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T’was the night before— okay, we’re not doing this bullshit. It’s not even nighttime.
Pencil was doing the usual. Lying in her sickass alliance clubhouse, throwing a mini pity party. Well, I suppose it’s not much of an alliance-specified clubhouse WITHOUT an alliance.
The only thing the blonde was doing was moping and soping while all the other constants were outside, playing in the recently fallen snow and shoving icicles up each other's asses, or whatever Blackhole and Tree do in their free time when they aren’t bitching. (Pencil’s gaydar was one of the things she was still proud of herself for.)
Speaking of the weather, Pencil was fucking FREEZING. Like, pins and needles poking into her skin type cold. (Ugh, she didn’t want to think about THEM right now on top of everything…) To be fair, she was straight-up just laying on the bare floor of the TCOA, it’s not like much warmth came from it. While he was still in the game, maybe Pencil should’ve bought Yellow Face’s annoyingly advertised heating system he was willing to install. Counterpoint, it probably contained black mold or something.
Whatever. Maybe Pencil deserved to freeze and rot into the winter. She hesitated momentarily, but then decided against wrapping her arms around herself. Her dumbass had come out here without any protection against the elements, even a simple sweater, thinking it was somewhat warm inside. How wrong she was.
If she didn’t want this self-inflicted punishment, then MAYBE she should’ve thought twice before apparently becoming the words Book sneered out at her during the most recent challenge. Those words lingered in Pencil’s brain like a bad hangover every day. It hit her even harder, considering she didn’t have anyone to cry about that whole situation to. THEY were all gone now. Match, Ruby, Bubble, Ice Cube, and now Book. She was alone. Pencil wouldn’t waste anymore time sobbing about it than she already had— she was certain the tears would just freeze onto her cheeks anyway.
The girl was finally about to get up— not to leave the clubhouse or anything, just to go to the corner where she’d mindlessly tossed a cigarette packet and lighter earlier— but, as she stood, she heard a knock against the main doors. Pencil groaned quietly. Despite her own annoyance, Pencil walked over to the front, sneakers clicking against the floor.
She opened the door, even more cold bursting into the building. “I swear to god, Marker, if that’s you begging me to come and do some “sibling bonding” with you AND play Toss the Dirt with you AGAIN, I will genuinely—” Pencil trailed off, eyes glancing lower. It was Golfball, standing there in snow trousers and ear puffs, instead of the usual scientist attire, plastic bag in hand. Of course it was her. The blonde’s face softened slightly.
“Sorry, uh, I came here to check up on—” The silver-haired cut herself off. “…what was that about Marker???”
Pencil winced. “Don’t worry about it..” she trailed off momentarily. “Uh, you can come in. You’re dragging all the cold in even more, b-bossy bot.” The blonde opened the doors wider for Golfball, and the two stepped in.
“So..” the scientist began, “…are you doing alright right now? I saw you come out here with everybody, but you just came straight here. You’re sort of doing your self-isolation activities,” Golfball asked hesitantly. Of course. Pencil ALSO should’ve seen this coming.
Since the whole hookup thing (god, Pencil couldn’t believe she was saying that still,) Golfball had still continued to persist about what Pencil was so upset about. Honestly, it felt nice that somebody seemed to care about her, especially to that degree..but Pencil wasn’t just about to be suddenly open, especially to someone who she had considered to be an enemy. It was a strange in between tooth-aching love or pure awkwardness.
A few moments of silence passed. “..I don’t feel like talking about it,” Pencil murmured quietly.
Golfball’s face softened slightly. “That’s…okay. It’s okay. No one's making—” the girl trailed off. “…Pencil, you’re shivering.” And of course Golfball also had to notice that. Damnit, the one time Pencil didn’t want to be fussed over, she was.
“Did you not wear a hoodie out at least?”
“Uhh…no??”
