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“Why are we here again?” Langa asked, leaning back in his chair.
Reki sighed, shooting his boyfriend a look. “You know why we’re here. We’re being supportive friends. Cherry’s been supportive of us, so it’s only fair that we be supportive back, ya know?” Though, Langa did have a point--sitting around and waiting for the event to begin was torture. Joe had wandered off somewhere, leaving the two of them to sit alone. Which wasn’t a bad thing, usually, but usually they were alone alone, and being alone meant that no one was around to be bothered by them… and vice versa.
The blue-haired boy next to him shifted in his seat, turning to face Reki. “Why couldn’t we just watch online like everyone else and save the trouble of hav--”
“Because we gave you tickets, that’s why.” Joe grumbled, taking a seat next to Langa. He passed over a bucket of popcorn to Reki, as well as two drinks for the boys. “Look, not everyone gets invited to these things you know. Miya would’ve loved to be here but he’s not allowed to skip school, unlike you two.”
Reki stuck his tongue out at Joe, before grabbing a handful of popcorn and eating it. “Our moms are just cooler than his.” Langa nodded in agreement. “‘Sides, we’re not missing anything important. Even though it’s a little boring, this is still way better than school, right Langa?” he nudged the boy beside him.
“Yeah, way better,” he hastily agreed, smiling at the older man. “Thanks for the food.”
Joe rolled his eyes and leaned forward, resting his arms on the back of the seat in front of him. “You guys just wait until this gets going--you’ll be so entertained by it you won’t even think about leaving again.”
“Hah, yeah. Ok.” Reki scoffed, pressing his knee against Langa’s. “We’ll see.”
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Don’t you just love it when you’re right? Joe smirked to himself as he watched the two teens.
Langa and Reki were screaming at the top of their lungs, all boredom forgotten.
The tournament had started only 10 minutes ago, and the boys were already caught up in the energy of the crowd, watching as the two robots in the ring tried to smash each other to pieces and avoid getting smashed themselves.
BattleBots had that effect on people-- you didn’t really get it until you saw it for yourself. And seeing it in person was a whole different experience than watching it online or on the TV. Joe had felt much the same, when Kaoru had first introduced him to the sport, but it had grown on him.
Kaoru’s match was up next--or Sakura, as he was called here. Joe thought it would be confusing, adding another nickname, but Kaoru had wanted to keep BattleBots separate from both his work and S. Apparently being a competitive programmer was too much for his calligraphy persona, and was too nerdy for his skate persona.
The current match ended, and Joe watched as Kaoru stepped forward, setting down KILRA into the arena. He thought the bot’s name was ridiculous, but Kaoru had refused to call it anything else, as he had adapted the code from the original CARLA and didn’t want to stray too far from his beloved AI’s name.
KILRA was sleek, dark black metal and pink LED ‘veins’ accentuating the deadly arsenal she held--spinning blades, a flipper, and probably the worst of all, her hammer. He’d seen many bots fall prey to that hammer. KILRA was unusual for a BattleBot, run mostly on Kaoru’s program rather than the man steering it himself. Kaoru still had a controller, of course, but preferred to let his technical skills speak for themselves.
The opponent today was a gigantic hunk of metal in comparison to KILRA. It had a very visible grinder built into the front of it, and a sort of detachable chain trailing something behind it. It would not be an easy one to beat.
The announcer called out the names of both the bots and the teams controlling them, and then the countdown began. 3….2….1….GO!
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Cherry watched as KILRA chased her opponent around the arena, knocking it into the walls, holding it in place over the flamethrower, and just generally being the best like he’d programmed her to be. When she was done with her opponent, there would be nothing to salvage. He would make sure of that, as he held the controller in his hand, smiling behind his mask. He waited until KILRA cornered her opponent between a wall and the crusher, and pressed the button that would be the final blow.
KILRA’s secret weapon shot out, a joint attack made of chains and a short pipe, the attack was made to tangle the other bot’s wheels and also pushed them backwards into the crusher. It worked beautifully. The announcer called out KILRA’s victory, and Cherry waved to the crowd as he retrieved his bot, holding her up for everyone to admire. His eyes darted to the stands where he knew Joe and the kids were, and he gave them a little wave.
He hadn’t been sure how the teens would like the tournament, but Joe had insisted on bringing them along, said it would be more fun with more people. He hoped his husband was right. He was sure to hear all about it soon, anyway, he thought, as he made his way out of the arena and to the backstage area for competitors.
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Langa bounced on his feet as they waited for Cherry to show up. “Having fun?” Joe asked him, smirking. He nodded enthusiastically, Reki doing the same. He nearly leapt forward when the door finally opened and the pink-haired man stepped inside.
“Ch--Sakura!” Langa exclaimed, grinning. “That was so cool--I had no idea robots could do that--and you completely destroyed the other guy--”
“Woah, Langa, slow down.” Cherry mused, looking over the two excited teens. “I take it you had fun, then?”
“Fun?!” Reki nearly shouted, throwing an arm around Langa’s shoulders. “We had the BEST time! Like, seriously dude, why didn’t we ever hear about this stuff before?! It’s so cool--like, I already have a million ideas for bot designs, I have no idea if they’re functional or not but it would be really cool--”
Langa turned to Joe, listening as Reki chattered happily to Cherry about bot designs. “Thank you,” he said softly.
“For what?” the green-haired man asked, leaning against the wall.
“For letting us tag along. It was fun. You were right.” He glanced back at Reki and Cherry, who were now sitting on the floor, KILRA between them, pointing out different functions of the bot.
“Hey, no problem, kid.” Joe grinned. “Kaoru won’t ever say it, but I can tell he’s really happy that you guys enjoyed yourselves.”
Langa nodded, and took a seat beside Reki, leaning into him.
Seems like they could add BattleBots to their list of hobbies now.
Langa didn’t mind one bit.