Misc RH OC Scraps

[JACK/LOUIS] Skipping

Jack was running a little late to his next class. He couldn't even remember what the class was. He'd switched focuses recently and all his new classes had similar names. Still, he knew the general location, so that's where he was headed.

If the hallways hadn't been near empty, he might have missed him— Louis, quietly playing on his Nintendo switch, sitting against a locker and keeping his head down. Jack was taken aback by the sight. He didn't appear to be going anywhere. He didn't have a free period now, did he? Jack walked over and crouched down next to him. Louis jumped.

"What are you doing here!?" He exclaimed.

"What are YOU doing here?" Jack countered.

Louis glanced around before answering in a low voice, "I'm skipping."

Jack nodded solemnly. He checked his watch. Well, he was already 15 minutes late for his class. He probably wouldn't be able to follow it even if he did arrive now. And it was the last class of the day anyway. "Hmm. Maybe I'll skip too. Want to join me?"

"Join you? Wouldn't you be joining me?"

"Nah, I don't plan on sticking around this hallway." Jack extended his hand and helped Louis up. "If we're gonna skip, we'd better make it worth something." Louis stashed his switch in his backpack, then took hold of Jack's hand again, and the boys walked out the school. Jack's beat up old Jeep was in the parking lot.

"You alright with being the passenger princess?" Jack joked, opening the car door for him.

"Fine. But if you try to put your hand on my thigh, I'm jumping out of the car," Louis grumbled as he got in. Jack took his place in the driver's seat. While they were on the road, they talked about inconsequential things, new games that had been announced, Jack's latest focus, what Maggie and Ayumu were up to. Shortly they arrived at their destination; a small arcade in the town close to Rainbow High. They'd been there many times. But hey, it was more exciting than school. Jack would be paying, since he hadn't given Louis any heads up about the plan.

The arcade was pretty empty when they walked in. Naturally; most kids were still in school. There were a few 20-somethings hanging around and one old woman who was destroying the high score on pac-man. Louis looked a little nervous. Jack walked confidently to one of the machines along a far wall, away from the adults, a shooting simulator for two players. He motioned for Louis to take one of the plastic gun-shaped controllers. Louis rolled his eyes as if he was too good for this kind of game, but he took it anyway. 

The boys spent the next few minutes shooting virtual zombies. Louis was much better at it, so he helped cover Jack's bases as well, but he still died a few times. Once the game was over, they hung up their guns, and Louis sighed. "A little more challenging than I thought, but that's probably because I had to carry the team. You chose this game, man, the least you could do is be good at it." 

Jack half-smiled. "Sorry. The blood effects freaked me out." 

"The bl— It's not real. And this is a shooting game."

"I know... I just picked a random game 'cuz it was away from the other customers. And I needed something to break the ice." 

"Oh. I did think this wasn't really up your alley... Any of this."

Jack picked up on his subtext. "You don't think skipping is up my alley?"

"I've never known you to skip."

"Well, I'm always open to trying new things."

"Jack, look at yourself. You switch focuses for FUN."

"It is fun. Learning is really cool."

Louis folded his arms and raised one eyebrow. "See? You LIKE school." 

"Well, I also like you," Jack said with a straight face, "I guess I just couldn't leave you alone."

Louis started to blush, but he tried to distract from it by changing the subject and pointing to a claw machine. "I think I saw one of those animal crossing characters you like in there! A plushie! You probably want it, right?" 

Not to be deterred, Jack smiled. "Is that your offer to win it for me?" 

Louis attempted to hide his face. "Fine! Whatever!" Jack followed him to the claw machine, but once they got there, Louis paused. He turned back to face Jack slowly, his face no longer hidden and definitely blushing. 

"You'll have to lend me some cash... I didn't know we were coming here." 

(Louis belongs to Nikki.Standlee)