Adam's POV
Even the most mundane things were interesting to Alesa. The park was empty of people when we arrived due to it being barely past 7am, which was a good thing. Alesa touched every bush, every tree, the wooden benches, all with a wide smile on her face. She especially liked the water fountain that was the centerpiece of the park and the moss that caked the rim.

I couldn't help but compare her to a loveable, excited puppy, bouncing around and sniffing at various objects. Finally, she simply stopped moving and spun around slowly in a circle.

"It's so beautiful," she said, looking at me.

"It's not as beautiful as you," I thought. Wait, what? I blushed and shoved my hands into my pockets, looked down at the cobbled path at my feet. I wanted to say something but any sounds I could have made seemed to be caught in my throat.

I felt her hand lightly touch my arm and I glanced up at her. "Can you show me the rest of the world?"

I nodded, glad for the distraction. I gently took her hand and pulled her out of the park. The city was still and quiet, but I knew from experience that in only a few minutes, the streets would fill with cars and people.

We strolled down the market street, the shops on either side opened and the various smells mixing together in the air to form a delicious fragrance. Alesa stopped, pulling my hand so that I would stop with her. She sniffed the air, her eyes bright.

"What is that smell?" she asked me quietly.

I sniffed as well and the scent of fresh bread made my stomach growl. I grinned and pulled her to the bakery shop a few steps away, buying us both a bread roll to eat. The virus practically inhaled it and I wasn't that much slower.

We wandered the city for almost the whole day. There were a few places that Alesa made a beeline for: The three-story library, the harbour, the Sky Tower which gave you a view of almost the entire city; even smaller things like a flower shop and a fruit shop fascinated her.

She dragged me into the cinemas and I bought us tickets to see a movie. The storyline was mediocre but I don't think Alesa even noticed. She was to busy looking around the cinema to watch the movie and whenever there was an especially loud noise, she would jump and occasionally grab my arm. I didn't mind it. Eventually, she just laid her head on my shoulder and I put my head on top of hers.

The sun had almost fully set when we left the cinema. My apartment was only a few streets away and we walked slowly as night descended, hand in hand. We took the stairs up but when we reached my level I kept going. I felt Alesa's hand loosen on mine momentarily.

"Isn't your house back there?" she asked.

I smiled back at her. "Yeah, but I want to show you something."

We took the stairs all the way up past the sixth floor to the door that led to the roof. It was probably supposed to be locked at all times but someone had propped it open with a street directory a while back and it had never been closed since. The hinges creaked as I pushed the heavy door open.

The roof was dark and the lights of the streets below were blocked by the half-metre tall concrete wall that went around the edges. Up above us, the stars shone bright and clear, dusted across the sky. I lay down on the cold ground and Alesa lay next to me.

"Wow," she breathed.

I pointed out the constellations I knew to her, drawing them in the air with my finger: The Southern Cross, Orion and his belt, Gemini and Perseus. I showed her the purple and blue dust band that most of the stars were caught up in, the Milky Way. Her arms were crossed lightly on her chest, her eyes gazing up at the night sky. I found myself staring into her left eye, where the stars seemed to reflect in her brown iris.

We stayed on the roof for a long time and when the wind started to pick up, we went back down to my apartment. I offered for her to sleep on my couch but she said that she would rather go back into my computer hard drive.

"Just for tonight," she quickly added. "It's just..."

"Don't worry, I get it," I said. With spending the whole day in a new environment, she probably wanted to get back to the familiar mainframe for a while. We both entered the hard drive.

"I'll come back the same time tomorrow morning," I told her after making sure that she was okay. "Don't take off the amulet. If you accidentally lose it, I can't make another one and that's the only way to get between the mainframe and the real world."

She nodded. We were standing barely two steps from each other. Without thinking, I closed the gap and wrapped my arms around her, placing my head beside hers. I felt her arms do the same and warmth spread through my back where her hands touched.

After a few seconds, I broke the embrace and stepped back. "See you tomorrow," I said before pressing down on the gem in my amulet and leaving the mainframe. My apartment was dark with a little bit of moonlight shining through an open curtain. In a flash, I knew what I was going to show Alesa the next morning.

The world was still dark when my alarm began to beep. In a few minutes, I was dressed and inside my computer mainframe. Alesa was already awake and we left the apartment complex. The street lights were still on and the air was crisp and cold.

"Where are we going?" Alesa asked as we got onto a train.

"It's a surprise," I grinned.

The train ride took an hour since I wanted to get clear of the city. The virus spent the whole time looking out the windows, drinking in the world that was speeding past. The station that we got off at was at the bottom of a hill and Alesa and I raced to the top.

"I won!" she cheered only a few minutes later.

"Only because you're a worm," I puffed. She laughed at me and looked around. The sky was a light blue now and the city was stretched before us, still sleeping.

"It's beautiful," she said as I came to a stop next to her.

"That's not what I brought you here to see," I whispered. I gently took her shoulders and turned her around.

The sun was almost on the horizon and as we turned, it seemed to burst forth and send the first rays of deep orange into the sky. From our position, it seemed to rise over the train rails and the trees that lined either side of it. The clouds were turned a fairy-floss pink and the world seemed to hold its breath as the day began.

My hands were on Alesa's shoulders and one of her hands was on mine. Our heads were close and when she went to look at me, her lips brushed mine for a moment. We both jerked back a little and her cheeks went pink as she quickly looked back at the sun.

We stayed there for several more minutes until the sun had finished its spectacle and then we took the train home without another word. Alesa's warm hand worked its way into mine and I held it tightly.

We spent the morning looking at more of the city and we had a picnic in the park for lunch. Well, a picnic in the sense of eating food outside. We ate fish and chips while we sat on the grass under a lush green tree, listening to the water splashing from the fountain and the conversations of the others who were relaxing there.

"Fancy seeing you here."

I jumped at the voice and turned around with a grin. "Well, I do live right over there," I said to Ty, gesturing in the vague direction of my apartment.

"True."

I stood up and Alesa carefully stood up with me. Ty, like myself, wasn't wearing any of the glitch uniform except for the headphones around his neck, but Alesa might have seen him in that battle of city hall which was why she was so nervous now. Honestly, I couldn't blame her.

"Ty, this is Alesa," I introduced. "Alesa, this is my friend Ty."

"Hey," Ty said easily.

"Hi."

Ty's eyes flicked down to the amulet around her neck, then to mine and back up. "You a glitch?" he asked Alesa.

"No," she said hesitantly.

I knew that this conversation wasn't going to end well so I quickly changed the topic. If Ty knew that Alesa was a virus, things would go very bad, very fast. "What are you doing today?"

"Well, I have to clean my house at some point and I should probably go shopping, so I'm taking a walk," he said with a grin.

"Sounds about right."

The breeze rustled the leaves of the tree above us and Alesa shivered a little.

"Are you from near here?" Ty asked her.

"Um, not... not really," she said. Then she added, "But I'm really liking the city. It's so pretty."

"What kind of things have you seen?"

"Adam's shown me the library, the Sky Tower and the cinemas! They were really cool!"

Ty frowned a little. I tried to think of a way to steer the conversation away from dangerous waters when the breeze suddenly blew harder than usual. It tugged at Alesa's hair and for a moment, her red hair blew away from her right eye, but that was enough to reveal the deep green codes in it.

Ty took a step back, his eyes wide. "You're a virus," he whispered. "A freaking virus!" His eyes flicked to me and then darted back to Alesa.