Work Text:
"Hello...?"
Hero wrung her hands togeher, fidgeting with her gloves as she nervously glanced around for any signs of life. It was pitch black in every direction, though, oddly enough, her body wasn't enshrouded in the darkness like it had during her travels between The Black Market and the outside world. No, everything about her was still illuminated, as if she was standing out in the sun but was taken out and put into this weird location like a misplaced png.
The air was stagnant and lifeless. She could barely breathe without thinking of the need to cough out the dry air, though never actually following through. Shivering, Hero ran her hands up and down her arms in an attempt to generate some kind of heat. She sighed as she thought about her red jumper and how she lost it in the future because it had been too hot back then. What she would give to have it back now.
Shaking her head, she turned around. She was faced with the same darkness that she had slowly been growing used to. Turning to her right, same thing. She frowned as she turned back to her original direction; nothing had changed. She hummed and cupped her hands around her mouth. She took in a deep breath and shouted:
"AAHHHSSSSSOOOKKKKKK!!" Her right hand moved to the side of her head and she leaned forward, cupping her ear as she listened out for her friend. After several moment of no response she pouted and her arms slumped down.
She lifted her hands back her her mouth, taking an even deeper breath than before and closing her eyes tightly shut as she yelled with all her might: "AARRR-GGEEE-BBEEE!!"
The world shifted.
Hero wasn't graced with a moment to recover as she opened her eyes to find herself standing on an unfamiliar sidewalk. She gasped, stumbling back only to bump into someone who scowled at her. She froze as they wandered off along the crowded path. Hero, carefully this time, made her way to the edge of the pavement and away from the indecipherable mesh of people strolling by.
As she took a second to breathe, her gaze wandered curiously at the rest of the setting. An awe-struck gasp escaped her as she had to crane her head up in order to fully comprehend the mere size of the skyscapers around her. The blue-cloudy sky was ruined with the sights of boring, grey blocks and the subtle hint of pollution. Hero had to lean against a lightpost in order to prevent herself from falling backwards from looking up for too long.
Eventuslly, once her fascination cleared, she looked down once more. She ogled at the closer attractions: blinding neon billboards, zooming cabs and cars, the colourful signs of small restaurants in rows. She remembered seeing such a place in a film once, but she'd never think she'd get to be at such a place.
"Wowie!" She exclaimed. She looked back to the crowds of people as she tapped her finger against her mouth in a 'thinking' motion. Her head was racing with possibilities and sights to see. She giggled as she tried to align her thoughts into order to figure out the optimum way to spend the day. She couldn't waste such an opportunity!
However, her thoughts were scrambled once more when a hauntingly familiar voice suddenly yelped in shock and horror. Her body went ice cold and she attempted to turn around, towards the busy streets, to see the source of distress.
She was somewhere different now.
She blinked several times in confusion, looking around perplexed at the unexpected and unrelated change in scenary. Trees, she noted. She was surrounded by tall, oak trees that had leaves in full bloom. Ivy leaves tailed down the tough barks and vanished within the bushes accumulating at the bottom of the towering flora.
Humming in interest, she looked down and kicked away a rock away from the dirt patch she found herself on and into the grass. It rolled for a second before stopping. She stared at where it should be for a few moments before getting distracted by an irritating sound behind her.
She frowned and covered her ears as she traversed through the jungle of bushes, narrowly avoiding sharp branches and prickily leaves. When she finally breached the edge of the forest, she froze in surprise at the site of the bustling construction site. Faceless silhouettes of workers rushed among pillars and metal bars and conversed in words that mangled together into nonsense. The crane overhead was lowering some materials onto the top of the bare-bone infrastructure, to a shadow of a person. She squinted. That person looked like-
She gasped in recognision. She immediately bounded towards the site though her plan was quickly foiled by the site of train tracks blocking her path. She would have crossed if not for the ominous call of a horn. She staggered back, her head snapping left and right in preparation for the train to pass before she could cross.
For a brief moment, she glanced back up at the figure on the scaffolding. Her heart nearly dropped when she noticed the crane's rope snapping and the tools from before falling from a terrifying height. The person looked up at the falling debris with a look of annoyance, as if such a thing was nothing more than an inconvienience before a flash of horror took over when Hero shouted instinctively for him to get out of the way.
Neither of them got any time to react before the scene changed once more. Hero's head spun- she could've sworn she saw birds flying around her head- which she shook to clear the whiplash. She glanced down in surprise to find herself seated on a red and very comfortable plush seat. Rows of copies of the chair could be seen to her left and right and, Hero tilted her head upside down over the back of the seat, behind her too.
She sat back down normally again. Front row seat... Her attention was then snatched by the sight of a stage in front of her, cast in the gaze of many overhead lights that set their brightness just a little too high. Red curtains lined the two sides of the platform, pulled apart by golden rope. And in the middle of the staging stood RGB.
His expression, though lacking the usual human features Hero would usually associate expression with, appeared shaken and bemused. The young girl could hear the man muttering to himself under his breath, as though he didn't know she was there. Maybe he didn't? She realised. Smiling, she jumped out of her seat and crawled her way up onto the podium.
She rolled onto the stage, laying on her front when RGB stopped his quiet whispering and finally noticed her. She grinned at him for noticing but it faltered at the bleeding of yellow from his grin. Fear, she remembered him telling her once.
``Hero!`` He panicked. ``What are you- How did you manage to...`` He stammered uselessly, holding his boxy head in his hands as Hero stood up and brushed off her t-shirt. He turned away from her, took a deep breath and turned back, his pose stiff and straight and his hands together pointing at her.
