Reviews :
Jay Sketchin : LOL YES. So excited.
Burgie : Aw thank you! It only gets worse from here xD
Snake557 : Yyyyep. Chester's whole entire life hahaha
Nikki Firesong : Aww, of course! Thank YOU for your support as well! YES I'm so excited to finally write for Wren and Throttle. They're so cute. And just in time for Pride month!
Song Listened To :
Together We Map the World (HTTYD score) by John Powell
*Chapter 68*
Although the day, at Game Central Academy, had been long and full of being late to nearly every single class, Berri, Wren, Theo and Gunner took time to appreciate every single last fan and excited Academy student that approached them. Tucked safely away in their own music studio, inside Academy's glorious music hall, the coordinators and few music teachers very kindly allowed Gunner, and crew, to cover the glass of one of the many recording studios, so they could at least have a private place to escape to. Although the crowds and hoards of excited fans were finally beginning to dwindle, if even a little, it still was becoming something too much for Berri, Wren and Theo to manage, so soon. With Gunner in full understanding, the four comfortably lounged about the small, Academy studio, although not equipped with the latest gear and technology, it still made do and was a wonderful resource to rely on.
Wren and Theo began to bicker at each other as they picked at the drum set available to them. With the seat up too high for Theo's liking, and a few other things out of place, the two were hunched over with their faces deep into their chore. They laughed and picked on each other, in true brotherly fashion, as Berri and Gunner stood on the other end of the studio, which was separated by a wide window and a door that hung ajar. Gunner's meticulous fingers worked at the mix board, with a pair of silver, over-ear headphones lazily slopped over his head. He had one side tightly smushed to his right ear, while the right ear lazily hugged the side of his head and left it so he could hear Berri talking. She quietly explained the amount of homework she was now saddled with, what tests that were coming up and which classes were now ones she was discovering to be the hardest. Whilst she gently chatted, her larger fingers tuned her electric guitar, properly plugged into a mini-amp she had heftily strapped to her hip.
Gunner cocked an eyebrow and continued to set the tunes of a few different melodies they were beginning to work on, simply just mess around music, something that Gunner was relieved to be sinking into. Although he was sad that Archived Chaos fell apart, and scheduled tours and shows were now no longer a thing, he was at least thrilled he could sit back for a few weeks and really get back to the heart of his craft. As Berri's sweet and tender voice carried on, he crowned a gentle smile and lofted his narrow, honey-brown gaze to her figure. She stood, her eyes tight to the neck of her gorgeous guitar, she huffed a few strands of her blue bangs out of her eyes and, as her chest cavity shook a cute giggle from her figure, Gunner softened and stopped what he was doing to simply admire. She carried on chatting without a care in the world, her right hand so tenderly plucked at the strings of her guitar, tune she could get right by ear with no problem whatsoever.
"I mean, I know he's not MEANING to teach so fast, but, man," Berri bugged her eyes and peaked a cute, toothy smile from her pink lips. She shook her head and furrowed her brows, "It's like... Slow down, man, my note taking can only fly through so many sheets of paper before I need a new notebook... Y'know?"
Berri finally lofted her gaze up and to Gunner's figure, and it was here did he flinch in a startled roll of being discovered in staring. He huffed a faltered noise and quickly shot his eye down to the mix board in a fluster of bashful awareness, he bobbed a hefty nod, bit his bottom lip and quipped her a short note of agreeing. Berri cocked an eyebrow and softly assessed him; his straight, nearly perfect black hair was smushed by the heavy headphones he donned, his clean, tidily pressed dark blue shirt, with the thin, light blue pinstripes down his chest, only elongated his tall, slender figure. He nervously shifted on his feet, the holes in his cool, rugged black jeans peaked his knees as he tried to situate himself in agitation. He shrugged and cooly came out of his embarrassment with a coy, sweet smile lofted in her direction.
