James was surprised when his Skype pinged in the middle of a game of Happy Wheels. He’d managed to force some of his normal temperament so that he could record a bit, but of course he was interrupted. Gritting his teeth, he paused the game, then the recording, before opening the Skype window. If it was Sp00n with some dumb cat picture again…
His frustration melted into confusion, however, when he looked at the name that had sent him a message. Aleks. Aleks? The fucker who walked out without so much as a apologetic glance? James closed his eyes for a moment to collect himself and his disorienting scattered emotions, before looking to see what the Russian wanted.
New Battleblock map? :P
Now he was even more confused. Was the other just going to act like nothing had happened?
James quietly sighed, hands rubbing over his tired face. He did need more content—he’d been falling behind schedule lately—and everyone loved Battleblock Theater with him and Aleks. And if Aleks wanted to act like nothing had ever happened, that would be the end of it, right? There was no harm in it.
Letting out another long, stressful breath, he typed a quick reply (“Sure. Link me”) and set up to record what used to be one of his favorite series.
“Noooooooo…” Aleks moaned, as James dropped a rock on top of his little characters’ head, forcing him to spawn at the last checkpoint, several obstacles behind where he had been.
James was surprised. The session so far had been completely normal, no awkwardness at all. As soon as they started the map, their normal recording chemistry had returned, full force. Well, mostly full force. It may have just been his imagination, but James could swear that Aleks was acting…different. Not much, just slightly off from his normal character. Although, he reasoned, that could be just because they hadn’t played this game together for a while.
Pulling his thoughts back to the game, he laughed at how Aleks simply could not pass the obstacle right before the next checkpoint. Aleks giggled, too, as he fell into purple liquid yet again and his character drowned dramatically.
“Fuck this,” He chuckled as he set up to try again. “Fuuuuuuck. Fuckckck. Faaaack.” Aleks giggled again, a strangely high-pitched version of his usual laugh, at his different pronunciations of his favorite curse word.
James furrowed his brow. That wasn’t even funny.
“Aleks, you okay, dude?” he asked, joking but serious at the same time.
“Yeah, Jamesozki, I’m fine,” the younger replied, and James could practically hear the smirk in his voice at his little nickname. Something was off, though. Aleks didn’t usually use nicknames, and he had…almost…slurred some of the ‘s’ noises. He knew he’d heard that kind of change to speech before, but where…?
It hit him. High school.
“Aleks, turn off your recording for a minute,” James rubbed his hand over his face yet again. Things just got worse and worse. “How fucked up are you right now?”
Aleks was silent for a few moments. “I might be a little high…”
James cursed the boy under his breath. He’d had his suspicions about Aleks occasionally smoking some weed—after all, many of his friends had done the same in high school, he knew the type—but to confirm it was a different story.
“Why the fuck—why the fuck would you record in that state in the first place, and second of all…Jesus Christ, Aleks, it’s not even a fucking weekend. Everyone knows that if you’re gonna get fucked up, you do it on the weekend so you don’t mess up work or anything. What were you thinking?” A small monster that had been born when Aleks left his room earlier that day breathed fiery words out through James’s mouth. He didn’t even know why he was so pissed, but he was. How could Aleks be so stupid?
“I…” he sounded so ashamed, so young. James felt the monster inside of him cringe at the innocent tone. “I guess it’s just how I deal with stress.”
The monster perked up, roaring.
Stress.
As in, worries; obstacles; problems.
The only thing Aleks had to be ‘stressed’ about these last few days was James, and their shambled relationship.
James felt rage, icy cold in his chest, ready to burst.
Aleks been the one to kiss him in the closet. He’d kissed him again when he came over, and he was the one who left in such a hurry afterwards. And now he was high because he was ‘stressed’ over this shit? How did he think James felt?
But James didn’t say any of that. All he said was a sharp, “fuck you”, before pounding the power button on his computer and stomping out of the room, door shaking on its hinges as he slammed it behind him.
AN: Hi guys! So, this was supposed to be longer, but I ended up having to split it into two parts. Fan art by chloefizzyx.tumblr.com. Go check her out! If you want to contact me for ideas, suggestions, or just to talk, feel free to email me at Therealsabertoothtigress@gmail.com, send me a message on Tumblr at Captainthief.tumblr.com, or use the tag '50ShadesofJames' on Tumblr. For updates, fanart, and milestones, check out the 50ShadesofJames tumblr tag or Captainthief.tumblr.com/50. Thanks for reading!