Date #1: Arcade

Grinning at herself in he mirror, she tucked a few loose strands of hair out of her face and silently appraised her appearance. She'd tossed on a short sleeved blue shirt with a decal that boldly stated 'One way, My way' and directional arrows on the front, and a snug pair of denim overall shorts. A comfy technically-a-first-date outfit, if she did say so herself. She slipped on a pair of flats, strapped on her dinky wrist watch, and headed for the door.

She was a little nervous, admittedly. She hadn't been on a 'date' date in a very long time. Not since before she'd moved to New York and consequent broken up with her ex. She hardly considered any of the flings she'd had in the blur that was the last two years 'dates.' There was also the fact that she already knew the man a little more intimately than normal on the first date, sooo... she wasn't exactly sure what to do. Play it off like normal? Yep. That's what she fully intended to do. 

Slinking down the hallway toward his unsuspecting door, she knocked a few times and fiddled with the gift in her hands. She'd been stressing for the better part of the day about if the gift was appropriate, but had given up at caring at some point and just went with it. In her hands sat a little sheer baggy full of chocolate coins. She'd put stickers on one side of each coin; some that said things, like 'kiss me'  and whatnot, and some that were just various video game characters. Hopefully he'd get it. The coins were supposed to go with the theme of the date, which was one of her personal favorite places to be.

When the door opened she grinned and held the baggy out toward him. "Hello, good sir. Care to escort me to the danger room for a good ol' fashion a%$ whooping at arcade games?"

"BULLSHIT YOU WOULD NOT BEAT ME AT POGS, YOU WEIGH AS MUCH AS A @#$^IN SLAMMER!"

This was a heated argument. It had started this morning when Eric had used the tablet he was given by Shelby to wake him with it's alarm setting. The sick bastard.

Eric was good at pulling his strings in ways that were innocent enough to be considered tongue and cheek shenanigans without pushing it far enough to warrant a squashing. Now was the pique of one such escapade. The roach replied with something witting, and Saph was about to retort with more yelling when he heard a knock on the door.

He pointed at the cage and gave a last, "@#$^ you S@^$ eater." Before turning to open the door.

". . . Shelby? You know you can just walk right in, right?"

"Hello, good sir. Care to escort me to the danger room for a good ol' fashion a%$ whooping at arcade games?"

Saph paused for a moment, and looked behind him, and then turned back, putting a thumb on his chest. "Me? But I thought you were in to that jock ricky. Don't tell me you're just a teenage dirtbag like me!" He grinned, and then grabbed her by the hand, spilling coins everywhere, and shutting the door loudly behind her.


**Fade to Black**

After a short intermission, Saph pulled his shirt off Erics cage, showed him a select finger, and then started picking coins up off the floor. "Sounds like a plan."

"Ha-Urp!" He pointedly dragged her in and slammed the door.

---

A short while later she stumbled back out, tucking her shirt back in unashamedly. Hadn't really been expecting that one. "Good, because I had to bribe someone into making the code for me!" And she certainly didn't want it to go to waste.

When he was done picking up the coins, she reached out to try and snag one. It wasn't like she was going to eat it, still couldn't, in fact... but she might ransom it back to him toward the end of the date if she needed to. Then, regardless of the outcome, she turned and started to head for the danger room.

"Bye, Eric!"

They headed to the danger room. Saph wasn't sure what to expect. He'd chatted with Cafas about giving her danger room clearance for safe simulations in the danger room, and his fellow X-Man said he might be able to pull some strings, but this was odd.

Since when did the danger room have an arcade?

"So what's the deal with this? Wachu got up your sleeve, eh?" He gave her a harmless shrug, and looked over the coins she'd given him as they walked. "Sonic the hedgehog? What are these for, anyway?" He opened sonic and popped the chocolate in his mouth.

"Hope I wasn't supposed to save any of these."

"They're arcade coins, you doofus." She wiggled the one she'd snagged at him, "You know, before everything went to card."

Oh god, he hadn't gotten it. She felt like an idiot and her face flushed appropriately. She shook her head at him eating them, chuckling nervously. Maybe she was in over her head. Over planned? He seemed like a pretty laid back guy, she'd just kind figured he'd be up for laid back dates. None of that flowers and dinner junk. Maybe she had assumed wrong?

She eyed the coin in her hand. It was a kiss token. She silently agonized over it. "I figured that since you had the day off, and I don't have anything currently to do, we could do something that doesn't involve losing all of our clothes again."

