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Armand had recently found out about game consoles, and had immediately bought an Xbox and quickly grew obsessed. It had played all of the free games that interested it but every single one of them bored it quickly. It was curled up on the sofa, frustratedly mumbling obscenities to itself, its furrowed brown eyes glued to the tv as it played a Roblox obby when Daniel strided in and sat on the couch. Armands body flew to him like a magnet instantly, snuggling up to him and resting its head on the boy's shoulder like a clingy cat.
Armand smiled at him but didn’t say anything, so neither did Daniel, he smiled back and ran his fingers through its hair, assuming that it just wanted to play its game. They both sat in silence, Daniel inspecting Armands’ face as it played the obby, dying every five seconds and gasping bewilderedly each and every time, leaning closer to the tv in an attempt to concentrate harder. After its tenth time in a row falling off of the same obstacle, it tossed the controller across the couch and cried out, burying its face into Daniel's chest. “Daniel, I don’t like this game!” it whined tearfully, curling into him and grabbing at Daniel’s sweater.
Daniel wrapped an arm around it, holding it close to him. “Hey now,” he cooed, rubbing its shoulder gently. “It’s okay, we can find you a new game.” Armand looked up at him, pouting. “But, I played them all.” It grumbled softly. “You played every game?” He questioned, raising an eyebrow at it. “I played all of the free games in the store.” It sadly mumbled, slumping down into the sofa. “Don’t you worry, little one,” Daniel softly assured it, sitting up and reaching over it to grab the Xbox controller. “I’ll find you a new game to play.” He opened the game store and began to search for a game, Armand perking up in its seat and curiously peering over Daniel’s shoulder to watch the screen. “Mine..craft?” Armand read, confusedly scrunching up its face. Daniel pressed “A” on the game, turning to Armand and smiling at its childlike mannerisms.
“It’s like a whole world of different building blocks.” Daniel explained, he had seen his daughters’ kids playing it and thought it looked like fun. He scrolled down, pressing on some of the photos and the game description, reading it out. “Create, explore, survive, play together..” He watched Armand as its eyes widened excitedly, tapping its fingers on his knees. “Yes! Let’s play that game, Danny!” It chirped, pulling on his arm. “Me? I was looking for a game for you!” Daniel protested. “But, Danny, you said play together.” It whined, batting its eyelashes at him and pulling gently on his arm. “Pleasee?”
Daniel cupped Armands face in both of his hands, rubbing its cheek with his thumb as it stared admiringly at him, both of them smiling from ear to ear. “Okay, fine, I’ll play it with you, but only because I love you.” He exhaled, pulling it closer to him and placing a soft kiss on its head. “Let me go and get a few things first, okay? We’ll let this download first.” He said, buying the game and then putting the controller back down. He opened his phone and searched YouTube for a Minecraft trailer, before handing his phone to Armand. “Wait here while it downloads, okay?” He told Armand, heading towards the hall and through to the kitchen, Armand nodding and tapping its feet off the floor as it contentedly watched the video .
He looked out Armand’s favourite sippy cup, a small green cup with a little cat face on it, filling it up with a smoothie from the blender and grabbing some goldfish crackers. He carried them to their bedroom and picked up two blankets from the bed before carefully returning to the living room, shakily juggling everything through the hall, Armand patiently sat watching Daniel’s phone. As he was sitting back down on the couch and put his things down, the game finished downloading. Armand excitedly squealed, giving Daniel his phone back, getting up and grabbing a controller from underneath the tv to bring to Daniel. It jumped back onto the couch, handing him one controller and picking up the other, opening up the game. “Ready, papa?” Armand beamed at him as Minecraft booted up. “Just a second, kid,” Daniel said, reaching down to the ground to grab its sippy and bowl of goldfish and putting them on the couch between them. “I grabbed you these, to keep you big and strong, huh?” He teased, squeezing its little arm. He knew that it wouldn’t get stronger from human food but he also knew that human life fascinated Armand, so he pretended for it.
