Kingston Academy

TWENTY-SEVEN

   "You know I'm really glad you're here, Mister Gabriel."

Niven was back in his dorm room, completely relaxed with the fact it's finally the weekend. He already grew accustomed to the fact Gabriel was living with him for a while, and seeing him and King made him feel less lonely. It was great being with the penguin and all, but King couldn't really hold a conversation for too long. Gabriel was a good addition.

"I'm glad to be of service to you, young master," Gabriel responded with a happy smile, putting away some boxes of macaroni into the pantry. "I really am sorry I wasn't here for you during your first few weeks. I know I said I'd follow you, but I didn't expect to be caught up with the headmaster and vice-principal."

"That's alright, Mister Gabriel. I can't control how busy you are." Niven took out a game of checkers, setting it on the table with an excited expression. "But since you're here, now we can have game nights!"

"Game night?"

"Back at home, my father would always be busy. He usually wouldn't have time for me, but he did his best setting up one night of playing games before diving back to work. My brothers would also try but they were too focused on other things, so it would really only be my aunts and I." Niven quickly ushered King over, taking small glasses of juice from the penguin's arms and placing them near the board game. "It's really great to have King here, but he isn't exactly the type to play board games since he doesn't have hands. You'd think he'd be amazing at them considering how many times he cooks and cleans."

King let out a muffled squawk, a little depressed at not having fingers as he gazed down at his arms.

Gabriel came over, his sleeves rolled up to his elbows. The man was still wearing his uniform, but he took off his jacket and folded it in a neat manner before resting it on top of the sofa. He then kneeled down in front of the table on the opposite side of Niven.

"I'm honored to play checkers with you, young master!" Gabriel clapped his hands, a tray popping out of the air filled with fruits and some cheese. "It's a good thing it's the weekend. You won't have to worry about classes."

"I know!" Niven happily took the tray and set it down, snatching a strawberry and popping it into his mouth. "It's rare for me to have some free time."

"What other games shall we play afterwards?"

"I was thinking of Monopoly, but it's boring to play with only two people. So I prepared a deck of cards!" The blond quickly slammed a box of cards on the table, his eagerness still showing. "And after that, there's other board games we could play. Oh, and if we get bored of them then I got some new videos games my father sent me just last week. I haven't played any of them yet so I think it'll be fun to try them out with you."

Gabriel nodded, ecstatic to provide some entertainment for the student. "Of course, master."

They played some board games for a couple of hours. Niven had a winning streak on some of them, but Gabriel completely dominated the student with the chess and over half of his video games. At first, the blue haired man was completely clueless on how to use the controls since he never really played video games before. Gabriel was always busy with work and having to stand next to the headmaster, and it wasn't like his childhood was great as Niven's since his family couldn't really afford any of these things. He didn't know how to play half of these games, but Niven didn't mind explaining how the controls worked along the way.

Gabriel was completely fascinated, already harboring an obsession to video games. Niven simply let himself lose on purpose, finding Gabriel's reactions to winning really funny.

By the time they finally went through the last game, Gabriel's neatly combed hair was messed up by the amount of times the man ran his hand through his blue locks. He somewhat grew a bit frustrated on some levels of the game, almost pleading Niven to take over and do it himself. The blond had to endure ten minutes of Gabriel's astonishment as he completed the levels with ease.