Crimson Red, Cerulean Blue
CLapter 10

(Blue)

I woke up to something that smelled unbelievably delicious and a ray of bright sunshine blasting directly in my face, like it was saying, Wake up, Blue! It’s daytime already!

For a while, I lingered under the covers, keeping my eyes closed. This was the warmest and most comfortable I’d ever been, and I was tempted to just stay in there for the next hour or so. (Or maybe even the next eternity – why not?) But the smell was beckoning, and in the end, I couldn’t resist.

Pushing the two thin blankets off me and wondering how in the world I’d been so warm with only that much cloth over me, I sat up and stretched. The room was empty, Green having gone somewhere else. She was probably the one doing the cooking, I decided. Neither Red or Orange seemed like they were good cooks.

The door creaked when I opened it, making me wince at the sudden announcement of my arrival. (Seven paranoia at work again, as always.) I closed it without taking a good look at the room beyond, and Red’s voice greeted me as I did.

“Morning, Blue. Or, actually, I should say afternoon. You slept even more than I usually do!”

I turned, completely ready to give some kind of witty response, but the words died on my tongue. What came out instead was: “Sweet cupcakes. What’re you doing?”

Red folded his arms. “What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked, obviously miffed by the comment. “Making lunch, no duh. You missed breakfast.”

My jaw hit the ground and stubbornly refused to close. Red was standing at an old stove that looked like it was about a hundred years old, wearing (For jellybeans’ sake, what has the world come to?) an apron of all things and flipping what looked like bacon strips on a pan. My voice finally decided to come back to me after a couple seconds of staring.

“Isn’t bacon a breakfast food? And what are you – ”

“Not one word about the getup,” he warned. “Not one word.”

He flipped the bacon. “And normally, yes, it’s a breakfast food, but it’s all we have, so no, right now it isn’t. The food’s almost done, so sit down and grab a plate if you want to eat, which I’m pretty sure you do.”

His stomach grumbled, and he cringed. “I know I do. Stupid Green won’t let me eat any before they’re all done. She is the pure embodiment of evil, I swear.”

I sat down on the floor, the only place to sit, and dragged the pile of paper plates over to me. “Nah, that’ll be Argot and Mask you’re talking about. So…where is Green, anyway? And for that matter, where’s Orange?”

“Orange is holed up in his room like he always is, and Green’s out shopping with my pickpocket money because she can’t steal if her life depended on it. Even though she’s going to get ripped off like nothing you’ve ever heard off. I just told you about our food problem, didn’t I?”

I just nodded, because in Rogue City, stealing was a natural part of life. “When’s she coming back?”

“In time for lunch. Oh, there she is.”

Green breezed in through the front door, weighed down by a ton of shopping bags. Her long brown hair was slipping out of its messy braid, but her emerald eyes were sparkling.

“Well, we’ve got food!” she sang. “And heat, finally, now that you two are here! Blue, mind helping me jam this stuff into our cabinets?”

I dropped the plate and went to help, digging out jars and cans from the bags. (How Green had managed to carry them all by herself was beyond me.) When I pulled out a frozen package of hash browns, I just stared.

“Uh… You guys don’t have a refrigerator.”

“Oh. We store the frozen goods outside, in this hollow in the roof. Keeps ‘em cold enough,” Red responded, dumping the contents of his frying pan onto one of the paper plates. “Rogue City’s pretty darn cold. Guess that’s why I control fire. Balances it out a bit.”

I remembered with a jolt that Rogue City was Red’s hometown, his personal city to rule over and protect, just like my own Sapphire City. No wonder he was so reckless and carefree. Rogue City was also known as the Home of the Outlaws, after all, and like its name suggested, and the city ran on a complicated system of laws that not only allowed thievery, as long as you didn’t get caught, but also publicly encouraged it. It stood to reason that Red would reflect the nature of his city, always defying authority, logic, and death, sometimes all at the same time.

“So, Blue, what happened to you guys, anyway? You and the moron over there looked pretty beat up when we got to you,” Green said breaking into my thoughts.

“Argot caught up to us,” I replied simply, unpacking three fuzzy stuffed animals. (I decided not to ask.) “We barely got away.”

“Yeah, but how did he? I suppose Red messed up somehow?”

“Well… We kind of left a trail in Sapphire City.” I glanced nervously at Red, who was currently flinging more bacon onto the frying pan, whistling like he didn’t have a care in the world. “Remember the robots?”

“Oh, yeah. That was epic.”

“Robots?” Green interjected. “Oh, the robot police you took down?”

“Yup. So I guess Argot knew another one of us had joined up with you guys, and he was following our tracks.”

