Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Miko! Where are you?” Mitch asks, looking around with Five as he drives towards the pufferspiked glitch.

“Ding dong!” Miko knocks on the windshield from on top of Mitch’s van. “Let’s give this glitch stitches!”

“What are you…oh, fine! Just don’t fall off. I don’t want to scrape blueberry off the concrete and don’t muck up my roof!” Mitch says exasperated this girl is forever trying to give me heart attacks. “Hang on!” 

Miko laughs and cheers as Mitch maneuvers out of the way from the spikes.

“I’ll keep us moving while the newbie scans for weak spots” Mitch maneuvers the van to avoid the spikes, “good save Zahra!” 

“Yep, yep.” Zahra says as she continues destroying the spikes with each shot.

“Miko, can you see the target!?” Mitch yells as he gets closer to the glitch.

“Ooh! Hello weak spot!” Miko says before detaching herself from the roof and ninja-ing her way over spikes to reach the glitch.

“Miko, wait for orders.” Mitch yells could she listen for just once in her life. 

“Me for the KO” Miko hits the glitch before doing a superhero landing “wait for it” Miko smiles as the glitch explodes and starts dancing “victory dance emote!” 

Mitch grunts as he gets out of his van leaving Five still disoriented from the blast “what’s your deal, Miko? You’re supposed to be support class! Not to mention your total disregard for your superiors!”

Miko moon walks over to Mitch “I was being supportive by taking down that mob like it was corn on the cob.” She says while spinning. Mitch moves out of the way, her hair just brushing against him as she continues to dance. Frowning Mitch thinks about how she's been avoiding him except for missions. Ever since their kiss in the bookstore she hasn’t pestered him about being a griefer, called him by any nicknames or waited so they could get smoothies after work. And in Mitch’s opinion, worst of all she’s stopped touching him. He had gotten so used to her causal touches and lack of personal space he now missed it, craved it even. To say he’d been grumpy and more of a terror than usual was an understatement. 

“Uh guys…” Five says and Mitch pulls his gaze away from Miko and glares at him. “—we got lurkers” Five points at the crowd while Miko keeps dancing.

Oh for the love of. “I’ll reset them. Don’t want you lot mucking it up.” Mitch points his gauntlet and fires the memory wipe. Hitting not just the crowd but Miko as well. If only she’d stay frozen long enough to talk to me instead of always scurrying away like a hamster.

“Oh, nerds! You wiped Miko! Mitch just wiped Miko!” Bergy states as he starts panicking.

“Okay, okay, okay, nobody panic. Nobody panic!” Haneesh says as he does the opposite, causing Zahra to grab his collar.

“Tech down! I repeat, Tech down!” She says lifting Haneesh in the air and shaking him.

“Hey, hey, hey! Cool down, you bozos. She’s fine.” Mitch huffs while waiting for Miko to come too.

“She’s…what?” Zahra asks immediately, turning to Five.

“Yeah, uh… Miko kinda can’t reset.” Five says blushing as Zahra and Haneesh both give him a look like he’s crazy.

Miko snaps out of it by shaking her head “hey, man, that is not a toy.” Miko says to Mitch and he just raises an eyebrow, clearly upset at her. Fighting the blush that threatens to appear on her face Miko turns to Haneesh thankful for the distribution.

“You don’t rest? That’s crazy weird” Haneesh says.

“Well, it’s not weird. It’s cool right?” Miko asks, raising an eyebrow and turning to Five for support, but her eyes dart to Mitch and she bites her lip.

Mitch, seeing an opportunity to vent his frustration, smirks. Miko frowns having been well versed in Mitch’s expressions before the kiss which she now referred to as the little mermaid incident. She knows his smirk isn’t a playful one or even the exasperated one she’s been on the receiving end of many times. This one was the more arrogant one he used when they first met. Before the smoothie deal, she knew it would be followed by something hurtful. “No, it is weird. You’re clearly so different from the rest of us. Makes you wonder what other strange little secrets she’s got.” He says while smiling even though he’s frustrated. Like why you’ve been ignoring me.

“Guys, come on I’m not weird! Am I?” Miko asks, taking a step forward, but keeps her gaze on Mitch unsure of why he’s suddenly being mean again. 

“Everybody resets.” Bergy says nervously.

“Says so in the tech manual” Zahra says and Haneesh frowns next to her as they start to walk back to the truck. She catches Five's gaze as he watches her. Lifting an eyebrow her eyes flick down to her gauntlet and then to his as she continues to type and walk with Haneesh.

Five subtly nods and blushes before Miko’s voice snaps him out of it. 

“Five? You think I’m weird?” Miko asks dejectedly.

“Uh, no, no, no! Not that you’re weird. Uh, just that it’s weird!” He chuckles nervously trying to comfort her. Miko frowns, crossing her arms. “Lots of cool things are weird. Like honey on cheese. Or… frogs.” He continues babbling nervously but Miko’s frown stays set on her face.

“Okay, then. Us normal techs are going to head back to hq. So enjoy being alone and doing whatever it is you do weirdo. Maybe try avoiding the rest of us. Oh wait, you already seem to do that well.” Mitch grumbles as he walks to the van, the others still watching Miko.

It finally dawns on Miko why Mitch was being mean. “Hey, you’re the weird one, cause I’m normal. I’m the normalest normal who ever’d normal’d!” Miko shoots back at him not wanting Mitch to get the last word in even though she knows they need to talk “I’m as normal as—“

“You’re being weird and annoying right now.” Mitch calls out looking over his shoulder happy that his words affected her.

“Nerds!” Miko shouts as she watches him get into his truck. After the rest of the techs leave Miko gets into the Hinobi truck and waits for Five as he runs to get them smoothies. She sighs at the thought of how she stopped getting them with Mitch. Opening her gauntlet her fingers hover over the keyboard unsure of the message she wants to send Mitch. What do I even say? Sorry for going ghost mode on you. I was too embarrassed. Ugh no that sounds lame. Miko pouts as she thinks about how mean he just was. If I’m so much of a freaky weirdo who should be alone, why did you kiss me back. She types out before deleting it. Giving it one last try she writes can we talk and is about to hit send when Five pops back up with the smoothies. Once again deleting her messages. Miko ignores Five until they get a glitch signature. By the end of the day Miko is happy with who she is and is glad her friends have stopped being weird about the whole not resetting thing and can even joke about it.

“Ah Miko. Come to freak us out with your presence?” And continue acting like I'm a villain in a horror game that you have to hide from?

“You know what Mitch. As much as it pains me to say it, you're right. I am a weirdo.” She says walking up to him. “I’m a weirdo for life.” She says grabbing his jacket and pulling him down to her eye level. “And you better watch out cause I got my freaky eye on you.” She says spinning him around so he’s blocking the others' view of her. “Boop” Miko taps his nose like she used to and Mitch is thoroughly confused, but happy she’s touching him again. “Smoothies later?” She asks quietly as her fingers tenses on his jacket. Unsure if he’ll meet with her.

“Yeah well…you’re…you’re just a whatever.” He says pulling her hands off him and straightening out his jacket. Mitch is fiddling with his gauntlet as he walks away. Miko frowns thinking he’s rejected her offer until her gauntlet beeps. She smiles seeing the simple word okay that Mitch sent her. 

As the end of the day draws near Miko looks for Five. She sees him with a goofy look on his face as Zahra walks away from him and past her briefly stopping for a fist bump. “Hey Fiver what's with the heart eyes?”

“Zahra just asked me to join her for a raid tonight and… oh we were supposed to hang out. Miko I am” Miko cuts him off by holding her hand up in front of him before smiling and throwing her arm over his neck ruffling his hair.

Well this works out perfectly. “Five buddy dude, it's cool. Have fun on the raid with the love of your life. Just remember I’m totally being the best man at your wedding.” Miko laughs as Five blushes and sputters.

“Amor de.. Miko no it 's just Zahra is super cool y bonita y…”

“No biggie five. We can always hang another day.”

“You're the best Miko.” Five says pulling her into a bone crushing hug. As Five leaves Miko waits outside of the Hinobi store for Mitch. He sees her, but doesn’t say anything as he walks past. Miko raises her arm reaching out to grab him, but then stops and sighs. She quietly follows behind him. Getting the smoothies was an awkward affair to say the least. Miko only orders one smoothie and is quiet the whole time. Even the store's employees notice the tension between them. They walk back to Mitch's Hinobi van and get inside. Miko opens and closes her mouth a few times to speak, but nothing comes out. She takes a large sip of her smoothie before trying to calm down. Come on, you can do this. You're ME-K.O. after all. I've taken down boss glitches, completed every game I’ve ever played and hold the highest of high scores on sock em rockers. You can talk to a boy.

While Miko has her internal pep talk Mitch watches her. Sighing he gets up and heads to the back of his truck setting up a Hinobi console.

“Mitch I '' Miko starts and turns to face the driver's seat. “Mitch? Where did you go? Did you get eaten by another glitch?” Miko asks, looking around before seeing him in the back.

“Finally done spacing out? Come on.” He says as she gets up to sit down next to him grabbing a controller as the sumo smashers logo appears.

“Sooo uh why are we”

Mitch cuts her off “we haven’t spoken since the kiss and when you're nervous you have too much energy and start to overthink. So we’ll talk while we play. It's how my sibling and I deal with stuff most days.”

Miko nods and selects her character remembering to later ask Mitch how many siblings he has. The first stage begins and Miko glances over at Mitch.

“If you hated the kiss that much you could have told me. You know, instead of avoiding me.”

“I didn’t hate it.” Miko says quietly “it was nice actually really nice. I just didn’t know how to deal with everything I was feeling. So I panicked. It was my first kiss… so uh yeah.”

A small smile crosses Mitch's face at hearing he was her first kiss. They progress through the level a bit more “I’m sorry for today. I was just frustrated that you had started ignoring me. After all, I've gotten so used to you pestering me and getting under my skin. I had um grown quite fond of it.” He says keeping his eyes on the screen.

A large smile spreads across Mikos face and she launches herself at Mitch tackling to the floor in a hug. “ You like me.”

“Yes well um. Being around you isn't terrible and I’ll admit I have fun um a nice time with you.” He says lifting himself up on his elbows. Mitch can't help but smile back at Miko bringing his hand up and pushing some of her hair out the way. 

Miko starts to open her mouth to speak when she hears her phone ring. She releases Mitch before sitting up to answer it. “Hey mom I… uhuh. But I thought…Okay, yeah.” She says before hanging up. Miko looks at Mitch and sees him saving their game file before turning off the console. “That was”

“I heard. Don’t worry about it, let's get you home.” He says as the two of them climb back to the front seats. Starting the van Mitch turns on the radio.

Miko smiles seeing that he had kept the station she listens to most in his favorites. As they drive to her house Miko sings along with the song playing, tapping her fingers on the door. Mitch pulls into her driveway and she smiles at him “thanks for the ride home and um you know”

Miko doesn’t get to finish her sentence as Mitch cuts her off with a kiss. He pulls back and smirks at her “been wanting to do that since earlier. Now go inside sugar plum we can talk more about us another day.”

Miko smirks as she reaches up to mess with a piece of his hair “Mitch Williams. Mr big shot number one gamer wants there to be an us. With me the support class weirdo.”

“Oh shut up and get inside” Mitch says with fake annoyance as Miko boops his nose once more before getting out of the truck. He watches her go inside before pulling out of her driveway with a smile on his face.

Chapter Text

“Right away tech! Now searching for participating staff in your area.” Bitt says while typing.

“Oh great! Is Haneesh near us? Zahra? Bergy? Anyone will do. You know anyone but--” 

Bitt interrupts Miko “Mitch Williams is on the way!”

