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Now that they were out of hiding, their grand scheme revealed in the open, they went all in with the execution. The speed, the franticness, clothes catching on branches, pricked by bushes and the evergreens trampling desperately on through.

The fastest pace the two of us could manage, and yet like hyenas, laughing maniacally, hounding frenetically, the trio of blurred colors continued to keep up, continued to pounce, balls whizzing across the air with barely a break between volleys.

And their intent was as clear as day, hurled relentlessly at our faces in a streak of bright blue. Over and over again. Suffice it to say, and please forgive my language, but I’ve never been more blue-balled in my entire life.

But just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I noticed there was a pattern beginning to manifest, a pattern that was growing more frequent with every passing minute.

Every spurt of speed, every sprint for cover, I could feel both our movements begin to stagger, slow… and every time I’d hear a quiver of breath that wasn’t my own, and Adalia would drop her head, slacken her hold on my hand.

Fatigue was creeping in.

“You’re not looking good,” I muttered. “It’s just a game,” I reminded. “Don’t push yourself.”

.....

“I am… fine…” She spurred us forward again, turning her head nonchalantly to the left just as another precisely aimed strike to whizz past her completely. “We… are close…”

“Close? We are?”

I snapped in the direction of her gaze toward a horizon of more snow-sooted woodlands, and there it was—a glimpse of freedom. The outside peeking back at us through the narrow gaps of distant branches, almost as if calling for us… cheering for us.

We’re almost there.

“Come…” Adalia was hunched, heaving, hobbling awkwardly in a struggle to sprint. “Fastest… cleanest…”

The last leg of the course, worn and weary, yet victory nigh at merely an arm’s stretch. There was no way we were choking, not here, not now. We just needed to hold out a little longer.

She just needed to hold out a little longer.

Suddenly, Adalia clumsily jerked back—the back of her head slamming into my chest, a squished santa hat falling to my feet, and an audible wet splatter of blue crashing inches from hers.

“Leaving so soon?” taunted a voice, a flicker of blue speeding from one tree to the next. “Too soon, in my opinion! Nobody has ever gotten to this point this quick! But I suppose that’s just par for the course when you’re dating the paintball champion, huh? You pick up a few things here and there!”

“How many damn snowballs do you girls have?!” I shouted, stumbling and backstepping, quickly scooping Adalia’s hat in the snow as more blue splatters painted the snow.

“As many as it’ll take, Boyfriend!” Green sniped back, nearly sniping my head as the tree bark beside me exploded in a blitz of blue. “Ain’t no way you’re gettin’ out here flawless! Like hell we’re gonna be shown up by you and some poor little sick girl! That’ll just be insulting, seriously!”

I had half a mind to just magic a barrier for myself again, just like I did during our capture the flag skirmish. No shame in cheesing your foes when your foes are utter bullshit, right? But alas doing so would require time and focus, both of which I am scarcely lacking at the moment.

“Nothing personal…” Red said, popping up from a bush, throwing a well-aimed pair that separated Adalia and I apart in a continuous struggle to elude. “It’s just fun…”

Adalia somehow made her way toward me again, tethering herself with an enfeeble grip that felt so easy to slip. Yet still she pulled us forward, impelling our legs through the thick mounds of snow that swallowed our feet whole, fighting the odds… fighting her odds.

“Poor girl,” I heard Blue tut her lips skirting between rustling leaves. “You’re really in it to win it, aren’t you? Don’t know what your condition is, but you’re a champion for pushing through it.”

“Instincts, reflexes like yours, though?” Green scoffed in awe. “Hell, can’t even tell.”

“Sorry to put you through this…” Red revealed herself from her hiding spot, a soft look to her gaze. “But we need to prove a point…”

“You hear that, Boyfriend? Get the point yet?” coming full circle, Blue spoke in turn. “When it comes to dating, when it comes to loving. You can’t just simply half-heart this kind of thing, you know?”

Is that really what they think? Is that really what they see? Me half-hearting this, huh? In a way, I think I can almost see what they see. I know they were talking about Irene, but here Adalia was giving it her all. And what am I doing?

Surely, not half-hearting, right? No, I’m not.

I’ll show them I’m not.

They were bracing to attack again, one last solid barrage that would surely put us out for good this time.

Red chased us from the right, Green prowling the left, and up ahead, waiting in glee, in triumph, Blue raised her arm in the air at the ready and gave the signal.

It was a bombardment at all sides, and aiming us one, attacking as one, they set their sights on only one—the biggest foil to their plans all this while as Adalia futilely struggle to veer away, huffing, limping—and I watch as six streaks of blue beset her on all sides, no longer avoidable, escape unfeasible.

I lunged forward.

Almost like raindrops, all six balls splattered to the white earth—missing.

