Annnd we're back! :D
Sorry for the wait on this one! I got super booked before Christmas and didn't have a lot of time to work on this chapter, but it's finally out!
I wanted to get it out before the new year so there is a bit I had to cut out from the end, but I might dedicate a chapter to it via an interlude between jaunts or just include it at the start of the next chapter, I'm not quite sure yet ^^
But thank you all for your patience and for tuning in! I really appreciate the enthusiasm for my silly total drama au fic and I hope you enjoy this next installment!
"Welcome back to The Ridonculous Race!"
The intro card played as Don strolled across the sand just past the Carpet of Completion and a new Don Box set up beside a water table and a standing umbrella, a camera-ready smile plastered across his handsome face.
"Yesterday's Chill Zone is today's starting line. Teams will depart in the same order they arrived, starting with yesterday's winners—the intriguingly 'platonic' Best Friends!"
The twins stood off to the side with the other contestants as the mentioned team walked up to grab the first travel tip. After a decent first night away from 'home,' a bus had picked them all up bright and early to return to the film lot of the previous segment for today's jaunt.
For Jay, standing next to Jacques was undeniably awkward after the debatable trainwreck that was their introduction the previous segment. He had no idea if the Ice Dancer even remembered their conversation amid his own affairs, but apparently he cared enough to recall their first bantering words to each other at the start of the race—and that alone was enough to give Jay a burst of anxiety.
Another part of him wondered why he even cared what the very attractive man thought of him, but given his track record with mental health, that was a question with several unfulfilling answers.
The older twin's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of Devin's voice reading off the travel tip:
"Oh wow! Looks like we're going to Paris!"
Carrie's dark grey eyes lit up as soon as the words left his mouth, "No way!"
"Yes way!" Don smirked and casually walked past them to stand in front of a greenscreen as the camera panned over to him, "Paris, France. Home of the Mona Lisa, tiny coffees, and other things that annoy me like you wouldn't believe!"
"Teams must make their way here-" He gestured below him, assumedly to whatever would be edited in during post, "-to the Eiffel Tower and find their next tip."
Glancing back at the Best Friends, he cleared his throat and gestured to the road where a couple rows of mopeds were parked with the TDRR label embossed on their frames.
The team quickly jogged down towards the bikes, given a head start for coming in first place—hopping on one of the mopeds and taking off for the airport as a camera crew followed along to interview them.
"Lady Cops, you're up next!" Don called out, the Police Cadets pushing past the group to grab their tip next.
"..There's nothing 'Eiffel' about this Parisian landmark? Really Don?" MacArthur blanked at the host, who shrugged in return, before looking back at Sanders.
"Let's roll!" The darker-skinned cadet urged with a confident grin, the two of them descending after the Best Friends to catch their ride to the airport right after.
As the Ice Dancers got their tip in third, Jacques grinned as he shot a glance back at his competitors—eyes meeting Jay's for a moment in a spark of challenge, "Hé, les faibles! Essayez de ne pas tomber en retard~!"
Despite not knowing a lick of French past whatever people said in any generic movie with a French character, Jay's eye twitched at the clear provocation in that sentence—while if anything, Mickey was just confused, "..W-What do you think he said?"
"Either he called us 'weaklings' or he called us 'retards,' either way it was an insult." Jay grunted, blue eyes darkening with a seething anger that was only magnified from his previous anxieties about the man in question—anxieties that evaporated like water on a hot stove from the blistering heat of pent-up frustration, "If that's how it's gonna be, I don't care how hot he is—one way or another, those dancers are going down."
Being towards the back of the pack, most of the other contestants had grabbed their tips and were already on the road before Mickey and Jay even made it down the hill.
"D-Don't get too worked up, Jay—you know it's n-not good for your blood pressure- or your d-driving-" Mickey whimpered, concerned for both of their well-beings in his brother's place, "And I don't really want to get rammed through a street sign..again…"
"I'll be fine, Mick. Have some faith." Jay replied, not bothering with the helmet as he swung his leg over the bike while Mickey hopped on as his backpack, "We are going to blow the wheels off this thing though, so hold on tight-"
Mickey sighed at his brother's bullheadedness but didn't see the point in dragging it on any further, instead just wrapping his thin arms around his brother's also-thin torso as Jay kicked up the kickstand. He loved his older twin dearly, and the two of them rarely ever actually argued about anything, but especially as of the race—Jay's already short fuse only seemed to get shorter, and he was starting to worry for him.
"Are you guys going to be alright?" Kitty's voice rang out from a couple bikes over, Emma rolling her eyes in annoyance as her younger sister checked on the twins.
