A/N So here is the next installment to the fic, I hope you like it. Please review so I can gage the level of interest shown in these because I'm not too sure if I'm going to continue. Also if you have ideas for any of the upcoming colors I would love to hear them!
Orange.
Orange wasn't a color to Neal but a feeling. Orange was his mother's smile, orange was pristine suits and fine wine, orange was Peter and Mozzie and El. Orange was Neal's favorite color, representing everything good in his life. He remembers the day it became that. morphing from pumpkins and candle flames to happy memories and ferris wheels.
Neal walked into the theme park, slowly strolling on the cobblestone path. His blue eyes scanned the area, taking in the rides, the kids running about and his neighbor, Juliet. He had it bad for her, daydreaming about kissing her under the moon. He blushed and ducked down when the blonde lifted her head up, laughing at her friend's joke, a twinkle in her beautiful brown eyes. He needed her like air, needed to hear her laugh, be in her space, needed to love her, kiss her, be with her. But she was just his friend and Neal cursed himself for being so damn responsible, so damn smart and kind that it was impossible not to reserve him for friendzoning.
He walked up to her friend group, slipping between Tasha and Sophie.
"Hey Jules," He greeted her, big smile and wide baby eyes.
She glanced over at him, flipping her long blond hair over her shoulder, the orange ribbon in her hair drifting in the wind. She smiled at him with a passion Neal felt. He took a step back, afraid of this new feeling between them. She giggled at him and took his hand, her long slender fingers slipping through the gaps between his.
"Neal, let's go on the ferris wheel!" She screeched, racing between the crowd. Pulling Neal upright when he stumbled on a little girl.
"What about your friends?" He shouted, gasps coming quicker between his breaths. he welcomed the chill in the air that cooled his overheating cheeks.
Could she like him? Did she? Neal didn't know, he was only 14 and not too wise on what occurred between a girl and a guy to make her like him.
"Forget them! They'll be here tomorrow. I need to reserve you for tonight though." She said cryptically, a smirk appearing on her perfect freckled face.
Neal laughed and skidded to a stop when the reached the line. Juliet slipped the two blue tickets to the operator and took a seat on the rickety wheel. Neal joined her, pushing down butterflies and trying to convince himself that it was real. That the girl he had been pining over for the last several years had finally saw him as a potential date. He surreptitiously wiped his sweaty palms on his jeans, throwing his arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and he closed his eyes in pure bliss, the wheel slowly turning. Bringing them up to the top.
The view took Neal's breath away, the skyline lit up with brilliant hues of orange and yellow as the sunset. He sighed happily, glad to be with Juliet, watching the pure beauty that was his hometown.
…..
Fevered dreams awaken him, silver bars trapping him in. An animal, a criminal, a beast. He's not allowed out even as his throat burns, his blue eyes turn red. He begs for water and is beaten by the guards. A taser whips in between the cage into his still feels the spark, feels the burning before the world faded to black. Still feels himself choking for air, hitting the cement bottom, blood dripping onto the ground. Forming rivers. Still can hear the cursing of the guard even as he's being lifted. As he's drifting away.
He wakes up later in the infirmary, orange jumpsuit dirtied with blood and charred with a taser burn. He tries to move but groans when he yanks against the handcuffs. A dog chained. But its not right, jails couldn't handcuff him. Hospitals could, Neal blinks, white bed, normal gown. His head aches, his lungs burn. He's thrown back into the fantasy a second later.
"Useless!" The doctor cries, thrusting a needle into the back of Neal's hand. Blood bubbles up and the man smacks Neal on his head. Brown hair flops in front of his face and Neal jerks back, surprised at its maroon tint. He coughs and sputters, each one depleting his air supply. Gray rings in his ears.
"Breathe Neal." Someone calls and Neal remembers how. Draws in a stale breath his hand flies up to hit a dome covering his nose. He's confused. A man leans over him concerned brown eyes peering.
He shuts his blue ones, reopening him to another scene. Another sickness. Another man. An evil doctor in the prison infirmary. Black eyes smile at him when he vomits, his lungs are drowning and he can feel it. Liquid sloshing in his lungs. Pneumonia, the answer fills his mind but he's too tired to care. Too tired to care that his lung is collapsing and he can't breathe. Too tired to register the needle slipped into his lungs, sucking out all the mucus stuck there. Weighing down his breaths.
He springs up, breaths deep, eyes wild. The room is tinted a clear blue and it takes Neal a moment to realize that his oxygen mask has been knocked askew and up in front of his eyes. He hears a chuckle and footsteps and whips around, scared. His gasps when he sees Peter and the man freezes.
"You okay, Neal?" He asks, his voice strained, raw from crying, from the nightmares. From coming to Neal's apartment and finding him on his bed, staring off, stuck in a hellish delusion.
"What happened?" Neal asked. Confused. Not knowing where he was, when he was.
"You have Pneumonia. I found you, brought you here."
For the first time Neal stops and looks around, actually seeing the room. He's in the hospital, clinical white bleaches the walls, chairs, clothing. Neal smiles, happy not to see the cement walls, the silver bars in the infirmary. He wasn't in prison, Peter wasn't the evil doctor. He was safe, fine and far away from the days he spent in orange.
He had a partner, Peter. And be would be just fine.
A/N Hey guys! I hope you enjoyed this chapter, once again please drop me a review I would love to receive feedback. Have a great Winter Break!
