Chapter Text
The winds are howling all around, the sea waves are dancing along, harmonizing a song with the other. The lighthouse is standing tall and proud against the salty breeze, that ruffles Yellow’s hair. The boy fixes his hairstyle, brushing it with his hands. Yellow was thankful for evenings like this, where he can stand and watch the sunset, free of his room in the lighthouse. It was a really good break from his job, or his work on some electronic projects.
He was working as a temporarily lighthouse keeper for some time now, and the change in his routine only started to catch up with him. Before, being unemployed or having some easy part-time jobs, he felt like he has so little of his time: he was always busy fixing and improving something in his home, or he was helping out his friends, or just learning something, swallowing any information given, before testing it. Now, he has so much of time to kill, despite the need to guide any incoming ships to the needed ports they have around their area. It would be nice, if there wasn’t just three of them in a day, which is pretty small amount. Yellow usually spares the remaining time of day checking on the beacon and lighthouse electronics. He didn’t add anything new to the devices in the tower, though. The last keeper specifically asked him about it, because he wants to come back from his urgent business to “the same lighthouse I worked with”.
Yellow rolled his eyes at the memory of the man saying that, and stretched, standing up from the bench he was sitting on. He was, in all honesty, tired of sitting off his butt in this place. On the other hand, it was getting really cold and dark – the night starts to make its way to the town. As he gets inside, Yellow swears that it’s getting darker with every floor he passes on the way to his room.
He then stopped on the window, that shows his town in full sight: there is the Google library that he visited constantly, Adobe Animation, the animating studio Orange works at and other places full of memories, standing around a bunch of houses that Yellow recognizes. His gaze stops at his home; its windows lit with light in living room and kitchen. Red, Green and Orange must have made dinner, eating and talking about their days, as usual.
After holding his eyes in there for just a little longer, Yellow continues going up the stairs.
Now, starts his least favorite part of his daily routine – going to sleep. Well, trying to go to sleep, to be exact. Yellow has some problems with his sleep, usually staying up late or not sleeping at all, due to his project testing. Sometimes, as much as he hates to admit that, the reason to his problems is just stress, or his anxious thoughts, buzzing in his head like a herd of bees. That might be the same reason Yellow couldn’t sleep now, but he wasn’t sure. All the times before he could stay awake just foe a day or two, before passing out for eighteen hours straight due to exhaustion. Today, he broke that record – he couldn’t sleep for the fourth day in a row.
Already inside his room, the boy switched into his slippers and dragged his legs towards the bed. His eyes felt heavy and head was wobbling with tiredness. Yawning, he settled himself comfortably in his bed, not even changing into his pajamas, finally closing his eyes. Yellow feels so exhausted, maybe this time he’ll make it and get to sleep!
After laying with his eyes closed for two hours at least, he was reconsidering this thought. Yellow was in this agonizing type of “sleeping”, where when his eyes are open, he is feeling all the missing nights of rest, but the second they are closed – his body is wide awake, ready to run kilometers around the lighthouse. Shifting in his bedsheets, Yellow tries to get at least some rest from this type of “sleeping”. He tried every method to get some shuteye before: relaxing tea, milk and honey, exercising himself to the point when his body aches. Nothing seems to help.
What if it was some sort of curse for Yellow? Ever since he got into this job, into this lighthouse, he has this insomnia. What if it is connected to this place specifically? The last keeper didn’t seem like he has a good sleeping schedule… What if this lighthouse was cursed, making every keeper in here deprived of sleep to the point they become crazy?
Yeah, sure. If it was true, the man who asked Yellow to work for him would’ve been out of his mind then. He worked in this place for years; he must have gotten some shuteye at that point. Yellow admitted, last keeper didn’t look good, but he looked fine, the same as him when Yellow was staying up late and working on something in the night. Besides, there are no such things like curses! His insomnia – the result of malfunction in his brain. It, for whatever reason, thinks that Yellow’s body has to stay awake, no matter what, even if the body and the brain itself is exhausted. Curses are just something people made to explain unexplainable. And, maybe to create stories: Yellow already can make up a story of some keeper centuries ago dying here and cursing this place, so no one can work here and this lighthouse will get abandoned. Or some girl and her lover tragically leaving each other-
-What was that? There was a sound, some sort of ‘thunk’ coming from… somewhere. Yellow opened his eyes, facing his room but not moving yet. He scanned the surroundings for anything moving or being out of place. He must have left something on the edge in the table again and it fell, for sure. Yellow hated this habit of his.
