You Can Call Me Thomas - A Valkyrae x Sykkuno story - TEMPORARY COVER

Chapter 1: Sykkuno - Missed

     "Sykkuuuuuno!"

     Oh no, Rae, not now...

     I focused on the screen. 4 people left! The farthest I'd ever gotten. The chat was getting crazy hyped.

     There! A flash of movement. I pulled out my sniper and toggled the scope.

     Tracking him with my cursor, I realized he wasn't going to stop moving. So I moved the scope to an area in front of him and pressed the trigger.

     A little elimination! appeared on the bottom of the screen and the chat exploded with comments like "Clutchkkuno". I loved my chat.

     The next storm circle was ideal: centered around the bottom corner of the original circle where I was. Since no one would be coming from behind, I decided to wait.

     "Sykkuuuuuno!"

     That annoying singsong voice. "Not now, Rae!" I risked a glance away from the monitor. Looking back, I saw that one of the other remaining people had died from a great fall. I pitied him.

     Slowly skybasing across the sky, I spotted the last guy taking a Medkit. He'd built a pyramid above him, but didn't build walls around.

     I got right above him, then jumped down, readying my shotgun.

     "SYKKUNO!"

     The door burst open and Rae jumped inside. I flinched, the shot missing, and the last guy immediately gunned me down with his machine gun.

     "Argggh!" Extremely frustrated, I threw my headset down, cracking it a little.

     At least Rae had the decency to look ashamed of herself. I didn't let myself be fooled, though. Her eyes were dancing with merriment.

     It was pretty hard to stay mad at her, with her contagious smile. "Don't be a baby," she said, slapping me on the back. "At least you got a personal record."

     She glanced at the chat and cringed a little. "Uh-oh..."

     I didn't need to read the chat to know that there were some pretty unflattering comments about Rae. Not surprising considering Toast had called my chat the "most loyal fanbase".

     "Did you come into my room for any other reason other than making me lose my game?" I said with maybe too much of a snarl. Guess I was a baby.

     "Oh yeah, we're going to the beach after lunch. Corpse, Edison, Leslie, and the rest of OTV are going to be there."

     Oooh. I loved the beach.

     "And Edison said he was going to bring a volleyball and a net."

     Even better.

     "Alright, get packing!" Rae slapped me lightly on the head and walked away, flipping her hair.

     I glanced at the chat again. More "Raekkuno" comments. Ugh. I may have had the most loyal fanbase, but they were also the most love-oriented people I've ever seen.

     I wondered what it would like to be more than just friends with Rae. I imagined her in my arms and I was filled with a comfortable warmth. I could see her hair splaying across my arms, her eyes gazing into mine, filled with emotion.

     But what I liked about her the most was the way she smiled when she was happy: the smile was so contagious, I just - 

     Oh, god. I didn't end my stream and my face was probably really red.

     The beach better be good.