Chapter One

It seemed like it was an average Sunday at first. But as our young protagonists will soon learn, there would be nothing average about the week they had ahead of them. For this, dear reader, is a tale of surprises, twists and turns, shock, confusion, competition, passion, and the metamorphosis of a close friendship into something profound and soulful. Let’s begin, shall we?

It all started with an exchange between two 20-somethings over text messages.

D: You looking forward to tonight?

A: You bet. I can’t wait to beat your Ass in Smash face to face

D: I wouldn’t be so cocky if I were you. I hosed you pretty good last time

A: Man you know I lost cause of lag

D: Yeah yeah, we’ll see about that tonight

Don’t forget to bring a controller

A: On it. Still meeting at the park right?

D: Sure thing

This is Dave and his friend Alex. Dave had met Alex over a game of TF2, where Alex had repeatedly challenged his competence as a Scout by dominating him while playing Heavy. Over the course of a couple hours of play they started to establish a friendly rivalry banter with each other, and by the end of the night they were fast friends. Later they acquired each other’s Steam tags and bonded over shared frustrations with Valve’s mismanagement of the bot issue, amongst other random topics of conversation.

For about four months they’d been playing games with each other multiple times a week whenever they both had a bit of spare time. Dave hadn’t known Alex for long, but he felt like already their bond was as strong as the ones he had with friends he had known since childhood. Alex was funny, quick-witted and competent when it came to gaming, which made him a great teammate and an even better rival to bring out Dave’s competitive side when they were on opposing teams.

In a recent call they’d gotten into, the topic of Nintendo had come up, and the ensuing conversation revealed to the duo a couple pertinent pieces of info.

1: That both owned a Switch and a fully decked out copy of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate with all the DLC.

2: That by some stroke of fate they not only lived in the same county of the same state, but that their residences were within walking distance of each other.

After reflecting on this and mustering up a little courage, Dave had decided to invite Alex over to his apartment to play Smash. He told himself it was because all his other friends were out of town or busy that weekend, but he really was excited to meet Alex in person and get to know him better, albeit not without a bit of trepidation; part of him worried that this would change their friendship somehow, and he didn’t want to make things weird.

He had no idea what he was in for.

All the same though, he and Alex agreed to meet up at a park that was about equal distance between their homes, so at about 6:00 PM he set out into the city to meet up with his good friend.

Chapter Two

After a brisk walk Dave made his way over to the rough area where they’d agreed to meet up, and before even catching sight of his friend he was made aware of Alex’s presence by a gruff “HEY MCFLY!”

A recurring inside joke (born from a night they spent up late watching the entire Back to the Future trilogy) was all the confirmation Dave needed that this person was indeed the friend he was looking for. The way Alex excitedly ran up to meet with him didn’t hurt either.

“Ready to get your Ass kicked?” Alex said with a toothy, impish grin. This was the first thing Dave noticed upon getting an assessment of Alex’s appearance. The look he wore suited the personality Dave had become familiar with over the past few months, but this wasn’t the only thing he noticed about his friend.

His bronzed complexion and tousled black hair were suggestive of an athletic, active guy, but his features had an odd softness to them. Dave couldn’t assess too much though, because A: It’d make him seem like a weirdo, and B: The cold weather necessitated that Alex wear a thick, padded jacket, so Dave couldn’t really assess how tough Alex was.

“You didn’t tell me how TALL you were, dude! How’s the weather up there?”

This trademark corny Alex joke snapped Dave out of his thoughts, though it also made him notice for the first time the difference in height between them.

“Yeah, well, at least I can reach the top shelf for the cookie jar.”

“Oooh, big man. How many times did your mom catch you for that one?”

“My lawyer has advised me not to give too many details.”

“Yeah yeah, just show me the way to your place, yeah? I’m freezing my balls off out here.”

“Just one thing before we head off. You got your controller, right?”

Alex took out a Switch Pro Controller styled in black and silver with the pattern of the Smash logo.

“Never leave home without it.”

“Excellent. Let’s get back there.”

Chapter Three

On the walk back to Dave’s apartment, they enjoyed much of the same banter that he’d become familiar with in the online space. Dave was glad that he and Alex were getting along so well. So far, there didn’t seem to be any discomfort about them, and it seemed that being in person changed nothing about how they talked to each other. They still talked to each other with that same sense of casualness and an unspoken trust, like they could talk about whatever weird thing they wanted to each other and the other person would get it.

