Ready Lover One? (Klance/Laith)

Chapter 2: System Download

Beep. Beep beep. 

The alarm clock on the nightstand went off waking Keith. He groaned, pulling himself from the warmth of the bed and headed towards the bathroom to get ready for the day. Once he finished getting dressed, he headed towards the kitchen where he found Shiro sleeping at the table. 

"Shiro, wake up." 

The raven haired teen gently shook Shiro's shoulder. The older male peered up at Keith, strands of white hair falling into face as he leaned back rubbing his eyes. 

"How long were you and Matt up playing that dumb game?"

"It's not dumb and last I saw it was almost 4 am." Shiro yawned, leaning back in his chair. 

Keith shook his head while walking over to grab a cup of coffee for Shiro. What's so great about that game anyway? The same thought continued to run around his head as he prepared breakfast for the two of them before leaving for school. 

"Have you heard about World of Mischief?"

"I can't believe I lost a fight against an area boss. How lame!"

"My boyfriend has played it non-stop since it came out! He said he'd help me with it so we can get married in-game!"

Keith couldn't wait for the day to be over so that he wouldn't have to hear about that game anymore. All that people in his school could talk about was how awesome World of Mischief was and how good, or horrible, they were at it. Keith even heard some of the teachers talking about it too.

So, when lunch rolled around and Keith escaped to the roof, he finally found peace for the first time that day. He laid on his back staring up at the sky as a gentle breeze pushed the clouds along. The raven haired teen wasn't exactly an outdoors person but he did enjoy the beauty of sceneries and landscapes. Being up high and either overlooking things down below or watching the sky above had always seemed to calm Keith's mind. 

Once the final bell had rung, Keith slowly made his home talking the long way through the park. He hated being inside all the time but he didn't have anyone to hangout with other than Shiro and half the time he was busy playing games with Matt. 

When Keith walked through the apartment complex's doors, he was greeted by the landlord, a man in his early thirties, leaning against the front desk. When the man noticed Keith, he smiled and waved. 

"How's it going, Keith? Are you and Shiro settling in well?" 

"We're doing fine. You normally don't come by often, is something wrong?"

The man chuckled and scratched his head, "Other than complaints about the cat lady on the third floor, nothing is wrong. I stopped to see how things were for everyone. Oh, I knocked and no one answered but I was sure I heard voices inside."

The teen simply shook his head, "I'm sorry, Shiro is probably playing that stupid ass game again." 

"You're talking about World of Mischief, right?" The landlord's face lit up like the sky on the Fourth of July. 

"Yeah, he plays it all the time. Anyway, I have homework I need to get done before it gets too late. See ya." With that, Keith quickly headed up the stairs towards the fifth floor.

Just as expected, when he reached the apartment, Keith found Matt and Shiro inside playing that game. "No wonder they didn't hear the landlord, they're too damn loud," he thought. The teen didn't even bother trying to tell them that he was home. He simply grabbed a bottle of water and snack from the kitchen before retreating to the quietness of his room. 

When Keith flopped down onto his bed, he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. He opened his eyes after a few minutes to study the unevenness of the popcorn ceiling. His eyes slowly glanced around the room before landing on the box on his desk. He had almost forgotten he had a copy himself. Actually, Keith wanted nothing more than for the game to completely disappear from his life. 

The rest of the week went by like normal. Everyone at his school fawned over World of Mischief while he dreaded every conversation about it. Matt had stopped by a few more times and each time tried to convince Keith to create an account to try the game out on. Needless to say, each of his attempts failed, many ending up with a steaming Keith slamming his door in Matt and Shiro's faces. 

Finally, Friday night had come and Keith could relax after a stressful week. While he was reading on the couch, Shiro walked through carrying duffel bag over his shoulder. The teen glanced up from his book and raised an eyebrow. 

"I figured I'd spend a couple of days over at Matt's place and if you wanted to do something on Sunday then we could hangout then."

"Does this have anything to do with World of Mischief?"

Shiro rubbed the back of his neck and looked away, "We've kind of gotten the hint that you aren't into it and probably won't be. So, to help you keep your sanity, I'm going to head over to his place to place for awhile."

Keith's grip on his book tightened slightly as he averted his eyes. Shiro chuckled ruffling up the teen's hair before slipping out of the apartment. Keith was left alone in the dimly lit and silent apartment. He had continued to read and listened to music until he became bored. 

The restless teen roamed around the apartment looking for something to do. He had cooked a simple dinner and cleaned up before returning to boredom. Keith had eventually made his way to his room where he sat staring out at the city. With Shiro gone, things didn't seem to be the same and that's when Keith saw the box again. 

Stalking over, he grabbed the box to examine the exterior. The cover had the title going across the top and bottom, a beautiful starry night scene pictured as the background and what appeared to be a knight and mage battling in the foreground. Keith had to admit that the artwork was eye catching. 

The teen shook his head and thought about the game. He had no interest it but everyone was making such a fuss that he sort of wanted to know what was so great about it. He sat down in his rolling desk chair and kept thinking about the game. 

Sighing, Keith lifted the box and began to open it. He knew that Matt and Shiro would be online so he would need to be careful to not alert them that he was playing. When he pulled the contents out, Keith found a disc and booklet with basic control information. He had barely seen a piece of paper fall to floor and when he reached for it, he noticed it had a code on it. 

A.N. ~ I only changed the note at the end of this chapter and that's it. I wrote this really late at night and fell asleep right after I published this so I kinda forgot about the random note at the end. I kinda forgot to fix it until a little bit ago while working on the next chapter so yeah...Sorry for any confusion and for that random note at the end of this chapter last week.