"Draw~"

That was the last thing Wren heard before a bullet pierced his skull, 'killing' him once again. He couldn't actually die. Not here. This was just a recreation of his western simulation. One fabricated in the afterlife by himself and Niles as a way to entertain themselves for eternity.

Wren and Niles were kindred spirits. Both had worked hard to create a perfect world for another, only to be cruelly rejected before meeting a brutal end. It was a weirdly specific fate but it was one they shared nonetheless.

This is what had allowed them to bond in the afterlife. Although their personalities were wildly different, their aspirations and the way they tried to achieve their dreams made it easy to relate to one another. They could honestly say they enjoyed each other's company.

So, what do two kindred spirits do in an eternal plane with endless possibilities being just a few lines of code away? Well, they create the perfect world together that they were never able to have in life. A version of Wren's game for Meggy that would last until existence reaches an end. A constant cycle of killing one another that they each derived some sick pleasure from.

Of course, no game is fun without a few rules.

Each day marks the start of a new round. The goal? Kill or be killed. The winner of the previous day's match wakes up 2 hours before the loser which gives him plenty of time to find a good hiding spot in whatever map they're playing. Usually, a western setting.

Then, when the loser wakes up, it's his job to scout the map in search of the other player and eliminate him before he gets the chance to shoot.

That's just the standard way of playing though. The two players had managed to come up with some fun other 'game modes' to play. For example, a town-wide brawl where Wren and Niles work together to defeat a hoard of NPC's. Or a Russian roulette type of game where they let fate decide who will get a head start the following day.

However, not every day was spent fighting. As Wren and Niles spent more time together, it wasn't uncommon for them to go a whole day without killing each other. As a matter of fact, one day every week was an allocated "truce day" where the two would just chill. Whether that was working on new maps or game modes, sharing stories from their past lives or simply just spending time together. It was a welcomed break from the constant cycle of 'death' and it was what had allowed Wren and Niles to grow as close as they had.

Things were going well. Niles finally had someone who could not only handle but ENCOURAGE his destructive tendencies and boisterous personality. Wren finally had a willing participant in his game; someone who could actually give him a challenge!

And boy, Niles sure had been giving him a challenge these last few round's.

Typically, the loose to win ratio for the two was more or less 50/50, possibly leaning in Wren's favour a little since he was an experienced gunman. However, for over two weeks, Niles had been winning every single game they played. He was taking advantage of Wren's blind spot in every duel, killing more NPC's than him in their brawls, and he even managed to beat him in Russian roulette every time they played!

Wren didn't know what it was. Had Niles been cheating? Training harder? Simply getting lucky?? Or did this have nothing to do with the artificial meme guardian...?

Maybe Wren was just loosing his touch? He had been doing this sort of thing for decades now so really, was there anyway he could improve? If even his best wasn't enough to beat an amateur like Niles then what was the point?

As the days passed by, Wren's loosing streak began to take a toll on him. He was grumpier, more erratic and on edge during their games. His temper had somehow grown even shorter than it already was, making it practically impossible for Niles to not piss him off every time they interacted.

Things had reached a breaking point during their last truce day. Wren was reading some fake newspaper they coded into their world when suddenly, Niles had come into his home; trying to gauge his opinion on a new game mode he was developing.

Just hearing the sound of his smug voice sent Wren over the edge. After no more than a few minutes, he had grabbed his pistol and aimed it at Niles in a fit of rage.

"DRAW!" He had yelled before pulling the trigger.

Unfortunately, Niles was quick. Even when his guard was down, it was hard for Wren to get the drop on him. Niles ducked, hiding underneath the kitchen counter to buy himself enough time to load his own weapon.

He grinned, high on the thrill of the game. He turned his head and saw Wren standing to his right, gun barrel pointed directly at him. Thinking quickly, Niles launched himself into Wren's legs; knocking the inkling over and causing a bullet to graze his back slightly. Niles didn't care though. The adrenaline rush made it all the more exciting.

The sudden action had caused Wren to accidentally let go of his gun as he was shoved onto the ground; with Niles laying on top of him and keeping him down.

Niles smirked down at Wren as he struggled against his body weight. He had the inkling pinned to the ground with one arm whilst the other held a gun pointed at Wren's head.

A look of panic settled on his face as Wren looked up at the gun barrel.

