Work Text:
It was a peaceful afternoon in Smiling valley, and Baba chops was hanging out on a hillside, lying down next to the only smiling critter she would consider a friend, Craftycorn.
All the others were annoying or just dumb (Except for maybe Catnap, but they didn’t really get along due to the disdain she held for his sunny husband), so she kept her distance from most of them.
(Also she didn’t mind Bubba because he was usually nice and quiet.)
ESPECIALLY the aforementioned sunny canine, because every time his stupidly annoying voice hit her eardrums, it made her want to commit violence.
He was like that one annoying little cousin who asks you a million questions at Thanksgiving when you’re forced to sit next to him at the kids table because even though you’re a teenager you’re apparently not old enough to sit at the adult table yet, and no matter how many times you tell him to shut up, he keeps asking “Why?”.
But anyway, today Babs felt fine, because she was with one of the only smiling critters she could stand to be around, who was making a few sketches on her art pad.
“Hey Babs?”
The unicorn asks.
“Hmm?”
Babs asks, opening one eye.
“I have a question for you.”
Crafty asks.
Babs nods. “Alright, shoot.”
“So… I heard a rumor the other day that you have a… secret?”
Crafty asks. “About your appearance…?”
Babs goes cold, sitting up.
“Wh- where’d you hear that?”
“Bobby told me.”
“But where’d SHE hear it?!”
Crafty shrugs. “I dunno.”
Babs looks away, grumbling.
‘Rabie probably told her, blabbermouth…’
She thinks.
Crafty giggles.
“Soooo, what is it?”
Babs sneers. “Why should I tell you?”
Crafty smiles cutely.
“Well, we’re friends, right? And friends shouldn’t keep secrets.”
Babs thinks for a minute.
She was about to say no, but then Crafty gave her the pleading eyes.
“Pleeeease Babs?”
Babs’s heart hurts.
She couldn’t bring herself to say no…
“Okay fine… I'll tell you…”
Babs mutters, blushing a bit.
Crafty smiles scooting closer.
“Yay!” she says.
“So what is it?”
Babs sighs, pointing to herself.
“It’s my wool…”
She says. “It isn’t… naturally black.”
Crafty was shocked.
“W-what…?”
Babs sighs.
“It’s naturally pure white…” She says.
She giggles a bit. “About as white as you are…”
Crafty looks her up and down.
“Wow, I never would have guessed…”
Babs snickers.
“Yeah, I try my best to dye it whenever my roots grow out.”
Crafty then looks a bit sad.
“But why?”
She asks. “I’m sure your natural wool is pretty.”
Babs looks away.
“Nobody took me seriously when my wool was white…”
She says. “They all wanted me to join the flock, be one of them, jump over the fence every night, even though I just wanted to be left alone.”
She smiles.
“But then after I dyed it black, they started avoiding me like…”
She snickers. “Well, like the black plague."
She says. “And that’s exactly what I want.”
Crafty looks sad. “Aww, Babs…”
She scoots closer, putting an arm around her shoulders.
“You are beautiful no matter what color your wool is…”
Babs blushes a bit.
“You’re just saying that…”
she grumbles, hiding her blushy face.
Crafty giggles.
“No, I mean it.” she says. “Whatever color your wool is, you’d look amazing.”
Babs blushes more, closing her eyes. “Stooop!”
Crafty smiles, nuzzling her softly. “Never.”
Babs remains a blushy mess as Crafty pulls her closer, relishing in it.
After a little bit, Crafty says,
“You know, if you want, I could help you out with some different colors…”
Babs looks at her. “What colors are you talking about?”
Crafty shrugs. “Whatever color you wanted.”
She says.
Babs thinks.
“Hmmm… like electric purple? Or wine?”
Crafty smiles and nods. “Yeah!” she says.
Babs smirks. “Alright, I'm game.”
Crafty stands up. “Awesome!”
She says. “What's to say you come over tomorrow?”
Babs nods. “Sounds like a plan.”
Crafty picks up her stuff.
“Great!” she says happily. “Let’s say, 11?”
Babs smirks. “Sure.”
Crafty smiles.
“Alright, see you then.”
Then, Babs gets an impulsive idea.
“Hey Crafty, wait.”
She says, causing the unicorn to turn around.
“Yeah?”
Babs takes a deep breath.
“Would you… like to go out with me…?”
She says. “Officially?”
Crafty’s eyes sparkle.
“R-really!?”
Babs nods, still nervous.
“I mean, you’re a cool friend, and you seem like you would make an okay girlfriend.”
Crafty squeals, tackle-hugging her.
“YES!”
Babs jumps, catching her in her arms.
“Woah there, a little excited, are we?”
She says with a snicker.
Crafty kisses her cheek softly.
“Sorry, it’s just… I've really liked you for months, and I’m so happy!”
Babs blushes and hums. “Well no worries, hun.”
She says softly.
They two stay there, embracing for a while.
“So… Do you wanna stay over?”
Crafty says. “We can head to my place…”
Babs nuzzles her.
“Sure, love.”
~The next day~
It’s another lovely morning in Smiling valley, and Crafty was very happy.
She had spent the night snuggling with her new girlfriend, whose wool was softer than lying in a field of daisies, and then they’d had a lovely breakfast together.
And now, like she promised, she was going to help her dye her wool a new color.
She was mixing the bleach into her washtub in the bathroom, preparing to remove the black, so that the wool would be a ‘blank canvas’ that would take the new color really nicely.
Babs, however, wasn’t looking forward to it.
“I haven’t had my natural colored wool in years…”
She says. “I’m gonna look so ridiculous…”
Crafty giggles.
“Well it’ll just be temporary, love.”
She says. “If we tried to dye your wool with the black still in it, the color won’t show up at all.”
