Toyger: After Hours (closed to joining)

TJ Kaminski

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It had been way too long since TJ had been to an arcade.

...

By that he meant it had been a little over a week, but that was still way too long, okay? Besides he had never been to this arcade before so this was all pretty exciting if he did say so himself.

Eyes going wide, TJ took in the sights of the old arcade. Places like this were going out style by now and that was probably one of the biggest shames of his lifetime, TJ enjoyed all the new kinds of gaming too, like video games and computer games, however his personal favorite would always be the retro arcade games.

Letting out a small, excited gasp, TJ grabbed Val by the hand and led her in. “This place has everything!” He explained excitedly. “They have Pac-Man-“ TJ pointed over to the Pac-Man game, dragging Val along. “Oh, and look! They have Donkey Kong!” TJ dragged Val off to see that one next. ”Look-look-look, they’ve got Space Attack! I loved that game as a kid!” As well as an adult but he didn’t need to get into that.

TJ continued to drag Val along to point out some of his other favorite arcade games for awhile before stopping as he caught sight of something through the corner of his eyes.

Backing up, TJ’s eyes landed on a game in the back and he let out a gasp. “Dance Dance Revolution! Val, they’ve got Dance Dance Revolution!” He said, turning to look over at Val with wide, excited eyed as he grabbed her hands again. “Come on, we’ve got to play it,” he told her eagerly.

For as much as Grace teased Callie about her profession as a detective and what all went on in the other woman’s workspace, Grace believed in Callie and trusted that she did her job well. If she didn’t then Brooklyn would be a lot worse of a place than it was, and there was also the fact that if Callie wasn’t doing her job Noah would have brought it up at some point. Her brother wasn’t a detective, clearly, but he worked in close enough proximity to Callie that Grace was sure she would have heard of any terrible mishaps if something were wrong.

News like this, though, wasn’t something her brother would be able to pass on to her. He could have found out about the new detective, that wouldn’t be hard, but that would have been where Noah’s knowledge ended. He wouldn’t know about the finer details on this new guy, such as how cute he was and who else had their eyes on him.

Grace was about to make her own comment, but stopped when she heard Callie add in the comment about how Grace herself was cuter than this new detective. Usually comments like that wouldn’t get under her skin and cause her to grow warm. Grace never her problems with her self esteem when it came to physical appearance, she was rather confident in her looks, and getting comments from people telling her she looked good wasn’t out of the ordinary. She was used to those compliments, but hearing it from Callie stopped her momentarily and she had to glance down at her drink to hopefully hide the way her face had flushed. ”I’m sure he’s no match for you in the looks department, either.” Of course, Grace had no idea what this guy looked like, but as of lately she was finding it hard to think of somebody as more attractive than Callie.

Between all the conversation, Grace hadn’t realized she had no plans for the night beyond hanging out with Callie. Sitting here and drinking the night away with her friend wasn’t a bad idea, but there were so many other things they could also do. If Grace wanted to sit around and idly chitchat while they drank then she would have suggested they just go back to her place, but she wanted a night out on the town, a night that had a little bit more excitement to it than just this. ”I don’t have any particular ideas,” she replied with a shrug. ”Did you have anything in mind?” If Callie didn’t then Grace was sure she could think of something. Brooklyn was full of exciting nightlife. Their options were limitless here, especially since Grace knew her way around the city.

Time kept himself quiet. It wasn't hard to do, it wasn't like he was a naturally chatty person or anything, but he knew if he dared say anything out of line then he was bound to mess something up. This was clearly not a situation in which something needed to be messed up. He was already in the pickle of fake dating Norman now, and that was going to be hard enough for him to play along with and make it seem like the natural truth. Time had never actually dated anybody before, he had absolutely no experience in this realm of reality. Sure, he had had a few odd crushes here and there, but as far as an actual relationship went, he had nothing. 

Yeah, this was going to be fun.

He had never been so relieved to hear the whole 'your name is really Time' question in his life. It had never bothered him, had just been something he had grown used to over the years, but this was the first time he literally felt himself loosen up tension that had been building up in his muscles at the question. "Yeah, I get that a lot," he replied easily. At least this was something he could handle. "Weird names just run in the family, it's kinda our thing I guess."

Again, he was used to being asked questions like this. This wasn't the first time he had to spell his name to avoid confusion. He could handle a conversation that took this particular route.

"Like the clock," he answered simply. He was prepared to answer anything more, but it seemed like the conversation had veered back to one just between Norman and Lukas. Time could handle that. He used this as a chance to lean down and pick up the few things he had dropped from being startled earlier, making sure they were extra secure on the off chance that a second surprise startle him. 