"O-Oh! Yeah-! D-Don't worry about u-us!" Mickey blinked before offering a gap-toothed grin as he called back, "J-Jay's actually really good with these t-things!"
"..Alright Frenchie, ready or not, here I come." Jay muttered under his breath, revving the small moped's engine with a snort of contempt, and tearing out of the parking lot in a plume of sand that blasted the teams behind them—Mickey managing to get an apologetic wave to the Sisters before they faded from his sight.
Further up the road, the Police Cadets had successfully duped the Best Friends into pulling over before the naïve duo realized they were part of the competition.
While the cadets celebrated with a high-five, Jacques took the opportunity to pass on their left—one hand on the throttle while the other was raised into the air with a beaming smile alongside Josee as they passed in front of a mobile camera:
"Smile Jacques! Smile for our fans~!"
From just behind them, Jacques could vaguely hear the larger woman talking to her partner under the elegant chime of Josee's voice. That in and of itself seemed like a feat considering how fast they were going, the thought of the lady-cop's volume off the road sending a small shudder down the back of his neck.
"Stupide dame-flics." Muttering under his breath at the clearly off-handed comments about them being uttered only a few feet away, the Ice Dancer pressed on the accelerator to try and shake the other team before a sudden gust of wind following the roar of an engine at full throttle rattled their moped hard enough to force Jacques to drop his other hand back to the handlebars to avoid swerving into the cadets—shouting in a mix of alarm and protest to match the slight scream of Josee behind him, "Sacre bleu!"
Even the Police Cadets and Best Friends seemed taken aback by what just happened, all three of them slowing down a little to process the situation without even realizing it.
The offending moped dropped back a little from where it had blazed ahead, revealing the pathetic pair of twins to be the riders with the odd one in the darker jacket—Jay if he remembered right—swerving rather recklessly at the helm.
"See you at the Chill Zone, Silvertons-!" Jay spat back at them, revving his moped and sliding his back tire across the thin layer of sand covering the road to kick it up in their faces before zooming ahead.
"Ah! Ze audacity!" He hissed, rubbing the irritating particles out of his eyes as Josee growled in frustration behind him.
"Those weakling twins think they can steal the gold?! Jacques! DRIVE FASTER- we are NOT losing to those pathetic BRATS!" The female dancer snapped, gripping Jacques' shoulders so tightly with her surprisingly sharp nails that it made him flinch.
"O-Oui! On it, mon ami-!" He called back, brows furrowing in focus as he pushed down on the throttle and sped after the twins with the other two teams still butting heads with them from behind.
The airport finally crested the horizon after a good half-hour of driving down long desert roads, Mickey practically glued to Jay's back in fear and to protect his face from the harsh wind created by his older brother's speeding.
To give credit where credit is due, the front-running teams did manage to keep up with them—the sound of their vehicles along with those catching up from even further back echoing behind them as the trio fought for leadership of the pack. Despite not appearing to be nearly as an aggressive driver as MacArthur, who looked to be on the verge of running Devin and Carrie off the road, Jacques managed to keep a solid hold on the top spot.
As much as it impressed Jay, it also infuriated him.
So much so that he nearly missed the sign for airport parking, only jarred back into focus by Mickey's frantic yanking on his jacket to warn him of the fast-approaching end to the road as he quickly slammed the brakes and flung the moped sideways to skid across the asphalt until it thwacked against the curb outside the front entrance and teetered back upright with the twins still miraculously aboard.
Blinking in a moment of silent shock, Jay glanced sheepishly back to his brother as the younger twin glared at him, "..My bad. But- uh- hey, look at the bright side, you stayed on the bike this time-!"
Mickey rolled his large eyes but held his tongue in favor of racing into the airport as the other teams swiftly reached the parking area and disembarked from their vehicles in pursuit.
"Two tickets for Paris, and would you guys happen to have some spare tissues? The desert air gave my brother a nosebleed-" Jay asked the clerk at the ticket counter for the race, Mickey pinching his nose and waving awkwardly to the disturbed man as blood slowly leaked from the gaps between his fingers.
Moving aside as Mickey plugged his nose with a couple wads of tissue paper, Jay pocketed their tickets before looking back to see the Ice Dancers slide up to the counter with Jacques holding Josee up by her waist in theatrical pose while the two smiled widely at the camera filming them.
"Two for Paris, do you offer free upgrades for Olympians~?" Josee purred in her more subtle French-Canadian accent, arms stretched above her head in a graceful arc to match her partner who wiggled an eyebrow at the clerk with a smug expression—a face that, when looking at it from afar, was as attractive as much as it made Jay want to hurl.
Typing on his computer for a few moments, the clerk smiled politely as he replied, "Ah, yes! Free upgrade for all gold medal peoples!"
