Hard Mode Awakening Challenge

Ian came awake with a warm, comfortable weight pressing down on his left side. Opening his eyes, he found Lana still snuggled into him with her head on his shoulder and an arm and a leg still comfortably tossed over him. He smiled at the sight and put his head back down, deciding he didn't want to wake her when she seemed to be sleeping so peacefully.

Last night had been amazing for Ian, and from the way Lana had reacted, it had been good for her as well. Making love with Beth had been an incredibly bland experience in comparison. He always tried his best to take care of her needs, but he couldn't remember her ever putting in any effort to do the same. Maybe he was just jaded and was blocking it out from his memories, but he knew she never once wanted to cuddle up to him after they were done. Then again, he felt guilty even comparing the two experiences.

Last night, Lana had been everything he hadn't known he needed. She had been caring, accepting, and incredibly enthusiastic. While he hadn't thought about it in the heat of the moment, he was suddenly very thankful the walls were soundproof.

That single thought caused his mind to switch gears from last night's events towards this morning. What did this mean for them going forward? She had said there weren't any strings attached, but he wasn't sure if she had actually meant it. He really liked Lana, but he didn't think he was in love with her. He knew that he could love her—the connection was there—but was that what either of them really wanted from this?

"Mmm," Lana groaned as she stretched her leg out across him while running her hand across his chest. "I felt your breathing change. What are you thinking about?"

"I was just thinking about how amazing last night was," he replied as he gave her a slight squeeze using the arm she was lying on.

"Yup, you were, but then you stopped," she murmured, eyes still closed. "You wear your heart on your sleeve, Ian. I literally felt your body tense up a moment ago, so tell me what's bothering you."

"I…I was wondering what this means for us?" he admitted. There wasn't a reason to hide it from her, especially since she was the other half of this situation. "I know you said there were no strings attached, but last night was truly the most amazing experience I've ever had in my life. I also consider you one of my best friends, as well as a smart and talented woman who is a loving and caring person…not to mention you have both a wonderful personality and an amazing body.

"But I…well, I'm not in—"

"In love with me?" she cut him off and surprised him with a warm smile. "I came here last night fully aware of your feelings, Ian. You have a wall built up around you, though you have let yourself begin to flirt with a few people recently. You just make sure that there isn't a connection there that can really hurt you. I don't think you even realize it's there.

"I've spoken with Jen at length about how you were with Avra when she first met you. Those stories matched up to the ones Avra used to tell when she got drunk, at least for anyone who could read between the lines of her anger and self-loathing." Lana's smile disappeared as she sat up and turned to look him in the eyes. "You shouldn't love me like that, if I am being completely honest. We've spent a lot of time together recently, but we've only known each other for around a month."

Ian gave her a small nod without taking his eyes from hers.

"But the time involved isn't really what is important right now," she continued as her smile returned. "I'm not ready to have a serious relationship, and I don't think you are either. The only other relationship I've had ended poorly. Not as poorly as yours did, but I don't want to put myself in a situation where we stunt each other's growth now that we are discovering who we are.

"However, I really—and I mean really—enjoyed last night. I came here fully content with this being a one-time fling if that's what you wanted. Honestly, I didn't even plan to spend the night, but here we are.

"You and I both have needs, and we are obviously both attracted to one another. It will actually make things a lot easier later on, as we won't need to worry about accidentally hurting someone during a random hookup as we get stronger. I mean, Diana could accidentally shatter some poor guy's hips in the heat of the moment without realizing it."

"Oh, so the real reason comes to light, huh? You want a man who gets stronger with you, so you don't accidentally get a nickname like The Hip Crusher or Snu-Snu Destroyer?"

Ian couldn't help but laugh as Lana giggled.

"Don't get me wrong, I want neither of those names. But last night…last night was different. You made me feel special. Like I was the most important woman in the world, even if it was just for a few hours. I loved that feeling, and wouldn't mind the opportunity to spend more time with you."

