[Synopsis: Player fails to show up to one of his and Captain's "best friend picnics"(again.) But as luck may have it, his sister Dum is in the area, and the presumably doomed outing becomes a flat-out date! Guess Captain isn't so hopeless after all, huh?]

[Location: Some random park]

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Five minutes...

Half an hour...

An hour...

TWO hours...

...Five hours.

That was how long he'd waited at that point. Captain continued to sit on the checkered blanket in the middle of the grass, still scanning the area for Player...He'd been sitting there ever since 11:00 that morning, and now it was late in the afternoon. All the while, he kept telling himself that his red-clad bestie would eventually show up.

But the same thing had happened last time. And the time before...And the time before that, too.

Maybe it just slipped his mind again, he said to himself. But considering that I talked to him about the whole ordeal, I doubt he could have COMPLETELY forgotten. Yeah! He'll show up!

He glanced at the picnic basket sitting beside him...It was almost ninety degrees outside, and being summer, it'd probably get a little hotter before the cool of the evening finally set in. By now, the fresh avocado BLTs he'd made were probably soggy and/or stale, and the iced tea was most likely lukewarm and watered down from the ice melting into it...At least the trail mix was probably still okay.

He'll show up.

He promised himself he would give it just one more hour.

He'll show up...

Come on. Player COULDN'T forget about this now that he'd discussed the matter with him, right?

He'll...he'll...

What if...he DID remember, but just didn't WANT to come...? No, no, that was ridiculous. Player wouldn't do that...He HAD to have just forgotten. He wouldn't leave him in the dust...

...Like he had at his birthday party.

Or at Christmas.

And to top it all off, he and Player had...never really had a full discussion about what happened with the zombies...Or the day he met his sister Dum and won the match with her.

...That didn't go over so well, he remembered.

He looked out over the park one more time, just to be sure...Still no Player.

Oh...oh, forget it...

...He wasn't going to show up.

Captain's expression fell, and he slowly rose to his feet and readied to pack up the blanket and head home.

"Captain~! There you are!"

Immediately, his head perked back up and his eyes widened. He turned his head this way and that to see who'd called him, and then finally, his eyes fell upon someone running towards him from the east.

But it wasn't Player. It was...

"Dum...?" he recognized. "What brings you here?"

"I came for the picnic, Captain! What else?"

"Really?" he asked, turning slightly pink. "Heh heh...Wow. Um...Not that I'm complaining or anything, because you showing up just as I'm about to head out REALLY made my day, but how exactly did you know about this? Player was the one I sent the invite to. Did he say something to you about it?"

"Uh-huh..." she replied, her gaze narrowing a bit at the thought of her brother. "He said that he really, really doesn't want me to see you anymore, and that I probably shouldn't go to the park in case you were there."

"He...he said that?"

"Yeah...So once I got the chance, I told everyone I was gonna go out to town this evening so I could slip past him and see if I got lucky! And would you believe it? I did!"

"Oh. Well, I...I'm glad you decided to come, Dum."

She saw his expression fall again, and she sat down beside him.

"What's wrong?"

"Well...You know as well as I do how much Player means to me," he explained. "But sometimes I get the feeling he doesn't feel the same way about me, you know? Like I like him a lot more than he likes me...I even got so mad about it at one point, I ended up starting a whole zombie apocalypse just to teach him a lesson. And even if he DID call me his bestie as I burned to a crisp in that lava pit, I...I think that he might have only said that to make me feel better...And then it turned out that he got eaten alive by the zombies anyways."

"Ouchie..."

"Yeah...I know he doesn't NOT like me. Sometimes, he tries to return the favor...But I feel like our dynamic is a bit one-sided sometimes, you know? He didn't even come to the picnic I scheduled for the two of us..."

"Huh..." Dum pondered. It DID seem that way. "Seems to me like he hasn't even given you a chance yet. I'm sure once he does, he'll start to warm up to you. I mean, how could he not? You're awesome, Captain!"

"You really think so?"

"I've always thought so! I just have to sort of talk him into something with you, that's all!"

"You'd do that for me?"

"Sure I would! And since I'm his sister, and all, I'll know exactly what to say!"

"Wow...Thanks, Dum," he said to her. "That means a lot to me."

"Well, YOU mean a lot to ME, Captain! Hee hee hee hee~!"

The white crewmate flushed pink again, a smile on his face...Dum had the most amazing laugh.

"You too, Dum...Welp, there are two of us, and I've got two sandwiches in my basket. Wanna dig in?"

"Are you kidding? I skipped lunch for this!"

"Ha ha! The vote masses!"

Captain eagerly pulled his twin culinary creations out of the basket and handed one to his pink companion.

"Sorry if the avocado is a little brown. I made these at around ten in the morning."

