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Lucy loves evenings like this. It’s one of her favourite things about living with Tim now. She loves that they can spend time together in the same room, but doing their own thing. Neither of them have to be in work tomorrow, so they stay up a little later than they normally would. Lucy is curled up on one end of the sofa, a book in her hand and her phone in her lap, and Tim is on the other end. In contrast to Lucy’s relaxed posture, he’s perched on the edge of the seat, elbows on his knees and his playstation controller gripped in his hands. She can’t hear the sound of the game he’s playing, because he’s got a headset over his ears, but she can hear his expletives and his yelling whenever he gets killed. She’s seen videos on ClipTalk, girlfriends watching their partners play and making a game of bingo out of their most used phrases– so she’s taken it upon herself to start writing down some of her favorite quotes. Tim’s not usually a potty mouth, but apparently that all goes out of the window when he’s being destroyed in a game.
Lucy giggles when he lets out another string of expletives, watching as his character's body slumps to the ground.
“They’re two points away, get your finger out of your ass, dude!” Tim yells into his headset, shaking his head in dismay. “They’re flanking, behind us. Turn the fuck around, where are you even looking right now?!” The word defeat flashes up on the screen, signalling the end of the game, and a loss for Tim’s team. “Congratulations, you might be the worst team mate ever. Actually, you should just uninstall the game.” Lucy hears the muffled sounds of what sounds like a very angry team mate, responding to Tim’s taunts. “You went 2 and 12! Go back to fortnite if you want to play like that!” He pulls the headset off of his head and lets it hang around his neck.
Lucy marks the page in her book and places it down on the coffee table, before crawling to the other end of the sofa and wrapping her arms around Tim’s shoulders. “Honey..” She mumbled. “You’re getting agitated.”
Tim’s shoulders slump a little, turning his head toward Lucy and giving her a small smile. “You’d get agitated too if you had teammates like that. I do better when I’m playing with Tyler and Austin, literal children have got better aim than that guy.” He huffs, which quickly turns into a moan when Lucy starts pressing kisses to the side of neck.
“Well, I have an idea for you.” Lucy starts, sucking at the sensitive spot behind his ear.
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” He asks, his eyes drifting shut and his head tilting to the side to give her more access.
“I’ll be your team mate. Teach me how to play.”
Tim’s eyes pop open again, and he pulls away to look at Lucy properly. “That is.. Not what I was expecting you to say.”
Lucy plays with the collar of Tim’s henley, shrugging her shoulders. “As live-in boyfriend and girlfriend, I think it’s important that we take interest in each others hobbies, and since i haven’t convinced you to try goat yoga yet–”
“And you won’t.” Tim cuts in, pointing his finger at her.
“Then–” She carries on, but not before slapping him gently on the chest. “--I want to try getting involved in one of your hobbies. Of which you have very few.”
“First of all– thank you for making me sound boring as hell.” Tim says with a chuckle. “But if you really want to learn how to play, then I’d love to help you.” He unplugs the headset from the controller and then hands it to Lucy, before standing up to grab the spare one from the TV stand.
“Okay, I’ll put us into a custom match, just the two of us. That way you can get used to how the game works, figure out what weapons you like, without getting worried about getting killed by real life people, or getting flamed by your team mates. They can be pretty brutal against first time players.”
“You’re telling me.” Lucy says sarcastically, like she hasn’t just listened to Tim verbally assassinate his teammate for the last five minutes. Tim scowls at her, before setting up a custom match in a small map for the two of them.
“So-- most players start with an assault rifle, the XM4 is a good starter gun. Now if you press triangle, you switch to your secondary weapon, which can either be a handgun or like– an RPG.” He points the buttons out to her on the controller, and Lucy curls up beside him tucking her feet under her and listening intently. “If you get the hang of it, I’ll introduce you to snipers or marksman rifles, but they’re a little more advanced.”
“Mhm, mhm.” Lucy nods her head, pouting her lips like she’s taking it all very seriously.
“The left stick is what you use to move, and then the right one is the camera. Then you press down on the right one to use your melee, okay?”
“Left stick moves, right stick is the camera, got it.” She places her thumbs on the sticks and wiggles them around.
