"Left... Take the left, stars, Captain!" Buzzed the voice in his ear. Pressing the microphone to his mouth, he angrily hissed a reply.
"Darnel, you're not down here. I hear rustling from the right so I'm going to the right."
"If you get booted and don't get the flag, that's way too much cleaning for me," she hissed back, followed by the tapping of a keyboard. Thorne smiled.
"Only worrying about the cleaning, Darnel?" He said teasingly. "You still owe me a date. Can't go on a date with a man who's been kicked out." He could almost feel Cress blushing, and heard her clear her throat slightly.
"Get the flag. If you take the right, avoid the— STOP!" She screamed. Thorne bit his lip, her shrill cry echoing in his ears. "Don't go right. Bomb."
Scanning the darkened corridor with his torch, he located the black bump on the wall and sighed, silently thanking whatever divine being there was for Cress. For multiple reasons, not only because she just saved him from disqualification. Again.
Flashing his torch around the left corridor this time, he found no bombs or people and decided, that just maybe, he should listen to Cress's orders more often.
"But hey, about the date, where do you want to go?" He queried.
"Captain?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you want the honest answer?"
"Yeah."
More tapping on the keyboard before a distressed: "Anywhere if you get out alive and with that flag, stars."
"Why, are my chances not looking good?" He joked. "I don't know, if anybody knows how to find true beauty, they wouldn't kill me!"
Cress sighed, deciding to ignore that comment.
"Anyways, the punishment isn't too severe, right?" He sounded nervous. "They wouldn't kill me, right?"
"Of course not," Cress muttered. "I was kidding."
"Not funny, then."
"Anyways, why did you want to go down that right?" Asked Cress, followed by a mechanic beep.
"Told you, I heard rustling. Thought it might've been a person to kill." Thorne replied.
"You mean shoot with a paintball gun," corrected Cress. "Any for your information, I've got all the opponents covered."
"Huh, really?" Thorne said, turning the handle of a door, gun at the ready.
"Yeah, hacking into the security cameras wasn't too hard. There's no one in that room, by the way. Just a packet of... um... something red by the exit door."
Dropping his gun to his side, he made for the door, hands searching the floor. After a couple of seconds of searching, they came to rest on a plastic bag. Whipping out his flashlight, he punched the air with achievement.
"Skittles!"
"Seriously? Wait. Quieten down. There's someone heading your way. They don't make any signs of wanting to come into that room..."
Thorne crouched, gun at the ready, and listened with anticipation as the footsteps clattered down the dark hall.
"Can I get him?" He asked, standing up and cocking his gun.
"Sure," said Cress. "Take the left and you should have a clear shot of his back. Turn back into your room once you do so he doesn't shout out your name. Run quietly, out of the room, in the opposite direction to him. Got it?"
"Gotcha," he replied, swinging round the doorframe to aim his gun. Glad that the corridor was straight and not winding, he clutched the trigger and ducked back around just in time to see a splatter of paint on the persons back. He hadn't identified who.
"Nice shot," congratulated Cress. Without looking behind him, he began a swift trot in the opposite direction, just as Cress had said.
"Another person up ahead," she warned. "I think they might've heard you. The persons looking around. Don't know who. There's a corridor to your right, take it."
Thorne spun, flattening himself the wall of the corridor, listening to the sound of approaching footsteps. They didn't stop to check the corridor, and once again Thorne spun round to get a clear shot of their back.
"Nicely done, again," complimented Cress. "Couldn't you have shot from further? That looked painful."
Thorne peeked around the corridor before scampering off.
"No," he replied bluntly. "He looks like one of the guys that Levana's got twisted around her pinky finger."
Cress grunted, evidently working on something.
"Looks like you got the first two outs," she commented. "Sybil's booted for being first down and-"
"That was Mira?" Thorne said incredulously. "I swear to the stars it was a man!"
"Nope, she was definitely the first one out and the second one... you were right. Levana's crony."
A shot rang out the corridor and followed it came a frustrated groan.
"Who was that?" Asked Thorne.
"It hasn't come up yet," replied Cress. "It usually takes a couple of seconds to a minute to show up on here. Nope, here it is. Scarlet. Aw, poor Scarlet. Wolf's gonna kill whoever got her out."
"That won't be pretty. Poor them, really. I'm gonna move away from the sound, though."
"Probably a good idea."
"Probably a good idea? Honey, all my ideas are good!" Thorne whisper-shouted, making sure Cress could hear his fingers clicking.
"Huh, yeah... Hang on a moment, what was that?"
"What was what?"
Thorne heard a couple of inpatient taps on a keyboard.
"Backtrack around three steps and to the right. Something... yellow?"
Following orders, Carswell bent down to pick the thing up and felt rough fabric between his fingers.
"Aces, I think it's the flag!" He whispered, in shock. Recovering quickly, he added: "Of course it's the flag. Why wouldn't it be the flag?"
"Well done agent Thorne, you've got the flag." Came a familiar voice over his intercom.
"Sergeant Rikan? You could hear this all the time?" Came Cress's slightly astounded voice.
"All the time," he said dryly.
"Hey Sarg–" Thorne quickly but it. "What do I do now I've won? Because I have. Won, that is."
"Do not call me 'sarg'," Rikan said through gritted teeth. "One more time and you're dish duty for a month." Thorne gulped.
"I'll ring the bell, signifying the end of the game, and you two can come and collect your prize from my office. Nice work hacking the security cameras, by the way, agent Darnel."
Cress blushed, fingers absentmindedly tapping on the table.
"Oh, it was no problem–"
"Really?" Sergeant said. Cress instantly regretted her choice of words and grimaced at herself.
"Um... yeah, honestly."
All she got in reply was a dissatisfied 'hmm' before his voice came back over on the capture the flag loudspeaker.

"Agent Thorne and Agent Darnel have won this round. Please proceed to the common room. Also note that Agent Mira will be leaving us tomorrow morning for being first shot by Agent Thorne. Goodnight."

Thorne smiled in satisfaction upon hearing Levana's annoying growl echoing from one of the corridors.

Sorry if that was slightly boring and not fluffy at all u-u
Don't forget to vote if you enjoyed!
~Bobbie