Game On
A/N: It’s been a while since I’ve tried to write much of anything. But if you guys like it, I’ll definitely continue this. I have ideas to turn this into a multi-chapter fic. If you do like it, make sure to leave a like and reblog it to share it around! Thank you for reading.
Ship: Anxceit
Word Count: 1421
***
Virgil had been on the server for months, longer than they had ever committed to anything, and they were still having the time of their life. They weren’t on it constantly, mind you, but they did log in most days and spend at least an hour or two online. Building towers, mining for ores, gathering up way more supplies than they would ever need. They had already gotten their shot at killing the ender dragon, had a beacon of their own, and had tried their hand at some redstone machines.
All of them failed, but it was the effort that counted.
One of their favorite parts of logging into the server was the other player who they had come to consider their friend. Illuminaughty had approached them on their first day on the server and gifted them with a set of enchanted iron tools and armor, along with a few baked potatoes to get them started, and the two had been inseparable since.
Virgil had built their base - which had started as a small cottage and slowly evolved into a large survival base with a storage cellar and overcrowded farms of animals for food supply - close enough that they could visit Illuminaughty whenever they were both online together. Luckily, whenever Virgil logged on, the other would either already be on, or would get on not too long after. It made Virgil feel a little less like they were annoying him for always hanging around.
They had recently decided to join up their bases into one big castle, and had advanced from using strictly in-game text chat to making use of the server’s proximity chat mod, and Virgil was able to hear the voice of the boy they’d become friends with.
They had stayed up late together, until both their voices were groggy with sleep, getting up early the next morning to get back on the server and continue work on their castle together. There would be times - sometimes up to an hour - where neither of them said a word, and yet Virgil never felt lonely, knowing that the other was there.
It got to the point that when Virgil heard Illuminaughty’s voice, their stomach would do flips, anxiety and butterflies fighting together inside of them, and they had to hide the smile from their voice when greeting him. They missed not talking to him when they weren’t on the server together.
One thing they hadn’t done, however, was see each other. Virgil didn’t know the other’s name, didn’t know how old he was - hell, they didn’t even know his pronouns, they were just assuming. Virgil didn’t know much about their friend apart from their time in-game together.
And they desperately wanted to.
“Hey,” they said while in game with Illuminaughty. Hearing a hum in response - even the slight noise coming from the other raising goosebumps on their arms - they continued. “What do you look like?”
Gods, what kind of question was that? Now he was going to think Virgil was some kind of creep. What if he was a kid? Virgil had heard 17-year-olds - fuck, even 14-year-olds - who sounded like full-grown adults, so it wasn’t out of the question.
Why did they have to lead with that question? They couldn’t have asked his pronouns, or age first?
There was no hesitation on the other side, however, and that put their nerves to rest - at least a little bit, anyways. Illuminaughty snorted, and Virgil could just imagine him rolling his eyes. They were sure he did that a lot. He sounded like he did.
“What, you wanna see me or something? Need something for the spank bank?”
Face red, Virgil froze.
“Sorry,” Illuminaughty chuckled. “I spent the day with my roommate. She tends to rub off on me, and not in the way she wishes.”
She? Was Illuminaughty in a relationship? Was he straight?
Wait, no.
He said roommate, not girlfriend.
Why did Virgil care, anyways?
“No, it’s-” Virgil tried so hard not to sound flustered or anxious. They hoped they succeeded, but they weren’t so sure. “It’s all good. I just realized I don’t know anything about you, and we’ve been hanging out almost every day for months.”
In-game, the character that Illuminaughty was puppeting stopped moving, crouching on the top of a wall, five blocks above Virgil, and turned to look down at them. After a second, they heard him suck his teeth, and then he spoke. “Alright, how about this. We get on a video call, we can both see each other, and get to know each other. I don’t know shit about you either, and if I’m gonna share, it needs to be fair.”
Virgil thought for a second, crouching in game and looking down at the ground to show that, before un-crouching and looking back up to the other, moving their cursor up and down to nod. “Fair enough. Before we get on call, though, I gotta protect my ass; how old are you?”
“Over 18, younger than 30. Leave it at that for now. You?”
“Same here.”
Fair was fair. If Illuminaughty was going to be cryptic with his sharing, so was Virgil.
They didn’t expect the chuckle in response, the low sound sending shivers up their spine. “Alright, I’m gonna disconnect, and call you on Discord.”
And before Virgil could respond, he logged out of Minecraft. They did the same, and moved to Discord, opening the app on their computer. While it was loading, they did a quick check around their room. Anything that would be in the frame was clean enough - no dirty clothes or trash piles in view.
Virgil hadn’t gotten to cleaning their room yet this week, and shit was starting to build up. Lucky for them, they had showered this morning, so the few days of oil buildup on their hair was gone, and it was freshly fluffy. They had even put on eyeliner this morning, making somewhat of an attempt to take care of themself.
Their therapist had said that if they want to feel better, a good place to start was to take care of themself and their house better. It was a lot of work, and it was hard, but they were trying. Some days were better than others.
Discord booted up, and within seconds, a box popped up saying that Illuminaughty was calling them. Panic fluttered in their chest, and they scrambled to look around, double-checking that everything was okay.
They grabbed their headphones and plugged them in, flipping the switch on the cord to turn on the microphone, and joined the video call.
“Holy shit,” they mumbled, not realizing the words had left their mouth.
Illuminaughty was fucking hot.
He had shaggy blond hair that looked obviously bleached, the roots overgrown and brown. There was a port wine stain on his cheek, and a black tattoo on the side of his neck that looked like the Illuminati triangle. A hickey peeked out from under the collar of his shirt - what looked like a dark pink-ish Henly-style shirt, with most of the buttons undone - and another tattoo accompanied it, though Virgil couldn’t make out what that one was.
A smirk tugged at his lips, the piercings on his bottom lip shifting with the movement, and he chuckled, rolling his eyes. At least they were right on that part. He did roll his eyes. “You’re not so bad yourself, Spiderling.”
They were mortified to learn that they had actually said that, their cheeks flushing red all the way to the tips of their ears. Illuminaughty didn’t seem too phased, however. He brought a hand up into frame, resting his chin on his palm as he looked into the camera. Every single one of his fingers had a different style of ring on it.
“So,” he teased. “Am I what you expected?”
No. Not even a little bit.
Virgil shrugged, rolling his eyes. “Not really.”
“Ready to start the 20-questions, or do you need more time to drool?”
They sighed, laughing at themself. He was never going to let that go. They could already tell.
They hardly even noticed that a majority of their anxiety from before the call had immediately vanished upon answering it and being with the other again. It was like he was a walking, talking Prozac.
“What’s your name?” It was Illuminaughty who asked the first question, surprising them.
“Wh– Virgil,” they answered, shocked. “Yours?”
“Janus.” He seemed a little more hesitant to answer, but he did. “It’s very nice to finally meet you, Virgil.”