Josee's eye twitched in restrained anger as her lips tightened into a clearly fake smile, "Economy is fine."
Before long, the other teams were arriving in droves to book their tickets to Paris. While most chose to leave their rides in the parking lot, the Surfer Dudes nearly mowed the Tennis Rivals down before crashing their moped into a pile of luggage just past the doors with whoops and hollers of excitement.
Seeing as Jay was preoccupied, Mickey cautiously walked over to where the two men wiped out, "..H-Hey- a-are you guys alright? T-That was a gnarly wipe-out.."
After a couple seconds, Brody's head—sporting a pair of heart-covered boxer briefs—popped out from the mountain, gaze flicking to Mickey before he chuckled and yanked Geoff out by his exposed arm and the two clambered back onto their feet, "Shaa dude! That was totally radical, I just looove mopeds! I tried to jump one over my pool last summer but ended up smashing through my neighbor's gazebo-!"
"O-Oh..wow..uh-"
The two men laughed heartily for a few seconds—oblivious to Mickey's concerned murmuring—before Geoff spoke up with a surprising amount of seriousness given their previous behavior, "Dude, we shouldn't laugh, you totally ruined that wedding."
Another moment passed and the pair were already grinning and pumping their fists into the air as they synced their words with a fist bump as though literally sharing the same braincell, "FREE CAKE! AhAHAHAhA-!"
Mickey was still a bit taken aback but couldn't help but smile at the Surfer Dudes' enthusiasm.
"W-Well, I'm glad y-you guys are okay! I-If that was me- I'm s-sure I would've broken something..like that time I tripped and took down the set of the school play-" He chuckled as he reached up to scratch at an itch under the edge of his helmet.
"Woah!" Glancing back at the shorter boy, Geoff grinned, "Totally righteous, dude! I bet you've got a whole lot of crazy stories between you and your big bro! Ya gotta share 'em with us sometime-!"
"Sha dude! Totally!" Brody echoed in his laid-back tone, raising a hand in a fist bump towards the younger twin.
Hesitating for a moment, Mickey smiled brighter and weakly tapped Brody's fist with his own, the tan surfer making a little 'boom' effect with his fingers before leaning back up to his full height.
"Mickey! Come on! Our flight's about to leave-!" Jay called out for him as the other first-flight contestants walked past, a blur of colors and skin tones darting about his vision.
"R-Right! Coming!" Mickey shouted back, turning briefly to the Surfers, "S-Sorry that you didn't make the f-flight with us..b-but I wish you guys l-luck with the race!"
"Right back at'cha tiny bro!" Geoff hollered with a wink and a finger-gun as Mickey waved before running over to the familiar outline of his brother's dark blue jacket amidst the motion of the airport.
"What was that all about?" Jay inquired, cocking an eyebrow as Mickey grabbed onto his arm and the two began walking after the other teams.
"Huh? O-Oh! T-The Surfers were just telling me one of their s-stories!" Mickey replied cheerfully, a small skip in his step as he followed Jay's lead, "T-They're super nice! They actually want to t-talk to us! Y-Y'know- about our t-tales of adversity and stuff- t-they think they're cool! Can you believe that?!"
Jay seemed a bit more skeptical, but ultimately chose not to risk dampening his brother's mood before the flight, "Yeah, uh, that's really cool Mick-!"
"Your nose is already bleeding so at least you don't have to worry about that," He continued as they approached the gate, "It'll be another long one so just try to rest up a little, okay? The last thing either of us need is another stress-induced inner ear infection-"
Snorting, Mickey shook his head, "Yeah, yeah, I know. Take it easy, rest your eyes, don't look out the window when we're in the sky, I know the drill, Jay."
Ignoring any odd looks they got from their peers, Jay grinned a little.
"Great! Then let's get this over with-!"
Once again, the flight to Paris went better than expected.
A few familiar faces surrounded them during the trip, mainly the Daters—who they haven't had a chance to speak to since the very start of the race—, the Ice Dancers, and the Reality TV Pros.
Despite how calm the trip was, Jay decided to keep to himself, seeing as Mickey was asleep for most of the ride anyway. Although, even with their rather caustic exchange earlier today, the older twin couldn't help but cast a couple stray glances at the blond man in a pink leotard a few seats ahead and across the aisle—resting with a camera-ready smile and a mask over the upper half of his face alongside his partner. It was slightly disappointing that Jay couldn't see the man's icy blue eyes, he barely knew Jacques, but the mere thought of his beautiful gaze alight with the bright shimmer of challenge at the twin's sharp remarks actually made him excited to compete in this stupid race. As weird and crazy as that sounded in his head.
