And Even If Things Get Heavy We'll All Float On, Alright

we'll all float on

It was late, and Bubble was tired, yet she just couldn't seem to sleep.

Ruby had turned in a short while after returning with the fallen contestants, though Bubble knew she was more likely than not chatting the night away with Flower rather than sleeping. Despite the fact that they were on different teams, the two absolutely refused to stop their late-night talks. It was kinda strange to her, in a way, to see people from two different teams get along so well, all things considered.

It was sweet.

A breeze nearly sent her tumbling, pulling her back into the moment. Nearly everyone else had split off for the night, burrowing away in their new towers—or what was left of them, anyways—for some much-desired rest, yet she couldn't follow suit. Her mind was racing with indistinct thoughts. They held little meaning, and she couldn't seem to follow any particular train of thought long enough to feel any which way about it. Instead, she opted to simply follow the pull of the energy fueling them until she found herself somewhere just outside the competition area in a small field of flowing grasses, surrounded on two sides by pillars and mountains that jutted up at awkward angles and seemed to creek softly when the wind blew just right.

She stared ahead at a figure in the grass, feet rooted to the ground. Their silhouette cut cleanly through the smatterings of stars, obscuring the horizon, a darker shade of green in the dim moonlight.

Bubble ran her hand along her arm, watching Leafy shift until she was nearly lying back on the grass. The mere thought of the interaction set her nerves a-flutter. Talking as a team was one, much simpler thing, but a one-on-one conversation was a whole different matter entirely. There were so many things to say, so much to explain, so many excuses for years worth of lost time, that she couldn't catch a single one. They slipped through her fingers and up into the cracks of ledges, eroding away the stone into spring-curl shapes, or down into the soil to germinate and sprout into bushes filled with yoyleberries and questions she'll wish she had forgotten about by morning. So much of it, she would rather leave back on the old set it'd all grown from, nearly a decade ago, but memories and relationships didn't work like that. The demonstration on the tightrope that afternoon made that abundantly clear to everyone.

Even still, she'd really rather not talk about any of it.

And still, she steeled her screaming nerves pushed forward until she stood to Leafy's right. Leafy stared up at the stars overhead, oblivious to her presence or ignoring her altogether.

Judging by the far-off look in her eyes, she guessed the former.

Bubble took a deep breath, which failed to center her completely.

"Ohm"—Leafy flinched, sitting up slightly and looking towards her—"can I sit here?"

She smiled slightly and patted the grass next to her before laying back down. Bubble settled into a similar position, hands crossed over her front, fingers fidgeting with fingers.

Bubble glanced between the swirling sky and her teammate.

A long, silent minute passed.

She looked to Leafy

"How are—" she paused, turning over the phrasing carefully. Leafy's turmoil on the tightrope fluttered into her mind.

She'd been so fidgety. So nervous.

So scared.

"Are you ok?" she settled on eventually, looking away.

Leafy sighed "I don't know."

"Oh." a beat passed. "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"Not really"

They lapsed back into silence, looking up at the stars. They looked so different from the ground, somehow. So much smaller, in such greater numbers.

Mentally, she traced out an arrow among the speckles. It looked more like a spoon.

"Do you know any constellations?" Bubble asked eventually, finally looking back at her again.

"Uh, yeah. A couple. Wanna see?"

Briefly, they made eye contact, exchanging sentiments of something important before looking away. She smiled.

"Sure."