Ezra woke up lying in the corner of the room with an ache in the back of his head, confusion washing over him at his position. "What happened?" He groaned, sitting up. He remembered staying up with Liz before she went to sleep. He had gone to tuck her in while she was awake for the first time and he remembered thinking they probably looked like guardian and child then-

Nothing. He couldn't recall what happened next. When he tried to recall what happened he saw a flash of light and a dull pain rose in his forehead. Ezra groaned and stood up, covering his eyes to the blinding sunlight coming in through the window.

Ezra glanced down onto the bed where Lizbeth laid, a rather grumpy look on her face. He got the feeling he might have overstepped the line again. It couldn't have been as bad as three days ago with the cake incident since she was still here.

Ezra quietly changed into his combat attire and grabbed his weapon, leaving a note on the table telling her he was off finishing up the next quest in the elf campaign and will be farming till noon. And being a standard Ezra tradition, he drew a picture of a spider and a mace. When they had tried to do the quest two days ago Liz had completely flipped at the sight of one of the giant spiders they were supposed to follow to their nest and beat it to death while screaming at the top of her lungs before they got the chance. It had been funny at the time, but they still needed to complete this quest to move on.

As Ezra made his way down the road to town, he felt a wave of nostalgia come over him. Oh, how long it's been since I've gone off on my own. These last three days I've been with Liz 24/7 to work on her level. Ezra stretched his limbs, feeling as if someone had removed a limiter from him. However, he also felt a hole left in him from Lizbeth's absence. Even if she did slow him down, she was still the one of the only people he was actually close to in the game.

"I need more friends." Ezra told himself, entering town and heading for the teleport gate.

Lizbeth woke up pissed. Why? Because that god damn idiot! Goes and faints after he says something like that!

Last night

Liz curled up on the bed, the exhaustion of today's farming wearing down on her. Ezra had insisted on hanging around on the second floor slaughtering those darn cow things before he had to meet up with Argo and today's batch of people. He had told her that she didn't have to come, but she tagged along anyway out of boredom. Sometimes just sitting around the house working on a portable forge can be boring, you know?

Ezra came over after a few minutes and checked her breathing to make sure if she was sleeping. Deeming that she was he pulled the blanket up to her shoulder and tucked her in, muttering fondly how childish she was.

"But you love me for it." Liz rolled over to face him, for she had not fully fell into the realm of unconsciousness yet and had heard him. Her voice was quite and heavy as she only put half effort to stay awake and hear his response.

Lizbeth was surprise as for the first time Ezra smiled gently at her. It was a soft expression, one full of affection and kindness. It was worlds apart from that impish grin he always wore when making his jokes.

"Maybe you're right." He said gently, no trace of the mocking and cynical tone she was used to present. Lizbeth's eyes grew large as Ezra leaned in and gave her a gentle kiss on the forehead. "Good night, Lizbeth."

Lizbeth acted purely out of instinct and adrenaline, all traces of drowsiness evaporating as her fist made contact with the male's head. Ezra went flying away from the bed and into the wall before sliding down to the ground unconscious.

"I thought I told you not to joke about that!" Liz yelled at Ezra's unconscious body, her face growing red in embarrassment. The teen didn't answer and laid slump in the corner. Liz glared at Ezra for a few more minutes before flopping back on the bed in a huff and facing away from him. "I'm leaving tomorrow!" She exclaimed boldly, thought didn't really wish to carry through. She debated on hiding out at the church with Sasha and the kids for a week or so until Ezra learned his lesson. She was still fuming when sleep finally took her an hour later.

When she woke up the next morning Ezra had already left. "Lucky bastard. If he was here, I'd give him another good hit." Lizbeth grumbled to herself, still upset. Its actually really hurtful getting my hopes up and friend-zoning me over and over. I swear, he keeps me around as a joke.

Liz got dressed for the day, switching out of her night gown into her day clothes. She found a note on the table with a bags of smithing materials and Col.

Hey Liz,

I'm off to finish up the quest in the spiders lair. Afterward I'm going to farm for materials for a bit. Meet me in town at around noon, I have something to discuss with you.

Signed, Ezra.

