Omori Drabbles

Game Night

Mari and Kel (Platonic dw)
Potential Good Ending Spoilers
Tw: none
||people just don't talk about those two's friendship enough||
_

"Do you know how to play?"

  Kel stared at the board in front of him. Mari watched him with a glint of amusement in her eyes as he [very obviously] tried to figure out what the game was.

"Definitely, who doesn't know this game?" Kel boasted, pointing his thumb towards himself. "I'm an expert at this game." He began to pick at his fingers and looked at Mari sheepishly. "...just so we're on the same page though, you know how to play it right?"

"It's called Mancala," Mari stated smartly. "Although, it's has many names because so many different countries play it." She gestured to the assortment of marbles, sunflower seeds, and rocks held in plastic baggies scattered around them. "The playing pieces also vary, but for now we'll just use the marbles."

She reached over and began distributing the marbles, three in each small circle, and looked at Kel with a knowing grin on her face.

"Of course, since your such an expert, you know that you run the marbles clockwise, and you add one point per run, of course?" Kel nodded, enraptured with Mari's demonstration. It wasn't often just the two of them got to hang out: Sunny and Basil were out by the hangout spot doing something with flowers, Aubrey made Hero promise he'd spend an afternoon with her, so that left Kel and Mari.

It wasn't like they didn't want to spend time with each other, it was just a rare occurrence the others didn't want to spend time with Mari, she was the group favorite after all. If she wasn't with Aubrey, she was with Basil, if not either of them, it was Hero, and obviously Sunny would be following like a small shadow (no hate to him though).

Mari twisted the board so that the ends faced both parties, she had already placed two marbles into her inventory and the board had been shuffled around with the displacement of her move. Kel stared for a second before going to grab a big pile sitting on the left side.

"Eh-" She tapped lightly at Kel's wrist, now holding several marbles. "You can't grab from the left side, only the right side."

"Why not?" He whined. "You got to start on this side, and it's got the most!"

"You always start on the right side of your board, it's different where you sit." Mari instructed. Kel shamefully out the marbles back where they were and grabbed a pitiful four on his right. He carried them around, and landed in his inventory spot.

"Well what do I do now?" He crossed his arms as Mari smiled patiently.

"Since you landed in your inventory spot, you get to go again. You only get to go again if you land there, many strategies try to rely on this." Kel grabbed another small handful of marbles, and continued to carry them into the next circle, the seven one he had dropped in the first play, and picked up all the marbles in the bowl.

Mari giggled as he fumbled with trying to hold and drop them as he went, but Kel was more focused on the satisfying clacks each marble made when he dropped them. Eventually, his luck ran out and he landed in an empty circle: he had managed to get six points.

Kel smiled triumphantly and was about to boast his winnings when he noticed how fast Mari traveled across the board. It was as if she knew exactly how each end scenario would play out. She had grabbed one marble and quickly threw it into her inventory, the grabbed and three carrying it in as well. The two that remained were dropped in as quickly as they arrived, and the closest three circles of her board was completely filled out- she was tied with Kel within just a few seconds.

  "What?" Kel slammed his hands on the carpet underneath them. "How'd you do that- you can't do it, it's cheating!" His pout increased as Mari clutched at her sides, laughing at him.

  "It's not cheating!" She wiped at a tear in her eye and pat Kel on the shoulder. "It's just mathematics, that's all this game really is."

  "I suck at maths class, you did this on purpose." Mari sobered at the tone in his voice, it was the same tone Sunny's voice carried whenever he was about to cry.

  "No, no, no, that's not it at all Kel!" Mari grasped his hands with hers. "I chose this game because I haven't played it with anyone else yet- not Hero, not Sunny, nor Aubrey or Basil. I wanted it to be our thing y'know?"

  Kel sniffled and looked at Mari's eyes, nothing but sincerity coated her words. She squeezed his hands three times, and then passed a tissue from the box sitting on the table next to them. He accepted and once the emotions of frustration, and the embarrassment filtered out, he motioned for Mari to grab at the board.

  "It's still your turn isn't it?"

  "Yes, I believe it is..." Mari grabbed a bout of four marbles on her top right side and carried them down the board. "Now, there is no strategy in Mancala, but as I had said mathematics can be involved to help you win."

  "You've just described a strategy." Kel interrupted, the smallest of smiles on his face.

  "Don't interrupt my train of thinking." Mari smiled playfully and landed in an empty space. "See? It's now you're turn, remember it's just basic counting."

  Kel looked at his board for a moment: there was an open space, closest to his inventory, two marbles, four, seven, none, and then three. He started to reach for the seven, but then he stared at the three and mentally counted cross the board. Mari only stared at him, resting her hand on her chin and waited patiently for him to make his move.

  After preplanning, Kel grabbed the three and traveled- and he ended up carrying himself into getting another four points. He glanced at Mari with a big grin, and with all the time in the world she smiled back. As equally happy and the boy in front of her.
-

  Kel sighed at the dusty, wooden board in front of him, a smile gracing his face. Sally sat as still as a wall in front of him, her brown eyes curious as to what her big brother could be planning.

  An assortment of baggies containing seeds, rocks, flower petals, and marbles surrounded the siblings, although for nostalgia one of the marble bags were already settled into the circles. Three in each hole, inventory spaces open and facing the players.

  The board had been gifted to Kel about three years prior to current events, but two years after everything in the hospital. He hadn't opened the board or baggies, mostly for fear Sally would prefer to eat the points rather than play— and also the implications of what that box held.

  However, Sally managed pulled it out from underneath Kel's bed while playing hide and seek, so obviously she demanded what it's purpose was.

"This is called Mancala, Sally," Kel spoke softly, he couldn't cry in front of his sister, not when she pulled the game out- what if she end up blaming herself for his sorrow? "Although, many other countries have different names for it- it's a special game to me."