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Purple kept punching and punching but it was just no use, the door was stuck. They were stuck in the very same room that had the cause of all of their problems, they were in a room with red and the spaceship generator, just dandy if you asked them.
Purple tried to blow one last punch to the door, but to no use. "Shit!" They shouted. Why? Why them? Why did it have to be the only person who couldn't absolutely stand red? What romance trope bullshit was the universe pulling on them and why did it have to involve an incredibly important interstellar mission with the person they have been awkwardly avoiding for years at this point? Slamming their forehead and fist against the door as a sign of defeat sure didn't make these feelings run away.
They felt a hand on their shoulder, causing them to become stiff to the touch. "Hey... uh... Purps?" God how they wished they were lime so they could slither away in a vent and never come out.
Purple didn't reply with words, only managing to form a hum that was followed by a silence, which was enough for red to continue running their annoying mouth. "I could... try my captain's kick? Maybe?" Purple soured at the words, and they hoped their visor expressed their annoyance well enough to red, which seemed like the case considering that red most likely caught the hint and moved their hand away from their shoulder.
A nervous but depressing chuckle came out of reds mouth, maybe purple had been to harsh on them? No, why are they thinking that, they're the reason this is happening in the first place.
Still, even after all the rage that dumb face brought to them, Purple sighed and moved away slowly from the metal barrier that separated them from everyone else "Suit yourself."
Walking to a small, insignificant corner of the reactor room, they sat knees to their face thinking about all of the life choices that brought them there and thinking that maybe, just maybe, if they had tried harder, that explosion wouldn't have stripped them of everything they thought they loved and cared for.
A future where, maybe, they wouldnt have to sit in a dark room on a rotting ship; a future where maybe there was something waiting for them after the unpaid labor they had to sit through hours and hours of the day; a future where someone was still there for them, a future where that someone was red. Wait, what? That's weird. Why are they thinking that??? That's not normal.
Speaking of not normal, purples vision drifts slowly towards red, the sight of his self proclaimed "amazing captain's kick" unmistakably failing just like it always did. As red fell on their back, they watched with the most attention as the captain groaned from the pain.
Purple doesn't remember the past few seconds, maybe they zoned out, but they just knew that red had been sitting in the same corner as them, still growling and letting out small noises of complaints from hitting their back with the notorious kick. Automatically setting off alarms in their brain, purple scooted away from red, which they seemed to catch immediately.
Red moved themselves away not like purple did, but moreso moved their legs and arms to themselves as to occupy as little space as possible, trying to appear as tiny as they could, and they were succeeding because purple almost managed to dissapear in their own little world and forget about their presence, trying to find possible ways to escape the room, before red snapped them yet again back to reality with a loud sigh.
They could recognize it from a mile away, an attention seeking, annoying, loud sigh that only came out of reds mouth to bring attention to themselves.
"What. What do you want." Facing away, purple responded to the clear request of attention with words so sharp they could cut through the atmosphere
"I just..— Can we please talk?? This is getting ridiculous."
"What is? You? Or me trying to actually think of a solution to get us out of this mess?"
"First of all, you're the reason we're in this mess in the first place!! Second—"
"ME?? Me. You're seriously gonna blame me for something YOU took part in aswell?!" This words seemed to be some sort of coil for purples body because they immediately pulled themselves up and started facing at red, raising their voice yet again
"I didn't expect the door to just lock itself!! You're acting like I know the place like the palm of my hand..—"
Red seemingly realized how stupid their statement sounded, or they looked purple in the face and saw the expression of pure disbelief mixed with genuine boiling anger that caused them to immediately backtrack
"—... which I very much do, ofcourse. I'm the captain. I know these things. Yeah."
"Uh huh. Well whatever sob story you have lying for me on a silver platter, I do not want it, got it? So please, if you need to talk, make it about how we can escape from here."
As they started to turn around and walk away to the other corner, something pulled them back. The touch was warm, soft, familiar, like something they've already felt on themselves before. Even if small, it sent sparks through their entire nervous system, even if they'd rather die than admit it.
The shock the touch brought wasn't filled with anger but was genuine confusion. As they turned around to check and confirm their suspicions, they came to face with red, standing over them and pulling their hand trying to prevent them from walking away.
"Please? Just. Please. You don't have to do anything after we talk, I'll leave you alone."
Another hand wrapped its way around purples small, lanky one. It felt weird, enjoyable even. They didnt want to let themselves be fooled by probably another one of reds stupid weird tricks, but they've also never seemed this genuine before. Purples body couldnt deny how well the hand holding was recieved, showing a faint pink spot right under their visor. It wasn't like they were enjoying this or anything, the surprise just made them flushed! Yeah. That's what it was.
