Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Hi! I’ve decided to begin an inanimate insanity requests book. I’m a multishipper and I want to explore the limits of my writing and have fun, so request to your hearts content!! - with a few stipulations.

What I’m willing to write:
-Angst
-Fluff
-Hurt/Comfort
-Hurt/No Comfort
-Alternate Universes
-Gore
-Cakeverse
-Darkfics !!!!
-Etc (ask)

What I’m not willing to write:
-Smut/anything sexual
-Kinks
-Agere

Pls be at least relatively specific in your request! If a character you want me to write for is not in the tags then I’ll let you know if I’ll do them (I can’t remember every1 in the cast). Also, I prefer to humanize all of the objects.

Chapter Text

Suitcase’s boots crunched through the thick snow as she walked. She shoved her prosthetic arms deeper into the pockets of her jacket, pulling her scarf further up her neck. The shivering didn’t stop, though, and she wondered if the wind was blowing through her clothes. It was the only way she could possibly be this cold.

Purgatory Mansion stood large and imposing in front of her. It was an up-hill trek, the only evidence of life the thin stream of smoke that trailed up through the chimney.

Suitcase walked up to the door and knocked the door knocker twice. The mansion was big and old and rickety, its out-of-date architecture and dramatic gothic design making it more suited to be a haunted house than anything. Anyone else would simply assume it to be abandoned, just from glancing at the boarded-up windows or missing patches of roof tiles. Its decrepit state certainly didn’t do it any favors.

“Marshmallow?” Suitcase called, goosebumps crawling up the back of her neck from the cold wind. She had forgotten to put on even marginally warmer clothes in her haste, and now she was paying for it. She was ready to crash, but she needed Marsh.

The door opened, and Apple appeared, paint smeared over their face and hands. They grinned widely when they saw her. Suitcase smiled back weakly, willing what little energy she had left.

“Hey Suitcase!” Their smile faltered slightly, startled by her sunken eyes. “What’s wrong?”

“N-nothing.” Suitcase stepped inside. The heavenly warm air washed over her, soothing her frozen limbs. She wiped the soles of her boots on the carpet. Even though the inside was also run-down, cobwebs stretched across long corners and a perpetual dust coated on top of every surface, it was still nicer than the outside. “Is Marshmallow here?”

“I think she’s with Bow, I’ll go get her!” Apple exclaimed enthusiastically, darting off through one of the wide doorways. Suitcase fidgeted in the uneasy silence, the faint sound of talking echoing around the large ceilings. She recognized Bow’s valley girl accent and Dough’s drawl, but not—

“Suitcase?” She jumped, spinning around to face Marshmallow. Her startled expression immediately melted into one of relief. Marsh’s eyes narrowed with concern. “What are you doing here? Didn’t you say you had a challenge today or something?”

Suitcase swallowed past the rock lodged in her throat. “A-about that… it didn’t…” Tears welled up in her eyes, and she wiped them away, tear tracks reddening her face. “I couldn’t wait any longer to see you.”

“What hap…” Marshmallow began, but stopped. She took Suitcase’s hand. “I’ll get some hot chocolate.”

Suitcase nodded, too choked for words. Marshmallow smiled sweetly, her face pinched with worry, and she returned the gesture. This time her smile felt genuine.

Marsh led her one of the sitting rooms, a fire already crackling in the fireplace. Suitcase melted into the couch almost automatically. The plush velvety pillows cushioned her. She inched closer to the fire, letting its heat thaw her body.

Marshmallow came back five minutes later with two warm mugs of hot chocolate in each hand. She handed one to Suitcase, the steaming liquid warming her face as it rose up. She watched the marshmallows swirl around idly, bobbing in and out. Marsh sat down next to her, taking her hand in her prosthetic one and resting her head on her shoulder. Suitcase breathed into her fluffy white hair and closed her eyes. It smelled like chocolate.

They didn’t speak for a moment. Suitcase absorbed everything around her; the coziness, the feeling of safety, allowing it to wrap around her heart and warm her soul. She felt like falling asleep, but she needed to get everything off her chest first. Suitcase leaned back, and Marsh looked up at her, eyes soft with concern.

“You wanna talk about it now?” she asked. Suitcase nodded hesitantly.

“We…” Her throat closed up, but Marshmallow squeezed her hand reassuringly. Suitcase swallowed, and tried again. “I… I couldn’t… take it anymore. I voted for Nickel.”

Marshmallow’s face tensed, fingers tightening ever so slightly around her mug. “Good. You did the right thing.” Her voice softened. “…how did he take it?”

“Everyone else voted for Balloon… but… it was a surprise double elimination. He’s not in the competition anymore.”

