"Why were you so insistent on us checking out the locker rooms by ourselves?" Samantha asked as they entered the boys' locker rooms and looked around. The barriers had held in both of them, it looked like. "Keith would've been better to know if the runes needed-"

"Shower," Nathan answered, beginning to undress, and Samantha stared at him.

They were soaked in blood from the fight, though she thought it odd that he wanted to shower then. Of course, upon further reflection, she realized that it was exactly for the reason that the school was more peaceful that he wanted to take a shower. Fighting monsters in smaller groups, he got less bloody, but in that large group, he got pretty bloody.

"Why did you insist on me coming with you?" She asked, and Nathan stared at her like she was an idiot.

Then, his gaze softened. He supposed that with everything that had just happened, it hadn't fully processed for her yet. The others had probably already figured it out.

"I'd rather shower with you than one of the other guys?" He offered, and Samantha smacked her forehead, eliciting laughter from Nathan. "Moron."

Samantha rolled her eyes and began stripping. As soon as Nathan finished, he sent his clothes into his Clothing Box and made his way into the shower rooms, turned on a shower and let the water heat up. As he stepped under the spray, Samantha joined him. He began working his fingers over her scalp and hair, scrubbing the blood out, and she did the same for him. Nathan tilted his head up a little and tilted hers down, pressing his lips to hers, rubbing his body against hers.

Then, he stepped back and began scrubbing soap against her body, gently but firmly cleaning her body, and she did the same to him, noting when she reached his ass that he reacted somewhat negatively to her fingers touching around the hole. She hadn't been trying to probe in, just clean, but still filed that away for the future, just in time to feel his fingers roughly touch her there, almost as if in retaliation.

Instead of getting annoyed, though, Samantha let out a small moan and pushed her ass back, resulting in the poking finger pushing in, just a little. She gasped at the feeling, her hands sliding to Nathan's back and pulled him against her again, his stiffness rubbing between her legs.

Noticing that she enjoyed his accidental poke, Nathan pulled his finger out and slid one hand up her back, the other up her side, causing her body to shiver from the sensation, before rubbing her breast and nipple, pressing his lips to hers before turning her around and pulling her back against him, letting his tool rest between her legs once more as he worked his hands all over her her front as he breathed against her neck.

As he drew moans and gasps from Samantha, Nathan felt a wetness coming from her vagina and knew it was time, stepping back and bending her over, pushing her towards the wall of the showers. Samantha caught herself, pushing a hand out, and looked at Nathan.

"What are you-ooooh!" She moaned as she felt him penetrating deep.

Pain and pleasure filled her as Nathan first slowly pushed back and forth, his hands continuing to work her front, then quickly. He alternated over the next few minutes, holding off as long as he could, hoping he would bring her to her climax before he reached his.

Samantha let out a loud moan, pushing back against him as he felt her tighten, and he let out a few grunts, bending forward and wrapping his arms around her as he released his seed into her, holding her up as she began to fall forward, her knees weak.

Once they had finished, Nathan pulled out of Samantha, kissing her neck and gently squeezing a nipple, then turned her back around to face him, pulling her against him and pressing his lips to hers once more.

"I love you," he whispered to Samantha, and she felt something slick rubbing against her back, his fingers working it against her.

"What's that?" she whispered back.

"What's what?"

"That you're rubbing me with."

"Soap," he answered. "We got hot and sweaty and need to scrub off again."

Samantha laughed, then let Nathan clean them both off again. They rinsed off, dried, sent their towels into their Clothing Boxes and pulled out fresh clothes, then Samantha touched Nathan's arm as he started to leave.

"What changed?" She asked.

"What do you mean?"

"You were hesitant before," she said. "Didn't want to, even after you knew I didn't mind that you weren't a virgin. Why'd you change your mind?"

"It's been hard to resist?" He offered. "And it just happened?"

While she knew his words were probably honest, she also knew he had the mental strength to resist. He'd given in. And so, she stared at him. He stared back, his gaze unyielding.

