Work Text:
Jamil waited patiently for Malleus and Vil to pry Idia out of the back seat of Leona’s minivan.
It was his turn to plan the next meet up. He’d fine through a lot of ideas. He wanted to take them to a cooking class but realized their mixed skill level would cause problems, and Jamil got stressed when people were in his kitchen.
He could have taken them to just see a movie, but he knew there was no chance they’d agree on a movie. Idia wanted horror, Azul and Riddle wanted detective dramas, Vil wanted to stay away from any movie Neige was in. It would be a mess.
There was also the Idia factor. Idia was an obstacle they’d all had to work around to plan their dates. He just refused to go outside.
This was Jamil’s compromise—the local arcade. It was in the same mall they’d been to a few weeks earlier for the Bath and Bodywork’s (Sage’s Island only had like one big mall.)
Idia should have enjoyed it. It was a building full of video games. He liked video games. Surely he’d be more interested.
And to be fair, he was. It has taken significantly less time to pry him out of the car, and no one had to agree to be his human crutch this time. But he still put up a bit of a fight.
But none of that mattered, now that the boys were exchanging thaumarks for quarter thaumark coins, they were ready to play some games.
Vil and Idia found a racing game they seemed to like, one with a fake motorcycle you could ride.
“I want to know what Epel gets so excited about,” Vil said, placing the token into the game.
He got last. Idia got second.
“Oh my,” Vil held his head. “This thing isn’t easy to maneuver.”
Idia laughed, placing another token in to go another round. He had to get first.
Vil regained his composure, leaving Riddle to babysit Idia while he followed the rest of their group.
Jamil had found the Dance Dance Revolution, and was selecting a song to dance to. Vil joined him on the stand.
“Oh?” Jamil asked. “Are we doing this?”
“We’ll see who’s the better dancer,” Vil said, stretching his legs. “You’re going down, Viper.”
Jamil laughed. “We’ll see, Schoenheit.”
Azul watched with baited breath as the two beautiful boys began dancing. It took him a moment before he looked around and realized Leona and Malleus had disappeared.
The search didn’t take long to yield results. Behind a Marvel brand fighting game was an air hockey table. Sacred, holy, radiant. Malleus and Leona had tied up their hair and began a rigorous game of air hockey.
“You ready, Kingscholar?” Malleus asked. It was strange, Malleus had gotten so used to being around them he never called them by their surnames anymore. This must have been serious.
“I’m gonna destroy you, Lizard,” Leona laughed. “Speaking of, try not to destroy the table.”
The puck was tossed onto the table. Azul had to make an important decision—hot people playing DDR, or angry people playing air hockey.
His Jamil-loving heart made the answer obvious, leaving the lion and lizard to their own devices.
He watched Jamil and Vil dance for the duration of the song. Closely, he monitored their steps, their flourishes. Vil was just too dramatic, and Jamil was a dancer by heart.
Meanwhile, Idia looked back. He threw the race he was in, ignoring his player character crashing into a street lamp. Riddle watched in horror.
Idia walked up to Leona and Malleus’ game. Leona finally sunk another goal. It was 1-1.
“Noobs,” Idia muttered.
“What was that?!” Malleus and Leona shouted.
“Nothing!” Idia said, jumping back. “Just…” a sick, knowing smile covered his face, “finish your game.”
Jamil won, but the score was close.
“Well done Jamil!” Azul smiled. “Those skills could be put to great use in Octavinelle!”
Jamil rolled his eyes. “Where did Riddle go?”
Azul looked around. “I think he was with Idia?”
When they found Riddle, he had lost Idia, who was intently watching the air hockey game. It was neck and neck. He watched with a sick smile.
Riddle had been distracted by the nearby skee ball machine.
“Oh?” Azul smirked. “A classic. Think you got this Riddle?”
“Surely,” Riddle smiled, turning to the machine. “It reminds me of croquet.”
Riddle took the first ball. Slowly, he made some mental calculations, and tossed it in.
Ten points.
Fine. Riddle grabbed another one, adjusting his calculations and…
He hit one of the hundred point holes.
“Woah!” Azul and Jamil both jumped back.
“It’s not that hard,” Riddle said, landing another perfect hundred point shot.
Vil allowed his eyes to wander back to the air hockey table. Leona was now playing against Idia. With Malleus, they’d landed in a draw. With Idia? He was getting his lion butt handed to him on a silver platter with garnishes.
The score was six to zero.
“Wow,” Vil said. “Idia, I’m surprised. I thought you hated sports.”
“Don’t break my concentration!” Idia shouted. Leona swerved around trying to hit the puck, while Malleus offered unhelpful advice.
“Over there.”
“That way.”
“There it is.”
While Leona resisted the urge to beat Malleus to death with the puck, Idia scored the final point. The other four cheered.
Leona grunted. “Let’s move on.”
“Oh?” Idia grinned. “You don’t want to try again? Maybe I’ll go easy on you and let you score.”
Leona dragged Jamil away to the machine with a basketball hoop. It seemed self explanatory to Leona.
Across the aisle from them was a brightly colored stacking game that Vil was focusing on, while Idia and Azul picked up a zombie shooting game, one with the real fake guns. Riddle had gone back to skee ball.
Malleus’ attention was split between the virtual blood, Vil’s intensely perfect stacking, and Leona and Jamil throwing basketballs like nothing.
Azul and Idia cheered as they completed the level. Idia got the higher score (of course.) Jamil had won their basketball shoot off, but not by as much as he’d hoped. And Vil had finished his game with a decent enough score.
“What else?” Malleus asked inquisitively.
