Chapter Text
Even though she reeked, the first place she went to after the challenge was the galley. She was pretty sure Alejandro was the reason that Sierra had made herself useless. Except she couldn’t be sure because he hadn’t looked at her, he only looked vaguely amused and anyone could be amused by the thought of Chris being in a boy band. She chuckled to herself as she leant against one of the counters. She boiled the electric kettle and opened the box of peppermint tea while she waited for Noah. She would need that insider information from Noah if she wanted any chance of getting the upper hand on Alejandro. Especially with that strange interaction they had while they were waiting for the medic. She frowned as she thought of it. He was being so stupidly stupid and it really got to her. She hoped that he would stop flirting with her because, even though she didn’t want to admit it, it had legitimately thrown her off and she felt almost as dumb as the others that Alejandro had kicked out of the game. She scowled, she seriously needed to do something about him because it would be too dangerous to let him continue to be such a big contender. Noah came in and she poured the hot water in the mug, steeping the tea bag in it. Noah looked around briefly, there were people lining up for the showers just across the hall so he lowered his voice.
“Nice bandages,” he said, gesturing to the bandages wrapped around her hands and knees that were already starting to bleed through. She blocked out the memories of the events that had played out before she got bandaged and waited for him to tell her something actually important. He rolled his eyes. “Our neighborhood snake has been making allegiances with everyone on his team. I thought you should know that there’s an exception to that rule and that that exception is Owen,” Well it's not like anyone sane would want to be near Owen, he reeked. But surely Alejandro wasn’t petty enough to ignore Owen and prioritize his annoyance over strategy. “He does the same thing you do when you’re about to lose your shit. I’m assuming that he has an issue with him.” Huh. What he had said to her earlier had been true, she really didn’t know him. Maybe she was giving him more credit than he deserved.
“Has Owen done anything to him?”
“Not that I know of.” She took a moment to consider. Why else would Alejandro avoid Owen? Owen always assumed the best of people, maybe Alejandro wasn’t bothering to manipulate him, but that didn’t explain why Noah had seemed to note his frustration. She also despised the fact that Noah had compared them again. The same thing she did? What was he insinuating? Through this she made a begrudging realization. It was almost as if the world had spelled it out for her, she needed to get to know Alejandro. Her disgust must have shown on her face because Noah let out a huff of amusement.
“Do what you will with that information.” He turned and walked off. Heather knew that if Alejandro made it any further in the game that she would have to get to know him at some point. ‘Know thy enemy’ or whatever. But seriously? She would have to work way harder next challenge to make sure that he was gone. She thought about what Noah had told her. Alejandro had gone out of his way to make alliances with everyone except Owen, he thought he had an allegiance with Noah but obviously didn't. So he would have his vote, Tyler’s vote and Izzy’s vote, leaving him completely safe. The sneaky jerk. Thankfully, Izzy’s vote could easily be swayed, and it was also possible that she hadn’t taken anything Alejandro had tried to say into account. Which led her to wonder who he would try to vote out. With startling clarity, she realized why he hadn’t made any moves on Owen and why he seemed to dislike him. He was the main deterrent to success in his team, the other deterrent potentially being Noah, which would have been why Noah gave her this information in the first place, because if she could find a way to get Alejandro out of the game, he would be much more secure in his own team. Apparently Noah wasn’t afraid to be snakey himself. Well now she had figured out both sides of the story, she needed to make sure whatever she did next convineianced herself the most.
By getting Alejandro out, Team Chris would suck almost as much as Team Victory, which meant that all Heather would have to do is wait till the merge and work like hell to get rid of the rest of the competent people. But if she let him stay, he could take care of all the other people while she did all the other stuff, then he could eliminate all the strongest players and she would only have to focus on getting rid of him. The issue with that was that she was number one on his hit list. But she knew what she needed to do. ‘You’re good at manipulating. Manipulate him.’ Noah once said and she intended to do just that.
