—Vilplex Village, Plains Biome (Mike POV)—

We had just about finished taking a look at all the wounded players, making sure that they would be okay. Just then, Charlie joined us, as me, Jamie, and Walter made our way to a stable to wait out the rain.

"Quite the storm, am I right?" Charlie commented.

"Where's Erik and Josh?" I asked.

Charlie pointed down the street towards a large building with a sign above it that said 'The Brew & Stew.'

"I think they went in there for some food," he said.

"Did they help the injured?" I asked.

"They revived one of them at the last minute." Walter said. "That player was lucky they had totems on them."

"Well, you said they went in there for food, why don't we join them?" Jamie suggested.

"Sounds good to me!" I agreed.

"Unfortunately, I cannot join you guys." Charlie stated. "I have some business to take care of with the neighboring town Ironforge."

"Mind if I ask what business?" Walter asked.

"Oh, nothing too important." Charlie replied. "I'm an architect, so they occasionally ask for my assistance when they're building new stuff."

Walter raised an eyebrow. "They want you to build in the rain?"

"Oh, we aren't building anything tonight." Charlie replied. "I'm going to be in a nice and dry meeting room planning it."

"Ah." I replied. "What are you guys gonna be building?"

"A new town hall." Charlie replied. "Anyways I have to get going, I was supposed to be there 20 minutes ago. Enjoy your meal guys!" He said, running off into the rain.

"Well, what are you two waiting for?" Walter said. "Imma go grab us a table."

We followed him towards the "Brew & Stew" place. Walking in, The place was crowded with players at booths and tables, clanking their drinks together in celebration of the victory. I could already smell the delicious food from the kitchen, as I looked at all the servers frantically rushing around to take everybody's order. I scoped the area in an attempt to find Erik and Josh.

I saw them across the room sitting at a table near the back. They were talking with a couple of other players, who I assumed to be members of the group they helped revive.

"Can I help you guys?" A waitress said, approaching us. I pointed to Erik's table.

"Actually, we're with them." I replied. "We'll take some menus, though."

She handed us each a menu and ran off to get some more orders. Approaching the table Erik and Josh were at, they quickly recognized us.

"Oh, wassup Mike!" Erik said, dapping me up.

"Who are your new friends?" I asked, looking towards the other players at the table.

"This is Chris and James." Erik said, introducing them. They got hurt pretty badly during the battle."

"Chris almost died." James said, pointing to Josh. "If not for this dude here, he wouldn't be here with us right now."

"So you're the one that saved him…" Jamie said. "Nice."

"I must say, I am very impressed with your improvement." I told Josh. "Why not celebrate it…"

I pulled out some diamonds, slapping them down on the middle of the table.

"BY BUYING EVERYONE A ROUND!"

Everyone at the table cheered, as a lightning strike lit up the sky momentarily.

"YEA!" Erik shouted. "TO JOSH!"

"TO JOSH!" Everyone said in unison.

"Alright, you guys get some food ordered and I'll grab us the drinks." I said, grabbing the diamonds and turning to head to the bar area. Jamie tugged my arm.

"What's up?" I asked, turning around again. Jamie had a slightly annoyed look on her face.

"Is there a problem?" I asked. Jamie paused for a moment.

"Never mind." She replied. "Just grab me an extra drink." She said, reaching into her inventory to pull out some diamonds.

"Oh don't worry about it." I said. "I have more than enough."

"Kay." Jamie said.

Approaching the Diner's bar, I took a seat at the only vacant seat, at the near corner. One of the bartenders approached me. "What can I get for ya?" He asked.

"Gimme seven… no, eight of your best potions." I said, pulling out some diamonds and laying them on the counter.

"Right away." The bartender said, turning around. Taking a moment to look around, I noticed some of the people on the nearby bar stools were looking at me with concern on their faces. As I was waiting for the bartender to brew up the potions, A player approached me from behind.

"Hey. You're in my seat." They said.

"Oh, my bad man." I replied. "I won't be too long, I'm just waiting on the bartender to fini–"

"Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough." The player said. "You're. In. my. Seat."

"What is this, third grade lunch?" I said. "You can't reserve spots. Move your meat, lose your seat."

Just then, another player approached us. I immediately recognized him.

"Reece?" I said. He ignored me.

"Is this man giving you problems?" Reece asked the player.

"Told him to get out of my seat. He wanted to be a smartass." The player responded, as the bartender brought the drinks to the table. Setting them down, I grabbed them and placed them in my inventory.

"See? What did I tell you… Now you can have your precious throne back." I said, getting up. I stepped forward to head back to the table, but the player put his hand in my way.

