Chapter Text
Skwisgaar pushed open the double doors of the arcade and stepped inside, squinting his eyes as the doors shut behind him. His eyes were getting used to the sudden change of the bright Florida sun to the dark, neon lighting of the arcade. The scene in front of him was a mixture of people of all ages playing games; it was mainly the children who were running around with tickets streaming behind him. Video games really weren't Skwisgaar's thing. (Pickles had called him a grandma numerous times in the past for barely knowing how to work a computer). He would much rather be at home practicing guitar. The only reason he wasn't doing just that was because his friends, Nathan, Pickles, and Murderface had insisted they spend their weekend at the local arcade; the three boys planned to blow their paychecks on tokens and whatever food the arcade had to offer.
Skwisgaar didn't know where his friend group was, he had intentionally arrived late so he could milk the time he had at home to practice and spend as little time at the arcade as possible. Though, knowing his friends, they would plan on staying until closing. Skwisgaar stuffed his neatly manicured hands into his pant pockets as he began to walk around the arcade, occasionally stopping mid step as a child unaware of their surroundings ran past him. Skwisgaar had a scowl on his face and planned on keeping it there; he didn't need any unwanted conversations when he had personal directions to follow. Walk through the arcade, hang around with his friends, watch them make fools of themselves, that was it.
Something caught Skwisgaar's attention, causing him to stop walking; it wasn't an unattended child running into his legs this time. The objective to find his friends had been completely obliterated as soon as he saw the Dance Dance Revolution machine. It wasn't the game itself, but the person using it. He couldn't tell if the person was a boy or a girl but he was pretty sure he had seen them around school as of recently. The new foreign exchange student, a fellow Scandinavian and metal head judging by the outfits they had worn around school. Skwisgaar watched as their hair, which was just starting to touch their shoulders, flew around as they danced on the machine. Most people that Skwisgaar had seen use the DDR machine were just trying to hit the arrows, but this guy was a part of a small section of people who not only cared about the arrows but about feeling the music just as much.
The person spun around briefly which allowed Skwisgaar to catch a glimpse of their face, proving his suspicion to be correct. This was the foreign exchange student, unfortunately Skwisgaar only remembered his last name because himself and his friends had considered it to be "totally brutal" when he had been introduced to the class. Skwisgaar's legs moved almost on instinct towards the machine, the phrase "gravitational pull" came to mind as he felt himself get closer. Skwisgaar tried to force himself to look relaxed, leaning against a nearby machine and watching him. Unfortunately for him, his elbow rested on a button which caused a loud noise to come from the machine. Skwisgaar pushed himself away from it immediately, surprised by the sudden sound. As he stumbled forward he heard something that sounded like a giggle, immediately feeling mortified.
Skwisgaar swung his head towards the sound, he could've sworn he heard something crack. There stood Toki, leaning against the hand railing of the machine with one leg crossed over the other. He had on a Venom shirt (the metal band not the marvel character) and faded camo pants tucked into black boots. His arms were adorned with a mixture of leather bracelets, beaded bracelets, and silly bands. It briefly distracted Skwisgaar from the scarring on his arms.
Skwisgaar was pulled out of his trance when the DDR enthusiast spoke. "You wants to play?"
"Ah- I.. no." For the first time in his life, Skwisgaar was struggling to come up with words. "I was justs watchings." He internally cringed for that one, he didn't want to come across as creepy.
"Oh, I'm that goods, then?" Toki had a teasing smile on his face, pushing himself off the handle bar and putting his hands on his hips.
"Ja, I thinks so." There was something comforting to Skwisgaar about the fact their English was similar. Maybe the word he was looking for was home-y. He hadn’t felt something close to home ever since his mom made them leave Sweden.
"Wells I do haves the highest scores in this arcades." Toki moved to step off of the machine, reaching into his nearby bag to pull out a bottle of water. His backpack was blue, a similar shade to Skwisgaar's eyes.
"Reallies?" Skwisgaar looked at the machine, then back at Toki. "Er, we goes to the same schools. Skwisgaar."
Before Skwisgaar could fix his embarrassing attempt at a proper introduction, Toki responded. "Ja, I knows. All the ladies in my classes swoons when you walks pasts." Toki shrugs as tosses the water bottle back into his bag.
"I do haves a way with the ladies, beens with almost all the womens at the school" Skwisgaar nodded along to his own words, unable to stop himself from boasting. Briefly the thought that his friends were wondering where he was crossed his mind, but he couldn't bring himself to care. The thought left just as quick as it came.
"Do you wants to try?" its an attempt to try and convince the blonde to hang out. Toki gestures to the machine with his shoulder "its is two players. You can learns from the masters."
Skwisgaar bit his lip in contemplation. He had been told that he essentially had “two left feet” when it came to dancing and he really didn’t want to embarrass himself, his ego wouldn’t allow that. But yet, there was something about Toki that made it hard to find a reason to care if Skwisgaar embarrassed himself or not.
