Work Text:
“I can see you over there
Staring at your drink
Watchin' that ice sink
All alone tonight”
~ + ~
Oliver stood from afar, his eyes almost watching something that was slipping farther and farther from his grasp. On the other side of the garden was Paula. Standing in a pair of jean shorts, a plain t-shirt, and blue sweater that didn’t belong to her. Standing besides a boy who barely stood taller than her, giving her a blue face mask.
She smiles politely into her glass cup, shaking the glass in a small circular motion. Watching as the ice sinks and tumbles around in the cup. She looks up at the boy, accepts the mask with a polite smile, or what Oliver thinks (and hopes) she’s giving him through her mask, and holds it in her hand as the boy walks away to his friends.
A hand places itself on Oliver’s shoulder. Bringing the boy out of his thoughts and to his family that surrounded him.
“Hey man, you alright? You’ve been staring off at her the entire time.” Zack asks as he puts his hands into his jacket pockets.
Oliver nods his head. “Yeah, just out here with the younger kids… to pick flowers?” He awkwardly chuckles as the younger kids from Grace Field hand him different flowers from the garden. Giggling as they made their way throughout.
Zack chuckles as he glances over to where Oliver has been staring. Watching as the guy that was trying to get with Paula kept glancing at her with a smile but never truly taking a look at her.
“You know, you still have a chance with her.”
Oliver shakes his head with a small smile. His eyes fell from Paula and to the small Grace Field kids who were running inside the house.
“As if. He made her completely enamored with him.”
“You suck man.” Gillian laughs before covering her mouth. “I mean, not totally you know.” She corrects. “But you really suck and noticing things like this.” She says as she stands between the two boys.
Zack pats Oliver’s shoulder. “You know what, Gillian’s right.” He hums. “How do you notice all these little things about Paula like her habits but don’t notice this?” Zack jokes.
“Wha-? What’s that supposed to mean?” Oliver asks as his face grows pink.
Sonya and Violet slam the door behind them with a huff. “That’s exactly what we said when Paula told us about that guy!” Sonya shouts.
“Oliver,” Violet says as he goes up to him and points at his chest. “How did you lose to that!? Especially since you’ve been by her side since the second we got here!?”
Oliver huffs and looks at them with a defeated look.
~ + ~
“Blue looks good on the sky
Looks good on that neon buzzin' on the wall
But, darling, it don't match your eyes
I'm tellin' you
You don't need that guy
It's so black and white
He's stealin' your thunder
Baby, blue ain't your color”
~ + ~
“Defeating Leuvis and all his demons felt like a relief. But seeing you kids see the sky for the first time in years, that felt more like an achievement than anything.” Lucas says smiling. Reminiscing on the memory from months ago.
The Goldy Pond Resistance group were all sitting around in the living room talking. Reminiscing on happy memories from the demon world as the night progressed.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen the sky so blue before!” Gillian laughs, thinking back to their first night without the projection of a fake sky over their heads.
They’re all laughing, something genuine with no fear that may occur soon in their voice but a genuine laugh that everything will in fact be okay.
Sonya sits up from her spot. A smile that’s trying to be serious but can’t fully take over on her face “Anyways, you guys never answered my question from the other day!” She says. “What did you guys think about the outfit Paula was wearing the other day? None of you guys gave me a straight answer to tell Gilda.”
Violet and Gillian go on with the regular things. “It looks good!’ Gillian says while Violet contradicts with “Something felt off about it but I can’t think of anything.” While the boys stay quiet to let the girls be girls.
Soon they all get tired from talking and eventually leave the living room to go to bed. Leaving only Oliver and Paula on their own to converse.
“So, what did you actually think? I noticed you were looking for a while.” Paula asks. Her voice tired from the late night but a tone of curiosity and a different kind of confidence in it.
Oliver chuckles a little. “Was I now?”
She laughs a bit but Oliver can tell she’s smiling widely underneath her mask. “What? What is that supposed to mean?”
He rolls his eyes at her. Contemplating on telling her the truth or not. “I’m telling you, you don’t need that guy.” He starts. “He’s so black and white, but he’s stealing your thunder. And baby, blue ain't your color.”
~ + ~
“I'm not tryna
Be another just
Pick you up
Kinda guy
Tryna drink you up
Tryna take you home
But I just—I don't understand
How another man
Can take your sun
And turn it ice cold”
~ + ~
The boys are out doing errands when Oliver accidentally overhears a conversation between Carson and his friend. He’s sitting at a coffee table not so far from Carson, waiting on the others who were either in the bathroom or waiting for the rest of their drinks at the counter when he overhears Carson talking about Paula.
