As it had every night since the 1980s, the arcade came to life as soon as Litwak locked up for the night and drove away. In the penthouse, Turbo listened to the sounds of the happy Nicelanders chattering about the game day and felt his heart race at the prospect of seeing Felix again soon. He'd messed his hair up especially so his handyman would brush it and braid it for him again, but tonight he felt like doing something else. He hadn't been to Tappers for a few days now, and Skittles was getting restless from being kept cooped up in the penthouse.
"Turbo, why is your pet sleeping on my bed?" Felix asked with a laugh as he walked into the room and saw the racer sitting on the bed stroking his sleeping unicorn's mane.
"You haven't built a pen for him yet and he got sleepy," Turbo explained with a shrug. "He's used to having his own nice unicorn bed. It was nice and plush with big salmon-coloured cushions."
"Just like your bed, I suppose?" Felix chuckled.
"It was my bed, come to think of it," Turbo nodded. "Anyway, I wanna go out tonight. Can we go to Tappers again?"
"After what happened last time?" Felix worried. "Are you sure about that? That hangover lasted for more than a day."
"I promise I won't drink a whole bottle of vodka this time," Turbo assured him. "I'll stick to the other drinks."
"Good," Felix replied, clearly relieved. "We'll go to Tappers, then. I assume you're going to take your noble steed?"
"Of course," Turbo grinned. "I can't leave Skittles here on his own or he'll get lonely. And when he gets lonely, he gets hungry. And when he gets hungry, he eats everything in sight. That's why I started leaving him in the candy corn maze instead of in the castle. Not making that mistake twice."
"And I'm assuming you want me to brush your hair too before we go out," Felix added. Turbo nodded, still grinning. While it did hurt when Felix wrestled with the tangles in his hair, the very fact that Felix was brushing his hair warmed his heart.
"Should we get dressed up to go out?" Turbo wondered, sitting cross-legged on the bed with Felix behind him after pushing Skittles onto the ground. The unicorn now stood glaring at his master.
"It's only Tappers," Felix reminded him. "I'll just go in my work clothes. Are you going to wear my clothes again?"
"Do I have a choice?" Turbo sighed. "I feel stupid wearing my old racing jumpsuit, considering the only thing I race these days is Skittles." The unicorn licked his face at that, much to Turbo's disgust.
"Well, I'm told that Litwak's Laptop has a few games where you can get some different outfits," Felix revealed. "I'll take you there someday, maybe tomorrow when the arcade closes. Be careful on there, though, because Litwak uses that sometimes and if he unplugs it while you're on there, you're stuck until he comes back to the arcade. That's how many a good gamer has gone missing."
"It sounds terrifying," Turbo shuddered, though secretly he was overjoyed that Felix didn't want to lose him again. "I do want some new clothes, though, so I may as well go." Felix only nodded and continued brushing Turbo's hair until it was smooth enough to tie back in a braid.
"Will you also get a haircut when you get a new outfit?" Felix wondered after tying off the braid. "It takes so long to brush your hair and surely it must annoy you sometimes."
"I guess," Turbo muttered, feeling his heart sink at the realisation that he wouldn't have an excuse for Felix to lovingly brush his hair now. He'd just have to find some other way to gain the handyman's attention...
Half an hour later, the two men had cleaned up enough for a night at Tappers and Turbo rode out of the game on Skittles while Felix rode behind him. This, he soon realised, was a great way to get Felix to touch him more- Skittles went fast enough that Felix had to wrap his arms around Turbo's middle just to keep steady.
"Doesn't this thing have a slower setting?" Felix called, having to lean forward and speak in Turbo's ear to be heard over the wind racing past them. Turbo felt a shiver go down his spine at the very intimate contact.
"Nope, Skittles is a racer just like his master!" Turbo called back, and whooped in joy as he took Skittles on a lap of Game Central Station before skidding to a stop just outside the port to Tappers.
