"Hey Nattie? What's that?"
Natasha stopped short of putting the snack in her mouth. Setting it down, she looked at Owsla. "It's called Pocky. They're a snack made in Japan. It's chocolate covered biscuit sticks."
"Pocky?" Sonny looked up from making a sandwich in the kitchen.
"Oh!" Phishie's eyes lit up in recognition. "I've heard of those. Isn't there some sort of game you can play with it? I think Markiplier played it once..."
"Really?" Sonny jumped up and down excitedly. "Let's play!"
"Uhh..." Natasha glanced at the man worriedly. Surely he wasn't serious.
"Oh, can we Nattie!" Owsla begged beside her. "Can we? Can we? Can we, pleeeeeeaaaaase!"
"Yeah Nattie, please?" Sonny agreed.
Bucky looked up from her own lunch. "What's the deal Rose? Why not just let them play?"
"I really don't think you guys understand what the game is about."
"If you don't wanna play, just show us how and we'll play by ourselves." Phishie reasoned.
Natasha realized that her friend was trying to be diplomatic but she was pretty sure no one actually wanted to play this game. Not after they found out what it was of course. Besides, this was supposed to be lunch. Natasha did NOT want everyone's lunch time being interrupted by a huge make out session between all of them like some god forsaken orgy and- oh god. She shut her eyes closed. NOT WITH THESE PEOPLE! Stop thinking about it! These where the times when living in the gutter backfired horrendously.
"Look guys, it requires two people." Surely that would be discouraging.
"Then I'll play with you."
The gang looked up at the voice from the other end of the room. Joel was still making his lunch in the kitchen. Currently, he was non nonchalantly snacking on a bag of chips.
Natasha just met his gaze with an annoyed stare. "You obviously don't know how to play." she concluded. If any of them knew the nature of this game the only one volunteering would be Bucky and she didn't do PDA so that was out of the question.
"Sure I do," the Mau5 swallowed a mouthful of chips before continuing, "I've played it before, so has Sonny... he was probably just too drunk to remember."
The look on the goblin's face confirmed it as he looked at his best friend confused. "I have?"
"He has?" Nat stared at him in shock. "With who... you?"
Joel slammed his chip bag down on the counter, caught off guard by the sudden question. "Don't get any ideas!"
Natasha supposed she should refrain from telling him her mind was way past that point. Oh well, he's the one who said it. Besides... was that red in his cheeks blushing? Yeah, he was. Smiling secretly to herself she decided not to mention it and return to the task of convincing everyone NOT to play this game.
"Well forget it. There's not way I'm going to demonstrate the game with you."
Joel narrowed his eyes. He saw that smile from a mile away. Time for some good ol' revenge, eh? "Why? Too chicken?"
"Don't be ridiculous."
"I thought you were demisexual so what would it even matter? ...Unless you have feelings for me?" The Mau5 smirked like an asshole.
"Of course not!"
"Oh I get it, you've been with a girl so long you've forgotten how to kiss a guy... are you really that gay?"
Turning her chin up Natasha glared at him. "My hair is straighter than I am."
"Then I guess you just kiss like a fish then." He made his best fish face.
Phish took it upon herself to look mock offended. "Well that's kinda rude..."
That was it. Natasha broke. That stupid troll knew how to push her buttons just right. Somewhere in the back of her mind she knew he was manipulating her but DAMN him, she didn't care.
"Fine!" Natasha balled her fists in anger. "If you are going to insist so badly, get over here and we'll play. Right here. RIGHT NOW!"
"Okay." the Mau5 man calmly walked over, smirking like the asshole he was because he had gotten what he wanted all along. Bastard. "First things first, we've got to decide how we'll all play."
"There's 9 pieces of Pocky left."
"Well six of us, so I guess we'll all pair up and play 3 rounds." Joel stated.
"We could pair up by the use of matching cards." Phishie suggested, holding up a card deck they were going to use to play 'Bullshit'.
"What's the punishment for chickening out though?" Everyone looked around the room as if trying to decide who would chicken out.
"Come on," Bucky continued. "We all know some of us will, what's the incentive to play?"
