Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Bracelety was just eliminated, and Bell had been thinking of how to get everyone off of her string. The climbers on Bell’s string had no signs of stopping anytime soon.

Her mind went to Lightning, and she nearly asked him if he could zap her, shocking everyone on her in the process. But after thinking about it, Bell would rather have a less painful way of getting those climbers off. She was worried about the feeling of zapping, and avoided Lightning a lot because of it.

She thought of a few others who could help, but none of them were likely going to bother. Clearly she wasn’t anyone’s best friend here, so she decided she’d just go to the closest person near her to see if they could help.

She saw Taco and Saw sitting in the grass talking to one another. She thought about how comfy they looked, what if she was annoying them? Eh, whatever. They have all the time in the world to chat afterwards. It’ll go smoothly. She hopes.

“Hey, Saw.”

Saw looked up. “Oh, hey, Bell! What’s up? Oh, wait, I know what’s up! Your string!”

Saw looked up to see Bell’s string, just to be met with 10 or so people up there climbing it.

“Oh, that’s a lot of people up there, huh?” Saw stated.

“Yeah… Could one of you try getting them off? It’s really uncomfortable.”

Taco didn’t say anything, but noticed how down Bell looked. Taco thought about how cruel it was to just climb what is essentially one’s body for their own gain.

Saw lit up, “I can help! But I might have to climb up your string to do so.”

Bell smiled, “Thanks. I don’t mind, just get down when everyone is off.”

Saw climbed on top of Bell, and pulled herself up the chord, considerably more gently than how the other climbers went on top of Bell.

Bell and Taco watched Saw rise up the string for a bit. They also noticed Four walking farther away from them to where more contestants were. They faintly heard Four talk about the competition, something about a makeover.

Bell figured that she would be too busy to help the team in any way. She figured someone like Fries or Puffball would win for them. Bell would prove to be a good team player. At some point..

Taco didn’t bother with the challenge because her team was oddly spiteful of her absence in the last challenge. She didn’t fully understand why. She assumed they all knew she was trapped in the jawbreaker that whole time, right? Well she didn’t bother figuring out. She was comfortable opening up to Saw and Lollipop mostly, and got used to that for so many years. Taco thought she didn’t need too many others in her life. But looking at Bell, she figured, why not at least… try?

Taco started asking things that mostly went over Bell’s head. Sure, Bell heard what Taco said and all, but the feeling of having so many people climb her string was super uncomfortable. It was hard to focus on everything Taco said.

Taco kind of knew that Bell was in some pain, and just tried to talk to her to get Bell’s mind off of things.

Taco asked simple things like “Who do you like to hang out with here?”, the answer was not really anyone. “What was your favorite challenge?”, the answer was not really any. “What’s your favorite place in Goiky?”, the answer was that Bell hadn’t been able to travel around the area a lot, so none. Taco noticed a pattern.

Bell really was trying to not sound like a broken record, but she really didn’t do much. Her mind started focusing even less on Taco then before, with her mind wandering to what she’s been doing all this time. She didn’t have many people to talk to, and not many activities she could do, let alone be a fan of. And now, so much is happening. The competition, the climbers, and a new potential friend in front of her talking?

“What’s your favorite color?” Taco asked Bell.

A simple question, and it could be very short, but Taco was still curious.

“Oh, Blue!” Bell finally smiled, the first time she had since Saw went up her chord.

Taco remembered back when they were in the LOL. “Oh, you had that blue ribbon around you when we auditioned for the show!”

Bell was surprised Taco remembered that. Sure, they spent a lot of time in the same place, but not together in the same place.

“Yeah, I liked that ribbon. It’s a shame it was taken away. But, that's just the trade for being a shiny, pristine bell!” Bell had a bit of sing-song in her tone. It was cute to Taco.

Chuckling, Taco said “That dang design change, that blue looked good on you.”

That didn’t mean to slip out.

Taco didn’t have a lot of feelings on other people’s looks here, I mean, they are objects. There’s not much to be attracted to. But Taco really did think that. Bell really did look nice in that ribbon. She was picturing the new Bell in a ribbon. Dang, it’d look nice.

