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I’m still looking at Elias more than the screen. Caelan and I are both guilty of that, and after getting another game over by being thoroughly distracted watching Elias simply straighten out and reroll his sleeves, we decide to stop throwing money at the game.
Wandering around the arcade, I dabble in a few more amusements, but nothing really captures my attention until I find a claw machine filled with oversized, cuddly toys and beam with delight.
“Those are rigged as fuck,” Caelan comments as I attempt to win a large stuffed panda.
“Shh, I know.”
He watches me fail at it twice before finding the need to interfere too irresistible.
“You want that one?” he asks, leaning over. He’s pressed right behind me, the hard lines of his body warm against the length of mine. It’s distracting enough that I almost end up throwing my attempt worse than usual, but I eventually maneuver the claw into a decent position.
The machine sparks slightly, groaning and whirring. The claw descends, jerks, and grips tightly for once. Tight enough not to let the toy slide away, like in my previous attempts.
I turn to squint at Caelan. “Did you glitch out the machine?”
“The dumb thing is cheating you to start with. I evened out the playing field.” He grins smugly, wordlessly exposing that he had absolutely everything to do with it.
I collect my slightly ill-gotten prize, smoothing down the soft fur of the large panda plushie I now own. I offer it to Caelan. “Here. You won her.”
“Uh. Didn’t you want it?”
“I… didn’t exactly think this through. She’s a little big to be taking back with me. And I don’t really have room for an oversized plushie. What would I do with her?”
Caelan snorts. “And what wouldIdo with it?”
“I don’t know. At least you have the whole abyss pocket dimension thing to keep stuff in. All I have is a shitty apartment.”
“I’m pretty sure that it’s usually meant to be the dude winning cute plushie shit for the girl in this situation,” he points out.
“Okay, just for that heteronormative bullshit, you nowhaveto take her.”
“I’d use it for stabbing practice.”
I give a mock gasp and cover the toy panda’s ears. “Don’t say that! You’ll hurt her feelings.”
Elias gives a quiet chuckle. “How adorable. You seem to protest more about Caelan stabbing your toy than when he mentions stabbing actual people.”
My stomach does an uncomfortable flip as I realize Elias is right. Of course, I’m exaggerating for humor, but that is a little messed up. I’m certain Elias was also joking, but his statement is more accurate than I care to admit.
I glance down at the panda in my arms, then up at Elias. “You should take her,” I say. “We clearly can’t trust Caelan.”
Elias quirks an eyebrow. “Why would I want a stuffed panda?”
“Because it’s a gift. You’re always paying for stuff for me, all the fancy meals out and everything, and I’ve never given you anything in return. It’s not even like this is a big deal. It’d just be nice for you to get something back, don’t you think?”
“Darling, you’ve given me yourself,” Elias replies, voice low and a crooked smile on his face.
“W-well, yes. But. Just.” I swallow, suddenly flustered. I hold out the panda to him. “You should take her because she’s got eyes like yours. It’s cute.”
There’s a moment of silence while Caelan admirably attempts to restrain himself, but he ends up busting a gut anyway. His laughter is so infectious that I bite my lip to stop a stupid grin from spreading over my face.
The corner of Elias’ mouth twitches with barely concealed amusement. “I see,” he says smoothly. He takes the panda and regards it, and the next moment the toy is swallowed by a flash of darkness.
I hope he put it aside into the abyss and didn’t destroy the thing.
Caelan catches the touch of concern in my expression and stops cackling long enough to comment, “Oh, he’s fuckin’ keeping it.”
The rest of our wander around the pier is enjoyable but relatively uneventful unless you count Caelan insisting on calling Elias ‘panda eyes’ for the rest of the date, much to his own amusement. Elias’ less so. But Elias is more tolerant of it than I would have expected. He must be in a good mood.
