The day turned into night and Timmy was more than thankful to be back at his apartment. The trip to the cellphone repair shop had gone better than he had thought but only after he had to negotiate with the employees after Tecna insisted on buying their equipment. She had no money and no authority to ask them for the equipment that they bought. Timmy did appease both Tecna and the repairers when he asked for the information on where he could obtain the tools that could be used to fix Tecna's communicator. Timmy would spend all the money that he had to make sure that Tecna left the shop and the planet with the least amount of damage.

If the cellphone repair shop hadn't been difficult enough, lunch and the afternoon of tracking down tools was one of the most frustrating excursions that Timmy had been on.

Timmy had taken Tecna to one of his favorite sandwich shops but once again, what would have been an enjoyable experience quickly turned into one of frustration. It was like taking a toddler to a new place. Timmy was patient but his patience was definitely wearing thin the more time that he spent with Tecna. She turned her nose up at everything, but Timmy finally got her to settle on a turkey sandwich on white bread. Bland, boring, and dry; just like Tecna. She hesitated as she took her first bite but quickly ate the rest of the sandwich. Timmy would note that for later. She liked eggs and turkey sandwiches.

After lunch, they went to the electronics store and began looking in the section with the repair kits but once again, all that came from Tecna's mouth was unwarranted criticism. Timmy would love to see Zenith if it was as great as Tecna made it out to be but if they were all like her then he would gladly stay put on Earth. Besides, Timmy didn't know if he was cut out for intergalactic travel. Leave it to Tecna to quickly turn Timmy's love of space and all things science-fiction into a newfound hatred. How could one person-alien-do that in one day? Emotions were funny.

Still, Timmy did his best to hold his tongue when they were at the electronics store. He had already blown up at her once and he didn't need to do that again. Sure, she had seemed unaffected and knowing the very little that he did about her, she probably couldn't care less about what he had to say. She never showed any kind of emotion that it made Timmy dive further into the question of how much like a human she really was. She liked to eat but did she need to eat? She had all the top parts from what he saw of her exposed sternum that morning but was it same down below? Was it the same inside? Pfft, Timmy scoffed to himself, he wondered if she even had a heart or the ability to feel at all. Timmy had been known as the logical and unaffected one of the group, but compared to Tecna, Timmy was an emotional wreck.

Tecna was frustrating, annoying, and rude. She also was turning Timmy's world upside down and he didn't know if that or Tecna herself was more daunting and scary.

After Tecna's lamentations and criticisms over the shoddy state of tools that Earth had, Timmy was finally able to convince Tecna to pick something out and they made their way back to his apartment.

They quickly went to his room so as to avoid Helia when he came back. He could think whatever he wanted was going on in that room but if Helia ever spent more than five minutes with Tecna, Helia would quickly know that whatever best case scenario that he could think of most certainly was not going on in that room. Timmy couldn't stand Tecna and even though Helia might be one of the more regulated members of their friend group, even he wouldn't be able to put up for Tecna for longer than he absolutely needed to.

So, Tecna had found a space on Timmy's bed, the communicator set out in front of her and the tools that she-well Timmy-had bought were lined up meticulously right next to it.

"I shall begin the repairs." Tecna announced.

Timmy rolled his eyes as he went to sit in his computer chair, "You don't have to announce every step of the process."

"One must keep others aware of their progress." Tecna replied, her eyes unmoving from the communicator in front of her.

"Whatever." Timmy sighed and pulled out his phone as he powered up his computer, checking the last few messages that came in from Riven and Nabu. After a stressful day with Tecna, Timmy was more than happy that his two friends were able to play a little bit of Doomsday Battalion IV. Their game had been cut short by the power outage the night before and with the power having been restored sometime in the middle of the day, Timmy was ready to get to the action. With Tecna focused on her repairs and Helia at Flora's, Timmy prepared to set in for a relaxing game with his friends.

"Blow his head off, Nabu!" Riven shouted through his headset as Timmy's fingers moved frantically over his keyboard, trying to help his friends take down one of the monsters. It had been an hour and they were still on this stupid level. They probably would have completed it the night before but somebody just had to crash into Earth. It was sounding more and more ridiculous the more he said it.

