As the four of them got home, Seth left to take a shower, leaving the three of them alone. "Do you have video games? Or rather, do you have any kind of furniture other than the basics?" Xavier asked, hovering around Erin to prevent him from leaving.
"I don't think there were any when we were cleaning, right?" Rhys asked Kane in his head, thinking back on it, he doesn't seem to remember playing any video games before, what did they even look like?
Hearing a no, and pitiful crying from Kane, he responded. "I don't think so, how do you use them anyways?" This questioned seemed to shock both Xavier and Erin, Erin's eyes slightly widened, but it was still noticeable.
"Is it that bad I don't know what its like?" Rhys asked, feeling slightly embarrassed. He was a musician, not someone with enough free time to do whatever whenever he wanted.
"I can't believe what a rich person you are. I nearly feel sad for your childhood. What even was your childhood?" Xavier said faking tears causing a nod from Erin.
"I practiced piano and studies, worked on my garden, like everyone else?" Rhys stated, but it came out as more of a question. This just made the two boys look at him with sadness.
Suddenly, Xavier's affection point raised by one. "Is that a pity point?!" Rhys yelled out to Kane, who was still shedding tears calling him a pitiful child.
"Oh you poor boy we're going to order your consoles as soon as possible, let's all get matching ones, be right back!" Xavier yelled out, running to his room.
"Wait when did I get dragged into this?" Erin hissed out under his breath. Seizing this opportunity, Rhys used his smile skill in order to charm him.
"Sorry about this, Erin. But it would be nice to match, right? It just shows how close of friends we are!" He cheerfully said, making Erin roll his eyes.
"You probably don't even know what a console is, right? Even if I don't play games much I at least know what they are." Although no affection points were raised, his tone was a little less cold.
Taking that as a good sign, Rhys internally cheered. "I know that people online say they're fun!"
Sighing, Erin pinched the bridge of his nose and groaned to himself. "You know what social media is but not video games?"
"Wait a second, host. I thought you understood what systems and my game comparisons meant?" Kane asked.
"I don't. I have no clue what you mean, but I know what some of them are from novels I've read, same with the system. Didnt you pick me a a host because I've read novels?" Rhys asked, making Kane sweat a little from how confident Rhys sounded.
"You were really faking it this whole time? I chose you because you seemed like the perfect candidate in terms of pride and sexuality." Kane responded, Rhys swore if he could give him the finger right now, he would.
As Xavier came back down, he had a bag full of different controllers, consoles, and cartridges. "I've got all sorts of games, we'll make you into one of us!" Xavier said as he unpacked it all onto the living room floor, pulling out his laptop.
"Look at all of these! Aren't they cool?" Xavier asked, browsing through a selection online of different electronics, causing Rhys to internally twitch his eye.
"Aren't they really expensive?! Even if I have money should I waste it all." Rhys muttered to Kane. He wouldn't bat an eye in his previous life, but now things were different.
"Did I forget to tell you or do you just not listen? Your leftover money will just disappear, it can't be taken back to the system space or the next world." Kane explained, causing Rhys to widen his eyes slightly.
Then why the hell did he take all his points and use it for currency?! This bastard! Points were expensive. "It's your fault." Was all Kane said.
Understanding that he was free to spend money a bit easier now, Rhys just told Xavier to pick out whatever he wanted and Rhys would let him use his card.
"If it will bring me closer to the targets, a few thousand dollars won't make a difference." Rhys said to Kane, who only nodded along. Although Rhys was unreliable at times when it came to missions, at moments like these he pulled through.
At this rate, Erin didn't blink an eye at Rhys comment, just picking out which one color he'd prefer. "Does Erin secretly want friends?" Rhys asked to Kane.
"He's going to be dragged into it either way." Kane commented, looking between Rhys and Xavier. As Seth came down, Xavier almost knocking him out by jumping onto the poor man.
Explaining the situation to Seth, he profusely apologised for Xavier's behaviour, and insisted he could pay for his own stuff. Laughing it off, Rhys responded without thinking.
"No worries, I have a whole lot of money that I don't even need, feel free to drain me." It seemed as the room almost went silent as Seth choked on his own spit.
