Their conversation was interrupted when Ezekiel got brained with one of the balls from the field. Exclamations of 'oh shit! sorry!' and 'holy fuck!' rang out. Ezekiel quickly got up, snatching the ball and running out into the field with revenge on his mind. Aiko, reluctantly, got up as well and walked after him.

"To make sure he won't actually die," she claimed. Viktor, Pedro, and Nikolas exchanged looks.

"C'mon, kid, you need exercise," Pedro claimed, getting up and ruffling Viktor's hair (again). "What have they been feeding you?" he joked, poking at his stomach.

Viktor smacked his hand away. Out of the five out of them, Viktor was still the scrawniest. Most of his energy reserves from the arena had been used for injuries, which he had gotten more frequently than the other four. Even when they had been rescued, he hadn't put on much weight until Vok'Rul (and consequently, Thruul's good cooking) came along.

"I wish there were a lake or pool," Nikolas said as they wandered closer to the football game. "I enjoy swimming."

While the weather was mild, it definitely wasn't warm enough to strip bare and go swimming. Viktor gave him an odd look, "It's way too cold for that, dude."

Nikolas shrugged, picking up a small, spherical ball and tossing it up in the air, catching it on its return. "I like swimming," he repeated as if that explained everything. "Go long, Viktor."

Viktor rolled his eyes but obeyed. Nikolas threw the ball as hard as he could, and Viktor had to break into a sprint to get under it quickly enough. He didn't quite catch it; the ball brushed his fingertips before landing on the ground and rolling. "I wasn't ready, man!" he shouted to Nikolas, picking up the ball and tossing it back.

"Always be prepared!" the distant shout came back.

They tossed the ball back and forth, sometimes tossing it to Pedro, who ended up standing somewhere in the middle to form a lopsided triangle before someone came up and asked if they were interested in playing hide-and-seek.

"Seriously?" Viktor asked with a grin. "There's like, nowhere to hide."

The woman shrugged, an equally wide grin on her face. "Grass is tall, though."

The game of hide-and-seek was the largest game Viktor had ever participated in. About half of the humans, those who weren't otherwise occupied in a game of football, wanted to play. It was kinda funny, considering all, from what Viktor could see at least, of the humans were adults. It was also, surprisingly, really well organized.

"Okay!" The woman who approached him shouted from Dave's rock. "Hide-and-seek! I'm assuming everyone knows how to play! Since this is a big group, we'll have two seekers. They're Alex and Jane," she pointed to the two women, who jumped in place and waved to catch everyone's attention. "House rules are: No leaving the fence! No climbing trees -"

"Fuck," Viktor mumbled, causing Pedro to let out a giggle.

"- and no being a sore loser! We're playing a kids' game, for God's sake! Alex and Jane will count down from one hundred! And don't try hiding near the football players; that's an accident waiting to happen!" The woman shouted over the boos and jeers from those who must have had the same thought. "Last one to be found gets this cool fruit I found in the buffet!" She held up a purple starfruit.

"Holy fuck!" Viktor shouted, voice nearly lost with others who recognized the fruit. "Those are so fucking good!"

"Better get prepared to lose then, kid. You're goin' down!" Ezekiel challenged. Viktor bared his teeth in an animalistic grin.

"No way, old man, I fucking love those fruits-"

"OLD?! You little punk-"

"You're gonna eat dirt, you fu-"

Aiko twisted their ears to get their attention. "Countdown's starting, you idiots. Go hide before I bury you in the ground myself."

Ezekiel saluted before taking off. Viktor offered her a sheepish smile, which she returned with a pat on his shoulder before he also took off.

Curse the house rules... No climbing trees? What kind of shit rule was that? He ran along the fence, trying to see if there were any good places to hide. There were odd bushes here and there, scattered along the tall grass, which only came to his knees and was mostly trodden down.

"EIGHTY!" Alex and Jane shouted.

"Fuck," Viktor growled, taking this way more seriously than he probably should.

"Hello, Kohgrash!" Vok'Rul shouted. Viktor started, not realizing he had made his way this far along the fence.

"No time!" he shouted back. "Gotta find a place to hide!"

"Hide? There is no danger here, little one!" Vok'Rul said worriedly. Viktor waved at him.

"Game!" was his only explanation before he started sprinting along the fence again.

He finally found a decent spot with only forty seconds to spare. While the rules had said no climbing trees, there was nothing said about hiding under trees. And there was a small little hollow underneath the roots of one tree, much too small for any sane adult to consider. But for a scrawny kid like Viktor?