Once he had everything he had dropped he followed the two on out of the bathroom, listening to what they had to say just in case he was brought back into the conversation. Listening in did make him briefly wonder just how many boyfriends Norman had had, though Time knew that was none of his business and he had no reason to straight up ask the other man about. He wasn't even sure why he was suddenly so curious to know more about Norman's dating life - he could probably chalk the curiosity up to something as simple as wanting to know what Norman's other boyfriends were like so that he could get an idea on how he should act when playing this game of pretend; he wasn't going to act just like Norman's exes, they were exes for a reason, but he needed some sort of reference to think on if he was going to pull this off.

TJ Kaminski

---

Pausing when Val let go of his hand, TJ looked back over towards her. “You don’t dance?” He repeated. He could see that, sort of. Val was kind of like Norman, two tough to dance. However if there was anything that TJ was really good at, it was annoying even the toughest of people until they cracked and danced with him. If that was some kind of Olympic sport, TJ would be the ten year champion.

“Oh come on, are you sure you don’t want to go up against this?-“

Instantly TJ started dancing in front of her, pulling out some of the oldest moves in the weird TJ dance book.

Such as the “wiggle your arms and act like you’re pulling something back”

Or the “moonwalk with a groove”

Or the “he wasn’t sure what to call this but his body was moving”

Smirking as he danced in front of Val, he looked over at her. “Come on, you know you wanna join in,” he told her, wiggling his body around like some kind of tased otter. “Unless you’re scared you’ll lose,” TJ added mischievously. “After all, who can really beat all this?” He asked, gesturing to himself as he danced around in front of her.

It was a good thing arcades were pretty dead by now or else even more people would have to witness this travesty.

While he had to admit that Norman’s rejection to stay for longer was a little loud, Time was relieved that they were about to leave. Lukas seemed like a really good person, but under these current circumstances Time wasn’t sure he wanted to stick around and see where the conversation led. He knew if they had to keep this up he was going to eventually run himself right into a trap and be caught in the lie that he was trying to preserve for Norman’s sake.

As Norman gestured for the door, Time offered Lukas a quick wave with his free hand - not that the other man could see it or anything though. ”Yeah, I’m ready when you are,” he responded with a nod. ”And, uh, it was nice meeting you,” he called over to Lukas, not wanting to come off as standoffish or rude, especially when he did think Lukas was a nice person, it was just that they had met under some wrong circumstances and Time would rather get out of the situation now than stay and get himself into trouble.

Yeah, that had been something alright. 

The experience wasn't all that bad, and Time was sure if he got to know Lukas then he wouldn't feel as awkward. There was also the whole dating thing Norman had come up with on the spot that made things awkward as well, but beyond that Time was sure he could have a better interaction when things weren't so foreign and nerve-wracking. It was a bit hard for Time to not be nervous, but he could handle some situations better than others.

Speaking of situations that needed to be handled...

As Norman spoke up he turned his bi-colored gaze toward the other man, taking a moment to process his words before finally responding. "Hey, it's fine, sometimes you just...you just gotta pull something like that." There was a part of Time that was curious to know how things would have went down had the whole 'we're dating' card had not been pulled, but that was something to think about at a later time. 

Fake breaking up made sense, but Time did have one pretty big con for that idea. "I suppose we could, but if we did that, wouldn't it be weird for me to still live with you? I mean, I'd probably need my own place before we did that, and I'm not sure how long it would take for me to do that..." Getting a place to buy or even rent took a lot of time and saving up, and as it was now Time had no money to his name and only a few basic necessities that he was essentially only borrowing until he could afford his own. He didn't plan on bumming off Norman for much longer, but getting his own place wasn't going to be a quick and easy thing that could be done in just a few days, weeks, or even months.

This certainly wasn’t something Time had expected. He hadn’t expected to be taken in by some random guy he had met at a gay bar, but he supposed that was just one of the many things that could happen when sneaking into a gay bar and trying to not be noticed or kicked out. Of course, he also didn’t expect to be putting up the ruse that he and Norman were now fake dating, but he supposed it was something he could at least try to do. Lying about this wouldn’t be the worst thing he could do, or the worst thing he had ever done for that matter.

Though that did bring up even more questions.

”So, uh, should we...should we come up with a backstory...or?” People were bound to ask questions, and to make this lie believable they both had to be on the same wavelength here. They couldn’t have two completely different stories on how they met and everything that led up to this one particular moment. Maybe Time was pushing this whole ordeal a bit too much, but he didn’t want to mess it up, and his anxieties weren’t going to let him sit around and at least not ask Norman about these things.

Time was probably just being way too anxious about all this. They probably didn’t need some kind of made up story on how they had met and everything, but Time’s anxieties were getting the better of him and he couldn’t just go around with no solid story, especially if somebody asked. He supposed he could give them the real story on how they had met, but something about telling people they had met at a gay bar after some other guy had been antagonizing him just didn’t sit right with him.

It seemed like Norman was on the same track, or on a slightly different track but the paths had merged into something to where they were both on the same track of not wanting to say they had first initially met at the gay bar. Saying they had known each other before that moment worked a lot better for Time than the actual truth, and it wasn’t like he really had to lie for this to work out.

