Chapter Text
He awoke. Stumbling, sputtering, sobbing, into this world. He trudged through the strange expanse of the foreign land, eyelids hanging heavy with the sorrows of a time long forgotten. Shadows of a once great people ushered past him, lips stiffly formed the words of a broken language, sang praises to deaf gods. The world swallowed him, folded him up in the strangeness of itself. He moved, hands perched cautiously before him, moving blindly through a world void of color. Stiff legs carried him through the sludge of existence, carried him ever forward to a future that had turned a blind, ignorant eye to the past. He sought to return color to a world which he had ignorantly painted grey. His people were once so vibrant, existing between the shades of the earth and the shades of the sky, uttering precious words that painted the world around them in an array of colors as diverse as the people. What he would give to witness the beauty once more, to not stumble through a world that warped colorlessly around him.
She awoke. Curiously, confused, caged in a body that no longer belonged to her. Accusations and duties shackled themselves to her ankles, anchoring her to the grey of the stone when she wished to frolic in the green of the forest. A world that once exploded with the vibrancy of love and culture bled out, leaving nothing behind but a colorless vein. In its place, grey shadows cast upon grey walls escorted her through a grey existence. She tried to reach out, to defiantly pull the color back into her world, but was swiftly dragged back into the pit of perfectly calculated movements. She held no authority over her tongue, held no power over her actions, she was a puppet jerking violently on strings before a crowd of unamused beings. How she wished to paint her world with the colors of her childhood, how everything existed in vibrant shades that were impossible to mimic. How she wished to banish the grey.
They met. Hurriedly, happily, hazy forms in a void that sought to swallow them whole. She existed before him in a manner that he had yet to encounter, as if she were a defiant flower that refused to bow to the bite of winter. Shades of yellow erupted from her, a brightly colored light that she was unable to see for herself. They reached for each other, curious fingertips brushed each other, softly at first. A world that had barely existed began to flare with the vivid color of molten gold. The warmth of the color enveloped them, then the warmth of each other’s arms, then the warmth of lips upon lips. Their lives swelled with the newness of love, with the remembrance of a life that was once lost, and the world around them sighed contentedly.
He left. Brazenly, broken, bound back out into a world that carelessly engulfed him. Nightmares of the past gnawed at his consciousness while he wrestled with sleepless nights. He found himself looking down at the source of color in his life while she peaceful slept in the familiarity of his arms. It was then that he decided to leave the vivid world she had painted for him, to brave the wild expanse of grey that existed outside of their walls. He sought to restore the world to its original color, he longed to see her eyes grow in wonder at the beauty that had existed before. The breeze carried him from her arms, and she floated in a fickle world once more. She refused to let the world see her break, she turned a sure face to the sun and carried on. While the colors of her world bled in his absence, they never shifted to the void that once was. She now existed in a world of blue, a world that was once touched, and forever changed, by him.