Work Text:
The golden sunlight pours in on yellow basking him in a warm glow he’s never felt before. He looks up from the ground and realizes something. he can see. He jumps up out of shock and excitement but then falls over again not used to having legs not tying himself to the ground. He looks around his surroundings still in genuine shock. He lifts up his arms and stares at his hands above him, turning them over and looking at his palms as he squeezes them open and shut. He pushes himself into a sitting position before trying to stand once again. He puts his hands on the ground and gets onto his knees to try and force himself on his feet. Once he gets up he stumbles a lot, his knees feeling so weak given its their first time ever being used. Looking down at his clothes he's pleasantly surprised. All the bits and bobs of a real cowboys outfit, the belt with the buckle, the bandana, the boots with the spurs and the hat too! Patting them down to make sure they’re real and his newly received eyes aren’t playing tricks on him, he finds something off. His chest, theres something there he hasn’t seen on a cowboy. Thinking hard on it theres nothing even close to it that he’s seen those cowboys on Asgores tv wearing. Thinking even harder he's only ever seen...those…on those good guys with the fancy skirts and those purdy ladies with the long flowy clothes, but never on a cowboy or really any boy at all!
“well how can I be a cowboy if I ain’t ever seen these on a real one?”
yellow says to himself mainly to see if he could talk. Before he can come up with a solution someone comes up to him. In a panic he shoves his hands under his armpits covering the whole confusion as aqua comes over to him.
“uuu, yellow you’re yellow!”
aqua says jumping up onto his head and bouncing on it. Yellow smiles a little as aqua continues talking all about everything shes seen so far and how exciting it all is. Then without warning she jumps off and looks at yellow and the odd place he keeps his arms.
“uuu, yellow what's wrong? Why are you covering yourself, are you cold?”
she asks tilting her head. Yellow jolts a little at the question trying to come up with an excuse.
“well uh- yes! My hands are cold. So cold infact, I think I might just go find something to warm them up!”
He says turning around and still struggling to do so, walks away his hands gripping his side like at any moment they’d let go and he’d suddenly stop being a cowboy.
“uuu! A finding game! I wanna play! I wanna play!”
aqua shouts following yellow. Yellow glances at aqua, nearly tripping over his own feet as he does so. He goes to put his hand on his chin while he thinks but quickly catches himself and goes back to covering his whole situation.
“well that’s a mighty kind of you aqua! Though I think it’d be better then butter if you’d look, anywhere else then where I'm lookin.. to uhm- cover more ground!”
yellow blurts out trying to go somewhere private before his newly founded secret it outted.
“more ground, all the ground! I’ll look in all the grounds!”
Aqua exclaims before running off. Yellow lets out a sigh as he lets go of his sides, looking down at it again he grimaces and covers them with his arms once more. Walking through the darkworld is so surreal to yellow, once stuck in a glass jar now suddenly in what seems to be an ever-expanding land of beauty. He keeps walking through the land much less concerned with finding somewhere private and more so interested in finding out about such a beautyful place. He keeps walking until he finds himself in a much darker place, the plants grown out much more and the sun no longer shining over it.
A blue tinted light comes off some of the plants allowing yellow to see around him still. So absorbed in it all he doesn’t notice the rocks littering his path so, he ends up tripping. While looking up he sees a rather large bundle of leaves, very wide and long ones. He stands up and pulls one off, with an idea in his mind he removes his vest and unbuttons his shirt and wraps the leaf tight around his undershirt and chest. Flat, completely flat, he smiles to himself and puts the layers of his outfit back on. Instead of turning around like he planned he suddenly finds himself following a figure just barely obscured by the darkness. His walk so much clumsier compared to their graceful steps, he keeps walking deeper and deeper fueled by wonder until he sees whatever the figure was by a glowing pond surrounded by bushes adorned by butterflies. Stepping closer he sees blue, allowing a butterfly that was resting on the bush crawl onto his hand.
“a ballerina? Or was it ballerino?”
yellow thinks to himself taking off his hat as he approaches blue, feeling a near familiar heat rise up his back resting around his cheeks and ears. Before he can say hello blue speaks first, his voice like music to yellows ears.
“hello dear, I'm assuming you must be yellow?”
blue says standing up and coming closer to yellow, the butterfly flying off his finger as he moves it down to his side. Yellow much slower compared to blue also approaches.
“that would be me, and followin that convention you must be blue if I'm not mistaken”
blue smiles a little at yellows slightly nervous response. Coming closer he pulls yellow into a hug.
“well its very nice to meet you yellow.”
yellow quickly returns the affection. His first hug, its so much better then he expected, without thinking he rests the side of his head ontop of blues. It feels perfect until he sees his hat had fallen into the water. Without thinking he pulls away and grabs his hat, shaking it off.
