My Boyfriend Plays Too Many Video Games But to be Quite Honest I Don't Mind

Synopsis: Atom and Stephen celebrate their one year anniversary of living together in their apartment.

Coming up on their first anniversary of living together in their apartment, Atom's ready to pull out all the stops. Walking through the door, grocery bags in hand after riding the second line train to Full Foods, he sees Stephen sitting on the couch, lost in his video game on the TV.

With a delightful sigh, he walks around and over to their kitchen, setting things down on the light granite countertops. He's humming along to the indie folk music in his ears, swaying his head from side to side as he pulled things from their bag and stuffed them into cabinets above and the fridge right beside him.

Stephen perks up to the sound, turning to see his boyfriend and says, "Atom. Got everything at the store?" His voice is monotone like usual, but from his end, his excitement couldn't be more palpable.

"Hmmm?" He turns around, barely hearing his voice through his earphones, "what did you say, sweet pea?"

"Groceries." He replies.

"Oh, yes! I got everything, come see!" He motions for him to go into the kitchen.

Obliging, he gets up from the couch, it's a brown mid century modern piece made of some sort of velvet-esque fabric (neither is really sure what it is exactly, except that they bought it from Cormart on sale for cheap).

Walking across the beige carpeted floor onto the white tiles of the kitchen, he looks over at the array of items inside the opened cabinets, analyzing each item as if he was trying to figure out what the plan was for each of them. But then, after he sees the coast is clear, he sneak attacks with a grabbing of Atom's love handles through his red plaid flannel, which makes him squeal and reach over playfully for him to knock it off, only to be met with kisses down his neck and the feeling of Stephen's chin resting on his shoulder, arms now wrapped around him as he softly hummed. Again, enthralled by his presence.

Atom turns around, arms now slung over his shoulders, giving him a good look at the freckles he's found oh so charming since day one, and the glasses that he pushes up before saying, "you must've really missed me while I was gone, huh?"

His face after the words slip from his mouth heats up like a furnace and he can't look him in the eyes anymore, shifting in his stance, "... Maybe." A light chuckle proceeds, his way of trying to convince him that he's not that shy.

It's always funny to Atom to see his boyfriend become a little puddle whenever he's around— considering the stark contrast of the more stoic and cold exterior he presents to everyone else, even his own mother. But in a charming way, it makes him think "if I'm enough as is to make him soften up and melt, then I must be doing something right."

Hoisting him up onto the counter as best he can in spite of his own weakness and his size, he can't help but go straight into kissing him like it's been forever since he did so last. It's like he's making up for lost time, but he truly can't help himself, happy that Atom doesn't mind. Gripping onto the counter as best he can whilst leaning back, he's laughing up a storm feeling Stephen's lips curl up at the corners into a smile, tugging on the lower left front panel of his flannel like he wants to pull him in as close as he can, their lips still meeting in gentle kinship, in spite of their fervent but hushed moans and slight skirmish of tongues. The heat that escapes Atom's lips when he finally pulls away almost makes him regret ending things, but knowing his game was waiting for him to return, and Atom had plenty to finish up with in the kitchen, he lets him get down from the counter.

Giggling he says, "Stephen, what am I going to do with you, hmm?"

He shrugs, replying "nothing." and smiles.

✿✿✿

Back on the couch, Stephen is caught up in his video game again, while Atom's finishing up on putting things away, checking his phone to make sure he had all the recipes he needed to make their dish for tonight. Stephen usually did the cooking since Atom's anxiety made it difficult to make things, but now on 50 mg of Sertraline, and some coaching from Stephen, he's decided to give it a try today, seeing it as their little gift for living together for a year now.

When he walks away, seeing as everything was done, he sits down next to Stephen on the couch, leaning against his shoulder and watching him play. It's some sort of open world fantasy adventure game. Atom's not much of a gamer, preferring to spend his time looking up interesting places to shoot photos or watch some sort of romantic comedy; but he could watch Stephen play for hours and never get bored. He doesn't notice it at first, but when he turns his head and sees him, eyes barely open, he lets out a soft breath of air.

