This gun's for hire, even if we're just dancing in the dark

“Alright, Nick, this is going to be a lot of fun!” Gina flashed him a smile as she stopped at a large locker. It was styled kind of like an outhouse; there was a counter next to the metal locker, another kiosk.

“What’s this place about?” Nick asked as Gina cracked the locker open.

She looked back at him. “This is where the laser tag equipment is stored!” She crowed, swinging the door open and showing him the guns and flashing vests that were hanging inside. “I thought it would be a blast to play a game like that! …Don’t you agree?”

Nick could see where she was coming from.

“Laser tag, huh?” He nodded in approval. “Oh, man… it’s been way too long since I did something like that.”

Gina laughed. “You know… I feel the same way,” she agreed, shaking her head. “But it should be a lot of fun, don’t you think?”

Nick couldn’t argue with her.

“So, how does this work?” He asked as he slipped the vest on. “I don’t see any sort of obstacle course or arena, or anything else you’d expect from-”

“PEW!”

The sound of light flickering filled his ears and suddenly his vest began to beep. He looked down at the flashing lights, then up at Gina, who was holding a gun in her hand and wearing a crooked smile on her lips.

She wiggled her eyebrows playfully.

“Gotta have better instincts than that, Nick!” She replied, pulling the trigger again and zapping him. “Otherwise, who knows what could happen?”

Nick gave her a dirty look. “Gina! Come on, I don’t even have my gun yet!” He grabbed a flashing gun from the locker and pointed it at her. But with his vest still flashing, even when he pulled the trigger, he couldn’t do anything to her.

“Don’t worry,” Gina said, shaking her head. “It’s not a big deal at all.”

She flashed him a playful smile and twirled her gun on her finger. “This place is designed to be full functional as a laser tag course, too!”

Gina snapped her fingers, and a long screen rolled over the glass dome, flooding the entire place with darkness. But unlike before, when a bunch of stars illuminated the surface of the dome, something else happened.

The pits of colored sand spread between the walkways began to glow. It was as if they were made of light themselves, or they were glow-in-the-dark sand, or something along those lines. The entire plaza was lit up thanks to the ground, and Nick could just barely make out Gina in the illuminated darkness. He could imagine the smile she was wearing on her face.

“What do you think?” She leaned forward, holding up her flashing gun. “Pretty cool, don’t you agree, Nick?”

She pulled the trigger. But this time, Nick was quick enough to get out of the way. His vest had stopped flashing erratically, which meant he could finally shoot back!

“PEW!”

“Oh!” Gina gasped as she felt her vest vibrate. “Nice job, Nick! You didn’t hesitate or miss a single step, did you?” She called out to him through the darkness. “That’s just what I like to see!”

She fired back, and the two exchanged volleys of laser blasts as they ran away from one another, searching places to hide in the dark park.

Nick definitely thought this was another win for Gina’s creativity. Being able to dream up an amusement park where the whole place could double as a field for laser tag was another brilliant move, even if it would be hard to implement in real life. That wasn’t the point, of course- the point was for the two of them to have fun.

And he was certainly having a lot of fun, even if Gina was doing better at this than he was.

“PEW!”

“And here I thought you weren’t so good with athletic stuff like this?” Nick called as Gina hit him in the chest again. He ducked behind one of the stands for cover and squinted into the darkness, trying to make out the flashing vest of his opponent.

“I’ve come around on it!” Gina called from somewhere in the distance. “Laser tag is fun, after all! Don’t you agree?”

Well, he couldn’t argue with that.

“Still,” Nick called back, “I wanted to spend time with YOU today! Not to be hiding from you while we play a game!”

…

“…Do you really think I’m going to fall for that?” Gina called back to him. “I’m not coming out, so you’re going to have to track me down!”

The playfulness in her voice made Nick feel lighter. She was enjoying herself, and that was the important part.

He dashed out from his hiding place and ran across the dark stone ground. It was easy to spot the walkways between all the glowing sand, but he still had to be careful about where he was going because the shiny black stone didn’t make for the most stable footing. Not that it made any difference to Nick, of course.

Nick was having plenty of fun like this already.

He caught movement out of the corner of his eye- Gina’s vest! He must have succeeded in luring her out of her hiding place!

Without a second of hesitation he squeezed down on the trigger, hitting her squarely in the chest and making her vest go crazy.

“Aww! You got me!” Gina pouted. And Nick didn’t stop there. He kept pulling the trigger, advancing on her until she was forced to retreat for cover. He wasn’t going to give up an inch if he could help it, and he knew that Gina felt the same way he did.

The two of them played laser tag for a while, until they got bored. It was a great way to work off all the ice cream they ate. But eventually, it reached the point where the fun was starting to dull, and Gina snapped her fingers again, removing the cover over the glass dome.

Nick squinted and rubbed his eyes as they got accustomed to the sunlight again. He lowered his gun and walked over to Gina, who was grinning at him.

“Have fun?” She asked, stripping her vest off. “I thought you’d like that.”