She glanced at him without turning her head, a rueful smile edging onto her face. "Well, at least that's what I had planned before you opened the door."

Letting them into the danger room once they arrived, she moved to the computer panel and poked at it a few times. With some ease she found the program that had been made for her, and brought it up.

"... Still haven't been in there yet." She mentioned, pointing to the wall where the door was supposed to appear. "Still kinda trips me out."

Inside, a sprawling city block appeared. The main focus was a large building decorated with large blinking bulbs in a rainbow of colors. 'Archie's Arcade' was spelled out across a grand entrance in large blocky neon. Her smile softened as she watched it on the monitor.

"But, I kinda got spoiled a little while requesting this. It's an arcade from my home town, which doesn't rightly exist anymore. It got tore down and replaced with a clothes boutique a few years before I moved here."

"They're arcade coins, you doofus. You know, before everything went to card."

Saph turned an gave her the strangest of looks. "Card?" He hadn't really frequented arcades since they used anything but good old fashioned quarters. Some used tokens.

He shrugged, and put an arm over her shoulder. "Sounds like a good time." He eyed another coin with his free hand. "This one says free kiss on it." He looked down to her, and waggled his eyebrows.

One kiss later, they were in the danger room, an she was poking away at the newly repaired panel. Things like that happened fast here. He'd given up on asking who did all of the repairs. It always got shrugs and half explanations.

The program popped up on the screen, and the world populated. The people were dressed for cold, a bit, and the sky was gloomy. They also seemed to have a more alternative fashion sense about them. definitely not New Yorkers... So... "No way... Seattle? Huh... Never been." He hadn't been anywhere, to tell the truth. "That is seattle, right?"

He noticed the soft look, which sealed the deal for him. The X-Man stood by the door, an looped his arm out. "Ready to get your ass kicked?"

She chuckled and stepped away from the panel. "Yup!" Was her answer to his first question. "Seattle around about, oh," She did the math in her head, "1998." She joined him by the door, stepped into his open arm and together they entered. "And pardon me, but you sir are the one who's posterior is about to get the boot." A smug little grin settled on her lips.

What greeted them on the other side of the door was probably as much of a spectacle for her as it was for him. They were on Pine street, only a little ways away from the heart of the city. Above the mid sized, well aged buildings sat a few sky scrapers in the distance and the easy to spot shape of the space needle. She pointed at it excitedly. "There's the needle! You see the top? There's a restaurant up there that spins. You can sit and literally see the whole city during your meal." She'd been up there once. Not in the restaurant, just up on the observation deck. It was a pretty spectacular view.

Turning away from the skyline, she looked across the street toward the Arcade. They had been plopped down smack in the middle of a side walk, right outside of a Casey's department store. Across the street, just down from the arcade was Pacific place. A compact shopping mall with various stores inside. She allowed him a few moments to take in the sights before she reached for his hand and started toward the street. Given that it was Seattle and traffic had always been a nightmare, she waited for a few older modeled cars to roll past before crossing. A virtual pile of other generated pedestrians started across at the same time. She chuckled. The programmer had even gotten the foot traffic down pretty well.

Once they stepped foot on the other side she paused and held her hands out in front of her. "Computer, two bags of tokens!" Matching bags materialized before her eyes, eliciting a childish giggle, and she snatched then from the air. Shelby then turned a sly, foxy grin Saph's way. "Okay, before we go in there are some ground rules."

She tossed the full bag of coins in her hand, clearly having a ball. "One: No cheating! If I catch you cheating to win any of the games, you will owe me something of my choosing! That also works towards me, too. If you catch me cheating at any point, I will owe you something of your choosing. Got it?"

She waited for confirmation, then moved on. "Two: Whoever gets the highest score on the most games wins. That means that we will take a tally when we are done and see how many games you beat verses how many I beat, yeah?" The sly grin shifted into something a tiny bit more sinister.

"If I win, you have to take me on an adventure. That's what I want." She paused, finally handing him his own bag of tokens, which upon inspection would look pretty darn similar to the gold coins she had given him as a gift.

"What are your demands for if you win?"

"Seattle around about, oh, 1998. And pardon me, but you sir are the one who's posterior is about to get the boot."

"Oh, we'll see, then." He grinned, taking a moment up absorb the atmosphere. Not literally. He wasn't an atmosphere absorber. He wondered if those existed, though. Probably.

"There's the needle! You see the top? There's a restaurant up there that spins. You can sit and literally see the whole city during your meal."

