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“Oh, come on, Nines!” Connor said, not subtle in the way he looked up at Nines with a pleading look.
“You know that I have better things I could be doing,” Nines sighed, but he was already sold by the time Connor had asked the first time with that hopeful tone. He sat next to Connor on the couch and booted up the ancient video game console. Hank had given it to Connor and given him a stack of games, told him it’ll help give him more of the human experience that he seemed to long for. Nines was on board with Connor getting the experiences he could and didn’t mind being along for the ride. “But… I don’t see why not. Is there one that piqued your interest?”
“Hmm…” Connor hummed indecisively, holding out the outdated packages in his hands. “This one, I think.” Connor held out one of the games, titled “Castle Crashers”, and it looked to be a standard hack-and-slash style game. Nines resisted the urge to scan the game and let Connor do the work of figuring out the console since it was Hank that told him just how to do it.
Nines watched him put the somewhat scratched disc into the slot and listened to the whir that came from the machine, comparable to the whir their own internal fans produced but much louder. Connor’s fingers were the only other noticeable sound in the room, tapping away as they tended to do.
“Yes!” Connor whispered triumphantly and medieval music began to play out of the speakers. Nines smiled at Connor’s pride and reached for one of the controllers to the console, moving it around in his hand a bit and marveling at the technology that was damn near ancient to someone like him. The main menu appeared and Connor picked the option for multiple players, his own controller in his hand now as he rejoined Nines on the couch.
A character selection screen appeared and there were four playable characters, all of which seemed to have some sort of elemental abilities. The green knight had poison abilities, the red knight had electricity, the blue knight had ice, and the orange knight had fire.
“You can pick first,” Nines invited, waving his controller at the screen. He was fairly set on the red knight and was relieved when Connor picked the blue knight. It didn’t surprise him since blue was Connor’s favorite color. Nines just liked the idea of the electric element.
The intro began and Nines took in the general premise: the villain steals a precious object and princesses, the king sends knights to retrieve the said object and save princesses. They were able to move, and Connor made a confused sound for a moment as he figured out the controls. Nines didn’t have as much trouble and figured out what buttons did what relatively quickly, moving forward and turning his head to Connor, who was mashing buttons with a cute, focused look on his face. Nines waited at the edge of the screen for Connor to follow.
“You coming?” Nines asked, grinning at Connor. Connor blinked and nodded, an embarrassed look on his face as he scrambled to catch up with Nines.
They both left the starting building, officially starting the first level of the game. A round of enemies spawned and followed them around and Nines used his starting weapon to kill a majority of them, while Connor mostly ran and beat a few of them around.
Connor made a surprised sound at the coins they dropped and ran around picking them up. Nines smiled at Connor, beautifully lit by the screen from the game.
Right. The game.
Nines pried his eyes off of Connor and back on screen, where he was almost ambushed by a couple of the enemy characters. Nines quickly managed to kill that lot and moved on with Connor, sweeping the next few rushes of enemies before Connor could even get more than one killed, and then there was a boss fight.
A war machine that shot bombs out of a canon drove across the screen, threatening to blow them up and take a portion of their health. Connor made a grunt of annoyance as a bomb hit his character while Nines efficiently dodged them. The weak spot of the boss was revealed and Nines came in swinging his weak sword as Connor ran from the NPCs that were chasing him. Nines laughed and the weak spot was covered again. He caught up to Connor and helped him fight off the growing group of barbarian enemies. It was a minor boss and it didn’t take much longer before it exploded into a flaming pile of debris. Connor sighed in relief.
“Well done, Connor,” Nines said with a soft smile. Connor turned and raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t pity me,” he replied and huffed, waiting for Nines’ at the edge of the screen so they could advance. Nines turned himself away from Connor with more reluctance (the pout on his face was adorable) and allowed them to go on.
“I’m not pitying you,” Nines said, glancing over at Connor before turning his attention back to the screen. He leveled up as he ruthlessly plowed through enemies and was thrilled to be able to use a new move combination, already getting bored with the basic controls.
“If you say so,” Connor huffed, looking embarrassed still as he fought off his own crowd. Nines let Connor do it on his own, for the sake of his pride, and occupied himself with picking up coins.
They went on that way throughout the level with Nines carrying Connor past the enemies with little to no trouble and the boss fight was hardly any different, though it included Nines having to revive Connor once. When they were put against each other to fight to kiss the princess, both of them chuckled. Connor was at low health from fighting off the enemies that the boss continued to spawn, and Nines stood still, willing to let Connor get the win.
“Oh no,” Connor chuckled. “Don’t give me a pity win.”
“Who says that it’s pity, darling?” Nines asked, walking up to Connor in invitation. “Just hit me a couple of times and even it out so it can be a fair battle.”
“Mm, okay,” Connor accepted the offer and gladly beat at Nines’ red knight and got a good few hits in before Nines backed away.
“ Now , we can fight.”
And, predictably, Nines almost won but ended up throwing it for Connor’s sake. Connor celebrated obnoxiously while Nines smiled at him, enamored by his enthusiasm.
“What is it?” Connor asked when he saw the look Nines was giving him. Nines shrugged.
“This was more fun than I expected,” Nines answered simply. “Thank you.”
“Oh come on, Nines,” Connor huffed, setting the controller on the table as the celebratory music played in the background, Connor’s blue knight kissing a red-headed princess. “You carried me the whole level.”
“Maybe,” Nines admitted. “But it was my pleasure.”
“Okay, fine.” Connor rolled his eyes and shifted on the couch, laying his head in Nines’ lap. “Thank you, my hero,” Connor said sarcastically. Nines placed his own controller on the coffee table and turned down the volume.
“You’re welcome, my prince,” Nines replied with an equal amount of sarcasm, but Connor seemed to get flustered by the affectionate nickname regardless. Nines gave a soft smile down at him and the music played quietly as Nines kissed his own prince.