AN- Heh, I think I finally wrote an Asagao thing that can be called halfway fitting for this site. But Paul's route's good ending gave me a lot of ideas, mostly because what he said to Caddy seemed to have some implications. And because I'm a sucker for Caddimoose and punishment, I wrote a thing about it. So, thank you and enjoy! -Twilight Joltik

Insert Coin?

By Twilight Joltik

He genuinely thought it would be an easy win for Hidden Block. Continue?, they were completely worn out from the election, and he was sure his teamwork with Wallid and Jimmy was airtight.

And when he found himself up against Paul, who seemed barely awake, let alone up for a brawl, he couldn't help but grin to himself. He had this in the bag, he'd bring home a win for his team.

To be fair, he should have known the politician would play dirty, and as Paul cast him a glance and smirked, he felt himself tense up a bit.

"So Caddy," Paul started, far too loudly, like he was talking to the whole arcade. "I never knew you and Ian were such close friends."

No. He couldn't- how could he-?

In that moment, any semblance of concentration Caddy had fell to pieces. No, those thoughts he tried to hold back flashed in his mind. That weird nervous feeling that teetered on the edge of joy and loathing rushed back to him. The back of his neck was burning, and he was certain he could feel Ian watching him.

"Moosey and I are NOT FRIENDS!", he quickly exclaimed, pounding down on the arcade cabinet.

But, before he could try and pull his mind away from the sheer mortification, back to the game, he found their fighter falling to the ground, the health bar depleted to zero.

The whole world felt like it was falling away. He'd lost it, he'd let it get to him, but god, did it ever get to him. And as Hana rushed up to congratulate their enemies, he glanced at his own teammates. Luke looked mildly disappointed, but Jimmy just shrugged and Wallid gave a complacent smile, a "well, we tried" sort of look.

He couldn't make his eyes look over at Ian. He didn't want to see.

Letting out a sigh, he looked around for somewhere to go where no one would notice, where he could catch the breath that'd rushed out of his lungs. It was too small, too cramped, there wasn't anywhere to hide, but he could hardly just up and leave.

So instead, he darted to an old Malistar cabinet and tried to consume himself in the sounds of the ship's guns and the taunting of the titular giant face demon. And it almost worked until he felt someone slide next to him.

Please don't be Ian, his mind begged, and when his eyes flickered over from the asteroids, he nearly let a sigh escape. It was Jimmy, someone who was decisively not Ian, but his breath caught again as he remembered what it was he was upset about.

"Sorry," Caddy groaned out. "But I mean, to be fair, you have about a 100% chance of winning in the retro games, so we're not entirely screwed."

"You're not wrong," Jimmy muttered, and he heard the Cosmoxian game beside him booting up. "But I- look," His voice shifted to a whisper. "I swear- I will swear with my hand on a stack of Nokemon Strategy Guides, in fact- that I didn't say a word about that. To anyone, not even Wallid!"

He nearly ran into space debris, and his breath caught. But he tried to get his thoughts in order without feeling that burning mortification again. "Look I- I never said you did!", he assured his friend. "You wouldn't have. I know you wouldn't."

"I also know I wouldn't have," Jimmy added with a chuckle. "But I mean, to be fair, you're not exactly… discreet about it. It's not surprising someone might have noticed, and like, Continue?, considering that gossip rag they call a paper, also not surprising they might have picked up on it."

The back of his neck started burning again, as did his cheeks. People knew? Like, it was talked about? No, god no, that couldn't be true. Who else knew? Normal Boots had to, and if Ian didn't know before then, he had to now. God, Wallid and Luke probably knew too, and he didn't want to think about what Jeff would say when he found out.

"Dude, chill," Jimmy told him softly over the sound of pixilated gunfire. "Ian doesn't notice shit. You could probably scream in his face that you had an enormous hate-crush on him and he'd never suspect a thing."

"That's pretty much what Paul did…"

Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Jimmy shaking his head. "So? Even if by some miracle he stopped being dense long enough to pick up on that, he still wouldn't care."

It became too easy to imagine Ian just glaring over at him and telling him that he really wasn't his type and he should go after someone more in his league. Too easy because it replayed in his head every time he even considered telling him.

"Run, coward!", taunted the face thing on the game.

Caddy was a coward. Caddy wanted to run.

But Jimmy nudged him playfully, and his ship crashed and burned.

"Jimmy!"

His friend just laughed. "Chill. I don't even know if that's what he was talking about. You'll be fine."

Glancing over, he saw Ian at the Pentris machine, eyes narrowed in concentration. He tried to stop his eyes from… wandering, and to be fair, he was bent over so it was decisively more difficult, but he instead slowly walked over and glanced over his shoulder.

"Getting any combos, Moosey?"

Ian rolled his eyes without looking up. "More than you."

That stung just a little… okay more than a little, but still. He tried to muster up a laugh. "Really?", he jabbed back. "You mean like you and Hana earlier?"

A dry laugh, and Ian glanced over at Wallid, who was leaning on the wall beside them. "Look, if you don't make Jared cry we're screwed, think you can do that?"

"In my sleep!", boasted Wallid, and Caddy found himself feeling remarkably less worked up. Maybe it was possible he was the only one who took that jab like that?

Okay, unlikely, given how Wallid cast him a sort of "you okay?" glance when Ian turned back to the machine, but maybe Ian hadn't noticed, or at least didn't care.

Or, on the other hand, maybe he had and was just biding his time to say something. He thought he was going to scream when after a minute Ian looked over at him, but no, his eyes fell on Luke instead. "You're up next, right?", he questioned, and Luke nodded.

"Well then," Ian paused his game and started walking back to the seating. "You'll do great, I know it," he assured him with a sideways sort of grin.

Luke glanced at him nervously. "You think so?"

"They don't stand a chance," Ian almost sighed, and Luke beamed at the compliment.

His heart dropped and soared at the same time. Normal Boots wasn't the only one that didn't stand a chance against Luke.