"I'm trying!" Nabu exclaimed through a strained voice as he did his best to navigate around the monster and fight it off.

"Use a med-pack!" Timmy instructed.

"I would do that if I could, Tim! But my hands are a little busy right now."

"You are the one with the key," Riven said, "if you die, the level is over."

"Yeah, I know that!" Nabu huffed, "Just give me a…GOT HIM!"

The monster fell to the ground and disappeared as it had been defeated. Nabu's health bar quickly changed from a dark red to a light orange and then again from a light orange to a bright green.

"Phew," Nabu exhaled into his headset, "glad that is over. Now it looks like all we have to do now is locate the door and we will be out of here. Hopefully no more of those ugly monsters show up again."

"Then let's explore." Timmy said, "How about we stick together instead of splitting up, just in case there is another monster attack."

"You got it, Timster."

"Riven…"

"…Timmy." Riven corrected.

The avatars on the screen moved in sync through the abandoned warehouse, picking up random objects that might come in handy for the next level. They could use all the help that they needed as they would be entering the final level. Timmy was bound and determined to finish the level with plenty of time before the release of the new version at the end of the month and that day was approaching ever so near.

"Say, Timmy," Riven said through the headset but Timmy did not like his tone of voice.

"Yes, Riven?" Timmy sighed.

"Helia told me, well he told Musa who told me, that you had a late-night visitor."

Shit. Riven knew and if he knew, everyone knew. Riven was one of the toughest men he knew but when it came to secrets and gossip, Riven could not hold anything between his lips. He thought that Stella was a bad gossip but never thought to take a look in the mirror.

"A what?" Nabu asked.

"Helia woke up to find a naked woman in their apartment."

"She wasn't naked." Timmy refuted as he snuck a glance behind him to look at Tecna who was still busy working on the now disassembled communicator on the bed.

"So you're not denying that you had a friend over last night?" Riven asked.

"No, I mean yes, I mean…" Timmy took in a deep breath and began to count in his head, "she's just some woman from my cohort that got drunk and found her way to my apartment. I didn't feel comfortable sending her back to her place so I said that she could sleep it off on the couch. Nothing happened."

"Sure…" Nabu replied.

"I'm serious, guys! Nothing happened and nothing is ever going to happen because she is the most annoying woman that I have ever met and…" Timmy needed to calm down, "nothing happened."

"Okay okay, we believe you." Riven chuckled, "But I mean, it has been a while since you have been with anyone and we just want you to be happy, Tim. We are tired of eleven wheels, and we would love to make it twelve."

"It would probably be easier to make it ten." Timmy scoffed as he continued to move his avatar through the concrete labyrinth.

"Nah, Tim, you're our best friend and we want you there with us and we want you to find happiness like we have."

"So sentimental all of a sudden, Riven." Timmy laughed.

"Hey, man. Call me a sucker but I would gladly shout it from any roof or mountain top that I fuckin' love Musa. Never been happier in all my life."

"So when are you going to ask her to marry you?" Nabu asked.

"Never gonna happen, we ain't the marrying type. Too much paperwork. But what about you, Nabu? When are you finally gonna ask, Aisha? I thought that you two would have been the first to have been married."

"Eh," Nabu shrugged, "just haven't found the right time to ask her. We are just both so busy but we both know that it is going to happen one day. She is also on the road a lot with her team and busy with work that there is barely enough time to plan dinner much less a wedding. Plus I need to talk to her parents, they are a little old fashioned."

"I can see that." Riven said, "Unlike Ms. Sunshine, I suspect that Aisha will want to include you in the wedding plans. I have been trying to contact Brandon about the plans for the wedding and he seems to know as much as I do. Stella has been running the show."

"It's Stella," Timmy replied, "what else did you expect?"

"See, this is why I am not having a wedding." Riven chuckled.

"No, this is why you are not marrying Stella."

"Don't even put that picture in my head, man." Riven cringed, "I don't even want to think of that blonde…ugh, no thank you. Flora or Aisha maybe, but Bloom and Stella…"

"Don't come after my girl, Riv."

"No chance."

"Good."