"Sleepy?" he asks after kissing his head.

Atom groans, rolling his eyes as best he could whilst still being tired, "you know how it is, everything's so stressful. Remembering all the train lines, making sure I get everything at the grocery store..."

As he continues to ramble, Stephen nods and tries all he can to give him a look of sympathy. Even though Atom's made great strides in managing his anxiety, he's still not perfect, and still finds himself in situations where his panic is through the roof, leaving him an exhausted mess after the fact. With a final sigh to finish his babble, Stephen pats his head to console him before tapping his lap and asking, "restorative nap?"

Perking up, he replies, "Oh, sure! Maybe..." he switches positions to rest his head in his lap, his voice becoming much more weary as he continued, "maybe a nap... would help..." eyes closing not even seconds later.

Surprised at how fast he fell asleep, Stephen thinks to himself about how dire his situation must've been to put him out so quickly. But nonetheless, he takes a short break from gaming to run his fingers through his hair, the one thing he knows will make them feel at least a little better, then helps take his glasses off and sets them aside so they wouldn't bother him while he's resting.

Resuming his playing, his character is venturing out into the deep plains in the video game, equipped with a sword and shield riding on top of a horse he managed to wrangle and named "horse" because he thought it was funny. Maneuvering to see the bright blue sky and towns off in the distance that contrasted with the yellow planes, he's trying to figure out where he wants to go next, shuffling through his menu of quests, he finally settles on a minor side quest that should only take him as long as Atom'll probably be asleep. Getting into gear, his character takes off without a hitch, and he's off to playing for the next... 2 hours.

Atom wakes up, assuming only a few minutes had passed, but is surprised to look towards the sliding glass door and see the sun's already starting to set. Jolting up from his laying position, much to Stephen's surprise, he starts vigorously shaking his head, panicking over the fact that the food he was supposed to make was going to take forever, and he only had so much time left in the day before Stephen had work tomorrow and he's already slept the whole day away and he's a horrible horrible no good, fucking stupid, dumbass nobody that didn't deserve to be on this plane of existence anymore.

But Stephen's keen, and he knows based off of Atom's mannerisms when he's in distress, and needs to be brought back down to earth.

"Atom. You're panicking." he says after swiftly turning towards him, "what's wrong?"

His brain is a mushed jumbled up zoo of thoughts, and he can barely speak, which leads Stephen to stepping in and giving him a deep pressure hug, which seems to do the trick in taking the edge off to help him get to a place of being able to explain what's got him so worried.

"I overslept and now the food's not going to be ready until bedtime! I'm such a failure!" He says, putting his head in his hands and trying not to cry.

"Atom. You're not a failure." Stephen replies, gently putting a hand on his shoulder, "food will be ready when it's ready. No big deal."

"Are you sure? I-I don't want to make you stay up just to eat when you have work in the morning." his voice sounds like he has a lump in his throat, squeaky as all hell.

Again, he says with a nod, "food will be ready when it's ready."

✿✿✿

With Stephen back to the video game grind, Atom's in the kitchen getting the ingredients together for takoyaki; music in his ears again as the only way to calm him down and stop worrying about all the things that could go wrong with the dish.

He's already finished making the sauce, glued to the written recipe on his phone and insuring he followed every step to a T. Now all that was left was to make the batter and prep the fillings meant to go inside the fried dough.

Taking a peek after hearing the sound of cake flour being whisked, Stephen smiles at Atom's determination. For a moment, he almost feels a sense of anticipation for the dish, convinced that Atom for sure has got it in the bag and is destined to make something insatiably tasty. Atom doesn't notice him, however, so lost in trying to do things right, it's like he's in a tunnel vision trying to balance his increasing heart rate and the whisking technique, leaving Stephen to successfully retreat back in his seat and resume playing.