“oh my, I'm sorry I didn’t realize I caused you to drop it”
“no its alright, I let go of it.”
blue takes ahold of yellows hat brushing a piece of grass off of it.
“if you’d like me too I can go dry this off for you and bring it back later.”
yellow nods quickly, the words not coming as fast as he hoped they would. Blue smiles and nods before sprouting wings and flying away with yellows hat. Yellow looks up in awe as he watches blues form getting smaller as he leave. With his heart beating so loud he can hear it he starts freaking out. Grabbing his chest with one hand and putting the other hand on his hear he starts breathing quickly thinking he's dying. He looks around his surroundings trying to see if theres something that can save him, but then it stops. He stands up straight removing his hands before touching his face grabbing his jaw. He's fine he hopes.
He starts leaving the darkened area still a little on edge after the “near death experience”. He stays distracted by the beauty of the sunlight as he heads to castle, he looks at it and his eyes start to burn. He yelps and grabs his eyes as they start to tear, he takes a few steps back and forth trying to not fall over again. When he opens his eyes, he sees something in his vision, he doesn’t know what it is but he draws his gun at it, looking around it follows his vision, he closes them and its still there. In a panic he fires at it, they hit nothing. He shoves the gun back in the holster and runs to the castle. To his surprise he can only run for a few moments without gasping for air, the tight leaves around his chest preventing him from taking a real breath. He stumbles to the castle, as soon as he enters, he gives up and falls over.
He lays there for a moment before getting poked by the end of something, looking up the words “are you ok?” are printed onto a sign greens holding. Yellow stares for a second trying to sound out the words in his head before responding.
“yeah, I was just runnin for a bit.”
he said talking their hand that they held out for him. Pulling him up green pulls a piece of cheese out their pocket. Yellow stares at the cheese for a moment not knowing what it is or what to do with it. Green realizing this points at yellow, then at the cheese and mimics a person eating something. yellow takes a second to understand but once he does he quickly thanks them and takes a bite, the weird thing in his eye and his inability to get a full breath in suddenly disappears.
“well that’s mighty kinda of ya green. I’ll repay you for it I promise!”
yellow says but is met with green shaking their head. Yellow tilts his having a little trouble getting onto what they’re trying to convay. “it’s a gift. I don’t need repayment” the sign green holds up says. Yellow smiles and shakes greens hand.
“well that’s even mighty-er and kind-er of ya!”
he then turns around to the stairs and waves before walking.
“sorrie to cuttit short but I aoughta be heading off!”
The next few days were amazing for yellow, messing around with aqua, reading with Seth, sparring with orange, cooking with green, learning how to get better at shooting with flowery, and best of all watching blue preform. It’s a tressure that he can watch blue practice before he goes on stage Infront of so many people.
“yellow dearest.”
blue says lacing up his flats backstage. Yellow perks up at his name being said by blue. He gets off the couch he was just laying on and walks over to blue. He squats down setting his elbow on his knee and holding up his head.
“yes’m?”
“I was thinking, I need a partner for this dance. I don’t think I found anyone in this entire dark world who’d be a better fit.”
a heavy blush finds itself on yellows face, so strong he's basically orange in the face. standing up and pulling down his hat to cover the bright color infecting his he responds.
“well I’d just be honored to do allat with you”
blue chuckles a little at yellows attempt to hide it. Pulling down yellows hat he smiles softly at yellows crooked grin.
“well that’s just wonderful yellow.”
blue says before standing up and pulling out an outfit. Its beautyful, it looks something suited for blue, its so pretty. Until looking closer at some of the details yellow realizes it’s made for him, an immense amount of gratitude hits him until a just as immense amount of dread hits him. If he wore it’d, you’d totally be able to see the leaves he's got wrapped around his chest.
“they’d all know ise been lying. Oh gosh ise been lying to em’ the entire time”
he thinks to himself, realizing what “horrible thing” he’s done.
“I thought this might look wonderful on you yellow”
blue says holding it out to yellow smiling softly. Yellow panics for a moment before blurting out some excuse about him suddenly needing to leave and rushes out the room. Blue watches yellow leave a little concerned.
Yellow rushes out blues room an odd fire like feeling spreading up his back burning his shoulders and arms, resting in the back of his throat as his heart beats frantically. Before he can get as far as he’d like, Seth bumps into him chasing after aqua.
“gah! Yellow! Aqua stole my book and the bookmarks about to fall out!”
they exclaim before continuing to run after the small blur of speed.
“stealing?!”
he exclaims his hat flying up a little. He starts following Seth trying to keep up the pace but he can’t make it to far without the bind around his chest making it nearly impossible to get in the air he needs to run. Seth momentarily stops chasing after their book when yellow falls to his knees unable to breathe properly. Panicking they pull a book out of seemingly nowhere and frantically try to find some answer to yellows strange reaction.
