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The soft rustling of trees sounded in Taco’s ears as the wind carefully flew by. Next to her sat Mepad, who had been sneaking concerned glances at her every now and then. In front of him was a holographic screen emitted into the air, being streamed from the robotic device implanted in his wrist. He was tapping away at it, his movements stuttering whenever he gazed at the shorter woman beside him.
Earlier that day, Taco went and confronted Mephone, directing the episode’s challenge. Her efforts had unfortunately gone in vain as the remaining contestants seemed to not take her words or advice, or anything she said into consideration.
As Knife’s words dug harder and harder into her mind, she broke. Literally. It was always a traumatic thing to see whenever a contestant had shattered, seeing as their body would literally start to crack.
Oddly enough, as much as everyone could bleed and bruise, when they shattered- there was barely any blood. They had bones, organs, everything, but when their bodies ‘broke’, it was almost as if it all disappeared.
Trying to understand why always lead to no answers, so it was usually better to not think about it.
As many contestants have died or shattered before, mostly in season one, it was unheard of for one to break without there being a physical interference.
So, when Taco had shattered under the mere reasoning being pressure, it had been.. odd. To say the least. Sure, Knife was winding her up, seeing tears gathering in her eyes had been highly unexpected, and almost had caught the brute off guard. It was only when the cracks started that the atmosphere had immediately changed.
Mepad, standing behind her the entire time, could only look on in silent horror when Taco had shattered. Feeling something akin to disgust and anger when Knife had said she’d be back, as if that made everything okay.
Staring at Mephone with an intense gaze as he watched the blue-haired man discreetly swipe his wrist- presumably the notification to revive Taco- Mepad narrowed his eyes in barely hidden irritation.
Once the competition was over, Mepad forcefully teleported the other man onto the platform, his tall stature towering over Mephone. He had gotten in Mephone’s face, an expression of pure irritation and anger had taken place, one that was a first for Mepad.
He almost reeled back in shock at the fact he had to convince him to revive Taco, someone who’s life was held in his hands.
Once Mephone had flicked the screen on his wrist, projecting a hologram into the air, he typed away at it and clicked a Taco icon. A decently bright silhouette had formed of the woman in question, before the light faded away and Taco fell to the ground.
For some odd reason, the crack on her right eye hadn’t gone away, but rather solidified on her face as a scar. She stared at the ground, eyes glossy as her body trembled, and Mepad couldn’t hold back his barely passive aggressive tone as he addressed the host and the contestants with a final message.
He crouched down, hooking an arm underneath Taco’s and pulling her up, before teleporting away in a bright purple light.
Immediately after landing in the forest, Taco’s breathing had picked up as her knees buckled beneath her. Her hands clutched at her chest as she absentmindedly pushed Mepad away and paced back and forth by the trees.
“Taco?” he called out, ignoring the vibrating coming from the device on his wrist. With a quick tap, he muted it.
The blonde haired woman was trembling, her arms clutching at her sides in a weak feeble attempt to comfort herself. Her back was turned to Mepad, and he didn’t fail to catch her arm quickly swiping up at her face, most likely wiping away tears.
“Y-” her voice was scratchy and cracked as she cleared her throat, “Yes?”
Mepad hesitated for a moment, unsure of what he wanted to say or do. In all of his time with her so far, not once was she ever like this. Her calm and collected stature had completely vanished as her walls she put up around herself had started to crack. Her tie was crooked, her hair was messy, and her sleeves had been wrinkled from how tightly she had grasped them.
For once, Taco didn’t look like an evil mastermind who carefully plotted before she acted. She looked broken. Mepad took a moment to really look at her, at how small she really seemed in that moment.
Carefully walking up to her and slowly putting a gentle hand on her shoulder, he softened his voice as much as he could, “Would you like a hug?”
Taco had gone still for a few moments, worrying Mepad that he may have either overstepped or made things worse. Just as he was about to retract his statement, the girl swiftly turned and buried her head in his chest, her arms still wrapped around herself.
Mepad froze up out of shock for a quick moment, before he snapped back to reality and wrapped his arms around Taco, hugging her tightly.
It was then that the cracked walls had come crumbling down, as the blonde practically melted into the hug the moment Mepad’s arms wrapped around her. Still as silent as a mouse, tears streamed down her face, and she felt Mepad tighten the hug. It was more comforting than anything, surprisingly.
Taco let herself relax a bit, turning her head sideways against his chest. It was then she realized that Mepad had been humming quietly, swaying her back and forth slowly. One hand rubbed up and down her back comfortingly as the other wrapped across her waist.
Slowly pulling back, Taco averted her gaze as she felt her cheeks warm up at the fact she had cried. In front of someone. And got tears all over his shirt.
“Are you feeling any better?” Mepad softly asked, looking down at Taco.
She cleared her throat, crossing her arms and staring off to the side, “Yes, I am.. Thank- Thank you.”
Mepad smiled reassuringly, before glancing back at the competition grounds. In the corner of his eye, he noticed Taco tensing up as she looked deep in thought once more.
“Why don’t we..” his voice trailed off as he took ahold of her hand, her eyes blinking into focus as she snapped her gaze up to him, “sit for a bit? We can figure everything out later, you need to rest.”
Taco wearily sighed, “I suppose that may be the ideal option for now..”
Mepad gave a small chuckle, trailing after Taco as she went and sat against a rather big tree. He sat down next to her, sneaking a glance at her from the corner of his eye as she hugged her knees to her chest, closing her eyes. He flicked the screen on his wrist, projecting the hologram of notifications he had to go through.
After a bit of debating on whether or not to go through them, he was pulled out of his thoughts by a soft weight laying on his shoulder. Looking over, he saw that Taco had fallen asleep, his arm now being used as a pillow.
With a fond huff, he closed his notifications and swiped the hologram off, staring up at the now darkening sky.
Yeah, everything could wait. Glancing back down towards the sleeping woman, he had more important things to worry about.