Rainbow [F(x)]: Seeing the world mindlessly makes it look so colorful,
Barbara dreams of what color may look like. She wants to see the color of the sky (The books she reads say blue, and Barbara can only imagine what blue would look like, what it would feel like), she wants to see the color of the water that rushes in the river beside her home, but most of all she wants to see herself in color. She wants to know her eye color (Everyone who sees in color says it's the same as the sky on a good day), hair color, and the shade of her skin.
Instead she gets gray, white, and black. Absences of color, she sees in the lack of color, of charcoal and the clouds.
Some tell her to never stop searching and others tell her to give up or he'll never appear. The first words come from her father, tangled in his sheets and eyes puffy from crying. "Barbara, search for him and never let him go." She remembers being held in her father's arms with whispers of: "Your hair is the color bricks and fury. Your eyes are the color of water and sadness." As if trying to keep these small details ingrained in his memory.
It's been three years now since her mother left and her father no longer sees in color. Ever since then she resolved to see in color, burying her nose in books on the theory, emotion, and expression of color. It wasn't until she was older that she understood what color was and why she should seek it out. Barbara didn't understand color until she saw it, until she met Dick Grayson.
She sees him for the first time at a circus. He's a trapeze artist swinging twenty feet above the ground. His hair is darker than the coal sky she sees every day, his expression of joy and his eyes that glimmered with light beg the colors to run off of him and into the world.
Her friend Bette is watching with rapt attention just like her, for a different reason. She doesn't see the faint hues of light that shift as if trying to morph into color flying from the boy.
She excuses herself from Bette as soon as his act ends, scrambling to find the boy and his trapeze families. She discovers the trailer labeled 'FLYING GRAYSONS' soon after and is almost hesitant to knock on the door. Swallowing her anxiety, she raps her knuckles on the door. It's answer by a man with hair the same shade as the boy's.
"Is the boy-" She feels like there's something lodged in her throat. "Is the boy from the trapeze here?" The man hums and throws a shout over his shoulder.
"Dick, there's a fan here to see you!" His voice sounds teasing and Barbara's face flushes into a color she's been told is red.
The boy named Dick appears and urges his father away before stepping outside the trailer and closing the door. "I'm sorry, did I bother you?" Barbara says to the boy only to see a smile spread across his face.
"Nope." He says, emphasizing the 'P.' He takes a seat on the grass and with lack of anything to do she sits with him.
The silence goes on for a few seconds before Barbara brings herself to speak again. "Do you see in color? You looked really happy on the trapeze." He leans back resting his body weight on his arms.
"No, my dad and mom do. They say it's practically magical."
"My dad did." Barbara finds herself saying, plucking blades of grass from the ground.
"Did?" He leans up.
"My mom didn't, she left him, because of that the color faded." Dick leans back once again, muttering a soft 'Oh.' She still feels his stare on her and curiously she looks up.
His eyes are tinted only what she can imagine to be the color of sapphires. "What are you looking at?" She asks as she looks at the hues of color splashing along his skin in wonder. He stares in her eyes.
"Blue." He says, sounding amazed.
Barbara smiles. "Blue." She murmurs looking back at him and the colors of the spectrum that painted him like a canvas.
They spend the next few weeks visited between their respective homes labeling everything with post it notes. Periwinkle, ivy, coral, as many shades as Barbara can see fills up her head. The world is so vivid around her and she can match the color to the emotion.
Barbara giggles as Dick lays on her couch, his legs across her lap. "Your sweater is navy blue." She pinches the fabric of the shirt and rubs it under the pad of her thumb.
Dicks chuckles before replying. "Your shirt is lavender." Barbara hums in acknowledgement.
"Do you think color will always be this beautiful?" His voice rings quietly. "Will it always be this special?" Barbara wonders the same thing as she splays her legs across his. Blinking, she stares up at the yellow ceiling.
"I hope so." She replies, her eyes sweeping the room, still not believing this was her dull and gray home two weeks ago. Her eyes lock onto the powder pink flowers she was given a week ago, resting in a green vase. Dick had given it to her it to her stating that it was the color he felt when they were together. Barbara promptly snorted shortly after but still kept the flowers healthy and treasured. "I don't think I can go back to the blacks and whites."
She feels Dick shift so he can look around the room also. "I don't think I can either."
Barbara moves her head to look at him, her auburn hair shifting. She gazes at him through the sunlight that filters in through her windows. She sees light-washed jeans, a navy blue sweater, and raven hair.
Most of all though, she sees the reason color exists.
a/n: starting my first multichapter thing in a while. well, technically not multichapter because it's just a series of oneshots. anyway it's all based off of song prompts and whatever plot reaches my head while hearing/seeing the lyrics of the song i happen to open on shuffle. not sure how many of these i'll write 10-20 though and they'll vary in length.