Taking all of the questions into account, they decided to take a moment to decide how to play. With 9 pocky sticks they would play 3 rounds. Each round, each pair would be decided by drawing cards at the beginning of the round. The cards, which had been previously chosen from the deck, would be the following: Aces of spades and diamonds, the 3's of spades and diamonds and the 9's of spades and diamonds and one Joker card. The round would start in sequential order. The aces would go first, then the 3's, and finally the 9's. The Joker card would add an extra twist. If someone got the Joker card, they would choose a new partner for whoever was left without one. The winner of each match got a free pass to force the loser to do one thing in the near future. Anyone who chickened out would receive a punishment decided by everyone else. And besides these rules, anything goes; nothing was off the table. The anything goes rule was enough to strike fear into all of them. Everyone here was mischievous in their own way... and downright evil if they desired... (cough cough Alexander Pierce cough cough). And so, the game began. Since Joel had already challenged Natasha, they would go first this round before anyone picked cards.
"You ready, asshole?" Safe to say Natasha was pissed off. Unknowingly, Joel had stabbed one of her few weak points. No one insulted her ability to kiss. Holding back a smirk, she held the stick between her lips.
Joel didn't bother retorting. Walking over to where the girl was standing, he bit the other end. Thankfully it wasn't difficult since they were almost exactly the same height. (Natasha was 5' 8" (AND A HALF!) and Joel was 5' 9"). If Natasha's eyes could shoot lasers, Joel would have been dead and diced. Luckily, she didn't have that ability though and he remained perfectly fine in one piece. Ignoring her glaring looks, he calmly began to chew his way to the center. Purposefully, Natasha chewed little bites at a time while Joel was taking huge bites, resulting in his face coming closer at an alarming rate.
At this point, people were starting to comprehend just what exactly they had gotten themselves into... well, most of them anyways.
"Dude, you can't just keep going like that, you're gonna end up kissing her." Sonny looked at his best friend like he was crazy.
Bucky slapped her forehead exasperatedly. "That's the point, idiot."
"Oh... wait, WHAT?"
And that's when they met up at the middle. Joel, taking the bite solely with his teeth to bite her lips as he moved away to take the winning piece with him. Now the teeth were purely a tactic to piss her off, but she was counting on him doing some asshole move. And so, with a smirk and no hesitation, she pulled his neck towards her and slipped her tongue right on his teeth into his cheek. Using the shock to her advantage, she easily slide her tongue over his own and stole the pocky right out of his mouth. Stepping away, she proudly showed it to him between her teeth before chewing it. Smirking, she held a middle finger up at his still stunned expression.
"I win."
The semi-red head sat down calmly to the expressions of shock all around the table. "Who's next?"
"I am! I am!" Owsla held up her 3 of diamonds card.
There was a moment of silence as they waited for the 3 of spades to reveal him or herself.
"Well?" Bucky looked around irritably. "Someone speak up."
"I have the Joker, I guess the remaining card is the three of spades." Sonny took the card that hadn't been chosen and turning it over, found his suspicions to be correct. "Alright! That means I get to chose Owsla's new partner!" Grinning triumphantly he looked over at Nat.
"Oh no, don't-"
"I chose Natasha!" He gave her a full mega-watt smile.
"Jerk!" She hissed.
Sonny just shrugged. "I feel a little obligated, I mean you did just embarrass my best friend. He looks kinda traumatized."
Natasha glanced back at the man in question. It was true. The poor Mau5 looked like he had been bitten by a cat. Currently, he had one hand over his mouth, still trying to comprehend what had just happened. He obviously had not been expecting such a move.
Bucky smiled a bit, proud of her girlfriend. "He's an idiot, my girlfriend is fucking black widow, did he really think he would get away with pissing her off?"
"Hey, I can hear you all you know."
"With those huge Mau5 ears sticking out of your head, it would be sad if you couldn't..." Nat muttered.
"Hey!"
They were saved from further confrontation though as Owsla stepped up to the plate, ready to play. Walking over to Natasha's chair, she stuck her little chin out, a biscuit stick between her lips. "Bite it Nattie!"
Sighing, the semi-red head decided to just humor the little alien. Taking advantage of the fact that Owsla's eyes were closed, she took a huge bite from her own end before exclaiming. "Look Owsla! You won!" She pat the purple haired girl's head.
Owsla opened her eyes, face lighting up excitedly. "Really!" She squealed. Without bothering to ask how that happened, she ate the rest of the pocky and threw her many arms around Nattie. "I won!"