As Riven and Nabu talked more and more about wedding what ifs, Timmy couldn't help but get caught in the thought of being with anyone. Girls didn't particularly flock to him. He was gangly, nerdy, shy, and just plain awkward. No girl ever talked about the raw sex appeal that oozed out of men with ginger hair, freckles, and large glasses. Riven was muscular, Nabu looked like a sun kissed, chocolate God, Brandon was the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome, Helia reminded women of the men from smutty romance novels, and Sky was charismatic, and his angelic features were not any that women would shy away from. But Timmy…Timmy was none of that. Timmy was just plain, nerdy Timmy.

Tecna was probably the closest a woman had come to him in months and Timmy certainly wasn't happy about that. Tecna was easy to talk to, well more like easy to yell at, because she just kept pissing him off. She wasn't really a woman, not really. He would never, ever be with someone like her, even if they flashed him and paid him a large sum.

Nope, never.

"Woah woah woah," Timmy exclaimed, ending the conversation between his two friends, "back up, I think that I saw a door."

The avatars backed up and Nabu's character pulled out the key and unlocked the door. The door opened and they were onto the next level. A large white screen appeared and faded to a gray screen with the words Level Complete scrawled across the screen.

Finally.

"Hell yeah!" Riven exclaimed, "About fucking time."

"Whew," Timmy was more than relieved, "great job, gentlemen. I'm gonna go grab a glass of water and then we can start the game again. I think that this is our last level and then we are done."

"Roger that, Timbo."

"I never thought that there would ever be a nickname worse than Timster."

"What can I say, I am full of surprises." Riven replied.

Timmy rolled his eyes and took off his headset, the game still stuck on the Level Complete screen until he came back and moved the game along. He needed a break and needed to recharge before they moved on to the final level. Timmy heard from the message boards that the final level was a real bitch. He didn't think that they would beat the game tonight, but he would sure try and there was no shame in trying.

"I am getting some water," Timmy said to Tecna who was still on his bed surrounded by tiny communicator pieces, "don't touch anything."

She didn't respond as she was so focused on the task at hand. Tch, whatever. As long as she stayed that way, he wouldn't have anything to worry about. He gave her another look before he walked out of his bedroom, her short hair had been pushed back as she ran her hand back as she concentrated. He followed the lines in her face and once again couldn't help but to focus on the soft, white skin that contrasted with her bright, blue eyes. She was beautiful…that is if she didn't open her mouth. He definitely would have been slapped by his mother, and every other woman he knew, if he dared say that out loud.

Timmy left his bedroom and gently shut the door behind him. He walked through the narrow hallway of the apartment and to the living room where he saw Helia sitting on the couch, reading some worn and weathered book.

"Helia, what are you doing here?" Timmy asked, "I thought that you were going to be at Flora's?"

"I was," Helia set the book down, "but Flora got called into the ballet studio. Apparently, the Sugar Plum Fairy snapped her ankle during a rehearsal and obviously won't be well in time for the performance."

"Is Flora reprising her role?" Timmy asked as he walked into the kitchen.

"No no no," Helia stood up and followed Timmy into the kitchen, "they moved up one of the Flowers from the Waltz and now Flora is becoming a flower."

"How appropriate." Timmy chuckled as he grabbed a glass from the cupboard.

"She's not having too much fun, poor girl. Apparently, as to not completely mess up the feeling of the ensemble by adding in Flora, they are doing the Balanchine version and they have Flora as the soloist, and she has been a lot of pain. She hasn't danced like that in months after she started med school. She's super worried."

"I am not a betting man, the odds are rarely on my side. But I would confidently bet that Flora is going to be amazing. Plus, this is Miele's first year as Clara and so all eyes will be on her anyways."

"Trust me," Helia folded his arms and chuckled, "if Flora is nervous, Miele is a wreck. I always thought that Miele was the confident and headstrong sister but both Cortez girls don't do well under pressure."

Timmy took a sip of water as Helia took a step closer to him. Timmy backed away suspiciously.

"What are you doing?" Timmy asked.

"Enough about me and Flora, I heard you talking to someone in your bedroom. Is Tecna still here?" Helia asked.

Ugh, time to make up a story.

"Uh yeah," Timmy cleared his throat, "I told her that she could stay here because she lost her keys last night to her apartment, but I am starting to regret it…"

"Really?"

"She has been nothing but annoying and I would send her away if I knew that she had somewhere else to go."

