Chapter Text
As soon as Gaty came back from the void, she’s scooped up into Two’s arms, who hugged her impossibly tight to their body. Apologizing profusely about how if they had only just sent her to the elimination space and didn’t put her in the kitchen, then she wouldn’t have gone missing.
Gaty interrupts two and says it’s fine, a light blush forming on her face as she looks at two for the first time in a year. There’s something different about them, dark bags under their eyes when there didn’t use to be. There’s a sadness about them that wasn’t there before.
She would love to catch up more, but Saw grabs her from behind, hoisting her into the air and taking her back to where Pin, Teardrop, and Barf Bag are. The latter looking just as dead on her feet as she feels. Was Barf Bag also erased?
As everything calms down and the excitement dulls into conversations, it all becomes too much for Gaty.
Don’t get her wrong, she’s happy to be back, of course she is. She’s happy to see her girlfriend Saw again; she’s happy to see… whatever she and two are to each other again.
Everything is just too loud, too bright, and entirely overwhelming. Gaty loves her friends, but she needs a moment away. The sun is giving her a terrible headache.
Too many people have been hugging her, tossing her around like she’s nothing; simple touches that wouldn’t normally be a problem suddenly feel like fire.
Being in that void for a year has done horrible damage to her… everything.
She barely noticed when Barf Bag had left to go be with Donut.
“Gaty?” Saw asks cautiously, putting a hand on one of her posts, causing her to flinch at the sudden contact. Saw quickly removing her hand at that reaction. “Are you doing okay? It looks like you’re going to pass out.”
Teardrop gives her a look of concern; she hadn’t even noticed Pin had left either. When did Pin leave?
“Pin went to go find Coiny… you said goodbye to her?” Saw's voice has an air of concern to it. She said that out loud?
Gaty swallows, her throat is dry and scratchy, like sandpaper. The consequences of being in a void for a year are catching up to her, she supposes.
“I think I need to lie down,” she says, mumbling. She realizes her legs have been shaking underneath her, but she doesn’t know when that started. Barely able to keep herself upright as the sudden feeling of being both overstimulated and exhaustion hit her all at once and she nearly collapses face-first into the grass.
“Whoa! Whoa, hold on!” Saw says, putting a hand on her back to keep her upright, the touch is nice, but it feels like a lot. “Do you want me to get two? I don’t know if your elimination room has been set up yet.”
Going to Two sounds nice, but they’re too touchy. Gaty would love to be around two, but the thought of that sounds like too much for her.
“Can you just take me to your room?” She gets out, barely able to keep herself awake.
“I share it with cloudy.” Saw says, fidgeting, “But if he’s in there, I can kick him out for a bit.”
Gaty makes a noise of approval, holy fence post factory, her head hurts.
“Can I pick you up?”
She nods, too exhausted to do anything else.
Gently, Saw picks her up and carries her to the hotel. Gaty squeezes her eyes shut, relishing in the coolness of Saw’s metal body in contrast to her warm hands.
There’s a pause as she stops and has a small conversation, a few concerned voices she’s too tired to place as Saw tries to continue on to her room.
“Sorry,” Saw mumbles, “the Death Pact guys were worried about you. Black Hole said you were on the team? You’ll have to tell me about it.”
There really isn’t much to tell about her horribly short time on Death Pact Yet Again, when the only important thing she did was get beaten up by Robot Flower. Which then led to her elimination, then being sent to the kitchen, then to-
She can’t think about that. Not right now. Gaty doesn’t want to think about what One did to her.
Once they make it to Saw and Cloudy’s room, she sets her down on the soft bed and shoos Cloudy out. Who doesn’t protest in the slightest, just giving a quiet apology.
Gaty almost starts crying at how soft the bed is; she hasn’t felt this comfortable in a year…
She misses Saw’s touch when she lets go of her, too…
“Do you need anything?” Saw asks quietly.
“Water. Maybe some painkillers. My head is killing me.” She says hoarsely, giving her girlfriend the most appreciative look she can muster.
“Okay, I’ll go get that for you,” she says, starting to leave the room and- no, wait!
“Wait, wait. Please don’t go,” Gaty calls out, reaching a foot out towards her helplessly. Being alone is the last thing that Gaty wants right now.
