"I'm so excited," Sasha cheesed, a jitter in her motions.
You all entered the laser tag lobby area. The bright red and yellow lights of the entire arcade seemed distant once you stepped into that dark room.
Once all twelve of you were inside, the door shut behind you and a voice announced, "Alright! You must be the 6:30 party of twelve! How is everybody doing tonight?"
"Good," you all said in unison.
"Awesome," he was standing next to a screen now. "Okay, so do you guys want to do everyone for themselves or teams?"
You all looked around and whispered, asking the other. Then, you all chimed after the census, "Teams."
"Okay, on the wall on your right-hand side, there are red vests. On the wall on your left, there are blue," the employee instructed. "You can pick which ever and then click your gun trigger to activate the vest."
"Boys versus girls first round?" Reiner suggested.
"Ooh, yes," Ymir mischievously agreed.
The girls went for the red vests on the right wall while the boys went for the blue. As you all were getting into them, you activated your vest per the instructions just given. You were ready to annihilate the guys, you didn't mean to brag but you were pretty good at laser tag.
"Okay, girls team, I'm going take you to your starting point and explain the rules," the worker said. "Follow me."
"Good luck, ladies," Reiner taunted.
"You're the ones who're gonna need luck," Sasha pointed at them menacingly.
With that, you all headed to the red team starting point. The arcade worker explained, "It's pretty simple, you shoot the opposing teams on their vests. You won't get points unless it's on the glowing portion of their vest. So that means the chest, back, and shoulder blades. You have to keep both hands on your gun, one on the trigger and the other on the buttons on the barrel, if you don't press those buttons, your gun won't work."
He continued, "If you get shot by the other team, you'll be deactivated for five seconds before you recharge. If you get hit a few times, you won't reactivate until you go to your team base and stand in front of the red light. And most importantly, no running. Any questions?"
"Yeah," Sasha raised her hand. "Can we name our team 'Hot Sushi Bitches'?"
"Yes," the employee said flatly. "Anything else? No? Okay. I've got to get to the boys now."
He walked out, you all waited a few minutes before you heard the music turn down and a voice on the speaker, "Welcome to Scouts Laser Arena. Let the game commence in three, two, one!"
The music cranked back up and your team—hot sushi bitches—dispersed within the double story maze. You didn't even get to strategize with the girls because of how excited you all were.
You made your way up to the second landing to scope out the opponents. You overlooked the first floor, positioning yourself at the railing to catch the men off guard.
A golden opportunity came your way when an unsuspecting Connie came into view. He had a stupid smile on his face and you almost felt bad because of how dumb he looked when you aimed for his shoulder blades. His vest deactivated and when he spawned back, you just kept shooting him down.
He kept looking around to see who shot him but it seemed he couldn't go far because he needed to head back to the blue base to regenerate.
Poor guy.
You looked around, waiting for somebody else, but you only saw Mikasa stealthily slip in front of your view. That's when you heard steps coming your way. You aimed your gun at the noise, shooting as soon as you saw blue.
It was Eren.
His brows pinched in befuddlement. He looked down at his dimmed vest then up at you giggling as you ran back down.
"I'm so beating your ass!" you heard the boy yell.
You rounded a corner as you ran down the ramp, shooting Reiner without hesitation. "What the hell!"
You laughed a maniacal laugh again as you dashed off. You knew Eren was probably after you, so you tried to go as deep into the maze as possible. He was out for blood and so were you.
"Annie! Wait! Let's talk this out!" you could hear Marco cry from somewhere else in the maze.
You closed your eyes when you heard a dramatic zap after that. Marco was now a fallen soldier. How many more soldiers of the blue team were falling exactly?
You ran past Mikasa who you shared an evil smirk with. That's when you both heard footsteps, you aimed your lasers at whoever it was, only to be met by Eren and Armin.
"Ha!" you laughed when both of their lights faded.
Five seconds were a lot quicker than you expected because they had already regenerated. Eren grinned a toothy grin and shot at you. You gasped when your red light dropped.
Mikasa still wasn't hit somehow, and when you were back, you shot them both down again. You and her ran off in different directions before they could recuperate. As you ran past Reiner again, you shot him like it was nothing.
"How are you so good?" Reiner exasperatedly quizzed.