But another sound came, from the floor below him – it was like some muffled thuds, something being thrown around in place. Yellow pushed himself up quickly, fighting his dizziness. Was someone inside the lighthouse? If there was, they must have broke in, the door to the lighthouse was locked… wasn’t it? Yellow wobbled towards the door, cursing himself. Of course he forgot to lock the door, of course someone got in because of it, of fucking course.
Yellow looked around the room before opening the door. He knows how to fight, but he needed something in his hands for some feeling of safety. The broom from the nearest corner could do the job.
Now, with the weapon in his hands, Yellow sneaked his way down the stairs to the floor below. It was some room full of junk; he didn’t visit it often. However, it could be a treasure for a burglar. As he tippy-toed his way to the doorway, the sounds became clearer, sounding like a full fighting session at this point. But right before Yellow opened the door, the fighting stopped.
Swallowing down his anxiety, the boy slowly opened the door. With a threatening scowl, as if the burglar could see it in this darkness, Yellow scanned the room. From what he was able to see in the moonlight, some stuff was thrown around, some of it got to the floor. But no man figure was to be found.
“Hello?” Yellow said in the darkness, moving forward. “Whoever you are, you got to the wrong place, I know how to-”
Before he could continue his threat, something threw itself right at Yellow from a pile of items on the table. He managed to get away from the attack with a yelp, but something hit him in the side of his face. Something small.
Yellow got into his stance, looking at the spot where something should have landed. There was a set of flapping and thuds in the dark corner, until it came to a stop on the floor. The boy was ready to attack, until he caught a glimpse of the sound source in the moonlight.
It was a bird. It looked at Yellow, shivering, eyes full of confusion and fear. The boy just stared at the bird for a moment, lowering his broom. He did not even feel any emotion; let alone the surprise he’s supposed to feel right now. The bird itself seemed to be fine and without any injuries, just startled by all this situation. Yellow calmly placed the broom beside him, going towards the bird. It immediately puffed itself, starting to scream in hopes of scaring Yellow away.
“Ugh, just- come here,” Yellow muttered, trying to take the bird in his hands. after some protest from the poor animal, he managed to do it.
With wiggling bird in his hands, the guy just stood there for a second. It must have come from somewhere. Yellow’s eyes shifted to the window that, of course, was open. He probably left it like that to let some air into the room, because it was dusty. He walked towards the window reaching his hands with the poor animal outside. The bird stopped shivering, at least. Yellow hoped it understood that he is trying to help. Carefully, taking one of his hands away, leaving the bird in the other, he let it out. Flapping its wings, the troublemaker was free.
Yellow just stood there for a moment, looking at the bird slowly merging with the night sky. Fresh sea breeze was touching his face and neck, blowing his hair back.
He walked back to his room, eventually, when he was getting cold. He still wouldn’t get any sleep tonight, might as well try and work on his projects.
Yellow managed to survive this day, thanks to the coffee maker that his friends brought him. Unfortunately, there was a swarm of ships coming today, so he was contacted with almost for the whole day. Blabbering something to some of the sailors was complicated, when his tongue was refusing to move properly. With a sigh, he leaned on the back of his chair, taking a breather from the last contact with a captain of some ship. It was sunset already; the sky filled with all sorts of warm colors.
He went up to the top of the light house, to make his daily beacon check. Surprisingly, after just a minute of going up the stairs, the weather outside seemed to worsen – instead of sun kissing the sea, there were herds of dark stormy clouds, blocking the view. Checking the beacon, Yellow wondered if there is going to be rain now.
