Alexy greeted me at the door with a quick hug before he snatched the bag of chips from my hands.
"Thanks for bringing snacks!" he smiled as he tore the bag open and helped himself.
I followed him up to a bedroom filled with gaming posters. Definitely Armin's. Asides from a few Nintendo mascots, I'd never seen any of the other characters before. Various articles of clothing were strung in piles all over the floor. He must not have bothered to tidy up. I shook the observation from my mind. Either way, his room was cleaner than mine. Beside the foot of the bed, I finally noticed Rosalya sitting with a pout on her face.
"It's my game!" Armin yelled as he pulled the dungeons and dragons set from his closet.
"That means I get to be DM!"
"It's called hospitality, Armin. Why don't you let one of your guests host?" she argued. Alexy cleared his throat to make our presence known. They both paused to smile at me before resuming their argument. By now, we were both used to the constant bickering between the two. Alexy pulled a quarter from his pocket and placed it on his thumb.
"Call it Armin," his twin said as he flicked the coin into the air.
"Heads!" he yelled. Alexy caught the coin and revealed it: Tails.
"Damn it!" he muttered. I looked around the room for Kentin but he was nowhere in sight.
"Is Ken coming?" I asked. Armin shook his head no. Apparently he'd left our history paper to the last minute and had to stay behind to work on it. I was a little startled by the news, Kentin wasn't usually the type to procrastinate. The twins had invited me last minute so I hoped that my presence didn't have anything to do with it. Alexy pulled out his phone to dial a number as Armin began to set up the game.
"So…." Rosa started "What does DM do anyway?"
"God, Rosa! You insist on being dungeon master and don't even know the rules of the game?" She flashed an apologetic smile. After that, Armin took the liberty of loudly re-granting himself the role of DM. Alexy shushed us as the person he was calling finally picked up the phone.
"Ken, get your butt over here. My brother put himself in charge so we need at least 4 people to deal with him…. Yeah, I know…. But then we invited Rosa and Candy so there's three of us now… Hello?" The line went dead. Alexy shrugged and shoved his phone back into his pocket. Once we were all seated, Armin walked us through the various rules. The more in depth he got the more perplexing it seemed. I looked over at the girl beside me to read her expression. She looked as confused as I felt until we got to the part where we created our characters.
"Alright, my girl is going to be a fairy queen who designs everyone's outfits." she proclaimed.
"What? That's not even an option! You can be a human or an elf." he argued.
"Can I just be myself?" I asked, not wanting to overcomplicate the already confusing game. Before he could object the doorbell sounded and Alexy hopped up to answer it.
"Whatever, let's just start. Candy you roll first." Armin changed the subject. I picked up the cube die and began to shake it but before I released it I was cut off by someone's laughter. Armin explained that I had to roll all of the dice at once but I could only find one.
"But you don't have anymore." I responded. With this, Armin obnoxiously pointed to a number of oddly shaped game pieces. I lifted my brow, still confused.
"Candy… Those are dice."
"What?! But they're not even cube-shaped!" I shouted. Armin gaped at me and I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed. In my defense my gender wasn't exactly the target audience of this game… Was it?
"…I feel like that's not common knowledge…" I tried.
"I feel like you should be more embarrassed than the time Rosalya showed us all your panties." he retorted.
"Hey!" Rosa cut in. "Don't forget whose home we're in now. You're the one in the vulnerable position…" She trailed off. That was right! Before he had the chance to stop us we both bolted up and attacked his drawer searching for his valuables.
"Hey stop!" he tried. I was sure that there was a blush plastered on his face as he chased after us. Rosa attacked the top drawer as I dug my hands through the bottom one. As I was shuffling my fingers under Armin's socks I felt his hands come around my hips. Right before he yanked me back I clutched onto a piece of fabric with a cottony feel. I victoriously raised my arm up when I noticed the My Little Pony pattern on his boxers.
"He's a brony!" Rosa yelled. It was in that exact position, Armin's hands clasped onto my waist and his underwear gripped in my hand, that was the first thing Ken saw when he entered the room. His features instantly contorted to display his displeasure.
"What are you doing here, Ken?" Armin casually asked.
"He probably ran here as soon as he heard Candy's name" Rosa chuckled.
After explaining the situation to him we finally started the game. About an hour had passed when Rosa had started to get the hang of things and started showing her competitiveness. Ken and Alexy had played the game before, thanks to Armin. That just left me alone in my cluelessness. We switched from our original "module" which was a story guide to a more free play where the DM got to dictate everything... The switch wasn't any better. Every time I uttered a word Armin would yell a bunch of rules down my ear explaining why it wasn't allowed. After a while I stopped trying and just let him walk me through everything. I never even dared to move without looking to Armin for approval or an explanation. Just when I thought I was the only one who was getting bored I glanced to my right to catch Kentin stifling a yawn. When my gaze landed on Alexy he offered me some chips and I dug in. The savory cheese taste melted onto my tongue as I bit into the crunchy cheese puffs. When we'd chomped down half of the bag I diverted my attention back to the game. It was Rosa's turn and she was getting into a fight with Armin about denying her entrance to a room due to a faulty key.