"You can be my sugar daddy, or rather, all of our's, Reece's." Xavier said as he went back to picking out the item and adding them to cart.
"What?" Rhys asked Kane, who only explained the term to him. Rhys face soon exploded in a dark red, the tips of his ears blushing as well.
"Well it's true! Once I'm gone from this world I'll have no more money, so I may as well not waste it." Rhys replied in his head, trying to calm his face down.
Luckily for him, it seemed like they were also so engrossed that they didn't notice, or so he thought at first.
Xavier's affection rose to nine, and Erin's to four. Seth still remained at six, but he too had a light blush.
"They noticed!" He cried out in his head, taking mental damage. His face that was starting to lighten only got darker, causing Erin to snicker.
"Hey, at least try to hide it!" Rhys cried out, using his crocodile tears skill and pouting a little, causing Erin to blush a bit.
"There's no way a crybaby like you could be a sugar daddy, more like a convenient and idiotic wallet at most." Erin aggressively commented, looking back at the laptop screen.
As Rhys was about to retort, Seth agreed. "I know you have money, but you should be more careful with it, Rhys. What if we took advantage of you?" Which made Xavier agree.
"As much I love you Reece's, you've got to be careful. What if a person takes advantage of you? Only I get to do that!" He said seriously until the last part, Seth lightly flicking him on the head.
"Even Xavier yelled at me." He pouted, as the three boys laugh. At the very least they were getting along, which was something that signalled things would be okay in Rhys' eyes.
"Well it's not like they know you wont keep the money or you need to make them happy since they're your capture targets." Kane joined in as well, floating around and looking at the screen too.
"You can spend the money as you'd like though, rent, groceries, and gas would only make a small dent monthly, and since you do cooking from home it saves quite a bit, and you even have rich parents." Kane said to Rhys.
"Will my parents always be this kind, though? I know they said they'd send money over, but it feels suspicious." Rhys said, already knowing the system shouldn't be trusted.
"That's half right. If you transfer a lot of points into money for the next world, you're definitely going to be rich in some standards. You also may have different personalities of your parents depending on the novel type and difficulty." Kane began.
"Let's say you saved all your points and transferred them, you'd have 1,250,000 on you, making you super wealthy, since that was your pocket change. Since this is an easy world, where everything is about romance and nothing harsh, your parents will be kind. They'll remember you as the type of child you were growing up, too." Kane said, Rhys giving an alright to continue.
"But if this were a novel that had themes of hardships or abuse, there's a chance your parents too, may of given you a traumatic backstory like forcing you into playing the piano and being friendless. You being friendless right now is just because you're sad." Kane continued, Rhys cursing at him in his head.
"Finally, if this were a difficult B world for example, where each character has a tragic past, chances are they likely wouldn't be kind to you since it doesn't fit with the novel's mature rated theme." With his explanation finished, Rhys gave an okay to Kane and focused back into what the targets were doing.
"Alright all checked out! But are you really sure this is okay?" Xavier asked Rhys, showing him the price. It was a hefty sum for an ordinary person, sure, but Rhys lucked out this time and had more than enough money.
"It's really no problem, don't worry. I'm doing this because I want to get along with you all!" Rhys smiled, the affection for all of them rising by one point.
"When you put it like that and waste so much money on it I guess I really can't decline." Erin huffed, glancing to the side.
"I sure hope we get along too, in the future." Seth smiled, thanking Rhys. As Xavier finished, he closed his laptop and pounced on Rhys, causing him to fall backwards.
"I love you, Reece's! But you better not do this for anyone else, okay?" Xavier said with a smile before giving a pout, trying to act serious.
As a blush rose to his face, he nodded in agreement and Xavier laughed, and Rhys saw just how small and cute he was, his hazel eyes were really gorgeous.
As Xavier got off, Rhys yelled at himself to snap out of it, and that there's no way a grown man would be cute, he's just thinking weirdly because of the system.
"Now that we're done-" Erin began before getting cut off by Xavier, who started to turn on the tv.
"We're not done! We're going to have a movie marathon. I wanted to do it yesterday but we were all still adjusting, now that we've grown closer let's all cuddle and watch horror movies!"