"You're kin of the greatest racers in this Arcade," Gunner volleyed warmly, they finally locked eyes in a sweet string of understanding, of getting to know each other more. He shrugged his broad shoulders and, with his widening smile, his eyes narrowed even further, "Surely keeping up is no problem for you. You're fast, anyhow. I'm sure you'll be fine."
"Thank you," Berri chirped with a small nod, to insinuate he definitely wasn't wrong, though she blurt a small laugh and continued on, "Doesn't mean my brain isn't goo after leaving that class, though."
"Oh, I don't doubt it," Gunner blurt, he shook his head in agreeing as the two shared a laugh, "My third hour teacher is the same way. I'm not a good note taker, though, so... It's always difficult for me, no matter what."
"I LOVE taking notes," Berri pressed as she returned her attention back down to her guitar, "Explains why I go crazy over sheet music, I guess."
"True," Gunner nodded, though he finally heaved a sigh of contentment and took off the hefty headphones, in which Academy provided for their studios. He sagged his hand to the counter in nonchalance, faced Berri and eagerly watched her finish tuning her guitar, "Hey, Bear, um... I know it was sort of a point of contention yesterday, but... If you change your mind on coming over to my place... Just let me know."
Berri sagged her shoulders a little and felt that itching, nasty tug on her heart. How badly she wanted to traipse into EZ Living, see Gunner's mansion, hopefully play for his team, she wondered if she could possibly get away with it. She contemplated the pros and cons; she knew if she were to escape to EZ Living, with no one knowing, and come back without anyone being the wiser, she could have her cake and eat it too. Though, she looked off in a slow sag of nervousness, the title she would one day hold, the crown held high with so many sets of responsibilities, and the one main thing her mother so diligently tried to teach her; to avoid being careless. Berri heaved a hard sigh through her nose, and just as she began to give Gunner a nervous, apologetic smile, Gunner gently threw his hands up, as if to assure her that she wasn't hurting his feelings.
"I understand, I get it," Gunner egged warmly, he huffed a chuckle and gave her a sweet smile, "I respect your decision. I know it's difficult..."
"It's just... Dangerous for me, you understand," Berri pressed; she knew that Gunner was aware of faux-codes being deleted, randomly, though she also began to wonder if said fad was dying out. She pondered the last time she had heard about a faux-code being deleted randomly, via this issue. She tried her very hardest not to go back on her word, though somehow, it started to creep up on her, "Maybe... I can come hang out with you on a night where the stations and game entrances aren't so incredibly busy."
"Yeah, where my team can REALLY keep an eye on us, usher us too and from," Gunner nodded in assurance, "I mean... I know it's scary for us faux-codes, I get it. I just... So badly want to introduce you to my manager. She'd love you."
"Yeah?" Berri pressed, she inwardly scolded herself for being such a sap for that amazingly alluring honey-brown gaze of his.
"Yeah, Bedgy is the best," Gunner nodded, he sagged his hands into his pockets and sighed, "Maybe I can see about her coming to Academy, one day, if you decide, once and for all, that coming into EZ Living is a no-go."
"I-I... I don't want to tell you that I'll NEVER go to EZ Living," Berri danced around her words, she knew she had to be careful not to mention Turbo's plan to create a deletion protection, of sorts, "M-My family is slowly working out a way where we can go about Arcade safely, free of harm from random delete attacks... I think it's just scary, right now, because we have no clue what's technically causing these random deletions. Once we have the source, it'll be easier to know when we can come in and out of the safety nets of our games."
"Thinking like a true Queen," Gunner complimented with a small nod, a twinkle in his eye, he finally sighed in defeat and bobbed a nod, "Welp... Noted. You just let me know when you'd like to come over. My door is always open, whenever you're comfortable."
"That's really sweet of you, thank you," Berri assured warmly with a nod.
