Balloons pov 

I sit at my spot on the dining table, slightly exhausted after helping OJ clean up the party. The competing contestants stayed for the night and nickel and i had a blast hanging out with baseball and suitcase until 4 in the morning. We eventually let them sleep because -although it was highly unlikely- there could be a challenge the next day that they needed their energy for. 

Yeah, I don't think Mephone would care that there was a full fledged party going on the night before the contest.

Paintbrush, test tube, soap, microphone and paper are also sitting at the dining table. Everyone else was either still sleeping or just coming down now. There's about half an hour till breakfast and nobody feels like it was worth sleeping for just that half an hour. Painty is drowning themself in coffee, probably because they were up with lightbulb all night. And they still look like they are gonna sleep the whole day after breakfast.

But the most annoying person at the table is definitely trophy. He isn't even on the table, he's on the floor, holding his head in pain.

"UUuuEuEeeEEAaaaAAAEE" he groans, deep in his hangover.

"I DID say you weren't allowed drinks trophy" oj says, extremely annoyed.

"yEAh but you could've, i don't know, taken it from meEeeeEEee" his voice is raspy but still has his flair of snarkiness. He stretches out the last syllable, wincing.

"Trust me, i tried" oj says.

Paintbrush lays their head down on the table and asks test tube to wake them up when breakfast is being served. She sits down next to them and checks the time on her phone. Soap and microphone are having some conversation and paper is in the kitchen helping oj. 

Suddenly everyone's phone dings. Must be a message on the hotel gc. Oj doesn't take out his phone since he is working on the stove, so paper stops whisking the eggs to check for him. Paintbrush still doesn't budge, although I know they heard the notification. The expressions on the people who probably opened the message changes to confusion. Soap and test tube start giggling and soon almost everyone is laughing. Even paintbrush gets up annoyed but opens their phone to check anyway. And soon enough, they start laughing too.

"I -AHA- think that's meant for you -AHAH- balloon" paintbrush says in a fit of giggles. I look at them confused and I open my phone to check. 

________________

Hotel oj

Five cents <3: ughh wher are u baloon

Five cents <3: y arnt you here 

Five cents <3: com backkkkkkkkllm

Soap: oop

Soap: nickel ur bfs downstairs

Test tube: lol

Fan: TESTY UR USING ABBREVIATIONS

Test tube: figured I'd give it a try

Paper: wrong chat?

Paintbrush: nope. Right chat. Dw nickel

Five cents <3: WAIT WAHT

Five cents <3: *WHAT

Five cents <3: SOAP HE'S NOT MY BF 

Microphone: yet

Five cents <3: SHUT UP

Salt: Omg guys can you like, stop texting? It's distracting my beauty sleep.

Pickle: aren't you always on your phone?

Salt: Why would I be on my phone while sleeping? Stupid. 

Pepper: You get em girl!

Trophy:JJjjjjjjjjjjmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

Fan: what the

Trophy:mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

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I look over at trophy to find him passed out on his phone.

"Wha- did he just pass out?" i ask.

"Probably out of sheer exhaustion" oj says, coming out of the kitchen with scrambled eggs. He places them on the table and takes trophy's phone away from him. I look back at the hotel group chat and find nickels first messages deleted. I text him privately.

_______________

Five cents <3

You: aw im coming upstairs one sec

Five cents <3: Shush

You: you really miss me that much?

Five cents <3: ...

________________

I reach the room and open the door.

"No really, did you miss me that much?" I say out loud. Nickel sits up from his bed and looks at me slightly annoyed.

"I need an answer, nickel. You can't 'dot dot dot' in real life."

"That's what the silent treatment is for stupid" he says back.

"That wasn't so silent though, ey?" I laugh. He just groans, but gets up off of his bed.

"*yawn* What are they serving for breakfast today?" he asks.

"Looks like scrambled eggs on toast to me, but they haven't finished laying it out on the table" 

"Oh, alright" he answers plainly, before leaving the room. I follow him and we both walk down the stairs.

"Y'know, trophies being super annoying today" i say, to fill in the -not awkward but evident- silence.

"When is he not?"

"No, he has a hangover today. He passed out of 'sheer exhaustion' according to oj, before I came up to get you."

"UGHH that's just amazing" nickel replies sarcastically. At this point we reach the lobby and sit down on our seats.

