Modern AU

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Special effects flashed on his screen as the background music passed to the boss' theme. Headset on and a bottle of soda on the side on his keyboard to stay hydrated, though the drink wasn't really the most healthy thing, his fingers smashed the keys while he moved his mouse to lead his character through the dungeon.

DeathAngel: Naib, take the aggro while I'm casting

tank4U: Yes yes, leave it to me!

Thanks to their great teamwork, it didn't take long for the party to clean the map and kill the boss rather fast. The loot was rather good too due to the difficulty level and Aesop even got the last item he needed to trade it against a limited skin.

robyogold: Ah, the new raid is open guys. Wanna try?

NotASaint: Should I log off to take my priest?

The gray-haired man scanned his computer screen for a moment to read the conversation before typing in the bar chat.

DeathAngel: Nah don't, healing is nullified in this one

tank4U: What the hell, what kinda dungeon is that, can we even finish this without a healer?

DeathAngel: There will be buffs given as we go forward

robyogold: How do you know that Aesop? I thought you never did this dungeon

DeathAngel: Indeed. Luca told me abt it, he's far more advanced than us.

NotASaint: He's your roommate right?

DeathAngel: Mhm, he's kinda annoying but he can be useful sometimes I guess.

NotASaint: Good to know.

tank4U: Whatever guys, are you still all up for tomorrow?

robyogold: Ofc

NotASaint: Yes.

Aesop froze behind his screen.

Right, they had decided to hold a real life hang-out tomorrow with the guild members. It may sound quite grandiose hearing this but it really wasn't. Their guild was only composed of the four people of the party and was named The4Musketeers, why such a lame title, it was all due to their dumb tank who was the guildmaster and thought it was cool.

Well, Aesop may be like this but he quite appreciated them in fact, even if they never met and were complete strangers (which was the reason they had decided to organize this small event).

However, the problem lay elsewhere. Not to seem unsociable or anything, though it was the truth, the art student had no friends in the real world. His roommate didn't count, that man would force his friendship over rats too. He wasn't the talkative type since he was young and always stayed in the back of the classroom to avoid attention. His whole body would sweat whenever the teacher asks him a question so how was he going to handle meeting face to face three strangers?

tank4U: Aesop u still there?

DeathAngel: Ah yes, sorry, I lagged a bit, I'll be there too.

robyogold: Nice~

They chatted a bit more until they all decided it would probably be best to go to bed so as to be full of energy for the next day. It was already three in the morning at that time. Unfortunately, after turning off his computer and landing on his bed, Aesop couldn't close his eyes. His heart was throbbing under his chest just thinking about what would happen tomorrow, what he should say when they meet, how to hold a conversation and not make it awkward instead... His head was filled with thoughts that kept him away from a good night's rest and thus he woke up with the face of a zombie once the sun rose. 

Regret and sleep would wait until later. Anxiety had made him stay longer than expected in his bed and he better get up immediately so as not to be late, the event was nothing fancy but it would still be frowned upon to arrive late.

By the time he got up, washed and changed, Aesop grabbed his bag with one hand as he left his apartment. It was the coldest time of fall so he had put on an extra scarf over his long beige coat.

The train was a bit crowded as people liked to go out shopping or whatever on the weekend. Aesop had always found it fascinating how everyone had exactly the same hobbies but he never imagined that today he would be part of the mass.

The meeting place was the exit of the train station, which led to the inside of a huge shopping mall. The fateful hour was approaching but there was still a problem, Aesop had never seen the faces of his gaming partners. Each of them was a reserved type in some way and they preferred to respect each other's privacy, until today at least.

Aesop went to lean against a pillar a little further away from the flow of the mob and sent a message on their chat group to say that he had already arrived. His gray eyes remained fixed on the screen of his messenger, widening as briefly as a split second when the symbol that his message had been read appeared.

Suddenly, a larger shadow darkened his field of vision, forcing him to look up. There he came upon a young man with raven black hair and glasses. He had a sullen look similar to his own and stood there looking at him for a few seconds before frowning.

"Uh... Are you by any chance Aesop?"

Aesop had heard that voice before on the few times he had joined the voice chat.

"Mhm."

"Ha...!" The male breathed a deep sigh of relief before resting against the pillar right next to him. "I was afraid I'd called out to a stranger for a moment. Oh, just in case, I'm Norton."

Aesop nodded, so he had been right. 

