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Leave it to Usagi to lead them to trouble.
Furthermore, leave it to Usagi to lead them to trouble that left them in a locked room for god knows how long whilst an unknown enemy ransacked the mall looking for them.
Paco sighed and slid down against the smooth metal of the door, fumbling with the handle one last time to ensure it really was bolted shut.
“You sure you couldn’t have found a better spot for us to hunker down?” He grumbled as the handle groaned and refused to give way. “Somewhere other than a storage room. Preferably somewhere we might be able to get out of in the next century.”
Usagi sighed dramatically and flung his arms up into the air.
“How was i ‘posed to know that we were gonna get locked in here!” He crossed his arms in defiance and leaned up against the back wall, having already descended to the floor and taken up much of the precious real estate. “We were getting chased and I got us outta there!”
Usagi paused and smirked, clearly cooking up what he had deemed to be an incredible displacement of blame that would surely allow him to be rid of the brunt of the guilt. Paco was already rising to the defensive before the words left his mouth.
“If anything, it’s your fault Paco. You could have snatched the keys from any one of the security guards on our way in here with those muscles of yours.” Usagi looked away and muttered the final statement over his shoulder through pursed lips. “At least then you would have put them to use.”
“Right. Like I had a clue you were gonna drag us in here.” He snarled in response, unwilling to admit defeat when his opponent was so obviously wrong.
“You shoulda guessed. I’m a predictable guy.”
Paco groaned, the back of his head hitting the door hard enough to echo in the tight space they inhabited and throwing his hat askew on his head.
“You’re anything but, Usagi.”
A terse few minutes of silence passed between them, the lightbulb overhead flickering occasionally as the only marker of the passage of time. Usagi was restless in his corner as he fidgeted with anything he could get his hands on; drumming on his kneecaps and humming the tune to a song Paco couldn’t parse, straightening out the layers of his outfit just to go back and readjust them to their previous state a few seconds later, anything to avoid the deafening silence and Paco’s glaring.
“Stop twitching.” He finally grumbled out, kicking his leg out toward Usagi’s and briefly halting the cacophony of noises and movements. “You’re making me anxious just looking at ‘ya.”
The command briefly worked in his favor - allowing Paco a blissful moment of absolute stillness. He was sure that if he closed his eyes, he might be able to fall asleep and pass the time until their rescue in a well-deserved slumber before his peace was broken.
Usagi snickered and gnawed on his fingernails, staring down Paco like he was waiting for him to be the one to break. He looked downright mischievous. Paco suddenly knew the definition of absolute fear.
“Hows about we play a game then?”
A game was the last thing Paco wanted to play with a man like Usagi.
“Not a chance.”
The whining that followed was more grating on the senses than the fidgeting.
“Aww c’mon Paco!” He cried, the high pitched, nasally whimper following his name almost enough to break his resolve for the sole purpose of silencing him. “You don’t want me to move, you don’t want me to talk, you don’t want me to do anything! So entertain me!”
Unfortunately for Paco, he had a point.
“Fine.” He groused. “But nothing weird.”
“How about truth or dare?”
Usagi answered a little bit too quickly to not have an ulterior motive.
“That counts as weird.”
He whined again, displeased with being shot down so easily. The crestfallen look on his round, chubby face looked out of place and somewhere deep inside, Paco felt guilty for having done something to upset him.
“It’s only weird if you make it weird!” Usagi argued, unwilling to go down without a fight.
“Fine, I guess.” Paco relented. “Just don’t make it weird.”
Usagi grinned; a wide thing that split his face in two, full of teeth with a peek of his tongue pressed against the backside of them. Paco swore it would hurt to smile like that but anything less would be utterly incorrect for a person as inconceivable as Usagi.
“I’ll pinky promise it even!” Usagi stuck out his hand, pinky out and waited for Paco to meet him halfway. For some unknown reason, Paco reached out and indeed, met him halfway - wrapping his pinky around the other’s and shaking their conjoined hand once to make good on the promise. “You can go first as a token of my good will, dear Paco.”
Not one to turn his nose up at good fortune, Paco obliged.
“Truth or dare?”
Usagi feigned thought with his finger hooked around his bottom lip before answering.
“Truth!”
Similarly, Paco pretended like he didn’t already have a slew of questions built up out of sheer curiosity.
