Author's Note: I do not own Bunk'd. This collection of unrelated oneshots is based on OTP prompts found on tumblr.
Lou struggled to ignore the pang of jealousy in her abdomen as Tiffany described the scene in front of them. The stretch of pale blue sky high and out of the reach of brown and green tree limbs. The faded tan of fences and the splotches of yellow pollen dusting their surfaces. The bursting blossoms of purple flowers planted along the sidewalk. Eleven-year-old Tiffany was thrilled with the new vision she had of the color-filled world, but Lou felt sour.
"I always thought 'golden rays of sunshine' was a little overdramatic, but now I see. The sun's rays do appear like golden streaks on the chalky white sidewalk." Tiffany squatted and patted the rough cement. "No longer am I confined to black and white images of the natural world. Take that sidewalk!" She slapped her palm against it. "You must now share visual interest with those purple flowers and that red mail box."
"We get it, Tiffany. You have a big vocabulary for a kid. You met your soulmate and now the world's in color. Put a can in it."
Tiffany stood with her shoulders sagging a little. Lou immediately regretted her harsh words and held her hand out to the little girl.
"I'm sorry," Lou apologized. "I didn't mean that."
Tiffany took Lou's hand and they started walking down the path to the Chens' home.
"Soulmates are gross, anyway," Tiffany said, swinging Lou's arm. "Boys are icky. He's more like a vision enhancement donor."
Lou rolled her eyes. "You're old enough to understand how love works. Everyone's born seeing only black and white until they meet their soulmate. Then the world is…"
"Flooded in color. Blah, blah, blah. This isn't about love, Lou. What's greater is that it's a scientific phenomenon." Tiffany freed her hand and folded hers together as she skipped in place. "I can't wait until I go to mother's lab tomorrow. To finally see what she sees while titrating fluids."
Lou lifted her eyes to the sky. She felt the warmth of the sun on her face. It was still bright white light to her, no golden rays.
"Don't you think she'll be more interested that you found your soulmate?"
"I doubt mother's interested in the new booger eater at my middle school," Tiffany said flatly.
Lou pulled the house key out of her pocket. It was the same dull gray the lock was. She opened the door to Tiffany's home and they walked in.
"His name is," Lou began but Tiffany cut her off by sticking her fingers in her ears and yelling "I'm not listening!" at the top of her lungs as she marched up the stairs.
"That's no way to treat your babysitter," Lou shouted from the kitchen. She heard a bedroom door slam and smirked to herself before getting to work.
Humming to herself, she grabbed an apple out of the bowl of fruit on the kitchen island and began to slice it for Tiffany's snack. She stopped mid slice and mid hum. She held up a piece of the fruit; it's juice slid down her thumb. She knew apples came in an assortment of colors, but she could only distinguish them by taste. Yellow apples were syrupy. Red apples were sweet. Green apples were sour. But they were all the same gray the rest of the world was.
Lou sighed. She glanced around the kitchen. The Chens weren't really a decorative bunch, but the few items that had been placed as a part of the décor were lost on her. Did that bouquet of lilies really brighten the room? Had the sunlight through the windows faded the color of that painting on the wall?
She glanced back down at the slice of apple in her hand and gasped. The fruit fell to the floor and she jumped back from its landing place. Her heart beat roughly against her chest as she peered down at the flash of red on the tiled floor.
A knock on the front door made her look away.
"Tiffany!" Lou called, her voice a little shaky. "Please get the door!"
She waited a beat before she heard Tiffany shout back, "You're the babysitter!"
Lou's eyes were still locked on the red peel. There was another knock at the door.
"Coming," Lou called. She kicked the slice under the fridge and rushed out of the kitchen.
"Get a hold of yourself, Lou," she muttered, wiping her hands against the side of her jeans. She shut her eyes and took a deep breath behind the door. "You're just worked up over that soulmate mumbo jumbo."
She grasped the doorknob but looked over at the mirror on the wall beside the door.
"This," she whispered as she let go of the knob and stepped closer to the mirror. She pulled at her cheeks as she stared at her reflection. There were dusts of pink on her cheeks. Her eyes were green. There was a red pimple on the right side of her chin.
