Dreams in Digital 7

America sighed, exhausted, as he dropped in his desk chair a week later, booting up his computer. He pulled out his cell phone, shooting off a quick text message while he waited for the system to boot up. His monitors flickered to life, and soon enough he was getting logged into all of his standard programs. It didn't take long for Skype to automatically answer a conference call from Estonia and Japan. They must have been playing the game of the week already.

"We're in Perfect World this week. Do you have a character there?"

America shook his head to himself as he pulled up the game, installing it. "Not yet, Estonia. I'm downloading it now." His phone vibrated across the desktop and he picked up. He smiled as he read the message then replied again. "What are you guys playing as?"

"We decided to make a faction of Tideborn. I'm an assassin class and Japan is a psychic."

"…Alright…I'm actually gonna go with a blademaster from the Humans, I think…" He turned his attention to the message that started blinking in the corner of his screen.

"America-san, did everything turn out well at Australia-san's house last week? I hope it was not as awkward for you as it had been when he visited you."

America chuckled. "Oh man, Japan. You have no idea. My first day there I was a complete wreck! I was tired and jetlagged, thought I hadn't showered in four days, kept thinking I was screwing things up…"

"That is so typical of you. I bet you were flailing around, getting too deep into your thoughts as you always do. If he hasn't realized you have a crush on him, he's denser than you are."

America huffed a bit. "Oh gee. Thanks Estonia. I'm sorry. How long did it take you to get together with Latvia? I don't think you have room to talk."

He scowled as Estonia laughed. "And yet I got together with him. What did you do? Act it out on the Sims. Has Australia said anything about that, by the way?"

America flushed, swallowing as he remembered the first of many showers taken with Australia over the course of the week. "…He may have mentioned it once or twice." He cleared his throat. "Anyway, I just finished my character. I'm going to look for you guys now. Are you on a raid or anything? I'm obviously underleveled."

"We are, too, America-san. I'm messaging you our location now. It seems like a good place for level grinding."

"I can't help but notice that you keep dodging our questions about Australia. You blew it again, didn't you America?"

America glared at the screen, even though he knew that Estonia wouldn't be able to see. "No. I did not 'blow it' again. In fact, we fucked. Over and over again. And it was fantastic. So there."

"Oh! So you blew him. I got it. Well that's great! It's about time! Oh, there you are. Do you see us?"

America glanced at the screen. "Yeah. Be there in a sec. Talking to someone on msn." He replied to the message blinking in the corner.

"You're never talking to anyone but us on game nights. Could that be Australia-san?"

America felt his cheeks warming slightly. "Maybe."

"Well…as long as he doesn't screw us up, I guess that we can break the no significant others rule on game night. We're at beginner level in this game anyway. Japan? Do you mind?"

"Not at all. We only made the rule because certain flings were too incompetent and got our higher level parties killed."

America looked at the next message from Australia. "Actually guys…I'm a little…uh…jetlegged! Yeah. I'm jetlagged tonight. Can we do game night another time?" He was already pulling off his shirt and checking to make sure his web camera was on.

"Ah, America-san. Is this what you refer to as 'breaking the cardinal rule of bros'?"

America flushed, fumbling with the button on his jeans. "…No way! There's totally a new relationship exception for regular weekly events. You get like, a week of leeway."

America could hear Estonia's brow raising, just from the tone of his voice. "Is that a new exception? I don't seem to recall it when I started dating Latvia."

Australia messaged America again and he groaned a bit. "You never asked! There totally would have been an exception then, too! Just this week, I promise! I know it's bros before hos, but I just got home. You live close to Latvia, Estonia! You can see him anytime!" Yeah. He knew he threw a kitchen sink at him, but he really wanted to talk to Australia.

He glared at the screen again when they both started laughing at him. "Sure America. Go cyber with your boyfriend. But you better be here, and up to our level next week. Exception only covers one week."

America scoffed. "Bye guys. Talk to you later." He left the conference call and the game, typing a message back to Australia.

Please tell me you know how to use a web camera.