My True Love Gave to Me...

Ten boys playing

Nine tailored dresses

Eight types of chocolate

Seven messed up lyrics

Six day shifts

Five dedicated rings

Four handpicked gifts

Three unique Stories

Two different households

And one giant excuse!

Cassie sat on her bed as the day was finally over, she still had a few more gifts to wrap, but that would have to wait until tomorrow. She was about to play an ASMR sleeping aid, when she got a text from Koto.

“Huh?” She opened his message and found a video with no other text, she opened it and heard Koto’s voice.

“Hey Cassie! So, I decided to do something special for you!” He clapped for himself, “I got everyone involved and you’re sure to love this.” The screen then came to life and she saw Smash Brothers.

“No way…” Cassie sat up in her bed now.

“From here, I’ll just let past me take over.” The video went on to where Cassie could see some screens of all ten of them. It switched as they spoke and tried to decide on a mode to play.

“I think we should just participate in a tourney.” Amai said.

“Why?”

“Because if we do team strike we’ll be on teams and I don’t wanna lose because someone can’t play.” Amai explained.

“Oh, is that directed at someone?” Terumichi teased.

“Shut up, I just know some of you have never played this, and I’m a pro.” Amai boasted.

“We’ll see about that.” Shugi said.

“But I think a tourney would be fine then too, we’ll do a practice one just so people can get used to things… that sound okay?” Koto said.

“Yeah, sounds fine.” Everyone agreed and the video skipped to the beginning of what Cassie assumed was the actual tourney. She paused the video and tried to see the match ups.

“Oh, who’s playing as my baby Dark Pit? And someone is the Villager? You guys better not suck.” She resumed playing the video and the first match between Kirby and Luigi began. She heard the voices of Terumichi and Amai and figured who was who.

“Amai’s gonna win this… sorry Michi.”

“Come on Amai, you gotta go easy on me.” Terumichi said as the round began.

“Whatever. I’m not going easy on any of you, just fair warning.” Amai said.

“Great…” Terumichi said, the match began and Terumichi tried just running away, but Amai caught up to him and missed his grab. “Yes!” Terumichi hit him and began to slightly combo him. Amai now had thirty damage and was at Terumichi’s mercy as he fell from the top of the stage.

“Come on Amai, don’t make me a liar.”

“Lose because someone can’t play? Maybe you shouldn’t have spoken so soon.” Chris said. Amai said nothing meanwhile Terumichi was laughing. Amai began to come back however, he was getting his bearings and by the time they both had seventy damage Amai had managed to get one stock out of Terumichi. Terumichi came back and got an easy kill and now they were fighting once again.

“Maybe we should have put the stock higher.” Koto said.

“No, this is already going on for too long.” Shugi said.

“It just started!”

“Aren’t matches supposed to be kind of long… like three minutes or something?” Brayleigh said.

“Still,”

“Bro, Shugi is actually annoying, but it’s fine, he’s probably trash though.” Cassie laughed to herself and saw that Terumichi lost to Luigi’s up B. “Sorry, but you should have seen that one coming.” The round progressed forward with Terumichi not too disappointed at his loss.

“Whatever, I wasn’t gonna beat Amai anyways, but at least I didn’t get swept.”

“Good game though.” Amai said.

“Yeah, good game.”

“Okay, who’s next?” Chris asked.

“Oh no… okay, I’ll do my best!” Koto said.

“Look, don’t take it so seriously, just have fun.” Braleigh said.

“L-look I play this game… I’m just not very good at it, I prefer RPGs.” Bryleigh just laughed when the match began.

“I just realized, there’s no items. Good, so no cheap wins…” Cassie saw the characters and had to smile, “Aw Koto, did you pick him for an easy win?” Koto was playing as Roy while Brayleigh was playing as Piranha Plant. “Woah, does Brayleigh play this game too?” Cassie watched for a bit and saw both Koto spamming with his counter while Brayleigh just kept recovering by accident.

“I keep forgetting that’s not how you attack.” Brayleigh said with a chuckle.

“Look, I’m ready to fight you!” Koto said as he kept countering. Cassie had to laugh.

“Okay never mind, they must just be sharing a console or something.”

“Will one of you just hit the other?” Amai said impatiently.