Under the short message was a picture of a spider being hit with a mace, an obvious reminder of last time Lizbeth encountered one of those monsters. Liz tossed the paper back onto the table, begrudgingly taking the items left for her. Not even checking what was in the bag she shoved it into her inventory. She ignored the list of notifications telling her what she received and turned her eyes back to the paper when one of the lines finally sunk in. "Something to discuss..." She said to herself, picking the paper up. She looked it over again before putting it into her pocket, deciding to forgo her plan to hide at the the church. "Better not be another joke."

Later that day...

Ezra shambled out of the teleport gate into the town of beginnings on the first floor, his armor broken and his weapon barely holding itself together. His HP bar sat just above the yellow, showing that even with his brand new battle regeneration skill, he had been through hell. But the worst battle of the day was yet to come, one that could potentially ruin him.

Ezra was late.

"And what happened to you?" Lizbeth asked, looking over his attire with a raised eyebrow.

"My apologies, I got lost." Ezra said, dipping his head. "I've been fighting my way in circles through the forest on the third floor and I'll be surprised if I don't have PTSD from all the mobs that jumped out at me from the mist."

"You mean like that thing?" Lizbeth said, pointing at his shoulder. Ezra looked down to see a massive misquote three times bigger than a horse fly. She couldn't help but let loose a small laugh as Ezra proceeded to freak out and swat at the bug, causing it to take off and buzz around him. He jumped back and swung his weapon a few times, killing the tiny pest with a critical hit to it's thorax.

Ezra panted for breath, the sudden burst energy draining what little he had left in his reserves. "Are you going to tell me..." He said, his breath harder than before. "That I walked through the town up there, in broad daylight, and nobody noticed the big ass bug on my shoulder slowly draining my HP?"

"Oh, I'm sure they noticed." Lizbeth said. "The only question is why you didn't notice. Couldn't you feel it's needle go into you?"

"Eh, I was tired. Still am." Ezra said, shrugging his shoulders. He looked around the square, trying to locate anything out of place or eyes in the shadows. "Where's Argo?" He asked.

"Not here." Liz told him, causing him to stop looking. "She told me to pass on a message though. She said zero for five."

Ezra nodded, scratching the underside of his chin. "No one again, huh? It's been five days since I stopped passing out messages."

"Maybe you should actually go around town yourself more often." Lizbeth scolded.

"I do. I still haven't had anyone come up to me recently though." Ezra told her. He hefted his weapon on his shoulder and looked around, selecting a street with open stalls and businesses."Come with me. Have you eaten yet?"

"Of course I've eaten. Your three hours late!" Liz said scoldingly.

Ezra raised his hands in surrender. "Fine, just checking." He began to lead the way through town silently, enjoying the break from fighting alone in the woods. "It's only been a day, but I really missed this."

"Walking through town?" Lizbeth asked sarcastically, impatient for some reason beyond Ezra's understanding.

"No, I couldn't really care much for the town." Ezra replied offhandedly. "I missed you more than anything." It took a few seconds to realize what he had said could have two meanings, and immediately knew she would take it the other way.

I had meant it as I missed her companionship, but it will make the next part of my plan easier. Ezra thought, putting on a friendly grin as he looked back at Lizbeth. She blushed and looked away. Sorry Liz, I need to do this one more time. Who knows, maybe I will actually come back alive from this stunt and I'll actually go out with you.

Lizbeth couldn't meet Ezra's gaze for a few minutes, being more flustered then usual. He's not joking! He actually meant what he said last night! She looked at her right hand, the memory of how she had sent him flying for saying something like that coming to mind. She was beginning to feel guilty for hitting him.

She was brought out of thought when Ezra stopped suddenly and she walked right into his back. As she stumbled and fell Ezra caught hold of her arm and pulled her upright and to his chest, preventing her from hitting the ground.

Liz, who had been having a hard time keeping her thoughts together before with her doubt and guilt, suddenly became dazed at the sudden free fall then immediately finding herself in the embrace of the very confusing teen. "Are you okay?" His voice asked, almost seeming unreal in her foggy state of mind.

