dr. coomer and bubby scolded gordon on him breaking the soda machines while the group headed to the locker rooms. you were too busy talking with benry and didn't pay too much attention to the conversation until you heard your name being mentioned. "so?! y/n also broke some machines!" head perking up a plan formulated in your head. letting out a loud gasp, it caught everyone's attention as you proceeded to accuse gordon in the most dramatic way possible.

"you dare to slander my name?! after all i've done for you!" at the end of your sentence you flopped back into benry's waiting arms. this caused the science team to all gang up on gordon, while he tried to defend himself. you weren't mad at him of course, but it was still funny to tease him. eventually the group dropped it and moved on to exploring the locker room. feeling a little bad, when gordon was looking around at someone's locker you approached him.

"hey dude.." he looked up and gave a half-hearted smile. "hey." internally you were panicking because you planned virtually none of this conversation out beforehand and you were paying for it dearly.  "uh.. sorry about... accusing..? you back there. i-i didn't mean any of it." internally you let a sigh of relief that you choked the sentence out, and it seemed gordon understood the apology. he smiled genuinely and replied with a barely registered 'no problem' before you swiftly walked over to tommy.

"tommy. tommy!" you whisper-yelled your best friends name until he turned around with a smile. "hm?" you explained what happened a few seconds ago and how you felt so embarrassed, eventually you hid your face in your hands in shame. tommy just sympathetically patted you on the shoulder until benry announced. "HEY. who killed him. who KILLED this." and gestured to the dead body in the middle of the room. how you never noticed that will forever be a mystery. gordon counterargued. "you weren't very concerned about the last one you saw." you chuckled under your breath when benry feigned ignorance and asked if he killed anyone.

gordon stuttered in disbelief and explained how he killed the people in the elevator. benry only responded with 'niiice' and it gave you and gordon a good chuckle. you noticed bubby rummaging through gordon's locker, a quick glance over to the hev suit clad scientist confirmed he was distracted enough that he wouldn't notice anything. "hey." bubby looked up and hid the grenade he had in his pocket. "what." ignoring the uninviting tone of his voice you continued to talk to him. "so,, you're gonna blow up the bathrooms?" at this suggestion he grinned. "yup!" the confirmation sounded a bit prideful.

you glanced into one of the lockers and picked up the bit of grenades in there. by the time you and bubby were going to launch them gordon noticed you and bubby. "what was that noise?" in a panic bubby covered for the both of you. "dr. freeman, we found your passport!" this seemed to excite him and his face lit up. maybe he wanted to get you and benry [and the science team] off his back. it was kinda cute.

"is it in there? oh my god, it's in there! oh my god, right up here." everyone crowded around his locker to see him grab it and point to a picture of a baby. "that's my baby. i have a son. that's joshua." compliments from the science team filled the air. "aw, you've got a cute kid dude. would love to meet him someday." you said with a smile.

then the game glitched.

a loud screeching static filled your ears and your eyes were assaulted with game graphics, lights, and the outside of different maps. 

as fast as it started it stopped and you were left disoriented on the floor of the lockers.

voices came from the bathrooms, but you could really only focus on benry sitting on a bench near you.

"hey."

you stood up, dusted fake debris from you pants and plopped your digital ass next to your friend.

"hi." you waved.

benry wasn't good with words. you had sweetvoice for a reason, but even then it could get confusing. he truly shined with his actions and memory. you just sat with him and spaced out a little, enjoying his company and the artificial warmth that was provided by your arms almost touching. 

why did the game glitch? it doesn't happen often, maybe gordon's computer had a bug? was it the talk of his son? it did seem the most logical considering the last time the game glitched was when you fucked up and mentioned something about spawning npc's near the ear of a stray guard. but that baby picture was already- 

the crease between your brows was flattened out by a cold thumb. a stark contrast to the warmth radiating from benry's arm but you knew it was just because he had poor circulation. you look over benry and he just stared at you with his big, neon blue eyes. you noticed he also was developing a crease between his brows.

gently pushing away greasy black hair, you flattened out the crease between his thick brows the same way he did it. benry squeezed his eyes shut with a smile and took your hand. benry really had a contagious smile, because the small quirk of the corner of your lips evolved into a nose-scrunching grin. 

you hugged him, and you felt much better about the brief hell you went through. "let's go see what everyone else is doing." you whispered into his ear, your soft voice feeling oddly intimate for the moment. benry hummed and got up with you after you stood up. 

peeking your head around the wall of the bathrooms you watched gordon yell at someone in the stalls about a bomb? a glance around the room showed chunks of flesh and blood dripped from the walls and a quick sniff test yielded a strong smoke scent. just for funsies you grabbed a big chunk of... someone's torso and fled with the rest of the team.

GUESS WHOSE BACK . BACK AGAIN . SHADYS BACK . TELL A FRIEND . anyway who's up for some digital cannibalism next chapter