So I was challenged last time by a reviewer: Nanya, to make something happen. Well, considering the rating of the story, I can't quite do that. But here's some compensation instead.

Chapter 6: Uhh…

"Yeah-heah! Eat shit, you little—! Agh! Yeah! B-Face is gonna send you straight to hell!"

Ahhh, yes. Here we have "The Gamer" (that's me, by the way) in his natural habitat. A majestic creature in all the possible ways.

With their eyes locked on the screen and with their hands choking the controller, mashing the buttons as if pushing them harder would cause their in-game character to hit the opponents harder.

Oh, look at that. This particular gamer seems to be playing Cull of Deputy: Modern War and is hunting other of its species, specifically those within the age range of twelve. With its iconic headset, it communicates to them how much better he is at beating children at a game while they return the gesture by verbally abusing him with every curse word in the English dictionary.

Truly, a magnificent species.

Yeah right. Enough of that. Tl;dr? I got a day off and I'm spending it alone to stomp some kids online in a competitive shooter game.

Look. We all have our guilty pleasures. And mine is stomping toddlers that think they are hot shit… I-In-game! Let that be known! In-game!

In-between rounds, I take my headset off and sigh. Headphones sure know how to give you a headache if you haven't been wearing them for a while.

I take the can of cheap, watered-down beer before me and take a sip… during which, I hear a forceful knock on my door.

Probably the neighbours complaining about the noise. Again…

Well. This lobby sucked anyway. So I exit it before standing up and opening the door. What I see is not my neighbours, but instead… Something indescribable. Je ne se qua. Sublime…?

It's Vampy, alright. But she's drenched in blue jelly. Her clothes stick to her body like glue. She has an eyepatch. And under her arm she carries a small box with the words "Illegal crap" written on it.

We stare at each other. It takes me a moment to notice the unamused look of hers, but when I do, I stammer "Errr-... Do-... Dare I ask to-... Uhh… Wah?"

Vampy raises a hand. "Not. One. Word. Shower. Now."

Oh… Oh hell no. She's gonna come in like that and get the carpet even more filthy than it already is! I can't accept that! Just think of the smell it will give… Actually… What even is that stuff? Does it smell?

…

Do you want to know this, B-Face?

Even as I contemplate whether or not I'd let her in, what choice do I really have? I wouldn't want to be in her shoes and have someone smack the door closed before my face when I'm… in a sorry state like this…

Ultimately, I sigh and step aside. "Just-... Clean up when you're done."

The pale girl grunts as she makes herself home. Oh. Yup. There it is. A dirty, sticky, filthy trail of blue slime constantly dripping from her body. With every disgustingly squishy step she takes, it rains from her body. I can already see it sinking into the carpet. Ah, god… That's going to be an absolute bitch to get out… Along with those other stains I still have to scrub… And-... And that pale spot where I dropped some yoghurt earlier this morning.

Hm. Maybe this was the encouragement I needed to actually start cleaning this place up.

"Damn it, Vampy…" I utter in a whispering voice before accepting my fate and move to the kitchen, pulling out the cleaning products. This is gonna take a while…

"Alright… That should do it…"

About half an hour later, with running water sounding from the bathroom, I stand in a clean room. Well… Clean for its standards.

"This will do, indeed," I mutter to myself. Wiping my hands on my jeans, I notice the water has stopped.

Not a minute later, Vampy steps out of the bathroom. And-...

"..."

I'm getting flashbacks to the time I stepped into the living room with a raging boner. Why?

Well… Vampy. She's got a towel tightly wrapped around her body. Covering anything from below her armpits to her supple thighs, it clasps against her damp body seemingly so naturally.

Her ashen-grey skin showing, the peachy spots on her shoulders and cheeks don't go unnoticed by me.

That lime, soft green hair of hers, let down with occasional strands in-between the straightness to stand up.

I snap back to my senses with a soft blow into my gut. It's enough to make me wince.

"I said… You got another towel or something? Or do you literally have only two towels: One filthy you use and another clean one?"

Right. She wouldn't use mine… What does she need two for, though? Regardless, I nod and go back to the kitchen. Under the sink, where I keep all my cleaning products, I take a neatly folded white towel and hand it to her. Vampy is quick to wrap it over the top of her head and stuff her hair into it. Hum… Yeah, I guess women do that… That-... Thing with their hair… I guess. Why though? Probably should ask next time I see a woman.

Vampy deems my staring unimportant and looks the other way with a faint red tint across her face. She walks to the couch and takes a seat, breathing out as she leans back into it. Her eyes fixated on the TV, which shows the main menu of the game I was playing just moments ago, she speaks without looking at me. "Hey. Could you wash those clothes for me please?"

"What? Don't you want me to get you some spare ones of mine instead?"

"Ha. I have literally seen you in two outfits. Your work clothes and whatever you're wearing right now. Like hell you'd have other clothes."

… Okay, I know she's joking (maybe), but she isn't wrong. I don't actually have more than what I am wearing right now… Probably should fix that.

Well. Guess today's cleaning day. I might as well dump those clothes into the washing machine then.

Okay. Skipping over all that (because we've been lingering on the small stuff for long enough), I finally take a seat beside Vampy and ask: "So can I finally question why the frick you were coated in slime, were carrying that box and have an eye-patch? Or are we never going to acknowledge this ever?"