As he came back to his room in hopes to read something, the keeper was startled with his radio making crunchy noises, as if someone was talking on the other line, but this old box was refusing to let the voice through. With a frustrated huff, Yellow rushed to his desk, trying to fix the device. Who would contact him now? Another ship? The boy looked at the celling, as if praying for whatever could save him now from any formal contact with anyone.
"Hel… -o-o? Will- …you answer me already-y? I thought you were taking your job seriously, dude!" the voice finally broke out muffled by radio interference. It was Red’s voice! Yellow breathed in relief and happiness from hearing his friend.
Just before moving right into the lighthouse, he wondered how can he reach out to his friends. The lighthouse was standing on the seashore, behind the thick wall of forest. Of course, there was no signal here, so they would be able to talk only through radio. So, even if Yellow is not exactly allowed to do that, he still taught his friends how to use it. Now they are able to get on the line with him right from their home! They already talked like that a couple of times, so the only thing stopping their contact now is this old, barely working thing.
He rolled his eyes at Red’s words with a smile, pressing the button for the answer, "You're supposed to say 'Radio check', Red. And I was busy fixing my shit, dude." After mocking his friend with his tone of the voice on the last word, he ended the message, "Over." Only laughing came from the other end. Yellow wondered if Red took his job as a keeper seriously (which he probably did not). He never used radio lingo, even though they are supposed to.
The boy got distracted with the sound of rain drops tapping on the glass in front of him. It soon became full banging on the window, now pared with the howl of a wind. Yellow managed to see angry waves of the sea outside through the blurry from water glass. Great, there is going to be a rain now, which might fuck up the signal. He sighed, feeling his headache coming soon.
"Oh, Yellow," friend's voice came back, recovering from laughter, "Relax! No one else is on the line anyway, so who cares about this 'radio lingo'?"
"I do!" Yellow complained and leaned forward in his seat. “It was made for a reason, you know. It comes from military-”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” Red blabbered through speech, interrupting him. “What matters now is that we got the whole night with each other again! How have you been? Do ya want to do something? We could talk, we could gossip, or whatever you wanna do.”
“I want to rest from day’s work, so should you,” Yellow laughed in his microphone. Red was done with his work in the town, so now he used his free time to annoy Yellow, as it seems.
“…Nah, I’m bored,” Red replied, making the other keeper rest his head on his hand. “Wan—a play… wor- -chain?” he probably suggested a game of sort, but it was hard to tell through all the noise the radio started to make again.
Yellow frowned. He stood up on his table, scanning the device to find something that might be the source of the problem. "Radio check. Bad signal?"
"-M?" the static worsened further. "...-eading you... One--" Red managed to say before his voice was drowned in crunchy noise of the radio.
"Goddammit," Yellow cursed under his breath, hitting the metal and hoping that it would do the temporary repair magic.
Somehow, it actually worked. "-ellow? Are you there?" Red’s voice started to sound worried.
"Affirmative," the other one answered and hoped that radio might work until the morning, at least. "The rain must've fucked up the signal." Maybe, it fucked up not only the signal, since lights in the room started to blink rapidly, as the rain started to drop rapidly.
"The rain? There's a whole storm in the town!" Red sounded light again, probably not seeing any problem with potential of losing the whole contact with Yellow until the weather improves. The other man just started to rub the bridge of his nose, placing his hand on the button for some snarky answer.
But as he opened his mouth, the bright lightning stuck out very near the lighthouse, blasting its thunder and making the ground shake under Yellow's legs.
Holding onto something, anything at this point, Yellow waited out the rumbling. When everything went quiet, leaving the boy alone in sounds of howling wind and rain, it dawned on him that the lights had went out completely.
"Just fucking great..." he hissed out loud, looking for a flashlight on this desk. After finding it, he went out of his room for repair.
Going down the stairs to electrical panel, Yellow started to wonder in his thoughts. His radio was broken, the weather is hellish, his friend is a dumbass, and now the lightning that stuck near Yellow made the lights go out. What else his first shift will gift to him? What surprise is sent straight to his lighthouse?
