"Miko! Where are you?" Mitch asks, looking around with Five as he drives towards the pufferspiked glitch.
"Ding dong!" Miko knocks on the windshield from on top of Mitch's van. "Let's give this glitch stitches!"
"What are you…oh, fine! Just don't fall off. I don't want to scrape blueberry off the concrete and don't muck up my roof!" Mitch says exasperated this girl is forever trying to give me heart attacks. "Hang on!"
Miko laughs and cheers as Mitch maneuvers out of the way from the spikes.
"I'll keep us moving while the newbie scans for weak spots" Mitch maneuvers the van to avoid the spikes, "good save Zahra!"
"Yep, yep." Zahra says as she continues destroying the spikes with each shot.
"Miko, can you see the target!?" Mitch yells as he gets closer to the glitch.
"Ooh! Hello weak spot!" Miko says before detaching herself from the roof and ninja-ing her way over spikes to reach the glitch.
"Miko, wait for orders." Mitch yells could she listen for just once in her life.
"Me for the KO" Miko hits the glitch before doing a superhero landing "wait for it" Miko smiles as the glitch explodes and starts dancing "victory dance emote!"
Mitch grunts as he gets out of his van leaving Five still disoriented from the blast "what's your deal, Miko? You're supposed to be support class! Not to mention your total disregard for your superiors!"
Miko moon walks over to Mitch "I was being supportive by taking down that mob like it was corn on the cob." She says while spinning. Mitch moves out of the way, her hair just brushing against him as she continues to dance. Frowning Mitch thinks about how she's been avoiding him except for missions. Ever since their kiss in the bookstore she hasn't pestered him about being a griefer, called him by any nicknames or waited so they could get smoothies after work. And in Mitch's opinion, worst of all she's stopped touching him. He had gotten so used to her causal touches and lack of personal space he now missed it, craved it even. To say he'd been grumpy and more of a terror than usual was an understatement.
"Uh guys…" Five says and Mitch pulls his gaze away from Miko and glares at him. "—we got lurkers" Five points at the crowd while Miko keeps dancing.
Oh for the love of. "I'll reset them. Don't want you lot mucking it up." Mitch points his gauntlet and fires the memory wipe. Hitting not just the crowd but Miko as well. If only she'd stay frozen long enough to talk to me instead of always scurrying away like a hamster.
"Oh, nerds! You wiped Miko! Mitch just wiped Miko!" Bergy states as he starts panicking.
"Okay, okay, okay, nobody panic. Nobody panic!" Haneesh says as he does the opposite, causing Zahra to grab his collar.
"Tech down! I repeat, Tech down!" She says lifting Haneesh in the air and shaking him.
"Hey, hey, hey! Cool down, you bozos. She's fine." Mitch huffs while waiting for Miko to come too.
"She's…what?" Zahra asks immediately, turning to Five.
"Yeah, uh… Miko kinda can't reset." Five says blushing as Zahra and Haneesh both give him a look like he's crazy.
Miko snaps out of it by shaking her head "hey, man, that is not a toy." Miko says to Mitch and he just raises an eyebrow, clearly upset at her. Fighting the blush that threatens to appear on her face Miko turns to Haneesh thankful for the distribution.
"You don't rest? That's crazy weird" Haneesh says.
"Well, it's not weird. It's cool right?" Miko asks, raising an eyebrow and turning to Five for support, but her eyes dart to Mitch and she bites her lip.
Mitch, seeing an opportunity to vent his frustration, smirks. Miko frowns having been well versed in Mitch's expressions before the kiss which she now referred to as the little mermaid incident. She knows his smirk isn't a playful one or even the exasperated one she's been on the receiving end of many times. This one was the more arrogant one he used when they first met. Before the smoothie deal, she knew it would be followed by something hurtful. "No, it is weird. You're clearly so different from the rest of us. Makes you wonder what other strange little secrets she's got." He says while smiling even though he's frustrated. Like why you've been ignoring me.
"Guys, come on I'm not weird! Am I?" Miko asks, taking a step forward, but keeps her gaze on Mitch unsure of why he's suddenly being mean again.
"Everybody resets." Bergy says nervously.
"Says so in the tech manual" Zahra says and Haneesh frowns next to her as they start to walk back to the truck. She catches Five's gaze as he watches her. Lifting an eyebrow her eyes flick down to her gauntlet and then to his as she continues to type and walk with Haneesh.
Five subtly nods and blushes before Miko's voice snaps him out of it.
"Five? You think I'm weird?" Miko asks dejectedly.
"Uh, no, no, no! Not that you're weird. Uh, just that it's weird!" He chuckles nervously trying to comfort her. Miko frowns, crossing her arms. "Lots of cool things are weird. Like honey on cheese. Or… frogs." He continues babbling nervously but Miko's frown stays set on her face.
"Okay, then. Us normal techs are going to head back to hq. So enjoy being alone and doing whatever it is you do weirdo. Maybe try avoiding the rest of us. Oh wait, you already seem to do that well." Mitch grumbles as he walks to the van, the others still watching Miko.
It finally dawns on Miko why Mitch was being mean. "Hey, you're the weird one, cause I'm normal. I'm the normalest normal who ever'd normal'd!" Miko shoots back at him not wanting Mitch to get the last word in even though she knows they need to talk "I'm as normal as—"
"You're being weird and annoying right now." Mitch calls out looking over his shoulder happy that his words affected her.
