#titlescreen

He narrows his eyes at her, but she’s his best friend and roommate for a reason, so he plays it as soon as she leaves the room.

When she comes back in to ask about dinner, she’s got a smug look on her face. “Fine, you were right,” he says, rolling his eyes. “It’s cute. I like the bunny.”

Robin chuckles. “I thought you might. Y’know that video game store the kiddos love? I think they’ve got it.”

“Probably,” he allows, very much not thinking about it. Or the very attractive employee who seems to always be there when he is, shopping for the kids. He sets his phone on his chest. “How’s Chinese for dinner sound?”

“I’ll marry you,” Robin says.

Steve chuckles. “Wanna call it in? You know my order.”

“Orange chicken.” She makes a face. “Yeah, I’ll call it in.”

“Thanks.” She waves him off, so as she leaves, he calls, “I’m serious! Thank you! I love you! Marry me!”

“I’ll leave you at the altar!” She calls back, and he cackles.

He plays the video again.

Three days later finds him inside the video game store. Not for him, he swears, but Dustin’s birthday is soon-ish, anyways, and he needs a present, and he had been talking about some figurine or another.

“Hey, welcome in!” Very Attractive Employee says. “Can I help you find anything?”

Steve smiles, shakes his head. “Thank you.” He walks around, doesn’t necessarily look for Animal Crossing, but doesn’t necessarily walk away when he sees it, either. He picks it up, examines the case. Robin’s got a Switch, and he knows she’d let him borrow it. The one part he’s not really sold on is the price. He sets it down, looks at it for a minute longer, as if that would make the price change.

“If you’d like to try, I can put it in the system,” Very Attractive Employee says. His voice is soft, and something about it sounds familiar.

“I dunno.” Steve sighs. “I don’t want to impose, and I know most of the beginning is a bunch of talking and naming yourself and the world, right?”

Very Attractive Employee frowns. “Have you played it before?”

“Ah… no. I, uh.” He’s strangely embarrassed to say it. “I’ve watched playthrough videos.”

Very Attractive Employee grins and motions him over to the trial station. “Yeah? YouTube, right? D’you know who?”

“Uh…” Steve pulls his phone out, opens YouTube. It’s one of the first recommended videos. “HFClub?”

“Ah.” He stills for a moment, then smiles at Steve. “Well, if you’d like to try, it’s available.” He gestures to the console. “And believe it or not, this isn’t a super high-traffic store. It can get kinda boring being the only one here. If you don’t mind me watching over your shoulder, I don’t mind you staying until I’ve gotta close up.” He grins at Steve. “Whaddya say?”

Steve smiles tentatively back, takes a seat, and picks up the device.

He was right; it takes him a good amount of time to get past the opening, but he does have fun, especially with Very Attractive Employee imitating the other characters.

When he looks up again, it’s dark outside. “Oh, shit,” he murmurs, checking his watch. Somehow he’s spent three hours playing. “Shit, man, that’s dangerous,” he laughs.

Very Attractive Employee chuckles. “I know, right?” He shifts. “I’ve seen you in here before buying other games, and you don’t hesitate. Can I ask why today was different?”

“I usually come in to buy things for these kids I used to babysit. This one is purely selfish.” He grins and stretches, grins more when he notices Very Attractive Employee’s gaze is drawn down to where his shirt has ridden up.

“Kids?” He finally asks.

Steve hums. “You might know ‘em, actually, there’s one with curly hair, usually wears a trucker hat. A redhead who will put the fear of God into you. A bitchy kid with hair that could be great-”

“Wait, wait, wait.” Very Attractive Employee waves his arms through the air. “Dustin? Max? Mike?”

“Holy shit,” Steve says, and begins to laugh. “Yeah, exactly.”

Very Attractive Employee looks at Steve for a minute before saying, “So you must be Steve!”

Steve gapes. “They talk about me?”

“Oh, man.” Very Attractive Employee chuckles. “Dustin never shuts up about you, man, he loves you.”

“Oh.” Steve stills. “I, uh. Kinda thought they just tolerated me.”

“No way. Well, maybe Mike, but you know how he is.”

Steve chuckles. “Yeah. Do you know them just from how often they come in here?”

“Oh, no. I’m their DM. Y’know, Dungeons and Dragons?”

“Oh,” Steve nods, thinks. “Eddie, right? And- fuck, what was it. Elf Club, or something?”

Eddie chuckles. “You mean Hellfire Club?”

Steve snaps and points at Eddie. “That’s the one. Man, they love you too, every time I see the brats it’s always Eddie this and Eddie that and Eddie killed our characters but it was great.”

Eddie chuckles. “That’s good to hear. Can I ask why you’re just now looking at this for yourself?”

Steve sighs. “I know the kids love your campaigns, but I don’t like anything too horror-y. I don’t like jump-scares, and it feels like most video games have some element of that. My best friend got me hooked on the videos, and I decided to try it out.”

Eddie nods. “Yeah, this is definitely a very calm game. Feel free to come back in any time to continue trying it out, though. If you want.”

Steve smiles at him. “I might just take you up on that offer.”