Happiness is in the air
Ethan stared up at the sky, like he had been doing all day. He watched the colourful balls play around, being moved by the wind. He had his eyes focused on one particular ball – the yellow one. He couldn't wait to feel happy again.
Every single ball held an emotion.
Fear was a purple ball, moving slowly. Once you touched it, everything went black and white. You felt like you were moving slowly and the world was moving faster and faster. Everyone seemed threatening, everything seemed dangerous.
Anger was red, flying with an incredible speed through the sky. Luckily they weren't all that common. Once they came in contact with your skin, you started to hate everything. No one could do something right, and even yourself were horrible. You wanted to destroy anything within your range. You wanted to hurt everyone, as long as it eased the burning feeling within your skin.
Sadness was blue. They just randomly fell down, causing a sickness called "depression" if too many hit you. When one of them touched you, you felt cold from inside. Everything was bad – your perspective of the whole world changed.
Envy and jealousy were green. They were very common and fly around but they were very slow. Whenever you touched one of the green balls, everyone seemed so much better – you wanted everything. Nothing could fulfil your greed.
And happiness is yellow. It was common, but everyone wanted it so sometimes you had to run. They were pleasantly slow – you could catch it easily. It spread a warm feeling from the tips of your toes to your brain. The world was more colourful.
Ethan reached out to the yellow ball. Just as his fingers were about to touch the Happiness, someone bumped into him. "Ouch..." Ethan pushed himself off the ground, grabbing the hand that was offered to him. "Thanks," he mumbled. "Are you ok?" a low voice asked. Ethan nodded, flinching a little. "I'm sorry." Ethan nodded again, it was bound to happen with his clumsiness and everyone was always chasing the Happiness Bubbles. He saw from the corner of his eye a person shine brightly yellow, meaning he had touched the Happiness.
The stranger had treated his hands with an anti-infection and had wrapped them up in bandage. "You're good at this," Ethan commented. "Thank," the stranger replied with the same lack of emotions. "I'm a doctor." "Cool." This was how basic conversations went. No one had something emotional to talk about and the other person didn't have the emotions to reply with them.
"It was nice to talk to you," Ethan said. He didn't mean it – thing like that were never genuine. "Yeah. Want to talk later?" Even though there were no emotions in the two men, they weren't bored talking, so it was "pleasant" to talk.
Ethan had learned that the man, Tyler, wanted a cure for the lack of emotions in these people. He said that he couldn't stand being empty the whole time. Ethan thought about it. Would I be able to feel happy all the time?
Tyler and Ethan met up the next day. It had for both been a while since they weren't bored, so they were quite "happy" they bumped into each other.
They kept hanging out for over a month. Every day they met up and had fun. Even though they didn't realize it yet.
Ethan looked at the older man who was facing him, his mouth stuffed with a sandwich. He rambled happily about how his research went. He had obviously touched a Happiness Bubble or else he wouldn't be glowing in happiness. Ethan felt a strange feeling in his stomach – something he had never felt in a bubble. It made him warm, like happiness. It made him feel weird at the same time, although it wasn't an unpleasant weird. It was also uncomfortable because he didn't know what it was nor how to cure it.
"I might succeed!" Tyler happily said, waking Ethan up from his thoughts. He said it so cheerful, Ethan felt a smile creep up on his face. The familiar happiness warmth spread around in his body. How lucky can I be? A Happiness Bubble – right in my back, without anyone chasing it. All for myself!
At the same time, Tyler was confused. Ethan didn't get hit with a Bubble – he himself did –, yet he was smiling. He didn't smile earlier in the conversation, he didn't show any emotion, so he didn't absorb a bubble before they made lunch. Maybe Ethan would help him with his experiment?
"Hey Ethan," he asked. Ethan tilted his head, signing to him to continue. "Would you maybe want to help me with my experiment?" The blue haired boy nodded, shrugging his shoulders at the same time. "Sure. But why me?" Tyler smiled widely. "Because you were just smiling without having touched a Happiness Ball."
Ethan froze. Did he? Tyler faced him, so he would have known if he started to glow yellow. If Tyler, who was watching him closely, didn't see him glow...he didn't glow. But then...why did he feel happy?
Ethan got placed on a comfy chair, where he had to sit back and relax. He couldn't ease up on command, but when he felt Tyler's strong hands adjust his shoulders and face he could feel his muscles relax. Again he felt happy – but this time he felt another feeling in his body.
It was tingly, and relaxing but stressing at the same time. His heart beat faster and his skin burned in a pleasant way at the places Tyler's hands came in contact with his skin. "What are you feeling right now?" Ethan thought for a moment. "Warm...and happy." The scientist stopped moving. "You're happy right now?" Ethan nodded and thought about it. I'm happy when he is around. I get this feeling that I don't know. What is going on?
Tyler swallowed. He felt weird. He felt nervous, for no reason at all. The weird thing was, he felt nervous. It wasn't like he touched a fear Bubble. And also his Happiness Bubble should have stopped working. Yet he was happy, nervous and another feeling. He closed his eyes, processing his feelings.
"Mom? What does love feel like?" "Love, Tyler? That is one subject..." Tyler focused his brown eyes on the brown haired woman next to his bed. "Yeah! Today the teacher said she was in love! And she wouldn't stop smiling, even though there weren't any bubbles..." His mother smiled. "Really? Who is he?" "She, mom, she, not he," he corrected her. Mother smiled. "Who is she?" "Another teacher. Apparently she made her really happy." His mother ruffled his hair. "If somebody makes you that happy without a ball, you're in love. And if you don't believe it, you get nervous for no reason. You get a weird feeling in your stomach and you want to touch that person and be with them. You just want to spend time with them."
Everything his mother told him. It all came back. And the more he thought about it, the more he wanted to call Ethan "his". He wanted to make sure no one came close to him. He wanted protect him, to be the one to make him happy, without needing any bubbled.
"You want to be the one for them."
Tyler grabbed Ethan wrist to measure his pulse. "Your heartrate is very quick, are you feeling alright?" Ethan nodded, his blue hair bouncing. "I feel a little weird around my stomach, but that's all." Tyler's heartbeat sped up. Could Ethan feel the same?
"You can't see love from the outside very well."
As he grabbed the boy's hand it lit up a bright pink, as hit by a bubble. But there were no pink bubbles.
"Pink is the colour of love."
Tyler dropped his material and pulled the boy into a kiss, not even considering what exactly a kiss was. He did what his instinct told him. And he liked it. Ethan, surprised, kissed back. Their lips slowly moved against the other's, with passion and feelings.
"You're happy when you're with the other person, angry and envious when you see them with someone else. You're afraid of losing them. The only emotion missing is sadness – which only comes when you have lost them."
Tyler pulled away with a smile.
"They can make you feel emotion."
Ethan lit up with all colours except for blue and the widest smile Tyler had ever seen.
"Love is a mix of all the feelings."
A/N: So it's like...Really fucking short. But it was an idea that has been in my mind for quite some time. I hope you guys like the description of the emotions. THis is how I feel them and I tried putting them in words. Feel free to put your own description next to them in the comments.
Would you guys be down for some kind of army au? I have it already planned out, i won't spoil it though.
I'm going to Vidcon Amsterdam this year!! I'm hoping to meet Smosh and Matpad and Tomska~
If any of you are Dutch, check out my good friend vffemke. If you aren't Dutch, we made a deal she is going to write an English book when she reaches 55 followers so keep her in mind. And she is going to draw me - is that a face reveal??? Nope. Kinda tho.