Alex considered the friend invite he’d gotten from their cat archer with some slight amount of thought. First of all, he didn’t know if he was going to keep playing ALO for so long, and he didn’t even know if being in a party or being friends would be interesting. But hey, it was something new and it couldn’t be bad, right? Alex took a quick look at his friends list and swiftly rediscovered the reason he never did. It was because he didn’t have any ‘friends’. His friends list was completely empty.
“Well.” Alex said, accepting the invitation. “Congratulations, Arina. You’re the first person to ever be on my friends list ever.”
Alex closed all of the windows and stretched.
“Alright, I got to go.” Alex said, walking towards the entrance of the dungeon. 
Alex was getting ready to sprint through the already cleared halls, but turned around again when he remembered something.
“By the way,” He said. “Don’t bother with my username. Just call me Alex.”
Alex turned again and activated sprint.

He raced down the now empty hallways, cutting corners to get out as fast as possible. He had to go out and make dinner, and it wouldn’t take that long to get back to Cait Sith Territory. Arriving at the entrance quickly, activating his wings and took off, reaching max speed and blasting forward, adjusting his direction slightly to rocket straight for Cait Sith territory, and his home in ALO. A home away from home.

As Alex flew homeward, he thought about his new party. A short cat tank, a short violinist, spriggan DPS, Salamnder DPS, Cait Sith Ranged DPS and Alex. More DPS, more cats. No healers, which was unfortunate, but more fun for the family, Alex supposed. Being on edge is funner than being safe, but sometimes they really needed a healer. 2 shields might compensate a little for that, but not much. Well, they could always chug potions like a drinking game. [i]Take a swig every time you get hit. It’s great because by the end of it, you can still walk away![/i]

Alex arrived at Cait Sith territory and banked downwards at a hard angle, deactivating his wings to land with a crash in front of his own house door, grateful for safe zones. No damage, no matter how high you fall. No pain, either. Alex unlocked his house and entered, locking the door behind him. He quickly checked his storage, looking through it to remind himself of what was there. He saw a few weapons that he thought about bringing to his new party, but decided that they probably had better stuff already. Alex was surprised by his new party oriented thoughts. Maybe he should stick around for a while. He kept Flesh Render and Unarmed combat in his inventory and fell backwards onto the bed, opening the menu and logging out.

Alex’s eyes opened and he blinked, getting used to what little light there was. Alex groaned as he got up, a little stiff. He slipped off the bed, standing up, and went out of the door. The hallway lights were off, and the door was still locked. It looked like his sister was out. It was pretty much certain, however, that she would be back for dinner soon. Alex turned the lights on in the hall and meandered over to the kitchen. He flicked the lights on in the dining room and the kitchen, then shrugged on an apron and got ready to cook.

Not long afterwards, the electronic lock was disengaged and his sister, Alexis walked inside. Her blond hair shone in the light of dusk and her blue eyes stared quizzically at Alex behind square rimmed glasses.
“Alex!” She said in surprise. “I didn’t know you’d be up.”
“Hey, sis.” Alex said casually. “You know I’d never let you cook.”
“T-That’s, well…” She said.
Memories of burned food resurfaced, days spent in the bathroom and general unpleasantness. Funny in retrospect, traumatising when they first occurred. But Alex smiled at the thought. Those were funny days. 
“Get changed.” Alex said, turning the stove off. “Dinner’s ready.”

It was around 7:30 pm when the brother and sister duo had dinner. Alex had cooked some curry he’d prepared a little ahead in the afternoon. It was kind of mild, and it was pretty tasty. They ate in relative quiet until Alex broke the silence. 
“Why were you out so late?” Alex asked suddenly.
“You starting a conversation, the world must be ending…” Alexis replied.
“I’m not [i]that[/i] bad.” Alex objected.
“Maybe not, but it’s still bad.” She said.
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t answer my question.”
“Fine.” She said, chewing another spoonful of curry. “I went out to karaoke with my friends. It went for a while and I went back home.”
“Huh.” Alex said, slightly surprised. While Alex skipped grades in school easily, Alexis put in quite a bit of effort in school which led to her having few friends in Russia. 
“I didn’t know you had friends.”
“Well it’s not like you have any.” She said, pouting.
“I certainly don’t.” Alex said, taking a sip of water. “Wait, actually, that’s a lie.”
“Huh?” She asked, puzzled. 
“I made a friend, kind of.” Alex said, putting down his glass. He was finished with his dinner so he took it up along with his sister’s empty plate and went to wash the dishes. His sister followed, well versed with the routine. 