As he got to the ground floor, the keeper finally found the panel he was looking for. Opening it and scanning the insides, Yellow was standing in front of broken fuses, the most cliche thing that could’ve happened to him. Thank god, he had some spare ones. This should be an easy fix.
But right after his repairing prosses and the electricity going back to life, another lightning struck out, making the whole bottom floor shine for a second. This one hit much further than the last one. This fact made Yellow look outside the window near him, to check if this electric bolt hit any trees or start a fire. It’s fine on the front, the left, and right part of trees in his sight seems to be fine too…
…Is someone standing out there? A bit on his right, Yellow seemed to spot a figure, lurking in the trees. It was hard to see, since it’s dark as fuck outside. After rubbing his eyes, the shadow seemed to disappear. Did he start seeing things again, due to the lack of sleep? He should try to get some sleep today again, seriously.
Another lightning shined the front of the forest. And someone is there, still standing in the rain! Yellow’s eyes widened as he rushed to the exit of the lighthouse. He needed to get this person inside, what the fuck might happen to them in a storm like this? Especially if it’s the middle of the night?
He jumped to the door and ran outside. “Hey! What the hell are you doing out there!?” Yellow shouted in the direction of the figure, hoping he could outscream the blasting sounds of the thunder. The silhouette in the forest seemed to shift, turning to his direction. The keeper waved his arm, gesturing to the person to come to the building. The mysterious someone stood there for a second, before running to Yellow’s direction.
As both of them sprinted back into the lighthouse, the keeper locked the door, that was ready to come off its hinges because of the blasting wind. Catching his breath, Yellow just held onto the handle. After a moment, smoky voice breathed out from his back,
“Thank you.”
Yellow felt a shiver come up to his neck. He turned around to see sapphire eyes, that squinted at him as the mystic person had a huge smile on his lips. The -as he guessed- man looked around the same age as the keeper, was dressed in a tank top with some baggy pants, very unfitting clothing for a weather like this. But the main detail of this man that was stuck in Yellow’s eyes was long, very long sky blue hair.
“…What were you doing out there?” the boy in glasses managed to repeat his question after some moments of gazing at the other person.
“Well…” the voice came back, sounding so clear, despite the noises from the weather outside. “I was caught up in this rain and hoped to wait it out… under a tree,” he continued awkwardly. He stood, taking his colorful hair in his hands to squeeze out the water.
Yellow glide his eyes to the water drops running down the boy’s hair and falling on the concrete floor. “…You could have easily got hurt out there, especially under a tree,” he said after a moment, making eye contact. Doesn’t he know that standing under a tree during thunder is a really bad idea? Besides, this dude didn’t have any things on him, as it seemed. “…Do you have any place to stay near here?” he asked after a pause.
The man pursed his lips, before shifting his gaze to the side, as if he thought about something for a second. “No, not really,” he replied anxiously.
Yellow bit inside of his lip in thought. The weather won’t get better until the morning, that’s for sure. And the thought of letting a stranger inside his (sort of) house, with all his personal belongings and inside was itching the boy’s brain. But he couldn’t just kick the other out, this guy was soaking wet!
“Okay, you can stay at my place then,” Yellow breathed out, going up the stairs to his room. “But only for the night, until the weather gets better,” he continued looking at his new temporary roomie, who quickly followed him with a smile on his face.
“Thank you!” the blue-haired one beamed, while Yellow just nodded in response.
Somehow, Yellow saw how messy his room only when someone was brought in here. A pile of clothes on his bed, some food packaging on the coffee table, he doesn’t even want to address the new unmade device that is laying on his desk. He was sure he wasn’t living and working in such filth, not until this moment.
“You can, uh,” Yellow thought where to put his guest, eyeing the pile of clothes, “Take the bed, its clean, don’t worry. Give me a second, though.” He then rushed to the bed, taking the whole pile in his arms to put it… Right beside the closet, sure. He will deal with it later.
Thankfully, his guest didn’t seem to be uncomfortable. He just silently paced into the room, looking around and sneaking glances at Yellow while holding his blue strands in his hands to not drop any rainwater on the wooden floor and carpet. “Might you have a towel in there?” he then asked, nodding into the direction of the pile when Yellow faced him. “Could really use one right now,” he then laughed silently, raising his hands with the hair a bit, hinting what he needs the cloth for.