“What’s under the green suit?” He gestured vaguely to his cramped form, obviously covered in the aforementioned suit with a typical outfit layered on top of it.
Usagi’s eyes widened as he drew his long, gangly limbs up closer to his core in response.
“My body?”
Paco rolled his eyes.
“Well I could have guessed that. I meant it more like why do you-”
Usagi cut him off by unfurling the pretzel he had folded himself into and waggling one spindly finger in front of his nose, tutting his disapproval through another wide smile.
“That counts as another question! You’ll have to wait until your next turn to ask me again!”
Paco threw him an unimpressed glare but didn’t argue, allowing Usagi to continue in asking him whether he would like to reveal personal information he would probably rather take to the grave or make a fool out of himself for the other’s entertainment.
He chose truth.
“Why do you want to know what’s under my clothes?”
Paco shrugged and hoped that the burning flush he felt didn’t travel farther than his ears.
“Just curious.”
Usagi groaned and slouched against the wall, clearly unimpressed with the lackluster response.
“But like, why-”
Paco held up his hand and smirked. Usagi already knew what he was going to say.
“That’s another question.” Another perturbed noise escaped his lips as Paco continued to hold a smug expression. “My turn.”
“Just get on with it, cheater. I pick truth.” He was well and truly pouting now, his lips tugged into an exaggerated frown in the most pathetic way.
“Why do you wear the suit and are you hiding something with it?”
Usagi flushed bright red and sat up ramrod straight, pointing an accusatory finger a mere centimeter away from Paco’s face.
“No fair! That's two questions in one!” He practically screamed.
Paco shushed him with a wave of his hand and a swift kick to his shin.
“Just answer the question.” He hissed. “And keep your voice down.”
Usagi rubbed his shin and winced, his frown deepening as he retreated back into his own space.
“I’m not hiding anything. I just think it looks cool and I get sunburnt easily.” Usagi held his arm close to his body and turned his body to lean up against the back wall, likely out of embarrassment, though Paco refused to believe that he truly felt shame in answering the question.
Paco once again elected for truth knowing that Usagi had a burning question; he had to prove he was capable of compassion somehow.
“In what way are you curious about me?”
He mulled over his answer carefully, this time not having to fake his escape into thought.
“You confuse me. I want to know why you are the way you are.”
Usagi lolled his head from side to side, weighing the answer he was given and deciding that he enjoyed the honesty he was given in return for his own. Slowly, the scowl disappeared from his face and was rapidly replaced with the burning glee he was so accustomed to seeing.
Usagi had decided to up the ante this time around, electing to trust Paco enough to dare him to do something safe enough to keep their hiding spot under wraps.
“I dare you to take off part of the costume.”
Despite the seemingly brazen question, it was vague enough to give him an out. Usagi was grateful for the act of kindness, unsure as to why he was given it in the first place. He wasn’t ready to lose the anonymity that came with the coverage of the suit and instead opted to pop the beret off his head, settling it atop his propped knee instead.
Tufts of unruly ginger hair peeked out from where the edges of the suit clung to his forehead and alluded to more underneath the covering - at least enough to be pulled back into the clumsy bun that stuck out at the back of his head. Despite the cop out, Paco seemed pleased to study what was now left uncovered like it was a secret he was the only one allowed to know. For all intents and purposes, he had been the only one to know what lay under the cap as it was practically stitched to his head. Even such a small act was an incredible display of vulnerability he wasn’t going to take for granted.
When had he become so soft?
“I suppose it's only fair that I also choose dare.” Paco spoke with a simple shrug of his shoulders. “Do your worst.”
“I dare you to kiss me.”
Usagi looked smug. Far too smug for someone who made such a childish dare under the assumption that he wouldn’t follow through. It was frustrating to be caught between losing a game he didn’t necessarily want to play in the first place and opening himself up to blackmail easily held against him, especially after he had been so generous with his own dare. Paco wanted to punch him right in his stupid - albeit kissable - face. This had surely been his goal from the start, right? Get him to let his guard down enough so he could swoop in for the kill. He couldn’t let him win now, not with his integrity on the line - but when else would he get the opportunity to follow through on such a request with an excusable reason? And with such easy plausible deniability?
He was thinking too much.
Despite his inner turmoil, Paco complied.
Neither one of them heard the door squeak open behind them.