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"Does someone want to tell me how we all got here?" Wakamatsu asked, looking around the table at the former Kaijo and Touou third years.
"We just wanted to have a game night with our friends, is that so much to ask?" Imayoshi sighed, leaning his arm on the table. "Besides, you're the odd one out here, Wakamatsu."
It was true, he was only there because Susa had invited him as his boyfriend. Moriyama and Kobori were there, along with Kaijo's former captain, Kasamatsu. Wakamatsu had a feeling that this game night was some kind of excuse for a group date, although… he wasn't really complaining.
It would've been better if there were a few other people he was familiar around, but at least Imayoshi knew how much of a stickler he could be for some things.
"So, what are we going to start with tonight?" Kasamatsu asked, gesturing to the games they had piled on the table. "We have plenty of options and we could make this a monthly thing if we have fun."
"Like we haven't already," Moriyama rolled his eyes. "This is just the first month that Susa and Wakamatsu have been official."
Wakamatsu blushed at that, though he wouldn't ever admit it.
"Well, if no one has any oppositions, why don't we start with this?" Imayoshi grabbed a game with trains on the box.
"God, of course you would want to play that first," Kasamatsu rolled his eyes.
"I surely have no idea what you mean," Imayoshi blinked innocently at his boyfriend.
"I haven't played that in a long time, let's do it!" Kobori agreed, not knowing what he was getting into.
Kasamatsu sighed. "Fine, let's just get this over with."
"I've never played this before, what is it?" Susa asked, turning the bag of tiny trains around in his hands.
"Oh, it's really fun and pretty easy to pick up," Imayoshi shrugged, grabbing his own bag of trains, the black ones. Of course he grabbed the black ones, they were his favorite. "Also, since there's six of us and only enough for five players, why don't you and Susa team up, since you haven't played before? He knows the rules."
"Sure, if you're okay with it," Wakamatsu shrugged, looking at Susa.
"Yeah, I don't mind, and we can hopefully have enough luck to take him down," Susa stared at Imayoshi.
Wakamatsu didn't like that statement, and he had no idea how much he was going to understand that later in the game.
"NO, YOU'RE CHEATING!" Wakamatsu yelled at Imayoshi, who had at least thirty color cards in his hand and only three train cars on the board.
"There's nothing in the rules about keeping color cards," Imayoshi shrugged, a smirk on his face.
"C'mon, Sho, you couldn't have gone easy on him because it's his first time playing?" Kasamatsu sighed.
Imayoshi laughed. "Of course not! I'm not about to lose my winning streak to a new player, are you kidding me?!"
Kasamatsu nodded resolutely. "Of course."
Kobori and Moriyama weren't faring much better, as the two of them had a few measly trains on the board and were running out of color cards. The river had two locomotives in it already and no one was taking them, so if they got a third they'd have to replace all of them.
"Should we just take one of the locomotives?" Wakamatsu whispered to Susa on their turn. "We do need one of them."
Susa sighed. "Yeah, we might as well."
He grabbed one of the locomotives and when he flipped over the card on the top of the deck to replace it, another locomotive took its place.
"Fuck, we should've just grabbed a card from off the top!" Wakamatsu growled.
"It's fine, we at least have enough to complete one of our routes," Susa pointed out, flicking his eyes to the board where they were going to put trains down on a purple track. "And we'll finally be able to complete this trip."
"Yeah, that's true," Wakamatsu sighed. It was their longest trip and they couldn't afford not to finish it, as if they didn't it was 21 points against them at the end of the game.
The next person to go was Imayoshi, and surprisingly instead of picking up even more color cards, he laid down six purple cards. He smirked over at Wakamatsu and Susa, putting his black trains exactly where they needed to go.
"Oh, fuck you!!!" Wakamatsu seethed. "You did that on purpose!!!"
"Of course I did, I needed to go there," Imayoshi shrugged.
"But you don't have any connecting trains! You knew we needed to get there and just wanted to piss me off!"