Miko groans before letting her head hit the dashboard “Ugh, that's gonna make a bad day worse.” She says before tracking Five. I can’t believe we haven’t talked again since the kiss. Did he really mean it when he said there would be an us? He hasn’t talked or pinged me since. Ugh well I guess I haven’t reached out either, but I’ve been busy. And he’s a higher level tech so I guess he’s busy too. Ugh I hate this. Boys are stupid, this whole mitchuation is stupid. And I can’t believe I just thought that. Stupid brain!! Miko thinks to herself as she drives towards Five’s position on the ping glitch.

Miko makes it to Five and manages to capture the glitch in there Hinobi van. Jumping off the roof of the van Miko lands in front of Five. “This day cannot get any--”

“Don’t finish that sentence.” Miko says to Five as he spits out grass as Mitch pulls up.

“Well, look which newbie techs have gotten in over their heads again.” Mitch says, but winks at Miko when Five turns his head.

“What is he doing here?” Five’s annoyance at the bad luck he’s having today continues to build.

“And you let it hack your ride? Oh no wonder you had to beg for help.” Mitch smirks at Miko ignoring Five’s question.

“I did not beg. It was a very dignified rant.” Miko walks up to him and puts her hands on her hips before flipping her hair.

“Well, let’s see what it is you scrubbies can’t handle this time.” Mitch pushes past the pair and lets his hand brush against Miko's hair. 

“Don’t open that.” Miko says reaching to try and stop Mitch as he overrides the lock on their van.

“It’s the pixel from Ping!” Five shouts.

Mitch scoffs and keeps walking to the van. “That boring old game where you knock that little dot around?” Mitch unlocks the door and the pixel shoots out knocking him to the ground.

“Not as boring as you remember.” Miko copies his smirk as Mitch picks himself off the ground and frowns at her.

They all arm themselves with a speed boost power up before deploying their shields to keep the pixel in play. Miko gets annoyed as Mitch and Five start arguing before Five seems to figure something out and tells them to keep it in play.

“What?” Miko and Mitch say at the same time as Five leaves them to deal with the glitch.

“Wait, wait, wait. Where are you going?” Mitch grunts as the pixel hits his shield pushing him back a bit. “Where is he going… with my van?” Mitch and Miko keep blocking the pixel, but it soon becomes tiring as they wait. 

Miko groans as she blocks another hit from the pixel and the silence is also starting to irritate her. I almost wish he was running his mouth again. This is soo annoying and awkward. She thinks to herself as she exhales after another hit. Here goes nothing, “so uh I know we haven’t really talked much since you know.” Miko says deciding now is as good a time as any to talk with Mitch since their second kiss.

“Well we haven’t had much time together. I was actually thinking of how I could get you alone.” Mitch admits with a grunt as the pixel knocks him back. “I didn’t exactly want to just text you asking you out on a date. I have more class than that”.

“You wanna take me out on a date. Like a real one, a date date. Where two people” Miko gets interrupted.

“Yes, Miko. A date. Would you like to go out with me? You know once we’re done here. Because this is my nightmare. Trapped in the infinite loop of a bad retro arcade game.” Mitch asks, noting how nervous he is.

“Did you say infinite loop?” Miko opens a portal and rolls out of the way as the pixel heads towards her.

Mitch catches on and does the same. Letting out a sigh of relief Mitch catches his breath as he sees Miko laying on the ground. “That shut the blippy thing up. Phew.” 

Miko smiles at him and is about to answer when the pixel rapidly picks up speed “why do I get the feeling that more silent means more deadly?”

“Somethings wrong. The portals aren't able to sustain--” the explosion throws Mitch and Miko back as the ping shots off destroying everything in its path.

“It is hard to find dependable portals nowadays,” Miko says, dazed from the blast. She sits up with leaves and sticks pieces in her hair.

“Oh, boosh!” Mitch looks horrified at the path of destruction left behind, before he focuses on Miko and kneels down next to her. “You okay?” He asks, caringly brushing her hair back and pulling sticks from her hair.

Miko coughs, clearing her throat as she looks up at him, “yeah nothing too majorly damaged.” she says and blushes as Mitch continues to remove debris from her hair.

“That’s good I’d hate for something to happen to you especially before our date.” Mitch chuckles as he blush deepens.

“Ahhh yeah well it takes more than a glitch to defeat Me-K.O. But we should probably go after that pixel. Maybe the trees will keep the pixel in play for us.” Miko says hopefully before the pair use their headsets to find the pixel. “Or maybe it’ll bash its way toward the nearest major power plant.”

“Okay yeah we can deal with this.” Mitch says immediately switching back to his professional mode “at least the trees are slowing its momentum. We’ll have to cut it off.” He offers her his hand as he stands.

Taking his hand Miko stares at Mitch as she stands, he’s kinda cool when he’s serious. “My boost don’t go that fast.” 

“I’ll let you in on a little secret princess,” Mitch says and squeezes her hand as she hasn’t let his go yet. “ You wanna increase performance? Overclock your tech.”

“That’s a thing?” Miko grabs his gauntlet looking at the setting and he smirks at how close she is.

“Not a thing that the company tells you about. Mostly ‘cause it can seriously damage their hardware. Hence the secret sugar plum.” He demonstrates the speed boost by appearing at both her sides.

Miko squeals and bounces in place “I wanna be wind.” She excitedly starts shuffling through her gauntlet settings. 

She’s adorable when she’s excited. Mitch quickly presses a kiss to her forehead, grabbing her hand to stop her and chuckles as she blushes again. “Wait. Once we overclock we’ve got 30 seconds max before our gauntlets overheat. Got it?”

“I was born ‘got it’.” Miko says as the two of them take off after the pixel. The pixel speeds through the forest with the pair chasing after it. Miko launches off of a log and descends from the air next to the pixel, “I’m flying.” Miko laughs looking at Mitch before she runs into a tree. 

Mitch holds back his laughter as he continues after the glitch “Oi! Meet next gen, you retro!” He yells getting in front of the pixel and equipping a max defense shield. The pixel plows right through him knocking him into the water below the cliff. Gasping for air as he comes back up Mitch sees Miko zip by “Miko, your gauntlet!” 

She continues after the glitch, almost reaching it when her gauntlet overheats, but Five shows up and unicorn blasts it, saving the day.

“Oh, man, those graphics are terrible.” Mitch says making his way to the clearing where Miko is smiling at her best friend. 

“Come on Meeks, we gotta get this back to Geri!” Five yells still sitting on top of the unicorn.

“Coming!” Miko says before turning to face Mitch and she smiles before pointing at her gauntlet and then running towards Five. They return the Glitch and hang out for a bit before parting ways. When Miko gets home she immediately passes her family so she can message Mitch since her gauntlet is working again. ‘Sooo I realized that with everything earlier I never answered you and yes I wanna go on a date with you. I also think it's hilarious how you hate retro games, but thanks to ping we finally could talk’ She types and stares at the message for a couple minutes before hitting send. Miko nearly falls off her chair when Mitch responds right after.

‘I refuse to agree with that. I would’ve caught you at the register or before you left it was purely a coincidence. How about next Thursday we both have that day off. We could go over to Dabney.’

‘Sure’, she responds with about ten emojis afterwards. ‘Why Dabney though?’

‘I didn’t think we’d want to be interrupted by a possible glitch or anyone we work with spotting us.’

‘Now who’s the one keeping secrets.’ Miko smirks as she sees the typing bubble appear.

‘I just prefer to keep my relationships and work separate. We’ll talk more later ya? My sister is calling me and if I don’t answer she’ll just invite herself over.

‘No prob I understand how siblings are. Me-OK out.’ I can’t believe it! I have a date! With Mitch oh no I have a date. What do I do? Nerds I forgot to ask Mitch about his sister, but he said siblings last time. Maybe he’ll tell me on our date. Ahhh I’m going on my first date. What should I wear? I I oh duh I have a sister, “NIKA!!” Miko screams and hopes her sister will be able to help.

Chapter Text

It had been a long day and Miko was exhausted. It takes a lot out of a girl to face a childhood fear and admit to her best friend that she was the villain of his tragic young origins. Spotting her boyfriend's bright platinum poof of hair as she walks into the staff locker room Miko’s body goes on autopilot. Walking over to him she hits her forehead on his chest sighing loudly.

“Why so glum, sugar plum? You look like you just found out the game boss had a second health bar.” Mitch asks as he looks around the locker room making sure they’re alone before wrapping his arms around her.

Miko hums and brings her own arms up to hug him. 

“You gonna tell me what’s got you so down or am I gonna have to guess?” Mitch asks as he pets her head enjoying their height difference. As Miko continues to stay quiet and just hug him Mitch starts to get worried. She’s never usually this quiet. I wonder what happened? He thinks, but he knows they can’t stay here less they give someone the chance to walk in on them. He had already seen BITT enter, scan the room and turn back around. Sighing Mitch puts his chin on the top of her head “how about we grab a couple of smoothies and go to my place yeah?” Mitch feels Miko nod and the two grab their bags and head up to the store. Miko leaves first and Mitch follows behind her after a few minutes. As they enter the Groovy Smoothie they see Levi who’s usually on shift when they come in and Mitch scowls, seeing Antonio at the counter as well. He knows the boy has a crush on Miko, he could tell by the way he looks at her and how he tries to interrupt their conversations to get her attention. It only bothered him a little before, but now that Miko is his girlfriend, seeing the boy pissed him off.

“Hey Miko, what can I get for you today?” Antonio says ignoring Mitch.

Mitch tries to keep a neutral face as he puts his arm around Miko pulling her closer. Miko smiles up at him before returning to her usual demeanor. Mitch finds that she enjoys physical touch especially since he’s usually so standoff-ish around others. 

“I’ll have a peach mango and one strawberry blast and he’ll take a blueberry smoothie.” Miko smirks, nuzzling herself more into his side.

Mitch just raises an eyebrow as Antonio watches them not putting in their order. “Sometime today would be nice. Or do you want to stare a bit longer?” 

Antonio rings up the total as Levy makes the smoothies. “I thought you two weren’t dating.” Antonio says looking disappointed and a bit angered. 

“Well you have eyes, does this look like we aren’t dating?” Mitch asks as he leans down and kisses Miko. He’s smirking as he pulls back and looks at Antonio.

“Gosh you’re embarrassing.” Miko says but can’t but smile as she covers her face, “why am I dating you again?”

“Because I’m irresistible, charming, the list goes on.”

“Ha more like a low level boss with an over inflated ego.” She smirks and Mitch is about to say something, but Levi brings them their smoothies. Miko waves at them as she and Mitch leave his arm still around her.

“Better luck next time, but we all did tell you that they would end up together.” Levi tells Antonio and he starts to head to the back.

“Where you goin’ shifts not over yet?” Antonio asks, finally pulling his gaze away from the door.

“I’ve got some money to collect. I won the bet.” Levi says with a laugh.

On the drive to his place Mitch noticed that even though Miko was animatedly talking about the new characters being added to realm crashers she still wasn’t completely herself. He held her hand as he drove and she beamed at the gesture. As they pull into his building's parking lot and they make their way up she’s finished one of her smoothies already. As he opens his door Miko makes a beeline to his couch and the pile of pillows flopping down on them. 

Mitch chuckled and was glad he hadn’t moved them since her last visit, “you finally gonna tell me what’s been bothering you?” Miko’s answer is muffled from the pillows as Mitch sits next to her. “What?” he asks, unable to hear her until he moves the pillow from her face.

“Ralphie Bear!” She shouts moving so her head is in his lap and proceeds to tell Mitch everything that happened with the glitch and Five and the animatronic bear.

Mitch listens while massaging her scalp before taking her long hair and sectioning it to braid. At the end of her rant he’s almost done, but can tell Miko has had enough of being still as she starts fidgeting and messing with one of the pillows. “I don’t know what you were so worried about,” Mitch chuckles as he continues his work, ”those animatronics are super creepy plus everyone is afraid of something.”

“Oh yeah then what are you afraid of?” She asks, tilting her head back and Mitch quickly stops her so he can finish the braid. Mitch is quiet for a bit and Miko thinks he’s not gonna answer her.