Oh, yeah. He was getting that fucking fruit.

A quick dig into the soft soil later, Viktor managed to squeeze under the roots of the tree, carefully and quickly packing the soil back so it looked less suspicious from the outside. Then, he waited.

"Here we come!" he faintly heard. Nervous excitement swirled in his gut, which soon wore off as the seconds ticked by into minutes. Occasionally, Jane or Alex (Viktor couldn't see who was walking by; his face was shoved into his arm) would walk by slowly, but they never stopped to inspect his hiding spot.

He heard people nearby curse as they were found, groans of defeat and good-natured scorn leaving them. Eventually, though, the minutes turned into an hour, and they yielded defeat. Viktor emerged from under the tree, smeared with dirt and wearing a shit-eating grin.

"Under the tree?!" Alex despaired. "Aw, damn. I never would've found you."

"Ha!" Viktor said, pumping his fist victoriously. "Was I the last one?"

They nodded miserably. "Woohoo!" he crowed.

The fruit tasted delicious, especially when he was eating it in front of a miserable Ezekiel.

(He gave the others some of it, though. Just to be nice. Ezekiel got the smallest piece, much to his chagrin.)

Pedro bullied him for managing to squeeze under the tree, but Viktor was pretty sure he was just miffed his hiding spot didn't win. He had been hiding under the buffet, which was on a small, low-lying table. Of course, he had been found. His entire foot had been sticking out, according to Aiko, who had hidden in a bush nearby.

"It wasn't my entire foot," Pedro said, crossing his arms.

Aiko snorted, "Yeah, more like your entire leg, instead."

"I GOT IT!" someone yelled, eliciting some cheers from further down the field. Viktor, along with the others, curiously went over, wondering what the fuss was about. Someone had managed to tear the ramp off of the obstacle course. Viktor whistled, impressed. Rukka was going to be mad.

"How'd you do that? Without a screwdriver?" someone asked. The man holding the ramp grinned.

"I got like five people, and we started jumping on it until it snapped off."

Now that they had it, though, they were unsure what to do with it. Some people started wondering what they could do if they could break off more stuff. There were uneasy whispers of attacking the aliens, which made Viktor increasingly nervous. They were quickly shot down by the majority of people, those unwilling to harm their aliens.

Plus, someone said, there were only about seventy of them, maybe a hundred if you squinted. There was no way they'd be able to overpower the hundreds of aliens milling about here. So, the topic was dropped. Viktor's shoulders loosened.

Restlessness started rippling through the crowd, then, especially as the football game came to a close (no one wanted to keep score, so everyone claimed that their team won), and joined the majority of people near Dave's rock. Viktor could tell that something was about to happen. No one was happy they were being kept on this planet as pets, even if the aliens were nothing but kind (mostly, Viktor thought ruefully) to them. Being a pet was dehumanizing in the best of circumstances. And these certainly weren't the best.

The crowd's low murmuring was interrupted by harsh banging coming from the entrance of the enclosure. Several people cursed, including Viktor's group, whirling around to find the source of the noise.

"Hello, little mammals!" a bright blue alien hollered, setting down a pair of metallic sticks. Viktor wondered if they were just used for the sole purpose of making noise. "It's time for food!"

"Whose alien is that?" someone asked. No one piped up.

"They uh, said it's time for food," Viktor said, voice faltering as multiple people turned to look at him. Some shrugged, starting to head over. Others were more reluctant to believe him, casting incredulous looks at him. Regardless, most of the crowd, especially those who had participated in the football game, started wandering over to grab some fresh food. It had run out surprisingly quickly.

"You think they got some more of that purple fruit?" Ezekiel sighed, looking longingly over at the rows of food bowls lined up.

"Probably, but it'll be gone by the time you get over there," Pedro responded, patting the man's shoulder. "Maybe you should've won the hide-and-seek game."

Ezekiel cursed at him and tackled him to the ground. Viktor, Aiko, and Nikolas watched with amusement as they tried to beat each other senselessly. Viktor had to jump out of the way as they rolled over in his direction.

"Pair of morons," Aiko sighed. Nikolas nodded sagely.

"Kohhhgrashhh!!" a familiar yell reached his ears. Viktor turned around to see Nohkka pressed up against the fence, hollering his name. Rukka and Kac had also returned, engaging Thruul in conversation. He waved at them. "Come hereee!!"

"Aww, it's a baby alien," Pedro said, pushing Ezekiel's face into the dirt. The man thumped on the ground, pleading uncle. "Oh! Blacksmith's there, too."

