Summary - Nickel and Balloon discuss the ending of the previous day's ‘Try Not To Laugh Challenge.’
Word Count - 1000
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It was morning on the island of Paradise, and Nickel and Balloon were on the beach, working on a sand castle.
The pair had been discussing the events of the previous day’s challenge as they worked, adding scoops of sand to their pile, which was just beginning to take shape.
“And then they tried to team up on you!” Nickel scoffed. “Like I was going to let that happen.”
Kneeling, Balloon patted down another level of sand. “I suppose we were going to lose either way.”
Nickel pushed a small amount of sand forward with his foot. “It’s a good thing you’re so easy to make laugh. Otherwise, Bow and The Floor would have gotten the one-up on us.”
“Psh, I don’t laugh that easily.” Balloon mumbled to himself.
“Are you kidding?” Nickel replied, having heard the comment. “All I have to do is blink to get you fighting a smile!”
Balloon eyed him, unamused. “Oh yeah? And I assume you’re ‘Mr. Stoic?’”
“Uh, duh.” Nickel rolled his eyes. “Unlike you, I don’t crack up at two sticks and a piece of hay.”
Balloon shifted in Nickel’s direction, a smirk appearing on his face. “Wanna bet?”
“What do you-”
Before Nickel could finish, Balloon was suddenly in his face. He reached out and gave the coin a light shove back.
Nickel fell backwards onto the sand, landing with an oomph. He snapped to attention as Balloon approached him.
“W-woah, hey-!” Nickel cried out as Balloon moved to sit on his legs, straddling the coin. “What, uh… what are you doing?”
Nickel attempted to conceal some of his panic, as he wanted Balloon to know that he trusted him, despite his current, startling behaviour.
“Oh, not much.” Balloon replied in a casual manner. He hovered his hands near Nickel’s sides, before giving each a light poke.
Nickel flinched in response, his eyes growing wide as he realized what Balloon was planning.
“Don’t. You. Dare.”
“What?” Balloon grinned, gently pinching Nickel’s sides. “You said that you don’t laugh easily, so this should be no problem for you.”
Nickel struggled against Balloon, biting his lip to hide the smile on his face, as the tingling at his sides seemed to intensify. “N-no!”
“I’m not even doing anything.” Balloon chuckled. “You’re doing it to yourself by moving around all squirmy-like.”
“Then let go!” Nickel exclaimed, kicking up the sand.
“If you say so…”
Balloon then released Nickel’s sides, giving him a moment of reprieve, before immediately digging claw-shaped hands back into the metal surface.
“WhaHA- NAHAHA!” Nickel thrashed around on the ground, wildly kicking his legs.
“What? You said to let go, so I did.” Balloon commented, continuing the action.
“THIHIS IHIS WOHOHORSE!” Nickel cackled.
“Hey, you never specified what to do after letting go.”
“BAHALLOON! PLEHEASE!”
Watching the coin frantically roll around on the ground, Balloon decided to ease up on him.
“Okay, okay.” Balloon slowed his hands to a stop, remaining on top of Nickel.
As Nickel was regaining his breath, Balloon felt something press up against his back. Turning around, he saw that Nickel was trying rather unsuccessfully to knee him.
“Great plan, bud.” Balloon turned back. “Really hindering me there.”
“Okay, I think we’ve had our fun.” Nickel huffed. “Time to get off.”
“Alright.”
Balloon shifted so that he was still sitting on Nickel’s legs, but now faced away from him.
Nickel blinked.
“Uh, Balloon? Not sure if you know, but that doesn’t exactly count as getting off. All you did was turn around.”
“Mhm.” Balloon seized one of Nickel’s legs in his hand, causing Nickel to grow anxious.
“H-hey! I thought that you- aAH!”
Nickel suddenly yelped, as Balloon experimentally fluttered his fingers along the underside of his knee.
“Keep going, I’m listening.” Balloon responded, as though they were having a regular conversation.
“S-stop thahat!” Nickel attempted to keep it together, but couldn’t prevent the occasional giggle from escaping.
