🌸monomols🌸

One benefit of going to the arcade in the middle of the day on a weekday, were the lack of lines for all the games. Rows of brightly lit claw machines played jingles to lure in unlucky players. To the left a collection of rhythm games in different play styles. Ticket producing games sat wedged further in, so that players had to pass the prize counter and all its temptations.

"Well?" Black Star already had a game card they could share. "What do you want to start with first?"

Maka combed the aisles for their old favorites. A number of carnival type games they used to double up on as kids would maximize how many tickets they could get with their tokens. Knocking down fluffy clowns and hitting targets to a beat were their specialty, but in later years the games had caught up to such schemes. Even between the two of them they couldn't reach a coveted grand prize. Black Star pitied the children that tried in earnest, too young to realize how woefully rigged the games were.

"Wanna give this one a go?" Maka found a ring toss game. The more rings that fell over bottles the better. It'd be a good measure of how easy the claw games would be to win a prize at.

"Always." He swiped the card. Damn, he thought he'd loaded up more tokens than he had. That halved the number of games he thought they could play. He pulled together a cheeky grin, not wanting Maka to suspect something had gone awry.

Rings set free, slide down to a bay at their waists. A frantic flurry of tosses lit up each bottle. Maka glanced up every now and then. The game delayed when a bottle reset, so they had to spread out more instead of hitting the same targets over and over. It was over way too soon, his shoulder ached as both hovered over the LED screen. Sixty tickets, was that any good?

"Let's try something else," she said. "Forget silly prizes, we're here to have fun."

That was a good sign, wasn't it?

Instead of putting him on trial, she'd slid back to her usual self. There had been a part of him that worried she'd forget how comfortable they were with each other. When they had the same goal, life slipped by with ease.

She dragged him over to the rhythm games. Each machine they tried their hands at, the same memey songs jumped out at them from the line up. Black Star translated menu options where he could in a sluggish elementary fashion as he sounded the words out in his head before translating.

It'd been a long time since she looked at him with what he'd come to recognize admiration mixed with something else. Many of his injuries growing up could be attributed to trying to get Maka to look at him like that. Once they both were training it'd grown steadily impossible to so much as surprise her, but there she was, caught bashfully watching him when she thought he wouldn't notice.

"What?" he asked.

"Nothing," Maka said. "Alright, best two out of three?"

The points hardly mattered when they were equally bad at it. Graphics of anime girls arms clipping through their boobs had them in stitches, and the dancing games left them breathless.

"You sure you don't want a prize or something?" he asked, when the tokens on the card dwindled.

"We're adults," Maka said, "if we really wanted something, we could just buy it."

"Eh, where's the fun in that?" He took her hand. "Come on, we can at least look at the machines."

All through the winding aisle, he didn't let go of her hand. With so many claw games packed in the arcade, it would take a while to spot a machine even worth trying. Her hesitating a hair too long, had their arms go taught, and he backed up to see what she was looking at. The soft face of a round panda keychain smiled up at her with hope it's beady little eyes.

It was illegal to smash the thing open. He didn't need her squeezing his hand to remember that. Still, the way the pandas had been placed, it clearly was a trap.

"Hmm…" He checked the surrounding machines. "I think we'll have better luck at that one. They got the same little guys."

Like second nature, she stood in front of the controls. He swiped the token card, bringing the machine to life. Thirty seconds on the clock to line the claw up for a perfect grab. Goosebumbs flared up her neck when he drew near.

"Wh-what?" She tried to look at him, but his chin rested on her shoulder.

"I'm helping." He laid his hand over hers.

Every breath she took, she pressed a little into his chest. His hand kept her from being to jittery with the claw. She jiggled it and it dropped over the toy. For a few brief moments, the prize suspended in the air, then fell just shy of the target.

Redraw from 2023!