AN: I had previously thought Propwash Junction to be in Iowa. Then after a purchase of the Planes "Official Guide" book I realised the set location was in Minnesota. So there's that. Also there's an OC in here briefly, Cassidy, Blade's adopted grand-niece. I will leave reference notes to her at the end of the story for later context. T because language - Blade's to be exact. California helis don't mix with Minnesota weather.

Game of Thrones

It was a rare occurrence that Dusty ever got to spend time with Skipper and Blade at the same time. Schedules never coordinated right, things always showed up at the last minute, and travelling halfway across the country was tedious at best. But thankfully for them all, a perfect window of opportunity had presented itself in the middle of December. Dusty was in between two races that had a week and a half gap between them, there was snow on the ground at the Air Attack base. Even Cassidy was on winter break, so she could come along for the flight to Minnesota.

They - meaning Blade and Dusty mainly - planned the dates up, and December 14th, Dusty and company were eagerly awaiting the choppers from their little locale airstrip. The morning was frosty with fresh-fallen snow, but the winds were low so there were no core-rattling chills. Skipper looked over at the bright orange plane, sticking out like a sore thumb around the faded whites and greys of the landscape, in a pair of blue earmuffs and a long crocheted scarf around his front. Yep, wintertime nerd. But who could blame him, he could pull it off.

The two helicopters showed up around 11AM, tires and skids landing on the thawed out section of the runway. Cass had a bit of a slip up on the ice as she'd landed, but she held up nicely.

Both of them, Skipper noticed, had their own winter setups, Blade with a set of sturdier, less slip-prone snowtires over his landing gear, and Cass a set of green and yellow skid-warmers. The MH-6 Little Bird hybrid seemed pretty used to the cold though, growing up in the north side of Portland. Blade, on the other tire, was not as amused to the idea of the frozen water falling from the sky.

"You're not shivering, are you?" Dusty questioned.

"It's fucking cold." was Blade's short reply.

After getting everyone into the main hangar - chosenly Skipper's because it was both the most spacious and the cleanest (Dusty had reasons for being unorganised) - Sparky pulled out a deck of cards. Namely, one that everyone knew how to play even if it had been decades.

"We used to play this all the time on the set." Blade mentioned, as Dottie dealt everyone the cards for the first round.

"Is Uno really that old?" Chug asked, to which Blade and Skipper both returned stone cold glares.

"'71," The Augustawestland said, "isn't that old."

The first Uno round was the basic one - the only house rule was stacking, where one could play a draw two on top of another draw two and "stack" the draws onto the next vehicle, until no more draw cards could be placed. This was probably the most hilarious thing to watch for the group, seeing everyone stack twos together just to dump them all on Dusty when it was a draw twelve.

"No fair!" He said.

"Way fair, you agreed to stacking!" Cassidy reminded him.

By the end of the game - which had already taken a good hour or so to finish - Dottie won, while the boys were all trying to team up and completely destroy the former crop-duster. In the end it was assumed he still had about twenty-three cards. He did get to exact some revenge in round two though, when everyone decided to pair up in teams for a slightly shorter game. Dusty paired with Chug and Sparky, Skipper with Cassidy, and Blade with Dottie - the most overpowered team by far, as the rest argued.

"You have three people in your team." Blade said.

"Because the three of us together can only amount to one complete brain!" Chug answered. No one could really deny them on that statement.

After a surprising win of round two by Skipper and Cassidy, Dottie and Chug left to work on some things over at the Fill n' Fly, and Sparky went to help them out, so it was just the crop-duster, his two mentors, and the Little Bird.

Their second game choice was a WWII variation of Monoploy, in which Blade kicked ass and Dusty and Cassidy both kept falling on war bonds and income taxes. Skipper was hot on the red and white helicopter's tail though, owning all but one of the railroads - or in this case, the 'Atlantic Convoys', 'Red Ball Express', and 'Flying the Hump' properties. Blade still managed to claim the 'Alcan Highway'. It was a close call, but Blade still won in the end.

Then, while Cassidy went to play a few rounds of Jenga with the others, Dusty took the opportunity to pull out the 'grown up game' that Skipper had only ever heard tellings of from Chug and Sparky, in a very giggly, half-drunken manner. He himself didn't want to know what shenanigans went on in the game, but apparently they were about to find out when he set down the black and white box.

"Oh my gosh...this is a game?!" the warbird questioned, worryingly going through his set of cards. The chopper looked about as concerned as he felt.

"Yes!" Dusty half-chuckled back.

Well, this was going to be interesting.

Admittedly, a round of the game and a round of beers later, all three of them were having a pretty ridiculous but fun time, especially around a few choice card placements.

By the time all was said and done, Dusty won the round, and the group decided to call it a night. It was a fun night for sure, and one that everyone would remember.

Everyone went back to sleep in their own respective hangars, Blade staying in Skipper's and Cassidy in Dottie's, opting to stay the night rather than freeze their tails off in the winter weather. Blade had absolutely no objections to avoiding the minus-four-degree weather outside.

"'t's fucking cold." He muttered.

"Goodnight!" Dusty replied, "And welcome to Minnesota."

Special Notes:

When I was trying to think up a Monopoly variation for them to play, the first thing that came to my head was a WWII version - cuz Skipper. And then I was like "nah...that doesn't exist." Well come to find out, yes actually, it does. Look it up if you don't believe me.

for reference because I didn't describe her too much here, Cassidy Lopez is a purple and white hybrid helicopter, mostly of Hughes 500d and MH-6 Little Bird decent, and about thirteen or so in here. Yes you heard me right, Lopez. To be explained in future writings when I get off my aft and do them.

I wanted to see if anyone could get the 'grown up game' without me blurting out, but in case you didn't catch on or don't know it, they played Cards Against Humanity. And it's hilarious.

Title from the idea in my headcanon that Dusty, Skipper and Blade are all, respectively, the greatest card-game champions in their circles, so putting them head-to-head was like a fight for the king of the games.