52. I Like This Guy

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52


Dax was struggling to put into words what he wanted to say. There were of course words that he wanted to say and in his mind he had them all gathered but no matter what way he had them assembled they didn't seem to make any sense. The longer that it took the more Dax could feel that he was losing the time in which he could say them. If only he could get it right so that Elgaldir could know what he was trying to get across to him.

Time seemed to stretch and contract as his panic rose.

'This silence, it was too long. It's terribly uncomfortably long. He's going to think that I think something that I don't think and get hurt.' His brain was telling him. The warning did not fall on deaf ears but Dax felt powerless to do anything about it.

The silence was indeed entirely too long and there was also not enough time for him to fix that.

Before he could catch hold of the words he wanted to say and get them into a sentence that made any kind of sense, Elgaldir started to speak again and the window of time felt like it had shattered.

"You're not a child and I'm not your parent. If you want to go out you're perfectly welcome to do so. Would I prefer that you went with someone till you're confident that you can find your way back?" He breathed out through his nose and although the weather was not cold, the air leaving his nose still misted in front of him. "Yes I would but I am not going to stop you." The God of War was standing there with his arms crossed over one another in front of him but he looked more confused than the anger Dax had half expected to see there.

"Thank you." Dax said genuinely moved by his statement. Being respected as an autonomous person was a basic right but it was nice to see someone willing to uphold it for him even if they were worried that he might not be making the right choice.

His hamstring was cramping in the leg that he had overenthusiastically attempted to hang all of his weight on from the wall. Bending down to massage some life back into it, Dax took some time to think. Why he hadn't just gone and searched for a ladder he had no idea. You would think that finding a ladder would have been the first thought Dax had but climbing this wall had been an impulsive thought in the first place.

Dax's original body could probably have gotten over the wall unaided, he may have been an MMORPG player and lived in his parent's house still but he was also broke and had to walk everywhere. Sometimes that meant carrying thirty kilos worth of groceries home on your own in the rain for about an hour.

Dythos' body was still recovering from the injuries that he had woken up with and it was also at least four inches shorter than his own. Even after being here for so long and thinking that he had finally acclimatised to it Dax was still overestimating how high he was able to reach.

He'd gone from being the person everyone asked to get things down from the top shelf to the person that had to ask for help. It was a strange feeling.

"Your full memories aren't back yet so I would be worried about you going out alone and getting lost but that's for me to deal with. That's my problem. '' Elgaldir said, pulling a leaf out of the top of the shorter god's hair. It had probably tangled itself between the strands when he had squeezed his way through the tightly packed bushes earlier. Dax had been so determined in his attempt to escape that he hadn't even noticed it until Elgaldir's fingers were expertly fishing it out for him.

'I like this guy.' Dax thought to himself.

Sure he had probably thought that before but there comes a time in every interaction where you suddenly realise whether you want to keep going with it or not. Where you realise the vibes the other person is giving off. Until now he had only really thought of the God of War as a friendly face, Dythos' old friend and maybe the sort of face you looked forward to seeing at work because you know that they are going to make you shift significantly less shit for you.

The sort of person that you would gladly change shifts just to be able to hang out with, who you complained about management to and who you his in the walk-in refrigerator with organising things that didn't need to be organised to kill time so you didn't have to talk to rude customers.

'I like this guy,' his brain told him again. 'He's my friend.' He'd been feeling pretty down earlier and he still felt the need to branch out his social relationships but right now Dax's heart was feeling just a little fuller.

Just a little less alone.

"I know... Look at your relationship points." System remarked, breaking it's silence at last. A bright pink textbox appeared in his vision once again, the numbers displayed on it in a garish font rapidly increasing second to second. Dax blinked several times his eyes watered as the almost neon colour threatened to burn itself into his retina.

"What are relationship points even for?" He asked the AI. It had never explained to him beyond the use for the most basic points. The ones he was required to use to purchase skill and quality of life upgrades. Those were seemingly a lot harder to gain than these relationship points that seemed to be rapidly accumulating through no real work on his part. System had only really started saying anything about them once he had already started earning them.

Dax sighed, keeping track of all the things that he was supposed to be doing right now felt overwhelming. Just how many currencies did this AI gather? To add to it all, his unlocked download still hadn't finished downloading. He could see the progress bar whenever he looked up and it mocked him with the sheer slowness with which it filled.

Just how shit was the connection that he had now, before the increased download speed upgrade was in place?

System's main light slowly faded from gold to pink and back again in what under normal circumstances would be a rather aesthetic choice of colour and fade pattern but right now it was annoying. "Wait and see." It replied in a new even more smug tone than before.

To say that Dax was highly annoyed by System's continuously secretive behaviour was an understatement but before he had the chance to argue with it he was interrupted once more.

"Are you okay?" Elgaldir asked, his tone concerned. He'd taken two steps forward, closing the distance between them so much so that they were almost touching. Dax found his face heating up and he panicked that the others would notice it, so close were they that it would be almost impossible to not notice that it ended up making his blushing skin even more red.

He could swear just from feeling the heat spread that his entire face must be beetroot red by now.

"You went blank for a little while there."

"I'm fine, I was just thinking." Dax explained hurriedly, tucking his shirt that had become loose during his fall and subsequently being grabbed to not break his teeth back into the trousers that he was currently wearing. How was he supposed to explain that he was talking to an invisible floating orb containing an AI that controlled his life and caused him to possess the body of a god after he died eating beef noodles?

There was no way that he could bring up that particular topic and not get quickly escorted wherever they took deities that had gone completely insane.

That was only if the System didn't nuke him from existence first though.

Some things were just meant to be kept to yourself.

"Do you still want to go out?" The God of War asked, holding out his hand, palm up in invitation for Dax to hold it if he wanted to.

Without putting much thought into it, Dax put his hand on top of Elgaldir's.

"Sure."




Mini Theatre


Elgaldir: We're holding hands. (灬º 艸º灬)

Dax: We're holding hands. (。・//ε//・。)

Elgaldir: What does this mean?

Dax: What does this mean?

Author: I feel embarrassed just writing this. ( ͒ ́ඉ .̫ ඉ ̀ ͒) Readers please save me from these two clueless immortal beings! 

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