Something I wrote up a while back, originally it was meant to be longer, I had wanted it to be a short series of oneshots that would eventually lead them to falling in love... Might still do that actually, but for now this is all it is going to be. I don't have enough free time to guarantee anything.

Either way, hope you enjoy it, tell me your thoughts on it, they would be greatly appreciated. I know the ending is rather abrupt, like I said I had originally meant for it to be a series of shorts, so the end is more like a flashforward of sorts.

Game Over

:: Well Laid Plans Require Patience ::

He had one love, one passion, in this world. It was quite simple really, easy to fulfill, simple to follow, there was nothing to complicate it and nothing that would really get in his way of it.

Gaming.

It was all he did, it was all he needed. He didn't have friends, or at least none that aren't strictly talked to through a headset. He didn't have much of a family, no one to nag him out of his apartment. He didn't have a job either, he lead the life of an orphan with an impressive inheritance. It was a simple life, an empty life, but he didn't need a complicated one, he felt more alive in his video games than he ever did in real life.

It was boring.

Call it his lack of ability to focus on any one thing for longer than ten minutes, but he simply found day to day life too mundane and vanilla for his tastes. It needed a good mod, but no one could really do that, now could they? The one game that can't be hacked. The biggest disappointment in his opinion. But his opinion didn't really matter in the end, he supposed, no one really cared for his opinion and so his opinion did not really matter. He would just continue to sit in the dark and guard his position at the top of the leaderboards, there was this one guy who was always much too close to passing him in Halo. It was more important to him anyways, he didn't really care what happened in the outside world as long as it didn't interfere with his life.

If you could call it a life.

He didn't need it.

It was a pain in the ass to do anything outside of his own home anyways, and last time he checked, having a life mainly constituted having a social life, and that would involve leaving his home. Which he didn't do. Ever. God forbid there was ever a fire, because he was sure he would burn to death, he simple was not ready for the outside world. It wasn't a fear or anxiety that kept himself inside either, he simply just did not want to leave, he saw no reason to.

There was nothing for him out there.

Of course there would come the day that change would take place. It was inevitable, and he wasn't naïve enough to not expect it, but that didn't mean he would have to accept it so willingly. He had a neighbor, across the hall from himself, there were only four apartments on his floor but the one across from himself was the only one that was actually important because it was the only one that had a person in it that he considered worth his time. She was a young woman, very sweet, loved flowers, by the name of Aerith Gainsborough.

She died.

Her funeral was the only reason he had left his apartment for longer than five minutes in over six months. He did not enjoy the time out, he did not enjoy the event, he did not enjoy the experience all in all. And people wonder why he never leaves his apartment, nothing good ever happens when he does enter the outside world. Either way, the point of bringing her up in the first place was that her apartment had become available. He had considered taking it himself, he couldn't imagine seeing someone else living in it, but at the same time he felt it was too wrong to let that apartment sit empty. And he definitely couldn't live in it himself, he would ultimately change it, and he couldn't bear to see himself erasing her existence.

Not that it mattered.

Her relatives, or at least the few friends she had that had acted like her family, came and took care of her things, a man named Cloud and a woman, Tifa. They had brought a little girl with them too, Marlene, she looked nearly identical to Aerith… He was still unsure how he felt about that. But eventually they also left, their departure he had welcomed more readily, and that apartment was empty. It felt wrong to see it so bare, but it was what had to happen. It would happen to his one day too. And eventually someone else would fill it, replace him.

He didn't like that.

The new tenant arrived sooner than he liked, quicker than he appreciated. Hadn't anyone ever heard of a grieving period? Or did no one think that the neighbor would need some time to grieve in the first place? Either way, the new tenant moved in and he found himself having to just deal with it. Except, of course, real life didn't just want to be simple. No, no, he couldn't just be left in his apartment to grieve quietly, no, the new neighbor had to harass him.

Or something like that.

It started with a knock at his door. He had heard the neighbor moving in the previous day, an obnoxious person, loud voice that seemed to fill rooms, his friends were much quieter. He wished one of them had been the ones to move in. He, of course, did not answer. He knew it wasn't important, and he had been in the middle of Halo. If it were his landlord, she would have called him, but she had no reason to contact him anyways, because he paid his rent regularly and always right on time, and he never had any complaints. And it was a Saturday, so it wasn't his groceries being delivered, that was usually on Monday.

So he didn't answer.

The new neighbor moved on to the other two tenants on the floor, knocked on their doors, chatted them up. He seemed like the friendly sort. He disliked it. Again on Sunday, he knocked on his door, and he didn't answer, and then he heard him move on to the other two tenants on their floor. Monday came though, and as he waited for his groceries to be delivered he heard the usual knock. He answered this time, expecting to see the new neighbor and tell him to leave him be, since he had the time, what with waiting for his delivery, but he was surprised to see the delivery had been early. So he looked it over as per usual and signed for it, pulling out a couple dollars to tip the delivery man when the door across the hall opened.

This was the moment that everything changed.

