Work Text:
Yellow stumbles as she trudges down the stairs, feeling faint, clutching the railing. She hasn't slept in... however many days, working away on a new project. Trying to dissect her recently acquired lucky block staff, learning how to work with it better, and how to handle it. King's lessons weren't enough.
Whenever she sighed and reluctantly made her way to bed, she ended up springing out minutes later, an idea she had to try on her mind. Suffice to say, she didn't feel awake enough for today's breakfast. But if she skipped it, Blue would get upset, and she places that over her need to collapse on the floor at the moment.
Yellow enters the kitchen. Everyone else besides Blue is already at the table, talking and laughing. The light from the desktop is streaming in through the windows. It's too loud, too bright. She winces as she sits down.
"Hey, Yel!" Green's booming voice greets her, the other sticks following. "Where have you been all day yesterday?" He continues. "You look like a wreck."
"Oh, um." She averts her gaze. She didn't realize the lack of rest would be present on her face, but to be fair, she doesn't recall the last time she looked in the mirror. The corners of the thin line of her mouth twitch, but she turns what is about to become a frown into a shaky smile. "I was just... practicing with my staff yesterday."
Green nods understandingly. "I get it. Tough work, huh? Did it blow up in your face or something?"
Yellow suppresses a grimace. There was no way she looked that bad.
Red perks up from next to Green with a pout. "It's not just your staff, Yellow! King technically gave it to all of us."
Her eye twitches. She turns to them. "Red, we talked about this. I'm not letting you go out there and get yourself in trouble."
"But- I won't get in trouble! I can take care of myself!" They gesture wildly, then cross their arms and turn their nose up. "You just need to trust me for once."
Yellow looks at Second, who is halfway between dozing off and glaring at her like she should hear Red out. They never dealt well with mornings.
Yellow sighs. "Fine, but only once I get a grasp on how to disable any... dangerous commands." She should do that today. After breakfast. All of this is wasting her time.
Blue emerges from behind a corner, five plates dangerously balanced along the span of their arms. The sticks turn to them with varying levels of excitement and exhaustion.
"Waffles!" Blue exclaims. They slide the plates on the table one by one.
Red takes a waffle and bites out of it without hesitation. Green licks his lips, then picks up his utensils and digs in. And Second watches them fondly before doing the same.
"Bon appétit," Blue says before sitting down. Everyone responds before continuing their feast, except Yellow, who's zoning out as she eyes her food.
She ate a hastily-made sandwich a few hours ago, so she's not hungry. She can't tell them, because they'll know she stayed up. She has to eat. Though she really, really doesn't feel like it.
Yellow breaks out of it when she notices Blue in the corner of her eye, dissecting her with a furrowed brow. She resumes her act and cuts a piece of the waffle, then sticks it into her mouth.
"These are so good." Red mumbles, talking with their mouth full. Green nods from next to them.
Blue turns away from Yellow to accept the compliment. "Thanks!" They beam, and she has to look away before her important thoughts about work will get replaced by stupid thoughts about Blue. Which haven't gotten less intense after she confessed to them and they got together, unfortunately.
Yellow swallows down more of her waffle. And she feels sick, but she can't complain. Her vision blurs as she fights the urge to stand up and make up some excuse, then run upstairs. She'd only get more suspicious.
Blue is totally onto her. Every time they get a break from chatting with the others, they glance at her and squint until she meets their stare, then turn back to the conversation casually. She almost scowls.
Once she's halfway done, she decides to not torture herself any longer and stops eating, and they eye her like they caught her in the act with a sullen expression. Which they didn't. Not being hungry is normal. Some sticks don't even eat breakfast.
Yellow pushes her plate away and stands up. She realizes she hasn't said a word since Blue entered the room. Oh well, too late now. "I'm going back to my room," she announces. "Got some stuff to do."
The others nod and bid her goodbye, except Blue, who she decides she will be mad at today. It's not like it's any of their business what she gets up to at questionable hours now, is it?
