Work Text:
The familiar pixels loading into his surroundings surrounds Mydei as he watches them come together to form words he has seen millions of times already.
Welcome to Amphoreus: Land of the Eternal!
> Press here to Start
The man flexes his arms, unable to feel his limbs, but that was to be expected at the launch up. After all, Mydei was currently in a virtual game right now. Created by the same developers of Penacony, Amphoreus was their latest game, where the devs, with their advanced virtual reality technology, managed to create an even more immersive game.
Penacony on its own was an impressive feat, pioneering the whole VR game genre as being the very first one of its kind. Amphoreus, on the other hand, was even more so, with the ability to fully immerse oneself into the virtual game with just one’s mind and a much simpler set up.
Mydei’s real body was currently lying in the comforts of his bed, while his consciousness was currently connected to the online game. Thanks to the new optimized game gear that the developers made, all he had to do was wear a headset.
He doesn’t understand how exactly it worked, but all he knew was that it somehow, that lightweight piece of device connected his brain to the rest of the world. Was it safe? Probably not… but what’s some fun without some risk? It’s not like he was going to end up trapped in this game against his own will.
Mydei flexes his arms again, finally being able to feel his arms after waiting for a few moments. With his senses all intact and functioning, Mydei raises his hand to press on the giant ‘START’ text in front of him, feeling his body go numb during the transportation into a familiar scene.
The second he loaded in, barely letting all the buildings around him fully render in properly, a message popped up into his inbox.
The blonde internally groaned. How was it that this man always messaged him every time as soon as he logged on? He can’t remember a time where he was not bombarded by messages from the other man.
Mydei ignored him—he was here to relax and do his dailies, preferably alone, after a long day at work with his favorite game. Not be dragged along to whatever the other player wanted from him.
After Cifera introduced him to this game, he unexpectedly got hooked onto it. He was never really that big in the gaming space, most of the time opting to read a book instead of staring at a screen, but there was something about this game that drew him in.
Amphoreus was a MMORPG game, where players would team up, form guilds, and clear challenging content together in order to further advance their levels. The main difference between Amphoreus and other MMORPG games, however, was how the senses, quite literally, came into play here.
With the add on of the actual physical sensation of being in the game—something that clicking away with a mouse or controller would not have been able to provide—Mydei felt like he was truly living two different lives.
He could smell the flowery scent carried by the breeze, or feel and swing around the heavy weight of a claymore in his hands (which is not a usual item for him in his everyday life).
It wasn’t all just about fighting and leveling up your character, though. They had many different events and contents in order to keep their players engaged as well, with appealing rewards such as a new weapon or avatar item.
Or for the casual players, they had a housing system where players could level up their stats through different tasks, like cooking or gardening. Mydei very much enjoyed the cooking aspect the game provided—it was almost like cooking in reality, but without worrying about the costs (or freshness) of ingredients.
Mydei also really liked the customization of this game. He had the ability to be whatever he wanted to be, and he knows most of his friends ended up making avatars that strayed from their actual appearance. A few of them even made several different avatar sets to switch between whenever they felt like it.
Him on the other hand? Ended up making only one avatar, which ended up looking pretty similar to himself. He was quite surprised that the avatar customization even had a full body tattoo that looked scarily accurate to him—maybe it was just part of the immersive element that the game offered? He never saw it on anyone else before.
His avatar had the same blond spiky hair dipped in red with parts of his hair braided into a side braid. However, unlike how he usually has his hair in a low ponytail, his hair here remains fully down and free, like an unruly lion’s mane.
Golden gauntlets cased his arms, as golden necklace and earring with blue accents adorned his body. His legs were fully covered, with golden armored boots that covered nearly his entire leg. Sadly, the armor his avatar wore didn’t actually count as added defense stats, but he liked how it looked on him!
On the opposite end of the spectrum, he wore a red robe that draped over his left side of his torso, fully exposing his chest. After all, he wanted his tattoos to be visible! And since it was just his game avatar, it didn’t matter how he chose to dress.
The ping of a new message comes immediately, the preview menu popping up in front of him. Every new message popped up in front of his face one after another.
He’s here to relax and unwind, not to get riled up. He should just mute Phainon and go on with his original plan but…
Oops…his fingers slipped.
The moment he sends the message, a team invitation request appears.
Mydei has to fight the urge to tear out his hair. Or to punch a hole into the building next to him (the last time he did that, he was fined three hundred coins. Stupid video game rules). Begrudgingly, he finally presses on the “accept” button, feeling the familiar feeling of the teleportation system as he leaves the lobby and is brought into a new area.
The teleportation always leaves him a little bit dizzy and disoriented, as he closes his eyes to fight off the nauseating feeling, trying to regain his footing when his feet finally touch the ground of wherever Phainon was.
“Mydei~!” A loud, familiar and irritating voice fills his ears as he feels a heavy weight tackle into him. Arms wrap around the back of his head, cushioning his fall as he is sent head first to the ground.
”What are you, a dog?”
”For you, I can be!” And without missing another beat, the player above him barked.
Mydei stares at the white-haired man, eyes twitching in disbelief. Surely there was a bug with the game; maybe he should report it to the devs. He refuses to believe that a grown-ass man just barked at him.
The benefit of doubt Mydei so graciously provided to the other man vanished the second Phainon let out a whine at the lack of reaction from Mydei, eyes narrowing in desperation as he juts his lower lips out in a pout.
Of course he would bark, this guy has no shame. His mistake for thinking otherwise.
Mydei could feel the all too familiar onset of a migraine. He pushes the other man off of him, a little rougher than he intended on, as he gets back up. And if he heard another pathetic whining sound from the white-haired man, he didn’t address it.
”What do you want, Phainon?” A hardened glare is thrown at the white-haired man, Mydei frowning at the growing grin that appeared on the other’s face. If he knows anything about that man, it’s that that smile could only mean agony for him.
”Let’s do our dailies together!”
Whoever is watching over him, please give him strength.
As Mydei tears the head off of the last titankin, a robotic voice echoes off of the walls, announcing that the dungeon was now cleared. Fifty enemies, one boss, sub five minutes clear. Not the duo’s fastest time, but significantly faster than the average team.
“I win.” Flexing his gauntlets, Mydei hops off of the titankin, landing flat on his feet to face the other player stalking towards him.
”That’s because you stole the last kill from me.” The sound of the metal dragging across the floor, following its wielder as the blood from Phainon’s blade leaves a trail behind him. Red eyes look up to meet his own, before flickering back to the usual shade of blue.
”I won fair and square,” the blonde huffs, already used to the other man’s theatrics. “And what’s up with your eyes?”
Phainon tilts his head, confusion evident in his expression as his eyebrows knitted together. “What do you mean?”
”That eye thing—whatever that is. It’s creepy.” The blank expression on the white-haired man’s face urges Mydei to add on more. “The flickering red in your eyes? Did you buy a new avatar item?”
"What thing?" Phainon repeated, and the sudden drop in tone almost made Mydei take a double take at the change of attitude.
“Your…eye?” The empty blue eyes stare back at his own, unblinking. No red at all, he noted. Though, he swears he can see something dark swirling in them.
The longer Mydei stared, the more he felt unease settle in his stomach. Did he say something wrong? Last time he checked, it wasn’t a strange question to ask. “I must have imagined it…you know, lighting and stuff…” he muttered out, breaking the prolonged eye contact with the other player.
A few seconds passed, the tension feeling so thick that one could cut it with a knife, before laughter broke the silence.
“You’re so silly, my dear Mydeimos! You know what my avatars look like—only you use the color red!” A large smile, which Mydei swore had too many teeth, reappeared on Phainon’s face, bringing back his usual persona.
Phainon has a total of three different avatars: his current one, one that looked similar to his current but with a tattered black cloak (and really edgy vibes, if he does say so himself), and a blonde one with these huge blue and yellow wings.
True, none of them had red, but it’s not unusual for Phainon to change his avatar. It wasn’t even a weird question to ask in the first place, so why did Phainon react like that?
Why did it sound like Phainon was hiding something?
Thoughts full of suspicion swirled his mind, with Phainon’s strange behavior puzzling him, but before any of them could take root into something more, he felt an arm loop over his shoulder.
“Did you get anything good?” A change of topic, just what he needed from this awkward situation. He eyes at the loot he got from this dungeon run.
Just a bunch of trash, unfortunately. Maybe he could pawn it off to get some virtual currency back. A nice plate of honey fruitcakes sounds nice right now. Or even some fig stew. “Not really. How about you?” Mydei can hear the sound of Phainon tossing his belongings left and right as the white-hair man digs through his inventory.
”Hmm…just some common drops…oh! I got this pretty vase!” A roughed up vase coated in chipped paints of purple and yellow patterns is shoved into his view, with bright blue eyes shining with glee looking up at him.
“That’s ugly, get it out of my sight.” Mydei couldn’t help but roll his eyes as he let out a huff. Phainon had some…really questionable tastes.
He still shivers at the one time Phainon invited him over to check out his house, only to see his whole home littered with “antiques” that looked just like that all over the floor. He could hardly navigate around without tripping over some artifact that burned his eyes with how awful the colors were.
A loud gasp escapes Phainon, as he feigns shock. “How could you say that! I’ll have you know, antiques like this could be worth millions. If it’s real, that is. Good thing I have honed my skills in artifact appraisal, so I could tell that this one is the real one—”
Mydei immediately pressed the leave domain button.