Her eyebrows furrowed, eyes wide, and slowly took a sip. “Well, I can’t say he didn’t have it coming. And it seems like just the kind of thing MePhone would do.” Just another one of the reasons I quit was left unspoken. Sometimes she wondered if she should quit too, and live in the mansion with her, spending their days in each other’s company. It was certainly tempting. “Did you talk to Baseball?”

Suitcase shook her head. “I couldn’t. I couldn’t face him. I… walked straight here.” Her voice quieted to a whisper. “Do you… think I did the right thing?”

Marsh paused, and set down the drink. “Suitcase.” She turned her body toward her, and put a hand on her cheek, locking eyes. “You absolutely did the right thing. You stood up to Nickel, which is something I… wish I had done to Knife. I’m proud of you, Suitcase.”

Suitcase sniffed, tears beading at the corners of her eyes again. This time she let them fall. “T-thanks, Marsh.” She’d been so in the moment during the elimination that the very second she was away from it all, she broke down. Thank god Marshmallow was here to help her. Suitcase still felt unsure, but she let those lingering thoughts melt away through her eyes, forgotten for at least this moment.

Marshmallow tenderly wiped away the tears sliding down her cheeks. She smiled, eyes crinkling, and bowed her head gently, kissing the top of her forehead.

A flustered blush crawled up Suitcase’s neck, butterflies fluttering in her stomach.

Marshmallow giggled. “You’re red.”

Suitcase laughed with her, rubbing her neck, just a touch too hot. “I guess I am.” She blinked and her eyelids stuck together. All of the crying had made her tired — that and the general feeling of coziness. But the last she wanted to do was go to sleep.

Marsh somehow read her mind. She frowned and straightened up slightly. “If you’re tired, you can go to sleep… we have plenty of empty rooms, and you look like you need it—“

Suitcase stifled a yawn. “I’m not tired.” Marshmallow sighed.

“Suitcase… you’ve had a rough day.”

“I want to be with you,” she admitted, chest tightening. Suitcase couldn’t handle being without her, even in unconsciousness. She was already treading the line staying in the competition. The only good thing it had done for her was bring her and Marsh together, after all. “Please?”

Marsh exhaled in relief. “That’s what I was hoping you would say.”

Suitcase smiled, heart soaring. Marsh brought her hands to her head, untangling the yellow ribbons she had pinned up. She set them aside and ran her fingers through Suitcase’s hair, slowly guiding her head into her lap.

Marshmallow was murmuring sweet nothings into her ears, but Suitcase was barely listening. All she could hear was the fire crackling, the warmth of Marsh’s skin smooshed against her cheek, the smell of chocolate wafting through the room. Suitcase closed her eyes, feeling more peaceful than she had in a long while.

Before she knew it, she had dozed off. Marsh looked fondly down at Suitcase, and she, too, soon fell into a restful sleep.

-

Later, Bow would float over to find them curled up together on the couch, limbs intertwined, Suitcase’s head resting in Marshmallow’s lap, their breathing in sync. She would scoff a little at the endearing sight, toss a blanket over them and blow out the last of the candlelight, allowing them to remain together in the darkness.

Their not-so-hot chocolates were left forgotten on the table, half-full and stagnant, marshmallows floating at the top.

Chapter Text

“Hey, Pepper?” Salt called out.

Pepper poked her head out from the bathroom doorway. She was a rubbing a moisturizer into her dark complexion, brown curls freshly dried, dressed in the black nightwear Salt got gotten for her specifically because it looked too sexy to pass up. She was wearing a matching white pair, of course. “Yeah?”

“There’s a new update on my phone — it has some boring junk and, like, an app?” She sat up in her bed, eyes narrowed and locked onto the screen. “It just got downloaded.”

“Weird,” she hummed. Pepper walked over and sat next to her, looking over Salt’s shoulder. “What does it do?”

“I dunno,” she muttered, pressing the icon. It loaded for a second, flashing the Meeple logo, before fading into a camera view. The screen seemed to scan both of their faces in a mesh pattern for a moment, startling them, but then quickly switched to a complicated-looking program with a dial.

Salt squinted at the screen. “MeSize? What, does it, like, measure things?”

Pepper snorted and playfully thwacked Salt’s arm. “Of course your mind would go there.”

She giggled. “Whaat! I’m not wrong! There’s a dial, see? That’s gotta be what it’s for.” Pepper and slid her finger across the screen, pulling the dial down.

“It doesn’t even do anything though—”

Suddenly, Salt felt like she was being pulled down, her body squeezing in on itself, and everything around her was growing taller and taller. Both of them shrieked in fear, clinging to each other. The bed sheets grew into a sea of satin fabric, shrouding half of their view. The door seemed miles away.