“The bumpers on the back, they’re important. The left one is your aim, the right one fires your weapon. You’re gonna want to just hip fire when you first start cause it feels easier, but remember to aim in because that’s how you’re going to get kills. The square button reloads your weapon, and listen– your instinct is going to tell you to reload every time you shoot, but don’t. That’s how you get killed, because you’re too busy reloading, but also.. don’t forget to reload, because that also gets you killed.”
“So reload, but don’t reload. Sounds simple enough. Okay, enough talking. Let me get in there. I wanna shoot you.”
“Wow, you’re very confident for someone who’s never played this game before.” Tim raises his brows.
“I mean, I was once Mid Wilshire shooting champ, if you remember correctly.”
“Yes, because I was an excellent teacher. And the game isn’t anything like real life, okay? You can’t use your policing skills to win a game of Call Of Duty.”
“Care to bet on it?”
“Baby, we live together, we share finances. What’s the point in putting money on it?”
“Who says I want to put money on it?”
Tim’s intrigued then. “Okay, so what are you suggesting?”
“Well, if I win, then you have to stop playing for the rest of the night, take me to bed and do whatever I ask.” Lucy bites her lip and leans forward into Tim’s space.
“And that’s supposed to be a punishment for me?”
“Well you don’t know what I want you to do yet. Maybe I’ll make you rub my feet and read to me for two hours.” She pokes him in the chest. “Or I could make you do goat yoga with me.”
“No, thank you. I’ll take the first bet.” Tim would rather massage Lucy’s feet all night than spend even 60 seconds letting a goat use him as a climbing frame.
“Okay, whatever you say. Start the game, Bradford.” Lucy leans in, grasping the controller in her hands, ready to go.
Tim simply chuckles and shakes his head, pressing the start match button and leaning back against the sofa cushions like his victory is already a sure thing.
The game starts on a split screen, and Tim starts moving around the map with all the ease of someone who knows it like the back of his hand. He’s looking out for Lucy’s character, eyes scanning the perimeter, when all of a sudden his character's body slumps to the floor and he respawns.
“Ha! I got you!” Lucy exclaims, turning her head to Tim with a grin.
“Beginner's luck.” He huffs, but he leans forward too, starting to move around the map with a little more gusto. He jumps through a window but before his feet even hit the floor, he’s dead again, letting out an exasperated sigh.
“How did you even know I was there?” He says, narrowing his eyes.
“I mean, I just thought it was obvious.” Lucy gives him an innocent shrug.
Another seven kills down, and Tim starts huffing at the screen every time he dies.
“Okay, how are you doing this!” Tim likes to think he’s above semi decent at this game, so he doesn’t understand how Lucy is getting the jump on him every single time.
“Like I said, Mid Wilshire shooting champ!”
“That’s not even–” Before he can even finish the sentence, he gets killed, with a headshot this time. “Did you just snipe me?!”
“Well, yeah. You said snipers are for more advanced players, and I’m a quick learner, so I wanted to try it out.” Lucy, on her side of the screen, aims in with ease and kills Tim one more time, and the game ends, declaring Lucy as the victor.
“Wow, Tim. You didn’t even kill me one time. Maybe you’re the one who needs to go back to fortnite.” Lucy teases, dropping the controller onto the sofa beside her and standing up, stretching her arms above her head.
“Wait a minute, how did you even know how to change loadouts if you’ve never played this game before?” Tim watches her walk towards the bedroom.
“Oh, did I forget to mention?” Lucy says innocently, spinning on her heels to look at him. “I might have played the game a little, every now and then when you’re at work.”
“You cheated. The bet is null and void, because you cheated, and you’re also a liar, and evil.” Tim can’t believe he was hoodwinked, he knew his controllers had been running out of charge, but he just assumed he’d been forgetting to turn his system off at the end of the day.
“Well, I’d maybe come and find out what the punishment is before you declare it null and void..” Lucy says, pulling her shirt over her head and letting it fall to the floor, before she disappears around the corner.
Tim sits and stares at the television screen for a moment, at the 10-0 score mocking him.
“Wait– what other video games have you played without me?!” He jumps over the back of the sofa and chases after her into the bedroom, the sounds of Lucy’s giggles muffled when he slams the door shut behind them.
So he lost the game. Big deal– Tim definitely wins in life.