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>"Fucking come on!"
>Susie's lip curls, her teeth flashing in the afternoon sunlight
>"Dude, you have got to be... come ON!"
>She grips her controller so hard the plastic creaks
>"Are you SERIOUS?! Are you seriously serious right now?!"
>She tosses the controller on to the bed, runs a great, scaly paw through her thick mane, and sighs
>Something is wrong with Kris.
>He's been quiet, even by his standards, for a couple weeks now
>Staring out the window for minutes at a time, a look in his eyes like he's a million miles away, so out of it that she practically has to grab him and shake him just to get his attention
>That's not super unusual, not in itself. He has his moods, especially when the days get shorter and the nights get colder
>She's not sure it's the kind of thing she should be asking him about
>She's not sure he'd have an answer for her if she did
>But seeing her buddy down like this, day in and day out...
>It sucks.
>And what do you do when things suck? When it's cold and grey outside and cold and grey inside you, too, and everything's just too much damn trouble?
>You play some fucking vidya, that's what you do
>Everything had been great at first
>Kris had even given her the real controller, the one without the broken fans and the stupid autofire that doesn't even work
>They'd settled in with her new favorite: SOUL Calibur 2
>She'd picked the big purple dude with the axe, because he's obviously the coolest character in the entire game
>Kris, of course, had picked the green fairy boy from that other game, because he's BROKEN and TOO STRONG and seriously did they even playtest this crap
>But she let him, because Susie is a magnanimous kind of monster
>Besides, Kris needs the handicap to even compete against Susie's pro gamer skills
>And she won
>As a rule, this doesn't happen often
>Or ever
>And sure, Susie knows that's because Kris is a CHEATER who uses all the cheap moves and spams throws and always gets to use the good controller...
>But it felt wrong
>She sat there in stunned silence at the victory screen, eyes wide as saucers, before glancing over at Kris suspiciously
>He just smiled. Maybe it was a little forced around the edges? It was hard to say
>"Good game."
>"Y-yeah." She recovered quickly, preening with a cocky grin. "I mean, nice try, I guess, but you're gonna have to do better than that. Seriously."
>Maybe it's the new moves? She did spend an afternoon in the librarby computer lab printing out a list of all the secret moves
>Used up almost all the paper in the printer, too
>Of course, when she actually read it it was in some stupid code, a bunch of numbers and letters that didn't make any damn sense, but still
>Her second win is quick to dispel that particular fantasy
>And now, the third one IN A ROW has her grinding her teeth and glaring at Kris as he stares blankly at his controller
>She's barely even playing anymore
>He's walking into every vertical, never teching a single throw
>One time he even walked backwards off the stage! She didn't even DO anything!
>This son of a bitch
>This fucker is THROWING
>"Kris, you..." She tamps down the anger, remembers why she's here. "...Are you letting me win?"
>A flash of carmine through his fringe. Guilt, plain as day, in his eyes
>"Of course not."
>And it hurts. It genuinely hurts her
>Because she's not smart enough to know what's wrong
>And she's not sensitive enough to know how to ask
>But she was hoping, really, really hoping, that she'd at least be able to take Kris's mind off of whatever is bothering him
>That he'd be having some fun doing this with her, not just trying to get it over with
>Well, so much for that
>Not that she's gonna give up, of course
>As if
>But as they go back to the character select screen, she can't stop the sad, angry pressure from growing in her chest
>Whatever, she thinks. Fuck it. I came here to cheer up my guy and play vidya and I'm all out of... cheer
>She grinds her teeth, hits the random select without thinking
>"Oh."
>Of course. Now, of all times, of course the random select would give her the creep in the gimp suit
>She glances over at Kris, sweat beading on her forehead. He doesn't meet her eyes
>"I... I didn't... I hit the random select, you saw-"
>"Yeah. I saw."
>Not a good liar, this boy
>Maybe to put her at ease, he picks random too
>And of course HE gets the cool samurai with the robot arm. How is that fair?
>Whatever. They load into the stage, the match starts, Susie has her guy back up, hits and holds the kick button without really thinking
>And the freak in the gimp suit does an artful forward kick before bending backwards into a reverse table, crotch towards the sky, hands and feet on the ground
>"What the fuck?"
>She squints at the screen, tapping the d-pad. The freak shuffles back and forth, hissing. She presses two of the attack buttons together
>I mean hey, maybe it'll be a cool-
>The gimp charges with electricity and humps his hips upwards
>The snicker bursts out of her, so hard and fast it stings her nose on the way out
>"Pff! Dude. Dude, check it out."
>She presses the buttons again
>Another charged hump skyward
>She looks at Kris, waggling her thick eyebrows and grinning
>He doesn't return her gaze. He just stares down at his socks, eyes hidden behind a curtain of his hair
>It's almost enough to make Susie want to cry. If she were the kind of person who cried. Which she isn't.
>Obviously.
>But if you're so down in the dumps that you don't even think a gimp mummy humping the air is funny, then...
>That's pretty bad.
>No one should have to feel that way.
>Kris, least of all.
>Kris doesn't say anything
>But slowly, gently, his pale, slender fingers tighten on the controller again, and he looks at the screen
>He presses a button. The robot-arm samurai climbs on top of his sword, feet on the crossguard, body curled catlike around the grip
>And as Kris presses another button, the samurai bounces, sword and all leaping high into the air like he's on a pogo stick
>His hands quiver. He bites his lip. His shoulders shake, so slightly as to be almost imperceptible
>And she presses the vertical and kick buttons together again
>The gimp humps again
>The samurai bounces again
>Hump
>Bounce
>Hump
>Bounce
>And finally, all at once, it happens
>Kris's face bursts into a huge, ear-to-ear grin
>He laughs, loud and long and melodious, so hard he clutches his ribs and tears spring to his eyes
>The characters on the TV bouncing and humping all the while
>And Susie starts to laugh too, so loud it shakes the windows, roaring with glee as she mashes the Hump Buttons like her life depends on it
>Outside, Toriel slowly takes her ear from the door to Kris's room
>She sighs happily, presses a hand to her chest
>She does not understand the "vidya". She does not understand why Kris and Susie always insist on playing such violent games
>But she understands perfectly that this is the happiest she has heard her child in quite some time.