As she went back to tuning her guitar, she felt a weird sting of annoyance come over her. Although Gunner was being sweet and not pushing her boundaries, Berri felt an itch of urgency to try and win back his pawing neediness for her to join him in EZ Living. She was well aware this was a matter of life or death, though now that he had mildly given up on trying to win her over to his house, easily lofting the ball into her court, she felt irritated that now she was the one to make the next move. She recalled the very thing she was the absolute worst at, being impatient and all, she began to wonder if she could somehow use escaping to EZ Living as her one and only massive act of rebelliousness. She knew every yearling was allowed at least one get-out-of-jail-free-card.
"I give up! I can't do it, I don't know what ham hands wants of me," Wren blurt in whole annoyance; although Wren was still a little bashful and nervous around Gunner, he quickly came out of his shell and acted like his typical self. He threw his hands up and stormed into Berri's and Gunner's side of the studio, to which they both perked up with confused smiles and lofts of darted gazes back to Theo, inside the hull of the studio. He loudly proclaimed something to Wren, though it was only half audible due to the glass being soundproof, "I don't care! Look, I don't know how drum sets work!"
"I'll see what's up," Gunner stated in gentle defeat with a small chuckle, he smoothly slid between Wren and Berri, and before Theo could get too upset, he came into the other side of the studio and began to help Theo with the shared drum set, one that multiple students used throughout the day.
"For User's sake, I have to do everything for that dude, 'my hands are too big'," Wren wrinkled his nose and mocked Theo's deeper voice. He huffed a breath, jerked his head to get his white hair from out of his eyes, and crossed his arms in whole annoyance; Berri cocked an eyebrow at Wren and waggled her fingers.
"Hey, it's not easy being a wrecker, my friend," Berri sassed, though Wren raised his eyebrows and rose to the challenge.
"Oh yeah? I didn't gift that upon you two! Least he could do is be grateful I'm helping him," Wren stabbed; although Wren was making this out to be a big deal, he was known for blowing things out of proportion. With Wren's spiked attitude and odd amount of stress level, for something so tiny and silly, Berri furrowed her brows in prodding contemplation and shook her head as Wren continued on, "I'm sorry, I'm just... GUH."
"You're awfully heated about the height of one measly stool, love," Berri cooed with a giggle, she gingerly eased the strap of her electric guitar off of her body and carefully rested said guitar on a nearby stand, on the ground. As she came back up, she put her hands on her hips and was quick to notice Wren whip out his phone and now nervously begin to stab his thumbs into the screen of the digital keyboard, as if to flurry his frustration at some other poor, unfortunate soul, "Hey, easy, easy... Calm down, Wren, seriously."
"I'm sorry," Wren blurt as Berri's loving hand held onto Wren's wrist, and it was here did Berri get a small glimpse as to just who he was messaging; none other than Throttle. Wren bashfully locked his phone and set it down on the large, sprawling studio desk he was near, "I-I just... I'm... I have a lot of huge and scary tests coming up, and a lot of homework, and I just..."
"Have a lot on your mind, clearly," Berri eased; she was well aware Wren was a closed book, when it came to deeper issues, and though he was hard to pry open, she knew it was indeed possible, with a good dose of tender loving care and meeting Wren just where he was at, "Surely those tests can't be the highlight of your stress, Wren... I mean, midterms are literally two months away, I'm sure you're not panicking about those, just yet."
"No, I just... I promised mom and dad I'd have a perfect GPA, my first year," Wren muttered, he shook his head and now gave Berri an annoyed, sheepish grin, "Probably not the smartest thing to promise, but... I want to make them proud."
"Yeah, don't break your neck over it, Wren," Berri blurt a small giggle, though she knew she clearly didn't want to dance around this hot topic, any longer. She cocked an eyebrow, dart her eyes down to his phone, eased a cool nod and so quietly revealed his heart, bare and open for only her to see, "Texting Throttle, I see..."