"I'm so glad I didn't have to deal with you for all those years," Surge muttered, only having to look down slightly at Turbo sitting atop his noble steed. "Stop racing around the station, you could have an accident."
"I'm not a bad driver," Turbo protested. "Rider, I mean. I can look where I'm going."
"Okay but one accident and the horse has to go," Surge warned him. Skittles snorted, his eyes glowing red at being called a horse.
"Don't worry, Skittles, you're not some silly old horse. You're a magnificent, sweet, strong creature, yes you are," Turbo assured his mount, talking in his ear while stroking the other fluffy white ear. Felix smiled at hearing Turbo talk to his pet as though it were a baby. The unicorn whinnied in delight and stomped his hoof before Turbo continued on into the game.
Tappers was packed tonight. After tying up Skittles outside, Turbo wandered into the bar game and looked around at the various patrons. There were princesses, fighters, and racers galore, not to mention the odd bad guy or two. But one guy in particular caught Turbo's attention.
"Who is he?" he asked, ogling the man but then looking away. It was rude to stare, especially with the guy he loved right there beside him. But that black-haired guy was undeniably cute.
"Oh, him? He's Skrillex, a guy from the human world who appeared here one day. Why don't you go ask him about how he came here? You could buy him a drink," Felix offered in an attempt to get Turbo to stop moping around.
"Really? A human? I think I might just do that," Turbo decided, and asked Tapper what drink Skrillex preferred. With both drinks held carefully in front of him, Turbo made his way through the crowd and to the booth where the human was sitting.
"Hey," Skrillex greeted him with a soft smile. "Not many gamers come near me. They don't like my music or something."
"Well, I was thought dead until about a week ago," Turbo replied, taking a seat across from him after sliding the drink over to him. "The name's Turbo."
"Skrillex," the other guy replied. "I mean, my name's actually Sonny but my stage name is Skrillex so that's what everyone calls me by."
"Do you want me to call you that?" Turbo asked. What the hell did 'stage name' mean? Was Skrillex a performer? Then again, he had mentioned music so he probably played an instrument.
"You can call me Skrillex," Skrillex replied with a shrug.
"So, my friend Felix over there says that you're from the human world," Turbo prompted after a few drinks and some idle conversation. "How'd that happen?"
"Long story," Skrillex sighed. "Why don't you tell me why you were thought dead until a week ago?"
"Very well," Turbo smiled slightly. "About twenty years ago, there was a game called Turbotime. I was the protagonist in that game and the fastest racer in the arcade. I had it all- the fame, the glory, the sweetest boyfriend in the arcade..." His eyes lingered on Felix sitting at the bar talking to Tapper. "But then another game got plugged in. Roadblasters, I think it was called. The gamers loved it and, well, I got a little jealous of all the attention they were getting. So I game-jumped- you know that that is, right?" Skrillex nodded so Turbo could continue. "I really fucked it up, though. I thought going on the track as myself was a great idea, but the gamers noticed and complained to Litwak. With me missing from my game and Roadblasters busted, both games were unplugged. I only just made it out in time. But by then, everyone was out for my blood so I had to go into hiding. Everyone thought I was dead. Then I took over Sugar Rush. Have you heard about that, at least?" Now Skrillex looked like he knew what Turbo was talking about. He'd taken his glasses off and was looking at Turbo curiously.
"You gave it all up for jealousy, huh?" the human commented. Turbo nodded ashamedly.
"Well, that's effectively killed my buzz. How'd you get in here?" Turbo asked after downing another few glasses of some alcoholic substance. He'd forgotten what he'd ordered already.
"I signed a dodgy contract," Skrillex admitted. "One minute I was on my own laptop back at home, the next I was in some weird place. There was all this code stuff. I wanted to get back to my laptop but the only thing I could see with 'laptop' in the name was called 'Litwak's Laptop'. I double-tapped it like it was an app or something and then I was sucked into a kind of train station. It looked all new and shiny. I wandered out and found myself out there." He gestured in the direction of Grand Central Station. "The blue guy told me to find anyplace that seemed familiar where I could do something that I knew how to do. I found this place called Dance Dance Revolution. And to be honest, I thought I was in heaven for a while there."