“I was playing Alfheim, which I told you about,” Alex said, filling the sink with water.
“Uh-huh.” Alexis said, taking the dishwashing liquid and splashing some in.
“And I made went on a dungeon raid with some other people.” Alex continued, working up a lather and wiping the plates clean.
“You went with other people?” Alexis asked sceptically.
“Guild leader was tired of my shit.” Alex answered, handing the plate to Alexis who rinsed it. “Had to go or she’d be mad at me.”
“Okay, and then what?” She asked, drying the plate and putting it away.
“Well,” Alex said, washing a set of cutlery. “It was kind of boring, and the boss was alright, and we got to the last boss.”
He set aside the cutlery for Alexis to rinse and continued.
“Then the team split up and we formed smaller groups. I was in a party of 6 with a pretty varied set of people. A cat girl tank, a cat girl archer, a really short bard girl – The cat tank was short too by the way, a salamander lady, and a spriggan dude. And me.”
“Looks like you’re running around with a bunch of girls where mom and dad can’t see you.” She said suspiciously. 
“Is that really what you think of me?” Alex asked incredulously.
“You haven’t really told me otherwise.” She countered.
“Hey, I don’t even know them in real life.” Alex objected.
“So?”
“[i]So,[/i] I might not be running around with a bunch of girls where mom and dad can’t see me. I might be running around with a bunch of guys where mom and dad can’t see me.”
“Point taken.”
“Anyway.” Alex sighed, starting to clean the pot. “We went in the boss room and it was a huge mass of corpses, moving around by shuffling the bodies around. It was pretty interesting.”
Alexis visibly shuddered and Alex grinned evily.
“I’ll print off a few screenshots and put it on your ceiling while you aren’t looking.” He said mischievously.
“If you do, I’ll-“
“I’m kidding.” Alex said, grinning. “Probably.”
“Alex…” She warned, tone low.
“Alright, alright.” Alex said, still smiling. “Anyway, the boss fight was cool, and our cat archer gave everyone friend requests.”
He handed the pot over Alexis and wiped his hands to dry them.
“Well, if she extended them to everyone…” She said, rinsing the pot and putting it aside to dry.
“Well, I think I might stick to it for a while more.”
At this, Alexis stopped in the middle of drying her hands and put a hand to her brother’s head.
“You… aren’t sick, are you?” She asked, mystified. 
“What’s with you today?” Alex asked in confusion.
“I’ve never seen you stick to [i]anything[/i] for more than 3 days.” She said.
Alex had to admit that she had a point. But this was his first VRMMO, so maybe that was what caused it. Though in all honesty. He just felt like something interesting could happen if he stuck around with them.
“Well, there’s a first for everything.” Alex said casually. 
“Well, apparently.” She said, still looking mystified. 
“It’s fine. Seriously.” Alex said, stretching. “You know, I think I’ll help you study tonight.”
Alexis’s went to the window and peeked outside, looking for something.
“What are you doing?” Alex asked, confused.
“I just thought the world might be ending. This is pretty weird for you.” She replied.
“Okay, now you’re just blowing this out of proportion.” Alex said. “I help you study a lot, you know. Wait a minute… You’re having fun with this, aren’t you?”
Alexis’s hidden grin broke free.
“Maybe.” She said, smiling. “But I’ll still take you up on that offer.”
“Let big brother teach you tonight.” Alex said.
“I’m older than you!” She said, taking her glasses from the table.
“Not by so much that you could hold it over my head.” Alex said.
"True." She said.

It was later in the night that Alex finally lay back down onto his bed, not too tired but not exactly energetic. On reflection, today was actually a good day. He’d done a lot today, seen a lot and added a friend to his friends list. They’d need more interaction to be friends, and he wasn’t sure about the other members. Though as for the other members, they seemed like fun people and he looked forward to partying with them. [i]Maybe that’s what was missing from my life.[/i] Alex thought. [i]Friends…[/i]

Truth be told, Alex hadn’t made any friends in real life in years. When his family used to live in Russia, he’d skipped grades in school because it was easy and he didn’t have anything to do in it. He regretted that decision now. If he hadn’t, he might have been happier. He might have had fulfilment in life. But on the other hand, there was the incident. The incident that gave him trust issues, probably the sole reason he didn’t have any friends.

Alex’s mother was a Russian scientist and his father was a Japanese businessman. He and his sister were non-identical twins, but not many befriended them. They knew of their parents and somehow decided that they were too low to interact with them. Alex was content to live through school and take things easy, but then he made a friend. Yahtzee was his name. Quite the normal person besides his name. He was easy to get along with, and for that year, he was Alex’s only friend. But Alex started noticing something wrong around halfway, when Yahtzee met Alexis. Alex could see it in his eyes. Alex began suspecting something, and despite being his best and only friend, Alex attempted to push him away. Things took a turn for the worse as Yahtzee tried to break into their house once. Alex woke up that night for a reason he never knew, and came face to face with his once good friend. Yahtzee revealed that the only reason he’d gotten close to Alex because of his obsession with Alex’s sister. All Alex could do was sigh. Unfortunately for him, this was the very reason he’d broken ties with Yahtzee. Things only got worse as Yahtzee pulled a knife on Alex. Alex managed to hold him off loud enough to wake Alexis up and long enough for her to call the police. Also long enough for her to get a pan and smack Yahtzee unconscious. The incident was a black mark in Alex’s life and he skipped all of the grades in high school to distance himself from it. His family moved to Japan in an attempt to put it behind them and Alex never regretted it. It’d been 2 years and the incident still affected him to this day. He'd gotten over it, but it lingered there, just out of reach, like the sword of Damocles.

He couldn’t completely blame Yahtzee, though. It was mostly his fault for never going out. Alex shifted his lower body onto the rest of his bed and drew the blanket over himself. Maybe things would change now. He knew that Yahtzee was a special case, and that there were good people in the world. He’d been ready to make friends, but he was always too young for the class and he’d graduated a year after he entered. So maybe things would be different now. Alex turned onto his side and closed his eyes. The darkness took over and he was asleep.