Pink Elephants on Parade (Wally Darling x reader)

Blurry

The truth of the matter was: for years now, you've been having the same dream every night. But every time you would forget as soon as you woke up. Only sometimes remembering bright colors and blurry shapes. It never bothered you, on the contrary actually. You would wake up with a feeling of comfort, feeling all refreshed in the morning. Whenever that happened, you would try to go back to sleep, to that dream hopefully. It never worked though of course, and trying to grasp some figment of that dream was like water through your fingers.

One would think that forgetting a nice dream was fairly commun and thus not that big of a deal. But with the life you led, you needed as much comfort as possible. Throughout your childhood, you've been lonely, the weird neighbor's kid no one wanted to hang out with. Which was strange, you didn't remember being that weird. Yeah you had your weird quirks, but what kid hasn't? You've always believed to have been a simple victim of circumstances, like everyone just happen to chose you as the one to avoid and make fun of. Kids will be kids. You tried not to think about it too much these days. It hurt a bit.
Then, one day, just when you were about to enter middle school, you and your family abruptly moved out of town. You didn't remember why, but you remembered everyone looking sad when it happened.

Now years have passed and here you were in your own little house with your little exhausting administrative job at a school. When you moved out of the house and found a job, you thought it would be a new beginning, a new you. But you were still a very shy and awkward person. Your coworkers and neighbors were nice, but the years of bullying left you with the inability to perceive genuine kindness from others. If someone was nice to you, you believed that they must have a reason behind it. Besides that, you had problems communicating in general. Most of the times, you felt pretty lonely. And other times, you felt crushing loneliness...
Despite spending most of your working hours at your desk, you would still see a lot of children every day. Seeing them so enthusiastic and innocent, free of all the worries of life, you couldn't help but feel envious. How you'd like to have so much energy and time to do the things that made you happy. You didn't even have any hobbies...

Truly, a sad little life.

Then one day, as you made your way to your office, you passed by a group of kids, talking about some new hot trend online. But this time, it was different. They said something about an old puppet show, where there was a living house.
That sounded weird.
'Why would kids be interested in something like this?' you thought.
But it also sounded familiar... Well, you figured that, if they said it was 'old', then it must have aired during your childhood. You didn't think much of it though and went on with your day.

Still, the thought stayed with you, in the back of your head. And every once in a while, you'd think about it again.
'What was that show called?'

Warm. Comforting. Slow. So very slow words. Constant eye contact. Making sure you knew he was speaking to you.

You woke up with a jolt. It was still dark outside and you had no clue what time it was. And you didn't care at the moment. It was that dream again, but this time there was a voice. But that was all you remembered, you couldn't recall the words or how the voice itself sounded. You just remembered it being slow and soothing.
"It was a guy for sure..." you mumbled to yourself.

That day at work, you really listened this time to what those kids said. Not actively spying though, that would be just creepy. Just that, if they talked about that show within your hearing range, you would listen closely. Eventually, you got a name.

Welcome Home.
Suddenly, your eyes widen. Memories were unlocked in your brain and almost four years flashed before your very eyes.
'Welcome Home!'

It was such a big part of your childhood, how could you have forgotten?! It was all the rage, every kid on every playground was talking about it. Then, after four years or so, it stopped, a bit before you moved out actually. You don't remember why though.
Either way, you looked it up as soon as you sat at your desk and turned on your computer. All you could find however was one single blog made by a small team of people who have found old merch, damaged scripts and concept designs, and whose goal was to restore it all to find out what Welcome Home was and why did it abruptly stop airing, despite being so popular.
After you've read the introduction page, you went straight to the neighborhood section. When you got there, it was like being reintroduced to old friends. Each name unlocked a series of memories.

Poppy! She was such a tall and nice coward!
Howdy! So cheerful and helpful, the way he moved his arms was so cool too!

You once again asked yourself: how could you have forgotten about all these wonderful characters?!

Eddie! Such a clumsy goof with a heart of gold!
Sally! You used to pretend like you were acting with her during her shows, it looked so fun!
Julie! Such a loveable weirdo, she was full of energy!

You knew you never had the best memory, but these colorful puppets were basically your only friends at the time, since you didn't have any.

Frank was so funny! He was so serious all the time, which only made him silly.
Barnaby! Oh you remembrer loving Barnaby! That big fluffy clown, you just wanted him to pick you and give you a big hug!

And finally, the one whose living House was right at the center of Home.
Wally Darling.
If all the characters were your friends, Wally is your best friend. He's the main character, the guy talking to the audience at home. But he's special because he really makes you feel as if he's talking to *you*. While other kids show hosts would simply be like "hey, which one's the triangle? ... Oh yeah! Thanks!" Wally would stare into the camera and slowly say. "I don't know which one of these is the triangle. Will you help me find the triangle?" Well now you had a job to do. You *must* help this poor man find that triangle! You chuckled just thinking about it.

Now that you thought about it, he was always speaking slowly wasn't he?

You tried thinking of other examples in your head. But you still couldn't remember specific episodes, only moments and characters. You decided to read further into the website. There seemed to be some bugs, some sentences were hard to read. But you shrugged them off. And so you spent the entire morning reading about what that small team has found so far. It was such a joy to read, and the illustrations themselves filled you with a familiar warmth.

You were so focused on reading. Your back hunched over, your face creeping ever so closer to the bright colors on the screen. As if hypnotized by them. You began to nimble on your nails as your eyes rarely ever blinked. You were so focused you didn't notice the concerned stares. You couldn't hear anything. Nothing but the small voice in your head reading the words on screen. And what a feeling it brought you.
"Hey (Y/n)!"
You gasped and jumped in surprise. You looked up and saw a woman, one of your coworkers whose desk was closest to yours, smiling at you, oblivious as you were.

"S-Sallie, hey..." you greeted, forgetting to smile, too startled to remember.
"What'cha doing there? You look like me trying to get Beyoncé tickets." she laughed.
"Oh it's nothing reall-"
She bent over to look at your screen. You sighed through your nose.
"Oh! Isn't that Welcome Home?"
"I-I think." you quickly tapped your desk with your nails. "I just heard a lot of kids talking about it." you shrugged.
"Oooh, so THAT was what they were talking about. I used to love that show!"
You were taken aback. Sallie was the popular one, she didn't seem like the type to talk about kid stuff like this.
"Really?" you asked with a slight frown.
"Yeah! I used to eat breakfast in front of the tv to watch it. Did you watch that show?"
"...From time to time."
Her face lit up. Truth was, she was happy to finally have something in commun with you.

"Do you have a favorite character?"
Would she think it was a basic bitch answer? You felt anxious, but you told the truth.
"...Wally."
"Oh yeaaah, he was cool. I liked Sally the most though. Not *just* because we had the same name." she laughed. "I liked how she was a star, I remember wanting to see her glow in the dark. Too bad night didn't exist there."
Your frown deepened.
"Wait, what?"
"Well yeah. The episodes were always in daytime, right?" she tilted her head.
"Huh..." you glanced to the side. "But I clearly remember Wally talking to the camera at night."
What was he saying? What episode was it?
"Oh. Yeah maybe. It's been so long." she shrugged.
You simply hummed. The subject of conversation changed, but, not being interested, you just gave one word answers. Thankfully, Sallie liked to talk.
The rest of the day went on without much happening.

Sitting on a colorfully painted rock beneath a tree, his legs crossed, his fingers intertwined and placed on his knee, he spoke with a smile. His words slow and warm.
"My my. Look at you. You're taller than me now. I'm so glad to see you again. You can't hear me just yet however. No worries. It'll all come back to you soon, neighbor."