"Now I feel bad about playing a non-human character. It's weird to think about. Like would a real dwarf get mad that my character in D&D is a dwarven paladin?" - A gamer talking to his friend about which race to pick for his next character.

Kurt felt absolutely ridiculous. He was sitting in the middle of an aisle, in a bookstore, talking to a woman who had just had a very emotional moment involving him. All while his girlfriend and yet-to-be-decided-friend watched. All of this was done while he was dressed up in a Halloween costume. So, yeah, a bit odd and a lot silly.

"It has just been really hard the past couple years." Hannah said while dabbing a tissue at her eyes. "We really don't have much since this is the only place I can find a job at the moment."

Val was rubbing her shoulder while they listened to her story. Hanna's husband had passed away after a workplace accident. The life insurance policy hadn't gone much farther than paying off the house and some of their debts. She was currently living paycheck to paycheck and unable to find anything in her former field of work or that was hiring remote.

"What did you do for work?" Kurt asked.

"I worked in IT, mostly doing security system stuff like install and operations." She sniffed hard before continuing. "I quit when we had Liam, we decided that me being stay at home mom was better than both of us working and paying childcare costs."

"Is there anything we can do for you?" Val said.

Hannah shook her head. "No, please. I don't want to accept charity and I'm not in line to the soup kitchen, yet. What Kurt did the other day was just… just too much." She said it with a slight stutter that threatened more tears. "We are getting by with me working in the bookstore. Mrs. Blake is also very flexible with my hours so I can be with my children. It works out despite not paying very much."

Kurt was having a hard time respecting her wishes. She seemed to be a good person who was down on her luck, through no fault of her own, and trapped in the decision of being a mother or getting a better paying job. What he wanted to do was to just hire her himself to do… he wasn't sure what, but he could figure something out. Yet in the end, that would just be charity.

Still, her talking about her former work experience had reminded him of something. Kurt planned to check in with Penny after they bought the building with The Caffeinated Captain and the Order set up shop in the other unit.

"How about this, we will keep our ears and eyes open for any positions that we think you might be a good role for? We can at least make the recommendation, and we know your limitations for your schedule." Kurt offered.

"Really?" She looked up at him, eye watering again with tears that threatened to spill over.

"No promises but we can definitely keep you in mind." Kurt said and glanced at the girls. "I think it's about time we got a move on. Val, did you find anything?"

"Yeah, got a few in my stack." She said while pointing at what looked like a stack of fiction.

"I have some too." Kristi said and held up a pair of complete sets for some popular fictions. "What did you get?"

"Oh, just some stuff for metal working and wood working. I was hoping to find a book on engraving and jewelry making but hadn't found one yet." Kurt said with a shrug.

"There should be one on the next shelf about halfway up, we just took it in on trade a while back." Hannah said and got up to walk over to the shelf in question. She ran her finger along until she found the one she was after and pulled it down. "Is this what you are looking for?"

Kurt took the book and noted that it was a rather thick volume on some fundamentals of fine jewelry making. After skimming it, he figured it would be a good bench reference at the very least. "Yeah, this will do the trick."

"Is that for your enchanti-" Val asked before suddenly cutting herself off, eyes going wide as she clamped her mouth shut and looked to Hannah. Judging by the bug eyed look on her face, it seemed the cat was out of the bag.

In a surprising move, Hannah ducked and peered through the gap in the shelves, looking in the neighboring aisles before speaking in a whisper. "You are para?" Val just nodded so she continued. "Jesus, I should have known with the girlfriends comment." Her voice has more shock than scorn and she double checked the gaps in the shelves again. "Listen, Mrs. Blake really hates you guys for some reason so keep it on the down low."

"You are fine with this?" Kristi asked, giving the woman a strange look.

Hannah smirked before replying. "The book club that meets here on Tuesday mornings is almost all para, but she has no idea. She even makes them a fresh coffee and bakes cookies sometimes." She laughed a little.

"I meant, you, personally." She clarified.

"I was on the fence." Hannah admitted after a moment of hesitation. "But I think I recently had my mind changed." She said and looked between the three of them.

Kurt smirked. "Well, if you are OK with paranormal society, then the job options might be a bit better." He dangled that little carrot out to make sure she stayed on their side and firmly cemented his plan for the future.

"Anyway." Val said. "Now that I spilled the beans, I think we should get going." She turned and scooped her books up, walking toward the front of the store.

"We will be in touch." Kurt said and held out his hand to Hannah which she took and gave a shake. "It was nice to meet you properly, Hannah." He then followed Val toward the checkout counter, leaving Kristi with their new friend.

The dragoness smiled and summoned a crisp hundred-dollar bill and stuffed it into her hand. "You take good care of those boys. Make sure they have good clothes and boots for the coming winter."

"B-b-but.." Hannah tried to protest but Kristi silenced her with a glare.

"It's not charity for you, it's for your adorable children who I don't want to see struggle, Hannah."

The woman closed her mouth and nodded resolutely. "Thank you." She said before wrapping her arms around Kristi in a quick hug before letting her go a heartbeat later.

