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It starts, as always, with Kalim peeking in Jamil’s room, sheepishly looking at his servant like he's about to make a very big mistake – if it hasn't already been done. Only his face is visible from behind the door and Jamil sighs, ready to clean up whatever mess he surely is about to make. A few meters away, his roommate glances over the magazine he’s reading and promptly goes back to what he was doing once he’s ascertained it’s just the usual. (Jamil envies his laissez-faire attitude. He really, really does.)
“Kalim–”
“Come to my room!” Kalim interrupts with a smile. “I can't bring it all the way here!”
And then he's gone at the speed of light. Used to his master's cryptic antics, Jamil sighs, stretches, and gets up from his bed, leaving behind the book he was considering reading tonight. He probably won't be back until tomorrow morning if he goes to Kalim's room now… But it should be fine – despite his many faults, Kalim knows how to make such things worthwhile.
Which is why he is the tiniest bit disappointed when what awaits his arrival in the dorm leader's room isn't Kalim but rather a heavy pair of goggles on the bed. Their owner is nowhere to be found but Jamil already knows his previous guess was wrong and so he really considers going back to his bedroom and finally starting that book he'd waited for a week at the school's library. Nothing that'll happen next will be worth it, he thinks. Out of habit – he'll listen to what Kalim has to say, if only because it's his job and Kalim's voice when he's excited about something is pleasant to his ears – he sits on the bed to wait despite having no intention to agree to anything.
The mattress sinks under his weight and after taking out his phone to see if Kalim's sent him a text about him being late (no), he sets it aside. Since he has nothing to do, he glances at the goggles on the other side of the bed. When he takes them in hand, he's a little surprised by how light they are – he expected them to be too weighty to be agreeable to handle but no – and briefly wonders what they're for before a spark of recognition lights in his mind. A few weeks ago, he went to Ignihyde to give back Idia a CD he lent him – an underground idol group he didn't think much of but their songs were just the right BPM – and his senior was working on similar goggles. Though he didn't understand everything he was told – half-mumbled, half-spoken too-fast sentences were Idia's specialty after all – he was sure they were the same kind of VR goggles he'd seen back then.
Despite having a few game consoles at home, Jamil has never dipped into things like this too deeply. The only thought VR has ever evoked in him is “If Kalim tries it, he'll get lightheaded, trip and hurt himself” and, even if he removes Kalim from the equation, he isn't fond of anything that could make bugs appear realistic and like he's trapped with them. It shouldn't be Kalim's thing either, less because of the bugs or the danger, but because he's the type to like playing outside.
The door opens just as he's considering testing the device to see if it hasn't been tampered with and Kalim appears with a bowl of candy in hand. As soon as he spots Jamil and what is in his hands, he rushes to his side, spilling some of what he's holding as he does so.
“Jamil! Play Litworld with me!”
“No.”
This (obviously) doesn't deter Kalim because he's stubborn and has never learned to take a no in his life. He picks up the candies that fell to the floor, sits beside Jamil and puts the bowl between the two of them, apparently certain Jamil will stay. He will. But only long enough for Kalim to explain his latest whim before he's out.
“Cater and Lilia showed me a game yesterday,” he starts while his hand wanders among the colorful candies without choosing one. “Everyone's playing it they said! It's super fun.”
“Don't eat after dinner.”
“I'll brush my teeth afterward! And because it was so fun, I want to play with you too! I think you'll like it.”
“I won't.”
“You will!” He tears open a wrapping and holds the candy to Jamil's mouth, pushing it past his lips when he opens them. “I didn't do a lot yesterday but there's even a dance mini-game!”
Once the candy has fully dissolved in his mouth, leaving an awful fake-fruit flavor behind, Jamil replies. “I can dance in real life instead.”
“And we can watch movies!”
“We already do that.”
“A-and there are other games! Like… Hm… I didn't test all of them…”
“If we can do it for real, I don't see why I'd do it inside a game.”
“But–”
“It's enough if you play it with Cater-senpai and Lilia-senpai, isn't it? No, actually, don't play during club hours. Do music.”
