Chapter Text
The sun was starting to set. The breeze of the seaside shook your hair while you were standing on the top of the cliff partly resting your weight on a tree.
“Are you staring at the ocean again?” Your younger brother approached you and stood at your side.
After all the adventures and challenges you had gone through, he was finally back home with you and your mother.
“Yes, I guess I am...”
“You are not going to stay.”
It was not a question.
“No.”
He looked sadly at you, but you were having none of it. You flicked his head and turned over, starting to walk back home.
“It's not like I'm going go forever, I'll come back from time to time, and no, you can't take the big bedroom for yourself, it's still mine.”
He followed you closely, now with a smile on his face.
“Aww, come on! That's not fair!”
Your voices started to sound distant, but the camera stayed focusing the tree, until one of the leaves that the wind was shaking off the tree covered it and just stood there.
THE END.
You left your controller on the table while the credits started and the main theme of the game started playing. Your back cracked when you finally stood up and stretched.
Closing your eyes, you let everything sink in. The storyline was mediocre, nothing new there. But the gameplay was pretty smooth and the graphics where gorgeous. So... 4/5? Oh, and you were still deducting a point for that confusing HUD, too many things everywhere, they were not the 90’s, that wasn't acceptable. Not by your standards.
Reopening your eyes, you paced around the small studio-apartment you called home, thinking about details for your review. You kept everything rather clean and organized, if somebody walked in, they could not have guessed that you haven't left that space in almost a month. Not all the hikikomori are gross.
Groceries and other stuff you needed where ordered online and your extensive knowledge in videogames and popular reviews between gamers made many companies interested in sending you free copies for you to review, as a paid job. The only condition you put was that your reviews were genuine. No amount of money was enough for you to throw away your credibility and standards. You didn't need much of it anyways.
With a clear image of the review on your head, you sat down and wrote it. Fingers swiftly pressing key after key as your mechanic keyboards sounds filled the room.
Once published, you sent an e-mail to the game company with the link of the review for the public, and sent a couple of more specific notes for their team. You thanked them for the opportunity and wished to work with them again.
You did that as an extra for every company, you knew that at the end of the day, your voice was an opinion, you tried to be as unbiased as possible, but you also knew that if there was a cute animal recurrent character in a game the final score tended to round up rather than down. So you always tried to be respectful, even if it wasn't your kind of game.
Once you finished and updated your social media under the name of Haneko to let people know that you've reviewed Away from the cliff: a story of two siblings, you saw sunlight starting to fill the apartment signalling the end of the night and start of the morning.
Perks of being a shut-in, n°1, sleep schedule is for normal people. You slept when you were tired, and was awake when you were not, and nobody could judge you for that.
And, you knew you were not the only one with... dispersed sleeping habits. Since you woke up just before the sun set today, you didn't really fell tired just jet. So you opted for recharging social batteries, by playing a MMO you found interesting at the moment, LeafTale: Land of Myths.
Maybe you could still catch some of the friends you played with awake, and play a bit with them before making something to eat.
You logged into the chat group you shared with them and saw that the voice channel was empty. What a pity, but well, maybe somebody connected while you played, so you entered and moved the window to the monitor on your right.
You started the game, and played for some time, trying to level up one of your secondary characters.
You took a mission where you had to kill 20 boar-like creatures. That habited in a cave.
The thing is, that you totally forgot this mission was best to do in groups if your character was not a tank-type. Since the beasts had a stupid high amount of HP, their attacks where powerful... and you had to battle 3 at the time.
“SUPID FUCKING PIGS JUST LEAVE ME ALONE UNTIL I HEAL!”
“It's too early for anybody to have so many energy...” You jumped a little before realizing somebody joined you in the voice chat. You looked over to see the name, since even if you had a pretty clear idea of who it was by the tone of his voice, you couldn't really believe he was up at 7:30 am.
Xx_Shikami_xX
Yep, that was him.
Your heart fluttered a bit but you tried not to play attention. You met the guy about half a year ago, when you started playing LeafTale, you run into each other quite a lot, so you added him as a friend in the game to take missions together from time to time, and after some months of insisting, you convinced him to join the group because voice chats where much more convenient than texting all the time. Even though he normally stayed silent if the group was big.
