Chapter Text
It was early the next morning after yesterday’s iceberg challenge, and Bowie found himself sitting on the dock to watch the sunrise.
He was pissed, at both Julia and MK for dragging him into their cheating schemes, and himself for letting it happen. For betraying the trust of the one person who still truly cared about him after everything, who still loved him.
He was more than grateful the two managed to talk things out last night, that Raj didn’t want to leave him after what had happened. Bowie didn’t want to go back to a world without him.
But that didn’t mean the guilt and bitter taste in his mouth went away.
Suddenly, Bowie heard some footsteps walk over, a familiar voice speaking.
“There you are, I didn’t hear you get up earlier.”
The tension in Bowie’s shoulders relaxed as Raj sat down next to him.
“Sorry, babe… I needed to get out and clear my head.”
“You know I’m not mad at you anymore, right?” Raj looked at his boyfriend with a worried frown. “You said you were sorry and that you weren’t gonna do it again, and I really believe that.”
Bowie weakly smiled.
“I know, but that’s not it. I still broke my promise to you, all because I took Julia and MK’s word for things. I know I wanted to win, maybe so I could keep myself from getting eliminated, but I can’t excuse that…”
It was true, Bowie was one of the more sneaky players of this cast, definitely not making any new friends because of it. But the one thing he did not want to do was lie to Raj about anything he planned.
Yet, he did. He must’ve really been getting desperate if he was gonna resort to that, guilt or not…
“Well…” Raj suddenly spoke up, getting Bowie’s attention. “I think I’m more mad at them than you. I mean, you actually felt bad and talked to me about it. They just don’t care.”
If Bowie didn’t know any better, he could almost hear a bit of resentment in his voice, not that he’d blame him in the slightest. He stayed quiet, gesturing for Raj to continue.
“I mean, you were sneaky in season one, yeah, but you weren’t nearly as bad as Julia!” Raj was now throwing himself into a rant. “I just don’t get it! Why does everyone else treat you like you’re so terrible when Julia’s even worse!? It- It’s not fair!”
Bowie’s eyes widened in surprise, he never would’ve expected that much anger to come out of Raj’s mouth. Sure, he got pretty nasty on the ice during his games, but this felt so much more personal than that, like something he’s been keeping in for a long time.
“Well, I did drop Millie’s notebook on Priya.” Bowie tried to reason.
But Raj wasn’t having it.
“Then maybe Millie shouldn’t have written all those bad things about her, has she considered that!? Besides, that was one thing! Julia was so much more terrible to everyone last season, but you’re the one everyone here doesn’t trust!? It’s bullshit!”
Raj seemed to realize what he was saying, taking a deep breath to calm himself down.
“I’m really sorry… I didn’t mean to get all mad like that…”
Bowie frowned in concern, putting a hand on his shoulder.
“It’s all good. It’s better that you got it all out instead of just bottling it in. How long have you been thinking about that?”
“Since after the finale last year…”
Ah, so these feelings definitely weren’t new. Bowie let out a sigh.
“Look, nobody can control what people think about me, not you and definitely not me. The others can hate me all they want, but I can’t let that affect me. Besides, the people I actually care about don’t hate me, including you. That’s what’s important.”
Raj weakly smiled, looking down at the water.
“I could never hate you… I was mad, but I didn’t hate you… I know what the others think doesn’t matter, but it’s still unfair…”
Bowie wrapped an arm around Raj, who immediately leaned against him.
“You’re right, it’s not fair… All we can do is try to make it as far as we can once the merge comes along…”
Raj stayed quiet at that, was Bowie silently admitting he probably wasn’t gonna make it much further? No, Raj didn’t want to believe that! He was gonna make sure both him and Bowie (and Wayne too of course) made it as far as they possibly could!
As if it was spoken into existence, the merge did happen later that morning during breakfast. Raj could admit, he was pumped that he made it to the merge twice in a row! As long as there weren’t any cassowaries this time around, he knew he was gonna make it further than last time too.
Today’s challenge required the contestants to pair up, leaving Raj at a bit of a crossroads. He now had to choose between Bowie and Wayne, two of his favorite people in the world. Great…
After a lot of thinking (more than Raj has probably ever done at once), he walked over to Bowie.
“You wanna team up, babe?”
“Pff, don’t you always team up with Wayne?” Bowie asked.
“Yeah, but I know you were feeling off today and I don’t wanna leave you alone. ‘Sides, I know Wayne’ll find someone, and I’m sure he’ll understand.”
Bowie let out a small laugh, clearly flattered. Bless Raj’s heart, wanting to still check up on him hours later. What did he do to deserve him?
“You’re the sweetest. Alright, the others won’t know what hit them!”