Salt was screaming, and it took a minute or two for her to open her eyes and realize they weren’t in danger.

“WHAT HAPPENED? ARE WE DEAD!?” Pepper screamed. She still had her eyes screwed shut, hugging the blonde in a tight death-grip.

“No, I don’t think so.” Pepper hesitantly opened one eye, then the other. She didn’t let go. Salt waved away the part of her that didn’t want her to. “Everything’s just, like, way bigger.”

They both settled into an unsure, stunned silence, processing their surroundings, until a metaphorical lightbulb suddenly went off over Pepper’s head. “I know what happened! It was that app! MeSize! It scanned us and when I turned the dial, we got smaller!”

Salt turned to her, bewildered. “How could an app do this, though?”

“Do you see MePhone anywhere?”

She snorted in return. “I doubt MePhone could do anything like this.”

“Exactly! Everything didn’t get bigger, we got, like, smaller!”

“You sound like that science freak.”

“Salty-salt!” Pepper whined, looking at her with her big dark eyes, looking utterly adorable. Salt felt her face heat up. She groaned exaggeratedly and turned away, so Pepper wouldn’t see how red her face had become.

“Okay, fine, maybe we did shrink,” she admitted. Salt’s phone was still in her hand, normal-sized. “Which means…” She turned the dial to the middle, back to its previous placement. They both felt that same feeling of being pulled again, and suddenly everything was as it should be. The sheets were just that, sheets, and the door wasn’t as big now.

Salt stood up, disoriented, and as did Pepper. They took at second to adjust to the transition, before Salt’s face broke out in an grin — one Pepper had learned to both love and hate. “Pepper, you know what this means, right?”

“What? That your phone is totally jacked?”

“Umm, my phone is perfectly fine, thank you!”

“Then what?”

“We can check on OJ!! God knows he needs the protection, hanging around Paper all day.”

Pepper made a face to hide the sinking of her heart. “Salt, that’s, like, so creepy! You sound like a stalker.” She hoped she didn’t sound too pathetic.

Salt sighed, not completely convinced. Pepper wrapped a hand around her freckled shoulder. She didn’t realize how warm she was. “It’s late. How about you stalk OJ tomorrow?” Salt scoffed, but she was smiling. “Prime hunting time, and all that~”

“Fiiiiiine,” she sighed, and looked into Pepper’s eyes. Grey met brown, admiring the specks of color in each other’s irises, until they hesitantly separated. Salt placed her phone on the bed, walking into the bathroom.

Soon enough, they were curled up together in bed. Pepper already had her sleeping mask on, but Salt couldn’t help but stare at her for a moment. Her fondness melted away after a few minutes, though, and her soft smile turned into a frown pulling down at her lips.

It was… normal, to feel this way about your bestie. Right? Girls were close. They shared things, like bathrooms, clothes… a bed. It was normal. It was normal for a blush to light up her cheeks anytime Pepper flashed those wide dark eyes at her, anytime she was wearing anything particularly revealing, anytime they cuddled closer together than strictly necessary. Right? I mean, she already had a crush, so that made it okay! Salt wasn’t…

Wait, why was she even thinking about this!? They had just discovered an app that literally changed your size. That was fucking crazy!! Not… whatever her mind was lingering on.

Salt laid down at last and pulled down her sleeping mask, feeling Pepper’s head settle into the crook of her neck.

The next morning, Pepper was the first awake, covering her mouth with her hand, giggles escaping every so often. Salt slid the mask up and rubbed her eyes, her hair a rat’s nest to Pepper’s perfect curls. She was never a morning person.

“What?” she yawned.

“Notice anything… different?”

Salt blinked, and furrowed her eyebrows, stepping closer to her. She gasped. “Pepper, you’re taller than me!”

Pepper was now a good few inches above her, to the half an inch Salt once had. She couldn’t contain her giggles anymore, allowing them to fill the room. She smiled mischievously. “What do you mean? I’ve always been taller.”

Salt snorted. “Pepper, where’s my phone?”

“I dunno!” Pepper felt her stomach dip, thinking about last night. About OJ. Why did Salt always have to make about him? Why couldn’t it just be… them? “Maybe you left it somewhere.”

Salt huffed and slid her phone out from Pepper’s back pocket. “Found it!” she said, rolling her eyes. “Lemme get dressed, and then we can find out what OJ’s up to— ”

Salt yelped as Pepper swiped the phone from her hands. She reached for it, but Pepper held it above her head now that she was taller, almost teasingly. She stuck her tongue out at her. “Pepper! Give it back!”

