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Cody had barely stepped foot inside L Street Tavern before he was accosted.
“Codes!” yelled Wolffe from where he was standing at the bar with Bly. Cody cringed internally at his volume, seeing the bartender’s glare and wondering when this place would get fed up with hosting so many of his relatives at once. “Finally put away the spreadsheets and deigned to join us, huh? You know, Fett Family Fun Night is a mandatory event. You want me to start handing out tardy slips?”
“Ah, leave Cody and his spreadsheets be, Wolfie, you know his nerdy shit keeps your crews running,” Bly said. “Hard to put up a building with no materials and no gear and no personnel and no insurance and no—”
Cody clapped a hand on Bly’s shoulder to cut him off. “Thanks for the defense, Bly, but I don’t give a shit what this asshole says. I stopped hearing half the crap that comes out his mouth when I was six.”
Shouts rose up from the big booth in the back, and Cody turned to see a group of his younger brothers and cousins jostling over something between them. He raised an eyebrow at Wolffe and Bly and they moved as one toward the melee.
“Hey, what’s the big deal, come on, share with the class,” demanded Bly.
Rex emerged from the dogpile to triumphantly wave a shiny chrome device in the air. “Echo just got the new Game Boy 3XZ.”
Fives cut in, “Yeah, and it’s not even on the market yet.”
“Perks of the job, boys,” Echo announced smugly.
Wolffe scoffed. “Being a video game playtester is not a job.”
Jesse quirked his head. “And yet, you can't deny the perks.”
“They’re still making Game Boys?” Bly asked. “Haven’t seen one since we were kids.”
“We have an old one floating around the house,” Cody shared. “Obi-Wan plays Tetris on it sometimes when he’s stressed. It’s actually—”
Rex held up a hand to halt Cody’s words. He looked over at Wolffe. “What time is that?”
Wolffe looked down at his watch. “Three minutes.”
Rex turned to Dogma. “Pay up, loser.”
“Damn it, Cody,” Dogma grumbled.
“Three minutes actually seems like a new record,” said Fives. “Maybe he’s finally chilling out. Maybe the honeymoon phase is over.”
Bly snorts. “The day Cody chills out about Obi-Wan is the day Cody’s dead in a box.”
Jesse feigns shock. “Wait. Obi-Wan Kenobi? The Obi-Wan Kenobi? Did you guys know Cody is married to that guy? To his husband? His husband Obi-Wan Kenobi?”
Cody rolled his eyes. “Shut the hell up, you clowns. I’m just saying, it's crazy watching him go at it. He can get 500 or 600 lines, no problem.”
Echo froze. Cody would never forget the look on his face.
____
Arriving home to their Cambridge townhouse that night, he found Obi-Wan in their bed, still awake. “Welcome home, darling,” Obi-Wan greeted, looking up from his book. “How was it?”
Cody was momentarily distracted by how beautiful he looked there, limned by lamplight, wearing his wire-rimmed reading glasses, smiling sleepily. He crossed the room to kiss him.
“Mmm,” Obi-Wan hummed as they separated. “That bad?”
“No,” Cody assured, combing his fingers through Obi-Wan’s hair. It was getting longer than Obi-Wan usually kept it. “Just bizarre. I ended up talking to Echo about Tetris, of all things. He said the world record for Game Boy Tetris is 327 lines, and he’s insisting that we go to some video game tournament this spring so you can try to break the world record live in front of a judge."
“That’s nice, dear,” Obi-Wan said, settling down into the covers and returning to his book. Then he frowned and turned his attention back to Cody. “Forgive me. What on Earth are you talking about?”
____
By the next morning, the idea felt comfortably surreal. Cody was sitting at the breakfast table with his second cup of coffee and his laptop, verifying what Echo had feverishly told him the night before.
“It looks like the tournament is held in New Hampshire,” he called out to Obi-Wan in the next room. “Some place called the American Classic Arcade Museum in Weirs Beach. It claims to be the world's largest repository of games from the '70s and '80s, 180 token-ready games on the floor at any moment and another 100 in a warehouse out back.”
