Author's Notes – Yes, I'm keeping Joey, Tristan, and Tea's dub names – sorry, I'm just used to them.
Thanks to all those who've put the story on alert, I hope you enjoy it!
"This one had me bawling like a baby." Joey said as he slid his computer's CD drive shut.
"A baby you say? Doesn't sound too out of character to me…" Tristan grinned.
"SHUT UP! If you're such a big man, why do you have to come to my place to play these games?" Joey growled.
"I find them more enjoyable in a group setting." Tristan folded his arms and nodded.
"Then why do you have most of them for the PS2?"
"I don't like wasting all that hard drive space with 'games'." Tristan avoided Joey's glare.
"And why do you always want me to skip to the—"
"All right, all right." It didn't take much for Tristan to get upset over this subject. He lowered his eyes. "It's because my mom only lets me get the PS2 censored versions."
"What was that? I couldn't hear you."
"I said 'IT'S BECAUSE MY MOM ONLY LETS ME GET THE ALL AGES VERSIONS!'"
"Oh really? What a shame!" Joey tried to contain his amusement and pretend like he had heard this for the first time. "Well, shall we begin?"
A window opened and a bouncy Japanese pop tune began playing as still images of colorful, large-eyed girls flashed across the screen.
"Misuzu-taaaan…" Joey's eyes widened and drool began to form at the edge of his mouth.
Tristan groaned. "You weirdo – it's morons like you who give dating sim fans a bad—MINAGI-CHAN! Oh…I'd blow bubbles with her any day…"
The boys passed the rest of the morning in a dream-like state, lulled by the calm background music and only moving to click the mouse and summon the next block of dialogue.
The background music was occasionally accompanied by voice acting and some in-game sound effects – alarm clocks, doors opening and closing, footsteps up stairs, the repetitive sound of knocking on a door-
"This game is so realistic…" Tristan breathed.
Even though only Misuzu's image was displayed, a muffled, high-pitched male voice called from somewhere.
"Gaooo…" Joey read the text in the dialogue box almost hypnotically.
"Gao?" a voice seemed to call from somewhere around Joey…somewhere…behind him…
Without hesitation, Joey spun his chair around and pounced toward the sound of the voice, crying out "Misuzu-chan! I knew you'd come to me! I'll never let you goooooo!"
But the "Misuzu" Joey clung to began to pummel him with "her" tiny fists.
"You damn well better let him go, Joey Wheeler, or you'll have me to deal with!"
"You know my name?" Joey cooed before his trance-like state was shattered by a sharp blow to the right side of his head, sending him flying sideways, still trying to cling on to "Misuzu".
Joey rubbed his head bitterly. "You all right, Misu-" he stopped short as his eyes finally focused and he was able to see that it had been his petite friend Yugi Moto whom he'd been clinging onto the entire time.
"Uhhh…sorry Yug…I…uh…I was just surprised…yeah, that's right, SURPRISED that you would have the NERVE to barge into my room!" Joey had gone from stumbling over his embarrassment to feigned anger in a matter of seconds.
"The nerve?!" Tea glared. "Do you have any idea how long we were knocking on the door?"
"Who's Misuzu?" Yugi asked, dusting himself off.
"Did you two forget we were all supposed to meet downtown? Yugi and I were waiting for-"
"Misuzu is Joey's 2-D moe girlfriend. See?" Ignoring Tea, Tristan pointed to the girl onscreen.
Joey's face got bright red. "I dunno what you're talking about!"
"What's moe?" Yugi asked, peering at the screen for a moment.
Tristan leapt from his chair and pulled Joey to his feet. The two of them stood with a renewed air of confidence and gazed down their noses at Yugi.
"Well, aren't you in luck?" Joey grinned.
"For you've come to the right place if you want to learn all there is to know about moe." Tristan thumped his chest.
"We've even got pictu-" Joey turned to his computer and to his horror, saw Tea hold in the on/off switch until the computer shut down. Misuzu's image appeared to be sucked into the center of the screen before disappearing. Tea turned back to them, her glare intense.
"Get your shit together, we're leaving, NOW."
Joey dropped his head close to Yugi's ear. "Yug, this is an example of what moe is NOT."
"I SAID NOW!"