“Turtles.”

“Turtles?” Miko says, sounding confused “As in the cute tiny dudes with shells?”

“Yes Miko, turtles.” That’s all he says before Miko bursts into a fit of giggles and sits up. Well at least I finished. Mitch thinks to himself as his girlfriend laughs herself off the couch. He knew she’d find his fear funny, but he didn’t care since it got her back to her usual self. Plus he knew she wouldn’t tell anyone. 

Miko catches her breath as she throws herself back on the couch squishing herself against Mitch. “Thanks for listening and for telling me that.” She kisses his cheek and grabs her other smoothie as Mitch scrolls through her Crunchyroll account trying to find something for them to watch. “Also you did a great job with this braid. Think you could do my hair next weekend. Lexi has this recital and mom is always getting on me about being dressed presentably to not embarrass her.”

Mitch just laughs as his girlfriend continues to play with her braid as if she were a cat.

Chapter Text

“Did somebody call for tech support?” Five says while standing in between Zahra and Miko.

“This looks like a job for…” Miko exclaims, but gets interrupted by her hair flying everywhere from a speed boost going past her.

“Boosh!” Mitch chuckles, stopping in front of them as the others groan at his theatrics, whining his name. “Not thinking about hogging all that juicy xp for yourselves, I hope.”

“Of course not. We got a high level glitch in there that's gonna take a whole team to take out.” Five says while looking at his gauntlet readings.

“So let's party up guildies! Whoo!” Miko shouts, twirling around ready to burst into the house.

“Hang on.” Mitch says, crossing his arms and stepping in front of Miko to stop her and the others. “As the highest - level glitch tech here, I will, of course, be leading the team.” Miko crosses her own arms and groans, he smirks as she frowns up at him. Mitch knows she hates when he pulls rank especially when he’s just doing it to show off. 

“Wow okay, great Mitch.” Five says and Miko whips her head around making sure her hair hits Mitch in the face as she turns her frown towards her best friend. 

Mitch looks at Miko and has to stop himself from reaching out to touch her hair. Since the two of them started dating they both enjoy playing with each other's hair. Albeit him a bit more than Miko since he enjoys styling her long tresses while she just likes messing up his, just the other day he was practicing different braids on her and Miko had asked him why he didn’t change his hair and he just shrugged. She had told him that even though she likes his poof, she’d like to see him style his own hair differently. He had told her he’d think about it. 

“Uh, so what's your strategy?” Five asks Mitch to pull him out of his thoughts.

Mitch notices Zahra flicking her eyes back between him and Five and she raises an eyebrow at him. “We’re dealing with a copycat glitch here.” Mitch immediately goes back to his I’m in charge mode as he explains the type of glitch they’re dealing with.

“Careful, got it. Good strategy.” Miko says while trying to head into the house. 

Mitch holds out his arm to stop her from moving forward and she just groans and frowns again. Mitch can tell she's annoyed with him, but he doesn’t want her getting hurt by just barging in.

“So do you have a plan or not?” Zahra asks, causing Mitch to pull his gaze from Miko.

Mitch nods, causing Miko, Five and Bergy to huddle up. He tells them to stay put and that he’ll teach them a lesson. Miko and Zahra look annoyed while Five complains as Mitch heads into the house.

“What kind of lesson is that?” Miko asks her boyfriend while trying hard not to yell at him. Especially because she knows how great Mitch can be, but the arrogant griefer persona he puts on in front of the others pisses her off.

“Relax, just sit tight until I give you the all clear.” Mitch says to the group, but focuses on Miko. Oh boosh she’s gonna give me an earful later. He sighs and heads inside as Bergy salutes him and the others look annoyed.

“Well he is number one on the glitch tech leader boards.” Five says turning to Miko as Zahra walks back to the van.

Miko scoffs, crossing her arms as she watches her boyfriend go into the house and no doubt hog all the xp. “Yeah but he acts like a number two. But hey, the sooner we’re done here the sooner we can get back to hq, ‘cause guess who scored a used copy of pixel panic for game night?” Miko excitedly throws her arm around Five's neck pulling him down to her. 

Five smiles at her since it had been a while since the two of them had a game night. He’d been busy helping his grandparents and Geri since they reconnected thanks to the ping glitch. He also had been going on raids with Zahra which made him feel a bit guilty about not hanging out with Miko. “That's awesome, Meeks, how'd you get a copy?”

“If I told you I'd have to kill ya.” Miko chuckles but knows she can’t tell Five she got it from Mitch the last time she was at his place.

Bergy, taking Mitch's orders a bit too seriously, tells them to be quiet and Miko just facepalms while Five shakes his head.

The team waits as Mitch fights the glitch.

“What's he doing in there?” Miko asks, swinging her legs from where she’s sitting on the roof of the van. She knows her boyfriend well and knows exactly what he's doing but she's bored.

Zahra looks up at Miko from where she’s leaning against the car door not too far from where Five is sitting on the ground “probably hogging all the xp.”

“Ah. come on you guys. I know Mitch is full of himself but I don't think he’d be that selfish.” Five says looking at Zahra and can hear Miko snort from above him. “He used to have the highest - rated gamer feed on tweeker.”

“That goblinoid had his own tweeker feed? I gotta see this.” Miko says hanging upside down from the top of the van. She laughs and can imagine Mitch yelling at her to be careful. He never told me he had a tweeker feed. Oooh I can’t wait to see his face when I tell him. Miko drops from the van and quickly stands next to Five so he can show her.

“Okay check this out” Five pulls up a MitchFTW vid.

Miko is stunned thinking about how adorable the younger Mitch looks as he introduces himself and his cat before playing atom blast. “Mrs. Boosh?” She can’t help but laugh. Oh he’s sooo getting it later. And his hair was so floofy. She thinks as she rolls on the ground as Zahra and Five also laugh with her. They continue watching the video and Miko is surprised “huh reasonably solid tippage.” She says watching the younger version of her boyfriend.

“I learned tons from these old gameplay videos,” Five says.

“So what happened to the guy?” Zahra asks Five, surprised at how different Mitch is in these videos.

“His feed went dark after that episode. I guess once Mitch started working for Hinobi and became a glitch tech, he just kinda changed.”

“Mitch for the win!” Mitch shouts as he blasts the glitch into pieces, “now come on, act like a boss, not a trash mob.” Mitch tells the glitch as he evades hits before getting in front of it. “Boosh!” He defeats the glitch and captures it. And with this I’ll be able to get off early. Maybe I can convince Miko to ditch the rest of her shift and we can catch that movie she’s been wanting to see. Mitch smirks to himself before heading out of the house “all clear.”

“Great, so, um, what do you need the rest of us to do?” Five asks as he walks up to a whistling Mitch

“Nothing...anymore.” Chuckling Mitch walks back to his van intent on leaving Five, Miko and Zahra behind so he can get back to hq.

“You said you were gonna teach us a lesson.” Five runs after Mitch to stop him.

“And that it’d be one you’d never forget. And you won't. Will you?” Mitch snapped smirking at Five before continuing to his truck.

“No. You don’t get to say something and just walk away this time. You walk around like you’re heavy, but really you’re just a self punk who’s too afraid to work with us instead of against us.” Five says pushing Mitch away from his truck.

“Dang!” Miko and Zahra exclaim while watching Five rip into Mitch.

Way to go Five. Who knew he had it in him. Zahra thinks as she records the verbal fight.

Miko is torn between supporting her partner on calling Mitch out and worrying her boyfriend is gonna do something to Five. She watches as Mitch just scoffs not taking Five seriously.

“This is Glitch Techs, not Mitch Techs. We’re a team so if you’re not willing to be a team player, then we’re better off without you.” Five says holding his ground.

Mitch just stares at him before looking back at Zahra and Miko. He doesn’t say anything before pushing past Five to get in his truck and leave.

Miko watches her boyfriend drive away. Slightly worried by how fast he pulled off before she moved over to Five. “Whoa! You really told him off, partner!” She punches Five's arm and smiles. Maybe this will get Mitch to be nicer to others. Ahh who am I kidding no it won't my boyfriend’s a jerk. But he’s my jerk.

“Huh? Yeah, I guess I did.” Five says still a bit stunned he had done so.

“He didn't even have a comeback!” Zahra says touching Fives shoulder. Blushing slightly she pulls back, “uh, i mean, Mitch always has a comeback! You were so cool. I, uh, mean that was cool. Yeah!  I gotta go post this to every tech I know!”

She thought I was cool. Five blushes and can still feel the warmth from where Zahra touched him. Zahra pensó que era genial y regañé a Mitch. el mejor día!

“Well after all that drama, I think you’ve earned yourself a little game time.” Miko holds up her fist.

“Let's co-op till we drop.” Five chuckles and gives her a fist bump. They all head back to hq ready to forget about Mitch's attitude and how he ruined the mission

Meanwhile Mitch was already back at HQ, “MitchFTW here, offline edition. Bringing you stunning, handsome reflections on the day's events.” Mitch says into the bathroom mirror while touching up his hair. He mocks Five a bit as he combs through his blonde strands. “One Mitch Williams is worth ten of those newbies,” except for Miko. He thinks, “ugh she’s gonna yell at me later for that xp grab. Maybe I can distract her before she gets started.” He wonders, thinking about how last time they were at his place she had remembered something he said to her partner and started yelling. A few kisses and the promise of homemade waffles did the trick. Mitch smiles at the memory before the lights flicker and go out. “Wait, what?” His gauntlet goes off alerting him of a glitch. He opens the stall door only for the tentacle to shoot out and drag him in.

Miko is playing pixel panic with Five in the lounge when she hears her boyfriend come in. He hops over the couch sitting between her and Five. She stiffens feeling his arm go around her while playing with her hair as he talks to Five. What the gorf? And since when does Mitch wear hats? He never wears hats; he hates anything that could potentially mess up his hair. Miko along with everyone else is shocked when Mitch says Five was right about earlier. Okay there has to be something seriously wrong here. She looks at her boyfriend with suspicion as he gets up and continues to apologize along with saying he's throwing them a party. Miko’s eyes turn to saucers as she sees the xp Mitch had given her along with the other. She and Zahra share a look as Mitch says he wants to be part of the team. Five looks at them and Miko just shrugs. I definitely have to get him alone to see what's up because this is too weird even for Mitch. 

Phil barges in with a plunger and gets quickly thrown off his rant by Mitch's new attitude. Mitch follows Phil out, still trying to convince him. The next thing Miko knows she's at the party with Five. Still suspicious and slightly upset, she hasn’t been able to catch her boyfriend alone so she can ask him why he's doing all of this. She tries to catch Mitch, but he whisks Five away so Miko ends up sitting down only to be joined by Zahra.

“Hey Miko, where's your partner?”

“Off with his new bud Mitch.” Miko says, trying not to sound bitter.

“Speaking of Five…are you and he like partners, or are you like partners partners?” Zahra asks with a slight blush. 

“What's up, partner?” Five appears and startles Zahra.

Miko can't help but smile as she watches Zahra fumble over her words and get nervous at her friend. And he thinks she doesn’t like him pffff. These two nerds deserve each other. Miko thinks as she watches Zahra make a hasty retreat.

“Car in your wallet?” Zahra groans “what is your glitch Zahra? Just go and talk to the dude. We go on raids all the time and we work well together. Ugh it shouldn't be this hard.”

Five takes Zahra's abandoned seat next to Miko. “She likes you ya know.” She says deciding not to bring up Mitch's weird behavior anymore.

“Wha-- that's crazy de ningún modo. Ella es demasiado bonita y sorprendente, nunca me vería así.” Five says and gets uncomfortable as Miko gives him a look.

Miko was about to continue but they got distracted by Bergy on the dance floor. Miko sees Zahra walking back over but this time she’s wearing that same stupid hat as Mitch. Miko leaves to let the two of them be alone. She sees Mitch leaving with Venkman and decides to follow them. “Hey!” Miko screams as she sees Mitch shut the doors behind Venkman.

