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Crossed Swords online

Summary:

When Roxas broke down and bought the new MMO, Crossed Swords online after weeks of Axel begging him to do it, he didn't expect to get into it. He thought it'd just be something he'd try for a couple days and then never touch again.

Then he met Forget-Me-Not, a tank class player who he quickly becomes ashamedly smitten with, and his online life changed forever

Notes:

(See the end of the work for notes.)

Chapter 1: The Girl on the tower

Summary:

Roxas guided his character to the clock tower, and there he saw a very beautiful girl

[Forget-Me-Not] Oh, hello, nice view right?
[DestinysKey] Oh, yeah. I didn't think a video game could simulate the sunset like this.
[Forget-Me-Not] Me neither!

Notes:

edit 7/26/2020

changed some wording slightly

Chapter Text

 

“C’mon, Rox, it’s not even that cheap”

 

“No, Axel, I don’t like mmos”

 

“C’mon, bro. It’s super easy to get into. Isa and I need another player for our guild”

 

“Hell no, I’m not gonna play third wheel to you two, again”

 

“Oh, come on, we’re not that bad”

“Keep telling yourself that, bud”

 

The bickering between Roxas Hikari and his best friend went on like that for a couple more minutes. Lea (Or Axel as he insisted Roxas call him) really wanted Roxas to play the new mmo that’d recently come out, Crossed Swords Online. Roxas had resisted, since he had gone through quite the messy breakup recently and that had actually put him off a game he’d spent quite a long time getting into and had almost gone professional with.

 

Frankly, he was still getting over that, and really didn’t want to get into another video game.

 

Axel sighed. “Look, there’s a free trial, at least download that and give it a try. Playing with me and Isa’ll at least be more fun than sitting in your apartment complaining on twitter about your brother’s boyfriend and girlfriend”

“I don’t even complain about Kairi, she and I actually get along. Riku, on the other hand-”

 

“Beat you one time, didn’t even win the match, and it was in a game you said yourself you wouldn’t even boot up again.” Axel countered quickly, getting tired of his best friend’s petty nonsense

 

“If I say yes will you stop bugging me about this and just buy me ice cream like you promised?” Roxas asked, and no sooner were the words out of his mouth than a sea blue stick of ice cream was put in his hands.

 

“Alright, I guess I’ll try it tonight, any suggestions on what I should play?” Roxas asked

 

“Well the guild Isa and I made is just us and one other girl, and she plays a healer. I was going to suggest you play a tank, buuut I think you’d much prefer having peoples’ lives in your hands”

 

“You think correctly.” Roxas responds, then lets out a short cackle, shoving his ice cream bar into his mouth

 

“You frighten me, dude”

 

“Yeah well, you're the one to blame for giving me this power”

 

“Fuuuuu-shoot.” Axel almost dropped an F-bomb, but stopped upon seeing Aqua, the lady behind the counter, giving him a glare that’d surely kill him if looks could. She really only had one rule for her ice cream parlor, and that rule was posted on the door outside

 

Please, no using the F-bomb on the premises

This means you, Lea

-Management

Apparently, the rule had been made because Ventus, a boy who’d grown up basically as Aqua’s son and worked at the parlor, was sensitive to those kinds of words (something about an abusive father, Roxas didn’t know the details and didn’t feel comfortable asking, if he was being honest). Aside from a joke about his name, Axel didn’t dispute the rule, but Roxas suspected that was because he was terrified of the blunette.

 

Finishing his ice cream, Roxas stood up “I’m gonna head home and download that dumb game, I’ll see you later, dude” he said, then left the building, getting on his skateboard and heading back to his apartment.

 

Once Roxas stepped out, Axel made his way toward the counter “So, think you and Terra’ll make it to raid night? I figure if Roxas gets into the game he’ll level pretty fast. He got into Struggle Online fast.”