"C'mon," Viktor said with a grin, walking over to the fence. The others followed him. Nohkka was delighted that he was bringing over so many people.

"Hi, Kohgrash's friends! You're all so cute!" Nohkka cooed, clapping her hands together loudly. Viktor rubbed his hand against his temple, smiling at her.

"This is Nohkka," he introduced her to Pedro and Nikolas. "She's Vok'Rul's niece. Those are her mothers, Rukka and Kac. And that's Thruul."

"Fuck," he heard Nikolas mutter at the latter alien's appearance. Pedro patted him on the back.

"Wonder where Carrot got off to," Ezekiel said, peering up and down the fence for the orange alien. Aiko shrugged.

"He probably went off to play games. There were some interesting ones when he came in."

"Kohgrash," Vok'Rul called, distracting Viktor from Nohkka, who was trying to shove her arm through the fence to pet him. "How have you been liking this?" His tone was worried. Viktor smiled at him reassuringly.

"It's nice, Vok'Rul. Don't tell Rukka, but the obstacle course over there is probably gonna get ripped to shreds," he said, looking over his shoulder. There were already people trying to take down the pedestals.

"Man, that's weird. That he can actually understand them," Ezekiel said. Pedro scoffed.

"Tell me about it. And I built the thing! You get used to the one-sided conversations, though."

"How's your head? Is the translator bothering you?" Vok'Rul asked. Blacksmith suddenly appeared to his left, peering at Viktor curiously. Despite himself, he jumped in surprise. "Trosk," Vok'Rul said warningly, voice becoming a few degrees colder.

"Ah, my apologies, Your Majesty. I am just concerned about Kohgrash's well-being. I have researched signs of head pain in mammals. It appears he is experiencing a few of them," Blacksmith said. "Do you know if it is consistent with the use of the translator? I have made a few models that will hopefully reduce the pain he may be feeling."

"Kohgrash," his tone was much more worried now. Viktor rolled his eyes, holding up his hands.

"Vok'Rul, it's fine. My headaches are going down as I get used to this thing." Vok'Rul made a noise of disgruntlement, frowning at him. Viktor rolled his eyes. "What? The only other option is to turn it off for a while, which I do, unlike someone!"

Vok'Rul had nothing to say to that.

"Uncle Rul, I wanna play with Kohgrash!" Nohkka whined, tugging on the alien's clothing.

"Nohkka," he heard Rukka say. "You know you aren't allowed inside."

"Why not?" Viktor asked her before he remembered she couldn't understand him. He turned to Vok'Rul with a tilt of his head. Vok'Rul hesitated for a moment before giving him a slight smile.

"You are... rather dangerous creatures when you put your minds to it," he explained, a bit apologetically. "Despite having you for over a year, we do not know what your species is fully capable of."

Viktor let out a startled, bewildered laugh, which died in his throat when he looked at Vok'Rul's solemn expression. "You can't be serious."

"I am very serious, Kohgrash. You can run for an abnormally long time without needing a break. It is something we have never seen before, even in animals that are built for running. You are strong, despite most of your species' slight stature. I have watched you cave the skull of many animals with just your fist. You can eat foods that are poisonous to us. There had never been a gathering of humans so large since we had taken you here. We are merely... observing."

Viktor frowned, feeling... kind of hurt. "I'd never hurt Nohkka," he hissed, trying to cover up his distress with anger. He failed if the sympathetic expression on Vok'Rul's face was anything to go by.

"I know, Kohgrash," he soothed. "But I do not know every mammal in there," he gestured vaguely to the field.

"We aren't animals," he stressed, crossing his arms. He felt someone's hand snake onto his shoulder, and he angrily shrugged it off.

"Who's calling us animals?" Ezekiel had his back, like always. He pointed up at Vok'Rul. "Hey! Leader guy! We aren't animals!"

"Calm down, you moron," Aiko pushed his hand down.

"I think they are organizing another game," Nikolas said idly. "Let us go find out what it is."

"Before someone throws a punch," Pedro muttered under his breath, lightly grabbing Viktor's bicep and pulling him away from the fence.

"Goodbye, Nohkka," he said, waving at the child, who looked very upset that he was leaving already. His voice filtered back into his ear, slightly distorted and echoing.

Viktor sat heavily underneath a tree, far enough away from the fence that he was unable to hear Vok'Rul and avoid getting sucked into whatever game the other humans were coming up with to pass the time. The others gathered around him. They were all hesitant to speak up, exchanging glances that reminded Viktor enough of the arena that he had to bury his face in his hands.

