffled. Reminded that neither girl had yet to let go, I quietly chuckled, not minding the three-way hug in the least.

Making a mental note to get to the bottom of Annie’s odd reaction later, I looked between Sophie and Cameron, who both were sporting thoughtful expressions.

“So, you get extra time by being clever about it?” Asked Sophie, the curiosity clear in her voice. “And you basically pass out when you use this thing?”

“Seems that way.” I replied, my mind also picking away at what the system had meant with its bonus suggestion.

“Maybe they’re expecting you to do something smart with your body whilst it’s still here?” Suggested Annie, who’d seemed to have got past her funk at record speed and was now eyeing me speculatively.

“What?” replied Sophie, a grin forming on her face, “are we supposed to Weekend at Bernie’s him over to the park or something?” She giggled at the thought, drawing a chuckle from both Annie and me. As for Cameron?

“That’s it!” she said, fishing in her pocket and retrieving a set of keys. “I’m going to drive you there! That way you don’t waste time passed out here!”

It seemed she was onto something.