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“Dammit, what the fuck!?”
“Misaki, no swearing.”
Yata looked back at his mother in annoyance, feeling very limited on how he can express his anger right now. Dance Dance Pro wasn’t an easy game, and it was a tiring game, so letting out phallic things should totally be allowed. It’s not his fault he has short legs so he can’t reach the neon buttons that fast, he has speed, and that should be enough. But it’s like the machine has a hitbox on it’s stupid buttons, where as you can only hit them a certain way for it to count on the game itself. And who to god needs a metal stand in the middle? You never stand when dancing, nobody ever chooses the slow and easy songs on these things. If all of the switches were on leveled height, then maybe it wouldn’t be hard for him to get an A on here.
He stomped aggressively on the start button in the corner of the stand, bringing up the title screen as it flashed the words “Insert 2 Quarters to Start” at the bottom in big tie-dye letters. As he took out another pair of quarters from his brown bag of loot, he heard small shuffling from beside him, a ring emanating more loudly as the shuffling got more frantic. He looked over to the side of him to see what the noise was, and noticed that his mom was looking at the phone in a number of emotions. He couldn’t tell how she felt in that moment, but it twisted in a mix of anger and pain before she pulled the phone to her side abruptly and turned around, stopping to look behind her back. “I need to take this call outside, sweetie, continue playing.” Even after saying that, she still mouthed a small “Behave yourself,” before smiling warmly and walking out of the arcade. It was probably because she didn’t want to embarrass him by having to tell him to behave, but he could’ve handled it either way. Though it’s not like he wanted to hear that, so a pout was still present on his face.
Dropping the two quarters into the machine for about the 10th time, the machine accounted them and started up the game. As usual, Yata chose the fast, upbeat songs rather than the slow ones. He also chose normal mode, considering that easy was way too -well, easy, and hard brought the tempo up by like, 40 beats. Almost an inhuman speed, if you asked him. Though…it didn’t help how he still only got C’s or D’s on the songs. He was exhausted now, short breaths puffing out of his mouth as he leaned on the machine. “I’m sure I was good at this….at some point…fuck,” he cursed to himself as he looked into the paper bag he owned. There were still quite a lot of quarters in it.
A hand reached up to wipe the sweat off his forehead. “Alright, fine... Maybe another game then,” His eyes wandered over to a nearby vending machine, there was plenty enough in his bag to buy a soda. “After I get something to drink.” He somehow managed to push himself off of the game with his remaining strength, and stumbled off the stand towards the heavenly beverage keeper. Placing four quarters into the machine, not long after he pressed the button for “Orange Blast” the bottle of fizz rushed out at the bottom. He swiftly stole it from the holder and twisted the cap open, chugging half the bottle down in a flash. A wave of bliss fell over him as he regained his energy and sighed in relief. “How nice…my most favorite drink always perks me up!”
As a pleasurable silence wafted over the area he currently stood in, the noises of a nearby game behind him made itself clear. He turned around to see what it was coming from, finding out that they were slashing noises being made from a huge touchscreen set on a metal pedestal. It looked seriously fun honestly, and he could see the explosions from here. There weren’t that many, only two -and the guy playing it sort of looked like he was trying to avoid the explosions- but that just made it all the more interesting.
He made a beeline straight for the guy at the machine, skidding to a rough halt beside him. Two amber orbs looked between the screen and the boy with glasses in awe, sparkling immensely at the sight before him. “What game are you playing!? It looks so cool!!” his voice went a pitch higher than normal in excitement. It made the boy next to him flinch -probably because of the loud noise because really Yata- but he still maintained his calm sense of control. Even if he did have to slap Yatas’ hands off of the screen several times as he played. The guy was obviously ignoring him, he could easily just say the name of the game while he was playing, but Yata guesses that’s just too hard or something like that.
So, he took the most physical approach -because he’s that kind of guy- and started poking the other in the back repeatedly. ‘This has got to be annoying enough to speak, right?’ Yata hoped for a response in any way, even if it was just a shrug of the shoulders, but it got zip. He stopped in his action and muttered under his breath, “Alright, if that’s how it’s gonna be then plan B it is…” and soon enough he threw himself onto the mans’ back. He leaned against him as much as he could, hands on his shoulders in an attempt to get his attention. “Come on! Tell meee!!”
Unfortunately to the dark-haired boy, Yatas’ breath was right up on his ear. He jolted up in surprise, finger accidentally swiping across the screen into a bomb, letting a nice “Game Over” appear to darken the screen. He had a nice high score going. Had. The lost feeling of all that hard work going to waste made his stomach coil in disgust. A massive scowl accompanied his menacing glare as he whipped around to face the happy boy at fault. “…What do you want.” It wasn’t a question, it was a warning to back off. He was officially pissed.
“Tell me what game you’re playing!” Yata didn’t feel the venomous aura easing off of the other, having his own shining one to block it away no problem. No sense of the threat was acknowledged by him as he smiled brightly, hands behind his back as he swayed back and forth on the balls of his feet.
The boy simply pointed up towards the top of the machine. “It’s on the goddamn machine.” Nothing more said, nothing less. And he does not want to think how that swaying makes him feel at ease- wait. A tongue clicked. ‘…Fucking teenage hormones.’ He cursed internally. But nevertheless, he brought his attention back to the other currently looking at the machine in shock, just now noticing the title was there.
“Oh shit, does every machine have a title on it!?” Yata just…guessed.
He squinted at that, not sure if he was serious or not. “…Yes.”
“…Oh.”
“You have got to be the stupidest person ever.”
“Hey I just pay attention to the gameplay, I don’t look at the tops or sides of machines!” Yata did a quick survey of the room for emphasis. “Who has time for that!?”
