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Match was lounging around on the teal blue couch within the main hub of the failed debuter space. After failing to rejoin within TPOT, the prior EXITors were allowed to stay in the hotel, much to the displeasure of the failed debuters. PDA was especially rough, but Match learned quickly how to shut them up. Thankfully, it was early enough in the morning that none of the meaner failed debuters were up - just a few of the failed debuters overall, all of them being nice, and most of the EXITors, due to Four's rigid scheduling screwing up their sleep schedules. Some, like Match, still slept with one eye open...
Match was pulled out of her doom-scrolling on the couch by speeding footsteps, and a box being set down on the coffee table. Bracelety was practically bouncing, excitement coursing through her body. Match smiled (because, alas, Bracelety was just magic like that. Not even Pencil could make Match smile just by existing. Especially as time went on...), setting her phone down and pulling herself into a sitting position.
"So, like," Match gestured her hand to the box, "What's in, like, there?"
"Super Slip Shoes So Blah!" Bracelety has a wide smile on her face, brimming with positivity.
It's that face that, of all things, got Match through the hell that was the EXIT, up until they split up. And the fact Bracelety bothered to remember, of all things, the shoes Match had wanted for years? She couldn't help but blush a little, "Aw, thank you! Like, seriously, thank you. The fact you remembered? ...Pencil would, like, never..."
"Pencil isn't as good as Ice Cube," Bracelety explained, "Ice Cube would remember!"
Match gave Bracelety a couple of head pats, chuckling to herself before pulling open the box. Bracelety was completely right - inside was a brand new pair of Super Slip Shoes So Blah. There were other things in the box (things Match could only assume was for Bracelety, considering it was just Ice Cube merch), but it was the shoes Match had wanted for so long in her hands that made her excited.
Putting the shoes on, Match stood up, only to experience the reason why they're called "Super Slip Shoes So Blah". Not even a second later, she had, in fact, slipped, landing face first into the coffee table. But instead of laughter like how Pencil would - always laughing before helping - Bracelety did something different.
"Are you okay?" Bracelety asked, moving to get to Match's side.
"Ugh, like," Match hesitated, "Yeah... Didn't expect them to, like, be that slippery."
Bracelety only lightly chuckled, and only after making sure Match was okay, "They're called "Super Slip Shoes So Blah" for a reason. Do you need help? Ice Cube would help..."
"Yeah, I like, do..." Match pulled herself up using Bracelety, not having the heart to tell the truth - Ice Cube would just be manipulated by Pencil to not help at all.
Bracelety helped Match get adjusted to the Super Slip Shoes So Blah, the two walking to the former's room, with the box in tow. As Match got more used to the shoes, she helped Bracelety put out all her new merch, right where she wanted it. How bright, how cheery, how loveable Bracelety really was, it gave Match butterflies. Bracelety could give Match things Pencil couldn't, and Match, truthfully, loved that.
Pencil was sitting in one of the back tables of the lunch room, aggressively tapping the table. Scanning around, she, of course, found no one to sit with. She could try Book and Ice Cube (for the millionth time), but both would retract away as soon as she reached out. But, of course, someone else had to arrive.
"Hey, dumbass," PDA muttered, sitting down across from Pencil.
Pencil snarled, "What do you want?"
"I caught Match and Bracelety this morning," PDA warned, "The two of them were decorating a room together."
Pencil frowned, "I need to win Match back. What do you say I do?"
"Maybe a good deed," PDA whispered, "Others like good deeds, so do good deeds for Match, you can win her back."
"Like back in you-know-where, when I did her homework for her? That's a good deed?" Pencil asked in a hushed whisper.
PDA nodded, only knowing what "you-know-where" is thanks to the EXITors invading their space, "Stuff like that. That'll get her."
"Now, scram before I smack you," Pencil warned, "I have stuff to do."
PDA got up, walking back towards the fifth floor. They may hate Pencil, and all the EXITors, but they also... don't. They don't really know how they feel about Pencil. It's so... complicated. There's not an exact word they could use to describe how they feel. But something, deep down within their subconscious, knew what was really going on. The hate they harbored was turning to love. But no part of them wanted to admit it.
Match was out like a light, fast asleep upon the bean bag sitting in the corner of Bracelety's room, surrounded by quite a few Ice Cube plushies. Her new Super Slip Shoes So Blah were sitting next to her resting place, the light blue color Bracelety having gotten them in actually surprisingly complimenting Match herself. Small, quiet snores filled the otherwise silent room, coming from Match herself.
Bracelety sat on her bed, staring at her temporary roommate, just for while Match was napping. Bracelety was a doodler, and a doodler at heart. Ice Cube doodles filled every inch of her sketchbooks. Bracelety had always admired Ice Cube for so, so many things. And yet, sitting, trying to figure out how to doodle Ice Cube next, Bracelety felt inclined to doodle something else for once. And so, away she went.
It was around thirty minutes of intense drawing later before Match began to stir. She groaned, stretching herself out and rubbing her eyes. It was a really good, really, really satisfying nap. The type of nap you wake up from after not even realizing you had fallen asleep, yet a feeling of refreshness that washes over you that you just never want to leave. She looked over to Bracelety, and saw just how cute Bracelety truly was when focused.
Bracelety had, of course, always been cute when focused, but Match never realized just how so. Bracelety's eyes would slightly narrow, just enough to focus better but not enough to hinder vision. Her tongue would barely slip out, and her leg would barely bounce up and down, her limitless energy being channeled almost entirely into her work. It was so, so cute, Match couldn't help but just... stare. Her brain was moving slower than her body, and the adorable sight in front of her was like a trap.
Bracelety looked up moments later, only to see her artistic subject awake and no longer in position. It was fine anyways, as a bright smile lit up on her face, "Hii!!!"
"Hey," Match's voice carried a tiny bit of loopiness to it - not enough to be noticable if you weren't looking for it, "So, like, what are you, like, doing?"
"I was drawing!" Bracelety flipped her sketchbook around, "I couldn't figure out what Ice Cube drawing to do next, so I tried to do you sleeping with all the Ice Cube merch instead."
Match got up, sitting next to Bracelety and wrapping her in a hug, "I love it."
Later that day, after Match went back to her room to do her own thing, Bracelety gave her the art work she made. Match framed it, hanging it up on her wall. Match loved Bracelety so much, it was such a long list of things she couldn't finish it all in one sitting.
And Bracelety? Maybe that artwork was a little more than just a one time thing, as her sketchbook started to feature a lot of her EXITor "friend" as well. But those doodles were always in a different light than the Ice Cube ones. They always had more care, more love poured into them. Maybe it was something a little more.