Chapter Text
“I don’t know if I’ve ever been here at this hour. The arcade is nearly empty.”
“Well, that’s what happens when you end up working late, pipsqueak. On my day off, too. We could have had a whole day of capturing plushies, but you just had to hang around at the office.”
You look up at your childhood friend, pouting. “I had paperwork to finish up!”
Caleb ruffles your hair, his usual response to your indignant tone. The two of you enter the arcade, the blast of air conditioning welcome in the late-night heat. Despite the short walk, Caleb’s hair is slightly damp—not quite plastered to his forehead, but just enough to give him a shine in the neon lighting.
“Alright, where should we start?”
“See anything you don’t have already?” Caleb asks, laughing. “I’d be shocked if you did; you’re here so often they must be terrified to see you coming.”
“I’m not the one who uses my Evol to cheat,” you huff under your breath, elbowing him in the side. “If anyone cleans them out, it’s you.”
“Oh, yeah? And who exactly do I do that for?”
You blush, turning even more pink in the flashing lights of a nearby arcade game. Caleb grabs your hand, inclining his head towards one of the machines in the back.
“Come on, pipsqueak. That machine is calling our names. I bet nobody ever uses it, which means it’s gotta be due for a win, don’t you think?”
You let him pull you over to an arcade machine in the far corner; as suspected, there’s nothing there you haven’t won at least once already, but playing the game is half the fun of it, anyway.
“Why don’t you go first?” Caleb guides you in front of him so that you stand at the machine’s controls, lining himself up behind you. You shudder slightly at the touch of his hands just above your hipbones, just firm enough to guide you but still light enough that his touch is barely there. “Show the machine who’s boss once and for all.”
You crane your head to the side so you can see his face, wrinkling your nose at him and smiling. “Fine, but try not to get intimidated, okay? I’m a hard act to follow.”
“Don’t I know it,” he laughs. “Let’s see it, then.”
You try your hand at the claw machine a couple times, the plushies slipping through your hands (or, more accurately, the claw) each time. Caleb’s laughter grows with each misstep, and so does your frustration.
“Fine, then, why don’t you give it a shot? It’s not so easy with you standing behind me distracting me the whole time.”
“Is that so, pipsqueak? Am I just a distraction to you now?” Caleb leans down, grabbing your sides suddenly. His breath tickles your ear, and you close your eyes for just a moment, leaning into him.
Caleb uses that moment to catch you off guard. He picks you up effortlessly, lifting you to his left and taking your place at the controls. “Why don’t you do your best to distract me back, then? I bet I’ll have better luck than you did.”
Your heart skips a beat; for a second, your bodies were so close, you could have almost believed he had a different outcome in mind. But, at the end of the day, it is still Caleb. Despite all the two of you have been through, sometimes he doesn’t seem all that different than he did years ago.
“Hey! I’m not just a little kid that you can throw around anymore, you know!”
“You may not be a little kid anymore, pipsqueak, but I can definitely still throw you around.”
You’re grateful that he’s fixated on the claw machine in that moment. You feel your face flush a dark crimson, the double entendre pictured so, so clearly in your mind. Your sides still tingle from where he held you just moments prior, and you wonder what it would be like to have his hands gripping you just a little more tightly.
Your gaze drops to his hand wrapped around the joystick, and you wonder, just for a moment, what it looks like wrapped around something else.
“So, which one do you want?” Caleb’s voice snaps you out of your reverie, and when your gaze finds his face again, he’s looking at you, smirking slightly. “You seemed to be thinking awfully hard about it. Is it really that difficult of a decision?”
You take a second to clear your throat and your mind, making sure your voice is even when it leaves your lips.
“Can I be a little greedy?”
“Aren’t you always? I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
You catch the heat in his voice as he says it, and there’s just the quickest glint in his eyes to match.
“They all look so good, I can’t possibly choose,” you tell him sweetly, and he smiles.
“I guess I’ll just have to win one of each for you, then.”
It takes him a couple tries, but he finally lands the first plushy: A cute little blue airplane with a pilot sitting inside the cockpit. You shake your head despite his grin.
“Clearly this thing is rigged! No wonder you wanted to play this one—you must have been practicing here while I was at work. You always used to do that when we were kids, you know. You’d sink hours of time in, then you’d pretend it was your first time when I was watching. It always blew me away when you’d win, but I’m not gonna fall for that anymore, Caleb!”
His grin grows bigger and bigger as you speak, and you know you’ve cracked him. Before long, he’s laughing; the deep, clear sound would draw attention if the arcade wasn’t so empty at this house.
“Okay, pipsqueak, you got me.” He holds his hands up in mock defeat. “But you can’t blame me for wanting to impress you all the time. You were always my biggest cheerleader, and…” His voice trails off, and his smile falters for just a split second; nobody else would have noticed, but after years of watching and memorizing his tells, you do. “I just never wanted to let you down.”
Your heart skips a beat in your chest. For one terrible second, you remember the heat and brightness of that night, the night that’s marked your history in a way no other night could. And then you remember the months after it, and you can’t bear the thought of his smile faltering again.
“I get it. So, why don’t you show me what you learned?”