“So it’s basically the Louvre,” replied Obi-Wan laughingly. “Dearest, have you any idea where my tie is, the one with the—”
“The little triangles? Still stained after the incident with Leia. Try the blue striped one.”
“Oh, thank you darling,” he called back. “And so people go to this tournament and try to break records on old games?”
“Yeah, it’s run by this guy Dexter Jettster, who manages the museum and also a national scoreboard of video game records. I found an article about some teenager who broke so many records at last year’s tournament, he set a new record for the number of records broken in one day.”
“Well, we all need dreams.” Obi-Wan stepped into the kitchen, still straightening the knot of his tie. The blue did look good. Cody was allowed a bit of self-satisfaction. “Now I’ve no clue where I put—”
“On your desk, on top of the stack of graded papers.”
“Ah,” Obi-Wan nodded, pleased, and hurried across the room toward his office. Cody’s eyes tracked him along the way, evaluating.
There were many things that attracted him to his husband, though he couldn't say an exceeding amount of hand-eye coordination was one of them. Obi-Wan was 36, a professor of archaeology, and a dedicated yoga practitioner. Cody had seen him play catch competently with his niece and nephew, but there was nothing about him to suggest he had some innate ability for the split-second decision-making required to succeed at Tetris. The idea that he could be the best person to ever play the Game Boy version of Tetris seemed beyond belief.
Obi-Wan ducked his head back into the kitchen, his work satchel slung over his shoulder. “I’m off, dear. I’ll see you for dinner tonight?”
“I’ll be home in time.”
“Lovely,” Obi-Wan flashed him a grin before taking his leave. Cody heard the front door open and close behind him and took a sip of his coffee, waiting expectantly.
Sure enough, the sound of the front door came again. “Forgot something?” he asked, raising an eyebrow as Obi-Wan came back into view.
“Yes,” Obi-Wan confirmed, reaching Cody and taking his face in his hands, tilting his head back for a deep kiss. Cody stopped thinking of anything else—there was only Obi-Wan, and the heat of his hands and the silk of his mouth. Obi-Wan eventually pulled back and looked at him, eyes soft, for long enough that Cody could feel a blush rising on his cheeks. Obi-Wan traced his thumbs back and forth over where he must be turning pink, bending to kiss him quickly once more before finally relenting and pulling away. “Ah, now I am ready to face the day.”
____
Cody and Obi-Wan drove to Weirs Beach in the middle of rush hour. This was fine. The only way to tell that Obi-Wan was feeling anxious was that he was in more aggressively good spirits than usual. After a few months of laughing about this whole idea that he could be a Tetris world record-holder, it was time for him to deliver.
As they drove down Route 3 in Weirs Beach, they saw a sign for the tournament: "The best in the world compete," it advertised.
“Well, now I’m nervous,” Obi-Wan declared cheerfully.
Cody took one hand off the steering wheel to clasp Obi-Wan’s hand and squeeze. “We’ll get to the cabin soon, and then we’ll have plenty of time to relax tonight.”
“Relax, hm?” Obi-Wan’s free hand moved to stroke up and down Cody’s arm. “And how are we going to manage that?”
Cody spent eight years hauling and laying brick on his father’s jobsites while he put himself through school, and he had the biceps to prove it. Those same biceps had figured meaningfully in his 14-step plan to seduce Obi-Wan—it took forever to get past first the man’s utter obliviousness to his interest and then his hang-ups about dating a student, nevermind that Cody was a 24-year-old MBA candidate who had never set foot in the anthropology building, let alone taken one of Obi-Wan’s classes.
But because Cody was excellent at both making and executing plans, he now had the distinct pleasure of letting the love of his life feel up said biceps.
He still managed to keep a straight face when he answered Obi-Wan. “I was thinking some deep breathing exercises.”