“Nah, I don’t think I will.” She hid the pain in her voice with playfulness. Pepper opened the MeSize app with one hand, but Salt climbed onto the bed and quickly plucked the phone away. Pepper reached for it, and managed to slide the dial downwards. They were both pulled down once again, startled, this time somehow managing to end up under Pepper’s bed.

Pepper was disoriented enough to momentarily push away her blinding jealousy. They could see the wooden bedframe above them, and the few socks here or there strewn about were enormous. Salt took a step, and dust stirred around them. Any awe her face once held was replaced with disgust.

“Ew, it’s filthy under here!” Salt exclaimed, plugging her nose with one hand and waving the stirred-up dust particles away with the other. She noticed her phone lying on the ground and scooped it up. Pepper gasped behind her, distracted.

“Oh my god. Is that my moisturizer!?” She pointed to a container larger than they were tall, towering over them. “I’ve been looking for that everywhere!

“…Wait, if you were missing yours, then what were you using yesterday?”

“…ummmm. Yours?”

Salt gaped at her. “Pepper! That’s, like, gross! You’re transferring germs!”

“No I’m not, you don’t even know how that stuff works.”

“Why would you even say that!? I can’t believe you! First you steal my phone, and then my moisturizer!?” Salt whined. “That’s it. I’m leaving.”

“Wait, Salty-Salt!” Pepper ran over and grabbed her arm, but Salt shrugged her off. “I’m sorry, okay?”

“I don’t care!” Tears stung Salt’s eyes, but she wiped them away. She didn’t know why she was so upset. Why was Pepper acting this way? “I’m going to go spy on OJ, and I don’t care if you call me a stalker— ack!!”

Pepper jumped on top of her, sending her body thumping onto the ground. They rolled along the floorboards, dust dirtying both of their clothes and hair. “What are you doing!?” Salt coughed. “Get off of me!” She pushed her away, and Pepper stumbled back.

“Wait!” she cried. Salt paused for a second, but shook her head and turned the dial back to the middle. Pepper grabbed it, and her jostling managed to raise it all the way to the end.

This time, only Salt was pulled up, since she was the one in view of the camera, but she didn’t stop growing once she was normal-sized. Pepper ran out of the way as Salt continued to size up more and more, until her hair brushed against the ceiling. Her head burst through, and with a pained yelp she grabbed for the phone and stopped the dial.

“Hey! What the hell!?” she heard Trophy yell from above her. Something was crawling up her leg, and with a glance she realized it was Pepper.

“Get off!” she grunted, turning the dial back to the middle. She was pulled down, and everything was normal again, save for the gaping hole in the ceiling and the debri scattered around the room from it. Pepper crawled on top of the phone that Salt was still holding, disproportionate to her small size, and turned the dial up. She grew back up to Salt’s size.

Except she was still on top of her. Pepper was on top of Salt, pinning her to the ground, their freckled faces inches apart. They were so close they could feel each other’s warm breaths on their necks as they panted. She was on top of her, and this time they were both unable to hide their faces, aflush with aggressive blush.

They were silent for a moment, allowing the racing of their hearts to slow down. Eventually Salt spoke.

“Why did you?—” she started, frustrated. Pepper’s eyes looked downward, embarrassed.

“I didn’t want you to leave,” she admitted with a breathy exhale. “You always make everything about OJ, and you seem to think I want that for you too, but I just—” She locked eyes with Salt, and the anger and jealousy instantly melted away. “I just want you .”

Salt’s lower lip quivered. “I want you too, Pepper. I’m so sorry.” She leaned forward, hesitantly, and Pepper did too. She closed her eyes, heart leaping through her chest—

Suddenly, a certain hotel manager burst through the door, Paper hot on his trail. “What happened!?” OJ yelped, his gaze landing on Salt and Pepper, then to the pieces of drywall strewn around the room, and finally to the gaping at the hole in the ceiling. Trophy peered through, looking pissed.

“ My roof! ” he cried, ignoring the two girls as he fell to his knees dramatically. Paper rubbed his shoulder, sympathetic.

Salt and Pepper shared a look, and then promptly burst into giggles.

Chapter Text

Floory loved nature.

That… certainly wasn’t anything new; or at least he hoped so. He’d spent his entire life surrounded by it, living in it — he pretty much was nature! He was the grass and the flowers and the rocks and the water, the babbling streams and the bubbling lava and the clumps of sand and seashells at the beach. He was the ocean floor where seaweed dwelled and wet sand stirred, he was the fields of butterflies and daisies and overgrown grass, he was the volcanic rock and the scorching lava and anything else one may conceivably step upon. He was the floor, and that included anything, and everything. Especially nature. Years upon years spent on the island, exploring its every nook and cranny, and those years snowballed into the blur he called his life.

