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A/N
OK SO I GUESS IM JUST DOING LONG CHAPTERS NOW
SO ENJOY THIS OTHER LONG CHAPTER
ALSO TPOT 6 AND III14 ARE OUT TMMR I CANT WAITTTT
TW: slight angst? Only a little
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Balloons pov
This morning at breakfast, fan announced that he was finally dating test tube. We all shared a laugh when she "hid" herself as a joke. She laughed with us and we all congratulated them. By afternoon it was all over fans' social media pages. It was an enlightening morning. (bro who uses the word 'enlightening' 💀)
Now it was 3pm, and there was a calm feel over the hotel. I walked outside into the forest behind the hotel, where we were all hiding the day before, watching the fantube confession. I sat down on a stray tree stump and I watched the beauty of nature.
The deep green branches of the pine trees swayed gently in the breeze and the wild forest flies flew around delicately. There was an occasional glimmer of golden sunlight escaping through the leaves and the thing that topped the whole scene off was the petite white butterflies fluttering about. This heavily inspired me to write.
I opened my book of poems and stories and I flipped through the pages. All these poems I wrote before, some about scenery, some about my life, like some sort of diary. I stopped at one particular page where my handwriting was a mess, and some of the letters were smudged in an uneven ink circle. Tear stains. This was the poem I wrote the day I got eliminated. I didn't act all sad at the actual elimination, but I had to let it all out on this page at 3am that night. It was mostly about missing suitcase, and how I wished her best of luck in the final four. But there was a lot about nickel. How I was devastated by how we had the same room. It took me a while to forgive him, and look where we are now. We act like good friends all the time, and he's starting to make me feel... uhm-i.. uh. Why do I feel like that towards him. It's clear to me that the feeling is more than friendship... but why?
Welp, I can't argue with my heart.
A beam of sunlight reaches my spot. It basks me in warm light. The warmth made me feel sleepy. Before I could do anything to stop, my eyes started to shut slowly, and I got off and leaned against the tree stump for better comfort. I felt the world start to fade...
Nickels pov
I sigh as boredom took a tight hold of my day. Man, these days have been so boring recently. I wish there was something to do. I suddenly get the urge to talk to balloon. Balloon? Why balloon? Out of everything I could do my mind really picked balloon (😏😏). I call his phone to ask him where he is. But then I hear his ringtone from the nightstand (inanimate insanity invitational jingle btw). Great, he left his phone here.
I hang up and get up to go look for him. He's obviously outside somewhere, he's always outside. I go downstairs and spot fan on the way out. I decide to ask him if he's seen balloon. It would make things easier for me anyway.
"Hey fan?"
"Hey nickel, what's up?"
"Have you seen balloon anywhere?"
Fan smirks slightly and laughs quietly. I glare at him
"Sorry, sorry heh, I saw him walking behind the hotel earlier"
"Oh, thanks" I say. But before I go outside.
"Nickel wait, may I ask why?" Fan says
"Well I-uh, i- why do you want to know?" I stammer.
"It's fine it's fine, just asking" he says, about to laugh. I give him THE LOOK and walk out to find balloon.
I look at the forest that's behind the hotel. He's probably in there, so I get searching. The little flies annoy me slightly but I pay little attention to them, they're not what I'm looking for. I push through the vines and fall over some tree roots, and just as I'm about to give up, I spot him.
He's leaning on a tree stump, resting calmly. A ray of sunlight covered his face and shone off him, it made him look so... handso- NO WAI- NOT NOW. I stop the thoughts before I get too carried away. I watch him for a while then I realise, I'm going to have to wake him up. I kinda have no hands.. so I can't lift him up and bring him to our room. I wish I didn't have to do this, but..
"Balloon-"
"Balloon wake up"
"You've been here for a while"
"Wake up"
He stirs and his eyes start to flicker drowsily. He brings his hand up and rubs his eyes. When he's conscious enough he looks at me. I realise how close I am and I step back, flustered. He looks so cute when he's sleepy, I can't even deny it anymore.
