SDRA2 OTP Extravaganza

Try, Try Again (Mikaeda/Mikado Sannoji x Yuki Maeda)

Sidebloggable Prompt: "Playing a Video Game"

Tumblr Prompt: https://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/84182180973/imagine-person-a-trying-and-failing-to-get-past/amp

"Imagine Person A trying (and failing) to get past a really hard level in their video game and Person B trying to help them out. The two end up staying up all night taking turns on the level, trying different strategies and growing more and more frustrated as the hours pass. Whether they eventually pass or rage quit is up to you."

***

"What the-? What did I get hit by?"

Mikado was in the kitchen when he heard the confused voice of his boyfriend from the living room. He was putting together some cannelloni in the kitchen to reheat for tomorrow's breakfast since he was sleeping over tonight.

Yuki's parents allowed Mikado to stay over occasionally when they heard that he had no home of family to go back to, and Mikado made sure to do his share of housework when he could to pay them back. Aiko and her husband had gone out for the night, leaving the boys alone.

After he covered the cannelloni in plastic wrap and put them in the fridge, he went to the living room to check on his smaller boyfriend. He knew that his boyfriend had a love for video games, and despite the wizard's inexperience, he went over to see what was going on.

"Yuki dear, what on earth are you fretting about?" Mikado questioned, sitting on his knees beside the lucky student and looking at the screen.

"Oh, Mikado?! Sorry, I didn't mean to disturb you," he chuckled nervously, looking over at his boyfriend. "I just ended up dying on a really hard level, but I don't know what hit me."

"Hm? What game is this?" he inquired. "Maybe I could try?"

"It's called 'Cuphead,' and it's actually designed to be really hard." Yuki controlled the character on screen to backtrack through the map. "I might as well let you play the tutorial first so you can get used to the controls. Here, I'll show you how to move using the remote..."

Using Yuki's guidance and the directions on the screen, Mikado practiced a little and managed to clear the tutorial after practicing repeatedly. After he decided that he finally got the hang of the controls, he left the tutorial.

"Alright, which level was it that you were having trouble completing?" Mikado asked, walking around the overworld and exploring a bit.

"Um, it's on the second isle, you should find the passage to it if you find the Die House at the bottom of the map here," the smaller boy explained, and Mikado obeyed - though he did stay to listen to the Die House theme a little. "Okay, so you just need to go to the castle at the top left," was Yuki's final direction.

Mikado arrived at the castle and clicked a button to interact with it. "So, this is...'Sugarland Shimmy?' What an odd name..."

"Most of the level names in this game have alliteration and rhymes in them, like 'Botanic Panic,' 'Ruse of an Ooze,' and 'Clip-Joint Calamity.' This isn't even the hardest level in the game, but it might be difficult for you," Yuki warned.

"You say that because I'm a beginner, but I am very good at learning. Let's begin," Mikado stated, pressing to begin the level and betting ready to face off against his first Cuphead boss.

After Baroness Von Bon Bon was pulled into her castle, the first one to come out was Sgt. Gumbo Gumbull, who ran across the screen with gumballs flying from his head. "Oh- Oh goodness," Mikado muttered, trying to dodge the gumballs while shooting at the enemy. He managed to lose two health points before he defeated the first phase of the fight.

"Mikado, you'll have to be careful, you only have one health point left - and watch the ground, there's jellybean soldiers running around!" Yuki warned, and Mikado destroyed a jellybean before the second phase boss came out.

This one - Muffsky Chernikov - was a cupcake that jumped up and splattered on the ground, but Mikado lost his last health point because he never expected the frosting shockwaves. "Oh dear, guess I died. Wait, there are four phases of this?" Mikado questioned, reading the death card. "...'Delicious and vicious, while maliciously nutritious'?! What the hell- It's mocking me?! I'm ding this again!"

"Oh boy..." Yuki chuckled and shook his head as Mikado restarted the level, but with a totally different enemy starting this time. Lord Gob Packer chased Mikado around the area while he fired at it, and this enemy managed to go down a lot easier than the other ones, even if firing at it was hard.

The one enemy Mikado ended dying to in the boss's second phase was Sir Waffington III, a winged waffle that flew around and split apart before putting itself back together. Mikado ended up dying to him due to his difficulty at dodging the waffle pieces while avoiding the jellybean soldiers.

"'Straight off the iron and too hot to handle'?!" the wizard fumed, and the controller was quickly taken from him by Yuki.

"Alright, how about I have a turn now? I might be able to get past this level...well, I will eventually," Yuki chuckled. To calm himself down, Mikado wrapped himself around his boyfriend from behind and nuzzled his mouth into his neck while watching the television screen.

Yuki managed to get to the third phase before being killed, and that's when the enemies began to repeat. "Alright, since these things have different attack patterns to them, we'll have to be prepared for them. Since you have more experience with this controller, I'll let you have it," Mikado began.

"If I had another controller, we could play co-op, but I'm an only child whose parents are usually too busy with work to play video games with me," the lucky student apologized. "I'll save up for another controller and teach you more games! Well, easier games than this one..."

"You can use the money that the academy gives its students, remember?" the wizard interrupted, then got back onto his ramble. "Anyway, what we need is a strategy to beat this fight with all these desserts. The gumball machine can be dealt with as long as you stand on the platforms and are aware of the gumballs, and I can warn you if there are any jellybeans coming your way..."

Mikado's explanations and plans of how to deal with all of the baroness's lackeys were all put to use when they retried the fight again. Even though they ended up dying again, they did get farther than they had before.

***

Aiko and her husband ended up returning to their house very late at night. An accident on the highway had caused there to be slow traffic, and they had to find another route to get back to their house.

When they stepped through the door, they heard a sound coming from the TV. When Aiko went over to investigate the sound, she saw her son and his boyfriend asleep on each other while a victory screen showed on the television.

Aiko smiled and picked up the video game controller, exiting the victory screen and waiting until the game auto-saved before turning the television screen off. Once the living room was dark, she went to the linen closet and took out a blanket to drape over the boys on the couch.

She and her husband left them on the couch without a loud sound to wake them up, and they both went to bed as the duo slept together on the couch.