Tom's POV:
Whatever that was that happened with all those clones was soon forgotten, as the alcohol slowly began to take over. I had my bottle of Smirnoff in hand, and Tord had selected a few beers for himself.
"So... Come here often?" I ask generally curious and then realizing how it sounded. I decided to play it out as a joke even though I had originally meant for it to be a legitimate question. I even followed it up with an eyebrow wiggle. Sensing the joke at the end there, Tord laughed a bit before responding.
"Heh, well, when you lead an army, you don't have much time for arcades, but I have made sure it was maintained in case. I do come on occasion, I guess." He shrugged with a hint of laughter seeping into his answer. "But now, we drink!" He lifts his beer in the air triumphantly, his teeth shining through his wide grin. "A toast!"
"To what?" I ask curiously, raising an eyebrow and tilting my head. He pauses, considering for a moment as his face softens slightly. A genuine smile creeps across his lips, replacing the grin he always had to cover up everything else.
"To us." He lifts his drink in the air more gesturing for me to toast. I comply and finish the gesture off with a satisfying clink. We both tilt back our drinks, each taking a big swig to commemorate the moment. The pleasant burn of the alcohol felt warm and familiar as it went down, even if it was a little strong. Tord suddenly looked up, returning his full attention back to me.
"Well, we are at an arcade..." His eyes lit up with excitement as he scanned the room. He looked like a kid in a candy store almost, but his excitement would put any kids excitement to shame. Tord was beaming, and it was nice to see him happy. "Let's play some games!" He grabbed my arm, practically yanking me out of my seat. I stumbled behind him as he pulled me to, who would have guessed, the nearest shooting game.
"What a surprise," I chuckle, rolling my digital eyes.
"What can I say," He picks up the red plastic handgun with a cord coming out of it, connecting it to the machine. It reminded me a lot of the gun that plugs into my visor. Except this gun was obviously fake. "I like guns." He gives a wicked smile, pointing the plastic toy to the screen and triggering a comical gun noise that seemed to be music to his ears. I copy his actions, selecting the blue player two gun. He smirks at the action, obviously loving the challenge. In acceptance of the challenge, he hits the rectangular button in the middle of the system labeled with a flashing "start."
"Oh, it's on witness." Tord declares, focusing on the machine as the game starts up. It comes to life, casting a white glow on Tords face. The light evened out his skin color hiding the scars, and from this angle, I only saw the half of his face that was mostly normal. It made him look younger, more attractive even. Even with the scars, though, he was still rather handsome, I will admit. I still didn't fully understand the nickname, but I smiled at it anyway. It was still something we shared.
"Yeah, let's go commie." I smiled. A genuine smile. It was one of the biggest ones since I woke up. Tord seemed taken back. Stunned almost. He had completely turned away from the game. He, too, smiled a small and cute smile. It almost seemed sad? Longing, perhaps.
"Go!" The game yelled, and I snapped out of it, turning and quickly shooting at the targets popping up on the screen before me, my visor still focusing in definitely giving me an accuracy advantage.
"Huh? Eh! No fair!" The threat of losing shook him from his trance, and he too began to focus on the game.
"How is it unfair? What did I do?" I laugh over the cartoon like gun sounds.
"Heh, classic stupid Tom.... You're cute, you know that?" I he a smirk form on his face out of the corner of my vision.
Cute? I'm not - He thinks I-
My face has quickly heated up, probably turning the color of Tord's hoodie.
Oh, come on, Tommie, you're really gonna let Tord beat you? Tomster chuckles in my head. Sometimes, it's so easy to forget he is even there. Oh yeah, the game. I didn't even realize I had stopped shooting at Tord's comment.
"See?" Tord chuckles.
I huff and pick up the pace, aiming my gun once more in an attempt to finish off strong.
"Look who decided to show up," I think in my head, directly speaking to Tomster whilst still concentrating on the game.
I'm always here.
The thought made me uncomfortable, but I knew he was right. Knowing my thoughts, of course, Tomster only laughed in response, obviously enjoying the show.
A bell rings, signifying the end of the game, and the scores pop up on the screen. Somehow, even though it seemed nearly impossible, we tied.
"I think..." Tord picks up his beer he had earlier placed on the ground and takes a large swig. I take the opportunity to do the same with my beloved smirnoff. "...we need a rematch."
"Agreed." I nod, giving my best playful yet intimidating look possible. I go to reach for the toy gun once more until Tord puts his hand on mine, stopping me.
"No, no, my dear Thomas..." He smirks evilly as a plan obviously begins to form in that big brain of his. "A rematch like this needs to be on a bigger scale." He swigs his arms out, gesturing at how big his plan really was. He was completely facing away from me and looking up into his own world of his. To say the least... I was kind of scared.
"Tord, we are not having a real gun fight!" Of course, I had to assume the worst with him because even if that wasn't his plan, I knew the thought had probably crossed his mind.