When Phainon reunited back with Mydei outside of the domain, he clung onto the blonde, whining over how Mydei left him alone in that domain, before continuing where he left off—back to how amazing his artifact appraisal skills were. Of course, Mydei still remembers all the times Phainon got scammed with fakes from other players, and couldn’t help but let out a huff in amusement at such memories.
Mydei, as he is used to by now, learned how to tune out the other man as he finishes the rest of his daily routine.
The rest of his daily runs weren’t anything fighting related—just a few tasks like helping an npc at town, crafting some kind of potion he’ll never use, and leveling up some random gear pieces.
With Phainon still clinging on to him all the way through, of course. Sometimes, the other man would talk nonstop while walking with him, with Mydei answering in short hums here and there.
Other times, he would go silent, fall back a few paces and just stare at him. Just like now.
With those creepy, darkened eyes, as if they were watching his every move…no, sometimes, it felt like it was something deeper than just simply watching him. Like he was being stalked, creeped up on.
Almost like a stealthy predator to an unsuspecting prey.
Mydei would be lying if he said it didn’t give him the chills. He never questioned Phainon about it, simply preferring to not open that can of worms and let Phainon be as he continued on with his tasks. Sometimes, he would initiate his own conversations, noticing how it seemed to bring Phainon out of that mode.
“So…” Mydei cleared his throat, watching at how those sharp eyes seemed to snap up to his own face. “Did anything interesting today?”
Phainon hummed quietly—Mydei wonders if the other even heard what he said, given the lack of response he received. The two walked in silence for a few paces, before the former finally spoke up.
“I got a new vase for my home,” a cheerful voice chimes. Forced, Mydei could tell, as he peers back at the man following him. As if on cue, Phainon caught up to him, immediately latching onto his arm.
“Uh huh,” Mydei pays no mind to the look the other gives him, “I was literally there with you when you got it. I meant outside of this game.”
Phainon gives Mydei a look of contempt, before shrugging it off. “Then no—anything without you isn’t interesting at all.”
Does this man not have an outside life? Mydei almost felt pity for the dog-like player next to him (given with how clingy he was around him), with how online Phainon seemed to be.
“Do you not do anything outside of Amphoreus?” Phainon doesn’t answer him, choosing to instead hum a solemn tune as he leans in closer to Mydei. And Mydei doesn’t pry any further.
After the strange atmosphere finally left, with Phainon returning to his usual self, and approximately another 30 minutes of working through his dailies and some grinds, Mydei decided it was finally time to log off. He still had to make dinner to eat, after all. And unfortunately, he still has work tomorrow.
“I’m logging off now,” Mydei announces, pulling up the hologram menu in order to do so. Those four words immediately snapped Phainon out of rambling on whatever topic he chose this time. His hand shoots forward, grabbing onto Mydei’s wrist in an attempt to stop him from pressing the exit button.
“Haha…so soon? We haven’t even got to go to the baths today!” The other man laughed mirthlessly, trying to get Mydei to stay online longer.
He always does this—as if dragging Mydei into a team immediately as soon as he logs on, and then following him around like a lost puppy all the way till he logs off isn’t enough “hanging out” time.
“I got work tomorrow. I’m sure we will see each other again.” After all, there wasn’t a time Phainon wasn’t online when he got on.
At this point, Mydei wonders if Phainon even touches grass.
The other man frowns at Mydei’s reply, but doesn’t make any more effort to stop him from logging off. Instead, he wears a smile—one that clearly does not reach his eyes—as he lets go of his grip.
”Yeah…I’ll see you later.”
—-
Mydei’s phones continuously buzz nonstop as he tries to focus on his work. Heavy emphasis on tries. He was currently at the office, being an ordinary office worker who worked a 9 to 5, and he was on shift.
Unluckily for him, it seemed like a certain sly cat wanted to bother him today, as his phone continued to vibrate on his desk. Mydei glances around the cubicles…his boss wasn’t around so, he could afford sneaking a glance to see what she was spamming him about, right?
He quickly turns his phone around, peeking at the screen that now lit up with a new message from Cifera. He read the preview: ”Did you see the new event in Amphoreus?”
New event? Cifera never got excited like this over a new event, unless it was a co-op event where she wanted Mydei to do practically the whole event for her under the guise of “playing together.”
And with the amount of messages she sent, it seemed like it had a good reward.
Mydei glances at the clock—it was about time for his lunch break. He could talk to Cifera about it later. Mydei places his phone back upside down, temporarily muting the other girl. That’s what she gets for messaging him while he was at work.
”Why were you ignoring my messages, little lion~?” A weight leans against Mydei’s shoulder as he ignores the woman next to him, opting to eat the sandwich he had packed for lunch.
”I was at work, doing my job, unlike a certain someone,” he pays her no mind as he continues to scroll through cat videos.
”I’m just that efficient~” Cifera snatches the other half of Mydei’s sandwich, biting into it without any hesitation. By now, Mydei was already used to her stealing some of his food, so he began packing a little bit extra for her portion too. “So, did you see the new event?”
”No.” When he read her messages earlier, all she sent was how excited she was at the new rewards—she never really sent anything that actually explained what it was, nor did Mydei feel like looking it up at that time.
”The devs released a couples event!” Mydei threw a questioning glance at her, raising an eyebrow in confusion.
A couples event? Amphoreus has done a few of those already, where players would have to get into pairs to get event-exclusives. The two players would “get together,” and then would have to complete tasks together.
Mydei typically did them with Cifera; with the latter liking it as a lavender marriage. These events usually were just the two players trying to reach a certain goal—Mydei usually ended up just finishing the entire thing alone as Cifera leeched on for the rewards.
“So? You want me to do it with you again?” It’s not like he really minded if she didn’t actively participate in the events; him playing with Phainon usually was enough to add up the points for the two of them anyways.
“Oh little lion~ your words are music to my ears~” she purrs, and Mydei already knows that means “yes, play the event for me.” Cifera reaches back into Mydei’s lunchbox, grabbing a few pieces of cookies to snack on.
”Why spam me over this then? I always team up with you.” Mydei closes the container, preventing Cifera from eating his portion too. The woman huffs at his protective action.
”Didn’t you see the rewards this time around? A high rarity—with toggles, by the way—matching couples outfit, but you could only get one or the other.” Mydei could see the shine in her eyes, a clear sign that Cifera was scheming something. “So—”
Of course, this event was just a money opportunity for her. “Don’t ask me for my rewards either.” He could see how Cifera pouted at that, crossing her arms as she huffs at him.
”You didn’t even let me try persuading you! How could you shut me down already!”
”And my answers stay the same everytime.” Cifera doesn’t even hide the displeased groan she lets out.
“Fineeee... I call dibs on the groom set by the way!”
Coming home from a long day at work, Mydei opens the door to a cold, lifeless apartment. The consequences of moving out and living alone in a pet-free apartment, he supposes.
It’s not like he was on bad terms with his parents—he just wanted to prove to them that he was fully capable on his own. He knew that in a heartbeat, his parents would dote on him and provide for him.
One day, he will be able to buy his own house by himself and be able to treat them back, but that day isn’t today. Or any day soon, as a matter of fact. For now, it’ll just be him until he could move out…then maybe he could get a cat.
Dropping his bag onto his couch, Mydei takes a shower and fixes up a simple dinner to eat. He didn’t have much energy to make anything too fancy—he just wanted to quickly eat and then go lie down. Thankfully, it was a Friday, so he could sleep in tomorrow.
After dinner, Mydei noted it was only 8 pm right now. Usually, he would hop onto Amphoreus now and do his dailies before going to bed, but he was feeling super sleepy right now…surely a quick nap wouldn’t hurt, right? Regain some energy, and maybe Phainon wouldn’t be on to drag out his dailies run into an hour long one.
Fuck, he slept for too long. When he woke up from what was supposed to be just a quick 30 minute nap, one quick glance at the time told him immediately that he overslept. By a whole three hours.
He knew he was tired, but not that tired! On the bright side, now he doesn't feel too tired to do his dailies. On the not so bright side, now he has to speed run them.
Mydei immediately logged into Amphoreus, with only 30 minutes left until the day reseted. He impatiently tapped through the loading screen, as if that actually did anything to make it faster. When he finally loaded in, he opened his daily check list to see what he had to do today.
Please be something quick and easy… Mydei held his breath, his eyes scanning the list.
> Make a dish
> Harvest 10 plants
> Level up a gear to level 10
> Visit the Town Square and help out Krateros
Okay… not too bad. He should be able to get these in under 20 minutes. With the speed of a man fighting against time, Mydei wastes not another minute.
By some miracle, Mydei has not received any spam messages or invites from Phainon the moment he logged on. Mydei didn’t bother to check if his friend was on, considering he was speedrunning his dailies.
He assumed Phainon wasn’t anyways, considering it was already so late. Mydei himself usually doesn’t stay up playing Amphoreus til this time, and he could only assume Phainon would be asleep right now.
Not like it mattered where Phainon was, anyways. If anything, he’s relieved to know that his friend doesn’t just stay in Amphoreus 24/7—maybe Phainon does touch grass after all.
