The neon light blinked constantly, Ivan wasn't sure if it was on purpose or not but that was the first thing picking his interest on the otherwise dull street.
He had heard Alfred fussing about the place, ushering him to give it a try. The thought of sharing a single closed space with a lot of other awkward teens wasn't appealing, nevertheless, Ivan pushed the door open, a few squited glances were thrown his way before losing interest.
Giving hesitant steps, he looked around, spotting the blond hair and unmistakable cowlick that bounced everytime Alfred laughed. Ivan took a deep breath, hurrying his pace and avoiding touching anyone on the way, though, the small space between the rows of arcades and the groups of players invested on them, made it impossible.
As he was almost reaching Alfred, he ended up colliding with another person, taking a hold of the latter's arm so he wouldn't fall. Ivan looked up hesitantly, a string of apologies leaving his mouth out of habit.
Instead of meeting the usual glare he faced when this sort of incident happened, he found himself staring at deep brown eyes, and a sheepish smile. This person took his hand and patted it, a nervous laugh escaping him. "I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
Ivan merely nodded, enticed by this handsome guy, he even managed to make the shadows under his eyes look good, his words were light, traces of a foreign accent lingered on it, yet, Ivan could tell this person was just as fluent in english as himself. He couldn't help but notice the softness of the other's hands, still holding his.
Retrieving his hands quickly, the other boy averted his glance. "Sorry again, are you okay?"
"I was the one who almost dragged you to the ground." Ivan said, throwing an unsure glance at Alfred. The latter unfazed as his eyes were glued into the game. "I'm sorry." Ivan shifted on his feet, not wanting to draw anymore attention to himself, he didn't want this person to notice his lack of fashion sense.
"It's fine, my name is Yao, if you need any help around here, you can tell me." he said, giving him another pat on the shoulder and leaving to greet another group of players.
Of course, this Yao was only nice to him because it was his job, he was there to check on the customers and make the place as comfortable to them as possible. Though Ivan wouldn't mind receiving his kindness even if it was fake, that smile had seemed genuine enough for him.
Ivan stared for a while until he made his way to Alfred, standing beside him and observing the game, Alfred was fond of the shooter games, specially if they were related to space, there was no way of making him shut up about these games if he started. Ivan never thought of silencing him, it was amusing to see him moving his fingers at a speed he had never done so before in order to shoot the asteroids.
When the game was over, Alfred let out a huff and looked to the side, flinching at the sight of Ivan. "Dude, you are like a ghost, I didn't hear or feel you around."
"I know" Ivan chuckled. "You weren't there to save me from talking with a guy named Yao."
"He's cool, gives me soda for free and also" he leaned close and whispered. "he's like us." Alfred said, Ivan wasn't sure of how to feel about it, he wasn't even sure of what that meant, was this Yao as much of a nerd as he and Alfred were called in school? Was he as scared of social interaction as him? But Alfred wasn't like that, and he seemed friendly enough, could it be…
Ivan shook his head before the thought was finished, it was a miracle he had found Alfred in that sea of harsh glares and cruel jokes called school, as he observed Yao speaking freely and excitedly with other players, he concluded that it was not possible for him to be like that.
"Why did you want me to come here?" he asked.
At the question Alfred's face lit up, taking his wrist and tugging him along. "I found the game for you, it's just as insufferable perfectionist, yet, still as fun as you."
Ivan observed the geometrical and square forms of it and looked back at Alfred. "Tetris? Do you think I haven't played this before?"
Smirking, Alfred pressed. "Give it a try, I'll go for a soda and then play after you."
Ivan shook his head, the satisfaction of seeing Alfred's hope on playing, crumbling everytime he surpassed a level, was worth the almost two hours he was stuck on playing the game.
As he was about to place a square to make another row of bricks disappear, his hand was pushed away by Alfred, who proceeded to laugh and lose the game.
Ivan crossed his arms, glaring at the american. "That was not fair."
"Life is not fair" Alfred said, his mocking tone growing farther away as he laughed, gaining everyone's attention as he crossed the place.
The screen lit up again, showing the highest scores, Ivan arched an eyebrow at the sight of a list consisting of the same name -or nickname- over and over again.
How petty could this "hellkitt" be? monopolizing all of the scores, well, Ivan smirked, not anymore as he was now the third place.
Following the same antic of using a nickname, he typed "sputnik" and set up the score.
As the week flew by, he found himself returning to that place after school, sometimes with Alfred, sometimes alone.
It was a hate- love relationship with the arcade. On one hand, he grew fond of that little corner where the Tetris was placed because it gave him space from the other players, he could rest his eyes from the game by observing Yao going from one group to the other, he had caught him playing when the manager wasn't around or simply wandering around, complimenting the players.
On the other hand, he wasn't sure of what irked him more, the fact that everytime he returned the scores of "hellkitt" were higher or that he was competing with an unknown person and actually failing at it.