“Enjoying the party?” He asks with open arms.

“Okay. Williams. Five may be buying into the epic return of his hero MitchFTW, but if you break that trusting heart of his, you’re going to have me to deal with.” She says angrily and crosses her arms.

Mitch chuckles, “you know, you and five always have each other's back.” Mitch takes a few steps closer to her, “sometimes, I think I’m so awful to you both because I just…” he stops talking and pulls her close, wrapping his arms around her. Instinctively Miko relaxes against him and Mitch smirks into her hair before bringing his hand up to run down the side of her cheek, “I know I’ll never have that kind of bond with anyone. Except maybe you…” he says and leans in to kiss her.

“That is the saddest thing I’ve ever heard, but I’m not buying it because I know my own boyfriend and whatever you are ain’t him imposter. So where is my Mitch?” Miko asks, stopping the Mitch clone from kissing her and pushing him away. 

“Huh what gave me away?”

“Laid it on just a bit too thick faker” Miko puts more space between them and gets in a defensive position.

“That's okay. If I can’t change your mind I’ll just have to change you.” The clone says before letting the glitch tentacles attack her.

Miko screams before trying to fight off the glitch before it attacks her. The next thing she knows she's waking up and sees five being attacked. Fighting a glitch this size was difficult even with the amount of techs they had freed. Haneesh, Zahra, Bergy and herself had their shields up to protect Five as he searched for the original glitch. “These shields won’t hold much longer, Five!” Miko groans. “Five!” Miko yells and her shield breaks after a few more hits. The glitch raises a tentacle to attack her but it gets blasted and Mitch jumps in front of her throwing up his shield. 

“I gotcha sugar plum” Mitch whispers and Miko can't help, but smile seeing Mitch actually work with the rest of them.

With the glitch contained and everyone back to normal Miko and Five finally get a chance to game till their thumbs fall off. After playing a few more rounds of pixel panic she tosses Zahra her controller. Remembering that she had asked if she and Five were more than just partners, Miko winks at Zahra hoping to convey that she and Five were just friends and giving her the okay to make a move. Though by the way the two of them are fumbling over their words and blushing, Miko doesn’t think either is ready to ask the other just yet. Cupid's job is never done. Miko messages Mitch to see where he went. He tells her he’s in one of the sim rooms training. She makes her way there and enters just as he blasts through the last enemy. She joins him for a round of sparring before they decide to get smoothies. After leaving the Hinobi store, Miko grabs his hand like normal and he gives it a squeeze. “Oh by the way Five showed me your tweeker feed.” Miko smirks as Mitch groans beside her, “your hair looked even floofier without all that product you put in there. And you were so adorable with Ms. Boosh!”

Mitch drops her hand and just walks away from his girlfriend as she laughs behind him. I’m so gonna mangle that partner of hers.

Chapter Text

“Aim and fire. Aim and…FIRE!” Ridley blasts the cyberdactyl smiling wide as the strike lands and it returns to its base form. Holding their gauntlet up to capture the glitch Ridley’s smile fades as it zooms past them. “Hey!”

“Mitch Williams. Nice to beat you.” Mitch says looking smug as his gauntlet is loaded with xp. 

“Mitch! You griefer, that was Ridley’s target!” Miko yells at her boyfriend, furious he stole a glitch from her favorite modder. 

She’s cute when she’s angry. Can she still be a sugar plum when she’s this red? Mitch thinks, not caring about the new tech, but focusing on how Miko’s hair was slightly frizzy and how red her cheeks were. “Uh, Ridley? Oh, that little weirdo you bought in off the street.” Mitch smirks knowing his words would anger his girlfriend further.

“Hey! Who are you to—“ Ridley exclaims angrily only to be cut off by Miko.

“Hey, they’re our friend.” Miko glares at her boyfriend giving him a look that says he’ll be paying for this later. No one gets to be mean to Ridleycraft and their awesomeness.

“Yea, and they’re part of the team now.” Five says backing her up.

“Well congratulations tiny,” Mitch claps as he walks towards the new tech and his girlfriend. Patting Ridley on the shoulder Mitch smirks as Miko bares her teeth at him and hisses. Mitch is doing his best not to laugh at her antics. “You just joined the most pathetic team on glitch tech leaderboards.”

“We’re not pathetic.”

“You’re right, Miko.” You’re not. Not even close. Mitch softens his gaze for a second hoping she's not taking anything he says seriously. “Sixth place isn’t pathetic, it's hopeless.” Mitch says, pulling up the leaderboard while eyeing Miko. He frowns as he notices her expression has real anger in it. “You’d need to catch double your daily average to beat my capture score.” Walking away from the other techs while laughing Mitch gets into his truck. “Buh—boosh!” He shouts before taking off. She’s not really mad is she? She should know by now that it’s just to keep up appearances with the others. But what if she is. Mitch groans, hating that he’s worried about whether Miko is truly upset with him. He quickly pulls out his phone after putting the van on autopilot and texts her, ‘hope you’re not mad. Milkshakes at that new restaurant later? My treat.’ He hits send, but doesn’t get a reply. Sighing he goes about his day and doesn’t hear or see her again until he walks back into HQ. “Oh what are you slackers looking at?” He asks, hearing everyone clapping. Lifting his head he sees his girlfriend giggling and hugging the new baby tech with a smile on her face and her partner looking excited. 

“Here it comes, watch Mitch’s face.” Five says to Miko and Ridley as Mitch freezes mid step.

“Huh? My score…” the surprise only stays on Mitch’s face for a few seconds before Ridley is in front of him

“Ha! Eat it, hotshot. Your score just got ganked by team Ridley.” The modder yells victoriously.

“Good for you.” Mitch says unphased, “almost…too good to be true.” Knowing something was off, he still offers the new tech his hand to shake. When Ridley grabs it Mitch pulls them closer, “I don’t know what you had to do to earn that impossible score, but if you can look me in the eye and tell me it was a clean win, then I guess I was wrong about you.” Mitch says his eyes are flitting to Five and his girlfriend. He can already tell that it somehow wasn’t, by the nervousness written on their faces. Especially Miko as she was bad at hiding her feelings. 

“Oh it was clean. Clean and so delicious.” Ridley smirks getting closer to Mitch.

“Okay then, congratulations.” Mitch says eyeing Miko one last time before walking off. 

“Five we just pwned Mitch Williams. Why doesn’t this feel better?” Miko asks but knows she’s feeling guilty about lying to her boyfriend. Maybe we went too far. Sure Mitch can be a jerk, but he’s got mad skills and earned his score.

“That look on his face…not the one I expected.” Five says before Ridley disagrees with them. It quickly becomes a verbal match and Ridley reveals their true intention was only to get a gauntlet. Soon all of HQ is on lockdown from a containment breach. 

“Oh, what is going on in there? Come on, open up, you stupid door.” Mitch groans as he continues blasting the shielded door.

“Hey hotshot. You want your top score back? I need backup.” Ridley says after opening the door and staring down the older boy.

Mitch has to hold himself back from laughing and clears his throat, “ me? Backup a noob? Oh come on.” he says as he flicks Ridley's hair. Damn Miko really is rubbing off on me.

“I may be new around here, but trust me, sport… I'm no newbie.” Ridley says, pulling Mitch down by his vest. 

Mitch frowns, but raises an eyebrow. Miko sure knows how to pick ‘em.

“Hey glitches!” Ridley yells as Mitch portals them inside.

“Ridley?!” And Mitch?!! Miko yells seeing them ride in on horn.

“Get away from my friends! Now Mitch!” Ridley yells while blasting glitches.

“With pleasure.” He says launching himself off of horn and landing a mega punch that sends a shockwave depixelating a large amount of glitches. The techs along with Ridley fight the glitches as Phil fixes the containment problem. 

“Okay this is the part where someone yells hold onto something.” Phil yells giving them a heads up before all the glitches are sucked back in.

As everyone moves Mitch ends up grabbing Miko and pulling her with him behind the wall. She smiles at her boyfriend as he keeps his arm around her. Once the glitches are contained she runs over to Five and Ridley. After everything was settled they all end up in Phil’s office 

Miko is devastated as Phil tells them they have to memory wipe Ridley. “I can't just wipe their memory.”

“Oh you won’t have too.” Mitch says from his spot leaning against the doorway. He knew it would be tough for Miko since she really had a soft spot for the little modder. And Mitch had some respect for Ridley's skills after the upgrades he’d received from them. “Let me do the honors, hmm?” Mitch leads Ridley outside away from his girlfriend and boss. “You’ve got some amazing tricks up those sleeves of yours, pumpkin. But you're not ready to be a tech… yet.” Mitch says and opens a portal for Ridley. “You've got potential so I'm gonna take a risk and bet on you. Don’t cause any more trouble for us, besides I quite like this upgrade.” Plus Miko is fond of you.

“Huh?” Ridley says, astonished that he’s not gonna do the memory wipe.

“Well don’t just stand there! Do you want me to change my mind? Go on, scat you little weirdo.”

Ridley smiles and hugs Mitch before he shoves them through the portal. As he walks back in he only sees Miko sitting on Phil's desk with her head down. Mitch sighs and walks over to her. “You okay?”

She just shakes her head. 

Mitch debates on telling her that he hadn’t wiped her little friend's memory but decides against it for now. “Come on. We’re clocking out and going on a date. And I'm not taking no for an answer.” 

Miko lifts her head and smiles at him, hugging him tightly. Mitch kisses the top of her head before letting her go, heading towards the door.

“Thanks Williams.” Miko says and leaves first so they don’t get caught.

Chapter Text

“Who wants to see that?” Mitch snarks even though he was enjoying watching the clips of his girlfriend.

“Fine. Show me clips of Mitch Williams being crazy awesome…” Miko says, rolling her eyes at her boyfriend.

“That's more like it.” Mitch smirks.

“...but add fart sounds!” She laughs while watching him.

“What?!” Mitch exclaims as BITT plays the video. He glares at Miko as everyone starts laughing. She throws one of his signature smirks back at him and he just raises an eyebrow letting her know he’ll get her back later.

Miko notices the look on Mitch’s face and she slumps down in her chair so she can nudge his leg with her foot. He looks surprised for a second before realizing it's her and he can’t help, but smile because she was worried about what he’ll do to get revenge on her.

After the video stops they vote Haneesh as the glitch, but they don’t get let out. Soon figuring out that one of them might be an actual glitch they start getting suspicious of each other. Mitch starts getting annoyed as they start goofing off after Miko’s suggestion to BITT about doing the video clips in a sitcom style. Mitch tries to get them back on track only to be derailed again by his girlfriend requesting BITT to show them how many times they say glitch. Is she doing this just to mess with me? Mitch wonders after watching another dumb video. He smirks before getting an idea.

“Wait a minute”, Mitch says, but gets ignored. “Guys. Guys! Stop it! That is enough!” Mitch, slams his hands on the table. “We may be locked up in this room with a glitch. Have all of you forgotten what glitches are?” BITT pulls up a video behind him, “They’re destructive. They’re relentless. They are monsters!”

“Mitch, aren't you being a little paranoid?” Five asks from his spot next to Miko, who’s now staring at her boyfriend.

“Oh, do you think so, newbie? Well maybe we should be taking another look at you.”

“What?” Everyone gasps.

“Me?” Five looks confused as everyone looks at him.

“Come on, Mitch. High Five is a glitch?” Miko chuckles with her hands up, “have you ever met the dude?”

“Five’s not a glitch!” Everyone yells at Mitch after BITT plays another video.

“Well, of course he isn’t!” Mitch yells, “but now that I've got your attention again, we can concentrate on the real culprit. All this time you’ve been wound up to go in silly circles while the real glitch has been drawing attention away from herself. Isn't that right Miko?” He says pointing at his girlfriend. 