Bella didn’t think of the compliment as romantic. She just found it sweet. “Why, thank you! I wish I had a new ribbon to replace it.”

“That’s what I was thinking!”

“But it might cover my face if I try to get a new one.”

“Well..” Taco took a confident stance and pointed to herself. “I can try to find a way to make it work!”

Bell grinned wide. “You would do that?”

“Well, why not? I can at the very least give it a shot at some point!”

They both happily looked at each other. Taco thought Bell knew she was maybe possibly perchance crushing on her. But Bell just thought of it as a sweet, friendly moment. For that time at least.

Their stares were interrupted by a giant slam on the ground, causing the two of them to yelp, they even moved closer to each other as the thing hit the ground.

Robot Flower was on the ground, and stood up in front of Taco. “You really need to tell your friend to be more considerate of who she pushes off a string!”

Taco thought ‘As one does…’

Saw was looking down. “SORRY, ROBOT FLOWER! I TRIED TO BE NICER!”

Robot Flower’s voice suddenly got more distorted with her anger, “WELL IT WAS A LOT OF WORK GETTING UP THERE, NOW I HAVE TO REDO IT ALL!”

Taco felt genuinely baffled. Even after Saw apparently asked nicely, Robot Flower still thought it was okay to climb on Bell’s string?

“Okay, no.” Taco snapped. “You aren’t climbing on Bell’s string anymore. Or else Saw’s going to push you off again.”

Robot Flower groaned, “Whatever”. RF then waddled away, and even when Robot Flower got lost in the crowd of people, Bell and Taco could hear the piercing voice of Basketball yelling “WHERE WERE YOU? THE REST OF THE TEAM IS BUSY DOING NOTHING!”

That sentence made both Taco and Bell burst out laughing.

“Why is Basketball’s team doing nothing?!” Taco continued to crack up.

“Beats me,” Bell chuckled.

Then Bell felt an odd pull on her string. Ruby was right there.

“Ruby? You were so far up my string!”

“Well that Saw person ruined my fun by pushing me off, and I knew I’d shatter if I fell on the ground, so I caught on your string. Now to climb back up!”

Taco stepped in. “AAH! Bup-bup-bup! You aren’t going back up there, Rubz.” Taco grabbed Ruby by the ankle, and lightly pulled her to the ground.

“Alright killjoys, why should I?”

Taco was getting frustrated. Wasn’t it obvious why you shouldn’t climb Bell’s string? She wanted to just jump on Ruby’s head and ask her how that felt. But before she could even act upon that, Bell told Ruby, “It’s part of my body! It feels super annoying. And hurts. There are other ways to explore than hurting me!”

Taco turned to Bell. That was a perfect way of putting it, she thought. She thought about how much better Bell is at talking to others than Taco is. It made her feel a bit humbled. She turned away.

Ruby’s eyes went from annoyed to blank. “Oh. I guess that makes sense.” Then pranced herself away, skipping until she saw Match with a cosplay for Ruby to wear.

Taco asked Bell, “What do you think the outfit’s for?”

Bell shook her head. “Don’t know.”

They looked around the place for a while until Bell heard and felt someone sliding down her string, panting.

It was Saw.

Still gasping, she looked at Taco explaining, “I’m not very strong, can you climb up the string instead?”

Taco quickly agreed. Her talks with Bell could wait. She'd rather have Bell not have any strangling objects using her like a tool.

Plus, it was getting gradually more and more chaotic down here, there must’ve been five or six forks floated by her and Bell at that point. It looked like Death PACT was trying their best to deal with that. Not too much success. Whatever, just another reason to help Bell.

She gently climbed up Bell’s rim, and swiftly went up the string, she had a long way to go to catch up to the others.

Saw sighed. “I’m sorry I didn’t get everyone! I just… ugh. Not strong. Not strong.”

“No-no, it’s okay! Thank you so much for helping!”

