Red was learning the basics of education. He already knew how to read, his ABCs, and numbers. Barney still wasn't sure how he managed to pull that off. Apparently, according to Red, Orange was also very smart and an extremely quick learner. Orange was very important in helping Barney to teach them things.
"Okay, Orange. So basically addition is taking two groups of numbers and putting them together. So if you took the number two and counted three higher, what would you have?"
Orange looked down at his fingers, and took a minute to let his brain process. "Um... Five?"
"Yeah! You're doing great!" Barney exclaimed.
"I'm sorry." Orange said, hanging his head.
Barney was immediately concerned. "Why for?"
Orange fiddled a little, pulling at loose threads on his onesie. "Teaching me simple things is probably frustrating. It's like dealing with a man child." He sighed. "All I am is a liability."
"No, no!" Barney insisted. "Never! You were extremely disadvantaged in life. It's not your fault. If anything it's your parents fault. They're the ones who should've been educating their child."
"Exactly." Orange huffed. "Now you're stuck with my burden! You shouldn't have to worry about stupid stuff like this!"
Barney shook his head, pulling Orange's chin and making eye contact. "Listen, Orange." Barney said seriously. "You are not a liability. You are not a burden or a problem. You are my boyfriend. And I want the best for you. I want to help you achieve your goals and make you more self reliant. I'm going to help you learn math and you can't stop me, got it?"
Orange blushed, nodding. "Okay..." Soon, they returned to their lesson. Red wasn't lying when he said that Orange was a quick learner. He breezed through addition within the hour. Soon, Barney ran out of worksheets.
"Hey, look at that!" Barney said, excitement creeping into his tone. "You're a fucking pro!"
Orange grinned at him. "What can I say? I'm just the best."
"Hell yeah you are!" Barney shouted, high fiving him. "God, you should do math more often!"
Orange shook his head. "Hell no. That was exhausting. I think I'm going to take a nap. You wanna join?"
Barney shrugged. "Nah, I have some things to do. But I'll join you soon."
He nodded, getting up and walking to their bedroom. After Orange was out of sight, Barney went and grabbed the car keys. He had some things planned for the weekend. A nice weekend for him and whichever one of his many-colored boyfriends wanted to spend it with him. Hopefully, his plans would be good enough that it wouldn't be Blue or Purple.
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When he woke up, Orange was cuddled underneath a pile of blankets in Barney's arms. It was nice and Orange would've stayed there, but it was so hot he couldn't stand it. He kicked off the covers and went to the bathroom. For a minute, all he could do was examine his face in the mirror. A light dusting of freckles, pale orange skin, bright orange hair and eyes. He wasn't unattractive... Just... Strange. He hadn't had a large access to mirrors in his childhood and hasn't seen other humans very often. The humans he did see were always his parents and they had normal skin colors. Now that he was out and about and living amongst normal people, Orange realized just how strange his appearance was. He wondered privately how Barney had so easily accepted his affliction. Was it pity? Or has he genuinely liked Red when he met him? Did he like Red, almost a complete stranger, enough to accept him even after such a short period of time? Why? There were so many questions swirling through his head, he didn't even notice a certain emotion stirring deep within him.
Orange returned to the bed, Barney's arms wrapped around him as soon as he settled back into the bed, and he fell asleep peacefully.
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When Orange awoke again, he was alone. Sunlight poured through the open curtains, making Orange squint and cover his sensitive eyes. Without the heat of his boyfriend's body to keep him warm, Orange was freezing. "Barney?" He called timidly. But no answer came. Sluggish and slow, Orange swung his legs over the side of the bed and stood shakily.
"Barney?" He called again. But Barney was nowhere to be found.
It's Friday, dingus. Green grumbled. He's at work.
Well, what do we do until he comes back? Red asked.
Go outside and make new friends! Yellow offered.
No. This world is scary. I don't want to go outside without someone there to protect us. Purple whined. Everyone inside and out sighed, knowing that doing things Purple was afraid of wasn't a good idea.
So what? Green seethed. We sit inside and do nothing all day long until Barney returns?
"No." Orange said aloud. "There's got to be something in this place that we can do."
Well, you never know until you try to find out. Blue said hopefully. Everyone was encouraged by the sound of Blue's voice, not sad and indecisive for once. Orange walked off, looking for something that try could do.