Silence fell between the two men who were probably the least talkative of the lot. Fortunately, another figure soon joined them. This time it was a young man with green eyes. Maybe it was the trend in their group, but he had also arrived with a rather deadpan expression.

It was Naib.

And despite the intimidating aura he gave off, it didn't take long for the brown-haired man to lighten the mood, his face softening as he found his two friends.

"Only Eli is left...?" stated Naib.

Eli... He was probably the one Aesop talked to the most of the three men. Initially, there was only Norton, Naib and himself but he found the fourth one someday when he had gone to the starting town to see an NPC that was exclusively there, only to run into Eli's character fighting with his bare hands because he didn't know how to equip a weapon.

Now that he thought about it, Eli was really horrible at this game in the beginning but after some help from Aesop and the other two, he had improved greatly and had become a very good mage who could stand the back with the necromancer.

"Hmm... Hello-?"

Aesop froze in place. There he was...

"Oh, it's about time man!" said Norton.

"Sorry, I had to leave my owl with my cousin before I left."

A faint laugh reached Aesop's ears like a sweet melody and he slowly looked up. A strange man who looked far too perfect for such a crappy activity as playing online games, if one spared the fact that the brunette had a rather peculiar taste for having a raptor as a pet, and Aesop was actually surprised that it was legal.

At last, they had all arrived and while Norton and Naib were happily engaging in conversation with the latest comer, Aesop was content to remain on the sidelines. It was as if there was a wall between them that he didn't dare to cross and the question of what to say came back to haunt him.

Perhaps his nervousness was so immense it was practically noisy because Eli turned to him with the most dazzling smile Aesop had ever seen. This was criminal.

"I'm glad to meet you for real, Aesop." he said in his deep yet calm voice. 

"...Me too."

His answer came out of his mouth more curtly than he would have liked and he quickly turned his head so as not to see Eli's reaction. He was then saved by the bell because now that they were all there, Naib pressed them to go to a cafe he had found on the internet the day before.

The place was not really crowded despite the fact that it was a Sunday. It was even almost empty. Good, thought Aesop. Or almost. For the group had settled around a square table with two benches on each side. Norton sat with Naib, and since it would have been ridiculous if Aesop had joined in, he ended up with Eli.

There was room on the bench so that wasn't the problem obviously but they had placed all their stuff in a pile on the edge, still reducing the space and forcing poor Aesop to have a heart palpitation due to his knee brushing against Eli's from time to time.

They ordered food and drink and once again, everyone but Aesop was in the conversation. Not to be mistaken, he had not been excluded but he had preferred to stay in his bubble sipping his vanilla milkshake while looking out of the restaurant window, the chatter of his friends echoing like background noise.

He didn't know how long it lasted until he felt a touch on his shoulder that turned out to be none other than the man sitting next to him. Aesop turned, half reluctantly and embarrassingly, meeting those two blue eyes again.

"You're not bored I hope?"

Eli smiled, but you could hear in his voice that he was genuinely concerned for Aesop's well-being.

"...No."

That was the truth.

But it didn't seem to convince Eli.

"Um, it may be silly of me to ask this but..." he rubbed the tip of his nose with his index finger, "Have I done something to displease you-?"

"What...?"

Aesop widened his eyes, what was this stupidly gorgeous man saying?

"S-Sorry... It's just that I had the impression that you were uncomfortable because of my presence..."

Oh.

That wasn't surprising.

His social skills were really lacking so it was indeed likely that Eli would misunderstand the whole thing.

"No... I'm glad to be here with you, Eli..."

No need to dwell on the fact that Aesop had omitted both Norton and Naib, but Eli's expression lit up in a flash at the young man's answer. He seemed so pleased that he let out a chuckle before crossing his arms on the table and resting his head on them, his blue eyes staring at Aesop, this time in a way that had something... different.

"Me too, Aesop."

The gray-eyed male blushed furiously as he tried to hide it by pulling up his collar, but it wasn't very successful and Eli watched him with a light heart. The two men were completely immersed in their own world, not even noticing the disgust of their friends who were forced to watch this cheesy show.

Aesop was not a fan of outings.

But if it involved Eli, then the joy he felt was comparable to getting a rare item on the first try instead of spending a week's salary on it. 

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Just writing sum fluff before getting back to kinktober...

Btw join the Elisop Secret Santa event if ur interested... (check out divibalmer.event on IG or TWT...)