Zaynab watches Ayan and Ade stand in front of each other awkwardly in the white room.

She rolls her eyes. "You guys are supposed to actually talk to each other, y’know?"

"This is just so weird," Ayan look down at his arms. "Am I even real?"

"In your universe? Yes. In mine and Ade’s? No. Same goes for Ade."

"And you?"

"I’m your creator. Of course I exist."

Zaynab is an author of a series and a stand alone novel. One is a romantasy and the other is a contemporary romance set in modern day. While they come from very different backgrounds, Zaynab see them in the same way: two idiots.

She had already met the characters from her War of Fire series a couple of weeks ago and they’ve grown used to her. She only met Ayan today though. And she also dragged him through a portal to this room where Ade was already there waiting.

"I’m sorry-" Ayan buries his face into his hands. "I’m still so.. wow. I’m a character."

"Not just any character," Zaynab smiles brightly. "A main character!"

"Right- main character." He look at Ade. "You uh.. a main character too?"

Ade nods. "Yep. In the second book."

"The second book? What about the first book?"

"That’s Anastasia’s and Eiran’s book."

"Who..?"

"The Princess and Prince that started this whole series out."

"Right.." He nods slowly. "And what are you? A guard?" He gestures to Ade’s gold armour.

"Yep," Ade nods proudly. "I protect Anastasia."

"So, is the second book like you two falling in love and turning into a love triangle? Like _The Summer I Turned Pretty_?"

"What’s that?"

"Nevermind," Ayan shakes his head. "So do you fall in love with her?"

"Oh god no," Ade laughs, shaking his head. "We’re friends. That’s all. Besides, I have my own girlfriend, Valencia," he says dreamily.

Zaynab smiles. _I wrote him right_, she thinks to herself.

Ade glances at Ayan. "You got a girlfriend?"

"Oh yeah," he grins. "Her name’s Noor."

"How’d you two meet?"

"We met when we were nine-"

Zaynab claps her hand, summoning a green fabric sofa.

"Uh- Thanks," Ayan sits down and so does Ade. He continues, "As I was saying — we met when we were nine. I was such an idiot," he laughs, rubbing his eyes. "I got her in trouble — on purpose."

"Now why would you do that?"

"I was nine, okay? I wanted to see what Miss goody two-shoes would do if she got in trouble."

"So what did she do?"

"Her face got all red and-" he sighs. "I found it funny at the time, but now I feel bad. Anyway, after that day, our teacher sat us together and after that, it was rough sailing for us. I didn’t stop being a menace to her till uni."

"You’re an idiot."

"I know," Ayan sighs.

"I don’t think you’re in any position to say anything, Ade," Zaynab sits down on the arm rest behind him.

"Oh really?" Ayan leans forward, grinning.

"Okay-" Ade looks up at me. "That was me being lovable-"

"You annoyed her so much."

"To get her attention- Wait.." Ade pauses and slowly turns back to Ayan. "Did you seriously try to get your girl’s atttention by annoying her?"

"I was nine!"

"Till you were an adult!"

"It’s all I ever knew to do with her! What’d your excuse?"

"Okay- In my defense, I was too busy fighting for my life since I was 15 to escape a genocide. Flirting with girls wasn’t exactly at the top of my list of things to learn."

"You _what_?"

"Yeah I-"

"That’s a story for another time," Zaynab stand up.

"I’m getting hungry. Come on, Ayan. We gotta get you back to Dimension 3."

"What? I want to hear about how he escaped-"

"Come on," Zaynab pulls him to the open portal and takes him away.