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"...Where do you even get those from?" Sam asked, frowning up at the chain of glowsticks stretching across the ceiling of the room.
Paige poked Michael. "That's actually a valid question," she told him. "And from Sam, at that. Such a rare occasion should be honoured with an ans-- hey!" she yelped, rubbing her ear where Sam had flicked it. "Didn't your mom teach you not to hit girls?"
Sam stuck his tongue out. "You don't complain when I hit your girlfriend."
David looked up from the book he was reading. "Well, yeah, but Bunny deserves it," he pointed out.
"Hey!"
Paige considered. "...True..."
"Double hey!" Bunny exclaimed, folding her arms and pouting dramatically. "All I get is abuse from you guys. Makes a girl feel downright unappreciated, you know."
Her girlfriend grinned, leaning in to press a kiss to her cheek then pulling away. "You're a big girl," she told her, patting her shoulder. "Who fights giant aliens in a giant robot suit. You can handle a little teasing."
Bunny assumed an expression of mock contemplation. "True," she allowed, "I am very brave. And heroic. And dashing." Smirking slightly, she leant back against the wall. "Positively legend-worthy, in fact. A veritable paladin--"
It was at this point that David hit her semi-gently over the head with his book. "Stop," he told her. "I'm starting to be suffocated by your ego."
"Ah, yes," Paige snarked. "My hero."
Steve shook his head. "I'm with Sam," he announced. "How do you have enough glowsticks on-hand to light an entire room well enough for David to read that trash he calls 'literature?"
"Says the man who owns a copy of Twilight," Sam murmured.
"Don't think I won't kill you."
Sam snorted " If you want to go up against Carolina, be my guest."
She hummed noncommittally. "If you were dead I wouldn't have to split the vegan food with you," she pointed out.
Sam gasped, clutching his chest. "You wound me!" he announced, lower lip trembling. "Such callous betrayal in the name of tofu..."
Paige flicked him in the forehead. "Shush, you. I want to hear Mike's answer."
"But--"
"Shhh."
Michael's eyes widened. "Uh..." he smiled sheepishly. "I... may have gotten carried away one time and just bought a couple of crates of assorted glowsticks."
"...crates?"
"Uh... yeah." Michael rubbed the back of his neck. "They had some surplus at a discount and... well, I get room and board here. It's not like I've much else to spend it on." He grinned. "And I really like glowsticks."
"...You know, I'm actually not sure whether that's really sweet or kind of worrying."
He shrugged, reaching into his pocket and pulling out another glowstick. He cracked it, smiling broadly at the violet glow, before twisting it into a bangle and slipping it onto his wrist. "They're just... neat, you know? And really pretty." He paused. "And, as I think we've proven today, very useful in an emergency."
David cleared his throat. "You know," he began, "I think that if a fondness for glowsticks is considered legitimate grounds for concern these days then we all need to seriously re-evaluate our own sanity. I mean, the giant aliens at the very least are probably a little worrying, you know?" He pointed out, glancing up from his book. "Everything's weird nowadays."
Sam folded his arms. "Well, some of us are at least. What kind of person has a bandana collection numbering over a hundred, huh? That's what I'd like to know."
Steve grinned. "You're just jealous of my fabulous locks is all, aren't you? That's why you're so bitter."
Sam wrinkled his nose in mock disgust, reaching over and tugging on a dread. "Right. Because I really want to look like a little girl, don't I?"
Paige elbowed him in the ribs, smiling sweetly. "What was that you were saying about girls, Sam?" She jabbed him again, eliciting a pained whine.
"Bunny!" He protested. "Call your girlfriend off before she punctures one of my lungs!"
"You're on your own, buddy," Bunny told him, settling back against the wall to watch the show.
"Traitor," Sam replied, flailing at Paige.
"Not a girl," Steve mumbled darkly, shooting a glare at Sam.
Paige paused in her attack for a moment, fingers halting their tickling. "You got some kind of problem with girls, Steve?" She asked, honey dripping from each syllable.
The engineer edged away from her, eyeing her warily. "No, course not," he blustered. "I'm just..." he hesitated. "Not one?" He turned to Bunny. “Did I ever mention that your girlfriend is scary? She really is. I’m terrified.”
“Coward!” Sam yelled, breathlessly fending off the tickling. “Show some guts why don’t you!”
Steve sighed dramatically, rolling his eyes. “Fine, damsel in distress. I’ll come and rescue you.” He lunged towards Paige, knocking her to the side for just long enough that Sam could extract himself and scramble away. He scooted over to the far side of the room, covering his sides so nobody could try and tickle him again and glaring at everybody within range.
“My hero,” he pronounced dryly, only to burst into laughter when Bunny tackled the momentarily triumphant Steve to the floor.
“Come on, Paige, give me a hand!” She yelled, struggling to pin the engineer beneath her. He squirmed and kicked, finally succeeding in flipping them both to regain the advantage, only to be knocked over by Paige.
“You two,” he managed, trapped beneath the two women, “are a menace.”
“Oh, absolutely,” Paige pronounced, grabbing his bandana and tugging it off his head. “Oops! Well, finders keepers!” The two of them scrambled away, leaving Steve to pull himself up to his feet.
In the corner of the room, far away from all the ruckus, Michael started laughing helplessly into his fist.
The engineer, meanwhile, had managed to right himself at last. “You…. Did not do that,” he ground out, eyes narrowing.
