Today's Theme: Uhm, I'm a nerd, so the theme for this one is MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game)

Today's Theme: Uhm, I'm a nerd, so the theme for this one is MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game). And I'm a little hungry, so the theme is also snack time.

Summary: Their lives were just two messes that happened to be forced together at the right place at the right time. A collection of sweet little drabbles between Matt and Mello.

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Oh, hell yes.

Level 40 Red Mage.

/cheer.

Now people would want to play with him in this game. Two months of hard work, and it was finally paying off. Level 40 Red Mage meant that he could finally use his Refresh spell. And now people would finally want to party with him. Wouldn't be long before he would finally be level 75, his ultimate goal. 75 was the highest level you could get in any job. He gave it about another month, maybe two, since he had to keep his White Mage sub-job's level at least half of what his main, Red Mage, was.

God, the people who made this game must have wanted to discourage anyone from succeeding in anything.

Yawning, he picked up his keyboard. This party had sucked. They had no tank to hold hate from the mob, so they'd wasted most of their time waiting for raises for the people who had been killed. At least one person was face down after nearly every battle. But not Matt. He had skills. Well, skills enough to stay far enough away from the battle not to get hit. But whatever. He had been healing, and healers are supposed to be behind everyone else so that the monster doesn't notice them.

"Matt."

The party was disbanding. Good. Without a tank, they were as good as dead. At least he was level 40 now. Yeah, now everybody would be asking him to party. Refresh restored MP, but only Red Mages could use it. Needless to say, Red Mages were pretty popular among higher level parties.

"Matt, are you ignoring me?"

"Wha?"

A hand pulled his hair so that his head leaned back, forcing his eyes to meet a curious Mello clad in a black sweater and grey sweats. He smiled, a Twizzler dangling from his lips.

"Not at all, babe."

"Hm." Mello looked at the screen, his nose crinkling in annoyance. "I'm hungry," he told him. "Feed me."

Matt dug his hand in the bag of Twizzlers on the carpet beside him, pulling a strand of licorice out and thrusting it in front of Mello's face. "Here. Have some food." He waited for the other to pull the candy out of his fingers with his teeth before grabbing his keyboard. Mello chewed on his licorice thoughtfully, staring at the screen.

"So, what is this, World of Warcraft?"

For a moment, the room was silent. Then, Matt's brain broke. He whipped his head around to face Mello, who was lounging on the couch Matt's back was leaning against. His left eye twitched, and there was a frightening look on his face that made Mello scoot back a bit on the couch cushions.

"Mello," he said darkly. "Are you fucking serious?"

"What?" he asked timidly.

"World of Warcraft?" Mat scoffed. "World of Warcraft is for small children. Does that sound like something I would play?"

"You play Mario."

"Mario is for people of all ages to enjoy!" He threw Mello a scrutinizing glance before returning his gaze to the television screen. "This is Final Fantasy XI. It's what the big kids play. Besides, World of Warcraft didn't even come out on 360."

"Well, fuck, excuse me." Mello sourly bit into his Twizzler with a gnash of teeth. He watched Matt's character dash past some weird metal turtle-thing with a sword in its hand. Shit, that thing was ugly. It sure looked out of place in the pretty green fields and rolling hills Matt's character was cutting through. "Why are you a cat-girl with a red ponytail?"

Pause. Matt's eyes stayed glued to the screen. "Mithras have good stats."

"Uh huh." He sighed. This was boring. "What exactly the hell are you doing now?"

"I'm running back to Bastok, my home nation, to check on my chocobo."

"That guy just ran by on a bird. Why are you running instead of riding one of those?"

"That's a chocobo, Mello. I'm not riding one because mine is still a chick and I don't want to waste money renting one when I can just run."

"What do you do when you're not running?"

"Partying with other people. Getting EXP. Leveling. Rank missions. I'm a Red Mage. In battle, I either cast spells at shit to kill it, or I heal other people in my party. I'm pretty badass."

"What's that tiny thing?"

"That's a Tarutaru. They're one of the races you can pick for your character."

"You should have been one of those."

"I didn't want to! Mithras have good stats!"

"And huge boobs. Are you cheating on me with your little video game character?"

Matt sighed slowly, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose with his thumb and index finger. "No, Mello. I am not cheating on you with my game sim. Any other questions?"

"No. I'm done."

For the next twenty-five minutes or so, they sat in silence. Matt continued running through some ugly swamp-like place, every now and then pulling out his map to check for places that the path disappeared. At some point, Mello decided that he didn't want Twizzlers for dinner. Settling himself on his elbows behind Matt's head, he gently ran his lips across the side of his face. He heard Matt stop breathing, and on the television screen, his character stopped running. Mello softly ran his tongue along the shell of his ear, smirking to himself as he put his plan into action.

"If you go get us some take out, we can play our own little game later tonight."

With a furious pressing of buttons and chiming game sounds, Matt logged right where his character had been standing and ran to find his keys.

--

Ha, sorry about all the nerd speak. But I hope you all learned something about MMORPGs. It's serious business. And what's this? Two updates in one day? Boy, something must be wrong with me.