“any chest pains? Any uh- “mucus” in your lungs??”
they ask reading over the pages in their book. Yellow gives up and lays down on the dirt, they raise up a finger trying to ask Seth to stop talking. Seth looks behind them and sees aqua dangling their other book over a pool of water.
“yellow sorry to leave you but I need to go get that!”
they say before running back towards aqua to try and stop her from sending their book into the cold depths. Yellow stays there on the ground for a few moments trying to get enough air in to let him get up.
“I just, let her get away. I let a criminell get away. That’s even less of a cowboy act”
he thinks to himself sitting up still trying to catch his breath a little. Sitting and thinking about it, its not a crime to have a secret. But then again, he's lying to everyone, he's lying to blue! That same burning comes up his spine as he thinks harder.
“if he found out I was lying he’d be sad, no, he’d hate me! Oh, he's so wonderful even making him a little sad is basically a crime”
A crime, against blue. A lie he’s been sticking too since the day he has given, hiding it to his friends. A fraud. A dirty lying fraud. he's no cowboy! There’s nothing cow or boy about him! He's a criminell! He stands up after a moment, an emptiness taking over the fear and joy he had felt moments ago. He closes his eyes for a second taking a deep breath and starts walking. He keeps going through the sun covered fields trying to keep his eyes closed, he doesn’t deserve to bask in its beauty. He makes it to his room after sometime, pushing open the doors to the sandy room. A Zen Garden used for some of the least peaceful actions. Stepping in he walks past all the places he’d normally go and walks over to a door somewhat hidden by wild grass growing near it. Entering it he's met with a dark room, not much in it aside from a simple bed and an assortment of things vaguely “cowboy” and western. He pulls off his vest and unbuttons his shirt pulling of the thing concealing his crimes before falling into his bed. He grabs his knees and pulls them too him before crying.
At first, it’s a few tears but it quickly turns into sobs so hard he can barely breathe. The darkness in the room really only adds to the loneliness and emptiness growing inside him. He knows its dishonest but the idea of just disappearing and not coming clean about his “disgusting and horrible” lie sounds so much more appealing than looking them in the face and telling them what a fraud he is. He grabs the blanket and pulls it over himself trying to just fade away.
Blue sits backstage his head in his hands, it’s been two days and he hasn’t seen nor heard anything of yellow. Its unlike him to just leave and not return within the next few hours, but now he's been gone for an absurd amount of time. with a sigh he stands and begins the short trip to yellows room, he's checked at least 7 times already but he’d rather be safe then sorry. Opening the door to the same sight, an empty sandy room. No normal signs of yellows “punishment” attempts. No ropes, no holes, not even a gun. Though he should be thankful, not even a sign of where yellow has been in concerning. Walking through the sand he keeps thinking about the times he’s had to stop yellow from hurting himself.
“if only he’d understand he’s not as invulnerable as those people on the tv”
He thinks to himself walking to one of the trees beside the water half expecting to see yellow hanging from it, thankfully of course he's not. He sits beside it, leaning his head on it setting his feet into the water. He closes his eyes for a moment pretending that the tree is his wonderful yellow; oh how he wishes he was right there beside.
“yellow where have you gone..?”
he says thinking outloud. That thought is interrupted by a sound from behind the wall, turning and getting on his knees he crawls over to the plant covered wall. He gets up and runs his hand over it until he finds something sticking out from it; grabbing it and twisting it he finds it to be a doorknob. That door knob just so happens to lead to exactly what he was looking for. Stepping in as quietly as he can he looks around for a moment, the room is so clearly yellow based off of what's in it, the main problem blue seems to have with it is that he barely has anything! Heck the bed doesn’t even have a frame its just a mattress on the ground! As he looks at the mattress one thing doesn’t escape his gaze; the trembling figure under the horseshoe print blanket that’s desperately trying to stay still enough to stay undetected. Stepping carefully trying not to touch the wilting leaves on the ground, he approaches yellow and kneels right beside the bed. He stays there for almost a minute before yellow turns around just enough to peak from under the blanket to see if blue had left already, to his “dis”pleasure blues still there; thinking blue might not have noticed yellow yanks the blanket back over his face trying to keep his tears as quiet as he can. Blue reaches out, setting a hand ontop of yellow, he grabs the blanket a little going to pull it off yellow but he stops and justs moves his hand to where yellows head is. He slowly moves his hand across yellows head trying to silently reassure the poor cowboy. Slowly yellow removes the blanket from his head, looking at blue. The days without sunlight make him look so sickly and fragile, accompanied by the tear stains down his cheeks. Seeing yellow in such a state rips at blues heart, he frowns and reaches out to hold yellows still wet cheek.