"And now?" Turbo prompted, trying not to notice the wistful way Skrillex was looking towards the door.
"Now I miss my old life. I was an internet phenomenon, everyone loved my music. I had a girlfriend and everything, the dream life. Now I can't even make music anymore and the only way I can get onto the internet is by being in the internet," he explained sadly to the interested racer. He lowered his gaze and looked into Turbo's eyes, which seemed to be glowing yellow. And then he kissed him.
Turbo had to admit that being kissed by a human was good- and this one was clearly experienced, so he could only wonder how experienced he'd be in the bedroom. And he hadn't gotten any action in a while. But he'd be thinking of Felix the whole time, which wouldn't be fair on the human.
"I thought you had a girlfriend," Turbo managed to say when the shock of being kissed had passed.
"Well, I don't see how I'm gonna get out of here anytime soon. And it's been a while since I've got any action," Skrillex figured, seeming to bat his eyelashes at Turbo. The racer blushed and looked over at Felix.
"I might take you up on that offer sometime," Turbo admitted. "But not today or tonight or whatever. Sorry to dithappoint you."
"You're smitten with a guy who won't return your affections," Skrillex summed up. "And if you sleep with me now, you'll be using me as a substitute for him, which will make you feel bad and ruin the whole idea."
"You're smarter than you look," Turbo said to him, and laughed slightly.
When Turbo finally left the bar with Tappers, it was late and he was very, very drunk. After almost falling down the stairs outside the bar, he managed to stagger over to Skittles and lean heavily on him. His unicorn looked at him once and then resumed eating the sickly-looking bush in front of him.
"Alright, Thkittleth, time to head back home," Turbo announced, his lisp very bad due to his intoxicated state. He jumped and tried to land on Skittles but instead ended up lying half-on and half-off the unicorn. Skittles continued munching obliviously even as Turbo retched and emptied the contents of his stomach on Skittles' coat and the ground.
"Turbo, you're too drunk to ride home," Felix chastised him, coming outside as soon as he noticed the racer missing.
"Too drunk to ride? Never!" Turbo declared, punching a fist in the air while still hanging over his mount. Felix smiled, shaking his head in exasperation, and gently pushed Turbo further up the unicorn until he was resting over his hindquarters.
"Now, Skittles, I really hope you won't mind my riding you," Felix gently said to the unicorn. Skittles looked at him unblinkingly and Felix trembled in slight fear. Turbo had said that Skittles knew about him, so why was the unicorn now glaring at him like he was an enemy?
"Thkittleth, let Felikth ride you. He might not let me ride him anymore but that'th bethide the point," Turbo ordered his pet. Skittles snorted but allowed Felix to jump onto him and take hold of the reins.
"Don't go too fast," Felix suggested to the unicorn, though it was half wishful thinking, and then he nudged the unicorn's sides after untying him and rode the creature outside and over to his own game.
After tying the unicorn up around the back of the apartment block, Felix helped Turbo up to the penthouse. The racer could barely support his own weight so Felix was mostly carrying him, but that didn't matter too much.
"Turbo, you said you wouldn't get drunk like you did last time," Felix pouted. "You lied to me."
"Hey, I'm thober enough to control mythelf. Hell, I didn't even go home with that other guy the third time he asked even when I was really drunk," Turbo defended himself.
"You'll be kicking yourself tomorrow," Felix chuckled. "Try not to go over to Sugar Rush this time, though."
"Fine," Turbo agreed, and stumbled over to the bed. For a moment, Felix had to resist the temptation to climb into bed with him and do things. But then that moment passed and he instead kissed Turbo's forehead before showering to wash off the invisible grime from the bar.
Don't worry, nothing else happens between Turbo and Skrillex. It was just something to kind of test Turbo's feelings for Felix.