"Though that would be fun..." he chuckles. I knew it. "I actually have other plans in mind." With that, he grabbed my arm and was once more dragging me across the arcade. He takes me all the way to the back of the arcade to a plain and unlabeled, large, metal door. He turns back to check what my response was, which obviously was just confusion. Who knows what Tord had behind that door? Despite the door seeming semi heavy, Tord opens it with ease. It opens to reveal pure darkness. There wasn't a single source of light to be found. Now, this was where Tord kills me.
Is it a bad thing I keep assuming he is going to kill me?
You don't trust you "Boyfriend" Thomas~? Tomster teases in my head.
"You say that like you know something I don't..." I think careful not to accidentally say it out loud.
Oh, come on... You can feel something is off, too. I can tell. You just don't want to believe it.
"Since when do you care?"
I am basically you. What you go through, I do, too. You die, then who knows what happens to me. Get it?
"Sure, okay... whatever, " I roll my eyes on accident, realizing too late that Tord would see me just randomly rolling my eyes.
"Not impressed, Tom?" He chuckles a bit.
"By a dark room? Kinda scared, actually. " I laugh it off, trying to shift his attention off me, literally just having a conversation with myself. He didn't have to know that, though.
"Just wait till you see what's inside~"
OH GOD
With that, he pushes me into the darkness, and I stumble forward and barely avoid tripping. The door shuts loudly behind me, and due to the situation, I wasn't able to tell if he followed me in or not. The night vision mode on my visor begins to power on until it abruptly shuts off.
"Wha-"
"No peaking Thomas~" I jump a little as Tords voice emerges from the darkness somewhere behind me. Did he do that to my visor? Can he manually control some of the features somehow? For some reason, the thought really unsettled me. I turn in the direction of Tords voice and see a small circular blue glow of Tords robotic arm as he uses it to see to type into a small key pad on the wall. There is a beep and suddenly the room is flooded with a dark purple light causing lots of neon shapes on the walls and floor to appear as if they are glowing even though I could tell it was just the effect given off by this type of light on them. It was weird how light but dark it was at the same time.
We were in a rather small room, surprisingly. On one wall, there were four vests hanging up with gun like devices attached to them with wires. On another wall, therethere was an even larger door than the one we entered through that had a control panel next to it. Then there was also, of course, the door we came through.
"What is all of this?" I ask, still not completely sure even with the light on.
"Laser Tag." He announces proudly. He really is insane.
"How is that any safer than a real gun fight?!" He just laughs at me a bit before responding. There was obviously something I was missing.
"They aren't real lasers Tom. Only fake ones, but they act as real guns, and the vests track how much and where your opponent shoots you."
I nod slowly, understanding. To be fair, it actually sounded like fun. Especially because it was one of the first fun things with Tord, it seems that doesn't involve pain... Hopefully.
"Seems like a worthy rematch if you ask me."
And with that, I had accepted the challenge. He led me to the vests and helped me get hooked up. He carefully selected the blue vest for me and the red one for himself. There was also a green one and a purple one. We spent the next couple minutes strapping ourselves in and powering up the gadgets. His gun began to glow a bright red and mine a blue, matching the rest of the vest. Under the purple lighting, his red eye seems to glow like fire, and his robot hand seemed brighter than ever. It was intimidating but fascinating. I didn't even realize that I was staring.
"Like what you see?" He wriggles his eyebrows, and I blush, not knowing how to respond. I didn't want to admit to staring, but I think it was obvious.
"You wish." I roll my eyes.
"Pffttt you know you do~"
"Uh huh, okay. Keep dreaming."
"You are so on now." With that, he turns and adjusts settings on the control panel for the game. I assume the arena he mentioned was behind the door next to a panel. How big was this going to be exactly?
"Won't you have an advantage since you know the layout of this place?" I ask really, not wanting to lose to him.
"Sometimes your enemy will have advantages, but you need to know how to still beat them." He actually sounded really wise for once. It was strange. He sounded like a real leader. His seriousness took me by surprise for a minute. "To answer your question, no, I won't. I haven't ever had the chance to test it out because well... Things happened with the people I was going to test it out with. Paul and Pat built it, though."
"I'm sorry about that -"
"No, it's... my fault..." Was that.. guilt? Since when does Tord feel things like guilt? "But we get to play it now, so it's all okay!" He grins, and his teeth seem to glow purple with the light. I could tell it was his usual fake grin, though. If anything, it was even more fake now than ever, but I wasn't going to say anything about it .
Tord finishes up on the panel, and there is a buzz as the door swings open by itself.
"Good luck." He grins at me. I could tell he didn't mean it, though, or maybe he did. Either way, I know he wanted to win.
"You too," I grin back, preparing myself.
Three tones sound, and we both rush in, in separate directions. The arena was absolutely huge, and it was a complete maze. It was styled similarly to the last room with everything being black but outlined in the neon colors that appeared to glow under the purple lighting. It was dark, but not too dark. It did add a bit of a challenge, though.
