What an asshole, James thinks as he watches his Minecraft avatar plummet hundreds of blocks down into a void. What an absolute asshole.
“You’re an asshole, Aleks,” he says with finality, glancing over his shoulder.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Aleks responds flatly, attention still firmly on the game. After successfully knocking James off the map, he retreats back to home base.
“I had so much shit, you fucker! I had diamonds and everything!” James yells into the mic, respawning and clicking rapidly to punch the virtual air in anger. “Unbelievable.”
Aleks giggles lightly, and James dares to shoot a glare at him as he makes his way back to their area.
—
“Hey, come help me with this.” Aleks says suddenly, causing James to snap out of his concentration on mining.
“With what?” He says, mildly curious but mostly paranoid.
“Come help me with this.”
“Help you with what?” James says lowly, suspiciously, nevertheless covering the surrounding area in torches— he’ll never find it otherwise— and making his way out of the mines.
“Just come here,” Aleks says with just the slight edge in his tone that causes James to regret his decision to follow along entirely. He peeks over at Aleks’ screen and sees nothing of concern, just him standing outside a village while the bizarre Squidward people roamed around him.
It takes him only a moment to race over to Aleks’ avatar, at which point he looks around and sees nothing of particular interest. Just them standing in the middle of a village.
“Alright, what?”
“Go inside the house.” James can see Aleks trying to hide a smile and failing miserably. The expression itself tells of his impending doom, he is fully aware.
“There’s something inside the house.”
Aleks makes a small noise like choked laughter. “Go inside the house, James.”
“I’m not going inside the fucking house.”
“James.”
James stares at Aleks for a long while, and Aleks stares back with the most pathetic, innocent expression James has ever seen. Several seconds tick by and something inside his stomach feels weird, heating his cheeks, so he quickly admits defeat.
Clicking the house door open, he screams as two creepers catch him in his gaze and make a beeline for the entry way. Aleks is laughing, having sprinted away from the impending chaos while James continues yelling and swinging his sword at the monsters. One of them is near death but the other hisses and explodes, causing a small chain reaction that catches James in the carnage and kills his character immediately.
Aleks is still laughing while James is frowning at his computer screen.
“I can’t believe you opened the door, dude.”
“Neither can I,” James grumbles, feeling his heart race in his chest.
—
They’ve been down in caves for most of their play session, mining for literal hours and collecting as much valuable ore as they can carry, diamonds being the ultimate prize.
Both pass lava streams and mutually work to kill mobs without incident, a silent truce between them as their adventure progresses. There is a lot to gain and too much to lose.
“If I die here, I’m gonna be so fucking pissed.” James scratches his beard and scopes out above a pool of lava for diamond. “You better not fucking kill me, Aleks.”
“Why would I do that?” Aleks asks with that damned sharpness to his voice that James knows spells trouble. Not this time. He isn’t tolerating that shit.
He tries his best to the ignore the pounding underneath his ribcage.
“You better not. I swear to god I’ll kill you before you can kill me.” James finds only redstone, and retreats upward to the branch that Aleks had been digging into moments before.
Aleks snickers, shaking his head. “Dude, I just want to get diamonds and get out.”
James snorts in disbelief, but leaves the issue.
He wants to mine and be done, truth be told. He isn’t sure if he’s suddenly feeling unwell or if there’s something putting him on edge, but he feels too hot in his hoodie and can’t relax. He feels like he needs to pull away from the game and get some air.
What kind of bullshit is this, now? He thinks, frowning to himself.
He notices Aleks do a double-take when he look at him, and his eyebrows furrow.
“Dude, you okay? You look like you were just set on fire or something.” He turns his chair slightly towards James.
“What,” James says, more of a surprised knee-jerk reaction than a question.
“You’re super red. You better not have been sick this whole time and still played.” Aleks’ eyes narrow in accusation.
James lifts both hands. “I swear, I’m not sick. Just feeling a bit off today. It might just be the hoodie in this weather making me burn up.”
Aleks looks unconvinced, staring at James and looking him over thoroughly, critically. James feels his heart about to burst from his chest altogether, and swallows hard. But why is Aleks…?
“Whatever you say dude, but if you really feel bad, we can stop playing whenever.” He spins back around to his desk, but pauses for a moment as he goes to resume the game. “Just don’t push yourself too hard. I don’t want to have to drag your ass home if you pass out.”
James laughs a little and feels immediately lighter, and Aleks smiles good-naturedly back at him.
The entire world flips on its head and James feels extremely dizzy, realization striking him like frigid ice running down his spine. He feel a little sick, but so elated and hopelessly lost that all he can do is stare at Aleks, who is already back to playing the game. His heart is singing in his chest.
Oh.