"Nerds!" Miko shouts as she watches him get into his truck. After the rest of the techs leave Miko gets into the Hinobi truck and waits for Five as he runs to get them smoothies. She sighs at the thought of how she stopped getting them with Mitch. Opening her gauntlet her fingers hover over the keyboard unsure of the message she wants to send Mitch. What do I even say? Sorry for going ghost mode on you. I was too embarrassed. Ugh no that sounds lame. Miko pouts as she thinks about how mean he just was. If I'm so much of a freaky weirdo who should be alone, why did you kiss me back. She types out before deleting it. Giving it one last try she writes can we talk and is about to hit send when Five pops back up with the smoothies. Once again deleting her messages. Miko ignores Five until they get a glitch signature. By the end of the day Miko is happy with who she is and is glad her friends have stopped being weird about the whole not resetting thing and can even joke about it.
"Ah Miko. Come to freak us out with your presence?" And continue acting like I'm a villain in a horror game that you have to hide from?
"You know what Mitch. As much as it pains me to say it, you're right. I am a weirdo." She says walking up to him. "I'm a weirdo for life." She says grabbing his jacket and pulling him down to her eye level. "And you better watch out cause I got my freaky eye on you." She says spinning him around so he's blocking the others' view of her. "Boop" Miko taps his nose like she used to and Mitch is thoroughly confused, but happy she's touching him again. "Smoothies later?" She asks quietly as her fingers tenses on his jacket. Unsure if he'll meet with her.
"Yeah well…you're…you're just a whatever." He says pulling her hands off him and straightening out his jacket. Mitch is fiddling with his gauntlet as he walks away. Miko frowns thinking he's rejected her offer until her gauntlet beeps. She smiles seeing the simple word okay that Mitch sent her.
As the end of the day draws near Miko looks for Five. She sees him with a goofy look on his face as Zahra walks away from him and past her briefly stopping for a fist bump. "Hey Fiver what's with the heart eyes?"
"Zahra just asked me to join her for a raid tonight and… oh we were supposed to hang out. Miko I am" Miko cuts him off by holding her hand up in front of him before smiling and throwing her arm over his neck ruffling his hair.
Well this works out perfectly. "Five buddy dude, it's cool. Have fun on the raid with the love of your life. Just remember I'm totally being the best man at your wedding." Miko laughs as Five blushes and sputters.
"Amor de.. Miko no it 's just Zahra is super cool y bonita y…"
"No biggie five. We can always hang another day."
"You're the best Miko." Five says pulling her into a bone crushing hug. As Five leaves Miko waits outside of the Hinobi store for Mitch. He sees her, but doesn't say anything as he walks past. Miko raises her arm reaching out to grab him, but then stops and sighs. She quietly follows behind him. Getting the smoothies was an awkward affair to say the least. Miko only orders one smoothie and is quiet the whole time. Even the store's employees notice the tension between them. They walk back to Mitch's Hinobi van and get inside. Miko opens and closes her mouth a few times to speak, but nothing comes out. She takes a large sip of her smoothie before trying to calm down. Come on, you can do this. You're ME-K.O. after all. I've taken down boss glitches, completed every game I've ever played and hold the highest of high scores on sock em rockers. You can talk to a boy.
While Miko has her internal pep talk Mitch watches her. Sighing he gets up and heads to the back of his truck setting up a Hinobi console.
"Mitch I '' Miko starts and turns to face the driver's seat. "Mitch? Where did you go? Did you get eaten by another glitch?" Miko asks, looking around before seeing him in the back.
"Finally done spacing out? Come on." He says as she gets up to sit down next to him grabbing a controller as the sumo smashers logo appears.
"Sooo uh why are we"
Mitch cuts her off "we haven't spoken since the kiss and when you're nervous you have too much energy and start to overthink. So we'll talk while we play. It's how my sibling and I deal with stuff most days."
Miko nods and selects her character remembering to later ask Mitch how many siblings he has. The first stage begins and Miko glances over at Mitch.
"If you hated the kiss that much you could have told me. You know, instead of avoiding me."
"I didn't hate it." Miko says quietly "it was nice actually really nice. I just didn't know how to deal with everything I was feeling. So I panicked. It was my first kiss… so uh yeah."
A small smile crosses Mitch's face at hearing he was her first kiss. They progress through the level a bit more "I'm sorry for today. I was just frustrated that you had started ignoring me. After all, I've gotten so used to you pestering me and getting under my skin. I had um grown quite fond of it." He says keeping his eyes on the screen.
A large smile spreads across Mikos face and she launches herself at Mitch tackling to the floor in a hug. " You like me."
"Yes well um. Being around you isn't terrible and I'll admit I have fun um a nice time with you." He says lifting himself up on his elbows. Mitch can't help but smile back at Miko bringing his hand up and pushing some of her hair out the way.
Miko starts to open her mouth to speak when she hears her phone ring. She releases Mitch before sitting up to answer it. "Hey mom I… uhuh. But I thought…Okay, yeah." She says before hanging up. Miko looks at Mitch and sees him saving their game file before turning off the console. "That was"
"I heard. Don't worry about it, let's get you home." He says as the two of them climb back to the front seats. Starting the van Mitch turns on the radio.
Miko smiles seeing that he had kept the station she listens to most in his favorites. As they drive to her house Miko sings along with the song playing, tapping her fingers on the door. Mitch pulls into her driveway and she smiles at him "thanks for the ride home and um you know"
Miko doesn't get to finish her sentence as Mitch cuts her off with a kiss. He pulls back and smirks at her "been wanting to do that since earlier. Now go inside sugar plum we can talk more about us another day."
Miko smirks as she reaches up to mess with a piece of his hair "Mitch Williams. Mr big shot number one gamer wants there to be an us. With me the support class weirdo."
"Oh shut up and get inside" Mitch says with fake annoyance as Miko boops his nose once more before getting out of the truck. He watches her go inside before pulling out of her driveway with a smile on his face.