She was a little winded, which Nick noticed, but he didn’t comment on it. He just nodded. “It was a lot of fun,” he agreed, holding his side. “And a pretty good workout, too.”

“Dani would probably have a lot of fun with this place,” Gina said, looking around and imagining the tomboy going around shooting things.

Nick agreed. “Vivian would, too,” he said, recalling how much the heiress liked her target shooting. “It seems like a fun way to let off some steam.”

Now that he said it, he wondered what Kim would think about laser tag.

“Maybe you should invite Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin to come play next time!” Gina said with a joking laugh. “That would definitely win you some points with her!”

Of course, Gina knew that Augmented Synthetic Humanoid Assassin already really liked Nick in the first place. And Nick could see that just being able to choose all sorts of ice cream flavors might have been enough to win the assassin over, and the rest wasn’t even necessary.

“So, what do you want to do now?” He asked as the two of them walked over to the locker to dispose of their guns and vests. “I could do with a bit of relaxing. That hot stone massage doesn’t sound too bad right now.”

“We could do that,” Gina agreed. “But me, I kinda want to feel what being buried in sand is like! Don’t you think that would be pretty cool?”

Nick wasn’t so sure. But this was Gina’s day, and he wasn’t going to argue with her. She’d created this place out of scratch, if she wanted to have fun with it, that was her prerogative. He wasn’t going to make a fuss.

“Lead the way,” he said, gesturing to the punk girl.

Gina led him through the park, and Nick noticed as they went all the different games that were available to play. She’d really pulled out the stops here, he felt, going above and beyond to make sure everybody could find something fun to do.

Even if carnival games weren’t exactly his thing.

“You want to play some games?” She asked, stopping to see the curiosity on his face. “Don’t worry, they aren’t rigged or anything.”

She nodded to a pool table that she’d set up a few feet away, just sitting out in the sun like nothing was the matter. “That could also be pretty fun,” she pointed out.

Nick smirked at her. “I thought you said the games weren’t rigged?” He teased the punk girl. “I think playing pool with you would suggest otherwise!”

Gina stuck out her tongue. “Everyone’s a critic,” she said playfully. “Just because I’m better at it than you are, that isn’t the same as the game being rigged!”

Nick remembered their very first date, when she’d actually hustled him out of 1000 Bonus Points. He had actually respected her quite a bit for that play, and it wasn’t like he’d lost out on anything, either. “I think that a bit of pool hustling is charming,” he said sincerely. “But don’t expect me to fall for your tricks a second time.”

The hot sand would have to wait. They’d found something else they could do to have fun, and Gina was quick to rack up the pool balls so they could start playing.

“I’ll let you break,” Gina said, handing Nick a pool cue. “You know, consider it a handicap. Or something along those lines.”

Nick wasn’t so sure that would be enough of a handicap. “How about I start the game with half my balls sunk?” He suggested, only half-serious.

Gina just shrugged. As if she was totally fine granting him that. Not exactly a good sign for him going forward. Nick felt his confidence sink. But he shook those thoughts away and got started. The important part was that they had fun, winning didn’t matter here.

Nick tried to line up his shot. But Gina wasn’t making it easy for him.

“Come on,” she said with a throaty purr, leaning over the table so her breasts were hanging down across from him. “I know you can do it. Just give it a nice… hard… thrust.”

She was trying to distract him through seduction, and she wasn’t even being subtle about it. Nick wasn’t surprised. “Subtle” wasn’t exactly a word he would ever associate with his childhood friend. She was way too playful for that.

He swallowed and focused his attention on the pool balls. He wasn’t going to let Gina distract him with her playing around!

Nick just had to line up the shot, and…

“CRACK!”

The cue ball slammed into the triangle and the balls scattered across the table just like he’d planned them to. And even better, he managed to sink two solid balls on the first strike of the cue! That was a decent advantage, even if he wasn’t sure that it would be enough.

“Not bad, Nick,” Gina said with a whistle. “That was a really good shot! Nice break. Now, go ahead and keep going,” she urged him. She sounded awfully supportive for someone who was supposed to be rivaling him right now, but he wasn’t going to complain.

It was just a game.

“So, what other fun activities do you have in store for us today?” Nick asked as he contemplated his next shot. He thought he saw a pretty good one with the three ball, so he lined up his cue to take aim at it. “Besides being buried in hot sand, I mean.”

Laser tag had been a lot of fun. Nick didn’t want to think that Gina might have chosen a starting activity that would be difficult to top, especially given how creative this place was.

“Well, we could go rock climbing,” Gina said, glancing at the bouldering cliffs. “But… well… I’m not actually good at that,” she admitted with a sheepish laugh.

Nick looked up from the pool table, surprised. “You’re not?”

“No, no way,” she said, shaking her head. “I haven’t got the stamina to be good at it.”

Then why even put a rock climbing course in this place at all? It was like having a bowling alley in your dream house, but you didn’t even know how to bowl.

