Alex walked over to the door and opened it.

 

“Yuki, can you come here please.”

 

Shuffling sounds could be heard as Yuki walked towards my room. After a minute, she poked her head through the door, clearly nervous about our talk.

 

“I told Sarah a little about our conversation, but its time you two talk to each other about moving forward from here. Remember, don’t make any decisions because you think you have to. Make them because you want to.”

 

Alex turns and leaves the room, closing the door behind her. There is an awkward silence between us as Yuki is looking around the room. I then see her eyes dart to the vodka bottle I still haven’t put away.

 

“Mom! You were drinking again? I thought you had stopped?”

 

“I’m sorry, Yuki. I have mostly stopped. I usually just have a few drinks when I need it.”

 

Yuki walks over to me and kneels in front of me before grabbing my hands. I never noticed how soft and kind her hands feel before. Is this a result of our escapades in the game?

 

“I told you before, mom, if you are having a bad day, you only need to talk to me. It makes me feel like you can’t trust me.”

 

“I’m sorry …it’s not that I don’t trust you, I hate showing you how weak I really am.”

 

Yuki sits next to me on the bed.

 

“Mom, we all have a weak side. That’s why we show that weakside to those we trust so they can support us when it shows.”

 

I only nod my head, not knowing if she saw it. We sit there in silence for a bit longer before I gather the courage to speak.

 

“So uh…Alex told me about...your feelings towards me since before the game.”

 

That sounded better in my head than when I actually asked it. I could see Yuki’s face turn red as she nervously fidgeted around.

 

“Uh, yeah. I guess she would have.”

She takes in a deep breath as if to calm her nerves.

“It started a bit after your divorce.”

 

She then explained everything that happened and why she started to fall in love with me.

 

“That’s why every time I see you try and drink your problems away, I feel my heart breaking a little. It makes me just want to do everything I can to protect and comfort you.

I would really like to share these feelings with you if you would accept them. I want to be able to call your name and give you the love you deserve.

However, if you want things to go back to the way they were before, that will be fine. I just want to see you happy, like how you used to be, always full of energy and fun to be around.”

 

I stare at Yuki, and I can feel the tears gather in my eyes. I reach over and pull her towards me into a hug.

 

“I’m so sorry. I have caused you and Alex so much worry without realizing it.”

I let out a deep sigh and continue.

“I don’t know if things can go back to how they were. I...I need time to process these thoughts and feelings inside me. Once I figure myself out, I can give you an answer. Will you be patient until then?”

 

I can see a look of disappointment flash across Yuki’s face before she quickly replaces it with a smile.

 

“Of course, mom. I will wait as long as you need. I just don’t want you to hate me.”

 

I kiss the top of her head and hold her tight against me.

 

“Silly girl, I would never hate you. I should feel more ashamed of myself for thinking you would hate me instead.”

 

“Um mom? What do we tell Emiko? She will definitely know something is up once we log back into the game.”

 

Crap. She’s right. I haven’t thought that far ahead. I don’t know if I could lie my way out of that one either.

 

“I don’t know. Do we just tell her the truth, or do we make an excuse?”

 

Yuki sits next to me in silence. I can see she has her usual thinking face on.

 

“Why don’t we just tell her. If she truly is a friend and cares for you, she will understand. If she doesn’t and wants to leave you, she would never be any good for you.”

 

I place my hand over her shoulder and bring her in for another hug while rubbing her back.

 

“Come on. Let’s go to the living room so that way Alex, at least knows we’re ok.”

 

“Ok, but first…”

 

Yuki gets up and walks over to my nightstand and grabs the vodka. She then searches through the drawer and grabs the whiskey too.

 

“I am getting rid of these. You are banned from all alcohol until you learn to start relying on Aunt Alex and me for support.”

 

I can only look on helplessly as Yuki leaves the room with my booze.

 

“Good by old friends. I’ll drink a cup of tea in your name.”

 

I get up and make my way to the living room where Alex is sitting down while looking through her phone.

 

“I know I told you I would have a talk with you later about your drinking…but seeing Yuki walk into the kitchen with your booze, I have a feeling she already scolded you.”

She pauses as if thinking of something really profound.

“You know, it’s kind of funny now that I think about it. Seeing the two of you interact with each other, I am already shipping you two. She’s good for you, that’s for sure.”

 

“Shipping? What’s that?”

 

“I forget your knowledge doesn’t really go into pop culture. It’s a term that’s usually used in books or other types of media where the viewer wishes two characters to be in a relationship. So we have the term shipping.”

 

Ah…so that what that means. Wait! What?

 

“Wait a minute! You’re already putting Yuki and I in a relationship in your mind? We haven’t agreed to anything like that yet, my mind isn’t ready.”

 

“Don’t overthink it. It just means I approve if you do go that way. Anyway, you guys come sit down, I ordered pizza. We can eat and talk about our plans from here and discuss the changes in the game.”

 

“Sounds good to me. Let me get a chair, that couch really isn’t big enough for all of us.”

 

“How about I just sit in your lap, mom?”

 

“I guess that’s fine. Sheesh, I really spoil you too much.”

 

We were all sitting on the couch, and I had Yuki in my lap while she had her feet propped up on the ottoman. This Alex was free to get up when the pizza came.

 

“Ok so first business. Since we can now add friends from anywhere, we should add each other. So we need to come up with our usernames.”

 

We spend some time talking about all of our adventures in the game, even when the pizza arrived.

 

“Holy shit! So you are saying that you two killed a high leveled demon and got away?”

 

“Yeah it was crazy awesome. You should have seen mom! She did this really cool jump in the air was all like *Psha!* right into its neck, and it was all like *Arrrrgh!*. Then it grabbed her and started swinging her around like a club. Then he tried to…uh…do things with her, but I cut his dick off. Then he shoved some orb into her. Oh yeah, didn’t the angel give you one too? What were those?”

 

Alex and I just laughed at her retelling of our fight with the demon.

 

“The game called it a mutation. But the one I got from the angel fused with the demon orb, and it gave me something called a daeva mutation. I’m not sure what that is.”

 

I see Alex thinking of something as she takes a bite of her cheese pizza, then continues to talk in-between bites.

 

“If I remember correctly, in some cultures, a daeva could be considered a god-like entity. In others, it could be considered an angel. In this case, since the angel and demon fused, I would say it would lean towards a god more than anything. I don’t remember what culture or language it was, but I remember daeva roughly being translated to ‘The Rejected God’.”

 

“There goes Auntie’s trivia knowledge again. I don’t know how you keep all that random stuff in your head.”

 

“Dunno. But thinking about it now, since you have the daeva mutation, why don’t you go with Rejected_Goddess as your username? It’s perfect for you. You are like a goddess who was rejected by her old life and emerges reborn through her trials. It would have like a double meaning.”

 

That does sound like a good idea. I can use this as a way to fully get over my past.

 

“That sounds like a good idea. I’ll do that. So what will your usernames be?”

 

Alex looks over at and me and smirks.

 

“How about Three_Finger_Discount?”

She says while making a fist with three fingers sticking out while pumping her hand back and forth.

 

“Dammit Alex! Really? That’s what you want people to know you as?”

 

Both Yuki and Alex laugh hard to the point they almost cry.

 

“I’m sorry sis, I was just joking. I wanted to see your reaction. I was thinking about Lipstick_Gamer.”

 

“I guess that works better, still kind of bad, in my opinion. What about you, Yuki?”

 

“Well, I would just stick with Lenora, but it would be cool to match mom and have ‘goddess’ as part of my name.”