“It’s not that easy to follow you guys, you know,” Green informed me. “Orange didn’t get a lead on you until Yellowton, and that was only because he hacked into the police reports and communications. Somehow, Argot caught up to you before we did. What I want to know is, how?”

“Well, he probably had all the cities on high alert. We got caught by some random official performing a customary check. I didn’t have any hair dye on me, and he was asking me to lift my baseball cap, so I took him out as neatly as I could. Not neatly enough, I guess.”

Green raised an eyebrow. “And…this was suggested to you by Red?”

“Uh-uh. She did it all by herself. By the way, could you quit blaming me for everything? I got us here safe and sound, didn’t I?” Red picked up one of the bags, squinting at it in disbelief. “You bought asparagus?! Why in the world would you freaking buy asparagus?!”

“Eating just bacon all the time’s going to give us heart attacks, moron. And what do you mean, ‘safe and sound’? That’s a bit of a stretch, seeing as when Orange and I showed up, you were barely even alive.”

“Hey, but I was alive. That has to count for something.”

“Not to me, it doesn’t. Well, those’re the last of the goods. I’ll go take these outside. Blue, could you please go call Orange out for lunch? I swear, if we didn’t remind him, he wouldn’t even remember to eat.” And with that, Green headed outside.

I got up, striding across the small room that served as both a living room and kitchen. The hideout (stolen, Red informed me, just like everything else in Rogue City) was a pretty good find, with three rooms: the tech room, where Orange apparently slept, lived, and did his work; the girls’ room, which I now shared with Green and had spent the night in; and the living room/kitchen, where Red crashed, using a folded up blanket for a pillow. (He didn’t need the blanket, since his abnormal body temperature kept him warm enough.)

I knocked hesitantly on Orange’s door. “Hey, uh, Orange? It’s time to eat.”

No response.

I knocked again, louder this time. “Orange?”

Still no response.

Deciding to take the risk, I opened the door. The shutters were closed, and the room would’ve been completely dark if it hadn’t been for the insane amounts of tech in it. There had to be at least five computer monitors, and blinking lights were everywhere. I didn’t understand any of the images displayed on the screens, and I didn’t try to. (Because, you know, I kind of want my brain intact, not exploded from sheer information overload.)

Orange was seated on the ground, on a folded blanket, his laptop balanced on his lap. His glasses were perched on the very edge of his nose, and he shoved them back, making no sign that he even realized I had entered.

“Um…” I began, trying to figure out how to approach the guy. He seemed pretty cold, not at all like Red, even though they were so close in color and city. Orange Village is the next area over from Rogue City, after all.

“What?” he asked, sounding irritated at being interrupted. (Which made me really want to run back outside where it was safe, but it wasn’t like I could do that without seeming ever so slightly rude.)

“It’s time for lunch,” I told him simply, sticking to what Green had told me to say, since it was probably the thing least likely to bother him. Or, you know, make him freak and punch my lights out.

(Actually, that seems more like a Green kind of thing. Note to self: Don’t mess with her, either. I wouldn’t want to take a punch to the stomach like Red did. Ouch.)

“I know. I could smell it.” Orange’s eyes never ventured from his laptop’s screen.

“So… Are you going to come out and eat, or…”

“I’ll be out in a minute. When I’m finished.”

I shrugged, and walked out as fast as I could without actually running, closing the door behind me. Red was whistling as he flipped the next batch of bacon.

“Take some,” he told me, nodding to the plate of already finished bacon. I sat down next to Green, who was already eating, piling some food onto the plate and taking a bite.

My eyes widened.

It was delicious.

Like, so delicious, it was Delicious, with a capital D. Plus italics.

Or maybe it was just the bacon talking. Bacon’s default mode is delicious, after all.

“Good?” Red asked, turning to see my expression. I gave him a thumbs-up.

“It’s great!”

“Of course it’s great; I made it.” And with that extremely modest statement, he went back to watching the food cook.

“You shouldn’t encourage him, his ego’s big enough,” Green said dryly. (Which was actually kind of true, now that I think about it.)

“I’ve been wondering,” I said thoughtfully, “Did Red do something to you or anything? I can’t figure out why you two hate each other so much.”

I should’ve known that wouldn’t turn out too well.

They both exchanged glances.

“Hate is such a strong word…” Red said.

“Yeah, I prefer barely tolerate,” Green added. “And as for why, what’s there not to dislike? He’s arrogant, rude, reckless, clumsy, stupid…”

“She’s annoying, yells too much, gets in other people’s business, and won’t shut up. Did I also mention annoying?”

“See? Stupid. Can’t even remember what he said a second ago.”

“Uh, hello? I could totally remember, that was added on for emphasis.”

