A/N: Okay, so there are a heck of a lot of implied pairings in this. Interpret them however you wish, the only one that really has to be taken as sexual is Kartik, and even that is hazy. Um, I was just thinking about how Gemma kept going on about Felicity being stained when she finds out about her father. So this is about Felicity's relationships with various people, and how they've all damaged her.

Disclaimer: I own not, you sue not.

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Crimson

Her father stains her red. Her soul bleeds when he shuts the door to her room, whispers softly, and absolves him by blaming her. He sends her a ring, with a gemstone in it, and at first she thinks it's a ruby until someone calls it a sapphire.

All she knows it that it came from him, and all she can see is blood.

Pink

Her mother stains her pink. Childish, immature, begging for someone to listen, to care. The color of her mother's dress the last time she sees her, a smart traveling suit in an inappropriate shade for the occasion of leaving one's husband because their sleep is bothered by their daughter's screaming and pleading.

She decides that day to change her favorite color.

Gold

The girls at Spence stain her golden. Cecily and Elizabeth see her as something to be worshipped, an idol, Apollo. She wishes she had an arrow or even a harp with which to prove them right, but for now a cool look and a charming smile will do. They melt just at her touch. Well, of course they do.

She does nothing if she can't do it well.

Violet

Pippa stains her violet. For a time it pushes away all thought of anything else, makes her whole. All she wants to do is bask forever in the fading rainbow of pure love and joy, the feeling of the other girl's eyes upon her. Pippa is happy to comply, turning purple orbs into the only mirror she'll ever need.

The lovely violet turning to milky white is the worst thing she's ever seen.

Azure

Gemma stains her blue. She isn't sure why, the color and the girl have no particular connection. She's sure it has something to do with drowning. One typically drowns in water, which is typically blue. And now she's drowning in promises and light.

She's drowning in power, real or imagined.

Brown

Ann stains her mahogany. Sometimes, it is the most boring color in the world. Rough, uncivilized, everything she is not. But sometimes, it is vibrant, polished to a high gloss and incredibly useful in a multitude of ways.

She sometimes wishes Ann could be a prettier color, if only so Ann would feel better.

Emerald

Kartik stains her with every color that Gemma is, but mostly green. She knows the hardest part of her to change into Gemma is her eyes. Gold hair can easily be touched with red, imagined cinnamon dots can spring forth on her nose, but the eyes…the eyes are more difficult. She doesn't know why she lets herself be a substitute. Surely she has more pride than that?

Or perhaps she doesn't, after all.

Silver

She stains herself the shade of moonbeams. Artemis pushes Apollo away, the arrow becomes reality. Artemis, the guardian of chastity and young women, until they pass into the care of Hera and Hestia (Marriage and the hearth, hers is more exciting and perilous). Somehow she has become that, though she couldn't save herself.

But she really is doing fine, now.

Or maybe not. She doesn't care to find out.

Fin

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A/N: I probably should have warned you about the myth references earlier. Oh well. Hey, you know, you could berate me for that in a

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