“Fines.” a part of himself couldn’t believe he was agreeing. “I will try yours sillys dance game.”
Toki seemed to light up and it made Skwisgaar wonder if he had even made friends at school yet. “Goods, goods! Okays, come here.”
Before Skwisgaar could even get a chance to respond, Toki had taken his hand, pulling him onto the machine platforms. Skwisgaar tried not to think about how calloused Toki’s hands were. As Skwisgaar stumbled onto the arrow decorated platform, Toki stood on the one right next to it; it felt like Toki was meant to be next to Skwisgaar, but maybe he was just imagining things. Skwisgaar had never felt like this with any of his hookups, though he didn’t like the idea of Toki being a hookup, something more permanent sounded better.
“Because you ams a beginner, we wills start easy.” Toki used his foot to control the main menu of their game, selecting a song called Dream a Dream.
The song started, and despite the arrows appearing slowly, Skwisgaar still stumbled around his own feet like they weren’t even his own. Skwisgaar’s movements were abrupt and jagged, he tried to ignore the stare he felt from Toki. Skwisgaar had never felt more relieved for something to be over, awkwardly standing with gangly limbs as the song ended and showed his score on the screen. He tried not to let it affect his ego too much.
Toki let out a hum before speaking “Maybes DDR isn’t fors yous. Yous am too stiff.” Toki tucked some hair behind his ear and Skwisgaar watched his bracelets move.
“Oh fucks off! I cans be goods at dancings!”
Toki shook his head, trying not to laugh. “I don't thinks so. Yous looks like you ams tryings not to bumps into invisibles walls.”
“Oh, ja, like yous weren’ts goods the first times you playeds this.”
“I was! Felts naturals to me.”
Skwisgaar couldn’t call him a liar without having proof, but something told him Toki was telling the truth. Their conversation, even if it was bickering, felt immersive to Skwisgaar despite the fact the arcade was filled with people. His phone, an iphone 4S, buzzed in his pocket and he groaned. Skwisgaar made a ‘wait’ gesture to Toki and he pulled out his phone to see who had messaged him. Unsurprisingly the messages were from the people he was supposed to be meeting in the arcade.
Nathan and Pickles had messaged a couple times, but Murderface had spammed him relentlessly with the message ‘SKWISGAAR’ over 50 times. Skwisgaar would have to block him next time. Skwisgaar chose to text Pickles, he would be the most relaxed about receiving a text from Skwisgaar. ‘Ins the arcade’ was all that Skwisgaar texted, it would be up to them if they wanted to find him or not.”
“Sorrys” Skwisgaar said as he shoved his phone back into his pocket, rolling his eyes. “They cans be annoying most of the times.”
“Was theys your friends?”
“Ja, the ones I always hangs out with at schools.”
“Ohh I’ve seen them before! Your friends ams very cool looking!”
Skwisgaar let out a snort. “Oh please, they ams lame. Do yous have any friends?” A part of Skwisgaar hoped Toki would say no, then Skwisgaar would have an excuse to let Toki hang out with his own group. Though his friends might not think taking in a friendless stray would be very metal. He’d come up with an excuse.
“Only ones, her names is Abigail! She ams very nice to me.”
Oh. Abigail, right. Skwisgaar knew of her when she ran for student body president against Charles, Nathan had had a crush on her. Charles had won the school election and had offered Abigail to be vice president, which she had agreed to.
“Abigails? Reallies?” His words came out much more rude than he had intended, but Toki didn’t seem to notice.
“Ja! She hads to show me around the school and she thoughts I was funny so she lets me sits at her lunch tables.”
Skwisgaar hadn’t seen Abigail sit with someone new before, but maybe that was because Skwisgaar ate lunch inside while Abigail ate outside. After she had rejected Nathan she tended to avoid him to avoid as many awkward interactions as possible.
Skwisgaar crossed his arms “Oh you ams funny? Makes me laugh, then.”
“Rights now? I can’ts do it on commands! Abigail saids I was naturally funny but I doesn’ts really knows what thats means. Maybes anothers time?”
Another time… Skwisgaar liked the sound of that. “Hmph, fine. Anothers time wills have to do.”
There was an awkward silence as the two stood there on the machine platforms, staring at each other. Skwisgaar didn’t want to leave and neither did Toki. Skwisgaar contemplated his next words, weighing his options. Either Skwisgaar could ask Toki to play another round with him and risk embarrassing himself, or could ask Toki if he wanted to go to the food area of the arcade and risk his friends finding him. The latter sounded better.
“Does you uhh.. Wants to get some pizza? I cans pay.” Skwisgaar stuffed his hands into his pockets stiffly. He would die of embarrassment if Toki said no.
“Really? You woulds do that fors me?” Toki bit his lip in contemplation before nodding. “If you don’ts mind, I cans makes it up to you laters.”
