Chapter Text
This competition that Good decided to host was…awful. No one liked him, and he didn’t like anyone there, just like it was at home. Bad kept complaining about going home, but Good wanted to stay, and he didn’t want to leave her by herself.
“Good, please! I don’t want to stay here! I want to see Mom again! I want to see my friends again! They probably miss us!” she begged, with Good responding bitterly, “They’ll miss you, Bad! I’m pretty sure you know by now that no one likes me here! Er, back there! Mom will probably be happy with one less kid to take care of anyways,” he crossed his arms, looking anywhere but at Bad.
“No, Good, don’t…don’t say that. I’m sure someone there is scared of what happened to you! Mom’s probably terrified!” she responded, her worry expanding to Good’s mental health.
They kept going back and forth for a few minutes before Good opened a portal for her, “There! Are you happy? It closes in 5 minutes so make up your mind, but I’m not going with you,” he snapped at her.
“Good. Stop saying those things. Just come home with me. Staying here isn’t any better, you’re just going to distance yourself.” She held a hand out to him, but he responded by putting his hand on his other arm. He clearly was stubborn about his choice.
But unfortunately for him, Bad was also sure about her response, and the time limit was stressing her out. She hesitantly approached the portal, turning to Good and telling him, “Please be safe,” before leaving.
Good didn’t understand why he felt worse. He made Bad make her own decision, but she was the last family he had after he left. The last physical part of his home, where he was growing up.
He didn’t want to go back though, especially since he’d probably get arrested for trespassing into a government facility. What if Bad didn’t care about him anymore now that she was home? Maybe Goodcity and everyone he met were doing better without him. He stood in front of that portal, staring blankly at it as he spiraled. When it closed, he had a sudden urge. A violent one. But it was different from usual, he didn’t want to kill a contestant. He didn’t think any further into what that could mean. Instead, he looked behind him. It was just himself in that forest. Maybe if he got some light he’d feel better.
He took in the scenery as he walked, remembering which direction he took to get back here. He wasn’t too far from the plain either, just far enough that no one would check twice. Before he stepped outside the forest though, something made him stop. It was like his brain was suddenly on autopilot, he was walking towards a rose bush, sitting down beside it. Maybe this could be the prize for the next elimination.
He grabbed the stem, and almost jumped when he felt the thorns. He doesn’t know why, but it caused something to snap inside him. He yanked it out of the ground and stared at it. The red reminded him of Bad. He already misses her like hell. But the thorns were what caught his attention the most. Just looking at them made his thoughts spiral again. He was selfish, no one cared. And most of all, his mom accusing him of faking injuries for attention. He can’t lie, that was true. But it just hurt that no matter how he tried to get attention his mom just ignored him. She never really cared, had she?
‘Well fake injury THIS’ he thought as he pressed the rose’s stem against his skin. It stung, but it wasn’t enough. He needed to get hurt more. This was his punishment for being a rude, selfish, stubborn, terrible person, and an even worse host and brother. He rapidly ran the thorns against his skin.
He stopped when his arm got tired. His injured arm was blanketed in blood, he wasn’t even sure if he had cut to his muscle, or even past that because all he could make out of the injury was red of different shades and hues. Why had he done that anyways? Well, he knew why, he just wasn’t sure what drove him to actually do that. It was a stupid thing to do, just a redundant waste of time with an even more unsatisfying reward afterwards. He just realized he had been crying. When did that even start? Everything felt off now.
As Good looked at his wound, Blueberry had made his way over. He hadn’t seen neither of the hosts in a while and wanted to make sure they were okay. He noticed Good and walked over to him, “Hey, Good, are you alright?”
Good froze. What could he even do? There was no way to hide the gash from Blueberry, and what if he tried teleporting away and accidentally teleported in front of the contestants? When Blueberry got close enough to see the evidence of Good’s self harm, he stopped in his tracks.
He didn’t say anything for a few moments, and Good was afraid he was judging him silently for what he had done. Instead, he said, “I’m gonna get some bandages.” before walking away.
Good felt like he hadn’t had a moment with such relief as now. But then he got confused by Blueberry’s words and actions, ‘Why did he care?’ he thought to himself, turning his upper body to watch Blueberry walk off. He looked back at his injury, noticing not only the pool of blood under the wound, but what had happened to the visible skin around the areas. It was torn and was stretched in different directions.
Out of boredom he tried licking the wound as an attempt to get rid of some of the blood, but it stung too bad to attempt. So he was just stuck there until Blueberry returned, which Good hoped wouldn’t take long.
Blueberry finally showed up, a first-aid kit balanced on his head. He dropped it next to Good, “I was thinking of taking Brainy with me but I wasn’t sure if you’d want that,” he mentioned, looking at Good with that blank stare he always seems to have. Good wanted to vocalize that he was grateful, but he felt like he couldn’t say anything. He can’t recall this happening before, but he just hoped he looked grateful.
Blueberry opened the kit, with a bit of help from Good. He grabbed the roll of bandage with his mouth, walking over to Good’s injured arm. He sat down beside it and dropped the roll, taking a close look at his arm.
“I dunno what to do about this before I bandage it so I’m just gonna bandage this up,” he added, with Good responding in his head with, ‘Yeah, VERY insightful Berry’ along with an eye roll. Blueberry noticed his eye roll and how he wasn’t verbally responding, making a realization, “It’s ok if you don’t want to, or can’t talk right now. That happens to me when I get overwhelmed or sad,”
He watched Blueberry carefully pick out the thorns on his arm with his teeth, Good hadn’t realized those were even there. He wanted to make another snide remark about Blueberry because he said he didn't know what to do before bandaging it up, but he wanted to make sure Blueberry didn’t bite him by accident.
The thorns being removed caused his arm to start bleeding again. Blueberry got up and grabbed gauze from the box, “I forgoh to grab hish” the gauze was in his mouth so he couldn’t speak clearly. He walked back over and pressed it against the wound with his foot. Good sucked in his breath as the feeling stung. He quickly got used to it as Blueberry held it there until he thought it was good enough, letting it drop to the floor into the small red puddle.
Blueberry grabbed the bandage again and started wrapping it around Good’s arm. Since his limbs were so thin it didn’t take much time, or bandage, to cover it enough to keep the bleeding in, “I forgot one more thing, is there any tape in there?”
Good noticed some in the first aid kit and grabbed it, handing it to Blueberry. He ripped off a piece and stuck it on the bandage wrap to keep it in place. He then got up and put the rest of the unused supplies away, closing the first aid kit, “I gotta bring this back to Brainy,” he said before walking off.
Good looked at the remnants of his decision, the blood-stained rose, and then to the rose bush. This time he didn’t have those terrible thoughts, and he was glad about that. They’d still be a good prize for the elimination, he’ll just have to be more careful this time.
…And maybe later he’ll tell Blueberry thanks.