Balloons pov

The weather today is a lot better than before, it's cloudy with a hint of sun. I come downstairs and sit down next to nickel for breakfast. Today OJ serves up pancakes! Everyone's mood improves and the table starts buzzing with happy conversation. Nickel and I start talking about different little topics, just casual conversation. Until I overhear OJ talking to paper about food.

"Y'know paper, a lot of the fruits are finishing really quickly recently, and this morning there were no strawberries"

"Is that why you couldn't make the homemade strawberry jam you wanted to try?"

"Yeah.. and I'm not bothered to, the prices for those berries are way too high recently"

"Aww, I'm sure we can find cheap ones somewhere"

Nickel seems to realise I'm listening to their conversation, so he listens in too.

"Did you know they're out of strawberries?" I ask nickel.

"Yeah, I've heard. Why does it concern you though?" he says.

"I know a place where I've found strawberries before, I was thinking of going there after breakfast. Wanna come with?"

"Sure!" nickel says enthusiastically. I didn't think he would actually want to go. But I'm certainly not complaining!

Nickels pov:

After breakfast, balloon and i walked out of the hotel to go to this place he was talking about. I didn't think I wanted to go, but I guess I've changed. I follow him as he walks down a long path I never seemed to have noticed before. 

"Uhm, balloon? Where exactly are we going? I ask curiously.

"I've known this place for a long time. It's called Dawnberry Orchard"

"Ooh, ok"

We walk for about another five minutes, until we reach two young trees, with little white buds dotted all over them.

"I think we're here" balloon says.

We walk through under the trees, and my jaw almost drops. This place wasn't just an orchard, it looked like a fantasy garden!

"It's amazing? Isn't it?" balloon says, noticing my eyes widen. The sun was shining onto the lemon green leaves and the colours of the millions of flowers here were all vibrant hues. It was so bright, it kind of hurt my eyes, but not in a bad way. 

"Y-yeah" i say in awe. He walks forward into the sun, and the rays of sun making it look like he was shining. He looks back at me and smiles warmly, his bright eyes setting fireworks off in my heart. He gestures to me to come over and I walk towards him slowly. When I reach him he puts his hand on my back, and if I wasn't blushing before, I certainly am now. 

"This was my comfort place for the longest time," he says.

"I can tell" I reply. 

He starts walking towards a gentle slope and starts climbing it. There was a small garden room at the very top, and damn, whoever built that was real talented. It was a large tree with a sunroom built right out of it. Basically the walls inside were just made of wood and the ceiling and door were glass. I ran up ahead of balloon and tried to open the door, but it wouldn't work. 

"Balloon! It's locked" I shout.

"Not for long" he says, before walking up beside me and pulling out a key.

"Y-YOU OWN THE PLACE?!" I say, extremely surprised.

"Nah, we do."

"W-WHAT?" I stammer, as he hands me a similar looking key.

"Well... I have a story for you"

We both walk inside and sit down on some cushions previously placed here. Balloon starts telling me the story.

"I came to this place very often during the competition and in between challenges. There used to be an owner and she was one of the nicest people I met. Her name was Watering can, but I called her Canny. Very few people came here often, and when someone introduced me to the place and Canny, I became those few people. This place holds so many memories to me, and a lot of the poems and stories I wrote were based on this garden. One time, I came here for an everyday walk, and Canny handed me a few keys. When I asked her why, she said she was moving into her son's home, as she was too old to take care of herself anymore. That was one of the most devastating pieces of news I would ever hear. She gave keys to the other few people who visited the place, and a week later, she was gone. Far far away. I hope she's doing okay, I still think about her often. But basically, those few people and I now own the place"

He finishes talking and looks out the garden room, watching a few orange butterflies pass by. I take in all this information. 

"She sounds like a great person" I say

"She was"

I look at the key he gave me, and then I ask something.

"Balloon? Why did you give me the key?"

He hesitates before he speaks. 

"Well I uh-" he looks to the side, a tinge of pink covering his face.

"With how close we've become, I trust you. And I thought you'd like coming here often" he says softly.

I blush slightly as I hear this. 

"You're right. I will come here often. This is the most beautiful place I've ever seen" I reply. 

He looks at me and smiles warmly. My heart skips a beat. We look at each other for what felt like hours, and I feel myself lean closer, until I realise what I'm doing and look away quickly. He seems to realise at the same time and he looks away also. 

