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Roxas met Axel when Roxas was in seventh grade and Axel was a sophomore in high school. Roxas would always remember that day clearly, because the newest game in his favorite first person shooter series, Shotlock, also came out that day. Actually, Shotlock: Chaos Snake was the reason they met in the first place.
Roxas absolutely did not sleep the night Chaos Snake came out. Instead, he stared mournfully at his clock as the time changed from 11:59 P.M. to 12:00 A.M., knowing that, at that moment, people were purchasing the glorious new game and dashing home to play it—while Roxas was stuck in bed. And it was a school day.
It was a long night.
After school, though, he could not run to Game Palace fast enough. One of the few good things about being in middle school was the general lack of homework. Even if he did have homework, it was laughably easy. This evening, it would just be Roxas and Chaos Snake. It was going to be great.
At least…it was supposed to be great, but then there was only one copy of Chaos Snake left on the shelf, and, because Roxas’s life was some sort of cosmic joke, Roxas and some other guy grabbed the game at the same time (hint: The other guy was Axel).
Axel, although Roxas did not know his name yet, stared disbelievingly at Roxas. “Scram, kid!” He tugged at the box, but Roxas’s hand clamped down on it even tighter.
Roxas scowled at the gangly teenager in front of him and decided that his spiky red hair and hipster scarf were stupid.
“It’s mine!” he said, all preteen petulance. “I saw it first!”
“Like hell you did!” Axel exclaimed. “This is mine.”
“No, it’s not!” Roxas used both his hands to pull, but Axel was stronger than him and refused to give up the game. He gave a sharp tug, yanking it out of Roxas’s grip and sending him stumbling forward.
“Thank you,” he said cheerfully.
Roxas screwed up his face but didn’t cry, because only little kids cried. So instead of crying, he kicked Axel in the shin. Hard.
“Ow! What the hell, kid?!”
“I’m not a kid,” Roxas said, but, of course, his voice chose that moment to crack. He pressed on. “And that’s my game. Give it to me.”
“No way,” Axel said, rubbing his shin and glaring. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this game?”
Roxas crossed his arms. “Since the teaser at the end of Flame Salvo? That’s how long I’ve been waiting.”
“I—” Axel started, then paused. “Fine, me too.”
Axel’s brows creased in thought, and Roxas huffed.
Abruptly, Axel’s stance shifted. “Pfft, why am I trying to deal with a kid—” Again with the calling him a kid! “—anyway? I’m outta here.”
“Hey,” Roxas said. “I’ll kick you in the shin again.”
Axel backed up reflexively. “Geez, you’re a violent kid—”
“I’m not—”
“Look, kid, there’s two of us and one Chaos Snake. That’s just how it is. Now, I’m older—”
“That’s not fair!” Roxas cut in, voice cracking, and he cursed puberty. “What’s age got to do with it?”
“Fine, brat,” Axel said, a vicious glint in his eyes. “How about this: We have a match, and whoever wins gets to take the game.”
Roxas didn’t even pause to consider it; he was confident in his skills, and, besides, what else could they do? They were at a standstill. If Roxas lost fair and square, he would withdraw his claim on the game.
“Fine,” he said. “Who’s buying the game, then?”
“Uh.” Axel thought about it. “We split the cost—and whoever wins doesn’t have to reimburse.”
“No fair, I’ve been saving up for it,” Roxas complained, and Axel sneered.
“Afraid you’re gonna lose?”
Roxas scowled. “No. You have a deal.” He stuck his hand out, and they shook on it.
They bought the game and went to Roxas’s house, because Roxas didn’t want to go to a strange older boy’s house, and also because he was expected back home.
“By the way, what’s your name, kid?” Axel asked as they exited Game Palace.
“Roxas, so stop calling me kid,” he said.
“Okay, Roxas,” Axel said. “I’m Axel. Ready to get your ass kicked?”
Roxas chuckled darkly.
The rest of the walk to Roxas’s house passed civilly, though, as they talked a bit about Shotlock and discovered that had other common gaming interests, like the Gunbladers saga. Eventually, though, they went back to Shotlock, which was both their favorite, and they talked about everything from characters to weapons to stories to cheat codes to favorite and least favorite maps to custom maps. It was exciting to have someone to talk to about Shotlock; Roxas didn’t really have friends, only spent time with his sister and cousins, and of them, only his older cousin Vanitas shared his passion for first person shooters. Ventus, Vanitas’s twin, liked to play, but it wasn’t the same. He wasn’t invested.
