Chapter Text
Avery was in a sorry state. He was a confused and embarrassed teenager who couldn’t stop daydreaming about a guy he met on Minecraft, of all places. For the past week, he had been hopping on and off a public SMP server with some friends from school. Usually, they all logged on after school on Fridays and played continuously until Sunday morning. However, Avery—being an irresponsible student—was online almost every moment he could be. It became a running joke in their private Discord server about just how long he would stay online.
Even more embarrassing was the fact that he rarely accomplished anything in the game. Despite staying up until four in the morning at his laptop, playing Minecraft, he mostly wandered around and got distracted by chatting with other players. Avery hardly ever made progress on building his base or even managed to collect a decent amount of materials for his projects. It was clear he was struggling.
During one of his many useless playthroughs, Avery had met a player named “d3rlord3.” He had died from falling from a high place and respawned in the middle of nowhere because his bed had been destroyed, and he bumped into the mysterious character. The Spartan had offered some help getting back to his base. Avery, naive and lazy as ever, had agreed and simply followed him around the world. He had felt his face flush when the other player had asked for his base coordinates, or if he knew where it was near. He hadn’t memorized or written anything down, embarrassingly enough.
They spent nearly three hours gathering supplies for Avery that day. Through their gaming session, Avery had managed to get the other person's Discord tag, which, unsurprisingly, was the same as their Minecraft username. He sent a sticker of a cat and received a simple response: "cat." Talk about a man of few words.
They had each logged off not long after, and since then, Avery hadn’t spoken or even played with him again. It was eating at him. It wasn’t that he was lonely; his friends invited him to all sorts of activities, but he just couldn’t stop thinking about this one guy. It was frustrating. He would open Discord, click on his profile, and stare at his recent activity. They didn’t share any mutual servers or friends, but he had managed to find his Spotify. Avery wasn’t a creep, though.
As he sat at his computer, surrounded by the homework he should be completing, he stared at the brightly lit screen that was probably straining his eyes in the dimly lit room. With summer break approaching, the heat in California felt unbearable, almost like sitting in the Devil’s furnace during this time of year. He hunched over at his desk, shirtless, wearing only his binder-bra and shorts. There was no fan in his room, and for some reason, his mom refused to pay for air conditioning.
He grasped his mouse, feeling the rubbery sides as he clicked the left button to switch to his friend’s Discord server. The server included friends from school as well as some he had met online. A few people were already in a voice call, so he clicked on the channel to join. He had nothing better to do—or at least nothing he was willing to do. His audio buffered for a moment before coming to life, with three different people asking who had joined, followed by greetings from two others.
“Hey, Avery,” one of them welcomed, “haven’t seen you in a while.”
Avery smiled slightly. At least people missed him. He clicked the voice channel chat, typing out a hi, sending the same stupid cat sticker he always did.
11:43 PM
[TheMostMayo] > hhi
[TheMostMayo] > what r you guys doing
“Nothin’… just chatting. We were thinking of hopping on Arc Raiders in a bit if you wanna join?”
11:44 PM
[TheMostMayo] > no imok
[TheMostMayo] > thankyou for asking tho ^^
Avery had participated in voice calls before—plenty of times, in fact. Everyone had heard his voice, but that didn’t mean he enjoyed it. He was still relatively new in his transition, and his voice training hadn’t helped him as much as he had hoped. His higher-pitched voice made him cringe, and he hated laughing because it sounded so girly. Although the server collectively didn’t care about his being trans, that didn’t ease his embarrassment. The only thing saving him was his more masculine face, and his shorter hair made passing less of a hassle.
He shifted in his seat, groaning as he felt the back of his legs slide against the chair. The sweat was becoming gross. Avery reached for his headset and plugged it in, putting the ear coverings on as he prepared to hit unmute.
Lord above, he fucking hated his horrible eyesight. Maybe his mom was right about getting blue-light glasses for late-night computer use. He clicked the camera button. As the screen loaded, the two little squares circled each other for a brief moment before revealing his image. He was sitting in his gaming chair, one leg propped up on the edge of the seat, and shirtless. Panic surged through him, and he scrambled off his chair, hiding underneath his desk as he fumbled to turn off the camera. Someone in the call screamed almost instantly. “Avery!?” she exclaimed, laughter lacing her voice. “Oh my god… what was that? Are you okay? Did you… mean to do that?”
Avery stood up and quickly began typing.