“Ooh, look at you, using such big words.”

“Excuse me? I know tons of big words. I know that you’re a lousy, annoying, exasperating, snitching… uh… snitch!”

“Wow, real smart.”

“Of course it was, thanks for acknowledging it.”

“It’s sarcasm, moron. If you actually had a brain inside that empty skull of yours, you would know.”

“If you had a brain, then you’d realize that I was using sarcasm as well!”

I watched as the argument escalated into a full-blown fight, complete with shouting and hand gestures, trying to figure out how the heck I’d managed to cause such a huge fight with one simple question. Then the cavalry arrived.

“WILL YOU TWO JUST SHUT UP?!?!”

Orange barged out of his room, looking more annoyed than I’d ever seen him. Which was really saying something, since his default state seemed to be annoyed.

“Can’t you two idiots,” he stressed, “shut up for just one minute?”

Red and Green glanced at each other, the dislike in their gazes clear (crystal), then back at Orange.

“Sorry, Orange,” Green said. “It kinda got out of hand.”

“Yeah, sorry, man,” Red added. “Were you working on anything important?”

“No, only erasing your freaking descriptions from the police and government files,” Orange snapped. “Which is your fault, by the way, and if I have to spend an hour cleaning up your mess, I’d rather not do it while listening to your pointless bickering!”

“In all fairness, Orange, that was his fault,” Green began, but he shot her a glare so angry, she didn’t continue.

“All right.” Orange took a deep breath, his facial expression going from furious to just merely annoyed. “Now, let’s get to lunch.”

Red and Green sat down, but they were still scowling, and I bit my lip. It really was my fault for asking a stupid question like that in the first place, so Orange shouldn’t have been yelling at them. Which was why I stared at my plate and blurted out, “Um, actually…”

Red’s hand shot out and grabbed my wrist. I looked at him, confused, and he shook his head just slightly. But I’d already spoken.

“Actually what?” Orange questioned, eyebrows raised.

“Uh… I had a question for Red!” I squeaked, which just so happened to be the first thing that came to mind. Red gave me a quizzical look, playing along.

“What’s up?”

“The sky,” I replied instinctively, then corrected myself, ignoring Green’s startled laugh at my response. “Well, it’s not really important, but I was wondering… Who is Reuben?”

Bad question. Really bad question.

Green froze in the middle of eating. Orange flicked a glance at Red, laying down the piece of bacon he was about to eat.

Red’s grin vanished, and he stiffened, an expression of pure pain appearing on his face for just a second before being replaced by one that was unreadable. His fingers flew up to the bridge of his nose, to the scar, I noted with a mild interest that immediately vanished at his expression. In an uncharacteristically quiet voice, he asked,

“Where did you hear that name?”

Well, that didn’t seem like a good reaction.

Feeling confused and worried by the response (because I was going to feel really guilty if I made him cry or something), I said, “It’s okay. You don’t have to answer it if you don’t want to.”

“Where did you hear that name?” he repeated, looking incredibly terrifying without his easy grin and cheerful attitude. As in, guy-who-could-roast-you-in-a-heartbeat-and-was-possibly-pretty-darn-mad-at-you-at-the-current-moment scary. The kind of scary you don’t mess with, even if you were talking to a person who was generally an easygoing idiot.

“Well, when you were unconscious yesterday, you kept repeating it, so I wondered…” My voice trailed off.

Red bit his lip, dropping his gaze. His voice still quiet, he said,

“So I had the dream again, huh?”

“Yeah,” Green responded shortly, not looking at him.

Feeling even guiltier, seeing as I’d caused two bits of trouble in the span of an hour, I stared at my plate.

“I’m sorry for asking.”

The second the words were out, I realized that it was the first time I’d apologized to anyone so sincerely in a long, long time. Unable (and unwilling, I realized) to take any words back, I stayed mute until Red sighed, saying,

“It’s not your fault, Blue. It’s not like you…”

“I what?” I kept my voice quiet, hesitant.

He didn’t look at me. “Nothing.”

Orange shot him a sharp look, but Red sent one back that was so angry, he didn’t say anything. I was confused beyond measure, but I was too scared to question anything. I’d already messed up enough.

An awkward silence ensued.

Green finally took over, her voice all bright and cheery as if I hadn’t just asked a totally taboo question. “Well, since that’s over, why don’t we continue with our lunch? There’ll be plenty of time for secrets later. I mean, we have just found another member of the Seven, so today’s a happy day, you know?”

“Yeah,” Red replied, a little too quickly. “Yeah, that’s right.”

He took a deep breath, then exhaled. “Let’s get on with lunch.”

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