Their food arrived around five minutes later and they traded off between shoving said food into their mouths and speaking on meaningless topics. For the most part, Onyx let Alyssa and Day converse and get to know one another as much as they individually dared. Turns out, that didn’t expand far beyond surface level. He chimed in whenever conversation awkwardly began to die down or whenever he was specifically addressed and, for the most part, everything went swimmingly. 

Day bought the trio their own individual cards for the arcade games when the server came back with the check. He also covered the expense of the food as he’d promised. 

Alyssa, though initially grateful for the food, grew irritated quickly at the brazen show of lack of concern for the value of money. Money was always as sensitive of a topic for her as it was for Onyx, but it always seemed to get to her more than anything. In spite of that, she managed to hold her tongue.

In turn, Onyx managed to hold in the sigh of relief that almost managed to escape.

The minute everyone finished up eating, they moved on to the arcade. Rows and rows of machines with bold, expressive colors, flamboyant pictures on their sides, glowing screens, and neon lights filled that section of the building. Alyssa tugged him by the wrist to play a game of Down The Clown with her and Day watched with a smile.

“You know,” Alyssa began, “coming here is all fun and games — no pun intended — until you’re actually here and you realize how rigged all of these games are. This shit is wack.”

“You say that every time we come here,” Onyx pointed out distractedly. He briefly glanced up to watch the bright red numbers on the board continue to get lower and lower. “Besides, the high scores say otherwise.”

“I bet some, if not all of them, are fake,” Day said. “They’re probably just there to convince people that scoring high is possible and that they’re not rigged.”

“I didn’t sign up to spend my day with a bunch of conspiracy theorists,” Onyx said with a roll of his eyes. “What are you going to say next? That the Earth is flat?”

“Well—”

“Goddammit...”

“I’m joking, I’m joking,” Day laughed, reaching out to place a hand on Onyx’s mid-back. “Don’t blow a fuse.”

Alyssa didn’t miss the action from the corner of her eye.

“Touchy, aren’t you?” she asked, tone lower than it’d been previously. 

Day cocked an eyebrow at her. “Are you always so possessive?”

“Are you always so delusional?”

Onyx turned around and leaned against the game when it eventually came to an end. “Guys—”

Day interrupted him as if he’d never heard him in the first place. “He’s a human, you know? Not some object.”

“At least I’m not trying to buy him,” Alyssa said, crossing her arms over her chest in challenge. When Day didn’t immediately have a rebuttal to her accusation, she once again forced a smile on her face and let out a small laugh. “I’m just messing around with you. Relax.”

“Yeah.” Day, too, forced a laugh, but the flush that’d spread across his face didn’t lessen. “I know.”

Their acting was horrible and if he wasn’t caught in the middle of everything, he would have happily informed them of such. He’d known from the first snide remark between them that it was only going downhill from there, but they were so close to being done with the impromptu hangout session that he couldn’t help but hope and pray he was wrong.  

He wasn’t.

They moved from game to game, sticking close to one another as a group, taking turns, watching each other play, and making unnecessary commentary as it all happened. That commentary took a major turn when they decided to try the hoops and Alyssa asked an entirely random question.

“So, you mooch off your parents or what?”

“What?” Day asked, pausing with a basketball in hand.

“Your parents just give you everything you want?”

“No.” Day frowned. “I work.”

“You work enough that you can willingly give away a thousand dollars for the hell of it?”

“Alyssa,” Onyx said under his breath in warning, “stop.”

Day’s eyes flicked to Onyx’s then immediately back to Alyssa’s. “So you know about that?”

“How could I not?”

“Do you have a problem with it?”

“How could I not?” Alyssa gritted out, her pretense at anything remotely innocent or friendly slipping away.

“Well, I don’t see how that matters. Onyx definitely doesn’t seem to mind and that’s all that’s important to me.”

“Who in their right mind would reject free money?” Alyssa pointed out, her dark, heated eyes narrowed in clear irritation. “Do you even have any idea how condescending you sound right now?”

“Condescending?” Day set the basketball down, the game forgotten about for the time being. “I don’t look down on either of you, but I could almost bet you look down on me.”

“Put yourself in my shoes and tell me you wouldn’t look down on yourself, too.” She gestured to Onyx with a single hand and he ran a hand down his face as her volume continued to steadily increase. “From the second you met Onyx, all you’ve been trying to do is buy him. You can’t seriously expect me to have no problem with that. He’s my boyfriend!”

“You weren’t talking about me ‘buying’ anyone when I was paying for your food and card,” Day said with a clenched jaw. His face reddened for what seemed to be the thousandth time that day. “And Onyx is my soulmate, in case you forgot.”

“So?”

“So we’re destined to be together whether you like it or not.”

If Alyssa was merely annoyed before, she was now positively enraged. Onyx peeked through the fingers of his hand that covered a good portion of his face and tried not to get too embarrassed when he noticed the number of people whose attention had been drawn by the heated argument. Children didn’t even try to sneak glances.

No. They full-out stared while their guardians attempted to draw their eyes elsewhere.

“Guys, cut this shit out,” Onyx muttered to them. One could argue the meant-to-be command came out as a plea.

Neither of them paid him any mind.

“Onyx has told me you don’t mean absolute shit to him multiple times,” Alyssa said.

Onyx’s eyes widened. Part because of the absolute lie that’d just left Alyssa’s mouth, part because of the hurt look Day turned his way, and part because of the way he suddenly felt his pulse increase dramatically through the bond. It was the first time he’d ever felt Day’s emotions so acutely and it was frightening. Frightening enough, in fact, that he forgot to argue against the bold statement his girlfriend had just made.

Alyssa continued with little pause.