"H-hey" he says. He looks around, and then looks for his phone.
"Oh, I don't think I brought my phone, what's the time?"
I check my phone and reply
"5:30 pm"
"Wow, I've been here for a while," he says. He starts to stand up.
"Thanks for waking me up, I would've been here till night if you didn't" he continues.
I blush slightly as I say "you're welcome".
Balloons pov
I can't believe I was really sleeping for that long. But I can't stop thinking about how close nickel was when he woke me up. The only thing that stopped me from closing the gap between us was the word 'rejection'.
I guess we have to go back to the hotel now. I watch nickel as he looks down to his side, making shapes in the fallen leaves with his left foot. He looks really cute while doing it, and my heart picks up its pace.
"We should get going," I say to him trying to ignore the raging storm of butterflies in my stomach.
"Sure"
He starts walking back the way I assume he came from, and I follow him. He looks at the ground, avoiding the tree roots, but then he looks up and around confused.
"Hey.. I don't see an exit anywhere"
I look around to help him, (he prolly missed it cuz of how SHORT he is) but I see nothing. Without a word, we both start running around looking for an escape route, but all we see are tree trunks, endlessly towering over us. The rays of light start turning a bright orange, meaning the sun was setting. This is not good.
After what seemed like hours of searching, nickel sits down against a tree, groaning. I sit down next to him.
"Why are these forests so big?" I sigh. I feel something wrap around my arm. I look beside me to find that it was nickels leg. He leaned onto me and I could feel him shivering.
"It's cold..." he says weakly. If I didn't fall asleep, he wouldn't come looking for me, and we wouldn't end up in this situation. I feel really bad. Great balloon, you did it again. You and your mistakes, all the time.
"I'm sorry" I say, my voice cracking because of the tears I'm holding in.
Nickel looks up at me with a slightly worried expression on his face.
"Balloon.. it's not your fault"
"It is.." I whisper under my breath. But unfortunately he hears.
"Nononono please balloon, don't say that, please."
"I promise, it's not your fault" he continues
I look at nickel, slightly surprised.
"Please, don't say stuff like that, I don't want you taking the blame"
He nudges me on my left.
"Oh I uh- Im tryna hug you but I kinda have no hands"
I giggle at his gesture and hug him back. I feel much better now, but I also feel butterflies. It's almost like those pretty white butterflies I saw earlier today are now in my stomach. But this time, I'm not internally panicking. I feel safe with nickel.
"Oh and the cold thing? Don't worry, I'm just low in iron" nickel says.
"Heh, I see why nickel" I giggle. (YALL SEE WHAT I DID THERE EHEHHEHE)
We stay like that for a few minutes, before nickel gasps.
"How did I forget? I literally have my phone" he says. He quickly takes it out (from where?!?! I don't understand these objects) and goes on meeple maps to retrace his footsteps from when he was finding me in the afternoon. We quickly match up the steps and get out of that dreadful forest.
It was night by now, so we both went back to our room as quietly as we could. As we climbed into that BEAUTIFULLY WARM bed, I start talking
"Thanks nickel"
"For what?"
"For everything you said back there."
"It's no problem balloon, really"
"I didn't know you were so good at comforting people heh. Maybe you should do that more often, instead of the sarcasm"
"Hey! That sarcasm is half my life"
"I prefer the other half"
We both laugh and chat until the night was deep and we both got tired. But I slept with ease, knowing nickel was only six feet away from me.
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AUTHOR HERE:
WHY WAS THAT LAST LINE KINDA CHEESY UHM HELP (I n s e r t k n e e s l a p)
PLS IDK WHY ALOT OF THE LANGUAGE IN THIS CHAPTER IS KINDA FORMAL, IG I WAS FEELING ✨taco vibes✨ TODAY
1542 WORDS
HOPE YOU ENJOYED
Until we meet again
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