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Colors aren’t easy to describe. Blue knows that back in the confines of the untitled comic, when he told Red about the multitude of colors their creator had shown them, Red hadn’t understood.
“It’s beautiful,” Red says. Though his words are just text scrawled above his head, Blue could feel the wonder in his nonexistent voice as though it were breath washing over his nonexistent face.
There’s no air. No movement. The grass is still, and the trees are silent. But it’s there, and while Red might not have a face to display his amazement, that’s there too. Somehow.
It’s like the two of them, in some ways, flat characters on a flat surface, not existing but able to feel. Blue has experienced fear, experienced love, experienced hate. The reader can surely feel it too - is that proof enough that Red and Blue are real?
“Well,” Blue says, “Even if we’re still flat, at least we have limbs now. And heads.”
Red turns teasing. “Flat? Speak for yourself. By stickman standards, I have the biggest ass known to man.”
Blue has never laughed before, but he does now, chuckles bubbling up in his throat. It’s a nice feeling. “Another ass joke? Aren’t we past that?”
“Ah, you’re right. No creator to tell us what to do now. I still like the ass jokes, though.”
Blue wants to laugh again, but there is something wrong. “No creator…” Blue muses. “No. That’s not right. We wouldn’t be here at all if it weren’t at the behest of a creator. I feel different - It’s like I’ve been… handed off? If there’s someone new controlling us, if we were rewritten somehow, we... are we even the same people?”
“Hey, no more existentialism,” Red replies quietly. “We left that behind us. The whole point of getting our happy ending was to escape, and we did . This is- this is some kind of afterlife. We knew we’d be trapped in, like, limbo after the story ended, but thanks to you we’re trapped someplace nice. We’re together. This is fine, right? We don’t have to worry anymore.”
Red sounds disheveled, grasping for assurance. Blue tries to give it to him. “You’re right. Doesn’t matter why we’re here, because we are. That’s enough for me.”
The space lightens, becoming happier. They stay silent for a bit, letting the fear settle into calmness. Blue swears that the warmth of false sunshine washes over him. Red reaches forward hesitantly.
Two flat, pixelated hands meet, and the soft touch is so sweet that if Blue had eyes, he would cry. Instead, he hums happily. “This is nice.”
“Yeah. You know what else was nice?” Red says.
“Hm. No, what?”
“When we kissed. We should do that again.”
Blue chuckles again, feeling almost giddy with joy. “Of course. We can kiss as many times as we want.”
“What luxury we live in,” Red whispers, leaning closer.
When their faces touch, it’s slow and gentle, and there are no lips to press against but sparks run through Blue’s body nonetheless. They stay like that for a long time. Why would they move? They have no need to breathe, and no shortness of time.
Colors aren’t easy to describe, but Red tastes like purple; like a sky full of stars, like the blend of their two tints. Like something beautiful.
“I love you,” Blue murmurs once they break away.
A sigh escapes Red. A content one. “I love you too.”
They’re admiring the green of the trees and the grass, the many colors of the sky, and the colors of each other - they’ve been looking at one another for eternity, and still delight in their respective hues.
Red says something stupid about their ass. Blue laughs and takes his face in his hands, kissing him over and over again.
“You’re so dumb,” he says in-between, “I love you so much.”
“Because I’m dumb?”
“I love all of you. Even the dumb parts.”
He’s being ridiculously cheesy, and the simplicity of his words comes naturally. Affection springs up sharply in his chest, warming his body. Blue could do this again and again, every day, until their comic is no longer read and this infinity ends, and there is nothing in the world that would make him happier.
Another kiss. Another declaration of love. Colors aren’t easy to describe, but there’s no need to try. They can both see the colors here.
