Stranded in Paradise || TPOT x III AU

Chapter 16

Nickel had gotten caught between the votes. It was between him getting eliminated, and her.
Admittedly he was a bit surprised. He and Balloon hadn't told anyone else who they were voting for, yet currently they were tied in votes. Maybe everyone recognized the danger like they had? He couldn't be sure, only four of the six votes had been called already.

Balloon sighed when the next vote was called for Pillow and not Nickel. It was still so early into this whole competition, and everything felt wrong already.
It would be nice to at least have someone he knew on the team with him. He wasn't ready to be left on an unfamiliar team, in an unfamiliar place, with unfamiliar feelings.

This could only go two ways now.
Either it ends in a tie, with three votes for Nickel and Pillow each, or Pillow gets eliminated.
She was already at 3 votes, so even if the last vote wasn't her or Nickel, she would still be out.

Balloon was crossing his fingers. Nickel probably would be as well.
He looked over at Pillow. She just looked somewhat confused.

"And the second person eliminated..." MePhone4 started to announce. "Is Pillow."
Everything went quiet as Mephone showed the last two votes, both for Pillow. With a two-to-four vote, Pillow would be the next person out.

Balloon and Nickel both sighed in relief simultaneously glancing at each other, but Pillow just looked confused.

"What?" Pillow asked after a few long seconds. She had asked as if this was all some sort of joke.
She raised her hand, speaking to Mephone. "Can we vote again?"

"Nope. The votes were clear. It sucks to have a newbie out so soon, but that's what your team wanted. C'mon."
MePhone4 gestured to a spot somewhat besides him. Pillow just got up from her spot and walked over. Her expression was so... unreadable. Balloon tilted his head as he tried to understand what she was feeling. Was she mad? Sad? Did she even care?

After the whole elimination, everyone had just sort of spread out again. It was already late again.
Pie had gone to hang out with some others, Tree, Black Hole, and Remote, and Teardrop had dragged Box away to god-knows-where.

Balloon looked over at Nickel, who was staring over at the pink team, but at a certain someone specifically.
Balloon sighed and approached him. "Don't think too much about it. What happened, happened."

Nickel just looked away from Balloon. "Yeah, I guess so. He looks similar though. I just guess I thought something else was going to happen tonight."

"It's fine." Balloon paused for another moment or so, holding his hands together in front of him, as he debated his next words. "I wish things had gone differently as well. Not tonight... but back before all this."

"Excuse me?" Nickel turned back to Balloon, staring him right in the eyes, making him put his hands to his sides.

"I wish we had gotten along better during the last season, I guess that's what I'm trying to say... Do you think maybe we could try and patch things up?..."

Nickel just stared into Balloon's eyes for a few more seconds. He was dead silent, his expression unreadable.
After a moment he chuckled and rolled his eyes. "I'll think about it, Balloon. Just don't try and manipulate the team—"

"I wasn't PLANNING to." Balloon started to get a bit defensive, the pitch of his voice raising slightly. He was better than that. "I wasn't even good at it!"

"Yeah, yeah." Nickel also debated his words, but he was a lot more hesitant about what he was going to say, but he knew better than to just back out like that.
"I guess I should... apologize. To you."

635 words
April 9, 2024
(this was really rushed but i swear this is the last of these two for a bit)