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There was something about the way Marius seemed to obsess over the things he liked that made Shuhrat fall for him. The way he could go on for hours about a documentary he had recently watched, or how he could engross himself in a hobby for hours on end without taking a single break. It always melted Shuhrat’s heart the way his eyes always seemed to light up whenever he talked about something he was passionate about.
Recently, Marius had bought himself a Nintendo Switch and a few games to go along with it. Though the console was somewhat outdated and a new one would be coming out soon, there were still games he wanted to play on it that interested him. It was just something to preoccupy the little time he had whenever he wasn’t working on his ADS or engineering something new in the lab. He claimed he wanted to have something to do while waiting for Shuhrat to come home on his days off so he wouldn’t be driven to boredom by their separation. Of course, the days they were apart were merely for eight or so hours, but to the both of them, each one felt like a lifetime.
“Hey, check it out!” Marius exclaimed, holding up the game case in Shuhrat's direction. It was a brand new, still in the plastic wrap copy of Animal Crossing New Horizons. “The game's a little old, but we should still be able to have some fun with it,” He smiled at Shuhrat and sat down next to him on the couch. It was a familiar ritual for them, sitting down on the couch at the end of a long day; it was something they did to relax after the stress of meetings and training rounds at work. Because of this, it was common for them to lean against each other when relaxing on the couch and feel the warmth of each other's breath against each other as they exhaled.
“So... what’s it about?” Shuhrat asked. Though he was skilled with machines and STEM related fields, he was never one for video games or anything of the sort. However, whenever it came to Marius’s interest in them, he tried to learn as much as he could so he could make for an engaging conversation partner, despite usually not being one for chatting. “Oh, all you have to do is chores and interact with your neighbors, which are animals,” Marius replied as he popped the game card into the switches game port. They leaned against one another and rested the sides of their heads together as they watched the screen boot up with a “Click!” sound.
Marius grabbed ahold of the controller and tried to memorise the button configuration for each of the game's actions. “Okay…” He muttered softly as the introduction to the game popped up on the screen. A small animal with a spotlight shining on it was instructing him on what all to do. “What is that thing?” Shuhrat asked. “A tanooki, you might know them as Japanese raccoon dogs,” Marius replied and stroked Shuhrat's hair before returning to holding the game controller. “Oh,” Shuhrat murmured back in response. He watched as Marius created a character on the customization screen and began his adventure in the game.
They played the game for a little while longer, interacting with the animals in game and collecting bugs and fish that they managed to catch, moaning in disappointment whenever one would get away from them. The game was surprisingly peaceful, it was not at all what Shuhrat had expected when Marius had told him he’d bought a few video games to play whenever they had some free time on hand. He had expected something more akin to the shooter games that some of their fellow coworkers played. Though Marius had told him that they unfortunately did not have enough money for the kind of system that could handle those games in the first place.
Soon, the sleepy warmth of the room, coupled with lying against his lover and the tranquil music playing from the speakers of the television set from the game's night soundtrack lulled Shuhrat to sleep. It wasn’t that he was bored with the game; he was just so laid back from the aura of the room and situation that he couldn’t keep his eyelids open no matter how hard he had tried. Marius soon noticed this and put down the game controller, turning his attention towards his sleeping lover instead.
He stroked Shuhrat's hair as he rested against him and wrapped his arms around him as Shuhrat unconsciously and instinctually leaned into the contact. There was nothing Marius would trade to give up this moment in time, the ability to be able to hold his lover and enjoy a calming night together.