She turns and flees the room. Stomps up the stairs until her head's spinning with nausea. She stops in front of her door to breathe in and out deeply, trying to control it. She just needs to find a way to immediately cancel all ongoing commands as an emergency. That's important. She gets that one thing done, and she can go to sleep.
When she's about to take the handle of her door a hand stops her, wrapping around her wrist.
She turns and sees Blue. She's too tired to startle.
"Hey, are you okay?" They ask.
The frustration festers in her chest. Ugh. Ugh.
"I'm fine," she responds quickly. "What do you want?" She makes sure to try to keep the irritation from tainting her tone but is unsure how successful her execution was.
"Um..." Blue frowns unsurely. "You look exhausted, and you barely ate anything."
"I ate half my food," she points out.
"Did you not sleep again?"
"What?" She backs up, defensive. "No. What makes you think that?"
Maybe it's a natural conclusion, since it's a recurring problem. Usually, she gets busted when Second walks by her room, freshly woken up from a nightmare, and notices her light is on. And trying to talk an overprotective Second out of forcing her to sleep is a challenge, so she usually grumbles as she jumps in bed and gets covered by blankets. Blue's previously failed to notice it before the aftermath.
"You're grumpy." The corner of their mouth quirks up, their smile apologetic.
Yellow deflates. Touché. "Well, I'm just frustrated with how little developments I've made lately." That's not a lie, but it is a distraction from the truth.
"Is that why you stayed up?" They let go of her wrist to cross their arms. She didn't notice they were still holding it.
"I didn't-" She groans. "You know what? Sure. I just don't get why all of you care so much about me doing that. I'm only working. It's not gonna kill me."
She regrets it a little when she finds Blue's face with a look so sad that she's feeling the anger trickling out of her.
"Yellow..." They start. And their tone hurts to hear. "You can- You can work however much you want, you just..." Blue hangs their head. "I don't know how to explain it. I'm not as good with words as you all are."
Yellow feels the exhaustion flooding the empty place her anger left behind. She leans against the wall and makes eye contact with the floor guiltily.
"Yellow," Blue begins again, more confident. "You're great. You're a genius. You make wonderful things you're passionate about." They take her hands in theirs. "You care so much, and I admire you for that."
She looks at them, confused about where they're taking it. Her cheeks feel warm.
Blue's looking back with so much affection that she wants to take back getting mad at them. Fuck, she's doomed. She's always been doomed.
"So it hurts to see you flooding your well-being down the drain to get in a couple more hours..." They squeeze her fingers. "I'm sure you would get even more done if you took some time to rest, and did it with a clearer mind. That's at least how it works for me."
She raises an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"Well, whenever I get stuck trying to get a recipe perfect or keep ending up with a potion that's not right, I go do something else and come back to it later." They snort. "Especially if it's late. It's harder to think rationally."
Yellow considers their words, worrying her lip between her teeth. "I'm still rational..."
Blue's face shows they hardly believe that.
"Okay, well." She puffs up her chest, trying to find the right way to explain her situation. "My ideas and energy are fleeting... So if I ever let myself lose hold of them and stop the flow I've built, I might never get it back. I can't let myself sleep and lose everything I thought of. I keep turning in bed until I get sick of it when I try."
Yellow begins opening her door, and it creaks. She has to lay down. It feels like walls are pressing in around her skull.
She breathes in, willing it to not shake. "And this just feels so urgent." Her eyes slide over to the staff, situated in the middle of her desk, practically shining with power and endless possibilities. "I can do so many cool things with it. Since the day King gave it to me, I felt like I was going to burst every moment I wasn't taking it apart. If I can just figure this thing out, really figure it out, just imagine what I could do then. What we all could do." She looks back at Blue, whose expression grows more fond, although keeping a hint of concern.
"I get that," they walk towards her and stand beside her. Yellow puts both hands on her desk, steadying herself, preparing for- "But," there it is, "you can't figure out all the cool shit you can do if you don't get some rest first, Yel. Next thing you know, you'll be passing out in the middle of an important sequence of code or whatever, and you'll end up blown to bits. Or worse. You remember what happened last time."
Yellow shudders, shifting into a dejected, hunched-over posture. "I do."