You laughed, "I just am!" You almost bumped into Bertholdt who you, no surprise here, also shot down.
"Where do you keep coming from? You got me twice already," the tall brunette breathed.
You quietly tip toed, seeing Armin waiting for someone to show up so he could shoot them. He had no clue you were a mere few feet behind him as he kept his gun at the ready, still facing forward.
You shot at him and he didn't even realize he got shot down. He stood there oblivious that he had respawned again. It was when you shot him a second time, he realized he was attacked. Nevertheless, he kept peering left and right. No thought of looking behind him seemed to dwell in his mind.
You shot again and again and Armin looked as confused as ever. A twist in the game happened when Eren popped up ahead of his blonde best friend and pointed his gun at you, "I'm taking you down."
You choked out a laugh before getting into an all-out battle with him, shooting from a distance and quickly using parts of the maze to hide behind for cover. You got hit once but somehow, also landed one on the blood thirsty boy.
As you laughed while battling, you, Eren, and Armin all lost control of your guns, your vests dimming down and refusing to let you continue.
"This marks the end of the game," the speakers boomed. "Please return to the exit to see who won the game on the scoreboard."
You three were out of breath as you headed over to where you could see the red exit sign. Everyone was just as breathless and sweaty; those twenty minutes had felt revolutionary. Almost like you all came out as new people.
You stood next to Armin, Eren on his other side as you waited for everyone to come back in. Once everyone was, the employee said, "Great game! The results are on the screen. And it looks like Hot Sushi Bitches won by a landslide!"
The girls all cheered, jumping up and down and high fiving each other and the host-like employee. The boys shared the same dumbfounded expression, not understanding the concept of your group name.
You looked at the player rankings individually tallied by the score of each player.
"Looks like I got number two," Mikasa said. "I usually get first."
Your eyes followed Raven #2 on the screen, which must've been the name of her vest.
"I'm Wallcrawler," Connie puffed. "I got eight."
"Sabertooth," Reiner added his own stats. "Four."
"Bearfoot," Armin frowned, "Eleven."
"Blackwing," Marco peeped. "Nine."
"Snake-eyes, ten," Sasha groaned. "I was busy chasing Connie."
"Songbird," Historia covered her face in shame. "Twelve."
"Greyhound," Bertholdt chimed. "Seven."
"Claws," Annie said flatly. "Three."
"Warmonger," Ymir clicked her tongue. "Five."
"Jaegerbomb," Eren said seriously. "Number one."
"What?!" Ymir smacked his head. "That's not your name! Or your rank!"
"Fine," Eren scowled. "Titan. Six."
"Phoenix," you started to smile. "Number one."
Eren frowned at you as you wore a smug smirk. Everyone began commenting on your playing skills. Reiner pointed at you, "You all better watch out for her. I need her on my team next round."
"We'll do captains," Mikasa suggested. "I'll be one."
"I'll be the other," Reiner shrugged. "I go first though since I was at a disadvantage with these bozos." He pointed at the boys who all began yelling at him
"Fine," Mikasa folded her arms.
"Y/n," Reiner looked down at her like he won a golden goose. In a way, you were his trump card now.
You walked over to stand beside the football player. Mikasa scowled at losing you, she then said, "Annie."
Reiner appeared sullen at losing the third highest rank. He spewed, "Ymir."
"Sasha," Mikasa seemed to know of Sasha's hidden potential.
"Eren," Reiner said.
Well, shit. Eren sauntered over to you with a smirk. By then, Mikasa said, "Bertholdt."
"Connie," Reiner folded his arms.
"Marco," Mikasa stated her next pick.
"Armin," Reiner made his final choice. "Sorry, Historia."
By default, Historia had to be placed on Mikasa's team. The little blonde huffed, "It's fine."
You now donned a blue colored vest since your team was predominantly men. Silently, you bid Phoenix a farewell, not even wanting to look at the new name you got.
The employee led the red team out again, this time returning to take you rather quickly considering he didn't have to repeat the rules again.
"Any questions?" the kind worker asked, his glasses glinting in the blue light reflecting off the lens.
Connie raised his hand, "If they were hot sushi bitches can we be the called the thundercats?"
What a stupid name.