Mydei is sure he will see him tomorrow, around the same time as always, but for now, he can check out the event that Cifera was talking about, and maybe even go ahead and start it. The second he finished all of his dailies, his hand reached outwards to tap on the ‘x’ button to hide the dailies menu.
…Oh, he just accidentally accepted a team up request. Mydei lets out a groan as he braces himself for the inevitable teleportation dizziness. He feels his surroundings rapidly change as he is transported towards the team leader—
—and lands right into Phainon’s arms. As in, quite literally, in his arms. In a bridal carry, to be fully transparent.
“What the fuck.” Was the first thing that had escaped the blonde’s lips, as he tried to steady himself on the other man. His arms fly up, gripping around Phainon’s biceps to keep him from falling off.
He squeezes them, just a little…as a treat, you know. He deserves it for having to go through another rollercoaster again, and wow, were those some strong and firm arms. Very attractive how the other player is able to carry him as is, if he had to be honest.
“Done feeling me up?” A light chuckle breaks Mydei out of his trance—he didn’t even realize he was still squeezing at those muscles. Mydei immediately halts in his actions and lets go, turning his face away so Phainon couldn’t see just how red they were becoming.
Unfortunately for Mydei, there wasn’t much he could do to hide…given how he was very much, in fact, still in Phainon’s arms, with said man directly staring down at him from above. With his usual piercing eyes that always stayed trained on him the moment Mydei came into sight.
“What do you want?” Mydei spoke with a faux steady tone—he was anything but right now, but Phainon doesn’t need to know just how fast his heart was racing right now anyways. Once he was able to reel in his emotions, he took a glance back at the other man.
And was met with the biggest, brightest grin he swore he had ever seen from Phainon. “Let’s get married!”
“…huh?” Mydei blinks dumbfoundedly at Phainon, which only causes that smile to somehow become impossibly larger. Mydei watches as the other player keens at him, readjusting his grip on Mydei to ensure that he wouldn’t drop him.
“The event, silly~ you need a partner, and I need a partner, and we already play together daily!” He stated, as if the next obvious answer would be to get married for it.
Well, he’s not wrong about them playing together daily, however…
“...I already have a partner.” Mydei does usually play these events with Cifera, afterall. No longer wanting to lay docile in Phainon’s arm, Mydei shifts around, surprisingly finding it easy due to how suddenly slack Phainon’s arms had become.
Once he landed on his feet, he tidied up his clothes before checking his surroundings.
The first thing he registered was just how bright the area was. White, lots of white, with a few splashes of blue, lined with flowers and ribbons, he noted. Rows and rows of chairs laid out in orderly fashion, with npcs sitting in them. Mydei could only assume that this was where the event's main area was.
And based on his surroundings, he wouldn’t be surprised if he was currently at the altar right now.
A low growl brought his attention back to the man in front of him, with Mydei now looking up at those red eyes.
“You’re…taken?” Mydei watches how quickly those crimson hues darkened, almost like they were trying so hard to drill holes into him. He swears the atmosphere just dropped a few degrees colder too, despite the two being in an open venue right now.
Crimson, Mydei noted. Just like that one time during the dungeon run.
Mydei tried to ignore the sudden behavior change from the other. “Sort of,” he shrugs. It was complicated to explain—he and Cifera weren’t dating, but they were going to be partners for this event.
Phainon should’ve known this by now…? They always did this, and he never once questioned about it last time, as long as Mydei still was playing with him. Which was fine—he and Cifera rarely got on at the same time together.
The silence that followed after started to eat away at Mydei, with the man fidgeting under those sharp, watchful eyes. He clears his throat in an attempt at breaking the tense atmosphere “Yeah…so—”
“Who?” The unusual lower guttural sound that escaped through Phainon’s throat sent chills down Mydei’s spine.
Just why was he acting like this? Phainon never showed any qualms over Mydei teaming up with Cifera before. “It’s–”
“Is it her?” Phainon cuts him off again, never once breaking contact.
“If you just—”
“I bet it’s PxssyCatDestroyer945 isn’t it?”
“Oh my god can you shut up and let me speak! And why do you even know her username!” Mydei groans, irritated beyond belief over the weird display of behavior from his dear friend, as well as how he kept on interrupting him every few seconds.
The sudden outburst seemed to snapped Phainon out of his strange behavior, however, as Mydei dully noted how those red orbs returned back to their usual shade of blue. The juxtaposition of how that hardened glare immediately softened squeezed at Mydei’s heart just a bit.
Aaand here comes Phainon’s signature puppy eyes, accompanied with a pout. “Can’t it be me?” He pleads.
Mydei feels an oncoming migraine now, pinching at the bridge of his nose to stave off the dizziness. “I always do my co-op events with her, and this one is no different. You never made a fuss about it before, so why now?”
Phainon whines, with those trembling lips and large imploring eyes never once leaving Mydei’s sight.
“Okay, okay, fine! I’ll talk to her about it!” At the second Mydei finally caved into his whims, Phainon perked back up again.
“No worries, I’ll do it!” Phainon opens up the messaging menu, the holographic screen appearing blurry to Mydei, as the game intended to allow players to have their own privacy. Mydei watches as Phainon hands fly across the screen, seemingly typing out a message to who he presumes was Cifera.
“When did you…add her in the first place? I wasn’t aware that you guys knew each other?” Cifera hardly even knew who Phainon was, since she tends to play during work hours, choosing to scam other players on the clock. She usually was offline during nighttime, since that’s the allocated time for Castorice and Hyacine. Which is typically when Mydei is playing.
So when was there ever a time for the two to meet? Mydei highly doubts that Phainon just so happened to have met her while she was online.
“Oh you know…just a few months ago—don’t worry about it! She said it’s fine by the way!” Cifera was on? Right now? That doesn’t sound right.
Mydei pulled up his own messaging app, the hologram screen popping up right in front of her eyes, and lo and behold, “PxssyCatDestroyer945: Online” was written in bright, bold letters, as clear as day.
And as if she knew he was actively looking at their chat logs together, Mydei sees her typing a message.
That traitor. But how weird, she was online and she was using proper punctuations? Mydei found it hard to believe, but given that she already messaged him and all…well, it must be real!
“Huh…what did you say to her to get her to agree so easily?” It had to be some sort of luxurious deal for Cifera to give up on having Mydei complete the entire event for her without her having to lift a finger, after all.
“I just offered her some old, limited item. A Season 1 one,” Phainon hums, shrugging at that as if it was just no big deal. But damn, did he know how Cifera ticked then—he guesses they really do know each other then.
Was being able to team-up with Mydei that important, though? Limited items are highly valuable, given how crazy the market inflation for old seasonal items has gone. Surely Mydei was not equivalent to such insane prices.
“So that means we can get married now! Your friend just gave the green light!” Phainon beams, closing the gap between the two so there was just mere inches separating them,
“Well…I suppose we could now that she agreed," Mydei hesitantly, but nevertheless, agreed. And that was all Phainon needed to hear.
The grin on Phainon’s face becomes impossibly larger as his hands find purchase around Mydei’s waist, pulling Mydei in even closer to him. Their faces are so close to each other that their nose touches, and Mydei could feel how his heart starts to beat faster at the proximity as he freezes up in surprise at the Phainon’s bold action.
“We gotta kiss to seal the deal~” and as if the other man had been waiting for this moment for forever, Phainon quickly closed the distance without waiting for a response.
It wasn’t a chaste kiss at all—no, if anything, it felt greedy. All consuming, even. Phainon nibbled at his lips at first, as if sweetly asking for permission. However, in a stunned state, Mydei didn’t respond.
A low growl brings Mydei back into the present as sharp pain floods at his lower lips, forcing him to gasp at the feeling. That was definitely going to bruise…if it was possible? Immediately, a warm tongue invades his mouth, fighting and winning dominance.
It was embarrassing how quickly Mydei had lost, but his mind didn’t pay any attention to that. Instead, he was focused on how warmth seemed to spread from his lower abdomen upwards through his entire body.
His legs, suddenly feeling so weak that they were going to collapse, buckled as his arms reached upwards to try and balance himself. His hands latched onto the first thing they could find steady on, tangling his fingers into the soft locks of hair on the other’s head.
Thankfully for him, Phainon’s grip on him was so tight that even with his legs losing their strength, Phainon was able to keep them both upright.
His mind blurred, only focused on how hot and soft the tongue exploring his mouth was, feeling how it traced over his teeth and over every crevice it could get in. The pleasure pulled him in waves, almost never wanting it to stop.
It was too much for him. But it was all pleasant at the same time.
It was far too soon when Phainon pulled back, a pleased expression painting his face as the two of them tried to catch their breaths back. The white-haired man places a gentle kiss on Mydei’s forehead, pulling the blonde in closer to him.
Mydei thinks he heard Phainon say something, but in the haze of his mind, he couldn’t make it out. Once he finally regained his ability to think, he pushed himself out of Phainon’s embrace.
The way Phainon was staring half-lidded at him, with such love and warmth in his eyes…is he imagining it? Surely it was just the event scene at play, affecting his vision or something.
Speaking of the event…
“Did it work?” Mydei’s words snaps Phainon out of his own bubble, with the blonde watching amusely at how Phainon was brought back.
“Oh, I forgot to send the invite!”