"I'm gonna have to stop you right there." He said.

"Look dude, I gave you your damn seat back." I said. "What else do you want? Seat polish?"

The player grabbed me by the hoodie. "You disrespected me, so now you're gonna pay."

"Do you even know who I am?"

"I wouldn't give a shit if you were the president of the united states of america." The player responded.

"Pfft. You're funny." I said.

The player spit in my face.

"Big mistake."

I punched the player in the gut. The player stumbled backwards, holding his stomach. Just then, Reece approached me, preparing for what I could only assume to be a blow to the jaw.

"Really?" I said, as Reece threw his fist towards me. I grabbed it, and threw him behind me, his body slamming down on the bar.

"I thought you learned your lesson the last time you tried to fuck with me." I said, as the other player got up and charged me, the other players in the diner tried to grab him and pull him back. He managed to break free of their grip, and landed a punch strong enough to push me right into Reece's chokehold behind me. Noticing the other player was going for round two, I jumped and kicked him in the stomach, while unintentionally jamming Reece's back into the bar. He let out a groan of pain, as I turned around. Grabbing his head, I jammed it into the counter, and he stumbled to the ground. Looking around, the entire diner was eyeballing us trying to see what was going on.

"What the hell is this shit, Wii boxing?" I said sarcastically, as the other player was trying to get up, gasping for air from the chest blow. I pinned him down with my foot.

"Unless you wanna end up like your buddy over there…" I said, pointing to Reece, now unconscious. "I suggest you don't get back up."

The player coughed. Pulling out some extra diamonds, I threw them on his chest.

"Buy yourself a healing potion." I said, taking my foot off of him, fixing my hoodie and leaving the scene. I could sense every pair of eyeballs staring me down as I returned to our table.

"What the hell was that?" Walter asked, as I sat down and opened my menu.

"A classic game of "fuck around and find out." I answered, pulling the drinks out.

"Why?" Jamie asked.

"You're not you when you're drunk." I answered.

"Is that a snickers reference?" Josh asked.

The whole table laughed, as the atmosphere of the diner slowly returned to normal, apart from a few friends taking care of Reece and the other guy. I pulled out the drinks I had bought and placed them in the middle of the table.

"Ooh, night vision!" Walter said, grabbing a bottle. "This autta get me fucked up in no time…"

"Yeah, no kidding…" Josh said, grabbing another one.

As the same waitress from a while ago approached our table, we each ordered our food. Josh went with some suspicious soup, Walter went with a stack of 16 steaks, Erik got pork chops, and both the new friends ordered the same thing: chicken.

When the waitress came up to me and Jamie, she approached me.

"Hey man, are you the dude that beat the shit out of those two dudes over there at the bar?" She asked.

"Uh… yeah, why?" I replied.

"I'm sorry about this man, but you gotta leave." The waitress answered me. "It's diner policy."

"Alright, I understand." I said, getting out of my seat.

"Anyways, what do you want ma'am?" The waitress said, turning to Jamie, who also began to get out of her seat.

"I'm leaving with him." Jamie replied, grabbing two of the night vision bottles.

"Ah, alright, you two have a good night… and for you sir, don't get yourself in any more fights…" She said, chuckling.

"No promises!" I said, walking towards the door. As we were walking, Jamie grabbed onto my hand, our blocky fingers interlocking. As we excited the crowded diner, I took a glance at the sky. It was midnight.

"Damn…" I said, letting out a loud-ish yawn. "It's getting pretty late."

"Why did you get into a fight?" Jamie asked.

"Oh, I sat down at one of the barstools while waiting to get the drinks, and someone who had too much thought it was a good idea to spit in my face over it." I explained.

"Okay, fight approved." Jamie replied. "If I were you though, I would've beat his ass harder."

We both let out a chuckle as we began to wander the streets.

"Say, why don't we head to that bar place we went to when we first got here?" I suggested.

"You mean the one we went to after that guy trying to hit on me challenged you to a 1v1 and lost?" Jamie wondered.

"Bingo." I answered.

"Eh… screw it." Jamie said, popping the cap off her potion. "Grab us a table."

As I approached the bar, the lights were on, but I didn't see anyone inside. Pulling on the iron doors, they were locked.

"Damn." I said, as Jamie chugged one of the potions. "They're closed."

Jamie sighed. "I guess that's okay."

Taking a look towards Jamie, her eyes were glowing slightly, indicating the night vision effect being active. She took a look at the sky.

