"it's rare in a sense that it's not a hand-me-down." he gets to his inventory and equips the same thing on his head. "tada. we match now."

kyle wraps an arm around noah's shoulder and drags him along. he plants a kiss on his head, which wouldn't be felt within the digital world. he convinces himself that it's the thought that counts.

"t-that just means you have to stick close to me." when he feels like it's out of character, kyle quickly adds to his statement. "well, not literally. you're still the front line."

kyle follows noah to face the mamoswine, situating himself beside him. he cocks his head to the side and smiles should noah turn to face him.

"i can stay here if you want." his eyes turn to the other mamoswine that spawned a few distances away from the one that noah currently fights. "melee rangers are a fad among people who don't know how to play the game, after all."

he pulls his bowstring and aims at it, hitting it squarely in between the eyes with an air slash. the mamoswine staggers for a bit, before kyle ends it with a quick auto attack. its disintegration into pixels marks the end of its attacks.

"how close do you want me to be so you won't feel lonely?"

"doing that in the game doesn't count." there's a certain cockiness that comes in his expression as kyle sneers to noah's direction. "so, what kind of nap are you thinking of?"

a mini-boss shows up amid their flirting. while it does put a stop to their current topic, it is another scenario they can take advantage of. what normally would be a big occasion for gamers was taken lightly in favor of company.

"protect me, noah." his hands go to noah's shoulders before dragging him in between his avatar and the mega abomasnow. "it probably has grass-type moves that'll KO you, but you'll be fine, i think."

he fires off an air slash at the mini-boss, aggroing it and bringing its attention towards them. it looks at them as it starts lumbering to their location. kyle's long reach that allowed him to attack from afar meant that they still have a second or two before the distance is closed.

"it's coming here already! you gotta do something!"

his words suggest worry. his intonation suggest playfulness.

the showing off earns a needless chuckle from kyle. "you should get better moves," he jokes.

noah gets into the recharge period of rock wrecker, leaving him defenseless against the darmanitan that spawned right after the mega abomasnow died. kyle would have simply fled after the promise of a nap and accomplishing noah's latest level up, but it stood in between him and his rare drop.

"what would you have done without me?"

he readies his bow and runs straight at the darmanitan. it fires an ice punch at kyle, though he ducks from the attack and follows it up with a close ranged bolt beak. it kills the mob in one hit, giving kyle access to their mega abomasnow loot from earlier.

kyle claims the shotgun left behind from the abomasnow's carcass. the sword is picked up and thrown at noah's paralyzed avatar, hitting him in the head with a good bonk. as soon as they claim their loot, kyle opens up his menu and scrolls down to the last option on the list.

"'kay. i'm logging off."

kyle is somehow more excited for real life more than the game world.