If she could get to know him, build a bond with him, and learn everything about him, she could use her knowledge about him and exploit it- exploit him. She grinned as she fantasized about it- her being his puppeteer, whispering ideas into his ears and watching as he carried out every motion and whim she pleased, all the while using everything she knew about him to get him off the plane. Furthermore, she would make sure to keep Owen around so that Team Chris and therefore Alejandro would remain in a stagnant state. She would also maintain her half-allegiance with Noah and get him to spill inside information of Alejandro’s movements and promising Noah’s safety in return. Her smile faded however, when she realized that the best outcome required her to talk to Alejandro, eugh. Even worse, she had to get to know him. She could barely tolerate him as is, let alone start and maintain a conversation with him. Especially because if or when she first enacted this plan, she had no doubt that Alejandro would do something dickish like flirt with her or make fun of her for talking to him. She would also have to be very wary with this strange new development between them. If she didn’t get him eliminated by the next challenge, she decided that then she would… befriend him. And now she had a key motivator to get him out next challenge, else, she would have to put up with his company for the rest of the season. But before she figured out how to do that, she needed to have a quick conversation with someone.
~
Alejandro sat in the confessional, hands fisted in his hair. The golden light streamed through the window, lighting the blue walls of the confessional into a greenish tint. He couldn’t stop thinking about the challenge, or more problematically, he couldn’t stop thinking about Heather. He hadn’t even thought before he spoke to her and it had somehow resulted in the most tension-filled exchange he had ever had. And now he was stuck on it.
He hadn't been able to stop thinking about her and he wasn’t sure what he was going to do. He needed to get his head back in the game. What would Jose say about this- this- just all of this. Heck, what would his father say? Jemima? He didn’t know what he was feeling, that was the issue. Normally he was good at distinguishing his emotions, but Heather was- Heather was really good at manipulating. She was doing this on purpose to- to distract him, yes it was to make him lose his focus. She made him feel everything, the sweet feelings of success when he had seen his actions work on her, the thrill in realizing that he was one step closer to eliminating her and the thrill of the idea that he might have even kissed her up there before they had been interrupted. All of this put him in deep shit. Really really deep shit, which was why he had holed himself up in the confessional, his comfort place of sorts. What was most concerning was that he wasn’t sure what he would’ve done if he had kissed her. Heather was maybe the one thing keeping him on his toes around here, the one thing who kept him guessing and the thing that was keeping this whole game interesting. She was also the one person keeping this game so difficult. Whatever Heather was doing to his psyche, it was working. It was fucking working, and it was driving him insane. For his own sanity, he would need to get rid of her as soon as possible. He assumed that this challenge was a reward challenge so he would just have to avoid her as much as possible until the next challenge. He rubbed his face with his hands and exhaled sharply. He would be fine, Heather was only as important as he made her, and right now there was no need to think of her. She would be out of this plane and he would never have to think of her again. In only a short time, she would be gone for good. And with that thought in his head, could breathe again.
~
“Hey Sierra, can we talk?” Heather was going to find out if Alejandro was the one behind this, and how better to get information than straight from the source? The lines for the showers were too long so a few unshowered people sat back in economy, the rest of them hung out in the dining room after their showers, the stench of the people who hadn’t showered was almost unbearable.
“Sure, what are we gonna talk about?”
“I think you need to stop talking to Chris about his past. It's bothering him.”
“But- but doesn’t he miss his glory days?”
“Who gave you that idea?”
“Well, you know, he just seemed sad and missed it.”
“Yeah but who told you that? Did anyone, like- confirm your suspicions?”
“Well yeah, I guess. Alejandro came over and-” There it was. Fucking Alejandro. She saw red. Manipulating her own teammates, huh? It was really on now. She was going to confront him about this. “Woah are you okay, Heather? Was it something I said?”
“What? Oh, not at all, don’t worry. I just remembered, Chef told me to change out my bandages- uh- see you soon. Bye.” She practically stormed out of economy. There was no one in the galley and two shorter lines waited in front of the showers. She continued to storm to first class when the confessional door swung open. She nearly ran into the person leaving. She glared at them, only to realize it was Alejandro. She bared her teeth at him, fully prepared to slap him across the face right then and there, but no way was she doing that in front of all these people. She walked past him, knowing he would follow her into first class.
“Why are you going into first class?” Alejandro asked, they could still be heard by the others.