When the thought reached Yellow’s brain, he hurried to give the blue stranger a clean bath towel. “Here you go,” he then offered, feeling the embarrassment reach his cheeks.
The other smiled and took what he asked for, nodding in gratitude. “You live in here?” he then asked, starting to dry his hair.
“And work, I’m the lighthouse keeper,” Yellow wanted to add “temporary”, but felt it was unnecessary. He stood on his spot, looking how his towel gets soaked in rainwater. What hair dye does this guy use? There is not even one blue stain on the yellow washcloth.
“Oh, I see, that explains the room décor,” the guest pointed to the mess in the room with a blank face. That made the host even more embarrassed. “It’s okay, you must be very busy, I get it,” the other quickly added, showing his lack of judgment. Yellow only exhaled in relief, opening his mouth to answer-
-And hearing his radio making the crunchy noises again. “Yellow? Come in?” Red is still on the line; he must have waited for his friend to come back.
Yellow rushed to his desk in seconds, plugging in the radio his headphones. He didn’t use them before, but he needs now, with another person in the room. “I’m here, pass your message,” he then replied to Red.
“Oh, thank god you replied!” he exclaimed, sounding relieved. “I thought something might have happened, you were gone for a couple of minutes.”
“I’m fine, my lights just went out,” Yellow explained. Then, he glanced to his bed with his guest on it, who was rubbing his head with the towel, drying his hair. “Had to replace a fuse, then I checked for fire nearby, and…” he paused, considering whether he should say about the guest part or not. “…And then checked the beacon and came back, everything is fine,” he continued. Yellow probably shouldn’t waste their time talking about it. He might tell the others about this, if the topic would come out, but the boy didn’t think of it as anything serious to announce. “How about you? Everything good?” he then quickly changed the topic.
“Yeah, I’m fine, the others are good too.” Somehow, Yellow managed to hear a yawn through radio audio quality, “I just wanna sleep, that’s all.”
“Then go to sleep?” the keeper waved his hand in air in question, like Red could see his gesture. “What’s the problem?” he asked, hoping his friend didn’t face the same dilemma as him. Red doesn’t have any trouble in sleeping, as far as Yellow knows.
“I waited for your response,” his friend whined, explaining. “I was worried, you know,” this part was said in a mocking manner, but Yellow knows he means it.
“Well, I’m fine, I told you,” the keeper laughed a bit from his friend’s mocking. “Go to sleep, Red,” he sighed. The boy really hoped to try to get some sleep tonight too, but that’s not happening, as it seems. Because now he has to make sure the guy he let in doesn’t do anything.
“Fi-ine,” Red was sounding like a kid who was told it was bedtime, which is similar situation if you think about it. “Goodnight, Yellow.”
“Goodnight, Red,” the boy said, turning his microphone off and getting out of these old headphones. The heavy feeling is rising in is chest, as usual. Yellow knew that after saying “goodnight’’ he will spend another night in his projects and books, but not in dreamland.
But today may be different, as he got some company now. When the boy remembered that, he turned around in his spinning chair, opening his mouth to say something. He completely forgot what he was about to say, because the man on his bed, who now didn’t have water dripping down his hair and clothes, was looking towards Yellow like he was about to laugh.
“What?” the keeper questioned in defense. Did he say something funny while talking to Red? Or the leaves from outside were stuck to the back of his hair?
The guy took a breath before speaking, collecting himself, “Yellow?” He then burst out in laugh, but it did not feel like he was laughing at the other boy. “Is that your actual name?” he then said through the giggles.
Yellow felt his face heat up, “Well, of course not! It’s an old nick name, that became a code name for the job,” he started to explain, waving his hands side to side. “And it just stuck to me so…” he trailed off, shrugging his shoulders. His nickname was carved in his brain to the point where his actual name felt off. He might not even respond to it, not like with his nickname. So, maybe, “Yellow” was his name at this point.
