Work Text:
This was done by thebestkindofbeehive for Team Maqua Fest. Enjoy
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~ α ~
Tap. Tap. Tap tap tap.
The screen of Archie’s phone flashed with little bursts of color in response to each touch as a score was racked up in the corner. This was supposed to be a fun game that would actually hold his interest for more than a day, so said his roommate Shelly. Every day it seemed like he went through a new app trying to sate his boredom, but each soon fell victim to the delete button.
It wasn’t his fault none of them were interesting enough- after all, you tend to have high standards regarding that type of thing if every day you have nothing but yourself and your phone to entertain you for an hour. Each day after finishing his classes, Archie would work out at the on-campus gym for an hour or two until it closed for the students. After the five minute walk to the bus stop, this left him with a little over half an hour of waiting for the damn bus to show up, then an hour long ride back to his apartment. He couldn’t tweak his schedule, he couldn’t stop working out (lest he get out of shape for his college’s swim team and his scholarship), and he couldn’t scrounge up the money for a car yet. So, he tried to fill up his time with playing games on his phone.
Which wouldn’t be so bad if he could just find a single decent one.
Unlocking his door and walking in his much-too-small two bedroom apartment, Archie made it a point to sigh melodramatically as he passed Shelly on his way into the kitchen. When that didn’t seem to garner enough of her attention, he tossed his duffel bag on the couch, barely missing the marine biology major who was currently typing away on her laptop. She didn’t flinch, not one to be disturbed during her work. “Hey, chief,” Shelly hummed, lifting a hand in greeting before quickly resuming typing, “What’s got you so displeased on this fine evening?”
Archie pouted like a wronged younger sibling, attempting to scowl at Shelly from over his shoulder while he rummaged through the fridge. “Oh, nothin’ much, just one day closer to literally dyin’ from boredom!” He complained, finally finding the orange juice and twisting the cap off of the carton and bringing it to his lips.
Shelly rolled her eyes. “Oh, be quiet. I recommended that laser light game to you, didn’t I? It’s not my fault that you- HEY! QUIT DRINKING OUT OF THE JUG!” Shelly yelled. Her roommate only chuckled as he wiped his mouth on his shirt sleeve and put the juice back.
“There’s no need to get so loud, Shells, I only drank a lil bit! ‘Sides, me 'n Matt are the only ones who drink it, 'n he’s over at his place right now anywa-,” Archie said, walking through a doorway and right into solid muscle.
“Naw, bro, I’m right here!” Matt boomed, laughing as he usually did when people walked straight into him (which happened more often than you would think). “Shells invited me over so we could work on her thesis! And you can drink your OJ from the carton if you want, I don’t mind.”
“Matt! I didn’t even know you came over! Why didn’t ya text me or somethin’?” Archie shouted excitedly, drowning out Shelly’s groan of “Matt, don’t enable him” and causing his larger friend’s face to flush red.
“Oh, well I was, uh… Somethin on my phone, ya know…” Matt muttered while he scratched the back of his neck absentmindedly. Now it was Shelly’s turn to giggle.
“Matt’s got a little boyfriend app he’s been playing with all day, it’s really cute,” she said, still tapping away on her computer. “He was in your room since I’m hogging all the easy-to-get-to outlets over here, and he didn’t want to stop talking to his little tamagotchi boyfriend.” Her laugh was far from malicious, but Matt still couldn’t help but turn red while she told Archie what he’d been up to.
“Aw, Shells, you said you wouldn’t make a big deal about it!” Matt pouted.
Now Archie was a bit intrigued. Granted it didn’t take much for Matt to blush when it came to romantic endeavours- that was a given- but apparently whatever was on his phone was good enough for him to keep close to an outlet. (There was also the aspect of male companionship involved- but only Archie and his friends knew about the recent questioning of his sexuality. And… he was lonely. But he had yet to admit that even to himself.) He snuck a glance at Matt’s phone, but from his vantage point all he could see was a bright pink screen. Huh. Probably one of those weird games from Kanto. Matt noticed his staring and quickly hid his phone behind his back, still obviously flustered.
Archie laughed a little, clapping his hand on Matt’s chest. “Hey man, you know I’m not one to judge! You can do whatever ya want, so long as you don’t hog my charger.” Matt’s shoulders immediately relaxed, and he gave a relieved smile. Okay, good, with that out of the way…
Now it was Archie’s turn to be flustered. Nearly mimicking Matt’s body language from minutes prior, he quietly asked, “So, uh… what’s the app called anyways?”
He could practically feel Shelly’s smirk on the back of his neck.
