"Maybe we should just stay home today. Nozomi will understand, right? You know, because you're sick?"

Nico balled up the tissue she had just used and made a limp attempt to throw it at Maki's face, missing by a mile. "No fucking way. I'm not gonna miss my best friend's 21st birthday because of a stupid runny nose."

Rolling her eyes, Maki reached for the tissue box and ripped out a few for Nico, who had started having a violent sneeze attack.

Brushing it off like it was nothing, Nico reached up to fix her twintails and dark green hoodie. "Alright, let's go now."

"If you start dying, I'm not carrying you to the hospital."

Nico stuck her tongue out, blew a sloppy raspberry, and stumbled out the door.

A few hours later, Maki was almost completely exhausted. μ's practice was hard, but it could never match up to the intensity of paintball against Nozomi, Eli, and Nico. Especially Nozomi. Maki would have never guessed that she could be so ruthless, so merciless in the face of her enemies. The next round was about to begin, so Maki started planning her route across the debris-littered grass field to try and hit them from the back.

As soon as the referee's whistle blew, Maki bolted past piles of scrap wood and metal, taking a short break behind a thin wall to scout out the area in front of her. With her marker tucked tight into her shoulder, she walked forward while crouching. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw some sort of dark green lump on the ground, but paid little attention to it.

"blehhh…"

Maki snapped her head towards the sound to the green lump, which, upon closer inspection, was Nico lying face down in the grass.

"Nico? Is that you?" Maki knelt down to take Nico's mask off before pushing her own mask up to her forehead.

"Maki, babe, I'm not feeling too good."

"Come here." Maki reached under Nico's arms, pulling her up to lean her sitting against a wooden wall. "Just rest up a bit here. I'll bring you some water, ok?"

"Ok, thanks. I love you."

"Love you, too."

Maki stood up and slid her mask back down to cover her face. Then, as Nico watched with eyes wide in horror, she aimed her marker directly at Nico's stomach. A few quick pulls of the trigger later, Maki hid a massive smirk behind her mask.

"Ow! What the fuck was that for?"

"The game's still on and you're on the other team, duh."

As Nico watched Maki turn around and sprint off, she mumbled to herself, "fucking asshole."