Sky blue eyes widened in impossible excitement, a tanned man barely any older than himself jumping forward out of his apartment like there was a fire. It took him much too long to realize what was happening as a tumble of words spilled from the new neighbor and he was suddenly carrying his groceries into his apartment.

Not good.

He found his way to the kitchen much too easily, not like their apartments were all that different, the layouts were likely very similar, but it was still just wrong to see someone walking around his own home. He tipped generously and shut the door in the delivery man's face, spinning around to rush to his kitchen to see the new neighbor looking through his groceries and babbling incessantly. The first thing that popped into his head was to threaten to call the police if he didn't leave, and all he got for a response was a joyous laugh.

He didn't get it.

There was more babbling, this neighbor was just in such a good mood, but he was slowly putting him into a more and more sour mood. This stranger was in his home, no one ever was in his home, not even the landlord had been in here since he moved in. No family, no friends, no one. Who was this guy to think he could just grab someone's food and walk in their homes? He grabbed his phone, moving to dial 911, but the neighbor just snatched it out of his hands and commented on his iPhone's wallpaper…

That was when he snapped.

"Get out!"

"You know, I've been waiting to talk to you, I'm pretty sure you're the last person in this building I haven't met. They said you never leave your room, but I knew that couldn't be true. Everyone has to leave at some point, I just hadn't expected it to take so long, I mean two whole days. I didn't even hear you moving around in here, no talking or anything, if it weren't for the sounds of your TV I would have thought you were dead! You're really quiet, you know that?"

"Don't touch that! Stop!"

"I figured that since we live across the hall from each other that we'll need to get to know each other better, you know, become best buds and all that. I see you like Halo, that's cool, I play some myself, but that's no big deal. You wanna exchange GamerTag's, play a game together? If not I can just watch, like watching a movie sorta, except it's funnier when people mess up."

"I don't mess up! You need to leave! I will call the cops!"

"No you won't, I got your phone. Isn't that kinda unrealistic that you don't mess up, I mean no one's perfect, you must make a mistake every once and a while. Oooh! Can I try? I want to play! Do you mind? I mean, we are buds but it would be just rude to not ask before grabbing the controller and everything, isn't that like gamer etiquette or something? Like not walking in front of the TV, it would just be rude. Oh, hey, you have a PS3 too! And a WiiU! Is this what you do all day? Oh, nice laptop, are you playing a game on that too? Are you playing two games at the same time?"

"Just leave! I told you not to touch that! Get out!"

"You're becoming quite repetitive, it's kinda dull to talk to you if you're just going to say the same things over and over again. Do you need any help putting the groceries away? Or you hungry? I just made pancakes over at my place, do you want a plate? It's just across the hall, door's open anytime you want to come over, or talk, or hang out. I don't have a job here yet, living off my bank account for now, but it's worth it."

"SHUT UP!"

He suddenly went quiet and turned to look back at him with wide eyes, like he hadn't actually been expecting such a reaction. He just glared at the new neighbor though, nodding towards the door, "I said leave. This isn't your apartment, I didn't let you in, you're not welcome here, so leave."

His new neighbor just seemed to blink at him for a moment, slowly, considerately, then a small much more contained grin crept across his face. Nodding slowly, he began to head towards the door, the other following after him irritably until they reached the threshold. Opening the door slowly, he seemed to rethink leaving for a moment before shaking his head and stepping through the doorway, turning around just in time to hold the door open, before it could be slammed in his face. Staring back at the seemingly swirling ocean blue eyes of his new neighbor, it was all he could do to not scream in his face.

"I just remembered that I didn't introduce myself. I'm Sora, apartment right across the hall."

Glaring at him for another moment longer, he begrudgingly grunted out his own name, "Roxas."

"I know."

And with that, his new neighbor turned around and walked back into his own apartment, leaving Roxas standing there in confusion.

He knew?

What, from their neighbors? Probably, maybe, he never really talked to them. He was pretty sure there was a blonde artist chick next door, and a lanky redhead in the apartment across from her. But he had never really talked to them, he had definitely not exchanged names with them. He exchanged names with no one. Maybe the landlord? She wasn't really the type to just give out information to whoever whenever. Who told Sora about him?

… He was probably just over thinking it, to be honest. It was just his name, no big deal. It wasn't like he was hiding out here or anything…

It made his stomach turn though.

That was how they met. One year later, Sora was dragging the groceries in through the door once again, Roxas frowning at him from the living room as the brunette took it into his own hands to put away all the groceries. Finally, turning around to look at the blonde across the room, he just smiled at him gently.

Walking across the room, he wrapped his arms around the other man's waist, just as gently pecking his lips despite the scowl on his face. Then reached behind himself and pulled the new Final Fantasy from his coat.

The smile was bright, the soft kiss he received in reward much too cute. It was worth the hard work, it was worth moving to a new city, it was worth practically breaking into his apartment day after day. He knew they were going to be together, he knew they were meant to be together, ever since his name passed Sora's on the leaderboards.

In this game, Roxas might get the higher score, but Sora was always the first to win.