"Aliens, am I right?" Ezekiel joked when the silence got too oppressive to bear. There was a loud smacking noise before the man yelled, "Ow! Aiko! You're so mean to me!"

Viktor smiled despite himself. He had missed these guys. And here he was, sulking. He pulled himself together.

"Hey," he said, drawing everyone's attention. "Let's do something."

"Like?" Pedro prompted. Viktor frowned in thought. Thankfully, he didn't have to think for long. One of the people they had played hide-and-seek with walked up to them, slightly out of breath.

"Hey," he wheezed, hooking a thumb over his shoulder for a second before bending at the waist to put his hands on his knees. "Jasper had the idea to make that ramp into a cornhole board. You guys got anything sharp to drill a hole into it?"

"You mean bean bag toss?" Viktor asked. The man shrugged, flipping his hand dismissively.

"Whatever it's called. Got anything?" Negatives rang out, and the man went on to the next group of people, more than a little defeated. Looks like he's been running around asking everyone in the park.

"Let's help. I've never actually played bean bag toss," Viktor said, getting to his feet. The others agreed, more than happy to do something that wasn't distracting Viktor from his feelings. Or whatever. He definitely wasn't upset that Vok'Rul didn't seem to trust him with Nohkka's well-being.

They managed to find a small rock that, when smashed against another rock, chipped away pretty easily. They were able to sharpen it enough that it accidentally sliced open Pedro's finger when the rock slipped from his grasp. It wasn't a deep cut; it healed enough to stop bleeding after Pedro shoved it in his mouth for five minutes. Nikolas had the great idea of tying it to a stick with some of the grass. That way, he told them, they'd be able to use torque and gravity to their advantage when hammering it against the ramp.

Whatever that meant. Only Pedro seemed to get it.

After many failed attempts of trying to get this rock attached to a stick (who knew it'd be so damn hard? Either the stick was too flimsy and broke upon impact or the rock wasn't tied securely enough to the stick and flew off with a speed that startled everyone), they managed to make a pretty solid, pretty ugly axe.

They triumphantly went over to the group of people surrounding the piece of the broken ramp. It was jagged on one end and cracked slightly straight down the middle. There were three people surrounding it, each holding a stick that looked like they had seen better days. They had echoes of being crudely sharpened, but being slammed repeatedly on the ramp had left them blunted.

The five of them announced their presence, and more importantly, the crude axe they had made. Cheering erupted around the ramp and after a half hour of work (in which there had been one memorable occasion of the axe head flying off the stick, much to the five's dismay), there was a decently sized hole in the ramp. It was lopsided and ugly, but it was a hole.

Now arrived the issue of actually setting it all up. They leaned it against a tree, but it kept sliding down awkwardly. They had to pile rocks and branches against it to hold it up and keep it steady. Someone asked what they were going to use as bean bags since they had neither bags nor beans.

Everyone was quiet for a moment before Viktor suggested they fill up their socks with some of the sand from the sand pit. That would probably work the same, right?

It definitely didn't, but it was as close as they were going to get.

Most people didn't even have socks, or their socks were too threadbare and full of holes. Viktor and a few others were the only ones wearing a 'new' pair, which were the poorly made ones that were essentially long tubes of fabric. Filling up those pairs of socks with sand was easy; it was tying them shut that was the difficult part.

Viktor cursed loudly as the sock unraveled itself and dumped half of the sand onto his lip. For the third time. "This is impossible. What kinda material is this shit made out of?"

"I've got no idea," Pedro muttered, glaring at his sock.

The material was slippery against itself. It gripped the floor just fine, but as soon as they tried to tie it off, it was like it lost all friction. It would hold for a split second before slowly coming loose. From the sounds of despair and irritation around him, Viktor wasn't the only one having issues.

"Is there anything else we can use?" someone asked after twenty minutes of tying socks together.

"We could pop some of those balls and fill them," someone else suggested. The idea had merit.

"But won't they just leak sand?"

"Not if the hole is small enough."

They tried that. It quickly became apparent that the balls on this planet were made of tougher material than the usual synthetic stuff everyone was used to. It was inflexible, unwilling to pop under pressure, even when they tried stabbing it with the axe. They gave it up as a lost cause when one of the balls shot out from under the axe with so much force it flew up and got stuck in a tree. They went back to tying socks.