“Well, I suppose that takes me to the second reason I came out here..” Golfball reached towards the bag she was holding, and instead handed it over to Pencil. “Um, I honestly did assume you didn’t put on any snow gear when I heard you also came out here, so I got some of my extra clothes for you instead. I didn’t want to snoop through your room because of privacy concerns, obviously, and just—” The scientist cut herself off from her own rambling. “…my point is, there’s snow gear inside the bag for you so you don’t catch hypothermia.”
Pencil almost had the mind to give the girl a tiny, grateful smile, but didn’t. (She couldn’t get attached to HER of all people, what was she doing anyways?!— whatever, she was probably going to eat her own words later.) The blonde opened the bag, and low and behold, there were a pair of black snow pants, a coat, and a hat inside
“O-Oh,” Pencil stammered out, feeling heat rise to her cheeks despite the cold. “…thanks, GB. That’s, uhm, nice.” God, what was going on with her???
The scientist gave her own small smile back, before backtracking. “Oh, those pants have a weird zipper-button mechanism I made, uhm—” Golfball glanced away momentarily. “..do you want help?”
If the blonde wasn’t blushing before, she was now. Was she basically playing Devils’ advocate against herself? Absolutely. But, then again, it was Golfball. Since that night, she’d been dreaming of getting the girl’s hands on her again. Yes, this was most definitely less erotic than she had imagined it going, but Pencil was not about to complain. So, she nodded quickly to Golfball’s question. “Yes, please. Just— hold on real quick—”
So, without wasting another second, Pencil pulled the snow trousers out of the bag and lifted one leg up after the other, struggling her shoes through the holes of the clothes. Once she had the overalls up and on her at least, Golfball moved behind her, carefully slipping her arms under the other girl’s. (And that certainly did not help Pencil’s case. Why’d she’d have to go behind her instead of in front? Doing it from the front would’ve been less fucking sexy than it was now. This goddamn nerd.)
GB’s hands made their way across Pencil’s torso, eventually finding the opening of the trousers. The scientist had been telling the truth— it was complicated to put on. Golfball’s hands had to maneuver to attach a thick piece of string around the buttons or something?? I don’t know, Pencil wasn’t paying attention to that. She was paying attention to the feeling of the silver-head’s fingers on her again, though. The blonde let out a quiet, content sigh.
Finally, the overalls were snug onto Pencil. She then reached into the bag, taking out the dark green coat and white beanie, putting them on one after another.
Golfball then realized she was still practically wrapped around Pencil still. She quickly backed away, letting out an awkward laugh. “Ahem. Sorry.”
The blonde managed to crack a smile. “No, you’re fine, you're great— um…” Pencil mentally facepalmed herself for letting that last part slip out. To ignore it, she instead said: “Hold on, why would I need whole-ass snow gear if I’m just staying in here??”
“Oh, that’s the point. You’re coming out with me.” The scientist said, before completely backtracking once more. “I mean, you don’t HAVE to come with me, but I was thinking— m-maybe we could go on a quick walk together instead of having to go socialize with others? It’d be somewhat better than staying trapped in here..” Golfball wondered with hesitation. “Tennis Ball’s doing whatever right now, and…and I would take pleasure in spending time with you.” Aw. It was like asking out your crush in kindergarten.
Before Golfball could begin to ramble (which, trust me, Pencil has been able to tell when that was going to happen now, based on GB’s facial expressions,) Pencil grabbed onto the girl’s gloved hand. Might as well give into the feelings of love, or whatever corny bullshit straight romance novels say in them.
“I’d like that,” the blonde spoke, leaning over the shorter girl slightly. Unexpectedly, she kissed the tip of Golfball’s nose, leaving a small stain of lipstick behind. “I’d like that very much.” The scientist flushed.
And so, they went. They mainly just walked circles around the surrounding hotel, talking about random topics, hand-in-hand. How shit the Cake at Stake “cakes” tasted, complaining about other people, gossiping over celebrities, and talking about the science world. Yes, the two were absolute opposites, but the two girls ended up enjoying each other's company. Eventually, Golfball and Pencil got tired of walking, and sat down at the picnic table behind the hotel.
