057. Sacrifice
Characters: Leon, Gill, Mattie, and Francis
Genre: Friendship/Romance
Rating: T
Time Period: Halloween before ON2B

Zomb-Os

"Okay, this just isn't fair." Gill pouted as she threw down her game controller, scowling at the television screen before turning her gaze toward the couch. "You said you've never played this game before."

Leon sighed, set his own controller down—much more gently—and shrugged his one free shoulder. "I haven't. I've never played any of these games."

"Then how are you so good?! That's just not fair! Awesome should be able to beat you if you've never played before!"

"Gilly, you're so loud," Francis mumbled from where he was leaning against Leon's opposite shoulder. He had his eyes closed, presumably trying to sleep, but Gillian was very loud.

Leon wasn't entirely sure how he'd ended up in this situation. This morning, he'd thought he was going to be spending Halloween by himself. Francis would be at his parents' house, hosting his annual Halloween party with more than half the town invited, and Gill would be either there or off doing something else with her girlfriend or other friends.

It wasn't until lunch time that Francis mentioned, oh so casually, that he'd decided not to host a party this year and instead, he'd be staying home tonight.

And it wasn't until a mere hour ago that Leon answered his doorbell to find Gill and Mattie on his doorstep, Gill burdened with a gaming console and backpack which he soon discovered was filled with a variety of horror-themed video games.

Mattie now returned from the kitchen, balancing a tray holding four mugs in her hands. "Gill, you shouldn't get annoyed with Leon just because he's better at a video game than you are."

"But it's not fair," Gill insisted. "I wanted to show Leon and Franny how awesome I am at video games, but he keeps beating me!"

"I could play with a handicap," Leon offered, although he felt like having limited mobility in his left arm from Fran resting on him was already a handicap. He couldn't help it if he happened to be good at these games… It was all about reflexes and remembering what buttons to push when, and, apparently, he was good at that.

"Then me winning wouldn't count," Gill said. "I have to win fair and square, or it doesn't mean anything."

Francis opened an eye and sent her a slightly impatient look. "It doesn't mean anything anyway. It's just a game, Gilly."

"An awesome zombie game!"

He sighed, and Leon could feel the warm breath tickle against his ear. "Oui, an awesome zombie game, but still a game."

Leon felt like he was stuck in the middle of what could become an argument quite rapidly. Francis hadn't been in a great mood for most of the day—for what reason, Leon had no idea, but assumed it somehow related to his decision to not hold his party this year. Meanwhile, Gill was just…being Gill.

Thank God for Mattie. She set her tray on the coffee table and handed one of the mugs to Gill. "I made hot cocoa. You should probably drink it before all the marshmallows melt."

"Awesome! You're the best, Mattie!" And Gill immediately began drinking the hot cocoa without even checking the temperature. Since she didn't immediately shriek in pain, Leon assumed Mattie had cooled it down before handing it to her. She knew her girlfriend well, it seemed.

He flashed Mattie a grateful smile when she handed one of the other mugs to him. Then he moved the shoulder Francis was leaning against, earning himself a mumbled complaint. "C'mon, Fran. Mattie made cocoa for us."

"Mmph." Francis responded with a muffled grunt, but obediently opened his eyes and reached out to take the offered mug, slowly sitting upright with a yawn as he did so.

"Why're you so sleepy, Franny?" Gill asked. "You're being boring." Her cocoa was already gone, Leon noticed with some unwarranted surprise.

"Didn't sleep well last night," he replied with a shrug.

"Why?"

"I was thinking about whether to have my party today or not. I eventually decided not to…" He shrugged again and took a sip from his cocoa.

Gill nodded. "Well, Awesome thinks it's more awesome for you not to have your party. This way you get to hang out with us."

"Oui, and that is much more enjoyable."

Leon frowned, a bit puzzled. "Wouldn't you have gone to Fran's party if he had it, Gill?"

Gill shook her head. "No, I don't like Franny's Halloween party. He always invites lame-o's."

Francis snorted. "That's not very nice, Gilly."

"It's true. You don't like most of them anymore than I do. I don't get why you invite them over when all they wanna do is get drunk and make a mess."

"It's tradition at this point."

"A stupid, unawesome tradition," Gill said with finality.

Leon couldn't help but look searchingly at Francis now. He hadn't realized Francis didn't even like most of the people he invited to his party. Why would he invite them over if he didn't like them?

Francis sighed and took another, longer sip of his hot chocolate, meeting Leon's eyes over the rim. Then he said, "I've always had a party at my house for Halloween. People look forward to it and it's not really that bad… We drink and dance and I usually find someone amusing to spend the evening with…" He shrugged and took another sip of hot chocolate before continuing. "I just didn't feel like putting the work in this year."

If he'd only decided to cancel this morning, though, then wouldn't he already have put the work in? Leon assumed this party took some amount of planning. He didn't say anything, though—just drank his own hot chocolate while watching Francis out of the corner of his eye.

He knew Fran well enough to tell when he was in a bad mood; unfortunately, he couldn't always identify why. And Francis wasn't about to tell him.

He sighed and then leaned down to pick up his controller again. "Do you want to try another level, Gill?"

"Of course! And this time, Awesome will definitely defeat you!"

