Avery and Nytin had sat in each others’ arms for a while before Nytin loosened his grip on Avery. He had managed to hold back his tears and wiped his eyes clear, feeling better as Avery comforted him.

Avery moved back a little, reaching forward to grab Nytin's cup and hand it to him. “Here. We should drink it before it gets cold.”

Nytin gratefully took the cup but didn’t speak, unable to find his voice or think of anything to say. He didn’t need to, as Avery continued talking.

“Since it's still early, how about we go out and have some fun today? The bakery is open around this time, and there's some other things to do around here, too.” Avery said, bringing her cup to her lips and sipping her tea.

The mention of the bakery seemed to grab Nytin's attention even more. He finally smiled. “That sounds nice...” he said softly, “Do you think they have anything new?”

Avery nodded, “They have a new item every week, and I haven't seen you in a week, so… yes.” She smiled and stood up. “Let me put on some warm clothes, and we can go.”

Nytin hummed in response, drinking his tea while watching Avery go up into her bedroom. Once she disappeared upstairs, he sank down into the couch with a sigh. I should pay this time. He reached into his pockets to grab his wallet, but after a few seconds of confused digging, he remained empty-handed. Nytin paused and checked his other pocket but found nothing but lint. He stood up, put his cup down, and patted himself down. There was no sign of his wallet anywhere. Did I leave it back at home..?

He glanced upstairs, “I'm going to use the restroom. I’ll be out in a moment!” He called upstairs, not waiting for a response. He rushed into the bathroom and locked the door. “This is unbelievable...where could it have gone?” He took his cloak off and shook it, but there was nothing. Nytin sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose, clearly frustrated with himself, and with a snap of his fingers, he vanished from the small bathroom.

Avery, on the other hand, had put on the jacket Nytin had made her, with somewhat matching sweat pants, or well…she hoped they matched.

She had come down the stairs shortly after Nytin's announcement and was sitting on the couch, finishing her tea while waiting patiently. She picked up Nytin's cup, finding it empty, so she put the cups in the sink and filled them with water to wash when she returned home.

She jumped when she heard a crash in the bathroom. “Nytin? Are you okay?” she asked. While getting up, she faintly heard what sounded like fabric moving.

Nytin reappeared in the bathroom after a few minutes of being gone but landed on the toilet when returning. This unexpected result caused him to slip off the toilet and fall right into the shower, knocking the curtain down. Once he heard Avery's voice, he panicked and got up. " I'm alright! I dropped something.” He hastily put the shower curtain back up and rushed out of the bathroom, meeting Avery at the door. 

Nytin had tidied up his hair somewhat and now had his wallet in his pocket, which he held to ensure he did not forget it. "I was fixing my hair, and I dropped the air freshener. Sorry."

Avery grinned and waved her hand, "Pfft..is that all? With all that noise, I thought you fell into the shower or in the toilet." 

Nytin internally winced as Avery hit the nail on the head. 

He laughed nervously, "What? No, no...of course not. I'd never lose my balance like that." He cleared his throat, clearly embarrassed. Luckily for him, Avery couldn't see his face, "A-anyway, we should get going before they get busy.." 

Avery nodded, "Alright, let's get going." She led the way out of the apartment, locking the door behind them. Nytin followed her happily, not realizing that they had to take the elevator down. He watched Avery press the button and felt his heart sink to the floor.

Nytin felt as if he were facing off against some kind of terrible beast. He reluctantly got into the elevator, gripping the side rails tightly, a sad attempt to brace himself for what was to come. Avery pushed the button and moved to stand next to Nytin, who immediately felt sick when the elevator began moving. He closed his eyes as the world began to spin, failing to notice Avery watching him. She was confused as to why Nytin appeared as if he were going to fall over.

Once the elevator stopped, Nytin rushed out, leaning against a wall and trying to regain his balance. Avery had followed closely behind Nytin, moving close to him and grabbing Nytin's arm to help support him. "You... get motion sick... don't you?"

Nytin shook his head, "N-no? I can ride the car or a train fine...it's just whenever I get on that...thing, I get dizzy and nauseous…"

Avery snickered and helped him keep his balance while leading him out of the building, "That's motion sickness, Nytin. Maybe you only get it on things like elevators?" 