“I’m going to the cockpit, not that it’s any of your business,” She snapped back. “You are going to meet me at some point when no one else is on this plane. I need to talk to you.”
“Why can’t you do it now?”
“What would be the point in hiding your body, then?” She snapped. Alejandro smiled at her quizzically. Heather just let her fury emanate from within her and stormed into the cockpit. She re-bandaged her hands and knees and walked quickly past first class, avoiding a certain person as she did so. She was going to make him pay for this and let him know that she was not messing around. Alejandro would be the one flying out of the plane by the end of this week.
~
There would be no challenge today, and Alejandro was so thankful for that. His muscles ached, especially his latissimus dorsi. He had been training for years to build his body, he couldn’t imagine how the others were feeling. He had seen nearly all people in economy leave to get massages, while the people in first class stayed to get massages. Alejandro made a few suggestions to his teammates about a product available to help relax their muscles, so they left shortly after their massages to go buy it. He wasn’t sure what Heather was going to do and also wasn’t sure he was going to do either. And even though he said that he was going to avoid Heather, there was something addictive about seeing her in a frustrated state and he couldn’t deprive himself of the sight of that. So he reluctantly walked toward economy like a lamb to the slaughter. He saw Heather sitting alone at the table, the fire in the look she gave him could rival the pits of hell.
“You want to have this conversation here?” He asked, gesturing to the door that could open at any moment. She followed his gaze.
“Do you have any better ideas?” Her voice was even and cold, it sent a thrill through him. He smirked.
“I’ll do as you wish, princesa.” She bared her teeth.
“Let's go to the cargo hold.” She stood up and he began to make his way down, leading Heather down. He walked down the stairs and found a tall box of cargo. He crossed his arms and ankles as he leant against a box of cargo and watched as Heather made her way down. She bared her teeth.
“You keep your foul, mendacious, filthy mitts the fuck off my teammates!” Mendacious, huh?
“You are shockingly articulate when you’re throwing a temper tantrum.”
“I mean it. If you don’t back off I’ll-”
“You’ll what, Heather?”
“I’ll fucking kill you, that’s what.” Alejandro scoffed at the thought of Heather trying to take him down. He cocked his head to the side and smirked.
“You don’t seriously think you could take me, do you?” One moment she was standing in front of him, the next, she held him at his shoulders, about to knee him where it hurt. She may have been swift, but he was much stronger. He gripped one of her wrists and spun her around, locking her arm behind her back and pinning her against his chest. She struggled against him, he only smirked.
“Let go of me!”
“Are you going to fight me, Heather?”
“Alejandro-”
“Are you, Heather?” A thrill went through him as she struggled against his grip. He held her firm. She began to stop as she realized the futility of her struggle.
“W-Whatever,” He loosened his grip, but kept her pinned to him. She turned her head as far as she could to look at him and glared. “What are you? Obsessed with me? Let go of me already.”
“I thought I’d give you the courtesy of knowing that I am going to do as I please and that you,” He squeezed her wrist for emphasis, “Won’t be able to do anything to stop me. Is that clear?”
“It’s clear that you’re a huge pain in my ass, yeah.” He pulled her wrist further up her back, stretching her shoulder, activating the muscles that he knew hurt. She groaned in discomfort.
“Whatever,” she muttered. He let go of her, satisfied. She turned to glare at him. “You know, you shouldn’t be so cocky.” He scoffed at her threatening tone.
“Sure.” He rolled his eyes, and felt a hard slap to his cheek. His eyes flew open and darted to her smiling face as pain reverberated through his cheek. She had hit him. Hard. Her figure bolted toward the exit. She was ridiculously fast. He chucked quietly and chased after her, it was really on now.
~
His quiet chuckle skittered across her bones as adrenaline pumped through her veins. She hadn’t cared about the repercussions of her actions in the moment, she just needed to slap him, so she did. Her hand was still buzzing as she ran, a red mark visible on her wrist from where he had gripped her moments before. Jerk. Alejandro followed close behind and she began to panic. Here, there were no witnesses, so she bolted to Chris’ chambers. Sure, he would be upset that they had bothered him, but he surely wouldn’t let her sustain any more injuries. Besides, Alejandro wouldn’t get her back in front of Chris. She burst open through the doors and saw Chris lounging in his hot tub, he turned to watch Heather as she sprinted across to the other side of the room.