Viktor was on the edge of a breakthrough with one particular knot when there was a commotion a little bit behind him. His brows furrowed in concentration as he tried to keep this knot from slipping apart, not paying too much attention to his surroundings. So it came as quite a big shock to feel a heavy hand tapping the top of his head.

He jumped in fright, losing the grip - and consequently the knot - on his sock. He cursed loudly, getting to his feet before he realized what he was doing.

"Oh, sorry, Kohgrash," Vok'Rul said sheepishly, crouching down to pick up his sock. "Here you go." Half of the sand had spilled out of it. Viktor looked at it with a frown before looking up at Vok'Rul.

"Aren't we too dangerous for you to be near?" he said sourly, swiping the sock from him and turning away from him. He pushed some of the sand back into his sock. Gentle claws scraped along his spine, and he tensed, tightening his shoulders. They quickly retracted.

"I wanted to apologize," he murmured sincerely. Viktor looked up from his sock to see Vok'Rul gazing at him beseechingly. "I did not mean to imply that you were a danger to Nohkka. Nor did I intend to insult your species."

Viktor simply frowned at him for a complicated moment. He held the alien's gaze. Viktor sighed a little, shoulders loosening. He shoved the sock toward him. "Can you tie this, then?"

Vok'Rul looked confused but dutifully took it from him, easily tying it together. Viktor watched skeptically, waiting for it to unfold. But it didn't.

"What the hell," he muttered, snatching the sock from his claws. He threw it to the ground as hard as he could, eliciting a noise of surprise from Vok'Rul. It didn't break apart. "How'd you do that?!"

"I just tied it?"

Viktor quickly took off his other sock, filled it with sand, and gave it to the alien. "This one next," he demanded. Bemused, Vok'Rul tied it off. It held. Viktor forgave him, then. The alien had just solved their biggest problem in three seconds. He victoriously held up his socks, filled with sand and not falling apart.

He was especially thrilled when he tossed one against the broken ramp with the ugly, jagged hole at the top and it didn't burst apart in a blast of sand. It slid pleasantly along the ramp and fell through the hole. The other humans, most of whom had been eavesdropping and watching their interaction with interest, cheered.

Vok'Rul asked curiously how they had made the hole since he was pretty sure the ramp hadn't come with one. Viktor awkwardly explained to him about the axe and how they made it. Thankfully, Vok'Rul looked more intrigued than upset, especially considering it was a viable weapon and the alien sort of considered them dangerous.

"Hey, kid," someone asked him, giving him a pair of sand-filled socks. "Think you can tie these, too?"

Viktor shrugged, passing them to Vok'Rul, who expertly tied them. Soon enough, there was a small line of humans, hands full of socks filled with sand, waiting for an alien to tie them shut. It was almost comical.

"Okay!" shouted Dave, who somehow managed to commandeer the whole bean bag toss game. "Now that we have bean bags, it's time to set up teams! We've only got one ramp, so we'll need to take turns." He started explaining that they'd be doing a sort of bracket game, where teams of two compete against each other. The winner of that game would compete against the winner of the next game, and so on. "No, uhh, aliens. Humans only!"

Vok'Rul looked disappointed. Viktor grinned up at him. "Sorry, dude, no bean bag toss for you."

"It's cornhole," someone yelled, which prompted an argument about what the game was called.

"Hey, kid," Pedro said, flinging his arm around his shoulders and resting his weight on the teen. "Wanna team?"

"No way, Pedro," Ezekiel said, flinging his arm around Viktor's shoulders. "Kid's mine."

Viktor ducked out of their grips, stepping forward. He turned around just in time to see them both collapse to the ground. "I'm gonna team with Nikolas," he told them, stepping closer to the man in question. Nikolas smiled.

"I would be happy to team with you, Viktor," he responded smugly.

Aiko and Ezekiel teamed together, and Pedro managed to team with someone named Kurtis, who got on fabulously well with everyone. The game started soon after everyone had found their teammates. Some people cast wary glances at Vok'Rul as he lingered, but most ignored him, having gotten used to an alien's presence during their time here.

"Are you even supposed to be in here?" Viktor asked after the game started. Vok'Rul smiled pleasantly.

"Absolutely not."

Aiko and Ezekiel, despite living together for over a year, were horrible at teaming together. Ezekiel kept trying to toss the socks in a 'fucking cool pattern, guys, seriously watch me throw this backwards' way, and kept missing the ramp, much to Aiko's irritation. Aiko was the only reason they won their round, despite Ezekiel's uselessness.