Lizbeth disengaged herself from Ezra, forcing some words out of her mouth. "I'm okay." She said, glancing around at her surroundings. They were outside a small restaurant and there were few people on the street, which made sense since most would be out adventuring at this time of day. Ezra smiled fondly at her and took her hand, leading her inside.

"You want anything? I know you've eaten, so maybe a snack or something?" He asked, sitting down at an empty table. Liz sat down across the table from him.

"Um, a drink I guess?" She replied. Is this really the asshole I live with? Where's the cynical attitude? Where is that impish grin that he is so proud of? Now that she thought about it, Ezra had been treating her unusually nicely recently. He hadn't really pulled any gags since that time he had asked her out. He supplied her with all he materials she would ever need for her smithing skill. He stopped being cynical, becoming more honest with her. And that time with the fight between the elves, didn't he recklessly throw himself into battle on his own to keep the elf off of her, not to mention taking a hit for her and saving her life? Sure, he immediately jumped on her bad side but even she could tell he did it on purpose. It was almost as if he was embarrassed when she thanked him. "Good." That's what he had said.

"Hey. Aincrad to Lizbeth, are you going to drink that?" Ezra asked, waving a hand in front of her face. "You okay? You've been rather spacey today."

Lizbeth blinked realizing that their order had been delivered. It must have been a few minutes ago since Ezra had just about cleaned off his plate of orange chicken and had ordered another. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just thinking."

"Penny for your thoughts?" Ezra said, stuffing more chicken into his mouth.

Liz remained silent and took a sip of her drink (which turned out to be a strawberry shake. How did Ezra know what she liked?) Finally she said what had been bothering her since that morning. "Did you mean what you told me last night?" She asked, staring at her drink.

"Hmm?" Ezra looked up from his food. "What did I say?"

"Don't start with me now! Just tell me if it was true." Her heart fell as Ezra gave her a confused look.

"Liz, I don't remember anything past tucking you in." Ezra said honestly, putting his fork down. "I know I must have wronged you though since you had a grumpy look on your face when I woke up. So please, tell me what I did so I may apologize for it." His voice was unusually serious.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! this could be bad! Ezra thought, regretting whatever he had said. He really needed this to go off without a hitch.

Lizbeth was silent for a moment, a small tear forming in her eye. "You don't have to apologize if you don't remember." She whispered. She didn't know if she was upset that he forgot, or glad. All she knew was that it hurt and that confused her.

Ezra put his hand on her cheek and brushed away the tear with his thumb. Lizbeth's gaze locked with Ezra's tender, caring face as he smiled gently at her. "Liz, you're the most important person in the world to me. You know that right?"

More tears formed in the girls eyes, causing the smile on Ezra's face to falter. "This is another joke, right?" Lizbeth asked, her voice cracking. "You're really cruel, you know. If I didn't know better, I would think you legitimately loved me." She drew away from his hand and stood up. "I'll see you around, Ez."

She tried to walk past him and out the door but Ezra stopped her. He grabbed her hand as she past and stood up himself, pulling her back to him and into his embrace. He wrapped one arm around her waist and one across her back, resting her head on his shoulder.

"I'm not joking around this time, Lizbeth." Ezra breathed into her ear. "I know we didn't start on the best terms, but that's in the past. Please, even if it's just for a day, accept my words as the truth." He hugged her tighter, his facade no longer a fake. He removed himself from the mindset of just a close friend and stepped into a man after a woman. "I love you Lizbeth. No, I love you Rika."

Lizbeth seriously thought she was dreaming. There was no way that Ezra actually felt this way. He was still unconscious in the corner, and she still in bed. "I don't want to wake up." She said to herself.

"Me neither." Ezra said in her ear. Liz felt his lips brush against her cheek as he pried open her fingers, slipping a small band of metal into her hand before he closed it. "Wear it for me. Even if you throw it away tomorrow, wear it today." His voice was soft and pleading and Lizbeth could feel something wet rub on her as their cheeks touched for a moment. He was crying.

Liz didn't need to look to know what Ezra had gifted her with. In a dream like trance, she wrapped her arms around the boy and returned his embrace. Then she put on the ring.