Here's another chapter for all you lovely people~!

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Dirk looked around at the jungle, almost in awe. He had never been in an area like this, so it was pretty new to him. He had lived in the city, after all. He gripped his sword tightly, putting his guard up, in case of an attack. "So where are we headed, English?"

Jake looked over his shoulder at Dirk and smiled, shrugging. "Wherever the adventure takes us!" he said simply, facing forward once more as he continued to walk along, the trail getting less and less visible the more they walked. Naturally, the adventurer wasn't the least bit deterred by it, but he did occasionally look over his shoulder to make sure that the blond was doing okay.

While they were walking, Dirk's mind started to wander away from the "adventure" and more on his very attractive boyfriend in front of him. More specifically, on his ass. He was not ashamed to admit that he was very attracted to people's rumps, especially if they had a plush one, and damn, did English have a nice, plush rump. Luckily, his shades were dark enough that even in the sun, Jake couldn't see where Dirk was looking when he turned to check on him.

Obviously pleased with the fact that Dirk was holding up just fine during the adventure, Jake paused for a few seconds and looked left and right as he tried to pick a direction to go. "Strider!" Turning around with a smile, he put his hands on his hips. "Which way do you want to go?" he asked tilting his head a little. Of course, he didn't even notice his boyfriend checking him out, the shades were too dark and even if they weren't, he was too absorbed in their adventure to even notice.

Not noticing that Jake had stopped, Dirk kept on walking and ran straight into him, effectively knocking both of them over. "Oh God, I'm sorry, English. I couldn't see where I was going for a sec. I got a little distracted." Dirk quickly stood up and brushed himself off, before holding out a hand to help the other up. He looked down both paths, before looking back at the adventurer and speaking. "I say we go left. It seems like it's been traveled down less."

Jake couldn't help the small yelp that left his lips as he was knocked over with Dirk, a very light blush spreading across his cheeks as his eyes widened a little. "Distracted?" he suddenly asked, raising an eyebrow as he tilted his head and used the other's hand to help lift himself off the floor before he smiled again. "Did the amazingness of our adventure distract you?" he asked happily, suddenly getting excited as the other chose the path less traveled down. "Let's go!" he exclaimed, walking off to the left path while resisting the urge to just take off down the direction.

Dirk chose to stay silent, just letting the other believe what he wanted about him being "distracted". He followed the green-eyed boy down the path, smirking as he noticed how jittery the other was, as if he wanted to move along this path a bit faster. "Hey, English, wanna race?"

Hearing the other prompt for a race, Jake stopped walking once more and backed up slightly so that he was walking side-by-side with Dirk, the smile on his face growing. "A race sounds absolutely excellent right now, Strider! Where do you want to race to?" Looking at their surroundings, one couldn't really see very far ahead thanks to the trees and such, so it would be kind of hard to set a destination to race to, but it was good to ask anyway.

Dirk looked around before getting an idea. "Hang on for a second, English." He then flash-stepped up a tree, looking around from the high vantage point. "There's a large boulder about half a mile from here. How about we race till there?" He said, letting go of the tree and allowing gravity to take him back to the ground, before landing on all fours. He stood up and walked up to the shorter boy once more, smirking.

Jake nodded once, not even flinching as Dirk jumped down from the tree and landed safely. "Alright. But don't use your silly flash-step! I get enough of that from your robot and you'd be cheating," he said with a playful glare, taking a stance to wait for the signal to start running. "You wanna count down or shall I?" he asked with a grin, looking up at the blond with a raised eyebrow.

"It's not cheating if it's using your own abilities, English, but I'll try not to." He positioned himself to start running before continuing to speak. "I'll do the countdown. One. . . Two. . . Three!" He then took off running, still exceptionally fast, even without the use of his flash-step. He was a ninja, after all.

"But it would be cheating because flash-stepping would mean that you're getting around faster than a normal person can even run a-" He was cut off by Dirk getting to 'three' and he took off as well. Sure, he wasn't as fast as the blond was, but he could keep up, only trailing behind slightly. After all, Dirk might have been fast, but this was his terrain and he was damned if the other would beat him in a foot race in his own home.

Dirk looked behind him and smirked, seeing that the other was falling behind slightly. He decided to kick things up a notch. It's not like English would notice if he flash-stepped just a /little/. He started swiftly flash-stepping around trees and such, looking behind and seeing that the other had fallen behind a bit more, before looking forward once more and flash-stepping straight into a tree and falling over. . . .Again. "Goddamnit. . . Ow. . . "

Jake, didn't notice at all for the slight flash-stepping that Dirk performed so far. He was focusing more on making his way around trees, rocks, and even some vines that got in his way. Upon seeing Dirk run into a tree, the adventurer immediately paused in his running and walked over to the other, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder. "Strider, are you okay?" he asked, his voice laced with concern. Damn, he looked like he hit the tree pretty hard, too...

Dirk rubbed his head, his eyes still closed, before feeling something wet on his hand. Fuck, was he bleeding? He opened his eyes and looked at his hand, seeing the ruby-red liquid on it. He also noticed that everything was quite a bit brighter than it was before. . . His AR must've slipped off his face. He stood up and looked around for his AR, not bothering to do anything about the blood dripping down his face, before spotting it in two pieces by the tree trunk. "Damnit all to hell. . . " He suddenly felt VERY uncomfortable. Ever since he could remember, he always had some sort of eyewear on, unless he was sleeping or in the shower. He knew that this island had pretty much no human life besides himself and Jake, but he still felt kind of. . . bare without his shades.

Seeing the blood made Jake go into slight panic mode, taking off his jacket only to roll it up in a ball and press it gently where Dirk was bleeding. Looking down and seeing AR broken, he frowned and took the jacket away only to kneel down and pick up the pieces of the late Auto Responder. Sure, the thing got annoying at times, but he knew that AR was important to the other. Standing back up, he handed the pieces back to the blond and pressed the jacket up to his head again. "Sorry, ol' chap... I know that AR was important to you. We should probably get back to get your head all bandaged up and so we can at least tape your glasses together. They won't function as a computer anymore, but at least you'll have your shades back...!" he said, trying to be positive about the whole thing.

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Emmie: is it just me or does it feel like someone just died in the fic?

Amber: Because somebody /did/ die. AR was awesome, man.

Emmie: dude, this is fucking depressing. . .

Amber: It is... But you gotta look on the bright side. We- SDFKFNKSNFLANF -muffled-

Emmie: Hush, they're not supposed to know that yet. -breaking the fourth wall- And it still feels like a person died. . .

Amber: I know... And I'm sorry! -shushes-