Games

Ch 10: #SkyMU?

"We really didn't do anything after you fell," Ian explains, lounging on one of my budder recliners. My room has pretty much become the living room.

"We were calling your name, and when you started to respond and then got cut off, we kind of freaked out," Quentin says.

"Ty was ready to jump down after you," Seto chuckles. "But then the hole in the floor closed up."

"And we pretty much just sat there pounding on the floor and trying to get it to open again. We were completely freaking out. Sanity flew out the window," Jason says. "Well, Seto didn't take part in the worrying insanity. He just kinda sat there at the table eating pie. Thanks for being useless, Seto."

"Hey, I was worrying, I was just worrying calmly," Seto defends himself. "And anyways, you were being just as useless as I was, only I wasn't even attempting to be not useless."

I giggle quietly, sipping a hot cocoa that randomly spawned next to other hot drinks in the hallway.

"After I fell, the GameMaster pulled me into a room, and he did it with squid tentacles, too. Ugh. Gross. And then he told me that it was a mini-challenge and that I had no choice but to take part in it, and squids appeared in the cages, and then he let them go, and... uh... yeah, I'll just stop there..," I trail off, not wanting to relive the actual challenge.

Ty wraps me up in a hug – we're both sitting on my bed – and whispers, "It's okay, you don't have to tell us," in my ear. I nod, burying my face in his chest. What would I do without Ty?

Mitch coughs, obviously trying not to laugh. "Well, I think I'm just gonna head up to bed... I want to be ready for the real mini-challenge tomorrow. G'night!"

"'Night," I mutter as everyone else waves to him. Jerome heads up the stairs soon after.

We talk a bit more, and then almost everyone else goes to their rooms. "Aren't you going to go to bed?" I ask Ty. Not that I mind, I'm fine with him staying here. "You'll need rest for the mini-challenge tomorrow."

Ty shakes his head. "No way. I meant what I said earlier, about not leaving your side. What if the GameMaster poofs in here in the middle of the night and tries to force you into some twisted challenge again? I'm not gonna let that happen," he says determinedly.

"I seriously doubt he's going to pop in in the middle of the night. You should just go to sleep." Stop talking, Sky, your crush is offering to stay with you all night!

"I will go to sleep, I'll just do it in your room. I'll sleep on the budder couch."

I frown. "Yeah, no. If you're gonna stay in here and be my 'protector,' you're at least going to sleep in the bed." He opens his mouth to protest, but I cut him off. "With me, if you don't mind."

A rosy pink spreads across his face as he nods. "Y-Yeah, that's fine."

I tug the covers out from under the pillows and shove them towards the end up the bed. Then I pull them up over Ty and me, yawning and blinking slowly as I snuggle up into the sheets. "Thanks, Ty," I mumble.

"For what?" he asks, lying down beside me.

"Staying with me," I respond.

I fall asleep wrapped in Ty's arms.

xXx

"Sky! Wake up!" someone shouts, shaking me.

I shoot up into a sitting position, panting and sweating. "W-What?"

"You were screaming in your sleep, something about squids. I think you were having a nightmare about the mini-mini-challenge," Ty explains.

I shiver. "Well, t-thanks for waking me." I can't even remember the dream, but I know it was horrifying. I sub-consciously begin to rub the bandage that's covering one of my squid bites.

"No problem. It's, like, eleven o' clock or something anyway."

Someone knocks on the door and then pushes it open. "Is Sky okay?" Seto yawns. Jason stands behind him.

"Yeah, he's fine," Ty answers. "Just a bad dream."

Seto nods in understanding. "Oh, alright. Well, Jason was freaking out about squid apocalypses or something, and when he heard you screaming about squids, he was out of bed in an instant." He chuckles. "I think you've found your match, Sky," Seto jokes, pointing at Jason, who rolls his eyes and then pretends to blow me a kiss. Ty tenses beside me.

"Oh, yes, we'll be two lovers on the run, forever hiding from the evil squids," Jason says dramatically.

"We'll have our own tragic love story!" I play along, laughing in between my words. "#SkyMU, meant to be together but torn apart by the devastation caused by the squids!"

Jason collapses on the floor laughing, and I bang my head on the bed's headboard. Jason and I always used to joke about SkyMU when we were still... uh... not in a deadly game show.

"Um, I'm going to... take a shower or something..," Ty mumbles, sliding off the bed and moving towards the door. He slips out into the hallway.

I tilt my head in confusion. "Ty, what's wrong?" I call, hopping off the bed and going after him.

Seto facepalms. "Are you kidding me, Sky?"

I blink. "What?"

He groans. "You're such an idiot sometimes," he grumbles, shaking his head and pulling Jason back upstairs.

What? What am I missing here?

I shrug and wander out of my bedroom. "Ty?" I ask, peeking into his room. He doesn't reply. "Do we even have showers?" I ask myself under my breath.

"Yes, Skybrine, I'm glad you asked! There's a set of washrooms behind the Living Quarters."

I wrinkle my nose. "I wasn't asking you."

"But I was answering you."

"Yeah, I get that. Well, Mr. Omnipresent GameMaster, have you seen Ty?"

"Mmhmm."

"Mind telling me where you saw him?"

"In your room a few seconds ago."

I sigh, deciding to just ignore the GameMaster, since he obviously isn't going to be any help. "Ty?" I shout again, rapping my knuckles on his bedroom door and then simply shoving it open. I would check the washroom thingies that the GameMaster was talking about, but I don't think Ty even knows where they are. "Dude, you in here?"

"Yeah, I'm here." His quiet voice comes from the corner of the room, where there's a desk of black, polished wood and a black and green spinney chair. Ty sure does like those colors – then again, I can't really judge, since my room is made almost entirely of budder.

"Whatcha doin'?" I ask, walking over to the desk where he's sitting. "I thought you were gonna take a shower."

"I was, but I have no idea where the showers are. Now I'm just fiddling with things." He holds up a paper airplane.

I smile. "Cool. But what happened to 'never leaving my side?'"

He shrugs, refusing to make eye contact with me. "I dunno, I mean... You were joking around with Jason and Seto, so... I didn't want to intrude."

"Intrude? Ty, you're a part of Team Crafted, too. You weren't intruding by just sitting there. In fact, you are perfectly welcome to join in on our joking at any given time."

Ty looks down at his feet. "Yeah, okay," he says quietly.

I frown. "What's wrong?" When he doesn't answer, I pull the spinney chair he's sitting on over to his bed so I can sit down on the bed and talk to him. "Seriously, tell me what's up."

"I, uh... It's nothing."

"Ty, you can trust me."

"I know I can! I just... It's literally nothing."

I give him a disbelieving look, but I'm not going to press it any more than that. If he doesn't want to tell me, then he doesn't have to. "Well, alright, then. The GameMaster told me where the showers are, if you want to go get started on that before the mini-challenge."

Ty nods, still not looking me in the eye. "Yeah. Sure. Sounds good."