Joel, having finally recovered from his shock, sat down at the table with the rest of the gang. "So I guess that Bucky and Phishie are playing next?"
Sure enough, turning over their cards, Bucky had the nine of spades and Phishie had the nine of diamonds.
"I guess so..." Bucky muttered. Reluctantly, she put a chocolate stick between her teeth. Phishie on the other hand hesitated.
"I don't think I can do this."
"Come on Phishie, she's a friend. We all know neither of you mean anything by it, it's just a game for laughs." Sonny encouraged.
"But-" Phishie glanced at Natasha.
"Oh don't stop on my account, I'm not going to get jealous or something."
That was a lie but it was obvious that Natasha's pride wouldn't allow her to admit it, so the game continued.
"Alright..." Still hesitant, Phishie scooted closer and took a bite. Everyone watched as the two took turns biting from each end. In till finally...
"I'm too straight for this." Phishie backed away as the rest of the gang erupted into laughter.
"Does that mean you will receive punishment?" Joel raised an eyebrow.
"yeah..." Phish conceded defeat. "It does."
The rest of them smiled; already coming up with plenty of evil ways to punish their friend. But first, they had a game to finish.
"Alright, round two!" Gathering the cards, Sonny shuffled them quickly and taking one for himself, offered the hand to everyone to take one.
As everyone selectively chose a card, Natasha asked. "Alright, who has the aces to start?" looking, around for the next two victims to the cards of fate.
"I got the ace of spades." Bucky flipped over the card to show the others.
Owsla jumped excitedly. "I have the ace of diamonds!"
Taking from her girlfriend's example, Bucky easily let Owsla win. Happily, Owsla chewed her stick of pocky and they prepared for the next round.
Joel spoke up next. "I have the three of diamonds."
From Phishie's pink face, Natasha could guess who had the matching card. Wordlessly, she passed the next pocky stick over. The game began slowly. Phishie was timid. She had already taken punishment so she couldn't afford to chicken out again. Meanwhile, Joel was hesitant to win either. Teasing Natasha was easy and not to mention fun because of all her weird reactions but Phishie was a really nice person he didn't know that well. Not to mention.. she was the youngest person here. Did that make him a pedophile? Joel frowned. Damn, why had he agreed to do this? He blamed Natasha. The stupid red head reminded him too much of a certain someone and the way they blushed and squirmed when he teased him. It was too tempting not to press his buttons. Truth was, he absolutely loved getting a rise out of Sonny. All the weird faces he would make and the unexpected rash actions he would take trying to prevent his embarrassment.
Meanwhile, while the Mau5 was too busy in thought, Phish used her brains to prevent the inevitable contact of lips against lips. Just as they were both about to take the last bite, she pushed on the end in her mouth forward with her tongue. Quickly removing herself, Joel, too wrapped up in his own thoughts, took both halves in his mouth instead.
Sighing in relief, the honey blonde sat back down. She had lost yes, but it was better than getting another punishment thought up by her mischievous friends.
Natasha congratulated her friend on her backwards victory. "Nice going." Honestly, she was impressed, the Phish has got moves.
"Alright my turn..." Natasha flipped over her nine of spades. "My partner is..." she faltered as she met Sonny's gaze, smirking at her from across the table.
No. There had to some mistake. She was NOT about to play with Sonny. Nah uh. No. Not happening. She checked the card and the facts again and again but could only come up with one conclusion: Sonny had the nine of diamonds.
Turning his card over, Sonny declared. "I have the joker."
Joel scoffed. "Again? That's so unfair!"
Immediately, Natasha felt relived. She didn't have to kiss Sonny. Thank goodness. "Alright who's my substitute partner!" She jumped up excitedly, ready for whatever as long as she could escape this fate.
"Me."
"What! You can't do that!" the semi-red head protested.
"Technically," Phishie intervened. "He can, it's not against the rules, didn't we say anything goes?"
"Phishie! I just complimented you! Whose side are you on!"
Sonny just smiled a shit eating grin. "The rules say I get to chose your partner, and I chose myself."
"But...why!"
"I'm gonna win, that's why. You'll have to do whatever I say right? Holding that power over someone who is so unusually mean to me would be fun."
Natasha just gawked at him, fighting a blush. "First of all, I am NOT mean to you..." (she ignored the looks from everyone else at the table that begged to differ) "But there's no way I'm doing this."