“Heather,” Chris said in greeting as Alejandro strolled into the room. “To what do I own this displeasure?” he asked the both of them. Alejandro leant against the door frame.
“Alejandro’s picking fights.” Heather interjected before he could speak. She crossed her arms.
“You’re the one who slapped me in the face.” Alejandro drawled.
“Yeah, after you messed with Sierra and after you pinned me and gripped my wrist so hard that it’s still red.”
“And why did I have to pin you?”
“Okay so you guys came in here because…?”
“Because I don’t want to get punched in the face by this idiot.”
“I wanted a quiet afternoon where I went undisturbed and unbothered by two petty seventeen year olds, so I guess we’re both disappointed. You think I’m gonna stop him?” She bared her teeth at Chris as she looked over at Alejandro, who had an evil smirk plastered on his face. He would probably kill her if they got in a real physical altercation. She needed to buy herself time to make an escape plan.
“You should. He manipulated-”
“Let’s face it Heather, if you got a slap to the face every time you manipulated someone, you would have a hand-print indented in your face.” If she could run through the door when he was caught off-guard… “Manipulating isn’t off limits. Now get ou-”
Heather bolted to escape through the side of the door that Alejandro wasn’t leaning against, he turned and caught her arm. The doors closed slowly behind them as she struggled against his grip, grunting as she punched his wrist with the side of her fist. He slapped her on her cheek.
“Fuck off, jerk!” He smirked, raising his hand going in to get her again, she realized that his slaps were controlled and that they weren’t very painful. He most definitely could hit her harder. That didn’t mean she was gonna go easy on him. She kneed his thigh as hard as she could and he let go.
“Fuck!” He exclaimed, and she smiled at the small victory as his exclamation made her buzz with adreniline. She ran again, this time she aimed to go outside. Stupid Chris wasn’t gonna stop him, but he wouldn’t be able to get her in public.
“Heather~.” Alejandro cooed as he followed her. A thrill ran down her spine as she ran through first class. Alejandro chased closely behind her. She made it into the dining room and almost cheered as she gripped the door handle. She flung the door open so fast that it nearly fell off its hinges and in her desperate attempt to escape, she ran directly into someone. She looked up and almost fell to her knees in relief.
“Sierra, how was it?” Her smile was genuine as she panted quietly.
“Oh it was great, but they made the boys and girls go in separate rooms so I had to leave my Codykins, is he here yet?”
“No, you're actually the first one back. Come on, you can tell me all about it in economy.” She glanced behind her and saw Alejandro walk off into first class. She smirked to herself. She had won.
~
When Alejandro had fought her, he had been mindful when he had hit her. Years of his mother’s discipline and his own moral compass told him that he should not hit a woman. Ever. But his moral compass wasn’t equipped to interact appropriately with someone like Heather. So for the first time in his life, he had let himself go. He still restrained himself of course, he wouldn’t want to actually hurt her, but he had still hit relatively hard. She didn’t hold back though. So much so that even though it was the next day, his thigh and cheek still buzzed, as if she had phantom hands that slapped him again and again and again. He had no idea what the fuck he was doing when it came to her. He had truly never met anyone like her. The fact that she had dared to hit him, despite their significant differences in strength, he wasn’t sure if it was a calculated risk or just insanity.
“What do you think?” Alejandro blinked as he was drawn back to reality. The challenge was about to start and Tyler had definitely just asked him a question.
“Pardon?”
“What do you think the challenge will be?”
“I’m unsure, although hopefully it will not be too physically taxing.”
“Yeah, my arms still hurt from yesterday.” Owen chuckled, Alendandro glared. Owen had barely pulled himself up yesterday, if anything Owen was the reason that everyone else's arms ached. Alejandro internalized his frustration. He watched as an intern bought some kind of chalk board over, Chris followed close behind.
“I guess we’ll be finding out now.”
