Work Text:
Avery
D3rlord was dead.
D3rlord was dead.
D3rlord was dead.
Derek was dead.
Derek was dead.
The thought registered in his head even before he had hit respawn. D3rlord and all of his stupid, selfless, need to be the hero, the sacrifice attitude had died just to save Avery.
Avery slid out of his chair and collapsed to the floor, sobs wracking his body. What was he supposed to do? Save the game and leave? Go about his normal life?
Fireworks were going off outside.
No one had celebrated with him, or even called or texted or checked in on him (but it's not like he had anyone to do that in the first place). He shifted on his back to stare at the popcorn ceiling, eventually turning to stare at the underside of his desk. His tears were drying uncomfortably against his skin. His room was dark, aside from the occasional flash from fireworks lighting up his blinds, but the glow from his computer screen offered some light.
Derek couldn't be dead. There was just no way. It had all happened in the game, so nothing could have actually hurt him in real life.
Avery refused to acknowledge how Derek had said he couldn't look away from his screen.
Avery tucked his knees up close to him, curling in to himself under the desk.
As Joel said, everything was normal, everything was fine.
Derek
Derek did not question how in the absolute fuck he was still alive. He didn't have time.
He was rushing through world after world, racing to get back to Avery in-game since that was the only way they could communicate. He passed through golden door after door, back through all the worlds he and Avery had previously explored. He was thankful he had turned the game to peaceful mode because he would have starved to death long before then. While he couldn't remember the exact order of the worlds, he was decently sure he was close.
He had to get to Avery. He had to.
Avery
At some point Avery had climbed out of his cocoon under the desk and was idly spinning in his chair, forcing himself to zone out without thoughts.
Eventually, he turned to face his computer again. There were no new messages in the chat, the most recent being his last death message. His hand hovered over the mouse, over the disconnect button.
He didn't press it.
Instead, he mumbled, "No harm in checking one last time," and retraced all of their footsteps for the second time, all the way to the now-familiar yellow doors.
He could have set his game to spectator mode, or even teleported there, but instead he switched to peaceful just like D3rlord because that felt more meaningful. Maybe he cried a few times, or had to stop because his vision was so blurred with tears he couldn't see anymore, but he had just lost his only friend, so give him a break.
He almost went right as a joke, but instead he turned left at the crossroads. He never was that great at listening anyways.
The further he traveled, the deeper and darker and got. And unsettled feeling grew in his stomach, and when he finally saw the doors, he felt nauseous.
Curiously, they were closed.
"Unfortunately for you," Avery whispered, quoting D3rlord, "I have a pickaxe." As he started to break one of the blocks, the one beneath it began breaking as well. The progress was much slower, though, like they were using their hands. Avery stepped back and watched as a figure walked through the hole, dressed in familiar scuffed armour. "D3rlord?"
Derek
They stared at each other for a few seconds before Avery lunged at him.
It wasn't the hug Derek had been expecting. No, Avery landed hit after hit on his character's body, and by the time he relented, Derek only had three hearts remaining.
"I mean, you really could have just said hello, you know."
Avery punched him again. "You godsdamn fucking idiot," Avery yelled, "you absolute bastard."
"I-"
"Nope, my turn to speak. Don't you realise how selfish that was? What if you had actually died? What if you weren't here anymore? What about me? What would I have done after that?"
"I had to save you, Avery. He could have taken over you and been free in the real world. You would have died too."
"I'd rather both of us die than spend eternity with you than the rest of my life without you," Avery declared.
"You have so much left to live, -"
"Without you? I don't have a life without you, and since I met you I knew the only life I wanted was one with you in it."
"Avery-"
"No. We are not having this conversation in a minecraft chat. You are going to give me your phone number and address, and I am coming to your place and we will talk everything through." Avery added, "and then we will have sex."
"Okay."
A few minutes later, Derek saw a notification on his phone. Without thinking, he went to check it, and immediately called the number.
"Avery," Derek began breathlessly as the revelation hit him. "I can look away from the screen!" He disconnected from Minecraft seconds later,eyes jumping from place to place in the room he hadn't seen in months - the room he never thought he would have the chance to see again.