Wren froze and now felt a weird shiver crawl over his skin. He knew Berri was a safe place for all things boy related, how much they gabbed about guys they thought were cute, celebrities they gushed over, though he had felt himself fall into the weird predicament of slowly garnering a crush on an individual they both knew personally, something Wren was entirely unsure how to navigate. Because he had no skillset here, no experience navigating these tricky waters, for once in his life, he didn't have a witty comeback for Berri to try and digest. He sagged his shoulders, looked down to the black screen of his phone and, although he hated being vulnerable, he allowed his wall to come down for Berri in this instance, strictly for the fact that Gunner and Theo were entirely out of earshot and preoccupied with something else.
"I am," Wren confessed, his tone was curt and nervous, though held a lilt of warm inquisition. He eyed Berri through a narrowed gaze, sharper than knives, he navigated the waters of this conversation, up ahead, and wondered just where there'd be lurking crocodiles, "What of it?"
"No, nothing, I just... I've been noticing lately that he gets really nervous and stiff whenever you're around," Berri eased seriously, she knew if she didn't sass Wren, or give attitude, that Wren then didn't have any fuel to volley said sass or attitude right back at her. She allowed her walls to further come down first so that Wren knew she was eternally a safe spot, no matter what the case, "I... I think it's sweet. It seems, to me, that he's maybe nervous around you because he likes you? Or maybe... You like him?"
"I don't know," Wren curtly snapped as he crossed his arms and continued to look down to his blank phone, Berri held her eyes to Wren and allowed a gentle, loving smile to sprawl her cheeks.
"Wren... It's okay," Berri assured softly, with the warmth in her voice, the soothing air radiating off of her, Wren dared to peel his nervous eyes from his blank phone and directly into her vivid, piercing blue eyes. She tilted her head in gentle understanding and softened, even further, "I won't tell anyone, Wren... I promise."
Wren held tight eye contact with Berri in shivering nervousness. He knew she was a safe spot for all of his secrets, their sibling relationship never faltered or wavered in any sense, whatsoever. He held his arms tight across his chest in a show of reservedness, though he felt the need to unload, and be real, quickly come back to his veins. He unravelled his arms, tucked his hands into his lazy, dark khaki knee-length shorts and, through a big expansion of his broad chest, he bobbed a gentle nod, alongside a nervous shrug, and looked off.
"Yeah, I... I like him," Wren eased nervously, he still held his eyes aimless across the room, though in a sharp, nervous dart, he brought them right back to Berri's unwavering, loving gaze, "It's just... Complicated, I don't know how to describe it."
"What's complicated about it?" Berri warmly pressed, the lightness in her voice had Wren's shoulders sagging, as if maybe the complication was due to him being so inside his own head.
"I-I mean, it's just... Weird. Isn't it a little weird?" Wren wrinkled his nose and peered to Berri in uncertainty, "H-He's... Well... I guess you and I are sort of in the same boat, in this situation."
"Wait, why?" Berri reeled in tender confusion, though Wren gave Berri a sneaky smile and cocked an eyebrow.
"Because both the boys, that we fancy, are literal Arcade decades older than us," Wren concluded, to which Berri's face quickly turned red.
"Th-that's... Diff-"
"It's not different, and you know it," Wren stabbed with a hearty laugh, to which Berri secretly looked off and tried her hardest to reserve a smile, "Whatever is said in this instance STAYS between us, and I mean it, you hear me?"
"Road goes both ways, Wren," Berri snapped in smiling irritation, though Wren confidently held out his hand, for a handshake, and knew they needed to seal that promise, for good, before more words were exchanged.
"Deal," Wren assured, and as the two quickly and secretively shook hands, they reeled their still reserved postures back to crossed arms or hands deep in jean pockets.
"Th-the way I look at it, is..." Berri danced around her words, Wren raised his eyebrows and awaited her advice, as if it were pure gold, mana from heaven, something they both needed to hear but could now only get from each other. Wren long blinked in tender anticipation and just barely leaned in as Berri continued, nervous hand gestures and all, "Sure, they're older than us, but... The experience?"
