Page 12 of Gamers' Omega

“Pico, Pico,” the bird replied in a tiny scratchy voice.

“Spin?” Tony asked, spinning his finger in the air.

Pico dutifully spun around.

I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped. Seeing the alphas interact with the little bird was just too cute.

“Pico’s a ham,” Ian said as he settled a hand against my back and urged me toward the bookshelf. “He loves attention and knows how to use his cuteness to his advantage.”

“You sound like a man who knows,” I teased.

Ian laughed. “Oh, he’s got us all under his spell. I never considered a bird as a pet before I met Beck, but now I can’t imagine not having a house filled with those little chirps.”

“Have…” I started. I swallowed, then decided to go for it. “Have the four of you been together long?”

Ian hummed. “Depends on how you look at things.”

“What do you mean?”

“Dinner in five,” Freddie said, coming in from the kitchen. He smiled at me. “I overheard. What he means is that there was no real official start. It just kinda happened.”

“Now I’m more confused.”

Freddie cocked his head to one side. “Well… Ian and I met in grad school. He was there for architecture, and I was studying historic building preservation. We had a couple overlapping classes and got to know each other.”

“I worked at the coffeeshop next to the college,” Tony stated. “They started coming in and one day I overheard them discussing games. I told them about the game night Beck ran.”

“It wasn’t official or anything, like now,” Beck explained. “Just a small group at my apartment once a week.”

“From there,” Ian took over, “it all kinda just… happened. The four of us started hanging out more outside of game nights. Too much beer led to drunken fooling around. We realized we liked fooling around with each other, and eventually we decidedthat we all worked together. We pooled our resources, got ourselves a house, and it’s been the four of us since.”

“It’s been about five years since we all moved in together,” Freddie said, answering my next question before I could ask it.

“So… official for five years, but together in some way for longer?” I asked.

“Yep!” Ian laughed. “Like I said, it depends on how you look at things.”

I did a bit of quick math in my head. “You’re all around thirty?”

“Close enough,” Freddie replied, moving around me to perch on the back of the couch. “I’m turning thirty-two next month, Ian did last month. Beck is thirty, and Tony is twenty-eight.”

“And you?” Ian teased.

My cheeks heated slightly. “I’m twenty-nine.”

Flapping, and Pico landed on Freddie’s head.

“Hey Pic,” Freddie said, offering a finger to the bird. “Step up.”

Pico hopped onto Freddie’s finger and I turned my attention to the wall of games.

The variety was striking. Brightly-colored boxes held board and card games, while several shelves were filled with role-playing rulebooks. Almost one entire shelf was dedicated to various fandom versions of Monopoly, and the end closest to the couch held a modest selection of video games.

I had started back towards the card section when there was more flapping and Pico landed on my shoulder. I froze, turned my head, and looked at the small bird. “Hello?”

Pico chirped a couple times, then said, “Pico, Pico.”

I looked up to see Freddie holding back a laugh.