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"Oh, didn't see ya there, buddy—!"
"—sorry,"
Purple takes a step back, and resigns to walking the walls by Red's side, naturally.
"Locked up lime's weird weapon where nobody will find it, heh," Red reports with an air of self-satisfaction. Purple decidedly does not roll their eye, and Red speaks up again before they can think about it too much. "—Hey, thanks for the assist back there with Orange."
Purple nods slightly. "Overall, it was a uh, good plan. Credit where credit is due, I guess."
Quick to swoop up the metaphorical scrap of acknowledgement that Purple tossed them, Red cheerfully puts their hand around Purple and gives them a playful punch with their other one. "Purps and Redsy back together!!" they exclaim, before backtracking a little: "Well, uh, I mean it would be Redsy and Purps, I mean I'm the captain so obviously my name would go first—"
Purple narrows their gaze. "For once, could you take your head out of your own—you know what," Purple steers away from their original sentence, feeling a vague sense of surprise, but lacking the judgement to fully consider it. A strange feeling of okayness settles over Purple. Clarity? Hm, who knows. "It's... fine."
Red seems all the more pleased with this response. "Yeah. It is fine."
They enter the Cafeteria then, to the remaining crew sitting in a circle and quite literally singing Kumbaya. One naked dance party and conga line later, they're all (yes ALL of them) piled up together and pondering the mysteries of the universe. You may thinking, wow, that happened fast. Well. I don't know how they got there either. But it happens. So.
Right, the cuddle pile. Green lays on Yellow lays on Black lays on Brown lays on Red lays on Purple and so on. Green says something about worms or whatever and Red doesn't really care.
Purple tugs at Red's foot stub with their hand after Red accidentally kicks them in the visor with their stupid croc, and this definitely did not happen because Red was kicking their feet like a silly little goober. "Watch it, Red—" Purple shoots, but it falls flat of the intended menace. That observation snags Red's attention immediately, like a fish hooked on the world's more obvious bait—um, hello, can they get a replay on that?? Did Purple say it as soft and giggly as Red heard, or was that their imagination? The strange lack of an accusatory tone must be making Red hear things.
So Red playfully kicks Purple again, for good and gentle measure. "Oooops," they drawl with a coy grin, sounding not very sorry at all.
"Piss off!" Purple cackles, and it's an awesome thing to hear again. Red hasn't heard Purple laugh like that in so long, not since—everything. Especially not after all those dead crewmates. Um. That doesn't matter right now, right? It's just Red and Purple right now, and everyone else probably, but Red forgets to consider that because Purple pulls them down to their corner of the cuddle pile with a forceful yank; they tumble over each other in between giggles, rumpling the pretenses that are their uniforms.
Red rolls over so that they're both flat on their backs, staring at the artificially lit expanse of the ceiling in their own patch away from the pile.
"God, you're annoying," Purple snorts to themself.
"Wow," Red remarks dryly, having heard it anyway, used to picking up conversations whispered in between instructions from their supervisors even if it was so long ago. "I had no idea you felt that way."
"I-I'm serious!" Purple sputters, amused disbelief threading through their words, "Where do I even start? You're flighty and incompetent and self-absorbed and insecure and not to mention you have a horrible sense of fashion—"
"I appreciate the compliments, but my fashion sense is perfectly fine."
"—seriously, on Innersloth's name, in what situation would you ever need to wear a G-string as a ship captain—"
"Hey—" Red starts with a rise.
"Buddy, everyone stripped earlier, we all saw your junk."
"Oh, yeah, right." Red relaxed, then paused in contemplation. "Wait. You looked?"
"…No." Purple glances away. Then sneakily looks back at Red. "Ugh, don't look at me like that?"
"Like what?" asks Red, unable to suppress the apparent obvious smile in their voice. Obvious, because Red is so painfully obvious. Purple thinks about punching them in the face with the fervor of a raging boar.
"This is exactly what I was talking about," groans Purple, throwing their hands above their head and letting them rest there. "You're shameless, you're frustrating, you never listen to me—I can't believe I used to have a crush on you."
