Chapter Six
When they were within sight of the bus stop Lan normally used to travel to and from the university, she unexpectedly stopped in front of an electronics store. Curious at the sudden pause, Gui gazed at her for a moment and then followed the direction of her gaze to one of the vid-screens displayed in the front of the store. He frowned at the screen, which was currently displaying "WORLDWIDE OUTRAGE! Popular Second Life character Prince deleted from servers! CEO ignoring requests to restore character!" There were no subtitles displayed on the vid-screen (which he found himself somewhat thankful for, considering the subject), but the newscaster's lips were moving swiftly and angrily as he made agitated gestures with his hands. The screen switched over to a view of the streets surrounding Life Industries, where countless masses of people were angrily shouting at the police guarding the building. Several items were thrown at it, defacing the surface with rotted food and large paintballs, while others simply clutched hold of their protest banners and cried in full view of the camera. Gui snuck a glance at Lan's face, and was alarmed to find it curiously blank.
"Feng Lan..." he said quietly. "Are you-"
"It's Xiao Lan," she snapped, scowling fiercely at the vid-screen.
Gui tentatively reached out for her shoulder. "Xiao Lan...are you alright?"
"OF COURSE I'M NOT ALRIGHT!" she shrieked suddenly at the top of her lungs, making him recoil in surprise. "OOOOOH! IT MAKES ME SOOO MAD!"
He watched in wide-eyed silence as she stomped her foot like a child throwing a temper tantrum.
"Those manipulative bastards! I ought'a give them a piece of my mind! Making me their spokesperson, making me save their stupid video game, making me fix their stupid mess, then kicking me to the curb!" she snarled, tears of fury welling up in her eyes as she finally released all of the anger she'd hidden beneath her sorrow, punctuating each word with a stomp of her foot as though she were trying to break the concrete. "It makes me- SO- FREAKING- MAD!"
With a final foot stomp, she clenched her fists and screamed wordlessly at the sky.
When she'd finally finished venting all of her rage at the clouds, she glared down at the cement beneath her feet, breathing heavily. Gui could only smile elatedly at her wild and fierce emotion, recalling how it had been the first thing that had initially drawn him to her after their first awkward meeting in the online city. Neither of them cared that several people on the street were now staring at them in extreme alarm.
"Feel better?" he asked warmly.
She turned and grinned fiercely at him in response, reminding him unmistakably of the way Prince would smile at the end of a grisly battle, blood sprayed all over his impossibly beautiful elven face. Unable to help himself, Gui raised a hand and trailed his fingers across her cheek. "You are so beautiful."
Lan gave a short laugh, shaking her head. "And you are impossible."
She reached out and grabbed his hand boldly, unable to feel shy at such an action with all the adrenaline racing through her veins, and laced their fingers together. "Come on, you're treating me to ice cream!"
He smiled happily at her change in mood, and followed his princess obediently as she dragged him through their city.
xXx
"So what made you play Second Life in the first place?" Gui Wen inquired curiously, once they were seated at Lan's favorite ice cream parlor with their orders.
She paused with her spoon halfway to her mouth, and then frowned thoughtfully at her giant sundae. "Because Yang Ming pissed me off."
Gui hastily controlled the snort of laughter that attempted to leave his throat and attempted to wipe his face blank. "While your brother can be aggravating...I don't understand. He didn't seem to know who you were when I accused him of being Prince?"
"He didn't!" she replied smugly. "The day Second Life came out, he was harassing me and saying that girls can't do anything on their own in games, and they don't have to work for anything they get because guys will help them level. I wanted to prove the smug bastard wrong, so I chose a warrior and demanded to be male."
Her professor just blinked at her for minute. "That's it? You had one wish you could've used for anything in the game, and you used it to show him up?"
"Absolutely," she replied triumphantly. Gui stared at her in bemusement for a few more moments, not quite sure what to say in response. She gazed thoughtfully at the buttons on his shirt, and then continued: "Well...there was more to it than that. I wanted to choose my own destiny. I didn't want to have to rely on other people to achieve what I wanted – I wanted to work for what I gained, and work hard for it. I just...I wanted..."
"To be yourself?"
Lan's eyes lifted to meet his warm gaze. "...yeah."
Gui smiled at her gently. "Me too."
"You?" she repeated in surprise. "You wanted to be in a game so you could be silly and ridiculous?"
He shrugged. "I never really got to experience childhood. My parents always pushed me to be the best, to excel at everything I did and everything they wanted me to do. I wasn't really allowed to run around and play or have fun."