Helia smirked, "Timmy, I am telling you that you don't have to lie to me. You are a terrible liar."

Timmy threw his head back in aggravation, "How many times do I have to tell you, I am not interested in that skinny, little brat?!"

"She must be really something if she has you this worked up."

"You have no idea. She has been nothing but rude since you left. Luckily, she is now working on a project, and she hasn't said a word to me."

"I can sense you are telling the truth about your frustrations, however, you haven't mentioned this before."

"I barely knew her before, but goodness, I wish I didn't now."

Helia chuckled, "I am sensing a hate to love story in your future."

Helia pulled out a crystal that was attached to a leather string around his neck and waved it in front of Timmy.

"Stop swinging that thing in front of my face," Timmy swatted the crystal away.

"I was just trying to clear away the bad energy, your aura is a nasty color right now."

"You're being illogical, that shit doesn't work."

Helia rolled his eyes, "You're Catholic and you want to tell me that my spirituality is illogical?"

"Was Catholic. As in, no longer Catholic."

"Yes yes," Helia waved defensively, "and Jesus and your mother weeps every day because of it. Either way, your energy is so dark and clouded. You should really find a way to cleanse your heart, mind, and spirit."

Timmy huffed, knowing the exact reason for his "negative energy". It was five foot eight with bright fuchsia hair and sitting on his bed. The only way his negative energy was going to be cleansed was when he was "cleansed" of Tecna. But he was going to be "exterminated" after that so all the energy, positive, negative, or otherwise would be "cleansed" from his body.

Fucking great.

Timmy drank the rest of the water in his glass and set it on the counter.

"I'm going back in my room, the guys are waiting on me."

Timmy headed back to his room, Helia still standing in the kitchen, a wide smirk on his face.

"Just remember what I told you, Tim." Helia called out, "Cleanse your energy and you will feel a state of calm."

Sure…

Walking back into his room, Timmy shut the door behind him but when he turned around his heart dropped as he saw Tecna sitting in his computer chair and the credit screen rolling. He looked between the screen and the alien in the chair and tried to make sense of what the Hell was happening.

"What did you…what did…how did…huh?" Timmy stared at the screen as he walked towards his desk.

"I have completed the task and-"

"Did you finish the game!?"

"Yes, I sensed that you were in great distress when playing it and-"

"YOU FINIISHED THE GAME!?" Timmy shouted, "HOW COULD YOU DO SUCH A THING!?"

"You were distressed and-"

Timmy couldn't believe it. She finished the last level. Did Nabu and Riven play? What the Hell was going on. Timmy pushed Tecna out of the way, her body rolling away with the computer chair against the hardwood floor as Timmy placed the headset over his head.

"Riven? Nabu?"

"Yo, Timmy are you ready to," Riven stopped, "did we finish the game?"

"Were you not playing?" Timmy asked.

"No, man," Riven replied, "I was texting Musa and waiting on you."

"I was responding to some emails from work." Nabu answered.

"Fucking…" Timmy huffed as he threw the headset off of his head. Timmy rubbed his hands over his face before turning to Tecna. He was beyond annoyed and frustrated; he was livid and there wasn't a number high enough for him to count to to calm him down. She had played the game and singlehandedly beat the level. Now, Timmy would have been impressed with that fact alone, he knew some amazing girl gamers, but it was her and he and his friends had been looking forward to beating the game ever since it came out. They were going to do it together and she took that from them.

"Now you can help me rebuild my-"

"I am not helping you rebuild shit!" Timmy shouted. "I don't care if you kill me right now but you are on your own! How could you do this?! This was…just how?! All you have done is think about yourself this whole time, you've shit on Earth this whole time, and you have been rude. I felt bad about telling you how awful of a person, or alien or whatever you are, but now I feel bad that I didn't fucking tell you off even harder. You are rude, selfish, and I thought that I was emotionally unaware, at least I know that I have some fucking emotions! I don't even have the words right now to really tell you how much I hate you!"

"It was a silly game." Tecna replied as robotic and unaffected as ever.

"THAT'S NOT THE FUCKING POINT!" Timmy yelled, "I played that game with my friends and I enjoyed it. We were a team and all three of us were so excited to finish the game. Together. And without thinking, you just finished it yourself!"