“You…!” I heard Blue gasp in shock. “Ah, scandal! Infidelity! You aren’t allowed to do that. I’ll arrest you! You better drop her right now or I swear to God, I’ll…!”

I went deaf to the rest of Blue’s words, hearing only the wind in my ears, the breeze blasting in my face as I sped ahead, far ahead, making a break for the gap in the forest in the near distance.

Faintly, I could hear Adalia drawing breath, feel the blowing strands of her silvery locks brushing against my arm. She shifted lightly and I felt my arms sag slightly in response… the murky swirl of her gaze heavy as she peered up at me.

“You are… carrying me…”

I jumped over a branch, clung to her closely, tightly, and upon landing, she nearly slipped out of my arms, saved only by her reflexes, her claws catching the seams of my shirt.

‘You are… carrying me…”

“Why are you repeating yourself?” I asked.

“Why are you… carrying me…?” She asked back.

I don’t blame her for being stunned. One second, her feet were only solid ground, and the next thing she knew—the earth left her, the sky grew a little closer, and my arms were everywhere around her—hell, I’m still reeling myself.

Can’t believe we actually escaped that.

“It’s your present from me, remember?” I said, briefly flicking my eyes downwards to meet hers. “Can’t let you do all the work.”

Adalia blink, her blank look becoming even more barren, stagnant, and it was like she turned dormant and inert in my arms there for a moment. Then, in the slightest of sensation, I felt her body begin to ease, her breathing lift, and suddenly feeling so bold, she even rested her head against me like she was simply on a ride of leisure, pleasure.

She parted her lips. “Three… coming…”

A loud splat cratering in the snow beside me announced the trio’s return, quickly and effortlessly matching my pace.

“Well? Well? What’s this? Getting a bit too touchy-feely for your own good, don’t you think?” mocked Blue, her eyes and gleaming with disapproval. “Would you like me to take a picture? Send it to your girlfriend? Care to see what she’ll have to say about this?”

“Go ahead, cause a scandal!” I yelled back at her. “Give her irrefutable proof of you girls disobeying her orders! Yeah, I’m sure Irene’ll love that!”

“Not as much as she’ll love seeing you feeling it up with a girl other than her though!” Green blared. “You really gonna push it this far? What are ya—the make-a-wish foundation?”

Red didn’t say anything, but glancing at her, she wore a frown that actually stung to see. It was the kind of look you get for betraying a close friend. Sorry, Red. Though I’m not sure what I’m even apologizing for in the first place.

“Whatever case, you didn’t really think you’d outwit us like this, did you?” Blue said, speeding up ahead with the others joining in formation. “After all, you can’t dodge too well now with a princess in your arms!”

“Yeah, you’re fucked,” Green clamored.

“You lose…” Red declared.

“For what it’s worth though, Boyfriend,” Blue spoke again lastly, smirking with a tone of finality, as all three spun back, as all three raised their arms. “It’s been plenty of fun.”

And I saw it. Like slow-motion. Split seconds spanning into eternal hours. Those clumpy, blue circular banes of my existence. Like guided missiles locking coordinates to my exact position. Any step in any direction, I was going to get hit no matter where I moved to avoid them.

So I didn’t avoid them.

Instead, I just focused.

I spent an almost absurd amount of hours throwing balls and myself into a mindless monotony to forget the sensation, the emotion, and when it came to uphill battles—blue snowballs ain’t got nothing on the green, the complexities of tennis balls.

Briefly, I felt my cloak ripple, sway. A fleeting flutter unaffected by the blowing tide of my momentum.

The seconds passed, the eternity faded, and I kept running ahead past the colored trio, clutching Adalia tightly, still unhit, still unscathed. And in distant, disbelief echoes, I could hear the three exclaiming to one another in utter confusion.

“I’m sorry, did we all just miss him at the same time?!”

“Hell no! He was just right there! Right in front of us! The fuck did the balls go?! Did they even land?!”

“They disappeared…”

I took advantage of the pandemonium I caused and didn’t dare slow in the slightest. Indeed, no one seemed to know what happened just then, no one saw it, no one caught it with the sole exception being, of course…

“You… cheated…” Adalia whispered, blinking, staring.

I met her eyes, smiled.

“You cheated,” I said. “Like vampiric reflexes are any better.”

“It’s… how I am…” She said in her defense.

“And this is how I am,” I said in mine, cocking a brow. “You don’t approve?”

In return, she slowly cocked her head. “I thought… it was… just a game… you said…?”

“Hmm,” I shrugged. “Is it?”

No answer. Adalia withdrew back to silence, to resting, snuggling herself comfortably like a kangaroo in a snugged pouch.

“Don’t stop… carrying me…” She muttered, turning a blind eye against the fabric of my shirt. “I… like it…”