The Colors Universe
Friendly Competition by Zags
Characters: Akai-san, Mikan-tan, Kou-kun, MidorinWord Count: 1020 words
Theme: video games
Author Notes: Man I hope I did the characters right, I get nervous when using characters I didn't design myself XD;
The Colors House was virtually silent one rainy weekend afternoon. Which… struck Akai as rather strange. Since everyone was pretty much stuck inside on account of the weather, you’d think the place would be rather active on all counts. But no, the downstairs area was completely deserted. Akai didn’t really mind the quiet either way, but was still curious about whatever else might be doing that made it so silent elsewhere, so he went wandering upstairs to see if he could find out. Of course his own room was quite empty, but then so was Mikan’s and Kou’s as he knocked and opened the door to poke his head inside after a pause.
However it was after closing the door to Kou’s room that he heard noise from the next room down the hall, Midorin’s. One knock and a rather off-hand “Come in” from inside later, he discovered just what the other three were up to. Midorin was sitting on her bed, slouched against the wall, Kou sat on floor in front of the bed, cross-legged, and Mikan was sprawled out on her stomach, legs flapping in the air, all three pairs of eyes staring at the glowing screen that sat opposite the bed, controllers in hand, playing a video game.
Akai raised an eyebrow and peered at the screen himself. It seemed to be some sort of racing game. “…You guys having fun in here?” he asked. Midorin seemed to be the only one not into the game enough to respond, her answer being a flat “No” to match the bored expression on her face. Though that seemed to fade as an idea registered in her head.
“Hey do you wanna jump in, Akai-san? We’ve got room for one more,” she said, gesturing to an unused controller sitting on the console. Akai normally wasn’t one for this sort of thing, but seeing Mikan look up expectantly at the prospect made him give in. (That, and he really didn’t have anything else to do anyway.)
He sat down with his controller next to Kou, and Midorin started up a new round for all four of them to participate in. The virtual cars lined up at the starting line and the count down began, 3…
2…
1…
GO!
All four cars took off down the track, though it was obvious from the start that Midorin was much better at this game than the other two she had been previously playing with, hence the reason for her boredom probably. Mikan was fully enjoying just the prospect of playing, smiling happily as her car scrapped along the edge of the road, rammed into walls around turns, and even just went in circles occasionally, putting her far in last place. Kou’s face was wrinkled up in concentration in focus, but it wasn’t doing much to improve his performance, as he found himself almost consistently in third, though rather close behind the next runner up, who just happened to be Akai.
Akai found the mechanics of the game fairly simple, but mostly the reason for his placing was probably attributed to the lack of skill of the other two. Midorin was still out in front, the slight hope she had had for some actual competition fading from her face as that lead remained consistent. Akai was pulling up close though as they came to the final turn of the first lap, and that was where the fun started. As they came into the turn, through some stroke of guessing and luck, Akai was able to pull into a drift and cut in, passing Midorin on the inside corner and gaining the lead as they came out of the turn and past the starting line. He glanced back at his competitor on the bed, who looked rather surprised for a second, but then seemed to shrug it off, not finding it all that concerning.
Midorin’s car pulled up close behind Akai’s and then instead of just simply swinging around to pass, she rammed into his bumper, throwing his control slightly off and passing while he recovered. It took another quarter of a lap for Akai to catch up, but he returned to favor when he did, slamming his car into Midorin’s from the side and grinding it against the rail before pulling away. Akai grinned in spite of himself, glancing back yet again at Midorin.
This time the change on her face was rather evident. There was a slightly pleased grin on her face now, though seeming to gain an almost sadistic tinge to it with every passing second. “Alright then, you wanna play hardball?” It was on.
The two cars played cat and mouse back and forth, swerving around turns and each other, and seeming to take every opportunity to slam into the opposition, while meanwhile behind the controls, the drivers were getting more and more into themselves as it came into the final lap.
“HA! How’d you like that one, old man?”
“Old—!? Oh that’s it, you’re done when I chase you down!”
“Ohoho, I’d like to see you try it... What!?”
“Yea that’s right, eat my dust little girl.”
“Oooooo, why you--!”
Kou had almost stopped driving entirely to watch the fierce competition, his car coasting along the track, losing speed as it rubbed into a wall and came to rest. Mikan meanwhile was so wrapped in her own entertainment she barely noticed the vehicles zoom by her, lapping the orange lover on their way towards the homestretch.
All pretense and taunting was forgotten now, the two rivals gripped the controllers in white-knuckle hands, trying to squeeze that acceleration button down as far as it could possibly go, leaning in towards the screen with wide eyes, as if that would give their car some sort of edge. Pixilated pavement rushed by as the two digital vehicles barreled forward to the checkered flag, neck and neck, each pulling ahead of the other just long enough for the other to catch up and take over, interchanging leads every second, every second that finish line coming ever closer, closer, closer…
And the winner is…!