He nodded his agreement. ”Yeah, that makes sense. I like that.” A smile managed to pull at Time’s lips for a brief moment as he glanced over at Norman. ”It’s not too far out there, and not really stretching the truth too much,” he added, feeling rather content with the idea Norman had come up with for this.

Right. Right, all of this made sense. Time didn’t know anything about fake dating, or dating in general, but what Norman was saying made sense to him. It seemed like to make this work there were only a few people that could even know they were “dating”, which Time supposed to less people to think that the less that would come out of a fake breakup and all that. The last thing he needed was to cause some sort of huge family drama for Norman or something. He probably had enough to deal with as it was. If anything, at least Time’s family wouldn’t get dragged into any of this, so all he had to worry about was keeping this a secret from most of Norman’s. He could do that.

With everything that had happened, Time had forgotten about picking him up some clothes. ”Right.” He looked around as if making sure the coast was clear before allowing himself to dive back down into his thoughts. He didn’t really know his way around the city from where they were right now, but hopefully getting to the mall wouldn’t be too much of a hassle.

It was safe to say that Time was initially confused by Norman grabbing him by the arm and taking him toward a store that very clearly was not for clothes. He could read the front of it, telling him and everybody else around that it was a chocolate store of some kind. Maybe Norman was just hungry and wanted something to snack on? That was the only thing Time could think of, plus chocolate was okay. It wasn’t the greatest thing in the world, but Time wouldn’t decline any if he was ever given some, unless he literally couldn’t eat it, but that was another story entirely.

It didn’t take Norman long to explain his reasoning behind pulling Time into the store. As he suspected, it was for a little snack before doing the actual shopping. That was fine with him, and just as he was about to bring up the fact that he probably wouldn’t get anything due to his restrictions, Norman was quick to add that the store did offer a wide selection of gluten free chocolate. Maybe he would try some afterall then; it also made him feel a rush of warm gratitude squirm around in his chest. It was nice of Norman to be so vigilant about Time’s food restriction. Most people probably wouldn’t be so thoughtful about that, or they’d just wave it off as him being on some weird fad diet and trick him into eating gluten somehow. 

Not wanting to get onto that train of thought, Time put his focus on the chocolate store itself, following Norman even if he had ahold of his arm for the time being. ”So, what would you recommend?” He asked, honestly not sure what he would end up wanting. Time knew he was pretty picky and more than likely he wouldn’t like what Norman’s favorite was, but there was a small chance he would and he was at least going to give it a try. If anything Norman could at least help him figure out what chocolate Time might like best.

The only option out of those three that Norman had mentioned that sounded somewhat good to Time was the peanut butter chocolate. He already knew he did like that okay enough, so going with that one would probably be the best bet for him, but he was still willing to try anything that was handed to him. Time was a lot of things, but he wasn’t about to decline somebody’s gesture of kindness all because he was a picky eater. Chocolate and fruit didn’t sound too bad, but he wasn’t sure if he wanted to mix something sweet with something like fruit, and the same went with mint. He’d rather just have fruit and mint by themselves if he had the choice, but now wasn’t the time to complain and be picky. He knew he just needed to be grateful for whatever he ended up with.

Keeping that in mind, Time followed over to the counter, offering a small smile to the lady behind it, hoping he didn’t come off as too awkward. He usually did though, he wasn’t very good at handling anything social. ”Thank you,” he quickly thanked the woman after she had handed over some chocolate for both Norman and Time. He then echoed his thanks back to Norman when the smaller man handed him one of the chocolates. Time looked it over for a moment, briefly wondering if he should ask the old woman if this was safe for him to eat before letting the question die on his tongue - Norman had said earlier that this place was mostly gluten free, and Time trusted Norman to know if something like this was safe or not for him to eat.

So without another word he tried a bite, taking a small, experimentative one to test it out and see if he even liked it. The chocolate itself looked good, and he had high hopes for it, but it wasn’t long until his taste buds decided to be picky and hate the little treat.

Time hoped beyond everything that his face didn’t show the disgust that his tongue was experiencing. The chocolate itself was really good, Time enjoyed the flavor of that, but it was the peanut butter that was getting to him. It had to be the particular kind that was used for this, it wasn’t like he hated peanut butter or anything like that.

Even still he forced himself to take another bite, hoping that maybe the first had just been a fluke.

Nope. Still couldn’t stand the peanut butter. He was still going to eat it all though under the obligation of wanting to be nice and not waste a free treat.

”The chocolate’s good,” he commented to both Norman and the worker. It wasn’t a lie. The chocolate itself tasted great, so as long as he didn’t say anything about the peanut butter he could just pass this off as being truthful. Though he doubted either of them would ask him how he liked the peanut butter inside the chocolate specifically, so Time was sure he was safe here for the most part.