“Yeah guys, I just don’t know. She seems distant?” Carson tells his friends. “I mean like, she’s always been. Just how those girls are I guess. But it’s almost like she isn’t even a girl.”
Oliver turns his head in confusion. Thinking about what Carson could possibly be saying about Paula.
“I took her to a bar to maybe take her home later and she didn’t even try anything. Said she didn’t feel comfortable. Like all these other girls are thinking they could be the one but they’re just pick ups and would do anything but her? Nah something’s different. She’s beautiful nonetheless, but it’s like there’s nothing underneath that.”
Oliver finally snaps out of it when Pepe places his hand on his shoulder. “You alright man? You look a little agitated.”
Oliver nods his head and gets up. “Let’s just go, yeah?”
And later when he gets home and everyone has settled for the night, Oliver finds Paula sitting in the kitchen fixing her mask. She sighs heavily and puts the sewing needle and her torn mask down. Putting her head in her hands as she debates on finishing it or not.
Oliver pouts a little, worry taking over as he takes a seat next to her at the kitchen counter. “I’ve never seen her almost give up like this.” He thinks to himself as he places his hand on her back and rubs up and down.
“You alright?”
Paula looks up from her hands and nods at Oliver. Her hands falling to slightly cover the scar across her mouth as if it was almost by coincidence and not on purpose. Oliver notices. He drags his hand from her back to her hands and without any effort she slowly pulls her own hands down and rests them in her lap.
“Shouldn’t you be asleep?” She asks, lifting legs up onto the stool so she could rest her head on her knees.
“Couldn’t sleep.” He simply answers. “You okay?”
She nods her head almost hesitantly. “I’m alright.”
They’re quiet for a moment, but it feels like a different type of silence until Oliver speaks.
“What are you doing? Your mask looks fine.” He finally asks.
She glances up and then back towards the mask and visually deflates. “It slipped the other day, so I’m trying to make it a tighter fit.” She explains, almost like something bad happened.
He doesn’t understand the problem. “And what’s the problem?” He almost asks but doesn’t. Instead he tilts his head until she figures out that he’s trying to understand the problem. She doesn’t notice, not even the notification that makes his phone buzz around on the table.
‘Can you check on Paula? Carson made a complaint about her mask and she’s fixing it.’ The message from Sonya read. ‘We should actually jump him I’m serious 👊🤛🤜’ follows sent from Gillian and then another from Violet reading ‘That loser barely knows her and then thinks he can change her?’
Oliver looks up towards Paula, his heart straining as he watches her try to untangle the knot of threads in her hands. He places his hand on hers and pulls her closer. Feeling her stiffen and then relax, letting go of the threads and taking a deep breath.
“How can another man take your sun and turn it ice cold?” He asks himself.
~ + ~
“Well, I've had enough to drink
And it's makin'
Me think that I just might
Tell you if I were a painter I wouldn't change ya
I'd just paint you bright
Baby”
~ + ~
It’s been pretty much agreed upon that Yuugo is a terrible influence on the Goldy Pond kids considering they’re the oldest kids of the house. Isabella prays that his influence doesn’t affect Emma and Ray, and secretly hopes that Norman doesn’t get influenced as well but knows he won’t, and Lucas hopes and prays that his kids are smart enough to not fall to his terrible influence.
But the Grand Valley kids were never at Grand Valley long enough to understand a terrible influence from a regular influence.
“So Yuugo said he went out and bought a whole bunch of this stuff for us to try?” Nigel says suspiciously as he puts down a pack of alcohol on the table.
“He also said to try it when the younger kids are asleep.” He adds and then takes a seat next to Gillian who’s eyeing him weirdly.
They all look at it for a moment before Sandy shrugs and opens the pack. “You’re all trying it with me though. We’ve practically done everything together, so if this does something funny to me, it’s doing something funny to all of you.”
Midnight might be their favorite time of day for group activities. Whether it be because they can finally let loose and be children all over again without the younger kids needing them, or because they never saw the real sky for years living at the pond. But no matter what it is, Lucas seems to always find them up past midnight talking and acting like little kids almost every night.
“Yuugo…” Lucas mentally groans to himself, hearing the other snicker in the back of his head as he sees the empty alcohol bottles on the living room table and the kids that broke out of Goldy Pond sitting around giggling and laughing with one another.