Vanitas would be home today. Roxas’s parents would be out late working so Vanitas had volunteered to come over and keep an eye on things. Roxas knew, though, that Vanitas was also eagerly anticipating the new Shotlock game, otherwise he would have made Ventus babysit instead.
By the time they arrived at his house, Roxas was feeling much more friendly towards Axel. Bonding over Shotlock would do that, he supposed as Vanitas answered the door.
“Hey, Roxas!” His eyes flicked to Axel, and he blinked a couple times. “I didn’t know you know Axel.”
“Wait, what’s Vanitas doing here?” Axel asked.
“Um, Vanitas is my cousin,” Roxas said.
Axel squinted at Vanitas, then Roxas. “I…guess I can see it. Actually, you look kinda like Ven, don’tcha, kid?”
“My name’s Roxas,” he stressed.
“Roxas. Whatever.”
“We’re in the same lit and math classes,” Vanitas explained impatiently. “So, how do you know him and what is he doing here? I thought we were gonna play Shotlock. You did get Chaos Snake, right?”
“About that,” Roxas said. “There was only one copy of Chaos Snake left and we both wanted it, so we’re going to play a match to see who gets it.”
Vanitas grinned slowly. “Sweet.”
Axel’s eyebrow twitched. “Don’t act like you’ve won already,” he said, shoving his way into the house. “Let’s play.”
“Oh, yeah, make yourself at home,” Vanitas snorted. “Actually, don’t. You’ll be out the door again in five minutes.”
They all went to the living room, where Roxas set up the game.
“Okay, so, how is this working?” Vanitas asked. “Just to be clear and all.”
“One fifteen minute free-for-all match, with army, winner gets the game,” Axel said. “Simple as that.”
“Okay,” Vanitas said.
“And it has to be me versus the kid,” Axel said hastily. “Kid can’t tag you in or anything like that.”
“I’m not a kid,” Roxas said, again—not that anyone was paying attention to him.
Vanitas’s smile would have scared Roxas if he wasn’t used to it by now.
“Let’s do this, then,” he practically sang, plopping down on the couch in between Roxas and Axel.
The thing was, both Roxas and Axel were sorely limited because it was a new game, with only basic content unlocked. There were only three maps currently available for multi-player matches, but it wasn’t like they were familiar with any of them besides from online videos previewing the game, so Roxas just picked one of them at random.
Axel chose the battle mage for his class; Roxas knew he would, because it was the only class that could use fire until either the pyro class or flamethrower weapon was unlocked, and Axel had a weird obsession with fire. Roxas preferred a heavily-customized heavy gunner, but, again, new game, so for now, he selected the sniper, which was his second-best class but topped heavy gunner with default customization. Well, sniper tied with assault soldier, but Axel was a battle mage; Roxas was staying as far away from that as he could.
Roxas hit the button to start the match and a countdown from five appeared on the screen.
“Can I run commentary?” Vanitas asked.
“No,” Roxas and Axel said simultaneously.
The match started.
As Axel had requested, they played with an army. Both sides got an army, which would up the ante and make the match a lot less boring than just two characters hunting each other—though there were bonus points for killing the player, of course. For now, they both had the default army, with the same numbers of each class.
“We need to play another match sometime,” Roxas said. “When we’re fully customized to our liking.”
“Right?” Axel said. “Everything’s boring until you do the missions and start unlocking stuff.”
“Well, Roxas and I were going to play the co-op story mode,” Vanitas put in, “until you came barging in, demanding your match.”
“Hey, in fifteen minutes, this is going to be my game, so shut up,” Axel said, leaning forward in his seat.
Vanitas scoffed.
Roxas ignored them as he gave directions to his army before setting out with his character. He realized that Axel had tipped the balance in his favor by choosing the battle mage in an army match. If a bunch of Roxas’s troops were all clustered in one place—and they undoubtedly would be—then Axel could just take the whole lot out with Area of Effect spells. And most of his troops had little magic resistance.
