the tip of the blade touches his neck. he pushes it gently away with a finger. unsurprisingly, it doesn't draw blood when he touches it. there was no damage to his health either.

what gets his attention more is the statement noah makes.

"what do you mean there can on-"

he turns around and sees himself. for noah to do such a thing wasn't surprising, but him getting all the details exactly did. his awe gets him to stand up, his avatar's height taller than his replica, as he studies every inch of noah's avatar.

"wait, why would you do this?"

he goes around noah, hands touching whatever he can. like a child, he pulls his hair, and drags his arms up and down. it feels weird feeling up a digital model, but he cannot get himself to stop his curiosity. his hand slip inside his garb, replicating noah's invasion of kyle's privacy.

movements stop. kyle stares at noah straight in the eye. "you know, i've always wanted to make out with myself," he blurts out, deadpan and serious. his tone contradicts his jest.

although he teased it, kyle still gets surprised when noah jumps him. he freezes for a couple of seconds, unsure of what to respond to, until he sees a few eyes straying to their direction.

he returns the favor, cupping noah's cheeks to give him one quick peck, before holding his face away from him. "w-w-we can do that later." while the avatar doesn't reflect the flush, kyle's fluster in his expression is still apparent.

he leans down to pick up the sword noah dropped on the ground, using the brief moment to calm himself down. "that was a joke by the way. i dunno why you'd make out with pixels." a weird smile remains when he gets back to noah, failing to do so.

kyle proceeds to walk further into the training area and away from the newbie spawn with noah's weapon, prompting him to follow him or else he needs to play the early levels punching mobs. the path he takes differs from where majority of the people went as he takes them to an uncrowded area of the map.

from the plains of the training area, kyle brings them to a forested part. while he wasn't sure what he'd expect here, kyle familiarized himself with the lay of the land in case they get lost.

"so... what shit did you choose?"

the question is left unanswered, leaving noah to fantasize while kyle quickly forgets about the promise. he was certain it was going to happen one way or another anyways.

his legs keep on going as noah relays his starting class. rock-type wasn't bad, if the other choices weren't simply superior. rock wrecker was an intriguing choice, but at least he can see the other two as good, if moves work like how they work in real life. "yeah, you did good buddy." he tells him, trying his best not to say the truth.

kyle stops at noah's touch, getting startled when he turns his head to his shoulder and then see his face up close. he clutches his chest, almost dropping his bow. even in game, noah has his heart racing for more reasons than he expects.

"y-you think? should i color it back to blonde? i wore it blond before." which shouldn't be a surprise to noah, he supposed. he tugs his-- noah's avatar's-- ponytail playfully. "i can chop this off too if you want."

kyle is surprised with his reaction. it weakens his grip that allows noah to steal it back. the moment of weakness lapses as a smirk forms on his expression.

"are you that thirsty for me?" he teases. "okay, they stay."

he walks forward until his character model touches noah's, looming over him with a cheeky grin. the image of himself is briefly ignored as the identity of noah behind the character model seeps through. he spreads his arms wide, welcoming noah to come at him.

"first thing is to hug me cause you love me."

too enamored with the presence of noah, kyle quickly forgets the initial objective of the game and quickly goes into the usual roleplaying side of mmos.

he smiles sheepishly in noah's arms. his grips gets as tight as noah's and his chin lays on top of his head. he starts swaying his body softly, dragging noah's along with the rhythm.

"you tell me. if you like kyle lopez hugs, i like them too."

there was an instance where kyle lets his arms deliberately squeeze noah much harder before he loosens it up. he lets go of his doppelganger, stepping back and turning his head to the side as he scratches his chin with a finger.

"okay, i think i'm good now."

he turns back to noah and then pointing an area further away to his back with his thumb.

"do you want to move to the weaker mobs instead of these training dummies? testing controls over there is much better since we get xp and it's not like we're going to die a lot."

as noah brandishes his sword, kyle readies his bow, fitting an arrow and stretching the string all the way to the back to get a feel of things.

surprisingly, it all flows smoothly like the game compensates for his lack of real life experience with bows. he has shot guns, but the more primitive weapons were different in feel. the sudden ease in using them makes kyle optimistic about his game experience since he might have to curse himself for choosing the ranger class if it was any different.

he hums as he follows after noah. "sure. i like being carried." he pauses, before he adds after the realization. "well, not literally. please don't try."

they reach the field with the newbie friendly mobs. goomies litter the field, and kyle was ready to fire an arrow off before he almost forgets one important detail. "so, we set the party first, right? give me a moment." he cannot leech without it, after all.

he starts to navigate through the screens. trying to control it with just his face through eye movement, finger swipes in the air and a bit of conscious thinking stresses him somehow since everything was new. he starts to scratch his head as he familiarizes himself with even the simplest mechanics of the game.

"you can go ahead and do stuff. i can... figure this out."