There wasn’t much to do to occupy himself, except to think and to sleep. Most of his time was spent looking up — that also wasn’t much of a surprise, but it was true. One of his favorite past times was watching as the sun and moon shifted between different phases, sunrises and sunsets a melting pot of reds and oranges and pinks, the moon so soft and big amidst the twinkling stars. He especially enjoyed connecting stars together in his mind, creating constellations before he’d even known what the name for it was.

He wanted to learn the proper names for them at some point, but… he was never one for technology. It was utterly foreign to him, after all.

Well , almost all technology.

“Lovely night for star gazing, eh?” Floory glanced over at MePhone, who had sat down in the grass next to where he was lying down. The robot offered him a small, awkward laugh.

“Yeah, it’s definitely… clear?”

“Sure is,” he chuckled. “You know any constellations?”

MePhone shook his head. “I’ve never really… seen the sky all that much. It’s always just been a roof.”

“Why not, mate?” Floory frowned. “I mean, I get you’re a robot, but it’s the sky! You can’t really miss it.”

“Yeah, that’s the thing.” MePhone shifted uncomfortably. “I actually lived in the sky. A place called MeCloud.”

Floory stared at MePhone, eyes wide and disbelieving. He looked up once again, trying to imagine someone living amongst those stars, gazing down at the clouds instead of up at them. “That’s really something, then.”

“It’s ironic, is what it is,” he chuckled humorously. “I was barely allowed outside. There were windows, but it wasn’t the same. They might’ve actually just been giant screens. It would clock for…” he trailed off.

“For who?”

“My… uh…” He turned away.

“Your… creator?” Floory guessed, knowing he was right in the way MePhone grimaced and hunched in on his shoulders. He didn’t answer, and Floory didn’t pry.

“Say, mate,” said Floory, trying to change the subject. “You’re a robot, right? So you have… info, and all that junk? A database?”

“…You could call it that.”

“Do you know what the stars are called?” He thought back to when he was first introduced to all of the foreign concepts the contestants had brought along with them when they arrived to the island. “Clover offhandedly mentioned the constellations, but I’ve been naming stars for years. I didn’t know they already had names.”

MePhone frowned, his eyes narrowing in focus. They glazed over, no longer focused to the sky. After a moment, he pointed to a cluster of stars, and said, “that’s called the Big Dipper.”

Floor leaned closer to him to see where his finger was pointing to, the fuzzy grass tickling MePhone’s neck sensors. If robots could blush, he’d be red. “Looks like a pan to me.”

“It’s also called Ursa Major, the Plough, the Wagon, or Chocolate Box’s Wain, among other names.” He sounded robotic as he read out the text, but his voice quickly softened. “At least, that’s what Yoogle says.”

“Hm. What about those ones?”

“Uhhhhhh…. That’s actually the Little Dipper.”

Floory snorted. “Of course it is. What even is a dipper?”

“Beats me,” he shrugged. “Those ones over there called Cassiopeia. That’s Orion, and that’s Pegasus.”

“I think my names are better,” said Floory. “That one is Tree, and you see those ones? They kind of look like a rabbit. A wonky rabbit, but still a rabbit.”

They both chuckled together, their laughs eventually fading away. MePhone’s smile slowly sunk. “Floory,” he said, hesitant. Floory shifted his body so that he was facing the robot, who was suddenly frowning, eyes troubled.

“Sorry for, uh, changing the subject so abruptly, but, uh. Do you ever feel…” MePhone sighed. “Disconnected? Like, detached? If that makes sense.”

He stared at MePhone for a second, before chuckling softly, looking up at the stars once again. “I don’t think I have, actually. I’ve lived on the island my whole life, and I’m literally physically attached to it. I couldn’t leave if I tried, and I can’t imagine being apart from it.”

“…oh,” said MePhone, looking away. Floory suddenly felt like he’d made a mistake — he probably hadn’t been looking for such a blunt answer. He tried to quickly open the topic back up again.

“Why? Do you?”

MePhone shrugged. “It doesn’t matter. It’s… stupid.”

“MePhone… I’m sure it’s not stupid,” said Floory, just now understanding what he had really meant by ‘disconnected.’ “Sure, I’ve never felt physically out of place, but lately I’ve been mentally out of place quite a bit recently. It’s… a lot, adjusting to new people. People who have phones and weird food and…” he trailed off. “You get the point. It’s normal to feel that, mate. At least for me. That’s what being alive is all about. Adjusting.”

“Yeah, but I’m not adjusting!” MePhone yelled, startling Floory. “I— I haven’t managed to adjust since season one! Do you know how long ago that was!? It’s different for me, Floory. I don’t even have any… any real friends.” He turned away, voice cracking, and for a second Floory wondered if robots could cry. He realized it didn’t matter, though, because he couldn’t either — not really, anyway, only if there was water for him to source it from nearby. “They’re just contestants. And I should be used to them being just contestants, but I’m not.”

