Drabbles: Hell RP

In the food court of a bustling mall sat two rather mismatched youths: on the left sat the lanky, yet absurdly tall Eli, and next to him was the smaller, grumbling Thomas. Eli stared off into the distance, watching groups of people pass by with shopping bags in hands and listening to the sound of Thomas' fingers tapping on his phone screen. As much as Eli would have liked to start up another conversation with Thomas, previous attempts resulted with fruitless one-lined replies. Eli had asked the usual basics: how he was doing, what he planned to do tomorrow, what he was up to lately. Eli wondered if he was the one bad at conversing with other people, or maybe it was just Thomas not wanting to talk to him. Well, it wasn't like Thomas was feeling unwell — Thomas had always been a tougher nut to crack open in comparison to the rest of his companions. It made him wonder if Thomas just didn't like Eli as much as the rest in their friend group, but that wouldn't have made sense to him. Zeph and Kamui had always done worse to Thomas that would logically make him dislike them more than he would Eli. So, why was it that Thomas could talk way more to everyone else, but not to him? Maybe they just weren't compatible friends?

Eli's gaze shifted from the moving waves of strangers to the tiny figure of Thomas hunched over his phone screen. As much as he wanted to deny the possibility of Thomas disliking him, Thomas always seemed so disinterested in talking with Eli; he was always glued to his phone whenever it was just the two of them. It sort of broke his heart the way Thomas would immediately pull his phone out the moment a third party would leave them alone. Still ... Eli didn't want to make anything awkward between their friend group, especially since Zeph seemed to enjoy having Eli around (mainly because it was fun to mess with Thomas, but that was beside the point). Nevertheless, Eli knew he still have to make some effort in being friendly with Thomas. "So ... whatchu doing on your phone," Eli finally asked Thomas, motioning at his phone.

"Working on a list of stuff needed to be done before I finish my next mod," Thomas answered nonchalantly. His fingers seemed to be working faster now. Due to the way that Thomas was leaning over his phone, Eli couldn't really see what he was typing, though he wasn't sure why he wanted to know since it was probably just a bunch of random spews of code anyway.

"Oh. What kind of stuff," Eli asked curiously, resting his chin on the palm of his hand.

"It would be a pain to explain, since you wouldn't understand," Thomas bluntly answered. Eli sighed quietly. He was right, but still ... he needed some sort of way to talk to Thomas. So for a moment or two, Eli watched Thomas type on his phone. It was always sort of cute watching Thomas' expressions as he was working hard on something, like how he would sort of furrow his eyebrows whenever he was slightly frustrated at a part that wasn't working the way he wanted it to. Seeing how easy to read Thomas was whenever he was focused on something was something that Eli adored about Thomas.

"Hey guys, I got the drinks," a voiced excitedly chimed from behind them. Eli looked over his shoulder to see his tiny best friend, Zephira, holding three milkshakes in her small arms. Zeph went through the trouble to buy the drinks for all of them in exchange for Eli paying for her own drink. Thomas had insisted that he could buy his own drink, but Zeph stubbornly refused and bought his drink for him. It was strange to Eli since Zeph had never been so stubborn over something as simple as buying a drink — especially since Thomas was still paying for his own drink anyway — so Zeph definitely had something up her sleeve. However, he couldn't really think of anything she could have done (and he wasn't going to waste money either), so he smiled at her and took the drink from her arms without any question. As Eli took a sip from the shake, Thomas thanked Zeph as she handed him his own drink. Zeph hummed as she placed the change from Thomas' drink onto the table.

"I got a call while I was in line and I gotta go home now," Zeph said before taking a sip of her own drink, "sorry for bailing so early, but I promise I'll make it up to you both some other time!"

"Does that mean you're gonna treat me to a drink sometime soon," Eli commented with a smirk.

"You wish! Well, see you tomorrow," Zeph happily chirped to the two boys. With that, Zeph darted off into the sea of strangers that surrounded them. Once she was long gone, Thomas reached out and grabbed the change that Zephira had left for him. He had a bigger frown than usual on his face as he shoved the change in his pocket. The pair were left with not much to talk about again; the only noises that came from them were the sipping of their drinks. It was strange, but the milkshake tasted a lot sweeter than usual to Eli. He and Zeph had regularly gone to the milkshake place and he never remembered this milkshake flavor tasting this sweet ... but maybe he was just paranoid. A quick glance of Thomas' expression made it obvious that he was uncomfortable being alone with Eli. Well, maybe this would be a good opportunity for Eli to get on Thomas' good side, and maybe he could figure out why he didn't like him much.

"You said that you wanted to go to the video game store, right? You wanna go now," Eli asked.

"Er ... sure," Thomas replied.