A loud bang outside of the front door shook her out of her thoughts. She swung the door open. She had to squint as golden rays of sunshine flooded her vision. She gasped again and held onto the edge of the doorframe. Blues and greens swirled in front of her. The red mailbox Tiffany had mentioned was across the street. She could see the mint green of the trees and the plum purple of the flowers.
"This is amazing!" she cheered, grinning wide.
"And also a little distressing," a voice said in the bushes below her.
"Oh," Lou said, finally coming back to reality.
She tried not to blink, afraid to lose all the new color in her world. She could see the brown eyes gazing up at her from the bushes, and she decided right then that it was her favorite color.
"Please, a little help would be most appreciated," the young man said, flailing his arms in front of him.
"Right," Lou said quickly. She stuck out her hands and hoisted him to his feet.
"Hi."
"Hello."
They stood so close that Lou could smell the scent of freshly mowed grass and bush blossoms that he had fallen into. She realized she was still holding his hands in her own and immediately let go.
He cleared his throat and said, "I'm Ravi Ross, Tiffany's tutor."
Lou frowned. That sour feeling she had had earlier consumed her, more bitter than before. Her eyes took in the short, thin guy in front of her.
"You're eleven, aren't you?" She said, voice void of emotion. She put her face to her hands and groaned.
Ravi huffed and straightened his jacket. "No, I am not eleven. Excuse me for being lean and fun-sized."
Lou dropped her hands to her hips. "Ugh. I hate when short people call themselves 'fun-sized.' It sounds ridiculous."
"I have seven national science fair trophies that say I'm far from ridiculous."
"Look, kid," Lou said. "I appreciate the vision enhancement donation…"
"That sounds so cheap."
Lou held up her hand and said, "This ends here."
"I'm not eleven! I'm sixteen. Tiffany takes a high school class and I have to monitor her work." He swopped up his bag and grumbled, "Perhaps today isn't the best day for me to do so."
He stomped away but he didn't make it out of the lawn before he heard Lou call out.
"Two years!"
He gripped the shoulder straps of his bag. He didn't turn back to face her but he shouted back, "What was that?"
"We're two years apart, age wise," Lou said. She stood behind him, tugging nervously at the sleeve of her shirt.
They stood in the center of the soft, green lawn, under the yellow sun. A chubby little bird landed beside Lou's foot. She bent down slowly, holding her breath so it wouldn't fly away. The gray and blue streaks of its feathers looked metallic. A shadow fell over the creature and Lou lifted her eyes to see Ravi squatting down in front of her. He studied the bird and gave a small smile.
"I saw a lady bug," he said quietly.
She watched him, taking in all the colors around him. His green shirt. His brown eyes. His pink mouth.
"I had just walked up the steps and knocked on the door when I saw it," he continued. "A little red dot on the gray plant." He laughed lightly. "Isn't it amazing we're taught the color spectrum and yet we may never see colors. I'd never seen red, but in grade school we're taught ladybugs, they're red." He pulled his fingers through his hair and Lou felt herself wanting to do the same. "I thought it was a fluke at first, some trick of the imagination, but then the leaf where the ladybug rested…it turned green." He smiled up at her. "I got carried away, leaning forward to understand what had just happened and I fell into the bush."
"Where I found you," Lou said.
The smile fell from his lips and he gazed at her. "Yeah. You found me," he said softly.
She let the weight of his words wrap around her like a warm blanket and she felt comfortable enough to drift off into a dream. But the world was too new and too beautiful for her to sleep.
"Ravi get in here!" Tiffany called from the porch.
Lou turned to see the little girl with books in her arms.
"I want to go over some organic chemistry stuff," Tiffany said.
Lou stood and pointed over her shoulder. "I should probably get back to…"
"Yeah, yeah. Me too…" Ravi stuttered.
The babysitter and the tutor didn't move.
"Guys! Stop staring at each other and get in here!"
End note: This was based on the OTP prompt "AU where everything is black and white until you meet your soulmate."