Minutes went by without much substance. Saw also had some small talk with Bell. However, not to sound ungrateful, but Bell got the sense that the small talk Saw was chatting up was more so for Saw herself, not to actually comfort Bell at a time like this.

Like, it was still fun. Saw was still being very friendly right now and all, but… Saw wasn’t as aware of the situation around her as Taco was.

Bell noticed that Taco was really good at talking to people when she wanted, it just didn’t happen often. A lot of Bell and Saw’s conversation shifted to Taco. Saw had been friends with Taco since they met, and so she had a lot to say about her.

Odd. As soon as Taco was gone, Bell started thinking about her. She’s attempted to make new friends, but Taco just felt natural. Too natural. Maybe they would be beyond friends? No. That’s silly. Just pals, Bell thought.

Then more and more people started dropping down from Bell’s string. It felt so nice getting gradually less and less weight on her chord. At a point, Gelatin fell off the thread, and instead of going back to his team, which had done the challenge without him, decided to stick around with Bell and Saw.

“So, you like forks!”

Saw looked at him odd. “Not really.”

Gelatin frowned and plopped his face in the ground, his fingers twindling the blades of grass.

Saw frantically told him, “OH, but like.. if you want to talk to me about them…”

Gelatin didn’t have to hear her finish her sentence. He was off spewing what he liked about forks. Saw was content with that. Even Bell was kind of interested.

Meanwhile, Taco was having a loud verbal argument with Snowball.

“Come ON, Snowball. It cannot be hard for you to be a remotely decent person and see what you’re doing is wrong.”

“I don’t care if it’s ‘wrong’. When else are we going to get this opportunity? I can practically see what’s at the top of its string right now!”

In reality, Snowball was not close to seeing what could be holding up Bell, but he wasn’t willing to admit that. Plus, he was certainly much closer to what was lying at the top than ever. Why stop now?

Taco tried pulling Snowball off the chord, but to her disappointment, his grip was as fierce as she had feared. Snowball barely budged.

“It’s going to take a lot more of that to get me off.” Snowball said that with such confidence, closing his eyes, and taking one of his hands off the string. Taco was hoping that’d be an opening to push him off, but when she tried, Snowball caught her incoming punch, and pushed it in such a way that Taco nearly lost her balance.

She didn’t fall down, but clearly she was outmatched when it came to strength. Heck, she wasn’t even a good communicator, not to jerks anyway. She knew the only way to get Snowball off the string would be through wits, as Taco knew she’d have the upper hand in that. But how to outwit someone when you both are hanging on to a string hundreds of feet in the air with barely no one and nothing else around?

Taco thought. There was this idea. It was dumb. But it is possible.

“Ptui!” Taco spat.

Snowball, annoyed but not mad, looked at the small stain on him. “Ew.” He wasn’t particularly angry, it was just irritating and weird.

Then Taco spat again. And more.

Snowball couldn’t figure it out.

Liy had slowed down her climbing to see how Taco would get past Snowball, and had completely stopped when she realized Taco would try to hoick all the saliva in her body to thaw Snowball.

Snowball then finally started to have some of his body melt off. Not a lot, just enough. He then figured it out. And he wasn’t going to let Taco fully defrost him until he was a pile of mush.

“Hey! I know what you’re doing! And I won’t stand for it!”

Taco smirked. “Well, what are you going to do about it?”

Snowball’s face of rage went to bafflement. His clenched fist softened. He then turned up to see Eraser, who very faintly in the background yelled “OO-OOH, BURN!!”

Taco then tried pushing Snowball off again, this time, to much greater success.

Snowball started falling, and didn’t catch on to the string.

He landed on Gelatin, who didn’t mind, I mean, Snowball was made of snow, nearly melted snow at that.

Gelatin giggles “Heehee! That felt funny!” He didn’t even bother looking to see what had hit him. Which was odd for Bell and Saw. But seeing Snowball fall meant that Taco was almost done.

Back up, Taco was now yelling at Liy to come down the string.

“LIY! Get down! Y’know you’re hurting Bell doing this, right?”