The pair made their way to the video game store with drinks half-empty. Thomas felt rather embarrassed being with Eli all alone; he wasn't sure if it was because he was worried if Eli would judge in video games or if it was just because he knew that this time, no one would come back to ease his restlessness. Usually, he would go out with Eli along with someone else, but since Zeph had bailed so early, he knew no one would save him. It was true that Thomas felt uncomfortable around Eli, but it wasn't because he hated him. Hypothetically if he had to choose a person to be handcuffed to for an entire day, he would choose Eli in a heartbeat because he would probably be the guaranteed least annoying person to be with (though Rin would also be a good choice, but Rin was too short and he would have to bend over most of the time ... wait, why was he trying to hard to make an excuse for this). Thomas aimlessly wandered the store, hoping that Eli would stop following him around and look at something else ... but Eli just kept following Thomas around like a lost little duck. It was sort of cute — wait, not cute. It was annoying, definitely annoying. To Thomas, there was no way this was cute at all —

Thomas suddenly spun around and said in a criticizing tone, "Uh ... are you gonna keep following me around? Don't you have other stuff you wanna look at?"

Eli shrugged and responded, "Well, I don't really have the money to get anything anyway, so there's no point in me looking for stuff myself. I'll just stick by you."

Thomas grumbled and watched as a triumphant smile grew on Eli's face. There was no way for him to win since it wasn't like Thomas could refuse Eli's company, so he gave up and let Eli do as he pleased. Still, the unease of having Eli next to him bothered him so much — why did he feel so flustered around him? Why was Eli standing so close behind him?

"Is that the game you were looking for," Eli asked, pointing at the title that Thomas was standing in front of. Thomas had been standing still without noticing that he had been staring at the same game cover for a long while now. Thomas was about to answer that it wasn't, but he blinked and recognized the game.

"Oh, this one's pretty good. I've played it before," Thomas said picking up the case. It was sort of an old game, but since it was a classic it was still sold in stores in a smaller bulk. Thomas handed the case over to Eli and watched Eli look at the front cover with a tiny nod. Then, Eli flipped the cover over to its back side and skimmed its contents. There was some pictures showing how the game looked like and some of the action to expect from it. However, there wasn't much explaining what there was to do in the game besides shooting some stuff. Eli asked, "What kinda game is it?"

"Just a really good PvE shooter. It has lots of variety in terms of classes and weapons, and it's nice to relax to when you don't want to think too hard," Thomas explained, pointing at one of the images that showed the gun in the in-game HUD. Eli had expected the explanation to stop right there, but to Eli's surprise Thomas continued, "This game was one of the pilgrims of shooters. A lot of newer, more popular games wouldn't exist today without it—"

As Thomas explained more in-depth about the game itself, Eli started to shift his attention from the content of his words to Thomas' voice and expression. It was really cute when Thomas talked about things he found passion in; he was always so grumpy and reserved that it gave Eli a nice, warm feeling whenever he caught a moment of Thomas' face showing pure happiness. Suddenly, Eli blinked and shifted his gaze onto the video game case again. Eli thought Thomas was cute ... huh. It wasn't the same cute that he would use to describe things with adoration such as with his friends or a small animal. If he had to describe it, it was a cute that was more than that level. It was more close to a cute you would use to describe a crush or something ... so then, that would mean that he found Thomas cute in a way that mean ... that way, didn't it.

Maybe he was overthinking it.

As Eli and Thomas exited the video game store, they noticed that the waves of people in the mall had only increased. It was a weekday evening, so it wasn't a surprise that there were suddenly a lot of people trying to cram some shopping in. By now, a lot of people would have gotten out of work or teenagers like them trying to find a place to hang out for a while. It became a lot more difficult to not bump into people; they both kept bumping into strangers and themselves. At some points, they would lose sight of each other but they would luckily find each other again. Although Thomas didn't worry too much about losing Eli since he was a ridiculously tall giant, Eli felt a little more nervous about losing Thomas since he was a lot shorter. He knew that Thomas was a grown guy that could take care of himself if they got separated, but still some anxiety of him disappearing made him very anxious.

"Hey uh ... you wanna hold my hand," Eli asked awkwardly.

"Are you messing with me again," Thomas groaned. He wasn't in the mood for Eli's teasing; the crowd itself was already draining his energy. Before he could properly reject, Thomas felt a gentle grip on his hand. It startled him a little that Eli had been serious about it. He thought Eli was only messing with him, but because of it his heart wasn't ready for this commitment. A swirl of emotions filled his mind — embarrassment, happiness, excitement, confusion — but Thomas knew one thing: he didn't hate it ... though he sort of hated that he didn't hate it. Secretly in the back of his mind, he didn't mind it if they held hands for a bit longer. It wasn't like he was holding hands with someone he hated or a random stranger so ... he guessed it was normal to feel this way. Finally, the pair made it to the outside of the mall, where there were significantly less people and more fresh air. Thomas took in a deep breath, glad to be out of the crowded hellhole of what was the mall.