"NO! WAIT-"

"Draw~" Niles teased before pulling the trigger; ending the round for the day.

~~~~~~~~~~

When Wren next woke up, he was met with the familiar sight of a rustic western ceiling and the feeling of an irritating headache around where he had been shot the day before. The cowboy let out a defeated sigh, looking to his bedside table where his pistol sat, good as new. Ready for another round.

He frowned, pulling his attention away from the gun and looking back up at the ceiling. A feeling of melancholy washed over him as he laid there, alone with his thoughts.

"Fuck." He groaned, covering his eyes with his arm. "God fucking dammit..."

Even his surprise tactic wasn't enough to beat Niles. The guy had become too skilled with a pistol. He was too vigilant, too quick. Wren didn't stand a chance. With each loss, he lost more and more hope of ever beating him again.

And this game is no fun if all you ever do is loose.

The way how this game had progressed felt eerily similar to his Splatfest career. He was on top for so long; so used to being the best that he never even fathomed the idea of someone BEATING him. But when his title was eventually stolen from him, Wren had quickly fallen down a slippery slope of self loathing. No matter how hard he trained, how many hours of practice he put in, how much he cared, he was never able to reclaim his title of champion.

And here it was, happening again. Losing a game he invented to an emo with little to no gun experience was humiliating. It made Wren question what the point of even trying was. He was just going to lose again anyway...

Wren curled into his sheets, too tired to even try. He couldn't handle another failure in this state. He would rather waste the entire day in bed than suffer another loss. So, that's what he did.

Wren remained locked in his room with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company as the hours ticked by. Wren's only measure of time was the gradually changing colour of the sky. He mindlessly watched as it faded from sunrise, to daylight and eventually to dusk.

The whole day he laid there, alone. Occasionally his mind wandered back to thoughts of Niles and how he must have been waiting for Wren to get the jump on him for hours. Or perhaps he had soon realised that Wren wasn't playing today and went off to entertain himself by setting a building on fire or something. The inkling didn't dwell on his companion too much. They were stuck in this afterlife forever so one wasted day was neither here nor there to them. At least, that's what Wren had assumed.

His assumptions were proven wrong however when his bedroom door was suddenly kicked in, breaking on impact as it slammed against the wall.

He sat up, startled by the noise and his eyes met the eye of a very pissed off looking Niles.

"Dude, seriously?! You've just been hiding out in your room all day? What the hell!" He shouted.

Wren simply rolled his eyes and fell back onto the bed with a groan.

"Oh fuck off Niles." He said, "I'm not feeling it today."

The guardian scoffed, "What? Is poor old Wren upset because his little surprise attack didn't work yesterday?" Niles teased him, laughing to himself, "No one likes a sore loser babe~"

"I am not a sore loser..." Wren grumbled, choosing to ignore the 'babe' part.

"Well you could have fooled me!" Niles grinned, earning a sharp glare from the cowboy.

After a few moments of silence, Niles sighed; placing his gun on the nightstand and taking a seat on the bed near to where Wren was lying.

"Soo... why the no-show today?" He asked.

"None of your business."

"Maybe I just wanna know anyway?" Niles shrugged. He stared at Wren, waiting for a response that never came.

"Does it... have something to do with the fact you haven't won in like 2 weeks?"

"No." Wren lied, curling into his bedsheets with a frown.

"Really?" Niles smirked, "Because if I were you, I'd sure as hell be upset about that. I mean, come on. Losing so spectacularly at a game you yourself invented? And to someone who barely used a gun in life? That's gotta be embarrassing."

The meme guardian shifted from sitting cross-legged on the bed to instead be lying on his side; head resting on one hand as he looked at the cowboy with a smug smile.

Wren glanced over his shoulder; his eyes narrowing as he glared at the other man.

"What would you know about any of that?" Wren said, facing away from the other once again.

"Well I might know more than you think..." Niles shrugged.

The virus then shuffled closer to Wren; resting his head in the crook of his neck as be smiled patronisingly.

"Don't you wanna open up to your good pal Niles?" He cooed.

Wren scoffed, lightly elbowing the man behind him to shoo him away.

"Oh get off!" He said, earning a light chuckle from Niles who partially obliged his request; still remaining relatively close to the cowboy.

"Just tell me what's wrong so we can go back to killing each other already!" Niles said.