"Wow, this does look pretty freaky in virtual reality…" Jamie said, inspecting the sky. I reached into my inventory, but I quickly realized that I forgot what was supposed to be my potion back at the other diner.

"Say… why don't we head back to Walter's and I can just make us something?" I asked.

"O-okay…" Jamie said. "I'd like that."

"Alright, it's a done deal. Let's go."

We began to make our way back towards Walter's house. Jamie wrapped her arm around my shoulder.

"So, what are you doing tomorrow?" Jamie asked. "I don't think we'll have to deal with the pumpkin heads too much anymore, now that we've kicked their asses twice."

"I guess you're right." I answered. "I don't want to take that for granted though."

"What?" Jamie asked.

"I don't mean to prepare for the next battle immediately, I just want to go around the village and assess the damage." I explained.

"The only "damage" were the craters the TNT cannons made." Jamie said. "Why don't you just relax tomorrow?"

I thought back to the morning conversation while we were gathering water at the pond.

"You're getting a little bit too ahead of yourself with this fighting back shit."

"Don't you think now's not the best time for this?"

"You know what, let's head out tomorrow." I said. "Just you, and me."

A smile spread across Jamie's face as the night vision glow faded from her eyes. "I would love that." She said, clinging onto my arm again.

Walter's house wasn't far from where we left the bar. We arrived at his home and entered through the front door, which was surprisingly left unlocked.

"Just lay down and rest for a sec," I said, closing the door behind us. "I'll head over to the kitchen and make somethin."

"Okay." Jamie said, plopping down on one of the couches and leaning back, letting out a yawn herself.

Walking into the kitchen, I reached into one of the chests and pulled out some pork chops. Dropping them in the smoker, I turned to Jamie, sitting in the darkness.

"I'm sorry about this morning." I said.

"What?"

"You were right about me getting ahead of myself with this resistance stuff." I replied.

"Just a little bit." Jamie said.

"No, I mean it." I replied. "I need to devote more time to you."

Reaching into another chest, I pulled out some logs and stuffed them into the bottom slot of the smoker, immediately lighting it up and illuminating the entire kitchen with its flame.

"You don't have to devote every second of your day to me." Jamie said, "You know that."

"Well, I have to make sure I'm devoting a good chunk." I replied, watching the pork chops cook.

"I'm fine with whatever you do." Jamie said, sighing. "I'm just happy that you want to spend time with me."

"I'm glad you feel that way too." I replied.

"Besides, I'm a lot happier when I'm with you." Jamie added.

"Me too." I said, smiling.

Just as the pork chops finished, I took them out of the smoker and brought them over, sitting next to her and handing her a few. As we ate together in the dark living room, I put my arm around Jamie and she gently placed her head on my shoulder.

"I'm glad I met you." I said. "I probably would've gone insane by now from the boy's bullshit if I hadn't."

Jamie chuckled. "I'm glad I met you too." She said, "I'm really glad."

As we finished the last of the pork chops, I got up off the couch.

"I'm gonna go shut the smoker off." I said.

Approaching the kitchen, I took the logs out of the smoker, then placed some meat in it to kill the remaining fire off.

As I was waiting for the flame to go out, Jamie approached from behind me, beginning to run her hands along my shoulders.

"A little touchy tonight, are we?"

"Want me to stop?"

"I don't mind."

"Okay." Jamie replied, wrapping her arms around me.

I leaned against the wall, enjoying the warmth of her body as she pressed her breasts into my back.

As the flame in the furnace started to die out, I turned around and wrapped my arms around her.

"Those were some damn good pork chops." I said.

"They sure were." Jamie replied.

"Are you tired yet?"

Jamie placed her head against my chest.

"Your heart is racing." She said.

"Yeah." I replied. "For you."

"For me?"

"You're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen." I said.

Jamie chuckled. "Mike, this is fuckin minecraft."

"I don't care." I replied. "You're the most beautiful cluster of pixels I have ever had the pleasure to lay my eyes on."

"Fuckin' nerd." Jamie said, laughing.

"So, you wanna head to bed?" I asked.

"I would love to." Jamie replied, pushing away from me.

As I walked towards the stairs, she followed behind me, holding my hand. Entering the bedroom, I unloaded my inventory into the chest on the side of the bed and laid down. As Jamie did the same, she laid beside me.

I laid there for a moment, looking at the ceiling. I was trying to think of what we could do tomorrow, as Jamie turned towards me to cuddle me.

"I love you." Jamie whispered.

"I love you too." I whispered back.

I looked over at Jamie, her eyes closed. I couldn't help but smile. I felt so lucky to have met her.