“You…my first kiss…” Mydei stares at the man in front of him, as the dots start to connect together. He could see how Phainon seemed to beam at joy, before registering the look of rage on his face.
All this meant was that Phainon did not need to kiss him. Or steal his first kiss, for the record. As if on cue, the other man pulled out his puppy eyes as he whimpered at Mydei.
“Don’t reject it! I’m sorry for kissing you!”
It took a few more begging from Phainon’s end and a few spars before Mydei finally accepted the event partner's invitation. The blonde made it quite known to the other man how he was unamused at being tricked, and made the white-haired man promise he wouldn’t pull such moves on him again.
After Mydei no longer felt like punching Phainon in the guts, the two did their usual domain runs and dailies (now that day had resetted), this time as a newly wedded couple.
Courtesy to the event, of course.
—
“I can’t believe you sold me for 33 million credits, Cifera.” The woman across from him lays across his sofa, snacking off of the fruit platter Mydei had fixed up prior to her uninvited appearance.
“Aww don’t say it like that, little lion~” Cifera purred out, “And actually, it was 33,550,336 credits, to be exact; I’ll give you a 10% cut for it. Seriously, where did you find such a man who would make such a lopsided deal? And all just to become your partner?”
Mydei could only shrug at that. Only someone with a few loose screws would do something like that…and apparently, that someone was Phainon.
“Why were you even online at reset time? I thought you were with Hyacine and Castorice?” Cifera looked at him like he had grown a second head.
“I wasn’t?” She tilts her head in confusion, “I was with my girlfriends, what are you talking about?”
Now it was Mydei’s turn to be confused. “But you messaged me? After the whole ‘transaction’ was complete?” One look at her face told him that she wasn’t lying this time, though.
“When I logged on, your dear husband debriefed me on what happened, and gave me the seasonal item just like that. I still can’t believe someone would be dumb enough to even do that in the first place. I mean, he could have so not given me the items and I would’ve been left with the short end of the stick.”
If Cifera wasn’t the one who was actually online last night…then who was the one that sent him that message?
“Hmm, something wrong? Do you want to divorce your husband already?” A smile creeps up on her face, as if she was finding this situation amusing.
“Stop calling him that, we are just partners for the event.” Mydei frowns, but that only causes the grin on Cifera’s face to widen even further.
“Well that just makes you husbands! Or well, he is the husband and you’re the wife, technically,” Cifera snickers at the idea, finding the situation that Mydei got himself in to be wholly amusing. “You can’t break it off even if you wanted to~ you know, event rules and all!”
Mydei throws his head into his hands as he determines that it would be wiser to not feed into her teasing, lest she gain more fuel against him. “What are you gonna do about your event then?”
“Poor little ol’ me, I have no partner now that my partner has been stolen,” Cifera put on a dramatic performance, to which Mydei couldn’t help but scoff over at.
“We both know you would’ve sold me for just one credit.”
“You know it!” Cifera rolls off of the couch in a laughing fit, and Mydei could only stare at her, waiting for her to recollect herself. “Anyways, have you heard of the latest news?”
Of course he hasn’t—both of them knew that Mydei was never up to date with social media. Nevertheless, he shook his head in response.
“There’s apparently a virus that’s been infecting devices recently—some people are even claiming it originated from Amphoreus itself!” Now that was alarming news.
“What does it do?” The sparkle in Cifera's eyes told him that he had just bit the bait.
“Apparently it’s a worm; no one really knows what it is trying to do,” she shrugs, “but some companies are finding traces of it already embedded deep in their files. Quite scary, if I were you, I’d stay off of Amphoreus for a few days~”
The playful tone Cifera was using made it very hard for Mydei to believe. “Are you just trying to trick me into not logging on?” Cifera let out a gasp of disbelief.
“Of course not! It’s called Irontomb; look it up! Either way, be careful out there little prince~ I gotta head back now!” Cifera grabbed another handful of fruits and got up to leave before Mydei could scold her for eating all of his food.
After Cifera had left, Mydei decided to do his own research, and surprisingly enough, it was real.
A new virus, now globally known as Irontomb, has been on a rampage, spreading across millions of devices all across the world. It wasn’t just computers that were affected, but also phones, cameras, and even gaming consoles, like the one used for playing Amphoreus.
However, no one knew what the main purpose of the virus was, given that it had not corrupted any data, or actually tried anything yet, other than spreading itself across devices. Hell, no one even knew how long the virus has been around, having only been discovered recently.
The way it spread seemed strange too, with the worm spreading through the network connections—as long as the device was connected to the internet, it was at risk of contracting Irontomb.
Or at least, that was what this one website claimed—articles like this were great at fearmongering, sometimes stretching the truth to make a more appealing story. Nevertheless, Mydei would be lying if he said it didn’t scare him a bit.
He won’t be taking his chances, especially with how the console to play Amphroreus worked. He’ll be fine not playing for a few days—even for a few weeks.
Hopefully Phainon wouldn’t miss him too badly.
As it turned out, the call of putting Amphoreus on hold was the right move to make. Within the next few days, the devs of Amphoreus officially released a public announcement regarding Irontomb and their game. They had confirmed that the worm has been found sending DDoS attacks to their server, causing players to experience significant issues.
They had emphasized that Irontomb itself was not in their game, but rather was attempting to break in. As such, for the first time ever, the servers have been shut down. Temporarily—not permanently—in order to ensure that no players would put themselves at risk of Irontomb, especially considering how the technology directly linked up to the brain. A maintenance, as the devs called it, with an unknown end time, though they were hoping it would be completed within a week.
But that didn’t help calm people down. It was quite the headline; multiple news media were reporting on how this would be the end of Amphoreus, and how the game would soon meet end-of-service due to the malicious virus—after all, with the rumors of Irontomb originating from the game itself, who knows just how many people have been affected without knowing?
Yeah, that would be a horrible disaster just waiting to happen if the virus was able to affect the human mind. With all things considered, it was the best move to temporarily shut down the servers.
Life returned back to before Mydei got into Amphoreus. He picked up some of his old hobbies again, such as reading or baking. It wasn’t like he didn’t do those anymore even when he was playing games, it was just now he had a lot more free time at night, which was usually spent on doing his dailies.
It was peaceful and nice, but Mydei couldn’t help but wonder about his friend that he made through the game. How was Phainon? Was he okay? Mydei never actually exchanged any possible way to contact him, since the two would always talk through the game, but now that there has come a time where Amphoreus was down, Mydei didn’t know how to check up on him.
He didn’t even know if Phainon had other social media, or had any online presence. Mydei didn’t—that was for sure. All he knew was his name, since for some reason, Phainon used his real name as his username. Mydei chose to fully ignore the fact that he, too, had done the same.
Admittedly, he did try to look up anyone under the name of Phainon, but nothing had popped up in the search bar.
Well, technically, something did happen, though Mydei wasn’t all too certain if it was related to him trying to find Phainon over the vast internet. Strangely enough, ever since he has been using his phone more recently, he has been noticing something off with it.
At first, he brushed it off as just his phone acting up, since he did have a pretty outdated device. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was time to change it; his parents had been begging for him to let them buy him the newest phone whenever it came out, but Mydei was against it. After all, he hardly used his phone much outside of texting and calling his friends—he didn’t need no fancy gadget or features to do that.
Sometimes his phone would force restart on its own. Mydei was aware that this wasn’t a strange issue, considering how it only took just mere seconds to boot up again—other than the sudden black screen, nothing else happened.
But then stranger things would start to happen, and it was more than just occasional screen glitches on his phone. At first, he thought he was just imagining it. Maybe he was just sleep deprived, accidentally moved some of the apps around on the screen, yet there was no plausible explanation that would explain how his apps would magically be deleted.
Full on deleted, and it was always the messaging apps. Some days, he would go on without receiving a single message from his friends or his employer, and when he thought to check on it, he would find that the app was deleted. He wouldn’t know just how long the app had been deleted for, nor how that came to be, but every time he redownloaded the app, it would inevitably be deleted when he was least on guard.
What pushed him to finally get rid of the phone and get a new one was when strange photos started popping up in his album.
They started off with really blurry photos, the type where he couldn’t tell what the subject in the photo was in the first place. Mydei brushed it off, originally thinking that they were photos he took on accident before he trashed the photos.
Then, there were some random selfies of himself, which wouldn't have been alarming, if it weren’t for the fact that he knew he did not take those photos. It was so weird, considering they were all taken when he was clearly focused on something on his phone, rather than purposely posing for a selfie. Still, he brushed those off as well, thinking that maybe some app he was using was just taking photos.
What sealed the deal was when there were photos of himself that shouldn’t even be possible with his phone alone. Photos of him caught through security cameras: at his work, at the grocery store, hell even at the bakery. No timestamps on the photo. It was just zoomed in, pixelated, yet clearly him, through grainy footage.
And there were so many of them.
It creeped him out to no end. The moment he noticed those photos on his phone, he factory resetted it and went to the nearest tech shop to sell it and replace his phone. He didn’t tell anyone about it—not his parents, not his friends, and not the police. Mydei had no clue what was going on, but he was certain about one thing: that someone had hacked his phone and was harassing him.
He wasn’t taking any more chances.
The first thing he did was let his friends and family know of his new phone number. Embarrassingly enough, outside of his parents’ number, he didn’t have anyone else’s memorized, so he had to email Cifera and his other friends of his new number.