 

Aqua shrugged “Well that’s a fighting game, an MMO takes a lot more work, Lea. You can’t seriously expect him to get over a breakup this fast”

 

“He’s been a wreck for almost a month. She has texted me multiple times trying to contact him to apologize and ask him if he wants to hang out, but, and pardon my language-” he paused, making sure Ventus was out of earshot, “Fuck that. She cheated on him, she doesn’t get to try and be buddy buddy with him” Axel’s tone was venomous. He’d seen how bad Roxas took the breakup, and he’d prefer to never see the blonde like that again.

 

“If you seriously think it’ll help him to get into a new game, I’ll see if i can find a night when Terra and I are both free” Aqua finally decided, then turned to the redhead “Now you should get going, you-know-who usually shows up around this time, she’s got a new boyfriend, and as amusing as it’d be for you to get in a fight with either of them, I know for a fact Isa’ll kick your ass if you wreck my restaurant”

 

“Yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow, Aqua, you still owe me a drink!” Axel said with a laugh as he made his way out of the establishment, getting onto his motorcycle and driving away.

 

Meanwhile, Roxas had elected to skip the free trial, choosing instead to buy the game outright. If he was really going to use this to get over her , then why not go all in. 30 dollars wasn’t much anyway, at least with the cash he had saved up from the tournaments he went to.

 

The character creation was surprisingly deep. He got so into it that he forgot to answer the messages Axel had sent him over Discord, causing the older man to have to call him.

 

“What do you need, Axel? I’m making a character right now”

 

“Don’t forget to make sure your character starts in the same world as mine, or else we can’t play together, and then you won’t get the level bonus from partying” Axel said

 

“Your character is too high a level for that bonus anyway, Lea. He’d need to pair with a lower leveled player for that. You’re thinking of the protection bonus” came the voice of Axel’s boyfriend, Isa,  loud enough that Roxas could hear it clearly

 

“Shit, he’s right. Well how about you try the clock tower? It’s got a nice view, and plenty of newbies end up there because of the tutorial quests”

 

After that, Axel and Isa had a back and forth conversation about some such bullshit, and Roxas took the opportunity to leave the call.

 

Since he didn’t particularly have any other ideas, once he was able to, Roxas guided his character to the clock tower, and there he saw a very beautiful girl. He just stared for a while until he realized that she was talking to him in the game chat

[Forget-Me-Not] Oh, hello, nice view right? 

[DestinysKey] Oh, yeah. I didn't think a video game could simulate the sunset like this. 

[Forget-Me-Not] Me neither, is it your first time playing?

[DestinysKey] Yeah, my friend’s been bugging me for like a week to play this and I finally caved today and bought it.

[Forget-Me-Not] It’s my first time too! It’s like we were destined to meet here!

 

The two characters stood there in silence until Roxas remembered what Isa had said, and decided to make his move

[DestinysKey] So uh, my best friend’s boyfriend mentioned some sort of exp bonus if two new players pair up, do you want to form a party with me?

[Forget-Me-Not] Sure!

 

{Forget-Me-Not has joined your party, now receiving exp bonus}

 

With his new friend in tow, Roxas entered the voice chat of the server Axel had sent him, the redhead quickly joining after him

 

“I see you’ve already made a friend. That’s my boy!”

 

“I’m not your boy”

 

“Yeah, because your mom wouldn't let Isa and I legally adopt you. Anyway, you should invite her to the server and I'll invite her to the guild. Maybe she’ll even be cute? Or he, I’m not gonna judge”

 

Roxas let out an annoyed groan, but sent Forget-Me-Not the Discord link anyway, taking note of the username of the person who joined soon after.

 

“Xion, huh? Now, why does that name sound kind of familiar?”

 

“I dunno, Axel, why don’t we ask her?”

“Whoa now, slow down there, casanova.” Axel chuckled, then continued “Let’s at least wait a little bit before we go that far”

 

“Dude-”

 

“Relax, I’m just teasing. But seriously, let’s invite her to voice chat and then you two can start leveling. I wanna get you two to a dungeon asap”