Rocky Horror does not belong to me; it belongs to the eternally awesome Richard O' Brien.

Before I get started, I just wanted to say thanks to everyone who's read what I have up so far. I hope you're enjoying it :)

Look at that; I promised I wouldn't let the gap between chapters get too long and here I am, almost two months later. Luckily, I have finals prep under control, so hopefully I can put more time aside for chapter six and get it up quicker than this.

This one's going to be long and kind of shaky; just warning you now. Enjoy!

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5. Gray

The color had just gone out of the house. True, the décor was dark already – Frank took his whole old Hollywood-gothic-glam rock aesthetic very seriously – and it had been cloudy for the last week, but there was more. When she woke up, that underlying energy that pushed her grief aside was gone. She did not want to get up. She did not want to get through her day. She did not want to act like everything was normal.

She did not feel like dancing today. She felt suffocated.

Something got her out of bed anyway. Rule or no rule, she had to get out, at least for today, and she knew where she had to go.

It had been a few days since the Mary Lou incident, and she refused to set foot in the same room as him. (Not that anyone was making her; Frank sure didn't care if she did.) However, it did mean she started skipping going to meals. Why waste energy trying to avoid looking at him across the table when she could fix up something later and eat in the privacy of the kitchen? (She was no cook, but she wasn't completely hopeless in her culinary skills; she at least knew how to use a microwave.)

She tugged on jeans, a top, and a pair of boots, pulling her curly hair into a ponytail; no makeup, nothing flashy, just comfortable. Ordinarily, she hated looking this plain – she wasn't even wearing fishnets – but where she was going, it didn't feel right to dress as she usually did. (That and the temperature had dropped again as November became December.)

There was just one thing left.

She pulled her leather jacket out of the closet, from its place next to her leather blouse, the one she hadn't worn since that night. The blouse was from Frank, the jacket was from Eddie.

It was almost funny, when she thought about it: very similar gifts, given to her in very different ways. She'd received the blouse shortly after she moved in. She walked into her room one day to find a glittery silver box on her bed, with a tag that said "Love, Frank." At the time, that had meant everything to her. Here was a man who gave her plenty of what she needed – a comfortable place to sleep, a kitchen full of food (even if she didn't know it was all from another planet at first), and no rent to pay.

She knew hitching that ride in his pickup truck back to the band's campsite would work out. That's how she got them the gig at Frank's party.

Frank fascinated her. The first time she saw him, strutting around the party, commanding the room, his confidence drew her in. She'd seen a few singers like this on her travels, wearing heavy makeup and swaggering on tiny stages in women's clothes. With them, it felt forced, just an act put on to get a rise out of the audience. With Frank, she knew that this was him, the real deal. When he locked eyes with her, she knew instantly this was where she wanted to be, by his side. Instead of leaving with the band when the party ended, she stayed behind.

That first night, he taught her how to give herself over to absolute pleasure. He wasn't her first time, but he was unlike the others. He actually seemed interested in her, or rather, how much he could make her enjoy herself. He was better, so much better than any of the guys she'd been with before. He brought color to her life (literally, if the white streak that appeared in her hair the next morning was anything to go by). When she learned the truth, she honestly wasn't surprised to learn he came from outer space. She was too in love to care, and she swore to wear the blouse as often as she could.

The sound of heavy breathing brought her out of her thoughts. She looked up to find herself outside the gym. When did she get here? She didn't even remember leaving her room. The door was open somewhat and she heard him, hard at work maintaining that body. This just motivated her to walk faster; she wasn't going to stick around, and risk being seen by him.

She made sure to pay attention to where she was going this time, and she soon found her way to Frank's room. The door was open all the way, and she could see Frank sitting at his vanity with his head down, sorting through his nail polishes. She knocked on the doorframe. Frank looked up and did a double take. "I almost didn't recognize you." He laughed.

She responded with a half-smile, more out of obligation than actual amusement. "If you need the lab today, you can have it." She said. "I'm going for a walk."

Frank raised an eyebrow, intrigued by this change in her routine. "Anywhere in particular?"

She shrugged. "Just around, get some air." Not a lie, she reasoned to herself.

He looked her up and down, his gaze lingering on the jacket. "I haven't seen that jacket in a while. Is it a special occasion?"

She instinctively pulled the jacket – this little piece she had left of Eddie – close. "Can't I wear what I feel like in this house?" She tried to sound jokey, and not at all miserable.

Frank looked her up and down once more, then he shrugged.

(He did that to her a lot lately; maybe that's why he was so caught off-guard that night when she stormed up to him, backing him against the wall. He told her afterward that her speech that night may have been her best one yet.)

