“ Dang it!” Kaito shouts in exasperation as he gets a 7 on top of his 10 and 5, Rantaro quietly tidying up the cards and shuffling the stack again. “ Fifteen time in a row. You’re good, Taro.”

“ Haha, thanks. Shuichi, you want a turn?” He holds up the deck, the light catching the gold foil edges and print. It was a birthday present from Shuichi to Kaito, since it reminded him of the stars he loved so much. In return Shuichi had to endure at least 15 seconds straight of not touching the ground when Kaito held him in a death grip of a hug. It wasn't a bad hug though, so he shouldn't even complain.

Shuichi shakes his head at the offer to play though. He wasn’t much better at Blackjack anyways, always undershooting the numbers as Kaito calls it. It wasn’t completely his fault, seeing the numbers crawl closer to 21 with even the slightest chance of going over by sheer luck made his anxiety spike a little. He wanted something that wouldn’t put him in a ridiculous early grave here.

Rantaro simple shrugs, and they go for another round, Kaito concentrating so hard despite it being relatively simple and essentially luck. Shuichi watches in silence, Kaito losing yet another round.

“ Ah, I give up! Let’s play something else.” He gets up and wanders around to grab something they haven't played yet. Shuichi is pretty sure they’ve played most of the board and card games in this cabin by now, but he still watches Kaito look around for anything else to do. Rantaro takes a seat on the couch besides Shuichi, hands shuffling the cards in his hand as Kaito walks around looking for something. Kaito was smart, Shuichi had to give him that, so he must be looking for anything with enough of an advantage for him.

He learnt that the hard way anyways, after Shuichi swept the floor with Clue an half an hour prior to this and Rantaro somehow winning Monopoly in two hours tops last week with the rest of their friends, even with Kaito and Shuichi teaming up on their boyfriend in the last half.

Sadly not a lot of popular games were inherently space related unless they specifically went out to look for them, so Kaito was a bit out of luck for any kind of big advantage over them. He still manages to get a few wins here and there though, when the situation aligns itself perfectly for him. Usually it also meant he wanted to play more, and then ends up losing again.

“ Hey, let’s play UNO!” Kaito finally yells, turning around with a beaten up box of the cards in his hand. He was already overflowing with enthusiasm, even if they haven't even gotten to the actual gameplay, but it was enough to get Rantaro and Shuichi sliding off the couch in unison, Rantaro lightly chuckling as Shuichi just gives a soft smile.

“ You sure, Kaito? Remember the last time we played UNO?”

“ Yeah. Kokichi and Kiyo kept UNO reversing each other because Kokichi called out Kiyo’s UNO before Kiyo could. With laminated UNO cards.” Kaito’s face morphs into a mixture of confusion and distaste, shaking his head at the end as his expression melted even further into confusion.

Shuichi remembers that day pretty well. It devolved into chaos pretty fast, and by the end Gonta won by default because somehow the rest of the cards ended up in the pile and nobody could remember what exact cards they had. It still left a bit of UNO-related grudges though in nearly everyone by the end of it, and everyone promised to play again one of these days.

Still, today it was just the three of them, and it couldn’t be that bad, right? The more… excitable people weren’t here, so it would just be a calm, normal game.

Or so he hoped. Sometimes UNO went hard, and Shuichi doesn't like to admit it, but something about this game made him choose violence. Politely, of course, but violence nonetheless. Kaito takes a seat in front of them and dumps the cards out, taking the colourful stack and shuffling them with ease. “ House rules?” He says as he deals out seven cards to each of them.

“ Actually, can we just do the stacking rule? Make it faster for us. It’s only the three of us, we can only switch hands so much here.” Shuichi pipes up, Kaito nodding as he sets the remaining cards face down between them, Shuichi shifting so Rantaro couldn’t see his cards as he inspects them.

And what glorious cards they were. Between two sixes and a four, he had one skip, a Draw 4, reverse, and a colour change. He glances up at Rantaro, and even if his face showed nothing incriminating, the way his eyes flashed a little meant he had something good as well. Kaito, on the other hand, was much more easier to read in comparison. His hand was simple, but might still pack a punch or two in there. But there was no way he was underestimating his boyfriend. He gave a good offense when he wanted to, and with all the losses Kaito was just handed earlier, he may have even more of an incentive to win this.

“ Right then, let's start, shall we?” Rantaro starts them off, flipping the card from the pile in front of them. A yellow two, an easy card. “ I’ll go first, we’ll go counterclockwise, sound good?”

“ Yeah, that works!” Kaito chirps, Shuichi only nodding as he watches. Rantaro sets down a yellow 3, so Shuichi follows it up with his four, also yellow. Kaito goes for a seven, Rantaro setting down another seven, this time red. They were going easy for now, it seems.

So, still taking it easy, Shuichi sets down his red skip, much to the chagrin of Kaito gasping besides him.

“ So quickly?”

