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Adjusting had been… hard, for Taco to say the least. After finally deciding to apologize to Microphone in person, she’d somehow found her way into apologizing to everyone living in Hotel OJ and becoming a resident herself. Everything was still tense, especially with Pickle, but it was better than living in the woods, letting the guilt pile on her until she couldn’t handle it. Plus, her face wound was getting worse until she surrendered herself emotionally to Microphone and the hotel’s inhabitants.
It’s been a month since moving, and she still couldn’t sleep. Somehow it was less comfortable to sleep in a bed than forcing yourself to stay awake for hours on end to be alert of your surroundings. Though, Taco should’ve guessed that her insomnia played a huge role in that.
Either way, the insomnia was a burden now. She eventually gives up and checks the time. 4:48am. Wonderful. No point in staying in bed, she got up and headed out of her room quietly.
Her room was separated from most of the season one contestant’s rooms, while it not being OJ’s fault as the season two contestants staying there messed with the flooring plans, it served as a reminder of how far apart she was from them at this point. She tries to shove the thoughts out of her head as she walks past the rooms of ex contestants to get to the first floor.
Taco goes straight to the kitchen, thankful she isn’t met with Trophy again. They’ve come across each other quite a lot this way, both having trouble to sleep. But it never lead to much conversation and both could live without it, even if the company was kind of nice in a way.
Taco fills the electric kettle with water and turns it on. She’d usually just use a normal kettle, but she couldn’t be bothered to do so right now. As the water heated up, looked for a good tea to wake her up. A classic black tea should do it. Once she gets down from looking, she’s met face to face with Pickle and becomes stiff.
“Uh.. hey Taco.” He waves awkwardly at her and she attempts to loosen up before waving hi back.
“Couldn’t get back to sleep either?” He sheepishly smiled, fidgeting with his hands, seemingly to do something with them.
“That would imply I got any,” Taco let’s out in a lighthearted manner, but Pickle gets a look on his face. Judgement? Concern? Taco couldn’t really tell.
After letting the silence sink in a little too long, she catches herself picking at her scarring and turns around. Grabbing some sugar and a cup, she turns her attention back to tea making rather than the presence of Pickle.
Pickle walks up next to her as she pours the hot water into the cup with a tea bag. She adds in a few sugars and starts stirring the tea.
Pickle leans on the kitchen counter, back against the wall with his arms crossed, as if it’ll work as some sort of shield. He glanced of her, but when she looked back he looked away. It was obvious to her that he was thinking about saying something to fill the silence but couldn’t figure out his words. Taco stops stirring the tea and looks at it for a moment, thinking out her words before looking back at her old companion.
“Do you want some tea?” She held up the filled teacup towards Pickle. He hesitates for a second, before mumbling a quick “sure” and taking the cup from her hand. He sipped it and hummed, the warm tea having just enough sweetness for him to enjoy wholly. While he’s basking in the bliss of a good tea, Taco looks at him and gives a slight smile before walking towards to Pickle to get a cup for her own tea.
“I knew you’d like more sugar in your tea.” She says it nonchalantly, but Pickle perks up at the statement. “You don’t eat too many junk foods, but you always lean towards sweeter treats. Which is amusing, seeing as you’re a pickled veggie.” She focuses on pouring the water in her cup.
“Ah, one of the many things you picked up when using me, right?” There’s a bitter tone in his voice, but he looks to have regret his words soon after they came out of his mouth. It’s too early for this.
Taco seems to not react strongly, smiling fading while tossing the now used teabag out of her teacup. “Yes, I suppose so.” Pickle notices the slight tremors in her hand movements as she takes a sip of her tea, but doesn’t say anything.
The silence over them was heavy and suffocating. Both of them absolutely hated it, but neither had the guts to cut through it. Pickle finishes his tea and places the cup down next to Taco and starts to walk away.
“If you want, I can make more tea.” Taco offered. Pickle turned back and smiled before shaking his head. “Maybe another time, but I’m good for now.” Taco nods at him, focusing on her own cup and thinking. Suddenly, a hand lightly and cautiously lands on her shoulder.
“Well, thanks for the tea, Taco. I’ll see you around. I’ll try to go back to sleep, you should too.” Taco looks up at him and just dumbly nods, before finding her words.
“No problem, and I’ll try.” She lies straight to his face about possibly trying. She knows he’ll figure it out, the black tea being strong enough to keep her up for another 5 hours at least, and the same will probably be true for Pickle. She doesn’t have the heart to tell him the tea will keep him up however.
Pickle walks out of the kitchen, heading to his room. Taco stands there absentmindedly before deciding to clean up the cups do she doesn’t get a earful from Soap later.
Maybe she and Pickle can talk more later. Yeah, that’d be good. She missed that. Even if it was awkward tonight. And the last time. And probably next time too.
But Taco decided to grin and bear it, as it’ll be worth it if it means having her friend back, even after she wronged him.