"There are other open routes, Wakamatsu," Imayoshi told him, pointing to them. "Just go that way."
Kasamatsu sighed, grabbing some of his own trains and starting to put them on routes he needed to complete his own trips.
Kobori and Moriyama did so as well, none of them drawing cards and just playing trains. Wakamatsu had a sense of unease at this. Since now, throughout their play-through, it had been a mix of people drawing cards and playing trains, but now it seemed like everyone had a sense of desperation.
"What's going on?" he asked Susa, his eyebrows furrowed.
"Once Imayoshi starts laying trains down, especially as aggressively as he just did, that usually means he's about to blow through all of his cards and get all of his trips. We have to do our best to complete our trips and get as many trains down as we can," Susa explained.
"Okay, let's do this, then," Wakamatsu clenched his fist.
The two of them (nor any of the other players) were no match for Imayoshi's army of color cards, and he just kept laying down train after train. Soon enough he only had two trains left, ending the game, and his whole train on the board stretched from one side of the board to the other. Wakamatsu wasn't sure how Imayoshi had done it, as the rest of their trains were pretty spread out over the board.
He looked at Imayoshi, narrowing his eyes. "How the hell did you do that?"
Imayoshi shrugged, putting his elbows on the table and his chin in his hands. "Just a lot of strategy and experience playing the game. Don't worry, Wakamatsu, maybe one day you'll get the the hang of it."
They all tallied up their points with their trip cards, and somehow Imayoshi had managed to get trips that were worth a crazy amount of points, up to 21 per trip, and he had drawn some other trip cards in the middle, adding to his total. He didn't have any points against him, although Kobori and the Susa-Wakamatsu team did.
"Do we even need to count the trains at this point?" Kasamatsu sighed, looking at the board. "Sho definitely got the longest train."
The black trains stretched like a snake over the entire board and up the coasts, a huge "U" shape. It was clear that it connected seamlessly, and Kobori and Moriyama nodded.
"How do you win longest train every time, Imayoshi?" Moriyama asked him.
Imayoshi shrugged. "Just luck with trips and a lot of planning, I guess."
"I didn't know that you'd get extra points for that!" Wakamatsu griped.
"Aw, don't be a sore loser, Wakamatsu," Imayoshi looked over at him. "We can have a rematch sometime."
"We're never playing this game again," he shook his head, looking at Susa.
"Sure, we'll just play without you then," Imayoshi laughed.
"He always wins at this game, don't let it get to you," Moriyama told Wakamatsu. "He just likes to play it because he wins."
Wakamatsu glared at Imayoshi. "I want a rematch," he growled.
The other men at the table let out a collective gasp. They hadn't seen someone challenge Imayoshi at his own game before. But the idea of a rematch was intriguing. Perhaps Wakamatsu would have beginner's luck and put Imayoshi in his place?
Imayoshi's glasses glinted as he pushed them up. "Sure, I'll take you on any time, Wakamatsu."
Kasamatsu sighed. "You know that's not a good idea, Sho, what if you just crush his spirit?"
"Then oh well, he had it coming," Imayoshi shrugged. "But let's do it next time, there are other games to play tonight. What's next?"
Wakamatsu narrowed his eyes. "Didn't realize you were a coward, Imayoshi."
"Please, god, no," Kasamatsu whispered as Imayoshi smirked.
"Oh, you mean right now? Fine, let's have a rematch, Wakamatsu. I'll even give you a handicap and let you go first!"
The other men looked at each other, sighing. "Well, you two have fun, we're going to go play some other games and actually have a good time instead of this weird dick comparing contest you two are having," Kasamatsu said, gesturing to his friends.
They moved to the other room, Kasamatsu grabbing some of the other games they had. "Sorry Sho's like this, Susa," he apologized, shaking his head.
"No, Kousuke's like this too," Susa sighed. "They're just too competitive for their own good."
The other four men enjoyed a few card games together while enraged shouting and cursing came from the other room, followed by clattering of plastic trains. Well, that could've gone better, but what were they expecting from a hothead and a troll?