Bunny grinned. “You know, I kind of think she did,” she told him. “Honest. I was there when it—“
“That’s it,” Steve cut in. “You asked for it. Sam, get your butt over here and help me.”
“But—“
“Now.”
Sam rolled his eyes, standing up and moving to his side. “Oh Steve,” he said in a breathy falsetto. “You’re so manly and commanding…” Still, he rolled his shoulders, and the two of them exchanged a glance before charging at the girls.
What ensued could be politely referred to as a bit of a tussle, and was later referred to as ‘Oh god, remember that one time with Steve’s bandana? I didn’t know people could make noises like that and still be alive…’
David did his best to ignore the whole thing, up until the point at which Bunny decided to grab him and use him as a human shield, at which point he was unceremoniously dragged into the whole war and – having not pre-chosen a side – was attacked by everybody until he could barely breathe for the laughter.
It was a few minutes later that Matt walked into the room with several cups of Jamba juice which – thanks to the tangle of people on the floor – was unceremoniously spilled over the lot of them. There was a moment of silence, each frozen and soaked through. It made for an interesting tableau: Steve, his legs trapped under David (who was being sat on by Paige) was aiming a rubber band at Bunny. Sam was currently in possession of the bandana, but given that he was having trouble breathing thanks to the amount of laughter he was producing, it looked like Bunny was about to retrieve the prize.
Matt looked down at them, then over to Michael. The other man was curled up in the corner, making a high pitched noise and apparently having shoved an entire fist in his mouth in an effort to stop himself laughing so hard he ripped something.
Matt looked down at the group again. “…I can come back later, if you guys need a moment?” He suggested. “Only, there are smoothies.” He looked down at the now-empty cups he had been so carefully balancing. “Well. There were smoothies.”
With that, the group fell apart and started giggling uncontrollably.
It took a few minutes, but soon enough everybody was put to rights – Steve had his bandana back, David had retrieved his book from Bunny and threatened her with death should she ever steal it to hit somebody on the head again, and Michael had been gently encouraged to uncurl from the foetal position. Besides being hot, sticky, and still a touch prone to random outbreaks of the giggles, everybody was in one piece.
Matt bit his lip. “Uh… I don’t know whether there’s any Jamba juice left, guys. That may have been the last of it, but I guess you can suck it out of your shirts or something, I dunno.”
“Hey, nobody spilled any on me. Can I share somebody’s shirt or something?” Mike suggested, grinning.
“You’re compensated by being not covered in smoothie,” Bunny reminded him. “This shirt’s a write-off, unless stained is in this year.” She considered. “Actually, not even then - it doesn’t go well with the stripes.”
Peter poked his head round the door. “Hey guys, I was wondering—oh. Goodness. What happened to you lot, then?”
Sam wiped the worst of it out of his moustache. “…Jamba juice.”
A moment of silence, then. “I… see. Uh, anyway, I wondering if – since we’re going to be a bit strapped for things to do in the power cut – you guys would like to come and play a game of mono—“
The resulting panicked denials took a moment to clear, leaving Peter VI rather bewildered and not a little downcast. “Oh...”
Michael jumped up and hugged him – probably the best man for the job, since everybody else was covered in smoothie. “Hey, no, it’s nothing to do with you, Pete! Just… not monopoly, ok?” He pulled back, and Peter visibly relaxed.
“Yeah, seriously,” Paige chipped in. “I can’t recall a single game that hasn’t ended in death threats.”
“Or lasted over a week,” Sam added.
Bunny grinned. “I know somebody who was killed.”
David rolled his eyes. “No, they died during a game, Bunny. That’s not the same thing.”
“Close enough”
“She was eighty-nine!”
She heaved a dramatic sigh, wiping away an imaginary tear. “Poor old Gramgrams. Just think, she might still be with us if David hadn’t suggested that we play monopoly.”
“Pretty sure it was your idea, Bunny,” David reminded her, a small grin forming.
“Oh!” she gasped in outrage. “Trying to pin the blame on me, are you? No, the blood of Gramgrams is on your hands, David. Seven, and already a murderer. How could you?”
“Uh…” Matt began. “How about Jenga? I’m pretty sure there’s a set somewhere in the cupboard which for some reason nobody but me will go near.”
Paige bit her lip. “Yeah, Matt, about that… it would probably be a good idea if you left it alone from now on.”
“…If I ask why, am I going to like the answer?”
“It’s haunted…” Bunny whispered in his ear and Matt yelped, jumping violently and flailing at her.
“Don’t do that!” He told her, shuddering. “How did you end up so creepy?”
“She’s right, though,” Sam pointed out.
“…Of course she is,” Matt replied, rolling his eyes.
“Don’t believe us? Try going into it with the lights off, then you’ll see.” Steve told him, grinning. “We’ll give what’s left a decent funeral, though I’m not sure how impressive it’ll be considering you’ll be buried in a matchbox.”
Michael poked him. “He’s not five, you know, guys. Pretty sure campfire stories are for when you’re in boy scouts, rather than monster-fighters. Aliens. Whatever.”
Steve shrugged. “Eh, it was worth a shot.” He paused, then pulled a deck of cards out of one pocket. “Poker, then? Or rummy?”
“Gin rummy sounds good to me,” Peter agreed, sitting down beside him. “I’ll deal.”
Matt blinked at Steve. “…Do you carry around a deck of cards all the time? What’re they for, in case you want to show somebody a magic trick.”
“Ah, who cares. Sit down and play, Matt.”