With the stove top now on, Atom places the takoyaki mold on it and lathers the whole thing with olive oil before pouring half of the batter onto it. It sizzles like pop rockets as it hits the mold, the aroma enveloping the kitchen in a sweet serenade. He hasn't even added the fillings yet, but so far it seems like he's on the right track.

Turning the fried balls of dough over after filling  and separating them, there's only a matter of seconds between cooking and serving. Atom can feel the anxiety rising in his chest, hands shaking as he removes each ball from the mold and onto a plate. His face is beet red, and his breath is slightly heavier than usual. But when he finishes, there's a moment of bliss with no worry.

Until, he has to call Stephen for dinner.

His heart is practically pushing against his throat as he sits across from him at the dining room table, waiting for him to give his opinion on the dish, his brain going faster than a jackhammer thinking of all the things that could happen if he hates this dish. 

Stephen, lost in his own thoughts about the game he was just playing, pays Atom's anxiety no mind, and shoves one of the balls in his mouth. His hand resting against his chin as he's chewing. To Atom, it looks like he's contemplating how to say the food sucks and he's moving out immediately, however from Stephen's perspective, he's only thinking about how many *rupeeoleons* he'd need to grind to get an amour upgrade.

Atom doesn't touch his food at all, petrified at the idea of forming his own opinion before he does. It's almost like the room's lost all of it's air, but in a matter of seconds, he hears it— his response:

"Food's good."

And he sighs the loudest he has all day.

Now having been able to eat, it's been a few minutes and the two have made decent progress towards finishing their meal. 

"Did you know Devon called me yesterday while you were at work?" Atom says.

"No." Stephen replied.

"Yeah, xe wanted to know if you got the promotion but I told xem you didn't and suspect it might've been due to homophobia."

"Great Purchase is not an equal opportunity employer like they claim." His face reads of disappointment after he speaks.

Atom chuckles, "well none of them are, that's the point." He gently kicks his foot against Stephen's after speaking, prompting him to look at him quizzically, only to immediately meet with a look from him as if to imply he was trying to be sly and admire his appearance. His cheeks paint themselves a light pink hue as he looks away momentarily, trying not to let his guard down so soon again.

They both try to go back to eating, but Atom's certainly riding the high that was knowing how good his dish was. He keeps playfully pestering Stephen from under the table, as he's trying not to look like he's crumbling like a piece of paper falling victim to laughing. This only makes Atom more bold as he's chewing on another ball and pressing his luck on what game of footsies would make him crack.

It's charming to see his usually stoic and monotone boyfriend's face become one visually like a jar of tomato sauce, one hand covering his mouth as he, again, tried not to laugh, even though it tickled. The only way, he realizes, to get out of this situation, is to fight back. 

Lightly kicking back, Atom slams his hand on the table and immediately breaks out into laughter in response, "Oh you are so rotten!" He jokes afterwards.

"Hey, you started it!" Stephen protests, getting up from his seat, Atom not entirely sure what or where he was doing or going. For a moment, his face reads of anxiety, but it immediately dissipates when his lips meet his, his head almost bashing against the wall from the sudden, unexpected gesture.

Atom can't help but giggle at how hot and bothered Stephen seemed to have become in such a short amount of time. Their bodies move from the dining room table to the nearby wall next to their bedroom door, lips still locked together as hands shuffle and explore about each other's bodies. His breath becomes a lot more shallow after they finally pull away from each other, his hand now resting on the doorknob. The heat and friction from just seconds of making out has him feeling some type of way. He has to find a way to get more. He needs to feel him again.

"Stephen..." He can barely call out his name from just how frazzled and dazed he is, "I... I think..."

"You want me?" He asks, trying to decipher what he gave up on elaborating.

And with a breathy nod, Atom turns the doorknob and the two tumble into their bedroom as the door opens.

xx

This is the end of part 1, and the main story. To read the second, NSFW part 2, the link is here. Must be 18+ to read.

The password is the name of Stephen's cat, backwards. Case sensitive.