"Huh. Y'know, when I was a kid, I used to think Seattle had a needle that went to space. Cause, you know, I want to embarrass myself right now, apparently." He shook his head at himself as they walked into the arcade. After a moment, he relinquished an approving nod.

This looked lot like the kind of arcade he knew when he was younger, with some out of place more up to date games. She'd set all this up for him, huh? Well, probably for her, too, but it was good to be invited along.

She started listing her rules. Oh shi- this was a real competition, then? He'd thought she was just messing around.

. . . Could he beat her at these games? Sure, he'd spent some quality time in the arcade when he lived on the streets, and he'd had a foster parent once who was kinda pinball and classic case obsessed, so he'd learned a lot there. This girl, though. She was an enigma.

"Sure... But if I win. You gotta be my girlfriend." It was a bold move, he knew, but judging from some of the cabinets he saw there, he felt like he might actually have a good chance... particularly with galaga, donkey kong, and the pinball machines... Prolly not a bad chance at the hoops challenge either.

"Sure... But if I win. You gotta be my girlfriend."

The sly grin lessened and she looked almost startled for a moment. Her eye brows shot up, glasses slipped a little on her nose, and she lost her previous train of thought. Date him? Jeez, this was moving quickly wasn't it. She didn't ponder on it for long though. Really, was she gonna get any luckier? An x-man, who had also saved her and was pretty much doing every thing in his power to make sure she felt damned safe, wanted to date her?

Had she walked into a worm hole and somehow ended up in a different dimension? 

"You're on!" She reached out to shake on it, thought better of it, and launched herself at him to plant a kiss on him instead. Maybe her idea for a date hadn't turned out so bad after all? 

"Alright, I'll let you choose the first game because i'm in a generous mood." She laughed and disentangled herself from him. Was she going to tell him that she'd basically grown up in this exact arcade? Having spent nearly every day after school there until her one of her parents could get off work to come get her, she had a good majority of the games pretty much memorized. Heck, her and her best friend at the time had made it their life's mission to get their initials to the top of the high scores list as many times as possible. 

She glanced up at the ceiling, spying the old shell of a Volkswagen beetle suspended from the ceiling, as well as a good deal of white twinkle lights. Archie's arcade was burned into her memory so deeply that she'd been able to tell the programmer pretty much where every game was, and every unique article of furniture and decoration. There were stuffed animals heads in some places, the ever popular 'Jackalope', old 50's diner style stools and chairs. There was an entire upper floor devoted to classic pinball games. Downstairs there was wing that had been devoted to classic arcade games. That whole section had neon and black lights. There was another wing on the opposite side where all of the 'athletic' games were held, or the more adult staples. Pool, basket ball, shooter games. One of her favorites was on that side, and she was itching to scrambled on over there.

Patience, though. His crushing defeat could wait until after he'd chosen his first game. 

He accepted the kiss gladly, figuring his bold move had paid off! Awesome. @#$^in awesome. Now he just had to win.

"Alright, I'll let you choose the first game because i'm in a generous mood."

He watched her face as she looked around the arcade. She reeked of fond recognition; nostalgia flowed through her veins in response to this place. Maybe this would be a challenge. His best bet would be to hit her hard from the start, kill some of that confidence. He took note that she wasn't some enemy on the street; he couldn't be too brutal. Still, he had a feeling she was no stranger to the arcade. This would be a real challenge.

His eyes caught a cabinet, and a mischievous smile came over him. "Galaga. And... Ladies first, I insist!" He needed to see her moves, and he had a good idea for how to beat her at this one, too. He was pretty freakin good at Galaga.

"Galaga. And... Ladies first, I insist!"

She looked over at the game he pointed out, whistled under her breath and crackled her knuckles. "Don't mind if I do."

Slipping over to the machine she snagged one of the stools and seated herself in front of it. In went one of the coins, she steadied herself on the lip of the cabinet and let her fingers rest on the joystick.

The title screen flashed thought it's intro phase, stirring the happiest of feelings in her chest. This was going to be fun!

The game began. The high score on the screen was currently 20000. She made a little mental note of it somewhere in the back of her thoughts. The insect invaders started to fly onto the screen. She let the fist two waves fully make an entrance, and only started to shoot once the blue and yellow bee-like invaders appeared. It was a cakewalk to avoid the projectiles and beams for the first minute or so, until she'd gotten her first 1up. Shortly after that she allowed her first ship to get captured, fought to get it back, and once she had too, well... it was a blur of projectiles and aliens from there.