“You know, I don’t really celebrate Christmas, anyways. I don’t get it, to be honest. Just seems like more of a money scheme if anything,” Pencil talked.
Golfball hummed. “Yeah, me either..” She trailed off momentarily. “..how come, if I’m allowed to ask?”
The blonde let out a breath of air, leaning her head against her palm. “It’s more of a, uh..religious trauma thing if anything, if I’m telling the truth,” Pencil mumbled, “I used to be a Christian.”
“Oh,” Golfball replied. “You wanna, um, talk about it?” The scientist was minorly relieved the girl seemed to be kind of opening up more, but she wouldn’t push her.
Pencil glanced away. “Eh. Nothing much to say about it. It was just kinda…cult-y, in some ways. Brought out the worst in my mother, as if she wasn’t already bad enough. I don’t like to be reminded of it.”
Hesitantly, GB rested her hand on Pencil’s that was lying on the table. “Well, I’m sorry about that..” Golfball glanced down momentarily. Pencil’s hands were shaking.
“Oh, shit—” Before Pencil could blink, both of her hands were already between Golfball’s gloved ones. The warmth emitting from them was much better. “I’m sorry, fuck, I didn’t think about getting you gloves—” The scientist finished her sentence.
A tiny lightbulb went off in GB’s head. Suddenly, she pulled the blonde’s hands closer to her face and began to blow hot air onto them while simultaneously rubbing them between her palms. Pencil flushed at the sight. It did feel nice, though.
“Uhm, don’t worry about it,” Pencil went quiet momentarily. “…this is better, anyway.”
Like it was a fucking game of dominoes, Golfball also began to blush. The two sat in silence for a while, just watching the snowflakes fall. Then, GB spoke up again.
“…erase this from your mind,” Golfball began. Suddenly, still holding onto the blonde’s hands, she pulled Pencil into her lap. The taller girl gave a tiny grin. “But, I think I’m enjoying this a lot more than if I were to have stayed cooped up in my lab.” The scientist finished, eyes darkening slightly. Despite how frigid it was, the two girls felt a lot warmer when they were breathing hot air onto each other's faces. Golfball would’ve been more concerned about hypercapnia if it wasn’t for the fact that she was so fucking swooned by the absolute definition of gorgeous in front of her.
Pencil continued to beam. “No, I don’t think I will..”
The two both consecutively leaned in, finally dragging each other into a deep, yet gentle kiss. It was a lot less heated than what they had a few weeks before, but still held just as much love as before. God, Golfball had forgotten about how much she’d miss kissing Pencil.
The blonde’s hand slid up to Golfball’s cheek, carefully cradling the girl’s face. Pencil pulled away from the kiss, instead moving to kiss all over Golfball’s face. The scientist reddened for what felt like the millionth type.
Pencil continued to pepper kisses from GB’s cheeks to her forehead, leaving behind MORE lipstick stains. Well, hopefully it wasn’t too staining. That might end bad for Golfball later. But, for now, she ignored it, and just chose to lean into affection for once.
“God, you’re so fucking stupid…” Pencil muttered under her breath, placing one more kiss on the shorter girl’s forehead before trailing her kisses down to her neck.
Golfball gave a tiny smile. “Actually, that’s statistically incorrect, due to my IQ— fuck..”
Cutting her off, Pencil kissed the side of the scientist’s neck, going to her Adam’s apple. Before she could continue her little attack though, Golfball pulled her back up straight and into another heated kiss.
Snow crunched in the distance. Hm. Pencil chose to ignore it.
“Mhmp…I thought..you were supposed to be the— mm, awkward one..” The blonde muttered out between kisses. She slid her tongue against Golfball’s bottom lip.
GB pulled away briefly. The two panted quietly. “Well, maybe you got me all confident.”
“..Y’know, I think being in the FreeSmart Supervan would be a lot more comfortable than here—” Pencil managed to blurt out before kissing Golfball again.
