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al haitham and you frowned at the glass, eyes piercing and brows furrowed. your focus unmatched, your gaze capable of breaking down even the most hardened. a true warrior's glare.
and yet, when the adorable little plush fell out of the claw machine's grasp, you fell apart and whined. you pushed your cheek on the glass, sliding your hand down and dramatically reciting about how ‘our love was never meant to be’.
haitham chuckled at your misery, teasing you and rubbing his hand on your head. “it's not the end of the world.”
you put your hands on your hips and complained how it must be a scam, how it was impossible.
“well, let me give it a try..”
he leaned down to swipe his card for a try. you commented on how you didn't expect him to try and get it, since he usually doesn't like those styles of plushies.
“it's for you, dumbass.” he sarcastically scoffed to you, grabbing hold of the joystick.
“let's see.. if we account for the trajectory of the plush, as well as the pull and grasp of the friction created from the claws—”
the words definitely flew over your head, mostly because you couldn't help but stare at his gentle face while he's concentrating, reciting some nerdy shit.
the ‘thud’ against the bottom of the machine brought you back into reality. al haitham bent down beside you to reach into prize space. you had to resist the urge to run your hand up his undercut or ruffle his hair while you had the chance, but you knew he wouldn't mind if you attempted it at home.
he stood back up, leaning closer to you and handing the plush to you, watching you closely to see your reaction.
he carefully observed your laugh and smile, his eyes got lost staring at your lips while your words slipped through his head.
seeing his dreamy expression, his hands layered over yours while you held the reward he worked just for you, knowing what he wanted. you smirked and planted a soft kiss on his cheek, and though he was still trying to be smug and cool, you could tell you hit the mark.
you'd think he'd be satisfied, but he leaned closer and tapped the side of his lips with a grin, eager for more of your praise.
you gave a short sarcastic scoff, commenting on how you'd indulge his needy self. when you leaned forward, alhaitham insisted on beating you to it, rushing to feel your breath against.
“your heart rate is increasing, how sweet you get so jittery when with me..”
he slipped his hand around your waist, guiding you to another claw machine despite your flushed face. we all know that he just wanted to win another game to impress you and get more ‘reward’, though.
“why don't we go for round two?”
xiao saw you eyeballing a claw machine filled with tons of cute stuffed animals and figures through the glass pane. when he felt a tug while walking holding hands, he tilted his confused face to look at your face.
you realized him staring, and you apologized, catching up to him about to walk away. in turn, he squeezed your hand and pretty much dragged you into the arcade.
. . .
after going through and winning every game you even glance at, though you didn't want to admit to it because of guilt, but you had a lot of fun.
every time you laughed, smiled or concentrated while playing a game, xiao looked at you with such painful adoration.
when you noticed, he would turn away and blush while you chuckled and smiled. and you always noticed him looking at you.
standing outside the arcade with a bag of fun prizes, conversing and looking at xiao's hung head while he listened to every word you said. he fidgeted with the hand of the big plush rabbit you held on your chest.
“what will you name it?”
you stopped, thinking about it for a second while xiao awaited your answer. you came up with an answer, confidently saying that you'll name it after him.
you got nervous when xiao had such a complicated face. you questioned his peculiar expression, worried asking if he didn't like it.
“no– nothing of the sort! it's.. good.” he stumbled on his words, staring through the eyes of your plush.
you two walked a few blocks headed home, until xiao suddenly and hesitantly stopped in his tracks.
he looked you in the eyes and held your hand, tapping his foot. he leaned in, carefully studying your expression and taking a breath in preparation.
“be honest with me.. did you enjoy that? are you having fun? i want you to be happy.”
“why–? because.. i smile when you do.”
childe treated you to a fun date at the local arcade, a place where you two go to think and relax. you two loved to compete, always getting pumped up to get more points than the other. in the end, you two would share your points and leave with heaps of cheap candy no matter who won.
one time, after a particularly rough day, childe took you out for a treat, he can't understand why he gets so sad when he sees you in stress, but he’d still do anything to see you cheer up either way, after all.
going for your favorite drinks, laughing at bad jokes all night long, you had started to feel a bit better. you and Childe spotted a fun arcade game from afar. a knowing smirk shows between you two, dashing off giggling to reach the game first.
it was one of those zombie shooter games with two crappy plastic guns and graphics from 2005. perfect. childe picked up the red gun, nudging your side and smiling, waiting for you to slide your card into the game.
you couldn't notice it, focusing on trying to put a very slippery arcade card in the game slot. maybe it was your cursing, or your adorable face, but childe felt a twist in his chest.
when you finally started the game, you were ahead of him in points by far. a surprise, saying that you two were always evenly matched. but i think we both know why he's so distracted. you teased him, bragging about how you'd win for the third time in a row.
“we'll see about that!” he smirked, laughing with you.
your victory was nigh, but childe wouldn't go down without a fight. he had to make up for his losses at the start of the game. a proper distraction was sure to save his pride.
he quickly turned his head and planted a kiss on your cheek, not so fairly making you fall behind and lose at the very last second, just by a hair.
while childe whooped and celebrated, he froze when he saw you staring out at nothing, holding the cheek that he pecked. seeing your flushed face quickly made him flushed as well.
he instantly started backtracking and apologizing, crowding around to make sure you're okay.
you broke out into laughter, clutching your stomach and playfully punching his shoulder. the corner of childe’s mouth pulled up upon hearing your giggle, pausing before breaking out into another fit of laughter.
you told childe that there was just one more game you wanted to play, dragging him into a secluded corner.
before you could even start to tease and flirt with him, his eyes grew wide with anticipation. you cocked an eyebrow, asking what's wrong.
