Dances had never been Bianca’s favorite thing in the first place, but coming off of a magical homecoming dance where she’d managed to win herself a crown and a boyfriend in the same night, Valentine’s Day was a total let down in comparison. Bowie made for great company like always, but Bianca had lost track of her friend-date at some point and was sure she was having more fun without her, anyway. A few times already Bianca had considered calling it quits and heading home, but something always held her back: a teammate to say hi to, a makeshift basketball competition with Wes, the lure of free snacks... All the flimsy reasons her mind has made up finally started to make sense when she reached for the last mini corn dog and found herself face to face with Sydney. He was annoyingly handsome as always, all dressed up and literally glowing thanks to his LED tie, and Bianca hated the way her stupid heart betrayed her and skipped a beat at the sight of him. “What does it look like I’m doing?” she snapped, feeling a pang if guilt at how irritated she sounded. He didn’t deserve that; he didn’t deserve any of the way she treated him, and yet here he was, still distracting her when the whole point of breaking up in the first place had been to rid her life of distractions. “I mean — hi. I’m hungry. I’m never very nice when I’m hungry,” she tried again, and stupid as the statement was, it was better than asking a thousand questions like who he was here with and was he having a good time and did he wish it was her instead. Bianca wished her feet would move in the opposite direction and just put as much distance between them and the awkwardness hanging between them as possible, but instead they were like lead, anchoring her to the ground and rendering her unable to move. Just like her subconscious thoughts of him had kept her from leaving, too; if she’d gone home without seeing him, she realized now that she would have wasted the rest of her night wondering how his Valentine’s Day free from her had turned out, and that just wouldn’t do. “And you?” she asked, finally tearing her gaze away from him to look at the dumb corn dog and how close their fingers were to brushing, if they both just reached for it again. “I’m guessing you want that just as much as I do?” Sydney had to fight the urge to laugh at how mad she sounded. It was just so strange. He’d spent so long hearing sweetness in her voice - well, what counted as sweetness by Bianca’s standards - that now the way she talked to him felt foreign. Like she was angry at him even though she was the one who’d broken up with him. Was this still residual anger for him being so distracting that they’d almost not won a game? It was hard to wrap his head around but it was part of what he’d always liked about Bianca, how strongly she felt things. For someone who still felt like he was playing catch-up on what it meant to be human, being around Bianca and her intensity felt like steps in the right direction. And it was true even now, because he was almost sure there wasn’t just anger in her voice. There was more to it than that and he’d find out what it was and if it meant he still had a chance eventually. “Hi back,” he grinned, half of his mouth lifting into a smile. “I’m hungry, too. Nothing like dancing to work up an appetite.” On the subject of food, Sydney wanted to bring up the time Sawyer had lowkey catered their date and made them so much food that he was convinced they’d never stop eating but he knew by now that bringing up old relationship stuff wasn’t cool so he swallowed the comment and his eyes flicked down to follow hers to their hands. She was close enough to reach out and touch now. It’d been a while since that was true. It was strange, because as close as she was he was still convinced that if he reached out to touch her there’d be some invisible barrier to stop him, like a computer screen or something. “I’m guessing I want it more, actually. Still, I’d offer to split it, but it’s so small we’d have to go find a full meal after to feel okay. Can’t have you walking around not very nice out of hunger, after all.” He hated himself a little for suggesting anything that sounded anything like a date and, quickly, in the hopes that it would make her stay around, he tried, “ or I can fight you for it. Dance-fight, obviously,” he half-joked, knowing it would give him as much of an edge as Bianca proposing a game of Horse for it. Bianca couldn't help but roll her eyes at his proposition. A dance fight. "Really? That's the best idea you can come up with?" she asked him. "You know I hate losing," she protested, her cheeks heating up at the reminder that they'd been so familiar with each other so recently, and now they felt like... strangers. Like far away people, separated by time and space. He was right there, but he felt so distant, and she knew that was her fault, she knew it, but that didn't make it any easier to feel foreign around someone who had once felt so much like home. "You could at least try to come up with some kind of challenge where we both stand a chance. I mean, I won't make you play roll basketball if you won't make me dance." It escaped her lips before she had time to think about it, but as the words made their way into the world, she realized they sounded an awful lot like asking him to do something with her. Like she wanted him to stick around when that just made her head more foggy and confused; Bianca should be trying to get rid of him as fast as she possibly could, and yet... "Or I could just wait until the next tray and you could take this one, one's not enough to get full off of anyway, just like you said." She shrugged it off, wondering if he'd let her go or if he was just as stuck as she was, just as unable to walk away and leave things be. Sydney shrugged a shoulder. "It's the best idea for me ," he admitted with a sheepish grin. "You know I'm not a fan of losing either." Of course, he didn't need reminding to know Bianca was even more eyes-on-the-prize than he was - it was why they weren't together anymore, after all. It was also why he'd found it so hard to let go of her. She may have thought he was distracting her from the game, but as far as Sydney was concerned, they were the true goal, and he wasn't going to lose that easily, even if he had to play the long game. If she wanted to get back together eventually, that was, and for a second while it sounded like she was inviting him to hang out Sydney wondered to himself if maybe that was what she wanted too. After all, she was still talking to him and if they