They never thought they would be put into this situation. Especially not Freddy, but here he was, up against his long-time rival friend peer, Red the Red Dragon.

There was tension. Tension so thick you could cut through it. It made shivers crawl up Freddy’s spine whenever he thought about it.

“Victor, what do I do?” Freddy cried out, head buried in his hands. He didn’t like being up against Red. It gave him a sick feeling.

Victor (as in Victor E. Bull from UBuffalo) scoffed, “Girl, what do you expect me to say?” He filed away at his nails hooves. “Your man already beat me to support you.”

“HE’S NOT MY MAN!” Freddy screamed, before catching the unimpressed face of Victor out of the corner of his eye and composing himself. “He’s not my man. He voted for me just to get you to lose.”

Victor continued filing away. “So he’s using you?” He raised his brow.

Freddy just groaned and put his head in his hands again. Maybe it was true, maybe Red was using him, but that didn’t stop him from caring about him. Sure, he was roughly five hours away in “Oneonta, New York,” although Freddy still wasn’t completely convinced that it was a real place, but he felt something for Red. Something that he had never felt for any other mascot before.

But, he knew his place. He knew Red didn’t care about Freddy the way Freddy cared for him. Red was a fiery, feisty red dragon. He knew what he had to do to win, and he had done it.

Freddy inhaled and exhaled before straightening his spine and looking straight at Victor.

“I’m gonna text him.”

Victor gasped, “Are you crazy?!”

“What else should I do?!” Freddy threw his arms up, frustrated.

And in that moment, like a sign from the gay New Yorker God above, Freddy’s phone buzzed.

Freddy looked at the message in horror as Victor looked over his shoulder and burst out in laughter.

“Man, you are down BAD.” Victor cackled.

---

As the votes were cast, Freddy grew more and more nervous. He wanted to win, of course he did, but he was scared.

Scared of the way his relationship friendship bond with Red would change. He was happy with the way things were now, even if he was being used by the dragon.

He saw the way Red and his fans were trashing Freddy on social media. He was just a pawn to them.

He drafted message after message, always growing too scared to reply to Red after he taunted him days ago. It was the last day to vote, and the gap between Freddy and Red had been steadily shrinking and shrinking.

Too frustrated and anxious to send his current message draft of “im in love with yuo” he checked the votes again.

Holy crap. It couldn’t be.

HE WAS BEATING RED.

Freddy couldn’t believe it. He was beating Red! He knew a part of him should feel bad, but he was just so excited. He quickly opened his notes app back up, deleted his message draft, and crafted up a new one.

Is this what Red felt like all the time? The high of sweet, sweet victory ran through Freddy’s veins. Maybe now Red would treat him as something other than a pawn. Maybe now he would finally treat him as an equal.

Yes, Freddy liked the sound of that.

---

Freddy was the most embarrassed and humiliated he had ever felt in his entire life.

He was in the lead for approximately fifteen minutes until Red and his supporters crushed his dreams in the last ten minutes of voting. Freddy was a loser. He lost.

Against his and Victor’s judgement, he called Red. It went to voicemail the first 17 times until Red picked up.

“Hey, little devil, how’s losing feel? You call to yell at me?” Red’s deep, smooth voice taunted him through the phone.

Freddy swallowed his pride and cleared his throat, “No. I, uh, I actually called to congratulate you.”

There was a beat of silence before Freddy heard Red laugh.

“Huh, wow. Well, thanks. You put up a good fight.”

OhmygodRedjustcomplimentedhim.

Freddy laughed back, “Thanks, you too. I’ll, uh, see you around?”

He heard Red try to hide his scoff.

“Yeah, Fred, I’ll see you around.”

Red hung up before Freddy got a chance to reply. He lowered the phone and couldn’t hide the smile slowly forming on his face.

Victor shook his head and sighed, “You need to stand up, girl.”

Freddy nodded, “Yeah, maybe next year.”