Kristi nodded to her. "Maybe we will see you Tuesday morning for book club." And with that, she strode away, leaving the very confused and nervous woman alone in the shelves.

When Kurt got in line behind Val, she looked over her shoulder and bumped him with her hip. She gave one of those smiles of hers that said she was happy with how things went. It was the kind that didn't show any teeth but made her eyes squinty in the corners. Honestly it made her look like a smug fox.

The line advanced and Kurt noticed a little three-legged display stand holding up a polished rock sphere. Something about the design got his brain working and the image of the tattered baseball from earlier sitting atop the stand flashed into his mind. Reaching out, he picked up the stand and inspected it, looking at how it was made and fitted.

It was simple wood dowel, with a stainless steel cup of sheet metal joining the three legs together. The legs were passed through holes in the metal disk which was hammered into shape to hold and bind the assembly. Kurt examined the crude but serviceable work and thought he would prefer something natural over metal.

He returned the bauble to the shelf and set his books on the counter to get rung up. After they had all checked out, they made their way back onto the street, pausing briefly to make the bags vanish into their storage rings when nobody was paying attention.

After stopping to play a few more carnival games, the trio stumbled upon a store that could only be described as nerd-vana. They had been drawn there by the crowd of kids hanging around it and chatting overly loud about the games. When they read the sign as 'Zach's Games and Comics', they couldn't help but step inside.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

The inside of the store was surprisingly large and open for a building in that part of town, most of which were narrower due to being attached to their neighbors on both sides. It was also one of the tallest buildings in that part of town at five stories tall. The section they entered seemed to be the checkout and model section, judging by the register and the walls of boxes behind it.

They moved out of the doorway and began to mosey around the shop floor and take in the wares. They had a whole variety of comics, graphic novels, and even some regular books based on the settings of the games. Kurt recognized several of the Halo books and spotted a whole shelf of Warhammer titles.

"Wow, this is really something." Kristi said while looking at the boxes of mini figures and racks of paint supplies that were needed for some tabletop games. "Is there much call for this kind of thing?"

"You would be surprised." A new voice said from the other side of the shelf. They all turned to see a middle-aged man with a neatly trimmed black beard and bald head looking over the top of the racks at them. "There has been a resurgence of some things due to extra attention from Hollywood and popular actors."

"Oh, right. Doesn't that one actor go on about Warhammer or something?" Kurt asked.

"Yup! Nobody cares when it's a bunch of dudes playing D&D in a basement but when a handsome movie star talks about it being cool, well, no amount of advertising can match that." He smiled and walked around the shelf. "Name's Frank. I own the place."

Kristi looked at him then to logo of the sign on the wall near the register. "I thought Zach owned this store?"

Frank laughed. "That's me, I just go by my middle name, and this is the dream of both me and my dad who was named Franklin Zachary but went by his middle name."

Kurt smiled politely and held out his hand to the man. "Kurt, and they are Kristi and Val."

Frank took each of their hands in turn. "Good to meet ya. Also nice to have your real names rather than calling you by your characters. That could get confusing in a place like this, and I don't want to accidentally start another fight over lore if I say Link did something." He smirked in a way that made Kurt think there was a story there. "Is this your first time in? I don't recognize you and I know most regulars."

"Yeah, we are new to town." Val supplied while carefully setting a box of very expensive miniature figures back on the shelf.

"Well, how about I give you the nickel tour." Frank said and waved them along. They went toward the back of the store where they found a rather well-lit staircase wrapped around an elevator shaft. Frank took them downward first and they emerged into a completely refurbished basement with projector screens on almost every wall and several cubicle style areas with televisions.

"This is where we do video game tournaments for things like Halo, Cod and Smash. We run classic night too with an old school LAN network on Wednesday nights."

Frank showed them around talking about the set up and how they handled sound proofing for the floors above and between the partitions. He then took them upstairs to show the second floor.

While the basement was well furnished and well-lit with the latest tech and fancy LED lighting, the second level was done with a different flavor. They stepped into what looked like a ballet studio with polished wood floors, open ceiling and bright colors on the walls. There were two sectioned off areas on opposite walls toward the front of the building while the central space held several four-by-four-foot tables. The central tables each had a pendant light directly above them and a few had some terrain and figures set on top of them.

There were several cabinets along the walls, all of which were labeled. Kurt could see them labeled with terrain, models, supplies and cleaning. It appeared that the store provided some items and materials for their players to use.

"Classic games up here. And I don't mean monopoly." Frank joked. "The small rooms are set up for TTRPG games while we normally do strategy games in the middle. There is one group that meets every other week that does a D&D game using the middle space and tables. I feel bad for that GM but he seems to have it handled."

"Why does he need all the tables?" Kurt asked.

"Cause he has twenty regular players and two helpers." Frank said and pulled a flyer off the cork board on the wall. "It's a paid game but its only five buck per session and he puts that all into mini's, terrain and other resources so the players all see a return."

"That sounds like it would be something to see." Kristi said while leaning over one of the tables that a few guys were playing on and looking at the models.

"Oh, it is." Frank said while walking them over to one of the side rooms and showing it off. "Those couches and chairs often have more than a few people that just like to watch, actually I think one of them bakes since every session there is a big pile of cookies or something that magically shows up.