Floory sighed. “Is that why you push them away?”

MePhone’s head snapped over to look at him. “What?”

“You act like you don’t care, but you do, don’t you?” He went on. “And now they’re used to it. They think you actually don’t care at all.” At MePhone’s bewildered expression, he tacked on, “I’m the floor, mate. I tend to notice these things.”

MePhone remained silent. “Even if they’re your contestants, you don’t have to force yourself to stay alone,” he continued. “Everyone needs friends. And trust me, I know what it’s like to feel lonely.” Years and years and years alone. He hadn’t known what he’d been missing until they’d arrived, the contestants and their host, but now he couldn’t bear to be separated from them. From him . “If you won’t let the contestants be your friends… at least let me be.”

MePhone stared at him. “You’d… wanna be my friend?” He choked out.

“Of course, mate! You’re special to me. And maybe you can open up to everyone else while you’re at it…”

MePhone smiled, and scooted closer to Floory, laying down next to him and settling his head in the crook of his almost-shoulder, an action that made something akin to blush crawl up Floory’s neck to match MePhone’s phantom redness. “Yeah,” he answered after a moment. “I’d like that.”

They quickly lapsed into a comfortable silence. The crickets chirping around them grew into a gradual white haze, drowning out Floory’s thoughts. Fireflies hovered around them, as small and bright as the stars in the sky. He was in a bed of his own substance, soft grasses and soft bugs and a soft night, soft blue light emitting from MePhone’s robotic limbs, like an automatic nightlight of sorts. Floory closed his eyes, breathing in the spring air.

They both fell asleep like that, underneath the stars, Floory’s grass swaying gently in the wind. MePhone didn’t fall asleep for hours, staring at the floor’s face as if it held all the answers in the world. And maybe it did.

He looked up, and somewhere in the stars, he saw Floory’s figure smiling down at him.

Chapter Text

Test Tube stumbled through the door, her head pounding.

The room swirled for a second as she swayed in place, leaning against the doorframe for support. Knife was watching Fan type rapidly on his computer with detached interest, but both of them quickly looked up as she appeared.

“Test Tube!” Fan exclaimed, concern immediately melting into his expression. He half-closed the computer and stood up. Test Tube walked over and promptly collapsed on top of the sheets.

“ Aaaand that’s what happens when you pull multiple all-nighters in a row with no breaks,” Knife said, unamused, though his eyes were soft with care in the way they only ever were around her and Fan. “You good?”

Test Tube could only groan. She raised her head weakly, lifting her glasses and rubbing her darkened eyes as her eyelashes clung together. Fan put a hand to her fluffy green hair and began gently undoing her ponytail. “Test Tube, when was the last time you left the lab? Or slept, for that matter?”

“I’m… fine…” she said instead of answering, voice cracking. She cringed at her fatigue-drenched voice. It sounded sorely unconvincing, even to her own ears. “And I’ve slept plenty, for your information!”

Fan slid the grey scrunchie out of Test Tube’s hair, idly running his fingers through it. Knife shuffled closer. “Sure you have. Not like you’re about to pass out or anything,” he replied gruffly, rolling his eyes. Test Tube sighed, picking at a stray thread on her lab coat.

“Maybe I have been out in my lab for a bit too long…” she admitted sheepishly. “But! It was for a very good reason! Lightbulb nearly ate another lab rat today mid-dissection , so I had to deal with that, and then I discovered a type of foliage on the island that didn’t match with any of the plant species in the botany textbooks I recently purchased — I know that look, Fan, if anyone has a shopping addiction it’s you — and its description on the internet didn’t bring up any results! Not even a single Yeddit post! So then I had to do some more digging on some other obscure botany forums—“

“Alright, you lost me at ‘Lightbulb’,” Knife interrupted. “Discovering some new berry bush or whatever isn’t an excuse for not coming back to the hotel for three days straight... but I guess it’s good you have a new interest.”

“You practically locked yourself in there! We almost had to storm the place ourselves to get you out, if not for Lightbulb,” Fan added. “Oh, and I do not have a shopping addiction.”

Knife and Test Tube both shot him incredulous looks. “What about those My Little Pony figures you have lined up on the windowsill?”

“Or the vintage bow tie collection you bought off eYay for a hundred bucks?”

“Or that Yintendo, even though we already have a gaming console—”

“God forbid a man indulges in the delicacies of life once in a while!” Fan gasped.