“Me? K.O.” She chuckles and eyes her boyfriend suspiciously. “That's rich coming from the worst griefer on the Glitch Techs team.”

“Fine Miko you can have a go at me all you want, but we all know how your story adds up. Miko was one of the only players to log in remotely to the Hinobi smashball tournament earlier this year. Five shot her ball into the hoop for the winning shot that day, causing a glitch that nearly took down the entire store. Instead of being reset like a normal person, the weirdo altered another stooge, incited the release of a viral glitch at the arcade, and infiltrated Glitch Techs as a new trainee. Her first day, she destroyed the training sim, and hacked into the central computer, releasing a dangerous glitch into HQ. Since then she's nearly destroyed her gauntlet, assaulted her fellow Techs, refused to obey orders, snuck unauthorized personnel onto company property, and befriended a rogue tech modder who nearly destroyed HQ.” Mitch smirks as everyone else puts a vote in for Miko besides Five.

“Okay, okay, okay I know how this looks, but I'm not a glitch, you guys.” Miko panics slightly, she doesn't know why her boyfriend was accusing her. She knows he doesn’t like how reckless she is most times, and how she ignores his orders, but this was different. 

“This isn’t funny.” Five speaks up.

“Come on! The girl can't be reset.” 

“That doesn’t make me a glitch!” Miko yells back.

“She's rebellious! Destructive! Even if you can get past the rest of it, you gotta admit her gaming skills are off the charts! I mean, think about it. Her reflexes are inhuman. Nobody, not anybody can be that good. She's a glitch, Five. We have to turn her over to inspector Seven!” Mitch says as he stares down Five.

Five breaks the voting system and tells everyone how messed up it is they're voting for Miko and how it shouldn’t matter because she’s their friend and loyal and smart. Mitch actually finds himself agreeing with Five's description of his girlfriend, but remains neutral as the screens go out and the power comes back on. The door suddenly opens to reveal Inspector Seven. 

“That's the glitch!”, they all say after Phil and Inspector Seven show them the small electrified rabbit.

“So why were you keeping us locked up in here?” Exasperated at the waste of his time Mitch glares at Inspector Seven.

At Inspector Seven's explanation everyone turns to glare at Mitch. “Miko I guess I had you wrong” he says and holds out his hand.

Miko quickly grabs her boyfriend's hand and squeezes it smiling as he discreetly rubs his thumb against her knuckles “ nope you were right. My gaming skills are off the charts. Boosh!” She says pulling him down and throwing her arm around his neck.

The others turn their focus to Bergy as he asks Inspector Seven a question. They don’t notice that Miko hasn’t let go of Mitch yet or how hard she blushes as he kisses her cheek and mutters an actual apology to her. Inspector seven lets the techs go and everyone goes their separate ways except for Mitch who pulls Miko into an empty room with him.

“Unexpected, but I’ll roll with it.” Miko says surprised as Mitch is usually the one who's more careful about them being near each other at work.

“Is it so bad that I wanted a moment alone with my girlfriend. After all, even though we were locked in a room together we weren’t exactly alone.” He says as he pulls her closer for a kiss.

“Hold up you gorf. I’m still mad at you for the whole Miko is a glitch thing.” She says holding up two fingers to make an x in front of his lips.

“Oh come on, it was just a little revenge for earlier, plus I already apologized.” Mitch grabs her hands and rubs his thumbs against the back of them. Knowing this will calm her down. “I know you’ve thought about making out in HQ at least once.” He smirks as he sees her losing her fight.

“Schmup.” Miko huffs before leaning forward to kiss him. Pulling her hands out of his so she can mess up his hair as his arms wrap around her. “I’m so getting you back for earlier.”

“I’ll look forward to it.” Mitch chuckles before pulling her into another kiss.

Chapter Text

Miko looks over at her boyfriend driving, it's taking every ounce of concentration in her to fight against her usual urges. She's managing slightly by tapping her foot on the dashboard where she has them propped up. Since they're technically on duty with Five in the backseat, she can't hold his hand while he drives or turn on her favorite radio station. Heck, she can’t even talk to him normally since it would seem out of character for the two of them. She glances over at Mitch again, still in disbelief that he really changed his hair. She remembers them discussing it when she was over at his place, but she didn't think he’d actually do it. She’ll miss the poof, but Miko can't help but think that he looks so much more handsome without all that product in his hair, not to mention his new suit and visor from leveling up. She blushes as Mitch catches her staring. He smirks at her, checking the rearview mirror to see that Five is distracted by something on his gauntlet. He reaches over to grab her hand. Mikos's heart swells at the small gesture and how he seems to know her so well. It doesn't last long, though as Five speaks up about glitch signatures over on Stanz Avenue.

“Ooh, what's it look like, cap? Zombie hoard? Orc army? The flood?” Miko asks, turning to look at her best friend.

Five doesn't get a chance to answer as Mitch abruptly slams on the breaks. “Oh, no. them,” Mitch says.

Miko looks over at her boyfriend, confused before she sees what he's talking about. The biggest smile across her face as she sees the meowing kitty glitches. “I want to take them home and cuddle crush them until their eyes burst.” She says her face pressed against the windshield.

“They’re from itty bitty kitty collector, my favorite kitty collection game! My number two being litter glitter kittysitter, obvi.” Five says, just as enthused as his partner.

Miko is already out of the truck before Mitch can even comment on the situation. He gets out after her, set on just grinding XP and finishing the patrol. He shakes his head as Miko is cuddling multiple glitches rather than catching them as her partner talks about the glitches. He zaps the glitch Five was holding, “pancake mcguffin?” he chuckles, “please, that cat is an urban legend. I tried using every squeak toy in the game and never once got her to show up.” Mitch says with a slight bitterness.

“I thought you hated this game,” Miko says, popping up next to her boyfriend while holding three kitties and one on her head.

“It was free to play. at first.” Mitch says, defending himself.

Miko gives him one of his smirks before busting into a smile; he can be so cute sometimes, she thinks to her, like when he's sleeping or is really concentrated on a game level, or when he makes tea, speaking of which I ran out of the one he gave me I should get some more. Miko’s stream of consciousness starts to derail until she hears Five's voice saying the glitches were getting away. They all scatter in different directions— Five chasing some into the woods while Miko and Mitch get the ones on the road before following.

“Smile for the gauntlet, purr-box!” Miko says after doing a front flip to catch three kitties. “Looks like we’re on the edge of town, guys. What if these glitches cross the border into Dabney?”

Mitch kicks a log and zaps two kitties, “then they become a problem for the Dabney glitch techs.”

“Wouldn't we just work with them?” Five questions.

“Phil's rules on this are clear, newbie. We are not to poach glitches from across town lines.” Mitch says as he and Miko head back to the truck.

Miko looks back to see five looking at his gauntlet, “didn't get to say this earlier, but I really like your new hair, reminds me a bit of reverb from legion of myths. Can I touch it?” She's learned that even though he doesn’t mind her touching his hair and she's pretty sure he likes it just as much as he likes playing with her own hair that she should always ask first.

Mitch makes sure that Five isn't behind them, “have at it, princess.” He tells her and enjoys feeling her fingers on his scalp and through his locs, “I will say I'm surprised you waited this long; back in the truck, you looked ready to combust. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure I’ve told you about putting your feet on my dash.”

“Yeah, but you only said not to do it in your car; the trucks don't count,'' Miko says, smiling at him.

Ugh, she knows I can’t resist her dumb smiles, he thinks to himself. “Well, either way you were too comfortable.”

Miko just giggles and leans up to kiss him; she stops just inches from his lips as she spots a kitty with an orange on its head and takes off after it.

Mitch stands there in disbelief for a second before laughing as it's never a dull moment with her. He realizes Five isn’t back yet and begrudgingly goes to find him. Miko can take care of herself better make sure that partner of hers hasn’t somehow been eaten by an overzealous kitty. He finds Five quietly celebrating to himself, a bit disappointed that he hadn’t been eaten by one of the kitty constructs. ‘Did what, exactly?’

“Read it and weep, Williams. I just bagged pancake mcguffin! Ding!” Five as not letting even Mitch ruin his victory.

“After what I told you about not poaching from the Dabney techs?” Mitch asks in a calm but irritated manner, he didn’t like hearing people other than Miko use his last name. God I'm going soft, he thinks to himself.

“I didn't poach,” Five, now feeling slightly unsure of his actions.

Time for a bit of fun, Mitch thinks. “You ignored my warning and decided to ninja a rare glitch from out under another tech team's patrol.”

“Hey, it started on our turf.” Five says, defending himself, feeling a bit more confident in his decision

“Hmm, well maybe you aren't the hopeless goody two shoes I always thought you were,” Mitch says, patting Five on the shoulder.
Miko catches up with them confused at whatever it was she just witnessed. She glances at Mitch before turning her attention to Five, “there you are! Okay, I bagged three missus mittens, two buckaroo catseyes, and a doctor mew. What are we talking about?” She asks, looking between her best friend and boyfriend.

“Nothing. Let's just go.” Five walks away, immediately feeling worse about his decision.

Miko gives her boyfriend a look, but he pointedly ignores it. “Five, wait up!” She calls after him.

All of them were unaware of the other tech team watching them.

They get back to HQ to unload their glitches and meet up with Zahra. Five goes up to her and gives her a kiss on the cheek. She blushes hard and stammers out a greeting. Miko can't help, but coo at their cute awkwardness. As the two had been on a couple dates and she had never seen Five happier. Mitch makes a gagging noise and Miko punches him in the arm.

“I’ve said it before and I'll say it again you are freakishly strong for someone your size.” He says, rubbing his arm.

“And you love me anyways,” Miko teases as they walk to the containment station and unload their glitches.

They all hear Phil's conversation with the Dabney branch manager Joan. They all deny bagging the glitch and Phil leaves to go to his office. As Zahra is talking to Miko, Mitch takes a chance to mess with Five more.

“Looks like you got away with the perfect crime, newbie.”

“Why didn't you say anything?” Five asks, keeping his voice low so Zahra and Miko don’t overhear.

Mitch chuckles, “what fun would that be?” He walks away, very aware of his girlfriend's eyes on him.

Miko felt terrible for not really listening to Zahra talk about the date she had with Five. But she had already heard five talk about it literally after the date ended; he had her on the phone for nearly two hours while she farmed in stardust forge. But seeing her boyfriend talk to her best friend and him laughing that way couldn't be anything good. Unfortunately, she wasn't able to get Mitch alone to confront him before the four of them were called in for a mission. “Easy peasy slimy sleazy”, she says as Phil briefs them on the glitches from smooze brothers.

“To quote my grandpa, it moves slower than molasses.” Zahra says, earning smiles from Five and Miko.

Once they finish the brief they have a few minutes before they all have to meet at the trucks. Miko ends up pulling Mitch into an empty room. He’s confused, but she doesn’t give him a chance to speak before she kabedon’s him using both arms to form a cage around him.

“Not that this isn’t unwelcome and surprisingly hot, but why are we here? It’s not like there's enough time too”

“What were you and Five talking about, Williams?”

“Oooh, last name, you're mad.” He says and can't help but think how pretty she looks now. It makes him want to tease her. “Decisions, decisions,” he says out loud as she keeps glaring up at him.

Their gauntlets beep and Miko huffs, leaving Mitch as she heads to the trucks before him. They get to the park where the first glitch is and start zapping up the goo before coming across the glitch itself; it shoots slime at them. Mitch throws up a shield covering himself and Miko.

“Zahra, crowd control!” He shouts to where she had pulled Five to hide behind a boulder.

“Yep, yep!” She says before dashing out, easily avoiding the slime projectiles before jumping and twirling upside down in the air to stun the glitch.

“Ella es genial. Dios, no puedo creer que esté saliendo con ella”, Five thinks to himself as she lands.

“Five seconds!” Zahra shouts.

“Miko, melee strike!” Mitch says point at his girlfriend.

