For a moment the room went silent, and then MatchlessMinion drawled, "Awwwwkward."

Danika turned and looked at Kit's expression. She looked surprisingly calm, but a rosy blush stained her cheeks as she snuck a glance at the Jade Emperor.

"I do not currently have any children," the Emperor clarified when Kit glanced at him, "but there are rules of inheritance in place."

"But aren't the other G.o.ds the Jade Emperor's children?" Shrubbery asked after a moment of thought.

"No," the Jade Emperor replied, "as Emperor, I am first among them, but neither I nor any of the previous 55 Emperors recorded, created or conceived any of them."

--

They all stayed up late, discussing Kit's new status and speculating about the impact of the announcement on other players. Eventually Kit admitted, "As happy as I am, I'm about falling asleep while standing."

"Speaking of falling," MatchlessMinion asked suddenly, "is that how we get down? How will we get back up here?"

Danika tried putting an a.s.sa.s.sin's mark on the Jade Emperor, so that she could teleport to him, but it failed, and earned her only an amused glance. She looked around for the King of Cats, but he had already vanished.

Danika zipped outside and spotted a little brown bird. But then she hesitated. The Jade Emperor hadn't really reacted to her attempt to place a Mark on him, but it seemed like there might be rules about targeting creatures in his gardens.

The nightingale warbled a trilling song and gave her a smug look as it flew off. After a moment Danika flew back into the throne room and admitted, "I don't know." She asked the Emperor, can you help us?"

The Jade Emperor looked even more like the traveling merchant when he shrugged and spread his hands. "I'm sure that your party is capable of descending from the Jade Palace safely."

Danika squinted at him. He had clearly avoided the topic of returning.

"I'm just going to log out from here," Kit said quickly. She dashed over to the Jade Emperor and squeezed his hands. "See you next time," she said to everyone.

"You will," the Emperor agreed calmly, making Kit smile joyfully. She logged out a moment later.

Danika was waffling between following Kit's lead and flying down from the Jade Palace when MatchlessMinion declared, "I'm tempted to jump off the edge and skydive down. It might almost be worth the revive." He couldn't stop a yawn from escaping. "Tomorrow, if that's alright," he asked the Emperor.

The Jade Emperor nodded, and MatchlessMinion logged out.

"He's always tired lately, says it's because the noises are different there," Shrubbery commented as she logged out.

Danika looked at Ryullusion and Logical Heart, who had been conversing quietly. "Since everyone else is going to return here tomorrow, I'll just log off from here too, if everyone's stuff is safe?"

"I think so, except perhaps the stone we rode up in," Logical Heart replied promptly.

"Oh, right, I'll go log off from inside it," Danika replied.

Logical Heart began explaining to Ryullusion how that would prevent the stone from being placed into someone else's inventory, as she zipped away.

--

When Danika finally woke up the next morning, she startled awake, convinced that she was late for her s.h.i.+ft. By the time she figured out that it was still Sunday, she was too awake to go back to sleep, so she got up.

She frowned at her phone when she checked for s.h.i.+nichi's usual message. He hadn't sent anything. A moment later she was scrambling to get dressed, and feeling like she'd finally actually woken up. It was Sunday, and s.h.i.+nichi was going to be back at noon. He'd insisted that he was coming to get her for their promised date by two at the latest.

She almost decided to skip her exercises, but in the end she grimaced and started with those. It shouldn't have felt awkward, since it used to be her morning routine to get them done first, but she'd apparently completely adapted to her new schedule.

She ate only a snack, bathed, and was barely dressed when his message arrived: "Home! My phone's dead though, so I'm leaving it here. I'll be there within an hour!"

Danika tried to call him, but it went straight to messaging. After a moment she shrugged and looked around for any small ch.o.r.es that needed doing.

--

She had calmed down, and was humming one of Underneath's songs as she watered her houseplants, by the time s.h.i.+nichi showed up. As soon as she opened the door though, her heart leapt, as she saw his familiar figure.

s.h.i.+nichi stepped in and shoved the door shut behind him with his foot, and practically scooped her up. He nuzzled her hair, and as soon as she looked up, he kissed her. He kissed her like he was never going to get to kiss her again.

It was the odd pressure in her hips that made her glance down as soon as he paused to breathe again. His hands were running along her legs in a searching manner that made her breath catch, as she wondered if she was going to have to decide whether or not she was ready to give him everything right now. Her hand moved without thought, even before she had decided if she wanted to resist.

It was a tiny gesture, but s.h.i.+nichi reacted immediately. He didn't let go of her, or put her down, but he gave her s.p.a.ce, and a kind of sheepish grin. "Hi," he whispered.

Danika grinned. "Hi," she returned.

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Perversely, his willingness to stop made her feel willing to proceed if he really wanted to, but he just hugged her tighter again and said, "I missed you, even though we talked all the time."

"Yeah, welcome home," she replied happily.

He took a deep breath as he buried his face against her hair, and agreed, "Yeah, I'm home." After a minute he sat back and grinned at her again. "Ready for our date?" he asked hopefully.

Danika rolled her eyes at him. "Yes," she replied succinctly.