“Alright, focus people!” Chris clapped his hands and the others turned to face him. “Welcome to the second half of the challenge, bobbing for big apples NYC style. Here’s how it’s gonna go down: teams must push their carriages along one of the three paths to central park’s fabled turtle pond. There, one member of each team will bob for some very special apples using only their mouths, no hands. Once they get it to shore, the rest of their team must load it into the carriage and race to the finish line in the heart of central park. And what’s a baby carriage, without a baby?” Owen’s hand immediately shot into the air.
“Oh-oh. A shopping cart!”
“It was a rhetorical question.” Alejandro’s eyes hurt with the effort it took not to roll them.
“Oh Chris,” He slid his eyes away from Chris and over to Sierra with a subtle smirk on his lips, “That is so-”
“ZIP IT!” He looked beyond Sierra to Heather, his smirk grew as he met her glaring eyes. He winked. Her eyes narrowed further. The same tension that had been between them since the last part of the challenge pulled taught between them. His hands pulsed along with the spot on his thigh and cheek. What he wouldn’t do to get her back… no, he needed to focus.
“One member of each team must ride in their carriage and stay there all the way to the finish line.”
“Cody.” Team Amazon agreed unanimously.
“I’ll do it.” Noah volunteered.
“Oh, and I’ll do it for team Victory!” Lindsay raised her hand. “I love it when people call me baby.”
“Make a mental note of that bro.” Noah teased Tyler. He was greeted by a confused look from him as he looked around and felt his pockets.
“I don’t have a pen.” Alejandro shared a concerned glance with Noah.
“Victory got here first, so they get the shortest path to the pond. Team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot gets the longest path on the left and Amazon gets the longest path on the right. Oh and a little traveling music please.”
“So we’re really doing this music part every single time?”
“Fun huh? Now move it, we only have permits to cordon off this section for one hour.” Their microphones buzzed at a steady tempo and they sang as they took off. Little blue flags guided them to the finish and hopefully to Victory.
~
The whole music thing was so stupid. Courtney was practically leaping as she sang with her whole chest, it was honestly just embarrassing. Just in front of her she could see Chris standing before turtle pond, no other teams stood in front of them. She smirked, they were going down. The race hadn’t been that long, especially when Chris told them that they had the longest path. They ran. So close… She saw team Victory as soon as she saw Team Chris, both slightly ahead of them. She bolted faster but was still behind because of the rest of her lousy team. They slowed as they all reached turtle pond at about the same time, but her team was still slightly slower than the others. Alejandro subtly sent her a smirk where he stood next to her, she glowered. Oh what she wouldn’t do to have the chance to mangle his stupid face.
“The other teams are here too? I thought we got the shortest path!” Leshawna whined.
“Maybe, but your dancing took the longest to recover from.” Lindsay complained.
“Look at the size of them apples!” Dj cried. Heather turned to look at what would be the next challenge. Three giant apples bobbed up and down in the green-brown water of the pond. No way was she swimming in there.
“Remember, no hands.” Chris wiggled his fingers.
“I’ve totally got this guys!” Tyler dived in. Shit, team Chris was already in the lead.
“My perfect ballet leaps closed the gap. Now someone dive in before we lose the advantage.” Dj dived in. Damn they were really about to lose.
“Oh last year I broke my leg in the egg and spoon race,” Now was not the time to hear Sierra’s life story. They would seriously need a way for them to get an advantage. Heather looked around. She needed team Chris to lose today, otherwise she would have to get friendly with Alejandro, gross. But what was most important wasn’t getting Alejandro off, but keeping herself on. So she looked around for any way to deter either one of the teams. “... handy, huh?”
“I repeat, DIVE IN!” Sierra did as she was told. As she turned to watch Sierra, she saw Alejandro looking at her from the corner in her eye.
“Central park is so romantic, don’t you find?” Yeah right, there was no way she was letting his flirting get to her, that only happened when she was woozy from blood loss. She glared up at him.
“Whatever, I know you’ve been messing with Sierra’s head, so back off before you wish you had.”
“My wish doesn’t involve backing off.” Stupid, stupid stupid. How did he always have a response to everything? She growled.
“Just go play with your stupid team and leave us alone!”
“You’re beautiful when you play hard to get,” Didn’t this guy ever take a hint. She bared her teeth and balled her hands into fists, she didn’t care who was watching, she was going to kill him. He noticed her fists and wisely put his hands up in defeat. “I’m going.”