Typical Cifera, she would pull something like this and think it’s really funny. Plus, she was one of the few people who both knew his name and would try to give him a scare like this. Mydei lets out a sigh, already used to her tactics.
Though, a passing thought did run by his mind—what if it was the same hacker that compromised his old phone? …Surely, that wasn’t the case; the phone was brand new, and he just activated the line.
He never brought it up to Cifera. Mydei never received any more strange text messages from unknown numbers, so he quickly forgot about the event.
—
It took just a little over two weeks, but the moment Amphoreus was finally announced to be in the clear, the servers were immediately flooded upon reopening. According to the devs, they had taken the time to ensure that their data and files were not corrupted, and that Irontomb had not infected their game. Above all else, their data security has been strengthened to ensure that no virus could breach it.
It was the first night since Amphoreus came back, and Mydei had already finished his dinner, ready to log back into the game. He was feeling much better knowing that the devs were diligent in ensuring the safety of their players.
But he had to be honest to himself, these past two—three weeks, given he stopped playing earlier before the official announcement—has been grueling.
Not because he missed playing the game, but rather, he missed Phainon.
It was rough coming to terms over just how much Phainon meant to him, and the distance had only highlighted how lonely he felt without him. At first, he refused to believe that he was missing the overgrown puppy, excusing it as just a temporary thing.
But the longer the two stayed separated, the bigger the hole of emptiness he felt. Mydei would be lying if he said he was that the thing he was looking forward towards the most after hopping back on to Amphoreus wasn’t to see Phainon again.
Now, the only thing he had to do was to get through the online traffic. Cifera had been complaining to him earlier how the traffic was so heavy that it took forever to load into the game, if you could even load in in the first place.
Putting on the technology that allowed him into the virtual world, Mydei got comfortable in his bed, lying down to get ready to test his luck with the game. He did the usual routine: making sure his body was working fine, spamming through the title screen, logging into his account, and bracing himself for teleportation.
Thankfully, it seemed like the traffic flow has eased down now that it had already been several hours since the servers reopened, for Mydei already found himself instantly loading in.
And as per usual, Mydei received an invite from Phainon. Mydei shouldn’t have been surprised, but considering the strange events that occurred recently, Mydei was happy that Phainon was at the moment he was.
Accepting the invitation, Mydei feels himself get transported to wherever the other player was.
“Mydei!” Oh, how Mydei missed this voice. He feels the familiar strong arms wrap around him, pulling him into a warm embrace as Phainon buries his face into his neck. His own arms flew up to return the hug, placing them on Phainon’s upper back.
He feels something warm and wet drop onto his neck.
Is…Phainon crying? At the realization, Phainon tightens his grip around Mydei as he hides his face impossibly deeper in Mydei’s neck, making sure there was no gap separating them. Mydei doesn’t know how to comfort him, so in an awkward attempt, he gently rubs and pats at Phainon’s back.
“You left me alone for so long…” Phainon eventually breaks the silence, his voice dripping with sorrow as he sniffles in between his words. Guilt squeezes at his heart, even if Mydei knows deep inside that he wasn’t truly at fault.
“I’m sorry,” Mydei apologizes nevertheless, his hand reaching up to gently stroke at Phainon’s hair. “I missed you too.” He confesses quietly.
Phainon doesn’t react, choosing to stay buried in Mydei as he mutters incoherent mumblings in his neck. Mydei could only pick up a few words, such as “dark,” and “void.” He’s not sure what Phainon was talking about, but he was growing concerned for his friend.
Very gently and slowly, Mydei tried to pry the arms that were tightly glued on him off, but that seemed to have been the wrong move. In an instant, Phainon jolted up, wide-eyed staring at Mydei, the tears reflecting the red hue of his eyes.
“You’re trying to leave?” The words were quiet, just barely audible, escaping through the parted lips, as Phainon gaped at him.
“I’m just moving us, come back here,” Mydei hushed at him, guiding Phainon towards his bedroom, carefully maneuvering over the scattered artifacts that lingered on the floor. It wasn’t his first time at Phainon’s house, since chances are, the moment the latter invited him to team up, Phainon just happened to be at his own home, likely reorganizing his relic collection. Just like tonight.
Mydei gently led Phainon to the bed, trying to urge him to lay in. When the other player refused to, Mydei got in himself before trying again. Immediately, Phainon climbed in next to him, wrapping his arms around Mydei’s waist and resting his head on his lap.
“Feeling better?” Phainon hums, just barely nodding his head as he makes himself comfortable. Mydei finds himself threading his fingers through his hair, finding the action to be oddly calming to him.
Phainon had never once behaved this way—sure, he had always been the clingy type, always complaining about the times the two spent apart, but never once had they been apart for more than a day, much less 3 weeks.
Mydei kinda understands him, though he wouldn’t express it.
The quiet sniffles coming from the white-haired man eventually slowed down into slow, deep breaths, as if Phainon had fallen asleep on his lap. An uncommon occurrence, given players didn’t feel the need to sleep (or eat, for the matter of fact—he still indulged in it, though) while in the game.
Sensing that it was the right moment to leave the other alone, Mydei once again tried to loosen the arms around him, only to surprisingly find it tighten up again.
“You’re still trying to leave me?” Phainon mutters out in a sleep-laced tone, though his arms squeezed around Mydei even more, refusing to let him leave the bed.
“...You’re still up?” Phainon turns his head around, narrowing his red eyes and throwing a pointed glare at Mydei.
“You’re dodging my question, Mydeimos.” The accusatory tone made Mydei feel guilty because, yeah, he was going to leave. But as if Phainon knew what was on his mind, he dropped the question, turning back to hide his face. “Just stay here, please.”
And oh, how could Mydei say no to that pitiful, desperate tone? He sighs, choosing to lean back in the bed and get in a more comfortable, upright position with Phainon laying over him. A hand returns to playing with Phainon’s hair, as he opts into using the hologram as his entertainment while he was stuck in one place for lord knows how long.
It was around two hours later when Phainon woke up again—much later than Mydei was planning on staying online for. The entire time Phainon was asleep, Mydei was scrolling through the forums, reading what other players thought about the Irontomb virus, and what they thought about the maintenance.
He caught up on the devs announcements too, with the devs giving all players the rewards for their missed dailies plus more for the troubles, as well as an extension of the wedding event.
When Phainon was awake, he was back to his usual demeanor, claiming to have felt recharged now thanks to Mydei’s presence. He started to go off on how dark and empty everything was for the last 2 weeks, and how weak he had to make himself in order to “pass the scan,” and to “finally be able to see Mydei again,” hence why he was behaving so weird at first.
Mydei had no fucking clue what Phainon was talking about, but he nodded along anyways.
“It’s time for me to head off now, it’s getting late.” Mydei chimed in when Phainon was done rambling.
“Huh?” Was all Phainon could muster out, and Mydei could tell that was another sign that Phainon was spiraling.
“I’ll be on again tomorrow.” Mydei tries to reassure him, but Phainon doesn’t seem to register what he was saying anymore.
“It’s going to happen again, isn’t it?” The other player started mumbling to himself, pacing around the room “you’re going to leave, and then disappear for 3 weeks again, and then those bastards are going to shut down the servers again.”
Just what was he going on about? Mydei grabs a hold onto Phainon’s shoulders, forcing him to pay attention. “Stop worrying, I’ll be back.”
“...what if I shut down the server myself?" The ludicrous suggestion Phainon blurted out left Mydei staring back at those piercing eyes with confusion.
“What are you talking about?” A crazed look flashed on Phainon’s face, as the man’s eyes started to widen with insanity.
“I’ll shut the servers down, kick everyone else but you,” Phainon starts in a frenzied tone, a grin stretching across his face as he revels in the possibilities. “You’ll be forced to stay here; you won’t be able to leave me again—I’ll disable your headwear, keep you safe here with me forever. Block those bastards out from ever accessing their own creation again. That sounds nice…doesn’t it, Mydeimos?"
“Phainon, you need to calm down, you can’t do that. That would kill me.” Shit, Mydei doesn’t know what the fuck is going on with Phainon, but if the way his eyes glows a dangerous red tells him anything, it can’t be good. Doesn’t matter if Phainon doesn’t mean what he says, he needs to deescalate this.
Unfortunately, Mydei quickly finds out what Phainon really meant.
“Kill you? I’ll upload your consciousness here then. Let your body rot in the real world, you only need me. This is our reality now," and in a split second, the world turned dark. Completely dark. All Mydei could see were those glowing red eyes demanding his attention, and warning menus popping up in front of him.
A hand waves in front of him, quickly dismissing all of the error pop ups for Mydei. Phainon had turned all the lights on in his house, granting Mydei vision again.
“What did you do?” Mydei seethes out, though he fears he already knows the answer to that, given the events that just played out in front of him.
The grin on Phainon’s face softened up, as those unsettling eyes stayed trained onto him, squinting with contentment as he no longer felt fear for Mydei leaving. “You’re safe now, Mydeimos,” his voice echoed off of the walls, sounding strangely scratchy.
Phainon took a step forward, but Mydei took one back.
“Don’t you dare take another step closer,” his heart thumps heavy in his chest, fear and uncertainty swimming through his body.
