Kai threw his controller on his bed in frustration. He'd gotten sniped again! By the same person who'd been dogging him all afternoon. And he had no chance to redeem himself now because he'd promised Alina that he'd hang out with her that afternoon.

And that knock on the door meant that she was there!

He opened the door and mustered a smile. "Hey Alina, what's up?" But his eyes darted to the abandoned gadgetry lying discarded on his comforter.

"Hey Kai!" Alina said, smiling. She walked into the room and flung herself on the bed. A sharp pain hit her back as she realized that she had just landed on a hard object. Curiously, she reached behind herself and pulled out a remote control. She scanned for the gaming system that it belonged to and saw the machine sticking at an odd angle out from under the unit that held the television.

"Whatcha up to?" She asked slyly, waving the remote in his face.

Had it been anyone else who'd plopped on his bed with such obvious ownership, he'd have immediately blushed and basically been rendered incapable of speech due to embarrassment. Thankfully, he felt completely comfortable with her. She's saved his life, after all. And while she'd done it with her mutant powers, somehow she felt more human to him than... well... any of the other girls he'd met.

So he confided in her, "Some jerk keeps pwning me in Call of Duty." He snatched the controlled and cradled it to his chest. "I know it's stupid..." he shrugged.

Alina smiled and patted the spot next to her on the bed. "It's okay, Kai. I understand," she said. "It's not stupid if that's what you enjoy doing." She couldn't help it, a small smirk crept onto her face and then she was giggling, then full out laughing.

Before Kai could feel too hurt, she quickly wiped her streaming eyes and said "I play Call of Duty, too." Her tone was nonchalant, accompanied with a small shrug.

His eyes bugged out of his head a little bit as her laughing fit produced the revelation that she, too, played Call of Duty. "No way!" He burst out. She seemed so... well... octopi were gentle, right? And he hadn't seen any indication to the contrary since they'd started hanging out together.

His eyes narrowed, fully expecting that she was trying to pull the wool over his eyes. "You excited for Black Ops?" he asked, voice laden with suspicion. "And what's your screen name?" he added with a little less of an edge.

Any true fan would know all about the latest version of the game that would be released soon. He'd added that last bit partly out of curiosity, still testing her, and partly because he'd been playing a lot on the mansion's network lately and he was hoping, for the sake of their friendship that he hadn't killed her too many times lately.

Maybe I could show her all the tricks I've learned and would could team up! he thought, excitedly.

Alina quelled her laughter as Kai asked her these questions suspiciously. That was understandable. Most guys din't understand how a girl could like playing video games.

She clapped her hands together excitedly and replied, "It looks soo awesome! I can't wait to nuke me some zombies... My screen name is really dumb, though." She added. "My brother made if for me, because he thinks I should have a cool name instead of something girly and 'lame'."

"Come on!" he teased, "Tell me what it is!.... Okay fine, don't tell me." He nodded his head at the remote still in her hand. "Log in and we can play for a little while if you want." He turned his back to her to retrieve the second remote.

But it wasn't under the tv stand like he thought it would be. Nor was it on top of the dresser. "Uh..." He glanced in all the corners of the room, then decided that it would be too much work to actually do a thorough search of the room. Especially with all the piles of stuff and clothes that littered the ground. It was the perfect environment for losing things and the worst for finding them. "On second thought, let's do something else." He suggested vaguely.

Alina sighed. It was like that scene from the Jungle Book where the two birds went back and for asking each other what they wanted to do. Someone had to make a decision, quick, before she went insane.

She was about to make a comment about boys and their lack of decisiveness, when her eyes wandered their way to the window. Her mouth snapped shut and her eyes widened. There appeared to be a tree fort outside. Literally. A platform thing made out of a tree suspended right outside Kai's window. Hm...

With a quick glance back at Kai, she asked, “What's that?” and ran to the window. It was true! A tree-tree fort! It was the coolest thing Alina had ever seen. All the splendid buildings in New York could not compare to this one tree. “What have you been up to Kai?” she asked in awe.

