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Blue.
Rafael liked blue.
Blue was pretty.
There were so many pretty things that were blue. The sky. Some of his ties. The ocean. Sapphires. Cotton candy. All of the shades were pretty. Baby blue. Indigo. Aquamarine. Teal. Navy.
Blue was good.
Especially his drink. He wasn’t exactly sure what Rollins had ordered for him repeatedly. However it was blue, it was tasty and when he was in the bathroom, he saw that it also turned his tongue blue.
“OK I think you’ve had enough,” Olivia said as she took the empty glass from his hand before he could lick the final few drops. Rafael frowned as Sonny stood up, an amused smile on his face.
“I’ll get him some water. Same again?” Sonny asked Olivia as Rafael focused on his eyes. Blue.
He knew Sonny had blue eyes but he had never noticed how beautiful they were. It confirmed his theory. Blue was pretty.
“Pretty eyes.” Rafael muttered and Olivia raised an eyebrow at him. Her eyes were brown. Nice but not what he wanted. “Not you.”
“Thanks,” Olivia retorted sarcastically and Rafael took that as his cue to continue rambling.
“Carisi has such pretty eyes. They’re so blue and they look shiny and pretty and nice.” Rafael continued. “I like looking at them.”
“You do?” Olivia asked. Perhaps she could get Sonny to hold off on that water. Rafael clearly had a lot to say when he was in this mindset and she was certain that he’d love to hear it too.
“Duh,” Rafael scoffed. “Don’t you? Everyone likes blue eyes.”
“They have their charms,” Olivia shrugged. She wasn’t one for eyes. She was more of a smile and forearms kind of woman. “I don’t really pay attention to Sonny’s eyes.”
“Good. More for me.” Rafael said before he began clumsily shushing her. “He’s back.”
“Should my ears be burnin’?” Sonny asked good naturedly as he passed Olivia her wine and set the glass of water in front of Rafael. Somehow he had talked the bartender into putting a little blue umbrella in it for him.
“Just your eyes.” Rafael muttered as he took the umbrella and attempted to stick it behind Sonny’s ear. “It matches.”
It was actually being jabbed into the skin behind Sonny’s ear but he appreciated the sentiment. Rafael took a drink of water before he pulled a face. Sonny knew that face and by the sudden tension in Olivia’s shoulders, she knew it too.
“I’m on it,” Sonny offered as he grabbed Rafael’s arm and dragged him towards the restroom. “Hang on a sec, Barba.”
Thankfully the disabled toilet was free. Sonny opened the door and all but threw Rafael in the general direction of the toilet. Sonny knelt beside Rafael and gently rubbed circles onto his back.
“Get it up champ,” Sonny encouraged as Rafael retched and spat a final time into the bowl and grimaced.
That blue was not pretty.
“Gross,” Rafael grumbled and his stomach rolled and turned again. It was the water that did it. His fancy blue drink wouldn’t have betrayed him like this. He had enjoyed several blue drinks and felt fine yet one sip of water sent him to the bathroom to throw up. Clearly the water had been tainted.
“Think it’s time to go,” Sonny said as he helped Rafael to his feet. “I’ll call an Uber.”
“Food first.” Rafael insisted. The water had betrayed him but he knew chicken nuggets never would. There was a good place on the next block that did excellent nuggets. “Chicken.”
“Fine, McDonalds first, then Uber.” Sonny replied as he helped Rafael out of the bathroom. Olivia was waiting on them. She offered the glass of water and Rafael glared at it. Treacherous clear liquid. “It’s OK Lieu, I got him.”
“Are you sure?” Olivia asked. She had more experience in dealing with a drunken Rafael. However the last time he had woken up hungover in her apartment, he had thrown up in Noah’s toybox. Poor Eddie the Elephant had had three different turns in the washing machine to get the smell off.
“It’s fine, not my first rodeo.” Sonny reassured Olivia and Rafael was too distracted by the mental image of Sonny as a cowboy to give too much thought to the fact they had left the bar and were making their way down the street. He did notice the warmth of Sonny’s arm around his waist.
The next thing Rafael was aware of was that they were sitting at a plastic table and he was slowly gnawing on a chicken nugget. Sonny was watching him carefully as he sipped at his milkshake. His blue eyes fixated on Rafael.
“You have nice eyes.” Rafael pointed out as he grabbed his last nugget. Where had the rest gone? Had Sonny stolen them?
“Thanks, the Uber’s on its way.” Sonny replied. He knew better than to buy into the lie that a drunk mouth spoke sober thoughts. He knew that as soon as Rafael was sober, if he remembered anything he said, he would regret it.
“OK,” Rafael replied as he finished his last nugget and wearily stood up. The floor was wobbly. That wasn’t good. “Uh oh,”
“I got you,” Sonny reassured as he put his arm around Rafael once more. Before he could stop himself, Rafael felt a wave of tiredness wash over him and his head rested on Sonny’s shoulder.
It was bedtime.
The sunlight burned through his eyelids before he even opened them. Rafael groaned as his head began grinding and scraping like metal clashing against metal. Groggily he nestled into the pillow and dragged the quilt over his head. Yet as he did, he realised something obvious.
This wasn’t his bed. The mattress felt different and the bedsheets weren’t the smooth ones he had on his own bed. Where the hell was he?
Rafael sat up and looked around the bedroom. There wasn’t a lot of information he could gather. His phone was plugged into the charger. His shoes and jacket lay on the floor but he was otherwise fully dressed. There were framed photos on the dresser but he couldn’t make them out from the bed.
Reluctantly, wearily, Rafael attempted to stand but the world tilted ominously and he fell back on the bed. His stomach lurched and he closed his eyes as he waited for the motions to stop. Just as the sensation ended, the door opened and footsteps entered the room accompanied by the warm smell of freshly brewed coffee.
Rafael opened his eyes to meet a familiar pair of blue eyes looking kindly back at him. There was a glimmer in those eyes as their owner held out the cup of coffee to Rafael.
“Figured you’d need this,” Sonny said gently as Rafael accepted the cup and tried to hide his mortification at waking up in Sonny’s bed. Fully dressed but still in his colleague’s bed. “Do you remember much from last night?”
“Blue?” Rafael offered. It was the only word that his brain would provide in relation to the previous night. He wasn’t sure where he had been or what had happened. Just that his brain had fixated on the colour and nothing else.
Sonny gave a wry smile and made the decision. Until Rafael remembered and acknowledged just why he was focused on Sonny’s eyes last night, he wouldn’t raise the issue to him. Or the many questions that the previous night had raised.
Not yet, anyway.