"So is there really nothing that could ease your running brain and get you some rest? Have you tried anything?" Blue places a hand over hers. And before she knows it, they're leading her to bed, and sitting on it with her. She's too exhausted to point out how obviously they're stringing her along.
"Well... um..." Yellow short-circuits, trying to remember the last time she spent energy on herself rather than her knick-knacks. "I- I haven't, I think?"
"Well, I don't know how credible I am with this stuff, but here's one." Yellow turns to them, their eyes meeting as she notes how much Blue rubbing circles into her hand is making her mind buzz. "The next time you're stuck jumping in and out of bed, making more and more adjustments until you drive yourself crazy, try writing your ideas down."
Yellow's eyes go wide. Such an easy solution, and it hasn't crossed her mind once.
"Maybe get like... a special notebook or something. Only get up to write them, and you can get to it the next day. You won't forget them, and they won't keep you awake at night."
Yellow looks forward with abject terror. "I haven't thought of that."
"Yeah, yeah." They pat her back comfortingly. "You can try it today, and please catch at least a few hours. Your sleeping habits make me worried sick."
"I'm... I'm so dumb." Yellow's head falls on Blue's shoulder, and they jump up in surprise. "I'm so fucking stupid."
Blue frowns as they notice the air in the room change. "What's wrong?"
She shakes her head, embarrassed. She doesn't know where it's coming from. But it's like the glass that's been filling up with worry upon worry is spilling, and she can't do anything to pick herself up. And Blue's comforting words and endless kindness, despite the lack of her own, have her unable to hold it any longer.
"I've been... staying up so much. Losing efficiency but keeping myself awake just so I can make sure it's gonna be perfect... and I didn't even spare that a single thought. I could've done so much more. What if I made a mistake I couldn't have taken back? What if I could've been done days ago? I'm just so-"
"Hey, hey," Blue shushes her, scratching her scalp. Yellow melts into it. "No negative self-talk, okay? You've been doing amazing, I'm sure of it. You're just very committed to your craft."
"But I'm supposed to know things like this. I'm supposed to know everything." Tears well up in Yellow's eyes. She blinks them away.
Blue smiles. It never fails to warm her heart, even now. "No one knows everything, silly. And no one's gonna hold this against you. Especially not me."
Yellow buries her face in their neck. "I'm so sorry," she chokes back a sob. "I'm being so dramatic- I'm sorry."
Blue keeps brushing through her hair, doing nothing to stop her as she weeps over such a foolish thing as missing a simple solution to her problem. She's crying about nothing.
The thought wrings out another shudder from her, and Blue lowers them both onto her mattress, the back of their head buried in her pillow.
"It's okay, Yellow. You're tired and stressed. Let it out," they mutter.
Yellow sniffles, and she grasps Blue's jumper tightly. As if they would slip away and disappear if she didn't. She loves them so much. They and everyone else have to put up with her bullshit. She tenses up. How long until everyone was tired of it? Maybe if she just-
"Shhh, I can hear those thoughts inside your head." Blue pokes her side. "I love you, Yellow. I'm here for you. And the others are too, in spirit. It'd be so boring here without all your fun rides, robots, creative pranks." They shake her gently. "You're important."
Yellow squeezes her eyes shut from the sheer amount of emotion engulfing her. "Thank you." It's hard to take the words to heart through her muddled thoughts. She's been holding back panic and anxiety over something going wrong for who knows how long. Coupled with the sleep deprivation, it was a recipe for disaster.
"Thank you so much." She hopes those two words are enough. That Blue knows just how much they mean to her without her having to take leaps to prove it. Leaps that her legs are too frail to achieve right now.
"You're welcome." Blue lifts her and kisses her forehead. Then they maneuver the covers to lay over them sufficiently enough. "Now get to snoozing. I can stay here a while, but I might sneak off at some point."
"Thank you," she says once more, for good measure. "I love you."
"Love you too, nerd."
And Yellow snorts, mouth twitching into a tentative smile as she dozes off. This will be the best sleep she's had in a while.