Vampy gives me a sour look. "I don't-... want to talk about it… Seriously. I don't."

"Oh, c'mon. It can't be that bad," I assure. "If you share it, I'll count that as repaying me for letting you use my shower. Fair, right?"

Like biting on a lemon, Vampy holds that sour, grumpy expression…

"... Fine," she ultimately mumbles. "I'll tell you a bit. But don't you dare tell anyone…!"

Wait, really!? Shoot. I honestly didn't think she'd actually do it. Go, B-Face!

"A-Alright… Well…"

Another awkward silence… And then… Her story began. For the duration, I decide to stay quite.

"You see… I was kinda… Err… 'Taking things that weren't mine' and got caught. So I had to make a run for it. Ran out for the woods. Low level dungeons always have the best hiding spots, because you're in no danger of hitting a high-level mob."

Alright… So far, nothing too weird. That explains where she got the box from, I guess.

"Yeah… But that stupid, maid-ninja-thing-woman chased me all the way to the end of that place. Seriously. She dodged everything I threw at her… It was like her hitbox was only a pixel large. Shit got real close."

Vampy cocks a grin presses her thumb against her collar, pointing at herself confidently. "So what did I do? I jumped off a cliff and—"

"Hold up!" I exclaimed as my eyes shot wide. "You… You fucking jumped off a cliff!? Why!?"

"Uhh… To shake her off! Duh…"

I shake my head and raise my hands. "S-Slow down. You jumped off a cliff and—"

Vampy groans loudly. "There was some water at the bottom. Like… a thin puddle of it. Enough to break my fall (in Leanbox)." She raises a hand and holds her index finger and thumb a literal inch apart from each other to further emphasise how little water broke her fall.

I only got one response. "The fuck?"

"Don't think about it. It's a Leanbox thing."

… You know what? I'd ask. But if I did, I'd probably be considered a creep… err… moving on.

"Okay then," I say after staring long and hard at the pale girl. With a quick gesture of my hand, I tell her to continue.

"Right. So I jumped. She didn't jump after me—"

Like any sensible person would.

"—and when I dropped into that puddle… It was actually way deeper than I thought…" Vampy shyly looks away… Her eyes shoot to the TV as her cheeks reveal just how flustered she is. "So I kinda… sank into it… to my hips… and kept sinking… Because it was slime…"

Umm… I don't think I like where this is going. I don't think I've seen Vampy so… vulnerable before. She's looking down at the ground while her hands rest on her bare knees. Her thighs rub against each other as she nervously shuffles on her seat.

"A-And it turns out it was a Dogoo nest… So a bunch of those little rascals came out of nowhere… with their disgusting… t-tongues… and-... horrible-..."

There's a pause. During it, I quickly realise that perhaps we should end the story there. My imagination is already ruining whatever comes next. Not to mention… I got an odd sense of guilt in my gut while listening to her. Sure, this wasn't my fault… but she didn't want to talk about it. Just look at her. Where's her usual spunk and flair?

So to halt any further trauma from resurfacing, I clear my throat loudly and shake my head. "Hey… I think that's enough, Vampy. No need to stress yourself with that anymore… I'm good…"

"N-Nah, nah… I'm just-... Just a bit sha-shaken… Now I know what I put those broads through," she quietly utters the last part.

I just nod at her. Not sure what she was going on about again, but I don't think I want to ask… Ugh… But back to the main topic. Sounds like she had a seriously rough day…

While scratching my arm, I open my mouth to ask her something. But my gaze falls upon her eyepatch. "Wait… What about the eyepatch? Where did that come from? Did you need it after today?"

"Huh? Oh. Nah, I just thought it looked cool and started wearing it a week ago. Do you like it?"

I blink not once, not twice, but thrice. Seriously? Agh, and that was the part of the story I was looking forward the most to. 'I lost my eye in a fistfight with a dragon' or something…

Still… I can't tell her that I think it looks lame. Not now at least. So I give her a thumbs up and a nod. "Looks nice."

The compliment allowed Vampy to flash a rather precious smile at me. Her head slightly tilted to the right, she gives me a quiet "thanks" before looking away again. I find myself looking away as well… Geez… Is it creepy to say that she looked rather cute for just a split second… Then again… I'd get hard of probably any girl in a towel...

…

"Do you want to stay over for the night?"

Wait…

The words escaped my mouth even before I realised they did. And I already regret them. Shit… Maybe if I apologise now, I can still—

"Yeah… I'll take you up on that offer. No way in hell I'm going anywhere…"

I'm not sure how many times I have been surprised or shocked in the past five minutes. But add this one to the list. "H-Huh?"

"Besides… I kinda wanna stay here for a bit… I feel… Err… Let's just say I feel safe here. Alright?" Almost instantly, she points at me. "But don't go getting any funny ideas, B-Face. I just trust you more than I trust the hobo that made its home next to my hideout!"

You know what? At some point, I should stop being in shock and awe. Let's just accept this. Yeah… It'll be nice to have Vampy sleepover, I guess.

Bla bla bla, something about this being super popular, bla bla bla, this had 10k words and 50 follows while my 120k word story is... about to be surpassed by this one. Not sure how I feel about that. Anyway. Until next time!