The Line is Actually Just a Gray Mess

"She's holding her own pretty well. I can pretty safely say I'm impressed."

"Ooh, Evren's got a crush!" I roll my eyes at Faith. "So when's your next date?" she asks, leaning forward in her seat expectantly.

"Date?!" Iida, with her superhuman hearing, practically sprints out of the bathroom midway through cleaning and claps her hands together excitedly. Some dust falls from the cleaning rag she's still holding. I laugh at her and Faith's antics.

"No date," I clarify. "Aika is a co-competitor. We've just been doing some training together since we go to the same gym."

"Clearly a sign that it's meant to be," Faith interrupts. Iida nods along, completely serious, and I glance at Baba for help. He's just staring at the scene with an amused grin. Traitor!

"Faith, not everyone I make friends with has to be a potential romantic partner," I say as I get up to get water from the fridge. Damn, the pitcher's empty. Must've been Baba, he always just leaves things lying around. I don't know how Iida hasn't thrown him out because of it. Oh, hold on... maybe he's been blaming me. God, this family... I should probably refill the pitcher. Oh, and I have another point. "That's only happened, like, twice. I'm not you. And friendships can be just as rewarding as romantic relationships," I say loudly across the kitchen.

"Sure, but you haven't dated in a bit, or even had a crush, and it's not as fun to make fun of your friendships," Faith pouts. I scoff at her. Why are my friends like this?

"Indeed," Iida juts in before I can respond. "Plus, your near-obsessive tendencies regarding this Aika girl almost rival your last crush."

"I am not obsessed," I defend. Iida raises a brow at me. "I'm not!" I repeat, shutting the fridge – now equipped with a full water pitcher – and nearly spilling my glass of water due to my desperate gesturing.

"Faith and your mother have a point," Baba says. I gape at him. Not him too! "You do talk about her a lot." His eyes are twinkling with mischief. I've been trapped.

"Well, you talk about your math students all the time, and I'm pretty sure you're not obsessed with them," I say as I sit down at the table again.

"Oh no, they are definitely my current little obsession. They're a fascinating bunch of kids," Baba says fondly. I make a noise that's half-sigh, half-growl. "You know, they got a hold of your mother's number the other day, and texted her while she was at work, saying how incredible she was and throwing compliments at her every two minutes. I had no idea until Iida called me to chew me out for having students who are better at consistently texting her than I am!" Iida nods at this and Faith starts giggling uncontrollably. Baba continues, feigning hurt now, "They're cunning! Tricky. If I didn't catch them, I would lose for sure."

Lose what, I'm not quite sure, but Baba has a point. I shake my head anyway. "Yeah, but Iida and Faith meant crushing obsession. That's different." Baba just shrugs, unconvinced, and I grumble out some nonsense words. I can't deny it: I've been quite distracted by Aika recently. It's been impacting my training schedule; just the warmup part, though, and that's not even that important in the grand scheme of things. But I'm allowed to be interested in her as a friend, and she's been receptive. My "obsessive tendencies" are just because I haven't made a new NCC friend in a while.

...Right?

Ugh, way to go, parents, for planting this seed of doubt in my brain. You know what? I'll be the best friend Aika has ever known. That'll show them.

"Evren, are you going to offer Faith a drink as well?" Now Iida's harping on me about getting water. When will this household show me peace?

At least she's stopped going on about the crush thing.

"Do you want water, Faith?" I ask.

"Nah, I'll pass. Can we get to gaming, though? I'm here for a reason," she says.

"And that reason isn't me?" I ask. Faith rolls her eyes. Ouch. Rude. I get up and slide onto the couch anyway. Faith joins me, and both Iida and Baba decide to pull up chairs as well. "We only have three controllers; Iida and Baba, do you mind being a team?" I toss Faith a controller and start up Luigi Party.

"Don't mind," Baba concedes before he grabs the remaining controller. I see that Iida's stealthily stashed her cleaning rag somewhere for now. And she chews me out for getting distracted by technology when I'm cleaning.

I let Faith choose the stage we play on, and now Baba's humming to the music, completely out of tune. It's a bit annoying but I smile anyway. It's nice to have some fun downtime with my family.

As usual, Faith gets super competitive, even though she's absolutely terrible at most of the mini games except the rapid button pressers. Her hyperactivity does her good sometimes. Iida's teasing Baba about how he's too lax for this game and tries to wrestle the controller out of his hands during one of the minigames. Their shenanigans nearly result in my being kicked in the face. Video games really do give 'family activity' a whole new meaning.

"Ha! I beat you all!" Faith launches herself up to a standing position and proceeds to do a dramatic victory dance in front of the rest of us. She got bonus stars for being bad at the game and for having rotten luck, and she managed to beat us out by the slimmest margin.

I hear Iida sigh as she gets up and cracks her knuckles. "Well, a win is a win, however undeserved it is," she teases.

"You're just salty 'cause you lost," Faith replies in a sing-song voice. I can't help but giggle at their antics. Baba also chuckles as he gets up and moves toward the kitchen. To get Faith's reward, I assume.

Yep, he's just come back over with our last mint chocolate ice cream sandwich. Faith takes it proudly and immediately begins eating it in front of us.

"Victory is sweet," she mumbles with her mouth half-full. I turn the video game console off and switch the TV back to the sports channel we always have going in the background. "Oh, it's an NCC briefing," Faith continues, mouth still full of cookie. I look up, intrigued.

"- and he will be attending the mandatory safety briefing for the final Battle Royale, in an effort to turn some of the negative attention he's received into preventative action," the news anchor is saying. The screen pulls up a photo of two familiar-looking men and a dog entering what looks like the NCC building. "Mr. Theoharis will be escorted when he is to make a public appearance and will also be accompanied by his service dog, Major. In an official statement to the press he has stated that, quote, "I hope that the competitors will be less intimidated by me once I show them some openness and friendliness," end quote."

"Lethal, huh?" Faith interrupts the news anchor's stream of speech. "Now that's some paparazzi-worthy drama. I thought he was in jail or something."

"No, the whole incident was ruled an accident and he wasn't charged," I clarify. Although I agree that it's quite a surprise to see him back so quickly. You would think he would stay out of the media spotlight for at least another decade. I wasn't there when the whole thing happened, but I heard it was brutal. It's why we have such strict rules about safety in the NCC now, and why we're required to go through extra safety training every year before the final Battle Royale.

"Have you met him?" Iida asks me. I shake my head.

"No, he doesn't come to any NCC events, as far as I know. If he has, it was for sure in stealth. This is the first time he's come back publicly since the incident," I reply. We talk about him in case studies all the time; he's the case study, actually. No one else in NCC history has ever killed their opponent, accidentally or not. "I guess this might be my chance," I add.

"Might? You don't intend on winning your division's contest?" Baba says as Faith scoffs at me. I think back on my words and I'm surprised myself. Am I not confident anymore?

Aika's face immediately pops into my head.

"You'd better get over that crush of yours if you want to keep your crown," Faith says light-heartedly. But that's got me thinking. I need to be careful here.