By the time she lost her last ship, she'd made it to level 24 and had compiled 234.000 points. She sat back with a huff, tapped in her initials for the new high-score, and then vacated the seat so he could try his hand at it.

"Your turn, cowboy!" Her grin could not have gotten any wider.

Saphirus watched her game with tons of interest. She was indeed pretty damn skilled at Galaga.

"Huh. You're good." He marveled at her score for a moment, ten times the static cabinet top sore. "Real good. I dunno if I can beat you."

He looked around, seemingly somewhat nervous, and then sat down at the cabinet, putting in his token. The first row of bugs came out. Then the second. Then the third.

He carefully dodged their projectiles, and stayed free of their path. Then, he started picking them off right from left, growing more confident as he went, until only two remained at the top tow of level 1. After that, he stopped firing, an carefully maneuvered around their shots and attacks... for 20 minutes.

After that 20 minutes they stopped firing altogether.

"Oh, look at that."

He picked them off, and went to the bonus round, not scoring as well as her in that instance, because he still only had one ship. Come the start of the next round, though, something was off. The ships weren't firing at him!

He played the game with a small smirk on his face, deftly avoiding the ships that swooped in, and chiseling away at the lines.

45 minutes later he was one level 100 when he lost his last life, at a score of over 1 million.

He wiped some sweat from his brow, and cracked his knuckles, turning to her, and leaning against the cabinet. "Friend of one of my foster parents helped program galaga. Showed me that. Not a cheat if it's part of the game!" He winked, and stood, pointing at his high score right above hers. "One point SAP!" The cabinet didn't let him put the H in.

Well, that escalated quickly. Somewhere around the time they stopped firing at him her jaw had dropped and she'd just spent the remainder of the time staring mutely at the game and he waltzed through it.

Her best friend would have shat himself a million times over.

"Friend of one of my foster parents helped program galaga. Showed me that. Not a cheat if it's part of the game!"

He preemptively had just saved himself from an ear lashing. She held her tongue instead and just pinched the bridge of her nose, then dragged it down her face. "Ok! Fine, one point for you!" &%$# her though, if he knew some kind of damn trick for every game she was gonna lose! Well, not that she really minded what he demanded in return for winning, but... she hated losing!

"Next game!"

This one was a bit newer than the other games. It was a first person shooter game called 'Carnival' that had to do with evil clowns, zombies, and monsters, and you could either play it alone or with a partner. For the purposes of their wager though, she tossed in a coin and picked up the little light gun that resembled a pistol.

As soon as the opening graphics cut out she lifted the little gun up, bent her knees slightly and got ready.

25 minutes of zombie/monster killing later, she had beaten the last boss, scored almost all of the hidden power ups and secrets, and was typing her initials into the blinking box. She stretched with her arms over her head, earning a few good pops from her spine, and waved a hand for Saph to step up and take a turn. "If you beat me this time, i'll toss in something extra." With a smile, she leaned in and whispered something in his ear before giving his shoulder a pat and stepping back.

Saph was quite motivated when she said she'd give him something special if he won this one, his eyes widened when she whispered it in his ear. Now he HAD to win!

Once she got going, though, he could only stare blankly as she blew through the horror shooter with ease. He already had a defeated look on his face as he picked up the gun.

25 embarrassing continue buttons later, he finished the game, sheepishly hanging up the gun with a slightly lower score, and way less coins. He opted to spend a kiss token to cheer himself up.

"Ahem... Can't win em all... No... uh... No chance of that special prize happenin, huh?" He frowned a bit, but perked up when he realized it was his turn to choose. A look up to the landing told him exactly what he wanted to play.

He pointed ominously across the arcade, smiling widely. "Centaur, half man, half motorcycle." It was an old pinball machine with a picture of just that right in front of it.

"As always, ladies first!"

She pecked him on the lips and pocketed the token, grinning as she did so. "We'll see~" She purred, half tempted to cave and give it to him right then and there. But, well.. cameras. She was also seriously tempted to throw another coin in the game and beat her own high score.

Then he pointed across and up, and she nodded. Pinball? Well, if he wanted to dig his own grave that quickly...

She followed him upstairs, hands tucked in her pockets, and lost in thoughts. When they arrived at the designated machine. "I think you should go first this time." She started, and sidled up nice and close next to him. "I went first the last two times, after all."

She had to stand on her tippy toes, but she managed to lean up enough to get an arm gently around his neck and nibbled ever so softly on his ear. "And i'll be busy, anyway."