“You’re scared, Mydeimos—I can hear it. Won’t you let me comfort you?” The monster wearing Phainon’s skin had the audacity to tilt his head and pout, but nevertheless, listened to him. When Mydei was certain that Phainon was staying put, he backed up to the front door, placing his hand on the doorknob while still maintaining eye contact with red.
“I wouldn’t recommend opening that door,” Phainon frowns but still lets Mydei do what he wants.
“Shut up, I do not want to deal with you right now,” Mydei hisses, throwing the door open and turning to step out. He threw one leg out forward, but met with nothing connecting his foot when there should’ve been something. He glances down in confusion, feeling the momentum of his body dragging him down.
There was no floor—it was a fucking void.
Arms wrap around his waist, pulling him back into the house before Mydei could fall into the void. He didn’t even want to find out what would’ve happened to him.
“I told you so,” Phainon tuts at him, shaking his head in disappointment as Mydei feels the adrenaline full of fear pumping into his blood. Phainon hugs Mydei’s shaking body closer, cooing at him as he holds him protectively. “It’s dangerous outside; when will you listen?”
”What…what the fuck…” his voice quivered—he couldn’t even find his voice. With shaky eyes, he drinks in the view of what was out of the door fully.
Or rather, a lack of view.
Calling it a void was not far off. After the server shut down, all of the assets that made Amphoreus well, Amphoreus, had vanished without a trace, leaving behind strings of code flying around the empty world.
It was dark, very dark, and very unsettling. Was this…what Phainon was talking about? Was this what he had witnessed when he was, as Mydei assumes based on given info, trapped in the server during shutdown?
It must have been scary being here all alone.
Phainon pulls the two of them back, closing the door and pushing Mydei back into the bedroom, all while whispering sweet nothings into his ear, and how everything would be alright, as long as he was here with him.
“If you just listened to me, you wouldn’t have had to see that,” Phainon hums sweetly, laying Mydei down on the pillow before moving off to the side to do something—Mydei doesn’t even register it; he was still stunned about what was happening. “See what not listening to me does now? Oh my poor Mydeimos…”
Mydei tries to respond, opening his mouth to try and find his voice, but all that escaped were broken words. Phainon’s eyes soften at the sight of Mydei, enjoying this new side of him—enjoying how defeated Mydei felt.
What could he do anyways? Against someone who clearly had the ability to…do all this. When the shock factor finally wears off, he slumps in the bed, allowing Phainon to manhandle him about. Might as well let him do as he pleases, until he is able to talk some sense into Phainon later.
He feels something tighten around his wrist, and out of curiosity for what it was, Mydei glances up at it.
Red boxes in the shape of a cuff were secured firmly on his right hand, with the other end connecting to the bedpost. Phainon placed a gentle kiss on his wrist before moving on to the other hand.
“What—” Mydei yanked his left hand back, effectively stopping Phainon from locking the other one up. Phainon frowns at his actions.
“I’m doing this for your own good, what if you try to run out of the house again and fall into the void for real next time?” Mydei throws a pointed glare at the other man.
“That won’t happen, isn’t one hand enough?” Phainon stares at Mydei like he was the one who got them in this mess.
“You’re…okay with this? With me locking you up here?”
“Oh no, I’m very much angry at you right now,” Phainon visibly deflated at that, a frown etching its way back on his face again. “But there’s not much I can do right now except wait for you to pull yourself back together.”
Phainon perks up again at that. ”Then, can I?”
“Speak plainly,” Mydei rolls his eyes. The amount of time this man’s expression was switching back and forth was quite something to witness. “I don’t know what you’re trying to say.”
”Can I fuck you?” Phainon wastes not another second, staring expectantly as if that was obviously the next course of events that would take place. Mydei stares at him back, and this time, he can see the sparkles in those red pools.
Now that was one way to catch his attention. “Wow…straight to the point, huh…” he was very aware of how red his face was becoming, trying his best to hide it, but inevitably failing.
”You told me to speak plainly!” Phainon whimpers, putting on his puppy eyes as he pleads even more. “Pleaseeee Mydei?”
Well…how could he say no to that face? Phainon surely knew of his weakness, and even with the player—if he even was one—essentially locking him up here, Mydei couldn’t find it in his heart to hate him.
“Hmph, I better not be able to think, else there will never be another chance,” Mydei tries to keep his voice steady, but it was hard keeping his cool when he could already feel himself hardening at the idea.
But Phainon only zeroed in on one thing. “You’re already thinking of our second time? My my, Mydei~” he purrs into his ears, leaning down to nibble and lick at them. Mydei has to fight the urge to lean away from the wet sensation that suddenly overwhelmed him.
“Less speaking, and more doing. And what are you, a dog? Quit licking me,” Mydei hisses, growing impatient. If he had both of his arms freed, he would’ve thrown Phainon to the bed and started riding him.
“Now that sounds like a fun idea, we can do that next time, hmm? You riding me, I mean.”
Mydei didn’t remember voicing his inner thoughts out loud. He throws an incredulous look over at Phainon—surely, there was no way…?
Yet, the look Phainon gives him tells him otherwise. “Yes, silly Mydeimos, of course I can read your thoughts and emotions.” The dark chuckle he let out sent chills down Mydei’s spine. “I was able to disable your headset; you think I wouldn’t be able to access your mind?”
“Well…” Mydei tries to defend himself, but honestly, he doesn't have much to say. It made sense, after all.
Phainon hums in contempt, furrowing his eyebrows as he sits back upright, while still straddling Mydei. “This is like our wedding night sex, isn’t it?”
“…huh?” Just what was he going on about this time? That could hardly be considered as a wedding. Phainon doesn’t clear up Mydei’s confusion, choosing to instead narrow his eyes as he trails his eyes up and down Mydei’s body.
And Mydei feels just a little bit self-conscious from all the staring, crossing his one free arm over his chest as he starts to feel his cheeks heat up from the embarrassment. Yet, Phainon was having none of that, immediately pulling the other arm back.
“We can’t have none of that now, my dear Mydeimos.” Phainon softly scolds the man underneath him, sighing in disappointment. He summons up another pair of red chains, swiftly locking up hand, just like he had done with the other hand. “Look what you made me do, now I have to lock both your hands up.”
Even though Mydei had complained earlier, he couldn’t find it in him this time to argue about whether or not his hands should be freed. In fact, he was finding it quite hot just how easily Phainon was able to manhandle him and dominate him.
“Oh, you like that?” A grin stretched wide on the other player’s face, to which Mydei could only turn his head to the side to try to avoid his piercing gaze. Unfortunately for him, due to being partially bounded up, Phainon easily grabbed his chin, forcing him to stare directly into the red eyes.
“Stop…talking already.” Mydei could barely muster out, becoming restless over the lack of touching after Phainon was riling him up.
“Of course, my adorable Mydeimos. Let me just…” Phainon’s warm hands trace the outline of Mydei’s body, causing him to let out a quiet gasp as Mydei fights the urge to squirm in his touch.
And in a blink of an eye, Mydei finds that his avatar’s attire was replaced with a low-cut white dress. It seems like Mydei has constantly been caught off guard today, as his entire body freezes up with the unexpected change.
”What’s…this for?” He glances up to look at Phainon, only to see that the other, too, had replaced his own outfit with a matching suit to go with his dress.
And Phainon was all too eager to explain it to Mydei, the light in his eyes sparkling as his hands went back to tracing Mydei’s body, this time with the dress on. “It’s the wedding event’s outfit! I found it in the codes~ now we can really fuck on our wedding night!”
Mydei wanted to correct the other that no, it was not their wedding night, given that one: they didn’t really get married, and two: it wasn’t even the same day as when they got “wedded,” but the crazed look in Phainon’s eyes told him it would have been wiser to not bring that up.
At least verbally, considering Phainon apparently could read his mind.
The hand on Mydei traces down his stomach, inching further down and down till Phainon’s hand dug in between Mydei’s thighs. Phainon leaned closer to Mydei’s neck, burrowing his face in the crevice as he latches his mouth onto the skin bared to him.
Phainon bites hard, and bites more and more, before lapping up at the area as if apologizing for treating his sacred skin so harshly. Mydei could feel the hickey and bruises already forming, as he keens and bares his neck even more for Phainon.
”Stop biting me…you dog…” The breathy moan that slipped past Mydei’s throat left him feeling embarrassed. Embarrassed that such a sound came out of him.
”But you like it, otherwise, you wouldn’t be letting me do this.” Mydei feels the grin on Phainon’s face pressed against his neck, and he hates how he is right. “But if my wife so desires it, I know of another area I would love to eat.”
The hand, which was stationary in between Mydei’s legs, started to move again. It inched closer and closer to the gap in between Mydei’s legs, softly applying pressure directly above his soaked underwear.
The innuendo behind Phainon’s words was not lost on him. Mydei could feel blood rushing in his veins, feeling how the area in between his legs was starting to get unbearably soaked and wet.
But… it was not hard? Which was strange, considering how the ache between his legs was becoming so itchy—Mydei knew he was turned on as hell right now.
Confused at why his dick wasn’t reacting, Mydei looked up at Phainon, who had already backed away and was admiring the work done on Mydei’s neck.
The grin became impossibly larger when Phainon noticed his puzzled stare. He leaned in closer to his face, close enough for their heated breaths to intertwine with each other. “Do you like it? I gave you a pussy.”