“We do sometimes!”
“Do it all the time!” He catches himself before he can start lecturing Kalim – no, that’s not what he wants to complain about today. “That's not what I mean. You don't need to bring me into this.”
It's true the game sounds a little interesting. Now that he's heard its name, he's pretty sure he heard a few classmates gushing about it and complaining they spent all night playing instead of studying recently. And it'd be a lie to say he's not the littlest bit interested. While he's not the most technology-adept student around – that'd be all of Ignihyde – there's something… Not magical because that'd be the wrong adjective, but there's something captivating about living another life in a video game. Jamil is busy though. Too busy to waste time on such a thing, even if Kalim is looking at him with big garnet eyes brimming with hope and longing.
That won't work against him.
It definitely won't.
He's stronger than that and, to prove it, he pushes the VR goggles on Kalim's lap and turns away.
Now, Kalim will understand he's not interested at all and stop. After all, he's never ever been interested in anything Kalim has ever proposed him–
“But I wanted to play with you…”
If it were anyone else in NRC, Jamil would have expected that sentence to be followed by a calculated sigh, a glance from behind lashes – wet with faked tears – and maybe a barely veiled threat that'd just sound like his interlocutor was about to throw themselves a pity party. Fortunately for Jamil, he has already used his method and knows how to ignore such pleas. Unfortunately for Jamil, Kalim has not and will never do something like this. Instead, his shoulders drop and his smile falters and, despite how transparent his expression is and how disappointment seeps into every single one of his gestures, he turns to Jamil with an apologetic gaze.
“You’re right, I can do it with the others! Sorry I bothered you… Good night…”
His words trail out as he fiddles with the goggles he’s been given. Even if Jamil gets out now and leaves Kalim behind, he knows exactly what is going to happen from now on.
Kalim is going to clean up the candy wrappers and put the bowl on his bedside table. He will forget it here while he goes to brush his teeth and only remember he needs to put it away once he's back in his room. Then he will forget it once again when his eyes will land on the discarded VR goggles, he will be sad about Jamil not being here, and go curl up in bed. All while forgetting to put the candy back in the kitchen. And he'll wake up all perky tomorrow morning, the same as usual, without any trace of disappointment left and his usual enthusiasm… Yet he'll still look a little distracted when he'll hear the people around him talk about that game. He'll think back about tonight and how Jamil doesn't want to play with him and he'll look like a kicked puppy all day. It'll last for a few days until he forgets like he'll have surely forgotten the candy bowl who'll sit on the table until Jamil takes it away.
Jamil knows this because, despite what recent events have proved, he's sure he knows more about Kalim than Kalim himself, down to his smallest reactions. Even the things Kalim has no clue about doing – how his forced smile doesn't suit him, how he plays with the hem of his clothes like a distraught child, how he looks eager to forget about any inconvenience despite how heavy it weighs on him... – Jamil is aware of them all.
So, if Jamil takes the VR goggles off Kalim's lap and holds them like they're a treasured gift, and if the tension in his body eases slightly when he sees Kalim perk up, his expression and the air around him sparkling with joy, it's nobody's business. He's just doing it because it'll be a pain to deal with later.
“Just a little. I'll just try it for a few minutes.”
“Right! Okay! No problem! Thank you, Jamil!”
Rather than be subjected to Kalim's boundless enthusiasm and gratitude he can't win against, he prefers to put the goggles on his eyes without talking further. As he raises a hand to find the power button – he's seen it while he was observing the device, it should be around the edge – his hand brushes against Kalim's who's humming a cheerful tune as he adjusts the goggles on Jamil's face. Kalim guides him to the power button before walking away.
Jamil's vision turns black as he's greeted by Litward's World's first-time login screen.
* * *
As painful as it is to admit, Litworld is a little fun. The sensations are quite accurate to the real world's while still being different enough that Jamil's interested in experiencing more of them… And Kalim seems to be all too aware of this because he stands behind Jamil while he tries out games, cheering on him and smiling widely. When Jamil wins, he jumps up and down, as if he were the one doing his best and, when Jamil loses, he's more disappointed than anyone else before he hugs Jamil and tells him he'll do better next time.