"Have a good time, wherever you go." He said, turning back to his nail polish. "Don't get lost on the way." Any other day, she would have had a response, but today she just turned and left. The sooner she got out of the house, the better.

As she made her way down the stairs and to the kitchen door, she drifted back into her thoughts again, specifically how she came to have this jacket. After she and Eddie had been seeing each other for… How long had it been? A few months, probably; she wasn't the best at keeping track of time. She just remembered that Frank had been in a particularly good mood that day and didn't bat an eye when she said she was going for a ride with Eddie.

Eddie fascinated her too, but not in the way Frank did. They were alike in a lot of ways; they both didn't care what others thought and lived life on their terms. However, Eddie was different from anyone she'd ever known. He was a little rough around the edges, but he was real in a way Frank wasn't. He didn't want to be in control. He wanted to be there for you. When he gave you a gift, he wanted it to mean something, to show it came from the heart. That was the case with her leather jacket. They'd ridden his motorcycle to a hill overlooking Denton and sat in the grass, watching the stars and singing along to the radio. Eventually, he pulled something wrapped in newspaper out from under his seat and handed it to her. The smile on his face spoke volumes as she ripped the paper away and tried the jacket on. It fit her perfectly and the leather was nice and soft. Afterward, he took her hands and made her a promise: he would never leave, things would only get better from here, and one day, he would give her the life she deserved.

It wasn't just the gift. Eddie did something no man had done for her before: he stayed. He wouldn't be gone the next morning, even when he had his deliveries to make. When she woke up, he'd either still be sleeping, or he'd be lying beside her, trying to keep He gave her something to look forward to each day; even when he didn't visit, he'd call, just to check on her or to sometimes serenade her with his best Buddy Holly or Elvis. He brought color to her life after Frank had started to drain it away.

She saw the changes – Eddie coming out of Frank's room more often, his occasional changes in behavior his verse during the opening of the floor show– but now she really regretted not paying closer attention or doing anything sooner. Despite his promises of getting them out of there, he was leaving less and less. He started spending days, and then weeks, at the castle. When he disappeared altogether, she didn't buy Frank's story of Eddie slipping out in the middle of the night. He wouldn't do that. He promised.

She found herself at the kitchen door. The room was empty, the remnants of breakfast cleared away. Her stomach growled a little, but she ignored it. If she didn't leave now, she never would.

What had led her to this point? Love? Loss? Loneliness? Why did she stick around, continuing to pelvic thrust and tap dance and strut her stuff during the floor show, when there wasn't even a reason to stay anymore?

Did the reason really matter? She would do whatever she could to keep her rose-tinted glasses firmly in place (like gushing to Brad and Janet about how lucky they were to be invited "up to the lab") but from time to time – just like today – they would come off, and she'd see her world for what it really was: empty, colorless, loveless.

She sighed and opened the door, stepping out into the cold December morning.

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From one of the round windows in the gym, he saw her making her way through the yard. He didn't notice her at first – just something black moving against the already-colorless stone and grass – but for an instant, her red hair stood out. He'd never seen her leave the castle. What was she doing out there? Why wasn't she in the lab, blasting music and dancing? Where was she going?

How could he find out? Maybe he could ask someone.

Not Eddie. Eddie wasn't saying anything, not since that day in the kitchen

Frank assured him what happened was an honest accident, some leftover traces of Eddie that were brought out by that song, and that they would just go away.

He wasn't so sure he wanted that.

Frank had also promised that, when the sun was out, the colors of this planet came to life. Now that, he wanted to see.

They'd started going for walks in the last few days. They never went too far, just around the castle property. It was an odd sensation at first, being outside with no walls around (and he didn't even think Frank would want him outside, even if they were together).

Now that he thought about it, asking Frank didn't seem like a good idea. At the very best, he would just brush her off again, but if he were in one of his moods…

He shook his head. He couldn't stand here thinking about that.

He'd have to find out for himself. That meant he'd have to try something new: go outside himself and see where she went.

He stuck his head out into the hall, just in time to see Frank heading up to the lab. He didn't even notice Rocky; that was a good sign. As he heard the door to the lab close, he stepped into the hall, closing the gym door quietly behind him.

She must have gone out the kitchen door; that was the only exit from that side of the house. He tiptoed down the stairs, doing his best to avoid the ones that groaned, and made his way through the twisting corridor to the empty kitchen. Looking out the door, he could make her out against the gray and brown of the woods. His hand went for the knob.