Babs rolls her eyes. “I know…”
Once the tub of bleach was ready, Crafty motioned for Babs to step in, which she did.
For the next 30 minutes or so, Babs tries to stand as still as she can, while Crafty uses one of her largest paintbrushes to slather the bleach mixture all over her, getting every part of her black wool as Babs silently sighed.
Once she was covered from head to hoof, Crafty smiled.
“Alright, now just gotta let that sit for a while.”
Babs nods. “Okay.”
The next few moments were silent.
“So, uh… play any good games lately?”
Crafty asks.
Babs thinks.
“I play a lot of dark souls.” She says. “That’s one of my favorites.”
Crafty nods. “I see.”
She says. “I’ve never played it, I'm not really into scary games like that.”
Babs smirks. “I figured.”
She says. “What’s your favorite game?”
Crafty smiles. “Minecraft!”
She says.
Babs smiles.
“Yeah, that fits.” She says.
Crafty giggles. “It’s usually what I play when I'm not drawing or painting.”
She says. “I even recreated the whole critter village by myself once.”
Babs’s eyes widened. “Wow, that’s impressive.”
Crafty smiles proudly. “Thanks.”
Once the bleach was ready, Crafty carefully helped Babs step into the shower, turning it on so it could rinse all the bleach out.
For the next 5 minutes, Babs relaxes under the warm running water, smiling softly as the black ran down her arms and legs, going down the drain.
Finally, when the water beneath her ran clear, she turned it off.
“Okay, I'm done.”
Crafty smiles. “Okay!”
She says, going to get her some towels.
Once Babs was all dry, she stepped out of the shower.
She looked like a living cloud.
Crafty’s eyes sparkle.
“Awww!”
She hugs Babs, much to her annoyance.
“You look so cuuuuute!”
Babs blushes and rolls her eyes, one-arm hugging her back.
“Yeah yeah, I know.” she says. “Can we do the dye now?”
Crafty giggles, kissing her on the cheek and making her blush more.
“Okay sugar bean.”
She says, pulling back.
She walks over to the dye cabinet. “What color do you want?”
Babs smiles. “Either electric purple or wine, whichever.”
Crafty nods, grabbing the wine and electric purple colored dyes off the shelf.
“How about both?”
He says. “It’ll make like a blending effect in your wool.”
Babs shrugs. “Sure.” she says. “Have at it.”
Crafty smiles.
“Okay, you can go relax for a bit while I get the dye ready.”
Babs nods, walking to the living room.
Meanwhile, Crafty refills the washtub with the applicator, then squirts half of each bottle into the bucket, then mixes with a wooden dowel until it creates the desired blended effect.
“Okay Babs, the dye is ready!”
She says, walking to the door.
Unbeknownst to her, while walking out, she’d accidentally bumped the cabinet, and then knocked ALL the bottles of dye into the mixture…
For the next hour or so, Babs and her worked together to use another large paintbrush to slather every inch of Babs’s wool with the dark mixture, which would become brighter when washed off.
Once Babs was completely coated in dye, Crafty smiles.
“Alright, now just gotta let that sit for about 20 minutes before we can wash it out.”
She says.
Babs sighs. “Alright…”
Crafty smiles. “So, what’s your favorite food?”
Babs shrugs. “I don’t really have one.” She says. “I mostly just chow on black beans and olives.”
Crafty huffs. “You know, you should really eat more than that…”
Babs rolls her eyes. “Well what’s YOUR favorite?”
Crafty smiles.
“I LOVE marshmallows.” she says. “And smores too, they’re so tasty.”
She says, licking her lip.
Babs sighs.
“I can’t really eat sweet stuff.” She says. “Anytime I try to, it makes me barf.”
Crafty looks a bit sad. “Oh…”
She thinks a bit.
“Well, is there ANY other food that you like?”
Babs shrugs. “I don’t mind spaghetti.”
Crafty perks up, smiling. “Ooh, Picky makes really good spaghetti!”
She says. “Maybe I could bring you some, and we could share.”
Babs smirks. “Sounds good.”
Then, the little timer went off.
“Okay Babs, time to get back into the shower!”
Crafty once again helps Babs step into the shower, who closed her eyes as she felt the warm water run over her, washing all the excess dye out, for about 5 minutes.
Then, when Babs stepped out of the shower, Crafty gasped.
She was completely multicolored.
She looked like a 60s tye-dye sweater, and had a blank look on her face.
“I think something might have gone wrong.”
Babs says, flatly.
Crafty’s eyes sparkled.
“You mean gone RIGHT!”
She says, gently wrapping her in a towel.
“Babs, you look gorgeous!”
She says, helping her dry off. “Like a beautiful rainbow!”
Babs looks into her eyes.
“R-really…?” she says. “Y-you don’t think it looks absolutely ridiculous…?”
Crafty nods. “Yes!” She says, kissing her forehead and making her blush.
Babs smiles, nuzzling her softly.
“Thank you…” She says.
“I love you, Crafty…”
Crafty hugs her tighter.
“I love you too, Babs!”
~Later~
Crafty and Babs were standing on that same hillside they had yesterday, watching the early evening sky together.
“Say, Crafty?”
Babs says.
Crafty looks at her. “Hmm?”
Babs leans her rainbow-colored head on her girlfriend’s shoulder.
“As much as this is a nice change of pace, I think I'll stick with the normal black.”
She says. “I think it suits me best.”
Crafty giggles.
“Alright, if you say so, my little Lamby-wamby.”
Babs groans.
“Please don’t call me that.”
She says, facepalming.
Crafty kisses her cheek softly.
“Alright.”
The two stood together, holding hooves as they watched the sunset.
As the rainbow colored sheep stood next to her sweet girlfriend… she felt better than she had in a while.
Daresay… She felt happy?