"Uh-I- we sh- we should go look for those strawberries" I say, stuttering badly. 

"Y-yeah we should" he says back.

We both get up and he unlocks the door and we step out into the cool breeze. I run past him down the hill and he starts running after me.

"H-hey, stop running!" He laughs as he chases me down. We both reach the end of the hill, trying to catch our breaths but failing, because of how much we were laughing. 

When we FINALLY calm down, he starts leading me towards where I reckon the fruit bushes were. I spot a blueberry bush, with one bunch of young blueberries on it, the rest of the bush covered in flowers and leaves. Eventually he finds the strawberries, and they were in full bloom. Just the perfect size and a bright red colour, they looked amazing. I never thought I'd think a strawberry bush looked beautiful, but here I am.

Balloon takes out a basket and starts plucking the strawberries off their stems. I start helping too, and soon enough, the basket was fuller than it could be. Balloon took two strawberries and walked towards a tap, which was probably for washing the fruits. He washed them and handed me one.

"Try it," he said.

I did, and oh my god were they good. They were tangy yet sweet, and the flavour was bursting through my taste buds.

"Damn these are GOOD as hell" I say

"I know right?" He replies.

We walked back to the garden room before leaving for the hotel.

"Aww, I wish we could stay longer.." I say.

"We can always come back here anytime, and now that you have the keys, you can come here whenever you want yourself!"

We walk back to the hotel, talking and laughing. My heart felt like it was about to explode in happiness. As we entered the hotel, oj was in the kitchen with paper, checking out new recipes for lunch.

"Hey oj?" Balloon says.

"Yeah?" OJ says looking up.

Balloon holds out the basket of strawberries, and ojs eyes widen while paper smiles in awe.

"We uh- we overheard about the strawberry situation you guys were talking about at breakfast and, balloon knew a place that grew fruits, so we got these for you." I explain.

"Woah..." paper says

"These strawberries are in their prime! They're perfect! And they were basically free? I can't thank you enough guys, thank you!" OJ says, taking the strawberries. 

"No problem guys" balloon says. Paper also thanks us and smiles as we leave to our room.

As Balloon and I get ready for bed that night, I decide to ask him something.

"Balloon, who introduced you to the garden?"

Balloon opens his mouth to answer, but closes it. A slightly sad expression comes to his face.

"Hey, are you ok?" I ask

"Yeah uh- lemme answer your question actually. It was.. suitcase."

A silence spreads across the room. I think about suitcase, and everything that happened between balloon and I in the competition. Regret and worry starts to wash over me, and I start speaking.

"I'm... sorry, balloon. I'm sorry for not believing you changed, and bullying you, and making you the problem in every situation that happened to us. I was a horrible alliance member, and I wish I could go back and change all of that. I'm sorry I kept telling suitcase to stay away from you, like you were some kind of disease. Balloon, I'm so sorry i-i" I look down and fight the tears while trying to finish my sentence.

"I-im-"

"Nickel no, please don't cry-" balloon says. He walks over to my bed and sits down next to me.

"I-uh-"

"Nickel, I forgive you. I forgave you a long time ago. You changed, and I can tell it's not fake. I don't care how mean you were before anymore. Even though you did take a while to forgive me for my actions in season 1, I don't care. I'm just glad you've gotten over the past. The past is the past, we laugh about it, and then we move on. Don't worry nickel, I forgive you." He hugs me gently, and my first tear escapes from my eyes. But due to the little speech balloon just gave, it was also my last. I move closer to him to indicate hugging him back, and we stay like that for a while. I feel déjà vu from the forest incident. We eventually break out of the hug and he looks at me smiling. 

"Are we good now?" I ask.

"We were a long time ago, nickel."

I smile back at him as he walks back to his bed.

"G'night" he says.

"Night" I reply.

And I fall into slumber quickly, while thinking about only one person.

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HEY PPLS

HOW ARE YALL

1695 WORDS YAYAYAYA

I THINK THATS MY LONGEST CHAPTER YET

BUT I DIDNT PROOFREAD SO UH- DONT MIND ANY MISTAKES LOL

Just gonna say now, I'm kinda busy this weekend, so I mightnt upload. BUT ILL BE BACK ON MONDAY!

HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED THAT

CYA!!

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