Right. Focus.
Upon landing in Paris, it was already well past sundown, Jay pulling Mickey along towards the back of the competition to keep from getting run into or from running into anyone themselves—seeing as their combined eyesight was already questionable during the day.
Flagging down one of the many cabs waiting outside the lobby, Mickey rubbed his eyes as Jay gave the directions to the driver, taking off in pursuit of the teams ahead.
As their cab drove up to the Eiffel Tower, Jay saw a yellow taxi get rear-ended by a red one, the ear-piercing shriek of the occupants somehow piercing through both vehicles while theirs came to a steady stop.
Mickey had already jolted up at the sound, "G-GAH! W-Was that a w-weREWOLF?!"
Gently pulling his brother out of the cab, Jay squinted in the inadequate lighting of the streetlamps and saw an unmistakable pair of pink leotards exiting the smashed yellow car in a dazed manner, while a loud uniform-wearing cadet jumped out of the red taxi with a victorious shout, "NAILED IT!"
Sighing in exasperation, Jay patted his brother's hand reassuringly, "No werewolf Mickey, just a couple of reckless morons."
Exhaling heavily in relief, Mickey teased him a little at his harsh grumbling, "..Gee! Kinda reminds me of s-someone..~"
Raising a brow at him, Jay huffed and started walking towards the Don Box after the other two teams, "Shut up, dude."
The Police Cadets were already reading their tip by the time the twins and the dancers made it over, the latter two still rubbing their necks and shaking their heads from the collision—MacArthur's strong voice difficult to miss:
"Huh. It's a Botch-or-Watch-"
"Right you are, Cadets-!" Don casually strolled into frame out of seemingly nowhere to cut the confused cadet off, "In this Botch-or-Watch, whoever didn't eat the stew in Morocco must draw a caricature of their partner."
Gesturing to a tall middle-aged man with receding brown hair, thickly styled facial hair, a bandage over his clearly missing right ear, and very notable dark circles under his eyes who offered a stiff thumbs-up to the camera crew, Don continued, "When this local French artiste approves of the drawing, they'll receive their next tip."
By the time Don finished explaining the challenge, several of the other first flight teams came screeching up to the Eiffel Tower—practically eliminating any real lead the trio had, much to their shared chagrin.
Grabbing their tip, the twins made their way over to the table containing the notepads and pencils for the challenge. Upon noticing the drawing tools, Jay immediately cast a worried look to his younger brother.
Mickey shivered a little as he hesitantly reached for the cup containing the pencils, anxiety flooding his large blue eyes while he struggled to even build the resolve to touch the mundane writing implement.
"Come on, Mickey! Show that pencil who's boss-!" Jay attempted to cheer him on, brows furrowing in a more confident expression as he jabbed a thumb at himself and his brother before gesturing back to the cup, "I'm right here with you! It's two of us and just one of it!"
Seeing the other teams running up, Jay sighed and quickly tugged his brother away before the two of them could get shoved over by the competition, only noticing after that some of the camera crew had followed them for an interview—Jay glaring at them for a moment in frustration until the man pointed to the pencils and made a 'come on' gesture with his hand from behind the lens.
Rolling his eyes at the invasive question being implied, Jay looked to Mickey to gauge his response—the younger twin awkwardly shrugging his shoulders in a silent 'go ahead' motion that had Jay exhaling another heavy breath before finally replying to the crew:
"It was a Tuesday morning. Mickey's pencil case broke, pencils were everywhere. He slipped on one and fell down the stairs—landing on pencils the whole way down. It took the whole afternoon and several household tools to extract all the little pieces of graphite and splinters of wood that were embedded in his skin. He's been afraid of them ever since."
As soon as the camera light stopped blinking, Jay deadpanned at the crew, "Was that good? Are we done now?"
He took a nonchalant thumbs-up as a 'yes,' quickly dragging Mickey back over to the challenge area seeing as they had just fallen even further behind than they already were before.
So much for a head start.
Seeing as Mickey was still grappling with his freshly-discussed phobia while half of the competition was working on their drawings with the other half now on the way—Jay abruptly grabbed the pencil from under his brother's hand and took a notepad, ignoring Mickey's look of confusion and barely-disguised relief.
"W-What are you doing? T-The person who didn't eat the s-stew has to-"
"Relax, Mickey. It'll be fine, just strike a pose for me and let's get this over with, alright?" Jay replied somewhat curtly to his twin's weak protest, Mickey just quietly nodding his head as the two walked over to join the outskirts of the drawing area to work on their caricature.