"Really? That's awesome, D3rlord!" Avery exclaimed from the other end. It was strange hearing Avery's actual voice instead of reading chat messages, but he felt like deep down the voice was familiar, as if he had always known it somehow. Derek could hear shuffling and a car door opening and closing.
Derek cringed at his reflection in the mirror. His hair was greasy and much too long, eyes shadowed and nails begging to be trimmed. He looked like hell.
"Are you okay?".
"Yeah," Derek answered after a moment, having been absorbed in re-memorizing the details of himself that he had forgotten. "Yeah, just a bit lightheaded. Also, I look horrendous."
"I mean, yeah, sitting in a chair and drinking nothing but protein shakes will do that do you." Derek could hear Avery driving in the background. "But you have a good couple hours before I get there, so you've got time. Plus, I don't mind, I don't look that great either."
"Somehow I doubt that."
They talked for a few more minutes, then decided to hang up so Derek could clean himself and the area up. He marveled at all the feelings and textures he hadn't felt for so long, the warmth of his shower and flavour of his toothpaste, how it felt to chew solid food again, and scrubbed his dishes.
He stepped on to his tiny front lawn, tilting his head upwards and spinning in a circle as the cold bit into his skin. He dissolved in to laughter when he fell over in to the remnants of snow and ended up making a snow angel. It was still pitch black and disgustingly early, and his neighbours probably thought he was insane, but he was overwhelmed by all the sensations he had been deprived of and didn't care anymore.
He cleaned the layer of dust coating everything and did his laundry. When he was finished with everything (even the sheets of his bed), he sat wrapped in a spare blanket on his front steps, warming his hands with fresh coffee.
About an hour after the sun had rose, reflections glinting off every surface with melting snow, a car parked on his street (it took more than w few tries).
Derek sprinted up to it. Neither of them took their eyes off the other as Avery got out of the car. "Hi."
"Hi."
"It's you," Avery breathed. "You're really alive." They held tightly on to each other. "I was worried I'd imagined it."
"No, thankfully you didn't," Derek murmured in to Avery's neck. "Do you want to come inside?"
"Yeah, it's freezing out here."
Derek slowly gave the tour of his small house. He was pretty sure both of them were stalling.
They settled on the bed.
"So," Avery started.
"So," Derek echoed.
"How are you still alive?" Avery finally asked.
"I wasn't exactly certain I was going to die, when it happened, but I was pretty sure." Derek let out a breath. "I don't know if he's in my head and hiding or something, but I haven't heard him yet - knock on wood."
"Could he have gotten trapped in the game, do you think?"
"I don't know." Derek took hold off Avery's hand. "I'm so sorry I did it."
"I hope you are. You know what I went through? I spent hours crying thinking you died." Derek wiped away a tear that made its way down Avery's face. "Please don't do that again."
"I won't," Derek promised.
"I want to spend the rest of our lives together," Avery admitted. "I know it's probably way too early to say this, but I want to move in together and adopt a dog and cat and so much more - but only if you'd be okay with that."
Derek tugged Avery in to his arms, pressing a kiss to his forehead. "More than okay. That's exactly what I want," Derek responded. "But now, I would really like to sleep because I have a feeling we are both very sleep deprived."
Avery agreed and they tangled their limbs and drifted in to a deep, restful, comforting sleep.
Avery
Avery was the first to wake.
He could see the dark sky through D3rlord's window. They had slept the entire day away, bodies almost melting into each other's and thankful for the rest. He rubbed his face into D3rlord's shoulder, and D3rlord, still not awake, held him tighter.
He could hardly believe this was real, that this was their future. Hours ago, - well probably over a day at this point - he had thought he had lost this chance at happiness, but now he had everything he wanted in his arms.
Over the next couple months, Derek found out he was being (not paying rent for months will do that to you), so he moved in with Avery (not like they weren't already going to do that). They gave their computers for someone else to find the world, though that may have not been the best idea, and cautiously bought new ones that didn't have pre-installed worlds and games. They also adopted animals the end.