“On it.” She says, smiling, giving him a little salute before materializing a great sword. She leaps in the air and slashes the glitch in one swing. Chuckling she swings her sword, “tank you very much!” She smiles directly at Mitch.

“No puns, ugh.” He groans but can't help himself from smirking as he watches the Melee strike remembering how they practiced that move together during a late-night sim session. “Five ranged strike.”

“I think that can be a-ranged…sorry.” He says before shooting at the glitch, only for a shield to be thrown up around it.

“This thing has shields?!” Miko exclaims.

“That wasn’t the glitch,” Mitch says as something blurs past them.

“We’ve got adds! Ready aim”

“Hold!” Mitch yells, cutting off Zahra.

“They’re glitch techs?” Five says confused.

The tech standing in the middle with a helmet, directs his team. “Take it out.”

They watch as the other three techs surround the slime. Easily dodging its attacks before opening portals.

“Incoming!” Mitch yells as portals appear above them. They all try to dodge but end up getting slimed as the other techs get the glitch to its root form and capture it.

“Hey! That was our glitch!”

“Who do you clowns think you are?” Zahra yells backing up Miko.

“We’re the real glitch techs,” Nameless says as his team poses with him.

“I’m sorry, come again? Your costumes are blinding me.” Mitch chuckles lightly while fixing his hair.

Miko can’t help but snicker to herself as Mitch was panicking a few seconds ago about getting rid of the slime and now he’s being arrogant again.

The twins Wes and Ray introduced themselves and the green-haired girl just says, sup guys.

“Simi? I thought you transferred over to the Dabney store.” Miko says as Simi looks over all of them. When her eyes fall on Zahra, she winks at her causing her to blush.

This doesn’t go unnoticed except to Five, who continues for Miko. “They’re all from the Dabney store.”

“So, which one of you is the glitch thief, huh? Huh?” Nameless asks, stepping forward, “I need an answer.”

“Nameless needs an answer”, Ray says as she and her brother lean forward.

“Hang on, nameless? Ha! Is that a joke? Or did you forget to enter one when you created that ridiculous avatar,” Mitch says, getting in the other leader's face.

“It was a rare glitch, you guys. Would’ve been worth a ton of XP.” Simi says.

“Our boss already told your boss. Nobody took anything from you.” Zahra says, stepping up to her.

Simi just smirks and keeps eye contact with Zahra while the rest of their teams continue to argue. “The new suit looks good,” Simi says to her, causing Zahra to look away.

She hears Simi chuckle, and her face burns red. The two jump back into the conversation with their teammates. The Dabney techs leave after declaring open season and hacking their gauntlet.

Miko’s sitting upfront with Mitch in the truck as he drives them to the second sludge glitch while complaining. She sits with her legs in a butterfly position, bouncing one knee to distract herself since Zahra and Five are sitting in the back. She’s more careful than before since Zahra is more observant than Five.

Zahra holds her conversation with Miko while fixing Five's gauntlet, barely looking.

For a moment, he gets distracted from the whole situation. “You managed to fix my gauntlet so easily,” he says, causing her to blush. No sabía que sus habilidades de pirateo fueran tan buenas. Ella es tan inteligente que no puedo creer que estemos saliendo. He zones back into the conversation as Miko and Zahra get angrier about the other techs.

A loud horn causes them all to cover their ears; looking over, they see the Dabney techs. Nameless scoffs as he looks over at the Bailey techs. “Sorry, techs, that glitch is ours!” He says before using the portal gun to move them from the stoplight to on top of the building behind them.

“Mitchell, you know what to do,” Miko says seriously as she looks at Mitch.

“Hold onto your mushrooms,” he says, changing gears before revving the engine and equipping the rockets.

Miko’s screams immediately turn into laughter as they drive straight through a billboard.

God she’s like a feral gremlin; Mitch thinks chuckling as Miko fights with Nameless through the windows as they drive trying to out maneuver one another. They make it first to the junk yard, where the second sludge is.

“Wow, that thing sounds like Mitch playing karaoke hero,” Zahra says while using her shield to knock away an attack.

“Hey, I unlocked the golden throat achievement in that game.” He retorts while holding up a blaster, ready to aim.

Miko speeds in front of him to slash away one of the attacks, “you’re gonna have a golden everything in a second! Btws we’re so playing karaoke hero on our next date,” she says quietly and Mitch nods his head.

They continue to face the glitch until the Dabney techs show up and hack their gauntlets again. Nameless taunts them as his team laughs.

“Hope you got the extended warranty”, Simi shouts.

“I’m so sick of these griefers,” Zahra says, punching her own hand no matter how cute one of them may be. She thinks to herself and as she does, Simi blows a kiss her way.

“Hey! You already took a glitch from us! What more do you trolls want?”

“We want the truth. And we’re gonna shadow your team until we get it,” Nameless says.

“Fine. You really want the truth? Five starts before Mitch covers his mouth.

“The truth is you lot can’t hack it in Dabney, so you’re trolling newbies instead of patrolling your turf!” Mitch says, poking nameless in the chest.

“Are you insulting us or them?” Zahra asks and Miko quietly chuckles while the emojis on Nameless mask gives him a confused look.

“If I did it right, both.” Mitch says before glancing at Miko. She smirks at Mitch and he smirks back, knowing she didn't take the insult to heart.

All of their gauntlets beep, signaling the location of the last glitch. The Dabney techs stun the Bailey keeping them paused until the timer runs out. They all stretch as Five says, ”the feud is getting outta hand.”

“I don’t wanna agree with Mitch, but I agree with Mitch. Even if he did steal their glitch.” Zahra says.

“You think I stole their glitch,” Mitch asks with a raised eyebrow.

“I wasn’t gonna say, but it seems a pretty Mitchy thing to do,” Miko says while looking at her boyfriend, trying to read him.

Five whimpers next to Miko and breaks out into a sweat as Mitch smirks at him.

“Well, if you say so,” Mitch says before getting in the truck. “Now, come on, techs. Let’s transform and cowabunga.”

Zahra chuckles as she gets in the passenger seat. And Five holds Miko back to talk for a few minutes.

“Hey. Close that chat window and get in you two. Zahra has a plan to get our glitches back.”

“And it’s epic,” Zahra adds.

“Ahh Zahra, that's my seat.” Miko says seeing the girl in the passenger seat.

“Really?” Zahra chuckles, thinking she’s just messing around.

“Uh yea,” she says, crossing her arms.

“Meeks, it's just a seat; what's the big deal?” Five asks, feeling a weird tension coming off of Miko.

“I called dibs. Mitchell tell them dibs are sacred.” Miko says while glaring small holes at Zahra.

Mitch debates what to do, chuckling to himself, but relents to his girlfriend, “Zahra, just move so the blueberry will stop with the tantrum.”

Zahra moves to the back with Five giving both Mitch and Miko weird looks. They head to the bridge to get the last glitch. The Dabney techs had just captured the glitch. But Zahra using her tech hacking skills, gets the glitches back, also accidentally freeing the glitches.

“Now it’s open season, glitches,” Miko yells as a war cry.

Zahra and Mitch stand unsteady as Miko vaults off them. Ugh, this girl, why am I dating her again? Mitch thinks but smirks at her energy before jumping into battle.

“Back off! This one’s ours.” Nameless says as the sludge dodges his punch.

Mitch does a flying kick knocking nameless away from the glitch, “you really need to chill—” Mitch grunts as he gets blasted and stuck against a pillar.

Wes scoffs, “chill out?” Barely blocking as Zahra comes down, hitting him twice with a giant hammer.

Miko and Ray are locked in a sword battle. She slashes before flipping and twirling in the air, when she lands she summons a second blade and begins dual wielding. Mitch sees his girlfriend and smiles remembering his surprise the first time she dial wielded against him and how adept she was at it. Mitch dodges an attack from Nameless and ends up bumping into Miko, who was dodging Ray. “Oi blueberry, could you be any clumsier. You’re supposed to be attacking them, not me. Try not to get in my way.” Mitch says and Miko just rolls her eyes before tackling him to the ground to avoid getting shot at.

“That makes the second time I’ve saved your British butt today. We’re sooo getting ice cream smoothies later.” She says before popping up to attack Ray. As he gets up and tosses, throwing stars at Simi.

The glitches manage to reach each other and merge. Causing the fighting amongst the techs to stop. Five manages to admit that he stole/caught pancake earlier and he releases the glitch only for it to get eaten by the sludge. The Bailey and Dabney techs decide to work together to take down the giant glitch.

“For pancake mcguffin!” Miko screams.

“For pancake!” The rest of the techs scream as they launch into battle.

“Got anything up that gauntlet besides party tricks?” Mitch asks Wes after watching Miko wield a two-handed strike. Buff unlocked tri shot the gauntlet says.

“Give this a try.”

“More buffs, less puns I already get enough of those from my girlfriend,” Mitch says.

“Ugh, please don’t tell me you expect us to bond even though I wouldn’t really mind it.” Simi says to Zahra.

“Yeah, can you stop talking? I’m trying to kick butt and look good doing it.”

“I think your butt looks great,'' Simi says, chuckling as Zahra glares at her. They both go back to shooting the glitch. Hidden achievement unlocked, Silent bond there gauntlet say. Simi and Zahra smile at each other not knowing they’re sharing the same thoughts thinking each other is cute.

The two teams managed to catch the glitch after Five and Nameless used a railgun to blast it. After it was all said and done Five apologized to Miko for not telling her. “No big deal baby seal, I've always got your back partner.” She says, throwing her arm around him.

The techs get another glitch signature and go after it. It had been a long day for them once back at HQ Five and Zahra part from Miko and Mitch to hang. He’s taking her to Geri’s store and then she’s taking him to an ice cream shop he’s never been to.

As soon as they leave, Miko pushes Mitch against the lockers. Finding themselves in a similar position to earlier.

“Twice in one day can’t say I’m shocked I know I’m irresistible,” he smirks down at her.

“You knew Five bagged that glitch and didn’t tell me.”

“Correct, princess,” Mitch says, wrapping his arms around her pulling her flush against him.

“Why?” She whines letting her head hit his chest.

“Because…I’m Mitch Williams. Now let’s go, you wanted ice cream smoothies.” He says knowing it’ll make her forgive him.

Miko squeals happily and kisses him before they pull apart and head back out to the store. Unaware of a certain tech bot watching them.

Chapter Text

After making it to the parking lot, Miko regained a bit of feeling in her limbs. To make up for her griefer attitude earlier, she told Five she’d take the van to HQ so he could go help Geri at the game store. After managing to drag herself back out of the store. She spots her boyfriend waiting for her by his car; Miko makes her way over to him and lets herself fall face-first into his chest, too weak to bring her arms up for a hug.

“What? I don’t even get a proper hug?” Mitch asks as he glances around to see if any of their coworkers were around. “Earth to Miko? Are you ok?”

“Tired,” Miko groans, not moving. “Ugh, I don’t wanna go home. Too many people”

Mitch remembers Miko mentioning that her brother and sisters were all having various people over for the ridiculous amount of activities the Kubota household seems to manage. “So my place then? For a few hours yeah?” He asks, Miko nods her head. The drive to Mitch’s apartment was silent as Miko was drifting off to sleep in the passenger seat. Mitch chuckles as they arrive. “Alright, we’re here come on princess.” He says waiting for her to wake up. Miko groans as she gets out of the car. Walking into his building, Mitch thinks about the few times Miko has been here since they started dating. Of course, it was only after he had introduced himself to her parents he was raised with manners after all. Once they get inside, Miko faceplants onto his couch as Mitch goes to the kitchen and fills the dinosaur mugs she had surprised him with one day with tea. Setting them down on the side table as he turns on the tv he forces her to sit up properly. He asks her why she’s so out of it today. She responds and he tells her about his.

“So you’re telling me that you were the cause of the code green epic level glitch we fought today,” Mitch says as Miko sits in between his legs laying her back to his chest.