~ α ~
So now here he was, lying on his mattress at one in the morning, waiting for this stupid “Meet Your ✿Perfect✿ Boyfriend! (´ ▽｀).。ｏ♡♡♡” app to load up on his phone. Shelly had (hopefully) gone to sleep, Matt was at his dorm, so Archie had his room and the silence that accompanied it all to himself. If Shelly ever found out that he was actually trying this thing out, he’d most likely just keel over on the spot. Literally.
The main menu flashed to life in a burst of pink, and each option floated down like flower petals. For a moment Archie considered just turning his phone off and going to bed, but the buttons tugged at his interest- one labeled “Create”, the next “Customize”, and the last “Delete”. While he did think creating a fake boyfriend seemed a little desperate, he couldn’t really fault Matt for trying it out. Himself on the other hand? That just seemed embarrassing. Yet, he still found himself pressing the “Create” button.
Instead of a dress-up type game like Archie expected, he instead found himself looking at a small, smiling emote thing- the mascot for the game, he remembered. Its manufactured yet cute voice rang out, “First question! When you’re walking with a group of friends, where do you usually stand?” Archie paused for a moment to listen for any signs of Shelly being awake, then carefully turned the volume down before considering the question.
“Um, the front, I guess.”
The little emoticon nodded as the number two popped up on the screen. “Second question! If you saw someone being threatened on the street, what would you do?”
The questions continued on until 2 AM, until finally the little emote did a little dance and turned into a loading icon. “Processing answers! Your new boyfriend will be ready soon!” it cheered, and all of a sudden Archie was feeling pretty silly about this whole situation. He’d lost an hour of sleep over this, and all he was going to have to show for it was a few lines of code!
Once the loading stopped, Archie barely took the time to look over his new “boyfriend” (A red-head with glasses? Pfft. Some great programming this was) before exiting to the main menu and pressing the “Delete” button-
“What are you doing?”
Archie’s eyes widened, almost comically, as his fingertip slowly slid down his screen, cancelling out the command. He quickly jerked his head to look around his room. Someone real had to have said that, right? There’s no way that could have come from the game. It sounded too natural, nothing like the little emote thing! And yet… no one was in the room but him.
“I’m talking to you, dolt. What are you doing?”
Archie had no choice but to look back at the screen. On it was that same… person? Did that even count as a person? Regardless, it was that same redhead, and this time Archie was forced to take in the details. The “boyfriend”’s hair was shoulder length, bangs swept to the side, and a vibrant red that contrasted with his pale skin. That same skin was sprinkled with freckles, dusting mostly his cheeks. The glasses he wore were perceivably thick, with two odd blinder-like appendages on each side of the frames. His eyes were a piercing green, focused only on Archie (but that couldn’t be possible, right?) Anything below the neck was obscured by his thick, red knit sweater. When Archie didn’t respond, the small virtual man crossed his arms.
“I… I, uh… how…” Archie stammered, eyes scanning the screen for some sign that this was a joke, or maybe that he was just dreaming. His eyes lit on the clock on the top of his screen. Time went backwards or something in dreams, right? Yet the clock stayed the same. Damn.
“Are you going to actually talk to me, or just lay there with your mouth open, Archie?” the program asked.
Archie was jolted out of his stupefaction when the insults caught up to him. “Hey, who’re ya callin’ a dolt?! And how the hell do ya know my name?!”
At this, the redhead smirked. “It’s in the internal memory of your phone, and by extension, me. It would be wrong to be ignorant of my supposed partner’s name, correct?”
Archie found himself getting less confused and more annoyed with whatever his program exactly was. “Ya say that like ya’ve given me the courtesy of knowin’ yer name,” he curtly replied.
The little A.I. fumed, his cheeks quickly turning red and making his freckles stand out. “Well, maybe if you would have greeted me like a normal human being instead of just staring, I could have properly told you! ….And… my name is Maxie. So you should address me as such,” Maxie said with a glare.
But soon, his glare and his blush faltered, and he looked away in thought. Worry then creased his virtual features, and after a moment, quietly asked, “…You’re not going to delete me, are you?”
It suddenly occurred to Archie what deleting would actually entail for Maxie. Horrified with himself over what he’d almost done, he quickly sat up and replied in earnest, “No! No, no, I won’t, I’m sorry I almost… eugh… Sorry. You don’t have to worry about that, okay?” Hesitantly, he rubbed his fingertip over Maxie’s head in an effort to curb his anxiety. The gesture seemed to work, as Maxie appeared to stifle a laugh as his hair was mussed up. Strangely, Archie found himself smiling at the scene before him. Then Maxie spoke up.
“Well, I certainly hope this was up to your standards as a first date.”
Archie blinked, cheeks turning red, and nodded. Guess tomorrow morning he had to tell Shelly he wasn’t single anymore.