"Oh, that's fine! I'm not picky, like my brother is."

"Player's a picky eater?"

"Yeah. He can be. And he HATES avocado. When we were younger, and he tried guacamole for the first time, he said that it tasted like boogers!"

"Oh, wow...Well the next time I decide to make him a sandwich, I'll make sure not to put any sliced avocado on it."

"Hee hee..." Dum chortled as she took a bite of the slightly-stale sandwich. "Good thinking."

"So, is it still alright?"

A sparkle of amazement entered Dum's visor.

"Ohhhh, this is delicious...!" she gasped. "I knew you were a great Impostor, but I had no idea you were such a good chef!"

"It'd be even BETTER if it were fresh," Captain pointed out. "I'm just glad it's still edible after sitting in there for so long. I mean, they were both wrapped, and there's a cooler in the basket, but still. It's been a while."

"Oh, don't worry, Captain. One thing's for sure: it beats the bowl of corn flakes I had for breakfast! Hee hee hee~!"

"Ha! Guess it would," he agreed, clearing his throat after taking his next bite and tipping his cap. "...Would you care for a spot of iced tea to wash that down with, m'lady?"

"Oooh-hoo-hoo, how formal. Who do you think you are, TheGentleman?"

"I try," Captain shrugged, the pink flush dusting his face brightening a bit. "Although, I'm not sure the tea will have held up as well as the sandwiches did after all this time."

He lifted the pitcher out of the basket and poured each of them a cup; it still felt slightly cool to the touch, so he figured, to his relief, that it couldn't be THAT warm.

"What do you think, Dum?"

"Did you put honey and lemon in this?" she gushed, eyes wide and sparkly.

"You're darned right, I did...That's not a problem, is it?"

"Are you kidding me? It's AMAAAZIIING..."

"Heh heh, well..." he replied, taking a sip of his own. "It's not bad."

"Give yourself some credit, Captain!" Dum smiled. "You did an awesome job here! It's a shame that my brother's not here; he's REALLY missing out on everything."

"Yeah...Except for the avocado."

"That's true!"

Both of them burst out into a fit of giggles that lasted almost a full minute...When Captain finally settled down, he looked her in the eye.

"Ah...Dum," he addressed, tapping the ends of his fingers together sheepishly. "I'm not really the best at wording things in a romantic manner, s-so I'll just put it to you straight...Y-you make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, and whenever I'm around you, you manage to make me smile, even when I feel downright awful. Like how you showed up here just as I was about to pack up and trudge on home...I really needed to see your face today, Dum. And...I'm so glad I met you."

"Awww, Captain..."

She scooched closer to him, turning pinker than she already was, and gently tapped the side of her visor against his.

"I'm glad I met you, too."

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...
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"Some day it was today, huh, Dum?"

"It was great, Captain..."

After a long stroll, a session of bird watching and almost an hour of throwing a football back and forth, they were both pretty tuckered out. Evening had long set in at that point, and the cloudless sky just above the horizon was painted with soft hues of lavender, pink and gold.

"Would you just look at that sunset?" Captain marveled, the two of them sitting side-by-side on the picnic blanket. "It's the second most beautiful thing I've seen all day."

"Is it?" Dum asked. "What's the first?"

"This right here."

He pointed his index finger...And gently landed it against her right cheek. Her eyes lit up, and she pulled Captain into a side hug, nuzzling into him.

"...I hope I can get Player to see just how great we are together," she mused quietly. "You two would really make good brothers."

"I have every intention to make him my best man if it ever comes to that."

"That's a good way to start it!"

"Yeah...If it's meant to be, it's a long way off, but I can still see it even from this far away. I say we stop along the road to that destination and do this a few dozen more times. Along with several score more rounds of Among Us and a few romantic dinner and movie dates here or there."

"You like to plan ahead, don't you?" Dum giggled.

"Well, you can never be too prepared, right? I just want to make sure everything goes as intended..."

Once again, Dum leaned in and tapped their visors together.

"There's no rush...Let's just have fun, okay?"

"Well...okay," Captain nodded. "...Thanks for deciding to come look for me today. I'd probably be at home silently weeping my loneliness away into a pillow right now if you hadn't."

"Any time, Captain. Any time..."

The two of them smiled at one another again before looking back up at the beautiful sunset, and they were still there long after the sun had completely disappeared beneath the horizon, and the colors of the dusk had deepened into an inky blue, softly illuminated by countless shimmering stars and a full moon far above the earth.

...For the first time today, and for the first time in a long time, really, everything in Captain's world felt absolutely perfect.

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From what I've seen, people don't like Dum. Why so many people hatin' on Dum? She and Captain are freakin' adorable, and the fact that it's Player's SISTER gives the dynamic between all three of them potential to be the funniest thing ever. XD