The man smiled, looking around the room, “Well, I can understand why it’s your nickname.” Yellow followed his gaze and blushed deeper: half of his belongings laying around his room were, well, yellow. It’s his favorite color, after all.
“It’s because of my hair,” the boy corrected his guest, pointing at his head. “I’m blonde and all my friends have colored hair, so we picked names based on it,” Yellow looked to the side, remembering how he colored Green’s hair for the first time.
It was a mess, Yellow thought he could still see stains of green dye in their bathroom, if he came back to their home. At least the result was somewhat fine, at least for him. But what he was supposed to do? Green was usually the one who insisted on being the main at the process of coloring, and no one else was home that day, so… What happened – did happen, and it could not be undone.
“Hm,” the boy’s voice woke Yellow back to reality. “Can I guess what is Red’s hair color then?” Blue eyes sparked at him with mirth. The keeper swallowed, keeping a straight face. Did he listen to his dialogue with Red? Has he heard all of it, especially the part where Yellow did not tell his friend about his new roommate?
“Ha-ha, what a hard guess,” he said flatly and stood up. “What’s your name then? You haven’t told me yet,” Yellow kept the eye contact with the other boy on his way to the fridge. Then, he checked the inside, looking for food, thinking that he should offer some.
Stranger on his bed did not answer for a moment. “…Blue,” the voice then said. “You can call me Blue,” he repeated with a hint of tease.
Yellow immediately turned to him with a slight frown, “Actually, I meant your real name.” As much as he hated to admit that, he was forcing a smile to not spread on his face.
“Actually, you, technically, never told me yours,” Blue parried.
That made Yellow roll his eyes with a huffed laugh. To be fair, if his friends would see this guy, they would’ve given him this name immediately. So, he decided to go along with it and not question it any further.
“If you want to eat something, don’t expect anything fancy,” Yellow said, placing peanut butter and raspberry jam on the coffee table, as well as bread. This is the best thing he could offer, as it’s the only thing left on his fridge. The boy handed a butter knife to Blue, scanning his expression. He squinted his eyes at the food and darted them back to Yellow, as if he is considering taking the offer or not.
But this expression was gone in a second, thankful smile replacing it. “Fan of PB & jam sandwiches?” he asked, taking the offered cutlery. His hands moved delicately spreading the ingredients on the bread and placing the parts of a sandwich together. His fingers were thin, moving around the knife and the bread, like Blue was masterfully wielding a weapon.
Yellow forced his gaze away, understanding that he still needs to answer the question, “I was, but eating them for almost a week straight got me to reconsider my opinion on them.” He walked back to his desk, turning to Blue on his chair as he landed on it. His head was placed on the back of the stool, supporting it with his arms. Yellow felt his eyelids being heavy, sleepiness crawling to his head. He was considering trying to get some sleep today, but with his new guest, who was biting at his “dinner”, the try will be delayed to tomorrow.
Blue was watching him closely as he ate, studying Yellow. Then, his face lit up and he started to point at the food with a toast in his mouth, offering to make a sandwich for Yellow too. The other just laughed and shook his head, “No, thanks, I’m not hungry.” The guest seemed to not like this answer, his light face turning to a frown in a second. Still, he continued chewing on his sandwich.
Yellow felt like it was not real. All of it: how he managed to see this guy in complete darkness, how Blue was able to hear him through the storm, how he looked more like a cool ass cartoon character design then a real person, how Yellow was so easy to let him into his lighthouse. Where is Blue from? How did he get here?
Imagine if all of this actually wasn’t real, and Yellow is dreaming already.
“Is everything alright?” the boy’s somewhat tense voice snapped Yellow back to the moment. It seems like the sandwich was eaten already. After the keeper blinked in confusion, Blue continued with a wary smile, “You literally could drill a hole through me with your eyes right now.”
Yellow felt warmth come to the back of his neck. Sitting straight, he opened his mouth, but closed it immediately. Straight up asking Blue if he was real and if he’s dreaming was very stupid. After a second of thinking through the sleepy fog in his mind, Yellow finally asked, “Where… Did you come from? Are you from the town?” He nodded in the direction of the place.