Saw frowns, “I’ll be really fast, I promise. I’m not going to leave you for long.” She reassures, putting a hand on her leg.
“Okay,” she breathes a sigh of relief, trying not to let herself panic. “I- just- I,” the words die on her tongue before she’s able to say much else, “thank you.” She manages.
Saw closed the door with a silent click, leaving Gaty alone again. Gaty doesn’t enjoy being alone now; she can’t bear it, even if it is just for a few minutes. For a year, she was stuck alone in that void with nothing but her own thoughts and regrets to keep her company. Nothing to see, nothing to hear. Nothing at all.
Only her and the endless void of darkness.
Being in the dark terrifies her just as much as being eliminated did. She doesn’t want to be in the dark, never again.
It’s ironic, swapping out one phobia for another. Like the universe was playing a cruel, cruel joke on her.
Before Gaty can dwell on that any further, Saw returns. A bottle of water in hand and a package of crackers.
She lets out a sigh of relief she didn’t know she was holding.
“I got you some water, headache medicine, and crackers. X and Clock thought you could use them since you haven’t eaten anything either.” She says with a smile, opening the water and handing her the pill. “Did you know he works in the kitchen with Four and X now?”
Oh, she’s well aware of that. She’s also aware of the weird relationship he has with the two Algebralians. She makes a noncommittal noise as she takes a drink of water; the pill going down smoothly.
Being in the kitchen was the entire reason she was sent to the void in the first place.
Gaty shivers involuntarily and doesn’t respond. Saw either didn’t notice or says nothing about it. Grabbing one of the crackers when she’s done drinking water and holding it near her mouth.
“I can feed myself,” she says weakly, but takes a bite of the cracker regardless, grateful that Saw is here for her.
“I know… I- I just wanted to take care of you,” Saw says with a sweet smile, planting a kiss on her forehead. The sensation lingers there for a few seconds. A part of her hopes that Two will do that to her one day.
Ah… right… that’s something that the three of them are going to have to talk about when Gaty isn’t feeling like she’s dying.
Gaty felt devastated when Saw got eliminated. As a result, she and Two grew close, really close. She knows Two has a big, obvious crush on her, which is why they kept her around. Every time she and Two chatted, she found herself falling in love with the Algebralian in a way she just couldn’t explain. It was a similar feeling to when she fell in love with Saw, fluttery, nerve-wracking and unable to describe properly.
It was something she likely couldn’t have. There had to be something against the rules about the host dating a currently competing contestant.
But Gaty does not know if that’s even a thing. Maybe that’s why Two didn’t make any moves other than giving her such lovesick looks and leaning against her when they talked.
She still loves and adores Saw, of course; why wouldn’t she? It’s obvious that Saw missed her when she was eliminated too.
“Saw?” she asks, after eating another two crackers, fully planning on asking her about how she would feel if Gaty said she had a crush on two, but she yawns widely, her thoughts turn to mush as her exhaustion and fatigue catches up to her again.
“Hm? Do you need anything?”
They can talk about that later, she decides. “Can you nap with me?”
“Of course I can!” she smiles widely, shutting the curtains and making her way over to the light switch to turn off the lights, and something catches in Gaty's throat.
“No!” she sits up with a yell, startling the other on the other side of the room, “no, please. Please don’t turn off the lights. Not with the blinds closed when it’s light outside or- or,” she starts with a panic, cutting herself off when she sees the looks of concern on Saw's face.
Saw says nothing, thank fence post, and moves to turn on the bedside lamp before going to turn off the overhead in the room, which emits a soft, comforting light.
Gaty, immediately relieved, lies back down on the bed, even more exhausted than before. She used up every bit of the little energy she had left.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” Saw asks one she settles in next to Gaty.
She doesn’t answer right away; it feels embarrassing to admit. “Yeah.” She says quietly enough that Saw can barely hear.
“That’s okay.” The love of her life whispers back, not making a big deal out of it as she reaches for her in silent permission, pulling her close when she’s allowed to, “you were in a void for a year, we- we’ll figure something out. Get some rest. You need it.”
With that, Gaty falls into a peaceful, dreamless slumber.