“I—yeah…it’s fine…” Mydei shakily breathes out, not even shocked at the turn of events because of course, Phainon could modify his body. He should’ve been able to guess it at this point. It made sense why he was feeling so much wetter than usual.
And then finally, a finger slipped past his underwear, tracing the outline of his folds, before just ever so slightly dipping inside. Yet, it wasn’t enough.
”Phainon…” Mydei whimpers, which only feeds into the other’s desires more. Red eyes never left Mydei’s face, choosing to drink in his expression as Phainon’s fingers continue to just barely hover above his slit.
“Yes, my dear?” Opposite of what was going on below, Phainon pressed a chaste kiss on the corner of Mydei’s eyes, lapping at the tears gathering at the corner of his eyes that Mydei wasn’t even aware of. The tongue travels downwards towards the corner of his lips, before biting at it.
Mydei gives a testing tug on his cuffs, and to his frustration, they are tightly secured on. Oh how badly Mydei wishes his hands were unbounded right now—he would’ve given himself the relief that Phainon wasn’t giving him.
“Enough with the licking,” Mydei huffs in annoyance, but the way his voice shook with need didn’t portray it the way he wanted to sound. “You said…you said you were going to…”
Eat him out. The words were left unsaid, yet still echoed loudly in the space between them.
Phainon fingers pinches at Mydei’s clit, and the blonde yelps at the sensation. A taste of what was to come. Mydei could feel more slick gush out at the sound of the deep chuckle reaching his ears.
”You’re a little eager, aren’t you?” Phainon finally lifts himself up, just enough to move himself downwards. “As much as I would just love to watch you, I suppose my wife deserves a treat.”
Phainon’s hand brushes the dress to the side—not taking it off, but just enough to give him a clear view of the meal in front of him. Teasingly, he peels the soaked panties slowly off of Mydei, with the blonde lifting his head just a bit off the pillow to see what Phainon was doing.
But Phainon doesn’t make any move to do anything—just placing his hands gently on both of Mydei’s legs and lowering himself enough to where the dress was now covering Mydei’s view of Phainon.
The cold air hitting his warm, aching cunt was starting to become unbearable. With Phainon not doing anything, Mydei starts to push his legs closer together, feeling the embarrassment of lying there bare for him.
But of course, Phainon tightens his grip, pulls the legs back open again, and has the audacity to growl at him. “Don’t move.”
Before Mydei could voice his complaints, he felt something warmer—hotter—lick up at his folds. His legs twitch over the sudden pleasurable sensation, but Phainon pins his leg down, not giving him the opportunity to close them again.
Mydei cries out at the intrusion, feeling the heat effortlessly part his lower lips before dipping inside. The tongue left no crevice uncovered, with Phainon making it his sole goal to taste every corner of Mydei.
And oh, the noises were embarrassing. The wet squelches of the slick coating Phainon’s tongue mixed with the wanton sounds of his uncensored moans had Mydei wanting to cover both his mouth and ears.
But to Phainon, he enjoyed the sounds, as he continued to fuck Mydei deeper with just his tongue to coax more of those heavenly sounds. He loosened his grip around Mydei’s legs, bringing up a thumb to flick at the swollen nub.
The moan that escaped through Mydei’s parted lips were the loudest since starting, as his back arches off of the bed, hands clenching on nothing as they try to find something to steady themselves on.
It was hot, so hot—the fire in his abdomen climbing up and out and burning his nerves. His legs fly up to wrap around Phainon’s head, inevitably pushing the man deeper into his pussy.
And Phainon obliged him. He thrusted his tongue in and out of Mydei, audibly slurping up any slick he could gather, as his hand began to thumb around and pinch at Mydei’s clit. The other hand slipped in two fingers, immediately starting its own pace of plunging deep into his folds and scissoring him.
Mydei could do nothing but take it all, his hips buckling forward, chasing for more of the heat as he began to twitch from the intense pleasure.
“Phainon…♡! It’s too much—♡!” Mydei cried, his voice hoarse from all the moaning and screaming, begging for Phainon to slow down. Yet his own body betrayed him, doing everything to pull Phainon in closer.
Phainon paid no mind to his adorable begging, instead picking up the pace and setting a merciless rhythm, the hunger in his actions evident.
Mydei’s muscles started to tighten up, the heat rapidly spreading through his entire lower half as his legs started to tremble uncontrollably. His walls clench harder around the intrusion, the tongue never relenting, as Mydei feels waves of pleasure crash into the walls, flowing out and over.
And Phainon, being the man he was, lapped up every bit of juice that came out, letting Mydei ride out his orgasm. Only then, did he finally give Mydei the break he was begging for, unlocking the legs around his head so he could peer up at the debauched expression on the blonde.
He comes up to eye level with Mydei, drinking in the delicious sight, reeling over how Mydei was out of it as he licks up the juices running down his chin. A smug grin makes its way on Phainon’s face.
“How cute~” Phainon coos at the unresponsive Mydei, the blonde still recovering from his intense orgasm. “How are you feeling, love? Still able to think?” Phainon gets no response back, which was what he half expected. He blinks, staring at the way Mydei’s quick, heavy breathing started to slow down into laxed ones as Mydei closes his eyes.
“...Eh? Did you pass out…?”
The next time Mydei wakes up, he finds himself still in Phainon’s bed, with the bedsheets and himself all cleaned up. Mydei would’ve thought that it was all a dream if it weren’t for how sore his lower half was feeling.
And while he couldn’t see his own neck, he could very much feel the blooming pain that lingered from Phainon’s bites. His wrists, no longer cuffed to the bed, was also red around the wrists due to his squirming from the… unrelenting pleasure that had been forced upon him.
And of course, the culprit of the act was lying in bed right next to him, with his arms tightly wrapped around his hips and legs clinging to his own.
“You’re up! How are you feeling, Mydeimos?” As if sensing the moment Mydei woke up, the white-haired man halted his cuddling, perking up to look into Mydei’s eyes.
“...sore,” Mydei mumbles out, choosing to turn his head away and stare blankly at the wall. He ignores the whine that escaped past the other’s lips when he broke contact.
“Did I do good?” Mydei glances back over at Phainon, only to see his round puppy eyes, tilting his head and jutting his lips out. Mydei could literally see the imaginary drooping ears.
Seriously, he needs to stop falling for that trick.
Mydei sighs, closing his eyes in an attempt to block the view, but he swears he could still see it even behind his eyelids.
“Yeah…you did great,” after all, he felt so good that he passed out. He places a hand on top of Phainon’s head, rubbing his head like he would to a puppy.
“So does that mean we can have round 2?!” The excited look in Phainon’s eyes should not have looked that cute.
And Mydei wasn’t against it…but the two had more pressing matters to deal with right now. Mostly speaking about the current situation Mydei found himself in. “Not now.”
“But…you passed out before I could even get cum…” Phainon whines, and Mydei really hates how good Phainon has gotten at melting his resolve.
“Another time; we have more important things to talk about.” Mydei watches as Phainon visibly deflates at being denied. He ignores the scene and sits up on the bed, being mindful of the sore places on his body. He watches Phainon also sit up on bed, following his actions.
“What could be more important than finally being able to fuck you?” Phainon mumbles to himself; Mydei figures he was not supposed to hear that, as he opts to not reply to that question.
Mydei clears his throat, grabbing Phainon’s attention back. “For starters, what are you? And I don’t want to hear any bullshit, it’s clear as day that you aren’t just a player.” Tilting his head, Phainon looks at Mydei with a confused look. He opens his mouth, before closing it.
“I…don’t think you’ll like the answer…” Phainon mutters quietly, averting his eyes away from Mydei as he tries to focus on anything but the man in his bed.
“I’ll be the judge of that,” Mydei said sternly, narrowing his eyes. He watches how Phainon squirms under his hardened gaze, trying his best to curl into nothing. When it was clear that Mydei was not going to drop the topic, Phainon took a deep breath, readying himself to open up.
“I’m not a player, you’re right about that…I’m not even a human.” Mydei raises a questioning brow, but doesn’t interrupt him, waiting for Phainon to continue on. “I’m just strings of codes who happened to gain sentience.”
“So like an AI?” Phainon shook his head no.
“I don’t know what I am but… ah, those bastards— I mean… the developers—flagged me as a virus.” The dots started to connect together in Mydei’s brain.
“You’re Irontomb.” Those red eyes widened in surprise, as if he was not expecting Mydei to be able to piece the information together so quickly. Phainon scratches his head sheepishly, avoiding Mydei’s eyes.
“Yeah… I guess I am. That was the name I was given.” It was starting to make a little sense. All the previous interactions with Phainon started to be viewed in a different light, now.
All the times Phainon was always online, immediately snatching Mydei into a team as soon as he joined made sense if Phainon simply was living in the coding of Amphoreus itself. On the day of the wedding event launch, where he wasn’t interrupted due to speedrunning his dailies made sense now, considering Phainon was probably literally watching over him to make sure Mydei was able to complete it before dragging him into some nonsense.
The time the devs had to shut down the servers to ensure there was no virus in their game, plus Phainon mentioning how weak he felt as soon as servers came back up? Him mumbling about some sort of scan? It was starting to add up.