Purple spits out this information like it tastes impossible and disgusting, and Red is more than happy to be the one the contempt lands on.
They turn to Purple abruptly, starstruck and enthralled and bursting with a crawling warmth in the chest area—"You what?!"
Ah, the aforementioned shameless behavior. Just like clockwork.
"I liked you, I actually used to like you. Isn't that awful?"
No, not really, that's actually kinda great, thinks Red, but Purple promptly furrows their brow in displeasure. "Nevermind. I didn't say that."
"Nonono, you totally just said that—" Red grins, and flips over to lie on their stomach so that they can kick their feet in the air as they face Purple with their cheek pressed against the back of their hand that lays on the floor. "Spill."
"This is too embarrassing, even for presumably crossfaded me," mutters Purple. They cover their visor with their hands and shrink into themself. "Let's talk about something else."
"Let's not," Red chirps very convincingly. "I would loooove to hear all about how you were madly in love with ol' Redsy."
Purple folds under no pressure, probably due to the, uh, weird state they're all in. "Fineeee. But I was not madly in love with you, I just thought you were kinda cute, okay?"
"Okay, so you were desperately attracted to me, got it," Red says attentively as Purple really does roll their eye this time. "Do tell."
"Not much else to tell," Purple answers with the painful honesty of a crewmate on their deathbed. They're very nonchalant about this, which is crazy to Red, befause is this not worldshattering information? That, once upon a time, Purple like-liked Red? Kinda? Maybe?
Red goes quiet—thinking about their past interactions, wondering when Purple could've possibly decided Red was worthy of such attention. They were friends, back then—good friends. Past Red would probably know what to say right now. Current Red doesn't.
But Purple picks the conversation back up from the silence, so there's no point in thinking that. "I mean, you were just so eager to please. It was funny—you were pretty funny."
"Oh, what? That's so lame," Red complains, finding themself quite comfortable in doing so. Ah, their head is spinning. Must be love! And the messy desperate feelings they have for Purple, and fun gooey stuff like that! Red continues, finding the prospect of rambling quite appealing at the moment:"I literally thought you were the coolest person ever back then and I really cannot emphasize that enough."
"Haha! What can I say, you were just like that, it was—interesting," admits Purple. "…And you were always there. I dunno, that meant a lot to me, I guess."
"Ah," replies Red. It feels like a weak response, but it was enough for a thin coldness to wash over the high, buzzing tingle in their heads.
They go quiet again, when the memory of Red signing the NDA finds the moment and settles between them. And Red can't just say I had no choice or they were gonna hurt you or MIRA is MIRA and we're just us, because even accounting for everything at stake that day, they did have a choice, and that choice had left Purple behind with nothing.
Red can huff and grumble and complain all they want, but there's a truth trapped in their chest that the roots of willful ignorance so desperately clutch around, as if it will all wilt and fall away if that truth were pried out of its home.
Purple's sudden outcry is sharp and annoyed.
"—Can we go back to being high?! I don't WANNA think about this shit!!" they pout; it's very petulant and silly and whiny, and Red thrills to see it knowing that Purple never allow Red to see them like this nowadays.
So Red flips around and sits up. "Now you're talking! I'm sure we have jello shots here somewhere."
"You and your jello shots," Purple accuses with a coy familiarity.
"They're fun, and bouncy," Red replies matter-of-factly.
"Right," says Purple. "Hey, can I take that off of you?"
"What?"
"For fun," Purple explains with a wave of their hand. "I mean, we all went nude already, nothing crazy if we did it again. And I'm bored and I wanna argue with you so I can talk to you because I miss you except I reaaaaally hate the fact that I do."
"Well," Red considers slowly, not really processing any of that because of the feedback loop in their head repeating I miss you. "Uh, sure, go for it."
"Hooray!" Purple beams, and they snicker as they shuffle forward on their knees. Red thinks it is all very confusing, but when Purple's hand moves to their head to throw away the Captain's hat, Red thinks again that they're in no state of mind to be confused or question anything, because—because they were having fun! So much fun! Woohoo!