Liy was still not climbing any further, but she still was a few feet higher than Taco, and had no intentions of going down.

“No way I’m not getting down! I’m on a Death PACT, not a Hurt PACT. She can deal with it.”

Taco slowly made her way closer to Liy.

“But that doesn’t mean you have to be such a bad person about it, I’m only climbing this string to get you guys off! Your reasoning is just for selfish gain!”

“You don’t know that.” Liy then smirked, “Well, it is for my own benefit, I love myself a good adventure, but why is Bell’s feelings so much more important than mine?”

Taco got mad. Not only was that a ludicrous statement, but she didn’t even know how to respond to that.

She stuttered, “I- be… cause it’s worse! And aren’t there, like, y’know, other places to explore?”

Liy looked annoyed. “I’ve gone through the forest, Yoyle City, the desert, ruins, beaches, wetlands, lakes, the Huang’s home, everywhere! This is practically the only place I know of around here I can look around in! So SO-RRY I’m making myself happy!”

Taco was stunned. What to even say to that? Liy seemed to be a chill person from what Taco had seen, especially with her new death-prevention thing happening and all. But at this moment, she’s in her own head.

Wait.

Her death-prevention thing.

She’s on Death PACT.

Their team needs help.

If Taco wasn’t going to get Liy down because it was the right thing to do for Bell, she’ll get Liy down for her team.

“Liy, your team needs you.”

“Pfft, yeah sure.”

Taco then tried recalling what she saw. Sure, Taco wasn’t totally sure herself, but Liy’s team seemingly needed someone else to block all the forks coming to Four, or someone to do the actual art/makeover challenge while the rest of the team obstructed forks.

Liy looked at Taco, who at this point was nearly right next to her.

Liy looked cold at first, but then her eyebrow shifted, she looked understanding. Even if she didn’t feel bad about Bell (well, she kind of did, just not enough to climb down her string), she did want to help her team. Especially since if any forks touched Four, they’d start killing. And that was the last thing Liy wanted.

Liy looked at the ground beneath her for a few seconds, and jumped.

She landed on Gelatin. It was a bit more uncomfortable for him this time, but ultimately was fine. “Yee-ouch! Be careful next time! (:”

Liy, not even sure if Gelatin knew she was the one who landed on him, hesitantly said “Oh, uhh, sorry? Uh, bye.” And she was off to her team, and saw a yelling Pen.

“Woah, guys?” Liy knew her team needed her, but wasn’t sure how literal Taco was about the fork thing.

“HEY, GET THAT PAPER BACK THERE!” Pen pointed at a paper a couple yards away. “HURRY, THERE’S NOT A LOT OF TIME LEFT!”

Liy noticed the clouds in the sky within the shape of a… timer? A “00:45”? OH CRAP THAT’S HOW MUCH TIME IS LEFT IN THE CHALLENGE. SHE REALLY DID HAVE TO HURRY.

She ran to the paper, with what seemed like every contestant on the show blocking her way and walking right where she needed to be.

00:30

She got the paper, now she needs to go back. She saw A Better Name Than That turning in their paper. She accidently made eye contact with Golf Ball. She then tried running back. Once again, getting blocked by objects big and small.

00:15

Liy kept running. She’ll make it. She was so close to Four.

And Golf Ball.

Golf Ball stood in front of Liy, she moved left, GB followed, right, GB did too.

Liy was confused. Golf Ball’s team was guaranteed safe anyway, the paper mache Four by The Losers was ranked lower than A Better Name Than That’s. So why?

Golf Ball just truly wanted to be a twat.

Liy didn’t deal with GB for too long anyways, but it did lose her a few seconds, and now there was only…

00:05 seconds on the clock.

She pushed Golf Ball. Ran to Four. They were right there.

She reached her hand with the paper out.

And a falling Eraser with Taco clinging to his leg fell on top of the paper.

Times up.

Liy was enraged. “Wh-WHAT? ERASER? WHAT HAPPENED?”

Eraser had swirls in his eyes and was definitely not conscious.