"That sounds...stifling." Lan grimaced at the thought of such a life.
Gui mirrored her expression wryly. "It was."
They ate their respective ice cream in comfortable silence for a few moments. Lan thought back to the whirlwind day she'd had, and wondered what in the world she would do for stress relief without Second Life as her escape. She had no way of contacting anyone in the game beyond the ones she knew of who lived nearby. What had become of Doll, or Yu Lian? What of Nan Gong Zui, Fairsky, Western Wind and all of the other people she'd come to care for so deeply in the months she'd played? Were Kenshin and Sunshine alright with the servers down? Would they even retain their self-awareness after the giant maintenance patch? When the servers came back up, would she even want to keep playing without being able to live as the elven lord she'd come to be so fond of? What if-
"Your highness~ if you're tired, please let this humble bard feed you."
She'd flung her spoon at him before her brain had even fully processed his words, resulting in an audible smack as her large spoonful of ice cream landed right in the middle of his face. They stared at each other for a few moments (along with a few others sitting nearby) as the spoon slid off and clattered to the floor, and then Lan's lips twitched. She pressed her mouth together tightly, but her breath struggled to escape her nose in audible puffs as she tried vainly to reign it in...
...but all was lost.
Lan threw her head back as she burst into uncontrollable laughter, pointing at his face and smacking the edge of the table in mirth. "You...you...ahahahaha!"
The stoic professor calmly wiped his face with a nearby napkin and then snatched the sodden spoon off the floor to return it to the table. He watched her for a moment, and then his lips began twitching as well.
"If her highness wanted Gui to be wet, all she had to do was ask," he quipped with a smirk that threatened to turn into a grin. Lan roared with laughter even harder, clutching wildly at her aching stomach. Gui Wen began to chuckle along with her, and then he started laughing outright. The other customers in the store had all frozen and were just staring in disbelief at the ridiculous scene playing out before them.
When a waitress nervously approached and asked if they were alright, the pair just laughed even harder.
Eventually the amused pair quieted down enough to stumble out of the store, clutching both of their aching stomachs.
Lan wearily wiped at the wetness in the corners of her eyes. "Holy crap, I haven't laughed that hard in ages. I think I needed that."
Her professor chuckled slightly at her. "It wasn't quite the effect I'd intended, but I'm glad it worked all the same."
She huffed slightly in amusement, and then gazed up at him with a sweet smile. "Thanks, Gui."
Gui reached up with one hand to tug gently on her ponytail. "Anytime, princess."
Lan just rolled her eyes at him and reached out to clasp his hand. "So...where exactly are we going tonight?"
"To tell you the truth, I hadn't really thought about it," he replied sheepishly. "Is there anywhere you'd like to go?"
She reflected on his question for a bit, and then smiled slightly. "Today's been kind of crazy. I'd really just...like to relax a bit."
"Well, you could come home with me."
Lan's head whipped up to stare at him in complete and utter shock, her cheeks reddening. Woah! He's fast!
Gui glanced down at her expression, and his face instantly lit up with a cherry red color. "N-N-Not like that! I just meant...y-you know, we could watch movies, or- or play some old console games, or- I- you-"
"You're so ridiculous," she laughed, trying to calm her startled heart.
His expression abruptly sobered. "Is that why you never honestly considered my feelings?"
Caught off guard by the serious question, Lan stared at him for a moment and then swallowed nervously. "Well...I..."
Awkward silence descended over the pair, with Lan nervously attempting to gather her thoughts.
"...I'm sorry, I shouldn't have asked that."
Lan smiled softly and shook her head. "Mm-mm...you're right. I never really thought you were serious. At least...not until that date we had. But even then, you just seemed so silly in the game, I never truly considered how serious you might be, or what my feelings were."
Gui Wen regarded her seriously. "What changed?"
A memory of his furious face screaming at her in Infinite City's throne room flashed in her mind. "You showed me how serious you were...the day I installed ND."
His expression darkened in remembrance, and he raised his hands to gently clasp her shoulders. "When I did this?"
Lan nodded slightly, and gazed up at the tall man. "You'd never been so forceful or serious with me before. It...made me remember that you aren't just some silly, brainless guy."
Gui smirked slightly at her words. "Is that why you promised?"
"...maybe."
His brown eyes seared her own as he slowly leaned closer to her face. "I'm glad."
"W-Wait..."
And there, in the middle of their crowded city, Gui kissed the princess that was finally his.