Wren let out a sigh; turning to lay down on his back as he looked up at the ceiling. He was silent for a moment, contemplating what to say, if he should even say anything at all, before he finally spoke.

"Thing is, when I was alive, I was the greatest splatfest champion there ever was..."

Upon hearing this, Niles groaned, "Ugh not this sob story again!"

Wren shot him a dirty glare but continued, "I was on top for years. There was nobody who could beat Oneshot Wren! But then eventually I just... lost my touch. I don't know what happened. Maybe Splatfest was just becoming a young man's game and I had officially reached veteran status? Perhaps I just got into a funk that I could never recover from? Whatever the case, I lost everything. My fans, my fame, my home, everything that I had worked so hard to get; gone within a year or two. When you see your life's purpose drip away in front of you like that... it leaves an impact on you."

"Ahhh so that's why you kidnapped your only dedicated fan and tortured her for a month straight. Makes perrrfect sense." Niles smugly grinned.

"Hey, you leave Meggy out of this. You don't see me bringing up SMG0 or Fred or Melony-"

"Relax squid boy it was a joke. Sheesh. Get a little depressed and you're suddenly allergic to fun huh?"

Wren rolled his eyes, scoffing in irritation.

"Why do I tell you things?"

"Because who else is around to listen?~" Niles grinned as he leaned into Wren's personal space yet again. "You want my advice?"

"That's the last thing I want." Wren grumbled.

Niles gave the cowboy a frown before continuing anyway, "I think that you need to stop acting like a pathetic little bitch, take some accountability, and just play this god damn game."

"Excuse you?" Wren sat up and glared at his companion. Niles followed him.

"I'm serious! Look. We're going to be stuck in this afterlife together for all eternity. There's no getting out of this. Decades, centuries, millennia, whatever comes after that. We're going to be here with each other throughout all of that time. So you're having a bad two weeks. Big whoop. You have literally an eternity to make up for it. What even is two weeks to us? A minuscule blip at most. So stop being so god damn pathetic, pick up your gun, and fight me like a man!"

Niles cocked his pistol and spun it around on his finger before pointing it at Wren's chest. He glared at the man dangerously, as if he was daring him to not comply. Wren raised an eyebrow to the weapon before scoffing and pushing the barrel away from him.

"Why? So you can take pity on me and give me this win? Or are you planning on beating me whilst I'm already down?" He asked.

"I'm planning on trying my hardest to kick your ass. Winning isn't any fun unless you're giving it your all. I've seen you fight. This moping is beneath you Wren. You're better than this!" He walked around the bed, grabbed Wren's pistol and dropped it in his lap.

"So what's it gonna be cowboy? Are you going to wimp out like a loser or are you going to fight me like a champion?"

Wren was quiet as he contemplated what to do. He looked at the pistol in his lap and how the sunset made the barrel shine. He then looked up at Niles who was glaring at him expectantly.

"Well?" He asked.

Wren sighed reluctantly, "Fine. But if you go easy on me to make me feel better I'm taking it as a personal insult."

Niles' face lit up, a genuine smile forming on his lips as Wren said this. Although Wren would probably have a hard time believing that.

"Wouldn't dream of it cowboy~" Niles promised, winking at the inkling.

He shrouded his gun and left the room with a confident spring in his step. After a while, Wren followed him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Alright so you're clear on the rules?" Niles shouted to Wren.

Both of them stood at opposing ends of the town centre; as if they were trying to mimic every western movie ever.

Wren's hand hovered over his gun, "Yeah yeah I get it. Just a typical brawl. Same as always." He sighed.

Niles rolled his eyes in frustration. "Ugh, can you at least pretend to be enthusiastic about this?" He huffed.

"No promises."

"Whatever." He scoffed. "You ready?"

"Ready as I can be."

Niles prepared to grab his pistol as his eyes narrowed on the cowboy. Even if Wren wasn't as enthusiastic as Niles would like, he sure as hell wasn't going to go down without a fight.

"Okay. Annddd... DRAW!" Niles yelled.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Wren whipped out his gun and fired six shots at Niles; who narrowly dodged them before jumping behind some wooden crates. The inkling then began to climb onto a nearby rooftop as he reloaded his pistol, making sure to keep his eyes on Niles' position at all times.