He felt a light touch on his shoulder. Turning, he saw a couple of phantoms behind him, holding out his leopard jacket and a scarf. He didn't even hear them come into the kitchen (he tried asking Frank about them before, but his creator didn't really have an answer; the best he could do was the phantoms were just "there"). Regardless, he smiled; they weren't so bad, even when they just showed up out of nowhere.

"Thanks." He said, slipping the jacket on while the phantom with the scarf wound it around his neck. He looked over his shoulder; Columbia was still in sight but getting smaller as she went deeper into the woods. He turned back to the phantoms. "Wish me luck." The two gave him encouraging smiles and thumbs up as he headed out into the cold.

He hadn't gone very far from the house before he realized how much he stood out. What if she turned around? Even if he hid among the trees, his jacket and pants could easily give him away.

What would Eddie do? He had half the delivery boy's brain; maybe he could learn to think like Eddie.

She was almost out of sight. He'd have to hurry; he could keep up with her and try to think like Eddie at the same time.

The path was mostly clear, save for occasional twigs and clumps of leaves. Frank had told him about this path on one of their walks. It had been there when he and the servants arrived on Earth and it led to a church on the edge of town.

Fortunately, it didn't have twists and turns. Aside from a couple of hills and a left turn, the path was mostly a straight line and he could make her out in front of him. He didn't have much of a plan other than to see where she was going, but

Of course, stepping on a twig and diving behind a boulder before she saw him wasn't part of the plan either. He didn't have a good view of her from there, but instead of stepping out too early, he'd let her get ahead of him. When he poked his head up over the rock, she was a spot in the distance again, but she was slowing down.

He resumed his place behind her on the path, making sure to watch where he stepped this time. The church building started growing as he made his way closer, but she wasn't moving. She had turned off the path, her hand on something, frozen.

He stopped as well and started checking his surroundings. This was the furthest he'd ever been from the castle, far away enough that he couldn't see it over his shoulder. On one side of him was the trees, most of which didn't have any leaves, and on the other was a long, metal fence. Behind this fence were stone squares sticking out of the ground. Frank had shown him pictures like this; he'd said this place was called a cemetery, where Earth people buried their dead.

Did she have someone buried here? She must have, as she finally pushed the gate open with a loud creak and went through. But who would be buried here? Surely not Eddie, since what was left of him had gone down the waste disposal.

He resumed walking again until he came to the gate. Instead of going through, he felt something stopping him.

He wasn't sure how he felt about this place. He was getting a bad feeling, like he shouldn't be here, but she had to have come this way for a reason. If he stayed long enough, maybe he could find out why (but if she went any further, he'd just go back to the house. No point in going too far and getting even more lost).

He only had his own judgment to trust in this case. He wouldn't follow her inside and get too close. He crouched down, watching her through the bars of the fence.

Her back still to him, she stopped in front of one of the gray slabs and knelt. There was something carved into the front of the slab, but she was kneeling in front of whatever it said.

Despite the cold, the air was still, and he could hear her clearly.

"Hi, Mom."

Mom?

"I know it's been a while. If you haven't seen what's been going on, I'll give you a quick rundown."

He didn't know how long this rundown was supposed to be, but it didn't feel quick. She started rattling off a whole bunch of events, most of which he didn't recognize (probably from before he was born).

He did notice two things. The first was the number of times she said Eddie's name; the second was who she didn't mention Eddie's death at all. She went right from his creation to seeing him with Janet and the floorshow. She got quiet after that. This gave him a chance to take all this in. He never heard her – or anyone else in the castle – mention she had a mother (although he'd learned that most living things on this planet had a mother).

He had no idea what having a mother was like, even if half his brain came from someone who did. As far as he knew, all he really had was Frank (who would sometimes go on about his own mother, the queen of his planet, and how she would absolutely love Rocky). He couldn't imagine losing Frank for real (as opposed to what they did to scare Janet away). Now he knew she seemed to have a pretty good idea of how losing someone felt.

He turned and crept away. Hopefully, he could get back into the gym before Frank noticed he was gone (if he even did; despite coming in to watch him occasionally, Frank usually stayed out of the gym), but he had some serious thinking to do.

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Thanks for reading. See you next chapter!

Goodness, this one was a rambler, wasn't it? I've noticed from writing this chapter that when I struggle with a theme, I ramble in the hopes of coming up with something. Instead of just doing the logical thing and picking another theme for this chapter, I decided to be stubborn and power through.

If you celebrate Thanksgiving today, have a happy, safe holiday, enjoy whatever you have for dinner, and make sure to eat until you're comatose!