TxW: Never Alone, Forever Together

Chapter 10: Almost There...

Tari POV-

After a lot of battles, against many great opponents, I finally found myself nearing the finals. All I had left to do was defeat one more person and I'd be facing Evelyn in the finals

"I can do this", I thought to myself, "just one more well placed hit and I win!"

The opponent was using an Inkling, probably as an attempt to make me hesitate due to who one of my friends was given the look on his face, but the jokes on him. He was using the light blue skin for the Inkling so I instead thought of those jerks from Team Killer Ink who bullied Meggy. If Meggy can overcome her bullies, then so can I

Inkling tried to sneak up on Yoshi and land a ink blast shot from behind, but Yoshi dodges and finds himself behind the Inkling, and ends the fight with a kick, sending the Inkling to space

"The winner of this battle, and our next finalist in this tournament, is Tari!!!", the announcer said, causing the audience to cheer in excitement and hype, especially my friends

The person I was up against was a red Teletubby, who was mad on the floor, but I congratulated him and told him he did awesome against me, as I did with everyone I faced in this tournament. We shook hands and I began to walk back to my friends for a moment. However, Whimpu actually ran up to me in excitement

"Awesome job, Tari!", Whimpu said, "You made it to the finals!"

"I know!", I replied in excitement

"All you have to do now is best Evelyn and you win the tournament!", Whimpu said

"I know, I'm so excited!!", I replied, again, in excitement

We stood in an awkward silence for a moment. I'm pretty sure I could see Saiko smirking as she whispered something into Meggy's ear, causing Meggy to get shocked for a moment, but then shift to a similar smug expression, causing me to blush a bit

I took a deep breath, and I looked into Whimpu's eyes, where I would find a confident and comforting look, one that I've grown to quite adore. It was time I told him...

"Hey, Whimpu?", I said softly, causing him to look at me with curiosity, "I just want to say that I'm really happy you helped me through this, and I'm glad that you're here to help me now..."

"You've really grown out of that simp who needs someone else to feel special!", I said to him

I could see Whimpu forming a blush on his face and smiling, he definitely felt something from what I said

"T-Thanks!", he said in a slightly awkward tone, "but you've gotta give yourself some credit, you've grown a lot as well!"

"You said you didn't want to be 'that scared little girl' anymore", he said to me, "and here you are now, ready to kick a bully's butt in her own arena!"

"It's a sight for anyone's eyes that you're braver than ever.", he said, as he got slightly closer to me, almost to the point where our bodies touched

I was flustered by what he'd said. I don't know what it is, but ever since when he told me that being vulnerable doesn't make me weak, he always just seems to know how to make me feel... special... admired... appreciated...

I took a deep breath, getting ready to tell him something

"Hey, Whimpu...", I said to him, grabbing his attention, "before I finish this tournament, I just want to tell you something, something I've been wanting to tell you for a while now..."

Whimpu looked slightly shocked, but then responded with "... I'm listening"

"I just wanted to say that I... I...", I said, as I could feel the heat rising in me, "that I... I-I..."

"You...?", he said, with a slight nervous but curious tone

I took another deep breath, while actively bracing for impact

"Whimpu, I-", I said, however I was was interrupted

"Well well well, what do we have here", someone said, with a familiarly smirky and arrogant tone, "I didn't know the little loser could get herself a little boyfriend!"

I looked back, and it was Evelyn

"Then again, I suppose it does take a half to make a whole. Not that it fixes the problem of course, since your worth as a person is about an 8th!", she said, as she followed up as a laugh, "and he just looks like enough of a loser to be YOUR boyfriend!"

Me and Whimpu looked at her with nothing but a blank stare. I didn't even care that she called Whimpu my 'boyfriend' nor that she insulted us. By this point, I was just unimpressed with her lousy material

"This her?", Whimpu asked, with a very moot tone

"What do you think?", I replied

"If you actually think you stand any kind of chance against me after how badly I beat you last time", Evelyn said, with a more pushy tone this time, "then you're honestly better off going home right now!"

"At least if you give up now, you can keep telling yourself the lies that keep you going!", she says, with her tone growing more annoying and snarky as she speaks, "You're still nothing but my said, sorry little punching bag of a-"

"Shut it, Evelyn!", Whimpu said, with a calm yet aggressive tone, putting both of us at shock, "Her name is Tari, and she's not 'your' anything"

"Even if literally any of what she said was true, that still makes her better than you practically by default", he said, "Win or lose, Tari is still better than you could ever be!"

"I want to say she's twice the person you are, I really do, but that wouldn't exactly work considering your number has a negative sign on it!", he said, followed with a slight smirk on his face, as he watched Evelyn's face gradually get redder

"You keep talking about Tari like she's so weak and worthless, that you would destroyed her so badly", he said, "Well if that's truly the case, then why don't you quit wasting our time already, shut the hell up, and just DO IT!?"

"We're all waiting to see how this ends, so just shut up and get ready.", Whimpu said

Evelyn stormed off into the other direction, heading to her area where she'd play

I didn't know Whimpu had all of that in him. Though, I have to admit, I was pretty flattered that he rose to that level of intensity just for me

"Thank you, Whimpu!", I said, with a very visibly blushing on my face

"You can thank me by owning her in this tournament!", he replied, following with a wink just before he'd walk back with the rest of our friends

"If he believes I can do this... then there's no way I can lose now!" I thought to myself in excitement and readiness

I walked up to the gaming platform, taking deep breaths as I got ready to win the game of my life

"It's go time!", I thought to myself

Writer's talking-

Damn, didn't know you could go off like that, simpy boi. And don't worry guys, Tari's also using her anger from Evelyn interrupting what she was about to say to her Whimpu ;)

The next few chapters might take a bit of time to write, the quality will soon speak for themselves I hope, so I hope you are all pumped for that