He had made it about half way up when Niles emerged from his hiding spot and started shooting after Wren, taking advantage of his vulnerable position and lack of protection. Wren wasted no time returning fire, hoping to get Niles off of his back long enough for him to take the high ground. The Virus proved to be relentless though as he continued shooting at Wren; managing to land a hit on his leg, causing the inkling to groan in pain as he hoisted himself onto the roof.

"Son of a-!" Wren hissed out through gritted teeth.

He pulled off his tie and wrapped his around his leg to help cut off the blood flow. He peeked over the side of the roof to see Niles running over to his position.

Oh hell no!

He shot at the man, forcing him to dive behind another conveniently placed obstacle.

"Can't keep shooting forever!" Niles shouted out to him, "We only get a few round of ammo. And it'd be a real shame if you ran out so soon..."

"Guess I'll just have to shoot you in your pretty little face before that happens then." Wren replied, adrenaline pumping through his body as he reloaded.

Niles peeked out of his hiding spot, resting his head in his hands.

"Aw... you think my face is pretty?~" he cooed, only to be shot at again.

"Yeah. And there's nothing I want more than to put a bullet in it." Wren snarled.

"Wow. How charming." Niles commented sarcastically. He quickly sprinted over to a thin tree that was closer to Wren's building; only just managing to hide behind it as Wren's pistol let out another loud 'BANG'!

"You can only dodge these hits for so long Niles!" He reminded him, "And you have been dodging me for way too fucking long..."

"I don't need to do this for long." Niles shrugged, "Just until your anger issues get the better of you and you end up wasting your bullets on anything that twitches."

Wren's aggression subsided slightly as he listened to Niles' words. Was he giving him constructive criticism?

He checked his ammo and sure enough, he only had one round left.

Son of a bitch. THAT'S where he kept going wrong! He was rushing into things, trying to finish the round as quickly as possible only to waste his shots and inadvertently give Niles the upper hand!

If he wanted any chance at winning this duel, he'd have to make these last 6 shots count.

Wren looked back over at the tree Niles was hiding behind only to find that he had moved.

Shit.

Wren's ears flicked as he tried to listen out for his opponent; but he couldn't hear any footsteps. Wren cautiously backed into the corner of the rooftop, his eyes darting around as he waited for Niles to make a move. At least this way, he could see him coming from all angles.

All except for one...

"Peekaboo~" he heard from behind him.

Before he could react, Niles wrapped his arm around Wren's neck, locking him in a choke hold as he pointed the gun to his head.

"Oh... and you were doing so well this time..." Niles sighed, a psychotic grin forming on his face as he watched Wren struggle for breath. He let out a laugh at the sight before clicking his gun and pushing the barrel against Wren's skull. The cowboy looked at the weapon; panic setting into his systems as he tried to think of a way out.

"But hey! Look on the plus side. You finally figured out where you were going wrong. Good for you!" Niles praised. He squeezed Wren harder, resting his head on the inkling's shoulder as he watched him choke.

"Better luck tomorrow cowboy~" Niles whispered, giving Wren a patronising kiss on the cheek before readying the trigger.

Wren kept struggling for a way out of this. There was no way he was going to loose to this fucker again!

With his pistol still in hand, he blindly fired a bullet. The sound startled Niles long enough for his guard to drop which gave Wren the opportunity to push back against the virus, sending both of them off of the roof.

They landed on the hard western floor with a 'THUMP!' which had left both men rather winded. Not ready to give up just yet, Wren forced himself to get up despite the agonising pain shooting through his body. He aimed and fired a shot at Niles but unfortunately, the Virus dodged his attack once again.

Wren cursed himself for wasting yet another bullet as Niles launched his own attack on the cowboy, forcing him to run to cover.

"That was a dirty trick you played there Wren!" He shouted.

"What? I thought you wanted me to try this time?~" Wren called back, a smug smile forming on his face.

"I do! Doesn't make it any less of a cheap trick though!" He shot at the cowboy once again.

"Well maybe if you weren't getting off on squeezing the life out of me then you could have won this thing already!"

Wren peeked over his cover a sure enough, Niles fired two more shots at him. That made six. Niles would have to reload. This was his chance! He swiftly snuck out from his hiding spot as the virus fiddled with his gun, chuckling confidently to himself as he did so.

"Oh... but where's the fun in that?~" He asked.

Niles then stood up and pointed his gun towards Wren's shelter before stopping, confused.

Wait. Where did he..?