Raj felt himself swell with pride hearing that. Maybe it was the idea of wiping the confident looks off of everyone else’s faces once the two of them dominated the challenge. That’d teach them not to mess with his boyfriend.
Okay, maybe Raj was still a little bitter, but it was good motivation to do well in whatever challenge was planned. He’d channel his negative feelings into victory, that’s what he did best on the ice after all.
Soon, Raj and Bowie found themselves carrying a canoe through the woods towards the beach (both getting a lot of satisfaction watching MK’s cheating get exposed in front of everyone before she was forced to carry a canoe by herself beforehand).
They decided to have a bit of fun with this, narrating their actions via mock sports commentary. It almost felt like a date.
“I actually feel bad for the other teams.” Bowie suddenly said. “We’re just too good!”
Raj looked back at him with a smile.
“For sure, eh! We’re gonna be unbeatable, no matter what the challenge is!”
Bowie found himself truly believing that. Despite the rough patch yesterday, it only ended up making them stronger. As long as they worked together, nobody could beat them.
It felt like it was the two of them against the world, and they were going to win.
Bowie wanted to slap himself from a couple of minutes ago for being so confident. Because it was Chris, it turned out the pairs had to battle against each other on canoes with jousting poles.
So, there he and Raj stood on the boat, holding their poles and looking awkwardly at each other.
“So…”
“So…”
Bowie looked away with a weak smile, with Raj smiling back.
“It’s okay, babe.” Raj reassured him. “It’s just for the game, right? I’m tough anyway, I can handle anything you throw at me!”
Bowie raised an eyebrow with an amused smile.
“You talk like you already know you’re gonna win.”
“No offense, Bow, but you’re talking to the alt captain of the Snow Owls, remember? I could probably knock just about anybody off this boat in a few seconds!”
That’s when Bowie got an idea. He liked Raj, loved him in fact, but he needed this win.
“Really? Care to elaborate?”
He waited…
“Well, okay. You’ve probably already heard me say this a lot, but I’ve been playing hockey since I was in grade school. So, I’ve had years of training.”
Hook, line, and sinker. As Raj went on about his accomplishments on the ice, Bowie swung his jousting stick back, trying to swallow down his guilt, and swiftly hit Raj into the water.
Raj emerged out of the water. Did… Did Bowie just use his own bragging against him? God, Raj could feel himself falling more in love with him, if that was even possible at this point.
He noticed Bowie looking down at him with a guilty look on his face. He gave him a reassuring smile, rubbing his face where he got hit.
“Ow. Nice one, right in the chompers.”
“Sorry…” Bowie whispered out.
“It’s okay, that was an amazing play.” Raj whispered back before confidently grinning. “Now, go win this thing.”
Bowie gave Raj a determined nod before Raj swam back to shore.
The rest of the game should’ve been an easy one for Bowie. After round one ended (where he could admit he felt a little bad seeing MK get beat up by the bear. Cheater or not, that was complete overkill on Chris’ part in his opinion), he got paired up with Axel in the second one.
What would’ve been a difficult battle was easily won by Bowie, once again using his quick thinking to his advantage. Now that he was guaranteed a spot in the final round, he expected his final opponent to be Julia. But to his (and everyone else’s surprise), Damien actually managed to defeat her, even if it was pretty much by chance.
Oh, Bowie knew poor Damien didn’t stand a chance against him. Someone with incredible physical and athletic prowess vs someone who didn’t even know what Total Drama was when he first signed up? Bowie almost felt bad for what he was about to do.
Almost.
As Bowie sat on the horse sitting on top of the raft (this show was weird), he called out to Damien.
“Just take a dive, Damien! I don’t want to hurt you, you saw what I did to Axel!”
Damien probably thought he got lucky by winning against Julia, Bowie figured. Well, his luck was now about to run out, and Bowie would be able to guarantee he’d survive another day.
What he didn’t expect was for Damien to throw his jousting pole right at his face, knocking him clean off his horse and into the water.
As he managed to float to the surface, Bowie mentally swore himself. He let himself get overconfident twice today, the second one costing him the win!
That’s when dread ran up his spine. Even though everyone now knew MK was a cheater, her and Julia were sneaky, and he figured they’d find some way to convince everyone to vote him off.
So, once he swam back to the shore, he gave Raj an apologetic look. He couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud, but he knew his time was just about up. It was probably the karma he deserved, he figured, after going along with their cheating like an idiot…
Raj on the other hand, couldn’t accept it. He wouldn’t accept it. As he walked by the outhouse, he overheard Julia talking about convincing the others to vote for Bowie.
No… No, no no. Raj was originally gonna vote for MK for being the main cheater, but if that’s the game Julia wanted to play, Raj would be more than happy to play it too.