Without even realizing, Jay found himself back next to the man who had single-handedly managed to take up every thought that wasn't already dedicated to Mickey, the words leaving his mouth to break the uncomfortable tension that Jay swore was there before he could stop them, "..Are you guys alright?"
Jacques was almost halfway done with his drawing of an elegantly posed Josee, so deep in focus that his head visibly jerked up at the unexpected sound of someone other than his snappy partner addressing him, glittering blue eyes darting around for a second before landing on Jay with a confused quirk of his brow, "Quoi?"
Glancing away out of embarrassment at even speaking to the guy he swore to beat earlier that same day, he coughed a couple of times before clarifying in as reasonable of a manner he could conjure up on the spot, "..Uhh..y'know..those cadets hit you guys pretty hard back there. Just thought I'd ask; in case you had a concussion or something- I've lived enough years with Mickey to spot the start of one a mile away."
The Ice Dancer blinked a couple of times, before quietly chuckling to avoid the ire of his teammate nearby, "Ah! Oui! I am well, merci. I just did not expect you to ask such a thing, it seemed like we were enemies zis morning, non?"
"Enemies is kind of a strong word, but in my defense, you were the one who insulted us first-" Jay huffed back at the man's light-hearted jab as he sketched Mickey's arm with a cartoony thumbs-up.
"Vraiment? Did I?" Jacques hummed, frowning a little before something appeared to click in his mind and his face reddened a little in what might've possibly been embarrassment at a perceived mistake, "Ah, c'est vrai! Since you clearly do not know, Josee and I are from Quebec. Most people in our town spoke Français and English, I guess I forgot zat not many of you speak ze wonderful language elsewhere in Canada. Eh- what I mean to say is zat it was not quite an insult, what I said earlier- banter, yes- but nothing personal."
As Jay paused for a moment to look at him in a dumbfounded manner, lost for a response to the 'apology,' Jacques continued, "But while we are 'checking in' on ze competition, shouldn't your partner be ze one drawing you?"
Shaking out of his stupor, Jay shrugged and looked back down at his drawing, "Probably. Mickey has trouble with pencils though and there weren't any pens, so if I didn't do it, we'd still be staring at a solo cup when the second plane arrives."
"So you are not worried about a penalty?" Jacques raised a brow, baffled by Jay's nonchalance towards the rules of the challenge, "Even though it could send ze two of you home tonight?"
"..I mean, I'm not trying to go home—but I didn't even want to be here to begin with, personally." Jay scowled, shaking his head with a frown as his grip on the pencil tightened.
"Quoi? Seriously?" Jacques blinked a couple times in astonishment, "Did you not audition to be here though? Zat seems counterintuitive, why compete if you don't care about winning?"
Jay had to pause before speaking again to avoid blurting out the truth right there and then, a notion of ease that honestly scared him. Sighing and scribbling the finishing touches on his drawing, he replied as vaguely as he could, "..It's..complicated. Don't you have a challenge to do?"
"This just in! Flight number two has landed!"
Don's voice took both young men by surprise as he spoke over the teams with a megaphone, chuckling a little at the looks of alarm he elicited from them with the abrupt announcement.
"Ah! Fini!" Jacques cried out as he finished his drawing of Josee, the latter grinning brightly as she released her pose.
"Good work, Jacq-Jacq!" Josee called back as she flagged down the artist to check their work.
Jay grimaced at the nickname. Yikes.
A few moments later, the judge came over and gave Jacques' eccentric sketch of Josee a thumbs-up, handing the female dancer their tip.
"What does it say, mon ami?" Jacques cooed to his partner, looking over the shorter woman's shoulder as she read the tip aloud.
"Let's see—go down, down, down, find the cheese so round, where your next tip is found! The catacombs!"
"Très bien! To ze gold!" Jacques grinned, glancing back to Jay for a second before offering a small wave while he and Josee ran towards the sectioned-off manhole nearby, "Au revoir, petit oiseau~!"
On their tail was the Cadets, who finished at around the same time, the two teams descending into the manhole along with Don who was most likely filming his narration for the next challenge.
Jay snorted at the 'nickname,' despite not knowing French, he had a feeling that he knew what the man had meant, "Bastard."
Finishing their drawing along with some of the other teams, Jay rejoined his brother to show their work to the judge, the younger twin glancing at him in devious curiosity, "Y-You were talking to that J-Jacques guy again, huh?"
"Ugh. Was it that obvious?" Jay groaned, huffing at Mickey when the other boy giggled.
"K-Kinda, yeah. That scary lady was glaring d-daggers at you guys, I'm surprised you didn't n-notice-! M-Must've been a reaaally good talk~" Mickey purred, squeaking when Jay lightly punched him in the arm to shut him up, "Hey!"
