A/N: Hehe! I love you. No. Not really. But I do love this story x3! That's why I wrote nearly three chapters that night :]. I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I'm going to enjoy writing it ^w^~! Ja ne! Thank you for your reviews! I always get so excited when I get an email in my ffnet folder xD! Thank you thank you thank you~! Okay, so hope this doesn't disappoint, it's been half-written since the day after I posted the first three, so yeah. See you at the end.

Waste Some Time
Chapter Four
Reuniting The Terror and The Rose

With Haseo's words and Atoli's fears running through his head, Kaoru looked around at the time. It was already almost nine. He heaved a sigh, sitting comfortably on the balls of his feet as he stared at the laptop's screen. He closed out of his mail and clicked on the icon for The World. As he predicted, it took some time to load on his laptop for the first time. He was just glad to avoid the hour it takes to install it, having Minoru do it the night before.

He got up and stretched and walked around as he'd taken to doing recently, looking back over at the bright screen every so often. He fished his headset out of the confines of his laptop's bag, dusting it off carefully. He started pacing after ten minutes, staring out the window impatiently after twenty. At 930 it was still loading the patches. He silently cursed himself for waiting until the last second, sitting before the computer and chewing on his thumb nail.

It was 9:50 when he could finally login.

He snatched up his headset breathlessly, feeling his heart pounding in his ears. He shortly heard the usual opening music as he appeared in Mac Anu. The instant he appeared, his view was blocked by an oversized hat. If he had been in Endrance's place, he would have felt the crushing hug Atoli was giving him. As a few more sounds of warping reached him she released her hold, looking teary-eyed as she pulled him off a ways from the chaos gate.

"Endrance, I could kiss you right now! Thank you so much for coming. I know it wasn't for me, but coming for Haseo is even more important. So thank you." She bowed her head low, the tassel scraping against the floor of pixels.

"It was for him, but I wouldn't mind making a friend, either…" he stated in his programmed, smooth voice. "So why did you want me on early?"

She blinked away the pixilated tears. "I wanted to know why you quit. It seemed so out of the blue to me. One day you and he were attached at the hip, the next you're nowhere to be found and he's moping around…" she paused, looking curiously up at him. "What happened that night?"

Kaoru hesitated, biting his lip. "That night we went out to fulfill a lower-level quest like we had been for a while. We had Saku with us and she kept yelling at him and bothering him over every little thing. A few times he threatened to kick her out of the party. Then he said he'd be back in a bit- that he might have to go," he frowned from within his headset and Endrance did in kind. "When he came back on Saku started yelling at him for wasting our time and he blew up. He said he was sick of this. Said she was just a pain and that I was worthless. He kicked me out of the party and told me to leave. So I did."

She gaped at him. "That… that's horrible! I can't believe he would say something like that! There's no reason-. But, that also doesn't sound like something the Haseo I know would say… Least of all to you." She looked off in thought for a moment before shaking her head. "No, that sounds like a completely different person. There has to be something else to it." She trailed off.

"He said as much in the mails he sent me. It really caught me off guard. Hopefully I can find out what happened tonight," he ventured, smiling weakly.

"We'll see… Oh!" She stood still for a moment and suddenly turned toward him. She pushed him into the shadowed area beside the save booth. "I want to see the difference there is between when he gets on and when he sees you. I'm sure you'll be interested too." She smiled serenely up at him, taking a step toward the gate. "Just come out when the time seems right," she instructed, approaching the gate quickly. She dusted off her untouchable dress, standing like a statue before the platform.

He was a few minutes late. When the head of white hair appeared from within the warp-rings, Kaoru felt a jolt in his stomach. Just like that, the butterflies were back in action. Those red eyes were downcast over the ground before him. As Kaoru watched through Endrance, Haseo materialized.

"Good evening, Haseo. Isn't it a beautiful night where you are?"

"It's okay. I wasn't really paying attention…" he said, keeping his eyes averted from her.

"Okay… well. Then how was your day?"

"My phone didn't ring once today…" he replied pointedly, sounding a little down, though he frowned.

Atoli cast him a candid look from over her shoulder, snapping her head back around when Haseo looked up to her face.

"But anyway, you're the one who invited me… You said you wanted to show me something. So shall we create a party?" he suggested half-heartedly, sounding far less-than-thrilled.

His expression softened instantly as the alert crossed his page.

Endrance has invited you to join his party of Endrance. Accept. Decline.