Nethertheless, Dave couldn’t quite shake the odd feeling in the back of his mind that Alex wasn’t quite what he expected him to be. That there was something about Alex that he hadn’t picked up on. Dave didn’t know what to make of these feelings, so he tried his best to just ignore them for now and figure it didn’t matter much, cause he was still having a good time being with his friend, and he had nothing better to do this Sunday night.

After a walk that was slower back than there on account of obnoxious traffic, they made it to the complex in which Dave’s apartment was nestled, on the third floor of the building. Alex immediately picked up on the state of Dave’s residence.

“Gee, look at Mister Rich Guy over here living it up in his luxury apartment building!”

“it’s not…luxury!“, Dave replied sheepishly, a little red in his cheeks.

The truth was, Dave had come from a penny-pinching family, and though he was sometimes embarassed of their habits like coupon-cutting, his parents’ understanding of finance allowed them to help him work out a decent plan that allowed him to put some money from his job away and save up for a nice apartment whilst also attending college in the most min-max-y way possible. Maximum possible amount of quality education for minimum spending.

“Easy for you to say. I wish I could get a place this nice!”

“Well we’re not actually in my apartment yet, so don’t call it too early. For all you know it could be a total dump.” Dave said, tapping his index finger to his forehead as if to make a point.

“Knowing you, it wouldn’t surprise me.” Alex retorted with a grin. Dave returned the grin but immediately afterward got that strange feeling again. He tried to just brush past it as they ascended the stairs to get to the third floor of the building, half-racing to see who could make it there first.

Alex reached the third floor first, barely even having broke a sweat whilst Dave was panting and wheezing. Dave was in pretty good shape, but even in spite of this stairs remained his arch-enemy. Alex’s breezy climb reinforced his suspicions that he was pretty athletic in spite of also being an avid gamer like Dave.

“Alright, you may’ve gotten to the third floor first, but I’m the one who knows which apartment we need to enter.”

“Yeah, no duh. Show me in, dawg, c’mon, I’m excited.”

Dave did just this after he retrieved the apartment key from its hidden spot, and once the apartment door was closed they began to take off their cold-weather clothes, as it was much comfier in Dave’s apartment than outside. This was the moment Dave got a better idea of Alex’s build.

He could hardly believe what he was seeing.

Looking over from the cubby where he’d placed his shoes, the first thing he noticed was how Alex’s hips seemed wider than before when he had a padded coat on. This observation however was immediately superceded in his mind by what he saw when he looked up a little higher.

Covered by a fairly plain black and white patterned T-shirt on Alex’s chest were a pair of the biggest boobs Dave had ever seen in his life. At first he couldn’t process what he was seeing, the sight of it so shocking and bizarre to his mind, but a blink reassured him that no, he was not hallucinating, those were, in fact, boobs.

Alex was…a girl!?

Chapter Four

“Ah man, it feels good to take that off, lemme tell ya. You keep it pretty warm in here, you know that?”

Apparently Dave’s eyes had moved faster than he thought, because Alex didn’t seem to notice his looking at him…er…her.

“Well y’know, I kinda just change it up for the season. Keep it at whatever temperature it needs to be for me to sit around in my PJs.”

“Ha! I hear that, man.”

Dave had quickly recovered from his initial shock and was currently in the process of trying to push down all the craziness in his head at that moment. Part of his brain wanted to totally lose its composure at how utterly weird it was, but for the moment the cold, logical part of him had taken control, and it had told him that this wouldn’t stop them from having a good time.

Clearly not, I mean look at her!

What? No. Ew. What? Where had that come from? Whatever, he didn’t have time to think about it right now.

Alex looked all around Dave’s apartment, beginning to properly take it in.

“So, this is the place, huh? Gotta say, you exceeded my expectations. Albeit that was a pretty low bar to clear.”

Thank God, an out to focus on something else for a minute. That was just what he needed right now.