Leone wandered over to a machine with a dangling punching pad. He smirked, giving the machine a coin and punching it. The rest of the group watched as the number slowly increased.
“Noice,” Idia giggled. “Glad you have strength when you don’t have reflexes.”
Leona rolled his eyes. Vil paid the machine a coin and went to give it his own punch. Jamil went after him. Neither had incredible scores like Leona, but it wasn’t terrible.
“You wanna try, Idia?” Leona asked.
“Oh, absolutely not,” Idia said, hiding behind Malleus. “I hate those things.”
“I will abstain as well,” Malleus said. “I wouldn’t want to break the machine.”
“Fair,” Leona said. He watched as Azul put his coin in, the punchy thing popping up. The others watched with devoted interest.
Azul punched it, and the others watched as the number reached over Vil’s, Jamil’s and then Leona’s.
“How the—”
“The transformation potion transferred the strength from my eight tentacles into my arms,” Azul explained.
“So your legs are just made of jelly?” Jamil asked.
Azul pouted. “Are we done here?”
Riddle rejoined the group with a giant pile of tickets.
“Great Sevens!” Malleus shouted. “How did you…”
“I’m apparently very good at skee ball,” Riddle said smiling, only his face seen above the pile of tickets.
Idia and Jamil helped him compact the tickets. They spent the rest of their coins on various stupid little machines, with Riddle at some point stealing half of Malleus’ coins to continue playing skee ball. At least he was having fun.
When all their tokens were spent, they made their way to the prize counter.
“What do you wish to spend your tickets on, Riddle?” Malleus asked.
Riddle scanned the prizes. Nothing really seemed interesting to him. And then he saw it. A big rainbow colored squishy hedgehog plush.
“That one!” Riddle said. “The hedgehog!”
Lucky for Riddle, he had just enough. The employee gave him the big guy. Riddle jumped up and down with it like a child.
All Malleus could get was a bouncy ball, a key chain, and one of those striped glasses that only made it harder to see.
The others all got various items. Idia got a new mouse and a couple fidget toys. Leona got a soccer ball. Vil got a few key chains and fidget toys. Azul got an octopus beanie boo named Ollie. Jamil got a few stress toys, knowing he’d need it.
Vil looked over at Riddle. “You got a squishmallow?”
“His name is Bartholomew and I love him,” Riddle said, his giant pile of tickets replaced with the squishy guy.
Malleus looked at the tag. “It says his name is Bowie.”
“HIS NAME IS BATHOLOMEW!”
Malleus stared at the tiny human in horror. “Okay,” he managed, “Bartholomew it is.”
Jamil led the group out of the arcade. Riddle checked the time. “We finished faster than I expected.”
“I agree,” Jamil said. “Would you guys like to grab dinner?”
“It’s a bit early for dinner, don’t you think?” Leona said.
“We could do something else,” Malleus suggested. “Maybe watch a movie?”
“A movie will take too long,” Riddle said. “What else does this mall have?”
“How about karaoke?” Idia muttered.
“What was that?” Vil asked, genuinely not having heard him.
“K-karaoke.”
“Karaoke!” Vil smiled. “Yes! Let’s do that!”
“W-wait.”
Vil grabbed Idia, dragging the poor boy deeper into the mall. Jamil ran up to take the lead, the other four shortly behind them.
Vil got them an hour in a private karaoke room, as well as some snacks—a few bags of chips, some candy, and oreos. Vil immediately took the microphone and looked for a song.
“So, what is karaoke?” Malleus asked.
“Do you know what anything is?” Leona groaned. “It’s just singing. Can you really not sing?”
“I’m great at singing, I have you know!” Malleus insisted. “I took opera classes at the palace.”
Leona repeated in a mocking tone, “I took opera classes at the palace.”
Malleus grabbed Azul’s plushy octopus and threw it at Leona’s head.
Vil started his song, a country twang bringing in Before He Cheats by Carrie Underwood.
Leona filmed the entire thing to send to Epel.
When Vil finished, Malleus applauded him. “Wonderful performance. Tell me, what made you pick this song?”
“I was briefly reminded of Rook’s vote during the VDC,” Vil said. He paused, pondering the best way to get revenge, seeing as Rook didn’t actually have a car he could destroy.
Azul went next, bringing Riddle (and Bartholomew) up to sing Die With a Smile, offkey, out of sync, and laughing the whole time. Jamil followed up with I Will Survive. Malleus took the microphone before Azul could start negotiating.
Once Malleus was finished stunning with Total Eclipse of the Heart, he handed the microphone to Idia.
“Huh?” Idia shrunk away from the microphone like it was made of dynamite. “Wh-why?”
“Come on,” Leona grabbed the microphone with one hand and Idia with the other. Leona put on Livin on a Prayer, with Idia offering quiet support.
“I think we should return to the school,” Riddle reported. “I can’t wait to show Bartholomew to my dorm mates.”
The seven collected their leftover snacks and piled back into Leona’s minivan.
“So who’s going next?” Vil asked.
“I would love to take a turn!” Azul said. “We’re gonna go shopping!”
“Shopping seems a bit unfair,” Riddle said. “I mean, Jamil and I don’t have much money to spend. And Malleus still hasn’t figured out how credit cards work.”
“And that’s so much walking!” Leona moaned.
“And so many people!” Idia added.
“Fine fine fine!” Azul crossed his arms. “I’ll figure something out…perhaps I can consult the twins on where to take you.”
Malleus turned behind to face Azul. “If you cannot come up with anything, Azul, I—”
“No! No, that’s fine Mal. I got this,” Azul continued to ponder as Leona drove off.