Earning Her Trust // Tacomic Fanfic

CHAPTER 1 - A Deal In The Moonlight

The forest was quiet, tree leaves blowing in the wind. In a small clearing sat Taco, deemed "The Liar" of Inanimate Insanity. The dewy blades of grass had a slight shimmer to them from the moon, casting a soft, silver glow on everything in its reach.

Taco sighed, leaning back against one of the trees.

"Why did she have to leave? She could have won with my help..."

Taco slid down the tree, her legs getting a little wet from the damp grass. She sighed, confused by Microphone's sudden leave. Well, she understood, but she never really understood. So vanilla, that girl. Taco would do anything to get the million; backstabbing, cheating, even a literal stab to the back.

Mic, however, was tied down to morals. And to mention Pickle? Ugh, Taco was upset. Less about the thrown away opportunity, not even that dig at her previous alliance, but for some reason, she felt a bit of a void. It was odd for her to miss someone, well, as much as she missed Mic.

Suddenly, within her longing, it was as if a lightbulb appeared above her head. The click of a button and some shuffling of leaves could be heard as Taco made her way to Hotel OJ. Though at the beginning of the season it was quite run down due to the crash, by now, it was nearly fixed up.

Scaffolding and vehicles were strewn about the outside of the hotel, the previously pristine, flowered shrubs were now slightly overgrown with some missing petals from the once lush azalea. Most lights were off, but a few were kept on. OJ's, of course, were on.

Taco despised that man. If not for him and Bow, she could have won the million. She certainly wouldn't have spent it on some hotel. Truly, why would he? There he is, pacing around his room, likely stressing over maybe YinYang, or perhaps the Cherries? The hotel caused him nothing but stress, really. A little giggle escaped Taco's lips. Though she was quite jealous, she certainly wasn't jealous of OJ's constant state of sleep deprivation.

Mic and Soap's lights were on, but dimmed. Soap was sleeping on her bed with Mic reading quietly in the bed beside her. She was kicking her feet as she read, turning pages as she tried to immerse herself further in the story. Mic loved to read. It was an escape from the show, from the mistakes she made on it, from everything. Though normally this escapism stopped the incoming flood of memories as Soap snored in the bed next to her, tonight it seemed Mic was still in this reality.

"Uuuuugh," Mic groaned and slammed her head in her soft, fluffy pillow. Rather than the soft kicking to focus a bit, she was now kicking harder and in quicker succession before slowing down with another groan. "What she did was wrong! What I did because of her was wrong!"

Mic flipped from her stomach to her back, and pulled the covers over her now pouting face. She couldn't understand why she missed Taco. She did awful things because of Taco! If she was really all that bad, why did Mic think of Taco so often? The season one contestants, especially Pickel, said she was a horrible person. Mic agreed for the most part, but they didn't see that smile. They didn't hear that sweet laugh in the forest when no one could hear them, though cold and calculated, Taco had a little warmness to her.

Despite this, Mic was still conflicted. On one hand, she did technically kill Test Tube, she manipulated everyone, and well... she was quite morally questionable. On the other, she could be so sweet if she wanted to be. Was this another one of Taco's tricks? Maybe, but it seemed so sincere. Mic always wondered if she was just being gullible. She felt like just another Pickle: another stepping stone to victory, but was she different? Was she more than a stone?

Something slammed against the window, stopping that train of thought right in its tracks, and startling Mic half to death. With the silky tangerine curtains closed, Mic couldn't see what had hit the window. It could've been a bird—maybe a stick or something the wind picked up—but it didn't seem that way. The noise was far too loud for that. Soap, a very heavy sleeper, drifted out of sleep for a moment because of it.