He swung his free leg toward Balloon, but couldn’t quite reach. Balloon gave a small snicker. “Don’t worry, Nickel. You’ll get me one of these days!”
“Shuhut uhup!” Nickel giggled, half from Balloon’s tickling, and half in response to his teasing.
Balloon then stilled his fingers, placing Nickel’s leg back down onto the ground.
This time, instead of trying to knee him, Nickel quickly sat up, attempting to push Balloon off with his body. Balloon, however, wouldn't budge, and Nickel just ended up falling back down onto the sand.
Balloon shifted so that he was facing Nickel once more.
“You really want me off, huh?”
Nickel looked up at him with a scowl, which Balloon could tell was not entirely genuine.
“Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll get off for real this time.”
…
“... After one more quick thing.”
“No! Balloon! I swear, if you-”
Nickel was cut off as Balloon placed his hands on either side of the coin, gently holding him in place.
“Balloon…”
Balloon then took a large breath, signalling to Nickel what was about to happen.
“Wait! Wait, wait, wait! Balloon!”
Leaning down, Balloon blew a raspberry against Nickel’s centre. Nickel shrieked, flailing around on the ground.
“NAHAHA! BAHAHAHA-!”
Giggling at the sight, Balloon finally pulled back, moving off of Nickel.
After a few moments, Nickel, noticing the absence of a weight on his body, immediately shot up into a sitting position.
“So, who’s laughing now?” Balloon hummed at the breathless coin.
“Don’t talk to me.” Nickel grumbled, kicking sand at Balloon.
Balloon blocked the sand with his arms, giggling.
“Come on, let’s go finish the sand castle.”
Nickel rolled his eyes, watching as Balloon kneeled next to the mound of sand. As he repeatedly scooped handfuls onto the pile, Balloon’s preoccupied state gave Nickel an idea.
A smirk creeped its way across Nickel’s face as he rose.
What’s that saying about throwing rocks in a glass house? Nickel thought to himself, as he silently approached Balloon from behind.
Oh well, doesn’t matter. Balloon was about to experience the meaning first-hand, if Nickel had anything to say about it.
Nickel and Balloon were on the island of Paradise, gathered around a Pic-Nix table with most of the other remaining contestants. MePhone4, Candle and Paintbrush had gone to Indefinite Island for the day, leaving the remaining cast on their own.
Sitting together on the grass, Nickel described the extent of his newfound luck-powers to Balloon.
“Wow, sounds like Clover passed on quite the gift. I bet you sure find challenges easier now.” Balloon commented, stuffing a cookie into his mouth.
“Yeah, I guess they can be useful sometimes,” Nickel rolled his eyes, “but in the end they usually cause nothing but trouble.”
“I wouldn’t mind a bit of trouble if it meant I had a better shot at winning.” Balloon grinned, nudging Nickel with his elbow.
“You can say that now, Balloon,” Nickel began, standing and turning to face him, “but if you experienced what I’ve had to experience, you’d see what a curse these powers truly are!”
Balloon looked Nickel over, smirking a moment later.
“All I see is a perpetually grumpy coin.”
Nickel blinked.
“... Huh?”
Balloon’s gaze softened. “I mean, seriously, you get granted infinite powers of luck, and all you can talk about are the negatives.”
Nickel looked away.
“It’s not as good as it sounds.” He plunked himself back down on the ground. “Far be it from me to complain about this horrible thing I’ve been given that I never asked for.”
Balloon placed a hand on Nickel’s head. “All I’m saying, Nickel, is that you should try to focus on the positives more often. How else are you ever going to be happy in life?”
Nickel remained silent, facing the other way.
Balloon frowned, removing his hand. He couldn't help but feel bad for Nickel. Good moods were few and far between for the coin. If only there was something he could do for him.
Suddenly, Balloon’s eyes lit up, an idea having come to mind. He smiled down at Nickel.
“You should really lighten up every once in a while.”
Reaching out his hand, Balloon lightly scritched one finger against Nickel’s front surface, just under his face.