The bear wasn’t sufficient karma, that was just Chris being cruel for the sake of it. This though? If MK wanted to cheat that badly, she could say goodbye to the only ally she had left.
Raj watched from outside the dining hall as Caleb just left the table Priya was sitting at, presumably to take a shower.
Okay, he needed to think of a game plan. He wasn’t the best at coming up with schemes, that was more Wayne’s thing, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have some basic idea of what might work.
Bringing up Bowie as a main topic to shift the vote was a no-go, since Priya still probably had a grudge on him. So, instead, he needed to play into her best interests.
He walked into the dining hall, grabbing some food to look inconspicuous before sitting across from Priya. He took a deep breath, he just had to act like his usual self.
“Hey, Priya! That challenge was crazy, huh!?”
Priya looked surprised that he was talking to her, Raj assuming that she probably thought he wouldn’t think highly of her for beating Bowie in the finale. His feelings on that were irrelevant though, at least for now.
“I know, right!? I mean, Chris has used horses in challenges before, but never in the water like that!”
Raj did genuinely laugh, what was next, air horses? Or would that just be a pegasus? No, Raj had to get back on topic!
“Actually, I wanted to talk to ‘ya about something. It’s really important.”
Priya tilted her head curiously. Good, he had her attention.
“Okay, what’s up..?”
“It’s about Julia, she convinced everyone else on my team to cheat!”
Raj watched Priya’s eyes widen, was she really acting surprised about this? Her brows then furrowed.
“Well, she said the same thing about Bowie…”
Raj fought back the urge to roll his eyes, of course she did. He just expected better from Priya, why would she buy into that for any other reason than personal feelings?
“Do you really believe her? I mean, she acted so not cool last season.”
Before Priya could answer that, she looked at Raj suspiciously.
“Hold on. How do I know you’re not just saying this to save Bowie’s skin? I wouldn’t be surprised if he put you up to this somehow.”
Raj gripped the end of his jersey in anger, away from Priya’s view. Is that really what she thought about him, that he was some mindless lapdog who listened to anything that Bowie, his boyfriend, said? That he wasn’t capable of forming his own opinions? Is that what everyone else thought of him too?
He tried to calm himself down, he really was sick of everyone else on this island at this point, but he couldn’t let that show. He needed to play this cool.
Raj was not a very good liar, but he could tell a half truth to get Priya on his side.
“He didn’t put me up to this, I… I got into a fight with him yesterday, about the cheating.”
That was only partially true. It wasn’t a fight, it was an argument, one that they were able to resolve. But Priya didn’t need to know that, especially seeing the look of shock on her face.
“Was it that bad..?”
“Yep, it was pretty bad.” Again, Raj was exaggerating, but it worked in his favor. “I dunno if I can trust him anymore, but I know Julia was the one who started this! It just makes sense!”
Now that Priya could confirm Raj wasn’t just repeating Bowie’s words, she seemed to be considering what he was saying.
“She was pretty terrible last season…”
“Exactly! If we vote her off now, MK and Bowie won’t have her as an ally anymore, right? They’ll have a powerplay against them!”
Raj could see the gears turning in Priya’s head, just perfect. He stood up again.
“I’m gonna go take a shower, but please think about it. I don’t wanna lie to you or anybody else, I just wanna play fair and square from now on…”
With that, Raj left Priya alone. If this worked, she’d likely try to convince Caleb and Damien to vote with her. And with both Bowie and Wayne on his side, as well as Ripper and Axel being unlikely to work for either MK or Julia, it’d be automatically unanimous.
Raj wasn’t a genius, but he could scheme if he needed to. It all came with being a hockey player, and everyone would very soon learn that.
That night, at the elimination ceremony, everyone had received marshmallows except for Julia and Bowie. MK seemed surprised to be safe, but Raj knew it was all part of the plan. He was a little worried about it working though, looking at Bowie nervously.
Chris held up the final marshmallow.
“And the final marshmallow goes to…”
The suspenseful silence was killing Raj, keeping his eyes on a worried Bowie. Please work, please work…
“Bowie!”
Raj sighed in relief as Bowie caught his marshmallow, looking genuinely surprised.
“I- Really?”
“Seriously!?” Julia suddenly stood up, furious. “You butt knuckles chose to keep him around!?”
Raj looked over at MK, who looked both shocked and nervous, realizing she just lost the only ally she had. He savored the look, karma really was a great thing.”
He smiled the whole time Julia left, with Bowie being too confused to act smug. He thought he was for sure going home! Raj suddenly held his hand.
“You okay?”
“I- I’m fine, it’s just… I don’t believe it.”
“I’ll explain everything in the morning.” Raj reassured him. “But you’ve gotta get some rest right now, it’s been a long day. We can talk while we look for the immunity idol tomorrow.”