"I wanted to do something for you so that you could help me-"

"YOU DIDN'T DO IT FOR ME, YOU DID IT FOR YOU! YOU JUST SAID SO YOURSELF!" Timmy grabbed his blanket by the corners and wrapped up the parts of the communicator and the tools inside the thick, blue material. "Here! Leave! Sleep in the bathtub, sleep out in the cold! I don't care! Just don't talk to me ever again! Right now, I don't care if you never make it back to Zenith! Maybe you'll learn some fucking manners!"

Timmy shoved the blanket into Tecna's arms and pushed her out of his bedroom.

"I didn't-"

"Just leave. Me. Alone!" Timmy shouted.

He glared at Tecna as she made her way through the living room and to the bathroom where Timmy was more than certain she would be spending the night. He didn't care if she was comfortable or not. He didn't want to know anything else about her. What more could he possibly want to know about a being so terrible? She could have slept out in the wreck spacecraft for all he cared.

Was he being a bit ridiculous? Maybe. She was right, it was just a game. But to Timmy, that game meant so much. He and his friends bonded over their shared love of gaming. Riven and Nabu became friends because of gaming and Timmy didn't know if they would be friends with him if they didn't have that in common. Of course now, Timmy couldn't imagine Riven or Nabu not being his friend and knew that they weren't shallow but when they first met, would Riven and Nabu think the same? He had always been a dork and it was a wonder that he had friends as cool as he did. He always felt inadequate but with gaming, Timmy felt that he could compare to his friends. But when Tecna finished the game, not allowing him and his friends to do so, Timmy felt that he was back to being a zero.

Timmy felt something buzz in his pocket and quickly pulled out his cell phone to see that Nabu had been trying to call him. Taking a deep breath, Timmy answered the call.

"What?" that came out way harsher than he had intended.

"Hey man," Nabu said calmly, "I could hear yelling through the headset, are you okay?"

"No, I am not okay? I am pissed!"

"It's just a game. We can replay the level tomorrow and-"

"No! You don't get it! This is not just a game! We have done this together!"

"I know, Timmy." Nabu's voice was calm, "I understand. But like I said, we can redo the level-"

"You don't understand! None of you guys understand! Gaming and computers are all that I have! I am nothing without them! None of you would be friends with me-"

"Hey!" Nabu exclaimed, "That's not fair! We like you for you, Timmy and I can confidently speak for everyone and tell you that you are an amazing friend. You are thoughtful, kind, and caring."

Ha, if Nabu only heard what he had yelled at Tecna just a moment ago. But with how loud he was, he was pretty sure that Nabu could hear.

"You guys are all attractive and cool and I am just some nerd. One day, you'll all be married and-"

"So will you, Tim."

Timmy wanted to protest but out of caution for sounding absolutely pathetic, he stopped. It wasn't fair to unload his frustrations and insecurities on his friend who was just trying to make him feel better and check up on him. Nabu wasn't a therapist and he wasn't a client.

"I'm sorry." Timmy sighed as he rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and pointer finger, "I just got angry and lashed out at you."

"It sounds that I wasn't the only one you lashed out at."

"Well, she deserved it."

"No she didn't and you know it." Nabu chuckled.

If only he knew what he was dealing with. He wouldn't be saying that if he knew.

"I think we all just need a good night's sleep and we can wake up refreshed. We will replay the level and rejoice in your technical prowess and gaming mastery, okay?"

"Okay." Timmy sighed.

"Good night, Timmy. We all love you for you, man. Riven might not say it but the rest of us would say it in a heartbeat. Don't forget it."

Timmy exhaled, "I won't. Good night, Nabu."

The call ended and Timmy placed his phone back in his pocket. He looked down the hall towards the bathroom and sighed as the light was on, meaning that Tecna was still awake. Or maybe she slept with the light on? He didn't know and was too tired to really care to know at the moment. He was in no mood to speak to her and he wasn't sure if he ever would be. How could one woman do this to him?

Timmy's attention was brought from the bathroom door when he heard a low whistle at the end of the hallway. He looked ahead to see Helia leaning against the hallway wall, a mug of tea in his hands.

"I told you," Helia shook his head slowly, "negative energy."