“Chill, just because you play this all the time.” Shugi said.

“So you wanna stay here for longer trying to see who's worse?”

“Guys ignore him, he gets like this when he’s playing games.” Terumichi explained.

“That’s not very sportsmanlike.” Ankara said.

“I just realized, who can actually even play?”

“Not me.” Hayate was quick to out himself, “I’m just here for Cassie.”

“I can kind of play since sometimes my brother asks me to play with him.” Chris explained.

“I used to play games all the time, but I’m a little rusty now.” Shugi explained.

“Is that why you keep talking about how bad it is to just play games all day?” Terumichi asked.

“Yeah, it’s good for your health to just play all the time.” Lectured Shugi.

“Seriously? I thought he was just a health nut.”

“Well that’ll be interesting at least.” Amai went on, “What about the rest of you?”

“Guys.” They stopped talking at Koto’s voice, “I just lost, will the next two hit start already?”

“Oh, whoops.”

“You’ll see if, but I’m not good at all,” Aki explained.

“That’s right, Aki doesn’t even really play games, I got him into Pokemon and Fire Emblem recently.” Seeing Akihiko as Pikachu, Cassie found herself smiling, “I could have guessed that.”

“Why didn’t some people fight?” Terumichi asked.

“Oh, because we didn’t have a full bracket, so those people just ‘won’ their matches.” Koto explained, “But from now on everyone will have a match so pay attention!”

“Which none of you are as Aki is getting swept by Amai… come on at least get on stock off him.” Cassie rooted for Aki to no avail, “Aki let go of your shield!” It popped and Amai went over to him knocking him out with a smash attack. “Come on.”

“Never mind then, I’ll just see the rest of you.” Amai said.

“Don’t have to be so rude dude.” Terumichi said.

“How am I being rude?”

“Guys, let me see this one. This is important.” Koto said.

“Oh, it’s Ankara vs. Akuma. The ultimate duel!” Terumichi said.

“Why’d you pick Dark Pit? You know if you lose Cassie is gonna be real mad.” Amai said.

“Oh, she plays as him? I didn’t know.”

“Not with that thick sarcasm, look, I like Villager as much as the next person, but Dark Pit is my baby!” Cassie whined.

“Man, I really don’t want to fight Dark Pit, Cassie is gonna be pissed at me when I beat him.” Amai complained.

“You’re damn right Amai!”

Ankara then chuckled, “Maybe you guys shouldn’t be so quick to judge.” The match began and Ankara immediately planted a tree and got his axe before shooting out a Loid. Akuma reflected it back, but Ankara pocketed it, before shooting out two Lloids at the same time.

“I wouldn’t keep using that reflect.” Ankara said, just as he said that, Dark Pit’s reflect broke and Ankara ran in grabbing him and smashing up. Ankara continued his combo, until Dark Pit was off the screen. He knocked him out with his slingshot.

“Bruh… Ankara is actually really good!” She groaned slightly, “But you’re hurting my baby!” She said through her teeth.

“Are you sure this is Ankara?” Amai said.

“What? Just because I’m older than you guys that means I can’t play video games?” Ankara said as he began knocking around Dark Pit effortlessly.

“Pegged you differently, Ankara!” Akuma sounded as if he were struggling slightly.

“Come on, don’t get swept!” Cassie begged as she watched the match.

“Okay, now there’s something I have to worry about.” Amai said, Ankara chuckled as he was launched into the air but Dark Pit’s up smash.

“You really want me up here?” Ankara said as he casually fell down, he avoided Akuma and once he landed, Akuma couldn’t move and was hit with Villager’s bowling ball.

“Come on!” Cassie fell back, “Well at least Villager won.” Cassie sat back up and listened to them talk.

“Dang, I can't believe you're that good Ankara." Amai said.

"He should be." Hayate began.

"Why?" Shugi asked.

"I'm sure if you asked him he'd just deny it, but when he was younger he wanted to own a video game company because of his love of video games. Apparently, he used to play them all the time."

"Of course you would say that." Ankara said with a sigh.

"Damn, who would have guessed? I figured he'd be like a chess master or something like that." Cassie said, "But, for sure, I'm never fighting him."