An evil glint appeared in Joel's eye. "Are you saying you'll take the punishment?"
It was then that Nat was rudely reminded that Joel was on his side. If she took the punishment, she had no doubt the troll would come up with something to embarrass her for life and grant Sonny's wish all at the same time. Then he would sell it to everyone else in such an irresistible way that everyone else would agree. She knew she would do the same for Bucky and Joel would undoubtedly do it for Sonny. These were the sort of things best friends were made for.
Hopeless, she glanced at Bucky pleadingly. Surely her girlfriend wasn't okay with this. "Are you seriously going to let me kiss your brother?"
The blonde just shrugged. "He's a good kisser, you should be honored."
"WHAT!"
"Besides, this is hilarious."
Natasha glared at Bucky. 'Oh how your days are numbered my rubra stella' she thought.
"Come on, Nattie, let's play!" Adding Owsla's nickname for her just for extra insult, he gave a smug little grin and grabbing a pocky stick, put it between his lips.
Natasha took a deep breath, glancing at the other end like a death sentence. She could do this. She was Natasha fucking Romanoff. Right. She could pull this off. She could lose on purpose just like Phish did. Yeah that would work. Of course that would mean Sonny would win and that meant doing whatever his request was but... having Sonny coming up with the request on his own was a thousand times better than having Joel's input. What could the goblin possibly come up with anyways? He was four inches shorter and not intimidating at all... she caught a glance at the pocky end. Not... at... all... wasn't like he was the only family left her girlfriend actually gave a shit about that wouldn't put an end to their relationship. It wasn't like he was a million air that could probably kill her and get away with it if he for some reason didn't see her fit to date his little sister... not at all! (You may have noticed that Natasha is a worry-wort by this point)
Meanwhile, Sonny was waiting with puckered lips on the pocky stick, like he was already prepared to kiss her. "You gonna kiss me or not?"
Balling her fists and letting out a small scream Natasha calmed herself enough to bite the end. The sooner this was over the better. Sonny bit another piece in response and calmly waited for her to take the next bite. Reluctantly, she did. Slowly but surely the two of them neared the middle. Finally when it was Sonny's turn to bit the last piece, using Phishie's example, Natasha pushed the stick into his mouth as he took the bite. Finally she was home fre- Mmhfff!
Natasha's eyes were wide in shock as she stared at their connected mouths. For a small guy, he sure had a huge mouth! Sonny had managed to bite the rest of the pocky AND her tongue in the process. Too shocked to do anything, she just stood there feeling like an idiot as he kissed all the remaining pocky out of her mouth. Finally gaining some sense though, she managed to push him away with an exaggerated "BLEH!"
First things first, Natasha ran to the kitchen sink to wash her mouth out with soap... literally. Using the dish soap she coated her tongue in the disgusting, slimy, disinfecting liquid and used her fingers to scrub furiously at her mouth.
The rest of them were laughing their asses off.
"SHUT. UP!" Natasha yelled, bubbles coming out her mouth and foam all over her face. "You're despicable! Sonny, I HATE you!"
When everyone had FINALLY calmed down from laughing and Nat had returned from her hygiene spree (she had also brushed her teeth and washed her mouth with mouthwash), they began to pick out cards again.
"You really are talented Nat," Sonny commented. "Even when a guy wins, you find a way to make him feel like he lost."
Phishie snickered. "hash tag Sonny's mouth is diseased."
Natasha's blush hadn't calmed down yet still. "Shut up..." she grabbed a card bitterly.
Owsla was excited as she grabbed her card. "Me first! Me first! I got the ace of spades!"
Phish held up her card. "Well, I got the ace of diamonds, but..." she glanced at the small blue alien worriedly.
"Yea! Let's play!" Taking a pocky stick, she shoved it in between Phishie's lips and took a bite. The poor Phish was so surprised she barely had time to react as the little alien just kept taking bites from her end.
"Come on Phish, you gotta play!" Bucky encouraged.
"Uh..eh.." Not knowing what else to do, Phish took a bite and met Owsla's lips unexpectedly instead. Immediately Owsla leaped back at the contact as if she had been shocked, not having anticipated it. "Whoah!" She squealed. "Mom! Mom! Mom!" she leapt into Sonny's lap. "I had my first kiss mommy! Did you see, did you see, did you see?"