Turning his attention to the apartment in question, he too gave the place a look around. The walls were painted in a color that was light without feeling sterile, a soft gold hue that was evocative of sunlight. His mom had advised him on this, as initially the apartment’s walls came in a rather dull grey that made the place seem desolate. She had opined that painting the walls that color would make the place feel more welcoming, and it had certainly done the trick for that. He’d added his own personal touch to the walls by decorating them with posters for some of his favorite bands, movies, etc. Among them was an Arctic Monkeys poster that sat on the wall to the right of the TV.

In terms of layout, it was your pretty standard fare for a mid-sized apartment. The main area consisted of a living room and a kitchen island, with one hallway leading off into the bathroom and laundry room, and a door on the wall to his right that led to his bedroom.A worn but reliable couch was stationed at its post in front of a mid-sized TV which was hooked up to a couple gaming consoles and a Roku. His Switch was already powered on and pre-loaded with his copy of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, as he had the foresight to have everything ready to go before he left.

Taking a look around his home like this caused Dave to contemplate how you sometimes notice things about your home that you took for granted before once you’re in the company of someone who’s seeing it for the first time.

Her boobs are huge.

GAH! Stop that! This is not appropriate, Alex is your bro!

You mean sis?

Whatever, he couldn’t argue with this right now. He just had to focus on something else.

“Hey man, you good? You got a weird look on your face.”

Alex had apparently caught on to some of the turmoil going on within his brain at the moment, as he-she looked at him with a cocked eyebrow. The look Alex gave him conveyed concern, and the softness of the expression made Dave’s brain go haywire in a way he never would’ve thought Alex could have just a day ago.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m good, I’m good, I just…realized we gotta sync our controllers.”

“Oh yeah. Turn on the TV, I left mine in my coat.”

Alex turn and strolled back toward the coat rack, giving Dave a chance to turn his attention to something else for a second.

Chapter Five

Powering on the light to the TV, he watched as the Switch’s Home screen graced him with the default inoffensive dark grey palette he’d left it on. Doom Eternal, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and Pokemon Legends Arceus were amongst some of the games that appeared in the immediate selection, but these were not his target for tonight. First on the list was Super Smash Bros Ultimate. He was so scatterbrained that he was about to just start up Smash without going to the controller pairing screen first, but Alex snapped him out of it.

“Alright, comin’ through. Scooch over, I want the good seat.”

She sat down next to him on the carpeted floor between the TV and the couch, cross-legged. If nothing else it comforted him to know they both shared the habit of trying to sit as close to the TV as they could get away with before they burned their retinas.

Dave clicked onto the controller pairing screen. He held the buttons to pair his own controller, and it worked right away, but Alex seemed to be having some trouble.

“Damn it, I can’t get the thing to connect!”

As Alex held down the pairing buttons, the controller continuously flickered but wouldn’t stay on.

“Hold on, I’ve got an idea. I heard this helps.”

Alex leaned over on her hands and knees and held the offending controller right up against the console.

Oh, lord. Don’t look.

TOO LATE!

Before he could mentally slap himself for looking at his friend’s rear end like that, Alex sat up excitedly as the controller blinked into action, ready for its duty

“It worked!” She said excitedly, beaming at Dave.

“Awesome. I would’ve had to throw you out if you’d direspected me by bringing a broken controller into my home.”

“Ahhhhh shuddup, you know Switch controllers are super unreliable. Let’s just Smash already, man.”

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

“Now that we can agree on.”

Booting up Smash Bros and skipping past the intro cinematic like muscle memory, the duo landed on the standard couch co op Smash screen, on the rule selection. Dave risked looking over at Alex, making an effort to maintain eye contact.

“How does 3 stock, 10 minutes, Omega stages only sound to you?”

“Sounds like a ruleset for a guy who only played For Glory back during the Wii U days.”

“Guilty as charged.” Dave smirked, hoping it looked easy on him. He was still having a good time, he thought, but it was getting increasingly harder and harder to ignore the elephant in the room. Or rather, the pair of elephants in the room.

A mind that was in the gutter was the loudest of his inner turmoil, but it wasn’t the only thing that was going through his head at that time. More tangible thoughts started to creep into his brain, many of them not good. Why was this such a big deal for him? Why was he so surprised? Did this change anything between them? Were they still just going to go on being friends the same as before? Why shouldn’t they, he didn’t even know Alex’s gender before. But with the way she talked, he just assumed she was a guy! This was all too much!