"It doesn't matter if my key works or not, I know how to pick a lock." She claimed.
"And with what will you pick that lock?"
Armin questioned.
"I'm a fairy, we have very long nails just so you know."
"There's no fairies in this game!"
"Actually Armin, in the latest dungeons and dragons Eldarya edition, Valkyon was a playable character and he is in fact part fairy." Kentin inserted.
"Oh my god! You just out-geeked Armin!" Alexy teased and I couldn't help but notice the blush that crept Kentin's face as I snickered. After Rosa finally got her way it was my turn again. I wiped the cheese powder that had accumulated onto my fingertips on my jeans before rolling. I landed on an assortment of numbers and instead of counting them up, instantly looked to Armin. An expression of pure glee swiped his features. In a seductive tone he asked me if I knew what my roll meant. When I shook my head no he explained.
"There is a game change. You have to continue the game with a handicap of my choosing!" Armin beamed, although I personally couldn't care less. I noticed Alexy pass off our chips to Kentin and Rosa which was much more devastating.
"I choose… For you to play the rest of the game topless!" Kentin spat out the chips in his mouth which landed all over Alexy's top. Without any effort of masking the disgust on his face, he headed towards his twin's closet in search of a clean shirt. He slipped off his poor white T-shirt which was now stained orange, but I had a bigger concern.
"Um, I'm not really educated on this game but I'm pretty sure you're only allowed to do things which affect my character?" I rejected.
"I also object. That would be a bigger handicap on Kentin than anything else." Rosa chimed. I couldn't see said boys face due to the napkins he was using to desperately clean his face but I was sure he was blushing just as hard as me.
"You guys never accept my rules!" he whined.
"Because they're stupid and unethical." she responded. Armin was quiet momentarily as he thought up a solution.
"Fine, if Candy pleases she can choose someone to take her place." Armin offered with a mischievous grin as he eyed Rosa down. She shoved him away and opened her mouth to speak; But before either of us could argue Ken was already on his feet, throwing off his top. Alexy let the tee that he chose drop to the floor as his mouth gaped open.
"Kentin stop! You don't have to listen to his dumb rules…" the twin tried. However, the fact that Alexy couldn't pry his eyes off the boy's body made me skeptical of his attempted displeasure.
"Why do you have to be such a control freak? This game was supposed to be fun and you ruined it. I hope you're happy!" Rosa yelled.
"I was trying to make this game more exciting, jeez! Who even invited you?" He complained. As everyone began arguing over Armin's dictative behaviour, I slyly reached for the chips. When Kentin noticed, he joined me. Everyone was arguing but I couldn't help but let my gaze follow the stray crumbs that fell over his chiseled torso. Shit. When did he get so ripped? Alexy noticed my distracted gaze and rushed over, offering him the top that he'd previously picked out for himself to Kentin. He looked down and noticed his own shirt still on the ground.
"It's okay, I've still got my own…" he reached over to pick up his button up, cheeks tinged pink. Before he could grab it though, Armin snatched it up.
"No, the game's not over yet! You're not allowed to put it back on." he argued. For the first time that night I was grateful for one of his tyrant demands. His twin on the other hand, was not.
"Give it back to him." he dryly ordered. When neither twin budged Rosa took matters into her own hands. The silver haired girl ran for Armin's weak spot: His dresser. As she began to search for the goods again Armin's face paled.
"Stay out of my underwear!" he yelled as he ran after her.
"Give Ken his shirt back!" Alexy chased after the duo. I'd finally had enough. There were 2 tests, 3 papers, and a group presentation scheduled for next week and I took time out of my busy schedule for what? To watch everyone fight all night? This was supposed to be fun, dammit! Fuming, I grabbed the game board in one hand and pried the window open with the other. As I hung the game threateningly out of the window everyone in the room began to shriek.
"That game is limited edition!"
"What the hell, I was winning!"
"Candy stop or you'll regret it!"
They all shouted over one another. However, it was the quietest voice of all of them which silenced the room.
"Could you all keep the volume down?" the twin's father had burst in. The room was motionless as a picture as he surveyed the area. Kentin was sitting on the floor with his hand down the bag of chips-still topless. Rosa was pinned to the bed under Armin with his panties still in between both of their hands. Alexy, whom was also topless was on Armin's back… With Kentin's shirt in his hands… and around Armin's neck… in a chokehold. Compared to the rest of them I hoped that I didn't look too crazy holding the game board out of the window. To my complete and utter surprise though, his dad seemed unfazed.
"Dinner is almost ready so clean up and come down." he announced before leaving. We waited for the door to completely shut before any of us dared to speak.
"Shit," I huffed as I slowly retracted the game back into the room. "You guys weren't kidding when you said your parents were laid-back."
This drabble was created as my entry for the dungeon and dragon's drabble contest from "armin-ask-mcl" all rights reserved to Chinomiko & Bemoov.*