In the cabinet there was a box of cake mix. None of them had ever made a cake before, but Red had a bite once. Orange liked cake. "Yeah, why not?" He muttered to himself.
"Okay, cake... Cake." Orange muttered, reading over the directions on the back. The recipe required milk, vegetable oil, among other things. It didn't seem to matter what matter Orange put them in, so he started with the milk.
I like milk. Yellow said. It would've been nice if mommy and daddy gave some to us.
Yeah. Green said. It would've been nice if they had given us a lot of things when we were kids.
"Hush up!" Orange shouted. "I'm trying to read here!"
Wait, what the ever-loving fuck does that mean? Green asked.
Shhh!! Red hissed. Yellow and Blue are listening!
Green mumbled something, but agreed to stop swearing.
But Green is right. Red continued. We don't know what those markings are. Should we ask Barney?
"No!" Orange said quickly. "He gave us that number for emergencies! We shouldn't bother him at work over cake."
Yeah, but we're clueless without him. Green pointed out. You may be smart, Orange. But not smart enough to figure out what 3/4 means without a book of some sort and a good hour. Let's just pour some milk in and hope for the best.
Orange didn't like the idea, but knew no other solution. He poured some milk in blindly. Knowing nothing else to do, he did the same with the vegetable oil. Luckily, the recipe didn't call for "1/3" egg. It called for two. So he cracked away the white coating and let the clear liquid and yellow membrane fall into the bowl.
Orange, what is an egg? Blue asked childishly.
"It's like a chicken baby, I guess." Orange explained. Immediately after saying this, Orange knew he had made a mistake.
Blue gasped in horror. You just EXPLODED a baby!
Exploded isn't exactly the word you're looking for, Blue. Green said softly.
HOW COULD YOU?! He wailed. Orange felt the guilt that Green felt mixing with the sadness Blue felt.
Please stop crying, Blue. Green begged. But Blue wasn't listening. There was no way to reason with him when he was like this. He sobbed with abandon, not listening to anything anyone had to say. Orange sighed, pouring their cake batter into a pan and placing it into the preheated oven. While it baked, they waited for Blue to calm down.
About fifteen minutes later, Orange was smelling some smell he couldn't place, but knew was unpleasant. He hadn't noticed the room slowly filling up with smoke. That is, until the fire alarm went off. In a panic, Orange nearly jumped out of his skin. Well, if you count turning into Purple as jumping out of his skin, then I suppose he did. Immediately, he grabbed the cell phone Barney had given him and put in his number on speed dial. After only three rings, Barney picked up.
"Hello?" Barney said from the other side of the line.
"Barney! Please come home quickly!" Purple shouted in a panic. As soon as he heard the tone in his boyfriend's voice and the blaring alarm in the background, Barney got up and grabbed his keys without a second question.
"I'm on my way! Just stay safe, okay?! If there's a fire get out of the apartment!" Barney ordered him. Purple quickly agreed and the call ended. Those eight minutes of waiting for Barney to come home were the most nerve wracking minutes in his entire life. He was just as helpless as Green had said. Unable to do anything but wring his hands in distress and whine. Soon, Barney came barreling in, immediately stumbling into Purple, who was crying now at the thought of Barney's disapproval.
"Babe! What's wrong?!" Barney shouted over the blaring of the smoke alarm.
"I t-tried to m-m-make a-a cake!" Purple gasped in between loud sobs. Immediately Barney ran over and turned off the oven. Then ran over to open the windows, turning on the overhead fan and without a second thought going back to throw his arms around Purple.
"God damn it, Purple!" Barney hissed, kissing him. "You scared the shit out of me! I thought you were trapped in a house fire!"
Purple wailed in despair, not wanting Barney to be angry at him. He hated yelling. Barney quickly stopped, kissing him repeatedly to silence him. "It's okay. It's fine. I'm just glad you're okay."
Barney sighed as Purple tentatively hugged Barney back. "I'm sorry." He whispered.
"It's okay." Barney told him again. "I was just really worried about you. No more cakes. Okay?"
Purple nodded. "Okay."
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Orange is a precious bean. And Blue is adorable and I want all of them to be my pretty babies.
-💕 Bubblegum 💕