Leon sighed, settling himself back against the couch as the screen lit up again, showing a loading screen filled with various horrifying gore-soaked zombies. "You do realize this is a co-op game…?"

"I'm still going to beat you!"

Whatever. Leon wasn't going to bother arguing. Maybe he'd just try to play a little less competently this round.

~.~.~

It was Leon's fault.

That was the conclusion Francis had eventually reached. Although, really, it hadn't taken much time for him to understand… Less time than he'd desired.

It was Leon's fault that he'd cancelled the Halloween party.

He sighed and leaned back against the couch, the mug of hot chocolate a comforting warmth in his hands. Leon and Gill were completely focused on the game again, both staring intently at the screen as it filled with shambling corpses.

Gill really didn't have a chance. She subscribed to the school of 'mashing buttons until something happened' when it came to video games, while Leon lined up each shot and didn't waste a single bullet. Francis had no idea how he managed to be so good at a game he'd never played before, but there it was…

Francis took a sip of his cocoa, watching Leon's expression slip into a slight smirk as he brought down another zombie. One of the pros of this gaming night—Francis could watch Leon without anyone noticing, since they were all focusing their attention on the game.

He didn't think Leon realized how expressive he was when he was concentrating. His eyes would narrow and lips purse as he lined up each shot… Then his entire expression would shift to proud pleasure when he brought down the enemy.

It was endearing.

And that was the problem.

Francis was, unfortunately, rather used to sleepless nights. He'd suffered from intermittent insomnia since he was a little kid. But last night had been one of the worst in a long time, and it was all Leon's fault. Leon and his stupid Halloween party.

Leon made everything so much more complicated.

He'd been hosting this party for several years now. He invited basically everyone at school and made it clear that the more, the merrier. Often, he'd end up with a house full of people he barely even knew, but he usually found that to be part of the fun. He'd spend the evening flitting between groups, drinking, dancing, eventually there'd be someone attractive who'd make their interest obvious, and they'd make their way upstairs to one of the guest rooms.

It had all been extremely simple, until recently.

He hadn't gone on a date in months now. His last few had each ended in disaster, so eventually he just decided it wasn't worth it. The problem was that they all bored him. He would try to act like his normal, charming self, but eventually he'd find himself zoning off as they talked and thinking about how much he'd rather be at home. He would end up thinking about how Leon had responded to the dinner he'd made the night before or wondering what he was doing right then… And his dates would eventually notice he wasn't paying any attention to him.

His last had dumped her glass of water over his head in response to him completely tuning her out. Thankfully, it'd been raining that day, so Leon didn't think anything was strange when he came home soaking wet. He'd just scolded him for going out without an umbrella.

It didn't take a genius to figure out what was going on. Although, even now, Francis refused to say the words even to himself… It felt as if admitting his feelings would somehow alert Leon to what was going on, and he couldn't let that happen.

He had originally planned to have the party this year, although his heart wasn't in it. It was tradition, after all, and plenty of people would be disappointed if he cancelled. But then last night, he couldn't stop himself from running it over in his head…

The dancing, the drinking, the potential-stranger sending him that look. And he'd end up going with them, because that's what he always did.

It made him feel nauseous. He'd spent the night running it over in his head and then this morning… He blamed his decision on sleep-deprivation. He'd grabbed his phone and typed out the message, sending it out to his many contacts before he could think through what he was doing.

Let everyone know the party's cancelled tonight.

And now here he was, watching as Leon and Gill played a zombie hunting game and Mattie sat beside her girlfriend on the floor, watching as well.

"Not fair!" Gill suddenly exclaimed, dropping her controller as she glared at the screen and pouted. "I headshotted like six zombies that time!"

Leon sighed and leaned back as the screen filled with the results screen. An 'A' for him, a 'B' score for Gillian. He stretched his arms out, one resting behind Francis's head. "Why don't we try something else?" he offered.

"Not until I beat you!"

Francis shifted himself closer to Leon on the couch, feeling a twinge of pleasure when Leon responded to the movement by relaxing further. He glanced over, then moved the arm behind Francis so he could lightly tug his ponytail.

"Why don't you play against Fran, Gilly? My hands are getting tired."

Francis wrinkled his nose. He had absolutely zero interest in playing this type of game. He'd occasionally play video games with Gillian and Antonio, but he was terrible at them and Gill might be a bad loser, but she was an even worse winner.

Leon dropped the controller in his lap without even bothering to ask his opinion, though. Because his opinion clearly didn't matter.

Gill hummed. "Okay, but we're gonna do a rematch later!"

"Whatever you say." He relaxed more fully against the couch, sending Francis an amused grin. "Good luck."

Francis sent an eye roll back. Then found his attention being jerked to the television screen as Gill pressed the 'start' button and he found himself in the middle of a room rapidly filling with zombies, with absolutely no idea what the controls even were.

A/N: Sorry Gill, but part of the perks when you originally came from a video game!verse is being extraordinarily good at video games. It's just how it works.

Also, I've always had the feeling that Leon's actually got a competitive streak. So even when he decides he's going to go easier on Gilly, he can't help but keep playing well. Just maybe not quite as well.

Sacrifice, because Fran sacrifices his party for Leon. Because he's got it bad, even if he refuses to admit it.

Next prompt is Kick in the Head. Reviews are loved!