rainbowfic | Admin Yellow 6

Name:

starphotographs
Story: Universe B
Supplies and Styles: Graffiti (Summer Carnival, Duck Gallery: http://s1241.photobucket.com/user/rainbowficmods/media/Dead%20Time%202015/tumblr_nk5w0622zC1u9gl80o1_540.jpg.html)
Characters: Sawyer (POV), Kit
Colors: Admin Yellow 6 (You’re both damaged goods.)
Word Count: 696
Rating: PG
Warnings: Choose not to warn.
Summary: Building something together.
Note: Cutting it a bit close with this one, but I did it!

I felt bad for Kit, because he was already a teenager, but sometimes, it became obvious that he didn’t really know anything. Stuff that seemed normal to me just made him confused. And he was almost as baffled by food as I am, which was pretty sad. I wasn’t sure how he’d been around this long without having so many common experiences.

Eventually, he said he was from Mars, which explained a lot.

So I took it upon myself to help him catch up on some of the things he missed out on, even if they were things I couldn’t do myself. We’d go out for pizza, and I’d sit across from him and chat, my throat a dead end. I rented a bicycle for him to ride by himself for the day, knowing that, if I tried, I’d probably warp the frame end up having to pay for it. I sat on a curb, and waved at him whenever he rode by.

I liked going for hikes, because that I could do without destroying something or fucking up my workings.

Honestly, though, I liked all of it. Even if I couldn’t have fun with him, I got to have fun watching another person have fun, which was fine by me.

I only really stopped having fun when he said his brother would probably get a kick out of whatever we were doing. It made me too sad.

Kit didn’t seem to realize it was sad. To him, it was just the way things were, and in a minute or two, he’d be smiling again.

*****

One day, we went to the lake. It was kind of a shitty lake, lukewarm and almost stagnant, with occasional floating trash. But, I figured a kid should swim in a lake. And this was the only lake around, so it would have to do.

Me, I couldn’t swim. I’d just sink. And I wouldn’t drown. I’d stand on the lakebed, trapped, until my covering started leaking and the water damage wrecked my brain.

So I sat on the shore, watching Kit horsing around by himself, and trying to make my own fun. Without really thinking about it, I started stacking up the smooth, grey, small rocks that were lying everywhere, mortaring them together with the gritty mud, building a wall. It was interesting, I thought, that this was what I ended up doing. I was built to build, and forever drawn to it. I couldn’t help myself.

When I got started on the miniature buildings, I realized that Kit had been drawn in, too. He slogged out of the water, and came to kneel on the other side of my city.

“…What’re you doing?”

I added another rock.

“Making a little town, I guess.”

“Neat… Wait. I need to go get something!”

He took off, headed for the water. I kept building. By the time he came back, I was pressing flat rocks into the mud, making paths. Kit broke my concentration, and shoved a bunch of scummy-looking algae in my face.

“The hell…?”

“You can use this to make… Like, people’s yards and whatever.”

I thought that was actually a pretty great idea, but no way was I going to touch that stuff.

“Um, you go ahead.”

He spread a layer over one of my little dirt courtyards. It really did look more authentic this way.

So I told him to keep spreading, while I kept building. After about an hour, we had a regular model town going. Then Kit found some leafy branches to stick in the mud around the wall, and it looked like we were about done. Kit wiped his hands on his shirt, leaving grimy brown and green streaks.

We stood up, to take in what we’d made.

It was perfect. Like the view from an airplane window.

Then he asked to take a picture with my phone.

For him to show his brother. When they found each other again.

Because he was so sure they would.

I didn’t have the heart to tell him that the world wasn’t as small and well-ordered as it looked from up here.

I handed him the phone.