"Yes, yes, I saw!" He laughed at her.
Phishie meanwhile looked at the stick, still in her mouth, confused. Everything had happened so fast she had barely any time to internalize it.
"Well congrats Phish" Natasha said, glancing at the stick that was still in her friend's mouth. "You won."
"I... I did?"
Natasha laughed. "Yeah... okay, I'm next. I've got the three of spades." Immediately the semi-red head caught a Cheshire smile from her girlfriend. The blonde proceeded to turn over her card to reveal the three of diamonds.
"And I've got the three of diamonds."
Oh. Best round ever! Natasha smiled. This almost made up for having to kiss Sonny... almost. (Natasha had long dreamed about french kissing her girlfriend with chocolate on her tongue ;)
Putting the stick in her mouth, she walked over to her girlfriend and knelt on the ground beside her chair. This way, Bucky was above her instead of Natasha having to bend over ridiculously far to accommodate how short Bucky was (the blonde was only about an inch taller than her brother and Natasha would never stop teasing her about it)
The preamble wasn't that big considering neither one of them had anything to be shy about. They kissed regularly so they didn't really care. When their mouths met however it was a while before they moved away. They rest of the gang opted to look away for the sake of keeping a pure mind (because we can assure you neither of the girls currently french kissing were.)
"I win." Bucky moved away with what was left of the pocky stick, the tiniest crumb left in her mouth.
"I can not believe I just watched that..." Phish put her head in her hands.
"It's not my problem you didn't look away." Natasha pointed out.
"So that means the only pair left is Joel and Sonny... unless either of you have the Joker." Bucky glanced at the two men.
"Uh... no... I have the nine of spades..." Sonny started to blush as he turned over his card, refusing to meet Joel's gaze.
Natasha laughed. "Well that's too bad. It's pretty pointless for Joel to play you Sonny."
Sonny looked at her with red cheeks. "What does that mean!"
"Well... I just mean... the reward is pointless, he already has the power to make you do whatever he wants you to..."
"Nah uh!" Sonny protested.
"It doesn't matter." The troll spoke. "I don't have the Joker, so I have to play him."
"Ah maaaaaaaaan" Sonny whined. "Don't say it like that. Is kissing me really that much of a death sentence?"
"Dude, what are you talking about? Are you saying you WANT me to kiss you?" Joel raised an eyebrow at the goblin.
Sonny's blush would not go away. "I didn't say that!"
"Come on, lets get this over with, eh?..." Putting the last chocolate covered biscuit stick in his mouth he leaned over the table to Sonny.
An immense blush on his face, the raven haired man timidly bit the other side. Immediately a light blush dusted Joel's face but no one said anything knowing the troll would kill them if they did. Sonny on the other hand had his eyes shut tight, taking smaller and smaller bites towards the center in till he finally felt soft lips against his own. Uncertainly, he peeked one eye open to stare at his best friend's dark hazel eyes. For a moment he was taken aback by the look in them. Was that... surely he was only imagining the hazed look in- HMPH!
Sonny had seemly forgotten that he had the last piece in his mouth... and Joel didn't like to lose... especially NOT to Sonny. So he should have anticipated that pink muscle invading the cavern beyond his lips but he really hadn't. He didn't think things like this through. Not when his heart was pounding and he was shaking and holy hell he swore to god that he had never had a kiss this good... even if it was just a game. Wasn't like all his secret fantasies over the years were finally coming true. Not. At. All.
Joel finally pulled back after a longer-than-necessary kiss but he made a show of the tiny bit of pocky he had retrieved to prove he had won before leaving the table without further comment. No one else said anything either as they slowly found an excuse to leave. No one wanted to face the obvious sparks that had been flying through out the room in the last five seconds. The ones that had made us all fear the house would catch on fire. Sonny made his way outside to clear his head (probably with a cigarette) and Natasha began to clean up. Pilling the cards up she reached across the table to take the card that hadn't been used that round. The Joker. Damn this card, this card had forced her to kiss Sonny. Oh well. But... turning it over she saw it wasn't the joker.
The card that hadn't been drawn that round was the nine of diamonds.
Hey guys did you like the twist? Hehe! Anyways, we're back on with the story next chapter! Remember, these bonus chapters have nothing to do with the actual plot and the rest of the story will carry on like it never happened... but it was fun while it lasted right? :D See you guys next week!