"En… Endrance?" he asked uncertainly.

Atoli smiled over at him now, gesturing for him to come out into the open.

Endrance moved out into the walkway only as the alert popped up in the corner.

Haseo has joined the party.

"Good evening, Haseo," he greeted politely, smiling at him. In a heartbeat, the student was at his side, snatching up his avatar's hand and dragging him toward the chaos gate. Endrance glanced back to Atoli, seeing her smiling, too.

Haseo glanced back as well. He hesitated, looking between them. "You set this up?" he asked.

"Of course. Boys can't do anything by themselves. Just Minoru and I..." She grinned knowingly at Endrance.

"Would you mind if we spoke alone for a while?" Haseo asked. Kaoru noted from his end that he was still holding his avatar's hand.

"What are you talking about? I'm getting tired." She forced an obviously fake yawn and stretched her arms out above her head. "Consider me gone. Have fun. Minoru said to tell you: 'Hurry! Kiss and make up already!' Good night, Endrance, Haseo." And with that she was gone.

Before Kaoru could even apologize for his sister, so were they. As his feet touched down, he realized they were in the same sort of field most of his dreams took place in. A night field, open area. Beautiful moon. And just as he'd always thought, Haseo looked gorgeous. The moonlight bathed him well. Breathtaking.

Haseo took but a moment to realize there were no monsters around before he bowed low, eyes shut as he bore himself to Endrance. "Haseo…"

"Endrance, I'm sorry. I wasn't even going to stay online. It had been a long day and I was getting tired. A friend from school came over; that's why I left. Then I left to use the bathroom. I had no idea he was actually paying attention when I rambled in class. I told him every once in a while the sort of things we get up to in The World. He either misheard me or got a little jealous… When I got back in the room, I heard him talking to Saku. If I'd known he would say things like that to you, I never would have left my game running, let alone have spoken with him in the first place. Please forgive me, Endrance. You're my closest friend. Online, offline, anywhere. I would never intentionally put that in jeopardy, and I'm sorry that a stupid mistake on my part cut off our contact, even for only a month," he said, managing it in such a short space of time that Kaoru had trouble taking it all in at once.

After a few seconds of digesting it all, Endrance took a step forward as he finally gave into his longest-lasting impulse. He pressed lightly on the boy's shoulders, lifting him back up to his full height. "And I'm sorry I didn't check my mail sooner." He pulled the smaller avatar into a hug. To his surprise, Haseo returned it.

When they pulled away, they both sat down where they were. It had been a while for Endrance. He wanted to take in the beauty of the artificial world.

"Ryou, is it?" Kaoru tested for the first time, smiling from inside the safety of his headset.

Haseo grinned as well. "Yes. I never got yours, though…"

This time a sly smile spread wide upon Endrance's lips. "Maybe I'll tell you mine when I fear you're angry with me, as a bargaining chip…"

"Ha. Funny. If I ever get 'mad' at you, it's probably the same scenario I just told you."

Kaoru frowned. "Please don't even joke like that. That hurt a lot."

"I wouldn't even dream of it. Like I said, it'll never happen again. I'm sorry it did in the first place…"

After a while, they decided to clear the field together, half filling each other in on what had happened to them during Kaoru's month of abstinence, half in companionable silence.

When they finally returned to Mac Anu and ported to Breg Epona for some long overdue leveling, somebody approached them. Endrance halted as he laid eyes upon one of Haseo's girls. Haseo did as well. Kaoru fell from Cloud 9 to about Cloud 7, his smile faltering slightly as she spoke.

"Haseo! You jerk- I told you to invite me the next time you got on!" Alkaid glared heatedly at the silverette, hands on her hips.

Said boy simply gave her a placid smile. "Sorry, Alkaid. Something came up," he told her with a shrug.

She looked briefly confused, finally seeing Endrance a few paces behind him. A smile lit up her features suddenly. "He's back. And he got you talking again!" she sounded excited. "Atoli told me it had to do with you, but- aw, man. This means you'll probably start blowing me off again, huh?" Her expressions sure changed fast.

Just as suddenly as she'd come, she was gone; lost to another field area, most likely.

Haseo rubbed the back of his head, looking sheepishly up at him. Kaoru grinned lightly, just enough to fly under the radar of the helm. "So I hear you've been weird since I stopped playing…" he stated.

Now Haseo stretched, as his avatar so often did. "Well, yeah, I told you- you're my closest friend. I was worried he'd scared you off for good." His cheeks tinted as he started checking out the chaos gate again, this time for a field for them to enter for training purposes.