“Omg Shiichan, you scared me.” You giggled “What are you doing up so early?”
After some months you started to develop a little crush on him, what could you say, he was intelligent and liked games, and that was your type. You reminded yourself that you needed to rethink about your standards.
But you knew that falling for somebody you don't know personally is not the best idea in the world. So... you have been trying to calm the butterflies in your stomach every time you head his voice.
With no avail, it seemed.
“Stop calling me that.”
“Aww, I know that deeeeeeeeeeeep down you like it~” You let your back muscles relax and you fully let yourself fall to the back of your chair. He was cute when you picked on him a bit. Sometimes he acted a bit like a bratty child, and you loved to bring him back to earth.
“No.” There it is, aww, so cute.
“Yeeeees~” You knew you were walking on a thin line. After all this months it was still a bit of a mystery when he started to get from grumpy to actually angry. He logged off many times without any prior warning. And would spend days, sometimes weeks without logging in again.
“Ugh, you are a pain to deal with.” But it's not like you could stop, this was kind of addicting in a way.
“But you are still here~”
“I'm logging off.” Too far, too far, retreat.
“I'm sorry, I'm sorry!”
You heard him groan on the other side of the call. It sounded more like a growl. You felt your heart skip a beat and... Something more.
Nope. No no no NO. Stop it.
This is not the moment for lust to take over.
You were thankful that he could not see you. Because you were certain that right now you were practically the same colour as a tomato.
How could that small thing have such an effect on you? Jeez, I´m not a horny teenager with hormones dictating my mood anymore! I am an adult, I should know when to be rational about this things!
But even if you thought that, your legs where rubbing each other, searching for friction without you noticing for a couple of seconds after that little sound Shikami made. You stopped immediately after realizing.
Distracted, you didn't realize multiplayer games didn't really pause, and your character was defeated.
“Oh no! I was almost done! Now I have to start the mission again...”
“That's because you get distracted too easy. Leave me have my peace and concentrate on what you are doing.” Your face was hot again. If he knew what exactly distracted you...
“Oh, shush. I hate that you are right with the... distracting part, but anyways, just shush.”
He laughed. It was barely noticeable and short. But you heard it.
Oh God what have I done to you? Why do I have to suffer this? Your heart was pounding. Hard. Like if it wanted to burst out of your chest. You couldn't help but to smile.
“Anyways" You decided that that was enough boars for today, and tried to change to your main character. “You still haven't told me why you are up at 7:30 AM.”
“I have some work to prepare for tonight with my colleagues.” He yawned “That's all."
He was strangely talkative this morning. Normally when he had to wake up before noon he was so grumpy and tired he would maybe say a couple of words per sentence at max.
Suddenly you started to get worried. He had been logging in less doe to work lately, he said something about a big project coming up...
Maybe it was not the best day for teasing.
“You sound exhausted.” Your overall tone softened. “Maybe you are overworking yourself? Ahh... I don't really have much experience with normal works, and I guess from time to time it can't be helped... but take care of yourself, okay?”
He didn't really respond to that. Maybe he was shocked that you could be nice from time to time, or suspicious. Or both.
You decided to close the game and leaned on your chair, taking your feet up from the ground and hugging your knees. You guessed he was making an effort to speak, maybe wanting to get his mind of irl stuff. He wasn't the chatty type, and he seemed to be more of a listener... when the topic at hand was interesting for him at least. So, you thought about something.
“Hey, I just reviewed a new game that's coming out tomorrow, if you want I’ll tell you about it, don’t worry, no spoilers if you don't ask for them.”
You knew he read your reviews, sometimes he would tell you about his opinion on something that he didn't agree on. Always few hours after it's published.
The one you just made has been up for about half an hour, and he just woke up, so, if he was so tired, maybe an audiobook-like version was a little easier to digest.
“Okay.”
You talked about the game for some time, he occasionally made a “hmm" sound for you to know that he was still there, but he seemed a bit calmer than before. He eventually had to go to work, and just logged off after a short goodbye.
You turned your computer off after that. With a smile on your face. Hoping you had made his morning a little more bearable.
Three days passed. He didn´t log in once since then. You hoped he was doing okay.
