Just like every other Saturday before Roxy was at the Underground Alley, a gaming arcade. Sitting next to her was one of her school friends, Sollux. He was wearing his trade mark yellow jacket, black slacks and miss matched shoes. One was white, the other was black. Roxy loved to tease him for it, because she too sometimes wore miss matched shoes. Though, she mostly mixed up her shoes because she was drunk. Roxy had on a pink kitty shirt, and a white skirt. Her shoes, with Sollux's help, were both pink, and the same kind.
Roxy stared at the screen, trying to remember which of the many characters was hers. Sollux snickered into his headset, and turned his own screen so she couldn't screen hop. Not that it really mattered, she was to confused to tell which one he was. She tapped the enter key a few times, and the screen came to life.
They were playing one of those RPGs which Sollux was so fond of, though Roxy couldn't remember which. She had joined months ago when he begged her, and hadn't stopped playing since. She was actually a pretty high level wizard, a master by the screen name Zazzerpan.
"Hey Thol- Thulu- Sullox, which one am I?" Roxy asked, leaning over.
"RR, you are the only pink one. In the entire game." Sollux replied, shrugging his shoulder to get her to lean back. He looked at her, his image distorted by the 3d glasses he was wearing. Or was it the 11 shots before she left her home?
Roxy looked back at her screen and pressed down the forward arrow key. Low and behold, the only pink thing on the entire screen started moving. Roxy grinned delightedly, and hit the talk button on her keyboard. "Thanks Sollux!"
"Any time. Now would you get your pink withard ath to the meeting point?" Sollux replied. Roxy loved listening to him talk, he had the cutest lisp.
"Sssssure thing." She replied, hissing like a snake. Sollux rolled his eyes at her, and turned back to the screen. Roxy quickly moved Zazzerpan until her screen matched his. His yellow and black ninja came into view, and she started hopping around him with glee.
"RR, knock it off, the retht of the group left already!" And his little yellow ninja took off, leaving Zazzerpan in the dust. Roxy whined at him, she wasn't so good at making quick decisions in her current condition. It quickly became evident that Sollux had no sympathy for Roxy and her drunk shenanigans, and she had to concentrate to keep up.
Finally Roxy caught up, to find a raid already in full throttle. Sollux threw himself into the fray, since his character was the tank, while Roxy stood back and healed. She wasn't much of a fighter, and instead liked to hang back helping anyone who needed her. Also, because she didn't have to move much, just stand still and hit the 4 and 5 key repeatedly. That was an easy task, even for someone as drunk as she.
After five minuets the first stage was cleared, and the party took off in search of the second phase of the boss battle. Roxy stood still for a moment, before Sollux leaned over and whispered in her ear. "Hey honey, we're jutht gonna move on without you, okay?"
Roxy jumped, and nudged him playfully. "Yeah, okay shweet-heart." Roxy shot back, leaning forward and tapping her arrows again in pursuit of the yellow ninja. What sort of ninja wears yellow anyway? That's not a very good color for stealth. Unless you were trying to sneak through a sandy desert or something.
"RR." Sollux snapped again.
"Present." Roxy replied without thinking. She looked over, and was relived to see Sollux smiling at her. He was one of her more tolerant friends, always willing to put up with her when she was drunk. Roxy looked back at her screen suddenly, a light blush creeping across her cheeks.
Sollux had just broken up with a girl a few months ago. They had been going out for a while, and he was devastated. He turned to his friend Karkat, who showed him the Underground Alley. Sollux quickly became a regular, finding an escape from his reality in the video games. Here he met Roxy, one of the better gamers, despite her tendency to drink before she left home. And after she left home. Everywhere really.
They bonded over "pwning noobs" as Roxy described it, and quickly became good friends. They realized they went to the same school, even had a few of the same classes. They made a routine of going to the arcade, and after a few weeks Roxy realized she had a crush on him. For her it was a smiliar feeling to hitting a brick wall. She had had crushes before. Dirk, who turned out to be very gay, Jane, who turned out to be very straight, and Jake, who nobody could tell what his orientation was, but he sure as heck didn't feel that way about Roxy.
Roxy took a step back, hanging out with Sullox just a little bit less every day. He was still sore about breaking up with Aradia, and she didn't want to be to aggressive. She did notice that her drinking increased though.
"Hey, look at that. Only one more thtage to go!" Sollux said suddenly, snapping Roxy out of her thought. She looked at the screen and found that she had indeed missed two phases of the boss battle. She quickly made her pink wizard run after the rest of the party, apologizing to the entire guild over her headset.
"Soryy." Roxy yelped. Fortunately it looked like nobody had died while she was spacing out.
"Thinking about leaving?" Sollux asked her, not taking his eyes off his screen.
"Wha-? Noo!" Roxy protested, looking up at him. "why would you even shay- say something like that?" She felt guilty asking. She had been thinking about leaving.
Sollux shrugged. "You've been looking jumpy all week. Itth okay if you don't want to hang out with me anymore. I now I'm thuth a dull guy. Though you're mithin out on all thith thuper cool hacker cred." He rambled, using more words with s's in them as he grew more and more agitated. Finally he cut off and stared at his screen, smashing keys when he had to.
"Thollux." Roxy said gently, taking her headset off. "You are not a dull guy."
Sollux tapped his foot, and typed a message to her over the game's chat feature: ye2 ii am.
Roxy set the headset down, and found that she was just a little bit angry with him. She tended to get upset whenever her friends put themselves down. It was the one thing Roxy couldn't stand for. "Sullox, you're a really great guy!"
Sollux stared at her, his eyes wide. Then he typed out another message, his hands flying across the keyboard. RR, you don't have to 2ay thiing2 to make me feel better.
"Why would you think that?!" Roxy shouted suddenly, standing up and facing him. Sollux rolled his chair back in surprise, their game forgotten. A few of the other gamers looked up from their screens, but after taking one look at Roxy's furious expression they all looked back down. "There's nothing wrong with you! You're great, and cool, and talented!" She cut off, blushing furiously. "And I really like you."
The last words came out before she could stop herself. Sollux made a small noise, and reached for the key board.
"No!" Roxy said quickly grabbing his hand. "If you're going to say something, do it out loud. Please." She pleaded.
Sollux was quite for a moment, reaching up to fix his red and blue glasses. "You know, back when I firth started coming here, I didn't like it. But KK made me. And then I me you, and I couldn't thop coming back. But I wath alwayth worried that I wathn't good enough for you. I wathn't good enough for AA."
"She doesn't know what she's missing out on." Roxy said immediately pulling him into a tight hug. Sollux hugged her back, a smile gracing his lips. "But I don't plan on ever giving you back. Got it?" She asked as she pulled away from him.
"Of courth!" Sollux grinned. Then he tapped his headset, wehre voices had been buzzing at him angrily. His face fell. "Quick! RR, put your thet back on, we're luthin!"
Roxy nodded at the urgency in his voice, putting her headset back on and making Zazzerpan jump back into the fray. She didn't have to worry about going home after the fight. No, she could tell she'd be staying at the arcade for a while, as long as Sollux was there.