"Let's go check on the others," Samantha gave in first, knowing she wouldn't receive a response.

Nathan nodded, then left, and Samantha followed him.

He had spoken the truth. It had been hard for him to resist stripping her naked and taking her, but he'd continued doing so until then. While washing her, he'd found himself wanting to, seriously wanting to.

And with his awakening taking him out for six days, he knew that death could come without warning, and by accident. And he wanted her before that happened. He never knew if he would be waking up when he went to sleep.

What if he'd gotten knocked-out, and he didn't have someone like Keith around to save him?

As he thought about that as they washed, he found himself giving in. Part of it was probably because of his heightened sense of touch. He'd never finished that fast when trying not to, but his body had been firing on all fronts.

The heightened sense of touch was probably a negative. At least, for the moment. If he got used to it, he was sure he could deal with it and return to how he was before. As they walked through the school, Nathan let Samantha kill the few monsters they did encounter.

The pair reached the culinary classroom, where the others were baking some bread in the various ovens, a few loaves already resting on cooling racks.

"You two took a shower while checking out the locker rooms?" William asked.

"Probably more than a shower," Michael snorted. "They were in there quite a while."

"You guys go shower," Samantha told them. "The monsters are still pretty few. We only encountered five on the way here."

"Alright," Michael stretched. "I probably won't take as long as you two lovebirds."

"You should," Nathan said, then looked at Keith and William, who suddenly looked uncomfortable, before quickly leaving. He shrugged, then looked back at Michael, "Take them both up the ass."

Michael rolled his eyes, then left. Samantha sighed, shaking her head.

"Why are you insistent on making them as uncomfortable as possible?" She asked.

"Who says that's my intention?" Nathan asked, then got to work in the kitchens, cleaning up dishes that the others had been cleaning and preparing some more food.

Instead of baking the plain bread the others were baking, he made some raisin bread and banana bread. The bananas had been left alone, allowing them to ripen well, and that made them perfect for baking.

He also made bacon and eggs, since there were some left. Enough for the five of them to have a nice breakfast, the others rejoining them just as he finished cooking it.

After they ate, Nathan told Samantha to keep an eye on the bread and to make some cookies and brownies, then told William and Michael that nothing was going to happen to Samantha while he and Keith were out.

"Where are we going?" Keith asked.

"To make your rune-paint," Nathan told him. "You to make it, me to stand guard."

"Oh," Keith said. "Okay."

They left, and Keith went into several rooms, including two chemistry rooms, for supplies, then they went into the pottery room, where Nathan first killed two monsters, then closed the door and told Keith to barrier that room as well.

Keith nodded, then pulled a jug out of his Item Box and began painting runes on around the room, sealing it off. Nathan hadn't said why, but the mage knew it was in case they were there longer than three more days and needed to make more of the supply.

As Keith mixed ingredients together, he noticed Nathan on the pottery wheel, making a teapot.

"You know you can't take that with you, right?" He asked.

"It's relaxing."

Keith fell silent in response to that. Nathan was a curious person full of curious habits and things. He'd never have expected Nathan to find pottery relaxing.

Then again, he never thought of Nathan as being someone to talk, either, and he'd been talking fairly often lately. Nor did he think of Nathan as someone who worked with others, yet he seemed just fine with them.

"I'm done," Keith said after an hour of work.

"Okay," Nathan tossed the teapot he'd been shaping into a slip bucket by the pottery wheels, then washed his hands off. "Let's go protect our new home."

Keith nodded, then the two of them made their way straight to the dome and began painting the runes. When he finished, he collapsed against a wall and let out a long breath, taking several minutes to collect himself.

"That took a lot more power than my last set," he told Nathan, who was fiddling with some paper, nearly three dozen paper cranes surrounding him. "Uh… you do origami?"

"Yes."

"Where did you get the paper?"

"Pottery classroom," he answered.

Keith looked at the papers, which were actual origami paper, not sheets of printer paper. Instead of questioning why the pottery teacher kept origami paper on-hand, he just moved over to Nathan and looked at the cranes, picking one up. It was well-done, and looked neat. The creases expertly-folded, each crane identical to the last, save for the coloration differences from the paper.