11:56 PM
[TheMostMayo] > NO
[TheMostMayo] > SHUTUP HOU DIDNT SEE THA T
[TheMostMayo] > THATWAS AN SCCIDENT STOP imgonna kill myself
“Huh? What happened?”
“Avery— he turned on his camera— oh my god…”
11:57 PM
[TheMostMayo] > DUDE
[TheMostMayo] > IWAS SHIRTLESS
[TheMostMayo] > BECAUSE ITS FUCKINF HOT I NMY ROOM
[TheMostMayo] > im never joinig call again
“Avery flashing the Discord server before GTA6?”
11:58 PM
[TheMostMayo] > STOP
Everyone was giggling, and Avery could feel his face burning with embarrassment. He pushed his headset off and got up, grabbing a loose t-shirt to put on. It had been a horrible experience, and he wished he could just crawl into a hole and disappear.
Returning to his desk, he put his headset back on, already dreading the thought of listening to his friends. They teased him a bit more, but it didn’t seem to have any long-lasting effects. It was embarrassing and shameful, but no one acted weird about it, so he figured he could forget about it.
He sighed, left the call, and clicked on his direct messages, spotting the familiar profile online again. He swallowed thickly, shifting in his seat in anticipation. Should he message him? Maybe it was the adrenaline that was still coursing through his veins, but he felt unexpectedly confident. He clicked on their chat and stared at the idle activity status, waiting for a sign.
12:02 AM
[TheMostMayo] > dude
[TheMostMayo] > i accidentally opened my camera
[TheMostMayo] > and face revealed to like 3 people
[TheMostMayo] > in vc
[TheMostMayo] > while i was shirtless
12:02 AM
[d3rlord3] > what???
[d3rlord3] > how
12:03 AM
[TheMostMayo] > THE UNMUTE
[TheMostMayo] > AND CAMERA BUTTONS
[TheMostMayo] > ARENEXT TO EACH OTHER
12:03 AM
[d3rlord3] > idiot
12:04 AM
[TheMostMayo] > STOP
…
…
…
Okay, he hadn’t meant to stop literally.
12:05 AM
[TheMostMayo] > also
[TheMostMayo] > whyr e you awake
[TheMostMayo] > what time zone r you in
12:06 AM
[d3rlord3] > edt
[d3rlord3] > you?
12:07 AM
[TheMostMayo] > jesus
[TheMostMayo] > isn’t it like 3am foryou then
[TheMostMayo] > i’m in pst
12:08 AM
[d3rlord3] > yeah
[d3rlord3] > i don’t have classes so im staying up late
So he’s a student… it narrowed down his age. Judging from the way he talked, he could be between 15 and 24. Anything below 20 was safe… it would be weird if a sixteen-year-old were talking to someone older than that. Nineteen was already pushing it.
12:10 AM
[TheMostMayo] > lucky
[TheMostMayo] > i gotta wake up in like 7 hours
[TheMostMayo] > but i might skip school and just stay home
12:11 AM
[d3rlord3] > don’t do that
[d3rlord3] > go to sleep soon
12:11 AM
[TheMostMayo] > uuurggshhs okkayy
[TheMostMayo] > btw
[TheMostMayo] > can i ask how old you are …
He was typing. It disappeared for a second, and then it popped up again.
12:13 AM
[d3rlord3] > 18
[d3rlord3] > it was my birthday 3 months ago
[d3rlord3] > you?
Avery paused for a moment, considering the idea. Being friends with someone two years older didn’t sound bad in theory. He had talked to older individuals before, but the maturity gap was definitely noticeable. Surely, it wouldn’t be a problem, right?
12:14 AM
[TheMostMayo] > holy ur old
[TheMostMayo] > i’m 16
[TheMostMayo] > r you a super senior ……..
12:14 AM
[d3rlord3] > i’m not even that old
[d3rlord3] > you only have two years left of being a baby before you reach my level
12:15 AM
[TheMostMayo] > don’t remind me….
[TheMostMayo] > btw do you wanna play minecraft later?
[TheMostMayo] > or rn if you’re gonna stay up
12:17 AM
[d3rlord3] > you should be going to sleep
[d3rlord3] > but i’ll probably be on later
[d3rlord3] > just message me if you want to hop on
12:18 AM
[TheMostMayo] > siiiighhh
[TheMostMayo] > okayyyy
[TheMostMayo] > goodnigt man
12:18 AM
[d3rlord3] > goodnight