"Oooh looks who finally came" soap teases nickel. He looks at her with a 'stfu' expression. Surprisingly, paintbrush keeps their mouth shut this time. I'm guessing it's because we saw them with lightbulb yesterday. No, that's a horrible guess, i'm pretty sure EVERYONE knows they're dating by now.

Slowly one by one, people come downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast is everything toast today. Different jams and spreads are laid out on the table as well as avocados and scrambled eggs. I reach out for the avocados and add lemon juice from a small wedge and a pinch of salt. They taste best that way, in my opinion.

Oj passes trophy some hangover juice and trophy stares at it grossed out.

"Im NOT drinking that." trophy whines.

"It's gonna make the hangover go away quick, and we both know you want that" oj replies. It's crystal clear that trophy is really getting on his nerves. Heck, he's getting on all of our nerves, and some people are on the verge of exploding in anger.

The breakfast is good though

Everyone finishes and trophy FINALLY drinks the disgusting juice. Everyone scatters away from the dining table and paintbrush rushes up to their room to sleep. Nickel and I decide to hang out in the living room, since there's nothing too interesting to do. We sit on the sofa talking about whatever. 

Suddenly trophy comes up to us.

"Heyy guys" he says. We both look at him confused.

"Can we... help you?" i ask.

"It's my turn to do the dishes today... but can you do them for me?" he says. Before I could reply, nickel spoke up.

"Did you really think we were going to say yes?" he says.

"You have to. I have a hangover"

"Well that's your fault!" nickel snaps back, getting increasingly annoyed.

"Well if you dont, I'm gonna tell everyone about this" he says, showing us the picture he took the day we made cupcakes. I blush looking at it. But I don't worry too much.

Nickels pov

Is he trying to blackmail us? Too bad I still have that video...

"Oh really? Well how about this." I say, taking out the video of him throwing up in a bush the previous night. His eyes widen and his face turns red out of embarrassment, but also rage.

"Why did you take that!" he shouts. Some people start looking at us. I get up off the sofa and face him.

"We could literally say the same for all those pictures you took of us" i reply bitterly.

"BUT YOU CAN'T SHOW A VIDEO OF ME DOING... THAT. THAT'LL RUIN MY IMAGE"

"YOU RUINED YOUR IMAGE REALLY LONG AGO. MAYBE IF YOU WOULDN'T INVADE PEOPLE'S PRIVACY AND BLACKMAIL THEM WITH EMBARRASSING PICTURES, PEOPLE WOULD ACTUALLY LIKE YOU". Balloon starts looking worried.

"Nickel i- stop-"

"THAT CAMERA OF YOURS MADE SO MANY PEOPLE YOUR LITERAL SLAVE. YOU CAN USE IT FOR BETTER THINGS Y'KNOW." 

"UGHHH JUST SHUT UPP" trophy shouts. His hand reaches out and he tries to punch me in the face. I stumble backwards avoiding the punch, but trip over my foot, and fall over with my leg in the most complicated position ever. Pain bursts through it, and it's almost unbearable. 

"AUUGHHHH" i cry. I look at trophy, who was looking down at me remorseless. I look at him sourly before shutting my eyes in pain and pressing down on the injured foot with my other one to try and ease the soreness. I curse under my breath as balloon rushes to my side. Pickle and OJ come over to deal with trophy. 

Balloon suddenly lifts me up and runs up the stairs, presumably to our room. He opens the door and lays me down in my bed.

"I'm gonna get test tube to see what's wrong with your foot, ok?" he says. And before I could reply, he dashes out of the room. I sit there in the silence, the only thing I can hear is the thumps of my heartbeat, pacing quicker than normal.

Balloons pov

I rush to test tubes room to find it empty, so then I go to fans room. I knock on the door only for a really tired paintbrush to open it.

"...what"

"Sorry for disturbing your sleep paintbrush, but do you know where fan- no, test tube is?"

They open the door to reveal test tube helping fan with a very broken looking laptop. Fan looks upset.

"Oh, what do you need me for?" Test tube asks, overhearing. 

"Nickel had an accident with trophy and uh, I think his leg might be broken. But I'm not entirely sure, so I wanted you to check, if you don't mind"

"No, I don't mind. Fan, I'm gonna be right back". Fan nods his head and starts scrolling on his phone. Test tube places the dismantled laptop on the bedside table and leaves the room, waving at the two. Paintbrush waves back and closes the door.

