Color Theory (Nickloon)

Chapter 4

He's giving him the cold shoulder.

Every time he tries to talk to Nickel, he rolls his eyes and walks away, or simply mutters, "Yeah, whatever Balloon," whenever he passes by. The two haven't fought like this since...the very first day they got here.

Some part of him thinks that he should just give up and call their friendship quits. Maybe it really wasn't meant to work out, but Candle's voice in the back of his head reminds him. "Green takes a while to finally come around to discovering its true self. It too, pushes the truth down, until either it explodes—"

Or someone else finds it.

Balloon's found it once, and he knows he can find it again.

Plus he's written down and practiced his apology so many times that he knows the words like the back of his hand. All that time spent memorizing would go to waste.

The next challenge comes and goes. He avoids another elimination via immunity, and luckily Nickel seems to be in the clear as well, which means he has time to explain himself before things go from terrible to awful.

The problem is, he can't seem to find him anywhere. He checks the Pic-Nix table first, then asks everyone if they've seen him. He gets negative answers, a few strange looks. Apparently no one's seen him anywhere.

Balloon begins to worry. What if he quit because he didn't want to participate with Balloon in the game anymore? What if he just up and left without a trace? Maybe he should go ask MePhone if—

"Balloon," a familiar voice calls out to him, "are you alright?"

"Candle," Balloon breathes, "thank goodness you're here. Have you seen Nickel? I have something really important to say to him but I can't find him anywhere! I really messed up."

"I know where Nickel is," Candle says. "But before I tell you, I think you need to calm down. Can you breathe for a moment?"

Breathing, right. Balloon hadn't even realized he had begun to hyperventilate thinking of all the worst case scenarios in his head. Slowly, he brings his breathing down to a moderate level, trying to convince himself that things will be okay. It's just sort of hard to do that when there's a problem that he could fix if Candle just told him what he wanted to hear.

"There you are. Now, what's the problem?"

Balloon thinks about it for a moment. Lying really wouldn't do him any good right now. Forget the stupid plan to get other people to like him. Right now, there was one person that mattered most.

"Nickel and I, we had an argument." Balloon finally says, "I didn't mean to hurt him, I sort of said the wrong thing without meaning to, and now the whole thing's just a mess. That's why I came to you about the auras. I'm sorry I lied."

Candle doesn't look the slightest bit disturbed. "It's alright, Balloon. I know you had no ill intentions when you approached me. You are very honest, even if it takes some digging to see."

"Thank you for being so understanding. I just really need to find Nickel right now and apologize."

Balloon expects Candle to finally tell him where his friend is, but instead, she gives him this look. "When I told you about your aura, I meant every word I said, Balloon. But there was a point where it stopped being an aura reading, and instead, was just a reading"

"You're quite an easy person to see through, but Nickel? I think I know of only one person who can see what his true feelings are." She smiles knowingly. "He's in a spot you know quite well. Find him Balloon, and be kind."

She walks off without any further explanation as his feet begin to take him toward the beach, toward the rock he had spent so much time by. It seems like his heart knew best.

"Your aura, Balloon, is a source of energy that comes from deep within. Not only does it expose your strengths, but it also shows your weaknesses and your deepest, deepest desires."

"And like green, while you tend to mean well, you get so caught up in your emotions that the intention flies over other's heads."

'Green takes a while to finally come around to discovering its true self. It too, pushes the truth down, until either it explodes...or someone else finds it."

"But there was a point where it stopped being an aura reading, and instead, was just a reading."

He stops when he finally reaches the rock, he peeks around the corner.

There he sits, the man of the hour dressed in silver.

"Nickel, hey!" Balloon smiles awkwardly. "C-can we talk?"

He doesn't get a reply.

"I...I know that what I said was wrong. I shouldn't have- or, well, what I mean is—" man is he fumbling this. He swallows, then tries again. "Our friendship means a lot to me, and I didn't mean to undermine it at all. I was just looking for answers for a problem that didn't exist."

Nickel finally looks him in the eye, the look in his face is shockingly relaxed. "Balloon, do you want to know why I think we're friends?"

Balloon nods. Nickel sighs. "You were right. We don't have that much in common. I'm overly sarcastic, impatient, and you spend your time sitting by the ocean writing poems about your feelings and being sentimental. But what makes us unique was that we didn't need any of that."

Balloon stays quiet, though he wants to butt in and add that they were more than just "sentimental poems," but he digresses and wills him to go on. "When we became...friends, I didn't feel like you just liked me, or tolerated me. I felt like you understood me. Everyone else here sees me as the same guy I was last season, but you...you don't. You were willing to change, and the more time I spent with you, I guess I realized that I was willing too."

That's when it finally clicks.

Oh.



Nickel chuckles to himself. "When they said "keep your enemies close and eventually they'll start to change you, I didn't expect it to be for the better when it came to you."

"I think I know of only one person who can see what his true feelings are."

Somehow by forming a closer bond with him, he had changed Nickel's entire perspective on the competition as a whole, and the more he stuck around, the more he began to try to change and the only person who could see that was Balloon.

Because Balloon knows what it's like.

Season two was Balloon's second chance. Season three was Nickel's, and Candle had known the entire time.

He really did overthink this whole thing, didn't he?

"My aura is Teal," Balloon whispers, so softly they can barely hear it, "and yours is green. I...I was so caught up in trying to figure out what made us work that I didn't realize that I had already known. I over complicated everything because I was looking in the wrong direction the entire time!"

"Oh," Nickel says, "I know."

"You know?!"

"After we fought, Candle noticed that something was off. I told her that we got into an argument, and she gave me some information about how you had asked her about our "aura compatibility" which is low, even for you Balloon."

"She said she'd keep it a secret!"

"Well, you'd better be glad she didn't. If she did, we wouldn't have came up with a plan to make you feel guilty for just a little bit, but to eventually fix our friendship for the better."

Balloon swears the air inside him is turning hotter by the minute. How embarrassing. "This was all planned?"

"Yep." Nickel laughs out loud to himself. "Watching you squirm around with guilt while I completely ignore you was a little funny, I gotta admit. Besides, that makes the reveal 10 times better!"

"All because I wanted to use the auras to see if I could get the other contestants to like me. What a stupid idea."

"Wait, that's what this was all about?"

Balloon sheepishly nods. "I guess my heart had someone else in mind, it just took me a while to see that. I-I'm really sorry for making all of this happen."

"Stop worrying about it." Nickel says, "My fabulously green aura and I forgive you."

Balloon's heart skyrockets out of his chest again. "C'mere!"

He wraps Nickel's arms around him in a hug, and while he sees Nickel's gagging on the outside, he knows if he had arms, he'd hug him back.

"Hold up," Nickel says, freeing himself from Balloon's grasp. "I have an idea. Do you still have the chart with you?"

"Yeah, it's in my poetry journal." Balloon asks, raising an eyebrow. "Why?"



* * *



Balloon grins. "Alright, Bot, get the timer ready."

"You got it, Balloon! Nickel, how hungry are you?"

"I'm so hungry I could eat...twenty chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and exactly thirteen sprinkles!"

As requested, twenty chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting and exactly thirteen sprinkles appear on the Pic-Nix table. Nickel begins to shovel them into his mouth like he's going to die without them. Bot closely watches the timer as Balloon screams, "Go, go, go, go, go!"

Silver spoon winces as the grotesque display. "What are those hooligans doing?"

Candle shrugs. "We have to find some way to spend our free time."