“Dude, select a character already, you gotta have a main, right?”

Chapter Six

Alex’s voice snapped him out of his mental whirlpool yet again.

“Oh yeah, sorry, I was waiting on you and I spaced out.”

He looked over at where Alex’s Player 2 pointer was, and noticed for the first time that she had selected…Sheik. How fitting. He didn’t have time to dwell on that right now though, lest he get lost in his own thoughts again, so instead he hovered to his reliable, trusty main: The diabolical superheavyweight Kremling King K. Rool. The orange color palette was his preference.

“Man, K. Rool, huh?” Alex asked, with a crooked sort of look on her face.

“Yeah, what of it?” Dave shot back.

“Well, being that you’re such a competitive guy and all, I wouldn’t have pegged you for the type to deliberately kneecap yourself like that.”

“Oh, you’re gonna eat those words by the time this match is over!” He said, the slight towards his favored fighter bringing out a flame within him. He may have been swimming in some very confusing thoughts at the moment, but NOBODY dissed K. Rool and got away with it on his watch.

The match started, by random chance, on the Omega version of Kongo Falls, K. Rool’s signature stage, and with K. Rool’s signature theme, Gangplank Galleon, playing over. The announcer’s countdown began, as both fighters appeared on the stage.

“3!”

And it.

“2!”

Was.

“1!”

On.

“GO!”

The two gamers fought ferociously. Dave had had a lot of practice with friends, in online matches, and he’d even gone to a local tournament and placed 5th once, but Alex clearly knew her stuff too. Sheik bobbed and weaved her way around the mighty crocodile king’s powerful attacks, because Alex understood that just a few good hits from K. Rool would be all it would take to end the match. Dave fired on all cylinders, using every trick and combo at his disposal, dodging, shielding, jumping, grabbing, and smashing his opponent, but after 9 minutes and 45 seconds of butt-clenching action, Sheik won out by wearing K. Rool down until she finally had enough damage on him to deal a finishing blow. The screen crackled and flashed with the red lightning of death, and K. Rool was blasted offstage.

“GAME!”

A small pause for the game to load the victory screen.

“SHEIK! WINS!”

“WOOOOO! GOT YOUR Ass! LIGHTWEIGHTS RULE, HEAVYWEIGHTS DROOL!”

Alex ecstatically shot up from the floor and pumped her arms with enthusiasm. Clearly she was being a sore winner, but it was quite an intense match so he gave her a pass.

Plus it gave him a chance to notice how toned her figure was…

Stop it.

“I think this calls for a victory trip to the fridge!”

Before Dave could say anything, Alex prowled over to his refrigerator, a hunger known only to her driving her movements.

“You got drinks, right?”

Despite himself, Dave exhaled in amusement at his friend. “Yeah, I got drinks.”

He suspected he didn’t need to confirm it for her, as she was already raiding his fridge. He heard her muffled voice carry from the fridge over to the living room.

“Let’s see, we got soda, OJ, some purple stuff…Hey, Coca-Cola! Kick-fuckin’-Ass!”

Great, now she was gonna be even more hyperactive.

Alex strided back over to the TV, apparently content with her conquest of Dave’s fridge, and sat down criss-cross on the floor next to him once again. She took a sip from the leftover McDonald’s Coke and turned her attention back to the TV. Apparently satisfied that she’d proven the honor of her main, you chose a different character this time: Link.

“Why Link?”

“Hey, girls have gotta have some eye candy too sometimes.”

“I guess that’s true enough.”

As that thought percolated through his mind, Dave chose to follow a similar approach to Alex and choose a secondary. Usually he probably would have chose K. Rool again to make a point, but with everything else in his head, he was too distracted to keep that fire going for long. Instead, he chose Banjo and Kazooie.

“Ugghhhhhh, I hate these guys.” Alex groaned.

“Oh yeah?” Dave replied, half-paying attention.

“Yeah, that bullshit invincible Side-B is the worst.”

Alex sat in a somewhat hunched position as they began their next match, holding her controller close to her chest. Clearly she was concentrating very hard on beating the bear and bird. After about 30 seconds of fighting, he managed to get enough damage on her to knock her off a ledge. Link used his boomerang instead of recovering and fell to his death. 3-2.