The Earth After Rebirth

They spent most of their day mostly in competition with each other. Driving virtual dirt bikes and racing on really unfriendly terrain.

The virtual bikes were very realistic. On the first round they were normal ones, racing at insane speeds on the dirt road.

"Oh Ki, I didn't think you were this terrible at driving!" She exclaimed.

"I'm just warming up, just warming up!" He made his excuses that he didn't quite believe himself.

This made Isla giggle. The scenery suddenly changed, the virtual world went from beautiful and sunny to grumpy and thunderous.

The wheels on the bikes disappeared into its stomach, thrusters appeared that levitated it to the skies. It was clear that their next battle would be amongst the grey skies.

The timer went down and a big go appeared. At a blink of an eye, the bikes were no longer visible from the group as they navigated through the clouds.

The goal was to get to the finish line, but there were obstacles. They had to dodge lightning and blocks of ice that were thrown their way.

The wind was even less friendly but Isla was content and dedicated to winning. Seeing her drive, Kiro wondered why he never learned himself.

He was distracted by this when a big flash appeared before his eyes, striking his bike in half. His virtual self was free falling from the skies, he knew it wasn't really but it was still not ideal.

That's when Isla scooped him back up. He landed safely on the back of the bike.

"This way, we can both win?" She teased.

If Isla wasn't competitive, Kiro would purposely lose to her but it was very different. It was as if she was making up for being so terrible at shooting. She was definitely the better racer seeing as how she was destroying Kiro.

He didn't have a fragile ego, so he took the losses like a man. This was her day, it wasn't bad that she was good at games. Then he remembered that the only reason they started a friendship was because of a game too.

They spent the entire day playing around the park like this. Occasionally grabbing things to eat along the way.

The sky was painted orange after a while, the sun was sinking down beyond the horizon. It was finally time to go back to the academy. Isla had a great time, she was starting to warm up to birthdays.

They were walking through the gates when Kiro felt something crawl up at the back of his neck. Something he'd been feeling throughout this date but was ignoring it.

He suddenly turned, grabbing an unknown man by the arm and slamming him on the ground.

"I've been watching you watching us all day, who are you and what do you want?"

Isla was completely taken aback. The Kiro infront of her right now didn't seem like someone she recognised, but she didn't say anything, she decided to observe.

The man was mumbling something when Kiro realised he had his whole face kissing the ground. He let him up, give him a little room to breathe and talk.

"Mr. Silva told me to, please I meant no harm." He said quickly, he was in pain and wanted to make himself appear as less of a threat as possible.

"Dad did?" Isla was confused.

"Look, tell him he doesn't need to worry, I can take care of everything down here. This will only make people wary." Kiro told him, helping him to his feet and offered an apologetic shrug with a smile.

"Ki, what's going on?" She couldn't quite put it all together.

"With everything going on, rich people are in danger. Your dad must've found out about this somehow and got worried." Kiro explained as they walked towards the train platform.

Isla never thought about it this way. She was happy that they were exposed but didn't consider that some people won't just blame the rich, but her family and by relation, her too.

"Don't be too worried, I can protect you."

"Sigh. It's not that, I just didn't think I'd get the blame too, to the point I needed bodyguards?" She thought back to the footage that popped on her screen and wondered how she'd go about joining the group that was helping her country to the right direction.

They made it through the academy gates with just one minute to spare. Kiro casually locked his hands with hers, thinking she was besides herself with what just happened. In his way, he was calming her down.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask," Kiro started, both of them standing by her dorm room door. "We like each other, I think, so I was hoping, you know..."

Isla just stood there, silently waiting for him to say it. She wasn't going to help him, if there was anything she was patient for, it was this.

He took a deep breath. 'Come on man, it's not that difficult.'

After what seemed like an eternity. The words finally left his mouth.

"Will you do me the great honour of entering a relationship with me?" It didn't come out exactly as he wanted and he wanted to strangle himself for it.

Isla giggled, taking his hand and pulling him closer and he unwittingly entered her room. He didn't know why he expected it to be girly, but it was elegant. There wasn't much personal touch.

"First time—"

Isla shut him up with a kiss to the lips, and he didn't complain and just went with it. He felt like the first time they did it, this was a feeling he never wanted to lose.

Then she did something he did not expect and started taking her clothes off. His heart was now travelling at the speed of light, he was surprised it didn't explode in his chest.

He didn't show he was nervous though and just went along with it. If he had to admit it to himself, she really looked really great without her clothes off.

"Are you okay, are you sure about this?" He asked her.

She nodded, "are you?"

"Yes!"

He suddenly felt very excited, his body was too.