"Can you show me how to make these?" Keith set the crane down and looked at Nathan as the warrior finished.

"Maybe," Nathan picked up another paper, and Keith immediately knew he was making something different. After twenty seconds, he was met with a paper fortune teller, something he – and all of his classmates – were making in fourth and fifth grade. "Here."

Keith hesitantly took the fortune teller and began playing with it, making it into a mouth and opening and closing it at Nathan, who rolled his eyes, then made another and pulled a pen out of his backpack and began writing on each segment.

"Can you use something like this to make predictions?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah," Keith answered. "Can I see the pen?"

Nathan handed the pen to Keith, who begin writing on the one Nathan had handed him.

"One of the ways to train and try to get psychic power," Keith explained. "Is to do stuff like these, tarot cards, dice, and actual viewing crystals. Since there's a form of a channel, it makes it easier to try to view the future than simply using raw psychic sight. I have a crystal ball at home. Pick one, and focus on a thought, something you want to know."

Nathan nodded, then picked the spot marked "Green". Keith's eyes began to glow as he opened the fortune teller alternating directions, then revealing the inside four numbers. Nathan selected one, and Keith opened and closed it several times again, before stopping, and when Nathan picked a final time, Keith opened the flap, revealing a blanket spot beneath, his eyes still glowing.

"Uh," Keith looked at Nathan, the glow fading from his eyes. "The answer is 'yes', whatever the question was. It's usually not so direct. I had someone a few years ago ask me if they were going to ever find wealth. The response was 'look for a ruby soon and you will'."

"Looking for a ruby?" Nathan asked, and Keith shrugged.

"The guy wanted his money back," Keith said. "I laughed at him, since we had a deal. I told him that the fortune teller's advice has never been wrong once I gained the sight, and that if it says that he'll find wealth, he will if he looks for a ruby."

"Do you know what happened to him?" Nathan asked.

"He found wealth in the form of a family," Keith nodded. "He was jobless at the time and had been suffering a string of bad luck trying to find a job – or even any temporary work, like a one-time gig.

"Deciding to heed my fortune on a whim, he looked for a ruby. Two of the nearest jewelry stores were out of ruby-touched items at the time, and he got determined to find one after that, since it seemed like the universe knew he was looking. Went to a third store, and while they were out of jewelry with rubies in them, they had a pretty lady working behind the counter – his crush from high school.

"They got talking," Keith continued. "And he mentioned that the only reason he was even looking for one was because of a fortune he'd gotten. She laughed and said that while she didn't know about bringing him wealth, she'd be happy to just hang out and chat with him. Two months later, they were dating, a year after that, married. They currently have Baby Number Two on the way."

"That's… more like directions from your fortune-teller," Nathan said.

"That time," Keith shrugged. "My responses are almost always an 'if this, then that' situation, though, and from what I know, they are for most when pulling with one of these. My crystal ball's actually a lot better, though also only focuses on the current path, most of the time. I did a reading on that guy with it as well, though didn't tell him the answer. I had foreseen him never finding any wealth of any form. After he left, I did another reading, and saw that he would."

"Can you just watch people with it?"

"Yeah," Keith admitted.

"Have you ever watched me?" Nathan asked.

"Yes," Keith blushed.

"While I'm naked?"

"Yes," Keith turned an even deeper shade of crimson.

"While I'm jacking off?"

Nathan's expression and tone told the mage that he was annoyed.

"Yes," Keith mumbled, looking straight down and fiddling with the fortune teller.

Nathan thought for a few moments.

"Do you ever bring it to school with you?"

"Yeah," Keith responded. "But it's not like-"

He cut off as Nathan stared at him.

"Backpacks," he said. "It's in my actual backpack, which is still in Mrs. Guciardo's class! Only other people didn't travel into the game with us! Anything else that was in the school did!"

"Let's go get it," Nathan said.