The worker sighed, "Sure. Game starts when the speaker goes off."
He walked out and within seconds, the same opening sequence of the game sounded overhead, "Welcome to Scouts Laser Arena. Let the game commence in three, two, one!"
A horn went off afterwards just like last time, you all went your separate ways. You were nervous about your chances of winning. Especially against diligent players like Annie and Mikasa.
Last round, your beginning move was to shoot from the second story which worked in your favor, but you figured your strategy shouldn't be the same each time.
This time, you headed towards the ramp that did lead to the second level, hiding behind a dead-end portion of the maze that nobody would even think of going to.
You knelt down, seeing your first target, or victim technically. Historia. She had no clue what she was doing. She looked like a fish out of water, struggling to figure out where to go.
You shot at her vest, and to your delight, it blinked due to being compromised. She looked around, "Hey! Who did that?"
You giggled, shooting again when she regenerated. She heard your snickering and whipped her head in your direction.
"I'm so going to kill you, Y/n!" she shrieked.
Right about now seemed the best time to run and find a new target and hiding place. You made your way towards the middle of the maze, crashing foolishly into Annie. She recuperated faster than you because she shot at you and you dashed off again to hide so she didn't steal more points by shooting again.
Now, you rounded a corner, walking further to realize . . . it was a dead end. You heard footsteps behind you. Quickly, you turned around to be met face to face with Sasha.
"Well, well, well," she slowly began all sinisterly. She pointed her gun at you, "Any last words?"
"Eat shit," a voice came from behind her. Then her vest's light went out, indicating she had been shot by your savior.
She gasped, turning to face Eren who was still shooting. He chuckled, "Uh oh. Better head back to little sushi bitch camp. Looks like you need to recharge."
Sasha whined, "Erennnnn, I hate you."
She ran off, leaving you alone at that dead end with Eren. He had the smallest of smiles, his eyebrows were resting like they always did. Your brows involuntarily knitted together, and your head tipped towards the right.
"Do you forgive me now?" he relaxed his shoulders.
"Oh, so you were apologizing?" you antagonized.
His eyes reeled to the side, "Yes—now can you just forgive me so we can move on?"
"Hmmm," you tapped your chin, stepping toward him with a curious look. You looked him up and down, "I need to mull it over. After I get a higher score than you again, of course."
With that, you made your way out of the dead end and back into the maze. He caught up, walking beside you now, "Yeah, right. You got lucky last time."
"No, it's 'cuz I'm not an idiot," you enunciated. "Jaegerbomb."
He groaned, "You're the dumber one between us."
"Uh huh, right," you scoffed.
"Aha!" Bertholdt excitedly jumped in front of you to shoot both of you.
You gasped, horrified to see Eren and your vest lights go out. Bertholdt wheezed as you and Eren began to run off because you needed to recharge.
"Look what the hell you did," Eren reprimanded.
"Me?" you sneered. "It was your fault!"
"That's not true and you know it," he scolded hotly.
You grumbled, "If I forgive you, will you leave me alone?"
He stood at the blue bases recharging light, scanning his vest and being brought back into the game, "Are you?"
You scanned yourself too, crinkling your nose, "If you deserved it, I would've."
He sighed, "You are the most irritating human I've ever come across."
You both returned to the game, ready to keep playing.
"That would speak volumes if it didn't come from your mouth," you shot Annie.
Eren returned a snappy reply while shooting Sasha again, "Yeah, bet you wanna know a lot about my mouth, huh?"
"Ew," you scrunched your face, shooting Historia once more. "Why do you even care about my forgiveness?"
"I don't," he spat, pulling the trigger with you once you both saw Mikasa's red vest. You kept walking, finding yourself alone again in search of more targets when he finished, "The others told me to apologize to you, that's why I did it."
You stopped in your tracks, "So you don't even give a fuck that you were an asshole to me then?"
He had a dull look, emotionless as he didn't respond.
You scoffed, "Shouldn't matter what I feel about forgiving you then."
You picked up your pace, storming away from him and trying to get lost in the maze when you heard him call, "Wait!"
Even after that, you didn't turn back. Not much more time passed before the game was finally over. You returned to the base, finding out that your team had won once again. You were a bit shocked though considering how absent you felt that round.