VIPER || Oscar Piastri

Chapter 111

[POV: Narrator]

Capture the Flag was simple in theory: get the other team's flag, don't get tagged, win bragging rights.

It started with good intentions. Andi told herself she'd take it easy — not be so intense, not go full 'viper-mode,' or whatever Marco had called it yesterday, especially not with Oscar. She'd even nodded along earnestly during the rules explanation, standing beside her team with her hands tucked neatly behind her back like she was on best behaviour.

But five minutes in, when someone from another team threw a handful of grass at her face as a distraction, she was out for blood. Where before she'd been crouched in the grass, acting as a look-out, she then let her intensity rip and ran right through to the other side of the forest like a demon from hell.

She tagged three people back-to-back, ducked under someone's arm, dodged Logan and Alex, shoulder-checked Carlos (by accident, kind of), and finally skidded behind a tree to wait out some people. Then she bolted again — fast and silent — straight into enemy lines.

She was two feet from their flag when—

Someone grabbed her arm. Her reaction was immediate. She twisted, elbow jabbing backward with no mercy, catching them square in the stomach. They stumbled with a grunt, and she spun around, ready to go again—

"Holy shit—" she froze, eyes widening. "Oh my god, sorry! Sorry, sorry, sorry!"

It was Oscar. Bent slightly at the waist, one hand on his chest, wincing.

"I didn't see you, I swear—are you okay?!"

He raised a hand like, Give me a second, still catching his breath.

Andi stood frozen, one hand to her mouth, wide-eyed. She was still mid-shock, and when Oscar looked up at her slowly, brows drawn, his eyes dropped.

"Is that... our flag?"

She glanced down.

The flag was in her hand. She'd taken it before he'd gotten to her, and had forgotten about the game completely.

She blinked. Then—very, very slowly—began to move it behind her back.

"...No..." she said, and he stared at her.

She stared back.

Oscar stepped forward.

She mirrored it, stepping back.

"I can see it."

"I think you're just concussed."

"You jabbed my stomach not my head."

"But how would you know that's true if you're concussed? Your reality's altered."

He smirked, stepping closer, and then lunged — she yelped and twisted to the side, dodging just in time, but not enough. His hand caught her wrist and yanked her backwards as she tried to bolt, spinning her around so fast she tripped back into him. Her back hit his chest, and suddenly, he had both her wrists behind her back, holding her in place.

"Are you gonna give it back?" he asked, against her ear. "Or shall I take it?"

Facing away from him, Andi's face went from slightly concerned that her heart rate picked up the way it did, to blank and serious.