Blue looked like he was startled by this question. He started to look up, seemingly remembering something. “I’m, uh… No, I’m not from here, really,” he laughed awkwardly. After Yellow blinked slowly at him, he continued, scratching the back on his neck, “I’m from another place. That’s… Pretty far.”
“But… How did you end up here then? In the middle of the storm?” Yellow questioned with a raspy voice. Blue looked more like someone who was taking a quick walk to the lighthouse and back, not like a tourist from another town. Was he robbed? Or something worse?
The man in front looked all around himself, as if he was looking for an answer himself. “That is… a long story,” Blue managed to say. He was uncomfortable. Yellow figured the topic what somewhat sensitive to him.
Fighting against his closing eyelids, the keeper ran a hand through his face, “It’s okay if don’t want to talk about it.” Oh, now, out of all times, he wants to sleep, huh? Yawning, Yellow shot his eyes open to stop them from closing.
Blue giggled at this sight, making a yawn after the other boy, “You sure you don’t want to take your bed?” With the change of topic, a warm smile quickly spread across his face, instead of uneasy expression he had before.
“No, I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Yellow still needed to be awake, in case something happened in this storm again, or someone decides to contact him. He rested his head on his arms again, watching Blue turning off the light and setting himself on the bed. “Goodnight,” Yellow mumbled, as thunder was heard very far from the lighthouse.
“Goodnight,” Blue smiled at him, gaze turning foggy. “…Thanks for the cover again, Yellow,” he then almost whispered after a pause, but the keeper was able to hear it even through the screams of the storm outside.
He wanted to make his reply, something like “no problem” or “you’re welcome” but he felt too lazy to even whisper that. So, he just blinked and nodded. Even this action felt so hard to do, Yellow guessed tiredness finally caught up to him. Maybe, if he closed his eyes for just a second, he will feel a little bit better.
As Yellow eventually gave up and closed his eyes, he felt like he caught a glimpse of sapphire eye still squinting at him, through the blue strands of hair.
/***/
Dull hum of the fridge was filling Yellow’s senses, until it stopped. This thing was as old as this lighthouse, probably. As the room fell silent, the boy could hear silent calm waves from outside. The storm was over. When did it stop raining? And… was the room filled with light? Yellow felt sun warming his back for sure, maybe that’s why.
Wait.
Yellow’s eyes snapped open, but he squinted back quickly, not being used to brightness. He was sitting on his chair, leaning on its back with his arms. There was a small wet stain on his sleeve, did he drool on it? Did he… fall asleep? He grunted as he straightened, felling his whole body getting stiff from his position. As Yellow turned around, he saw calm morning sea filled with brightness of the sun from his window. It was pretty painful to look at, so he turned back, scanning the room around him. His place still was a mess, the fridge started to buzz again, and his bed was a messy bundle of blankets.
Hold on. Yellow rubbed his eyes. The bed was empty.
He stood up, but winced another grunt. His neck and arms were in pain from sleeping in such pose in his chair and his legs felt very stiff. He limped further to the room – no strange guest from yesterday was found. This is weird. Walking to the door, Yellow opened it, listening to the sounds from the other floors carefully. The walls inside the tower were pretty thin, so he would be able to hear any commotion on the other floors, even at the very bottom.
There was a silent second, then another, then another. He was the only one in the lighthouse. Carefully closing the door, Yellow ran a hand through his hair. Was everything from yesterday even real? He must’ve dreamt all of it, because, well, he did fall asleep. His body was probably in shock from the power outage. His mind was telling him that it was all a dream, a hallucination, at least. Even if someone did come to the lighthouse yesterday, it would be illogical for them to just disappear like that.
Shaking his head, Yellow decided to stop thinking about it. For now. His stomach rumbled, he needed to eat. Picking up a sandwich from the coffee table that he probably left from yesterday, he stuffed his mouth with it and sat on the bed.
After a moment of chewing his sweet breakfast in silence, his eyes snapped at the radio as someone’s voice rang out.
“Break, break, Newgrounds ship is contacting. Come in?”