The way Taco landed made her not get hurt too much outside of a crack at the top of her shell. She explained what happened to Liy. “Eraser wasn’t paying attention to me, so I grabbed his leg, catching him off guard. Then we both fell.”

Liy was beyond pissed. And her team was still blocking forks!

Taco didn’t feel like dealing with Liy’s situation. She was a pain to her, she could maybe make amends with her another day.

She started walking, honestly completely forgetting why she was so bothered and why she even was on that string. She was up there for a while.

“Hey?” Taco jumped. Behind her was Bell looking shy. “Sorry, did I scare you?”

“Oh, it’s fine, Bell!”

“Thank you so much for getting those people off my string!”

Taco smiled. It felt good seeing this girl thank her for that. I mean, Taco didn’t understand why other people wouldn’t want to help out Bell… she was so kind… uh, AND because it was the right thing to do. Of course. That was the main part. Just… not the only…

Bell got closer to Taco, touching her shell gently and closed her eyes. Despite not having arms, Taco could tell Bell was going in for a hug, so Taco wrapped her arms around Bell. She was really smooth. ‘And warm. AAH!- WHAT AM I THINKING?? Uhhhg. Whatever. It was true! She really is smooth and warm. It’s not.. romantic to… just point that out, right?’

Taco’s mind was racing with odd thoughts. And Bell was considering the fact she might have a crush back. But she was more collected about it.

‘Goodness, it’s so nice of Taco to help me out right now. Maybe we should talk more. That’d be nice.’

Bell’s eyes fluttered open. “Oh! And sorry about your crack in your shell.”

Taco let go of Bell to look up to try and see if she could see the crack. She barely felt it, and reaffirmed to Bell, “It’s fine! I’m great! Just glad to help”.

Bell felt comforted by that answer. She smiled happily. “Can we talk more?”

Taco had a soft smile. But Bell could tell Taco was trying to hide a huge grin.

Taco responded. “Yeah…”

She sat down, and Bell plopped down on the ground, which she only did for deep conversations. That made Taco feel good. Bell felt good. Both felt good.

It was great to have someone to talk to.

‘Platonically, of course…’ Taco told herself. ‘I can handle it without her.’

Chapter Text

Taco’s mind was racing about, who else but Bell. How to get a ribbon around her rim without blocking her face. Goodness, that sounds really silly put into words. But Taco really thought Bell looked nice in it, even if… she was already pretty as she was.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Book frantically waving at her, walking up to her.

“Hey!! Taco!…” Book’s voice trailed.

“Yess…?” Taco was hesitant. She was worried that Book would somehow make a fuss about Taco ‘betraying the team’ or whatever.

“Where were you last challenge? Did you purposely leave us?”

And there it was.

Book continued. “Like, I get that you maybe were stuck in that jawbreaker for a while during that swing challenge, it’s just that you managed to break out yourself, and I was just… y’know… concerned why you didn’t do that any time before?”

Oh. The way Book described it made the situation make much more sense. Taco didn’t know how to exactly word her departure from the team, I mean, it kind of was her own choice. All Taco could slip out, “I… didn’t… I didn’t know.”

Book’s face then shifted to understanding. She put a hand on Taco’s shoulder, telling her, “I get it. I just… I was just a bit worried. Just… don’t leave us without telling us during a challenge. Okay?”

Taco thought ‘what if it’s an emergency?’ or ‘what if it’s for a friend?’ but she didn’t want to overload Book with questions.

Book then let go of Taco, leaving to hang out elsewhere. Taco stood there for a while. She worried about leaving another challenge to help someone like Bell over doing the challenge with her team.

Four told the challenge. She was now suddenly on a giant paper airplane, with the instructions to not let it hit the ground. Something she really didn’t care about.

The planes flew for a while. Taco was getting incredibly bored, but at least here she could eye Bell.

Bell herself was missing her new friend. Taco had been the first person to help her with her string. Bell couldn’t get it out of her head that she didn’t say thank you enough to Taco. It was painful for her. What if Taco thought Bell didn’t really care? Or what if Taco thought she was… too…

Weak?

