Texas and I played Call to Honor for hours. It was a military war game. We played in battle royal mode. We dropped in from a plane, tried to complete missions and bounties on a map that slowly got shorter as time went on by the perimeter filling with deadly gas. All while also trying to survive other players. You “won” when you made it to the exfil point and successfully extracted with the gear and rewards you collected along the way. Call to Honor was where I first met Arturo. We never got the chance to meet in person. It saddened me deeply. Texas was insanely good at the game. He was at the max level which was five hundred. Truly disgusting. He was a beast. I was a measly level thirty, I stopped playing years ago. I would jump on every now and then to collect limited run rewards from events but that was about it. None of my other friends played the game and I hated playing alone. I also didn’t feel like trying to meet new people to play with. It was mine and Arturo’s game and some part of me wanted to keep it that way. Until now. I had forgotten how much fun this game could be with the right person. We were absolutely killing it but also goofing around and being weirdos. We would make up our own games within the game, like finding cars and trying to see who could run more people over. Wholesome family fun things.

“Were you a sniper in the military?” I asked as we exfiled. Our dynamic quickly became Texas being the angel watching over me and sniping anyone who got close. He was terrifying with that thing and even more deadly with the knife.

“No, I was too tall.” 

“What? That’s a thing?” I could hear him stretching. “How tall are you?” My curiosity was at an all time high. I don’t think I pictured him as anything yet but I didn’t think he would be exceptionally tall or anything like that. I guess I assumed he would look like your average southern dude. Whatever that looked like. Nothing special?

“Six foot five inches.” I could hear him crack his neck through the headset.

“What the fuck? There’s no fucking way!” The man’s a mountain!

He laughed, “I swear.”

“You fucking giant.” I was exasperated. Everyone was always fucking taller than me. But this was just absolutely ridiculous. 

“How short are you then?” He teased me.

I didn’t like his choice of words, “First of all, how dare you. Second…” I muttered out the last few words.

“What was that?” I could feel him grinning through the stupid mic.

“Five foot four.” I grumbled.

“Aww, my little munchkin.”

The second we loaded into our next match I shot him in the head to which he responded by laughing uncontrollably. Being solo, the match did not last long at all for us, more specifically for me. If I would have died, Texas could have carried himself all the way to exfil with a bunch of loot.

“You cost me my favorite gun.” His tone was still playful.

“You can buy it back in four hours.” I teased back.

“What are we going to do for four hours?” 

I glanced at my phone. I still hadn’t replied to any other messages today but I also didn’t feel the need to. It was… freeing. This was nice.

“Hmmm…” I hummed as I placed my hands on the back of my head. My eyes drifted over to the clock in the corner of my computer screen, it was already six in the morning. Jesus christ. I wasn’t even tired. 

“Hey, do you have a job to go to or anything?” I asked.

“Why? Are you trying to get rid of me?” He was becoming more and more playful the longer we talked and I welcomed it with open arms.

“Maybe.” I quipped.

He chuckled and I could hear him relaxing his body into a more comfortable position, “Not really.” Was all he said in response.

I didn’t want to press the question so I changed the subject to, “We could watch some scary movies.”

“Okay.” He didn’t sound necessarily excited about the idea but he didn’t protest either so I pulled out my catalog of my favorite horror films and we started from the top. Halfway through the third film I could hear the sounds of him breathing in a deep sleep. Tingles spread across my body which caused me to shiver. I didn’t want to leave the voice channel we were in on our gaming app. Leaving him alone and asleep there felt wrong so I stayed. The sounds of his breaths were… comforting. It reminded me of all the times Arturo and I would fall asleep in voice channels after long nights of gaming. But something about this was definitely different. I couldn’t understand or explain how or why. Maybe it was because I was different. I eventually switched over from my computer to my phone and went about my day. I prepared some meals for work. Washed and dried my scrubs and even remade my entire bed. After a few minutes of huffing and puffing from fighting my bedsheets I heard some grunts and grumbles come from my phone.

“Ah, shit. I’m sorry.” Texas’s voice was groggy and deep from sleep weighing heavy on his voice.

“You suck.” I chuckled, ignoring the tickle in my stomach.

“Mmm, I know.” He yawned as he stretched out on his bed. “You didn’t have to stay.” He said.

I shrugged as though he could see me, “It’s fine, just don’t make it a habit.”

He laughed, “I’ll try not to.”

Admittedly we both didn’t try very hard. It actually became a routine. Over the next few weeks we practically always fell asleep on call together, whether it was a basic phone call or in our gaming app. Every morning after work I would call Texas and fall asleep as I vented to him about my day. When I would wake up he would still be there. Sometimes he would be asleep as well and other times he would be gaming or doing household chores. And on my days off? We practically never parted. I liked being at home. Being with him. It was easy. Talking to him was like breathing, it came so fucking naturally. I was beginning to forget what life was like before him. 

“I don’t want to go out tonight.” I whined as I sprawled across my bed.

“You promised Dylan though.” He reminded me of my promise to my “work bestie” which I was currently regretting.

“Can’t I just stay home and play Call to Honor?” I sighed.

“Aww, munchkin, try not to miss me too much.” He was as playful as ever.

“I hate you.” I grumbled jestingly. 

“Go be a person and have fun.” He said.

“I don’t want to be a person, I want to be an NPC.” 

“Ah, so you want to be controlled?” He mocked suggestively.

“Control me daddy.” I cooed back and he hissed.

“Goodbye.” His voice was plain and sharp before he abruptly left the call, causing me to burst out laughing.