"Almost, but only because I thought that's what you wanted," Kaoru clarified, standing directly beside his beautiful friend as he loved doing.

He saw the red eyes turn toward him, though the character remained frozen in a menu. "Well, don't. Even if you think I don't want you online that shouldn't matter so much. Do what you want, En… Endrance," he sighed, obviously peeved at only having the elder's Character name.

Kaoru frowned. "I only want you to be happy, Ryou…" he said as he briefly noted that the blushed remained on the other's face, "I'll do anything you tell me to, anything I think will make you happy or make things better for you…"

"…Idiot," Haseo breathed as they vanished from the root town and transferred to a high-level field.

Immediately, as they entered what they'd agreed on as the last field for the night, they were engaged in a battle. When they'd destroyed all monsters on the outer level of the field, they entered the temple together, Haseo finally picking up on one of their earlier topics.

"So, where did you move to?" he asked as they descended the initial staircase.

It was Kaoru's turn to be embarrassed, but he took it better than the younger ever did. He smiled down to Haseo and said clearly, "I remembered one of our conversations and decided on Tokyo," in a way that suggested he wasn't stalking him in any way.

Haseo stared at him in disbelief for a moment as a battle began around them. They took out the monsters quickly and he immediately jumped back on the topic. "You're in Tokyo, now?" his voice gave away a little more interest than he probably meant to.

"I am. I have an apartment for six months and the day after tomorrow I start work at an internet café called A Shot In The Dark." At this news, Haseo glanced off into the distance.

"A… Shot In The Dark…" he tested, thinking. "I've heard some of my classmates talk about that place. I think it's fairly close to my school," he said, blinking as he recognized it.

As the taboo topic of an offline meeting came to mind, they fell again into silence. Kaoru would love nothing more than to meet the man of his dreams in person, but that was something he could gladly wait for until the other felt comfortable- if at all.

The rest of the temple's levels came and went rather uneventfully, leaving them both with low HP as they entered the statue room. Relief lit up Haseo's face when his eyes fell upon the giant statue and the chest before it. The character stretched again.

"I'm starting to get tired. You can have the chest. I'll see you…tomorrow? Two? I still have a week until I'm back in school."

"That sounds good. I'm going to have to get used to... working, soon." He smiled good naturedly, approaching the chest and opening it. The items weren't much to get excited about.

When they were both safely back in the root town and saved, Haseo moved to stand before him and crossed his arms over his chest, frowning. Endrance looked down at him in surprise, another small smile spreading across his lips as the other looked away, embarrassed. "What's your name?"

"Guess my favorite color and I'll tell you," he said pointedly, eliciting a confused look from Ryou's avatar.

"Huh? I guess… Purple? Red? Green? Blue?" Each color receive a shake of the head until he attempted the last one.

At this Kaoru grinned and gave him a hint. "Not anymore, but it used to be."

Haseo frowned in confusion for another moment before something caught his eye. He looked back up and guessed, looking a little flustered again, "White?"

This time the blue-haired avatar smiled sweetly and reached out, hesitating only for a moment before sweeping a hand over and lightly brushing a few strands of the smaller avatar's hair out of his face, leaving the hand lightly on his cheek and moving closer, keeping eye contact the whole while. "Beautiful…" he admitted.

Haseo stayed in place for a few moments longer than he usually did when confronted with a movement like this before quickly turning his face away. "I guessed it- so what's your name?" he asked curtly, glancing only briefly over, but long enough for Kaoru to get butterflies at the sight of the blush gracing his soul mate's pixilated cheeks.

"Kaoru," he revealed, silently feeling giddy at his response.

"Kaoru… I think it fits you," Ryou said, Haseo refused to look at him.

Kaoru could have melted. He grasped his controller tightly as it started slipping from his sweating palms.

"Good night, Ryou."

"'Night, Kaoru…" Haseo hesitated, looking him up and down and up again, focusing on his face. "Mine is red, by the way…" And with that, he was gone.

Kaoru looked down curiously before remembering the color of his avatar's eyes. A wide smile spread over his face. He logged out, a pale blush staining his cheeks and an idiotic grin gracing his lips as he pulled his headgear off in the dim light of his apartment.

A/N: I might add in a chapter about his first day after this one after I update again... or before I update with ch. 10... I kind of want to... but it'll be tomorrow... most likely... -shifty eyes-

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