AUL One-Shots!

Player x Captain--"I love you...as a lover."

ok, this was requested by @XxB-senpaixX!

WARNING: slightly depressing thoughts included in this story

Player's POV

"It's snowing!" Captain cried gleefully, twirling around in the chilly air before falling backwards into puffy white snow. I chuckled as I walked past him with Veteran, next to the Office doorway. It was a cold, snowy day on Polus, the perfect day to play in the snow—well, at least if you were Captain. "Come join me, Player!" Captain grinned up at me, waving his arms around in the snow to make a snow angel. I stole a glance over at Veteran, who raised his eyebrows judgingly at Captain. "Um...no thanks, Captain." I replied, guilt washing over me. "Maybe later."

"Okay." Captain gave me another smile, but I could tell he was hurt. That made me feel even worse as I walked away towards Communications, Veteran still by my side. Because truth was, I had a crush on Captain. I had ever for a long time now, but never admitted it to anyone, not even Veteran. Mainly because Veteran would never understand. He hates Captain, for some reason that I don't really get. It's stupid, really. But even so, I loved Captain, but couldn't tell anyone about it, because really I was afraid of what others would say.

And if you've ever tried to keep a secret from your best friend, let me tell you, it isn't easy. Once or twice, when I accidentally blushed in Captain's direction because of something he said or did, I was sure Veteran had noticed, but he never said anything about it. Which was honestly a little worrying for me.

"Player? PLAYER!"

I blinked out of my thoughts to find Veteran waving his hand in front of my face. "You alive?" He teased. "Oops, sorry." I said sheepishly. "Just zoned out for a minute. I was just thinking about—"

Captain. Guilt nagged at me again for leaving him behind alone. What if he got killed by the impostor?

"Dude!" Something wet slapped me in the face. "Wha—!" I spluttered, and realized that Veteran had pitched a snowball directly at my face. "You okay, man?" Veteran looked over at me, concerned. "You're zoning out an awful lot." "I'm fine." I lied, wiping my face off with my sleeve before reaching down and scooping up some snow. "Did you have to throw snow on me, though?" "We're on Polus." Veteran shrugged. "I mean, when in Rome—oof!" He blinked in surprise at the large amount of snow I had just heaved at him.

"That's payback." I wheezed at the look on Veteran's face. "Oh, you're on." Veteran narrowed his eyes. He began to pick up more snow, and I hurriedly did the same. It was nice to have a distraction from all my jumbled thoughts, after all.

A few minutes later, Veteran and I were in the middle of a full-blown snowball fight, both of us chucking snowballs at each other from the safety of some hastily-built snow forts. "Got you!" I yelled, chuckling as one of my snowballs hit Veteran right in the face. "You're gonna pay for that one, Player!" Veteran shouted back. Just then, I head a tiny 'oh' coming from nearby. I swiveled around out of interest, and froze when I saw who had entered the scene.

Captain was standing nearby, next to Communications.My heart dropped when I saw that his face was a mask of hurt and shock, and Iquickly scrambled to my feet, not even caring that one of Veteran's snowballshit me in the back. "Captain, uh—" I started weakly, but Captain held up his hand. "It's fine, Player. Really. I don't care, okay?" "But I didn't mean—" I tried to explain myself, but Captain interrupted. "Look, Player. I get it. You'd rather hang out with Veteran than me. And it's because I'm weird, isn't it? I'm stupid and dumb. That's what everyone says. At least you pretended to be my friend."