Title: War Games
Written For: BeatofDestiny; community
Author/ Artist: mellonemrys
Theme: #75: Computer
Genres: Gaming, Romance (very fluffy romance at least)
Warnings/ Notes: A few minor spoilers for after episode 22, an AU piece; parody of Dungeons and Dragons and other Role-play games, and sorry for the use of gaming terms ; …well the few I do know
Characters/ Pairings: Heero Yuy as 'Gundam Pilot 01', Duo Maxwell as 'Gundam Pilot 02', Trowa Barton as 'Gundam Pilot 03', Quatre Raberba Winner as 'Gundam Pilot 04', Chang Wufei as 'Gundam Pilot 05', Relena Dorlain/ Peacecraft as 'dorlain49', Zechs/ Millardo Merquies/ Peacecraft as 'tallgeseknight', Heero/ Quatre hinting
Words: 1,227
Rating: G
Thanks to: The book i Bimbos of the Death Sun /i by Sharyn McCrumb for the idea of doing a D&D parody
Summery: Five friends that enjoy role-playing engage in a futuristic game of their own design. While their character's fight in battles messages are sent across the table, creating mixed emotions.

Quatre looked around the table at his four friends who were studying their player character sheets. It amused him that the group had decided to make him the DM of this particular mission, since normally Heero was the leader. He decided to look over his own character sheet to make sure that he remembered his stats and abilities. Half way through the page he heard Duo's expected whine. No body even looked up as Duo started into one of his pre-game rants on how his character, Gundam Pilot 02, should have more abilities to enable him to be more like a Shinigami, and thus more 'in character'. Quatre had tried to settle him down when they had first started the 'War of AC 195' game set, but to no avail. Duo had just glared at him and continued on attempting to convince Trowa, who normally made the character sheets, to make his character better. After a while though even Quatre had to give up, he now just ignored the antics like the rest of the group.

Opening the game program on his laptop Quatre entered the DM code, giving him access to the other player's windows as well as the DM control panel. The other's opened the game on their laptops also and started updating their data for the mission. This particular mission was going to be very interesting, since only himself and Heero were together on earth at the moment. The other three's characters were in space at three separate locations, and Trowa's character was still technically missing.

The five of them had made the program that they were using to go with an idea for a new multi-player role-play that they had come up with. Role-playing was one of the only things that they all had a passion for, that and computers. A few years earlier they had met at their school's gaming club. At first there had been tension between them, but as they role-played together they became friends and began creating their own role-play games. 'War of AC 195' was the latest game that they had created together. The idea for it had appealed so much to them that they also decided to make a computer program to go with it. The program let them keep track of their current stats more affectivity, as well as making it possible to have battles between NPCs and their 'Gundams'.

The one thing that Quatre found wrong with this game was that their character's had so far only had limited contact with each other. It did however allow for some of their online friends to join in to fill the gaps that would normally be filled by NPCs. At the moment Quatre saw that b dorlian49 /b was logged on as well as b tallgeseknight /b , who played as Relena and Zechs. Of course Zechs had assumed his former identity of Millardo Peacecraft for the moment Quatre remembered. There were a few other people that were online friends of the other four, but Quatre didn't really know them well yet. He noticed that Heero had moved his character and was waiting for him to follow. Romefeller Foundation NPCs had captured their characters in the previous mission and apparently Heero meant for them to escape. It was easy enough to escape since the NPCs had only left dogs to guard them, dogs that Heero and Quatre had befriended after their capture.

Allowing Heero to dictate what their characters did at the moment Quatre checked on the rest of the players with the DM's screen. It took him a few moments to locate everyone on the DM map since he wasn't used to it. He was also surprised at how many none NPC characters there were, and was glad to see that Trowa's main character wasn't dead. A blinking icon indicated that Heero once again wanted his player's interaction. Leaving the DM window for the moment Quatre looked at the dialogue that Heero had inputted. After he was finished reading Quatre looked over at his best friend who mealy grinned and continued typing. He was glad that their characters weren't in contact with any of the others at the moment; otherwise he would have been quite embarrassed. Trying not to blush he typed back a message then asked Heero to stay more in character in case someone else joined their characters.

Another blinking screen indicated that b tallgeseknight /b was attacking a group of NPC mobile dolls that one of Heero's online friends was sending to earth. Quatre entered a few commands for the NPCs and then started the battle program, making sure that the positions of the NPCs made sense. Switching back to 04's screen he suggested that they go to the Sanc Kingdom, however Heero had found a group of OZ Frieze Faction NPCs and decided to go with them to a battle. Quatre thought that it was unnecessary and tried to convince Heero not to, but he stayed in character and went with the NPCs.

After a few more hours of play the group decided to head home. It was also the fifth time the librarian had come to tell them that the library was closing. Quatre packed up his laptop and arranged with Trowa to meet to come up with the altered stats for the next session. Leaving the library Heero walked with him to the bus stop. As they were walking Heero put his arm around Quatre's shoulders and smiled at him. "I told you I would get you alone later." He said while Quatre blushed at the attention and close contact from his friend. Upon reaching the bus stop Heero made no move to release Quatre, instead he moved his arm to Quatre's waist, causing Quatre to turn bright red. When the bus pulled up to the curb Heero finally let his arm drop to his side, and casually walked onto the bus.

During the ride to their stop Quatre played with the zipper on his laptop bag trying to think of a conversation. He finally decided on asking Heero to stop sending him OOC messages during the game.

"I wish you would stop doing that during the game."

"Doing what?"

"Sending me OOC messages, one of the other guys could have their character enter our area and they would see it…"

"I thought…well if you're i that /i worried about it I guess I'll stop. But you do know that it's a private channel that I use. Only people you invite can see what's being talked about."

"Oh, sorry. It's just that I'm not used to it. I still feel like the new kid, I don't really feel like I know the others very well."

"You know them just as well as I do, maybe better."

"Thanks."

"And here's our stop." Heero stood up and pulled the wire to let the bus driver know to stop.

The street lamps flickered to life just as Quatre reached his front door and waved across the street to Heero. Going straight upstairs, he promptly fell onto his bed and smiled at the memory of Heero's arm around his shoulder. He pulled out a slightly crumpled picture form his pocket and held it above his head, blocking the light from overhead. Heero stared back at him, surprised by the photographer. Hugging the photo he closed his eyes, happy with another 'wasted' afternoon.