"Uh ... sorry for today. It was awkward since Zeph left so suddenly," Eli apologized, rubbing the back of his neck with his spare hand. Thomas shot a look of confusion to him.

"Awkward? Was it awkward," Thomas asked. Eli couldn't tell if Thomas was trying to be nice or he genuinely did not notice how awkward the air was.

"Uh ... I guess," Eli said with a puzzled look. He hated to be so direct about it, but since the subject was in the air now, he figured he'd address the elephant in the room. Eli added, "I mean ... I've been wondering if you've hated me or not. Whenever it's just me and you, you're always so quiet or distracted with something else."

"Huh ... ? I don't hate you. Trust me, I don't willingly spend time with people I hate," Thomas said with a huff. Eli didn't deny this at all in his mind, because Thomas was definitely the type of person to tell another person that he hated them.

"Oh ... Guess it was just in my mind, then," Eli murmured. The pair fell silent and Eli felt guilty for being the one making the conversation so awkward now. At the same time, he was relieved that Thomas didn't hate him or anything (at this point, he felt a little silly for worrying over such a thing). Thomas on the other hand was analyzing the times that Eli and him spent together with just the two of them. It was true that all along he avoided talking with Eli whenever they were both alone, so he understood why it would have felt like Thomas hated him. In truth, being alone with Eli made him uneasy — he wasn't sure when this feeling started, but Thomas was sure that it wasn't like this during the beginning days of their friendship. It wasn't an uncomfortable uneasy, but more of a nervous uneasy. So, Thomas would leap onto his phone to distract himself from his feelings, but this act caused the misunderstanding between Eli and himself. He wanted to apologize for being rude during those times.

"Having fun holding my hand," Eli suddenly asked with a smug look. Thomas' eyes shifted to their hands. He had forgotten that Eli had held his hand while they were making their way out of the bustling mall, but he had never noticed that his own hand was also tightened around Eli's ... which meant they were both willingly holding each other's hands. Thomas immediately let go of Eli's hand with a slightly embarrassed, yet cute look. His flushed cheeks were super cute to Eli. Thomas saw Eli's smug expression only grow bigger at his reaction, which sort of ticked him off. Thomas, knowing that making a big reaction would only satisfy Eli more, made little grumbling noises which Eli thought was cute.

"You know that game you were talking about earlier? I think I wanna try it," Eli mentioned, shoving his hands into his pockets.

"Oh, uh, sure. I can lend my copy to you tomorrow after school. Just make sure you give it back," Thomas offered, averting his gaze from Eli.

"Sweet, thanks. Well, I'll see you then," Eli replied with his usual, dorky smile.

As the two made their farewells, a gaze not too far from them watched from behind a bench. This gaze belonged to none other than the sneaky wingman, Zephira. Earlier that day, Zeph had bought their milkshakes. When she knew they weren't watching her, she slipped something along the lines of a love potion into the drink — not too much of a dosage that would cause something problematic to happen, but just enough to make something interesting happen. So, when Eli and Thomas had held hands for that extended period of time, she couldn't help but giggle to herself. She had never seen Thomas act so adorable before. They were so cute together, if only they'd suck it up and confess already. Once the two parted ways, Zephira looked to her side and pulled out the love potion in question, swirling its contents within the bottle. She watched as shimmers of sparkles fell like snow onto the bottom. When she had received the potion in the reused energy bottle, she doubted it to be the real deal. However, to think this potion was the real deal ... oh, the things she could do in the future. She snickered to herself thinking about the possibilities.

Later in the evening, Nimue arrived home and tossed the empty crate in her arms onto the kitchen counter. It was a tiring day, but she had made a lot of profit with her potions today: she sold a shapeshifting potion to some tiny kid, a potion of strength to a scrawny guy ... some other unnoteworthy things ... and then also a love potion to some sneaky kitsune girl. The girl treated Nimue to an energy drink as payment, as well as an empty bottle that resembled the drink to put the potion in. Nimue figured that the girl wanted to make the potion look discreet, so she complied. Nimue sighed and opened up the fridge to grab the energy drink she had been given; by now, it should be cold and taste better. Nimue grabbed the drink and twisted the cap, immediately realizing something strange about the bottle. The tamper seals that usually pop when the drink was opened didn't pop when she twisted the cap. With a puzzled look, she hovered her nose over the mouth of the bottle and sniffed its contents. It smelled just like the love potion she was supposed to sell to that kitsune girl ... oh. Nimue realized something. She must have swapped the bottles on accident, so instead of giving the love potion to her, she gave her the energy drink. Nimue blankly stared at the potion for a long while ... then she shrugged.

Eh, whatever. It wasn't her problem.