"Dude! Agh- look- we'll talk about it after the challenge, okay?!" Jay growled lowly, awkwardly glancing around at the neighboring teams to make sure no one was listening in on them as his brother rolled his eyes and sighed—the artist giving them the next thumbs-up along with the Daters and the Best Friends.
Skimming over the tip, Jay glanced to the manhole with a shudder, "Gross. Looks like we're going down.."
Peering over the lip of the dark pit, Jay exhaled and deadpanned at the thought of going into a crypt built for victims of the Black Death, "Ugh, I hope I don't get the plague again.."
Mickey nodded in agreement as the accompanying teams took a slight step away in discomfort at the twin's statement before all three took turns making their way into the catacombs.
The Parisian Catacombs were two of the things Mickey hated the most when it came to his limited sight—dark, and with passages that all looked exactly the same.
In places like this, all he could do is hold on to Jay's vibrant blue hoodie like a lifeline and let his more directionally gifted brother lead the way. After all, it's not like he'd be any help with this kind of thing. It never made him feel any better though.
For a while it felt like they were just walking in circles, Jay intermittently cursing and muttering under his breath as he struggled to orient himself in the confusing labyrinth of bones and halls. Mickey could hardly tell what was going on, his misty eyes only able to make out the patches of lamplight scattered across the walls amidst a sea of black and grey—an archway appearing hardly any different from the patterned brick around them.
"..M-Maybe we should've f-followed another team.." Mickey whimpered quietly, flinching at the echo of his squeaky voice against the vacant halls.
"I'm sure they're just as lost as we are—just try to stay calm Mick. I know it's dark and creepy and stuffed wall-to-wall with corpses, but there's really nothing to be afraid of-"
As though on queue, Mickey felt his brother tense and abruptly stop before whacking softly against his back. He looked around in confusion but couldn't see whatever it was that Jay had just noticed ahead.
"J-Jay? What's w-wrong?" He whispered, clutching tighter to his sleeve in fear at his brother's silence.
Focusing harder on the black space directly in front of them, Mickey saw the faint shimmer of something bright and yellow in the dark—something that looked eerily similar to a-
"WEREWOLF!" Mickey screamed, panic shooting through his veins as he reflexively let go of Jay's hoodie as a pale shape emerged from the darkness.
"MICKEY-! WAIT-!" The sound of Jay shouting barely registered by the time he bolted from the scene, assuming that his older brother would be hot on his heels and neglecting the fact that he couldn't see a thing in the catacombs—wincing and grunting every time he smacked into a wall or tripped over something left in unpredictable piles along the halls.
Eventually the pounding of his heart, burning in his lungs, and weakness in his knees slowed him to a halt somewhere in the maze—the younger twin wheezing in relief to the lack of any supernatural creatures in his vicinity.
"J-Jeez! I-I'm s-sorry Jay- t-that was just s-so scary- I-I panicked a-and-!" Mickey gasped between heavy breaths, glancing around for the familiar sight of Jay's deep blue hoodie only for it to be completely absent from view, with no sounds of footsteps signaling its arrival nearby.
"..J-Jay?" He whimpered, his drumming heart sinking into a pit in his chest as he realized he was alone, "W-Where did you go? T-This isn't f-funny! JAY!?"
Mickey felt his arms and legs begin to tremble as anxiety welled up in his throat, taking small stuttering steps backward as he desperately tried to focus on any shapes in the blackness to no avail, "..O-Oh no..oh nononono! JAY!? WHERE ARE Y-YOU?! JAY!"
Without any clear direction, he tried to navigate back the way he came to see if maybe he would run into his brother looking for him, rational thought clinging to his mind amidst the rising tide of panic that began to envelop him once more. The blurry colors and shapes of monotonous stone bricks and piles of bones blended together into an incomprehensible muddle of nonsense amidst total blackness, the younger twin barely managing to keep from running face-first into walls as he ran down corridors and across larger rooms—having no clue what direction he came from or where he was going and nothing to anchor him in place.
Suddenly, a new blur of colors entered his vision, a blur that made a loud sound of fright as he accidentally barreled straight into it, knocking both of them to the ground in a tangle of limbs and—in the other person's case—several expletives.
"AAGH! WHAT THE HELL?!"
Mickey shrieked in alarm and flailed to untangle himself from the shocked stranger who had grabbed onto his shoulders on reflex when they fell, bleary vision only worsening with the oncoming tears as he failed to make out any features of the person holding him.
"W-WHERE AM I!? W-WHO ARE YOU?! L-LET ME GO-! JAY-!" He cried out, breathing heavily through the claws of paranoia closing in on his lungs, only to be disrupted by the feeling of those same hands shaking his shoulders.