The scientist could only flush at the implication and widen her eyes. “Pencil, are you really sure???” Golfball rubbed circles into the blonde’s hip. It’s not like she DIDN’T want it, she absolutely did, but she wanted to make sure Pencil was positive.
“Fuck, yes Golfball, please—”
The snow crunching finally stopped behind them.
“OOOOOOO, SOME SNEAKY CONSTANTS HIDING AWAY?”
Shit.
The sudden talking startled Pencil so much that she fell out of Golfball’s lap and into the snow. Looking up above her, it was—
Oh. Just X. Lame. Pencil stood up ignominiously.
Golfball straightened up from where she was sitting at the picnic table. “X? When did you even— ??”
X beamed. “Weeeeeellll, Marker asked me to go look for Pencil to see if she wanted to play Toss the Dirt with him!” Finally, the algebralien seemed to use their small brain Pencil assumed they had and noticed all the kiss-marks on GB’s face. Their smile grew even wider, and they clutched their hands together.
“AWWWW, WERE YOU TWO KISSING? THAT’S SO ROMATIC!—” Before X could continue speaking VERY loudly, Pencil took some snow from the ground and into her hand, and forcefully held it against X’s mouth. They yelped in surprise. Golfball only sat by, a concerned look on her face.
Pencil began to speak. “X, if you tell this to ANYBODY, this snow will be forcefully shoved down your throat.” Geez. The blonde pulled her hand away, letting X breathe again.
“D-Don’t worry!” How was X able to stay cheery after being threatened? (Must’ve been used to it with being Four’s best friend…or whatever homoerotic relationship they have. Again, Pencil’s gaydar was extraordinary.) “I’m AMAZING at keeping secrets!!”
“Didn’t you say Four keeps reading your mind?” Golfball perked up.
“Well, only sometimes…”
Pencil rolled her eyes. “Whatever, I don’t care anymore.” She turned to the scientist. “C’mon, GB, let’s go.” The blonde began to walk away without waiting. Golfball slid off her seat, speed-walking to catch up with the taller girl.
“Oh— bye, friends!” X yelled over.
“It could've gone worse..” Golfball spoke up. While talking, she pulled her coat sleeve over her hand and used the fabric to wipe off the lipstick-stains she had on her face. “Imagine if it was somebody else!”
Pencil sighed quietly. “That’s true…” After walking quietly for a few moments, she perked up again. “Um, do you still want to—”
“GOLFIE!!” Of course. More interruptions.
GB turned to the source of sound. It was Tennis Ball standing in the distance. Golfball mumbled, “Guess he finally figured out what broke into…” she stopped speaking, noticing Pencil was giving her a confused stare.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothing that concerns you,” The scientist said. “..but I really do gotta go over there. Sorry.”
Pencil let out a disappointed sigh. “No, it’s fine. Go ahead—” she cut herself off. “..I had fun either way.”
Golfball cracked a smile. “Good.” The two girls stared at each other for a few seconds, before processing that they WERE staring at each other, then both turned away with a blush and a cough. Pencil began to walk away, and they waved each other goodbye. The scientist made her way over to Tennis Ball.
“Okay, what is it?” GB spoke, crossing her arms.
Tennis Ball gave a small smile. “WELL, I successfully figured out what broke into the lab, and turns out it WASN’T that massive lizard-pig hybrid we accidentally bioengineered-ly grew that one time—” he suddenly trailed off. “Uhm, Golfball? What’s that on the front of your neck?”
The scientist raised an eyebrow, hand reaching down. “What? Is it ice or something—” Her hand brushed against her skin, and she brought it up to her face to see.
It was a lipstick stain. Fuck. Goddamn you, Pencil.
“Uhhh—” Golfball began, a blush spreading over her face. “Lost something in the forest. Went to go look for it, fell in poison ivy in the process. That’s the rash.” Poison ivy was dormant in the winter. What a lame lie.
“Mhm, I’m sure it is..”