``Are you actually here? Or are you just haunting my subconscious now?`` He questioned, his strict form crumbled when she nodded to the first option. He fell into a crouching position, rubbing the sides of his head. ``No, no. That's not a problem. Of course it isn't! Just letting a child witness the horrors of my mind is perfectly fine! Why wouldn't it be?!``
"Umm..?" Was all that Hero said. She was more than puzzled at the reaction. After a moment, RGB sighed, his arms falling in front of him and flopping in front of him effortlessly.
``Don't... Don't worry about little old me.`` He grinned, yellow, cyan and magenta dripping from his screen. ``This is fine, this is fine. It's all gonna be-``
A creak echoed in the empty theatre. RGB's attention was whipped into gear as his screen snapped upwards. Hero tried to follow his gaze but was interrupted by the TV man lunging in her direction with a desperate cry of panic.
He was too far.
A shadow was cast over her.
She glanced up for the shortest of moments at the overhead spotlight travelling directly for her head.
It was too close. It was too fast. She couldn't react in time even if she had wanted with all of her might to.
She woke up with a gasp, clutching her pajamas where her heart would be. She blinked rapidly in succession as her heartbreat raced in her ears and drowned out all other sounds, including her panicked breathing.
After about of minute, she finally calmed down enough for take in the environment around her. She was sat on the top bunk of her replica-bed in a room that was too similar to her bedroom back at home. It was dim and the shadows in the corners of the room were steadily waiting and watching for their time to strike. She gulped, noticing just how unnaturally and uncannily quiet it was. Usually, she would have expected the sounds of snoring below her or the crackle of fire in the other room, but no. Just silence.
She shuffled her way over to the slide at the end of her bed. She didn't whoop with joy as she slid down like she normally would. Instead, she stood up without a word and wandered over to the other bunk bed, picking at her nails as she stared at the floor while she attempted to string together enough words to convey what she wanted to tell RGB. However, when she finally gazed up, she couldn't prevent the little gasp of surprise when her sight was met with an empty bed.
She stood up on her tip-toes and held her head high as she scanned the rest of the room, as though she just hadn't seen him yet, but only Assok laid there, snoring softly and unaware of the events that had occurred before them. Hero rubbed her chin as her eyes landed on the slightly ajar door on the other side of the room. Her suspicious guise dropped as she stared, then she simply strolled over and peeked her head through.
``What the hell was that about?`` A voice hissed, trying to remain as quiet as possible to not disturb the other two residents. Hero closed the door behind her as she properly entered the living room. She leant backwards against the giant sofa as RGB paced around the square table in front of the live fireplace, unaware of his new audience member. ``Goodness, this is getting out of hand. Neither of them were sleeping near me, so how is this still happening? And why was she there? Why... W- Why..?!``
The young girl stood up from her hiding spot and snuck around to the side of the enormous piece of furniture. She quietly waited for the other to notice her, and when he did, he nearly jumped out of his own (invisible) skin from surprise.
``Hero! What are you doing up so late, young lady?`` RGB crossed his arms and tapped his foot against the floor. He shook his head in disappointment before uncrossing his arms and meandering over to her. He put a hand on her back and started pushing her back to the bedroom door. ``Honestly. Come on now, Hero, lets-``
"What was that dream about?" She interrupted.
RGB's body became tense. The hand on her back pulled back as the taller man's form went rimrod straight.
Feigning ignorance, he asked with a hint of worry in his voice, ``erm. What are you talking about?``
"That dream! W- with the- the city and the forest and the theatre! You were there! I saw you! A- and...`` Hero slowed, her voice became haunted by the realisation, ``and... you died. You were about to die in one of them.``
Silence. Neither dared to move an inch for several agonisingly long seconds.
``It's...`` RGB started. ``Hm. Don't worry about it. Just go to bed, alright?``
Hero looked back up at him when they reached the door. His grin was obviously strained, with yellow and cyan bleeding from it and dripping onto his crumpled suit. Hero frowned and turned to face him. The hand that was on her back stayed in mid air, as if he didn't know what to do with it.
"Are you sure?" Hero asked.
``Of course! I'm always alright!`` RGB replied. He reached over to open the door but she snatched his wrist with exceptional speed.
"No!" She shouted. RGB flinched. "You... You're not ok. You can't always be ok because... because I'm not always ok!"
RGB appeared stunned. He shuffled on his feet, looking down at the floor, then off to the side as if comtemplating that statement. Hero released his wrist and hugged his legs.
The TV man froze, his hands twitching as he considered what he should do, or rather, what he could do next. Finally, with a relenting sigh, he gently pushed Hero away, crouched down, and pulled her into a proper hug. She didn't say anything when she heard a tiny, almost silent ``thank you`` from the other, but she still smiled.
The two of them hugged for a few minutes before a light tap on Hero's back encouraged her to stop. RGB didn't look directly at her when she took a step back, but he did smile genuinely when she leaned over into his direct range of sight.
``Oh you-`` He pushed her playfully, to which she giggled at. He sighed and shook his head amused, before he yawned, standing on his tiptoes and stretching with his arms directly up. He rubbed the side of his head. ``Now then, I feel positively exhausted. How about you?``
Hero yawned too, swaying on her feet at the newfound tiredness that infected her mind. She gave a mute thumbs up. RGB picked her up by the arms, pushing the door open with his shoulder and laying her back down on the top bunk. Before Hero fell asleep, she smiled and whispered, ``Sweet dreams, dad.`` and then promptly passed out.