“yellow, dear, what's wrong? Did someone hurt you, did you do something “wrong”?”
blue asks slowly rubbing his thumb against yellows face who to the surprise of blue, doesn’t pull away he just leans into it like he desperately needs it. That’s how he knows something is wrong. Yellow doesn’t respond at first just grabbing blues hand and holding it. Before he can stop it more tears start to fall and he yanks up the blanket trying to hide. Blue pulls it down so he can see yellows face and sits on the edge of the bed.
“yellow. Please.”
blue pleads quietly, how his heart aches to see yellow so pained. How badly he wishes to just pull the sadness out of his lover and mend his heart. Yellow looks at blue then at the ground before finally responding, his voice much weaker then he hoped for it to be.
“ise been lying to yah, ise been lying to all y’all..ise…ise a dirty…ise a dirty lying fraud..!”
he says struggling to choke out the words through his gritting teeth, gripping blues hand tightly without realizing it. Blue tilts his head at yellows words, gently squeezing his hand back.
“about what yellow?”
blue asks as yellow turns his head, trying to look anywhere else. Blue uses his other hand to pull yellows attention back to him before repeating himself.
“about what, yellow? I doubt anything you could be lying about would make you a dirty fraud.”
yellow tries to explain but the fear of blue hating him for it is too overwhelming. Trembling like an autumn leaf, yellow moves from under the blanket and hugs blue as tight as he can. Blue quickly holds yellow back, the sight of yellow like this breaks him. So dull and skinny, like a wilting flower close to falling apart. He rests his chin ontop of yellows face slowing rubbing his back as he cries once again. After a few wordless minutes yellow manages to get himself to stop, pulling away and wiping away the tears still touching his eyes.
“blue I can’t lie any more to yah… I'm not a cowboy atall!”
blue pauses, he's not a cowboy? Theres got to be something he's missing. Not like that would be a bad reason for all this but just not being a cowboy, why isn’t he?
“yellow what do you mean-“
blue asks before yellow suddenly interrupts talking a lot louder then he wanted to.
“ise got the hat, ise got the boots, ise even got that fancy old vest! But what about these!? Ain’t no cowboy ever have these!”
blue looks down to what yellow is referring to. He pauses for a second.
“I had a feeling..”
he thinks to himself before snapping back to yellow. With everything making sense he sets a hand on yellows shoulder.
“yellow, that doesn’t define what makes a cowboy. Not even the hat or the boots or that “fancy old vest”. Dear, would you like to know what does define what makes you a cowboy or not?”
yellow looks into blues eyes genuinely surprised by what blues saying.
“it- it doesn’t? well then- well then what does?”
Blue raises his arm and pokes yellow on the cheek.
“you do yellow. You’re the most like a cowboy than anyone else here. You’re brave, you’re strong, you’re kind and caring, and most importantly you’re,”
“a liar”
yellow finishes for blue. Blue frowns at yellows response, coming a little bit further onto yellows bed; he rests his hand on yellows shoulder.
“yellow, what makes you think you’re a liar?”
Blue asks trying to understand what yellow means, normally he’d understand yellows misguided logic but this time it just doesn’t make sense to him on why yellow would be so distraught over something like this.
“ise been going around saying stuff like ‘ise a cowboy!’ to y’all but I'm not! I can’t be a cow’boy’ if ise not a boy! I just- I just liked being one I didn’t even realize how big of a lie it’s- it is! Oh blue I'm so sorry!”
yellow says pulling blue into a hug once more unable to keep control of his emotions. Blue holds yellow as he tries not to try for what feels like the forth time, running his fingers through yellows golden locks of hair hoping that even though it’s a small action it might help yellow.
“yellow. I need you to understand something. it does not matter from what seeds we grow, what matters is who we grow and blossom into.”
he says pulling up yellows head to look at him.
“and, what you have grown into is a strong courageous man with a strong sense of justice. You should be proud of what you’ve turned into instead of dwelling on what you once were.”
Yellow looks shaken by what blue said, the words cutting deep into him as he processes what it means.
“really?”
the only word he can let out in the moment. Blue smiles a little at yellow finally realizing that he hasn’t done anything wrong.
“yes really...but now I think its due time you leave this dark room and come out into the sun with me before you wither away.”
He says standing up and reaching out his hand. Yellow takes it and blue leads him out the room and out the castle; taking him to the cliffs where the sun sits so perfectly to cover the landscape in a golden light. Yellow sits down with blue overlooking the edge of one of the cliffs. Yellow rests his head on blues shoulder as they watch the sun slowly disappear being engulfed by the night.
“blue,”
yellow starts looking up at blue.
“yes dear?”
yellow looks down at blues hand before taking it in his own.
“youse sure I’ve been a good cowboy?”
blue smiles at yellows request of reassurance. Gently squeezing yellows hand he replies.
“the best cowboy I’ve ever seen, yellow."