“You’re pretending to be annoyed but I can tell you’re excited.”
“Am not. Can’t prove it.”
Shiloh snorts. We walk under the arch of our castle. Once inside, there’s a back wall that shows everyone’s stats. Right now, everyone has zero kills, zero deaths. That’s quickly about to change.
“Five! Four! Three! Two! One! Go!”
“Have a plan?”
“Sure,” Shiloh says, nodding his head. “Don’t die?”
I’m tempted to shoot him in the back but just barely resist the urge. Just then, I hear someone running in our direction. Before I can actually do anything, Shiloh is grabbing the back of my vest and hauling me in front of himself, using me as a shield.
“Fuck off,” he yells at Rodney who shoots me, my vest buzzing and letting me know I just died. Using me as a shield still, I feel Shiloh place his gun on my right shoulder, shooting at Rodney. Rodney’s vest flashes and he curses.
“Not fair!”
“What the hell, Shiloh,” I hiss out, trying to get myself out of his grip.
“Not yet,” he says, right into my ear. That’s when Gayle jumps out, trying to get a shot on Shiloh. Shiloh maneuvers me, still using me as a shield and dodging all of Gayle’s shots.
“What the hell?” Gayle yells out. His gun stops working and he stares at it with wide eyes. “I’m out!”
“I’m not,” Shiloh says with a cackle, shooting Gayle straight in the chest. His vest flashes and he pouts as he runs up, grabbing Rodney around the middle. The two of them make their way back to their castle to reset their vests.
Shiloh shoves me towards our castle. “Go reset and get back out here,” he says, running down the hallway in the direction of Maki and Rin’s castle.
I can’t help but smile as I do as I’m told, my chest feeling far more affectionate than I thought possible.
After resetting my vest, I wander through the streets, keeping my steps as quiet as possible. I can hear a scuffle happening a few streets over but I don’t rush to check it out, wanting to find Shiloh instead.
A soft whistle catches my ears and I look up, finding a familiar head of dark hair looking down at me from the top of the wall. He points at the climbing wall to the side, gesturing for me to climb up and join him.
Gods, I really need to work out because why the fuck am I so winded just from climbing this wall? Out of all of us, Maki is probably running circles around us.
“Found you,” I say, just barely whispering so we won’t be discovered. Shiloh gives me a small smile, patting the wall beside him.
The two of us lay on our bellies, looking out over the arena. Maki is running down a street, chasing after Rodney who’s screaming for Gayle to come save him. Gayle is trying to find which street they’re on while Rin is making his way back to his castle after getting shot.
The warmth of Shiloh beside me sinks into my arm. My chest constricts almost painfully, at being this close to him, at being so at ease with him.
Shiloh points his gun, shooting it twice and hitting Maki in the back. He looks down at his chest confused, looking around for the source of the shot but unable to find us. I can’t help but smile.
“That’s hot,” I say, looking over at Shiloh with a smirk.
“Keeping you around is great for my ego,” Shiloh says with a whisper.
“Guess you’ll have to keep me around.”
Shiloh stares at me for a long moment. I’m about to laugh it off and crack a joke but Shiloh surprises me. He reaches over, touching my cheek.
“Guess so,” he says before leaning over and kissing my lips. I’m so surprised that I drop my gun, the sound of it clattering against the ground below enough to pull the two of us away from each other.
Just then, a gun touches my back. “Found ya, lovebirds,” Rodney says before shooting both of us point blank.
I groan as I stand up, shoving Rodney away, careful not to actually shove him over the edge. He laughs as he climbs back down and heads towards Rin and Maki’s castle.
“That was embarrassing,” Shiloh says softly as we make our way back to our castle. “If they tease me, I’ll just walk home.”