"So, how exactly did he get injured?" Test tube asks as we walk to my room.

"Well, trophy tried to swing a punch at him and he dodged it, but ended up falling on his leg. That's how he injured it" I explain.

"Oh wow, trophy really can't control his anger, huh?"

"And nickel can't stop arguing with people. I'm kind of disappointed because he sorta got himself into this, but I hope he's ok" I say worriedly. Test tube nods and takes out a small machine. 

"Say, I know I don't usually ask things like this but, are nickel and you really dating?". I blush at the question.

"N-no! We aren't!"

"Oh, you like him, don't you"

"No-w-well yeah- no wait- i-"

Test tube smiles and puts a hand on my shoulder. 

"Hey, it's ok. You don't have to answer. But just so you know, keeping your secrets pushed down isn't going to help. I know you bond with him alot, but, don't be afraid to express your love, even the slightest." She takes her hand off my shoulder.

"When I first realised I liked fan, I denied it for a terribly long time. And I denied it so much that it started distracting me from my experiments alot. Many of my inventions didn't work properly because of some silly mistake I couldn't believe I forgot. Lots of things failed and I almost exploded half of my lab! Hehe... 

But I started to accept the fact that I liked him, and I looked at the little signs and tried to hang out with him more. I'd do tiny things, but it meant alot in our relationship. Besides, the closer we are, the less chance of rejection right? I still didn't get to the confessing part though, and if it wasn't for paintbrush, we probably still wouldn't be together."

"W-wait, you knew?" I ask surprised.

"Yeah, I knew it was paintbrush who wrote that letter. Even though they are really good at copying handwriting, I think they forgot that fan dots his 'i's with a line instead of a dot. But I appreciate what they did, because it turned out better for both of us."

"Woah.." I say, amazed at the fact that test tube knew so much about fan to the point that she knew the way he dotted his 'i's.

"Anyway, my point is, become as close as you can with nickel and don't deny your feelings. Who knows? Maybe he wouldn't mind a kiss."

I blush hard after that last line. But I smile at test tubes advice.

"Thank you, so much test tube. We really can't hang out with you without learning something good"

"No problem!" She says. We finally reach our door and I open it to let her in. I see nickel sitting down in his bed, with his uninjured foot bent up and him staring at the ceiling. 

"Hey nickel" test tube says. 

"Oh uh, hey test tube" he says, realising she was there.

"Could you please see if that golden idiot did a number on my foot" he asks. Test tubes walks to his foot and hovers her device over it. Nickels skeleton shows up on the screen and she examines it for a bit, moving it around and zooming in and out. After a while, she shares her findings. 

"Your foot is, fortunately, not broken. It's just badly sprained. I suggest you rest a bit for now but try to walk on it atleast twice in the next twenty four hours. Try walking around the whole room once. It should fully heal by tomorrow evening."

"Oh alright, thanks" nickel says.

"What about the stairs? Can he go down them?"

"You should probably just use the elevator for now."

"No, I'll bring him lunch and dinner." I say, remembering the thing that test tube said. 'I'd do tiny things, but it meant alot in our relationship'.

Test tube smiles at me for that. 

"Ok then, I think we're done here. He doesn't need any medication, just drink plenty of water."

"Thanks you, test tube" I say with gratitude. She says your welcome and makes her way back to fans room. 

"Ugh I think I'm going to rest now" nickel says. I nod and leave him alone and go onto my phone.

After a while I look at him to find him sleeping peacefully. He is lightly snoring and I smile at that calm face. I think about everything that test tube said. 'Don't be afraid to express your love, even the slightest'. Yeah, I will. Besides, no consequences right? He's literally fast asleep. 

I walk up to him around lean down to the side of his face.

'chu'

...

I really just did that. Didn't I

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HEY YOU GUYS

I HOPE YOU LIKED THIS CHAPTER

It was UNEXPECTEDLY LONG 

AND I SURPRISED MYSELF WHEN I SAW THE WORD COUNT

2387 WORDS YEAHHAHAHAHAHA

NO I DONT THINK NICKEL HAS A SKELETON BUT MEH IDK

BALLOON GOT A CONFIDENCE BOOST AT THE END THERE 🤩🤩

IM LOVING TT IN THIS

ALSO 'chu'?!?!? GURL WHAT 😭🖐️

LMAO HELP

K HAVE A GOOD DAY/NIGHT

SEE YA NEXT CHAPTERRR

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