"Why do you know that?" Terumichi asked Hayate.

"Because his Grandfather is a very expressive man." Everyone laughed and the next match began.

"Well, if Ankara wants to get back at Hayate, he better win this match." Shugi said.

"I wonder if secretly Hayate is good at games too?" Akihiko said.

"Just my luck then huh?" Brayleigh said.

"As Greninja he might just win off of his recovery."

The match started and instantly Hayate walked off that stage.

Cassie stifled a laugh while the boys all began laughing.

"What are you doing?" Koto asked in between his laugh. Hayate lost again and Brayleigh was given the win, but everyone was laughing leaving it on the tourney screen.

Cassie couldn't help but join them in laughter as everyone laughed for a good minute. When they finally calmed down, Koto spoke up.

"Why did you do that Hayate?"

"Oh, because I told you; I have no reason to play this, but I'm sure I gave Cassie a good laugh, just like all of you."

"Yeah, it did." Cassie said with a grin.

"Okay, okay, let's just get these last four matches over with."

"Oh, it's the match up of a century… Chris vs. Shugi." Brayleigh said in an announcer's voice.

"Good, let the best player win." Chris said, "Which is me of course."

"Yeah, I bet."

"Wow, they even picked clones, well Samus is annoying either way so it's anyone's game."

“This’ll be interesting, they picked the same character and everything.” Terumichi said. Shugi, playing as Samus, and Chris playing as Dark Samus, both began to charge their charge shots.

“Bro, they're even doing the same attacks at the same time!”

They then began to fight with Shugi grabbing Chris first and throwing him into the air before using his up to do a fair amount of damage, Chris broke out of it to hit him doward before doing it again, this somehow tripped Shugi up and Chris took this change to hit him up into the air and jump before shooting his blast at him.

“Oh, either Chris’ brother is a pro or Chris bullies his brother.” Amai said laughing.

“Either way, this is the most intense match up we’ve had so far.” Terumichi added. Chris and Shugi began to softly curse whenever they were hit into the air or knocked off the edge of the stage. Chris had managed to hit Shugi off the stage and jumped off Shugi side stepped a bit early and wound up running into Chris resulting in a meteor.

“Oh, that sucks, but good play on Chris’ part. Come on Shugi, he had like eightly damage just knock him out quick.”

“You got this Shugi, don’t worry.” Koto spoke.

“Nah, I gotta route for Chris after that meteor.” Amai said.

“Stop trying to instigate things Amai.” Terumichi said.

“I don’t think I could say anything to instigate anything. These guys wanna kill each other in real life.”

“I guess you’re right,”

“Chris has some good movement though.” Ankara said.

Shugi had been trying his best to knock out Chris when he finally got him off the stage. As Chris was falling, Shugi remained on the edge.

“Go out there, you gotta psych him-”

Shugi just blasted Chris and knocked him out.

“Never mind. Good job Shugi.”

The time was ticking down and as the pair just traded hit, grabs, near deaths, and it was now three seconds left.

“A sudden death really?”

“That’d actually be really funny if they both used her side special.” Cassie giggled to herself and watched as Shugi was able to win using Samus’ grab as he jumped, “Ah, that really sucks, if Chris didn't jump he might have won, but good game you two.”

“Man, I can’t believe I lost…” Chris sighed as he set down his controller, “I also can’t believe you picked the same character as me.”

“They’re not the same character. Samus is obviously superior.”

“I doubt it.” Shugi rebutted.

“Okay, you’re both wrong, because they’re clones. You just have your favorites.” Amai stopped the argument before it could escalate. “It’s me and Ankara so you all need to quiet down.”

“Not to be rude, but it shouldn’t require complete silence for you to win. If you’re a good player, you can win under any condition.” Ankara said.

“C-could you not with all that.” Ankara just chuckled and their match began.

“Now this I gotta see, a self-proclaimed champ and an unexpected hero.” Brayleigh said.

“Hero? Mr. Wry is the villager, he’s pure evil.” Koto said. Ankara didn’t waste time this go around, he shot out a Lloid and began to plant his tree, he was only barely able to get his axe when Amai began to attack him. Using Luigi’s down special, he was able to knock him into the air and follow up with his up air. Amai had just missed with Luigi’s up B, and Ankara was able to begin attacking.