Oliver and Paula are laughing at anything the other is saying. The two are enjoying the company of one another even with their closest companions sitting around them.
Paula giggles at something that Oliver says and leans against the back of the couch. “You’re acting really shameless right now.” She chuckles. Oliver rolls his eyes and smiles with a soft chuckle.
“Okay loverbirds, you two want another drink?” Gillian asks the two, her hands holding two more bottles.
The two shake their heads. “I’m alright.” Paula says back, “I’ve had enough to drink.” Oliver answers and then turns his attention back to Paula who’s laughing at him.
“Yeah, you’ve definitely have had too much.”
He rolls his eyes and grins confidently. “Yeah, and it’s making me think that I might just tell you,” He says slowly.
“Tell me what?” She says with a smile that’s more confident than how he’s been acting.
“Oh nothing, just that if I was a painter I wouldn’t change ya.”
She giggles and leans in. “Yeah?”
“Mhm. I’d just paint you bright, baby.”
She covers her mouth and laughs, face flushing shades of pink and red from the alcohol and maybe because of the boy she’s liked since maybe forever.
~ + ~
“Blue looks good on the sky
Looks good on that neon buzzin' on the wall
But, darling, it don't match your eyes
I'm tellin' you
You don't need that guy
It's so black and white
He's stealin' your thunder
Baby, blue ain't your color
Blue ain't your color”
~ + ~
They don’t know it yet, but Paula has already made up her mind that this would be the last time she’s seeing Carson. For weeks on end, he’s been asking her out on dates to go out to a bar and drink with him, saying he needs to relax to become the heir of the Ratri clan (even though she knows that he wouldn’t be close to being heir even in a million years), but she decides to finally go with him just to tell him she’s done seeing him.
She’s wearing the blue mask he gave her when they came back from their first date when she remembers what Oliver had told her.
“Baby, blue ain’t your color.” He had told her. She laughs at the memory of it. “He’s so cute” She laughs to herself and then looks at herself in the mirror. She hears her door open and turns to it. Finding Oliver leaning against her doorway.
She smiles politely but it feels more than polite. “You need something?”
He shakes his head. “Nah.” He simply answers and then slowly walks over towards her. “Blue looks good in the sky. But darling, it don’t match your eyes.” He says to her, raking his hands through her black hair.
“Yeah?” She says, leaning into his touch slightly.
He nods his head, almost certain. “I’m tellin’ you, you don’t need that guy.” He tells her and she nods. “It’s so black and white, he’s stealing your thunder. Baby, blue ain’t your color.” He says as he unties her blue face mask. The cloth falling from her face as he leans in and kisses her.
It’s something soft, almost feeling like something fragile. But it feels relieving, like it did when they saw the blue sky after years of living under it being fake.
They pull away from one another. It was only a short small kiss but it didn’t matter. “What were you saying hm?” She asks him as she runs her hand through the red streak in his hair.
Oliver laughs like it's a relief and places another kiss on her temple. “Baby, blue ain’t your color.”
~ bonus ~
“Lemme get this straight-” Yuugo shouts a little louder than he should have. “You and masks have liked each other for almost forever now, and you STILL haven’t confessed to her yet?”
Oliver chuckles nervously. Paula had told the girls about her little moment with Oliver before she left. Leaving something vague for them to run to Oliver and ask him for all the details while he was talking with the other boys and adults.
“And you kissed her!?” Gillian shouts, mouth agape as she wraps her head around the situation.
“Twice mind you.” Violet adds on, crossing her arms over her chest.
Oliver scratches the back of his neck awkwardly. “It just happened guys.”
Zack shakes his head. “Man, I want demon world Oliver back. Human world Oliver is not a good leader.” He jokes. Nigel and Sandy nod their head with him while laughing. Trying to maintain a serious facade.
“I just can’t believe you let her STILL go out with that guy.” Pepe comments.
Oliver groans “She doesn’t need that guy.” he says in a matter of fact tone.
“Oh yeah?” Zack and Gillian said in unison.
“He’s-” Oliver stutters for a second before coming up with the right words. “He’s stealing her thunder.”
Sonya raises her eyebrow and sighs. “Okay, but I just sent you in there to ask if you think blue is her color.”
“Blue is not her color.”
The others laugh and roll their eyes at him. Some are calling him cheesy while others are making fun of him.
Yuugo continues to shake his head as he turns towards Lucas. “Your boy needs to get his priorities in order.” He says before storming off. Leaving Lucas laughing and shrugging his shoulders.
END