Nytin slowly regained his composure and sighed, "This has never happened before. I don't know why I'm like this...I apologize..." He sighed while letting himself be led by Avery. The bakery was close by, but it was a good fifteen-minute walk. 

Avery shrugged, "Don't worry. It's perfectly normal. I don't really like the elevator either. It makes me nervous." She didn't want Nytin to feel like a freak of nature due to his motion sickness. Nytin seemed to appreciate this gesture and continued talking to Avery about things he could try avoiding, such as escalators and fair rides. 

They continued walking until Nytin suddenly stopped in his tracks, "What is this?" 

Avery stood beside him, looking at the building Nytin had stopped to stare at. It appeared to her that they’d stopped at some sort of club. "I'm not sure. What does the big sign up there say?" she pointed upwards towards the sign.

Nytin looked up and read it slowly. "It says…arcade..?" He peered inside the building. The loud music blaring with neon flashing lights caught his attention quite quickly. Many children were running around laughing and yelling, holding tickets in one hand and cups full of golden coins in the other.

Avery seemed excited. "I didn't know there was one this close. Let's go inside!" She grabbed Nytin's arm again and then almost immediately stopped in her tracks. "Actually...I don't know where the doors are." She said with a small laugh. She had thought that an arcade would have colored doors, but as far as she could see—which wasn't much, to begin with—were windows.

Nytin snuck his hand into Averys’, intertwining their fingers slowly, “Here, follow me.”

Avery smiled and held Nytin's finger back, following him towards the glass doors of the building. Once they were inside, her excitement increased tenfold as she gleefully walked past Nytin and dragged him further into the arcade.

Avery excitedly looked at all the games, briefly explaining them to Nytin if he asked. She eventually wandered over to a giant claw machine and stared inside, trying to make sense of what was inside, "Is that a giant bunny?" 

Nytin peeked over his shoulder. "No, it's a big white dog. Its ears are just rather large."

Avery grinned, "I'm gonna buy some coins—stay here." She walked off, almost running into a few kids while on her journey to get tokens. Nytin watched her go with a smile, crossing his arms and leaning against the machine. Avery shortly returned with a large cup full to the brim with coins. "Alright, I got more than I thought." She sheepishly laughed, "I got a little... excited."

Nytin shook his head. "How much did that cost?" he asked with a slight chuckle, then moved to the side so Avery could play.

Avery waved her hand at Nytin dismissively, "Don't worry about it." She crouched down, feeling around the machine until she found the coin slot and put a few coins in it. The game began playing music, and she stood up to move the claw around but missed where the prize was.

 Nytin moved closer and watched her fail a few times. She got close enough to nab it a few times, but the claw would gingerly drop the plush before it went too far. He watched Avery fail a few more times and then tapped her shoulder.

"Here, I'll help you. I'll tell you when it's over the dog, " he said, leaning closer to the glass. Avery nodded and put a coin in again. Nytin was giving her instructions, but they failed a few more times due to the claw not gripping the toy long enough.

Avery sighed, putting her hands in her pockets, "Maybe I should just give up. It's not grabbing it at all."

Nytin crossed his arms. "No, not yet. We moved it close to the win zone, just a little more. I'm positive if we grab it in the right spot, it'll work." He went over to their cup of coins, grabbed a few, and handed them to Avery, who smiled.

"Okay, just... one more time." She put the coins in the machine, and it began playing music. The claw unlocked for them to use, and the game began. She moved it around to where they usually put it and looked up at Nytin for approval. Nytin stared at it for a while and moved his hand over Avery's to push the lever.

"Just a little this way...right at the head." He said, pushing down for just a moment. He hadn't even looked at the buttons and was determined to win the prize, “Alright, drop the claw."

Avery pushed the button, and Nytin stepped back. They watched the claw go down and grab the toy. It lifted it but began to drop again. Nytin was getting frustrated but let out a small gasp when the tag got caught on the claw, and it pulled it over to the prize area.

