Chapter Text
Ever since BFB, it has been tradition for the teams that were up for elimination to have a final feast together the day before the elimination. This was always intended to be so that the team can chat and give each other their final goodbyes before one of them left the games.
It was always meant to be a last happy moment with the team, one that will be kept in their memories forever.
There were two dining rooms, intended for both teams that had lost the round before. Today was different though, because only one room was occupied. Imagine losing twice in the same challenge? Imagine losing two members in the same day? Those were the only thoughts in their mind.
Six members sat at the table.
The room was bright, plates laid on top of the rounded table, and there were six chairs, each holding a member of the team. The food in front of them was cold.
None of them ate. Well, they did eat at first, but now more than half the food remained on the plates, and nobody dared to touch it anymore.
Also, the room was quiet. Extremely quiet. Dinners like these had never been quiet with the other teams, at least not this far into the game. Of course, it was known that this team was never able to get along that well.
A few minutes went by before someone finally spoke.
“Uh… so how have your days been?”
Donut tapped his fingers beneath the table. The rest of the people sitting in the table turned to face him.
“They’ve been pretty good for me!” Yellow Face held his hands together.
“I’ve been fine… thanks for asking.” Winner played with their hair.
“They’ve been… okayish.” Golf Ball anxiously fiddled her thumbs.
“Shit.” Pencil was nervously tapping her foot on the rug below her.
Pillow did not say anything, only gripping the fork and the knife in her hands.
Donut’s small speck of enthusiasm flew away as the room fell into silence again. He looked at his plate, the food making him feel nauseous. He couldn’t tell wether it was from the nerves of the next day, or the food that he was eating, or the fear that an argument might break out any minute. Next to his feet laid a paper bag which Barf Bag had left behind when she was eliminated, or well, when she disappeared. Donut liked bringing it with him, because it felt as if she was there too.
Although he spent most of his days in BFB denying it, he could say that her presence would bring him warmth. And now that she was gone, the bag was one of the only things he had left of her.
“Well, mine have been good…” He paused, not knowing what else to say. He took a peek to the food, consisting of some spaghetti, meatballs, and a separate slice of cake. All of it cooked by Four and X. Easy to say, the food wasn’t really that great (Except the cake. They did pretty good cakes) and the other teams always thought the same after they finished.
As a last attempt to try to get the team to socialize, he grabbed fork and started poking the food. “Man, the food here really isn’t that great, is it?”
Everyone looked at him for a moment, and he thought that nobody was going to say anything. Maybe they were judging him in their minds.
And then, an enthusiastic voice was heard..
“I never thought I’d ever agree with you!”
Pillow’s voice filled the room, marking the first time that she says something during the 25 minutes they’ve all been in the room.
”Hm, according to my calculations…” Golfball was the next to speak. She turned her head closer to the food, analyzing it carefully. “…this has way too much salt to be considered even healthy!”
Yellow Face pointed to the plate. “And these meatballs also taste terrible!”
“Not as if you were that great of a cook either…” Winner chuckled under their breath.
“Hey!”
He nudged Winner with his shoulder, and a small laugh came out of them. “But seriously guys, this is nothing compared to other things I had to taste from Four and X.”
“Oh my, really? What monstrosities did they feed you then?”
“No offense to them, but they don’t know how to do anything but sandwiches and cakes! When I had to…”
There was talking. They were talking. There was a sound that wasn’t silence.
And eventually there was laughter. Laughter that filled Donut’s heart with joy.
And then, he heard a small nervous one that stood out from the rest. It came from Pencil, who sat beside him. She was holding her hands to her head, which was almost touching the table, and she seemed really wrapped up inside her own thoughts.
“Pencil, are you alright?”
The woman was caught by surprise when he asked that. Finally raising her head and allowing her face to be seen, she stared directly at Donut, her face full of confusion.
“Does it look to you like I am?” Although she let out a small, pained chuckle beforehand, her voice was cold and afraid.
Donut turned away for a moment, trying to think, before he went back towards her. “No, but you seem too stressed—“
“Oh, gee! I sure do wonder why?!” She slammed her fists on the table.
“Pencil you don’t have to be so rude—!”
Golfball was cut off by her angry sight now on her. “Rude? You, the bossy bot, are telling me to not be rude?!”
The inventor’s eyes shot wide open. “You’re seriously still calling me that?! Do you just… not care about anything else other than trying to insult me?” She hid her prosthetic hands behind her to hide the fact that she was clenching her fists. Everyone in the table, even Pencil herself, knew that she hated being called bossy.
“Is that really all you care about?! What I call you?! I guess YOU’RE the one who doesn’t care, Golf-fucking-ball!”
You could hear a gasp from across the table, and the sound of utensils clapping against the wood.
Donut quickly got up from his chair and stepped in-between the two women. “Hey, hey! Cut it out, you two! This is not the time—“
“SHUT UP, BAGEL BRAIN!” Her sudden words filled him with shock as he slowly stepped back. He glanced at his other team members who sat and watched at the table as if they were the audience watching a circus. Pillow continued banging the knife and the fork on the wooden table, her face full of curiosity and joy as if she was waiting for a fight to break out.