That didn’t do much to clear Bowie’s confusion, what did Raj do exactly? But he was right, Bowie did feel tired from the long day. So, both boys headed back to their cabin to get some sleep.
Usually, Bowie always woke up before Raj, but this morning was different. Raj had woken up first. He looked around the room, seeing everyone else, including Wayne, was asleep.
This was good, that meant he got to have some alone time with his Bowie.
He quietly got off his bed and walked over to Bowie’s, gently shaking his shoulder to try and wake him up.
“Psst, it’s time to wake up.”
Bowie let out a small huff before slowly closing his eyes. He looked up at Raj with a lazy smile.
“Morning, babe… We were gonna look for the immunity idol, right?”
“Mhm, I also wanted to talk to you alone about something, is that okay?”
Okay, Bowie’s curiosity was now piqued. He quickly changed out of his pajamas and did his usual morning skincare routine before following Raj outside.
The sun was barely even up at this point, with both boys looking around in the woods for the idol. It was oddly quiet, so Raj decided to speak up.
“Everything okay?”
“Raj, did you do something yesterday?”
Raj looked a bit confused.
“Well, I did a lotta things yesterday, especially during the challenge-”
“No, I mean… How did I get saved from being voted off?”
Oooh, that made more sense.
“Well, that’s easy. I told Priya to vote for Julia, and she probably told the others too.”
Bowie was shocked to hear that, how was that even possible!?
“Wha- How!? She clearly doesn’t like me, how did you convince her!?”
“It took a bit of work, I had to tell her we got in a fight so she didn’t think you told me to do it.” Raj explained, rolling his eyes at the last part. “So annoying. But, I also told her it was Julia’s idea to cheat. That’s sorta true, right?”
Bowie stood there in shock, not because he didn’t think Raj was capable of a play like that, his hockey based plans showed he for sure was. It was more the fact he willingly did it in the first place.
It wasn’t cheating, not by a long shot, but it was a sneakier move to play with half truths like that. If Bowie didn’t know any better, he’d say it was almost halfway manipulative.
And it only made him fall even more head over heels than he already was.
“Uh, Bowie?” Raj spoke up, snapping him out of his thoughts. “Are you okay?”
To his surprise, Bowie stepped forwards towards him, with Raj now leaning back against a tree.
Raj felt his face flush. Okay, they were suddenly close now! Bowie gave him a charming smile.
“So you saved me from elimination by manipulating everyone to vote for Julia?”
“You’re making it sound worse than it was!” Raj half shouted, although a smile began to form. “ ‘Sides, Julia had it coming, she was gonna get you voted off.”
Bowie couldn’t help but laugh at the bluntness of that statement.
“You’re not worried what everyone will think once they find out?”
“I don’t care what they think.” Raj huffed. “They’ll never see it coming anyway, they all think I’m too dumb to play the game. This’ll teach them not to mess with you or me.”
Both boys smiled as Bowie leaned closer, both clearly having fun with this.
“You have a plan, then? You eliminated Julia and left MK without any allies. Do you know what to do next?”
Raj briefly faltered. Crap, he didn’t think that far ahead!
“Uh, I wanted to hear if you had any ideas maybe...”
Bowie chuckled, gently tracing his thumb on Raj’s cheek.
“Of course, I can’t risk you getting eliminated next after doing this for me. I mentioned that MK doesn’t have any allies left, she’s going to be desperate. And since she doesn’t know you got Julia eliminated…”
“...We could convince her to vote with us for safety!” Raj practically beamed. “Oh! Maybe we could convince her that Priya or Caleb was behind Julia’s elimination!”
“I like where your head’s at.” Bowie grinned as he carded a hand into his hair. “That’d break up their forming alliance, and with Wayne, we can at least guarantee four votes.”
“Wayne’s the only other person here besides you that I like, so he gets to stay.” Raj wrapped his arms over the back of Bowie’s neck. “I don’t wanna hurt him…”
“We won’t, I promise. I don’t plan on breaking any more promises I make with you.”
Bowie meant it too. He already messed up by lying to the person he loved once, he was never going to make that mistake again.
Raj grinned hearing that.
“Good. Heh, this island ain’t gonna know what hit ‘em.”
Bowie nodded before leaning forward to kiss Raj’s lips, practically “sealing the deal.” Raj’s arms moved down to his waist to hold him almost impossibly closer, while Bowie’s arms wrapped around his shoulders.
Other than Wayne, it didn’t matter what happened to everyone else on the island, they'd make sure all of their eliminations would come in due time.
Raj thought back to what he said yesterday, about how they’d be unbeatable working together. He certainly hoped, no, he knew it was true. As long as they worked together, they were going to win.
And both boys couldn’t wait to see the look on everyone else’s faces once they got that million dollar prize.