Page 32

"Perfect. I feel like we could all use it," I said.

He stepped aside so I could move past him into the hall and linked my arm with his as we walked toward the dining room. Joey was there, placing several tablets and a few miniature figurines. He looked up as we entered and dropped the little figure he was getting out of the box. I smiled at him, giving him a little wink.

I settled into a chair at the dining table and picked up one of the figurines. It was a little man dressed in dark colors and wearing a cloak with his hood pulled up. He was wielding a dagger in one hand and a crossbow in another. It looked like someone had handled it with great care when painting it.

"That's the mini for our rogue. It helps us visualize where our characters are in relation to the enemies on the battle map." Craig offered helpfully.

"It's really well done." I mused, turning the figure around. The tiny details were fascinating.

"Miles better than what we used when we started out. I think my first mini was a Jones Soda bottle cap." Joey chuckled, finishing what he was doing and setting his stuff up on my left side. Craig took the seat to my right. I felt a flutter of butterflies in my stomach.

"If you ever decide to play, we can have one made for you. Character design is one of the best parts. You can choose to be anyone in the game. It's one of the bigger draws to it, the only limit is your imagination." Craig said, grinning.

He held up the mini for what I concluded was his character. He was dressed in blues and golds, holding tools, and looked to be tinkering with some sort of steam-punk-style gadget. Again, it looked like it'd been carefully designed and painted. There were papers and gears littered across the base.

"So, how do you know what your characters can do?" I asked, genuinely curious and enjoying how they seemed to light up sharing their hobby with me. It was, frankly, absolutely adorable to watch these two heavily tattooed and objectively dangerous men talk about their characters as if they were close friends as they explained them to me.

Craig showed me his character sheet and how he used it to understand what he could do on his turns and keep track of what he had on him, his story, and his relationships. I kept flicking my gaze back to his face as he spoke.

"Could I make one? I mean… if it's not too much trouble." I said. "I have a tablet somewhere. I could find it real quick if that's okay." I met Craig's blue eyes, and he beamed at me.

"We can just use L's tablet for now, and when you find yours, I can help you transfer it over." He motioned for Joey to hand him the device that hadn't been set out.

Craig opened the tablet and showed me the parts of the character sheets that would be important for me to fill out first. It was a lot of information, but he was just beaming. After a couple minutes, he stopped and set the tablet down.

"You have no idea what I've been explaining to you, do you?" Craig asked, looking at my face, which probably resembled a deer in the headlights.

"I… No. You might as well have been speaking another language." I said sheepishly.

"Okay, let's back it up. I'll go slower so you can take it all in." I choked a little on the water I was sipping and blushed. I wassure he hadn't meant that how I took it, but suddenly I couldn't get the image out of my head.

Craig walked me through setting up my character, this time stopping to let me ask questions or work the math out myself. Joey helped some, too, and I even got a high five for some of my spell choices that seemed to please them.

The minutes ticked away, and somehow, as we huddled around the tablet, we ended up nearly sitting right on top of each other. Craig's beaming smile and warm blue eyes distracted me, at times, from what he was saying. But not once did he seem frustrated or impatient when I asked him to go over it again.

"If you decide to play, I'll help you out while you get your bearings. It won't take long, as sharp as you are." Craig said, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving me an encouraging squeeze.

Rich and Az walked into the room carrying four pizza boxes and a few two-liters of soda. Rich did a double take as he took in my appearance but played it off well, with nothing more than a raised eyebrow before he schooled his features and set down the pizza boxes on the far end of the table. Az, however, looked like he was going to blow a gasket as his scathing gaze took in my clothing and position so close to Craig.

I smiled sweetly at them. "Craig was just showing me about your game. He helped me make a character so I could join since you're down a player right now."

Az sneered as he took up his position behind the screen at the head of the table, moving things around I couldn't see before he started setting things out on the map that was laid out.

"Fine. But if you get lost, it's on you. I'm not running a one shot for noobs. Roll your initiative while I set up."

Craig picked up the twenty-sided die they'd shown me earlier and handed it to me. "That's this one, and you'll use thisto add to whatever it lands on." He leaned close to show me, grinning excitedly.

"Seventeen?" I asked, looking at Craig for some confirmation.

"That's a great first roll!" He exclaimed, booping my nose gently.

I blushed and giggled, feeling that flutter of butterflies in my stomach again.

"Yeah, good roll. Now, if you're both done flirting, we have a game to get to here." Az clipped, staring daggers at us. "When we ended last time, everyone needed to make wisdom saves. Go ahead and roll them. We're right back in it."

The game drew me in quickly. I was slower to respond on my turn. As much as it seemed to irritate Az that he had to slow the combat and make time for me to find my bearings, the others were accommodating and helpful. Joey and Craig were sweet, high-fiving my successes and sharing in the disappointments of bad rolls. As time went on, Craig seemed to take every opportunity he could to brush against me or touch me somewhere.

Over time, we all found ourselves on our feet as the battle rounds raged on.