Flip the Coin [BL]

Henry just hummed and wheeled me back to the bed.

Then he went back to the table and started to carry the plates and cutlery back to the kitchen.

I waited, hoping that the frightened puppy would gather the courage to approach the bed, but after he washed the dishes and reentered, he just sat on the couch like before.

With our eyes locked, I watched him from a distance.

Wanting to touch him.

Wanting my overdue hug.

Kisses, pecks, and nuzzles—the octopus-like behavior around my neck.

"I miss you," I mumbled.

He was silent for a long time, the fist he had his head propped up with clenched noticeably, the leather gloves aching faintly.

"I miss you too," he said huskily but didn’t move to come over.

I smiled lightly and closed my eyes.

At least I heard him say it back.

I couldn’t sleep for a long time and just stayed still, exhausted, probably still from overusing my powers.

Maybe it wasn’t bad to run around with a plaster; at least it stopped me from moving too much.

But when I thought about not being able to move or bend my right leg, I had the overwhelming urge to do just that.

Maybe it also wasn’t that bad to be collared, as I didn’t even want to know what was going on with the space in my head, with the table smashed and all.

Anyway, I opened my eyes when I heard the crystals at the end of the bed.

I looked at Henry, and sure enough, he was asleep again.

I waited until the box around me had formed before shuffling to the edge of the bed.

Turned sideways, I looked at the crystals and touched them.

With something from the puppy against my fingers, it was much easier to fall asleep.

***

When I opened my eyes again, it was dark, the crystalline box was gone, and the puppy was awake again, in the same position as before.

What was greatly different was the stack of board games on the other side of the couch.

I propped myself up.

"Do you already know what to play?"

"You choose," the deep voice answered.

I hopped into the wheelchair, put my leg up, and felt Henry approaching.

I looked up at him while letting myself get wheeled to the same table we had eaten on.

He never looked away, not even for a second, while he navigated ahead.

Even with contact lenses, his gaze was so soul-sucking that it was easy to forget any boundaries or patience.

I had to forcefully stop myself from jumping him yet again and turned my head away to look at the approaching view outside.

Fuck...it isn’t easy to be abstinent when seeing that face and body.

I looked outside and saw not one light that didn’t come from the stars above.

So high up, the view seemed to reach endlessly, and while the amusement park seemed to be far away from any city, there should be at least a bit of a sign of any population.

Car lights, street lights, gas station signs in the distance, or something.

But not only was the electricity gone; machines seemed to have been damaged in general, as Henry had mentioned.

I would love to exchange opinions about that with him...but now we are on vacation.

So fuck it.

Looking away, I was already at the table, and Henry had already carried the stack of board games to my side while he had just sat down across from me.

I smiled at him and had just to reach to my side to be able to look through the one-meter-high stack.

He really hadn’t held back...do I see a trace of my overly eager puppy right there?

So overenthusiastic at the thought of playing, he really is still there behind the hoodie and gloves, huh?

I couldn’t suppress a grin; at the same time, I was also glad about our night vision, or it would be exhausting to play at night.

"Checkers!" I didn’t have to search for long when I found the perfect game.

"I won’t go easy on you, alright?" I put the games I had set aside on the empty table back onto the stack and made sure it was secure enough not to fall.

Then I opened the checkers package and took the game board out before choosing the black stones, when I didn’t hear him protest or react in any other way.

While placing both of our stones on each side, I leaned back.

"I am the unofficial checkers master... so..." I cringed hard after saying the words myself.

"Be aware." Finishing the sentence as fast as possible, I decided to delete the last three seconds from my memory.

Henry hummed, the flicker of a smile passing his eyes before he looked down at the board.

"You start." I cleared my throat awkwardly, feeling my heart beat hard at his microexpression.

He moved his stone; I moved mine, my black stones first leading and eating up the white ones fast, before at last he managed to follow suit.

In the end, we had a half-empty game board and were just dancing around each other—nobody winning, nobody losing.

My patience ran thin fairly fast.

"Alright. Draw." I emptied the board before placing the stones back in position.

The second time ended in a draw and dance as well.

The third time... as well.

"I wasn’t aware, but I think I fucking hate checkers," I mumbled, putting the board back unceremoniously before sliding the stones over the table edge back into the package.

"Alright, you choose the next one." Seeing that my propped-up leg was in between the stack of board games and the other side of the table and that I couldn’t just move it to him, I raised one board game and showed it to him.

Seeing no reaction, I continued to show him the different games he had brought, and when I reached the seventh game, I saw his expression change slightly.

I turned the game around: ’Man, just go home.’

A few of the most ordinary game stones in different colors on it, then a few strangely formed wooden thingies as well.

Never heard of that one, and the title felt slightly insulting.

I turned the package again and started to read through the instructions.

"Ah, it’s like ’Man, don’t get angry,’ just a bit more complicated."

I narrated the instruction, which essentially stated that you’d start at the same start- If the opponent’s figure lands on the field you stand on, you have to start at the beginning.

But additionally, there were marked fields in different colors, and if you landed on such a field, you could take one of the strangely formed wooden things.

Three of the right wooden thingies combined, stuck into each other, formed a cube—a house that you could put at the end line.

Only if the house were finished could you win; if not, you would have to make another round back from the starting line.

"Alright. Did you get it?" I was already angry after reading the instructions, so the game was probably not the one for me.

Still, the puppy wanted to play, so we would naturally play.

Henry hummed once again, and I opened the package to put everything on the table.

This time, the puppy chose his own game stone color: red.

I laughed and took the blue one.

The wooden thingies were on the side, ready for us to choose when we reached the marked field.

He motioned at me with his gloved finger, so I rolled the dice first.

Which was a mistake because it didn’t take long for me to get thrown from the board.

Pressing my lips together, I moved my figure back to the starting line.

And who would have thought? It shouldn’t be the last time.

"Fucking hell." Again at the starting line for the fourth time, I started to roll the dice super awkwardly in an attempt to reach the eight to follow up quickly.

Henry already had one wooden thingy on his side, and I had none.

It can’t be that someone with a fucking precognitive ability is destroyed by fucking dice.

Coin should beat dice, shouldn’t it?

We stuck with this shitty game for about three hours, and I felt drained as fuck when I finally had my fucking house finished.

But that wasn’t all; I now needed the fucking right number on the dice to ’enter’ the house and win. And that process alone cost us additional years.

I was fidgeting in my seat so hard, ready to bolt back to the bed when this torture was finally over.

Henry won in the end, and I wanted to jump into his arms for ending my suffering, even if it meant losing.

"Tired?" Henry asked, his eyes fixated on the house at the target line.

"Yeah." Exhausted like never before.

Henry hummed and brought me back to the bed, but instead of sitting back on the couch, he went back to the table.

I watched groggily as he turned the cube I made in his hand, staring at it as if it were a precious real one.

Well, if he wanted it, one could say I held my promise regarding building him a house, ha! —just that I hadn’t thought the process would be this strenuous.

Seeing the puppy appearing a bit happier, I chuckled and fell asleep just as fast as when touching the wall of the cute safeguard he would leave behind for me.