“WE FUCKING LOST! WE WERE DOING SO GOOD AND NOW WE FUCKING LOST!” Her sudden outburst was scaring everyone, even though they all tried to hide it. “I-I can’t BELIEVE that you guys are so calm! B-but… but I CAN BELIEVE IT! BECAUSE NONE OF YOU GUYS REALLY GIVE A FUCK, DO YOU?!”
”PENCIL, CUT. IT. OUT!”
“DOES IT EVEN SEEM LIKE ANYONE IN THIS CONTEST LIKES US?!” Pencil grabbed the shoulders of Donut and Golf Ball, slightly pushing them further back from the table. “Yo— you guys… DID YOU GUYS SEE HOW EVERYONE CHEERED WHEN— WHEN IT WAS ANNOUNCED THAT WE WERE UP FOR FUCKING ELIMINATION?!”
Pillow grabbed one of Winner’s arms and turned to Pencil. “Book likes us!”
“AND?! BOOK LIKES EVERYONE, EXCEPT… EXCEPT ME!”
“CAN WE NOT FIGHT ANYMORE?!”
Everyone’s attention soon was diverted towards Winner, who was standing in their seat with their two hands and their extra arm pressed against the table. That was enough to shut everyone in the room up.
Winner let out an exhausted sigh before sitting back down and cupping their face with their hands. “For fucks sake guys… We’re supposed to be a team, we don’t have time for stupid arguments like these!”
“Awh, man! It was just starting to get interesting!” Pillow said, carelessly dropping the utensils from her hands and onto the plates.
Pencil wiped her face with the sleeves of her suit, letting out a pathetic sob. “…What do you know about teams?”
“What was that?”
“Nothing.”
Winner gripped onto their hair, which was something they commonly did when they were stressed. Yellow Face placed a supportive hand on their back, and Golfball and Donut only sat down in silence as they looked at each other in a way that proved that they agreed with what Winner had just said.
”Look, they’re right, let’s just calm down! Winner, we’re really sorry about this.” The woman with the gray hair spoke from her seat, and Winner gave her a small reassuring nod. “Pillow, please don’t… threaten… to use those as weapons again.” The white haired girl rolled her eyes. “…and Pencil-”
“SHUT IT! I FUCKING HATE ALL OF YOU!”
She stomped away from the table, hiding her face in her arms while whimpers came out of her mouth. She gripped the door’s handle and swiftly opened it, immediately rushing out of the room without looking back at anyone.
Golfball got up from her seat. “…I’ll go talk to her.”
“No, Golfball… I’ll do it.” Winner didn’t wait for an answer from the inventor, instead standing up and pushing their chair onto the table before they walked away towards the door. Pencil had left it open after she stormed off, so they did the job of closing it after they walked out.
Four members still sat at the table.
They all looked at each other for a moment, still processing what just happened. Golfball said something under her voice, but the words were so quiet that nobody in the room were able to hear them.
“Eh, whatever.” Pillow was the next one to stand up from the table, attracting the views of the three other people there while she stepped away.
“But— Pillow— why?!”
The white-haired girl shrugged as she opened the door, only saying: “If they can, why not me?” and closing it as fast as she could behind her back.
Now, only three members remained at the table.
Donut stared at the floor, strongly clasping his cuffed hands together. He slightly turned his eye up to look at Golfball and Yellow Face, the two of them awkwardly staring at somewhere else.
Donut shook his head and then looked away. “You guys can go too… if you want.”
The inventor and the salesman stared at him with surprised, worried looks on their faces.
“…What?”
“I know you’re embarrassed from this. Just go to your rooms and sleep.”
Golfball sighed, and placed a hand on Donut’s shoulder. “Look, I know this… reunion… has been bad, but—”
”EXACTLY! THATS MY POINT, YOU—“
Donut managed to stop himself before he could say anything else, but he could tell that the few words he said had startled the two remainers.
”I—I’m sorry…” He sat down again. “Please leave. This has been bad enough.”
“Uh… Ex—Excuse me…” Yellow Face picked up his mask from the chair and started to walk away. His black eyes crossed with Golfball’s dark blue ones, but he immediately put his mask on and turned his face away, now focused on reaching the door.
After the salesman disappeared from the room, Golfball scooted closer to Donut, though she was as quiet as the room had been just ten minutes ago before everything went down.
Two members remained at the table.
“Aren’t you going to follow him?”
The inventor’s eyes dropped. She hated seeing Donut like this, even though he was never someone she would normally get along with. She wanted to say something to him, but no words came out of her mouth.
“Just… go. Don’t worry about me.”
Concerned but not wanting to argue, Golfball sighed and gave the table a final glance. It was full a few minutes ago, but now, it was just her and him on it.
She walked away from Donut, and only looked back at him when one of her prosthetics held onto the door’s handle.
He continued staring at the floor, specifically at the paper bag that lied on the carpet. The only sound he heard afterwards was that of the door shutting. He was alone in the room now.
There was now only one member on the table.
The sound of the door appeared to have triggered something on him, because he closed his eyes and let out tears he had been hiding since Pencil first left the table. He placed his head on his hands, his sobbing now muffled but persistent. The bag stood on the floor, as if it was waiting to fill itself with his tears.
The room was bright, plates laid on top of the rounded table, and there were five ghosted chairs, the sixth one holding a lonely man who miserably wept upon the sight of his shattered team.
The food in front of him was cold.