Unlike red's, purple's sigh was heavy and long and almost dragged out. They didn't know why they were accepting, they didn't know why they were getting their guard down for Red of all crewmates, especially due to their past but a part of them just can't let go of how much they miss them and miss being open with them.
They finally turned around, avoiding eye contact and being as physically and emotionally distant as possible. "...fine." That was a start, right.? Whatever, who cares. If they were doing this, they were doing this their own purple way.
As purple was about to ask a question, red slowly got to their knees while still holding both their vision on purple and their hand. Their eyes filled with surprise, What the fuck??, They thought. Red had always been know for being a huge loser (in a somewhat charming way, honestly), but it never got to this point.
"What...did you wanna talk about, exactly..?" Purple just couldn't stop being a little weirded out by the entire situation, especially due to how sudden this all was.
"..? Oh, right. Uhm.. I just wanted to apologize to you."
"Huh. Really? You wanna do this now?"
"Yes, I was waiting for the perfect moment and it seems like this is the perfect one."
"Wasn't expecting you to admit defeat so soon, and i wasn't expecting it to be like... whatever this is. Wow."
"I know I've been a jerk and" Red sighed "I'm sorry for... everything. I'm just... I don't know what I'm doing and I just can't keep living with the fact that I brought you down so bad so many years ago."
"Well sorry isn't just gonna cut it, Redsie."
"I know, but I still want to let this out. I learned that even if words might not hold as much value as actions, but apologies are still important." Red looked away, seemingly reminiscing of a moment that purple could only nail down to "therapy session with cyan", they've all been through it.
"Are you sure you... don't want anything out of me? Some secret contract I'm not aware of? Some secret camera in your visor? You're not an impostor secretly trying to lure me in your trap with seduction, are you?"
"What?! No! Look, I just.." a second sigh escapes out of red, coming to the realization that purple will never trust them ever again like they used to do. "I know you... dislike me now, and—"
"Dislike isn't the word I'd use."
The look red launched right in their eyes expressed annoyance so well that purple was almost surprised they could pull that face. There really is a first time for everything.
"Sorry.. keep going."
"After some long sessions of opening up to other people and seeing other people open up to me I realized that I never really noticed just how badly my huge mistake impacted you. Well I did know I just didn't really know, you know? This is so messy and hard for me and and– I don't know what I'm doing. This is really really hard for me and I know I'm probably doing horrible at this but I dont care"
"You are." Purple was trying so hard to push red to some type of breaking point, trying to prove to themselves that red was just a scum and that if they managed to bring out their true colors they could back to hating them instead of caring so much for them.
"I know." Red let out a chuckle; or a sob? Purple couldn't really tell, either way the sound was so incredibly sad that purple felt their shoulders drop, did they feel bad??? That's not what they usually do when they poke sarcastic fun of green or white or orange or anyone for that matter really! What was happening.
"I miss you purps. I missed you alot, and I still do. I'm sorry. I dont want you to forgive me because you feel like you should, please keep hating me if you want to but just, even if you hate me..."
Red paused to catch their breath before letting out some final words
"Never leave me, please. You can hate me, you can punch me, you can belittle me, just please don't leave."
With that, purple became a mess, their face was so hot they wouldn't have been surprising if little bubbles started popping on their cheek to signal that they were boiling. Their palms were so sweaty they didn't know how red was still holding one of their hands. Their legs were shaky, why?? Fuck if they knew!! None of this made sense!! They felt like they were on a huge hypoxic trip, maybe they were? Maybe both of them were high as fuck?? Who the hell knows, they sure didn't, and boy if they wanted to!! Some stupid words coming out of reds mouth shouldn't be making them feel like this!!!! This was stupid!!
"..what?" Was the only word that purple could manage to drag out of their mouth.
Red moved their head and rested their forehead on the hands holding purples sweaty one, eyes finally breaking contact with the lanky crewmate and looking down on the floor
"I.. uhm.. what is this?? What??? What are you on about...?"
"I talked to a few people about you and they made me realize that I maybe sorta kinda needed to get my head out of my own ass and tell you how I actually felt, as disgusting as feelings are for you and me both"
Red talked about them to others?? How?? Was it bad?? What were the others thinking?? How much did they say??? So many questions running in their mind all at the same time, none of this made sense.
"Y-yeah. Must've took you alot of courage to humble yourself on your knees trying to ask my hand in marriage" Purple teased, trying to put up an act but still feeling incredibly flustered due to the entire incredibly strange situation.