“I can’t believe I missed the Dabney Bailey team-up. And oooh, your hands are blessed by the gamer gods,'' she says, letting her body go lax as Mitch massages her shoulders.

“Oh yea, and Nameless knows about us,” he says casually.

“What?!” Miko says, sitting up and groaning in pain before laying back against him.

Mitch recounts what happened.

After the glitch was contained, Nameless spots Mitch. Jogging over to him. “Hey, I wanted to ask you why you’re so mean to your girlfriend.”

Mitch is shocked and doesn’t know how to respond to such a question, especially since he’s barely spoken to the guy a handful of times since their first meeting. “What? I don’t have a girlfriend.” He says, pulling Nameless further away from the ears of other techs.

“The short girl with purple hair, Miko, right? She seems pretty cool and Ray keeps talking about how awesome she is when they co-op. I’ve seen you guys in Dabney. It took me a while after we met to recognize you guys outta uniform.”

He hadn’t realized someone had seen them in Dabney on their date to the retro arcade. “Okay okay, we are dating, but we’re just keeping it quiet. And Miko knows I don’t mean most of the stuff I say around the others. Believe me, she gives as good as she gets whenever the two of us get into a row.”

Nameless seems to accept this and tells Mitch to let him know the next time they’re in Dabney so he can kick their butts. Mitch scoffs and accepts his contract information through his gauntlet. As he walks back to his Hinobi truck, he sees Zahra talking to Simi. They haven’t noticed him and he overhears the conversation.

“Look Z, I'm not gonna beat around the bush here. I like you and I’m pretty sure you also like me or at the very least think I’m cute. We should go out sometime to get some boba or maybe check out that new retro arcade in Dabney.” Simi says to Zahra.

Zahra is obviously flustered and babbles out a yes. Simi tells her she’ll text her and heads back toward her teammates.

“Stepping out on the blueberry, huh?”

“Wha— Mitch, I no oh nerds, why did I say yes I’m dating Five.”

“Zahra chill I’m just messing with you.”

“No, no, I'm the worst. I should've discussed this with Five first. It’s just that Simi is so cute, but like a different cute from Five, and ugh.” Zahra hits her head on the truck.

Mitch rolls his eyes if she gets brain damage her little boyfriend will be upset meaning an upset Miko. Plus, she’s one of your only friends who miraculously puts up with you, another voice in his head says. He grabs her shoulder to get her attention and stops her. “Zahra, that blueberry is head over heels for you. Plus he already knows you’re bi so just talk to him. Maybe he won’t mind a poly relationship and if he does, then it’s his loss. You're great support to have on a mission, you’ve got the best hacking skills in Bailey, and you’re a good person.”

Zahra calms down a bit and smiles, thanking Mitch.

“Don’t mention it like ever because I’ll deny everything.” He says seriously.

She laughs and gets in the truck so they can head back to HQ with everyone else.

Mitch finishes telling Miko how he and Zahra talked a bit more before parting ways.

“Huh, I guess they were flirting kinda back during the whole pancake mcguffin situation. And Zahra has invited Simi to a few of our raids,” Miko says thoughtfully.

“Yea, but you also invited Ray to your raids and it’s not like you want to date her.”

Miko tilts her head back and smirks at him.

“MIKO!”

“I’m just kittens. You know I love ya, you big griefer.” She says while making kissy faces at him.

Mitch scoffs but kisses the top of her head. “So you got completely obliterated by this Mike kid at your own game.”

“I can feel you smirking from here. Not cool, Williams, not cool.” Miko frowns before smirking “his brother now has the high score on hyunjoo, grahams maze, and allora, and oh wait isn’t that one of your games.” She says, tilting her head back to look up at him.

“Oh, piss off. I’ll just beat his score next time I’m at the arcade.” He grumbles as he releases her shoulders and starts playing with her hair.

Miko yawns and tries her best to focus on whatever reality garbage Mitch has playing on his tv.

“Just go to sleep, sugar plum I’ll wake you in an hour or so.” He says as he starts twisting her hair. He hears Miko make a sound of acceptance as she closes her eyes. Her breathing evens out and he knows she’s asleep. By the time he wakes up Miko he’s watched two episodes of heart isle and finished styling her hair into a crown braid.

Chapter Text

Miko was doing her boredom dance when Nix and Zahra showed up. Nix shows them his pixel- crafting skills with a mini of Five. Miko and Zahra both coo over it.

“I definitely want a mini Five,” Zahra says.
“Why you’ve already got a real one,” Miko teases as Nix explains the crafting specialty.

“Ugh, just what we need.” Mitch interrupts.” Mini noobs. Well, while you were all here fooling around, I was out crushing the daily achievement board. Again.”

“Ugh, I don't get it, man. Even on a slow day, this guy manages to score a boatload of xp.” Miko says to the group while watching her boyfriend walk past after uploading his xp for the day. Mitch catches her staring from the corner of his eye. He smirks at her and sends her a message on her gauntlet.

She discreetly checks it as Five complains to Zahra and Nix. ‘Up for Hinobi smash later and ramen?’ Miko smiles and replies, ‘I’m up for kicking your butt, also I want gyoza too.’ Just as she sends it Mitch walks over to them chuckling. “I’ll tell you the secret, kiddies.” He says draping his arms over Miko and Five. He pulls Miko a fraction closer to him and inwardly chuckles as her frown turns to a blush. “I’m Mitch Williams. A-boosh!”

The board lights up alerting them of a new mission. Five and Miko call dibs rushing to the console.

Mitch just scoffs and turns around to leave. “Mmm, so desperate,” but he stops after hearing Five read out the address. He quickly rushes forward sniping the mission from them.

“Hey, bro what's your deal?” Five asks.

“That house is my turf.” Mitch says getting in his face. He can feel Miko frowning behind him. I’ll explain to her later, he thinks.

“Your turf? You're not even on duty.” Complains Five.

“When it comes to that house, I'm always on duty,” Mitch says before Bitt tells them they can't take the mission. He grumbles as he heads to Phil’s office hoping to talk him into unlocking the mission. After talking with Phil, Mitch is a little thankful to his boss for letting him go through with this, as he opens the door he sees his girlfriend and her partner not even trying to hide the fact that they were eavesdropping
.
“Hey” “Sup”

Mitch ignores them and has to resist the urge to turn around as he hears Miko yelling about dibs. He gets in his Hinobi truck and drives off. Ugh, first I have to deal with them, now a Hinobi grunt, perma- banned, also Miko will definitely have something to say. As he’s stopped at a light he groans hearing his girlfriend’s voice.
“You hear that, Mitch? We’re your shadows.” Miko shouts over Five's monologue to her boyfriend and blows him a kiss when Five isn’t looking in her direction.

Mitch finds it hard to stay mad at his girlfriend, but it comes back as he remembers what’s at stake. “Bug off, griefers.” Mitch says taking a side street and leaving the other two techs behind. Hehe lost em, Mitch chuckles to himself before Five and Miko portal their truck on top of his. Sighing heavily Mitch gets out of his truck. “I told you, this place is,” Mitch gets cut off by Miko.

“We know it's your turf.” She says recklessly hanging off the truck door. She giggles, knowing Mitch is probably torn between worrying about her falling and his truck. She hops down.

Mitch crosses his arms, “I don't expect your blueberry brains to understand princess, but this place is important to me.”

Miko takes a second to look at Mitch trying to figure out what this is really about, she's seen him worked up before, but never like this. “Maybe we should”, she's cut off by Five.

“We understand it's your xp farm and you wanna keep it to yourself. Boom understanding.” Five says throwing his arms out for effect before holding his fist out to Miko. She fist bumps him back weakly.

“Ugh! I don't have time for this, so let's just skip to the cutscene. What do you want to just go away? XP? Powerups? I’ll even give you hair tips, which you really need.”

“Sorry, hermano. Better get used to it. We’re your backup.”

“Hmm, what a shame. In that case.. I DON'T NEED BACKUP!” Mitch yells slamming the gate.
Five and Miko manage to sneak in and find the glitch in its root form. They hear a scream and Miko instantly panics, yelling Mitch’s name. She takes off and pushes through the door with Five right on her heels. She and Five are both confused at the scene before them. Mitch pushes them out into the hall and they continue arguing, Miko being less vocal than normal as she watches Mitch’s reactions. The glitch appears and they all go after it, Mitch and Five fighting and shoving each other to be first, Miko kicks them both through the door into Speck's room. They all try to catch the glitch, but the limited space has them bumping into each other. Mitch bumps into Miko but catches her by the waist before releasing her and blocking the glitch’s path to Speck.

“Through the window.” Five says rushing to open it. “Miko it's time for parkour.”

Miko smirks and winks at her boyfriend before rushing past him and diving out the window.

“What is she doing? This is madness!” Mitch says watching his girlfriend plummet.

“You're wrong, Mitch.” Five says while creating platforms for Miko. “This is teamwork.”

Miko manages to cut the glitch off but it heads back to Five and Mitch who are fighting over the shot. The glitch gets past them and now they're searching the house.

“Ugh, where do all these cords go?” Miko frustratingly asks from the ground where she tripped.
Mitch unconsciously reacts and reaches a hand out to pull her up which she takes and keeps hold of for a few extra moments; before Five speaks up asking about a plan. They set up a mouse trap in hopes of catching the glitch accidentally leading the glitch to a power generator. Five speaks optimistically knowing they can catch it, but Mitch sighs and sits down. Telling the two younger techs that it’s hopeless.

“Dude you’re not giving up. You never give up.” Miko says forcing her boyfriend to stand after listening to him being slightly self-deprecating, she pats him off, fixes his jacket and runs her fingers through his hair “you’re a robot, you’re a rock you're Mitch…Williams?”

“I guess the Furious Four does have a fourth player.” Five says as Miko fixes the poster in the room.

“This is your room Mitch?” She asks, looking closer at all the pictures of her boyfriend and the rest of the Furious Four.

“Yeah, used to be. Moved out a year ago to focus on work. Now, I mostly just come by to check on the family.” Mitch says not looking at his girlfriend.

“Wait so when you call Mitch ‘bruv’, you mean he's your actual..” Five starts and Mitch cuts him off.

“Meet my sister, Audrey, and my brothers, Ruf and Speck.” Mitch says giving Miko a knowing look before he starts arguing with his siblings who had come out of their rooms.

“Oh nerds!” Miko and Five yells as the cables come to life around them catching and dragging them through the floor.

She’ll be fine, she's capable enough. Mitch thinks before hearing them yell for help. He turns from his sibling to see Miko pulling herself up from the hole only to be dragged back down by the cables. “Miko!” He yells now worried.

“Don’t they need your help?” Audrey asks.

Mitch scoffs making a few more comments about how they always make it in the end and don’t need him. Leading to his siblings revealing that they keep breaking tech because they need and want him around. Mitch is pulled from the moment by hearing Miko and Five call his name saying they need him.

“Come on! We’ve taken on much tougher glitches than this.” Five says.

“Only not with our hands tied behind our backs.” Miko says struggling in the cables.

“Ha typical hanging around when there's work to be done. Although this is a good look for you.” Mitch says and winks at Miko, causing her to blush. “Come on team.” Mitch says smiling as his siblings join him. He sees Miko is fidgeting where she's tied up next to Five. Mitch manages to free them with his siblings' help and they all take down the glitch. And just in time for the tech specialist to kick down the door.

“What are you techs doing here? I was sent to issue these consumers a perma-ban.”

“Try it and I’ll wipe the smile off your avatar.” Mitch says threatening the specialist. Miko and Five rush in front of him.

“Okay, okay,” Five chuckles nervously, “Now just hang on for a sec, guys.” Five says not noticing how Miko is pressed against Mitch with her hand on his chest. He also doesn’t see the soft look she gives him or how Mitch actually relaxes against her the slightest bit. “I think there must be some kind of mistake. This house is totally clean.”