____
“Tetris is the embodiment of comprehensive thinking,” Dexter Jettster explained to Cody as Obi-Wan passed line 200 on his record attempt.
Dex was easy to spot when they arrived at the arcade that morning, because he was the only person wearing a referee's jersey. The International Classic Video Game & Pinball Tournament was thus far meeting Cody’s every expectation. Everything inside the place was pre-1987, including the decor and the music pumping through the sound system.
For Obi-Wan’s record attempt, a television had been set up in the middle of the arcade, connected through an adapter to his Game Boy so a dozen gamers could gather around to watch him play.
Cody watched nervously, amazed that Obi-Wan was able to keep a straight face and concentrate. A very pregnant photographer was lying on the floor, shooting Obi-Wan as he played. The flash was right in his face. The sound system was blaring "Take My Breath Away" from the Top Gun soundtrack. Yet he kept playing. Brilliantly. He had his game face on; Cody hadn't even known he had a game face. By the time he reached 300 lines and level 30, the highest level of the game, the pieces were blasting down the screen.
“Here's what's going on,” Dex told him as they observed Obi-Wan's play. “Tetris epitomizes those types of games that require a coordination of the eyes, the hands, and mental comprehension time. When Mickey Mantle heard the crack off the bat, he got an extra step. That's what your husband has. Success at Tetris is based exclusively on the ability to recognize the information you're getting faster than the average person.”
Obi-Wan blew past his 328th line with his blocks still stacked way at the bottom. His husband was a Tetris world record-holder. He felt like handing out cigars. Cody leaned over to Dex, “He did it!”
Dex looked surprised. “Oh no, not yet. 327 is the record for the original black-and-white version of Tetris. Obi-Wan’s version of Game Boy Tetris is Tetris DX, the same as the original game but in color. It’s a separate category, according to the rules, with a higher record. Harry J. Hong holds it now: 545 lines.”
Obi-Wan could get 545 lines. Cody knew this. He also knew it was considerably harder than the 327 lines Echo had initially told them about.
“What’s going on, dearest?” Obi-Wan asked, obviously picking up on the confusion behind him.
“They’re saying you need to beat 545.”
“500-what?” Obi-Wan asked, not hearing him clearly over the noise. “Oh, never you mind. I’m having a lovely time!”
Fifteen minutes later, he completed his 545th line and then left Harry J. Hong in the dust. At 600 lines, with his blocks still at the bottom, he glanced over at Cody quickly.
“Darling, I definitely have the record, right?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied. “Now you're just showing off.”
The excitement of the crowd was rising. Twice, Obi-Wan made mistakes and the pieces piled to the top of the screen, but he got out of it. After an hour of playing, he made one mistake too many and his game ended. He had destroyed the record—his final score was 841 lines.
Dex came over to shake his hand. Obi-Wan laughed as Dex declared him “the greatest Tetris player in the world,” then turned to Cody to add, “And I must say, he's also the prettiest.”
____
That evening found them lying in bed, Obi-Wan chuckling into Cody’s chest. “That was one of the most bizarre moments of my life.”
Cody was happily raking his fingers through Obi-Wan’s hair, which still hadn’t been cut. Cody found that he quite liked it long.
“I’ve been thinking,” Cody murmured. “What does it mean to be the best in the world at something? Dex said told me that Tetris requires a coordination of the eyes, the hands…” he ran a gentle finger under Obi-Wan’s eye before trailing his hands down to grip Obi-Wan’s sides, flipping them both so he loomed over Obi-Wan on the bed, “...and mental comprehension time.”
“Oh?” Obi-Wan asked, trying and failing to hold back a grin.
“And it seems to me I’ve been benefitting from those skills in other ways,” Cody went on, bending to trail kisses down Obi-Wan’s neck.
“And to think I’m the one who married a younger man. Shouldn’t it follow that I be the one benefitting from my partner’s physical and mental enhancements?”
“Well, I’m willing to be taught,” Cody grinned. “Should we go get the Game Boy?”