"Yeah it did— Wait huh???" Red flushed at the idea, moving their head back up and catching the incredibly mess that was purple, who looked like they were calming down and giving out more positive body signals.
Purple chuckled and lowering themselves on their knees, trying to keep eye contact with red but ultimately failing when they realized the dumbness in their eyes, and also because keeping eye contact with anyone made them physically recoil. Purple placed their free hand on red's, which made them jump.
"I... suppose I understand what you're trying to say red. But I don't think im ready to let everything you made me feel go."
Silence filled the room, they both wanted to speak but couldn't let anything out. They both wanted to just be over but they both also knew that the past couldn't be erased.
"I know, and I don't want you to do that. I just wanted you to hear these words."
Red had already told purple this, but the way they did was such a jumbled mess that hearing it being spoken so firmly and so surely made purples head snap back to look at red, almost like a reflex.
This was all so confusing, all so messy, nothing made sense. When had red thought about all of this? How long had these thoughts been going on in their head? Why did they all come out now? Purple wanted to know an answer to those questions but at the same time the mystery was nice to have. They theorized that maybe cyan had helped red through this, and the hypothesis of red talking about purple to someone else made their stomach twist with joy; they hadn't felt like this for red for years.
We should forgive them..
No! We should push them away like we always did
But they look so cute like this
They're disgusting! They don't deserve forgiveness they ruined my life!
Both of these voices filled purples already messed up head, they just couldn't come to a solid black and white conclusion and, as much as they wanted to, they knew that was never an option for either of them.
The contact was still going between them, except it wasn't just their hands touching now: their knees were brushing against eachother, bringing some type of comfort that purple hadn't felt in a while. They really really hoped no one was watching the cameras because this would've been a really embarrassing story to tell and they really did not want to hear yellow's teasing or cyan's possible predictions on the entire ordeal.
The next thing that happened was caused by something like a switch that turned in purples mind. As red tried to speak purple lunged towards them like a feral animal and hugged them, though they threw themselves so hard they both collapsed on the floor. Purple was ontop of red, hugging them like they never had before. Their body so close they could fuse into one, pressing into eachother as purple wrapped their arms around red's body and burying their face in their neck.
For a second, they thought red had died. No sounds came from them, not even a small inhale of air. A hand slowly brushed up on purples back, and then another, and then they were both hugging eachother close. Red buried their face in purples hair and purple did the same but with their neck.
A small, muffled sob came out of purple. They tried their best to hide it but they knew that red was gonna hear it one way or another, which they did because immediately reds vision moved from the ceiling to purples hidden face, filled with concern and even fear.
"I hate you." They really did hate red, atleast they thought they did because no matter how hard they pushed them away they always seemed to look for red, no matter the place. They didnt like this, they wanted to hold onto the incredible suffering they had to go through for years because of red but they just didn't want to let go of them any longer either. Purple felt red slipping away from them more and more with time and they should've been happy about that because they were the cause of it all, but they jusr couldn't.
"I missed you too." Red's tone was softer than their usual screaming and commanding one. They were soft, so soft. Purple was so happy to be the only one that was able to see them this way, just thinking about someone having this moment with red other than them made them kinda upset. Why? They didn't really know. Red's hand moved in purples hair and played with it, this was so much for them, way too much. They've never let themselves be this vulnerable with anyone ever, they wanted to ask why they were doing this with red but at this point the answer was pretty clear, they just didn't want to actually accept their feelings.
They stayed like this for a few minutes, neither of them seemingly wanting to pull away from one another but both surprisingly and not, purple was the one to pull away just to sit up, still on red's body; and red followed, pushing their knees up and sitting up so that purple could rest their back on their legs. Purple wanted to touch red again, so they slowly moved their hands on red's cheeks and pressed their foreheads together, what was red thinking? And why did they want to know so bad?
"I dont know why im doing this. You suck, you know that red? You suck and I hate you."
"Yeah that's fair, also you already said that. You're getting repetitive, purps." They chuckled both, their soft laughs mixing together like music, atleast that's what purple thought.
Silence filled the room once again, They looked eachother deep in the eyes for a few seconds before moving their faces closer to eachother, and then closer, and then even closer than that until they both pressed their lips against eachother. Purple felt their stomach twist on itself, their body felt heavy, so heavy that they could feel themselves be brought down by gravity. Luckly, red's legs were there, on their back, to hold them in place.
The kiss went on for a few minutes, before both of them pulling back to catch their breath, just to go back in seconds. Both of them felt their bodies growing warmer and warmer, their bodies were melting at eachothers touch.
This went on for long, but as quickly as it started, it stopped due to footsteps getting closer to the reactor room. They stiffed but didn't move, panic plastered on both their faces, lips still glued to eachother.
