Mephone has always been terrified of Cobs, but the brain can only take so much scrutiny. Mephone snaps after Cobs hurts his contestants. With a new crack in his screen, the reappearance of a power Mephone thought had vanished, and Cobs(?) always loo...
It was now dinnertime, and Baseball was tired. Less because of the anesthetic Test Tube gave him, more the mental strain. Baseball made his way towards his and Suitcase's room sluggishly. Thankfully he heard from Lightbulb that her, Knife, and Test Tube only talked about Mephone after Baseball fell asleep. He breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that, if he had been conscious for that conversation, he probably might have passed out anyway. He wanted to avoid that topic of conversation as long as possible. He was too scared to talk about it with anyone else. Besides, OJ asked them not to go around just telling people what happened if they weren't personal friends. But even then, the only person he would even want to talk to at all right now would be Suitcase or-
Baseball froze in his tracks. Just a few doors down from his room someone stood outside of it. "C'mon Suitcase! You've heard the rumors. I'm not gonna disown him or something stupid like that I just wanna know where he is." Nickel's voice echoed down the hallway as he spoke with Suitcase. She shook her head, frustrated. "And I'm telling you I don't know! I fell asleep in the med office, I have no idea where Baseball went off to. He might still be passed out in the infirmary for all I know." Nickel rolled his eyes. "Ah, well thank you Suitcase! That was soooo helpful." Nickel snarked.
Suitcase shut the door. Nickel sighed, an unreadable expression on his face. He turned to go to the med office but stopped immediately once he saw Baseball standing there. "Baseball!" Nickel's face would have just looked normal to anyone else, but Baseball knew better. He had known Nickel for years, he noticed all the little things no one else would. Despite his tone, Baseball could hear the faint relief in his voice and almost missed the flash of worry in his eyes as he looked over Baseball's bruises.
Nickel's eyebrows pulled together in such a way that would make others think he was annoyed, but Baseball recognized it as his "thinking face." He looked over Baseball carefully, his eyes becoming thicker with concern the more bruises he counted. Nickel shook himself out of his thoughts as he jogged to meet Baseball halfway. "Listen- I know you're probably still tired but- I just- I wanted to...." Nickel stumbled over his words and Baseball felt himself smile. "....can I talk to you?" Nickel met Baseball's gaze with a false confidence he could spot a mile away.
Baseball couldn't stop grinning. "Ya... alright." Baseball saw Nickel nod resolutely. But it was hard to miss the ghost of a smile on his face as well. Nickel led him to his hotel room at the far end of the hall. Baseball expected another person to be inside, but there was none. "You have a single room? How did you manage that?" Nickel smirked. "I used to room with Box, but he wanted to have a single room and somehow managed to convince OJ to let him have one of the extra ones to himself. So now I have our room all to myself." Nickel explained smugly.
Baseball smiled as they sat on the bed, Nickel ranting on about the many events that went on at the hotel while Baseball was still on the show: Yin-Yang's new butterfly catching hobby, Paintbrush's painting class, even Balloon making up with most of the others. Nickel seemed a bit hesitant talking about that, Baseball chose not to pry. Baseball glanced out the window, the sun was already setting, had they really been talking that long? Nickel was in the middle of one of his stories when Baseball interrupted him. "Nickel...why did you want to talk to me?"
Nickel stopped mid sentence. "What do you mean? Do I really need a reason to want to talk to you?" Nickel laughed nervously. Baseball raised an eyebrow, Nickel sweated. "Is it a crime to want to see you now or something? I just wanted to...make sure." Nickel trailed off. "Were you...worried about me?" Baseball's grin came back and Nickel sputtered. "What!? Noooooo, why would I be worried? You're tough! I knew you would be alright." Nickel sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than he was trying to convince Baseball. In the end he didn't convince either.
Nickel sighed, defeated. "When you guys showed up and the episode that was scheduled for thks week never aired, I guess everyone just assumed it was something bad, and since neither OJ or Paper would say anything about it people started spreading rumors. I don't know how it started but...all of them weren't very good." Baseball nodded, he expected that. "I just...I don't know, wanted to make sure you were doing alright I guess." Nickel hesitantly confessed, sounding unsure about it himself. Baseball's grin diminished as he was reminded of MeCloud. He remembered the conversation he had with Suitcase in Meeple care, Baseball took a deep breath, better now than later.
"Actually, Nickel there was something important I've been wanting to talk to you about." Nickel looked up, curiously. "It's about Suitcase and Balloon." Nickel's expression immediately soured. "What about them..." Nickel grumbled under his breath. Baseball found himself becoming defensive. "Nickel, the way you treated them, you do realize how awful it was, right?" Baseball asked hopefully. Nickel couldn't meet his eyes. "And what if it was? It wasn't anything personal-" "Do you think I don't know that by now?" Baseball cut him off. "I know to you it was only part of the game, but I'm serious Nickel, what you did really messed her up."
Nickel scoffed, his anger rising. "How could I have messed her up? All I did was play the game." Nickel went on the defensive, not used to arguing with Baseball like this. Baseball went quiet, Nickel opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by Baseball. "She still has nightmares about the lake y'know..." Nickel froze. "She...what?" Nickel finally looked at him, his eyes full of confusion. It was silent between the two for a long moment, Nickel digested the information. "She doesn't have them too much anymore, depends on her mental state. She told me about some after the whole alien debacle...they aren't pretty." The silence continued, Nickel glared off into space, his face a complex bouquet of emotions.
He would flip from disbelief, to concern, to anger and then back again. But under all of it...was guilt. A growing guilt that Baseball hadn't seen for a long time. He overlapped Nickel's leg with his own, snapping Nickel out of his daze. "The show is over Nickel...if it wasn't personal before, then it is now." Nickel closed his eyes and breathed a deep breath. "....I know." "Then man up, admit to your mistakes, and apologize...not just for me and Suitcase, but for yourself as well, ok?" Nickel didn't say it out loud, but he gave Baseball a look that made it clear he understood. "Alright, I'll... apologize." Baseball smiled, relieved. "Thank you Nickel." Nickel grunted in reply, but he smiled a bit too. "Ya, whatever."
Nickel yawned. "What time is it?" Baseball looked to the clock. "It's almost 10 actually." Baseball yawned too. "I should really go back to my room..." Despite saying that, Baseball didn't make any move to leave. Nickel sleepily leaned against him, his eyes drooping. ".....I missed you." Baseball laughed slightly, Nickel was already falling asleep. "Y'know Nickel...I missed you too."
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"Paper do you know where Baseball is?" Suitcase asked. Paper thought for a moment. "I saw him go to Nickel's room a few hours ago, maybe he's there?" Suitcase nodded. "Thanks Paper!" Suitcase jogged to Nickel's door. It was getting late and Baseball had never come back to their shared room. Suitcase was starting to get worried. "Baseball?" Suitcase knocked on the door, but there was no response. She jiggled the door knob, it was unlocked. She cracked the door open, allowing a sliver of light to invade the dark hotel room.
Baseball and Nickel both lied on the bed, completely asleep, a small desk lamp the only thing illuminating them. Suitcase sighed in relief and smiled, she quietly shut the door, careful not to wake them. She went back to her own room, I guess she had nothing to worry about after all.
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------------- 1411 words, Here's some fluff to counteract the trippy trauma dream from last chapter XD. Trust me we'll get back to Mephone soon I promise. Mephone angst is very fun to write but I think we need some normalcy every once in a while.
