Bates & Landon [Wattys2015]

LANDON

Landon

"No, Bates, hit him! Yes, keep punching him--just like that. You got it! What! No! It's okay, it's okay, Bates. Get free -- move out of his way! Hurry!" I tried to advice Bates as he fought against Connor in Mortal Kombat. But his characters health was running low and only two more hits would end up kill him and we'd lose, letting Connor win.

Connor sat on the couch, feet propped on the table, and his face set in concentration. Bates, on the other hand, was on the loveseat with my legs in his lap while he punched the buttons on the controller repeatedly.

Connor let out a whoop of victory when Bates player died. Bates looked over to me, to see if I was upset, but I wasn't because it was just a game and I didn't take them too seriously like some hard core gamers did. Bates apologized and I planted a kiss on his cheek, saying, "Shut up, you did good," and I wasn't lying. He actually did do a pretty good job for a teenage boy he didn't play a lot of video games, that is.

He did pretty good considering Connor's health was pretty far down and he would've died if it wasn't for the multiple hits Connor got in at the last few minutes.

"My turn against you, buddy," I arched an eyebrow at Connor and he only tossed popcorn at me in response. I sat up a little, but stayed close to Bates.

"Be prepared to go crying to your boyfriend," spoke Connor as he selected his player.

Connor and Bates got along pretty well. Connor would playfully tease Bates and I, about us dating, or when we did anything cute together.

I scoffed as I quickly selected my player and the game began to load. "You talk a lot of snack for such a narrow minded boy like you."

Connor threw a decorative pillow at me, causing my controller to fall out of my hands and about the time, the game loaded, and Connor began to hit me as much as possible, to make my health go down.

"That's not fair!" I yelled as I furiously punched the controllers buttons. "You're such a cheater!" My player did a special attack, causing his health to go down by a lot.

Playing games with Connor was really fun, especially when he got upset when he lost, which was always hilarious.

After a while, we ended up watching movies. Emmy got bored coloring and walked up to me and crawled into my lap. We watched the movie for a long time, and Emmy fell asleep on me. Bates smiled at the sight and kissed Emmy on the forehead and me on the nose.

•••

By the time dinner was done, we were all seated at the table, hungry, and ready for food. Bates was seated beside me, he was playing with my fingers absentmindedly. Once Emmy woke from her nap, she had helped Mandy cook dinner and Mandy didn't seem to mind her company.

Which was kind of a shock. Not because of Emmy, because she was such a sweet, cute little girl, but Mandy who seemed to have a small likings towards her. Mandy wasn't a little kid person, and she certainly didn't like me, but she liked her own son, husband, and now Emmy.

"Here you go," Emmy said as she cautiously put down the warm plate of spaghetti in front of me.

"Thanks, Emmy," I smiled, tickling her sides, she giggled before going and getting another plate for her brother and Connor. My dad arrived just as all the plates were filled and we began eating. He fixed himself a plate and sat down.

"How was everyone's day?"

"Good," we all said together.

My dad smiled at us. He looked at Connor, who was in front of Mandy. I was in the middle of Connor and Bates while Emmy sat beside Mandy. "That's good. Today was busy for me and there's a chance I'll be getting a promotion."