"HEY! KID! FOR CRYING OUT LOUD, SNAP OUT OF IT-!" The voice sounded more familiar now, and so did the teal, red, and white clothes over olive skin, the oddly calming steadiness of his hands and the assertive tone of his voice giving Mickey just enough of a grip to keep from spiraling again.
"N-Noah..?" He squeaked out as the other boy let out a sigh across from him, the twin immediately defaulting to a rambling apology while still being a shivering mess, "I-I'm so s-sorry-! I g-got scared a-and I l-lost my brother- h-have you seen Jay?! I-It's so dark, I can't s-see anything without h-him- p-please help me-!"
"Woah! Woah! Slow down there, buddy." Noah attempted to talk him down in his monotone voice, the older boy shifting uncomfortably as he tried to stand up while practically dragging Mickey with him, hands moving down to lift him up by his upper arms as his dark eyes darted around as though hoping someone would come around, "..I'm..uh..sorry to hear that, but this really isn't my field of expertise.."
Another pair of footsteps ran up following the sound of an old-fashioned toilet flushing, a very large young man—probably around both Mickey and Noah's age—jogging over to them while flicking a piece of toilet paper off his shoe.
"Ehehehe! Sorry about that Noah- but when nature calls-!" The blond started, cutting himself off with a gasp when he saw Mickey with the mocha-skinned bookworm, "OH MY GOSH! Who's this little guy?! He almost looks like Cody! Except not at all really-"
"Owen, this guy shivering like a drowned rat is Mickey." Noah deadpanned at his friend's excitement, removing a hand to gesture to the shaking boy, "He's from that team of twins—the really unfortunate ones. Apparently, he lost his brother in the catacombs, and just so happened to run me down while you were 'taking care of business.'"
"Aww! It's okay little buddy!" Owen cooed to the rattled twin as he wiped at his eyes with his sleeves to clear up his poor vision a bit, leaning down to address the shorter boy with a friendly smile, "We'll help you find your brother! Right, Noah?"
"What!?" Noah yelped at the offer, brow twitching as he glared at his teammate, "In case it slipped your mind, we are currently in a competition for a million dollars! We're not getting paid to be babysitters!"
"I know! Buuut, if we got separated, I'd just try to find the delicious cheese and meet you there, right?" Owen beamed, not at all put off by his partner's bitterness, "We can take him with us to the cheese!"
Noah growled in frustration but seemed to soften up ever-so-slightly upon glancing back and being reminded of how pathetic Mickey looked beside him.
"..Fine. But only to the cheese, alright? I'm not walking you to the Chill Zone-" He muttered, Mickey offering a vigorous nod with a weak smile of relief at their kindness as Noah sighed and shrugged to Owen, "Lead the way big guy, if anyone can sniff out a stash of cheddar in a crypt it's you."
"I'm on it!" Owen saluted back, taking a deep breath of air before appearing to pick up on something and jogging off down one of the corridors, "I've got a whiff! This way little buddies-!"
Noah moved to catch up with his determined partner before feeling something grab firmly onto his sleeve, glancing back at Mickey with a mildly irritated look that prompted the small boy to respond, "S-Sorry..! I-It's easier to get around when I can h-hold onto something..I-I really don't w-want to get lost again.."
While normally he would've told the kid to kick sand, especially if said kid was Cody, for some reason Mickey was just..so hopeless. Like a puppy someone kicked into the street that kept coming back to lick the blood off their shoe.
Against his better judgement, and with a flush of embarrassment at the 'softness' he was showing so dangerously close to a live camera crew, he relented, "..Right. Try not to get too comfortable."
With that, the two made their way through the catacombs.
Owen really pulled through when it came to finding the next part of the challenge—as well as the pile of stacked wheels of Roquefort cheese associated with it.
"There's the tip! And plenty of cheese wheels, we're still in this!" Noah exclaimed as they ran out onto the dock.
They weren't the only ones who'd arrived, the Daters, Best Friends, and Mother and Daughter all reading the plaque and grabbing their wheels for the next part of the jaunt.
"..Take your cheese and sail away to where the Mona Lisa is on display." The bookworm read out, voice already dropping in horror at the challenge ahead of them, "..Ohhkay. I'll grab the oars, you get the wheel, and- NO!"
Owen was just about to take a bite of the cheese wheel before Noah's cry startled him, the large boy whining in response, "But Noahh! Cheese is good for you!"
"And so is not coming in last because of some penalty your stomach gets us! Rein it in big guy, you can stuff your face after we reach the Chill Zone!" Noah snapped at him, tossing him the oars, and kicking a wheel of cheese into the water with a considerable grunt of effort.