"No- Don't!" He gasped, helpless to stop her from storming into his very own man-cave-tree-fort. He had spent hours shaping it in just the right way and making sure that it was still good for the tree. He and his roommate, Carrick had decided- they had promised- that even though they were 'lady-killers' they would keep their sacred tree house their own lady-free zone.

But she climbed through the ledge, stepping daintily onto the flat tree floor.

He hesitated a minute and then vaulted through the window after her, landing, for once, with grace. He stared at the 'walls', interwoven branches and leaves melding together to shield his small haven from the out side. Then at the 'ceiling'. It extended it's rain proof protection only part of the way to the window so that it didn't block Carrick's easy path to the sky. He stared at the floor made of the thickest branches and grown especially flat. He stared anywhere but at Alina, afraid of what she might say and a little embarrassed.

"I've just... grown this tree... fort..." the words sounded kind of childish to his ears, but they were true and that was what counted.

Mouth open, Alina put her hand out and touched the trunk of the tree. There was no way something like this was real. But as her hands pressed against the rough bark, she felt the very realness of the tree. She inhaled deeply. Nothing fishy in the air, nothing wrong there. It was beautiful and totally awesome.

“This is so cool,” she muttered. “Kai, this is...”

As she spoke, she leaned forward on her knees to examine the rest of the fort. Before she could finish speaking, she lost her balance and pitched forward. She gave a little gasp of alarm as she began to tip over the edge of the fort.

Normally, windows were kind of a nice addition to a tree fort. They brought in extra light and if it was raining, he could always have the leaves and branches close up. Like shutters. But the silly thing about having a tree fort with windows was that sometimes they were just inconveniently placed holes in the walls. And if you leaned through them too far, wall...

Alina tilted on the edge like a basketball just hanging on the rim before it decides whether or not to award you two points. For a moment it was like she was frozen there. Her praise was even cut off, as though time itself was interrupted.

"No!" Kai commanded her. She could NOT fall. Even though the height would probably not kill her, he still didn't relish the idea of her breaking several bones. He knew that he couldn't quite get there, somehow he just knew.

Fortunately, he could also command the tree. And a tree, unlike a falling girl, was obedient to commands.

Time seemed to do strange things when one gets scared. First, it slows down. Alina could hear Kai yell 'No!' but it seemed drawn out and lasted for an eternity. Also her legs began to leave the floor in slow motion as well. She had time to think, which seemed odd at a time like this. She imagined herself at the bottom of the tree with a broken arm or wrist, the look on Kai's face from above, and the embarrassment she would feel for being such a ditz. Strange things to think about when you're falling.

Second, time seemed to go into hyper speed. Gravity will never fail, and sure enough, she began to fall. But to Alina, it felt like she was going 100 miles an hour, racing toward the grass underneath. She was too shocked to scream.

Third, it seemed to stop altogether. Something grabbed her around the middle, knocking the wind from her lungs.

“Oof!”

Nothing happened for what seemed like forever. Lastly, time seemed to flow normally again and she was lifted back into the tree fort and placed on the floor. She coughed in an attempt to regain her breath. She looked over at Kai, who seemed frozen. She smiled slightly.

“Oops.” She whispered feebly. “My bad.”

One of the branches that formally was comprising the wall snapped forward to grab the falling girl around the waist and propelled her back into the structure.

"Oh my gosh!" He yelped at the same time she said something. "I'm so sorry!" Then they grinned at each other in their mutual foolishness.

"Maybe I should install some protective measures," he chuckled. "But at least now we are even."

Alina laugh/coughed for a few moments. Her ears were still ringing from the excitement and adrenaline.

“Don't be sorry,” She managed to say. “It was my fault. I practically asked for it by leaning out the window!”

She thought back to the time when she had done practically the same for him not so long ago. She was even more curious about Kai and his fort. Before she blurted out any of her rude questions, she held her tongue and grabbed him in a big thank-you hug.

“Thank you, Kai.” She said. “...you're really skinny.” She added when her arms overlapped around his back quite a ways.