Requested by giomilla1

This one shot is made to explore Player's daily life, perhaps what he goes through during a mission, and maybe what he might do during the day. I'm sure we've all wondered about school, and his parents.

This is part 50!!!

Remember, requests open back up in two days, this Sunday, June 7th. Warning, updates will still be a bit random and slow.

Player POV

I was running on less than four hours of sleep for the past three days, the almost constant pounding in my head accompanied by several cups of coffee and a six pack of energy drinks. Their tastes were all starting to blend together at this point, but that wasn't exactly the biggest problem I was dealing with.

"C'mon, Red," I muttered, one hand tearing through my ragged brown hair as my leg bounced anxiously. The glare of my many screens was irritating me, and I gave a huff as I dimmed them and slipped on a pair of sunglasses. I'd been sitting in this chair for a straight nine hours while I maneuvered Carmen to a high-security weaponry vault, and every little disturbance on the cameras had my eyes darting between monitors as my fingers went flying over the keys.

She was almost there... and I knew she was exhausted, too. Carmen had gotten even less sleep than me with this mission, which sounded absolutely terrible because I was more than ready to pass out, but I also knew she'd be ok. If there was one thing Carmen had, that was resilience.

Honestly, I was needing some of that myself right about now.

Clicking on Zack's line, I asked, "How are you holding up, man?"

His deep sigh rang softly from the microphone. "I've been better, but I'm more worried about the girls. You been checkin' on Ivy and Carm?"

"Of course. Red's still on route, and Ivy's safe." The ginger had hidden herself in a storage closet at Carmen's command, and she'd stay there until I signaled for her to jump out and aide her friend in their escape.

Zack laughed, stopping quickly. "I don't even know what's funny, Player," he muttered. "Ack, I'm starving! I mean, honestly, what does it take to get a sandwich and a mattress around here!?"

"Zack," I deadpanned, "you're gonna have to wait for food and sleep like the rest of us. I haven't eaten since lunch yesterday."

He gasped, sousing almost offended. "Player! A growing boy like you needs to eat, to nourish his body!"

There was a beat of silence, in which I raised an eyebrow.

The older burst into hysterical giggles, his weary mind causing him to lose a grip on the current situation. "You-you know what's funny, Player?" he hiccuped, attempting to regain his breath. "I didn't even s-say anything funny!"

And with that I knew Zack would be of little help in the rest of this caper, what with him not reacting well to sleep deprivation. I sighed and turned off his line, pressing on Carmen's. "Doing alright, Red?" I inquired softly, noting to be quiet.

"Never felt better," she joked, and a smile twitched on my lips. "Of course, I'm currently chock full of adrenaline, which is numbing the burn in my legs and the cloud in my head, but, hey. Just another Tuesday, am I right?"

"Absolutely," I agreed, leaning back to stretch in my chair. "You're just a few yards away from your target, actually. Keep on your current path, and you'll find the vault's door waiting for you."

"OK," she murmured thoughtfully, her blinking dot slowing slightly on my screen. "You'll be ready to open it?"

"Way ahead of you." I had prepared the disarming codes earlier when she and Ivy had first entered the building, taking extra care as I went over them to smooth out any nicks in the numbers. "Just get there safely and quietly, and we'll be golden."

"Got it." A tense few seconds passed, until Carmen blew out a relieved breath. "Alright, Player, do your thing. Got the scrambler on and ready."

"Okay..." I stuck my tongue between my teeth in concentration as I loaded the code, my chest tightening as it lagged for the smallest of moments before overriding the vault's security system and unlocking the heavy door. "You're in. Remember, be quick. I'm keeping the cameras distracted." I hacked into one of said cameras, making sure to block its actual feed from reaching main control so that I could discreetly view Carmen as she worked.