Before he could even finish that thought, Wren jumped from the little high ground he had managed to acquire, aiming his gun at the opponent. He fired a bullet into Niles' shoulder; causing him to yell out in pain whilst he raised his own pistol. It felt as if everything was moving in slow motion as he prepared to shoot.

It's a clear shot. Just one pull of the trigger and he would win.

Before he could follow through on this plan however, Niles stopped himself. In that split second moment, he froze as he saw the look of determination in Wren's eyes. He was so passionate. So strong-willed. It was evident that this match, this game was important to him. If he were to beat Niles here, he could achieve what he never could achieve in life.

A chance to reclaim his title.

Niles wondered if this same burn to succeed laid dormant within Wren when his career began to fall apart. He wondered if things may have been different had he just let someone help him. If he had allowed someone to point out his flaws and help him improve on them until he was finally able to win again. Maybe it had been his own arrogance that had cost him his career in Splatfest all along.

But here, in the afterlife, Wren has nothing left to loose. Not his life, not his security. Hell, not even his dignity anymore. He had someone there to point out his flaws, whether he wanted them to or not. He had Niles.

So, as his only companion for all eternity, maybe he should just... let him have this one.

That's the conclusion Niles reached as Wren knocked him to the ground, sending his pistol flying across the western sand. The cowboy held him to the ground, catching his breath as he pointed his own gun under Niles' chin.

The Virus sighed, "Welp, looks like you got me! I'm all out of tricks. Took you long enough honestly..."

"You hesitated."

Wren's voice sent a chill through Niles' body as the gun was pushed further against his neck.

"You had a chance to kill me there, and you didn't take it." He said sternly.

"Whaaat? I did? Aw man, I wish I saw it. If I had known them I would have totally-"

"DON'T BULLSHIT ME NILES!" Wren shouted, firing a shot into the ground to shut him up, "I saw that damn look on your face. You could have killed me just now but you chose not to. What, did you take pity on me? Did you feel bad for me? Do you think I'm SO FUCKING BAD AT THIS GAME THAT I NEED YOU TO JUST HAND ME THE WIN ON A SILVER PLATTER!?!!"

"Fucking hell, CALM DOWN!" Niles shouted.

"NO! I told you not to take pity on me. You promised that you wouldn't go easy on me!"

"I didn't!"

"WE BOTH KNOW THAT'S BULLSHIT!!"

"CAN YOU JUST GIVE ME A CHANCE TO EXPLAIN?!"

Wren finally fell silent as he scowled at the man under him. The pistol was still pointed under his chin, ready to fire at a moment's notice.

Niles sighed, "Okay, fine. You got me. I had the chance to win and I didn't take it."

"Of course you fucking didn't..." Wren muttered.

"But, I didn't do it out of pity." Niles said firmly, causing Wren to give him a confused look.

"Why'd you do it then?" He asked.

"Honestly? Because I think you deserve it. I saw how determined you were to win this stupid thing. How much you wanted to beat me. You really were putting your all into winning and I didn't want to be the one to take that all away from you."

His gaze softened as he looked up at the inkling, a small smile tugging at his lips.

"You gave me all I could ask for with this fight Wren. A great 1 on 1 duel with countless surprises against a partner that I can tease for all eternity. I mean, what more could a guy ask for?" He grinned, "So... yeah. I figured I'd just let you have this win. Hell, you've earned it."

Wren was silent as he started at the virus in disbelief. The audacity of that... that little... Wren gritted his teeth in anger as he pocketed his pistol and got off of Niles.

"Fucking unbelievable..." he muttered.

"Wait, aren't you gonna kill me? You know... end the round?" Niles asked, confused.

"I told you not to go easy on me." Wren reinforced, "Said that I'd take it as an insult to my abilities. But you went ahead and did it anyway..."

He then turned to face Niles, "So I swear to god, if you pull the same shit tomorrow, I am going to make sure your death is the most painful, drawn out thing imaginable. We can't die here but we sure as hell can feel pain. So if you dare to go easy on me again, I will fucking end you."

Instead of feeling threatened, Niles was just glad to see that Wren's burning desire to win had returned. He smiled at the cowboy, disregarding the dangerous scowl on Wren's face as he stood up and threw an arm over the shoulder of the shorter man.

"Alright, noted. The cowboy likes things hard." He grinned, winking at Wren who rolled his eyes in irritation.

"You disgust me."

"Well, that's a shame considering you're stuck with me forever."

"A fate worse than death in my opinion..."

"Well don't worry, there's plenty of that here too."