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Kid walks into the unit he's renting near the campus and throws his gym bag on the designated catch-all chair by the entrance. He is freshly showered, and pleased with how his workout session went today. He pushed himself on his reps, and got another 10kg tacked onto his lifts. With everything going so well, maybe he'll even get a head start on his Robotics 670 modeling project this evening before heading out to the pub with Killer. While he is in the kitchen making his post-workout protein shake, he notices the constant chattering and mumbling coming from his roommate’s door, again.
Ever since Trafalgar Law moved in last week at the start of the semester, there has always been noise coming from his room as if he had a guest. And yet, Kid has never seen anyone else over, in fact, he's barely seen Law leave his room. The constant droning is pretty annoying especially when it carries on late into the evening, but Kid can be an even more annoying roommate if he tried.
As if to prove that point true, he opens Law's door without asking and leans against the frame, loudly slurping the protein shake.
"Jett is one. She's one. Long. Can you smoke off the arch? Reyna heaven A," Law is saying, eyes barely an inch away from his screen, laser focused. Headshot on the Jett. Headshot on the Reyna. Something else flashes on the screen. A smoke? Headshot through the animated cloud. Three down in quick succession. Only one enemy left, based on the scoreboard. There should be five total. Kid guesses someone was downed earlier. Law's team is up 12-5.
Kid is surprised, but also not really surprised. His first impression was that Law is a hot but introverted emo punk, based on all the tattoos and piercings he sported. He tried to invite Law to come clubbing with him, but the weirdo gave him a derisive look, said he was busy on Friday, and shut himself in his room with his instant noodles. His attitude pissed Kid off. ‘Busy on Friday’ my ass, Kid had thought. When he got back at 2AM, the light was on in Law’s room and the ceaseless chatter was still going on from when he left earlier in the afternoon.
So, of course, it turns out this greasy shut-in who barely said two words to him when he moved in was playing Valorant, and the noise was him constantly making callouts. He wouldn't put it past him if the nerd was also into shit like World of Warcraft or Warhammer 40k. Probably a total weeb too, if the Sora posters on his walls meant anything.
"I'm planting A, cover me." Looks like Law still hasn't noticed him standing there. Kid dramatically slurps his protein shake again.
As the spike goes down on A, Law rotates behind cover to watch down the hallway he just came from. The entire screen is sickly green with Viper's poison. Kid wasn't completely clueless with what's happening on screen; he grew up with COD, Halo, CS:GO, did his time in Overwatch jail, and dabbled with Valorant the year it came out.
"Good ult, Viper, watch door, only Clove is up."
Kid is honestly enraptured by the gameplay. He came in initially to annoy the shit out of Law for being noisy, but now that's all been forgotten as he watches and listens to him shotcall and wrap up the game 13-5 after taking down the last enemy.
Law exhales as the victory banner shows up and the end game screen loads in.
Kid leans forward from the doorway, eager to see the scores to confirm if Law is any good or if he's getting carried. He needs to know Law's rank. Whether he's solo or duo. If he types in chat to shittalk. If he's one of those e-daters swarming Valorant these days. Does he have matching duo names with someone? Is he dating anyone? This barrage of curiosity gripped Kid out of nowhere and sent his brain reeling as hundreds of questions popped up. A part of him hopes Law sucks ass so he can make fun of him for it, but another part wants to be impressed if he's a cracked shot, and that feeling confuses Kid a bit. Unfortunately, Law skips past the post-game lobby and instantly queues up for another round. His menu screen proves that he is playing solo, at least. Kid is miffed and slightly annoyed that it seems like Law still hasn't noticed him standing at his door for the past five minutes.
"Enjoying the show?" Law says, interrupting Kid's train of thought.
Kid tries to not look surprised and barks out a laugh. "Is this what you're doing all day?"
Law gives a shrug, still clicking around on his screen, checking Reddit while in queue.
"I swear you're always home," Kid says. "Don't you have classes?"
"Classes are boring."
"Well, not my problem if you're failing school to fuck around in Iron," Kid says, in an attempt to get a rise out of Law. He knows he did not just witness confused Iron gameplay, but it does the trick.
Law turns his head slightly to finally acknowledge Kid. There is a small frown on his face.
"You watched me headshot three people, and you think I'm Iron?" He contemplates Kid for a moment. "Just as dumb as you look."
Law is baiting Kid with the oldest trick in the book, and Kid rises to it immediately.
"Just jealous because I can outfrag you any day of the week," Kid says, although he has no idea why he said that when he hasn't touched a shooter in years. However, he has decided that he MUST at least be better than this fraud.
Law leaves the queue, and Kid has a vague premonition that something bad was about to happen to him.
"1v1 me right now," Law says evenly. "Unless, of course, you can't back up what you're saying?"
The smile on Law's face is not pleasant. It reeks of an earned self-assured confidence that Kid did not have at the moment. Kid wasn't quick enough to catch the actual rank on the end game screen, and it didn't show on the menu. What he can see is that Law is level 700 something. That's actually insane. Kid will never back down from a challenge, but there was one little problem.