"Kurt, can we check this out?" Val asked. "It looks like a lot of fun."

Turning around in the smaller room and seeing that it had a ten-person table in it, Kurt appreciated the warm but well-lit space. "Sure, maybe we come watch or try to join a smaller game first."

Frank dug a card out of his pocket. "If you check the website, it has the schedule for all the groups, I think Tim has openings in his campaign and it only just started a couple weeks ago. He meets on, uh…" He opened his phone and scrolled for a moment. "Saturday evenings. Just reach out to him at this email and let him know you want to check it out so he can get in touch."

"Cool." Kurt said while snapping a picture of the business card with his phone. "Anything else we need to know?"

"Just that if you come to play or watch, it's a dry event and you have to follow DM house rules. I did vet all of them, so they are good guys, can't speak for their players, but we haven't banned anyone in a while." Frank said.

Kurt extended his hand again and gave him a shake. "Thanks, Frank. We will probably stop by sometime soon to check it out."

They trooped back out of the store and on the street. They all felt like they had enough fun for the day and decided to head home for the evening, skipping the costume parade and pumpkin carving. The only hang up was deciding if they wanted to order takeout or just head home. It turns out that nobody was all that hungry after a day of junk food so they just settled on heading home for the time being.

When they pulled up to the house, they all piled out of the car and headed inside but Kurt made a quick excuse, saying he wanted to check something. He went around the back of the garage to where there was a small pile of branches from the recent storms.

He immediately spotted what he wanted and picked it up, storing it in his ring and jogging back to the house. Kurt wasn't sure where the girls had vanished to, but he called out to the house, saying he was going to work on something in the shop really quick. A moment later, Val's voice called back saying they would be down in a bit.

Kurt made his way down to the shop and pulled out the tools he needed. It took a while to dig out the hand saw and wood carving tools. He hadn't used them after he finished the house and enchanted all the surfaces he needed during construction.

He thought it was nice to get back to working with softer material and he enjoyed the sound of the saw, smell of the wood and the scrape of the blades as he worked. It didn't take him very long, but he was also going for a rustic finish on his project, so it didn't need a lot of attention from sandpaper or finishes.

The entire time he was working on it, he just hoped that Kristi would like the gift. She did like the other decoration she had gotten so he reasoned that this would be a good match too. He really only wished he had a display case to put it in but settled for a couple of activated runes to keep it clean and prevent aging on the materials.

Just as he finished up and stored the items, he heard his name called. "Kurt?" Val asked while halfway down the stairs.

Having already cleaned up, Kurt shut off the lights and walked out into the lower living room. "Yeah, what's up Val?"

She wrapped him in a hug and gave him a kiss. "Oh, just coming to check on you. What were you doing?" She hadn't quite changed out of her costume, instead dropping the fake ears and tail parts in favor of her own.

"Working on this." He said and summoned his little project to show Val. "Do you think Kristi will like it?"

Val smiled at him. "Oh yeah, she's going to love it."

*****

"H-how is this exactly going to work?" Kristi asked after Val closed the door to the bedroom.

"How do you want it to work?" Val turned the question back at her.

"I- hmm. I don't know." Kristi admitted and sat on the bed. "If I, umm 'lay' with him." She winced at the word she chose but pressed on. "I think I want it to be just him for my first time."

Val sat on the bed next to her, close enough that their legs and shoulders touched while grabbing her hand. "That's fine. We are all figuring out how this is going to work together."

Kristi looked up, making eye contact. "You don't mind it just being us?"

"No. While I would like it to be all of us at some point, I just want you to be happy and comfortable." Val began rubbing her thigh for extra emphasis. "Are you thinking tonight?" The touching seemed to startle Kristi less than she initially thought it would, which encouraged her more.

"Haa, I don't know. I guess I am waiting for the moment to feel right." Kristi said after thinking for a bit. "Like some sign that the time is right or… I don't know." She flushed as Val's touching made her squirm. It was somehow more stimulating through the fabric of her costume.

Val put her hand on Kristi's cheek and turned her to face her. "Hey, you just do what feels right and I will adapt to it ok?" Kristi nodded. "Just so you know, we both love you and are here for you." She leaned in and gave her a very chaste kiss on the lips.

The kiss startled the dragoness and she flushed at the very intimate gesture. She had been having some thoughts about her friend but hadn't been bold enough to do anything. Thankfully, it seemed Val was going to be the driving force to explore those feelings.

She searched Val's face after the kiss but only found an expression of honestly and concern. It reassured her that they really did feel the way that they said. Kristi bit the inside of her lip again and nodded.

Val gave her another soft smile. "Come on. You go get the shower started and I will get Kurt. we can figure out dinner after we get cleaned up." She leaned in and gave her another quick kiss while cupping her face with her free hand before walking away to find Kurt.

Kristi sat for a moment, sorting through her feelings before coming to the conclusion that she would wait for a sign. She wanted to see something which assured her that Kurt's feelings were genuine and that he wasn't being pushed into this by Val. Feeling relieved about coming to a decision, she stood and went to get the shower started before the others got back.

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