Inside the vaunt was most likely pitch black for her, except for the now prominent light from the hallway, but I watched from hidden lenses with night vision as she slowly made her way through the room. The walls were covered from ceiling to floor in various artillery items, ranging from smoke bombs and hand grenades to machine guns, sniper riffles, and rocket launchers.

"Wow, it's pretty loaded in here, huh?" Carmen whispered, pointedly keeping her hands away from the weapon racks. "If VILE shows up when I'm still in here... anything could go wrong."

I forced myself to swallow, reminding myself that I'd be able to pick up any other signals. "Just be slow, and deliberate with your movements. You should be fine."

Her nod was small, but reassuring.

I watched tensely as she found her way to the table in the center and easily spotted what she'd come for-a keycard. An Admin Keycard, VILE had called it. I wasn't entirely sure what it did or how it was to be used by them, as the intel on the hard drive wasn't entirely explanatory to a point where I was satisfied, but it was all we had to go off. It hadn't been too hard for Shadowsan to agree with us-it didn't matter why VILE wanted it.

Just don't let them get it first.

Long story short, VILE did in fact show their ugly face before Carmen left, resulting in a deep bullet graze along her shoulder before I managed to scramble their technology and get her out. Ivy was alerted to the situation, and she half dragged-half carried Carmen out of the building, where an anxious Zack was waiting in their getaway vehicle.

All in all, Carmen was alive, and that was all that mattered.

I thumped into my chair with a deflating sigh as Ivy told me that'll the keycard had been successfully recovered, and Carmen had managed to stay conscious with an almost smug look on her face.

"Good, good- this is... good, good..." I rambled, my eyelids growing dangerously heavy as my body seemed to realize that I was no longer needed awake.

"You should get some sleep, Player," Ivy insisted, her tone warm and amused as I yawned loudly. "Zack and I'll watch Carm in shifts, or, even better yet, we'll hunker down somewhere and all get some shuteye before headin' to HQ."

"Carmen is the top priority though, okay?" I said, raising a tired eyebrow.

"Of course." Ivy replied, dead serious. "She's always my top priority."

"Same!" Zack exclaimed from the background, his voice strained.

"Well, then." I pushed away from my desk and stood. "Goof job tonight, you guys. Go to sleep, we'll talk in the morning. Tell Red not to worry."

"Will do."

I turned off my monitors, and promptly fell back onto my bed.

"Sweetheart, are you awake? Jake? I made breakfast, you up?"

My mom's voice through the door aroused me, but I only had the strength to open my eyes halfway and mumble "come in" before snuggling deeper into my covers. She entered and sat herself on the edge of my bed, her gentle hand running through my hair and brushing my scalp lightly with her fingertips.

"Hey, bud," she murmured, rubbing my back. "How much did you sleep last night?"

I almost gave a delirious laugh. "Haven't had a lot for the past few days, actually."

"Were you finishing that paper for your father?"

I took a moment to remember. I had indeed found the time to write up a paper sometime last night, when Carmen was in the middle of navigating the ventilation system. My dad taught as a history professor at the nearby University of Toronto, and on a whim had given me a random assignment as a part of my homeschooling. I didn't mind it, of course. My parents mostly left me to my own coding devices in my room, so long as I we had family time at one point in the week, and I got food and fresh air. It was a tedious schedule, sure, but they were understanding and I loved them.

"I was," I said sleepily, the heavy drowsiness that hung over me refusing to be ignored. "I don't think I'm ready to be awake yet."

Mom laughed, kissing my forehead. "You are the one to sleep like the dead, Kiddo, I'll give you that. Just make sure to warm these pancakes back up later, okay?"

I nodded into my pillow, managing to murmer a soft "love you, Mama" before she hugged me and left, plate in hand, allowing me to go back under.

I'm sobbing.

Player is such a softy smol bean I love him-

AAAAHHHGGGGG

ANYway, hope you liked! I know I did. ;)

Love you guys! ❤️

And now, a message that I found and identify with on a spiritual level. Please check it out XD.