"Well," Kid says, stalling over whether he should tell the truth.
The thing is, Kid only played Valorant for a few months before he was permanently banned. It was not his proudest moment, but who could blame him for repeatedly threatening his solo queue teammates that he will find and kill them (in game of course!) if they kept on running it down. Video games brought out an ugly competitive side of him that was suited better to real life sports, where Killer can physically hold him back when he crosses the proverbial line.
"I don't have my account anymore." He settles on keeping it vague. Law raises a brow.
"I have a few smurfs. I'll log you into one of those. Or, you can keep making excuses?"
The taunt at the end adds more fuel to the already raging competitive fire inside Kid.
"Let's do it then."
Kid chugs the rest of his protein shake and burps loudly. He sees a look of disgust pass over Law's composed face and feels a sense of satisfied smugness.
As Kid makes to leave, Law gets up from his chair and slaps a sticky note onto his back and says, "The username and password are on there."
What a nuisance. Kid fumbles around and grunts, trying to find the sticky note on his back. Not wanting to look like a dancing fool in front of Law, he ends up taking off his shirt to snatch the offending piece of paper, tossing the shirt on the floor. He grins triumphantly and waves the note at Law and backs away, flipping him off with his free hand. Something weird flickers over Law's face for a moment that Kid couldn't read.
"Don't forget your fucking shirt," Law says, tossing a ball of cloth at Kid's retreating figure.
Kid is chuckling as he sits down in front of his own PC. Even though his gaming days are behind him, his PC is still tricked out. He wouldn't be a proper robotics and computer engineering student if he didn't build his own computer. It has been awhile since he booted up Valorant, and he has at least five years of patches to go through. As he's waiting, Kid looks over the note from Law. His smurf account username and password are noted in awful handwriting, but there's also something else. Law's discord tag.
Law calls him the second Kid adds him.
"What the hell took you so long?"
"I haven't played in like five years, it was patching, bro."
"Oh, you're so fucked." There's a harsh laugh from Law.
"And you're gonna be sooooo embarrassed when you get merked by someone who hasn't played in awhile."
"If you're so confident, let's make this a bit more fun, shall we?" Law's voice is sweet, but his words are not. "Loser has to do whatever the winner wants."
Kid pauses. He can't back down now. What could Law possibly want him to do that could be so bad? Nothing really comes to mind, and he figures they'd make each other do chores for a month or pay for groceries. At least, that's what Kid was planning to ask from Law.
"Deal," Kid agrees, but adds, "but don't make me do some weird shit."
"My, my, Eustass, you're already conceding that you will lose?"
"NO, I JUST THINK YOU'RE A FREAK!" Kid yells, turning red.
There's a laugh and a pause, then Law responds, "Well, if you think I'm a freak, I'll be sure to live up to your expectations."
"Less talking, more shooting."
"Alright then, accept the custom game invite I sent you. There's a 1v1 mode now. Let's do no abilities, first to 10 wins, same weapons, same agent, but you pick," Law says, all business.
"Uhh... lemme think." During Kid's brief Valorant stint, he liked SMGs, but for a 1v1 maybe Phantom or Vandal would be better. There were so many new agents now, but with abilities turned off it didn't matter as much. Was Law trying to be fair? Kid seethes, he didn’t want to be coddled.
"Vandal. Jett," Kid decides.
They load into a Skirmish mode game. This map was definitely new to Kid, but looks fairly simple. Just one room and a bunch of obstacles.
"Hiding cause you're scared, Trafalgar?" Kid taunts, immediately back to his shittalking roots. Law scoffs. Kid hears quiet footsteps to his left and peeks the corner only to get shot immediately.
"That's one."
Kid fumes at Law's smug voice as he respawns.
"Yeah, yeah, keep talking. I'm just warming up."
Law just went left, so he might not go the same side again, Kid thinks. He crouches and turns the right corner instead, and shoots at the tiny figure peeking him. Body shot. Law gets the headshot in.
"That's two."
"Shit."
Kid leans right again on respawn. Nothing. He keeps moving, Scopes in. Nothing. Then he spots a quick flash of Law's character. One shot. Miss. Kid pushes forward and spins left around the blocks, but Law is waiting.
"That's three."
"I can READ," Kid gripes, as the number ticks up to three on Law's side of the scoreboard.
"Just letting you know you're gapped."
Respawn. Crouch. Knife out. Go right. Stay near the box. Gun out. Peek box. Shoot. Get shot by Law. Repeat. It goes on for three more rounds. The score is six to zero.
"Quiet now that you're about to lose, huh?" Law says.
"Shut up, I was going easy on you. I'm locked in now," Kid says.
And he is locked in. He's more used to the gunplay and the movement and the map. Round 7 goes to Kid.
"Hmm. Got me," Law concedes.
"Surprised? I just haven't touched this game in years, but now I'm all caught up," Kid crows at him. Round 8, 9, and 10 all go to Kid. He's found his groove. The way the Vandal shoots, recoils.
"Now who's quiet?" Kid asks, adrenaline pumping.
