Chapter 4

They stared at each other for a long moment, the ghostly echo of her words laying heavily over the sudden silence. Gui was the first to recover, blinking and shaking his head as though clearing it from a dream.

"That's-" his voice cracked, and he cleared his throat swiftly. "That's impossible. Gender changes are forbidden in Second Life."

"Not if you're the first player to log in," she whispered. Her hands wouldn't stop shaking. She'd never been so nervous in her entire life. "Lolidragon asked her supervisors to bend the rules for me."

His eyes widened impossibly at her words, immediately recalling Lolidragon's confession from the night before.

"Since he was the first player to ever log on the game, we ignored one of the most vital rules of Second Life and gave him one wish as a player. I was the one that conveyed his wish."

He gasped softly at the memory, staring at the girl before him in disbelief.

Lan grimaced, nausea swirling in her abdomen at the growing tension between them with his prolonged silence. "I promised, didn't I? That you would see the real me if Prince disappeared."

Her heart beat ferociously against her chest while her professor continued to stare at her as though he couldn't believe his eyes. Gui took one step forward, then another, and then he was slowly walking towards her. She forced herself to stand her ground, even though she had never wanted so badly to flee.

Gui came to a stop directly in front of her. She stared up at him nervously as he gazed down at her with that smoldering expression he'd only ever used before on her male counterpart. His eyes took in every inch of her face, her eyes, her hair – for several minutes, the only sound between them was their breath.

"It's...it's really you," he whispered, gazing at her in increasing wonder. "Same eyes. Same nose. Same mouth."

Lan swallowed nervously. "You weren't far off when you thought Prince was my brother...Professor."

"You've been right in front of me this whole time," Gui murmured in disbelief, his eyebrows furrowing as he searched her face.

She didn't know quite what to say to that, but she nervously attempted to apologize anyway. "I-I'm sorry I lied to you for so long, Professor. I wasn't sure...I didn't want...I mean..."

He gently wrapped her in his arms, clutching her close with hands that shook like her own. "I thought I told you...merely Gui will suffice."

Lan stiffened in surprise, and blinked as strands of his dark hair caressed her face. She struggled to come up with something to say. "W-Well...don't you dare call me Prince or I'll punch you."

Gui broke out into startled laughter, clutching her smaller frame even tighter. "I can't believe it. It's really you!"

She squirmed against him, embarrassed. "Hey...let go-"

"When are you going to stop pushing me away?" he whispered sadly into her ear. Lan swallowed nervously, her heart thumping obnoxiously loud inside her chest.

"But...I'm a girl," she protested helplessly, pushing at his chest with not even a tenth of Prince's strength. Gui immediately let go of her and backed away slightly, but his hands swiftly came up to cradle her face.

"What did I say to you?"

She blinked, then said intelligently: "Huh?"

"Before the end of the tournament," he reminded her, a soft smile curling the edges of his lips. "Don't you remember what I said?"

"Uh."

"No matter who you are, I don't care." He smiled tenderly at her, and continued repeating the words from so long ago: "Nothing else matters, be it gender, appearance, or the fake personality you may have in real life."

"But-"

"I love you."

Lan froze and stared at him, wide-eyed and disbelieving.

"Prince, Feng Lan...the name does not matter to me. The gender does not matter to me. You are simply you. And you are whom I have fallen for."

Lan sputtered, her face unbearably warm as she blushed at his words. "What- but- you...you don't even know me!"

"Of course I do," Gui replied gently, caressing her cheek with one thumb. "You are still the same sweet, loyal, and violent person I fell for inside the game."

"HEY-"

"I love you."

Too much!, she thought frantically, at a complete loss of what to do or say. She grasped wildly for the first thing that came to mind. "But...you...aren't you gay?"

He blinked at her for a moment, before bursting into startled laughter once again. She flushed in embarrassment, and punched him ferociously in the shoulder. It wasn't nearly as satisfying in real life as it had been in the game, when a single hit would send the bard flying. "Stop laughing at me!"

Gui immediately ceased, but his eyes still glittered with humor as he grinned back at her. "Is that your only objection?"

"Only objection?" she repeated indignantly. "That's a HUGE objection!"

"I never said I was gay," he responded laughingly, grinning at her with a face full of joy. "I said only that I was in love with you, and you assumed I was gay since you were Prince at the time."

Lan frowned. "So...what? You're bi? Or-"

He sighed at her, chuckling once more. "Do you have to give it a label? I simply fell in love with you, and that is all. It didn't matter to me that you were male at the time, or that we were simply in a game. Your wild, free-spirited personality captivated me from the moment I first met you."

She flushed again, glancing away from his face. "...oh."

Gui leaned towards her. (Too close!) "Is that all?"

"What do you mean, is that all?" she snapped irritably. "Have you even considered that-"

His lips effectively silenced her, stealing their first kiss without even the slightest warning. She'd kissed several people in Second Life as Prince, but it felt rather...different, in reality. Gui's lips moved sweetly against her own, as he gently tugged her closer. She leaned against him instead of resisting, grabbing hold of his shirt to regain her balance as the world seemed to tilt. Gui hummed softly against her lips, cradling her head with both of his hands as though he were afraid to let go.

A loud cough from the other side of the room snapped her back into reality, and Lan hastily jerked away from her professor, eyes wide and aimed at the door – where Li Tian Lang stood watching them and failing rather horribly at concealing his smug grin.

"W-W-Wolf-dage!" she stuttered, face flaming as she helplessly tried to push against Gui's unrelenting arms. He clutched her even more tightly, ignoring their friend and fellow teammate.

"I'm not letting you go," Gui murmured softly to her. "Not now that I've found you."

Someone please kill me now before I die of embarrassment!

"As amusing as this is, may I remind you both that this is an infirmary? I'm having a hard time coming up with a good reason for barring the way to my own room."

"Oh, shut up, both of you," she groaned, hiding her face in her hands. They both laughed at her embarrassment, and Gui gently grabbed hold of her hand to tug it away from her face. Tian Lang eyed the both of them for a moment, and then smiled warmly.

"I'm happy you two idiots finally figured it out."

Lan glowered at him. "I should punch you for that."

The doctor simply grinned at her, and then moved out of their way. "I can't wait to tell everyone the news once the servers come back up."

She paused at his words, staring down at her own hand clasped tightly in Gui's. "Oh...that's right, I can't see them anymore..."

Gui squeezed her hand gently. "Of course you can."

"Why don't we have an Odd Squad meeting?" Tian Lang inquired, smiling down at her in the brotherly fashion that had earned him his nickname. "In real life."

Lan smiled up at him. "That sounds like a great idea, Wolf-dage."

Just as Gui reached to open the door, Tian Lang cleared his throat once more. When they turned to look at him inquiringly, he eyed their clasped hands for a moment.

"May I also remind you that it is against school policy for a professor and a student to be in a relationship, before you leave this room and broadcast it to the whole school?"