had challenges, well, it was an excuse to be around each other. He'd take as many as those as he could get. And there she was, offering him a way out - he bit his lip, considering, before shaking his head. "So that you get the freshly baked weenie and leave me with the stale one? No way, I see right through that. No, we need to think of something where we both stand an equal chance at winning this one and first dibs on the new stuff." He didn't care that much about the food anymore, and if he was honest his hunger was mainly forgotten already, but if this kept them both there until the new tray came out, it was worth a shot. He looked around the room for inspiration and saw a balloon tied to the edge of the food table. "What about whoever lets the balloon touch the ground first loses?" He was aware that game would probably take way too long but he didn't mind if she didn't. "Unless you've got a better idea, in which case I'm all ears." Bianca tried not to let out a huff of impatience. “You only don’t like losing because if you get a game over in a different game you die! But that doesn’t happen in real life, if you lose you keep on living. But if I lose...” It was teetering dangerously close to saying something real, something way too honest, but what did Bianca even have to lose? Maybe he’d just realize she was crazier than he’d ever realized and leave her alone so she didn’t have to remember how stinking great he was all the time. “If I lose, I feel like I can’t breathe. I guess I’ve just been a sore loser for so long that my body physically rejects it or something.” She shrugged, refusing to chew on her cheek or tap her fingers nervously or duck her head. Instead, she kept staring straight into Sydney’s eyes, trying to look unaffected, like any reaction he had meant nothing to her. The tactic had worked so well when she’d broken up with him, after all; she hoped today wasn’t any different and that the cracks in her armor were all still sealed shut. But they weren’t, were they? Because it felt like he was getting in somehow, despite all her best attempts to keep him out of her heart and mind. “Okay, if there’s new stuff we’re taking it at the same time, otherwise all these other vultures are going to have more time to swoop in.” Bianca folded her arms over her chest, looking at him pointedly. “That seems too easy. I’m going to need more rules than that if balloons are really involved, they don’t exactly follow like, gravitational laws when they’re falling.” Sydney didn't take his eyes off of Bianca's while she spoke, feeling a little like he was holding his breath even though he wasn't. He knew that for people not born into video games, the idea of losing and dying being so closely tied together was silly, but that was one of the reasons he'd felt so bonded with Bianca. Though she'd never exactly said it, he had a feeling that if she lost she felt like she was dying too. It made him want to hug her when she said how it felt, or to challenge her to something immediately that she'd win at and she'd get that good feeling, but he wasn't sure that first thing was allowed anymore. Keeping his distance, he couldn't help but blurt out, "A sore loser and the most competitive person I've ever met. Did you seriously just try to turn our hatred for losing into a contest?" It was the kind of sentence he might have paired with a beaming smile back when he was allowed to like her as much as he did and even now it was hard not to grin a little bit at her nature and how much he enjoyed it. Gosh , did he enjoy it. "But fine. If there's new stuff, I say we take it all. We're the only ones around here who'd have earned it." He shoved his hands in his pants pockets and raised his shoulders to his ears, trying to think of rules. "If the balloon pops, the last person who touched it loses? And if it falls on a table and stops momentum, that counts as touching the ground, too?" His voice raised at the end of his sentences, making them questions as he waited for approval or a veto. "Oh, and to make it harder, what about only using one appendage? Hands, or legs, or heads," he joked, picturing them bouncing the balloon around on their heads like seals. "That hard enough for you, B?" "I try to turn everything into a competition," she reminded him, and Bianca kept herself from throwing in something even more familiar, some other reminder that he knew her better than almost anyone in Walt. She didn't usually have this much discipline off the field, but she had to - she had made her choice, and changing her mind was almost like losing in its own way. Sure, she'd felt even more off her game than usual since their breakup, but it was just an adjustment period. Bianca needed to train herself on how to be without him again, and then she'd be better than ever. Distraction free. And sure, she was hanging out with him now, on Valentine's Day. But Bianca wrote it off as just another part of her training; if she could do this, she could do anything with him around and have it not affect her. "Fine, whatever," she grumbled, mad that as soon as she'd made up her mind and found her resolve, he had to suggest something for the two of them. Almost like a makeshift picnic, running away with all the food; but Bianca didn't do cutesy things like picnics, and she hated that someone like Sydney had, even for a little while, made her want to. "And it still sounds easy to me, but bring it on," she said, taking her bracelet and ring and earrings off and slipping them into her handbag -- anything to avoid breaking the balloon accidentally. "You're going down," she added, putting her right hand behind her back and putting up her left instead. "One handed, weaker hand, I've still got this." Sydney felt himself bounce on his heels, the closest thing to a victory dance he'd allow himself right now, even though it felt like a win just having her stay there and talk to him. Everything about being around her felt like a win. He had to fight back saying "Fine, whatever" in a sing-songy voice, not wanting Bianca to think he was mocking her. He was just so excited that he'd gotten a few moments of her this dance that he found himself wishing they could've spent the whole time together. Maybe next time , he thought to himself as he watched as she took off her jewelry. In response, he took off his jacket to ease up his range of motion and hung it on a chair before pushing up his sleeves. "If I'm going down I'm taking you with me," he laughed, putting his right hand behind his back too as they loosed the balloon and let the games began.