"I was just playing with my food," Law says lazily, unbothered. As rounds 11 to 17 goes through, the scores even out to 9 to 8, and the trash talking gets more heated.
"Better watch your back, cause I'm gonna fuck your ass," Kid taunts, full of confidence now that he's landing shots and the game is finally competitive.
"Don't threaten me with a good time, Eustass," Law says, and at that moment Kid spends half a second processing Law's response, he hears the telltale gunshot, and he's down, and it's game over.
10 to 8.
"I was DISTRACTED," Kid says immediately.
"Sore loser?"
"HHNNNHNUGUHUHHUHH." Kid makes some egregiously dissatisfied noises.
"You're not a bad shot," Law says. "You just never had a chance against me."
"Let's go again then," Kid says. "That was just a warm up."
"Not right now."
"That's not a no."
"Like I said, you're not bad. You really don't play anymore?"
Kid contemplates telling Law the truth. "I used to. Got a little too mad though. Was Ascendant before I stopped."
"Hmm... I'm not surprised. You want to guess my rank again?" There's a teasing tone to Law's voice.
"Definitely not iron," Kid huffs.
"Radiant. 614."
Kid blanches. That's the top 500 players in all of North America. Professional gamer level.
"No fucking shot."
"Mhm."
"What the fuck are you doing in school? Aren't there like, esports teams and shit now?"
"I guess I'm not interested."
"Damn..." Kid whistles. "I can still beat 'cha 1v1 though."
He hears Law's incredulous laugh in his headphones, and in the apartment. "Where are you getting that confidence from?"
"Gimme a week, we rematch and I'll win," Kid promises.
"Fine. Let's do it. Happy to embarrass you again. Speaking of, you lost, so you have to do whatever I want," Law reminds him.
Kid pauses. He had so much fun playing that he forgot his dumb ass made a bet.
"Alright, whaddya want?"
"Hold on."
Kid hears footsteps approaching his room, and he removes his headphones to see Law at his door.
"So what's the - oh absolutely fucking NOT," Kid says in horror as Law holds out something in his hands with a slight smile on his face. "Nahhhhhh, piss off. On God I am not wearing that shit."
It's a pair of cute fluffy black cat ears with little pink bows on each.
"Are you not a man of honour? You're going back on your word?" Law asks, sounding innocently disappointed.
"Do NOT pull that shit on me," Kid growls. "I knew you were a freak. Why else would you just have this lying around. Don't tell me you've worn it?"
He stares at the cat ears in Law's hands, then at Law, then suddenly starts picturing the lanky guy crawling around with the cat ears, then a tail is tacked on, then a collar around his neck, then there's a maid outfit, then Kid’s imaginary self manifests and starts hitting him over the head yelling, "BONK! GO TO HORNY JAIL!"
Law doesn't respond, but moves closer to Kid, who leans further back on his chair.
"Oh, you've definitely worn these before," Kid realizes. He goes slightly cross-eyed the cat ears get closer and closer to his face. Before he knows it, Law is leaning over him and clipping the cat ears to his rats nest of hair. Kid is by no means weak, and could have easily pushed Law away at any point, but he doesn't do that. He lets it happen while continuing to whine and grumble about how stupid it is. A deal is a deal, and he really does not want to go back on his word. This only fuels his motivation to win, and it'll be his turn to make Law do something out of his comfort zone.
"You're going to wear these around the apartment until you beat me," Law says as he steps back, hand on his hips, satisfied with his work.
Kid exhales. The stipulation of only wearing the cat ears at home feels like a secret shared between them, which gives Kid an unexpected feeling of closeness with someone he barely knew 20 minutes ago. The constant reminder that he lost was significantly worse than the cat ears itself. If there's anything Kid really hates, it's losing.
"Meow," Kid says in a monotone as he stands up, and Law's lips twitch into a semblance of a smile.
Law looks him up and down and says, bored, "You're still shirtless, by the way."
"HUH? Oh." His shirt was still on the floor where Law threw it at him earlier. Kid flexes his muscles to show off, and Law turns away and scoffs. Kid grins.
"When I win, I'll make ya hit up the gym with me," he declares.
"I'm 24 years gym free, and I'd like to keep it that way," Law frowns. "Now I really can't lose to you."
Kid laughs and claps Law on the back on his way out of his room, which sends the scrawny man stumbling a bit. "Worried you won't ever be able to lift as much as me?" An easy bait.
"You can NOT try to trick me into going to the gym, it won't work," Law says, following him into the living room. There is a pause as Kid digs around in the kitchen for a pan and some eggs. "But if I do go to the gym, I could easily lift more than you." A completely baseless, unfounded claim.
Kid laughs, loud and abrasive. They continue arguing while Kid makes a snack for himself, and to his own surprise, Law. As he scrambles the eggs and mashes some avocados, Kid's thoughts wander to the fact that there is someone out there who is just as willing as him to put their own dignity on the line, and constantly trying to compete with him to be the best. If Law was always this fun to rile up, and just as eager to push Kid's buttons as well, he could get used to this.
