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It is common knowledge in the Port Mafia that two of the executives were avid gamers.
In Dazai’s case, it was clear as day, because he often brought his portable game consoles to work. Chuuya, however, wasn’t quite so obvious about his enthusiasm. The only thing that identified him as a gamer was Dazai often pestering him about games and Chuuya shutting his mouth with the promise to beat him in them. The outcome of their gaming nights could usually be seen from their moods the next day.
On that particular day, Dazai had pestered Chuuya about a racing game he recently got his hands on. The certainty with which he declared his ability to beat Chuuya ticked the latter off, so arrangements for that evening were promptly made.
Now, shall we see what these two are up to?
“Did you just throw a bomb at me, Mackerel-face?”
“Sure did. You managed to avoid it, though.”
For a while, Chuuya’s low murmur of expletives joined the game’s background sounds. “Why didn’t you tell me you can do that in this thing?”
“It’s your fault for not gathering information beforehand.”
More expletives from Chuuya as he manipulated the joystick’s controls. “I swear you’re holding back the information on purpose.”
“You should get smarter. Or, if that’s impossible, get more creative.” Dazai grinned as he threw another bomb at Chuuya’s car.
“Curse you.” Chuuya tossed the joystick aside with a groan as his car exploded. The sixty-second countdown for respawn appeared on the screen. “I should’ve paid attention to the tutorials.”
“You should have.” Dazai whooped as he completed the first lap and stopped his car before setting his joystick aside. “I’ll wait for you, so better catch up quick.”
“I don’t need a handicap,” Chuuya grumbled as he leaned against the couch they were sitting on, eyes closed.
Dazai shifted so he could have a better look at his companion. Chuuya was dressed in a black hoodie and long dark-grey sweatpants. Dazai himself was wearing a T-shirt and loose knee-long pants.
It was rare to see Chuuya dressed like this, because he almost never wore anything that could count as casual. He was also not the type to show much skin, so as casual as he might dress, Chuuya always made sure to keep wearing long sleeves. Not that anyone knew about this. As far as Dazai knew, Chuuya only dressed casually on their gaming nights.
That last part never failed to give Dazai a giddy feeling. It feels nice to be the only one who had ever seen this side of Chuuya.
Chuuya shifted his legs, gathering them under him. Dazai paid the action no mind.
Not a very good decision, it turned out.
A second later, Chuuya sprang off the couch toward the PlayStation console. Before Dazai knew what was happening, the shorter man had unplugged Dazai’s joystick and tossed it aside. It landed about two meters away.
Dazai’s jaw dropped as Chuuya’s cackle filled the air. “Chuuya! That’s cheating!”
“No it’s not,” Chuuya grinned as he grabbed his own joystick and set his car in motion, “It’s called getting creative. Your fault for letting your guard down.”
Dazai jumped to his feet and quickly grabbed his joystick. The process took barely five seconds, but Chuuya had cut down any lead Dazai had over him in that time and they were racing neck-to-neck by the time Dazai was back in the game.
“Not fair, Chuuya,” Dazai grumbled.
Chuuya’s laugh filled the air again. “We’re neck-to-neck now. I’d say that’s fair.”
Dazai glanced sideways at his partner. It was very rare to see Chuuya grinning like this. The smirks he usually wore were only there to intimidate his opponents and certainly didn’t mean that he was in a good mood. But when he was grinning like this, it’s hard for Dazai not to smile.
“Don’t get distracted, Mackerel-face.”
Dazai jumped and turned his attention back to the game, just in time to see a bomb flying toward his car. He tried to dodge, but it was too late. His car went up in flames and the respawn countdown appeared on the screen again. His jaw dropped for the second time that evening.
“Oh, so that’s how you do it,” Chuuya said, a hint of wonder in his voice. “That’s really useful. Maybe we can do that in real life too.”
Dazai sighed and leaned back, opting to just watch Chuuya finish the game. He couldn’t help smiling at how much Chuuya seemed to be having fun.
If it meant that he could always see Chuuya like this, Dazai didn’t really mind losing.