“Ja, is no problems.” Skwisgaar flicks his head back to get hair out of his face, he hopes it seems nonchalant.
Toki steps off the machine and grabs his bag, boots thumping against the carpet. It's the kind of carpet you see in bowling alleys. Toki shrugs on his bag and turns around to follow Skwisgaar. Toki holds onto his backpack straps as he walks and Skwisgaar finds it easy to focus on listening to the faint jangles Toki’s bag makes instead of the squealing of children and the yelling of overdramatic adults who've refused to believe they've lost at their favorite game.
The two separate when Skwisgaar goes to the front counter and Toki wanders off to find them a table. Toki sits in a booth he managed to snag, tapping his fingers on the table before immediately stopping once he feels that it’s slightly sticky and he rubs his fingers on his pants in disgust. Toki instead moves his bag to sit it on his lap and pulls his phone out of his front pocket, a cheap blue one that his host family had gotten for him. The cat sticker on the front was beginning to scratch off, he’d have to replace that soon. He had a text from Abigail, but decided to respond when he got home since he could see Skwisgaar walking to the table out of the corner of his eye.
Toki shut his phone with a flick of his wrist and put it back in his backpack. He used to never do that, worried about breaking the phone, but had been assured by Abigail that that would only happen if he pushed it too far backwards. Skwisgaar slid into the booth across from Toki with two medium sized cups and set them down on the sticky table.
“There was a deals. Didn’t knows what you likes so I gots us both lemonade. Pizza shoulds be here soons.”
“Oh, takk!” Toki reached to grab one of the cups, taking a sip. The use of Norwegian comforted Skwisgaar, even if it wasn’t Swedish it was still familiar. He missed the snow.
Skwisgaar just nodded, using the need to drink his lemonade as an excuse to not speak. He knew this was a crush and he was terrified his voice might crack at any second, terrified of making a fool of himself. A part of Skwisgaar thought this was stupid, he hadn’t even known Toki for 24 hours and yet he was already finding himself prepared to jump through hurdles if the boy asked.
Skwisgaar was pulled away from his thoughts when a staff member of the food court set the tray of pizza down on the table and walked away before either of them could say thanks. Skwisgaar stared down at it with a slight frown, some of the slices weren’t even and it reminded him of the time Pickles had begged them to go with him to Chuck E. Cheese because he didn’t want to be the only teen there for his nephew's birthday.
Unlike Skwisgaar, Toki chose to ignore how the slices were cut, opting to grab a slice and dig in. Using the DDR machine for hours at a time made him hungry and he had forgotten to grab a granola bar from the pantry before he left. If left to his own devices, Toki could probably eat the whole pizza and then some. Skwisgaar watched for a second or two before taking a slice for himself, grimacing at the pool of grease that slid off his slice.
Toki managed to eat three slices and Skwisgaar was just finishing off his second slice when a loud “Skwisgaar!” interrupted their somewhat peaceful late-lunch. Skwisgaar cringed at the sound, recognizing it as Murderface’s voice. He knew he was going to have a hard time explaining this, especially when his friends grew closer once realizing he wasn’t dining by himself.
“Dood! Who’s this?” Pickles said as he flopped into the seat besides Skwisgaar, wrapping an arm around his shoulder and helping himself to a slice of pizza.
“Dude, did you ditch us?” was Nathan’s response as he and Murderface wrestled to get the seat next to Pickles.
Before Skwisgaar could even get a chance to respond, Toki was moving to get up. “I shoulds gets going. It was nice meetings you, Skwisgaar! And ums, you guys too. Ha det bra!”
Toki waved as he took a few steps backwards before speed walking out of the arcade. Skwisgaar gripped his lemonade until it started to crease.
“That guy was weird.” Murderface said as he took Toki’s place, having lost the brief scuffle with Nathan who always wanted to sit by Pickles when he had the chance.
Pickles nodded in agreement and Skwisgaar wanted nothing more than to tackle all of them. Instead he had to watch them eat the pizza that he had paid for himself and Toki.
“So,” Nathan started while grabbing another slice of pizza “who was that?”
“Nobodies.” Skwisgaar rolled his eyes, grabbing a napkin from the dispenser and wiping off his hands.
“Doesn’t seem like nobody” Pickles grabbed Skwisgaar’s lemonade and took a sip, offering the rest to Murderface who obviously took it.
“Wells, it ams none of yours business. I ams allowed to have friends outsides of you three.”
“Thats not fair! How come you get to have other friends!” Murderface exclaimed as he slammed the now empty cup of lemonade on the table, rattling the pizza tray in the process.
Skwisgaar rolled his eyes again, crossing his arms and slouching in his seat as his friends started to bicker. He let his gaze wander to the doors of the arcade, hoping Toki would walk back in. He couldn’t blame him for leaving, knowing how intense his friends could be at times. Today was Saturday and if he could make it through Sunday then he could try and track Toki down at school.