The Silence That Spoke a Thousand Words

Winter Warmth

Hey guys! Sorry this took so long to update!
I had some stuff making me a bit too busy to write but I'll try to be more on top of this now!

It's been a couple of months of competing. OJ was worried he wouldn't get along with his teammates since they all had pretty colorful personalities, but surprisingly it's been going pretty swell. He became fast friend with Pickle, who was a pretty laid back and funny guy. He's not the brightest, but he sure is loyal to his friends. His tight friendship with Taco was evidence of that statement. through pragmatic, OJ and Taco has gotten along pretty well (through their shared loved of panda bears, as well as Lightbulb too). Salt and Pepper, OJ found them mildly annoying with their "likes" and dull gossip (which OJ fell victim too in episode 2), but they were no where near as insufferable as Balloon. He tried to make an alliance with him and Bomb but that ended up with the whole team turning on their "leader" for being an overall jerk to all of them.

Bomb had gotten along well with the team as well, even somehow becoming friends with Knife ("H-H-He's pretty n-nice once you g-g-get to know h-h-him!") But despite these new people, Bomb and OJ are still as close as ever. They've always stuck together, like when Bomb helped OJ after Baseball hit him with a rock, doing the relay race with Pickle, and when they went trick or treating together. He does admit that he's happy that Bomb is with him competing but there has been some, feelings going on that OJ doesn't really like. It made him feel... not like his usual self? OJ's usually calm, cool, collected, but he finds himself feeling like a hot mess around Bomb. Sometimes the words he wants to say doesn't come out and he looks like an absolute idiot, or he'll completely lose focus and somehow trip on nothing. Just real embarrassing things.

Like when they went trick or treating, Bomb had to lift OJ up to get some treats off a tree. He aways knew that Bomb was much stronger than him, but lifting OJ up with such ease was impressive.

"Are you sure I'm not heavy?"

"Y-Y-You're as l-light as a-a-a feather!" Bomb grinned at him goofily. OJ blushed as he fumbled to get the treats on the tree.

"Thanks..."

"D-Do you feel u-u-uncomfortable?"

"Huh? Oh! No! I don't- Woah!"

Flustered, OJ stumbled and lost his footing. Bomb caught him before he hit the ground thankfully, or not really thankfully as OJ turned bright red in embarrassment.

"Y-Y-You good?" Bomb chuckled.

"I-I'm fine." OJ did his best to look casual, but his heart was beating so hard he thought his ribs were going to break. Bomb then OJ down, laughing a little.

OJ replays that night over and over again in the back of his mind and couldn't help but mentally slap himself for being such a fool. He's always been a bit of a fool around Bomb. Before they went to compete in Inanimate Insanity, he tried to write a heartfelt love letter to confess his feelings but chicken out. Test Tube, who helped hm write that letter, was beyond upset when he called her afterwards of what had happened.

"I spent the whole day, helping you, you absolute. JEEBWEEZER. To write a beautiful, romantic love letter, to this boy you've been crushing on. FOR YEARS. AND YOU CHICKEN OUT AND THREW IT AWAY?!?!?!?"

OJ spent that whole night getting lectured by his enraged cousin. Part of him wishes he wasn't such a coward and confessed right there and then, but the overwhelming fear of losing Bomb because of a letter scared him. To him, it wasn't worth losing years of friendship because of unnecessary feelings.

"H-H-Hello? O-O-OJ?" Bomb waved a hand over OJ's eyes that snapped him out of his train of thought. He stared at Bomb, dumbfounded as he snickered at him (he could of sworn he saw a tint of red on Bomb's cheeks as he smiled at him).