For his embarrassment, Alfred had told others about it. Now, he had to play while other teens gathered around to watch him beat the last four scores before leaving, he no longer had his little corner, the company also brought another problem for him, Ivan would have been able to ignore the people around him if only one of them wasn't Yao.
The guy had made a habit of checking on him to see how he was doing, leaving snacks for him, though most of these were devoured by Alfred before he had a chance to try them, and it was always when he was about to beat the highest score.
Sometimes Ivan cursed himself, for being a fool, for getting flustered and losing focus when Yao placed a hand on his shoulder or when he asked him how the game was going.
Ivan found himself unable to ignore him, his heart would skip a beat, his head would turn to look at him, to meet his handsome face and he'd lose the game for that, sabotaging himself at looking cool or whatever these people thought he was being while playing, and if that wasn't embarrassing enough, his face would heat up and his words would stumble.
Yao would always chuckle, though sometimes he pouted when seeing the "game over" written on the screen, Ivan was sure he was at least disappointed if not annoyed.
One of those days, when his eyes were glued into the screen and his hand ached, Alfred had placed his hands on his eyes, blocking his view and making him lose. Ivan sighed, resisting the urge to snap at him. "Why did you do that?"
"Sorry but we should go home, I'm a bit bored." Alfred chuckled. "Look, you almost beat the first score! " Alfred pointed at the screen, there was indeed the list of highscores, the game was now asking them to submit a name in order to replace the second score, missing the first only by a point. "I also did that because you are so blind!" he sighed, ushering to look back.
Had he really invested that much time playing? Ivan looked around to find the place almost empty, a few teenagers chatting on the register and laughing, making eye contact with Yao before the latter averted his gaze.
Ivan looked back to Alfred pressing the button and giving him a wide smile. In the ranking of scores, in second place was written "The commie". Ivan was about to snap Alfred for being so dumb but Yao's voice caught his attention.
"I'm sorry but we are almost closing, could you please leave so we can start cleaning up the place?"
Alfred whined, approaching the boy. "I thought you liked my company!"
The other huffed "I said I liked the company you brought along" he paused, shaking his head. "and you own me for all that soda you took."
Letting out an undignified gasp, Alfred smirked. "If you wanted me to pay, you would not keep on giving the sodas to me, they are free!"
Yao frowned, shaking his head and observing the list of scores displayed. "You were so close."
Alfred placed his arms on Yao's and Ivan's shoulders. "You know, tomorrow, there is going to be a new movie, space themed. We should go, as a group." He said, showing a ticket on each hand.
Yao hummed, taking one. "How did you get this?"
"My dad bought them!" he said, placing the other on Ivan's hand and smiling brightly. "So, are you two going?"
"Yeah" Ivan nodded, fidgeting with the ticket.
"Fine" Yao said, giving him a small smile.
Alfred retrieved his hands, walking away slowly and whispering. "Good! I hope you enjoy your date because I only have two tickets. See you tomorrow or not."
Ivan couldn't help but laugh awkwardly at the interaction, giving Yao an apologetical glance and handing him his ticket. "Alfred tends to do this kind of stuff as a joke. I'm sorry, I'm sure you'll find a girl to go with or something…"
"I won't." Yao said, taking his wrist, he lowered his eyes. "I am hellkitt"
Ivan widened his eyes, it was both surprising and obvious. "You play really well" was all his dumb brain managed to say.
"I thought that if I beat your score, you'd keep coming back." Yao said, fidgeting with the movie tickets.
Ivan had to use all his will to not reach out to embrace the other in a crushing hug. Seeing the usually confident and talkative Yao getting flustered and shy, provided him a sense of satisfaction, though he wished he could articulate some confidence in his own voice. "Well, it worked."
"So… you'd go to the movie with me?" He said cautiously.
Ivan resented the fact that Yao had to be so careful, that he himself had discarded the idea of Yao liking him back and it seemed like Yao was doing the same.
Ivan nodded, his heart hammering on his chest, managing to smile at him and replying. "Only if it is a date."
Those six words made Ivan feel nauseous, anxiety creeping on him as he waited for Yao to react badly. To scrunch up his nose and call him disgusting.
But it never came, instead, Yao placed the ticket on his hand, keeping the hold for a while, giving his hand a light squeeze before laughing. "A date it is, that makes me happy."
Outside, Ivan found Alfred waiting, a huge smile plastered on his face as he gave him a thumbs up. "You two are sooo slow, he said he'd ask you out if you beat his highest score."
The day was coming to its end, Ivan was glad to walk back home with Alfred, it was a relief that they were neighbors, his chatting made the way shorter and the experience pleasant. Even when Alfred was nagging at him -and Yao- for being dorks.
Ivan could only smile, perhaps he was a dork, perhaps Yao was a dork too, but they could be dorks together.
And he would surely beat his score next time.
A/N:This story was inspired by the song "Zero" by Imagine dragons, I just thought it would be nice to see them being nerd/gamers.