As Erin tried to run away to protest, Rhys blocked the stairs, preventing him from pushing through. "Let's have fun together!" He smiled, although Xavier was the most annoying person Rhys had ever met, he was extremely useful in situations like these to bring them closer.
"You do know what watching a movie with a friend is like, right host?" Kane asked causing Rhys to yell at him in his head. How dare the he, of course Rhys knew!
"For your information I do have a friend, and we have talked about one together." Rhys retorted.
Erin, stuck in a stalemate, sighed and agreed to watch the movie. "Xavier could get the blankets while Rhys and I start to prep dinner, it should only take a little bit. Why don't you go change and do what you need?" Seth spoke up first, it looked like this wasn't his first rodeo with this.
With (almost) everyone in agreement, Erin went to go put his stuff away in his room and change while Xavier ran to take his and Seth's blankets.
"Let's go wash our hands, is there anything specific you want?" Rhys asked Seth as they made their way over.
"Not really, I'm fine with anything." He smiled, as Rhys pouted a little and grabbed Seth's arm.
"Are you sure? You always say you're fine but it's okay to be a little greedy." Rhys said, remember this line from a novel, causing Kane to sigh.
"I'm really alright." Seth said as they made their way to fridge. How stingy, not even a single affection point? Well it's not surprising in a way, considering how much time he spent with Xavier.
"Well let's thaw out some beef first, do burritos sound good to you?" Rhys asked, Seth nodding along.
As they finished, Xavier came racing down with a bunch of blankets and pillows, Erin following behind him as to not let everything drag on the floor. Although he was complying, his face showed how annoyed he was.
"I'll go change too, be right back, feel free to find the movie without me!" Rhys said as he made his way to his room.
As he shut the door behind him, he sighed out of relief. "It's hasn't even been two hours and I'm exhausted." Rhys muttered as he made his way to his dresser.
"You're doing well though, host! At least now you can touch the targets!" Kane responded, helping Rhys pick out an outfit.
"You really don't have any fashion sense for someone who cares about how handsome he is. Maybe all your fans praising you for nothing went to your head." Kane muttered as he tried to pick something that looked good.
"I can make any regular clothing look good. Besides, it's not like I chose the clothes the system put in the dresser." Rhys hissed, picking up a loose fitting white shirt and blue sweatpants.
Kane rolled his eyes as he looked at Rhys' outfit. "Are you sure you want that? I can help you change, I mean it. You look like you just chose whatever was clean. No wonder you aren't as handsome."
How rude, how was it any different from what the targets wore?! And besides, he was handsome! "Unlike you the targets are naturally good looking. They could pull anything off, you're not at that level yet. They're all wearing matching clothes too."
With a huff, Rhys exited his room closing the door behind him. He thought he looked fine, at least. As he made his way back to the living room, everyone was set up.
The blankets were situated in the middle of the living room floor, with about seven pillows around them. The lights were off, and any curtains that gave light were shut too.
As they said nothing about his apparel, Rhys said to Kane, being a little childish about the situation. "They're not judging me!"
"Not aloud, at least." Kane thought to himself as he made himself comfy in the mess of blankets.
"You can sit here." Seth pat a spot next to him giving a gentle smile. Perhaps he didn't realise it enough before, but this really was a large living room, maybe if he bought more blankets they could spread out a bit more instead of huddling close, Erin would probably prefer that.
"I hope you three don't get scared and cling onto me." Erin huffed as he got relaxed. Although he seemed tough and cold, perhaps he did trust these guys a little bit.
"Hmm, then I'll cling onto Seth or Xavier then if I get scared." Rhys tried to tease for affection, only for it to backfire with a hum from Erin. Maybe they weren't as close as he actually thought.
"Anyways shhhhhh!!" Xavier chirped as the movie started, showing a small and abandoned hospital room with flickering lights.
With a small smile, Rhys made himself comfy. Although he didn't like the idea of hitting on men, or friends in general, maybe spending some time with others isn't that bad when he has time to spare. For now, he'll think about capturing their hearts later, and focus on enjoying himself a little.