Viktor and Nikolas were alright together. They won their round by the skin of their teeth. Viktor's sock had caught on the jagged hole, causing the crowd watching to groan. They only won because the other team managed to knock Viktor's sock into the hole, giving them the points needed to win.

Pedro and Kurtis absolutely crushed the competition. Their first game didn't even last five minutes. Each throw went straight into the hole, never catching on the uneven wood. Whistles and shouts of glee followed each toss.

Unsurprisingly, Ezekiel and Aiko lost their next round against a team who actually communicated with each other and strategized. They didn't seem too upset about it, though. They just continued bickering the whole way through the game.

Surprisingly, though, Viktor and Nikolas did win the next round. They played much better this time, managing to scrape by with a respectable amount of points compared to their last round. It certainly helped that Viktor had his own personal cheerleader in Vok'Rul, who was slowly starting to understand the rules of the game. He had settled next to the tree nearby, flanked by the rest of the five plus Kurtis. Rukka was probably dying of annoyance somewhere.

Pedro and Kurtis, much to the glee of the crowd, continued to win effortlessly. Halfway through their round, though, Viktor noticed some aliens filtering into the enclosure.

"Vok'Rul," he nudged the alien, who made a comfortable pillow. The alien had grumbled about how dirty he was when he had first started climbing on him, but a wounded look was all that it took to shut him up. The sucker. He pointed at the entrance of the fence. "Look."

"Huh?" Vok'Rul asked, semi-distracted by the enticing game Pedro and Kurtis played. He glanced over at Viktor's insistence, surprised. "Interesting," he hummed.

"Hey, Orange!" he heard the bread lady - Alex - shout, waving at her alien when she spotted her. Various other people started shouting for their aliens as well, confused about their sudden appearance in a strictly human-only zone. Their game of bean bag toss was temporarily put on hold while the aliens filtered in.

One of them approached Vok'Rul, who surreptitiously tried to straighten up, and bowed lowly. "O Vokkra," they greeted respectfully. "I - well, most of us, I suppose - was wondering if this means that the ban on entering the mammal enclosure had been lifted? We asked Sir Rukka, but she," the alien hesitated for a second, "was rather unresponsive."

"Yes, the ban is lifted," Vok'Rul responded, gesturing to the humans. "They have not shown any signs of aggression toward me or any particular mammal. I do not believe them to be a threat."

The alien looked relieved and happy. "Yes," it agreed, peering down at Viktor with a smile. "It is rather funny. They behave like pack animals. They remind me of Chorsls."

It left afterward, heading to the exit to no doubt tell the other aliens that the place was free to roam. Viktor looked up at Vok'Rul with confusion. "Do you know that we actually are pack animals?"

Vok'Rul blinked at him, "What?"

Viktor squinted, trying to figure out if the alien was pulling his leg or not. "Humans are social creatures," he said slowly. "I mean, look at us."

Vok'Rul looked out into the crowd, who was slowly starting up the game of bean bag toss again. People laughed and cheered, touching and talking with each other. Realization slowly dawned on his face. "I see," he said simply.

"Nikolas and Viktor, you're up!" Dave shouted, waving them over. Nikolas pulled Viktor to his feet.

They lost, but that was alright. Viktor had won hide-and-seek, after all. He couldn't win all the games. While it would be incredible for his ego, he didn't want the pressure of going to the bean bag toss finals. Pedro and Kurtis carried on their legacy all the way to the finals. Viktor was getting surprisingly into the game, cheering and calling along with the rest of the humans. It was similar to the arena, with the volume and noise, but people shouted words he could understand which made it easier to bear.

His heart leaped into his throat with excitement as Pedro tossed his last throw. The two teams were tied, and the tiebreaker fell onto the Hispanic man's shoulders. The entire field held its breath as the sand-filled sock slid across the ramp and erupted into cheers as it fell through the hole with a dull thump.

Pedro and Kurtis high-fived, sporting the largest grins Viktor's ever seen on a human. People surrounded them with a fervor that could only be explained by mania, jumping in place and screaming their glee. It was the first time that Viktor felt human, surrounded by his friends and celebrating a team winning over some silly lawn game.

The thrum of the crowd echoed in his skull, long after everyone's joy had worn down into something less explosive. It was nice, he thought with a contented smile, watching as Pedro and Kurtis finally escaped the crowd of well-wishers, to be surrounded by people again.

***

A/N: Tomorrow, I will begin posting double updates until the story is finished! This aims to be done by the end of the month. I thank you all for reading! <3