"Alright, I would be down for that," Ian finally said. "But what happens if some other guy comes and sweeps you off your feet? I think we might need at least a couple of ground rules, or I'm worried it might get weird or complicated.

Lana nodded. "It definitely could, and probably already is if we are being honest. So, let's keep it simple and promise to be honest with each other. If someone else comes along that one of us is interested in, we promise to sit down and talk with each other before anything happens. That way, nothing comes as a surprise, and if we need to change things, we can."

"So, this is a little bit more than a casual fling, but not going the normal relationship route where we start making plans and working towards a future?"

"Yup."

"Alright."

Lana got up and stretched, drawing Ian's eyes. Catching him as she glanced over, she smirked at him as she added a wink.

"I'm going to get dressed and head back to my room before everyone else gets up and around," she said, getting out of bed.

Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.

Ian nodded as he moved to get up himself. "Worried someone will catch you leaving?"

"Honestly, a little bit," she replied with a small blush. "I'm not ashamed of what we did, or what we might do in the future. Casual hookups are a very common thing for adventurers. I just don't want there to be a lot of drama that comes from this. Sure, the media says we are already more than friends, but it's another thing for everyone to actually know we slept together."

"It isn't their business," he agreed.

He grabbed a set of clothes out of his closet and came back out to find her fully dressed and slipping on her shoes.

"Alright, I'll see you in an hour to head to the next dungeon," she said, leaving and pulling the door closed behind her.

He stared at the door for a moment before shaking his head free of his errant thoughts and heading for the shower. He was on top of the world, and nothing could get him down.

Twenty minutes later, Ian was no longer smiling. His armor still had large holes where the spell had hit him in the chest the day prior. The stand had attempted to fix it, but there wasn't enough material left for it to rebuild what was missing. He still had his original leathers, but he knew it wasn't good enough to stand up to the monsters they planned on facing today, and they needed every level they could get before the tournament started.

He reached out to touch one of the holes in the armor and flinched as the doorbell rang. Looking at the display, he saw his sister's face on the screen. He opened the door to find her standing in the hall with Mara while holding a large bag.

"You have a problem, and I have the solution," Ashlyn declared, holding up a bag before pushing her way into the room.

"What's in the bag?" he asked, closing the door behind them.

"Presents from Jimmy, your armorer and personal miracle maker," she replied, as she started laying out pieces of armor on his couch.

"Wow, this stuff looks amazing," Ian said, taking in the leather wrist guard reinforced with lines of black steel. "I love the dark coloration, but I didn't think there were pieces in our level range."

"There aren't," she confirmed, pulling out a new pair of boots to go with them. "These are custom-designed by Jimmy. His crafting mastery from all the different pieces he's made is now letting him custom-design armor based on the materials he gets for the ranges we are currently in. He discovered it halfway through finishing up Tram's set and started working on these babies yesterday as a trial run.

"When he saw the replay last night, Ruth said they went back into the shop and didn't stop until they were finished around midnight. Tram grabbed his yesterday, and Ruth had the AO deliver this to me to give to you since you seemed out of it last night at dinner."

Ian smiled as he ran his finger over the smooth leather. The leather itself was a deep red color that almost glowed as it reflected the light from his room. There were black steel plates attached to protect all of his vital areas, including the areas on the chest where his previous armor was now missing.

"And that isn't even the best part," Ashlyn said with a knowing smirk, pulling his attention away from the new gear. "You'll look even more like a stupid anime protagonist in this than the cool wolf armor set over there. Just know, if you start wearing an eye patch and talking about your powers being sealed, I will disown you."

"Ha!" Ian said as he started putting the armor on. "If I start saying stuff like that, just put me out of my misery. I can't imagine what the media would say about that."

Ashlyn chuckled for a few moments while he put on his new armor set. As he was strapping on his new wrist guards, his sister came to lean against the couch next to him.