“Uh, well of glitch material. See for yourself.” Miko chimes in still holding her boyfriend who's now playing with the ends of her hair to help himself calm down.

The tech specialist leaves and Mitch's siblings take off their headsets seeing how the house really looks. Mitch tells them they have to clean up and take care of their equipment.

“But when will we get to see ya?” Audrey asks.

“Aww they miss you. For some reason.” Five says behind Mitch causing him to glare at the younger tech as Miko giggles to herself.

“Think Phil can handle his number one tech taking some time off?” Miko asks her arms behind her head as she nudges her boyfriend.

“Well that's why I have you guys for backup, don’t I?” Mitch smirks looking at her.

After they cleaned up the house a bit, Miko and Five do a few rounds of gaming with Mitch and his siblings. Five realizes how late it’s gotten. “Oh no my abuela is totally gonna kill me. I’m supposed to help with the dinner rush. Come on Miko.''

“Aww Five I’m totally in the zone though.”

“I’ll drop off your precious partner. She doesn’t look like she’s gonna move until her xp is completely gone." Mitch says as he comes back into the room with sodas for himself and his brothers. He watches Miko and holds back his laughter as his sister kicks her butt.

“Really thanks Mitch. Later Meeks,” he yells exiting through the front door.

“Bye Five” Miko yells her focus still on the screen as she’s currently getting thrashed by Audrey. Ruf and Speck watch cheering on their sister as Mitch walks back over.

“You’re gonna lose.” He tells her watching the characters fight. Mitch can't help, but let a small smile grace his lips as he enjoys seeing his siblings and Miko get along.

“Thank you Mr. Number One Gamer now if you have anything that would be helpful instead of snark now would be the time.”

Mitch just rolls his eyes and pushes her forward a bit so he can sit behind her. Miko shifts forward before leaning back against him. He kisses her temple as he pulls all her hair to one side; he starts braiding it while telling her a couple moves and combos here and there to help her win against his sister. Speck is the first to notice and nudges Ruf. Ruf kicks Audrey and she briefly takes her eyes off the screen to look at the scene next to her. Thoroughly distracted by seeing her youngest brother practically cuddling this girl she just met. It's obvious to all the siblings that Miko and Mitch were very comfortable around each other. Miko ends up winning and whoops loudly as Mitch just chuckles and tells her to stay still. The two are so wrapped up in their own world they don’t notice Mitch's siblings staring until Audrey speaks.

“Right, what's all this then?” Audrey asks, not even caring that she lost.

Mitch freezes, dropping Miko’s hair as Miko turns to Audrey. He curses inwardly so used to just keeping the secret from his coworkers combined with the fact that this used to be his home he let his guard down and relaxed with Miko.

“Looks to me like our baby bruv has got a girlfriend,” Ruf teases.

Speck smirks and Miko can’t tell if Mitch stole it from him or vice versa, “so when did this happen? And how could you not tell us?”

Miko holds back a smile as she feels her boyfriend sigh into her hair. He's on his own for this one. She thinks.

“I’ve been busy,” Mitch pouts, keeping his face partially buried in her hair.

“Yea obviously with ya girlfriend you didn't bother to tell us about.” Speck adds.

“So out with it? How did you two get together?” Ruf asks, staring at his brother and enjoying his discomfort.

Speck laughs. “You mean how did he get with her? She's way too cool for our baby bruv?”

“All good questions, but I'm the oldest so mine first. So what is it that you see in our little bruvtha anyway?” Audrey asks, looking at Miko.

Mitch stays quiet and actually wants to hear her answer. For as much time as they spend together they’ve never spoken about what attracted them to each other besides what Miko dubs as the little mermaid incident.

“Well uhh he’s actually really smart and funny; even though he acts like a jerk most of the time. Behind all that pomp and sneering he’s actually very thoughtful. And he’s got serious skills and can actually be helpful and cute when he actually smiles and,”

Mitch covers her mouth with his hand feeling embarrassed as Miko describes all the things about him she likes.

“So your turn bruv.” Audrey says, now directing her gaze at Mitch.

“Whut? Well uh,” Mitch debates with himself before sighing after seeing Miko give him puppy dog pouts. He turns her head away from him. “She’s amazing, she gives it her all on whatever’s got her focus at the moment, she’s stupidly loyal and strong literally. Her skills are wicked and she keeps me on my toes and yea that’s enough.” He notices how his siblings are looking at him. He goes back to finishing up Miko’s braid. He sees the tips of her ears are red and smiles at the thought of the blush on her face that he can’t see.

“I see you’ve found a new guinea pig,” Speck says smiling at his brother and how at ease he seems with Miko.

“Huh?” Miko looks back at Mitch.

“The hair. Mitch always does Auds hair.” Ruf says, “he even shapes us up too, but mostly Aud since she’s a disaster.”

“Yea once Mitch showed he could do it she gave up completely; good thing too she’s a nightmare with clippers,” Specks says dodging the controller Audrey threw at him.

“So that’s why you’re so good at hair.” Miko says kissing Mitch’s cheek.

He can hear the smile in her voice, but Mitch just shrugs as he finishes.

“Nother round Miko?” Ruf asks, pushing Audrey from her spot.

“Bring it on! Prepare to get ME-KO’D!”

Mitch hugs Miko tighter, smiling into the crown of her head. Not believing his life right now. He managed to not only keep his sibling from getting perma-ban, but he also made up with them and now his girlfriend and his sibling are gaming together. Definitely not how he expected the day to go, but he wouldn’t have it any other way.

Chapter Text

Miko and Five had split up after everything had been resolved with BITT. Normally they’d hang out, but Five had a call scheduled with his dad, Miko told him to tell his dad hi from her as she knew how much those calls meant to him. As she was logging that their van was bought back in she saw her boyfriend portal into the garage to do the same. Smirking to herself she checked to see if anyone else was around, finding no one she summoned Ally. Hugging her big chic-a-dee before pointing at Mitch. Ally coos before taking off in his direction. Mitch was just finishing logging out when he heard the clawed steps coming towards him. 

“Hey! Woah woah wait!” He says not being prepared to be assaulted by a heavy mass of feathers, he braced for an impact that never came. Instead, Ally stopped an inch in front of him and licked the side of his face. “MIKO! What have I told you about glitch germs!” He yells as Ally coos and demands pets. He gives in as he hears his girlfriend's laughter. “You owe me for this.” 

“Aw come on it was funny,” she say hugging Ally before sending her back. “Anyway, you’ll never believe what happened today. It was crazy we tried to help Phil by helping BITT, but things got explodey and it was super weird because BITT had hidden files and,”

“It’s amazing you two still have jobs at all,” Mitch interrupts her. Only she and Five could somehow get swept up into the weirdest situations , he thinks while looking fondly at his excitable girlfriend.

“Hey! We’re great employees besides Phil loves us.” Miko pretends to take offense to her boyfriend's words.

Mitch rolls his eyes, “you know since you two have started working here we’ve had more incidents in a HQ, if I was in charge I’d” 

“Do nothing because you like my smooches too much,” Miko smirks and puckers her lips.

Mitch chuckles and gives her a quick peck on the lips. It really was unfair. She knew he’d never pass up an opportunity for a kiss. “I’m dropping you off at home right?”

“Ugh, yeah Geoffrey has a ballet recital later and mom wants us all to go over as a family.” 

“Speaking of family, my siblings and I are doing a furious four thing at vidfest. Do you wanna come? Because we’re guests we get extra passes and”

“Done deal baby seal of course I’ll come. It’ll be so fun. I’ve never been to vidfest before, the tickets are always crazy expensive, but I’m glad things are working out between you guys.” Miko hugged her boyfriend tightly.

Mitch was less worried about the sign of affection as most techs didn’t hang around the garage at this time. He hugged her back, having decided a long time ago to never turn down a hug from her. Even as bone-crushing as some could be the warmth and caring practically poured out of her when she did. He stiffened slightly hearing the familiar whirring sound of a tech bot. “Alright sugar plum let’s go. We’ve got company.” 

“Nuh uh a few more seconds. Besides it’s just BITT, I swear you’re super paranoid for no reason. We aren’t gonna see each other all weekend. I'm not gonna see that beautifully annoying face until Monday so I’m charging up my Mitch battery.” 

Mitch can’t help but laugh as if they don’t text and video call whenever they have a free moment, but he understands. He’d be busy preparing with his siblings and he knew she had plans with Five as the best friends had felt it had been too long since they’d hung out just the two of them.

“Ok, now I’m good.” She smiled brightly at him.

He was always amazed she didn’t hurt her cheeks with how wide her smiles were. But it was just one of the things he adored about her, especially the way her eyes lit up when she looked at him. The pair walked to Mitch's car. Occasionally techs could park their own vehicles in the garage if the parking lot was full. He couldn’t keep the smile off his face as Miko held his hand. It had become such a source of comfort to him when she touched him. As they got into the car she turned on their shared playlist. It was crazy how far they’d come. From him thinking she was a noisy chaotic newbie her basically declaring he was a dingleberry and her mortal enemy. No one would believe that they were together, at first they were both a bit worried about how everyone would react, but his siblings knew and so did her family. They got along well so after that they didn’t really care. Also nameless, but he turned out to be pretty cool about it. So did the groovy smoothie staff. Minus Antonio, who he knew, still fancied Miko. Now they were just having fun sneaking around. It was actually pretty funny how they hadn’t been caught yet. 

“Oh right before I forget here,” Miko takes some stickers out of her pocket and places them all around on Mitch’s dashboard.

He just chuckles, he was surprised to learn she had other hobbies outside of gaming, but he had kept every sticker and pin she had given him. These ones looked to be just original designs rather than ones of game characters like the ones in his work locker. “Do you wanna design something for our vidfest appearance. It would be nice to give something away.” It was one of the things he and his siblings were discussing. He and Audrey, Ruf and Speck were fine with just the vidfest merch with their name on it. Audrey thought it would be cool to have something to share that showed the 4 of them since he hadn’t gamed with them in a while.

“Really! You want me to make furious four merch?!” Miko was shocked but also felt tingly at the thought that her boyfriend thought her designs were good enough for something like this. 

“Of course, we’ll pay you and get whatever supplies you need.”

“You think they're good enough? What if they turn out bad or your fans think they’re lame?” For as confident as she was with her gaming skills she was pretty insecure about her art. Her mom never really saw the point or supported it the way she did with all her sibling's activities. Her dad told her it was fine as long as she was happy, but Miko usually only crafted in her room and designed stuff in her room.

“Love I have every button, pin and sticker you’ve given me, I wouldn’t keep them if they were bad and I’d definitely tell you if I thought they were horrible. After all, I’m Mitch Williams and I only deserve the best.” He smirks and glances over at her.

Miko laughed knowing it was true her boyfriend, while still a good person, wasn't one to spare someone’s feelings or not let them know how he felt about something he didn’t like. Like when her dad randomly decided to try going vegan, she had shared a bit of her lunch with him and he didn’t hesitate to spit it out and claim she was trying to poison him. She could only laugh at her boyfriend's dramatics as she hadn’t thought it was that bad, but also it wasn’t going anywhere on her top foods list. “Ok I’ll do it, I’m so excited I can’t wait!” She said practically vibrating in her seat. 

“We can get what you need after our shifts on Monday.” 

Miko nodded and cheered loudly in her excitement; she hadn’t realized they were already on her street. Mitch pulled into her driveway and she could already hear the chaos in her house of her mother trying to get everyone ready. “I’ll see you, Monday Williams.” 

“Same to you princess, wish Geoffrey luck for me.”

Miko opened the car door, but stopped and smiled quickly, leaning back in and kissing him. She loved how much he got along with her younger brothers, they thought he was the coolest guy ever and always asked when he was coming back. She knew the kiss caught him off guard and laughed as she quickly dipped out of his car.

Mitch chuckled to himself and watched her go inside. He was definitely glad he had her in his life, and to think this all started because of smoothies.