Which meant Roxas had to step up his game.
He found a good spot and managed to snipe for a good seven minutes, taking Axel’s character out several times, before he was caught and had to retreat. He lasted for about another minute before he was finally shot down.
“Fuck, how did you survive for so long,” Axel hissed.
“Hey, watch the language, he’s twelve years old,” Vanitas said.
“Don’t act like you don’t curse like a sailor, Vanitas,” Axel said scornfully. “A clean mouth isn’t becoming on you.”
“Whoa, are you coming on to me?—”
“Stop distracting me!”
Roxas might have contributed to the conversation, but he never talked while he played. He always sat stock-still, eyes glued to the screen, fingers flying on the controller, completely silent.
Vanitas found it amusing, but it was a contrast to his cousin’s playing style: Vanitas’s whole body moved while he played, and sometimes he even jumped up in the middle of playing to emphasize whatever he was screaming at the screen—and that was another thing. He was also very loud, which was really the only annoying thing about playing with Vanitas. Besides that, he was a damn good player.
Axel, meanwhile, was a happy medium, straining forward in his seat and generally quiet except for muttered curses and a few quips or comments, and Roxas decided that he’d rather play Shotlock with Axel, except for the part where he was determined to always play some fire-related class, even when inconvenient.
The match ended, and the final scores appeared on the screen. In the corner, of the screen, notifications for three new trophies—Survivalist (Roxas, aw yeah), Mass Murder (Axel, freaking AoE), and 1v1 (yay, you accessed a basic feature of the game, have a trophy that no one wants because what are bragging rights—“Hey, guys, look at my shiny trophy. I played a 1v1 match!”)—flashed briefly and disappeared.
“And the winner iiiiiiiiiiiis—ROXAS!” Vanitas shouted, and Roxas winced.
“What the hell?! No way! Rematch!” Axel demanded. “Rematch!”
Vanitas snickered. “Now, I distinctly recall you saying one match. Sorry, but if you wanted an actual chance, you shoulda played me.” He clapped a hand on Roxas’s shoulder. “Rox here is the child prodigy of Shotlock.”
“I—but—gah,” Axel said. He sunk down on the couch and pouted.
“It was a good match,” Roxas offered, hoping Axel took it as the olive branch he intended it to be. Axel was cool. He knew a lot about Shotlock, he was a good gamer, and he was fun to talk to when they weren’t at each other’s throats.
Roxas didn’t know how to make friends, had never really bothered with them, but he thought he might be willing to try with Axel.
“Whatever, pipsqueak,” Axel mumbled, and Roxas felt somewhat less charitable towards him.
“You’re a jerk and your scarf is stupid,” Roxas retorted, the first insult that came to mind, and Axel spluttered.
“No—I—wait—what—my scarf is not stupid!”
Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Get out of my house,” he said, and Roxas resisted the urge to correct him, because ‘Get out of my cousin’s house’ just didn’t have the same effect.
Axel stood but didn’t leave. Vanitas was giving what Roxas was sure was a pointed look, but Roxas just turned to look at Axel expectantly, waiting to see what he would do next.
Axel seemed to deflate a little. “So, uh, think we could…play again sometime?” he asked. “Matches, or co-op story mode, or whatever.”
“Oh, fuck off,” Vanitas said, waving a hand at him, but Roxas nudged him.
“No, it’s okay,” he said. “I wanna play with him.”
“Wha—I thought we were going to play,” Vanitas said, giving him a wounded look.
“Go play with Naminé,” he said, pointing upstairs to where he knew his little sister would be in her room. “We can play later.”
Vanitas stared at him for a long moment. “Betrayed by my own cousin,” he finally sighed, but he stood and left.
Axel grinned at him. “Hey, thanks, kid—Roxas,” he amended, and Roxas smiled.
“Don’t drag me down,” was all he said before he started story mode.
Axel came back to play the next day, and the day after that. Even after Game Palace restocked and Axel got his own copy of Chaos Snake, he didn’t stop coming over to play with Roxas. And if gradually they stopped always talking about Shotlock and started playing other games, and watching movies, and hanging out outside of Roxas’s house, neither verbally acknowledged the transition, and that was okay.