It's… Exactly like real life in this aspect. Like he's touring an arcade game center with Kalim – he's done it once, bringing him to the one he goes to with Floyd and Ace when they’re in town. Kalim's presence is too loud, too overbearing, but it's strangely comforting to Jamil. In Litworld where things are almost similar to the things he knows but with differences that destabilizes him when he notices them, having a constant like Kalim by his side is almost relaxing.
“Let's play this next! I'll handle the medal cost, don't worry!”
These words do nothing to assuage Jamil's worries – he's been eyeing Kalim's medal count for a while, wondering how much money he put into this game in only a single day – it's a little too late for it now, so he follows. Next, he'd like to watch what kind of exclusive movies there are here, but he'll accompany Kalim for now. Perhaps after they can go back to that dancing game too…
“A building game…? Kalim,” he says with a sigh, “look at what the game tells you. Don't start building things without a blueprint.”
Kalim laughs as he puts two medals to cover the game's entry fee in the dedicated slot. “I can do it just fine! Who do you take me for?”
Yourself, is what Jamil is about to say before they're transported to another hub where they start the game from.
True to his words, Kalim doesn't stray too far to get materials and even listens to Jamil while he directs him. To be quite honest, Jamil appreciates this. After playing so many intense games involving dancing or escaping from a horrific mansion, simply building a small house is a good way to unwind for the night – he'll look at what pros do later to see how he can make it more challenging for himself – and even Kalim seems to think so because he's babbling about decorating their block home without rushing to think about their next game.
The result is simple, nothing more than the base home shown in the in-game tutorial, but now that Jamil got the hang of it, he feels he'll do better next time. All that's left to complete the beginner mission they've been assigned is to put their beds down as a save point so he enters the house with Kalim in tow.
“It was fun,” he admits as he sets the cute a'd blocky bed he built a few minutes earlier in a corner of the room.
Kalim doesn't answer. This is so unusual when it comes to him that Jamil looks over to him – he seems to be in deep reflection as he looks at Jamil's bed. Then, finally, he speaks.
“Jamil.”
“Yeah?”
“Can I put my bed next to yours?”
Shrugging, Jamil answers. “Do whatever you want.”
He could even put it on the roof if he wanted to. Would that count for the game? Jamil ponders it for a few seconds, his hair ornaments jingling as he tilts his face to look at their ceiling. A cute sound indicating Kalim's done pulls him out of his thoughts. In the corner of his vision, he sees the game saving their progress and he's about to exit when Kalim taps the space next to him on their joined beds.
Jamil sits next to him while shaking his head. “You said you wanted to do everything today–”
What interrupts him isn't Kalim's bright voice but a quick peck on the lips and Kalim pulls away with a disappointed frown.
“It doesn't feel at all like real life for that…”
“Ask people before you do that,” Jamil complains and he pinches Kalim's cheek – he’s too used to his antics to be bothered by this, lack of warning aside..
Not that he'd do this to anyone else in the first place.
“But making beds together got me thinking you know,” Kalim says while rubbing his reddened cheek. “Usually, at this hour–”
“Kalim.”
“Yeah! I know! Not in public! But we're alone here so…”
There's nothing in Kalim's gaze now that says he wants to keep playing games. Litworld’s face modeling is truly amazing if it can render even the most tender of expressions so easily, Jamil distractedly thinks as Kalim rubs his cheek against his shoulder.
Really, Jamil's master is a handful whose mind is always swinging from one extreme to the other in a matter of seconds and, it's only because Jamil's an amazingly diligent servant that he can do anything about this.
Without hesitation, he swipes the air in front of him two times, opens his parameters and logs out. When he takes the VR goggles off, night has already fully settled over Scarabia and Kalim, his expensive device discarded near the bedside table candy bowl, is waiting for him with open arms and a smile he’d never show to anyone else.