Avery moved closer. "No way! You did it!" The prize landed, and a happy song played loudly, drawing out Nytin and Avery's cheer. They high-fived, and Avery went to grab the toy. She struggled to bring it out but eventually did after Nytin came to help, opening the door more. It popped out, and Avery hugged it happily. "It's so soft! Here, feel." She pushed it into Nytin's arms, forcing him to hold it. 

Nytin was slightly startled but gripped the soft stuffed animal, watching Avery pick up the coins. "It's...softer than it looks." He smiled and said, "Since we still have coins, is there anything else you want to win?" 

Avery shrugged, "I was going to play ski-ball, or maybe that tower tap game with you…" She looked around but couldn't tell the difference between the games, and she decided it may have been best for Nytin to decide what to play, "What about you? What do you wanna play?"

"Uhm..how about that one?" He led the way over to the tower game Avery had mentioned previously,  "Stacker? It looks simple enough. You said you could see this one, right?"

"Er… for the most part...yeah, it's just putting blue on blue." She said, putting a coin in. The game began, and the rectangular blue box began shifting from side to side. She paused and realized she couldn't see the blocks as well as she thought she would, causing her to move closer to the screen. She had been doing fine until the speed picked up, causing the pixels to stretch, meaning she couldn't see where the box actually was, "Oh…It's bigger now? I...umm... here you try." She moved out of the way to let Nytin try, who hesitantly stepped forward.

"...Alright. I hit the button when the squares are on top of the others, yes?" He put their stuffed animal on the ground and moved to where Avery had stood. He managed to get to the first prize zone but wanted to get the major prize, so he continued playing, watching the block move carefully. He had one block to go and pressed the button. The square had been perfectly aligned but somehow skipped forward, meaning Nytin had lost.

Nytin stared at the machine for a long while, his brows furrowing as the game slowly dispensed seven sad tickets, "...The hell...? I pressed it at the right time." He frowned and turned to Avery, "Let me try again."

Avery handed him a few more coins and listened as Nytin lost over and over. She could tell Nytin was getting frustrated and couldn't help but chuckle. 

Nytin caught this and became even more irritated. He watched the block quickly go back and forth across the screen. Once he deemed it the right time, he slammed his fist on the button, cracking the plastic. Suddenly, the lights on the machine flashed blue, meaning he had won. Nytin stared at it in shock for a few seconds before the shock turned into pride and excitement.

"I…I finally beat it! I knew some...machine couldn't beat me!" he declared proudly, watching as it spewed out tickets. By the time he had won, a small pile of tickets had accumulated from him simply playing over and over, so now, due to him winning the jackpot, his pile only grew.

Avery covered her mouth to keep herself from laughing and stepped closer to Nytin. She held her hand up to Nytin, pretending to point a microphone at him while deepening her voice, "So, Nytin. Tell the audience how it feels to finally win the game, stacker, after using half a cup of coins."

Nytin grabbed her wrist gently and happily replied, "It feels magnificent. I feel as if I could win every game here. I'm the king of this arcade, and no game stands a chance against me." He said with a grin, “And it wasn’t a half of a cup...it was a quarter of a cup. Thank you.”

Avery moved the pretend microphone back to herself but broke out into laughter. Nytin couldn't help but laugh, either. The two received a few looks and quiet comments from others passing by but didn't really care, simply enjoying the moment.

Avery wiped the tears that had formed in her eyes, "Let’s-" she took a breath, trying to hold back the giggles that escaped her lips, "Let's play ski-ball. That one's fun." 

Nytin calmed down quicker than Avery and picked up the tickets with a big smile on his face, trying to fold them neatly over each other. "Sounds like a plan. It's the long one with the balls, yes?"

"Pfft..the long one with the what?" she felt immature for laughing at what Nytin had said, but she couldn't help it.

Nytin stared at her, "With the…balls...? " He watched Avery laugh a little harder, and then it clicked, "Pff...Real mature Starshine..." He rolled his eyes but couldn't help chuckling while leading the way to the game. His reaction caused Avery to laugh more while following him.

They headed to the Skeeball games, and Avery handed Nytin some of the coins, "Here, we can put them in at the same time, and then whoever gets the most points wins.”