Armand nodded enthusiastically, picking up the sippy and taking a drink from it and then offering it up to him. “Drink, papa?” Daniel laughed and shook his head. “No thank you, I’m not sure I’d like the taste of apple, strawberry, raspberry, watermelon, rhubarb and cranberry together, kid.” He chuckled. Armand pouted and moved the cup closer to his face, he knew that it wasn’t going to take no for an answer, so he sighed and took the cup, admitting defeat by taking a little sip from it, a bitter taste immediately contaminating his mouth. He held his breath and forced a smile as Armand stared him down, smiling hopefully. “Good?” Armand asked, watching his expression intently. He swallowed the mixture and nodded, handing it the cup back. “Yes! Mmmm! Very good, kid.” He weakly declared. “Some more?” It asked, tilting its head to the side and trying to give him the cup back. “No no,” Daniel quickly blurted, gently pushing its hand away. “You need as much as you can get, I’m already all grown up!” He explained, picking up the blankets and draping one over Armand and another over himself. Armand nodded happily, grabbing a handful of goldfish and sipping at his smoothie.
“Okay, let’s do this thing!” Daniel announced, pressing play and making a new world. Armand shifted in its seat, crunching loudly on the goldfish and throwing its legs across Daniels’. “Survival or creative?” Daniel asked. Armand squinted at him confusedly. “What’s that?” It asked. Daniel shrugged and picked up his phone to Google it. “Creative.” It said, pointing impatiently at the tv. “Okay kid,” he laughed. “I’ll put it on easy mode for now.”
They both sat under their blankets, waiting for the world to load. Armand fidgeted with its controller buttons as it waited, rocking side to side excitedly. The game loaded in and Armand grumbled, as it was pressing the buttons but they weren’t doing anything. “Look at the screen, kid. You have to press that button.” Daniel explained, pointing to the small circle button that was displayed on the screen. “It’s connected to my controller, you have to join.” Armand pressed the button and joined the game, grinning and spamming buttons, running and looking all around the place. “Look papa, spin! I can spin!” It giggled. Daniel was focused, trying to figure out how to look from side to side, pressing “A” over and over again, his in-game character flying about 40 blocks in the air. “Where’d you go, Danny?” Armand gasped, quickly getting a hang of the game, looking around the ground for him. “Up!” He said, still spamming “A” as Armand ran around underneath him, looking on top of trees, before falling back down to the ground again.
“There you are.” Daniel laughed, running towards its character. Armand was standing next to a sheep, trying to feed it a flower that it had accidentally picked up. “Why won’t he eat the flower?” It pouted. “Maybe he eats something else, kid. Check the inventory and choose what you think the sheep eats.” Daniel said, watching it and the sheep. It searched all the sections of the creative inventory, grabbing grass blocks, oak leaves and wheat. “Come to me, little lamby!” It chirped, placing grass blocks all around the sheep. “Be my friend, lamby!” It exclaimed, running around with the oak leaves block in its hand and accidentally hitting the sheep with it. “Help, Papa!” It cried out softly, tugging on Daniels’ sleeve again. “It’s okay, Try the wheat, I know you can figure it out.” He hummed, pulling Armand closer to him and softly rubbing its arm. It put the wheat in its hand, chased after the sheep with it, and finally fed the sheep, little red hearts appearing above the sheep's head. “Look, look!” It squealed joyfully, tapping its fingers on the controller and nudging Daniel with its elbow softly. Daniels’ character was right next to Armands, but he was watching Armands’ expression, it was sweetly smiling at the tv, looking happier than he had seen it for as long as he can remember. He squeezed it tight with his arm around it. “You did such a good job, kid, I told you you could do it.” He smiled adoringly. Armand nuzzled his head into Daniel’s neck, pulling the blanket closer to itself and running around feeding wheat to all of the sheep it could find, its big eyes shining happily as it got lost in the game.