He stared at Yata for a minute. “You don’t need time, it’s just in your view.”
Yata huffed, stretching his arms out together and cracking his knuckles in preparation. “Well okay then,” he scooched to the side of the other, pushing him away from the machine almost easily. It’s not like he stood his ground or anything, a small side bump was enough to make him take a step back. “Imma take a shot at this.”
The boy deadpanned at that. ‘It’ll be your money you’re wasting, but whatever. You’re an idiot.’ A small remark was kept to himself as he stuffed his hands into the pockets of his blue jacket. “It isn’t all about explosions, you know…”
A finger swiped across the screen. “Sure it isn’t. I guess it just happened to look like that, huh?” A tongue stuck itself out. It earned a small tongue click from the other as he looked away. “Whatever.”
30 coins later, and a mass set of failed attempts at even getting up to the score of 20 points, Yata threw his hands up in frustration. “What the fuck is up with this game?”
“You’re not supposed to hit the bombs.” Stupid.
“Why not? They explode the fruit.”
“It’s not as simple as that,” Glasses were pushed up, making the dim lights bounce of them in a lustering shine. “You need to slice the fruit.”
“Ohhh! …Fuck.”
The boy’s lips twisted into a smirk, showing off how proud he was of his intelligence level. He crossed his arms and spoke, “You want me to show you how it’s done?”
“Hell yeah!”
As seen before, the stranger guy was actually really fucking good. He got a high score of 7960. The only reason he ever gets a strike apparently -or so he’s told by said guy- is because an annoying redhead is there. He never understood that part, because he’s never seen any redheads in the arcade before, but it’s whatever. Yata was too busy gawking at him in wondrous amazement. He thinks he might’ve squealed at that point, but honestly, who wouldn’t? “Holy shit man, you pummeled through those fruits like it was nothing! You’re seriously awesome!!”
He could sort of tell that the other was trying not to smile, but why wouldn’t he like to smile? Is he self-conscious? Does he have braces he doesn’t like anyone to see? Yata sure didn’t notice any, but that’s not the main point right now!
Two hands grabbed surprisingly cold ones, and were brought up to eye level between the two. Sparkling eyes shimmered so bright, the quiet one briefly wondered if he was going to go blind from staring into them for so long. “What’s your name??” Yata questioned excitedly.
Blue eyes avoided the gaze directed straight onto him, also because apparently personal space wasn’t a thing to the happy high schooler. “At least tell me yours first.”
“Oh, yeah! U-Um…Yata.”
“…Yata. That is not a first name.”
“Well maybe it is!”
A tongue clicked. “If it is your first name, then what’s your last?”
“Uhh…”
“Are you being serious right now? What, do you not know your full name? Are you still practicing it in preschool or something?” Bluntness. Everywhere.
Yata suddenly bowed, still holding their hands together above his head. “Misaki! Yata Misaki!” Please don’t make fun of me, please don’t make fun of me, pretty please...!
“...Misaki.” he pauses and thinks for a moment before enveloping a teasing smile on his lips. “Misaki squeals like a girl~”
“A-Ahh, don’t call me by my first name! It’s just Yata, okay? Yata.” Asshole.
He shrugged. “Too bad.” A hand worms itself out of Yata’s grasp and holds itself out, alone. “Fushimi. Fushimi Saruhiko.”
Yata looked at it curiously. “Fushimi...Saruhiko…” he just came up with something. “…Saru.”
“Why are you calling me that?”
“Why not? I like it!”
“Don’t you know the meaning behind it?”
“Well, you don’t look like a monkey.”
Okay, nevermind, he’s a dunce. Saruhiko shook his head, choosing to forget that, and he wiggled his hand around. “So…?”
Yata looked between him and the hand in puzzlement, fixing his eyes on the hand at last before slapping it. Like a high-five, basically. He looked back up at Saruhiko in hope, afterwards.
Saruhiko went silent. What. Was that. After a few seconds he abruptly looked away and laid his face into his other hand. God dammit he’s a cute idiot, why does this nerd have to be cute, he even has an adorable name like Misaki; kill me.
“Saru…? Did I do it wrong…? What’s up?”
He looked back and tried to hold in his laughter. “You know you’re supposed to shake it, right? It wasn’t-“ he let out a giggle, “-A sideways high five.”
Yata just looked at him in loss, but shortly after he finally processed the meaning of those words. He could feel his whole face heating up; turning red. Oh NO.
His words came out in a stutter at that, “O-Oh my god, I’m sorry! Is that a formal thing? I’m not formal, I’m a total weirdo actually, Uhhh…!?”
Saruhiko couldn’t help but snort. Okay, that was cute. “It’s fine, Misaki.”
Wait a minute…
Amber eyes locked onto blue ones unconsciously.
…He has pretty eyes. Oh my god- FUCK.
An eyebrow under glass lenses raised up in confusion. “What is it?”
“Nothing. You here alone?”
“Yep… I don’t need parents, honestly.”
“Yeah…right.” So he isn’t the only one that feels the uncomfortable need to get away from them. Once in a while, at least.
‘He feels the same way? …huh.’ Saruhiko remarked in his head. He felt weirdly content in that moment.
Yata shook his head and let his eyes wander the room. “So, you wanna go…play another game or something?” his mouth twisted in an uncertain way, displaying his current train of thought. “I mean, I’m sure you’re great at everything here, but…” he trailed off, hoping Saru would reply in his wake.
“Whatever. Alright.” he filled in the empty silence, his eyes stealing a glance at Yata quickly before darting back to the ground. A small smile tugged at his lips, and perhaps he let it take over just for a quick peek from his new acquaintance.
Yata reflected the smile, except doubling it by 100 as he pumped a fist up into the air. “Great! First one is Dance Dance Pro!”
Wait, what.