“Hey, don’t give me that look,” Gina said with a pout. She crossed her arms over her chest. “Just because I’m not any good at it, that isn’t a reason to not include it! Andyland is a place that would have that sort of thing, you know? I can’t just choose not to include one!”

Nick nodded slowly, understanding where Gina was coming from. He couldn’t argue with her logic, if he was being honest.

It was obvious that Gina had put a lot of time and energy into this idea of hers. She’d really gone all-out on her plans. This was a glimpse into her creativity!

If she just wanted to do stuff that she was good at? They could do that. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t flex her creative muscles a little.

“Okay,” he agreed. “No rock climbing. What about… the roller coaster, then? I think I still owe you a ride or two from back when we went to the Amusement Park.”

Gina laughed in amusement. “Sure, let’s say that you do, for the sake of argument,” she agreed, giving him a playful smack on the back. “I think that’ll be a lot of fun! But let’s do the sand burying first, I’ve always wanted to try that.”

Nick could get behind that idea. He nodded, and took his shot.

Unfortunately, the three ball didn’t feel like cooperating today. It bounced off the edge of the bumper and refused to go in the hole.

“My, my, my,” Gina said, clicking her tongue and spinning her pool cue. “What a shame. I didn’t distract you, did I?” She asked with a trill of amusement in her voice, like distracting Nick had been the entire point.

Nick just laughed. “Oh, not at all,” he replied with a shake of his head. “I’m just not that good at pool, that’s all.”

Gina gave him a look, then she rolled her eyes and scoffed in exasperation. “Sure,” she replied, shaking her head. “That’s gotta be it.”

After that, Gina didn’t show him any mercy. She kept sinking balls, until she ran out of good shots to take, and had to pass her turn.

Nick looked down at the green felt and sighed. Gina hadn’t exactly run the table on him. But he was pretty far behind.

“Is this even a fair competition?” He questioned as he took aim at the seven ball.

Gina shrugged. “What’s so fun about fair competition?” She cheekily responded. “Me, I prefer having a bit of an advantage. It’s a lot of fun!”

She wiggled her eyebrows. “Hey, how about we make it more interesting? Winner gets a kiss as a reward from the loser!”

Nick looked up at her. “Isn’t that the sort of thing you’re supposed to arrange BEFORE we start playing?” He rightfully pointed out.

Gina stuck her tongue out at him. “That sounds like the kind of talk from someone who doesn’t think they can win!” She said. “Be a little more confident, Nick!”

Nick took his shot and sank the seven ball. “Thanks,” he replied, moving to take his next shot. “I’ll do that.”

“Sounds like you just don’t want to kiss me,” she said, poking him in the side playfully. “Oh, I’m wounded, Nick, I’m so hurt…!”

“I think you’ll live,” Nick teased her back. This time, he DID manage to sink the three ball. But now he was in a difficult position. He didn’t have any easy shots he could take, which put him in a vulnerable position.

He would have to take a gamble on the five ball. It was his only choice.

“Okay,” he said, taking a deep breath and lining up his shot. He aimed the cue ball right at the bright orange ball, and gave it a hit.

The cue ball struck a glancing blow off the side of the five ball, and went flying. Both balls knocked around the table, bumping into other balls before coming to a stop. And since the five ball stopped just shy of falling into the pocket, that meant it was Gina’s turn.

“Not bad, Nick,” she said, taking aim with her cue. “Not bad at all. Unfortunately, it looks like I’m going to take this one.”

Gina took her first shot. Of course, she sank the fourteen ball immediately. Then, she kept going. Nick could only watch as she slowly but surely cleared every striped ball off the table until the only target she had left was the eight ball.

“Wow, Gina,” he said, shaking his head. “You really are good at this game, huh?”

Gina looked up at him and flashed a cheeky smile. “Well, I do my best,” she replied. “You’d be surprised what a girl can accomplish… with the proper motivation.”

She wiggled her eyebrows to remind him just what the proper motivation was.

“You know, I never agreed to that bet,” Nick reminded her. He crossed his arms over his chest like a stubborn brat, which he knew would rile Gina up.

“Oh, you’re right,” Gina said. “Eight ball, side pocket.”

“CRACK!”

Nick didn’t hold out any hope for Gina not sinking the ball. The game was over now, just like she’d set it up. Sighing, he set down his cue.

“Well, as I anticipated, you beat me.” But that wasn’t important.

“Still,” he added, “I definitely had a lot of fun.”

Gina beamed at him. “Glad to hear it,” she said, walking around the table. Before Nick could say anything, she grabbed him by the shirt collar, stood up, and kissed him right on the lips.

The kiss itself wasn’t a surprise for Nick. But he was stunned by the timing. “Whoa, hold on, there,” he said, taking a step back. “I thought I was supposed to kiss you?”

Gina wiggled her eyebrows. “There’s still time,” she pointed out. She hadn’t kissed him due to some bet. She just did what she’d wanted to do.

That was the whole point of Andyland, after all.