Mickey was distracted himself, glancing around the waterfront for any sign of Jay's blue hoodie in the growing crowd, before finally the unnerving figures of the black-and-white Goths exited the catacombs with a familiar figure trailing behind.
"JAY!"
The older twin barely had any time to respond before Mickey practically flung himself at his big brother, squeezing him in a tight hug as relief and joy washed away his anxieties, "I-I'm so g-glad to see you!"
"MICKEY!" Jay cried back, wrapping his arms around his brother in return before pulling away to examine his face and hands frantically like a worried parent, "You're not hurt, are you? God, I'm so sorry I lost you! It'll never happen again, I swear!"
"I-It's okay! I'm o-okay!" Mickey smiled back, sniffling before glancing over to the Goths as they continued standing nearby.
"..Oh. Good. We found him." Ennui muttered in his deep, dull voice, unnerving yellow eyes calmly moving over to Crimson, "..We're flattered that you find us horrifying. But we didn't mean to freak you out."
"..Yeah." Crimson shrugged back, her voice just as dead as her partner's.
"So, this is your brother!" Owen called out from behind them, much to Noah's visible chagrin as the other teams moved ahead with the challenge, the bigger boy walking over with a bright smile, "Wow! You really do look alike! I guess cause you're twins, ehehe~!"
"Uhhh..hi?" Jay inquired slowly, glancing to Mickey for help.
"O-Oh! Yeah! Jay, t-this is Owen and Noah! They helped me get out of the c-catacombs!" Mickey responded cheerfully, pointing to the blond and the bookworm while the latter rolled his dark eyes in exasperation.
"Greaat. Glad we're all caught up, but at least five different teams have just gotten a head start on us while we've been chatting here." Noah muttered dryly, walking over and practically dragging his partner by the ear to their float, "So we'll be off now, thanks. Enjoy your family reunion."
"Ack! But Noah! Maybe we could form an allia-"
"H-Hey Jay! What if we w-worked toge-"
"No." Noah and Jay snapped at the same time, surprising each other a little as their partners groaned at their reaction.
Without further response, the Reality TV Pros followed the silent Goths into the water, leaving the twins to gather their oars and—with considerable effort—shove a cheese raft of their own into the canal.
Before they got on, Mickey hesitated, "..D-Do you think sailing on a raft of c-cheese will trigger our lactose intolerance?"
Jay paused for a moment to process before scoffing and shaking his head as he carefully stepped onto the float, "If we get to a point where we're so lactose intolerant that we can't even be near dairy, I'm giving up."
"Mm. F-Fair."
While they weren't the strongest team by a large margin, the twins managed to keep in sight of the other teams who had sailed off earlier, arms burning from the stress of treading water by the time the silhouette of the Louvre above the walls of the canal in the distance. Somewhere above, they could faintly hear Don's voice:
"Sisters! You're in tenth place!"
Reaching the stairs leading to the top of the canal, the twins managed to hop off their float without cracking any skulls on the pavement, Jay straining to pull their wheel out of the water as the last group of teams approached from downstream.
"Reality TV Pros! I'm surprised you managed to keep it together, eleventh!"
Pushing their wheel up the flights of stone stairs wasn't any easier, but somehow—with aching bones—they prevailed, shoving their cheese onto the Carpet of Completion as Don looked down at them in a conflicted manner.
"Adversity Twins…You're in twelfth place!"
Jay, still out of breath, looked up in dumbfounded shock at Don's announcement—having fully expected to receive some sort of penalty for disregarding the rules of the Botch-or-Watch, "..What?"
"I drew for Mickey at the Eiffel Tower, aren't we getting a penalty or something-?"
Don's brow knit in mild irritation as Jay prodded, clearing his throat before waving the twins off dismissively, "Are you really asking for one? Move along, twins, you survive to race another day."
"But-" Jay started to protest, only for Mickey to drag him away before he could finish what he wanted to say.
"J-Just let it go, man. H-He's just trying t-to be nice." Mickey murmured, frowning in concern at his brother's heated expression, " W-We get to see the Louvre! That's c-cool, right? I've never been t-to a famous museum before- maybe we'll see Kitty or Owen again too!"
"We don't need his pity. He had his chance when mom had us, and he decided he wanted nothing to do with us. We're eighteen, the ship has sailed, why should he get a second chance now!?" Jay spat, hesitating at his brother's enthusiasm to tour the massive exhibit but eventually relenting as the younger twin extended his hand to his him —grabbing hold of it and walking with Mickey towards the Louvre to join up with the other teams milling about the Chill Zone.
"J-Just try to calm down, J-Jay. W-We'll figure s-something out...We always do."