"True," Wren bobbed a nod, his tone was short and nervous.
"I-I don't know about Throttle, but I know Turbo has an ex-girlfriend, User knows where she went... It's desirable, I understand. Wanting a guy that has been through the trails of life and love," Berri rattled off gently, to which Wren nervously shrugged, "I don't know, Wren, I'd say... Go with your gut. Throttle is such a gentleman. All the Turbotime boys are... It's like engrained in their coding, or something. I don't think age should be a factor, here. We're all adults, here, can't we like each other, no matter what?"
"I'd like to say," Wren shrugged once more, though a cute smile finally began to sprawl his face, as if he was in desperate need of this conversation.
"I think... Throttle is still just a liiiittle bit deeper in the closet, than you were. Turbo told me that Throttle hasn't even come out to him, yet," Berri grimaced and gave Wren a look of nervous understanding, "I think... This situation may be tricky for him because of the opposite things we're worried about. You're a lot younger than him. Not only that, but he's also never OPENLY come out with it, and I think that makes him nervous... Another thing, your dad is Rancis Fluggerbutter. I mean that's ENOUGH worry, right there."
"Poor Orph," Wren scoffed, he grappled at the collar of his shirt, tugged it and looked off, "Yeah, I guess... I never considered those things. We get on great through our text conversations, but for the past few days, he gets REAL weird whenever we're in person, together. I mean, you saw him last night."
"Yeah he spent the entire night like fifty feet from you, at all times," Berri blurt a gentle laugh; they both kept their eye on Gunner's and Theo's whereabouts, so to know just when to call this conversation quits. Berri sighed, shook her head and crossed her arms, "I think maybe you just... Need to break the ice a little. May suck, but I think you might have to be the one to make the first move. Approach him, touch his arm, say something nice. I think he's just visibly uncomfortable because he has no clue how to act around you without either freaking you out, or freaking the rest of us out."
"Yeah, he mentioned you guys," Wren bobbed a nod and looked back to his phone in tender nervousness, "He didn't want to make you guys feel weird, or anything."
"We wouldn't feel weird, we want you guys to be happy," Berri shrugged, "If being together makes you happy, then... I mean, we can't really complain about that. I think it's sweet."
"Thanks, Bear," Wren stated gently, he still looked mildly uncomfortable, and although he so badly wanted to prod at the idea of Berri still crushing on Turbo, he halted his words and was progressively noticing the twinkling, googoo eyes that Berri was garnering for Gunner. He held his breath and was well aware just which blossom had deeper roots, though he wondered if prodding at Berri, so soon into this game of love triangles, was wise. He dropped it for now and felt the air between them clear a bit, "I-I guess... Maybe should I sit him down, or something?"
"No, that's probably too much, too soon," Berri nonchalantly shrugged, "Just... Be yourself, invite him into the city for a casual date, I don't know. If the issue is being around me, Turbo and Theo, or anyone else, then maybe break the ice on a coffee date in the city, or something. Y'know?"
"Not a bad idea," Wren shrugged with a small nod, he fingered his lip and eyed Berri, "I appreciate your advice... You know if you ever need guy advice, you can come to me, as well... Right?"
"Thanks, I know," Berri assured warmly, though she sighed in mild annoyance, towards herself, and lofted her gaze out the wide window and straight to Gunner's figure, across the way, "I'll let you know when I run into a predicament..."
"...You mean a bigger predicament than what you're currently in? Ms. love triangle?" Wren playfully stabbed, to which Berri furrowed her eyebrows and tried to play dumb.
"Triangle? There is no triangle, I don't know where you're getting that," Berri concluded in curt cuteness as she shrugged her shoulders and gently shook her head; although Wren wanted to fight her on the subject matter, he figured he'd better stop now while he was ahead.
