Like Brokeback Mountain but without the gay or the sex! [C]

Pax trudged along behind Saint, weighing the option of running from her now against the threat of his sister's anger. He was seriously considering turning back now until Saint suggested doing the quest now to get his sister through it safely. With a reluctant sigh, he nodded and started following Saint. He took a quick look at the time and sighed. It had been roughly an hour since he'd told his sister he was going to do a quest real quick. And now, he was on a second quest that was a higher rank than the last one! He made a concerned scowl on his face and grumbled at the thought of what Kiera would do when she found out. But that was for the future. this was now.

"Alright, fine," Pax huffed in a mocking manner, catching up to Saint, "I'll take a walk through the park with you. But for the record, the guy's supposed to ask the girl out on a date, jeez."

He gave Saint a light punch to the shoulder, hopping to convey that he was mostly joking with her. Looking up towards the mountain they were supposed to climb, he considered a couple of things.

"Why do you suppose this quest is E rank and not F? I mean, it's just like taking a walk, I'd say. Surely the monsters that have a slight chance of spawning won't be that hard to handle. I can't remember entirely if I took this quest or not in the beta, but I don't think it was E rank before."

With a shrug, he kept up pace with Saint. He was certainly in a much better mood than when they'd last talked, and she definitely had the feel of someone he should keep friends with. She did, after all, know more about MMO's than he did. That alone was reason for him to accompany her.

Pax frowned at being told she'd expected a taller man for her date. He couldn't think of any good retort, either. He looked ahead of himself as he walked and felt himself sighing. Saint was probably going to be some super important character if he were a protagonist.

"At least I'm taller than you," Pax finally managed to say something, "even if not by much. Honestly, if I didn't know better, I'd think you were being rather shallow."

Pax put a little pep in his step and got a bit ahead of Saint. The air was nice and clear, the birds were singing. A bright sun shone down upon them. If he hadn't already been told -or insulted, rather- he could have easily mistaken this as a date.

"I gotta say, though," Pax turned back to Saint, "this mountain is extremely beautiful. Especially so when close up. We'll have to explain to anyone we see that we're not on a date because I'm not handsome or tall, and that might really hurt my feelings."

Pax made an exaggerated pouting face and put both hands on his heart, as if he'd been grievously wounded. He swiveled on his heel, and pretended to faint and die. Collapsing on the ground with a laugh, Pax looked up at the clouds.

"Sorry," he spoke more to the clouds than to Saint, "I'm just suddenly in a very good mood."

Pax puffed out his cheeks as he listened to this nonsense spewing from Saint's mouth, "A rat is small, but would you find that adorable? Well, some rats are adorable. Maybe that's a bad example. And there's absolutely nothing wrong with being shallow, I guess. Maybe it's more shallow of me to call someone shallow who has no business even needing to be not shallow?"

With a huff, Pax rolled back and then forward, propelling himself off the ground. It still amazed him how realistic this game could get. Landing firmly on his feet, he pulled his sword out and pointed it towards the peak of the mountain, "By that logic, we should by all means call it a date. Then, we'll completely repel the whole stereotypical anime plot line of being confused into being lovers!"

With a soft laugh, he dropped his sword to his side and beamed a toothy smile at Saint, "Besides, I never mentioned it was a romantic date. Friends go on dates all the time, really. We could consider this a date with destiny! And our destiny is to climb this mountain."

Pax blew a blast of air from his nose, trying to get the dust out of his nostrils. Maybe he didn't appreciate how realistic this game was, after all. He gave Saint a curios look as he started walking again. He never thought about it before, but why would she go on this quest with him? Didn't she have an entire guild or something? Maybe she hadn't found many of her other guild mates yet. He mentally shrugged and let it go.

"My face? Hard to look at?" Pax acted bewildered at the thought, "How would you expect me to even know? I don't have to look at it. If it's that bad, maybe getting my face stepped on would improve my looks. Who knows? Certainly stranger things have occurred."

He shook his head with a coy smile, looking up at the mountain, "Who knows? Maybe there's a special barber at the top of this mountain who can save that nappy hairstyle of yours."

Pax looked sideways at Saint as they walked, "Out of your league? That works both ways, you know. You didn't specify whether the league was higher or lower. Then again, I don't even think I count as being in a league. I've never actually even been on a romantic date."

He recalled a few times when he'd either asked a girl or a girl had asked him, but nothing had ever come from it. He never could see the usefulness of such an intimate relationship. What were you even supposed to do? Hold hands? He frowned as he thought about it. Nothing good would come out of such a relationship in this game, anyway. Liable to get yourself killed trying to protect someone you otherwise wouldn't.

"A PvP match with you?" Pax guffawed at the open air in front of him, "I wouldn't dare risk myself against such a brutish foe!"

Pax listened to her laugh and smiled to himself, despite everything, he enjoyed making people happy. Most people would say he was ruthless, and perhaps that was true. But he was only ruthless when something hindered him without need. If he had to choose between peoples' happiness and the ability to protect those people, he would give up their happiness in a heartbeat. What use was being happy if you were dead? He still enjoyed that brief amount of happiness he was afforded, though. He was not entirely a monster, after all.

"If you enjoy your mountain hair so much," maybe that same barber is going to like a mini-boss for us!" Pax snickered at himself, "We must prevent him from making your hair look too pretty!"

Pax made a strange noise in his throat, a laugh getting caught before it reached his mouth. It almost sounded like he was choking, and then he let it out in a light snort, "You're comparing the leagues of two gamers with physical sports? That's actually pretty amusing. Maybe it means neither of us know anything at all, other than we don't want to do it."

He listened along and nodded. He hadn't seen any of the stress caused lovers himself, but he knew it was going to happen. Kids like that were only to get themselves killed over someone they had no business even caring about outside of this game. With a sigh he looked over at Saint. She wasn't bad looking. If he had been any less calculating than he was, he would probably have tried something a little more romantic. He laughed internally at the thought. She'd have his face in the dirt quicker than he'd have gotten the first word out.

She made fun of him then, and he made his face scrunch up in a sour expression, "I said top tenth percentile because I was being modest. It's more like top fifth. And no, I'd definitely not want to tussle with you. Your hair is like a second enemy altogether. That's like cheating."

He stuck his nose up in the air, mocking an indignant attitude, and he huffed. This was nice, he thought to himself. It had been a very long time since he'd done something like an outing with a friend. He turned his head back to Saint and smiled more genuinely than the time he had before, "Then let's hope the barber isn't too strong."