Once I thought I was far enough away, I stopped running and listened for any noise. The issue with Tord was that aside from his scary skill with a gun, he was quick and intelligent. Thankfully, he wasn't the most quiet, though. I heard some light padding of feet nearby somewhere in front of me. How did he find me so quickly?
I peek around the wall that my back is up against, and I see him quickly dashing from wall to wall, attempting to get behind me. I don't think he was aware that I knew where he was. I could use that. When I know he can't see me, I go behind a nearby wall so I can see the spot he would have to go to shoot me where I used to be. It worked well enough, apparently. Not too shortly after, I saw a confused Tord round the corner, but I was just out of his line of sight. I took aim with the plastic laser gun and fired. A cartoon like zapping noise goes off, and a laser shoots out in Tords direction.
I missed.
That was when I found out that not only was my night vision off on my visor, but so was my aim assist. Tord, now having been informed of my location, ducked behind a wall and peeked out to shoot at me, too. I tried to jump out of the way, but his laser still barely got me in the shoulder. My vest vibrated, and a small screen on the back of my gun informed me I had four lives left.
"You gotta try better than that Thomas~" It was even scarier because I had already lost where he went, and his voice seemed to echo through the entire arena. This really was going to be a challenge. I look around quickly, trying to find any sign of the Norwegian. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the smallest flash of red in between the walls. I see him a split second before he sees me, and I shoot him in the chest.
"Got ya Tord~"
"Oh, I see how it is." The last thing is I see him smirk before disappearing again into the maze. Knowing that my spot was compromised, I too run back deeper into the other side of the maze. It honestly seemed to be endless. There did seem to be different sections, though. Next thing I know, I'm in an area that is just filled with mirrors scattered among the thing black walls. This was not good. And not good it was. I see a laser begin to bounce off a few mirrors in front of me, only to reflect off and hit me in the chest.
3 lives left.
I needed to move. No matter which direction I headed, though, I could not find my way out of the mirrors. If I can't get out, then I guess I'll use it to my advantage. From there, I began to formulate a plan. I stood right in front of a mirror and waited. Tord isn't the only clever one. To avoid suspicion, I acted as if I was confused and looking for Tord, though I was really just waiting for his laser to come at me. I didn't have to wait too long, though. I heard the Zap and immediately ducked. It flew over my head and reflected back off the mirror behind me the way it came. As if to confirm my plan worked, I heard a loud vibration and a grunt from Tord signifying that it did indeed hit him.
"Tord, why are you shooting yourself?" I tease.
"Haha." He fake laughs. "You think you're so clever, don't you, Witness?"
"Yep!"
Not wanting to get shot, I dash away and finally make it out of the mirrors. Instead, I find myself in the middle of a rather open section of the layout. Once again. Not. Good. I can't really tell which was worse, though. This section had plenty of walls, but they were all either short or had holes in them, or both. And from the loud thuds behind me, I'm guessing this would be the one on one finale with me a Tord here. My assumptions were proven correct as he appeared on the other side of the section. Then the war began.
After a while of going at it, we had both shot each other two more times. If my math was correct, that meant we each only had one life left. It truly was the finale.
"Come on out, Tom."
I had found myself hiding behind one of the walls in the section with the least amount of holes and carefully positioning myself to not be seen by Tord. How was I going to win this? I think my only option was to be quicker than him. In a sudden thought, I round the corner and come face to face with Tord. Each of us instantly had our guns raised inches from each others chests. It was the ultimate stare down.
"Now it just comes down to who shoots first, I guess." I smirk, slowly coming up with a plan.
I quickly move my gun just right to push his out of the way but keep mine aimed on him. I dash forward quickly, using his surprise and slight imbalance to pin him between the shorter wall behind him and my gun. He stared at me wide-eyed and surprised. He raises his hands as if caught by the police and grins.
"Okay, you got me..."He chuckles.
"Any last words?" I mock.
"Actually, yeah..." Like I have said. Tord. Is. Fast. Before I even had time to react he brought his free hand not holding his gun, down and he grabbed my gun, to my surprise, pulling it towards him but at an angle to which I could not shoot him. Still holding onto the gun, this pulled me forward, and he caught me with his other arm. I didn't even have time to process any of it. Before I knew it, his lips were on mine, and now I was pressed up on the wall. I did have to admit, he was smooth.
His lips were rough on mine, but it wasn't unpleasant. If anything, I wanted more. I pulled him closer and Buzz.
He shot me.
I jump in surprise and a bit of frustration, but he doesn't pull back but only grins into the kiss. I pull back slightly for air and to hide the shame in my loss.
"It really shouldn't surprise me by now that you like to play dirty." I say, rolling my eyes but not arguing too much. Maybe losing was worth it this time.
"You know it~" He practically growled in my ear, causing me to shiver. Of course, this only caused an even wider smirk on his face.
He had won the game.
And I was his prize.