Shuichi only shrugs. “ Sorry Kaito, it's the rules.” It was the truth though. Plus, the other other one he had available was his suit change, and he wanted to hold onto that for a bit longer. Kaito sighs, and he sits there as Rantaro puts down a two. Back to Shuichi, he had nothing to answer for it, so he grabs a card. It was just another colour change, so he went again. It was red, but it was a reverse card.

“ Ah… Well.” He mutters, then plays it, Kaito just staring at him like he stole his space slippers and threw them over a bridge.

“ Ah, guess it's my turn.” Rantaro, not even missing a beat, grabs a card, then another, then one more before settling a three down. “ Your turn, Kaito.”

Kaito quietly huffs, but goes, grabbing a card — It seems he didn't have a red either, or even a three — then another when it apparently wasn’t what he needed. It takes his sixth draw before he had something, putting down a six.

Perfect.

Shuichi easily puts down a blue 6 with a placid smile, watching Kaito’s stare hard into the cards in his hand and the stack in front. Rantaro puts down a seven, so he goes for a nine, grinning happily.

Shuichi didn’t have a nine, or even another blue card, but that was fine by him. “ Change colour to yellow.” He sets down one of his change suits, not even looking up to see Kaito’s expression that he wears like a book. Rantaro takes it in stride with a six, vibing along as Kaito puts down a five.

Ah, it seems he only has his draw four and another change colour to answer with. But wasn’t it too early? Shuichi looks up, and he catches Rantaro’s gaze for a split second, which is just a casual smile, then sees Kaito practically begging with his eyes not to get even more cards than he already had without even looking up.

“….. Change colour to green.”

“ Again?!” Yep, there it was. Shuichi mutters a quick apology to Kaito for it, but by all means he was here to win. “ You two are already down to your last cards…” Kaito mumbles, staring at both of the back of their hands.

“ Well, I guess you had a bad hand this round?” Rantaro offers, putting down his green nine. Kaito pouts, looking at his cards and then going serious, putting down a skip. Shuichi can only chuckle. It was only fair.

But, Kaito was still quite a ways away from UNO. Apparently Rantaro found it amusing as well, although he ends up drawing seven cards before he seemed satisfied, putting down a seven. He looked no more bothered than usual, even though Shuichi could tell there was a slight hint of irritation at the card luck not favouring him that turn.

Back to Kaito though, he puts down a 5, Shuichi setting down his other six over that. Two cards left, and Kaito knew it.

“ Rantaro- He's about to win-“ Kaito announces under his breath, although Shuichi could still hear him clear as day from here.

Rantaro nods, and now both of them were staring at him. It made him a little uncomfortable actually, Shuichi shifting in his seat. Thankfully they both look away, but not before Rantaro flashes a small smile to Shuichi.

Shuichi knows that smile by heart. It’s the same smile Rantaro gives off when he feels up to a little bit of friendly chaos. It’s also the same smile he gives when Shuichi finally solves that one maths problem, but none of them were anywhere near any maths.

Kaito seems to have noticed too, and his jaw hangs open a little when Rantaro slowly slips a card out from his hand, then sets it on the play pile.

A Draw Four.

“ Rantaro! How could you-“

“ Sorry, space cowboy.”

“ Even with the nickname? Rantaro how could you-” His voice was positively laced in pure and utter betrayal, but then he lets out a breath, looking at Shuichi like he was going to stab his poor hat collection. “ Fine. What colour?” Despite looking at Shuichi, he was clearly still talking to Rantaro, who just stares down at his cards.

“ Uh…. blue."

Shuichi raises an eyebrow, but he doesn't get long to mull over it as Kaito slaps down a blue Draw Two over the Draw Four, and suddenly he seems pleased.

… For two seconds, tops. Shuichi just stares at him, and just as Kaito processes what his look was for-

“ Shuichi, no-"

“ UNO. I’ll keep it at blue.” Shuichi sets down his Draw Four, and Kaito looks absolutely broken. He looks to Rantaro, just silently pleading that Rantaro wouldn’t do it to him, but Rantaro seems to have woke up and chose violence specifically to beat Kaito in UNO, as he sets down yet another Draw Four.

“ Green.” Rantaro says with the same casual tone as if he was just ordering at a restaurant, and Kaito just loses it, muttering how both his boyfriends just ganged up with a total of 14 cards for him. Yes, he put some in himself, but it was only two. Rantaro reaches over to give him a pat on the back, and even Shuichi felt a little bad now.

Only a little though. He could console Kaito right after this.

Still, Kaito chugs on, but he takes his time to look at Shuichi, before whispering: “ Please, that better not be green. Shuichi, please-”

He sets his green three down, and Shuichi wanted to pretend he didn’t and draw some cards from the pile (Which Rantaro was reshuffling and putting back since they ran out from the debacle they now just experienced) but Shuichi was not backing down, even if it tore his poor boyfriend apart and he really, really didn't want to continue to watch his boyfriend face utter defeat again.

But Kokichi was too much of an influence on him, and he only gives him the most sweetest, most kindest smiles of them all, instilling the smallest shine of hope in Kaito’s otherwise gorgeous eyes, before he puts down his final card: The green UNO reverse.