It was 8 PM or so, the sun was starting to set outside, you read two names on the voice chat channel in the monitor on you right, DemonHunter_099 (aka Dem) and Lillythe-tarot (aka Lily).
A little ping made his way to your headphones when you joined.
“-really crazy! Like, DUDE. AGAIN?” The angry tone of Lily caught you by surprise. She wasn´t really the rage quit type. “Oh, Hane, hi!”
“Never thought that the day were I could see Lily angry would come. You scared me.” You said with a laugh.
“Oh, I´m so sorry, I´m just… UGH.”
You shifted in your chair, perking up. Curiosity making you pay more attention to what they were talking about.
“Before that, Hane, have you seen the news lately, or have you been hiding under your rock again?” Dem intervenes.
“News?” You take the bottle you always kept next to the monitor and brought it to your lips to give a sip.
“I knew it.” He just laughs and Lily gasps loudly.
“Come on Hane! It´s everywhere, you MUST have seen something, if not on the TV in social media… everybody is talking about it!” You almost drop the bottle from the sudden scream on your headphones. You swallow the water already on your mouth and leave the bottle down. You don´t want to spill it on your setup.
“Nope, no idea. Outside world problems take time to reach me.” Jeez, where did I left the bottle cap? You just had it in my hand! You start looking around.
“The fact that we know that you are talking seriously makes that statement all the more concerning.” Dem takes a deep breath. “Okay, do you remember the incident in UA some months ago? The one with the USJ thing?”
“Hmmm… I think so. A group of villains attacked some first years or something like that?” Oh, there it is. You saw it on the ground near you, so you tried to bend and pick it up.
“Yes!” Lily even sounded proud. You were not that much of a lost cause… were you? “Well, that group, the League of Villains, attacked again when they were on a training summer camp three days ago, and they even kidnapped one of the students! Like. WHAT? WHAT THE FUCK ARE THOSE HEROES DOING?”
“Omg, that´s just messed up.” Almost there. You were still trying to reach the bottle cap, but the headphones you were wearing acted like a leash because of the jack connecting them to the computer and you were too lazy to take them off for a moment. “Isn´t the UA supposed to be a top- FUCK!”
You looked back, cap finally in your hands, and you saw your now empty bottle on top of a drenched keyboard. You must have pushed it with the cable of our headphones. GREAT. Taking a towel you tried to remove all the water you could.
“NonononononNONONO! MY KEYBOARD!”
You tried to use it, but with no avail.
“Hane…? What happened…?” Lily seemed concerned.
Stupid cap. Also your quirk literally warped things you´ve already touched to your hands. Why didn´t I just… used it? UGH. It didn´t even cross my mind. It was MY QUIRK, for god’s sake, I´ve had it since I was 4.
“I spilled my bottle on my keyboard, and, of course, it´s not working now. FUCK. I needed to write a review for tomorrow morning!”
You were still frantically trying for it to work. With no results.
Fuck.
You took your phone in your hands. You needed to buy a new one. At least while this one dried.
The premium delivery took one day minimum, three max.
FUCK.
You needed it NOW.
…
“I need to go guys, I need to buy one before stores close.”
That took them by surprise.
“Before stores close…? WAIT, ARE YOU GOING OUTS-“ You didn´t let Dem finish.
You logged off.
…
So… Outside, ha?
There was no other way.
You looked at your phone, searching for a store that could have a little variety of keyboards near you, once you found one, you looked at the time. You could still make it. But you needed to hurry. Once you unplugged the damaged gadget, and flipped it upside down leaving it on top of a towel. If you could, you would like to still save it.
It was summer, so you didn´t need many clothes, and you decide that adding sweatpants to the t-shirt you wore today with a hoodie and some sandals was enough for a short trip to a store half an hour away by foot.
Standing in front of the door, with your hand in the door handle, you could not get yourself to move.
It was becoming more difficult to leave every time. Your heart was razing, and you felt an icky cold sensation consume you as the hair in your arms and nape stood up.
Come on y/n! Try to concentrate on your breathing.
It´s just a walk, you don´t have to talk to anybody. Just get the new keyboard, hand your credit card to the cashier and come back.
Then you would be out of the outside world again.
Still with your heart slowly racing, you pushed the handle down, and stepped outside.