“i– i think i love you!” he blurts out. his hands quickly covered his mouth in embarrassment, blinking blankly.
he quickly turned around, covering his face in his hands while mumbling to himself, slowly sliding his back down the wall, legs shaking trying to stay standing up.
you sighed at the pure cluelessness, amazed how he'd been oblivious at your subtle flirts all this time. what would it hurt to tease him a little bit?
you pull his waist in until your lips barely graze over his ear, whispering about he's a ‘fucking idiot’. childe's hairs stand up on himself, but he only shyly whispers something back.
“... do that again."
…
you two left the building, walking down the sidewalk and casually talking on the way home.
childe lowered his head, rubbing the marks on his neck with a flushed smile while you ate candy like nothing happened.
diluc knew a bit of guitar. he would play a few songs here and there for you, and only you. he's too embarrassed to play in front of anyone else. plus, he could never turn down your request. on occasion, you'd go into the local arcade and talk for hours while playing games.
a few hours in your arcade run, you dragged diluc by the arm over to a guitar hero game, insisting you play with him.
he carefully positioned your hands on the blue guitar and took up the red guitar on the left. you focused and tried to get your fingers comfortable on the plastic fake strings.
“which song would you like? there's a very wide selection..” he cycled through the songs on the ‘easy’ difficulty.
you excitedly pointed to one of the rock songs you'd listened to before, getting pumped to play it's melody.
but alas, while diluc made a full combo, you had only gotten about 4 notes right. maybe part of that attributes to you staring at his concentrated face, hands flawlessly scoring over the strings. you always thought he looked his best when focused.
you complained about the big fatt ‘f’ score plastered on your side of the screen, to which diluc simply chuckled.
“here, let me give you some pointers.” diluc selected single player mode and put his guitar down, walking behind you.
“stay still for a second..”
diluc’s chin hovered over your shoulder while he placed his hands over yours, guiding your hands to demonstrate playing a note.
his chest pressed on your back, his muscular arms comfortably closing you in. you felt his warm hand on yours, twitching, but quickly relaxed to his touch.
you definitely knew your face was flushed, and diluc definitely noticed which made him flushed.
you played a song like this, following his advice until you could play by yourself. he let go and let you play the notes, grazing his hands against your shoulders in excitement while staring at your eagerness to see the combo go up one by one.
you jumped in enthusiasm when you completed the song with only a few mistakes, already distracted from being so close. diluc let go and congratulated you.
you put your hands up for a high five with a grin, to which diluc reciprocated. but perhaps by instinct or want, his fingers locked with yours, unwilling to let go.
you stared at his subtle red cheeks and agape mouth. and he stared at your confused expression, blankly blinking.
a few seconds had passed before diluc realized what he did, hastily letting go and subtlety turning his face away with crossed arms, playing it cool.
he cleared his throat. “well– would you want to.. try another game?”
you walked across the arcade with him and continued your chat, feeling his pinky just barely brushing against yours. so badly you wanted to just take his hand, so badly you wanted to hug him.
you stopped on one side of an air hockey table, eyeing down diluc, ready for battle. you dared him, saying that if you win he has to take you out for drinks.
“with you? that doesn't sound too bad.”
ayato is definitely overworked by his own pressure in his position, but he would always try to put as much time for you as he can. One of your favorite date spots was the arcade, as it's open late in the night and you can get good quality time with him.
many hours passed while you and your boyfriend played games, walking around with a mountain of prizes shared by bags weaved on your arms, though ayato carried the most bags.
before you two exited the arcade, chatting and laughing, ayato abruptly grabbed your hand and dragged you into a photo booth dropping all the bags outside the door. his smug grin was something you couldn't resist.
“come, let's take photos together!” he chuckled at your confused face, you two sitting in the cramped booth.
only the top of your head showed on the digital preview, while ayato's face showed clearly.
“well, that's not good..”
you sighed and gave up, unable to reach the tall camera. your boyfriend didn't give up as easily, though.
next thing you knew, you were sat on top of ayato's knee with your hands on his shoulder. he put a hand on your waist, balancing while reaching out to the machine.
“isn't that better? i can sew your pretty face now.” he answered. “remember to smile~”
you chuckled and playfully nudged him while the timer counted down. you two did a serious photo with a simple grin for the first.
click.
you closed your eyes and put a hand on ayato's chin and kissed his cheek while he playfully poked yours.
click.
next you held up a half heart, looking at ayato to return. he did, but wasn't looking at the camera for the photo.
click.
before you could pose for the next photo, ayato turned to you and held his hand on your back, holding the back of your hair, leaning his face into yours.
click.
your back leaned against the side of the booth, legs propped on the opposite wall and hands clenched onto the cloth of the back of ayato’s shirt.
you quietly called ayato an impatient bastard in between kisses, reveling in his desperate expression for more of you.
you took the initiative back, pushing a hand on his back and holding ayato's hands above his head, holding his chin up and leaning in, almost about to kiss him–
click.
you both jolted back up, remembering the camera still exists. your perplexed faces watched the crappy animation of the decal selection showing your photos.
the last one cut off half of your face while ayato's hands flew in the air when you pushed him to the wall. the rest were pretty cute, at least. you smirked and giggled selecting the valentine's day themed background.
you exited the booth on your side, holding out a princely hand for your boyfriend. he chuckled and held onto you, stepping down and weaving his fingers into you.
he leaned down and picked the photos spat out by the machine, still warm. you leaned into ayato to look at the photo, joking about how he looked stupid (in love).
“and you look quite lovely, i can't deny.” he held the side of your shoulder and kissed your head. he put one of the photos into his pocket for safekeeping, putting the other in your hand.
“was that enjoyable? did you have fun?” he squeezed your hand and gave a slightly serious expression.
“it was? good, good. now, how about we go home and rest?”