"Yaaaaay!" Red cheers, low and chipper; an eager little secret shared between them and Purple as Red's uniform jacket is shucked onto the floor.
"For the love of god, can you take off those godawful shoes?"
"Woah, hey. The crocs stay on during, um, whatever this is."
"Ughhhh," says Purple, "like I said--" Red squeaks then, shooting up straight when Purple's hand travels up to unbuckle Red's backpack, and now Red knows there is absolutely NOTHING to be confused about.
(The truth is still, if you remember that whole thing. Still as in Red still, definitely, absolutely, really, most certainly—still cares about Purple. So, so much.)
(…Still.)
"--annoying," Purple finishes, gritting out the words like a mill grinder, and Red's backpack drops to the floor with a solid thump.
But Red takes it in stride. Red raises their hands and slowly turns around, making a show of putting their hands behind their back. "I've been caught by security. Oh noooooo. So sad."
Red just might be lucky enough to hear Purple's breath hitch.
Obviously, Red can't help but tease. "Wahahaohoo??? You like what you see?"
"...Tch," is all they get from Purple, and Red can't help but preen at the knowledge of their victory. Red whips around and throws some fingers guns at Purple, double in fact. "Haaah! Hahaha! I did it, I gotcha! You hear that? Red WINS!! Red!! Me!! The Captain!! Wooohooooo!! Yessss!! Hahaha!!!"
"Haha! Ha-ha-HA!" Purple responds in kind, finger gunning back at them and going pew-pew! "Um, actually! No ya didn't! Not this crewmate!"
"Really? R-really, because--I don't think so!! I would NEVER--"
Then Red feels the wind knocked out of them as their back hits the ground due to a sudden force pushing their chest—it's Purple, who's laughing, placing a foot stub on Red's chest at the frazzled display of the ship captain with their uniform strew across the floor. They're wobbly as they move over to straddle Red—"I hate you!" they exclaim, full of bubbly delight, visor wide with elation. Even with their current lofty demeanor, Red finds comfort in Purple's weight pressing down on them.
Red returns the sentiment with just as much pleasure—their hand flails for a moment as it fumbles in the air, before they successfully grab Purple's tie and pull, which Purple responds with a fun woaahaoah!!
"Thank you!" Red replies cheerfully—then, flicking their hand up to knock up the brim of Purple's cap so that it flips away. "You know what's crazy? Really, really crazy, but it's a secret?" Red whispers, loud and foolish and joyed.
"What?" Purple snickers, their hands planted on the floor, trapping Red's head in and looming over them. Red beckons them closer like it's a big deal, and delights in the continued proximity.
"I missed you too," Red proclaims gleefully once Purple is in earshot.
Purple gasps. "Awwwwww, that's so sweet!" Their head looms over Red as their body lurches over in fondness. "You're so sweeeeeet," Purple declares with pride as Red clumsily attempts to unbutton Purple's shirt. They only make it to button three before Purple goes "Wow, you astronomically suck at this!"
"Shut up," Red flushes. They withdraw their hands. "Forget it."
Purple goes "Hehehehe."
Red joins in with their own "Huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuueueue."
It results in a giggle combination of "Huehuehueueueueuhuehueue!!"
Then Purple closes their hands around Red's cheeks with a sudden intensity. "You piss me off," they whine, "why can't you do anything right?"
"I, uh," says Red, "I can't tell, when I'm with you."
Purple snorts. "That's horrible."
"Well. You take my breath away."
"That's especially horrible."
"You're brighter than any star?"
"Despicable. Try again."
"You're hot to the point of all other suns in your radius exploding?"
"Eugh. Next."
"Okay, how about… you deplete my oxygen, and I asphyxiate, and I die."
"Hmm. Better… but there's always room for improvement! Come on, up and at 'em! Heracles would hate to see you doing so poorly."
"Ugh, Purps, we're gonna be here forever!"
And Purple just laughs. Deep down, Red suspects a part of Purple may have missed this too.
"Take your time, Redsy," says Purple. "I've got aaaaall day."