"Last time I checked they were on this side of the ship! I swear I'm not lying!" That familiar, high pitched voice that could only belong to cyan could be heard from the distance.
Purple was the one to quickly snap, as usual. They pushed red on the floor with such brute force that red let out a grunt of pain. Purple shot up, fixed their hair, tie and clothes as best as they could (and that best was mediocre considering they didnt have a mirror to look into) and ran near the door.
Red stayed on the floor, breathing heavy and trying to get their mind to work again.
They banged their fists on it and shouted "We're here!!" They managed to get the attention of the others, because they could see 3 figures slowly move up to the glass of the metal door
"There you are!! We were so worried about you!" Cyan spoke, putting their hand on the glass, and purple did the same, almost as if they were trying to touch.
"Woah have you guys actually been here this whole time? Don't worry we can open the door from outside!" Green added
"Is red dead?? Why are they laying down on the floor like that" black commented, seemingly noticing red's body through the dirty square of glass that allowed to view very little of the room.
Purple's cheeks flushed at the mention of red and just looked at the ceiling to avoid eye contact with the other 3, too embarrassed to be truthful about it "Uh—
They're fine— Can you please just let us out of here?"
With that, green moved forward to open the heavy, metal door with the red security handle that was outside for emergencies. Why was it outside and not inside? Dumbass Mira.
With a hard pull, the door opened which finally freed purple and red both from that damn reactor room. Purple smiled and cyan ran to hug them before purple placed their hands to put some space between the two and chuckled nervously.
"Uhhhhhh let's hug later, Ok buddy?" Their face showed a hint of nervousness and embarrassment that just wouldn't go away. They were just gonna try their best to avoid any physical contact from anyone else until they took a shower; it'd be pretty awkward for someone to hug them right after they finished making out with their... friend? Enemy? Purple didn't really know anymore.
Cyan was surprised but ultimately decided to go along with it: "Oh. Ofcourse! If you say so!" They said in their usual cheery tone, except now it was a bit sadder, purple felt pretty bad but knew that this was probably the most ethical option.
Black walked slowly towards red, not out of concern or anything, just curiosity.
"Hey," they nudged red with their foot "you alive?"
Red let out a sound that could only be described as a sound of relief mixed with a hint of annoyance, they probably didn't want to be interrupted by the others. Purple noticed this while talking to green and cyan and wanted to react but knew that, if they did, it would be pretty awkward to explain to everyone.
Black came to notice this pretty quickly, their expression becoming slightly more surprised than usual, but nothing much changed. "Wow, I didn't think you and purple would do it together so soon."
Red caught of this sentence pretty late, but when they did their expression went from slight annoyance to full on embarrassment. "And what's that supposed to mean?!" They shouted, sitting back up but not standing up quite yet, purple figured that their legs were still too heavy for them to suddenly stand up straight.
"I dunno, I just think you've seen better days, connecting that with you guys being stuck here for like, what, an hour? I just did the math." Their indifference made red even more embarrassed it seemed, because they immediately grabbed their hat from the floor, put it back on and jumped straight up back on their feet.
"Okay that's enough, I don't know what you think black but you're most likely wrong. Let's all go back to the cafeteria and tell everyone me and purple are back. I'm sure everyone is worried for me, for purple not so much." Purple's annoyance with red came back, but this time it had a hint of affection in it that purple never allowed themselves to bring out for anyone, especially for red.
Black scoffed, crossing their arms "Not even a thank you? Guess you're too busy thinking about your beloved—"
"Okay black. I get it. Whatever you think happened didn't happen! I don't know what you think anyway because nothing out of the ordinary is happening you're just imagining everything hahahahahha. Anyway—" Red kept talking and walking, probably out of nervousness. Safe to say that they were going so fast that half of the things they were saying were basically impossible to hear.
Cyan and purple looked at eachother, the incredibly visibly confused cyan nodded her head in the direction of the reactor room and spoke "What happened in there? I've never seen captain red's aura so all over the place."
Purple shrugged, trying to be as nonchalant as they possibly could. "Ehh don't worry about it, you know how red gets sometimes." Mid sentence they start walking towards the cafeteria, not checking if either of the three followed behind
Black and cyan shared a confused glance, black probably picked onto what had happened and just decided to go along with purples act. Thank God "...? I dont but... if you say so!" Said cyan before stepping up and walking behind them.
"Uhm. Is nobody worried about the broken door?? Just me??? Okay..." green spoke, or atleast purple thought they did. They weren't really listening to anyone right now, their mind was somewhere else.