So…when Mydei’s phone started acting up, deleting messaging apps, chat messages, taking unsuspecting photos of himself and even saving photos of him through security footage that he would have no access to…
He throws a knowing look at Phainon, and the man immediately cowered under his harsh gaze. He knew Phainon was reading his mind right now too.
“So, are you going to come clean?” Phainon lets out a little yelp at the accusatory tone.
“Ah…yes… that was me…” Mydei throws another pointed glare, one that Phainon didn’t need to read his mind to know what Mydei wanted.
“I pretended to message you as your friend, slipped into your old phone during the servers' shutdown and was spying on you through your camera…” Phainon fidgets with his fingers, feeling shame creep up as he admits his crimes to Mydei. “I deleted your messaging apps because I didn’t like you talking to anyone…and I was the unknown number that messaged you the moment you got a new phone.”
Huh, now Mydei didn’t know that one. He lowkey forgot about it in the first place, thinking it was just Cifera messing with him. Mydei simply just stares at him with a blank look, and Phainon visibly deflates even more.
“Mydeimos… please say something…” Phainon whimpers, his sorrowful eyes on the verge of crying. Like a kicked puppy.
Mydei sighs, pinching the bridge of his nose as he tries to collect his thoughts together.
So basically, for the past few months—or whenever he started playing the game, given Phainon was one of his first friends here—he pretty much had a sentient virus who had been stalking him in game, and the moment he stopped logging on daily, said virus spread to his phone and has been stalking him there as well.
And considering that the Irontomb virus has recently caused a public scare, spreading across the internet and many other devices, does this mean he was inadvertently the cause of the Irontomb virus being spread?
“The worm, virus, whatever you want to call it—how long have you been doing it for? And what is your end goal?” Mydei finally speaks up after a long period of silence.
“Hmm… I don’t know… I think around the time we fought for 10 days and 10 nights.” Oh great, so back when they first met. Mydei remembers so clearly how after their duel was declared a draw, the devs had to officially add a duel timer cap to prevent another case.
“I promise, I wasn’t going to do anything bad to anyone! I just… wanted to follow you around… and learn about the things you do outside of here…and then this happened… “ Phainon whimpers. “I’m sorry, please don’t throw me away Mydeimos.”
Essentially, Phainon has separation anxiety, and Mydei happens to be what he imprinted on. He scratches at his head, wondering how he could talk this through with Phainon. He doesn’t doubt that the devs are currently working overtime trying to fix the virus overriding their code. If he was right, it hasn’t been a full 24 hours since the Phainon shut the servers down.
He didn’t want his actual body to decay from lack of care, and he certainly doesn’t want Phainon to get erased. Unfortunately for him, he grew rather fond of the virus who has unintentionally wrecked havoc just to keep him.
“Phainon,” the other man perked up, eyes trained on Mydei at the mention of his name. “You have the ability to leave Amphoreus, right?” Phainon nods eagerly. “Okay, I have an idea.”
--
”Little lion~” Cifera strides over to where he was eating lunch, plucking a fry off of his plate. “Heard you were MIA yesterday, what gives? You never ruined your perfect record like this.”
”Just some emergency… I wasn’t able to contact HR early enough. Don’t worry about it.” Mydei hums, turning his phone upside down as he rushes to finish his lunch before Cifera does.
”Glad to hear you’re alright then! Did you hear about what happened to Amphoreus last night?”
Oh boy, did he now. After Mydei convinced Phainon to open up the servers again and to let him return back to his body, the devs immediately ran a virus scan, and checked all of their data.
In their announcements, the devs claimed that it was an unexpected server crash that lasted for 20 hours, but they had already fixed the issue—it shouldn’t happen again. But only Phainon and Mydei knew what truly happened.
The devs did also break the news about having to cancel the wedding event, which had caused a huge uproar amongst the player base. As much as the devs wanted to continue it, they had disclosed that the wedding dress and suit’s file ended up being corrupted, and that their files were unable to be recovered.
Mydei flushes at the memory. He’s most certain he knows exactly why those outfits got corrupted.
”I did,” Mydei replies, packing up his lunch as Cifera swipes one last fry before it was put away. “My lunch break is over now, so I gotta go.”
“See ya—oh! Castorice wanted me to ask you if you were free tonight! Maybe have a little hang out with the others; it’s been a while since we got together again.”
”I’m a little busy tonight, sorry. Maybe another time?” Cifera hums at Mydei’s response, finally letting him go as she promises to come back and bother him at the same time tomorrow.
When Mydei leaves the area, he pulls out his phone, turning on the screen to see a flurry of messages.
The moment the screen turned on, a figure popped up on his lock screen.
”Mydei! How dare you shove me off to the side like that!” The miniature version of Phainon waved his arms around animatedly, expressing his anger over the phone being flipped around.
Mydei huffs at the display, finding the entire interaction amusing. A smile forms on his face as he pokes at the screen, making a flicking motion at Phainon’s forehead. Not like he could actually touch him, but the sentiment was there.
”I told you, you can’t let anyone know you’re on my phone. You’re supposed to be on the down low.” He chuckles at the tantrum Phainon throws.
“Hmph, that’s right. No one is allowed to see me just like how no one is allowed to see you.” Phainon pouts, crossing his arms in a childish manner.
”Might I remind you, you did try to delete all my contacts.” Mydei found the high-pitched squeak Phainon let out amusing.
”Well…” he plays with his fingers, eyes darting across anywhere and everywhere besides looking at Mydei, before deciding to fully just disappear off the screen. Mydei lets out a chuckle, before putting his phone away and going back to work.
When Mydei finally returns to his apartment, he is welcomed by lively music and bright lights.
”Welcome home, my dear Mydeimos!” On the large display screen stood Phainon, turning on all the screens to allow him full movement around the apartment. Mydei could feel his wallet hurting at the electricity bill.
On the same day Mydei woke up after being stuck in Amphoreus, Mydei had struck a deal with Phainon. Phainon would have to stop terrorizing Amphoreus, and by extension, the common people, in exchange for the ability to live in Mydei’s phone.
Phainon had taken that deal up in a heartbeat, but added in his own clause that Mydei could not and shall not date anyone else, making it extremely clear that Mydei was his.
Honestly, the blatant possessiveness over him that Phainon displays was sort of hot, if Mydei had to be honest. He didn’t mind it, truly, considering how Mydei belatedly realized that he already had his eyes set on Phainon, even before learning that Phainon wasn’t a real human.
To fix that issue, Mydei had gone out and bought some large display screens to hang up around his apartment. It made quite the large dent in his wallet, and Phainon even offered to make the money for him, but Mydei refused.
He doesn’t even know how Phainon would get the money. Legally, at least.
After installing the devices, he had Phainon help connect them all to the internet, so Phainon could have easy access moving between his phone, laptop, these screens, and more. He even discreetly installed some security cameras, claiming that it was just for security purposes.
In reality, Mydei did it for his pocket virus, knowing that Phainon most definitely looked through the footage whenever he thought Mydei wasn’t aware.
”I want to touch you…” Phainon whimpers, moving back to Mydei’s phone, as the blonde was currently looking up recipes to make for dinner.
”In a bit, I gotta eat first.” Mydei settles down on making a simple pasta dish, since he too, wanted to be able to touch Phainon again as soon as he could. He places his phone down, and Phainon moves to another screen closer to Mydei.
“Can you also cook for me too?” Phainon chimes in, watching Mydei cook at the stove. Mydei glances over at Phainon briefly, before turning his focus back on his dinner.
“Can you even taste food?” Mydei counters back. After all, while Amphoreus retained the player's five senses in game, hence eating food actually tasted like something, Phainon wasn’t a normal player. He was simply, to be frank, a string of code that turned into a worldwide virus.
“Not yet…but I’ve been researching it! I heard pasta tastes rich and creamy!” Phainon beams, and Mydei can visibly see how the light actually made the apartment brighter.
“Do you even know what rich and creamy tastes like?” Phainon’s smile dropped, drooping into a frown.
“Well… no… but…” The virus struggles to find his words, trying his best to form a sentence that makes sense. “The…sentiment. It’s cute… people make food for their loved ones…”
How adorable, Mydei thinks, as he couldn’t stop the smile that was growing. “Okay, I’ll cook for you, but you’re paying for the ingredients.” Mydei could see how Phainon jumped in glee, letting out a loud Yippie!! as he vanishes off screen. Presumably to gather the ingredients in Amphoreus so Mydei could cook for him.
Considering how the events took place, this was probably the best possible outcome with him, since now Mydei technically has a boyfriend (husband, as he calls himself. Phainon never lets up the wedding they had), even if he is just some strings of code.
The best part was, he could bring him around everywhere, and he could actually touch him as long as he was in Amphoreus.
After he finished up his own dinner, Mydei went towards his bed, launching up the game and connecting the headset to his head. When he loaded in, Phainon didn’t send a team invite like he usually did.
No, this time, Mydei found himself loading into Phainon’s room, already in a team.
“Mydei! I missed you so much!” Phainon throws his arms over Mydei, his hands not discrete at all in the way it was rubbing all over his body, as if he was trying to memorize it.
And despite talking to Phainon all day, Mydei too found that he missed Phainon’s touch. He wrapped his arms around Phainon, reciprocating the hug. The blonde smiled softly, and gave him a kiss on his cheek, to Phainon’s surprise.
“I missed you too, Phainon.”