"So," she said, looking over at him. "Mara and I ran into Lana when we were coming back from our morning jog. Nearly ran into her as I was coming off the elevator."

Ian pulled the strap tight and looked up at her face.

"Mara said that she smelled like you," she said, not blinking as she watched him. "She also said that you and your bed also smell like her, and not in the 'you two have the same type of soap' sort of way, if you know what I mean."

Ian looked over at Mara, who tilted her head at him. Looking back at his sister, he shrugged and nodded.

"Does that mean you two are together?" she prodded when he didn't say anything. "Hurry up and spill already."

"Hmm," Ian said with a smirk. "Kind of…but at the same time, no, we aren't a couple."

"So, it was just a fling? Wait, what do you mean kind of? Do I need to beat her ass? I like Lana, but I have zero qualms when it comes to beating another friend's ass when I need to."

Ian snorted before letting out a belly laugh as he grabbed his sister and gave her a giant hug.

"Don't ever change, Ash," he said, letting her go. "We're just two good friends who have decided to help each other out in the intimacy department."

"You're fuck buddies," she stated with a smirk. "Finally making up for not grabbing her ass in the horker village? Don't lie to me here, I bet it must feel like a ten out of ten, right?"

"No comment," he said, giving her a smile as he finished adjusting the last few straps on his chest piece.

"You lucky fuck," she said, hitting his shoulder. "I'm so proud of you, though. You're moving on, taking chances, not picking shit women—which is really the important one if you ask me."

Ian could only chuckle as he strapped up his new boots.

"I do want to make something clear, though," he said, looking his sister in the eyes. "I don't want you to bother her about it, and I don't want you to spread it around either. I heard about you telling other girls that she and I were already together, but that doesn't mean you tell our friends like it's a fact. She doesn't need that kind of drama in her life."

"Hey, she's my friend, too," Ashlyn said, giving her brother an 'are you an idiot' look. "Besides, I don't really want Claire to find out. She jokes around about the media stories of her and you being an item, but it feels like she does it to help create distance between you and her in her own mind.

"For how smart and attractive she is, she doesn't seem to have any close friends outside of our little group. She also completely shuts down any guy who tries to hit on her. She'll be nice to people, but if they show her any real affection, she turns into the ice queen. You are pretty much the only person I've ever seen her flirt with, and I'm not really sure how she would take you and Lana being anything more than just friends."

"I'll be honest, I hadn't thought about Claire like that," Ian said truthfully. "I know she's an amazing woman, but I think it would be very awkward if she and I got together."

"More awkward than what you're doing with Lana?" Ashlyn asked, raising an eyebrow. "You're already hooking up with a party member, who just happens to be a former party member of your ex. I'm finding it hard to imagine a world where it would be less complicated to hook up with Claire than Lana, especially in the eyes of the media."

Ian shrugged. "I'm not going to get too deep into it, because a lot of it isn't my story to tell. To give you a simple version, she and I didn't meet under the best conditions, and it would be hard to know if she and I were together because we wanted to be, or if we were manipulated into it." His sister gave him a confused look, causing him to sigh. "Listen, it's complicated. We're in a good spot as friends, and...and I just can't see her that way.

"Speaking of Claire, she went to her parents' house last night, right?"

Ashlyn's face softened as she let him change the subject. "Yeah, she's supposed to be meeting us at the new dungeon this morning. It's the third time she spent the evening with her parents over the past couple of weeks, and she seems more worn out every time she does."

"Speaking of which, we need to leave in a minute if we are going to head over there with everyone," Ian said, ready to move on.

"Hold your horses, tiger," Ashlyn replied, pulling him up short. "Toss your bedding into your washing machine. You know, just in case everyone wants to come hang out here this evening."

Ian blinked. "You have a good point. Give me a minute and I'll be ready to go."

"I'm so proud of him," she quietly squealed to Mara as Ian hurried.