“You bet you are. Right out of the game!” She seriously needed him out of here. It was then she noticed Noah asleep in their team's carriage. All the other members were busy cheering. She looked back at the carriage she saw earlier, blue, the mother busy talking on the phone. She cocked her head and thought it through. She looked at Alejandro to make sure he was truly distracted and smiled as she quickly swapped the carriages. They would likely notice Noah’s absence but it would take them a few moments to find him with the woman.
“That seems like cheating.” Gwen said.
“It’s not cheating if there aren’t any rules.” And with delight in her eyes Heather watched as Alejandro retrieved the apple and placed it in the fake carriage, dashing off to the finish line with it. It was so over for him.
~
Alejandro cheered as they crossed the finish line. First place, and last he saw, Heather’s team was last place, meaning his distraction was likely going to be kicked off for good. Cries came from the carriage. Alejandro lifted the apple and saw a small baby inside. His eyes widened as he pieced together what had happened, and he had a good idea about who had orchestrated it.
“We have to go back! Izzy you push the cart, I’ll take the apple.” They ran back, passing Victory and eventually Amazon. Heather had a smug smirk on her face.
“Wait! You’re going the wrong way!” She drawled. Alejandro bared his teeth, but then breathed and focused on what he needed to do. He saw their carriage and put the apple in it and pulled Noah away. Izzy put the carriage back and they all raced toward the finish line again. Heather was good, really really fucking good. They all approached the finish line, it would be a close race. Team Amazon crossed the line, then Victory, then him.
“What? We lost?” He couldn’t stop his outburst, but after a few infuriating moments he remembered the conclusion he’d drawn before the challenge. This was, more likely than not, a reward challenge.
“And the winner of the New York challenge is… team Amazon!” They all cheered. Heather leveled her gaze at him, a proud half smile on her face. He inclined his head to her. Now that he was fairly certain of his safety, he could acknowledge his respect for Heather’s strategy. It was truly a valiant effort and very clever to use her environment to her advantage. “Team Victory, congrats on not coming in last. And team Chris is Really Really Really Really Hot, you’re facing elimination for the first time, but…” Alejandro allowed a smirk to grace his own features now, “You won’t have to go through with it because this is really a reward challenge. Sike!” He kept his gaze locked on Heather as she bared her teeth and balled up her fists, angry and annoyed. She turned to him, her arms crossed. He blew her a kiss.
-
Alejandro sat on the table as he watched the Amazon’s open their rewards. It was just after the challenge so he wore his costume as he waited to see the nature of the rewards. The plane was already in the air, his ears popping as they raised higher in the sky.
“As the winner of this reward challenge, Team Amazon gets to keep or dump the prizes contained in the apples. So have at it ladies.”
“Hey!” Cody complained.
“Sorry, have at it ladies, and baby.” Chris tossed a hammer at Cody which he used to break the first apple, revealing thousands of little candies.
“Candy!” Cody shoveled the sugary artificial flavors into his bag as if he were a dragon hoarding jewels. Alejandro would keep his love for candy in mind. Sierra walked up and opened the next apple, revealing more apples inside. Perhaps it was indicating what the next challenge would be? Maybe a food challenge?
“Yay, apples! Can I thank Chris for the apples?” She asked Heather quietly.
“Not right now,” She pushed Sierra to the side. His meddling was a success. “I think I deserve to open the last one, all things considered.”
“The carriage swap did help us win…”
“But we wouldn’t have lost either way, so don’t get all big headed.” Heather rolled her eyes and tore her apple to shreds with her nails.
“What the- a meat grinder?” Alejandro raised a brow, as he discreetly jotted down the final reward on a piece of paper. Two foods and a meat grinder… “Ugh, this must be the booby prize, forget it.”
“Oh- maybe we should keep it, just in case-” Heather threw the meat grinder out with all her might.
“That really is satisfying.”
“Will Heather ever win the respect of her teammates?” She spared Alejandro a burning glance as he suppressed a laugh.
“Um- I’m standing right here-”
“Find out next time on Total Drama World Tour!”