Test Tube broke out into giggles, Knife chuckling along with her. Fan couldn’t take himself seriously for much longer and was soon laughing with them as well. “Alright, fine, I’ll admit I can be a little… frisky with OJ’s credit card. But the man has a million dollars! And counting! Let’s be real, my indulgences probably aren’t even a dent to his fortune.”

Knife’s eyebrows raised. “You’re using his credit card? Does he know?”

“He has at least ten of them just lying around . If you ask me, that’s free real estate right there!”  

“I guess you’re not wrong,” Test Tube giggled. “But you do know he can see everything you purchase, right?” 

Fan blanched, nervous laughter bubbling up from his chest. “Heh… well… y’know what? I’m not ashamed of my interests. I take pride in them, actually!”

“You should be,” Knife said, chuckling deeply when Fan elbowed him. Test Tube snorted, yawning into the bedsheets. She lifted her glasses up and began rubbing her eyes again. Knife got off of the bed as well and shrugged off her lab coat for her.

“Oh, you don’t need to do that…” Test Tube blushed.

“I wasn’t asking,” Knife mumbled, placing the crumpled garment on the back of her desk chair. Test Tube groaned. Her face was probably so red right now.

“Guys, really, I’m fine! I’m not even tired!” 

“You’re not fooling us, Testy.”

“Test Tube, you’re exhausted! Just look at you!” said Fan. If her head wasn’t spinning so hard, she might have had half a mind to be offended. “C’mon , admit it.”

“No I’m not…” she protested weakly, more for the sake of preserving her own ego more than anything. She yawned again, cursing her watery, droopy eyes with a grimace.

Knife sighed and pulled Test Tube up by her arm, guiding her over to the front of the bed. To anyone else, his gentle grip might’ve been a surprise for someone like him, but she’d long been able to see past his gruff exterior. Test Tube couldn’t resist the soft, plush white pillows, sinking into the mattress with a groan. Her back and shoulders ached from being hunched up all day over her journal, scribbling entries wildly in her redbull-induced fervor — her hand strained from writing into the long, stretched-out hours of the night.

Really, the only thing that had kept her from staying in the lab once she’d worked up the nerve to leave in the first place was the thought of coming back to the hotel, back to her partners. Back to Fan’s endearing antics, his crinkly smile and dimples that appeared when he smiled, the way they could just ramble on and on to each other without an end in sight, fueling each other’s inner dork; back to Knife’s grumbliness, his biting bluntness and surprising warmth, the way her skin heated up with only one well-placed comment or gesture from him. She watched with half-lidded eyes as Knife and Fan bickered softly above her. They dimmed the lights and climbed into bed on each side of her, and she felt a sudden appreciative swell in her heart.

Test Tube rubbed her eyes, abruptly hit with a wave of longing that she would drown in if she were to simply sleep the night away. Trying to sit up, Knife pushed her down with a gentle but firm hand to her chest. “C’mon Testy, you need to rest,” he said, his voice rumbling in her chest.

Test Tube huffed at that, welcoming the soft pillows as she sunk into them despite herself. “What were you two doing before I arrived?” she asked curiously, remembering Fan and the way he’d been typing on his laptop when she’d arrived.

“I was trying to find a good movie to watch!” Fan chimed in, flipping the heavy blanket over himself and snuggling closer to Test Tube. “There was this really bad rom-com we were gonna make fun of- Knife wanted to watch a horror movie, but I wasn’t having any of be that.”

“Lame.”

“Well, sorry I don’t want to have nightmares!” he shot back. His eyes flicked over to Test Tube, softening. “We were actually… kind of waiting for you, Test Tube. We hoped you’d come back to the room, but…”

“Not looking like you got bit by a zombie,” Knife supplied.

“Well then how about we watch something? A movie?” Test Tube proposed, the swell in her heart rising. Her face definitely looked like a strawberry by now, which- maybe wasn’t necessarily a bad thing? Both Fan and Knife shot her incredulous looks, protests on the tips of their tongues, but Test Tube beat them to it. “I wanna spend some time with both of you before you force me to sleep! We can watch it on Fan’s laptop. It’ll be a… movie night!”

Both of them seemed to be considering it, but Fan couldn’t help the stars that practically shone out of his eyes the moment Test Tube uttered the words ‘movie night.’ Knife was still a bit skeptical, but his expression eventually caved in as Fan reached under the bed and set the laptop on Test Tube’s legs, so that they all might be able to see the (admittedly large, did he also buy this with OJ’s credit card?) screen. The blue light burned Test Tube’s watery eyes, but she didn’t let either of them noticed and simply blinked the bright after-images away.