Bell hated being seen as a weakling, but in that moment, she was helpless. Someone like Eraser might see her as that forever. It’s not fair he took advantage of her. But what’s worse than having an enemy hate you is having a friend belittle you. What if Taco thought that? Taco was so nice to her… but she’s thought that way before. But Taco’s different… maybe.

Oh, is that Stapy trying to staple the plane together?

Stapy had a good strategy, using his weight to balance the plane, but just one small gust of wind threw the balance completely off. In Stapy’s own words, his stapler instincts took over (which Bell was 100% understanding of btw. She is very understanding of that kind of thing.), and that impulsivity made the entire plane snap shut, and now the whole team is plummeting to the ground. Not a situation she exactly wanted to be in. But I suppose it could be..

Eh, who was she kidding? The entire team was rightfully losing their minds.

A muffled Fries yelled “Stapy? What happened out there?”

“I told you: stapler. Instincts. Can’t help it? Do you want me to tell you to stop eating fries?”

“That’s different.”

The team broke out into arguments, and screams of course. But the most quiet of them was Bell.

Bell was a bit concerned about dying, but at least she’d be recovered. But she was really afraid of getting eliminated. She wasn’t the best at communication, but being around a lot of people comforts her. Plus, who knows how harsh Eternal Xalgebra Iclass Twithfour is? She didn’t want to lose. Nor did Taco.

Taco saw the Free Food plane plummet to the ground. Taco’s mind was racing, and without thinking about what Book said about loyalty, she jumped to another plane to ambush them before Free Food reached the ground.

Taco is a bit impulsive, but mostly if it benefited her. Now she’s falling in the air because the other day she talked to Bell. Bell.. someone she’d avoided for a while.

Ever since the LOL days, they weren’t exactly people who disliked company, but they, along with a lot of the rejected and eliminated, lost an urge to make friends. Most of them stuck to themselves after a while. Bell and Taco were no different. Now, Taco cared more than ever.

She was so entwined in her thoughts that she was sort of shocked when she actually landed on a plane. Right, that was the plan…

“Oh, hey, Taco!” Balloony said delightedly.

“Hi, Balloony.” Taco said pleasantly.

Nickel looked at Taco. “Are you here to… get us out the challenge or something? Or are you just here to chill? Cause I’m fine with that second option!-“

Taco slapped Nickel off the plane, and she stood her at the very front. The plane started tipping over. She then grabbed onto the nose of the plane, tipping it even more. Soon, BEEP was falling to the ground, at a much faster speed than Free Food.

Balloony looked at his team in fear, saying, “guys! Have any ideas?”

But it was too late. Their plane was plummeting to the ground, and after not too long, the plane crashed into the grass, so everyone bounced off.

Taco lifted herself, and wiped blades of grass from her head. She looked to see if Free Food’s plane was about to land on the ground, but everyone in the challenge was teleported to the plains by Four. Bell wasn’t in any danger now.

Taco took a deep breath in and sat on the ground. Nickel ran up to her, confusedly yelling “what did our team do to you?”

Taco was very worried that Nickel was really mad, in reality he was just actually curious why Taco targeted BEEP in the challenge. Either way, Nickel let Taco be.

Now, Taco didn’t have anything on her mind. Aside from one person. She knew that it wasn’t normal to have this much of a connection to a single person, but what was she supposed to do about it? She can’t help this feeling.

Then Taco saw Book run towards her.

Taco and Bell were close, but they weren’t enough to get in the way of her predetermined team.

“Taco! I- where were you?”

“I’m… sorry, Book. I eliminated BEEP out of the challenge!”

“Without telling us!” Book noticed how she herself was coming off as angry. She softened her expression and took a breath. “Look, I don’t want to be super strict, I know I’m coming off as a jerk. But next time, can you let us know where you're going?”

Taco, still sitting looking confused and a bit sad, “well… okay… I can still leave you guys outside of challenges though, right?”

Book smiled lightly. “Yeah. You can.”

Taco looked around. She saw a certain Bell she’d like hanging out with for now.