Nickel quickly brought up his leg to whack Balloon’s hand away.
“S-stop that!” He stammered, turning to glare at Balloon.
“Okay, okay.” Balloon chuckled, raising his hands in mock defense.
Nickel turned away once more, his face now slightly heated, as he felt the residual tingles slowly subside.
Just then, however, Nickel felt fingers skitter up against his sides. Balloon’s fingers.
“AHA! BAHALLOON!” Nickel broke out laughing, twisting his body around in an attempt to avoid Balloon’s hands.
“Ohoho, there we go.” Balloon grinned. “No more Mr. Grumpy Nickel.”
“QUIHIHIT IHIT!” Nickel attempted to stand, but Balloon easily pulled him back down, continuing his attack.
Starting at the top of Nickel, Balloon skittered his fingers down the coin’s sides, reaching his legs before repeating the action in the other direction.
“Round and round we go~!” Balloon sang out.
“SHUHUT UHUP!”
Nickel attempted to stand once more, this time pushing himself up with a greater amount of force. He hoped that he could get up and away quickly, before Balloon had the chance to pull him back down.
The additional force, however, resulted in Nickel standing and immediately falling flat onto his face. Balloon was quick to join him, kneeling down at his side.
“Heh, nice try.”
From their current angle, Balloon noticed what appeared to be small grooves carved into Nickel’s edge.
Huh, that’s funny. Balloon didn’t think that nickels had ridges. Oh well. They gave him another idea.
Shimmying closer to Nickel’s sprawled out form, Balloon carefully placed one hand on his back, keeping him in place, while the other gently traced a single groove on his side.
Nickel’s legs rapidly beat against the ground at the contact, as Balloon heard what sounded like a muffled shriek.
“I never noticed you had ridges.” Balloon noted out loud. “Let’s see just how many you have.”
Balloon slowly traced down the same groove from before.
“One…” He began counting as Nickel kicked at the ground.
“Two…” Balloon moved to the next groove, the sound of Nickel’s muffled screams filling the air.
“Three…” He moved yet again, his finger following the shape of the next indent.
Balloon then heard an odd sound mixed in with Nickel’s muffled hysterics. It sounded like he was trying to say something.
“I can’t understand you with your face in the dirt.” Balloon chuckled, removing his hand from Nickel’s back.
Nickel flipped over.
“I sahaid thehere’s 118!”
Balloon stared down at him.
“There’s what? How do you actually know the number?”
“You’re… not the first to count them.” Nickel admitted, trying to get his breath back.
“I… think that’s a story for another day.” Nickel moved to sit up, but Balloon promptly pushed him back down.
“Hey, who said we were done?”
“I did! Off! Now!” Nickel raised his legs and launched a barrage of kicks at Balloon.
Balloon shielded himself momentarily before snatching Nickel’s ankles.
“So that’s how you wanna play it, huh?”
Balloon could see the instant regret in Nickel’s eyes.
“No, wait, Balloon! I-I was just kidding!”
“Sure you were.” Balloon put Nickel’s ankles into a headlock, his free hand scribbling all over the coin’s soles.
“NOHOHO! STAHAHAP!” Nickel broke out into laughter once more, squirming aimlessly on the ground.
“Who knew you were so cents-itive, Nickel. Heheh!” Balloon giggled at his own joke.
Nickel pulled at his legs. “THAHAT SUHUHUCKED!”
“No it didn’t…” Balloon muttered to himself.
He continued for a few more moments before letting up.
“Okay, I’ll be nice.” Balloon slowed his hand to a stop, releasing Nickel.
Nickel remained on the ground, catching his breath, as Balloon shifted to sit next to him.
“I hate you.” Nickel said, no real bite behind his words.
Balloon just chuckled, reaching his arm out to rest around Nickel as he laid beside him.
“It’s great to see you again too, bud.”
The two laid together, listening to the other contestants’ antics. With the teams merged, things would certainly get a lot more chaotic, but at least Nickel and Balloon were together again.