Knife got up and dug around in his belongings, eventually taking out an unopened bag of freeze-dried candy and some crunchy strawberry pocky he’d gotten from Fan. Knife had a bit of a sweet tooth, she’d noticed after they’d gotten together, often buying sweets and other such junk food with Pickle from the mainland. Knife opened the small package and took out two packets of pocky, handing one to Test Tube and setting the other on Fan’s lap wordlessly, as the other man in question opened Yetflix and began scrolling through the colorful movie titlescreens, rambling absentmindedly. He took out another packet and opened it, snapping a pocky in half cleanly and popping it into his mouth. Test Tube didn’t have any strong feelings toward the candy, but she would admit it was a pretty good snack.

“So what should we watch? There’s this new series out, The Nightly Manor, but it’s kind of depressing… hm, I know you like that Desperate Housewives show, Knife, how about that?” Fan hummed. “Wait, no, this isn’t a binge-watching marathon night, this is a movie night! Hmm…” His eyebrows furrowed, face scrunching together like a puppy’s.

“I think Test Tube should decide,” Knife interjected, smirking down at her. “She’s the one that came up with the movie night idea in the first place, it after all.”

“Good idea!” Fan chirped, turning to her expectantly. She wasn’t actually planning on watching whatever movie they picked in the first place, but… she leaned forward and squinted at the screen, eyes landing on the first one that met her gaze. She pointed to it lazily, arm flopping down onto the blanket. “How about that one?”

“Ooohhh, good choice! A murder mystery! We can all guess who the killer is,” Fan exclaimed, clicking on it immediately. Test Tube’s eyes glossed over the description, too tired to collect to energy to read the words.

“Especially since we have a natural-born killer in our midsts,” joked Test Tube. Knife grimaced and elbowed her, embarrassed. Ever since the three of them had gotten together, Knife had gradually learned to accept his past for what it was, and thus atone for it in his own way — at this point it could be written off as a lighthearted joke between them, something Test Tube was proud of Knife for accomplishing. They sometimes brought up Marshmallow, as although she hadn’t forgave him, they had reached a tentative consensus in their rocky relationship. Gentle reminders and nudges no longer made him shut down completely, either. Progress, certainly!

Sure enough, Knife only snorted in response to Test Tube. “They always came back!” he defended half-heartedly.

Fan hummed thoughtfully, playing along. “Does that give him an unfair advantage? Maybe we ought to give him a fifteen-minute delay so we have a better chance.”

“Alright, you both can shut up now,” Knife grumbled, the almost minuscule smile tugging up at the corners of his lips betraying him. “Either of you will probably guess the killer in the first fifteen minutes anyways.”

“I am quite gifted at movie analysis and tropes—”

“Don’t get too cocky.”

“—and Test Tube is really good at dissecting the characters themselves! Of course, perhaps not to the extent of moi, but good nonetheless.”

Test Tube adjusted her glasses, grinning. She probably looked like a dork right now, but not as dorky as Fan. “Well, let’s have the results speak for themselves, shall we?” Fan may be overconfident in his abilities, but Knife had some tricks up his sleeve, too — he was better at character analysis than the both of them combined, after all.

“Yeah,” agreed Knife. “When I wipe the floor with both of you, it’ll just be more embarrassing for you than if you hadn’t talked yourself up. Especially the so-called ‘expert movie critic.’” He smirked.

“Alright then! Challenge accepted!” declared Fan with a contagious grin, selecting the movie enthusiastically.

Fan and Knife continued to talk above her, Fan gasping in line with the plot twists, Knife rolling his eyes and insisting he saw it coming. She did try to keep up, she really did — even put together a half-assed theory about the sister-in-law committing the murder — but somewhere into the halfway point Test Tube leaned further back into the squishy pillows, and her eyes fell downwards against her will, sticking together. Colors and light danced through her eyelids, soothing voices like a white noise to her ears. She wasn’t listening to the movie anymore, only her partners’ voices, rough and brittle, light and bouncy.

Fan and Knife looked down at Test Tube, both of them smiling softly. Fan paused the movie and shut the computer, stashing it underneath the bed once more, while Knife brushed the crumbs off the sheets and pulled the plush blanket over all of them. She felt one of them gently slip off her glasses and place them on the nightstand. The lights were fully turned off, only the dim moonlight trailing in between the gaps of the sheer curtains giving way to the illusion of utter inky darkness.

They fell asleep like that, limbs intertangled, bodies indecipherable from one to the other. Fan’s leg were swung over Test Tube’s, body halfway off the bed and splayed out like a starfish, while Knife’s head was dangling over the edge with the blanket barely covering any of his body, snoring softly.

Test Tube was sandwiched in between the two, and she felt the safest she’d felt in a while. Her heart swelled- and just like that, she passed out in a deep, welcoming sleep.