He hit Amai doward, and dropped himself as Amai tried to attack again only for him to be caught up by Villager's up smash. Ankara jumped and hit him again before knocking him over to the side and totalling him with forty damage.

“These guys are actually annoying, I don’t play as Luigi so I can’t even give any pointers to Amai… but Ankara you shouldn’t have let him give you all that damage like that.”

Ankara was about to hit Amai with his slingshot, but Amai managed to dodge and hit him back towards the stage.

“Man I hate being on the right!” Amai complained. Ankara managed to recover and since Amai was still heading back to the stage he jumped back out and went below him. Once he was on Amai’s left side, he hit him with Villager’s slingshot and caused him to hit the bottom of the stage. Amai didn’t tech and wound up losing. Villager got back on the stage and planted another tree.

“Come on Amai, don’t let that stress you out.”

“They’re even fighting off the stage… that’s scary and I’m not even playing.” Koto said.

“Is that why you picked Roy?” Terumichi asked.

“No, I picked Roy because…” He said nothing for a bit.

“Okay, now you have to tell us!” Brayleugh teased.

“Is it because Cassie plays as him?” Shugi said.

“H-how’d you know?”

“Because she was playing one time she was over at my place.” Shugi explained.

“Wait, pause, why was she over at your place?” Amai said as Ankara stopped moving as well.

“Will you two focus on your match.” Shugi said.

“We’ll be expecting an explanation later.” Ankara said as he returned to fighting. A few seconds went by and Villager had been hit with Luigi’s up special knocking him out.

“That thing is really annoying, but I guess you have a chance of getting killed… but still, Ankara you’re still in this… Amai stop getting nervous.”

“Who else does she play as?” Akihiko asked.

“I can tell you all of them.” Akuma came out and said.

“Huh?”

“How?”

“Don’t ask, besides you said you’re sending this video to her and I can’t let her know my secrets.”

Cassie paused the video and looked around her room for a bit, “Okay, for sure tomorrow I’m checking if my house is bugged.”

“Her mains, in order of who she likes most, is Dark Pit, Roaslina, Duck Hunt, Wii Fit, Villager, Lucas, Marth/Lucina, Roy/Chrom, All the Links, Palutena, Robin, Corrin, Cloud, Shulk, Wolf, and K. Rool. She’s been trying to learn Peach and Kirby recently too.”

“Okay, she plays a lot of characters.” Koto said.

“But that must mean she’s only really good at a few of them right?” Brayleigh said.

“Okay rude, that doesn’t mean anything. I love all my babies equally, so I learn how to play with them as well as I can.” She huffed.

“Time’s almost out.” Hayate said, getting their attention back.

“Come on…” Amai had been mumbling the entire time and it seemed as if he were going to lose, but at the last second he was able to hit Ankara with his up b once more and one the match.

“No way, that’s cheap.” Cassie complained, “It seemed like Amai was spamming at the end anyways.” Cassie sighed, “But, I guess you both did really good. Maybe they should have a few more matches in person next time.” Cassie giggled at the idea and went back to casually listening to them as they spoke.

“That was a good game… for real Ankara.”

“Same to you, we were both close to winning however.” He explained.

“Yeah… I need a break, I wasn't expecting to play that hard tonight.” Terumichi laughed.

“Lie again, you always play this hard.”

“Whatever.” Amai grumbled, “Oh, and by the way, Cassie’s a good player, I’ve never fought her cause’ she doesn’t like to play competitively, but the few times she took my place while I was playing online, she kept my streak up pretty well.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, there's even this really tough spirit in the game, she asked me to help her with it, but even I was having issues with it. So she stayed up all night until she finally got it.”

“So that means I can’t even beat her?” Koto whined.

“Don’t feel too bad, she’ll never play you apparently.” Brayleigh said.

Cassie paused it once more and saw the remaining time in the video, “Okay, it’s only eight more minutes, I’ll watch the rest of this in the morning.” She giggled, “But this was really nice to watch… now I’m all hyper too.” She opened up Koto’s messages and sent him a thank you.

He responded quickly, as she expected, saying how happy he was she liked it. “Now, it’s time to try and get some sleep.”